The South-Carolina & American general gazette — Charlestown [S.C.], 1777-05-26 00:00:00, page 1

IN the progress of politicks,as in the common occurrences
of life, we are not only apt to forget the ground we
have travelled over, but frequently negleCt to gather up
experience as we go. We expand, if I may so fay, the
knowledge of every day on the circumstances that produce
it, and journey on in search of new matter and new refine
ments : Rut as it is pleafint, and sometimes tfeful, to look
back, even to the firft periods of infancy, and trace the
turns and windings through which we have passed, so we
may likewise derive many advantages by halting a while in
our political career, and taking a review of the wondrous
complicated labyrinth of little more than yesterday.
TRULY, may we fay, that never did man grow old in so
short a time! We have crowded the business of an age into
the compass of a few months, and have been driven through
such a rapid succession of things, that, for the want of lei
sure to think, we unavoidably wafted knowledge as we
came, and have left nearly as much behind us as we brought
with us : But the road is yet rich with the fragments, and,
before we fully lose fight of them, will repay us for the
trouble of flopping to pick them up.
Were a man to be totally deprived of memory, he
would be incapable of forming any just opinion ; every thing
about him would seem a chaos ; he would have even his
own hißory to ask from every one ; and by not knowing
how the world went on in his absence, he would be at a
less to know how it onghrto go da when he recovered, or
rather, returned to it again. In like manner, though in a
less degree, a too great inattention to past occurrences re
tards and bewilders our judgment in every thing ; while,
on the ,contrary, by comparing what is past with what is
present, we frequently hit on the true character of both,
and become wife with very little trouble. It if a kind of
countermarch, by which we get into the rear of Time, and
mark the movements and meaning of things as we make
our return. There are certain circumftanGes, which, at
the time of their happening, are kind of riddles, and as
every riddle is to be followed by its answer, so those kind
of circumstances will be followed by their events, and thole
events are always the true solution, A considerable space
of time may Idpfe between, and unless we continue our
observations horn the one to the other, the harmony of
them will pass away unnoticed : But the misfortune is, that
partly from the pressing necessity of some instant things,
and partly from the impatience of our own tempers, we
are frequently in such a hurry to make out the meaning of
every thing as faft as it happens, that we thereby never
truly uaderftand it; and not only start new difficulties to
ourfe Ves by io doing, but, as it were, embarrass Provi
dence in her good designs.
I have been civil in Rating this fault on a large scale ;
for, as it now stands, it d n es not appear to be levelled a
gainst any particular set of men ; but were it to be refined
a little farther, it might afterwards be applied to the Tories
with a degree of striking propriety : Those men have been
remarkable for drawing sudden cenclufions from single
fads. The least apparent mifliap on our fide, or the least
seeming advantage oh the part of the enemy, have deter
mined with them the fate of a whole campaign. By this
hasty judgment they have converted a retreat into a de
feat ; mistook generalflilp for error; while every little ad
vantage purpofly given the enemy, either to weaken their
ftresgth by dividing it, embarrass their councils by multi
plying their objects, or to secure a greater post by the
surrender of a less, has been instantly magnified into a con
quest. Thus by quartering ill policy upon ill principles,
they have frequently promoted the cause they designed to
injure, and injured that which they intended to promote.
It is probable the campaign may open before this Num
ber comes from the press. The enemy have long lain idle,
and amused themselves with carrying on the war by pro
clamations only. While they continue their delay our
strength encreafes, and were they to move to action now,
it is a circumstantial proof they have no reinforcement
coming ; wherefore, in either case, the comparative ad
vantage will be ours. Like a wounded disabled whale they
want only time and room to die in ; and though in the a
gony of their exit, it may be unfafe to live within the flap
ping of their tail, yet every hour Shortens their date and
lessens their power of mifrhief. If any thing happens while
this Number is in the press, it will afford me a fubjeCt for
the last pages of it. At present lam tired of waiting ; and
as neither the enemy,nor the Rate of politicks, have yet pro
duced any thing new, I am thereby left in the field of
general matter, undirected by any striking or particular ob
jeft. This Crisis, there ore, will be made up rather of
variety than novelty, and consist more of things ufeful than
things wonderful.
