other nation; for this would lay the foundation for more claims of gratitude, with which we have been outrageously tormented by the French, and their hirelings. The United States and Great Britain are allied by intereft. Setting afide famenefs of language, habits, and private connexions, no two countries are fo closely united by commercial advantages. Nor can this union of intereft, for a long time to come, have a competitor. It is as much for Great Britain's intereft (not to fay more) to protect our veffels, as it is ours to have them protected. So far an alliance will arife out of neceffity and convenience, which will require very little modification by exprefs agreements. As to any thing like a general treaty, offenfive and defenfive, God forbid! Sooner may the United States be doomed to encounter another eight years war for independence, than hold the bleffing at the mercy of any foreign nation!

No, Peter: the man who writes this, once voluntarily bore arms to defend independence: in purfuance of the fame principles, he firft propofed publicly the plan of the National Conftitution; perfevering in the fame principles, he affailed the monster FACTION, the moment it appeared, in the infidious form of popular clubs: and from that moment to this, he has never ceafed to expose the artifices of the French agents, to lay this country at the feet of France. With the fame determined zeal and firmnefs, Peter, he now openly declares war against the man who dares to vilify the defenders of American independence, or to propofe an alliance that would commit that independence to the power of a foreign state, or to the fate of European contefts.

Americans defire peace, and rejoice that the flags of all nations ftream in their harbours. But the man who unites a foreign flag with that of his own country, on the territory of the United States, without

VOL. V.

L

an

an order of Government, is a factious man, and has not the honour of his country at heart. This little emblem of national honour ought no more to be the fignal for mobs and for violence in a neutral country.

Such, Peter, is my political creed-I know no party, but that of MY COUNTRY. My country is INDEPENDENT; it is for our intereft, the intereft of Great Britain, and of all Europe, that it fhould be fo; and the man who feeks to tack it on any foreign country, to involve it in European broils, or make its independence the sport of European policy, is conceived to be an ENEMY. As fuch, his intrigues will be expofed, and his influence refifted, by all those decent and legal means that diftinguifh the gentleman and the good citizen.

P.S. If Peter Porcupine's views are mistaken, it belongs to him to remove the impreffions which his writings made on the genuine friends of this country.

Philadelphia, 25th March, 1797.

TO MR. NOAH WEBSTER OF NEW-YORK.

SIR,

YOU tell me and the public, that you, with " determined zeal and firmness, now openly declare war againft me;" and that "I muft certainly be the lofer." Softly, Squire Webfter; it is not fo certain, perhaps, as you may imagine. If you had bered the fable of the man who fo

and was afterwards killed in 1

not have cried Victoria!

antagonist time to retu

This, Sir, I defire you to look upon as a counterdeclaration; as a preparative for repulfing the unprovoked attack. Your long, familiar, and modeft. addrefs fhould have been anfwered this day (notwithftanding the certainty of my being the lofer), did not the very extraordinary remarks it contains call for delay, in order to afford time for a full and fair difcuffion of a fubject, of much greater importance than the "political creed" of a news-monger. In the mean time, Sir, be not too confident of victory. "Achieve me firft, good Squire, and then fell my "bones."

For your attachment to the Government under which we live and profper, and for the fervices (however trifling) you have rendered it, accept the refpects of Your humble fervant,

P. PORCUPINE.

LETTER II.

TO MR. NOAH WEBSTER OF, NEW-YORK.

"Vain, fickle, blind, from thefe to thofe he flies,
"And ev'ry fide of wav'ring combat tries;

"Large promife makes, and breaks the promife made;
"Now gives the Grecians, now the Trojans aid."
POPE'S HOMER, lib. v.

SIR, SOME days ago I promifed you an answer to your Addrefs (or whatever elfe you may pleafe to call it) of the 21ft of March. It luckily matters little how this begins. Aware, I fuppofe, of

and of the propofed alliance between the United States and Great Britain. This alliance is a subject of too much confequence to be blended with an inquiry into your and my character, principles, and conduct; I fhall therefore reserve it for another opportunity not lofing, however, the prefent opportunity of declaring, that your reasoning, inftead of convincing me that I was miftaken, has ftrengthened, as far as any thing in itself contradictory can ftrengthen, the opinion which gave fo much offence to your wisdom.

You set out with telling the public, that "in a "late paper, we inferted fentiments of this kind, "that the putting up in the Coffee-house a card, on "which was painted the English flag, was a low, pitiful bufinefs, equalled only by the meanness of "putting up a French flag; and that it is fervile to "be bandied about between the flags of different foreign nations. We ought to unite under our own flag, and learn to be a nation."

You then complain of my having quoted the paffage "with difapprobation," which, with the application of the words vulgar prejudice, was, it seems, a ftretch of prefumption which your pride could not forgive.

I must confefs, that to venture to quote " with disapprobation" the oracular precepts flowing from the lips of the high priest of Minerva, was rather bold; but (and with due fubmiffion be it fpoken) it was not fo much your advice as your partiality, your verfatility, that I difapproved of. You have uttered fuch cart-loads of fentiments, that it is abfolutely impoffible you should recollect one half of them; and as, in politics particularly, you are led by no fixed, no polar-ftar principle, it is as impoffible that you should ever be confiftent long together. Your faying that the putting up of an English flag "was a low, pitiful bufinefs," founds

well;

well; but did you fay this when the French flag was put up? No; you called that neither low nor pitiful: it was even honoured with your applause, as far as a man, who looks upon himself as the exclufive poffeffor of all that is praifeworthy, can applaud the actions of others. The hoifting of the French flag was attended with feafting and noise, little inferior to what we have witneffed at the cele bration of the murder of the Swifs guards: yet it escaped your cenfure; it was fuffered to hang very peaceably, and to receive the adoration of the devout fans-culottes of New-York; Folly was permitted to revel at the foot, as it were, of the fhrine of Wisdom, for the space of three whole years, without receiving either chaftisement or rebuke. But, behold the difference! The moment a representation of the British flag appears, though painted on a bit of paper only, and intended merely to produce a little fport, you caft off your lethargic forbearance. Your patriotism, that patriotism, which flept like a dormouse, while the French flag was not only hanging up in the Coffee-room, but was borne about your ftreets to elections and town meetings; that drowsy patriotism, which feemed scarcely to perceive a banner of two yards fquare, though it brushed its very nose, became all alive, took fire in a moment, upon fight of a British flag in miniature.

You do, indeed, now talk about the "meanness "of putting up a French flag" but when do you find courage to do this? At the moment the people around you are got tired and ashamed of their bauble. Far were you from calling it a meanness, and fo far from it, that your voice was one of the most fonorous in the ridiculous and difgraceful hue and cry raised against those who pulled it down, in the month of May, 1795-On that occafion you very patriotically obferved, that it was hoped that the "flags of the fifter Republics would have remained L3

"undif