The Virginia Gazette

To Doctor Peter Shrachen, of Harrison county.

SIR,

If the allowed maxim, that the examples of persons of elevated rank form precedents for the conduct of the inferior classes of people, holds good, you cannot be much indebted thereto for the subject of the present address. Your insignificance as an individual, however, is entirely overlooked, from considerate motives to the publick good. I cannot but pity you in private life, however I abhor your publick conduct; neither do I conceive you can be so far plunged in wickedness, so callous to every manly feeling, as to be lost to the force of reflection, or a sense of conviction. Ingratitude is a crime of the blackest dye, and one of the most pernicious to society. Consider how much you are indebted to the society you live in, and how little you are entitled to infringe upon its choicest privileges. It is enough that they suffer you, ungrateful as you are, to draw the vital air in this their land of freedom; but to be ever subject to your repeated invectives, and practised artifices to mislead and intimidate them in their glorious pursuit of liberty, betrays an inattention and credulity unworthy of them, and, notwithstanding your weak endeavours to detract from the virtue of Virginians, certainly amounts to an ill-timed virtue of forbearance. Unsatisfied, however, by such endeavours, as not answering the intended purpose upon some, you exert every quality of the head, and passion of the heart, to misrepresent and magnify, to your own wish, every incident and occurrence, with a view to flatter, frighten, or deceive, the credulous and unwary, too often greedily devoured by them. Thus is sacred truth fully obscured, evil intentions answered, and falsehood appears clothed in all her sacred robes. I have before observed, that I pity you in private life, although I abhor your publick conduct. Actuated by these principles, detraction and defamation are alike foreign to my heart; it is to set before you the folly of such a conduct, by an appeal to your own reason and judgment, that I have been thus justly severe upon you. Mistaken notions, or false ideas, may in some part palliate your past conduct; but suffer not an ill-placed partiality to hurry you to extremes, which may prove fatal to you. Partiality for a native place is, in some degree, predominant in every breast; but when such partiality is converted to justify every error and misconduct of our countrymen, it becomes a crime of the first magnitude, even to the utter subversion of every principle of reason and justice. If you cannot utterly divest yourself of partiality, then, sir, determine to remain silent, and do not exert your weak efforts to the perversion of the justice of the great cause of America. Lay aside all odious distinctions, and consider not yourself as having a separate or distinct interest from this country. Here are your family, relations, and, I dare say, dearest connexions; and your duty to them calls upon you to sacrifice all ignoble views, which cannot but tend to their unhappiness, if persevered in. Believe not, sir, that Virginians will longer remain in that state of inattention they have hitherto done, or longer be idle spectators of your notorious conduct; but remember, that, like Englishmen, when once determined to follow the information of their own consciences, and abide by the conclusion of their own judgments, no reason or consideration that you can advance will be able to divert their pursuit. Another evil I would guard you against, is, that, allowing your own principles to be what they will, you would cease to instil them with so much pious care and attention into your own family. Consider, sir, that prejudices early imbibed, especially in youthful minds, are hardly ever eradicated. Suffer then the language of truth, and the dictates of reason, to be inculcated into them. Let justice usurp its empire, and that will be sufficient to preserve in them a love of their country, and a regard for virtue. In short, sir, throw off all connexions with politicks and politicians; revert to your gallipots, and you will cease to appear despicable in the eyes of

CENSOR.