with which they proved victorious over their favage neighbours. They have ample means of fubfiflence-No market for those means-and they have men difpofed to lead them on to avenge their wrongs. Are you certain that they will wait the end of negociation? When they hear that nothing has been done for their immediate relief, they will probably take their refolution and act. Indeed, from all that we have heard, there is great reafon to fuppofe that they will, or, perhaps, that they may have already acted-They know the nature of the obftruction--They know the weakness of the country. They are fure of present fuccefs-and they have a bold river to bear them forward to the place of action. They only want a leader to conduct them, and it would be ftrange, if with fuch means, and fuch fpirit, a leader should not foon prefent himfelt. | and breathe the fentiments of a diftinet nation. They will rob you of your public lands-They will form a girdle round the Southern flates which may be denominated a foreign yoke and render that whole country very precarious as to its peace and prefent connexions. Indeed, every afpect of such a state of things is gloomy and alarming to men who take the trouble of reflecting upon it. But, fir, faid Mr. R. I have heard it fuggefted that there is another mode of getting rid of this crifis in our affairs. If we remain perfectly qui. et and paffive, fhew no fymptoms of uneafinefs and difcontent-If we give no of fence to the new and probable masters of the Miffiffippi-May be they will fell !!! To me it is utterly incredible that fuch an effect would flow from fuch a conduct. They might probably fell if they found us armed, in poffeffion and refolved to maintain it-They would fee that even conqueft would be a hard bargain for fo dif. tant a country. Our poffeffion would be evidence of a fixed refolution. But when we have no army, no military preparation, no femblance of refiflance, what would in. duce them to fell? Sell, fir! for how much? Why, fir, although there is no information on that fubject before this houfe, yet I have feen it stated in a newspaper that thofe who claim that country may perhaps be perfuaded to fell by diftributing two millions of dollars among certain influential perfons about the Suppofe they do go-That they do chafe away the prefent wrong doers-That you give them no fupport-and, that in the end they are overpowered and defeated by a ftronger foe than the prefent feeble poffef fors. They will never return to you, for you cannot protect them. They will make the best compromife they can with the power commanding the mouth of the river, who in effect has thereby the command of their fortunes. Will fuch a bargain be of light or trivial moment to the Atlantic ftates? Bonaparte will then fay to you, -My French Weft-India colonies, and thofe of my allies, can be fupplied by my colony of Louifiana with flour, beef, pork, lumber and every neceffary. Thefe articles can be carried by my own fhips, navigated by my own failors. If you on the Atlantic coaft wish to trade with my colonies in these articles, you must muft pay fifteen or twenty per cent, of an impoft; we want no further fupplies from you, and revenue to France must be the condition of all future intercourfe.-What fay you to this? It will be vain to addrefs your western brethren, and complain that your revenue. dwindles; your commerce is ruined, your commerce is ruined, your condition defperate. They will reply-you came not to our affiftance at the only moment you could have ferved us-That you then balanced between fordid intereft and duty -That you fuffered them to be borne down and fubdued at a time when, for a trifle, you could have fecured the Miffif fippi. Now their intereft must be confulted, and it forbids any affiftance to you when following in the fame train of ruin which overwhelmed them. || If the evil does not immédiately proceed the full length of abfolute difunion, yet the ftrength, the unity of intereft will be gone, we are no more one people, and reprefentatives from that portion of our country, in our public councils, will partake of the Here Mr. Wright of Maryland called Mr. Rofs to order, and said that he thought it improper to debate upon confidential information which in his opinion ought to be kept fecret. Mr. Rofs knew of no confidential communication to that houfe on this fubject. The Vice Prefident faid there was no confidential information about this bufnefs before the fenate that he recollected, and that he perceived nothing improper or out of order in what had been faid. Mr. Nicholas faid he hoped the galleries would be cleared. It appeared to him that the gentleman was about to difcufs points which ought to be kept fecret. Mr. Rofs