To George Washington from “An Observer,” 1 October 1795
From “An Observer”
[1 Oct. 1795]
Sir,
Your wisdom and patriotism have been trumpeted forth by your admirers, till a kind of belief of their transcendant magnitude was forced on the minds of your fellow citizens, and till it was hardly safe to offer a modest doubt whether you were not the first of men. You have, however, unfortunately for yourself and ungratefully and cruelly for your country, silenced your advocates and deceived the public at large.—You have plunged headlong from a pinnacle of reputation & glory which millions could not purchase and to which few men had attained, although thousands in all countries had equally well deserved it, to the situation of those rulers, whose weak heads or corrupt hearts have sacrificed the welfare of their cotemporaries and of unborn millions.
But, sir, it is wisely ordered in the distribution of earthly affairs that every misfortune has some concomitant advantage to enable us to support its pressure.—You exhibit a remarkable example.—If you have lost the affections and the confidence of entire states, you have acquired the esteem, the regard and the gratitude of the New York, Boston and Philadelphia tories, refugees and stockjobbers. If the unbought suffrage of impartial historians is wantonly dashed away, Catiline1 will furnish you with columns of adulation, as grateful and as just too as was ever bestowed on any of the monarchs of Europe; and if your own countrymen are silent as to your merits you have acquired a powerful host of panegyrists in the island of Bermuda who openly express that contempt and abhorrence of “the ra[s]cally resolutions of the mobility of America,”2 which you have covertly implied in your famous circular answer.3
An Observer.
Aurora General Advertiser (Philadelphia), 1 Oct. 1795. While most of the newspaper articles criticizing the Jay Treaty and GW appeared as letters to the editor or as essays, some were addressed (formally at least) directly to GW. For other examples, see Valerius to GW, 22 Aug., and source note, and 1 Dec.; Belisarius to GW, 11 Sept., and source note; Portius to GW, 24 Sept. and 12 Oct.; and Scipio to GW, 20 November.
Treaty defenders were less inclined to address their essays to GW, but one supportive sonnet addressed to GW by “PH[I]LO PATRIÆ” was printed in the Columbian Centinel (Boston) on 11 Nov.:
ILLUSTRIOUS Chief! the column of thy Fame,
Like towering Atlas, shall eternal stand.
Round its firm base, see Faction, rage in vain—
It’s guard a nation’s love, it’s prop, Jove’s mighty hand!
What tho’ relentless Envy dart her sting,
To blast thy glory and thy peace destroy?
What tho’ from hell a thousand furies spring,
Hail’d by fell Anarch’s sons with yells of savage joy?
How weak their force! For o’er thy dauntless breast,
Divine Minerva throws her radient shield—
And PATRIOT millions rush at thy behest,
For THEE and thy COLUMBIA, conquering arms to wield.
Yes, matchless chief! The column of thy fame,
Shall Faction rage around, and Hell assail in vain!
1. Catiline (Lucius Sergius Catilina; c.108–62 B.C.) was a Roman aristocrat known as a conspirator against the Roman Republic. Observer probably is referring to Alexander Hamilton. Another critic, Belisarius, in a letter addressed to GW and printed in the Aurora General Advertiser of 11 Sept., referred to “that ambitious Cataline, who has been the principal adviser and chief promoter of all your measures” (see also the references in n.2 below).
2. The quotation was taken from an item, said to be “From BERMUDA SEPT. 5,” that was printed in the Aurora of 28 September. The writer mentioned “the rascally resolutions of the meetings of the mobility in America on the unfinished treaty of commerce” and added, “The lawless banditti in the principal towns of America at present carry everything before them; and are proceeding as nearly as possible in the same manner they have done in France: any men inclined to peace or moderate measures are in danger of their lives.”
The same issue of the Aurora includes the comments, “A Correspondent congratulates his Highness, the President of the United States, on the reinforcement his friends, the advocates of the treaty, have received from Bermuda, the worthy inhabitants of which appear as eager to support ‘the constituted authorities’ of our country as the modern Catiline of New York. The sovereign contempt these upright, honest people entertain of ‘the ra[s]cally resolutions of the Mobility of America’ seems to be just on a level with that of his highness himself, or his would-be successor, Catiline. With this formidable acquisition, the advocates of our mother country, Britain, may bid defiance to the anti-federalists, jacobins, disorganizers, and democrats of this infatuated country, who are such irreconcileable enemies to the blessings and advantages of royalty and aristocracy.”
Bermuda was a center of privateering activities against American vessels.
3. Observer is referring to GW’s reply to the Boston Selectmen of 28 July.