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044 - Chapter 31 - Part 5 · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Section forty four of History of the Rise Parkress in
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information are to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox ta or History of the Rise Parcress and
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one, Part five. It was not expected that
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  Speaker 1: those gentlemen who wished were a more perfect system of
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  Speaker 1: government or some amendments to the present, would have been
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  Speaker 1: cut off from every social and political claim, and that
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  Speaker 1: only the officers of the late Army and the devotees
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  Speaker 1: to unconditional rallification would have been thought worthy of confidence
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  Speaker 1: or place under a government that has yet the minds
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  Speaker 1: of a considerable part of the people to soothe, and
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  Speaker 1: the affections of a judicious and discerning party to conciliate.
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  Speaker 1: True policy should have dictated the most impartial distribution of
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  Speaker 1: office in the no arrangement. It is a new and
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  Speaker 1: untried experiment into which many of the people think they
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  Speaker 1: have been precipitated without time for due consideration. They begin
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  Speaker 1: to feel the weight of taxes and imposed to which
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  Speaker 1: they have not been accustomed. They begin to inquire whether
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  Speaker 1: all the late energetic exertions were designed only to subserve
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  Speaker 1: the interests of a certain party and to furnish salaries. Sinecures,
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  Speaker 1: and extravagant conversations are the favorites of the Armyness and
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  Speaker 1: confance of power, to the exclusion of all who had
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  Speaker 1: not adopted the creed of passive obedience. A cool examiner
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  Speaker 1: who may hereof to retrospect the period from the establishment
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  Speaker 1: of the American Constitution to the close of the administration
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  Speaker 1: of as President, will judge, on the detail of facts,
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  Speaker 1: whether there was or was not just reason for the
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  Speaker 1: above observations. Future historic writers may scrutinize and survey pass
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  Speaker 1: transactions with due criticism, and Canada, when whatever may have
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  Speaker 1: been observed on any other subject, all will allow that
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  Speaker 1: no steps during the civil functions of President Washington were
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  Speaker 1: so unpopular as the Indian War sanctioned by the President
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  Speaker 1: soon after the operation of the measures of the new
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  Speaker 1: government and his ratification of a treaty with Great Britain
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  Speaker 1: negotiated by John j. Esquire. The appointment of this gentleman
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  Speaker 1: to a diplomatic character, while Chief Justice of the Supreme
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  Speaker 1: Court of the Union was thought very objectionable, and very
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  Speaker 1: sensible protests were entered in the Senate against the blending
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  Speaker 1: of office. It was thought very incompatible with the principles
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  Speaker 1: of the Constitution to act in the double capacity of
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  Speaker 1: a negotiator abroad and the first officer of justice at home.
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  Speaker 1: Notwithstanding these objections, Mister j was commissioned and repaired to England,
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  Speaker 1: ostensibly to require the surrender of the western posts, the
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  Speaker 1: retention of which had brought on the war with the Savages,
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  Speaker 1: as observed above, and to demand satisfaction for the depredations
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  Speaker 1: and spoliations that half of several years been made on
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  Speaker 1: American commerce in defiance of the late Treaty of Peace.
