The Patowmac guardian, and Berkeley advertiser (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]), 1791-05-10 00:00:00

The POTOMAC GUARDIAN, and BERKELEY ADVERTISER.
PRICE TWO DOLLARS PER ANN.]
T U E S D A Y, M A Y 10, 1791.
[NUMBER 26 OF VOL. 1 o ]
WHERE LIBERTY DWELLS, THERE IS MY COUNTRY.
Franklin.
A D D R E S S FROM THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF FRANCE, TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND.
IN the first moments of our new-created liberty, our hearts overflowed with joy, exquisite as that which man experienced when he first awoke into being, and stood erect, and lifted his eyes to the sun; with a similar relish for the novelty of our present situation, we look up to heaven, and around to the nations of the earth. In becoming men, we become entitled to address every people who possess freedom, or who wish to possess it, as their equals and their brethren; to address them in the familiarity of friendship, with the brotherhood of humanity; for while we felicitate ourselves we sympathize with those that suffer, and we, therefore, fix our first attention upon YOU.
Too long have the kingdoms of Europe been instigated by the wretched ambition of a few men, into causeless hatred and hostility. Arbitrary power produces mischievous will, and not only insulates every place and every person, but has prejudiced nation against nation, and keeps them strangers to render them foes. It is mutual ignorance which begets mutual fear, and to love, is only to know each other. It is time, when nations begin to know themselves, that they should know each other and repelled as they have hitherto been by causes merely personal, by the caprice of kings and their own credulity, into a state of nature which was barbarism ; let them, now, free themselves from the tyranny of prejudice, and commence a truer state of nature, which will be humanity . Let the law of nations which has hitherto been the martial code of contentious monarchs, be regulated by a republic of free kingdoms, and become the guarantee of general amity and peace. Let channels of our common ocean, be as they were destined to be, the veins and arteries which may circulate and communicate to every part of the great public, the means of life, and the nutriment of benignant nature.
Exposed as your island is, with three sides to the ocean, you have viewed Europe only through the fourth, and even through a deceiving medium. You have been intercepted from the sight of the world, and obliged to communicate with it by an interpreter. Your proximity to Britain has set you apart from the nations, and you now appear to us rising out of the sea, like a new discovered island. We have indeed long known and admired the valor of Irishmen, who have so often fought and bled at our side: who, in the course of a century, have fought thirty-six battles, which were thirty-six victories—but they never told us they had a country, and until the assertion of independence lately reached our ears, you were a cypher among nations of a certain relative value, iniquitously insignificant.
You have now asserted your independence, and we do believe you. We do believe that no man or body of men can exercise any authority, other than that which emanates expressly from the will of the nation. We cannot suppose that your assertion for national right, could have been made immaturely or improvidently, or that you could fall into the absurdity of independence without self-government, and free constitution without internal controul, on this account, therefore, we address you, emancipated from the disgrace of political subordination, and eager to improve your geographical position, the most inestimable in this quarter of the globe.—Let us know each other.
Our mutual prejudices have arisen not more from the selfishness of governors, and the accident of political station, than from the premature maxims of political writers, who are daily inscribing their principles upon the sand which the next tide of human affairs is about to wash away. "The French love their king, as free nations love their constitution; French are exclusively attached to the decoration of royalty; the French army is devoted to the maintenance of arbitrary power; the French religion is persecuting in its nature—the French are our natural enemies." It is not true. IT IS NOT TRUE, IRISHMEN! listen and we shall ourselves make ourselves known unto you. Away with those false interpreters, who have neither capacity of head, nor largeness of heart to look abroad into universality, who keep pacing after one another, round a circle of assertions, but never labour in progression, or advance, unassisted, to the discovery of useful truth. Shaking off the incumbency of local and professional prejudices, more suited to petty corporations, than to the corporation of free states, let us meet on the solid and eternal basis of honesty and honor, nor let us keep the crooked and circuitous road, because it was trodden by our forefathers.
There is an art of war to destroy the human race by men who have said, such is our pleasure. There is an art of philanthropy to restore and perfect the human race, when nations concur to say— such is OUR WILL . There is an art to keep mankind mi-
serable, and to make government itself a grievance; but there is an art to make us happy and to organize the commonwealth for the common-wealth. The problems in this sublime art are new; let no individual dare to lock up all vigour to attempt their solution, by barely crying, 'Tis impossible. Until great things are done, men wonder if they can be done, and when they are done, wonder they were not sooner done; but the heroic spirit of this age can distinguish between things extraordinary and things impossible, for hard is it to say, what is impossible to heads and hands.—Let us then know each other.
We know the danger of our present situation well. We know that in overturning despotic power, we are surrounded by a world filled with its worshippers. We know that when this gigantic image fell in France, the earth shook, and on that very moment, when we first announced the natural, unalienable, and inalienable rights of men, when we declared the preservation of those rights to be the end of political association, that the principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation, and that there is no superior to law, by which our king, now the king of freemen, must reign, and in virtue of which only he can exact obedience—on that memorable moment, we did not leave ourselves a single friend, from Russia down to Sardinia, in the cabinet of kings.
We have hewn down the feudal system, cut off its branches, shaken the leaves, scattered the fruit, and from the very moment, when we declared the law to be the expression of general will, that every citizen had the right of concurring to form that law, personally or by representation, and that under this law, every citizen was admissible to every public station without any distinction but what may arise from their virtues and their abilities, on that moment the aristocracies of the earth, from the circles of Germany, down to the most petty Italian state, have arrayed themselves against us.
