The Pennsylvania ledger, or, The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & New-Jersey weekly advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-03-30 00:00:00, page 5

To the PEOPLE of Pennsylvania.
LETTER IV.
ALAS POORCATO!
W HA T a buzz haft thou raised about thine ears?
— Hom canst thou proceed in thy lucubrations ? If
the following Soliloquy can yield the any c^nfola
tion, thou art welcome to place it either in front or
rear of thy next letter. thou milt perceive thyjeif
more indebted for it to William dhaklspeare,
than to Thy Friend and Reader
H A M L E T.
To write or not to write; that is he ^tuition—
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to bear
Th' unlicens'd wrongs of furious party-zeal,
Or dip the pen into a nett of hornets
And still, by teazmg, wake them? To write, to
anfwer —
No more? And by a single answer end
The thousand icorns and neart aches which anauthor
Is born to fuffer—T is a confumm moil
Devoutly to be wdh'd! To write, to aniwer,
Reply, perchance rejoyn —aye, there's the rub!
For in replies, and aniwers, and rejoinders,
Vv ho knows whit deadly broils and lends may come,
When we have (huilled of this mortal zed
Of mutual forbearance. There sthe curie
That makes cal unity of wordy -war.
For who would bear the Icotiing of the times,
The Tory's hated name, the Fool of Power,
The contumely of the penfton'd slave.
When he himfelf might his quietus make,
With a dry quill? Vino would endure this Pain*,
This foul difeharge of wrath from Adam's sons
Marfhal'd in dread array both old and Young,
Their pop-guns here, and there tlieir heavy Cannon,
Our labor'd pages deem'd not worth a Ruih
But that the dread of fomehing worse to come,
Some undifeover'd milchief, puzzles thought.
And makes one rather court the ancient path
Than fly to others which they know not old
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale calf o: tear,
And enterprizes of greatpith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry.
* Some writers in imitation of our ancefors yet
spell this word Payne.
THE foregoing Soliloquy, my dear countrymen,
was really put into my hand) by a friend, and
1 have bellowed lome serious thoughts upon its
contents. But I had before resolved upon my part.
The authors, or if I mull fay author, of what is
called Common Sense lias certainly had lair play.
Full time has been allowed him lor the tale of his
pamphlet, to reap the fruits of his labors, and gra
tify th it avidity with which many are apt to devour
dodrines that are out of the common way —bold,
marvellous, and flattering. What was intended as
a compliment to the public—to give them time to
gaze witli their own eyes, and reaion with their own
ficulties, upon this extraordinary appearance—the
author's vanity has construed wholly in his own
favor. He has called repeatedly for answers and
announced his second addition to the world in the
following drain of lelf adulation, " I hat as no an
swer has yet appeared it is now prelumed that none
will," and therefore, as may b lairly implied, that
he is unanswerable. Why then, when his challenge
is accepted, will not he and his teconds figut upon
fair terms? Why will they leek to draw the attention
of the public from things to men, refuting that quar
ter to others which the author of Common Senje
craves for himfelf? " Who the author of this pub
lication is (fays he) is wholly unnecelLiy to the
public, as the object o' attention is the do^rine itfelf,
not the man /" Can this sentence be reconciled to
all the pother made about Cato, who and what he
is ; or does it not rather betray tome fymptons of
fear and cowardice, to beset him at the threshold,
and seek to flop him in his march to the field?
What, although he attempts to walk forth humbly
with his Raff in his hand, and has been somewhat
late in filling his scrip witli hones to meet this Go-
LIAH; should he therefore be tauntingly defied? If
what is called Common Sense be really Common Sense,
ibis invulnerable, and every attack upon it, will but
add to the authors triumph. If it should be proved,
in any instances, to be Ncn-Senfe, millions,will be
interested in the discovery; and to them I appeal.
Once more I repeat the design of these letters, in
which I conceive a question to be involved of the
greatest importance that ever came before us —a
question not yet decided, and which ought there
fore to be wholly difeuffed. Opprobrious names can
prove nothing here, except chat they who use them
have nothing better to fay, and are afraid of their
cause. It is probable that some may fee their inte-
SUPPLEMENT to the Pennsylvania Ledger, No. 62.
