The National Intelligencer And Washington Advertiser

The following may be considered a correct index of the political sentiments of South Carolina. It confirms, what indeed scarcely required confirmation, the certainty, that all the electoral votes of that state will be for Mr. Madison.

Charleston, Oct. 4.

[The following address was read and agreed to at the meeting held on Saturday evening last, by the Delegates from all the Wards in this city, and from Charleston Neck, appointed to frame a Republican Ticket, and was ordered by their unanimous vote to be published.]

To the Republican Electors of the city of Charleston and upper part of St. Philip's Parish.

Friends and Fellow-Citizens,

You all know that an important election is near at hand, and that the men to be chosen at it, are not only to attend to the passing laws for regulating our domestic affairs, but are also to vote for men who are to choose the Chief Magistrate of the union. This all important circumstance, connected with the perilous situation our beloved country now stands in, in relation to foreign nations, has already made a deep impression on you, and you have made a progress towards the success of your cause, by endeavoring to fix unanimity among us. It is in consequence of your will, that we are met together this evening as delegates from all the wards of the city, and from the upper part of St. Philip's Parish, to deliberate upon the choice of the men to represent you, whom you have thought proper to name to us as possessing your confidence. We have obeyed your commands with alacrity, and trust our proceedings will meet your approbation. As you have furnished to us more names than the number of representatives this city is entitled to send to the House of Representatives, we have necessarily been obliged to leave the names of some very respectable citizens off the ticket; but as this was done after a free communication of sentiments was had amongst us, we are confident that those who are not selected will believe that no disrespect was intended, and that they and their friends will support the ticket with the same cheerfulness as if they were named, knowing that it is the first article in the creed of a republican, that the will of the majority should govern.

Fellow-Citizens—Before we proceed to lay before you the names of the persons we have selected to be proposed to you for your consideration and support, we think it will not be taken amiss by you, if we offer you a few sentiments which the present situation of our affairs seems to call for.

It is well known to you, that a desperate struggle is now making by the party in the United States, who style themselves federalists, to obtain possession of the government once more. Though to reasonable men, who recollect well what a dreadful situation they drew the country into when they had the power, and which they could not hold in their feeble hands, this effort appears to be the height of temerity; yet, the fact is nevertheless so—every art is made use of—every engine is at work to change the measures which have been pursued for eight years past by our government, and with you, perhaps, it rests to say whether they shall succeed. The most powerful machine they make use of for this purpose, is the embargo, which now exists on our commerce. You are all well acquainted with the causes which gave rise to that measure, and you must be satisfied, that if it had not been laid at the time it was, that war inevitably would have taken place, which would have deprived your country of upwards of one hundred millions of property, then afloat, and many thousands of hardy seamen, all of whom are now safe in your ports. You know that a dreadful war has raged in Europe for many years past, and that by the wise measures of our present administration, we have been preserved, in a great degree, from its evils, though we have had many injuries and insults to complain of. You well know, that for the 16 years past, one of the belligerents has constantly made it a practice to take our seamen by force out of our peaceable vessels, to fight their battles; and that there are at this time several thousands of them detained in their ships. You know that our vessels have been grossly insulted; that a fellow citizen, employed in your peaceful coasting trade, was killed by a ruffian officer, who is yet unpunished, and that your seamen, employed in one of our national vessels, have been slaughtered on her decks; and that that flag which our heroes of a former day first raised to the view of an astonished world, has been insulted by a nation, whose squadrons were, at the very moment, receiving in our ports every mark of friendship and hospitality. You know that our commerce has been oppressed in every sea by the same nation. Blockades have been established on grounds unknown to the law of nations—your ships have been carried into their ports, under the most frivolous pretences, and those which were not condemned by their arbitrary laws, have suffered every extortion and vexation that venal courts could inflict, or unprincipled lawyers invent. Another nation, conceiving, perhaps, that we too tamely bore these insults and injuries, issued decrees which destroyed our neutrality, seized on many of our vessels in her ports, and captured and destroyed others at sea. You also know that, to this hour neither of the powers which have oppressed us, have ever exhibited the shadow of a charge against the good faith of the United States—in all things they have acted honestly. In this situation your government sought, very properly, for redress by negociation, but instead of redress, nothing but evasion and subterfuge was offered, and there was scarcely a port in the known world, to which your vessels could sail in safety. Thus placed in the midst of difficulties, the supreme council of your nation, almost unanimously, imposed the embargo on our commerce, with a view, first, to call home our seamen and property, and secondly, to try if the unexampled moderation shewn would not induce our oppressors to harken to reason. That the embargo bears with considerable weight on us, we will not attempt to deny: but when freemen consider that by bearing it, their liberties are secured, the heavy expences of war and the loss of many valuable lives are avoided, they will support their inconveniences with cheerfulness. This is confidently looked for from republicans, but the federal party, we are sorry to say it, instead of being obedient to the laws they were bound to support, are actively endeavoring to sow dissensions amongst our citizens, and make the embargo their main plea, when in their consciences, they must know that it was the best measure that could at that time be resorted to. The party which now agitates our country, it is known to you, is composed of a majority of federalists, and those who were our enemies during the war of the revolution, the first are anxious to rise to power and places, the latter disappointed in tying us to the chariot wheels of George the Third when we resisted him, vainly flatter themselves they will now succeed (by our divisions) in restoring to him this immense continent, the loss of which is in fact, the true sources of all the indignities we have suffered from that nation since obtaining our independence.

