The North American from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • 2

-V A PHILADELPHIA MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 4. HAVING triumphed over every obstacle that opposed me, and established myfelf com- pletely in all tbofe points, to which, in the prefeht dirfeftion, my ambition could aspire, remains at last that I get the mastery over myfdf, and lay aljde those ideas, new become romantic, under which I have felt inspirited to drag a cumbrous load so hard up hill. When lowering ikies, and a rumbling the approach of Tome general convullion, produce no other effeft, than to encreafethe general indifference and is too late to pour forth exhortations, and useless to adinonifh men of the i That such are the indications which our political system presents, appears too painfully clear, irom the following views i. The imbecility of our frame of government. a.

The general depravation of morals. j. The influence of newspapers and dearth of literatare. 4. The absence of national charatter and public spirit.

The strange interregnum which fuccceded the revolution, which lasted for fix years, was then so relinquished, ahd continues to this hour to be so obstinately chcriihsd in the imaginations of no contemptible number of men, was a strong evidence of innate weaknel's. Whatever bravery, whatever firmnefs and magnanimity may be allowed to have been exhibited by the people at large, and whatever attributes of profound wisdom or flcill in the science of government may have (hone in the breafb of a few, the long endurance of this frail and miserable Hate, proved our deficiency in the mod important attributes of an independent nation. But the consequences of this ftaJe of torpor, were yet more lamentable than the eaufe. Inadequate to the organization of a regular government, the trance into which we fell, incapacitated the country more and more from ever doing it: left a mass, our inactivity tended to corruption, and every day's continuance of it added some thing to the impoflibility of animating this (late, into life. Hence it resulted that when at length a form of government wis framed, it was a system of fhifts and expedients, a mere experiment.

What it ought to have what it might have been, are points on which I have not the vanity to think my opinion of the lea ft importance I can surely speak of it us it appears to me, without incurring any just reproach and the more so, as the evidence stand on record of that alacrity and conflancy with which I devoted whatever gifts God and nature blessed me with, to maintaining it as found it. I bavc'aWSys locked' Upon this went in the light in which it appears to have bee-n viewed by Genera! Walhington and j. the who framed mere substitute for a better A decisive evidence that this idea is correct, exists in the novel, extraordinary and dangerous incorporation into the Constitution of a provision for its alteration. From such a provision, no ra- tional being can now expeft favorable eon- sequences Experience has damped every such hope. Whilst it has, by turns, been on every fide admitted that the reins of go- vornment art too lax, and that its provihons are wholly inefficient for emer- geticies, the tendency oi every amendments has been, to contract its means and impair its wholesome energies.

Poor indeed must be that system, which by labored provisions fences round the smaller funftions of administration, which even the mod cjmmon foiefiglit is adequate to, and fottilhly leaves to the hazard of contingencies al! those raofl essential points on which its own duration and the fortune of the country depends. A system eretted on falfe is more unliable than a house erefted on a quicksand. That the Cor.ftitution was bottomed on and calculated only for peace, fufficiently appears from the absolute incapacity for war which we now find in it. That it was calculated for a higher date of virtue and refinement, than exists, or ever will exist, is plain from its inadequacy to the punishment of a traitor. Treason being thus a crime unprovided for, is impliedly countenanced, or at lead considered a venial fin.

Hence traitors niuft abound As thick as leaves that strew brooks In Va" Ombrofa." Circumstances may be imagined, under which the common intercourse of society might be maintained without the interference of any government whatever, and circumstances will always occur, and sometimes for a while continue, to which feeble restraints and the most trivial provisions are adequate but discontents may rile, paflion be excited, fomented and anarehyenfue are they to be oppofrd by the fame barriers The mound which intervenes the overflowing of a vernal rivulet, would never in wisdom be relied on, to resist autumnal torrents, or the rage of winter. The cobweb that enmeftes the fly, fervesonlyto enflame the more boisterous comer with new Amongst the more monstrous evils of the present political system, may be ranked the jangling and of federal and state governments, which I can compare to nothing more nearly than an old sow with a farrow of pigs, who have so strengthened srnd encreafed on the nounfhment has afforded them, as to be able insult her authority and resist her controul. These imperia in imperio are refpeft dead weights upon the general (rpvern- Set their letter, which bas always firm td an appendage to the constitution. See the Amendments. meat: the of local politics which they iniufeinto it, contaminates the wfyolr, and will forever exhibit it a rudis indigestaque molts.

