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on tbr propriety of killing an enemy in such a
fittiadon— and ultimately prevents the deed.—
I know not whether the organization of my
sensibilities are different from those of other
men 1 but my heart has always disposed me
to do complete juffice to every one who abls,
or thinks he abls upon the principles of truth,
honor, and candour. —I can excuse error when
bottomed on the deluffons or the mind—or,
when rrlulting from infatuation—mifguided
frenzy, or the extravagancies of gratitude.—
When the storm raised by these kinds of error
is blovvn over—and all is hushed and tran
quil ized —I can pity and forgive.
Why should we, citizens, harass ourselves
with apprehensions, when dangers have left
us ?—The energies of our government —the
spirit of the people wi l eternally protcbl us
from the wickedness of individuals, or the
more deteffable machinations of faction.—lf 1
may be permitted to speak for myfelf, I am
willing that every one should be admitted in
to our country, who polTcffes the smallest pre
tensions to worth and honeffv : they will not
be capable of doing an injury to ourselves or
to our republic.—As for the tor.es or refugees
of the revolution they have my approbation
to return : if they can support n.e public
scorn, and the local prejudices which may be
dirt bled toward them, it will be a species of
resolution (such is the supreme regard of man
for public opinion) that I am confident few of
us poffcfs—and if it amounts to a gratifica
tion, it is a gratification 1 am Hire you do
n ot envy them.
Thus far I have been (peaking of Wylly :
as to Douglass and Hume I hive heard no
objections againlt them —The fabt as relates
to them may be jull and true, to wr,that they
were tories during the revolution—that they
arein every fenfctories now : but it is never -
thelefs admitted that they were inoffenfive
men at that time —and that inoffenfive men
they would remain on their return. But in
dependent of all this, the refiebtion slashed
upon my mind, that the moH hateful , the very
high-prieffs of that horde which is marfhalled
on the confiscation abl had been taken off, and
are now exerciiing the rights of citizenship
I adverted also to the clemency and indul
gence which had been extended to the father
of the late governor of this Hate. I confidcr
ed, that the legislature had as great a con
lillency cf char abler to preserve, as an indi
vidual j and that it was therefoie absurd to
grant priviledges to that ciafs of men, and to
deny them ro th-s, though similarly predicated
in foir.e refpebls, yet having far Hronger
claims on lesdflative favour in the aggregate.-
I hope that this explanation -will be latisfac
tory with regard to my vote—ls any other
motives are fuggeffed, contrary to those here
Hated, they will be con fid ered bv me as ridi
culous as they are ungenerous : that I should
be the patron of tories—that I should be tlr
moff actively indullrious in bringing them
aain into the bosom of this Hate,, are florics
which are approp.iate enough to the unre
flebling declamation of mad-men, but to those
who know me it muH afford infinite amusement.
Campbell Wylly, Douglass and. Hume,
were not taken off the coafijcatloa a H—the
bill was negatived in ienate.— —
4. No appropriation has been made by the
legiilature for a difeharge of the expence of
the brigand alarm. —The faith and the honor
of the Hate had been pledged through the
medium of the executive department, and
reiterated in the orders of the m .ior-general
of the firH division to difeharge the expendi
ture of che military preparations, which the
brigands might occasion, out of the contingent
fund—Confiding in this pledge the militia of
ihis and the louthern counties performed -the
duties reauired ot them—The militia o! Cam-
A •
den county was particularly energetic. The
honor and faith of a Hate should be held in
sacred ellimation —no circumHances (except
in a few extreme cases) should be permitted
to legalize an infringement of either—l muff
D . \
therefore charitably iuppofc if only that honor
and that faith had prelented themlelves, the
appropriation would have been granted —
But as the preparations were made to repel
invasion it was thoug t, that the debt became
a national one —and that congress was the
proper council to apply to for payment. —
Even should any part of the 10th fcblion of
the iH article cf the federal confutation or
fcblion 4 of the 4th article—(which is more
nertinent) —warrant an application to con
grels for an appropriation oi money—Hill it
would have been magnanimous in the legiffa
ture firil to have liquidated the expenditure,
and then to have applied for reur.buriement.—
As the matter now Hands, the militia of the
southern counties have been deluded, and in
dividuals who entered into contrabls and made
advances upon the credit of the public faith
have no poiltive afiurances of indemnification.
