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Volume IV.] LOUISVILLE, (wLOßGlA)—Publilhed every Wednefday, by AMBROSE DAY & JAMES HELY, State Printers, a. j ars ri..n.. \, acre LfiSys, Articles ot Intelligence, Advertifcmcnts, &c. &c. are thankfully received, and I’KINI ING in all its variety, is executed with neamcls and difpatch. From the National Intelligencer. THOMAS PAINE , TO THE CITIZENS CF THE UNITED STATES. LETTER the SECOND. AS the affairs of the country to which I am returned are of more importance to the world, and to me, than of that I have lately left (for it is through the new world the old mufl be re genciared, if regenerated at all) I fhall not take up the time of the reader with account of femes that have gaffed in France many of which art painful to remem ber and horrid to relate, but come at once to the eirn m- Ivances in which I find America on my arrival. Fourteen years and fomething more have produced a change, at k aft among a part of the peo ple, and I afk m\ felf what it is ? I meet or hear of thousands of my former connexions who are men of the fame principles and frienc fhips as when I left them. But a non-defeript race, and of equivocal generation, af fijming the name of federalifm a name that deferibes nocharaXer of principle good or bad, and may equally be applied to either, has fincc ftarteei up with the rapidity of a mufhroom, and like a ntufliroo'm is withering on its rootless Folk. Are thole men federalifed , to fupport the liberties ot their country or to overturn them ? To add to its fa-r fame or riot on its fpoils ? The name contains no defined idea. It is like John Adams's definition of a republic in his letter to Mr. Wythe of Vir ginia. It is fays he an empire cf laws and not cf men. But as laws ma. be bad as well as good, an empire of laws may be the beft of all governments, or the word of all tyrannies. But John Adams is a man of paradoxical here Ties, and confequently of a bewildered mind. He wrote a bock entitled <c A defence cf the American Conflitutioa." and the principles of it are an attack upon them. But the book is defeended to the tomb of for gctfulnefs, and the bell fortune ' that can attend its author, is quietly to follow its face. John was not born for immortality. But to return to federalifm. In the hiflory of parties and the names they aflame, it of ten happens, that they finifli by the direX contrary principles with which they profefs to be gin, and thus it has happened with federalifm. During the time of the old Congrefi, and prior to the eftab cf the federal govern- THE LOUISVILLE GAZETTE; AND REPUBLICAN TRUMPET. WEDNESDAY, Decemrhr 15, 1802. LIBERTY TS OUR MOTTO troth our guide, ment, tre continental belt was too loofely buckled. The fe veral fates were it i red in name, but nor in faX, aid that r,(.mi ll al unrn bad neither centre nor circle, lie laws of ere fate frequently interfered with, and fimeiirres oppoied thofe of another —Commerce between Fare and Fate was without pro tcXion, aid confidence without a point to reft on. Ihe condi tion the cc untry was then in, was aptly dc fir Ted by Tel an ah WelFer when he fa id, “ 'Jhir~ teen fares rid ne'er a hup will net make a barrel If then by ftdcraiift is to be umkrftrrd, one who was for cementing the union by a gene ral government, operating e quail) c \tr all ihr fates in all matte rs tFar < mbraced the com mon ii tereft, anti to which the ahtl or if y ot the fates fcverally was net adequate, for no one Fate can make laws to bind another. If I fay by a federal ft is ment a perfon of this defirip ticn, (and this ; s the origin of the name) Itught to Jland frfl cn the lift cf federalifts , for the propefuien for eftablifhmg a general government over the union came originally from me in 1783, in a W'ritten memorial to Chancellor Livingfton then lecretary for foreign affairs to Congrefs, Robert Morris mi n Ftrof finance, and his afifoci arc Governeur Morris, all of whom are now living, and we had a dinner and conference at Robert Morris’s on the fub jeX. Ihe occafion was as fol lows : Congrefs had propofed a du ty of five per cent on imported articles, the money to be #ap plied as a fund towards paying the intereft of loans to be bor rowed in Holland. ft he re folve was fent to the fcveral Fates to heenaXcd into a law. Rhode-Hand abfblutely refufed. I was at the trouble of a jour ney to Rhode-Hand to reafon with them on the fubjeX. Some other of the Fates cnaXed it with alterations, each ore as it pie a fed. Virginia adopted it, and afterwards repealed, it, and the* affair came to nothing. It was then vifible, atleaftto me, that either congrefs muft frame the law's necefiary for the union, and fend them to the fc veral Fates co be cnregiftered without any alteration, which would in itlelf appear luce