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[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

From  THURSDAY,   MAY  5,—to  MONDAY,  MAY  9,   1791.

THE STATE OF THE UNION.
—

The bands uniting our federal family are lately enforced by several wise and sensible measures offered by the Government, which serve to provide for the future happiness and prosperity of these States. Of these, the first is already the subject of frequent consideration in these pages, mainly the expansion of the Union to include the petitioner States of Vermont and Cumberland, by whose reception our national constellation is made brighter and increases its stature in the eyes of the powers of Europe. It is many an ancient tongue as truly spake, that the strength of the host increases with numbers, and with strength increases reputation. Each new addition may then be perceived as a beam by which the Union is reinforced, until it may be undone with no less difficulty than a Gordian knot. The more numerous are we, the more our name and standard demand the respect of every Nation who inhabits the Earth, the more the Government is secured, and the more the name of Liberty may ring from every corner of the Globe.
     We are determined, in the ancient example of our venerable forbearers, and against the wicked practice of the Tyrants of the World, to establish our Society on a foundation of Laws. This is the noble principle of our Revolution, and indeed is the foundation stone on which the federal edifice is rested. It may be justly observed, which any Government which derives its legitimacy but by the common respect for the Constitution, is no Government at all, but the beginnings of a Despotism, which should in its terminality destroy all Liberty and condemn the happiness of the People. Governments which rise on the prowess of one man, who place their foundations on the individual heroics of a conqueror (as is the design of the perfidious Hamiltonians), are no more deserving of the respect of a free people, than the barbarian Kings of old. The strength of a Republic must therefore be founded in its institutions, established by common consent for the benefit of the general welfare, indifferent to the ambition of any man.
     It is by this sound argument that the Whig interest hath sought to establish strong institutions by which the republican character of our Constitution be reinforced, and the security and prosperity of the people increased exponentially. To the former end, have the Government proposed passage of a bill to establish the national military under the direction and supervision of the civil Power. The since suppressed mutiny in Pennsylvania, and the news lately had from the frontier of Indian raids against settlements in our western Counties, lays plain before every man the necessity of an Army to provide for the defense of these States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, as may be arrayed against them. In the last year it was objected that a large standing Army being offensive to the Liberty of a free people, and further beyond the means of the federal Power to provide, without further increase of the national Debt, caused the defeat of the motion in the Senate by a single vote. By the wise amendment by the Government of the original plan, these concerns are now addressed, by insert of a provision forbidding explicitly the maintenance of a standing army in times of Peace. This measure, the particular advice of Mr. Samuel Adams, is judged to assure passage of the bill in Congress, and the wisdom of his suggestion is praised in all quarters, by Government and Opposition alike.
     The happiness of the Roman Republic was undone, and the foundation for Monarchy and empire laid, when the Power of State ceased to be exercised by the Senate, and devolved to the administration of Generals, who by their personal popularity made and unmade the Government at will. By establishing the Military in direct subservience to the civil Power, and with many heads instead of one, the prospect for an American Caesar is decreased significantly. Already some in the National Assembly are calling for the dissolution of the Government, in favor of the singular leadership of General Hamilton, or some like figure. We may not believe that the General would me amicable to so despicable a plot; yet so long as the Military Power remains the exclusive province of one man, the prospect that a lesser individual should cause the overthrow of our republican forms by a hateful Despotism remains. Adoption of the Military Act is therefore not only prudential, but necessary to see that the Army takes it not upon itself to become the Administration of federal Power, but remains the servant of elected Authorities.
     A national Currency being likewise necessary to ensure the prosperity of these states, Mr. Adams is heard to speak out in favor of legislation to establish such brought by the Deputies from Pennsylvania. The establishment of a national Mint, and a hard currency founded upon real value, is pronounced by Mr. Adams an object of inestimable value to the United States; we are obliged to concur with him: for without a stable currency, our prospects for trade with Europe are obliterated, the faith in our domestic markets is ruined, and many an honest man is cheated of his fortune by inconstant paper money. Whatever small expense may be accrued in pursuit of such a policy is, says Mr. Adams, far preferable to the continued state of financial Anarchy, or the resumed circulation of worthless Continental notes, as was the practice under the last Confederation. By these arguments, he proves himself not only an honest man, but the firmest friend of sound monetary policy in the Government; whereas none of the other Ministers save he spoke in favor of the bill, Mr. Adams was at the forefront in support of it. We may commend his honesty, and recognize with gratitude that it is the Whig interest who will provide the votes decisive to the passage of so needful a measure.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

From  THURSDAY,   MAY  19,—to  MONDAY,  MAY  23,   1791.