Philadelphia, March 30, 1776.
rest upon one fide of the question, and some upon
the other; but that th great body of the people
can have any interelf separate from their country,
or (when fairly understood) pursue any other, is
not to be imagined. If Cato may be believed, he
can conscientiously class himfelf witli this great bo
dy, and can assure his readers that the guesses hi
therto made concerning him are racher unlucky.
Great pains have been taken to engage him in a
contest with our committee, but as nothing has been
quoted from him which concerns that body in gene
ral,he leaves his lettersto answer for themselves ; and
if his comments on the circular letter to the county
committees should appear to the public not to be
well warranted, he will submit to their judgment.
But he finds it would be endless to aniwer all the
filly queries, and daily scribble, of his opponents;
and has learned better than to be drawn from his
main object by indulgingthem in this way. It would
be too gre it a trespass upon the reader's patience.
He has viewed the ground on which he stands, and
is not afraid to tread it in the fight of the moll vigi
lant ton of Liberty; making that free use of the
Press which is promiled to him, without the lead
violation of any resolve of this continent, hitherto
made.
One fide of a great question has been held up to
us. We are told that it can never be our interest
to have any future connection with Great- Britain,
and are pressed immediately to declare our total
separation, for now is the time— and the time has
found us Could it be expected that all America
would instantly take a leap in the dark, or that any
who had not a predilection for the dodrine, or were
capable of reasoning upon it, would swallow it in
the gross without wishing to hear the arguments
on the other fide? 1 am lure this is the wish of mul
titudes of good men, particularly of those who may
be principally concerned in deciding the question;
ano whole earned desire it is not only to know the
sense of individuals, but the clear sense of their
country upon it; without which they could not
think themselves at liberty to give their decision.
Upon this ground, then, I proceed, and shall
red the cause with my adverlaries on the present
general defence, which, (altho' I am sorry it was
necessary) 1 have reason to think, will be more ac
ceptable to the public, than the mifpending time
in private altercation.' Those who oppose me, may
enjoy lor a while (perhaps unnoticed) all the tri
umph of the answers they may give; and if it is
found at last, as has been already hinted, that I
have said nothing to the purpole, their fide of the
quellion will only be Strengthened.
In my remarks upon the pamphlet before me, I
shall firft confider those arguments on which the au
thor appears to lay his chief stress; and these are
collected under four heads, in his conclusion.
'- It is the cuttom of nations, when any two are
" at war, lor some otherpowers not engaged in the
“ quarrel, to step in as mediators, and bring about
<c the preliminaries of Peace. But while America
“ calls herfelf a fubjeCt of Great-Britain, no pow
<c er, however well disposed ffie may be, can offer
“ her mediation"
Is this Common Sense, or common Non-Sense? Sure
ly, peace witli Great-Britain cannot be the object
of this whiter, after the horrible character he has
given usofthe people of that country, and telling us
that reconciliation with them would be our ruin.
The latter part of the paragraph seems to cast some
light upon the former, although it contradicts it;
tor these mediators are not to interfere for making
up the quarrel, but to widen it by supporting us
in a declaration, that we are not fabjeCs of Great-
Brirain ; a new fort of business, truly, for mediators!
But this leads us dire&ly to the main enquiry —
what foreign powers are able to give us this sup
port? Whether they can be persuaded to engage
with us? What will be their terms? Is an alliance
with them lase; or is it to be preferred to an ho
norableand firm renewal of that ancient connection,
under which we have so long flourifhed?
These questions cannot but employ the most seri
ous thoughts of men whose all is at flake, in the
resolution of them; and they ought to be answered
to the general fatisfadion, before we are launched
out into a tempestuous ocean, of which we know
not the other shore. That a continuance of mutu
al violence and hate may at last force us upon such
an ocean, is not altogether improbable; and it is
possible that we may gain some port of fafety, al
tho' in a shattered condition. Not a word shall be
drawn from me to diferedit our own strength or re
sources, altho' the accounts given of them, by the
author of Common Sense, appear incredible to some
I will even go beyond him in expressing my good
opinion of our situation. He thinks foreign affifl
ance necessary to us. I think we should but be in
jured by it. We are able to defend our own rights,
and to fruftrate the attempt of any nation upon
earth to govern us by force— For my part I would
ri fque my all in refilling every attempt of this kind
at every hazard.
