cipally on political fubjects, fuch as I think most interesting to the nation. The following you may call, THE POLITICAL REVIEW. No. I. EVERY thing has been done : and but little remains unfaid, from the cabinet, or the closet, on the fubject of the French Revolution. The conteft has enlifted the arms, the heads, and the hearts of the greater part of Europe on one fide or the other. This fcene of contest, where the adverfe parties have been impelled by ambition, fear, jealoufy, and avarice, beyond the fphere of calm reflection, and where the object has been mutual extermination, is not the place for us to look for our political maxims. We are not yet, and I trust never fhall be, removed from the temperate clime of our own free charter, to the torrid zone of French liberty, or the cold regions of paffive obedience to abfolute power. But the Atlantic has been too narrow for our fecurity. We have ftrained our optics in gazing at foreign nations, and been abforbed in their interefts, and their misfortunes, till we have almoft forgotten that we had a country of our own. Our greatest misfortune has arifen from the law of our natures, and was in fome measure unavoidable. With contending parties, continually in our view, it is extremely difficult, if not impoffible, to avoid a strong prejudice in favour of one fide or the other. Particular circumftances have added strength to this propenfity, and increafed the evil in America, We have been the fpeculative and officious guardians of the intereft of France, and her opponents, till we have been in danger of hazarding our peace by internal divifions. Whoever takes an impartial retrofpective view of the ftate of our country, from the time our new Conftitution was the temple of our political devotion, and WASHINGTON its great high priest, uniting the hearts of every American in one common with for the profperity of our welltempered republic, to the prefent time, and reflects on that large quantity of jealousy, party rage, and animofity, which has been imported to our peaceful shores, in foreign bottoms, and retailed, and accumulated by our jealous politicians at home; fuch a one muft fhudder at the danger we have past, and regret that fo many tares fhould grow up in our field of wheat. Every man who understands the origin, nature, and tendency of our national malady, will agree with me in one point, that whatever tends to diminish overftrained attention to the concerns of Europe, and fix it on thofe objects, whether minute or important, which concern our own intereft, and on which all honeft men agrée, will effect fomething towards its cure. We have feen the tempeft bursting and fprcading its wide havoc in Chriftendom. While the the deluge has been pouring upon the earth, and apparently approaching towards us, many have been more inclined to rush into the storm, than to feek the ark of our fafety. This ark is our free Conftitution, and the union of our citizens, the Ararat, on which it must rest. The Executive Head of our nation, I believe, is fenfible of this. A late decifive, wife, and neceffary measure, confirms the conclufion. I addrefs myself only to men of reflection; by them I fhall be understood, It is not for me to make an eftimate of the advantages or difadvantages which may arife in future from a negociation of our Envoys with France. My eye is fixed on my own country; and here my political calculations end. Confcious that I have its interests at heart, I rejoice that a peace is already negociated at home. Without any other good effect, our embaffy is not an ill one. : A low, fullen murmur has gone forth but it is the murmur of an enraged child, not difarmed of his rancor, but deprived, by the authority of a parent, of the opportunity of venting it on a brother. Such a voice muft die in the filent paufe of reflection. We are now witnessing a filent, folemn paufe. Sober thoughts, and sober deeds, must work our cure. The froth of party-rage has fubfided; its tide is on the ebb. We begin to fee the rocks and fhoals on which we should have been shipwrecked, had it pot have been for the exertions of a skilful pilot. The gloomy afpect of affairs abroad, and eve ry circumftance at home, invite us to a reliance on Heaven, on ourselves, and our own virtue, for fafety. Moft men begin to fee, and fome will dare to acknowledge, that Federalifm and Jacobinifm, are not always appropriate names for virtue and vice. By the living Guardian of our nation much has been done; and much by its deceased Father. It was his exalted lot, to unite the hearts of his country's friends, and difarm its foes while he liv ed. At his death, he has, like Samfon, flain his enemies (and his country's, for they were the fame.) It is the attribute of Providence, to bring forth good out of evil. The death of WASHINGTON is a fore calamity, which has clothed our land in unfeigned mourning, It has ftruck to the hearts of Americans, and awakened their tendereft and their nobleft feelings, From those feelings they reflect. They trace him from his youth through what, as men, we may call, a perfect life. They view him as the faviour of his country, in the conflict of war, and the cares of State in peace. He is called to a feat in heaven. Our eyes and our hearts follow him, as thofe of the difciples did our Lord, in his afcent from Calvary. What must be the language of his enlarged and glorified foul, to those who still burn with party animofity? "Ye cannot be my difciples, except ye love one another." If we approach with him to the throne of our Maker, to implore his aid for our country, what answer to our 10 our prayers can we expect, what affiftance in the cause of order, virtue, and religion, while we employ in it fcoff, ridicule, crimination, and contempt? Thefe are weapons of hell, must be our anfwer; they pollute those who use them, and increase the strength of the enemy. If we would contend fucceff fully with the foe, the means are in our power. The Father of his country has not left his children without a legacy; a legacy, which contains the whole armoury of (political) faith. It is moral, civil and political justice, blended together, and fhielded by a candid, noble, and independent fpirit. Armed in this panoply, invincible against intrigue, or open danger, WASHINGTON led America to freedom and independence. Clothed in this, he was fecure against the shaft of calumny, and never betrayed his caufe, by employing them in his defence. Viewed in it by the Kings of Europe, they have acknowledged their crowns a toy, and themselves his inferiors. He has proved his armoury, and recommended it to his countrymen :-It is ample to their protection, and worthy the cause of order, and religion, and