IX. Huzza! my brave boys, our work is complete, Its strength against tempests and time shall be proof, Whilst we drain the deep bowl, our toast still shall be- A YANKEE SONG. The 'Vention did in Boston meet, Yankee doodle, keep it up! Yankee doodle, dandy, Mind the music and the step, They ev'ry morning went to prayer, By arguments refuting. Yankee doodle, &c. Then 'Squire Hancock like a man, Prevented much vexation. Yankee doodle, &c. He made a woundy Fed'ral speech, With sense and elocution; And then the 'Vention did beseech T'adopt the Constitution. Yankee doodle, &c. The question being outright put, The other party seeing then Yankee doodle, &c. The Boston folks are deuced lads, The boys, the girls, their mams and dads, Oh, then a whapping feast begun, And all hands went to eating; They drank their toasts, shook hands, and sung, Huzza! for 'Vention meeting. Yankee doodle, &c. Now politicians of all kinds, Who are not yet decided, May see how Yankees speak their minds, And yet are not divided. Yankee doodle, &c. Then from this sample let 'em cease For Freedom, Happiness and Peace, Yankee doodle, &c. So here I end my Fed'ral song, SPIRIT OF THE PRESS. [In both the Chronicle and Centinel, series of elaborate essays in favor of and opposed to the Federal Constitution, were continued during the period that the question of ratification was pending. From many, as exhibiting the tone and scope of the discussion, we have selected the following from the Independent Chronicle.] ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. NUMBER ONE. It is impossible for an honest and feeling mind, of any nation or country whatever, to be insensible to the present circumstances of America. Were I an East Indian or a Turk, I should consider this singular situation of a part of my fellow creatures, as most curious and interesting. Intimately connected with the country, as a citizen of the Union, I confess it entirely engrosses my mind and feelings. To take a proper view of the ground on which we stand, it may be necessary to recollect the manner in which the United Want of charity States were originally settled and established. in the religious systems of Europe and of justice in their political governments, were the principal moving causes which drove the emigrants of various countries to the American continent. The Congregationalists, Quakers, Presbyterians and other British dissenters, the Catholics of England and Ireland, the Huguenots of France, the German Lutherans,; Calvinists and Moravians, with several other societies, established themselves in the different colonies, thereby laying the ground of that catholicism in ecclesiastical affairs, which has been observable since the late Revolution. Religious liberty naturally promotes. corresponding dispositions in matters of government. The Constitution of England, as it stood on paper, was one of the freest at that time existing in the world, and the American colonies considered themselves as entitled to the fullest enjoyment of it. Thus, when the ill-judged discussions of later times in England brought into question the rights of this country as it stood con nected with the British crown, we were found more strongly impressed with their importance, and accurately acquainted with their extent, than the wisest and most learned of our brethren beyond the Atlantic. When the greatest names in Parliament insisted on the power of that body over the commerce of the colonies, and even the right to bind us in all cases whatsoever, America, seeing that it was only another form of tyranny, insisted upon the immutable truth, that taxation and representation are inseparable, and while a desire of harmony and other considerations induced her into an acquiescence in the commercial regulations of Great Britain, it was done from the declared necessity of the case, and with a cautious, full and absolute saving of our voluntarily suspended rights. The Parliament was persevering, and America continued firm till hostilities and open war commenced, and finally the late Revolution closed the contest forever. 'Tis evident from this short detail, and the reflections which arise from it, that the quarrel between the United States and the Parliament of Great Britain, did not arise so much from objections to the form of government, though undoubtedly a better one by far is now within our reach, as from a difference concerning certain important rights resulting from the essential principles of liberty, which the Constitution preserved to all the subjects actually residing within the realm. It was not asserted by America that the people of the Island of Great Britain were slaves, but that we, though possessed absolutely of the same rights, were not admitted to enjoy an equal degree of freedom. When the Declaration of Independence completed the separation between the two countries, new governments were necessarily established. Many circumstances led to the adoption of the republican form, among which was the predilection of the people. In devising the frames of government it may have been difficult to avoid extremes opposite to the vices of that we had just rejected; nevertheless, many of the State Constitutions we have chosen, are truly excellent. Our misfortunes have been, that in the first instance we adopted no national government at all, but we kept together by common danger only, and that in the confusions of a civil war we framed a Federal Constitution, now universally admitted to be inadequate to the |