The Gazette of the state of South-Carolina — Charles-town [S.C.], 1783-08-27 00:00:00, page 2

To the virtuous Whig Citizens of
the State of South-Carolina.
.Friends and Felloe Offerers,
Let the uncandid tongue lick absurd pomp;
And crook the fop < hinges of the knee,
" here pelf may follow fawning.
Shakespear.
'hTO men are found to endure reproaches ^ith
lets temper than those who most deserve
them : Nothing can raore plainly verify the truth
cf 'his bfervatnn, than the Patriot hi repre
tenta^v^ Another Patriot, r^d ther col the
PRETENDED Printer of the Load n Evening
Pus ; which triumvirate would bespatter Bratus
* rib charges of fa.lhood, scurrility and abuse : But
ih^s being chd iu the invulnerable armour of
truth nad love to this country, fears their impotent
malice no more than the man in the moon does ibe
barLi gos a little febfelefscur; for though Brutus
is a Granger to the tax of fear, which conference
pays to guilt (at hail in his political line of life)
y t the Nabobs Gazette ai ts him as an " alien
" to iociety, a traitorto the hapoineft of mankind,
'' the author of violent and inflammatory hand.
" bills, of a letter figged Brutus gruffly personal
" andicurfilaus,oi wickedness andimpudence, &c,
Such malignant, &ho clouth t emfelves in guilt
z^ firihood, mull certainly have cast off Hume
But,
Wha+ ftr nger breast plate, than an heart un
tainted ?
Th< ce is he arm'd, that has his quarrel just.
And he bit naked, tho'lock'd up in fleel,
Whose conscience with injailice is corrupted.
Shakespear.
A Patriot, in his last speech and dying words,
which appeared in M Iler's paper of the rzth inff.
fays " No man of large property in the country,
66 w'>o wilhod to be refto ed to the free use of it
'"underour government, would have hesitated to
" give that jum (what fam) to ensure the remain
*' der?" Bru us doth n t tenure the leading men
of either this S.a^or Georgi,. fo' being lavish of
their ow<, o; ^yl th • p^fafe preUnts .he, made
cf vf^t was not tieirowo, but the property of
&+ num ers ^ : nthe State is indebted to, is what
B^s condemns.
A Patriot avs, “ Brutus's vanity can only be
" accounted f,r, from that species of vice which
" ma ypoffefs, of w^hinzt? be bought the friends
" ~r enemies of men of high ^k a^d condition "
and acds "th-firft he could have n, pretensions
66 to, and thrrefo ehe has chosen the latter " The
Pam ?s manner of accounting for Brutus s vanity,
is altogether fallacious ; for he is rot an e emy to
any man or fetof men, ou his own account, which
he thinks will plainly appear from his political
efays; ia * hich he has opposed that party which
hid i meft in their power to flatter vanity and heap
five urs ofthim: bu, Hrutus fco ns to climb by
indirea means, and more Specially as climbing is
too often performed in the humble posture of creep
ing' A Patriot alf; fays, " To attempt a serious
" refutation cf Brutu 's produilins would be
" giving them more credit than they de erve."
Aneafy way of warn dhing the a&ions of .00 many
qfo^r Nabobs; but fjeb kind of v^rn sh can x nly
fi^stor iffutiftmt among the credulous and defign
ng. Brutus has been, and will be more induf
tr ous to search for truth, than to impose falfe
b^ods, which he hopes will appear obvious to
every candid reader. Brutus was well acquainted
with the camp at Bacon's bridge, and also with the
(offerings of as brave and virtuous a set of men as
c' er adorned human nature; which he is well in
fomed induced a certain man to offer his services
to get necessaries out of Charleftown for their re
lief. To come to particulars, the director general
of the hospital told the person alluded to, that they
were in great want of many kings for the hospi
tals particularly chirurgicai instruments, medi
cines cf many kinds, and pavilion gauze. Brutus
i. & also ,cfitive that the director- general gave that
person a lift cfshe necessaries, which lift he (hewed
to G--— M. and G--- G- - and requested per
million to take rice to town to purch^fe the necef
far'es. The former gentleman said no, he would do
no fach thing; and the latter said no they would
cost ,00 much, end absolutely refufed. Brutus
does,,, not condemn the communication with the
town ; he well knew the receffity of it : it was the
partial manner in which it was conduaed he cen
sured. Those who were known proved friends
could not obtain any privilege; but tories, and
friends and abettors of tories could, and did. Was
this the way to obtain intelligence that could be
defended upon? If more particulars be extorted
from Brutus he can and will give them, at he fears
nothing bumhat he ought to fear.
