ids? 
 
Book H^6^ 
 
•i ' 
 
 Northern Grievances, 
 
 SET FORTH IN 
 
 A L.ETTER 
 
 ro 
 
 JAMES MADISON. 
 
 Br A 
 
 NORTH AlVIERICAN, 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 
 1814. 
 
 -' ^. 2- 
 

JAMES MADISON, ESQ. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 W^HEN an enli5);htcned and republican people, who formerly 
 could boast of the enjoyn\ent of prosperity and freedom, T. ' the 
 office of Chief Magistrate polluted by corruption, and disgraced 
 by a series of acts which dishonour the country over which 
 he presides, an endeavour to induce him to abandon a system 
 of oppression and injustice, and guard his mind against the 
 gratification of the dictates of rancorous malice, is a neces- 
 sary, but honourable duty. 
 
 Your character and conduct as President of the United Slates, 
 as leader, representative, and organ of the War party, induce me 
 to address myself to you with a glimmering hope, that a view of 
 the dangers which you have wilfully brought upon your country, 
 and a developement of the consequences to which they lead, may 
 afford the people of the Eastern States speedy relief from the iron 
 features of domestic tyranny. This, it must be confessed, to a 
 cold and unfeeling mind, dead to the principles of honor and 
 justice, and darkened by the absence of every spark of liberality 
 and candor, can only be expected by alarming its fears, instead 
 of appealing to its sense of duty. 
 
 The whole extent of your situation must be laid before you, 
 without disguise or palliation, that blind sophistry, insatiate lust 
 of sectional and personal aggrandizement, and subserviency to 
 the French Tyrant, may no longer entice you into a perseverance 
 of measures, which, if not abandoned, will be crushed by the vi- 
 gorous energy of an indignant people. You mistake ! The 
 Eastern States are not yet prepared for an insidious Despot; 
 they are not yet ripe for the chains of servitude ; they will not 
 calmly, and without a struggle, renounce their birth-right, and 
 surrender their liberties. Beware of rousing the slumbering 
 lion 1 
 
 A free people are bold and generous. Their confidence in 
 their public servant is sincere, till their vigilant jealousy detects 
 hostile depravity. They at least look for integrity and zeal, if 
 not capacity and talents, from men intrusted with their most im- 
 portant offices. Adroit and accomplished in knavery and cun- 
 ning must he be, who endeavours to deceive an intelligent com- 
 munity, as regards every solid requisite of a statesm^i-, and to 
 
4 
 
 pass off, under the sanctified garb of Republicanism, the mere- 
 tricious qualities of fraud and corruption. Unprincipled and 
 base must he be, who can deliberately convert the sacred trust 
 of high responsibility, and extensive power, to the malignant 
 gratification of ambition and pride. Success cannot long at- 
 tend such a degenerate career. Time unfolds its disgusting 
 depravity. The imposition is detected. Indignant are the feel- 
 ings of betrayed confidence and insulted honesty. Remonstrance 
 is the first step of resort — if that fails, force. 
 
 The strides of tyranny are rapid. When it first plants its 
 sacriligious foot upon the threshold of Liberty, cautious and in- 
 sinuating are its movements. Lovely with amiable blandish- 
 ment, courteous with condescension, it can do nothing without 
 consulting the people. Always endeavouring to elude the 
 piercing and scrutinizing eye of the honourable and honest, it 
 flies to the winding subterfuges of falsehood and imposition, and 
 sneaks through the mazy meanderings of abject servility: 'till, 
 accustomed to success, and secure in power, it becomes careless 
 of disguise, and throws off the mask. 
 
