Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1830-07-01
Enraet from Sketches Of Public Characters.
LETTER XVI.
Ne,I,- York.


IN 50 much credit to capt. Basil Halls account
az the neople of the United States. There have
heen race of wretched travellers from England
whose works have passed among the people as
Aonest chronicles, when they were. III truth
tissue of faIsehuods and absurdities. Ash was
a miserable liar. and is not now believed by any
one. Kendall had not the spirit OF an old woman:
and Miss Fanny Wright was dreaming enthu-
sia,t when she gave an account OF this country
Hall came to write book and by his being
post capt. in the navy had access to good society
hut he was wretched specimen Of English man
ners. He attempted to be republican and was
most insufferably vulgar. have never met with
a we'll bred Engiishman in this country who
was not ashamed Of him, nor an American who
did not despiSe him.
Your alarm for the religious character OF the
United States is altogether unnecessary; the
people, as 4 mass. are as truly religions, as any
heopIe i'm the world. and do as much tor the sup
port of it as any other people; and in most cases
throughout the whole country. the pay OF the
clergy is from voluntary taxation. The various
creeds nrofessed have but little influence on the
public morals, because good moral conduct Is
either the basis, or prime Ingredient in all the
creeds 4 Good patriot. when he sees any reli-
gious sect doing justly and ,calkng h'Hbiy, does
not quarrel with them for shades of difference
between them and himself in religious belief
The impression YOU have of the influence OF Mr..
Owen and his disciples. is altogether erroneous
You get wrong statement from the two parties
who talk the most about It. The followers O
Owen are enthusiastic in all they do and say:
and their accounts Of their success cannot be de-
pended upon, even to the slightest detail, they
see every thing as reformers, and turn IT all t'
their advantage Ii you Tere to listen TO them
you would suppose that the reign of reason, atiel
their fashion, had come. and all superstition ant
ss %s e ate tbs ds! At a 9a Sssas
ment. II, on the other hand. YOU should hca
the timid and scrupulous portion OF the cOmmu
nifty you would think the affairs OF true religion
we're at once TO be overthrovn, and the reign o.
in6delity and libertiuism were tuensue.
Hall thought that he had acquired more intor
nation than all his predecessors, and should BE-
enabled to eniighten all his cOuntrymen respect
mo this country; for he assumed TO think deep
ly on all subjects; bat You can hardly find book
containing more charlatanry than his in all the
bookstores in Eng and.
went last evening TO the Hall Of Science, as
It is called. 10 hear aud see miss Fanny Wright.
She was to deliver one ofher lectures on kao,cE
edge She is tall, bony woman, of Sond
countenance, and not an ungraceful person.
She speaks rs one conscious OF high and mental
powers. and as one believing that sire was born
tor a reformer. She has nothing, however, OF
novelty in her theory. She said what Mars
Woolstcncraft had said before she was heard of.
IN more fascinating, if not in so logical man
ner. She inveished against the established or
der of things. as If the whole world were dcceiv-
ed and led blindfolded by rulers. judges divines.
and pretended moralists, of all classes. | have
vi III, Sc tl,at .
in her creed, if creed it can be called that de-
nounces all creeds, human and divine. But she
proparates error under the guise of doing good.
and sows the seed Of moral evil under the
lofty pretensiOns of eradicating fixed and set
tied errors. A misguided multitude follow
her; some honest dupes, but more dishonest
mal-coutents are in her train. She attacks
the altar of God as though it were an altar
Of Baal; and sOlemnly pronounces the whole
profession Of priests race of hypocrites. There
we're many things in her lecture that were very
good. If they were unconnected with the vile
SANDERS she so shamelesslv uttered. Her whole
course of conduct shows that she is both ambi-
tious and benevolent; and she thinks that she
hides the former under the mantle of the lat
ter; but in this she is as silly as the os-
trich, who thinks herself concealed, when she
has only hid her head. To see man in the prof
Igacy Oh coarse, sToiiS anu misguided intellect,
railing at religion and trampling upon every thing
sacred, is painful enough: but to behold wo-
man, of refined education, fitted for all the
charities of life, so far unsex herself as to pro-
mitigate doctrines. that bring down the pride
of female virtue, and place every one Of her sex
on par with the impure and wicked, is too pain
full to dwell upon.
The misguipded woman is now followed and
cheered hy those who are at war with the estab-
lished order Of things; but the most will drop off
one after another: and the probability is. that she
will find herself in her old aye. deserted by
those who once affected to admire her. and be
left to mourn over her worse than useless life
Then she will see the difference between philo-
sophicai Der evidence and Christian charity: the
one is stained with the filthy currents Of this
world, and partakes deeply of the nature of the
earth, while the ethsris illumined by the light