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PROPOSALS
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. tJHfib* b Subfcrftirm a verily
IN THE CITY OF AUGUSTA,
TO BE ENTITLED
Mirror of the 1 imcs•
THE universal promulgation of
".V »cd the general diflribtttion of know
£ of the firft importance m
trv where liberty h,s left trace,
SS betflip*. und t r go f v " nment
coufulu <M happioc. of Mm
!ir.owWfe,” 9 reat „ V° rd
united w.th virtue it certainly
liberty Where ignorance reigns there
triumph, and despotism governs. A,
«hn-oine* enlightened authority will be
ST* .«4 «“-*«.«!« &
ueare t,ie baie * of freedom “* he one
ds u, in our r gt.ts, the other teaeht*
*‘ ( ,ur duties; the fi rlt thews us how to con-
L a tl e hell p« l°rm of government,
the Uft requires u, to obey it when conflruc-
J | t therefore advantageous every where,
out in a b<t Mk k '* a b ‘°lurcly necessary,
t[) . : forrt ct information should be widely
iifTfcd and easily obtained : For tbtrt ’ti,
lit perflt who govern. ‘lbey never inten
tioral" chotfe bad leaders or approve wrong
jure,, vet they are liable to error—give
tUmtrue details and they will juoge eer
ily—for or. plain grounds the people ail
wtvs frttn jufi opinions ■ whenever they mif
tshe tbeir own imereti* ’ti, owing entirely
to w.i t of information in the many or warn
(flmeePy m the fin’. But extrjive polili
cal mftrmrtiou innot to be acquired without
auth labour, ant! lew have leifurc to study
the fyftems,compare the opinion, and pe
tufe the page* of Locke, Sydney, Gibbon,
Hume and Vattel. If an acquaintance with
the true principles of government and duties
of, citizen could be acquired only from
huge foliu, & diCiiie trcatifei, it would be
fcldom fought or if fought, the plough, the
hatchet, and the saw must stand still. Seme
chenper and easier means of fatisfying curi
’efity and procuring information mull there
fore be looitid loi ; ai d where i, intelligence
iheapntf, and convenience united with more
idvauttge, than in theclofily printed col
nm ut the humble New,.paper ? Our
countrymen appear io well convinced of
the ulelulnefs of periodical prints and have
so vtty liber ally encouraged them, that we
deem it uunectfTary to insist on their merit,
md almolt I titrate to request public pafron
igefur another News-paper cftablilhinent.
We can pri mife little except what atten
tion, honefiy & induflry cau perform. The
principle, cl our Paper, likeour own, will be
Republican, “ but the fame freedom of opin
ion which we claim for ourfelve,, we wifli
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fcewho will not extend the fame indulgence
to all parties, and all feift, which he willies
for hi* own, ii already or deserve. to be a
Have.
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he our pride—to encourage literature our
ndeavor—no communications calculated to
io either will be refufed ; no hint will be
weeded. In a free country it is neceflary
tat the law thould be neither vague nor \
•known, ,11 public adts of the State leg- j
.Mature, will therefore be published as they
to lund. '
The MIRROR OF THE TIMES will he i
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decency,and in examining the conduct of
tovicuals, as, officers of government—it (
. ' ni w_ I Wo Party but my Country. iVo
iut Truth,"
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Mary NEWSOM, admV
Ju, y 2 4- gt
JUST RECEIVED,
rr AN “ FOR SALt
\ andsovtc C? Covvenient
™*rk made Gigs
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July, 17.
INK POWDER
Torte aui tiisoOce.
MI RROR OF THE TIMES
AN ORATION.
Delivered at Washington City on
. the 4tii of July,
By JOEL BARLOW, Esq.
Friends &? Fellow Citizens ;
The day we now commemorate
will never cease to excite in us
the most exhilirating- reflections
and mutual gratuLtions. Minds
of sensibility accustomed-to range
over The field of ctntemplation,
that the birth of our empire spreads
before them, must expand on this
occasion to great ideas, and in
vigorate their patriotic semi- j
(Dents.
