The New Hampshire Gazette

POLITICAL.

From the Hartford (Con.) Mercury.

[A president's message to Congress has had an effect on the federal party. Some of their Editors who speak of the relations of our Country in regard to several European nations, it is impossible not to be highly diverted at the effect that the President's communication has had on the federal party. Notwithstanding the interesting and delicate situation of our Country in regard to several European nations, it is impossible not to be highly diverted at the effect that the President's communication has had on the federal party. Some go so far as to say, it is federalism revived. Others treat it in a manner more equivocal and affect to treat the communication with great candor, and give it unqualified applause. They approve of what is warlike in it, so far as it goes, but they are displeased that it contains no bluster, no boasting. They say, and with truth, that it is not like the Speeches of Mr. Adams' on similar occasions. It contains no irritating nor abusive language towards the nations with whom we have controversies. Others, again speak of it with ridicule and contempt. Whence this diversity? The solution of this question is easy. The federalists love war -- they hate the President; and this accounts for the diversity of their opinions. It might be most charitable to suppose that those who approve without reserve, do it from an honest conviction of what is a very clear truth, that the communication is calm, clear, energetic and dignified, but unfortunately, though the communication is calm, clear, energetic and dignified, but unfortunately, the federalists have been opposed by alarms and slanders without number. The conviction is still producing; and with a few years more of peace, the most obdurate will be reclaimed from their blind and destructive attachment to a system calculated and designed to reduce them to a state of degrading vassalage. It is by war only that our affairs can be reduced to that state of depression and confusion in which they were in the days of federalism. It is by war only that the prosperity of our country can be arrested. It is war only that can compel a recurrence to taxes that were imposed by federalists, and abolished by republicans -- in short, it is war only that can make us forget the benefits of a republican system. Federalists then at consistency in approving and supporting every proposition that leads to war, from whatever quarter it may come. We ought therefore to have expected from them a unanimous approbation of a communication that affords them grounds to hope that their longings may be gratified. But the truth is, though they love war they hate the President; and this accounts for the diversity of their opinions.]

When the federalists managed our national affairs twelve years. The nation in fact, and bona fide owed, of the price of our liberties, about twenty millions of dollars; this debt was by various expedients enlarged until it became a debt of more than eighty millions of dollars. During the twelve years of federal preponderance the national debt was constantly increasing. Republicans have directed our national affairs less than five years; and altho' many burdensome taxes have been abolished, and hundreds of tax-gatherers have been dismissed, our national debt has been diminished thirteen millions of dollars. The government has been enabled to do this by cultivating peace and by practising a rigid economy, both of which have been themes of unceasing ridicule with federalists. But the prosperity of our affairs in the hands of republicans exhibits a contrast so gratifying, so wonderful, that it has bro't the federal system of measures into general contempt. In vain has this conviction of the destructive tendency of federalism been opposed by alarms and slanders without number. The conviction is still producing; and with a few years more of peace, the most obdurate will be reclaimed from their blind and destructive attachment to a system calculated and designed to reduce them to a state of degrading vassalage. It is by war only that our affairs can be reduced to that state of depression and confusion in which they were in the days of federalism. It is by war only that the prosperity of our country can be arrested. It is war only that can compel a recurrence to taxes that were imposed by federalists, and abolished by republicans -- in short, it is war only that can make us forget the benefits of a republican system. Federalists then at consistency in approving and supporting every proposition that leads to war, from whatever quarter it may come. We ought therefore to have expected from them a unanimous approbation of a communication that affords them grounds to hope that their longings may be gratified. But the truth is, though they love war they hate the President; and this accounts for the diversity of their opinions.
The conduct of the President has always been equally correct, equally dignified; this is the only act of his which has escaped their bitterest censure. It is then most conformable to truth to suppose that each editor, and each writer has commented on the Message as his love of war, or his hatred of Mr. Jefferson has preponderated. Some in their eager desire for war have forgotten their hatred of the man. Others have been under the stronger impulse of that hatred—while a third class have uttered a strange medley of both passions—praising, qualifying, fretting, blaming, retracting and praising again.

It is a glorious distinction reserved for Mr. Jefferson alone, that the chief accusation of his bitterest enemies, that he is too anxious to preserve his country in a state of peace, that he has too long averted from her the dreadful scourge of war. With this testimony in his favour he ought to feel assured that, whatever may be the result of the present state of things, he will stand acquitted of having precipitated them, or of having omitted any honorable means of averting an appeal to force. If we are to be involved in war, it will be because it is inevitable, and the evils of it however great, (and they are always great) will be sustained by our citizens with that perseverance and spirit, that is sure to signalize and triumph. But if we escape those evils, if we maintain our rights without war and without a sacrifice of our real dignity as a nation, it will be because federal councils have ceased to prevail—and much of the glory will belong to the President.