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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.