Martinsburgh Gazette

FOR THE MARTINSBURGH GAZETTE.

Falso libertatis vocabulum obtendi ab iis qui privatim degeneres in publicum exitiosi nihil spei nisi per discordias habeant.

TACITUS.

WHEN a crime of a savage and atrocious character is perpetrated in a community, indignation and horror, at first, so completely engross the minds of virtuous men, as to preclude the possibility of dispassionate investigation. In the tumult of impetuous feelings, they are, for a time, unable to inquire into the causes which led to the catastrophe--into the nature and degree of the crime--and into the consequences which will probably ensue if the offenders escape unpunished. Such was the effect produced on all good men among us, when intelligence first arrived of the bloody tragedy which has lately been acted in Baltimore--of an event which has imprinted an indelible stigma on that turbulent city, and disgraced the American character.

But reason has resumed her empire over passion, and the time has arrived for instituting the inquiries I have mentioned. The cause of those horrid and disgraceful outrages is too obviously found, in the licentiousness and wickedness of the mongrel populace of Baltimore, unrestrained by an efficient police, and stimulated into action by the hints and exhortations of unprincipled editors--and perhaps also by foreign gold. When I speak of the inefficiency of the police of Baltimore, I allude to the character of the men who have the internal government of that city in their hands. Late events have demonstrated them to be, miserable demagogues, seeking the favour of a vile and blood-thirsty rabble, * instead of punishing it for its outrages--perfidious and impious wretches, calling upon the Almighty to witness promises which they meant not to perform--murderers, because they permitted a most savage and inhuman murder to be perpetrated, of the intention to perpetrate which they were repeatedly warned, and which they could have easily prevented. They may, and probably will, escape punishment in this world, but let them tremble when they recollect, that there is a tribunal above, whose judge will penetrate the innermost recesses of their hearts, and, before an assembled universe, will pronounce the sentence due to their crimes.

The means by which the sanguinary mob of Baltimore was roused into action are not unknown.-It was no sooner generally understood in the country that war would be declared against Great Britain, than the democratic editors, in the principal cities of the union, began to use a language of menace against those who opposed the administration. before that time happily unknown in this land of liberty. The idea was sedulously inculcated that the right to animadvert on the measures of the administration, or in other words, the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press would cease with the commencement of hostilities, and vengeance was denounced against those, who, after that period, should dare to question the expediency of the war, or the virtue, wisdom and ability of our rulers.— Just Heaven! and these are the people who a few years since were so clamorous against the sedition law, and such loud asserters of the liberty of the press, which they falsely declared that law to have infringed.

The National Intelligencer, tho' not so intemperate in its language, as some other papers, advocated the same infamous and liberticidal doctrine. Let it be well recollected that the National Intelligencer is the official paper of the administration. It is the channel thro' which the wishes and feelings and intentions of the executive are conveyed to the people--it is the engine used to give tone to public sentiment--it is the text-book from which the democratic papers throughout the union derive their hints and their topics of discussion--it is the oracle. in short, to which all the staunch adherents of the administration resort for the solution of every difficulty. In such a paper, speaking the language of the administration, and with so many means of promoting order, harmony and obedience to the laws, the following language, in substance, was used.-" When war shall be declared the voice of disaffection must be hushed : those who are not for us must then be considered against us, and will be treated accordingly."*

Let us dispassionately inquire into the meaning of this language.--It cannot be denied that the phrase " they who are not for us" includes the whole federal party-a party which boasts of Washington as its political father, which numbers in its ranks some of the most distinguished of the heroes of our revolution, whom the scythe of time and the fury of mobs have spared, as well as some of the most enlightened statesmen, and some of the most virtuous patriots that have lived in any age or country. When the editor of the National Intelligencer says " they who are not for us must be considered against us," he either asserts an insignificant truism, or he means to convey the idea that the federalists are to be considered as the enemies of the country--as traitors to that country for which so many of them have poured out their blood." They will be treated accordingly," he adds. The federalists opposing the war will be treated as enemies to their country.-Heaven grant us patience to restrain a just indignation, when a little insignificant prig of an editor, scarcely landed on our shores, dares to threaten the hoary veterans of the revolution with the punishment of traitor ! " The voice of disaffection must be hushed."

Who are the disaffected ?--It is most clear from the context that he means the federalists, in general, (for they are all opposed to the war) but, more particularly, the federal editors.' It is the voice of the federal editors which must be hushed They must cease to expose, in their journals, the folly and incapacity of our rulers--they must cease to exhort the people to change those rulers, and thereby rescue the country from impending ruin--they must do thus, or be treated as enemies to the country.

But how, and by what means. is this punishment to be inflicted on them?-Not by virtue of any law :-there is not, there cannot be, a law commanding the infliction of such punishment. The constitution of the United States expressly declares, that Congress shall pass no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. How, then, I repeat, is this punishment to be inflicted, unless by violence --how, but by the intervention of a lawless rabble ?-

The passage, then, which I have quoted. translated into plain English, reads thus- "When war shall be declared the federalists must cease to discuss the measures of the administration-from that period the liberty of the press must be at an end-they who shall dare to exercise the freedom of speech, or of the press, in animadversions on the conduct of our rulers. shall be deemed enemies of the country, and shall be delivered over to the fury of the mob."-Or, to use the more condensed and pithy language of Wright, a democratic member of congress, " when war shall be declared, hemp and confiscation shall hush the voice of opposition."

