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■SATtJftDAY, December 1787;
Georgia state gazette
■Hi -*■ *■ . •
I O R
I INDEPENDENT REGISTER.
'• ' ■ l - l "=aKßgß=ar’ ■ l .! —t I'm ..■aag—-i - - ■■■ —■ ■ *■■m
FREEDOM of the PRESS, and TRIAL by JUR Y, to remain inviolate forever. Ccnjtuunon oj Georgia*
4 U G U S TA: Printed by JOHN SMITH, Printer to the State ; Articles of'
Intelligence , Advertijements , &c. will be gratefully received\ and every kind of Printing performed.
'■ . |
ir. WIL S 0 N’s Speech on the Feederal
Constitution .
(Concluded from our lad, No. LXV.)
next accusation I lhall confider, is
that which represents the federal con*
itution as not only calculated, but defigned
r framed, to reduce the date governments to
lere corporations, and eventually to anni
ilate them. Those who have employed the
:rm corporation upon thisoccafion, are not
ware of its extent. In common balance,
ideed, it is generally applied to petty affo
iations For the case and conveniency of in*
i|viduals ; but in its enlarged fetlfe, it will
Jomprehend the government of Pennfylva
lia, the exiting union of the dates, and
fven this projerted fydem is nothing more
nan a.formal aft of incorporation. But upon
what pretence can it be alledged it was de*
fcned to annihilate the date governments?
Br, I will undertake to prove, that upon
■eir evidence, depends the exidence of the
■deral plan. For this purpose permit me to
■ill your attention to the manner in which
■e pr.efident, senate, and houfc of repre-
Bitatives, are to be appointed. The prefl
int to be chosen by electors, nominated in
Bch manner as the legidature of each date
■ay dirert; so that if there is no legidature,
■ere can be no elertors, and consequently
Be office of president cannot be supplied. The
■late is to be composed of two senators
■om each date, chosen by the legidature;
■d therefore, if there is no legidature there
■n be no senate. The house of representatives
■to be composed of members chosen every
Bond year by the people of the several
■tes, and the elertors in each date (hall have
■e qualifications requisite for eleflors of the
Hod numerous branch of the date legidature ;
Hlefs therefore, there is a date legiflatire,
■at qualification cannot be afeertained, and
■e popular branch of .the federal conditution
Kill likewise be extinrt, From this view,
Btn, it is evidently absurd to suppose, that
■ annihilation of the separate governments
■)1 result from their union ; or that having
■t intention, the authors of the new fydem
Bold have hound their connexion with such
Biffoluble ties. Let me here advert to an
ftangement highly advantageous, for you
111 perceive, without prejudice to the powers
|Bt(ie legidature in the elertion of senators,
II people will acquire an additional privi
■le in returning members to the house of
Ilrefentatives—whereas by theprefent con-
JBeration, it is the legidature alone that ap
lint the delegates to Congress.
IBhe power of dirert taxation has likewise
Bn treated as an improper delegation to the
If era * government: but when we confider
Iff the duty of that body to provide for the
fional fafety, to support the dignity of the
|i°<b and to difeharge the debts contrarted
upon the coliedive faith of the dates for their
common benefit, it mud be acknowledged,
that those upon whom such important obliga*
tions are imposed, ought injudice and inpo*
licy to possess every means requisite for a
faithful performance of their trud. But
why should we be alarmed with visionary
evils ? I will venture to predirt, that the
great revenue of the United States mud,
and always will be raised by impost, for bod
ing at once obnoxious, and more produrtive,
the intereft'of the government will be bed
promoted by the accommodation of the peo
ple. Still however the objerts of dirert taxa
tion should be within reach in all cases of
emergency : and there is no more reason to
apprehend oppression in the mode of collert
ing a revenue from this resource, than in the
form of an impod, which, by univerfa! af*
sent is left to the authority of the federal go
vernment, In either case, thefpiceof civil
inditution will be adequate to the purpose;
and the dread of military violence, which
has been adiduoofiy disseminated, mud even
tually prove the mere effufion of a wild
imagination, or a fartiotis spirit. But the
salutary confcquences that mud flow from thus
enabling the government to perceive and sup
port the credit of the union, will adord
another answer to the objections upon this
ground. The date of Pennsylvania particu
larly, which has encumbered itfelf wirh the
assumption of a great proportion of the pub
lic debt, will derive considerable relief and
advantage : for, as it was the imbecility of
the present confederation, which gave rife to
the funding law, that law mud naturally ex
pire, when a competent and energetic fede
ral fydem (hall be fubdituted—the state will
then be difeharged from an extraordinary
burthen, and the national creditor will find
it to be his intered to return-to his original
security.