hoped not-and would give his reafons. Mr. Nicholas objected, that it would not be in order for the gentleman to give rea fons. "Mr. Rofs. I will never speak upon this fubject, fir, with clofed doors. The moment you fhut your doors I cease-and when they are opened I will proceed. There is nothing of a fecret or confidential nature in what I have to fay. Mr. Rois concluded by calling for the yeas and nays upon the queftion of olofing the doors. Mr. Wright read one of the rules of the fenate, to fhew that a vote was not neceffary for clofing the doors. Mr. Wells inquired whether it was in order to interrupt a gentleman while speaking and to make a motion while he was in poffeffion of the floor. The Vice President thought that in fuch a cafe, where a Senator thought that the fubject repuired fecrecy, it might be done. The doors must be clofed at the request of any Senator, and afterwards the Senate would determine by vote whether or not the bufinefs fhould proceed with clofed doors. He then ordered the galleries and lobby to be cleared. The doors remained clofed for fome time, when they were again opened, and the Senate adjourned. Hudson, March 15, 1803. Ticket No. 11,508, in the Lottery for the encouragement of Literature, has drawn the highest prize, 25,000 dollars. We learn, that the amount of damages sustained by Mr. Stebbins, in the destruction of his store at Hillsdale, falls but little short of $6,000. His papers and books, containing a great number of unsettled accounts, were all lost. With an alacrity, deserving of the highest praise, the neighbors of Mr. Stebbins have raised a new store, and it is said, intend to volunteer their services, until it is com pletely finished. The Hon. TIMOTHY PICKERING, Esq. is elected a Senator of the United States for Massachusetts, in the place of Dwight Foster, Esq. resigned. THE SECRETS. With which Congress has so long been in labour, were safely brought into the world three days previous to the closing of the session. They are two acts--one named Diplomatic Skill-the other Economy-One appropriates TWO MILLIONS OF DOLLARS for carrying on the negociation with France and Spain-the other appropriates two thousand five hundred dollars for extending the external commerce of the United States." While Mr. Ross's Resolutions (inserted in the Balance two weeks ago) were under consideration in the Senate, Mr. Breckenridge moved an amendment, by striking out the whole of the original, and inserting others-authorizing the president, whenever he shali judge it expedient, to require of the executives of the several states to organize, arm and equip, and hold in readiness to march at a moment's warning, Eighty Thousand militia-for appropriating money for their payment, &c. and for erecting works of defence on the western waters. -The amendment was agreed to--and the resolutions passed the last day of the session. Two fathers and two mothers follow'd on, EXPLANATION. ter. A gentleman married a widow, who had a daughAfterwards his brother, a widower, who had a son, married the daughter. From these five the foregoing relations are made out. Diversity. From the SPIRIT of the FARMER's MUSEUM. TENDER AND PATHETIC. VIRGIL defcribing an Argive, remote from his friends and falling in battle, has the following line, juftly admired by the critics. "Et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos.”* Its fpirit was caught by Romme, a man of letters and victim of Robespierre. While in prifon, a painter attended to draw the portrait of the unfortunate bard. He fent it to his family with four lines, of which the following is a tranflation: tho' inferior to the original it is a happier effort of eloquence, than all the republican harangues fince the affaffination of Louis." "Wonder not, objects of my fondest care, * A fond recollection of absent friends and his native country occupies bis dving moments. A LEAP DOWN THE CATARACT OF NIAGARA. "SOME few years ago, an Indian lying afleep in his canoe, (a few miles above the tremendous cataract,) was, by accident or defign, fet adrift, and floated down within. the current till he was awakened by the roaring of the rapids, where the water first burfts into a cataract. He then rofe and extended his arms with astonishment and horror; but remembering that dignified refolution with which it has ever been the pride of his countrymen to meet death in the most dreadful fhapes, and having covered his head with a blanket, he compofedly fat in his canoe, glanced down the rapids, and was plunged into the tremendous abyfs." A GERMAN officer, who ferved under Suwarrow, in Poland, mentions the following fingular anecdote. according to the difpofition made for that purpose.' And he did rife an hour before day-break, dreffed and wafhed himself, prayed and crowed like a cock-and the Soldiers, according to order, attacked and took the fort by ftorm." "The evening preceding the decifive attack on Ifmael," Suwarrow faid, " Early to-morrow morning I fhall rise an hour before day-break, drefs and wash myself, fay my prayers, and then I shall crow like a cock. at hearing which, florm the place Thi COLUMBIAN Political. FOR THE BALANCE. 