A Patriot fays “ If Brutus means to level his
" ihafts ag^ind the commanding officer of the de
“ partmeut, he mast know litt e and'frel less of
" the value of reparation than is necessary in a
" date of society, to suppose that & man cf chatac
" ter akd great responsibility, w mid pat it in
" the power of an individual bodi to disgrace
" him and rain his fortune, for the paltry alvan.
" tage of a little msfeting ; no man without a
" wea< head and base heart, could harbour a sos
" picion of the fort for a moment :" Strong rea
son ng indeed ! Will a Patriot admit the following
fort of reasoning, that •ha ha been may be again ?
If his be admited Brutus will print to but one
instance ou of many, where a man of great abilities,
gnat refponfibili v, and a fam us commander,had,
by an inordinate love of wealth, laid himfelf open
to profecurion for peculation Brutus ra^an the
Duke of Marlborough, who laid himfelfoen to
Solomon de Medina, a Jew who was contractor for
bread and bread waggons to the army that General
commanded : the Duke, not for two fifths, but the
trifle of two and a b.,!f. per cent mad^ the cor,tra&
an t connjved at the army's being served with bad
and unwholfome bread.
Brutus Scorns to fay a word to the prejudice of
the memory of the dete fed, or even of the absent
Capt. Wiltoot, he believes wa : a good officer and
an honest man, who only afted by orders. Nor did
Brutus hint at any deceased officer, much left the
ever to be lamented g Hart L-urens: that would
be balenels and ingratitu e of the blacked dye.
Brutus glories in the charge, <' Th the (pares
none." Isa Patriot had added, who don't aft with
integrity a d honor, he would have fa r oh ce said
the thing that was; If rlru.u. changes any bodies ,f
men with a wan of wtidom and jallice, if they
deserve the charge, it cannot be criminal or im
pertinent, nor will he follow a multitude to thi^k
or d eyii. It aPatiu had succeeded in one &
tempt to refute one of Bru u>'s charges, it would
have more weight with the honest undertaking
part of mankind, than all the idle, vague aud in
couclufi/e fnfchoods of he Patriot w ho ever abu
ses the Poets for lading the vices that seemed to be
predominant in that wrt er and thejunto.
The impartial public will determine, which ofthe
two parties best support the character of Friend
to the people; whether the common place
fuftian way of haranguing which a pa riotanJ his
colleagues, and fonv cf the orators who appeared
at the Ute town meetings, began and continued
their declamation in, to promote the intended rule
o er us ; or Brutus, who never did, nor ever will
advance but plain stubborn fads.
Brutus can challenge rhe honour of not having
said a word or written a line of any man, w sch
through guilt, through Game, or through fear he
is unwilling to o^ , and that jn his proper name;
and can boldly fpe± % language which design and
perfidy may wish to fi fence: nor doth he fat rize
or ridicule because satire and ridicul are pleating
to h'm; but because he thinks it just and necessary
to undeceive and vindicate the honed and unpre
tending part of mankind, from imposition and ca
lumny i and also, because particular onght al ways
to yidd to general interests; and perfidy and falfc
hood, to truth and honour.
Brutus pretty fully replied to a Patriot in this
gazette of the 6:h inst. and promised ftriaares on
tha t writer's next literary performance: but a flight
indif efilion prevented Brutus from being much
more full in his obfe-va ions, to mak room for the
partial printer of the South-Carolina Gazette, who
is too flagrant an offender to let pass unnoticed.
That venal typographer, in his introduction to
a piece signed A friend to Brutus and polled up in
several parts of the town, (which piece Brutus
firft few in MtLer's own paper) begs leave to repeat
the declaration he made in the second number of
his gazette, which, he fays, was, "that perfe&
" freedom should be allowed for a can rid, manly,
" ingenious difeuffion of fubjeds, divested of per
“ fonality, by which the inte est of the public
" might be benefited, or their welfare promoted ;"
and adds, " that the most watchful eye ihould be
" kept, in guarding malicious infinuation# from
" sullying the honour, and destroying the hard
« earned reputation of characters who deserve well
" of their country." Does this tally with his
abuse of the writer of Brutus, who only re
plied to the slander of pretended patriots? and
not only of Brutus, but a great majority of the
people, whom he endeavoured to squirt to death
with his devils ink in his peftiferous gazette.
