The Columbian informer, or, Cheshire journal — Keene, N.H., 1793-09-11 00:00:00, page 1

is extraded from the works of the late
~Wr%r£.P±;' ,& It o~' r * from the mn
fit calculation of this renowned military
butcher, that a war of 7 years, that is to
fay, a war from 1756, to 176,, cost Eu
jope 866 000 men § and that during the
long reign of LOUIS the XlVth, no left
than 15,000 000 of men fell victims to
, royal ambition. It is as useless then as it is
endless to follow these despotic barbarians
through all their ambitious wars, with a
view of juftiffing the French of the pref
ect age in crulhing into the dust one of
those monsters, of a race stained with hu
man blood and carnage,
They find their thrones in a most totter
ing condition, and are exerting their last
efforts to prevent the total fall of defpo
tifra. In vain will they heap viaims up
on vid ms-~-fall they muff—and their de
ftrudion will be accelerated by the very
refinance they make.
. Let us then leave this monster, despo
tism, in that gu'ph of annihilation where
fie must foun forever remain, and uhreil
the murderous ads of Fanaticism, that
monster wi h Medusa's head, who has pal.
fied all the human virtues, and transform
ed benevolent man into a ferocious mon
fter ; who has engendered ignorance, the
molt hideous plague of our species :—Let
us break /hat magic charm which has pro
ved so fatri to the world, and which tho'
periling, ha, still strength enough to af
£id mankind. By expefing its baneful
effeds let us render it odious to those who
may still be exposed to be led astray.
An enumeration of the crimes commit
ted in the namecf the God of Peace, has
been not very difficult to make out. Hif
tory for a longtime back, is clear in this
matter ; whether it has be^n that religious
wars have seemed mere odious than others
in the eyes of despots themselves, or
that the proscribed and persecuted feds
have been more assiduous in recording the
hiftory of their fufferings for the benefit of
of their posterity, I know not. Itis like
ly however that by so ciraumftantially
recording these bloody extravagances,
they were not without hopes that their des
cendants would one day profit from the er
rors of the past, and avenge the blood of
iheQuceftors.
§ OR some time past I hare had it in
my mind to convey to the public, through
the channel of your paper, an historical
lift of the perform who have been massacred
by command of those European tigers who
have the assurance to to call themselves the
lords and fathers of the people. And this
1 do in part for the amusement of those in
this country who seem so highly enamored
of royalty, or to speak more properly of
defpotiftn.
No^ner, however, had I entered up
on my talk, than I was convinced from the
the multiplicity of royal crimes, that whole
volome< would be necessary to accomplish
my purpofr. I; was originally my design,
to proceed regularly back from the age
In which *: live, to th^fe remote times
when hiftory miigles with fable ; begin
ning with he Mschiavelian king [Frede
ric If ] who brought the military art to
perfection,'aid afeended gradually to the
times when flonrifhed the fierce Nimred,
the Frederic of his age (aid to be the
firft who invented the infernal art of con
dudirg men to daughter, to the cadence
of Crum and fife.)
Fading it impracticable fully to accom
plifh my purpose, 1 ihall content myffrf
with recapitulating two faffs which are too
recent to be called in queflion. The firft
FROM THE NATIONAL GAZETTE.
(No. 24. of Vol. I.]
Mr. Freneau,
J^tfert&al.
Pri ftid and PUBLISHED BY HENRY BLANE, & CO. in KEENE; New-Hamps hire.
;n '& *%r''&<<„ °'^H • =77' &^^c'&^#jr f t&^;r '®«^ r v--^„' wt/ir ?*s< t^^g •=m &'^^r •^^n .z#%r &z^
THE
Columbian Informer;
Or, CHESHIRE JOURNAL.
[Here our correspondent proceeds to enume
rate the various victories, defeats, massacre;
murders, &c. recorded in the scripture hfory,
as the effeßs of fanaticism, which for obvious
reasons we pass over.—The numbers, howe
ver, at these different periods faughtered,
sand thus 23.000 —24,000 —42,000—
150,000, and 2,000,000, making in the
whois, 2,230,000.]
The Jewish massacre of the Roman, in
the isle of Cypress, and in the Cyreniac,
cost the lives of 220,000 Ramans. The
world, however, which had been so long
proscribed and laid waste by the Jews,
was now fully avenged. In the capture
of Jerusalem, there periffied of that nation
''337'49° men. The revolt of the Maf
fian Barcochebas was the occasion of 600,
000 men losing their lives by the sword or
torture.
I shall now proceed to particularize the
courts, more strikingly deltru&ive to the
human race, since priests have had influ
ence enough to prevent a free toleration of
religious opinion.