Each of them difiimilar tQ every (the four New-England States excepted) they exist the feeds of contention and confufion a vicious governor and his vicious faction may at any: time marshal their state in against a law, or effeft its feceflion from the Union. Endless jealousies wijl arise, endJefs jealousies have arisen, of the paramount power of the federation over a member of I the league, and the former will be regarded as a Leviathan, whose natural inftinft leads her to swallow them. The militating principles of the different sovereignties, the (hocking circumftmce ot power over liberty, property and life, not being nationally vested, will present to us, the rnif'-'rable co-existence of the grcateft tyranny and the greatest indepsndence will convert each into a pettytheatre for thedifplayof seditious ambition, and this ambition will aspire to aggrandizement by fortifying the suspicions, jealousies and envies, which it will befoeafy to create and fofter, and of which such abundant feeds are already sown to its hands. Even in our best this jealnufy hath been promi' nent, and the parts of the Union, justly deemed the soundest in all other refpefts, are not with it. In (hort it is innoculated into every vein and fibre of the has poifened our very heart's blood, and mult produce its final stagnation.

These certain feeds of endless jars, are however quite of an innoxious nature, in companion, and while we confine our view Other traits of their chanftcr and conferences will swell the indignant page of the historian, or dye the charafter of the country in-the very dregs of injustice, oppreflion and murder. It is of little consequence that ever so great licence be allowed the citiren, by the Federal Constitution, if under the State Constitution, he may be imprisoned at the arbitrary will of a base judge, or threatened, It is a poor consolation to the wretched fufferer, tnat he can boast of being the fubjeA of a Constitution, which gives him liberty, while it is totally to the protettion of cither person or his property. Such a state of things is insult, is mockery is the very analylis of cruelty and torture. Security of person and property is the fundamental principle of good government where this state is not perfeft, to hear men ae no such is an abiurd attempt to iffociate ideas wholly incongruous. Mankind may be for a time misled by shadows, in the fcmblance of the very wisest often are so hut though the inflated bubble of folly way float "or a while on the furiace, they mull recur principles whereby to govern their anions.

of later, every man will as. himfelf In right of inserting a paltry piece of paper into the balhot-boxes once or i which in nine cases out of an, I I to a mere nullity, behold bot adcfpicable I fubftitutefor that security andre'pofe, which I I (hall in vain look for to the exercifeofmy Complete security of ptrfon and property having been immovably eftablilhed, as much proper liberty as can be ingrafted on the eftabliftiment, may then be well But it must.be an after business. Never did man proposing to make a new enclosure for his animals, firft prostrate the old onp to the ground. Never wTTV man be brought willingly from licence to restraint. But this with all other principles that are not bad, are reversed, and liberty, nominal liberty, a cloud, a vapour, a breath, a vision, a phan; torn, a whim, exists a magnificent nothing in the ftcadof security and peace At this moment it given way to a more absurd and unmeaning fubftitutfe, Republiism but this is only ascending a half-note higher in the gamut of nonsense.

A more important result of this state of things, may be viewed in the courts of justice. There a're in the United States, judges enough (and judges too, with power over life and death) to form a little is a national court, a demi-national court, and that of the States, which again is branched out into innumerable subdivisions, and it has been no rare thing to fee them in a scramble for the viilim. To the want of an efficient national couit of justice, it is to be attributed that the country is overrun With' knots of petty tyrants Who, dreft in a little brief authority, Play such fantaftic tricks befpre high heave" As make e'en angels weep. Withgroupes of pick-pockets, bank-robbers and hen-pecked dotards, who make a jest of their holy and with more than gallic indifference, sport with and life. Thus where a man might escape in the he is cut up in detail and his thraldom under the state administrations, continually at loggerheads with his nominal liberty under the federal government, places him in a situation not to be endured.