We have declared that the state which has not sufficiently assured the rights of liberty, of property, of security, to all its citizens without exception, and of resistance to oppression, has NO CONSTITUTION; and from that moment, the jealousy of nations free by reputation, has arisen against us. Were we in want of an ally, where, in the wide world, should we send our manifesto, for the support of oppressed humanity? The exiles that left their country when freedom entered it, are planning our ruin: all those orders who have for so long a time regated and forestalled the rights of men are conspiring around us.—The mine of counter-revolution is working beneath our feet—all Europe, under different pretences, is arming against us.—HERE, even HERE, mixed, and mingled with us all—in the centre of this Assembly—the very heart of France, are men who take their seats as counsellors for the common-wealth, and yet rankle with venomous mischief in the inmost vitals of the constitution. We stand alone.—But when we look up to heaven, and around to France, we stand undismayed, feared and fearless, conscious of great danger, and confident, under God, of a happy deliverance—under GOD, in whose preference, by the authority of this great nation, we, and our little ones along with us, have stretched forth our hands, at the altar of our holy religion, and sworn perpetual fealty to the law, to the king, as the restorer of the law, and to each other in defence of that restoration—we have sworn to it.
And now, in the name of our beloved and immortal Henry, whose capacious heart first conceived, not a family compact, but the grand idea of confederated nations, we call upon Ireland, not for help, but in the cause and for the welfare of humanity. Let us no know each other. Let us awaken the world. Much have we been misrepresented; and by no nation more than one, whose ignorance in some things has always kept pace with her knowledge in others. We have been abused and insulted, by men who are accounted in their own land, liberal, learned, and wise. We were about to complain, but looking to that Cross, on which the Redeemer of our King, expiring in the midst of mockery and insult, we pity such contumely, and we sincerely forgive it. We recollect that if we had not at this moment met with such abuse, we should at this moment have been in a situation which really deserved it. We will therefore, of ourselves, declare to you what we WERE, what we ARE, and what we design TO BE: What was to be done, what has been done, and what remains to do. YOU, YOURSELVES, will compare—YOU will judge—and YOU will act as men are bound to act, who have asserted in the face of the world, that the choice of happiness or misery lies in their own hands.
Surrounded and guarded as we are by public opinion, elevated with a sense of the attributes of human nature, and a proud consciousness of having gained both the will and power to secure them, we are not ashamed in declaring to you and to the world, the shameful degradation which men have suffered in
a land enriched as this is, with the gifts of heaven and placed in the centre of the most civilized quarter of the globe. Alas! the misery of the human race has but too often increased, in proportion to the efforts which Nature makes to render them happy.
What then was France? We say was, on the credit of our oath to our nation, that though she may yet suffer, she shall not suffer long. France had a King, despotic when he chose to do mischief—but to promote the public welfare, powerless as a child. She had a ministerial power in place of an executive authority—a subdivided despotism, a government not managed, but undertaken—and a judicial set to farm—a state which could neither keep faith with others nor with itself—a treasury overflowing by exaction, or exhausted by prodigality—a private purse prostituted, without the sovereign's knowledge, for the vilest purposes, upon the vilest men—a clergy standing in place of the church, and a nobility for the nation—a war of orders against the order of society—a government interest, an aristocratic interest, a clerical interest, a landed interest, a mercantile interest—but the interest of the whole, the population of France, laid between the hammer and the anvil, and beaten with alternate strokes of rent, profit, tythe, and taxation.
The peasantry of France, and in them we see the mass of the people—a set of beings, with their females, their young, and their domestic animals, herding together in hovels that are open to the storm, and bare of all furniture—the window, a hole, and the door, a chimney—of the world knowing nothing of their country little more than the market where they sometimes go to barter one necessary of life for another—their daily bread, for something to cover rather than clothe them—their manners savage, their language jargon, barren in their expressions, because scanty in their ideas, and unintelligible even in their city—their bodies bent, their spirits broken, suffering with the tameness of castrated brutes, the repeated lash of feudal exactions, subjected they know not why, to man dressed in lace, who by a stroke of a pen, transfers into his pocket the half of that annual labour, which they had gathered with the sweat of their brow, and in the agony of their souls—congregating on certain days into a sort of barn, where they sit huddled together, at a ceremony which they cannot understand, listening to another man dressed in black, whom they must pay for not understanding—and sometimes abandoning their homes and their families, when they hear the rattle of a drum and engaging before another man dressed in scarlet, to get themselves killed, or to kill their fellow-citizens in a foreign land, for a quarter of what they gained by industry in their own. Such was the peasantry of France, and surely if the most precious gift which God presented to man, is the necessity of labour, the greatest curse of which he can suffer, is when labour itself becomes the means of aggravating misery.
The redemption of this country has taken rise from the very causes of public calamity—the extremity of national grievance, and the total corruption of a constitution to be reformed by regeneration. The evil lay too deep to be cured by any remedy less than a great convulsion. It happened. We LIVE, and, Oh! that every base and slavish nation, as we were, could know how cheaply liberty can be bought, and they would live also! We were then led to consider the political edifice, and not thinking ourselves in sufficient security, by merely keeping the ruins in repair, we began to build again from the very foundation. By doing so, we discovered the hollowness and instability of those artificial principles on which some nations so fondly rest. Political abuses must be overturned completely, and at once, or not at all—a slow and partial reform always ends where it begun, for if a single stump remain in the earth, there will spring fresh abuses. We have an axe, we have laid it to the root of evil, not to the branches. Political like moral reform must not merely be the sinful repentance of the sinner, that feels a few qualms of conscience—forces over a few redressing bills, and then returns to the brothel.
