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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
FROM THE
SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND
THE GIFT OF
Hern's 333. Sage
1891
±£t±
OF THE
REPUBLICAN MEMBERS
OF THE
LEGISLATURE,
TO THE
ELECTORS OF THE STATE OF
NEW-YORK.
Fellow-Citizens !
THE interesting state of our public affairs, the un-
wearied and insidious exertions of a desperate and unprin-
cipled faction to deceive and delude you, and their alarming
and audacious attempts against the best interests of our
country, render it the peculiar duty of the Republican
Members of the Legislature to address you previous to their
separation. The factious of our country, misled by foreign
partialities and impelled by the hope of office, seize this
period when our foreign relations are embarrassed and per-
plexed, to distort and misrepresent them, when we are
compelled by necessary measures of precaution to suffer
some of the evils with which the civilized world is afflicted,
they conceal the real causes of our embarrassments, they
mistake the objects and impeach the motives of our rulers*
While endeavoring to counteract these falsehoods, we trust
we shall be heard with attention; and we hope, that having
been selected by yourselves to act for you in your most im-2
portant concerns, your knowledge of us will induce you to
confide in the purity of our motives and the accuracy of our
representations.
We deem it our first and most solemn duty to caution
you against the arts'of men whose object is the dismember-
ment of our union—that rock on which are founded your
national glory and happiness/ Your old enemies, the tories
of the revolution, united with men whom you have indig-
nantly hurled from office, and aided by a desperate band of
foreign agents, spies and pensioners, have chosen the pre-
sent moment to delude, distract and divide you, in order
to destroy an independence which they^ have uniformly re-
gretted, and to paralise that virtue and frustrate that wis-
dom which yet preserve us from a foreign tyrant. We cau-
tion you not to listen to their syren voices, which but lure
you to destruction. To accomplish their designs, they can
assume any appearance and civn profess any opinions.—With
a rapidity of change, equalled only by ‘their perseverance,
they can deny to-day what they believed yesterday, and can
perform acts now which but a short time since they loaded
with the most opprobrious epithets. Every one must recol-
lect with what zealous efforts these men have claimed to be
the rehi disciples of the immortal Washington. They
blazoned his services, they affected to venerate his character,
they quoted his sayings as political axioms, and they pollu-
ted his name by calling him the head and organ of their
party. Let us test their sincerity by comparing their acts
with his precepts j and if, in a short contrast between his
virtues and their vileness, it should appear that they have
disregarded his monitions, that they have violated his best
•maxims, and have set at defiance his most solemn injunc-
tions, we ask what reliance can you place upon their pro-
fessions ? The last advice of the man u first in war, first in
(peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,.” contains
•the following dictates of his long experience and his enlight-
ened wisdom.
* “ The unity of government, which constitutes you one
people, is also now dear to you ; it is.justly -so, for it is a
main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the sup-
port of y our tranquility at home, your peace abroad ; of
your safety, of your prosperity, of that liberty you so
'highly prize. As this is a point in your political fortress
against which the batteries-of internal and external enemies
will be most constantly and actively, though often covertly
and insidiously directed ; it is of infinite moment that you
^should properly estimate the immense value of your national
union to your collective and individual happiness ; that youshould cherish a cordial, habitual and immoveable -attach**
ment to it ; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it
as the palladium of your political safety and prosperity,
watching its,preservation with jealous anxiety ; discounter
dancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can
IN any event be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning
Upon the first dawning of every attempt tp alienate any
portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sa-
cred ties which now link together the yarious parts.”
• Again he says,
44 All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all cora-
binatiom and associations, under whatever plausible charac-
ter, with the real design to direct, control, counteract or
awe the regular deliberations and action of the constituted
authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle,
and of fatal tendency* They serve to organize faction, and
put in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will
of a party.”