The thirty-three years of na
tional existence, which have bro’i
us to our prestnt condition, are
crowded indeed with instinctive
facts, and comprise an interesting I
portion of history. But they have
only prepared this gigantic iniant I
of a nation to begin its own de* j
velopemcnt. '1 hey are only the !
prelude to the greater events that ;
setin to unfold themselves befoic i
us, and call tor ihe highest wis- j
dom to give them their proper ;
direction.
It appears to have been the prac
tice of the publick speakers, cal
led to give uttenrance to the fee
lings of their fellow-citizens, on
the anniversary of this day, to
dwell chiefly upon (hose mtmora- I
ble transactions, which necessita
ted, and thc*e which afterwards
suppoited the act of Independence
that gives name to the present festi
val. Such were the oppressions of
Britain and our effectual resis.
tcnce to those oppressions. Trans
actions so [eventful are doubtless
worthy to be held in perpetual
remembrance —And as they ought
never to be forgotten, they should
frequently be recalled to the re
membrance of our youngest bre
thicn, who cau know them only
lrom their elders.——But those
conflicting settles are now become
every where matter of record.—-
They are detailed so copiously in
our annals and so often by our
crators, as to rend er the repcii
ion of their story at this moment
far less important than to turn our
attention to other subjects grow
i ,n g out of the interests of our bles
; sed country. **
Out departed Heroes and
j men have not gone without their
j lame. Our tears have mingled
i with the ashesof tho.se fallen in our
; battles, & those who have desceu
j ded in peace to a later tomb.
j Our gratitude attends on the pre- ;
cious few w h° remain to us of i
that li ßts c f worthies ; the illustri
j ous i elies of so many fldds of dan
g-r it so many years of labor ; who
ltd us iu all our darings, when re
sistance to tyrants, as well in the
i forum as ike field, was deemed re
j hellion, &. threatened with death
I Their whitened locks that stilKvave
among us, are title ato our vene
atton ; they command, and will
obtain it, while the virtues they j
have taught us to practise shall j
continue to warm our hearts.
But our respect for the memory
and the pet sons of all our leaders
will be best evinced by the pious
culture we bestow on the ricn he.
ritage they have secured and are
handing over to our possession—
-Ihe present race is likewise pas
sing away ; but the nation re
mains and rises with its years.—
While we, the present race, are
able to call ourselves the nation,
we should be sensible of the
grtaints6 of the charge that has
: devolved upon us. We have du
j ties to posterity as well as to our
i selves. We must gather up our
strength & encounter those duties.
Yes my friends ve are,now the na
tion. As tilth, we have arrived at
that epoch when instead of looking
back with wonder upon ißir iniau
cy, we n ay look forward with #o
heitude to a state of adolescence,
with confidence to a state of man
hood. Thu’ as a nation, we are
44 HOLD THE MIRROR UP TO NATURE.” Shakespeare.
yet in the morning of life, we have
already attained an elevation which
enables us to discern our course
;to its meridian splendor ; to con
i template the height we have to
I climb and the commanding sta
llion we must gain, in order to
i fulfil the destinies to which we are
(*i!ed, and perform the duties that
1 the cause of human happiness re
i'quireß at our hands,
j To prepare the United States to
! act the distinguihscU part that
Providence, has assigned them, it
| is necessary to convince them that
; the means are within their power,
j A familiar knowledge of the means ;
will teach ushow to employ them in j
the attainment of the cud. Know- j
lodge will lead to wisdom ; and
wisdom, in no small degree, is
requisite in the conduct of affairs
Iso momentous and so ntw. For
our situation is, in many respects,
i noc only new to us but new also to
I the world.
The form of government we
: have chosen, tile geographical po- i
I siti<>n we occupy, as relative to
[ the most lurblueut powers of Eu
} tope, whose political maxima are
widely different from ours ; the
vast extent of continent winch is,
or must be comprised within our
limits, containing not less than
sixteen hundred million* of acres
and susceptible ol a population of
! two hunured millions of human
beings ; our habits of industry
& peace, instead of violence fk war
—-all these are circumstances which
rennets our situation us uovu as
it is important, it requires new the
ories ; it has forced upon U 3 new
and bold, and in some cases,
I doubful experiments ; it calls lor
| deep reflection, on the propensi
ties of human uatue, an accurate
acqua.utance with the history of
human actions ■, and what Is per
haps the most difficult to attain,
a wise discrimination among the
maxims ot wisdom, or what are
such in other tin, C s and nations
to determine which of them are
applicable, and wiiich would be
item mental to the end we have in
\iew. i would by no means in
sinuate that we should itject the
counsels ol antiquity in mass : or
turn a tieai tar to tne voice ol mo.
