Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

of honor, nothing but experience, cruel, bitter, grinding experience, can bring about a conviction. When we cast a retrospect to the administration of Washington, and contrast the bold and imposing attitude then asserted and maintained by our country with its present degraded and impoverished character the patriot seems to breathe the spirit of true prophecy. Nothing was wanting to the consummation of our felicity as a nation but to persevere in his radiant track—nothing to ensure prosperity but to follow the precedent. But the blessings of Heaven--That unrivalled flow of prosperity that made this continent at that time the political Eden of the earth, was abandoned, wickedly abandoned, and how dreadful has been the alteration! A government insulted and bearded by foreign nations and deprived of all confidence at home, under the pressure of calamities it has industriously courted and provoked.
It has provoked war without the means of defence, and environed, as it is, with disaffected citizens—let them be persuaded, by such examples—let them be persuaded. Let our fellow citizens take warning. Triumph for a season through deception and falsehood may hoard up materials for future misery and ruin, who now abuse the confidence of the people. These empty pretenders to patriotism are found wanting. It is the eternal law of Divine Providence that such shall ever be the result when they have been tried in all their forms. History abounds with such examples.