444 



ANNUAL REGISTiER, 1S13. 



deem it expedient to reserve, for 

 the present, the fixing of the time 

 when that ceremony shall take 

 place, in the pleasing expectation 

 liiat in the course of a few weeks 

 we shall be able to announce to 

 the nation, and also to submit to 

 our beloved fellow-countrymen, a 

 constitution, which, under a mo- 

 narchical form, which they them- 

 selves have chosen, may secure to 

 them their morals, their personal 

 rights and privileges — in one word, 

 tlieir ancient freedom. In the 

 mean time we cannot longer delay 

 taking the reins of government 

 into our own hands, and charging 

 ourselves with the immediate di- 

 rection of the affairs of the state. 



We, therefore, now declare, that 

 the hitherto subsisting general go- 

 vernment of the United Nether- 

 lands is this day dissolved, and 

 that henceforth no one can or may 

 make any order or regulation of 

 binding force, but in as far as it 

 has emanated from us, or from 

 magistrates appointed and commis- 

 sioned by us. 



Washington, Dec. 7. 



This day, at twelve, the Presi- 

 dent of the Uiiited States trans- 

 mitted the following message to 

 both houses of Congress, by Mr. 

 Coles, his private secretary: — 



. Fellow-Citizens of the Senate, 

 and of the House of Re- 

 presentatives, 

 In meeting you at the present in- 

 teresting conjuncture, it would have 

 been highly satisfactory if I could 

 have communicated a favourable 

 result of the mission charged with 

 negociations for restoring peace. 

 It was a just expectation from the 



respect due to the distinguisfied 

 sovereign who had invited them 

 by his offer of mediation — from 

 the readiness with which the invi' 

 tation was accepted on the part of 

 the United States — and from the 

 pledge tr. be found in an act of their 

 legislature for the liberality which 

 their plenipotentiaries would carry 

 into the negociations, that no time 

 would be lost by the British go- 

 vernment in embracing the expe- 

 riment for hastening a stop to the 

 effusion of blood. A prompt and 

 cordial acceptance of the mediation 

 on that side was the less to be 

 doubted, as it was of a nature not 

 to submit rights or pretensions on 

 either side to the decision of an 

 umpire, but to afford irterel)' an 

 opportunity honourable and desir- 

 able to both, for discussing and, 

 if possible, adjusting them for the 

 interest of both. 



The British cabinet, either mis- 

 taking our desire of peace for a 

 dread of British power, or misled 

 by other fallacious calculations, has 

 disappointed this reasonable anti- 

 cipation. No communication from 

 our envoys having reached us, no 

 information on the subject has been 

 received from that source; but it is 

 known that the mediation was de- 

 clined in the first instance, and 

 there is no evidence, notwithstand- 

 ing the lapse of time, that a change 

 of disposition in the British coun- 

 cils has taken place, or is to be 

 expected. 



Under such circumstances, a na- 

 tion proud of its rights, and con- 

 scious of its strength, has no choice 

 but an exertion of the one in sup- 

 port of the other. 



'To this determination, the best 

 encouragement is derived, from the 

 success with which it has pleased 

 the Almighty to bless our arms, 



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