THE TORY HYDRA.
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There is nothing more offensive to a Wolf, than to plainly and openly call him by his own name. So the petulant squall of the Federalist is raised to protest the grave wrong that is done their master-mistress, Mr. Morris, in applying to him the label 'Tory.' It is described as a unique and vicious slander by the friends of Mr. Adams, that so hateful a name should be spoken in connection with the inveterate chief of demagogues, whose character, they insist, is wholly innocent of any taint of British Monarchism. Consumed by passion, the inebriate editors demand the defeat of Mr. Adams for daring to profane the worthy name of the Lord of Pennsylvania.
     The Old Gouverneur is only too eager to distance himself from the charge of Toryism—for even the snake may recognize what a hateful thing it is, to grovel at the feet of men, begging for quarter, brought low by one's own ambition and lust. He protests the charge applied to him unjust, on grounds that he has deserted his old chief Jay, for the more advantageous apprenticeship to Mr. Hamilton, in whose good name he is only too willing to wrap himself and so conceal his vile nature. His defection he attributes to the weakness of Mr. Jay (on which question we are obliged to agree with him), and explains that his attachment to Mr. Hamilton, is borne from a desire to seek out a man whose competence and reputation would assure the success of his principles. Of the hateful Monarchism of Mr. Jay, of the despite which he bears for our republican Constitution, and of the disdain he holds for the common people, Old Morris raises not one word of protest. His enmity with Mr. Jay, and the causes which led him to effect the separation of their political fortunes, is of a wholly personal nature, and never conceals any substantive difference between the two on the matters of state.
     If there may be any doubt of the fundamental British character of Mr. Morris' politics, there need look no further than the measure which he now brings before the National Assembly, to establish a federal Bank by which the monetary policy of this Country may be designed and effected. The prospect of our national finances writ, set, and administered by a secret board of Directors, chosen by stockholders, speculators, bankers, and financiers from among their own ranks, and unaccountable to the people, is, by Mr. Morris' own account, a happy and benevolent future. Nor would such a Creature as this Bank be accountable to the States, or even to the Congress, whose opinions are to be as irrelevant to the all-powerful Directors as the voice of the people is absent from their proceedings. Such a venture can have no ambition, nor achieve any end, but to place our economy at the disposal of the Monied Interests, who are themselves subservient to the British merchant class. It is, in short, the effective repeal of our Independency; the succession of Slavery by the sword, with Slavery by the dollar.
     Mr. Morris well knows the unpopularity of this scheme, such are the people inclined to favor Liberty over Slavery, and to reject all forms which tend toward the latter. He has therefore abandoned the defense of his principles, and instead wraps himself in the patriotism of General Hamilton, by whose prowess he intends to establish himself as an American Caesar. The military success of the General, is to be the apple by which the rotten Lord of Pennsylvania tempts his Countrymen toward their peril—keeping them ever distracted by its rich odor and lustrous color, that they notice not the hovering sword, until it has cleaved our republic from end to end, and replaced it with a hideous Monarchy. It is well acknowledged, that were it not for the benefit of the name of Hamilton, the Morrisonian party should not have succeeded to retain the constituency of Suffolk in the late by-election. Knowing this, he has therefore endeavored to run out the old charger at every opportunity, that the people may not notice his own gross deficiencies as a statesman.
     If Mr. Morris detests the label of Toryism, he is right to do so—there is no thing more vile on the face of this Continent, than the slavish devotion to the British merchant class which he displays in his conduct before the National Assembly. We may only hope that the people, in their infinite wisdom, will not be prevented in delivering a firm majority for the Whigs and the friends of Liberty in the Government—or well may we all fear the subjugation of these States by a powerful, central Despotism.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

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The above will be circulated throughout New England, and especially Vermont.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

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[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

From  THURSDAY,   OCTOBER  20,—to  MONDAY,  OCTOBER  24,   1791.

