Thoughts on Government and Selected Letters

Source

Source: Internet Archive worksofjohnadams04adam/worksofjohnadams10adam; Project Gutenberg #34123 Source URL: https://archive.org/details/worksofjohnadams04adam ; https://archive.org/details/worksofjohnadams10adam ; https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34123 Public domain basis: Public-domain nineteenth-century editions: The Works of John Adams, ed. Charles Francis Adams (Boston, 1850-1856), and Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams (1876). Coverage: Partial: Works vol. 4 (Novanglus, Thoughts on Government with the Patrick Henry reply, and Defence of the Constitutions vol. 1) and vol. 10 (letters 1811-1825, including the late Adams-Jefferson correspondence), both as Internet Archive OCR; plus the complete Familiar Letters of John and Abigail Adams from Gutenberg. Founders Online was not used because its editorial apparatus is not public domain.

The Works of John Adams, vol. 4 (Thoughts on Government)

# The Works of John Adams, vol. 4 (Thoughts on Government)

'

N The Custody Oe Tme Boston Public Library

N THE CUSTODY OE TME

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY.

SHELF N°

* ADAMS

/3<M

THE WORKS

OF

JOHN ADAMS

THE

WORKS

OF

JOHN ADAMS,

SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

WITH

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,

BY

HIS GRANDSON CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

VOL. IV.

BOSTON:

CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN.

1851.

^

K

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S51, by Charles C. Little and James Brown, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Cambridge:

stereotyped and printed by

bolles and houghton.

Contents Of Volume Iv

CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV.

Controversial Papers of the Revolution, (continued.)

Novanglus ; or, a History of the Dispute with America, from its origin, in 1751, to the present time ......

Works on Government.

Editor's Preface.

The Plan.

The Model.

The Defence.

1. Letter to Richard Henry Lee, 15 November,

1775 ......

2. Thoughts on Government, applicable to the

present state of the American Colonies, in a Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend Note. Patrick Henry, Jr. to John Adams, 20 May, 1776 .

3. Letter to John Penn. January, 1776

Observations on the Reconstruction of Govern- ment in Massachusetts during the Revolution, by the Editor ..... 1. Report of a Constitution or Form of Govern- ment for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1779 ......

1. Defence of the Constitutions of Govern- ment of the United States of America, against the Attack of M. Turgot, in his Letter to Dr. Price, 22 March, 1778. Vol. I. .

Editor's Preface

Preface

Preliminary Observations

181

185

189

201 203

213

219

271 273

283 299

Vi Contents

VI

CONTENTS.

Chap. I. Of Modern Democratic Republics

1. San Marino

2. Biscay

3. Switzerland — Appenzel .

Underwald

Glarus

Zug

Uri

Schwitz

The Grisons

4. United Provinces of the Low Countries

Chap. II. Aristocratic Republics.

1. Switzerland — Bern

Fribourg

Soleure

Lucerne

Zurich

Schaffhause

Mul house — City of Bienne

The Republic of St. GaU

Geneva . ".

2. Lucca — Genoa .

3. Venice ....

4. United Provinces of the Low Countries

Chap. III. Monarchical or Regal Republics.

1. England .

2. Poland

3. Neuchatel Recapitulation.

Chap. IV. Opinions of Philosophers.

1. Dr. Swift .

2. Dr. Franklin,

3. Dr. Price .

Chap. V. Writers on Government.

Machiavel . Algernon Sidney Montesquieu Harrington

Chap. VI.

Opinions of Historians.

1. Polybius .

2. Dionysius of Halicarnassus

3. Plato

4. Locke

5. Milton

6. Hume

303 310 313 316 317 320 321 322 323 325

328 332 334 336 338 340 341 342 343 346 347 356

358 360 374 379

383 389 401

416 420 423

427

435 445 448 463 464 466

Contents

CONTENTS.

vu

CnAP. VU. Ancient Democratical Republics 1.. Carthage

2. Athens

3. The Policy of Antalcidas

4. Achaia

5. Crete

6. Corinth

7. Argos

8. Elis

9. Thebes

10. Sybaris

11. Locris '12. Rome

Chap. VIII. Ancient Aristocratical Republics.

1. Rome ....

2. Lacedsemon

3. Crotona ....

Chap. IX. Ancient Monarchical Republics.

1. Ancient Germans

2. Phffiaeia ....

3. Ithaca ....

469 472 492 498 505 506 509 511 513 515 519 520

542 549 556

561 567 570

Chap. X. Conclusion.

579

CONTROVERSIAL PAPERS

OF THE

REVOLUTION,

CONTINUED.

VOL. IV.

NOVANGLUS

OR,

A HISTORY

OF THE

DISPUTE WITH AMERICA,

FROM ITS ORIGIN, IN 1754, TO THE PRESENT TBIE ;

WRITTEN IN 1774, BY

John Adams

JOHN ADAMS.

The occasion of the production of the series of papers signed Novanglus, in the Boston Gazette of 1774, is given in the Diary1 of the author. A writer for the government, under the signature of Massacliusettensis, supposed by Mr. Adams to be Jonathan Sewall, but who is now understood to have been Daniel Leonard, had made some impression upon public opinion in Massachusetts. His articles, first printed in the Massachusetts Gazette and Post-Boy, immediately attracted much public attention, and called out many replies. They were forthwith collected and printed in a pamphlet form in Boston ; republished by James Rivington, in New York, in the same year, under the title of " The Origin of the American Contest with Great Britain, or the present Political State of the Massachusetts Bay in general, and the town of Boston in particu- lar : exhibiting the Rise and Progress of the disordered State of that Country, in a series of weekly Essays, published at Boston, under the signature of Massa- cliusettensis, a Native of New England ; " and still another edition was issued in Boston, by J. Mathews, probably during the siege of that place, in the next year, 1776.

The papers of Novanglus, in reply to Massachusettensis, were reprinted in Ahnon's Remembrancer for 1775, in an abridged form, and bearing the fol- lowing title : " History of the Dispute with America, from its Origin, in 1 754, to the present Time." This was reprinted in pamphlet form, in London, by John Stockdale, in 1784, with the name of the author. Previous to this time, a Dutch translation had been made in Holland, apparently for the purpose of extending information respecting the struggle, and inspiring confidence in the author, when he was soliciting an alliance for the United States with that coun- try ; and it was published at Amsterdam, by W. Holtrop, 1782, with a portrait. Last of all, the papers of Novanglus and Massachusettensis, in their original form, were collected in one volume, in 1819, and printed by Hews and Goss, in Boston, to which was prefixed the preface which immediately follows.

l Vol. ii. p. 405.

Preface

PREFACE

TO THE EDITION OF 1819.

Jonathan Sewall was descended from Mitchells and Hulls and Sewalls, and I believe Higginsons, that is, from several of the ancient and venerable of New England families. But, as I am no genealogist, I must refer to my aged classmate and highly-esteemed friend, Judge Sewall, of York, whose researches will one day explain the whole.

Mr. Sewall's father was unfortunate ; died young, leaving his son destitute ; but as the child had discovered a pregnant genius, he was educated by the charitable contribution of his friends, of whom Dr. Samuel Cooper was one of the most active and suc- cessful, among his opulent parishioners. Mr. Sewall graduated at college in 1748 ; kept a Latin school in Salem till 1756, when Chambers Russell, of Lincoln, a judge of the supreme court and a judge of admiralty, from a principle of disinterested be- nevolence, received him into his family, instructed him in law, furnished him with books, and introduced him to the practice at the bar. In 1757 and 1758, he attended the supreme court in Worcester, and spent his evenings with me, in the office of Colonel James Putnam, a gentleman of great acuteness of mind, and very extensive and successful practice, and an able lawyer, in whose family I boarded, and under whose auspices I studied law. Here commenced between Mr. Sewall and me a personal friendship, which continued, with none but political interrup- tions, till his death. He commenced practice in Charlestown, in

l*

6 PREFACE.

the county of Middlesex ; I, in that parish of the ancient town of Braintree, now called Quincy, then in the county of Suffolk, now of Norfolk. We attended the courts in Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown, and Concord ; lived together, frequently slept in the same chamber, and not seldom in the same bed. Mr. Sewall was then a patriot ; his sentiments were purely Ameri- can. To James Otis, who took a kind notice of us both, we constantly applied for advice in any difficulty ; and he would attend to us, advise us, and look into books for us, and point out authorities to us, as kindly as if we had been his pupils or his sons.

After the surrender of Montreal, in 1759, rumors were every- where spread, that the English would now new-model the Colo- nies, demolish the charters, and reduce all to royal governments. These rumors I had heard as often as he had. One morning I met him accidentally on the floor of the old town-house. " John," said he, " I want to speak with you." He always called me John, and I him Jonathan ; and I often said to him, I wish my name were David. He took me to a window-seat and said, " These Englishmen are going to play the devil with us. They will over- turn every thing. We must resist them, and that by force. I wish you would write in the newspapers, and urge a general attention to the militia, to their exercises and discipline, for we must resist in arms." I answered, " All this, I fear, is true ; but why do you not write yourself ? You are older than I am, have more experience than I have, are more intimate with the grandees than I am, and you can write ten times better than I can." There had been a correspondence between us, by "which I knew his refined style, as well as he knew my coarse one. " Why," said Mr. Sewall, " I would write, but Goffe will find me out, and I shall grieve his righteous soul, and you know what influence he has in Middlesex." This Goffe had been attorney-general for twenty years, and commanded the practice in Middlesex and Worcester and several other counties. He had power to crush, by his frown or his nod, any young lawyer in his county. He was afterwards Judge Trowbridge,1 but at that time as ardent as any of Hutchinson's disciples, though he afterwards became alienated from his pursuits and principles.

1 He changed his name. See vol. ii. p. 196, note.

PREFACE. 7

In December, 1760, or January, 1761, Stephen Sewall, chief justice, died, deeply lamented, though insolvent. My friend Jonathan, his nephew, the son of his brother, who tenderly loved and deeply revered his uncle, could not bear the thought, that the memory of the chief justice should lie under the imputation of bankruptcy. At that time bankruptcy was infamous ; now it is scarcely disgraceful. Jonathan undertook the administra- tion of his uncle's estate. Finding insolvency inevitable, he drew a petition to the General Court, to grant a sum of money sufficient to pay the chief justice's debts. If my friend had known the character of his countrymen, or the nature of that assembly, he never would have conceived such a project ; but he did conceive it, and applied to James Otis and his father, Colonel Otis, to patronize and support it. The Otises knew their coun- trymen better than he did. They received and presented the petition, but without much hope of success. The petition was rejected ; and my friend Sewall conceived a suspicion that it was not promoted with so much zeal by the Otises, as he thought they might have exerted. He imputed the failure to their cold- ness, was much mortified, and conceived a violent resentment, which he expressed with too much freedom and feeling in all companies.

Goffe, Hutchinson, and all the courtiers soon heard of it, and instantly fastened their eyes upon Sewall, courted his society, sounded his fame, promoted his practice, and soon after made him solicitor-general, by creating a new office expressly for him. Mr. Sewall had a soft, smooth, insinuating eloquence, which, gliding imperceptibly into the minds of a jury, gave him as much power over that tribunal as any lawyer ought ever to pos- sess. He was also capable of discussing before the court any intricate question of law, which gave him at least as much influ- ence there as was consistent with an impartial administration of justice. He was a gentleman and a scholar, had a fund of wit, humor, and satire, which he used with great discretion at the bar, but poured out with unbounded profusion in the newspapers. Witness his voluminous productions in the newspapers, signed long J. and Philanthropos. These accomplishments richly quali- fied him to serve the purposes of the gentlemen who courted him into their service.

8 PREFACE.

Mr. Sewall soon fell in love with Miss Esther Quincy, the fourth daughter of Edmund Quincy, an eminent merchant and magistrate, and a granddaughter of that Edmund Quincy, who was eighteen years a judge of the superior court, who died of the small-pox in the agency of the province, at the Court of St. James, and whose monument was erected, at the expense of the province, in Bun-hill-fields, London. This young lady, who was celebrated for her beauty, her vivacity, and spirit, lived with her father, in this parish, now called Quincy. Mr. Sewall' s courtship was extended for several years ; and he came up very constantly on Saturdays, and remained here until Mondays ; and I was sure to be invited to meet him on every Sunday evening. During all these years, there was a constant correspondence be- tween us, and he concealed nothing from me, so that I knew him by his style whenever he appeared in print.

In 1766, he married the object of his affections, and an excel- lent -wife he found her. He was soon appointed attorney-gene- ral. In 1768, he was employed by Governor Bernard to offer me the office of advocate-general in the court of admiralty, which I decidedly and peremptorily, though respectfully, refused.

We continued our friendship and confidential intercourse, though professedly in boxes of politics as opposite as east and west, until the year 1774, when we both attended the superior court in Palmouth, Casco Bay, now Portland. I had then been chosen a delegate to Congress. Mr. Sewall invited me to take a walk with him, very early in the morning, on the great hill. In the course of our rambles, he very soon began to remonstrate against my going to Congress. He said, that " Great Britain was determined on her system ; her power was irresistible, and would certainly be destructive to me, and to all those who should persevere in opposition to her designs." I answered, " that I knew Great Britain was determined on her system, and that very determination determined me on mine ; that he knew I had been constant and uniform in opposition to all her mea- sures ; that the die was now cast ; I had passed the Rubicon ; swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country, was my unalterable determination." The conversation was protracted into length, but this was the substance of the whole. It termi- nated in my saying to him, " I see we must part, and with a

PREFACE. 9

bleeding heart I say, I fear forever ; but you may depend upon it, this adieu is the sharpest thorn on which I ever set my foot." I never conversed with him again till the year 1788. Mr. Sewall retired, in 1775, to England, where he remained, and resided in Bristol.

On my return from Congress, in the month of November, 1774, I found the Massachusetts Gazette teeming with political speculations, and Massachusettensis shining like the moon among the lesser stars. I instantly knew him to be my friend Sewall, and was told he excited great exultation among the tories and many gloomy apprehensions among the whigs. I instantly resolved to enter the lists with him, and this is the history of the following volume.

In 1788, Mr. Sewall came to London to embark for Halifax. I inquired for his lodgings, and instantly drove to them, laying aside all etiquette to make him a visit. I ordered my servant to announce John Adams, was instantly admitted, and both of us, forgetting that we had ever been enemies, embraced each other as cordially as ever. I had two hours conversation with him, in a most delightful freedom, upon a multitude of subjects. He told me he had lived for the sake of his two children ; he had spared no pains nor expense in their education, and he was going to Halifax in hope of making some provision for them. They are now two of the most respectable gentlemen in Canada. One of them a chief justice, the other an attorney-general. Their father lived but a short time after his return to America ; evidently broken down by his anxieties, and probably dying of a broken heart. He always lamented the conduct of Great Britain towards America. No man more constantly congratu- lated me, while we lived together in America, upon any news, true or false, favorable to a repeal of the obnoxious statutes and a redress of our grievances ; but the society in which he lived had convinced him that all resistance was not only useless but ruinous.

More conscious than ever of the faults in the style and arrangement, if not in the matter, of my part of the following papers, I shall see them in print with more anxiety than when they were first published. The principles, however, are those on which I then conscientiously acted, and which I now most cordially approve.

10 PREFACE.

To the candor of an indulgent nation, whom I congratulate

on their present prosperity and pleasing prospects, and for whose

happiness I shall offer up my dying supplications to Heaven, I

commit the volume with all its imperfections.

John Adams. Quincy, January 1, 1819.1

1 On the fourteenth of October, 1821, Mr. Adams wrote a letter to Abraham Holmes of Rochester, in -which he expresses doubts of the correctness of his opinion given in this preface, that Mr. Sewall was the author of Massachusetten- sis. His words are these : — i " I have great reason to suspect that I was mistaken in imputing Massachu-

settensis to Mr. Sewall. The testimony of Judge Chipman, of St. Johns, New Brunswick, and of Judge Leonard, of London, both of them authorities too respectable to be controverted, ascribes those papers to Mr. Daniel Leonard. This makes no alteration in the argument, but the jus suum culque is of eternal obligation. I have had, in the early part of my life, nearly equal esteem for both of these characters, and am willing that justice should be done between them."

Novanglus. Addressed To The Inhabitants Of The Colony Of Massachusetts Bay. No. I

NOVANGLUS.

ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

NO. I.

My Friends, — A writer, under the signature of Massachu- settensis, has addressed you, in a series of papers, on the great national subject of the present quarrel between the British ad- ministration and the Colonies. As I have not in my possession more than one of his essays, and that is in the Gazette of December 26, 1 will take the liberty, in the spirit of candor and decency, to bespeak your attention upon the same subject.

There may be occasion to say very severe things, before I shall have finished what I propose, in opposition to this writer, but there ought to be no reviling. Rem ipsam die, mitte male loqui, which may be justly translated, speak out the whole truth boldly, but use no bad language.

It is not very material to inquire, as others have done, who is the author of the speculations in question. If he is a disinter- ested writer, and has nothing to gain or to lose, to hope or to fear, for himself more than other individuals of your community ; but engages in this controversy from the purest principles, the noblest motives of benevolence to men, and of love to his country, he ought to have no influence with you, further than truth and justice will support his argument. On the other hand, if he hopes to acquire or preserve a lucrative employment, to screen himself from the just detestation of his countrymen, or whatever other sinister inducement he may have, so far as the truth of facts and the weight of argument are in his favor, he ought to be duly regarded.

He tells you, " that the temporal salvation of this province

12 NOVANGLUS.

depends upon an entire and speedy change of measures, which must depend upon a change of sentiment respecting our own conduct and the justice of the British nation." 1

The task of effecting these great changes, this courageous writer has undertaken in a course of publications in a news- paper. Nil desperandum is a good motto, and nil admirari is another. He is welcome to the first, and I hope will be willing that I should assume the last. The public, if they are not mis- taken in then conjecture, have been so long acquainted with this gentleman, and have seen him so often disappointed, that if they were not habituated to strange things, they would wonder at his hopes, at this time, to accomplish the most unpromising project of his whole life. In the character of Philanthropy he attempted to reconcile you to Mr. Bernard. But the only fruit of his labor was, to expose his client to more general examination, and con- sequently to more general resentment and aversion. In the character of Philalethes, he essayed to prove Mr. Hutchinson a patriot, and his letters not only innocent but meritorious. But the more you read and considered, the more you were convinced of the ambition and avarice, the simulation and dissimulation, the hypocrisy and perfidy of that destroying angel.

This ill-fated and unsuccessful, though persevering writer, still hopes to change your sentiments and conduct, by which it is supposed that he means to convince you, that the system of colony administration which has been pursued for these ten or twelve years past is a wise, righteous, and humane plan ; that Sir Francis Bernard and Mr. Hutchinson, with their connections, who have been the principal instruments of it, are your best friends ; and that those gentlemen, in this province, and in all the other colonies, who have been in opposition to it, are, from ignorance, error, or from worse and baser causes, your worst enemies.

l « "Were I not fully convinced, upon the most mature deliberation that I am capable of, that the temporal salvation of this province depends upon an entire and speedy change of measures, which must depend upon a change of sentiment respecting our own conduct and the justice of the British nation, I never should have obtruded myself on the public. I repeat my promise, to avoid personal reflection, as much as the nature of the task will admit of; but will continue faithfully to expose the wretched policy of the whigs, though I may be obliged to penetrate the arcana, and discover such things as, were there not a necessity for it, I should be infinitely happier in drawing a veil over, or covering with a mantle." Massach usettensis.

NOVANGLUS. 13

This is certainly an inquiry that is worthy of you ; and I pro- mise to accompany this writer in his ingenious labors to assist you in it. And I earnestly entreat you, as the result of all shall be, to change your sentiments or persevere in them, as the evi- dence shall appear to you, upon the most dispassionate and impartial consideration, without regard to his opinion or mine.

He promises to avoid personal reflections, but to " penetrate the arcana " and " expose the wretched policy of the whigs." The cause of the whigs is not conducted by intrigues at a dis- tant court., but by constant appeals to a sensible and virtuous people ; it depends entirely on their good -will, and cannot be pur- sued a single step without their concurrence, to obtain which, all their designs, measures, and means, are constantly published to the collective body. The whigs, therefore, can have no arcana ; but if they had, I dare say they were never so left, as to commu- nicate them to this writer ; you will therefore be disappointed, if you expect from him any thing which is true, but what has been as public as records and newspapers could make it.

I, on my part, may, perhaps, in a course of papers, penetrate arcana too ; show the wicked policy of the tories ; trace their plan from its first rude sketches to its present complete draught ; show that it has been much longer in contemplation than is generally known, — who were the first in it — their views, motives, and secret springs of action, and the means they have employed. This will necessarily bring before your eyes many characters, living and dead. From such a research and detail of facts, it will clearly appear, who were the aggressors, and who have acted on the defensive from first to last ; who are still struggling, at the expense of their ease, health, peace, wealth, and preferment, against the encroachments of the tories on their country, and who are determined to continue struggling, at much greater hazards still, and, like the Prince of Orange, are resolved never to see its entire subjection to arbitrary power, but rather to die fighting against it in the last ditch.

It is true, as this writer observes, " that the bulk of the people are generally but little versed in the affairs of state ; " that they " rest the affairs of government in the hands where accident has placed them." If this had not been true, the designs of the tories had been many years ago entirely defeated. It was clearly seen by a few, more than ten years since, that they were plan-

VOL. IV. 2

14 . NOVANGLUS.

ning and pursuing the very measures we now see executing. The people were informed of it, and warned of their danger ; but they had been accustomed to confide in certain persons, and could never be persuaded to believe, until prophecy became history. Now, they see and feel that the horrible calamities are come upon them, which were foretold so many years ago, and they now sufficiently execrate the men who have brought these things upon them. Now, alas ! when perhaps it is too late. If they had withdrawn their confidence from them in season, they would have wholly disarmed them.

" The same game, with the same success, has been played in all ages and countries," as Massachusettensis observes. When a favorable conjuncture has presented, some of the most intri- guing and powerful citizens have conceived the design of enslav- ing then country, and building their own greatness on its ruins. Philip and Alexander are examples of this in Greece ; Caesar in Rome ; Charles V. in Spain ; Louis XII. in France ; and ten thousand others.

" There is a latent spark in the breasts of the people, capable of being kindled into a flame, and to do this has always been the employment of the disaffected." What is this latent spark ? j The love of liberty. A_Dco hominis est indila naturae. Human i nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury and indignation against wrong ; a love of truth, and a veneration for virtue. These amiable passions are the " latent spark " to which those whom this writer calls the " disaffected " apply. If the people are capable of understanding, seeing, and feeling the difference between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply, than to the sense of this difference ? Is it better to apply, as this writer and his friends do, to the basest passions in the human breast — to their fear, their vanity, their avarice, ambition, and every kind of corruption ? I appeal to all experience, and to universal history, if it has ever been in the power of popular leaders, uninvested with other authority than what is conferred by the popular suf- frage, to persuade a large people, for any length of time together, to think themselves wronged, injured, and oppressed, unless they really were, and saw and felt it to be so.

" They," the popular leaders, " begin by reminding the people

NOVANGLUS. 15

of the elevated rank they hold in the universe, as men ; that all men by nature are equal ; that kings are but the ministers of the people ; that their authority is delegated to them by the people, for their good, and they have a right to resume it, and place it in other hands, or keep it themselves, whenever it is made use of to oppress them. Doubtless, there have been instances when these principles have been inculcated to obtain a redress of real grievances ; but they have been much oftener perverted to the worst of purposes."

These are what are called revolution principles. They are the principles of Aristotle and Plato, of Livy and Cicero, and Sidney, Harrington, and Locke ; the principles of nature and ) eternal reason ; the principles on which the whole government < over us now stands. It is therefore astonishing, if any thing can be so, that writers, who call themselves friends of govern- ment, should in this age and country be so inconsistent with themselves, so indiscreet, so immodest, as to insinuate a doubt concerning them.

Yet we find that these principles stand in the way of Massa- chusettensis and all the writers of his class. The Veteran, in his letter to the officers of the army, allows them to be noble and true ; but says the application of them to particular cases is wild and Utopian.1 How they can be in general true, and not applicable to particular cases, I cannot comprehend. I thought their being true in general, was because they were applicable in most particular cases.

Gravity is a principle in nature. Why ? Because all particular bodies are found to gravitate. How would it sound to say, that bodies in general are heavy; yet to apply this to particular bodies, and say, that a guinea or a ball is heavy, is wild ? " Adopted in private life," says the honest amiable veteran, " they would introduce perpetual discord." This I deny ; and I think it plain, that there never was a happy private family where they were not adopted. " In the state, perpetual discord." This I deny ; and affirm, that order, concord, and stability in

1 This refers to a well-written pamphlet, entitled " A Letter from a Veteran to the Officers of the Army, encamped at Boston," and printed without date of place, in 1774. The purport of it is to deprecate excessive harshness in the punishment about to be inflicted on the rebellious colonists.

To a thorough understanding of the American Revolution by future genera- ' tions, a general history of the mass of pamphlets which it occasioned is becom- ing very essential.

16 NOVANGLU§.

this state, never was nor can be preserved without them. " The least failure in the reciprocal duties of worship and obedience in the matrimonial contract would justify a divorce." This is no consequence from these principles. A total departure from the ends and designs of the contract, it is true, as elopement and adultery, would by these principles justify a divorce ; but not the least failure, or many smaller failures in the reciprocal duties, &c. " In the political compact, the smallest defect in the prince, a revolution." By no means ; but a manifest design in the prince, to annul the contract on his part, will annul it on the part of the people. A settled plan to deprive the people of all the benefits, blessings, and ends of the contract, to subvert the fundamentals of the constitution, to deprive them of all share in making and executing laws, will justify a revolution.

The author of a " Friendly Address to all reasonable Ameri- cans " 1 discovers his rancor against these principles in a more explicit manner ; and makes no scruples to advance the princi- ples of Hobbes and Filmer boldly, and to pronounce damnation, ore rotundo, on all who do not practise implicit, passive obedi- ence to an established government, of whatever character it may be. It is not reviling, it is not bad language, it is strictly decent to say, that this angry bigot, this ignorant dogmatist, this foul- mouthed scold, deserves no other answer than silent contempt. Massachusettensis and the "Veteran — I admire the first for his art, the last for his honesty.

Massachusettensis is more discreet than any of the others ; sensible that these principles would be very troublesome to him, yet conscious of their truth, he has neither admitted nor denied them. But we have a right to his opinion of them, before we dispute with him. He finds fault with the application of them. They have been invariably applied, in support of the revolution and the present establishment, against the Stuarts, the Charleses, and the Jameses, in support of the Reformation and the Protest- ant religion ; and against the worst tyranny that the genius of toryism has ever yet invented; I mean the Roman superstition.

1 This is the title of a pamphlet published anonymously, and without date of place, in the year 1774. It is supposed to have been the work of Dr. Myles Cooper, President of King's College, New York, a gentleman who came from the mother country to fill that post, and whose political principles inclined towards the absolute school. The drift of the pamphlet seems to be to rouse the jealousy of the English church against the puritan republicanism of New Eng- land.

NOVANGLUS. 17

Does this writer rank the revolution and present establishment, the Reformation and Protestant religion, among his worst of pur- poses ? What " worse purpose" is there than established tyranny? Were these principles ever inculcated in favor of such tyranny ? Have they not always been used against such tyrannies, when the people have had knowledge enough to be apprized of them, and courage to assert them ? Do not those who aim at depriv- ing the people of their liberties, always inculcate opposite princi- ples, or discredit these ?

" A small mistake in point of policy," says he, " often furnishes a pretence to libel government, and persuade the people that then* rulers are tyrants, and the whole government a system of oppression." This is not only untrue, but inconsistent with what he said before. The people are in their nature so gentle, that there never was a government yet in which thousands of mis- takes were not overlooked. The most sensible and jealous people are so little attentive to government, that there are no instances of resistance, until repeated, multiplied oppressions have placed it beyond a doubt, that their rulers had formed set- tled plans to deprive them of their liberties ; not to oppress an individual or a few, but to break down the fences of a free con- stitution, and deprive the people at large of all share in the government, and all the checks by which it is limited. Even Machiavel Mm self allows, that, not ingratitude to their rulers, but much love, is the constant fault of the people.

This writer is equally mistaken, when he says, the people are sure to be losers in the end. They can hardly be losers if unsuc- cessful ; because, if they live, they can but be slaves, after an unfortunate effort, and slaves they would have been, if they had not resisted. So that nothing is lost. If they die, they cannot be said to lose, for death is better than slavery. If they succeed, their gains are immense. They preserve their liberties. The instances in antiquity which this writer alludes to are not men- tioned, and therefore cannot be answered ; but that in the coun- try from whence we are derived, is the most unfortunate for his purpose that could have been chosen. No doubt he means, the resistance to Charles I. and the case of Cromwell. But the people of England, and the cause of liberty, truth, virtue, and humanity, gained infinite advantages by that resistance. In all human probability, liberty, civil and religious, not only in Eng- 2* B

18 NOVANGLUS.

land, but in all Europe, would have been lost. Charles would undoubtedly have established the Romish religion, and a despot- ism as wild as any in the world. And as England has been a principal bulwark, from that period to this, of civil liberty and the Protestant religion in all Europe, if Charles's schemes had succeeded, there is great reason to apprehend that the light of science would have been extinguished, and mankind drawn back to a state of darkness and misery like that which prevailed from the fourth to the fourteenth century. It is true, and to be lamented, that Cromwell did not establish a government as free as he might and ought ; but his government was infinitely more glorious and happy to the people than Charles's. Did not the people gain by the resistance to James II. ? Did not the Romans gain by the resistance to Tarquin ? Without that resistance, and the liberty that was restored by it, would the great Roman orators, poets, and historians, the great teachers of humanity and politeness, the pride of human nature, and the delight and glory of mankind for seventeen hundred years, ever have ex- isted ? Did not the Romans gain by resistance to the Decem- virs ? Did not the English gain by resistance to John, when Magna Charta was obtained ? Did not the Seven United Pro- vinces gain by resistance to Philip, Alva, and Granvelle ? Did not the Swiss Cantons, the Genevans, and Grisons gain by resistance to Albert and Gessler ?

No. Ii

NO. II.

I have heretofore intimated my intention of pursuing the tories through all their dark intrigues and wicked machinations, and to show the rise and progress of their schemes for enslaving this country. The honor of inventing and contriving these measures is not their due. They have been but servile copiers of the designs of Andros, Randolph, Dudley, and other cham- pions of then cause towards the close of the last century. These latter worthies accomplished but little ; and their plans had been buried with them for a long course of years, until, in the admin- istration of the late Governor Shirley, they were revived by the persons who are now principally concerned in carrying them into execution. Shirley was a crafty, busy, ambitious, intriguing,

NOVANGLUS. 19

enterprising man ; and, having mounted, no matter by what means, to the chair of this province, he saw, in a young, growing country, vast prospects of ambition opening before his eyes, and conceived great designs of aggrandizing himself, his family, and his friends. Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Oliver, the two famous letter-writers, were his principal ministers of state ; Russell, Paxton, Ruggles, and a few others, were subordinate instruments. Among other schemes of this junto, one was to have a revenue in America, by authority of parliament.

In order to effect their purpose, it was necessary to concert measures with the other colonies. Dr. Franklin, who was known to be an active and very able man, and to have great influence in the province of Pennsylvania, was in Boston in the year 1754, and Mr. Shirley communicated to him the profound secret, — the great design of taxing the colonies by act of parliament. This sagacious gentleman, this eminent philosopher and distin- guished patriot, to his lasting honor, sent the Governor an answer in writing, with the following remarks upon his scheme, remarks which would have discouraged any honest man from the pursuit. The remarks are these : —

" That the people always bear the burden best, when they have, or think they have, some share in the direction.

" That when public measures are generally distasteful to the people, the wheels of government must move more heavily.

" That excluding the people of America from all share in the choice of a grand council for their own defence, and taxing them in parliament, where they have no representative, would pro- bably give extreme dissatisfaction.

" That there was no reason to doubt the willingness of the colonists to contribute for their own defence. That the people themselves, whose all was at stake, could better judge of the force necessary for their defence, and of the means for raising money for the purpose, than a British parliament at so great distance.

" That natives of America would be as likely to consult wisely and faithfully for the safety of their native country, as the gov- ernors sent from Britain, whose object is generally to make fortunes, and then return home, and who might therefore be expected to carry on the war against France, rather in a way by which themselves were likely to be gainers, than for the greatest advantage of the cause.

20 NOVANGLUS.

" That compelling the colonies to pay money for their own defence, without their consent, would show a suspicion of their loyalty, or of their regard for their country, or of their common sense, and would be treating them as conquered enemies, and not as free Britons, who hold it for their undoubted right, not to be taxed but by their own consent, given through their repre- sentatives.

" That parliamentary taxes, once laid on, are often continued, after the necessity for laying them on ceases ; but that if the colonists were trusted to tax themselves, they would remove the burden from the people as soon as it should become unnecessary for them to bear it any longer.

" That if parliament is to tax the colonies, their assemblies of representatives may be dismissed as useless.

" That taxing the colonies in parliament for their own defence against the French, is not more just, than it would be to oblige the cinque-ports, and other parts of Britain, to maintain a force against France, and tax them for this purpose, without allowing them representatives in parliament.

" That the colonists have always been indirectly taxed by the mother country, (besides paying the taxes necessarily laid on by their own assemblies) ; inasmuch as they are obliged to purchase the manufactures of Britain, charged with innumerable heavy taxes, some of which manufactures they could make, and others could purchase cheaper at markets.

" That the colonists are besides taxed by the mother country, by being obliged to carry great part of their produce to Britain, and accept a lower price than they might have at other markets. The difference is a tax paid to Britain.

" That the whole wealth of the colonists centres at last in the mother country, which enables her to pay her taxes.

" That the colonies have, at the hazard of their lives and for- tunes, extended the dominions and increased the commerce and riches of the mother country ; that therefore the colonists do not deserve to be deprived of the native right of Britons, the right of being taxed only by representatives chosen by themselves.

" That an adequate representation in parliament would pro- bably be acceptable to the colonists, and would best raise the views and interests of the whole empire." *

1 See the letters to Governor Shirley. Sparks's Works of B. Franklin, vol. iii. pp. 56 - 68.

NOVANGLUS. 21

The last of these propositions seems not to have been well considered; because an adequate representation in parliament is totally impracticable ; but the others have exhausted the subject*

Whether the ministry at home, or the junto here, were dis- couraged by these masterly remarks, or by any other cause, the project of taxing the colonies was laid aside; Mr. Shirley was removed from this government, and Mr. Pownall was placed in his stead.

Mr. Pownall seems to have been a friend to liberty and to our constitution, and to have had an aversion to all plots against either ; and, consequently, to have given his confidence to other persons than Hutchinson and Oliver, who, stung with envy against Mi'. Pratt and others, who had the lead in affairs, set themselves, by propagating slanders against the Governor among the people, and especially among the clergy, to raise discontents, and make him uneasy in his seat. Pownall, averse to wrangling, and fond of the delights of England, solicited to be recalled, and after some time Mr. Bernard was removed from New Jersey to the chair of this province.

Bernard was the man for the purpose of the junto. Educated in the highest principles of monarchy ; naturally daring and courageous ; skilled enough in law and policy to do mischief, and avaricious to a most infamous degree ; needy, at the same time, and having a numerous family to provide for, he was an instrument suitable in every respect, excepting one, for this junto to employ. The exception I mean was blunt frankness, very opposite to that cautious cunning, that deep dissimulation, to which they had, by long practice, disciplined themselves. How- ever, they did not despair of teaching him this necessary artful quality by degrees, and the event showed that they were not wholly unsuccessful in their endeavors to do it.

While the war lasted, these simple provinces were of too much importance in the conduct of it, to be disgusted by any open attempt against their liberties. The junto, therefore, con- tented themselves with preparing their ground, by extending their connection and correspondencies in England, and by conciliating

* If any one should ask what authority or evidence I have of this anecdote, I ' refer to the second volume of the Political Disquisitions, pp. 276-9. A book which ought to be in the hands of every American who has learned to read.

22 NOVANGLUS.

the friendship of the crown-officers occasionally here, and insinu- ating their designs as necessary to be undertaken in some future favorable opportunity, for the good of the empire, as well as of the colonies.

The designs of Providence are inscrutable. It affords con- junctures, favorable for their designs, to bad men, as well as to good. The conclusion of the peace was the most critical oppor- tunity for our junto that could have presented. A peace, founded on the destruction of that system of policy, the most glorious for the nation that ever was formed, and which was never equalled in the conduct of the English government, except in the inter- regnum, and perhaps in the reign of Elizabeth ; which system, however, by its being abruptly broken off, and its chief conductor discarded before it was completed, proved unfortunate to the nation, by leaving it sinking in a bottomless gulf of debt, op- presse'd and borne down with taxes.

At this lucky time, when the British financier was driven out of his wits, for ways and means to supply the demands upon him, Bernard is employed by the junto, to suggest to him the project of taxing the colonies by act of parliament.

I do not advance this without evidence. I appeal to a publi- cation made by Sir Francis Bernard himself^the last year, of his own Select Letters on the Trade and Government of America ; and the Principles of Law and Polity applied to the American Colonies. I shall make use of this pamphlet1 before I have done.

In the year 1764, Mr. Bernard transmitted home to different noblemen and gentlemen, four copies of his Principles of Law and Polity, with a preface, which proves incontestably, that the project of new-regulating the American Colonies was not first suggested to him by the ministry, but by him to them. The words of this preface are these : " The present expectation, that a new regulation of the American governments will soon take place, probably arises more from the opinion the public has of the abilities of the present ministry, than from any thing that has transpired from the cabinet. It cannot be supposed that their penetration can overlook the necessity of such a regulation, nor their public spirit fail to carry it into execution. But it may be a question, whether the present is a proper time for this

1 Printed in London, in 1774.

NOVANGLUS. 23

work ; more urgent business may stand before it ; some pre- paratory steps may be required to precede it ; but these will only serve to postpone. As we may expect that this reformation, like all others, will be opposed by powerful prejudices, it may not be amiss to reason with them at leisure, and endeavor to take off their force before they become opposed to government."

These are the words of that arch-enemy of North America, written in 1764, and then transmitted to four persons, with a desire that they might be communicated to others.

Upon these words, it is impossible not to observe : First, that the ministry had never signified to him any intention of new- regulating the colonies, and therefore, that it was he who most officiously and impertinently put them upon the pursuit of this will-with-a-wisp, which has led him and them into so much mire ; secondly, the artful flattery with which he insinuates these pro- jects into the minds of the ministry, as matters of absolute necessity, which their great penetration could not fail to discover, nor their great regard to the public omit ; thirdly, the impor- tunity with which he urges a speedy accomplishment of his pre- tended reformation of the governments ; and, fourthly, his con- sciousness that these schemes would be opposed, although he affects to expect from powerful prejudices only, that opposition, which all Americans say, has been dictated by sound reason, true policy, and eternal justice. The last thing I shall take notice of is, the artful, yet most false and wicked insinuation, that such new regulations were then generally expected. This is so absolutely false, that, excepting Bernard himself, and his junto, scarcely anybody on this side the water had any suspicion of it, — insomuch that, if Bernard had made public, at that time, his preface and principles, as he sent them to the ministry, it is much to be doubted whether he could have lived in this country ; certain it is, he would have had no friends in this province out of the junto.

The intention of the junto was, to procure a revenue to be raised in America by act of parliament. Nothing was further from their designs and wishes, than the drawing or sending this revenue into the exchequer in England, to be spent there in dis- charging the national debt, and lessening the burdens of the poor people there. They were more selfish. They chose to have the fingering of the money themselves. Their design was,

24 NOVANGLUS.

that the money should be applied, first, in a large salary to the governor. This would gratify Bernard's avarice; and then, it would render him and all other governors, not only independent of the people, but still more absolutely a slave to the will of the minister. They intended likewise a salary for the lieutenant- governor. This would appease in some degree the gnawings of Hutchinson's avidity, in which he was not a whit behind Bernard himself. In the next place, they intended a salary to the judges of the common law, as well as admiralty. And thus, the whole government, executive and judicial, was to be ren- dered wholly independent of the people, (and their representatives rendered useless, insignificant, and even burthensome,) and abso- lutely dependent upon, and under the direction of the will of the minister of state. They intended, further, to new-model the whole continent of North America ; make an entire new division of it into distinct, though more extensive and less numerous colonies ; to sweep away all the charters upon the continent with the destroying besom of an act of parliament ; and reduce all the governments to the plan of the royal governments, with a nobility in each colony, not hereditary indeed at first, but for life. They did indeed flatter the ministry and people in England with distant hopes of a revenue from America, at some future period, to be appropriated to national uses there. But this was not to happen, in their minds, for some time. The govern- ments must be new-modelled, new-regulated, reformed, first, and then the governments here would be able and willing to carry into execution any acts of parliament, or measures of the minis- try, for fleecing the people here, to pay debts, or support pension- ers on the American establishment, or bribe electors or members of parliament, or any other purpose that a virtuous ministry could desire.

But, as ill luck would have it, the British financier was as selfish as themselves, and, instead of raising money for them, chose to raise it for himself. He put the cart before the horse. He chose to get the revenue into the exchequer, because he had hungry cormorants enough about him in England, whose cawings were more troublesome to his ears than the croaking of the ravens in America. And he thought, if America could afford any revenue at all, and he could get it by authority of parlia- ment, he might have it himself, to give to his friends, as well as

NOVANGLUS. 25

raise it for the junto here, to spend themselves, or give to theirs. This unfortunate, preposterous improvement, of Mr. Grcnville, upon the plan of the junto, had wellnigh ruined the whole.

I will proceed no further without producing my evidence. Indeed, to a man who was acquainted with this junto, and had any opportunity to watch their motions, observe their language, and remark their countenances, for these last twelve years, no other evidence is necessary ; it was plain to such persons what this junto were about. But we have evidence enough now, under their own hands, of the whole of what was said of them by their opposers through the whole period.

Governor Bernard, in his letter of July 11, 1764, says, " that a general reformation of the American governments would become not only a desirable but a necessary measure." What his idea was, of a general reformation of the American governments, is to be learned from his Principles of Law and Polity, which he sent to the ministry in 1764. I shall select a few of them in his own words ; but I wish the whole of them could be printed in the newspapers, that America might know more generally the principles, and designs, and exertions of our junto.

His 29th proposition is : " The rule that a British subject shall not be bound by laws, or liable to taxes, but what he has consented to by his representatives, must be confined to the inhabitants of Great Britain only ; and is not strictly true even there.

" 30. The Parliament of Great Britain, as well from its rights of sovereignty, as from occasional exigencies, has a right to make laws for, and impose taxes upon, its subjects in its external dominions, although they are not represented in such Parlia- ment. But,

" 31. Taxes imposed upon the external dominions ought to be applied to the use of the people from whom they are raised.

" 32. The Parliament of Great Britain has a right and a duty to take care to provide for the defence of the American colo- nies; especially as such colonies are unable to defend them- selves.

" 33. The Parliament of Great Britain has a right and a duty to take care that provision be made for a sufficient support of the American governments." Because,

VOL. iv. 3

26 NOVANGLUS.

" 34. The support of the government is one of the principal conditions upon which a colony is allowed the power of legis- lation." Also, because,

" 35. Some of the American colonies have shown themselves deficient in the support of their several governments, both as to sufficiency and independency."

His 75th proposition is : " Every American government is capable of having its constitution altered for the better.

" 76. The grants of the powers of government to the American colonies, by charters, cannot be understood to be intended for other than their infant or growing states.

" 77. They cannot be intended for their mature state, that is, for perpetuity ; because they are in many things unconstitu- tional, and contrary to the very nature of a British government. Therefore,

" 78. They must be considered as designed only as temporary means, for settling and bringing forward the peopling the colo- nies ; which being effected, the cause of the peculiarity of their constitution ceases.

" 79. If the charters can be pleaded against the authority of parliament, they amount to an alienation of the dominions of Great Britain, and are, in effect, acts of dismembering the British empire, and will operate as such, if care is not taken to pre- vent it.

" 83. The notion which has heretofore prevailed, that the dividing America into many governments, and different modes of government, will be the means to prevent their uniting to revolt, is ill-founded ; since, if the governments were ever so much consolidated, it will be necessary to have so many distinct states, as to make a union to revolt impracticable." Whereas,

" 84. The splitting America into many small governments, weakens the governing power and strengthens that of the people; and thereby makes revolting more probable and more practicable.

" 85. To prevent revolts in future times, (for there is no room to fear them in the present,) the most effectual means would be, to make the governments large and respectable, and balance the powers of them.

" 86. There is no government in America at present, whose powers are properly balanced ; there not being in any of them a

NOVANGLUS. 27

real and distinct third legislative power mediating between the king and the people, which is the peculiar excellence of the British constitution.

" 87. The want of such a third legislative power adds weight to the popular, and lightens the royal scale, so as to destroy the balance between the royal and popular powers.

" 88. Although America is not now, (and probably will not be for many years to coiue) ripe enough for a hereditary no- bility, yet it is now capable of a nobility for life.

" 89. A nobility appointed by the king for life, and made independent, would probably give strength and stability to the American governments as effectually as a hereditary nobility does to that of Great Britain.

" 90. The reformation of the American governments should not be controlled by the present boundaries of the colonies, as they were mostly settled upon partial, occasional, and accidental considerations, without any regard to the whole.

" 91. To settle the American governments to the greatest possible advantage, it will be necessary to reduce the number of them ; in some places to unite and consolidate ; in others to separate and transfer; and in general to divide by natural boundaries instead of imaginary lines.

" 92. If there should be but one form of government estab- lished for all the North American provinces, it would greatly facilitate the reformation of them ; since, if the mode of govern- ment was everywhere the same, people would be more indiffer- ent under what division they were ranged.

" 93. No objections ought to arise to the alteration of the boundaries of provinces from proprietors, on account of their property only ; since there is no occasion that it should in the least affect the boundaries of properties.

" 94. The present distinctions of one government being more free or more popular than another, tends to embarrass and to weaken the whole, and should not be allowed to subsist among people subject to one king and one law, and all equally fit for one form of government.

" 95. The American colonies, in general, are at this time arrived at that state, which qualifies them to receive the most perfect form of government which their situation and relation to Great Britain make them capable of.

28 NOVANGLUS.

" 96. The people of North America, at this time, expect a revisal and reformation of the American governments, and are better disposed to submit to it than ever they were, or perhaps ever will be again.

11 97. This is, therefore, the proper and critical time to reform the American governments, upon a general, constitutional, firm, and durable plan ; and if it is not done now, it will probably every day grow more difficult, till at last it becomes impracti- cable."

My friends, these are the words, the plans, principles, and endeavors of Governor Bernard, in the year 1764. That Hutch- inson and Oliver, notwithstanding all their disguises, which you well remember, were in unison with him in the whole of his measures, can be doubted by no man. It appeared sufficiently in the part they all along acted, notwithstanding then profes- sions. And it appears incontestably from their detected letters ; of which more hereafter.

Now, let me ask you, if the Parliament of Great Britain had all the natural foundations of authority, wisdom, goodness, justice, power, in as great perfection as they ever existed in any body of men since Adam's fall; and if the English nation was the most virtuous, pure, and free that ever was ; would not such an unlimited subjection of three millions of people to that par- liament, at three thousand miles distance, be real slavery ? There are but two sorts of men in the world, freemen and slaves. The very definition of a freeman is one who is bound by no law to which he has not consented. Americans would have no way of giving or withholding their consent to the acts of this parliament, therefore they would not be freemen. But when luxury, effeminacy, and venality are arrived at such a shocking pitch in England ; when both electors and elected are become one mass of corruption ; when the nation is oppressed to death with debts and taxes, owing to their own extravagance and want of wisdom, what would be your condition under such an absolute subjection to parliament ? You would not only be slaves, but the most abject sort of slaves, to the worst sort of masters ! at least this is my opinion.

Judge you for yourselves between Massachusettensis and Novanglus.

NOVANGLUS. 29

No. Iii

NO. III.

The history of the tories, begun in my last, will be interrupted •for some time ; but it shall be resumed, and minutely related in some future papers. Massachusettensis, who shall now be pur- sued in his own serpentine path, in his first paper complains that the press is not free ; that a party, by playing off the resent- ment of the populace against printers and authors, has gained the ascendency so far as to become the licenser of it ; that the press is become an engine of oppression and licentiousness, much devoted to the partisans of liberty, who have been in- dulged in publishing what they pleased, fas vel nefas, while little has been published on the part of government.

The art of this writer, which appears in all his productions, is very conspicuous in this. It is intended to excite a resentment against the friends of liberty, for tyrannically depriving their antagonists of so important a branch of freedom ; and a com- passion towards the tories, in the breasts of the people, in the other colonies and in Great Britain, by insinuating that they have not had equal terms. But nothing can be more injurious, nothing farther from the truth. Let us take a retrospective view of the period since the last peace, and see whether they have not uniformly had the press at their service, without the least molestation to authors or printers. Indeed, I believe, that the Massachusetts Spy, if not the Boston Gazette, has been open to them as well as to others. The Evening Post, Massachu- setts Gazette, and Boston Chronicle have certainly been always as free for their use as the air. Let us dismiss prejudice and passion, and examine impartially whether the tories have not been chargeable with at least as many libels, as much licentious- ness of the press, as the whigs ? Dr. Mayhew was a whig of the first magnitude, — a clergyman equalled by very few of any denomination in piety, virtue, genius, or learning, whose works will maintain his character as long as New England shall be free, integrity esteemed, or wit, spirit, humor, reason, and knowledge admired. How was he treated from the press ? Did not the reverend tories, who were pleased to write against him, the mis- sionaries of defamation, as well as bigotry and passive obedi-

3*

30 NOVANGLUS.

ence, in their pamphlets and newspapers, bespatter him all over with their filth ? Did they not, with equal falsehood and malice, charge him with every thing evil ? Mr. Otis was in civil life, and a senator, whose parts, literature, eloquence, and integrity proved him a character in the world equal to any of the time in which he flourished of any party in the province. Now, be pleased to recollect the Evening Post. For a long course of years, that gentleman, his friends and connections, of whom the world has, and grateful posterity will have, a better opinion than Massachusettensis will acknowledge, were pelted with the most infernally malicious, false, and atrocious libels that ever issued from any press in Boston. I will mention no other names, lest I give too much offence to the modesty of some, and the envy and rancor of others.

There never was before, in any part of the world, a whole town insulted to their faces, as Boston was by the Boston Chronicle. Yet the printer was not molested for printing. It was his mad attack upon other printers with his clubs, and upon other gentlemen with his pistols, that was the cause, or rather the pretence, of his flight. The truth was, he became too polite to attend to his business ; his shop was neglected ; procurations were coming for more than two thousand pounds sterling, which he had no inclination to pay.

Printers may have been less eager after the productions of the tories than of the whigs, and the reason has been, because the latter have been more consonant to the general taste and sense, and consequently more in demand. Notwithstanding this, the former have ever found one press, at least, devoted to then- service, and have used it as licentiously as they could wish. Whether the revenue-chest has kept it alive, and made it profit- able against the general sense, or not, I wot not. Thus much is certain, that two, three, four, five, six, eight, fifteen hundred pounds sterling a-year, have been the constant reward of every scribbler who has taken up the pen on the side of the ministry with any reputation, and commissions have been given here for the most wretched productions of dulness itself ; whereas, the writers on the side of liberty have been rewarded only with the consciousness of endeavoring to do good, with the appro- bation of the virtuous, and the malice of men in power.

But this is not the first time that writers have taken advan-

NOVANGLUS. 31

tage of the times. Massachusettensis knows the critical situa- tion of this province ; the danger it is in, without government or law ; the army in Boston ; the people irritated and exaspe- rated in such a manner as was never before borne by any people under heaven. Much depends upon their patience at this critical time; and such an example of patience and order this people have exhibited, in a state of nature, under such cruel insults, distresses, and provocations, as the history of mankind cannot parallel. In this state of things, protected by an army, the whole junto are now pouring forth the torrents of their billings- gate ; propagating thousands of the most palpable falsehoods, when they know that the writers on the other side have been restrained by their prudence and caution from engaging in a controversy that must excite heats, lest it should have unhappy and tragical consequences.

There is nothing in this world so excellent that it may not be abused. The abuses of the press are notorious. It is much to be desired, that writers on all sides would be more careful of truth and decency ; but, upon the most impartial estimate, the tories will be found to have been the least so of any party among us.

The honest Veteran, who ought not to be forgotten in this place, says : " If an inhabitant of Bern or Amsterdam could read the newspapers, &c, he would be at a loss how to reconcile oppression with such unbounded license of the press, and Avould laugh at the charge, as something much more than a paradox, — as a palpable contradiction." But, with all his taste and manly spirit, the Veteran is little of a statesman. His ideas of liberty are quite inadequate ; his notions of government very superficial. License of the press is no proof of liberty. When a people are corrupted, the press may be made an engine to complete their ruin ; and it is now notorious, that the ministry are daily em- ploying it, to increase and establish corruption, and to pluck up virtue by the roots. Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence, than the body can live and move without a soul. When these are gone, and the popular branch of the constitution is become dependent on the minister, as it is in TEn gland, or cut off, as it is in America, all other forms of the constitution may remain ; but if you look for liberty, you will grope in vain ; and the freedom of the press, instead of promot-

32 NOVANGLUS.

ing the cause of liberty, will but hasten its destruction, as the best cordials taken by patients in some distempers become the most rancid and corrosive poisons.

The language of the Veteran, however, is like the style of the minister and his scribblers in_ England, — boasting of the un- bounded freedom of the press, and assuring the people that all is safe while that continues ; and thus the people are to be cheated with libels, in exchange for their liberties.

A stronger proof cannot be wished, of the scandalous license of the tory presses, than the swarms of pamphlets and specu- lations, in New York and Boston, since last October. " Mad- ness, folly, delusion, delirium, infatuation, frenzy, high treason^ and rebellion," are charged in every page, upon three millions of as good and loyal, as sensible and virtuous people as any in the empire ; nay, upon that congress, which was as full and free a representative as ever was constituted by any people ; chosen universally, without solicitation, or the least tincture of corrup- tion ; that congress which consisted of governors, counsellors, some of them by mandamus too, judges of supreme courts, speakers of assemblies, planters and merchants of the first for- tune and character, and lawyers of the highest class, many of them educated at the temple, called to the bar in England, and of abilities and integrity equal to any there.

Massachusettensis, conscious that the people of this continent have the utmost abhorrence of treason and rebellion, labors to avail himself of the magic in these words. But his artifice is vain. The people are not to be intimidated by hard words from a necessary defence of their liberties. Their attachment to their constitution, so dearly purchased by their own and their ances- tors' blood and treasure ; their aversion to the late innovations ; their horror of arbitrary power and the Romish religion, are much deeper rooted than their dread of rude sounds and unman- nerly language. They do not want " the advice of an honest lawyer, if such an one could be found," nor will they be deceived by a dishonest one. They know what offence it is to assemble armed, and forcibly obstruct the course of justice. They have been many years considering and inquiring ; they have been instructed by Massachusettensis and his friends, in the nature of treason, and the consequences of their own principles and actions. They know upon what hinge the whole dispute turns ;

NOVANGLUS. 33

that the fundamentals of the government over them are dis- puted ; that the minister pretends, and had the influence to | obtain the voice of the last parliament in his favor, that parlia- 1 V ment is the only supreme, sovereign, absolute, and uncontrollable legislative over all the colonies ; that, therefore, the minister and all his advocates will call resistance to acts of parliament by the names of treason and rebellion. But, at the same time, i they know that, in their own opinions, and in the opinions of all the colonies, parliament has no authority over them, excepting ^ to regulate their trade, and this not by any principle of com- mon law, but merely by the consent of the colonies, founded on the obvious necessity of a case which was never in contempla- tion of that law, nor provided for by it ; that, therefore, they have as good a right to charge that minister, Massachusettensis, and the whole army to which he has fled for protection, with treason and rebellion. For, if the parliament has not a legal authority to overturn their constitution, and subject them to such acts as are lately passed, every man who accepts of any commission, and takes any steps to carry those acts into execution, is guilty of overt acts of treason and rebellion against his majesty, his royal crown and dignity, as much as if he should take arms against his troops, or attempt his sacred life. They know that the resist- ance against the Stamp Act, which was made through all America, was, in the opinion of Massachusettensis and George Grenville, high treason ; and that Brigadier Ruggles and good Mr. Ogden pretended at the congress of New York to be of the same mind, and have been held in utter contempt and derision by the whole continent for the same reason ever since ; because, in their own opinion, that resistance was a noble stand against tyranny, and the only opposition to it which could have been effectual ; that if the American resistance to the act for destroy- ing your charter, and to the resolves for arresting persons here and sending them to England for trial, is treason, the lords and commons, and the whole nation, were traitors at the revolution. They know that all America is united in sentiment, and in the plan of opposition to the claims of administration and parlia- ment. The junto, in Boston, with their little flocks of adherents in the country, are not worth taking into the account ; and the army and navy, though these are divided among themselves, are no part of America.

34 NOVANGLUS.

In order to judge of this union, they begin at the commence- ment of the dispute, and run through the whole course of it. At the time of the Stamp Act, every colony expressed its senti- ments by resolves of their assemblies, and every one agreed that parliament had no right to tax the colonies. The house of representatives of the Massachusetts Bay then consisted of many persons who have since figured as friends to government ; yet every member of that house concurred most cheerfully in the resolves then passed. The congress which met that year at New York expressed the same opinion in their resolves, after the paint, paper, and tea act was passed. The several assem- blies expressed the same sentiments ; and when your colony wrote the famous circular letter, notwithstanding all the man- dates and threats and cajoling of the minister and the several governors, and all the crown-officers through the continent, the assemblies, with one voice, echoed their entire approbation of that letter, and their applause to your colony for sending it. In the year 1768, when a non-importation was suggested and planned by a few gentlemen at a private club in one of our large towns, as soon as it was proposed to the public, did it not spread through the whole continent ? Was it not regarded like the laws of the Medes and Persians in almost all the colonies ? When the paint and paper act was repealed, the southern colo- nies agreed to depart from the association in all things but the dutied articles ; but they have kept strictly to their agreement against importing them, so that no tea worth the mentioning has been imported into any of them from Great Britain to this day. In the year 1770, when a number of persons were slaugh- tered in King Street, such was the brotherly sympathy of all the colonies, such their resentment against a hostile administra- tion, that the innocent blood then spilt has never been forgot- ten, nor the murderous minister and governors, who brought the troops here, forgiven by any part of the continent, and never will be. When a certain masterly statesman * invented a committee of correspondence in Boston, which has provoked so much of the spleen of Massachusettensis, (of which much more hereafter) did not every colony, nay, every county, city, hundred, and town, upon the whole continent, adopt the measure, I had almost said,

1 Samuel Adams.

NOVANGLUS. 35

as if it had been a revelation from above, as the happiest means of cementing the union and acting in concert ?

What proofs of union have been given since the last March ? Look over the resolves of the several colonies, and you will see that one understanding governs, one heart animates the whole body. Assemblies, conventions, congresses, towns, cities, and private clubs and circles, have been actuated by one great, wise, active, and noble spirit, one masterly soul animating one vigor- ous body. The congress at Philadelphia have expressed the same sentiments with the people of New England ; approved of the opposition to the late innovations ; unanimously advised us to persevere in it ; and assured us, that if force is attempted to carry these measures against us, all America ought to sup- port us. Maryland and the lower counties on Delaware have already, to show to all the world their approbation of the mea- sures of New England and their determination to join in them, with a generosity, a wisdom, and magnanimity which ought to make the tories consider, taken the power of the militia into the hands of the people, without the governor or minister, and established it by their own authority, for the defence of Massa- chusetts, as well as of themselves. Other colonies are only waiting to see if the necessity of it will become more obvious. Virginia and the Carolinas are preparing for military defence, and have been for some time. When we consider the variety of climate, soil, religion, civil government, commercial interests, &c. which were represented at the congress, and the various occupations, education, and characters of the gentlemen who composed it, the harmony and unanimity which prevailed in it can scarcely be paralleled in any assembly that ever met. When we consider that, at the revolution, such mighty questions, as whether the throne was vacant or not, and whether the Prince of Orange should be Icing or not, were determined in the con- vention of parliament by small majorities of two or three, and four or five only, the great majorities, the almost unanimity with which all great questions have been decided in your house of representatives and other assemblies, and especially in the continental congress, cannot be considered in any other light than as the happiest omens, indeed as providential dispensations, in our favor, as well as the clearest demonstrations of the cor- dial, firm, radical, and indissoluble union of the colonies.

36 NOVANGLUS.

The grand aphorism of the policy of the whigs has been to unite the people of America, and divide those of Great Britain. The reverse of this has been the maxim of the tories, namely,; — to unite the people of Great Britain, and divide those of America. All the movements, marches, and countermarches of both parties, on both sides of the Atlantic, may be reduced to one or the other of these rules. I have shown, in opposition to Massachusettensis, that the people of America are united more perfectly than the most sanguine whig could ever have hoped, or than the most timid tory could have feared. Let us now ex- amine whether the people of Great Britain are equally united against us. For, if the contending countries were equally united, the prospect of success in the quarrel would depend upon the comparative wisdom, firmness, strength, and other advantages of each. And if such a comparison was made, it would not appear to a demonstration that Great Britain could so easily subdue and conquer. It is not so easy a thing for the most powerful state to conquer a country a thousand leagues off. How many years time, how. many millions of money, did it take, with five-and-thirty thousand men, to conquer the poor province of Canada ? And, after all the battles and victories, it never would have submitted, without a capitulation which secured to them their religion and properties.

But we know that the people of Great Britain are not united against us. We distinguish between the ministry, the house of commons, the officers of the army, navy, excise, customs, &c, who are dependent on the ministry, and tempted, if not obliged, to echo their voices, and the body of the people. We are assured, by thousands of letters from persons of good intelligence, by the general strain of publications in public papers, pamphlets, and magazines, and by some larger works written for posterity, that the body of the people are friends to America, and wish us suc- cess in our struggles against the claims of parliament and administration. We know, that millions in England and Scot- land will think it unrighteous, impolitic, and ruinous to make war upon us ; and a minister, though he may have a marble heart, will proceed with a diffident, desponding spirit. We know that London and Bristol, the two greatest commercial cities in the empire, have declared themselves, in the most decisive man- ner, in favor of our cause, — so explicitly, that the former has

NOVANGLUS. 37

bound her members under their hands to assist us ; and the latter has chosen two known friends of America, one attached to us by principle, birth, and the most ardent affection,1 the other an able advocate for us on several great occasions.2 We know that many of the most virtuous and independent of the nobility and gentry are for us, and among them, the best bishop that adorns the bench,3 as great a judge as the nation can boast,4 and the greatest statesman it ever saw.5 We know that the nation is loaded with debts and taxes, by the folly and iniquity of its ministers, and that, without the trade of America, it can neither long support its fleet and army, nor pay the interest of its debt.

But we are told that the nation is now united against us ; that they hold they have a right to tax us and legislate for us, as firmly as we deny it ; that we are a part of the British empire ; that every state must have an uncontrollable power coextensive with the empire ; that there is little probability of serving our- selves by ingenious distinctions between external and internal taxes ; that if we are not a part of the state, and subject to the supreme authority of parliament, Great Britain will make us so; that if this opportunity of reclaiming the colonies is lost, they will be dismembered from the empire ; and, although they may continue their allegiance to the king, they will own none to the imperial crown.

To all this I answer, that the nation is not so united ; that they do not so universally hold they have such a right. And my reasons I have given before ; that the terms " British Empire " are not the language of the common law, but the language of newspapers and political pamphlets ; that the dominions of the lung of Great Britain have no power coextensive with them. I would ask, by what law the parliament has authority over America ? By the law of God, in the Old and New Testament, it has none ; by the law of nature and nations, it has none ; by thlTcommon law of England, it has none, for the common law, and the authority of parliament founded on it, never extended beyond the four seas ; by statute law it has none, for no statute was made before the settlement of the colonies for this purpose; and the declaratory act, made in 1766, was made without our

1 Mr. Cruger, a native of New York, better known as be wbo said " ditto " to Mr. Burke. ^Edmund Burke. 3 Dr. Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph.

4 Lord Camden, 5 Lord Chatham.

VOL. iv. 4

38 NOVANGLUS.

consent, by a parliament which had no authority beyond the four seas. What religious, moral, or political obligations then are we under to submit to parliament as a supreme legislative ? None at all. When it is said, that if we are not subject to the supreme authority of parliament, Great Britain will make us so, all other laws and obligations are given up, and recourse is had to the ratio ultima of Louis XIV. and the suprema lex of the king of Sardinia, — to the law of brickbats and cannon balls, which can be answered only by brickbats and balls.

This language, " the imperial crown of Great Britain," is not the style of the common law, but of court sycophants. It was introduced in allusion to the Roman empire, and intended to insinuate that the prerogative of the imperial crown of England was like that of the Roman emperor, after the maxim was established, quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem ; and, so far from including the two houses of parliament in the idea of this imperial crown, it was intended to insinuate that the crown was absolute, and had no need of lords or commons to make or dis- pense with laws. Yet even these court sycophants, when driven to an explanation, never dared to put any other sense upon the words imperial crown than this, that the crown of England was independent of France, Spain, and all other kings and states in the world.

When he says, that the king's dominions must have an un- controllable power coextensive with them, I ask whether they have such a power or not? and utterly deny that they have, by any law but that of Louis XIV. and the king of Sardinia. If they have not, and it is necessary that they should have, it then follows that there is a defect in what he calls the British empire ; and how shall this defect be supplied ? It cannot be supplied consistently with reason, justice, policy, morality, or humanity, without the consent of the colonies and some new plan of connection. But if Great Britain will set all these at defiance, and resort to the ratio ultima, all Europe will pronounce her a tyrant, and America never will submit to her, be the danger of disobedience as great as it will.

But there is no need of any other power than that of regulat- ing trade, and this the colonies ever have been, and will be, ready and willing to concede to her. But she will never obtain from America any further concession while she exists. We are

NOVANGLUS. 39

then asked, " for what she protected and defended the colonies against the maritime powers of Europe, from their first settle- ment to this day ? " I answer, for her own interest ; because all the profits of our trade centred in her lap. But it ought to be remembered, that her name, not her purse, nor her fleets and armies ever protected us, until the last war., and then the minis- ter who conducted that war informed us that the annual mil- lions from America enabled her to do it.

We are then asked, for what she purchased New York of the Dutch ? I answer, she never did. The Dutch never owned it, were never more than trespassers and intruders there, and were finally expelled by conquest. It was ceded, it is true, by the treaty of Breda, and it is said in some authors, that some other territory in India was ceded to the Dutch in lieu of it. But this was the transaction of the king, not of parliament, and therefore makes nothing to the argument.

But admitting, for argument sake, (since the cautious Massa- chusettensis will urge us into the discussion of such questions,) what is not a supposable case, that the nation should be so sunk in sloth, luxury, and corruption, as to suffer their minister to persevere in his mad blunders, and send fire and sword against us, how shall we defend ourselves ? The colonies south of Pennsylvania have no men to spare, we are told. But we know better; we know that all those colonies have a back country, which is inhabited by a hardy, robust people, many of whom are emigrants from New England, and habituated, like multi- tudes of New England men, to carry their fuzees or rifles upon one shoulder, to defend themselves against the Indians, while they carry their axes, scythes, and hoes upon the other, to till the ground. Did not those colonies furnish men the last war, excepting Maryland ? Did not Virginia furnish men, one regi- ment particularly, equal to any regular regiment in the service 1 Does the soft Massachusettensis imagine, that in the unnatural, horrid war he is now supposing, their exertions would be less ? If he does, he is very ill informed of their principles, their present sentiments and temper.

But, " have you arms and ammunition ? " I answer, we have ; but if we had not, we could make a sufficient quantity of both. "What should hinder ? We have many manufacturers of fire- arms now, whose arms are as good as any in the world. Powder

40 " NOVANGLUS.

has been made here, and may be again, and so may saltpetre. "What should hinder ? We have all the materials in great abun- dance, and the process is very simple. But if we neither had them nor could make them, we could import them.

But " the British navy ! " ay, there 's the rub. Let us con- sider, since the prudent Massachusettensis will have these ques- tions debated, how many ships are taken to blockade Boston harbor! How many ships can Britain spare to carry on this humane and political war, the object of which is a pepper-corn! Let her send all the ships she has round her island ; what if her ill-natured neighbors, France and Spain, should strike a blow in their absence ? In order to judge what they could all do when they arrived here, we should consider what they are all able to do round the island of Great Britain. We know that the utmost vigilance and exertions of them, added to all the terrors of sanguinary laws, are not sufficient to prevent continual smuggling into their own island. Are there not fifty bays, har- bors, creeks, and inlets upon the whole coast of North America, where there is one round the island of Great Britain ? Is it to be supposed, then, that the whole British navy could prevent the importation of arms and ammunition into America, if she should have occasion for them to defend herself against the hellish war- fare that is here supposed?

But what will you do for discipline and subordination? I answer, We will have them in as great perfection as the regular troops. If the provincials were not brought, in the last war, to a proper discipline, what was the reason ? Because regular generals would not let them fight, which they ardently wished, but employed them in cutting roads. If they had been allowed to fight, they would have brought the war to a conclusion too soon. The provincials did submit to martial law, and to the mutiny and desertion act the last war, and such an act may be made here by a legislature which they will obey with much more alacrity than an act of parliament.

" The new-fangled militia," as the specious Massachusettensis calls it, is such a militia as he never saw.1 They are commanded

1 " We all know, notwithstanding the province law for regulating the militia, it was under little more command than what the officers could obtain from treat- ing and humoring the common soldiers ; what, then, can be expected from such an army as you will bring into the field, if you bring any, — each one a

NOVANGLUS. 41

through the province, not by men who procured their commis- sions from a governor as a reward for making themselves pimps to his tools, and by discovering a hatred of the people, but by gentlemen, whose estates, abilities, and benevolence have ren- dered them the delight of the soldiers ; and there is an esteem and respect for them visible through the province, which has not been used in the militia. Nor is there that unsteadiness that is charged upon them. In some places, where companies have been split into two or three, it has only served, by exciting an emulation between the companies, to increase the martial spirit and skill. The plausible Massachusettensis may write as he will, but, in a land war, this continent might defend itself against all the world. We have men enough, and those men have as good natural understandings, and as much natural courage as any other men. If they were wholly ignorant now, they might learn the art of war.

But at sea we are defenceless.1 A navy might burn our sea- port towns. What then ? If the insinuating Massachusettensis * has ever read any speculations concerning an agrarian law, and I know he has, he will be satisfied that three hundred and fifty thousand landholders will not give up their rights, and the con- stitution by which they hold them, to save fifty thousand inhabit- ants of maritime towns. Will the minister be nearer his mark, after he has burned a beautiful town and murdered thirty thou- sand innocent people ? So far from it, that one such event would occasion the loss of all the colonies to Great Britain forever. It is not so clear that our trade, fishery, and navigation could be taken from us. Some persons, who understand this subject better than Massachusettensis, with all his sprightly imagina- tions, are of a different opinion. They think that our trade

politician, puffed up with his own opinion, and feeling himself second to none ? Can any of you command ten thousand such men ? Can you punish the diso- bedient ? Can all your wisdom direct their strength, courage, or activity to any given point ? Would not the least disappointment or unfavorable aspect cause a general dereliction of the service ? Your new-fangled militia have already given us a specimen of their future conduct. In some of their companies, they have already chosen two, in others, three sets of officers, and are as dissatisfied with the last choice as the first." Massachusettensis, 1 2 December.

1 " I have hitherto confined my observations to the war within the interior parts of the colonies. Let us now turn our eyes to our extensive sea-coast, and that we find wholly at the mercy of Great Britain ; our trade, fishery, naviga- tion, and maritime towns taken from us the very day that war is proclaimed." Massachusettensis.

42 NOVANGLUS.

would be increased. But I will not enlarge upon this subject, because I wish the trade of this continent may be confined to Great Britain, at least as much of it as it can do her any good to restrain.

The Canadians and savages are brought in to thicken the horrors of a picture with -which the lively fancy of this writer has terrified him.1 But, although we are sensible that the Quebec act has laid a foundation for a fabric, which, if not seasonably demolished, may be formidable, if not ruinous, to the colonies, in future times, yet we know that these times are yet at a dis- tance ; at present we hold the power of the Canadians as nothing. But we know their dispositions are not unfriendly to us.

The savages will be more likely to be our friends than ene- mies; but if they should not, we know well enough how to defend ourselves against them.

I ought to apologize for the immoderate length of this paper ; but general assertions are only to be confuted by an examination of particulars, which necessarily fills up much space. I will trespass on the reader's patience only while I make one obser- vation more upon the art, I had almost said chicanery, of this writer.

He affirms that we are not united in this province, and that associations are forming in several parts of the province. The association he means has been laid before the public, and a very curious piece of legerdemain it is. Is there any article acknow- ledging the authority of parliament, the unlimited authority of parliament ? Brigadier Ruggles himself, Massachusettensis him- self, could not have signed it if there had been, consistent with their known declared opinions. They associate to stand by the king's laws, and this every whig will subscribe. But, after all, what a wretched fortune has this association made in the world ! The numbers who have signed it would appear so inconsiderable,

1 " Inconceivably shocking the scene ! if we turn our views to the wilder- ness, — our back settlements a prey to our ancient enemy, the Canadians, whose wounds, received from us in the late Avar, will bleed afresh at the prospect of re- venge, and to the numerous tribes of savages, whose tender mercies are cruel- ties. Thus, with the British navy in the front, Canadians and savages in the rear, a regular army in the midst, we must be certain, that whenever the sword of civil war is unsheathed, devastation will pass through our land like a whirl- wind ; our houses be burnt to ashes ; our fair possessions laid waste ; and he that falls by the sword will be happy in escaping a more ignominious death."

Massachusettensis.

NOVANGLUS. 43

that I dare say the Brigadier will never publish to the world their numbers or names. But, " has not Great Britain been a nursing-mother to us?" Yes, and we have behaved as nurse- children commonly do, — been very fond of her, and rewarded her all along tenfold for all her care and expense in our nurture.

But " is not our distraction owing to parliament's taking off a shilling-duty on tea and imposing threepence, and is not this a more unaccountable frenzy, more disgraceful to the annals of America, than the witchcraft ? "

Is the threepence upon tea our only grievance ? Are we not in this province deprived of the privilege of paying our gov- ernors, judges, &c. ? Are not trials by jury taken from us ? Are we not sent to England for trial ? Is not a military govern- ment put over us ? Is not our constitution demolished to the foundation ? Have not the ministry shown, by the Quebec bill, that we have no security against them for our religion, any more than our property, if we once submit to the unlimited claims of parliament ? This is so gross an attempt to impose on the most ignorant of the people, that it is a shame to answer it.

Obsta principiis, nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast, that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachment upon the American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more en- croaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integ- rity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality, become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole society.

No. Iv

NO. IV.

Massachusettensis, whose pen can wheedle with the tongue of King Richard III., in his first paper, threatens you with the vengeance of Great Britain ; and assures you, that if she had no

44 NOVANGLUS.

authority over you, yet she would support her claims by her fleets and armies, Canadians and Indians. In his next, he alters his tone, and soothes you with the generosity, justice, and humanity of the nation.

I shall leave him to show how a nation can claim an author- ity which they have not by right, and support it by fire and sword, and yet be generous and just. The nation, I believe, is not vindictive, but the minister has discovered himself to be so in a degree that would disgrace a warrior of a savage tribe.

The wily Massachusettensis thinks our present calamity is to be attributed to the bad policy of a popular party, whose mea- sures, whatever their intentions were, have been opposite to their profession, the public good. The present calamity seems to be nothing more nor less than reviving the plans of Mr. Bernard and the junto, and Mr. Grenville and his friends, in 1764. Surely this party are, and have been, rather unpopular. The popular party did not write Bernard's letters, who so long ago pressed for the demolition of all the charters upon the continent, and a parliamentary taxation to support government and the adminis- tration of justice in America. The popular party did not write Oliver's letters, who enforces Bernard's plans ; nor Hutchinson's, who pleads with all his eloquence and pathos for parliamentary penalties, ministerial vengeance, and an abridgment of English liberties.

There is not in human nature a more wonderful phenomenon, nor in the whole theory of it a more intricate speculation, than the sliif tings, turnings, ivindings, and evasions of a guilty con- science. Such is our unalterable moral constitution, that an internal inclination to do wrong is criminal ; and a wicked thought stains the mind with guilt, and makes it tingle with pain. Hence it comes to pass, that the guilty mind can never bear to think that its guilt is known to God or man, no, nor to

itself.

" Cur tamen hos tu

Evasisse putes, quos diri conscia facti Mens habet attonitos, ct surdo verbere easdit Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum ? Poena autem vehemens ac multo saevior illis, Quas et Casditius gravis invenit aut Rhadamanthus, Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem." *

* Juv. Sat, xiii. 192.

NOVANGLUS. 45

Massachusettensis and his friends the tories are startled at the calamities they have brought upon their country ; and their con- scious guilt, their smarting, wounded mind, will not suffer them to confess, even to themselves, what they have done. Their silly denials of their own share in it, before a people who, they know, have abundant evidence against them, never fail to remind me of an ancient fugitive, whose conscience could not bear the recol- lection of what he had done. " I know not ; am I my brother's keeper ? " he replies, with all the apparent simplicity of truth and innocence, to one from whom he was very sensible his guilt could not be hid. The still more absurd and ridiculous attempts of the tories, to throw off the blame of these calamities from themselves to the whigs, remind me of another story, which I have read in the Old Testament. When Joseph's brethren had sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, in order to conceal their own avarice, malice, and envy, they dip the coat of many colors in the blood of a kid, and say that an evil beast had rent him in pieces and devoured him. However, what the sons of Israel intended for ruin to Joseph, proved the salvation of the family ; and I hope and believe that the whigs will have the magnanimity, like him, to suppress their resentment, and the felicity of saving their ungrateful brothers.

This writer has a faculty of insinuating errors into the mind almost imperceptibly, he dresses them so in the guise of truth. He says, that " the revenue to the crown from America amounted to but little more than the charges of collecting it," at the close of the last war. I believe it did not to so much. The truth is, there never was a pretence of raising a revenue in America before that time, and when the claim was first set up, it gave an alarm like a warlike expedition against us. True it is, that some duties had been laid before by parliament, under pretence of regulating our trade, and, by a collusion and combination between the West India planters and the North American gov- ernors, some years before, duties had been laid upon molasses, &c. under the same pretence ; but, in reality, merely to advance the value of the estates of the planters in the West India Islands, and to put some plunder, under the name of thirds of seizures, into the pockets of the governors. But these duties, though more had been collected in this province than in any other, in proportion, were never regularly collected in any of the colonies.

46 NOVANGLUS.

So that the idea of an American revenue, for one purpose or another, had never, at this time, been formed in American minds.

Our waiter goes on : " She ( Great Britain) thought it as rea- sonable that the colonies should bear a part of the national bur- den, as that they should share in the national benefit."

Upon this subject Americans have a great deal to say. The national debt, before the last war, was near a hundred mil- lions. Surely America had no share in running into that debt. What is the reason, then, that she should pay it ? But a small part of the sixty millions spent in the last war was for her benefit. Did she not bear her full share of the burden of the last war in America? Did not the province pay twelve shillings in the pound in taxes for the support of it ; and send a sixth or seventh part of her sons into actual service ? And, at the conclusion of the war, was she not left half a million sterling in debt ? Did not all the rest of New England exert itself in proportion ? What is the reason that the Massachusetts has paid its debt, and the British minister, in thirteen years of peace, has paid none of his ? Much of it might have been paid in this time, had not such extravagance and speculation prevailed, as ought to be an eternal warning to America, never to trust such a minister with her money. What is the reason that the great and necessary virtues of simplicity, frugality, and economy cannot live in Eng- land, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as America ?

We have much more to say still. Great Britain has confined all our trade to herself. We are willing she should, so far as it can be for the good of the empire. But we say, that we ought to be allowed as credit, in the account of public burdens and expenses, so much, paid in taxes, as we are obliged to sell our commodities to her cheaper than we could get for them at foreign markets. The difference is really a tax upon us for the good of the empire. We are obliged to take from Great Britain commo- dities that we could purchase cheaper elsewhere. This differ- ence is a tax upon us for the good of the empire. We submit to this cheerfully ; but insist that we ought to have credit for it in the account of the expenses of the empire, because it is really a tax upon us.

Another thing ; I will venture a bold assertion, — let Massa- chusettensis or any other friend of the minister confute me, — the three million Americans, by the tax aforesaid, upon what they

NOVA^GLUS. 47

are obliged to export to Great Britain only, what they are obliged to import from Great Britain only, and the quantities of British manufactures which, in these climates, they are obliged to con- sume more than the like number of people in any part of the three kingdoms, ultimately pay more of the taxes and duties that are apparently paid in Great Britain, than any three million subjects in the three kingdoms. All this may be computed and reduced to stubborn figures by the minister, if he pleases. We cannot do it ; we have not the accounts, records, &c. Now let this account be fairly stated, and I will engage for America, upon any penalty, that she will pay the overplus, if any, in her own constitutional way, provided it is to be applied for national purposes, as paying off the national debt, maintaining the fleet, &c, not to the support of a standing army in time of peace, placemen, pensioners, &c.

Besides, every farthing of expense which has been incurred, on pretence of protecting, defending, and securing America, since the last war, has been worse than thrown away, it has been applied to do mischief. Keeping an army in America has been nothing but a public nuisance.

Furthermore, we see that all the public money that is raised here, and have reason to believe all that will or can be raised, will be applied, not for public purposes, national or provincial, but merely to corrupt the sons of America, and create a faction to destroy its interest and happiness.

There are scarcely three sentences together, in all the volumi- nous productions of this plausible writer, which do not convey some error in fact or principle, tinged with a coloring to make it pass for truth. He says, " the idea that the stamps were a tax, not only exceeding our proportion, but beyond our utmost ability to pay, united the colonies generally in opposing it." That we thought it beyond our proportion and ability is true ; but it was not this thought which united the colonies in opposing it. When he says that at first, we did not dream of denying the authority of parliament to tax us, much less to legislate for us, he discovers plainly either a total inattention to the senti- ments of America, at that time, or a disregard of what he affirms.

The truth is, the authority of parliament was never generally acknowledged in America. More than a century since, Massa-

48 NOVANGLUS.

chusetts and Virginia both protested against even the act of navigation, and refused obedience, for this very reason, because they were not represented in_ parliament and were therefore not bound; and afterwards confirmed it by their own provincial authority. And from that time to this, the general sense of the colonies has been, that the authority of parliament was confined to the regulation of trade, and did not extend to taxation or internal legislation.

In the year 1764, your house of representatives sent home a petition to the king against the plan of taxing them. Mr. Hutchinson, Oliver, and their relations and connections were then in the legislature, and had great influence there. It- was by their influence that the two houses were induced to wave the word rights and an express denial of the right of parliament to tax us, to the great grief and distress of the friends of liberty in both houses. Mr. Otis and Mr. Thacher labored in the com- mittee to obtain an express denial. Mr. Hutchinson expressly said, he agreed with them in opinion, that parliament had no right, but thought it ill policy to express this opinion in the petition. In truth, I will be bold to say, there was not any member of either house who thought that parliament had such

a right at that time. The house of representatives, at that time, gave their approbation to Mr. Otis's Rights of the Colo- nies, in which it was shown to be inconsistent with the right of British subjects to be taxed but by their own representatives.

In 1765, our house expressly resolved against the right of par- liament to tax us. The congress at New York resolved :

" 3. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no tax be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives.

" 4. That the people of the colonies are not, and from their local circumstances cannot, be represented in the house of com- mons of Great Britain.

" 5. That the only representatives of the people of the colo- nies are the persons chosen therein by themselves ; and that no taxes ever have been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures."

Is it not a striking disregard to truth, in the artful Massachu- settensis, to say, that, at first, we did not dream of denying the

NOVANGLUS. 49

right of parliament to tax us ? It was the principle that united the colonies to oppose it, not the quantum of the tax. Did not Dr. Franklin deny the right in 1754, in his remarks upon Gov- ernor Shirley's scheme, and suppose that all America would deny it ? We had considered ourselves as connected with Great Britain, but we never thought parliament the supreme legislature over us. We never generally supposed it to have any authority over us, but from necessity, and that necessity we thought con- fined to the regulation of trade, and to such matters as concerned all the colonies together. We never allowed them any autho- | rity in our internal concerns.

This writer says, " acts of parliament for regulating our inter- nal polity were familiar." l This I deny. So far otherwise, that the Hatter's Act was never regarded ; the act to destroy the Land Bank scheme raised a greater ferment in this province than the Stamp Act did, which was appeased only by passing province laws directly in opposition to it. The act against slitting-mills and tilt-hammers never was executed here. As to the postage, it was so useful a regulation, so few persons paid it, and they found such a benefit by it, that little opposition was made to it. Yet every man who thought about it, called it a usurpation. Duties for regulating trade we paid, because we thought it just and necessary that they should regulate the trade which their power protected. As for duties for a revenue, none were ever laid by parliament for that purpose, until 1764, when, and ever since, its authority to do it has been constantly denied. Nor is this complaisant writer near the truth when he says, " We knew that in all those acts of government, the good of the whole had been consulted." On the contrary, we know that the private interest of provincial governors and West India planters had been consulted in the duties on foreign molasses, &c, and the private interest of a few Portugal merchants, in obliging us to touch at Falmouth with fruit, &c, in opposition to the good of the whole, and in many other instances.

1 " We had paid postage, agreeable to act of parliament, for establishing a post-office, duties imposed for regulating trade, and even for raising a revenue to the crown, without questioning the right, though we closely adverted to the rate or quantum. We knew that in all those acts of government the good of the Avhole had been consulted ; and whenever, through want of information, any- thing grievous had been ordained, we were sure of obtaining redress by a proper representation of it." Massachusetiensis.'