—Yet as there has been no legislative pro
vision,! do not hcfitate to give it as my opini
on, that the contingent fund may be drawn
upon to the amount of the expenditure : no
aft has been done to Heltroy its liability.—
The governor no doubt will condubl him-
felf on this head as well as every other con
formably to justice and his dutv.
Tb. U. P. Charlton .
Frvn the National Intelligencer .
THOMAS’ PAINE, to tke CITIZENS
of the UNITED STATES.
LETTER 11.
As the affairs of the country to which I am
returned are of more importance to the world,
and to me, than of that I have lately left (for
it is through the new world the old muff: be
generated, if regenerated at all) I (ball not
take up the time of the reader with accounrs
jof fcencs that have palled in France, many of
which are painful to remember and horrid to
relate, but come at once co the circumstances
in which I find America on my arrival.
Fourteen years and fomeching more have
produced a change, at ieaft among a part of
the people, and I ask myfelf what it is ? I meet
or hear of thousands of my former connecti
ons who are men cf the lame principles and
friendfhips as when I left them. But a non
d feript race, and of equivocal generation, as
suming the name offederalft, a name that d>
feribes no character of principle good or bad,
and may be equally applied to either, has since
started up with the rapidity of a mushroom,
and like a mushroom is withering on its root
iels stalk, Are thole men federalised to sup
port the liberties of their country or to over
turn them ? To add to its fair fame or riot on
its fpoiis ? The name contains no defined idea
It is like John Adam’s definition of a repub
lic in his letter to Mr. Wythe of Virginia. It
is y fays he, it is an empire of laws and not of
men . But as laws may be bad as well as good,
an empire of laws may be the bed of all go
vernments, or the world of all tyrannies. But
John Adams is a man of paradoxical heresies,
and consequently of a bewildered mind t Fie
wrote a book entitled “ A defence of the Ame
rican Conftitutiousfi and the principles of it are
an attack upon them. But the book is de
fended to the tomb of forgetfulnefs, and the
belt fortune that can attend its author, is qui
etly to follow its fate. John was not born for
immortality. But to return to federahfm.
In the hiftury of parties and the nappes they
a (fume, it often happens, that they finifh by
the direct contrary principles with which they
profets to begin, and thus it has happened
with federalilm.
Dui insj the time of the old congress. and
prior (o the cftabliftmient of *ilic federal uo
vernment, the continental belt was too loosely
buckled, the several Hates were united in
name, but not in fad, and nominal union had
neither centre nor circle. The laws of one
if ate frequently interfered with and Some
times oppoffd those of another. —Commerce
between Hate and Hate was without protecti
on, and confidence without a point to rest on.
Ihe condition the country was then in, was
aptly delcrihed by Pelatiah WePHer when he
laid, “ ‘Thirteen /eaves and ne'er a hoop will
not make a barret/
Jf then by federalift is to be understood,
one who was for cementing the union by a
general government, operating equally ever
all the Hates in all matters that embraced the
common infereff, and to which the authority
of the Hates severally was not adequate, lor
one Hate can make laws to bind another, if
f fay by a federaliH is meant a per
son of this defeription, (and this is the origin
of the name) I ought to jl and fir/ on the lift of
federal/s, for the proposition for establishing.
a general government over the union came
originally from me in 1783, in written me
morial to Chancellor L vington, then iecrera
ry tor foreign affairs to Congress, Robert
Morris, mini. Her of finance, and his a (foci ate
Governeur Morris, all of whom are now liv
ing, and we had a dinner and conference at
I Robert Morris’s on the fubjedt. The cccafion
was as follows :
Congress has propoffd a duty of five per
cent on imported articles, the money to be
applied as a fund towards pay ing the interest
of loans to be allowed in Holland. The re
foive was tent to the several Hates to be enabl
ed into a law. Rhode 3 Hand ablblutely r#-
fufed. 1 was at the trouble of a journey to
Rhode-!Hand to realon with them on the lub
jebl. Some oilier of the Hares enabled with
jit with alterations, each one as it plealed. Vir
ginia adopted it, and afterwards repealed it,
and the affair came to nothing.
