my writings in feppoTT <>* &ch affocia tioiia is best known to himfclf. If you have i:ot perused the book, you might be ted from the detached sentences there to believe that it contains the prin ciples of anarchy, instead of the princi ples of government; principles wholly iubverfive of a representative democra cy. If you will give yourfelf the trou ble to read the palfages there cited, in their connection, you will find that they have been brought in by the head and {boulders and " with the strength of lien: til cs," as a comic author observes on a like occasion. , I have, indeed, m treating of a re presentative democracy, asserted, that « aniutereit in the approbation of the people, and a iirong sense of accounta bility to them, in all official conduct, is the greatest or rather the. only effectual feenrity against abuses in those who ex ercise the powers of government." I have further said, that " to render the pilblic sentiment a more rational and a more powerful check upon every depart ment of .government, it is eflentially ne csffary that there be in every free state an effectual provision for the difiemina tion-of ufeful knowledge." That "in a Republic, by which is intended a re presentative democracy, the powers of government are supported not by force, but by the sentiments of the people," that " it is necessary to cultivate a ftn tiraental attachment tothe government." I {till believe these principles to be jull, not in theory only, but in pradtice ; yet 1 cannot discover tjiat they express, or even remotely imply, an approbation of felf created societies and clubs formed f.wr the purpose of censuring the pro ceedings of government -in tranfitu, oi anticipating the deliberations of confti tutioik ' bodies, or dictating the mea- sures, which those bodies ought to pur- sue. If, Sir, you will have the patience to read so long a letter, I will give you my rcafons for believing such societies not merely useless, but mischievous and a very dangerous imposition. Simple democracies, in which the people aflem- ble in a body, to enact laws and decide on all public measures, have, from the earliest ages, exhibited scenes of turbu lence, violence and flu&uation, beyond any other kind of government. No go vernment ha? ever been able to exill un- der this form for any length of time. Experience has evinced, that the people collected in a body arc impatient of dis cussion ; that they are fatally incapable of reasoning; but they are highly sus ceptible of paffi ins. To those the more artful diredt thoir whole attention. By these every decision in the numerous «(id heterogeneous affcmblies of the people at large, is irrfefiftably influenced. In a fimplc there can be no fixed constitution. Every thing is lia ble to be changed by the frenzy of the. tnoment, or the influence of a popular faction. In such a government, where all are immediate actors no accountabi lity can exill; consequently, in no go vernment, have there been instances of a more flagrant violation of rights, or a tyianiiy more cruel and remediless than that which has been exercised over a minority of the citizens, or against an unpopular individual. Many public measures, whether they regard the in ternal legislation of the state, or its con duct towards foreign powers, will often be, not a little complicated. Many of the people, for want of the means of information, for want of leisure, patience or abilities, will come forward wholly ignorant of the relative circumstances m?ceflary to be known, in order to a just and proper determination; and I be lieve you will agree with me, that, on such oceafions, presumption, pailionate zeal, and obltinacy, are always in pro portion to the ignorance of the actors. In such governments, the measures, will, of necefiity, be frequently unjust, vio lent and fluctuating. Such is not the government under which we live. Our national government & the governments of the fcveral states, are representative democraciec. This kind of government is calculated to give a permanent security to all the essential lights of man, life, liberty and property, the equal rights of acquisition and en joyment, in a just compromise with the rights of all, which a simple democracy by no means fcctires. This kind of go ' * rernment is designed in its constitution to to provide equally against the tyranny of the few and the tyranny of the many. The people have endeavored to place their delegated rulers in a constant state of accountability. This is the hinge on which American liberty turns. That the mod perfect freedom