The Republican ledger — Portsmouth, N.H., 1800-09-02 00:00:00, page 1

" A furious party spirit, when it rages in
its full violence, exerts itfelf in civil war
and bloodshed ; and when it is under its
greatest restraints, naturally breaks out in
to falihood, detraaion, calumny add a par
tial administration of justice. In a word it
fills a nation with spleen and rancour, and
extinguishes all the feeds of good nature,
compassion and humanity.
“ Plutarch fays very finely, that a man
Should not allow himfelf to hate even his
enemies, because, fays he, if you indulge
this passion on some occasions, it will rife of
itfelf in others ; if you hate your enemies,
you will contraa such a vicious habit of
mind, as by degrees will break out upon
those that are your friends, or those who are
indifferent to you. I might here observe,
how admirably this precept of morality,
which derives the malignity of hatred to the
passion itfelf, and not from its objed, ans
wers to that great rule which was didated
to the world about an hundred years before
this philosopher wrote ; but instead of that,
i (hall only take notice, with a real grief of
heart, that the minds of many good men
are soured with party principles, and alie
nated from one another in such a manner,
as seems to me altogether inconsistent with
the dictates either of reason or religion.
Zeal for a public cause is apt to breed
passions in the heart of virtuous persons, to
which the regard to their own private inter
est would never have betrayed them.
" There is one piece of sophistry pradif
ed by both sides, and that is the taking any
scandalous dory that has ever been whisper
ed or invented of a private man, for a known
undoubted truth, and railing suitable specu
lations upon it. Calumnies that have been
never proved, of have been often refuted,
are the ordinary poftulatums of these infa
mous scribblers, upon which they proceed,
as upon firft principles, granted by all men,
though in their hearts they know they are
falfe, or at bed very doubtful. When they
have laid these foundations for fcOrrility, it
is no wonder that their fuperftruaure is
every way artfwerable to them. If this
shameless pradice of the present age endures
much longer, praise and reproach-will ceafc
to be motives of action in good men.
“ There are certain periods of time, in
all governments, when this inhuman spirit
prevails.—ltaly was long torn in pieces, by
the Guelfes and Gibellines, and France by
those who were for %nd against the league:—
But it is very unhappy for a man to be born
in such a (tormy and tempestuous season,
It is the restless ambition of artful men,
that thus breaks a people into faction, and
draws several well meaning persons to their
interest, by a specious concern for their coun
try. How many honest minds, are filled
with uncharitable and barbarous notions,
out of their zeal for public good? What
cruelties and outrages would they not com
mit against men of adverse party, whom
they should honor and esteem ?—Thus are
persons of the greatest probity, seduced into
fhameful errors and prejudices, and made
- bad men, even by that noblest of principles,
the love of country. I cannot forbear here
mentioning the famous Spanish proverb,
« If there were neither fools nor knaves in
the world, all people would be of one mind."
" For my own part, I could heartily
wish, that all honest men would enter into
an association, for the fopport of One anoth
, er against the endeavours of those Whom
they ought to look upon as their common
enemies, whatever fide they belong t 0....
Were there such an honest body of neutral
forces, we should never fee the word of men
in great figures of life, because they are ufe
ful to a party ; nor the belt unregarded, be
cause they are above praaifing those methods
which would be grateful to their fadion.
We should then tingle every criminal out of
"SPHERE cannot a greater judgment be-
X fal a country than such a dreadful
tpirit of diyifion as rends a government in
to two diftinA people, and makes them
greater strangers, and more averse to one a
taother, thanjf they were adually two diff
erent nations. The effe&s of such a divi
sion are pernicious to the last degree, not on
ly with regard to those advantages which
they give the -• Amon enemy, but to those
private evils sch they produce in the
heart of almo\ sery person. This influence
is very fatafqh to men's morals and to
their underlyings; it finks the virtue of
a nation, an< riot only so, but destroys even
common fet.J.
NUMBER II.—VOL. ll.]
The Republican Ledger.
