8. A people thus enlightened, and capable of discerning the connection of causes with their remotest effects, waited not the experience of oppression in their own persons; which they well knew would render them less able to conduct a regular opposition. 9. But in the moment of their greatest prosperity, when every heart expanded with the increasing opulence of the British American dominions, and every tongue united in the praises of the parent state, and her patriotic king, when many circumstances concurred which would have rendered an ignorant people secure and inattentive to their future interests; at this moment the eyes of the American argus were opened to the first and most plausible invasion of the colonial rights. 10. In what other age, or nation, has a laborious and agricultural people, at ease upon their own farms, secure and distant from the approach of fleets and armies, tidewaiters, and stamp masters, reasoned before they had felt, and from the dictates of duty and conscience, encountered dangers, distress and poverty, for the sake of procuring to posterity a government of independence and peace? 11. The toils of ages, and the fate of millions, were to be sustained by a few hands. The voice of unborn nations called upon them for safety; but it was a still, small voice, the voice of rational reflection. Here was no Cromwell to inflame the people with bigotry and zeal, no Cæsar to reward his followers with the spoils of vanquished foes, and no territory to be acquired by conquest. 12. Ambition, superstition and avarice, these universal torches of war, never illuminated an American field of battle. But the permanent principles of sober policy spread through the colonies, roused the people to assert their rights, and conducted the revolution. LX. Extract from Mr. AMES's Speech in Congress, on the subject of executing the Treaty between the United States and Great Britain. 1. Tfor the treguy are not all to be foreseen. By reject- ing, vast interests are committed to the sport of the winds. Chance becomes the arbiter of events, and it is forbidden to human foresight to count their number, or measure their extent. Before we resolve to leap into this abyss, so dark and ofound, it becomes us to pause and reflect upon such of the dangers as are obvious and inevitable. If this assembly should be wrought into a temper to defy the consequences, it is vain, it is deceptive to pretend that we can escape them. It is worse than weakness to say, that as to public faith our vote has already settled the question. Another tribunal than our own is already erected. The public opinion, not merely of our own country, but of the enlightened world, will pronounce a judgment that we cannot resist, that we dare not even affect to despise. 2. Well may I urge it to men who know the worth of character, that it is no trivial calamity to have it contested. Refusing to do what the treaty stipulates shall be done, opens the controversy. Even if we should stand justified at last, a character that is vindicated is somthing worse than it stood before, unquestioned and unquestionable. Like the plaintiff in an action of slander, we recover a reputation disfigured by invective, and even tarnished by too much handling. In the combat for the honour of the nation, it may receive wounds, which, though they should heal, will leave scars. I need not say, for surely the feelings of every bosom have anticipated, that we cannot guard this sense of national honour, this ever living fire which alone keeps patriotism warm in the heart, with a sensibility too vigilant and jealous. 3. If, by executing the treaty, there is no possibility of dishonour, and if, by rejecting, there is some foundation for doubt and for reproach, it is not for me to measure, it is for your own feelings to estimate, the vast distance that divides the one side of the alternative from the other. " 4. To expatiate on the value of public faith may pass with some men for declamation-to such men I have nothing to say. To others I will urge, can any circumstance mark upon a people more turpitude and debasement? Can any thing tend more to make men think themselves mean, or degrade to a lower point their estimation of virtue, and their standard of action. 5. It would not merely demoralize mankind, it tends to break all the ligaments of society, to dissolve that mysterious charm which attracts individuals to the nation, and to inspire in its stead a repulsive sense of shame and disgust. 6. What is patriotism? Is it a narrow affection for the spot where a man was born? Are the very clods where we tread entitled to this ardent preference because they are greener? No, sir, this is not the character of the virtue, and it soars higher for its object. It is an extended self-love, mingling with all the enjoyments of life, and twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the heart. It is thus we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In their authority we see, not the array of force and terror, but the venerable image of our country's honour. Every good citizen makes that honour his own, and cherishes it not only as precious, but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defence, and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it. For what rights of a citizen will be deemed inviolable, when a state renounces the principles that constitute their security? Or, if his life should not be invaded, what would be his enjoyments in a country odious in the eyes of strangers, and dishonoured in his own? Could he look with affection and veneration to such a country as his parent? The sense of having one would die within him, he would blush for his patriotism, if he retained any,and justly, for it would be a vice. He would be a banished man in his native land. 7. I see no exception to the respect that is paid among nations to the law of good faith. If there are cases in this enlightened period, when it is