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VOL. II.)
ATHENS, GEORGIA: PRINTED BY ALEXANDER M‘DCNNELL, SATURDAY, JUNE I*7, 1809.
TERMS
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Walnut Grove —Mr. Lee Atkins.
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Madijon —James G. Sims, Efq.
Gresnesboro* —Capt. T. Dawfon.
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Petersburg —Alex. Pope, Efq. &
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Vienna —S. B. Shields, Efq.
Wilkes —David Terrell, Efq. 3c
Dobtor Bibb.
Lincoln —Captain N. Allen, and
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Lcuifville~~ MtfT. Day Si Whee
ler.
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Debtor Smelt.
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\ *Y-
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ger, and Mr. A. W. Scribner.
THE
inadmissible p rinciples.
OF THI
KING OF ENGLAND’S
PROCLAMATION.
cf 08. n, 1807 — Ccnfidered.
( Continued. )
Thxfßlo v/, when he was Chancel
lor, hazarded a faying to a commit
tee of the city cf London, that the
practice of imprelTment of fearaen
Rvas legal; but the committee anf
•ttfered him lefpebtfuily, but firmly,
Iho* in the prefence of the king in
council— * We acknowledge the
Stngh authority of your Lordfifip’s
opinion, but we mu ft declare that
we are of a very different opinion
and their anfv/er appeared to be ap
plauded by the nation. PrefT
gangs are continually oppefed and
refitted st fes, by the lailorr, when
ever they have the means or the
IciO: hope or efcaping. Navy offi
cers and men art fomedmes killed,
and there is no inquifition for their
•b £>cd. As lie tie r-cife as pcfucle is
GEORGI A EXPRES S.
MANY SHALL RUN T J AN O FRO, AND KNOWLEDGE SKALL BE INCREASED.
made about it. It is known to be
justifiable homicide to take the life
cf an yfiailant in the neccfiary de
fence of a man’s liberty. There is
nr l a jury in England who would
tiiid a verdidt of murder or man
flaughier againftany failor, on land
or at lea, who ihould kill any one
of the prefif gang in the necefifarv
defence cf his liberty from imprefif
nient. Prr/T-gangs on iliore are
often refitted by the people, fired
on, forne of them wounded, fome
times killed. Yet no inquifition is
made for this. The praflice is
held in abhorrence* by the men of
war’s men chcrnfdvesf. The boat
fwain of the Rofe frigate, after the
acquittal of the four Irifh Jailors
who were profccutcd in a fpecia!
court of Admiralty at Bcftnn, for
killing a gallant and amiable officer,
Lieutenant Panton, faid, <c This \i
a kind of work in which I have been
aUnofl coiifiantlv engaged for twen
tv years, i. e. in fighting with ho
ne ft faiiors for their liberty ; I have
always fufpe&td that I ought co be
hanged for it, but now I know ir.”
Since 1 have alluded to this cafe, i:
may not be amifs to recoiled feme
other circucnflances of it.
A prefs gang from the Rote,
commanded by Lent. Panton, with
a nrdfhipman and a number of or
dinary feamen, vifited and fearched
a merchant fhip from Marblehesd,
belonging n Mr. Hooper, a: fea.
The lieutenant enquired if any En
-110), Irifh or Scotchmen were on
board ? Not fatisfied with the
fwer he received, he prepared ro
fearch the fhip from firm fo Bern.
At Safi lie found four Irifh men re
tired and concealed in the forepeak.
With fwords and piilois he imme
diately laid fifige to the enclofurc
and fummoned the men to Surren
der. Corbett, who had the cool in
trepidity of a Nelfon, reafoned, re
monflrated, and laid down the law
with the precifion of a Mansfield.
“I know who you are. You are
the lieutenant of a man of war. come
with a preiT-gang to deprive me of
my liberty. You have no right to
imprefs me. I have retreated from
you as far as 1 can j I can go no
farther. I and my companions are
determined to ftand upon our de
fence—Stand eft” The failors
within and without employed their
ufiual language to each other, and a
midfhipman, in the confufion, fired
a p:ftol into the forepeak, and broke
an arm of one of the four. Corbett,
who flood at the entrance, was en
gaged in a conteft of menaces ard
defiances wkh the lieutenant. He
repeated what he had before faid,
and marking a line with a harpoon
in the fait, with which the fhip was
loaded, faid— <c You are determined
to deprive me of my liberty, and I
am determined ro defend it. If you
flep over that line, I fhall confider
it as a proof that you are determin
ed to imprefs me, and by the eternal
God of Heaven, you are a dead
man,” t( Aye, tiy lad,” faid the
lieutenant, “ I have feen many a
brave fellow before now.” Taking
his fr.ufT box out of his pocket, and
ir king a pinch of fnufr, he very de
liberately Hepped over the line and
attempted to feize Corbett. The
latter, drawing back his arm, and
driving his harpoon with all his
Dree, cut off the carotid artery and
jugular vein, and laid the lieutenant
dead at his feet. The Rofe lent a
reinforcement to the preff gang ;
broke clown the bulk-head, and
feized the four Irifh men, and bro’c
them to trial for piracy and mur
der. The Court confifted of Go
vernor Bernard, Governor Went
worth, Chief Juftice HiitbMnfon,
Judge Achmucy, Com. Flood him -
felf, who then commanded all the
fhips cf war on the Ration, now a
Peer of the Britifh Empise, and
twelve or fifteen others, counfiTors
