National Gazette

For the NATIONAL GAZETTE.

Mr. FRENEAU,

THE day is come when every American should rouse from the supine lethargy of ten years; the time when every republican should shake off that sloth and indifference that has for a season enveloped his senses, and turn an attentive eye to situations, perhaps critical to liberty, and to characters, perhaps dangerous to republics.

How unsuspicious were we but yesterday of the integrity and principles of some men, and how far were we from supposing that there was a single resident in America that was a friend to despots, or inimical to the blessings of a free government!

France, tho' her shrill clarion of liberty, has scarcely been able to penetrate the deaf ears of Americans, and invite them to a view of the horrors of that precipice, to which the foes of nature & of man, under the pretended sanction of friendship, were leading them blindfold, the victims of incaution and inexperience.

The perilous situation, however, of our friend and benefactor in the days of adversity, has stripped off the mask from these secret workers of iniquity; & from her struggles are we taught to know and distinguish who are the enemies of mankind.

But notwithstanding, we still appear ignorant, in a great degree, of the designs, and are too inattentive to the busy activity of these unblushing emissaries, who presume to come forth in the face of United America to disseminate their pestilential doctrines, and to poison the very vitals of that government, which the choice of a free people has established for their protection, and which ought to disdain the shelter of clandestine observation. These emissaries have already warped the principles of pure republicanism as far as their influence could go. They scruple not to declare aloud their weight in the governmental scale of influence, and have set republicans at defiance by the insulting exhibition of the laureat adulation of, God save king George!

Could that heart be of American texture which did not swell with indignation and horror at the unparalleled degree of insolence which dared to tell us in our own prints, that they had publicly celebrated the anniversary of monarchy in the very heart of a republican country, and that they toasted the monarch on the very spot where his sword had but recently shed a deluge of blood, and among that people whose lives had paid the forfeit of his displeasure! Tis thus we are insulted with adoration paid before our faces to that benevolent author of the late war, whose wish it was to teach his American subjects the duties of non-resistance by the deliberate methods of rapine, blood and murder.

Tis those slaves of tyrants who openly avow the wishes, and perhaps the intention of their masters, who, should they vanquish the foes of monarchy in Europe, hope to exterminate the liberty of mankind, and chain the generous democratic American with the vile aristocratic slave of Europe.

Nothing but the passive spirit which the power of neutrality enforces, and a full confidence in the success of the confederated legions against France, could produce such matchless presumption or encourage agents among us to offer such an open insult to the sentiments of a nation that has so lately writhed its neck from the ignominious yoke of royalty, and sipped the sweets of freedom unmingled with the gall of slavery.

Were such characters only insignificant party-puffers, or unprincipled persons, poisoned with the gold of foreign depots, still they are objects of suspicion, and call for more attention than comports with simple confidence.—Never did our independence know a time more critical than at the present day, and never were the times more prolific than that at present, in giving birth to political incendiaries. Caution, circumspection, and the utmost prudence (should France still) will scarcely save us from these gorgon monsters, or guide us in that middle track, by which we may escape the greedy fangs of ambitious and avaricious tyrants.

Now is the time that our sacred palladium is to be secured: now is the time that liberty is beset on all sides; in France by the torch of despots; in America, by intrigue, calumniation, and the pandemoniac councils of foreign emissaries: now therefore is the time to secure the vestal purity of our country from the rapacious power of her enemies, by guarding the avenues of her temple with the spirit of free men brandishing the sword of vengeance over guilty intruders; or by expelling the vile impostors from a land in which they have no share, no interest, no desire but that of enslaving its inhabitants, deluding its rulers, and infusing into the very vitals of the government, the destructive venom of court influence.

Americans! arouse from the dull languor that accompanies security, learn to distinguish your true friends, and watch with a jealous eye the sycophants of the present hour, and the duplicity of those who pretend a friendly regard for America and are butchering the friends of freedom. Should government think proper to bear with the insults and abuses of a haughty foe, and connive at their oppressive acts, under the sanction of neutrality, let us, like freemen, individually shew the spirit of firmness and resolution, by unanimously setting ourselves to counteract the counsels of those court-fed minions, by exposing the villainy of their designs, by publishing to the world the distinctive marks by which they may be known, and by defeating those many artful insinuations and wiles by which they seek to bewilder and mislead all those who, from the light of reason, have a propensity to republicanism.

Possessed of this diagnostic spirit—the spirit of investigation and discernment—we shall at once discover the mysterious magnet that attracts these iron-hearted friends from the abodes of monarchy: we shall be led to form a proper judgment of the character, and suspect the visit of him, whose love for royalty caused him to desert America in her struggle for liberty, and to dictate such conduct to the immortal Washington, as none but Arnold, Duche, or Dumourier could stoop to follow!—

Behold, this god-like champion of monarchy, this celestial intercessor, has returned among those whom he once called "the dregs of America,"—"the lowest of the people"—among those who, according to him, were "without principle, without courage"—for what?— Not, I hope, from similarity of principle—for I would fain think more charitably of the servants of God: surely not for the love of cowardice: true, religion forbids the thought. If he means once more to inculcate those holy doctrines which marked his departure from America, he will find more infidels than that general whose impiety resisted this missionary of political sanctity. He will find thousands equally bigotted to that horrid custom of resisting oppression, and combating iniquity, and paying their adoration rather to the rights of man than to those of despots.—Americans; let justice attend your scrutiny: but let that scrutiny select for you proper objects of friendship and estimation.

VIRGINIUS AMERICANUS.

June 27th, 1793.