Newspaper Page Text
No. 44 -Vol. V.]
POLITICAL.
From the Jfeui York American.
The following speech was delivered by
Mr. Jeffrey, Editor of the Edinburgh Re
view, at the anniversary dinner in Edin
burgh, on the 26th January, given by the
-friends and admirers of Mr. Fo* in com
memoration of his principles. At this din
ner the chief whig nobility and gentry of
Scotland attended; and it was before such an
assembly thai this eloquent tribute to the
free institutions and cheering example of
America was pronounced. VVe have the
more pleasure in making this speech publick
here, as we have reason to know that Mr.
Jeffrey differs entirely in his sentiments of
our country from the prejudiced, not to say
venal, conductors of the Quarterly Review,
and that while the latter lose no opportuni
fy of disparaging our morals, man iers, and
laws, Mr. Jeffrey takes pleasure iu bearing
testimony to their purity and effect.
Mr. Jeffrey rose, and was welcomed wiih
long and loud applause. After t his had sub
sided, he proceeded. Though it is the
principal business of a meeting like this to
do hooonr to the champions of our own
rights, and the principles of our own free
dom, I propose now, with your Lordship’s
indulgence, to bring under its notice the
concerns and the merits of anothercountry,
which though, I thank God, foreign and in
dependent, in relation to ns, I (rust never
will he regarded as alien either to the peo
ple of Britain or the common interests of
liberty. I allude, my Lord, to the United
States of America. (Applause.) It is not
any part, however, of aiy purpose to en
large on her present greatness and growing
importance, or the mighty influence which
slip is destined hereafter to exercise on the
fortunes of the world. To that futurity it
is animating to look forward—and to think
that there is nothing in the prospect it pre
gents to us that is not bright with the prom
ise of great improvement. But it is rather
to her present condition, and to the advan
tages we have already derived from her,
that I wish to call the attention of the meet
ing. For, to my mind, that nation has al
ready done the most essential service to the
eause of freedom—not perbap-’ so much by
the conduct of her people, or by the acts of
her government, as by her mere existence
—in peace, respect and prosperity, under
institutions more practically popular, and a
constitution more purely democratick, than
has ever prevailed among civilized men
from the beginning of the world—thus af
fording a splendid illustration, and irrefraga
ble proof, of the possibility of reconciling
the utmost extent of freedom with the main
tenance of publick authority, and the great
est order and tranquillity and security to
private rights, with the most unbounded ex
erase of political 01109. What else, indeed,
can furnish so conclusive and triumphant a
refutation of pitiful sophisms, and absurd
predictions, by which the advocates of exis
ting abuse have at all times endeavoured to
create a jealousy and apprehension of re
form? You cannot touch the most corrupt
and imbecile government without unseitling
the principles and unhinging the frame of
society—you cannot give the people politi
cal rights without encouraging them to be
disobedient to lawful authority and sowing
the seeds of continual rebellion and perpet
ual discontent—nor recognize popular pre
tensions in any shape, without coming ulti
mately to the abolition of all distinctions,
and the division and destruction ofall prop
erty —without involving society irf’short, in
disorders at once frightful and contemptible,
and reducing all tbiugs to the level of an in
secure, and ignoble, and bloody equality
Such-are the reasonings by which we are
now to be persuaded that liberty is incom
patible with private happiness and national
prosperity, and that the despolick govern
ments of the world ought to be maintained,
if it were only to protect the people from
the consequences of allowing them any con
trol over the conduct of their rulers! To
these we need not now answer in words, or
by past and questionable examples; but we
put them down at once, and trample them
contemptuously to the earth, by a short ap
peal to the existence and condition of Ameri
ca! (Great applause.) W'hat is the conn
try of the universe, I would now ask, in
which property is most sacred, or industry
most sure of its reward? Where is the au
thority of law most omnipotent? Whpre is
intelligence and wealth most widely diffus
ed, and most rapidly progressive? Where
is society in its general description most
peaceable, and orderly, and moral, and con
tented? Wheie are popular tumults least
known, and the spirit and existence, and al
most the name of a mob least heard of?