MR. MORRIS ON THE BANK.
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In their most recent advertisement to the people of Vermont, the Morrisonian party denounce the alleged hypocrisy of the Government, who in their estimation make mockery of their professed devotion to Liberty, by their pronounced opposition to the establishment of a National Bank. Considering Freedom to mean little without Security, Mr. Morris proposes to deliver the former, by Liberating the inhabitants of the States from the burden of self-government. Thus disenfranchised, the people may enjoy all the benefits of Utopia, without incurring any of the costs of its maintenance, by surrendering all authority to the central Administration, which will itself be conducted, not by the people's elected Representatives, but by Directors chosen for their Wealth, heredity, and usefulness to the British merchant class.
     This thesis of republican Liberty, if indeed either term may be applied to any scheme invented by Mr. Morris, we must humbly protest. To profess to bestow Liberty, by removing the very thing which is its first and dearest implement—the right of each State to govern its own affairs according to the inclination of its inhabitants—it a folly in itself, and a contradiction of terms. It is as impossible to spread Freedom by removing Liberty, as it is by destroying Religion to bring one closer to God. Though he may attack the altar, it is to be trusted that Mr. Morris may not disturb the congregants from their dutiful worship.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

From  THURSDAY,   FEBRUARY  2,—to  MONDAY,  FEBRUARY  6,   1792.

MR. ADAMS' REMARKS ON THE BANK.
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Mr. Adams has lately made the following address to the National Assembly, concerning the resolution by Mr. Morris for the establishment of a national Bank.

