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 GLIMPSE 
 
 OP 
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION. 
 
 ON 
 
 The Twenty-Second of Feiniarijf 1814'. 
 
 fsKCOND EDITION.) 
 
A CUKSORY GLIMPSE 
 
 'I 
 
 OF 
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 TWENTY-SECOND OF FEBRUARY, 1811, 
 
 BEING 
 
 THE EIGHTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE BIRTH OF WASHINGTON; 
 
 b^ 
 
 / 
 
 OR 
 
 i PHYSICO-POLITICO-THEOLOGICO, 
 LUCUBRATION 
 
 UPON THE WONDERFUL PROPERTIES 
 
 OF 
 
 NITROUS OXIDE, 
 
 OR TliE NEWLY DISCOVERED EXH[LARATING GAS, 
 
 in its effects ttpon 
 
 THE HUMAN MIND, AND BODY; 
 
 AS THEY WERE EXHIBITED, BY ACTUAL EXPERIMENT, OX 
 THE EVENING OF THE TWENTY-THIRD INSTANT. 
 
 1'HILA.DELPHIA, 
 PUBLISHED BY MOSES THOMAS, 
 (f. Blaxwell, Printer.) 
 
 1811. 
 
CI"! 
 
The followinj? Paper upon The State of the Nation^ 
 was wrilten and put to press— upon the spur of the oc- 
 casion, in the abstract, allegorical manner, of the Tat- 
 iers, Spectators, and Guardians, of the last centuryj 
 which are said to have had so great an effect upon pub- 
 lic sentiment, in those unsettled times, as to have contri- 
 buted, more than any thing else, to the prevalence of in- 
 dependent principles, and the quiet establishment of the 
 Hanoverian family upon the vacant throne of the house 
 of Stuart. But the intended conclusion has since as- 
 sumed a more declamatory tone; which the critical read- 
 er is requested to excuse, as the apparent incongruity 
 cannot noiv be corrected. 
 
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23d. 1814. 
 
 Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem 
 Cogitat, ut speciosa deliinc miracula promat. — Horace. 
 
 One with a flash begins, and ends in smoke; 
 The other out of smoke brings glorious light, 
 And (without raising expectation high) 
 Surprizes us with dazzling miracles.— 'Roscommon. 
 
 THE air of our atmosphere, it is well known to all per- 
 sons acquainted with chymistry, consists of oxygen, 
 and nitrogen, in the proportions of about twenty-one 
 parts of the former to seventy-nine parts of the latter. 
 It is highly probable that in the atmosphere, the two gas- 
 es are not chymically combined; but exist, in a state of 
 simple mixture, as when artificially mixed, in the above 
 proportions, they exhibit all the general properties of 
 atmospheric air. There are however three articles, dif- 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 fering essentially from each other, which consist of oxy= 
 gen, and hydrogen, in a state of chymical combination. 
 These are nitric acid, nitric oxide, (nitrous air,) and ni- 
 trous oxide. The latter of these is always produced 
 by the decomposition of the former^ and is always, it is 
 believed, an artificial production, as its natural formation 
 has never been observed. — Nitric acid appears to be 
 com})osed of about seventy parts of oxygen, combined 
 with about thirty parts of nitrogen; nitric oxide of about 
 thirty. seven parts of oxygen, and sixty-three of hydro- 
 gen. To procure nitrous oxide we must employ an 
 agent, which will deprive nitric oxide of oxygen, or 
 supply it with nitrogen, so as to bring to the exact pro- 
 portioiis, ihe articles of which it is composed; and pre- 
 sent them to each other, under circumstances rvhich will 
 induce their combination. This is readily effected by 
 the decomposition of nitrate of ammonia. When this 
 salt is submitted to a proper degree of heat (about 400" 
 of Fahrenheit) it is slowly decomposed; the hydrogen of 
 the ammonia unites to a portion of the oxygen of the ni- 
 tric acid, and forms water, whilst the remaining oxygen 
 of the acid, with its nitrogen, combines with the nitro- 
 gen of the ammonia, and forms nitrous oxide; which, 
 existing in the gaseous form, may be collected in pro- 
 per vessels. 
 
