The recorder, or, Lady's and gentleman's miscellany (Richmond, Va.), 1802-08-04 00:00:00

THE RECORDER; Or, LADY'S AND GENTLEMAN'S MISCELLANY;
Printed by HENRY PACE, and JAMES T. CALLENDER, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA; and published every WEDNESDAY Morning. Subscription Two Dollars per annum
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1802.
TO THE SENATE OF VIRGINIA.
THE late Clerk of your House, (who no doubt would have merited a continuance of favor) being dead; it becomes necessary on the ensuing Session to appoint some other person to that post. I therefore tender my serv, and promise a due and prompt discharge of official functions, as far as can be effected by the most unremitted assiduity and attention.
JOHN ARCHER ROBERTSON!
Richmond, August 4th, 1802. [2]
FOR SALE,
A light, active NEGRO BOY,
About 20 years of age; has been accustomed to wait in the house, and take care of horses; he can drive a carriage; price 350 Dollars cash. For further particulars, enquire of the Printers.
Richmond, July 28. tf
A FEW COPIES OF
HYMNS,
BY THE REV. E. CLAY,
TO BE SOLD
At this Office, and at Pumphrey's Stationer, Richmond.
Sports of the TURF.
To be run for, the first Thursday in November, 1803, at Surry Court House, a Purse of 30 Dollars each, free for any Colt then rising Three Years old, carrying a catch, Mile Heats, half forfeit.
Any gentleman entering a Colt may be at liberty of changing the same, before the closing of the Subscription; which will be kept open until the 1st. of November, 1802.
N. B. Ten Colts are already entered. Gentlemen at a distance, and others who wish to become subscribers, will be admitted, if directed by letter.
D. PRICE.
Surry Court House.
July 15, 1802.
MISS ROBBINS,
Lately from London,
PROPOSES to open in RICHMOND, a BOARDING SCHOOL
For the reception of YOUNG LADIES. Her education, the flatters herself, has been such as to render her adequate to the undertaking.
Those young Ladies who may be confided to her tuition, will be instructed in the English and French languages, Writing and Arithmetic, with every other useful and polite accomplishment.—Particular care will be paid to their morals, and every requisite attention will be given them.
The most approved masters for Music, Dancing, &c. will be engaged.
Persons desirous of being further informed of the advertiser are requested to apply to the Rev. Mr. Buchanan, Mr. William Hay, or Messrs. McMurdo and Fisher.
Richmond, July 28th.
GENUINE PORT & SHERRY WINE
By the Pipe Hoghead, Quarter Cask, or Gallon.
Bordeaux Claret in Boxes of 3 Dozen each. A few Dozen of Black, White, and coloured Silk Stockings.
White and coloured Kid Gloves.
French Silks of different colours.
140 pieces of Hanging Paper of the most elegant patterns.
Post Paper by the Ream.
100 Kegs of Derby White Lead!
And a few Hogsheads of Molasses
For Sale by
JOHN FOSTER.
Richmond, July 10, 1802. [3t.]
FOR SALE, A Capital Young Horse,
Calculated to make an elegant SADDLE, CHAIR, OR OTHER CARRIAGE HORSE.
Apply at the office of the Recorder, Richmond, July 14th, 1802.
WALTER POTTER, Book Binder & Stationer
OPPOSITE Messrs. MITCHELL & GARDNER'S Main Street Richmond.
TAKES the liberty of informing his Friends, and the Public in general, that he has commenced the above Business, and solicits the patronage of those who may think proper to employ him.
Merchants account Books ruled to any pattern, and Book-Binding of every description executed with accuracy and dispatch.
ALSO A constant supply of STATIONARY. June 24, 1802.
JAMES LYNCH, Horse Shoer & Farrier,
FROM DUBLIN, RETURNS his thanks to his Friends and the Public for their encouragement, since he commenced Business; and hopes, by his assiduity, to have a continuance of their favours. He takes this method of informing them that he has removed from MANCHESTER to the CITY OF RICHMOND, below the Court-House, and near Mr. John Taylor's; where Gentlemen may have their Horses Nicked, Foaled, Docked, Cropped, &c. in the neatest and most approved manner. Low for cash. Every Disease in Horses treated with care and attention; which shall be warranted under special contract.
ALL KINDS OF SMITH WORK, At reduced Prices.
N. B. Good Stables, and wholesome Food for Horses, cheap near the Smith Shop. Richmond June 27th 1802.
CONCERNING DR. READ'S CASE.
Upon the 23d of June last, we published in this paper, some remarks relating to the case of Dr. Read, of Norfolk. According to the facts therein alleged, it appeared that Dr. Read had been much aggrieved. We expected that, if there were errors in our account, some of the persons who were concerned in the business, would have offered either contradictions, or explanations. These have not appeared. We therefore conclude that our statement was correct.
The following extracts from the before-mentioned publication are again offered for consideration. Since the 23d of June, there have been above an hundred additional subscribers to the Recorder. Of these, many would not understand our present observations, without the help of those extracts.
"The general court has just finished its semi-annual session. *The public curiosity has been much excited by the expected trial of the commonwealth's prosecution against Dr. John K. Read, of Norfolk. The prosecution was founded upon an accusation, which was exhibited against Dr. Read, about two years ago. He was accused of having committed to the jail of Norfolk, and having afterwards delivered to Mr. Hamilton, the British consul, a sailor named Hugh Jones, who had been one of the mutineers, on board of the British frigate Hermione. It was further alleged, that Jones was sent by Hamilton to the West-Indies, where he was tried, condemned, and executed. A complaint, embracing all these things, was made to governor Monroe, by Richard Evers Lee, of Norfolk. The governor and council sent Mr. George Hay to Norfolk, to enquire into, and make a report of the facts. This trip cost the commonwealth about 100 pounds. Mr. Hay was some time at Norfolk; he took many affidavits, and enclosed them to the governor and council, accompanied by a letter, in which it appeared that he conceived the facts to be established.
It appears that governor Monroe was of this opinion; because, at the succeeding session, he so stated it to the assembly, in his official communication."
"It appears that the testimony of one Brannan, the jailor, was chiefly relied upon by Mr. Hay. Brannan, at one time, expressly denied that the facts had happened; at another he said that he believed they had happened. His testimony is therefore contradictory. But Brannan's testimony is opposed by the affidavit of one Colls, who, at the time when the fact is said to have happened, acted as the assistant to Brannan. Colls's affidavit is to the following effect; that Brannan, at the time alluded to, was not only very sick, but was delirious; that he (Colls) kept the keys, the books, and transacted all the duties of the jail. He received all prisoners, and kept a regular account of the names and causes of commitment, in every case. He declares solemnly, that no man by the name of Hugh Jones was committed to prison by Dr. Read, or any other person. This affidavit is confirmed by Mr. Boyce, sergeant of the borough of Norfolk. Colls also says, that he was interrogated by Mr. George Hay, upon the subject, and that he informed Mr. Hay, that no such man had been in jail. It is most likely, if Colls's affidavit had been taken, and reported by Mr. Hay, with the others, that neither Dr. Read nor the assembly, would have had any further trouble upon the business."