The Hebrews were the firft fanatics in
the world, that we know of. If we can
possibly give credit to their own annals,
th-y alone may dispute with the Spanish
c nquerors of the new world the. glory of
being the greatest destroyers of mankind.
If we make a calculation of all the infi
del blood which they boast of having shed
from the famous plagues of Egypt, to the
time of the destruction ofjerufalem, we
may without danger of error, estimate the
effects of this carnage (which continued
for 1500 years) at five millions of lives.
Befiaes these, they destroyed of their own
nation, in obedience to their prophets.—
The establishment of Christianity in A-i
merica, which according to Las Cafas, had)
occasioned so early as in his time the de-l
ftru&ion of i2.000,0e0, of Indian natives.'
without reckoning those who periled
finee his days from the fame causes as for
merly.
The civil war in Japan, in the last cen
tury (occasioned by the plots of the Cath
olic priests) 300,000.
The day of St. Bartholomew, 100,000 —
Them^fiacre of Marindol and de Cabrio
rcU|n^L—iQhct^Qe oQet ,
The msffacre of the fame ^^ in
the Greek empire by an edit! of the em
peror Theodore, deprived 100,000 of ex
istence.
The crusades against the Emperors, 300,
ooo—The massacre of the Albigenfes,ioo,
000 —The weftern schism, 50,000
The fanatical war of the Huffites, oc
casioned by the council of Constance, 150,
000.
The nerferution which the fynaonmi.
has undergone from the day of the empe
ror Adrian till our times, that is to lay,for
1500 years ; exaggeration makes the num
ber of Jews who died of famine & wretch
edness, that were hanged,drowned, burnt,
&c. to be 3,000,000.
The establishment of the Mahometan
religion, and its propagation by the Ca
liphs, by means of fire and sword, cost
Europe and Asia, 3,000,000 lives.
The massacre of the Manichees, in
Persia, the place of the worship of Ari
man and Oromaz, was the death of 2cc,
000 persons.
The schism of the Donatifts, the ^ ar
ral about consubstantiation, the diffention.
of the Iconsclafts (according to Trent
destroyed 360,800 persons.
The (editions occasioned by priests who
for many ages disputed the possession of the
patriarchat, and St. Peter's chair, annihi
lated at least 20,000.
The massacre at St. Brice, at the lowest
estimation, 50,000.
The crusades against the Turks, on the
lowest calculations, 2,350,000.
The crusade of the Teutonic knights,
who ravaged the countries bordering on
the Baltic sea, 100,000.
WEDNESDA r, ,$i p TIMBB r 11, 1795.
THE tear of the morning
hangs on the hawthorn, and jmpcarh the
The total number then, of human indi
viduals that have been facrificed to the
cruel spirit of fanaticifm, without reck
oning these who have perished of misery,
vexation and hunger, wounds, &c. re
caved in firing from the vengeance of
religions prosecutors amounts to, •*•*• —
Ba my hand trembles whi.e I write, and
rc bosom heaves wi h sighs—Yet I must
gc on ; the miseries of past ages must be
brought to light, that renovated man
may behold what his race has been, what
it still is; but what it ought to be in
future. The total amount then of these
mifercble vidims, is thirty-three millions,
ninety-five tboufand, rao hundred and ninety
perjont.
The great legislator who appeared at
he commencement of our vulgar sera,faid,
in efr\d, no more to men than that we
Tiulove God more than ourselves, and
men as ourselves.
When reviewing the pages of hiftory,
and endeavoring to discover the crimes of
philosophers,! thank God that among such
as occur, I do not find that they have ev
er Rained the earth with the blood of their
fellcw men ; on the contrary, I fee them
in every age & country persecuted by the
tyranny es kings and the fanaticism of
priests ; & all like Socrates,when drinking
the poisoned draught telling the world
that religion does not consist in opinions
which mus he believed, but in precepts cf
morality, which are to be praaifed; that
the end of every public inftitutien is to fc
enre an attachment to country ; to ren
der the father more dear to the son, the
wife to her husband, and above all to
persuade men that liberty and equality
can alone constitute the happiness of so
ciety. _
We might lead the mind to many oth
er feenes of horror, but it is time to draw
the veil over such sanguinary profpeds.—
Who is the man who dares to worship
despotism, which is the original cause of
all these excesses, or obey the mandates
of fanatics who subsist by the blood of
their fellow-men ! Let us repeat to the
world what Zuroafter said to the people of
the east :—
" Citizens, love each other as broth
ers,forget injuries ; people fuffer the light
of feience to shine upon you ; ye men of
wisdom, extend the reign of truth to the
Ye bale worfhippers of drfpotifm ! ye
cruel fanatics, if the reci al of so many
horrors cannot work a change in your
degenerate fouls, go to the fie^d of battle,
view the bleeding victims of ambition,
whose miseries death has not yet termina
ted; refied what must be their ideas at
those serious moments,when torturing with
-gony but yet retaining the breath of life,
they are carried in waggon loads from the
field of battle to the hospital. View them
io the hospital, where they are huddled to
gether ; fee what they undergo in order to
preserve a languishing existence ; and if
ail this cannot move you, go to the ram
parts ; observe well the springing of the
^erranean mine, which inllantly blows
™„~-.'"j;L,;^ a""' v iltr r e ; or to rhntm
huge (hips on the ocean, which in the fu
ry of engaging, allow only a moment be
tween the life of the devoted victims of
royal ambition and the mod excruciating
of all deaths.
