Alexandria Daily Advertiser

From the Kentucky Farmer's Library

MATTHEW LYON
TO
WILLIAM DUANE.

Sir,

In an address intended for you last summer, I gave you reason to expect to hear from me again, whenever you did me the honor of another attack. You remained silent towards me for several months after that correction; it is so long since you have broke out again and have been honoring me with the lashes of your poisonous and lying pen without my notice, that by this time you may perhaps suppose I have either became callous, or that I am afraid to encounter your gigantic blackguardism. Sir, neither is the case; I must have been deaf and blind, as well as callous, not to notice your vile attempts to destroy my character; nothing but a crowd of business has occasioned this delay.

The animals called skunks are extremely plenty in the barrens of Kentucky. I have frequently seen them sitting in the road before me, after making a noise to start them out of the path without success. Not choosing to come within the reach of the odoriferous liquid, with which they contaminate the atmosphere, I have reluctantly given them the path and rode round; at length some time last summer, having file, impassable ledges on both sides, I met an insolent fellow of that tribe in a defile. I saw no other course but to risk the odoriferous charge, and push through. This I accordingly did to the destruction of my adversary, without any other injury than having my horse a little besprinkled, which was principally washed off at the next rivulet.

I ask your pardon for this digression sir, but the analogy between my situation then and now is so very striking, I could not get the thing out of my mind till I put it on paper.

You may recollect your old friend Matthew Lyon, on his departure for the western country in March 1801, wrote a valedictory letter to the fallen John Adams. The same Matthew on his departure from the Atlantic States in 1805, honors the would-be tyrant William Duane with a valedictory letter, which he concludes will be sufficient on his part until his return in December next.

Having made up my mind to publish this letter, your good nature sir, will I presume, excuse my sending it to you in print, and as I would not like to send you a letter destitute of amusement, it shall contain a short story; although some parts of it is no more than a dream, other parts may be said to be taken from real life.

A wretch, hunted for his crimes from Asia to Africa, from Africa to Europe, from Europe to America, landed on the Atlantic shore of the United States seven or eight years ago, incapable of earning his bread by common honest laborious industry, poor and penniless, driven for his petulance from the station which first offered him subsistence in America, when a ragged vagabond, with a downcast guilty look, like Cain, expecting every man's hand to be raised against him; bemired with filth, and shunned as a spectre, with no other distinguishing property than that of ability to write with severity; to give falsehood and lies some semblance of truth & to give truth the appearance of falsehood. The democrats of this country were taken in by him; by their countenance and indulgence he became the conductor of a press; which had been distinguished for its correct course; they enabled him to put on a clean shirt, to fill his belly, to look a little sleek and hold up his head.

The democratic republicans were at that time in a conflict for the reins of government with a party opposed to their principles, consisting of a few monarchy men, some tories and aristocrats, together with a large share of such people as are attached to any government under which they feel safe and easy.

The last class were made to believe by their leaders that democracy was a jacobinical, disorganising demon, who would deluge the country with anarchy, disorder, confusion, immorality and infidelity, and that republicanism was a word which might mean any thing or nothing. In this contest this man enlisted himself, and was of no small use to the democratic party in exposing the views and projects of their adversaries. He attempted to gull the republican members of congress into a purchase of the establishment, in order to hire him on a salary to conduct it. I have reason to believe my advice prevented the speculation. I told the members to give the man money, give him money, all you can afford --let us support him through the crisis, & if our party succeeds in obtaining the reins of the government, the paper will support itself; if he fail it must fall. Let him manage the paper for himself ; let the economy of it be at his own risque as much as possible. It was out of their power to have a proper check upon the charges & expenditures of such an establishment. I foresaw his charges would be made up something like those made for printing for the house of representatives of the United States, which the committee of that house with all their vigilance, have not been able to reduce nearer than 30 per cent. to what other people will now do it for ; when the lowest bidder has the work. I foresaw that the dues to the establishment would not be collected with the same promptitude and good management, for such a company, as for an individual whose support depended on it. I knew very well that when the establishment was purchased by such company, at the enormous price talked of, it would be a tool in the hands of this man which he might use to his own pleasure, and that whenever he chose he would pick a quarrel with the proprietors, desert the establishment; and get another set up at one third the price proposed for that. I spoke freely against the purchase ; he missed the speculation, and can never forgive me for his disappointment.

