VOL. II. NEW-YORK, SATURDAY OCTOBER 1, 1814. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED, EVERY SATURDAY, AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM. No. 20. COMe the congress; and being so, it seemed almost inevitable that he should give them an accurate account of the condition of our financial concerns. The "wants of the treasury" had been one of THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. By the the causes of this early call of congress; Consitiation of the United States, it is or-and some history, concise, if it had pleasdained, that "the president shall from time ed him so to make it, but some history of the to lives, gids to congress information of the affairs, some description of the condition te of the union, and recommend to their of" the treasury;" its most prominent consideration such measures, as he shall wants," and the causes of them, and the judge necessary and expedient? ART. II. remedy for them, it was certainly not Sacr. 3. In more familiar phraseology, unreasonable to expect for it is his he "SHALL" make congress acquainted duty" to " inform" and "reconumend” with the exact condition of the nation's In time of war, the finances are of priaffairs; and, having done so, shall recom-mary concern. They have been called end to them such measures as he thinks emphatically, "the sinews of war." The they ought to pursue, in relation thereto. president proceeds upon this doctrine; How well, how wisely, how faithfully this declares that he had called congress toduty has been performed in the presi-gether (early as the day fixed by law was,) dent's message, it is proposed now to ex- "still sooner,” onaccount of the "wants amine. The cxamination may be tedi- of the treasury." Of course these "wanis" ous; but this man's presidency, and the were extraordinary, because, the call to sufferings of the country, are so intimate- provide for them was so. If to give a ty, so inseparably connected, as to render clear view of the condition of the treasury, it a sacred duty to expose all his errors, to those who are entrusted with the purse If it were possible. strings of the nation, be, in ordinary times, a duty, how imperiously so is it, in our present awful condition, And, if Mr. The message begins by informing congress, that they were called together thus early, for two reasons. Prosident, had been merely consistent First. As well that any inadequacy with himself, a foible, by the bye, which In the existing provisions for the wants of he very seldom gives into, how indispenthe treasury might be supplied, as," sible was it to do so when he had con Secondly. "That no delay might hap-vened congress for the purpose of acting pen in providing for the result of the ne- upon this identical matter, which so engociations on foot with Great-Britain, tirely forbade delay, as to render their whether it should require arrangements convening thus early, necessary. adapted to a return of peace, or further Mr. President, however, instead of and more effective provisions for prose-proceeding plainly and intelligibly in cuting the war." this work, leaves us in doubt, whether the Those then are the "high and weighty treasury has any wants at all. An old matters," which, in the language of the fashioned plain dealing honest man would last proclamation but one, induced him to have said, "I was induced to call you together stil! sooner, because of the inade- to give to congress, has given, upon a quacy of the existing provisions."-No; subject of vital interest, the particulars he would not have expressed himself in nevertheless "familiar as his garter," this round about and confused jargon-he to him. would have said, "because the taxes Having adverted in the way he chose heretofore laid have been found insuffi- to adopt, to the wants of the treasury, it cient, and, because fifteen million of the was as natural, as it was required by the loan of 25,000 authorized at your last ses-rules both of good reasoning and good sion, has not been taken up." He would writing, to dispose of that topie, and all then have stated, that the banks had its incidents, first. But instead of that, been compelled to discontinue payments Mr. President, most ceremoniously in specie, by which means, had been pro-abandons the first head of his discourse, duced a destruction of private credit, and and takes up the last. The reason is oban alarming deminution of the circulating vious enough. He hates to talk of the medium. That in this awful condition of money concerns of the country, as depublic and private credit, the greatest cidedly as a dog in the hydrophobia hates wisdom and firmness of the public bodies the sight of water-and well he may. was required. And then, taking upon The man whose system (if system it may himself, not merely responsibility, but be called,) of government has ruined performing his sworn constitutional duty, almost all the men who formerly had he would have proceeded to "recommend to their consideration, such measures as he judged necessary and