200,000. Besides all these, there have
been at least one million extirpated of the
Vandefe at different periods ; and Don
Louis de Paramo reckoned 100,000 per
fors who had already fallen viaims to the
inquisition in 1589 ; and we may fairly
treble the number for the two centuries
that have elapsed since his time.
nds of the world ; men, learn that the
rireft gift of heaven to your species is
Liberty."
A Sentimental Fragment.
JVhEN I confider your impartiali
ty, and that I Irave a judicious and candid
public to infped and judge cf the propri
ety of my Centers, I have net one chi 1 of
fear, or torturerof doubt, cf fupportirg a
febjcd which tends to encourage the mo
ral, and correa the immoral pradices,and
which needs so little illustration to make it
appear juf t against the attacks of th. fe in
toxicated wi h the love of vice or fcurrili
ty —they neither know by experierce or
theory, the value of truth, fnenefhip or
benevolence, nor (as I have said before)
are they to be reafone/ with, &c.
In your paper, of No. 20, 1 observed a
piece signed Zenzx, in which he labori
o-fl) endeavored to vindicate the fend
ments of the Talker, (i, No. 10) and
ptefented his mi„hty engine at my three
former numbers of the Censor.—Poor
Censor ! must he be confounded by such
sentiments, which not only men cf icier ce,
but even clowns themselves have reason
o be ashamed to offer :—Heaven forbids !
The Censor yet lives, and is readv to an
fw#r any civi. interrogations or reasonable
objections, relative to his former Ceafort.
— Blackguarding or pointing pieces, are
not edif) ing to the readers, nor do they
re fled honor on the writer lin 1! there
fore, pass some of Mr. Zinex's (ententes
as not worth notice.
M . Zenex al owe tatling and scandal
to be bad pradices, and acculcs miofabu
fing the TALKER.—How he ma^Bßni
fentenc^R agree i am yet at a
said nothing agairft the TaL^aI
rLy,anvfertter thaG hem,,,,
thole pradifes. A;
De Talker feyi,
fabfur ulkhf, had (wn'l
ir.uch.the better" and a4
t jiDca greatderi, tc■
I- 1 % -:1
rote. In the day of my joy my che.k was
likened to the biulhing be&uty of teat
lovely flower; and tho' it has long since
left its criaifon, it still retains a partial Si
militude—for the tear is on it. But alas !
no cheering fun exhales my sorrow ; and
the chryftai that Hole forth in the morn
ing from my eye-lids holds its blaze in the
midnight hour.
Thus answered Elvira. I went on—
And is love said I the canker-worm that
has preyed on thy beauty ? D es that tor
turing passion make thee shed the ceaseless
tear I
No, replied Elvira, love gave me all
its choicest bleffingi: During five years
I rioted on its pleafares, and this world
was a heaven to me. William, it is true is
no more ! but he died in the field of honor :
He is recorded with th >fe heroes, who
fought and fell for their country —I bann
ed his wounds—his lull words birft me—&
his expiring sigh was bieathed forth in my
besom—l wept the briny tears of bor.fl
sorrow ; bet I hid my coioia'io —my
William loved none but me, and he hi liv
ed i1 the blcffed im ge which be lif me
of bimfelf.
But fc too is taken from me—He fle m ps
benea h this turf which 1 adorn wi:h flow
ers. Here my farcy feds my f. rrow, <ld
this sacred shrine of affedionl sh ill daily
vifirti I weary nature conducts me to my
huCband and my child.
I was my duty, and it soon bec.m m,
foul's delight, to point out to the < .rl^ „
boy the path iu which his hr h. 4 trod,sad
to inftil in his expanding mica ih^ emula
tion es paternal virtue.
His young breall felt the glowing fitra;
and he was wont to weep when I eohm
• the grave which g.cry had dug for his
father.
For the Columbian Informer, &c.
Messrs. Printers,
CENSO R, No. IV.
[Whole No. 24 ]