VOL. IV. 5 D

50 NOVANGLUS.

The resolves of the house of burgesses of Virginia upon the Stamp Act did great honor to that province, and to the eminent patriot, Patrick Henry, who composed them.1 But these resolves made no alteration in the opinion of the colonies, concerning the right of parliament to make that act. They expressed the uni- versal opinion of the continent at that time ; and the alacrity with which every other colony, and the congress at New York, adopted the same sentiment in similar resolves, proves the entire union of the colonies in it, and their universal determination to avow and support it. What follows here, — that it became so popular, that his life was in danger who suggested the contrary, and that the press was "open to one side only," — are direct misre- presentations and "wicked calumnies.

Then we are told by this sincere writer, that when we obtained a partial repeal of the statute imposing duties on glass, paper, and teas, " this was the lucky moment when to have closed the dispute." What? with a board of commissioners remaining, the sole end of whose creation was to form and conduct a reve- nue? With an act of parliament remaining, the professed design of which, expressed in the preamble, was to raise a reve- nue, and appropriate it to the payment of governors' and judges' salaries ; the duty remaining, too, upon an article which must raise a large sum, the consumption of which would constantly increase ? Was this a time to retreat ? Let me ask this sincere writer a simple question, — does he seriously believe that the designs of imposing other taxes, and of new-modelling our gov- ernments, would have been laid aside by the ministry or by the servants of the crown here ? Does he think that Mr. Bernard, Mr. Hutchinson, the commissioners, and others would have been content then to have desisted ? If he really thinks so, he knows little of the human heart, and still less of those gentlemen's

1 " Some few months after it was known that the Stamp Act was passed, some resolves of the house of burgesses in Virginia, denying the right of parliament to tax the colonies, made their appearance. We read them with wonder ; they savored of independence ; they nattered the human passions ; the reasoning was specious; we wished it conclusive. The transition to believing it so was easy ; and we, almost all America, followed their example, in resolving that the parliament had no such right. It now became unpopular to suggest the con- trary. His life would be in danger that asserted it. The newspapers were open to but one side of the question ; and the inflammatory pieces that issued weekly from the press, worked up the populace to a fit temper to commit the outrages that ensued." Massachusettensis.

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hearts. It was at this very time that the salary was given to the governor, and an order solicited for that to the judges.

Then we are entertained with a great deal of ingenious talk about whigs and tories, and at last are told, that some of the whigs owed all their importance to popularity.1 And what then? Did not as many of the tories owe their importance to popular- ity ? And did not many more owe all their importance to unpopularity ? If it had not been for then taking an active part on the side of the ministry, would not some of the most con- spicuous and eminent of them have been unimportant enough ? Indeed, through the two last administrations, to despise and hate the people, and to be despised and hated by them, were the principal recommendations to the favors of government, and all the qualification that was required.

" The tories," says he, " were for closing the controversy." That is, they were for contending no more ; and it was equally true, that they never were for contending at all, but lying at mercy. It was the very end they had aimed at from the begin- ning. They had now got the governor's salary out of the reve- nue, a number of pensions and places ; they knew they could at any time get the judges' salaries from the same fountain ; and they wanted to get the people reconciled and familiarized to this, before they went upon any new projects.

" The whigs were averse to restoring government ; they even refused to revive a temporary Riot Act which expired about this time." Government had as much vigor then as ever, excepting only in those cases which affected this dispute. The Riot Act expired in 1770, immediately after the massacre in King Street.

It was not revived, and never will be in this colony; nor will any one ever be made in any other, while a standing army is illegally posted here to butcher the people, whenever a governor or a magistrate, who may be a tool, shall order it. " Perhaps the whigs thought that mobs were a necessary ingredient in their

1 " There were two parties in this province of pretty long standing, known by the name of whig and tory, which at this time were not a little embittered against each other. Men of abilities and acknowledged probity were on both sides. If the tories were suspected of pursuing their private interest through the medium of court favor, there was equal reason to suspect the whigs of pur- suing their private interest by the means of popularity. Indeed,some of them owed all their importance to it, and must in a little time have sunk into obscurity, had these turbulent commotions then subsided." Massachusettensis.

52 NOVANGLUS.

system of opposition." Whether they did or not, it is certain that mobs have been thought a necessary ingredient by the tories in their system of administration, mobs of the worst sort, with red coats, fuzees, and bayonets ; and the lives and limbs of the whigs have been in greater danger from these, than ever the tories were from others.

" The scheme of the whigs flattered the people with the idea of independence ; the tories' plan supposed a degree of subordi- nation." This is artful enough, as usual, not to say Jesuitical. The word independence is one of those which this writer uses, as he does treason and rebellion, to impose upon the undistin- guishing on both sides of the Atlantic. But let us take him to pieces. What does he mean by independence ? Does he mean independent of the crown of Great Britain, and an independent republic in America, or a confederation of independent republics ? No doubt he intended the undistinguishing should understand him so. If he did, nothing can be more wicked, or a greater slander on the whigs ; because he knows there is not a man in the province among the whigs, nor ever was, who harbors a wish of that sort. Does he mean that the people were flattered with the idea of total independence on parliament ? If he does, this is equally malicious and injurious ; because he knows that the equity and necessity of parliament's regulating trade has always been acknowledged ; our determination to consent and submit to such regulations constantly expressed ; and all the acts of trade, in fact, to this very day, much more submitted to and strictly executed in this province than any other in America.

There is equal ambiguity in the words " degree of subordina- tion." The whigs acknowledge a subordination to the king, in as strict and strong a sense as the tories. The whigs acknow- ledge a voluntary subordination to parliament, as far as the regu- lation of trade. What degree of subordination, then, do the tories acknowledge? An absolute dependence upon parliament as their supreme legislative, in all cases whatever, in their internal polity, as well as taxation ? This would be too gross, and would lose Massachusettensis all his readers ; for there is nobody here who will expose his understanding so much, as explicitly to adopt such a sentiment. Yet it is such an absolute dependence and submission that these writers would persuade us to, or else there is no need of changing our sentiments and conduct. Why

NOVANGLUS. 53

will not these gentlemen speak out, show us plainly their opinion, that the new government they have fabricated for this province is better than the old, and that all the other measures we complain of are for our and the public good, and exhort us directly to submit to them ? The reason is, because they know they should lose their readers.

" The whigs were sensible that there was no oppression that could be seen or felt." The tories have so often said and wrote this to one another, that I sometimes suspect they believe it to be true. But it is quite otherwise. The castle of the province was taken out of their hands and garrisoned by regular soldiers. This they could see, and they thought it indicated a hostile inten- tion and disposition towards them. They continually paid their money to collectors of duties ; this they could both see and feel. A host of placemen, whose whole business it was to collect a revenue, were continually rolling before them in their chariots. These they saw. Their governor was no longer paid by them- selves, according to their charter, but out of the new revenue, in order to render their assemblies useless, and indeed contemptible. The judges' salaries were threatened every day to be paid in the same unconstitutional manner. The dullest eyesight could not but see to what all this tended, namely, — to prepare the way for greater innovations and oppressions. They knew a minister would never spend his money in this way, if he had not some end to answer by it. Another thing they both saw and felt. Every man, of every character, who, by voting, writing, speak- ing, or otherwise, had favored the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and every other measure of a minister or governor, who they knew was aiming at the destruction of their form of government, and introducing parliamentary taxation, was uniformly, in some department or other, promoted to some place of honor or profit for ten years together ; and, on the other hand, every man who favored the people in their opposition to those innovations, was depressed, degraded, and persecuted, so far as it was in the power of the government to do it.

This they considered as a systematical means of encouraging every man of abilities to espouse the cause of parliamentary taxation and the plan of destroying their charter privilege, and to discourage all from exerting themselves in opposition to them. This they thought a plan to enslave them ; for they uniformly

5*

54 NOVANGLUS.

think that the destruction of their charter, making the council and judges wholly dependent on the crown, and the people sub- ject to the unlimited power of parliament as their supreme legis- lative, is slavery. They were certainly rightly told, then, that the ministry and their governors together had formed a design to enslave them, and that when once this was done, they had the highest reason to expect window-taxes, hearth-taxes, land- taxes, and all others ; and that these were only paving the way for reducing the country to lordships. Were the people mis- taken in these suspicions ? Is it not now certain, that Governor Bernard, in 1764, had formed a design of this sort ? Read his Principles of Polity. And that Lieutenant-Governor Oliver, as late as 1768, or 9, enforced the same plan ? Read his letters. Now, if Massachusettensis will be ingenuous, avow this design, show the people its utility, and that it ought to be done by par- liament, he will act the part of an honest man. But to insinuate that there was no such plan, when he knows there was, is acting the part of one of the junto.

It is true, that the people of this country in general, and of this province in special, have a hereditary apprehension of and aversion to lordships, temporal and spiritual. Their ancestors fled to this wilderness to avoid them ; they suffered sufficiently under them in England. And there are few of the present gene- ration who have not been warned of the danger of them by their fathers or grandfathers, and enjoined to oppose them. And neither Bernard nor Oliver ever dared to avow before them, the designs which they had certainly formed to introduce them. Nor does Massachusettensis dare to avow his opinion in their favor. I do not mean that such avowal would expose then persons to danger, but it would their character and writings to universal contempt.

When you were told that the people of England were de- praved, the parliament venal, and the ministry corrupt, were you not told most melancholy truths ? Will Massachusettensis deny any of them ? Does not every man who comes from England, whig or tory, tell you the same thing ? Do, they make any secret of it, or use any delicacy about it ? Do they not most of them avow that corruption is so established there as to be incurable, and a necessary instrument of government? Is not the British constitution arrived nearly to that point where the Roman repub-

NOVANGLUS. 55

lie was when Jugurtha left it, and pronounced it, " a venal city, ripe for destruction, if it can only find a purchaser ? " If Massa- chusettensis can prove that it is not, he will remove from my mind one of the heaviest loads which lie upon it.

"Who has censured the tories for remissness, I know not. Whoever it was, he did them great injustice. Every one that I know of that character has been, through the whole tem- pestuous period, as indefatigable as human nature will admit, going about seeking whom he might devour, making use of art, flattery, terror, temptation, and allurements, in every shape in which human wit could dress it up, in public and private ; but all to no purpose. The people have grown more and more weary of them every day, until now the land mourns under them.

Massachusettensis is then seized with a violent fit of anger at the clergy.1 It is curious to observe the conduct of the tories towards this sacred body. If a clergyman, of whatever charac- ter, preaches against the principles of the revolution, and tells the people that, upon pain of damnation, they must submit to an established government, the tories cry him up as an excellent man and a wonderful preacher, invite him to their tables, procure him missions from the society and chaplainships to the navy, and natter him with the hopes of lawn sleeves. But if a clergyman preaches Christianity, and tells the magistrates that they were not distinguished" from their brethren for their private emolument, but for the good of the people ; that the people are bound in con- I science to obey a good government, but are not bound to submit \ to one that aims at destroying all the ends of government, — oh ■ sedition! treason!

The clergy in all ages and countries, and in this in particular, are disposed enough to be on the side of government as long as it is tolerable. If they have not been generally in the late administration on that side, it is a demonstration that the late

1 " All our dissenting ministers were not inactive on this occasion. When the clergy engage in a political warfare, religion becomes a most powerful engine, either to support or overthrow the state. What effect must it have had upon the audience, to hear the same sentiments and principles, which they had before read in a newspaper, delivered on Sundays from the sacred desk, with a reli- gious awe, and the most solemn appeals to Heaven, from lips, which they had been taught from their cradles to believe could utter nothing but eternal truths ! "

Massachusettensis.

56 NOVANGLUS.

administration has been universally odious. The clergy of this province are a virtuous, sensible, and learned set of men, and they do not take their sermons from newspapers, but the Bible ; unless it be a few, who preach passive obedience. These are not generally curious enough to read Hobbes. It is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to the times, to preach against such sins as are most prevalent, and recommend such virtues as are most wanted. For example, — if exorbitant ambition and venality are predominant, ought they not to warn their hearers against those vices? If public spirit is much wanted, should they not inculcate this great virtue ? If the rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects are dis- puted, should they not explain them, show their nature, ends, limitations, and restrictions, how much soever it may move the gall of Massachusettensis ?

Let me put a supposition. Justice is a great Christian, as well as moral, duty and virtue, which the clergy ought to incul- cate and explain. Suppose a great man of a parish should, for seven years together, receive six hundred pounds sterling a year, for discharging the duties of an important office, but, during the whole time, should never do one act or take one step about it, Would not this be great injustice to the public? And ought not the parson of that parish to cry aloud and spare not, and show such a bold transgressor his sin ; show that justice was due to the public as well as to an individual; and that- cheating the public of four thousand two hundred pounds ster- ling is at least as great a sin as taking a chicken from a private hen-roost, or perhaps a watch from a fob ?

Then we are told that newspapers and preachers have excited " outrages disgraceful to humanity." Upon this subject, I will venture to say, that there have been outrages in this province which I neither justify, excuse, nor extenuate ; but these were not excited, that I know of, by newspapers or sermons ; that, how- ever, if we run through the last ten years, and consider all the tumults and outrages that have happened, and at the same time recollect the insults, provocations, and oppressions which this people have endured, we shall find the two characteristics of this people, religion and humanity, strongly marked on all their proceedings. Not a life, nor, that I have ever heard, a single limb, has been lost through the whole. I will take upon me to say,

NOVANGLUS. 57

there 13 not another province on this continent, nor in his ma- jesty's dominions, where the people, under the same indignities, would not have gone greater lengths. Consider the tumults in the three kingdoms ; consider the tumults in ancient Rome, in the most virtuous of her periods ; and compare them with ours. It is a saying of Machiavel no wise man ever contra- dicted, which has been literally verified in this province, that " while the mass of the people is not corrupted, tumults do no hurt." By which he means, that they leave no lasting ill effects behind.

But let us consider the outrages committed by the tories ; half a dozen men shot dead in an instant in King Street; fre- quent resistance and affronts to civil officers and magistrates ; officers, watchmen, citizens, cut and mangled in a most inhuman manner; not to mention the shootings for desertion, and the frequent cruel whippings for other faults, cutting and mangling men's bodies before the eyes of citizens, spectacles which ought never to be introduced into populous places. The worst sort of tumults and outrages ever committed in this province were ex- cited by the tories. But more of this hereafter.

We are then told, that the whigs erected a provincial demo- cracy, or republic, in the province. I wish Massachusettensis knew what a democracy or a republic is. But this subject must be considered another time.

no. v.

We are at length arrived at the paper on which I made a few strictures some weeks ago ; these I shall not repeat, but proceed to consider the other part of it.

We are told : " It is a universal truth, that he that would excite a rebellion, is at heart as great a tyrant as ever wielded the iron rod of oppression." Be it so. We are not exciting a rebellion. Opposition, nay, open, avowed resistance by arms, against usurpation and lawless violence, is not rebellion by the law of God or the land. Resistance to lawful authority makes rebellion. Hampden, Russell, Sidney, Somers, Holt, Tiilotson, Burnet, Hoadly, &c. were no tyrants nor rebels, although some

58 NOVANGLUS.

of them were in arms, and the others undoubtedly excited resist- ance against the tories. Do not beg the question, Mr. Massa- chusettensis, and then give yourself airs of triumph. Remember the frank Veteran acknowledges, that " the word rebel is a con- vertible term." *

This writer next attempts to trace the spirit of opposition through the general court and the courts of common law. " It was the policy of the whigs, to nave their questions upon high matters determined by yea and nay votes, which were published in the gazettes." And ought not great questions to be so deter- mined ? In many other assemblies, New York particularly, they always are. What better can be devised to discover the true sense of the people ? It is extremely provoking to courtiers, that they cannot vote as the cabinet direct them, against their con- sciences, the known sense of their constituents, and the obvious good of the community, without being detected. Generally, perhaps universally, no unpopular measure in a free government, particularly the English, ought ever to pass. Why have the people a share in the legislature, but to prevent such measures from passing, I mean such as are disapproved by the people at large ? But did not these yea and nay votes expose the whigs, as well as tories, to the impartial judgment of the public? If the votes of the former were given for measures injurious to the community, had not the latter an equal opportunity of improv- ing them to the disadvantage of their adversaries in the next election ? Besides, were not those few persons in the house, who generally voted for unpopular measures, near the governor, in possession of his confidence ? Had they not the absolute disposal in their towns and counties of the favor of government? Were not all the judges, justices, sheriffs, coroners, and military officers in their towns made upon their recommendation ? Did not this give them a prodigious weight and influence? Had the whigs any such advantage ? And does not the influence of these yea and nay votes, consequently, prove to a demonstra- tion the unanimity of the people against the measures of the court?

1 " That they are rebels cannot be denied ; -would to God that it could ! It is well for them that they are in the hands of a man of approved gentleness, humanity, and justice. But even rebel (in war at least) is a convertible term, which knave was never."

Letter from a Veteran to the Officers of the Army encamped at Boston.

NOVANGLUS. 59

As to what is said of " severe strictures, illiberal invectives, abuse, and scurrility, upon the dissentients," there was quite as much of all these published against the leading whigs. In truth, the strictures, &c. against the tories were generally nothing more than hints at the particular place or office, which was known to be the temptation to vote against the country. That " the dis- sentient was in danger of losing his bread and involving his family in ruin," is equally injurious. Not an instance can be produced of a member losing his bread or injuring his business by voting for unpopular measures. On the contrary, such voters never failed to obtain some lucrative employment, title, or honor- ary office, as a reward from the court.

If " one set of members in committee had always prepared the resolves," * &c, which they did not, what would this prove, but that this set was thought by the house the fittest for the purpose ? Can it ever be otherwise ? Will any popular assembly choose its worst members for the best services ? Will an assembly of patriots choose courtiers to prepare votes against the court ? No resolves against the claims of parliament or administration, or the measures of the governor, (excepting those against the Stamp Act, and perhaps the answers to Governor Hutchinson's speeches upon the supremacy of parliament,) ever passed through the house without meeting an obstacle. The governor had, to the last hour of the house's existence, always some seekers and expectants in the house, who never failed to oppose, and offer the best arguments they could, and were always patiently heard. That " the lips of the dissentients were sealed up ; " that " they sat in silence, and beheld with regret measures they dared not oppose," are groundless suggestions, and gross reflections upon the honor and courage of those members. The debates of this house were public, and every man who has attended the gallery, knows there never was more freedom of debate in any assembly.

Massachusettensis, in the next place, conducts us to the agent, and tells us " there cannot be a provincial agent without an appointment by the three branches of the assembly. The whigs

1 " One particular set of members, in committee, always prepared the resolves and other spirited measures. At first, they were canvassed freely; at length would slide through the house without meeting an obstacle. The lips of the dis- sentients were sealed up. They sat in silence, and beheld Avith infinite regret the measures they durst not oppose." Massachusettensis.

60 NOVANGLUS.

soon found that they could not have such services rendered them from a provincial agent as would answer their purposes."

The treatment this province has received respecting the agency, since Mr. Hutchinson's administration commenced, is a flagrant example of injustice. There is no law which requires the pro- vince to maintain any agent in England ; much less is there any reason which necessarily requires that the three branches should join in the appointment. In ordinary times, indeed, when a harmony prevails among the branches, it is well enough to have an agent constituted by all. But in times when the foundations of the constitution are disputed, and certainly attacked by one branch or the other, to pretend that the house ought to join the governor in the choice, is a palpable absurdity. It is equivalent to saying, that the people shall have no agent at all ; that all communication shall be cut off; and that there shall be no chan- nel through which complaints and petitions may be conveyed to the royal ear. Because a governor will not concur in an agent whose sentiments are not like his ; nor will an agent of the governor's appointment be likely to urge accusations against him with any diligence or zeal, if the people have occasion to complain against him.

Every private citizen, much more, every representative body, has an undoubted right to petition the king, to convey such petition by an agent, and to pay him for his service. Mr. Ber- nard, to do him justice, had so much regard to these principles, as to consent to the payment of the people's agents while he staid ; but Mr. Hutchinson was scarcely seated in the chair, as lieutenant-governor, before we had intelligence from England, that my Lord Hillsborough told Dr. Franklin, he had received a letter from Governor Hutchinson against consenting to the salary of the agent. Such an instruction was accordingly soon sent, and no agent for the board or house has received a farthing for services since that time, though Dr. Franklin and Mr. Bollan have taken much pains, and one of them expended considerable sums of money. There is a meanness in this play that would dis- grace a gambler, — a manifest fear that the truth should be known to the sovereign or the people. Many persons have thought that the province ought to have dismissed all agents from that time, as useless and nugatory ; this behavior amount- ing to a declaration, that we had no chance or hopes of justice from a minister.

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But this province, at least as meritorious as any, has been long accustomed to indignities and injustice, and to bear both with unparalleled patience. Others have pursued the same method before and since ; but we have never heard that their agents are unpaid. They would scarcely have borne it with so much resig- nation.

It is great assurance to blame the house for this, which was both their right and duty ; but it is a stain in the character of his patron which will not be soon worn out. Indeed this pas- sage seems to have been brought in chiefly for the sake of a stroke or two, addressed to the lowest and meanest of the people; I mean the insinuation, that the two agents doubled the expense, which is as groundless as it is contracted ; and that the ostensible agent for the province was only agent for a few individuals that had got the art of wielding the house ; and that several hundred sterling a year, for attending levees and writing letters, were worth preserving. We, my friends, know that no members have the art of wielding us or our house, but by concurring in our principles, and assisting us in our designs. Numbers in both houses have turned about, and expected to wield us round with them, but they have been disappointed, and ever will be. Such apostates have never yet failed of our utter contempt, whatever titles, places, or pensions they might obtain.

The agent has never echoed back, or transmitted to America, any sentiments which he did not give in substance to Governor Shirley, twenty years ago ; and, therefore, this insinuation is but another slander.1 The remainder of what is said of the agency is levelled at Dr. Franklin, and is but a dull appendix to Wed- derburn's ribaldry, having all his malice, without any of his wit or spirit. Nero murdered Seneca, that he might pull up virtue by the roots ; and the same maxim governs the scribblers and speechifiers on the side of the minister. It is sufficient to dis- cover that any man has abilities and integrity, a love of virtue

1 " The person appointed by the house was the ostensible agent of the pro- vince ; though, in fact, he was only the agent of a few individuals that had got the art of managing the house at their pleasure. He knew his continuing in office depended upon them. An office that yielded several hundred pounds sterling annually, the business of which consisted in little more than attending the levees of the great, and writing letters to America, was worth preserving. Thus, he was under a strong temptation to sacrifice the province to a party ; and echoed back the sentiments of his patrons." Massachusetlensis.

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and liberty, he must be run down at all events. "Witness Pitt, Franklin, and too many others.

My design in pursuing this malicious slanderer, concealed as he is under so soft and oily an appearance, through all the dou- blings of his tedious course, is to vindicate this colony from his base aspersions ; that strangers now among us, and the impar- tial public, may see the wicked arts, which are still employed against us. After the vilest abuse upon the agent of the pro- vince, and the house that appointed him, we are brought to his majesty's council, and are told that the " whigs reminded them of their mortality. If any one opposed the violent measures, he lost his election the next May. Half the whole number, mostly men of the first families, note, and abilities, attached to their native country, wealthy, and independent, were tumbled from their seats in disgrace. Thus the board lost its weight, and the political balance was destroyed."

It is impossible for any man acquainted with this subject to read this zealous rant without smiling, until he attends to the wickedness of it, which will provoke his utmost indignation. Let us, however, consider it soberly.

From the date of our charter to the time of the Stamp Act, and indeed since that time, (notwithstanding the misrepresenta- tions of our charter constitution, as too popular and republi- can,) the council of this province have been generally on the side of the governor and the prerogative. For the truth of this, I appeal to our whole history and experience. The art and power of governors, and especially the negative, have been a stronger motive on the one hand, than the annual election of the two houses on the other. In disputes between the governor and the house, the council have generally adhered to the former, and in many cases have complied with his humor, when scarcely any council by mandamus, upon this continent, would have done it.

But in the time of the Stamp Act, it was found productive of many mischiefs and dangers, to have officers of the crown, who were dependent on the ministry, and judges of the superior court, whose offices were thought incompatible with a voice in the legislature, members of council.

In May, 1765, Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, Secretary Oliver, and Mr. Belcher, officers of the crown, the judges of the

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superior court, and some other gentlemen, who held commissions under the governor, were members of council. Mr. Hutchinson was chief justice, and a judge of probate for the first county, as well as lieutenant-governor, and a counsellor; too many offices for the greatest and best man in the world to hold, too much business for any- man to do; besides, that these offices were frequently clashing and interfering with each other. Two other justices of the superior court were counsellors, and nearly and closely connected with him by family alliances. One other justice was judge of admiralty during pleasure. Such a jumble of offices never got together before in any English government. It was found, in short, that the famous triumvirate, Bernard, Hutchinson, and Oliver, the ever-memorable, secret, confidential letter-writers, whom I call the junto, had, by degrees, and before the people were aware of it, erected a tyranny in the province. Bernard had all the executive, and a negative on the legislative ; Hutchinson and Oliver, by their popular arts and secret intrigues, had elevated to the board such a collection of crown-officers and their own relations, as to have too much influence there; and they had three of a family on the superior bench, which is the supreme tribunal in all causes, civil and criminal, vested with all the powers of the king's bench, common pleas, and exchequer, which gave them power over every act of this court. This junto, therefore, had the legislative and executive in their control, and more natural influence over the judicial than is ever to be trusted to any set of men in the world. The public, accordingly, found all these springs and wheels in the constitution set in motion to promote submission to the Stamp Act, and to discountenance resistance to it ; and they thought they had a violent presump- tion, that they would forever be employed to encourage a compli- ance with all ministerial measures and parliamentary claims, of whatever character they might be.

The designs of the junto, however, were concealed as care- fully as possible. Most persons were jealous ; few were certain. When the assembly met, in May, 1766, after the Stamp Act was repealed, the whigs flattered themselves with hopes of peace and liberty for the future. Mr. Otis, whose abilities and inte- grity, whose great exertions, and most exemplary sacrifices of his private interest to the public service, had entitled him to all the promotion which the people could bestow, was chosen

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speaker of the house. Bernard negatived the choice. It can scarcely be conceived by a stranger what an alarm this ma- noeuvre gave to the public. It was thought equivalent to a decla- ration that, although the people had been so successful as to obtain a repeal of the Stamp Act, yet they must not hope to be quiet long ; for parliament, by the Declaratory* Act, had asserted its supreme authority, and new taxations and regulations should be made, if the junto could obtain' them; and every man who should dare to oppose such projects, let his powers or virtues, his family or fortune, be what they would, should be surely cut off from all hopes of advancement. The electors thought it high time to be upon then guard. All the foregoing reasons and motives prevailed with the electors ; and the crown officers and justices of the supreme court were left out of council in the new choice. Those who were elected in their places were all negatived by Bernard, which was considered as a fresh proof, that the junto still persevered in their designs of obtaining a revenue to divide among themselves.

The gentlemen elected anew were of equal fortune and inte- grity, at least, and not much inferior in abilities, to those left out ; and indeed, in point of fortune, family, note, or abilities, the councils which have been chosen from that time to this, taken on an average, have been very little inferior, if any, to those chosen before. Let Massachusettensis descend, if he will, to every particular gentleman by name through the whole period, and I will make out my assertion.

Every impartial person will not only think these reasons a full vindication of the conduct of the two houses, but that it was their indispensable duty to their country, to act the part they did; and the course of time, which has developed the dark in- trigues of the junto, before and since, has confirmed the rectitude and necessity of the measure. Had Bernard's Principles of Polity been published and known at that time, no member of the house, who should have voted for any of the persons then left out, if it was known to his constituents, would ever have obtained another election.

By the next step we rise to the chair. " With the board, the chair fell likewise," he says. But what a slander is this ! Nei- ther fell ; both remained in as much vigor as ever. The junto, it is true, and some other gentlemen who were not in then

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secret, but however, had been misled to concur in their mea- sures, were left out of council. But the board had as much authority as ever. The board of 1766 could not have influenced the people to acknowledge the supreme, uncontrollable autho- rity of parliament, nor could that of 1765 have done it. So that, by the chair and the board's falling, he means no more, if his meaning has any truth in it, than that the junto fell ; the designs of taxing the colonies fell, and the schemes for de- stroying all the charters on the continent, and for erecting lord- ships fell. These, it must be acknowledged, fell very low indeed in the esteem of the people, and the two houses.

" The governor," says our wily writer, " by the charter, could do little or nothing without the council. If he called upon a military officer to raise the militia, he was answered, they were there already," &c. The council, by the charter, had nothing to do with the militia ; the governor alone had all authority over them. The council, therefore, are not to blame for their conduct. If the militia refused obedience to the captain-general, or his subordinate officer, when commanded to assist in carrying into execution the Stamp Act, or in dispersing those who were oppos- ing it, does not this prove the universal sense and resolution of the people not to submit to it ? Did not a regular army do more to James II. ? If those, over whom the Governor had the most absolute authority and decisive influence, refused obedience, does not this show how deeply rooted in all men's minds was the abhorrence of that unconstitutional power which was usurp- ing over them ? " If he called upon the council for their assist- ance, they must first inquire into the cause." An unpardonable crime, no doubt ! But is it the duty of a middle branch of le- gislature to do as the first shall command them implicitly, or to judge for themselves ? Is it the duty of a privy council to understand the subject before they give advice, or only to lend their names to any edict, in order to make it less unpopular ? It would be a shame to answer such observations as these, if it was not for their wickedness. Our council, all along however, did as much as any council could have done. Was the manda- mus council at New York able to do more to influence the peo- ple to a submission to the Stamp Act ? Was the chair, the board, the septennial house, with the assistance of General Gage and his troops, able to do more in that city, than our branches

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did in this province ? Not one iota. Nor could Bernard, his council, and house, if they had been unanimous, have induced submission. The people would have spurned them all, for they are not to be wheedled out of then liberties by their own repre- sentatives, any more than by strangers. " If he wrote to gov- ernment at home to strengthen his hands, some officious person procured and sent back his letters." At last, it seems to be acknowledged, that the governor did write for a military force to strengthen government. For what? To enable it to enforce stamp acts, tea acts, and. other internal regulations, the autho- rity of which the people were determined never to acknow- ledge.

But what a pity it was, that these worthy gentlemen could not be allowed, from the dearest affection to their native country, to which they had every possible attachment, to go on in pro- found confidential secrecy, procuring troops to cut our throats, acts of parliament to drain our purses, destroy our charters and assemblies, getting estates and dignities for themselves and their own families, and all the while most devoutly professing to be friends to our charter, enemies to parliamentary taxation, and to all pensions, without being detected ! How happy if they could have annihilated all our charters, and yet have been beloved, nay, deified by the people, as friends and advocates of their charters ! What masterly politicians, to have made themselves nobles for life, and yet have been thought very sorry, that the two houses were denied the privilege of choosing the council ! How sagacious, to get large pensions for themselves, and yet be thought to mourn that pensions and venality were introduced into the country ! How sweet and pleasant, to have been the most popular men in the community, for being staunch and zealous dissenters, true blue Calvinists, and able advocates for public virtue and popular government, after they had introduced an American episcopate, universal corruption among the lead- ing men, and deprived the people of all share in their supreme legislative council! I mention an episcopate, for, although I do not know that Governors Hutchinson and Oliver ever directly solicited for bishops, yet they must have seen, that these would have been one effect, very soon, of establishing the unlimited authority of parliament!

I agree with this writer, that it was not the persons of Ber-

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nard, Hutchinson, or Oliver, that made them obnoxious; but their principles and practices. And I will agree that, if Chatham, Camden, and St. Asaph, (I beg pardon for introducing these reverend names into such company, and for making a supposi- tion which is absurd,) had been here, and prosecuted such schemes, they would have met with contempt and execration from this people. But when he says, " that had the intimations in those letters been attended to, we had now been as happy a people as good government could make us," it is too gross to make us angry. We can do nothing but smile. Have not these intimations been attended to ? Have not fleets and armies been sent here whenever they requested ? Have not governor's, lieu- tenant-governor's, secretary's, judge's, attorney -general's, and solicitor-general's salaries been paid out of the revenue, as they solicited? Have not taxes been laid and continued ? Have not English liberties been abridged, as Hutchinson desired? Have not " penalties of another kind " been inflicted, as he desired ? Has not our charter been destroyed, and the council put into the king's hands, as Bernard requested ? In short, almost all the wild mock pranks of this desperate triumvirate have been attended to and adopted, and we are now as miserable as tyranny can well make us. That Bernard came here with the affections of New Jersey, I never heard nor read but in this writer. His abilities were considerable, or he could not have done such extensive mischief. His true British honesty and punctuality will be acknowledged by none, but such as owe all their importance to flattering him.

That Hutchinson was amiable and exemplary in some respects, and very unamiable and unexemplary in others, is a certain truth ; otherwise he never would have retained so much popularity on one hand, nor made so pernicious a use of it, on the other. His behavior, in several important departments, was with ability and integrity, in cases which did not affect his political system ; but he bent all his offices to that. Had he continued steadfast to those principles in religion and government, which, in his former life, he professed, and which alone had procured him the confi- dence of the people and all his importance, he would have lived and died, respected and beloved, and have done honor to his native country. But, by renouncing these principles and that conduct, which had made him and all his ancestors respectable,

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his character is now considered by all America, and the best part of the three kingdoms, notwithstanding the countenance he receives from the ministry, as a reproach to the province that gave him birth ; as that of a man who by all his actions aimed at making himself great at the expense of the liberties of his native country. This gentleman was open to flattery in so remarkable a degree, that any man who would flatter him was sure of his friendship, and every one who would not was sure of his enmity. He was credulous in a ridiculous degree, of every thing that favored his own plans, and equally incredulous of every thing which made against them. His natural abilities, which have been greatly exaggerated by persons whom he had advanced to power, were far from being of the first rate. His industry was prodigious. His knowledge lay chiefly in the laws and politics and history of this province, in which he had a long experience. Yet, with all his advantages, he never was master of the true character of his native country, not even of New England and the Massachusetts Bay. Through the whole troublesome period, since the last war, he manifestly mistook the temper, principles, and opinions of this people. He had resolved upon a system, and never could or would see the im- practicability of it.

It is very true, that " all his abilities, virtues, interests, and connections were insufficient." But for what ? To prevail on the people to acquiesce in the mighty claim of parliamentary authority. " The constitution was " not " gone." The sugges- tion that it was is a vile slander. It had as much vigor as ever, and even the governor had as much power as ever, excepting in cases which affected that claim. " The spirit," says this writer, " was truly republican." It was not so in any one case what- ever, any further than the spirit of the British constitution is republican. Even in the grand fundamental dispute, the people arranged themselves under their house of representatives and council, with as much order as ever, and conducted their opposi- tion as much by the constitution as ever. It is true, their con- stitution was employed against the measures of the junto, which created then: enmity to it. However, I have not such a horror of republican spirit, which is a spirit of true virtue and honest independence ; I do not mean on the king, but on men in power. This spirit is so far from being incompatible with the British

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constitution, that it is the greatest glory of it; and the nation has always been most prosperous, when it has most prevailed and been most encouraged by the crown. I wish it increased in every part of the world, especially in America ; and I think the measures the tories are now pursuing will increase it to a degree that will insure us, in the end, redress of grievances, and a happy reconciliation with Great Britain.

" Governor Hutchinson strove to convince us, by the princi- ples of government, our charters, and acknowledgments, that our claims were inconsistent with the subordination due to Great Britain," &c, says this writer.

Suffer me to introduce here a little history. In 1764, when the system of taxing and new-modelling the colonies was first apprehended, Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson's friends strug- gled, in several successive sessions of the general court, to get him chosen agent for the province at the court of Great Britain. At this time, he declared freely, that he was of the same sentiment with the people, that parliament had no right to lax them ; but dif- fered from the country party only in his opinion of the policy of denying that right in their petitions, &c. I would not injure him ; I was told this by three gentlemen, who were of the com- mittee of both houses, to prepare that petition, that he made this declaration explicitly before that committee. I have been told by other gentlemen, that he made the same declaration to them. It is possible that he might make use of expressions studied for the purpose, which would not strictly bear this con- struction. But it is certain that they understood him so, and that this was the general opinion of his sentiments until he came to the chair.

The country party saw that this aspiring genius aimed at keeping fair with the ministry, by supporting their measures, and with the people, by pretending to be of our principles, and between both, to trim himself up to the chair. The only reason why he did not obtain an election at one time, and was excused from the service at another, after he had been chosen by a small majority, was because the members knew he would not openly deny the right, and assure his majesty, the parliament, and ministry, that the people never would submit to it. For the same reason he was left out of council. But he continued to cultivate his popularity, and to maintain a general opinion among

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the people that he denied the right in his private judgment, and this idea preserved most of those who continued their esteem for him.

But upon Bernard's removal, and his taking the chair as lieu- tenant-governor, he had no further expectations from the people, nor complaisance for their opinions. In one of his first speeches he took care to advance the supreme authority of parliament. This astonished many of his friends. They were heard to say, we have been deceived. We thought he had been abused, but we now find what has been said of him is true. He is de- termined to join in the designs against this country. After his promotion to the government, finding that the people had little confidence in him, and knowing that he had no interest at home to support him, but what he had acquired by joining with Bernard in kicking up a dust, he determined to strike a bold stroke, and, in a formal speech to both houses, became a champion for the unbounded authority of parliament over the colonies. This, he thought, would lay the ministry under ob- ligation to support him in the government, or else to provide for him out of it, not considering that starting that question before that assembly, and calling upon them, as he did, to dis- pute with him upon it, was scattering firebrands, arrows, and death in sport. The arguments he then advanced were incon- clusive indeed ; but they shall be considered, when I come to the feeble attempt of Massachusettensis to give a color to the same position.

The house, thus called upon either to acknowledge the un- limited authority of parliament, or confute his arguments, were bound, by their duty to God, their country, and posterity, to give him a full and explicit answer. They proved incontesta- bly that he was out in his facts, inconsistent with himself, and in every principle of his law he had committed a blunder. Thus the fowler was caught in his own snare; and although this country has suffered severe temporary calamities in consequence of this speech, yet I hope they will not be durable; but his ruin was certainly in part owing to it. Nothing ever opened the eyes of the people so much, as to his designs, excepting his letters. Thus it is the fate of Massachusettensis to praise this gentleman for those things which the wise part of mankind con- demn in him, as the most insidious and mischievous of actions.

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If it was out of his power to do us any more injuries, I should wish to forget the past ; but, as there is reason to fear he is still to continue his malevolent labors against this country, although he is out of our sight, he ought not to be out of our minds. This country has every thing to fear, in the present state of the British court, while the lords Bute, Mansfield, and North have the principal conduct of affairs, from the deep intrigues of that artful man.

To proceed to his successor, whom Massachusettensis has been pleased to compliment with the epithet of " amiable." I have no inclination to detract from this praise ; but have no panegyrics or invectives for any man, much less for any go- vernor, until satisfied of his character and designs. This gentle- man's conduct, although he came here to support the systems of his two predecessors, and contracted to throw himself into the arms of their connections, when he has acted himself, and not been teased by others much less amiable and judicious than himself, into measures which his own inclination would have avoided, has been in general as unexceptionable as could be expected, in his very delicate, intricate, and difficult situation.

We are then told, "that disaffection to Great Britain was infused into the body of the people." The leading whigs have ever, systematically and upon principle, endeavored to preserve the people from all disaffection to the king, on the one hand, and the body of the people of England, on the other; but to lay the blame, where it is justly due, on the ministry and their instruments.

We are next conducted into the superior court, and informed "that the judges were dependent on the annual grants of the general court ; that their salaries were small, in proportion to the salaries of other officers of less importance ; that they often peti- tioned the assembly to enlarge them, without success, and were reminded of their dependence ; that they remained unshaken amid the raging tempests, which is to be attributed rather to their firmness than situation."

That the salaries were small must be allowed ; but not smaller in proportion than those of other officers. All salaries in this province have been and are small. It has been the policy of the country to keep them so ; not so much from a spirit of parsi- mony, as an opinion, that the service of the public ought to be

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an honorary, rather than a lucrative employment ; and that the great men ought to be obliged to set examples of simplicity and frugality before the people.

But, if we consider things maturely, and make allowance for all circumstances, I think the country may be vindicated. This province, during the last war, had such overbearing burdens upon it, that it was necessitated to use economy in every tiling. At the peace she was half a million sterling in debt, nearly. She thought it the best policy to get out of debt before she raised the wages of her servants ; and if Great Britain had thought as • wisely, she would not now have had one hundred and forty mil- lions to pay; and she would never have thought of taxing America. Low as the wages were, it was found that, whenever a vacancy happened, the place was solicited with much more anxiety and zeal than the kingdom of heaven.

Another cause which had its effect was this. The judges of that court had almost always enjoyed some other office. At the time of the Stamp Act the chief justice was lieutenant-governor, which yielded him a profit ; and a judge of probate for the county of Suffolk, which yielded him another profit ; and a counsellor, which, if it was not very profitable, gave him an opportunity of promoting his family and friends to other profit- able offices, an opportunity which the country saw he most religiously improved. Another justice of this court was a judge of admiralty, and another was judge of probate for the county of Plymouth. The people thought, therefore, that as their time was not wholly taken up by their offices, as judges of the superior court, there was no reason why they should be paid as much as if it had been.

Another reason was this. Those justices had not been bred to the bar, but taken from merchandise, husbandry, and other occupations ; had been at no great expense for education or libraries, and therefore, the people thought that equity did not demand large salaries.

It must be confessed that another motive had its weight. The people were growing jealous of the chief justice, and two other justices at least, and therefore thought it imprudent to enlarge their salaries, and, by that means, their influence.

Whether all these arguments were sufficient to vindicate the people for not enlarging their salaries, I shall leave to you, my

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friends, whose right it is to judge. But that the judges peti- tioned " often " to the assembly I do not remember. I knew it , was suspected by many, and confidently affirmed by some, that Judge Russell carried home with him, in 1766, a petition to his majesty, subscribed by himself and Chief Justice Hutchinson at least, praying his majesty to take the payment of the judges into his own hands ; and that this petition, together with the solicitations of Governor Bernard and others, had the success to procure the act of parliament, to enable his majesty to appropri- ate the revenue to the support of the administration of justice, &c, from whence a great part of the present calamities of America have flowed.

That the high whigs took care to get themselves chosen of the grand juries, I do not believe.1 Nine tenths of the people were high whigs ; and therefore it was not easy to get a grand jury without nine whigs in ten, in it. And the matter would not be much mended by the new act of parliament. The sheriff must return the same set of jurors, court after court, or else his juries would be, nine tenths of them, high whigs still. Indeed the tories are so envenomed now with malice, envy, revenge and disappointed ambition, that they would be willing, for what I know, to be jurors for life, in order to give verdicts against the whigs. And many of them would readily do it, I doubt not, without any other law or evidence than what they found in their own breasts. The suggestion of legerdemain, in drawing the names of petit jurors out of the box, is scandalous. Hu- man wisdom cannot devise a method of obtaining petit jurors more fairly, and better secured against a possibility of corruption of any kind, than that established by our provincial law. They were drawn by chance out of a box in open town meeting, to which the tories went, or might have gone, as well as the whigs, and have seen with their own eyes, that nothing unfair ever did or could take place. If the jurors consisted of whigs, it was because the freeholders were whigs, that is honest men. But now, it seems, if Massachusettensis can have his will, the sheriff, who will be a person properly qualified for the purpose, is to pick

1 " It is difficult to account for so many of the first rate whigs being returned to serve on the petit jury at the term next after extraordinary insurrections, without supposing some legerdemain in drawing their names out of the box."

Massachusettensis.

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out a tory jury, if he can find one in ten, or one in twenty, of t that character among the freeholders ; and it is no doubt expected, that every newspaper that presumes to deny the right of parlia- ment to tax us, or destroy our charter, will be presented as a ■libel, and every member of a committee of correspondence, or a congress, &c. &c. &c, is to be indicted for rebellion. These would be pleasant times to Massachusettensis and the junto, but they will never live to see them.

" The judges pointed out seditious libels on governors, magis- trates, and the whole government to no effect." They did so ; but the jurors thought some of these no libels, but solemn truths. At one time, I have heard that all the newspapers for several years, the Massachusetts Gazette, Evening Post, Boston Chron- icle, Boston Gazette, and Massachusetts Spy, were laid before a grand jury at once. The jurors thought there were multitudes of libels written by the tories, and they did not know whom they should attack, if they presented them ; perhaps Governor Bernard, Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, Secretary Oliver — possibly, the Attorney- General.1 They saw so many difficulties they knew not what to do.

As to the riots and insurrections, it is surprising that this writer should say, — "Scarce one offender was indicted, and I think not one convicted." Were not many indicted, convicted, and punished too, in the counties of Essex, and Middlesex, and indeed, in every other county ? But, perhaps he will say, he means such as were connected with politics. Yet this is not true ; for a large number in Essex were punished for abusing an informer, and others were indicted and convicted in Boston for a similar offence. None were indicted for pulling down the stamp office, because this was thought an honorable and glo- rious action, not a riot. And so it must be said of several other tumults. But was not this the case in royal as well as charter governments ? Nor will this inconvenience be remedied by a sheriff's jury, if such a one should ever sit. For if such a jury should convict, the people will never bear the punishment. It is in vain to expect or hope to cany on government against the universal bent and genius of the people ; we may whimper and

1 A keen allusion to Mr. Sewall himself, supposed by the writer to be the author of the pieces signed Massachusettensis.

NOVANGLUS. 75

whine as much as we will, but nature made it impossible when she made men.

If " causes of meum and tuum were not always exempt from party influence," the tories will get no credit by an examination into particular cases. Though I believe there was no great blame on either party in this respect, where the case was not connected with politics.

We are then told, — " The whigs once flattered themselves they should be able to divide the province between them." I sup- pose he means, that they should be able to get the honorable and lucrative offices of the province into their hands. If this was true, they would be chargeable with only designing what the tories have actually done ; with this difference, that the whigs would have done it by saving the liberties and the constitution of the province, whereas the tories have done it by the destruc- tion of both. That the whigs have ambition, a desire of profit, and other passions, like other men, it would be foolish to deny. But this writer cannot name a set of men, in the whole British empire, who have sacrificed their private interest to their nation's honor and the public good in so remarkable a manner, as the leading whigs have done in the two last administrations.

As to " cutting asunder the sinews of government, and breaking in pieces the ligament of social life," so far as this has been done, I have proved by incontestable evidence from Bernard's, Hutchin- son's, and Oliver's letters, that the tories have done it, against all the endeavors of the whigs to prevent them from first to last.

The public is then amused with two instances of the weakness of our government, and these are, with equal artifice and injustice, insinuated to be chargeable upon the whigs. But the whigs are as innocent of these as the tories. Malcolm was injured as much against the inclinations and judgment of the whigs as the tories. But the real injury he received is exaggerated by this writer. The cruelty of his whipping and the danger of his life, are too highly colored.

Malcolm was such an oddity as naturally to excite the curiosity and ridicule of the lowest class of people wherever he went ; had been active in battle against the regulators in North Carolina, who were thought in Boston to be an injured people. A few weeks before, he had made a seizure at Kennebec River, a hundred and

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fifty miles from Boston, and by some imprudence had excited the wrath of the people there in such a degree that they tarred and feathered him over his clothes. He comes to Boston to complain. The news of it was spread in town. It was a criti- cal time, when the passions of the people were warm. Malcolm attacked a lad in the street, and cut his head with a cutlass, in return for some words from the boy, which I suppose were irri- tating. The boy ran bleeding through the street to his relations, of whom he had many. As he passed the street, the people inquired into the cause of his wounds ; and a sudden heat arose against Malcolm, which neither whigs nor tories, though both endeavored it, could restrain, and produced the injuries of which he justly complained.1 But such a coincidence of circumstanecs might at any time, and in any place, have produced such an effect ; and therefore it is no evidence of the weakness of govern- ment. Why he petitioned the general court, unless he was advised to it by the tories, to make a noise, I know not. That court had nothing to do with it. He might have brought Ms action against the trespassers, but never did. He chose to go to England, and get two hundred pounds a year, which would make his tarring the luckiest incident of his life.

The hospital at Marblehead is another instance, no more owing to the politics of the times than the burning of the temple at Ephesus. This hospital was newly erected, much against the will of the multitude. The patients were careless, some of them wantonly so ; and others were suspected of designing to spread the smallpox in the town, which was full of people who had not passed through the distemper. It is needless to be particular ; but the apprehension became general ; the people arose and burnt the hospital. But the whigs are so little blamable for this, that two of the principal whigs in the province, gentlemen highly esteemed and beloved in the town, even by those who burnt

1 The account given of this affair by Massachusettensis may be put in contrast with this : —

" One Malcolm, a loyal subject, and as such entitled to protection, the evening before the last winter sessions of the general court, was dragged out of his house, stripped, tarred and feathered, and carted several hours in the severest frost of that winter, to the utmost hazard of his life. He was carried to the gal- lows with a halter about his neck, and, in his passage to and from the gallows, was beaten with as cruel stripes as ever were administered by the hands of a savage. The whipping, however, kept up the circulation of his blood, and saved the poor man's life."

NOVANGLUS. 77

the building, were owners of it. The principles and temper of the times had no share in this, any more than in cutting down the market in Boston, or in demolishing mills and dams in some parts of the country, in order to let the alewives pass up the streams, forty years ago. Such incidents happen in all govern- ments at times ; and it is a fresh proof of the weakness of this writer's cause, that he is driven to such wretched shifts to defend it.

Towards the close of this long speculation, Massachusettensis grows more and more splenetical, peevish, angry, and absurd.

He tells us, that in order to avoid the necessity of altering our provincial constitution, government at home made the judges independent of the grants of the general assembly.1 That is, in order to avoid the hazard of taking the fort by storm, they deter- mined to take it by sap. In order to avoid altering our consti- tution, they changed it in the most essential manner ; for, surely, by our charter, the province was to pay the judges as well as the governor. Taking away this privilege, and making them receive then* pay from the crown, was destroying the charter so far forth , and making them dependent on the minister. As to then* being dependent on the leading whigs, he means they were dependent on the province. And which is fairest to be dependent on, the province or the minister? In all this troublesome period, the leading whigs had never hesitated about granting their salaries, nor ever once moved to have them lessened ; nor would the house have listened to them if they had. " This was done," he says, " to make them steady." We know that very well. Steady to what? Steady to the plans of Bernard, Hutchinson, Oliver, North, Mansfield, and Bute, which the people thought was steadiness to their ruin ; and therefore it was found that a deter- mined spirit of opposition to it arose in every part of the province, like that to the Stamp Act.

The chief justice, it is true, was accused by the house of repre- sentatives, of receiving a bribe, — a ministerial, not a royal bribe. For the king can do no wrong, although he may be deceived in

1 " The judges of the superior court had not been staggered, though their feet stood in slippery places. They depended upon the leading whigs for their support. To keep them steady, they were made independent of the grants of the general assembly ; but it was not a remedy any way adequate to the disease. The whigs now turned their artillery against them, and it played briskly. The chief justice, for accepting the crown grant, was accused of receiving a royal bribe." Massachusettensis.

7*

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his grant. The minister is accountable. The crime of receiving an illegal patent is not the less for purchasing it even of the king himself. Many impeachments have been for such offences.

He talks about " attempts to strengthen government and save our charter." 2 With what modesty can he say this, when he knows that the overthrow of our charter was the very object which the junto had been invariably pursuing for a long course of years ? Does he think his readers are to be deceived by such gross arts ? But he says, " the whigs subverted the charter con- stitution, abridged the freedom of the house, annihilated the freedom of the board, and rendered the governor a doge of Venice." The freedom of the house was never abridged; the freedom of the board was never lessened. The governor had as much power as ever. The house and board, it is true, would do nothing in favor of parliamentary taxation. Their judgments and consciences were against it ; and if they ever had done any thing in favor of it, it would have been through fear and not freedom. The governor found he could do nothing in favor of it, excepting to promote, in every department in the state, men who hated the people, and were hated by them. Enough of this he did in all conscience ; and, after filling offices with men who were despised, he wondered that the officers were not revered. " They, the whigs, engrossed all the power of the province into their own hands." That is, the house and board were whigs ; the grand juries and petit juries were whigs ; towns were whigs; the clergy were whigs ; the agents were whigs ; and wherever you found people, you found all whigs; excepting those who had commissions from the crown or the governor. This is almost true ; and it is to the eternal shame of the tories that they should pursue their ignis fatuus with such ungovernable fury as they have done, after such repeated and multiplied demonstrations, that the whole people were so universally bent against them. But nothing will satisfy them still but blood and carnage. The destruction of the whigs, charters, English liber- ties, and all, they must and will have, if it costs the blood of

1 " Thus, my friends, those very persons that had made you believe, that every attempt to strengthen government and save our charter was an infringe- ment of your privileges, by little and little destroyed your real liberty, sub- verted your charter constitution, abridged the freedom of the house, annihilated the freedom of the board, and rendered the governor a mere doge of Venice."

Massachusettensis.

NOVANGLUS. ' 79

tens of thousands of innocent people. This is the benign temper of the tories.

This influence of the whigs he calls a democracy or republic, and then a despotism ; two ideas incompatible with each other. A democratical despotism is a contradiction in terms.

He then says, that " the good policy of the act for regulating the government in this province will be the subject of some future paper." But that paper is still to come, and I suspect ever will be. I wish to hear him upon it, however.

With this, he and the junto ought to have begun. Bernard and the rest, in 1764, ought to have published their objections to this government, if they had been honest men, and produced their arguments in favor of the alteration, convinced the people of the necessity of it, and proposed some constitutional plan for effecting it. But the same motives Which induced them to take another course, will prevail with Massachusettensis to wave the good policy of the act. He will be much more cunningly employed in laboring to terrify women and children with the horrors of a civil war, and the dread of a division among the people. There lies your forte, Massachusettensis ; make the most of it.

No. Vi

NO. VI.

Such events as the resistance to the Stamp Act, and to the Tea Act, particularly the destruction of that which was sent by the ministry, in the name of the East India Company, have ever been cautiously spoken of by the whigs, because they knew the delicacy of the subject, and they lived in continual hopes of a speedy restoration of liberty and peace. But we are now thrown into a situation, which would render any further delicacy upon this point criminal.

Be it remembered, then, thatjthere are tumults, seditions, popu- lar commotions, insurrections, and civil wars, upon just occasions as well as unjust.

Grotius B. 1, c. 3, § 1, observes, "that some sort of private war may be lawfully waged. It is not repugnant to the law of nature, for any one to repel injuries by force."

§ 2. " The liberty allowed before is much restrained since the

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erecting of tribunals. Yet there are some cases wherein that right still subsists ; that is, when the way to legal justice is not open ; for the law which forbids a man to pursue his right any- other way, ought to be understood with this equitable restriction, that one finds judges to whom he may apply," &c.

" * It is in vain to seek a government in all points free from a possibility of civil wars, tumults, and seditions ; that is a blessing denied to this life, and reserved to complete the felicity of the next. Seditions, tumults, and wars do arise from mistake or from ma- lice ; from just occasions or unjust. . . . Seditions proceeding from malice are seldom or never seen in popular governments ; for they are hurtful to the people, and none have ever willingly and knowingly hurt themselves. There may be, and often is, malice in those who excite them ; but the people is ever deceived, and whatever is thereupon done, ought to be imputed to error, &c. But in absolute monarchies, almost all the troubles that arise proceed from malice ; they cannot be reformed ; the extinction of them is exceeding difficult, if they have continued long enough to corrupt the people ; and those who appear against them seek only to set up themselves or their friends. The mischiefs designed are often dissembled or denied, till they are past all possibility of being cured by any other way than force ; and such as are by necessity driven to use that remedy, know they must perfect their work or perish. He that draws his sword against the prince, say the French, ought to throw away the scabbard ; for though the design be never so just, yet the authors are sure to be ruined if it miscarry. Peace is seldom made, and never kept, unless the subject retain such a power in his hands as may oblige the prince to stand to what is agreed ; and, in time, some trick is found to deprive him of that benefit.

" It may seem strange to some that I mention seditions, tu- mults, and wars, upon just occasions ; but I can find no reason to retract the terms. God, intending that men should live justly with one another, does certainly intend that he or they, who do no wrong, should suffer none ; and the law that forbids injuries were of no use if no penalty might be inflicted on those that will not obey it. If injustice, therefore, be evil, and injuries be forbidden, they are also to be punished ; and the law instituted

* Sidney's Discourses upon Government, c. 2, § 24. The extracts quoted here are not, in the original, continuous passages.

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for their prevention must necessarily intend the avenging of such as cannot be prevented. The work of the magistracy is to exe- cute this law ; the sword of justice is put into their hands to restrain the fury of those within the society who will not be a law to themselves ; and the sword of war to protect the people against the violence of foreigners. This is without exception, and would be in vain if it were not. But the magistrate who is to protect the people from injury, may, and is often known not to have done it ; he renders his office sometimes useless by neg- lecting to do justice, sometimes mischievous by overthrowing it. This strikes at the root of God's general ordinance, that there should be laws ; and the particular ordinances of all societies, that appoint such as seem best to them. The magistrate, therefore, is comprehended under both, and subject to both, as well as private men.

" The ways of preventing or punishing injuries, are judicial or extrajudicial. Judicial proceedings are of force against those who submit, or may be brought to trial, but are of no effect against those who resist, and are of such power that they cannot be constrained. It were absurd to cite a man to appear before a tribunal, who can awe the judges, or has armies to defend him ; "and impious to think that he who has added treachery to his other crimes, and usurped a power above the law, should be pro- tected by the enormity of his wickedness. Legal proceedings, therefore, are to be used when the delinquent submits to the law ; and all are just, when he will not be kept in order by the legal.

" The word sedition is generally applied to all numerous assem- blies without or against the authority of the magistrate, or of those who assume that power. Athaliah and Jezebel were more ready to cry out treason than David, i&c. Tumult is from the disorderly manner of those assemblies, where things can seldom be done regularly ; and war is that " decertatio per vim" or trial by force, to which men come when other ways are ineffectual.

" If thelaws of God and men are therefore of no effect when the magistracy is left at liberty to break them, and if the lusts of those who are too strong for the tribunals of justice, cannot be otherwise restrained than by sedition, tumults, and war, \ those .seditions, tumults, and wars, are justified by the laws of God and man.

" I will not take upon me to enumerate all the cases in which this may be done ; but content myself with three, which have

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most frequently given occasion for proceedings of this kind. The first is, when one or more men take upon them the power and name of a magistracy to which they are not justly called. The second, when one or more, being justly called, continue in their magistracy longer than the laws by which they are called do prescribe. And the third, when he, or they, who are rightly called, do assume a power, though within the time prescribed, that the law does not give, or turn that which the law does give, to an end different and contrary to that which is intended by it.

" The same course is justly used against a legal magistrate who takes upon him to exercise a power which the law does not give ; for in that respect he is a private man, — " Quia" as Grotius says, eatenus non habet imperium" — and may be restrained as well as any other ; because he is not set up to do what he lists, but what the law appoints for the good of the people ; and as he has no other power than what the law allows, so the same law limits and directs the exercise of that which he has."

« * "When we speak of a tyrant that may lawfully be dethroned by the people, we do not mean by the word people, the vile popu- lace or rabble of the country, nor the cabal of a small number of factious persons, but the greater and more judicious part of the sub- jects, of all ranks. Besides, the tyranny must be so notorious, and evidently clear, as to leave nobody any room to doubt of it, &c. Now, a prince may easily avoid making himself so universally sus- pected and odious to his subjects; for, as Mr. Locke says in his Treatise of Civil Government, c. 18, § 209, — ' It is as impossible for a governor, if he really means the good of the people, and the pre- servation of them and the laws together, not to make them see and feel it, as it is for the father of a family not to let his children see he loves and takes care of them.' And therefore the general insurrection of a whole nation does not deserve the name of a rebellion. We may see what Mr. Sidney says upon this subject in his Discourse concerning Government : — ' Neither are sub- jects bound to stay till the prince has entirely finished the chains which he is preparing for them, and put it out of their power to oppose. It is sufficient that all the advances which he makes are manifestly tending to their oppression, that he is marching boldly on to the ruin of the State.' In such a case, says Mr.

* Pufendorf's Law of Nature and Nations, 1. vii. c. viii. § 5, 6. Barbey- rac's note on section 6.

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Locke, admirably well, — ' How can a man any more hinder himself from believing, in his own mind, which way things are going, or from casting about to save himself, than he could from believing the captain of the ship he was in was carrying him and the rest of his company to Algiers, when he found him always steering that course, though cross winds, leaks in his ship, and want of men and provisions, did often force him to turn his course another way for some time, which he steadily returned to again, as soon as the winds, weather, and other circumstances would let him ? ' This chiefly takes place with respect to kings, whose power is limited by fundamental laws.

" If it is objected that the people, being ignorant and always discontented, to lay the foundation of government in the un- steady opinion and the uncertain humor of the people, is to expose it to certain ruin ; the same author will answer you, that ' on the contrary, people are not so easily got out of their old forms as some are apt to suggest. England, for instance, notwith- standing the many revolutions that have been seen in that kingdom, has always kept to its old legislative of king, lords, and commons ; and whatever provocations have made the crown to be taken from some of their princes' heads, they never carried the people so far as to place it in another line.' But it will be said, this hypothesis lays a ferment for frequent rebellion. - No more,' says Mr. Locke, ' than any other hypothesis. For when the people are made miserable, and find themselves exposed to the ill usage of arbitrary power, cry up their governors as you will for sons of Jupiter ; let them be sacred and divine, descended or authorized from heaven ; give them out for whom or what you please, the same will happen. The people generally ill treated, and contrary to right, will be ready upon any occasion to ease themselves of a burden that sits heavy upon them. 2. Such revolutions happen not upon every little mismanagement in public affairs. Great mistakes in the ruling part, many wrong and inconvenient laws, and all the slips of human frailty will be borne by the people without mutiny and murmur. 3. This power in the people of providing for their safety anew by a le- gislative, when their legislators have acted contrary to their trust by invading then* property, is the best fence against rebellion, and the probablest means to hinder it ; for rebellion being an oppo- sition, not to persons, but authority, which is founded only in

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the constitutions and laws of the government ; those, whoever they be, who by force break through, and by force justify the vio- lation of them, are truly and properly rebels. For when men, by entering into society and civil government, have excluded force, and introduced laws for the preservation of property, peace, and unity, among themselves ; those who set up force again, in opposition to the laws, do rebellare, that is, do bring back again the state of war, and are properly, rebels,' as the author shows. In the last place, he demonstrates that there are also greater inconveniences in allowing all to those that govern, than in granting something to t^ie people. But it will be said, that ill affected and factious men may spread among the people, and make them believe that the prince or legislative act contrary to their trust, when they only make use of their due prerogative. To this Mr. Locke answers, that the people, however, is to judge of all that ; because nobody can better judge whether his trustee or deputy acts well, and according to the trust reposed in him, than he who deputed him. ' He might make the like query,' (says Mr. Le Clerc, from whom this extract is taken) ' and ask, whether the people being oppressed by an authority which they set up, but for their own good, it is just that those who are vested with this authority, and of which they are complaining, should themselves be judges of the complaints made against them. The greatest flatterers of kings dare not say, that the people are obliged to suffer absolutely all their humors, how irregular soever they be ; and therefore must confess, that when no regard is had to their complaints, the very foundations of society are destroyed ; the prince and people are in a state of war with each other, like two independent states, that are doing themselves justice, and acknowledge no person upon earth, who, in a sovereign manner, can determine the disputes between them," &c.

If there is any thing in these quotations, which is applicable to the destruction of the tea, or any other branch of our subject, it is not my fault ; I did not make it. Surely Grotius, Pufen- dorf, Barbeyrac, Locke, Sidney, and Le Clerc, are writers of sufficient weight to put in the scale against the mercenary scrib- blers in New York and Boston, who have the unexampled impudence and folly, to call these, which are revolution prin- ciples, in question, and to ground their arguments upon passive obedience as a corner stone. What an opinion must these

NOVANGLUS. 85

writers have of the principles of their patrons, the lords Bute, Mansfield, and North, when they hope to recommend themselves by reviving that stupid doctrine, which has been infamous so many years. Dr. Sacheverel himself tells us that his sermons were burnt by the hands of the common hangman, by the order of the king, lords, and commons, in order to fix an eternal and indelible brand of infamy on that doctrine.

In the Gazette of January the 2d, Massachusettensis enter- tains you with an account of his own important self. This is a subject which he has very much at heart, but it is of no conse- quence to you or me, and therefore little need be said of it. If he had such a stand in the community, that he could have seen all the political manoeuvres, it is plain he must have shut his eyes, or he never could have mistaken so grossly, causes for effects, and effects for causes.

He undertakes to point out the principles and motives upon which the Blockade Act was made, which were, according to him, the destruction of the East India Company's tea. He might have said more properly, the ministerial tea ; for such it was, and the company are no losers ; they have received from the public treasury compensation for it.

Then we are amused with a long discourse about the nature of the British government, commerce, agriculture, arts, manufac- tures, regulations of trade, custom-house officers, which, as it has no relation to the subject, I shall pass over.

The case is shortly this, — the East India Company, by their contract with government, in their charter and statute, are bound, in consideration of their important profitable privileges, to pay to the public treasury a revenue annually, of four hundred thou- sand pounds sterling, so long as they can hold up their dividends at twelve per cent., and no longer.

The mistaken policy of the ministry, in obstinately persisting in their claim of right to tax America, and refusing to repeal the duty on tea% with those on glass, paper, and paint, had induced all America, except a few merchants in Boston, most of whom were closely connected with the junto, to refuse to import tea from Great Britain ; the consequence of which was a kind of stagnation in the affairs of the company, and an immense accu- mulation of tea in their stores, which they could not sell. This, among other causes, contributed to affect their credit, and their

VOL. iv. 8

86 NOVANGLUS.

dividends were on the point of falling below twelve per cent, and consequently the government was upon the point of losing four hundred thousand pounds sterling a year of revenue. The company solicited the ministry to take off the duty in America ; but they, adhering to their plan of taxing the colonies and esta- blishing a precedent, framed an act to enable the company to send their tea directly to America. This was admired as a masterpiece of policy. It was thought they would accomplish four great purposes at once, — establish then precedent of taxing America; raise a large revenue there by the duties; save the credit of the company, and the four hundred thousand pounds to the government. The company, however, were so little pleased with this, that there were great debates among the directors, whether they should risk it, which were finally determined by a majority of one only ; and that one, the chairman, being unwilling, as it is said, to interfere in the dispute between the minister and the colonies, and uncertain what the result would be ; and this small majority was not obtained, as it is said, until a sufficient intimation was given, that the company should not be losers.

When these designs were made known, it appeared that American politicians were not to be deceived ; that their sight was as quick and clear as the minister's ; and that they were as steady to their purpose as he was to his. This was thought by all the colonies to be the precise point of time when it became absolutely necessary to make a stand. If the tea should be landed, it would be sold ; if sold, the duties would amount to a large sum, which would be instantly applied to increase the friends and advocates for more duties, and to divide the people ; and the company would get such a footing, that no opposition afterwards could ever be effectual. And as soon as the duties on tea should be established, they would be ranked among post-office fees and other precedents, and used as arguments both of the right and expediency of laying on others, perhaps on all the necessaries, as well as conveniences and luxuries of life. The whole continent was united in the sentiment, that all opposition to parliamentary taxation must be given up forever, if this criti- cal moment was neglected. Accordingly, New York and Phila- delphia determined that the ships should be sent back; and Charleston, that the tea should be stored and locked up. This

NOVANGLUS. 87

was attended with no danger in that city, because they are fully united in sentiment and affection, and have no junto to perplex them. Boston was under greater difficulties. The consignees at New York and Philadelphia most readily resigned. The con- signees at Boston, the children, cousins, and most intimate con- nections of Governor Hutchinson, refused. I am very sorry that I cannot stir a single step in developing the causes of my coun- try's miseries without stumbling upon this gentleman. But so it is. From the near relation and most intimate connection of the consignees with him, there is great cause of jealousy, if not a violent presumption, that he was at the bottom of all this busi- ness; that he had planned it in his confidential letters with Bernard, and both of them joined in suggesting and recommend- ing it to the ministry. Without this supposition, it is difficult to account for the obstinacy with which the consignees refused to resign, and the governor to let the vessel go. However tins might be, Boston is the only place upon the continent, perhaps in the world, which ever breeds a species of misanthropes, who will persist in their schemes for their private interest with such obstinacy, in opposition to the public good ; disoblige all their fellow-citizens for a little pelf, and make themselves odious and infamous, when they might be respected and esteemed. It must be said, however, in vindication of the town, that this breed is spawned chiefly by the junto. The consignees would not resign; the custom-house refused clearances ; Governor Hutchinson re- fused passes by the castle. The question then was with many, whether the governor, officers, and consignees should be com- pelled to send the ships hence? An army and navy was at hand, and bloodshed was apprehended. At last, when the con- tinent, as well as the town and province, were waiting the issue of this deliberation with the utmost anxiety, a number of per- sons, in the night, put them out of suspense, by an oblation to Neptune. I have heard some gentlemen say, " this was a very unjustifiable proceeding," — "that if they had gone at noon-day, and in their ordinary habits, and drowned it in the face of the world, it would have been a meritorious, a most glorious action ; but, to go in the night, and, much more, in disguise, they thought very inexcusable."

" The revenue was not the consideration before parliament," says Massachusettensis. Let who will believe him. But if it

88 NOVANGLUS.

was not, the danger to America was the same. I take no notice of the idea of a monopoly. If it had been only a monopoly, (though in this light it would have been a very great grievance) it would not have excited, nor, in the opinion of any one, justi- fied the step that was taken. It was an attack upon a funda- mental principle of the constitution, and upon that supposition was resisted, after multitudes of petitions to no purpose, and because there was no tribunal in the constitution, from whence redress could have been obtained.

There is one passage so pretty, that I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of transcribing it. "A smuggler and a whig are cousin germans, the offspring of two sisters, avarice and ambition. They had been playing into each other's hands a long time. The smuggler received protection from the whig ; and he in his turn received support from the smuggler. The illicit trader now demanded protection from his kinsman ; and it would have been unnatural in him to have refused it ; and, besides, an opportunity presented of strengthening his own interest."

The wit and beauty of the style in this place, seem to have quite enraptured the lively juvenile imagination of this writer.

The truth of the fact he never regards, any more than the jus- tice of the sentiment. Some years ago, the smugglers might be pretty equally divided between the whigs and the tories. Since that time, they have almost all married into the tory families, for the sake of dispensations and indulgences. If I were to let my- self into secret history, I could tell very diverting stories of smug- gling tories in New York and Boston. Massachusettensis is quarrelling with some of his best friends. Let him learn more discretion.

We are then told that " the consignees offered to store the tea, under the care of the selectmen, or a committee of the town." This expedient might have answered, if none of the junto, nor any of their connections had been in Boston. But is it a wonder, that the selectmen declined accepting such a deposit? They supposed they should be answerable ; and nobody doubted that tories might be found who would not scruple to set fire to the store, in order to make them liable. Besides, if the tea was landed, though only to be stored, the duty must be paid, which, it was thought, was giving up the point.

Another consideration, which had great weight, was, that the

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other colonies were grown jealous of Boston, and thought it already deficient in point of punctuality, against the dutied arti- cles ; and if the tea was once stored, artifices might be used, if not violence, to disperse it abroad. But if through the continual vigilance and activity of the committee and the people, through a whole winter, this should be prevented, yet one tiling was cer- tain, that the tories would write to the other colonies, and to England, thousands of falsehoods concerning it, in order to induce the ministry to persevere, and to sow jealousies, and create divisions among the colonies.

Our acute logician then undertakes to prove the destruction of the tea unjustifiable, even upon the principle of the whigs, that the duty was unconstitutional. The only argument he uses is this, — that "unless we purchase the tea, we shall never pay the duty." This argument is so frivolous, and has been so often confuted and exposed, that if the party had any other, I think they would relinquish this. Where will it carry us ? If a duty was laid upon our horses, we may walk ; if upon our butcher's meat, we may live upon the produce of the dairy ; and if that should be taxed, we may subsist as well as our fellow slaves in Ireland, upon Spanish potatoes and cold water. Were a thou- sand pounds laid upon the birth of every child, if children are not begotten none will be born ; if upon every marriage, no duties will be paid if all the young gentlemen and ladies agree to live bachelors and maidens.

In order to form a rational judgment of the quality of this transaction, and determine whether it was good or evil, we must go to the bottom of this great controversy. If parliament has a right to tax lis, and legislate for us in all cases, the destruction of the tea was unjustifiable ; but if the people of America are right in their principle, that parliament has no such right, that the act of parliament is null and void, and it is lawful to oppose and resist it, the question then is, whether the destruction was neces- sary ; for every principle of reason, justice, and prudence, in such cases, demands that the least mischief shall be done, the least evil, among a number, shall always be preferred.

All men are convinced that it was impracticable to return it, and rendered so by Mr. Hutchinson and the Boston consignees. Whether to have stored it would have answered the end, or been a less mischief than drowning it, I shall leave to the judg-

8*

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merit of the public. The other colonies, it seems, have no scru- ples about it ; for we find that whenever tea arrives in any of them, whether from the East India Company or any other quar- ter, it never fails to share the fate of that in Boston. All men will agree that such steps ought not to be taken but in cases of absolute necessity, and that such necessity must be very clear. But most people in America now think the destruction of the Boston tea was absolutely necessary, and therefore right and just. It is very true, they say, if the whole people had been united in sentiment, and equally stable in their resolution not to buy or drink it, there might have been a reason for preserving it ; but the people here were not so virtuous or so happy. The Bri- tish ministry had plundered the people by illegal taxes, and applied the money in salaries and pensions, by which devices they had insidiously attached to their party no inconsiderable number of persons, some of whom were of family, fortune, and influence, though many of them were of desperate fortunes, each of whom, however, had his circle of friends, connections, and dependants, who were determined to drink tea, both as evidence of their servility to administration, and their contempt and ha- tred of the people. These it was impossible to restrain without violence, perhaps bloodshed, certainly without hazarding more than the tea was worth. To this tribe of the wicked, they say must be added another, perhaps more numerous, of the weak; who never could be brought to think of the consequences of their actions, but would gratify their appetites if they could come at the means. What numbers are there in every community, who have no providence or prudence in their private affairs, but will go on indulging the present appetite, prejudice, or passion, to the ruin of their estates and families, as well as their own health and characters ! How much larger is the number of those who have no foresight for the public, or consideration of the freedom of posterity! Such an abstinence from the tea as would have avoided the establishment of a precedent, dependent on the una- nimity of the people, was a felicity that was unattainable. Must the wise, the virtuous and worthy part of the community, who constituted a very great majority, surrender their liberty, and involve their posterity in misery, in complaisance to a detestable, though small, party of knaves, and a despicable, though more numerous, company of fools ?

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If Boston could have been treated like other places, like New York and Philadelphia, the tea might have gone home from thence, as it did from those cities. That inveterate, desperate junto, to whom we owe all our calamities, were determined to hurt us in this, as in all other cases, as much as they could. It is to be hoped they will one day repent and be forgiven ; but it is very hard to forgive without repentance. When the news of this event arrived in England, it excited such passions in the minister as nothing could restrain; his resentment was enkindled into revenge, rage, and madness ; his veracity was piqued, as his masterpiece of policy proved but a bubble. The bantling was the fruit of a favorite amour, and no wonder that his natural affection was touched, when he saw it despatched before his eyes. His grief and ingenuity, if he had any, were affected at the thought that he had misled the East India Company so much nearer to destruction, and that he had rendered the breach between the kingdom and the colonies almost irreconcilable. His shame was excited because opposition had gained a triumph over him, and the three kingdoms were laughing at him for his obstinacy and his blunders ; instead of relieving the company, he had hastened its ruin ; instead of establishing the absolute and unlimited sove- reignty of parliament over the colonies, he had excited a more decisive denial of, and resistance to it. An election drew nigh, and he dreaded the resentment even of the corrupted electors.

In this state of mind, bordering on despair, he determines to strike a bold stroke. Bernard was near, and did not fail to embrace the opportunity to push the old sytems of the junto. By attacking all the colonies together, by the Stamp Act, and the Paint and Glass Act, they had been defeated. The charter constitution of the Massachusetts Bay, had contributed greatly to both these defeats. Their representatives were too numerous, and too frequently elected, to be corrupted ; their people had been used to consider public affairs in their town meetings ; their counsellors were not absolutely at the nod of a minister or governor, but were once a year equally dependent on the governor and the two houses. Their grand jurors were elective by the people ; their petit jurors were returned merely by lot. Bernard and the junto rightly judged, that by this constitution the people had a check on every branch of power, and, therefore, as long as it lasted, parliamentary taxations, &c. could never be enforced.

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Bernard publishes his select letters, and his principles of polity ; his son writes in defence of the Quebec bill ; hireling garreteers are employed to scribble millions of lies against us, in pamphlets and newspapers ; and setters employed in the coffee-houses, to challenge or knock down all the advocates for the poor Massachusetts. It was now determined, instead of attacking the colonies together, though they had been all equally opposed to the plans of the ministry and the claims of parlia- ment, and therefore, upon ministerial principles, equally guilty, to handle them one by one, and to begin with Boston and the Massachusetts. The destruction of the tea was a fine event for scribblers and speechi tiers to declaim upon ; and there was a hereditary hatred of New England in the minds of many in England, on account of their non-conforming principles. It was likewise thought there was a similar jealousy and ani- mosity in the other colonies against New England ; that they would, therefore, certainly desert her ; that she would be intimi- dated and submit ; and then the minister, among his own friends, would acquire immortal honor, as the most able, skilful and undaunted statesman of the age.

The port bill, charter bill, murder bill, Quebec bill, making altogether such a frightful system, as would have terrified any people, who did not prefer liberty to life, were all concerted at once ; but all this art and violence have not succeeded. This people, under great trials and dangers, have discovered great abilities and virtues, and that nothing is so terrible to them as the loss of their liberties. If these arts and violences are per- sisted in, and still greater, concerted and earned on against them, the world will see that their fortitude, patience, and magnanimity will rise in proportion.

" Had Cromwell," says our — what shall I call him ? "had the guidance of the national ire, your proud capital had been lev- elled with the dust." Is it any breach of charity to suppose that such an event as this would have been a gratification to this writer ? Can we otherwise account for his indulging him- self in a thought so diabolical ? Will he set up Cromwell as a model for his deified lords, Bute, Mansfield, and North ? If he should, there is nothing in the whole history of him so cruel as this. All his conduct in Ireland, as exceptionable as any part of his whole life, affords nothing that can give the least proba-

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bility to the idea of this writer. The rebellion in Ireland was most obstinate, and of many years duration ; one hundred thou- sand Protestants had been murdered in a day, in cold blood, by papists, and therefore Cromwell might plead some excuse, that cruel severities were necessary in order to restore any peace to that kingdom. But all this wall not justify him ; for, as has been observed by a historian, upon his conduct in this instance, " men are not to divest themselves of humanity, and turn them- selves into devils, because policy may suggest that they will succeed better as devils than as men ! " But is there any parity or similitude between a rebellion of a dozen years standing, in which many battles had been fought, many thousands fallen in war, and one hundred thousand massacred in a day ; and the drowning three cargoes of tea ? To what strains of malevo- lence, to what nights of diabolical fury, is not tory rage capable of transporting men ?

" The whigs saw their ruin connected with a compliance with the terms of opening the port." They saw the ruin of their country connected with such a compliance, and their own in- volved in it. But they might have easily voted a compliance, for they were undoubtedly a vast majority, and have enjoyed the esteem and affection of their fellow-slaves to their last hours. Several of them could have paid for the tea and never have felt the loss. They knew they must suffer vastly more than the tea was worth ; but they thought they acted for America and pos- terity ; and that they ought not to take such a step without the advice of the colonies. They have declared our cause their own ; that they never will submit to a precedent in any part of the united colonies, by which parliament may take away wharves and other lawful estates, or demolish charters; for if they do, they have a moral certainty that, in the course of a few years, every right of Americans will be taken away, and governors and councils, holding at the will of the minister, will be the only legislatives in the colonies.

A pompous account of the addressers of Mr. Hutchinson then follows. They consisted of his relations, his fellow-laborers in the tory vineyard, and persons whom he had raised in the course of four administrations, Shirley's, Pownal's, Bernard's, and his own, to places in the province. Considering the indus- try that was used, and the vast number of persons in the pro-

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vince who had received commissions under government upon his recommendation, the small number of subscribers that was obtained, is among a thousand demonstrations of the unanimity of this people. If it had been thought worth while to have pro- cured a remonstrance against him, fifty thousand subscribers might have been easily found. Several gentlemen of property were among these addressers, and some of fair character; but their acquaintance and friendships lay among the junto and their subalterns entirely. Besides, did these addressers approve the policy or justice of any one of the bills, which were passed the last session of the late parliament ? Did they acknowledge the unlimited authority of parliament ? The Middlesex magistrates remonstrated against taxation; but they were flattered with hopes, that Mr. Hutchinson would get the Port Bill, &c. repealed ; that is, that he would have undone all, which every one but themselves knew he has been doing these fifteen years.

But these patriotic endeavors were defeated. By what ? By " an invention of the fertile brain of one of our party agents, called a_ committee of correspondence. __ This is the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous serpent that ever issued from the eggs \ of sedition.'"

I should rather call it the ichneumon, a very industrious, active, and useful animal, which was worshipped in Egypt as a divi- nity, because it defended the country from the ravages of the crocodiles. It was the whole occupation of this little creature to destroy those wily and ravenous monsters. It crushed their eggs, wherever they laid them, and, with a wonderful address and courage, would leap into their mouths, penetrate their entrails, and never leave until it destroyed them.

If the honor of this invention is due to the gentleman who is generally understood by the " party agent" of Massachusettensis, it belongs to one to whom America has erected a statue in her heart, for his integrity, fortitude, and perseverance in her cause. That the invention itself is very useful and important, is suffi- ciently clear, from the unlimited wrath of the tories against it, and from the gall which this writer discharges upon it. Almost all mankind have lost their liberties through ignorance, inatten- tion, and disunion. These committees are admirably calculated to diffuse knowledge, to communicate intelligence, and promote unanimity. If the high whigs are generally of such commit-

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tees, it is because the freeholders who choose them are such, and therefore prefer their peers. The tories, high or low, if they can make interest enough among the people, may get themselves chosen, and promote the great cause of parliamentary revenues, and the other sublime doctrines and mysteries of toryism. That these committees think themselves " amenable to none," is false ; for there is not a man upon any one of them who does not acknowledge himself to hold his place at the pleasure of his constituents, and to be accountable to them, whenever they demand it. If the committee of the town of Boston was ap- pointed for a special purpose, at first, their commission has been renewed from time to time ; they have been frequently thanked by the town for their vigilance, activity, and disinterested labors in the public service. Their doings have been laid before the town, and approved of by it. The malice of the tories has several times swelled open their bosoms, and broken out into the most intemperate and illiberal invectives against it; but all in vain. It has only served to show the impotence of the tories, and increase the importance of the committee.

These committees cannot be too religiously careful of the exact truth of the intelligence they receive or convey ; nor too anxious for the rectitude and purity of the measures they pro- pose or adopt ; they should be very sure that they do no injury to any man's person, property, or character ; and they are generally persons of such worth, that I have no doubt of their attention to these rules ; and therefore, that the reproaches of this writer are mere slanders.

If we recollect how many states have lost their liberties, merely from want of communication with each other, and union among themselves, we shall think that these committees may be intended by Providence to accomplish great events. What the eloquence and talents of negotiation of Demosthenes himself could not effect, among the states of Greece, might have been effected by so simple a device. Castile, Arragon, Valencia, Majorca, &c. all complained of oppression under Charles V., flew out into transports of rage, and took arms against him. But they never consulted or communicated with each other. They resisted separately, and were separately subdued. Had Don Juan Padilla, or his wife, been possessed of the genius to invent a committee of correspondence, perhaps the liberties of

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the Spanish nation might have remained to this hour, without any necessity to have had recourse to arms. Hear the opinion of Dr. Robertson : — " While the spirit of disaffection was so general among the Spaniards, and so many causes concurred in precipitating them into such violent measures in order to obtain the redress of then grievances, it may appear strange that the male- contents in the different kingdoms should have carried on their operations without any mutual concert, or even any intercourse with each other. By uniting their councils and arms, they might have acted both with greater force and with more effect. The appearance of a national confederacy would have rendered it no less respectable among the people, than formidable to the crown ; and the emperor, unable to resist such a combination, must have complied with any terms which the members of it should have thought fit to prescribe."

That it is owing to those committees that so many persons have been found to recant and resign, and so many others to fly to the army, is a mistake ; for the same things would have taken place if such a committee had never been in being, and such per- sons would probably have met with much rougher usage. This writer asks, — " Have not these persons as good a right to think and act for themselves as the whigs ? " I answer, yes. But if any man, whig or tory, shall take it into his head to think for himself, that he has a right to take my property without my consent, how- ever tender I may be of the right of private judgment and the free- dom of thought, this is a point in which I shall be very likely to differ from him, and to think for myself, that I have a right to resist him. If any man should think ever so conscientiously, that the Roman Catholic religion is better than the Protestant, or that the French government is preferable to the British constitu- tion in its purity, Protestants and Britons will not be so tender of that man's conscience as to suffer him to introduce his favorite religion and government. So, the well-bred gentlemen, who are so polite as to think that the charter constitution of this province ought to be abolished, and another introduced, wholly at the will of a minister or the crown, or that our ecclesiastical constitution is bad, and high church ought to come in ; few people will be so tender of these consciences, or complaisant to such polite taste, as to suffer the one or the other to be established. There are certain prejudices among the people so strong as to be irresistible.