66 HAIL SACRED POLITY, BY FREEDOM REAR'D ! 46 HAIL SACRED FREEDOM, WHEN BY LAW RESTRAIN'D !" AND ON THE IMPOLICY OF A SPEEDY ADMISSION No. III. Balance. REPOSITORY. HUDSON, (NEW-YORK) TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 1803. It is well known that the federal conftitution met with a strong oppofition from many of the leading characters in this ftate; and that its final adoption in the ftate convention was obtained, with much difficulty, after feveral fevere ftruggles; but it is not perhaps fo generally known, that the anti-federal party, as it was then called, objected to the federal constitution by reason that it did not contain an effectual fecurity against the introduction of foreigners to an agency in our national councils. This, however, is a recorded fact. BEATTIE. OU The flate convention that difcuffed and finally adopted the federal conftitution, July 26, 1782, offered thirty two articles of amendment; and exprefsly" enjoined it upon their reprefentatives in the Congrefs, to exert all their influence and ufe all reasonable means to obtain a ratification UR cameleon politicians, thoroughly skillful in the art of veering and Ahifting their opinions and fhaping their courles, as party occafions demand, have distinguished themselves during feveral of the last years by the warmth and copious effufions of their zeal in behalf of foreign emigrants. No means have they neglect. ed, no arts have they left untried, to allure the affections of thofe frangers toward them felves, and excite their refentment and inflame their animofity against the federalifts. The late federal adminiftra. tion was loaded with reproaches for its alledged hoftility to aliens. The law that made a fourteen years' refidence in the country a prerequifite to an admiffion to the rights of fuffrage, as well as the alienlaw, has been denounced and execrated by the democratic party, as a fyftem of oppreffion and tyranny in the mean time, the fraternal embrace has been conftantly tendered even to the vileft outcasts from to the faid amendments to the conftitu- Europe; and many a heart that, in oth-vice-prefident, or members of either houfenize er respects, is as cold as the rocks of Spitz- of Congress of the United States."—In a fuch, as, if acceded to, must equally affect every flate in the union." From thefe documents it appears that it has been the opinion of the democratic republicans in this ftate, that the liberties. of the nation would be greatly endangered from the emigration of foreigners to this country; and that, to leffen this danger, it was neceflary to exclude them forever, by an exprefs claufe in the conftitution, from eligibility to the places of prefident, vice-prefident, or members of either house of the Congrefs of the United States. This opinion, they declared, did not originate "in local views, but was fuch as muft equally affect every flate in the union." We afcend from this high authority to an authority which fome may deem paramount to the conflitution itself. Mr. Jefferfon in the Notes on Virginia, publifhed 1801, fpeaking of the population of this country, fays; "Here I will beg leave to propose a doubt. The present defire of America, is to produce rapid population, by as great importations of foreigners as poffible. But is this founded in good policy?" "Are there no inconveniences to be thrown into the fcale, a gainft the advantage expected from a multiplication of numbers, by the importation of foreigners? It is for the happinefs of thofe united in fociety, to harmoas much as poffible, in matters which hey must of neceffity tranfact together. Civil government being the fole object of forming focieties, its adminiftra.ion must be conducted by common confent. Every fpecies of government has its fpecific principles: Ours, perhaps are more peculiar than thofe of any other in the u 90 niverfe. It is a compofition of the freeft principles of the English Conftitution, with others, derived from natural right and reafon. To thefe, nothing can be more opposed than the maxims of abfolute monarchies. Yet from fuch we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, paffing, as is ufual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to flop precifely at the point of temperate liberty. Their principles with their