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SATURDAY, March if, 1787.
THE
GEORGIA STATE GAZETTE
O R
INDEPENDENT REGISTER.
• * i ... ■ —1 I ■ ■ I I—— 111 I ■ ' '■> ■ HI ■
FREEDOM of the PRESS, and TRIAL by JURY, to remain inviolate forever. Constitution of Georgia.
AU GUS TA: Printed by JOHN E. SMITH, Printer to the States Ejfays , Articles of
Intelligence , Advertisements , &c. will be gratefully received , and every kind of Printing performed .
JEque pauperibus prodift , locupletibus deque,
JEque negleftum puerisJenibufque nocebit. Hor.
Mr. Printer,
THIS country may be considered as advancing faft to
maturity. Like a youth arrived to age we are be
come our own guardians. Our fortunes are in our own
hands, and our success will very much depend upon the con
duft we preserve and the charader we establish. If we trifle
with public bufmefs, and negled our great national interests,
we shall be torn to pieces with diflentions at home, we fliall
be despised, insulted, and fubjeded to every kind of loss, anti
injury by foreign nations.
The firft great principle in the compofitioh of national pfo
fperity, is a love of our country. Without this principle,
monarchies may indeed exist, but they are very weak and
languid : without this principle republics cannot exist at all.
This principle is that ‘virtue which the great Montifquifcu in
fills upon as so eflential to the welfare of a cqmmonwealth.
This principle fubfifled in its full force in all the free govern
ments that ever flourilhed on earth. They hav6 all declined
and funk into slavery and ruin, as faft as this principle de
clined. It lhould therefore be the great objed of every good
man to cultivate this principle! But how is this to be effed
ed ? Libertas tff natale fclum ; freedom and our native foil,
doubtless have great attradions* These arc vast sources of
attachment to our country ; but they alone are not fuflkient.
An opinion of the wisdom and justice of government is also
neceflary ; without this the love of our country will languilh.
No man, be he native or foreigner, can maintain an entire
affedion for his country, if her councils are guided by folly
or injustice.—Next to the love of liberty in the human breast,
may be ranked the desire of acquiring and preserving proper
ty. Few men, that have tailed the bleflings of civil society,
will be contented with the enjoyment of liberty alone, if their
property be not also secured to them. Who would labour
if he could not enjoy the fruits of his labour ? That portion
of our property which is neceflary to the public service, if it
be called for in equal and just proportions, moll men will part
with chearfully ; but when the hand of power is laid upon the
property of individuals, wantonly, needlessly, or in propor
tions that are manifeftly partial and unequal, they will arraign
the justice of their country, they will abhor its government,
they will desert the public service, they will ever execrate
the land of their nativity. Every considerate man will refled,
that fraud naturally leads to violence. That from withhold
ing what is due the transition is very easy to the snatching
property out of our pofieffion—That they are the eflfeds of the
fame principle. Jealousy, uneasiness, and difaffedion, will
speedily consume the love of our country. That nation wiil
be truly miserable, will be feeble, will be despised by itfelf
and foreigners, where wisdom and justice do not govern,
where property is not held sacred. These are undoubtedly
solemn truths; and they ought to be seriously confidercd by
us when we are setting out in the career of national indepen
dence. We have it in our power to be happy at home, to
be refpeded abroad. But to effed this, it will be very ne
ceflary to be attentive to the preservation of public credit, to
fatisfy the public creditors of every kind, in Ihort, to enable
[No. XXV.]
the people to confide* their money when deposited in the pub
lic funds, as equally fafe, or more so, than when it is veiled
in any species of propert y. The hiltorian pathetically laments
the condition of Rome, when she was declining from her an
cient integrity and glory, and verging fall to that horrible
definition, which afterwards overwhelmed her, “ That Ihe
had come to hold that for honest which was profitable, and
that for honorable which was convenient. * Should Georgia
become so prostituted and base as to adopt this rule in the
management of Her public affairs ; let it be remembered that
we do not polfefsthe liability of ancient eflablifhments to favc
us from speedy ruih. The people of this country in general
wiflr to do what is right. They need only be warned, and
they will not fuffer themselves to be deluded. Some shocks
have been given indeed to our old notions of integrity; per
haps they Were inevitable. At all events they had better
be overlooked. They may be repaired, and public confidence
may yet be reflored. But it is high time that we set about it.
If this fubjert be much longer neglected, our boalled inde
pendence will be but a name. I mean these observations as
a prelude to some future remarks on the fubjert of public
credit.
PHILANTHROPOS.
March 6, 1787.
An ACT to prevent Biting, Gouging , Maiming , or other wife
dejlroying or injuring any of the Members of the Body •
IT) HER.EAS nothing more forceably marks the barbarity
VV and the ignorance of a country, than the savage cu
llom of biting and gouging, and which is moreover too fre
quently attended with the loss or disfiguration of some one of
the members of the body : For prevention whereof,
Be it enabled by the Repre/entatives of the Freemen of the
State of in General AJJembly met , and by the authority
of the fame , That if any person or persons after the palling of
this Ad, lhall wilfully or maliciously cut out or disable the
tongue, put out an eye, flit the nose, bite or cut off the ear,
nose or lip, or cut off or disable any limb or member of any
person or persons within this Hate, in so doing to maim or
disfigure in any of the manners before-mentioned, that theif
and in every such case, the person or persons offending, their
counfellors, aiders or abettors, knowing of and privy to the
offence as aforefaid, lhall for the firft offence forfeit the sum
of one hundred pounds, and Hand in the pillory not exceeding
two hours : One half of which fine to go to the party injured,
the other half to the state, and the offender to Hand committed
until the fine is paid. And if such offender Ihould prove
unable to pay said fine, to receive one hundred lathes on his
bare back, and set at liberty ; and for the second offence are
hereby declared to be felons, and lhall fuffer death without be
nefit of clergy : Provided , That the said attaint lhall not
extend to corrupt the biood, forfeiture of the wife’s dower
or the offender’s goods and chattels.
By order of the Hc,ufe t
WILLIAM GIBBONS, Speaber.
Augujla , February 10, 1787.