Alexandria daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1803-1808, 1804-05-08
/ rr::2af, 2roag Public Economies.

WIEN the Observation-Disclosures Of go-
vernasens, and the weakness and injustice
Of executive officers, fall on the great mass
ola con3munity, the evil though more ex-
rensive is less discernable. The wrong
Of each individual is lost in those Of the
croud, who suffer along with him: The
complaints OF Que man Tor grievance that
is the lot Of all, neither excites sympathy
nor aitra1;5 notice He is looked upon by
the world as contumacious, cowardly, or
querulous who finches from the torture
which many fellow sufferers are enduring
along with him; and we risk nothing in
saving that thesingle criminal who is drag
gsdln solitary horror to the place of exc
,tion, receives more pity from the mulsi-
divided among the hundreds WHO fell of
morning under the bloody blade of Robes
piere's guillotine at Paris, the multitude
with whose mangled carcasses the Culve-
rims of Collot De Herbois spread the great
square of Lyons, the ship loads of lnno-
cent victims which Carriere deliberately
sent to the bottom al Nantes. Though
the euantum Of suffering OF each individu-
al is eqsaI, aud therefore the mass 0. mise
~ proportioned to the number, the sympa-
thy of those who contemplate them is di-
vided in the one case, whereas is concen-
trated into o4e focus, and it is therefore
more intense in the other.
# this holds good in such cases as those
10 which we allude, it is still stronger in
those pecuniary wrongs which come under
the head of legislative taxation, executive
extraction, or Official fraud, al otwhich are
alike private piIlage, whatever name may
be conferred upon shem, or in whate-
yer country or by whomsoever committed,
whether exacted under the name of sub
sidy by the human-shambles master Of
Hesse or Prussia The forced loan of Ro-
bespi.re and Bouaparte; the Bank Stock
shuttle sale OF Mr.. Gallatin, or the como
MES Of the presidential Cabinet. Of the
tag, the pii.age, or the undue exaction
which ali bear in due proportions to their
means, noae are conceived to have right
to complain: But that which bears upon
solitary individual Is held to be grievance
Of peculiar severity and injustice. The
hand which swept with equal rapacity from
a whole nation, and broke into the private
recesses Of houses to levy taxes, was en-
dured for centuries, but tax gatherer
searching one woman too closely threw
that nation into a convulson which had
nigh ended in the overthrow of its govern
ment. In fact this is consonant to the die
tates of sound sense and to every feeling
of honor and honesty. No individual has
right tie sacrifice himself or his property
toa country while the rest areleit untouch-
ed. This is atruth SO universally acknow-
lodged, and acted upon, chat there are but
few instances found in history of men cor
rupt or hardy enough to violate 1t. The
first that was ever attempted in free 60
vernment is the fruitless attempt of our pre-
sent administration to force from Mr..
Hartshorne, of New York, his property,
without compensation, for the purposes Of
erecting lighthouse, which has been re-
corded in some of the northern prints,
which we gavein Tuesdays Courier, taken
ia detail from the 1e1v 2ork Evening Post,
which we will endesvor to ring in the ears
of every individual in the country, and
which we should wish to be proclaimed to
all nations and transmitted in Black Letter
to the latest posterity, ifitwere not that we
think it would be a pity a whole people
should be indelibly branded with disgrace
and infamy for the malversation of few
worthless, interested, petty-ambitious indi-
viduais.
That the transaction may go along with
our comments, we beg leave to offer the
leading circumstances ofshe case briefly to
our readers.
ltbeing necessary to the safety of the