The American Republican gazette — Concord, N.H., 1802-12-16 00:00:00, page 1

FROM THE PITTSFIELD SUN.
'scat
ANECDOTE.
When Judge Washington was late,
ly H i Covneaieui, he observed in a
circle of bo'b political parfi&, <ha<
the opposition papers contained such
abuse of administration as ought riot
to pig without punishment ; that al#
though he was himfelf opposed to
President Jefferson in politics, he
thought it unfufferable, that a man of
such exemplar, morals, and such puri
ty of private character, cfpecially
when veiled with the chief magiftra
cy of the nation, Should be treated
with so much personal insult and a-,
bufe ; and that it ought to be the fob.
je& of legal animadversion.——The
Postmaster General, who was one of
the company, said, he could point out
a more effectual method of remedy,
ing the evil— and being asked what it
was, replied—Do you, fir, and Judge
Law, who was also present, fit down
and write to the Editors of such abu
sive papers, to discontinue fending
them to you, so long as they continue
to insult and abuse the President.
That would produce a greater and
better effe&, than any judicial cor
redion, which your honors can inflict,
and at the fame time not endanger an
infringement of the freedom of the
Press. ^O,9 —r-.vh
Ertrattfrom ,frfa/$ Notes on Fir.
— C
« It Should be our endeavor to cub
tivate the peace and friendship of ev
ery nation, even of that which has in
jured us nioft, when we Shall have car
ried our point against her. Our in
tereft will be to throw open the doors
of commerce, and to knock off all its
Shackles, giving perfed freedom to all
persons for the vent of whatever they
may choose to bring into our ports,
arid asking the fame in theirs. Never
was so much falfe arithmetic employ
ed on any fubjefl, as that which has
been employed to persuade nations
that it is their interest to go to war.—
Were the money which it has cost to
gain, at the close of a long war, a lit
tle town, or a little territory ; the right
to cut wood here, or catch fiSh there,
expended in improving what they al#
ready possess, in making roads, open#
i^ rivers, building ports, improving
the arts, and finding employment for
their idle poor, it would render them
much Stronger, much wealthier, and
happier. This I hope will be our
wisdom."
BOSTON, Nov. 2 9 .
We have the pleasure to announce
to the public, that on Monday lad
the Hon. Joseph B. Varnum, Esq.
was unanimously eleded a Brigadier
:General, to command the 2d brigade
•f the 3d division of Militia of this
Commonwealth. There was a very
full meeting of the ele&ors— The u
nanimous choice of General Varnum,
is an evidence, that the Military Of
ficers of that brigade are more influ
enced by a sense of propriety, and a.
desire to be commanded by a man of
refpe&able, military talents, than by^
political prejudice. Let this temper
be an example to other brigades, and
have the e£fea to discountenance in.
AMERICAN REPUBLICAN GAZETTE.
gs.< r%]
THURSDAY, DEC, tl, 180#.]
Error of Opinion ma, be tolerated, where reason is left fra to combat it.— Jefferson.
triguers in the organization of the mi
litia. ' Chronicle,
Extract of a letter from Capt. Murray
' : to the Sec. of the Naw. ^.''
* Malta, Aug. 24.' Two of the crew
of the brig • , Franklin, have made
their escape, and I have them now on
board, they inform me that 3 others ;
have been claimed by the British con
sul, as Englishmen, and given up, and
that in our brush with the gunboats
we killed 8 of their men."
VERMONT PATRIOT ISM.
In order to encourage the militia
to equip themselves, we are informed
that a law has palled the Legislature
of the State of Vermont, enabling a
soldier, on presenting a certificate
from bis commanding officer, of his
being duly equipped, to have £45
struck fiom the lift of his rateable es
tate, if amounting to that fura, and to
an exemption from date taxes, ifhis
lift is not to that amount.
FNewbdmfeJhire ! take a lef/on ^/
public spirit from a younger filler !
More to the honor of the State would
it be, to appropriate the surplus mo
ney of the treasury to the encourage
ment of the Militia, than to the aid
of (peculators in Bank frock.,
VERY SINGULAR!
Charleston, (S. C.) Nov. 1.