"This case was to have been tried at the session of the general court, which is just now over. Dr. Read came with his witnesses, prepared and anxious for his trial. The trial has been postponed by the attorney-general, at a very great expence to Dr. Read, and a still greater to the commonwealth."
"It appears that all this clamour and trouble, originated in some rattling of one Seth Foster, one of our Norfolk republicans, who dined at a private house in Norfolk, with the British consul, Dr. Read, Capt. Truxton, and others. When all parties were well freighted with wine, Read was asked, what had become of one of the mutineers, who had been delivered to him by Capt. Truxton? Dr. Read answered that he had gone to hell, where all such scoundrels ought to go, alluding to one Osborne, who had died in jail. On the next day, Foster told something to one Starke, who told something to Richard E. Lee, the accuser, who wrote something to the governor; but it appears, that the circumstance alluded to in the convivial conversation just mentioned, and Lee's letter to the governor, are by no means alike. And it appears, also, that some of these busy people have contrived to manufacture a man (viz. Hugh Jones) to suit their purpose, who never existed, except in their own imaginations. It is for this that Dr. Read has had so much trouble, and for which the whole community have been roused to execrate him in the blackest terms of detestation."
From these extracts, it appears that, at the time when this groundless calumny was first communicated to the executive council, there was such an alarm, or pretended anxiety, among the members, to prove themselves the patriotic guardians of the people's rights, that they departed from the usual mode of proceeding, in cases, where offences are committed against the peace and dignity of the commonwealth. Instead of directing an enquiry and prosecution to be instituted by the attorney for the district, who resided in Norfolk, or by some other person who resided there, they sent Mr. George Hay, clothed with special instructions; and as far as circumstances appear, with inquisitorial powers. This embassy, or mission, it seems, cost about one hundred pounds. Mr. Hay made a report, the effect of which was such, that the attorney-general, not confiding in the talents or zeal of the district attorney, went in person, at two different times to Suffolk, for the sole and avowed purpose of conducting the prosecution. Upon one of these occasions, the populace were roused to such a vindictive spirit, that Dr. Read found it necessary, for his personal safety, to leave the place. This, added to the violent threats, which the adjacent people were in the habit of making, induced the doctor to offer a petition to the general court. He therein prayed, that the trial might be at Richmond. This was opposed by the attorney-general with great earnestness.
At the last term of the general court, when Dr. Read was ready, and his council insisted
upon a trial, it was postponed, because Seth Foster, one of the persons who had been summoned as a witness, did not attend. The expence of the postponement to Dr. Read, could not be less than two hundred dollars. There was a crowd of witnesses for the commonwealth;—so that the expence to the public must have been as much.
From the course which this prosecution has taken, and seems likely to take, the public will sustain a loss, of at least two thousand dollars. It will, probably, cost Dr. Read about as much. The commonwealth's money might have been better employed, in digging and clearing some yards of the new canal, which, it is expected, must be cut along the bottom of the old one. The preceding statement of facts, and the letter of Seth Foster, which is now published in this paper, ascertain very clearly, that there never was any cause, either for the prosecution, or the smallest clamour against Dr. Read. And it now appears, that the persons who were the most conspicuous at the beginning, are quarrelling with each other. Nay, we have heard that a challenge has been received by one of them. This happens, no doubt, from the unwillingness in either party, to bear the public odium, which threatens to settle upon the person who is most guilty.
While Richard Evers Lee, the respectable accuser, and Seth Foster, the witness, quarrel with each other for the honor of having, like Prometheus of old, made a man; that is, for having created a Hugh Jones, from the fumes or the glimmerings of their own infuriated or malignant minds; while this matchless LIE, hovers in equipoise over them; the executive council, and the gentleman whom they sent to Norfolk, may settle or quarrel also, for the honor of having pursued a system of injustice and oppression. Their proceedings had a tendency to sink into ruin, a respectable citizen, whose only crime, as far as we can trace it, appears to have been, a warm and ardent attachment to federalism.
Where the blame of precipitation lies, might be told in a very few words. It is in the power of the persons who have been mentioned, to give the information, if they will. If they do not tell it, we may conclude that they dare not.
We do not know whether Mr. Hay was to earn his one hundred pounds, as a solicitor in behalf of the executive council, to attest and report only the testimony, which was necessary to aid the prosecution, or whether he was employed as a public missionary. In the latter case, it was his duty to have collected every thing which he could, upon both sides, and to have reported the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. From our ignorance in this respect, we cannot with propriety, make an accusation against him, at this time, for his having suppressed the testimony of William Colls. Mr. Hay, as a lawyer, pursuing the custom of his profession, was bound to act according to his instructions, and to suit the interest and views of his employers. We very much incline to believe, that Mr. Hay would not have committed himself, by disobedience to his directions; and that he would have accepted of evidence in Dr. Read's favour, as well as against him, if such had been the instructions of the executive council. Mr. Hay felt himself to be but as a single man, responsible to his fellow-citizens for his conduct; whereas, the eight members of the executive council, found themselves responsible to nobody. The republican members, for even this little junta is split into factions, knew that they were certain of a large majority in the approaching assembly; and that all their proceedings against such an inflexible federalist as Dr. Read, were sure of meeting with at least an indulgent reception. Hence, it is most likely that they were careless what they did. The rest of their conduct justifies this supposition. What do you think of giving forty-three dollars for mending the broken leg of the speaker of the senate, of last assembly? No! begging his honour's pardon—it was only the leg of his CHAIR! This financial phenomenon excited a small debate, in the committee, who were appointed to examine the accounts laid before the last assembly. As to the twelve hundred and fifty dollars, paid to that "lover of his fellow-citizens," as Jones calls himself, to be sure it was just like the armory, the penitentiary, and some other verses of the chapter of the executive council. Jones prints the acts of Congress annually; and we cannot be positively certain, whether it is at two or three hundred per cent. more than the common rate, which a printer ought to receive. If the Octovirate

chuse to call your money at John Clark, or Jones, or a mender of broken chairs, or a digger of mud, or at any body else, and if you stand by, and say that these things should be so , it is hard to blame the council, and downright justice to blame Clark, or Jones. What can they help it?
