I have lived long enough, and have seen too much of men and things, to
fancy my country and countrymen right in all their transactions,
merely because newspapers, members of congress, and fourth of July
orators, are pleased to affirm the doctrine. No one can go much to sea
without reading with great distrust many of the accounts, in the
journals of the day, of the grievous wrongs done the commerce of
America by the authorities of this or that port, the seizure of such a
ship, or the imprisonment of some particular set of officers and
men. As a rule, it is safer to assume that the afflicted parties
deserve all that has happened to them, than to believe them
immaculate; and, quite likely, much more, too. The habit of receiving
such appeals to their sympathies, renders the good people of the
republic peculiarly liable to impositions of this nature; and the
mother who encourages those of her children who fetch and carry, will
be certain to have her ears filled with complaints and tattle.
Nevertheless, it is a fact beyond all dispute, that the commerce of
the country was terribly depredated on by nearly all the European
belligerents, between the commencement of the war of the French
revolution and its close. So enormous were the robberies thus
committed on the widely extended trade of this nation, under one
pretence or another, as to give a colouring of retributive justice, if
not of moral right, to the recent failures of certain States among us
to pay their debts.
Pages:
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147