The Gazette

Legislature of Massachusetts.

Answers to the Governor's Speech.

OF THE SENATE.

May it please your Excellency,

THE Senate, with sincere satisfaction, receive and reciprocate the patriotic sentiments contained in your address to the two Houses of the Legislature.

Amidst the trials and commotions which at present agitate so great a part of the world, the "tranquil and prosperous" state of the Commonwealth should be the subject of our grateful acknowledgements to the Supreme Arbiter of Nations. May he dispose us, and our fellow citizens at large, to manifest our gratitude for the distinguished blessings which we enjoy as a people, by a uniform obedience to the laws, & a respect for the magistrates by whom they are faithfully administered.

If an administration of the general government, founded upon the principles of justice, & dictated by the purest motives could have protected us either against foreign aggressions, or have insured the universal approbation of our own citizens, the American people might have expected a long and happy season of repose and safety. But the experience of the present age affords an ample evidence, that the existence of our national honor and interest depends, under Providence, upon our power to defend them.

Under the impression of this important truth, and from a careful review of the conduct of the present ruling powers of France, we look upon the prospect of an amicable and honorable adjustment of our differences with that nation as uncertain and delusive. We therefore cordially unite with your Excellency in declaring, that we ought to "stand prepared at our Country's call" to defend to the last extremity those invaluable rights which the best blood of our country has been expended to secure.

Having an unshaken confidence in the wisdom & patriotism of the Federal Government, their preparations for our defence (should the unjust conduct of France drive us to the last resort) will meet our cheerful and ready co-operation. But from the present view of her situation, we have less to fear from her arms than from her insidious attacks upon the virtue of the people. That there should remain a single citizen in America so unhappily prejudiced as not to have developed her baneful influence & conspiracy, or armed himself against their pernicious operation is a subject both of astonishment and regret. Her recent conduct to the nations of Europe and America, her earliest friends, affords a solemn admonition to all those who are yet blind enough to believe her the friend of liberty. From this conduct we are compelled to believe that her measures are dictated by nothing short of an insatiate thirst for empire & dominion, regardless of the property or rights of those from whom they may be wrested.

"Let then the remains of political dissensions cease, and all orders of men unite in displaying those virtues, and that manly patriotic spirit which the exigencies of the times demand"—And when the period shall arrive at which the sword of self-defence must be drawn, may we be inspired by the recollection, that as free born Americans, we can surrender our liberties but with our lives.

The Senate assure your Excellency, that the several subjects of a local nature recommended in your address to the consideration of the Legislature, shall receive their immediate and particular attention.

OF THE HOUSE.

May it please your Excellency.

The House of Representatives receive with pleasure from the Supreme Executive, an assurance, which their own observation fully corroborates, that the internal state of the Commonwealth, has been tranquil and prosperous during the recess of the Legislature. This tranquility and prosperity, they fully agree, is attributable, under Divine Providence, to the strong attachment of the people to their government, and to the faithful and impartial execution of the laws. Of this state of things, so favorable to the public happiness will undoubtedly continue so long as our citizens are distinguished by their moral and religious habits, their virtue, their industry, their love of social order, and their attachment and confidence in that government established by their wisdom, supported by their energy, and administered by officers of their choice. Every page, however of ancient and modern history exhibits melancholy proofs, that the best internal regulations, the purest motives, the most inviolable good faith secure no exemption from foreign insults and usurpations: and the inference which irresistibly impresses itself upon the mind, is that nations should rely rather on their own power, than on the justice of other governments, and should be always prepared to maintain their rights, when other nations cease to respect them.

In review of the past history of our country, we can recollect no period more critical, no moment pregnant with events more interesting than the present.

