(3) PRINCIPAL OCCURRENCES In the Year 1808. December 10, 1807. MR. JEFFERSON'S ADDRESS To the hon. P. C. Lane, speaker of the senate, and T. Sanders, speaker of the house of repre sentatives. To the general assembly of Pennsylvania. RECEIVED in due season the address of the general assembly of Pennsylvania, under cover from the speaker of the two houses, in which, with their approbation of the general course of my administration, they were so good as to express their desire that I should consent to be proposed again to the public voice, on the expiration of my present term of office. Entertaining as I do, for the general assembly of Pennsylvania, those sentiments of high respect which would have prompted an immediate answer, I was certain, nevertheless, they would approve a delay which had for its object to avoid a premature agitation of the public mind, on a subject so interesting as the election of the chief magistrate. That I should lay down my charge, at a proper period, is as 1808. much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some termination to the service of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally for years, will, in fact, become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance. government, responsible at short periods of elections, is that which produces the greatest sum of happiness to mankind, I feel it a duty to do no act which shall essentially impair that principle; and I should unwillingly be the person, who, regarding the sound precedent set by an illustrious predecessor, should furnish the first example of prolonging beyond the second term of office. Truth also requires me to add, that I am sensible of that decline which declining years bring on: and, feeling their physical, I ought not to doubt their mental effect; happy, if I am the first to perceive and to obey this admonition of human nature, and to solicit a retreat from cares too great for the wearied faculties of age. For the approbation which the (A 2) general general assembly of Pennsylvania has been pleased to express of the principles and measures pursued in the management of their affairs, I am sincerely thankful; and should I be so foriginate as to prry into retirement the equal approbation and good will of my fellow citizens generally, it will be the comfort of my future days, and will close a service of forty years with the only reward it eyer wished. T. JEFFERSON. DREADFUL SHIPWRECK. Captain Rüssel, arrived at Salem on the 13th Nov, from Petersburgh, communicates the following distressing account of the loss of the English transport Alexander: Oct. 20, lat. 47, long. 51, W. fell in with a boat having on board 21 living persons, among whom were a woman and child in a most dreadful situation. They sailed from Monte Video on the 9th of August, in the Alexander, capt. Howard, an English transport ship, No. 421. They had sailed under convoy of the Unicorn and Thetis. There were about 110 persons on board the Alexander; on the 20th Oct., the ship being in a very leaky condition, they were under the necessity of carrying short sail, by which means they lost the convoy; and on the 22d the leak so increased, that with both pumps going, and bailing at the hatchways, they could not keep her free. The captain took a small boat for his preservation, and rowed round the ship several times. Meantime the long-boat was got ready and hoisted out, but unfortunately bilged in going over the ship's side. Thirteen sailors, fifteen soldiers, one woman and a child, however, kept in the boat, and found means to keep her from sinking. They had not got far off, when the ship seemingly blew up, and foundered immediately. They afterwards spoke with the captain in the small boat, who told them to steer N. E. and N. E. by N. as that course would carry them near the coast of England, from which he said they were but a short distance. They had only four biscuits in the boat, three gallons of spirits, and one pound of raisins. They had been in the boat six days, during which seven soldiers died for want (two of whom lay dead in the boat when she came alongside). They had cut one man up, and eaten part of his flesh; some remained in the boat when they saw the ship, but, on seeing her, they threw it over board. Capt. R. and the captian of another American ship took the remaining sufferers on board, and carried them to Salem. The Jamaica papers contain eigh resolutions, which had been brought up from a committee appointed to inquire into the effects of abolishing the slave trade, and which re solutions were read and unanimously agreed to by a committee of the whole house of assembly, on the 29th of October last. The gentlemen of the house of assembly express their feelings very warmly both on the subject immediately under discussion, and also on a variety of others which are connect ed with the state of the island. The first resolution states generally "That the act of the imperial par liament for abolishing the slave trade is pregnant with evils to th island, militating not only agains its general welfare and interest, but threatening its total destruction a a British West India colony." After explaining the evils which are likely to result to the colon from from the abolition act, the resolution diverges into a variety of other topics illustrative of the causes of the present distressed state of the British planters, such as the relaxation of the navigation act, as far as it imposes restrictions upon neutral powers, and the rigorous enforce ment of it in relation to our own subjects; the consumption of a foreign brandy in the navy, and otherwise; the continuing a high duty upon coffee, &c. The resoIntion concludes with a recommendation of the committee, adopted by the house, to appoint another committee "to prepare a most humble address to his majesty, setting forth our grievances and oppressions, earnestly beseeching his majesty's commands on his ministers to adopt proper measures for our relief and redress." The second resolution states the abolition of the slave-trade to be "not only a breach on the part of government of the conditions under which his majesty's subjects embarked in the settlement of this island, but a novel, unjust, and unconstitutional interference with its internal government and affairs; calculated to defeat and subvert our laws, to deprive us of our dearest birth-rights, the trial by jury, to raise envy and jealousy in the breasts of the settled negroes; subversive of an antient and admitted principle of the British constitution, that no laws can be bindng on those who are not represented in the parliament which enacts them placing not only our rights and properties, but also our lives, in the most imminent danger, and ending to promote disaffection in the minds of his majesty's most loyal subjects." The third resolution claims for tight of legislating for the island; and declares, "that it is their duty, by all constitutional means, to resist any attempt that may be made to destroy or abridge that right." The 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th resolutions contain a threat, that all supplies afforded to his majesty's troops, for the building of barracks and other military purposes, will and must be suspended from and after the 31st of December, 1808: till which time funds are appropriated for that purpose. The 8th and last resolution sums up the whole of their grievances; and demands, "above all, an abandonment by the imperial parliament of every pretension to an interference with their internal government or affairs." The republic of America is beginning to be emulous of the arts. Capital casts from all the noblest statues of antiquity in Paris, and they are almost all in the world, have reached New York and Philadelphia, for the rival academies of painting just established in those aspiring cities. To such enthusiastic rivalry among cities, Greece was indebted for half its renown. Next May an exhibition of paintings will be opened in a grand rotunda in Philadelphia, which will boast of having the Lear and the Ophelia of the president of the royal academy in London. Though America has not yet nurtured, she has given birth to several distinguished artists; and among others, to the president West, to Trumbul, and Copley. From authentic documents it appears, that in a period of twenty years the population has increased nearly three millions! The dwell. ing houses have increased in the same period from €40,000 to (A 3) 1,225,000! |