The Republican ledger — Portsmouth, N.H., 1800-07-01 00:00:00, page 2

From the AMERICAN Citizen.
THE advocates for freedom, the friends
of liberty in Europe, have been astonished
that American legislation has included the
dreadful idea of making a diferimination
between one free citizen and another and
•entrenching one public officer of the govern
ment behind the sedition law, while other
public officers, of nearly equal importance
in political arrangements, and most certain
ly in possession of equal rights and equal a
bilities, have been considered as proper marks
to be {hot at ; as objects against whom the
ruling party might let off the whole force of
their resentment ; and that calur%y and
feurrility in this initance being thus fanaion
ed, by numbers and authority had loft their
original character, and become principles of
virtue instead of vice -For instance, John
Adams is President of the United States, and
Thomas Jefferfon is Vice President and Pre
fdent of the Senate ; he is the second officer
in the government, and in some refpe&s c
qually important, in a constitutional point of
view, with the chief magistrate. If the
citizens of the United States calumniate the
charader, of Mr. Adams, it is sedition, but
if they calumniate in ever so high a degree
the charader of Mr. Jefferfon, call him a
theist, and by many other hard names, it is
very well—he is a democrat, and deserves
no better fate. One party is barricaded by
a sedition law, the other exposed to abuse
and detestation. The one considered as al
most infallible, the othe, always in the
wrong, stirring up public mifehief, disturb
ing order and good government, and merit
ing the most odious epithets which the ma
lignant brain of despotism can invent. This
hit party thus pursued by governmental
vengeance, are so unfortunate as to speak
well of American Independence —so stupid
as to esteem Jefferfon, its real author—so
itedfaft and independent as to contend for
the dodrines of '76, the general principles
of liberty and equality, to oppose the army
and navy eftablithment in time of peace, and
to declare at all times and in all places, that
they are determined to fopport a fiee, equal
and republican government, and for doing,
laying and believing all these things, they
are condemned as jacobins and diforganiz
iers ; and many individuals have been pro
secuted, fined and imprisoned, and calumni
ated for adhering with constancy and firm
' nets' to those very principles, which in the
^commencement of the revolution, if a man
had not adhered to, he would have been tar
red and feathered.
We dispatched a kind of missionary to
England to discuss and explain ; and Mr.
Sitgreaves was chefen aSthe most likely per
son to succeed, from the uniformity of his
British attachments and arbitrary condud
in Congress.
We are now fully allured that lord Gren
ville has jefufed to eriter into any difcuflibns
on iHe fubjea, and that Mr. Sitgreaves has
in consequence taken a trip to France ;
where at leall he may pick up fomethiog to
corred his understanding, and chastise his
judgment.
a The public may rest assured ofthefe fa&s
our admihiitration is already fully potitiled
of the faffs, arid Weapprehend that they will
form the fubje& of difeuffion, at a meeting
of the federal officers, who have been desired
to meet, the President the present week at
the Federal city.
We expe& to hear more of this matter.
Cbe fatal Create
EVERY day—every hour brings some
new and lamentable tertimony of the blind
and grievous policy, which gave birth to the
British Treaty the ignorance or worse
of our bungling negociatoi Jay.
The facrifice of rights itriaiy national,
and the pitiful acquiescence to the arbitrary
and unprecedented violations of the law of
nations, by that fatal instrument, is a disgrace
from which no time, no circumflances can
release us. . „ 1-
The dilemma in which the Sixth article
has involved us, becomes every day, and ev
ery hour, more critical.
By the loose and improvident terms in
which that article was dictated, room has
been left for Britain to hold us in perpetual
disquietude, and to give her specious grounds
of complaint againff us.
Can it be forgotten how for two fears part
we have pointed out the enormous demands
which Britain was about to make, and mak
ing, upon grounds which though never con
templated by Jay, are yet fubje& to be
claimed under that instrument, from the
imperfeanefs or the purposed ambiguity of
the language in which it is couched.
Above 12 months ago, we foretold what
has since taken place, that the demands
would be so enormous, that we should ne
ver be able to Submit to them as equitable
or pay them after decision—or that the affair
would end in a dispute.
We have seen the commissioners verify
our predictions.
The pretences and amount of the claims
have been so enormous as to cause a dissolu
tion of the commission.
"From the AURORA.
