Harpers-Ferry free press. [volume], January 08, 1822, Image 3

About Harpers-Ferry free press. [volume] (Harper's Ferry, Va. [i.e. Harpers Ferry, W. Va.]) 1821-1824

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THE FREE PRESS.
^ TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1822.
V . ~T
it, A proposition, it will be seen, has been
introduced into the Senate, for an inquiry
ito the expediency of reducing the com
pensation of the members of Congress,
j’here is, we think, little probability that
;n0lny reduction will be made, since it is
ounce ted with a proposition also to re
duce the salaries of the executive officers,
pjlany of the members, like some of the
jttate legislatures, feel a peculiar delicacy
lifn acting on such a subject, unless the of
O'cers of the government, and others who
Perform the most laborious part of the
jtublic duties, are made to yield to that
parsimonious spirit which reduced to a
,nere shadow an army which had shed a
team of glory on its country, and which
aught our enemies how potent is the arm
ind how invincible the soul inspired by
,’reedom. It is painful to witness such a
ackly spirit of economy pervading the
representatives of a nation, which should
be as distinguished for its liberality and
beneficence as it is already renowned for
the valor of its sons and the wisdom of
its institutions.
Our readers doubtless recollect the ce
lebrated General D’Evereaux, the Irish
patriot, who raised a corps of his coun
trymen for the purpose of aiding the cause
of freedom in South America. It appears
that he has been recently tried at Carac
oas for an alleged offence against the
Vice-President of Venezuela, in a letter,
containing an expression which gave it
the appearance of a challenge. This let
ter, it would seem, was dictated by the
generous feeling of desiring to protect a
lady who was his countrywoman—a feel
ing characteristic of Irishmen. The High
Court of Justi kquit the General of
&ny intention ^ d the Chief who
then ruled the ic, and conclude by
“ declaring his r? ration and fame to be
perfectly unsullied by the affair, and that
it is hoped he will continue in the service
of his adopted country.”
The proceedings in this case are high
ly honorable to the parties concerned, and
evince that magnanimity of soul and mo
deration of conduct which cannot fail to
secure to them the high boon for which
%iey have been so long and so gloriously
contending.
An arrival at New-York, in 16 days
from Port-au-Prince, brings information
that news had been received at the latter
place, stating, that the Spanish part of the
Island of St. Domingo had been taken by
the Patriots, with very little opposition.
A New-York paper of Dec. 24 says :—
11 Accounts were received yesterday from
Havana, stating that Iturbide, leader of
the late revolution, had declared himself
Emperor of Mexico.”
VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE.
THURSDAY, DEC. 27.
An engrossed bill “ incorporating the
trustees of the Martinsburg Academy,”
was read a third time and passed.
An engrossed bill “'to extend the act,
passed on the 23d day of February, 1820,
intitled an act to authorise the notes of
the Bank of the Valley in Virginia, and
its branches, and of the North Western
Bank of Virginia, to be received in pay
ment of the revenue of this common
wealth,” was passed with a rider propo
sed by Mr. Minor. The bill was sup
ported by Messrs. Rust, Blackburn, Bar
bour, Page, and Shannon, and opposed by
Mr. Crump, of Cumberland.
FRIDAY, DEC. 28.
Mr. Eppes from the armory committee
presented a long report, concluding with
sundry resolutions; which recommend,
1st, that the operations of the manufac
tory be continued on a limited scale ; 2d,
tha a portion of the armory be used as
(irsenal, instead of erecting an addi
nal one as provided for by law ; 3d,
it artificers enough be kept employed
work up the component materials now
hand, to repair such arms as are now
the^ armory, or may be returned from
...; dfiilitia ; 4th, to dispose at public auc
tion of muskets in repair and unfit by
their calibre for field service, &c. ; 5th,
to cover the cupola with zinc or tin, and
to paint the exterior wood work ; and 6th,
to put in order, and then put up in boxes
the arms fit for field service. These,reso
lutions were severally agreed to by the
^°use. The report also suggests the pro
priety of converting part of the armory
tnto barracks for the public guard, C7c.
REMARKS ON EDUCATION.
CONTINUED.
FOR THE FREE PRESS.
In the thirteenth century appeared Bo
naventure, another Scholastic Doctor, a
native of Tuscany, and of the Order of
St. Francis, who had a seat given him
among the Cardinals. He was distin
guished by the angelical title of “ The
Seraphic Doctor.”