of Maflachufetrs, Ne.v-Hamplbire
and Rhode-Hand. After the trial,
the Erefidenr, Governor Bernard,
pronounced the judgment of the
tpyrf, that the action of theprifon
trs was j’ufhfiible homicide, and in
this opinion the whole court was
unanimous. The fad or who was
wounded in the arm, brought an
aftion again 11 the midfhipman, and
commodore Hood himfdf inter
pofed and made compenfation to
the failor, to his fatisfadfcion, after
which the action was withdrawn.-
Such was the imprdThnent of La
men, as it flood, by law, before our
revolution.—The author #fmy text
then, cairits his courtly cunaplai
fance to the Englifh government,
farther than tl : r Governors Bernard
and Hutchinlon, and even than
Lord Hood carried it, when we
were a part of the Britifh empire.—
He thinks, that, as every nation has
a right to the fervj.ee of its fubjrbE,
in time of war, the proclamation ef
the king of Great Britain, command
ing his naval officers to practice fucll
imprefTaientsen hoard, not the vtflels
of his own fubjeds, but of the Uni
ted States,a foreign nation, could not
furnilh the filghtefl ground Hr an
embargo ! It is not neceflfary for me
to fay, that any thing could furndh
a fufficient ground for an embargo*
for any long time; this, I leave to
the refponfibility of our Prefidenr,
Senators and Reprefentativts in Con
grefs. But, I fay, with confidence,
that it furmlhed a fufficient ground
for a dtclaration of war. Not the
murder of Pierce, nor aii the mur
der on board the Chefapeake, nor all
the other injuries and iafults vre have
received from foreign nations, atro
cious as they have been, can be of
fuch dangerous, hfting and perni
cious confequence to this country,
as this proclamation, if we have ier
\ility enough to fubmit to ir.
What would the author of my
text have advised ? Would lie coun
t'd the Prefident to ftioulare in a
treaty wirh Great Britain, that his na
vy officers fiiGuld forever hereafter
have a right to vifit all American
merchant fh'ps, and imprefs frosn
them all Enghlh, Scotch and Irifh
feamen ? Will he be fo good as to
explain the distiod.ion between fh :pa
of w-ar and merchant fhips ? Are
not merchant fnips under the jurif
didlion and entitled to the protection
of the laws of their country upon the
high Teas, 2s much as fhips of war ?
Is not a merchant fhip as much the
territory of the United States as a
lhip of war ?—Would the author' 0 ;
my text adviie the prefident?
Corgrcis to £( quiesce,in filenci
der this proclamation, and permfi v t ■,
t® be executed forever hereaft*
W ould net fuch a fame and filen-'W \
quiefcence as t ffeJlually yif to 4 1
point and cftablifh the practifiv. J
net tie law, as an ex prefs ftipulafihn
in a folernn treaty ? If the United ■
States had as powerful .1 navy as
Great Britain, and Great Britain as
feeble a force at fea as ours, would
he adviie the Prefident either to con
cede the principle by treaty or ac
quiesce in it by fdence ? Does the
circumfi ance of great power or great
weaknels marc* anv aitera'ion ?n rhe
principle or the right r Should the
captain or crew of an American
merchantman refill a Britifh prels
gang on the high fees, and in defence
of ilieir liberty, kill the commander
and ail under Mm, and then mike
their efcape, and after returning to
Salem be prolecuterl, would the wri
ter of ray text, as a judge or a juror,
give his judgment for finding “them
guilty of murder or piraev p Al
though the embargo was made the
watchword in our late elections, the
voter, in our great nurfcries of fia
men, for example, Salem, in Mir-,
blehead, in Barnfcable, Sasdwich and
other places on Cape Cud, in Nan
tucket and tne ‘Vineyard and other
places, feemed to’fhew, that our fea
men preferred to be embargoed, ra.fi
er than go to fea to be impreffed.
No doubt, it will be faid, we
have nothing rodo with the qc-fticn
in England, concerning *:he. legality,
or illegality of kuprefTmenfs. This,
as long as the; ‘con fine the !.w and
the praftfee ;o -v,. - o
to their own fhfi.-? :r;
feamen is p•:id i!y ,• <- v;•. ■■ :et g-,j.
We /hail It them to juflify their
own uf’,)p. , whether it 1?. a mere a
bufeor cufiom to their
own confciencrs, to their own f.T.fo
of equity, humanity, or policy.—
But when they arr aright, r.A
prefurne, in fad, to irafMei ckeir
tifurpation to foreign nations, or
rather Americans, whom they pre
fume to diflingiiilh from all other
foreign nations, it becomes fine in
tereft, the right, and the iodilpenfi
bic duty of our government to en
quire into the nefarious nature of it
in England, in order to expole the
greater turpitude of it, when traeii -
fsrred tp us, as well ns to eppofe
and refill it to the utmofit of their
power; and it is equally the duty of
the people to fupport their govern
ment in luch oppofiiion to the lafifc
extremity.
Permit me row to enquire, what
v/iil be the effefls of an efcablifhed
law and practice of Britifh imprefi
ment3 or fearnen from American
fhips, up-3n the commerce, the na
vigation and peace of the Unkedi
biatcs, Gj, above ail, upon the hearts
and minds of our feamen.
In conlidering thoie innumerable
dangers, from winds and fees, r/k *
ana ihoals, ro which ail fru; / air
txpofied, in their voyager., thfi own -
er and mafler r/wtfl fit dovfi o**.-*-
tner, moteierto d-rc ; m} r hr nmn
ber of feamen ne; eflliry/l >r *he voy
age. They taud cah.ula-;e r'j't
(No. cC.