 When contemptible minions, desperate adventurers, and men 
 whose only claim to executive patronage is founded upon villany 
 or crime, flock around the Presidential chair, and successfully 
 court Pi'esidential favor, you cannot deny that a sympathy exists, 
 which evinces strong and characteristic traits of congeniality of 
 mind. Men of the same stamp, like fluids of the same nature, 
 readily unite — an attraction exists, which cannot be dissolved. 
 While the individual is marked with silent disdain, yet a public 
 officer, be rises to sufficient importance, as an object of attention. 
 In the chair of state, incapacity and folly would deserve our pity, 
 although they should reduce its weak incumbent even to the 
 level of your own situation, because the injury and distress oc- 
 casioned by their influence, result from error of the head, and 
 »ot from malice of the heart. But you, sir, have no title to com- 
 miseration. Your character is delineated in your measures. 
 You iiave virtually renonnced the proud office of Chief Magis- 
 trate of the American people, and flatter yourself witii being 
 concealed, under its sacred name, as the oppressor of the East- 
 ern Slates. 
 
 As you have forfeited the character of President of a people, 
 although you still possess the empty name, and have become the. 
 
3 
 
 active leader of a desperate party, as such you must be viewed- 
 I will not interfere with your pretensions in that capacity. The 
 humiliating disgrace and embarrassments into which you are 
 plunp:cd, are a comment which the deluded among your follow- 
 ers will duly appreciate : the residue, a mass fermented with 
 knavery and avarice, conscious of possessing those qualities they 
 have long recognized in you, will no doubt continue their sup- 
 port. 
 
 Calculating, that the unsuspecting generosity of the enter- 
 prising and commercial section of the North, would attribute 
 to intrinsic imbecility, deliberate acts of injustice, you have had 
 the address to divd't the public eye from daring oppression, to 
 a presumptive defect of judgment — thus imitating former des- 
 pots, you have assumed one character, that you might more se- 
 curely act another. 
 
 Your aim is no longer misunderstood. Your system is fully 
 developed. Your measures have been, and are calculated to 
 wither the prosperity of an intelligent people, whose patriotism 
 is as conspicuous, as their determination to support their rights 
 is sincere. In the accomplishment of your design, you have 
 not hesitated to overleap the bounds of the Constitution, and 
 render that sacred instrument, in effect, a nullity. You have 
 artfully left us the phantom, after destroying the substance of 
 the Constitution. 
 
 After slandering the character of the Eastern People, in rela- 
 tion to the affair of Henry, by imputing to them a charge, the 
 falsity of which you must be conscious, you have involved the 
 nation unprepared, without necessity, in violation of justice, upon 
 pretexts false and frivolous, into a horrid war — a war nominally 
 against Britain, an aid to the Tyrant, and promotive of his de- 
 solating arms, but in reality, A war upon the eastern states. 
 Their foreign commerce you have successfully annihilated; their 
 coasting trade you have the temerity to interdict, and even to ren- 
 der their land communication subject to the arbitrary control of 
 Collectors and spies, who in one instance have seized a consid- 
 erable quantity of specie. You have sanctioned the denunci- 
 ation of their militia with the most opprobrious epithets, and 
 caused one of her Governors, for the faithful discharge of ti e 
 duties of bis station, to be threatened with a criminal prose- 
 cution. The military under your orders are taught to vie\t 
 
