lic affairs as in private life. Both motives are equally contemptible; but the latter is the more pernicious, and produces the most ruinous consequences. It starves and smothers public undertakings, and public spirit; and often defrauds illustrious men of their due rewards. It is the characteristic vice of our times, and of our nation, and ought to be hunted down by every man who has a real regard for the honor or interest of his country. To this vile spirit we must ascribe the never-enough-to-be despised debate, whether Eaton, the glorious and immortal hero of Derne,* should be rewarded with a sword or a medal! a debate which brought down on the congress in which it took place, the contempt of every magnanimous and liberal man in the nation; a debate which would have disgraced the common council of the most petty borough in the union. To this spirit it is due, that votes of thanks, and swords, and urns, and other cheap modes of displaying our gratitude, have tranquilized our minds, and deceived us into the opinion, that we have paid the boundless debt due to the Hulls, the Bainbridges, the Decaturs, the Perrys, the Porters, the Macdonoughs, the Joneses, the Ripleys, the Browns, the Scotts, the Coffees, the Carrolls, the Macombs, the Jacksons, and the other heroes whose glory will live as long as public spirit, consummate talents, and bravery command the veneration of mankind.

The modest, the unassuming, the youthful Perry, rescued a whole frontier, men, women, and children, from the murderous tomahawk. Macdonough certainly rescued another, and prevented the enemy from establishing his winter quarters far within our territory. And Jackson has achieved for himself and his country immortal honour, by an exploit certainly never exceeded, perhaps never equalled. He preserved one of the most important keys and emporiums of the country, from the power of the enemy, by the most consummate prudence, talents, and bravery. The interest of the property he saved

Perhaps my estimate of this exploit may be erroneous. I cannot but regard it as one of the most illustrious events in American military affairs by land-when all the circumstances of the case are taken into view. I never refleet without amazement and admiration on the heroism of the gallant hand, who, under this intrepid chief, pierced through the frightful desart, and shook a powerful usurper's throne to the centre. I have always deplored the inauspicious interference that dashed the glorious prize to the earth just as Eaton had stretched out his hand and was ready to seize it without the smallest dander of an unfavourable result. The state of Massachusetts acquired a high degree of honour by its liberality to the warrior of Derne, on whom it bestowed 10,000 acres of land as a mark of its esteem and admiration. This act of generosity, by the contrast, made the miserable conduct of Congress appear worthy of additional contempt.

E

from depredation, is probably above $750,000 per annum. Yet I doubt whether there is gratitude enough in our public bodies, who hold the purse strings of the nation, or in the individuals whose property has been preserved, to make him any adequate return. I hope and pray I may be deceived. I deprecate being correct in this calculation.

fearful misgivings on the subject.

But I have

To enable us to form an estimate of the immense debt we owe our illustrious heroes, it is only necessary to call to recollection, the prostration of the public mind, and the degradation of the national character in the early part of the war, when our operations on land were one continued stream" of disgraces and disasters; and when but for the exploits of Hull and a few others on the ocean, the name of an American would have been a passport to shame and disgrace. The national character was supported throughout the war by our little navy, whose exploits may challenge comparison with any of the most signal acts of heroism recorded in history. And on land it was, towards the close nobly retrieved by the heroes whose names I have given, and others who will grace their country's annals. And is it possible that congress will be base enough not to give some substantial proof of the nation's gratitude for benefits so far beyond all price!

In no instance, hitherto, have congress or the people of the United States discharged their duty in this respect, or displayed a suitable degree of gratitude. Of votes of thanks they have been abundantly liberal. These cost nothing. A few swords and medals too have been awarded. But of all the benefactors of their country-those men who have preserved it from the bottomless abysses of disgrace and dishonour into which it was precipitously falling who have given it a rank among the nations of the earth, I believe there is not one on whom the nation has bestowed a reward worthy of him or it. Who was he that said, "the sin of ingratitude is worse than witchcraft?" Whoever he was, honoured be his name.

The debt due to the illustrious men with whose names I have honoured my page, and others, who have trod the same path of glory, can hardly ever be discharged, even on the ground of mere calculation of benefit to the nation, exclusive of the elevation of its character.

If England, whom in this respect we ought to aspire to emulate, gave 500,000l. sterling to her Wellingtons and Nelsons, let the United States give some solid and substantial proof of their gratitude, to their illustrious heroes. I need not add, that I do not calculate upon such very extravagant

rewards as the British parliament voted "the great lord,” as he has been styled. But the gift ought to be worthy of the donor and acceptor; ought to operate as a reward to the mer. itorious, and a stimulus to excite others to emulation.

This is in some degree a digression. Ings of my readers will be sufficiently in sentiments, not to require any apology. none. I return to the navy.

But I hope the feel unison with these 1 therefore make

I feel confident, that the nation has lost one hundred times as much through the want of a small navy, as it would have cost. Numbers of instances have occurred, of valuable merchantmen having been captured by petty pickaroons or pirates, with one or two guns. Our ports have been insulted and out. raged, and the ships and cargoes of our merchants been plundered by privateers and sloops of war, which a few armed vessels would have forced to keep a respectful distance. There is none of the points on which the two hostile parties have differed, wherein the democrats have been so very far below their adversaries in consulting the real, the permanent honour and interest of the country, as in the establishment of a naval force. The policy of the federalists in this respect was dignified and honourable; that of the democrats miserably contracted.