Where, in short, is political animosity least
prevalent —-faction subdued—and, at this
moment, even party nearly extinguished, in
a prevailing feeling of national pride and
satisfaction? Where, but in America? (Im
mense applause.) America, that laid the
foundation of her Republican Constitution in
a violent, radical, sanguinary revolution—
America, with her fundamental democracy,
made more unmanageable, and apparently
more hazardous, by being broken up into I
do not know bow many confederated and
independent democracies—America, with
universal suffrage, and monthly or weekly
THE MISSIONARY.
elections—a free and unlicensed press;
without an established priesthood, an he
reditary nobility, or a permanent executive
—with all that is combustible, in short, and
pregnant with danger, on the hypothesis of
tyranny, and without one of the safe-guards
by which alone they contend the benefits
or the very being of society can be main
tained! (Peals of applause.) There is
something at once audacious and ridiculous
in maintaining such doctrines in the face of
such experience: Nor can any thing be
founded on the novelty of these institutions,
or the pretence that they have not yet been
put fairly on their trial. America has gone
on prospering under them (or forty years—
and has exhibited a picture of uninterrupt
ed, rapid,unprecedented advances in wealth,
population, intelligence, and concord, while
all the arbitrary governments of the old
world have been overrun with bankruptcies,
conspiracies, rebellions, and revolutions, and
are at this moment trembling in the con
sciousness of their insecurity, and vainly en
deavouring to repress irrepressible discon
tents, by confederated violence and terror.
(Applause.)
If any thing more were required to show
the superiour security as well as energy
and happiness of free government, I must
beg merely to contrast the condition of
South America, as it was (ill very lately—
with that ot the happy country to which I
have been referring. These southern et
tlements had the advantage of being earlier
established, and followed from the first by
the fostering care of the. parent state.
They were placed in a more fertile soil and
a more propitious climate; but they were
governed by non-resident despots, and giv
en over to bigoted priests and courtly fa
vourites. and wanting freedom, all the bles
sings of nature were turned to curses.
Their treasures ivere exhausted—the pop
ulation withered and shrunk under them—
both races were degraded by their mixture
—and they became at last among the gov
erning classes a degenerated and corrupt! and
mass, which mouldered away and dissolved
in its own rottenness—till it fertilized the
soil over which it was scattered, for that ri
sing and glorious harvest of liberty which
now covers it with the beauty of its prom
ise ! In the north our emigrant countrymen
were cast in more ungenial regions—and
their first struggles either totally neglected
or hut coldly supported by the mother coun
try —but, carrying with them that inn..to
love of freedom, which, I trust, will run in
the blond of all Britons, they surmoun'ed
all difficulties, and even under the colonial
and not always equitable government of
England, they made very considerable ad
vances in wealth and civilization; and ever
since they have been left to build for them
selves on this firm foundation, havp so roul
tiplied ami increased in the land, and advanc
ed with such miraculous rapidity in wealth,
population, industry and power, as not only
to put to shame the stationary communities
of Europe, but even to make her statists
and political economists revise and re-mod
el their systems, to correspond with their
unnatural and excessive prosperity ! Such,
my Lord, are the services which I conceive
America to have rendered to the cause of
liberty—and though they are, as I appre
hend,truly incalculable in value and amount,
it U pleasing to think that they have been
rendered, not only without sacrifice or effort
on her part —but almost w ithout her con
sciousness or co operation. They have
flowed like a healing virtue from her exis
tence and her example. She has only bad
to be free, and peaceful, and happy, and
prosperous in her freedom, to put down the
disgusting sophistry of the hireling advo
cates of power, and to give the strongest
encouragement to all the nations of the
earth, to emulate her happiness and peace
by imitating her freedom ! For these servi
ces —for that encouragement —for these les
sons—she is entitled to our warmest grati
tude. But the time is perhaps come when
she is destined to render still more active
and essential services, and to confer bene
fits. by which as they cost her more, she
will confer still deeper obligations. It was
too much perhaps to expect—that, while
her own peace and honour were not in
question, this infant giant should stretch her
unnerved arm across the broad Atlantick,
merely to control the encroachments of
foreign despots and stranger nations —or
testify otherwise than by her practice, her
scorn of their pretensions, and her abhor
rence of the acts by which they are animat
ed. But as soon as the menace of their ar
rogance is directed to the shores of that
majestick continent—one extreme of which
is guarded and sanctified by her seat —as
soon as the borders of her land arr profaoed
by the rumour even of the unhallowed ap
proach of the principles or powers of the
Holy Alliance —there issues forth that calm,
resolute, awful voice of determined free
dom, and prepared resistance, at which the
heart of the tyrant quaiU more fearfully
than at the loudest oole of defiance, and
which, like the low muttering of the thun
der, announces that avenging justice is pre
paring her bolt 9, to cast down the pride of
her oppressors. May we hope, too, that
the symptoms, though tardy and somewhat
reluctant, of a more liberal spirit—and a
truer sympathy with English feeling, which
] have lately appeared in some of the meas-
Os all the Hisnnsiimn, i, “A wor jd, and preach the Gosf Ito every creature. —Jesus Christ.
spot,Cons and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religio, and Morality are imlispei.sat.le si,,,ports. -Washington.
