to the use of arms, from whom the riflemen and sharp shooters that have become the most efficacious divisions of the armies of Europe, learned their manual, can never be totally unprepared for war.

ment, urbanity and unexceptionable conduct in society. There is no body of men so well deserving to be entitled the flower of the country. But the affair of the Chesapeake has drenched their laurels with more ignominy than all the waters of the Chesapeake can wash out: not only those implicated in that indelibly shameful transaction-but every officer in the navy-nay, every individual in the nation-and above all, the nation itself, still smarting unrevenged under such an infliction. Blood, blood alone can wash out that stain. An occasion, presenting itself, as if on purpose, to signalize their courage and capacity, which might have been the means of wiping off, in one memorable hour, all the aspersions flung from all quarters on the national reputation, and of stamping their name in the foremost file of courageous people, was suffered to sound the tocsin of their disgrace, carrying through all regions the lugubrious reverberations of their cowardice and incapacity.

If it were for no other purpose than to contradict and repel the foul consequences all the world must infer from this unspeakably infamous discomfiture, the American nation should apply all their zeal and efforts to the immense resources they enjoy for creating a respectable, a formidable navy-not such a navy as might alarm the jealous dominion of other powers-a navy of ships of the line-but such a navy as might serve to convoy and protect their universal commerce, preventing those infinite petty impositions and larcenies, that are perpetual provocations, without even being sufficient motives to war, as would render it always unnecessary to arm their merchant ships, thus putting arms into the hands of the inexperienced, rash and interested, as might at a moment's warning be ready to sweep the commerce of their enemies from every sea, as would serve to guard their coasts

Difficulties and enthusiasm have already made officers in America, and may again; and officers can make soldiers.

Like the vast wastes that were kept as a frontier by the ancient Gauls, the Atlantic ocean forms a perpetual natural protection of America from the in

from daily insult and aggression, and their national character from habitual degradation-a navy of numerous, swift sailing, well appointed frigates.

If the expense of such an armament be objected to, I would ask what can be too expensive for the immense resources of this country, hitherto not half developed, and husbanded with miserlike timidity? If the risk of war, what is the end of deferring, of buying off, of bartering honour, right, property, every thing for procrastination and reprieve? War must come with power-and destruction must follow, unless some preparation be on foot for the exigency.

While the rage of innovation lasts, this visionary self-abandonment may endure. But whenever the policy of the country shall be settled, a navy must enter into, and constitute a principal part of that policy. It is indispensable. The power, the resources, the sources of subsistence, the honour, the character, the national existence of the American nation call aloud for this safeguard.

A navy of frigates would have effectually enforced the embargo: nor can the ordinary revenue laws of the United States be sustained without one. When, if ever, peace shall return in Europe, the ocean will swarm with pirates-in fact it does now-with little cockboat marauders-but at the return of peace, bucanie rs and Blackbeards will infest every ocean and ransack every sail. No commerce will be safe without a navy to protect it: and the Americans must submit to be robbed and plundered, burned, sunk and destroyed in every latitude, or to be convoyed by the English, or some other friendly power, which will excite more jealousies, and prove in the end more expensive, than a navy of their own.

vasions of Europe; a barrier sufficient in itself at present, while the only power that could become an invader is unable to keep the sea, which is ruled by a power unable to invade. At no distant day the stationary strength of Europe may be counterpoised by the increased strength of America; and the current of irruption, which for so many thousand years has proceeded from east to west, having reached the limits of its action, may recoil, and trace back its steps from the populous and mighty west to the reduced and prostrate east.

From commercial depredations the United States may not, for some years, be exempt. But their present ability is more than a match for any force that can be sent over sea for their invasion. In both ancient and modern times, large military expeditions, which depended on naval coöperation, have almost always been unsuccessful. As they exhaust the nation that assembles them, it is impossible to repair disasters by fresh succour. If any one part be lost or destroyed, the others being more or less dependent upon each other, cannot act thus mutilated. The unavoidable slowness of such enterprises gives an opportunity for preparation to the other party. And tempests of the sea are perils of daily occurrence and insurmountable difficulty. Admitting, however, that by an uncommon coincidence of fortunate accidents, an invasion were effected, and that all North America might be overrun by an experienced, well appointed army, it would nevertheless be impossible to overcome the inhabitants, or reconcile them to a yoke. The means of escape, of subsistence, and of sove

reignty, are without bounds, and no force or privation that an enemy could apply, would force a submission. War might ravage their fields, conflagrate their villages, sack their towns, and slaughter a part of their population; but those who remained would avoid subjugation by dispersion, or retirement to the seat of some new empire.

Thus at considerable length, and I fear little to your satisfaction, have I attempted to communicate those ideas of the American people, which have been formed from long acquaintance and deliberate examination. You may think my retrospect has too much the appearance of apology or panegyric. Into what errors I may have been betrayed by a partiality, which I am proud to acknowledge, I cannot determine; though a strict regard to the unexaggerated truth has guided my pen. Probably they are not the fewer from a feeling, which all along accompanied me, that I was repelling prejudices, the demolition of which was to be the first step toward my object. An affectation of contempt for America, is one of the only prejudices in which all the nations of Europe seem to concur. The soil, climate, productions, and creatures of this enviable country have been stigmatized as altogether inferior to those of Europe. And the gravest philosophers of the old world have led the way in these ignorant, absurd prejudices, against the

new.

The soil has been represented as parsimonious and abortive; the climate as froward and pernicious; the creatures as stunted, stupid, and debased below their species; the manners, principles, and government, as suited to this universal depravity. These

absurdities appeared engraved with the stamp of knowledge and authority; their circulation was general and accredited; and it is amazing how current they continue to this day, notwithstanding the proofs that have successively adduced themselves of their falsification and baseness. But it is time such opinions were called in, and a new seignorage issued, less alloyed with prejudice; that Europe may be undeceived respecting a people, in many respects the first, and in none the lowest on the scale of nations.