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Reasoning is vain, and opposition idle. For example, there are certain popular maxims and precepts called the ten command- ments. Suppose a number of fine gentlemen, superior to the pre- judices of education, should discover that these were made for the common people, and are too illiberal for gentlemen of refined taste to observe, and accordingly, should engage in secret, confi- dential correspondences to procure an act of parliament to abolish the whole decalogue, or to exempt them from all obligation to observe it ; if they should succeed, and their letters be detected, such is the force of prejudice and deep habits among the lower sort of people, that it is much to be questioned whether those refined geniuses would be allowed to enjoy themselves in the latitude of their sentiments. I once knew a man who had studied Jacob Behmen, and other mystics, until he conscien- tiously thought the millennium commenced, and all human authority at an end ; that the saints only had a right to pro- perty, and to take from sinners any thing they wanted. In this persuasion, he very honestly stole a horse. Mankind pitied the poor man's infirmity, but thought it, however, their duty to con- fine him, thatjie might steal no more.

The freedom of thinking was never yet extended in any coun- try so far as the utter subversion of all religion and morality, \J nor as the abolition of the laws and constitution of the country.

But " are not these persons as closely connected with the interest of their country as the whigs ? . I answer, they are not ; they have found an interest in opposition to that of their country, and are making themselves rich and their families illustrious by depressing and destroying their country. But " do not their for- mer lives and conversations appear to have been regulated by principles, as much as those of the whigs ? " A few of them, it must be acknowledged, until seduced by the bewitching charms of wealth and power, appeared to be men of principle. But tak- ing the whigs and tories on an average, the balance of principle, as well as genius, learning, wit, and wealth, is infinitely in favor of the former. As to some of these fugitives, they are known to be men of no principles at all, in religion, morals, or government.

But the " policy " is questioned, and you are asked if you expect to make converts by it ? As to the policy or impolicy of it, I have nothing to say ; but we do not expect to make con- verts of most of those persons by any means whatever, as long

VOL. IV. 9 G

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as tbey have any hopes that the ministry will place and pension them. The instant these hopes are extinguished, we all know they will be converted of course. Converts from places and pensions are only to be made by places and pensions ; all other reasoning is idle ; these are the penultima ratio of the tories, as field-pieces are the ultima.

That we are " not unanimous " is certain. But there are nine- teen on one side to one on the other, through the province ; and ninety-nine out of a hundred of the remaining twentieth part, can be fairly shown to have some sinister private view, to induce them to profess his opinion.

Then we are threatened high, that " this is a changeable world, and time's rolling wheel may ere long bring them upper- most, and, in that case, we should not wish to have them fraught with resentment."

To all this we answer, without ceremony, that they always have been uppermost, in every respect, excepting only the esteem and affection of the people ; that they always have been fraught with resentment, (even then- cunning and policy have not re- strained them,) and we know they always will be ; that they have indulged their resentment and malice, in every instance in which they had power to do it ; and we know that their revenge will never have other limits than their power.

Then this consistent writer begins to flatter the people ; he " appeals to their good sense ; he knows they have it;" the same people whom he has so many times represented as mad and foolish.

" I know you are loyal, and friends to good order." This is the same people that, in the whole course of his writings, he has represented as continuing for ten years together in a continual state of disorder, demolishing the chair, board, supreme court, and encouraging all sorts of riots, insurrections, treason, and rebellion. Such are the shifts to which a man is driven, when he aims at carrying a point, not at discovering truth !

The people are then told that " they have been insidiously taught to believe, that Great Britain is rapacious, cruel, and vindictive, and envies us the inheritance purchased by the sweat and blood of our ancestors." The people do not believe this ; they will not believe it. On the contrary, they believe, if it was not for scandals constantly transmitted from this province by the

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tories, the nation would redress our grievances. Nay, as little as they reverence the ministry, they even believe that the lords North, Mansfield, and Bute, would relieve them, and would have done it long ago, if they had known the truth. The moment this is done, " long live our gracious king, and happiness to Bri- tain," will resound from one end of the province to the other ; but it requires very little foresight to determine, that no other plan of governing the province and the colonies will ever restore a harmony between two countries, but desisting from the plan of taxing them and interfering with their internal concerns, and returning to that system of colony administration, which nature dictated, and experience for one hundred and fifty years found useful.

No. Vii

NO. VII.

Our rhetorical magician, in his paper of January the 9th, con- tinues to wheedle : You want nothing but " to know the true state of facts, to rectify whatever is amiss." He becomes an advocate for the poor of Boston ! is for making great allowance for the whigs. " The whigs are too valuable a part of the com- munity to lose. • He would not draw down the vengeance of Great Britain. He shall become an advocate for the leading whigs," &c. It is in vain for us to inquire after the sincerity or consistency of all this. It is agreeable to the precept of Horace :

Irritat, mulcet, falsis terroribus impiety Ut magus,

And that is all he desires.

After a long discourse, which has nothing in it but what has been answered already, he comes to a great subject indeed, the ^British constitution ; and undertakes to prove, that " the author- ity of parliament extends to the colonies."

Why will not this writer state the question fairly ? The whigs allow that, from the necessity of a case not provided for by com- mon law, and to supply a defect in the British dominions, which there undoubtedly is, if they are to be governed only by that law, America has all along consented, still consents, and ever will consent, that parliament, being the most powerful legislature in the dominions, should regulate the trade of the dominions.

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This is founding the authority of parliament to regulate our trade, upon compact and consent of the colonies, not upon any principle of common or statute law; hot upon any original principle of the English constitution ; not upon the principle that parliament is the supreme and sovereign legislature over them in all cases whatsoever. The question is not, therefore, whether the authority of parliament extends to the colonies in any case, for it is admitted by the whigs, that it does in that of commerce ; but whether it extends in all cases.

We are then detained with a long account of the three simple forms of government ; and are told, that " the British constitu- tion, consisting of king, lords, and commons, is formed upon the principles of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, in due pro- portion ; that it includes the principal excellences, and excludes the principal defects of the other kinds of government, — the most perfect system that the wisdom of ages has produced, and Englishmen glory in being subject to, and protected by it."

Then we are told, " that the colonies are a part of the British empire." But what are we to understand by this ? Some of the colonies, most of them, indeed, were settled before the king- dom of Great Britain was brought into existence. The union of England and Scotland was made and established by act of parliament in the reign of Queen Anne, and it was this union and statute which erected the kingdom of Great Britain. The colonies were settled long before, in the reigns of the Jameses and Charleses. What authority over them had Scotland ? Scot- land, England, and the colonies were all under one king before that ; the two crowns of England and Scotland united on the head of James I., and continued united on that of Charles I., when our first charter was granted. Our charter, being granted by him, who was king of both nations, to our ancestors, most of whom were post nati, born after the union of the two crowns, and consequently, as was adjudged in Calvin's case, free, natural subjects of Scotland, as well as England, — had not the king as good a right to have governed the colonies by his Scottish, as by his English parliament, and to have granted our charters under the seal of Scotland, as well as that of England ?

But to wave this. If the English parliament were to govern us, where did they get the right, without our consent, to take the Scottish parliament into a participation of the government over

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us? When this was done, was the American share of the democracy of the constitution consulted ? If not, were not the Americans deprived of the benefit of the democratical part of the constitution? And is not the democracy as essential to the English constitution as the monarchy or aristocracy ? Should we have been more effectually deprived of the benefit of the British or English constitution, if one or both houses of par- liament, or if our house and council, had made this union with the two houses of parliament in Scotland, without the king?

If a new constitution was to be formed for the whole British dominions, and a supreme legislature coextensive with it, upon the general principles of the English constitution, an equal mix- ture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, let us see what would be necessary. England has six millions of people, we will say ; America had three. England has five hundred mem- bers in the house of commons, we will say; America must have two hundred and fifty. Is it possible she should maintain them there, or could they at such a distance know the state, the sense, or exigencies of their constituents ? Ireland, too, must be incor- porated, and send another hundred or two of members. The terri- tory in the East Indies and West India Islands must send mem- bers. And after all this, every navigation act, every act of trade must be repealed. America, and the East and West Indies, and Africa too, must have equal liberty to trade with all the world, that the favored inhabitants of Great Britain have now. Will the ministry thank Massachusettensis for becoming an advocate for such a union, and incorporation of all the dominions of the King of Great Britain ? Yet, without such a union, a legisla- ture which shall be sovereign and supreme in all cases whatso- ever, and coextensive with the empire, can never be established upon the general principles of the English constitution which Massachusettensis lays down, namely, — an equal mixture of mo- narchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Nay, further, in order to comply with this principle, this new government, this mighty colossus, which is to bestride the narrow world, must have a house of lords, consisting of Irish, East and West Indian, Afri- can, American, as well as English and Scottish noblemen ; for the nobility ought to be scattered about all the dominions, as well as the representatives of the commons. If in twenty years more America should have six millions of inhabitants, as there 9*

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is a boundless territory to fill up, she must have five hundred representatives. Upon these principles, if in forty years she should have twelve millions, a thousand ; and if the inhabitants of the three kingdoms remain as they are, being already full of inhabit- ants, what will become of your supreme legislative? It will be translated, crown and all, to America. This is a sublime system for America. It will flatter those ideas of independency which the tories impute to them, if they have any such, more than any other plan of independency that I have ever heard projected.

" The best writers upon the law of nations tell us, that when a nation takes possession of a distant country, and settles there, that country, though separated from the principal establishment, or mother country, naturally becomes a part of the state, equal with its ancient possessions." We are not told who these " best writers " are. I think we ought to be introduced to them. But their meaning may be no more, than that it is best they should be incorporated with the ancient establishment by contract, or by some new law and institution, by which the new country shall have equal right, powers, and privileges, as well as equal protection, and be under equal obligations of obedience, with the old. Has there been any such contract between Britain and the colonies ? Is America incorporated into the realm ? Is it a part of the realm ? Is it a part of the kingdom ? Has it any share in the legislative of the realm ? The constitution requires that every foot of land should be represented in the third estate, the democratical branch of the constitution. How many mil- lions of acres in America, how many thousands of wealthy landholders, have no representatives there ?

But let these " best writers " say what they will, there is no- y/ thing in the law of nations, which is only the law of right reason applied to the conduct of nations, that requires that emigrants from a state should continue, or be made, a part of the state.

The practice of nations has been different. The Greeks planted colonies, and neither demanded nor pretended any authority over them ; but they became distinct, independent commonwealths. The Romans continued their colonies under the jurisdiction of the mother commonwealth ; but, nevertheless, they allowed them the privileges of cities. Indeed, that sagacious city seems to have been aware of difficulties similar to those under which Great

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Britain is now laboring. She seems to have been sensible of the impossibility of keeping colonies planted at great distances, under the absolute control of her senatus-consulla. Harrington tells us, s~ that " the commonwealth of Rome, by planting colonies of its citizens within the bounds of Italy, took the best way of propa- gating itself and naturalizing the country; whereas, if it had planted such colonies without the bounds of Italy, it would have alienated the citizens, and given a root to liberty abroad, that might have sprung up foreign, or savage, and hostile to her; ivherefore it never made any such dispersion of itself and its strength till it was under the yoke of the emperors, who, disburdening themselves of the people, as having less apprehension of what they could do abroad than at home, took a contrary course." * But these Italian cities, although established by decrees of the senate of Rome, to which the colonist was always party, either as a Roman citizen about to emigrate, or as a conquered enemy treating upon terms, were always allowed all the rights of Roman citizens, and were governed by senates of then* own. It was the policy of Rome to conciliate her colonies by allowing them equal liberties with her citizens. Witness the example of the Privernates. This people had been conquered, and, complaining * of oppressions, revolted. At last they sent ambassadors to Rome to treat of peace. The senate was divided in opinion. Some were for violent, others for lenient measures. In the course of the debate, a senator, whose opinion was for bringing them to his feet, proudly asked one of the ambassadors what punishment he thought his countrymen deserved. "Earn, inquit, quam merentur, qui se libertate dignos cement." That punishment which those deserve who think themselves worthy of liberty. Another sena- tor, seeing that the ministerial members were exasperated with the honest answer, in order to divert their anger, asks another question : — What if we remit all punishment ? What kind of a peace may we hope for with you ? " Si bonam dederitis, inquit, et fidam et perpetuam ; si malam, hand diuturnam." If you give us a just peace, it will be faithfully observed, and perpe- tually ; but if a bad one, it will not last long. The ministerial senators all on fire at this answer, cried out sedition and re- bellion ; but the wiser majority decreed, — " Viri et liberi, vocem

* Oceana, p. 43.

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auditam; an credi posse ullum populum, aut hominem denique, in ea conditione, cujus eum pceniteat, diulius quam necesse sit mansu- rum ? Ibi pacem esse fidam, ubi vohmtarii pacati sint ; neque eo loco, ubi servitntem esse velint, fidem sperandam esse" That they had heard the voice of a man, and a son of liberty ; that it was not natural or credible that any people, or any man, would continue longer than necessity should compel him in a condition that grieved and displeased him. A faithful peace was to be expected from men whose affections were conciliated ; nor was any kind of fidelity to i>e expected from slaves. The consul ex- claimed, — "Eos demum, qui nihil prmterquam de libertate cogitent, dignos esse qui Romani fiantP That they who regarded no- thing so much as their liberty, deserved to be Romans. "Itaque et in senatu causam obtinuere ; et ex auctoritate patrum, latum ad populum est, id Privernatibus civitas daretur" Therefore the Privernates obtained their cause in the senate ; and it was, by the authority of those fathers, recommended to the people, that the privileges of a city should be granted them. The practice of free nations only can be adduced, as precedents of what the law of nature 'has been thought to dictate upon this subject of colonies. Their practice is different. The senate and people of Rome did not interfere commonly by making laws for their colonies, but left them to be ruled by governors and senates. Can Massachusettensis produce from the whole history of Rome, or from the Digest, one example of a senatus-consultum, or a ple- biscitum, laying taxes on the colony ?

Having mentioned the wisdom of the Romans, for not plant- ing colonies out of Italy, and their reasons for it, I cannot help recollecting an observation of Harrington : — " For the colonies in the Indies," says he, " they are yet babes, that cannot live without sucking the breasts of their mother cities, but such as I mistake, if, when they come of age, they do not wean themselves, which causes me to wonder at princes that delight to be exhausted in that way." This was written one hundred and twenty years ago ; the colonies are now nearer manhood than ever Harring- ton foresaw they would arrive in such a period of time. Is it not astonishing, then, that any British minister should ever have considered this subject so little as to believe it possible for him to new-model all our governments, to tax us by an authority that never taxed us before, and subdue us to an implicit obedi-

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ence to a legislature that millions of us scarcely ever thought any thing about ?

I have said, that the practice of free governments alone can be quoted with propriety to show the sense of nations. But the sense and practice of nations is not enough. Their practice must be reasonable, just, and right, or it will not govern Ameri- cans.

Absolute monarchies, whatever their practice may be, are nothing to us ; for, as Harrington observes, " Absolute monarchy, as that of the Turks, neither plants its people at home nor abroad, otherwise than as tenants for life or at will ; wherefore, its national and provincial government is all one."

I deny, therefore, that the practice of free nations, or the opi- nions of the best writers upon the law of nations, will warrant the position of Massachusettensis,1 that, " when a nation takes possession of a distant territory, that becomes a part of the state equally with its ancient possessions." The practice of free nations and the opinions of the best writers are in general on the contrary.

I agree, that " two supreme and independent authorities can- not exist in the same state," any more than two supreme beings in one universe ; and, therefore, 1^ contend, that our provincial legislatures are the only supreme authorities in our colonies. i Parliament, notwithstanding this, may be allowed an authority supreme and sovereign over the ocean, which may be limited by the banks of the ocean, or the bounds of our charters ; our char- ters give us no authority over the high seas. Parliament has our consent to assume a jurisdiction over them. And here is a

1 " The colonies are a part of the British empire. The best writers upon the law of nations tell us, that when a nation takes possession of a distant country, and settles there, that country, though separated from the principal establish- ment, or mother country, naturally becomes a part of the state, equal with its ancient possessions. Two supreme or independent authorities cannot exist in the same state. It would be what is called imperium in i?nperio, the height of political absurdity. The analogy between the political and human body is great. Two independent authorities in a state would be like two distinct principles of volition and action in the human body, dissenting, opposing, and destroying each other. If, then, we are a part of the British empire, we must be subject to the supreme power of the state, which is vested in the estates of parliament, not- Avithstanding each of the colonies have legislative and executive powers of their own, delegated or granted to them, for the purposes of regulating their own in- ternal police, which are subordinate to, and must necessarily be subject to the checks, control, and regulation of the supreme authority." Massachusettensis.

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line fairly drawn between the rights of Britain and the rights of the colonies, namely, the banks of the ocean, or low-water mark; the line of division between common law, and civil or maritime law. If this is not sufficient, — if parliament are at a loss for any principle of natural, civil, maritime, moral, or common law, on which to ground any authority over the high seas, the Atlan- tic especially, let the colonies be treated like reasonable crea- tures, and they will discover great ingenuity and modest}'. The acts of trade and navigation might be confirmed by provincial laws, and carried into execution by our own courts and juries, and in this case, illicit trade would be cut up by the roots for- ever. I knew the smuggling tories in New York and Boston would cry out against this, because it would not only destroy then profitable game of smuggling, but their whole place and pension system. But the whigs, that is, a vast majority of the whole continent, would not regard the smuggling tories. In one word$ if public principles, and motives, and arguments were alone to determine this dispute between the two countries, it might be settled forever in a few hours; but the everlasting clamors of prejudice, passion, and private interest drown every consideration of that sort, and are precipitating us into a civil war.

" If, then, we are a part of the British empire, we must be subject to the supreme power of the state, which is vested in the estates in parliament."

Here, again, we are to be conjured out of our senses by the magic in the words " British empire," and " supreme power of the state." But, however it may sound, I say we are not a part of the British empire ; because the British government is not an empire. The governments of France, Spain, &c. are not em- pires, but monarchies, supposed to be governed by fixed funda- mental laws, though not really. The British government is still less entitled to the style of an empire. It is a limited monarchy. If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men. If this definition be just, the British constitution is nothing more nor less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate. This office being hereditary, and being possessed of such ample and splendid prerogatives, is no objection to the

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government's being a republic, as long as it is bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend. An empire is a despotism, and an emperor a despot, bound by no law or limitation but his own will ; it is a stretch of tyranny beyond absolute monarchy. For, although the will of an absolute monarch is law, yet his edicts must be registered by parliaments. Even this formality is not necessary in an empire. There the maxim is quod principi placuit leg-is habet vigor cm, even without having that will and pleasure recorded. There are but three empires now in Europe, the German or Holy Roman, the Russian, and the Ottoman.

There is another sense, indeed, in which the word empire is used, in which it may be applied to the government of Geneva, or any other republic, as well as to monarchy or despotism. In this sense it is synonymous with government, rule, or dominion. In this sense we are within the dominion, rule, or government of the King of Great Britain.

The question should be, whether we are a part of the king- dom of Great Britain. This is the only language known in English laws. We are not then a part of the British kingdom, realm, or state ; and therefore the supreme power of the king- dom, realm, or state is not, upon these principles, the supreme power of us. That " supreme power over America is vested in the estates in parliament," is an affront to us ; for there is not an acre of American land represented there ; there are no American estates in parliament.

To say, that we " must be " subject, seems to betray a con- sciousness that we are not by any law, or upon any principles but those of mere power ; and an opinion that we ought to be, or that it is necessary that we should be. But if this should be admitted for argument's sake only, what is the consequence ? The consequences that may fairly be drawn are these ; that Britain has been imprudent enough to let colonies be planted, until they are become numerous and important, without ever having wisdom enough to concert a plan for their government, consistent with her own welfare; that now it is necessary to make them submit to the authority of parliament ; and, because there is no principle of law, or justice, or reason, by which she can effect it, therefore she will resort to war and conquest — to the maxim, delcrida est Carthago. These are the consequences,

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according to this writer's idea. We think the consequences are, that she has, after one hundred and fifty years, discovered a defect in her government, which ought to be supplied by some just and reasonable means, that is, by the consent of the colo- nies ; for metaphysicians and politicians may dispute forever, but they will never find any other moral principle or foundation of rule or obedience, than the consent of governors and governed. She has found out that the great machine will not go any longer without a new wheel. She will make this herself. We think she is making it of such materials and workmanship as will tear the whole machine to pieces. We are willing, if she can con- vince us of the necessity of such a wheel, to assist with artists and materials in making it, so that it may answer the end. But she says, we shall have no share in it ; and if we will not let her patch it up as she pleases, her Massachusettensis and other ad- vocates tell us, she will tear it to pieces herself, by cutting our throats. To this kind of reasoning, we can only answer, that we will not stand still to be butchered. We will defend our lives as long as Providence shall enable us.

" It is beyond doubt, that it was the sense both of the parent country and our ancestors, that they were to remain subject to parliament." 1

This has been often asserted, and as often contradicted and fully confuted. The confutation may not, however, have come to every eye which has read this newspaper.

The public acts of kings and ministers of state, in that age when our ancestors emigrated, which were not complained of, remonstrated and protested against by the commons, are looked upon as sufficient proof of the " sense " of the parent country.

The charter to the treasurer and company of Virginia, 23 May, 1609, grants ample powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, and then contains an express covenant, " to and with the said treasurer and company, their successors, factors, and assigns, that they, and every of them, shall be free

1 " It is beyond a doubt, that it was the sense both of the parent country, and our ancestors, that they were to remain subject to parliament. It is evident, from the charter itself; and this authority has been exercised by parliament from time to time, almost ever since the first settlement of the country, and has been expressly acknowledged by our provincial legislatures. It is not less our interest than our duty, to continue subject to the authority of parliament, which will be more fully considered hereafter." Massachusettensis.

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from all taxes and impositions forever, upon any goods or mer- chandises, at any time or times hereafter, either upon importation thither, or exportation from thence, into our realm of England, or into any other of our realms or dominions."

I agree with this writer, that the authority of a supreme legis- lature includes the right of taxation. Is not this quotation, then, an irresistible proof, that it was not " the sense of King James or his ministers, or of the ancestors of the Virginians, that they were to remain subject to parliament as a supreme legislature ?"

After this, James issued a proclamation recalling the patent, but this was never regarded. Then Charles issued another pro- clamation, which produced a remonstrance from Virginia, which was answered by a letter from the lords of the privy council, 22 July, 1634, containing the royal assurance, that " all their estates, trade, freedom, and privileges should be enjoyed by them in as extensive a manner as they enjoyed them before those proclama- tions." ^

Here is another evidence of the sense of the king and his ministers.

Afterwards, parliament sent a squadron of ships to Virginia ; the colony rose in open resistance, until the parliamentary com- missioners granted them conditions, that they should enjoy the privileges of Englishmen ; that their assembly should transact the affairs of the colonies ; that they should have a free trade to all places and nations, as the people of England ; and fourthly, that " Virginia shall be free from all taxes, customs, and impo- sitions whatever, and none to be imposed on them without consent of the grand assembly; and so that neither forts nor castles be erected, or garrisons maintained, without their con- sent."

One would think this was evidence enough of the sense both of the parent country and our ancestors.

After the acts of navigation were passed, Virginia sent agents to England, and a remonstrance against those acts. Charles, in answer, sent a declaration under the privy seal, 19 April, 1676, affirming " that taxes ought not to be laid upon the inhabit- ants and proprietors of the colony, but by the common consent of the general assembly ; except such impositions as the parlia- ment should lay on the commodities imported into England from

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the colony." And he ordered a charter under the great seal, to secure this right to the Virginians.

What becomes of the " sense of the parent country and our ancestors" ? for the ancestors of the Virginians are our ancestors, when we speak of ourselves as Americans.

From Virginia let us pass to Maryland. Charles I., in 1633, gave a charter to the Baron of Baltimore, containing ample powers of government, and this express covenant : u to and with the said Lord Baltimore^ his heirs and assigns, that we, our heirs and successors, shall at no time hereafter, set or make, or cause to be set, any imposition, custom, or other taxation, rate, or con- tribution whatsoever, in and upon the dwellings and inhabitants of the aforesaid province, for their lands, tenements, goods, or chattels within the said province; or to be laden or unladen, within the ports or harbors of the said province."

What, then, was the " sense of the parent country and the ancestors" of Maryland ? But if, by " our ancestors," he confines his idea to New England, or this province, let us consider. The first planters of Plymouth were " our ancestors " in the 'strictest sense. They had no charter or patent for the land they took possession of; and derived no authority from the English parlia- ment or crown to set up their government. hey purchased land of the Indians, and set up a government of their own, on the simple principle of nature ; and afterwards purchased a patent for the land of the council at Plymouth ; but never purchased any charter for government, of the crown or the king, and con- tinued to exercise all the powers of government, legislative, exe- cutive, and judicial, upon the plain ground of an original con- tract among independent individuals for sixty-eight years, that is, until their incorporation with Massachusetts by our present charter. The same may be said of the colonies which emigrated to Say-Brook, New Haven, and other parts of Connecticut. They seem to have had no idea of dependence on parliament, any more than on the conclave. The Secretary of Connecticut has now in his possession an original letter from Charles II. to that colony, in which he considers them rather as Jriendly allies, than as subjects to his English parliament; and even requests them to pass a law in their assembly relative to piracy.

The sentiments of your ancestors in the Massachusetts, may be learned from almost every ancient paper and record. It

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would be endless to recite all the passages, in which it appears that they thought themselves exempt from the authority of par- liament, not only in the point of taxation, but in all cases what- soever. Let me mention one. Randolph, one of the prede- cessors of Massachusettensis, in a representation to Charles II., dated 20 September, 1676, says, " I went to visit the governor at his house, and, among other discourse, I told him, I took notice of several ships that were arrived at Boston, some since my being there, from Spain, France, Straits, Canaries, and other parts of Em-ope, contrary to your majesty's laws for encouraging navigation and regulating the trade of the plantations. He freely declared to me, that the law made by your majesty and your parliament, obligeth them in nothing but what consists with the interest of that colony; that the legislative power is and abides in them solely to act and make laws by virtue of a charter from your majesty's royal father." Here is a positive assertion of an exemption from the authority of parliament, even in the case of the regulation of trade.

Afterwards, in 1677, the general court passed a law which shows the sense of our ancestors in a very strong light. It is in these words : —

" This court being informed, by letters received this day from our messengers, of his majesty's expectation, that the acts of trade and navigation be exactly and punctually observed by this his majesty's colony, his pleasure therein not having before now been signified unto us, either by express from his majesty or any of his ministers of state :

" It is therefore hereby ordered, and by the authority of this court enacted, that henceforth, all masters of ships, ketches, or other vessels, of greater or lesser burthen, arriving in, or sailing from any of the ports in this jurisdiction, do, without coven or fraud, yield faithful and constant obedience unto, and observa- tion of, all the said acts of navigation and trade, on penalty of suffering such forfeitures, loss, and damage, as in the said acts are particularly expressed. And the governor and council, and all officers commissionated and authorized by them, are hereby ordered and required to see to the strict observation of the said acts."

As soon as they had passed this law, they wrote a letter to their agent, in which they acknowledge they had not conformed

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to the acts of trade ; and they say, they " apprehended them to be an invasion of the rights, liberties, and properties of the sub- jects of his majesty in the colony, they not being represented in parliament; and, according to the usual sayings of the learned in the law, the laws of England were bounded within the four seas, and did not reach America. However, as his majesty had signified his pleasure that these acts should be observed in the Massachusetts, they had made provision, by a law of the colony, that they should be strictly attended to from time to time, although it greatly discouraged trade, and was a great damage to his majesty's plantation."

Thus, it appears, that the ancient Massachusettensians and Virginians had precisely the same sense of the authority of par- liament, namely, — that it had none at all ; and the same sense of the necessity that, by the voluntary act of the colonics — their free, cheerful consent — it should be allowed the power of regulat- ing trade ; and this is precisely the idea of the late congress at Philadelphia, expressed in the fourth proposition in their Bill of Rights.

But this was the sense of the parent country, too, at that time ; for King Charles II., in a letter to the Massachusetts, after this law had been laid before him, has these words : " We are informed that you have lately made some good provision for observing the acts of trade and navigation, which is well pleas- ing unto us." Had he or his ministers an idea that parlia- ment was the sovereign legislative over the colony ? If he had, would he not have censured this law, as an insult to that legis- lative ?

I sincerely hope we shall see no more such round affirmations, that " it was the sense of the parent country and our ancestors, that they were to remain subject to parliament." So far from thinking themselves subject to parliament, it is clear that, during the interregnum, it was their desire and design to have been a free commonwealth, an independent republic; and after the restoration, it was with the utmost reluctance that, in the course of sixteen or seventeen years, they were brought to take the oaths of allegiance ; and for some time after this, they insisted upon talcing an oath of fidelity to the country, before that of allegiance to the king.

That " it is evident, from the charter itself, that they were to

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remain subject to parliament," is very unaccountable, when there is not one word in either charter concerning parliament.

That the authority of parliament " has been exercised almost ever since the first settlement of the country," is a mistake ; for there is no instance, until the first Navigation Act, which was in 1660, more than forty years after the first settlement. This act was never executed nor regarded until seventeen years afterwards, and then it was not executed as an act of parliament, but as a law of the colony, to which the king agreed.

This " has been expressly acknowledged by our provincial legislatures." There is too much truth in this. It has been twice acknowledged by our house of representatives, that parlia- ment was the supreme legislative ; but this was directly repug- nant to a multitude of other votes, by which it was denied. This was in conformity to the distinction between taxation and legislation, which has since been found to be a distinction with- out a difference.

When a great question is first started, there are very few, even of the greatest minds, which suddenly and intuitively compre- hend it, in all its consequences.

It is both " our interest and our duty to continue subject to the authority of parliament," as far as the regulation of our trade, if it will be content with that, but no longer.

" If the colonies are not subject to the authority of parliament, Great Britain and the colonies must be distinct states, as com- pletely so as England and Scotland were before the union, or as Great Britain and Hanover are now." l There is no need of being startled at this consequence. It is very harmless. There is no absurdity at all in it. Distinct states may be united under one king. And those states may be further cemented and united together by a treaty of commerce. This is the case. We have, by our own express consent, contracted to observe the Navigation

1 " The principal argument against the authority of parliament is this : the Americans are entitled to all the privileges of an Englishman ; it is the privi- lege of an Englishman to be exempt from all laws, that he does not consent to in person, or by representative ; the Americans are not represented in parlia- ment, and therefore are exempt from acts of parliament, or in other words, not subject to its authority. This appears specious, but leads to such absurdities as demonstrate its fallacy. If the colonies are not subject to the authority of par- Hament, Great Britain and the colonies must be distinct states, as completely so as England and Scotland were before the union, or as Great Britain and Hanover are now." Massachusettensis.

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Act, and by our implied consent, by long usage and uninter- rupted acquiescence, have submitted to the other acts of trade, however grievous some of them may be. This may be com- pared to a treaty of commerce, by which those distinct states are cemented together, in perpetual league and amity. And if any further ratifications of this pact or treaty are necessary, the colonies would readily enter into them, provided their other lib- erties were inviolate.

That " the colonies owe no allegiance to any imperial crown," provided such a crown involves in it a house of lords and a house of commons, is certain. Indeed, we owe no allegiance to any crown at all. We owe allegiance to the person of his majesty, King George III., whom God preserve. But allegiance is due universally, both from Britons and Americans to the person of the king, not to his crown ; to his natural, not his politic capacity, as I will undertake to prove hereafter, from the highest authorities, and the most solemn adjudications, which were ever made within any part of the British dominions.

If his majesty's title to the crown is " derived from an act of parliament, made since the settlement of these colonies," it was not made since the date of our charter. Our charter was granted by King William and Queen Mary, three years after the revolu- tion ; and the oaths of allegiance are established by a law of the province. So that our allegiance to his majesty is not due by virtue of any act of a British parliament, but by our own char- ter and province laws. It ought to be remembered that there was a revolution here, as well as in England, and that we, as well as the people of England, made an original, express con- tract with King William.

If it follows from thence, that he appears " King of Massa- chusetts, King of Rhode Island, King of Connecticut, &c." 1 this

1 " Let us wave this difficulty, and suppose allegiance due from the colonies to the person of the King of Great Britain. He then appears in a new capacity, of King of America, or rather in several new capacities, of King of Massachusetts, King of Rhode Island, King of Connecticut, &c. &c. For if our connection with Great Britain by the parliament be dissolved, we shall have none among our- selves, but each colony become as distinct from the others, as England was from Scotland before the union. Some have supposed that each state, having one and the same person for its king, is a sufficient connection. Were he an abso- lute monarch, it might be ; but in a mixed government it is no union at all. For as the king must govern each state, by its parliament, those several parliaments would pursue the particular interest of its own state ; and however well disposed

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is no absurdity at all. He will appear in this light, and does appear so, whether parliament has authority over us or not. He is King of Ireland, I suppose, although parliament is allowed to have authority there. As to giving his majesty those titles, I j have no objection at all ; I wish he would be graciously pleased ; to assume them.

The only proposition in all this writer's long string of pretended absm-dities, which he says follows from the position that we are distinct states, is this : — That " as the king must govern each state by its parliament, those several parliaments would pursue the particular interest of its own state ; and however well dis- posed the king might be to pursue a line of interest that was common to all, the checks and control that he would meet with would render it impossible." Every argument ought to be allowed its full weight; and therefore candor obliges me to acknowledge, that here lies all the difficulty that there is in this whole controversy. There has been, from first to last, on both sides of the Atlantic, an idea, an apprehension, that it was neces- sary there should be some superintending power, to draw toge- ther all the wills, and unite all the strength of the subjects in all the dominions, in case of war, and in the case of trade. The necessity of this, in case of trade, has been so apparent, that, as has often been said, we have consented that parliament should exercise such a power. In case of war, it has by some been thought necessary. But in fact and experience, it has not been found so. What though the proprietary colonies, on account of disputes with the proprietors, did not come in so early to the assistance of the general cause in the last war as they ought, and perhaps one of them not at all? The inconveniences of this were small, in comparison of the absolute ruin to the liber- ties of all which must follow the submission to parliament, in all cases, which would be giving up all the popular limitations upon the government. These inconveniences fell chiefly upon New England. She was necessitated to greater exertions ; but she had rather suffer these again and again than others infinitely

the king might be to pursue a line of interest, that was common to all, the checks and control that he would meet with, would render it impossible. If the King of Great Britain has really these new capacities, they ought to be added to his titles ; and another difficulty will arise ; the prerogatives of these new crowns have never been defined or limited." Massachusettensis.

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greater. However, this subject has been so long in contempla- tion, that it is fully understood now in all the colonies ; so that there is no danger, in case of another war, of any colony's failing of its duty.

But, admitting the proposition in its full force, that it is abso- lutely necessary there should be a supreme power, coextensive with all the dominions, will it follow that parliament, as now constituted, has a right to assume this supreme jurisdiction ? By no means.

A union of the colonies might be projected, and an American legislature ; for, if America has three millions of people, and the whole dominions, twelve millions, she ought to send a quarter part of all the members to the house of commons ; and, instead of holding parliaments always at Westminster, the haughty I members for Great Britain must humble themselves, one ses- sion in four, to cross the Atlantic, and hold the parliament in America.

There is no avoiding all inconveniences in human afTairs. The greatest possible, or conceivable, would arise from ceding to par- liament power over us without a representation in it. The next greatest would accrue from any plan that can be devised for a representation there. The least of all would arise from going on as we began, and fared well for one hundred and fifty years, by letting parliament regulate trade, and our own assemblies all other matters.

As to " the prerogatives not being defined, or limited," it is as much so in the colonies as in Great Britain, and as well under- stood, and as cheerfully submitted to in the former as the latter.

But " where is the British constitution, that we all agree we are entitled to?"1 I answer, if we enjoy, and are entitled to

1 " But let us suppose the same prerogatives inherent in the several American crowns as are in the imperial crown of Great Britain, where shall we find the British constitution, that we all agree we are entitled to ? We shall seek for it in vain in our provincial assemblies. They are but faint sketches of the estates of parliament. The houses of representatives, or burgesses, have not all the powers of the house of commons ; in the charter governments, they have no more than what is expressly granted by their several charters. The first char- ters granted to this province, did not empower the assembly to tax the people at all. Our council boards are as destitute of the constitutional authority of the house of lords, as their several members are of the noble independence and splendid appendages of peerage. The house of peers is the bidwark of the Bri- tish constitution, and through successive ages has withstood the shocks of monar-

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more liberty than the British constitution allows, where is the harm ? Or if we enjoy the British constitution in greater purity and perfection than they do in England, as is really the case, v whose fault is this ? Not ours.

We may find all the blessings of this constitution " in our pro- vincial assemblies." Our houses of representatives have, and ought to exercise every power of the house of commons. The first charter to this colony is nothing to the present argument ; but it did grant a power of taxing the people, implicitly, though not in express terms. It granted all the rights and liberties of Englishmen, which include the power of taxing the people.

" Our council boards " in the royal governments, " are destitute of the noble independence and splendid appendages of peerage." Most certainly, they are the meanest creatures and tools in the political creation, dependent every moment for their existence on the tainted breath of a prime minister. But they have the authority of the house of lords, in our little models of the English constitution ; and it is this which makes them so great a griev- ance. The crown has really two branches of our legislature in its power. Let an act of parliament pass at home, putting it in the power of the king to remove any peer from the house of lords at his pleasure, and what will become of the British constitu- tion ? It will be overturned from the foundation. Yet we are perpetually insulted by being told, that making our council by mandamus brings us nearer to the British constitution. In this province, by charter, the council certainly hold their seats for the year, after being chosen and approved, independent of both the other branches. For their creation, they are equally obliged to both the other " branches ; so that there is little or no bias in favor of either ; if any, it is in favor of the prerogative. In short, it is not easy, without an hereditary nobility, to constitute a coun- cil more independent, more nearly resembling the house of lords, than the council of this province has ever been by charter.

But perhaps it will be said, that we are to enjoy the British constitution in our supreme legislature, the parliament, not in our provincial legislatures. To this I answer, if parliament is to be

chy, and the sappings of democracy ; and the constitution gained strength by the conflict. Thus, the supposition of our being independent states, or exempt from the authority of parliament, destroys the very idea of our having a British con- stitution." Massachusettensis.

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our supreme legislature, we shall be under a complete oligarchy or aristocracy, not the British constitution, which this writer himself defines a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and demo- cracy. For king, lords, and commons, will constitute one great oligarchy, as they will stand related to America, as much as the decemvirs did in Rome ; with this difference for the worse, that our rulers are to be tlnee thousand miles off. The definition of an oligarchy is a government by a number of grandees, over whom the people have no control. The States of Holland were once chosen by the people frequently, then chosen for fife ; now they are not chosen by the people at all. "When a member dies, his place is filled up, not by the people he is to represent, but by the States. Is not this depriving the Hollanders of a free con- stitution, and subjecting them to an aristocracy, or oligarchy ? Will not the government of America be like it ? Will not repre- sentatives be chosen for them by others, whom they never saw nor heard of? If our provincial constitutions are in any respect imperfect, and want alteration, they have capacity enough to discern it, and power enough to effect it, without the interposi- tion of parliament. There never was an American constitution attempted by parliament before the Quebec bill, and Massachu- setts bill. These are such samples of what they may, and pro- bably will be, that few Americans are in love with them. How- ever, America will never allow that parliament has any authority to alter their constitution at all. She is wholly penetrated with a sense of the necessity of resisting it at all hazards. And she would resist it, if the constitution of the Massachusetts had been altered as much for the better as it is for the worse. The ques- tion we insist on most is, not whether the alteration is for the better or not, but whether parliament has any right to make any alteration at all. And it is the universal sense of America, that it has none.

We are told, that " the provincial constitutions have no prin- ciple of stability within themselves." l This is so great a mis-

1 " The provincial constitutions, considered as subordinate, are generally well adapted to those purposes of government for which they were intended ; that is, to regulate the internal police of the several colonies ; but have no principle of stability within themselves ; they may support themselves in moderate times, but Avould be merged by the violence of turbulent ones, and the several colonies become wholly monarchical or wholly republican, were it not for the checks, controls, regulations, and supports, of the supreme authority of the empire."

Massachusettensis.

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take, that there is not more order or stability in any government upon the globe, than there ever has been in that of Connecticut. The same may be said of the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania ; and, indeed, of the others very nearly. " That these constitu- tions, in turbulent times, would become wholly monarchical, or wholly republican," they must be such times as would have a similar effect upon the constitution at home. But in order to avoid the danger of this, what is to be done ? Not give us an English constitution, it seems, but make sure of us at once, by giving us constitutions wholly monarchical, annihilating our houses of representatives first, by taking from them the support of government, &c, and then making the council and judges wholly dependent on the crown.

That a representation in parliament is impracticable, we all agree ; but the consequence is, that we must have a representation in our supreme legislatures here. This was the consequence that was drawn by kings, ministers, our ancestors, and the whole nation, more than a century ago, when the colonies were first settled, and continued to be the general sense until the last peace ; and it must be the general sense again soon, or Great Britain will lose her colonies.

" This is apparently the meaning of that celebrated passage in Governor Hutchinson's letter, that rung through the conti- nent, namely, — ' There must be an abridgment of what is called English liberties.' " * But all the art and subtlety of Massachu- settensis will never vindicate or excuse that expression.' Accord- ing to this writer, it should have been, " there is an abridgment of English liberties, and it cannot be otherwise." But every candid reader must see that the letter-writer had more than that in his view and in his wishes. In the same letter, a little before, he says, " what marks of resentment the parliament will show, whether they will be upon the province in general, or particular persons, is extremely uncertain; but that they will be placed somewhere is most certain ; and I add, because I think it ought

1 " If that be the case, the right or privilege that we complain of being de- prived of, is not withheld by Britain ; but the first principles of government, and the immutable laws of nature, render it impossible for us to enjoy it. This is apparently the meaning of that celebrated passage in Governor Hutchinson's letter, that rang through the continent, namely, — ' There must be an abridg- ment of what is called English liberties.' " Massaclmsettensis.

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to be so." x Is it possible to read this, without thinking of the Port Bill, the Charter Bill, and the resolves for sending persons to England, by the statute of Henry VIII., to be tried? But this is not all : " This is most certainly a crisis," says he, &c. " If no measure shall have been taken to secure this dependence, (that is, the dependence which a colony ought to have upon the parent state,) it is all over with us." " The friends of government will be utterly disheartened ; and the friends of anarchy will be afraid of nothing, be it ever so extravagant." But this is not all : " I never think of the measures necessary for the peace and good order of the colonies without pain." " There must be an abridgment of what are called English liberties." What could he mean ? Any thing less than depriving us of trial by jury ? Perhaps he wanted an act of parliament to try persons here for treason, by a court of admiralty. Perhaps an act, that the pro- vince should be governed by a governor and a mandamus coun- cil, without a house of representatives. But to put it out of all doubt, that his meaning was much worse than Massachuset- tensis endeavors to make it, he explains himself in a subse- quent part of the letter : " I wish," says He, " the good of the colony, when I ivish to see some further restraint of liberty." Here it is rendered certain, that he is pleading for a further restraint of liberty, not explaining the restraint he apprehended the constitution had already laid us under.

My indignation at this letter has sometimes been softened by compassion. It carries on the face of it evident marks of mad- ness. It was written in such a transport of passions, ambition and revenge chiefly, that his reason was manifestly overpowered. The vessel was tost in such a hurricane, that she could not feel her helm. Indeed, he seems to have had a confused conscious- ness of this himself. " Pardon me this excursion," says he ; " it really proceeds from the state of mind into which our perplexed affairs often throw me."

" It is our highest interest to continue a part of the British empire ; and equally our duty to remain subject to the authority of parliament," says Massachusettensis.

We are a part of the British dominions, that is, of the King

1 These extracts are taken from the most significant of the letters obtained in England, and sent out by Dr. Franklin, which betrayed the real policy of Governor Hutchinson. See the Diary, vol. ii. pp. 318, 319.

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of Great Britain, and it is our interest and duty to continue so. It is equally our interest and duty to continue subject to the authority of parliament, in the regulation of our trade, as long as she shall leave us to govern our internal policy, and to give and grant our own money, and no longer.

This letter concludes with an agreeable flight of fancy.1 The time may not be so far off, however, as this writer imagines, when the colonies may have the balance of numbers and wealth in their favor. But when that shall happen, if we should attempt to rule her by an American parliament, without an adequate representation in it, she will infallibly resist us by her arms.

No. Viii

NO. VIII.

It has often been observed by me, and it cannot be too often repeated, that colonization is casus omissus at common law. There is no such title known in that law. By common law, I mean that system of customs written and unwritten, which was known and in force in England in the time of King Richard I. This continued to be the case down to the reign of Elizabeth and King James I. In all that time, the laws of England were confined to the realm, and within the four seas. There was no provision made in this law for governing colonies beyond the Atlantic, or beyond the four seas, by authority of parliament ; no, nor for the king to grant charters to subjects to settle in foreign countries. It was the king's prerogative to prohibit the emigration of any of his subjects,, by issuing his writ ne exeat regno. And, therefore, it was in the king's power to permit his subjects to leave the kingdom. " It is a high crime to disobey the king's lawful commands or prohibitions, as not returning from beyond sea upon the king's letters to that purpose; for

1 The passage is one of some beauty, and deserves to be inserted : — " After many more centuries shall have rolled away, long after we, who are now bustling upon the stage of life, shall have been received to the bosom of mother earth, and our names are forgotten, the colonies may be so far increased as to have the balance of wealth, numbers, and power in their favor ; the good ot the empire may make it necessary to fix the seat of government here ; and some future George, equally the. friend of mankind with him that now sways the British sceptre, may cross the Atlantic, and rule Great Britain by an American parliament."

VOL. vi. 11

122 NOVAXGLUS.

which the offender's lands shall be seized until he return ; and when he does return, he shall be fined, &c. ; or going beyond sea against the king's will, expressly signified, either by the writ ne exeat regno, or under the great or privy seal, or signet, or by proclamation."1 When a subject left the kingdom by the king's permission, and if the nation did not remonstrate against it, by the nation's permission too, at least connivance, he carried with him, as a man, all the rights of nature. His allegiance bound him to the king, and entitled him to protection. But how? Not in France ; the King of England was not bound to protect him in France. Nor in America. Nor in the dominions of Louis. Nor of Sassacus, or Massachusetts. He had a right to protec- tion and the liberties of England, upon his return there, not otherwise. How, then, do we New Englandmen derive our laws ? I say, not from parliament, not from common law, but from the law of nature, and the compact made with the king in our charters. Our ancestors were entitled to the common law of England when they emigrated, that is, to just so much of it as they pleased to adopt, and no more. They were not bound or obliged to submit to it, unless they chose it. By a positive principle of the common law they were bound, let them be in what part of the world they would, to do nothing against the allegiance of the king. But no kind of provision was ever made by common law for punishing or trying any man, even for trea- son committed out of the realm. He must be tried in some county of the realm by that law, the county where the overt act was done, or he could not be tried at all. Nor was any provision ever made, until the reign of Henry VIIL, for trying treasons committed abroad, and the acts of that reign were made on purpose to catch Cardinal Pole.

So that our ancestors, when they emigrated, having obtained permission of the king to come here, and being never com- manded to return into the realm, had a clear right to have erected in this wilderness a British constitution, or a perfect democracy, or any other form of government they saw fit. They, indeed, while they lived, could not have taken arms against the King of England, without violating their allegiance ; but their children would not have been born within the king's allegiance,

1 Hawkins' Pleas of the Crown, c. xxii. § 4.

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would not have been natural subjects, and consequently not entitled to protection, or bound to the king.

Massachusettensis seems possessed of these ideas, and at- tempts in the most awkward manner to get rid of them. He is conscious that America must be a part of the realm, before it can be bound by the authority of parliament ; and, therefore, is obliged to suggest that we are annexed to the realm, and to endeavor to confuse himself and his readers, by confounding the realm with the empire and dominions.

But will any man soberly contend, that America was ever annexed to the realm? to what realm? When New England was settled, there was a realm of England, a realm of Scotland, and a realm of Ireland. To which of these three realms was New England annexed ? To the realm of England, it will be said. But by what law ? No territory could be annexed to the realm of England but by an act of parliament. Acts of parlia- ment have been passed to annex Wales, &c. &c. to the realm ; but none ever passed to annex America. But if New England was annexed to the realm of England, how came she annexed to the realm of, or kingdom of Great Britain ? The two realms of England and Scotland were, by the act of union, incorporated into one kingdom, by the name of Great Britain ; but there is not one word about America in that act.

Besides, if America was annexed to the realm, or a part of the kingdom, every act of parliament that is made would extend to it, named or not named. But everybody knows, that every act of parliament, and every other record, constantly distinguishes between this kingdom and his majesty's other dominions. Will it be said that Ireland is annexed to the realm, or a part of the kingdom of Great Britain? Ireland is a distinct kingdom, or realm, by itself, notwithstanding British parliament claims a right of binding it in all cases, and exercises it in some. And even so, the Massachusetts is a realm, New York is a realm, Pennsylvania another realm, to all intents and purposes, as much as Ireland is, or England or Scotland ever were. The King of Great Britain is the sovereign of all these realms.

This writer says, " that in denying that the colonies are an- nexed to the realm, and subject to the authority of parliament, individuals and bodies of men subvert the fundamentals of government, deprive us of British liberties, and build up absolute monarchy in the colonies."

124 NOVA^GLUS.

This is the first time that I ever heard or read that the colonies are annexed to the realm. It is utterly denied that they are, and that it is possible they should be, without an act of parlia- ment and acts of the colonies. Such an act of parliament can- not be produced, nor any such law of any one colony. There- fore, as this writer builds the whole authority of parliament upon this fact, namely, — that the colonies are annexed to the realm, and as it is certain they never were so annexed, the consequence is, that his whole superstructure falls.

When he says, that they subvert the fundamentals of go- vernment, he begs the question. We say, that the contrary doctrines subvert the fundamentals of government. When he says, that they deprive us of British liberties, he begs the ques- tion again. We say, that the contrary doctrine deprives us of English liberties ; as to British liberties, we scarcely know what they are, as the liberties of England and Scotland are not pre- cisely the same to this day. English liberties are but certain rights of nature, reserved to the citizen by the English constitu- tion, which rights cleaved to our ancestors when they crossed the Atlantic, and would have inhered_in them if, instead of com- ing to New England, they had gone to Otaheite or Patagonia, even although they had taken no patent or charter from the king at all. These rights did not adhere to them the less, for their purchasing patents and charters, in which the king expressly stipulates with them, that they and their posterity should forever enjoy all those rights and liberties.

The human mind is not naturally the clearest atmosphere ; but the clouds and vapors which have been raised in it by the artifices of temporal and spiritual tyrants, have made it impos- sible to see objects in it distinctly. Scarcely any thing is in- volved in more systematical obscurity than the rights of our ancestors, when they arrived in America. How, in common sense, came the dominions of King Philip, King Massachusetts, and twenty other sovereigns, independent princes here, to be within the allegiance of the Kings of England, James and Charles ? America was no more within the allegiance of those princes, by the common law of England, or by the law of nature, than France and Spain were. Discovery, if that was incontest- able, could give no title to the English king, by common law, or by the law of nature, to the lands, tenements, and heredita-

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ments of the native Indians here. Our ancestors were sensible of this, and, therefore, honestly purchased their lands of the natives. They might have bought them to hold allodially, if they would.

But there were two ideas, which confused them, and have continued to confuse their posterity ; one derived from the feu- dal, the other from the canon law. By the former of these systems, the prince, the general, was supposed to be sovereign lord of all the lands conquered by the soldiers in his army ; and upon this principle, the King of England was considered in law as sovereign lord of all the land within the realm. If he had sent an army here to conquer King Massachusetts, and it had succeeded, he would have been sovereign lord of the land here upon these principles; but there was no rule of the common law that made the discovery of the country by a subject a title to that country in the prince. But conquest would not have annexed the country to the realm, nor have given any authority to the parliament. But there was another mist cast before the eyes of the English nation from another source. The pope claimed a sovereign propriety in, as well as authority over, the whole earth. As head of the Christian church, and vicar of God, he claimed this authority over all Christendom ; and, in the same character, he claimed a right to all the countries and possessions of heathens and infidels ; a right divine to extermi- nate and destroy them at his discretion, in order to propagate the Catholic faith. When King Henry VIII. and his parliament threw off the authority of the pope, stripped his holiness of his supremacy, and invested it in himself by an act of parliament, he and his courtiers seemed to think that all the rights of the holy see were transferred to him ; and it was a union of these two, (the most impertinent and fantastical ideas that ever got into a human pericranium, namely, — that, as feudal sovereign and supreme head of the church together, a king of England had a right to all the land his subjects could find, not possessed by any Christian state or prince, though possessed by heathen or infidel nations,) which seems to have deluded the nation about the time of the settlement of the colonies. But none of these ideas gave or inferred any right in parliament, over the new countries conquered or discovered; and, therefore, denying that the colonies are a part of the realm, and that as such they are

11*

126 NOVANGLUS.

subject to parliament, by no means deprives us of English liber- ties. Nor does it " build up absolute monarchy in the colonies." For, admitting these notions of the common and feudal law to have been in full force, and that the king was absolute in America, when it was settled ; yet he had a right to enter into a contract with his subjects, and stipulate that they should enjoy all the rights and liberties of Englishmen forever, in consideration of their undertaking to clear the wilderness, propagate Christianity, pay a fifth part of ore, &c. Such a contract as this has been made with all the colonies, royal governments, as well as charter ones. For the commissions to the governors contain the plan of the government, and the contract between the king and sub- ject in the former, as much as the charters in the latter.

Indeed, this was the reasoning, and upon these feudal and catholic principles, in the time of some of the predecessors of Massachusettensis. This was the meaning of Dudley, when he asked, " Do you think that English liberties will follow you to the ends of the earth ?" His meaning was, that English liberties were confined to the realm, and, out of that, the king was abso- lute. But this was not true ; for an English king had no right to be absolute over Englishmen out of the realm, any more than in it ; and they were released from their allegiance, as soon as he deprived them of their liberties.

But " our charters suppose regal authority in the grantor." True, they suppose it, whether there was any or not. " If that authority be derived from the British (he should have said Eng- lish) crown, it presupposes this territory to have been a part of the British (he should have said English) dominion, and as such subject to the imperial sovereign." How can this writer show this authority to be derived from the English crown, including in the idea of it lords and commons ? Is there the least color for such an authority, but in the popish and feudal ideas before mentioned ? And do these popish and feudal ideas include par- liament ? Was parliament, were lords and commons, parts of the head of the church ; or was parliament, that is, lords and commons, part of the sovereign feudatory ? Never. But why was this authority derived from the English, any more than the Scottish or Irish crown ? It is true, the land was to be held in socage, like the manor of East Greenwich ; but this was com- pact, and it might have been as well to hold, as they held in Glasgow or Dublin.

NOVANGLUS. 127

But, says this writer, " if that authority was vested in the per- son of the king in a different capacity, the British constitution and laws are out of the question, and the king must be absolute as to us, as his prerogatives have never been limited." Not the prerogatives limited in our charters, when in every one of them all the rights of Englishmen are secured to us ? Are not the rights of Englishmen sufficiently known ? and are not the prero- gatives of the king among those rights ?

As to those colonies which are destitute of charters, the com- missions to then- governors have ever been considered as equiva- lent securities, both for property, jurisdiction, and privileges, with charters ; and as to the power of the crown being absolute in those colonies, it is absolute nowhere. There is no fundamental or other law that makes a king of England absolute anywhere, except in conquered countries ; and an attempt to assume such a power, by the fundamental laws, forfeits the prince's right even to the limited crown.

As to " the charter governments reverting to absolute monar- chy, as their charters may happen to be forfeited by the grantees not fulfilling the conditions of them," I answer, if they could be forfeited, and were actually forfeited, the only consequence would be, that the king would have no power over them at all. He would not be bound to protect the people, nor, that I can see, would the people here, who were born here, be, by any principle of common law, bound even to allegiance to the king. The con- nection would be broken between the crown and the natives of the country.

It has been a great dispute, whether charters granted within the realm can be forfeited at all. It was a question debated with infinite learning, in the case of the charter of London. It was adjudged forfeited in an arbitrary reign ; but afterwards, after the revolution, it was declared in parliament not forfeited, and by an act of parliament made incapable of forfeiture. The charter of Massachusetts was declared forfeited too. So were other Ameri- can charters. The Massachusetts alone were tame enough to give it up. But no American charter will ever be decreed forfeited again; or if any should, the decree will be regarded no more than a vote of the lower house of the Robinhood society. The court of chancery has no authority without the realm ; by com- mon law, surely it has none in America. What! the privileges

128 NOVANGLUS.

of millions of Americans depend on the discretion of a lord chan- cellor ? God forbid ! The passivity of this colony in receiving the present charter in lieu of the first, is, in the opinion of some, the deepest stain upon its character. There is less to be said in excuse for it than the witchcraft, or hanging the Quakers. A vast party in the province were against it at the time, and thought themselves betrayed by their agent. It has been a warning to their posterity, and one principal motive with the people never to trust any agent with power to concede away then; privileges again. It may as well be pretended that the people of Great Britain can forfeit their privileges, as the people of this province. If the contract of state is broken, the people and king of Eng- land must recur to nature. It is the same in this province. We shall never more submit to decrees in chancery, or acts of parlia- ment, annihilating charters, or abridging English liberties.

Whether Massachusettensis was born, as a politician, in the year 1764, I know not ; but he often writes as if he knew no- thing of that period. In his attempt to trace the denial of the supreme authority of the parliament, he commits such mistakes as a man of age at that time ought to blush at.1 He says, that " when the Stamp Act was made, the authority of parliament to impose external taxes, or, in other words, to lay duties upon goods and merchandise, was admitted," and that when the Tea Act was made, " a new distinction was set up, that parliament had a right to lay duties upon merchandise for the purpose of regulating trade, but not for the purpose of raising a revenue." This is a total misapprehension of the declared opinions of peo- ple at those times. The authority of parliament to lay taxes for a revenue has been always generally denied. And their right

1 " It is curious, indeed, to trace the denial and oppugnation to the supreme authority of the state. When the Stamp Act was made, the authority of parlia- ment to impose internal taxes was denied ; but their right to impose external ones, or, in other words, to lay duties upon goods and merchandise, was admitted. When the act was made, imposing duties upon tea, &c, a new distinction was set up, that the parliament had a right to lay duties upon merchandise for the purpose of regulating trade, but not for the purpose of raising a revenue ; that is, the parliament had good right, and lawful authority, to lay the former duty of a shining on the pound, but had none to lay the present duty of threepence. Hav- ing got thus far safe, it was only taking one step more to extricate ourselves en- tirely from their fangs, and become independent states ; that our patriots most heroically resolved upon, and flatly denied that parliament had a right to make any laws whatever, that should be binding upon the colonies."

Massach usettensis.

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to lay duties to regulate trade has been denied by many, who have ever contended that trade should be regulated only by pro- hibitions.

The act of parliament of the 4th George III., passed in the year 1764, was the first act of the British parliament that ever was passed, in which the design of raising a revenue was ex- pressed. Let Massachusettensis name any statute, before that, in which the word revenue is used, or the thought of raishig a revenue is expressed. This act is entitled " an act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in Ame- rica," &c. The word revenue, in the preamble of this act, in- stantly ran through the colonies, and rang an alarm, almost as much as if the design of forging chains for the colonists had been expressed in words. I have now before me a pamphlet, written and printed in the year 1764, entitled " The Sentiments of a British American," upon this act. How the idea of a revenue, though from an acknowledged external tax, was relished in that time, may be read in the frontispiece of that pamphlet.

Ergo quid refert tnea Cui serviam ? clitellas dum portem meas. — Ph^edrus.

The first objection to this act, which was made in that pamph- let, by its worthy author, Oxenbridge Thacher, who died a martyr to that anxiety for his country which the conduct of the junto gave him, is this : — " that a tax is thereby laid on several commodities, to be raised and levied in the plantations, and to be remitted home to England. This is esteemed a grievance, inasmuch as the same are laid without the consent of the repre- sentatives of the colonists. It is esteemed an essential British right, that no person shall be subject to any tax, but what in person, or by his representative, he hath a voice in laying." Here is a tax, unquestionably external, in the sense in which that word is used in the distinction that is made by some between external and internal taxes, and unquestionably laid in part for the re- gulation of trade, yet called a grievance, and a violation of an essential British right, in the year 1764, by one who was then at the head of the popular branch of our constitution, and as well acquainted with the sense of his constituents as any man living. And it is indisputable, that in those words he wrote the almost universal sense of this colony.

There are so many egregious errors in point of fact, and re- i

130 NOVANGLUS.

specting the opinions of the people, in this writer, which it is difficult to impute to wilful misrepresentation, that I sometimes think he is some smart young gentleman, come up into life since this great controversy was opened; if not, he must have con- versed wholly with the junto, and they must have deceived him respecting their own sentiments.

This writer sneers at the distinction between a right to lay the former duty of a shilling on the pound of tea, and the right to lay the threepence. But is there not a real difference between laying a duty to be paid in England upon exportation, and to be paid in America upon importation ? Is there not a difference between parliament's laying on duties within then own realm, where they have undoubted jurisdiction, and laying them out of their realm, nay, laying them on in our realm, where we say they have no jurisdiction ? Let them lay on what duties they please in England, we have nothing to say against that.

" Our patriots most heroically resolved to become independent states, and flatly denied that parliament had a right to make any laws whatever, that should be binding upon the colonies."

Our scribbler, more heroically still, is determined to show the world, that he has courage superior to all regard to modesty, justice, or truth. Our patriots have never determined or desired to be independent states, if a voluntary cession of a right to regulate their trade can make them dependent even on parlia- ment ; though they are clear in theory that, by the common law and the English constitution, parliament has no authority over them. None of the patriots of this province, of the present age, have ever denied that parliament has a right, from our voluntary cession, to make laws which shall bind the colonies, so far as their commerce extends.

" There is no possible medium between absolute independence and subjection to the authority of parliament." If this is true, it may be depended upon, that all North America are as fully convinced of their independence, their absolute independence, as they are of their own existence ; and as fully determined to defend it at all hazards, as Great Britain is to defend her inde- pendence against foreign nations. But it is not true. An abso- lute independence on parliament, in all internal concerns and cases of taxation, is very compatible with an absolute depend- ence on it, in all cases of external commerce.

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" He must be blind indeed, that cannot see our dearest interest in the latter, (that is, in an absolute subjection to the authority of parliament,) notwithstanding many pant after the former," (that is, absolute independence.) The man who is capable of writing, in cool blood, that our interest lies in an absolute subjection to parliament, is capable of writing or saying any thing for the sake of his pension. A legislature that has so often discovered a want of information concerning us and our country; a legislature in- terested to lay burdens upon us ; a legislature, two branches of which, I mean the lords and commons, neither love nor fear us ! Every American of fortune and common sense, must look upon his property to be sunk downright one half of its value, the mo- ment such an absolute subjection to parliament is established.

That there are any who pant after " independence," (meaning by this word a new plan of government over all America, un- connected with the crown of England, or meaning by it an exemption from the power of parliament to regulate trade,) is as great a slander upon the province as ever was committed to writing. The patriots of this province desire nothing new ; they wish only to keep their old privileges. They were, for one hun- dred and fifty years, allowed to tax themselves, and govern their internal concerns as they thought best. Parliament governed their trade as they thought fit. This plan they wish may con- tinue forever. But it is honestly confessed, rather than become subject to the absolute authority of parliament in all cases of tax- ation and internal polity, they will be driven to throw off that of regulating trade.

" To deny the supreme authority of the state, is a high misde- meanor ; to oppose it by force, an overt act of treason." True ; and therefore, Massachusettensis, who denies the king repre- sented by his governor, his majesty's council by charter, and house of representatives, to be the supreme authority of this pro- vince, has been guilty of a high misdemeanor ; and those minis- ters, governors, and their instruments, who have brought a mili- tary force here, and employed it against that supreme authority,

are guilty of , and ought to be punished with . I will

be more mannerly than Massachusettensis.

" The realm of England is an appropriate term for the ancient realm of England, in contradistinction to Wales and other terri- tories that have been annexed to it."

132 NOVANGLUS.

There are so many particulars in the case of Wales analogous to the case of America, that I must beg leave to enlarge upon it.

Wales^ was a little portion of the island of Great Britain, which the Saxons were never able to conquer. The Britons had reserved this tract of land to themselves, and subsisted wholly by pasturage among their mountains. Their princes, however, during the Norman period, and until the reign of King Edward I., did homage to the crown of England, as their feudal sove- reign, in the same manner as the prince of one independent state in Em-ope frequently did to the sovereign of another. This little principality of shepherds and cowherds had, however, main- tained its independence through long and bloody wars against the omnipotence of England, for eight hundred years. It is need- less to enumerate the causes of the war between Lewellyn and Edward I. It is sufficient to say, that the Welsh prince refused to go to England to do homage, and Edward obtained a new aid of a fifteenth from his parliament, to march with a strong force into Wales. Edward was joined by David and Roderic, two brothers of Lewellyn, who made a strong party among the Welsh themselves, to assist and second the attempts to enslave then native country. The English monarch, however, with all these advantages, was afraid to put the valor of his enemies to a trial, and trusted to the sIovj effects of famine to subdue them. Their pasturage, with such an enemy in then country, could not subsist them, and Lewellyn at last submitted, and bound him- self to pay a reparation of damages, to do homage to the crown of England, and almost to surrender his independence as a prince, by permitting all the other barons of Wales, excepting four, to swear fealty to the same crown. But fresh complaints soon arose. The English grew insolent on their bloodless vic- tory, and oppressed the inhabitants ; many insults were offered, which at last raised the indignation of the Welsh, so that they determined again to take arms, rather than bear any longer the oppression of the haughty victors. The war raged some time, until Edward summoned all his military tenants, and advanced with an army too powerful for the Welsh to resist. Lewellyn was at last surprised by Edward's General, Mortimer, and fight- ing at a great disadvantage, was slain, with two thousand of his men. David, who succeeded in the principality, maintained the war for some time, but at last was betrayed to the enemy, sent

NOVANGLUS. 133

in chains to Shrewsbury, brought to a formal trial before the peers of England, and, although a sovereign prince, ordered by Edward to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, as a traitor, for defending by arms the liberties of his native country ! All the Welsh nobility submitted to the conqueror. The laws of Eng- land, sheriffs, and other ministers of justice were established in that principality.

Now Wales was always part of the dominions of England. " Wales was always feudatory to the kingdom of England." It was always held of the crown of England, or the kingdom of England ; that is, whoever was King of England had a right to homage, &c. from the Prince of Wales. But yet Wales was not parcel of the realm or kingdom, nor bound by the laws of England. I mention and insist upon this, because it shows that, although the colonies are bound to the crown of England ; or, in other words, owe allegiance to whosoever is King of England ; yet it does not follow that the colonies are a parcel of the realm or kingdom, and bound by its laws. As this is a point of great importance, I must beg pardon, however unentertaining it may be, to produce my authorities.

" Wales was always feudatory to the kingdom of England." *

Held of the crown, but not parcel;! and, therefore, the Kings of Wales did homage and swore fealty to Henry II. and John and Henry III.

And 11 Edward I. Upon the conquest of Lewellyn, Prince or King of Wales, that principality became a part of the domi- nion of the realm of England. And by the statute Walliae, 12 Edward I., it was annexed and united to the crown of Eng- land, tanquam partem- corporis ejusdem, &c. Yet, if the statute Walliae, made at Rutland, 12 Edward I., was not an act of parliament, (as it seems that it was not,) the incorporation made thereby was only a union jure feudali, et non jure proprietatisP

" Wales, before the union with England, was governed by its proper laws," &c.

By these authorities it appears, that Wales was subject, by the feudal law, to the crown of England before the conquest of Lewellyn, but not subject to the laws of England ; and indeed, after this conquest, Edward and his nobles did not seem to think

* Comyn's Digest, vol. v. p. 626.

t Per Cook. 1 Roll. 247 ; 2 Roll. 29.

VOL. IV. 12

134 NOVANGLUS.

it subject to the English parliament, but to the will of the king, as a conqueror of it in war. Accordingly, that instrument which is called Statutum Walliae, and to be found in the appendix to the statutes, although it was made by the advice of the peers, or officers of the army more properly, yet it never was passed as an act of parliament, but as an edict of the king. It begins, not in the style of an act of parliament : "Edivardus Dei gratia Rex Anglian, Dominus Uz/bernia?, et Dux Aquitanice, omnibus fidelibus suis, Sfc. in Wallia. Divina Providentia, quce in sui dispositione, says he, non fallitur, inter alia dispensations suce mwnera, quibus nos et Regnum nostrum Anglim decorare dignata est, terrain Wal- liae, cum incolis suis prius nobis jure feudal! subjectam, jam sui gratia, in proprietatis nostra dominium, obstacidis quibuscumque cessantibus, totaliter et cum integritate convertit, et corona? regni praedicti, tanquam partem corporis ejusdem annexuit et univit."

Here is the most certain evidence, — 1. That Wales was subject to the kings of England by the feudal law before the conquest, though not bound by any laws but their own. 2. That the con- quest was considered, in that day, as conferring the property, as well as jurisdiction of Wales, to the English crown. 3. The con- quest was considered as annexing and uniting Wales to the English crown, both in point of property and jurisdiction, as a part of one body. Yet, notwithstanding all this, parliament was not considered as acquiring any share in the government of Wales by this conquest. If, then, it should be admitted that the colonies are all annexed and united to the crown of England, it will not follow that lords and commons have any authority over them.

This statutum Walliae, as well as the whole case and history of that principality, is well worthy of the attention and study of Americans, because it abounds with evidence, that a country may be subject to the crown of England, without being subject to the lords and commons of that realm, which entirely over- throws the whole argument of Governor Hutchinson and of Mas- sachusettensis, in support of the supreme authority of parliament over all the dominions of the imperial crown. " JVos itaque" &c. says King Edward I., "volentes prcedictam terrain, Sfc. sicut et cceteras ditioni nostra? subjectas, Sfc. sub debito regimine guber- nari, et incolas seu habitatores terrarum illarum, qui alto et basso se submiserunt voluntati nostra?, et quos sic ad nostram recepimus

NOVANGLUS. 135

voluntatem, ccrtis legibus et consuetudinibus Sfc. tractari, leges et consuetudines partium illarum hactenus usitatas coram nobis et proceribns regni nostri fecvmus recitari, quibus diligenter auditis, et plenius intellectis, quasdam ipsarum de concilio procerum prcedic- torum delevimns, quasdam permisimus, et quasdam correximus, et etiam quasdam alias adjiciendas et statuendas decrevimus, et eas Sfc. observari volumus in forma subscripta."

And then goes on to prescribe and establish a whole code of laws for the principality, in the style of a sole legislature, and concludes :

" Et ideo vobis mandamus, quod prcemissa de cetero in omnibus firmiter observetis. Ita tamen quod quotiescunque, et quandocun- que, et ubicunque, nobis placuerit, possimus pradicta statuta et eorum partes singulas declarare, interpretari, addere sive diminu- ere, pro nostra libito voluntatis, et prout securitati nostras et terra nostra prcedictce viderimus expedvreP

Here is then a conquered people submitting to a system of laws framed by the mere will of the conqueror, and agreeing to be forever governed by his mere will. This absolute monarch, then, might afterwards govern this country with or without the advice of his English lords and commons.

To show that Wales was held, before the conquest of Lewel- lyn, of the King of England, although governed by its own laws, hear Lord Coke, in his commentary on the statute of West- minster. "At this time, namely, in 3 Edward L, Lewellyn was a Prince or King of Wales, who held the same of the King of England as his superior lord, and owed him liege homage, and fealty ; and this is proved by our act, namely, that the King of England was superior dominus, that is, sovereign lord of the kingdom or principality of Wales."

Lord Coke says, " Wales was sometime a realm, or kingdom, (realm, from the French word royaume, and both a regno,) and governed per suas regulas;" and afterwards, " but, jure feodali, the kingdom of Wales was holden of the crown of England, and thereby, as Bracton saith, was sub potestate regis. And so it continued until the eleventh year of King Edward I., when he subdued the Prince of Wales, rising against him, and exe- cuted him for treason. The next year, namely, in the twelfth year of King Edward I., by authority of parliament, it is de- clared thus, speaking in the person of the king, (as ancient sta-

136 NOVANGLUS.

tutes were wont to do) Divina Providential &c. as in the sta- tute Walliae, before recited. But here is an inaccuracy ; for the statutum Walliae was not an act of parliament, but made by the king, with the advice of his officers of the army, by his sole authority, as the statute itself sufficiently shows. " Note," says Lord Coke, " divers monarchs hold their kingdoms of others jure feodali, as the Duke of Lombardy, Cicill, Naples, and Bo- hemia of the empire, Granado, Leons of Aragon, Navarre, Por- tugal of Castile ; and so others."

After this, the Welsh seem to have been fond of the English laws, and desirous of being incorporated into the realm, to be represented in parliament, and enjoy all the rights of English- men, as well as to be bound by the English laws. But kings were so fond of governing this principality by their discretion alone, that they never could obtain these blessings until the reign of Henry VIII., and then they only could obtain a statute which enabled the king to alter their laws at his pleasure. They did, indeed, obtain, in the 15 Edward II., a writ to call twenty-four members to the parliament at York from South Wales, and twenty-four from North Wales; and again, in the 20 Edward II., the like number of forty-eight members for Wales, at the parliament of Westminster. But Lord Coke tells us, " that this wise and warlike nation was, long after the statutum Walliae, not satisfied nor contented, and especially for that they truly and constantly took part with their rightful sovereign and liege lord, King Richard II. ; in revenge "whereof, they had many severe and invective laws made against them in the reigns of Henry IV., Henry V., &c, all which, as unjust, are repealed and abro- gated. And, to say the truth, this nation was never in quiet, until King Henry VII., their own countryman, obtained the crown. And yet not so really reduced in his time as in the reign of his son, Henry VIII., in whose time, by certain just laws, made at the humble suit of the subjects of Wales, the principality and dominion of Wales was incorporated and united to the realm of England ; and enacted that every one born in Wales should enjoy the liberties, rights, and laws of this realm, as any subjects naturally born within this realm should have and inherit, and that they should have knights of shires and burgesses of parliament." Yet we see they could not obtain any security for their liberties, for Lord Coke tells us, " in the act of 34 Henry

NOVANGLUS. 137

VIII. it was enacted, that the king's most royal majesty should, from time to time, change, &c. all manner of things before in that act rehearsed, as to his most excellent wisdom and discretion should be thought convenient ; and also to make laws and ordi- nances for the commonwealth of his said dominion of Wales at his majesty's pleasure. Yet for that the subjects of the dominion of Wales, &c. had lived in all dutiful subjection to the crown of England, &c, the said branch of the said statute of 34 Henry VIII. is repealed and made void, by 21 Jac. c. 10."

But if we look into the statute itself, of 27 Henry VIII. c. 26, we shall find the clearest proof, that being subject to the imperial crown of England did not entitle Welshmen to the liberties of England, nor make them subject to the laws of England. "Albeit the dominion, principality, and country of Wales justly and right- eously is, and ever hath been incorporated, annexed, united and subject to and under the imperial crown of this realm, as a very member and joint of the same, wherefore the King's most royal majesty, of mere droit, and very right, is very head, king, lord, and ruler ; yet notwithstanding, because that in the same coun- try, principality and dominion, diverse rights, usages, laws, and customs, be far discrepant from the laws and customs of this realm, &c." Wherefore it is enacted by king, lords, and commons, " that his " (that is, the king's) " said country or dominion of Wales, shall be, stand, and continue forever from henceforth, incorporated, united, and annexed to and with this his realm of England, and that all and singular person and persons, born and to be born in the said principality, country, or dominion of Wales, shall have, enjoy, and inherit, all and singular freedoms, liberties, rights, privileges, and laws within this his realm, and other the king's dominions, as other the king's subjects naturally born within the same, have, enjoy, and inherit." Section 2 enacts that the laws of England shall be introduced and established in Wales, and that the laws, ordinances, and statutes of this realm of England forever, and none other, shall be used and practised forever thereafter, in the said dominion of Wales. The 27th section of this long statute enacts, that commissioners shall inquire into the laws and customs of Wales, and report to the king, who with his privy council are empowered to establish such of them as they should think proper. The twenty-eighth enacts that in all future parliaments for this realm,, two knights for the shire of

12*

138 NOVANGLUS.

Monmouth, and one burgess for the town, shall be chosen, and allowed such fees as other knights and burgesses of parliament were allowed. Section twenty-nine enacts that one knight shall be elected for every shire within the country or dominion of Wales, and one burgess for every shire town, to serve in that and every future parliament to be holden for this realm. But by sec- tion thirty-six, the king is empowered to revoke, repeal, and abro- gate that whole act, or any part of it, at any time within three years.

Upon this statute, let it be observed, — 1. That the language of Massachusettensis, " imperial crown," is used in it ; and Wales is affirmed to have ever been annexed and united to that impe- rial crown, as a very member and joint ; which shows that being annexed to the imperial crown does not annex a country to the realm, or make it subject to the authority of parliament; be- cause Wales certainly, before the conquest of Lewellyn, never was pretended to be so subject, nor afterwards ever pretended to be annexed to the realm at all, nor subject to the authority of parliament any otherwise than as the king claimed to be abso- lute in Wales, and therefore to make laws for it by his mere will, either with the advice of his proceres or without. 2. That Wales never was incorporated with the realm of England, until this statute was made, nor subject to any authority of English lords and commons. 3. That the king was so tenacious of his exclusive power over Wales, that he would not consent to this statute, without a clause in it to retain the power in his own hands of giving it what system of law he pleased. 4. That knights and burgesses, that is, representatives, were considered as essential and fundamental in the constitution of the new legis- lature which was to govern Wales. 5. That since this statute, the distinction between the realm of England and the realm of Wales has been abolished, and the realm of England, now and ever since, comprehends both ; so that Massachusettensis is mis- taken when he says, that the realm of England is an appropriate term for the ancient realm of England, in contradistinction from Whales, &c. 6. That this union and incorporation were made by the consent and upon the supplication of the people of Wales, as Lord Coke and many other authors inform us ; so that here was an express contract between the two bodies of people. To these observations let me add a few questions : —

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1. Was there ever any act of parliament, annexing, uniting, and consolidating any one of all the colonies to and with the realm of England or the kingdom of Great Britain ?

2. If such an act of parliament should be made, would it, upon any principles of English laws and government, have any va- lidity without the consent, petition, or supplication of the co- lonies ?

3. Can such a union and incorporation ever be made, upon any principles of English laws and government, without admit- ting representatives for the colonies in the house of commons, and American lords into the house of peers ?

4. Would not representatives in the house of commons, unless they were numerous in proportion to the numbers of people in America, be a snare rather than a blessing ?

5. Would Britain ever agree to a proportionable number of American members ; and if she would, could America support the expense of them ?

6. Could American representatives possibly know the sense, the exigencies, &c. of their constituents, at such a distance, so per- fectly as it is absolutely necessary legislators should know ?

7. Could Americans ever come to the knowledge of the beha- vior of their members, so as to dismiss the unworthy ?

8. Would Americans in general ever submit to septennial elec- tions ?

9. Have we not sufficient evidence, in the general frailty and depravity of human nature, and especially the experience we have had of Massachusettensis and the junto, that a deep, trea- cherous, plausible, corrupt minister would be able to seduce our members to betray us as fast as we could send them ?

To return to Wales. In the statute of 34 and 35 Henry VIII. c. 26, we find a more complete system of laws and regulations for Wales. But the lung is still tenacious of his absolute authority over it. It begins, " Our sovereign lord the king's majesty, of his tender zeal and affection, &c. towards his obedient subjects, &c. of Wales, &c. hath devised and made divers sundry good and necessary ordinances, which his majesty of his most abun- dant goodness at the humble suit and petition of his said subjects of Wales, is pleased and contented to be enacted by the assent of the lord spiritual and temporal, and the commons," &c.

Nevertheless, the king would not yet give up his unlimited

140 NOVANGLUS.

power over Wales ; for by the one hundred and nineteenth section of this statute, the king, &c., may at all times hereafter, from time to time, change, add, alter, order, minish, and reform, all manner of things afore rehearsed, as to his most excellent wisdom and discretion shall be thought convenient ; and also to make laws and ordinances for the commonwealth and good quiet of his said dominion of Wales, and his subjects of the same, from time to time, at his majesty's pleasure.

And this last section was never repealed until the 21 Jac. 1, c. 10, s. 4.

From the conquest of Lewellyn to this statute of James, is near three hundred and fifty years, during all which time the Welsh were very fond of being incorporated, and enjoying the English laws ; the English were desirous that they should be ; yet the crown would never suffer it to be completely done, because it claimed an authority to rule it by discretion. It is conceived, there- fore, that there cannot be a more complete and decisive proof of any thing, than this instance is that a country may be subject to the crown of England, the imperial crown, and yet not annexed to the realm, nor subject to the authority of parliament.

The word crown, like the word throne, is used in various figu- rative senses ; sometimes it means the kingly office, the head of the commonwealth ; but it does not always mean the political capacity of the king ; much less does it include in the idea of it, lords and commons. It may as well be pretended that the house of commons includes or implies a king. Nay, it may as well be pretended that the mace includes the three branches of the legislature.

By the feudal law, a person or a country might be subject to a king, a feudal sovereign, three several ways.

1. It might be subject to his person ; and in this case it would continue so subject, let him be where he would, in his dominions or without. 2. To his crown ; and in this case subjection was due to whatsoever person or family wore that crown, and would follow it, whatever revolutions it underwent. 3. To his crown and realm of state ; and in this case it was incorporated as one body with the principal kingdom ; and if that was bound by a parliament, diet, or cortes, so was the other.

It is humbly conceived, that the subjection of the colonies by compact and law, is of the second sort.

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Suffer me, my friends, to conclude by making my most respect- ful compliments to the gentlemen of the regiment of royal Welsh fusileers. In the celebration of their late festival,1 they discovered that they are not insensible to the feelings of a man for his native country. The most generous minds are the most exquisitely capable of this sentiment. Let me entreat them to recollect the history of their brave and intrepid countrymen, who struggled at least eleven hundred years for liberty. Let them compare the case of Wales with the case of America, and then lay their hands upon their hearts and say whether we can in justice be bound by all acts of parliament without being incorporated with the king- dom.

No. Ix

NO. IX.

Massachusettensis, in some of his writings, has advanced, that our allegiance is due to the political capacity of the king, and therefore involves in it obedience to the British parliament. Governor Hutchinson, in his memorable speech, laid down the same position. I have already shown, from the case of Wales, that this position is groundless, and that allegiance was due from the Welsh to the king, jure feudali, before the conquest of Lewellyn, and after that to the crown, until it was annexed to the realm, without being subject to acts of parliament any more than to acts of the king without parliament. I shall hereafter show from the case of Ireland, that subjection to the crown im- plies no obedience to parliament. But before I come to this, I must take notice of a pamphlet entitled "A Candid Examination of the Mutual Claims of Great Britain and the Colonies, with a Plan of Accommodation on Constitutional Principles." 2 This author says, — " To him, (that is, the king,) in his representative capacity, and as supreme executor of the laws made by a joint power of him and others, the oaths of allegiance are taken ; " and afterwards, — " Hence, these professions (that is, of allegiance)

1 This regiment was at the time stationed in Boston.

2 This is the celebrated pamphlet written by Joseph Galloway, after he declared himself, and in which he gives an account of his action in the Congress of 1774. See vol. ii. p. 387.

142 NOVANGLUS.

are not made to him either in his legislative or executive capa- cities ; but yet, it seems, they are made to the king. And into this distinction, which is nowhere to be found, either in the consti- tution of the government, in reason, or common sense, the igno- rant and thoughtless have been deluded ever since the passing of the Stamp Act ; and they have rested satisfied with it, with- out the least examination." And, in page 9, he says, — " I do not mean to offend the inventors of this refined distinction, when I ask them, is this acknowledgment made to the king in his politic capacity as king of Great Britain ? If so, it includes a promise of obedience to the British laws." There is no danger of this gentleman's giving offence to the inventors of this distinc- tion ; for they have been many centuries in their graves. This distinction is to be found everywhere, — in the case of Wales, Ireland, and elsewhere, as I shall show most abundantly before I have done. It is to be found in two of the greatest cases, and most deliberate and solemn judgments, that were ever passed. One of them is Calvin's case, which, as Lord Coke tells us, was as elaborately, substantially, and judiciously argued as he ever heard or read of any. After it had been argued in the court of king's bench by learned counsel, it was adjourned to the exche- quer chamber, and there argued again, first by counsel on both sides, and then by the lord chancellor and all the twelve judges of England ; and among these were the greatest men that West- minster Hall ever could boast. Ellesmere, Bacon, Hyde, Hobart, Crook, and Coke, were all among them ; and the chancellor and judges were unanimous in resolving. What says the book?* " Now, seeing the king hath but one person, and several capa- cities, and one politic capacity for the realm of England, and another for the realm of Scotland, it is necessary to be considered to which capacity ligeance is due. And it was resolved that it was due to the natural person of the king, (which is ever accom- panied with the politic capacity, and the politic capacity as it were appropriated to the natural capacity,) and it is not due to the politic capacity only, that is, to the crown or kingdom dis- tinct from his natural capacity." And further on, — " But it was clearly resolved by all the judges, that presently by the descent his majesty was completely and absolutely king, &c. and that

* 7 Rep. 19.