expedient,” to restore the public credit, and to reinvigorate the finances. Mr. Madison's pen, is not so clumsy, but that he could have expressed these plain facts, plainly enough. He did not lack perspicuity, when he told Mr. John Randolph "France wants money, and must have it." ney. that money, and whose plan of finance has prostrated the national credit; well may that guilty man writhe in convulsions, when he "touches the chord en which hang all our sorrows.” After wandering away and about, after capering through fifteen paragraphs, and telling congress twenty thousand things, of no sort of consequence, as we shall see in due time, to be told to them, or any body else, he returns, for return he must, to this same subject of money, in the seventeenth paragraph; and a precious paragraph it is: Instead of pursuing the plain matter of fact in the course above pointed out; instead of giving a little information, when there was so much to be given, and that of so awful a character, what has Mr. President done? he has not even informed ry congress that the treasury did want mo“I was induced to call you together, any inadeg quacy in the existing provisions for the wants of the treasury, might be supplied." If you, gentlemen, should find any inadequacy, it is well and good; I have none to tell you of; and, if finding any, you should know how to supply it, it is still better: for my part, I wash my hands of it. Such is the information, such the recommendation which a president-present year, already authorized by consworn-aye-“ an oath in heaven!" gress, and the expenses incident to an The moneys received into the treasu during the nine months ending on the thirteenth day of June last amountvâ to thirty-two millions of dollars, of which near eleven millions were the proceeds of the public revenue, and the remainder derived from loans. The disbursements for public expenditures during the same period exceeded thirty-four millions of dollars, and left in the treasury, on the first day of July, near five millions of dollars. The demands during the remainder of the extension of the operations of the war, incurred before July last. And yet, alwill render it necessary that large sums though he seems to say that, in fact he should be provided to meet them." does not say it; although he produces the Have you perused it, reader? then to impression, the wizard only "palters with gratify me, who labour so much to gratify us in a double sense." The "demands” duyou, peruse it again. Thank you, sir. ring the remainder of the year," are a And is not this information?" joyful in-very different thing from the expenses du formation? before we read this information, [ring the remainder of it. The truth is, we thought there was an "inadequacy" in that in July, and long before, there were the treasury. But, Lord, there is no such demands against government for millions thing. and millions of dollars, not only unpaid, On the first of July, there remained but the very accounts, according to Ge in the treasury, near five millions of dol-neral Armstrong, "unlooked at." These lars! then congress will not have to things are pitiful; they would disgrace the provide for " any inadequacy?" for why meanest accountant. Eut when the chief is the eircumstance of this balance re- magistrate can stoop to an artifice so conmaining in the treasury, mentioned, to temptible, can employ his talents in what end-but to show that our fiscal weaving so thin a veil as this, in the hope concerns are in a prosperous way? what to cover the nakedness of the treasury can it signify, to tell us what was in the with it; when in deception and quibbling treasury on the first of July, if there be and equivocation consist the financial nothing in it now? ability of an executive, that must either Mr. President having shown how much carry us through the tempests of war, or money he had in hand once, proceeds to leave us to sink under them, how can his inform congress, in the very next sen-subjects hope for ultimate security and retence, that "the demands during the re-pose? it is no wonder, that under such mainder of the year will render it ne-management, our pecuniary affairs dare cessary that large sums should be pro-not be spoken of and described truly and vided to meet them." Logically, it is a plainly as they are. And most clearly, strange, a most "lame and impotent con- they are not described as they are. Inclusion." In July I had five millions of deed they are not described at all. Does dollars, and therefore in September, the this message enable congress to underdemands for the remainder of the verstand the state of the treasury a whit betwill render farge sums necessary! Now, ter than if the paragraph, last quoted, had it will strike every fair and honest man been entirely omitted? How much there that Me. Procidont would have told a much was in it, in July, is made out accurately plainer and straighter story, if instead enough. But to prove that large sums are of boasting about treasures already and now necessary, no