Meflrs. Freneau & Williams,
A very singular phenomenon ex-'
hibited itfelf immediately adjoining
the fort on Sullivan's Island. At 12
o'cl. this day, about 250 yards fouth-|
ward of the fort, a variety of fiffures:
appeared on the furface of ihe beach;|
immediately it began to fall in with a I
dreadful noise, and continued to fall,
at Short intervals, until half after one
o'clock P. M. at which time, a gen-|
tieman took a small boat in order to I
found the depth, which inside the dr.
cle or half-moon, (which was the form
it assumed, and which is at prelent
240 feet in circumference) was be
twixt two and three fathom deep,—
The fancl seemed to fall in large piec
es, some of them I suppose about 590
wk leaving the body of the beach at
together perpendicular. To what
cause to attribute this phenomenon, I
am as yet uncertain.
,ASPECTATOR.
Sullivan's Island, O&. 27.
From the Political Barometer.
By the proclamation of Goyerpam
M'Kean, it appears that Pennfylva-|
nia has chosen republicans to repre
sent every diftriQin the next Con
gress.— The Gate is divided into 111
diftrias, which fend kg members.—-:
This important revolution was not|
brought about by a lukewarm milkl
and-water policy. No ; it has been:
effected by the energies of a decisive
Governor, a persevering majority and
a lightdiffufing Aurora,
• RELIGION
has never more generally prevailed
in this country, that within the course
of 18 months past. Great awaken- .
ings have taken place at the westward,
LIBERTY and THE CONSTITUTION.
PRINTED AT CONCORD, N. HAMPSHIRE, BY R. RUSSELL.
THE
the southward, the northward, and in
lony; parts of the Eastern states.
'Wherßhe righteous bear rule, then
b''^," 'he people rejoice."
^ —-==^gg„Q^^<^e^— —
Mr. Paine's Lecters.
[Mr* Paine trill administer an anti
dote to the upas of Toy Federalism :
if that cumberer of the union be not
hewn down, it will not be because Mr
Paine has not laid the axe to the root
of the tree. Should he worry those
“friends of order" too much for their|
nice nerves, the, can retreat to their
nobility " HOLE."]
Prom the National Intelligencer.
THOMAS PAINE,
To the Citizens of the United States.
LETTER THE SECOND.
AS the affairs of the country to which
I am returned are of more importance
to the world, and to me, than of that
I have lately left, (for it is thro' the
new world the old must be regenerat.
ed, if regenerated at all) I shall not
take up the time' of the reader with
an account of feenes that have passed
in France, many of which are pain
ful to remember and horrid to relate,
but come at once to the circumftanc
g%tyf•'+ 65^ ^n^Ux -W'«ry 40
Fourteen years, end something more, have
produced a change, at least amuog a part of
the people, and I 2ft myfelf what it is? I
meet or hear of ihoufaods of my former con.
neaions who are m,n of the fime principles
and friendfllips a, when I left them. But a
nondefcripi race and of equivocal generation,
affirming the name of Feoeralift, a name that
dtfoibes no charader of principle good or
I baq, and may equally be applied to either, has
;finde started up wi?h the rapidity of a mush
room, and like mufhioom is withering on its
}rcoflefs stalk. Are those menftdirahz+d to
Support the liberties of their country or to 0-
verturn them ? To add to its fair fame or riot
on its fpcils , The name contains no dtfioed
I idea. It is like John Adams' difinirion of a
Irepublic in his letter to Mr. Wythe of Vifgi-.
I niq, It is &ys he) antapira if laiuj and net
•fmt,. But as laws ma, be bad as well as
good, an empire of laws may be the best of all
governments or the worst of all tyrannies.—
But John Adams is a man of paradoxical ber
efies, and consequently of a bewildered mind.
He wrote a book entitled " A J)fact if tbt 4-
■trim Cogitation::' and the principles of it
arean attack upon them. But the book is
difended to the tomb of forgetfoloefs, and
the best fortune that can attend its author is
quietly to follow its fate. John was not bora
for immortality. But to return to federalism.
In the hiftory of parties and the names they
assume, it often happens, that they finish by
the direa contrary principles with which they
profefs to begin, and thus it has happened
with federalism.