Now what has France done?
In the hour of distress, and in the midst of storms, we have laid the foundations of a constitution on which the great arch of national liberty may rest in stable tranquility. We have renovated the rights of men (for ages past unknown, or known only to be abused and insulted) by a declaration which will stand a sanctuary for mankind, an eternal declaration of war against their oppressors, and a law to legislators themselves.
The right of making laws, and of imposing taxes, we have restored to the nation, recognizing at the same time the genuine principles of our monarchy, by making the crown of our king hereditary, and his person inviolable.
In place of the States General, where the ancient privileges of artificial disorders, supercede national necessities, stifle the utterance of public will, and dictated discretionary law, we have gained a per-

manent periodic National Assembly, where hereditary honours, and fictitious distinctions are melted down, and assimilated under the comprehensive and endearing appellations of citizens. All orders give place to the social order. Every Frenchman is a citizen, and every citizen a Frenchman.
What citizens have created, it is their duty and their right to defend—Our National Guard that started at the strong and sonorous sound of Liberty, are now, with wakeful eye, and indefatigable spirit, superintending the private safety and the public good.
The means of happiness have been hitherto hoarded, and the enjoyment of them dealt out at the discretion of the few. We have therefore enfranchised our provinces, and have cleansed them from the vexatious and noisome reliques of feudalism, a system, which though dead, still spread contagion, and was to be banished from the habitations of men, like those cemeteries which contaminate the air, and diffuse putrefaction.
Arbitrary orders for imprisonment, which lay in wait for the liberties of citizens, as beasts of prey in their dens, have been annihilated, and we have laid, Fiat Justitia—Let justice be done to all. Our criminal code has already received a provisional reform, and we are busied about a more perfect one, in which juries shall never be superceded by judges, written by extemporaneous law, nor the summary jurisdiction of particular courts converted into an omnipotent and omnipresent instrument of ministerial vengeance.
We have not, like you, felt the panic of innovation, but by a radical reform of the elective bodies, and by a new division of this kingdom, we founded representation on property, population and contribution to the state, completely obliterating every remaining mark of those inhuman distinctions which had parcelled out the common weal into immunity, privilege and prerogative. We have substituted general welfare in place of provincial interest, restored the unity of the state, apportioned the rights of every man, and every division according to their relative value to the whole, and in short, by arranging the mighty mass into such organization that every part and particle live, move and have a being. We have solved a problem in a nation of twenty-five millions which your little island lately abandoned in despair. Our cantons, our communities, our districts, and our departments are all concentric circles, instinct with spirit, that gradually contract from the widest range, until at length the will and energy, the heads and hearts, and hands of twenty-four million four hundred thousand active citizens are collected and condensed into one focus of legislation. How small a part of your small island is that part which lives! how much is dead and rotten!
All power which does not emanate from and is not accountable to the people must be usurpation. We have marked the sagacious nature of ministerial power. We have not suffered the authority of the king to be plundered by his own servants under the shadow of prerogative, but pursued them through all their evasions, brought them into light, and tired them down by rigid responsibility. —No Minister can sit and influence this Assembly.
The necessity of the state does not form the sole rule for taxation. We will not to eviscerate the poor, or to extort from the hovel in order to pamper the pensioner and feed rapacious prodigality, but have endeavoured to lighten the burthen which it is necessary to bear, and to distribute it with equality, with wisdom and with mercy.
We have curtailed the enormity of our pension-list, subjected it to the broad eye of the public, and converted it into a fund for discharging the obligations of the nation to men who have dedicated their time, their fortunes and their health to the public, and for its good have lost their all.
We have, in the name of the nation (the great and only Lord of the soil) reclaimed tythes, and territorial possessions of the clergy—a profession existing by the nation for national functions and services—a property beneficiary in its nature, and entrusted on the condition of allotting a chief portion to the necessities of the poor and the instruction of youth, while at the same time we have reserved an adequate provision for the culture of religion; the maintenance of its ministers, and the liquidation of their debts. The use only of the estate was in them, and in revoking this property as we have done, for the permanence of public faith and the redemption of France, we have not encroached on the rights of persons which are antecedent to law, but only resumed the donation of the state to an order , which depends for its existence on the public will, and for the mode of that existence must conform to the public welfare—an order which is now placed on a similar stipendiary footing with other servants of the public, with ministers, with judges, and with kings.
Finally, we have regulated the finances, by balancing the revenues of the state with its expenditure, assisted in the work by a minister, whose policy, founded on virtue and religion, has gained the confidence of France, and whose only misfortune was a want of power to push good principles as far as we have been enabled to do, by the unexampled sacrifices of a magnanimous public.
Such was France, as we received it from our fathers, and such the improved heritage, we leave to our children. We now look upon our offspring with redoubled, with unutterable delight. We feel their hearts: they beat with joy and hope. We mark the enthusiasm that sparkles in their eyes, and how longingly they look out for that day when they are
to take the oath, which makes them men—Frenchmen, and fellow-citizens.
We are now to give France a military system, in which the soldier and the citizen, the martial and civic virtues shall be united, which the army (in other countries the engine of despotism) shall have become the Armée de Liberty , and in which the soldier, frequently returning into the community, shall still preserve a home, and all the association connected with that idea: No; he shall not grow a stranger in his native land, and an eventual enemy to the liberties of his country. We desire not the glory of distressing other countries, but only to secure and guard the greatest quantity of happiness in our own.
