ion to the emancipation of the serfs and the interests of humanity, Mr. Seward plunges, or soars, as the case may be, into astronomy and history in a mode peculiarly his own. As, for example, speaking of Washington's proclamation of neutrality, in 1793 redescribes it as having been made by the Father of his Country, then at the apogee of his moral greatness! On this we pause in absolute stupefaction.
We actually scratch our heads, if Mr. Seward will permit so homely an illustration, in perplexity.
We know exactly what Washington's position was in 1793, or thereabouts.
He was sixty one years of age, at the end of the first term of his Presidency, about to be a candidate again, or just elected — as close to the affliction of the people as ever he was — and with his "moral greatness" as pure and fresh as ever.
What on earth does Mr. Seward mean by saying he was at any sort of apogee? " "Apogee," our dictionaries tell us, means the most distant point reached by the sun, or any planet i
Words of Wisdom.
--In a sermon of the celebrated Scottish divine, Dr. Blair, delivered in Edinburgh on a National Fast Day in 1793.
occurs the following paragraph, which is as true now as it was then, and which is well worthy the consideration of Southern men at this time:
"But while we duly value this high advantage of the liberty of the press, and the freedom of political discussion, and when we behold it perpetually acting as a censorial check on all who are in power, let us beware lest abusing our liberty we suffer it to degenerate into licentiousness.
The multitude, we well know, are always prone to find fault with those who are set over them, and to arraign their conduct; and too often this spirit appears when public dangers ought to silence the voice of discontent, and to unite every heart and hand in the common cause.
The management of a great empire, especially in difficult times, is the conduct of an unwieldy and intricate machine in direction, the movements of
nue their operations, simply because they were ruined by arbitrary requisitions, and could not. So the Convention took matters into their own hands, and themselves undertook to feed 630,000 people — that being the population of Paris.
Our legislators propose to adopt this system most vigorously. --If they will only enact a few hundred portable guillotines into existence, and send them around to enforce the maximum, they will, no doubt, bring Richmond into the same condition that Paris was in 1793.
It takes time, however, to ruin a country.
We doubt whether this can be done before the winter.
The Convention took all the pensions (boarding houses) into their own hands and put a maximum upon them.
This example is sedulously followed by our Legislature.
They have determined that board shall not exceed a certain sum per month.
This is all right, all patriotic, all just.
One hundred dollars in the Memminger assignats will bring just ten dollars in specie or sterling bills.
It is
the Constitution slavery existed in all the States but one, yet the unerring law of race allowed no doubt that its final resting place would be in the Southern States.
To provide for its safety and protection was a plain and obvious duty.
Provisions were accordingly inserted in the Constitution, which were deemed ample and sufficient, and the pride for them cheerfully paid, in power over commerce and navigation.
Notwithstanding all which, at the first Congress agitation began.
The act of 1793, known as the fugitive slave act, was passed to vitalize the clause of the Constitution authorizing the return of fugitive slaves.
Gen. Washington was the first to claim the benefit of it, but he gave up his claim sooner than provoke the howl which was about to be raised by the fanatics of Massachusetts.
And he, the Father of his Country and the President of the United States, was denied the benefit of a clause of the Constitution and of an act of Congress intended to give it effect.
A
t and take all the ships of war lying there in a time of profound peace as the English served the Danish fleet at Copenhagen.
This is not exactly a case in point, except in so far as it was a prenatural act, for the ships taken at Copenhagen were Danish ships, not lying in a neutral port.
But Yankeedom need not despair of being able to justify any atrocity by English example.
They will and the precedent they seek in the of the French frigate Modeste.
The took place in the harbor of in 1793, at a time when Genoa was still an independent republic, but very feable, and altogether incapable of evening the insult offered to her flag.
The was not only anchored in the of Genes, but she was moored alongside of the quay.
On the 15th of October. three English ships-of-the-line and two frigates anchored in the port, and one of them moored alongside of the The master of the English ship civil requested the officer on the look of the Modeste to remove a boat which was in the way of hi