uuir pation on one parr, and pafTive obedience on rhe other, orfome method muft he devi.ed to ac compli Fi the lame end by con~ ftitutional principles, and the propefuien I made in tne me- mcri.il, was to add a entf{ren tal legifiature to a7gre;s to ic eictled i) ihe/uitirljiuft’s. ft he pH | ( fine n n et ti e full a| | ro bat.cn of the gentlnuc n to whom it was addieFeo, and tie an vrrlation turned ( n 11 c n anr< r of brirghg it fciward. G. Mina, in walking w.th n *• at ter din (i, v. F eti n t to throw rut ti e idua in ti e ntwf-papers. I replied that I did not like to be always the prt-pofcf* ot new things, that it wruld have h o aFuming an appearance; and be Tides, that 1 did not think the country was quite wrong cm ugh to be put right. I remember giv.ng the fame reafon to doc tor Kl-F1 at Thiladelphia, and to general Gates, at whole quar ter I jpent a day on my return fr m Rhode-Hand, and I fup pcie they will renumber it; becaufe the obfeivation fumed to finke them. But the embarrafTments en cn Ting as they nec< Fai ily muft from th». want of a belt- r ce mented union, the Fate of Vir ginia propofed holding a com mercial convention, and that convention, which was not luf ficicntly numerous, propt fed that another convention, with more extenfive and better de fined powers, ihoilld be held at Philadelphia, May 10, 1787. When the plan of the federal government formed by this con vention w r as propofed, and fub mitred to the confuleration of the feveral Fates, it w'as ftrong ly cbjeXed to in each of them. But tiie objcXions were not on federal grounds, but on confti tutional points. Many were fliocked at the idea of placing, what is called executive power, in the hands of a Tingle indivi dual. —To them it had too much the form and appearance of a military government, or a de fpotic one.—Others objeXed that the powers given to a pre fident were too great, and that in the hands of an ambitious defining man, it might grow into tyrranny as it did in Eng land under Oliver Cromwell, and as it has fince done in France. A republic muft not only be fo in its principles, but in its forms. The executive part of the feder al government vvas made for a man, and thofe who confentcd, againft their judgment, to place executive power in the hands of a Tingle individual repofed more on the fuppofed moderation of the perfon they had in view than on the wifdom of the mea fure itfeif. Two confidcrations however overcame ail objeXtions. The cne w’as the ablblute neccftlty oi a federal government. The other the rational idltdion, thac | as government in America is ) founded on the reprefentativc , fjftem, any error in the ftrft: ! eflhy could be reformed by the j farm quiet and rational proccfs In which thcconlliiut.cn wan fir ft formed ; and tl at, either by the generation then livii g, or by rhofc who were to luccerd. If ever America look fight of this principle, fhe vli be no longer the land cf liberty ihe father will become the aflafTu of the rights of the lon, and his defendants be a race cf Haves. As mar y choufands who were minors are grown up to man hot d finr e the name of feder ah ft began, it became needfa r), for their information, to go bar k and ftiew the or.g.n of d;c nanse, which is nc wno longer what it originally was; but it; is the more nm ttiiry to do tins, in order to brig forward, in the open fhccof ('ay, the ap >f u&cy of v ho talkd themlrlves tederalifts. To them it ferved r/ : rlrak for rreafon, a mailt ftrtynannv. Scarcely were the\ placed in the feat of power and < flier, than fecit rahfin was to be and the reprefenrativ * fv hmd’ government, the pride and glo ry of America, and the palla dium of her liberties, was to ht overthrown and aboliihed. Tl nextgenerarionwasnono' f The fon was to bend I ? beneath the father's fir i, live deprived of his rights, der hereditary contr »ul. A: the men of this ape ftate deft r rion is to be ranked the v x. ; fident, Jon ft Ai a ms. Ic i been the political career of tn man to begin with hypocrify, proceed with arrogance, and nni/h in contempt. May fueli be the fate of all fiich ch traders. I have had doubts of John Adams ever fince 1776. In a converfation with me, at than time, concerning the pamphlet Common Scnfo, he cenfured ic becaufe it attacked the Ergllfti form of governmenr.—John was for independence, becaufe he expected to be made great by it 3 but it was not di/Ticult to perceive, for the furlincfs of Ida temper makes him an aukwarcl hypocrite, that his head was aa full of kings, queens and knaves, as a pack of cards. But John has loft deal. When a man has a concealed project in his brain that be w ants to bring forward, and fears will nor luccerd, he often begins with it as pyficians do by fuf peded poifon, try it firft on an aaimali i i it agree with the [No. 1S 3.