 In the preparation of nitrous oxide, there are two 
 circumstances of essential importance to the obtaining 
 of it, in a state of purity. Nitric acid, as it is found in 
 commerce, is always contaminated with muriatic acid, 
 of this it must be deprived, or a portion of a very delete- 
 rious gas (oxy muriatic acid) will be intermixed Avith 
 the nitrous oxide. 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 Nitrous oxide supports combustion — a taper placed 
 ih it burns with considerable brilliancy — other combus- 
 tibles are similarly aflected, but its most distinguishing 
 property is, its effect upon the human system, when in- 
 haled by the mouth — an effect so singular, and so pow- 
 erful, that it is still witnessed with astonishment, even 
 by those who have had the most frequent opportunities 
 of observing it; the exhilarating article being applied to 
 an organ (the lungs) through which no such effect could 
 be apprehended. It is at the same time so delightful, 
 and passes off so suddenly, that it seems more like the 
 effects ascribed to enchantment, than those producible 
 by the intervention of any natural agent. 
 
 Passing a leisure moment, the other evening, at the 
 WASHINGTON liotcl in Sixth-strect, for the taverns and 
 coffee-houses of the days of Addison and Steele, are 
 with us converted into inns and hotels, and happen- 
 ing to cast my eye over Relf's Philadelphia Gazette, 
 I chanced to observe that Dr. Jones's weekly lecture 
 upon this interesting subject, was advertised^or the last 
 time this season. I immediately called for my hat and 
 cane, and sallied forth to procure a ticket, and to in- 
 quire for Harmony court, at the corner of which, it 
 seems, the learned doctor exhibits his supernatural ex- 
 periments.* 
 
 * There are two Washing'ton liotcls, in this p:irt of Sixth-street — it having 
 been the immediate neighbourhood of the first President of tlie United 
 States, when he resided in Philadelphia. The one in question is now better 
 known as a place of convenient rendezvous for sober citizens, and literary 
 loungers, on account of its vicinity to the old State House, where the courts 
 of law are still held, and the scientific collections in natural history are so ad- 
 vantageously exhibited by Mr. Peale. It has, however, been distinguished 
 ever since the period of the presidentir^l residence in this city, by a double sign, 
 
i; 8 ) 
 
 I'lie lecture room is an oblong of twenty feet by 
 thirty, one end of which is separated from the physical 
 apparatus, by a transverse writing-desk, behind which 
 rise a dozen benches, in regular gradation, the entrance 
 to which is barred across, to prevent the inhalers of the: 
 gas from too ready access to the ladies; who are advi- 
 sed, as they enter, to place themselves upon the hind- 
 most seats — that they may be out of harms way. When 
 the doctor has descanted, at sufficient length, upon the 
 nature and properties of the nitrous oxide; and exhibited 
 a number of unimportant experiments, to which very 
 little attention is paid by his auditors, who come rather 
 to see — than to hear; he begins to perceive the impa- 
 tience, particularly of the female part of the company, 
 and he proposes to deliver ten or twelve tickets, regu- 
 larly numbered, to so many young gentlemen who may 
 have a mind to inhale the exhilarating gas. The pit is 
 now cleared for action, and the first on the list, stepping 
 eagerly forward (if he has ever taken it before) receives 
 
 —as it stands at the corner of a street, being two portraits of Washixoton, 
 one facing each way, taken at the time, and very well taken too, from the cele- 
 brated picture of Gabriel Stuart — the first repetition of which is now depo- 
 sited in the Academy of Fine Arts — The other, stands at the end of a street, 
 called Minor-street — a private, thougli ample passage, thrown out from the 
 front lots, between Market and Chesnut-streets, for the sake of accommoda- 
 ting their opulent owners with stables. Here Washixgton kept tlie fine set 
 of coach-horses, and the hunters, of which he was so fond; and I now perfectly 
 remember seeing the old General stand there, on the pavement, in his dressing- 
 gown and slippers, on the morning of his departure for Mnunt Vernon, on the 
 voluntary resignation of his second presidency. He was looking about him, 
 as if taking leave of the premises, with all the dignity of attitude, and compo- 
 sure of sentiment, for which he was so remarkable; and I shall ever regret thai; 
 I suffered the too highly polished restraints of civilized society to prevent me- 
 from saluting him (because we had never met each other in private life) with 
 the parting blessings of liis — then grateful country. 
 
( » ) 
 
 a large bladder, inflated with the proper portion of ni- 
 trous oxide. 
 