of deliberation might be secured, the members of the legislature are, in their public conduct, made amenable only to thefentimentsof the people, by the interest which they have in the approbation of their cou ftituentfc. The executive is made ac countable to the -pt»Uic Jjajtiment, and is further amenable to a eonditutionai tribunal, for every violation of trull. The powers and duties of the fuveral de partments, are in many iri(lances limi ted by the laws of the constitution, by which the people have said to their rulers, thus far shall ye go ; and no Many things are left to their integrity and discretion, to aft for the belt good of the nation. Congress are, from their situation furnifhed with the necel fary information relative to the present state of things, as th.ey may affe£t the nation, whether internally or externally. All this is, in their debates, handed out, and circulated among the people, togethe with all the reasons for, and against any measure that could be sug gested by the most mature deliberation. By these means, the people have iti their power, fufficient information to , judge calmly and rationally of the mea sures which have from time to time been adopted. Proceeding in this way, I am per suaded that a representative democracy may secure to the people more civil and political happiness than any of the kinds of governments which have hitherto ex isted. Such is the state of things, that knowledge in tne complicated affairs in civil society comes not by intuition.— The means of information, and frequent ly, diligent investigation are necessary. .The knowledge of the people will fol low, but rarely precede, a public discus sion. They will generally approve or disapprove with judgment, but in die-' tating, are exposed to all the rashness of ignorance, passion and prejudice. Our felf created societies and clubs, a 9 it appears to me, have a tendency, di rectly or indirectly, to introduce into the measures of government, all the pre- cipitation, all the heat and ungovern able paflions, of a simple democracy.— Have we reason to believe that these felf pronounced dictators, have a tree access to the means of information, that they have been able .more fully to com prehend the present circumllances, the principles and reasons which ought to dirett public mealures, than those to whom the people have confided that taik ? Or even than their more peaceable and quiet fellow citizens ? Certainly they have given us no unequivocal proof of either. Their profeffed dcfign has been ti promote political knowledge ; but wher ;ver they have established themselves hey have assumed a di&atorial style ir heir resolves. Where any man or bo -3y of men have refufed their di&ates, ir presumed to differ from them in opi tien, no length of meritorious services, 10 virtue or integrity (if character, has >een proof against their bold profcrip ions. Like the demagogues of fim >le democracy they have applied whol y to the passions and jealousies of th<* jeople. They have assumed to (peak he sentiments of the peopje, though, n point of numbers they are certainly i very inconsiderable minority. If their iffertions have so far imposed on the na ional government as to dire& its mea iires it is worfc than the pvilsof a fim >le democracy. It is an engine to go cm the majority by a minor fa&ion. Nothing of this kind can happen in an iffembly of the people at large. Is it, ir, supposed that the measures of Con ;refs have, in their present session been nfluenced by those societies ? [ (hould be very unwilling to believe hat the American government, which . had supposed to be an improvement ipon the wisdom of ages, had so soon übmitted to the controul of a few fell luthorifed oligarchs. If however these societies are unable lire&ly to dictate measures to the na ional governments, they will still have i pernicious effed. When once, tho' jnder the thickest clouds of ignorance, :hey have prejudged a measure, and iffumed to dictate it, unless they have more candour than moll men, their pre judices will rarely yield to anv light oi convi&ion. This, as far as their influ ence extends, will, in a great degree, ind bed measures. It is perhaps, of as much importance, in general, that tht people (hould fee and acknowledge the measures of to be wife anc good, as that they (hould really be wife and good. If there is a failure in eithei ness of the people. It is of great con sequence that the people, with thi means of information (hould cultivati i difpolition to judge with coolness anc impartiality, and that legislators flioulc jndeavour to render the reasons of thei ;ommon sense of mankind. I know that it is frequently said, tha in a republic it is necessary to the main ealous of their rulers. But I have ne <er been able to persuade myfelf, tha o be a good republican a man mud im libe prejudice, which are txe necessary confequenccs of jealousy. That certain- ly is an unfortunate situation which ren ders candor, dangerous, or jealousy a fpeciesof virtue. 