The New Hampshire Gazette

A person of observation cannot but be surprised at the seeming indifference with which politics is now regarded in this state, especially when he reverts to the warmth they excited two or three years ago. Now the subject is scarce mentioned, which then engaged the conversation of all. Federalists, who were then hot, enthusiastic, and even raving, are now as peaceable as kittens. They are no longer heard spouting in grog shops, nor thundering their anathemas against the poor laborer, who had the audacity to prefer the decisions of his own conscience, to the dictates of aristocrats, and to act accordingly, in bestowing his suffrage.

What can be the cause of this change in the conduct of the federalists? Can it be a conviction that our republican rulers will promote the happiness of the people? No—for if that were their conviction they would oppose them, if their opposition would remove them from office. Can it be a belief that they are irrecoverably defeated? No—puffed up with a conviction that they embody ALL the spirit, ALL the talents, and ALL the wealth in the union, they cannot suffer such a belief to be entertained for a moment. The real cause is a desire to lull their opponents to rest—to persuade them there is no cause for fear, no necessity for watchfulness or exertion—that they may once more obtain the ascendancy by a sudden display of their strength, or by attaching themselves to disappointed republicans and such as they can by their cunning arts delude.

Observatory.