dem experience, because it i> not
our own. —60 lar as the policy of
other nations is founded on the
real relations ol social man, on his
moral nature undisguised, it may
dubtless be worthy of imitation j ,
but so far a# it is drawn fr°m his
moral nature disguised by habits !
i materially difTertnt fioai ours,
j sucll policy is to be suspected, it t*
to be scrutinized & broLgfit to the
test, not perhaps ot oui experi
; encc, tor that may in ccrtatu ea
sts, be wanting, but ihe test of the
general principles of our institu
tions, and 'he habits and maxim*
that arise out of them.
There has been no nation either
ancient or modern, that could
have presented banian nature in
the same character as ours does -
& will present it i tvecause there ha»
existed no nation whose govern
ment has resembled our*, /.repre
sentative democracy, on a la:g«
scale, with a fixt constitution, has
j never before been attempted, and
has no where else succeeded. —
j A federal government onde-mocra
tic principles is equally u*prece- [
dented, and exhibits a stili grea
ter innovation on a!i received ideas
ot statesmen and lawgivers. Ncr
has any theorist in political science
any among those powerless poteii- j
tales of reason, the philosopher
who have taught so many valua
ble things, evdr framed a system,
or conceived a combination of
principles producing such a result,
j Circumstances beyond our coo
! troi had thrown in our way the
materials tor this wonderful institu
tion. Our first merit lay in not re
jecting them. Hut when our sa
ges began to discern the use that
might L»e made of materials men
so unpromising, they discovered
l
great talents and patriotism in com
bining them into the system we
now find in operation. It is in.
deed a stupendous fabric ; the
greatest political phenomenon, and
probably will be considered as the
greatest advancement in the sci.
I encc of government that aii modern
ages have produced.
This is not the moment to go
into a dissertation on the peculiar
character of our political institu
; tions. The subject being well un
derstood by so respectable a por
tion of this assembly, and the time
allotted to this part of the exercises
• of the day being necessarily short,
| I should hardly expect 10 obtain
j your indulgence If 1 were even ca
pable of doing justuce to so great
a theme. Otherwise the whole
eouipass of human affairs does not
admit ot a more profitable inquiry.
Every citizen should make it ins fa
vorite suuly, and consider it is an
indispensable part of the education
of Jus children.
liut nations are educated like
I individual infants. They are what
they are taught to be. They be
come whatever their tutors desire,
and invite and prepare and force
them to become. 1 hey may be
taught to reason correctly ; they
may be taught to reason perverse
ly ; they may be taught not to rea
at all. The last is the case of des
potism ; the second where they
reason perversely, is the case of a i
nation with an unsettled & unprin
cipled government, by whatever
technical name it may be distin
guished ; for a democracy without
a constitution, though generally
and justly called the school of dis
order and perversity, is no more
liable to these calamines than a
monarcy ill defined and without
a known principle of action, and
where the arm of power lias not
that steady tension which would
render it completely despotic.—
The first, the ease in which they
reason correctly, if it ever existed
or ever is to exist, must be ours.—
Oar nation must, il can, its legisla
tors ought to say it skull, be taught
to reason correctly, to act justly’,
to pursue us own interest upon so
large a scale as not to interfere with
the interest or at least with the
rights,of other nations.- For the mo.
meat it should interfere with theirs
it could no longer be said to be pur
suing ns own.
W hat then are the interests of
this nation, which it becomes us as
| private citizens (without any mis-
I sion but the autocratical right of
individuals) to recommend to the
great oody of the Ainericau peo
,plc on tins auspicious occasion?
