The National Intelligencer And Washington Advertiser

WASHINGTON CITY.

MONDAY, MAY 8.

To the Editors of the National Intelligencer.

Having long since retired from the bustle of the world, after having shared its cares and duties, I have been for many years an attentive observer of passing events, and have endeavored to form an honest judgment of the things around me. I am certainly not exempt from patriotism. I will admit that I love my country better than any other, because it is my country; but I am, notwithstanding, sincerely solicitous for the general welfare of mankind. Thus qualified to pronounce on the actions of others, I offer you my opinions, which will be expressed with the same freedom with which they are conceived. Do with them as you please. Even should the severity of criticism consign them to the flames, you will not by so doing make an old man your enemy, who allows as much purity to the motives of others as he claims for his own.

In my animadversions you will find little of party, and still less of its asperity. Not that I am destitute of decided convictions; but because I am persuaded that reason, and not denunciation, should be the grand instrument of reform, and because I am sick, to disgust, of the low ribaldry and profligate disregard of truth that disgraces too many of our presses.

We want, sir, in my opinion, a correct NATIONAL PRIDE, founded not on a vague or ideal sense of our own personal importance, but on the distinctive features which characterise our situation, our habits, our modes of thinking, and our institutions. The want of this sentiment is at the bottom of many of the greatest evils that have befallen us. It makes us the sport of every gale of faction or political or literary prejudice that passes the Atlantic. A just pride is the pedestal of all virtue and greatness. It makes us rely on ourselves, and by convincing us of the value of such a reliance it inspires us with dignity of character, with conscious worth, with an independent spirit too proud to solicit favors, with a knowledge of our powers, with a constant and active inducement to their improvement, and with the great talent of adapting the means we possess to rational ends. It makes man a practical, instead of a visionary being; the nervous arm is soon instructed to wield with skill the implements of industry, and the mind, by discerning the practical uses to which its powers can be applied, ardently and diligently to cultivate them.

It is high time for us to think and act for ourselves: to disclaim all foreign attachments; to break the chains that bind us to the car of Europe. This will never be accomplished, until we think better of ourselves, and less of others; until, in short, we adopt a national character.

That our condition and character are totally different from that of any nation of the old world scarcely needs illustration, Our prosperity is unrivalled, and it arises from causes, which, so far from being the same with those which have decided the condition of other nations, are, in most important respects, directly the reverse. The representative principle of our government is a new feature never before carried into practical operation. The freedom of pursuit, and the religious toleration, guaranteed by it, are equally peculiar to ourselves. The cheapness of lands, and the actual cultivation and proprietorship of the soil being united in the same person, connected with this class of the community greatly exceeding the aggregate of all the rest, together with the abolition of the right of primogeniture, have all conspired to cast our lot in a new mold. These are the great causes of our prosperity, causes which have no where else existed, and which, unless perverted, must give us a national character as different from that which prevails in the old world as light is from darkness. There the national character is either founded on prejudice, or on some fugitive circumstance; such as the birth and exploits of a great man; the rise of particular arts; the cultivation of trade or the mechanic arts. Here it ought to be founded on the glorious principles which are equally interwoven with the birth of our national existence and our future progress to greatness, principles which leave the whole field of mental and corporeal exertion open, and insure the largest harvest to him who the most successfully cultivates it.

The fruits of such a national character would be invaluable.

I. It would lead us to a just appreciation of the principles of foreign governments, and generally to their rejection and detestation. We should cease to be harassed with precedents that have no application, and with authorities, as little founded in the reason of things as applicable to our situation.

Our laws would be purified from the jargon of a Gothic age. Speaking the plain language of common sense, they would be apprehended with ease, and construed without difficulty.

2. We should cease to be seduced by the false lights of history, which, rarely furnishing us with circumstances analogous to our own, would rather offer us beacons to avoid, than examples to follow.

3. We should reject the baubles and fashions of Europe, and valuing ourselves on the simplicity of our attire, care more for our own comfort and self-respect, than for the gaudy trappings of slaves. We should soon find that a rational being in proportion to the cultivation of his mind rejects the tinsel of dress, furniture and equipage.

4. No longer aping the follies of a corrupt state of society, we should practice the golden virtues of simplicity, frugality and temperance, the parents of industry, of independence, of domestic happiness, and personal respectability.

5. We should learn to estimate everything domestic as well as foreign, according to its true value, neither appreciating the former, or reducing the latter beyond its real worth.

6. New activity would be given to the arts and sciences; our theatres would no longer be disgraced by the vicious and dangerous exhibitions of manners and characters, which, however intrinsically contemptible, are irradiated by talent, and thus rendered the objects of admiration instead of disgust.

7. History would be soon cast in a new mould, & we should contemplate past events in their true lights. The characters of kings and heroes would be seen in their genuine colors, and the false idolatry imbibed in our infancy for mock majesty and military glory would fade away before the majesty of truth.

We have the pleasure of communicating to the public, at the instance of General Turreau, the Minister Plenipotentiary of France, the following official document relative to a subject interesting to science and humanity. It is particularly worthy of the notice of such physicians in this country, as have written or contemplate writing, on the nature of the CROUP.

(Translation.)

MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR.

The Minister of the Interior, Comte de l'Empire, having considered the notice decreed on the 21st July, 1807, for the competition opened by order of his Majesty the Emperor and King on the subject of the disorder known under the name of the Croup; after having consulted the Medical College of Paris—decrees as follows:

Art. 1. The time fixed on the 1st January, 1809, for the competition upon the subject of the Croup, is prolonged till the 31st July in this year.

Art. 2. Those physicians who have already addressed their treatises to the French Minister, may withdraw them, if they think proper, for revision. They need only note the time of sending memoirs and (the motto or device with which they are prefaced or headed as a distinctive mark.)

Signed,
CRETET.

Paris, 17th January, 1809.

True Copy,
TURREAU, Min. Plen. of France.

INSANITY,
QUEM DEUS VULT PERDERE PRIUS DEMENTAT.

Speaking of the late change in the conduct of the British ministry towards our country, and of the consequent change in our situation, the N. Y. Daily Advertiser has the following remarks:-

"Let the people remember that it is owing to the determined and persevering opposition of the Federal party to the ruinous system of Bonaparte's plan of commercial restriction that we are rescued from distress, infamy and danger and again placed in prosperity, happiness and safety. The dawn of returning reason from the infatuating spell of democratic madness, is a happy presage of the prevalence of Washington principles for the future. Deluded by demagogues whose only object was to keep in power and office by every species of intrigue and corruption, the people have seen the monster democracy in all its horrid deformity for a course of eight years."

&c. &c. &c.