chief magistrate of the state, as well as exacted due regard to the rights of the people. And if the alarming doctrines and arbitrary measures of the lieutenant governour, have exposed him to merited censure, its suppression would have been an abandonment of the constitution, of the liberty of the citizen and the sovereignty of the state.

The various reports and resolutions of the legislature on the system of policy adopted by Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, towards France and England, were demanded by the ruinous experiments and delusive pretensions of our cabinet. The coolness, firmness, candour and dignity of these legislative declarations of our rights, discover great minds intent on great ends. In their memorial to Congress and address to the people, they exhibit none of that petty spirit of complaint, whose wrong's are satisfied by petulance and invective, but that sober sense of justice, which first measures its claims, and then insists on their unequicqcal admission.

It will be readily perceived by all discerning men, that the counsels of our legislature have already checked the mad career of a cabinet, which had no guide but its fears and prejudices, and a second time roused our country to a resistance against oppression, which we trust in God will secure our liberty.

LIEUT. GOVERNOUR'S SPEECH.

Gentlemen of the Senate, and

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,

THE peculiar circumstances under which we have assembled, call for a serious direction of our thoughts to that Being, in whose hands are the destinies of men and nations. The aspect of our publick affairs imposes on all the duty of patience and circumspection in their investigations and their actions. Our best exertions for the general welfare are now necessary. The known patriotism of the people of Massach pledge for the display of these virtues on ck emergency. How far existing or threatened evils may be provided against, or endangered rights be secured, by any agency constitutionally confided to their State Legislature, are, at the present moment, considerations of the most interesting nature.

That afflicting Providence, which has deprived you and your fellow citizens of the assistance and experience of him who was selected by their suffrages to discharge the important duties of Chief Magistrate, can be felt and lamented by none more sincerely than by myself. This event having constitutionally devolved on me these duties; as a substitution to his

B

talents and his experience, you may rest assured, for the residue of the year, of my solicitude, assiduity and best endeavours to promote what, from my own convictions, shall appear most conducive to the good of the whole. On this occasion, to repeat the prescribed oaths, which I have already taken, would be but the avowals of my political sentiments. The national and the state constitution contain them. The fair and obvious construction of these instruments, in the sense in which I shall be convinced they were intended to be understood, will furnish my rule of action, wherever they can apply. The outlines of our respective relations and duties are there to be found. My inexperience in legislative business will, I fear, be thought too often to call for your indulgence and candour. If, instructed by the constitution and the law, and sincerely aiming to adhere to their provisions, and to advance the general interest and harmony among the citizens, there should unhappily be a difference of opinion between the different departments of government, as to the means of their application, it can be no just cause of uneasiness or distrust among us.

The New England states have been represented, to their injury and to the injury of the United States, as distracted with divisions, prepared for opposition to the authority of the law, and ripening for a seces-sion from the Union. Anxieties at suggestions or apprehensions of this kind have been expressed on the floor of Congress Such suggestions we trust are unfounded. Our enemies alone could have made them. It is to be lamented that any colour has ever been furnished for such alarms. It cannot be concealed that in this state, existing difficulties, and the apparent indications of greater ones, have produced instances of excitement, violence and indiscretion, which form serious claims on our attention. Could

legislators be agreed, would be tranquillized from without. Would not ach an achievement be worthy an united effort, and reward the labours of a

3

whole session? The times call for union, confidence and mutual forbearance and accommodation. Will not a recollection of some prominent principles and facts in our history, with a legislative example, have this tendency, among our citizens? May we not avail ourselves of this opportunity to review, in a summary manner, the situation in which we are placed, and the dangers to which we are exposed?

If ever a forgetfulness of past dissentions, and joint efforts for the common interest, were necessary, they are so at this moment. Will not each citizen determine for himself, that no personal gratification shall stand in the way of any arrangement, which will concentrate the general will, and direct its strength for our country's safety? For one I am prepared for this measure of accord and devotion to the exigency of the crisis, or my heart deceives me. Union is every thing; it is our strength, our numbers, our resources. If we must have conflicts, let them be with foreign enemies. If war, let it be by the whole people, as one man, in defence of their violated rights. Let not a particle of our means be wasted in party or individual contentions.

It cannot be necessary, nor would it be beneficial, to review in detail the continued aggravated injuries and insults which have been heaped upon us by the warring powers of Europe. The aggregate of our wrongs have been great indeed. The countervailing measures of our national government, produced by these aggressions, are generally known. The recent communications of publick documents, and the able and repeated disquisitions on these topicks, as published to the world, explain principles and facts beyond the utility of further elucidation.

Although our commercial intercourse and national defence is, from necessity and the soundest policy, confined to the United States, yet it is not unbecoming any member of the Union, to add its concurring energies to national measures, or, with fairness and moderation, to question their justness or policy, while

they are pending and ripening for adoption. But with governments as with individuals, there are stages when questions can no longer be usefully open to controversy and opposition; stages when an end must be put to debate, and a decision thence resulting be respected by its prompt and faithful execution, or government loses its existence, and the people are ruined. Are we not in this stage of the great questions of foreign aggressions, embargo, non-intercourse, national defence, and other means of safety, deemed necessary by those intrusted with the final disposal of these objects? A balanced government and its authorities, capable only of executing the deliberate volitions of a real majority of the citizens, constituted and directed by known and fixed principles, established by and proceeding from themselves, is so safe, so reasonable, and so beyond every thing else essential to their own liberty and happiness, that its hazard or interruption cannot be contemplated but with distress. To such a government, foreign nations, with the unprincipled and desperate, may be hostile; but our virtuous citizens, sensible of its blessings, will yield to any sacrifice for its support. At no times has its administration, however wise and happy, been satisfactory to all our citizens. This was not to be expected. Its impartiality, justice, forbearance and pacifick policy have been no securi

against violence, injustice and depredation on our rights of person, property and sovereignty by the belligerents. Acts of insult, rapine and plunder have been multiplied upon us and pressed us to the very wall. Does further retreat and much further forbearance consist with the spirit and genius of Americans? Yet we trust the continuance of peace, with its inestimable blessings, is not altogether hopeless. The aggressing nations may yet be made to listen to the dictates of their own interest, and spare us the dreaded calamities of war. If not, there is a point in national sensibility, as in the feelings of man, where patience and submission end. Beyond this is