We are to give this country a system of finance, which will pay equal respect to agriculture, industry, and freedom of trade: a clear, a simple system, easily understood by those who pay, easily levied by those who collect, a system which will make the appropriation of its revenues notorious to the whole nation, and direct the eyes of every Frenchman to the bottom of that deep, dark, voracious gulph, which has swallowed up the resources of the kingdom.
We are to give France an ecclesiastical system, allied to the state only, by the bond of public utility, in which the clergy, no longer the church itself, but only the pastors belonging to it, no longer a superb order, but an useful class of citizens, a model to the poor and to the rich, by being neither rich nor poor, shall regain the heart of the nation, and promote, instead of retarding, the spread of Christianity. Placed in this happy mediocrity, they will no longer be subjected to being pitied, for they will no longer be subjected to the aspersions of envy; nor yet to the humiliation of being pitied, for they will no longer afford the sad spectacle of opulence sinking into inaction, and labour without reward.
We are to give France a system of criminal and Penal Law, which, dictated by reason, by justice, and by mercy, will, even, in the person of the criminal, have respect to the nature of man, and to the sanctions of morality.
We are to give France a system of Municipal law, in which justice will be administered gratuitously, judges will be elected by popular suffrages, and order and coherence be given to an obscure, complicated, and contradictory code, or rather chaos, without form and void, where the most upright judge must wander misled by his will, his error or his ignorance. Willing also to confine domestic dissensions within the walls where they originated, to make every man's home sacred and hallowed, we are about to frame a tribunal of kindred and of blood, which will retain families in the bond of affection and peace.
We are to terminate our labours, by giving France a system of public instruction and national education, which may place the Constitution under the guardianship of succeeding generations, and diffuse knowledge, the nurse of virtue, through all ranks of the representative body, down to the mass of the people—a people now labouring under a state of mental mutilation, but about to become instructed and intelligent; decent and orderly; respectful and respected: a combination of intellectual, social and martial virtues.
UNITED STATES.
BOSTON, April 16.
Speculation is at a dead stand, since the interest of the debt of the United States has commenced paying at the several LOAN OFFICES. Of course real estates and lands will rise in value; money will be more plenty—Enterprise will be encouraged—industry will be rewarded—and Manufactures, Commerce, and Agriculture promoted. These being sure and certain, one might ask, without the charge of exultation, "WHAT THINK YE OF THE CONGRESS NOW?"
It is charged upon the American character as a gross absurdity and contradiction that when the most powerful nation of Europe threatened them with slavery—the great Arbiter of the Universe, appeared on their side, fought their battles, and finally crowned their struggle with triumph: Yet this same people as soon as they were in possession of this fair inheritance, immediately began to cross the ocean to make slaves of their fellow men. I wish, for the honor of my country and the revolution, that this charge were unjust—but it is too true and too well known, to be denied.
There is now lying at the Long wharf, a brig belonging to Rhode-Island, going upon a professed voyage to the coast of Guinea for slaves.
Whether our Federal or State Laws extend the punishment of this enormity I know not—but I think it ought to be—"It is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges."—But I can only blush for my countrymen, and express a feeble wish that we may learn to practice that righteousness which exalteth a nation, and if we are not afraid, we may at least be ashamed of a practice that is a reproach to any people, and above all to AMERICANS.
Can we ever expect to be delivered from the scourge of the Algerines , till we have justice and benevolence enough to think other people's rights and liberties as sacred as our own.
The English newspapers furnish us with a very indifferent statement of the politics of the European world—amidst the great variety of accounts of the same transaction, it would puzzle an Oedipus, on
this side the Atlantic to find out the truth. The situation of France, in one set of prints, is represented as deplorable and ruinous—In another set as prosperous and auspicious—In some papers the conduct of the Empress, is like to occasion the formation of an alliance against her, which must shake her empire to the centre:—In others, she, like a mighty Colossus, is to set one foot upon the walls of Constantinople—whilst the other rests in Peterburgh. To the Emperor of Germany, some give the design of marching a mighty army, to avenge the injuries done her sister in France—while others, filling him the peaceable and fortunate Leopold, declare he will not meddle with the French affairs; that he hates his sister, and has forbid the Count de Artois, her brother-in-law, and favourite, admittance into his Capital.
On the credit of the Leyden Gazette, printed by M. Luzac, and reputed to be the most correct paper for political intelligence, published in Europe, we can assure the public, that the many accounts of Plots, Stratagems and Conspiracies, in France, are wholly unfounded—and that as great a degree of tranquility exists in that extensive republic, as hath, at any period, these 50 years.
NEW-HAVEN, April 20.
Mr. Francis, in the British House of Commons, estimates the expences of the war in India, at four millions sterling! Amongst the principal items were the Mahatta horse £30,000. the 40,000 bullocks to attend the army, 400,000. &c. This expence, he observed, might easily have been avoided, as Tippoo had offered, in the first instance to disavow any intention of hostilities, and in their late contest with Spain, they had received no more; nor did Tippoo renew his assault but in consequence of an attack from the people of Travancore.
CHARLESTON, (S. C.) April 3.
On Wednesday last, a duel was fought between Mr. INGLIS and Mr. WILLIAM ALLEN DEAS, in which a ball entered the right side of Mr. INGLIS, and was extracted from his left; but, unhappy catastrophe! the unfortunate Mr. INGLIS expired on Thursday, amidst the piercing affliction of his three amiable daughters, who, with an only brother, now in Europe, are left to lament the sudden loss of an affectionate and only parent. The Coroner's inquest was held, and the jury gave a verdict to this purport: That he was killed by a shot from a pistol in the hand of WILLIAM ALLEN DEAS.