(Why. is it that we have thus changed ? are 4
we not as much interested at (he prefect
time in the preservation ofcliberty .as we
were in the beginning of the war in its ac-
Jpiifition ? Why is it, that in a free country,
ome individuals among the'conlGtuted au
thorities may be slandered and abused with
the utmoit Safety, while faying a (ingle word
against another, no higher in authority, but
belongingto the opposite party, (hall become
the ground of instant and rigorous prosecu
tion ? Is this liberty r is it equality r is it
common jurtice r No, it is neither ; and
when the (edition law has expired, we Ihall
have the tight of proving more fully, the
truth of the present assertion.
IT has been a fubje& of enquiry in times
past, what is the Power of civil magirtrates
in matters of religion ? This enquiry has
been lately renewed, and it is faid'on the
one fide, that the legitimate powers of gov
ernment extend to such a&s only as are in
jurious to others. On the other it is holden
that a system of laws which puniffiet those
who deny the being of a God and the truth
of the chriftian religion, should be dneffen
tial con ftrtutional pillar of a Rate. 'The
latter has been, and is the prevailing opin
ion : and is supposed to be too evidentin
itfelf to require proofs—What his been e'f
tablilhed bv very ancient ufageaud acquies
ced in, comes in time to be considered as
well founded. It is deemed a kind of prin
ciple, as to which neither denial or proof is
to be expefted. This is much the case as
to the supposed right of making laws to ef
tablilh or Support religion.
It is a fad that legiflatofs and founders of
Rates, have generally in all ages, considered
feligion as a good subsidiary prop of govern
ment. Seeing men are every where inclin
ed to have some kind of religion ; They
have taken hold of their hopes and fears on
this head to mould them the better to order
and obedience in society. Politicians hate
ever been too wife to think that they had any
power cier men's hearts to eltablith religion
there, they well knew they could only re
gulate by laws, the external conduct of men,
tor meer political purposes. Whatever re
ligion they should eftablith then must be a
meer outiide thing, considered as ufeful to
promote worldly happiness, and having no
higher or further end. And yet it mult pre
tend to reach beyond the grave, that it may
keep men in order on this fide—Thus an
eßabliffied religion, must be at once politi
cal and hypocritical in its nature.
It must dazzle by its pomp, prieft<,grand
temples, fhewy ceremonies, colily ornaments
and gaudy assemblies where the people may
gratify their pride, in dress and appearance,
and fee all the reigning falhions, are among
the allurements of in established political
religion. Festivals, and large allowance to
mens private gratifications must be added,
to make it popular. And in this way men
may be, and often have been made, ver)
zealous for a religion accommodated to the
corruption of human nature. In return foi
such indulgencies political religion has its
stria requirements. The public rites are
considered as of great importance, and must
be Supported and kept up ; and in addition
to the fanaion of temporal pain, the fear of
future evils is inculcated according to an ex
pensive fyßem ettablilhed for that purpose ;
to enforce obedience to the Rate laws and re
ligions.
These observations apply to every nation
al religion, that of Israel of old only except
ed. That 'was a real theocracy: the Rate
was the church of God, and the fyffem had
an unparalleled grandeur. It was as it
were a divinely appointed earthly paradis
aic figure of heavenly things to come, in
which it has terminated,& is swallowed up.
The Polytheism or Wathen religion estab
lished in the Roman State, in its early peri
od is well known. It was blended and in
terwoven with the civil institutions, and so
continued until supplanted by another Rate
religion, or changed into it.
By the time that the northern nations had
got a Settlement in the Empire, divided it
into ten kingdoms, the foim called chrillian
ity hating got the countenance of the Em
peror, had thereby made great advances in
splendor, so as to vie with the old religion
now falling before it. Canonized faints
now came in place of heathen Gods, pomp
ous fellivals and rites called chriftian came
in place of gentile ones, the old- temples
were turned into new ones called churches,
the favour of the great, riches,pleafures, hon
ors, were philosophy chriftianized, united
their influence to allure men to take upon
them the Cdriftian name. The ten Kings gav^ their
power to the Beast to support this heathenism
new modelled and made the religion of the
emqire. And it continues to this day, in
molt countries called chriftian, closely unit
ed with their civil institutions. .Yea, so
closely that it is deemed necessary in some
of them to unsheathe the devouring (word,
to define it in crusades, left if this form
should fall, it might pull down with it the
pillars of the ftatc. N
©e enquirer, m.i.
For the REPUBLICAN LEDGER.
Toussaint, the Sovereign of St. Domingo,
has decreed that the rents of the abfeptees' effaces
should be\ paid into the public coffers, allowing
authorized attornies 5 per cent, for their care of
the ellates ; that when absentees return they dial!
be put into possession of their effaces, and be paid
the net proceeds of them, during their ablence ;
or if the public finances are not then competent
thereto, the elates are to be exempted from tax.
ation, till the proprietors are thereby indemnified.
