The Pennsylvania ledger, or, The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & New-Jersey weekly advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-04-06 00:00:00, page 2

I believe history ancient or modern will make
few Republicans. He that reads the Rate of the
Grecian or Roman Republics, what doth he read,
but fccnes of domestic violence and rapine, war and
bloodfiied? Even the virtue of individuals could not
preserve them from crumbling tofpieces. Like ill
conftruded machines, set in motion, they perched
by their own instability and unwieldiness. Nor will
the commonwealths of ohr own times excite our
envy. I know of but two pure democracies in the
world,viz. Connecticut and Rhode-Bland. Those
of Holland, Switzerland and Italy.are aristocracies;
o# all tyrannies the lead Supportable. If anyone
chufes to turn Panygerift and declaim in praise of
the two I have mentioned, I have no objection.
But it must be acknowledged that the English
constitution, like all other human fyllems, is in feme
parts imperfect and open to corruption. The unc
qml representation by incans of boroughs and the
length of. Parliaments, .have made them le.'s amen
able to the'peoplc, and'ufirodiicYd a fakm of ve
qiality. How long this poison will operate before
the vitals are affected, or whether the soundness of
the constitution will one dgy throw it off, time mull
difeover. In this happy land of Pennsylvania, we
have imitated its excellencies without its defers.
Our mode of representation being "uniform and
equal, the ele&ionTrem year to year, and the right
of our Assemblies to fitch their own adjournments,
not Subject to dissolution or prorogation, have cor
jcded the errors'of the British government, and
made this themoft peril a and happiest in rhe known
world. But Should we, in an evil hour barter it for
an uncertainty, or a certainty of having a much
worse, it would be madness in the extreme. I flatter
myfelf the good people of this province, will feri
onfly take the consideration of this great quellion to
heart; that they will not shrink back from the con
led, but with their .nfual good sense, assert their
attachment to their ancient happy constitution.
When attempts are made to plunge us into anar
chy, and rob us of that equal liberty under which
this province has so Signally flourished; when the
cohfitution itfelf is threatened with dissolution, be
cause its guardians have instructed our Delegates to
preserve it Sacred, it is criminal to be blent. But
the Spirit of the friends to the coilftitution was up,
and by a timely zeal in Supporting, our A/fcmbly,
the attempt was crushed in its Shell.
As the complexion of this province will be known
by our condu& on the firft day of May, I hope we
Shall cxercife that great constitutional right, as be
comes freemen attached inviolably to their form of
government. The weight we have in, the American
Scale, makes it an object of the last importance, too
great to be Sported away in compliance with the
defirns or.dreams of modern Law-givers.
CIVI S.
W^ W id W%r%xW ^A •frto W&frto%r WWA^
L E T T E R I.
To C ATO
0 be nobly wrong is more manly than to be
I meanly right. Only let the error be difinfer
efted—let it were not the mafe, but the mark ofprin
ciple and 'tis pardonable. It is on this large and
liberal ground, that we diftirguilh between men
and the ; r tenets, and generously preserve our friend
ship for the one, whilewe combat with every pre
judice of the other. But let not Cato take this
compliment .to himfclf; he hands excluded from the
benefit of the dihindion; he deserves it not—And
if the Sincerity of disdain can add a cubit to the
Nature of my Sentiments, it Shall not be wanting.
It is indifferent tome who the writer of Cato's
letters are, and Sufficient for me to know, that they
are gorged with abfurdity,confufion, contradiction,
and the most notorious and Milful falfhoods. Let
Cato and his faction be againfl Independence and
welcome; their consequence will not now turn the
Scale: But let them have regard to justice, and pay
Some attention to the plain doctrine of reason.
Where these are wanting, the sacred cause of truth
applauds our anger, and dignifies it with the name
of Virtue.
Four letters have already appeared under the spe
cious name of Cato. What pretensions the writer
of them can have to the signature, the Public will
best determine; while on my own part, I propheti
cally content myfelf with,contemplating the Simila
rity of their exits. The firß of those letters promised
a Second, the Second a third, the third a fourth;
the fourth has Since made its appearance, and still
the writer keeps wide of the question. Why doth
he thus loiter in the fubburbs of the dispute? Why
hath he not Shewn us what the numerous blessings of
reconciliation are, and proved them practicable ? But
he cunningly avoids the point. He cannot but
difeover the rock he is driving on. The fate of the
Roman Cato is before his eyes: And that the Public
may be prepared for his funeral, and for his funeral
oration, I will venture to predict the time and the
manner of his exit. The moment he explains his
terms of reconciliation the typographical Cato dies.
If they be calculated to plcale the Cabinet, they
will not go down with the Colonies; and if they be
Suited to the Colonies, they will be rejected by the
Cabinet: The line of no-varation is yet unsound;
and, like the philosophers Slone, doth not exist.