     In his remarks on the offered legislation, the gentleman from Pennsylvania enters several novel arguments for its adoption, which may not be allowed to remain uncorrected. I do not wish to malign the character of their proposer, or his motives, which I am sure, and will believe until forced to conclude otherwise, are pure. Nevertheless, the arguments submitted are, in their substance and accidents, totally false—whether from ignorance or intent I will not speculate—for which reason I offer my rebuttal.
     On the British character of the Bank, the gentleman has little to say, except to affirm what is already commonly known, namely, that he looks to the British system of politics and society as a model by which to transform his own Country. This admiration, says he, is of uniquely American character: for our Constitution is itself an unremarkable plagiarism of the British political system. With this thesis, he reveals himself a man whose theoretical comprehension of the British system of politics is rivaled in its complexity by that of a child. His thesis, that our National Assembly is, in its essence, a ‘mere copy’ of the English Legislature, is so absurdly simplistic that even the most cursory examination of our respective forms of Government may at once disprove it. Whereas the Members of Parliament are chosen from districts corrupted and rotted by age, some with only a dozen or so inhabitants, their boundaries drawn to satisfy their incumbents designs to re-election, the constituencies of our National Assembly are founded on a fair and reliable Census, equal in population, and revised once decennially to reflect the actual state of the country and her inhabitants. The result, is that while the British Parliament is a farce of self-Government, as removed from the voice of the people as man from his Creator after the Fall, our Congress is the choice and the servant of her constituents, answerable to their wants and opinions, and subject to regular and democratic review.
     Our methods of proceedings are as different from those of the Parliament of Great Britain as is our President from the Sultan of Turkey. Our Senate is not a hereditary house of Lords, but an assembly of worthies, free Citizens chosen at regular intervals according to the votes of the constituent Legislatures. Our President does not ride in a gilded carriage, attended by courtiers, to address the Parliament from a throne, but the humble Citizen of a Republic, chosen not by heredity but by the votes of his neighbors, their servant, and not he theirs. Where the constituent Dominions of the United Kingdom withhold nothing in rights from the central Legislature, our States retain their independence and sovereignty after the advent of federal Power. And while the office of prime Minister is universally considered to not even exist by the authorities on British constitutional Law, or if it does to be a grave affront to the British Constitution, our first Secretary is established prominently in our federal Charter, with powers and duties clearly prescribed by Law.
     It is, in short, the British and American systems of Government are as different in their substance and accidents as to make such a statement, as to the effect that our federal system is in any way a copy of the British Constitution, an absurd and ignorant falsehood. What resemblances exist, between our form of Government and theirs, are so superficial and vulgar as to compare the governments of any two states on the face of the Earth. If the gentleman had observed, that the English Constitution were a mere copy of the Turkish Sultanate, because both have a Monarch and administer a large Empire, he would be denounced as a fool, though he would be no more wrong than he is now.
     The gentleman then states, with a similar veracity, that the Directors of the Bank will be democratically elected—by the shareholders of the Bank itself. His own sentence betrays him, as a contradiction of terms. Democracy—from Greek, demokratia—is by definition the ‘rule of the common people;’ yet it is not the people who will elect the Directory of this Bank, but the class of financiers and speculators who compose a tiny elite in but a few of our constituent States. To declare such a process approaches anything resembling democracy, is to accuse the Estates-General of France, the Court of the Imperial Csar, and the Monarchies of the Barbary States of democracy. In his frequent invocation of the word to describe systems and forms not remotely resembling the Constitution of Athens, the gentleman shows himself to be either a bad liar, or a bad scholar.
     He protests that the government of the Bank will be carried out by the people, according to their inclinations; either he has never met a man whose income was less than $3,000 a year, or he is engaged in a deception so bold it is shocking even to speak of it. The Bank will be governed by its shareholders, in short, by the monied interests: bankers and speculators and hawking financiers. It will be responsive only to them, because it is accountable only to them. The States, the people, the National Assembly are to have no voice in the direction or management of this monstrosity. The inevitable result, is the establishment of an Aristocracy of wealth, of who the financial policy of the United States is the exclusive domain and possession. It may not be expected that the whole or even the majority of Americans should be qualified as shareholders; even less likely that such a minority shall include equal parts Northerners and Southerners, merchants and yeomen. The directors of the Bank are to be chosen in practice by and from the monied interest, and therefore the monetary policy is to be surrendered to a distinct minority whose constitution is entirely unrepresentative of the general public; in short, it is not a public organ, but a private one. An administration is not accountable to the people, unless it may be removed by the people—the whole people, not only those who reap their living investing the earned fortunes of other men.
     If his previous arguments may cause us to wonder whether the gentleman from Pennsylvania is at all acquainted with the law and history which he invokes, what follows would seem to indicate, that his obsession with increasing the power of the central Authority has blinded him to the true nature of civil self-Government. He protests the Bank is necessary, because only by its finance may the Country find sufficient funds for such needful measures and internal improvements as to strengthen the bands of Union. This is plainly not so. Whatever the promoters of this scheme in Congress may say, it was not the States, but the central government, which proved least able to maintain a stable currency in the last Confederation. Likewise, it is the State banks, and not the monstrosity that a National Bank must be, that are both more dependable and more responsive to the wants and needs of the people. The gentleman seems to believe that only by the total elimination of State power, in favor of the increase of federal Authority, may stable markets and sound national currency be established. Yet there is no reason, why the necessary functions with which he invests this Bank may not be answered by the Treasury or the Mint, and the others devolved upon the States, who by their nature and proximity to the people are best suited to meet the immediate needs of the country. The one difference between this program, and the proposed scheme of a National Bank, is that the former is founded upon institutions democratically elected and responsive to the whole people and all the States, while the latter is separate from all oversight by the States or the National Assembly, and is appointed by only part of the people.
     No republican system may exist, but that the coinage of legal currency is controlled by the legislature and the responsible ministers of the Government. Yet the considered legislation would vest this power in an unelected directory responsible, not to the States or the votes of the people, but to the monied interest of the country—who are themselves answerable to their British creditors. The effect of this policy is to remove from the National Assembly control of the Union’s supply of currency, and to place it in the hands of the interested class whose fortunes and livelihoods are directly dependent on the merchant class of Great Britain. It is no difficult conclusion to reach, that they will therefore be more inclined to decide according to their own interests—to the satisfaction of their creditors—before the national interest, with predictable results for the welfare of the Country.
     A Bank, in summary, by very definition of its being, exists for the benefit of its creditors. The creditors of this Bank are not to be the American people, as the gentleman from Pennsylvania insists, but a fraction of them: the financial class. A National Bank, will therefore benefit the monied interest—and their creditors, the merchant class of Great Britain—at the expense of depriving the inhabitants of America of their Liberty, and the States of their sovereignty. The aim of any republican Constitution should be to produce balance between the States and the federal Power, between Northern and Southern members, between the many and the few. This bill proposes to disrupt the balance of our Union by shifting the scales in favor of the latter, at the expense of the former. Such a policy may not be admitted, and all Whigs, indeed all thinking men, must find in it a policy wholly unsuited for this Country.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