6 
 
 the civil authority with ideas of superiority and contempt, and 
 have, in this as in other countries, discovered their facility in 
 acquiring, and readiness to practise the lessons of Despotism, 
 by outraging the most sacred rights of the people. Your 
 Generals, blustering, brutal, ignorant, and incapable, have so 
 conducted your war, agreeably to instructions, as to have, at all 
 times, ready to execute your commands, a body of men, (cal- 
 culated to be disciplined) unprincipled and desperate. Ex- 
 hibiting yourself to the world as a silly and empty boaster, 
 by the abandonment of Canada, which, together with the hope 
 of conquest, you intended to use as a field of exercise and 
 school of discipline for your military, the enemy, ever alert and 
 enterprising, are invited justly to retaliate upon our own fron- 
 tiers, an act of unfeeling ferocity and savage barbarity, com- 
 mitted by the express orders of your Secretary of war. And 
 as if to leave no doubt of the motives with which it was per- 
 petrated, an important fort and flourishing villages are aban- 
 doned a defenceless prey to the arms and torch of an incensed 
 foe, thus reducing thousands of our citizens from affluence 
 and comfort to poverty and distress. Not content with invi- 
 ting an invasion of our territory, you have made an effort, by 
 one of your mouth-pieces in Congress, to abolish the trial by 
 Jury, by subjecting our citizens to suffer death, by martial 
 law, on a vague and indefinite allegation, a disgraceful stig- 
 ma even to the sanguinary age of Robespierre. Disappointed 
 in your anticipated calculations of throwing an alarm upon 
 the public mind, by the pompous display of your disorderly 
 military, whicli has only excited feelings of abhorrence and con- 
 tempt; disappointed in enticing to your standard the sober 
 and industrious portion of the Community, by allurements of 
 conquest ; and conscious, that while your armies and your 
 Generals are an object of scorn to your countrymen, they 
 are disgracefully impotent and ridiculous, as respects the ene- 
 my ; at length, in a fit of despair and rage, seeing your in- 
 struments of domestic oppression dwindle into insignificance, 
 after liaving driven the poor classes of society to absolute want, 
 you have resolved upon appealing to their avarice, and to 
 scatter with a profuse hand the means of contamination and 
 corruption. 
 
 You have always distinguished yourself an inveterate ene- 
 
my to Commerce, knowing that it ever is the inseparable com- 
 panion of Freedom. Commerce is the natural result of the 
 genius, the principles, and resources of the Eastern States. 
 Their prosperity gave rise to your restrictive measures. Their 
 increasing power called into active operation the dark sug- 
 gestions of your jealousy. You have long enjoyed, in the in- 
 toxicating delirium of corrupt ambition, the pleasing picture 
 of a people, free, enterprising, and intelligent, gasping under 
 the ruin which you have made it the study of your life to 
 bring upon them. You flatter yourself with the prospect of 
 a long continuance of the gratification which you now experi- 
 ence. You think to smother the rising impulse of indignation 
 by threat. You hope to soothe the swelling emotions of viola- 
 ted right by deceptive prospects of Peace. But you have 
 been too long in the habit of deception, for your professions, 
 however plausible, now to be believed. If the impending ne- 
 gociation with Great Britain is defeated by insidious artifice : 
 if the friendly and conciliatory proposals of the enemy should 
 not, from French subserviency, or views of sectional ambition, 
 be met throughout with a spirit of moderation and sincerity, 
 so as to terminate the infamous war which is scattering its hor- 
 rors around us, and arrest the calamities and distress of a dis- 
 graced country, it is necessary to apprise you, that such con- 
 duct will be no longer borne with. The injured States will 
 be compelled, by every motive of duty, interest, and honour ; by 
 one manly exertion of their strength, to dash into atoms the 
 bonds of tyranny. It will then be too late to retract. The die 
 will be cast. Freedom preserved. 
 
 Lest you should attribute the patient forbearance of the East- 
 ern States, groaning under the weight of your oppressive mea- 
 sures, to improper motives, 'tis time you should learn, that you 
 are indebted to their magnanimity for having refrained to 
 appeal to the last resort of injured innocence, and to vindicate 
 violated rights, by assuming and maintaining a new attitude. 
 Conscious of the justice of their cause, their dignified gen- 
 erosity continues to afford you opportunities to avert, for a 
 time, the pressing necessity of a decisive and effectual reme- 
 dy for their multiplied wrongs. I doubt your sincerity to ter- 
 minate the war. The reasons upon which I form my opinion 
 will fac briefly expressed. And as you know what alternative 
 
the failure of the negocialion to which you have been unex- 
 pectedly and magnanimously invited will produce, you invite, 
 by such a consequence, a dissolution of the Union. 
 