ELIZABETH-TOWN, (New-Jersey) April 20.
There are four companies of levies raising in this state for the Western expedition, which we are told, are nearly completed. Of our success against the tawny aborigines, many speak with certainty; our hearty wishes attend them; but when we recal to memory the fate of a Braddock, a Wyllis, &c. we feel cautious in anticipating victory.
NEW-YORK, April 16.
Accounts from Gravesend, and other parts of Long Island, in the vicinity of the Narrows, mention very considerable success in the shad fishery at those places. Thursday last a seine belonging to one of the inhabitants caught eight thousand at one haul, and other nets in which he was part owner, seven thousand more the same day to his share.—It is said that these draughts of shad are worth upwards of 200l.
Nothing shews the credulity peculiar to a certain European nation, in a more striking light, than the impostitious this moment practising upon them in London by the six Cherokee Indians, with Mr. BOWLES, an adopted Indian at their head. These people (if one may judge from the tenor of the European accounts) have had the address to persuade the Londoners that they are ready upon their return, to fall upon the Spanish settlements in Louisiana with ten thousand warriors, and take possession of the country, if required.
PHILADELPHIA, April 27.
The Ship Canton, Capt. Truxton, is arrived safe in our river from Calcutta, in Bengal, which place she left the beginning of December.
Captain Truxton informs, that much blood had been shed in different engagements between Tippoo and the British General Meadows—and that Lord Cornwallis was preparing to take the field and command in person.
Extract of a letter from Charleston, April 8.
"Already are we beginning to make preparations for the reception of the President of the United States. A man of whom we have heard to much, but few of us have had an opportunity to behold. Our only fear is that the wretched and ruinous state of most of the bridges, &c. from Virginia southward, will greatly impede his journey;—possibly be productive of some disagreeable accidents."
European accounts, received in various directions, concur in a general approbation of the measures adopted by the government of the United States, for the establishment of peace and promoting prosperity at home, as well as to support their character and respectability abroad, more particularly in regard to its public credit and finances—and no law that has been enacted is more likely to conciliate the respect of Foreigners than that for the establishment of the bank of the United States. The essentials of this Law are contained in the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which appeared early in the session; it soon found its way across the Atlantic—and strange as some folks may think the circumstance to be, the article which excludes foreigners from voting in the direction of the bank, is one of

those which receives the fullest approbation among the most intelligent characters, the other side of the water.
A letter from London, to the Editor of the General Advertiser in this city, says—The National Assembly have equipped two vessels to go in quest of M. de la Peyrouse.
When I left Madrid a trial for a libel was prosecuting against 4 Italians and 3 Spaniards, all men of family—they were accused of writing against the Queen, and the minister of finance—Not Florida Blanca, he is minister of State—and a man who deserves to be, and is beloved.
It was talked of at Madrid, that Mr. Cabarrus would be set at liberty—This worthy gentleman was accused of causing to be bought at Paris, to the amount of eight millions in the French funds, and the King had been made to believe there would be a loss of twenty-five per cent. But since a private banker of Madrid has contracted for the purchase of those funds the disagreeable impression on the character of Mr. Cabarrus, is done away.
In Italy every thing is quiet—in Spain it is a crime to speak of the French revolution—Italy is still too fond of the fine arts, to allow them time to turn their attention to politics. For my part, I wish that every nation may enjoy that liberty, the sweets of which you Americans have so well deserved and which you now enjoy in full perfection.
Extract of a letter from Charleston, S. C. April 7.
“We are making great preparations for the reception of the President of the United States. There is to be a ball on the night of his arrival—What think you of 1000. for the rent of a house six or eight days? Sixty pounds was the lowest it could be obtained for—however, I tell them it is wrong to engage one—as the President will not deviate from his rule, which is not to take private lodgings.”
No. 6052 has drawn 10000 dollars in the Massachusetts Lottery—bought by a country Farmer.
April 30. We have authentic information that a loan for two millions and a half of florins, which was opened at Amsterdam, on the 15th of Feb. last, on account of the United States, upon terms better than any European power, except the Emperor, now borrows in Holland, and upon equal terms with the Emperor, was subscribed, or filled in two hours*. And it must afford pleasing reflections to every good American to know, that this success is attributed essentially to the high confidence inspired by the new constitution of the United States, and its present administration.
* A rapidity which is said to have been hitherto without example, with regard to loans for foreign powers in that country.
We have the satisfaction to assure the public, that the recruiting service proceeds with vigor—already upwards of five hundred men are on their march for Fort-Pitt, from the respective rendezvous in this State, Jersey and Delaware.
Lieut. Platt marched from Christiana-bridge on the 27th, with a fine company, enlisted for three years.
Capt. Armstrong marched from this city on the 27th, with a chosen company, enlisted for the same period.
On the same day Capt. Snowden marched with a detachment of one hundred levies from Trenton.
And about two hundred and fifty were ordered to march yesterday from Carlisle, in this State.
Besides which, a company under the command of Capt. Montfort, enlisted for three years, are on their march from North-Carolina to the Great Kenhawa, by which they will descend to Fort-Washington.
The recruits from the Eastern States will rendezvous at New-Brunswick, in New-Jersey, and thence march to Fort-Pitt.
Extract of a letter from Amsterdam, to a gentleman in this city, dated January 16, 1791.
“Samples of the Sugar of the maple tree refined at New-York, have been sent to several houses here—one of them has conceived such hopes from them, that they intend to send refiners there, and endeavour to introduce this article into the commerce between this place and the United States. I suppose, however, that it will be some time before enough is made for our consumption, and that until then it cannot become an article of exportation.”
