PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS BY' JOHN FENNO, No. 69, HIGH-STREET, BETWEEN SECOND AND THIRD STREETS, PHILADELPHIA [No. 78, of Vol. ll.] FROM THE GENERAL AD'/ERTISER. Mr. Bache, ACCORDING to prouiife I fend yon the peti tion, and afl'ure you that the subscription goes on rapidly; iooo having signed already.— The total number of 10,000 is deemed fufficient, although twice as many might easily be obtained. The proceeding has been scrupulously candid ; not one having set down her name without a careful perusal of the contents. Much less have absent or fictitious persons been added to the lift, or school-boys and other trumpery taken in. Your friend, C. To the Honorable Congress of the United 7'he humble Address of ten thou/and Federal Maids With a blufli of female modelty we present this refpedtful address, in hopes that our federal voice may in fonie degree fofteii the clamour of discontent that Ituns your ears. We are grieved to lee, that a glorious empire cemented by the blood of gallant fellow-citizens, fathers and bro thers, is jet in danger from licentious discord; and we make you a folenin tender of all the aid that faithful female hearts can give. Phlegmatic pedants and flirting beaus may ridicule this lan guage as the efFufion of enthusiasm ; we scorn «r» & the paltry beings who never felt the sublimity and ardor of our country's facred love. We repeat again, command our utmost efforts for the public good. If the men will not fuffer your excise to touch their darting grog, excess in which does evety year destroy thousands, brings many hun dred families to beggary, and breaks the hearts of many amiable wives—tax then freely our fa vorite tea, our caps, bonnets, cushions, biihops, every piece of ornamental dress. If Hill more is wanted, tax our very under-petticoats. If our young men will not learn how to defend their li berty and property, their hoary fire, the mother who bore and suckled them—then order lis into the field. We shrink indeed from violence ; fonie of us cannot without pain kill a chicken : But alas, tlie sword is yet in this civilized tera, the ultima ratio. This charming country may invite bold invaders ; it may breed vipers in its bosom. This land of liberty tnuftbe defended against fo reign and domestic foes. Some of us are of tlie society called Friends, and we all refpedt the civil virtues of this society; but we cannot believe that a man does please the righteous judge of mankind, and father of mercies, by fuffering a savage to scalp his child, or burn the viife of his bosom in flow fires. We all know the value of national industry ; but gold must be defended by fleet. In dependence muftnot be hazarded merely to make an apprentice work some additional days more in tlie year for his mailer. Learning is both tifeful and ornamental to nations : But do not our scholars know, that Minerva -was the Coddefs of arms as -well as arts? Some of us will never marry a fellow who cannot protedl his fweet lieart, although he could chaunt all the battles of Homer in Greek. Your petitioners revere tlie rights of consci ence. They know also that general regulations require modification ; but every good citizen will cliearfully bear his portion of the public burden ; if he cannot fight, he will pay; if he drinks a gieat deal, lie will not grudge the price of his enjoyment. Finally, as those that sow have a right to reap, your petitioners request with due fubtuiffion a few small privileges: as an order offemale hereifm, like that of the Cincinnati ; the right of election to all public offices ; and especially an absolute command over non-paying and non-fighting hujbands. Ten Thousand Federal Maids. £X TRACTS Fro:.'i Mr. Burke's Publication on the Revolution in "TT is frtid that twenty-four millions ought to i- prevail over two hundred thousand, true— if th e constitution of a kingdom be a problem of arithmetic. This fort of discourse does well enough with the lamp-pott for its second : To men who may reason calmly, it is ridiculous.— The will of the many, and their interest, must ■very soon differ ; and great will fee the difference ■when they make an evil choice A government of five hundred country attornies, and obscure curates is not good for twenty-four million of men, though it were chosen by forty-eight mil lions ; nor is it the better for being guided by States France Wednesday, January 26, 1791. a dozen of persons of 'quality, who have betrayed their trust in order to obtain that power. At present, you seem in every thing to have strayed out of the high road of nature. The property of France ddes not govern it. Of course proper ty is destroyed, and rational liberty has no exist ence. All that you have got for the present, is a paper circulation, ai)d a stock-jobbing conttitu tion—and as to the future, do you seriously think that the territory of France, upon the republican