MOUNT ZION, (HANCOCK COUNTY, GEORGIA,) MONDAY, APRIL 19, 1824.
ares ot our administration, may lead to an
entire restoration of cordiality with our
kinsmen of the new world, and place us
once more in the delightful relation of fel
low labourers in support of the samS rights
—and fellow champions of the samt> regu
lated freedom. When tyrants confederate,
freemen should unite—when bald men
league together for oppression, gijod men
must join together for their safety find pro
tection. It is in this spirit, and forthis pur-’
pose, that I offer this toast to youi accept
ance. When the people and the govern
ment are identified, it is most respectful to
speak of them under the name of tbeir ruler
—and as the President of this imperial re
publick has lately done himself sach distin
guished honour by the manly, wise, and dig
nified Message he has addressed to his
countrymen, and, through them to the
world, I hope to meet with your approba
tion in proposing—“ 77ie Health of the Pres
irfe.it of the United States of America, and a
speedy union of nil free nations against the
encroachments of tyranny.' I’’ 1 ’’
‘■aZZZZZZSe-ZZZZZZoi
A COMI'END OF
JEWISH ANTIQUITIES.
[To be continued weekly.]
Q. What sacrifices were prescribed for
this feast ?
A. The very same as those oa each day
of unleavened bread.
Q. What appears to have been the de
sign of this festival ?
A. It is not particularly mentioned in the
law, but no doubt it was intended as an ex
pression of gratitude to God, who gtvelh to
man the fruits of the earth in their season.
The Jews, however, have a tradition that
on this day the law was givpn from Sinai,
that is, on the 50th after the departure from
Egypt.
It seems also to have been a typical re
ference to the first effects of the Holy Spi
rit under the Gospel. Thu* we find that
the first converts to Christianity, after the
creation of the Gospel Kingdom, are called
first fruits. And it is remarkable that the
first accession to the Christian Church oc
curred on this very day.
Q. Which was the third great festival of
the Jews ?
A. It is called the feast of tabernacles , on
account of the people dwelling in booths
during its celebration—Deut. 16. 16. It is
ol—> onllnJ the front ingathering, at the
end of the year ; because at this season the
whole fruits of the earih were gathered in,
not only of corn, but also of grapes and
fruits of (be trees. It began on the 15tb
day of the month Tisri —it was celebrated
for seven days, to which another was ad
ded, but which did not properly make a
part of the feast of tabernacles. This feast
was intended as a memorial of the Israelites
dwelling in tents in the wilderness. The
eighth day wa9 properly the feast of ingather
ing; on which they were to give thanks
for their whole harvest, their corn and
wine, &c. being now gathered in. This
last is no doubt the day referred to on the
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, “ifany man thirst let him
come unto me and drink.” The Rabbins
inform os of a practice, which may serve to
illustrate this passage, which was, that the
Jews at this feast drew water from the pool
of Siloam in a golden pitcher, brought it
and poured it on the sacrifice as it lay on
the altar. This evening was attended with
expressions of extravagant joy.
Q. In what way was this feast soleraniz
ed ?
A. The first and last days were observed
as Sabbaths, and besides the usual daily
sacrifices, there were peculiar sacrifices for
each day of this feast.
On the first day thirteen young bullocks
for a burnt offering; on the second day
twelve, on the third day eleven, and so on,
one less every day, until the seveoth day,
when seven were offered, which made se
venty in all. There were offered on each,
two rams and fourteen lambs, except on the
eighth day, when only half that number
were offered, and only one bullock. All
these were for burnt offerings, in addition
to which was the sin offering of onp goal
daily, and the usnal meat and drink offerings
to each sacrifice. At the feast they took
branches of various trees and made booths ,’
and also carried the branches about in pro
cession. Some deny that the law required
booths to be made of branches. But it is
plain from Nehemiah, that booths were
made in his time, and also that (bis had been
neglected from the days of Joshua until his
time. By the modern Jews this feast is
kept with the mo9t extravagant expressions
of gladness, with branches of palm, of myr
tle and willow in their right hand. They
make a procession through their syna
gogues, singing a very remarkable hosan
na. The greater part of the nights, ex
cept the nights of the Sabbath and of thp
Bth day, is spent in singing, dancing, &c.
Q. At what time of the year did the day
of expiation , or great day of atonement, oc
cur?
A. On the tenth day of the month Tisri.
Q. What were the sacrifices and cere
monies of this day ?