Translated for the Independent Gazetteer.
CAPE-FRANCOIS, March 26.
The sentence against Oje and Chavanne, who were lately executed at Cape-Francois for the crime of offering the rights of human nature, is in these words—“That they shall be taken to the place of execution, and there have their arms, legs, thighs and reins broken alive on a scaffold, to be erected for that purpose, and afterwards, to be put upon a wheel by the executioner, there to remain so long as God shall think proper to preserve their lives, and when dead, their heads to be cut off, and fixed on posts in the high ways, &c. &c.”
Such was the punishment of those two unfortunate men—the others were treated with more mildness—a great number were hanged, the others were only whipped and branded, and the rest were banished from the island.
BALTIMORE, May 3.
There are some calamities, in their nature peculiarly distressing, as not only to involve individuals and particular families in the deepest affliction, but to extend their baleful influence through the various classes of a whole community.—Amongst these, the untimely fate of the much lamented Mr.
DAVID STERETT, of this town, merchant, may be justly numbered, who, impelled by the ardour of youth, and a false, alas! too fatal, sense of honour, on Friday morning last, in consequence of a dispute the preceding day, met Mr. THOMAS HADFIELD, in a duel.—Scarce had the respective seconds measured the distance, when the winged messenger of death flew swift to execution, and by the first fire of his antagonist, Mr. STERETT fell a lifeless corse upon the sanguinary field, aged 26 years.—In one instant, that heart, which so lately glowed with filial piety, fraternal affection, and heaven-born Philanthropy, ceased to vibrate, and every vital function was extinct.
Could the advocates for duelling but witness the heart-rending scene attendant on this sad catastrophe—could they behold the bitter drops of anguish which bedew the venerable cheeks of his tender and respectable parents, in being thus suddenly bereaved of an amiable and promising son, “who never gave them pain, but when he died”—could they conceive (what no language can express) the agonizing pangs that wring the bosom of fraternal affection, and the sympathizing sadness which pervades every feeling heart, on this melancholy occasion, they would forever discard an opinion so erroneous, and reprobate a practice so destructive to the peace and happiness of mankind.—By an adherence to this mistaken idea, the community is now deprived of one of its brightest ornaments, Mr. STERETT being a young gentleman from whose abilities his friends and countrymen drew the most flattering presages of future eminence.—Though born in affluence, he forgot not the children of adversity, and endeared himself to all by the gentleness of his manners, and the engaging sweetness of his disposition—but the arduous tribute of unaffected encomium paid to his memory by every class of his fellow-citizens, forms the truest criterion to judge of his merit, and is the best Eulogium on his virtues.
On Saturday his remains were consigned to the silent tomb, attended by an uncommonly numerous train of weeping relatives and sympathizing friends, when an exhortation, elegantly pathetic, was delivered by the Reverend Dr. ALLISON.—The next day a sermon, adapted to the mournful occasion, was preached by the same gentleman, at the Presbyterian church, to an attentive audience, composed of citizens of all denominations, from the following words:
“My soul is weary of my life: I will leave my complaint upon myself: I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.”
Job, Chap. x. V. 1.
On the 12th of March last, 4 ships of the line and 16 frigates and sloops of War, arrived at Martinico, from France, with 10 regiments on board. This force, it is thought, will be sufficient to quiet the disturbances at St. Pierre and Port-Royal.
GEORGE-TOWN, April 30.
Yesterday morning, about one or two o'clock, the ship Termagant, belonging to the house of Messrs. CLAEGET, lying in the stream opposite to this town, was discovered on fire. The inhabitants of the town and the seamen in the harbour speedily collected, but on account of a quantity of powder that was on board, the efforts that would otherwise have been exerted to extinguish the flames were withheld. The fire soon communicated itself to the powder, and the explosion was so severe as sensibly to shake most of the houses in the town. The cinders and pieces of the ship were flying in every direction—and it was with the greatest difficulty that the counting, store, and dwelling houses, on the water side, were prevented from sharing a similar fate with the ship—The extensive tobacco warehouse, the property of Messrs. FRANCIS and CHARLES LOUNDEZ, situated at some distance from the water, wherein upwards of 1000 hogheads of tobacco were stored, was several times, in different places on fire, but happily extinguished without sustaining much damage. The loss, occasioned by this alarming element, must be great indeed as the ship was large and nearly new; besides, there were goods to a considerable amount, and a pretty large sum of money on board of her—all of which (excepting a part of the money, which has since been found) was destroyed. We are informed that this accident proceeded from the steward's falling asleep, and leaving a candle burning in the cabin, which by some means or other, set fire to the sails that were stowed there. It had got far advanced before it was discovered. Providentially no lives were lost.
Accounts from Fort-Pitt, state, that the purchasing Commissary for the army, is now laying in large magazines of provision and forage, in the neighbourhood of Fort-Pitt, and that every thing is getting ready for the campaign intended against the Indians the ensuing summer.
FREDERICK-TOWN, April 26.
On Monday last passed through this town on his way to the eastward, from Kentucky, Mr. James Talbot, who informs, that on Sunday the 20th ult. an amiable and respectable family, named Harris, consisting of nine persons, among whom was a young lady, 19 years of age, were murdered on the west side of the Allegheny river, by a party of Indians. Our informant further says, that the scenes of cruelty which took place in the massacre of these unfortunate persons, were of so horrid a nature, as to draw forth the tear of pity and compassion from a number of persons who came some distance to examine and view the mangled remains of a family respected and beloved by all who had the pleasure of their acquaintance.
