Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

FROM THE MINERVA.
Printed at Dedham, Massachusetts.

Congress has been busy of late in providing for the defence of our country by land and sea. The propriety of allowing merchant vessels to arm and of fitting out public armed ships is scarcely to be contested by any one at this day. The necessity of self defence is as plain as the noon day sun. The capacity of the United States to defend its trade and navigation is greater than most persons have believed. No nation, except Britain, has so much trade—and a great trade will support a strong navy. France has not more sea coast, nor at this time more sailors, ships or commerce than we had in 1794 Her wealth, credit or naval resources are not in greater proportion; and, after paying her vast armies, her means to equip and maintain a powerful fleet are not so great as those of America, whose credit elastic, and whose sources of taxation are yet scarcely made to yield a quarter part of their practicable resource. It is evident that America may be, and sad events prove that she must resolve that she will be, and soon too, a great naval power. A few Ships would check piracies on our coast, and restrain the rapacity of the West India Algerines. Fully to realize this desirable state of self defence, there must be some years of preparation, in time of peace, when labor and materials will be cheaper than at present. It will be our folly if we remain twenty years longer under guardianship to any European nation. There is treachery in all foreign protection, and we shall be branded as cowards if we seek safety in any other way but by the exertion of our own strength and resources. It has cost us a good deal to cure us of our foolish and almost fatal fondness for the French. We shall not love nor blindly trust the English court. Let us build ships, fortify our ports, and provide troops and arms sufficient to keep off invaders and suppress insurrections.

Congress has accordingly agreed to raise 10,000 men in case of war or invasion, or imminent danger of either. This restriction may be justly censured as imprudent. An invader would not wait till our troops could be got ready, and it is well known that preparations against danger is the way to prevent the attack. European nations calculated chiefly on the ships, and resources of a country and France would be more discouraged by 5000 men raised, than by 20,000 to be raised.

The fear of actual invasion is treated by some as a bugbear, by others as a thing to be expected. A few frigates, and a few thousand soldiers, chiefly negroes, may possibly come from Guadaloupe to hoist the standard of liberty, and to raise the Blacks in Carolina to assist the invaders. To prevent this mode of attack, regular forces in considerable numbers seem to be called for by prudence; otherwise very extensive mischief might be done before the militia of a thinly settled country could be collected to repel them. The few demagogues of the French party, which has been very troublesome and clamorous in the southern states, might also be easily gathered under the banner of the French invader. Thirty thousand Frenchmen are said to be scattered among us, and there are as many foreign malcontents in the states whose citizens are imported yearly. (A wretched way of filling up a country!) It is evident therefore that our government being forewarned should be forearmed and raise men in season For every one remembers that enlisting soldiers after they are wanted for actual service is very slow and expensive. Witness our late continental army

But the danger of a French party in the New-England states is very little After all the pains taken to turn the heads and corrupt the hearts of the new yankees, there is not one in a thousand who would join the French. They would rally to the standard of America, and support Adams, our virtuous and chief magistrate, to the last drop of their blood Very few, since the late dispatches were published, remain unconvinced. The people see the sincere endeavors of our government to preserve peace, and they are forced to see the perfidy and profligacy of the French. While Venice, Switzerland and Holland, and most of the old republics of Europe are crumbling into dust before France, because they were weak and had not the spirit to rouse in time the little strength they had; let those who are appointed to be our political watchmen, provide for our safety by calling forth some part of the force that we actually have, and let them be persuaded that we are neither Swiss nor Dutchmen in the spirit to use it.