 On the present occasion the first practitioner was a 
 fine youth of fifteen, who inhaled the gas with spirited 
 avidity — suddenly threw away the bag, with an air of 
 triumphant disdain, and began to march about the in- 
 closure with theatric strides, until coming close up to 
 the front row, he perceived that one of the persons who 
 sat there held a cane athwart to defend himself from his 
 too near approach. This offended his pride — he instant- 
 ly burst into a paroxysm of rage: " That tyrant!" says 
 he, " has seized my cane — deliver it to me! — this — in- 
 *'stant! — or — I'll be the death of you!" At the same 
 moment jumping over the desk, and grappling with the 
 man who had the cane, he overturned every thing that 
 stood in his way, and it required the united efforts of 
 four or five men to hold him down, till the effect of the 
 gas ceased, and he turned round to the company with 
 an air of good-humoured hilarity. \ 
 
 Several others now trod the stage, in turn, with dif- 
 ferent degrees of animation, or ferocity, dancing, jump- 
 ing, kicking, fencing, and occasionally boxing any one 
 that stood in their way; when a young man of five and 
 twenty approached the table, inhaled a potent dose of 
 the delicious poison, and began to display its effects up- 
 on his frame, by dashing at the candles — driving off the 
 doctor — and, finally, advancing to the company, he threw 
 himself into the most haughty attitude he could assume, 
 and exclaimed, with terrifying emphasis, " Byy hea- 
 " vens! — 'Twere nobly done! — To snatch the briidal 
 " honours — from the blaazing sunn!" This violent ex- 
 ertion exhausted the draught he had inhaled. He turn- 
 
 E 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 cd about as if amazed, and sat quietly down upon a 
 bench that was near him. 
 
 I do not recollect any thing more observable, in 
 those that followed, than that an ingenious boy, after 
 amusing the company by his freakish activity, turned 
 suddenly to the doctor, and offered him his hand, say- 
 ing, " Well, doctor, here I am, at last;" as if he had 
 just come oft' of a journey, and was glad to see his 
 friends again. Though one sprightly youth danced ra- 
 pidly round the ring, aiming a kick at one — giving a 
 slap on the face to another — and shaking his fist, at a 
 third; till, finally, throwing himself headlong into the 
 midst of his supposed enemies, he struggled with them 
 for a moment; and then instantly came to himself, with- 
 out having spoken a single word throughout the whole 
 pantomime: for it is observable on this confined theatre, 
 as well as in that of real life, that the greatest fighters 
 are — men of few words — and 7io pretensions, 
 
 A powerful young man of six foot, now offered 
 himself at the table, upon which most of those who 
 were on the bench below me decamping, I also thought 
 it most prudent to get out of the way of the first onset, 
 as there was no knowing how furious it might be. He 
 had by this time inhaled his potion, with the most evi- 
 dent signs of delight, and was marching, or rather stamp- 
 ing, along the boards, when he suddenly assumed a fix- 
 ed posture— faced the company— and with uplifted hands 
 and eyes exclaimed — in a voice of thunder — " Alex- 
 aander!!!" — This exhausted his strength, and as he fell 
 to the floor, like a log, he cried out, " Lord! deliver 
 us!" 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 The exhilarating gas was now spent, and I could 
 not but then compare the theatric rhapsodies to which 
 I had been a witness, to the bombastic efFusions of our 
 western generals on entering Canada— since the parallel 
 held out so exactly in their falling away, as the superna- 
 tural vigour excited by the inflating gas, exhausted itself 
 infumo, leaving upon the escutcheon of their offended 
 country, that stain of pusillanimity, which the blood of 
 Lawrence, and Allen, and Burrows, and so many 
 more of our gallant seamen (the last relics ofxHEWASH- 
 iNGTON policy) afterward flowed to wash away : for 
 they have been truly said to be obliged to fight their way 
 to favour with the prcsGnt professedli/ economical Admi- 
 nistration.* 
 
 * "If the barbarous and savage policy of Great Britain be pursued, and 
 " the Savag-es let loose to murder our citizens, and butcher our women and 
 " children, this war will be a war of extermination. The first stroke of the 
 "tomahawk, the first attempt with the scalping knife, will be the signal of 
 " one indiscriminate scene of desolation. No white man found fighting by the 
 " side of an Indian will be taken prisoner; instant destruction will be his lot." 
 [General Hull's proclamation on entering Canada, dated at Sandwich near 
 Detroit, July 12, 1812.] 
 
