“For Liberty Hall”

Date

1-1-1812

Newspaper

Liberty Hall

Page and Column

Page 2, Column 2 and 3

Newspaper Location

Cincinnati, Ohio

Serial Number

36

Abstract

Long article that speculates on the origins of the December 16, 1811 earthquake.

Transcript

FOR LIBERTY HALL. Gentlemen-In your paper on the 18th of Dec. I notice some remarks upon the Earthquake recently felt in this and many other parts of our western country; but principally relating to the periods of its happening; closing with a very judicions advice, calculated to quiet the alarms of those who seem to dread its return with fatal consequences. Like every other phenomenon, this, in course, will stand in the list of miracles, until its cause and operation are better understood. Then, and not till then, is it to be reasonably presumed that immoderate fears will subside, and the Earthquake take a place amongst the other operations of nature? The whole of creation must be considered miraculous, and so all its parts; but since we would boast of an age enlightened and free from superstition-since we suppose every thing but the human soul composed of matter, is it not consistent with reason and the spirit of divinity to assign mechanical causes for the production of the present phenomenon? The apprehensions of dissolution will never cease to be alarming, and the mind that cannot conceive of its certainty without the admonition of an Earthquake, will become by the frequency of such phenomena, callous as it is to other effects of the elements manifesting themselves in other ways, say, by thunder, inundations, whirlwinds, hurricanes, &c. &c.-That the globe we inhabit may be thrown out of its orbit-dashed against other bodies of equal size-nay, crumbled to atoms by the hand that created it, with the same facility with which a human being may crush to pieces a common lump of earth, no one can possibly deny, or even doubt, upon any reasonable evidence. Nor has any solid reason ever afforded a question of doubt upon the existence of a first cause: but the ultimate objects of creation are as much beyond human controul. The most, then that can be said or recommended in this or any other case threatening destruction, is, that the certainty of death ought at all times to be a sufficient advice for its reception, regardless of the manner in which it may present itself, for that is indefinite. Whilst, however, we have a corporal existence, the operations of nature may be an amusing and useful source of exercise to the mind. Let it not be said that we shall never reach the end of superstition, especially as its origin and life are found in ignorance only. Immense labors have been spent upon the science of Natural Philosophy. In practice, this is neither more nor less than Chemistry; and by Chemistry every part of creation, save the human soul, as already observed; is found to consist entirely of matter existing under different forms. I am far from possessing a proper knowledge of this invaluable science; nor is it necessary to descend to its minute for the present purpose of attempting to come at the cause of an Earthquake, since that cause must originate in but one or two ways, from a definite portion, or rather application of simple or compound matter. The elements may, nevertheless, be considered as much the agent of omnipotent power, as human reason the agent of the soul; otherwise the work of salvation would be by inspiration alone, and reason, right or wrong, but the means of buffeting the world for a subsistence. This lengthy prelude may seem a digression from the subject; but as the minds of many would have the Earthquake distinctly and exclusively the forerunner of evil, it is here only wished to be shown, that it is, at most, not more so than any and every other operation of the elements. With respect then, to the Earthquake in point, the various opinions have relative thereto seem generally to concur in the possibility that it may have been produced by a combination of matter, rendered combustible within the bowels of the earth. To what extent the earth has been sensibly moved, is not yet ascertained; but to suppose the cause of its commotion to have originated in the volcanoes of Europe, the Islands, South America, or even on the shores of our own continent, and no where else, is to suppose the earth inflexibly solid in all its parts-is to suppose the commotion to have been felt equally alike from pole to pole, and the globe at every concussion divested, for the space of several minutes, of the law by which its diurnal rotation, if not also its annual. A single shock, might, in some measure, support the idea of such a cause; but the effect was a vibratory motion. It is not, however, intended to show the impossibility of the effect arising from a remote volcanic eruption; but to show, with better reason, the possibility of the cause without the aid of combustion, and consequently, within the plain we inhabit. To do this, the state of the atmosphere must be considered the leading principle. This also appears to have been a subject of general consideration; but by adverting particularly to its operation (which seems to have been altogether omitted by those with whom I have conversed on the subject) both the cause and effect are brought nearly within the same compass, and, very possibly, within the diameter of two or three hundred miles of the cause, at least within the scope of the humid state of the atmosphere at the time of the commotion. If I am not mistaken the weather had been strong and clear, with [unreadable] expectations, for days, perhaps weeks before the night of the Earthquake; of course a full and constant pressure upon the earth's surface. Without measuring the density if the atmosphere, at, immediately before, and during the commotions, it is only necessary to know, that the change from the beginning to the end was unusually great. It is easy then, to conceive of the effect, by the sudden transition of the atmosphere from a highly varefied state, and that, too, of long duration, to a perfect calm-not a torrent of rain, but the air reduced to mists and vapor.-Whatever may be the materials composing that portion of the earth within the limits of this truly languid state of fluids upon the surface, its whole composition must be susceptible of distention and contraction. The earth, considered a chemical laboratory, the materials deposited for operation, nothing was wanting but the cause of action. This is found in the hasty removal of the external pressure. The continued fluids exerting themselves for liberty; the surface of the earth, say to any depth the mind would reasonably arrive at, in some degree involuntarily expanding; the fluids rushing upon each other, whether in compound or simple forms, it is equally easy to conceive an opening at those particular parts most straitened, and the vibratory motion produced with which we have been so sensibly affected. It is very possible that some parts of the surface may have sustained a greater vibration than others: but for no other reason than the difference of their native solidity. At this place I do not suppose the vibration upon the surface to have been more than an inch. Now were our globe composed of adamant, it would be no stretch of the imagination to suppose it capable of such a distention, under similar circumstances, within the extremes of one or two hundred miles. A clear opening I do not suppose necessary, but the parts most affected to be so expanded as to render them completely porous to the surface, and thus permit the egress of the confined fluids. A portion thus imparted, a concussion of the solid parts immediately ensues, more compact than before; the other extremities being also distended, and the fluids taking advantage of the opposite concussion, disengage themselves as before; and hence the vibration visible upon the surface. But whether the imprisoned matter escapes in this manner, or subsides within the cavities of the earth as it engages and disengages itself with opposite qualities, the effect may be equally the same. To the idea, therefore, of the cause of the late commotion of the earth arising from the weight of the atmosphere being removed from the surface, I know of but one objection; it is, the possibility of the absence of that pressure affecting the motion of the globe in its orbit. But this objection is readily obviated, unless the charged atmosphere could be supposed to have occupied one half, or one fourth of the earth's circumference. As it never happens, however, that falling weather, or a change that favors it, spreads alike over a space that would bear any comparison with such an extent; so the constant tendency of the atmosphere to an equilibrium, would supply in time the partial vacuum of the comparatively narrow space of the present case, even admitting that the known laws of gravitation and attraction as affecting the earth could as well be interrupted by such a cause. I do not deny but that this supposition is practicably within the limits of possibility; but unless the boundaries of the languid air be thrown to unusual, and, therefore, unreasonable dimensions, the supposition fails of support. The subject is here hastily submitted to public notice, not with a view of inviting argument, but of public utility. It is a subject that has indeed been before explored; but perhaps too scientifically to be comprehended by but few, and chiefly, if not altogether to the exclusion of any other cause than that of combustion. If my reasoning, however, appear materially defective, I can but expect the error portrayed by those better able to treat upon the subject than myself. INDIGENA.

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