PORTSMOUTH, (NEW-HAMPSHIRE) PRINTED BY NUTTING & WHITELOCK, MULBERRY LANE, ADJOINING ROUSSELET's MUSEUM.
" WHEN Yor SHALL THESE DEEDS RELATE, SPEAK OF THEM AS THEY ARE ; NOTHING EXTENUATE NOR SEt DOWN OUGHT IN MALICE."
PARTY SPIRIT.
THERE was some few years ago, a Ger
man of advanced age, good education, and
ample fortune in Boston. He is now dead,
and his name need not be mentioned. He
was an inhabitant of Manheim at the com
mencement of the French revolution, and
left his native country to be out of the way
of the war. When he reached London he
concluded to visit the United States ; and be
ing of consequence enough to obtain from
some men high in office there, letters of in
troduaion to Philadelphia he came on to
that city ; and finally visited Boston. I ask
ed him why it happened, that the Austrian
armies were generally beaten by the French ?
And added, that it had heretofore been sup
posed, that the German troops were equal
to any in the world. He answered with his
usual fugacity ; " The number of the Auf
trian (landing army is very small, when com
pared with the number necessary to carry on
a war with the French nation. There mull
be a great number of new levies of course.
These men will nev^r fight the French Re
publicans. They have nothing to fight tor.
The people of Germany are poor, wretched,
and miserable beyond description. The feu
dal system has its dreadful effe&s there at
this moment. The people are the property
of their sovereigns, who are all despots, a
mount to more than three hundred, increas
ing the public burdens in proportion to their
numbers. The people till the earth in a
Gate of slavery, while the rent, cxcife, and
tythes strip them of all the produce, but
what is barely fufficient to maintain their
strength one day, that they may toil the
next. They have no security for life or
property. No conquef tcan render them
more wretched than they now are. The
force of German discipline, severe and cruel,
may drive them to the battle ; but the mo
ment the onset is made, the force of discip
line is over : if a disregard to country takes
place of that noble ardour which liberty and
love of country inspire, the day is loft. This
will generally be the case in this war : the
prisoners taken from the Austrians will be
out of proportion to the number of killed
and wounded, because they will embrace the
firft secure opportunity to lay down their
arms."
I have frequently had occasion to relate
this conversation, and now give it to the pub
lic, that every one may compare the reasons
given by a man of information, with events
which have since taken place.
A. B.
EXTRACTS
From an Oration delivered at Richm&, Vir
ginia, on the 41btf July.
Station.
Mr CtNT^TMEN,
UNITED America this day celebrates a
period glorious in the annals of the world.
Five millions of freemen this day comme
morate the triumph of liberty over injustice
and oppression, the recolleaion of an event
Co interesting and important, dilates with
joy every nerve of patriotism, and swells in
to complete fruition every faculty of the
philanthropic heart. It is not the offerings
of humanity, it is not the prostration of reas
on before the shrine of majesty, it is not the
sanguinary triumph of despotism over en
slaved millions, we celebrate, but the eman
cipation of mankind, the regeneration of the
world. Loud shouts of triumph found from
St. Mary's to the St. Croix ; the acclama
tions of a grateful people re-echo from the
Ocean to the Weftern Mountain. O liber
ty T thou art dear to the heart ofman ; on
this day and on this foil was firft enkindled
thy hallowed flame, which will one day
illumine a new heaven and a new earth with
the conflagration of baftiles, of fceptres, and
of thrones.'
Before the white altar of liberty, falls pro
strate that fell demon, tyranny, of gigantic
the herd, and hunt him down, however for
midable and overgrown he might appear :---
On the contrary, we should shelter distressed
innocence, and defend virtue, however beset
with, contempt or ridicule; envy or defama
tion. In Ihort, we should not any logger
regard our fellow fubje&s as Whigs or To
ries, but should make the man of merit our
friend, and the villain our enemy.
From the Independent Chronicle.