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coronation was but a royal ornament. ... In the reign of Edward II., the Spencers, to cover the treason hatched in their hearts, invented this damnable and damned opinion, that homage and oath of allegiance was more by reason of the king's crown (that is, df his politic capacity) than by reason of the person of the king, upon which opinion they inferred execrable and detestable consequences." And afterwards, — " Where divers books and acts of parliament speak of the ligeance of England, &c, all these, speaking briefly in a vulgar manner, are to be understood of the ligeance due by the people of England to the king ; for no man will affirm that England itself, taking it for the continent thereof, doth owe any ligeance or faith, or that any faith or ligeance should be due to it ; but it manifestly appeareth that the ligeance or faith of the subject is proprium quarto modo to the king, omni, soli, et semper. And oftentimes in the reports of our book cases, and in acts of parliament also, the crown or kingdom is taken for the king himself, &c. . . . Tenure in capite is a tenure of the crown, and is a seigniorie in grosse, that is, of the person of the king." And afterwards, — " For special purposes the law makes him a body politic, immortal and invisible, ivhereunto our allegiance cannot appertain." I beg leave to observe here that these words in the foregoing adjudication, that " the natural person of the king is ever accompanied with the politic capacity, and the politic capacity as it were appropriated to the natural capacity," neither imply nor infer allegiance or subjection to the politic capacity ; because in the case of King James I. his natural person was " accompanied " with three politic capacities at least, as king of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; yet the allegiance of an English- man to him did not imply or infer subjection to his politic capa- city as king of Scotland.

Another place in which this distinction is to be found is in Moore's Reports.* " The case of the union of the realm of Scot- land with England." And this deliberation, I hope, was solemn enough. This distinction was agreed on by commissioners of the English lords and commons, in a conference with commis- sioners of the Scottish parliament, and after many arguments and consultations by the lord chancellor and all the judges, and afterwards adopted by the lords and commons of both nations.

* Page 790.

144 NOVANGLUS.

" The judges answered with one assent," says the book, " that allegiance and laws were not of equiparation, for six causes ; " the sixth and last of which is, " allegiance followeth the natural per- son, not the politic. . . If the king go out of England, with a company of his servants, allegiance remaineth among his sub- jects and servants, although he be out of his own realm, whereto his laws are confined, &c. ; . . . and to prove the allegiance to be tied to the body natural of the king, not to the body politic, the Lord Coke cited the phrases of divers statutes, &c. And to prove that allegiance extended further than the laws national, they (the judges) showed, that every king of diverse kingdoms, or duke- doms, is to command every people to defend any of his king- doms, without respect of that nation where he is born ; as, if the king of Spain be invaded in Portugal, he may levy for defence of Portugal armies out of Spain, Naples, Castile, Milan, Flan- ders, and the like ; as a thing incident to the allegiance of all his subjects, to join together in defence of any one of his territories, without respect of extent of the laws of that nation where he was born ; whereby it manifestly appeareth that allegiance fol- loweth the natural person of the king, and is not tied to the body politic respectively in every kingdom." There is one ob- servation, not immediately to the present point, but so connected with our controversy that it ought not be overlooked. " For the matter of the great seal, the judges showed, that the seal was alterable by the king at his pleasure, and he might make one seal for both kingdoms ; for seals, coin, and leagues are of abso- lute prerogative to the king without parliament, not restrained to any assent of the people. But for further resolution of this point, how far the great seal doth command out of England, they made this distinction, that the great seal was current for remedials, which groweth upon complaint of the subjects, and thereupon writs are addressed under the great seal of England, which writs are limited, their precinct to be within the places of the jurisdiction of the court that must give the redress of the wrong. And there- fore writs are not to go into Ireland, nor the Isles, nor Wales, nor the counties palatine, because the king's courts here have not power to hold plea of lands or things there. But the great seal hath a power preceptory to the person, which power extendeth to any place where the person may be found." Ludlow's case, &c. who " being at Rome," a commandment under the great seal

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was sent to him to return. So, Bertie's case in Queen Mary's time, and Inglefield's case in Queen Elizabeth's, the privy seal went to command them to return into the realm ; and for not coming, their lands were seized," &c. But to return to the point : "And as to the objection," says the book, " that none can be born a natural subject of two kingdoms, they denied that absolutely ; for although locally he can be born but in one, yet effectually the allegiance of the king extending to both, his birthright shall extend to both." And afterwards, — " But that his kingly power extend- eth to divers nations and kingdoms, all owe him equal subjec- tion, and are equally born to the benefit of his protection ; and although he is to govern them by their distinct laws, yet any one of the people coming into the other, is to have the benefit of the laws, wheresoever he cometh ; . . . but living in one, or for his livelihood in one, he is not to be taxed in the other; because laws ordain taxes, impositions, and charges, as a discipline of subjection particularized to every particular nation." Another place where this distinction is to be found is in Foster's Crown Law. " There have been writers who have carried the notion of natural, perpetual, unalienable allegiance much farther than the subject of this discourse will lead me. They say, very truly, that it is due to the person of the king, &c. . . It is undoubtedly due to the person of the king ; but in that respect natural allegiance differeth nothing from that we call local. For allegiance, con- sidered in every light, is alike due to the person of the king, and is paid, and in the nature of things must be constantly paid, to that prince who, for the time being, is in the actual and full pos- session of the regal dignity."

Indeed, allegiance to a sovereign lord is nothing more than fealty to a subordinate lord, and in neither case has any relation to or connection with laws or parliaments, lords or commons. There was a reciprocal confidence between the lord and vassal. The lord Was to protect the vassal in the enjoyment of his land. The vassal was to be faithful to his lord, and defend him against his enemies. This obligation, on the part of the vassal, was his fealty, fidelitas. The oath of fealty, by the feudal law, to be taken by the vassal or tenant, is nearly in the very words of the ancient oath of allegiance. But neither fealty, allegiance, or the oath of either implied any thing about laws, parliaments, lords, or commons.

vol. iv. 13 J

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The fealty and allegiance of Americans, then, is undoubtedly due to the person of King George III., whom God long preserve and prosper. It is due to him in his natural person, as that natural person is intituled to the crown, the kingly office, the royal dignity of the realm of England. And it becomes due to his natural person because he is intituled to that office. And because, by the charters, and other express and implied contracts made between the Americans and the kings of England, they have bound themselves to fealty and allegiance to the natural person of that prince, who shall rightfully hold the kingly office in England, and no otherwise.

" With us, in England," says Blackstone, " it becoming a set- tled principle of tenure, that all lands in the kingdom are holden of the king, as their sovereign and lord paramount, &c. the oath of allegiance was necessarily confined to the person of the king alone. By an easy analogy, the term of allegiance was soon brought to signify all other engagements which are due from subjects, as well as those duties which were simply and merely territorial. And the oath of allegiance, as administered for up- wards of six hundred years, contained a promise ' to be true and faithful to the king and his hens, and truth and faith to bear of life and limb and terrene honor, and not to know or hear of any ill or damage intended him, without defending him therefrom.' But at the revolution, the terms of this oath being thought, per- haps, to favor too much the notion of non-resistance, the present form was introduced by the convention parliament, which is more general and indeterminate than the former, the subject only pro- mising ' that he will be faithful, and bear true allegiance to the king,' without mentioning ' his heirs,' or specifying in the least wherein that allegiance consists."

Thus, I think that all the authorities in law coincide exactly with the observation which I have heretofore made upon the case of Wales, and show that subjection to a king of England does not necessarily imply subjection to the crown of England ; and that subjection to the crown of England does not imply sub- jection to the parliament of England ; for allegiance is due to the person of the king, and to that alone, in all three cases ; that is, whether we are subject to his parliament and crown, as well as his person, as the people in England are ; whether we are subject to his crown and person, without parliament, as the

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Welsh were after the conquest of Lewellyn and before the union ; or as the Irish were after the conquest and before Poyn- ing's law ; or whether we are subject to his person alone, as the Scots were to the King of England, after the accession of James I., being not at all subject to the parliament or crown of England.

We do not admit any binding authority in the decisions and adjudications of the court of king's bench or common pleas, or the court of chancery, over America ; but we quote them as the opinions of learned men. In these we find a distinction between a country conquered and a country discovered. Conquest, they say, gives the crown an absolute power; discovery only gives the subject a right to all the laws of England. They add, that all the laws of England are in force there. I confess I do not see the reason of this. There are several cases in books of law which may be properly thrown before the public. I am no more of a lawyer than Massachusettensis, but have taken his advice, and conversed with many lawyers upon our subject, some honest, some dishonest, some living, some dead, and am willing to lay before you what I have learned from all of them. In Salkeld, 411, the case of Blankard and Galdy: "In debt on a bond, the defendant prayed oyer of the condition, and pleaded the statute E. 6, against buying offices concerning the administration of justice ; and averred, that this bond was given for the purchase of the office of provost-marshal in Jamaica, and that it con- cerned the administration of justice, and that Jamaica is part of the revenue and possessions of the crown of England. The plaintiff replied, that Jamaica is an island beyond the seas, which was conquered from the Indians and Spaniards in Queen Eliza- beth's time, and the inhabitants are governed by their own laws, and not by the laws of England. The defendant rejoined, that, before such conquest, they were governed by their own laws ; but since that, by the laws of England. Shower argued for the plaintiff, that, on a judgment in Jamaica, no writ of error lies here, but only an appeal to the council ; and as they are not re- presented in our parliament, so they are not bound by our statutes, unless specially named.* Pemberton, contra, argued that, by the conquest of a nation, its liberties, rights, and properties are quite

* And. 115.

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lost; that by consequence, their laws are lost too, for the law is but the rule and guard of the other ; those that conquer cannot, by then victory, lose their laws and become subject to others.* That error lies here upon a judgment in Jamaica, which could not be, if they were not under the same law. Et per Holt, C. J. and Cur. 1st. In case of an uninhabited country, newly found out by English subjects, all laws in force in England are in force there ; so it seemed to be agreed. 2. Jamaica being conquered, and not pleaded to be parcel of the kingdom of England, but part of the possessions and revenue of the crown of England, the laws of England did not take place there, until declared so by the conqueror or his successors. The Isle of Man and Ire- land are part of the possessions of the crown of England, yet retain their ancient laws; that, in Davis, 36, it is not pretended that the custom of tanistry was determined by the conquest of Ireland, but by the new settlement made there after the con- quest ; that it was impossible the laws of this nation, by mere conquest, without more, should take place in a conquered coun- try ; because, for a time, there must want officers, without which our laws can have no force ; that if our law did take place, yet they, in Jamaica, having power to make new laws, our general laws may be altered by theirs in particulars ; also, they held that in case of an infidel country, their laws, by conquest, do not entirely cease, but only such as are against the law of God; and that in such cases, where the laws are rejected or silent, the conquered country shall be governed according to the rule of natural equity. Judgment pro querT

Upon this case I beg leave to make a few observations : —

1. That Shower's reasoning, that we are not bound by sta- tutes, because not represented in parliament, is universal, and, therefore, his exception, " unless specially named," although it is taken from analogy to the case of Ireland, by Lord Coke and others, yet is not taken from the common law, but is merely arbitrary and groundless, as applied to us ; because, if the want of representation could be supplied by "expressly naming" a country, the right of representation might be rendered null and nugatory. But of this, more another time.

2. That, by the opinion of Holt and the whole court, the laws

* Vaugh. 405.

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of England, common and statute, are in force in a vacant coun- try, discovered by Englishmen. But America was not a vacant country ; it was full of inhabitants ; our ancestors purchased the land ; but, if it had been vacant, his lordship has not shown us any authority at common law, that the laws of England would have been in force there. On the contrary, by that law, it is clear they did not extend beyond seas, and therefore could not be binding there, any further than the free will of the discoverers should make them. The discoverers had a right by nature to set up those laws if they liked them, or any others that pleased them better, provided they were not inconsistent with their alle- giance to the king.

3. The court held, that a country must be parcel of the king- dom of England, before the laws of England could take place there ; which seems to be inconsistent with what is said before, because discovery of a vacant country does not make it parcel of the kingdom of England, which shows that the court, when they said, that all laws in force in England are in force in the discovered country, meant no more than that the discoverers had a right to all such laws, if they chose to adopt them.

4. The idea of the court, in this case, is exactly conformable to, if not taken from, the case of Wales. They consider a con- quered country as Edward I. and his successors did Wales, as by the conquest annexed to the crown, as an absolute property, possession, or revenue, and, therefore, to be disposed of at its will ; not entitled to the laws of England, although bound to be governed by the king's will, in parliament or out of it, as he pleased.

5. The Isle of Man and Ireland are considered, like Wales, as conquered countries, and part of the possessions (by which they mean property or revenue) of the crown of England, yet have been allowed by the Icing's will to retain their ancient laws.

6. That the case of America differs totally from the case of Wales, Ireland, Man, or any other case which is known at com- mon law or in English history. There is no one precedent in point in any English records, and, therefore, it can be determined only by eternal reason and the law of nature. But yet that the analogy of all these cases of Ireland, Wales, Man, Chester, Dur- ham, Lancaster, &c. clearly concur with the dictates of reason and

13*

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nature, thai Americans are entitled to till the liberties of English- men, and that they are not bound by any acts of parliament whatever, by any law known in English records or history, ex- cepting those for the regulation of trade, which they have con- sented to and acquiesced in.

7. To these let me add, that, as the laws of England and the authority of parliament were by common law confined to the realm and within the four seas, so was the force of the great seal of England. " The great seal of England is appropriated to England, and what is done under it has relation to England, and to no other place."* So that the king, by common law, had no authority to create peers or governments, or any thing out of the realm, by his great seal ; and, therefore, our charters and commissions to governors, being under the great seal, gives us no more authority, nor binds us to any other duties, than if they had been given under the privy seal, or without any seal at all. Their binding force, both upon the crown and us, is wholly from compact and the law of nature.

There is another case in which the same sentiments are pre- served.! " It was said by the master of the rolls to have been de- termined by the lords of the privy council, upon an appeal to the king in council from the foreign plantations ; 1st. That if there be a new and uninhabited country, found out by English subjects, as the law is the birthright of every subject, so, wher- ever they go, they cany their laws with them, and, therefore, such new found country is to be governed by the laws of England ; though after such country is inhabited by the English, acts of parliament made in England, without naming the foreign plan- tations, will not bind them ; for which reason it has been deter- mined, that the statute of frauds and perjuries, which requires three witnesses, and that these should subscribe in the testator's presence in the case of a devise of land, does not bind Barba- does ; but that, 2dly. Where the King of England conquers a country, it is a different consideration ; for there the conqueror, by saving the lives of the people conquered, gains a right and property in such people ! In consequence of which, he may im- pose upon them what laws he pleases ; but, 3dly. Until such laws, given by the conquering prince, the laws and customs of the

* Salkeld, 510.

f It is in 2 P. Williams, 75, Memorandum, 9tu August, 1722.

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conquered country shall hold place ; unless where these are con- trary to our religion, or enact any thing that is malum in se, or are silent; for in all such cases the laws of the conquering coun- try shall prevail."

no. x.

Give me leave, now, to descend from these general matters to Massaehusettensis. He says, " Ireland, who has perhaps the greatest possible subordinate legislature, and sends no members to the British parliament, is hound by its acts when expressly named." But if we are to consider what ought to be, as well as what is, why should Ireland have the greatest possible subordinate legislature ? Is Ireland more numerous and more important to what is called the British empire than America? Subordinate as the Irish legislature is said to be, and a conquered country, as undoubtedly it is, the parliament of Great Britain, although they claim a power to bind Ireland by statutes, have never laid one farthing of tax upon it. They knew it would occasion re- sistance if they should. But the authority of parliament to bind Ireland at all, if it has any, is founded upon entirely a different principle from any that takes place in the case of Ame- rica. It is founded on the consent and compact of the Irish by Poyning's law to be so governed, if it have any foundation at all ; and this consent was given, and compact made, in conse- quence of a conquest.

In the reign of Henry II. of England, there were five distinct sovereignties in Ireland, — Munster, Leinster, Meath, Ulster, and Connaught, besides several small tribes. As the prince of any one of these petty states took the lead in war, he seemed to act, for the time being, as monarch of the island. About the year 1172, Roderic O'Connor, King of Connaught, was advanced to this preeminence. Henry had long cast a wishful eye upon Ire- land ; and now, partly to divert his subjects from the thoughts of Becket's murder, partly to appease the wrath of the pope for the same event, and partly to gratify his own ambition, he lays hold of a pretence, that the Irish had taken some natives of England and sold them for slaves, and applies to the pope for license to invade that island. Adrian III., an Englishman by

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birth, who was then pontiff, and very clearly convinced in his own mind of his right to dispose of kingdoms and empires, was easily persuaded, by the prospect of Peter's pence, to act as emperor of the world, and make an addition to his ghostly juris- diction of an island which, though converted to Christianity, had never acknowledged any subjection to the see of Rome. He issued a bull, premising that Henry had ever shown an anxious care to enlarge the church, and increase the saints on earth and in heaven ; that his design upon Ireland proceeded from the same pious motives ; that his application to the holy see was a sure earnest of success ; that it was a point incontest- able, that all Christian kingdoms belonged to the patrimony of St. Peter; that it was his duty to sow among them the seeds of the gospel, which might fructify to their eternal salvation. He exhorts Henry to invade Ireland, exterminate the vices of the natives, and oblige them to pay yearly, from every house, a penny to the see of Rome ; gives him full right and entire autho- rity over the whole island; and commands all to obey him as their sovereign.

Macmorrogh, a licentious scoundrel, who was king of Lein- ster, and had been driven from his kingdom for his tyranny by his own subjects, in conjunction with Ororic, king of Meath, who made war upon him for committing a rape upon his queen, applied to Henry for assistance to restore him, and promised to hold his kingdom in vassalage of the crown of England. Henry accepted the offer, and engaged in the enterprise. It is unnecessary to recapitulate all the intrigues of Henry, to divide the Irish kingdoms among themselves, and' set one against ano- ther, which are as curious as those of Edward I. to divide the kingdom of Wales, and play Lewellyn's brothers against him, or as those of the ministry, and our junto, to divide the American colonies, who have more sense than to be divided. It is suffi- cient to say, that Henry's expeditions terminated, altogether by means of those divisions among the Irish, in the total conquest of Ireland, and its annexation forever to the English crown. By the annexation of all Ireland to the English crown, I mean that all the princes and petty sovereigns of Ireland agreed to become vassals of the English crown. But what was the con- sequence of this ? The same consequence was drawn, by the kings of England in this case, as had been drawn in the case of

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Wales after the conquest of Lewellyn; namely, — -that Ireland was become part of the property, possession, or revenue of the English crown, and that its authority over it was absolute and without control.

That matter must be traced from step to step. The First monument we find in English records concerning Ireland, is a mere rescriptum principis, entitled statutum Hibemice de coheredi- bus, 14 Hen. III. A. D. 1229. « In the old abridgment, Title, Ho- mage, this is said not to be a statute." * Mr. Cay very properly observes, that it is not an act of parliament.! In this rescript, the king informs certain milites, (adventurers, probably, in the conquest of Ireland, or their descendants,) who had doubts how lands holden by knights' service, descending to copartners within age, should be divided, — what is the law and custom in Eng- land with regard to this.

But the record itself shows it to be a royal rescript only. " Rex dilecto et fideli suo Gerardo fiV Mauricii Justic^ suo Hibemice salutem. Quia tales milites, de partibus Hibemice nuper ad nos accedentes, nobis ostenderunt, quod, $c. Et a nobis petierunt, inde certiorari qualiter in regno nostro Anglice, in casu consimili, hac- tenus usitatum sit, SfC." He then goes on, and certifies what the law in England was, and then concludes : — "Et ideo vobis mand- amus, quod prcedictas consuetudincs in hoc casu, quas in regno nos- tro Ang-lice habemus, ut pradictum est, in terra nostra Hibernice proclamari et firmiter teneri, fac, ^-c."

Here again we find the king conducting himself exactly as Edward I. did in Wales, after the conquest of Wales. Ireland had now been annexed to the English crown many years, yet parliament was not allowed to have obtained any jurisdiction over it ; and Henry ordained laws for it by his sole and absolute authority, as Edward I. did by the statute of Wales. Another incontestable proof that annexing a country to the crown of Eng- land does not annex it to the realm, or subject it to parliament. But we shall find innumerable proofs of this.

Another incontestable proof of this, is the Ordinatio pro statu Hibernian made 17 Edward I. 1288.

This is an ordinance made by the king, by advice of his coun- cil, for the government of Ireland. " Edward, by the grace of

* Vide Ruff head's Statutes at Large, v. i. 15.

t Vide Barring-ton's Obseroations on the Statutes, p. 34.

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God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, &c, to all those who shall see or hear these letters, doth send salutation." He then goes on, and ordains many regulations, among which the seventh chapter is, — " That none of our officers shall receive an original writ pleadable at the common law, but such as be sealed by the great seal of Ireland," &c. This ordinance concludes, — " In witness whereof, we have caused these our letters-patents to be made. Dated at Nottingham, 24th November, 17th year of our reign."

This law, if it was passed in parliament, was never considered to have any more binding force than if it had been made only by the king. By Poyning's law, indeed, in the reign of Henry VII., all precedent English statutes are made to bind in Ireland, and this among the rest ; but until Poyning's law it had no va- lidity as an act of parliament, and was never executed but in the English pale ; for, notwithstanding all that is said of the total conquest by Henry II., yet it did not extend much beyond the neighborhood of Dublin, and the conqueror could not enforce his laws and regulations much further.

" There is a note on the roll of 21 Edward I. in these words : — ' Et memorandum quod istud statutum, de verbo ad verbum, mis- sum fait in Hiberniam, teste reg'e apud Kenynton, 14 die August/', anno regnisui incesimo septimo ; et mandatum fuit Johanni Wogan, Justiciario Hibemice, quod prcedictum statutum per Hiberniam, in locis quibus expedite viderit, legi et publice proclamari ac firmiter teneri faciaV

" This note most fully proves, that it was supposed the king, by his sole authority, could then introduce any English law; and will that authority be lessened by the concurrence of the two houses of parliament? . . . There is also an order of Charles L, in the third year of his reign, to the treasurers and chancellors of the exchequer, both of England and Ireland, by which they are directed to increase the duties upon Irish exports ; which shows that it was then imagined the king could tax Ireland by his pre- rogative, without the intervention of parliament." *

Another instance to show, that the king, by his sole authority, whenever he pleased, made regulations for the government of Ireland, notwithstanding it was annexed and subject to the

* Observations on the Statutes, p. 127.

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crown of England, is the ordinatio facta pro statu terra Hiber- nia, in the 31 Edward L, in the appendix to Ruff head's statutes. This is an extensive code of laws, made for the government of the Irish church and state, by the king alone, without lords or commons. The kings " volumus et firmiter prcecipimus" governs and establishes all ; and, among other things, he introduces, by the eighteenth chapter, the English laws for the regimen of per- sons of English extract settled in Ireland.

The next appearance of Ireland in the statutes of England is in the 34 Edward III. c. 17. This is no more than a concession of the king to his lords and commons of England, in these words : " Item, it is accorded, that all the merchants, as well aliens as denizens, may come into Ireland with their merchandises, and from thence freely to return with then merchandises and victuals, without fine or ransom to be taken of them, saving always to the king his ancient customs and other duties." And, by chap- ter 18: "Item, that the people of England, as well religious as other, which have their heritage and possessions in Ireland, may bring their corn, beasts, and victuals to the said land of Ireland, and from thence to re-carry their goods and merchandises into England, freely without impeachment, paying their customs and devoirs to the king."

All this is no more than an agreement between the ldng and his English subjects, lords, and commons, that there should be a free trade between the two islands and that one of them should be free for strangers. But it is no color of proof, that the king could not govern Ireland without his English lords and com- mons.

The 1 Henry V. c. 8 : " All Irishmen and Irish clerks, beggars, shall depart this realm before the first day of November, except graduates, sergeants, &c." is explained by 1 Henry VI. c. 3, which shows " what sort of Irishmen only may come to dwell in Eng- land." It enacts, that all persons born in Ireland shall depart out of the realm of England, except a few ; and that Irishmen shall not be principals of any hall, and that Irishmen shall bring testimonials from the lieutenant or justice of Ireland, that they are of the king's obeisance. By the 2d Henry VI. c. 8, " Irish- men resorting into the realm of England, shall put in surety for their good abearing."

Thus, I have cursorily mentioned every law made by the King

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of England, whether in parliament or out of it, for the govern- ment of Ireland, from the conquest of it by Henry II., in 1172, down to the reign of Henry VII., when an express contract was made between the two kingdoms, that Ireland should, for the future, be bound by English acts of parliament in which it should be specially named. This contract was made in 1495 ; so that, upon the whole, it appears beyond dispute, that, for more than three hundred years, though a conquered country, and annexed to the crown of England, yet, it was so far from being annexed to, or parcel of the realm, that the king's power was absolute there, and he might govern it without his English parliament, whose advice concerning it he was under no obligation to ask or pursue.

The contract I here alluded to, is what is called Poyning's law, the history of which is briefly this : Ireland revolted from Eng- land, or rather adhered to the partisans of the house of York ; and Sir Edward Poyning was sent over about the year 1495, by King Henry VII, with very extensive powers over the civil as well as military administration. On his arrival, he made severe inquisition about the disaffected, and in particular attacked the Earls of Desmond and Kildare. The first stood upon the defen- sive, and eluded the power of the deputy ; but Kildare was sent prisoner to England ; not to be executed, it seems, nor to be tried upon the statute of Henry VIIL, but to be dismissed, as he actually was, to his own country, with marks of the King's esteem and favor; Henry judging that, at such a juncture, he should gain more by clemency and indulgence, than by rigor and severity. In this opinion, he sent a commissioner to Ireland with a formal amnesty in favor of Desmond and all his adherents, whom the tools of his ministers did not fail to call traitors and rebels, with as good a grace and as much benevolence, as Massachusettensis discovers.

Let me stop here and inquire, whether Lord North has more wisdom than Henry VII, or whether he took the hint from the history of Poyning, of sending General Gage, with his civil and military powers. If he did, he certainly did not imitate Henry, in his blustering menaces against certain " ringleaders and fore- runners."

While Poyning resided in Ireland, he called a parliament, which is famous in history for the acts which it passed in favor

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of England and Englishmen settled in Ireland. By these, which are still called Poyning's laws, all the former laws of England were made to be of force in Ireland, and no bill can be introduced into the Irish parliament unless it previously receive the sanction of the English privy council ; and by a construction, if not by the express words, of these laws, Ireland is still said to be bound by English statutes in which it is specially named. Here, then, let Massachusettensis pause, and observe the original of the notion, that countries might be bound by acts of parliament, if " specially named," though without the realm. Let him observe, too, that this notion is grounded entirely on the voluntary act, the free consent of the Irish nation, and an act of an Irish parliament, called Poyning's law. Let me ask him, has any colony in Ame- rica ever made a Poyning's act ? Have they ever consented to be bound by acts of parliament, if specially named ? Have they ever acquiesced in, or implicitly consented to any acts of parlia- ment, but such as are bona fide made for the regulation of trade? This idea of binding countries without the realm " by specially naming" them, is not an idea taken from the common law. There was no such principle, rule, or maxim, in that law. It must be by statute law, then, or none. In the case of Wales and Ireland, it was introduced by solemn compact, and esta- blished by statutes to which the Welsh and Irish were parties, and expressly consented. But in the case of America there is no such statute ; and therefore Americans are bound by statutes in which they are " named," no more than by those in which they are not.

The principle upon which Ireland is bound by English statutes, in which it is named, is this, that being a conquered country, and subject to the mere will of the king, it voluntarily consented to be so bound. This appears in part already, and more fully in Blackstone, who tells us " that Ireland is a distinct, though a dependent, subordinate kingdom." But how came it dependent and subordinate ? He tells us, that " King John, in the twelfth year of his reign, after the conquest, went into Ireland, carried over with him many able sages of the law ; and there by his let- ters-patent, in right of the dominion of conquest, is said to have ordained and established that Ireland should be governed by the laws of England; which letters-patent Sir Edward Coke apprehends to have been there confirmed in parliament. . . . By

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the same rule, that no laws made in England between King John's time and Poyning's law were then binding in Ireland, it follows, that no acts of the English parliament, made since the tenth of Henry VIL, do now bind the people of Ireland, unless specially named, or included under general words. And on the other hand, it is equally clear, that where Ireland is particularly named, or is included under general words, they are bound by such acts of parliament. For this follows from the very nature and constitution of a dependent state ; dependence being very little else but an obligation to conform to the will or law of that supe- rior person or state upon which the inferior depends. The ori- ginal and true ground of this superiority in the present case, is what we usually call, though somewhat improperly, the right of conquest ; a right allowed by the law of nations, if not by that of nature ; but which in reason and civil policy can mean riothing more than that, in order to put an end to hostilities, a compact is either expressly or tacitly made between the con- queror and the conquered, that if they will acknowledge the victor for then master, he will treat them for the future as sub- jects, and not as enemies."

These are the principles upon which the dependence and sub- ordination of Ireland are founded. Whether they are just or not is not necessary for us to inquire. The Irish nation have never been entirely convinced of their justice, have been ever discon- tented with them, and ripe and ready to dispute them. Their reasonings have been ever answered by the ratio ultima and pen- ultima of the tories ; and it requires, to this hour, no less than a standing army of twelve thousand men to confute them, as little as the British parliament exercises the right, which it claims, of binding them by statutes, and although it never once attempted or presumed to tax them, and although they are so greatly infe- rior to Britain in power, and so near in situation.

But thus much is certain, that none of these principles take place in the case of America. She never was conquered by Britain. She never consented to be a state dependent upon, or subordinate to the British parliament, excepting only in the regu- lation of her commerce ; and therefore the reasonings of British writers upon the case of Ireland are not applicable to the case of the colonies, any more than those upon the case of Wales.

Thus have I rambled after Massachusettensis through Wales

NOVANGLUS. 159

and Ireland, but have not reached my journey's end. I have yet to travel through Jersey, Guernsey, and I know not where. At present, I shall conclude with one observation. In the history of Ireland and Wales, though undoubtedly conquered countries, and under the very eye and arm of England, the extreme diffi- culty, the utter impracticability of governing a people who have any sense, spirit, or love of liberty, without incorporating them into the state, or allowing them in some other way equal privi- leges, may be clearly seen. Wales was forever revolting, for a thousand years, until it obtained that mighty blessing. Ireland has been frequently revolting, although the most essential power of a supreme legislature, that of imposing taxes, has never been exercised over them ; and it cannot now be kept under but by force. And it would revolt forever if parliament should tax them. What kind of an opinion, then, must the ministry entertain of America, — when her distance is so great, her territory so exten- sive, her commerce so important ; not a conquered country, but dearly purchased and defended ; when her trade is so essential to the navy, the commerce, the revenue, the very existence of Great Britain as an independent state? They must think Ame- \ rica inhabited by three millions of fools and cowards.

No. Xi

NO. XI.

The cases of Wales and Ireland are not yet exhausted. They afford such irrefragable proofs, that there is a distinction between the crown and realm, and that a country may be annexed and subject to the former, and not to the latter, that they ought to be thoroughly studied and understood.

The more these cases, as well as those of Chester, Durham, Jersey, Guernsey, Calais, Gascogne, Guienne, &c. are examined, the more clearly it will appear, that there is no precedent in Eng- lish records, no rule of common law, no provision in the English constitution, no policy in the English or British government, for the case of the colonies ; and, therefore, thatjwe derive our laws and government solely from our own compacts with Britain and her kings, and from the great Legislator of the universe.

We ought to be cautious of the inaccuracies of the greatest

160 NOVANGLUS.

men, for these are apt to lead us astray. Lord Coke * says : " Wales was some time a kingdom, as it appeareth by 19 Henry VI. fol. 6, and by the act of parliament of 2 Henry V. cap. 6 ; but while it was a kingdom, the same was holden and within the fee of the King of England ; and this appeareth by our books, Fleta, lib. 1, cap. 16; 1 Edward III. 14; 8 Edward III. 59 ; 13 Edward III., tit. Jurisdict. ; 10 Henry IV. 6 ; Plow. Com. 368. And in this respect, in divers ancient charters, kings of old time styled themselves in several manners, as King Edgar, Britanniae Basileus ; Etheldredus, Totius Albionis Dei providentia Impera- tor ; Edredus, magnae Britanniae Monarcha, which, among many others of like nature, I have seen. But, by the statute of 12 Edward I. Wales was united and incorporated into England, and made parcel of England in possession ; and, therefore, it is ruled, in 7 Henry IV. fol. 13, that no protection doth lie, quia moratur in Wallia, because Wales is within the realm of Eng- land. And where it is recited, in the act of 27 Henry VIII., that Wales was ever parcel of the realm of England, it is true in this sense, namely, — that before 12 Edward I. it was parcel in tenure, and since, it is parcel of the body of the realm. And whosoever is born within the fee of the King of England, though it be in another kingdom, is a natural-born subject, and capable and inheritable of lands in England, as it appeareth in Plow. Com. 126. And, therefore, those that were born in Wales before 12 Edward I., whilst it was only holden of England, were capa- ble and inheritable of lands in England."

Where my Lord Coke, or any other sage, shows us the ground on which his opinion stands, we can judge for ourselves, whether the ground is good and Ms opinion just. And, if we examine by this rule, we shall find in the foregoing words, several palpa- ble inaccuracies of expression : 1. By the 12 E. I., (which is the statutum Walliae quoted by me before,) it is certain " that Wales was not united and incorporated into England, and made parcel of England." It was annexed and united to the crown of Eng- land only. It was done by the king's sole and absolute author- ity; not by an act of parliament, but by a mere constitutio imperatoria, and neither Edward I. nor any of his successors ever would relinquish the right of ruling it by mere will and discre-

* 7 Rep. 21 b.

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tion, until the reign of James I. 2. It is not recited in the 27 H. VIII., that Wales was ever parcel of the realm of England. The words of that statute are, " incorporated, annexed, united, and subject to, and under the imperial crown of this realm," which is a'decisive proof, that a country may be annexed to the one with- out being united with the other. And this appears fully in Lord Coke himself:* " Ireland originally came to the kings of Eng- land by conquest ; but who was the first conqueror thereof hath been a question. I have seen a charter made by King Edgar, in these words : Ego Edgarus Anglorum Basileus, omniumque insu- larum oceani, quce Britanniam circumjacent, imperator et dominus, gratias ago ipsi Deo omnipotent regi meo, qui meum imperium sic ampliavit et exaltavit super regnum patrum meorum, &c. Mihi concessit propitia divinitas, cum anglorum imperio omnia regna insularum oceani, &c, cum suis ferocissimis regibus usque Norve- giam, maximamque partem Hibernian, cum sua nobilissima civitate de Dublina, Anglorum regno subjugare, quapropter et ego Christi gloriam et laudem in regno meo exaltare, et ejus servitium ampli- jicare devotus disposui, &c. Yet for that it was wholly con- quered in the reign of Henry II., the honor of the conquest of Ireland is attributed to him. That Ireland is a dominion sepa- rate and divided from England it is evident from our books, 20 H. VI. 8 ; Sir John Pilkington's case, 32 H. VI. 25 ; 20 Eliz. ; Dyer, 360 ; Plow. Com. 360, and 2 R. 3, 12 : Hibernia habet par- liamentum, et facutnt leges, et statuta nostra non ligant eos quia non mittunt milites ad parliamentum, (which is to be understood, unless they be specially named,) sed personal eorum sunt subjecti regis, sicut inhabitantes in Calesia, Gasconia, et Guyan. Wherein it is to be observed, that the Irishman (as to his subjection) is compared to men born in Calice, Gascoin, and Guienne. Con- cerning their laws, Ex rotulis petentium, de anno 11 Regis H. III., there is a charter which that king made, beginning in these words : Rex Baronibus, Militibus et omnibus libere tenentibus L. salutem. Satis, ut credimus vestra audivit discretio, quod quando bona memorial Johannes quondam rex Anglian, pater noster venit in Hiberniam, ipse duxit secum viros discretos et legis peritos, quorum communi consilio et ad instantiam Hibernensium statuit et pracepit leges Anglicanas in Hibernia, iia quod leges easdem in scripturas

* 7 Rep. 22 b.

14*

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redactas reliquit sub sigillo suo ad saccarium Dublin' '. So, as now, the laws of England became the proper laws of Ireland ; and, therefore, because they have parliaments holden there, whereat they have made diverse particular laws concerning that domi- nion, as it appeareth in 20 Henry VI. 8, and 20 Elizabeth, Dyer, 360, and for that they retain unto this day divers of their ancient customs, the book in 20 Henry VI. 8, holdeth that Ire- land is governed by laws and customs separate and diverse from the laws of England. A voyage royal may be made into Ireland. Vid. 11 Henry IV. 7, and 7 Edward IV. 4, 27, which proveth it a distinct dominion. And in anno 33 Elizabeth, it was resolved by all the judges of England, in the case of O'Rurke, an Irish- man, who had committed high treason in Ireland, that he, by the statute of 23 Henry VIII. c. 23, might be indicted, arraigned, and tried for the same in England, according to the purview of that statute ; the words of which statute be, ' that all treasons, &c. committed by any person out of the realm of England, shall be from henceforth inquired of, &c.' And they all resolved, (as afterwards they did also in Sir John Perrot's case,) that Ireland was out of the realm of England, and that treasons committed there were to be tried within England by that statute. In the statute of 4 Henry VII. c. 24, of fines, provision is made for them that be out of this land; and it is holden in Plow. Com., in Stowell's case, 375, that he that is in Ireland is out of this land, and consequently within that proviso. Might not, then, the like plea be devised as well against any person born in Ireland as (this is against Calvin, that is, a Postnatus) in Scotland ? For the Irishman is born extra ligeantiam regis, regni sui Anglicz, &c, which be verba operativa in the plea. But all men know that they are natural born subject, and capable of and inheritable to lands in England."

I have been at the pains of transcribing this long passage, for the sake of a variety of important observations that may be made upon it.

1. That exuberance of proof that is in it, both that Ireland is annexed to the crown, and that it is not annexed to the realm, of England.

2. That the reasoning in the year book, that Ireland has a parliament, and makes laws, and our statutes do not bind them, because they do not send knights to parliament, is universal, and

NOVANGLUS. 163

concludes against those statutes binding in which Ireland is spe- cially named, as much as against those in which it is not ; and therefore Lord Coke's parenthesis " (which is to be understood, unless they be specially named) " is wholly arbitrary and ground- less, unless it goes upon the supposition that the king is absolute in Ireland, it being a conquered country, and so has power to bind it at his pleasure, by an act of parliament, or by an edict ; or unless it goes upon the supposition of Blackstone, that there had been an express agreement and consent of the Irish nation to be bound by acts of the English parliament ; and in either case it is not applicable even by analogy to America ; because that is not a conquered country, and most certainly never consented to be bound by all acts of parliament in which it should be named.

3. That the instance, request, and consent of the Irish is stated, as a ground upon which King John, and his discreet law-sages, first established the laws of England in Ireland.

4. The resolution of the judges in the cases of O'Rurke and Pei-rot, is express, that Ireland was without the realm of Eng- land ; and the late resolutions of both houses of parliament, and the late opinion of the judges, that Americans may be sent to England upon the same statute to be tried for treason, is also express that America is out of the realm of England. So that we see what is to become of us, my friends. When they want to get our money by taxing us, our privileges by annihilating our charters, and to screen those from punishment who shall murder us at their command, then we are told that we are within the realm ; but when they want to draw, hang, and quarter us, for honestly defending those liberties which God and compact have given and secured to us, — oh! then we are clearly out of the realm.

5. In Stowell's case, it is resolved that Ireland is out of the land, that is, the land of England. The consequence is, that it was out of the reach and extent of the law of the land, that is, the common law. America surely is still further removed from that land, and therefore is without the jurisdiction of that law, which is called the law of the land in England. I think it must appear by this time, that America is not parcel of the realm, state, kingdom, government, empire, or land of England, or Great Britain, in any sense which can make it subject universally to the supreme legislature of that island.

164 NOVANGLUS.

But for the sake of curiosity, and for the purpose of showing, that the consent even of a conquered people has always been carefully conciliated, I beg leave to look over Lord Coke's 4 Inst. p. 12. "After King Henry II." says he, " had conquered Ireland, he fitted and transcribed this modus" meaning the ancient treatise called modus tenendi parliamentum, which was rehearsed and declared before the conqueror at the time of the conquest, and by him approved for England, " into Ireland, in a parchment roll, for the holding of parliaments there, which, no doubt, H. II. did by advice of his judges, &c. This modus, &c. was, anno 6, H. IV., in the custody of Sir Christopher Preston, which roll H. IV., in the same year, de assensu Johannis Talbot, Chevalier, his lieutenant there, and of his council of Ireland, ex- emplified, &c."

Here we see the original of a parliament in Ireland, which is assigned as the cause or reason why Ireland is a distant kingdom from England; and in the same, 4 Inst. 349, we find more evidence that all this was done at the instance and request of the people in Ireland. Lord Coke says, — " H. II, the father of King John, did ordain and command at the instance of the Irish, that such laws as he had in England should be of force and observed in Ireland. Hereby Ireland, being of itself a distinct dominion, and no part of the kingdom of England, (as it directly appeareth by many authorities in Calvin's case,) was to have parliaments holden there, as England, &c." See the record, as quoted by Lord Coke in the same page, which shows that even this establishment of English laws was made de communi omnium de Hibernia consensu.

This whole chapter is well worth attending to ; because the records quoted in it show how careful the ancients were to obtain the consent of the governed to all laws, though a conquered peo- ple, and the king absolute. Very unlike the minister of our era, who is for pulling down and building up the most sacred esta- blishments of laws and government, without the least regard to the consent or good-will of Americans. There is one observation more of Lord Coke that deserves particular notice. " Sometimes the king of England called his nobles of Ireland to come to his parliament of England, &c. ; and by special words the parlia- ment of England may bind the subjects of Ireland ; " and cites the record, 8 E. II., and subjoins "an excellent precedent to be fol-

NOVANGLUS. 165

lowed whensoever any act of parliament shall be made in Eng- land concerning the state of Ireland, &c." By this, Lord Coke seems to intimate an opinion, that representatives had been, and ought to be, called from Ireland to the parliament of England, whenever it undertook to govern it by statutes in which it should be specially named.

After all, I believe there is no evidence of any express contract of the Irish nation, to be governed by the English parliament, and very little of an implied one ; that the notion of binding it by acts in which it is expressly named is merely arbitrary ; and that this nation, which has ever had many and great virtues, has been most grievously oppressed. And it is to this day so greatly injured and oppressed, that I wonder American com- mittees of correspondence and congresses have not attended more to it than they have. Perhaps in some future time they may. But I am running beyond my line.

We must now turn to Burrow's Reports.* Lord Mansfield has many observations upon the case of Wales, which ought not to be overlooked. He says, — " Edward I. conceived the great design of annexing all other parts of the island of Great Britain to the realm of England. The better to effectuate his idea, as time should offer occasion, he maintained, ' that all the parts thereof not in his own hands or possession, were holden of his crown.' The consequence of this doctrine was, that by the feudal law supreme jurisdiction resulted to him, in right of his crown, as sovereign lord, in many cases which he might lay hold of; and when the said territories should come into his hands and possession, they would come back as parcel of the realm of England, from which (by fiction of law at least) they had been originally severed. This doctrine w~as literally true as to the counties palatine of Chester and Durham. But (no matter upon what foundation) he maintained that the principality of Wales was holden of the imperial crown of England ; he treated the Prince of Wales as a rebellious vassal, subdued him, and took possession of the prin- cipality. Whereupon, on the fourth of December, in the ninth year of his reign, he issued a commission to inquire '■per quas leges, et per quas consuetudines antecessores nostri reges regere consueverant principem Walliae et barones Wallenses Walliae et

* Vol. ii. 834. Rex v. Cowle.

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pares suos et alios in prior es et eorum pares, fife? If the principality was feudatory, the conclusion necessarily followed, that it was under the government of the king's laws, and the king's courts, in cases proper for them to interpose, though (like counties pala- tine) they had peculiar laws and customs, jura regalia, and com- plete jurisdiction at home." There was a writ at the same time issued to all his officers in Wales, to give information to. the commissioners ; and there were fourteen interrogatories, specify- ing the points to be inquired into. The statute of Rutland, 12 E. I., refers to this inquiry. By that statute he does not annex Wales to England, but recites it as a consequence of its coming into his hands: — "Divina providentia terrain Walliae, prius nobis jure feodali subjectam, jam in proprietatis nostrae dominium con- vertit, et coronae regni Angliae, tanquam partem corporis ejusdem, annexuit et univit." The 27 H. VIII. c. 26, adheres to the same plan, and recites that " Wales ever hath been incorporated, an- nexed, united, and subject to, and under, the imperial crown of this realm, as a very member and joint of the same." Edward I., having succeeded as to Wales, maintained likewise that Scot- land was holden of the crown of England. This opinion of the court was delivered by Lord Mansfield in the year 1759. In conformity to the system contained in these words, my Lord Mansfield and my Lord North, together with their little friends, Bernard and Hutchinson, have " conceived the great design of an- nexing " all North America " to the realm of England ; " and " the better to effectuate this idea, they all maintain that North Ame- rica is holden of the crown."

And, no matter upon what foundation, they all maintained, that America is dependent on the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain ; and they are all very eagerly desirous of treat- ing the Americans as rebellious vassals, to subdue them, and take possession of their country. And when they do, no doubt Amerid&, will come back as parcel of the realm of England, from which, by fiction of law at least, or by virtual representation, or by some other dream of a shadow of a shade, they had been ori- ginally severed.

But these noblemen and ignoblemen ought to have considered, that Americans understand the laws and the politics as well as themselves, and that there are six hundred thousand men in it. between sixteen and sixty years of age ; and therefore it will be

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very difficult to chicane them out of their liberties by " fictions of law," and " no matter upon what foundation."

Methinks I hear his lordship, upon this occasion, in a soliloquy somewhat like this : " We are now in the midst of a war, which has been conducted with unexampled success and glory. We have conquered a great part, and shall soon complete the conquest of the French power in America. His majesty is near seventy years of age, and must soon yield to nature. The amiable, vir- tuous, and promising successor, educated under the care of my nearest friends, will be influenced by our advice. We must bring the war to a conclusion ; for we have not the martial spirit and abilities of the great commoner ; * but we shall be obliged to leave upon the nation an immense debt. How shall we manage that? Why, I have seen letters from America, proposing that parlia- ment should bring America to a closer dependence upon it, and representing that if it does not, she will fall a prey to some foreign power, or set up for herself. These hints may be improved, and a vast revenue drawn from that country and the East Indies, or at least the people here may be flattered and quieted with the hopes of it. It is the duty of a judge to declare law ; but under this pretence, many, we know, have given law or made law, and none in all the records of Westminster Hall more than of late. Enough has been already made, if it is wisely improved by others, to overturn this constitution. Upon thi& occasion, I will accom- modate my expressions to such a design upon America and Asia, and will so accommodate both law arid fact, that they may here- after be improved to admirable effect in promoting our design." This is all romance, no doubt, but it has as good a moral as most romances. For, first, — it is an utter mistake, that Edward I. conceived the great design of annexing all to England, as one state, under one legislature. He conceived the design of annex- ing Wales, &c. to his crown. He did not pretend that it was before subject to the crown, but to him. "Nobis jure feodalV are his words. And when he annexes it to his crown, he does it by an edict of his own, not an act of parliament ; and he never did, in his whole life, allow that his parliament, that is, his lords and commons, had any authority over it, or that he was obliged to take or ask their advice, in any one instance, concerning the

1 The name by -which the elder Pitt was, for some time, described in England.

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management of it, nor did any of his successors for centuries. It was not Edward I, but Henry VIL, who first conceived the great design of annexing it to the realm ; and by him and Henry VIII. it was done in part, but never completed until James I. There is a sense, indeed, in which annexing a territory to the crown is annexing it to the realm, as putting a crown upon a man's head is putting it on the man, but it does not make it a part of the man. Second, — his lordship mentions the statute of Rutland ; but this was not an act of parliament, and therefore could not annex Wales to the realm, if the king had intended it; for it never was in the power of the king alone to annex a country to the realm. This cannot be done but by act of parliament. As to Edward's treating the Prince of Wales as a " rebellious vas- sal," this was arbitrary, and is spoken of by all historians as an infamous piece of tyranny.

Edward I. and Henry VIII. both considered Wales as the property and revenue of the crown, not as a part of the realm ; and the expressions " coronal regni Anglice, tanquam partem cor- poris ejusdem" signified " as part of the same body," that is, of the same " crown," not " realm " or " kingdom ; " and the expres- sions in 27 H. VIII., " under the imperial croWn of this realm, as a very member and joint of the same," mean as a member and joint of the "imperial crown," not of the realm. For the whole history of the principality, the acts of kings, parliaments, and people show, that Wales never was entitled, by this annexation, to the laws of England, nor was bound to obey them. The case of Ireland is enough to prove that the crown and realm are not the same. For Ireland is certainly annexed to the crown of Eng- land, and it certainly is not annexed to the realm.

There is one paragraph in the foregoing words of Lord Mans- field, which was quoted by his admirer, Governor Hutchinson, in his dispute with the house, with a profound compliment; " He did not know a greater authority," &c. But let the author- ity be as great as it will, the doctrine will not bear the test.

" If the principality was feudatory, the conclusion necessarily follows, that it was under the government of the king's laws." Ireland is feudatory to the crown of England ; but would not be subject to the king's English laws without its consent and com- pact. An estate may be feudatory to a lord, a country may be feudatory to a sovereign lord, upon all possible variety of con-

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ditions ; it may be, only to render homage ; it may be to render a rent ; it may be to pay a tribute ; if his lordship by feudatory means the original notion of feuds, it is true that the king, the general imperator, was absolute, and the tenant held his estate only at will, and the subject, not only his estate, but his person and life, at his will. But this notion of feuds had been relaxed in an infinite variety of degrees ; in some, the estate is held at will, in others for fife, in others for years, in others forever, to heirs, &c. ; in some to be governed by the prince alone, in some by princes and nobles, and in some by prince, nobles, and commons, &c. So that being feudatory by no means proves that English lords and commons have any share in the government over us. As to counties palatine, these were not only holden of the king and crown, but were erected by express acts of parliament, and, there- fore, were never exempted from the authority of parliament. The same parliament which erected the county palatine, and gave it its jura regalia and complete jurisdiction, might unmake it, and take away those regalia and jurisdiction. But American govern- ments and constitutions were never erected by parliament ; their regalia and jurisdiction were not given by parliament, and, there- fore, parliament have no authority to take them away.

But, if the colonies are feudatory to the kings of England, and subject to the government of the king's laws, it is only to such laws as are made in their general assemblies, their provin- cial legislatures.

No. Xii

NO. XII.

We now come to Jersey and Guernsey, which Massachuset- tensis says, " are no p"art of the realm of England, nor are they represented in parliament, but are subject to its authority." A little knowledge of this subject will do us no harm ; and, as soon as we shall acquire it, we shall be satisfied how these islands came to be subject to the authority of parliament. It is either upon the principle that the king is absolute there, and has a right to make laws for them by his mere will, and, therefore, may express his will by an act of parliament, or an edict, at his pleasure ; or it is an usurpation. If it is an usurpation, it ought not to be a precedent for the colonies; but it ought to be re-

VOL. IV. 15

170 NOVANGLUS.

formed, and they ought to be incorporated into the realm by act of parliament and their own act. Their situation is no objec- tion to this. Ours is an insurmountable obstacle.

Thus, we see, that in every instance which can be found, the observation proves to be true, that, by the common law, the laws of England, the authority of parliament, and the limits of the realm, were confined within seas. That the kings of England had frequently foreign dominions, some by conquest, some by marriage, and some by descent. But, in all those cases, the kings were either absolute in those dominions, or bound to govern them according to their own respective laws, and by their own legislative and executive councils. That the laws of Eng- land did not extend there, and the English parliament pretended no jurisdiction there, nor claimed any right to control the king in his government of those dominions. And, from this extensive survey of all the foregoing cases, there results a confirmation of what has been so often said, that there is no provision in the common law, in English precedents, in the English government or constitution, made for the case of the colonies. It is not a conquered, but a discovered country. It came not to the king by descent, but was explored by the settlers. It came not by mar- riage to the king, but was purchased by the settlers of the savages. It was not granted by the king of his grace, but was dearly, very dearly earned by the planters, in the labor, blood, and trea- sure which they expended to subdue it to cultivation. It stands upon no grounds, then, of law or policy, but what are found in the law of nature, and their express contracts in their charters, and their implied contracts in the commissions to governors and terms of settlement.

The cases of Chester and Durham, counties palatine within the realm, shall conclude this fatiguing ramble. Chester was an earldom and a county ; and in the 21st year of King Richard II. A. D. 1397, it was, by an act of parliament, erected into a princi- pality, and several castles and towns were annexed to it, saving to the king the rights of his crown. This was a county pala- tine, and had jura regalia before this erection of it into a prin- cipality. But the statute which made it a principality, was again repealed by 1 Henry IV. c. 3, and in 1399, by the 1 Henry IV. c. 18. Grievous complaints were made to the king, in par- liament, of murders, manslaughters, robberies, batteries, riots, &c.

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done by people of the county of Chester in divers counties of England. For remedy of which it is enacted, "that if any person of the county of Chester commit any murder or felony in any place out of that county, process shall be made against him by the common law, till the exigent, in the county where such murder or felony was done ; and if he flee into the county of Chester, and be outlawed and put in exigent for such murder or felony, the same outlawry or exigent shall be certified to the officers and ministers of the same county of Chester, and the same felon shall be taken, his lands and goods within that county shall be seized as forfeit into the hands of the prince, or of him that shall be lord of the same county of Chester for the time, and the king shall have the year and day, and the waste ; and the other lands and goods of such felon, out of said county, shall remain wholly to the king, &c. as forfeit." And a similar provision, in case of battery or trespass, &c.

Considering the great seal of England and the process of the king's courts did not run into Chester, it was natural that male- factors should take refuge there, and escape punishment, and, therefore, a statute like this was of indispensable necessity ; and, afterwards, in 1535, another statute was made, 27 Henry VIII. c. 5, for the making of justices of the peace within Chester, &c. It recites, " the king, considering the manifold robberies, murders, thefts, trespasses, riots, routs, embraceries, maintenances, oppressions, ruptures of his peace, &c, which have been daily done within his county palatine of Chester, &c, by reason that common justice hath not been indifferently ministered there, like and in such form as it is in other places of this his realm, by reason whereof the said crimes have remained unpunished; for redress whereof, and to the intent that one order of law should be had, the king is empowered to constitute justices of peace, quorum, and gaol delivery in Chester," &c.

By the 32 Henry VIII. c. 43, another act was made concern- ing the county palatine of Chester, for shire days.

These three acts soon excited discontent in Chester. They had enjoyed an exemption from the king's English courts, legis- lative and executive, and they had no representatives in the Eng- lish parliament, and, therefore, they thought it a violation of their rights, to be subjected even to those three statutes, as reasonable and absolutely necessary as they appear to have been. And,

172 NOVANGLUS.

accordingly, we find, in 1542, 34 and 35 Henry VIII. c. 13, a zealous petition to be represented in parliament, and an act was made for making of knights and burgesses within the county and city of Chester. It recites a part of the petition to the lung, from the inhabitants of Chester, stating, " that the county pala- tine had been excluded from parliament, to have any knights and burgesses there; by reason whereof, the said inhabitants have hitherto sustained manifold disherisons, losses, and damages, as well in their lands, goods, and bodies, as in the good civil and poli- tic governance and maintenance of the commonwealth of their said country ; and, forasmuch as the said inhabitants have always hitherto been bound by the acts and statutes, made by your highness and progenitors in said court," (meaning when expressly named, not otherwise,) " as far forth as other counties, cities, and boroughs, which have had knights and burgesses, and yet have had neither knight nor burgess there, for the said county pala- tine ; the said inhabitants, for lack thereof, have been oftentimes touched and grieved with acts and statutes made within the said court, as well derogatory unto the most ancient jurisdictions, liberties, and privileges of your said county palatine, as prejudi- cial unto the common weal, quietness, rest, and peace of your subjects, &c." For remedy whereof, two knights of the shire and two burgesses for the city are established.

I have before recited all the acts of parliament which were ever made to meddle with Chester, except the 51 Henry III. stat. 5, in 1266, which only provides that the justices of Chester and other bailiffs shall be answerable in the exchequer, for wards, escheats, and other bailiwicks ; yet Chester was never severed from the crown or realm of England, nor ever expressly ex- empted from the authority of parliament; yet, as they had generally enjoyed an exemption from the exercise of the author- ity of parliament, we see how soon they complain of it as grievous, and claim a representation as a right; and we see how readily it was granted. America, on the contrary, is not in the realm; never was subject to the authority of parliament by any principle of law ; is so far from Great Britain that she never can be represented ; yet, she is to be bound in all cases whatsoever !

The first statute which appears in which Durham is named, is 27 Henry VIII. c. 24, § 21 ; Cuthbert, Bishop of Durham, and his successors, and their temporal chancellor of the county palatine

NOVANGLUS. 173

of Durham, are made justices of the peace. The next is 31 Elizabeth, c. 9, and recites, that " Durham is, and of long time hath been, an ancient county palatine, in which the Queen's writ hath not, nor yet doth run." It enacts that a writ of proclamation upon an exigent against any person dwelling in the bishopric shall run there for the future. And § 5 confirms all the other liberties of the bishop and his officers.

And after this, we find no other mention of that bishopric in any statute until 25 Charles II. c. 9. This statute recites, " whereas, the inhabitants of the county palatine of Durham have not hitherto had the liberty and privilege of electing and sending any knights and burgesses to the high court of parliament, although the inhabitants of the said county palatine are liable to all payments, rates, and subsidies granted by parliament, equally with the inhabitants of other counties, cities, and boroughs, in this kingdom, who have their knights and burgesses in the par- liament, and are therefore concerned equally with others, the inhabitants of this kingdom, to have knights and burgesses in the said high court of parliament, of their own election, to represent the condition of their county, as the inhabitants of other counties, cities, and boroughs of this kingdom have." It enacts two knights for the county, and two burgesses for the city. Here, it should be observed, that, although they acknow- ledge that they had been liable to all rates, &c. granted by par- liament, yet none had actually been laid upon them before this statute.

Massachusettensis then comes to the first charter of this pro- vince; and he tells us, that in it We shall find irresistible evidence, that our being a part of the empire, subject to the supreme authority of the state, bound by its laws, and subject to its pro- tection, were the very terms and conditions by which our ances- tors held their lands and settled the province. This is roundly and warmly said, but there is more zeal in it than knowledge. As to our being part of the empire, it could not be the British empire, as it is called, because that was not then in being, but was created seventy or eighty years afterwards. It must be the English empire, then ; but the nation was not then polite enough to have introduced into the language of the law, or common parlance, any such phrase or idea. Rome never introduced the terms Roman empire until the tragedy of her freedom was com-

15*

174 NOVANGLUS.

pleted. Before that, it was only the republic or the city. In the same manner, the realm, or the kingdom, or the dominions of the king, were the fashionable style in the age of the first char- ter. As to being subject to the supreme authority of the state, the prince who granted that charter thought it resided in him- self, without any such troublesome tumults as lords and com- mons ; and before the granting that charter, had dissolved his parliament, and determined never to call another, but to govern without. It is not very likely, then, that he intended our an- cestors should be governed by parliament, or bound by its laws. As to being subject to its protection, we may guess what ideas king and parliament had of that, by the protection they actually afforded to our ancestors. Not one farthing was ever voted or given by the king or his parliament, or any one resolution taken about them. As to holding then lands, surely they did not hold then lands of lords and commons. If they agreed to hold their lands of the king, this did not subject them to English lords and commons, any more than the inhabitants of Scotland, holding their lands of the same king, subjected them. But there is not a word about the empire, the supreme authority of the state, being bound by its laws, or obliged for its protection in that whole charter. But "our charter is in the royal style." What then? Is that the parliamentary style? The style is this : " Charles, by the grace of God, King of Eng- land, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith," &c. Now, in which capacity did he grant that charter ; as King of France, or Ireland, or Scotland, or England ? He governed Eng- land by one parliament, Scotland by another. Which parliament were we to be governed by ? And Ireland by a third ; and it might as well be reasoned, that America was to be governed by the Irish parliament, as by the English. But it was granted " under the great seal of England." True ; but this seal runneth not out of the realm, except to mandatory writs, and when our charter was given, it was never intended to go out of the realm. The charter and the corporation were intended to abide and re- main within the realm, and be like other corporations there. But this affair of the seal is a mere piece of imposition.

In Moore's Reports, in the case of the union of the realm of Scotland with England, it is resolved by the judges, that " the seal is alterable by the king at his pleasure, and he might make

NOVANGLUS. 175

one seal for both kingdoms (of England and Scotland) ; for seals, coin, and leagues, are of absolute prerogative to the king with- out parliament, not restrained to any assent of the people ; " and in determining how far the great seal doth command out of Eng- land, they made this distinction: " That the great seal was cur- rent for remedials, which groweth on complaint of the subject, and thereupon writs are addressed under the great seal of Eng- land ; which writs are limited, their precinct to be within the places of the jurisdiction of the court that was to give the redress of the wrong. And therefore writs are not to go into Ireland, or the Isles, nor Wales, nor the counties palatine, because the king's courts here have not power to hold pleas of lands or things there. But the great seal hath a power preceptory to the person, which power extendeth to any place where the person may be found," &c. This authority plainly shows, that the great seal of Eng- land has no more authority out of the realm, except to mandatory or preceptory writs, (and surely the first charter was no preceptory writ,) than the privy seal, or the great seal of Scotland, or no seal at all. In truth, the seal and charter were intended to remain within the realm, and be of force to a corporation there ; but the moment it was transferred to New England, it lost all its legal force, by the common law of England ; and as this translation of it was acquiesced in by all parties, it might well be considered as good evidence of a contract between the parties, and in no other light ; but not a whit the better or stronger for being under the great seal of England. But " the grants are made by the king, for his heirs and successors." What then? So the Scots held their lands of him who was then lung of England, his heirs and successors, and were bound to allegiance to him, his heirs and successors ; but it did not follow from thence that the Scots were subject to the English parliament. So the inhabitants of Aqui- tain, for ten descents, held their lands, and were tied by allegiance to him who was king of England, his heirs and successors, but were Under no subjection to English lords and commons.

Heirs and successors of the king are supposed to be the same persons, and are used as synonymous words in the English law. There is no positive artificial provision made by our laws, or the British constitution, for revolutions. All our positive laws sup- pose that the royal office will descend to the eldest branch of the male line, or, in default of that, to the eldest female, &c, forever,

176 NOVANGLUS.

and that the succession will not be broken. It is true that nature, necessity, and the great principles of self-preservation, have often overruled the succession. But this was done without any posi- tive instruction of law. Therefore, the grants being by the king, for his heirs and successors, and the tenures being of the king, his heirs and successors, and the reservation being to the king, his heirs and successors, are so far from proving that we were to be part of an empire, as one state, subject to the supreme authority of the English or British state, and subject to its protection, that they do not so much as prove that we are annexed to the English crown. And all the subtilty of the writers on the side of the ministry, has never yet proved that America is so much as an- nexed to the crown, much less to the realm. " It is apparent the king acted in his royal capacity, as king of England." This I deny. The laws of England gave him no authority to grant any territory out of the realm. Besides, there is no color for his think- ing that he acted in that capacity, but his using the great seal of England ; but if the king is absolute in the affair of the seal, and may make or use any seal that he pleases, his using that seal which had been commonly used in England is no certain proof that he acted as king of England ; for it is plain he might have used the English seal in the government of Scotland, and in that case it will not be pretended that he would have acted in his royal capacity as king of England. But his acting as lung of England " necessarily supposes the territory granted to be a part of the English dominions, and holden of the crown of England." Here is the word "dominions" systematically introduced instead of the word " realm." There was no English dominions but the realm. And I say, that America was not any part of the English realm or dominions. And therefore, when the king granted it, he could not act as king of England, by the laws of England. As to the " territory being holden of the crown, there is no such thing in nature or art." Lands are holden according to the ori- ginal notices of feuds, of the natural person of the lord. Holding lands, in feudal language, means no more than the relation between lord and tenant. The reciprocal duties of these are all personal. Homage, fealty, &c, and all other services, are personal to the lord ; protection, &c. is personal to the tenant. And therefore no homage, fealty, or other services, can ever be rendered to the body politic, the political capacity, which is not

NOVANGLUS. 177

corporated, but only a frame in the mind, an idea. No lands here, or in England, are held of the crown, meaning by it the political capacity ; they are all held of the royal person, the natu- ral person of the king. Holding lands, &c. of the crown, is an impropriety of expression; but it is often used; and when it is, it can have no other sensible meaning than this, that we hold lands of that person, whoever he is, who wears the crown ; the law supposes he will be a right, natural heir of the present king forever.

Massachusettensis then produces a quotation from the first charter, to prove several points. It is needless to repeat the whole ; but the parts chiefly relied on are italicized. It makes the company a body politic in fact and name, &c, and enables it " to sue and be sued." Then the writer asks, " whether this looks like a distinct state or independent empire ? " I answer, no. And that it is plain and uncontroverted, that thefirst_charter was intended only to erect a corporation within the realm ; and "the governor and company were to reside within the realm ; and their general courts were to be held there. Their agents, depu- ties, and servants only were to come to America. And if this had taken place, nobody ever doubted but they would have been subject to parliament. But this intention was not regarded on either side ; and the company came over to America, and brought their charter with them. And as soon as they arrived here, they got out of the English realm, dominions, state, empire, call it by what name you will, and out of the legal jurisdiction of parliament. The king might, by his writ or proclamation, have commanded them to return ; but he did not.

NOTE TO THE EDITION OF 1819.

Hostilities at Lexington, between Great Britain and her colonies, com- menced on the nineteenth of April, two days succeeding the publication of this last essay. Several others were written, and sent to the printers of the Boston Gazette, which were probably lost amidst the confusion occasioned by that event.

Works On Government Preface By The Editor

WORKS

ON

GOVERNMENT

PREFACE

BY THE EDITOR.

In times of social revolution, two descriptions of human power are forced into extraordinary activity. One of these is particu- larly directed to the work of demolition of the old, the other to that of reconstruction of the new, forms of government. Most frequently these are not found existing in one and the same set of persons ; and the first class of agents, after having accomplished its work, yields its place to the second, which, in turn, performs that for which it is peculiarly fitted. " L'esprit d'organisation," says a modern French writer,1 "le gout d'une reguliere discipline, le don du commandement raisonnable, ne sont pas des qualites propres a ceux qui ont jete le trouble dans la societe. D'ailleurs, aux rares genies qui recoivent cette mission, on ne donne pas le pouvoir, ils le prennent."

The share which Mr. Adams had in breaking up the system of colonial dependence has been already shown in the preceding division of this work. It is intended in this to present, in one clear and connected view, the system upon which he acted in reorganizing society upon the basis under which the country has thus far prospered. It will be perceived that, from first to last, | from the year 1775, before the Declaration of Independence, down to the year 1793, when the present constitution had be- come fully established, the principles upon which he acted and counselled remain substantially the same. What these really were ; how far they were adopted and incorporated into the institutions of the separate and of the United States ; and how far they may be entitled to be hereafter received as sound, the

1 Questions Conslitutionelles, par M. cle Barante. VOL. IV. 16

182 PREFACE.

present corrected form of publication will probably furnish the materials of deciding. Upon them, the reputation of the author with posterity must ultimately rest, far more than upon his active career. The system, though developed to serve an immediate purpose, is based upon a close examination of human nature, in every phase of its republican experience. Its suggestions and its warnings remain alike on record, their soundness to be tested by the future course of government, now tending more and more, in all civilized countries, to the adoption of popular forms.

The writings of Mr. Adams upon Government may be classed according to the three periods in which they were written.

The first embraces the exposition of his theory, prior to the attempt in any state to form an independent system, and is called the plan.

The second contains the proposal of a distinct form, when he was himself called upon to take a share in the organization of a government, and is called the model.

The third includes the defence of the plan and model against all the objections that were raised against them, at a time when circumstances threatened to bring them into disrepute, and is, therefore, denominated the defence.

The Plan. Works On Government

THE PLAN.

WORKS ON GOVERNMENT.

The rapidity -with which events in 1775 were hastening a final separation between Great Britain and the Colonies, naturally suggested in many minds reflections upon the position in which the people of the latter might be placed after removing the foundation of all recognized authority. Mr. Adams, in his Autobiography, speaks of the discussions held upon government during that season, among the members of the Continental Congress. The following letter seems to have been an effort to embody the ideas then uppermost in the writer's mind, made at the request of Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, to whom it was addressed.

The copy from which this is printed was taken from the original, a few years since, by John Quincy Adams. Other copies were, however, circulated in Vir- ginia at a much earlier date, one of which, with a few variations, was transmitted to England, and found its way to Government. It was discovered by Mr. Sparks, in the State Paper Office, and was printed by him in the Appendix to the second volume of Washington's Writings. As the earliest trace of the author's plan of government, it seems proper to be inserted here.

To Richard Hexky Lee

TO RICHARD HEXKY LEE.

Philadelphia, 15 November, 1775.

Dear Sir, — The course of events naturally turns the thoughts of gentlemen to the subjects of legislation and jurisprudence; and it is a curious problem, what form of government is most readily and easily adopted by a colony upon a sudden emer- gency. Nature and experience have already pointed out the solution of this problem, in the choice of conventions and com- mittees of safety. Nothing is wanting, in addition to these, to make a complete government, but the appointment of magis- trates for the due administration of justice.

Taking nature and experience for my guide, I have made the following sketch, which may be varied in any one particular an infinite number of ways, so as to accommodate it to the differ*

v

16*

I

186 ON GOVERNMENT.

ent genius, temper, principles, and even prejudices, of different people.

A legislative, an executive, and a judicial power comprehend the whole of what is meant and understood by government. It is by balancing each of these powers against the other two, that the efforts in human nature towards tyranny can alone be checked and restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in the constitution.

Let a full and free representation of the people be chosen for a house of commons.

" Let the house choose, by ballot, twelve, sixteen, twenty-four, or twenty-eight persons, either members of the house, or from the people at large, as the electors please, for a council.

Let the house and council, by joint ballot, choose a governor, annually, triennially, or septennially, as you will.

Let the governor, council, and house, be each a distinct and independent branch of the legislature, and have a negative on

all laws.

Let the governor, secretary, treasurer, commissary, attorney- general, and solicitor-general, be chosen annually, by joint ballot of both houses.

Let the governor, with seven counsellors, be a quorum.

Let all officers and magistrates, civil and military, be nomi- nated and appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of his council.

Let no officer be appointed but at a general council ; and let notice be given to all the counsellors seven days, at least, before a general council.

Let the judges, at least of the supreme court, be incapacitated by law from holding any share in the legislative or executive power; let their commissions be during good behavior, and their salaries ascertained and established by law.

Let the governor have the command of the army, the militia,

forts, &c.

Let the Colony have a seal, and affix it to all commis- sions.

In this way, a single month is sufficient, without the least convulsion, or even animosity, to accomplish a total revolution in the government of a colony. If it is thought more beneficial, a law may be made, by their new legislature, leaving to the

ON GOVERNMENT. 187

people at large the privilege of choosing their governor and counsellors annually, as soon as affairs get into a more quiet course.

In adopting a plan in some respects similar to this, human nature would appear in its proper glory, asserting its own real dignity, pulling down tyrannies at a single exertion, and erecting such new fabrics as it thinks best calculated to promote its happiness.

As you were last evening polite enough to ask me for this model, if such a trifle will be of any service to you, or any gra- tification of curiosity, here you have it from, Sir,

Your friend and humble servant,

John Adams.

Thoughts On Government : Applicable To

THOUGHTS

ON

GOVERNMENT :

APPLICABLE TO

The PRESENT STATE

Of The American Colonies

OF THE

AMERICAN COLONIES.

In a LETTER from a Gentleman To his Friend.

Philadelphia :

PHILADELPHIA :

Printed by John Dunlap.

mdcclxxvi.

PREFACE

, "In the winter of 1776 there was much discussion in Congress concerning the necessity of independence, and advising the several States to institute governments for themselves under the immediate authority and original power of the people. Great difficulties occurred to many gentlemen in making a transition from the old governments to new, that is, from the royal to republican governments. In January, 1776, Mr. George Wythe, of Virginia, passing an evening with me, asked me what plan I would advise a colony to pursue, in order to get out of the old government and into a new one. I sketched in words a scheme, which he requested me to give him in writing. Accordingly, the next day, I delivered to him the following letter. He lent it to his col- 1/ league, Richard Henry Lee, who asked me to let him print it; to which I con- sented, provided he would suppress my name ; for if that should appear, it would excite a continental clamor among the tories, that I was erecting a battering-ram to demolish the royal government and render independence indispensable.

"Quincy, 21 July, 1811."

The copy of the pamphlet to which this notice was prefixed in writing on the fly-leaf, is now separated from it, and neither that nor any other has been dis- covered among the papers. Judge Cranch, when preparing his Memoir of Mr. Adams for the Columbian Institute at Washington, was unable to find it in print.

The first edition, making a duodecimo of twenty-eight pages, was printed in Philadelphia, by John Dunlap, and copies are yet preserved in that city. The Editor has seen not less than three in the City Library, an institution rich in the early pamphlets of the Revolution. It is not probable that many ever found their way to Massachusetts. Certainly, none are known to exist there at the pre- sent time. A reprint was made of it the same year, by John Gill, in Queen Street, Boston, a copy of which is now in the Library of the American Anti- quarian Society, at Worcester. It makes sixteen pages, 1 2mo, of paper and print far inferior to the original edition. Since that period it has been repeat- edly printed ; upon one occasion it was attributed to Mr. Jefferson, but most frequently it has appeared in connection with notices of the life of the author.

Thoughts On Government

THOUGHTS ON GOVERNMENT.

My dear Sir, — If I was equal to the task of forming a plan for the government of a colony, I should be flattered with your request, and very happy to comply with it ; because, as the divine science of politics is the science of social happiness, and the blessings of society depend entirely on the constitutions of government, which are generally institutions that last for many generations, there can be no employment more agreeable to a benevolent mind than a research after the best.

Pope flattered tyrants too much when he said,

" For forms of government let fools contest, That which is best administered is best."

Nothing can be more fallacious than this. But poets read his- tory to collect flowers, not fruits ; they attend to fanciful images, not the effects of social institutions. Nothing is more certain, from the history of nations and nature of man, than that some forms of government are better fitted for being well administered than others.

We ought to consider what is the end of government, before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all specu- lative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow, that the form of gov- ernment which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.

All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue. Confucius, Zoroaster, Socrates, Mahomet, not to mention authorities really sacred, have agreed in this.

VOL. IV 17 m

194 ON GOVERNMENT.

If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form ?

Fear is the foundation of most governments ; but it is so sor- did and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.

Honor is truly sacred, but holds a lower rank in the scale of moral excellence than virtue. Indeed, the former is but a part of the latter, and consequently has not equal pretensions to support a frame of government productive of human happiness.

The foundation of every government is some principle or pas- sion in the minds of the people. The noblest principles and most generous affections in our nature, then, have the fairest chance to support the noblest and most generous models of government.

A man must be indifferent to the sneers of modern English- men, to mention in their company the names of Sidney, Har- rington, Locke, Milton, Nedham, Neville, Burnet, and Hoadly. No small fortitude is necessary to confess that one has read them. The wretched condition of this country, however, for ten or fifteen years past, has frequently reminded me of their princi- ples and reasonings. They will convince any candid mind, that there is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so ; because the very definition of a republic is " an empire of laws, and not of men." That, as a republic is the best of governments, so that particular arrangement of the powers of society, or, in other words, that form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the laws, is the best of republics.

Of republics there is an inexhaustible variety, because the possible combinations of the powers of society are capable of innumerable variations.

As good government is an empire of laws, how shall your laws be made ? In a large society, inhabiting an extensive country, it is impossible that the whole should assemble to make laws. The first necessary step, then, is to depute power from the many to a few of the most wise and good. But by what

ON GOVERNMENT. 195

rules shall you choose your representatives ? Agree upon the number and qualifications of persons who shall have the benefit of choosing, or annex this privilege to the inhabitants of a cer- tain extent of ground.

The principal difficulty lies, and the greatest care should be employed, in constituting this representative assembly. It should be in miniature an exact portrait of the people at large. It should think, feel, reason, and act like them. That it may be the interest of this assembly to do strict justice at all times, it should be an equal representation, or, in other words, equal in- terests among the people should have equal interests in it. Great care should be taken to effect this, and to prevent unfair, par- tial, and corrupt elections. Such regulations, however, may be better made in times of greater tranquillity than the present; and they will spring up themselves naturally, when all the powers of government come to be in the hands of the people's friends. At present, it will be safest to proceed in all established modes, to which the people have been familiarized by habit.

A representation of the people in one assembly being ob- tained, a question arises, whether all the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, shall be left in this body ? I think a people cannot be long free, nor ever happy, whose gov- ernment is in one assembly. My reasons for this opinion are as follow : —

1. A single assembly is liable to all the vices, follies, and frailties of an individual ; subject to fits of humor, starts of pas- sion, flights of enthusiasm, partialities, or prejudice, and conse- quently productive of hasty results and absurd judgments. And all these errors ought to be corrected and defects supplied by some controlling power.

2. A single assembly is apt to be avaricious, and in time will not scruple to exempt itself from burdens, which it will lay, without compunction, on its constituents.

3. A single assembly is apt to grow ambitious, and after a time will not hesitate to vote itself perpetual. This was one fault of the Long Parliament ; but more remarkably of Holland, whose assembly first voted themselves from annual to septen- nial, then for life, and after a course of years, that all vacancies happening by death or otherwise, should be filled by themselves, without any application to constituents at all.

196 ON GOVERNMENT.

4. A representative assembly, although extremely well quali- fied, and absolutely necessary, as a branch of the legislative, is unfit to exercise the executive power, for want of two essential properties, secrecy and despatch.

5. A representative assembly is still less qualified for the judi- cial power, because it is too numerous, too slow, and too little skilled in the laws.

6. Because a single assembly, possessed of .all the powers of government, would make arbitrary laws for their own interest, execute all laws arbitrarily for their own interest, and adjudge all controversies in then- own favor.

But shall the whole power of legislation rest in one assembly ? Most of the foregoing reasons apply equally to prove that the legislative power ought to be more complex ; to which we may add, that if the legislative power is wholly in one assembly, and the executive in another, or in a single person, these two powers will oppose and encroach upon each other, until the contest shall end in war, and the whole power, legislative and executive, be usurped by the strongest.

The judicial power, in such case, could not mediate, or hold the balance between the two contending powers, because the legislative would undermine it. And this shows the necessity, too, of giving the executive power a negative upon the legisla- tive, otherwise this will be continually encroaching upon that.

To avoid these dangers, let a distinct assembly be constituted, as a mediator between the two extreme branches of the legisla- ture, that which represents the people, and that which is vested with the executive power.

Let the representative assembly then elect by ballot, from among themselves or their constituents, or both, a distinct as- sembly, which,, for the sake of perspicuity, we will call a council. It may consist of any number you please, say twenty or thirty, and should have a free and independent exercise of its judgment, and consequently a negative voice in the legislature.

These two bodies, thus constituted, and made integral parts of the legislature, let them unite, and by joint ballot choose a governor, who, after being stripped of most of those badges of domination, called prerogatives, should have a free and independ- ent exercise of his judgment, and be made also an integral part of the legislature. This, I know, is liable to objections ; and, if

ON GOVERNMENT. 197

you please, you may make him only president of the council, as in Connecticut. But as the governor is to be invested with the executive power, with consent of council, I think he ought to have a negative upon the legislative. If he is annually elect- ive, as he ought to be, he will always have so much reverence and affection for the people, their representatives and counsellors, that, although you give him an independent exercise of his judgment, he will seldom use it in opposition to the two houses, except in cases the public utility of which would be conspicu- ous ; and some such cases would happen.

In the present exigency of American affairs, when, by an act of Parliament, we are put out of the royal protection, and con- sequently discharged from our allegiance, and it has become ne- cessary to assume government for our immediate security, the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary, treasurer, commissary, attorney-general, should be chosen by joint ballot of both houses. And these and all other elections, especially of representatives and counsellors, should be annual, there not' being in the whole circle of the sciences a maxim more infallible than this, " where annual elections end, there slavery begins."

These great men, in this respect, should be, once a year,

" Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, They rise, they break, and to that sea return."

This will teach them the great political virtues of humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.

This mode of constituting the great offices of state will answer very well for the present ; but if by experiment it should be found inconvenient, the legislature may, at its leisure, devise other methods of creating them, by elections of the people at large, as in Connecticut, or it may enlarge the term for which they shall be chosen to seven years, or three years, or for life, or make any other alterations which the society shall find pro- ductive of its ease, its safety, its freedom, or, in one word, its happiness.

A rotation of all offices, as well as of representatives and counsellors, has many advocates, and is contended for with many plausible arguments. It would be attended, no doubt, with many advantages ; and if the society has a sufficient number of

17*

198 ON GOVERNMENT.

suitable characters to supply the great number of vacancies which would be made by such a rotation, I can see no objection to it. These persons may be allowed to serve for three years, and then be excluded three years, or for any longer or shorter term.

Any seven or nine of the legislative council may be made a quorum, for doing business as a privy council, to advise the governor in the exercise of the executive branch of power, and in all acts of state.

The governor should have the command of the militia and of all your armies. The power of pardons should be with the governor and council.

Judge?, justices, and all other officers, civil and military, should be nominated and appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of council, unless you choose to have a gov- ernment more popular ; if you do, all officers, civil and military, may be chosen by joint ballot of both houses ; or, in order to preserve the independence and importance of each house, by ballot of one house, concurred in by the other. Sheriffs should be chosen by the freeholders of counties ; so should registers of deeds and clerks of counties.

All officers should have commissions, under the hand of the governor and seal of the colony.

The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society depend so much upon an upright and skilful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be acheck upon both, as both should be checks upon that. The judges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experi- ence in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests ; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men. To these ends, they should hold estates for life in their offices; or, in other words, their commissions should be during good behavior, and their salaries ascertained and established by law. For misbehavior, the grand inquest of the colony, the house of representatives, should impeach them before the governor and council, where they should have time and opportunity to make their defence ; but, if convicted, should

ON GOVERNMENT. 199

be removed from their offices, and subjected to such other punish- ment as shall be thought proper.

A militia law, requiring all men, or with very few exceptions besides cases of conscience, to be provided with arms and am- munition, to be trained at certain seasons ; and requiring coun- ties, towns, or other small districts, to be provided with public stocks of ammunition arid intrenching utensils, and with some settled plans for transporting provisions after the militia, when marched to defend their country against sudden invasions ; and requiring certain districts to be provided with field-pieces, com- panies of matrosses, and perhaps some regiments of light-horse, is always a wise institution, and, in the present circumstances of our country, indispensable.

Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a hu- mane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.

The very mention of sumptuary laws will excite a smile. Whether our countrymen have wisdom and virtue enough to submit to them, I know not ; but the happiness of the people might be greatly promoted by them, and a revenue saved suffi- cient to carry on this war forever. Frugality is a great revenue, besides curing us of vanities, levities, and fopperies, which are real antidotes to all great, manly, and warlike virtues.

But must not all commissions run in the name of a lung ? No. Why may they not as well run thus, " The colony of to A. B. greeting," and be tested by the governor ?

Why may not writs, instead of running in the name of the king, run thus, " The colony of to the sheriff," &c, and be

tested by the chief justice ?

Why may not indictments conclude, " against the peace of the colony of and the dignity of the same ? "

A constitution founded on these principles introduces know- ledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dig- nity becoming freemen ; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, indus- trious, and frugal. You will find among them some elegance,

200 ON GOVERNMENT.

perhaps, but more solidity ; a little pleasure, but a great deal of business ; some politeness, but more civility. If you compare such a country with the regions of domination, whether mon- archical or aristocratical, you will fancy yourself in Arcadia or Elysium.

If the colonies should assume governments separately, they should be left entirely to their own chfoice of the forms ; and if a continental constitution should be formed, it should be a con- gress, containing a fair and adequate representation of the colo- nies, and its authority should sacredly be confined to these cases, i namely, war, trade, disputes between colony and colony, the ' post-office, and the unappropriated lands of the crown, as they used to be called.

These colonies, under such forms of government, and in such a union, would be unconquerable by all the monarchies of Europe.

You and I, my dear friend, have been sent into life at a time when the greatest lawgivers of antiquity would have wished to live. How few of the human race have ever enjoyed an oppor- tunity of making an election of government, more than of air, soil, or climate, for themselves or their children ! When, before the present epocha, had three millions of people full power and a fair opportunity to form and establish the wisest and happiest government that human wisdom can contrive ? I hope you will avail yourself and your country of that extensive learning and indefatigable industry which you possess, to assist her in the formation of the happiest governments and the best character of a great people. For myself, I must beg you to keep my name out of sight ; for this feeble attempt, if it should be known to be mine, would oblige me to apply to myself those lines of the immortal John Mlton, in one of his sonnets : —

" I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs By the known rules of ancient liberty, When straight a barbarous noise environs me Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs."

4

i.^J$N$T^

t J ^ j ^

GOVERNMENT. 201

W Note :

W

NOTE

:

Copies of " Thoughts on Government" were sent by the author to many gentlemen with whom he had been in relations personal or political, and, among other's, loJiLtrick^Heui'v- of Virginia. The reply of Mr. Henry is on many accounts remarkable. It. throws great light not only upon his own system at

the commencement of the struggle, but upon the prevailing opinions of the time in the State to Avhich he belonged. /* I

911 L <l i V ?~rt. • h

JOHtf ADAMS.

Williamsburgh, 20 May, 1776.

\

/

My Dear Sir, — Your favor, with the pamphlet, came safe to hand. I arn exceedingly obliged- to you for it; and I ain not without hopes it may pro- duce good here, where there is among most of our opulent families a strong bias

to aristocracy. I tell my friends you are the author. Upon that supposition, I have two reasons for liking- the book. The sentiments are precisely the same I have long since taken up, and they come recommended by you. Go on, my dear friend, to assail the strongholds of tyranny, and.in whatever form oppres- sion may be found, may those talents and that firmness, which have achieved'so much for America, be pointed against it.