[quote]

A RIDDLE.

Who honesty hates, and impatiently waits,
For a crown to be set on his temple?
Who Sanity mocks, whenever he talks,
And whose store of cured falsehoods is ample?

I'll tell you in One: 'tis mad Old James Gunn,
The late-disgraced King of fair Georgia;
Who distributes deceits, to whomever he meets,
And whose manners resemble a boar-a.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

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[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

From  THURSDAY,   JULY  5,—to  MONDAY,  JULY  9,   1792.

ACTS PROPOSED IN CONGRESS.
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Since the fortuitous defeat of the Bank, has it been asked commonly enough how the Government may go about answering the pernicious question of the Debt. Those among the Federalist party have frequently posed that no answer may be given, but that it should mass power in the central Authority, and that no solution may be devised, to secure the credit of the United States, but that it should place the monied interest at the head of the Country. Other, honest, Citizens have likewise been given considerable cause to wonder, whether any solution could be devised that did not compromise either their Liberty or the republican character of the Union.
     There is lately introduced in the National Assembly, by no less a personage than Mr. Adams, a Bill, to resolve these inquiries and restore the faith, credit, and prosperity of the United States by three measures designed to remedy the problem of the debt while imposing only the most minimal burden upon the inhabitants of the Country. The first of these, is the establishment of an independent central Treasury, founded upon the principle of total separation of the Country's finances from the corrupting speculation of the monied interests. All parties informed on the matter must pronounce this a most necessary and proper innovation. The Treasury shall have full authority, according to such provisions as may be by Law established, to regulate the value and circulation of the national currency, and to oversee the collection of such duties and fees as may from time to time be levied by the National Assembly. In this way, the Government ensures the strength and stability of the national currency, without which promise all hope for the future prosperity of these States may be abandoned. In this way, the Treasury resembles in function the public mission of the Morrisonian Bank; yet where the Bank was responsive only to its creditors, and they to the British merchant class, the Treasury will answer to the Government and the National Assembly, and they to the States. So the principle of the separation of powers is maintained, without compromising either the rights of the States, or the security of the federal finances.
     The second of the three Acts, concerns itself with the expansion of trade with the States of Europe, by the ratification of commercial agreements with Denmark and Portugal. New England in particular must benefit from this, for our merchant ships will now find friendlier reception in the ports of Europe. The treaties further ensure that we shall not be beholden to the whims of the British merchant class, and add to our friends among the powers of the Old World. Thirdly and finally, the Acts achieve a significant increase in revenues, by a moderate increase in the Tariff, and an equally modest duty on distilled spirits. While the gibbering lunatics who count themselves the low friends of General Wilkinson may protest the last of these measures, it is neither excessive nor unnecessary. Without revenue, the Government will be unable even to furnish the interest owed on our debt, let alone cause its decrease; and should they fail in this, our credit will be ruined, the value of our currency decimated, and the hoped-for prosperity of these States will be reduced to ashes. Not only the merchants, but the tradesmen and farmers will suffer the hideous effects of depression, starvation, and general want. No State or power worthy of the name shall trade with us; we shall be unable to pay our soldiers, and the frontier will fall to the Indians and their British allies; and then the Government itself will fall into the hands of some foul Tyrant, promising bread and broth in exchange for the people's Liberty. The duty proposed is therefore the most stoutly republican of measures, by which the Government may be maintained and the Debt paid at little cost to the people.