Could thtre, indeed, be united in the fame corporeal frame two opposite and jarring natures I could a man'slove of liberty, and his tolerance of tyranny, like Castor and Pollux, live and die by turns, then, 'twere quite another cafe. But the age of miracles is gone the powerful and pieafing fyflem of mythology has departed, and no substitute for either remains at a time when they are more needed than ever. To the want of such a court is it owing that party and politics have long watched at the vestibule and at length entered the temple of justice. Federal judges, Federal juries, a Democratic judere, Democratic juries, are common terms. Justice, frightened at the unholy founds, has fled to heaven, and faftion riots even in the fanftum So frail a substance.

so insubstantial aueffencc, can Inn by fnfiirance to See bnutU's view of Constitutions. ever-vibrating beats, now tie- out to. vatedby the VowSrdice and of good oi an absurd ftriie enemies, now by tie weaknefsand doe, not entitle to'the merit o. e.ven ha inconstancy of ttUds. wh.ch need.nptap prolonged its duration accident pMft to such a cafe, to reader us profti prolong.it.

But Jt should be remembered, tution complete. that it is equally liable to be fhftth down by The mnumerable lopndms jn accident, as by afctident to be prcieried. It ousdogmas, VJ. wic you i le was an accidental government from tlie out- "ms, trut Ul, in 1 let; good governments are formed on usage been (o tormi a 5, a ai c. pK and experience.

roi the more a arming when we refW Thk vacuum which is difcemible to a that they figure not. lets confp.cuoufly among! greater or lesser extent in all parts of our the cauies, than the effects oj thole country, in the place of those religious and dilorderf, which have fta.ned Vifc moral inflitutions, which in well ordered go- tive and indelible reproach, the vernmcnts, so powerfully subserve the gene- and charter of republican government ral gbod, cannot- but (hock every man who Every system of law morals and politics has sense to diibern, and, discerning, has a every emanation of reason, every relult heart to feci Icn anJ anxloUS experiment, every elt.il> The moral ioftitutioirt of a count.y have a lilhtnent of wisdom, every attribute of virtue "ar more important afped on its condud and has, at one time or other, been the than the wiM political lyftems, nent objed of aflault to a thouiandpo.fon,r tHe founded penal codes. In no Chr.ftian breathing Hydras, Gorgons and Chimeraountry but our own, (and the term must dire. Against even the m.nuteft institutes soon very much enlarged, to embrace us) human prudence, foph.fms the most bate, anc ire moral institutions wholly disregarded. relies the most damnable, have fwarmec Even France, that vast grave of religion, like the locusts or the hce of Egypt, or a loafts at leall of moral theory in hereon- Horde of French sansculottes at a inafWre the untiring perleverance, the incalculablt Where ministers andpriefts hold that in- zeal and fury, and that demoniac industry hertbin singular learning entitles them' to, ft'" uncounted, have gained them an afcen ind where men, yet remaining in happy ig- dancy, which, in Ids cnhgbnned ages no lorance of TnaSw of thebeaftly propenlities of the lacerating scalpel and the boiling ladle heir consequently too the nerve-rending pincen, nor the agonizing ninattd to reft ft or despise rack, nor the Bull oi Phalans, nor the Bee never come; and where the sacred pale of of Procrustes, nor the wheel of Ixion, no: the church is guarded by national prov.fions, the more hellilh intervention oi flow-con the inroads of infidelity, profligacy, fuming fires, could, after three centuries ind reciprocates that protedion and experiment, aspire to.