Alien and Sedition Lans, and Eight per cent. Loans.

THE factious clamour excited against the sedition and al ien laws, and against the eight per cent. loan-which clamour was the principal means of changing the administration, and taking it from the hands of the federalists, to place it in those of the democrats-may be justly reckoned among the sins of the latter party. A candid review of the so-styled sedition law, at the present hour, when the public ferment to which it gave rise has wholly subsided, will satisfy any reasonable man, that so far from being an outrageous infringement of liberty, as was asserted, it was a measure not merely defensible; but absolutely necessary and indispensible towards the gupport of government.* To enable the reader to judge for himself, without the trouble of referring to a volume of the laws, 1 annex the document itself.

It is but justice to avow that the writer of this book was as ardent in his opposition to, aud as much alarmed at the probable consequences of the alien and sedition laws, as any man in the community. As it requires an extraordi nary degree of corporeal sanity to resist the effects of a violent epidemical disorder, so it requires great strength of mind to keep out of the vortex of fac tious contagion, when prevalent with those whose opinions are generally congenial with our own. Of this strength of mind the writer was destitute in conr mon with a large portion of his fellow citizens,

"Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States, which are or shall be directed by proper authority, or to impede the operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate or prevent any person holding a place or office in or under the government of the United States, from undertaking, performing, or executing his trust, or duty; and if any person, or persons, with intent as aforesaid, shall Counsel, advise or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly, or combination, whether such conspiracy, threatening, counsel, advice or attempt shall have the proposed effect or not, he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and on conviction, before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment during a term uot less than six months, nor exceeding five years; and further, at the discretion of the court, may be holden to find suretics for his or their good behaviour in such sum, and for such time, as the said court may direct.

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing my false, scandalous and malicous writing or writings against the goverament of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the Congress, or the said President, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States; or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the president of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States; or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act; or to aid, encourage, ar abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation again the United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.

"Sec. 3. And be it further enacted and declared, That if any person shall be prosecuted under this act, for writing or publishing any libel as aforesaid,

it shall be lawful for the defendant, upon the trial of the cause, to give in evidence, in his defence, the truth of the matter contained in the publication charged as a libel. And the jury who shall try the cause, shall have a right to determine the law and the fact, under the direction of the court, as in other

cases.

"Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That this act shall continue and be in force until the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and one, and no longer: Provided, that the expiration of the act shall not prevent or defeat a prosecution and punishment of any offence against the law, during the time it shall be in force."

July, 1798.

The fate of this law holds out an all-important lesson on faction and party spirit. Laudable and necessary as it was, and guarded, as far as a law can be guarded, against abuse, the opposition to it was as violent, and it excited as much horror and indignation, as if it had wholly destroyed the liberty of the press, and "left not a trace behind." And in this senseless and disgraceful clamour, were engaged vast numbers

of the best and most intelligent members of the community. The Alien and Sedition Laws were made the subject of an elegant, but violent and inflammatory report, agreed to by the legislature of Virginia, as respectable and enlightened a deliberative body as any in the United States, or perhaps in the world. But they were bitten by the mad dog of faction in common with so large a portion of their fellow-citizens, and were seized with the prevalent disorder. They regarded the two obnoxious laws as inroads upon public liberty, which required to be repelled with the utmost firmness.

It would be uncandid not to state, that the trials under this act, for libels against the president, and, as far as my recollection serves me, against some of the other public functionaries, were managed with very considerable rigour; and, from the abuse of the law, tended to give an appearance of propriety and justice to the clamour against it. The case of Thomas Cooper and Matthew Lyon, Esqrs. who were both treatedwith remarkable severity, excited a high degree of sympathy. in the public mind. I have strong doubts, whether, under all the circumstances, a jury could be found in London to pronounce a verdict of" guilty" against either of them. Of the two cases, it may be justly said summum jus, summa injuria. But the censure did not attach to the law. It lay at the door of the juries.

I have little to offer respecting the alien law. It was undoubtedly liable to strong objections. It invested the president with powers liable to great abuse. But it certainly never warranted the awful outcry that was raised against it. To enable the reader, however, to form his own opinion—and, if mine be erroneous, to reject it altogether, I annex the most obnoxious clause of the act.

"Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the. United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, at any time during the continuance of this act, to order all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States, or shall have reasonable grounds to suspect are concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations against the government thereof, to depart out of the territory of the United States, within such time as shall be expressed in such order; which order shall be served on such alien by deliv ering him a copy thereof, or leaving the same at his usual abode, and return ed to the office of the secretary of state, by the marshall or other person to whom the same shall be directed. And in case any alien so ordered to depart, shall be found at large within the United States after the time limited in such order for his departure, and not having obtained a license from the president to reside therein, or having obtained such license shall not have conformed thereto, every such alien shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years, and shall never after be admitted to become a citi zen of the U. States. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That if any alien so ordered to depart, shall prove to the satisfaction of the president, by

*