language, they will tranfmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will fhare with us in the legiflation. They They will infufe into it their Ipirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, diftracted mafs. I may appeal to experience, during the pre-84 fent conteft, for a verification of thefe conjectures but if they be not certain in event, are they not poffible, are they not probable? Is it not fater to wait with patience for the attainment of any degree of population defired or expected? May not our government be more homogeneous, more peaceable, more durable? Suppofe 20 millions of republican Americans, thrown all of a sudden into France, what would be the condition of that kingdom ? If it would be more turbulent, lefs happy, lefs ftrong, we may believe that the addition of half a million of foreigners, to our prefent numbers, would produce a similar effe&t here." : Such were the fober thoughts, the avowed fentiments of our leading democrats, at a time when they were in a manner frec from the bias of party views and objects; at a time too when the liberties of this country were ten-fold less endangered from the influence of aliens, than at prefent. ONE OF THE PEOPLE. IMPORTANT, in the year 1802, the fum of 7,300,000 dolls. to be appl ed in that year, to the difcharge of intereft and principal of the public debt and that they had applied only dolls. 6,530,007 84 to that object, leaving an unexpended balance in their own hands of dollars 769.992 16. ON the fecond day of this month, [Feb.] Mr. Grilwold moved in the Houfe of Reprefentatives of the U. States a refolution to inftruct the committee of Ways and Means to inquire into the tranfaftions of the commiffioners of the Sinking Fund, for the year 1802. The debate on this interefting fubje& will be given hereafter at length. In the mean time it may be proper to flate, that in explaining the objects to which the inquiry was to be directed, Mr. Grifwold ftated, that the commiffioners had received, under the act for the redemption of the public debt That the commiffioners in making up their accounts, had charged doils. 4,065,738 47 for intereft on the public debt, whereas it had been flated in the Treafury account that the intereft amounted only to dolls. 3.947,190 75 and of course there must be an error in one or the other of these ac counts. That during the year 1802 the commiffioners had received the fum of 10,298,290 dollars 88 cents, of the public money to be applied to the debt, but by their own report they had rendered no certain account of the application of more than 7,817.607 dollars cents, leaving a ballance of 2,480,683 dollars cents unaccounted for in any 4 other form than by an eflimate of remittances for Holland, which had been purchafed in the year 1802, and which the commiffioners eftimated at 2,365,842 dollars 80 cents, which remittances Mr. G. fuppofed ought not to have been reported on eftimate, as the commiflioners knew the amount, but that admitting this eftimate to he correct, there fill remained a balance of dollars 114,839 44 for which, no account had been rendered. That the account of the public debt of the last year did not, in feveral particulars agree, either with themfelves, or with the accounts of the prefent year-that in the accounts tranfmitted to the house during the laft feffion, it was in one account ftated that the intereft upon the Dutch debt amounted to dolls. 476,931 and in another account that it amounted only to dolls. 458, co-that in the account of the fecreat the last feffion the inflallment upon the Dutch debt for the year 1802 was flated to be Guilders 3.550,000; and in the account af the Commiflioners the fame inftallment was flated to be only guilders 3.360.000. tary That this bufinefs had been conducted exclufively by the fecretary of the treafury, who was accountable for the fairness of the tranfaction, and the correctnefs of the accounts, and though he did not know, that there had been any abfolute mifapplication of the public money, yet he did not know that an individual, who was entrusted with the management of more than ten millions of dollars might, by contract with his confidential friends, and in many other ways, avail himself of the ufe of a large proportion of this enormous fum, without expofing himfelf greatly to detection. [Gaz. United States.] No. V WE are induced to notice a communication which has recently appeared in the Richmond (Vir.) Exaniner, merely to shew to what paltry shifts the ̧ servile editors of democratic newspapers are driven, to prop up and support the cause of their masters -a wretched, a detestable cause, which, like a house built in the sand, is tumbling into ruins. Let every man, into whose hands this paper may fall, divest himself of party prejudice, and answer candidly, whether a cause that requires such arguments të support it, as are contained in the following extract, is not both wretched and detestable. 