PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS BY JOHN FENh'O, No. 41, BROAD-STREET, NEAR THE EXCHANGE, NEW-YORK [No. 21, cf Vol. 11. j FOR THE GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES. On the MEANS of PRESERVING the UNION of the AMERICAN STATES. THE present Constitution of the United States appears to be excellent in contemplation ; and if the harmony of the States ftiould not be disturbed by groundless jealoulies, it bids fair to bedurableand efficient in pra<ftice. It ishowever ■very doubtful whether several jurisdi&ions with in a jurisdiction, wheels within a wheel, will not produce fonie jarring in their movements. The experiment is curious, and much wisdom and pt udence may render it fuccefsful. What then are the probable means of perpe tuating our present eltablifhments ? Patriotism and the (wont are not the means. I conceive the means to confilt folelyin a union ofinterejls I.—All debts contracted during the late war, and in the common cause, mult be made a common charge against the Union, and the creditors must all look to the fame authority for payment, must de >end on the fame rej'ources ,and have the offer of equal compensation. Divide the debts, divide the resources, leave the different State legillatures to make various unequal provisions for payment, and a hostility will immediately commence between the gene 1 aland particular governments, and be tween the different descriptions of creditors.— To fever our Union forever, nothing is wantod, kut to set three or four States contending with Congress about the sources of revenue ; and un lets the debts ftiould be affumedand made a com mon charge, nothing but infinite power could prevent fach a contention. II There ftiould be no exclusion of persons ■who hold feats in the national government from a capacity to hold, at the fame time, offices under the state governments. However diflinH the pow ers of the governments may be, their inttreJls are ♦V.; fame- °Both are designed to promote the wel fare and happiness of the fame citizens. If two offices a' C incompatible, whether under state go vprnmpnft or the national government, common Jenfe will di<st\^ e they ftiould not be lodged in the fame hands. But a proportion for a total •xcluftoii of member. < Congress and federal of ficere from any feat or "» a tatc , S ove, »- ment, indicates a jealoufyotouT national govern ment, toa high decree alarming. s " ch apiopo lition, like the exclusion of Clergymen front ci vil offices, supposes an enmity between i'ue two go vernments or two orders of men, which i each to fortify againlt the other, by erecting an impaflable barrier. It is a declaration of hoftNi lies between parties whole very exiilence depenu* on peace and union. The federal government stands on the State governments, as on pillars ; and without thenational government's guaranty, the independence of a State could not be '.eCuie for a year. What madness thus to wage war with the national government! Whatinfatuation to create fparate interefls, when the whole buli nefs of this generation is, UNION ! Consolidation, that bug b-ar of ant ifederalilm, has spread terrific apprehenftons, and made ho nest men dread the influence of the national go vernment. But in the name of common fenle, let tne ask, was ever a nation too firmly confotidated for the purposes of good government ? Never, it may be answered, never was a political lociety too clofcly united for ftrengtli, harmony, and happiness. Ancient Greece and all modern Eu rope can teftify, that half the calamities of man_ kind have frown out of the rivalfhips, pride, and discordant views of petty sovereignties ; nay, ■we ourselves fliould bless God for a tedeial con stitution, which, by abridging the independence of the States, extinguiflied the sparks of civil war, that, in 1755, lay Mattered through the States, just ready to be blown into a flame. 1 hei e is no physical certainty that the state govern merits will ever be melted down into the general government ; centuries at least must escape, be fore this event can take place, in the ordinary proo-refs of political changes. If it ever lhould, it will probably be the effert of pre-difpofing causes which will render it neceflary for. public happiness. But by dividing the interests of the States, and detaching the officers of the liationa government from their interest in the State go vernments, the most effectual bonds of union will be diflblved, our national laws will be with out energy, and America may expect to be icourged with fatfiions, war and conquest. It is a feiititnent most deeply imprett'ed on my mind, that the whole business of the present age is, UNION'- N - W - Hartford* jfun 12, 1790. WEDNESDAY* JUNE 23, J 79°- DISCOURSES ON DAVILA No. XL Ilvroas procacrl! What bounds your pride fliall hold ? What check, veftram your thitft of power and gold ? '"IT* HE arifwer to the questions in the motto, can A be none other than this, that as nature has established in the bofoins of heroes no limits to those paifions ; and as the world, instead of re straining, encourages them, the check inuft be, in the form of government. The world encourages ambition and avarice, by taking the moll decidcd part in their tavor. The Roman world approved of the ambition ot Caesar ; and, notwithstanding all the pains that have been taken with so much reason, by moral and political writers