'In no government are rulers held more ftri&ly and generally accountable than in. ou.r representative democracies- Their continuance in place depends constantly. on a faithful dis charge of their trust. Ought we not then, for a fufpicioua jealousy, to sub- Ititute a manly and rational confidence. This by no means implies a supine inat tention to public men or measures ; but it admits candor in the examination. If jealousy be a republican virtue, if it be necefiary to excite suspicions among the people, to render them watchful over their liberties, it must be acknowledged that democratic societies have, in this refped great merit.—They will not surely think that the people ought to ex empt them from suspicions and jealou sies, because they are felf-exiftent. Un til their turn shall come, they may on these principles juftify any, the moll ill grounded and violent inve&ives against the members of the federal government, as piirely intended to keep alive, among the people a necefiary jealoufyjflrt whole some diftrutl of rulers. If by these means the people (hould be deprived of all the present bleflings of government»and the nation plunged into a long series of ca lamities, they have only to fay, all this is the glorious price of liberty. They need notblufh for their violent censures of the executive of the federal govern ment for an opposition to the measures of a foreign minister ; those measures which were disapproved by his nation, and for which hec'was displaced with pointed marks of disgrace. Notwithstanding what has been ob served, I do not mean to inlinuate, that such ariociations as our democratic so- cieties are a crime to'be animadverted upon by laws atld by the con ttitution. The exercise of such a pow er would be more dangerous to liberty than the associations themselves. They must be left tc rife or fall, solely by the good sense of the people. Nor would I insinuate that it can never be expedi ent for the people, to afiemble on occafi onto petition for a redrefsofgtievanccs) whetherconftitutional or leg'flative. But it wotild be well if the petitions and re presentations of the people, ilnlefs when they come from known corporate bo dies, Were always to be signed individu ally, that it might appear how far they are eSprefiive of the public sentiment. \Vhell they crtme forward from volunta ry focicties, there is often a deception. It is not known-whether they corttain ten or ten thousand individuals. . From these observations you will be convinced that 1 am no friend to such societies, and thit my 1 name ought not to have been brought forward as one who favored their principles. ' BISHOP GOBET. Leyden Gazette, 25 April. ExtraS of the hcivs from Parti to tht _ . .!• A . •' April. \ Whatever may have been the jealousy with which discerning men have heard, or read the Reports of the various pro jects, attributed by the Chiefs of the Government to such of their aflbciates as it has been their interest, or wish to be rid of; however improbable these Reports may have been, however suspicious from the vagueness of the accusations, it is impofiible to regard as wholly groundless the designs of some of the principals to de prive their seconds of the fuprenle power with which they are inverted. If the precipitation of Hebert has pre pared his ruin, Danton has succeeded no better by temporizing, and it seems that none of them possess' the Tactic of insurrec tion in the fame degree as Robespierre, or rather it seems that he has dexterioufly a vailed himfelf of the division that reigned among his enemies to dtftrov them, the one by the other; and thus to annihilate them in detail —an advantage never poflef fed by the miiiiftry of Louis XVI, nor the Sedlion of the Jacobins wlio attempted t6 reign upon the ruins of the throne, they j had subverted. The 18 individuals gr illotined on the loth of April, were treated as subaltern conspirators, and were condemned as ac complices of the. 3 3 conspirators who pre ceded them a few days to the place of ex ecution. Those who knew the Bilhop Gobet un der the ancient government, and who have been in a situation to ohferve him du- I ring the early days of the revolution, would not dave expected that th- time would come, when the party of Re efpierre would have condemned him tr ta'.h for having intended to efface all icir <5f the Div.nity, and to found the French nment upon Atheism. Yet such is the princi to him in the acl nf acc against him, Chr> ,, r<.