Alexandria Gazette

ALEXANDRIA:
THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 7.

Some of our cotemporaries speak of a War Fever in this country. We do not see much prospect of this fever spreading. Along the border it may prevail, but elsewhere the public mind is in a calm and healthy state. Indeed, considering all things, the people of this country, generally, have displayed great good sense and more moderation on subjects connected with our foreign relations, during the last three or four years, than is usually shown. We have had difficulties with France, with Mexico, and now with Great Britain, and throughout there has been a very commendable degree of patience and forbearance, notwithstanding some efforts have been made on all these occasions, to hurry us on to precipitate action. It is our pride and pleasure to think that in all these difficulties our country has been in the right, and we have always been prepared to go as far as those who would go farthest in vindication of the national honor. In the present dispute with Great Britain, there are no two opinions. We all desire peace, but not at the sacrifice of a tithe of our just rights. The spectacle now presented, is, to a patriotic mind highly gratifying, and we have no doubt but that Great Britain herself will respect and admire it.

It is the fashion now-a-days, for political effect, at meetings of one of the political parties of the country, to pass resolutions in opposition to that 'monster,' a Bank of the United States,' and to 'a revival of the odious tariff policy.' The 'judicious few' laugh in their sleeves, when they set these 'traps to catch gulls,' but still, as they answer a purpose, they are never omitted. The Richmond Whig commenting on the resolutions passed at one of these party gatherings, in Virginia, says:—'we are reminded of the famous witticism of the Emperor Tiberius, who receiving the condolements of a certain town in Lydia for the loss of his mother, who died some years previous, replied by condoling with the ambassadors for the death of their great countryman Hector, a thousand years before.'

The Whig, also, suggests that hereafter appended to the stereotyped denunciations against the 'Bank,' and the 'Tariff,' should be resolutions condemning the stamp act and the tax on tea!

What a noble contemplation to every lover of his country is the recent chivalrous course of the leading Southern men in Congress in regard to the Maine troubles! Look at them; they vie with the representatives of the East in their determination to stand firm and support the rights of that East. Clay, Calhoun, Preston, Walker, Linn, and others in the Senate,—Thompson, Pickens, and others in the House,—all spoke of Maine and her rights with the determination to support her as freely as they would the fields of their own sunny South, whenever necessary. They forgot that the East had sustained abolition—they did not look to themselves or their local interests or sectional position in this matter: it was enough for the South to know that the territorial rights of a sister and a sovereign State were invaded by a foreign power, and they rushed to her aid.

It is stated that there are at present in the British North American Provinces upwards of 15,000 regular troops, besides numerous companies of local militia, brought into activity and comparative discipline by the late troubles in the Canadas.

If the last Congress had done nothing else than to appoint an Investigating Committee, and appoint it too, by ballot, they would have 'done the state some service.' The extracts from the Report of the Committee already published show that developments have been made, which the country ought to be made acquainted with.

Fortunately the evidence collected by the Committee consists of public letters and testimony taken under oath, and there can be no gainsaying it. They have driven the nail up to the head, and clinched it.

The Tampico Telegraph of the 9th, states that the fortress on the Brazos de Santiago, which was erected in 1836, for protecting the port of Matamoras against the attack of the Texians, has been demolished by order of Filisola, and its splendid artillery 'spiked and thrown into the sea.'