It was then vifihie, at least to me, that ei
ther congress mud frame the laws necessary
for the union, and fend them to the fevera!
Hates to be inregilted without any alteration,
which would in itfelf appear like usurpation on
one part,& paflive obedience on the other, or
iorrre method muH be devised to accomplish
the fame end by constitutional principles, and
the proposition I made in the memorial, was,
to add a continental legislature to congress to be
elefted by the severalfiates. The proposition
met the full approbation of the gentlemen to
whom it was addrefled, and the convention
turned on the manner of bringing it forward^
G. Morris, m warning van me oinnci,
wished me to throw out the idea in the news
papers. I replied that I did not like to be
always the proposer of new things, that it
would have too assuming an appearance j and
be fid es, that I did not think the country was
quite wrong enough to be put right . I remember
giving the fame reason to Dr. Rufhof Phi
ladelphia, and to gen. Gates, at whole quar
ters 1 lpent a day on my return from Rhode
I (land, and I suppose they will remember it j
because the observation seemed to strike
them.
But the embarrassments encreafing as they
neceflhriiv must from the want of a betrer ce
mented union, the state of Virginia propos
ed holding a commercial convention, and
that convention, which was not lufficiently
numerous, proposed that another convention,
with more extensive and better defined pow
ers, lhould be held at Philadelphia, May 10,
*787-
When the plan of the federal government
formed by this convention was proposed, and
submitted to the consideration of the seve
ral states, it it was strongly objected to in each
of them. But the objections were not on fe
deral grounds, but on constitutional points.
Many were (hocked at the idea of placing,
what is called executive power, in the hands
of a Angle individual. To them it had too
much the form and appearance of a military
government, or a deipotic one.—Others ob
jected that the powers given to a president
were too grear, and that in the hands of an
ambitious designing man, it might grow into
tyranny as it did in England under Oliver
Cromwell, and as it has since done in France.
A republic must not only be so in its princi
ples, but in its forms. The executive part
part of the federal government was made (or
a man, and those who con fen ted, against their
judgement to place executive power in the
hands of a (ingle individual, repoled more on
the supposed moderation of the person they
had in view than on the wisdom of the mea
sure itfelf.
Two considerations however overcame all
objections. Ihe one was tiieabiolute neces
sity cf a federal government. The other the
rational reflection, .that as government in A
merica is founded on the representative lyftem
any error in the firft efi'ay could be reformed
by the fame quiet and rational proceis by
■which the constitution was firft formed j and
chat, either by the generation then living, or
by those who were to succeed. if ever Ame
rica lose fight of this principle, ibe will be
no longer the land of liberty . The father
will become the affafiin ot the lights of the
ion, and his descendants be a race of (laves.
As many thousands who were mi
no;s are grown up to manhood since
the name of federal ; ft began, it became
necessary, for their information, to go
back and shew the origin of the name
which is now no longer what it origi
nally was ; but it is more necefLi’
ry to do this, in oruer to bring forward
in the open face of day, the apoftacy
of those who firft called themselves fe
deralift s.
To them it served as a cloak for
treason, a mask for tyranny. Scarcely
were they priced in the feat of power
and office, than federalifm was to bf
destroyed, and the representative fyf
cem of government, the pride and glo
ry of America, and the Paiadium of
her liberties, .was to be overthrown <se
abolished. The next generation was
not to be free. The son was t.o bend
h s neck beneath the father s foot, and
live deprived of his rights, under here
ditary controul. Among the men of
this this apostate defeription is to be
ranked the ex-president, fi:hn aidants.
It has been the political career of this
man to begin with hypocrisy, proceed
with arrogance and finifh in contempt.
May such be the late of all such cha
racters
I have had doubts of John Adams e
ver since the year 1776. In a conver
sation with me, at that time concern
ing the pamphlet Common Sense, he cen
sured it becaufed it attacked the En
glish form of government. —John
was for independence, because he ex
pected to be made great by it ; but it
was not difficult to perceive, for the
surliness of his temper makes him an
aukward hypocrite, that his head was as
full of kings, queens, and knaves, as a
pack of cards. But John has loft deal.