When it was insinuated that offers were made by general Hamilton to purchase the office for the use of the opposite party, I told a great friend of mine who was most zealous for the purchase, that I considered these insinuations thrown out merely to alarm the republicans, and drive on the bargain. When this story appeared in a public paper, and poor Frothingham was fined and imprisoned for republishing it, without any effort on the part of the wretch I am speaking of, (who has acknowledged himself the author,) to save Frothingham, my friends was convinced it was right.

I often told my republican friends in those days, that the LIES of this man would injure our cause- if the conflict lasted long enough to have them exposed. A thousand times has he brought a blush on the face of the honest men of our party, when they read his unfounded attacks against their opponents; with regret, the most discerning foresaw that they themselves would be subject to the same insults and indignities, whenever they happened to displease this unprincipled Scaramouch of their own architecture.

Success attended the endeavors of the democratic party; they triumphed in the election of a chief magistrate most deservedly dear to them, and this creature was allowed to carve for himself much to his own mind, the share he pleased of the spoils of the victory : not satisfied with this, and grieved at the prospect of the restoration of peace and tranquility. as well as confidence and good humor between honest men of both parties under a democratic administration, a prospect unsavory to him who delights in political turmoil, whose political and pecuniary consequence depends on a continual bluster, an everlasting jarring of parties, and a tempestuous political ocean, without a hope of ever seeing a calm. This person is suspected by some to be at this time favorable to the views of a foreign potentate, who wishes to see democracy and republicanism wrote down and brought into disgrace in this country.

This person is thought by some to be a very fit instrument in the hands of the emperor who has disgraced and driven republicanism from the country he governs, and whose anger burns at the thought of it in any other country. It is well known in Europe, that England had her Porcupine in this country, whose attempts against republicanism and democracy failed : his attacks were bold, open, daring, and insolent: he attacked front to front. A more insidious method is now supposed to be in contemplation. Last night I dreamed I had a peep at a translation of the communication of the prime Minister of the Emperor, to his correspondent in Philadelphia. After dilating on the cause of Porcupine's failure, and recommending a different course, he says, "It is with deep regret that we hear some Frenchmen say, that a republican form of government can be supported. They quote the U. States as an example; this example is a thing every despot must abhor, yet no potentate can be so immediately interested in the destruction of that kind of government, as the emperor my master. The thoughts of a powerful people, a rising nation, enjoying peaceably a form of government and an administration of their own choice, renders the glory and the permanency of the new monarchy extremely precarious, especially over a people who a few years ago had a taste of the happy effects of self-government. No man can do my master the emperor greater service than he who brings the American people to cast off their republican form of government and accept a monarchy. The way to effect this is obvious to you ; carry democracy to the utmost extreme ; make the people believe that they are gods, that they are wise in the extreme; that every man is qualified to be a governor, a judge, or a legislator ; make the whole people of the state draw lots for all the offices once in three months, if possible, raise their aversion to all ancient institutions, and all those men they have been accustomed to confide in, especially real, well informed, honest republicans ; get leaders ahead of your own stamp, let them flatter the people's vanity and get them uneasy ; tease them with new political dogmas, cry out party ! party! Stigmatise every one who opposes you or presumes to think different ; create a reign of terror under which no one will dare to fall off from any measure proposed by the party, however barefaced, or anti republican it may be ; say the measure is opposed by its enemies, merely because they are not of your party ; whenever you lose a point attack the constitution; attack it again and again--no measure ever served so much to bring the people of France to give up their liberties as that of constitution making. In other countries they have been reckoned sacred things, to be touched in case of special necessity only ; counted upon as barriers against the encroachment of any branch or person in the government, and as a check to the turbulent passions excited by any sudden disgust. In France they have been made and sworn to; made and unmade with such ease & rapidity, that they became contemptible, and ridiculous to that degree, that when the instrument was offered for the people's sanction, which deprived them of the last hope of self government, they received it with the same indifference and sangfroid, as they would have done a new song. Let the American people make a new constitution, or alter their old ones a dozen times in seven years, and I warrant them ready for a first consul for life with power to appoint his successor, or for an emperor, whichever is offered them. You have with you a fine promising young man for the purpose? he is naturally a tyrant, with something of the adroitness and perspicuity of my master; he has the same assuming republican airs; his loguacious manners are extremely well calculated to draw artless, ignorant people into any snare --puff him high in every paper; say high sounding things of his virtue and his integrity ; keep out of sight his aristocratic principles ; don't suffer the people to know that he opposes their right to general suffrage, and that he contends that no man ought to vote in the people's election who is not a land holder : he will make you his prime minister no doubt, and then there will be another Talleyrand : this you have a right to promise yourselves in case of success; in any event your labor will be well rewarded ; stick to it that you are the true organ of the public will: the people's own true friend ; talk big about your influence, write paragraphs puffing your own dear self, extolling your own superlative merit; send them to your subaltern satellites from Maine to Georgia; let them make them their own in their own sooty papers, and you can copy from them ; tell your creatures that you can make any man governor or legislator that you please, make them believe it, and boast of it to shew your great consequence ; tell them that you are poor and patriotic ; keep your carriage out of sight, and don't let them know that you live at the rate of 4 or 5000 dollars a year." There was I thought something in these instructions about plots & the end justifying the means ; but before I could read the communication half thru' a loud noise in an adjoining room wakened me, as I was examining some of the latter pages of this diplomatic correspondence.

