Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

I HAVE often heard of the depravity of your character, and been a witness to some most glaring acts of impropriety in your conduct; but as a human being I at least expected you would support an appearances of decency, and not shock your fellow-citizens with those unparalleled acts of impudence and atrocity which of late have so strongly marked your political career.

Pray, sir, do you view your countrymen in the light of fools or rogues?—for it can only be on this supposition that you found your present proceedings—You are so bare-faced in the process of infamy, so glaringly inconsistent, that none but the weakest fools can be deceived but if you think them rogues, no matter how exposed the roguery, you are confident in their assistance. But, sir, I flatter myself you are mistaken—that they are neither fools nor rogues and that the day will soon come when you will be detected in your crimes and punished as they deserve. I will take a cursory review of your conduct from the revolution to the present day.

At the commencement of the war, your talents (for I acknowledge them) were strongly exerted in support of the claims of Great Britain—the justice and magnanimity of that government, her right to bind America, was the theme in which you displayed your eloquence, and the cause in which you zealously embarked. This was a gloomy period in the American history—her independence was declared—but whether she could support it, remained a doubt—You, sir, did not choose to rest your interest on so precarious a foundation—If America should be Conquered, and you were a Whig, there remained no hopes of pardon to you—you, therefore, wisely chose the strongest side (as you supposed)—commenced Tory—joined the British army at New-York, and marched with it to Philadelphia. Bitter in your hatred to the American cause and people So long as their success seemed doubtful, and the British held out charms to your mercenary and sordid soul when the tide of fortune turned and our affairs began to brighten, you tacked about, loudly declaimed against the tyranny of the British government—the vices of monarchy, and extolled the purity of republicanism. I granted above, that you possess talents —these were of a particular kind—an easy flow of words —an elegance of expression* which could gloss over the basest designs—a conscience which felt no repugnance to hypocrisy—and a disposition bent on the accumulation of self-interest, to the dereliction of every principle of honor and justice—to the sacrifice of your country. With this character so modelled to every change of circumstances, and turn of fortune—so calculated to swim when all around are sinking,—you were permitted to appear again among your injured fellow-citizens—and what is stranger still, clothed in the garb of republicanism—At this moment you appeared a true friend to your Country—When the Federal Constitution was adopted, you strongly defended it, pronounced it an excellent one When Mr. Hamilton became Secretary of the Treasury, he stood in need of an assistant you had talents and in the line of his department—you received the appointment, and from the hands of the best of men—but I confess, you would have been the last man I would have elected— When the base enemies of Mr. Hamilton falsely accused him of misconduct in his office, and he honorably acquitted himself to the satisfaction of Congress, and then resigned his station, you dared aspire to be his successor; but the truth was the President suspected you, and justly too—it was denied.

From this moment you became a Jacobin—disappointed in your expectations from government, you joined the league that planned its destruction. Dismissed from office by the President, you grew more furious than ever, and are now consecrated an exclusive patriot.

But could any one believe, if he had it not from under your own hand, that a tory, a defender of kingly government, a bitter enemy to the whigs, and a republican,—could have the unpardonable impudence, in the course of a few years, to write an address to the people in support of Thomas McKean, a democratic candidate for the government? and that those qualifications on which you dwell as rendering Mr. McKean a fit person for governor, are, his having been a good whig, and now a good democrat —in having strongly opposed the British in their tyrannical oppressions of this country ? Even you, sir, should blush at a review of this inconsistent and criminal conduct. If the Democrats know their own interest, they will vigilantly guard you, and repose but little confidence in your integrity—for when their cause becomes desperate, you will, true to your old maxim, turn traitor.

The writer must surely mean to quiz, when he thus characterizes the hard-bound turgidity of this vapid Ass.

E.