A. This day was observed as a solemn
Sabbath, in which all labour was so cease,
and also as a strict fast; for although fasting
is not expressly mentioned here, or any
where else in the law, jet the expression
—“ ye shall afflict your souls,” has always
been interpreted by the Jews to refer to
fastings; and in process of time this day
was called to which Luke probably
refers in Acts. The sacrifices offered on
this day, besides the daily sacrifice, were
fifteen in number. A bullock for a sin offer
ing, and a ram for a burnt offering, were
required to be offered for the priest and his
family, or house, by which some understand
the whole tribe of Levi. For the congre
gation there were to be taken two kids of
the goats and a ram for a burnt offering.—
The two goats the priest presented before
tbe Lord at the door of the tabernacle and
cast lots upon them, one lot for the Lord
and the other for the scape goat, as it is ren
dered in our translation,though others give
a very different meaning to the word. The
first goat on which the lot for the Lord fell,
was offered for a sin offering. The other
was presented alive before the Lord, to make
an atonement with him, and (o let it go for
a scapegoat into the wilderne99.
Ou ibis day all the sacrifices were offered
by the high priest, clothed in his linen
robes, that were common to him with the
other priests. Having slain the bullock
for a sin offering, for himself and for his
bouse, lie took a censer full of coals of fire
from the altar, before the Lord, and hi*
hands full of sweet incense, and put the in
cense into the fire, and thus entered into the
holy of holies, amidst the cloud of incense
winch also covered the mercy-seat when
he entered. He likewise took with him
into the holy of holies the blood of the bul
lock and sprinkled it with bis fingers on <bc
mercy seat, eastward, seven times. Then
having killed the goal of the sin offering,
he took also ot ns nlood and sprinkled it in
the same manner as that of the huilock.—
During this ceremony no person was per
mitted to enter the holy place , lest he should
be tempted to look wiiuin the veil. After
the high priest returned from the holy ot
holies he took some of the biood of the bul
lock and of the goat and sprinkled it on the
attar seven times, and put some of it on the
horns of the altar. Thus the most holy place
and the holy place were sanctified by tbe
spriukling of the blood; and thus the high
priest made an atonement for himself and
his house, and for all the congregation, not
for tin or that sin, bul for all their sins.—
Having finished this solemn service within
UIC labcrowoloj he ‘bon woe to tolro the lIV >
mg goat, and laying his hands on its head,
to confess over it all the sins of the Israel
ites, putting them on tbe head of the goat —
then he whs to send it away by a’ fit roan
into the wilderness; thus the goat waste
bear upon itself all the sins of the Israelites
into a land not inhabited, even the wilder
ness.
The high priest then laid aside his linen
garments, washed himself and put on Ins
pontifical robes, and offered the other ap
pointed sacrifices.
The man who led the goat into the wil
derness washed himself on his return ; and
the bodies and skin of the bullock and goat
of the sin offering were carried and burnt
without the camp.
Q. Was there any other than the week
ly Sabbath required to be observed by the
law ?
A. Yes—every seventh year was to be
kept a9 the Sabbatical year, and every fifti
eth year as a jubilee.
Q. What was the observance of the Sab
batical year?
A- LA cessation from all manner of agri
culture.
2. All the spontaneous productions of the
earth were left to be used in common. 3.
There was a remission of all debts due from
one Israelite to another. 4. The law was
read in the audience of the people at the
feast of tabernacles.
Q. At wbat time did the Sabbatical year
commence after the Israelites came into
Canaan ?
A. It is disputed whether the first or se
venth year after their coming into it was
the Sabbatical year. The last opinion is
supported by Usher, and seems the most
probable. But others think the computa
tion did not commence until the country
was subdued, which was seven years after
their entering it, so that the Sabbatical year
occurred on the 14th year after they pas
9ed Jordan. The reason of (bis optnion is,
that the first seven years being employed
in war and not in agriculture, there would
be no impropriety in letting the earth rest
on the seventluyear. But the former opi
nion is to tbe letter of (he
law- The time may be thus calculated—
Caleb was forty years old when he was
sent from Kadesh barnea to spy out tbe land,
and this was in autumn of tbe second year
after the Exodus, but Caleb was 85 years
old when the land was divided; hence the
interval between spying out the land and
its division, was forty five years ; to this
add one year and a half from the Exodus to
the spying out tbe land, and the sum is for
ty six and a half years, from which deduct
forty years spent in the wilderness, and we
have six and a half years which had elaps
ed from the entrance into Canaan to the di
vision of tbe land.
