Gazette Of The United States

Mr. Hopkins,

It is really distressing to all true Americans to submit to the virulent abuse which is daily levelled against the President of the United States. However contemptible may be the authors, and however scurrilous is the Printer, and however certain it is that the character abused shines with increasing lustre upon every examination, and is more and more dear to the great body of his fellow citizens; yet nations and individuals, strangers to us and these facts, will begin to suspect his virtue, or our professed attachment. The cause of liberty too will suffer, in hearing that a Washington has aberrated from that heart cheering goddess; & Mankind will resign all hopes of the possibility of finding a genuine patriot. The happiness of the American people must be at an end, if the government cannot progress without interruption, when the Man of the People directs the helm ; for who can be so sanguine as to hope for it, when any other character fills the presidential chair?

Short-lived, then, is our government, blasted our happiness ; or disunion among the states will succeed to union--different nations formed, different interests prevail, and the United States become tributary to France and Great-Britain; obeying their policy, cultivating their friendships and their hatreds, and arraying themselves in the field of battle under their councils and their leaders. What a terrible change from our present happiness! Why then do not all good men unite in time and arrest the course of the vicious and misguided ? The abuse against government is poured forth from a certain press with every mark of indecorum and contempt of truth : whether this may be attributed to a venal connexion, as is suggested, or to the proper disappointment of some of his relatives in their applications for high offices, is very immaterial; the effect on the national temper and character is the same, and his licentiousness ought to be checked in season.

A JERSEY DRAGOON.