The Kentucky Gazette

ARISTIDES.
No. V.
To the Citizens of Western America.

To pursue our administration through all their ungenerous policy respecting the navigation of the Mississippi and the Indian warfare, would be but to repeat a series of follies and vices, too deeply impressed in the minds of the citizens of the west, to be shortly effaced. One observation must suffice, that they have invariably pursued a line of conduct calculated to suppress the rising importance of Western America.

Under the full influence of principles so unfriendly to the genuine spirit of Republican government, we find our administration called upon to take a part in the great transactions of Europe. The question submitted to their decision was solemn and important. Whether the freemen of America would lend an assisting hand, to relieve from the galling chains of despotism, their friends, their allies, and enslaved millions. Independent of every generous and grateful consideration, our experience convinces us that sound policy dictated a close adherence to the cause of liberty espoused by the French nation. But to the eternal disgrace of America, they preferred a cold and partial neutrality, to the discharge of her sacred obligations. She deserted the cause of Liberty, and violated the trust first reposed in her. She afforded to the world, an awful proof of the weakness and depravity of man. She has effaced that fair fame for which the bled, and for which her martyrs to liberty died. Instead of reaping the paltry fruits of her affected neutrality, with which she flattered herself, she has lost millions of property. She has become the sport of nations and her commerce the common plunder for all. With this accumulated load of political guilt on our administration, and after every liberal advance by the French nation; we are dragged into the embrace of the vilest of all human governments. Nor satisfied with promoting the wishes of the enemies to liberty by every insidious means in their power, we behold them arrive at the climax of political iniquity. A treaty of amity commerce and navigation is entered into with Great Britain! As well might a vigorous and healthy youth, flatter himself with connubial happiness, by a connection with an abandoned prostitute, as the government of the United States with the corrupt and corrupting monarchy of Britain. That fatal compact, which consigned the American character to contempt amongst foreign nations, and distracted and divided the citizens of America, was completed by the same means that mark the conduct of administration in general. Every effort of the enemies to liberty and friends to administration, aided by the mercantile interest, were united to accomplish it. Peace or war with omnipotent Britain was presented as the dreadful alternative, to the affrighted and pusillanimous American of 1795. How lost to our real interest; how insensible to our native dignity were we, when we rejected the overtures of struggling freemen, and took to our arms corrupted slaves. This baseness and treachery of the British government has become proverbial among all nations. They have been the scourge of the human race in every quarter of the earth. But thanks to the arbiter of the fate of nations; the sum of their iniquity is nearly complete. The friends of Liberty and humanity anticipate at an early day, the dissolution of that corrupt government. And flatter themselves that with the downfall of that monarchy, royalty and aristocracy will be abolished in Europe. Until that happy period arrives, it is to be feared we shall continue to be polluted with their contaminating influence.

It is painful to dwell on a gloomy and melancholy picture, but the task is indispensable. The physician is compelled to probe to the bottom the cankrous sore, before he can apply his healing applications. It is in vain to avert the eye from the disgusting scene. The insidious efforts that have lately been made to involve us in a war with the French Republic, deserves our utmost abhorrence. After having pursued a system of policy, inimical to France, and convinced that Republic, beyond the shadow of doubt, that although we professed an attachment to the cause of Liberty, our administration were at heart its devoted enemies. When she no longer will submit to our duplicity, and from necessity imitates the conduct of our friends the British, we are alive to our injured interest. The wounded sensibility of our executive, is roused by the insults offered to the dignity of the American character. And from the throne of presidential authority, the alarm is sounded through the continent. The avenging sword of the virtuous band of American heroes, who rally around the standard of administration, is ready to fall on the devoted heads of the Sans Culotte. But happy for us, there remained a chosen few of the genuine friends of America. They opposed with efficacy, the torrent of executive influence, and we hope, have saved us from a disgraceful and ruinous war. How grateful to the enemies of Liberty, would it have been, to have seen, the only two Republics on earth as soon as they had proclaimed their independence, engaged in a bloody conflict. How would the hosts of royalists, aristocrats and tories have exulted to see the freemen of America, drenched in blood, and sunk to political perdition. But notwithstanding our administration were disappointed in their favorite scheme, they availed themselves of the tumult to enlarge their revenue. The seeds of indirect taxation, being early sown, they have taken effectual root in our government. The ingenuity of those who wish silently to filch from the purses of the citizen, a variety of small and inconsiderable sums, to form the great aggregate, has been constantly on the stretch. And to our astonishment they have copied that ever memorable model of revenue, a Stamp Act. Americans have too much good sense to be frightened at names, and therefore do not view this act with the horror which attended it in former days. But it is impossible to suppress the recollection of the consequences of that arbitrary act of British government. We shall no doubt be told that it was not the stamp act which excited the disquiet in the minds of Americans at that day, But the principle of taxation without representation. The inhabitants of Western America, it is certain, have the shadow of representation, as a compensation for their increasing abundance of taxation. But our voice is unheard, and our influence unknown in the councils of America. We may perhaps derive consolation from being informed that the mass of the agricultural and mechanical interests in the Atlantic States, stand on the same footing. That they, like us, are said to be represented on principles which operate alike on all classes of citizens. But that in fact, and in truth, their representation is so completely absorbed in the influence and intrigue of the friends to administration as to be a cypher. To you then, inhabitants of Western America is still reserved, a right to think and act as your real interest requires. While you consult your honor and your happiness there is no danger of abusing this right. The phantoms of anarchy and licentiousness, are held up to deter free men from the pursuit of their just rights. But it is the ignorant and enslaved, who are compelled to fly from extreme to extreme, by their venal governments. Americans have but to resolve to regain the freedom for which in 1775 they so profusely bled. As certain as we now enjoy a share of freedom, will we ere long be deprived of it, by those who conduct the general government. Unless we act in a spirit of firmness and sincerity, thus far shall you go and no farther. It would be presumption in an individual to point out the precise remedy for the evil. Let your reflection be awakened to a just sense of your inestimable rights and point out to you the most honorable and most effectual means of preserving your remains of freedom. And may God grant you success.

ARISTIDES.