SHEPHERD'S-TOWN, May 10.
We are informed, that the army destined to act with vigor and decision against the Western barbarians, will be composed of 4000 troops, to be commanded by General ST. CLAIR. In addition to this formidable body, it is expected that several thousand volunteers will co-operate with them from Kentucky, and the western parts of Pennsylvania. The celebrated partizan, Col. LEE, is to join the army with picked corps of dragoons from this state.
The troops are now raising with the utmost expedition, and will march as soon as the different companies are completed.
Tuesday last the company of levies raised in this County, under the command of Capt. VAN SWEARINGEN, marched from Martinsburg, to join the general rendezvous at Winchester.
We find by the southern papers, that the PRESIDENT, on his journey, is still perfumed with the incense of addresses. However highly we may consider the character of the Chief Magistrate of the Union, yet we cannot but think the fashionable mode of expressing our attachment to the defender of the Liberty of his country, favors too much of Monarchy to be used by Republicans, or to be received with pleasure by a President of a Commonwealth.
The separation of the district of Maine from the state of Massachusetts, in order to forming it into a separate government, is a subject that employs the pens of the pros and cons in the Portland papers. At a late Town meeting in Portland, a committee was appointed to take this business into consideration, and report at the annual meeting in May.
By the state of the votes in Massachusetts, as published in the several papers, it appears that his Excellency Governor Hancock, and his Honor Lieutenant Governor Adams, are re-elected to fill those stations the ensuing year.
S O N N E T,
Written after hearing a SONG sung by several SISTERS.
HARK!—hear'st thou not the sweetly swelling strain Of warbled music float along the air? Soft are the sounds,—the Sifter band how fair! How high flies rapture when it springs from Parnassus!
So round the lyre the heavenly Muses stand, And charm the changing soul with varied joy; So Ella's lays the feeling heart command, And faintly lide Apollo in the boy.
Hail charming group! for you shall Fancy rise, To you young Love his earliest homage pay; And while our souls are softened slavery's frays, Your Minds preserve the conquests of your Eyes; Till ripe you fall, as Heaven and Fame approve, From Beauty's branch, into the lap of Love. HENRY.
SPRING GOODS.
TO BE SOLD, At the Subscriber's STORE, formerly occupied by Mr. JOHN MARK, A fresh and general Assortment of
MERCHANDIZE,
Suitable for the Season, Which will be sold as cheap as any in this Town, or its Vicinity, for Cash, Country Produce, or Public Securities.
ROGER COLTART.
SHEPHERD'S-TOWN, MAY 4, 1791.
††† This Paper, No. 26, compleats six months since its first publication: The Printer begs leave to remind such of his subscribers as did not pay one half the subscription money at the time of entrance, that they were to pay two dollars, exclusive of postage, at the expiration of half the year; he therefore requests those who are in arrears, to comply with this very necessary part of the contract, as punctuality alone in the payment of the subscription, will enable him to continue the publication of a weekly newspaper in this town.

SEAT OF THE MUSES.
SONG IN THE WOODMAN.
D O L L Y.
THERE'S a something in kissing, I cannot tell why, Makes my heart in a tumult jump more than breast high; For nine times in ten, So teasing, And pleasing, We find those rude creatures—the dear kissing men, That we wish it repeated again and again!
Though a kiss stop my breath, oh! how little care I, Since a woman at sometime or other must die! For nine times in ten, So teasing, And pleasing, We find those rude creatures—the dear kissing men, That we wish it repeated again and again!
SHEPHERD'S-TOWN, MAY 2, 1791. The Public will be pleased to take N O T I C E, That at the lower end of the MAIN, otherwise GERMAN-STREET in this Town, In Mr. JACOB STALEY'S new Brick House, Nearly opposite Col. MORROW'S Store, Is just opening by the Subscriber, FOR CASH ONLY,
A new cheap Store, Consisting of a great variety of FRESH GOODS, Suitable for the Season,
And which he really intends to sell remarkably cheap, but being young in the business, it would ill become him to boast of what he will do, yet he humbly hopes that if the good people who trade to this Town, will be so obliging as to call upon him, they will be perfectly satisfied with the prices of his goods, as well as with that attention which it will be his duty and interest to pay to all his Customers.
He begs to be excused, if in order to avoid giving offence hereafter to any person, he now publicly declares, that it is totally out of his power to give the smallest credit, but to give cheap bargains for ready money, will be a pleasure to The Public's most obedient, Humble servant, ZEBULON WARNER.
TO BE EXCHANGED, A new and completely-finished W A G G O N, F O R A Good Saddle Horse,
Not more than 5 or 6 years old. There are two spare Wheels to the Waggon, which renders it convenient for plantation work. A set of new gears will be furnished, if wanted. Apply to Courad Sheets, of Sharpsburg, or the Printer hereof.
An English School wanted, BY the Subscriber, who has had fourteen years experience.—Further particulars may be known by applying to the Printer hereof. W. R. H O W E.
May 2, 1791. BLANK DEEDS, COMMON BONDS, &c. for sale at this office.
Joseph M c Murran, IS NOW OPENING, A large ASSORTMENT of G O O D S, Suitable for the present and approaching Season.
HE is conscious the PURCHASES he has made, will enable him to give general satisfaction. WHEAT, RYE, CORN, &c. will be taken in payment, at the Market price. He returns his thanks to his Customers, and hopes that his low prices will add a number of his fellow Citizens to his acquaintance. It is needless to enumerate the Assortment, as he is assured he can please in QUANTITY, QUALITY, and PRICE. Shepherd's-Town, May 2, 1791.
