The American Republican gazette — Concord, N.H., 1802-12-30 00:00:00, page 2

It te said in a letter from
Frankfort, that a body of Aus
trian troops will be formed in
the Tyrol and the Veralberg, to
co-operate in the re-eftahlifh
m§nt of the tranquility of Swit
zerland. What authority there
is for this Statement does not
appear, but we cannot believe
that Austria will become an ac
cessory to the views of France in
its attack upon Switzerland,
when the principle a&ed upon in
this instance by the French Gov
ernment, may be immediately
afterward, with the fame justice,
turned against herfelf. We con
fidently hope, on the other
hand, that Austria will lend her
Support to the Patriotic Swiss,
and declare herfelf completely
inimical to that principle which
threatens to annihilate the inde
pendence, and destroy the securi
ty of Europe.
Little doubt can he entertained
that Mr. Moore is gone on an
important miffiop to Vienna.
The Emperor is the most natu
ral ally of this country, and he
' is more particularly interested in
the fate of Switzerland than any
other power, it cannot he sup
posed either that he is in any de
gree Satisfied with the arrang
ment of the indemnities so dic
tatorially chalked out by France
and Russia, and the encreafing
aggrandizement of PrufTia. The
Emperor, we have no doubt, will
embracewith avidity any oppor
tunity of indulging his hatred,
against France; and he will pro
bably think that it is much bet
ter to meet the worst fate in the
field, than have his dominions
wrested from him and his law-'
ful power curtailed by the arm
©foppreffion and injustice.
PHILADELPHIA Dec. 8.
^ Among thole who have been
and are most clamorous about
Mr. Paine and his religion, we
find the editor of the Baltimore
Anti Democrat—this person was
lately on a visit to New England;
and on his return happened to/
be a fellow-paffenger of a re
fpeaable republican of this city ;
the conversation of thole who
were in the coach happened to
turn upon the letter said to be
written by the president to Mr.
Paine, when the editor of the
Anti-Democrat became furious,
and lavished no inconsiderable a
bufe upon the president for so
doing—his principal reason for
such conduct he asserted was be
cause Paine wrote the Age of Rea.
Son. The gentleman whom we
alluded to above, fafpeaing the
Sincerity of the declaimer, lifted
him to completely that he was
foy^d to be in every fenle of the
fame religious opinions as Mr.
Paine—after his deteaion he be
came quite mild, and for the re
mainder of the journey did not
annoy his fallow travellers. On
application jin a decent manner;
the name of our informant can
be given. ft Speh are the men who
clamor against Mr. Paine. We
confider it improper to endeay
our t@ create hostility against an
individual for his difference of o
pnion on religion, for it he is
only answerable to his conscience
and to Providence, but it be
comes a duty to expose such
gross hypocrisy as that of the ed.
litorI itor of the Anti- Democrat.
THOMAS PAINE,^
To the Citizens of the United States,
LETTER THE FOURTH.
AS congress is on the point of meet
ing, the public, papers will necessarily
be occupied with the debates of the
ensuing session, and as in consequence
of my long absence from America, my
private affairs require my attendance
(for it is necessary I do this or I could
not preserve, as I do, my independ
ence) I Shall close my address to the
public with this lectter.
I congratulate them ph the fuccefa
of the late elections, arid that with the
additional confidence that while hen.
est men are chosen and wife measures
pursued, neither the treason of apofta.
ey masked under the name of federal:
ism, of which I have spoken in my Se
cond letter, nor the intrigues of for
eign emissaries, a&ing in concert with
that mask can prevail.
As to the licentiousness of the pa
pers calling themselves federal, a name
that apottacy has taken, it can hurt no.
body but the party or the perffins who
Support such papers. There is natu
rally a wholesome pride in the public
;mind that revolts at open vulgar ty.