That the National Intelligencer was understood in this sense appears moreover by the following extract from the Maryland Republican, a democratic paper published at Annapolis, and patronized by the government of * I have not the paper by me;, and therefore cannot say that this is precisely the language used : but I pledge myself that it is substantially the same.

Maryland. The editor after detailing in his own way the massacre in Baltimore, proceeds thus -" We regret that any lives should have been lost in the affair; but when a set of men will knowingly court their own destruction by the expression of sentiments obnoxious to the people of the present time, they must abide by the consequences, however hard and unfortunate they may be. It should be recollected that the country is now in a state of war. and the measures of government must and will be supported, amicably if we can, forcibly if we must. They who are not for us are against us." Thus after the worse than infamous doctrine of the National Intelligencer had been carried into effect by a bloody, inhuman and diabolical massacre, another editor quotes the very expressions used in that paper in justification of the atrocious deed.

The mob of Baltimore were not slow in obeying the mandate of the official paper.- Within ten days after this language was used they levelled the office of the Federal Republican with the dust. The editor of the National Intelligencer, and his right honourable prompters, perhaps, did not wish to drive matters to this extremity. They perhaps expected to put down federal opposition by intimidation alone, without resorting to actual violence. Be this as it may, we have seen, and they might have foreseen the effect of their violent and inflammatory language. It will not avail him who has let loose a wild beast in a crowd, to say, after hundreds have been destroyed, that he did not intend that such mischief should ensue-that he intended merely to terrify those whom he has destroyed.

But there is reason to believe that editorial hints and admonitions were not the only means by which the flame was kindled. It is known with what severity the editors of the Federal Republican animadverted on the systematic villainy, the shameless perfidy, and mad ambition, of the emperor of France. And it is also well known that the emperor, who has entirely destroyed the liberty of the press, and extinguished the light of knowledge, in his own dominions, views with a jealous eye every animadversion on his conduct in the journals of other countries. Of his want of magnanimity in this respect sufficient evidence may be found, in the cruel murder of the printer Palm, in Germany, and in the prosecution of Pelletier, for an alleged libel, instituted in England at his request, a short time after the peace of Amiens.

The ability with which the editors of the Federal Republican have uniformly exposed his villainies to the American people, has no doubt excited the notice and aroused the vengeful spirit of himself or of his agents in this country. When they saw that the demolition of the federal press, by means of mobs was plainly hinted at, even in the government paper, what expedient more obvious than to hire a few desperadoes to excite the mob into action and to direct their operations? Could any more simple and easy way be devised for suppressing the American journals which dared to expose imperial villainy ?

In addition to these probabilities it is a notorious fact, that a Frenchman was at the head of the mob of June 22d, and that vagabonds of that nation have composed a very great proportion of those which have succeeded it.

Such were the causes which led to the demolition of the Federal Republican office, on the 22d of June. The details of that lawless deed are known to the world. It is known that the rabble who demolished the office, did not confine their views to the destruction of property, but, even then, thirsted for the blood of the editors. Their intention to murder Mr. Wagner was distinctly announced.

I shall not stop to inquire, whether the police of Baltimore could have dispersed this mob, before it had effected its purpose; or, whether, while it was still employed in the work of destruction, the villains most actively engaged could have been seized and imprisoned.* I will even suppose these things to have been impossible. But after the mob had effected its purpose, and dispersed, what was done by the mayor, what by the other conservators of the peace, to bring the offenders to punishment, to prevent the recurrence of similar outrages? Did they issue warrants for the apprehension of the rioters? Did they, by increasing the number of the constables, and ordering them to be on the alert in various parts of the city, endeavour to prevent the assemblage of another mob? Did they say to the editors of the Federal Republican. " Resume the exercise of your lawful occupation, and we will protect you in it?" They did none of all these things. They suffered the most flagrant and outrageous violation of the rights of a citizen which had occurred in this country, since our ancestors first landed on its savage shores, to be perpetrated with impunity, by monsters far more savage than the wild untutored beings who then wandered through the forests of America. A respectable citizen, guiltless of any crime, is driven from his home, and from the occupation by which he subsisted his family; his property, of the value of several thousands of dollars, is utterly destroyed- and the villains remain unnoticed, unregarded, unpunished.

The leading traits in the character of all * A numerous assemblage of vagabonds lately attempted to demolish a house in the City of New-York. De Wit Clinton, the Mayor, instantly proceeded to the place, accompanied by a number of constables. He did not stop to reason with these fel- lows—he did not once entreat them to desist. He said to one constable " seize that scoundrel"-to another " convey that fellow to jail"-he seized with his own hands some of the boldest of the rioters.- The mob dispersed, without effecting its purpose. Any comment upon the contrast exhibited by the conduct of the two Mayors would -c superfluous.