To avoid these calamities, our hope rests upon the moderation of character and monopoly. The extent of this moderation, is equivalent to that exhibited by the invocation, required of their subjects by Persian monarchs. Charters command their subjects to exclaim, "Oh, monopoly! live as long as the law pleases." If the law can bestow existence for one year, it may for a million. It may give perpetual life to whatever metaphysical being it can create; and charter is so moderate, as to claim a right to live out the whole life allowed by law. Once created, it pretends to independence of its God, law; to independence of law's God, constitution; and to independence of constitution's God, the nation. . . . In all ages beings have been invented, which contend that man was made for them, and not they for him. Having both escaped from his service, and converted him into their servant, they invest themselves with a drapery of glittering fictions, to dazzle him into submission. Hierarchy, though always defended by whatever could inspire reverence, and often dressed in the robes of religion, has at length fallen before the solid principle, "that civil institutions belong to nations and that nations do not belong to civil institutions;" whilst avarice presumes to assert the reverse of this doctrine, which religion was unable to defend. It pretends that man was created for law charters, tho' not for law churches; and that it is equally a sacrilege to discontinue the former, as to revive the latter. Thus parties and factions measure their principles by their interest, and assert or deny the same proposition, like lawyers for fees. Hence they censure their predecessors for obtaining wealth, in modes which they use themselves, and pretend to be guided by different principles, whilst they worship at the same shrine. After a patient trial of charter privilege and monopoly for three thousand years, almost at the moment they are rejected as poison to civil and religious liberty, we are told that they are wholesome aliment for commerce. It is not surprising that self-interest should tell us this; but it is, that self-interest should believe it, and recommence the fairest, most patient, and most expensive experiment which was ever made. After another tedious term of rueful experience, monopoly will again exclaim, that it confessesitself to be pernicious, when applied to commerce and credit, just as it now confesses the same thing, in relation to religion and civil power, but that in some new form it is a blessing; and the experiment ought then, with as much reason as now, to be recommenced. What! exclaims both the friend and the foe, to publick good; shall we have no corporations, no colleges, no turnpikes, no canals, because they are separate interests? Do not charter and privilege strew the face of a country with palaces and plenty? Yes, and with huts and penury. John Taylor, An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government (Fredericksburg, 1814), 310327 passim. 20. Successful Operations of a By GEORGE COggeshall Author of a notable book on American privateers, in whose exploits he himself took part. THE Leo was a fine Baltimore built vessel of 320 tóns, a remarkably fast sailer, and in every respect a superior vessel. She was lying in the harbor of L'Orient on the Ist of November, 1814, and was then owned by Thomas Lewis, Esq., an American gentleman residing in Bordeaux. On the 2d of November, she was purchased by an association of American gentlemen (then in France), placed under my command, and her commission as a letter-of-marque endorsed over to me under the sanction of the Hon. William H. Crawford, who was at the time our minister at Paris. It was determined that I should make a short cruise for the purpose of capturing a few prizes from the enemy, and then proceed to Charleston for a cargo of cotton, and return as soon as possible to France. I got ready for sea on the 6th of November. My crew, including the officers and marines, numbered about one hundred souls, and a better set of officers and men never left the port of L'Orient. But we were miserably armed; we had, when I first took the command of the schooner, one long brass 12-pounder, and four small 4-pounders, with some fifty or sixty poor muskets. Those concerned in the vessel seemed. to think we ought, with so many men, to capture prizes enough, even without guns. With this miserable armament I was now ready for sea, and only waiting for my papers from Paris. I was ordered by the public authorities to return into port and disarm the vessel. I was compelled to obey the order, and accordingly waited on the commanding officer, and told him it was a hard case, that I should not be allowed arms enough to defend the vessel against boats. He politely told me he was sorry, but that he must obey the orders of the government, and that I must take out all the guns except one, and at the same time laughingly observed that one gun was enough to take a dozen English ships before I got to Charleston. I of course kept the long 12-pounder, and in the night smuggled on board some twenty or thirty muskets. In this situation I left the port of L'Orient, on the 8th of November, 1814, and stood out to sea in the hope of capturing a few prizes. After getting to sea we rubbed up the muskets, and with this feeble armament steered for the chops of the British Channel. . . . It is true my officers and men were always ready to board an enemy of three times our force; but, in a high sea, if one of these delicately Baltimore-built vessels should come in contact with a large strong ship, the schooner would inevitably be crushed and sunk. For this reason, I was compelled to let one large English ship with twelve guns escape while in the English Channel, because the weather was too rough to board her. Nov. 13th. At 7 ditto she set English colors; gave her a gun, when she struck her flag. She proved to be an English brig from Leghorn, bound up the Channel. It now commenced blowing a strong breeze from the N.W., and soon. there was a high sea running. Saw a large ship steering up the Channel; left the prize, made sail in chase of her. At 10 A.M. she set English colors, and fired a gun. Had the weather been smooth, I think we could have carried her by boarding in fifteen minutes, or had I met her at sea, I would have followed her until the weather was better, and the sea smooth: but being now in the English Channel with a high sea, it would have destroyed my schooner if she had come in contact with this wall-sided ship. She showed |