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Source & Citation Info

title:“A Slave and A Son of Liberty”
authors:Anonymous
date written:1789-8-17
permanent link
to this version:		https://consource.org/document/a-slave-and-a-son-of-liberty-1789-8-17/20130122075735/
last updated:Jan. 22, 2013, 7:57 a.m. UTC
retrieved:Dec. 9, 2023, 5:30 p.m. UTC
transcription
citation:
"A Slave and A Son of Liberty." The Daily Advertiser 1789-08-17 : . Rpt. in The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution. Vol. 13. Ed. Gaspare J. Saladino and John P. Kaminski. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 1981. 480-81. Print.
manuscript
source:		 Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress

A Slave and A Son of Liberty (August 17, 1789)

Mr. Greenleaf, I observe we have our doubting, fearful, and procrastinating brethren; those who, in the profundity of their penetration, not from interested motives, but a laudable zeal to serve the public, have discovered, and pronounced the new proposed Fœderal Goverment to be of the illegitimate and monstrous kind, like Pandora's box, pregnant with every evil, full of design, a fatal tendency, and diametrically repugnant to the true interests, happiness, and safety of the United States.
Whether these are chimeras of the brain or realities the public will determine: I must confess for myself I cannot perceive the danger of adopting it, and most sincerely wish it may speedily take place, fully persuaded that it will be attended with the most salutary consequences; I think I can foresee, under its benign influences,1
1. Unity and peace at home.
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2. Respect and honour from abroad.
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3. The total abolition of paper money.
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4. A sufficient specie medium.
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5. A full treasury.
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6. Public and domestic debts provided for.
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7. Credit established.
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8. The poor and industrious eased of their present burthensome taxes.
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9. Agriculture, navigation, and population encouraged.
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10. A well regulated commerce.
11. Navigation act, encouraging our own shipping, and seamen, now rotting, and starving in our harbours, in preference to foreigners.
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12. Rebllion, and civil war, not so much as understood.
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13. Policy, power, and spirit, to encourage virtue, punish vice, assert our rights, take possession of our territories, prevent encroachments, and repel invasions.