66 Speaking of the late prosecutions against the junior editor of this paper, the Examiner says, "These were profecutions under the authority of that ftate not under the authority of the United States; conducted "on the principles of the Common Law; "not on the principles of any act of our "Congrefs. Now there is no principle "" of the Common Law more clearly fixed or more extenfively known, than that on a profecution for a libel the truth of the "libel can. t be given in evidence; and "the reafon affigned by the books is, that "the libeller, if he knew his charges to "be true, ought, inftead of libelling, to profecute the offender. This, if his purposes were upright, he would inva"riably do. If his patriotic fpirit be fired "by a public wrong, by a breach of pub"lic law, let him compel the offender to 66 expiate his crime under the fcourge of "the public law If the Prefident of the "United States has violated his oath of office, his oath to defend and obferve the conftitution and laws of the United "States he is liable to impeachment; and "it was Mr. Crolwell's bufinefs as a pa triot, and a man, to adopt that mode of proceeding. If the Prefident of the "United States, aided Mr. Callender in "the propagation of libels, he is fubject "to a civil action at the fuit of the party "" 66 aggrieved, and to a state profecution, on "the principles of the Common Law, for "the violated dignity and peace of the flate; and on this branch of the subject, "it was Mr. Crofwell's bufinefs to have "wielded the authority of the flate, and "not the pen of a libeller. But whatever "be the reafon of the Common Law in "this cafe, or however found or weak "that reafon, the principle itfelf is as clearly fixed as judicial precedent can make any principle, that on an indiment for a libel, the truth of the libel cannot be given in evidence. The ftates Attorney, therefore, in the cafe of Crof 44 "well, was not only juftifiable in refufing 66 66 66 66 66 Balance Closet. LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. 66 permiffion to the defendant to give the "truth of the libel in evidence, but he "would have been guilty of a breach of his official oath, if he had given that "permiffion to violate the known princi"ple of the law which he was endeavoring "to enforce." We confess that some of the above sentiments are more entitled to ridicule than any thing else; bu since the writer of them seems to have been seri ous, we shall treat them with all convenient gravity -It is needless to contend that it is not a well-known -principle of the common law, that the truth of a libel cannot be given in evidence. It is the knowledge of this principle, that induces us to believe that the common law construction of libels, is incompatible with the principles of pure republicanism. It is this very circumssance that convinces us, that our Attorney-General, and his supporters, are not republicans, nor friends of the real liberty of the press.But let us examine the Examiner's new democratic =doctrine. We call it new and democratic; because we have never heard of it before, and none but a democrat would advance it now. If the president of the United States breaks his cath and violates the constitution, says this sagacious Examiner, he must not be libelled-that is, the truth must not be told of him; but he must be impeached! He must not be arraigned at the bar of public =opmion-but he must be compelled to " expiate his crime under the scourge of the public law." And by whom? Why, truly, by a village printer-2 private citizen-who is about as able to check the fuy of a whirlwind, as he is to impeach the president, or "weild the authority of the state." But a short time since, the democratic party entertained high notions of the bar of public opinion, and of the voice of the people. When the federalists were in power, our consistent democrats could not brook the =least restraint upon the press. Nothing short of its unlimited freedom would satisfy them. The Sedition Law, which permitted them to publish the truth, excited all their ire. And if the common law had been put in force against them, we know not bat open rebellion would have been the consequence. Then, forsooth, the democratic printers must have the liberty of publishing what they pleased concern. ing the government that the "sovereign people" might be informed of the wickedness of their ru lers, and be enabled to write on their ballots, "turn them out." The national executive and legislature, were accused, again and again, of violating the constitution. The federal officers were charged with plumdering the public treasure, and with then com mitting the horrid crime of Arson, to prevent an exposure of their iniquity. And yet, no "patriotic" democratic printer then thought of impeaching the president, or weilding the authority of the state-which (according to the Examiner) they would invariably have done, "if their purposes were upright."