 " Soldiers of the army of the centre.— The time is at hand when you will 
 "cross the stream of Niagara, to conquer Canada, and to secure the peace of 
 " the .American frontier. You will enter a country which is to be one of tha 
 
 " United States. -Come on my Heroes! and when you attack the enemy's 
 
 " batteries, let your rallying word be, The cannon lost at Detroit — or death." 
 [General Smyth's address to his army previous to entering Canada —Camp 
 nearBuifalo, Nov. 17, 1812.] 
 
 These military swaggerers, however, have been far outdone by the 
 more ferocious zealots in congress: Mr. Williams, for instance; who (before 
 the declaration of war) wished that he could command the red artiUertj of Hea' 
 ven, to drive from her moorings the fast anchored Isle. While Peter Ji. Porter 
 talked, like an experienced savage, oi making a -war feast, and spreading a ta- 
 ble for the guests. Nay Wright (sometime governor of the highly respectable 
 state of Maryland) and Troup of Georgia, had the treasonable audacity (in de- 
 fiance of the constitution) to propose to subject their fellow citizens to the 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 But on my return to my chambers, and when I laid 
 myself down to sleep, between sleeping and waking, I 
 carried the comparison further. It appeared to me as 
 though the United States of America, in congress as- 
 sembled, had inhaled an imprudent portion of the exhi- 
 larating gas, which they were now actually breathing 
 forth again — in defiance of God and man. The gal- 
 lant youth, who swore that the tyrant had got his cane^ 
 and that he would be the death of him, but he would have 
 it again^ reminded me of our pertinacious determination 
 to have every thing yielded up to us that we contend 
 for. The blustering bravado of the young man that 
 cried, 
 
 " 'Twere nobly done! 
 
 ■ " To sna'xh the bridal honours from the blazing sun!" 
 
 appeared to tally with sufficient exactness to our occa- 
 sional threats to sweep every sea, and exclude the navy 
 of Great Britain yrow the ocean. And the pathetic ex- 
 clamation of him who invoked the name of Alexan- 
 der, as he was falling to the ground, with utter imbe- 
 cility, bore too striking an allusion to be mistaken to 
 our flattering prospect of an eventual accommodation, 
 through the friendly interference of the Deliverer of 
 Europe. — 
 
 It grieves me to expose the nakedness of my coun- 
 try — in a state of political intoxication; and I would 
 not — unnecessarily — hurt the feelings of the least of her 
 well meaning public functionaries. — If I have 
 probed to the quick, the xvounds of the daughter of my 
 
 operation of martial law; and to threaten to have recourse to a mihtart 
 CONSCRIPTION, if the ranks of our army — in the crusade against Canada — 
 could not otherwise be filled. 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 people, and laid open her bruises, and her putrifying 
 sores; it is not to aggravate — but to heal: " Faithful 
 are the wounds of a friend." — [Proverbs xxvii. 6.3 
 
 These apparently " dazzling miracles," however to 
 recur to the motto of my paper, are yet capable of an 
 easy solution, for nothing can be more natural than that 
 the minds of young men, in a state of inconceivable 
 excitation, should turn upon the recollected injuries 
 of their country-— -its adventurous expeditions — or the 
 inspiring prospects of its returning prosperity. Yet the 
 probability of this singular chain of historical coinciden- 
 ces may well be doubted by others: for I can now scarce- 
 ly credit my own recollection of it. The whole story, I 
 well know, will be supposed to be nothing more than a 
 waking dream, a political vision: but I have only to refer 
 the sceptic to any one of more than a hundred persons, 
 of both sexes, who were present at the exhibition I have 
 described, for proof that the facts occurred, and that 
 too, in the very order in which I have related them, on 
 the identical evening of the 23rd of February. 
 
 But the most important circumstance, in a moral 
 point of view, attending this singular, and highly 
 interesting display of the effect of the nitrous oxide, 
 upon the human mind and body, is the proof it affords of 
 the exact proportions, in which He who iveighs the 
 mountains in scales, and the hills as in a balance, has al- 
 lotted the component parts of atmospheric air (twenty 
 one parts of oxygen, to seventy-nine parts of nitrogen) 
 — inasmuch as it indicates how materially we are acted 
 upon by external circumstances, in this corporeal state 
 of being; and how immediately we depend, even for the 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 sober use of every faculty we possess, upon the strictly 
 tempered air we breathe! Is there a rational being so 
 fool-hardy as to attribute this harmonious coincidence 
 between the composition of the atmosphere, and the 
 lungs of the animal creation, to the operation of chance? 
 I have too high an opinion of the common sense of 
 mankind to believe that there is a single one upon the 
 face of the earth. 
 