If we can get hold of the accounts, that were laid before the last assembly, there would be a rich fund for criticism. What had you to do with the payment for candles, to illuminate the capitol, when Mr. Jefferson was elected? Or for the expence of the express, with the news of his election? It would have been time enough to light candles after you had fairly tried him. It is not impossible that you may be very willing to pay for twice as many candles, in order to light him out of office.
In the midst of such an ocean of inexplicable munificence , we hope that nobody will object to the payment of Dr. Read's expences; and these together with your own , losses in the same business, will collectively, come to the pretty little sum of FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS ; while you could not afford to buy as much iron as would make tolerable gratings for the windows of the Penitentiary, and while you have just been offering the immense sum of fifty dollars for the apprehension of a notorious murderer. This is what we call executive council economy.
If we spare Mr. Hay, at this time, we do not mean to spare his employers.* There is a fault between them. Although Dr. Read is the greatest sufferer, yet the whole community has been imposed upon. Let every man who either is, or expects to be a magistrate in this country, take a calm view of this case. Let him reflect upon the injuries which have been inflicted upon Dr. Read, by an accusation, which was so groundless, that there is no body who will own himself to be the author of it. Let it be remembered, that the best legal talents, a treasury then rich, and the whole weight of the public influence were directed against a single individual. Let them reflect that this individual was marked out, for a victim. It is not the case of every man to be able to spare, or even to find several hundred pounds for his expences, and defence. It is not every man, whose fortitude and strength of mind would bear him up against such frightful odds. It was the good fortune of Dr. Read to be able to stand alone against an outcry the most universal, and the most excruciating, which we have ever witnessed.
It may be expected that Dr. Read, at some future day, will make application to the assembly to be allowed compensation for the expences, losses and injuries, which he has received from the conduct of their servants. Ample compensation cannot be made. Nothing can be equivalent, for lost time, or for that mental solicitude and misery, which must have been the unavoidable consequences of such persecution.
If such an application should be made to the assembly, we cannot suppose that there will be a single voice to oppose it. Nor can we believe that the compensation would be limited barely to the sum, which Dr. Read has been compelled to expend in making his defence. Would it not be by far more satisfactory, would not the people at large be better pleased, to see part of their money go to a purpose, so equitable, so honorable, and so laudable, than to be told that five thousand or six thousand pounds have been expended, or may hereafter be expended, among the army people, in digging down and removing a hill?
It may be well to notice that, at the very time when the Suffolk mob were preparing to offer personal violence to Dr. Read, his two only sons were officers in the American navy; that they were bravely and actively employed in defending the maritime rights of their country. These naval measures were absolutely necessary to these very people, and without which, their only commodity, could not be exported, but must have perished upon their hands.†
Whatever respect we may hold for the feelings of individuals, we shall constantly consider it as our duty, upon all important occasions, to publish the truth. The editor of
NOTE.
* At the time, when Mr. Hay received his instructions for the Norfolk embassy, there were at least three lawyers at the board, besides the able counsel of the attorney general; so that if he did not receive legal instructions from so much wisdom, it must be considered as an un pardonable neglect of duty.
† It may be proper to say, at this place, that the youngest of Dr. Read's sons, at the age of sixteen, commanded the mizen top, in the gallant action which was fought by capt. Truxton, with the French ship, the Vengeance. His conduct upon that occasion gained him not only the applause, but the admiration of the crew. Was it for this that a certain colonel, member of assembly, &c. &c. was anxious to put the father to an ignominious death, for no offence, without trial, or even hearing? But the colonel is a good republican , according to the modern idiom; and that in these days, is a cloak for all other sins. Well it is perhaps for the colonel that he is good for any thing.
a newspaper stands like a witness in court. He owes it, as a moral duty, to have the attributes of truth always before him. With all possible caution, and care, he will frequently err. But if he be an honest man, he will rectify his error, as soon as possible. After this, it is hardly necessary to repeat, that any exculpation, or correction, which may be offered of the executive council, or their assistants, shall be published.
Here follows a letter of Seth Foster, which was published in the Examiner of the 26th of June. It has stood without contradiction from any of the party, and may therefore be now relied upon as an authentic document of truth.
To DOCTOR JOHN K. READ. Sir,
I received your note of yesterday, wherein you mention the trial of your suit was put off on account of my absence, although Mr. Nivison and Mr. Ashley were present. This to me is truly astonishing, and truly distressing: the testimony of those gentlemen (whose names were coupled with my own, by the busy informer) being founded on truth, which is always consistent, must necessarily accord with mine, and neither can tend in any degree to establish the prosecution. Not one syllable has gone from me to the government or to any agent: why is it that more importance should be attached to my evidence, than to others? It must be accounted for on the principle, that idle conjecture and opinion deduced from false statements have occasioned it. You asked me to state what my evidence would be: I can confidently state what it will not do. Nothing that I could say would ever go to support the charge (if such one there is,) that you acknowledged the surrender of any man by you to a foreign agent.—I am sorry from my soul, I could not attend the last court, especially as you seem to think my presence would have ended the unfortunate and ever to be lamented business, on account of which I little expected ever to be called before a court of justice. I shall always be ready when leisure will permit, freely to communicate and converse with you on this unpleasant business, which I trust and have no doubt will end favorably,—you will do me no more than justice in believing my feelings have ever been, and now are, deeply interested in your behalf.
Yours, SETH FOSTER.
The RECORDER.
RICHMOND.
AUGUST 4th. 1802.
From the AURORA of July 16.
CALLENDER has undertaken a defence of his own talents as a writer. If he had been content to let his writings speak for themselves, no one would have questioned his talents, whatever opinion may be entertained of their kind , or the integrity and correct deportment which is ever necessary to render talents respectable; and the want of which for ever lessens the value of talents however transcendent. After all, Callender's talents are not of that superior order , which he would have others believe, nor of that kind which he produces anecdotes (which never occurred) to countenance. It is true, that Callender's political publications display a striking originality and boldness—an acute discriminating capacity—a various and unequal, but often vigorous style—periods energetic and harmonious, surrounded by puerilities and incoherency. But in his discussions, there is neither method nor congruity. He often surprises, but more frequently disappoints. If he excites a momentary pleasure by a beautiful or bold turn of thought, he sinks suddenly into insipidity, and the grossness of his conceptions are [sic] sure to produce disgust. The same emotions which are excited by his personal appearance, arise on the perusal of his writings, with the single exception of his Political Progress of Great Britain —the chasm of which, is a powerful testimony in favor of what has been often said, that that pamphlet received the finishing touches of lord Gardenstone, a nobleman, whom Callender has been reported to have treated with the same infidelity and ingratitude which has [have] marked him on various other occasions. It cannot be true that Mr. Jefferson ever spoke praise of Callender as a paragraph writer , as he alleges. It is a species of writing which he has never practised much—a few weeks trial, in 1797—8 proved him utterly unfit for that species of writing. Very few articles of that kind were published, and his services where he was employed in Philadelphia were dispensed with. Most his efforts, as a paragraph writer, were calculated to dishonor and disserve, rather than support the republican interest. This was the sentiment of most republicans of influence, and who took any active concern in the political writings of that day. The observation which Callender applies to the supposed paragraphs, might, with
propriety, be made on his pamphlets. The paragraphs which were so frequent in the Aurora in 1797—8, and which were so much talked of, were not the production of Callender—they were generally dropt in a letter box, in Mr. Bache's office, who was accustomed to call that box his paragraph mill , from the frequency and number of such articles deposited there—but they were in a hand writing different from Callender's. The fallacy of Callender's assumption on this point, leaves reason to believe ,* independent of dissimilitude of sentiment and phraseology,—another anecdote, which Callender produces to sustain his pretensions to talents. We shall extract it, as we find it in Alexander Hamilton's paper, for we have not yet got Callender's, though we have wrote for it. He states, that Mr. Jefferson spoke of him to a Scotchman in Richmond, and to whom Mr. Jefferson expressed his curiosity to see the second part of the Prospect Before Us , having seen part of the first. And he says that this Scotchman reported to Callender, that Mr. Jefferson had said—"I think I see John Adams twirling off his wig, and stamping on it."
