The RIGHT CONSTITUTION of a COMMON
WEALTH EXAMINED.
\Continucd from our
Appius who secretly intended t® have liimfelf
continued, feeing tliofe great persons, who had
palled through all dignities, so eager in pursuit
of this, was alarmed. The people,charmed with
his pall conduct while decemvir, openly clamour
ed to continue him in preference to all others.
He affected at firft a reluifhmcc, and even a re
pugnance, at the thought of accepting a feebnd
time an employment so laborious, and so capable
of exciting jealousy and envy against him. To
get rid of his colleagues, ami to ltiniulate them
tc refufe theoflice, he declared upon all occafious,
that as they had discharged their duty with fide
lity, by their assiduity and anxious care for a
v.hole year, it was but jult to allowthem repose,
«nd appoint them fuccefiors. The more aversi
on he discovered, the more he was folicitecl.
The deiires and willies of the whole city, the u
naiiimous and earnest solicitations of the multi
tude, were at length, with pain and reluctance,
com plied with. He exceeded all his competitors
in artifice : He embraced one, took another by
the hand, and walked publicly in the forum,
in company with the Duillii and Icillii, the two
families who were the principals of the people,
and the pillars of the tiibunate. His colleagues,
who had been hitherto his dupes, knowing these
popular condescensions to be contrary to his cha
racter, which was naturally arrogant, began to
open their eyes : but not daring to oppol'e him
openly, they opposed their own address to his
management. As he was the youngest amon<>
them, they cftofe him president, whole office it
was to nominate the candidates to offices, rely
ing upon his modelty not to name himfelf; a
thing without example, except among the tri
bunes. But modesty and decency were found in
him but feeble barriers against ambition : he not
only caused himfelf to be elected, but excluded all
his colleagues of the lall year, and filled up the
nine other places with his own tools,threeof whom
were plebeians. The senate and whole patrician
body, were astonished at this, as it was thought
by them contrary to his own glory, and that of
his ancestors, as well as to his haughty character.
This popular trait entirely gained him the mul
titude. It would be tedious to relate the manner
in which they continued their power from vear to
year, with the moll hardened impudence on their
part, the most filly acquiefcencc of the people,
and the fears of the senate and patricians. Their
tyranny and cruelty became at length intolera
ble ; and the blood of Virginia, on a father's
dagger, was alone fufficient to arouse a stupid
people from their lethargy.
Is it not abfuid in Nedham to adduce this ex
ample, in support of his government of the peo
ple by their fucceflive representatives annually
•chosen ? Were not the decemvirs the people's
repi efentatives ! And were not their elections
annual ? and would not the fame consequences
have happened, if the number had been one hun
dred, or five hundred, or a thousand, instead of
ten "O, but the people of Rome should not
Jia\e continued them in power from year to year.'*
How will you hinder the people from continuing
them in power? If the people have the choice
they may continue the fame men and we cer
tainly know they will : No bounds can restrain
them. Without the liberty of choice, the depu
ties would not be the people's representatives
If the people make a law, that the fame man
fliall never serve two years, the people can and
will lepenl that law ; if the people impose up
on them selves an oath, they will soon fay and
believe they can dispense with that oath : In ffiort
the people will have the men whom they love best
for the moment, and the men whom they love best
will make any law to gratify their present humour.
Nay more, the people ought to be represented
by the men who hare their hearts and confidence
for these alone can ever know their wants and
desires : but these men ought to have fonie check
to restrain them, and the people too, when those
desires are for forbidden fruit—for iniuftice
cruelty, and the ruin of the minority -—And
that the desires of the majority ofthe people are
often tor mjufhee, and inhumanity against the
minority, is demonstrated by every pa?e of the
history of the whole world.
We come next to the examples of continuing
power in particular persons. The Romans were
1 wallowed up, by continuing power, too long in
the hands of the triumvirates of emperors or
generals The firft of these were Csfar, Pompey
and Craflus. But who continued the power of
Caesar ! If the people continued it, the argument
arising from the example is against a simple go
vernment of the people, or 'by their fuccefflve
representative assemblies. Was it the senate
was it the Handing permanent power in the con
stitution, that conferred this continuance of pow
er 011 Car far ? By no means. It is necefla
-1-y to recollect the story, that we may not be im
pofedon. No military station cxifted in Italy,
left some general might overawe the republic!
Italy however, was undftrltoocl to extend onlv
from Tar en turn to tlieArnus and the Rubicon •
Cisalpine Gaul was not reputed in Italy, and
might be held by a military officer and an army.
