The American herald of liberty — Exeter, N.H., 1793-06-25 00:00:00, page 2

u ln 1791, when Louis fled from his coun
try, 1 should have wished for a Republic, if I
had only followed my private predilections for
such a mode of government ; but at that epoch,
when theßepublic might have been established
without any convulsive motions, the majority
of the people,and almost the whole of theirße
prefentatives, were (till inclined to a monar.
chical government, and I followed the torrent;
I gave my content to a monarchy, in which
the monarch was to renounce all foolifh ideas
of arbitrary power, and to be confined for ev
er within the limits of wisdom circumscribed
by the nation for the exercise of his rights; I
appeal to my opinion of the 26th of August.—
Since that time the Kings of Europe have con
spired to destroy us ; Louis had entered into
the fame confpiracy,which produced the natu
ral effect, namely, the Representatives of the
people expressed the will of the nation, in fa
vour of a republican government. I then swore
to live and die a Republican ; but in order to
keep that oath,the National Convention them
selves mull not expose their fittings, to be look-,
ed upon as a Theatre of Gladiators. The pas
sions there are in continual ftrife ; egotism and
felf-imereft are all-powerful, at the expence of
the National welfare ; where feme men prosti
tute, to party, the public liberty ; where no
thing is heard but the savage fhoutsof fury and
vengeance, the inveftivesof hatred, or the most
extravagant refolutious.irfftead of the reflefting
difcuflions of found reafon-^ahd if a loyal in
dividual, who sincerely wills the liberty of his
country,has no other profpe<& than the mourn
ful certainty of failing in hisobjed. no other
step can He take than to deciare it to his fellow
, citizens, and to again request the Repietema
tives of the people to ceaie to call for his fer
, vices. I fulfil all my duties in telling you
this before hand. Be cautious, my fellow cf”
tizens, of believing that any ambitious teheme
• has entered into my thoughts.
« My foul revolts as much against the idea
of exercifirig arbitrary power, as to that of fu.b
mitting to it. But one species of difta orfhip
can exist even in a moment of the most impor
tant crisis, and it is that of confidence, which
* great charafter inspires— a firm love, which
has virtue only for its guide. The force of
the councils' of an individual ought to prevail,
when such counsels are salutary ; but that im
/ menfe power of opinion ought to cease, when
his egotism is difcovefed. Such an exalted
character will find enemies only amongst those
who' are ambitious, but impotent and sordid
' anarchifls s to such a character, at this crisis,
we vecourfe. 1 firmly bellive, that
but one method drifts for laving our country ;
that method will be explained to your com
mittee of public fafety, and to the executive
council. Jf it « ad opted, and you believe me
capable of carrying it into execution,/ preserve
to me a little tosgmUc commandos the as-
——i
rloweverftrong be the fentimentsof gra
titude with which I am inspired by the marks
U confidence which I continually receive from
the Renrelentauves of the Nanon ; yet fowe
to the brave Republican army whtch I com.
...nd, to the whole nanon, to thetr Reptelen.
utives and to myfelf. »«« to dlffetnble me
truth but to tell n entire. This brave army
has lull eleaped from being delltoyed tn the
midst of the plains of the Palatine, in conie
cuence of orders given by Bournonville to a
bandon the back pans of the country of the
Vofgcs ; an order which was given without my
knowledge, without even that as 1 am allured,
of the Executive Council ; for I am told, that
no trace of such a resolution is to be found in
the reg.fter of their proceedings, in spite of an
extraft of their deliberations,which that minis
ter had sent me, and 1 received only four days
after its execution.