This anecdote, proves how little Callender is acquainted with Mr. Jefferson's mode of expression, or style of conversation. Had Callender been accustomed to associate with men of polished manners, or had not the degraded state into which he has reduced himself destroyed his former discrimination, he would have seen that such a form of expression was not Mr. Jefferson's, and that he could not have used the phrase twirling off , if he had even conceived the ludicrous idea. Callender observes, that the accuracy of the anecdote rests upon the observation of Mr. Jefferson.—But the accuracy of the fact is first to be settled, and this depends wholly upon Callender, upon whom, it is plain, no dependence can be placed.
With regard to the present of money made by Mr. Jefferson to Callender, it is not improbable that he did bestow, and unasked by Callender, 50 or 100 dollars; but for what purpose did Callender find the specimen sheets of the magazine—was it merely to compliment a patron, or to solicit pecuniary assistance! Will Callender say that he had not made supplication for pecuniary aid; that he has not been a constant dependent on the generosity of men, who, while they admired his capacity, despised and flunned the meanness and filth of the for, but pitied, and threw away their charity on the man.—And this charity to an unfortunate and persecuted wretch, is assumed to be not only complimentary, but the proof of satisfaction, and the testimony of serious interest in the writings of the individual!
The artifice of Callender to support himself, by producing acts of liberality of Mr. Jefferson, as proofs of his approbation, display the character and mind of the man in a most deplorable point of view! A man possessed of the common feelings of personal pride, one who regarded the esteem of others, but particularly a man who professes to be a public writer, it would seem, ought to be particularly tenacious of moral character and integrity.—But it is visible to any man of understanding that Callender is not ignorant. That he has at least read of such traits of character in man as liberality, benevolence and veracity: that honor, confidence, and probity, are not mere shadows, that they foster affection, and secure respect and esteem for each other among men of most opposite conditions in life; yet in the face of this knowledge, does Callender come forth, and attempt to instruct or inform a public, before whom his own conduct must stand opposed to every thing liberal, candid, and laudable.
WHEN Duane is to make a reference to the Recorder, he gives one that is false or mutilated; and then he delivers a sermon from a text of his own invention. To convince every one of our readers how heartily we despise him, and every thing which he can say, and every thing which his present prompters can tell him to say, his column of calumny has been reprinted at full length. To detect every falsehood which this oracle of republicans has here invented would require at least three other columns. I pass over his critical account of Callender's abilities. On this point the world will take leave to judge for themselves.—"The same emotions," says Duane, "which are excited by his personal appearance, arise on the perusal of his writings," &c. This is really too ridiculous, and especially to be printed in Philadelphia, where both parties are, personally, and so very well known. Cheetham should, by the laws of congress, have got thirty nine lashes for breaking up the two letters to Bronson. Duane, as his accomplice, and as the publisher of those letters, should, at least, have had twenty, and he is welcome to congratulate himself upon those emotions, which must have been excited by his personal appearance, after such a commendable consummation of justice. Duane's forged extracts of letters , such as that concerning a treaty between John Adams and Toussaint,† would well deserve a second twen-
NOTE.
* Duane means to say disbelieve . He was always but a sorry corrector of proof sheets.
† Vid. Recorder of May 18.
ty lashes. This fine treaty was, found, it seems, in Toussaint's baggage ! The lie ran through perhaps fifty newspapers; and as far as I know, it was never once contradicted, unless in the Recorder. It is rather too bad that I should be condemned to write answers to such a confessed felon . The time has been when I believed that Thomas Jefferson would have scorned to accept, as his auxiliary, a candidate for the correction house . The admirers of Duane, and of the president, are welcome to estimate, as exactly as they can, the distinction in point of character, between the scribbler and his employer. Mr. Jefferson and all his friends, unanimously agreed that John Adams was to be considered as the second-hand author of the libels of the federal newspaper-printers. Men of Virginia!
Awake! arise! Or, be forever fallen!
Your feelings may be hurt by the hearing of a painful, a disgraceful, but an indisputable truth. If the charge against Mr. Adams was correct, and we are absolutely satisfied that it was so, then, it follows that the republican president is running the same race of accusation, and of calumny, which his predecessor the federal president, had run before him. There is only this difference between them. John Adams was a man of violent passions, and a very poor writer. Jefferson is a powerful writer, and a man incapable of any violent passions, excepting the constitutional vindictiveness of a timid mind, and the passion for twenty-five thousand dollars a year.
Duane ascribes the finishing touches of the Political Progress of Great Britain to lord Gardenstone. His lordship had corrected many pieces of mine. In the life of George Buchanan, he made about forty alterations I shall always be prompt in acknowledging my obligations to such a preceptor. But of the work in question, he never corrected one word. Nine tenths of the book, as it now stands, was wrote in America, long after his death. Neither was his lordship a nobleman , as the Canadian Irishman affects to call him. He was what Paine would have termed "one of the NOBLES OF NATURE." He was of an antient and opulent family. He was a lawyer of great abilities. He was raised to be a judge in the two supreme courts of Scotland. In virtue of his office, he received the title of lord . But he was not a nobleman. These trifles are only mentioned to shew how much Duane knows of what he is talking about. He proceeds to say that he has not yet got our paper , although he has wrote for it! We get his regularly; and he no doubt, gets ours. But the Recorder contains divers twits about him, which Duane does not know how to answer; and he gets out of the scrape with saying that he does not receive the Recorder.