to disgrace it, the world has approved it these 17 hundred years ; and still es teems his name an honor to the firft empire in Europe.' Consider the (lory of the ambition and the fall ofCardinal Wolfey and Archbishop Laud ; the indignation of the world against their tyran ny has been very faint ; the sympathy with their fall has been very Itrong. Consider all the ex amples in hillory of fuccefsful ambition, you will find none generally condemned by mankind ; on the other hand, think of the instances of am bition unfuccefsful and disappointed ; or ot falls from great heights, you find the sympathy ofthe world uuiverfally affected. Cruelty and tyranny of the blackest kind must accompany the Itory, to destroy or sensibly diminish this That world, for the regulation ot whose prejudices, paifions, imaginations and interests, governments are instituted, is so unjust, that neither religion, natural nor revealed, nor any thing, but a well ordered and well balanced government has ever been able to correcft it, and that but imperfectly. It is as true in modern London, as it was in anci enL Rome, that the sympathy of the worlu is less excited by the deftrmition ot the lioofe ot a man of hum it, in obfeurity, or even in middle life, though it be by the unjust violence of men, than by Ihe fame (alamity befalling • rich man, by the righteou? imlignation of heavgii- Nil habuit Corfius : (juts enir»> negai ? ft illud Pc' 1 iW.it iufclix totucn nihil, ulumus au cm cumulus, qnod nudjm ct frutlra rogintem Nrmo ciboj*nemo hofpilio tutoque juvab.t, Si magna Ariuii efcidid domus, horrida mater, Pjlk u proceres, ditfert vadimonia Praetor. T'inc r.emimus cafws urbis, tunc odimus ignem. Aiditudliuc, ct iam accurrit qui marmora nonet, Conlerat impcnlas. Hie nuda et Candida liqna; Hie aliquid pracclarum Euphranoi iset Polycleti, J lie pharcafianoruro vctcra ornamenta Deorum. Hie libros dabit et forulos, ipeJiamquc Minervam ; Hie modium Argenti : mcliora et p'ura reponit Perticus orborum lautiflimus, ut merito jam Sufpethis, tanquam ipfe fuas incenderit xdes. But hark ! th' affrighted crowd's tuinultuotis cries Roll through the streets, and thunder to the (lues : it.us'd from some pleasing dream of wealth and power, Some pompous palace, or some blifsful bower, Aghast you start, and scarce with aching fight, Sustain the approaching fire's tremendous light; Swift from pursuing horrors take your way, And leave your little all to fhmcs a prey ; Then thro'the world a wretched vagrant roam, For where can starving merit find a home ? In vain your mournful narrative disclose, While all neglctt, and mod insult your woes. But Should heaven's iuft bolts >'s wealth confound, And fpre«d his flaming palace on the ground, Swift o'er the land the dismal rumor flies, And public mournings pacify the skies ; The laureat'tribe in venal verft relate, How virtue wars with persecuting fate ; With well-feign'd gratitude the pcnfion'd band . Refund the plunder of the beggar'd land. See ! while he builds, the gaudy vaflals come, And crowd withfudden wealth the rising dome ; The price of boroughs and ot fouls reflore ; And raise his treafurcs higher than bctore : Now blefs'd with all the baubles of the great, The polifh'd marble and the shining plate, lees the golden pile aspire And hopes from angry heav'n another fire. Although the verse, both of the Roman and the Briton, is satire, its keenest severity conhfts in its truth. — _____ FROM THOMAS') MASSACHUSETTS SPY. eulogium, Bv Dr. Albicinci Waldo, Delivered at the gratis of the late General ISRAEL | PUTNAM. THOSE venerable relics ! once delighted in the endearing domeltic virtues, which con stitute the excellent neighbor—husband—-parent and worthy brother !—Liberal md substantial in his friendfliip*—tnifufpicious—open— and ge nerous—iulV and sincere in dealing a benevo lent citizen of the world He c o» hisbofom, the noble qualities of an HONES 1 a HERO-whom nature taught,and cherilh ed in the lap of innumerable toils and dangers 497 c he was terrible in battle !—lint- from the na tive amiablenefs of his heart—.when carnage ce-<- fed—his humanity spread over tile field, like the zephyrs of a fumuier's evening \-rr The prisoner wounded—the sick—the forlorn—experienced the delica'e sympathy of this SOLDIER'S PILLAR. !—The poor and the needy, of every defcripiion, received thechai; table bounties of this CHRISTIAN SOLDIhR ! He pitied littleness—loved goodness—admired greatness—and ever aspired to its glorious sum mit !—The friend, the servant, and almo(t uil parralleled lover of his country :—Worn with honorable age, and the former toils of 'jsar<, PUTNAM—" rests from his labors !'* 11 Till mouldering worlds, and tumbling systems burst ! When the last Trump, (hall renovate his dust • — Still by the mandate of ETERNAL TRUTH, His SOUL will " liourith in immortal Youth !" « This, all who item him, know—this, alt who lov'd him, tell" CONGRESS. HOUSE OF REPRESENTA riVES. TUESDAY, MAY as. Mr. GfcK r \'s motion on the tifjumption oj the State debts, which was inserted in thii paper i J tin 26th, under conjideration MR. BOUDINOT then rose and said—l am oile of those, Mr- Chairman, whoconfider t'.je fubjeft now before you of as much importance as any that has yet required the attention of Con gress. When it was firft brought forward, it was new to me ; I therefore determined in my own mind, patient!) to hear both fides of the question, and to weigh every argument before 1 drew any positive conclusion : being also a State creditor (tho' in the ha bit ot receiving interest from the State) my fears were excited, lead felfintereft might miftead my judgment.