<« The Generals of the army of the Moselle
executed the order of their retreat, without gi
ving me any information of it. 1 received
their letters, but leng aPer they had executed
such orders. Ido not doubt but this was on
ly neg,led on their fide. Ido not doubt but
that condud arises from their ignorance Os the
inconveniences which might have refuited to
me from their evacuation of that territory ;
but it the army, the command of which I was
entrusted with, is always to be exposed o the
bad efteds refuhing from the ignorance, ca
bal or perfidy of the agents of the nation, shall
1 consent to remain the paflive instrument of
deftrudion of the brave soldiers who combat,
ed under me ? Would not I be the most con
temptible of all ambitious men, if I preserved
a command under so many errors, which can
not but oCcafion the ruin of the Republic ?
But I dare to tell you, with a franknefs so ne
ceifary to a Republican, chat this condud was
encouraged by you on the day when Kellerman
after having so basely betrayed the interests of
his country, received your public approba.
tion.
A LETTER
From General Cuftine to the Prtfident of tot
National Convention of France.
« I think it my duty to lay before you a
{bort confeffion of my political opinions in the
public funflions to which I was called since
the year 1789 ; at which time I appeared be
fore the constituent aflembly. At that time,
along with all Frenchmen,! wished fct a King,
but at the fame time a King who was to have
in his power to do all imaginable good,
but who was to have no power of doing
ill.
Head Quarters at Weijfcmberg, April 9.
ExtraS of a letter from Dantxick, (in Poland )
April 10.
“ We are now completely a Fruffian town ;
a garrison of 2700 men are quartered upon the
inhabitants ; a Commiflary is arrived to regu
late our imports, duties, excite, &c. The old
municipal government still remains; but that
also must soon give place to another arrange,
ment. Some individuals among our chief ci
tizens have left the town, and 1 gone to fettle
at Hamburgh and other places, not chufing to
live under a military government. The cotri
fortable fide of our profpeft is an increate of
trade, and of the means 6f subsistence to the
poorer classes of the people, who have for ma
tiy years past fuftered grievoufl-y from the con- ,
sequences of the oppreflive condudl of our
neighbours, and tb'e gradual decay of our trade.
Dantzick has loft one fifth of its inhabitants
from thefecaufes in the last 10 years. The
pretent acquisitions made in Prussia, though
vastly inferior to what Russia gains, are indeed
very important : They contain above ro6t
square German miles, above 5060 English
miles square ; 262 towns or cities, 8274
Villages, and r,i36,889 fouls.*’
On the 28th ult. the Subfidiafy Treaty be
tween England and Hesse CafTel was ratified
by Lord Elgin and M. Munchadjen, the Ladd**
grave’s War Minister. The Landgrave gives
to England for fix years 8600 meny eleven
squadrons of cavalry, and ten battalions of in
fantry, with the neceflary artillery. The firft
civifioms to march on the Bth of Miy, : but
WhitheF is uncertain.'
A great number® of Petitions, praying for a
radical reform', Jbortir duration ot Parliament,
and signed by immente numbers, have recent
ly been presented to Parliament. Some of
them have been rejefted,as containing impro
per and difrefpeftful language ; but the great
er part have been received, and committed.—
It is judged, from the spirit of the rimes, and
the calamities which hover over the na
tion, that a reformation in our government is
not far distant.
It is reported that the French have evacua
ted Savoy, in consequence of a decree, which
orders that ’all the troops of the Republic
should return to the frontiers. This decree
^as bccafioned by the difficulties which re
cruiting met with ih the different departments,
where the citizens said they were willing to
march in defence of the territories of the Re
public ; but that they had no idea of leaving
their homes to run after coequefts.
There are fitting out at Bourdeauk fix of the
Houtefl privateers ever sent to sea from France.