-But now Mr. Jefferson, "the man of the people," is president. The case is totally alter ed. If be should violate the constitution, or commit the worst of crimes, no printer must be permitted to announce the fact to the world. There must be no remedy but impeachment-and this impeachment must be commenced by some obscure individu al, in a remote corner of the union.Oh, what consistency! What reason! What profound wis. dom! If we considered ourselves under any particular obligations to the Attorney-General, we should volunteer a defence against the illiberal attack on his reputation as a lawyer, and his integrity as a man, which the Examiner has inadvertently made in the closing sentence of the paragraph above quoted. He says that the AttorneyGeneral "would have been guilty of a breach of his official oath," if he had permitted Croswell " 'to give the truth of the libel in evidence." Now it is well known, and the democrats here have made great boasts of it, that the Attorney-General did give such permission in one of the suits. In the other, it is true, he refused. Therefore, if there was a wrong and a right way of conducting the business, he is justly entitled to the full credit of pursuing both.But, since we owe the Attorney-General no favor, we leave him and the Examiner to settle their own affairs in their own way." A sensible writer in the United States Chronicle, Providence, after mentioning the political, as well as other, advantages arising from the free schools in Massachusetts, proceeds to speak of his own state as follows: 61 But how different is the fituation of Rhode-Ifland, where, as yet free fchools "are not generally establifhed. Here the "bufinefs of education is left to chance. 66 66 Thofe children alone are inftructed, "whole parents are bleffed with affluence "and riches. A great part of the middling and all the poorer claffes of people, which form, by far, the majority, "live and die almost as ignorant and illit erate as the Hottentots of Africa. This "is too true to be paffed over in silence. Though it is far from my wishes to dif "clofe to the world, the faults and defects "of others; yet the carele finess and inat"tention of the inhabitants in general, on "the prefent fubjećt, require me to in"troduce a fuct, which my feelings would have otherwife gladly led me to fupprefs. 66 66 66 66 About two months ago, I was an eye-witnefs to a painful fcene, in which two men were called upon to write "their names and to read an important paper; but both replied, without the "leaft fhame and confufion, that they "could only make their marks, and that they never read a fyllable in their lives. One of thefe men poffeffes a large real eflate, and is defirous of being confid"ered as a fuitable candidate for public office. The other is equally wealthy, more ambitious, and has a large family "of children, which he is fuffering to "approach the meridian of life in the fame. "cloudy atmofphere of ignorance and ftupidity, in which his own talents are impenetrably obícured." 66 66 The Mobocracy of the State of Rhode Island. 66 66 66 66 66 This fully accords with other accounts of the state of Rhode Island; in which the intelligent and virtuous citizens have been frequently borne down by the most gnorant and profligate ;-led on by crafty demagogues, who to exalt themselves, flattered their vanity. Hence the legislative and judicial acts of Rhode Island have often been such as the best men in that state beheld with shame and confusion. And this will soon be the wretched coadition of the states in the union generally, unless free schools should be multiplied and planted over the whole country, and all proper means vigorously used to increase the stock of knowledge and virtue in the great body of the people. We once promised to give Holt credit for all his confessions. An opportunity is before us, and we improve it. In the Bee of last week, the editor de. clares, that the conduct of Washington, in sending Mr Jay to England to negotiate, " was approved by every good man." Thus, then, Holt confesses, in plain terms, that there is scarcely a good man in the whole democratic party-for it is well known that the sending of Jay to England, was pointedly condemned, by every democrat who could wag his tongue or clench a goose quill. |