Daily National Intelligencer

FOR THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.

To the Poor and Dependent Members of the Washington Benevolent Societies.

Friends and Fellow-Citizens,

Never has there been a digested plan, to sap the foundation of individual freedom, laid with greater success, than that of the institutions, to certain members of which this address is directed. There is no truth more self evident than that a man who is fed by his own labor, need never descend to one act of servility. He receives compensation, and no more, for the services he renders, and thereby becomes more necessary to his employer than his employer is to him; wanting no protection from others, he is dependent on his own; eating the bread of his own industry, his heart feels independent, he esteems himself and will be esteemed by all men like himself worthy of it: is it then just to say of men of your rank in society, that they are the canaille (mob or rabble) that the officers elected by them are not the choice of the people, but of the ignorant multitude? This you know, however improper, is the fact, and if you flatter yourselves with living exempt from the reproach, by being members of societies called Washington, you are deceived, you are deluding yourselves it is because your votes are given, or expected, as those who style themselves your betters bid you—but are you really so ignorant as not to see this? A few may be so, but if you will generally consider the subject, the phantasmagoria cannot last long. You will ere long perceive the force of a truth, self evident, that whom the people put into office, cannot have any other object in view in discharging the duties assigned them, than the welfare and happiness of the people. Whatever favors may be promised, whatever preferences expected, remember that it is not the rich man who maintains his tenants, tradesmen, laborers and servants, but they who maintain him; it is not his estate, or his great property, whether it be a ship, a house, or a farm, but the labor employed upon it, that enriches him, all that he does is to distribute what others produce; if indeed the wealthy be liberal, he becomes more eminently useful in proportion to the goodness of his heart and the excellence of his understanding; but when the rich aspire to think for those not so favored by fortune, in politics, it may be apprehended that in religion too, they will soon desire to exercise the same kindness. This was never my wish while living; it never will be in the shades.

GHOST OF WASHINGTON.

Elysian Fields, 1st April, 1814.