Having established the independence of our government, on the basis of justice and rational liberty, we had a right to cherish the expectation, that by cultivating our natural and political advantages we should insure to ourselves & our posterity, peace, liberty and safety, but this fond and delusive picture of the future has been torn away by the lawless ambition. In the peaceable possession of a good and fertile country, acquired to us by the blood of our worthy Fathers, and in the enjoyment of the highest possible degree of civil and religious freedom, considering our slender population, our political pilots wisely advised to adopt, and cheerfully pursued a system of impartial neutrality, by which our local, and political advantages might be secured to us, and by which we might be equally preserved from the vortex of European convulsions. It is this wise, just and pacific policy very early gave umbrage to the perfidious and unprincipled rulers of France, and from that moment every insidious as well as open, every secret as well as public weapon, which art and ingenuity could devise, has been employed to force the United States into the sanguinary & destructive orbit.

The Ministers and Agents of France, authorized and unauthorized, avowed and private have busily employed to disseminate principles subversive of our government, destructive to our system of neutrality, and calculated not only to produce dissensions, and to separate the people from their government, but to effect a change in the moral, religious, and political habits and opinions, of the citizens of this country, which would unfit them for the support of any government. But the God of our fathers has been the cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, and through his over-ruling influence, the citizens of the United States, are yet free, happy and independent. The recollection of the overtures which have been made by the United States, to accommodate the existing differences with the French Republic and the causes of their failure, excites no ordinary degree of indignant sensibility. The whole world not tributary to France, and impartial posterity will bear testimony, that the late negotiations exhibited on the part of the United States, moderation, candor, purity, good faith, and anxious solicitude for peace; on the part of France, overbearing insolence, a venal and prostituted spirit, a contempt of natural justice, and of national compacts, and a disposition to sacrifice the peace of both nations to sordid mercenary views. From such causes & from the existence of such a temper on the part of France have we been reduced to our present critical, expensive, and alarming situation, and although we as highly appreciate as your Excellency the blessings of peace, and participate in the pleasing conviction, that the Chief Magistrate of the Union is sincerely attached to a pacific policy, at once the interest and the wish of the United States, yet this treasure would be too dearly bought by a surrender of even a portion of our Honor, our Liberty or Independence.

We ardently wish for peace but we would obtain it only through constitutional and authorized channels, upon terms compatible with our national character and interest, and productive of permanent not temporary safety. We fully accord with your Excellency, in the sentiment that no rational grounds can be discerned for a relaxation of our energies. So long as France shall remain in absolute subjection to men whose ambition is domination, and whose thirst of plunder, we can see no consolatory prospect of reparation for our past wrongs, or security against future.

We should then most unquestionably violate the first law of nature, Self preservation, we should be ungrateful to that Being, who has blessed us with ample resources, if we should neglect to use them in our own defence. Nor do we dread the result, for, with a PATRIOT & STATESMAN, at the helm, who is capable of inspiring a whole nation with noble sentiments, and with a HERO in the field who is himself a HOST, "America's hardy sons cannot fail of displaying that native enterprise and valor for which they have been always distinguished."

Your Excellency need not entertain an apprehension that you will be suspected of a wish to precipitate the United States into a war. The known moderation, and temperate virtue which you have uniformly displayed, forbid such an imputation. The observations which your Excellency has been pleased to make evidently proceeded from a dignified spirit which pervades every part of the United States, and which has exhibited itself in glowing colours from Maine to Georgia—a Spirit, which produces a generous and unremitting confidence in the government of the United States and a firm determination to support its measures.—a Spirit, which prefers open hostility to indirect warfare.—danger and decisive contest to a tame and ignominious forbearance.—Death to Slavery!—a Spirit, which must convince France and the World, that the Citizens of America united by reciprocal ties of interest and affection, will stand or fall together.

The State of the Fortifications, of our Militia and of the Convicts merit and shall receive our early and serious consideration, and in all our legislative acts we shall keep steadily in view the promotion of justice and general welfare of the community in which important objects, we doubt not we shall meet with your Excellency's most hearty concurrence.

HOUSE, Jan. 16—WEDNESDAY.

Committees were raised to report on the public business necessary to be acted upon the present session—To consider of measures for a new impression of the State Laws—To consider what measures are necessary relative to the unappropriated lands of the Commonwealth—To report on the Judiciary System—And to consider of the ultimate disposal of the convicts.

Jan. 17

A resolve relative to Portland Academy was read and accepted.

The afternoon of the House has for some time been occupied by private petitions, &c.