The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1782-04-04 00:00:00, page 2

natural cffeA of right principles, but not of right policy. Mil
fortune ever fepatatis men in a bad cause, and unites tnem in a
' good one. The former are indudrieus only while they are prof
, perous. the latter while th : y are diftirffedt The one a4s from
impulse, the other from contrivance ; and the whole mode and
progress of their conduct, and their times of rest and action, arc
the r verse of each other.
But as we have learned knowledge from misfortune, let us like
wise learn it from mistake; and wifely add for once, if v. never
° do it again; the'2-dour of adyerfity to the strength of victory. Let
us combine the glowing powers of resolute refinance with the
, tranquil advantages which crinqueft bestows; and render the pre
fers year as superior in fyfiem, as the latter was Splendid in fuc-
The progress and revolution of our domestic circumstances are
C"^ A S T IN G my eye ever a former publication (the Crisis,
„ Nc. g)'on the loss of CharleOown, I was tempted to intro
duce this address by a quotation from the firft paragraph of that
number, as it appeared to me exceedingly applicable to the present
, circumstances of the country. '
Hai .America puyfued, her advantages w ; th half the spirit
" flic' refifAd her misfortunes, she would before now have been a
<c 'conquering -arid a peaceful people; but lulled in the lap of foft
" tranquilly, the reflfd on her hopes, and a^verfity only could
CQr.valfe her into a&ion."
This hath been the character of America in every part, and in
every Tate and ft °e of the contest. Warmed by a love of liberty,
and provoked by a lenfe of injuries, fh~ encountered danger with
out fear, and nrsforune without defyondency: But no sooner
was the mint accomplished, than She returned with folded arms
to rest, and seemed to wait with patience for new dififters Yet
there is one reflexion to be drawn from this charader and condor
that is worth Attending to, which is, that it is the sign and the
Ar the commencement of the war much political wisdom was
not absolutely nectary. The high spirit of the country in a
great measure supplied its place, and the print!hg-preffes furnished
the means. They became our Peru and Mexico, and as we
wanted w drew them forth. Any body of men might at that
time have carried on the war; who had resolution enough to pro
ceed; because the difficulties of finance wee then unknown, and
the money came created to their hands. But those times 'are
changed, and there is now a call on the wisdom and judgment,
as well as on the firmnefs antipatriotifm of the country. Our Si
tuation is such, that the more it is underflood the better it will
appear ; and with the means in our power, we want nothing but
the united disposition to employ them,
When America resolved on independence, and determined to
be free, she naturally included within that resolution all the
means, whether of men or money, necessary to effect it. She
'had hoe ~:If out for greater fufferings, and more expence and
loss, than fire has hitherto experienced, except in Carolina and
C^.-^a. The idea of getting rich had not in those days an ex
idance. Al the ^xp^'T was to live and all she hoped for was
t # be free. She had ^f^ved to abandon her habitations, 'to de
fect her • ns, and 0 am new fettle meats in the wilderness,
rather than submit. There was no condition to which her ima
gination c old extend, that was not preferable to the oppres
s rs Tat threatened her; a d the .xp^rience of several years has
ihewn her opinion just, and proved her resolution firm.
as extraordinary as the revolution,itfelf. We begap with paper,
.and we end withhold and silver. We fat out with parties. ,nd
we are approachingto unity. Theflrength, the property, ana even
the faffiin of the countrv, are confederated in her support. Like
Yet while- the war was carried on by the mat's of general op
ofition, the business of the cohnfy got deranged. Agriculture,
trade and commerce became negle&ed, and fometbiog like poverty
began to appear. Yet the resolution fullered no abatement, and
theo losses served to provoke them the higher. But experience
has shewn that the way to enrich a country, and render it fyfte
maticaliy formidable, if to give every possible rest to the inha
bitants, that they mar follow their various occupations undisturb
ed A man whois horrified about, either by the inroads of the
enemy or by marching to oppose them, soon fuffers more by loss
of time and the heg':e& of his affairs, than what a portion of
taxes {efficient far his defence would amount to. And therefore
it is to the good of the whole, as well as to the interest of the
individual, that every one, who can, sets himfelf down to his
business, and contributes hia quota pf taxes as one of the firft
duties he owes to his family, to himfelf, and to his country.
Every amusement ought to be difpenced with, every indulgence
curtailed, and every peffipje economy praftifed, both public and
private, until a revenue fufficient for the protection and good of
the country is obtained, and the debt to public justice fatisfied.
I have no idea of that kind of policy which ends in expence,
di (appointment and disgrace; and those have ever been and ever
will be the conference of deficient and unequal revenues. Ame
rica has resolved to defend herfelf, and to support her independ
ence at all hazards and events. Every man's portion of that
charge becomes his debt of honour, interest and happinefsj and
particular matters.