The next Scholastic was Roger Bacon,
born at Ilchester in England : he studied
jurisprudence and medicine, and, contra
ry to the custom of the period in which
he lived, he employed his time not in the
idle speculations and controversies of his
contemporaries, but in experimental phi
losophy: and was more indebted to his
own genius and application to science,
than to any academical instructions. To
prosecute his studies without interrup- ;
tion, he entered a Franciscan monastery. ;
He received the appellation of “ The \
Wonderful Doctor,” which, above all the |
Scholastic Doctors, he truly merited ; but !
as little curs commonly bark at the rising j
moon, without preventing her shining, so i
his silly and ignorant contemporaries j
barked at him the heinous charge of prac
tising witchcraft, and kindled a spirit of
envy and jealousy even among his frater
nity, who circulated the report that he
held converse with evil spirits.
We now come to take notice of John
Duns Scotus, an Englishman, one of the
most subtle Scholastics and a scholar of
Thomas Aquinas ; but differing from his
master in some particular tenets, he form
ed a different sect. Hence came the de
nominations of Thoinists, or the followers
of Thomas Aquinas ; and of Scotists, or
the disciples of Duns Scotus. He pos
sessed the art of perplexing things alrea
dy too much perplexed, with more chi
mseras, fictions and bombast of words.
On account of his quibbling dexterity in
disputation, he was honored with the title
of “ The most Subtle Doctor.”
The 14th century produced William
Durand of Clermont in France. He pur
sued his way through the wilderness of
scholastic terms and notions with such
perseverance, that he obtained the title
of “ The most Resolute Doctor.”
In the same century appeared William
Occam, born in England, who had been
trained up in the school of Duns Scotus,
whose disciples professed the doctrine of
the Realists, but Occam, in order, no
doubt, to become the leader of a new sect,
opposed the Realists and revived the doc
trine of the Nominalists. He was inimi
cal to the See of Rome, and maintained
the independency of the civil power, to
which the body of ecclesiastics ought to
be subject; for which reason he was ex
communicated ; but the power of the em
peror Frederick protected him. He af
terwards received the title of “ The In
vincible Doctor.”
Amongst the disciples of Scotus we
also find Walter Burley, preceptor of Ed
ward III. king of England. He obtained
the appellation of “ The Perspicuous Doc
tor.”
Not to detain the reader with a detail
of the dogmas, whims and dreams of Ray
mund Lully, a visionary adventurer, who
was called “ The most Enlightened Doc
tor,” we shall proceed on to notice a dis
tinguished character, who stepped for
ward to point out and correct the perni
cious errors of the Scholastics, and ex
pose the misconceptions and pride of the
Thomists, Scotists and Occamists. This
was
Herman (Vessel, born at Groningen in
Holland in the beginning of the 15th cen
tury. He had acquired a great fund of
learning and taught philosophy and phi
lology in the university of his native
place. To John Ostendorp, a young man,
who consulted him on the best method
of prosecuting his studies, he said :—
“ Young man, you will see the day, when
the doctrines of Aquinas and Occam and
of all the other disputants will be explo
ded, and the Irrefragable and Seraphic
Doctors will be rendered contemptible.”
Facts soon verified his predictions so full
of good sense and penetration. The 16th
century approached, and with it the revi
val of letters, which immortalized the
name of Herman Wessel.
The Scholastic Labyrinth far exceeded
that of the Isle of Crete, and the quibbles
of the Scholastic Teachers surpassed in
extent the Iiercynian Forest in Julius
Caesar’s time. What could a traveller do
without any trace of a path to walk in ?
Surrounded by leafy trees, bearing no
fruit to live upon, and between them
brushwood interspersed with thorns and
almost too dangerous to pass through.
Quiddities before, Haecceities behind—
Realities on the right, Formalities on the
left; and these filled up with intentions, in
termissions, individualities, proportions,
degrees, abstractions, infinity, and innu
merable other terms of nonsense—all dic
tated by the unerring master Aristotle,
who according to the Scholastic Dialec
ticians, was to form a triumvirate with
Christ and Paul his Apostle : and in this
there can be no doubt as Vives and Me
lanchton, whom we shall have occasion to
mention hereafter, declare, “ That Aris
totle was read and preached in sacred
assemblies instead of the Gospel.”