During the time of the old congress, and
prior to the establishment of the federal gov
ernment, the continental belt was too loosely
:buckled. The several states were united in
name but not in Wit, and that nominal union
had neither centre nor circle. The laws of
one state frequently interfered with and feme
times opposed, those at another. Commerce
;between state and state was without proteaioD,
;arid confidence without a point to rest on.—
IThe condition the country wa# then in was
I aptly defetibed by Pelatiah Waiter when he
said, " 9famforou and oitr * to, will nit
nah a barrel.” , :
If then by fUrdift is to be understood one
who Wat forceroeaiing the untou by a general
government, operating equally over all the
states, hall,flump that embraced the com
mon interest, aqd to which, the authority of
the states fevehlly was not adequate, for no
one fate can makebwWio bind another, if I
fay; by a faderalift is meant . person of this
defcriptiQo,(and thtototheorigiu of the n,ra) ,
I %bt re faid)frp 98 tb; offtitrahfo/fot
the proposition for eftablifhiug a general gov.
ernment over ;he union came originally frtm
me in 1788, in a written memorial tochan
cellor Livingston then secretary tor fo@L
fairs to cungrffi Ife@ M^rri, mb ifter &f
finance and his affaciate Governeur Morris,
all of whom are now living, and we bad a din
ner and conference st Robert Morris's on th#
fylfca. The occasion was as follows ;
Congress had proposed a duty of five per
cent, on imported articles, the money to be
applied as a fund towards paying the interest
of loans to be borrowed in Holland. The re
solve was fern to the ftveral fiate* to be evad
ed into a law. Rhode Island abfoiu% re
futed. I was at the trouble of a jurney ta
Rhode Island to reason wi>h them on the sub.
j^a. Some other states eoaaed.it with alter
ations, # each one as it pleased. V^giuia a
doped it, and afterwards repealed it, and the
affair came to nothing.
ft was then visible at least to me, that either
'??£'''' must frame the laws necessary for the
union, and fend them to the several states to
be ear giftered withourany alteration, which
would in itfelf appear like usurpation on one
part, and pa(five obedience on the other, or
some method must be devised to accomplish
the fame end by constitutional principles,.and
the proposition I made in the memorial was to
aid a cntinratal Itgfatur'c to corgrtfi, to h tha.
id by the irotral ftatu. The proposition tret
the full approbation of the gentlemen to when
it was addressed, and the cooverfatkn turned
on the manner of bringing it forward. Gov
erneur Morris in walking with me after din
ner, wished me to throw out the idea in the
newspapers. I replied that I did not like to
be always the proposer of new things, that it
would have too affirming an appearance ; and
besides, that I did net think tbs country nuas quite
<wrong enough to so put rig&. J remen,,r eiv.
phia, and to gen. Gates, at whose quarters I
spent a day on my return from Rhode Island,
and suppose they will remember it because the
observation seemed to ft ike ihem.
But the embarraffmeats encreafiog as they
necessarily must from the want of a better ce
mented union, the, State of Virginia proposed
holding a commercial convention, and that
convention, which was not Sufficiently nume
rous, proposed that another convention, with
mre extensive and better defined powers,
Should be held at Philadelphia May 10, 1789.
When the plan of the federal government,
formed by this convention, was proposed and
Submitted to the consideration of the several
states, it was Strongly objeded to in each of
them. But the objeaions were not on anti
federal grounds but on constitutional points.
M^y were Shocked at the idea of placing,;
what is called executive power, in the hands
of a fingte individual. To them it had too
much the foim and appearance of a military
government, or a despotic one. Others ob
jeded that the powers given to a president,
were too great, and that in the hands of aa
ambitious and designing man, it might grow
into tyranny, as it did in England under Oli
ver Cromwell, & as it has fiace done inFrance.
A repubite must not only be so io its princi--
pies, but in its forms. The executive part of
the federal government was made for a man,
and those, who coofented, against their judg
ment, to place executive power in the hands
of a Single individual,repefed more on the sup
posed moderation of the paifon they hadira
view, than on the wisdom of the measure it
felf.
Two considerations, however, overcame all
obfeaions. Throne was, the absolute neces
sity of a federal government. The other, the
rational refbaion that, as government in A
merica is founded on the reptefeatative sys;
tem, any error in tire firft assay, could be re
formed by the fame quiet and rational process
by which the constitution was formed ; and
that, either by the generation then living, or
by those who were to Succeed. If ever Ame
rica lose Sight ot this principle, She will no lon.
ger be the lend ofbbtrt,. The father will be
come the affdffin of the rights of the foo, and
his descendants be a race of Slaves.
As many thoufinds, who were minors, are
grown up to manhood since the name offil
rabfa began, it became necessary, for their in
formation, to go back and Show the origin of
the name, which fa now no longer what it 0-
rfginally was : but it is the more necefiry to
dp this, in order to bring forward, In the open
mt of o%,he apoftac, of those who firft cal
led therofata federalists.
To them it Served as a cloak for treason, a
Volume ll.— Number XCVIL
[Pa, quarterly.