The Gazette of the state of South-Carolina — Charles-town [S.C.], 1783-09-10 00:00:00, page 2

THE authority assumed and still exer
ciled by out new adminiftraton, styling
theinlelves the committee for the city and
liberties of Philadelphia, is so truly alarm
ing to every man, who has either the honour
or happinels of this country at heart, that I
shall make no apology tor offering a few
remarks, in addition to those already sent
you, on the pernicious polity which mark
all their proceedings, and which, if not
speedily put a flop to, must involve this
country again in the calamities of war, and
every species ofinteftine confufion. Scarce
ly a Rep has been taken by these gentlemen
but what ftrjkes ultimately at the root of
^order arid government ; Because if so in
confidefable a part of the community as
they form, cz.n t,e up the hands of the
great representative body of this common
wealth by inftru&ions, or resolve away the
validity of a national treaty ; —if this can
be done by a handful of men styling them
lelves a committee, tho' .sovereigns would
suit them much better, who, if chofeh at all,
: h^d fiercely the fuffrages of a fihgle ward
in their favour; I fay, if this new fyltem of
governmerit" prevails, every eouhtrf will
teem with imperial dictators, and every
hamlet Iwarm with its petty sovereigns, run
ning into all these excesses of absurdity in
which the committee have had the honour,
in.this Rate, to lead the way ; for Ido con
tend, upon the fame ground on which they
have railed their authority, there is room to
cred a thousand republic^ as reputable as
their own, whose resolves may be as consti
tutional at WR, if not as falutafy as those
under consideration, and who or what is to
stop the progress of this political Polypus
from making its ravages upon the vitals of
the conflitution, is not my province to de
termine, but a novice may foresee that un
defs something is dense to check their career,
the good people of Penrifylvania will soon
experience a Rate of anarchy hitherto un
known to them, and possibly a tyranny more
intolerable than that they have eicaped
from. But, setting abide what ought, cl
what may be done by those who hold the
reins of government —or those who hav>
inputted those reins to their care —to clip
the pinions of this daring bird of wondrous
generation and uncommon visage, which
threatens to bear away the Iceptre of Con
gress, of council, and assembly, in its
pounces. Are those gentlemen so little ac
quainted with human nature as to expert
the British nation, once so haughty, are now
so humbled as to put up with the insult of
fered them by driving their fubjeds, in de
fiance of the treaty, out of the land. Has
Sir Guy Carleton ordered any of our citi~
zens out of New-York flnce the peace,
because they opposed the armies or the
measures of his master; have they been in
terdicted the,Britifh islands; or even Britain
itfelf—may they not—nay do they not pass
and repafs with as little interruption as her
her own fubjedts.—Yet, Sir, these are Bri
tons ? But you tell me, we allo permit the
British to come and go as they please, with
out moleftation —you mean, Sir, natives of
Britain, who have never resided in Ame
rica, or not for many years—a curious dif
tindion indeed! Surely, Sir, those born
,within the British pale, and who have not
' That the people have a right to freedom
of speech, and of writing, and publishing
their sentiments ; wherefore the freedom
of the press ought not to be retrained."
Bill 'of Rights;
forfeited their allegiance, are equally Bri
tish fubjedts with those born in Britain, and
of coin Ie equally intitled to her protection.