It feels itfelf dishonored even by hi ar.
ing it, as a chaste woman feels difhQor by
hearing vbfcenity (he cannot avoid. I< ;can
Smile at wit, or be diverted with strokes of fa
dried humour but it detests the blackguard.
The fame sense of propriety that governs in
private companies, governs in public life. If
a man in company runs his wit upon another,
it may draw a frolie from the perlons present,
but as soon as he turns a blackguard in bis lan.
guage, the company gives him up, and it is
the famein public life. The event of the late
elections (hews this to be true ; for in pro
portion as thole papers have, become more and
more vulgar and abusive, the ele&icns have
gone more & more against the party they fop.
/ port or that fuppons them. Their predecefi
for Porcupine had wit. These scribblers have
cone. But as f,on as bis blackguordilm (for
it is the proper name of it) outrun his wit, be
was abandoned by every body but the Engiifty
Mioifter that proteded him,
TheSpanifh proverb fays, '' there never was
a cower large enough to hide itfelf," and the
proverb applies to the case of those papers and
the shattered remnant of the fa&on that sup
ports them. The talfehoods they fabricate,
and the abuse they circulate, is a cover to hide
fomethiog from being seen, but is not large e
riough to hide itfelf. It is as atub thrown out
to the whale to prevent its attacking and fink
ing .he vessel. They want to draw the at
tention of the public from thinking about or
enquiring into, the measures of the late ad
mihiftration and the reason why so much pub.
,lie money was railed and expended. And so
far as a lie to day, and a new one to morrow,
will answer this purpose, it will answer theirs.
It is nothing to them whether they be believ
ed or not, for if,the negative purpose be answ
ered, the main point is answered to them.
He that picks your pecker always tries to
make you look another way. Look, fays he,
at yon man t'other fide of the ftreet—whata
nose he has got !—Lord, yonder is a chimney
on fire ! D'ye fee yonder man going along
in the falarxander great coat ? That is the
very man that Hole one of Jupiter's satellites
and fold it to a countryman for a gold watch,
and it set his breeches on fire. 'Now the man
that has his hand in your pocket does not care
a farthing whether you believe what he fays
of noh? All his aim is to prevent your locking
at him ; and this is the case with the remnant
^f the federal fadion. The leaders of it have
imposed upop the country, and they want to
turn the attention of it from the fubjed.
In taking up any public matter 1 have never
made it a consideration, a nd,never will, whe
ther it be popular or unpopular, but whether
it be rigbt or wromg. The right will always
become the popular, if it has courage to shew
itfelf, and the fh>rteft way is always a straight
line. I despise experiments ; they are the gut
ter hole of politics, and the fink where repu
tation dies., In the present case, as in every
other, I cannot be accused of ufipg any ; and
I have no doubt but thoufantls will hereafter
be ready to fay, as Governeur Morris said to
me,after having abused me pretty handsomely
in Congress, for the oppcfition I gave to the
fraudulent demand of Silas Deahteof two bun
dred thousand pounds sterling. Well! &
tyre all /ufted, andl among tbg„ft.
Were the late adminiftraiioa to be called
;upon to give reasons for the expense it put the
country to, it can give none. The danger of
linvafion was a bubble that served as a cover to
, raise taxes and armies to be employed for feme
I other purpose. But if the people of America
" believed it true, the cheertulaels with which
1 they fupperted those measures and paid those
taxes, is an evidence of their patriotism, and
° if they supposed me their enemy, tho' in that
fuppofiiion they did me iojuftice, it was not
injoftice in them. He that ads as he believes,
though he ma, aft wrong, is not confeious of
wro °g-)?
IBut though there was no danger, no thanks
are due to the late administration for it ——
They fought to blow up a flame between the
two countries ; and so intent were they upon
' this, that they went out of their wav to ac
: complifh it. In a letter which the secretary
,hffhte, Timothy Pickering, wrote to Mr.
