Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

■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.]