 The abolition of the practice of impressment is the pretence 
 alleged for the continuance of this war. But its causes have 
 a deeper root. There are still some lingering fragments of 
 Commerce to destroy. There are yet many seamen to drive 
 from the country. The Western States want the Canadas, and 
 the Indian hunting grounds : The Southern States the Floridas. 
 You, their leader, wish to gratify both sections. These terri- 
 tories, wheB conquered, it is intended shall be converted into 
 States, as part of that trackless wild, Louisiana, has already been, 
 and thus realize one favourite object of ambition, by overwhelm- 
 ing the influence of the Eastern States. 
 
 Another reason, proving the hypocrisy of your professions for 
 Peace, presents itself in the dexterity with which you have 
 shifted your ground, according to the evolution of events. The 
 ■war at first was asserted to be waged to compel the re- 
 peal of the Orders in Council, when your whole title sepa- 
 rately to demand that act was founded on your own procla- 
 mation, which falsely pronounced the repeal of the French 
 Decrees. The French repeal did not appear till atter the 
 commencement of hostilities, which removed every pretence 
 for their continuance, by the corresponding abrogation of the 
 Orders in Council. Recourse was immediately had to a new 
 claim, involving principles of the greatest delicacy and impor- 
 tance, which dii'ectly aim at undermining the maritime strength 
 of Great Britain. After having repeatedly and distinctly assert- 
 ed, that the American flag should protect those whom it covers, 
 which have not yet been publicly or officially retracted : and when 
 it is evident, from the frequent and positive declarations of the 
 British Government, that they never will relinquish the right 
 to seize their own seamen when found in neutral merchant ves- 
 sels — it is evident that the negociation must fail, unless you have 
 determined to abandon a ground impolitic and unjust, which a. 
 knowledge of your character forbids me to expect. 
 
 A confirmation of the opinion that the negociation at Gotten- 
 burgh is intended as a delusion, and an endeavour to throw the 
 odium of a continuance of hostilities upon the enemy, may be 
 collected from the present aspect of affairs. The character of 
 

 
 ft majority of the negociators afford no prospect of succesSs 
 You still keep unfortunate and innocent men, whom the chance 
 of war has thrown into your hands, languishing in gloomy pri- 
 sons. The exercise of a right, that of calling to account and 
 punishing abandoned wretches, when found in arms against 
 iheir native country, which the whole civilized world recognizes 
 as just, threatens to give a horrid feature to this unnatural war, 
 by adding to it, on your part, the crime of murder. Instead of 
 discovering a disposition to arrest hostilities by an armistice, 
 vigorous preparations are made for the next campaign, to reap 
 by invasion another crop of disaster and disgrace. Every cir- 
 cumstance, in connexion with the present mission, indicates, in 
 my opinion, a fixed determination inflexibly to continue youP 
 present measures. A brief view of the consequences of such a 
 policy, may perhaps have a good effect, which I will according-* 
 ly present to your consideration. 
 
 A separation of the States will be an inevitable result. 
 Motives numerous and urgent will demand that measure. As 
 they originate in oppression, the oppressors must be responsi- 
 ble for the momentous and contingent events, arising from the 
 dissolution of the present confederacy, and the erection of sepa- 
 rate governments. It will be their work. While posterity will 
 admire the independent spirit of the Eastern section of our 
 country, and with sentiments of gratitude, enjoy the fruits of their 
 firmness and wisdom — the descendantsof the South and West will 
 have reason to curse the infatuation and folly of your councils. 
 
 The States became parties to the national compact for the 
 purposes expressed in that instrument. As long as the ends 
 for which they united were faithfully pursued and secured, 
 the concomitant prosperity of all rendered the Union binding. 
 But when the spirit of the most vital parts of the Constitution 
 are no longer consulted, and its letter so perverted and violated, 
 as to affect the rights, and oppress the most important interests 
 of one section of the country, it is then virtually dissolved. The 
 non-compliance and infraction of a contract by one party, ab- 
 solves the other. 
 