tomfort which it receives, and returns good Ihe peculiar of republics, the; fold. es cont rast and hostility, to every othe But when a herd of stock-jobbing priests, principle, frntiment, and system. have intruded themselves into the temples of It lS this arena that has been feledtd, so the' Most High, and the sacred fanes of his the exhibition of their gladiatorian exercises religion are polluted by hypocrisy and ava- and here, has the relult of their exhibition: rice; when insolent pretenders wrap them- decided a point so long contested of ielves up in facerdptal vestments, only to superiority of the Rctiarii, over every an lim more securely their insidious attacks up- tagonift it is this floor that it has beencho jn the faith; then surely the whole orderi a particular manner to crowd witl say be convened into a course, and its ex- forms obfceM and fights unholy it is here ftencc cease to be desirable. these vile priests have delighted to fulminati This vacuum might, however, be fuppli- the lewd visions of the Academics and tin rd, by the powerful influence of the press daring blasphemies of the Tub it is hen jut here, too, all is hopeless a more potent they have travailed to put down all deccne; to theieftrudion of this government and to exalt all reverie al ind country, does not exist. Ido not ad- good under the foot of abolif) a hastily formed opinion, when I mind, and substitute passion to cont'ouni i(lfrt that newspapers are in the abftrad enthrone brazen folly, imongft the gretteft curies that can be The l'ucccfs of this formidablepropaganda upon a country.

This opinion I have reared a hidjous and shapeless im it any fit time and place but shall pass misery and tears, the head of which, mori by here, to dwell particularly on the pecu- i sublime than the Great Angel of Mahomet iar character of the American Press, the te- will frown dil'may through endless ages anc lor of its coiidud, and the malign afped innumerable lpon society and government. The new (papers of America are admirably More than nine tenths of the scanty lite- calculated to keep the country in a continued America, is made up of newspaper ltate of infurredion and revolution. And it this powerful fad, one would ima- ever again tcttles into quietude, it, jine, Ihould induce i severe attention to the will not be till their influence is counterlature of thit fule medium of inftrudion and ade. 1 Iht ultipnate tendency of their of which it is left en- bours, in their now general diredion, ap.irely at iooie, in full abandonment to aK its per.rs in chara Aers as ftrcng and clear lnnatifraPperverfrnels and turpitude. The as they are formidable and alarming.

crvile and venal publications, that ever pol- preservative but I cannot concede the prouted the fountains of editors et of requiring fomc qualifications and he most ignorant, mercenary, and vulgar pledges from men on whom the nation dc- lUtomatons ever were moved by the continually rutting wires i-f fordid mercantile avarice. The instruments are worthy of the agents. The ignorance of both is so consummate, that they un.vittingly travail to rautuil deftruftirin. So complete a fpettacle of depravity is rare to be seen in the jnoft tenebrous state Qf literature, forne few Saturnine traits have (hone the brighter, for the gloom which surrounded them, "like a good deed in a naughty world." The illu-. mination of even a lew scattered stars, however rarely shining, is a vast alleviatiofi of the evils of night, if considered only as mirks to diraft the wiry for although thousands are led away into theendlefs mazes of a devious the immemorable ignes fatui which surround them, yet the few that are saved dy their true lights have lived to latest times to bless them.

he degenerating influence of servile, aad nercenary Gazettes, andthedefolatiog force ias grown an evil, politically, greater than .11, inal'much as it daily threatens the i'uberlion of the whole system this is, the pereifl of national charader. Perhaps there not on record a lingle inlancc of a nation maintaining its indepenlence diicernibly diftiua, under such for even the ihort term during vhich the American government has been in jperation. Love of country is the fountain national life, and the germ of every virue where it is not, is the Toil to engender very malicious propensity, and man bound a fcenc where he cannot entertain this exlilirating principle of life, is more to be comniferated, than the Have that is chained to he laboring oar, or the miserable fubiea of rrenclvdefpotifin. Where this spirit is wanting, no efficient wrncr can ever be ere died the inroads )t decay. When this sentiment lives not, and lives lot in unlimited energy, the humblest exist.