Caesar, from a deliberate and sagacious ambition,
procured from the people an unprecedented pro
longation of his appointments for five years ; but
the dillribution of the provinces was still the
prerogative of the senate, by the Sempronian
law. Caesar had ever been at variance with a
majority of the Senate. In the office of praetor
he had been suspended by them : In his present
office of consul he had set them at open defiance,
he had 110 hopes of obtaining from them the pro
longation of his power, and the command of a
province. He knew that the very propolal of
giving him the command of Cisalpine Gaul for a
number of years would have shocked them. In
order to carry his point he mult fetafide the au
thority of the senate, and destroy the only check,
the only appearance of a balance, remaining in
the conilitution. A tool of his, the tribune Va
tijiius, moved the people to set aside the law of
Sempronius, and by their own unlimitted power
name Caefa'as pro-consul of Cisalpine Gaul and
Illyricum for five years, with an army of seven
legions. The senate were alarmed, and in vain
opposed. The people voted it. The senate saw
that all was loft, and Cato cried, " You have
placed a King, with his guards, in your citadel."
Caesar boasted, that he had prevailed both in ob
taining the consulate and the command, not by
the concession of the Senate, but in direct oppo
sition to their will. He was well aware of their
malice, he laid. Though he had a consummate
command of his temper, and the profoundeft
dillimulation, while in purfhit of his point, his
exuberant vanity braved the world when he had
carried it. He now openly insulted tlite senate,
and no longer concealed his connection with
Pompey and CraH'us, whom he had over-reached
to concur in his appointment. Thus, one of the
cleared and strongest examples in history, to shew
theneceflity of a balance betwen an independent
senate and an independent people, is adduced
by Nedliam in favor of his indigested plan, which
has no balance at all. The other example of
Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus, is not worth
considering particularly ; for the trial between
them was but aftruggle of arms, by military po
licy alone, without any mixture of civil or poli
tical debates or negociations.
(To be continued.)
An ESSAY oh FREE TRADE and FINANCES.
[Continued from our last.]
I. That the tax be laid "with such judgment and
prude/ice, and different "weight on different articles,
that the coufumption of no articles {hall be diminijlyed
by it, beyond what the good and true interefl oj the
nation requires s for 'tis certainly better for the
merchant to deal with his customers in such arti
cles as are ufeful to them, and in such way that
they Hi all derive real benefit from their trade
with him, than to supply them with articles that
are useless and hurtful to them, and which of
:ourfe impoverish them. In the firlt cafe he will
make his customers rich, and able to continue trad-
Lng with him, and to make him good and punc
tual payments : In the other cafe he makes his
customers poor, and of course subjects himfelf to
I fie danger ot dilatory payments, or perhaps to a
final loss of his debts.
11. That the tax be universal and alike on every
part oj the country, for if one Hate is taxed and
.ts neighbour is not, the state taxed will lol'e its
trade. And
111. That the tax be universally collected. Smug
ging hurts the fair trader; favour and connivance
at collectors, to particular importers, through bri
bery, friendfhip or indolence, has the fame effect;
he person who avoids the tax can undersell him
who pays it, therefore 'tis the great interefl of
the merchant, when the duty is laid, to make it a
.leaded point, that every importer shall pay the
.luty ; and I am of opinion, that when the body
□ 1 merchants make it a decided matter to carry
my point of this nature, they are very able to
iccomplifli it ; they certainly know better than
ill the custom house officers and tide waiters 011
sarth, how to prevent 01* detecft Smuggling, and
to discover and punifli the indulgence or conni
vance of collectors, who may be induced to favour
particular importers, and they have the hiofieft
mtei eft in doing this, of any set of people in the
nation , and therefore I think it good policy to
tiuft tlus matter to their prudence, with proper
powers to execute it in the molt effectual way.
from a pretty extensive acquaintance, I am con
vinced, there is a profelfional honor in merchants
which may be fafely trusted, and I apprehend 'tis
a policy both needless and cruel, to fubjecc the
pei ions and fortunes of merc hants, the great ne
gociators of the nation's wealth, and a body of
men at lealt as refpecftable as any among us, to
the insults of cultom house officers and tide wait
ers, the rabble of which, I believe, are generally
allowed to be as corrupt, unprincipled, intolera
ble, andlow lived a set of villains as can be fcraned
out of the dregs of any nation ; and to set such fel
lows to watch and ? uard the integrity and honesty
mast re pet-table order of men, and fubjed
hon °rable and ufcful fellow citizens to such
mortifying infpedtion, appears to me to be furl,
an miult on common sense—such an outrage '
every natural principle of humanity and decent
—such a gross corruption of every degree J (
polished manners, that 1 should imagine i- must
require ages to give it that degree of practice Ja
eftabliflunent which has long taken place in o- e
Britain. The quickell way to make men k na «,
is to treat them as Inch. 'Tib a common obferva
tion, when a woman's character is gone, her cliaf
tity soon follows. Few men think thenifel v «
much obliged to exhibit inltances of integrity t
men, who will return them neither credit 11 !