 The " common defence" is not provided for : the " general 
 welfare" is not promoted : " a raoi^e perfect union" is not^form" 
 ed ; « just^ce"^is not established ; « domestic tranquillity" is 
 
 13 
 
10 
 
 not insured ; and the " blessings of liberty" are not secured to 
 us: the "regulation of commerce with foreign nations, and among 
 the several states" did not mean the annihilation of the one, and 
 the prohibition of the other : « to provide for calling forth the mi- 
 litia" in certain cases, did not authorize the conversion of it into 
 a standing army : the " admission of new states into the Union** 
 did not intend the erection of new states beyond its limits : " the 
 right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, 
 and effects, against unreasonable searehes and seizures," is gla- 
 ringly violated : our citizens have been " deprived of propei'ty, 
 without due process of law ;" and it has ben " taken for public 
 use without just compensation :" « excessive bail" has been re- 
 quired, and " excessive fines" have been imposed.— Such are the 
 infringements of the Constitution under your sanction, aggra- 
 vated by a corrupt exercise of the influence of the Presidential 
 office. 
 
 Our country is overrun by swarms of civil officers, who, 
 with the military at their command, harass, and grievously op- 
 press the people, in their necessary and accustomed pursuits. 
 The usual internal communication, is laid under tyranni- 
 cal restrictions and prohibitions. Heavy taxes add to the dis- 
 tress incident to a state of war. The national debt is increas- 
 ing with unexampled rapidity. The money of the people is 
 squandered with the most lavish profusion. The public morals 
 are corrupted ; the public character disgraced. Industry is 
 suspended ; commerce destroyed. The wreck of desolation 
 and ruin on every side present their horrid fragments. The 
 Eastern people are a prey to sectional jealousy. Their demand 
 for redress is received with neglect and insult. 
 
 Our foreign relations have been conducted with a view to se- 
 cond your internal policy. Hence the most contemptible sub- 
 servience to France ; the most pusillanimous acquiescence in 
 her spoliations and plunder ; the most abject and degraded re- 
 ception of her mimerous and reiterated insults. As but little 
 commerce could be carried on Avith France, the shadow of her 
 friendship must be preserved, at the expense of national honor. 
 You have even disguised her fraud with falsehood ; palliated her 
 wanton aggressions with deceptive and cunning emolients; and 
 endeavoured to hide from the people, the bold and studied in- 
 sult of her insolent representative. An admirer of France, you 
 
11 
 
 have not hesitated, in your war upon commerce, to unitate the 
 Imperial Usurper ; hence the servile adoption of the continent- 
 al system, and the daring introduction of his tyrannic:il mea- 
 »Qr«s to enforce it. His stolen diadem, drenched in the blood 
 »f murdered innocence, has attracted your wonder. His iron 
 sceptre, bending to the earth with the accumulated weight of 
 sanguinary crime, elicits your regard. His blood-stained hands, 
 brandishing the reeking daggers of the assassin, are viewed 
 with complacency. His grim visage, stamped with the stern 
 features of ruthless despotism, moves your sympathy. You 
 have adopted his horrid warfare upon civilization and humanity. 
 You have degraded this unfortunate nation to the infamous 
 level of his vassal friends. You have promoted, to the ut- 
 most of your power, the tyrant's projects upon the liberties of 
 the world. Your cold-hearted attempts to starve the armies in 
 the Peninsula, assisting, with heroic magnanimity, an invaded 
 people to recover their independence, do justice to the natura 
 of your cause. Your pitiful diversions in Canada, in behalf of 
 the Tyrant, have made you the object of scorn and contempt. 
 As all this directly tends to the oppression of the Eastern states ; 
 your eagerness to accomplish it, has induced you no longer to 
 attempt disguise by plausible pretext, and to set at open defi- 
 ance their slumbering indignation. 
 