Duane goes on to tell his readers, and they are welcome, if they chuse, to believe him, that I cannot write newspaper paragraphs . He speaks of a letter box, in which Mr. Bache used to receive pieces. I never heard of such a box. In Spring, 1798, Mr. Jefferson conceived that the Aurora would operate the better for having an assistant. A small subscription was opened for paying such a person. The vice president, for his share, advanced sixteen dollars . Other gentlemen, for whom I then had, and continue to have the highest respect, agreed to pay other small sums. The choice of an assistant came next to be considered. Duane wanted to have the office, which was indeed hardly worth anybody's acceptance. It was upon this occasion, that Mr. Jefferson spoke to Mr. Leiper of Callender, in the terms already mentioned in the letters to Jones. I was preferred to Duane; and, in consequence of this subscription, I wrote occasionally for Mr. Bache, during a few months. Duane is acquainted personally with every one of the subscribers. Mr. Jefferson excepted, the names of none of them are here published; because, although there appears to be nothing in the business, but what is extremely correct, and proper, still the gentlemen might not wish to see themselves brought forward in a newspaper, and exposed to all the scurrility of the federal prints. Duane may deny, if he chuses, that there ever was such an association, as this above referred to; or he may deny that I was preferred to him, and that Mr. Jefferson approved of this preference. If anything of such a kind drops from his pen, I shall immediately publish the names of two or three of the subscribers. Most of them reside in Philadelphia; and they will be sure to contradict him.
Duane has one sentence that is not intelligible. He says "the observation which Callender applies to the supposed paragraphs, might, with propriety, be made on his pamphlets." I do not understand what observation he can mean, unless it may be Mr. Jefferson's. He denies that the president could use such a vulgar phrase as the word twirling off his wig .
From the GAZETTE of THE UNITED STATES.
"Callender says, that Mr. Jefferson in speaking of Adams's wig, used the word twirling ." The editor of the Aurora contradicts the assertion, and observes that it would be derogatory to the polished manners of the president to use that mode of expression. If the editor of the Aurora will look into "Notes on Virginia," in "Query 19," he

will find the following sentence: "while we have land to labour then, let us never wish to see our citizens occupied at a work-bench, or twirling a distaff." Unless Mr. Duane can point out some difference in the polished phraseology of these expressions, twirling a distaff, and twirling a distaff, we cannot hesitate to ascribe them both to the same author - For the information of Mr. Duane, it may not be improper to remark that many forms of expression not less singular than the above, may be found in the "Notes on Virginia."
We shall embrace an early opportunity of taking some farther notice of William Duane. Enough at present.
From the VIRGINIA GAZETTE.
July 26th, 1802.
Mr. Augustine Davis,
SIR,
The course which Duane, Editor of the Aurora, has long followed; and my being persuaded that it is his design to support the present order of things at all hazards; that he chuses between truth and untruth, as his own purposes may be best accomplished, has induced me to write the following essay, which is sent for publication. If Mr. Duane shall say any thing in reply, I request that it may appear in your paper, that I may see whether it be necessary for me to go any farther.
AFTER the Aurora and its disciples have exhausted the whole artillery of invective, and have shot the last arrow of deception, they adopt the word Tory, which is made to fit all cases, to suit all circumstances and characters, who do not exactly agree with them in their wild, disorganizing, demoralizing, and calumniating system.
The words Tory and Toryism being frequently applied to some of the most meritorious men in our country, it will be highly proper in itself, and very satisfactory to the feelings of others, to give a short explanation.
During the revolutionary war, every man who did not agree with the revolutionary measures, was considered and called a Tory. This was well understood, and the meaning was never doubted nor questioned, until some time in the year 1798. About this time, Mr. Jefferson thought proper to apply this term to several respectable gentlemen in Virginia, some of whom had acted in distinguished military and political situations during the war, and had terminated their revolutionary career with applause and glory. This produced complaint and explanations.
Mr. Jefferson extricated himself by an answer, which clearly showed that he wished either to close the breach, or to avoid a quarrel. The affair terminated by a declaration, that he considered the word Tory to be applicable to them, because they countenanced and supported the measures of the government, as it was then administered, by John Adams; that it was well known to bear that signification in England, from which country we had adopted it.
Since this period, a very great political revolution has happened in this country. Mr. Jefferson himself has become the president of the United States. He is supported in his administration, through thick and thin, by a great many persons, and by nobody more invariably than William Duane. This circumstance, according to Mr. Jefferson's own explanation, has thrown all of his supporters into the Tory scale, and has entitled all those who oppose or dislike him or his administration to the appellation of whigs or patriots. For example. The paper which was formerly Fenno's and is now Bronson's, was a Tory paper, because it advocated and supported the administration of John Adams, and now becomes a whig or patriotic paper because it opposes or condemns the administration of Thomas Jefferson. The Aurora was then a whig or patriotic paper, because it held the first rank of opposition against Mr. Adams, and it is now a Tory paper, because it approves and supports Mr. Jefferson in every thing. By this revolution, William Duane has become a
most decided Tory. If Duane denies this construction, he sets himself in array against Mr. Jefferson, which it is believed is MORE THAN HE DARE DO.
It is not believed that Duane had this construction in view when he introduced the words Tory and Toryism into the political vocabulary of the Aurora. Nor is it believed that he either reflects upon or recollects a thousand other things which are published in the Aurora. He appears like a man playing at blindman's buff. He seizes upon the first thing that comes in his way. Right or wrong, true or false, it is published. When the fallacy is detected and exposed, instead of making an apology, Duane starts off and publishes something else as bad or worse.
Every body will believe that Duane intended the words Tory and Toryism to be taken in the most reproachful and degrading sense against all those who do not read and approve the disgusting columns of the Aurora. Hence they are applied with equal ignorance and impudence to individuals who have rendered personal, political, or pecuniary services, in promoting and accomplishing the independence of this country; who were either in arms, or gave assistance to arming and equipping others in the most perilous and important periods of the revolution.
It is well known that many of those who make the most noise concerning their republicanism, or patriotism, who use the words Tory and Toryism most reproachfully as to others, who gave all possible aid to the revolutionary measures, absolutely withdrew from, or avoided all situations of danger or expense, during the invasion of 1781. Bad health, shattered constitutions, and various other excuses and subterfuges were urged as the motives for withdrawal to places of perfect security.
I do not wish to be urged into particulars upon a subject which may bring conspicuous persons into disrepute; but as it is wiser to carry the war into the territory of an adversary, than to repel or oppose him at my own door, (For the remainder, see p. 4th column 1st.)
N. B. The note in that column, beginning at line 26 from the bottom, ending at the cross line, should have been placed at the bottom.
From the VIRGINIA GAZETTE.