The fmalieft ©f them mounts 36 guns.
my; Charged with such a miiSon, I shall
know well how to perish (if so it is defined)
along with it,, and ami^ft the wreck of the Re
public. I think that all ocher measures will
prove incoherent and dilatory. They can
not be the forerunners of hefs than the molt
doleful convulsions in the State, the annihila.
tion of the army, which I command ; and the
Republic itfelf will haye been but a dream.—
All Kings have fworh our deftrudion ; their
fatelites are animated with the fame fury; the
harrangue of Cobourg before Nerwin<*e is a
proof of it; by a great and decifiye measure,
yod can alone rife above this crisis. Discuss it,
but above all resolve, and if, contrary to
the vows 1 make, you abandon the State to the
chance of events, receive again my resignation,
of that command of the army, which you
hav£ just confirmed to me. I cannot be an
accomplice in its ruin, fincc I coduoc insure its
glory.
(Signed) . " CUSTINE.”
____________________-
FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE^
New victims are daily and hourly facrificed
on the Guillotine. Eight General Officers
have already luffered ; on the 18th, Colonel
du Vaux, the Aid-du-Camp of Dumourier, ad
ded another to this number. General Stengbel
has been released j but he has been again ar
rested, in consequence of a dCpofition made by
an Anftrian deterter, who has acCufed him oP
having held a private correspondence with
General Clatrfayt, during the winter. He is
expefted to fuffer. Col. Vaujour belonging to
the dragoons in Dumouriers army, has like
wise been beheaded.
It is also confirmed that Conde has surrender
ed to the Austrians.
ENGLAND.
LONDON* APRIL 20.
THE Intelligence which we communica
ted on Monday last, refpeding Gener
als Miranda, Stingen, and Lanoue, we were
hopeful would have proved unfounded. Sub.
sequent advices,however, put it beyond doubt,
that they had fuffered on the fcaffold. The
fame advices state, that Santirre, the Com
mandant General of Paris, had been appoin
ted Commander in Chief of the French Ar
mies.
Valenciennes is regularly invested.
On the 13th inftanc Marat was arrested, in
consequence of a Decree of the National Co
nvention, and committed to the prison of the
Abbave.
PARLIAMENTARY REFORM,.
MAY, 4'
may 2.
. ExtraEi of a letter from a gentleman in Savannah, da
ted May 22.
frontiers have been attacked lately in sev
eral quarters by the Indians. Eleven negroes,
were taken about a fortnight since from Colonel
Saunders’s, which is within fix miles of North New
port bridge.* The governour hai been taking mea
sures for our fecurity,but our ultimate reliance mutt
be upon federal aid, which I hope will be* readily
afforded after the frequent ineffeftual meafureswhich
have been taken to eftabiilh a peace between them
and us.”
* North Newport bridge is near the middle of Liber
ty county, and from whence the greatefl part of the rice
made in that county is flipped.
’NEW-YORK
LANSINGBURG, JUNE 11.
A gentleman arrived here yesterday after
noon in just two weeks from Niagara : He in
forms us that the Commissioners of the United
States, to the Indian nations at war with us
wire then there in Waiting to attend the treaty
of Sandusky, Mich has Been poftpohed until
the fiift of July, on account of the Indians be
ing unable to generally attend sooner. gapt.
brandt (at out for Sandu&y about the 3d of
May : Previous to his departure for that place,
in frequent conversations with our informant,
who is much in his friendfhip, he gave as his
opinion that no peace could take place until the
O^zirand Mujkingum (hall have been made the
divifionary line. Capt. BrandT very sin
cerely expressed his good wishes towards the U
nited States, and (irppofes it good policy to
make those rivers the boundary । arid should ei
ther rdfufe that article ih the treaty, he will
take an aftive part against them.
Cambon read a letter from Coftine, dated
Landau : “ Legislators, fays he, I am ordering
back to Alsace all the magazines of provisions
and ammunition, not being able to refill thee
nemy, who, being 32,000 men that block up
Meniz, press on me with 80000. 1 can
scarcely muller a few broken squadrons of cav
alry, to oppose to 50,000 in the belt order. It
is impossible for me to command *n army dif
orgamzed by the new mode of eleftion which
you have decreed. I request it as a favour,
that you will quickly fend me a successor. I
prefer dying as a soldier, to leading brave men
utelefsly to (laughter as a general.” The rest
of the letter confided of bitter complaints a
gainst Bournohville.