 With corresponding views has been your treatment of Great 
 Britain. Emblazoning her most trivial acts into matters of im- 
 portance, converting her most innocent expressions into terms 
 of insult, to deceive and inflame the public mind — when you 
 thought your pretexts sufficiently plausible, by the most false 
 misrepresentations and assertions, upon her non-compliance 
 with unjust claims, unnecessarily, and with the most heedless 
 folly, involved the nation into a state of hostilities. Without 
 preparation, and without the slightest effort to an adjustment of 
 differences by sincere negociation or just demands, you have 
 wantonly become the aggressor, and brought upon the country 
 the horrors of an offensive war. You have continued it upon a 
 ground, the propriety and necessity of which the commercial 
 states are the only competent judges. You well know their 
 opinion. The falsity of the pretence of protecting foreign sea- 
 men has been ably proved. By claiming to harbour, and absolve 
 foreign deserters from allegiance to their sovereign, which will 
 
12 
 
 never be acquiesced in, you hope to render this unnatural war 
 
 co-extensive with your power, and rivet the chains of oppression. 
 
 This war, however nominally disguised, being in reality a 
 most horrid invasion of the rights and liberties of the Eastern 
 people, lest you might have the presumptive folly to attribute 
 their magnanimious forbearance to doubts as to their power in 
 not having thrown oft" your yoke, a few considerations will con- 
 vince you of error. 
 
 The people of the Northern States are hardy, brave, enter- 
 prising, determined. Enlightened by solid acquirements in all 
 the useful branches of information, and with a practical and ex- 
 tensive knowledge of human nature, they are keen to discern 
 encroachments on their rights, and acute to detect enmity, under 
 the hypocritical mask of pretended friendship. The dignified 
 elevation of their charactei-, induces them, when wronged, to 
 seek redress from the mild means of memorial and remonstrance 
 —but those measures failing, and roused to arms by an accu- 
 mulation of injury, they then become impetuous as the rapid 
 torrent, dreadful to their enemies as the furious tempest. Do 
 you think to agitate the ocean, and calm it at pleasure ? Do you 
 think to light up the flames of civil war, and extinguish them at 
 discretion ? 
 
 Bold and resolute, when they step forth in the sacred cause 
 of freedom and independence, the Northern people will secure 
 their object. No obstacle can impede them. No force can 
 withstand their powerful arm. The most numerous armies 
 will melt before their manly strength. Does not the page of 
 history instruct you, that the feeble debility of the South never 
 could face the vigorous activity of the North ? Do not the events 
 of past ages remind you of the valuable truth, that a single 
 epark of Northern liberty, especially when enlightened by con- 
 genial commerce, will explode a whole atmosphere of sultry 
 southern Despotism ? You well know the termination of the ex- 
 pedition of Xerxes, with his hundreds of thousands against the 
 Greeks ! The commercial Athenians taught the debilitated ty- 
 rant of Asia, on the plains of Marathon, and at the streights of 
 JSalamis, of what exertions Freedom is capable, when roused by 
 Oppression, The hardy Macedonians, not only defeated and 
 dispersed, countless hordes of southern effeminacy, but traversed 
 their country at pleasure. 
 
13 
 
 Turn your attention for a moment to late and passing events, 
 to be convinced of the impotence of hostile design upon a reso- 
 lute spirit, and men united by a common and just cause. Spain 
 and Protugal, although treacherously surprised, after having 
 been made the deluded victims of corrupt intrigue, and overrun 
 by the disciplined veterans of France, led by her most experien- 
 ced and best Generals, who at pleasure could increase the num- 
 bers and strength of their forces, their strong places seized 
 upon and garrisoned, the most horrid excesses universally com- 
 mitted, death denounced by savage assassins against those found 
 in arms in defence of their rights, yet one impulse actuated 
 the whole body ; disregarding the arms and threats of their 
 murderous invaders, unaccustomed to warfare, betrayed, yet aid- 
 ed by their generous allies, broke to atoms the fetters of tyranny, 
 and freed their country from the military slaves of a Despot. 
 