Such then was the education of youth
during those periods. Rut is it to be
wondered at, that there were so many
proselytes made, and so many competi
tors arose, when we consider that this art
of trifling Was not only sufficient to pro
cure the high titles of “ Most Profound,
Irrefragable, Universal and Angelic, Se
raphic, Wonderful, Most Subtle, Most
Resolute, Invincible, Perspicuous, and
Most Enlightened ;—but that it was also
lucrative in being created Professors, Ab
bots, Bishops and Cardinals. Is it won
der that the Scholastic Philosophy al
most universally prevailed ?
We now come to see some twinkling
stars, indicative of the morning-twilight,
ushering in the ever memorable and glo
rious day of the Reformation.
A Dante Alligeri, a Florentine, is ob
served to lead the way, who as a poet and
philosopher was inferior to none. He
stands in the first rank of the revivers of
learning, and left behind him one of his
pupils,
Francis Petrarch, a Tuscan, who devo
ted himself to the study of the Belles
lettres. His father, for lucrative purpo
ses, removed from Florence to Avignon
in France, and endeavored to persuade
his son to study the law, but did not suc
ceed. Petrarch chiefly resided in the de
lightful vale of Vaucluse near Avignon,
where he died universally esteemed and
regretted by all those who possessed the
powers of appreciating his elegant and
useful works.
Petrarch might have arisen to the high
est preferments, if his noble mind had not
disdained all dishonest and humiliating
compliances. The most alluring pros
pects of advancement and its attendant
advantages could not, in the least, shake
his integrity. His love of truth had be
come proverbial: for when he lived in
the family of Cardinal Colonna, a quar
rel took place among his domestics, which
arose to a serious height. The Cardinal
found it necessary to examine the whole,
and took a solemn oath of every one to
declare the truth ; from which solemnity
the Cardinal's own brother was not ex
empted ; Petrarch in his turn presenting
himself to take the oath, the Cardinal
closed the book, and said : “ As to you,
Petrarch, your word is sufficient."
A serious dispute now arose between
the followers of Plato and those of Aris
totle, with regard to the merit and au
thority of their respective masters. Pletho,
who had an unlimited veneration for
Plato, violently attacked the dominion,
which Aristotle possessed in the schools.
Georgius Scholarius, on the other hand,
undertook with great zeal and vehemence
the defence of Aristotle, and maintained,
that the opinions of this philosopher were
consonant to the truest and best doctrines
of Christianity, and were even more true.
He was supported by another of the same
school, whose arguments consisted of low
words and vulgar phrases, virulence and
rudeness, to make impressions on the
vulgar and inflame their passions, on
which all the truly learned looked with
the utmost contempt.
[to be continued.]
-im Mil
INTERESTING FROM MEXICO.
MEXICO, SEPT. 28.
“ The General (Yturbide) entered this
city yesterday, at the head of 20,000 men.
The provisional junta is now assembled,
and a regency will be formed in the course
of a few days. Every thing is perfectly
quiet, and every prospect of its remaining
so. I send you some public documents,
which will convey you some ideas of the
state of things here. It has been a most
extraordinary revolution, effected with
out bloodshed, and has been precipitated
altogether by the vile policy of the be
loved Ferdinand. It is now well known,
generally, that Ferdinand had sent secret
orders to Apodaca to overturn the con
stitution in New Spain, and re-establish
the despotic regime of the Bourbons.
Apodaca confided the secret to the seve
ral chiefs, among others to Yturbide, who,
finding the country determined to main
tain constitutional government, hoisted
the tri-colored flag, and adopted a policy
calculated to deceive Apodaca, who at
that time might have crushed him in the
bud; but Apodaca allowed it to spread
abroad, and it ran through the country
like wild-fire. Three-fourths of the Eu
ropean troops joined the independents,
but had it not been for the opportune ar
rival of O’Donoju, Mexico being then
garrisoned by 4000 resolute troops, might
have shed much blood, and held out a
considerable time.”—[Juro7'a.
ARKANSAS, NOV. 10.
Indian Murder.—Just as our paper was
going to press, a gentleman arrived here
from the Mississippi, who informs us that
a most horrid and unprovoked murder
was committed about the last of October,
in the new purchase^ in the Choctaw Na
tion, on a party of United States’ survey
ors, consisting of ten persons—only one
of •whom escaped. The murder was com
mitted on the lower line, and about 150
miles from Fort Gibson, by Choctaw In
dians. The quarrel, we understand, ori
ginated in consequence of some trivial af
fair. Oiir informant received the above
information from Col. Nichols, who pass
ed up the Mississippi a few' days since, on
his way to the Chickasaw Bluffs, with the
Chickasaw annuity/
'Jt'O THE EDITORS.
