The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1779-04-13 00:00:00, page 2

:^rt), @r ftupidit, id the bead arise from fine feelings in
'the heart, is certainly a very new philosophy. You talk
of Spinning ou^his dullness, and the metaphor is very apt,
if it be taken as I suppose it must be taken, from a certain
young gentleman to whom the chamber-maid's besom is
inimical; and who weaves the web in which he means to
enwrap himfelf. But if we confider the two months spent
in-drawing up your publication, we cannot call you a very
sass spinner ; and if we advert to the felvedging and warp
ing, we cannot call you an ingenious spinner: but it will
be well if you continue to be a harmiefs spinner, and not
with some otners of the family ^ Arachne, fptn poison.
In the postscript of your publication you wax very
wroth; and some of the expressions are peculiarly acrimo
nious. But as this has been the labour of the last two
weeks or fortnight of your application, I attribute it to
the irritation of your mind, owing to a cirournftance that
has affected you more than even the disdain of Mils
Franks, which is the repulse you have lately met with in
your advances to a certain young princess of this city, of
that race of people who live about twenty degrees loath
of Biledulgered, whole guardian could not be reconciled
to the match, and whom I am endeavouring to calm down
and dissuade from his resolution of cudgelling you, should
you come again upon that errand.
In your letter to Miss Franks I take notice of your fre
quent adjuration upon your honour. Now what sense of
honour a man can have who has been seven or eight months
in this city damning General Washington, Governor Li
vingston, Henry Drayton, and the Congress, and threat
ening to resign, aye, God damn tbern\tbat you would, and
frowning and dancing like a Calledonian flung by the Ta
rantula, and yet after all continuing to retain your com
mission, is a question to be propoled to the academies.
Nevertheless the ch@ife of the word honour was judicious,
as you hive not the semblance of any other grace or vir
tue to take an oath upon. You could not (wear by your
faith, morality, liberality, philanthropy, or patriotism :
And the word honour is of a lignification indeterminate,
and may mean either a sense of right and wrong in yourfelf
or your place of estimation amongst others; and though
you have neither honour nor desert of it in yourfelf, yet if
amongst the whole race of tones with whom you associate,
there is one mongrel who unrighteously entertains a refpeft
for you, you might save your conscience, if you had one,
and (wear upon ,our honour.
In your pof/cript addressed to the public, you declare
solemnly; but it is to us a problem what solemnity there
can be in your mind, or what awe of a superior being you
can have upon^your spirits, who are neither Christian,
Jew, Turk, nor Infidel, but a metempfychofift. You
have been heard to fay that you expeft when you die to
transmigrate to a Siberian fox-dag, and be messmate to
Spado. As to that Ido not know what to fay; but if,
as some divines, from an expression of Saint Paul, seem to
think, there will, at the general refurredion, be a refufei
tation of quadrupeds, it is more than propable you will
eome amongst them.
You deal in declarations; for in your letter to Miss
Franks, upon which I once more cast my eye, you declare
upon the word of an bonefl man; and here I cannot but ad
mire your good breeding and diferetion in turning down
folemuity to the poftfeript where you have to do with the
public, because it would be inconsistent in a man of the
best bon ton, and a wearer of the Sherryvalues, to suggest
the least idea of religion to a lady.
With regard to the term or per quod of your asseverati
on, which is bonefl man, I have to fay, that from many
parts of your conduct, your political honesty has become
problematical; but be this as it may, the word man is
certainly exceptionable; for, with all my partiality in
your favour, I cannot believe that you are of the human
species. Nor am I the only person in America, or else
where, who have taken you for a wild animal. Nay, so
far has this opinion become popular, that some young men
of this city, who have more leisure than money on their
hands, have serious thoughts of putting you in a waggon
and carrying you about the country for a fllew ; and in
deed, were it not for the depreciation of the currency, I
believe they might live by it. The lads have applied to
me to have my opinion, whether the Congress, who might
Rill have some farther occasion for your services, might
pottakett amiss to be robbed of you in this manner. I
told them no : the Congress hnd turned you outside and in
side, and tried you and examined you like a pair of Sberry
vallies, and found you such an infignificant, capricious and
flu&uating weazel, that unless they wanted such creature,
I did not fee what they could make of you. Several per
sons have suggested to me that I ought to defend myfelf
against your attack upon the literary reputation of that
small account of Vanheft's cave, continued in the Maga
zine ; but with regard to this matter, I Ihall wait the en
quiries of the Philosophical Society of this city refpeding
you; for I fhoufd look foolifh to have it Did, that I had
very gravely entered into a debate about the excellency
of composition with one who had been afterwards proved
to te a beast; lam, Sir,
The Compiler of the United States Magazine.
