Gazette Of The United States

FOR THE GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES.

TO HARRINGTON.

YOUR attack upon the freedom of the press in the person of the Printer, affords an additional proof of your arbitrary principles and lack of wisdom.

That an author writing under the impenetrable Shield of an assumed signature, should conceive himself aggrieved by strictures on his fatherless Essays, is truly novel, and it was reserved for Harrington to present the first example.—If, Sir, governed by vanity the invariable characteristic of a weak mind, you have betrayed your own secret, to ingratiate yourself with the most august majority in the universe, who is to blame? The silly Author and not the Printer.

It is not pretended that the Printer has abused your confidence—how then do you reconcile it to your protestations of rectitude, to accuse him of ingratitude for publishing Leonidas in reply to Harrington—Did you subscribe to his paper or furnish him with advertisements under that name?

If not why all this uproar because he has granted the same indulgence to one anonymous writer as another. I am also a customer of Mr. Fenno's,

but I should soon take my leave of him, if I could once believe him capable of surrendering up the freedom of his press to you or any body else for any sum however great; much less for the paltry consideration of a few hundred dollars. For shame Sir, to wreak your ill judged vengeance on an honest man, whose labours malgré the threats of the despoiler are incessantly devoted to preserving his fellow citizens in the peaceable enjoyment of all that is dear upon earth: if you are not a full blooded Jacobin you will make an immediate atonement for your fault.

The moderation of which you make so much parade, reminds me of Nero, who it is said fiddled whilst Rome was in flames! Were you acting less in character than Nero, when you so exultingly hurled a dart at the bosom of your country: Wonderful moderation indeed! And what is your excuse for this parricidal act? Why forsooth, that the magnitude of the object for which the majority of the House of Representatives are contending, is so great, it were to be more or less than man not to feel a deep interest in it. Sir, there is no difference of opinion as to the object of the dispute. All parties are convinced that the Treaty-making power, is exclusively vested in the President and Senate,

but as all parties are not agreed as to the expediency of supporting the present form of government, the measure which you are singing hallelujahs in praise of, has been devised to effect its prostration.

You assert, "that for the last ten years, you had not written three columns on nor taken any concern in politics." It is rather unfortunate that you should have resumed your pen after so long an interval, to weaken the confidence of the people in the President, at a crisis, which so loudly calls upon every friend to his country to rally round the constitution.—Do you flatter yourself Sir, that in the event of a dissolution of the government—you will be permitted to wander unmolested amidst the mighty ruins? If so, you indulge a desperate hope.

Perhaps you are so blinded by prejudice, as not to perceive, that the contest between the President and the majority of the House of Representatives, is the result of a preconcerted plan on the part of the latter? Yes, I say preconcerted plan,—because if there had been any the least prospect of success, the motion for papers would never have been made.

Is it pretended that there are any secret articles in the Treaty? No. Is it believed that the papers would throw light on an instrument which speaks so plainly for itself? No. What then was the object of the call? Why to afford a pretence for not taking up the Treaty, by alleging for reason, that the thing which was not wished for, was withheld! The cry of no Treaty, at the various meetings convened the last summer by the partizans of the majority—the petitions presented to the House by the same persons—the amendments proposed by the state of Virginia, and the language held by that majority, and in the newspapers devoted to their interest, must be considered as conclusive evidence of the truth of my assertion.

If you have pinned your faith on the sleeves of the majority—it is an act of complaisance which I am not disposed to show to them or their opponents. But Sir, since we have entered upon the relative merits of the two parties as to the question in dispute— I will ask you, whether there is not some reason to distrust the decisions of any set of men, in a cause to which they themselves are parties—and if so, whether the minority do not stand upon better ground than the majority? Because, whatever may be the result of the contest, the self denial exercised by the minority must inure to them, the applause of their fellow citizens.

I shall conclude for the present, with performing an Act of justice to Mr. Fenno, with whom you are displeased for maintaining the independence of his press. It is Sir, that I have never received from him the slightest intimation of the real author of Harrington.

LEONIDAS.