A letter from the Commissioners at Valen
ciennes was read. It (fated, that Conde was
kill blockaded ; that the enemy summoned the
town of Maubeuge, the garrison of which was
resolved to defend it ; and that an action had
taken*place the evening before, in which the
enemy were repulsed. The Commissioners
added, that they expelled an important aftion
the day following.
THE Convention decreed, oh a report by
the Committee of war, th.it all officers
appointed by General Dumourier, to whom
brevets were not sent before the sth of Febru
ary last, should be deprived of their Commif
fiohs.
Weare now embarked in a war with France,
upon the old ungenerous principle of joining in
kicking a man down hill when all the world is
against Rim. The war however is carried on
unßer peculiar circumstances. France has few
trading ships at sea, few foreign pofleffions
which she does hot almost wilh to lose, and hak
many spare hands to throw into her ships of
war, whereas ours can be but weakly manned.
She will either defend the Weft Indies with
negroes armed to assist her, or more probably
fuffer us to take them,or at least a part of them,
and be at the trouble of arranging their govern
ment ; and. then attack our trade during the
war, and demand the restitution of them or
of their equivalent at the peace. To know
the force of France at sea, confider her only as
ah Algerine power, of twenty times the naval
ftrenghof iuch a power, and with a far more
dangerous situation for attacking our trade and
wafting our pofTefiions ; and with infinitely
more power to defend herfeif at home against
invasion. To their formidable artillery and
engineers the best in Europe, they join under
different shapes, one million of mnfquetry,and
may add to them whenever they choose two
millions of pikemen; a new invented weapon,
but which bids fair to render those invincible
who become dextrous in its use, and looner or
h-er to overthrow all offenfive wars and all in
ternal tyranny, inasmuch as standing armies
must always be weaker than armed nations.—
The french have now acquired not only mili
tary passion, too natural in man, which is now
become the predominant paftion in France.—
Here, in England, we are depending on the
success of intestine divisions in France ; and so
we have done for four yiars, yet we fee their
present exertions, which are far greater than in
the time of their monarchy. Whenever they
seem nearest to an extreme calamity, they
have always been found nearest to a remedy,
the danger producing a proportionate exertion.
Thfc French now perceive that Britilh treasures
are spent in feeding factions in France, and
loon will turn the tables upon us with our ca
tholics and negroes. Corruption is no new in
strument, it was tried in America, it will have
a given success and no more.”
NATIONAL CONTENTION.
THURSDAY APRIL 18.
AMERICAN ADVICES.
PENNSYLVANIA.
PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 10.
A Correfpondentfays, that it is highly to
the credit of the Amerieen charailer, that the
decollation of the late King of the French, is
verry generally disapproved of; and by the
dispassionate yeomanry of the interior country,
more than by the citizens of the sea ports.—
Although they cannot think Louis XVI. free
from crimes,for he was a man.they neverthelefr
cannot reconcile it to their ideas of juftice*>
that the National Convention, (who previoufl/'
acknowledged his inviolability,) Ihould ftar.d
in the charader of Legiflators,Accufers } Grand
and Petit Jurors, Judges, and Executive Offi
cers—and thus thinking, they take the liberty
to condemn the measure, and the Men who
pa fled it; although they, and every true A
mericani feel warm advocates for the entire luc
ceft of the ^rsat principles of the French Rev*
ENGLISH BANKRUPTCIES.
It may terve to shew to our readers the ex
tent and nature o f the Bankruptcies which
have created so much distress in Great Britain
were we to give the profeffions of the teveral
Bankrupts. In the single Gazette, May 4, we
find, a cutler, carpenter and builder, jeweller,
wool stapler, woolen draper, liquor merchant,
viftualler, bill broker, watch maker, locking
glass manufafturer, tailor, mercer, fqap boiler
upholsterer, innholder, merchant oilman, boul
trngcloth Weaver, coal merchant, linen drap
er, cheefemonger, haberdasher, wine and bran
dy merchant, clothier, shopkeeper, grocer, and
dyer.