The most obvious and 1 believe the
most important aiu comprised in
two words i and to them 1 shall
confine my observations ; public
impr ovtmcnts and public instruc
tion* These two objects, tho’ dis
tinct in the organization which they
w ill require are so similar in their
effects, that most of the arguments
tliat whi apply to one, will apply
' equally to both. 'They arc both
i»ecess.ary to the piescrvation ol
our principles ot government; they
are both necessary to the supported
thesy»ttm mto which those prjn.
ciples are wraught, the system we
now enjoy , they are each of them
! essential, perhap-dn an equal degree
i to the perfecting of that.systcm, to
I our perceiving and preparing the a
meliorations of which it is suscepti
ble’ I shall' dweel exclusively on
these two objects not because they
are the only ones that might be
1 pointed out, but because their im
portance, their immediate & press-
I ing importance act ins to have been
i les* attended to and probably less
understood than it ought to have
been among Me general concern*
i of the union.
Public iimprove inennts, such as
roads, bridges and canals, are u.
sually considered on a commer
cial and economical point of light;
they ought likewise to be rcgaid.
ed iu amoral and political light.—
i 1
MONDAY, August 7, 1807.
Cast your ryes over the surface
of our do* mion, with a view to
its vast cx ent ; with a view to its
present and approaching state oi
population ; with a view to the
difFertut habits, manners, lan
guages, origin, morals, maxims of
the people ; with a view to the na
ture of those ties, those political
artificial ties, which hold them to
gether as one people, & which are
to be relied upon, to continue to
hold them together as one peo
ple when their number shall rise to
hundreds of millions of free,
men possessing the spirit of in*
dependence that becomes their
station. What anxiety, what
solicitude, what painful, appre
hensions must naturally crowd
upon the mind for the continuance
of such a government, stretching
its thin texture over such a coun
tiy, and in the hands of such a
people ! The prospect is awlul ;
the object, if attainable, is magni
ficent be>ond comparison ; but
the difficulty of attaining it and
the danger of losing it, are suffi
cient to cloud the prospect in the
eyes of many respectable citizens,
and lorce them to despair. Des
pair in this case to an ardent spir
it devoted to the best good of his
country, is a distressing state in*
deed. 1 o despair of preserving
the federal union of these republics
j ~jr an infinite length of time with
out a dismemberment, is to lose
the highest hopes of human socie
ty .the greatest promise of the bet
tering its condition that the efforts
of all generations 1 , have produced.
I he man of sensibility who can
contemplate wiihout horror the dis
memberment of this empire, hag
not well considered its effects.—
And yet I scarcely mingle iu socie
ty lor a day without hearing it pre*
dieted, and the prediclou uttered
with a evity bordering on indif
ference ; and that too by welt ilj s ,
posed men ol every political party.
Hence I conclude that the subject
has not been examined with the
attention it deserves.
I am not yet so unhappy as to
believe ii\ tins prediction But I
should bo forced to believe in it if
1 did licit anticipate the use of oili
er meat)* than thuae we have y ct em
ployed to perpetuate the union of
the states. They must not be co
ercive means* Such oues in most
cases would produce effects direct
ly reverse of what would be in
tended. Our policy doe» not ad
mu of standing armies j and if it
did, we could not maintain them
sufficiently numerous to restrain
great bodies of freemen with arms
in their hands, blinded by ignor
ance, heated by zeal 3 led by fae„
tious fhief6 ; and if we could main
tain them strong enough for that
purpose, we alt know They would
soon overturn the government they
were intended to support.
With as little prospect of success
could we rely upon legislative
means that is, upon laws against
treason aud misdemeanor, or any
other chapter ui the criminal code,
Such laws may sometimes intiuiU
date a chief of rebels, or a*few un
supported traitors. But a whole
geograheal district of rebels, a half
a naiiiou of traitor*, wauld legislate
against you. They would throw
your laws into one scale and their
own into the other, and lo ss in
their bayonets to turn ib e bal
ance.
IJo, the means to be relied
upon to bold this beneficent u-.
. n,< j? n together, mutt apply di
rcvlly to the interett and Con
venience of the people ; they
mull at the fame time enable
liicm ifi difeern that interett and
be Icniible of that convenience*
The people mull become habi
litated to enjoy a vilible, pal
pable, incontcttible good ; a
greater good than they could
proinile themselves from any
charge. T hey mutt have in-
[No. 43.]