Gazette Of The United States And Daily Evening Advertiser

For the Gazette of the United States.

THERE is a point of view, in which the affairs of France have presented themselves to me, that I do not remember to have seen noticed by any of your correspondents. During the administrations of Marat, Danton and Robespierre, when these monsters were filling every department of their country with scenes of the most cruel oppression, addresses of unlimited applause were daily presented to the Convention. When these men, in their turn, were dragged to the guillotine, and were sacrificed to the ascending power of their antagonists, their fall was equally the subject of rejoicing; but all these culprits were convicted and punished without any sufficient proof of their having conspired against the liberties of their country.

Are these declarations then, which so directly combat one another, to be considered as the voice of the people?—If so; this same people must be very ignorant of what they profess to be fighting for, as well as of the first elements of justice and civil liberty; otherwise they would not suffer themselves to be led into measures so repugnant to both, as well as contradictory to one another. Or are these addresses to be considered merely as the huzzas of factions, crushing one another, and shouting their successive triumphs? in either view, the citizens of America can derive no honour from fraternizing with a people who have preserved so little reason or justice towards one another, and who are still controlled by factions, who breathe nothing but mutual destruction. Common sense, and a due regard to the reputation of the United States require that we should view them with a more cautious eye. They are a phenomenon in the moral world to be contemplated with most anxiety at a distance—If happiness and order should arise out of so much dreadful confusion, they will receive our congratulations, as they now enjoy our good offices: But to hang our little bark to the tail of a balloon, which is soaring to such a tremendous height, toiled about by conflicting elements, avors more of chivalry than common sense.

Should these daring aeronauts, to pursue the metaphor, have the good fortune to descend to the common level of humanity in safety, we shall felicitate them on the success of their voyage; and this is the utmost they have a right to expect, as long as we remain a wise and neutral nation.

However we account for the strange and sudden transitions in France from execration to applause of the self-same measures, from worshipping to beheading; whether they were owing most to the ignorance and levity of the people in general, or to the terror which the revolutionary tribunals spread every where, it will be wise to leave the issue to themselves. But what apology can we invent for the clubbists and democrats in America, who cannot plead either ignorance or fear; and yet through every change of men they have invariably approved all those excesses of cruelty and injustice, which the French themselves are astonished at, and seem now to condemn? Can we attribute such conduct to any thing but a mental depravity, that rejoices in human misery, and wishes to see the same dreadful tragedy spread over all Europe and America! But these, my fellow-citizens, are your noisy, vaunting, soi-disant patriots—these are the men who, notwithstanding their unfitness for the office, and without being invited, have taken on themselves to watch over your liberties!—whose imaginations are always on the rack to discover some particle in the Constitution, some secret designs in your public servants, or some article in the laws inimical to your happiness. As soon as they have discovered the urchin in petto, or imagine they have, they drag him from his lurking place, and dress him in a robe as frightful as that of a wretched victim at an auto de fé; painted all over with demons, ready to devour the poor goddess of liberty at a mouthful. Suspect these men, my fellow-citizens—or rather fly from them: Depend on it, the dangers they have painted exist no where, but on paper, and will never be realized, until you commit yourselves to their conduct and direction

R.