confidence for their upright nels. Let every m °
have the credit of his own virtues, and be pre"
fumed to be virtuous till the contrary appears*
Honesty is as eflential and delicate a p- t , t 0 f j
merchant's cliaradter, as piety is of a c]eroy,„an's
or chaltity of a woman's, and you wound them
all alike sensibly, when youfhew by your conduct
towards them, that you even fufpeci: that they
are wanting in these character!(tic virtues. I
conceive nothing more is neceflary to make the
collection of this tax easy, than to convince the
merchants and indeed the whole community that
the tax is neceflary for the public service —f or
the eflential purposes of govemment ; and that
every one who pays it, receives a full competi
tion in the benefits he derives from the union -
and that the management of the affair be com
mitted to the merchants, to which, from the
nature of their profeffion and business, thay are
more adequate and qualified, than any other men •
and as it falls diretftly within the sphere of their
business, it fcemsto bean honour, a mark of con
fidence to which they are entitled, indeed let the
community at large "be convinced, that the money
proceeding from that tax is neceflary for the
public service, and that it can be collected with
more ease to the people in this way, than in the
mode hitherto proposed, and the colledion will
be easy and natural. The tax will ceafetobe
considered, like the tax formerly imposed onus
by the British parliament, unconstitutional in
their afleflinent, and useless in their expenditure,
(for they plagued us ,with taxes only to fatisfy
their harpies, little or none of the money ever
reached the British treasury) this tax is imposed
by our own people,—by our own representatives:
It must be imposed by Congrrfs indeed. As the
authority of any particular aflembly cannot be
adequate to it, in as much as it inuft operate alike
in all the states ; be alike universal in its efFedts,
and uniform in its mode of afleflinent and collec
tion ; and must therefore proceed from the gene
ral authority which presides over the whole union,
i. e. from the Congress, but 'tis a Congress of our
own appointment : For the members of Congress
areas much our representatives, andchofenby
our people, as the members of the several slate
aflemblies ; and the end and the life of the tax is
our own public service, to secure the benefits of
our union, without which 'tis impossible we Ihould
obtain res peJtability abroad,auniform adminiftra.
tion of civil police at home, an established public
credit, or full protection against. domestic or
foreign insult. I never knew any measure of
government opposed in its execution by the people
when a general conviction took place among the
people, that the measure was properly planned,
md was neceflary to the public good. We have
had full proof through the war, what great bur
dens our people will very cheerfully and even
without complaint, bear, when they are convinc
ed that the exigencies of the slate and the public
fafety make them neceflary.
(To he continued.)
THE NATIONAL MONITOR. No. XIV.
" The interests of men are various, but not incompatible with
each other."
THE wife and benevolent Creator of the world effrfts the iejl god
of mankind, by the variety of his operations : The dijfcrenccs of ch
mate—foil) and produce, of the fever al parts of the diver}-
°j genius—habits, and objects, which diflinguifh the inhabitants of
one country, from those of another, are circumflances which conduce to
this great design. Wc could scarcely conceive of any necessity for the ex*
iflente of enterprize, a&ivity and ingenuity, from which mankind it
me their mofl rejtned enjoyments, did nature exhibit a perpetual, and
perfctt uniformity in all quarters of the globe_ This wouldfupercede
the commercial interccrurfe of diflant nations ; and prove an ejfeflual
preveittative of improvements in trade, aits, and navigation. It would
repress the ardour of the human mind in all those pursuits which fprwg
f'°m afpmt of efnulation, and laudable ambition—it would " chill the
genial current of the foul"—confine to narrow limits the sphere of ac
tion, and extinguish the p-rofpefts of human life.
The American traveller, whose object is to acquire an adequate know*
ledge of the various parts of this continent, will oe flruck with the boun
tiful provision which the Author of Nature has here made for the founda
tion, and completion of the mofl independent empire that the world hath
ever beheld. America in herjef contains the feeds of her own greatness,
all that isneceflmy to conflitute flrength, confer power, and give digni
ty and huppinefs to an indepenent empire ; and fhouldthe time arrive,
when her travfatlavt'c cVnneffions shall become of trifling importance to
ier, as will vety probably be the cafe, fie will then pojje fs exhaufelfi
rejources for an extensive, and flour fhing commerce. There will
cxifl certain local circumflances to jorm a line of diflinftion between tie
inhabitants of the different parts of the Union: These diJtinß ions will
be f> far from volitating with the befl inter ef! of the whole, that tnci
will mofl efjvnUally contribute to promote it: Under the aufpiceiof ONz
GOl F RNMENT, which shall be conflituted by the genius, abilities, an
pah )otfm of the union, a filutary direction will be given to the //*''"
rtt of cofn petit ion, and rivaljhip in thejiveral States ; by which, their
resources nil/ le brought forth,' their growth and improvements greatly
accelerated, and their wealth individually promoted.
Pufelifhed by JOHN FENNO, No. 9, Maide^"
Lane, near the I)JiQCgQ-Mir%.et. New-York. —-[Qdol.Jdfl