Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

From the Newburyport Herald

THE CRISIS.
THE SALVATION OF OUR COUNTRY IN THE
HANDS OF THE PEOPLE.

A.

Extract of a letter from the Country.

"In answer to your question, What is the
duty of the northern and eastern states, at this
crisis? I would reply, let them be temperate
but firm, in the use of constituted means for
redeeming the country. That an entire
change of the men who direct the councils of
the U. States, is indispensible, is a position
that no rational man can deny. It is idle to
alledge that since we have engaged in war
we ought to prosecute it with unanimity and
spirit. Unanimity consists in an agreement
of minds; in harmony of opinions, and how
can unanimity exist in the midst of discord;
How can we prosecute a war with spirit, to
which they are utterly opposed? It is absurd.
It is impossible.

"I hold it to be certain that Europe can never be at peace, until Bonaparte sinks into the
grave or Gt. Britain ceases to interpose an obstacle to his boundless ambition. By uniting
with France against her enemy, we are in danger of a connection that will render it impossible for us to make peace, with his consent
--And is there a man in America, that would
pledge his country to continue the war during
the life of Bonaparte, or during the existence
of the power of Great Britain to resist him?
Where is the man whose mind does not recoil at the thought?

"That the chief officers of government must be changed before we can have a change
of measures, is undubitably certain. The present administration have committed themselves on certain points, not essential to the honor or safety of our country; and they cannot with
propriety recede from the ground they have
taken. It is in vain therefore that we expect
a peace; while this administration or one of
like character and principles shall hold the
reins of government.

"There is a plain rule by which to judge
of the merits of an administration.--That
administration which PRESERVES THE
PEACE, CHERISHES THE INDUSTRY
AND ADVANCES THE PROSPERITY
OF A COUNTRY is a good administration,
and deserving of public confidence.
That
administration which DRIES UP THE
SOURCES OF REVENUE, WEAKENS
THE POWER, DISCOURAGES THE IN-
DUSTRY AND DEGRADES THE CHA-
RACTER OF A COUNTRY, and especially that administration which embroils a country with foreign powers, and involves it in unnecessary wars, is a bad administration. It is
totally immaterial what titles or epithets such
an administration may assume--republican or
federal, aristocratic or monarchical--any government that leaves a nation in a worse condition than it finds it, is a bad government for
that country. And to continue such an administration, after it has produced all those calamitous effects, is madness--absolute insanity.

Men do not thus act in private life and business. If a farmer, year after year, should
pursue a mode of tilling land, which brought
him no produce, but impaired his property and
reduced him to the verge of ruin, all his
neighbors would pronounce him a fool, an
idiot, a proper subject for a conservator. But
is not this the precise fact with the administration of our government.

"President Washington had as difficult a
task to preserve the peace and the commerce
of the United States, as Mr. Jefferson or Mr.
Madison. Our commerce was assailed and
our peace jeopardized then as well
Yet peace and commerce were preserved by
Washington and Adams--the country was
invigorated, the industry cherished, the
treasury swelled every year. From the moment
the republican administration commenced,
the tide of prosperity ceased to flow--and
LOW, LOW indeed is the ebb!

Republican administration do I say?
No--as far from it as the republican is from the
federal--as the east is from the west. Our
citizens are deluded by name--but let them be
undeceived by things. The woful state of the
nation speaks in language louder than ten
thousand murmurs, to dissipate delusion. It
demands that our citizens no longer follow a
name. In my next I will give you my opinion
on the subject of the UNION."