" I am bold," fays Cato, “ to declare, and yet hope
* to mike it evident to every honest man, that the
:31c interell of America lies in reconciliation with
" Great-Britain owconftitutiana! principles."
7 his is a curious way of lumping the business
indeed! And Cato may as well attempt to catch
lions in a mouse-trap as to hope to allure the Public
with Such general and unexplained exprNlions. It
is now a mere bug-bear to talk of reconciliation on
confitutional principles, unless the terms of the firft
be produced and sense of the other be defined; and
unless he does this he does nothing.
So follow Cato through every absurdity and
falfhopd in the compass of a * letter is impossible;
neither is it now neceflkry. Casandra (and 1 thank
him) hath Saved me much trouble; there is a Spirit
in his remarks which honesty only can in spire, and
a-unifermity in the conduct of his letter which the
want of principal can never arrive at. Mark that
Cato.
One observation which I cannot help making on
Cato's letters, is, that they are addrefled " To the
People of Pennflvania" only : In almost any ocher
writer this might have puffed unnoticed, but we
know it hath mifehief in its meaning. The parti
cular circumllance of a Convention is undoubtedly
Provincial, but the great business of the day is Con
tinental. And he who dares to endeavour to with
draw this province from the glorious union by
which all are Supported, deserves the reprobation - of
all men. It is the true interest of the whole to go
hand in hand; and dismal in.every infiance would
be the fate of that colony which Should retreat from
the proteaion of the rest.
The firft of Cato's letters is insipid 'in its stile
language and fnbftance : crouded with personal and
private inuendoes, and directly leyelled against
'" the Majefiy of the People of Pennfiivania." The
Committee could only call, .propole, or recommend
a Convention; but like all other ,public measures,
it llill rested with the people at large whether they
would approve it or not; and Catons reasoning on
the right or wrong of that choice is contemptible;
because. if the body of the people had thought, or
Should llill think, that the AiTembly (or any of their
Delegates in Congress) by fitting under the ernbar
raflinent of oaths, and entangled with Government
and Governors, are hot so perfedly free as they
ought to be, they undoubtedly had, and llill have,
both the right and the power, to place even the whole
authority of the Afiembly in any body of men they
please; arid whoever is hardy enough to fay to the
contrary is an enemy to mankind. The conftitutiou
of Pennsylvania hath been twice changed through
the cunning cf former Proprietors ; Purely, the
,people, whose right, power and,property is greater
than that of any Single man, may make such alter
ations in their mode of government, as the change
of times and things require. Cato is exceedingly
fond of impressing us with the importance of our
“ chartered constitution." Alafs! We are not now,
Sir, to be led away by the jingle of a phrase. Had
we framed ourconductby the contents of the present
charters, we had, ere now, been in a State 01 help
lei's misery. That very Afembly you mention hath
broken it, and been obliged to break it, in almost
every instance of their proceedings. Hold it up to
the Public and it is transparent with holes; pierced
with as many deadly wounds as the body of M'Clcod.
Disturb not its remains, Cato, nor dishonour it with
another funeral oration.
There is nothing in Cato's firft letter worthy
of notice, but the following insinuating failhood :
" Grievous as the lead restraint of the preis mult
k always be, to a people entitled to freedom, it mult
“ be the more so, when it is not only unwarranted
" by those to whom they have committed the care
" of their liberties, but cannot be warranted by
“ them, confident with liberty itlelf.”—The rude
and unfcholaftical confufion of persons in the above
paragraph, though it throws an obscurity on the
meaning, ilill leaves it discoverable. Who, Sir,
hath laid any restraint on the liberty of the press?
I know of no instance in which the press hath been
even the object of notice, in this province, except
on account of the Tory letter from Kent County,
which was published last Spring in the Pennsylvania
Ledger, and which it was the duty of every good
man to dete&, because the honefly of the press is as
great an object to society as the freedom of it. If
this is the rellraint you complain of we know your
true character at once; and that it is 10, appears
evident from 'the exprelhon which immediately
follows the above quotation; your words are,
“ Nevertheless, we readily Submitted to it, while
“ the lead colourable pretence could be offered tor
“ requiring such a submission." Who Submitted,
Cato ! we Whigs, or we Tories. Until you clear
up this, Sir, you mud content yourfelf With being
ranked among the ranked of the writing Tories;
because no other body of men can have any pretence
to complain of want of freedom of the press. It is
not your throwing out now, and then, a little po
pular phrase, which can proved you from Suspicion;
they are only the gildings under which the poison
is conveyed and without whicli you dared not to
renew your attempts on the virtue ot the people.
* P^e writer intended at firft to have contained bis
remarks in one letter.