The belief that the same individual wa&
concerned in the composition of the two
pieces (“ Remarks on Education” and the
“ Inquirer’s” farewell,) was not produced
by the circumstance of their appearing
at the same time in your paper of Dec.
18, but from the similarity of style and
views exhibited in those pieces ; and
above all, from the knowledge which the
Remarker on Education appears to have
had, previous to the publication of the
Inquirer's piece, that the Inquirer intend
ed to attempt a vindication of himself,
and “ to prove himself a native of one of
the United States.”
The fact communicated in your paper
of the 25th ult. that those “ Remarks oti
Education” were received a week previous
to the receipt of those signed by an Inqui
rer, will not remove the general impres
sion, that the same person was concern
ed in the production of both pieces; on
the contrary, it has a tendency to confirm
it by proving the Remarker’s knowledge
of what would appear over the signature
of an Inquirer to be a week earlier than
it at first appeared to be. These things,
together with some others, which it is
not necessary at this time to mention^
have produced, in the minds of many,
convictions, which can only be removed
by the most unequivocal testimony. Will
the editors of the Free Press, who, it i6
presumed, know all about the matter, un
dertake to say, without reserve, that th&
same person was not concerned in the pro
duction of both pieces? fair flay.
[We can assure “ Fair Play” that it is
no part of our business to pry into the
concerns of others, or to trouble ourselves
with removing the doubts of every skep
tic who may choose to present his sage
suspicions to the public. We had sup
posed that a solemn assurance would
have been sufficient to convince every
candid reader of the truth of our assertion
in regard to the authorship of the prof
ductions to which he alludes. We feel
as little obligation to produce what he
might deem “ unequivocal testimony,”
as we do to state our opinion, that, so fa?
from it being his wish to show “ fair
play,” he can only be suspected of a spe
cies of double dealing. He must conse
quently forgive us for declining to gratify
his curiosity—since it would be folly to
attempt to convince so profound a judge
of style of the error of an opinion from
which he appears determined not to re
cede.]—Editors.
DOCT. W. BALDWIN
’M/H’OST respectfully tenders his medi
1?JL cal services to the residents of Har
pers-Ferry and also to those of the adjoin
ing country. He has taken up his resi
dence at Mr. William Graham’s Inn,
where, on application, he may be found.
FURTHER.
He has just received and opened a ge
neral and extensive assortment of fresh
DRUGS and MEDICINES, all of which
he will sell on terms highly accommodat
ing to purchasers. Said drugs and medi
cines will be exhibited and sold in a part
of the store room, on the batik of the She
nandoah, lately in the occupancy of Mor
gan & Shutt, merchants.
Jan. 8.
TO TAILORS.
THE subscriber wishes to employ tw&
or three Journeymen Tailors. None
but steady men and excellent workmen,
will be received. To such, constant em
ployment and the highest wages will be
given. URIAH A. NORRIS.
Harpers-Ferry, Va. Jan. 8, 1822.
|CP The editors of the National Intel
ligencer will please insert the above three
times, and forward their account to this
office for settlement.
SALE OF NEGROES.
THE subscribers will sell, at private
sale, to good masters,
Thirty or forty Valuable Slaves,
a part of the estate of Adam S. Dandridge,
deceased. A liberal credit will be given.
PHIL. C. PENDLETON*
IT. St. G. TUCKER,
JOHN R. COOKE.
Jan. 8.
NEGROES FOR SALE.
WILL be sold, on Thursday the 31st
inst. at Robert Fulton’s Hotel in
Charlestown,
Four Negro Men, one Woman,
and two children, belonging to the estate
of the late George Washington. One of
the men is a first rate blacksmith, and the
others are well acquainted with farming.
The terms will be made known on the day
of sale.
JAMES STUBBLEFIELD,
Agent for Thomas Todd, Esgr
Jan. 8.
AN ESTRAY.
CAME to the subscriber’s, on Tues*
day the 1st inst. trespassing as an
estray, a BARROW SHOAT, with an
under-bit and a slit in his left ear, and a
crop off the right. The owner can have
him again, by proving property, and pay
ing charges. J, HARDING,
Jan.’ 8.,