The Patowmac Guardian, And Berkeley Advertiser

PHILADELPHIA, September 24.

James Ross, Esquire, arrived in this town yesterday from the westward.

We understand that a very general opinion prevails among our fellow citizens in the western counties, that the federal troops never will march against them. This unfortunate and mistaken notion may be fairly ascribed as one of the principal causes of their obstinacy in the present struggle.

Though some of the leaders of these deluded people have already come in, and accepted pardon within the time fixed by government, yet others have not done so. The news of the actual march of the federal army will undoubtedly produce a considerable alteration in their opinions, and they will begin to repent when it is too late.

As the expense of this armament will be very considerable, it appears to be the general opinion that some sacrifices must be made, not only for the sake of holding out an example for the future; but that the United States may be reimbursed for the waste of money and the time of individuals. Fifteen thousand men, estimating the value of their labour at a dollar per day, amounts in sixty days, or two months only, to nine hundred thousand dollars.

The pay and subsistence of the troops, if rated at only two-thirds of that sum, presents a second loss to the public of six hundred thousand dollars.

Thus we have, at a single dash, a real damage to the country of a million and a half of dollars.

In this account is not included the peculiar waste of time, to several opulent citizens of Philadelphia, who have quitted their wharfs and their stores, to assume the station of private soldiers.

The above calculation, though perhaps novel, is not imaginary. Thus we see, that war, in any shape, is a two-edged sword, plunged in the heart of society, and cutting both ways. The mere charges of this expedition would, if properly applied, have provided our insurgents with abundance of whiskey for twenty years to come.

September 27. When a bonny young Lassie, in Scotland, has gotten a bastard bairn, the Kirk, for the gude of her soul gars her stand on the STOOL OF REPENTANCE.

There is reason to conjecture, that the Pittsburgh insurgents, alias our "Western brethren," are approaching to the same situation.

From one of the letters, published in the Philadelphia Gazette, it is discovered, that the rebels (for what other name shall we give them ?) have been foolish enough to fancy themselves more than a match for the federal government; that they were able to descend and well upon us like a torrent—in short, that there was much more probability of their marching to Philadelphia, than that the federal army would march to Pittsburgh.

That some of the ringleaders shall "march to Philadelphia," is a consummation reasonably to be expected, and devoutly to be wished. An edifice, opposite to the state-house yard, in Walnut-street, is ready for their reception.

If robbing the mail, tarring and feathering officers of government, burning effigies, and proscribing peaceable citizens, of more prudence and timidity than themselves, are not offences that entitle their authors to a niche in the temple of virtue before-mentioned, it is hard to say what species of riots can ensure, even to the most determined candidates that mark of distinction.

We have been assured, by gentlemen of veracity from the western counties, that nine tenths of the present mal-contents are emigrants from Ireland, who have not been more than three years on the continent. Our citizens would have arrived at a notable situation, indeed, if their cellars and warehouses were subject to the visitation of the remnants of gangs of white-boys.

The scheme of marching to this city, while it betrays the ignorance of our antagonists, is at the same time of considerable service, by ascertaining the extent and atrocity of their project. No person in his senses, whatever may be his principles, can, by this time, hesitate on the propriety of crushing in the bud, this aqua vitae hydria.

That these misguided people begin to see the folly of their triumphant expectations; in short, that they are crest fallen; is evident from the Pittsburgh Gazette. We there see inserted the excellent charge given by Judge Addison, already published in this paper. Had the Printer ventured on that step, much sooner, his office would most likely have been reduced to ashes.

It must have been a very comfortable reflection for the relations of our countrymen in the government army, during the late heavy rains, that their fathers, brothers, and sons, were marching by day through mud, and sleeping by night in barns, or perhaps in open fields, because a set of wrongheaded persons refuse to give the most trifling support to the expenses of the state.

We lately made some remarks on the prodigious expenses of this expedition. Let us suppose that as the first article in the reckoning, the army are to reside in the insurgent counties, at free quarters, for three months only. Fifteen thousand men, and three thousand horses, at half a dollar per day, amount to nine thousand dollars. At half a dollar per gallon, which is too high for such a commodity: this money would have purchased to the Insurgents daily eighteen thousand gallons of their beloved whiskey.

The whole inhabitants of the country, man, woman and child, are not more than seventy thousand.

In what oceans of felicity might the disaffected party have plunged themselves, by saving these nine thousand dollars a day for convivial purposes.

We are satisfied, however, that three fourths of the western citizens view the whole opposition to lawful government, in the same light of abhorrence and reprobation, as it is viewed by the rest of mankind.

To suppose that a diminutive rabble could overgrow the Federal Government, is like fancying that a city can be overwhelmed by the overflowing of its kennels.

To prove that our good, virtuous, and loving friends the British, have agents in the western country to inflame the minds of the people against the Federal Government, and to persuade them to become subjects of his Britannic majesty, the following is given in a Frederick-town paper, as a fact.

Yesterday, September 1, bills were seen sticking on several trees in Washington, near Boonsborough with the following words—"British freedom will never oppress you".