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About The Augusta chronicle and gazette of the state. (Augusta [Ga.]) 1789-1806 | View Entire Issue (July 6, 1805)
SATURDAY, July 6, ISOS. AUGUSTA CHRONICLE, G AZETTE OF THE STATE. FREEDOM or ths PRESS and TRIAL bt JURY shall rimain inviolat*. Ccnftitution of Georgia* AUGUSTA: Printed by D, DRISCOL, near the market. [3 Dolls, per Annum,"] , jf \ '■ ■... .±yj. s . ~ ■ *■ THOMAS PAINE, TO THE CITIZENS OF THE UNI TED STATES. LETTER THE EIGHTH. Much has been said, and much remains ro be said, of that undcfcribcd and unde fctibablc nothings called federalist). It is a without a meaning, and designates a faction that has no principles. Aik a man who calls himfelf a federaiift, what fedcra lifm is ? and he cannot tell you. Aik him * what are us principles ? and he has none to give. Federalism, then with refpcd to go vernment, is similar to atheism with rcfped to religion, a nominalnothing without prin ciples. The federal papers, especially those of New-England, have often said, that ts religion andfederaljm must go together.** Bar if their religion is related to their fed eraUfm; if it is as deilitute of morals asthejr federalifm is of principles; and 1 fear it is ; it will do them no good in this world or the next. It will condemn them as impostors acd hypocrites in both. Thcfe who once figured as leaders under toe a (Turned and fraudulent name of federal i/m, (but who are fincegene, net into hon orable and peaceable retirement, 1 ike John Dickinson and Charles Thompfouf hut in to pnfeuriry and oblivion, like John Adams and John Jay) had fomc plans in contempla tion which they concealed from their delu ded adherents, hnt thcfe plans can be dis covered tfuough the gauzy, but clumsy veil of conduit those leaders adopted. “No co ver is large enough to hide itfelf,** fays the Spanilh proverb. It requires more artifice and management to disguise and conceal sinister designs than schemers are aware of. A man never turns a rogue but he turns a fool. He incautious ly lets out something by which those he in tended to cheat or impofc upon begin to find him out. Whereas truth is a straight forward thing ; even an ignorant man will cot blunder in a true dory— -nor can an artful man keep a falfe story straight, Bit those leaders, supposing thcmfclves in a higher politico than what common ob servation would reach, prefamed, on their supposed confequencc and the expeded ere dulity of their adherents, to impose on the nation hy clamorous and falfe pretences, for the puipofe of railing a (landing army of fif ty thousand men ; and when they had got that army, the maik would have been thrown off, and their deluded adherents would have paid the price of their duplicity by being en (laved. But in the midst of this carreer of delusion and imposition, those leaders became fools. They did every thing they ought not to have done. They advocated plans which (hewed that their intention and their cause were not good. They labored to provoke war. They opposed every thing which led to pcacel They loaded the country with vexatious and uncceffary taxes, and then opposed the reduction of them. They op oofed a redudion of ufdefs offices that served • no other purpose than to maintain their own partizans at the expence of the public. In fttort, (hey run thstnfelves a-ground, firft, by their extravagance, and next by their own vanity, and though bcw-ildered in the wilderness of their own projeds, they fool ifhly supposed themselves above de ted ion. They had neither sense enough to know, nor logic enough to perceive, that as we can reason uoward from cause to effed, so also » we can reason downward from effed to cause and difeover, by the means they make use cf, the motives and objed of any party ; for when the means are bad, the motive and the end to be obtained cannot be good. The manners also, and language of any party is another due that leads to a difeove ty of their real charaders. When the cause and principles of a party are good, its ad vocates make use of reason, argument and good language. Truth can derive no ad vantage from boisterous 'vulgarity. But *‘hen the motives and principles of a party are lad, it is necessary to conceal them ; and its abettors having principles they dare to acknowledge and cannot defend, avoid eve ty thing of argument, and take refuge in a I use and falfehood. The federal papers are an instance of the * John Dickinson , the ref pitiable au. thcr of the Farmer’s Letters t before the re. t'ofuticn began . Charles Thompson , the faithfulfecretary of the Old Ccngrefs , dur. 'T *be rev*lotion. justness of this remark. Their pages are crouded with abuse, with argu ment ; for they have no principles to argue from ; and as to falfehood, it is become so naturally their mother tongue , cfpecially in New. England, that they seem to have loft the power as well as the dfpr/ftion of fpcak ing the truth. Those papers have been of great aid to the republican cause, not only by the additional disgrace they have brought on their own difgraceful fadlion, hut by fer vingas a foil to set off, with greater ec'at the decency and well principled arguments of the republican papers. I have had some experience, perhaps as much as mod men have had in the various turns of political life, bur I never saw a greater set of fools undertake to conduft a party than the lea ders of the federalifts have been, and the editots of their papers. They correspond to the story told of a man who was become so proud and famous for lying, that he dis dained speaking the truth left he should lose his charadler. Cannot those stupid people fee, or, ac cording to some dogmas of their own, are their hearts hardened, that they fhaii not fee that the more vulgar and abalive they are, the more ground they lose in the esti mation of the public. Every cleftion, cf pecially in New. England, is wearing