FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   >>   >|  
e early dew before the powerful rays of the resplendent luminary of the universe? Are they not honest, upright and just men, who fear God and eschew evil? With few exceptions, they are mostly men of this character; and, Citizens of Massachusetts, they have formed a government adequate to the maintaining and supporting the rank and dignity of America in the scale of nations; a government which, if adopted, will protect your trade and commerce, and cause business of every kind rapidly to increase and flourish; it is a government which wants only a candid perusal and due attention paid to it, to recommend it to every well-wisher to his country. Brethren and citizens, hearken to the voice of men who have dictated only for your and posterity's good; men who ever "Have made the publick good their only aim, And on that basis mean to build their fame." Listen not to the insinuations of those who will glory only in your destruction, but wisely persevere in the paths of rectitude. CASSIUS. Cassius, VI. The Massachusetts Gazette, (Number 387) FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1787. For the Massachusetts Gazette. MR. ALLEN: Through the channel of your Paper, I beg leave to offer one or two short remarks on a production which appeared in your last, under the signature of Agrippa.(10) Without saying anything concerning the justness of the learned Agrippa's observations on past events, I shall confine myself chiefly to a small part of his uncommonly ingenious essay. Agrippa says, "the attempt has been made to deprive us," &c., "by exalting characters on the one side, and vilifying them on the other." And goes on, "I wish to say nothing of the merits or demerits of individuals, such arguments always do hurt." Immediately after this he insinuates that the members of the late federal convention have, "from their cradles, been incapable of comprehending any other principles of government than those of absolute power, and who have, in this instance (meaning the form of government proposed by them) attempted to deprive the people of their constitutional liberty by a pitiful trick." Thus the ignorant loggerhead blunders directly into the very same thing which he himself, just before, takes upon him to censure. Perhaps Agrippa thinks that excusable in anti-federalists, which in a federalist he beholds as criminal; justly thinking, without doubt, that as absurdity, knavery and falsehood, is the general char
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

government

 

Agrippa

 
Massachusetts
 

deprive

 

Gazette

 

arguments

 

individuals

 

merits

 

demerits

 

attempt


events
 

confine

 

observations

 

learned

 

Without

 

justness

 

chiefly

 

exalting

 

characters

 

uncommonly


ingenious

 

vilifying

 

principles

 

censure

 

Perhaps

 

excusable

 

thinks

 

directly

 

federalists

 
knavery

absurdity

 
falsehood
 

general

 

beholds

 

federalist

 

criminal

 

justly

 

thinking

 

blunders

 

loggerhead


incapable

 

cradles

 

comprehending

 

convention

 

insinuates

 

members

 

federal

 
absolute
 

pitiful

 

liberty