P. S. Your military and political reputation will be
more directly considered in my next.
For the P ENNSYLVANIA PACKET.
To Mr. D E A N E.
WHEREVER your future lot may be cast, or how
ever you may be disposed of, the recollection of
your prefeut affairs ought to teach you this one ufeful lef
foD, that boriffly is the best policy.
It is now eight weeks ago since I laid before the public
a regular detail of circumfiances, on which were ground
ed my suspicions of your having aegociated a profered
present, ambuntipg to two hundred thousand pounds ster
ling, into a purchase, and embezzled the public difp tches
to promote the payment of the money. The circumstances
as I have related them, are undeniable ; neither have you
attempted, either before Congress or the public, to clear
up the suspicions, and by that negle& have confirmed
them into a charge. The examination of Capt. Folger,
who was detained a prisoner near five months at York-
Town on account of the loss of those dispatches, would
now threw? some additional light on this affair ; but strange
as it may appear, that examination is not now to be found.
After I had Itid the circumstances before the public
concerning the loss of the dispatches, and explained the
object for which they appear to have been loft, I inform
ed you, in the Pennsylvania Packet of last month, that if
you thought yourfelf aggrieved by any thing I had writ
ten and published, that I would attend an order of Con
gress, and submit to any examination on the points in
question, provided the doors were open: For as I have
some reasons to fufpeC tthat there are Members of that
House, who are privately interested with you, the success
of whose projects depends in a great measure on your
fate, I ought not,o truf lmyfelf before them, (after what
has alreadyspiffed) with the doors^fhut.
In answer to this it may be said, that there are others of
that Honorable House on whose integrity and public spi
rit I might fafely rely, without any other evidence; but
when I recoiled how much more indirflrious interest is
than friendship, I am the more confirmed in the opinion,
that I ought not to trust too much to probability. I once
attended an order of Congress, (January 6th) and was
asked by the President, Mr. Jay, wnether I was the author
of the publications in the Pennsylvania Packet, entitled,
" Common Sense to the Public on Mr. Deane's affairs ;" 1
instantly answered, “ Yes, 1 am ibe author of all those
pieces :'' No other questions were asked me, and I was
ordered to withdraw. On the next day, January 7th, I
applied for a hearing, and on a motion being made tor
that purpose, it ,afied in the negative ; and on the next
day, January Bth, I sent in my resignation of the office
of Secretary to tQe Committee for Foreign Affairs. Yet
on the 16th, without any enquiry whether I was right or
wrong, or hearing or requiring any explanation on the
matter, some of Mr. Deane's party made a motion for dis
missing me, on account of those publications, from the ve
ry office I had before resigned, because I was refufed a
hearing to explain and support them. The motion, as it
happened, was loft ; for though the majority for the dif
mifiion was fourteen to thirteen, yet it being a tye upon
the states, five for—five against, and two divided, it pass
ed in the negative. And as this vote explains the cast of
Congress on other parts of Mr. Deane's affairs, I shall
furnish the public with the yeas and nays.
For the difmiffion. Against the difmiffion.
Mr. Holton, Mr . Whipple,
Mr. Collins, Mr . s Adams,
M ^ Jay, Mr. Gerry,
Mr. Lew s, Mr. Lovel,
Mr. Atlee, Mr. Ellery,
Mr. Paca, Mr. Dyer,
Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Root,
Mr. Thomas Adams, Mr. Roberdeau,
Mr. M<rry„Smith, Mr. Searle,
Mr. Penn, Mr. Shippen,
Mr. Hill, Mr. M'Kean,
Mr. Burke, Mr. F. L. Lee,
Mr. Drayton, Mr. Hutfon.
Mr. Langworthy.