Tho' his infignificance may for a time protest him
from the people's vengeance, yet I can scarce hope
it, as that very infignilicar.ee insults them, as they
maj think with Pope, that it would vex men more
to be knocked on the head by a £ ^_* e * than e
thunder-bolt. Pray who is to b 3 judqc of wha l :
may promote the inhered of the people? Is it Mr.
Miller? If so, I may again with propriety ask.
Is this the boasted liberty, ve have been fighting
and breeding for? Malt this principal bulwark of
the people's liberty, the freedom of the Press, Rand,
on so tottering a foundation as that of a Printer's
political thermometer ? Great and glorious licet,
indeed! if so trifling a being as Mr, Miller, or
even any set of men fnorfof the collective body of
the people, can restrain it at pleasure.
flaw can pronounce judgement only on open fafts;
so for calumny and injurious arrows flying in the
dark, there can be no public punishment, but what a
writer inflicts. And unhappy muff that State be in
which no one can be found ha r dy enough to expose
vice, peculation and perfidy, and pluck the plumage
from tranfgfeffing daws, and leave them as bare as
nature made them : for
An open foe may prove a curse,
' But a pretended friend is worse. Gay.
T am persuaded, that a vigorous and impartial en
quiry, would difeover, that many, who have been
and are in office, have not been able to refill ftrorg
temptations to some practices which neither law nor
justice can reach in the ordinary way of proceeding;
as those whole experience has made them cautious,
have not been always equally honest. This is a fub
jed which I only mention as a reason which convin
ces m- of the neceffitv of a free investigation of the
actions of men in power and public trust, through the
medium of the press.
Perhaps the enormities of private slander ffiould
be checked, but at the fame time, I think it would
be dangerous to fuffer even an excrefeence of this
PALLADIUM of public liberty to be lopped off,
as the breach of innovation once made, widens every
moment, and (in this example) if it was once opened,
there is no faying where it might end.
Now a word with Another Patriot, which appear
ed in Miller's paper of the 29th ultimo. That wri
ter fays, " Upon there-establishment of government
" in this State, the conduct of several was marked
" by a mog licentious spirit, and private revenge,
“ in defiance of law and a wife policy, fought private
“ gratificatifications ;" and adds " the good citizens
“ took the alarm." I would ask this w iter, whom
does he call the good citizens ? Is it those who fculked
from danger in the hour of trial?
- —— — Whose confeious thoughts
Are full of inward guilt, who ffiake with horror.
At having their actions fifted. Beaumont.
Or the men who fought, bled and fuffcred for their
country? Are not actions the surest test of goodnefa
and the contrary? as,
Every man in this age has not a foul
Of chryftal, for all men to read their a&iohs
Through; men's hearts and tongues are often
So far asunder. that they held no intelligence.
Anonymous.
BRUTUS would also beg leave to ask those good
citizens, did any of them in council propose or agree,
to deliver up Charlcfton to General Prevoft, on con
dition he would spare their precious blood, and more
precious silk dockings, and allow them a free trade to
buy and fell rum as usual? Was not this proposed
truce contrary to the confederation ? Or can they now
be looked on as good citizens, who fled on Clinton's
approach, with their negroes and property in to the'
internal parts cf the continent, where they forked
snug, increasing their fortunes, and left the town to
be defended against that General's army and Arbuth
not's fleet, and the whole gang of tories, both within
and without, by a few brave Continental troops, and
the faftious mob, the incendiaries, the licentious
spirits, the libellers and enemies to the happiness of
mankind?
If any, who now call themselves good citizens,
afted so cowardly, and so nefarious a part, how cam
they imagine that the people can put any confidence
in them? or that they could awe the citizens who are
used to face danger, and never did flinch? or if any
of those citizens who call themselves GOOD flaid
in town when the British had the possession, and were
supple knee'd, and like Mercury (Jupiter's footman)
had wings faftened to their hats to fly off to the
British? or if any of them staid in town to m^e
Signals to the enemy's galleys to put them on their
guard when any rebels appeared ? if such there
be (and Brutus things he could point some out,)
they should not brag nor threaten as they do;
they would (if prudent) be more modest.
A Patriot, (for I Ihall now call them all by this
farcical name) fays those goo^citfos a^ed the
unruly spirits irito order; probably as those g^4