The success of the cause, the union of the people, and
the means of supporting and securing both, are points
which cannot be too much attended to. He who doubts
of the former is a defponding coward, and he who wilfully
disturbs the latter is a traitor. Their characters are easily
fixt, and under these short descriptions I leave them for the
present.
One of the greatest degrees of fentiraental union which
America ever knew, was in denying the right of the British
parliament" to bind the Colonies in all cases ^hatfoever." The
declaration is in its form an almighty one, and is the loftieft
stretch of arbitrary power that ever one set of men, or one
country claimed &ver another. Taxation was nothing more
than the putting the declared right into practice; and this
failing, recourse was had to arms, as a means to establish
both the right and the practice, or to answer a worse purpose,
which will be mentioned in the course of this Number.
And in order to repay themselves the cxpcnce of an army,
and to profit by their own injustice, the Colonies were, by
another law, declared to be in a state of actual rebellion,
and of conference all property therein would fall to the
conquerours.
CHARLESTOWN: Printed by R. WELLS &SON, at the Old Printing-House, Great Stationary & Book Store.
SOUTH-CAROLINA AND AMERICAN
The AMERICAN CRISIS, N° 111.
By the Author 'of COMMON SENSE.
Vol. XX.
GENERAL GAZETT E.
MONDAY, MAY 26, 1777.
Br ITAIN, like a gamester nearly ruined, hath now put
all her losses into one bet, and is playing a desperate game
for the total. If she wins it, she wins from me my life ; she
wins the Continent as the forfeited property of rebels ; the
right of taxing those that are left as reduced fubje&s ; and
the power of binding them as slaves: /nd the single die
which determines this unparalleled event is, Whether we
support our Independence or she overturn it. This is com
ing t© the point at once. Here is the touch-stone to try
men by. He that is not afupporter of the Independent States
of America, tn the fame degree that b'sreligious and political
principles would foffer him to support the government of an,
other country, of which he called bimfelf a fubje&, is, in the
American sense of the word, A TORY : and the infant that
he endeavours to bring his Toryifin into practice, he becomes A
traitor. The firft can only be detected by a general
left, and the law hath already provided lor the latter.
It is unnatural and hnpolitick to admit men who would
root up our Independence to have any share in our legisla
tion, cither as electors or representatives; because the sup
port of our Independence rests in a great measure on the
vigour and purity of our publick bodies. Would Britain,
even in time of peace, much less in war, fiifftr an election
to be carried by men who profeffed themselves not to be
her Subjects, or allow such to fr in parliament ? Certainly
not.
But there are a certain species of Tories with whom
conscience or principle have nothing to do, and who arc so
from avarice only. Some of the firft fortunes in the Conti
nent, on the part of the Whigs, are flaked on the issue of
our present measures And shall disaffection only be re
warded with security? Can any thing be a greater induce
ment to a miserly than, than the hope of making his mam
mon fafe? And though the scheme be fraught with every
character of folly, yet, so long as he foppofes, that by doing
nothing materially criminal against America on one part,
and by expressing his private disapprobation against Inde
pendence, as a palliative with the enemy on the other part,
he ftandsthereby in a fafe line between both; while, I fay,
this ground be Suffered to remain, craft and the Spirit of
avarice will point it out, and men will not be wanting to
fill up this most contemptible of all characters.
These men, ashamed to own the sordid cause from
whence theiV disaffection Springs, add thereby meannelp to
meannefs,by endeavouring to shelter themselves under the
mask of hypocrisy ; that is, they had rather be thought to
be Tories from fa kind of principle, than Tories by having
no principle at all. But till such time as they can Show Some
real reason, natural, political or conscientious, on which
their objections to Independence are founded, we are not
obliged to give them credit for being Tories of the firft
stamp, but must set them down as Tories of the last.