.COMMUNICATION.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1800.
the winds and of the waters which break
upon the Atlantic shores. That despotism
which had depopulated Asia, which had
converted Africa into a desert, and which
had filled Europe with sighs and groans,
could no longer persecute those wretched
fugitives from civil and ecclesiastical oppref
lion, who had fled for shelter beneath the
majeflic branches of the American Oak.
The undisturbed enjoyment of all the pro
duaions of their industry, and the great fa
cility with which a property in the foil was
acquired, naturally inspired the inhabitants
with disgust for a,ftate of dependency. Born
in a country where the, corroding hand of
want had never yet been felt, from their
cradles principles opposed to passive obedi
ence were nurtured and encouraged. “No
ofurping tyrant had hete ereaed the ftand
afd of despotism and awed them into a ffatc
of valLlage.---No haughty nobility engross
ed the foil and reduced the people to the ne
cellity of ftarv/ng or submitting to the
drudgery of fl^ves " Free to a& and to
think as he pleased, each man was the lord
of his own a&ions, walked on his own
ground, and reaped the fruits of his own
labor. Acknowledging no superior but that
of the laws, this condud was far removed
trom that bale pliancy of foul, from that
degrading servility of disposition, which
cult ever chara&erife a nation of slaves.---
Would such men peaceably wear the yoke
of foreign bondage ? Could it reasonably be
supposed they would resign their dearest
rights without a druggie, and permit the
produce of their hard earned industry to
swell the train of royal extravagance and
tolly ? Who could expert that a country
rich in its munifaaions of nature, and a
bounding in every comfort which can glad
den the heart of man---a country embrac
ing every variety of foil and climate, whose
seas wash the four quarters ot the globe,
whose rivers open innumerable harbors and
inlets for commerce with all nations, and
whose flag will one day wave unfurled on
every ocean---who could so far deviate from
rational intelligence as to suppose, that such
a country inhabitated by a hardy race of
men, warmly attached to freedom, would
pay submission to the arbitary exa&ions ot
a foreign potentate ? As soon might we ex
ped that yon majeflic river would ccafe to
flow, or that the planetary system would
ruth down from their resplendent orbits, and
gravitate around the smallest particle in the
material world. By what authority could
Britain enad laws tor this country ? Conld
her parliament legislate tor us without our
consent, and tax a people not enjoying the
right of rep refentation ? Tyrants ot the
earth ! From those fields of American va
lor, Princeton, Trenton, Eutaw-Spring, and
Yorktown, now white with the mouldering
bones of the firft martyrs in Freedom's cause,
learn the fate of itlegalized power ; and let
this anniversary of American independence
announce to remotest ages, that a nation of
freemen will never be bound in chains.
Here we must for one solitary moment
pause. Here those joys which this day ac
tuate every bosom, those feelings of unfeign
ed happiness which pervades every heart and
every foul, must receive a melancholy inter
ruption. An involuntary impulse directs
"the mind to the memory of that patriot he
ro, who disdaining every consideration of
private ease, or personal fafety, of an afflu
ent fortune, dared, in defiance of all the ter
rors of majesty, to head those gallant sons of
freedom who refit fed submission to usurped
authority. It has been our misfortune, my
countrymen, within a few months pad, to
have received the melancholy summons to
pay the last tribute of refpe& to this bene
fa&or of mankind. ' Washington is now no
more. He lives only in the evidences of
This country seems to have been defined
by the great author of nature for liberty ano
independence. Seperated from the rest of
the world by avast extent of ocean, an afy
lum in this weftern hemisphere, was open
ed, to all those who were the wretched vic
tims of oppression. Those vices and crimes
which for fourteen hundred years had crim
soned the. fertile plains of Europe with the
blood of men, were loft in the confliaing ot
Nature; whole bloody forehead rises to the
liars of heaven ; whose murderous voice a
long the hallow furface of the clouds, founds
more terrific than the awful thunder ; an<
from whose nostrils iflu'e dark volumes ot
deadly vapour, threatening to blot out the
light of nature, and to involve the universe
in chaofic darkness.