John Shearer, From the City of Edinburg, North-Britain, WITH regard and esteem gratefully acknowledges the goodness of his Employers in the CABINET and JOINER Business, which he now carries on in all their several branches, in the neatest manner, and upon any plan made known to him, in short time, and with exactness. Application for any article in his line of business, will be fulfilled, at his shop in MARTINSBURG, nearly opposite Mr. William Skinner's Tavern, at the sign of the Ship. JOHN SHEARER. April 25, 1791.
POST-OFFICE, WINCHESTER, March 22, 1791. THE POST, established by law, will start from the Post-Office, in Winchester, on the 2d of May next, properly equipped, with postman-teau for the Mail, and saddle-bags for parcels, &c. The route will be through Battletown, over Key's Ferry, through Leesburg to Alexandria, once in each week, to arrive in Winchester every Saturday. The utmost punctuality being necessary, it is desired that letters may be left in due time, otherwise they must unavoidably be detained until the next post day. As the conveyance of a Mail is attended with considerable expence; it is hoped the good people of Winchester and others, will encourage this useful undertaking, by subscribing to the arriage of new papers, which shall be punctually delivered, and with such dispatch as to render the present Post by much the most eligible of any that has hitherto travelled from this quarter. DANIEL NORTON, Post-Master. In consequence of the above regulation, a Post-Rider will be dispatched every Friday Morning, from the Printing-Office in this town, to meet the Alexandria Post at Key's Ferry, on his return to Winchester.—Letters, &c. to be forwarded by this conveyance, left with the Subscriber, will be attended to with care and punctuality. The Post from this place to Winchester, via Martinsburg, which conveys the Mail to and from Baltimore, Frederick-Town, &c. will still be continued. N. WILLIS. Shepherd's-Town, April 19, 1791.
FOR SALE, A VALUABLE Negro Woman, Aged about 35 years. She has two healthy fine Children, a boy and a girl, and is pregnant with a third. She is strong and healthy, and has been for many years a cook in a genteel family, remarkable for keeping a good table. She has not been long my property, but I can safely recommend her as a good cook. She is sold for no other reason, but that of my being previously supplied with a cook. I will give six months credit for half her price. PHILIP PENDLETON. March 28, 1791.
FOR SALE, A QUANTITY OF HEMP SEED, Of the best Quality —ALSO, F L A X S E E D, Which will be sold on the most reasonable Terms, at my Store in BERKELEY COUNTY, at the late General LEE'S Plantation. JOSEPH MINGHINI. APRIL 11, 1791.
LE SKARD, A BRIGHT SORREL,
SIXTEEN hands and one inch high, full blooded, will stand at my Plantation this season, one mile from Winchester, where he will cover Mares at Four Dollars the season, to be paid the first of October next. Nine shillings the single leap, paid down. ROBERT WOOD. March 15, 1791.
LE SKARD'S PEDIGREE. His great grand-dam was imported by Mr. Booth, of Gloucester county; his grand-dam was got by Jolley Roger; his dam was got by the Secretary's colt, Louisdale; and his sire was the famous running horse Yorick, the property of the late honorable John Taloe. HENRY YOUNG.
Edward S. Deegin, Begs leave to inform his friends and customers, that he carries on the Scythe-Factory,
As usual, and is now preparing a large quantity for the ensuing harvest, which may be had at his shop, The sign of the Scythe and Cutting-knife, in Milltown, commonly known by the name of Isaac Perkins's Mill, one mile south-west of the borough of Winchester, on the great road leading to Stephensburg, &c. With a view to accommodate his old customers, his scythes may be had at GAMUEL and JOHN DOWDALL'S old Store near the Bridge, and at HOLLIDAY and DOUGLAS'S Store, the large stone house, nearly opposite the Golden Fleece, in the Main-street, WINCHESTER, wholesale or retail. Gentlemen farmers from the country, who, with to be accommodated with cradle scythes, may have them made to any length by leaving the dimensions at either of the above Stores, and the utmost punctuality and dispatch may be relied on. Country Store-Keepers may be supplied at the above Stores. He wants an Apprentice of good character, to learn the different branches of making grals, briar and cradle scythes, and cutting knives; as also a Journeyman Blacksmith, to whom good encouragement and constant employ will be given, and he will be instructed in the scythe-making business, &c. gratis—A single man would be preferred. Mill-Town, April 7, 1791.
TAKEN up by the Subscriber, yesterday morning, a bright bay HORSE, about 4 years old, 14 hands high, a star in his forehead, no brand, or ear-mark, some saddle spots. The Owner is desired to come and prove his property, pay charges, and take him away. JOHN BROWN. Shepherd's-Town, April 26, 1791.
The beautiful and well-bred Horse YOUNG SNAP,
WILL cover this Season, at the stable of the subscriber, on the road leading from SHEPHERD'S TOWN to MARTINSBURG, at the low and moderate price of Twenty-five Shillings, Pennsylvania Currency, the Season, if paid by the first of September next; if not, Four Dollars will be required. Any kind of grain will be taken, at the cash price. Young Snap is a handsome brown, full sixteen hands high, rising six years old, well proportioned, and moves equal to any Horse in the State. He was got by the noted full-bred Horse OLD SNAP, the property of General Heard; his Dam was got by the noted well-bred Horse LOFTY, and will recommend himself to good judges, without giving a long history of his pedigree. JACOB VAN DOREN. Berkely County, April 1, 1791.
Wanted to purchase, a low-priced SADDLE HORSE. Inquire of the Printer.
*** Cash given for clean Linen or Cotton Rags, at this Office.