In the fegond Number of the Crisis, I endeavoured to Show
the impossibility of the enemy making any conquest of A
merica; that nothing was wanting on our part but patience
and perievefance. and that, with these virtues, our fucctis,
as far as human (peculation could difeern, seemed as cer
tain as fate. But as there are marly among us, who, influ
enced by others, have regularly gone back from the prin
ciples they once held, in proportion as we have gone for
ward ; and as it is the unfortunate lot of many a good man
to live within the neighbourhood of difaffeCted ones, I shall
therefore, for the fake of confirming the one and recover
ing the other, endeavour, in the space of a page or two, to
go over some of the leading principles, in support of Inde
pendence. It is a much pleasanter talk to prevent vice thari
to punish it; arid however our tempers may be gratified
by resentment, or our national expences eased by forfeited
estates, harmony and friendship is nevertheless the happiest
condition a country can be bleft with.
The principal arguments in support of Independence
may be comprehended under the four following heads:
FißST—fhe natural right of the Continent to Inde
pendence.
S£CeNDLy,— Her interest in being independent.
Thirdly,—The neceffity,—and
Fourthly,—The moral advantages arising therefrom.
I. The natural right of the Continent to Inde
pendence, is a point which never yet was called in questi
on. It will not even admit of a debate. To deny such a
right would be a kind of atheism against nature; And the
best answer to such an objection would be, " Ihe fool hath
said in heart, There is no God."
11. The INTERES t of the Continent in being inde
pendent, is a point as clearly right as the former. America,
by her own internal industry, and unknown to all the pow^
ers of Europe, Was, at the beginning of the depute, arrived
at a pitch of greatness, trade and population, beyond which
The Colonies, on their part, first, defiled the right ;
secondly, they suspended the rife of taxable articles,
and petitioned against the practice of taxation: and these
failing, they, thirdly, defended their property by force,
as soon as it was forcibly invaded ; and in answer to the
declaration of rebellion and non-proteftion, published their
declaration of Independence and right to fe If-protections
These, in a few words, are the different stages of the
quarrel; and the parts are so intimately and necessarily
connected with each other as to admit of no feparaticn. A
perlon, to use a trite phrase, must be a Whig or a Tory in
the lump. His feelings, as a man, may be wounded ; his
charity, as a Christian, may be moved; but his political
principles must go through all the cases on one fide or the
other. He cannot be a Whig in this fta^e, and a Tory in
that. If he fays he is against the United Independence of
the Continent, he is to all intents and purposes against her
in all the rest; because this last comprehends the whole.
And he may just as well fay, that Britain was right in de
claring us rebels ; right in taxing us ; and right in dechre
ing her " right to Lind the Colonies in all cases quhatfoemr."
It fignifies nothing what neutral ground, of his own create
ing, he may iku^ upon for shelter, for the quarrel in no
stage of it hath afforded any such ground ; and either we
or Britain are absolutely right, or absolutely wrong through
the whole.
THE
it was the interest 6? Britain not to fuffer her to paSs, least
she should grow too powerful to be kept Subordinate. She
began to view this country with the fame uneasy malicious
eye, with which a covetous guardian would view his ward
whose etlate he had been enriching himfelf by for twenty
years, and saw him just arriving to manhood ; and Ameri
ca owes no more to Britain for her present maturity, than
the ward would to his guardian for being twenty-one years
of age. That America hath flourished at the time she was
under the government of Britain, is true ; but there is every
natural reason to believe, that had she been an independent
country from the firft settlement thereof, uncontrouied by
any foreign power, free to make her own laws, regulate
and encourage her own commerce, she had by this time
been of much greater worth than now. The case is simply
this : The firft settlers in the different Colonies were left
to fhift for themselves, unnoticed and unsupported by any
European government ; but as the tyranny and persecution
of the old world daily drove numbers to the new, and, as
by the favour of Heaven on their industry and perseverance,
they grew into importance; so, in a like degree, they be
came an objeft of profit to the greedy eyes of Europe. It
was impossible in this state of infancy, however thriving
and promising, that they could refill the power of any
armed invader that Should feet to bring them under his
authority. In this situation, Britain thought it worth her
while to claim them, and the Continent received and ac
knowledged the claimcr. It was, in reality, of no very
great importance who Was her master, Seeing, that from
the force and ambition df the different powers of Europe,
flie must, till she acquired strength enough to r.ffert her own
right, acknowledge Some one, as well, perhaps, Britain as
another ; and it might have been as well to have been un
der the States of Holland as any. The fame hopes of en
grossing and profiting by her trade, by not oppressing it too
much, would have operated alike with any master, and
produced to the Colonies the fame effects. The clamour
of protection, likewise, Was all a farce; because, in order
to make that protection necessary, she must firft, by her
own quarrels, create us enemies. Hard terms indeed!