fuch only as becomes the friends of good government. That it may be worn by them, and all invidious names be loft in DISCIPLES OF WASHINGTON, is the fincere prayer to Heaven, and his fellow-citizens, of one whofe motto is, UNION. FOR THE SIR, COLUMBIAN PHENIX. Το THE EDITOR. IF the following obfervations should, through the medium of your Magazine, come before the Public, I do not pretend to predict their fate. They contain fome things hard of digeftion for many ftomachs. They have no poifon, and, I am fure, in their effects, will hurt no man should their Author be called before any tribunal to anfwer for the doctrine he has preached, or may hereafter preach, it will then be time enough to fee whether he or Felix will tremble. If you give place to my other feries of effays, you will do the fame with this. They come from one fource which, at present, must be unknown. And they have one object. UNION. LITERARY REVIEW, No. I. My introductory remarks in hereafter I may defcend to parthis number, must be general; ticulars. For fome time our. preffes preffes have teemed with pamphlets, and news-paper effays have fallen upon us, fteady and independent hand, have become tó a reprehenfible degree, the common fewers of falfehood, fcurrility, and all the "Thick as autumnal leaves in val, filth of difordered minds. They umbrofia." To our news-papers, and the manner in which they are and ought to be conducted, I fhall confine myself at prefent. The immenfe number of thefe, we have in circulation, has often been the subject of our boaft, and the manner in which they have been conducted, of the ridicule and contempt of foreigners. In the department of the belles-lettres fome fatality feems to oppose infurmountable obstacles to our excellence, and threatens an eternal democracy inftead of a well-organized republic of letters, and almost in defiance of nature, a perpetual equality of fame. In this department our efforts are like the particles of a fomenting liquid, each endeavouring to rife, but rifing only to increase the froth. Many are striving, but few dare to excel. The low furface of a news-paper effay, forms, in general, the apex of fame. And here the stream must partake of the qualities, and run with the current, with which it mingles. Our free preffes, which fhould be the invariable and pure channels of correct information and chafte fentiment, conducted by a have fome light, but more heat. Their light is a scintillation, that sparkles on every thing, but elucidates nothing; too much like that of the ignis fatuus, which illuminates, but to bewilder and betray. Their heat confumes, but does not purify. In our news-papers, in general, all principles are made to quadrate with the crooked, and evervarying line of political credence. Tafte, and truth, and morals, and religion, are diffolved, and evaporated in the crucible of party spirit. "Good order" Regular Government"-"Liberty"" Republicanifm," are the cloaks, under which every fcribler murders language and fentiment with impunity. Should this diforder continue without any check, we shall, ere long, become as completely vandalized, as we are by fome rep. refented to be already. What literature and virtue we poffefs, employed, as they have been, fince Porcupine has shook his fqualid quills among us, and we have fhamefully given them currency, as the keen fhafts of legiti mate fatire, muft confume themfelves. As a fubordinate evil, I would advert to our prevailing editorial ftyle. This has become turgid and pompous to a degree_truly abfurd and ridiculous. It reminds us of a gaunt, old maid, fuch as we have seen in former times, with a fhrunk carcafs concealed under the immenfe circumference of a hooped petticoat, and and an enormous bonnet, out of all proportion to the head it was defigned to adorn. ་ In this modern dialect, if a man dies, he has made his exit from the bufy fcene of life; if his friends drefs in mourning, they are clad in the fable habiliments of dejection-if a houfe, barn, or ftable is burnt, it has fallen a prey to the devouring element, &c. &c. &c. Thus the mere type-fetter, (for this term has become fynonymous with editor,) is endeavouring to out-do Johnfon himself, in verbofity, and by liberality in paper, ink, and wear and tear of types and language, to make fome compenfation to his customers for want of ideas. I have no particular editor in view, nor am I influenced by perfonal motives. I hope I have reafons more weighty, and more enlarged. A free prefs is a powerful engine. Its influence is great on public and private conduct. It extends to very remote confequences. The youthful mind is formed, in a great meafure, by periodical papers. The parent fhould confider well before he allows his child to relinquish his Bible, his catechifm, and his prayers, for the promifcuous reading of a modern newfpaper. I once heard of a man who bartered his ftore of meat and corn, for what he thought, or for want of thought, called, a better fubftitute for the fufteDance of his family-rum. The experiment was fatal ! The critic's is an invidious and vain office, unless fubfervient to morals and decorum. Thefe originate in the heart, and fhow themselves in words and actions. The good order of fo ciety, in which decorum and morality unite, requires that every one fhould act in his proper sphere. I will not waste time in ob fervations upon that numerous clafs of gentlemen who have (fome how or other) the control of a prefs, and whofe hands are equal to its mechanical management, but whofe heads have too near an affinity to their types. It may not be unpleasant to defcribe fome few exceptions, different from the common class, and fuch as every editor ought to be. This office, I hold to be highly refponfible and important. It requires men of extensive information, found judgment, an independent mind, a cool head, and a pure heart. One, who can give an example of genuine, and correct a depraved taste. One, who has enlarged and enriched his mind, from an acquaintance with the claffics, and made himfelf master of a style, simple and ftrong, and capable of varying it to his fubject. One, who is acquainted with hiftory in general, especially that of his own country, who has formed his political creed upon the basis of its laws and conftitution, his morals, from its ancient fober habits, and his religion, from the word of God; who can diftinguish between principles, and measures, and can preferve the purity of language, while he rebukes licentious conduct; who is fuperior to the dictates of avarice, arrogance and folly, and can hand down from his exalted resources, inftruction and amufement, clothed in the fimple beauties of unaffected eloquence, to his inferiors. If |