 The same spirit produced similar effects in Russia. An army 
 of Frenchmen, the largest and best disciplined the modern world 
 has seen, led by the Usurper Napoleon in person, undertook to 
 subdue the North, and penetrated to the Capital of the Russian 
 Empire. He there had not only to encounter a " frightful cli- 
 mate," but a race of men, hardy, united, determined. They de- 
 stroyed with facility the followers of the Tyrant, who with difTi- 
 culty saved himself by a disgraceful flight. 
 
 When such are the effects of oppression upon men resolved 
 not to submit, as displayed in the North and South of Europe, 
 and in all ages of the world, do you flatter yourself with its pro- 
 ducing a different operation in this country ? Do you think the 
 energies of Northern freemen arc to be tamely smothered ? Do 
 you imagine they will allow themselves to be trampled upon 
 with impunity ? And by whom ? The Southern and Western 
 States ! by men whose united efforts, are not sufficient to keep 
 in order their own enslaved population, and defend their own 
 frontiers ! by warriors whose repeated attempts at invasion of a 
 neighbouring province, have been disgracefully foiled by a hand- 
 ful of disciplined troops ! by Generals, monuments of arrogance 
 and folly ! by councils, the essence of corruption, imbecility, and 
 madness ! 
 
 The aggregate strength of the South and West, if brought 
 against the North, would be driven into the ocean, or back to 
 their own sultry wilds — and they might think themselves for- 
 
14 
 
 tunate, if they escape other punishment than defeat, which their 
 temerity would merit. While the one would strive to enslave, 
 the other would fight for freedom. While the councils of the 
 one would be distracted with discordant interests ; the decisions 
 of the other would be directed by one soul. Beware ! Pause I 
 before you take the fatal plunge. 
 
 It is always the lot of infatuation to mistake its own strength, 
 to overrate its own resources. Upon a dissolution of the Union, 
 experience will teach you a lesson which will awake you from 
 your delusive dreams of fancied power. From what quarter 
 ■will you draw funds ? Is not your credit already on the verge of 
 ruin — only not bankrupt ! Is there not a large and intelligent mi- 
 nority in your own section, opposed to your oppressive measures? 
 Will not your own wretched negroes threaten an insurrection ? 
 If you are capable of thinking, reflect I If you are capable of 
 vigour, dismiss the infamous counsellors who surround y«u, 
 familiarized to crime and dishonour, and be guided by the dic- 
 tates of Justice and common sense. 
 
 The comparative situation in which a dissolution of the con- 
 federacy would place the Northern and Southern Stales, while 
 it holds out to the one the greatest inducements to resort 
 for a redress of their wrongs to that measure, unfolds the sin- 
 gular folly of the other, which compels its necessity. The 
 North would have every thing to gain ; the South every thing 
 to lose. 
 
 The States of the North, united by common interests and 
 common dangers, would no doubt, with a few improvements, 
 adopt the present Constitution of the United States, so well 
 framed for the purposes of freedom, if administered in its gen- 
 uine spirit. Being then governed by their own representa- 
 tives, which is not now the case, their interests would be con- 
 sulted, and their rights secured. The Southern and West- 
 ern States would be driven by distinct interests to a speedy sepa- 
 ration, as they are only now united by the common cause of 
 humbling the North ; Avoukl become the victims of mutual 
 animosity, excited by jealousy and factioa ; and in a short 
 lime sink into their original insignificance. 
 
 One of the most important consequences resulting from a 
 Northern confederacy, would be the restoration of peace. We 
 have, as you well know, no just and sufficient cause for contin- 
 
15 
 
 uing the war agafnst Great Britain. A Northern peace would 
 soon supersede the present state of hostilities. A negociation, 
 guided by wise councils, and conducted with sincerity, would 
 place our relationb with the most powerful maritime natioa 
 on the globe, on an honourable, permanent, and advantageous 
 basis. Tlie people would be freed from that load of frivolous 
 chicane and disgraceful subterfuge, which characterize your di- 
 plomatic writings. Their honour would be never stained hy 
 degrading alliances, by submission to robbery, by acquies- 
 cence in insult. Their foreign relations would be conduct- 
 ed with impartiality, dignity, and firmness. Always prepared 
 for war, they would enjoy an honourable peace. I forbear to 
 predict the situation of the South and West, as respects foreign 
 nations ; if bickering and petty warfare, a prostration of morals 
 and total insensibility to every principle of honour and honesty, 
 should not drive them into a state of foreign vassallage, or sink 
 them to a n est of pirates and robbers, they might think them- 
 selves fortunate. 
 