In my last publication I slated the yearly expence of the war,
'namely, cAht millibn^ of 'dollars; the nature of the uhion by
which the States are bound together; and the propriety of keep
ing the taxes for the defence of the <. untry separate from the ex
pence^ of government ; the right of the people to be regularly in
formed of the monies received and expended ; and the duty of the
. Country to .provide its several quotas.---Government and the peo
ple do not in America conftrute diftinft bodies. They are one,
and their in,ereft the fame. Members of Congress, members of
Affemtl,, or Council, or by any other name they may be called,
are only a felef?ed part of the people, They are the representa
tives of majedy but not majesty itfelf. , T: at dignity exists inhe
rently in the universal Multitude, and, though it may be delegated,
cannot be alienated. Their elates and property are fubjedt to the
fame t ration with ihofethey represent, and there is nothing they
can do, that will not equally affe& themselves as well as others.
It they call for supplies, they call on themselves in common with
the country. Their situation enables them to know the mote
fecrzt (ircumhances of things, and that such or such revenues are
neceffarv f%r the futurity and defence of their conftituehts, and
the accomplishment of the great obje& for which thby are chosen.
And here the iftinAion ends.
The furnishing hurfelvea with right ideas, and the accuAnming
outdrives to right habits of thinking, have a powerful effect in
ftren^hening and cementing the mind of the country and freeing
it from the danger of partial or mistaken notions. It is not all
the ardour which the love of liberty can infpiie, nor tire utmost
fortitude which the moh heroic virtue can create, that will of
themselves make us faccefsful conquerors. Wernuft come down
to order, fyftrm and method, and go through the cool and judi
cious, as well as the animating and elevated parts of patriotism.
Method is to natural power, what flight is to human strength,
without which a giant would lose his labour, and a country wade
its force.
robuff and healthy youth, she hath Ihook off the agues of the win
ter, and fleps f. rWard with conflitutTnal bloom and vigour. By
fuffering di^reffes, she hath learned both to bear and to prevent
them ; and r he xperience of every day, whether drawn from good
fortune 1 : from hT, whether from wisdom or mistake, hath added
fumething to her cause. and much to her ju%.^ent.
From this gene.A fate of circumstances I mail proceed to more
To the People of AMERICA.
to fee any one indulging himfelf at home while that portion is
unpaid, arid the soldier who defends him Offering in the field, is
the highest difhonour a man can undergo.
It is pity but some other word bdfide taxation had been devised
for to noble and extraordinary an occasion, as the proteaion of
liberty arid the eflabli&ment of an independant wcfrld. We have
given to a popular fubje& an unpopular name, and injured the
f-rvice by a wrong assemblage of ideas. A man would be ashamed
to be told that he signed a petition, praying that he might pay left
4han his (bare of the public expence, or that those who had trust
ed the public might never receive their money ; yet he does the
lame thing when he petitions against taxation, and the only dif
ference is, that by talcing Shelter under the name, he seems to
conceal the meanness he would otherwise blush at. Is it popular
to pay ' our debts, to do justice, to defend an injured and insulted
country, to pr<te& the aged and the infant, and to give to Liber
ty a land to live in ? then must taxation, as the means by which
those things are to be done, be popular likewise.
But to take a more local view of matters. Why has the back
country been ravaged by the repeated incurfionsof the enemy and
the Indans, but from the inability of the revenue to provide
means for their protection? And yet the inhabitants of those
countries wete among the firft to petition against taxation. In so
doing, they eventually prayed for their own dehru&ion, and,
unhappily or them, their prayer was answered. Their quota <f
taxes w uld.have been trifling, compared with their losses, and,"
what is kill werfe, their dooeftic sorrows. Alas! how unwise
ly, how unfeelingly, does a man argue, when he puts the fafety
of, his family in competition with his tax.
I here is so much 01 the honour, interest and independance of
America flaked' upon taxation, that the fobje& must to every re
flexive mind make a strong impression. As we are now circum
• flamed, it is the criterion of public spirit ; the touchstone of our
good attentions; and he who pays it the instant it is called for,
dues more for his country's good than the louden talker in, Ame
rica. Tig vain are all our huzzas for liberty, without accompanv
ing them with fblid fu,p rt. They will neither fill the soldier's
belly, nor eloathe his back, they wilLneither pay the public cte
eitors, nor purchale our supplies. They arc well enough in their
places, and though they are the effufion of our hearts, they are
no part of our fublbnce.,
The tax will be attended with some inconvenience; but what
is inconvenience, when compared with distress and the ruin and
plunderings of ah enemy; How many things of far greater in
convenience has America already undergone, nay, even flouriffied
in the midst of, which she once thought impossible to be borne I
hold taxation, which is to be applied to her own defence and her
own good, one of the lightest of her difficulties, when considered
with those which weee occaftoned by the want of it. We have
several times been on the crisis of deflru&on by the infufficiericy
of our public revenues, and the heart of America would have
ached with concern and fofrow, could she at all times have known
what oer exacf fixation b;s been. It is now the only point we
have to attend to, nay it is the only one that is worth attending
to; for letus accomplish this, and the rell will follow ; and that
confo'lation which every man's mind will feel, at knowing that
the public Treasury is furnished with an ability of providing for
the defence of the country, will amply recompence the difficul
ties he may go through, and the endeavours he may make, in
paying in his allotted share. We shall be freed from the just
mu mure of the fullering soldier; our eyes and ears will be no
longer ihocked with tales of flighted faith and fufpe&ed credit ;
and the face Qur public, and of consequence of our private affairs,
will wear a new and fatisfied countenance. The idea, that tbe
country cannot bear it, is a reproach upon her honour and firmnefs.