—On the(e account* the committee have hitherto not received any trouble in the com munication of my fentimcnts on this important question. I have contented myfclf with a silent vote, and fttould havp dill continu ed in the fame disposition, had not the gentleman who spoke ort this fubjeft* whfn it was last under consideration, advanced fomc arguments and diew certain conclusions from them, that fttuck me as neither founded in fa6l or reason. He appeared to me to involve the fubjett in unnecessary perplexity, and tho' Ample in itfelf, became obfeurefrom the terms by which h was diftinguilfc ed and the manner in which live argument was handled. It has been generally denominated " the assumption of the State debts;" from whence a bxcJtander might suppose that the States, or fomc individual State, had called upon us to aflume a debt or debts that we owed to them ; but nothing is further from the truth. What is the fubjtft before us ? It is an application of our creditors, qn which a question arises, whether a Certain species of debt, eviden ced by certificates from an individual State, is pau of the do mestic debt of the United States, or whether it is the private debt I of the individual State 7 Let us then fimplify the question and ronfider it abflra&ly on its true principles ; for if it lho«ld turn out to be the fuft, no man can aftign a good reason why a disci iininatiofi should be made a mong our creditors. If the fact, it will be as difficult to assign a reason why we iiould now aiTume them. The honorable gentle man who spoke last against the afTurnptioo of these debts put the question on proper principles, but his arguments appeared to be exceedingly fallacious. He alledged, •• that it had been contend ed that the State debts are in their nature debtsof the United States, and that the individual creditors can of right claim payment of the fame from the general government. lie denied the principle, and said that if these debts be nothing more than the debts of the U nited States, under another denomination, and if we are bound to provide for them as for the debts of the United States, let gen tlemen conflder whether they arc not bound to view them in thiA light whe fever they may be found, meaning in the State treasuries." This state of the question neccfTarily leads to an investigation of the nature of the debts ptopofed to be funded by the amend ment now moved t® ihe bill for funding the domestic debt of the United States. These debts consists of certificates given by the individual States for—pay to the army —depreciation of pay—militia fervices—fupplits found, and —services rendered. As these arc all on one tooting, to avoid pcplexity, I will take the army debt for an example. This debt was contra&ed by the United States in Congress assembled. When our common Country was threatened with an invasion by a very powerful enemy* the necessary defence tequired the railing of an army. —A union of the States was formed, and a confedera tion entered into, that the expcnces for the common defence flmuld be paid out of a public trealury, to be supplied by the rcf pefchve States according to their fevcral abilities. Troops were accordingly brought into the field, un ier certain ftipnlations of pay andfupport. Several years pad away, and the soldiers not only bravely fought your battles, but in the end fecurcd your liberties, and cftabliCned your independence. The States having failed in supplying your treasury, the stipulat ed payments were ncgle&ed, large atrears accruea, and after a fencs of fufferings (unknown to any other troops) a mutiny took place, and the deftruttiofi of your army was well nigh accom plilhed—By the exertions of your commander in chief, and the most judicious management on his part, this serious disturbance i-nded in commiflioners being sent to Congress with requifuions on the part of the whole army, requesting redress in a number of in llauces. Suffer me to read the report of the grand Committee of Con gefsand their subsequent refolutiom in anfwertothisapplication. " Saturday, January 25, 1783 —The grand committor, cmfifting of t member from each. State, report, That they have considered the con tents oj a memorial presented by the army, and find they comprehendjive different articles.— Ift. Prefentpay. id. A settlement of accounts of the arrearages of pay and fecurlty for what is due. 3d. A commutation of half pay. 4(6 (elUement of accounts for deficiencies of rations and compensation. $th. Settlement of accounts of deficiencies of (loathing and compeifation. Whereupon, Refolvtd, as to the firjl, that the fupcr intendant cf the finances make payment, &c. Refolvcd, with refpeCl to the feconiarticle, so far as relates to the fettkment of accounts, that the several States be called Upon to complete, without delay, the futlemcnts with their refpeftive lines ol the army, up to the ill day of Anguft, 1780, and that the Superintendant of Finance be di reßed to take such mcafures as/hall appear to him mofl properfor effefl ing thefcttlcmcnt from that period. As to what relatet to providing [Whole NO. 125-^
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