The New Hampshire Gazette

COMMUNICATIONS.

Public men, and public measures, are proper subjects of political discussion. All who are desirous of acting correctly, will investigate them with candor and impartiality. Let us not suffer ourselves to be "ravished with the whiffling of a name:" nor listen to the senseless clatter of interested puffers, who, conscious that the candidates they recommend do not possess the requisite qualifications, would lead our judgment astray by drawing our attention to circumstances that are totally irrelevant.

Five men are to be elected to represent this state in Congress. It is a duty which every citizen owes to himself, his country, and posterity, to enquire into the merits of the respective candidates: to weigh their public conduct with the professions of those friends and advocates who recommend them, and decide independently.

The Republican candidates have never been honored with a seat in the councils of the nation; we are, therefore, unable to determine their comparative claims to a station of such high importance; but from the talents, industry, and application to business, which they have discovered, in the legislature of this State, (of which it is believed they have all at different times been members) we have a right to augur, that they will not disgrace their constituents, by supineness or inaction; and from their known patriotism, and civic virtues, we are sure, they will not misrepresent the feelings and wishes of New Hampshire, by opposing the government, in every measure, wherein the honor and independence of the United States, comes in contact with the capricious tyranny of Britain.

Three of the federal candidates are now members of Congress, and the other two, are recommended, as men of the same kidney. We can therefore, easily form an opinion of their merits. We can all recollect the election of 1808, and the promises and hopes, that were then held out. The federal ticket, at that time, was composed of men, elected with great care, from the party that lays claim to "all the talents" of the State; it was the panacea with which all the evils of the body politic were to be cured. To obtain their election no effort was left untried; every nerve of the party was called into action: detachments of runners from Massachusetts pervaded the State: the roads groaned under the weight of iniquitous pamphlets and handbills; the most scandalous falsehoods were circulated; and those bank directors whose nefarious, winning practices, have since come to light, to the ruin of thousands of innocent individuals: were, by their overbearing and oppressive conduct towards those who had transactions with them, mainly instrumental, in securing that success, which, to our eternal disgrace, has authorized the British faction in Boston, to boast, that they governed the politics of New Hampshire.

If the electors will take these circumstances into consideration, and examine the conduct of the sitting members, they will not hesitate on whom to bestow their suffrages. A little more than half their time of service has elapsed, during which, two sessions of Congress have been held. At no period of our political existence has the situation of public affairs been more critical. What have the Representatives from New Hampshire done? This is a question that every citizen should ask. Let those answer, who to put them into office, resorted to the most virulent calumny and abuse against the general government, and those that would support it, in repelling foreign aggression, by such means, as they conscientiously believed to be most efficacious. If instead of puffing them for qualities, which (if they possess) have no relation to their merit as legislators, the federal writers would condescend to inform us wherein the nation has been benefitted by the talents or exertions of their candidates, we might, perhaps, be determined to support the ticket they recommend. If they fail in this, they cannot expect the People to vote for men who have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.