Philo Camillus No. I, [27 July 1795]
Philo Camillus No. I1
[New York, July 27, 1795]
For The Argus
Camillus has stated truly, that Denmark Sweden and the U States acted upon the same principle in their resistance to the attacks of Great Britain upon their neutrality.2 But it would have been useful to have entered into a little more detail. Denmark and Sweden equipped each a fleet and negotiated under the influence of this demonstration of their eventual intent. The UStates had not the means of equipping expeditiously a fleet, though they did not intirely neglect this object, but they resolved to fortify their ports,3 to fill their magazines and arsenals,4 to detach and organize a large body of Militia ready to be called into service,5 and together with these expedients, they laid an embargo6 and instituted a negotiation under the most solemn and impressive forms. Thus each power employed the preparatives and weapons to which its situation was adapted; and considering the relations of Great Britain to all of them, there is solid ground to conclude that the means put in action by the U States were far more influential than those employed by the two other powers. Denmark and Sweden might be counterballanced and controuled by Russia, but nothing could obviate the mischiefs of a Rupture with the U States. And it is a fact of which there were respectable eye Witnessess on the spot who are now in this Country that the measures of the U States produced much greater sensation in England than those of Denmark & Sweden united and being of a nature to excite no counteracting passions gave a strong direction to the public opinion in our favour.
Philo Camillus
ADf, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress; The [New York] Argus, or Greenleaf’s New Daily Advertiser, July 27, 1795.
1. This is the first of four essays which H wrote as supplements to the “Camillus” essays. The three subsequent “Philo Camillus” essays, dated August 7, 12, and 19, 1795, are devoted to the refutation of attacks on “Camillus” by “Cinna” (Brockholst Livingston). See the introductory note to “The Defence No. I,” July 22, 1795.
3. “An Act to provide for the Defence of certain Ports and Harbors in the United States” ( 345–46 [March 20, 1794]).
4. “An Act to provide for the erecting and repairing of Arsenals and Magazines, and for other purposes” ( 352 [April 2, 1794]).
5. “An Act providing for raising and organizing a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers” ( 366–67 [May 9, 1794]) and “An Act directing a Detachment from the Militia of the United States” ( 367–68 [May 9, 1794]).
6. On March 26, 1794, Congress adopted a resolution laying an embargo on all ships and vessels for thirty days. On April 18, 1794, the embargo was extended for another thirty days ( 400, 401).