CHAPTER IV.
Still may the soaring eagle's quenchless eye, Watch o'er our favour'd country, brave and free, Where the bright stars and stripes in honour wave, The sacred emblems of our liberty.
Many disagreeable circumstances now combined to disturb the happytranquillity of the American government. "A war had for some timeexisted between France and England. America had endeavoured to maintaina neutrality, and peacefully to continue a commerce with both nations.Jealousies, however, arose between the contending powers with respect tothe conduct of America, and events occurred calculated to injure hercommerce and disturb her peace.
"Decrees were first issued by the French government preventing theAmerican flag from trading with the enemy; these were followed by theBritish orders in council, no less extensive than the former in design,and equally repugnant to the laws of nations. In addition to thesecircumstances, a cause of irritation existed sometime between the UnitedStates and Great Britain. This was the right of search claimed by GreatBritain as one of her prerogatives. To take her native subjects,wherever found, for her navy, and to search American vessels for thatpurpose. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of the American government,the officers of the British navy were not unfrequently seen seizingnative British subjects who had voluntarily enlisted on board ourvessels, and had also impressed into the British service some thousandsof American seamen.
"In consequence of the British and French decrees, a general capture ofall American property on the seas seemed almost inevitable. Congress,therefore, on the recommendation of the president, laid an embargo onall vessels within the jurisdiction of the United States.
"In a moment, the commerce of the American republic, from being, inpoint of extent, the second in the world, was reduced to a coastingtrade between the individual states. The opposition to the act inseveral of the states was so great that they unanimously declaredagainst it, and individuals throughout the whole seized everyopportunity of infringement; therefore Congress thought proper to repealthe embargo law, and substituted a non-intercourse with France andEngland."
It was now generally expected that the session in Congress, with thedecision of the president, would eventually terminate in actualhostilities. The difficulties the chief executive had to encounterwere many and perplexing, being fully convinced, under existingcircumstances, that the Americans must engage in combat after all. Hetherefore knew it to be necessary to rouse the feelings of the Americanpeople, to realize, more clearly than they did, the true situation oftheir country, that they might be prepared for the approaching crisisthat he believed unavoidable.
This period was full of anxiety and danger. A war was deprecated by allthe leading patriots of the day; they were fully persuaded that it musttake place; they therefore unitedly determined to prepare for the stormin the best manner they were able. All material business was in a mannersuspended in New-York; the face of things wore a dismal aspect, and thegreater part of the community were in dismay. A heavy gloom hung overthe inhabitants generally, while all their affairs appeared in adeclining state, discouraging to the industry and best prospects of thepeople.
Alida's father was no friend to political controversy, yet he passedmuch of his time in conversing with his friends on the present affairsof America. He knew that party spirit and animosity existed more or lessat this time, and that he must consequently often meet with those ofopposite opinions; yet his honest and patriotic zeal for the good of hiscountry still remained the same. He was attached to liberty fromprinciple; he had talents to discriminate and see into the justice ofthe measures of government; his retirement gave him full opportunity toreflect on them seriously, and solve them in his own mind, and see theirabsolute necessity, in order to maintain the honour, freedom, andindependence of the American nation. Would the same wisdom in thegovernment continue that had so nobly preserved us since ourindependence? But he had no reason at present to suppose otherwise, andthat he who now guided the helm of affairs, was one of steady anduncorrupt principles, of stable character, altogether uninfluenced byany sinister views, and was willing to sacrifice his individual reposefor the noble purpose, and with the hope of settling it again on thenation, with a firmer basis, at some future period, when the expectedcontest should be decided.
What feelings of commotion and deep anxiety must agitate the bosom ofthe magnanimous hero who is labouring truly for the interest of hiscountry, and is actuated alternately by the claims of justice andhumanity, and on whom a whole community must depend for council in casesof severe emergency, when his chief satisfaction consists in promotingthe interest and welfare of that community. When the hour of exigencyarrives, his mind, endued with the light of piety, feels its ownlittleness, his weighty thoughts are big with the impending danger thatno human arm may be able to arrest. Impressed with religious awe, andfeeling conscious of his dependence for aid on the all-wise Disposer ofevents, he bends in humble supplication to implore the favour of thatgreat and beneficent Being whose power alone can save, and in whosemighty arm alone is victory.
The father of Alida received regular intelligence by the daily papersrespecting the political excitement in New-York; besides, he madefrequent visits to the city to see his several children, as one of hisdaughters had resided there since her marriage. There was every kind ofconveyance at the neighbouring village suited to the accommodation oftravellers, both summer and winter, and the rapid improvement of thetown had long been a current topic of the inhabitants as well asvisiters, while they praised the proprietor of the new pavilion, in hismanner of conducting it, and his excellent accommodations; and it wasthe general opinion that in the course of a few years this would becomea place of no small consideration.
Alida; or, Miscellaneous Sketches of Incidents During the Late American War. Page 7