April 8.
A person of the name of Boucherot, coming
from London to Paris with Dutch paflports, was
fufpetted of having a commission to pay difaffeft
cd people, and particularly to turnifh money for
the purchase of corn (which might be forEngland)
in France. He had lang been under the eye of the
police, and was arretted on the sth April, with
Madame Talon, and two of his accomplices. A
rnong his papers were found documents confirm
ing the fulpicions entertained of him. He receive
ed money from England, and, in order to conceal
his practices, tie had two letters of credit, one tor
1,800 000 litres, and the other for 1,500,000 li
tres, and the other tor 1,500,000 livres, upon a
perlon of the name of Talon, who in the conflitu
ent afiemby was the tool ot the corruption prac
tifed by the court, who tiuce his emigration was
the agent employed by Pitt to negociate the sur
render of Surinam to the English, and who is
known to be now in great favor at London, and
one ot the principal agents employed by England.
This intrigue, originating in exaft information
coming from foreign parts, has been entirely dis
concerted by the activity of the prefer of the po
lice of Paris.
VENICE, MARCH 14.
This morning at it o'clock, the great news re
sounded from the conclave of the election of a new
pope in the person of Cardinal Gregoria Barnaba
Chiaramonti, on whom scarcely any body had fix
etd heir thoughts before.
He was born on the iith Aoguft, 1742, at Cae
zena, in the ecclesiastical states, the native place
of Pius IV.
In the 16th year of his age he entered the order
of the benediftines. Pope Pius IV. elevated him
to the dignity of a Cardinal. The name which the
new head of the church will adopt is not yet
known.
The rejoicings throughout Venice, on this hap
py occasion are hardly to be described, the more
so as the long delayed eleftion had caused much
anxiety to our inhabitants.
The Nobili Giniliani has sent to the conclave a
silver crufifix for the new Pope which is of a most
exquifit uorkmanfhip of art.
These arrests have given rife to a thousand do
ries. A mere affair of police has been converted
by rumour into a grat conspiracy, which threat
ened the exigence of the chief magillrates of the
Republic.
It is worthy of remark here that the con-
Ritution of the United States excludes every
religious test, and has nothing like a religi
ous eftabliihment. It neither cherishes nor
enforces religion by temporal emoluments,
or disadvantages. It leaves chriftranity, the
true religion, to work its way as at firft, by
its native evidence, and by its eternal sanc
tions. By this that constitution Rahds re
markably distinguished. How different
from that of some countries & Rates, where
men. are allured by the love of places of
honor and profit to solemnly profefs a belief
which they have not, or to profane in foltemn
mockery, the sacred institution which the
dying son of God gave to a people redeemed
by his bloodl
Having said thus much byway of intro
du&ion, we will next enquire into the
foundations upon which the power of civil
magistrates in matters of religion is suppos
ed to be built.
H-tffcgg^^^^fr^lt^fe,,
Paris, SPEIL 2.
The Bien.lnforme gives the following account
as the real cause of Suwarrow's disgrace:
" Inc Emperor Paul had undertaken several
reforms, and had ordered the soldiers to change
their light and large drels tor the old Iliff German
uniform. He indued upon their wearing powder
and pomatum, instead of wafhiug their hair, eve
ry morning. I hey were alto ordered to wear
talfe tails. Sowarrow having received the orders,
with the models for the soldiers ' tails, and the pat
terns tor the tize of the lide buckles of Ihe hair,
laid, b l' hair.powder is not gun-powder, buckles,
are not pieces ot cannon,& tails are not bayonets."
The meaning was expressed in two kindsofßuffian
measure, which became proverbial with the
troops. Paul immediately recalled Suwarrow,
and the murmurs of the troops only incited him
to dilgrace his former favourite.
A letter from Peterfburgh, dated 5 Germinal,,
Feb. 26, lays, 66 Marshal Suwarrow is disgraced.
I he Emperor has deprived him of the title of Ita
lijki, and prohibited the drums from beating be
i(,re him according to custom. The colours are
no longer displayed as he paffes,and his name is
omitted in public praj ers. He is accused of hav
ing caused the mifunderlianding between the two
Imperial Courts."
We need only look at the new tertament,
and examine by that the Rate religion we
Speak of, and we may difeover it to be a
monstrous corruption, as abominable in the
fight of God as any political religion, ever
Invented of eHahlThedi
But who will confalt the beautiful draught
ofibriflianity in the new teflament / —That is
indeed a holy religion, but the phrase our
holy religion is now abused to set off the im
pure dodtrine and ways of antichriftianity.