But let us fee what assistance he offers us; and
we find France and Spain held out for that purpose,
altho' not as mediators, to “ strengthen the con
nexion between Great-Britain and America," but
wholly to dissolve it.
As to Spain, it is well known that the govern
ment of her own unwieldy colonies is already a
weight that she can hardly bear; and some pro
found politicians have thought that, from the firfl
she has rather been weakned than strengthened by
them; and that all her returns of gold and silver
from America are but a poor compensation for the
lives and cod with which they are purchased. It
may well be questioned, then, supposing Spain
were able to affill us in erecting an Independant Em
pire in America, whether her jealousy would per
mit her to rifque the poHibility of our seducing her
own American lubje&s into an alliance with us, for
the purpose of a lueure revolt from herfelf. But:
our author mentions France as well as Spain, and
thus proposes that both branches of the Bourbon
Family, so long the terror of Protestants and Free
men, should now join as their protestors! By what:
means, or at what price, is this marvellous revolu
tion in the system of politics, religion and liberty, to
be accomplished ? How are these two powers to
divide theie Colonies between them? Is their guar
dianship to be joint or feperate? Under whose wing
is Pennsylvania to fall—that of the most Catholic
or most Christian King?
I confefs that these questions flagger me ; and till
answered to tatisfa&ion, cannot but give every good
man the most painful apprehensions concerning the
future fate of his country. To be told, by the au
thor of Common Senje, that all this is mere prejudice;
that we must divefl ourselves of every opinion in
which we have been educated, in order to digest his
pure doctrine; and throw down what our fathers
and we have been building up for ages, to make
room for his viJionary fabric —I fay to be told this,
is only insult instead of argument; and can be tole
rated by none but those who are so far inflamed or
interested, that leparations from Great-Britain at
any rifque is their choice, rather than reconciliation,
upon whatever terms.
This, I much fear, is the temper of those who
are constantly dinning in our ears the necessity of
an immediate declaration of independence, for the
fake of procuring foreign assistance, especially that
of France. Their real desire is to shut the door a
gainst all future reconciliation by this precipitate
ftep.—Thefoaatter of foreign assistance is a mere
decoy. Can we imagine that if France thought
it her interest to quarrel with Great-Britain for any
benefits to be derived from us, her delicacy would
stand in her way? Was she ever reftrided by such
delicacy in any of the former civil wars of her
neighbours, especially those of Great-Britain ? But
the truth is that, in the present ruinous Rate of her
finances, and feeble condition ofher fleets, she will
scarce think it prudent, for any profpeds we can
yield her, to ruth into a new and expensive war,
when so ill recruited after the blood and treasure
which she lavished io ineffectually in the last.
Would it be wife, then, to risk a refufal from
her, or to mix our affairs with those of any foreign
power whatever in this contest °*b Great Britain?
No ; I conceive this would only fr otrad our wars,
encreafe our dangers, weaken our force, and pro
bably end in our ruin. And of all nations in the
world, France is the last from which we should seek
assistance, even if it were necessary. What kind
of assistance do we expe& from her! gold and sil
ver she can but ill afford to give us. Her men we
have no occasion for; and, in a word, until she
has a fleet able to contend witli that of England,
fne can do us no essential service. The want of
such a fleet has been the great barto her numerous
proje&s for universal empire. Can any protestant,
can you my countrymen, ever wish to fee her pos
sessed of such a fleet, assist her in attaining it, or
willingly give her footing in America! Would she
then be contented to be the humite ally of these
colonics or would she not, in her own right, re
sume Canada, which according to the limits she
formerly claimed, is larger than all our provinces
together? Could we hinder her from introducing
what multitudes of her people she might think pro
per into that country where they have already a
great body of their friends to receive them? In that
case we should soon be left without room for the
encreafing number of cur poflerity; hemm'd in