data whatever are entirely exhausted, he had said, there have given. Congress have nothing but the been paid into the treasury so many mil-president's mere say so. The assertion of lions; there has been paid out of it all we the necessity is made, but no information had; and a great deal more is wanted to is given to prove it true. How he came by carry on our operations, not only during the money he had in July, is satisfactorily the year, but during the war. But the made out, but why he is entitled to the want of logic is not the worst feature here. large sums he wants, is not attempted to The equivocal turn of expression adopted, be told. When in the assertion that Mr. would lead most readers to suppose that President "wants money and must have every expense had been paid off, that was it," shall consist the information which is mentioned in his arrangement with Mr. Ers-mass of moneyed men in the opposite party. kine. They felt the more confident in this These lent a little at first, but found out very particular, because, at the time the war was soon how unsafe it was; and then while they declared, the practice of impressing had almost scolded federalists for not lending their money ceased; and many of our seamen had been to an administration they despised, and in discharged since Mr. Erskine's arrangement; support of a war they detested, they very so that this evil, if it had not entirely ceased, cunningly left these same federalists to lend was by no means so great in 1812, as it had theirs. And thus it was that this war of inbeen before 1809. They felt still more con-vasion received a support, which enabled it fident that the repeal of the orders in council to limp along, for awhile; the public credit. would give us peace, and that the question of being undermined by the very support it reimpressments, unembarrassed by any others, ceived from those, who now cannot dispose of could present no obstacle to reconciliation, their stock at seventy per cent! and rightly because, in addition to the inconsistency of served they are. resting the justification of the war on that From the period that Mr. Madison, and the ground, it was plain, that on that ground, it people, and the congress resolved to persevere, could not be justified for the British go- in this accursed war, although the road to vernment had entered into an arrangement on peace was as plain as a turnpike, from this this subject, with Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney, period the great body of federal statesmen, who had officially declared it satisfactory, and and patriots, folded up their arms, to witness honourable; and there seemed to be no the practical developement of those calamireason, why that, which had been done once, ties which were sure to follow. might not be done again. They flattered But, great as their apprehensions had been, themselves that they saw the dawn, and the calamities which have been crowded into hoped soon to behold their country prosper- the two years and three months of this uning again in the mild sunshine of peace. necessary war, far, very far exceeded them.. Even if Mr. Madison should be so depraved, They had feared and deplored only those evils so shamefully inconsistent, as not to make which are necessarily attendant on war: the peace under these circumstances, they felt waste of blood, the waste of money, the comconfident, that there was good sense enough mencement of an oppressive and never ending in the people to choose another person in his taxation; the corrupt and corrupting patroplace, who would. But in this too, (most un-nage of corrupt statesmen, the disregard of fortunately for this poor nation) they were civil rights, incident to military times, and disappointed. Their next hope was, that when the extension of immoral and dissolute habits, Mr. Madison asked congress for money, to These were the evils they had feared. Even carry on this unnecessary war, congress they had not taken into the account, that an would have the honesty and good sense and army sent into the field by a population of firmness, to ask him for peace; it being evi-EIGHT MILLIONS, were to be resisted, much dent, that he could then (Great Britain hav-less defeated, by the forces of two thinly poing trouble enough with Bonaparte,) make an pulated provinces. They had not taken into honourable and an advantageous peace, if he the account that Europe might redeem itself chose. But congress too was regardless of its from the tyrant, and thus leave Great-Britain duty. Alas! how should it have been other- to direct her whole force against the United wise, when the people themselves had been States. They had not taken into the acobstinately blind to truth, reason, and their count, that our war of invasion, might be manifest interests! and now, there remained turned into one of self defence; that our war but one poor and meagre hope. It was very for foreign conquest, might become one of certain, that very few democrats, would ex-self preservation. While they pitied