 I mention not this opinion with any view to the con- 
 viction oi professed atheism (if any such thing there be) 
 for it has always appeared to me, when I have met with 
 abstruse reasonings, intended for this purpose, that it 
 was beating the air, or skirmishing with a phantom. 
 For, whatever some may think, in this age of freedom 
 and infidelity, of the doctrine, truly inconceivable as it 
 is to human apprehension, of a particular Providence 
 f about our bed, and about our paths J or the mystery of 
 regeneration to eternal life, through the medium of an 
 mcarnate Saviour, (in which I most humbly and reve- 
 rently believe) it is only the fool, that hath said in his 
 heart " There is no God." 
 
 "If art to form, and counsel to conduct, 
 And that with greater far than human skill, 
 Resides not in each block — a Godhead reigns. — " 
 *' Has matter more than motion? has it thought" 
 Judgment, and genius? Is it deeply learn'd 
 In mathematics? Has it fram'd such laws, 
 Which but to guess a Newton made immortal? — 
 If so, how each sage atom laughs at me. 
 Who think a clod inferior to a man! 
 
 I know that I am addressing a moral and religious 
 people, who, like myself (though under different names 
 and forms) *' Beheve (according to that called the Apos- 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 tie's Creed, which I shall repeat for the benefit of some 
 of those now in authority, wlio seem to have lost sight 
 of the righteousness xvhich exalteth a nation^ of tempe- 
 rance^ and oi judgment to come) in God the Father Al- 
 mighty, Maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ 
 his only begotten Son, who was conceived by the Holy 
 Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius 
 Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried: the third day 
 he rose again from the dead, he ascended into heaven, 
 and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father; from 
 whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.^''* 
 It maybe thought strange to urge the influence of reli- 
 gious principles upon national policy (tho' it is certainly 
 more strange that it should be thought so in a Christian 
 country) yet does lord Liverpool, the British pre- 
 mier, think proper to avow the supremacy of the moral 
 principle, even in affairs of state. " God forbid, my 
 lords," says he (in the debate which took place in the 
 upper house, on the answer to the prince regent's 
 speech of the fourth of November) " that I should mean 
 to exclude from our policy principles of justice and 
 morality."! These are not the words of a tyrant, ad- 
 dressed to the pretended representatives of a nation of 
 
 * See the Confession of Faith of the Anglo-American Episcopal church, 
 in the Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 t " I agree most heartily," he continues, " with the noble baron who 
 -spoke last, that we should have a general peace, and one founded on princi- 
 ples consistent with justice, to all the powers concerned; not only to friends, 
 but also to our enemies. I would not, my lords, have any tiling asked from 
 our enemies (speaking of the French in particular) which we ourselves, in 
 suTiilar circumstances, would refuse. On these principles it is that I ask for 
 the support of parliament, and of the country; and, acting on these principles, 
 we hope, under the blessing of God, to bring the contest to a happy termi- 
 nation." 
 
( 16 ) 
 
 slaves — vox, et praterea iiihil — like the post-antedated 
 repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees. They are senti- 
 ments of truth and honour — pledged for actual obser- 
 vance before the high-minded aristocracy of a free and 
 generous people (from whom we have the honour to be 
 descended J and who, like ourselves, have spirit enough^ 
 and virtue enough to insist upon the redemption of the 
 pledge, should Administration be disposed to prevaricate. 
 
 In strict conformity to these dignified professions 
 was the late overture for peace, instituted by lord Cas- 
 TLEREAGH, the minister for foreign affairs — the most 
 direct proposals, for which desirable purpose, were sul- 
 lenly rejected by our present administration, for those 
 which were least so; and a mission to Gottenburgh (an 
 inconvenient, and, in the winter season, almost inac- 
 cessible port-town, at the entrance of the Baltic) pre- 
 ferred to an immediate negociation at London; which 
 might have prevented all occasion for the fruitless waste 
 of blood and treasure, which will be the consequence 
 of another campaign, if a peace shall have been made 
 in Europe. Peace or no peace, nothing will serve our 
 rulers but another march to Canada. Alas! that we, 
 the people of America (indisputably a moral people in 
 the management of our private concerns, whatever our 
 loving friend Napoleon may insolently say to the con- 
 trary) should be outdone by our enemies in acknow- 
 ledging the obligation of the simple rule of *' Doing to 
 others as we xvould they should do unto us.^^ 
 