Mr. Duane and Neither were
Mr. G. Morrifs, Mr. Laurens,
were not in the house. Mr. Henry,
Mr. Floyd,
Mr. Frost.
New-Jersey was absent.
How the gentlemen who voted for the difmiffion, without
an bearing, can possibly reconcile such conduct to their
vote on the 9th of January, which declares, that I had no
right to conclude that 1 was not to be beard, is to me, and
must be to every man, and even to themselves, unaccount
able; their conduct on the two days being as opposite in
principle, as right and wrong. But to return to Mr.
Deane.
Those who have no idea of stirring hand or foot with
out profit or reward, will assign fueh reasons for my con
dud as influence their own ; and as I can neither prevent
their opinions, or change their principles, I Shall leave
them to think as they please. But if I may be allowed to
declare for myfelf, my only motive was, that I doubted
your integrity, and bad good reasons to fufpea you were im
posing on the country ; and as those reasons were known
to no other person out of Congress than myfelf, therefore
no other person could go through the undertaking.
I had, on former occasions, I believe, rendered essential
service, and that in the very crisis of time. And I saw in
this instance, that exelufive of the impofitien yeu were
ading on the public, by pretending to give them inform
ation of plots which never existed but in your own wick
ed imagination, that the plan was to get you off Ambas
sador to Holland, where you might hope to have the fin
gering a loan of money, and t@ make a new appointment
Whether you were then right or wrong, was of no more
con sequence to me than to any other individual in Ame
rica. It was as much every man's duty as mine to assist
you in the firft, or detect you in the last ; and the only
difference was, that by knowing more of the matter, I
had the less excuse for negle&. I had politically nothing
to lose or gain diftin^ from the general interest, and
would as freely have Supported you, had I believed you
to be right, as I opposed you, believing you to be wrong.
As to whatever parties (if any) were formed for or
against you, in one place or another, I had not the most
distant connexion with, or knowlege of. Having, at that
time, n@ quarrel with you, or you with me, or with any
other gentleman in or out of Congress upon your account,
or upon the account of any other Commissioner, or agent,
I had no interested object to carry, no party or personal
resentment to gratify ; and not being even hinted at in
your address of December sth, I had, on my own part,
nothing to defend.
Such being my situation at the time your address came
out, the question is, What could induce me to take it up ?
so opposite to your plan, and contrary to almost every
man's opinion. I flood fair with the United States, and
had no occasion to run risks to establish or recover reputa
tion. The talk too was heavy, and the profped tr®uble
fome; besides whi h, I had intentionally devoted the win
ter to more agreeable employments, and the loss of so
much time on your account, has thrown me unprofitably
back in the plan I had laid out, which was that of making
an arrangement of materials for a History of the Revo
lution. ,
Four months ago the popular torrent ram, not only
strong, but violent in your favor. Forced on by the dai
ly inventions of interested adherents, it rose with the ra
pidity of a bubble, and discharged itfelf like the breaking
of a bank. Before the multitude had time to reflet, they
were hurried away and following the impulse of the firft
impression, felt an unwillingness to -refill, an awkwardness
to retrad.
©f Ambassadors to bther Courts' of m6R conne^ed with
yourfelf. And I leave America tn judge what condition
our foreign affairs must Shortly have been in, if such a
measure had Succeeded, and if what I have Rated respect
ing your former conduct be true, which there is yet do
reason to disbelieve.
But there is one circumstance which must still appear
embarrassing to the public, and which 1 now mean to
throw the bast light upon 111 my power.
In your address ot December sth, you declared that
" the ears gJ the Piprejentairves in Congrejs were ftut
against you t" yet every day's experience has proved that
the^charge was untrue. Why then was it made, or why
was it fuomitted te?
Any indifferent person would suppose that those against
whom that charge was directed, would feel themselves re
lieved by the pains I have taken to detect the falsehood,
for it was a falfehood, as the Journals of Congress of De
cember the firft will teflily, But be that as it may, the
falfehood undetected was a convenient one, because it flood
as an apology to a publication calculated to make room
for a new appointment of CommiffionersTaicreign Courts,
by unjultiy traducing the characters ot those who were
already appointed : And consequently those, who hoped
to fucceeu on a vacancy, connived at the libel, and quiet
ly put up with their Share of the disgrace.
