INDIANA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

2-8-64

CONTENT S

OF

VOL. V.

Selections from Porcupine's Gazette, from the Beginning of March, to the End of May, 1797.

GAZETTE SELECTIONS.

SATURDAY, 4th MARCH, 1797.

ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC.

THE objects which this paper has in view have already been fet forth, and that they are generally approved of is demonftrated by the numbers of fubfcribers, that the proposals have brought from all parts of the United States. Nothing feems neceffary here, then, but to give a sketch of the manner in which the publication will be conducted.

The editor of an advertising paper, which was ufhered to the world not long fince, expreffed a good deal of concern for the anxious fufpenfe of the public mind refpecting his politics; and to fay the truth, it is often a fubject of curious fpeculation, and one that would puzzle the most accurate calcu lators, to determine beforehand what will be the politics of a news-monger. It is generally a thing fo dependent upon circumftances, fo entirely fubjected to the control of adventitious caufes, fuch, for inftance, as the caprice of the multitude, the length of the purfes of certain wholefale fubfcribers, &c. &c. that it is extremely difficult, if not altoge. ther impoffible, for the public, or even the editor himfelf, to know what will be his politics, before he begins to publish, or, for any length of time, after

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after he has begun. This ftate of uncertainty, however, my readers and I are happily exempted from. My politics, fuch as they are, are known to every one; and few, I believe, doubt of their continuing the fame.

Profeffions of impartiality I fhall make none. They are always ufelefs, and are befides perfect nonfenfe, when used by a news-monger: for, he that does not relate news as he finds it, is fomething worse than partial; and as to other articles that help to compofe a paper, he that does not exercise his own judgment, either in admitting or rejecting what is fent him, is a poor paffive tool, and not an editor. For my part, I feel the ftrongeft partiality for the cause of order and good government, such as we live under, and against every thing that is oppofed to it. To profefs impartiality here, would be as abfurd as to profess it in a war between Virtue and Vice, Good and Evil, Happiness and Mifery. There may be editors who look on fuch a conflict with perfect indifference, and whofe only anxiety is to difcover which is the ftrongeft fide. I am not one of these, nor shall a paper under my direction, ever be made an inftrument of deftruction to the cause I espouse.

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Communications will be thankfully received. I with my paper to be a rallying point for the friends of Government. Here they may fpeak their minds without referve. They may employ their leisure hours, without fearing that their productions will be rejected, or gutted, or frittered away, for fear of offending this or that perfon, fociety, or nation. I have not defcended from the Cenforial chair merely to become a news-monger; I have not made this facrifice for the fake of augmenting the number of retailers of fmall-beer politics; in fhort, I have not taken up that cut-and-thruft weapon, a daily paper, without a refolution not only to make ufe of it my

felf,