Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

From the Columbian Centinel.

The PURSE STRINGS! No. I,

Or an EXAMINATION of the late ALARMING ATTEMPT in CONGRESS, to CONCENTRATE all POWER in the HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES.

FELLOW CITIZENS,

AN attempt has been made in two instances, to undermine our constitution, to reduce us again to a state of revolution, or in the language of Judge Craik, to place a "Check mate" upon the operations of government.

One clause in the constitution is seized upon by revolutionary hands, and is declared to be paramount, and to be competent to annihilate every other power and authority delegated in that sacred instrument.

The right to originate Money Bills is alleged to be the just authority to destroy and defeat every executive and every legislative act. We are indebted to a Frenchman for this sublimation of power. -Albert Gallatin, in the year 1795, discovered this new and monstrous property, attached to the house of representatives.

It is extremely natural that a Frenchman should have originated the thought--It is indeed a revolutionary movement, but it cannot in this country be justified by the pretext of imperious necessity.

Every honest man, every admirer of the American constitution, every citizen who loves his own country better than any foreign nation, must wish to see this new doctrine discussed and exploded. The subtlety, the sophism, the logic, and the deceptive eloquence of the opposition, have been exerted in congress, to force down this novel and dangerous principle. Many honest and well meaning men, who love liberty better than they understand the means of securing it, have been carried down the tide of popular prejudice. They have ranged themselves on the side that they safely term the popular branch, in opposition to the aristocratic members of the government.To combat these prejudices--to remove these errors-to demonstrate the absurdity, and the danger of Gallatin's doctrine, shall be my endeavor.

In the discussion, I shall be candid and ingenuous ; but I shall be compelled to extend my essays to three or four numbers, tedious perhaps to men of science and reflection, but highly necessary for the great body of my fellow citizens, for whom they are especially designed.

I shall lay down a series of axioms, which I am prepared to establish, and which shall lead the mind by a regular climax, to perfect conviction.

The object and the end of every government, ought to be the happiness of the people. This happiness is secured by the unmolested exercise of the rights of person and property. Liberty consists not in the power to do what we choose, but in the secure enjoyment of what we possess. Experience and refined reasoning have conspired to prove, that every simple, unchecked and unbalanced government is a despotism, and of necessity, that every free government must be in a considerable degree, complex.

By a simple government, we mean, one in which the whole power resides in one body. whether it consist of one, or of a few, or of many persons. It is wholly immaterial, whether it be called, an empire, a kingdom, a principality, a republic, or a democracy --or whether it be governed by a Doge, a King, an Emperor, a Sultan, a Committee of Safety, a Convention, or a Rump Parliament--it is still a despotism-it is unchecked-it is uncontrolled ;--the more numerous the assembly, the more dangerous, because the less responsibility ;-it will inevitably draw all power into its fangs--it will bring all authority into its vortex-it dreads no punishment, because it is above control -It fears no censure, because shame is divided and disgrace is destroyed by numbers.

It forces its way like a wedge, the strongest, at the same time the simplest power in mechanics. 'In short, it embraces the whole physical force of society, and tyrannizes over the very power-which contributes to its energy.

LIVY.