Had the pretence not been made, the publication could
not have appeared with consistency, and would have
failed in its erteCt; for it was the gratification which the
public felt at being appealed to, because it was Said, Con
gress had “ Jbut their ears" that gave zeal and vehemence
to their lufpicions. But the pretence being made and be.
Sieved, produced an eneCt far beyond, if not contrary to,
what the contrivers expected. The uproar against Con
gress was greater than against the Commissioners; and
while Mr. Deane's advocates in the House were hop
ing to be sent abroad as Ambassadors, the cry out of
doors was a new Congress. By this overfpun piece of
crait, they undermined the ground upon which tnty ex
pe&d to rife, and in stead 01 lu.ceedmg to the end, their
personal honor tell a facrifice to the means. The public
placed Mr. Deane at one end of the beam, and Congress
at the other ; and the idea firuck so naturally that if what
Mr. Deane said was true, it was time that Congress Should
be removed and changed—And, en the other hand, if
what he said was not true, the Support and patronage
they have since given him, is a dishonor to me Signi
fy et the United States.
I fliall conclude this paper with remarking, that we
have hitherto confounded two diftinft things together
which ought to be kept Separate, 1 mean, tee foreign;
op the United States, and the delegated representation
ibat jwereignty tn Cong^. lt may happen, and perhaps
does now happen, that the character of the latter falls far
Short of the former; Or why is it that the firft is rising
and the latter finking."
Under obligation to no one Rate on the Continent more
than to another, and not at all to any, I take my view
largely over the whole, and convinced that their interest
and happiness is one, and that, that which in foreign affairs
affeds any must a ffeH all, 1 have, through the course of
this bufintfs, made no di&inai®o of states, or ever mean
to de so.
At the period we are now arrived, nothing can hurt us
but want of honesty; and until Mr. Deane can clear up
his character, those who have so Connivingly Supported
him in Congress, will find it difficult to make good their
own. I lay myfelf open to the world; I neither secret
my thoughts nor disown my publications; and if there is
a man in America uninfluenced and independent, I
think I may justly claim that character.
COMMON SENSE.
Philadelphia, April loth, 1779.
Or***-##****+«++ 04* $+
A few hegfheads, boxes and barrels of
MUSCOVADO SUGARS,
TO BE SOLD BY
JOSEPH SIMS and SO N§
In Water street, below the Drawbridge. 1.
FO R S T,
On the twenty.eighth of April instant,
A VERY valuable Tra& of Land, on Odorara, con
taining two hundred and nine acres, twenty of
which arc exceeding good c'eared meadow : There are on
it a commodious d welling-house and all kinds of out
houses. The money to be paid on the day of Sale, or
at the time of conveyance.
JOHN HALL, Senior.
Philadelphia, April it.
THE fubferiber has rented that commodious
store known by the name of Hart's Vendue-ftore,
in Southwark, where he intends to fell at Vendue, lands,
tenements, vessels, rigging, horses, carriage:, furniture,
&c. and to receive and fell all forts of goods that are al
lowed by law to be fold at Vendue ; and all strangers or
others who may not have an opportunity of a store to 6x
pofe their goods at private sale in, he will receive and fell
for the best account of the owners, for a small commiffion#
All those who may be pleased to favour him with their
business may depend on being faithfully served by their
Most humble servant,
WILLIAM BROWN.
TO BE SO L D,
At the late City Vendue-ftore in Front-street, between
Chefnut and Walnut- Greets,
BLUE and black fuperfine Broadcloths ; blue,
brown, grey, scarlet and cloth coloured ditto ;
Mafquerets, Camblets, Mecklenburgs, Calimancoes,
Baizes of different colours, Worsted Hole, a few boxes
of Cambricks and Lawns well assorted, with sundry
other articles too tedious to mention.
FIVE POUNDS REWARD.
STRAYED AWAY on Sunday the fourteenth of
° March last, a small brindle C O W, branded on th#
horns with the letters II N. Whoever takes up said
cow and brings her to the fubferiber in the diftria of
Southwark, fliall receive the above reward.
EDMUND BEACH.