Daily National Intelligencer

FROM THE TRENTON TRUE AMERICAN.

FEDERALISM IN 1797.

NATIONAL HONOR.

The Federalists now-a-days speak and write of National Honor as a mere feather in the scale with National Interest. Time has been when they spoke and wrote differently—as the following extracts will shew:—

Extract from an Address of the Legislature of New Jersey, Nov. 9, 1797, to John Adams, President of the United States.

“Involved as we are in the conflicting interests of this eventful period, while we would court the favor of calm investigation, we do not forget that Man is BORN TO BE FREE, and MUST NOT YIELD TO DISHONOR. Conscious that unity of sentiment and firmness of conduct are the surest means of securing our liberties, we yield to none in attachment to our government and promptness to defend it; but while we feel the enthusiasm, we deprecate the occasion, and, relying on the wisdom of our constitution and the just administration of it, we anticipate the pleasing prospect of nations yet unborn enjoying, undiminished, the rights which it shall have protected and secured.”

President Adams, in his reply to this address, echoes the sentiment of the Legislature :—

“Your sentiment, that we must not yield to dishonor, so well becomes the character and dignity of freemen, that it is very certain there never has been, and equally evident there never can be a free people to whom THEIR HoNOR is not dearer than THEIR LIVES.

“As the citizens of New Jersey have been exceeded by none in their attachment to the constitution, your reliance on the just administration of the government, is peculiarly honorable and agreeable to me.”

SUBMISSION TO THE MAJORITY

It would appear from the language & conduct of the Federalists at the present time, that they think it the right of the minority to rule, and the duty of the majority to submit. Their sentiments on this point when they were in power may be gathered from the following extracts from the Speech of the Federal Governor of New Hampshire to the Federal Legislature of that state, and the answers, in 1797:—

From Gov. Gilman's Speech to the Legislature of New Hampshire.

“Perfection in human affairs is not to be expected, to satisfy every citizen is next to impossible; but if our system of national government is generally good; if it is free; if we have the choice as frequently as we wish, of persons to administer it; if one of our fundamental and Irreversible principles in a republican government, is that a majority shall govern, is it not proper to give a firm support to the laws and administration of such a government, and for every citizen duly to consider how far clamor and opposition thereto has invited or procured, or may invite or procure injuries from any foreign nation?”

Extract from the Answer of the Senate to Governor Gilman's Address to the Legislature.

“Convinced that our national government is formed on the surest basis of liberty; that the majority ought to rule, that we have an opportunity as often as we can rationally wish to change and elect our rulers, we view it as the palladium of our rights and entitled to our firmest support.

“Although jealousy is a lively trait in a political character, yet when very scrupulously exercised towards the administrators of government, it may tend to lessen the confidence of a people in their rulers—and we view with regret & indignation the faction that clamors for the destruction of our peace and government, and conceive its only source to be the dregs of successive foreign anarchy operating on the weak and vicious.”

Extract from the answer of the House.

“As the constitution of the government was framed by the wisest and best men, was adopted after a candid discussion, and upon mature deliberation, without violence or tumult, it belongs to us to repose higher confidence in the officers of our own choice, and willingly afford effective aid to that government which we have instituted for the common good; the beneficial effects of the constitution of the United States have been generally felt, and acknowledged to be far greater than was at first expected. A spirit of enquiry into the principles of a government and the mode of its administration pertains to a free people: But when that spirit becomes intemperate, and its designs are to promote opposition, to divide and weaken the government, it may embolden foreign powers to invade our rights, and embarrass the measures necessary to obtain redress—wherever such a restless, uneasy temper appears, we will lend our firmest aid to discourage and correct it.”

Can it be possible that men who once held such strong language as this, should have so completely changed as now to be diligently engaged in doing what they then so fervently deprecated? That they incessantly endeavor, to counteract the will of the majority—that they should cherish the most “intemperate spirit” against our rulers—that they should “promote opposition to divide and weaken the government,” and thereby “embolden foreign powers to invade our rights, and embarrass the measures necessary to obtain redress?” Yes, such has been, and continues to be, the conduct of leading Federalists—and they who were the first to promise to “lend their firmest aid to discourage and correct” “a restless & uneasy temper,” are now foremost among those who indulge and display such a temper.
Multum in Parvo—or, a great deal in a small compass. The following paragraph is copied from “The Federalist, and New Jersey State Gazette,” of Sept. 3, 1789:—

“May Americans ever understand this truth; that opposition to our government, is to co-operate with our enemies.”