Q. At what season of the year did the
Sabbatical year commence ?
[Price $3 50 per amt.
A.. The only doubt here is, whether ‘h®
computation began with the civil or eccle
siastical year of the Jews. Although this
question is not expressly decided in the law,
yet there are good reasons for supposing
this year coincided with the civil year in
Tisri, for had it begun in Nisan, there would
have been a loss of crop in succession; for
the sowing of the preceding autumn could
not have been reaped, and tbe sowing for
the ensuing year must have been neglected.
But this supposition is inconsistent with the
law, which required the people to sow their
fields and gather the fruits thereof six yearsi
Lev. 25. 3, 4.
Q. Since the people were prohibited
from sowing and reaping this year, how
were they supported?
A. They were permitted to eat whatever
the land spontaneously produced; and God
graciously promised his blessing on the sixth
year, that it should produce enough for
three years. This promise, however, was
conditional. As long as they kept it, the
blessing was never withheld, but when they
neglected it, there is reason to believe
much inconvenience was experienced fur
want of food on the Sabbatical year. It
seems it was not observed lor a long time,
for God threatens that the people should be
carried away captive from their land, that
it might rest until she enjoyed Sabbaths, for
as long as she lay desolate she kppt Sabbath
to fulfil seventy years. 1 Chron. 36 21.
Perhaps our Lord alludes to the Sabbatical
year when he says, “ Pray thtil your flight
be not in the winter season nor on the Sab
bath ”
Q. Did the law respecting remission of
debts intend a total remission, or only that
they should not be demanded during the
Sabbatical year?
A. The former doubtless; some of the
Rabbins, however, made so many excep
tions to this law, that they rendered it of
none effect by their traditions.
Q. Was the release of the Hebrew slaves
a part of the observance of the Sabbatical
years ?
A. No, for they were freed after 7 year 9
service; hence their release did not occur
on any particular year.
Q. Why was this year selected for the
reading of the law ?
A. Because it was peculiarly suited to
religious contemplation, as the people were
exempt from labour, &c.
Q What was the design of this institu
tion?
i A. To lead men to put confidence inOud,
who by blessing the sixth year showed
• them his ability to support them without
their co-operation. It served doubtless to
keep the land from being worn out by con
stant tillage. But its chief design was to
typify “that rest which remainelh to the
people of God.” Some Jews as well a9
Christians have considered ibis year as pre
figuring the mille.nium ; for as the law con
st crates the seventh day and seventh year,
they conclude that as “one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years,” &c. af
ter the 6000 years of labour and turmoil
will come the Sabbath of a thousand years.
Thi9 is thus stated by Rabbi Elias—2ooo
years without the law—2ooo years under
the law—and 2000 years under the Messiah.
CHARACTER OF MR. WOLF.
He is so extraordinary a creature there
i9 no calculating a priori concerning his
motions. He appears to me to be a comet
without any perehelion, and capable of set
ting a whole system on lire. When 1 should
have addressed him in Syria, I heard of him
at Malta, and when I supposed he was gone
to England, he was riding like a ruling an
gel in the whirlwinds of Antioch, or standing
unappalled among the crumbling towers
of Aleppo. A man who at Rome calls the
Pope the dust of the earth, and tells the
Jews at Jerusalem, that Gemara is a lie;--
who passes his days in disputation, and his
nights in digging the Talmud ; to whom a
floor of brick is a feather bed, and a box a
bolster; who makes or finds a friend alike
in the persecutor of his former or present
faith; who can conciliate a Pacha or con
fute a Patriarch; who travels without a
guide, speaks without an interpreter, can
live without food, and pay without money;
forgiving all the insuite be meets with, and
forgetting all the flattery he receives; who
knows little of worldly conduct, and yet ac
commodates himself to all men, without
giviDg offence to any ; such a man, (and such
and more is Wolf,) must excite no ordinary
degree of attention in a country and among
a people whose monotony of manner and
habits have remained undisturbed for cen
turies.
Asa pioneer I deem him matchless
“ -flu! invtniel viam aut fuciet but if order
is to be established, or arrangements made,
trouble not Wolf. He knows of no church
but hig heart, no calling but that of zeal, no
dispensation but that of preaching. He is
devoid of enmity towards man, and full of
the love of God. By such an instrument,
whom no school hath taught, whom no
college could hold, is the way of the Ju
dean wilderness preparing—thus is Pro
vidence showing the nothingness of the wis
dom of the wise, and bringing to naught the
understanding of the prudent; thus are his
brethren provoked to emulation, and stir
red ap to inquiry. They all perceive, as