But, fellow citizens, it is our duty to say, that all the federalists are not opposed to us; on the contrary, many of them with that candor which will do them eternal honor, have come forward and avowed that the administration of the venerable Mr. Jefferson is correct in the measures lately pursued, and have unequivocally approved of the embargo. Amongst them it gives us pleasure that we can name the best informed and most opulent merchant in the United States, WILLIAM GRAY, of Massachusetts, and two amongst the ablest statesmen our country has produced, John Quincy Adams, of Boston, and WM. Loughton Smith, of our own city and state. When such highly informed men as these tell us that the embargo was conceived in wisdom, who will believe the idle tales of men, who seem ready like Esau, of old, to sell their birth right for a mess of pottage, (or rather for a few Birmingham trinkets) who to obtain four cents more in the price of a pound of cotton, than it now brings, would barter our national honor and the liberties of us and our posterity.

We know fellow-citizens, that we are intruding on your patience in recapitulating to you things that are already so well impressed in your minds. We therefore shall only add that in our opinion the roads to political happiness and misery are before you. If you wish for a renewal of the melancholy scenes which passed under the federal administration, when you were borne down by stamp acts, excises, direct taxes, & 8 per cent. loans, when the freedom of the press & of speech were withheld from you by sedition laws, when our ministers abroad were empowered to prevent the distressed natives of Ireland from seeking an asylum on our hospitable shores, and if they did get here were to be apprehended and banished by an alien law; when an unfortunate and friendless American seaman, who by his bravery had escaped from one of the floating dungeons of England, and thought himself in safety in his native land, was arrested and delivered up to his persecutors without a shadow of trial. and put to death on a gibbet; when your treasury and war offices were seen in flames; when your state was made a blank in the union; we say, if you wish for a renewal of those and many other transactions of the same cast which we know took place, you will vote for the federal ticket. But if you wish for a continuance of the many blessings we have enjoyed, under the protecting hand of the illustrious Jefferson, then will you fly to the polls the instant they are opened and put in the republican ticket which will ensure you the election of the long tried, wise, honest and unequalled James Madison, a man whom the real voice of the United States says is the man deserving of their highest honors.

The following, fellow-citizens, is the ticket agreed upon to be recommended to your consideration:

For Congress.

ROBERT MARION.

State Senator.

JOHN DRAYTON.

Representatives.

Henry Middleton, Langdon Cheves. O'Brien Smith, John Johnson, jun, John Geddes, Thomas Lehre, William Clement, Jon Horlbeck, jun, William Rouse, Peter Freneau, James R. Pringle. Wm. Lee, Joseph Verree, Thomas Bennett, jun.