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  Speaker 1: The war in which England was then engaged against France
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  Speaker 1: had given a pretext for those qualtiations. The happiness and
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  Speaker 1: tranquility of the English nation had not appeared to have
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  Speaker 1: been much enhanced either by the struggle or determination of
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  Speaker 1: the war with their former colonies. After the pacification of
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  Speaker 1: the nations at war and the conclusion of peace between
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  Speaker 1: Great Britain and in America, such feuds arose in England
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  Speaker 1: from various sources and causes of discontent, as discovered that
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  Speaker 1: the nation were afore a time far from being more
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  Speaker 1: tranquilized than the United States. Previous to their adoption of
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  Speaker 1: the present constitution. Indeed, the English nation had few causes
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  Speaker 1: of triumph. Their systems of policy had been everywhere deranged,
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  Speaker 1: and their fatal mistakes exemplified in the distresses of the
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  Speaker 1: Eastern dominions as well as those in the West. The
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  Speaker 1: confusion in the East Indies and the misconduct of their
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  Speaker 1: officers there called, allowed for inquiry and reform, and amidst
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  Speaker 1: the complicated difficulties which embarrassed the measures of administration, their
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  Speaker 1: king became insane. The royal family were Evarians, and the
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  Speaker 1: heir apparent in many causes of discontent, besides the alienation
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  Speaker 1: of his parents, which had been sometimes increasing. The parliament
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  Speaker 1: and the ministry were intriguing for power, and various parties
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  Speaker 1: claimed their right to assume the reigns of government during
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  Speaker 1: the king's disability, and the recollections of all were embittered
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  Speaker 1: by a retrospect of the misfortunes they had experienced during
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  Speaker 1: the late war. Their losses had been incalculable, though could
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  Speaker 1: the wisest of their statesmen devised methods for the payment
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  Speaker 1: of even the interest of the enormous national debt, and
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  Speaker 1: the recovery of the nation to that scale of honor, prosperity,
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  Speaker 1: and grandeur they had formerly enjoyed. In this summary view
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  Speaker 1: of the state of the British nation for the last
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  Speaker 1: ten years, a treaty with England was not a very
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  Speaker 1: desirable object in the eyes of many of the most
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  Speaker 1: judicious statesmen in America. Perhaps no man was better qualified
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  Speaker 1: than mister Jay to undertake to negotiate a business of
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  Speaker 1: so much delicacy and responsibility. He was a gentleman of
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  Speaker 1: strict integrity, amiable manners, and complacent disposition, whose talents for
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  Speaker 1: negotiation had been evinced by his firmness in conjunction with
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  Speaker 1: his colleagues when they affected a treaty of peace of
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  Speaker 1: Paris in one thousand, seven hundred and eighty three. But
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  Speaker 1: while in England, whether from the influence of the Court
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  Speaker 1: of Saint James, or from any predetermined system with regard
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  Speaker 1: to England or France, or from the yielding softness of
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  Speaker 1: a mind naturally your obeying employed is uncertain Yet whatever
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  Speaker 1: might have been the principal operative cause, it is beyond
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  Speaker 1: a doubt that mister j fell from that dignified, manly,
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  Speaker 1: in defendent spirit which ought to have marked in American negotiator.
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  Speaker 1: He was led to succumb too far to the dictations
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  Speaker 1: of Lord Grenville. This condescension undoubtedly arose more from an
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  Speaker 1: apprehension than he could not do better than from any
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  Speaker 1: inclination to swerve from the interests of his gun. The
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  Speaker 1: consequence was he agreed to a treaty highly advantageous to
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  Speaker 1: Great Britain, degrading to the United States, very offensive to France,
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  Speaker 1: the ally of American the days of a tribulation, and
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  Speaker 1: who was now herself at war with Great Britain, in
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  Speaker 1: conjunction with most of the European potentates, combined to overthrow
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  Speaker 1: the newly established government in France, the government they had
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  Speaker 1: erected through civil convulsions that distorted everything from its ancient
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  Speaker 1: form and order. Monarchy was overthrown, They came decapitated, hierarchy abolished,
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  Speaker 1: and a superstitious priesthood annihilated. Amidst the destruction of the
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  Speaker 1: lives of thousands of all classes, and a series of
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  Speaker 1: such bloody deeds of horror as frees the soul of humanity.
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  Speaker 1: On the recollection. These revolutionary scenes in every nation are
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  Speaker 1: generally attended with circumstances shocking to the feelings of compassion.
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  Speaker 1: Yet undoubtedly all nations have a right to establish such
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  Speaker 1: modes and forms of government as a majority of the
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  Speaker 1: people shall think most conducive to the general interest. The
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  Speaker 1: various causes which contributed to more distressful scenes of barbarity
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  Speaker 1: than are usually exhibited in so short a period may
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  Speaker 1: be left to the discussion of those who have written,
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  Speaker 1: or may write, the history of the late Revolution in
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  Speaker 1: France and the character and conduct of that wonderful people.
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  Speaker 1: It was with apparent reluctance that President Washington signed the
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  Speaker 1: treaty negotiated by mister j. He hesitated and observed that
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  Speaker 1: it was pregnant with events. Many gentlemen of the First
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  Speaker 1: Penetration foresaw and dreaded the consequences of this diplomatic transaction.