violated, there are none when it is decried. It is the philosophy of politics, the religion of governments. It is observed by barbarians-a whiff of tobacco smoke, or a string of beads, gives not merely binding force but sanctity to treaties. Even in Algiers, a truce may be bought for money,-but when ratified, even Algiers is too wise or too just to disown and annul its obligation. Thus we see neither the ignorance of savages, nor the principles of an association for piracy and rapine, permit a nation to despise its engagements. If, sir, there could be a resurrection from the foot of the gallows, if the victims of justice could live again, collect together and form a society, they would, however loth, soon find themselves. obliged to make justice, that justice under which they fell, the fundamental law of their state. They would perceive it was their interest to make others respect, and they would therefore soon pay some respect themselves to the obligations of good faith. 8. It is painful, I hope it is superfluous, to make even the supposition that America should furnish the occasion of this opprobrium. No, let me not even imagine, that a republican government, sprung as our own is, from a people enligtened and uncorrupted, a government whose original right, and whose daily discipline is duty, can, upon solemn debate, make its option to be faithless-can dare to act what despots dare not avow, what our own example evinces the states of Barbary are unsuspected of. No, let me rather make the supposition that Great-Britain refuses to execute the treaty, after we have done every thing to carry it into effect. Is there any language of reproach pungent enough to express your commentary on the fact? What would you say, or, rather, what would you not say? Would you not tell them, wherever an Englishman might travel, shame would stick to him-he would disown his country. You would exclaim, England, proud of your wealth, and arrogant in the possession of power-blush for these distinctions, which become the vehicles of your dishonour. Such a nation might truly say, to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. We should say of such a race of men, Their name is a heavier burden than their debt. 9. The refusal of the posts (inevitable if we reject the treaty) is a measure too decisive in its nature to be neutral in its consequences. From great causes we are to look for great effects. A plain and obvious one will be, the price of the western lands will fall. Settlers will not choose to fix their habitation on a field of battle. Those who talk so much of the interest of the United States should calculate how deeply it will be affected by rejecting the treaty-how vast a tract of wild land will almost cease to be property. This loss, let it be observed, will fall upon a fund expressly devoted to sink the national debt. What then are we called upon to do? However the form of the vote and the protes tations of many may disguise the proceeding, our resolution is in substance, and it deserves to wear the title of, a resolution to prevent the sale of the western lands, and the discharge of the public debt. 10. Will the tendency to Indian hostility be contested by any one? Experience gives the answer. The frontiers were scourged with war till the negociation with G. Britain was far advanced, and then the state of hostility ceased. Perhaps the public agents of both nations were innocent of fomenting the Indian war, and perhaps they are not. We ought not however to expect that neighbouring nations, highly irritated against each other, will neglect the friendship of the savages, the traders will gain an influence, and will abuse it-and who is ignorant that their passions are easily raised and hardly restrained from violence? Their situation will oblige them to choose between this country and Great-Britain, in case the treaty should be rejected-They will not be our friends and at the same time the friends of our enemies. 11. If any, against all these proofs, should maintain that the peace with the Indians will be stable without the posts, to them I will urge another reply. From arguments calculated to produce conviction, I will appeal directly to the hearts of those who hear me, and ask whether it is not already planted there? I resort especially to the conviction. of the western gentlemen, whether, supposing no pots and no treaty, the settlers will remain in security? Can they take it upon them to say, that an Indian peace under these circumstances, will prove firm? No, sir, it will not be a peace, but a sword; it will be no better than a lure to draw victims within the reach of the tomahawk. 12. On this theme my emotions are unutterable: if I could find words for them, if my powers bore any proportion to my zeal, I would swell my voice to such a note of remonstrance, it should reach every log-house beyond the mountains. I would say to the inhabitants, wake from your false security. Your cruel dangers, your more cruel apprehensions, are soon to be renewed; the wounds yet unhealed, are to be torn open again. In the day time your path through the woods will be ambushed. The darkness of midnight will glitter with the blaze of your dwellings. You are a father-the blood of your sons shall fatten your cornfields-You are a mother-the war whoop shall awake the sleep of the cradle. 13. On this subject you need not suspect any deception on your feelings. It is a spectacle of horror which cannot be overdrawn. If you have nature in your hearts, they will speak a language, compared with which all I have said, or can say, will be poor and frigid. 14. Who will accuse me of wandering out of the subject? who will say that I exaggerate the tendencies of our measures? Will any one answer by a sneer, that all this is idle preaching? Will any one deny that we are bound, and I would hope to good purpose, by the most solemn sanctions. of duty for the yote we give? Are despots alone to be re |