The Providence Journal, And Town And Country Advertiser

From the Gazette of the United States.

THE POLITICAL SECTS PRINCIPALLY owe their existence to two important events. the Federal Constitution and the French Revolution. The sect which framed and proposed the constitution, said it was a good one, and well calculated to promote the general prosperity; the other sect said it was an abominable thing, tending to consolidation, aristocracy, despotism, and a number of other most horrible consequences. The revolution which broke out in France a short time after the adoption of this reprobated constitution, was another bone of contention between the sects. As liberty was the avowed object of this revolution, at first indeed, every body was charmed with it; for omnia vincit libertas, liberty, like love, is omnipotent. In the progress of the business, however, it appearing to the Federal sect, that the revolutionizers knew no more of liberty or justice than Turks or Algerines, and moreover, that their real object was to set fire to the world, that they might rob by the light of the flames, the sect began to grow a little shy of them, and absolutely refused to have a hand in spreading the conflagration ; for the sake of liberty though, in honour of whom the bon-fire was made, they agreed to look quietly on, without either attempting to excite or extinguish the combustion.

The other sect, which for distinction sake we shall call the anti-federal sect, reprobated this apathy, calling it a desertion of principle, pusillanimity, anglophobia, and what not ; declared that the Jacobins, from Petion to Robespierre inclusive, were the most liberal, the most accomplished, the most humane and most enlightened people under heaven. That they were, besides, our benefactors, having killed the King who had aided us in our distress. that they were engaged in the cause of God and man, and that not to join them heart and hand, was ingratitude, impiety and aristocracy.

Upon the above points, the sects, for ten or twelve long years, have been at issue. At length, however, the luminous and propitious opening of nineteenth century, these causes of discord are happily done away. The federal constitution is universally acknowledged to excellent one, the only trifle being who shall love it best ; and although some hatred after French fraternity and kicks occasionally visible in the anti-federal yet the well informed among them do candidly admit the intemperance of the great nation. Nay, their leaders go so far as to recognize the wisdom of the federal policy, to declare that Washington, the head of the sect, is entitled to the fairest page in history, and the first place in his country's love, and that the differences between the sects are unessential, and mere shades.

All former bickering then, of course, must cease, and a scene of harmony and uninterrupted felicity ensue.=-Not yet. Man is not made for perfect happiness, nor are the tempests of "a troubled world" so easily allayed. The sect which proposed and obtained the ratification of the constitution, then holding the reins of authority, and unfortunately acting upon the principles which actuate all reasonable beings. generally brought into office those who were attached to the new frame of government. Hence, upon the doors of honour and confidence being burst open to the adverse sect, an undue proportion of the good things of government is found in the hands of the federalists. But why the doors of honour and confidence should have been thus burst open, and closed upon the sect which, by the acknowledgment of their opponents, have been correct and honest in their political conduct, is an enigma only to be explained on the principles of democratic justice. Waving the enquiry at present, we have only to lament that this unlucky impediment to harmony, this undue proportion in office tenure, should exist. Why, oh why. could not the federal sect but for once have abandoned the usual rules of discretion, and have admitted their opponents to a participation in that government and those measures to which they avowed the most rancorous hostility ? Oh; ever to be. deplored intolerance, to what disastrous consequences may you not lead!

Possibly it may be said, that the anti- federal sect, upon discovering that the federalists had been correct in their policy, should with true Republican candour have acknowledged it, and instead of disgracing them in the eyes of their countrymen, have declared their willingness to support them. .. Oh, blind to the genius of jacobinin, and still blinder to the Statute of man! Majorities can never err, and lives there a man, a philosopher at least, who would not rather be thought a knave, than a fool! Why then should the sect have confessed itself wrong, when by a dextrous appeal to the public reason, in-respect to British influence, standing armies, stamp acts, excise and sedition laws, it was able to prove itself right, by out-voting its adversaries ?

Still may it be urged, that the restoration of harmony, so ardently sighed for by the anti-federalists, should have been immediately set about. upon the establishment of their orthodoxy, and the attainment of their power. Aye, but then the intolerance of the federalists, and that cursed inequality in the distribution of the loaves and fishes ! How were these to be corrected ? Was the irrepressible ardour of Democracy excited, that this man should be Governor, and that man President ? Was it not a common cause? Were the Generals alone to be rewarded, and the toils of the common soldier to go unrequited ? Equality forbid! In the anti-federal sect immense numbers are to be found, who from revolutionary merit, and indeed merit of every kind, are as well entitled to public reward and distinction, as those of any sect whatever. Were these men to be debarred the blessing of self-government, and could they endure a procedure, rendered hopeless of amendment, by a most mortifying dearth of federal mortality, and not a single resignation ?

As it is not to be supposed, however, that the intolerant sect will harbour any resentment at their disgraceful extrusion from office, or any longer refuse to harmonize in society unless every thing be in their own hands, we may soon look for that happy state of things, when all jarring being done away, honesty, capacity, and fidelity to the constitution; shall be the only passports to the honours and emoluments of state.