them down till they be lolt, even as a fattion, and Massachusetts and Connecticut will recover their former character. Every thing this fafttondoeshaftens its exit. The abusive vul garity of Halbert, a pettifogging attorney of Sheffield, in Massachusetts, and one of its legislators, has contributed to bring for ward the funeral. In his late unprincipled speech in the legillature of that ftatc, he hes driven another nail in the coffin of federal fadfion, and I leave it to the New. Erg. Palladium to tlludi is. Is is a paper ' worthy of being the buffoon of such a fadli on, and of such an hypocritical impostor. Thus much for the character of parties, and the method of afeertaining thfrir motives and obje&s. I now proceed to other matters. When I returned to America in Novem ber, 1802, (after an abfencc of more than fourteen years) I found the country in a Rate of difquictude. The people were divided into two classes, under the names of republicans and federaltfls % and, in point of numbers, appeared to be nearly balanced. The republicans were the majority in congrcfs, and all the administration were of that de feription ; but they were assailed with out rageous abuse in all the federal papers, but never by argument. lam enough acquain ted with life and the world to know that abuse is the evidence of want of argument , end that those who use it have not right on their fide. There is a dignified calm ness in .conscious reftitude which defeends not to abuse. It can reason, but it cannot rage. It cannot quit the strong fortrefs of reftitude to fkirmiQi in the fields of vulgari ty* It was not difficult to perceive, that this division and agitation arose from some re ports spread during the administration of John Adams, and in the latter time of General Washington, which one part of the people believed and the other did not; and the point to be afeertained was, wheth er those reports were true orfalfe. If either of those cases could be afeertained cffeflually, it would unite the people. The chief of those reports was, the danger of an tnva. fion from France ; and this was made a cause for borrowing, by lean, five millions of dollars, at the high rate or eight per cent, laying on land-tax of two millions of dollars annually, besides a great number of other taxes, and for railing an array of fifty thou sand men. Now, if the danger was real, it ought to have been provided against. If it was a fitfion, with the design of railing an army to he employed to accomplilh some concealed purpose, the country ought to be informed of it. The party styling therafelves feder lifts appeared to believe the danger, and the republicans to ridicule it as fabulous j and in this Rate the parties Rood. It was, however, equally the intersft of both to know the truth, on which ever fide the • truth might fall. Being at Washington the winder of 1802- 3, I talked with some members of congress on the fubjeft, particularly with Mr. Brec kenridge, senator from Kentucky, the fame person who brought in the bill for repealing John Adams's judiciary law ar.d the mid night appointments made in cot.fcq'.erce of GEORGIA . it. This repeal fared the country thirty two thou/and dollars annually , belides : freeing i: from an intended judiciary des potism. 1 spoke to him of the propriety of con gress appointing a committee, or by fomc other method as they might think proper, to enquire into the condud of the former administration, that of John Adams, and to call upon him to produce the information whether official or oiherwife, which he went upon, if Ire had any, for putting the country to such vast cxpence, under the idea, real or pretended, ofaninvafion from France. This wouid be giving John Adams a fair chance of clearing lumfelt, if he could, from the suspicion that this administration was a gross imposition on the public ; and on the other hand, if the imposition (hould be proved, it would enlighten the country, and put it on its guard against further impo sitions. Mr. Breckcnridge agreed with me in the propriety and fitnefs of the meafurc. He saw that information was wanted, and that it would be ufcfal, bccatife when the truth Ihould he known, it would compose the people. John Adams had gone away in what may be called a clan define mam* >■, without furrrndering into the hands of his successor, as he ought to have done in per son, any account of the affairs of the execu tive department, foreign or domestic. There are no papers or documents that I know of, and I believe there are none, because there can be none in the secretary of (fare’s office, that will juflify John Adams in the expcncc to which his administration put the country; or even afford ground for suspicion that neither France or Englatidin fended to invade the United States. For what purpose then an army to be railed, The proiedox 1 erf fauti a lucaruie rnau nave naci lome oDjcct in view, and as that objed has never been explained, it ought to be enquired into. It is bad policy, and also a bad precedent, especially in public affairs, to let imposition Hide away without detection. At the time I talked with Mr. Brec kenridge on this fubjed, I expeded that Mr. Skipivith , formerly + and at this time, American consul at Paris, and Joel Barlow would soon arrive, and I did not wi(h the enquiry to be gone into till they came. After the fall of Robcfpierre and the eftahlifhment ofithe diredory constitu tion, those two gentlemen and myfelf, (Mr. Monroe being recalled) had better opportu nicies of knowing the femimems and inten tions of the French government, with rc fped to America, than other persons had; and they can be evidence equally with myfelf, that no intention existed in the French government to invade America j nor was any preparation made for such an attempt, nor couid it be made. The pos sibility offuch a thing did not cxilt. The French navy at that time was nearly an