' ski?with, the American consul at Paris, he
broke off from the official fubjed of his letter
to thank Godwin very expiring languagejhat
[the Rnffiane bad cut the French arm, tofem. Me
Skipwith, after lh:wiag me the letter, very
prudently concealed it.t
i It was the injudicious and wicked acrimony
j of this letter, and feme osier like conduct of
^ then secretary offtake,that eccafioned me,
:in a letter to a friend in. the government, to
fry, that if there was any official bofiz efe to
be done inFrance,till a regular mioifter fliould
be appointed, it could not be trusted to a more
proper person than Mr. Skipwith, Heis,faid
I, an boned man, and wsiU do bufaejs, and that
ivitb good manners to the government be is com
wfoned to ad ivitb, a faculty which that Bear
Timothy dickering wanted, and which the Bear of
that Bear, Jobs Adams, never ptffld.
In another letter to the fame friend in 1797
and which was put unsealed under the cover
to Col. Burr, I expressed a fatisfaAion that
Mr. J,fferfon, since he was not president, had
accepted the vice-presidency, for, said I, " ~
Adams has jueb a talent for blundering and effind
ing, it will be nectfar, to beep an e,e over bin."
——He has now efficiently proved, that tho'
I have not the spirit of prophecy i have the
gift of judging right ; and all the world knows,
for it cannot help knowning, that to judge
rightly, and to write clearly, and that upon all
forts of fubjeas; to be able to command tho't,
and as it were to play with it at plecfure, and
be always matter of one's temper in writing,
is the faculty only of a serene mind, and the
attribute of happy and philosophical temper,
ance. The scribblers who know me not, and
who fill their papers with paragraphs about
me, bolides their waut of talents, drink too
many flings and drams in a morning to have
any chance with me. But, poor fellows ! they
must do something for the little pittance they
get from their employers.
My anxiety to. get back to America, was
great for several years. It is the country of
my heart, and the place of my political and
literary birth. It was the American revolu
tion that made me an author and forced into
salon the mind th&t had been dormant, and
had no wish for public life ; nor has it now.—
By the accounts I received flie appeared to me
to be going wrong, and that some meditated
treason Against her liberties lurked at the bot
tom of her government. I heard -that my
friends were oppressed, and I longed to take
my Handing among them ;. and if other times
to try men's joule were to arrive, that I might
bear my share. But my efforts to return were
incffiaual. 1
is soon as Mr, Monroe had made a good
standing with the French government, for the
cAedua of his predecessor bad made his recep
tion as minister difficult, he wanted to lend
his dispatches to his own government by a per.
son to whom he could also confide a verbal
communication, and he fixed his choice on
me. He then applied to the committee of
public fafety for a passport ; but as I had been
voted again into the convention, it was only
the convention that could give the passport ;
and an application to them for that purpose
would have made my going publicly known,
I was obliged to foftain the disappointment,
and Mr. Monroe to lose the opportunity..
When that gentleman left France loreturn
to America, I was to have come with him. It
was fortunate I did not. The vessel he failed
in was visited by a British frigate that Searched
J every part of it and down to the hold for Th.
Paine. I then went, the feme year, toembark
at Havre. But fevers! British frigates were
cruising in fight of the port, who knew I was
there, and I had to return again to Paris. See
ing myfelf thus cut off from every opportuni
ty of returning that was in my power to com
mand, I wrote to Mr. Jeff:rfon, that if the fare
of the eleaion should put him in the chair of
the presidency, and he should have occasion
to fend a frigate to France, he would give me
' the opportunity of returning by it, which he
did. But I declined coming in the Maryland,
the vessel that was offered me, and waited for
the frigate thirwii to bring the new minister,
Mr. Chancellor Livingston to France ; but
thM frigate was ordered round to the Medi
terrsnean; and rc at that time, the war was
over, and the British cruisers were called in, I
could come any way. I then agreed to come
with commodore Barney in a vessel he rate
gaged. It was fortunate I did not, for the vef,
fel funk at fee, and the hands ware preserved
in the boat.