To know whether it be the jnt'ereft of the Continent to
be in dependent, we need only ask this easy, Simple question :
Is it the interest of a man to be a boy all his life ? The
answer to one will be the answer to both. America hath
been one continued Scene of legislative contention from the
firft king's rep r elentative to the last; and this was unavoid
ably founded in the natural opposition of interest between
the old country and the new. A. govemotir Sent from
England, or receiving his authority therefrom, oughtt. ver
to have been considered in any other light than that of
a genteel commissioned Spy, whose private business was in
formation, and his publick business a kind of civilized cp
preffion. In the firft of these characters he was to watcli
the tempers, sentiments and dispositions of the people, the
growth of trade,^and the increase of private fortunes; and
in the latter, to suppress all such ads of the ASSemblies,
however beneficial to the people, which did not HireCtly or
indirectly throw some increase of power or profit into the
hands of those who sent him.
America, till now, could never be called a free country,
because her legiflition depended on the will of a man three
thousand miles distant, w) ofe interest was in opposition to
curs, and who, by a single “ no," could forbid what law
he pleased.
1 he freedom of trade, likewise, is, to a trading coun
try, an article of such vast importance, that the principal
Source of wealth depends upon it ; and it is impartible that
any country can flourish, as it otherwise might do, whose
commerce is engioffed, cramped and fettered by the laws
and mandates of another—yet these evils, and more than
I can here enumerate, the Continent has fuffered by being
under the government of Great-Britain. Bv an Independ
ence we clear the whole at once—put an end to the business
of unanswered petitions and fruitlefs remonstrances—ex
change Britain for Europe—Shake hands with the world—
live at peace with mankind—and trade to any market
where we best can buy and fell.
111. The necessity, likewise, of being independent,
even before it was declared, became so evident and im
portant, that the Continent ran the rifle of being ruined
every day she delayed it. There were reasons to believe
that Britain wou'd endeavour to make an European matter
of it, and rather than lose the whole, would dismember it
like Poland, and dispose of her several claims to the highest
bidder; Genoa, failing ih her attempts to redu e Corsica,
made a sale of it to the French, and such trafficks have
been common in the old world. We had at that time no
Ambaffadour in any part of Europe, to counteract her ne
gociations, and by that means she had the range of every
foreign Court uncontradicted on our part. We even knew
nothing of the treaty for the Hessians till it was concluded,
and the troops ready to embark. Had we been independ
ent before, we had probably prevented her obtaining them.
We had no credit abroad, because of our rebellious de
pendency. Our Ships cowld claim no protection in foreign
ports, because we afforded them no juftifiable reason for
granting it to us. The calling ourselves Subjects, and at
the fame time fighting against the power we acknowledged,
was a dangerous precedent to all Europe. If the grievances
juftified our taking up arms, they juflitied our Separation ;
if they did riot juftiiy our separation, neither could they
juftify our taking up arms. All Europe was interested id
reducing us as rebels, and all Europe (or the greatest part
at least) is interested in supporting us as Independent
States. At home our condition was still worse: Our cur
rency had no foundation, and the fall of it would have
ruined Whig and Tory alike. We liad no other law than
a kind of moderated passion ; no other civil power th6i
an honest mob ; and no other protection than the tempo
rary attachment of one man to another. Had Independ
ence been delayed a few months longer, this Continent
would have been plunged into irrecoverable confufion %
Some violent for it, force against it, till in the general cabal
the rich Would have been ruined, dud the poor defiroyed.
Numb. 959.