Before this reaches you, the resolution for finally separating from Britain will be handed to Congress by Colonel Nelson.1 I put up with it in the present form for the sake of unanimity.. 'Tis not quite so pointed as I could wish.

Excuse me for telling you of what I think of immense importance ; 'tis to antici- pate the enemy at the French Court. The half of our Continent offered' to France, may induce her to aid 6ur destruction, which she certainly has the power to accomplish. I know the free trade with all the States would be more benefi- cial to her than any territorial possessions she might acquire. But pressed, allured, as she will be — but, above all, ignorant of the great thing we mean to offer, may we not lose her? The consequence is dreadful.

Excuse me again. The confederacy; — that must precede an open declara-, tion of independency and foreign alliances. Would it not be sufficient to confine it, for the present, to the objects of offensive and defensive nature, and a guaranty of the respective colonial rights ? If a minute arrangement of things is attempted, such- as equal representation, &c, &c, you may split and divide ; certainly will delay the French alliance, which with me is every thing. The great force in San Domingo, Martinique, &c., is under the guidance of some person in high office. Will not the Mississippi .lead your ambassadors thither most safely V

Our Convention is now employed in the great work of forming a constitution. My most esteemed republican form has many and powerful enemies. A silly * thing, published in Philadelphia, by a native of Virginia, has just made-its

1 This resolution was passed on the 15th. Force's American Archives, fourth series, vol. vi. c. 1524.

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V

202 ON GOVEENMENT.

appearance here, strongly recommended, 'tis said, by one of our delegates now with you, — Braxton. His reasonings upon and distinction between private and public virtue, are weak, shallow, evasive, and the whole performance an affront and disgrace to this country ; and, by one expression, I suspect his whiggism.1

Our session will be very long, during which I cannot count upon one coad- jutor of talents equal to the task. Would to God you and your §am Adams were here ! It shall be my incessant study, so to form our portrait of govern- ment, that a kindred with New England may be discerned in it ; and if all your excellencies cannot be preserved, yet I hope to retain so much of the likeness, that posterity shall pronounce us descended from the same stock. I shall think perfection is obtained, if we have your approbation. I am forced to conclude ; but first, let me beg to be presented to my ever-esteemed S. Adams. Adieu, my dear sir ; may God preserve you, and give you every good thing.

P. Heney, Jr. P.S. — Will you and S. A. now and then write ?

1 This refers to a small pamphlet published by Dunlap, at Philadelphia, and evidently designed as an answer to " Thoughts on Government." Its title is " An Address to the Convention of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia, on the subject of Government in general, and recommending a particular Form to their Consideration, by a Native of that Colony." The name of the writer has not been ascertained. Much interest attached to the proceedings of Virginia in framing a constitution, and an apprehension lest the popular features of the form recommended by Mr. Adams should find favor, seems to have led to this effort to counteract it. The address was reprinted in the Virginia Gazette, at Williamsburgh, on the eighth of June, 1776, being the time fixed for the con- sideration of the declaration of rights by the Convention. The form recom- mended is in direct conflict with the first principles laid down in " Thoughts on Government." A governor, during good behavior, elected by a house of repre- sentatives, renewed but once in three years ; a council of twenty-four persons to serve for life, also chosen by the house ; and a judiciary and military appointed by the governor, — constitute its main features. It is reprinted in the Great Collection made under the authority of Congress by Mi*. Force, fourth series, vol. vi. cc. 748-754.

On the other hand, the tendency in Pennsylvania was to consider Mr. Adams's theory as not popular enough. In the Collection alluded to, is to be found a paper entitled, "The Interest of America," the purport of which is to recom- mend a single legislative branch, in which most of the powers are to be vested ; a suggestion which was acted upon, as is well known, in the first constitution of Pennsylvania.

In the month of January, 1776, the delegates of North Carolina were autho- rized by the colonial legislature, to apply to Mr. Adams for, his views of the nature of the government it would be proper to form, in ease of a final dissolu- tion of the authority of the Crown. The following letter, addressed to Mr. John Penn, one of the number, was the reply. In many parts it is in the very words of the preceding pamphlet, whilst in others it so essentially amplifies the views, as to render its insertion necessary to the full comprehension of the system of the author.

No copy of this letter was retained by Mr. Adams. It was not printed until 1814, when Mr. John Taylor, of Caroline County, Virginia, to whom it had come from the hands of Mr. Penn, inserted it in his work, entitled " An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States," from whence it is now taken.

To John Penn

TO JOHN PENN.

If I was possessed of abilities equal to the great task you have imposed upon me, which is to sketch out the outlines of a constitution for a colony, I should think myself the happiest of men in complying with your desire. Because, as politics is the art of securing human happiness, and the prosperity of societies depends upon the constitution of government under which they live, there cannot be a more agreeable employment to a benevo- lent mind than the study of the best kinds of government.

It has been the will of Heaven that We should be thrown into existence at a period when the greatest philosophers and lawgivers of antiquity would have wished to live. A period when a coincidence of circumstances without example, has afforded to thirteen Colonies, at once, an opportunity of begin- ning government anew from the foundation, and building as they choose. How few of the human race have ever had any opportunity of choosing a system of government for themselves and their children ! How few have ever had any thing more of choice in government than in climate ! These Colonies have now their election ; and it is much to be wished that it may not prove to be like a prize in the hands of a man who has no heart to improve it.

In order to determine which is the best form of government, it is necessary to determine what is the end of government.

204 ON GOVERNMENT.

And I suppose, that in this enlightened age, there will be no dispute, in speculation, that the happiness of the people, the great end of man, is the end of government ; and, therefore, that form of government which will produce the greatest quantity of happiness is the best.

All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, divines, moralists, and philosophers, have agreed that the happiness of mankind, as well as the real dignity of human nature, consists in virtue ; if there is a form of government whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every wise man acknowledge it more likely to promote the general happiness than any other ?

Fear, which is said, by Montesquieu and other political writ- ers, to be the foundation of some governments, is so sordid and brutal a passion, that it cannot possibly be called a prin- ciple, and will hardly be thought in America a proper basis of government.

Honor is a principle which ought to be sacred ; but the Gre- cians and Romans, pagan as well as Christian, will inform us that honor, at most, is but a part of virtue, and therefore a feeble basis of government.

A man must be indifferent to sneer and ridicule, in some com- panies, to mention the names of Sidney, Harrington, Locke, Milton, Nedham, Neville, Burnet, Hoadly; for the lines of John Milton, in one of his sonnets, will bear an application, even in this country, upon some occasions : —

" I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs By the known rules of ancient liberty, When straight a barbarous noise environs me, Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs."

These great writers, however, will convince any man who has the fortitude to read them, that all good government is repub- lican ; that the only valuable part of the British constitution is so ; for the true idea of a republic is an empire of laws, and not of men ; and, therefore, as a republic is the best of governments, so that particular combination of power which is best contrived for a faithful execution of the laws, is the best of republics.

There is a great variety of republics, because the arrange- ments of the forms of society are capable of many variations.

As a good government is an empire of laws, the first question is, how shall the laws be made ?

ON GOVEKNMENT. 205

In a community consisting of large numbers, inhabiting an extensive country, it is not possible that the whole should as- semble to make laws. The most natural substitute for an assembly of the whole, is a delegation of power from the many to a few of the most wise and virtuous. In the first place, then, establish rules for the choice of representatives ; agree upon the number of persons who shall have the privilege of choosing one. As the representative assembly should be an exact portrait, in miniature, of the people at large, as it should think, feel, reason, and act like them, great care should be taken in the formation of it, to prevent unfair, partial, and corrupt elections. That it may be the interest of this assembly to do equal right and strict justice, upon all occasions, it should be an equal re- presentation of their constituents ; or, in other words, equal interests among the people should have equal interests in the representative body.

That the representatives may often mix with their constitu- ents, and frequently render them an account of their steward- ship, elections ought to be frequent : —

" Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, They rise, they break, and to that sea return."

These elections may be septennial or triennial ; but, for my own part, I think they ought to be annual ; for there is not in all science a maxim more infallible than this, where annual elections end, there slavery begins.

But all necessary regulations for the method of constituting this assembly may be better made in times of more quiet than the present, and they will suggest themselves naturally, when the powers of government shall be in the hands of the people's friends. For the present, it will* be safest to go on in the usual way.

But we have as yet advanced only one step in the formation of a government. Having obtained a representative assembly, what is to be done next ? Shall we leave all the powers of government to this assembly ? Shall they make, and execute, and interpret laws too ? I answer, No ; a people cannot be long free, and never can be happy, whose laws are made, executed, and interpreted by one assembly. My reasons for this opinion are these : —

vol. iv. 18

206 ON GOVERNMENT.

A single assembly is liable to all the vices, follies, and frailties of an individual; subject to fits of humor, transports of pas- sion, partialities of prejudice ; and, from these and other causes, apt to make hasty results and absurd judgments ; all which errors ought to be corrected, and inconveniences guarded against, by some controlling power.

A single assembly is apt to grow avaricious, and in time would not scruple to exempt itself from burdens, which it would lay upon its constituents without sympathy.

A single assembly will become ambitious, and after some time will vote itself perpetual. This was found in the case of the Long Parliament; but more remarkably in the case of Hol- land, whose assembly first voted that they should hold then- seats for seven years, then for life, and after some time, that they would fill up vacancies as they should happen, without applying to their constituents at all.

The executive power cannot be well managed by a represent- ative assembly for want of two essential qualities, secrecy and despatch.

Such an assembly is still less qualified to exercise the judicial power ; because it is too numerous, too slow, and generally too little skilled in the laws.

But shall the whole legislative power be left in the hands of such an assembly ? The three first, at least, of the foregoing reasons will show that the legislative power ought not to be wholly entrusted to one assembly.

Let the representative body, then, elect from among them- selves, or their constituents, or both, a distinct assembly, which we will call a council. It may consist of any number you please, say, twenty or thirty. To this assembly should be given a free and independent exercise of its judgment upon all acts of legislation, that it may be able to check and arrest the errors of the other.

But there ought to be a third branch of the legislature ; and wherever the executive power of the state is placed, there the third branch of the legislature ought to be found.

Let the two houses, then, by joint ballot, choose a governor. Let him be chosen annually. Divest him of most of those badges of slavery called prerogatives, and give him a negative upon the legislature. This, I know, is liable to some objections, to obvi-

ON GOVERNMENT. 207

ate which, you may make him in a legislative capacity only president of the council. But if he is annually elective, you need not scruple to give him a free and independent exercise of his judgment ; for he will have so great an affection for the people, the representatives and council, that he would seldom exercise this right, except in cases the public utility of which would soon be manifest, and some such cases would happen.

In the present exigency of American affairs, when, by an Act of Parliament, we are put out of the royal protection, and con- sequently discharged from all obligations of allegiance; and when it has become necessary to assume governments for imme- diate security, the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary, trea- surer, and attorney-general, should be chosen by joint ballot of both houses.

The governor, by and with, and not without, the advice and consent of council, should appoint all judges, justices, and all other officers, civil and military, who should have commissions signed by the governor, and under the seal of the colony.

Sheriffs should be chosen by the freeholders of the counties. If you choose to have a government more popular, all officers may be chosen by one house of assembly, subject to the negative of the other.

The stability of government, in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every other blessing of society and social insti- tutions, depend so much upon an able and impartial administra- tion of justice, that the judicial power should be separated from the legislative and executive, and independent upon both ; the judges should be men of experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, invincible patience, unruffled calmness, and indefatigable application ; their minds should not be distracted with compli- cated, jarring interests; they should not be dependent on any man or body of men ; they should lean to none, be subservient to none, nor more complaisant to one than another. To this end, they should hold estates for life in their offices ; or, in other words, their commissions should be during good behavior, and their salaries ascertained and established by law.

If accused of misbehavior by the representative body before the governor and council, and if found guilty after having an opportunity to make then defence, they should be removed from then offices, and subjected to such other punishment as their offences deserve.

208 ON GOVERNMENT.

A rotation of offices in the legislative and executive depart- ments has many advocates, and, if practicable, might have many good effects. A law may be made, that no man shall be governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary, treasurer, counsellor, or representative, more than three years at a time, nor be again eligible until after an interval of three years.

A constitution like this, of which the foregoing is a very im- perfect plan, naturally introduces general knowledge into the community, and inspires the people with a conscious dignity becoming freemen. A general desire of reputation and import- ance among their neighbors, which cannot be obtained without some government of their passions, some good humor, good manners, and good morals, takes place in the minds of men, and naturally causes general virtue and civility. That pride which is introduced by such a government among the people, makes them brave and enterprising. That ambition which is introduced into every rank, makes them sober, industrious, and frugal. You will find among them some elegance, but more solidity ; a little politeness, but a great deal of civility ; some pleasure, but more business.

Let commissions run thus : " Colony of North Carolina to A. B. greeting," &c, and be tested by the governor.

Let writs run : " The Colony of, &c, to the sheriff," &c.

Let indictments conclude : " against the peace of the Colony of North Carolina, and the dignity of the same ; " or if you please : " against the peace of the Thirteen United Colonies."

We have heard much of a continental constitution ; I see no occasion for any but ji congress. Let that be made an equal and fair representative of the Colonies ; and let its authority be confined to three cases, — war, trade, and controversies between colony and colony. If a confederation was formed, agreed on in Congress, and ratified by the assemblies, these Colonies, under such forms of government and such a confederation, would be unconquerable by all the monarchies of Europe.

This plan of a government for a colony, you see, is intended as a temporary expedient under the present pressure of affairs. The government once formed, and having settled its authority, will have leisure enough to make any alterations that time and experience may dictate. Particularly, a plan may be devised per- haps, and be thought expedient, for giving the choice of the gov-

ON GOVERNMENT. 209

ernor to the people at large, and of the counsellors to the freehold- ers of the counties. But, be these things as they may, two things are indispensably to be adhered to, — one is, some regulation for securing forever an equitable choice of representatives ; another is, the education of youth, both in literature and morals.

I wish, my dear sir, that I had time to think of these things more at leisure, and to write more correctly ; but you must take these hints, rough as they ran. Your own reflections, assisted by the patriots of North Carolina, will improve upon every part of them.

As you brought upon yourself the trouble of reading these crude thoughts, you can't blame your friend,1

John Adams.

1 A letter of the same description -was addressed to Jonathan Dickinson Ser- geant, of New Jersey, in answer to a similar application, made at the time of the formation of the constitution in that State ; but no copy has been found.

N

THE MODEL.

OBSERVATIONS

ON THE RECONSTRUCTION OF GOVERNMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS DURING THE REVOLUTION.

So early as the month of May, 1775, the difficulties attending the peculiar attitude of the patriotic party in Massachusetts had become sufficiently serious to elicit a letter from the Provincial Convention, the only centre of authority acknowledged at the time by the great body of the people, to the Continental Congress, requesting " most explicit advice respecting the taking up and exer- cising the powers of civil government," and, curiously enough, declaring a readiness to " submit to such a general plan as the congress might direct for the colonies."

An answer was not given to this modest, and even humble application, until it had been urgently repeated ; and when at last it came, it was by no means so explicit as was requested, evidently partaking of the distracted counsels of the time. It evaded the true question of the source of power, by a resort to a fiction of law, much like that formerly used by the Long Parliament against Charles I. It assumed the charter granted by the King of Great Britain to be yet binding upon the people ; whilst it charged upon the Governor, who was only his agent, acting under his appointment and pursuing his instructions, such a violation of it as forfeited all claim to their obedience. Until such a governor " should con- sent to govern the colony according to its charter," it recommended a resort to the usual forms of election for a representative body, and in lieu of that officer, the substitution, by election of the convention, of a provisional council clothed with executive authority.

In this transition state, the advice thus given seems to have been deemed decisive ; accordingly a new house, under the forms of the charter, was called ; and a council was soon afterwards chosen, which proceeded to reorganize the courts, and " in the absence of the governor and lieutenant-governor," to grant commissions. Some particulars respecting this period have been already given in a former volume,1 together with a copy of the invitation of the council to Mr. Adams, to occupy the chief place in the new judicial organization which it undertook to establish. But it was not long before the obstacles to this arrange- ment proved its utter inefficacy. Many of the people, oppressed by debts, were not slow in availing themselves of the objection, that the civil process still ran in the king's name, although the king's authority had been thrown off; and they went, in some places, to the length of obstructing by force the meeting of the inferior courts. A jealousy of all those denominated executive officers became so general, that they were marked for exclusion in the new elections to the representative body. Last of all, a contention arose between the council and the

l Vol. iii. pp. 12, 24.

214 ON GOVERNMENT.

house, respecting the right to make military appointments, which threatened, at one moment, the most serious consequences to the weaker body. All these things served to show the slippery nature of the foundation upon which the community was standing, and from which nothing could have prevented a fall, but the immediate presence of the enemy, and the engrossing nature of the first duty of self-defence. On the fifteenth of May, 1776, the last support was taken from the charter, by the adoption in the continental congress, of the cele- brated resolution and preamble, declaring it to be necessary, for reasons therein stated, " that the exercise of every kind of authority under the crown should be suppressed," and " all the powers of government exerted under the authority of the people of the colonies." In colonies like Pennsylvania and New York, less advanced in the struggle, this measure was construed as a dissolution of all existing forms of government, and as creating an immediate necessity for reorganization. In Massachusetts, the intermediate steps taken, though only temporary in their nature, seem to have been sufficient to dispel immediate anxiety for the conse- quences. Hence, it was not until September, 1776, that a proposition was adopted in the assembly, to appoint a committee, to prepare a form of govern- ment. A reasonable doubt of the extent of their powers restrained their going further without a reference to the people for authority to proceed. This course was finally agreed upon, but not until May of the next year, 1777. The people responded favorably ; and, in pursuance of their instructions, the next legis- lative assembly devoted a considerable part of the year to the effort to make a constitution.

It is to be regretted, that, owing in some degree to the disturbed condition of things, the record of this proceeding was almost entirely neglected. The jour- nals of the house and council furnish no light, probably for the reason that it was a matter not strictly within the province of either body, and one wherein both were fused into a single assembly having the attributes of neither. Hence, we can only gather the fact, that on the fourth of March, 1778, the form of instrument agreed upon was submitted to the people, by a resolution providing that the assent of two thirds of the voters should be required to give it validity.

This form failed to pass the ordeal of the popular judgment, so far as an opinion could be gathered from the very partial returns made of the votes. But a hundred and twenty towns neglected to express any opinion at all; and but twelve thousand persons, out of the whole state, went to the polls to answer in any way. Five sixths of them, however, voted in the negative, under the lead of a unanimous sentiment in Boston, the influence of which was at that time at its height. At this late period, it is difficult fully to comprehend the reasons of this decided condemnation. The rejected constitution of 1778 was certainly a very imperfect instrument, largely partaking of the haste and confusion of the time in which it was made ; but, on the other hand, it was very much better than none at all, or than the temporary system which necessity had created. There was no bill of rights or definition of powers. The executive, legislative, and judicial departments were singularly commingled, and threatened some degree of confusion in the practical working of the machine ; yet, notwithstanding these defects in the draught, it was at least a remedy for immediate evils, and the labor bestowed upon it can scarcely be said to have been wasted ; for it contains the germ of some of the valuable fruits secured in the subsequent constitution.

ON GOVERNMENT. 215

Strange though it may seem, yet there is little reason to doubt that interests had already grown up, in this period of interregnum, adverse to the establishment of any more permanent government. So uncertain had the legislative body be- come of the sense of the majority on this point, that on the nineteenth of Febru- ary of the next year, 1779, it adopted a resolution, proposing, that a vote of the people should be taken on two questions as a test of the will of the common- wealth. These two questions were, — first, whether the people would choose, at this time, to have any new form of government at all. Secondly, whether in case they did, they would empower their representatives to summon an assembly for the sole purpose of preparing such a form. To these propositions, nearly a third of the towns neglected to give any answer. Of the remainder, a majority of the voters responded in the affirmative. In obedience to this decision, a call of a convention was immediately issued ; and elections were accordingly held, of delegates, to assemble on the first of September following, exclusively to form a constitution.

The share of Mr. Adams in this labor must now be explained. Prior to this time, he had confined himself to an expression of preference of the constitution of 1778, as a temporary measure, however imperfect, over the hazardous state of things under the provisional government. His first mission to Europe intervened, from which he only got back home on the second of August. The election of a delegate from his native town to the convention, took place seven days later, and ~ . he was the person chosen. He attended the opening of that body at Cambiidge, £ o*r* on the first day of September, and remained in attendance until the eleventh of November, when he embarked upon his second mission to Europe. It is during this period, that his services in preparing the frame of government which was reported to the convention, and with some modifications finally adopted, were rendered. The precise nature of them, so far as they can now be distinguished, will be defined.

On Friday morning, the third of September, the convention, by a vote of 250 to 1, resolved, that it would prepare a declaration of rights of the people of the Massachusetts Bay. After some debate, it went a step further, and resolved, that it would " proceed to the framing a new constitution of government ; " and it concluded the action of the day with the two following propositions : —

" Resolved, unanimously, That the government to be framed by this conven- tion shall be a free republic.

" Resolved, That it is of the essence of a free republic, that the people be governed by fixed laws of their own making."

The next day, a committee was chosen, consisting of. thirty persons, to pre- pare a declaration of rights and the form of a constitution, out of whom the Hon. James Bowdoin, Samuel and John Adams, and John Lowell, were selected on behalf of the county of Suffolk, including the town of Boston. Monday, the sixth, was spent in what was called a free conversation upon the subjects that had been referred, and then it was voted to adjourn until the twenty-eighth of October, for the purpose of giving the committee time to prepare a report. Im- mediately upon the adjournment, the committee met in Boston, and, after ex- tended discussion, delegated to a sub-committee of three members, the duty of preparing_a draught of a constitution. The three were Mr. Bowdoin, Mi-. Samuel Adams, and John Adams. By this sub-committee the task was committed to

216 ON GOVERNMENT.

John Adams, who performed it. To them the draught was first submitted, and they accepted it, with one or two trifling erasures. It was then reported to the grand committee, who made some alterations. The preparation of a decla- ration of rights was intrusted by the general committee to Mr. Adams alone. It was reported by him, with the exception of the third article, upon which he could not satisfy his own judgment.1

At the present moment, it is impossible to define the precise extent of the modifications made of Mr. Adams's draught, in the report as finally presented to the convention. So little attention was paid to the preservation of any of the papers, that not only the first draught is not to be found in the archives of the State, but even a copy of the report, as printed for the use of the members, was not there, when the committee, appointed by the legislature of 1832, to superin- tend the publication of the Journal of the Convention, undertook the task. Neither did they succeed in obtaining one from elsewhere, however necessary to the usefulness of their undertaking, until the body of their work had gone to press. It is sufficient for the present purpose, however, to know that, in its lead- ing features, and in most of its language, the plan of Mr. Adams is preserved in the report. Even the most marked changes, which in later life, his recollection imputed to the action of the committee, now appear, by the report, not to have been made by them, but by the convention itself.

Considering all these circumstances, as well as the entire coincidence of the leading features of the system with the views of his whole life, it is fair to infer, that the paper was so far the product of his mind, as to merit a place in these volumes of his works.

That this was the idea which Mr. Adams himself had at the time is certain. For, in a letter dated 7 June, 1780, that is, immediately after the constitution had been ratified by the people, and addressed to Mr. Edmund Jenings, he sums up the matter thus : " I was chosen by my native town into the convention two or three days after my arrival. I was, by the convention, put upon the com- mittee ; by the committee, upon the sub-committee ; so that I had the honor to be principal engineer. The committee made some alterations, as, I am informed, the convention have made a few others, in the report; but theframe and essence and substance is preserved."

Of the care and attention devoted to perfecting the constitution, he says, in another letter : " There never was an example of such precautions as are taken by this wise and jealous people in the formation of their government. None was ever made so perfectly upon the principle of the people's rights and equality. It is Locke, Sidney, and Rousseau and De Mably reduced to prac- tice, in the first instance. I wish every step of their progress printed and pre- served." Yet, if reliance can be placed upon a statement made by Dr. Gordon in the newspapers, he was not of those who held that absolute perfection could ever be reached ; or that what had been done in one age might not be susceptible of improvement, by adaptation to the altered condition of things, in another.2

1 These facts are taken from a letter of J. A. to W. P. Williamson, dated 25 February, 1812.

2 "T have heard, that the Hon. John Adams, Esquire, delivered an excellent speech, soon after the meeting of the convention, the purport of which was to show, that it was impossible for human wisdom to form a plan of government

ON GOVERNMENT. 217

In considering this paper, the circumstances under which it was prepared should not be overlooked. Until the adoption of the federal constitution, the states were generally regarded as sovereignties, associated in a league for certain purposes not materially impairing their independent character. In these it was supposed that ambition would find its principal field. A form of government for one of these commonwealths was to be matured, with all the care and all the precautions against well-known dangers, that could be required in the greatest and most complicated case of an independent society. The subsequent transfer to the national government of all the great attributes of sovereignty, which occasion those dangers and difficulties, has materially affected the importance of the state constitutions. With the removal of the great objects of human ambition to another sphere, it is not more difficult to form a good practical system of government for a State than for a village or a family. This must account for the easy working of all the forms which have since been adopted by the respective States of the Union, however opposite in their character, and whatever may be the soundness of the objections that can be raised against some parts of them. The agitations of the system rarely shake it deeply, because they are deadened by the stronger power brought to bear from without. Hence, the careful limitations of the executive, the legislative, and the judicial power, to be found in the con- stitution of Massachusetts, are to be examined as parts of a separate system, standing or falling upon its own merits, rather than as subsidiary instruments of a greater machine, in which the interests and passions of men find their ultimate point of concentration. For the purposes of science, Massachusetts must, in this case, be regarded as the type of all independent, civilized communities, to which it is designed to present a model of government adapted to secure the great ends of human society.

In the following pages the effort is made, not simply to give such a model, as is supposed to have been mainly shaped by Mr. Adams, but also to trace the changes which it underwent after it left his hands. It will appear that modi- fications, which deserve the name of improvements, were adopted under the influence of the great practical and professional abilities freely applied to the subject in the deliberations of the convention. Moreover, the changes that have been made, in the course of seventy years that the system has been in operation, are all noted, in such a manner as to furnish a connected view of the progress of opinion under a popular form of government during that period. Upon such data as these can alone be formed any just inferences as to the perpetuity of free institutions. The subject is one which has not yet been dealt with in a truly philosophical sense in America, though it opens a wider field of analytical investigation than any other presented by its history.

In examining this part of the work it will be necessary to keep in mind, that the text is that of the Report made by the committee of the convention, and pre- pared for them by Mr. Adams. The passages inclosed within brackets are those

that should suit all future emergencies, and that, therefore, periodical revisions were requisite."

See the Address to the Freemen of Massachusetts, by William Gordon, in the Independent Chronicle, 4 May, 1 780. The same speech was referred to by Mr. Dawes, in the Convention of 1820, who said he heard it. Journal of Debates and Proceedings, p. 194.

VOL. iv. 19

/

218

On Government

ON GOVERNMENT.

which were entirely erased by the convention. Those marked by Italic letters are such as underwent changes ; the exact substitutes are supplied in notes to the respective places. Wherever a blank occurs, the note will indicate the words inserted in the form as finally adopted. The amendments engrafted by the later convention of 1820, as well as subsequently, under the authority created by that assembly, are appended to those sections and articles which they respectively affect.

The Report Of A Constitution, Or Form Of Government, For The

THE

REPORT OF A CONSTITUTION,

OR

FORM OF GOVERNMENT,

FOR THE

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS;

Agreed upon by the Committee, — to be laid before the Conven- tion of Delegates, assembled at Cambridge, on the first day of September, 1779 ; and continued by adjournment to the twenty- eighth day of October following.

Preamble

PREAMBLE.

The end of the institution, maintenance, and administration of government is to secure the existence of the body politic; to protect it, and to furnish the individuals who compose it with the power of enjoying, in safety and tranquillity, their natural rights and the blessings of life ; and whenever these great objects are not obtained, the people have a right to alter the govern- ment, and to take measures necessary for their safety, happiness, and prosperity.

The body politic is formed by a- voluntary association of indi- viduals. It is a social compact, by which the whole people cove- nants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good. It is the duty of the people, therefore, in framing a Constitution

220 ON GOVERNMENT.

of Government, to provide for an equitable mode of making laws, as well as for an impartial interpretation and a faithful execution of them, that every man may, at all times, find his security in them.

We, therefore, [the delegates of] the people of Massachusetts, [in general convention assembled, for the express and sole pur- pose of framing a constitution, or form of government, to be laid before our constituents, according to their instructions,] acknow- ledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the great Legislator of the universe, in affording to this people,1 in the course of His providence, an opportunity of entering' into an original, explicit, and solemn compact ivith each other, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence, or surprise ;2 and of forming a new con- stitution of civil government for themselves^ and [their] posterity; and devoutly imploring His direction in a design so interesting^ [to them and their posterity,] — do, [by virtue of the authority vested in us by our constituents,] agree upon 5 the follow-

ing Declaration of Rights, and Frame of Government, as the CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH

Of Massachusetts

OF MASSACHUSETTS.

[CHAPTER I.]6

a declaration of the rights of the inhabitants of the commonwealth of massachusetts.

Art. I. All men are born [equally] free and independent? and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties ; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting [their] property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining then- safety and happiness.

•

i « us," 2 The two clauses in Italics transposed.

3 "ourselves" 4 " so interesting a design,"

5 "ordain and establish" 6 PART THE FIRST.

7 " equal." The language of this article, as reported, is nearly the same with that of the first article of the Bill of Rights of Virginia.

ON GOVERNMENT. 221

II. It is the 1 duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping GOD in the manner 2 most agree- able to the dictates of his own conscience ; or, for his religious profession or sentiments ; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship.

III. [Good morals being necessary to the preservation of civil society; and the knowledge and belief of the being of GOD, His providential government of the world, and of a future state of rewards and punishment, being the only true foundation of morality, the legislature hath, therefore, a right, and ought to provide, at the expense of the subject, if necessary, a suitable support for the public worship of GOD, and of the teachers of religion and morals; and to enjoin upon all the subjects an attendance upon their instructions at stated times and seasons ; provided there be any such teacher on whose ministry they can conscientiously and conveniently attend.] 3

1 " right as well as the "

2 " and season "

3 This clause was not at all satisfactory to the convention. After several days spent in discussion, and the proposal of various amendments, the subject was re- committed to a committee of seven persons, with the Reverend Mr. Alden as the chairman, whoreported this substitute, which was finally adopted, in an amended form, and after long debates : —

" III. As the happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of a civil government, essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality ; and as these cannot be generally diffused through a community, but by the institution of the public worship of GOD, and of public instruction in piety, religion, and morality, — therefore, to promote their happiness, and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with power to authorize and require, and the legislature shall, from time to time, authorize and require the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic or religious societies, to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality, in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily.

" And the people of this commonwealth have also a right to, and do, invest their legislature with authority to enjoin upon all the subjects, j!n_j:ttendance upon the instructions of the public teachers aforesaid, at stated times and seasons, if there be any on whose instructions they can conscientiously and conveniently attend.

" Provided, notwithstanding, that the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies, shall, at all times, have the exclusive

18*

222 ON GOVERNMENT.

All moneys paid by the subject to the support of public worship, and of the instructors in religion and morals? shall, if he require it, be uniformly applied to the support of the 2 teacher or teachers of his own religious 3 denomination, if

there be such ivhose ministry he attends upon;4" otherwise it may be paid to5 the teacher or teachers of the parish or precinct where he usually resides? [7]

right of electing their public teachers, and of contracting with them for their support and maintenance."

1 " public teachers aforesaid," 2 " public " 3 u sect or "

4 " provided there be any on whose instruction he attends ; "

5 " towards the support of"

6 " in which the said moneys are raised."

7 A new clause was appended to this article by the convention, as follows : —

" And every denomination of Christians, demeaning themselves peaceably and as good subjects of the commonwealth, shall be equally under the protection of the law ; and no subordination of any one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law."

It has already been remarked, that the third article, as it appears in the original report, was not made by Mr. Adams. In a letter written long after- wards, to Mr. Williamson, the historian of Maine, he gives, as a reason, " that he could not satisfy his own judgment with any article that he thought would be accepted ; and, further, that some of the clergy, and graver persons than him- self, would be more likely to hit the taste of the public."

The amended form of the article is said, in the address of the convention to the people, to have been " finally agreed upon, with much more unanimity than usually takes place in disquisitions of this nature." It was not, however, adopted without strong and vehement remonstrance, which was again manifested ;it. the time of the popular ratification, and ii never was quietly acquiesced in after- wards. Indeed, it may truly be said to be the only jiortion of the constitution which furnished a constant topic of dispute, until finally abandoned in 1833. The reason is obvious enough. Professing carefully to secure an equality among Christ- ians of all denominations, it did yet, in practice, give a decided advantage to one sect over the rest. In this respect, a marked difference is perceptible be- tween the original and the amended form of the article. The former broadly embraces men of all classes of religious belief, including the Catholic on one side, and the Deist on the other ; and, doubtless, this was one of the most serious grounds of objection to it. Eor, even in the meagre journal that remains, it appears that, not content with the amended form, limiting the authority of the legislature to require provision to be made by the towns to the maintenance of public Protest- ant teachers, and confining the moneys to be raised to the support of such teachers, amendments were pressed, specifically excepting " Papists," and "Christians whose principles are repugnant to the constitution," or, " whose avowed principles are inconsistent with the peace and safety of society," from " the protection of the law." These amendments did not prevail, it is true ; but the steadiness with which they were urged, is one among many indications here visible, how gradu- ally the old puritan feeling was receding before the modern movement of religious equality.

The grievance to which this article gave rise was that, in addition to com- pulsory taxation, there were many cases in which the property of persons be- came liable to be used, against their will, for the benefit of forms of religious faith which they most disapproved ; and latterly, by the construction of the courts, a limitation was made upon the power of selection, even among the

ON GOVERNMENT. 223

IV. The people of this commonwealth have the sole and ex- clusive right of governing themselves, as a free, sovereign, and independent state ; and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise

churches of the denomination to which the contributor himself belonged. This occasioned so great uneasiness, as at last to require from the legislature of 1811 the passage of a law, designed partially to remedy the evil. The call of a new convention to revise the constitution, made necessary by the separation of Maine in 181 9t furnished an opportunity for the revival of the controversy. All the abilities of that somewhat remarkable assembly became enlisted upon one or the other side, until the dispute finally settled into the ordinary form of a question between the old and the new, between conservatism and reform.

Mr. Adams, although at the time infirm, by reason of his great age, he being eighty-five years old, was a member of this convention. Yet on this subject he showed more interest than upon any other. The tendency of his mind will appear most clearly from the following extracts taken from the Report of the Debates : —

" Mr. Parker, of Boston, rose, at the request of the gentleman from Quincy, who was unavoidably absent, to propose that, in the third article of the Declara- tion of Rights, the words, 'all men, of all religions, demeaning themselves as good subjects, shall enjoy the equal protection of the laws,' should be inserted instead of the words, ' men of every denomination of Christians.'

" Mr. Williams had no special objection to this proposition ; but did not think it would meet the wishes of the people of this commonwealth.

" Mr. Parker withdrew the proposition."

Unable, from physical debility, to attend regularly, and still less to take an active part in the debates, Mr. Adams yet had this point so much at heart, that he made a new effort to get it before the body, at a later moment, as appears from tin- Journal.

" Mr. Boylston, of Princeton, at the suggestion of Sir. Adams, of Quincy, who was absent, offered a resolution proposing to alter the constitution, so that instead of ' every denomination of Christians,' &c. it should read, ' all men of all reli- gions, demeaning themselves peaceably, and as good subjects of the common- wealth, shall be equally under the protection of the law.'

" Referred to the comnuttee-of~the~whole on the Declaration of Rights."

On the 28th the resolution was~taken up, and the IbTJowing discussion took place : —

" Mr. Boylston, of Princeton, said, that his object was entirely in a commer- cial relation. R was intended to invite foreigners to come to our shores, by the oiler of equal protection to men. of all religious opinions. As the constitution now stands, the offer of protection was confined to persons of the Christian religion.

" Mi-. Hubbard read the second article of the Bill of Rights, which he thought made the most ample provision for the object.

" Mr. J. Davis, of Boston, opposed the resolution. He thought it would be better to leave it to legislative discretion. Persons of all religions have, in fact, full and equal protection.

" Mr. Quincy objected to the resolution, because it seemed to imply that per- sons of all religions were not now under the protection of the law. He showed on what ground he thought the object was fully provided for.

" The resolution was negatived."

It seems scarcely necessary, at this day, to show how entirely the reasoning of the objectors^ evaded the question at issue. In all probability the remark of Mr. Williams was correct, — that the popular sentiment was not then ready to carry out the abstract principle, of total separation between church and state, even though it underlies the whole theory of republican government. Yet the very

224 ON GOVERNMENT.

and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, which are1 not, or may not hereafter be by them expressly delegated to the United States of America, in congress assembled.

V. All power residing originally in the people, and being derived from them, the several magistrates and officers of govern- ment, vested with authority, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are their substitutes and agents, and are at all times accountable to them.2

VI. No man, nor corporation or association of men, have any other title to obtain advantages, or particular and exclusive privileges, distinct from those of the community, than what arises from the consideration of services rendered to the public ; and this title, being in nature neither hereditary nor transmis- sible to children, or descendants, or relations by blood, the idea

same amendment had been proposed by Dr. Pricej in hisJDbservations, published thirty-six years before !

In the convention of 1820, the conservative section, constituted, as it was, of a large proportion of the ability, learning, and weight of character in the com- monwealth, prevailed so far as to retain the feature of compulsory taxation for v / the support of religious worship. But the article which, after great labor and contention, had been shaped in a form to meet the assent of a majority of that assembly, was decisively rejected by the people, when submitted for rati- fication. The matter remained unsettled from that period until the year 1833, when, through the power of amendment vested by the revised constitution in the action of two successive legislative assemblies, the following article received ■ the assent of the requisite numbers, and was approved by the popular vote. Although it has worked some inconvenient change in the structure of religious societies, it cannot thus far be said to have been attended with those serious evils to the habits of worship which were predicted as about to flow from it : —

"Art. 11. As the public worship of God, and instructions in piety, religion, and morality promote the happiness and prosperity of a people, and the security of a republican government, — therefore, the several religious societies of this commonwealth, whether corporate or unincorporate, at any meeting legally warned and holden for that purpose, shall ever have the right to elect their pastors or religious teachers ; to contract with them for their support ; to raise money for erecting and repairing houses for public worship, for the maintenance of religious instruction, and for the payment of necessary expenses. And all persons belonging to any religious society shall be taken and held to be members-, until they shall file with the clerk of such society a written notice, declaring the dissolution of their membership, and thenceforth shall not be liable for any grant or contract which may be thereafter made or entered into by such society. And all religious sects and denominations, ^demeaning themselves peaceably, and as good citizens of the commonwealth, shall be equally under the protection of the law ; and no subordination of any one sect or denomination to another shall ever

be established by law."

1 «is»

2 This is an amplification of the second article of the Virginia Bill of Rights.

ON GOVERNMENT. 225

of a man born a magistrate, lawgiver, or judge, is absurd and unnatural.1

VII. Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people ; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men ; therefore, the people alone have an in- contestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute go- vernment ; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.2

VIII. In order to prevent those who are vested with author- ity from becoming oppressors, the people have a right, at such periods and in such manner as may be delineated in'3 their frame of government, to cause their public officers to return to private life, and to fill up vacant places by certain and regular elec- tions 4

IX. All elections ought to be free ; and all the [male] in- habitants of this commonwealth, having sufficient, qualifications,5 have an equal right to elect officers, and to be elected, for public employments.

X. Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws. He is obliged, consequently, to contribute his share to the expense of this protection ; and to give his per- sonal service, or an equivalent, when necessary. But no part of the property of any individual can, with justice, be taken from him, or applied to public uses, without his own consent, or that of the representative body of the people. In fine, the people of this commonwealth are not controllable by any other laws than those to which their constitutional representative body have given 'their consent. 6

1 The fourth article of the Virginia Bill amplified.

2 The third article of Virginia expanded.

3 " they shall establish by " 4 " and appointments."

5 " such qualifications as they shall establish by their frame of government," _

6 "And whenever the public exigencies require that the property of any indi- vidual should be appropriated to public uses, he shall receive a reasonable com- pensation therefor."

o

226 ON GOVERNMENT.

XL Every subject of the commonwealth ought to find a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his person, property, or character. He ought to obtain right and justice freely, and without being obliged to purchase it; completely, and without any denial; promptly, and without delay, conformably to the laws.

XII. No subject shall be held to answer for any crime or offence, until the same is fully and plainly, substantially and formally described to him. He cannot 1 be compelled to accuse [himself,] or [to] furnish evidence against himself; and every subject shall have a right to be fully heard in his defence, by him- self or his counsel at his election; to meet the witnesses against him face to face ; to produce all proofs that may be favorable to him;2 [to require a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the country, without whose unanimous consent, or his own voluntary confession, he cannot finally be declared guilty, or sen- tenced to loss of life, liberty, or property.] 3

XIII. In criminal prosecutions, the verification of facts in the vicinity where they happen, is one of the greatest securities of the life, liberty, and property of the citizen.

[XIV.]3 No subject [of the commonwealth] shall be arrested, imprisoned, despoiled, or deprived of his property, immunities, or privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled, or deprived of his life, liberty, or estate, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land.

XIV. [XV.] Every man* has a right to be secure from all unreasonable searches and seizures of his person, his houses, his papers, and all his possessions. All warrants, therefore, are con-

1 ».or»

2 The last three parts of this sentence were placed by the convention in an- order exactly reversed.

3 That which makes the fourteenth article in the report now follows, and is incorporated into the twelfth, with a single amendment, above noted.

The following addition, in lieu of the portion stricken out, completes the article as it appears in the constitution : —

"And the legislature shall not make any law, that shall subject any person to a capital or infamous punishment, excepting for the government of the army and navy, without trial by jury."

4 "subject"

ON GOVERNMENT. 227

trary to this right, if the cause or foundation of them be not pre- viously supported by oath or affirmation, and if the order in the warrant to a civil officer, to make search in suspected places, or to arrest one or more suspected persons, or to seize their property, be not accompanied with a special designation of the persons or objects of search, arrest, or seizure ; and no warrant ought to be issued but in cases and with the formalities prescribed by the laws.

XV. [XVI.] In all controversies concerning property, and in all suits between two or more persons, 2 the parties have a right to a trial by [a] jury ; and this method of procedure shall be held sacred ; unless in causes arising on the high seas, and such as relate to mariners' wages, the legislature shall hereafter find it necessary to alter it.

XVI. [XVII.] The people have a right to the freedom of speaking, writing, and publishing their sentiments. The liberty of the press, therefore, ought not to be restrained.2

XVII. [XVIIL] The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence. And as in time of peace [stand- ing] armies are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be main- tained without the consent of the legislature ; and the military power shall always be held in an exact subordination to the civil authority, and be governed by it.

XVIIL [XIX.] A frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of the constitution, and a constant adherence to those of piety, justice, moderation, temperance, industry, and frugality, are absolutely necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty, and to maintain a free government. The people ought, conse- quently, to have a particular attention to all those principles, in the choice of their officers and representatives. And they have a

1 " except in cases in which it has heretofore been otherways used and prac- tised,"

2 This article was recommitted by the convention, when the following substi- tute was reported and adopted. Much objection was made to it, among the peo- ple, as insufficient : —

" XVI. The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state ; it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this commonwealth."

228 ON GOVERNMENT.

right to require of their lawgivers and magistrates an exact and constant observance of them, in the formation and execution of the laws necessary for the good administration of the common- wealth.

XIX. [XX.] The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble to consult upon the common good, give instructions to their representatives, and to request of the legislative body, by the way of addresses, petitions, or remon- strances, redress of the wrongs done them, and the grievances they suffer.

XX. [XXL] The power of suspending the laws, or the exe- cution of the laws, ought never to be exercised but by the legis- lature, or by authority derived from it, to be exercised in such particular cases only as the legislature shall expressly provide for ; [and there shall be no suspension of any law for the private interest, advantage, or emolument, of any one man, or class of men.]

XXI. [XXII.] The freedom of deliberation, speech, and debate, in either house of the legislature, is so essential to the rights of the people, that it cannot be the foundation of any accusation or prosecution, action or complaint, in any other court or place whatsoever.

XXII. [XXIIL] The legislature ought frequently to assem- ble for the redress of grievances, for correcting, strengthening, and confirming the laws, and for making new laws as the com- mon good may require.

XXIIL [XXIV.] No subsidy, charge, tax, impost, or duties ought to be established, fixed, laid, or levied, under any pretext whatsoever, without the consent of the people, or their represent- atives in the legislature.

XXIV. [XXV.] Laws made to punish for actions done be- fore the existence of such laws, and which have not been declared crimes by preceding laws, are unjust, oppressive, and inconsistent with the fundamental principles of a free government.

ON GOVERNMENT. 229

XXV. [XXVI.] No man1 ought in any case, or in any time, to be declared guilty of treason or felony by [any act of] the legislature.

XXVI. [XXVIL] No magistrate or court of law shall de- mand excessive bail, or sureties, impose excessive fines, or inflict cruel or unusual punishments.

XXVIL [XXVIII.] In time of peace, no soldier ought to be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner; and in time of war, such quarters ought not to be made, but by the civil magistrate in a manner ordained by the legislature.

XXVIII. [XXIX.] No person can in any case be subjected to law martial, or to any penalties or pains by virtue of that law, except those employed in the army or navy, and except the mili- tia in actual service, but by authority of the legislature.

XXIX. [XXX.] It is essential to the preservation of the rights of every individual, his life, liberty, property, and character, that there be an impartial interpretation of the laws, and adminis- tration of justice. It is the right of every citizen to be tried by judges as free, impartial, and independent as the lot of humanity will admit. It is, therefore, not only the best policy, but for the security of the rights of the people and of every citizen, that the judges2 should hold their offices as long as they behave them- selves well, and that they should have honorable salaries ascer- tained and established by standing laws.

1 "subject"

8 " of the supreme judicial court "

Extract from the Journal of the Convention.

"After long debate, it was moved and seconded, that the sense of the conven- tion be taken upon the word 'judges,' in said article ; in order to which a question was moved and seconded, namely, — 'whether it be the sense of this convention, that the judges of the supreme judicial court of this commonwealth, ought to be appointed to hold their office during good behavior ; ' which, being put, passed in the affirmative, by seventy-eight out of one hundred and thirteen, (ayes 78, noes 35.)

" It was then moved and seconded, that a question be put : whether it is the opinion of this convention, that the judges of the courts of commou pleas, in this commonwealth, ought to be appointed to hold their offices during good behavior ; which was accordingly put, and passed in the negative, by fifty-seven out of one hundred and nineteen, (ayes 57, noes 62.) "

This decision was reversed on a subsequent day, by sixty-two out of eighty-six, (ayes 62, nays 24.)

VOL. IV. 20

230 ON GOVERNMENT.

XXX. [XXXI.] The judicial department of the state ought to be separate from, and independent of, the legislative and execu- tive powers.1

[CHAPTER II.2]

The Frame Of Government

THE FRAME OF GOVERNMENT.

The people inhabiting the territory heretofore 3 called the Pro- vince of Massachusetts Bay, do hereby solemnly and mutually agree with each other to form themselves into a free, sovereign, and independent body politic, or State, by the name of THE

Commonwealth Of Massachusetts

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

In the government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the legislative, executive, and judicial power shall be placed in separate departments, to the end that it might be a government of laivs, and not of men,1

[4]

Section I

SECTION I. P]

Art. I. The department of legislation shall be formed by two branches, a senate and house of representatives ; each of which shall have a negative on the other.

Tliey 2 shall assemble once,7 on the last Wednesday in May, and at such other times as they shall judge necessary, [every year,] 8and shall be styled THE GENERAL COURT

OF MASSACHUSETTS.

1 XXX. In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative depart- ment shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them ; the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them; the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them, to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.

2 "PART THE SECOND." 3 "formerly"

Extract from the Journal.

" On a motion, made and seconded, that the word ' Massachusetts ' be expunged, and that the word ' Oceana ' be substituted, the same was put, and passed in the negative."

4 " Chapter I. The Legislative Power." 5 The General Court.

6 " The legislative body " 7 " every year

8 " and shall dissolve and be dissolved on the day next preceding the said last Wednesday in May,"

The convention of 1820 changed the beginning of the legislative year to

ON GOVERNMENT. 231

[And the first magistrate shall have a negative upon all the laws, that he may have power to preserve the independence of the executive and judicial departments.] 1

January, as will be seen by the following, which is the tenth amendment adopted by the people : —

Amendment.

Art. 10. The political year shall begin on the first Wednesday of January, instead of the last Wednesday of May ; and the general court shall assemble every year on the said first Wednesday of January, and shall proceed, at that session, to make all the elections, and do all the other acts, whicli are by the con- stitution required to be made and done at the session which has heretofore com- menced on the last Wednesday of May. And the general court shall be dissolved on the day next preceding the first Wednesday of January, without any pro- clamation or other act of the governor. But nothing herein contained shall pre- vent the general court from assembling at such other times as they shall judge necessary, or when called together by the governor. The governor, lieutenant- governor, and counsellors, shall also hold their respective offices for one year next following the first Wednesday of January, and until others are chosen and qualified in their stead.

The meeting for the choice of governor, lieutenant-governor, senators, and representatives, shall be held on the second Monday of November in every year ; but meetings may be adjourned, if necessary, for the choice of representatives, to the next day, and again to the next succeeding day, but no further. But in case a second meeting shall be necessary for the choice of representatives, such meetings shall be held on the fourth Monday of the same month of November.

All the other provisions of the constitution respecting the elections and proceed- ings of the members of the general court, or any other officers or persons what- ever, that have reference to the last Wednesday of May as the commencement of the political year, shall be so far altered as to have like reference to the first Wednesday of January.

This article shall go into operation on the first day of October next following the day when the same shall be duly ratified and adopted as an amendment of the constitution ; and the governor, lieutenant-governor, counsellors, senators, representatives, and all other state officers who are annually chosen, and who shall be chosen for the current year, when the same shall go into operation, shall hold their respective offices until the first Wednesday of January then next fol- lowing, and until others are chosen and qualified in their stead, and no longer ; and the first election of the governor, lieutenant-governor, senators, and repre- sentatives, to be had in virtue of this article, shall be had conformably thereunto, in the month of November following the day on which the same shall be in force and go into operation, pursuant to the foregoing provision.

1 In lieu of this absolute negative, which, in the opinion of Mr. Adams, was an essential part of the plan, the convention adopted the following, as a separate article : —

II. No bill or resolve of the senate or house of representatives, shall become a law, and have force as such, until it shall have been laid before the governor for his revisal. And if he, upon such revision, approve thereof, he shall signify his approbation by signing the same. But if he have any objection to the passing of such bill or resolve, he shall return the same, together with his objections thereto, in writing, to the senate or house of representatives, in which soever the same shall have originated, who shall enter the objections sent down by the governor, at large on their records, and proceed to reconsider the said bill or resolve. But if, after such reconsideration, two thirds of the said senate or house of representatives shall, notwithstanding the said objections, agree to pass the

232 ON GOVERNMENT.

III. [II.] The general court shall forever have full power and authority to erect and constitute judicatories and courts of record, or other courts, to be held in the name of the common- wealth, for the hearing, trying, and determining of all manner of crimes, offences, pleas, processes, plaints, actions, matters, causes, and things, whatsoever, arising or happening within the common- wealth, or between or concerning persons inhabiting, or residing, or brought within the same ; whether the same be criminal or civil, or whether the said crimes be capital or not capital, and

same, it shall, together with the objections, be sent to the other branch of the legislature, where it shall also be reconsidered, and, it' 'approved by two thirds of the members present, shall have the force of a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for or against the said bill or resolve, shall be entered upon the public records of the commonwealth.

And in order to prevent unnecessary delays, if any bill or resolve shall not be returned by the governor within five days after it shall have been presented, the same shall have the force of a law.

Extract from the Journal of the Convention.

" The paragraph from the report of the general committee, — namely, ' That the first magistrate shall have a negative upon all laws, that he may have power to preserve the independence of the executive and judicial departments,' — on a motion made and seconded, was then put, and passed in the negative ; thirty- two in seventy-six. (Ayes 32, nays 44.) "

At a subsequent period, the subject came up again, on the report of a coni- mitee to whom the article had been referred, —

" When it was moved and seconded, that the report be amended by introduc- ing the following words ; namely, —

" ' That the governor of this commonwealth have a negative upon all the laws, except those which shall be made and passed for the military defence of the State; and that he have a revision on those, to be conducted by the rides hereafter prescribed.'

"Which being largely debated, when the question was put, the same was determined in the negative ; twenty in seventy-three."

The decline in importance of the State governments, by the subsequent with- drawal of the power over the most material of the public interests into the national sphere, has rendered this question one of inferior interest in Massa- chusetts. But it is yet agitated in the federal system, and bids fair to continue unsolved for some time to come. Although cheerfully acquiescing in the alter- ation at the time, the abstract opinion of Mr. Adams, of the absolute necessity of this power to the maintenance of the executive independence, remained unchanged to the last.

In order that the period of five days conceded to the governor for consideration should not be cut off by the delay of the legislature to pass a measure until just before its adjournment, the convention of 1 820 proposed, and the people ratified, the following amendment, which now stands as part of the constitution : —

Art. I. If any bill or resolve shall be objected to, and not approved by the governor, and if the general court shall adjourn within five days after the same shall have been laid before the governor for his approbation, and thereby prevent his returning it, with his objections, as provided by the constitution, such bill or resolve shall not become a law, nor have force as such.

ON GOVERNMENT. 233

whether the said pleas be real, personal or mixt ; and for the awarding and making out of execution thereupon. To which courts and judicatories are hereby given and granted full power and authority, from time to time, to administer oaths or affirm- ations, for the better discovery of truth in any matter in contro- versy, or depending before them.

IV. [HI.] And further, full power and authority are hereby given and granted to the said general court, from time to time, to make, ordain, and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, statutes, and ordinances, directions, and instructions, either with penalties or without ; so as the same be not repugnant or contrary to tins constitution, as they shall judge to be for the good and welfare of this commonwealth, and for the government and ordering thereof, and of the subjects of the same, and for the necessary support and defence of the govern- ment thereof; and to name and settle annually, or provide by fixed laws, for the naming and settling all civil officers within the said commonwealth, [such officers excepted] the election and constitution of whom are not hereafter in this Form of Govern- ment otherwise provided for ; and to set forth the several duties, powers, and limits, of the several civil and military officers of this commonwealth, and the forms of such oaths 2 as shall be

respectively administered unto them for the execution of their several offices and places, so as the same be not repugnant or contrary to this constitution ; [and also to impose fines, mulcts, imprisonments, and other punishments ;] and to impose and levy proportional and reasonable assessments, rates, and taxes, upon [the persons of] all the inhabitants of, and 2 within the

said commonwealth, [and upon all estates within the same,] 3 to be issued and disposed of by warrant, under the hand of the governor of this commonwealth for the time being, with the advice and consent of the council, for the public service, in the necessary defence and support of the government of the said commonwealth, and the protection and preservation of the subjects thereof, according to such acts as are or shall be in force

1 " or affirmations " 2 " persons resident, and estates lying,"

3 " and also to impose and levy reasonable duties and excises upon any pro- duce, goods, wares, merchandise, and commodities whatsoever, brought into, produced, manufactured, or being within the same ; "

19*

234 ON GOVERNMENT.

within the same [and to dispose of matters and things whereby they may be religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed, pro- tected, and defended.]

And that public1 assessments may be made with equality, there shall be a valuation of estates within the commonwealth taken anew once in every ten years at [the] least,2 [3]

Section Ii

SECTION II. Senate. I. There shall be annually elected by the freeholders and other inhabitants of this commonwealth, qualified as in this con- stitution is provided, forty persons, to be counsellors and senators for the year ensuing then election, to be chosen [in and] by the inhabitants of the districts into which the commonwealth may from time to time be divided by the general court, for that pur- pose. And the general court, in assigning the numbers to be elected by the respective districts, shall govern themselves by the proportion of the public taxes paid by the said districts;4 and

1 "while the public charges of government, or any part thereof, shall be assessed on polls and estates, in the manner that has hitherto been practised, in order that such "

2 " and as much oftener as the general court shall order."

3 The convention of 1820 further enlarged the powers of the general court by the following article, which was ratified, and now stands as the second article of amendment : —

" Art. 2. The general court shall have full power and authority to erect and constitute municipal or city governments in any corporate town or towns in this commonwealth, and to grant to the inhabitants thereof such powers, privileges, and immunities, not repugnant to the constitution, as the general court shall deem necessary or expedient for the regulation and government thereof, and to pre- scribe the manner of calling and holding public meetings of the inhabitants, in wards or otherwise, for the election of officers under the constitution, and the manner of returning the votes given at such meetings. Provided, that no such government shall be erected or constituted in any town not containing twelve thousand inhabitants ; nor unless it be with the consent and on the application of a majority of the inhabitants of such town, present and voting thereon, pur- suant to a vote at a meeting duly warned and holden for that purpose. And provided also, that all by-laws made by such municipal or city government, shall be subject, at all times, to be annulled by the general court."

4 By the latest or thirteenth article of amendment adopted under the new power in the legislature, granted in 1820, the basis of the senate has been changed as follows : —

" The several senatorial districts now existing shall be permanent. The senate shall consist of forty members ; and, in the 'year one thousand eight hun- dred and forty, and every tenth year thereafter, the governor and council shall assign the number of senators to be chosen in each district, according to the number of inhabitants in the same. But, in all cases, at least one senator shall be assigned to each district."

ON GOVERNMENT. 235

timely make known to the inhabitants of the commonwealth, the limits of each district, and the number of counsellors and senators to be chosen therein ; provided that the number of such districts shall be never more than sixteen, nor less than ten.1

And the several counties in this commonwealth shall, until the general court shall determine it necessary to alter said districts, be districts for the choice of counsellors and senators (except that the counties of Dukes County and Nantucket shall form one district for that purpose,) and shall elect the following number for counsellors and senators, namely, —

Suffolk

. 6

[York,

. 2]

Essex,

. 6

Dukes County

and Nan-

Middlesex, .

. 5

tucket,

. 1

Hampshire,

. 4

Worcester,

. 5

Plymouth, .

. 3

[Cumberland, .

• • 1]

Barnstable, .

. 1

[Lincoln,

. . 1]

Bristol,

. 3

Berkshire,

. 2

II. The senate shall be the first branch of the legislature ; and the senators shall be chosen in the following manner, namely, — There shall be a meeting on the first Monday in April, annually, forever, of the inhabitants of all the towns8 in the several counties of this commonwealth, to be called by the selectmen, and warned in due course of law, at least seven days before the first Monday in April, for the purpose of electing persons to be senators and counsellors. And at such meetings every male person* of twenty-one years of age and upwards, resident in such towns one year next "preceding the annual election of senators, having a freehold estate within the commonivealth of the annual income of three pounds, or other real or personal estate of the value of sixty pounds, shall have a right to give in his vote for the senators for the district.

The selectmen of the several towns shall preside at such meet- ings, and shall be under oath, as well as the town-clerk, to preside

1 " never be less than thirteen ; and that no district be so large as to entitle the same to choose more than six senators."

2 This provision was made to include that portion of the territory which has since been separated, and now constitutes the state of Maine. The county of Hampshire has since been subdivided into three counties, and the number now apportioned on the basis of population has not been reduced.

3 "each town" 4 "inhabitant"

236 ON GOVERNMENT.

impartially, according to their best skill and judgment ; and to make a just and true return.

The selectmen shall receive the votes of all the inhabitants of such towns,1 qualified to vote for senators, and shall sort and count them in open town meeting, and in presence of the town- clerk, who shall make a fair record, in presence of the selectmen, and in open town meeting, of the name of every person voted for, and of the number of votes against his name ; and a fair copy of this record shall be attested by the selectmen and the town-clerk, and shall be sealed up, directed to the secretary of the commonwealth, for the time being, with a superscription, ex- pressing the purport of the contents thereof, and delivered by the town-clerk of such towns to the sheriff" of the county in which such town lies, thirty days at least before the last Wednesday in May, annually; or it shall be delivered into the secretary's office seventeen days at least before the said last Wednesday in May ; and the sheriff of each county shall deliver all such certificates by him received into the secretary's office, seventeen days before the said last Wednesday in May.

And the inhabitants of plantations unincorporated, qualified as this constitution provides, who are or shall be empowered and required to assess taxes upon themselves toward the support of government, shall have the same privilege of voting for counsel- lors and senators in the plantations where they reside, as town inhabitants have in their respective towns ; and the plantation meetings for that purpose shall be held annually, on the same first Monday in April, at such place in the plantations respect- ively, as the assessors thereof shall direct ; which assessors shall have like authority for notifying the electors, collecting and returning the votes, as the selectmen and town-clerks have in their several towns by this constitution. And all other persons

1 " having a freehold estate -within the commonwealth, of the annual income of three pounds, or any estate of the value of sixty pounds, shall have a right to give in his vote for the senators for the district of which he is an inhabitant. And, to remove all doubts concerning the meaning of the word ' inhabitant ' in this constitution, every person shall be considered as an inhabitant, for the pur- pose of electing and being elected into any office or place within this state, in that town, district, or plantation, where he dwellefh or hath his home.

" The selectmen of the several towns shall preside at such meetings impartially ; and shall receive the votes of all the inhabitants of such towns present, and "

The qualification of voters was altered by the convention of 1820, in the manner pointed out in the note to the fourth article of the third section. See p. 243.

ON GOVERNMENT. 237

living in places unincorporated (qualified as aforesaid) who shall be assessed to the support of government by the assessors of an adjacent town, shall have the privilege of giving in their votes for counsellors and senators, in the town where they shall be assessed, and be notified of the place of meeting by the select- men of the town where they shall be assessed for that purpose accordingly.

III. And that there may be a due convention of senators on the last Wednesday in May, annually, the governor, with five of the council, for the time being, shall, as soon as may be, examine the returned copies of such records ; and fourteen days before the said day he shall issue his summons to such persons as shall appear to be chosen by a majority of voters, to attend on that day, and take their seats accordingly; provided, nevertheless, that, for the first year, the said returned copies shall be examined by the president and five of the council of the former constitu- tion of government ; and the said president shall, in like manner, issue his summons to the persons so elected, that they may take their seats, as aforesaid.

IV. The senate [however] shall be the final judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of their own members, x and shall, on the said last Wednesday in May, annually, deter- mine and declare who are elected by each district to be senators, by a majority of votes. And, in case there shall not appear to be the full number of senators returned, elected by a majority of votes for any district, the deficiency shall be supplied in the fol- lowing2 manner, namely : — The members of the house of repre- sentatives, and such senators as shall be declared elected, shall take the names of twice the number of senators wanting, from

1 " as pointed out in the constitution ; "

2 The mode of electing the senate -was very much debated in the convention, and not decided upon without great difference of opinion. But it was acquiesced in, and has remained substantially unchanged to this day. Yet it may be justly objected to as defective in simplicity, and ill adapted to the equal representation as well of property as of public opinion in the commonwealth. The mode now generally pursued in the other states, of apportioning the members into separate districts, and doing away with the contingency of a vacancy, to be filled by a body other than the immediate constituents of the person elected, and often not in political sympathy with them, seems to recommend itself as more direct and consonant with the spirit of republican institutions.

238 ON GOVERNMENT.

those who shall be found to have the highest number of votes in such district, and not elected;1 and out of these shall elect, by ballot, a number of senators sufficient to fill up the vacancies in such district. And in this manner all such vacancies shall be filled up in every district of the commonwealth; and in like manner all vacancies in the senate, arising by death, removal out of the state, or otherwise, shall be supplied as soon as may be after such vacancies shall happen.

V. Provided, nevertheless, that no person shall be capable of being elected as a senator, who is not [of the Christian religion, and]2 seised in his own right of a freehold within this com- monwealth, of the value of three hundred pounds at least,

and who has not been an inhabitant of this commonwealth for the space of seven* years, [three of which] immediately preceding his election, and 5 in the district for which he shall be chosen.

VI. The senate shall have power to adjourn themselves, pro- vided such adjournments do not exceed two days at a time.

VII. The senate shall choose its own president, appoint its own officers, and determine its own rules of proceeding[sl.

VIII. The senate shall be a court, with full authority to hear and determine all impeachments made by the house of represent- atives, against any officer or officers of the commonwealth, for misconduct and maladministration in their offices. But pre- vious to the trial of every impeachment, the members of the senate shall respectively be sworn, truly and impartially to try and determine the charge in question, according to evidence. Their judgment, however, shall not extend farther than to removal

l " such persons as shall be found to have the highest number of votes in such district, and not elected, amounting to twice the number of senators wanting, if there be so many voted for ; "

a Extract from the Journal. "Moved and seconded, That the word 'Protest- ant ' be inserted in lieu of the word ' Christian,' which, being put, passed in the negative.

" The question was then put upon the paragraph, so far as it takes up the qualification of religion. The same was rejected, and the words ' of the Chris- tian religion and ' voted to be expunged."

3 " or possessed of personal estate to the value of six hundred pounds at least, or of both to the amount of the same sum,"

1 " five " 5 " at the time of his election he shall be an inhabitant "

ON GOVERNMENT. 239

from office, and disqualification to hold or enjoy any place of honor, trust, or profit under this commonwealth. But the party so convicted shall be, nevertheless, liable to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to the laws of the land.

Section Iii

SECTION III. House of Representatives.

I. There shall be in the legislature of this commonwealth a representation of the people annually elected, and founded in2 equality.

II. And, in order to provide for a representation of the citi- zens of this commonwealth, founded upon the principle of equality, every corporate town, containing one hundred and fifty ratable polls, may elect one representative. Every corporate town, containing three hundred and seventy-five ratable polls, may elect two representatives. Every corporate town, contain- ing six hundred ratable polls, may elect three representatives; and proceeding in that manner, making two hundred and twenty- five ratable polls the mean increasing number for every addi- tional representative.

[And forever, hereafter, the least number of ratable polls necessary to entitle a corporate town to elect one representative, when increased by the addition of a number equal to half the said least number, shall be the mean increasing number of rata- ble polls for every additional representative any corporate town may elect.

And, to prevent hereafter the house of representatives from be- coming unwieldy, and incapable of debating and deliberating, by the great additions it would continually receive from the increasing settlement and population of this commonwealth, no corporate town shall, from and after the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, be entitled to elect one representative, unless it shall contain two hundred ratable polls; nor to elect two representatives, unless it shall contain five hun-

1 The following article was added by the convention : —

" IX. Not less than sixteen members of the senate shall constitute a quorum for doing business."

2 " upon the principle of"

240 ON GOVERNMENT.

dred ratable polls; nor to elect three representatives, unless it shall contain eight hundred ratable polls ; and so proceeding in that manner, making, by the aforesaid rule, three hundred rata- ble polls the mean increasing number for every additional repre- sentative. And every tenth year, from and after the said year of our Lord, one thousand seven hunched and ninety, and until such time as the number of representatives which may be elected for this commonwealth shall not exceed the number of two hun- dred, the least number of ratable polls which, at that time, any corporate town must contain to entitle it to elect one representa- tive, shall be increased by the addition of fifty ; and the least number aforesaid, thus increased by the said addition, shall be the number of ratable polls any corporate town must contain to entitle it to elect one representative ; and the number of repre- sentatives any corporate town may elect shall be regulated accordingly, by the rules aforesaid.

The freeholders and other inhabitants of tins commonwealth, qualified to vote for representatives, living in corporate towns, which, severally, shall contain a less number of ratable polls than is necessary to entitle them, respectively, to elect one repre- sentative, shall, nevertheless, have a right to associate with some town or towns adjoining, for the election of representatives ; and, in such cases, the voters thus united, shall have a right to elect the same number of representatives as they would have done were they inhabitants of one corporate town ; which repre- sentatives may be elected out of either of the associated towns, indifferently. And the legislature shall, from time to time, deter- mine what towns shall thus associate, the manner of the asso- ciation, and the method and manner of calling and conducting the meetings of the associated towns for the election of repre- sentatives.] 1

1 The subject of representation seems to have exercised the skill of the con- vention more than any other portion of the instrument, and it has remained a difficulty from the beginning to this time. The problem has been to unite with the popular and just principle of the representation of townships, a ratio of tolerable equality, and a limitation of numbers sufficient for practical legislation.

Instead of the passage inclosed within brackets, the convention of 1780 adopted the following proviso : —

" Provided, neverthelesss, that each town now incorporated, not having one hundred and fifty ratable polls, may elect one representative; but no place shall hereafter be incorporated, with the privilege of electing a representative, unless there are within the same one hundred and fifty ratable polls.

" And the house of representatives shall have power, from rime to time to im-

ON GOVERNMENT. 241

III. The members1 of the house of representatives shall be chosen by written votes ; [and no person shall be qualified or eligible to be a member of the said house, unless he be of the

pose fines upon such towns as shall neglect to choose and return members to the same, agreeably to this constitution.

" The expenses of travelling to the general assembly, and returning home, once in every session, and no more, shall be paid by the government out of the public treasury, to every member who shall attend, as seasonably as he can, in the judgment of the house, and does not depart without leave."

The check here imposed upon an excess of members, consisted in the neces- sity laid upon the respective towns to pay their own representatives. This answered very well in all but high party times, when the evil was sure to be felt. But dissatisfaction with it existed on other grounds. It was found so much more easy and convenient to draw the means of payment from the common treasury of the state, that most persons of influence favored the inclination of the towns to shift the burden. Yet the desire to make this change was counteracted by the difficulty of finding a good substitute. The convention of 1820 attempted the experiment, and recommended an article to the people, but it was rejected. The legislatures of 1835 and 1836 proposed another, which received their assent, and now makes the twelfth article of amendments : —

"Art. 12. In order to provide for a representation of the citizens of this commonwealth, founded upon the principles of equality, a census of the ratable polls in each city, town, and district of the commonwealth, on the first day of May, shall be taken, and returned into the secretary's office, in such manner as the legislature shall provide, within the month of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, and in every tenth year thereafter, in the month of May, in manner aforesaid ; and each town or city, having three hundred ratable polls at the last preceding decennial census of polls, may elect one representative ; and for every four hundred and fifty ratable polls, in addi- tion to the first three hundred, one representative more.

" Any town having less than three hundred ratable polls shall be represented thus, — the whole number of ratable polls, at the last preceding decennial census of polls, shall be multiplied by ten, and the product divided by three hundred, and such town may elect one representative as many years within ten years as three hundred is contained in the product aforesaid.

" Any city or town having ratable polls enough to elect one or more repre- sentatives, with any number of polls beyond the necessary number, may be re- presented as to that surplus number, by multiplying such surplus number by ten, and dividing the product by four hundred and fifty ; and such city or town may elect one additional representative as many years within ten years as four hun- dred and fifty is contained in the product aforesaid.

" Any two or more of the several towns and districts may, by consent of a majority of the legal voters, present at a legal meeting in each of said towns and districts, respectively, called for that purpose, and held previous to the first day of July, in the year in which the decennial census of polls shall be taken, form themselves into a representative district, to continue until the next decennial census of polls, for the election of a representative or representatives ; and such district shall have all the rights, in regard to representation, which would belong- to a town containing the same number of ratable polls.

" The governor and council shall ascertain and determine, within the months of July and August, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, according to the foregoing principles, the number of representatives

1 " Every member " VOL. iv. 21 P

242 ON GOVERNMENT.

Christian religion,] and, for one year at least, next preceding his election, shall have been an inhabitant of, and have been seised in his own right of a freehold of the value of one hundred

which each city, town, and representative district is entitled to elect, and the number of years within the period of ten years, then next ensuing, that each city, town, and representative district may elect an additional representative ; and where any town has not a sufficient number of polls to elect a representative each year, then, how many years within the ten years such town may elect a representative ; and the same shall be done once in ten years thereafter, by the governor and council, and the number of ratable polls in each decennial census of polls shall determine the number of representatives which each city, town, and representative district may elect, as aforesaid ; and when the number of representatives, to be elected by each city, town, or representative district, is ascertained and determined, as aforesaid, the governor shall cause the same to be published forthwith for the information of the people, and that number shall remain fixed and unalterable for the period of ten years.

" All the provisions of the existing constitution, inconsistent with the pro- visions herein contained, are hereby wholly annulled."

This amendment had not been in operation a year, before it was discovered to be open to serious objections. Whilst it did not effectively remedy the serious evil of excess in the representation, the apportionment of it among the fractions created an extraordinary practical inequality. A new effort was made to remedy this, in connection with a radical change of the basis upon which the whole sys- tem originally rested, from polls or taxation, to population or numbers. This resulted, in 1840, in the modification of the basis of the senate, which has already been noticed under the proper head, and in the following article, which now constitutes the rule of representation in the lower house : —

" Art. 13. A census of the inhabitants of each city and town, on the first day of May, shall be taken, and returned into the secretary's office, on or before the last day of June of the year one thousand eight hundred and forty, and of every tenth year thereafter, which census shall determine the apportionment of sena- tors and representatives for the term of ten years.

" The members of the house of representatives shall be apportioned in the following manner : — Every town or city, containing twelve hundred inhabit- ants, may elect one representative ; and two thousand four hundred inhabitants shall be the mean increasing number which shall entitle it to an additional representative.

" Every town containing less than twelve hundred inhabitants, shall be entitled to elect a representative as many times within ten years, as the number one hundred and sixty is contained in the number of the inhabitants of said town. Such towns may also elect one representative for the year in which the valuation of estates within the commonwealth shall be settled.

" Any two or more of the several towns may, by consent of a majority of the legal voters, present at a legal meeting in each of said towns, respectively, called for that purpose, and held before the first day of August, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty, and every tenth year thereafter, form themselves into a representative district, to continue for the term of ten years ; and such district shall have all the rights, in regard to representation, which would belong to a town containing the same number of inhabitants.

" The number of inhabitants which shall entitle a town to eject one repre- sentative, and the mean increasing number, which shall entitle a town or city to elect more than one, and also the number by which the population of towns, not entitled to a representative every year, is to be divided, shall be increased respectively, by one tenth of the numbers above-mentioned, whenever

ON GOVERNMENT. 243

pounds, within the town [or towns] he shall be chosen to repre- sent; ! and he shall cease to represent the said town for towns] immediately on his ceasing to be a freeholder within the same.2

IV. Every male person, being twenty-one years of age, and resident in any particular town in this commonwealth for the space of one year next preceding, having a freehold estate within the same town, of the annual income of three pounds, or other 3 estate [real or personal or mixt] of the value of sixty pounds, shall have a right to vote in the choice of a representative or represent- atives for the said town, [or for the towns united as aforesaid.] i

the population of the commonwealth shall have increased to seven hundred and seventy thousand ; and for every additional increase of seventy thousand inhabit- ants, the same addition of one tenth shall be made respectively to the said num- bers above mentioned. '

" In the year of each decennial census, the governor and council shall, before the first day of September, apportion the number of representatives which each city, town, and representative district is entitled to elect, and ascertain how many years within ten years, any town may elect a representative, which is not entitled to elect one every year ; and the governor shall cause the same to be published forthwith."

The practical effect of the last amendment is to give a great preponderance to the power of the large towns, whilst the right of representation of the small ones is liable to be cut off at moments when it might be most for their interest that they should enjoy it. These disadvantages are not balanced by the slight relative inequality in then favor of the ratio of representation. This is one of the instances that can be quoted in modern times, (the Reform Bill in Great Britain is another,) in which an apparent concession to the popular principle has shown a practical movement in an opposite direction. The change of the basis, from property to population, has really promoted the influence of property. It may reasonably be doubted, whether any change yet made from the article as it ori- ginally stood in the constitution has been an improvement, although some change was made indispensable by the progress of the population.

1 " or any ratable estate to the value of two hundred pounds ; "

2 " qualified as aforesaid."

By the last or thirteenth amendment of the constitution, adopted in 1840, it is provided : " That no possession of a freehold, or of any other estate, shall be required as a qualification for holding a seat in either branch of the general court, or in the executive council."

3 "any"

4 The convention of 1820 proposed the following substitute for this article, which was adopted by the people, and now stands as the third article of amend- ments : —

"Art. 3. Every male citizen of twenty-one years of age, and upwards, (excepting paupers and persons under guardianship,) who shall have resided within the commonwealth one year, and within the town or district in which he may claim a right to vote, six calendar months next preceding any election of governor, lieutenant-governor, senators, or representatives, and who shall have paid, by himself or his parent, master, or guardian, any state or county tax, which shall, within two years next preceding such election, have been assessed

244 ON GOVERNMENT.

V. The members of the house of representatives shall be chosen annually in the month of May, ten days at least before the last Wednesday of that month, [from among the wisest, most prudent, and virtuous of the freeholders.]

VI. The house of representatives shall be the grand inquest of this commonwealth ; and all impeachments made by them shall be heard and tried by the senate.

VII. All money-bills shall originate in the house of represent- atives ; but the senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills.

VIIL The house of representatives shall have power to adjourn themselves ; provided such adjournment shall not exceed two days at a time.

IX. Not less than sixty members of the house of represent- atives shall constitute a quorum for doing business.

X. The house of representatives shall 1 choose their own speaker, appoint their own officers, and settle the rules and orders of proceeding in their own house. They shall have authority to punish, by imprisonment, every person 2 who shall be guilty of disrespect to the house, in its presence, by any disorderly or contemptuous behavior ; or by threatening- or ill-treating- any of its members ; or, in a word, by obstructing- its deliberations ; every person guilty of a breach of its privileges, in making- arrests for debts, or by assaulting- one of its members during his attendance at any session, or on the road, whether he be going to the house or returning home ; in assaulting any one of its officers, or in disturb- ing him in the execution of any order or procedure of the house ; in assaulting- or troubling any witness or other person ordered to

upon him in any town or district of this commonwealth, and also every citizen who shall be by law exempted from taxation, and who shall be in all other respects qua- lified as above-mentioned, shall have a right to vote in such election of governor, lieutenant-governor, senators, and representatives ; and no other person shall be entitled to vote in such election."

1 " be the judge of the returns, elections, and qualifications of its own mem- bers, as pointed out in the constitution ; shall "

2 " not a member "

ON GOVERNMENT. 245

attend the house, in his way in going or returning, or in rescuing any person arrested by order of the house.1

XL The senate shall have the same powers in the like cases ; and the governor and council shall have the same authority to punish in like cases. Provided, that no imprisonment on the warrant or order of the governor, council, senate, or house of representatives, for either of the above described offences, be for a term exceeding thirty days.2

CHAPTER IT. [III.] Executive Power.

SECTION I.

Governor.

*

Art. I. There shall be a supreme executive magistrate, who shall be styled, THE GOVERNOR OF THE COMMON- WEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, and whose title shall be, HIS EXCELLENCY.

II. The governor shall be chosen annually; and no person shall be eligible to this office unless, at the time of his election, he shall have been an inhabitant of this commonwealth for seven years next preceding ; and unless he shall at the same time be seised in his own right of a freehold within the commonwealth, of the value of one thousand pounds ; and unless he shall3 be of the Christian religion.

1 " or who, in the town where the general court is sitting, and during the time of its sitting, shall threaten harm to the body or estate of any of itsinembers, for any thing said or done in the house ; or who shall assault any of them therefor ; or who shall assault or arrest any witness or other person ordered to attend the house, in his way in going or returning ; or who shall rescue any person arrested by the order of the house.

"And no member of the house of representatives shall be arrested, or held to bail on mean process, during his going unto, returning from, or his attending, the general assembly."

2 Addition : —

"And the senate and house of representatives may try and determine all cases where their rights and privileges are concerned, and which, by the constitution, they have authority to try and determine, by committees of their own members, or in such other way as they may respectively think best."

3 " declare himself to "

This declaration was annulled by the convention of 1820, in the seventh amendment which appears in the note to the fourth article. See page 263.

21*

246 ON GOVERNMENT.

III. Those persons who shall be qualified to vote for senators and representatives within the several towns of this common- wealth, shall, at a meeting to be called for that purpose, on the first Monday of April annually, give in their votes for a governor, to the selectmen, who shall preside at such meetings ; and the town clerk, in the presence and with the assistance of the select- men, shall in open town meeting sort and count the votes, and form a list of the persons voted for, with the number of votes for each person against his name, and shall make a fair record of the same in the town books, and a public declaration thereof in the said meeting ; and shall, in the presence of the inhabitants, seal up copies of the said list, attested by him and the selectmen, and transmit the same to the sheriff of the county, thirty days at least before the last Wednesday in May ; or shall 1 cause returns of the same to be made to the office of the secretary of the common- wealth, seventeen days at least before the said day, ivho2 shall lay the same before the senate and the house of representatives, on the last Wednesday in May, to be by them examined ; and, in case of an election by a majority of votes through the common- wealth? the choice shall be by them declared and published. But if no person shall have a majority of votes, the house of repre- sentatives shall, by ballot, elect two out of four persons who had the highest number of votes, if so many shall have been voted for, but if otherwise, out of the number voted for ; and make return to the senate of the two persons so elected, on which the senate shall proceed, by ballot, to elect one, who shall be declared governor.

[IV.] [4] (Transposed.)

IV. [V.] The governor shall have authority, from time to time, at his discretion, to assemble and call together the counsellors of this commonwealth, for the time being ; and the governor, with

1 " and the sheriff shall transmit the same to the secretary's office, seventeen days at least before the said last Wednesday in May ; or the selectmen may "

2 " and the secretary " 3 " all the votes returned,"

4 Here follows in this draught a form of oath for the governor. But this, with several other articles, was transposed by the convention, as appears by the subjoined extract from the journal, February 25, 1780: — "It was then moved and seconded, that there be a distinct chapter in the constitution for the several oaths and tests which have been, or shall be, prescribed to be taken and subscribed by the officers of government, and the two houses of assembly, and also for the list of persons excluded from a seat in either house, and such miscellaneous matters as the convention shall direct to stand in the same." See under the head of Chapter VI., p. 260.

ON GOVERNMENT. 247

the said counsellors, or five of them at least, shall and may, from time to time, hold and keep a council for the ordering and direct- ing the affairs of the commonwealth according' to laiv.1

V. [VI.] The governor, with advice of council, shall have full power and authority, in the recess of the general court, to prorogue the same from time to time, not exceeding ninety days in any one recess of the said court ; and during the session of the said court, to adjourn or prorogue it to any time the two houses shall desire, and to dissolve the same, at their request, or on the Wednesday next preceding the last Wednesday in May ; and to call it together sooner than the time to which it may be adjourned or prorogued, if the welfare of the commonwealth shall require the same.2

VI. [VII.] In cases of disagreement between the two houses, with regard to the s time of adjournment or prorogation, the governor, with advice of the council, shall have a right to adjourn or prorogue the general court, 4 as he shall determine the public good shall require.

VII. [VIIL] The governor of this commonwealth, for the time being, shall be the commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and of all the military forces of the state by sea and land ; and shall have full power, by himself or by any [chief] com- mander, or other officer or officers, [to be appointed by him,] from time to time to train, instruct, exercise, and govern the militia and navy ; and for the special defence and safety of the commonwealth, to assemble in martial array and put in warlike posture, the inhabitants thereof; and to lead and conduct them, and with them to encounter, [expulse,] repel, resist, 5 and

1 " agreeably to the constitution and the laws of the land."

2 The several clauses of this article are transposed in the constitution as adopted ; but, as the language is not changed, it is not deemed important to note the variations.

The following clauses were added : —

"And in case of any infectious distemper prevailing in the place where the said court is next, at any time, to convene, or any other cause happening, whereby danger may arise to the health or lives of the members from their attendance, he may direct the session to be held at some other, the most con- venient, place within the state.

"And the governor shall dissolve the said general court, on the day next pre- ceding the last Wednesday in May."

3 " necessity, expediency, or " 4 " not exceeding ninety days," 5 "expel"

248 ON GOVERNMENT.

pursue, by force of arms, as well by sea as by land, within or without the limits of this commonwealth, and also to kill, slay, destroy, x and conquer, by all fitting ways, enterprises, and

means whatsoever, all and every such person and persons as shall at any time hereafter, in a hostile manner, attempt or enterprise the destruction, invasion, detriment, or annoyance of this com- monwealth ; and to use and exercise over the army and navy, and over the militia in actual service, the law martial in time of war, invasion, or rebellion, 2 as occasion shall necessarily

require ; [and also from time to time to erect forts, and to fortify any place or places within the said commonwealth, and the same to furnish with all necessary ammunition, provisions, and stores of war, for offence or defence, and to commit from time to time the custody and government of the same to such person or per- sons as to him shall seem meet ; and in times of emergency the said forts and fortifications to demolish at his discretion ;] and to take and surprise, by all ways and means whatsoever, all and every such person or persons, with their ships, arms, ammunition, and other goods, as shall in a hostile manner invade, or attempt the invading, conquering, or annoying this commonwealth, and [in fine] that the governor be intrusted with all s other pow-

ers, incident to the offices of captain-general and commander- in-chief and admiral, to be exercised agreeably to the rules and regulations of the constitution and the laws of the land 4

Provided, that the said governor shall not at any time hereafter, by virtue of any power by this constitution granted, or hereafter to be granted to him by the legislature, transport any of the inhabit- ants of this commonwealth, or oblige them to march, out of the limits of the same, without their free and voluntary consent, or the consent of the general court, 5 [nor grant commissions

for exercising the law martial upon any of the inhabitants of this commonwealth, without the advice and consent of the council of the same.]