And that this may keep its ground as a
Hate religion combining many interests in
its favor, it has been implicitly received for
doctrine without, antfagainft all evidence,
that the civil powers must establish, or at
lea ft patronize religion ; and that by their
countenancing a form of chriftianity, they
are doing good to the people and rendering
an acceptable service to the author of chrif
tianity..:; :.
Foreign Intelligence.
No money belonging to the public can be
applied to any purpose, even a public pur
pole, but by virtue of an express appropria
tion by Congress.
But a Secretary of the Treasury negligent
incompetent, or corrupt, may fuffer or cause
the public to be robbed of an immense a
mount. And pretexts may be found under
which a cunning or abandoned officer may
cover a wade of the public money, with the
appearance of discharging his duiy—and he
may even continue under suspicious forms
and the complexity of official accounts not
only to spread corruption through all parts
of the country, but to employ the money of
the public to the public injury, and to ag
grandize those who may barter their oaths
and their trust for the obligations which they
may lie under to the Secretary of the Trea
sury. " 4
For example, a public servant whose fa|-
ary may be twothbufand dollars a year, and
who has to disburse a sum of from fix to
10,000 more on the public service, draws
on the treasury for ihefu/ljum of 12,c00
which he has to disburse and pay himfelf.
We (hall go further, we Ihall fay that
he holds unaccounted for, a sum nearly
double the amount of both these sums.
And wefurther alfeit that it is but a few
days since, that an account of Mr. Picker
ing, wherein large sums of the public mo
nep were or ought to be employed, was re
turned to him, he not having furnilhed
couckers to juftify his charges.
For this time we ihall difinifs Mr. Pick
eting, because we have about forty other
friends of regular gbvernment to bring in re
view, and to account for themselves before
the public, whom they have so long dis
gracefully flattened while they betrayed.
We now assert that we can point out the
book and the page of the book, nay we can
enumerate the enormous sums and the dates
upon which they were drawn, which are
now unaccounted for to the public, by its
servants, although these are officers whose
duty it specially is to cohtroul and prevent
the mifapplicatibn, retention or abuse of the
public money.
In passing over the balances due to the
United States of only fourteen out of the
mass of extraordinary accounts, and with^
out resorting to method or fele&ion in taking
them from the accounts at large in our hands,
we find in these fourteen an unaccounted for
eight Millions of dollars..
We ihall give the names of the holders of
these unaccounted millions in a future paper
—premising generally that the greater num
ber of the holders of the public money live
northward of the Potomac —and some of th
most conspicuous in MalTachufetts and Con
ne&icut.
Under our happy form of government no
man can be called upon to surrender any
part of bis property even for the public ser
vice in any other form than under the direc
tion of a law passed by the authorities defig.
nated in the Constitution.
The public may rest assured of these fa&s
and thar the whole shall be developed,be the
fury or the resentment of the culprits what
it may.
To - morrow we shall give fonalhan Day
ton's account at large. [Aurora.
WE have at length pofleffed ourselves of a
long and black series of abuse and watte of
the public money. We Shall from day to
day lay before our readers the particulars—
and we Shall not go upon the vague ground
of suspicion or of surmise, we ihall assert
what we have repeatedly hinted at, and
which we did net before lay fully,
clearly; and explicitly before the public,
from a hope that the executive would cause
a Speedy and effectual investigation into the
cendud of certain affairs of high trust.
That investigation has not been made, &
we now Hold ourselves bound to Rate faffs,
that the public may fee, and think how their
money has been employed—how the admin
istration has discharged its trust—and bow
confidently the public income has been man
aged, with the circumstances of the country,
and the enormous loans at enormous inter
est, and grievous and oppressive taxes which
have been contraaed for three years past.
We had some time ago Stated that Tim
othy Picketing had drawn on the 18th of
April last, the firm of 50,000 dollars from
the public treasury.
We now repeat the fad, apd at the time
he drew the enormous sum, he had in his
hands unaccounted for, the sum of 300,000
dollars and more, on the fame account.
That is to fay under the head of accounts
with the Barbary powers.
We aflert that upon such an authority as
is not to be questioned, and we dare Mr.
Pickering or any of his fatelites to dispute
the fa&.
JUNE 18.
A DEVELOPtMENT OF THE
ANGLO-FEDERAL SYSTEM.
Domestic Intelligence.
PHILrtDELPH!d^UNE
P©#rc
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