There, Mr. Duane, lies before you a picture, look on it again; examine it particularly and see if it fits any person with whom you are acquainted: if you think it does not fit you, then surely you'll not complain. Is there aught set down in malice? If you do not like the picture, permit me to advise you to amend the original, that is the way to get the picture drawn more to your liking another time.

I have been more liberal towards you, sir, than you have been with me - you have not suggested a doubt or a suspicion merely: you have insolently averred, that I have been corrupted to support the compromise with the Georgia claimants, and you have done so without attempting to adduce a single particle of proof. I do not renounce the picture before you because its authenticity and similarity with you cannot be supported.

Does not your predilection for the sicilian Dynasty appear in almost every paper you publish; does not every one of those papers prove your determination to keep the public mind in a fume, and lead the people of this country on to the same excess of change, novelty and corruption, which has led to the establishment of a new tyranny in France, and the loss of self-government to that brave people. Does not your attempt to stigmatize and brand with corruption 75 members of the eighth congress, 38 of whom were republicans for having given their assent to a very reasonable compromise of the conflicting claims between the United States and the claimants under an anterior purchase from the state of Georgia, indicate a bitterness to public faith, to national peace and harmony ; does it not indicate a propensity to disorganization, and a design to create a region of terror, under which no man can comfortably oppose your opinions? it does, sir--twelve months ago your rod, held up in terrorem, had some effect, but your bluster about quids and third party, the nefarious lies and infamous slanders with which your paper has abounded. and the persecutions you have set on foot, has happily brought you and your reign of terror into contempt. Sudden as has been your rise from nothing and meanness to consequence and opulence, your fall will be more precipitate unless you put a curb to your pride, check your arrogance, correct your insolent behavior ; and by a more prudent line of conduct put a stop to the suspicions that are gaining ground with respect to your being a secret Porcupine, an insidious enemy to our republican institutions.

Although a provoked monitor, your old friend is not your enemy; he wishes you had conducted with more prudence; he has a respect for the opinion of his republican friends who think highly of your services. and it is this respect for their opinion which obliges him to expose your real character, with which your own conduct makes it necessary the public should be acquainted, that your denunciations your sarcasms and reflections may have their due weight only.

A long life of active usefulness, with unimpeachable integrity, no small share of the last thirty years of which has been occupied in public business, has put me above your calumny where I am known ; it is merely a hope that you may profit by this proof, and a desire that the public may be set right respecting your calumnies, that this letter is addressed to you by

Your old friend,

MATTHEW LYON.

On the Monongahela River,
April 25th, 1805.

P. S. This, when written, was intended to have been published in the Tree of Liberty, at Pittsburg; but the editor and proprietor being absent when I arrived there, occasioned my bringing it to Louisville.