Do they obstruct the laws ? Look at the resolutions of
Bath, Gloucester, Boston, and other towns of Massachu-
setts, in which they express their determination to arrest
and obstruct the officers of government, and in which pro-
posals are made to raise a fund for that purpose.; call to your
recollection the triumphs of their editors when publishing
instances of successful resistance—-their encomiums on
men who, from cowardice, or from motives more detesta-
ble, deserted their posts, and thereby afforded, facility to
the most shameful evasions of your laws .; recollect the
public dinners given to those men ; look at the attempts of
the Legislature of Massachusetts to make rebellion legal
and treason constitutional, by passing a bill to punish by
fine and imprisonment those who had virtue and courage to
execute the laws of the Union, and which, but for the firm-
ness of their chief magistrate, would have been a law-^-at
once a record of their depravity, and a monument of their
disgrace. Do they attempt to substitute 44 the will of a
party” for that of the nation fr^-Look at the remonstrance
of that degraded-legislature to congress, where you will find
the representatives free people insulted by threats and
assailed by insolence* Do they “ attempt to alienate any
portion of our country from the rest r” • It can be scarcely
necessary to remind you of their labors for years past to
impress the idea that there was a distinct Q&d hostile interest
between the southern and eastern states, and of their un-
wearied efforts to excite an enmity against our brethren of
the south and of the west. Do they ^ properly estimate
the immense value of our unions” and “cherish a cordial4	■
x
attachment to it?” Look at the threats of dismemberment
which daily issue from their hireling presses ; look at the
resolutions of Massachusetts and Connecticut, in which
their town meetings and their legislatures declare the acts of
congress unconstitutional, arbitrary, unjust and oppressive,
and where they audaciously propose a separate confederacy
of those states, opposed to the government of the Union.
Is this conduct congenial with the wishes of our great and
good Washington, wjhen retiring forever from public em-
ployment, he left us his prayers, his blessing and his ad-
vice ? Is it such as you can approve ? Are you ready to
plunge into the horrors of a civil war, and encounter the
consequences of a dismemberment of our country ?
But the inconsistency of these men has not terminated
here, A short time since, they were the exclusive friends
of religion and good order. Now are they assembling mobs
to decide tile constitutionality of the acts of congress, to
denounce the laws, to revile the government, and to extend
far and wide the spirit of disorganization. They profane
religion by prostituting one of its most holy offices to the
purposes of these electioneering and seditious meetings.
They pretend to be advocates for the effectual defence of
our seaports. And yet these very men, as the last act of an
expiring administration, and as some atonement for their
W7aste of the public money, caused the diminution of our
navy, and on a recent occasion they voted against a billin'
congress, appropriating a million of dollars for the defence
of the country. You have heard their clamours against the
embargo. The xvhole country from Maine to Georgia has
resounded with their complaints. They have represented it
as unconstitutional, and as the effect of foreign influence in
our councils. On the first point the proper tribunal has de-
cided, and its decision should have silenced them.
So deficient are they in proofs to justify the foul calumny
of foreign influence, that the very imputed author of it has
been obliged publicly to disown it, and the base slander now
exists without any father who dares to acknowledge it.
Evidence of its truth has been loudly and repeatedly de-
manded, yet none is adduced. For ourselves we solemnly
declare, that wre utterly disbelieve the charge. In opposi-
tion to it, we place the whole life of Mr. Jefferson—a life
devoted to his country—occupied with the most honorable
and the most arduous services for its benefits. Neither
threats nor hopes, punishments nor rewards, could induce
such a man to abandon the object of forty years’ care, to the
rude bufferings of a foreign tyrant. But if this is not suffi-
cient, the last illustrious act of his life, his voluntary retire-5
ment from the most envied honors in the gift of his fellow*
citizens, affords a proof that can be neither denied nor e ;; ^
ded, that he is above all personal considerations, and
in recommending the measure which has excited so muon
hostility, he was actuated by the most exalted of human
motives, his country’s good.
But not satisfied with impeaching the motives which pro-
duced it, they censured also the act itself. They maintain-
ed that a general embargo was unnecessary, injurious to ■■ail
our interests, and ruinous to commerce. We refer to their
speeches in congress, in which the advantages of a tiadc
to the unoffending nations, were particular^ enumerated'
and copiously illustrated. And yet these very men within a
few days, voted against the partial repeal of the emba.
the very measure which they had demanded. Had they not
been callous to shame and senseless of remorse, they must
have paused before they took this last step in the maze of
inconsistency.
