The Daily Advertiser

We have been requested to publish the following from the Pennsylvania Gazette, of the 23d ult.

To the Inhabitants of the Western Counties of Pennsylvania.

[Concluded from Yesterday's Paper.]

FRIENDS and COUNTRYMEN,

THE federal connection, established on these liberal principles, will lead to a sort of federal union among the various churches which it has pleased God to raise up in the world. Here, none can be particularly favored, none can be particularly oppressed, none can be interfered with—all are equal—all independent of each other. They will not render to each other nor to the government, tithes, nor tenths, nor free gifts, (as they have been preposterously termed) nor any species of taxes, as religious men or societies. Nothing will be expected, nothing will be required, but peace and good will, and brotherly loving kindness. This excellent quality of the new government, will warm and expand our bosoms whenever we reflect upon it. The liberality and virtue of America, in establishing perfect equality and freedom among all religious denominations and societies, will no doubt produce to us a great reward, for when the news of it shall reach the oppressed dissenters from the established churches of Britain, Ireland, Holland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, and they shall find that it encourages both protestants and catholics, they will at once cry out, America is 'the land of promise.' There alone can the sincere votaries of religion, enjoy their lives, their civil and religious rights and property, without suffering from their attachment to that church in which they have been born and bred, and which they believe to be right and true. Ye Sovereigns of the European world, continue your religious oppressions at your peril. So sure as you persist, thousands of your present subjects, transplanted to the fertile fields, the healthful villages and populous cities of America, shall remind you of your impiety and error, when it shall be too late for you to retrieve the loss.

It has been said, the public defaulters will be excused from paying the public debts they owe.—It is not necessary at this time to enter into any enquiry, who are public defaulters. That will lie with those persons to whose charge it is committed by the laws. All monies had, and received by any citizen of the United States must be accounted for, or if not duly accounted for, the person who received the same will be liable to an action at law, and if he has it, must pay the same; if he has it not, his body will be subjected to imprisonment, as in other cases. The United States have been declared a body corporate, by acts of the state assemblies. Those acts remain in force, and were the states to separate, and become thirteen unconnected sovereignties, (unallied and unconfederated) they would still have a body corporate, and that body corporate could sue any public defaulter, in the courts of any state, wherein his person or his property could be found.

The militia have been alarmed with assertions, that they could be sent, not only from Georgia to New-Hampshire, but even to France. The jurisdiction of the federal legislature, does not extend beyond the territories of the United States. Congress therefore could have no more authority over the militia on the high seas, or in France, than they could have over the militia of Ireland, or the regular troops of the Empress of Russia.—These things cannot be believed by the people who invent and propagate them. They can only have in view to deceive you into acts of violence and disorder. It is a blow wickedly aimed at your peace, and their wishes must be, to make you the miserable instruments of destroying your own happiness. It is said, our militia may be marched to New-Hampshire or North-Carolina, under the powers of the new constitution. To this we may answer, that by the laws and constitution of this state, the militia of Washington, may be ordered by council to Philadelphia, or those of Philadelphia to Washington. The distance between them is the same as between New-Hampshire and Philadelphia, or between Philadelphia and North-Carolina, but the march from Washington to this city would be much more, through great tracts of unsettled country, and bad roads, over the Laurel-Hill, the Alleghany Mountain, &c. Though this power is possessed by our Assembly, who ever feared the use of it. The truth is, the legislature of Pennsylvania must necessarily have authority over the militia, in every part of their jurisdiction, and so of the federal legislature; but a moment's reflection will show you, that the federal government can never be so foolish as to order the people from one extreme of the union to the other, nor could they expect, that the militia, with arms in their hands, and officers appointed by their own state governments, would ever obey. It is preposterous and criminal, to endeavor to alarm and enrage you with such things. In the same way, they have attempted to make you uneasy about a poll tax. They ought rather honestly to have informed you, that an impost of five per cent. upon all foreign merchandize, and more upon some, will take off a great part of the land tax, which you have been used to pay, and they should observe to you, that as you wear and use a great deal of home made articles of dress, food and drink, which the citizens cannot obtain, and the monied men do not use, the citizens and the monied men, will pay a very large proportion of the public revenues, to the great relief of the landholder, and the industrious poor. This will hereafter be the best poor man's country upon earth, and a most happy one at the same time to the rich, if they have sense and virtue with all; and if they have not sense and virtue, they must endeavor to get them, or they will not be half so happy as their poorer fellow citizens.

It has been asserted, that the new constitution when ratified, would be fixed and permanent, and that no alterations or amendments, should those proposed, appear on consideration ever so salutary, could afterward be obtained. A candid consideration of the constitution, will show this to be a groundless remark. It is provided in the clearest words, that Congress shall be obliged to call a convention, on the application of two thirds of the legislatures—and all amendments proposed by such convention, are to be valid, when approved by the conventions or legislatures of three fourths of the states. It must therefore be evident to every candid man, that two thirds of the states can always procure a general convention, for the purpose of amending the constitution, and that three fourths of them can introduce those amendments into the constitution, although the President, Senate, and Federal House of Representatives, should be unanimously opposed to each and all of them.—Congress, therefore cannot hold any power, which three fourths of the states, shall not approve, on experience.

There is one grand operation of the new federal constitution, favorable to general liberty, which I do not remember to have heard from any of its friends. It is well known, that in most of the States the members of their Houses of Representatives are chosen in certain numbers from each county, and in the eastern states, in equal numbers from each town, without any regard to the number of taxable inhabitants, or the number of souls. Hence it is very frequent for a county, with ten thousand souls, to send only the same number of members to the State house of representatives, as a county with two thousand souls, by which each person in the least populous county has five times as great a voice in electing representatives, as his fellow citizen of the most populous county. This is clearly a departure from the principles of equal liberty, and ought to be altered in the several states. I speak the more plainly because our state constitution is free from that fault in the formation of our house of Assembly. Now the new constitution expressly declares, that the Federal Representatives shall be in the proportion of one to every thirty thousand, which accords with reason and the true principles of liberty. This house, therefore, so far as national matters go, will remedy the evil before mentioned in the several states, and is one more great step towards the perfection of equal liberty and genuine republicanism in America. It must strongly recommend the federal constitution to the serious reflecting patriot, even though he may formerly have had doubts, and it will suggest to the several states the propriety of reconsidering that point in their respective constitutions. Pennsylvania, though right in the principles on which her legislative elections are and will be held, is less safe from the existence of this fault in the adjoining sister states of Virginia, Maryland, Jersey, Delaware and New-York.

There is now so universal a spirit of conciliation, acquiescence and mutual concession prevailing through the states, that the prospect before us is the most comfortable. The minority of Massachusetts were lately called upon to elect Mr. Gerry their Governor, because of his being of their former sentiments on the new plan of government, but they gave much the greater part of their votes to Mr. Hancock, who voted for the plan, believing, on better considering the constitution, that he was right. Governor Randolph, of Virginia, though at first an open opposer of the constitution, proved one of its most useful friends in the Virginia convention, and finally voted for its adoption.—The leading members of the minorities of South Carolina, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New-Hampshire, have said they would promote the execution of it, and its cheerful acceptance by the people. The clearest symptoms of acquiescence and good will have also appeared among the gentlemen in Pennsylvania, who originally opposed the new constitution. May God grant, that this reign of reason, moderation and brotherly affection, may daily increase among the good people of this flourishing commonwealth.

A friend of Society and Liberty.