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  Speaker 1: Some scrupled not to declare that it was not only
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  Speaker 1: pregnant with events, but with evils. But notwithstanding, it was
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  Speaker 1: so disgusting an aspect to more than one had the
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  Speaker 1: citizens of the United States. It was ratified by a
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  Speaker 1: majority in the Senate, signed by the President, and became
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  Speaker 1: the supreme law of the land. This ratification created a
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  Speaker 1: vision of sentiment which was artfully brought up until a
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  Speaker 1: diseveration of opinion appeared throughout the Union. In Congress, the
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  Speaker 1: parties on every great question seemed nearly equally divided, each
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  Speaker 1: had their partisans. The spirits of the people were agitated
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  Speaker 1: and embittered to an alarming degree by the extreme point
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  Speaker 1: of opposition in which the instrument was viewed. A whole
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  Speaker 1: body of the people were designated under traits of distinction
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  Speaker 1: which never ought to exist in the United States, and
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  Speaker 1: a struggle took place, the consequences of which some future
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  Speaker 1: period must disclose. It is disgraceful, indeed to Americans, or
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  Speaker 1: it has broken the shackles of foreign domination to submit
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  Speaker 1: to the unhappy distinction of British or French partisans, but
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  Speaker 1: the at detachment of many to their old allies, to
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  Speaker 1: whom they felt themselves obliged, of many others to the
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  Speaker 1: British nation, its modes of government, and its commers occasions
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  Speaker 1: such as stigma to mark them for a time. America
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  Speaker 1: should indeed forever have maintained a character of her own
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  Speaker 1: that should have set her on high ground. Whence she
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  Speaker 1: might have looked down from a pinnacle of independence and peace,
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  Speaker 1: and only have pitied the squabbles, the confusion, and the
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  Speaker 1: miseries of the European world. A quarter of the globe,
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  Speaker 1: blessed with all the productions of nature, increasing astonishingly in population,
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  Speaker 1: improving rapidly, in very judition, arts and other sciences necessary
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  Speaker 1: to the happiness of man, bounded by a vast ocean,
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  Speaker 1: by rivers, by fountains that have been the wonder of ages,
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  Speaker 1: ought for ever to hold herself independent on any power
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  Speaker 1: on earth. Imagination may indulge a pleasing referee, and suppose
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  Speaker 1: for a moment that if the Government of the United
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  Speaker 1: States had reared a defense around her sea board, they
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  Speaker 1: might have reached to the heavens. By her bold inhibitions
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  Speaker 1: against all foreign connections or commercial and political intercourse with
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  Speaker 1: distant nations, it might have been the best barrier to
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  Speaker 1: her peace, liberty, and happiness. But there are no mounds
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  Speaker 1: of separation, either natural or artificial, and perhaps had it
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  Speaker 1: been practicable, there should have been, they might have been
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  Speaker 1: penetrated by a thirst for wealth, commerce might have shaken
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  Speaker 1: them to the foundation, or ambition might have broken down
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  Speaker 1: the battlements instead of guarding round the infant Republic of America.
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  Speaker 1: By a total detachment from foreign connections, affection, or influence.
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  Speaker 1: We have already seen the inhabitants of the United States
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  Speaker 1: interesting themselves beyond the common feelings of humanity in the
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  Speaker 1: operations of European and Boys dissensions, politics, and government. It
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  Speaker 1: is not strange that the astonishing revolution in France should
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  Speaker 1: be beheld with very extraordinary emotions. The world had viewed
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  Speaker 1: the excision of a king, queen and the royal family
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  Speaker 1: the House of Bourbon. The existing generation had witnessed the
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  Speaker 1: extinction of the claims of a long line of ancestral
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  Speaker 1: dignitaries that had been supported from Charlemagne to Lewis the sixteenth,
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  Speaker 1: under all the appendages of despotism that had oppressed its
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  Speaker 1: millions until they had reached that point of degradation and
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  Speaker 1: soibility beyond which the elastic mind of man can bed
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  Speaker 1: no farther. This joke was broken, and the bars burst
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  Speaker 1: in sunder, by the strong hand of the people and
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  Speaker 1: by the operations of resentment which discovered more than the
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  Speaker 1: imaginary reactions of nature among the inhabitants of a vast
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  Speaker 1: domaintenance This people had been too long viewed as a
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  Speaker 1: nation of slaves, and their struggles for freedom and the
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  Speaker 1: equal rights of man ought to have been cherished by
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  Speaker 1: Americans who had just obtained their own independence by a
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  Speaker 1: resistance that had cost them much of the best blood
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  Speaker 1: of their citizens and of Section forty four.