Sunday, December 29, 2013

Death of Benjamin Stoddert of Bladensburgh, Maryland, reported in New York Evening Post, Dec. 27, 1813

From our correspondent,
Washington, Dec 22.

               You will perceive on reading the Message of the President recommending an Embargo, that embraces other subjects to which he calls the attention of Congress. These will in their season be for the deliberation of the National Legislature, and will very probably become features in the restrictive system which is to hang over this country like a deadly incubus. An important era in the history of the Senate is about to be developed, and let me inform you, it is here understood that Executive measures must prevail. Hence an Embargo with rigid provision has been enlisted, not in pursuance with the judgment of the Senate, but according to Executive requisition.

               The only circumstance that has happened in the neighbourhood [sic], worthy of remark, is the death of Mister Stoddert, the first secretary of the Navy. He was universally known in this country, and is universally esteemed a great and good man. He died at Bladensburgh [sic] on last Saturday morning. On the evening before he retired to rest in his usual health - at 12 o'clock he was seized with what is usually termed a cholic in the stomach, and died about 1 o'clock in the morning.[1]



[1] The Evening Post.; Date: 12-27-1813; Page: [2]; Location: New York, New York
Transcribed by John Peter Thompson December 29, 2013.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

US Immigration and Naturalization Policy Debate, Dec 1, 1813


FROM THE STANDARDS OF UNION.
______________

A POINT OF CONTROVERSY.

               It now behoves the United States to repeal their naturalization laws, or in a solemn manner to maintain their validity. While they remain on the statute book, and form a part of the law of the land, it would be disgraceful to submit to their violation. If they are just in point of principle, they ought to be defended. If wrong, they should be instantly revoked; and then, that subject of contention with Great Britain would be removed. It is very extraordinary circumstance, that England who accepts and courts the services of the subjects of other nations, should be so Stern in enforcing an opposite rule against them. An American or a Dane, serves two years in the British Navy, is thereby ipso facto, naturalized; but an Englishman regularly naturalized in the United States, if taken in their service, is liable to be hung.

               The question before us is a very important one. It possesses extensive relations in peace as well as in war. If naturalization is not valid, the natives of the British dominions cannot become American citizens, neither can they be entitled to hold ships, pursue trade, or perform any other act in that character.

               We hold the right of immigration to be a law inseparable from our nature, and as ancient as civilization itself. - That it was recognized by the Roman Republic, sufficiently appears by the Plotian law, and the celebrated orations of Cicero, pro Archias. Contrary doctrines, principally spraying, from the system of feudal vassalage and cannot be sanctioned by states, whose institutes are founded on the universal law of nature and of nations. This is a subject that deserves an able and accurate discussion.

               We are happy to see our government retaliate in a manner that will eventually ensure safety to the person of our naturalized fellow citizens and cause their rights to be respected. The principle must be settled by the maxims of justice, and not by the arrogant despotism of a British cabinet.







Headline: From the Standard of Union. A Point of Controversy; Article Type: News/Opinion
Paper: Baltimore Patriot, published as Baltimore Patriot & Evening Advertiser.; Date: 12-01-1813; Volume: 2; Issue: 125; Page: [2]; Location: Baltimore, Maryland