 " Our present schemes are too profound, 
 For Machiavel himself to sound; 
 And annual taxes must suffice 
 The current blunders to disguise. " 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 No ncgociation for peace is very likely to end in 
 accommodation, which is not preceded by a cessation 
 of arms; but the fortmiate general Armstrong must 
 have another chance for taking Quebec (or taking 
 Boston) at the head of an army of sixty thousand men, 
 whilst the roundabout mission to Gottenburgh is de- 
 ferring the promised peace — 
 
 " Till his crude schemes in air are lost, 
 And millions scarce defray the cost. 
 
 Great knaves, of old, their power have fcnc'd 
 
 By places, pensions, bribes, dispens'd; 
 
 Ry these they gloried in success, 
 
 And impudently dar'd oppress: 
 
 By these despoticly they sway'd. 
 
 And slaves extoU'd tlie hand that paid — 
 
 .Yor fiarts nor genius were emjiloy^d.^ 
 
 By these alone were realms destroyed." 
 
 *' God forbid!" I repeat the expression (whether 
 the present negociation shall end in peace or war) our 
 departure as a nation, from the just principles that 
 would bind us as individuals, by blindly adopting the 
 truly savage practice of Fetaliation; which revenges 
 upon the innocent the sins of the guilty, and is there- 
 fore only to be palliated by the usage of the most barbarous 
 ages.* Could it have been believed, three years ago, 
 
 * Take a single instance of the natural course of this current of blood 
 when once it is inconsiderately unstopped: "Hitherto," says monsieur Du 
 Clos, in his interesting' History of Louis the Eleventh of France, "the life of 
 iJie duke of Burgundy [Charles the Bold, the ravager of Europe, or the Na- 
 poleon Bonaparte of the fifteenth century] has been a continued train of bat- 
 tles, or ratlier of rash headstrong attempts, followed sometimes with suc- 
 cess, which served only to push him ioivards the precipice, dovn -which he is 
 goiiij to be hurried. Heaven sometimes pours down vengeance upon princes, 
 
 C 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 that the elective government of America would so much 
 as threaten to adopt this interminable process of infuri- 
 ate vengeance? How passing strange, that men, amia- 
 ble and humane in private intercourse, when 
 
 " Dress'd in a little (^ncy authority, 
 
 Play such fantastic tricks before high Heaven, 
 
 Would make e'en angels weep!" 
 
 in full measure; and God, in punishing their crimes, discharges the whole 
 weight of his indignation with visible marks of resentment; making them 
 examples of his justice to those very nations, among whom they ought to 
 have shone out patterns of virtue. 
 
 " The duke of Burgundy, whose restless disposition, and savage valour, 
 were ever furnishing him with motives to war, turned his arms against the 
 Switzers, imder pretence of their having promoted the revolt in Ferette, and 
 committed some hostilities in the territories of the count de Romont,his ally. 
 Never was a war so fatal in its consequences, undertaken upon slighter 
 grounds. The quarrel arose upon occasion of a cart-load of sheepskins, be- 
 longing to a merchant of Switzerland, which the count de Romont had caused 
 to be seized, in consideration of some claims he had upon him. The Switzers 
 left no means untried to soften tlie duke and bring him to i-eason. They of- 
 fered to make restitution of whatever had been taken from the count de Ro- 
 mont. They represented tliat he could draw no advantage from the conquest 
 of Switzerland, and that tlie very bridles of his army were worth more than 
 tjieir whole country. But neither the submission of the Switzers, nor the ad- 
 vice of his wisest officers, could make any impression on the duke's ambition. 
 The taking of Nancy, and some other slight advantages, gained upon his first 
 entering Switzerland, made him believe that all must receive law from him. 
 Already he had conquered, in imagination, all the states and principalities 
 around him, and formed the project of carrying his victorious arms into Italy. 
 
 " The duke, laying siege to Granson, took it, and obliged the garrison, 
 w^hich consisted of five hundred men, to surrender at discretion. Some his- 
 torians pretend th.it there was a capitulation, by which the Switzers were to 
 march out safe and unhurt; but tlie duke, no less barbarous than perfidious, 
 delivered them into the hands of his camp-marshal, who ordered four hiai- 
 dred of them to be hanged upon trees, and the remaining hundred to be drowned. 
 
