Ten letters to Dr. Joseph Priestly, in answer to his Letters to the inhabitants of Northumberland / from Noah Webster, Jun.

  • Noah Webster
Date:
1800
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ten letters to Dr. Joseph Priestly, in answer to his Letters to the inhabitants of Northumberland / from Noah Webster, Jun. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    lam wrong in this opinion, I flnll regret it ; but (o many things evidently not connected with a vindication of yourfelf, are wrought into thofe letters, that I am compelled to believe you have taken this mode of publifhing your opinions, on purpofe to ftrengthen a party pgainft administration. I am the more perfuaded of this fa£t, as you had not the leaft occafion for ftlf vindication. Who, fir, has attacked your character f Has one native American ? You do not mention one. It does not appear that any mottal has difturbed your repofc, except Cobbett, a countryman of your oivn, an alien—a low, fcurrilous fugitive from your own native land—who is really too contemptible to excite the refentment of Amei ican citizens. You ought not therefore to charge cur citizens with treating you ill—nor make the billingfgate of your own country, the pretext forlpreading the principles of difaflection to the government and laws which protect you.—It is not the part of a good citizen. That you befriended the American prifoners in England, dur- ing the late war, is a circumftance that entitles you to the fincere acknowledgements of ray countrymen ; and for that kindnefs, if I had no other reafons in the common duties of humanity, my houfe fhould be always open in the mod hofpitable manner, to you and all your family, while I live. You are pleafed to fay, that in England, decency and good manners are never violated. T will not attempt to difturb your en- joyment of this opinion ; but pleafe to remark, fir, that four parts of five of all the indecency which difgraces the American papers, enough in all confcience to d ifgu ft every per/on and all parties, flows lrom the pens of natives of Europe, who have lately immigrated to ihis cuuntry, and a very large portion of it, from Britifh fubjetts. L E T T 1 R. VII. Sir, In your nth letter, in which you treat of the policy of Ameri- ca with refpeft to foreign nations, you give it as your opinion, that while our treaty with France fubGfted, a treaty mould not have beeu made with England, without the knowledge, and without the con- cu'ience, of the French Government. I COULD not have believed a fentiment Co degrading to the charac- ter of a free citizen, could have been harbored in the mind of the low- eft of the French partizans in this country; much lei's, in the mind of the philofophic Pi ieftley. What I afk the confent of a foreign na- tion to a negotiation ? Where is the independence of a nation thut tramelled r I am afhamed, Sir, that a man breathing the air of a free country can be found capable of uttering that humiliating l'enti- ■lent. Do you believe, Sir, that Piefident Adams has iolicited the •onfent of the Britifh government, to a negotiation with France? C