When a man has a concealed project
in his brain that he wants to bring for
ward, and fears will not succeed, he
often begins with it asphyftcians do by
fufpedted poison, try it firft on an ani.
mal ; if it agree wit!) the flonr.ck ts
the animal, he makes further experi
ments, and this was the way folni
took. His brain was teeming with
projects to overturn the liberties of A*-
merica, and the represen tative fyflem
of government, and he began by hint
ing it in little companies. The secreta
ry of John Jay, an excellent painter
and poor politician, told mein presence
of another American, Daniel Parker,
that in company where himfelf was
prelent. John Adams talked of mak
ing the government hereditary, and
that as Mr. Wafliington had no chil
dren,it should be made hereditary in the
family of Lund Wafliington. John had
not impudence enough to propose him
felf in the firft inftance,as the old French
Normandy Baron did, who offered to
come over to to be king ofAmerica, &if
congrefsdid not accept his offer,that they
would give 30 thouiand pounds for the
generosity of it ; but John, like a mole,
was was grubbing his way under ground
—He knew that Lund Wafliington was
unknown, for nobody had heard ofhim,
and that as the president had no children
to liicceed him, the vice-president had,
and if the treason had fucceedcd, and
the hint with it, the goldftnith might,
be sent for to rake measure of the head
of John or his ion Q. for a golden wig.
in this case the good people of Lofton
might have had for a king the man
they have neglected as a delegate. The
representative system is fatal to ambi
tion.
( To he concluded in our next.)
S A VANN AH,
WEDNESDAY,
December 22, 1802.
We are unavoidably compelled to omit
several articles of foreign intelligence which
have lately come to hand ; the principal fea
tures of which are, that a large naval force is
colleding in the French ports of the Mediter
ranean ; that the British have not only sent dis
patches to have possession kept at Malta, but
have ordered the assemblage of their fleets
cruising on different ft at An s before that gar
rison. Piedmont is formaliv united to France,
and the French papers boast that it is in the
power of their government to accomplish
any thing.
In Switzerland, the French troops are fa id
not to be so well received .is they expefted to
be j on receipt of Buonaparte’s proclamation,
the Helvetic army began to disband them
selves ; declaring that they would not fight
against their countrymen at the inlolent dic
tation of a foreign power. Buonaparte, has
likewile kindly undertaken w to maintain the
order of things in Holland,
The firft confu! keeps up all the parade of
monarchy ; no person is admitted into his
palace but full drefled arid powdered, and
che consuls and ministers begin to dress in
the former French stile, with swords by their
sides.
The late attacks which Mr. Paine has ftif
tained from the federal presses, might very
juitly occasion him to exclaim, in the language
of the immortal Milton :
“ I aid but teach the age to quit their clogs
“ By the plain rules of ancient Liberty,
“ When quick a barbarous noise surrounded
me,
“ Os O wls, Asses, Apes&Dogs.’
Am. Mercury.
aa!C a.e&jeSs*
MARINE LIST
E N T E R E D.
Sloop Little IVilliam , Avery , Char left on
CLEARED.
Ship Rufus , Holland , Liverpool
Brig Dispatch, Adams , Boftort
Schr. Albert, Haraing , *
Lebbe , Star, New-Ttrk
Shop Ranger, Keen , Qharleflcn
E. Cf I. TICHENORy
Have just Received,
Per bng V/a(kington y from Nezv-7'ork , and for
faie at their fiooe ft ore. Market Square :
pair Boo: & Bootae legs,
t(h do. Kid fuppsrs and fandles,
100 do. Leather Sl ppers,
100 do, fine mens Shoes,
25 do. Bootees. Sides rs new LEATHER, an<J
Seal Skins and Shoe Thread.
—ALSO
300 pair Negroes foes, large size.
Thev have on hand, a handf>nr>£ i (Torment of fnoe*
ofeverr defeription, (/Id law forcath 1
OiccmDer xt, xßa2. \
; \