SIR,
In answer to the enquiries of several of your friends, as to what passage of the first volume of the Prospect received the assistance of Mr. Jefferson, I annex for publication the following short extract. My design in that passage was to expose the impropriety of Mr. Adams's conduct in sending William Smith to Constantinople, in order to make a treaty with the Grand Seignor. With this view I wrote to Mr. Jefferson, then at Monticello. His answer was, that he had made the strictest search among his papers, but could not find the amount of the expense of such an embassy, as stated to himself and Mr. Adams, by the Count de Vergennes. The information contained in the last sentence of the extract, I had from a member of Congress, on whose veracity I could rely, and who had it from the Spanish ambassador.
I am surprised at its being considered as wonderful that Mr. Jefferson should wish to encourage a book like The prospect . To turn out Mr. Adams, and to succeed him, was undoubtedly the wish of Mr. Jefferson's heart; and those who are the loudest in reprobating him would be very glad to do the same thing by the best friend they ever had, when twenty-five thousand dollars per annum were in the wind.
The letter was dated from Monticello, in Summer 1798; I have it among my papers. The Vice-President did not subscribe it, for he observed, that the period (to wit, the approaching contest for the Presidency) was coming, when he wrote as few letters as possible, on account of the notice, which at such a time, the Post Offices usually took of him. He said that I would know from whom the letter came, without its being subscribed. Indeed I could hardly fail to know, seeing that he dated it in his own hand writing, which I had often seen, from his own country seat, and seeing
that he mentioned Mr. Adams as being ambassador to France, along with himself, in the body of this very letter. It occurred to me that even if the letter was to be broke up at a Post Office, his enemies would know it by all these marks to be his letter, just as well without his signature, as with it.
I am extremely sorry that Mr. Jefferson's name should ever have been mentioned by me in these letters to Mr. Jones. I had not the least idea that the public were to attach so much importance and curiosity to any thing which could have passed between the President and me. But this will caution me to be more circumspect in future.
I am, Sir,
Yours's, &c.
JAMES T. CALLENDER.
Richmond, July 30th, 1802.
P. S. I have just learned that the Executive Council paid only twelve hundred and fifty dollars to Mr. Jones for printing the pamphlet mentioned in last Recorder. I had by misinformation called it fifteen hundred. Still, however, he was paid four times more than the work was worth. I also understand that Thomas Nicolson declared that he would have done the pamphlet for three hundred dollars; but he had not an opportunity of making a formal offer.
THE Examiner of Saturday last, contains two columns upon the Recorder. The Examiner of the preceding Wednesday had but one column, and this was a little more genteel than usual; for in the whole of it, the word villain occurred only once.
The reader will observe that, at present, all the active editors on the continent are upon our back. The Cegis , a Jefferson (for we almost scorn to call it by the prostituted name of a republican newspaper,) a paper which we had never before seen, sent us, a few days ago, a whole column of invective. Both parties are upon us at once. But we are willing to try them. We only advert to these circumstances, in this place, in order to show the impossibility of answering one-tenth part of Jones's stuff. But we shall answer all that deserves an answer. We should be very glad that all the world could read his paper, which, both in respect to printing, and its intellectual contents, is unquestionably the meanest at this day in Virginia. You see what kind of a newspaper Jones makes, when he is left to himself. EN!
We are extremely glad that, in the present number, we have got the Examiner fairly disembarked upon Terra Firma . He has, at last, begun to speak upon his office as public printer. Merry had often been canting about his poverty. We stated that, besides the common rate of printing, he received at least three thousand dollars per annum, under the cover of this sinecure. Those who think, as Samuel Coleman thinks, that it is criminal to exploit the purse suckers of the commonwealth, will blame us for touching on so tender a point. Those who think that it is quite as criminal to waste public money, as that of a private person, will attend to what follows:
In last week's paper, a small mistake was committed in speaking about the price of printing a pamphlet for the assembly. The account came from good authority. A correction of it came from better; and we hastened to have the amendment printed by Mr. Davis, in last Saturday's Virginia Gazette. The reader will see the article republished in this day's Recorder. Jones, in his last paper, calls this mistake, which arose from no fault of ours, "a palpable and intentional falsehood," with many other compliments of equal politeness.
This pamphlet contains 104 pages, in small octavo, that is to say, six sheets and an half. The impression was five thousand copies. They required of course, thirty-two thousand five hundred sheets of paper, or seventy-three reams. The price of the paper was about three dollars per ream. The seventy-three reams of paper above mentioned, at three dollars per ream, come to two hundred and nineteen dollars. Jones himself says, in his explanation of last Saturday, that the paper cost upwards of two hundred dollars. We shall rate it at two hundred and twenty.
Mr. John Dixon printed this pamphlet. He printed also the greater part of the first volume of the Prospect. He charged eighteen dollars per sheet, including both case work and press work, for that book. The sheet contained a much greater quantity of words than a sheet of the pamphlet. But to counterbalance that, the pamphlet required exactly four times the press work of the volume. Of the latter, only twelve hundred were struck off; and of the former five thousand. We wish to be as explicit and distinct as possible, in order to prevent all cavilling. Press work is but a small item in the present case. Two pressmen can do, regularly, as much work in a
fortnight as all the press work of the assembly pamphlet. They may cost between them perhaps ten dollars a week; so that they could have dispatched the whole of this job for about twenty dollars. But we shall state forty dollars, which gives Jones a profit of an hundred per cent upon the press work.
We shall then state the case work of the pamphlet, at ten dollars per sheet. For 6 1/2 sheets this comes to Dolls. 65 Press work 40 Paper 220 Stitching 50* Total 375
Taking three hundred and seventy-five dollars, as the proper payment of Jones, there remains for the public printer a douceur of EIGHT HUNDRED and EIGHTY FIVE extra dollars. Jones confesses that the executive council gave himself twelve hundred and fifty.
And now we beg leave to ask an honest and dispassionate reader, whether it is proper that the commonwealth should be thus pigeoned . In this affair Mr. Jones is not culpable. If public money must be thrown at him, he is welcome to pick it up. He seems to think that his acceptance of an extravagant price was to be imputed to him as a crime. The proper blame rests with the Republican majority of the Executive Council. We understand that governor Wood and Mr. Pendleton oppose all these queer things. But we hope, that, at next meeting of the Assembly, they will be turned out . Of course there will no longer exist, at the Council board, any debates about the mode of the expenditure of public money.
We have a great deal more to say; but room is wanting. In Dr. Read's article, we mentioned forty three dollars for mending one of the legs of a speaker's chair. Mere haste made us forbear to notice that this Item embraced, also, a small piece of cloth, to be spread under his feet.