Had half the number of evils Befallen me,
4that the number of dangers amount to, thro'
which I have tied preferred, there aremfe ''
who would sterile it to the wrath of heaven:
Why then do they not ascribe my prefervLtioD'
• to the protesting favor of Heaven ? Eien in
my worldly concerns I have been bleftd. The
little property I left in America, and which!
cared nothing about, not even tn receive the
rent of it, has been iacre^fiog in the value cf
its capital more than eight hundred dollaise.
very year for the fourteen years and more that
I have beeuabfent from it. I arnnow io my
circumstances independent, and my economy
makes me rich. At to health, ft is perftai,
good, and I leave the world to judge of the
stature of my mind. I am, in every instance,
a living contraciaion to the mortified fede
ralifts,
In my publications 1 follow the rule I begun
within Common Serje, that is to coafok with no
body, nor let any body fee what I write till it
appears publicly. Were I to do otherwife,-
the case would be, that between the timidity
of some, who are so afraid of doing wrong
they never do right, the puny judgment of%
thers, and despicable craft of preferring ,„-
dient to fright, as if the world was a world of •
babies in leading firings, I Should get forward
with nothing. My path is a right line, as
ftraigbt and clear to mess a ray of light. The '
boldness (if they will have it to be fu) with
I which ! (peak on any fubjeai s a compliment
to the judgment ©ftlfe reader. It is like fay
ing to him, I treat you as a man and not as a
child. With refpe& to any worldly objefe, as
it is impcffible to discover any in me,therefore
for what I do, and my manner of doing it,
ought to he ascribed to a good motive.
In a great affair,where the happiness of mail
is at stake, I love to work for nothing; and
so fully am I under the influence of this prin.
ciple that I Ihould !ofe the spirit, the pleasure,
and the pride of it, were I confcicus that I
looked for reward ; and with this declaration
I take my leave for the present.
THOMAS PAINE.
Federal City, Lovell's Hotel,?
' December 3, 1802. J
-==ra^>r=„^ w ,^“'
Philadelphia, Dec, 15.
Extract from a letter dated Washington
? Dec. 9.
" The house of representatives
have met, this day, and tranfaHed
jfome ordinary business ; but the fen-
I ate have not yet formed a quorum,
; and it is expected that the fenale
mean to dispatch express messengers
to command the attendance of the
absent members. It is probable the
president's 'communication will not
be made before Monday. One
more member of the senate is now
come, four more necessary to forpia
quorum.
We are sorry to perceive the mem
bers of the senate U. S. so negligent
of their duty at the prefect session of
1 congress—• much time and ex-
Ipence are wafted by their not attend
-ling early ; the weather for the last
! two months has been by no means so
unfavourable to (ravelling as we re
'member it to have been a few years
ago, when a quorum of both boufes
was formed usually on the appointed
day—we know not what excuse can
be made, nor are we disposed to make
any; for those who remain at home
when their duty to their constituents
demands their attendance at the feat
of government. Aurora.
Briber, and Corruption !
Trenton, (N. Jersey) Dec. 13.
We noticed in our last, an attempt
that had been made by a Federal
member of assembly to corrupt a re
publican member of the council—and
that the attempt proved abortive.
We did not then name the person to
whom the bride was offered. We
now state it to be David Welsh,
Esq. Member of Council'from the
County of Morris.
The manner in which the offer wa&
made, is this: Mr. — —, who made
the offer, owns land in Mortis Coun
ty, in the neighborhood of Mr.
Welsh. He wished to difpofeof a
part or the whole of it, and aflted Mr.
Welsh to be his agent in felling it.
Mr. Welsh declined. After some
further conversation. Mr. said,
“If you will give two votes in joints
meeting for the appointment of offi
cers as I Shall direct you, I will make .
you a present of 100 acres of the
land,"—or words to that effed. M& ,
Welsh objeaing, that if it wers