You are told that the late non-intercourse act is a dere-
liction of the attitudes taken by our government. This as-
sertion proceeds from the very men who habitually extenu-
ate the outrages and justify the injuries of Great .Britain,
who wish to form an intimate connexion with her ; who
have uniformly denied the justice of our cause, and de-
manded its abandonment. And yet they censure what they
say is that act. But we deny it to be such ; vve consider it
as a necessary measure to maintain our national honor; we
view it as the commencement of a conflict which all our
efforts have been unable to avoid, rendered indispensable
by the outrages of France and the atrocities of Great Bri-
tain, and as such we vindicate it. From the former we have
received injuries to which no independent nation can submit.
She has ravaged and burnt our vessels on the high-seas;
those which were shipwrecked on her coast she has plun-
dered and destroyed ; and not less cruel than the barbarians
of Algiers, she has imprisoned their unfortunate crews,
who were at least entitled to the common rights of benevo-
lence and hospitality; as far as her means permitted, she
has violated our neutral commerce ; regardless of our rights
and intoxicated with power, her rulers have decided on our
property from the caprice of the moment, and in defiance
of law and justice. These and many others are the wrongs
we have sustained from France. The outrages of Great
Britain are, if possible* more enormous. She has hunted
our commerce from the ocean, and what have escaped her
rapacity, she has done her utmost to control and embar-
rass : she has impressed thousands of our unfortunate fel-low -citizens;, who are groaning in her "floating dungeons*
and who are dragged where ambition or madness leads
them, and who are compelled to fi ght the battles of the very
tyrant who enslaves them; she demands, and, humiliating
and disgraceful to our country, receives Tribute from our
free citizens,* she has outraged, our sovereignty, she has
defied our government within its o wn territory ; she has in-
terfered in your concerns, and has endeavoured to prejudice
you against your rulers, by publishing the partial and false
statements of one of her ministers; her minions have abu-
sed your laws and insulted your rulers, and to complete
the disgraceful catalogue of our wrongs and the long list of
her atrocities, she has wantonly murdered our citizens in a
national ship, and within the jurisdiction of our govern*
ment. And for these, no other atonement is offered than
insult and insolence Under such accumulated injuries,
we ask the freemen of America if they can submit without
one murmur of complaint, and without one effort for re*
dress ? This effort your government is now making; and
none but the most weak or the most profligate, none but the
hirelings of Britain or the desperate and unprincipled of
our country, would censure that effort or impair its effect.
And it is now a question, fellow citizens, for your solemn
decision, whether you will tamely submit to such base
Vassalage and to such inordinate rapacity, or whether you
will confide in the well directed efforts of your rulers, to
maintain your rights and redress your wrongs ? Tell these
foreign despots by your votes, that you inherit the spirit as
well as the blood of your fathers. . They are waiting your
decision. The disorganizers of the East, also, call upon
you to determine, whether you will unite with them in
hurling the firebrands of discord, in fomenting a civil war,
in arraying father against son, in staining the earth with the
blood of your brothers, and in destroying the only free
government on earth, or whether you are independent free-
men, detesting alike the factious arts of domestic dema-
gogues and of foreign incendiaries. Come forth fellow cit-
izens, and by your votes tell these men that you have not
degenerated, and that having received the rich inheritance
of choosing your own rulers, as the price of your father’s
blood, you never will relinquish it but with your lives. In
the words of your venerable Washington, frown indig-
nantly on the disturbers of your country’s repose, and tell
them in a language that can neither be misunderstood nor
misrepresented, that they have nothing to expect from you
Hut determined opposition and resistance.7
Fellow citizens, out tot is cast in portentous times we
live in an age pregnant with important events. Revolution
has followed revolution, horror has succeeded ta horror,
and Liberty, after having been persecuted and driven from
the old world, has taken her last refuge among us. The
best hopes of man are involved in the great experiment,
and your conduct may now determine the future fate of re-
publican government—whether man in any state or any
country is capable of self government, or whether he shall
in despair surrender his life, his liberty and property, to the
dominion of a master. If the faction which now threat-
ens the integrity of the union, and menaces the subversion
of our government, shall prevail; if foreign predelictions
and foreign influence shall conquer the love of country; if
the wise and enlightened administration of the state and
general governments are to be overturned by the struggles
of cupidity, the ravings of revenge, and the efforts of un-
principled and profligate ambition, then every inducement
to manly exertion will be destroyed, the efforts of patriot-
ism will be paralized, and we may indeed despair of the
republic. But we repose, fellow citizens, too much confi-
dence in your well tried patriotism and intelligence, to ap-
prehend this disgraceful result. We are firmly persuaded
that you will meet the approaching conflict with a counte-
nance that will appal, with a spirit that will dishearten, and
with a vigor that will prostrate our antagonists. Let it be
deeply impressed on your minds, that union is strength, and
that exertion is success.
