Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

From the COLUMBIAN CENTINEL.

FRENCH INFLUENCE-No. VI.

MR. RUSSELL,

REASONING from the nature of man, and of civil society, abstracted from experience, a philosopher might fairly deduce, the dangerous nature, the pernicious effects of organized clubs—he would naturally observe, that such associations had a tendency to excite and foment a spirit of party, to localize and narrow the feelings of the members of them; to separate their feelings, their pride, and their interest, from those of the community at large—to establish that bane of all governments, that monster so universally dreaded in ancient as well as modern times, the "Imperium in imperio" -that such clubs when opposed to a government, become the more dangerous, as they were enabled to act with more system, to preserve more consistency, to facilitate the communication of seditious and traitorous objects, and so operate: with more unity and stronger effect, than detached individuals possibly could do. But the melancholy tales, founded on the experience of the unhappy French, and corroborated by some interesting events in this country, affords a darker picture.

Anarchy, insurrection, rapine and murder, have marked the bloody footsteps of disorganizing clubs in France, and if we have happily escaped these baneful effects, these horrid outrages, it is rather to be attributed to the good sense of our people, the wisdom and prudence of our rulers, than to any spirit of moderation, any solid, principles of virtue, in our "Constitutional" societies. The only striking feature, which was ever unveiled to the eye of an injured and indignant public, was a mean, servile, childish imitation, of the maternal club, at Paris. They copied, like the Chinese, with too much minuteness : They adopted not only the captivating principles of French "Liberty and Equality" but they introduced their style,— their bombastic and turgid expressions : they affected also the Republican rudeness (in France termed simplicity)-in their manners, their conduct, and conversation. Like them, too, they attempted to influence the public opinion, with raree shows, by civic feasts, by republican symbols, by revolutionary music. They even dared at certain periods to applaud the cut throat tunes intended to excite French mobs to plunder, outrage and murder, and to censure American music, commemorative of our national honor.

So widely diffusive was their influence, so subversive of national pride, and national honor, that a cold apathy appeared to pervade the great mass of the community. The basest insults upon our government, or neutral rights, from French insolence, not only escaped censure, but found dastardly advocates. If there were in the nation some who burned with indignation at those abuses, they were either intimidated by the threats, or overawed with the influence of what appeared to be the public opinion. While on the other hand through the instrumentality of the Jacobins, the people were inflamed and outrageous at every aggression of the British. Every injury, every outrage of that nation, (all of which were unjustifiable) were magnified and distorted. War, horrid war, with that insolent foe, was the most moderate measure we could adopt. Honelius, at one time the prophet and the oracle of the Jacobin Club at Boston, in a speech which will not soon be forgotten, undertook to prove that we were at that time, and had long been at open war with Great Britain. This great statesman, has now changed his tone, and viewing injuries through the dense medium of gallic influence, he cannot perceive any thing irritating, any thing unjustifiable, any thing indeed which is not commendable, in the conduct of France, towards America. The prudence of our executive in preferring honorable negociation to humiliating war, in the case of Great Britain, was called pusillanimity, nay it was even hinted, that WASHINGTON was absorbed in the vortex of Britannic influence.

In the case of French depredations, French barbarities, French insults, more cruel, more outrageous, more unwarrantable, more ungrateful to a country, which honestly and sincerely cherished her cause, no measures can be too lenient, no condescension too mean. Though her haughty tyrants, in all the turgid insolence of power, should kick our ministers from their presence, and spurn at our humble and modest supplications-- though with more bombastic pomp than would disgrace an Eastern Vizir, the Directory did in "fact," refuse to admit our special Envoy (for such was Mr. Pinckney) to an audience, disdained to enter into a correspondence with him, and made his secretary Maj. Rutledge, stand like a lackey, behind their chairs -though with an insolence, unparalleled even in their treatment to the degraded Hollanders, or the wretched Genevans, they have insisted in cursing, that they will not receive "Any Minister" from the United States, until we have complied with all the unreasonable and humiliating demands of France : Yet there are still to be found in this country, miserable sycophants who not only palliate but applaud this infamous conduct-who rejoice in their country's woe—when would kiss the hand that lacerates, and bow to the imperious head, which dictates such disgraceful terms to our country. That the sentiments are solely the effects of the influence I have described, and that we have always had more reason to be offended with France than with Great Britain, I shall attempt to prove hereafter.

LEONIDAS.