The New-Hampshire gazette and general advertiser. [volume], May 10, 1783, Image 1

About The New-Hampshire gazette and general advertiser. [volume] (Portsmouth [N.H.]) 1781-1784

Image provided by: Dartmouth College

                
NEW-HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE,
GENERAL ADVERTISER. :
Vol. XXVIL. ]
An ADDR E SS delivered to the Inhabitants
of one of the Towns in this Siate, previous to
2heir entering on the consideration of the pro
pojed Form of Government. |
Friends gnd Fellow-Citizens,
T is a circumfiance which rarely hap-
I pens in the world, that a people have
opportunity, deliberately to form a Con
flitution or Plan of Governmeat for them
selves. Most nations have been, and arc
fubje& to princes who bave come in by fuc
ceflion, or by usurpation, and the people
having always been used to a government
which they had no hand in forming, either
quictiy submit to thofc who are over them,or
if a revolutionjhappens,change one tyrant for
another, without any alteration for the bet
ter. 'The greater part of mankind have no
just idez of the rights which God hasendcw
ed them with, and calis them on proper oc
casions to exercise. Suchan occasion is now
presented to us. We are called in the pro
vidence of God, to do that for ourselves,
which scarce any people in the world have
bad cpportunity to do ; to fix and establish
a 2 conftituiion’by which we and our posterity
may be goveined ;3 by which our just rights
mazy be well ascertained, and firmly eflablifh
ed ; by which our liberty and property, may
be secured ; and the blessings of order, peace
and union perpetuated amongus. You are
te ke cxiled upen for your free "votes on this
vastly important point,and can there be any
tetter dire&ion for your conduét at this time
than what was once given to the [Traelitifh
nation at a time when they had noregular
governmeni,and animportant case was bro’t
before the body of the people.—*“Confider of it,
take advice and speak your minds.” * Con
sideration and advice, are our firft duties,
*Tis the part'of wisdom to confider and deli
berate, befcre we {peak on matters of im
portance. ** The fool uttereth all bis mind,
bat the wife man keepeth it in till after
wards.” ¥ Butto whom fhail we go for ad
vice ? I an{wer—-not to your passions, pas
sion is always a 2 bad counfellor. Such mat
ters as these thould be considered and debat
ed with zall poflible calmness and candor.
Nor fuffer yourselves to be governed by pre
judice : Let no ¢pinion be formed without
being duly and impartially weighed : Be not
sudden, mor bafty, nor tenacious, but give
way to a firiét search and hear reasons and
arguments on both sides, Neither con
sult Mammon. The queltion is not whe
ther the conftution be expensive, but
whether it be just and reafonsble, and calcu
lated -for the pubiic good : 'Tis not to be
made for to-day, nor to-morow, but for fu
fure years, and perhaps ages, and we are to
look forward as far as we can, to the fu
ture circum@ances of ourselves and our pos
terity, which we should hope according to
the course of things will be much superior
in point of wealth, than the present. How
many people in the worldwouid give one half
of theirkatereft.to bave the other Laif well se
cured to them! How many are groaningunder
the oppreflion ei lordly tyrants, their iives
and property, every hour in danger of being
seized and forfeited for no crime but to gint
the avarice, or ambition, or revenge of theit
princes-! And shall we, who call ourfelvesa
T® Fddges 19th, 30th. T Praverks 29, li.
R THRDAY May 16, "1781.
free peaple, grudge the expences of govern
ment ? No government ¢an {ubfit without
expence ; and where expences are regulated
by persons of our own chufing ; 2nd they who
apply and expend ¢he public treasure, are ac.
countable for it, and liable to be punithed
for mifpending it, there ©an be no danger
of the expence being inadequate. to the be
nefit,
What is the-true end and objelt of go
vernmiment, bat the pubiic good ; and is this
valuable end aimesd at in the conftitation now
presented to you ? Is there any rights but
what is weil defined ? any privilege but what
is well secured ? any delegated power but
what is well guarded ? Is it in its gencral
principles consonant to public and personal
liberty, public and perfonai fatety ? If so,
there is an argument in favour of it which
cannot be easily overthrown , and if we
thould reject it for the fake of some trivial
and partial inconvenience which we mayime
mzgine will aitend i’, or some punttilio in
which it does not coriefpond with our preju
dices, or thro’ fear of its being expeufive;
is it Jikely we shall have 2 beiter ? rather
thou!d we not defz:ve tohave 2 worle? thould
we not deserve to have one paimed upon us
without our consent, or to have none at all ?
It is a peculiar kind of trial which we are
now placed under. We Lave been con
tending for our rights and interefis, and de
fending them againtt hoflile attacks ; and
divine providence has succeeded our designs,
even beyond our most {anguine expeéiations,
