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SATURDAY, May 3, 17^:
GEORGIA STATE GAZETTE
'': •' s " ' o r . ; -;
INDEPENDENT REGISTER*
FREEDOM of the PRESS, and TRIAL by JUR Y, to remain inviolate foicver. Confiituim of Georgia.
AUGUSTA: Printed by JOHN E. SMITH, Printer to lit State 5 Efays, Articles of
Intelligence, Advertisements , i£c. ■will be gratefully received , and every kind 0) Printing fetfotmed.
Genuine Copy of a Letter from Copt. John Sul~
• ii'vanto his Excellency Thomas tinekney,Efq.
Governor of the Sta'e of South-Carolina*
(. ,- j ... •
State of Georgia, Flint River, Frontier of
the Spanish dominions, 27th Dec. 1787.
May it plea, eyour Excellency,
IDO myfelf the honor cf add refling your
Fxcellency, in pursuance to a communi
cation which has been made to.me this day
by a diftinguilhed officer from tne Weftern
Waters, in as much as that Congress have
been pleased to dispatch decisive orders to the
Commander in Chief of the Continental troops
©n the Ohio for the express purpose of arreft
fng my person j and being allured that fimiiar
initruftions were transmitted by that Honor
able body to the Executive of South-Carolina.
Kly ignorance of any cause from which a
mandate of this nature could arise, or on what
legal grounds such an extraordinarxprocedure
can possibly be adopted, induces me to foheit
from your Excellency official information of
the authenticity of this intelligence. I have
too exalted a sense of the wisdom and patrio
tic, principles of most of the Federal Deputies
to harbour an idea that my late confidential
letter to the Minister of Spain fliould have
operated in this inflance; from a lolid con
viction that there exists no flatutea or implied
coercive power in any of the State Executives*
much less in Congicfs, legally author ifing
them to control that noble prerogative a ci
tizen of America poflefl'es—the prerogative
©f unfolding his private political opinions to
the world at large, to sovereigns even and to
Hates, but with far less ceremony to the mere
Representative of any transatlantic Monarch.
Your Excellency mull be peifeftly informed
that the Conflitution of this land confers on
every freeman the glorious privilege of ad
<drefiing Kings; and when it is conlidered that
the free men of all commonwealths arc actual
kings themselves, I am led to believe that the
private fehtiments which were imparted in a
confidential letter to the Minister .of Spain
cannot, in conl'enance to any eftabliihed court
©f law, be brought under the charge of Ala
jelly offended .
Events of deep importance to this country
and Spain, which are now buried in the womb
©f time, are insensibly progressing from the
crude probability of speculation to the growth
and maturity of fatt; and the period cannot
be very remote, when the intrepid Tartar of
the Weft, the inexpugnable Kentuckian and
Frank, will dare to proclaim, that the Natches
jftiali be restored either by negociation or arms,
and that their right to the free navigation of
the Miffifippi Aiafl be ho longer withheld by
an indolent, jealous, and impolitic nation.
Had his Excellency the Minister of Spain for
a moment reflefted that my unimportant sen
timents refpefting our invaded rights of navi
gation were but the Ample echo of the voice of
nineteen twentieth of the people of America,
f a e
and which had long befo c been publiftied by
many djlingmjhtd General Officers ol the late
war, now eliding on the Weftern Waters,
his good sense would have pointed out the im
propriety of importuning Cbngrcis on the tri
vial fubjeft cfa letter so peifeftly apologetic
and confidential —alerter written tc himlelf,
and by his having (probably) firft committed
it to the prefs,—of exhibiting his intended
vengeance in so feeble a form before a banter
ing and lneering universe. No personal con
sideration (ball ever induce me to withdraw
from any investigation which may arise oh
this fubjeft ; on the contrary, I will with
chearfolnefs wait the itrtpeachmenfs
of such a nature, confeious that I have not
exceedetFAnfe limits which the lawpreferibes,
and that freedom of opinion is the unalienable
birthright of every citizen or denizen of Uiefe
Hates.
