Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

VOL. II.) ATHENS, GEORGIA: PRINTED BY ALEXANDER M‘DCNNELL, SATURDAY, JUNE I*7, 1809. TERMS OF THE GEORGIA EXPRESS. i. IT will be printed weekly, zt | three dollars per annum; one half I to be paid in advance, the remainder | sc the expiration of fix months. fi i. Advertifemcnts will be charg- Kd at the race of fixry-cwo and a “'hair cents per fquare for the firfh kinfertion, and fifty cents for each I continuation. 3\ No papers will be difconiir.u- I erl without a notice to that cffcd; : mix’ then if in arrears. \CJ* All letters dire fled to the Editor muff be poll paid. The following Gentlemen eve autho rized to receive Subfcr ip lions for tins Taper :— Clarksboro'— Pod- Matter. ‘Jefferf on — Maj. Edwin L. Harris. fVatkinfv'dle —E. B. Jenkins, efq. and Mr. Edward Bond. Lexington —Poft Mafler, & Capt. Wotkins. Oglethorpe —Mr. Samuel Shields, and William Lumpkins, Efq. Walnut Grove —Mr. Lee Atkins. Goofe-pond —Mr. H. T. Woody. Madijon —James G. Sims, Efq. Gresnesboro* —Capt. T. Dawfon. Sparta —Dock or W. Terrell. Warren! on —Pofl- M after. Po ist si ton —-Foil-M a fte r. Mil kdgeville —J aanes Bo ze man, ■Efq. iLatenton— -Chriftopher B. Strong, . Efq. Tibertm —Col. Wm. Chiflom. Petersburg —Alex. Pope, Efq. & DO6L Watkins. Vienna —S. B. Shields, Efq. Wilkes —David Terrell, Efq. 3c Dobtor Bibb. Lincoln —Captain N. Allen, and Capt. John Hughes. Lcuifville~~ MtfT. Day Si Whee ler. Augujla —J. S. Walker, Efq. & Debtor Smelt. Waynesboro* —Col. John Davids. Sanderfville —Mr. Wm. iVTMur \ *Y- Savannah —Mr. FT. H. Moun 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.