Alexandria advertiser and commercial intelligencer. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1800-1803, 1802-08-13
's'. .al.Hs&W'ss'
M. TbomtIon,

Oh TIC OluSfCIS SiditS IN sr
throughout the United States, were frong
advocates for the election of MIR. J~efeIion
to the Presidency, and have been warm
Importers of his adminiaration ; having
lived very happily mytelf under the Old
Federal fy TEN of things and obferving ali
the mechanics in the little inlanitown, IN
which l re6de, who were fober and IN.
duarious, were getting beforehand as we'll
as myfelf, I could not help wondering
what could have been the caute OF this
ftrong defire in my fellow-tradeinen 10
with los the election of Mr.. Jeferton IN
preference 70 Nj. Adams or Gen. Pinck.
ney, two faithful old friends to their coun-
try in the days Of trial, always fand!ng
firm to their potts, as the folders iay,
while he was hiding himfeIf. Feeling
very much furprized at this conduct
which I could not pofibly account tor on
any Reasonable ground, l enqnired among
fome ofmy neighbors, whom ! found were
arongly for Mr.. Jeferfon,i what it was
the people complained Of. One of them,
a cordwainer by trade, who fpoke for the
ref, anfwered that they wi(hed tor a
change. / aked flor this was a little
while before the Taft election for Prelident)
what they complained of. Not giving
me an aniwer to rhis q~uefion, l afkedhim
ifhe or any OF them knew of any poor me-
chanic or other, any where from New.
t4ampfhire TO Georgia, who was oppreaed
by the, Federal adminifra,ion No, ne
-iaid he did not. l then aked, if he knew
any poor mar in the country who was hea-
Willy burdened with any tax to the go
vernnent . he anfwered he did not. !
told him / underRood the taxes were &C.
nerally upon the rich. That no poor
man rode in a carriage-none of the poor
made uCe of loaf frsar in their families,
unlefs I'M tine of Hhckncfs-none of them
that / knew of u(ed famps and If any
poor man kept a till, on which he paid a
tax in the 6rft inRance, / had been well
informed b. Rill cleared more profit on the
lale of his liquor than he bad done before
the tax was laid. Talking with a diRil-
Ter, not a poor man though, who COM
planned of the duty on liquor -difilled
from fruit, l got him to acknowledge that
he made thirteen pence a gallon profit,
after paying the duty, more than he had
done before the tax was laid, owing to the
heavy duty laid on foreign fpifits; for
before the tax was laid he could get but
Is a gallon for his brandy, and that then
after paying the duty, which was no more
than sd, be fold it for at leaR 40. To
; al this no anfwer was made, only that
they thought a change would be for the
better. Now l thought and fill think,
for l fee as yet no alteration for the bet
ter, that unlefs fome good reafon could be
given for the ~proPofed change, fuch as real
oppreGions on the mechanics or any of the
poor, that we had better flick to the old
plan under which we were doing as we'll
as honef, induRrious men nee,l to with
and | was confirmed the more in this no.
,ion on farming round ana litening to a
couple of mechanics not far off, Zone a
worker Of metal the other Of lea,her) who
were difputing on the fubjee: One Of
them ~feemingly very earnet in favor of
the eleetio9of Mr. Jeffetfon, was Glenced
quickly on the other telling him Jefferfon
fays all our manufacturing hops ought
to be in Europe" Upon enqu;ring into
she meaning of this, / found that Mr..
Je4erfon had faid 70 in his book, in which
I an informed by the bsf authority he
appears TO be not a friend to the mocha
mics of his own country, where he diff.
courases manufacturing. l am therefore
utterly a, a lois, Mr.. Thomptoh, to know
The reafon why my fellow mechanics
hould be 70 much attached 10 him, or to
,hofe among US who are daily inging his
pEailes: For after ali the fufs about (av.
iSst to The szoxsb sflhabor, it feems pretty
clear to me that he has already waited
more Of the public money in tx months, in
repairing the French hip, and tending the
man they call Beau ,Dlwfon, to France
with the treaty at a Watt unuecefary ex-
pence, than the other preGaents had fpent
in twelve years. Befaes all this, ! ind
that the favines are all to the rich and |