She has borne ten times as much. Her fortitude and her prin
ciples hate been tried in a thousand instances of severer fortune;
and it is a paradox not to be explained, and which ought _to be
exploded, that the people whom no force or misfortune could
conquer, no temptation seduce, should; at the summit of success,
trepan themselves into deftruftion by an ignoble ams impolitic
covetousness.
Let us be, in every refpe&, such i nation as we ought to be,
and shew to the enemy that it is no more in her power to conquer
us by system than by arms. The purse of Ameried, with econo
my, is longer than that of Britain, managed as it is by corrup
tion and extravagance. The people of America are not a poor
people, why should they appear so. We hurt our credit, our ho
nour, our reputation in the world, by proclaiming oarfelves what
we are not, and give encouragement to the enemy to prolong the
War, by holding out an idea of our want of money to carry it on.
It is easy to fee by the complexion of the New-York papers, that
the present spirited exertions of the country to keep her public
treasury supplied have wounded the last hopes of the enemy.
It is a blow they never expected America to give, and their afto
nilhment is as great as their despair.
It is a remark, worth making, that the people have always
been a step forwarder than their representatives. There never
was a backwardness in the country to do its parr, when the part
to be done became known and underflood. National money mat
ters are naturally attended with a degree of intricacy, which ren
ders them not so easily comprehended as those which are more
simple and obvious. Those of America have, from the ffhauat
ing state of the former currency, been involved in new and ori
ginal difficulties, and it required much judicious management to
bring them right, and a vigorous exertion in the country after
wards tb keep them so.
The present condition of our money matters, as coheifely as
they can be stated, is as follows:
Thbre is a large sum due to perfon® who have lent their money
to the Loan-Office, and to those who have otherwise trusted the
public. Those debts are to be ascertained and proved, and the
money arising from the impost duty of five per cent, on all im
ported goods is to be applied as a fund for the payment of the in^
tereft and principal, until the whole of them shall be discharged.
This is the pfovifion made for our debts already contracted, and
The Assembly of this State, Pennsylvania, have unanimouflv
gone through the bill for raffing the sum of 1,120,000 Dollars,
being their quota for the year: And, as an example worthy both
of notice and imitation, the oppressed and ciftreffed State of South-
Carolina, notwithstanding the severity of its fate, has already
done, the fame. Those people know, by woeful experience, the
value of defence, and that the inconvenience of flruggling with
a tax for the protection of the country is n^t to be named, in com
petition with the losses they have borne, and the sorrows axd fuf
ferings they have undergone.
However inconvenient the tax may be, we know it can last but
for a time. Our expences will cerfe with the war. and our tax
ation in consequence. But while the war continues, and so
great a part of every thing that is dear and valuable to a country
depends upon her revenue, I shall coufider and treat taxation as a
popular good. When the war shall be over, the case will be to
tally altered, and my language, if 1 then speak at all, will be
entirely different. Besides, America is a new character in the
universe. She started with a cause divinely right, and flruck at
an object yaft and valuable. Her reputation for political integri
ty, perfiverance, fortitude, and all the manly excellencies, stands
higli in the world, and it would be a thousand pities that, with
those happy introductions into life, she fuffered the least spot or
blot to fall upon her mora/'fame. Never let it be said, that the
country who could do what America has done, defrauded the
widow and the orphan of their property, and the soldier of his
pay.
The publishing the sums of money received from each State,
and expended on their united account, will be attended with se
veral good offers. It will give farisfadion, which is a neceffar,
objed in national concerns. It will create emulation, and detect
delinquency. The opener and fairer public business is tranfaded,
the better it succeeds. Where no fraud is intended, there can be
no occasion tor concealment, and it is not only neceflary that
measures ffiould be just, but that every body should know them to
be so.