nihilated , her ports blockaded b} the British ; and (he had to fight by land, single handed, against the whole of Europe. She had it not in her power to spare a re. giment, much less couid (he spare an army, to fend to America j and if (he could have spared one, fhc had not the means of trans porting it, nor a convoy to proted it. All the circumstances as well as the evidence that can he provided, will (hew that the administration of John Adams, was a frau dulent and expensive imposition on the country ; and that the army to be- raised was intended for some secret purpofc, and not for the purpose of defence. If John Adams was not conscious of something wrong, and apprehendve of some confe rences, why did he abfeond in the hasty and private manner he did ? Or why his parttzans want to put Aaron Burr in the preGdency. In the days of the black coc- '* kadc?, John Adams had one so enormous and so valiantly large, that he appeared to be suspended by it; but when his midnight hour arrived, his valor fled and himfelfalfo. The 'voluntary embajfy of Dr. Logan to Paris appears to have disconcerted John’s administration, and difeomfirted its leaders ; because it served to expose and put an end to their projeds. When Dr. Logan called on Timothy Pickering, secretary of state, + Mr. Si ip with rejjgned the confulftip touring the administration of John Adams, I believe on account of a rude inful ting letter he received from Timothy Bickering, then secretary of fate. Mr. JeJfefon re.ap. 1 pointed Mr, & kip-wit h. / IVot, XIX. Mo. 979 i with Mr, Skipwith's dispatches from Paris, Timothy, before he knew their contents, though Logan knew the whole, began to talk ol invasions and dangers, and the ncccffity of preparation. It may be very well y (aid Logan, “\to have the militia always in good order.” <* Ihe militia fir!” said Timothy, “ the militia never did any good and never w:7/.| IVe mufi have aa army of fifty thovfand men.” Wlien Logan was coining away, Timothy said to him at the door, “ Sir the government don't thank you." When Logan waited on general Welling ton, who had been then appointed the lieu tenant general of the army then railing, of which John was commander in chicl I—the general received him coldly and fttrnly, and faidto Him in a haughty tone, %i and pray fir, what right have you, that art but a private citizen, to interfere in matters of government ?” Logan very prudently replied, “ I have no answer, fir, to make to that," and with-drew.—The ftatc of Pennsylvania, soon after this, defied Dr, Logan one of its senators in congress, Circumfhnccs often unriddle and explain themselves, and it happens so in this case; for if the adminlftratien, and those leader* connected wiih it, were finccre in their belief that the danger was real, and that the country (as Governeur Morris exprefled if, in \i\s funeral oration on Hamilton) was “ menaced with dangers from, without,” and that France intended an imvafion ; and if at the fame time, they had no concealed objett in contemplation themfclvcs, they would welcome the meffonger that should bring them good tidings that all was well. But if, on the contrary, they knew they were acting a fraud, apd heating the coun try with falfehoods and falfc alarms- iiot .. .i-—. . j —wf|/rwßmng i*j auaj »< * j new taxes, and raising an army to accom plilh fomc concealedpurpoft that could not be accompiilhcd without that treachery, they would be enraged at him; and this accounts for the rude reception Dr. Logan received from that administration/ Thoa fands who supported that adminiltration from a* belief that it was acting right, have fincc abandoned it from a conviction that it acted deceitfully wrong, and this also accounts for the great majority at the Jaft presidential election. Wc have no alarms now, nor should we have had any then, if the prclcntadininiftraUon had existed at that time. It requires only a prudent and honest administration to preserve America always in peace. Her distance from the European world fries her from its intrigues. Bat J Timothy Pickering's refieflion on the militia dejerves a rebuff. Jr was the mili tia that fought at Bunker’s hill, under iVarren, a militia general,-..!t was by the hid of numerous reinforemeats of militia to join general Gates that liurgoyne was taker.. It was by a volunteer militia under Stark, a volunteer general, that colonel Baum, a Hefpan officer, was defeated at Remington, in Tetmont, which was the prelude to the capture of Burgoyne. But perhaps Timothy reasons from himfelf } and if he makes him felf the fiandarj by which tojudgeofthe merits of the militia, there is ground for his Jaying the militia never did a ty good end ne ver will, Timothy’s fi>Ji public employ ment was very hartnhf, that oj a teacher of pfalmody, When the revolution began he learned the manual exerefe, and then taught it. He was afterwards appointed colonel of a regiment of militia, and when the af fairs of Lexington and Concord took place, April rg, 1775, and the. Bfit’Jh were re treating from Concord back to Bofion, an or der was sent to Timothy, to march with hit regiment, and pofi himjtlf at a certain p'ef'e to cut off their retreat. Timothy marched, but he flopped Jhort of the place, and drew up his men, and went to prayers, till the Br'ttijb pajfei it. His prayers favtd him from the dang ers of that day . Ido not know that he fun g psalms—Perhaps not « The enemy mighthavtoverhenrdhim. Had Ti mothy done his duty on that occasion , and put his trufi in God without loitering away his ■ time, th» whole party of the Britijh, about two thoujand, mufi have been pris oners, for thy could rot have gut hark into Bofion ,* and the Jlaughter at Bunker’s hill, the I "Jth of June following. Could not have taken place. The whole force of the Britijh at Bofion at that time, was about four thou [and, one half of which were on this expedition. rn . x » I, ~ '
