No. 13.
BOSTON, _May_ 5, 1809.
SIR: Although the recent changes that have occurred quiet all
apprehension of war, and, consequently, lessen all hope of a
separation of the States, I think it necessary to transmit by
the mail of each week a sketch of passing events.
On local politics I have nothing to add; and as the parade
that is made in the National Intelligencer of the sincere
disposition of Mr. Madison to preserve amicable relations with
Great Britain is, in my opinion, calculated to awaken vigilance
and distrust, rather than inspire confidence, I shall (having
nothing more important to write about) take leave to examine
his motives.
I am not surprised at his conditional removal of the
non-intercourse law, with respect to Great Britain, because
it was made incumbent on him by the act of Congress; but the
observations made on his friendly disposition towards Great
Britain is a matter of no little astonishment. The whole tenor
of his political life directly and unequivocally contradicts
them. His speech on the British Treaty in 1796; his attempt to
pass a law for the confiscation of "British debts" and British
property; his commercial resolutions, grounded apparently
on an idea of making America useful as a colony to France;
his conduct while Secretary of State; all form an assemblage
of probabilities tending to convince me, at least, that he
does not seriously desire a treaty in which the rights and
pretensions of Great Britain would be fairly recognized. It
seems impossible that he should at once divest himself of
his habitual animosity, and that pride of opinion which his
present situation enables him to indulge; but, above all, that
he should deprive his friends and supporters of the benefit
of those prejudices which have been carefully fostered in the
minds of the common people towards England, and which have so
materially contributed to invigorate and augment the Democratic
party. Whatever his real motives may be, it is, in this stage
of the affair, harmless enough to inquire into the cause of
the apparent change. He probably acts under a conviction that,
in the present temper of the Eastern States, a war could not
fail to produce a dissolution of the Union; or he may have
profited by the mistakes of his predecessor, and is inclined
to seize the present opportunity to prove to the world that he
is determined to be the President of a nation, rather than the
head of a faction; or he has probably gone thus far to remove
the impression on the minds of many that he was under the
influence of France, in order that he may, with a better grace,
and on more tenable grounds, quarrel with Great Britain in the
progress of negotiating a treaty. Whatever his motives may be,
I am very certain his party will not support him in any manly
and generous policy. Weak men are sure to temporize when great
events call upon them for decision, and are sluggish and inert
at the moment when the worst of evils is in action. This is the
character of the Democrats in the Northern States. Of those of
the South I know but little. I am, &c.