*ff* " Their objec. f i " to annihilate ever " ity, to destroy e\ " tue, and to perf.i "tions, that r'x arrived to tm " tion, dilbelit.» i " God." The execution of these persons, vrhich took place a few hours after their condemnation, drew the fame coticourfe of fpeftators as the execu tion of Hebert, Danton and their asso ciates. Chaumette was treated in the fame manner as these two chiefs, that is to fay, he was the la ft guillotined, and his head was shewn to the people— he had declared before the Tribunal, Theft he appealed from their sentence to Pojierity, and it is said that he support ed his charadter to the last moment; but we are a flu red that it was utherwife with Bijhop Gobet, who at the foot of the fcaffold, invoking " Jesus Christ," appeared to return to the consolations of that religion, the abjuration of which in the presence of the national conven tion, he not long since proclaimed a midtt the loadeft applauses. LEXINGTON, (Ken.) June 14. On Tuesday last, between the hours of II and 12 o'clock, William Gok,whowas condemned at the court t>f Oyer aftd Ter miner for paiFing counterfeit Bank was taken from the public jail in this to\vn and conveyed to the intended place of exe cution, where after continuing about an hour, he received the Governor's pardon, The Order of Precejfion. A part of the Lexington troop of horse formed the front, the light infantry on the right of the battalion, the town militia and guards on the left, and the rear closed by the balance of the troop of horse, — They moved in open order very fl'owly, with the prisoner in a. cart m the center, with a rope about his neck, the end of whirfi was held by the iheriff. He was at tended by the rev. A<lam Rankin. The fpedlators are computed at not less than x 6,000. PHILADELPHIA, Five men are taken up on suspicion of being the perpetrators of the murder of Dr. Redman's coachman, and committed to jail. By this Day's Mail. SALEM; July 8. Last week arrived here, the fchootier j Swallow, Capt. Baker, from a port in Hifpaniola, in possession of the British, from whence (he was regularly cleared. On this coast she was taken by a Ber tnudian privateer, which took out foitie of the hands, and put on board a prze mafter and five hands, and ordeied her for Bermuda ; but Capt. Baker and his crew found means to bring the schoo ner into this port, with the prize-mas ter, &c. who, if they have their desert, will be hanged for pirates. Capt. Very, bound from Aux-Cayes to this port, has been taken, canied into°"Bermuda, and on the 17th of June was adjudicated a lawful prize to the captors, tho' wholly American proper ty. Several other Americans were con demned about the fame time. NEW-YORK, July 12. i Arrived here yesterday, the brig Union, Capt. , from Briltol. A bout 30 leagues from land, five of the pafiengers, in the brig's yawl, went out for amafement, and during their ab sence, there coming 011 a sudden squall, the brig left them, and have not since been heard of. One of the above per sons was a lady whose husband arrived in the brig. By the above vefTel we hare received Englifk papers as late as the 18th May —they contain nothing of importance. As it was late before the Editor ob-. tained them, he is neceflitated to defer such extracts as may be worth copying, until Monday. Orders are sent down from the Se cretary of State's Office to the keeper* of all the gaols in England, to fend up an account of all the prisoners they have in euftody for debt, with the sums they are confined for, and how long they have been in cuflody. Prince Adam Czartorifki, who has joined the ftandatd of General Kofciu (ko, is second confin to the King of Poland. His Highness spent some/ time in England, about three years ago; and at that period forefaw and lamented the fate of his unhappy coun try. A commifßon confiding of two Se cretaries of State and some other per sons, is constituted to try the Neapoli tan confpitators. The King fits Pre sident. One of the principals, "whose iirfl objetl was the death of the King *ii?V Royal Family, is Pascal Jourdan, Lecturer in one of the Ecclesiastical me imputed refVnted 'V.iatcr. •T f ••. , 35 f datious. Joseph, arrived last even n Nc vry, has 310 paflengers— adon