the sufpose their lives, and venture their money, in ferings of our soldiers perishing in the frightthe care of their beloved leaders. The fe-ful climate of Canada, they had never dreamderalists were called upon, implored, to with-ed that they themselves, their sons and brohold theirs-but to no purpose. Even their thers, would ever find it necessary to abandon example however, did not mislead the great the repose and endearments of home, to eq. depends the prosperity, and perhaps, the independence of the only republic on earth. The same bohon upas, which has for two years and three months, scattered only poison and death throughout the whole circuit of its influence, will, and must, if it be left to stand for two years and six months more, complete the scene of American desolation and misery. counter ruthless invaders, in defence of their altars and firesides; and above all, most distant from their apprehension was it, that in two years after the nation had been employed in dashing out its brains against Upper Canada to no purpose, the financial concerns of the country would be so horribly mismanaged, that its money institutions would be violently broken up, the circulating medium destroyed, and the government compelled to If the people cannot be disenthralled from declare its own bankruptcy; while its favour- their confidence in those hot headed zealots, ites proclaim, that the only hope of extrica- whose frenzy, and those calculating knaves, tion rests upon an emission of paper, in other whose cunning misleads them, we are ruined. words, continental money, or, a yearly tax of If they cannot be convinced of the necessity thirty millions! had they foretold these of discharging idiocy from, and ushering wisevents; had their predictions been as full, as dom into, the national councils, then, as truly the incapacity of the administration has been as effects flow from their parent causes, just pernicious; had they when Porter spoke of so truly shall we continne to witness new evils the invasion of Canada as a war feast, and, of the same character with those we have when the madmen of the western states, pro-witnessed. Why not? how can it be othernised the conquest of Canada in six weeks; wise? we may occasionally, when public spihad they then foretold only the capitulation rit rallies voluntarily, at the approach of pubof Hull, the possession by the British, of the lic danger, show what a brave PEOPLE can do. Michigan territory, the shameful descent of But the administration is composed of men; Wilkinson, the ravages along the Niagara, and such men, as compose it, never improve, and the loss of our fort there; the occupation never alter. The people may boast of what of a part of Massachusetts, and the cowardly they have done at Plattsburgh; but such an abandonment, the conflagration of Washington, administration can show only the wisdom it they would have been hooted and hunted as evinced at Detroit. The people may glory in traitors to their country; their blood would their exploits at BALTIMORE; but such an have streamed in atonement for their treason.administration must continue to be content And now, the same infatuated populace, who with such achievements as it has accomplishwould have massacred the prophets of so ed at WASHINGTON. much evil, are to be permitted to go quietly Upon the first appearance of the late danon unwarned, to their ruin! and federalists gers, the federalists took up arms in common are found to advance the doctrine, that the with, and at the side of their democratic brenational safety requires that the obstinate thren, in defence of their country. And they persevering coptrivers of national ruin and did right; it was impossible that they should misery be suffered to proceed without a sin- do otherwise. They entered cheerfully upon gle word or marmur to interrupt them. Fe-the defence of the country and the republic. deralists, will show too much And now they hope they will no longer be party spirit" if they attempt to interrupt them. Not a called monarchists; for they have embodied word must be spoken, not a line printed. themselves, they have fought for the republic. Such is proposed to be the basis of this new, They hope they will no longer be called toand fantastical, and pernicious "union of ries; for they have pledged and ventured sentiment." But, by the blessing of God, it their lives for the country. They hope they shall not delude me. The truth shall be told. will no longer be called partisans of England; And as long as a sheet of paper can be found, for they have met the English as enemies, it shall be printed. Neither abuse, nor bravely, resolutely, enthusiastically. Aliens threats, nor suffering should deter the pro- in their native land, belied, insulted, persecuprietor of an independent press, from speak-ted, they have nevertheless come forth to ing truth, at any time; but most especially protect their country, in the first moment of at a time, when, ou the knowledge of truth, real necessity. And some have gone so far as |