* After all, my fellow citizens, it is neither
extraordinary or unexpected that the con
ditution offered to your consideration should
meet with opposition. It is the nature .of
man to pursue his own intered in preference
to the public good; and I do not mean to
make any personal reflection, when I add,
that it is the intered of a very numerous,
powerful, and refpertable body, to counteract
and destroy the excellent work produced by
the late convention. All the offices of go.-
vernment, and all the appointments for the
adminidration of ju dice and the collection of
the public revenue, which are transferred
from the individual to the aggregate fove
reigntyof the dates, will neceflarily turn the
dream of influence and emolument into a
new channel. Every person therefore, who
either enjoys, or experts to enjoy a place of
profit under the present eftablifhmcnt, will
objert to the proposed innovation; not, in
truth, because it is injurious to the liberties
of his country, tut becaufc it affffts bis
THE
i schemes of wealth and consequence. I will
| confefs indeed, that lam not a blind admir
er of this puu of government, and that there
are some parts of it, which, if my with had
prevailed, would certainly have been altered.
! But, when I reflect how widely men differ in
their opinions, and that every jnan (and tho
\ observation applies likewise to every Bate)
| and that every man has an equal pretention to
assert his own, lam fatistied that any thing
• nearer to perfeftion could not have been ac-
I comp! thed- If there are errors, it tfiould
be temembered, that the feeds of reforma
tion are sown in the work itfelf, and the con
currence of two thirds of the Congrefo may
at any time introduce alteration and amend
ments. Regarding it then, in every point of
\ view, with a candid and difintereded mind,
1 am bold to atfert, that it it the bed form
of government which has ever been offered
to the world.
Mr. Wilson’s speech was frequently inter
rupted with loud and unanimout tetf imoniea
of approbation, and the applause which wae
reiterated at the conclusion, evinced the ge
neral I'enfe of its excellence, and the convic*
tion which it had impretfed upon every mind.
CONSTANTINOPLE, Augufi 25.
IN the morning of the 16th intf. after a
public audience of the Grand Vizir,
Motif deßulgakow, the Ruffian Envoy, with
his Secretary, &c. were conduced to the Se
ven Towers. The formal declaration of
war againtf Rutfia was read at the Porte on
the 22d, with full and absolute power to tho
Grand Vizir for conducting the operation,
LONDON, September 13.
A gentleman just returned ft om a tour thro’
the greatetf part of France, declares, the
people are generally againtf the conunercuj
treaty ; and when he was at Rouen, a ship ar
rived at that port, on board of which were
several crates of Engiifh earthen ware, which
were no sooner landed than the populace seized
them, broke the coutents in pieces, and threw
them into the sea.
20. By letters from Sicily, via Italy, wff
have relation of an extraordinary eruption oC
Mount .£tna ; such a.one as has not happened
in the memory of man. A rumbling noifo
and numberless little shocks of
preceded this eruption. On the ißthof lash
month, about three o’clock in the morning, *
terrible column of fire itfued from the moun
tain like a whirlwind, and of such prodigious
height that it seemed as if the mountain waa
opened, and the column of fire appeared two
thirds higher than the summit. An iromeoio
cloud of smoke preceded the flame, the bUzO
of which was so great, that people cpuld fed
to read at 20 miles ditfance; betides thgfc, 9 4
shower of land or calcined lira, and fount
[No. LXVI.]