 " The Switzers, who had armed in great haste, were advancing to suc- 
 cour Granson, when they received accounts of that town's being taken: pro- 
 bably they would not have dared to continue their march further; but the 
 duke himself approiiched, with his army, to meet them. Nay, he committed a 
 still greater fault, upon this occasion; for, instead of keeping the plain, where 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 yet is it stiaiij^er still, that accountable creatures, who 
 do not disbelieve their Bibles, and who must therefore 
 expect, m trembling hope, a future reckoning with their 
 Creator — a state of eventual rewards and punishments, 
 according to their deeds, will hazard the salvation of 
 their souls in becoming instrumental to the perpetra- 
 tion of national atrocities; although plainly assured, 
 from authority which they neither doubt nor deny, that 
 " Though hand join in hand^ the ivicked shall not go im- 
 punished.^- 
 
 As was predicted, in vain, on the re-election of James 
 Madison to the presidency, this once happy, peaceful 
 land is now surrounded by enemies on every side: 
 " Powerful navies blockade every harbour upon our 
 long-drawn coast; a mongrel population of inimical 
 
 victory must unavoidably have declared for him, he resolved, contrary to the 
 opinion of all his officers, to enter the defiles by which the enemy was to ad- 
 vance. Accordingly, he put himself at the head of a select body of horse, 
 and charged their first battalions. The Switzers stood firm, and the duke, 
 who had engaged rashly, not being supported, was obliged to retire in order 
 to rally his men, and give the rest of tiie army time to come up. The Swit- 
 zers took advantage of this disorder, and pressed him with so much vigour, 
 that his first line was totally routed. Upon this the terror became general; 
 for the fi'ont ranks being driven back upon those that stood next them, and 
 they again upon the others tliat followed in order, the whole army was dissi- 
 pated and broken; and the duke himself, so intrepid on all occasions [like 
 Bonaparte from the gates of Leipsic] fled as far as Nonroy. His fool, nick- 
 named Le Glorieux, who had often heard him speak of the valour of Hanni- 
 bal, cried out, as they fled: Here we run, sir, like true Hannibals. The loss, 
 however, was not so great as the fright; but all the baggage, the tents, pro- 
 vision, artillery, and the duke's rich furniture, which he had brought with 
 him to make a display of his grandeiu" and wealth to foreigners, fell into the 
 enemy's hands. 
 
 " The conquerors retook Granson, and some other fortresses, which the 
 duke had made himself master of before the battle, and taking down the bo» 
 dies of their compatriots, liungtip as rnnmj Hurp-ztndians in their stead." f Hist. 
 of Louis XI. vol. 1, p. 154.3 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 French and Spaniards inhabits our southern frontier — 
 an enemy, rendered truly savage by our unjustified in- 
 cursions, now encroaches, in turn, upon the boundless 
 western border; and a nation of brother settlers to the 
 north, we have converted into implacable enemies, by 
 an unprovoked and unsuccessful invasion." 
 
 Unheard of taxes are levied to pay the interest, only, 
 of incredible loans; commerce is annihilated, and with 
 it the duties upon imports, which used to be, alone, 
 sufficient to defray the expenses of government, and 
 to pay oif, annually, a portion of the debt incurred in 
 the virtuous struggle for independence. We have 
 thoughtlessly ripped tip the hen that laid our golden 
 eggs — a free and prosperous intercourse with every 
 corner of the globe, for the beneficial interchange of 
 mutual wants and supplies; and we must now, instead 
 of profiting by Mr. Jay's treaty, which was deliberate- 
 ly ratified by the /jfl^erwc/ signature of our patriot 
 cHiEr, prosecute, to our own destruction^ Mr. Madi- 
 son's WAR, under the direction of the ex-president, 
 Jefperson — who rules us xmth a rod of iron — by a. 
 hand unseen.* 
 
 Oh! if 
 
 " The sleepy drench" 
 Benumb not still 
 
 Awake! arise! — or be foreveryh//'«. 
 
 • Int Senate, February 22cl. 
 
 " The senate resumed the consideration of the bill to provide for the re- 
 turn home of vessels detained in other ports of the United States, by the 
 embargo. 
 
 " The question recurred on the amendment proposed to the bill by Mr. 
 Dana, on the 16th inst. viz. 'That notiiing in the act shall be construed tr, 
 prevent the people of any one state from carrying on trade bettveen places -with- 
 in the same state;' which was determined in the 7ics^ntive. Yeas 7, nays 13. 
 