accounts ate not so late at JULY 14. we have had, but flie spoke a veflcl which informed, that the Duke of York's ar my was cut up. The Union, from Bristol, failed Miy 19 ; her London dates are of May 16— this paper contains an account of the total DEFEAT of CLAIRFAIT, also, on May 11, beat back to the of Bruges at 41 o'clock of that night. A vessel gone into Boston, wUith railed from England in June, will doubt less afford very interelling particulars for our next. The French convoy: of 150 fail of victuallers from America, arrived fare. Our lall of London, May 13, informed, tljat Courtray and Me rlin were re-taken from the' French; but this is, this day, contra lifted, by ac counts of Londbri, May 17, received via Liverpool and Boston. From the Eagle. A Penny f vea is a penny earned, fays poor Richard ; and so fays the miser ; aye, and the libertine too, when there's no music heard at the shake of the purse. Strange, that Mr. Spendthrift's pru dence should step up, just at the exit of liis cadi; but he's like half of the world, with whom prudence and pro perty were never joint-tenants. Make every mother's son face the grindstone, | fay the aristocrats ; the swinish rabble , have liberty! it would be calling pearl* before swine ; obedience is the foul of order, and severity is the parent o£ submission. Poor Richard makes a pa rody on this language—make every mother's fun pale with poverty, quoth prudent Dick ; the world have plenty of ca(h! it's calling guineas into the ocean. Adverfitv is the school of ' , J wealth, and want creates invention. Take warning, ye knights of the care less purse 1 many of your order have wooed prudence behind the grates. They then fuig pfalmtunes, at cUurch, instead of the Bacchanal chorus, at the hotel. Pell Blujler was like ye; he borrow, ed dollars, and ftumpt people to play for 'em ; bought land in Vermont and went to New-York, in the stage, to speculate ; and came home in a fulkey, Pell talked of a servant and mistress, and swore he'd have 'em ; which wa« scarce uttered, before Mr. officer steps up, and reads to him—to answer unto Mr. for not paying him 800 L Our gentleman spends four weeks in gaol, and comes out prepared for a man of business; he now reads Paley iu ftead of Rochester, buys his annual coat, calculates interest on his notes, and uncorks his bottle, Only to his friend. He now points to the old sign of the punchbowl, where fit in reeling, merriment a circle of topers! fee there i fays he, poor Pell Blujler, had it not i been for {he gaoler's bolt. CIMON. PHILADELPHIA. A report has been circulated in the city this day, that Gen. Clairfait and the Duke of York, with their aimies, are taken prisoners by the French. This day, being the anniversary of the grand confederation of the French nation for the preservation of Freedom, the fame was celebrated in this city by various teili monials of joy. Detachments of the uni form companies, the Light horse, and Ar tillery paraded in honor of the day, and at noon the Artillery fired a salute. The following is the form of the oath which was taken by theNaiional Aflembly, & the King,& repeated by all the people in the Champ Je Mars, on the 14th July 1790. "We swear to be faithful to the Nation, the Law, and the King—to maintain with all our power the Constitution decreed by the National Afllmbly and accepted by the King—to protett the individual and pre fervehis property, according to law —to fee that there be a free circulation of grain throughout the kingdom —to enforce with all our power the colle&ion of the public re venues, and to remain united to every Frenchman by the bandsof brotherly love." ExtraS from the Gazette of the Unitei Jtates of September 25, 1790. The late grand federative aflociatiqn of the French Nation at Paris, was one of the molt interesting, solemn and dignified t ran factions, ever exhibited on the theatre of this lower creation [ If ever th£ celestials bend with delight to view the triumphs of reason, humanity and freedom, it must be on such an occa sion. ' To fee the Representatives of a mighty empire, with the sovereign at their head, emerging from the depths of ilavery and darkness, to light, liberty and happiness* imprefl'ts feelings "on every philanthropic mind, too great for utterance. A Gentleman who came paflenger in the Ship Washington informs that three lhips were to fail in a few days after the Wafti ington, from Lcw.doijderry for this port viz. Ship Liberty, Happy Return, and Charlotte, with 500 pafloogers each.
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