[I DOL. 50 CTS. PER ANNUM.
his greatness, in his brilliant atchievements,
in the universal plaudits of mankind. Youth
of America !---the future bulwark of your
country, behold the patron of virtue and of
patriotism lies humbled in the dust !---Let
tue.---Yes Washington ; the acclamation
of generations yet unborn will celebrate
your praise !--Where the tall trees of tho
toreft now wound the flying clouds with
their spiky fiimmits, altars to thy memory
(hall arise; and thy name to the remotest ages
be consecrated by sculptured marble. A
round thy ashes the aged yew tree, in its
tender foilage, shall re-echo the noise of the
distant winds, and over thy tomb the vene
rable willow shall weep to repeat the mur
muring found !
On an occasion like the one this day per
petuates, that diversity in political feniiment,
which prevails in these Rates, cannot be
pa(Ted over in silence. Uniformity of sen
timent not only never has, but never can ob
tain. Beings of finite intelligence, whose
faculties are limited and citcumfcribed,
whose intelleaual capacities, differ as wide
ly as do the outlines of their material char
aders, to agree to any one principle, not of
intuitive demonstration, mqft exert a power
seldom the lot of imperfect humanity. Men
are not all endowed with the fame powers
of sensation, nor does the perfpe&ive of
every mind pass through the fame medium
of perfeaion. How then can opinion ~be
universally the fame accord ? To attempt
to reduce all men to the fame standard of
sentiment, is impiety in religion, is dogma
tism in philosophy, and tyranny in state.
Under a government where freedom of tho't
receives uniVerfal toleration, diversity of sen
timent, on political as well as other fubjeas,
must prevail. So long as human nature
continues the fame, the opinions of men can
not be direded to any one point, but like
emanations of l',t from celestial bodies,
can only unite m focuffes of small magni+
tude, where their diverging rays interfett
each other.
your sorrow afeend with the towering oak;
let it mingle with the howling of the winds,
with the declining fun, and with the dark
ness of night. Sires, and ye aged matrons in
days to come, when your children are list
ening to that melancholy event, which has
deprived America of her father, and the civi
lized world of its greatest ornament, inspire
them to emulate his deeds of exalted vir-
Diversity of political opinion, in a free
(late, uninfluenced by any other confedera
tions than those of virtue, integrity and love
of country, should be cultivated and en
couraged. Repeated investigation, which
difference in opinion must produce, occasi
ons a frequent delineation of the great prin
ciples of rational republicanism. Energiz
ed by exertion, the public mind will ac
quire a correction of principles, and of real
solidity of information, which will enable
every member of the community to form
his own opinions on the decisions of his own
judgment. Virtue, moderation, and Justice,
ihould be the guides of .every party. The
efficiency or the expediency of measures a
dopted for the general welfare, cannot be
understood equally by ail, nor can their sev
eral tendencies, to every mind be placed in
the fame point of view. The abilities, the
information, and the patriotism, of the sev
eral candidates for public patronage must,
from the fame causes, in the minds of differ
erent men, have different claims upon the pub^
lie gratitude. If then we aft according to the
capacities of our minds, ifive aft according to
the extent of our own informatian, if we da
justice to ourselves, to our fellow-citizens, &
toourcountry, we cannot agree.--- Wby them
does one part of the community denounce
anethemas of vengeance against the other,
and stigmatize them as traitors to the liberties
and welfare of their country ? Americans all
possess the fame community of interests and
of rights. All have the fame ties to endear
them to the sacred name of liberty : all have
the fame obligations to refill foreign domi
nation, or to oppose domestic usurpation.---
Are not all then equally the voters of free
dom ? The intelligence of every man ex
claims, they are. Why then are the ears
of the aged patriot so often wounded with
malignant calumnies and his feelings lacer
ated by ungenerous and unfounded accusa
tions ? Can conviction be the result of mu
tual excrimination ? Can harmony be ex
peded, where even a flight shade of indiff
erence in opinion plants daggers in the paths
of frtendfhip + Because tuv father, my
brother, or my friend, approbate the public