VIII. [IX.] The power of pardoning offences, except such

1 " if necessary,"

2 " or invasion, and also in time of rebellion declared by the legislature to exist,"

3 " these and " 4 " and not otherwise."

5 " except so far as may be necessary to march or transport them by land or "water, for the defence of such part of the state to which they cannot otherwise conveniently have access "

ON GOVERNMENT. 249

as persons may be convicted of before the senate by an impeach- ment of the house, shall be in the governor, by and with the advice of council. But no charter of pardon granted by the governor, with advice of the council, before conviction, shall avail the party pleading the same, notwithstanding any general or particular expressions contained therein, descriptive of the offence or offences intended to be pardoned.

IX. [X.] All judicial officers, the attorney-general, the solici- tor-general, all sheriffs, coroners, registers of probate, [and regis- ters of maritime courts,] shall be nominated and appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the council ; and every such nomination shall be made by the governor, and made at least seven days prior to such appointment.

[XL] [All officers of the militia shall be appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the council ; he first nominating them seven days at least before the appointment.] 1

1 The convention, in adopting the following substitute, made what, in the opinion of Mr. Adams, was the second material alteration of the executive power : —

" X. The captains and subalterns of the militia shall be elected by the written votes of the train-band and alarm list of their respective companies, of twenty- one years of age and upwards. The field-officers of regiments shall be elected by the written votes of the captains and subalterns of their respective regiments. The brigadiers shall be elected, in like manner, by the field-officers of their respective brigades. And such officers, so elected, shall be commissioned by the governor, who shall determine their rank.

" The legislature shall, by standing laws, direct the time and manner of con- vening the electors, and of collecting votes, and of certifying to the governor the officers elected.

" The major-generals shall be appointed by the senate and house of repre- sentatives, each having a negative upon the other ; and be commissioned by the governor.

" And if the electors of brigadiers, field-officers, captains, or subalterns shall neglect or refuse to make such elections, after being duly notified, according to the laws for the time being, then the governor, with advice of council, shall appoint suitable persons to fill such offices.

" And no officer duly commissioned to command in the militia, shall be removed from his office, but by the address of both houses to the governor, or by fair trial in court-martial, pursuant to the laws of the commonwealth for the time being,

" The commanding officers of regiments shall appoint their adjutants and quarter-masters; the brigadiers their brigade-majors; and the major-generals their aids ; and the governor shall appoint the adjutant-general.

" The governor, with advice of council, shall appoint all officers of the con- tinental army, whom, by the confederation of the United States, it is pro- vided that this commonwealth shall appoint ; as, also, all officers of forts and garrisons.

" The divisions of the militia into brigades, regiments, and companies, made in pursuance of the militia laws now in force, shall be considered as the proper

250 ON GOVERNMENT.

XL [XIL] All1 moneys shall be issued out of the treasury of this commonwealth, and disposed of 2 by warrant, under

the hand of the governor for the time being, with the advice and consent of the council, for the necessary defence and support of the commonwealth ; and for the protection and preservation of the inhabitants thereof, agreeably to the acts and resolves of the general court.

XIL [XIIL] All public boards, the commissary-general, all superintending officers of public magazines and stores, belonging to this commonwealth, and all commanding officers of forts and garrisons within the same, shall, once in every three months offi- cially, and without requisition, and at other times, when required by the governor, deliver to him an account of all goods, stores, provisions, ammunition, cannon with then* appendages, and small arms with their accoutrements, and of all other public property whatever under their care respectively ; distinguishing the quan- tity, number, quality, and kind of each, as particularly as may be; together with the condition of such forts and garrisons. And the said commanding officers shall exhibit to the governor, when required by him, true and exact plans of such forts, and of the land and sea, or harbor or harbors, adjacent.

And the said boards, and all public officers, shall communicate to the governor, as soon as may be after receiving the same, all letters, despatches, and intelligences, of a public nature, which shall be directed to them respectively.

[XIV. And to prevent an undue influence in this common- wealth, which the first magistrate thereof may acquire, by the

divisions of the militia of this commonwealth, until the same shall be altered in pursuance of some future law."

The convention of 1820 once more revised this section by adopting the follow- ing article, which was ratified by the people : —

" Article 5. In the elections of captains and subalterns of the militia, all the members of their respective companies, as well those under as those above the age of twenty-one" years, shall have a right to vote."

And, with regard to removals, at the close of the fourth article of amend- ments : —

" All officers commissioned to command in the militia, may be removed from office in such manner as the legislature may, by law, prescribe."

1 «No"

2 " (except such sums as may be appropriated for the redemption of bills of credit or treasurer's notes, or for the payment of interest arising thereon) but "

ON GOVERNMENT. 251

long possession of the important powers and trusts of that office ; as also to stimulate others to qualify themselves for the service of the public in the highest stations, no man shall be eligible as governor of this commonwealth, more than five years in any seven years.] 1

XIII. [XV.] As the public good requires that the governor should not be under the undue influence of any of the members of the general court, by a dependence on them for his support ; that he should, in all cases, act with freedom for the benefit of the public ; that he should not have his attention necessarily diverted from that object to his private concerns ; and that he should maintain the dignity of the commonwealth, in the character of its chief magistrate, it is necessary that he should have an honor- able stated salary, of a fixed and permanent value, amply suffi- cient for those purposes, and established by standing laws ; and it shall be among the first acts of the general court, after the commencement of this constitution, to establish such salary by law accordingly.

Permanent and honorable salaries shall also be established by law for the justices of the superior2 court.

And if it shall be found that any of the salaries aforesaid, so established, are insufficient, they shall from time to time be enlarged, as the general court shall judge proper.

SECTION II.

Lieutenant-Governor, [find the ascertaining the Value of the Money mentioned in this Constitution, as Qualifications to Office, Sfc.~]

I. There shall be annually elected a lieutenant-governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, whose title shall be HIS HONOR, and who shall be qualified, in point of religion, pro-

1 This provision, establishing a principle of rotation in office, was stricken out by the convention. The practice under the constitution shows that, without any express limitation, but a single case has occurred exceeding seven years, as the longest period that any individual remains governor.

The transfer to the general government of the most important attributes of executive power, has materially lessened the consequence of this post as an object of ambition. But in analyzing the theory upon which this plan is based, it is obvious that this section was incorporated for the purpose of counterbalancing the effect of the gift in other sections of such extensive powers as might make the chief magistrate's place the object of great contention. The convention preferred to take away the powers, on the one hand, and withdraw the limit- ation, on the other.

2 " supreme judicial "

252 ON GOVERNMENT.

perty, and residence in the commonwealth, in the same manner with the governor. He shall be chosen on the same day, in the same manner, and by the same persons.1 The return of the votes for this officer, and the declaration of his election shall be in the same manner. And if no one person shall be found to have a majority of votes,2 the vacancy shall be rilled by the senate and house of representatives, in the same manner as the governor i§ to be elected, in case no one person has3 a majority of votes'^ to be governor.

II. The lieutenant-governor shall alivays be, ex-officio, a mem- ber, and, in the absence of the governor, president, of the council.5

III. Whenever the chair of the governor shall be vacant, by reason of his death, or absence from the commonwealth, or other- wise, the lieutenant-governor, for the time being, shall, during such vacancy, 6 have and exercise all the powers and author- ities which, by this constitution, the governor is vested with, when personally present.

[IV. and V.] ( Transposed. See Chapter VI. p. 264.)

SECTION III.

Council, and the Manner of settling Elections ly the Legislature ; [ Oaths to le

taken, Sfc.~\

I. There shall be a council for advising the governor in the executive part of government, to consist of nine persons besides the lieutenant-governor, whom the governor, for the time being, shall have full power and authority, from time to time, at his discretion, to assemble and call together. And the governor, with the said counsellors, or five of them at least, shall and may, from time to time, hold and keep a council, for the ordering and

1 "And the day and manner of his election, and the qualifications of the electors shall be the same as are required in the election of a governor."

2 " all the votes returned " 3 " shall have "

4 " the votes of the people "

5 Substitute: —

" The governor, and, in his absence, the lieutenant-governor, shall be president of the council, but shall have no vote in council. And the lieutenant-governor shall always be a member of the council, except when the chair of the go- vernor shall be vacant."

6 "perform all the duties incumbent upon the governor, and shall"

ON GOVERNMENT. 253

directing the affairs of the commonwealth, according to the laws of the land.

II. Nine counsellors shall out of1 the persons returned for counsellors and senators, [be annually chosen,] on the last Wed- nesday in May, by the joint ballot of the senators and represent- atives assembled in one room. a The seats of the persons thus elected into the council* and accepting the trust, shall be vacated in the senate, [and, in this manner, the number of sena- tors shall be reduced to thirty-one.]4

III. The counsellors, in the civil arrangements of the com- monwealth, shall have rank next after the lieutenant-governor.

IV. Not more than two counsellors shall be chosen out of any one county5 of this commonwealth.

V. The resolutions and advice of the council shall be re- corded in a register, and signed by the members present; and this record may be called for at any time by either house of the legislature ; and any member of the council may insert his opi- nion contrary to the resolution of the majority.

VI. Whenever the office of the governor and lieutenant- governor shall be vacant, by reason of death, absence, or other- wise, then the council, or the major part of them, shall, during such vacancy, have full power and authority to do and execute

1 " be annually chosen from among "

2 " And in case there shall not be found, upon the first choice, the whole number of nine persons who will accept a seat in the council, the deficiency shall be made up by the electors aforesaid, from among the people at large ; and the number of senators left shall constitute the senate for the year."

3 " from the senate."

4 The last or thirteenth amendment of the constitution, adopted in 1840, con- tains the following modification of the provisions respecting the council : —

" Nine counsellors shall be annually chosen from among the people at large, on the first Wednesday of Januaiy, or as soon thereafter as may be, by the joint ballot of the senators and representatives, assembled in one room, who shall, as soon as may be, in like manner, fill up any vacancies that may happen in the council, by death, resignation, or otherwise. No person shall be elected a coun- sellor who has not been an inhabitant of this commonwealth for the term of five years, immediately preceding his election ; and not more than one counsellor shall be chosen from any one senatorial district in the commonwealth."

5 "district"

VOL. IV. 22

054 ON GOVERNMENT.

all and every such acts, matters, and things, as the governor or the lieutenant-governor might or could, by virtue of this consti- tution, do or execute, if they, or either of them, were personally present.

VII. And whereas, the elections appointed to be made by this constitution, on the last Wednesday in May, annually, by the two houses of the legislature, may not be completed on that day, the said elections may be adjourned from day to day, until the same shall be completed. And the order of elections shall be as follows, — the vacancies in the senate, if any, shall first be filled up ; the governor and lieutenant-governor shall then be elected, provided there should be no choice of them by the people; and afterwards the two houses shall proceed to the election of the council.

[VIIL] (Transposed. See Chapter VL p. 262.)

Section Iv

SECTION IV.

Secretary, Treasurer, Commissary, Sfc.

I. The secretary, treasurer, and receiver-general, and the commissary-general, notaries-public, and naval officers shall be chosen annually, by joint ballot of the senators and representa- tives, in one room. And that the citizens of this commonwealth may be assured, from time to time, that the moneys remaining in the public treasury, upon the settlement and liquidation of the public accounts, are their property, no man shall be eligible as treasurer and receiver-general more than five years succes- sively.1

1 The convention of 1820 framed an article somewhat changing these modes of appointment, which was approved by the people, and is now the fourth of the amendments : —

" Art. 4. Notaries-public shall be appointed by the governor, in the same manner as judicial officers are appointed, and shall hold their offices during seven years, unless sooner removed by the governor, with the consent of the council", upon the address of both houses of the legislature.

" In case the office of secretary or treasurer of the commonwealth shall be- come vacant from any cause, during the recess of the general court, the go- vernor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall nominate and appoint, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, a competent and suitable person to such vacant office, who shall hold the same until a successor shall be appointed by the general court.

" Whenever the exigencies of the commonwealth shall require the appoint-

ON GOVERNMENT. 255

II. The records of the commonwealth shall be kept in the office of the secretary, who l shall attend the governor and

council, the senate, and house of representatives in person, or by his deputies, as they shall respectively require.

CHAPTER III. [IV.]

CHAPTER III. [IV.]

Judiciary Power.

Art. I. The tenure, that all commission officers by law hold2, in their offices, shall be expressed in their respective commissions. All judicial officers, duly appointed, commissioned, and sworn, shall hold their offices during good behavior 3 provided,

nevertheless, the governor, with consent of the council, may remove them upon the address of both houses of the legislature. [And all other officers, appointed by the governor and council, shall hold their offices during pleasure.]

[II.] (Transposed. See Chapter VI. p. 263.)

II. [III.] The senate, nevertheless^ as well as the governor and council, shall have authority to require the opinions of the judge sb upon important questions of law, and upon solemn occasions.

III. [IV.] In order that the people may not suffer from the long continuance in place of any justice of the peace, who shall fail of discharging the important duties of his office with ability or fidelity, all commissions of justices of the peace shall expire and become void, in the term of seven years from then respect- ive dates; and, upon the expiration of any commission, the

ment of a commissary-general, he shall be nominated, appointed, and commis- sioned in such manner as the legislature may, by law, prescribe."

1 " may appoint his deputies, for whose conduct he shall be accountable ; and he"

2 " shall by law have "

3 " excepting such concerning whom there is different provision made in this constitution ; "

4 " Each branch of the legislature "

5 "justices of the supreme judicial court"

256 ON GOVERNMENT.

governor and council may, if necessary, renew such commissions, or appoint another person,1 as shall most conduce to the well- being of the commonwealth.

IV. [V.] The judges of probate of wills and for granting letters of administration, shall hold their courts at such place or places, on fixed days, as the convenience of the people shall require. And the legislature shall, from time to time, hereafter, appoint such times and places ; until which appointments, the said courts shall be holden at the times and places which the respective judges shall direct.

V. [VI.] All causes of marriage, divorce, and alimony, [shall be determined by the senate;] and all appeals from the judges of probate shall be heard and determined by the governor and council, until the legislature shall, by law, make other provision.2

CHAPTER IV. [V.]

CHAPTER IV. [V.]

Delegates to Congress, [Commissions, Writs, Indictments, fyc; Con- firmation of Laws, Habeas Corpus, and enacting Style.]

Art. I. The delegates of this commonwealth to the Congress of the United States [of America,] shall, on the second Wednes- day of November, if the general court be then sitting, or on the second Wednesday of the session next after,2 be elected annually, by the joint ballot of the senate and house of representatives, assembled together in one room 4 They shall have commis-

sions under the hand of the governor, and under the great seal of the commonwealth ; but may be recalled at any time within the year, and others chosen and commissioned, in the same man- ner in their stead.5

1 " same may, if necessary, be renewed, or another person appointed,"

2 This power was early transferred by statute to the supreme judicial court of the state.

3 " sometime in the month of June,"

4 " to serve in congress for one year, to commence on the first Monday in November, then next ensuing."

5 This article was annulled by the adoption of the federal constitution. Six other articles contained in this chapter were transposed to the sixth chapter, by- vote of the convention.

ON GOVERNMENT. 257

CHAPTER V. [VI]

CHAPTER V. [VI]

The University at Cambridge, and Encouragement of

Literature, 8fC.

SECTION I.

The University.

Art. I. Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, so early as the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-six, laid the found- ation of Harvard College, in which university many persons of great eminence have by the blessing of God been initiated in those arts and sciences which qualified them for public employ- ments, both in church and state. And whereas the encourage- ment of arts and sciences, and all good literature, tends to the honor of God, the advantage of the Christian religion, and the great benefit of this and the other United States of America, — it is declared, That the PRESIDENT and FELLOWS of HARVARD COLLEGE, in their corporate capacity, and their successors in that capacity, their officers and servants, shall have, hold, use, exercise, and enjoy, all the powers, authorities, rights, liberties, privileges, immunities, and franchises, which they now have, or are entitled to have, hold, use, exercise, and enjoy ; and the same are hereby ratified and confirmed unto them, the said President and Fellows of Harvard College, and to their successors, and to their officers and servants, respectively, forever.

II. And whereas there have been at sundry times, by divers persons, gifts, grants, devises, df houses, lands, tenements, goods, chattels, legacies, and conveyances, heretofore made, either to Harvard College, in Cambridge, in New England, or to the Pre- sident and Fellows of Harvard College, or to the said College, by some other description, under several charters successively ; — IT IS DECLARED, That all the said gifts, grants, devises, legacies, and conveyances, are hereby forever confirmed unto the President and Fellows of Harvard College, and to their successors, in the capacity aforesaid, according to the true intent and meaning of the donor or donors, grantor or grantors, devisor or devisors.

22 * Q

258 ON GOVERNMENT.

III. And whereas, by an act of the general court of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, passed in the year one thousand six hun- dred and forty-two, the governor and deputy governor for the time being, and all the magistrates of that jurisdiction, were, with the president, and a number of the clergy, in the said act described, constituted the overseers of Harvard College. And it being necessary, in this new constitution of government, to ascer- tain who shall be deemed successors to the said governor, deputy- governor, and magistrates; — IT IS DECLARED, That the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Council, and Senate of this Commonwealth, are, and shall be deemed, their successors ; who, with the President of Harvard College for the time being, together with the Ministers of the Congregational Churches in the towns of Cambridge, Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, and Dorchester, mentioned in the said act, shall be and hereby are, vested with all the powers and authority belonging, or in any way appertaining to the overseers of Harvard College. Provided, that nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the legislature of this commonwealth from making such alterations in the government of the said university as shall be conducive to its advantage, and the interest of the republic of letters, in as full a manner as might have been done by the legislature of the province of the Massachusetts Bay.2

i "late"

2 In Quincy's History of Harvard University, the following account of the origin of these three articles is given : —

" In September, 1779, the convention assembled to frame a constitution for the State of Massachusetts, being in session, a committee was raised in relation to the college, and was instructed ' to prepare an article to be inserted in the new constitution, for confirming its privileges, and for such other purposes as they shall think proper, after consulting with the corporation of the college.' James Bowdoin, President of the Convention, communicated these proceedings to the corporation ; and a committee of the board was raised to take the subject into consideration. On the seventh of the ensuing October, this committee made a report, recapitulating all the leading facts of the constitutional history of the college, and submitting two proposals to be laid before the convention, containing articles to be inserted into the constitution of the commonwealth, on the interests of the college. These proposals, being accepted by the corporation and approved by the overseers, were subsequently adopted by the state convention, and now

constitute distinct articles in the constitution of Massachusetts The

new organization of the state government also rendered it necessary to insert a third article in the same section of the constitution, declarative of the branches of the government which should succeed to the office of overseers, in place of those which were abrogated."

It should be remarked, that from the journal of the convention, it is clear there was no special committee raised in relation to the college. This unimportant

ON GOVERNMENT. 259

SECTION II.

The Encouragement of Literature, Sfc.

Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preserva- tion of their rights' and liberties, and as these depend on spread- ing the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them ; especially the uni- versity at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the. towns ; to encourage private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country ; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings, sincerity, good humor, and all social affections and generous sentiments among the people.1

error "rows out of the confounding of the convention with the grand committee of thirty, of which Mr. Bowdoin, the president, was chairman. It was by this committee that a vote was adopted, instructing the sub-committee of three, which was to have the general draught in its charge, to prepare the article, in conjunc- tion with the corporation, as above described. The first and second articles were drawn up by a committee of the latter body, and entitled " Proposals to be laid before the Committee of the Convention." They were, with only one or two verbal alterations, incorporated into the general report. The third article seems to have emanated from the sub-committee of the convention.

1 This feature of the constitution of Massachusetts is peculiar, and in one sense original with Mr. Adams. The recognition of the obligation of a state to promote a higher and more extended policy than is embraced in the protection of the. temporal interests and political rights of the individual, however understood amonf enlightened minds, had not at that time been formally made a part of the organic law. Those clauses, since inserted in other state constitutions, which, with more or less of fulness, acknowledge the same principle, are all manifestly taken from this source. The following history of the origin of it is taken from an account given by the author in 1809 : —

" In travelling from Boston to Philadelphia, in 1774, 5, 6, and 7, I had several times amused myself, at Norwalk in Connecticut, with the very curious collection of birds and insects of American production made by Mr. Arnold ; a collection which he afterwards sold to Governor Tryon, who sold it to Sir Ashton Lever, in whose apartments in London I afterwards viewed it again. This collec- tion was so singular a thing that it made a deep impression upon me, and I could not but consider it a reproach to my country, that so little was known, even to herself, of her natural history.

" When I was in Europe, in the years 1 778 and 1 779, in the commission to the

260 ON GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER VI.1

Oaths and Subscriptions ; Incompatibility of and Exclusion from Offices; Pecuniary Qualifications; Commissions; Writs; Con- firmation of Laws ; Habeas Corpus ; the Enacting Style ; Con- tinuance of Officers; Provision for a future Revisal of the Constitution, Sfc.

I. {From Chapter III. sect. I. art. 4.) The2 person chosen governor, 3 and accepting the trust, shall, [in the presence

of the two houses, and] before he proceed to execute the duties

King of France, with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Arthur Lee, I had opportunities to see the king's coUections and many others, which increased my wishes that nature might be examined and studied in my own country, as it was in others.

" In France, among the academicians, and other men of science and letters, I was frequently entertained with inquiries concerning the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and with eulogiums on the wisdom of that institution, and enco- miums on some publications in their transactions. These conversations suggested to me the idea of such an establishment at Boston, where I knew there was as much love of science, and as many gentlemen who were capable of pursuing it, as in any other city of its size.

"In 1779, I returned to Boston in the French frigate La Sensible, with the Chevalier de la Luzerne and M. Marbois. The corporation of Harvard College gave a public dinner in honor of the French ambassador and his suite, and did me the honor of an invitation to dine with them. At table, in the Philosophy Chamber, I chanced to sit next to Dr. Cooper. I entertained him during the whole of the time we were together, with an account of Arnold's collections, the collections I had seen in Europe, the compliments I had heard in France upon the Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, and concluded with proposing that the future legislature of Massachusetts should institute an academy of arts and sciences.

" The doctor at first hesitated, thought it would be difficult to find members who would attend to it; but his principal objection was, that it would injure Harvard College, by setting up a rival to it that might draw the attention and affections of the public in some degree from it. To this I answered, — first, that there were certainly men of learning enough that might compose a society suffi- ciently numerous ; and secondly, that instead of being a rival to the university, it would be an honor and advantage to it. That the president and principal professors would no doubt be always members of it ; and the meetings might be ordered, wholly or in part, at the college and in that room. The doctor at length appeared better satisfied; and I entreated him to propagate the idea and the plan, as far and as soon as his discretion would justify. The doctor accordingly

1 The articles contained in this chapter, as it stands in the constitution, were scattered among the preceding ones, and from them transposed to here.

2 «Any"

3 " lieutenant-governor, counsellor, senator, or representative,"

to

ON GOVERNMENT. 261

of his x office, make and subscribe the following declara-

tion, [and take the following oaths, to be administered by the president of the senate,] namely, —

I, A B, [being declared duly elected governor of the common- wealth of Massachusetts,] do [now] declare, that I believe [and profess] the Christian religion, from2 a firm persuasion of its truth ; and that I am seised and possessed, in my own right, of the property required by law,3 as one qualification for that office.11

5 1, A B, do solemnly swear, 6 [that I bear faith and true

did diffuse the project so judiciously and effectually, that the first legislature under the new constitution adopted and established it by law.

"Afterwards, when attending the convention for forming the constitution, I mentioned the subject to several of the members, and when I was appointed by the sub-committee to make a draught of a project of a constitution, to be laid before the convention, my mind and heart were so full of this subject, that I inserted the chapter fifth, section second.

" I was somewhat apprehensive that criticism and objections would be made to the section, and particularly that the ' natural history,' and the ' good humor,' would be stricken out ; but the whole was received very kindly, and passed the convention unanimously, without amendment."

It is a singularity, perhaps worthy of note in connection with these injunctions, that the individuals who have since been elevated by the popular voice to the chief offices of the state, with a single exception, have not been noted among their fellow-citizens for any superior acquisitions of learning or intellectual culture. A considerable number have not gone through the higher grades of education in Massachusetts at all.

i " place or " 2 " and have " 3 " the constitution,"

4 " the office or place to which I am elected."

5 Previous to this second oath, the following is here inserted as a substitute for the greater part of the other forms : — ■

" And the governor, lieutenant-governor, and counsellors shall make and sub- scribe the said declaration, in the presence of the two houses of assembly ; and the senators and representatives first elected under this constitution, before the president and five of the council of the former constitution, and forever after- wards, before the governor and council for the time being.

" And every person chosen to either of the places or offices aforesaid, as also any person appointed or commissioned to any judicial, executive, military, or other office under the government, shall, before he enters on the dischargeof the business of his place or office, take and subscribe the following declaration and oaths or affirmations, namely, —

'"I, A B, do truly and sincerely acknowledge, profess, testify, and declare, that the commonwealth of Massachusetts is, and of right ought to be, a free, sovereign, and independent state ; and I do swear, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the said commonwealth, and that I will defend the same against traitorous conspiracies and all hostile attempts whatsoever. And that I do renounce and abjure all allegiance, subjection, and obedience to the king, queen, or government of Great Britain, (as the case may be,) and every other foreign power, whatsoever. And that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or poten- tate, hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, superiority, preeminence, authority, dispensing, or other power, in any matter, civil, ecclesiastical, or spiritual, within this commonwealth ; except the authority and power which is or may be vested

6 " and affirm,"

262 ON GOVERNMENT.

allegiance to the commonwealth of Massachusetts ;] that T will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me, as [a governor of this commonwealth,] accord- ing to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the rules and regulations of the constitution, and i that I

will not attempt or consent to a violation thereof. So help me God.

[From Chapter III. sect. III. art. 8.) [The lieutenant-governor, counsellors, senators, and members of the house of represent- atives shall, before they enter on the execution of their respective offices, make and subscribe the same declaration, and take the same oath, {mutatis mutandis,) which the governor is directed by this constitution to make, subscribe, and take.]

[And every person appointed to any civil or military office of this commonwealth shall, previous to his entering on the execu- tion of his office, make and subscribe the following declaration, {mutatis mutandis,) namely, —

I, A B, being appointed , do now declare, that I believe

and profess the Christian religion, from a firm persuasion of the truth thereof.]

[And he shall likewise take an oath of the form following, [mutatis mutandis,)] namely, —

[I, A B, do solemnly swear, that I will bear faith and true allegiance to the commonwealth of Massachusetts ; that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me, as , according to the best of my abilities

and understanding, agreeably to the rules and regulations of the constitution ; and that I will not attempt or consent to a viola- tion thereof. So help me God.]

[Provided, notwithstanding, that any person so appointed, who has conscientious scruples relative to taking oaths, may be admitted to make solemn affirmation, under the pains and penal- ties of perjury, to the truth of the matters contained in the form of the said oath, instead of taking the same.] 2

by their constituents in the congress of the United States. And I do further testify and declare, that no man or body of men hath, or can have, any right to absolve or discharge me from the obligation of this oath, declaration, or affirma- tion ; and that I do make this acknowledgment, profession, testimony, declara- tion, denial, renunciation, and abjuration, heartily and truly, according to the common meaning and acceptation of the foregoing words, without any equivoca- tion, mental evasion, or secret reservation, whatsoever. So help me GOD.' "

1 " the laws of the commonwealth."

2 " Provided, always, that when any person, chosen or appointed as afore-

ON GOVERNMENT. 263

II. (From Chapter IV. art. 2.) [No justice of the superior court of judicature, court of assize, and general jail delivery, shall have a seat in the senate or house of representatives.] 1

said, shall be of the denomination of the people called Quakers, and shall decline taking the said oaths, he shall make his affirmation in the foregoing form, and subscribe the same, omitting the words ' I do swear,' ' and abjure,' ' oath or,' 1 and abjuration,' in the first oath; and in the second oath, the words 'swear and; 'and in each of them the words 'So help me God;' subjoining instead thereof, ' This I do under the pains and penalties of perjury.'

"And the said oaths or affirmations shall be taken and subscribed by the governor, lieutenant-governor, and counsellors, before the president of the senate, in the presence of the two houses of assembly ; and by the senators and repre- sentatives first elected under this constitution, before the president and five of the council of the former constitution ; and forever afterwards, before the go- vernor and council for the time being ; and by the residue of the officers afore- said, before such persons, and in such manner as, from time to time, shall be prescribed by the legislature."

The convention of 1820 recommended, and the people adopted, the following, which make the sixth and seventh articles of amendment : —

" Art. 6. Instead of the oath of allegiance prescribed by the constitution, the following oath shall be taken and subscribed by every person chosen or appointed to any office, civil or military, under the government of this common- wealth, before he shall enter on the duties of his office, to wit: —

" ' I, A B, do solemnly swear, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and will suftport the constitution thereof. So help me God.' fc

" Provided, That when any person shall be of the denomination called Quak- ers, and shall decline taking said oath, he shall make his affirmation in the fore- going form, omitting the word ' swear,' and inserting, instead thereof, the word 'affirm;' and omitting the words 'so help me God,' and subjoining, instead thereof, the words, ' This I do, under the pains and penalties of perjury.'

" Art. 7. No oath, declaration, or subscription, excepting the oath prescribed in the preceding article, and the oath of office, shall be required of the governor, lieutenant-governor, counsellors, senators, or representatives, to qualify them to perform the duties of their respective offices."

1 This article was much discussed in the convention, and gradually enlarged and extended, until it embraced the following restrictions : —

" II. No governor, lieutenant-governor, or judge of the supreme judicial court shall hold any other office or place, under the authority of this common- wealth, except such as by this constitution they are admitted to hold, saving that the judges of the said court may hold the offices of justices of the peace through the state ; nor shall they hold any other place or office, or receive any pension or salary from any other state, or government, or power, whatever.

" No person shall be capable of holding or exercising, at the same time, within this state, more than one of the following offices, namely, — judge of probate, sheriff, register of probate, or register of deeds ; and never more than any two offices which are to be held by appointment of the governor, or the governor and council, or the senate, or the house of representatives, or by the election of the people of the state at large, or of the people of any county, military offices and the offices of justice of the peace excepted, shall be held by one person.

" No person holding the office of judge of the supreme judicial court, secre- tary, attorney-general, solicitor-general, treasurer or receiver-general, judge of probate, commissary-general, president, professor or instructor of Harvard Col- lege, sheriff, clerk of the house of representatives, register of probate, register of

264 ON GOVERNMENT.

III. (From Chapter III. sect. II. art. 4.) [" The respective values assigned by the several articles of this constitution to the property necessary to qualify the subjects of this commonwealth to be electors, and also to be elected into the several offices, for the holding of which such qualifications are required, shall always be computed in silver, at the rate of six shillings and eight pence per ounce."] l

(From Chapter III. sect. II. art. 5.) And it shall be in the power of the legislature, from time to time, to increase such quali- fications, 2 of the persons to be elected to offices, as the cir- cumstances of the commonwealth shall require.

IV. (From Chapter V. art. 2.) All commissions shall be in the name of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, signed by the

deeds, clerk of the supreme judicial court, clerk of the inferior court of common pleas, or officer of the customs, including in this description naval officers, shall at the same time have a seat in the senate or house of representatives ; but their being chosen or appointed to, and accepting the same, shall operate as a resig- nation of their seat in the senate or house of representatives ; and the place so vacated shall be filled up.

" And the same rule shall take place in case any judge of the said supreme judi- cial court, or judge of probate, shall accept a seat in council ; or any counsellor shall accept of either of those offices or places.

" And no person shall ever be admitted to hold a seat in the legislature, or any office of trust or importance under the government of this commonwealth, ■who shall, in the due course of law, have been convicted of bribery or corruption in obtaining an election or appointment."

This was again modified by the convention of 1820, which prepared the fol- lowing article of amendment, and the people approved it : —

Amendmt ni. "Art. 8. No judge of any court of this commonwealth, (except the court of sessions,) and no person holding any office under the authority of the United States, (postmasters excepted,) shall, at the same time, hold the office of go- vernor, lieutenant-governor, or counsellor, or have a seat in the senate or house of representatives of this commonwealth ; and no judge of any court in this com- monwealth, (except the court of sessions,) nor the attorney-general, solicitor- general, county attorney, clerk of any court, sheriff, treasurer and receiver- general, register of probate, nor register of deeds, shall continue to hold his said office, after being elected a member of the Congress of the United States, and accepting that trust; but the acceptance of such trust, by any of the officers aforesaid, shall be deemed and taken to be a resignation of his said office ; and judges of the courts of common pleas shall hold no other office under the go- vernment of this commonwealth, the office of justice of the peace and militia offices excepted."

1 " III. In all cases where sums of money are mentioned in this constitution, the value thereof shall be computed in silver, at six shillings and eight pence per ounce."

2 " as to property,"

This article, with the amendment, is joined to and makes a part of the third or preceding one in the constitution.

ON GOVERNMENT. 265

governor, and attested by the secretary or his deputy, and have the great seal of the commonwealth affixed thereto.

V. (From Chapter V. art. 3.) All writs issuing out of the clerk's office in any of the courts of law, shall be in the name of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. They shall be under the seal of the court from whence they issue. They shall bear test of the [chief justice, or] first [or senior] justice of the court, to which they shall be returnable, l and be signed by the clerk of such court."

VI. (From Chapter V. art. 5.) All the [statute] laws [of the province, colony, or state of Massachusetts Bay, the common law, and all such parts of the English or British statutes as] have2 been adopted, used, and approved in the [said] province, colony, or state, 3 and usually practised on in the courts of law, shall still remain and be in full force, until altered or repealed by the legislature ; such parts only excepted as are repugnant to the rights and liberties contained in this constitution.

VII. (From Chapter V. art. 6.) The privilege and benefit of the writ of habeas corpus shall be enjoyed in this commonwealth in the most free, easy, cheap, expeditious, and ample manner ; and shall not be suspended by the legislature, except upon the most urgent and pressing occasions, and for a [short and] limited time, 4

VIII. (From Chapter V. art. 7.) The enacting style, in making and passing all acts, statutes, and laws, shall be : " Be it enacted, by [his excellency the governor,] the senate, and house of repre- sentatives, in general court assembled, and by the authority of the same;" [or "By his honor the lieutenant-governor," &c. ; or " The honorable the council," &c, as the case may be.]

1 " who is not a party," 2 " which have heretofore "

3 " of Massachusetts Bay," 4 " not exceeding twelve months."

VOL. IV. 23

266 ON GOVERNMENT.

[CHAPTER VII. AND LAST.]1

[ Continuance of Officers, SfC.]

IX. To the end there may be no failure of justice, or danger arise to the commonwealth from a change of the form of go- vernment, all officers, civil and military, holding commissions under the government and people of Massachusetts Bay in New England, and all other officers of the said government and people, at the time this constitution shall take effect, shall have, hold, use, exercise, and enjoy all the powers and authority to them granted or committed, until other persons shall be appointed in their stead. And all courts of law shall proceed in the execu- tion of the business of their respective departments ; and all the executive and legislative officers, bodies, and powers, shall con- tinue in full force, in the enjoyment and exercise of all their trusts, employments, and authority, until the general court, and

1 This caption was stricken out by the convention, and the article was inserted as the ninth in the sixth chapter. The following wholly new articles were added as the tenth and eleventh : —

" X. In order the more effectually to adhere to the principles of the consti- tution, and to correct those violations which by any means shall be made herein, as well as to form such alterations as from expei'ience shall be found necessary, the general court, which shall be in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, shall issue precepts to the selectmen of the several towns, and to the assessors of the unincorporated plantations, directing them to convene the qualified voters of their respective towns and plantations, for the purpose of collecting their sentiments on the necessity or expediency of revising the constitution, in order to amendments.

" And if it shall appear, by the returns made, that two thirds of the cpialified voters throughout the state, who shall assemble and vote in consequence of the said precepts, are in favor of such revision or amendment, the general court shall issue precepts, or direct them to be issued from the secretary's office to the several towns, to elect delegates to meet in convention, for the purpose afore- said.

" The said delegates to be chosen in the same manner and proportion as their representatives in the second branch of the legislature are by this constitution to be chosen.

" XI. This form of government shall be enrolled on parchment, and deposited in the secretary's office, and be a part of the laws of the land ; and printed copies thereof shall be prefixed to the book containing the laws of this common- wealth, in all future editions of the said laws."

One other article was adopted, at the recommendation of the convention of 1820, intended to open the way to further changes, without the necessity of resorting to a special assembly and a general revision. Thus far, in thirty years, under the operation of this rule, only three amendments have been adopted ; but

ON GOVERNMENT. 267

the supreme and executive officers, under this constitution, are designated, and invested with their respective trusts, powers, and authority.

each of them has worked more fundamental alterations of the original instru- ment than were made by all the recommendations of the convention ; and it is not unreasonable to infer, that an avenue has been opened by which many more will be hereafter introduced : —

" Art. 9. If at any time hereafter any specific and particular amendment or amendments to the constitution be proposed in the general court, and agreed to by a majority of the senators and two thirds of the members of the Louse of representatives present, and voting thereon, such proposed amendment or amend- ments shall be entered on the journals of the two houses, with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the general court then next to be chosen, and shall be published ; and if in the general court next chosen, as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of the senators and two thirds of the members of the house of representatives present and voting thereon ; then it shall be the duty of the general court to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people ; and if they shall be approved and ratified by a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon, at meetings legally warned and holden for that purpose, they shall become part of the constitution of this commonwealth."

The Defence

THE DEFENCE.

23

DEFENCE

OF THE

CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT

OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

AGAINST THE ATTACK OF M. TURGOT, IN HIS LETTER TO DR. PRICE, DATED THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY OF MARCH, 1778.

By John Adams

BY

JOHN ADAMS

" All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Pope.

In Three Volumes. Vol. I. Preface By The Editor

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

PREFACE

BY THE EDITOR.

The constitution adopted by the State of Massachusetts, in 1 780, did not go into operation without meeting serious obstacles in the first few years. The hostility entertained towards an independent executive head and a double legis- lative department had shown itself very decidedly in the convention,1 and it rather gained than lost strength, from the disturbed condition of things and the distress among the people immediately after the revolution. Complaints of the aristocratic character of the senate, of the governor's salary, and of the courts, grew louder and louder until the year 1786, when they took the shape of armed resistance to the public authorities, threatening the entire overthrow of the government.

Simultaneously with this state of affairs in America, and growing out of them, discussions of the nature of government again came into vogue, both in England and France. Among other writers, Dr. Richard Price, who had all along viewed with the most lively interest the progress of the revolution, published at the close of the struggle a small tract entitled " Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution and the Means of making it a Benefit to the World," embodying many useful suggestions and much good advice to the people of the United States. At the close of this pamphlet he added a letter which had been addressed to him, in 1778, by the celebrated philosopher and minister of France, M. Turgot, wherein, among many strictures upon the civil institutions of America, he unequivocally and roundly condemns the whole theory of government which Mr. Adams had labored to sustain. Viewing it from a French position, in which the centralization of power has, under every change of form, even the most republican, been the leading idea, he attacks the state constitutions as slavishly borrowed from the system of the mother country, and advocates the collecting of all authority in one centre as the only true substitute. The passage relating to it is prefixed to this repubbcation of Mr. Adams's Defence, as well because it seems essential to a right understanding of the allusions constantly occurring to it in that work, as because it contains reflections upon other subjects which have not lost their interest even at' this day. This letter was soon followed by a pamphlet written by the celebrated Mirabeau, reviewing the positions of Dr. Price and of M. Turgot, and particularly enforcing, in his declamatory style, the views of the latter respecting a simple and central government. These views were

1 The clergy partook strongly of the feeHng at this time. See the Memoir of Dr. Thacher, in Mass. Hist. Society Collections, vol. viii. p. 281.

R

274

PREFACE.

generally adopted by that school of philosophers which had risen into great influ- ence at this time in France, and they were well known to be sustained by the high authority of Dr. Franklin, as well as of other distinguished men in America.

The occasion seemed to require a defence of the forms already adopted in some, though not in all of the states. Two of them had chosen to act upon the idea of a single source of legislative power, and others were known to be inclined to follow the example. The confederation had fallen into ruins, and projects were abeady in agitation for the reconstruction of the federal system. Mr. Adams, who was at the moment living in England, decided to come forward once more and fortify his position with both reasoning and authority. Such is the origin of this book, and the explanation of its title. It is a defence of the form of constitutions of the several states, and not, as some have imagined, of that of the United States, in which indeed the leading ideas are embodied, but which was not made until afterwards. Although from the day that the latter system went into successful operation it has been more and more throwing into the shade the state organizations, it must be apparent to every observer of the complex machine, that its favorable movement, in a great measure, depends upon the good condition of those less prominent parts. But this defence equally applies to the one and the other, being in its nature a generalization of ultimate principles, upon which that class of governments is founded which draw their powers from bases long established in all human, civilized society.

Viewed with the searching eye of criticism, the main defect of this book as a treatise appears to be its want of methodical treatment of the subject ; a fault which is owing to the hasty manner in which it was prepared to meet a particular crisis, having been commenced on the fourth of October, 178G, and finished on the twenty-sixth of December of the next year. The author was always prompted to write by a sense of the necessity of immediate exertion, and, therefore, in this as in all other instances of his composition, he took too little care of the shape in which his thoughts were clothed.1 The pride of author- ship never belonged to him, even to the degree to which it ought to belong to every man conscious of powers to contribute something to benefit his own generation. The editor had not advanced many pages in his work of revision of the many and glaring errors of the press, before he became impressed with the necessity of deciding a question lying deeper than these. The choice was before him, on the one hand, of implicitly following the text and the order of arrangement of the former editions, however obvious the disadvantage to a work of too much learning and profound reflection not to deserve placing in a better permanent form, or, on the other, of exercising within certain limits the liberty of revision and of correction. To give a single example : in the second volume,

1 " These letters have been produced upon the spur of a particular occasion, which made it necessary to write and publish with precipitation, or it might have been useless to have published at all. The whole have been done in the midst of other occupations, in so much hurry, that scarce a moment could be spared to correct the style, adjust the method, pare off excrescences, or even obliterate repetition ; in all which respects it stands in need of an apology."

This reasoning, found at the close of the book, might avail to excuse errors in the first edition ; but the author declined to return to his labors when requested by the printer, Stockdale, to do so for his reprint in 1794.

PREFACE. 275

page 111, there occurs au obvious transposition of several pages of the text, the effect of which is to derange the regular order of dates, as given in Machiavel's History of Florence, which the author steadily follows elsewhere, and to conclude with the first half of an account, the other portion of which had already been inserted out of any connection thirty pages earlier. Neither is there any reason to be seen in the substance of the story, for this violent change. There can be no cause for doubt that this was the result of an accidental misplace- I 2 ment of the sheets sent to the printer of the first edition, which has been faith- fully transmitted to each succeeding one. So in regard to the numerous errors in dates and names, in French and Italian, as well in the translation, as in the original when placed in the notes ; all these equally serve to show that if the work deserve to be retained at all, it imperatively requires to be freed from every minor imperfection. Conscious of the responsibility resting upon him for such a decision, the editor, after deliberate reflection, determined to enter upon a thorough revision. Hence it is that the original, unmeaning, and arbi- 1/ ^ trary division of the subject into letters addressed to a friend, has been made to give way to a more natural one of chapters, embracing the whole or a certain portion of some one topic. Passages, manifestly misplaced, have been \J brought together. Mistakes of the press have been corrected, and an elabo- rate comparison has been made of all the abridgments, translations, and quota- tions of passages to be found in other writers, with the originals, wherever these have been attainable. ; In all cases in which casual mistakes of the mean- ing have been made in the hurry of translation from languages with which the author did not become acquainted until late in life, corrections have been tacitly made ; and the liberty has been sometimes taken of rearranging the members of a sentence too closely transferred from the Italian idiom, so as to free them from what in English appears unnatural inversion. More important errors sometimes occur, but these have been left to be pointed out in the notes. The changes thus made will prove to be considerable in number, yet, throughout, great care has been taken in no way to impair the meaning, or even to modify the original text of the author. It is obvious that with this notice, and with the original editions still in existence, and to be found in most public libraries, no room is left for a suspicion of surprise, either upon the reader or upon the public.

The remark has been made, that a carefid collation with the original authori- ties has been attempted where practicable. But it should be added, that in some cases it has not been possible to obtain them. This is one of that class of \J works which, by reason of the deficiency of the libraries, could at no moment, even down to this time, have been written in America. Of the Italian historians referred to, several have been found only in the collection of books left by the author himself.

A few notes to the first volume have been found, a portion of them by the well-known Granville Sharp^ and the others by Mr. Brand Hollis, with both of whom the author was in habits of intimacy when in England. Although not very material, they have been inserted with the initial of the writer attached.

The first volume was printed and published in octavo form, as a complete work, by C. Dilly, in London, in the year 1787. It was forthwith transmitted to the United States, where it arrived in the midst of the agitation caused by

276 PREFACE.

the assembling of the convention to form the federal constitution. An edition in duodecimo was immediately printed in Boston, another in New York, and another in Philadelphia, by Hall and Sellers, which was much circulated in the t convention, and undoubtedly contributed somewhat to give a direction to the opi-

nions of the members. Encouraged by the favorable reception of this volume, the author redoubled his efforts, and in the succeeding year brought out two additional ones. He would have done better had he allowed himself further time. But the French Revolution was impending, the federal constitution was struggling against popular opposition, and the public attention of all Europe was more than ever drawn to the examination of republican forms. The work was translated into French, with the omission of the Italian history, on the ground of the facility had by Europeans of access to the original authorities, and published at Paris, in two volumes, in 1792, together with some notes and observations by ]VL de la Croix. These notes do not appear to be such as to form an exception in favor of that writer from the sweeping condemnation passed upon his works by Lord Brougham.1 Not much time elapsed before another edition was published in London, by John Stockdale. This edition of 1794 is accompanied with an engraved head of the author, taken from Copley's full-length picture, now in the possession of Harvard College. By the permission of that institution, an engraving of the entire pic- ture has now for the first time been taken, and accompanies this volume. Lastly, William Cobbett published another edition in Philadelphia, in the year 1797. These are all the editions of the work which the editor has been en- abled to discover, although, in some of the author's later correspondence, he alludes to others. Sufficient has been shown to prove the existence of what must have been, considering its nature, regarded as a great demand. Neither has it been easy at any time since to obtain a perfect copy, without paying for it a full price.

Speculations upon government have gone out of vogue in the United States ; partly by reason of a general satisfaction with the existing form of constitution, and a disposition to do nothing to disturb it ; partly for another and more singu- lar cause. In few countries, even those most despotically governed, can greater unwillingness prevail among educated men, to publish opinions on this subject, conflicting with received ideas. The experience of the author of the Defence furnished a memorable lesson of the danger incurred by a public man through an unreserved expression of his convictions, however honestly entertained. Written in a foreign country, without a thought of personal consequences, and solely to maintain a system recommended long before, the volumes, neverthe- less, furnished, for many years after his return home, an unfailing armory, from which weapons to be used against him could be drawn at pleasure by the party in political opposition. Single passages, appearing to favor monarchy or an aristocracy, were torn from the context to prove that the writer was in his heart an enemy to liberty ; whilst those which looked the other way, and ex- posed the defects of both, were overlooked or forgotten. These are the common practices of political warfare, and are only deserving of notice in this connec- tion, on account of the effect they have had to destroy the independence of judgment indispensable to all effective scientific investigation. Upon a fair sur-

1 Political Philosophy, vol. hi. pp. 322, 340.

PREFACE. 077

vey of the entire reasoning embodied in these volumes, it does not seem proba- ble that the author intended to advocate the placing a greater share of power in the hands of his one executive head, than is now actually wielded by the President of the United States, with the exception of the restrictions held by the senate. So, likewise, the senate has probably proved to the full as conserva- tive a body, in all its tendencies, as he designed to approve. The country, however, was just then emerging from an old into a new system, and was not prepared to weigh questions of science in very minute scales. The author was met with a storm of pamphlets and newspaper assaults, which pursued him as long as he remained in public life. Whether owing to this cause or not, the fact is certain, that no leading political man, since his day, has been known to express a serious doubt of the immaculate nature of the government established by the ma- jority. The science has become reduced in America to a eulogy of the Consti- tution of the United States ; and we are compelled to look abroad, to Sismondi, De Tocqueville, Lord Brougham, and other writers, who have studied on a broader scale, for the only philosophical examinations that are free from a bias seriously affecting their permanent value.

Very certainly this is not the spirit in which the Defence was written. Whether the opinions which it expresses prove to be sustained in the course of ages, by the experience of republican systems, or not, they were formed upon no immediate or narrow observation, but resulted from extensive generalization. As such, they must be regarded hereafter as the author's contribution to science, upon which whatever may belong to him of name and fame must ultimately rest. \\ i/" It is not to be supposed that, in all the essential parts of the practical operation of a republican system in the United States, he has judged rightly. Thus far, some of his apprehensions of evil have i:>roved to be without foundation, by reason of his not giving sufficient attention to the neutralizing forces which have been put in operation. But his deductions having been made from observations of the general laws regulating the action of mankind, during the whole period of recorded history, their ultimate soundness or unsoundness will only be esta- blished after a much longer term of trial of free institutions throughout the world than has yet been allowed them. It is matter of sufficient gratulation for the present generation, that the restraints recommended by the author, and generally adopted in the United States, have so far proved not inconsistent with the largest liberty, and have guaranteed to society the enjoyment of many of the substantial blessings that can be expected to flow from a well-ordered con- stitution.

VOL. IV. 24

276 PREFACE.

Extract Of A Letter Of M. Turgot To Dr. Richard Price

EXTRACT

OF A LETTER OF M. TURGOT TO DR. RICHARD PRICE.

Paris, 22 March, 1778.

But it appeared that you imputed to me the indiscretion of having flown in the face of the general opinion of my nation ; and there I think you neither did justice to me nor to my nation, which is much more enlightened than is gene- rally supposed among you, and in which perhaps it is easier than even with you, to call the public attention to ideas of reason. I judge so from the infatuation of the British in the prospect of conquering America, which continued until the adventure of Burgoyne made them, in some degree, open their eyes. I judge so from the system of monopoly and exclusion, which governs all your political writers upon commerce, except Mr. Adam Smith and Dean Tucker, a system which is the true prime cause of your separation from your colonies. I jud»e so from all your polemic writings upon questions which have been agitated for twenty years back, and in which, before yours appeared, I do not recollect to have read a single piece in which the true point in dispute has been rightly taken up. I have been unable to conceive how a nation which hath so successfully cultivated every branch of the natural sciences, can have continued so much beneath her- self in the most interesting science of the whole, that of the public good ; a science wherein the liberty of the press, which she alone enjoys, must have given her a mighty advantage over all the rest of Europe. Is it national pride which hath hindered you from making the utmost of that advantage ? Is it because you were something better off than others, that you have turned all your speculations towards persuading yourselves that you were quite happy '? Is it the spirit of party, and the wish to form self-support out of popular opinions, which hath re- tarded your progress by leading jour politicians to treat as empty metaphysics all those speculations which tend to establish some fixed principles respecting the rights and true interests of individuals and of nations ? How comes it to pass that you are almost the first among your writers who have given just notions of liberty, and who have exposed the falsehood of that threadbare sentiment of the greatest class of even the most republican writers, that liberty consists in being subject only to laws, as if a man oppressed by an unjust law was free ? This would not be true, even if we suppose all the laws to be the work of the entire nation assembled ; because, in fact, the individual has certain rights which the nation cannot take from him, but by violence, and an illegal use of force. Al- though you have had regard to this truth, and have explained yourself thereon, yet perhaps it merits your care to develop it more at large, considering the little at- tention which hath been paid to it by even the most zealous partisans of liberty.

It is also a strange thing that it shoidd not be counted in Eno-land a trifling

PREFACE. 279

observation to say that one nation can never have a right to govern another ; and that such a government could have no foundation but that of force, upon -which also are supported robbery and tyranny. That the tyranny of a people is, of all known in the world, the most cruel and intolerable, leaving no remedy for the oppressed ; whereas a single despot is at length stopped in his career by self-interest ; he has the check of remorse, or that of public opinion ; but a multitude makes no calculations, feels no remorse, and decrees to itself glory, when, in fact, it deserves the utmost disgrace.

Events are to the English nation a terrible commentary upon your book. For some months they have been falling headlong with accelerated rapidity. The knot is untied in regard to America. Lo ! she is independent irrecoverably. Will she be free and happy ? Will this new people, situated so advantageously to give the world the example of a constitution wherein man may enjoy all his rights, exercise freely his whole faculties, and be governed only by nature, by reason, and by justice, know how to form such a constitution — know how to fix it upon ever- lasting foundations, by guarding against all causes of division and corruption, which would sap it by degrees and overturn it ?

I am not satisfied, I own, with any constitutions which have as yet been framed by the different American States. You blame with reason that of Pennsylvania, for exacting a religious test upon admission into the representative body. It is much worse in others. There is one of them, I think that of the Jerseys, which requires* ....

'. I see in the greatest number an unreasonable imitation of the usages of Eng- land. Instead of bringing all the authorities into one, that of the nation, they have established different bodies, a house of representatives, a council, a governor, because England has a house of commons, a house of lords, and a king. They undertake to balance these different authorities, as if the same equilibrium of powers which has been thought necessary to balance the enormous preponde- rance of royalty, could be of any use in republics, formed upon the equality of all the citizens ; and as if every article which constitutes different bodies, was not a source of divisions. By striving to prevent imaginary dangers, they have cre- ated real ones. They wish to have nothing to fear from the clergy, and yet unite them under the banner of a common proscription. By rendering them ineli- gible, they become formed into a body, and such a one as is foreign to the state. Why should one citizen, who has the same interest as others in the common defence of liberty and property, be excluded from contributing towards it his genius and virtues, because he is of a profession in which genius and virtue are essentials ? The clergy are only dangerous when they compose a body in the state, — when they conceive themselves to have rights and interests as a body ; or when it has been devised to have a religion established by law, as if men could have any right or any interest in regulating each other's consciences ; as if an individual could sacrifice to civil society those opinions on which he thinks his eternal salvation depends, or as if mankind were to be saved or damned by the lump. Wherever true toleration, that is to say, the absolute incompetency of government over the conscience of individuals, is established, there an ecclesi-

* {Note hy Br. Priced) " It is the constitution of Delaware that imposes the test here meant."

280 PREFACE.

astic, when he is admitted into the national assembly, is but a citizen ; when he is excluded from it, he becomes again an ecclesiastic.

I do not perceive that there has been sufficient care to reduce to the lowest possible number the kinds of business which the government of each state is to manage ; or to separate the object of legislation from those of the general and from those of the particular and local assemblies, which, by performing all the functions of detail in government, may free the general assemblies from engaging therein, and so to take from the members of these latter all means, and, perhaps, all desire to abuse an authority, which would only be occupied about objects general in their nature, and, therefore, unconnected with the little passions which agitate mankind.

Nor do I perceive that due attention has been paid to the great distinction, and the only one founded in nature, between two classes of men. I mean those who are proprietors in lands and those who are not ; to their interests, and, con- sequently, to their different rights, with respect to legislation, to the administra- tion of justice and of the police, to the contribution for public expenses, and to their employments.

No fixed principle is established in regard to imposts. Each state is sup- posed to be at liberty to tax itself at pleasure, and to lay its taxes upon persons, consumptions, or importations, that is to say, to erect an interest contrary to that of the other states.

They suppose in all the states, that they have a right to regulate commerce. They even authorize the executive bodies or the governors to prohibit the exportation of certain products upon particular occasions ; so far are they from seeing that the law of entire liberty of all commerce is a corollary of the right of property; so far are they still involved in the mists of European illusions.

In the general union of the states with one another, I do not see a coalition, a melting of all the parts together, so as to make the body one and homogeneous. It is only an aggregate of parts, always too separate, and which have a continual tendency to divide themselves, from the diversity of their laws, their manners, their opinions ; from the inequality of their future progress. It is only a copy of the republic of Holland, and this had no occasion, like that of America, to dread the possible growth of any one of its provinces. This whole edifice has been supported, until now, upon the false basis of very ancient and very vulgar policy ; upon the prejudice which nations, which provinces may have, concerning interests as a province or a nation, different from those which individuals have of being free, and defending their properties against robbers and conquerors ; — a pretended interest in carrying on more commerce than others, not in buying merchandise of foreigners, but in forcing these to consume our productions and the works of our manufacturers ; a pretended interest in having more extensive territory, in acquiring such and such a province, such and such an island, such and such a town ; an interest in inspiring other nations with dread ; an interest in excelling them in the glory of arms, or that of arts and sciences.

Each of these prejudices is cherished in Europe, because the ancient rivalry of nations and the ambition of princes obliges all states to be in arms, for defence against their armed neighbors, and to regard a military force as the principal object of government. Such is the good fortune of America, that she cannot have, for a long time, an external enemy to fear, if she does not become self-

PREFACE. 281

divided ; therefore she may and ought to estimate at their true value those pre- tended interests, those grounds of discord, which are all that endanger her liberty. The sacred principle of freedom of commerce being considered as the necessary consequence of the right of property, all the pretended interests of trade vanish before it. The pretended interest of possessing more or less terri- tory vanishes also, when the territory is justly considered as not belonging to nations, but to the individual proprietors of the soil ; and when the question, whether such a canton or such a village ought to belong to such a province, or such a state, is not decided by the pretended interest of that province or that state, but by the interest which the inhabitants of the canton or village have in assembling themselves to transact their affairs in places the most convenient of access ; when that interest, being measured by the length or shortness of the way which a man can go to manage his most important, without too much injury to his common concerns, becomes the natural and physical measure of the extent of the jurisdiction of states, and establishes throughout an equilibrium of extent and power, which annihilates all the danger of inequality, and all pretensions of superiority.

The interest of being dreaded becomes null, when we make no demands, and when we are in a situation not to be attacked, even by a considerable force, with any hope of success.

The glory of arms cannot compare with the felicity of living in peace. The glory of arts and sciences belongs to every one who has spirit to acquire it. There is a harvest of this kind abundantly sufficient for everybody ; the field of discoveries cannot be overtilled, and all profit by the discoveries of all.

I imagine that the Americans have not felt these truths so strongly as they ought to be felt by them, for the security of the happiness of their posterity. I blame not their leaders. There was a necessity of providing against the exigen- cies of the moment, by some sort of union, against an enemy actually present and formidable ; there was not time to correct the defects in constitutions, or in the models of the different states. But there should be a dread of perpetuating them, and an application to the means of uniting opinions and interests, and of reducing them to uniform principles throughout all the states.

24'

PREFACE

The arts and sciences, in general, during the three or four last centuries, have had a regular course of progressive improvement. The inventions in mechanic afas, the discoveries in natural phi- losophy, navigation, and commerce, and the advancement of civilization and humanity, have occasioned changes in the con- dition of the world, and the human character, which would have astonished the most refined nations of antiquity. A continua- tion of similar exertions is every day rendering Europe more and more like one community, or single family. Even in the theory and practice of government, in all the simple monarchies, con- siderable improvements have been made. The checks and balances of republican governments have been in some degree adopted at the courts of princes. By the erection of various tri- bunals, to register the laws, and exercise the judicial power — by indulging the petitions and remonstrances of subjects, until by habit they are regarded as rights — a control has been esta- blished over ministers of state, and the royal councils, which, in some degree, approaches the spirit of republics. Property is generally secure, and personal liberty seldom invaded. The press has great influence, even where it is not expressly tolerated ; and the public opinion must be respected by a minister, or his place becomes insecure. Commerce begins to thrive ; and if religious toleration were established, personal liberty a little more pro- tected, by giving an absolute right to demand a public trial in a certain reasonable time, and the states were invested with a few more privileges, or rather restored to some that have been taken away, these governments would be brought to as great a degree of perfection, they would approach as near to the character of governments of laws and not of men, as their nature will proba- bly admit of. In so general a refinement, or more properly a reformation of manners and improvement in science, is it not

284 ON GOVERNMENT.

unaccountable that the knowledge of the principles and con- struction of free governments, in which the happiness of life, and even the further progress of improvement in education and society, in knowledge and virtue, are so deeply interested, should have remained at a full stand for two or three thousand years ?

According to a story in Herodotus, the nature of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, and the advantages and incon- veniences of each, were as well understood at the time of the neighing of the horse of Darius, as they are at this hour. A variety of mixtures of these simple species were conceived and attempted, with various success, by the Greeks and Romans. Representations, instead of collections, of the people ; a total separation of the executive from the legislative power, and of the judicial from both ; and a balance in the legislature, by three independent, equal branches, are perhaps the only three dis- coveries in the constitution of a free government, since the institution of Lycurgus. Even these have been so unfortunate, that they have never spread: the first has been given up by all the nations, excepting one, which had once adopted it; and the other two, reduced to practice, if not invented, by the English nation, have never been imitated by any other, except their own descendants in America.

While it would be rash to say, that nothing further can be done to bring a free government, in all its parts, still nearer to perfection, the representations of the people are most obviously susceptible of improvement. The end to be aimed at, in the formation of a representative assembly, seems to be the sense of the people, the public voice. The perfection of the portrait consists in its likeness. Numbers, or property, or both, should be the rule; and the proportions of electors and members an affair of calculation. The duration should not be so long that the deputy should have time to forget the opinions of his con- stituents. Corruption in elections is the great enemy of freedom. Among the provisions to prevent it, more frequent elections, and a more general privilege of voting, are not all that might be devised. Dividing the districts, diminishing the distance of travel, and confining the choice to residents, would be great advances towards the annihilation of corruption. The modern aristocracies of Holland, Venice, Bern, &c, have tempered themselves with innumerable checks, by which they have given

PREFACE. 285

a great degree of stability to that form of government ; and though liberty and life can never be there enjoyed so well as in a free republic, none is perhaps more capable of profound sagacity. We shall learn to prize the checks and balances of a free government, and even those of the modern aristocracies, if we recollect the miseries of Greece, which arose from its igno- rance of them. The only balance attempted against the ancient kings was a body of nobles ; and the consequences were per- petual alternations of rebellion and tyranny, and the butchery of thousands upon every revolution from one to the other. When kings were abolished, aristocracies tyrannized ; and then no balance was attempted bu>t between aristocracy and demo- cracy. This, in the nature of things, could be no balance at all, and therefore the pendulum was forever on the swing.

It is impossible to read in Thucydides* his account of the factions and confusions throughout all Greece, which were introduced by this want of an equilibrium, without horror. " During the few days that Eurymedon, with his troops, con- tinued at Corcyj'a^ the people of that city extended the massacre to all whom they judged then enemies. The crime alleged was, their attempt to overturn the democracy. Some perished merely through private enmity ; some, by the hands of the borrower, on account of the money they had lent. Every kind of death, every dreadful act, was perpetrated. Fathers slew then children ; some were dragged from altars, some were butchered at them ; num- bers, immured in temples, were starved. The contagion spread through the whole extent of Greece ; factions raged in every city ; the licentious many contending for the Athenians, and the aspiring few for the Lacedeemonians. The consequence was, seditions in cities, with all their numerous and tragical incidents." .

" Such things ever will be," says Thucydides, " so long as human nature continues the same." But if this nervous histo- rian had known a balance of three powers, he would not have pronounced the ' distemper so incurable, but would have added — so long as parties in cities remain unbalanced. He adds, — "Words lost their signification; brutal rashness was fortitude; prudence, cowardice ; modesty, effeminacy ; and being wise in

* Lib. iii. 81, 82.

286 ON GOVERNMENT.

every thing, to be good for nothing : the hot temper was manly- valor ; calm deliberation, plausible knavery ; he who boiled with indignation, was trustworthy ; and he who presumed to contra- dict, was ever suspected. Connection of blood was less regarded than transient acquaintance ; associations were not formed for mutual advantage, consistent with law, but' for rapine against all law; trust was only communication of guilt; revenge was more valued, than never to have suffered an injury; perjuries were master-pieces of cunning ; the dupes only blushed, the vil- lains most impudently triumphed."

" The source of all these evils was a thirst of power, from rapa- cious and ambitious passions. The men of large influence, some contending for the just equality 'of the democratical, and others for the fair decorum of aristocratical government, by artful sounds, embarrassed those communities, for their own private lucre, by the keenest spirit, the most daring projects, and most dreadful machinations. Revenge, not limited by justice or the public welfare, was measured Only by such retaliation as was judged the sweetest; by capital condemnations, by iniquitous sentences, and by glutting the. present rancor of then- hearts with their own hands. The pious and upright conduct was on both sides disregarded; the moderate citizens fell victims to both. Seditions introduced every species of outrageous wickedness into the Grecian manners. Sincerity was laughed out of coun- tenance ; the whole order of human life was confounded ; the human temper, too apt to transgress in spite of laws, now hav- ing gained the ascendant over law, seemed to glory that it was too strong for justice, and an enemy to all superiority."

Mr. Hume has collected, from Diodorus Siculus alone, a few massacres which happened in only sixty of the most polished years of Greece : — " From Sybaris, 500 nobles banished ; of Chians, 600 citizens ; at Ephesus," 340 killed, 1000 banished ; of Cyrenians, 500 nobles killed, all the" rest banished; the Corinth- ians killed 120, banished 500 ; Phsebidas banished 300 Boeotians. Upon the fall of the Lacedamionians, democracies were restored in many cities, , and seyere vengeance taken of the nobles ; the banished nobles returning, butchered their adversaries at Phialae, in Corinth, in Megara, in Phliasia, where they lulled 300 of the people ; but these again revolting, killed above 600 of the nobles, and banished the rest. In Arcadia, 1400 banished, besides many

PREFACE. 287

killed ; the banished retired to Sparta and Pallantium ; the latter were delivered up to their countrymen, and all killed. Of the banished from Argos and Thebes, there were 500 in the Spartan army. The people, before the usurpation of _Agathocles, had banished 600 nobles ; afterwards that tyrant, in concurrence with the people, killed 4000 nobles, and banished 6000 ; and killed 4000 people at Gela ; his brother banished 8000 from Syracuse. The inhabitants of iEgesta, to the number of 40,000, were killed, man, woman, and child, for the sake of then money ; all the relations of the Libyan army, fathers, brothers, children, lolled ; 7000 exiles killed after capitulation. These numbers,- compared with the population of those cities, are prodigious ; yet Agatho- cles was a man of character, and not to be suspected of wanton cruelty, contrary to the maxims of his age." 1

Such were the fashionable outrages of unbalanced parties. In the name of human and divine benevolence, is such a system as this to be recommended to Americans, in this age of the world? Human nature is as incapable now of going through revolutions with temper and sobriety, with patience and pru- dence, or without fury and madness, as it was among the Greeks so long ago. The latest revolution that we read of was con- ducted, at least on one side, in the Grecian style, with laconic energy ; and with a little Attic salt, at least, without too much patience, foresight, and prudence, on the other. Without three orders, and an effectual balance between them, in every Ameri- can constitution, it must be destined to frequent unavoidable revolutions ; though they are delayed a few years, they must come in time. The United States are large and populous nations, in comparison with the Grecian commonwealths, or even the Swiss cantons ; and they are growing every day more disproportionate, and therefore less capable of being held together by simple govern- ments. Countries that increase in population so rapidly as the States of America did, even during such an impoverishing and destructive war as the last was, are not to be long bound with silken threads ; lions, young or old, will not be bound by cobwebs. It would be better for America, it is nevertheless agreed, to ring all the changes with the whole set of bells, and go through all the revolutions of the Grecian States, rather than establish an

1 On the Populousness of Ancient Nations. Hume's Essays, vol. i. p. 477, note BB. '

288 ON GOVERNMENT.

absolute monarchy among them, notwithstanding all the great and real improvements which have been made in that kind of government.

The objection to it is not because it is supported by nobles, and a subordination of ranks; for all governments, even the most democratical, are supported by a subordination of offices, and of ranks too. None ever existed without it but in a state of anarchy and outrage, in a contempt of law and justice, no better than no government. But the nobles, in the European monarchies, support them more by opposing than promoting their ordinary views. The kings are supported by their armies 5 the nobles support the crown, as it is in full possession of the gift of all employments ; but they support it still more by check- ing its ministers, and preventing them from running into abuses of power and wanton despotism ; otherwise the people would be pushed to extremities and insurrections. It is thus that the nobles reconcile the monarchical authority to the obedience of the subjects ; but take away the standing armies, and leave the nobles to themselves, and. in a few years, they would overturn every monarchy in Europe, and erect aristocracies.

It is become a kind of fashion among writers, to admit, as a. maxim, that if you could be always sure of a wise, active, and virtuous prince, monarchy would be the best of governments. But this is so far from being admissible, that it will forever remain true, that a free government has a great advantage over I a simple monarchy. The best and wisest prince, by means of a freer communication with his people, and the greater opportuni- ties to collect the best advice from the best of his subjects, would have an immense advantage in a free state Over a monarchy. A senate consisting of all that is most noble, wealthy, and able in the nation, with a right to counsel the crown at all times, is a check to ministers, and a security against abuses, such as a body of nobles who never meet, and have no such right, can never supply. Another assembly, composed of representatives chosen by the people in all parts, gives free access to the whole na- tion, and communicates all its wants, knowledge, projects, and wishes to government ; it excites emulation among all classes, removes complaints, redresses grievances, affords opportunities of exertion to genius, though in obscurity, and gives full scope to all the faculties of man ; it opens a passage for every specu-

PREFACE. 289

lation to the legislature, to administration, and to the public ; it gives a universal energy to the human character, in every part of the state, such as never can be obtained in a monarchy.

There is a third particular which deserves attention both from governments and people. In a simple monarchy, the ministers of state can never know then friends from their enemies ; secret cabals undermine their influence, and blast their reputation. This occasions a jealousy ever anxious and irritated, which never thinks the government safe without an encouragement of inform- ers and spies, throughout every part of the state, who interrupt the tranquillity of private life, destroy the confidence of families in their own domestics and in one another, and poison freedom in its sweetest retirements. In a free government, on the con- trary, the ministers can have no enemies of consequence but among the members of the great or little council, where every man is obliged to take his side, and declare his opinion, upon every question. This circumstance alone, to every manly mind, would be sufficient to decide the preference in favor of a free government. Even secrecy, where the executive is entire in one hand, is as easily and surely preserved in a free government, as in a simple monarchy ; and as to despatch, all the simple mo- narchies of the whole universe may be defied to produce greater or more numerous examples of it than are to be found in Eng- lish history. An Alexander, or a Frederic, possessed of the pre- rogatives only of a king of England, and leading his own armies, would never find himself embarrassed or delayed in any honest enterprise. He might be restrained, indeed, from running mad, and from malting conquests to the ruin of his nation, merely for his own glory ; but this is no argument against a free government.

There can be no free government without a democratical branch in the constitution. Monarchies and aristocracies are in possession of the voice and influence of every university and academy in Europe. Democracy, simple democracy, never had a patron among men of letters. Democratical mixtures in ^ government have lost almosipall the advocates they ever had out of England and AmericaWrMen of letters must have a great y deal of praise, and some of me necessaries, conveniences, and ornaments of life. Monarchies and aristocracies pay well and applaud liberally. The people have almost always expected to

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290 ON GOVERNMENT.

be served gratis, and to be paid for the honor of serving them ; and their applauses and adorations are bestowed too often on artifices and tricks, on hypocrisy and superstition, on flattery, bribes, and largesses. It is no wonder then that democracies and democratical mixtures are annihilated all over Europe, except on a barren rock, a paltry fen, an inaccessible mountain, or an impenetrable forest. The people of England, to their immortal honor, are hitherto an exception ; but, to the humilia- tion of human nature, they show very often that they are like v other men. The people in America have now the best opportu- nity and the greatest trust in their hands, that Providence ever committed to so small a number, since the transgression of the first pair ; if they betray their trust, their guilt will merit even greater punishment than other nations have suffered, and the I indignation of Heaven. If there is one certain truth to be col- lected from the history of all ages, it is this ; that the people's rights and liberties, and the democratical mixture in a constitu- tion, can never be preserved without a strong executive, or, in other words, without separating the executive from the legisla- tive power. If the executive power, or any considerable part of it, is left in the hands either of an aristocratical or a democratical assembly, it will corrupt the legislature as necessarily as rust cor- rupts iron, or as arsenic poisons the human body ; and when the legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.

The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire an influence among the people that will soon be too much for simple honesty and plain sense, in a house of representatives. The most illus- trious of them must, therefore, be separated from the mass, and placed by themselves in a senate ; this is, to all honest and use- \ ful intents, an ostracism.* A member of a senate, of immense

* " Mr. Pulteney and Mr. Pitt were ostracized, but the intent of their being so was neither honest nor useful. They lost, however, their popular influence, by their removal into the house of lords, which proves the use of a senate, as con- tended for. Unluckily, indeed, these examples go somewhat further. They show how the ostracism of a senate may be abused." S.

No such abuse as is here pointed out is likely to happen through any form of popular election. The working of the present constitution of the United States, in the particular noticed in the text, appears thus far to have excited little obser- vation. It would be a curious, and not unprofitable subject of speculation, to consider what might have been the effect upon the government, had several leading members of the senate been, for an ecpually long period, in the house of representatives.

PREFACE. 291

wealth, the most respected birth, and transcendent abilities, has no influence in the nation, in comparison of what he would have in a single representative assembly. When a senate exists, the most powerful man in the state may be safely admitted into the house of representatives, because the people have it in their power to remove him into the senate as soon as his influence becomes dangerous. The senate becomes the great object of ambition ; and the richest and the most sagacious wish to merit an advancement to it by services to the public in the house. When he has obtained the object of his wishes, you may still hope for the benefits of his exertions, without dreading his pas- sions ; for the executive power being in other hands, he has lost much of his influence with the people, and can govern very few votes more than his own among the senators.

It was the general opinion of ancient nations, that the Divinity alone was adequate to the important office of giving laws to men. The Greeks entertained this prejudice throughout all their dispersions ; the Romans cultivated the same popular delusion ; and modern nations, in the consecration of kings, and in several superstitious chimeras of divine right in princes and nobles, are nearly unanimous in preserving remnants of it. Even the vene- rable magistrates of Amersfort devoutly believe themselves God's vicegerents. Is it that obedience to the laws can be obtained from mankind in no other manner ? Are the jealousy of power, and the envy of superiority, so strong in all men, that no con- siderations of public or private utility are sufficient to engage their submission to rules for their own happiness ? Or is the disposition to imposture so prevalent in men of experience, that then private views of ambition and avarice can be accomplished only by artifice ? It was a tradition in antiquity that the laws of Crete were dictated to Minos by the inspiration of Jupiter. This legislator and his brother Rhadamanthus were both his sons ; once in nine years they went to converse with their father, to propose questions concerning the wants of the people ; and his answers were recorded as laws for their government. The laws of Lacedaemon, were communicated by Apollo to Lycurgus ; and, lest the meaning of the deity should not have been perfectly comprehended, or correctly expressed, they were afterwards con- firmed by his oracle at Delphos. Among the Romans, Numa was indebted for those laws which procured the prosperity of his

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292 ON GOVERNMENT.

country to his conversations with Egeria. The Greeks imported these mysteries from Egypt and the East, whose despotisms, from the remotest antiquity to this clay, have been founded in the same solemn empiricism ; their emperors and nobles being- all descended from their gods. Woden and Thor were divinities too ; and their posterity ruled a thousand years in the north by the strength of a like credulity. Manco Capac was the child of the sun, the visible deity of the Peruvians ; and transmitted his divinity, as well as his earthly dignity and authority, through a line of incas. And the rudest tribes of savages in North America have certain families from which their leaders are always chosen, under the immediate protection of the god War. There is nothing in which mankind have been more unanimous ; yet nothing can be inferred from it more than this, that the multi- tude have always been credulous, and the few are always artful. The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature ; * and if men are no-w sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as_an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pre- tended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or labor- ing in merchandise or agriculture ; it will forever be acknow- ledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses, as Copley painted Chatham ; West, Wolf ; and Trumbull, Warren and Montgomery ; as Dwight, Barlow, Trumbull, and Humphries composed their verse, and

* " Query, whether the principles of the American governments are not rather the result of reason and judgment, than the dictates of simple nature ?

" But be this as it may, it is perhaps saying rather too much, to affirm that the United States have exhibited the first example, &c, especially after the great and just encomiums on the English constitution to be found throughout this work. A constitution which the American legislator and politician professedly drew his system from." S.

It would seem as if the question of the commentator should be answered affirmatively. But this answer will impair the force of his subsequent remark. The author, in his reasoning, obviously has reference only to the intent of the lawgiver, which is not so clearly discernible in the slow and unequal progress of formation of the English constitution, as in the models adopted in America.

PREFACE. 293

Belknap and Ramsay history ; as Godfrey invented his quadrant, and Rittenhouse his planetarium ; as Boylston practised inocula- tion, and Franklin electricity ; as Paine exposed the mistakes of Raynal, and Jefferson those of Buffon, so unphilosophically bor- rowed from the* despicable dreams of De Pan. Neither the peo- ple, nor their conventions, committees, or sub-committees, con- sidered legislation in any other light than as ordinary arts and sciences, only more important. Called without expectation, and compelled without previous inclination, though undoubtedly at the best period of time, both for England and America, suddenly to erect new systems of laws for their future government, they adopted the method of a wise architect, in erecting a new palace for the residence of his sovereign. They determined to consult Vitruvius, Palladio, and all other writers of reputation in the art ; to examine the most celebrated buildings, whether they remain entire or in ruins ; to compare these with the principles of writers ; and to inquire how far both the theories and models were founded in nature, or created by fancy ; and when this was done, so far as their circumstances would allow, to adopt the advantages and reject the inconveniences of all. Unembarrassed by attachments to noble families, hereditary lines and succes- sions, or any considerations of royal blood, even the pious mys- tery of holy oil had no more influence than that other one of holy water. The people were universally too enlightened to be imposed on by artifice ; and their leaders, or more properly fol- lowers, were men of too much honor to attempt it. Thirteen governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind. The experiment is made, and has completely suc- ceeded ; it can no lpnger be called in question, whether authority in magistrates and obedience of citizens can be grounded on reason, morality, and the Christian religion, without the monkery of priests, or the knavery of politicians. As the writer was per- sonally acquainted with most of the gentlemen in each of the states, who had the principal share in the first draughts, the fol- lowing work was really written to lay before the public a speci-

* Re.cJierches PhUosopkiques sur les Amerieains. 25 *

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294 ON GOVERNMENT.

men of that kind of reading and reasoning which produced the American constitutions.

It is not a little surprising that all this kind of learning should have been unknown to any illustrious philosopher and states- man, and especially one_who really was, what he has been often called, " a well of science." But if he could be unacquainted with it, or it could have escaped his memory, we may suppose * millions in America have occasion to be reminded of it. The writer has long seen with anxiety the facility with which philoso- phers of greatest name have undertaken to write of American affairs, without knowing any thing of them, and have echoed and reechoed each other's visionary language. Having neither talents, leisure, nor inclination to meet such champions in the field of literary controversy, he little thought of venturing to propose to them any questions. Circumstances, however, have lately occurred which seem to require that some notice should be taken of one of them. If the publication of these papers should contribute any thing to turn the attention of the younger gentlemen of letters in America to this kind of inquiry, it will produce an effect of some importance to their country. The subject is the most interesting that can engage the understand- ing or the heart ; for whether the end of man, in this stage of his existence, be enjoyment, or improvement, or both, it can never be attained so well in a bad government as a good one.

The practicability or the duration of a republic, in which there is a governor, a senate, and a house of representatives, is doubted by Tacitus, though he admits the theory to be laudable : " Cunc- tas nationes ef urbes, populiis, aul priores, ant singiili, regunt. Delecta ex his et constituta reipublicse forma, laudari facilius quam inveniri; vel, si evenit, haud dmturna esse potest."1 Cicero asserts, " Statuo esse optime constitutam rempublicam, quse ex tribus generibus illis, regali, optimo, et populari, modice confusa," in such peremptory terms the superiority of such a government to all other forms, that the loss of his book upon republics is much to be regretted. From a few passages that have been preserved, it is very probable he entered more largely into an examination of the composition of monarchical repub- lics than any other ancient writer.2 He was so far from appre-

1 Annates, liber iv. c. 33. _ ^"Since this was written, a considerable addition to the former fragments has

PREFACE. 295

hending " disputes" from a variety of orders, that he affirms it to be the firmest bond of justice, and the strongest anchor of safety to the community. As the treble, the tenor, and the bass exist in nature, they will be heard in the concert. If they are arranged by Handel, in a skilful composition, they produce rapture the most exquisite that harmony can excite ; but if they are confused together, without order, they will

" Rend with tremendous sound your ears asunder."

" Ut in fidibus aut tibiis, atque in cantu ipso, ac vocibus, con- centus est quidam tenendus ex distinctis sonis, quem immutatum aut discrepantem aures eruditae ferre non possunt; isque con- centus, ex dissimillimarum vocum moderatione, concors tamen effi- citur et congruens ; sic ex sum mis et infimis et inter jectis ordi tu- bus, ut sonis, moderata ratione, civitas consensu dissimillimorum concinit ; et quae harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, ea est in civitate concordia arctissimum atque optimum omni in repub- lica vinculum incolumitatis ; eaque sine justitia nullo pacto esse potest." As all the ages of the world have not produced a \ greater statesman and philosopher united thanCicero, his author- ity should have great weight. His decided opinion in favor of three branches is founded on a reason that is unchangeable ; the laws, which are the only possible rule, measure, and security oTjustice, can be sure of protection, for any course of time, in no other form of government ; and the very name of a republic im- plies, that the property of the people should be represented in the legislature, and decide the rule of justice. " Respublica est res populi. Populus autem non omnis hominum ccetus quoquo modo' congregatus, sed coetus multitudinis juris consensu, et utilitatis communione sociatus."

" Respublica res est populi, cum bene ac juste geritur, sive ab uno rege, sive a paucis optimatibus, sive ab universo populo. Cum vero injustus est rex, quem tyrannum more grseco voco ; aut injusti optimates, quorum consensus factio est ; aut injustus ipse populus, cui nomen usitatum nullum reperio, nisi ut etiam ipsum tyrannum appellem ; non jam vitiosa, sed omnino nulla respublica est ; quoniam non est res populi, cum tyrannus earn factiove capessat; nee ipse populus jam populus est si sit injus-

been made, through the industry of Angelo Mai ; but, so far as it goes, it does not fulfil the conjecture here made.

296 ON GOVERNMENT.

tus, quoniam non est multitudo juris consensu, et utilitatis com- munione sociata sieut populus fuerat definitus."

" Ubi justitia vera non est, nee jus potest esse. Quod enim jure fit, profecto juste fit. Quod auteni fit injuste, nee jure fieri potest. Non enim jura dieenda sunt, vel putanda, iniqua homi- num constituta ; cum illud ctiam ipsi jus esse dicant quod de justitiae fonte manaverit; falsumque sit, quod a quibusdam non recte sentientibus dici solet, id jus esse, quod ei, qui plus potest, utile est." According to this, a simple monarchy, if it could in reality be what it pretends to be, a government of laws, might be justly denominated a republic. A limited monarchy, there- fore, especially when limited by two independent branches, an aristocratical and a democratical power in the Constitution, may with strict propriety be called by that name.

If Cicero and Tacitus could revisit the earth, and learn that the English nation had reduced the great idea1 to practice, and brought it nearly to perfection^ by giving each division a power to defend itself by a negative ; had found it the most solid and durable government, as well as the most free; had obtained by means of it a prosperity among civilized nations, in an enlight- ened age, like that of the Romans among barbarians ; and that the Americans, after having enjoyed the benefits of such a con- stitution a century and a half, were advised by some of the greatest philosophers and politicians of the age to renounce it, and set up the governments of ancient Goths and modern Indians, — what would they say 1 That the Americans would be more reprehensible than the Cappadocians, if they should listen to such advice.

It would have been much to the purpose, to have inserted a more accurate investigation of the form of government of the ancient Germans and modern Indians ; in both, the existence of the three divisions of power is marked with a precision that excludes all controversy. The democratical branch, especially, is so determined, that the real sovereignty resided in the body of the people, and was exercised in the assembly of king, nobles, and commons together. These institutions really col-

1 " Id enim tenetote, quod initio dixi, nisi jequabilis hsec in civitate compen- satio sit et juris et officii et muneris, ut et potestatis satis in magistratibus, et auetoritatis in principum consilio, et libertatis in populo sit, non posse hunc incommutabileni rei publicse conservari statum." De Republica.

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lected all authority into one centre of kings, nobles, and people. But, small as their numbers and narrow as their ter- ritories were, the consequence was confusion; each part be- lieved it governed the whole; the chiefs thought they were sovereigns ; the nobles believed the power to be in their hands ; and the people flattered themselves that all depended upon them. Their purposes were well enough answered, without coming to an explanation, so long as they were few in number, and had no property ; but when spread over large provinces of the Roman empire, now the great kingdoms of Europe, and grown populous and rich, they found the inconvenience of each not knowing its place. Kings, nobles, and people claimed the government in turn ; and after all the turbulence, wars, and revolutions, which compose the history of Europe for so many ages, we find simple monarchies established everywhere. Whether the system will now become stationary, and last forever, by means of a few further improvements in monarchical government, we know not; or whether still further revolutions are to come. The most pro- bable, or rather the only probable change, is the introduction of democratical brauches into those governments. If the people should ever aim at more, they will defeat themselves ; as they will, indeed, if they aim at this by any other than gentle means and by gradual advances, by improvements in general education, and by informing the public mind.