5. Kew. Situate in Buffaloe-valley, on the north
fide of Buffaloe-creek, which empties into the weft
branch of Sufquehsnnah, oh the weft fide thereof, a
bout 6 miles above the forks, in Northumberland
county, containing 517 acres and allowance.
6. Mount-Joy. Situate on the north fide,of the weft
branch of Sulquehannah, about two miles below the
mouth of Lycacoming-creek, in Northumberland coun
ty, containing 300 acres and allowance.
7. Deer-Park. Situate next adjoining Mount-Jo,,
up the liver, containing 311 acres and allowance.
All these lands have been patented many years, and
most of them are at this time in the occupation of ten
ants upon leases at will; some improvements are made,
and the inhabitants have never been disturbed by the
Indians during the present war.
Tae value of them, in point of situation, fertility
of toil, goodness of the timber, easy navigation to
market, and the neighbourhood to the county town,
is so well known to many gentlemen in this state, that
it is unnecessary tq give a dctal of the advantages they
pofcfs, to perlons who are any way acquainted with
the interior parts of this countrf.
Any purchaser paying cue-third of the money doyen,
and giving security, if required, to pay another third
in one year, with interest, and the remainder in two
years, with interest, will have a good title made, by
SARAH FRANCIS, Executrix.
N. B. A Draft of the Lands will be left at the
Coffee-houfe in a few days, and attendance will be
given at the time and place of sale, by THOMAS
MIFFLIN and TENCH COXE, Guardians of the
Children of Colonel Francis. Philad. April 2,
4. Stephen's Reserve. Situate next adjoining Alex
andria, up the river, containing 317 acres and allow?
ance.
+++^+^+,+s.t^+**+^+e+#+
TO BE L E T,
(And erttered upon immediate y)
The House, Stores and Wharf
Dear Market street, late in pef!.lli,n of Joseph Shew
elf. Pcffon, desirous of renting the fame, will please
to make their proposals in writing, on or before Sa
turday the^th instant, to GEORGE BRYAN and
TIMOTHY MATLACK Efquirer, At ornis# for the
Trustees of the Univexfiry of Pennsylvania, appointed
to let the fame. Apri 3.
WANTS EMPLOYMENT,
An elderly Man who writes a
tolerable good Hand, either in a public or private Store
or Office. For further particulars enquire of the Prin
ter.
N. B. A final! HOUSE, clear of ground-rent,
wanted to purchase. April 3
3. Alexandria. Situate next adjoining the Golden-
Plains, np the river, containing 316 acres and allow
ance. 1
when once the interest on them shall be regularly drawn, and %
principal put into a train for payment, they will become as valui
able as bond debts.
Testament of the late Colonel TURBUT FRANCIS,
decked, will be exposed to SALE by PUBLIC AUC
TION, at the Coffee-Houfe, in this city, on SATUR
DAY the 127th day of April, instant, at fix o'clock in
the Evening) the following LANDS, late t e estate of
the said Colonel Francis.
Wanted, a young Woman, who
can cook, few, &c. Enquire of the Printer.
A few days will now carry us to the period of seven years war
and so extraordinary is the case, that instead of the country be
coming poor and exhausted, she is grown rich and plentiful.
There has been a singular fate attended all our wants, for whene
ver we imagined we should be ruined, by not having something
which could not be done without, it arrived, as if of itfelf, just
time enough to prevent the mifehief. The last remarkable in
fiance was in the influx of hard money, almost at the very mo
ment when the paper currency failed, by which the circumstances
of public and private business are so materially improved, that
matters cannot go wrong, if we set heartily about what is right.
COMMON SENSE.'
In pursuance of the last Will and
1. Roxbury. Situate on the weft fide of the main
river Su;quehanaah, just below the forks, and nearly
opposite to the town of Sunbury, in Northumberland
county, originally consisting of 82g acres; of which to
acres were fold by Colonel Francis in bis lifetime.
2, Golden Plains. Situate on the north fide of the
weft branch of Sufquehannab, about two miles above
the forks, in Northumberland county, containing 315
acres, and the usual allowance of fix acres per cent,
foi roads.
The sum of eight millions of dollars, which is apportioned
out to be raised by the United States, is for the maintenance and
other expences of the arnfy, and to defray the government char
ges of the continent. If this sum is compared with the immense
expence which Britain is at, the difference will appear exceed
ingly striking. She is obliged to raise upwards of ninety millions
of dollars in taxes and loans every year, to do what we tan ac
complish, with ready money and frugality, for eight millions.
So great is the contrast between a country funk in corruption and
extravagance, and one whose objed is founded in just principles,
and her plans regulated by good management.
But the difference may be carried still further. When the War
shall cease with lus, our taxes for that purpose will cease with it.
We know they cann'ot now last for any long time ; whereas the
taxes in Britain being laid on only for the purpose of paying the
interest, and never the principal of her debts, must continue fur
ever.