 A state of peace would restore Commerce. The enterpri- 
 sing spirit of the East would soon display its flag in all 
 quarters of the world. Wealth would follow. Industry would 
 flourish. The fisheries would be patronized and prosper. 
 A valuable body of Seamen would be nurtured. A navy ade- 
 quate to every useful purpose would be reared : an extensive 
 revenue would at all times facilitate its increase, and keep it 
 in repair. The Southern States have no seamen~thcy would be 
 compelled to employ the Eastern flag, unless the same infatua- 
 ted policy should then, as now, govern them, by interdicting all 
 Commerce. It \vere invidious to draw a comparison. While 
 the East would be rising to importance, extending her Com- 
 merce, flourishing in agriculture, increasing in manufactures, 
 free, rich, enterprising, powerful, honoured by the world, 
 their friendship sought after, their alliance courted, their en- 
 mity dreaded — the South and Vv^'est would be falling back 
 upon barbarian darkness, assimilating themsehes to the savage 
 Indians, despots over slaves, slaves to despots, dishonorable, 
 the object of contempt, the subject of insult. 
 
 Such, Sir, in my apprehension, would be the consequences 
 of a dissolution of the Union. When an event of such impor- 
 tance is about to take place, you will hear in the awful mur- 
 
 k 
 
16 
 
 murs of discontent and indignation, the sentiments of a beti-ayed 
 people conveyed to you in the follovring language : 
 
 " The purposes for which we acceded to the national com- 
 pact, have never been accomplished. We gave up part of 
 our sovereignty. We surrendered the regulation of our most 
 important privileges. We had a right in return to expect 
 a preservation of our liberties, the protection of our Commerce. 
 
 "We have waited in patience for relief from Oppression, un- 
 der the presumption, that we might possibly have mistaken 
 sectional jealousy and personal aggrandizement, for consum- 
 mate folly and perverse madness. But we are now convinced that 
 our sufferings are caused by hostile design, and not inadver- 
 tent error. 
 
 " Yournumerons infractions of the Constitution, free us from 
 all further obligations imposed by that instrument. 
 
 " You have waged war upon our Commerce, both foreign 
 and internal. You are inimical to a Navy, its natural protector,, 
 
 " You have ruined our fisheries, and banished our seamen. 
 
 " You have reduced us from happiness to despair : from afflu- 
 ence to want ; from prosperity to ruin. 
 
 " You grant an exemption from tyrannical laws as a matter 
 of favour, thus purchasing submission from the servile, and ac' 
 customing the people to the yoke of capricious despotism. 
 
 " You have involved us in the common cause of a relentless Ty- 
 rant, and still continue your alliance to the sanguinary enemy 
 of mankind. 
 
 " You have adopted, m ith respect to the enemy, principles re- 
 volting to humanity, and threaten to stain our honour, by making 
 us accessaries to the crime of murder. 
 
 " You have carried your oppressions to the utmost stretch. 
 We will no longer submit. Restore the Constitution to its pu- 
 rity ; give us security for the future, indemnity for the past. 
 Abolish every tyrannical law. Make an immediate and honour- 
 able peace. Revive our Commerce. Increase our navy. 
 Protect our seamen. Unless you comply with these just de- 
 mands, without delay, we will withdraw from the Union, scat- 
 ter to the Avinds the bonds of tyranny, and transmit to posterity, 
 that Liberty purchased by the Revolution.'* 
 
 A NORTH AMERICAN,