system of eighty-three independent municipali ties (to fay nothing of the parties that compose them) can ever be governed as one body, or can ever be set in motion, by the impulse of one mind ? When the National Aflembly has com pleted its work, it will have accomplilhed its ruin. These commonwealths will not long bear a Hate of fubje<flion to that of Paris. They will not bear that this one body ihould monopolize the captivity of the King, and the dominion over the Afletnbly calling itfelf National. Each will keep its own portion of the spoil of the church to itfelf—and it will not even fuffer that spoil, or the more just fruits of their industry, or the na tural produce of their foil, to befent to (well the insolence, or pamper the luxury of the mechanic of Paris." From the (London) Morning Chronicle A Jhort Auf'jjer to Mr. BURKE's Pamphlet, by sb sw ing the relative Jltuation of France and England, undtr their new government. France. All Tythes abolished. t C All Feudal Rights aboliihed, and Lands a granted as Free Lands, r No Copyholds. Nor Lords' Courts. t No Herriots and Fines The National Debt paid off by the exceifivc property of the Clergy being fold, and France relieved from Taxes. Fanners general,— and oppreflive taxes a bolished a Trial by Jury introduced. A free representation of the People annually renewed by themselves. The Corporations open to the inhabitants of the Towns. A free Toleration— Offices open—Refugees recalled. By tliis short, but incontrovertible statement, the present lituation of the two countries will more plainly appear, than by the arguments of Sophistry. LEGISLATURE of VIRGINIA. In the HOUSE of DELEGATES, Thursday, December 16, 1790. The Central Ajjembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, to the United States, in Congrefi ajjembled, R IPRESEKT, THAT it IS with great concern they find therofclves compelled, from a ienfe of duty, to call the attention of Congress to an ait of their lad feflion. entitled, 11 an ast making provifunfor the debt of the Lnited States;' which the General AHembly conceive neither policy, juftice,nor the constitution warrants. Republican policy, in the opinion of your memoriahfts, could scarcely have suggested those clauses in the aforefaid afl, which limit the right of the United States in their redemption of the public debt. On the contrary, they difcerna ftrikiiig refcmblancebetween this sys tem, and that which was introduced into England at the revolu tion. A iyflern which has perpetuated upon that nation an enor mous debt, and has moreover insinuated into the hands of the exe cutive, an unbounded influence, which, pervading every branch of the government, beats down all oppofttion, and daily thuatenj the drftruftion of every thing that appertains to English liberty. The fa;ne causes pioduce the fame cffeQs ! In an agricultural 717 England Tythes collecftcd in kind, and Queen Ann's bounty buying up large tradls of land for the Clergy* All Feudal Rights and base Copyhold Te nures preserved. Herriots exacted from the Widow. The Yeomanry ha rafled with unprofitable attendances at the will of the Lord, at bis Ma norial Courts A debt of 263 millions unliquidated, with the addition of 5 millions, from the late armament. Taxes farmed The Excise Laws ex tended A Trial by Jury curtailed. A partial representa tion, and once in seven Years, principally by the Lord*. The corporations in general closed, and c on fifting of few people, and having but little to do with the people at large A partial Toleration Offices (hut to a million and a half of people— Emigrations likely to ensue. [Whole Nc. i 82.] country like this, therefore, to erect and concentrate and pern, tuate a large mo tiled mtereft, i, a measure, which your memori ll ' apprehend roust, in the couife of human events, produce our or other of two evils. The proftrotion of agticultu-e at the feu of commerce, or a change m the present form of federal govern ment, fatal to the exigence of American liberty. The General Alfembly pafsby various other parts of the fubiefr which they apprehend will have a dangerous and impolitic ten dency, and proceed to (hew the injustice of it, as it applies to this Commonwealth. It pledges the faith of the United States for the payment ofceriain debts due by the several States in the Union contrasted by them during the late war. A large proportion of the debt thus coutrafted by this State has been already redeemed by the collection of heavy taxes levied on its citizens, and mca fures have been taken for the gradual payment of the balance. f 0 as to afford the-molt certain prolpeft of extinguiihing the whole at a period not very distant ; but by the operation ofthe aforefai-l aft-, a heavy debt, and confcquently heavy taxes will be iritailtd on the citizens df this commonwealth, from which thev never can be relieved by all the efforts of the General Airembly, whilst