Under this description, mod of the loyahfts
may be tanked, and we cannot he at peace
with a nation, and at war with any of her
fubjeas; But you remind rite that they
took part against us. Sir, have not we taken
.-part, and a noble part too, ^ainft them
(the British) and pray, my good Sir, does
not this militate as much against us, as our
plea against the loyalists. That they were
ever the lubjed of the Rates is 'by no means
so clear a point as that we were the fubjeds
of Englaud, and why should it be more
criminal for them to be true to their alle
giance, than for us to he true to curs—ls
the one reflects dishonour, the other mbit
infamy. , But admitting they had been the
lubjeds of the State—if they revolted from
America—we revolted from Great-Britairi,
and we 'glory in the revolution it has pro
duced. Why then Should it be so much
harder for us who have equally offended,
but who have not been equally unfortunate,
to forgive them, than for them to forgive
Success, that universal fiveetner, which
oft turns the edge ot keen asperity, and
sheds her genial influence over the impassi
oned mind, by these men, at lead as a com
mittee, has never been felt, or felt in vain :
what means it, my countrymen, is it. that
they relish not the termination of the war,
or the trophies America has acquired--what
else is there to put them so out of humour
with the treaty —this harbinger of peace :
has the Attainment of independence no joys
for them ? Their cold reception obit, and
opposition to the treaty which confirms it,
are fufficient to raise suspicions of them
fidelity, even in minds not the most dis
posed to be fißpicious. Dilaffeaion often
lurks under a dissembled zeal for the,pub
lic good, and not infrequently puts the
honest patriot out of countenance, by a
splendor of fair promises and high profel
fions, which dazzle for a moment, but go
out as soon as brought to the test of trial,
that toucfiftone of the truth. We have
seen several of these politi al meteorsplay
their coruscations, and subside almost as
soon as seen. But to proceed: by punch
ing their loyalty, (pardon me, Sir, for not
Bating it difaffedion, because their King's
title was of a prior date to that of oUrs) to
their prince, with so high a hand; do we
not set a low value upon allegiance to out
own governments, and may we not difeoun
tenance this virtue in us, though vice in
them, so far as to authorize a revolution A
mongst ourselves. That they had an equal
right with us to chufe for themselves, no
man of common candour will deny, and if
they thought the happiness of this country
depended upon a connection with England,
what then ? it was an error, an infatuation,
I grant you, which we have had the good
fortune to correct, by proving this county
can exiß, and flourish too, under the repa
ration; but does this call for an eternal
proscription —-a perpetual banishment ?If
so, bewarh of miftakeg, my countrymen ;
and if under this delufiori, this predilection
for the parent Rate, they affed like people
bewildered, where, is the, wonder ? The
change was marvellous in their eyes, and
marvellously brought about in the eyes of
all Europe ; for in one little night, if I may
presume to allegorize, the old house was
pulled down, its rubbish removed, and lo !
when the morning came, a new edifice, plain
but of mighty dimension?, was found in it,
place, who then shall marvel that they were
altonifhed and Icarcely knew where they
were, and if inftcad of praising the style or
the architecture,.as we expected, they re
tained their old prejudices for the Gothic
building, with ail its inconveniencies hang
ing about it, so tottering with weakness that
ipmuft have fallen itfelf in a few years:
but expedience will prove, unlels Our Mar
plots prevail, that the republi an fabric,
though Simple and unadorned, is better halt
ed to the dignity of man than the royal
,hapwe have destroyed; I expect my C^
tholicifm will be reprobated by the religion
politico, and perhaps honored, if honoured
by their notice at ad, with the hackneyed
phrase of toryifm, and possibly you may
come jn tor a (hare of their panegyric for
my own part, 1 care not —the sentiments [
have delivered, I shall never dhofn—they
were not written from the impulse of the
moment, nor formed to please the faihioni
of the hour—they are such as mutt sooner
or later take place when, the feuds of party,
and the fever of animosity, give way to th^
fober.d&tes of reason and found pol cy^
And 1 luould be the firft to anathematife
myfelf, if I put down every man a knave or
a icoundrel, who thought differently from
me either in religion or politics. In the
narrow bosoms of these blind enttiufiafts,
there is no room for a generous thought to
expand itfelf ; and however juft,politic and
proper it was at the time to punilh an op
position to the revolution, yet when the
pjizc is won, and the war Over, all animo
'"y ought to ceale. But let it never be
frippoled I mean to include in the forego
ing palliatory observations, certain culprits
who have fled to escape those punifliments
due to their demerits, ffif a breach of the
civil or the moral law—or men who have
committed depredations upon the citizens
of these States, unwarranted by thelaws of
nations at war with each other; on the con
trary, I here enter my protest against, and
seal my abhorrence of all such proceedings,
reprobating those characters as warmly 'as
as any man—but for the honour of poor
human nature, I will ever believe, though
I Ihould Hand single in the opinion, that
there were many who oppoled us upon
principle—whiht the issue of the conceit
was depending—whdlft one man might be
influenced from the performance of his
duty as a citizen or loldier, these observa
tions Viewing there was no real turpitude
in a difference of sentiments have been care
fully withheld; but with peace it is tar o
therwise—every resentment now ißould yb
down into the grave, and be heard of nd
.more: this policy dilates—<this humanity
demands, so that with peace, America may
enjoy the blessings thereof.
But surely if we deny British fubjefts,
though American born, to reside amongst
us in times of peace, because they opposed
the revolution, with what face can we who
have refilled the claims of the British crown
go, to any part of the British empire; cer
tainly they have as good a right to refufe
the one, as we the other ; and when or with
what propriety we can demand the poffeffi-
On of New-York,by virtue of the treaty—
which treaty we refufe to comply with, I
shall leave to the sagacity of the committee
men to determine. Did these patriot wor
thies adequately prize—or prize at all the
profpenty—the present or the future fame
of America—did they venerate her politi
cal integrity, or know how to value public