ECHO.....NO. XVI. From the Diary, &c. of October 29, 1793. Answer of a Frank to the author of a printed writing, under the name of Americanus in the Daily Advertiser of the 25th off October. LEARN you who are unworthy of the glorious name with which you cover your baseness;—that all the reproaches which you make to an honest man whom his love for the cause of liberty, and his hatred to tyrants, together with his attachment to the real interests of his country, induced to give a kind reception at Charleston to the Minister of the French Republic, are as destitute of foundation as of reason. I will not follow you in the fastidious verbosity with which you speak of the motives which may have induced one free man to ask another free man whom he esteems, if it be true that he used certain discourses which his enemies seem to propagate with intention to injure him in a country which has not yet recovered from paying idolatrous worship to men. I will not give myself the trouble to refute the machiavelian maxims which you would wish to introduce into the free government of the United States, the Venetian silence to which you, and all who resemble you, would subject the members; I will only inform the public, whom you endeavour to deceive, that the brave MOULTRIE, in paying to the envoy of a great people the honours due to his character, when constrained by the winds, the ship of war which carried him landed him at Charleston, did no more than follow the general custom observed in all countries towards foreign mînisters provided with passports from their sovereigns; that the vessels which were fitted out at Charleston, were fitted out by virtue of treaties, at a time when they had not yet been interpreted by the author of Pacificus and his followers: that the orders for hindering the Custom-house officers to oppose the going out of those vessels, were given only at the request of the consul of the Republic acknowledged by the government of Carolina; that the commissions of the Executive Council, delivered to the above-mentioned vessels, were delivered by the same consul, who had received direct instructions for that purpose, only by virtue of a resolution taken in the Committee of general safety of the National Convention; in a word, that Gov. Moultrie, in permitting those acts of the French agents, did only his duty, because they were authorised by treaties; because no law of the United States forbade a nation, in alliance and friendship with them, to arm in their ports when in danger; that the generous and grateful proclamation of the President had not then arrived at Charleston: that the federal judges had not yet been convened at Philadelphia, to know if the executive power could take upon itself to make laws under the form of decisions; that those zealous defenders of the sovereignty of the people, had not yet given their patriotic consent to this constitutional innovation, and that in supposing even that those historical monuments had been published-the governor of South Carolina who is also a depository and executor of the acts of the United States, having it at his option to follow laws sanctioned by the people, or arbitrary decisions which destroy the sense of those laws, would probably have determined to give preference to the latter. As for your astonishment at Mr. Moultrie's conceiving a friendship for Citizen Genet in the course of a fortnight, know that this phænomenon is not new. There exists among men of sensibility. and virtue, a certain sympathy and similitude of affections, which quickly forms intimacies between them; as on the other hand their exists between virtuous men and scoundrels-such an aversion that from the first moment they never can agree.Wherefore, Mr. pretended American, I here end my correspondence with you, not having any desire to continue it longer, À FRANK. HARTFORD, NOVEMBER 11th, 1793. Ah! much I ween mistaken is that man, "Who quits his father's ways and house of prayer, Young Mr. Loudon, si vous plait I'll try Though in your language I am still but young, Yet with the highest pleasure I perceive LEARN you, who're worthless of that glorious name, His heart from mischief, and his hands from gain; And weak as Envoys out of grace at court.* T'asperse with daring tongue that spotless name, O'er her blest soil the seeds of Discord sow, And whelm the nation in the gulph of woe? Why he should 'scape, when Law and Justice urge Of all the maxims which this infant nation, *Mr. Gt is of the Brissotine party, which has lately been overpow ered by its more daring opponents; and Mr. Brissot, with several of his adherents, thrown into prison. е That peace, which philanthropic Frenchmen find And worn too long, will grow so bright and fair The tender passion touch'd his gentle breast, This is the natural course of Love-at once Peasants grow great and scorn their humble breed, |