National Gazette

AN AMERICAN FARMER.

March 6th, 1793.

Young's travels in France.

To the EDITOR of the NATIONAL GAZETTE.

SIR,

It is remarked by a profound writer, that all societies throughout the varied forms of democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy, verge more or less rapidly to despotism, as all rivers, whether their passage be thro' vallies, hills, or mountains, bend their course invariably to the sea. This remark ought to be a serious memento to the citizens of the United States; and as decay and death seem to be the lot of every free government, temperance in the body politic should demand the same care and attention, that the body natural requires, that the progress to the grave of despotism may be impeded. As the period of existence very often depends upon original stamina, and we are yet in the infancy of a government, too much attention cannot be bestowed to give that vigour of political fibre which will alone insure us a free, a nervous, and a comfortable age.

Children who are taught to admire frippery, and have their minds furnished with the vanities of this life, have a cast given to their actions which oftentimes haunts them to their end; in like manner, when follies are engrafted upon a government that has just emerged into being, they not only enervate it in embryo, and make it the perpetual object of a nursery, and a physician, but they hasten that dissolution which every freeman ought to deplore. Names and forms have an influence upon the human mind, for so much are we the creatures of imitation and of habit, that we assent to things because others have done so; and continue improper practices because it requires an effort to change them. "Even names," says Paley, "are not indifferent."

When the multitude are to be dealt with, there is a charm in sounds. It was upon this principle that several statesmen of those times advised Cromwell to assume the title of King, together with the ancient style and insignia of royalty. The minds of many, they contended, would be brought to acquiesce in the authority of a king, who suspected the office, and were offended with the administration of a protector. Novelty reminded them of usurpation. The adversaries of this design opposed the measure, from the same persuasion of the efficacy of names and forms, jealous lest the veneration paid to these, should add an influence which might ensnare the liberty of the Commonwealth.

The government of the United States may be said to be in its infancy; it has just attained its fourth year, and on its present treatment depends its future character. If we are a republic, republican manners, republican laws, and a republican administration should obtain. If we are not, other requisites would best accord with our government. If names, according to Paley, are not indifferent, and forms influence the mind, we cannot proscribe every name and form too severely, which have had their origin in monarchy, and do not apply to the true character of a republic. To what source can we trace levees, drawing rooms, separation from the people, robes of office, &c? Certainly not to a republican one, for these are the very opposites of equality. What will be the result when the mind becomes accustomed to the regalia of a court? Is not the transition to monarchy more easy after the mind is habituated to its names and forms? Let it not be said that these things are indifferent; for nothing is indifferent which can sap the foundation upon which our equality rests. An inattention to this, is an intemperance which will hasten the period of decay, and verify the remark with which I began this essay. Republican laws are an essential prop to republican existence; but is a law which fixes a perpetual debt upon us, republican? "Debt is the ready way to poverty: a wise people, no more than a wise man, will ever place their security in a load of debts. He that is in debt, is lost, lost to the society of which he is a member, because they can receive no benefit or assistance from him: and lost to himself, because he will be no longer trusted, and is exposed by his necessitous circumstances to the caprice, contempt and power of his enemies, and too often to the ingratitude and flight of those, who have lived upon him.

It is much to be feared that a nation oppressed with debt, will but too much resemble the prodigal child, who having squandered away his patrimony in luxury and profuseness, gives himself up to corruption and venality. For, as national debts and taxes enable one set of men to corrupt, so they lay a multitude of others under the temptation of being corrupted. And it is well known, that poverty and bad examples will drive men to sell their dearest birthright." The opinion that "a public debt is a public blessing," is of very modern origin, and is a sophism pregnant with evil.