( 21 )- 
 
 The new commissioners so unpopularly and impru- 
 dently selected, have just taken their departure for Got- 
 tenburgh; congress are breaking up, after passing the ar- 
 my bill, the loan bill, Sec. &c. The president apparently 
 conceives himself — in the full tide of successful expert- 
 merit, and if there is not now an expression of public 
 sentiment-simultaneous and unequivocal throughout the 
 Atlantic states, in favour of an honourable peace, to be 
 established on the broad basis of reciprocal claims — and 
 concessions — of mutual demands — and compliances, 
 the present weak and palpably inefficient administration, 
 under the absolute control of the western interest (as 
 too plainly appears by all the recent appointments to 
 public service) will find means to protract the negocia- 
 tion, perhaps to defeat it altogedier; and then the bones 
 of thousands, and tens of thousands of our unfortu- 
 nate countrymen will bleach for ages upon the Plains 
 of Abraham, as do those of British grenadiers, and 
 Scotch highlanders, upon Braddock'' s field, the melan- 
 choly theatre of the early prowess of Washington, 
 THE WELL BELOVED. The pusillanimous and mista- 
 ken policy (if policy it be — and not rather a mere strug- 
 gle between the demagogues of democracy, self-styled 
 republicans, for the preservation of power, or the ac- 
 quisition of place) of a perpetual embargo, locking up 
 from the beneficial purposes of private industry the 
 hundred ports and harbours, with which Nature, that 
 benevolent parent has so liberally provided our exten- 
 sive coast— 7-w ill be continued — perhaps till it is indig- 
 nantly shaken off by the people themselves. 
 
 It is time for the President of these United States to 
 remember, that he is the elective magistrate of a free 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 and independent people; into the midst of whom he 
 must hope to return (if he should be favoured with 
 length of days) to spend the sober evening of life — 
 as a private citizen — witnessing the effects of his own 
 measures upon posterity — -whether they be good^ or 
 whether they be evil. How gladly would he then ex- 
 change the loudest plaudits of the interested sycophants 
 by whom he is now surrounded for the simple approba- 
 tion of his conscience and his country. 
 
 It is time for James Madison — the sleeping Sam- 
 son that should have judged the tribes of Israel — -from 
 Dan to Beersheba; instead of wasting his strength as in 
 the valley of So7'ek, to awake from the lap of his Deli- 
 lah; and, bursting asunder the inglorious bands, with 
 which he has been bound by uncircumcised Philistines^ 
 to prove to his country, and the world, that he is desi- 
 rous of the peace of America, by candidly acceding to 
 the proposed accommodation. 
 
 Our worthy ancestors, from Maine to Georgia, 
 called England their " Mother Country," — she was so 
 denominated by Benjamin Franklin, George 
 Washington, Robert Morris, Henry Laurens, 
 and their contemporaries, and coadjutors — men, 
 
 " — — with whom compar'd, our insect tribes 
 Are but the beings of a summer's day.— — 
 They held the scale of empire, rul'd the storm 
 Of mighty war; then, with unwearied hand, 
 Disdaining little delicacies, seiz'd 
 The plough, and greatly independent liv'd." 
 
 England was indeed literally the Mother country of 
 those great and good men, or their progenitors—the 
 pride and boast of America: yet is it time, I agree, for 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 us their descendants, and successors, to dis(;;laim th^ 
 Provincial phraseology. 
 
 The United States of America no longer stand 
 in the relation to Britain, of parent and child; the two 
 nations are now twin brothers, from the same 
 PARENT stock; and a noble stem it is, on which to 
 hang the pageants of honourable ancestry. We are 
 equally descended from the Drakes and the Ra- 
 LEiGHS, the LocKES and the Penns; and the dear- 
 bought reputation of Hull and Decatur, of Bain- 
 bridge and Perry, entitle us to the proud claims of 
 equal rights and equal honours^ with that haughty na- 
 tion, which had so long wielded the trident of Neptune, 
 and held herself, without a rival, in the empire of the 
 sea. Neither America nor Britain have any thing to 
 gain by the present truly unprofitable contest; and it 
 may be predicted, without pretending to the gift of 
 prophecy, that in any future war, which may unhap- 
 pily take place between the two countries — the dream 
 of glory may be adjudged to either: hut the interpreta- 
 tion of it xvillbe — to the enemies of both. 
 
R» - 1 e. 6. 
 
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