We believe no more in Bonaparte's fighting merely for the
liberty of the seas, than in Great Britain's fighting for the liberties
of mankind. The object of both is the same, to draw to themselves the
power, the wealth, and the resources of other nations. We resist the
enterprises of England first, because they first come vitally home to
us. And our feelings repel the logic of bearing the lash of George the
III. for fear of that of Bonaparte at some future day. When the wrongs
of France shall reach us with equal effect, we shall resist them
also. But one at a time is enough: and having offered a choice to the
champions, England first takes up the gauntlet.
The English newspapers suppose me the personal enemy of their nation. I
am not so. I am an enemy to its injuries, as I am to those of France. If
I could permit myself to have national partialities, and if the conduct
of England would have permitted them to be directed towards her,
they would have been so. I thought that, in the administration of Mr.
Addington, I discovered some dispositions towards justice, and even
friendship and respect for us, and began to pave the way for cherishing
these dispositions, and improving them into ties of mutual good will.
But we had then a federal minister there, whose dispositions to believe
himself, and to inspire others with a belief, in our sincerity, his
subsequent conduct has brought into doubt; and poor Merry, the English
minister here, had learned nothing of diplomacy but its suspicions,
without head enough to distinguish when they were misplaced.
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