any part of the debts contiafled by any State in the American Union, and so assumed, Itaall remain unpaid : For it is with great anxietv your memoria-lifts perceive, that the said ast, withont thefma:;- cft neceflity, is calculated to extort from the General Affeiably the power us taxing their own condiments for the payment of their own debts, in fuel) a manner as would be bell suited to tlicir own ease and convenience. Your memorialing cannot suppress their uneasiness at the dis criminating preference which is given to the holders of the prin cipal of the continental debt, over the holders of the principal of the State debts, in ihole instances, where Stales have made ample provision for the annual payment of the inteieft, and where of course there can be no interest to compound with principal, which happens to be the filuation of this Commonwealth. The con tinental creditors have preferences in oiher refpefts, which *I. e General Aftembly forbear to mention, fatisfied, that Congress mull allow that policy, justice, and the principles of public credit ab hor difcrimination'a between fair creditors. Your tnemorialifls turn away from the impolicy and iniuftice of the said ast, and view it in another light, in which to lh:m it appears still more odious and deformed. During the wholedifcuflion of the federal constitution by the convention of Virginia, your memorialists were taught to believe, " that every power not granted was letained." Under this im preflion andupon this positive condition declared in the instru ment of ratification, the said government was adopted by the peo ple of this commonwealth ; but your memorialists can find fw> clause in the constitution, authonfing Congress to ailume the debts of the States! As the guardians then of the rights and intcrefis ot their constituents, as centmels placed by them over the minis ters ot the federal government, to lhield it from their encroach ments, or at least to found the alarm when it is threatened with in. vafion, they can never reconcile it to their confeiences, silently to acqui, fee in a measure which violates that hallowed maxim. A maxim, on the truth and facrcdnefs of which, tie federal govern ment depends for its adoption in this commonwealth. But this injurious ast not only deserves the censure of the General Airem bly, becaule it is not warranted by the constitution of the United States, but because it is repugnant to an express piovifion of that constitution—this provision is " That all debts contrasted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this constitution, ftiall be valid against the United States under this constitution, as undei the confederation," which amounts to a constitutional ra tification of the contrasts refpefting the State debts, in the Situa tion in which they existed under the confederation. And resort ing to that standard, there can be no doubt, that in the prcftrit question, the rights of States as contracting parties with the Uni ted States, must be confidercd*as sacred. The General Assembly of the commonwealth of Virginia, con fide so fully in the justice and wisdom of Congress upon tlie prc fent occasion, as to hope they will rcvife and amend the aforefaid ast generally, and repeal in particular, so much of it as relates to the ailuinption of the State debts. December pg, i;go. Agreed by the Senate, H. BROOKE, C. S. CHARLES HAY, C. H. D. Test L O N D O N, Nov. 26. ON the evening of the jth inft. the Sovereign Congress at Bruflels assembled at the Town houfe at Nainur, where they received the citizens ; after the President, in an animated lpeech,had ad drefledthem refpedtirig the Emperor's Manifefto, he, in the name of the Sovereign Congress, re quefled their sentiments, which were delivered by one of their head, who spoke to the following effect: " We have considered the Emperor's Mani fefto, which I have the honour to inform you the citizens of Bruflels not only rejeifl but difpife ; the people have drawn the fvvord in the cause of God and their country, nor will they ever {heath it but in the bodies of their enemies ! " They are firm and determined, they have and will most chearfully expend the last portion of their property in support of their's and their posterity's liberty! They beseech you,therefore, high and mighty Lords, to adt with zeal and at tachment in your several august stations ; for lhould a link of your great chain give way, our cause must fall to ruin. I lie Manifefto was then ordered to be produc ed ac the table, where ic was pricked by the sword of the President, and head of the people,and then burnt in form. This appeal from Congress to the people, has been ordered to take place all over the States, and there is but one voice, frcsdom or dtath. A proclamation was ifl'ued, offering a pension of twenty florins per ann. and a silver medal, t«
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