The Rhode Island Republican

NEWPORT,
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1812.

COMMUNICATION.

That the federal party have used every means in their power to paralyze the arm of the general government, is too well known to need a repetition of the assertion. They would not subscribe, and endeavored to persuade others not to subscribe to the loan. They have used every effort to discourage the recruiting service; and in short, it is sufficient for an individual, or a company, to show a disposition to aid and support government, to draw down upon them the whole force of their resentment. That they should have carried their opposition to government and to those who show a disposition to support it, so far, as to endeavor by the circulation of the grossest falsehoods, by threats, and by persuasion, to prevent the young men of this town, from joining the Volunteer company, merely because that company, were inclined to make a tender of their services to their country to support the government in the measures it has thought proper to adopt, is as astonishing as it is true. With respect to the Volunteers, the facts are, application was made to the Secretary of War about the middle of April last, to ascertain whether the President would accept a voluntary tender of the services of that company, under a stipulation that they should not be ordered on any service off the island of Rhode-Island; to which proposition, considering the exposed situation of this place, in the event of war, an answer was given in the affirmative. Under the idea of offering their services on the above condition, the company commenced recruiting: but no sooner was it known that their ranks were filling up, than all the bugbear stories that the corrupt and corrupting imaginations of the dregs of an abandoned faction could suggest, were invented and set in circulation by their understrappers. Before the company had even passed a resolution making a tender of their services, reports were circulated that the President had accepted of them and they were ordered immediately to do garrison duty in the forts. The young mechanics, of which this company is chiefly composed, were to be taken from their business by which they gain their daily bread for themselves and their families, and put on constant military duty, on a par with the regular army of the United States, at five dollars a month, and their children left to suffer, or be sent to the alms-house. Men who were going forward to join, have been stopped in the streets to hear these frightful bugaboos; and in several instances, we are informed by a member of the company, after men have voluntarily come forward and been regularly propounded and voted they have been called aside and persuaded not to sign the roll. The tender mother--the affectionate sister, and the loving wife, whom it is the duty of men to bear arms to protect and defend, have been wrought upon by stories totally unfounded in fact to become weeping instruments in the nefarious cause. It is hoped that the young citizens of Newport will examine for themselves the law under which it is proposed to volunteer--compare their situation in this company in case their services should be accepted, with that of the drafted militia, or detached companies--and act unbiased by fear, persecution or threats.