Jf a Ample declaration of fentimeuts on a
political queftion—ftutim&nts unattended with
•any overt aft—fentimeuts which American
citizens daily presume to express to their lo
cal sovereigns, can be conftiued into crimi
nally by an y body of men, and by thofc in par
ticular who pofiefs no legiflaiive rights , nor
any right in time of peace affefting the per
son of a free man —such an aflumption of
power inuft strike ar ihe very existence of li
bel ty. I have therefore :he strongest con
viftion that my letter to the Miniflei of Spain
consists in leufoning on contingent events, and
that in ftriftnels ot law the fmallcft ieftraint
in matters of a fpeetdative nature inuft be a
giofs usurpation of rights eftablilhed by the
late revolution. Your Excellency well recol
iefts that hot many years have elajjfed Ance
the Spahifli Ambaftador at the Court of St.
James's complained of a newspaper insult
which was offered to the intellectuals of his
Royal Rovereign. The publication was con
formable to general belief, and he was in
formed for his fatisfaftion by the Britifti Court,
that the of England, laws flill prevailing
with us, inflifted no piiniftiment cn a fubjeft
for using his native privilege of promulgating
opinions. The King of England, as little
united to us by treaty as theSpanifli Monarch,
has Ance the peace been personally reviled in
our prints, and his nation repeatedly menaced
with hostilities in consequence of the unjust
retention of the weftern posts, and yet he was
Alent. He is legally abused i:i his own land.
Kings, Queens, Nations, and Courts, are thete
ftriftured with impunity. What has deprived
a citizen of America of the fame privilege l
No law yet extant has done it.
1 am not aware however of any deficiency
of refpeft, either by words or aftions, which
could have originated on my part in deroga
tion of the Minister of Spain, having always
entertained the highest veneration for his per
son and commission.
T refpeft him not only as an Ambassador,
but I admire him as a roan* I alfu reverence
fNo. LXXXIV.J
4 , k
myfelfasa freeman of this enlightened eoun
tr>, and hold in too high eft.mauon the right
to canvas freely and nifcnts all mcafure* in
which the people ot whom I am a part arc vi
tally 'intcreficd, tamely to fuft'er it to he in
fringed by qny power Wbeihei foreign or do
mestic. Let a laW be Cnee eflablilhed by which
a citizen of America dare nor with impunity
disclose his political opin:onr>, even in the
confidence of a private letter, and no person
willobfervea line of greater cau'ion or reserve
in all my future addretfes to digntptd jubjti
tales,
Paflivc obedience ihall be my invariable
creed.
I will then bow before the image of power,
and yield such exterior acquief ence as the
Prophet of old recommended to his Syriari
convert. I will not even confider that con
greflional mandate extraordinary which ihould
ordain an annual pilgrimage to an imported
unproereative jaekrajs t \u order to mtnifcft in
person my implicit devotion to the congenial
a:tributes of the royal donor.
On this important occasion I am happy in
having the honor to add refs a soldier of science
and difiinction, who is peifcttly enabled to
determine how far any requisition from any
external or internal power Ihould be ac
-1 quiefeed with, on the one hand, when the Ji
btrty of the citizen evidently preponderates
oh the other.
I have the honor to remain, with profound
refpett,
Your Excellency’s mod obedient,
and most humble servant,
JOHN SUIUVAN.
P. S. Enclofc my addi els to the Govcrnof
of Georgia.
THE fubferilerbegs leave to acquaint his
friends, and he public in general, that
he has removed from Augufla to Savannah
again, and has taken a convenient house near
the matket, with rtabics, where be propofea
keeping a house of
Private Enter
tainment
And gcod tabling for horses. Those gentle*
men who will please to favor him with their
company, when their business may call them
to town, may be allured of being we
1 commodated at the most reasonable rates.
He kas tor SALE,
Low for Calh,
Jamaica and Weit-India Hum, Su*
car, Coffee, ;nd Salt.
h 9 N. WADE.
Savanftabt April lij *7^*