Cato's Second letter, or the greatest part thereof,
is taken up with the reverence due from us to the
persons and authority of the Commissioners, whom
Cato vainly and ridiculously stiles Ambassadors
coming to negotiate a peace. How came Cato not
to be let a little better into the Secret? The ad of
parliament which describes the powers of these men
hath been in this city upwards of a month, and in
the hands of Cato's friends. No, Sir, they are not
the Ambassadors of Peace, but the didributors of
pardons, mifehief and insult. Cato discovers a gross
ignorance of the British constitution, in Supposing
that thele men can be empowered to ad as Ambaf
ladors. To prevent his future errors I will set him
right. The present war differs from many others
in this inllance, viz. that it is not carried on under
the prerogative of the crown as other wars have
always been, but under the authority of the whole
legislative power united, and as tlie barriers wliich
flana in the way of a negociation, are not procla
mations but ads of parliament, it evidently follows,
that were even the King of England here in person,
he could not ratify the terms or condition of a re
conciliation ; because in the single charader of King
he could not Stipulate tor the repeal of any afls of
parliament, neither can the parliament Stipulate for
him. There is ne body of men more jealous of.
their privileges than the Commons; because they
fell them: Mark that. Cato.
I have not the lead doubt upon me but that their
business (exclusive of granting us pardons) is down
rig t bribery,and corruption. It is the machine by
which tliey effed all their plans. We ought to view
them as enemies of a mod dangerous Species, and
he who means non to be corrupted by them will
enter his protest in time. Are they not the very
men who are paid in every measure for voting
againll us, and ought we not to Sufped their de
signs: Can we view the barbarians as friends? Would
it be prudent to trust the viper in our very boioms?
Or to Suffer them to rambleut large among us while
iuch doubtful charaders as Cato have a being upon
the continent? Yet let their perlons be fafe from injury
and outrage —but trull them not. Our business
Cato, by way of dealing into credit, fays, that
"“ the contest we are engaged in is founded on the
mod noble and virtuous principles which can
•"animate the mind of man. We are contending
(lays he) against an arbitrary ministry, for the
46 rights of Englishmen." No, Cato, we are now
contending againit an arbitrary King, to get clear
of his tyranny. While the dispute rested in words
only, it might be called "contending with the Mi
nutry, but Since it is broken out into open war, it
is high time to be done with such filly and water
gruel definitions. But itnuits not Cato to speak the
truth it is his imereft to dreis up the feeptered
favag in the mildell co ours. Cato's patent for a
large trad of land is yet unsigned. Alas poor Cato!
Cato proceeds very, importantly to tell us, “ that
with them is Short and explicit, viz. We aredefiroqs
of peace, Gentlemen ; we are ready to ratify the terms,
and will virtuoully fulfil the conditions thereof;
but we should deServe all and every misery which
tyranny can inflid, were we, after Suffering such a
-repetition of lavage barbarities, to come under your
government again.
the eyes oj all Europe are upon us." This dale and
hackneyed phrase hath had a regular defeent from
many of the King's Speeches down to Several of the
Speeches in parliament ; from thence, it took a turn
among the little wits and bucks cf St. James's, till
after mfferihg all the torture of fenfelels repetition,
and being reduced to a Rate of vagrancy, was cha
ritably picked up to embellish the second letter of
Cato. It is truly of the bug-bear kind, contains no
meaning, and the very meaning, and the very using
it discovers a barrenness of invention. It Signifies
nothing to tell us " that the eyes of all Europe are
upon us," unless he had likewise told us what they
are looking at us for; which, as he hath not done,
I will: They are looking at us, Cato, in hopes of
Seeing a final Separation between Britain and the
Colonies, that they, the lookers on may partake of
a tree and Uninterrupted trade with the whole Con
tinent ot America. Cato: thou reafonell wrong.
For the present, Sir, farewell. 1 have Seen thy
soliloquy and detpile it. Remember, thou haft
thrown me the glove, Cato, and either thee or I
mull tire. 1 fear not the field of fair debate, but
thou halt Hepped aside and made it personal — I hou
halt tauntingly celled on me by name? and if I cease
to hunt thee irom every lane and lurking hole of
milchief, and bring the now a trembling culprit
before the public bar, then brand me with reproach,
by naming me in the lid of your confederates.
The FORRESTER,
>,...<>....<>.. .<>...<>....<,....<.<>....<.>.. <>....<>. ..<>....<>....<>....<,....<..<>.>....<}..,. <> .... <>6 „
The FORKESTER and the LION.
f H E Forsefler meeting with a Lion one day, they
difeour/ed together for a while, without differing
much in opinion. At las a dispute happened to arise,
between the point of Superiority between a Man and a
Lion; the Man, wanting a better argument, foewed
the Lion a marble monument, on which was placed
the statue of a Man friding over a vanquished Lion.
Ij this fays the Lion is all you have to fay for it, let
us be the carvers, and we will make the Lion flriding
over the man.