Capt. pearce, from Newry, arrived at
Newyork, informs, that he passed through a fleet
of 30 fail of Engli/h vessels in the Irilb chappel,
having 1 1 regiments on board, who were defy,
tined toa fiift the courier revolyionifts in Brit
anny, and other part? of France.
Gen.DtfMOURi'ER has aGdreffcd’ay?fcWlet
ter to the French nation ; in which he fciakes
a bold, and public avowal of his tentimen's ip
favour of an energetic government, to entere
and perpetuate the felicity of France.
We learn,by a gentleman from Philadelphia,
that the President of the United States has
forbidden the French Ambassador ifiuing any
more commissioners t^privatcers.
That the Lnglijk Lords Spiritual,the Ambaf
adors of the Prince of Peace, should vote for the
War againil Frawre,can be accounted for on ro
other principle than that in the French Rev
olution, they Aw the “ craft in dangerP But
they have reckoned without their hod ; for one
of the ^r/r^Miniders has told the P»ight Rev,
erend Gentlemen, that as soon as the ordinary
means of railing fupphes were exhauited—and
from the then (late of the nation, the period
did not teem remote— their fat revenues mus
be looked to as the frit refurce. We may
therefore, Ipeedily expecl to hear their loud
ejaculations for Peace—and the prayers of such
pious men mult be heard.
AT BRISTOL, MAY 4.
0 The approaching summer Items pregnant
with as great events as ever have been recor
ded in theprefent century. To form an idea of
what ihefe events will be, is far beyond the
power of mortals. Every heart that is not stee
led against the ideas of humanity,muft feel in
dignantl at the fate of Louis XVf. But whe
ther rhe immolation of thoutands of innocent
persons to his munee wilTbe grateful to them,
or advantageous to, the world, I must leave to
the politicians of the times to determine. Er.~
gland is beyond companion in a more deploia
ble state than ever 1 knew her—Bankruptcies
beyond conception—publick faith intirtly gone
—an expensive foreign war to support, and a
coniiderable faftion to quell at home. From
what I have leen, the war is not a popular
one, and the sudden eFed it has had on trade
makes it very obnoxious to many persons in the
mercantile line. 'The French wire preoared
for making reprisals at tea upon theirencmies
fooncr than any of them, and many valuable
prifeshave already fell ino their hands; but is
is by no means probable, that the French mar
ine can fupportitlielf against the united Marine
of England, Holland, Spain and Portugal.”
1
NEW-YORK, JUNE
.On Monday arrived here, the frigate/* Ent. *
lufeade, from Philadelphia, and saluted with
15 guns, which were returned. On her
cruize from the Capes of the De lew are, we
learn, she fell in with a large vessel, which
she bore down upon ; but finding her to be a I
two-decker, with two tier of guns, and ob
serving she hauled up her courses, and have
her topsails aback—the Embufcade thought it
prudent tb bear awayjfor the Hook. The ship
gave chafe, but the Embufcade out failed her.
On Sunday' night she again law a large veflel
which ihe supposed to be the fame. In her *
paflage here Jfhe took a Halifax brig from fa
maica for Philadelphia, loaded with Pimento, I
Ginger, &c. which has arrived.
x One of the officers of the Embufcaac has been
^faulted by a person by the name of KE Don.
aid, who threw a stone at him, for which KT
Donald his been committed to prison.
A Hoop from Hudion, carrying arms, and
intended to ad as a Privateer under a French
Comm'flion, was, we here, arreftea on Saturday
last, by order of Governour Clinton. The
matter is now under examination-
MASSACHUSETTS.
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT,
PRIESTRCAFT IN DANGER.
boston, June 19.