The systems of legislators are experiments made on human life and manners, society and government. Zoroaster, Confucius, Mithras, Odin, Thor, Mahomet, Lycurgus, Solon, Romulus, and a thousand others, may be compared to philosophers making experiments on the elements. Unhappily, political experiments cannot be made in a laboratory, nor determined in a few hours. The operation once begun, runs over whole quarters of the globe, and is not finished in many thousands of years. The experi- ment of Lycurgus lasted seven hundred years, but never spread beyond the limits of Laconia. The process of Solon expired in one century; that of Romulus lasted but two centuries and a half; but the Teutonic institutions, described by Caesar and i/"" Tacitus, are the most memorable experiment, merely political, ever yet made in human affairs. They have spread all over Europe, and have lasted eighteen hundred years. They afford the strongest argument that can be imagined in support of the

298 ON GOVERNMENT.

position assumed in these volumes. Nothing ought to have more weight with America, to determine her judgment against mixing the authority of the one, the few, and the many, con- fusedly in one assembly, than the wide-spread miseries and final slavery of almost all mankind, in consequence of such an igno- rant policy in the ancient Germans. What is the ingredient which in England has preserved the democratical authority? The balance, and that only. The English have, in reality, blended together the feudal institutions with those of the Greeks and Romans, and out of all have made that noble composition, which avoids the inconveniences, and retains the'advantages of both.

The institutions now made in America will not wholly wear out for thousands of years. It is of the last importance, then, that they should begin right. If they set out wrong, they will never be able to return, unless it be by accident, to the right path. After having known the history of Europe, and of Eng- land in particular, it would be the height of folly to go back to the institutions of Woden and of Thor, as the Americans are advised to do. If they had been counselled to adopt a single monarchy at once, it would have been less mysterious.

Robertson, Hume, and Gibbon have given such admirable accounts of the feudal institutions and their consequences, that it would have been, perhaps, more discreet to have referred to them, without saying any thing more upon the subject. To col- lect together the legislation of the Indians would take up much room, but would be well worth the pains. The sovereignty is in the nation, it is true, but the three powers are strong in every tribe ; and their royal and aristocratical dignities are much more generally hereditary, from the popular partiality to particidar families, and the superstitious opinion that such are favorites of the God of War, than late writers upon this subject have allowed.

Grosvenor Square, January 1, 1787.

Preliminary Observations

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

Three writers in Europe of great abilities, reputation, and learning, M. Turgot, the Abbe de Mably, and Dr. Price, have turned their attention to the constitutions of government in the United States of America, and have written and published their criticisms and advice. They all had the most amiable charac- ters, and unquestionably the purest intentions. They all had experience in public affairs, and ample information respecting the nature of man, the necessities of society, and the scierice of government.

There are in the productions of all of them, among many excellent things, some sentiments, however, that it will be diffi- cult to reconcile to reason, experience, the constitution of human nature, or to the uniform testimony of the greatest statesmen, legislators, and philosophers of all enlightened nations, ancient and modern.

M. Turgot, in his letter to Dr. Price, confesses, " that he is not satisfied with the constitutions which have hitherto been formed for the different states of America." He observes, " that by most of them the customs of England are imitated, without any par- ticular motive. Instead of collecting all authority into one cen- tre, that of the nation, they have established different bodies, a body of representatives, a council, and a governor, because there is in England a house of commons, a house of lords, and a king. They endeavor to balance these different powers, as if this equi- librium, which in England may be a necessary check to the enormous influence of royalty, could be of any use in republics founded upon the equality of all the citizens, and as if establish- ing different orders of men was not a source of divisions and disputes."

There has been, from the beginning of the revolution in America, a party in every state, who have entertained senti-

300 ON GOVERNMENT.

ments similar to these of M. Turgot. Two or three of them have established governments upon his principle ; and, by advices fromJBoston, certain committees of counties have been held, and other conventions proposed in the Massachusetts, with the express purpose of deposing the governor and senate as use- less and expensive branches of the constitution ; * and as it is probable that the publication of M. Turgot's opinion has con- tributed to excite such discontents among the people, it becomes necessary to examine it, and, if it can be shown to be an error, whatever veneration the Americans very justly entertain for his memory, it is to be hoped they will not be misled by his authority.

M. Turgot is offended, because the customs of England are imitated in most of the new constitutions in America, without any particular motive. But, if we suppose English customs to be neither good nor evil in themselves, and merely indifferent ; and the people, by their birth, education, and habits, were fami- liarly attached to them ; would not this be a motive particular enough for their preservation, rather than to endanger the public tranquillity, or unanimity, by renouncing them ? If those cus- toms were wise, just, and good, and calculated to secure the liberty, property, and safety of the people, as well, or better, than any other institutions, ancient or modern, would M. Turgot have advised the nation to reject them, merely because it was at that time justly incensed against the English government ? What English customs has it retained which may with any propriety be called evil ? M. Turgot has instanced only one, namely, — " that a body of representatives, a council, and a governor, have been established, because there is in England a house of com- mons, a house of lords, and a king." It was not so much because the legislature in England consisted of three branches, that such a division of power was adopted by the states, as because their own assemblies had ever been so constituted. It was not so much from attachment by habit to such a plan of power that it was continued, as from conviction that it was founded in nature and reason.

* " Should it appear that the real object of the committees and conventions in endeavoring to depose the governor and senate is the passing of pernicious laws by the representative body, such as the abolishing or postponing the payment of debts, or the emission of an unfunded paper currency, the necessity of supporting the governor and senate will be more obvious." g, °

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 301

M. Turgot seems to be of a different opinion, and is for " col- lecting all authority into one centre, the nation." It is easily understood how all authority may be collected into " one centre " in a despot or monarch ; but how it can be done when the centre is to be the nation, is, more difficult to comprehend. Before we attempt to discuss the notions of an author, we should be. care- ful to ascertain his meaning. It will not be easy, after the most! anxious research, to discover the true sense of this extraordinary passage. If, after the pains of " collecting all authority into one centre," that centre is to be the nation, we shall remain exactly where we began, and no collection of authority at all will be made. The nation will be the authority, and the authority the nation. The centre will be the circle, and the circle the centre. When a number of men, women, and children, are simply con- gregated together, there is no political authority among them ; nor any natural authority, but that of parents over their children. To leave the women arid children out of the question for the present, the men will all be equal, free, and independent of each other. Not one will have any authority over any other. The first " collection " of authority must be an unanimous agreement to form themselves into a nation, people, community, or body poli- tic, and to be governed by the majority of suffrages or voices. But even in this case, although the authority is collected into one centre, that centre is no longer the nation, but the majority of the nation. Did M. Turgot mean that the people of Virginia, for example, half a million of souls scattered over a territory of two hundred leagues square, should stop here, and have no other authority by which to make or execute a law, or judge a cause, but by a vote of the whole people, and the decision of a majority! Where is the plain large enough to hold them ; and what are the means, and how long would be the time, necessary to assemble them together ?

A simple and perfect democracy^ never yet existed among men. If a village of half a mile square, and one hundred fami- lies, is capable of exercising all the legislative, executive, and judicial powers, in public assemblies of the whole, by unanimous votes, or by majorities, it is more than has ever yet been proved in theory or experience. In such a democracy, for the most part, the moderator would be king, the town-clerk legislator and judge, and the constable sheriff; and, upon more important

VOL. IV. 26

302 ON GOVERNMENT.

occasions, committees would be only the counsellors of both the former, and commanders of the latter.

Shall we suppose, then, that M. Turgot intended that an assembly of representatives should be chosen by the nation, and vested with all the powers of government ; and that this assem- bly should be the centre in which all the authority was to be collected, and should be virtually deemed the nation ? After long reflection, I have not been able to discover any other sense in his words, and this was probably his real meaning. To examine this system in detail may be thought as trifling an occupation as the labored reasonings of Sidney and Locke, to show the absurdity of Filmer's superstitious notions, appeared to Mr. Hume to be in his enlightened day. Yet the mistakes of great men, and even the absurdities of fools, when they coun- tenance the prejudices of numbers of people, especially in a young country and under new governments, cannot be too fully confuted. I shall not then esteem my time misspent, in placing this idea of M. Turgot in all its lights ; in considering the con- sequences of it ; and in collecting a variety of authorities against it.

CHAPTER I. OF MODERN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS.

CHAPTER I.

Of Modern Democratic Republics. . San Marino

OF MODERN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS.

. SAN MARINO.

" A society of gods would govern themselves democratically," says the eloquent philosopher of Geneva ; who, however, would have agreed, that his " gods " must not have been the classical deities ; since he knew from the highest authority, the poets, who had their information from those divinities, the Muses, that all the terrors of the nod, the arm, and the thunderbolts of Jupiter, with all the energy of his undisputed monarchy, were insufficient to hold them in order. As it is impossible to know what would have been his definition of the gods, we may quietly pursue our inquiry, whether it is practicable to govern men in this way. It would be very surprising if, among all the nations that have existed, not one has discovered a secret of so much importance. It is not necessary for us to prove that no such government has existed ; it is incumbent on him who shall embrace the opinion of M. Turgor, to name the age, the country, and the people in which such an experiment has been tried. It might be easier to determine the question concerning the practicability or impracti- cability, the utility or inutility of a simple democracy, if we could find a number of examples of it. From the frightful pic- tures of a democratical city, drawn by the masterly pencils of ancient philosophers and historians, it may be conjectured that such governments existed in Greece and Italy, at least for short spaces of time ; but no particular history of any one of them is come down to us ; nor are we able to procure any more satisfac- tion to our curiosity from modern history. If such a phenome- non is at this time to be seen in the world, it is probably in some of those states which have the name of democracies, or at least in such as have preserved some share in the government to the people. Let us travel to some of those countries and examine their laws.

304 ON GOVERNMENT.

The republic of San Marino, in Italy, is sometimes quoted as an instance ; and, therefore, it is of some importance to examine, 1. Whether, in fact, this is a simple democracy ; and, 2. Whether, if it were such, it is not owing to particular circumstances, which do not belong to any other people, and prove it to be improper for any other, especially the United States of America, to attempt to imitate it.

The republic of San Marino, as Mr.^Addison informs us, stands on the top of a very high and craggy mountain, generally hid among the clouds, and sometimes under snow, even when the weather is clear and warm in all the country about it.

This mountain,1 and a few hillocks that lie scattered about the bottom of it, form the whole circuit of the- dominion. They have what they call three castles, three convents, and five churches, and reckon about five thousand souls in then com- munity.

St. Marino was its founder, a Dalmatian by birth, and by trade a mason. He was employed about thirteen hundred years ago in the reparation of Rimini, and after he had finished his work, retired to this solitary mountain, as very proper for the life of a hermit, which he led in the greatest austerities of religion. He had not beenlong here before he wrought a reputed miracle, which, joined with his extraordinary sanctity, gained him so great an esteem, that the princes of the country made him a present of the mountain, to dispose of it at his discretion. His reputation quickly peopled it, and gave rise to the republic which calls itself after his name. The best of its churches is dedicated to the saint, and holds his ashes. His statue stands over the high altar, with the figure of a mountain crowned with three castles in his hands, which is likewise the arms of the commonwealth. The citizens attribute to his protection the long duration of the state, and look on him as the greatest saint, next to the blessed Virgin. In their statute-book is a law against such as speak dis- respectfully of him, who are to be punished in the same man- ner as those convicted of blasphemy. This petty republic has lasted thirteen hundred years, while all the other states of Italy have several times changed masters and forms of government.2 Then whole history consists in two purchases of a neighboring

1 Twenty-seven square miles.

3 This is in substance the language of Addison.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 305

prince, and two wars, in which they assisted the pope against a lord of Rimini.

They would probably sell their liberty as dear as they could to any that attacked them ; 1 for there is but one road by which to climb up to them. All that are capable of bearing arms are exercised, and ready at a moment's call.

The sovereign power of the republic was lodged originally in what they call the arengo, a great council, in which every house had its representative ; but, because they found too much confu- sion in such a multitude of statesmen, they devolved their whole authority into the hands of the council of sixty. The arengo, however, is still called together in cases of extraordinary import- ance ; and if, after due summons, any member absents himself, he is to be fined. In the ordinary course of government, the council of sixty, which, notwithstanding the name, consists but of forty persons, has in its hands the administration of affairs, and is made up, half out of the noble families, and half out of the plebeian.2 They decide all by balloting, are not admitted until five-and-twenty years old, and choose the officers of the commonwealth.

No sentence can stand that is not confirmed by two thirds of this -council ; no son can be admitted into it during the life of his father ; nor can two be in it of the same family ; nor can any enter but by election. The chief officers of the commonwealth are the two capitaneos, who have such a power as the old Roman

1 History scarcely justifies this inference. In 1502, Csesar Borgia threatened them. Sismondi says of this : —

" Les habitans, eflrayes de la mine de leur protecteur, offrirent aux Venitiens de se donner a eux, s'ils vouloient les defendre contre Cesar Borgia ; mais les Venitiens n'oserent pas les accepter. Borgia, d'autre part, leur demanda seule- rnent de recevoir un podestat de ses mains ; les citoyens de San-Marino y con- sentirent ; ils profiterent ensuite des premieres revolutions de la Romagne, pour se remettre en liberte." JRepub. Ital. vol. xiii. p. 156.

It is true that the latest historian of San Marino attempts to question the cor- rectness of this statement, as it would seem with little reason.

But experience has further shown their inability to resist the process of siege by famine. Through the command of the surrounding country, Cardinal Albe- roni was enabled, in no long time, to place the institutions of the republic at the mercy of the Roman pontiff, Clement XII., to whose generosity the people owed their restoration.

Once more, Napoleon Bonaparte had the republic in his power, but he made it ' an occasion for a dramatic exhibition of generosity to free institutions, which cost little real sacrifice.

2 The council consists of sixty persons ; forty of them chosen from the town- ship, and twenty from the country.

26* T

306 ON GOVERNMENT.

consuls had, but are chosen every six months. Some have been capitaneos six or seven times, though the office is never to be continued to the same persons twice successively. The third officer is the commissary, who judges in all civil and criminal matters ; but because the many alliances, friendships, and inter- marriages, as well as the personal feuds and animosities that happen among so small a people, might obstruct the course of justice, if one of their own number had the distribution of it, they have always a foreigner for this employ,1 whom they choose for three years, and maintain out of the public stock. He must be a doctor of law, and a man of known integrity.2 He is joined in commission with the capitaneos, and acts somewhat like the recorder of London under the lord mayor. The fourth man in the state is the physician. Another person, who makes no ordi- nary figure in the republic, is the schoolmaster. Few in the place but have some tincture of learning.3

" The people are esteemed very honest and rigorous in the execution of justice, and seem to enjoy more content and happi- ness among their rocks and snows, than the rest of the Italians do in the most fertile and inviting spots. Indeed, nothing can be a greater instance of the natural love of mankind for liberty, and of their aversion to arbitrary government, than such a savage

1 This appears to be an error.

" Apres la capitainerie, la premiere charge est celle clu juge appele commis- saire de la republique ; mais elle n'est presque jamais remplie, cette judicature n'etant necessaire que dans les cas extraordinaires, et lorsque les capitaines, soit dans la crainte d'etre recuses, soit dans les momens de troubles civils, se trouvent dans l'obligation de ne pouvoir rendre eux-memes la justice, auquel cas on choisit un docteur etranger, qui prononce sur toutes les causes civiles et criminelles." Matteo Valli, quoted in Auger- Saint-Hyppolite, p. 317. ~ The practice of sending abroad for a judge was general among the Italian republics. The Duke, in the Merchant of Venice, says, —

" Upon my power, I may dismiss this court, Unless Bellario, a learned doctor, Whom I have sent for to determine this, Come here to-day.

Salario. My lord, here stays without A messenger, with letters from tbe doctor, New come from Padua." 3 " Apres le commissaire, viennent les deux juges d'appel qui revoient en seconde instance. Mais les causes peuveht encore etre portees au conseil des douze, forme chaque annee dans le sein du conseil-general des soixante. L'au- torite de. ce conseil de douze ne s'etend pas plus loin ; il n'est convoque que par les soins d'un rapporteur ou instructeur, nomme a 1'erFet d'examiner chaque cause, et charge d'etre arbitre dans les cas que les lois n'ont pas prevus."

Matteo Valli.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 307

mountain, covered with people, while the Campania of Rome is almost destitute of inhabitants."

This is the account of San Marino. Yet, if all authority is here collected in one centre, that centre is not the nation. Al- though the original representation in the arengo was of houses, that is to say, of property, rather than of the persons of the citizens, and, consequently, was not very equal, since it excluded all personal property, as well as all who had no property ; yet even such an agrarian, it seems, was not a sufficient check to licentiousness, and they found it necessary to institute a senate of forty men. Here, at least, commenced as complete an aristo- cracy lis that of ancient Rome ; or, to express it more exactly, as complete a separation of the aristocratical from the demo- cratical part of the community/ There are two remarkable cir- cumstances in confirmation of this view ; one is, that not only there are noble families in this illiistrissima republica Sancti Marini, but that the constitution has limited the choice of the electors so far as to oblige them to choose one half the senate out of these nobles ; the other is, that the names of the agents for the commonwealth, of the notary, and the witnesses to two instruments of purchases, made at seventy years' distance from one another, one in 1100, the other in 1170, are the same. It is not credible that they were the same persons ; they were probably sons or grandsons, — which is a strong proof of the attachment . to aristocratical families in this little state, and of their desire to continue the same blood and the same names in public employ- ments, as in the case of the Oranges, Fagels, De Lyndens, &c. in Holland, and innumerable other examples in all nations.1

Another remarkable circumstance is, the reluctance of the citizens to attend the assembly of the arengo, which obliged them to make a law, compelling themselves to attend, upon a penalty. This is a defect, and a misfortune natural to every

1 " Les capitaines sont elus tous les six mois, par scrutin secret, au nombre de denize candidats, parnri lesquels les six qui ont le plus grand nombre de suffrages sont accouples deux a deux par la voie du sort, et inscrits sur trois bulletins. Ac- compagnes des capitaines encore en fonctions, du camerlingue et des conseillers, ils soniT conduits dans la pieve et devant le maitre-autel ou reposent les ossemens de Saint-Marino ; l'arcliipretre chante le Te Deum, apres quoi les trois bulletins sont deposes dans une urne ; un jeune enfant en tire un qu'il remet entre les mains de l'officiant ; celui-ci en fait la lecture a haute et intelligible voix, et les deux citoyens ainsi designes par le sort sont legitimement capitaines."

Matteo Valli.

308 ON GOVERNMENT.

democratical constitution, and to the popular part of every mixed government. A general or too common disinclination to attend, leaves room for persons and parties more active to carry points, by faction and intrigue, which the majority, were all present, would not approve.

It is curious to see how many checks and limitations are con- trived for this legislative assembly. Half nobles, half plebeians ; all upwards of five-and-twenty years old ; two thirds must agree ; no son can sit with his father ; never two of the same family.

The capitaneos have the executive, like the Roman consuls,1 and the commissary has the judicial. Here, again, are remark- able limitations ; the latter must be a foreigner, and he is chosen for three years. This is to give some degree of stability to the judicial power, and to make it a real and powerful check upon both the executive and legislative.

We are not, indeed, told whether the council of forty are elected annually or for life.2 Mr. Addison may, from his well- known character, be supposed to have been more attentive to the grand and beautiful monuments of ancient arts of every kind which surrounded him in Italy, than to this rough hillock, al- though the form of government might have excited his curiosity, and the simplicity of manners his esteem ; he has accordingly given a very imperfect sketch of its constitution and history. Yet enough appears to show incontestably that San Marino is by no means a perfect democracy. It is a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, as really as Sparta and Rome were, and as the Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland now are, in which the powers of the governor, senate, and assembly are more exactly ascertained and nicely balanced ; but they are not more distinct than those of the capitaneos, council of forty, and the arengo are in San Marino.

Should it be argued, that a government like this, where the sovereignty resides in the whole body of the people, is a demo- cracy ; it may be answered, that the right of sovereignty in all nations is unalienable and indivisible, and does and can reside nowhere else; but, not to recur to a principle so general, the

1 " II arrive souvent que les deux eapitaines eius scmt plebeiens, tandis qu'il est impossible que deux nobles le soieut, les nobles faisant leur sejour dans la ville, et Pun des deux candidate etant toujours villageois, c'est a dire habitant de la campagne." Saint-Hyppolite.

2 They are chosen for life.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 309

exercise, as well as the right of sovereignty, in Rome, resided in the people, but the government was not a democracy. In Ame- rica, the right of sovereignty resides indisputably in the body of the people, and they have the whole property of land. There are no nobles or patricians ; all are equal by law and by birth. The governors and senates, as well as representative assem- blies, to whom the exercise of sovereignty is committed, are annually chosen. Governments more democratical never existed; they are vastly_more so than that of San Marino. Yet the an- nual administration is divided into executive, legislative, and judicial powers ; and the legislature itself is divided into mo- narchical, aristocratical, and democratical branches ; and an equi- librium has been anxiously sought for in all their deliberations and actions, with infinitely more art, judgment, and skill, than appears in this little Italian commonwealth.

The liberty and the honesty of these people is not at all surprising. In so small a state, where every man personally knows every other, let the form of government be what it will, it is scarcely possible that any thing like tyranny or cruelty can take place. A king, or a decemvirate, intrusted with the govern- ment, would feel the censures of the people, and be constantly conscious of the facility of assembling the whole, and apprehen- sive of an exertion of their strength.

The poverty of this people appears, by the fine of one penny imposed upon absence from the arengo ; and by the law that an ambassador should have a shilling a day. This, however, is a salary in proportion to the numbers of the people, as thirty guineas a day would be to an ambassador from the United States. It appears also probable, from the physician's being obliged to keep a horse, that there is not a carriage nor another saddle-horse in the commonwealth.

''A handful of poor people, living in the simplest manner, by hard labor, upon the produce of a few cows, sheep, goats, swine, poultry, and pigeons, on a piece of rocky, snowy ground, pro- tected from every enemy by their situation, their superstition, and even by their poverty, having no commerce nor luxury, can be no example for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Georgia, or Vermont,1 in one of which there are possibly half a million of

1 It should be recollected that these were the States inclined to adopt M. Tur- got's theory.

310 ON GOVERNMENT.

people, and in each of the others at least thirty thousand, scat- tered over a large territory.

Upon the whole, a stronger proof cannot be adduced of the necessity of different orders, and of an equilibrium between them, than this commonwealth of San Marino, where there are such strong symptoms of both in a society in which there ap- pears the least occasion for them that can be imagined to take place in any conceivable situation.1

/

Biscay

BISCAY.

In a research like this, after those people in Europe who have had the skill, courage, and fortune to preserve a voice in the government, Biscay, in Spain, ought' by no means to be omitted. While then neighbors have long since resigned all their preten- sions into the hands of kings and priests, this extraordinary people have preserved their ancient language, genius, laws, government, and manners, without innovation, longer than any other nation of Europe. Of Celtic extraction, they once inhabited some of the finest parts of the ancient Bcetica ; but their love of liberty, and unconquerable aversion to foreign servitude, made them retire, when invaded and overpowered in their ancient seats, into these mountainous countries, called by the ancients Cantabria. They were governed by counts, sent them by the kings of Oyi- <«^teA-« edo and Leon, until 859, when, finding themselves without a chief, because Zeno, who commanded them, was made prisoner, they rose and took arms to resist Ordogno, son of Alfonsus III., whose domination was too severe' for them. They chose for then chief one of the blood royal of Scotland, by the mother's side, and son-in-law of Zeno, their governor, who, having over-

1 In the Essai Historique sur la EepubUque de San Marino, published in Paris, in 1827, by M. Auger-Saint-Hyppolite, the work already quoted, are to be found some strictures upon this sketch of the author. He says : — I " Adams n'est gueres que le commentateur d' Addison, et ne connaissant San Marino que sur les notions tres-superficielles donnees par le premier, ses raison- nemens sur les institutions San Marinoises portent sur des assertions fausses ; il n'est done pas etonnant qu'il ait regarde la petite republique comme une demo- cratic imparfaite, puisqu'il a cru, d'apres Addison, que le conseil ou prince etait forme de fagon que la moitie devait etre composee de nobles."

It should be noted, that this error is found in every modern account of San Marino. But it does not appear to invalidate the position of Mr. Adams. That can scarcely be called any thing but an imperfect democracy, in which the repre- sentative body, however chosen, is chosen for life.

\j9uM

U

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 311

come Ordogno, in 870, was elected their lord ; and his posterity, who bore afterwards the name of Haro^ succeeded him, from father to son, until the king, Don Pedro the Cruel, having put to death those who were in possession of the lordship, reduced them to make a treaty by which they united their country, under the title of a lordship, with Castile. By this convention the King of Spain is now Lord of Biscay. It is a republic ; and one of the privileges the people have most insisted on, is not to have a king. Another was, that every new lord, at his accession, should come into the country in person, with one of his legs bare, and take an oath to preserve the privileges of the iordship. The pre- sent king of Spain is the first who has been complimented with their consent, that the oath should be administered at Madrid, though the other humiliating and indecent ceremony has been long laid aside.

Their solicitude for defence has surrounded with walls all the towns in the district. These are one-and-twenty in number ; the principal of which are, Orduiia, ' Laredo, Portugalete, Durango, Bilbao, and St. Andero. Biscay is divided into nine merindades, a sort of jurisdiction like a bailiwick, besides the four cities on the coast. The capital is Bnbao.VpPhe whole is a collection of very high and very steep mountains, rugged and rocky to such a degree, that a company of men posted on one of them might defend itself as long as it could subsist, by rolling rocks on the enemy. This natural formation of the country, which has ren- dered the march of armies impracticable, and the daring spirit of the inhabitants, have preserved their liberty.

Active, vigilant, generous, brave, hardy, inclined to war and navigation, they have enjoyed, for two thousand years, the repu- tation of being the best soldiers and sailors in Spain, and even the best courtiers, many of them having, by their wit and man- ners, raised themselves into offices of consequence under the court of Madrid. Their valuable qualities have recommended them to the esteem of the kings of Spain, who have hitherto left them in possession of those great immunities of which they are -? r so jealous. In 1632, indeed, the court laid a duty upon salt; the inhabitants of Bilbao rose and massacred all the officers appointed to collect it, and all the officers of the grand admiral. Three thousand troops were sent to punish them for rebellion ; these they fought, and totally defeated, driving most of them

312 ON GOVERNMENT.

into the sea, which discouraged the court from pursuing their plan of taxation. Since that time the king has had no officer of any kind in the lordship, except his corregidor.

Many writers ascribe their flourishing commerce to their situ- ation ; but, as this is no better than that of Ferrol or Corunna, that advantage is more probably due to their liberty. In riding through this little territory, one would fancy himself in Con- necticut ; instead of miserable huts built of mud and covered with straw, the country appears full of large and commodious houses and barns of the farmer ; the lands are well cultivated ; and there is a wealthy, happy yeomanry. The roadsj so danger- ous and impassable in most other parts of Spain, are here very good, having been made at a vast expense of labor.

Although the government is called a democracy, we cannot here find all authority collected into one centre ; there are, on the contrary, as many distinct governments as there are cities / and merindades. The general government has two orders at v least ; the lord or governor, and the biennial parliament. Each

of the thirteen subordinate divisions has its organized govern- ment, with its chief magistrate at the head of it. We may judge of the form of all of them by that of the metropolis, which calls itself, in all its laws, the noble and illustrious republic of Bilbao. This city has its alcalde, who is both governor and chief justice, its twelve regidores or counsellors, attorney-general, &c, and by all these, assembled in the consistorial palace under the titles of conpejo, justicia, y reg-imiento, the laws are made in the name of the Lord of Biscay, and confirmed by him.

These officers, it is true, are elected by the citizens, but thev must by law be elected, as well as the deputies to the biennial parliament or junta general, out of a few noble families, unstained, both by the side of father and mother, by any mix- ture with Moors, Jews, new converts, penitentiaries of the inqui- sition, &c. They must be natives and residents, worth a thou- sand ducats, and must have no concern in commerce, manufac- tures, or trades ; and, by a fundamental agreement among all the merindades, all their deputies to the junta general, and all their regidores, syndics, secretaries, and treasurers, must be nobles, at least knights, and such as never exercised any mecha- nical trades, themselves or their fathers. Thus we see the people themselves have established by law a contracted aristocracy,

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 313

under the appearance of a liberal democracy. Americans, beware !

Although we see here in the general government, and in that of every city and merindade, the three branches of power, of the one, the few, and the many ; yet, if it were as democratical as it has been thought by some, we could by no means infer, from this instance of a little flock upon a few impracticable mountains, in a round form of ten leagues diameter, the utility or practica- bility of such a government in any other country.

The disposition to division, so apparent in all democratical governments, however tempered with aristocratical and monarch- ical powers, has shown itself in the breaking off from it of Gui- puscoa and Alaba ; and the only preservative of it from other divisions has been the fear of their neighbors. They always knew, that as soon as they should fall into factions, or attempt innovations, the court of Spain would interpose, and prescribe them a government not so much to their taste.

Savitzerland

SAVITZERLAND.

It is commonly said, that some of the cantons of Switzerland are democratical, and others aristocratical ; and if these epithets are understood only to mean that one of these powers prevails in some of those republics, and the other in the rest, they are just enough ; but there is neither a simple democracy, nor a simple aristocracy among them. The governments of these con- federated states are very complicated, and, therefore, very diffi- cult to be fully explained ; yet the most superficial inquirer will find in all of them the clearest traces of a composition of all the three powers.

To begin with the cantons commonly reputed democratical.

Democratical Cantons. Appenzel

DEMOCRATICAL CANTONS. APPENZEL.

The canton of Appenzel consists of a series of valleys, scat- tered among inaccessible rocks and mountains, in all about vol. iv. 27

314 ON GOVERNMENT.

eighteen miles square.1 The people are laborious and frugal, and have no commerce but in cattle, hides, butter, cheese, and a little linen made of their own flax. It has no walled towns, and only two or three open boroughs and a few small villages ; it is, like New England, almost a continued village, covered with excellent houses of the yeomanry, built of wood, each of which has its territory of pasture-grounds, commonly ornamented with Jj trees ; neatness and convenience are studied without, and a

remarkable cleanliness within. The principal part of the inhabit- ants have preserved the simplicity of the pastoral life. As there are not, at most, above fifty thousand souls, there cannot be more than ten thousand men capable of bearing arms. It is not at all surprising, among so much freedom, though among rocks and herds, to hear of literature, and men of letters who are an ornament to their country.

Nevertheless, this simple people, so small in number, in so narrow a territory, could not agree. After a violent contest,2 at the time of the Reformation, in which they were in danger of a civil war, they agreed, through the mediation of the other cantons, to divide the canton into two portions, the Outer and the Inner Appenzel, or Rhodes Exterior and Rhodes Interior. Each district has now its respective chief magistrate, court of justice, police, banneret, and deputy to the general diet, although the canton has but one vote, and consequently loses its voice if the two deputies are of different opinions. The canton is divided into no less than twelve communities ; six of them called the Inner Appenzel, lying to the east ; and six, the Outer, to the west. They have one general sovereign council, which is composed of one hundred and forty-four persons, twelve taken from each community.

The sovereignty resides in the general assembly, which, in the Interior Rhodes, meets every year at Appenzel, the last Sunday

1 Probably German miles, fifteen to a degree. The latest statistical works give the surface of Appenzel at two hundred and fifty-six square miles, sixty to a degree.

2 It should be remarked that this was a religious and not a political contest. The division which ensued has ever since marked a line of separation between the inner or catholic Appenzel, and the outer, which follows the reformed faith. The mediating cantons were six ; three of them, Lucerne, Schwitz, and Under- walden, for the catholics ; three, Zurich, Glarus, and Schaffhausen, for the reformers.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 315

in April ; but, in the Exterior Rhodes, it assembles alternately at Trogen and at Hundwyl.1 In the Interior Rhodes are the chiefs and officers, the Land- Amman, the tithing man, the governor, the treasurer, the captain of the country, the director of the buildings, the director of the churches, and the ensign. The Exterior Rhodes have ten officers, namely, — two Land-Ammans, two governors, two treasurers, two captains, and two ensigns. The Interior Rhodes is subdivided into six lesser ones, each of which has sixteen counsellors, among whom are always two chiefs. The grand council in the Interior Rhodes, as also the criminal jurisdiction, is composed of one hundred and twenty-eight per- sons, who assemble twice a year, eight days before the general assembly, and at as many other times as occasions require.2 Moreover, they have also the little council, called the weeldy council, because it meets every week in the year. The Exterior Rhodes are now divided into nineteen communities ; and the sovereignty of them consists in the double grand council of the country, called the old and new council, which assembles once a year, eight days after the assembly of the country, at Trogen or at Herisaw, and is composed of ninety and odd persons. Then follows the grand council, in which, besides the ten officers, the reigning chiefs of all the communities have seats, the directors of the buildings, the chancellor, and the sautier, which make thirty-five persons ; the reigriing Land-Amman presides. After this comes the little council from before the Sitter, which is held on the first Tuesday of each month at Trogen ; the reigning Land- An fm an is the president, to whom always cpme in aid, alter- nately, an officer, with a member of council from all the thirteen communities, the chancellor of the country, and the sautier, and it consists of twenty and odd persons. The little council from behind the Sitter is held under the presidency of the reigning Land- Amman, whenever occasion requires ;3 it is held at Herisaw, Hundwyl, or Urnaeschen ; at it assist the chancellor of the coun-

1 This assembly consists of all the male citizens of the canton over the age of sixteen. It elects the four chiefs and the srx other magistrates mentioned for the Exterior Rhodes.

In the Inner Rhodes the age of citizenship is two years later, eighteen. The officers elected serve for one year, and are reeligible.

2 Now, three times a year, in spring and autumn, and one month before the meeting of the general assembly.

3 Three times a year.

316 ON GOVERNMENT.

try and the sautier, with the counsellors of the six communities behind the Sitter, appointed for this service.1

Let me ask, if here are not different orders of men and balances in abundance ? Such a handful of people, living by agriculture, in primitive simplicity, one would think might live very quietly, almost without any government at all ; yet, instead of being capable of collecting all authority into one assembly, they seem to have been forcibly agitated by a mutual power of repulsion, which has divided them into two commonwealths, each of which has its monarchical power in a chief magistrate ; its aristocratical power in two councils, one for legislation, and the other for exe- cution ; besides the two more popular assemblies. This is surely no simple democracy. Indeed, a simple democracy by represent- ation is a contradiction in terms.2

Underwald

UNDERWALD.

The canton of Underwald consists only of villages and boroughs, although it is twenty-five miles in length and seven- teen in breadth.3 These dimensions, it seems, were too exten- sive to be governed by a legislation so imperfectly combined, and nature has taught and compelled them to separate into two divisions, the one above, and the other below, a certain large forest of oaks, which runs nearly in the middle of the country, from north to south. The inferior valley, below the forest, con- tains four communities ; and the superior, above it, six. The principal or capital is Sarnen. The sovereign is tne whole county, the sovereignty residing in the general assembly, where all the males of fifteen have entry and suffrage ; but each valley apart has, with respect to its interior concerns, its Land- Amman, its officers of administration, and its public assembly, composed

1 These observations apply to the Exterior Rhodes. The. organization of the Inner Appenzel is slightly different. The little council is composed of the first magistrates and of counsellors named from each Rhode. It is divided into three sections, sitting alternately, and each section is called the weekly council. The same principle of election prevails however throughout. The general assembly is said at times to have collected as many as eight thousand men.

2 The system in substance here described, has survived all the struggles of the last century, and even the dictation of Napoleon. The profound attachment of the peo2jle to their ancient habits overcomes all opposition.

3 One hundred and seventy-nine square miles. Durand, Statistique Ele- mentaire de la Suisse.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 317

of fifty-eight senators, taken from the communities. As to affairs without, there is a general council, formed of all the offi- cers of administration, and of fifty-eight senators chosen in the said councils of the two valleys. Besides this there are, for just- ice and police, the chamber of seven and the chamber of fifteen for the upper valley, and the chamber of eleven for the lower.

Here again are arrangements more complicated, and aristo- cratical preferences more decided, in order to counterpoise the democratical assembly, than any to be found in America, and the Land- Amman is as great a man in proportion as an Ameri- can governor. Is this a simple democracy ? Has this little clan of graziers been able to collect all authority into one cen- tre ? Are there not three assemblies here to moderate and balance each other? And are not the executive and judicial powers separated from the legislative ? Although its constitu- tion is not by any means so well digested as ten at least of those of the United States ; and although it would never be found capable of holding together a great nation, is it not a mixed government as much as any in America ? x

Glarus

GLARUS.

The canton of Glarus is a mountainous country, of eight miles long and four wide, according to native authors, per- haps intending thereby German miles ; but twenty-five miles in length and eighteen in breadth, according to some English accounts. The commerce of it is in cheese, butter, cattle, linen,

1 In 1816, this canton was regularly divided into two, each having its own form of government. The age of citizenship was advanced in both to twenty.

In the upper canton — the general assembly elects all the chief officers of the state by hand vote. It also chooses the deputy to the diet.

The council is composed of the chief officers and of sixty-five members chosen in the respective parishes, by hand vote. A father and a son cannot sit at the same time, nor two brothers.

The chief Land-Amman is chosen every year. The treasurer and inspector may be reelected. Some of the chief officers, however, serve for life.

In the lower canton — the general assembly elects all the chief officers; but only two of them, the treasurer and stadtholder, require confirmation annu- ally. Some of the officers require confirmation at the end of six years.

The legislative and executive authority is distributed in several bodies, most of which are based upon one consisting of fifty-eight members, elected in the respective communities.

The judicial power is also confided to tribunals, sometimes separate, and some- times formed from the executive bodies.

27*

318 ON GOVERNMENT.

and thread. Ten thousand cattle and four thousand sheep, pas- tured in summer upon the mountains, constitute their wealth.

The inhabitants live together in a general equality and most perfect harmony, even those of the different persuasions of catho- lics and protestants, who sometimes perform divine service in the same church, one after the other ; and all the offices of state are indifferently administered by both parties, though the protest- ants are more in number, and superior both in industry and commerce. All the houses are built of wood, large and solid, those of the richest inhabitants differing only from those of the poorer, as they are larger.

The police is well-regulated here, as it is throughout Switzer- land. Liberty does not degenerate into licentiousness. Liberty, independence, and an exemption from taxes, amply compensate for a want of the refinements of luxury. There are none so rich as to gain an ascendency by largesses. If they err in their counsels, it is an error of the judgment, and not of the heart. As there is no fear of invasion, and they have no conquests to make, their policy consists in maintaining their independence and preserving the public tranquillity. As the end of govern- ment is the greatest happiness of the greatest number, saving at the same time the stipulated rights of all, governments like these, where a large share of power is preserved by the people, deserve to be admired and imitated. It is in such governments that human nature appears in its dignity, — honest, brave, and generous.

Some writers are of opinion that SAvitzerlancl was originally ^-^ peopled by a colony of Greeks. The same greatness of soul, the £ same spirit of independence, the same love of country, has ani-

mated both the ancients and the moderns to that determined heroism which prefers death to slavery. Their history is full of examples of victories obtained by small numbers of men over large armies. /In 1388, the Austrians made an irruption into the territory of Giarus with an army of fifteen thousand men ; but, instead of conquering the country as they expected, in attacking about four hundred men posted on the mountains at Naefels, they were broken by the stones rolled upon them from the sum- mit; the Swiss, at this critical moment, rushed down upon them with such fury, as forced them to retire with an immense loss. Such will ever be the character of a people, who preserve

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 319

so large a share to themselves in their legislature, while they temper their constitution at the same time with an executive power in a chief magistrate, and an aristocratical power in a wise senate.

The government here is by no means entirely democratical. It is true, that the sovereign is the whole country, and the sove- reignty resides in the general assembly, where each male of six- teen, with his sword at his side, has his seat and vote. It is true that this assembly, which is annually held in an open plain, rati- fies the laws, lays taxes, enters into alliances, declares war, and makes peace.

But it has a first magistrate in a 'Land- Amman, who is the chief of the republic, and is chosen alternately from among the protestants and from among the catholics.1 The protestant remains three years in office ; the catholic two. The manner of his appointment is a mixture of election and lot. The people choose five candidates, who draw lots for the office.2 The other great officers of state are appointed in the same manner.

There is a council called a senate, composed of the Land- t, , . >/ Amman, a stadtholder, and sixty senators, forty-five protestants and fifteen catholics, all taken from fifteen tagwen or corvees, into which the three' principal quarters or partitions of the coun- try are subdivided for its more convenient government. In this senate, called the council of regency, the executive power resides.3 Each tagwen or corvee furnishes four senators ; besides the borough of Glarus, which furnishes six.4

1 Each sect has its separate assembly. That of the catholics is held at Naefels. That of the protestants at Schwamdeu, eight days before the meeting of the general assembly.

2 The stadtholder must, however, be named by that side to which the Land- Amman does not belong.

3 Each sect has also its particular council.

4 This would make a greater number than sixty. Some of the authorities speak of as many as eleven or twelve additional persons admitted in the same proportion as to their religious faith. The past Land-Ammans are also entitled to sit as members.

The council of Glarus published, in 1816, a memorial relating to the govern- ment of the canton, of which the following is an extract : —

" We have never had any constitutional forin for the canton drawn up in authentic shape. The custom of successive construction, followed for centuries, and the acts of agreement established between the two religious divisions, have gradually given birth to the constitution actually in being, and which, under divine providence, we desire to transmit unchanged to our descendants."

This was followed by a very brief recapitulation of principles, which was sent to the general diet to be recorded as the constitution of Glarus.

320 ON GOVERNMENT.

Instead of a, simple democracy, it is a mixed government, in which the monarchical power in the Land-Amman, stadtholder, or proconsul, the aristocratical order in the senate, and the democratical in the general assembly, are distinctly marked. It is, however, but imperfectly balanced ; so much of the executive power in an aristocratical assembly would be dangerous in the highest degree in a large state and among a rich people. | If this canton could extend its dominion, or greatly multiply its num- bers, it would soon find the necessity of giving the executive power to the Land- Amman, in order to defend the people against the senate ; for the senate, although it is always the reservoir of wisdom, is eternally the very focus of ambition.

zrr,.

The canton of Zug is small, but rich, and divided into moun- tains and plains. The sovereign is the city of Zug, and part of the country. It is divided into five quarters, which possess the sovereignty ; the city of Zug is two, and the country three, Men- zingen, Aegeri, and Baar. /The government is very complicated, h> QjJLt^ Vv£ and the sovereignty resides in the general assembly of the five quarters, where each male person of sixteen years of age has admittance and a voice.1 It assembles annually to enact laws and choose magistrates.2 Thus these five quarters make a body of a democratical republic, which commands the rest of the canton. They furnish alternately the Land-Amman, the head or chief of the state, who must always reside at Zug, with the regency of the country, although he is chosen by the suffrages of all the quarters collectively. He continues three years in office, when taken from the district of Zug, and but two when chosen from any of the others.

The council of regency, to whom the general administration of affairs is intrusted, is composed of forty senators, thirteen from the city, and twenty-seven from the country.3

1 The age is now nineteen.

2 This assembly ordinarily numbers three thousand citizens.

3 The constitution of Zug was remodelled in 1814, and some of the obnoxious features of unequal representation in the old system removed.

The canton is divided into two circles. The inner circle is composed of the

h

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 321

The city, moreover, has its chief, its council, and its officers apart, and every one of the other quarters has the same.

It is a total misapplication of words to call this govern- ment a simple democracy ; for, although the people are accounted for something, and indeed for more than in most other free go- vernments ; in other words, although it is a free republic, it is rather a confederation of four or five republics, each of which has its monarchical, aristocratical, and democratical branches, than a simple democracy. The confederation, too, has its three branches ; the general assembly, the regency of senators, and the Land- Amman; being different orders, tempering each other, as really as the house, council, and governor, in any of the United States of America.

URI.

The canton of Uri, the place of the birth and residence of "William Tell, shook off the yoke of Austria in 1308, and, with Schwitz and Underwald, laid the foundation of the perpetual alliance of the cantons, in 1315. The canton consists only of villages and little towns or bourgades, and the whole is divided into ten genossamen, or inferior communities. It has no city.

town and community of Zug, and of the communities of Cham, Hiineberg, Steinhausen, Risch, and Walchwyl.

The outer circle consists of the communities of Aegeri, upper and lower Men- zingen, Neuheim and Baar.

The cantonal, or executive council, is composed of fifty-four members, elected in the following proportion :

Inner Circle

Zug, . . . Cham and Hiineberg, Steinhausen, . Risch, Walchwyl,

Outer Circle.

11 Upper Aegeri, . . .5

9 Lower Aegeri, . . .4

2 Menzingen, . . 9

2 Baar, 9

3

27 27

The triple or legislative council is composed of the fifty-four members of the cantonal, and one hundred and eight others, all chosen annually by their respect- ive townships.

The Land-Amman is chosen for two years, alternately from each circle. He presides over both councils, there being no joint action.

The statthalter is chosen by the cantonal council for one year, and must reside in Zug.

The places of captain, banneret, and ensign are for life.

u

6-v f. Hi-

322 ON GOVERNMENT.

Altdorf, where the general assemblies are held, and the Land- Amman and regency reside, is the principal village.

The Land-Amman and the principal magistrates are elected in the general assembly, in which all the male persons of sixteen 1 years of age have a right to a seat and a vote.

The senate, or council of regency, in whom is vested the exe- cutive power, is composed of sixty members, taken equally from each genossamen, though they reside at the capital borough. From this council are taken all the necessary officers.2

There are two other councils; one called the chamber of seven, and the other the chamber of fifteen, for the management of lesser affairs.

The valley of Urseren, three leagues in length and one in breadth, marches under the banners of Uri; but it is but an ally, connected by treaty in 1410. It has its proper Land- Amman and council, and has also a bailiwick subject to it.

The village of Gersaw is a league in breadth, and two in length; there are about a thousand inhabitants. This is the smallest republic in ^Europe ; it has, however, its Land- Amman, its council of regency, and its general assembly of burgesses, its courts of justice and militia, although it is said there is not a single horse in the whole empire. Such a diminutive republic, in- an obscure corner, and unknown, is interesting to Americans, not only because every spot of earth on which civil liberty nourishes deserves their esteem; but, particularly, because it shows the impossibility of erecting even the smallest govern- ment, among the poorest people, without different orders, coun- cils, and balances.

Schwitz

SCHWITZ.

The canton of Schwitz has the honor of giving the name to the whole confederation, because the first battle for independency was fought there ; yet it consists only of villages divided into six quarters, the first of which is Schwitz, where the ordinary regency of the country resides. The sovereign is the whole

1 Now twenty years.

2 The district of Uri has ten communities ; that of Urseren has one. Each of these chooses four members to the council, which is composed besides of the chief officers elected by the general assembly.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 323

country ; that is to say, the sovereignty resides in the general assembly of the country, where all the males of sixteen years of age have a right of entry and suffrage.

Yet they have their Land- Amman,1 and their ordinary regency, at which the Land- Amman presides, composed of sixty counsel- ft (p lors, taken equally2 from the six districts. All the necessary officers are taken from this council.

There are, besides, the secret chamber, the chamber of seven, and the chamber of nine, for finance, justice, and police.

The Grisons

THE GRISONS.

In the republic of the three leagues of the Grisons, the sove- reign is all the people of a great part of the ancient Rhetia. This TT~ -y* C is called a democratical republic of three leagues. 1. The league of the Grisons. 2. The league Caddee.3 3. The league of Ten Jurisdictions. These three are united by the perpetual confede- ration of 1472, which has been several times renewed. The government resides sovereignly in the communities, where every thing is decided by the plurality of voices. These elect and instruct then deputies for the general diet, which is held once a year. Each league elects also its chief or president, who presides at the diets, each one in his league. The general diet assembles one year at Ilanz, in the league of the Grisons ; one year at sr~ Cone, in the league Caddee ; and one year at Davos, in the ~ league of Ten Jurisdictions. There is another ordinary assem- bly, composed of chiefs; and of three deputies from each league, which is held at Coire, in the month of January. Besides these regular assemblies, they hold congresses whenever the necessi- ties of the state require them ; sometimes of the chiefs alone ; sometimes of certain deputies from each league, according to the importance of the case. These assemblies are held at Cone. The three leagues form but one body in general affairs ; and,

1 And statthalter, elected biennially by the general assembly, by show of hands.

2 The sixty counsellors are chosen from the district of Schwitz alone. The five other districts send thirty more ; and these, with the chief officers chosen by the general assembly, are called the council.

There is another body, called the triple council, of two hundred and seventy members, with the chief officers. It assembles twice a year, and its duties are confined to tbe business of the federal diet.

3 Casa Dei, God's house.

324 ON GOVERNMENT.

although one league has more deputies than another, they count the voices without distinction of leagues.1 They conduct sepa- rately their particular affairs. Their country is thirty-five leagues in length and thirty in breadth.

Even in this happy country, where there is more equality than in almost any other, there are noble families, who, although they live like their neighbors by the cultivation of the earth, and think it no disgrace, are very proud of the immense antiquity of their descent, and boast of it, and value themselves upon it as much as Julius Csesar did, who "was descended from a goddess.2

1 The grand council is now composed of sixty-five members, chosen for a year. An executive council, of three persons, is chosen by the grand council, one

from the people at large of each league. These can serve but two years suc- cessively.

" The supreme authority is not absolutely and finally vested in the diet, but in the communities at large ; for, in all affairs of importance, such as declaring war, making peace, and imposing taxes, the deputies either bring positive instruc- tions from tfleir constituents, or refer those points, concerning which they have no instructions, to the decision of the several communities ; so that, in effect, the supreme power constitutionally resides in the body of the people, and not in their representatives at the diet." Coxe, Switzt viand, iii. p. 227.

2 " Corruption and'influence are not in any national parliament more conspi- cuous than in the diet of the Grisons. For although, in general, those deputies, annually chosen by every male of a stated age, are subject to be controlled in their votes by written orders from their constituents, yet they frequently contrive to elude this restriction. Sometimes the instructions are drawn up, with the consent of the community, under the sole direction of the deputy himself; at other times, an exemption from positive instructions, and the power of voting at his own pleasure, is purchased by the deputy from his constituents. Sometimes, again, the deputy, although he may not have interest sufficient to gain either of these points, has still sufficient address to get his instructions so obscurely worded as to admit a doubtful interpretation. ,

" By various intrigues of this kind, the greatest part of the deputies ultimately acquire the power of voting as they please ; and, as they chiefly obtain this power by corrupting their constituents, most of *them, in return, sell their vote to the leading members of the diet. For most questions are carried, and most causes decided by bribery." Coxe, iii. pp. 231-2.

" The corruption which prevailed in this Grison confederacy is known to have been great and universal. Ever since the treaty of Milan, in 1639, the influ- ence of Austria was predominant in all its concerns."

Brougham, Political Philosophy, pt. iii. p. 393.

" In treating of the democratical cantons in Switzerland, it is asserted, that their governments, and in particular that of Glarus, are not entirely democrati- cal ; for, though the sovereign is the whole country, and the sovereignty resides in the general assembly, yet it is a mixed government, in which the Land- Am- man, statthalter or proconsul, the aristocratical order in the senate, and the democratical in the general assembly, are distinctly marked.

" To this it may be observed that, if these governments are mixed, the sove- reignty is not so ; and it is from the formation or constitution of the sovereignty that one judges of the nature of a society, and classes it as monarchical, aris- tocratical, democratical, or mixed. The Land-Amman, statthalter, proconsul,

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 325

The United Provinces Of The Low Countries

THE UNITED PROVINCES OF THE LOW COUNTRIES.

There are in Friesland and Overyssell, and perhaps in the city of Dort, certain remnants of democratical powers, the frag- ments of an ancient edifice, which may possibly be reerected ;

or senate, is no part of the sovereignty in any of the Swiss cantons. They are not properly called the government, but are rather the administrators of govern- ment in the executive and judicial departments. Their powers are derived from the democratical part, and are subordinate to that part which is the sovereign alone, without any mixture, it should seem, of monarchy or aristocracy ; as neither the Land-Amman, statthalter, proconsul, or senate has any share in the making of the laws, imposing of taxes, forming of alliances, declaring war, or making of peace, which powers are vested in the democracy alone, and constitute the sovereign of the state.

" The officers in these governments and the senate (which acts merely officially and ministerially) are no checks to the assembly of the people ; but, on the contrary, are obliged to comply with and obey the democratic will expressed therein, as much as the bailiff or constable is obliged to do, and make no more a part of the sovereignty than does the lowest officer.

" If the various councils, committees, corporations, and officers, established for the public, or any particular service in subordinancy to the sovereign, are con- sidered as checks to, or making a part of it, there is no such government in the world as pure monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, for there are councils, com- mittees, &c. in all of them.

" Should, however, some of the Swiss cantons, particularly that of Glarus, be perfectly democratical, they are by no means models for the citizens of America. The forms of government which might maintain the peace and promote the happiness of those small districts, would be ineffectual to promote the happiness of the citizens of the United States, the extent of whose country, their temper, disposition to each other, eagerness for unlimited commerce, &c. require a differ- ent system. (

" If the reflections on what regards the supreme power of sovereignty are well ) . founded, they are applicable to several parts of this publication." S.

The remarks of the commentator are acute ; but they seem hardly to do ' justice to the meaning, much less to confute the reasoning of the author. He assumes, as a basis, a proposition wholly at variance with that adopted at the outset of this work, and which would change the classification made of forms of government. It is not, and cannot be, from the mere formation of the sove- reignty that a judgment can be made of the nature of a system ; inasmuch as such a rule would resolve all governments derived from the popular will into simple democracies, no matter how much the powers may have been distributed. It moreover leaves no room tor those mixed forms, in which many of the ancients and moderns perceive the greatest probability of duration and success.

The author, in his preliminary observations, takes a different point of depart- ure. He assumes, as a rule of judging the nature of a government, the extent to which the sovereign power is exclusively reserved or generally distributed. Thus, his idea of a pure democracy is the sway of numbers acting directly upon every subject involving the common interest of a community. This is the only case in which the sovereignty is completely reserved to the people. Such a simple democracy he maintains to be impracticable ; and, further, he denies that it can ever have existed.

As a consequence, the next step in his chain of reasoning, and one which his commentator appears to overlook, is, that the devolution of power to any man

VOL. IV. 28

326 ON GOVERNMENT.

but as there is nothing which favors M. Turgot's idea, I shall pass over this country for the present.

or body of men, Laving a recognized, independent, continuous existence for any period of time, is inconsistent with the idea of a simple democracy. "A simple democracy by representation," he says, " is a contradiction in terms." The same idea is more fully developed in the tenth number of the Federalist, written by Mr. Madison. It is laid down just as broadly by Filangieri : —

" Ma io demanderei a Polibio, che cosa intendera egli sotto il nome di demo- crazia semplice. Forse quella, nella quale il popolo enel tempo istesso legisla- tore, magistrate, senato, giudice, condottiero dell' esercito in tempo di guerra ? Se questa era secondo lui una semplice democratia, Pesistensa di questa specie di governo e un imposibile politico."

Power may, however, be distributed in two separate forms ; one, that of mere delegation, where all discretion is reserved from the agent employed to do certain specific and commanded acts ; the other, that of representation, in which a general trust is conferred to act for the best interests of those represented. It is the presence of the last form which makes the characteristic feature of a republic. In the United States much confusion of ideas prevails on this subject, which is the origin of a good deal of the party violence of the times. The true distinction is generally well laid down in the sixth chapter of the third part of t Lord Brougham's Political Philosophy, page 33.

It only remains in this connection to test the argument of the commentator by an appeal to the constitution of Glarus, upon 'which he rests for support. It appears that the general assembly or body of the people, in which the sovereignty resides, ordinarily meets only once a year. On the other hand, it elects the Amman, or chief executive magistrate, but twice in five years. Here is a clear grant of power for a long term. Next comes the senate or council, chosen annually, but not in the general assembly. The members represent the several smaller communities, organized upon a distribution of power differing from that centered in the mass. They exercise all the usual legislative, with some execu- tive and judicial powers, subject, however, to a single restriction. Every law passed must be submitted for ratification to the general assembly. None can be proposed to the latter body, which has not been subjected to the ordeal of the senate at least a month beforehand, and upon which the sense of that body has not been taken. From all which, it is plain that great trusts, beyond that of mere agency, are necessarily created, subject only to the supervision of the people in their annual assembly. These must, in practice, materially limit the exercise of their sovereignty.

It would seem, then, to be clear, that the single fact of the democratic origin of power distributed in any form of government does not invalidate the position of the author, which excepts it from the scope of his definition of a simple demo- cracy, where power is never supposed to go out of its hands. In truth, if a judg- ment were to be made of forms solely from their outward show, the most complete democracy among the Swiss republics would not seem to be Glarus. The reduc- tion of power to its first elements, the township or local community, is carried further in the Grisons than anywhere else. The principle of representation is not acknowledged ; inasmuch as every delegate to the diet is denied the right of exercising the smallest discretion, and is bound to act in every instance as the instructed agent of his employers. The age at which men vote is regulated in each community. In many it is fixed at fourteen years. The diet is a federal, rather than a representative assembly, in which the chief of each of the three leagues forming the confederacy presides in his turn. And these three chiefs, in conjunction with a commission of nine persons, equally selected from each league, constitute all of the executive power established.

There is nothing in appearance so democratic as this in any form adopted in

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 327

the United States. Yet it is admitted that the practical working of the system is somewhat aristocratic. From whence it may be observed, that those who look at the mere theory of any government, without paying close attention to the modes of thought, the feelings, the manners, and the customs of a community, which do much the most to determine its character, will always be liable to com- mit great mistakes. Thus it is with the present instance in another remarkable particular. The strict jealousy of all delegated power shown among the Grisons would at first sight appear likely to secure the greatest degree of purity in all their agents. The fact is notorious, nevertheless, that the system is one of the most corrupt ever established. In some cases, the delegate has been known to buy his post, by a regular and specified payment of money to every voter. He, in his turn, sells his vote to some leading person at home, or to a government abroad. In this way, the Austrian government has heretofore exercised great sway over the canton, and directed its policy. The administration of justice, unfortunately, partakes of the corruption thus established in politics. Such an example would seem to furnish new arguments in support of the author's theory of the necessity of balancing powers.

CHAPTER II. ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS.

CHAPTER II.

Aristocratic Republics. The Canton Of Bern

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS.

THE CANTON OF BERN.

It is scarcely possible to believe that M. Turgot, by collecting all authority into one centre, could have intended an aristocrati- cal assembly. He must have meant, however, a simple form of government of some kind or other ; and there are but three kinds of simple forms, democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. As we have gone through most, if not all, the governments in Europe in which the people have any share, it will throw much light upon our subject if we proceed to the aristocracies and oli- garchies ; for we shall find all these under a necessity of esta- blishing orders, checks, and balances, as much as the democra- cies. As the people have been always necessitated to establish monarchical and aristocratical powers, to check themselves from rushing into anarchy, so have aristocratical bodies ever been obliged to contrive a number of divisions of their powers to check themselves from running into oligarchy. •

The canton of Bern has no other sovereign than the single CqKjU c^y °f ?ern: The sovereignty resides in the grand council,

which has the legislative power arid the power of making peace, war, and alliances, and is composed of two hundred counsellors and ninety-nine assessors, the election of whom is made, by the seizeniers and the senate, from the citizens, from whom they are supposed virtually to derive their power ; but a general assembly of the citizens is never called together, on any occasion, or for any purpose, not even to lay taxes, nor to make alliances or war. To be eligible into the grand council, one must be a citizen of Bern, member of one of the societies or tribes, and at least in the thirtieth year of his age.

The executive power is delegated by the grand council to the senate or little council, which is composed of twenty-seven per-

?5t

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 329

sons, including the two avoyers or chiefs of the republic, the two treasurers of the German country and of the Pays de Vaud, and the four bannerets or commanders of the militia, taken from the first four tribes, for the four districts of the city.1 Vacancies in this senate are filled up by a complicated mixture of ballot and lot ; twenty-six balls, three of which are gold, are drawn out of a box by the several senators ; those who draw the golden ones nominate three electors out of the little council ; in the same manner, seven members are designated from the grand council, who nominate seven electors from their body ; these ten nomi- nate ten candidates to be voted for in the grand council ; the four of these who have the most votes, draw each of them a ball out of a box, which has in it two of gold and two of silver ; the two who draw the gold are voted for in the grand council, and he who has the most votes is chosen, provided he be married, and has been ten years in the grand council.

Vacancies in the grand council are filled up at certain periods of about ten years, and two new members are appointed by each avoyer, one by each seizenier and senator, and two or three others by other officers of state ; if there are more vacancies, they are filled by the election of the seizeniers and senators.

The seizeniers, who have this elective power, are drawn by lot from among those members of the grand council who have held the office of bailiffs, and who have finished the term of their administration. The bannerets and seizeniers have, by the con- stitution, an authority, for three days in Easter, resembling that of the censors in ancient Rome, and may deprive any member of either council of his place ; but, as their sentence must be confirmed by the great council, they never exercise their power. There are six noble families at Bern, who enjoy the precedence of all the other senators although more ancient members, and have rank immediately after the bannerets.

The principal magistrates are, the two avoyers, who hold their offices for life; the two treasurers, who continue for six years ; and the four bannerets, who remain only four. The avoyers

1 The senate is now elected by the grand council, and is subject to annual confirmation.

The members of the great council are also subject to annual confirmation.

The operation of this is to make the will of the majority of the latter body almost absolute.

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330 ON GOVERNMENT.

officiate alternately a year ; and the reigning avoyer, although he presides in council, in an elevated seat under a canopy, and has the public seal before him, has no vote, except in cases of equal divisions, and never gives his opinion unless it is required. The avoyer, out of office, is the first senator and president of the secret council.

The secret council is composed of the avoyer out of office, the four bannerets, the two treasurers, and two other secret counsel- lors taken from the senate. In this body all affairs that require secrecy, — and some of these are of great importance, — are de- bated and determined.

The grand council assembles and deliberates by its own authority at stated times, and superintends all affairs, although the most important are delegated generally to the senate. The whole administration is celebrated for its uncommon modera- tion, precision, and despatch.1

There are seventy -two bailiwicks, distributed in four classes,

1 The government of Bern, though extremely aristocratic in its character, seems until lately to have been satisfactory to the great mass of the people. The doc- trines of the French revolution excited little sympathy, and the invasion which followed was resisted by the whole nation, although feebly seconded by the govern- ment itself. The old system was overturned by the French power, which imposed upon the people a new one. The people of Switzerland were ordered by Gene- ral Brune, at the head of thirty thousand French troops, to enjoy a free govern- ment, " one and indivisible." It was not until after the general settlement of Europe, in 1816, that any part of the old form was permanently reestablished. Certain modifications were then introduced, all of them of a popular character, without matei'ially changing the nature of the government. Yet, as they serve to show the progress of liberal principles, it may not be • without use to point them out.

The right of citizenship in the town, carrying with it eligibility to the grand council, is opened to the citizens of the country.

The country is admitted to a share of the administration, being entitled to ninety-nine members of the grand council, the city retaining two hundred.

Of these ninety-nine members, the towns have the right of choosing seventeen. The election is made by the magistrates, and not by the people.

The country districts have the right of choosing seventy more. The eleetion is made by electoral colleges, especially organized for the purpose, but not dis- tinctly provided for in the constitution.

The remaining twelve are chosen by the grand council itself, on the nomina- tion of the little council and the committee of sixteen. The motive assigned for this reservation is, " to equalize any disproportion of representation which may happen from the preceding division, as well as to consider persons who, either in public employments, in high military posts, or in scientific pursuits, may have distinguished themselves, and deserved well of their country."

The two hundred members of the city are chosen by the little council and a committee of sixteen taken from the larger body. This smaller body forms a list of candidates over the age of twenty-five. At each vacancy, the eldest on this

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 331

comprehending a country of sixty leagues in length, or a third part of all Switzerland, subject to this city. The bailiffs are appointed by lot from the grand council. They were formerly chosen, but this method, rendering all the members dependent upon a few, who had the most influence, had too strong a tendency to an oligarchy. The bailiwicks are the most profita- ble places, and are filled from the grand council. The bailiffs live in much splendor, and are able to lay up two or three thou- sand pounds sterling a year, besides discharging all their ex- penses. They represent the sovereign authority, put the laws in execution, collect the revenues, and act as judges in civil and criminal causes. An appeal lies to Bern, in civil causes to the courts of justice, and in criminal to the senate ; but as the judges on appeal are persons who either have been or expect to be bail- iffs, there is great reason to be apprehensive of partiality.

There is no standing army, but every male of sixteen is enrolled in the militia, and obliged to provide himself a uniform, a musket, powder, and ball ; and no peasant is allowed to marry without producing his arms and uniform. The arms are in- spected every year, and the men exercised. There are arsenals of arms at Bern, and in every bailiwick, sufficient for the militia of the district, and a sum of money for three months' pay. The dragoons are chosen from the substantial farmers, who are obliged to provide their own horses and accoutrements. There is a council of war, of which the avoyer out of place is president in peace ; in war, a general is appointed to command all the forces of the state.

There is a political seminary for the youth, called the exterior state, which is a miniature of the whole government. The young men assemble and go through all the forms ; they have their grand council, senate, avoyers, treasurers, bannerets, seize- niers, &c. ; the post of avoyer is sought with great assiduity. They debate upon political subjects, and thus improve then- list is admitted. The qualifications are, — that he be over twenty-nine years of age, of good character, possessed of a certain amount of property, or have served the country five years.

In the course of the violent ^nvulsions of the last century, the territory of Bern has undergone some change. It lost the northern part, which was joined to the canton of Aargau, and the southwestern part, or the Pays de Vaud, has been made into a new canton of that name. On the other hand, by the decree of the Congress of Vienna, a large part of the former bishopric of Basle was annexed to it, with the city and territory of Bienne.

332 °N GOVERNMENT.

talents by exercise, and become more capable of serving the public in future life.1

The nobility in this country are haughty, and much averse to mixing in company, or any familiar conversation with the com- mon people ; the commons are taught to believe the nobles supe- riors, whose right it is to rule ; and they believe their teachers, and are very willing to be governed.

Fribourg

FRIBOURG.

The canton of Fribourg is aristocratical, not having more than forty families who can have any part in the government. These all live very nobly ; that is to say, without commerce, manufactures, or trades.

The sovereignty and legislative authority reside in the coun- cil of two hundred persons, composed of the two avoyers, who o_o are for life ; twenty-two counsellors ; four bannerets ; sixty other counsellors, from whom the twenty-four who compose the senate, in which resides the executive power, are taken when they are to be replaced; and, one hundred and twelve others, whom they call the grand senate of two hundred.

The two avoyers are elected by the plurality of suffrages of all the citizens. They hold their offices for life, and preside alter- nately a year. The twenty-two counsellors are also for life, and are designated by lot, as well as the bannerets, whose charges continue but three years. The sixty also are nominated by lot, and are drawn from the hundred and twelve, called the two hun- dred. These last come forward in the state by the presentation and nomination of the secret chamber, composed of twenty-four, besides the bannerets, who are the chiefs of it. This chamber, which is sovereign, besides the right of nomination to the state, has alone that of correction and of proposing regulations.

The two avoyers, the twenty-two counsellors, and the "four

1 A Berne, il y a un exercice bien singulier pour les jeunes patriciens qui sortent du college. C'est ce qu'on appelle l'etat exterieur. C'est une copie en petit de tout ce qui compose le gouvernement de la republique. Un senat, des avoyers, des officiers, des huissiers, des orateufs, des causes, des jugemens, des solemnites. L'etat exterieur a menie un petit gouvernement et quelques rentes, et cette institution, autorisee et protegee par le souverain, est la pepiniere des hommes d'etat qui dirigeront un jour les affaires publiques dans les niSmes emplois qu'ils n'exercent d'abord que par jeu." Rousseau, Considerations sur le Gouvernement de Pologne.

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 333

bannerets, form the little senate, which hears and determines civil causes, and assembles every day.

The affairs of state are carried before the grand senate of two hundred.

The tribes are corporations of tradesmen, who have no part in government, and who assemble in the abbays, only for the affairs of their occupations, and all their statutes are approved or rejected by the senate.

There are thirty-one bailiwicks subject to this canton. The method of determining the members of the little senate and secret council is another check. The names of the candidates in nomination are placed in a box, containing as many parti- tions as there are persons ; the ballots are thrown into this box by the electors, without knowing how the names are placed; and the candidate whose name occupies the division, which receives by accident the most ballots, has the lot. This is to guard against the influence of families ; for, among those few families from which alone any candidate can be taken, some have more influence than others. The canton contains sixty-six thousand souls. Its land produces good pasture, some corn, and little wine ; it has no commerce, and not much literaturei-fr It f ^~ has more troops in foreign service than any other canton in pro- portion. As the rivers and lakes have a direct communication with the sea, they might have a valuable commerce ; but as none of the persons concerned in government can be merchants, no commerce can ever be in fashion, except that of their noble blood to foreign sovereigns. It is no doubt much to the honor of their fidelity and valor to be chosen so generally to be the life- guards of princes ; but whether they can vindicate such a traffic upon principles of justice, humanity, or policy, from the imputa- tion of a more mercenary spirit than that of ordinary commerce, is for them to consider. The conservation of the oligarchy, how- ever^ is entirely owing to this custom ; for a youthful, fiery nobi- lity, at home in idleness, would necessarily become ambitious of popularity, and either procure, by intrigues and insurrections, a greater share of importance to the people, or set up one of the greatest genius and enterprise among them for a despot. In foreign service they exhaust then- restless years, and return, after the death of their fathers, fatigued with dissipation, to enjoy then* honors and estates ; to support those laws which are so

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334 ON GOVERNMENT.

partial to their wishes ; and to reassume the manly simplicity of manners of their native country.

|

Soleure

SOLEURE.

The canton of Soleure, seven leagues in breadth and twelve in length, contains fifty thousand souls, and the patrician families are in quiet possession of all the public offices. The sovereign is the city of Soleure ; and the sovereignty resides in the grand council, consisting of two avoyers, who preside alternately, and whose election depends upon the council, and all the citizens in general, who are divided into eleven tribes ; of twenty-three of the thirty-three senators taken from the tribes, each of which furnishes three ; and of sixty-six members who represent the citizens, and are taken also from the tribes in equal numbers, namely, six from each tribe.1

The senate is composed of the two avoyers, and the thirty- three senators taken from the tribes, making thirty-five in all, who are called the little council, conduct the affairs of state, and judge causes, civil and criminal. The two councils make to- gether the number of one hundred, without computing the avoyer in office, who presides in chief. This body, named the grand council, makes laws and statutes; treats of alliances, peace, and war ; decides appeals in the last resort ; elects the treasurer, the fourth in rank in the estate, and the exterior bailiffs. The thirty-three senators consist of eleven alt-raths or senior

1 The constitution of Soleure lias undergone some change since this was written.

The grand council, or legislative body, chooses its own members, thirty-five out of the one hundred and one directly ; of whom twenty-four must represent the city, and eleven for the country.

The remaining sixty-six are to be selected from a list of candidates, treble the number to be chosen, presented by an electoral college of fifteen, organized by lot for the purpose, in each of the respective tribes or districts to which the representation is apportioned.

The little council, or executive body, consists of twenty-one members, chosen from the larger body, and containing a part of it. One member must be taken for each of the eleven tribes of the city, four from the country, and the rest at large.

At intervals of eight years, a body of fifteen members is constituted by lot to decide the question, whether a new election of the little council shall take place. If a majority decide in the affirmative, their decision is then submitted to the grand council ; and if two thirds of that assembly approve, they then proceed to a new election.

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 335

counsellors, and twenty-two junk-raths or juniors. Upon the removal, by death, of one of the alt-raths, the eldest of the junk- if) "i raths succeeds him, and this vacancy is filled out of the great council, by election of the eleven alt-raths. From among the alt-raths, the two avoyers, the banneret, and the treasurer, the four principal magistrates of the commonwealth, are chosen ; and on the death of an avoyer, the banneret succeeds to his place, after having gone through the formality of a nomination by the general assembly of citizens. Vacancies in the grand council are supplied by the alt-raths, from the same tribe to which the de- ceased member belonged. There is an annual meeting of the whole body of the citizens, in which the avoyers and banneret are confirmed in their' places ; the senior and junior counsellors, at the same time, mutually confirm each other.1 All these con- firmations are matters of course, and mere form. All other public employments are disposed of by the senate.

The revenues of the public and salaries of officers are very considerable, and afford the few distinguished families very pro- fitable emoluments. The grand sautier is annually elected, by all the citizens. There are several tribunals and chambers, — the secret council, formed of the two avoyers, the banneret, the /V^, "J" ?Z. & treasurer, the most ancient of the senators of the first order, or alt-raths, the secretary of state, and attorney-general; the council of war ; the council of justice, which is composed of six members of the little council, and eleven members of the grand council, one of whom is furnished by each tribe ; the grand sautier presides in it, instead of the avoyer in office ; the consistory and the chamber of orphans. This canton has a large country sub- ject to it, comprehending eleven bailiwicks.

The soil is extremely fertile ; yet there is a want of hands for //^ J agriculture, and population decreases ; although commodious! y situated for commerce, they have none. These circumstances are enough to show' the blessings of a government by a few noble families. They show another thing, still more curious, to ,

1 The most important change made in the government is found in the aboli- tion of all distinctions between the old and new bia-ghers, and in the extension of the mutual privilege of gaining citizenship among the respective tribes in city and country.

The qualifications for election to the council are, that a man be twenty-four years of age ; that he be dependent on no one for wages or bread ; that he have a certain amount of property ; and that he be a native or a citizen of ten years' standing.

336 ON GOVERNMENT.

wit, — the consequence of mixing the nobles and commons together. The latter have been led to reduce their own constitu- tional share in the government to a mere form, and complaisantly to resign all the substance into the hands of those whom they think their natural superiors; and this will eternally happen, sooner or later, in every country in any degree considerable for extent, numbers, or wealth, where the whole legislative and executive power are in one assembly, or even in two, if they have not a third power to balance them.

Let us by no means omit, that there is a grand arsenal at Soleure, as there is at Bern, well stored with arms, in propor- tion to the number of inhabitants in the canton, and ornamented with the trophies of the valor of their ancestors.

Nor should it be forgotten, that a defensive alliance has sub- sisted between France and several of these cantons for more than a century, to the great advantage of both. These republic- ans have found in that monarchy a steady, faithful, and generous friend. In 1777, the alliance was renewed in this city of Soleure, where the French ambassador resides, and extended to all the cantons. In the former treaty an article was inserted, that, if any dissensions should arise between the cantons, his majesty should, at the request of one of the parties, interpose his medi- ation, by all gentle means, to bring about a reconciliation ; but if these should fail, he should compel the aggressor to fulfil the treaties between the cantons and their allies. As this article was manifestly incompatible with that independence which republicans ought to value above all things, it has been wisely omitted in the new treaty ; and it would have become the dignity of the Swiss character to have renounced equally those pensions, which are called Argents de Paix et d 'Alliance, as inconsistent, not only with a republican spirit, but with that equality which ought to be the foundation of an alliance.

Lucerne

LUCERNE.

The canton of Lucerne comprehends a country of sixteen leagues long and eight wide, containing fifteen bailiwicks, besides several cities, abbeys, monasteries, signories, &c. The inhabit- ants are almost wholly engaged in agriculture and the export- ation of their produce. Their commerce might be greatly aug-

H7-

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 337

mented, as the river Reuss issues from the lake, passes through the town, and falls into the Rhine.

The city contains less than three thousand souls, has no manu- factures, little trade, and no encouragement for learning ; yet the sovereign is this single city, and the sovereignty resides in the little and great council, having for chiefs two avoyers, who are alternately regents. There are five hundred citizens in the ff£ ^£# town, from whom a council of one hundred are chosen, who are nominally the sovereignty ; out of this body are formed the two divisions, the little council, senate, or council of state, consisting of thirty-six- members, divided into two equal parts, of eighteen each, one of which makes choice of the other every half year. The whole power is actually exercised by this body, the two divisions of which administer the government by turns. They are subject to no control ; are neither confirmed by the sovereign council nor by the citizens ; the division which retires confirm- ing that which comes in. As the vacancies in the senate are filled up by themselves, all power is in possession of a few patri- cian families. The son succeeds the father, and the brother his brother.

The grand council consists of sixty-four persons, taken from the citizens, who are said to have their privileges ; but it is hard to guess what they are, as the elections are made by the little and great council conjointly.1

The -administration, the police, the finances, and the whole executive power is in the senate, which is constantly sitting.

1 The government of Lucerne has undergone changes, although none which materially alter the principle at its foundation. The most important is the extension of the right of election of members of the great council of one hun- dred, so that fifty are taken from the burghers of the city, and fifty from the country. Of these, thirty-one are chosen by the citizens of the respective towns or districts to which they are apportioned ; the remaining sixty-nine are chosen by the council itself. They hold their places for life.

The smaller or daily council is composed of thirty-six members, at least ten of them from the country. They nominate persons to fill their own vacancies from members of the grand council, which nominations are confirmed by the latter body. They form a part of the greater council.

This daily council, with the two avoyers, constitute the acting body ; but all laws prepared by it must be submitted to the larger body for ratification.

All elections are by ballot, and an absolute majority is necessary to make a choice.

The qualifications of voters are, that they be twenty years of age ; have a small property; have suffered no infamous punishment; have made no insol- vency injurious to creditors.

VOL. IV. 29 V

fo(

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338 ON GOVERNMENT.

The grand council is assembled only upon particular occasions, for the purpose of legislation. The senate has cognizance of criminal causes ; but in capital cases, the grand council is con- Jf1 voked to pronounce sentence ; in civil causes an appeal lies from the senate to the grand council ; but these appeals can be but mere forms, the same senators being in both courts.

As the senate constitutes above a third of the grand council, chooses its own members, confers all employments, has the nomination to ecclesiastical benefices, and two thirds of the revenues of the canton belonging to the clergy, its influence must be uncontrollable.1

The two avoyers are chosen from the senate by the council of one hundred, and are confirmed annually. The relations of the candidates are excluded from voting ; but all such checks against influence and family connections in an oligarchy are futile, as all V laws are ciphers. There are also certain chambers of justice and police.

In some few instances, such as declaring war and making peace, forming alliances, or imposing taxes, the citizens must be assembled and give their consent, which is one check upon the \ power of the nobles.

Zurich

ZURICH.

The canton of Zurich contains one hundred and fifty thou- sand souls, upon an area of forty miles by thirty, and abounds in corn, wine, and all the ordinary productions of excellent pastures. Literature has been encouraged, and has constantly flourished in this country, from the time of Zuinglius to that of Gesner and Lavater. The inhabitants are industrious, their manufac- tures considerable, and their commerce extensive.

In the city is a public granary, an admirable resource against scarcity; and a magnificent arsenal, well filled with cannon, arms, and ammunition, particularly muskets for thirty thousand men, the armor of the old Swiss warriors, and the bow and

1 The qualifications for the grand council are, over and above the preceding, the age of twenty-five ; and, in default of the requisite property, some valuable service to the state.

A father and son, or two brothers, cannot be members of the daily council at the same time.

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 339

arrow with which William Tell shot the apple on the head of

his son :

" Who with the generous rustics sate, On Uri's rocks, in close divan, And winged that arrow, sure as fate, Which ascertained the sacred rights of man."

The sovereign is the city of Zurich. The sovereignty resides in the two burgomasters, in the little council, composed of forty- eight members, and the grand council, composed of one hundred and sixty-two members ; all taken from thirteen tribes, one of which is of the nobles, and the other twelve of citizens.

Although there are twelve thousand souls in the capital, and one hundred and fifty in the canton, there are not more than two thousand citizens. In early times, when the city had no territory round it, or a small one, the citizens were in possession of the government ; when they afterwards made additions, by conquest or purchase, they still obstinately held this power, and excluded all their new subjects. It is a hundred and fifty years 7 0 since a new citizen has been admitted; besides electing all the magistrates, and holding all offices, they have maintained a monopoly of commerce, and excluded all strangers, and even subjects of the canton, frqm conducting any in the town. Such are commons, as well as nobles and princes, whenever they have power unchecked in their hands!1

There is, even in this commercial republic, a tribe of nobles, who consider trade as a humiliation.

The legislative authority is vested in the grand council of two hundred and twelve, including the senate.

The senate consists of twenty-four tribunes and four counsel- lors, chosen by the nobles ; to these are added twenty, elected by the sovereign council, making in all, with the two burgomas- ters, fifty ; 2 half of them administer six months, and are then

1 The exclusive character of this system has been very much changed. The right of election is extended to the population of the whole canton, divided into sixty-five tribes, the number of representatives being apportioned, as nearly as possible, to the number of citizens. The city of Zurich chooses two for each of the thirteen tribes ; the tribe of Winterthur chooses five ; and each of the fifty- one remaining tribes chooses one. The grand council chooses the rest, one hun- dred and thirty in number.

2 The senate now consists of only twenty-five chosen from and by the great council. The members of both bodies hold their places for six years, one third going out every two years.

There is, in addition, another council composed of the two burgomasters and

/•*

ef

w

7

340 ON GOVERNMENT.

succeeded by the rest. The burgomasters are chosen annually by the sovereign council, and one of them is president of each division of the senate, which has the judicial power in criminal matters, without appeal, and in civil, with an appeal to the grand council.

The members of the senate are liable to be changed, and there is an annual revision of them, which is a great restraint.

The state is not only out of debt, but saves money every year, against any emergency. By this fund they supported a war in 1712 without any additional taxes. There is not a carriage in the town, except it be of a stranger.

Zurich has great influence in the general diet, which she derives more from her reputation for integrity and original Swiss independence of spirit, than from her power.

Schaffhause

SCHAFFHAUSE.

The sovereign is the city of Schaffhause. The citizens, about sixteen hundred, are divided into twelve tribes, one of which consists of nobles, and eleven are ordinary citizens.

The sovereignty resides in the little and grand councils.

The senate, or little council of twenty-five, has the executive power.

The great council, comprising the senate, has the legislative, and finally decides appeals.

The burgomasters are the chiefs of the republic, and alter- nately preside in both councils.

Besides these there are, the secret council of seven of the highest officers ; the chamber of justice, of twenty -five, including the president ; the praetorian chamber, of thirteen, including the president ; the consistory, of nine ; and the chamber of accounts, of nine. The city has ten bailiwicks subject to it.1

of five members of the senate, elected by the grand council, which has the man- agement of the foreign affairs.

,' This organization is done away by the constitution adopted in 1814. A provision is therein made for a revision by the two bodies once in twelve years.

A material omission in this account is, that the councils were elective. Since this was written, however, a great change has taken place.

The canton is now divided into twenty-four tribes, of which twelve are of the city and twelve of the country.

Burghers and their sons of age are entided to vote in the city, and all over twenty in the country.

The great council is composed of seventy-four members. Each tribe of the

AKISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 341

The City Of Mulhouse

THE CITY OF MULHOUSE.

The sovereign is the city ; the sovereignty resides in the little and the grand council. The lesser council is composed of twenty- four persons, namely, — three burgomasters who preside by turns, each one six months, nine counsellors, and twelve tribunes, who succeed by election, and are taken from the grand council.

The grand council is composed of seventy-eight, namely, — . ^

the twenty-four of the lesser council, thirty-six members of the -L- / ' tribes, six from each, and eighteen taken from the body of the citizens, and elected three by each of the six tribes.

The City Op Bienne

THE CITY OP BIENNE.

y/s"

The republic of Bienne contains less than six thousand souls. y / ^

The regency is composed of the great council, in which the legislative authority resides, consisting of forty members ; and of the little council, composed of twenty-four, who have the execu- tive.

Each of these councils elect its own members from the six confraternities of the city.

The burgomaster is chosen by the two councils, presides at their meetings, and is the chief of the regency ; he continues in 1/ / & office for life, although he goes through the form of an annual confirmation by th6 two councils, when the other magistrates submit to the same ceremony. The burgomaster keeps the seal, and, with the banneret, the' treasurers, and the secretary, forms the economical chamber and the chamber of orphans.

This town sends deputies to the general diets, ordinary and extraordinary.1

city chooses four, the town of Stein four, and each of the tribes in the country two.

The little council is composed of twenty-four members. They make a part of the grand council, and are chosen one by each of the city tribes and by the town of Stein, making one of the four already enumerated in the grand council ; the country members of the grand council select five more from among themselves, and the grand council in like manner elects the. remaining six. They serve four years.

The burgomasters are elected by the grand council from the members of the little council.

1 By the act of the congress of Vienna, the city and territory of Bienne was annexed and made a part of the canton of Bern.

29*

342 ON GOVERNMENT.

The Republic Of St. Gall

THE REPUBLIC OF ST. GALL.

The republic of St. Gall is a league and a half in circum- ference, and contains nine thousand souls. The inhabitants are very industrious in manufactures of linen, muslin, and embroid- ery, have an extensive commerce, and arts, sciences, and litera- ture are esteemed and cultivated among them. They have a remarkable public library, in which are thirteen volumes of origi- nal manuscript letters of the first reformers. To see the different effects of different forms of government on the human character, and the happiness and prosperity of nations, it would be worth while to compare this city with Constance, in its neighborhood.

This happy and prosperous, though diminutive republic, has its grand council of ninety persons, its little council of twenty- four, and three burgomasters. The little council consists of the three burgomasters, nine senators, and twelve tribunes. The grand council consists of all the little council, and eleven persons from each tribe ; for the city is divided into the society of the nobles and six tribes of the artisans, of whom the weavers are the principal.1

Besides these, there are the chamber of justice, the chamber of five, and some others.*

* Let me add here, that the facts relating to the Swiss cantons and their envi- rons, are taken from Quarante Tables Politiqites de la Suisse, par C. E. Faber, Bernois, Pasteur a Bishviller, in 1746; with some additional observations from the beautiful Sketches of Mr. Coxe, which are as instructive as they are enter- taining.

1 By the act of the congress of Vienna, St. Gall was constituted a canton, and its constitution confirmed. By this constitution the territory was divided into eight districts and subdivided into forty-four circles.

The grand council consists of one hundred and fifty members, of whom eighty- four are of the catholic, and sixty-six of the reformed faith. They serve for three years, one third going out every year. One hundred of the number are chosen by the people, fifty-one directly, forty-nine through the intervention of electoral colleges ; the remaining fifty are selected by the council itself from a triple list of candidates nominated by a special board.