partakes of misery, and life itlelf is oathfome. When men can no longer dwell with pleasure and with pride on the character it their country, when they can no longer ook on it as an august image to which their imaginations can never recur vain, far a source of conization in every when they cannot in the loudest of exultation and joy, proclaim its glories, and its spotless renown, its unfule honor, its bravery, its magnanimity, its I this from observation ant'. Hen, iVfs -n thought it of anv effeft to oppose, by or-ITor. Dually fly pursuit. dinar)" means, I trufl I not been 'a-.

or tame. But the wind lias blown, the cvcr lie cm be placed has beat, and the flood is rolling on. I- point to pride might be lightly Um ol 1 of adoraed, wndthe hea Uon Hls country is the nobleftand fitteft but- where is his and Such is the of the American Press; td exemplify, were fuperfluous iince it is seen, felt, and confefTed by the soundest wisdom and coolest judgment of the country. The conduft is worthy of the Already has it effected the total subversion of every principle of distributive justice. To fatyrize folly, to unmade the covenanted foe of the public the manly garb of conscious integrity, to step forth the undaunted champion of virtue, and to stab offenfive even in the habiliments of a vestal, is distorted into personality" and abuse of private If the i ependence of America is not to pfi awa the indiftinguifhablc ephemeron ol rcvoluli folly, it may perhaps one day tse made a question whether every ignorant impostor that comes along, is to be allowed unad -ifc dly to exalt hinifelf into this aukwark eminence, and utter undisturbed his reiterations of dttllnefs, prejudice and malice whether men, without lufficient capacity to diflinguilh between right and wrong, are to be allowed ufurpiag an high and responsible situation, to fcuter the rao(l venemous flanders and lies, vnchecked by any supervision or restraint.

Btit the diieale has become admits not remedy from can even the knife or the cauflic now eradicate it. Its influence upon the morll world as much more fatal than the baleful bogs, fens and morasses upon the natural, as the fubjeft is more exalted. It is solid mass of corruption, which Ipreads and is fp tading whithersoever mifchief yet remain- to be i 'done. lor all the information and much of the inftruftion it receives. To wall-regulatcd Colleges we naturally look, for a fourcc whence such qualifications might in proper form be derived but even this ground, is 110 better than a dreary waste, not barren, but its best estate, it bears the semblance of a -worn-out field, the fences decayed or broken down, and the traces of ufeful and induilry almost effaced.

The science of this country confifhfor the nod part of frigid poetical imitations, or the duller dreams of a lunatic philosophy, which palties current as profound, merely because it is laboriously obfeure. American literature wears the gloom of the dark ages and novels and dreams, like the mills of evening, have overshadowed l'enfc, genius and taste. Out of the frailties of funk in avarice and cowardice, he from difeuft and hi affca on some other. What cxifted of this tJ amcnsft indignant againfl the insults of France. Its im pulse 2 adequate to dec.de the point that JrefeJS and on a quefhoft of honor and fhai it disdained to dehberate.

Then blufhedl: dawn of morning on the tameof America radiance of noon was hastening on anTtJ young fpjkndoM of her name, promised in a brilliant glory to irradiate her head but the tair profped, is difTipated, like a pourv illusion, and dim clouds darken tK declining fun. What is patriotism it a narrow as feftionfor the spot where a man was born Are the very clods where we tread entitle tol this ardent preference hecaufe thev greener No this is not th chJaclS of the virtue, and it soars higher for its ob It is an extended felf-love, mingling all the enjoyments of life and lt with the mmuteft filaments of the hea I It is thus we obey the laws of focietv bZ cause they are the laws of virtue. In' authority we fee, not the array of forte and terror, but the venerable image of our country's honor. Every good citizen make, that' honor his own, and cherishes it not onl precious, but as sacred. He is willm'r rifkhis life in its defence, and is conlW that he gains protection while he gi For what rights of a citizen will be denned igviolable when a Hate the print! pies that constitute their security Or, if life should not be invaded, what would it! enjoyments be in a country odibus in the eves of strangers and dishonored in his own! Gould he look with and veneration to Inch a country as his parent The ftafe of having one would die within him, he would blush for his patriotism, if he retain, ed any, and jtiftly, for it would be a vice He would be a banished man in his natirc land." The conclusion which obtrudes itfelt'upon me, of the natural effects of all these causa, I have long endeavored to suspend.