Our enemies will earnestly endeavour to perpetuate divi-
sions in the republican family, by the application of names,
and the imputation of differences which ought never to have
existed, or which should have ended with the causes that
gave them birth. Let us disdain any other name than that
of republican, and let us unite to reprobate the man who
shall dare to sow the seeds of discord, and keep alive the
flame of contention among brethren of the same principle,
especially at a crisis when every thing dear and sacred to
republicans, is assailed by the most infuriated malice, and
unremitting exertions. At a time, when our common* foe
is watchful, enterprising and indefatigable, we conjure you
to bury in oblivion all minor differences, and rally around
the government of your choice, and the ark of your politi-
cal safety. When you exercise the great franchise which
is the proud prerogative of a citizen, remember that on
your conduct then, may depend not only the future enjoy-
ment of that inestimable. right, but the happiness of your
dearest connexions, the prosperity of your country^ the Wei-fare cf future generations, and the final destiny-of free'go-
vernment*
John Broome,
Jas. W. Wilkin,
Obadiah German,
Adam Comstock,
Henry Bloom,
Anthony Davis,
David Regers,
Samuel Lawrence,
John Veeder,
Asahel Miner,
Abraham Rose,
Derick A. Brinckerhoff,
Beckman M. V. Beuren,
Caleb Pell,
David Dill,
Hehemiati'Cande,
Samuel Campbell,
Daniel Fuller,
Ebenezer Wakjey,
William Rogers,
Daniel T. Terry,
Peter C. Adams,
Sylvanus Smalley,
Robert Williams,
Kitchel Bishop,
Alexander Livingston,
Benjamin Pond,
Francis Cooper,
Francis A Bloodgood,
Richard Leech,
Luther Rich,
Roger Skinner,
Barnet Mooney,
Hugh M‘Nair,
Jacobus Depuy,
Micah Brooks,
Henry A. Townsend,
John Tayler,
William W. Gilbert,
James M*Call,
William Ross,
John IVPLean,
Henry Scott,
Martin Luce,
Charles Selden,
Isaac. Kellogg,
De Witt Clinton,
Silas Halsey,
David St. John,
Archibald S. Clarke,
John P. Anthony,
Nathan Sanford,
Walter Martin,
Nathan Smith,
Benjamin Coe,
Westel Willoughby, jun,
Aaron Budlong,
John M. Petrie,
Alexander Rea,
Daniel L. Van Antwerp,
Salmon Child,
Jacob Gebhard,
Reuben Whallon,
Judah Barnes,
Ezra L’Hommcdieu, •
Jonathan Ward,
Wm. Rumsey,
Corlis Hinds,
Nath. Loeke,
Haviland Chase,
Sol. Townsend,
John B-tllard,
James Fairlie,
%muei G. Verbryck,
Kinner Newcomb,
Eben. Hewitt,
Frederick Jenkins,
John Fay,
Charles Kellogg,
yQeorge Bloom.
Soufcwiftk^ Pelsue, Print.