The following letter was delivered for publication, last week, by a gentleman of this city, who is a magistrate of the county. We could not, therefore, with propriety decline the insertion of it. At the same time, we are not acquainted with the circumstances concerning this riot at the Rising Sun nor do we know any thing personally either of Mr. Allen, or his workmen.
For the Recorder.
TO THE MAGISTRATES OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND.
Gentlemen,
THE outrage, this day committed, on a respectable inhabitant of this city, by the myrmidons, who were concerned in it, calls aloud for your prompt, and energetic interposition. All towns, as they increase in population, are more and more exposed to mobs and riots; and it rests with the magistracy to decide, in the commencement of them, whether they shall be sanctioned, or effectually discountenanced. Mild punishment on offenders, in such cases, amounts to an encouragement of the most atrocious conduct from the most disorderly citizens of the community, who are thereby tempted to repeat their transgressions of the laws, and trample under foot the rights of more meritorious members of society than themselves. In young cities; it is all important that the police should guard against Moss ; for by suffering them once to become frequent, they will become fashionable, and that fashion, if nothing else, will ensure the recurrence of them, on the most trivial occasions.
It is therefore most earnestly hoped, by every man who wishes to sleep quietly in his bed, or sit peaceably under his own roof, that a severe example will, at the approaching court of hustings, be made of the journeymen of Jedediah Allen, the shoemaker, who have to day so unjustifiably, assailed the property, and insulted the family of Mr. Calper Fletcher. The writer of this beg leave, also, to suggest to the worshipful court of the city, the propriety of rejecting, as security for good behaviour , the man who has proved himself so worthless as to be capable of countenancing such conduct in any members of his family, so far as even to keep them in his employment.
AN ENEMY TO MOBS.
Richmond, July 26, 1802.
** TRUEMAN'S second letter, vindicating the political character of the Seas in America during the revolution , cannot appear till next week.
* If it cost more, Jones may tell us what it was.

some plain and unpleasant things may perhaps be told hereafter upon this point. If this should be the case, some of the patrons of the Aurora will wish that Duane had remained in the East Indies, or that he had found a passage to a climate still more hot.
For the present, I shall content myself with a few plain questions. They are as follows:
Where were many of the modern fire-brand republicans during all of the summer of the year 1781? Were they with either of the American armies? Did they oppose the British army in Virginia? Were they with general Greene's army in North or South Carolina; or were they at the siege of York? Or rather were they not in some secure retreat until the storm and danger were over?
What is it which at this time gives to these persons the exclusive preference to the political honors of the country? Let it not be answered that any of them were something, or did something, in the years 1776, 1777, or 1778. My questions relate to the year 1781, when the whole southern country, including a great portion of this state, was overrun by British armies.
I ask by what right or upon what construction they who avoided and escaped the dangers and hardships of the year 1781, by flight or evasion, form themselves into a party of calumniators, and appropriate to those whose services were so essential at that time, the odious terms of Toryism? Nobody who reads the Aurora can suppose that the Editor of that paper intends these terms according to the construction which Mr. Jefferson found it expedient to make in the year 1798, which is explained in the first part of this essay.
Will Duane or any one for him declare in what army or upon what military service, or in what other capacity, he aided in the cause which secured the independence of this country? It has been repeatedly urged that he is an American. Is this an untruth? Or did he, at the time which tried men's souls, screen himself by an evasion? If he is not an American, he may be excused for having rendered no service in the contest; but in this case he must cease to claim the birth-right. If he is an American and rendered no service, he should cease to prate about his own patriotism, or the Toryism of others, unless in the way which Toryism is defined by Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson's opinion is, that he who supports the administration is a Tory. Duane is therefore a Tory, and so are all those who are the supporters, or adherents of Jefferson's administration.
Concerning Toryism, Duane uses the following words:
"The ranks of Toryism, like the armies of Mahomet, are composed of all proteolites from the abandoned of all sects, nations and tribes. It requires no personal virtue--no private worth--no regard for the laws of morality or decorum. Every wretch who, finding the pursuits of debauchery and vice detested and discouraged by re-
† The reader is requested to substitute for the words "detested and discouraged" "countenanced and encouraged," and to recollect that Duane, according to Mr. Jefferson's definition, is a conspicuous character in the ranks of Toryism. He is then desired to ask whose character Duane had in view when he wrote the foregoing extract.
A moment's reflection will show that Jefferson's Tories and Duane's Republicans are precisely the same characters. Republicans, is sure to meet with impunity and sympathy in the ranks of Toryism."
Mr. Duane seems to have had some particular character in view, with which he was intimately acquainted. With what impressive ardor and animation he has expressed his sentiments--his whole soul seems to have been poured out in his words. To such associates as these, Duane is more than welcome. There is not a man of virtue, honor, or honesty in the whole community, who will envy him the society of such banditti.
TRUMAN,
SKETCHES OF THE HISTORY OF AMERICA.
Continued from our last.
MR. Findley was a farmer, and a soldier in the American army, for many years before he became a professed author, and the wonder ought to be that his faults are so few. His accuracy has been attested by the silence of the secretary, while the toothless scurrility of the treasury newspapers announces that he has drawn blood.
Mr. Brackenridge writes with more ease and vivacity than Mr. Findley. His perspicuity, his simplicity, his picturesque minuteness, conduct his reader into the scene of action. You see, hear and feel, just as the author actually did; and this itself is a talent of high excellence. Amidst much entertainment, candor will forgive the serious or affected vanity, that sometimes peeps through the curtain of his mind. These two writers have been neglected. An estimate of the sales may induce a belief that they have never been perused by more than two or three thousand American citizens, that is to say, by perhaps a two-hundredth part of the community at large. Without such a perusal, however, it is impossible to comprehend the nature and effects of the western riots. The declamation that fills the federal gazettes and pamphlets cannot afford a just or luminous conception of this all-important subject; which is therefore grossly and almost universally misunderstood. Next to the composition of a good book by yourself, one of the best services to the public is the recommending of another, which has been overlooked.
After thus explaining where a proper account of the insurrection may be found, we go back to the president, his congress, and his speech. "It has been a spectacle," says he, "displaying to the highest advantage, the value of a republican government, to behold the most and the least wealthy of our citizens standing in the ranks as private soldiers, pre-eminently distinguished by being the army of the constitution." He ought to have said, of monarchical government, for every part of the business bore the stamp of despotism. In the first place the four counties were outlawed, on the single notification of judge Wilton. That any single man should have been entrusted with so vast a discretionary power was inconsistent with republican freedom.
General Washington sent commissioners to treat with the insurgents, but if Hamilton had been president, he would have immediately marched against them, and the four counties must have been covered with blood and ashes, by the official temerity of one man and the ferocious impetuosity of another. This is but a poor specimen of republican government, and yet it might take place.