The government, though feeble, Wight have had fufficient energy imparted to it for felf.p rs fervation, the of its friends and the punishment of its enemies the tideofdepravity might then have been the moral character we derived from ourtnetf. tors retrieved. A war with France, "along, obstinate and bloody war," could alone effeft this. Peace, peace let us have peace, isnow the cry, and peace we are "to have. Itj si peace of which I will never partake.

Itiw potion which shall never pollute my tip. The world is rising in arms against that infernal Perihelion of her glory the tempest of difiolution gathers round her head She is going down ia the vortex of her own folly-; nay the Eter. nal preftrve America from going down along with her. But the hope is vain the leauges between Shaddai and Diaboltis, gered the Kingdom of Manfcul, thin Peace with the French Republic the exigence of America. Thus obfeured as the general profpeft it, deeper glooms hang on of Here a train of thought unfolds itfelf which has been oiften exhausted in vain, because it has pa (Ted at the appeal ps a party interested, in a cafe whereih each man appealed to ii willing believe himfelf unintercftcd.

I (hall not renew it. I no longer behold, when I look around me, any thing oT much moment to struggle for. A country overrun by turbulence and faction, a government like a Oaken by the wind: the people split into two deadly parties, whose impending collision must as surely produce blood shed and misery, as that flint and ftetl emits the ipark. Here were a profpeft to bind the hand and heart of every true man, did not the melancholy faft exist that no prize can rcfult from the struggle. To fight without a leader, and without an adequateiobjeft, is surely a desperate contest.

On whatlbever fide I turn my eyes, I behold all full of desolation and dismay. An enemy whose determined intentions no facrifice can appease, no humiliation can charm, approaches in the secrecy and darkness of the night, to profane the ark of our fafety with his lewd rites and unhallowed orgies. The wind on which he rides, even now howls loud in our cars, the sea darkly tumbles beneath the blast, and the roaring waves climb against our His devoted prey (as if iafcinated by his power, and doomed to thaldrom,) in inoffenfive secUrity forming arithmetical of the cod of fubmiflion, and the cofl of refinance and while by accurate fubtracfion, they thus arrange the mighty point, indicating the means and the incitement that is wanted, to an enemy who waits only to fefurt the firfti to make a divifidn of the last of friends flaming and unquenchable of enemies, boundless confidence and trust ourselves, and our own energies, ineffable contempt, of the intruders, refpcd, ar.d verential are the portentous ensigns we display from xjur battlements, fucli the centinels we ftatioii on our watch-towers. The fun of federalifm is fafl retiring hind the clouds of turbulence and trfaft" Those who have fc long been warmed by its genial influence, waste in stupid adorations, the allotted period of its falvaition. In a l'ttle while, it may be fcen no more, ai.d haps these accents ofcxpOftulation, in which with all the impressions of long habit and strong attachment full upon me, niixed emotions of complacency and regret, are the very last that will be heard.

The absurd tenet of the Modems, ieenis here to reign in its greatest vigor, and er to believe that the Eternal has his chancery recorded a favorable ifl" t0 every crisis they may be driven to, wrap themselves in mulish contentment, cry let us hope for the best." indeed, the anchor of the foul; but when men avail themselves of 110 other source of reliance, even that hope wfcerefn they reft their fafety, may lead them into ls calamity. With regard to the opinions on which 1 ground meafnres, lam for myfclf I.