—We are now to be tried, whether we real«
ly {et so great a value on these rights and in
tereftls as we have pretended—-whether we
have the virtue to secure to ocurfelves and
our posterity, those privileges which we have
paid the price of in blood. How many of
our brethren and friends have fallen in ihis
controversy ? How many brave officers and
{oldiers bave crimfcned the field with their
blood, and with their expiring breath have
excizimed, ¢¢ O save myCountry, Heaven !”
How many ¢ dasing seamen have been melt
¢ ed into putrid mafles, in the fiifiing black
‘¢ holes of prifon-thip-, cach of their honest,
¢ dying hearts, in these circles of misery thill
¢ true to his Country’s cause I” + How ma
ny others who were alive, vigorouily and
earneflly engaged in the beginning of this
controver{y, have been accoiled by the cold
hand of death, and do not fee the noble is
sue of their toils, and dangers, aad fufler
ings ! and isit not a debt of gratitude tojthem,
to their families, as well as a 2 duty to our
{elves and our poflerity, to perpetuate the
bleflings of freedom and good government,
in which we may ali have an «qual share?
Shall it be said that we have fuffered, and
fought, and bled, and that many of our bre
thren have facrificed their lives in the cause
of liberty, and that we bave not the virtue
left to improve the advantage now in our
bands, $o eftablith the feat of liberty among
us ? Can we a&t so inconsistent a part ? I
hope and trust we thall not.
My worthy friends, it is a 2 matfer of the
utmost importance that is now before you.
if I had not thought fo,I {hould not have put
myf{- If to the trouble of making, nor you of
hearing this address—but when I confider
+ President Dickenfon’s conclusion of his ad
vice to the Eleflors. of Pennsylvania,
how greatly inattentive many are to this
matter,bow strangely cthers fuffer themielves
to be blinded and misled, and how much de
pends on this apportunity of securing our ci
vil and reiigious liberties ; which if it be
let flip, may never return ; but we and our
pofierity may in time become slaves, and
groan undef the chains of civil and {piritual
tyranny for want of eXerting ourselves at
this ciitical pericd—l thought it my duty to
endeavour to rouse you to attend to this va
luable interefi.
Be peifuaded then to confider of it and
take advice—and after you bave dore this,
[peak your minds—for this is neceflzry in the
present case, where the matter is 1o be de
termined by the number of votes. Let eve
ry man be present and give his vote, ang
let none fhamefully stand neuter. Let cvery
man look cn him{fe!f as a man of importance,
and confider himfelf flanding at the head of
his children, and all his pofie:ity, thoagh
yet unborn, and solemnly aéting in their be
half : Let him confider himfelf as entrufled
by God with 2 power of deciding their fate,
whether they shall be freeinen or slaves.
Let him remember that God has now put it
into his power to hand down to them a char
ter of freedom purchased with bleod; where
by their happiness fhali be secured to them,
so far as it is in the power of man to doit;
and if we do this now, cur children yet un
born, will hereafter rife up and call us bles
sed.
I thzll finifth with that noble Apoftrophe’
written by the late elegant Dr. Akenfide,
for an inscription on a column at Runny
mede.
«t Thou, who the verdant plain dost traverse here -
While Thames among his willows from thy visw
Retices ; O firanger, flay thee, and the {cene
Around contemplate well, This is the place
Wiere England’s ancient Barons, clad in arms
And stern with conquest, from their Tyrant King
(Then render’d tame) did challenge and secure
The Charter ot thy Freedom, Pass not on
Ti!l thou haft blefs’d their memory, and paid -
Those thanks which God agpointed the reward
Of public virtue, And if chance thy home ° "
Salute thee with a Fathet’s honor'd name,
~ Go, callthy sons ; inftru& them what a debt
They owe their ancestors ; and make them {wear .
To pay it, by transmitting down entire
" Those sacred rights to which themselves were bora,”
AL L persons baving any demands on
SUPPLY CLAP and NATHAN
NICHOLS, for business in which they were
fointly concerned, are hereby desired to bring
in their respective accounts immediately,
the said connellion being now mutually
dissolved. Portsmouth, April 29, 1783.
Ao B Mol Sl i
State of Neaww-Hamp/bire. Strofford, [.
NOTICE is bireby given io the propriviers s~
A W ersof land in Wakefield, in (aid county, that these
is a tax of eleven shillings snd fix pesce, laid on each
original right in said tewwn, by erder of laid propristors,
and committed 1o the fublcriber to collel : Ido herebp
notify [aid preprietors and owwmers, that unless they pay
Joid tax vo the fubferiber, at Wakefeld, or to Mr & bomas
Odisrne, at Exeter, wwithin three aweeks from the sirs
publication bereof, so wuch of their lands awill be adwver
tifed for sale as wiil pay said taxes with incidental
sharges. - Samuel Hall, Colle@or.
Wakeoid, £pril 20, 1788, e
1384,
[/Vs. 13