Again, the army was raised on principles purely monarchical. The president acted solely on the authority of a law investing him, during the recess of congress, with unlimited power, a law that may one day overturn the constitution. Let us explain it by the following supposition. The present congress will cease to exist, on the third of March, 1799. On the 4th, Mr. Adams may get a certificate from some confidential judge, that Virginia or Tennessee is in a state of rebellion. Whether the story be true or false, resolutely within his breast. He directly calls out the militia, and, as this insurrection is ten times more dangerous than that of Braddock's field, he requires an hundred and fifty thousand men. He sets out at their head, parades four or eight hundred miles, renews the horrors of the western expedition, and, till the first Monday of December thereafter, he and his militia are absolute masters of America. They proceed, at an expence of two hundred thousand dollars per day, to be drawn from a treasury, which has not
one spare shilling. No part of the constitution can, practically, stop Mr. Adams in his progress. The legislature does not assemble till the first Monday of December, unless the mere accident of a law, by their predecessors, may have ordained a more early date. Even this remedy could easily be prevented. On a preconceived plan, the majority would be sure to reject any bill for the more early meeting of congress. Thus nine months of a royal interregnum might readily put an end to the government. The precedent set by Mr. Hamilton, for emptying the treasury, would greatly facilitate such a conspiracy. The above explanation clearly proves, that, according to law, our lives and properties may soon be at the mercy of some chief magistrate.
The federal army did not, then, display the spectacle of a republic, but the embryo of royalty hatched in the dregs of legislative ignorance. Congress gave the president authority as good as unlimited for raising an army; but they forgot to inform him in what way that army was to be paid. This was, as if a merchant should send a ship to the West Indies, and forget to furnish her with biscuit or water. What imbecility, what unacquaintance with the first principles of legislation, are unfolded in this congressional performance! Its worst parts might be amended by a clause like the following.
"The president shall not be permitted to call out the militia, till he has held a council with the vice president, the three secretaries, the attorney-general, and the governors of at least four of the states nearest to the seat of the federal government. Of these nine six with himself may form a quorum; and a majority of at least five members shall decide. Every opinion shall be given in writing, and each of the council shall be answerable and impeachable for his vote. The proclamation for the actual calling out of the militia should be directed to contain a summons for the meeting of congress, it being otherwise high treason to obey the call. Leave should also be granted to take the requisite sums from the treasury; or if not there, a case very likely, the council might be authorized to open a loan."
Till some amendment of this kind shall be made, the liberty of the United States must be in serious hazard. General Washington went to the Treasury. Some future president may go to the bank. The one step will not be a jot worse than the other. The act, when amended, should be annexed to the constitution, lest some future congress might dare to repeal it. The prospect of mischief is not distant. Its approach may soon be expected. Deriving, like Venus, his birth from the deep, the United States have already been harassed with their Machiavel. If Washington did not act that of Cromwell it may be ascribed to the soundness of his judgement, and the consciousness that a party who basked under the splendour of his name, left him almost nothing to be desired.
We return to the president's speech. He advises the citizens of the America to cherish their constitution, not merely for their own sakes, but "for the sake of those, who from every clime, are daily seeking a dwelling in our land." This sounds very well; and if Mr. Jay's treaty had contained one line for the protection of emigrants from the British dominions to America, it might have been believed that, in the above expressions, Mr. Hamilton was sincere. The pressing of men from Irish passenger ships, on the coast of America, is not only, in itself, an act of shocking cruelty, but an egregious insult on this country. In November, 1794, when this speech was delivered, Mr. Hamilton had professedly put himself at the head of that party who revile emigrants in the mass, who want to exclude them from voting a elections, and who, in summer 1797, wanted to pass a stamp duty of an hundred dollars, on their admission as citizens.
In a subsequent paragraph, the president speaks of having extended his protection to the Creeks. This passage has already been criticised, but I subjoin a circumstance that has not yet reached the newspapers. On the 8th of November, 1794, only eleven days before the delivery of this speech, the secretary at war received a letter from the governor of Georgia. It inclosed a deposition concerning two murders, by the Creeks. On the 30th of September, preceding, they had, near Fort Fidin, shot down and scalped Catharine Cella, a young lady. Five of them had, also, shot and scalped a negro woman. Governor Matthews further mentions some thefts of negroes and horses, committed by Indians, in Liberty county; and that the Tallitsee king and Broken Arrow, were both for war. With this letter before him, the president came forward, and, without one word about avenging the blood of Catharine Cella, and of a multitude of similar victims, harangued on his success in the protection of her assassins. This case is only a sample of, perhaps, a thousand, equally horrid, and equally unavenged. The honor of America, if one may speak of non-entities, has been as basely prostrated by land as by sea.
How little reason those savages had to complain, appears from the copy of a talk with them, transmitted by the governor of Georgia to the secretary of war, in a letter dated Augusta, August 19th, 1794. The piece is too long to be inserted here; but the following extracts are made from an attested manuscript of it. After stating the treaty of New-York, he says, "Some goods were promised to you, which you received, and were to make a plain line between our people and yours. This 'you failed to do.' He then relates, that when they and their families were in want of corn, the president sent them a gratuitous supply. He also opened a store at St. Mary's to furnish them with goods. They murdered the men who kept it, and carried off the goods. The murderers were not punished, for any satisfaction given. "You have killed many of our citizens," says the governor, "and carried away a great number of our horses, cattle, and negroes. All this your father, general Washington, has borne with, from a wish to be the friend of your nation.---You ask about forts. They are on the north side of the river, and on the land that was given by your nation at the treaty at New-York, for which you have been paid; and I cannot see why you complain of it. By that treaty your nation is to receive twelve hundred dollars a year for the lands, which is ten times as much as all the game you can kill on it, in one year is worth. I cannot see how your nation can dispute the river's being the line, as it was agreed on at three treaties in Georgia, and the one at New-York." Such were the people to whom the president gave his protection. The speech has not even one hint about the defence of citizens on the Georgian frontier.
"From a desire, also," says the president, "to remove the discontents of the Six Nations, a settlement mediated at Presqu'isle, on lake Erie, has been suspended, and an agent is now endeavouring to rectify any misconception, in to which they may have fallen." The matter was shortly this. No misconception existed on the part of the Indians, excepting from English bribery. A letter from general Wilkins to Clement Biddle, quarter-master general of Pennsylvania, explains the story. It is dated April 25th, 1794, and mentions, that Cornplanter and other Indians had been invited to an English council at Buffalo creek. "On the result of that council," lays the general, "seems to hang war or peace between us and the Six Nations: There have been a great deal of pains used lately by the English to four their minds, and they seem, in some measure, to have effected it."
NOTE * History of the United States for 1796, Chap. VII.