Virginia Argus

FROM THE AURORA.

THE MURDER OF PIERCE.

We have copied from the papers of London, both ministerial and anti-ministerial—whigs and tories—Foxites and Pittites—their several observations and notions on the cruel outrage perpetrated by Whitby in the royal English ship Leopard. The American public may judge of the dispositions of the English government, and of the parties in and out of power, by these publications, and they will, it is painful but necessary to say, find nothing in them which bears the least token of respect for our independence or the love of justice itself: those papers lament for their own sakes that we should be incensed, but there is not a single sentiment uttered which carries the idea of justice towards the U. S. or of indignation for the injury—the insult and the murder.

That truth, so much insisted on by the enemies of reform, and so much apprehended by all who thrive upon the misfortunes and wrongs of society, that truth so constantly regarded by moralists in guarding against the approaches of vice—that the commission of one innovation is only the excuse or the temptation to the commission of another—this truth has never been more fully exemplified, than in the progression of the British government in the commission of crimes and outrages against other nations. Every year from the commencement of the French revolution, to the present day, the disregard of the law of nations—the rights of neutrals, and even of justice, national honor and good faith, has been more conspicuous and intolerable.

That our readers may at one view be satisfied on the extremes to which the outrages and disregard of universal law and justice, the government of England has proceeded, we shall not go back to the well known menaces of the English government against Genoa, Florence and Switzerland, to drive them from their neutrality: nor to the corruption practised by her ambassadors and consuls here, in order to drag the nation into war.

We shall take two facts—and the murder of Pierce shall be one of them; the other shall be a case of murder in the same way, but under circumstances even less heinous and atrocious—which occurred during our own revolution.

In the New Annual Register, for 1781 page 91—under the head "principal occurrences," will be found the following article:

"Nov. 19—On Saturday last, William Townshend, late lieutenant of the Rover privateer of Bristol, was executed at Execution Dock, for the wilful murder of captain Giralmo Silveatni, of the Victoria a Venetian ship, by ordering a gun to be fired into the vessel which killed the captain. He acknowledged the gun to have been fired by his order, but without the least intention to kill any body. He behaved with great penitence."

This is the case which we oppose to that of Pierce—the circumstances of his murder, need not be recapitulated—it is known to the nation: and national character, honor, and independence, call for equal and exact justice.

Look at the mode in which the murder of Pierce is treated in the English prints—it is called "an affair that happened"—and the expressions of national indignation, are called—“the fervor of faction which will soon subside”—it is compared to "the popular fury of Marat and his associates in Paris when the revolutionary frenzy was high".

But let the American reader look back to the case we have just stated of the murder of the Venetian mariner in the same way—and compare the cases.

In the case of the Venetian, the vessel carried a neutral flag.

In the case of the American, the vessel carried a neutral flag.

The Venetian was on the high seas.

The American, was within the jurisdiction of the United States, in our own waters, and within a few yards of our own shores.

The murderer of the Venetian had a royal commission, or letter of marque.

The murderer of the American had a royal commission in a royal ship of the royal navy of England.

In the case of the Venetian, we find no account of any other than the one fatal shot.

In the case of the murdered American we find that there were several shots.

The Venetian is not said to have attended to any signal.

The American had actually come to and was waiting to hear what the English ship wished to say, when she was fired into and the captain's brother at the helm, killed—wantonly fired at and murdered.

If the English press has become as debased as its government has increased in shameless disregard of the law of nations—it must be confessed, that the manner in which the papers of the United States, which are usually considered as in the pay of the English consuls and agents—the scandalous manner in which those papers treat our national government, as does the English printers too deplorable an example—on that melancholy occasion when all the nation without discrimination of party, felt the outrage of humanity to national dignity, and to our insulted independence, the English prints gave an example of scandalously levity; and sarcasm was indulged by an English print at N. York, which they have copied and too closely imitated when our own prints indulge in contempt of our country—our execration of foreign hostility and contumely indeed abates; but we cannot avoid indulging in the expression of our abhorrence and detestation of the cold blooded baseness that sports with the character of our country, the honor of a free press, and even with the sorrows of the afflicted relatives of the murdered citizens, and makes American independence the scoff of domestic wretches and foreign enemies.

It remains to be seen whether America is as much respected as an independent nation now—as France was in 1781—time must unfold this truth—and as we shall look to the issue, we shall not fail to notice and to bring it before the American people.