The little council consists of nine members of the great council, elected by that body to serve for nine years, one third going out every three years.

Two persons, one a catholic, the other a protestant, are chosen biennially from the little council to serve as Land-Ammans. They preside in the councils.

It is proper to add, that since the revolution of 1830, in France, many of the aristocratic forms in Switzerland have been impaired, if not entirely overturned. But the great topic of interest has been a proposed modification of the federal system, which, if adopted, would materially affect the independence of the smaller cantons. This does not, however, come within the scope of the present work.

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 343

Geneva

GENEVA.

In the republic of Geneva the sovereignty resides in the gene- ral council, lawfully convened, which comprehends all the orders of the state, and is composed of four syndics, chiefs of the republic, presidents of all the councils ; of the lesser council of twenty -five ; of the grand council of two hundred, though it con- sists of two hundred and fifty when it is complete ; and of all the citizens of twenty-five years of age. The rights and attri- butes of all these orders of the state are fixed by the laws. The history of this city deserves to be studied with anxious attention by every American citizen. The principles of government, the necessity of various orders, and the fatal effects of an imperfect balance, appear nowhere in a stronger ligh't. The fatal slumbers of the people, their invincible attachment to a few families, and the cool, deliberate rage of those families, if such an expression may be allowed, to grasp all authority into their own hands, when they are not controlled or overawed by a power above them in a first magistrate, are written in every page.*

The petty council is indifferently called the council of twenty- Jive, the petit council, or the senate.

The council of sixty is a body elected by the senate, and meets only for the discussion of foreign affairs.

The grand council and council of two hundred are one and the same body ; it is still called the council of two hundred, though it now consists of two hundred and fifty members.

The general council, called indiscriminately the sovereign council, the general assembly, the sovereign assembly, the assem- bly of the people, or the council general, is composed of all the citizens or freemen of twenty -five years of age.

At the time of the Reformation, every affair, important or trifling, was laid before the general assembly ; it was both a deliberating and acting body, that always left the cognizance of details to four syndics ; this was necessary, in that time of dan- ger, to attach the affections of the citizens to the support of the commonwealth by every endearing tie. The city was governed

* To prove this, I need only refer to the Historical and Political View of the Constitution and Revolutions of Geneva in the Eighteenth Century, by F. D'lver-

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nois.

344

ON GOVERNMENT.

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by two syndics of its own annual election. The multiplicity of affairs had engaged each syndic to nominate some of the princi- pal citizens to serve as assessors during his administration ; these assessors, called counsellors, formed a council of twenty-five per- sons. In 1457, the general council decreed that the council of twenty-five should be augmented to sixty. This body, in 1526, was augmented to two hundred.

Thus far the aristocratical gentlemen proceeded upon demo- cratical principles, and all is done by the general assembly. At this instant commences the first overt act of aristocratical ambi- tion. Warm in their seats, they were loath to leave them, or hold them any longer at the will of the people. With all the subtlety and all the sagacity and address which is characteristic of this order of men, in every age and nation, they prevailed on the people to relinquish for the future the right of electing counsel- lors in the general assembly ; and the people, with their charac- teristic simplicity and unbounded confidence in their rulers when they love them, became the dupes, and passed a law, that the two councils should for the future elect, or at least approve and affirm, each other. This is a natural and unavoidable effect of doing all things in one assembly, or collecting all authority into one centre. When magistrates and people meet in one assem- bly, the former will forever do as they please, provided they pro- ceed with any degree of prudence and caution.

The consequence was, that the annual reviews were a farce. Only in a very few instances, and for egregious faults, were any excluded ; and the two councils became perpetual, and independ- ent of the people entirely. The illusions of ambition are very subtle. If the motives of these magistrates, to extend the duration of then authority, were the public good, we must confess they were very ignorant. It is most likely they deceived themselves, as well as their constituents, and mistook their own ambition for patriotism. But this is the progressive march of all assemblies ; none can confine themselves within their limits, when they have an opportunity of transgressing them. These magistrates soon learned to consider then authority as a family property, as all others, in similar circumstances, ever did, and ever will.

They behaved like all others in another respect, too; their authority being now permanent, they immediately attacked the syndics, and transferred their power to themselves.

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 345

The whole history of Geneva, since that period, follows of course. The people, by their supineness, have given up all balances and betrayed their own privileges, as well as the pre- rogatives of their first magistrates, into the hands of a few families.

The people of Geneva, as enlightened as any, have never con- sidered the necessity of joining with the syndics, nor the syndics, that of joining the people ; but have constantly aimed at an impossibility, that of balancing an aristocratical by a democrati- cal assembly, without the aid of a third power.1

1 The French revolution, which broke out not long after the composition of these volumes, swept over Switzei'land, overturning much of the old system, and introducing new features, which have not yet acquired a great share of stability. Napoleon remodelled the forms of government of all the different cantons, con- sulting the advantage of the people far more than their prejudices. The conse- quence was, that, with the fall of his power, his system ceased to have any support. Yet one fundamental change has survived all the conflicts and shocks of the last half century. The act of mediation decreed in 1803, that "there should be no longer, in Switzerland, any subject countries, nor special privileges of place or of birth, of persons or of families " ; and the subsequent congress of the allied sovereigns at Vienna, in the reestablishment of the various powers of Europe, acknowledged this principle in Switzerland, by organizing some of those subject countries as new cantons, with constitutions partaking of the general character of all the rest.

The purpose of the authoi-, in reviewing these forms of government in Swit- zerland, seems to have been to try them by his standard of a well-balanced system. To this end, it was not necessary to extend his observation to the federal relation among the cantons, in some respects assimilating itself, however imperfectly, to that which binds together the United States. It is the organic, and not the superinduced structure, to which he confines his attention. Viewed in this light, the history of the Swiss, during the period since this book was written, indicates movement in a favorable direction. The most marked defect, however, still remains in almost undiminished force ; the concentration of all power in the legislative body, by uniting with it the executive department, and retaining the principle of self-election closely in its hands.

Geneva, for example, which, up to 1782, had been gradually losing its repub- lican, and acquiring a fixed aristocratic character, under the shock of the Erench revolution, has since been moving in an opposite direction. The consti- tution adopted in 1816 declares, in so many words, that "all Genevans are J equal before the law."

The grand council, or legislative body, is composed of two hundred and fifty members, together with the syndics and the council of state, who make twenty- eight more. The former are chosen by all persons over twenty-five years old, who pay a specified amount in direct taxes. The clergy, the members of the university, and other establishments of education, are entitled to vote without regard to taxes. The mode of election is complicate. Thirty of the body go out every year, and are not reeligible in that year.

The council of state, or executive department, is filled by the votes of the grand council, and from its own members. Those not in by virtue of holding certain offices, as syndics, &c, are chosen for life, subject, however, to the scrutiny called grabeau, which may be entered into once a year by the larger body, on the requisition of one more than half, or a hundred and twenty-six. If

346 ON GOVERNMENT.

Lucca

LUCCA.

The government of this republic is said to be purely aristo- cratical ; yet the supreme power is lodged in the hands of two hundred and forty nobles, with the chief magistrate at then- head, who is called gonfaloniero, or standard-bearer, and has the executive power. This magistrate is assisted by nine counsel- lors, called anziani, whose dignity lasts but nine months ; he has a life-guard of sixty Swiss, and lives in the republic's palace, as do his counsellors, at the public expense ; after six years he may be rechosen. The election of all officers is decided in the senate by ballot.1

Genoa

GENOA.

The legislative authority of Genoa is lodged in the great senate, consisting of signors, or the doge and twelve other mem- bers, with four hundred noblemen and principal citizens, annually elected. All matters of state are transacted by the signori, the members of which hold their places for two years, assisted by some other councils ; and four parts in five of the senate must agree in passing a law. The doge is obliged to reside in the public palace the two years he enjoys his office, with two of the signors and their families. The palace where he resides, and where the great and little council, and the two colleges of the ■procuratori and rettori assemble, is a large stone building in the centre of the city. At the expiration of his time, he retires to his own house for eight days, when his administration is either approved or condemned ; and in the latter case, he is proceeded against as a criminal. At the election of the doge, a crown of

demanded, each individual is subjected to the test of a vote ; and in case the num- ber specified are found to be against him, he is obliged to vacate his seat, and return to the larger body. Four syndics are chosen annually by ballot from the grand council.

It is obvious that the whole power centres in a majority of the greater assembly. Rousseau remarked very justly of the system, — " Le corps charge de l'execution de vos loix en est l'interprete et l'arbitre supreme ; il les fait parler comme il lui plait ; il peut leslaire taire ; il peutmeme les violer sans que vous puissiez y mettre ordre ; il est au dessus des loix."

1 By the act of the Congress of Vienna, Lucca was granted to the Infanta Maria Louisa, with the title of a duchy, and with complete sovereignty. In case of the extinction of her family, it was to be united to Tuscany.

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 347

gold is placed on his head, and a sceptre in his hand, as King of Corsica ; he is attended with life-gnards, is clothed in crimson velvet, and styled Most Serene, the senators Excellencies, and the nobility Illustrious.

The nobility are allowed to trade in the wholesale way ; to carry on velvet, silk, and cloth manufactures ; and to have shares in merchant ships ; and some of them, as the Palavicini, are actually the greatest merchants in Genoa.

The extent is about one hundred and fifty-two miles, the breadth from eight to twenty miles.1

Venice

VENICE.

The republic of Venice has existed longer 2 than that of Rome or Sparta, or any other that is known in history. It was at first democratical ; and its magistrates, under the name of tribunes, were chosen by the people in a general assembly. A tribune was appointed annually to distribute justice on each of those islands which this people inhabited. Whether this can be called " collecting all authority into one centre," or whether it was not rather dividing it into as many parcels as there were islands, this simple form of government sufficed for some time, in so small a community, to maintain order; but the tyrannical administra- tion of the tribunes and their eternal discords rendered a revolu- tion necessary ; and after long altercations and many projects, the people, having no adequate idea of the only natural balance of power among three orders, determined that one magistrate should be chosen as the centre of all authority — the eternal resource of every ignorant people, harassed with democratical distractions or aristocratical encroachments.

This magistrate must not be called king, but duke, and after- wards doge ; he was to be for life, but at his death another was to be chosen ; he was to have the nomination of all magistrates, and the power of peace and war. The unbounded popularity and great real merit of Paul Luc Anafeste added to the pressure of tribune tyranny and the danger of a foreign enemy, accom-

1 The government was finally overturned, in 1799, by the armies of France. Genoa was granted by the allies, at Vienna, to the King of Sardinia, with cer- tain conditions.

2 The republic ceased to exist in 1798.

348 ON GOVERNMENT.

plished this revolution. The new doge was to consult only such citizens as he should judge proper ; this, instead of giving him a constitutional council, made him the master ; 1 he, however, sent polite messages to those he liked best, praying; that they would come and advise him. These were soon called pregadi, as the doge's council is still called, though they are now independent

'•

enough of him.

The first and second doge governed mildly ; but the third made the people repent of their confidence. After serving the

1>C«a^* Tp state by his warlike abilities, he enslaved it; and the people,

; having no constitutional means to restrain him, put him to

death in his palace, and resolved to abolish the office. Hating

-r ft alike the name of tribune and of doge, they would have a mas-

ter of the militia, and he should be annually eligible. Factions too violent for this transient authority arose ; and, only five years after, the people abolished this office, and restored the power of the doge, in the person of the son of him whom in their fury they had assassinated. For a long course of years after this, the Venetian history discloses scenes of tyranny, revolt, cruelty, and assassination, which excite horror. Doges endeavoring to make their power hereditary, associating their eldest sons with them in office, and both together oppressing the people ; these rising, and murdering them, or driving them into banishment, never once thinking of introducing a third order between them and their first magistrate, nor any other form of government, by which his power or theirs might be limited.2 In the tenth century, a son of their doge took arms against his father, but was defeated, banished, and declared incapable of ever being doge ; yet, no sooner was the father dead, than this worthless son was elected, and brought back in great pomp to Venice.3 He soon became a tyrant and a monster, and the peo-

1 Les bistoriens venitiens se sont fait un point d'honneur de prouver que, par ce changenient, Venise n'avait perdu ni son titre de republique, ni sa liberte. Ceci ne serait qu'une dispute de mots. Qui gouverne seul est un inonarque ; la liberte n'est pas impossible dans la monarchie, ni la tyrarinie dans la republique. Venise elle-meme nous fournira l'uu et l'autre exemple. Daru, Histoire de la Republique de Venise, vol. i. p. 50.

2 Out of fifty successively exercising tbe powers of tbis office during tbis period, five were massacred, nine deposed, five of wbom were banished with deprivation of sight, five voluntarily abdicated, and one was killed in foreign war.

3 Piero Candiano. See Daru, Hist, de Venise, vol. i. pp. 104-107.

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 349

pie tore him to pieces, but took no measure to frame a legal government. The city increased in commerce, and by conquests, and the new subjects were not admitted to the privileges of citi- zens ; this accession of dominion augmented the influence of the doge: There was no assembly but that of the people, and another called the council of forty, for the administration of jus- tice. This body, in the twelfth century, formed something like a plan of government.

Although the descendants of the ancient tribunes and doges were generally rich, and had a spontaneous respect shown to the antiquity of their families, they were not properly a nobility, having no legal rights, titles, or jurisdictions. As any citizen might be elected to a public office, and had a vote in the assem- blies, it was necessary for the proudest among them to cultivate the good-will of the multitude, who made and murdered doges. Through all these contests and dissensions among a multitude, always impatient, often capricious, demanding at the same time all the promptitude and secrecy of an absolute monarchy, with all the license of a simple democracy, two things wholly contra- dictory to each other, the people had, to their honor, still main- tained their right of voting in assembly, which was a great privi- lege, and nobody had yet dared to aim a blow at this acknow- ledged right of the people.

The council of forty now ventured to propose a plan like that of Mr. Hume, in his Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth, and like that which our friend, Dr. Price, informs us was proposed in the convention of Massachusetts.

• The city was divided into six districts, called sestiers. The council of forty proposed that each of these partitions should name two electors, amounting to twelve in all, who should have the power of choosing from the whole city four hundred and seventy. These should have the whole power of the general assembly, and be called the grand council.

The people were amused with fine promises of order and regu- larity, and consoled with assertions that their right of election still continued, and that those who should not be chosen one year, might be the next. Not perceiving that this law would be fatal to their power, they suffered that aristocracy to be thus founded, which subsists to this hour. The next proposal was, that a committee of eleven should be appointed to name the

VOL. IV. 30

350 ON GOVERNMENT.

doge. Though the design of reducing the people to nothing might have been easily seen in these manoeuvres, yet, wearied, irritated, and discouraged by eternal discords, they agreed to both.

The council of forty, having thus secured the people, turned their eyes to the doge, whose authority had often been perverted to the purposes of oppression ; and, having no legal check, had never been restrained but by violence, and all the confusions which accompany it. They proposed that a privy council of six should be appointed for the doge, one from each division of the city, by the grand council themselves, and that no orders should be valid without their concurrence. This passed into a law, with unanimous applause. They then proposed a senate of sixty, who were to be elected out of the grand council, and to be called the pregadi.1 This, too, was approved. The grand coun- cil of four hundred and seventy, the senate of sixty, the six counsellors, and eleven electors, were accordingly all chosen, and the last were sworn to choose the doge, without partiality, favor, or affection ; and the new-chosen doge, having taken care to dis- tribute money among the multitude, was received with universal acclamations. In his reign was instituted, by permission of the pope, the curious ceremony of wedding the sea, by a ring cast into it, in signum veri et perpetui imperii. Under the next doge, the avogadori2 were instituted, to see that the laws were fully executed.

^ l " Quant aux attributions de ce conseil, il est probable qu'on ne les considera d'abord que comme une delegation de l'asseniblee generate, et que toute l'auto- rite du senat s'6tablit par prescription." Daru, Hist, de Venise.

2 This most important modification of the system deserves a little more notice. Count Daru describes it thus : —

" Les assemblies sont sujettes a se laisser entrainer par la passion au-dela des formes ou des lois existantes ; on sentit la necessite d'un pouvoir regulateur ou mo- d6rateur, qui reclamat, dans l'interet des lois, meme devant l'autorite supreme. On crea, sous le nom d'avogadors, trois magistrats, pour representer la partie publique, non seulement dans les deliberations sur les affaires de l'etat, mais encore dans les causes des particuliers. Devant les tribunaux, ils reglaient la competence, ils defendaient les interets publics dans les affaires civiles, et poursuivaient l'ac- cusation dans les affaires criminelles. Devant les conseils, ils requeraient la constante observation des lois et des formes, ils s'opposaient a la publication des ordonnances qui y etaient contraires. La presence de l'un deux au moins etait necessaire, pour la validite des deliberations du grand conseil et du senat ; ils etaient depositaires de tous les actes de la legislation ; ils poursuivaient le paie- ment des amendes pecuniaires auxquelles les fonctionnaires pouvaient etre con- damnes. Enfin, r^lativement aux magistrats, leur pouvoir s'etendait jusqu'a mettre opposition a la prise de possession des charges, lorsque ceux qui y avaient

jN/Ui,

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 351

In the thirteenth century, six new magistrates, called cor- rectors, were created by the senate, to inquire into all abuses during the reign of a deceased doge, and report them to the -^ senate ; and it was enacted, that the fortune of the doge should indemnify the state for whatever damage it had suffered during his administration ; and these correctors have been appointed at the decease of every doge since that time. In the next reign, a new tribunal of forty was erected, for the trial of civil causes.

In the same century, a new method of appointing the doge, by the famous ballot of Venice, a complicated mixture of choice and chance, was adopted. Each of the grand counsellors, now augmented to forty-one, to avoid the inconvenience of an equal division, draws a ball out of a box, containing thirty gilt and the rest white ; those who draw the gilt ones go into another room, where is a box with thirty balls, nine of which are gilt, and draw again; and those who obtain the gilt balls are the first electors. They choose forty, comprehending themselves in that number ; the forty, by repeating the whole process, are reduced to twelve second electors, the first of whom names three, and the rest two apiece; these twenty -five draw again from as many balls, nine of which are gilt ; this reduces them to nine third electors, each of whom chooses five ; which forty-five are reduced, by a repetition of the ballot, to eleven fourth electors, and they have the appointment of forty-one, who are the direct electors of the doge. The choice generally turns upon two or three can- didates, whose names are put into another box, and drawn out. The first whose name is drawn retires, and proclamation is made for objections against him ; if any are made, he comes in, and is heard in his defence. Then the electors proceed to determine by ayes and noes ; if there are twenty-five ayes, he is chosen ; if not, another name is read, and the same action taken, until there are twenty-five in the affirmative.1

The grand council, ever anxious to limit the power of the doge, soon thought it improper that the public acts should be

6t£ nommes, etaient susceptibles de quelque reproche." Daru, vol. i. pp. 257-8.

These officers were further clothed with a power of veto upon the action of all the other powers in the state, which lasted for one month and a day, and could be renewed three times.

1 This singularly complicated mode of election lasted for five centuries and a half.

352 ON GOVERNMENT.

signed by a chancellor appointed by him, and accordingly deter- mined to appoint this officer themselves.1

The senate then began to think it too great a respect to the people, to have the new doge presented to them for their accla- mations, and ordained that a syndic should congratulate him in the name of the people on his election. The populace, who had weakly surrendered their rights, were very angry at being de- prived of this show, and proclaimed a doge of their own ; but he was afraid of the contest, and retired ; and the people, having no man of weight to head them, gave up this point.

The new doge, who had much contempt for popular govern- ment, and some resentment for the slight opposition he had met with, procured a law to be passed, that all the members of the grand council should hold their places for life, transmit them to their posterity, and that their elections by the people's electors should cease. This establishment of a hereditary legislative nobility, no doubt, shocked the citizens in general, but chiefly those of ancient families, who were not at that moment mem- bers of the grand council. To silence these, the most powerful of them were received into the grand council, and others had a promise that they should be admitted at a future time. Com- merce and wars soon turned the attention of the rest of the people from all thought about the loss of their privileges. A few, however, some time after, formed a plan, not to convene the people in a body, and new-model the constitution, but to assassinate the doge and council all together. The plot, which was carried on by the plebeians, was discovered, and the chiefs executed. Another originated among the nobles, some of them of the grand council, who, being of very ancient families, could not bear to see so many citizens raised to a level with themselves, and others of them, the most distinguished of those who were not of the grand council, and had not been afterwards received, according to promise. This produced a skirmish in the city. A few of the conspiring nobles were killed, the rest routed, and many executed ; but it was thought prudent to admit several

1 " Cette institution offre une particularity remarquable sous un autre rapport. En meme temps qu'on donnait au grand-chancelier la preeminence sur les mem- bres de tous les conseils excepte les conseillers du doge et les procurateurs de Saint-Marc, on reglait que lc titulaire de cette dignite serait toujours choisi dans le corps des secretaires. Or les secretaires n'etaient pas tires des families nobles, mais de la bourgeoisie, qu'on appelait a Venise la citadinance. Daru.

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 353

from the most distinguished families. These two conspiracies produced a council of ten, upon which were afterwards engrafted the state inquisition.

Great care is taken in Venice to balance one court against another, and render their powers mutual checks to each other. The college called the s|gnorVjjwas originally composed of the doge and six counsellors ; to these were added six of the grand council chosen by the senate, and called the sayii,OT sages ; then five more for land affairs ; and then five for sea affairs, in the room of whom five young noblemen are now chosen every six months, who attend, without a vote, for their education ; to these were added the three chiefs of the criminal court, from a jealousy of the power of the college, which is both the cabinet council and the representative of the state, gives audience and answers to ambassadors, to agents of towns and generals of the army, receives all petitions, summons the senate, and arranges its business.

There is one instance of a doge's concerting a conspiracy to shake off the control of the senate ; but as it was an old man of fourscore, whose young wife, on whom he doted, was not treated with sufficient respect by the nobility, we need not wonder that he had not sense enough to think of introducing a regular, well- balanced constitution, by a joint concurrence of the people and the nobility. The whole plan was to massacre the grand coun- cil ; and, although he engaged in his design some of the highest officers, and a large party, the plot was discovered, the doge him- self tried, condemned, and beheaded, as so infamous a piece of mad villany justly deserved.

A punctual execution of the laws is no doubt essential to the existence of this state ; and there are striking instances of per- sons punishing their nearest relations with the most unrelenting severity ; without this, the doge on one hand, or the people on the other, would soon think of a union against the ruling nobility. The aristocracy is always sagacious, and knows the necessity of a rigorous impartiality in order to preserve its power, and all the barriers we have described have been erected for this purpose. But all would be insufficient to restrain the popular passions, without the lions' mouths and the state inquisitors, which were ingrafted on the council of ten.

This terrible tribunal is sovereign in all crimes against the 29 * w

354 ON GOVERNMENT.

state ; it consists of ten, chosen yearly by the grand council ; the six of the signory assist, and the doge presides when he pleases. Three chiefs, appointed monthly by lot, to open all letters, seize the accused, take examinations, and prosecute the prisoner, who is closely confined, allowed no council, and finally acquitted or condemned to death, in public or private, by the plurality of voices. This was the original tribunal ; but it was not found sufficient, and (in the beginning of the sixteenth century)1 the state inquisitors were created. This tribunal consists only of three persons, all taken from the council of ten, who have 2 author- ity to decide, without appeal, on the life of every citizen, the doge himself not excepted. They employ what spies they please. If they are unanimous, they may order a prisoner to be strangled in jail or drowned in the canal, hanged in the night or by day, as they please. If they are divided, the cause must go before the council of ten ; but even here, if the guilt is doubtful, the rule is to execute the prisoner in the night. The three may command access to the house of every individual in the state,3 and have even keys to every apartment in the palace of the doge, may enter his bed-chamber, break his cabinet, and search his papers. By this tribunal have doge, nobility, and people been kept in awe, and restrained from violating the laws, and to this is to be ascribed the long duration of this aristocracy.

Such are the happy effects of the spirit of families, when they are not bridled by an executive authority, in the hands of a first magistrate on one hand, and by an assembly of the people in person, or by adequate representation, on the other! Such are the blessings which, in course of ages, spring from a neglect in the beginning to establish three orders, and^ a perfect balance between them ! There can be, in the nature of things, no balance without three powers. The aristocracy is always more sagacious

1 Daru, in his history, assigns the year 1454 as the, true date of this tribunal.

2 In specified cases. There were other cases in which the power given was more limited. The patricians could not be condemned to death by this tribunal, nor by the council of ten.

3 Any one of them might order the arrest and imprisonment of whom he pleased.

" A Venise le peuple l'appelle communement, le tribunal supreme, ou les trois d'en haut (i tre de sora), en baissant les yeux, et elevant un doigt vers le ciel, quand il en parle, comme pour indiquer une divinite terrible, et toute puissante, ou qui au moins n'a de superieur, que dans le ciel, (qui non habet ultorem nisi Deum)." Memoires Historiques et Politiques stir la Republique de Venise, 1795, pt.i. p. 87.

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 355

than an assembly of the people collectively, or by representa- tion, and sooner or later proves an overmatch in policy. It is always more cunning, too, than a first magistrate, and always makes of him a doge of Venice, a mere ceremony, unless he makes an alliance with the people, to support him against it. What is the whole history of the wars of the barons but one demonstration of this truth ? What are all the standing armies in Europe but another ? These were all given to kings by the people, to defend them against aristocracies. The people have been generally of M. Turgot's mind, that balances and different orders were unnecessary ; and, harassed to death by the domina- tion of noble families, they have generally surrounded the throne with troops to humble them. They have commonly succeeded so far as to make the nobles dependent on the crown ; but, hav- ing given up the balance which they might have held in their own hands, they are still subject to as much aristocratical domi- nation as the crowns think proper to permit. In Venice, the aristocratical passion for curbing the prince and the people has been carried to its utmost length.1 It is astonishing to many that any man will accept the office of doge. Sagacious nobles, who always know, at least, the vices and weaknesses of the human heart better than princes or people, saw that there would generally be vanity enough in an individual to flatter himself, that he had the qualities to go through his administration with- out incurring censure, and with applause ; and, further, that the frivolous distinction of living in the ducal palace, and being the first man in the nation,2 though it were only the first among equals, would tempt most men to risk their lives and fortunes ; and accordingly it has so happened. There has been an uncom- mon solicitude all along to restrain his power. This, no doubt, was to prevent him from a possibility of negotiating with the people against them ; on the other hand, there have been uncom- mon exertions to annihilate every power, every hope in the people. This was to prevent them from having a legal possi- bility of applying to the doge for assistance. All this together

1 " De tons les gouvernemens cle PEurope, celui de Venise etait seul regie, stable, et uniforme. R n'avait qu'un vice radical qui n'en etait pas un aux yeux du senat; c'est qu'il manquait un contre-poids a la puissance patricienne, et un encouragement aux plebeiens. Le merite ne put jamais dans Venise elever un simple citoyen." Voltaire.

2 " Rex in purpura, senator in curia, in urbe captivus, extra urbem privatus."

356 ON GOVERNMENT.

would not, however, have succeeded, if death, in the shape of the inquisition, had not been made to stare both doge and people in the face, upon the first thought of their conferring together.

The nobles are divided into six classes, — 1. Twelve of the most ancient families. 2. Four families that in the year 880 subscribed to the building of the abbey of St. George. 3. Those whose names were written in the golden book, in 1:296. 4. Those that were ennobled by the public in 1385. 5. Those who pur- chased their nobility for one hundred thousand ducats in 1646. And, 6. The strangers who have been received into the number of nobility. The whole make about two thousand five hundred.

There are four councils, — 1. The doge and the signoria of six. 2. The consiglio grande, in which all the nobles have seats and voices. 3. The consiglio de' pregadi, of two hundred and fifty, and is the soul of the republic. 4. The consiglio proprio delli dieci — and the state inquisitors.1

The Republic Of The United Provinces Of The Low Countries

THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED PROVINCES OF THE LOW COUNTRIES.

Here were a stadtholder, an assembly of the states-general, a council of state ; the stadtholder hereditary had the command of armies and navies, and appointment of all officers, &c.

Every province had an assembly besides, and every city, bur- gomasters, counsellors, and schepens or judges, besides an hooft officer and his dienders, for the police.

The history of this country, and its complicated constitutions,

affords an inexhaustible store of materials to our purpose, but,

V. considering the critical situation of it, prudence dictates to pass

1 The storm which raged all over Europe carried with it the remnants of the once haughty and formidable aristocracy of Venice. By the act of the Congress of Vienna, Venice was transferred to Austria, which, on the twenty-fourth of April, 1815, promulgated a constitution for what was denominated the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom. Of this the Milanese made one part, and the Venetian ter- ritory the other. Its principal feature consists in what are called congregations. These are of two kinds, the central and the provincial. The central congrega- tion is composed of nobles, of land owners not noble, and of representatives of royal towns. Each province sends one noble and one not noble. They are selected by the Austrian sovereign from lists of three candidates named by the corporate authorities. They serve for six years; one half go out every three years. The provincial congregation is composed in much the same way. The powers of both these bodies are merely advisory. In truth, it is the shadow of a popular form, whilst the substantial power is retained in the hands of the sove- reign.

ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLICS. 357

it over. With all the sagacity, and more wisdom than Venice or Bern, it has always had more consideration for the people than either, and has given more authority to the first magistrate. It has never had any exclusive preferences of families or nobles. Offices have, by law at least, been open to all men of merit.1

1 The government of Holland grew out of the immediate necessities of the heroic smuggle with the power of Spain. It never could be presented as a model for imitation by any people. It was a singular combination of corporation and aristocratic jnfluence with the federal principle. The author had gbodTea- sons for avoiding at the moment of publication any analysis of the system, which was then crumbling, and has been since swept completely away. The present government is constructed somewhat, though not entirely, upon the principles advocated in this work. The executive power is vested in one person. The legislative department consists of two bodies, — one of one hundred and ten deputies, and the other of not less than forty. The former are elected by the states ; one third go out yearly. The latter are appointed by the king, and serve for life. The system has worked sufficiently well thus far to resist the pressure which is again heaving the social foundations of Europe.

CHAPTER III. MONARCHICAL OR REGAL REPUBLICS.

CHAPTER III.

Monarchical Or Regal Republics. England

MONARCHICAL OR REGAL REPUBLICS.

ENGLAND.

Poland and England. The history of these countries, the last especially, would confirm the general principle contended for. But who can think of writing upon this subject after De Lolme, whose book is the best defence of the political balance of three powers that ever was written ?

If the people are not equitably represented in the house of commons, this is a departure in practice from the theory. If the lords return members of the house of commons, this is an addi- tional disturbance of the balance. Whether the crown and the people in such a case will not see the necessity of uniting in a remedy,1 are questions beyond my pretensions. I only contend that the English constitution is, in theory, both for the adjust- ment of the balance and the prevention of its vibrations, the most stupendous fabric of human invention ; and that the Ame- ricans ought to be applauded instead of censured, for imitating it as far as they have done. Not the formation of languages, not the whole art of navigation' and ship-building does more honor to the human understanding than this system of govern- ment. The Americans have not indeed imitated it in giving a negative upon their legislature to the executive power ; 2 in this respect their balances are incomplete, very much I confess to my

1 They have, to a certain extent, already done so by the reform bill of 1830.

2 " This negative was an innovation on the true limited constitution, and, therefore, the Americans have been prudent in not trusting it "with any execu- tive power." S.

The negative thus spoken of has practically become a nullity in the British constitution. The author, in his opinion, does but carry out his idea as developed in his draught of the constitution of Massachusetts. See p. 231. Even the qualified negative accorded to the executive head, by the constitution of the United States, has excited some disapprobation in its exercise ; yet it has always been resorted to by those who claim the most closely to adhere to popular prin- ciples.

MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS. 359

mortification ; in other respects, they have some of them fallen shoi-t of perfection, by giving the choice of some militia officers, &c. to the people ; 1 these are, however, small matters at present. They have not made then first magistrates nor their senators hereditary. Here they differ from the English constitution, and with great propriety.2

The agrarian 3 in America is divided among the common peo- ple in every state, in such a manner, that nineteen twentieths of the property would be in the hands of the commons, let them appoint whom they could for chief magistrate and senators. The sovereignty then, in fact, as well as morality, must reside in the whole body of the people ; and a hereditary king and nobility, who should not govern according to the public opinion, would infallibly be tumbled instantly from their places. It is then not only most prudent, but absolutely necessary, in order to avoid continual violence, to give the people a legal, constitutional, and peaceable mode of changing these rulers, whenever they discover improper principles or dispositions in them. In the present state of society, and with the present manners, this may be done, not only without inconvenience, but greatly for the happiness and prosperity of the country. In future ages, if the present states become great nations, rich, powerful, and luxurious, as well as numerous, their own feelings and good sense will dictate to them what to do j they may make transitions to a nearer resemblance of the British constitution, by a fresh convention, without the smallest interruption to liberty. But this will never become necessary, until great quantities of property shall get into few hands.4

1 " If the Americans preserve this most valuable right of electing officers in the militia, they will preserve a fundamental right of the English constitution. It is the only true means of preserving popular liberty, and of rendering the commons respectable. It is the true antidote to standing armies." S.

This was another modification of the system of the author, as presented in his draught of the constitution of Massachusetts. See p. 249.

2 This would seem to be stated with sufficient distinctness ; yet the author was for many years charged in the United States with favoring the very provision f \f~ which he condemns.

3 The land.

4 "A true agrarian law is, therefore, highly necessary to be established in due time to limit the greedy monopolizers, and to invest the unoccupied lands in the community at large." S.

The preceding is the natural view of a resident of Great Britain. It would be difficult to predict the period when the lands of the United States will get into few hands. The tendency of the laws of inheritance is perpetually

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360 ON GOVERNMENT.

The truth is, that the people have ever governed in America ; all the force of the royal governors and councils, even backed with fleets and armies, has never been able to get the advantage of them, who have stood by their houses of representatives in every instance, and have always carried their points. No governor ever stood his ground against a representative assem- bly. So long as he governed by their advice he was happy ; so soon as he differed from them he was wretched, and was soon obliged to retire.

Poland

POLAND.

The king of Poland is the first magistrate in the republic, and -derives all his authority from the nation. He has not the power to make laws, raise taxes, contract alliances, or declare war, nor to coin money, nor even to marry, without the ratification of the diet.

The senate is composed of the clergy and nobility ; the third estate, or people, is not so much as known. The grand marshal, the marshal of the court, the chancellor, vice chancellor, and the treasurer, are the first senators.

The nobility or gentry possess the dignities and employments, in which they never permit strangers or the commonalty to have any participation ; they elect their king, and never suffer the senate to make themselves masters of this election. The pea- sants are slaves to the gentry. Having no property, all their acquisitions are made for their masters ; they are exposed to all their passions, and are oppressed by them with impunity.

The general diets, which are usually held at Warsaw or Grodno, are preceded by particular assemblies of palatinates, in which the deputies are chosen for the general assembly, and instructed ; the deputies assembled in general diet, proceed to the election of a marshal, who has a very extraordinary power, that of impos- ing silence on wdiorh he pleases ; he is the chief or speaker of the assembly.

At the death, abdication, or deposition of a king, the primate calls the assembly of the electors to an open field near Warsaw.

to distribute and to subdivide whatever portion of land acquires any great mar- ket value. The remainder is not worth monopolizing.

c

Monarchical Republics

MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS.

361

Here the electors take an oath, not to separate until they shall have, unanimously elected a king, nor to render him when elected any obedience, until he has sworn to observe the pacta conventa and the laws.

The candidates must let their gold glitter, and give splendid entertainments, which must be carried into debauch ; the nobi- lity are captivated with the attractions of magnificence and Hungarian wine, and infallibly declare in favor of the candidate who causes it to flow in the greatest profusion. The ambassa- dors enter upon intrigues, even in public ; the nobility receive their presents, sell their suffrages with impunity, and render the throne venal; but they often behave with little fidelity to the candidate in whose interest they pretend to be engaged, and, forgetting the presents they have received, espouse, without hesi- tation, the cause of a more wealthy competitor. When the can- didate has gained all the suffrages, he is declared king, is sworn to observe the pacta conventa and the laws, and then crowned. The Poles are polite and friendly ; but magnificence is the foible of the nobility, and they sacrifice all things to luxury ; as they seldom see any person superior to them in their own country, and treat their inferiors with an air of absolute authority, they live in all the splendor of princes. This is the account of the Abbe des Fontaines, in the year 1736 ; it is to be hoped things have since changed for the better ; but if this account was true then, who can wonder at what has happened since ?

Here again is no balance ; a king, and an assembly of nobles, and nothing more. The nobles discover their unalterable dis- position whenever they have the power to limit the king's authority ; and there being no mediating power of the people, collectively or representatively, between them, the consequence has been what it always will be in such a case, confusion and calamity.

1 In the most ancient times which records or history elucidate, the monarchy of Poland, like all others denominated feudal, was, in theory and pretension, absolute. The barons, too, in this country as in all others, were very often impatient under such restraint. When the prince was an able statesman and warrior, he was able to preserve order ; but when he was weak and indo-

1 Much of the following account is abridged from, where it is not in the very words of Coxe. Travels into Poland, Russia, fyc, vol. ITchapter 1.

^VOL. IV. 31

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lent, it was very common for two or three barons in conjunction to make war upon him ; 1 and sometimes it happened that all together leagued against him at once. In every feudal country, where the people had not the sense and spirit to make them- selves of importance, the barons became an aristocracy, inces- santly encroaching upon the crown ; and, under pretence of limit- ing its authority, they took away from it one prerogative after another, until it was reduced to the state of a mere doge of Venice, or avoyer of Bern ; until the kings, by incorporating cities and granting privileges to the people, set them up against the nobles, and obtained by their means standing armies, suffi- cient to control both nobles and commons.

The monarchy of Poland, nearly absolute, sunk in the course of a few centuries, without any violent convulsion, into an aris- tocracy.

It came to be disputed'whether the monarchy was hereditary or elective, and whether its authority was sovereign or limited. The first question is resolved by supposing that the crown con- tinued always in the same family, although, upon the death of a king, his successor was recognized in an assembly of the nobles. The second may be answered by supposing, that when the king was active and capable, he did as he pleased ; but when he was weak, he was dictated to by a licentious nobility.. Casi- mir the Great retrenched the authority of the principal barons, and granted immunities to the lesser nobility and gentry ; well aware that no other expedient could introduce order, except a limitation of the vast influence possessed by the palatines or prmcipal nobility. If this prince had been possessed of any ideas of a free government, he might easily have formed the people and inferior gentry into an assembly by themselves, and, by uniting his power with theirs against the encroachments of the nobles upon both, have preserved his own. His nephew, Louis of Hungary, who succeeded him, being a foreigner, was, at his accession, obliged by the nobility to subscribe conditions, not to impose any taxes by his royal authority, without the

1 " This can never happen while the people preserve their natural right of electing their own heads, or militia officers ; for this will always enable them to suppress every insurrection and partial violence, to redress every grievance without any dangerous struggles or commotions, and to withhold from any other power, but their own general assembly, the ability of opposing their will by a negative." S.

MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS. 363

consent of the nation, that is, of the nobles, for no other nation is thought on; and in case of his demise without male heirs, the privilege of appointing a king should revert to the nobles. In consequence of this agreement, Louis was allowed to ascend the throne. Having no son, with a view of insuring the succes- sion to Sigismund, his son-in-law, he promised to diminish the taxes, repair the fortresses at his own expense, and to confer no offices or dignities on foreigners.

Louis died ; but Sigismund was emperor, and therefore pow- erful, and might be formidable to the new immunities. The Poles, aware of this, violated the compact with Louis, neglected Sigismund, and elected Ladislaus, upon his ratifying Louis's promises, and marrying his daughter.

Ladislaus, having relinquished the right of imposing taxes, called an assembly of prelates, barons, and military gentlemen, in their respective provinces, in order to obtain an additional tribute. These provincial assemblies gave birth to the dietines ; they now no longer retain the power of raising money in then- several districts, but only elect the nuncios or representatives for the diet.

Ladislaus III., the son of the former, purchased his right to the succession, during the life of his father, by a confirmation of all the concessions before granted, which, at his accession, he solemnly ratified. Casimir III., brother of Ladislaus III., con- sented to several further innovations, all unfavorable to regal prerogative. One was the convention of a national diet, in- vested with the sole power of granting supplies. Each palatin- ate or province was allowed to send to the general diet, besides the palatines and other principal barons, a certain number of nuncios or representatives, chosen by the nobles and burghers. Is it not ridiculous, that this reign should be considered by the popular party as the era at which the freedom of the constitu- tion was permanently established? This freedom, which con- sists in a king without authority , a body of nobles in a state of uncontrolled anarchy ; and a peasantry groaning under the yoke of feudal despotism ; the greatest inequality of fortune in the world ; the extremes of riches and poverty, of luxury and misery, in the neighborhood of each other ; a universal corruption and venality pervading all ranks ; even the first nobles not blushing to be pensioners of foreign courts ; one professing himself publicly

364 ON GOVERNMENT.

an Austrian, another a Prussian, a third a Frenchman, and a fourth a Russian ; a country without manufactures, without com- merce, and in every view the most distressed in the world !

But, to proceed with an enumeration of the measures by which they have involved themselves in these pitiable circumstances.

Casimir was involved in several unsuccessful wars, which ex- hausted his treasures. He applied to the' diet for subsidies.

Every supply was accompanied with a list of grievances, and produced a diminution of the royal prerogative. The barons, at fo the head of their vassals, were bound to fight, and the king could require such feudal services in defence of the kingdom. But Casimir III., to obtain pecuniary aids, gave up the power of summoning the nobles to his standard, and of enacting any law without the concurrence of the diet. John Albert, to procure an election in preference to his elder brother, assented to all the immunities extorted from his predecessors, and in 1469 swore to their observance. Alexander, his successor, in 1505, declared the following limitations of sovereign authority to be funda- mental laws of the kingdom : 1. The king cannot impose taxes. 2. He cannot require the feudal services. ' 3. Nor alienate the royal domains. 4. Nor enact laws. 5. Nor coin money. 6. Nor alter the process in the courts of justice. Sigismund I. succeeded Alexander, and under his reign the Polish constitution was the most tolerable, as the property of the subject was best secured, and the crown had considerable influence; but this did not satisfy the nobles. Under Sigismund Augustus, son and successor of Sigismund' I., that favorite object of the Polish nobles, the free election of the king, was publicly brought forward; and the king was obliged to agree, that no future monarch should succeed to the throne, unless freely elected by the nation. Before this, the sovereigns, upon their accession, though formally raised by the consent of the nation, still rested their pretensions upon heredi- tary right, always styling themselves heirs of the kingdom of Poland. Sigismund Augustus was the last who bore that title ; at his death, in 1572, all title to the crown from hereditary right was formally abolished, and the absolute freedom of election esta- blished upon a permanent basis. A charter of immunities was drawn up at a general diet, a ratification of which it was deter- mined to exact of the new sovereign, prior to his election. This charter, called pacta conventa, contained the whole body of privi-

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MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS. 365

leges obtained from Louis and his successors, with the following additions : 1. That the king should be elective, and that his suc- cessor should never be appointed during his life. 2. That the diets, the holding of which depended solely upon the will of the kings, should be assembled every two years. 3. That every nobleman or gentleman in the realm should have a vote in the diet of election. 4. That in case the king should infringe the laws and privileges of the nation, his subjects should be ab- solved from their oaths of allegiance. From this period the pacta conventa, occasionally enlarged, have been confirmed by every sovereign at his coronation.

Henry of Valois, brother of Charles IX. of France, who ascended the throne after the constitution was thus new mo- delled, secured his election by private bribes to the nobles, and by stipulating an annual pension to the republic from the revenues of France. His example has been followed by every succeeding king; who, besides an unconditional ratification of the pacta conventa, has always been constrained to purchase the crown by a public largess and private corruption. Such is Polish liberty, and such the blessings of a monarchy elective by a body of nobles.

Under Stephen Bathori, the royal authority, or rather the royal dignity, was further abridged by the appointment of sixteen senators, chosen at each diet, to attend the king, and to give their opinion in all matters of importance, so that he could not issue any decree without their consent. Another fatal blow was given to the prerogative in 1578, by taking from the king the supreme jurisdiction of the causes of the nobles. It was enacted that, without the concurrence of the king, each palatinate should elect in its dietines its own judges, who should form supreme courts of justice, called tribunalia regni, in which the causes of the nobles should be decided without appeal, a mode which prevails to this day.

In the reign of John Casimir, in 1652, was introduced the liberum veto, or the power of each nuncio to interpose a nega- tive and break up a diet, a privilege which the. king himself does not enjoy. When the diet was debating upon transactions of the utmost importance, which required a speedy decision, a nuncio cried out, " I stop the proceedings," 1 and quitted the

1 " The danger of a negative on the proceedings of a great national council." 31*

£rfc£

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assembly. And a venal faction who supported his protest, unheard of as it was, obtained the majority, and broke up the assembly in confusion. The constitution was thus wholly changed, and an unlimited scope given to faction. The innova- tion was supported by the great officers of state, the general treasurer and marshal, who, being once nominated by the king, enjoyed their offices for life, responsible only to the diets, con- scious that they could at all times engage a nuncio to protest, and thus elude an inquiry into then administration. It was also supported by the adherents of many nobles, accused of capital crimes before the diet, the only tribunal before which they could be tried. All the nuncios who opposed the raising of additional subsidies by taxes, which the exigencies of the state then de- manded, seconded the proposal of putting an end to the assem- bly. But the principal cause of all was the foreign powers, interested to foment confusion in the Polish councils. Before this, they were obliged to secure a majority; afterwards, they might put an end to any diet unfriendly to their views, by cor- rupting a single member. This veto broke up seven diets in the reign of John Casimir, four under Michael, seven under John Sobieski, and thirty during the reigns of the two Augusti. In consequence of this necessity of unanimity, which they call the dearest palladium of Polish liberty, Poland has continued above 7 $ > a hundred years almost without laws.

But as the king still bestowed the starosties, or royal fiefs, which are held for life, and conferred the principal dignities and great offices of state, he was yet the fountain of honor, and maintained great influence in the councils of the nation; but this last branch of the royal prerogative Was lately wrested from the crown by the establishment of the permanent council.

Thus it appears, in the history of Poland, as m that of Venice, f. i • f: Genoa, Bern, Soleure, and all others, that the nobles have con-

tinued, without interruption, to scramble for diminutions of the regal authority, to grasp the whole executive power, and aug- ment their own privileges ; and they have attained a direct aris- tocracy under a monarchical name, where a few are above the control, while the many are deprived of the protection of the laws.1

1 " La republique de Pologne, a t'on souvent dit et repete, est cornposee de trois ordres ; l'ordre equestre, le senat, et le roi. J'aimerois mieux dire que la

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The present wretched state of the towns, compared with their former flourishing condition ; the poverty of the peasants, whose oppressions have increased in proportion to the power of the nobles, having lost a protector when the king lost his weight in the constitution ; the total confusion in all public affairs ; the decline of importance and loss of territory ; all show that ab- solute monarchy is preferable to such a republic. Would twelve millions of inhabitants, under an English constitution, or under the constitution of any one of the United States, have been par- titioned and dismembered ? No ; not by a league of all the absolute sovereigns of Europe against them at orice. Such are the effects of " collecting all authority into one centre," of neglect- ing an equilibrium of powers, and of not having three branches in the legislature.

The practice of cantoning a body of soldiers near the plain where the kings are elected, has been adopted by several foreign powers for near a century ; and, although it may be galling to the nobility, it prevents the effusion of blood that formerly deluged the assembly. This was done at the election of Stanis- laus Augustus, by the Empress of Russia and the King of Prussia ; five thousand Russian troops were stationed at a small distance from the plain of Vola.

Stanislaus was in the thirty-second year of his age when, in 1764, he ascended the throne. From his virtues and abilities, the fairest hopes were conceived of his raising Poland from its deplorable situation ; but his exertions for the public good were fettered by the constitution, by the factions of a turbulent peo- ple, and the intrigues of neighboring powers. His endeavors to introduce order at home and independence abroad, which would have increased the power of his country and her consideration with foreign nations, alarmed the neighboring powers. The spirit of religious intolerance produced a civil war, and the senate petitioned the ambassador from Petersburg not to with- draw the Russian troops. The royal troops, aided by the Rus- sians, whose discipline was superior, were in favor of religious liberty. The confederates, secretly encouraged by Austria, as- sisted by the Turks, and supplied with money and officers by

nation Polonaise est composee de trois ordres; les nobles, qui sont tout; les bourgeois, qui ne sont rien ; et les paysans, qui sont moins que rien."

Rousseau, Cons, sur le Gouvernement de la Pologne.

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the French, were able to protract hostilities from 1768 to 1772 ; during which period the attempt was made to assassinate the king.

Count Pulaski, who was killed in the service of the United States, is said to have planned an enterprise so much to his dis- honor. No good cause ever was, or ever will be, served by assas- sination ; and this is happily, in the present age, the universal sense of mankind. If a papal nuncio was found in Poland, capable of blessing the weapons of conspirators against this tole- rant king, he was a monster, whose bloody bigotry the liberal spirit of the pope himself must, at this enlightened period, abo- minate. The king did himself immortal honor by his interces- sion with the diet to remit the tortures and horrid cruelties decreed by the laws of most kingdoms in Europe against trea- son, and by his moderation towards all the conspirators.

We are now arrived at the consummation of all panegyrics upon a sovereignty in a single assembly — the partition.

Prussia was formerly in a state' of vassalage to this republic; Russia once saw its' capital and throne possessed by the Poles ; and Austria was indebted to John Sobieski, a sovereign of this country, but a century ago, for compelling the Turks to raise the siege of Vienna. < A republic so lately the protector of its neighbors would not, in an age of general improvement, with- out the most palpable imperfections in the orders and balances of its government, have declined, and become a prey to any invader — much less would it have forced the world to acknow- ledge that the translation of nearly five millions of people from a republican government to that of absolute empires and monarch- ies, whether it were done by right or by wrong, is a blessing to them. The partition was projected by the King of Prussia, who communicated it to the emperor and empress. The plague was one circumstance, and the Russian war against the Turks another, that favored the design ; and the partition treaty was signed at Petersburg, in February, 1772, by the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian plenipotentiaries. The troops of the three courts were already in possession of the greatest part of Poland, and the confederates were soon dispersed. The parti- tioning powers proceeded with such secrecy, that only vague conjectures were made at Warsaw, and Lord Cat heart, the English minister at Petersburg, obtained no authentic informa-

MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS. 369

tion of the treaty until two months after its signature. The formal notification was made to the king and senate at Warsaw by the imperial and Prussian ambassadors, in September, 1772, f> < of the pretensions of their courts to the Polish territory. Their remonstrances, as well as those of the courts of London, Paris, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, had no effect ; and the most humi- liating record that ever appeared in the annals of a republic, is seen in the king's summons : — " Since there are no hopes from any quarter, and any further delays will only tend to draw down the most dreadful calamities upon the remainder of the domi- y > nions which are left to the republic, the diet is convened for the nineteenth of April, 1773, according to the will of the three courts ; nevertheless, in order to avoid all cause of reproach, the king, with the advice of the senate, again appeals to the guaran- ties of the treaty of Oliva." - It is not to be doubted that if there I had been a people in existence in Poland, as there is in Holland, \ to have given this amiable prince only the authority of a stadt- holder, he would have said, " I will die in the last ditch."

Of the dismembered provinces, the Russian portion, which is b,x y the largest territory, contains only one million and a half of souls ; the Austrian, which is the most populous, contains two millions and a half; the Prussian, which is the most commer- cial, commanding the navigation of the Vistula, contains only eight hundred and sixty thousand. This has given a fatal blow to the commerce of Poland, by transferring it from Dantzic to Memel and Konigsberg.

The finishing stroke of all remains.

The three ambassadors, on the thirteenth of September, 1773, delivered "A part of those cardinal laws, to the ratification of which our courts will not suffer any contradiction.

" I. The crown of Poland shall be forever elective, and all order of succession proscribed. Any person who shall endeavor to break this law shall be declared an enemy to his country, and liable to be punished accordingly.

" II. Foreign candidates to the throne, being the frequent cause of troubles and divisions, shall be excluded ; and it shall be enacted, that, for the future, no person can be chosen king of Poland and great-duke of Lithuania, excepting a native Pole of noble origin, and possessing land within the kingdom. The son, or grandson, of a king of Poland, cannot be elected imme-

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diately upon the death of his father or grandfather ; and is not eligible excepting after an interval of two reigns.

" III. The government of Poland shall be forever free, inde- pendent, and of a republican form.

" IV. The true principle of said government consisting in the strict execution of its laws and the equilibrium of the three estates, namely, — the king, the senate, and the equestrian order, a permanent council shall be established, in which the executive power shall be vested. In this council the equestrian order, hitherto excluded from the administration of affairs in the inter- val of the diets, shall be admitted, as shall be more clearly laid down in the future arrangements."

Thus the supreme legislative authority resides in the three estates of the realm, — the king, the senate, and equestrian order, assembled in a national diet; but each estate has no / negative upon the other, and, therefore, there is no balance, and very little check. The great families and principal palatines will still govern without any effectual control.

The executive power is now vested in the supreme permanent council ; but neither here have they any checks, all being decided by the majority ; and the same principal families will always prevail.

These august legislators have acknowledged the principle of a free republican government, that it consists in a strict execution of the laws and an equilibrium of estates or orders. But how are the laws to govern ? and how is the equilibrium to be pre- served ? Like air, oil, and water, shaken together in one bottle and left in repose ; the first will rise to the top, the last sink to the bottom, and the second swim between.

Our countrymen will never run delirious after a word or a name. The name republic is given to things, in their nature as different and contradictory as light and darkness, truth and falsehood, virtue and vice, happiness and misery. There are free republics, and republics as tyrannical as an oriental despot- ism. A free republic1 is the best of governments, and the great- est blessing which mortals can aspire to. Republics which are not free, by the help of a multitude of rigorous checks, in very small states, and for short spaces of time, have preserved some

1 This was the name given to the government of Massachusetts by a formal vote of the convention. See p. 215.

MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS. 371

reverence for the laws, and have been tolerable ; but there have been oligarchies carried to such extremes of tyranny, that so far as the happiness of the nation at large is concerned, the despot- ism of Turkey would perhaps be preferable. An empire of laws is a characteristic of a free republic only, and should never be applied to republics in general. If there should ever be a peo- ple in Poland, there will soon be a real king ; and if ever there should be a king in reality, as well as in name, there will soon be a people. For, instead of the trite saying, " no bishop, no king," it would be much more exact and important truth to say, no people, no king, and no king, no people; meaning, by the word king, a first magistrate possessed exclusively of the execu- tive power. It may be laid down as a universal maxim, that every government that has not three independent branches in its legislature will soon become an absolute monarchy ; or an arro- gant nobility, increasing every day in a rage for splendor and magnificence, will annihilate the people, and, attended with their horses, hounds, and vassals, will run down the king as they would hunt a deer, wishing for nothing so much as to be in at the death.

The philosophical King Stanislaus felt most severely this want of a people. In his observations on the government of Poland,1, he laments, in very pathetic terms, the miseries to which they were reduced.

" The violence," says he, " which the patricians at Rome exer- cised over the people of that city, before they had recourse to open force, and, by the authority of their tribunes, balanced the power of the nobility, is a striking picture of the cruelty with which we treat our plebeians. Yet this portion of our state is even more debased among us than it was among the Romans, where it enjoyed a species of liberty, even in the times when it was most enslaved to the first order of the republic.

" We may say, with truth, that the people are, in Poland, in a state of extreme humiliation. We must, nevertheless, consider them as the principal support of the nation ; and I am per- suaded, that the little value we set on them might have very dangerous consequences.

1 Oeuvres du Philosophe Bienfaisant, tome iiij?.- 2.

The extracts are not made continuously, But" only of such paragraphs as are most to the point.

372 ON GOVERNMENT.

" Who are they, in fact, who procure abundance in the king- dom ? who are they that bear the burdens and pay the taxes ? who are they that furnish men to our armies ? * who labor our fields? who gather in the crops? who sustain and nourish us? who are the cause of our inactivity ? the refuge of our laziness ? the resource for our wants ? the support of our luxury ? and, indeed, the source of all our pleasures ? Is it not that very popu- lace that we treat with so much rigor ? Their pains, their sweat, then labors, do not they merit a better return than our scorn and disdain ? . . .

" We scarcely distinguish them from the brutes which they maintain for the cultivation of our lands ! We frequently have less consideration for their strength than we have for that of those animals ! and, too frequently, in a shameful traffic, we sell them to masters as cruel as ourselves, who immediately force them, by an excess of hard labor, to repay the price of then new slavery !

" I cannot recollect without horror, that law which imposes only a fine of fifteen livres upon a gentleman2 who shall have killed a peasant. . . . Poland is the only country where the populace are fallen from all the rights of humanity ; . . . we alone regard these men as creatures of another species, and we would almost refuse them the same air which they breathe with us. . . .

" God, in the creation of man, gave him liberty ; what right have we to deprive him of it ? . . .

"As it is natural to shake off a yoke that is rough, hard, and heavy, may it not happen that this people will make an effort to wrest themselves from our tyranny ? Their murmurs and com- plaints must, sooner or later, lead to this. Hitherto, accustomed to their fetters, they think not of breaking them ; but let a single man, with a masculine and daring spirit, arise among these un- fortunate wretches, to concert and foment a revolt, what barrier strong enough could we oppose to the torrent ?

" We have a recent instance, in the insurrection in the Ukraine, which was only occasioned by the vexations of those among us who had there purchased lands. We despised the courage of

1 " But unhappily they did not elect their own officers and magistrates, and therefore could not put a negative on any the most atrocious tyranny and violence." S.

2 " ' Gentleman ; ' rather a landowner, to avoid, in this case, a strange perver- sion of the word gentleman ! " S.

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373

the poor inhabitants of that country; they found a resource in despair ; and nothing is more terrible than the despair of those who have no courage.

" "What is the condition to which we have reduced the people * of our kingdom? Reduced by misery to the state of brutes, they drag out their days in a lazy stupidity, which one would almost mistake for a total want of feeling. They love no art ; they value themselves on no industry ; they labor no longer than the dread of chastisement forces them ; convinced that they can- not enjoy the fruit of then* ingenuity, they stifle their talents, and do not even try to comprehend what they are. Hence that frightful scarcity of the most common artisans in which we find ourselves. Should we wonder that we are in want of things the most necessary, when those who ought to furnish them cannot hope for the smallest profit from their labor to furnish us ! It is only where liberty is found that emulation can exist."

It would be a pleasure to translate the whole ; but it is too long. It is a pity that the whole people, whose misery he de- scribes and laments, were not equally sensible of the necessity of a less circumscribed royal authority.1

1 " Les ecrivains les plus eloquens, les plus savans publicistes, ont demontre les vices de la constitution de Pologne, ont indique les moyens de les corriger ; mais les baionettes Russes, Autrichiennes, et Prussiennes n'ont pas laisse le temps d'eprouver l'effet des innovations proposees ; elles ont rendu le repos a la nation Polonaise, en lui otant l'existence." Precis de VHistoire du Gouvemement de Pologne; Collection des Constitutions, etc., par MM. Dufau, etc., tome iv. p. 24.

Since this was written, the second partition has wiped Poland out of the list of independent nations. At the very same period that the constitution of the United States was formed, a new frame of government was maturing in Poland, designed to remedy the great evils under which the country had suffered from an unbalanced system. The constitution of 1791, in its leading features, seemed well calculated to answer this purpose. It made the crown hereditary in a family, thus endeavoring to correct the ill effects resulting from the old mode of election ; it abolished the liberum veto of the diet, substituting a legislative de- partment of two branches, according to the common form. But it rather opened a futurity to the popular will, than acknowledged its sovereign power ; and could thus be considered more as a step in advance towards liberal institutions than as a really free government itself. But even this was probably the cause of its im- mediate destruction.

Catherine II., alarmed at the spread of the principles of the French revolution, deemed it all-important to prevent them from taking root in Poland. She first corrupted the system, and then she sent her forces into that country to crush all sincere opposition. In 1797, the final treaty was made between the three great powers of eastern Europe, which established the complete triumph of force over the will of a nation of eight millions of people.

Two observations naturally suggest themselves in reading the history of Poland. The one is, that no form of written constitution, however good it may

Vol. Iv

VOL. IV.

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Neuchatel

NEUCHATEL.

The sovereign, or rather the first magistrate of this monarch- ical republic, is the King of Prussia. The principality is com- posed of two countries, Neuchatel and Valengin, which were united in one single sovereignty by the Dukes of Longueville, whose family became extinct in 1707. The country submitted to the King of Prussia, who, by right of reversion, redemanded Neuchatel as a vacant; fief of the house of Chalons, inherited by the Princes of Orange, to all the rights of whom he laid claim.

The authority of the king is limited by the great privileges of the country. The sovereignty is exercised conjointly, — 1. By the king's governor, who presides in the assembly of the states. 2. By the body of the three estates, composed of twelve judges, who administer justice in the last resort, and are four counsellors of state for the nobility. Four officers of judicature for the second rank, taken from the four chatellanies and the fifteen mayories. Four counsellors of the city, which is governed by sixty-four persons, who administer ordinary justice, and who are the four ministraux. Twenty-four persons for the little council, and forty for the grand council. The relation of this republican principality with the Helvetic body consists in an ancient fellow- citizenship with the four cantons of Bern, Lucerne, Fribourg, and Soleure ; but the canton of Bern is particular protector, and the declared arbiter between it and its prince, since 1406. The city of Neuchatel has also a strict alliance of fellow-citizenship

be in itself, can ever be expected to avail, if it do not reflect the character and principles of the community that adopts it. This is the cause of the general failure of written forms in Europe and America. In all cases, they have been the work of a few minds acting without the circle of the national sympathies. The consequence has been, that the smallest agitation of public sentiment adverse to it has brought the whole of their labors to nought.

The other remark is, that much of the favorable working of a form of govern- ment, or the opposite, may be traced to circumstances having no necessary con- nection with its intrinsic excellence. The Polish constitution of 1791 was imme- diately overthrown by the interference of neighboring powers interested to destroy it. The constitution of the United States has survived until now, and bids fair to last yet longer. But, if we could for a moment suppose the geo- graphical position of the two countries to have been exactly changed, looking back at the nature of the political controversies which agitated America for many years, it is at least open to question, whether as marked disorders would not have been developed under the constitution of the United States, as were ever found in the worst of times in Poland.

MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS. 375

with Bern.1 The whole country subject to it contains twelve leagues in length and six in breadth, and is extremely well peo- pled ; for it contains three cities, one burgh, ninety large villages, and three thousand houses, scattered at a distance from each other. It is consolidated out of two counties, Neuchatel and Valengin ; two baronies, Gorgier and Vaumarcus, which belong to a nobleman of Bern ; four lordships, Travers, Noiraque, Rosi- eres, and Colombier ; one priory, Valtravers ; five abbeys. At this day, this princely republic is divided into four chatellanies and fifteen mayories. The first count of Neuchatel that is known is Ulric, who lived towards the end of the twelfth century. He had a son named Berthold, who, in 1214, made a convention with the inhabitants, concerning the rights, liberties, and fran- chises of the citizens and people of the country.

In 1406, the inhabitants of Neuchatel obtained a confirmation of their liberties of John of Chalons, lord of the county. In 1519, they obtained another confirmation of their rights and liberties, and an acknowledgment that their princes have no power over them but with their own consent. They have even changed their religion ; and, in 1530, abolished the mass and all the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic church, without the con- sent of their prince. Yet they suffered the house of Orleans Longueville to continue to enjoy their rights and revenues. The last male of this line died in 1694. The Prince of Conti wanted to succeed by testament; but the three estates were against him, and rejected his demands in 1694 and 1699. At this time Wil- liam, Prince of Orange and King of Great Britain, maintained that he had pretensions on the county, derived from the house of Chalons. At the death of this prince, in 1702, the King of Prus- sia declared himself his heir, as the son of the eldest sister of King William's father; and contended that the principality of Orange and the county of Neuchatel belonged to him. In 1707, after the death of Mary of Orleans, who had been invested in this principality by the three estates in 1694, the King of Prussia

1 Neuchatel is now one of the twenty-two cantons of the Helvetic confederacy. Its form of local constitution has not been, however, materially changed. The King of Prussia ceded it, in 1806, to Napoleon, who made out of it a principal- ity for one of his officers, Marechal Berthier. In 1814, the sovereignty was restored, by the peace of Paris, to the King of Prussia ; but in the next year, by the act of the congress of Vienna, the canton was recognized as one of three new ones joined to the confedei*ation of Switzerland.

376 ON GOVERNMENT.

demanded the investiture of Neuchatel of the three estates, who granted it him because he was of their religion, and rejected the relations of the deceased and all other pretenders. His son, by the ninth article of the peace of Utrecht, obtained from Louis XIV. an acknowledgment of him as sovereign lord of Neu- chatel and Valengin.

Although the inhabitants are jealous of their liberties, they are, nevertheless, attached to their prince. It is to the body of the states alone that it belongs to make statutes, laws, and ordi- nances, and they represent the sovereignty, and exercise the supreme authority. The lung's governor presides in it, but enters not into consultation with the counsellors. It was this tribunal which gave the investiture to the kings, and before whom every pretender must make out his claim. Without descending to a particular account of this princely republic, let me refer to the Dicliormaire de la Martiniere arid to Faber, printed at the end of the sixth volume of it, and to Coxe's Sketches, and conclude with hinting at a few features only of this excellent constitution.

None but natives are capable of holding any office, civil or military, excepting that of governor. The same incapacity is extended to natives who are in the service of any foreign prince. All the citizens have a right to enter into the service of any foreign state, even though at war with Prussia. The three estates of Neuchatel and Valengin shall be assembled every year. The magistrates and officers of justice hold then employ- ments daring good behavior ; nor is the king the judge of ill behavior. The king, at his accession, takes an oath to maintain all the rights, liberties, franchises, and customs, written or un- written. The king is considered as resident only at Neuchatel, and, therefore, when absent, can only address the citizens through his governor and the council of state. No citizen can be tried out of the country, or otherwise than by the judges. The prince confers nobility, and nominates to the principal offices of state, civil and military ; the chatelains and mayors, who preside in the several courts of justice, are also of his nomi- nation. The prince, in his absence, is represented by a governor of his own appointing. He convokes the three estates ; presides in that assembly, has the casting vote and the power of pardon. In his absence, his place is- supplied by the senior counsellor of

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state. The three estates form the superior tribunal ; and to them lies an appeal from the inferior courts of justice. They are composed of twelve judges, divided into three estates : — the first' consists of the four senior counsellors of state, who are noble ; the second, of the four chatelains of Landeron, Boudry, Val de Travers, and Thiel ; the third, of four counsellors of the town of Neuchatel. The judges in the first and second division hold their places for life ; those in the third are appointed annually.

The council of state is intrusted with the execution of the laws, the administration, and police. They are nominated by the king, and not limited in number.

The legislative authority resides conjunctively in the prince, the council of state, and the town or people, each of which has a negative. Their criminal laws are mild, and the penalty marked out with precision ; personal liberty is tenderly and securely protected, as it is in England or America, where the same laws, in substance* and spirit, prevail. The liberties of the people, though the most absolute monarch in Germany is first magistrate, are better secured than even in the most democratical cantons of Switzerland, where there is no property to contend for beyond the value of a pail of milk, a kid, or a lamb. Liberal encouragement is given to strangers to settle in the country. They enjoy every privilege of trade and commerce. This en- larged policy has greatly augmented the population ; while a narrower principle, in some of the Swiss cantons, occasions a decrease of their people. The ancient constitution of Rhodes was probably much like this of Neuchatel, in three branches, and was accordingly celebrated as one of the best models of govern- ment in antiquity, and had effects equally happy upon the order, liberty, commerce, and population of that country. This happy mixture in three branches has been the never-failing means of reconciling law and liberty, in ancient and in modern times. " Ita demum liberam civitatem fore, ita aequatas leges, si sua quisque jura ordo, suam majestatem teneat."* This is the only constitution in which the citizens can truly be said to be in that happy condition of freedom and discipline, sovereignty and subordination, which the Greeks express so concisely by their

* Liv. lib. iii. c. 63.

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" Who knows in union's closer bands to draw The opposing claims of liberty and law, • Shall gain from virtue's breath a purer fame

Than all the poet or the sage can claim." *

" When will the tutelar gods of Rome awake, To fix the order of our wayward state, That we may once more know each other, — know Th' extent of laws, prerogatives, and dues ; The bounds of rules and magistracy ; who Ought first to govern, and who must obey ? It was not thus, when godlike Scipio held The scale of power ; he who, with temperate poise, Knew how to guide the people's liberty In its full bounds, nor did the nobles wrong." f

* Pye's Poems, vol. i. p. 154, 155. f Otway's Fall of Maiius, act i. sc. 1.

Recapitulation

RECAPITULATION.

As we have taken a cursory view of those countries in Europe where the government may be called, in any reasonable construc- tion of the word, republican, let us now pause a few moments, and reflect upon what we have seen.

Among every people, and in every species of republics, we have constantly found a first magistrate, a head, a chief, under various denominations, indeed, and with different degrees of authority, with the title of stadtholder, burgomaster, avoyer, doge, gonfaloniero, president, syndic, mayor, alcalde, capitaneo, governor, or king ; in every nation we have met with a distin- guished officer. If there is no example, then, in any free go- vernment, any more than in those which are not free, of a society without a principal personage, we may fairly conclude that the body politic cannot subsist, any more than the animal body, without a head. If M. Turgot had made any discovery which had escaped the penetration of all the legislators and philosophers who have lived before him, he ought at least to have communi- cated it to the world for their improvement ; but as he has never hinted at any such invention, we may safely conclude that he had none ; and, therefore, that the Americans are not justly liable to censure for instituting governors.

In every form of government we have seen a senate, or little council, a composition, generally, of those officers of state who have the most experience and power, and of a few other mem- bers selected from the highest ranks and most illustrious reputa- tions. On these lesser councils, with the first magistrate at their head, generally rests the principal burden of administration, a share in the legislative, as well as executive and judicial author- ity of government. The admission of such senates to a partici- pation of these three kinds of power, has been generally observed to produce in the minds of their members an ardent aristocrat- ical ambition, grasping equally at the prerogatives of the first magistrate, and the privileges of the people, and ending in the nobility of a few families, and a tyrannical oligarchy. But in

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those states, where the senates have been debarred from all ex- ecutive power, and confined to the legislative, they have been observed to be firm barriers against the encroachments of the crown, and often great supporters of the liberties of the people. The Americans, then, who have carefully confined their senates to the legislative power, have done wisely in adopting them.

We have seen, in every instance, another and a larger assem- bly, composed of the body of the people, in some little states ; of representatives chosen by the people, in others ; of members ap- pointed by the senate, and supposed to represent the people, in a third sort ; and of persons appointed by themselves or the senate, in certain aristocracies ; to prevent them from becoming oligar- chies. The Americans, then, whose assemblies are the most adequate, proportional, and equitable representations of the people, that are known in the world, will not be thought mis- taken in appointing houses of representatives.

In every republic, — in the smallest and most popular, in the larger and more aristocratical, as well as in the largest and most monarchical, — we have observed a multitude of curious and ingenious inventions to balance, in their turn, all those powers, to check the passions peculiar to them, and to control them from rushing into those exorbitancies to which they are most addicted. The Americans will then be no longer censured for endeavoring to introduce an equilibrium, which is much more profoundly meditated, and much more effectual for the protection of the laws, than any we have seen, except in England. We may even question whether that is an exception.

In every country we have found a variety of orders, with very great distinctions. In America, there are different orders of offices, but none of men. Out of office, all men are of the same species, and of one blood ; there is neither a greater nor a lesser nobility. Why, then, are the Americans accused of establishing different orders of men ? To our inexpressible mortification, we must have observed, that the people have preserved a share of power, or an existence in the government, in no country out of England, except upon the tops of a few inaccessible mountains, among rocks and precipices, in territories so narrow that you may span them with a hand's breadth, where, living unenvied, in extreme poverty, chiefly upon pasturage, destitute of manu- factures and commerce, they still exhibit the most charming

RECAPITULATION.

381

picture of life, and the most dignified character of human nature.

Wherever we have seen a territory somewhat larger, arts and sciences more cultivated, commerce flourishing, or even agricul- ture improved to any great degree, an aristocracy has risen up in a course of time, consisting of a few rich and honorable families, who have united with each other against both the people and the first magistrate ; who have wrested from the former, by art and by force, all then participation in the government; and have even inspired them with so mean an esteem of themselves, and so deep a veneration and strong attachment to their rulers, as to believe and confess them a superior order of beings.

We have seen these noble families, although necessitated to have a head, extremely jealous of his influence, anxious to reduce his power, and to constrain him to as near a level as possible with themselves ; always endeavoring to establish a rotation, by which they may all equally be entitled in turn to the preeminence, and likewise anxious to preserve to themselves as large a share as possible of power in the executive and judicial, as well as the legislative departments of the state.

These patrician families have also appeared in every instance to be equally jealous of each other, and to have contrived, by blending lot and choice, by mixing various bodies in the elections to the same offices, and even by a resort to the horrors of an inquisition, to guard against the sin that so easily besets them, of being wholly influenced and governed by a junto or oligarchy of a few among themselves.

We have seen no one government in which is a distinct sepa- ration of the legislative from the executive power, and of the judicial from both, or in which any attempt has been made to balance these powers with one another, or to form an equilibrium between the one, the few, and the many, for the purpose of enacting and executing equal laws, by common consent, for the general interest, excepting in England.

Shall we conclude, from these melancholy observations, that human nature is incapable of liberty, that no honest equality can be preserved in society, and that such forcible causes are always at work as must reduce all men to a submission to despotism, monarchy, oligarchy, or aristocracy ?

By no means. We have seen one of the first nations in

382 ON GOVERNMENT.

Europe, possessed of ample and fertile territories at home and extensive dominions abroad, of a commerce with the whole world, immense wealth, and the greatest naval power which ever belonged to any nation, which has still preserved the power of the people by the equilibrium we are contending for, by the trial by jury, and by constantly refusing a standing army.1 The people of England alone, by preserving their share in the legisla- ture, at the expense of the blood of heroes and patriots, have enabled their king to curb the nobility, without giving him a standing army.

After all, let us compare every constitution we have seen with those of the United States of America, and we shall have no reason to blush for our country. On the contrary, we shall feel the strongest motives to fall upon our knees, in gratitude to heaven for having been graciously pleased to give us birth and education in that country, and for having destined us to live under her laws ! We shall have reason to exult, if we make our comparison with England and the English constitution. Our people are undoubtedly sovereign ; all the landed and other pro- perty is in the hands of the citizens ; not only their representa- tives, but then senators and governors, are annually chosen ; there are no hereditary titles, honors, offices, or distinctions ; the legislative, executive, and judicial powers are carefully sepa- rated from each other; the powers of the one, the few, and the many are nicely balanced in the legislatures ; trials by jury are preserved in all their glory, and there is no standing army ; the habeas corpus is in full force ; the press is the most free in the world. Where all these circumstances take place, it is unneces- sary to add that the laws alone can govern.

1 " Would tbat it had constantly been refused ! A standing army is dangerous in any hands ! Even if the people had preserved their share in the legislature, a standing army in their pay would be inexpedient and dangerous." S.

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CHAPTER IV. OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS.

CHAPTER IV.

Opinions Of Philosophers. Dr. Swift

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS.

DR. SWIFT.

The authority of legislators and philosophers, in support of the system we contend for, is not difficult to find. The greatest lights of humanity, ancient and modern, have approved it, which renders it difficult to explain how it comes, in this enlightened age, to be called in question, as it certainly has been, by others as well as M. Turgot. I shall begin with one, who, though sel- dom quoted as a legislator, appears to have considered this sub- ject, and to have furnished arguments enough forever to deter- mine the questionH^Dr. Swift observes,* " that the best legisla- tors of all ages agree in this, that the absolute power, which originally is in the whole body, is ' a trust too great to be com- mitted to any one man or assembly ; ' and, therefore, in then- several institutions of government, power, in the last resort, was always placed by them in balance among the one, the few, and the many ; ' and it will be an eternal rule in politics among every free people, that there is a balance of power to be carefully held by every state within itself.'

" A mixed government, partaking of the known forms received in the schools, is by no means of Gothic invention, but hath place in nature and reason, and seems very well to agree with the sentiments of most legislators. . . . For, not to mention the several republics of this composition in Gaul and Germany, described by Cassar and Tacitus, Polybius tells us, the best government is that which consists of three forms, regis, optima- tium, et populi imperio.\ Such was that of Sparta in its primi- tive institution by Lycurgus, who, observing the corruptions and depravations to which every one of these was subject, com-

* "A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and Commons of Athens and Rome, with the Consequences they had upon both ' y those States."

Much of the substance of this, the best of all the political tracts of" Dean Swift, is given in the text.

f Frarjm. lib. vi.

384 ON GOVERNMENT.

pounded his scheme out of all ; so that it was made up of reg-es, seniores, et populus. Such also was the state of Rome under its consuls ; and such, at Carthage, was the power in the last resort ; / they had their kings, senate, and people." A limited and divided power seems to have been the most ancient and inherent principle, both of the Greeks and Italians, in matters of govern- ment. " The difference between the Grecian monarchies and Italian republics was not very great. The pbwer of those Gre- cian princes, who came to the siege of Troy, was much of a size with that of the kings of Sparta, the archon of Athens, the suffetes at Carthage, and the consuls at Rome." Theseus esta- blished at Athens rather -a mixed monarchy than a popular state, assigning to himself the guardianship of the laws and the chief command in war. This institution continued during the series of kings to the death of Codrus, from whom Solon was de- scended,

" Who, finding the people engaged in two violent factions, of the poor and the rich, and in great confusion, refusing the monarchy which was offered him, chose rather to cast the government after another model, wherein he made due provision for settling the balance of power, choosing a senate of four hun- dred, and disposing the magistracies and offices according to men's estates ; leaving to the multitude their votes in electing, and the power of judging certain processes by appeal. This council of four hundred was chosen, one hundred out of each tribe, and seems to have been a body representative of the peo- ple, though the people collective reserved a share of power to themselves."

" In all free states, the evil to be avoided is tyranny ; that is to say, the summa imperii, or unlimited power, solely in the hands of the one, the few, or; the many."

" Though we cannot prolong the period of a commonwealth beyond the decree of heaven or the date of its nature, any more than human life beyond the strength of the seminal virtue, yet we may manage a sickly constitution, and preserve a strong one ; we may watch, and prevent accidents ; we may turn off a great blow from without, and purge away an ill humor that is lurking within ; and, by these and other such methods, render a state long-lived, though not immortal. Yet some physicians have thought, that if it were practicable to keep the several humors of

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 385

the body in an exact balance of each with its opposite, it might be immortal ; and so perhaps would a political body, if the balance of power could be always held exactly even."

All independent bodies of men seem naturally to divide the three powers, of the one, the few, and the many. A free people met together, as soon as they fall into any acts of civil society, do of themselves divide into three ranks. " The first is that of some one eminent spirit, who, having signalized his valor and fortune in defence of his country, or, by the practice of popular arts at home, comes to have great influence on the people, to grow their leader in warlike expeditions, and to preside, after a sort, in their civil assemblies. And this is grounded upon the principles of nature and common reason, which, in all difficulties or dangers, where prudence or courage is required, do rather incite us to fly for counsel or assistance to a single person, than a multitude. The second is, of such men, who have acquired large possessions, and, consequently, dependencies, or descend from ancestors who have left them great inheritances, together with an hereditary authority ; these, easily uniting in opinions, and acting in concert, begin to enter upon measures for securing their properties, which are best upheld by preparing against inva- sions from abroad and maintaining peace at home ; this com- mences a great council or senate for the weighty affairs of the nation. The last division is of the mass of the people, whose part of power is great and indisputable, whenever they can unite, either collectively or by deputation, to exert it."

" The true meaning of a balance of power is best conceived by considering what the nature of a balance is. It supposes three things, — first, the part which is held, together with the hand that holds it ; and then the two scales, with whatever is weighed therein. ... In a state within itself, the balance must be held by a third hand, who is to deal the remaining power with the utmost exactness into the several scales. . . . The balance may be held by the weakest, who, by his address and conduct, remov- ing from either scale and adding of his own, may keep the scales duly poised.

" When the balance is broken by mighty weights fallen into either scale, the power will never continue long, in equal divi- sion, between the two remaining parties ; but, till the balance is fixed anew, will run entirely into one." This is made to appear

VOL. IV. 33 Y

386 ON GOVERNMENT.

by the examples of the Decemviri in Rome, the Ephori in Sparta, the four hundred in Athens, the thirty in Athens, and the Domi- natio Plebis in Carthage and Argos.

" In Rome, from the time of Romulus to Julius Csesar, the com- mons were growing by degrees into power, gaining ground upon the patricians, as it were, inch by inch, till at last they quite over- turned the balance, leaving all doors open to popular and ambi- tious men, who destroyed the wisest republic, and enslaved the noblest people that ever entered on the stage of the world.

" Polybius tells us, that in the second Punic war, the Cartha- ginians were declining, because the balance was got too much on the side of the people ; whereas the Romans were in their greatest vigor, by the power remaining in the senate."

" The ambition of private men did by no means begin or occa- sion the war between Pompey and Caesar, though civil dissen- sions never fail of introducing and spiriting the ambition of pri- vate men ; . . . for, while the balance of power is equally held, the ambition of private men, whether orat6rs or commanders, gives neither danger nor fear, nor can possibly enslave then country ; but that once broken, the divided parties are forced to unite each to its head, under whose conduct or fortune one side is at first victorious, and at last both are slaves. And to put it past dis- pute, that the entire subversion of Roman liberty was altogether owing to those measures which had broken the balance between the patricians and plebeians, whereof the ambition of private men was but an effect and consequence, we need only consider, that when the uncorrupted part of the senate, by the death of Caesar, made one great effort to restore the former liberty, the suc- cess did not answer their hopes ; but that whole assembly was so sunk in its authority, that those patriots were forced to fly,, and give way to the madness of the people, who by their own dispositions, stirred up with the harangues of their orators, were now wholly bent upon single and despotic slavery. Else how could such a profligate as Antony, or a boy of eighteen, like Octavius, ever dare to dream of giving the law to such an empire and people? Wherein the latter succeeded, and entailed the vilest tyranny that Heaven, in its anger, ever inflicted on a cor- rupt and poisoned people." x

1 " It was the throne of the dragon, that is, of the devil and his angels, whose dominion was permitted by the Almighty, and foretold by his prophets." S.

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 387

It is " an error to think it an uncontrollable maxim, that power is always safer lodged in many hands than in one ; for if these many hands be made up only from one of those three divisions, it is plain, from the examples produced, and easy to be paralleled in other ages and countries, that they are as capable of enslaving the nation, and of acting all manner of tyranny and oppression, as it is possible for a single person to be, though we should sup- pose their number not only to be of four or five hundred, but above three thousand.

" In order to preserve a balance in a mixed state, the limits of power deposited with each party ought to be ascertained and generally known. The defect of this is the cause that introduces those stragglings in a state about prerogative and liberty ; about encroachments of the few upon the rights of the many, and of the many upon the privileges of the few ; which ever did, and ever will, conclude in a tyranny ; first, either of the few or the many, but at last, infallibly, of a single person; for, whichever of the three divisions in a state is upon the scramble for more power than its own, (as one or other of them generally is,) unless due care be taken by the other two, upon every new question that arises, they will be sure to decide in favor of themselves, talk much of inherent right ; they will nourish up a dormant power, and reserve privileges in petto, to exert upon occasions, to serve expedients, and to urge upon necessities ; they will make large demands and scanty concessions, ever coming off considerable gainers. Thus, at length, the balance is broken, and tyranny let in ; from which door of the three it matters not.

" The desires of men are not only exorbitant, but endless ; they grasp at all, and can form no scheme of perfect happiness with less. Ever since men have been united into governments, the hopes and endeavors after universal monarphy have been bandied among them. . . . The Athenians, the Spartans, the Thebans, and the Achaians, several times aimed at the universal monarchy of Greece ; the commonwealths of Carthage and Rome affected the universal monarchy of the then known world. In like manner has absolute power been pursued by the several parties of each particular state; wherein single persons have met with most success, though the endeavors of the few and the many have been frequent enough; yet, being neither so uniform in their designs, nor so direct in their views, they neither could manage

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388 ON GOVERNMENT.

nor maintain the power they had got, but were deceived by the popularity and ambition of some single person. So that it will be always a wrong step in policy, for the nobles and commons to carry their endeavors after power" so far as to overthrow the balance.

" With all respect for popular assemblies be it spoken, it is hard to recollect one folly, infirmity, or vice, to which a single man is subject, and from which a 'body of commons, either col- lective or represented, can be wholly exempt. . . . Whence it comes to pass, that in their results have sometimes been found the same spirit of cruelty and revenge, of malice and pride ; the same blindness, and obstinacy, and unsteadiness ; the same un- governable rage and anger; the same injustice, sophistry, and fraud, that ever lodged in the breast of any individual.

" When a child grows easy and content, by being humored ; and when a lover becomes satisfied by small compliances, with- out farther pursuits ; then expect to find popular assemblies content with small concessions. If there could one single exam- ple be brought from the whole compass of history, of any one popular assembly who, after beginning to contend for power, ever sat down quietly with a certain share ; or of one that ever knew, or proposed, or declared, what share of power was their due ; then might there be some hopes that it were a matter to be adjusted by reasonings, conferences, or debates.

"A usurping populace is its own dupe, a mere under- worker, and a purchaser in trust for some single tyrant, whose state and power they advance to their own ruin, with as blind an instinct as those worms that die with weaving magnificent habits for beings of a superior order to their own.

" The people are much more dexterous at pulling down and setting up, than at preserving what is fixed ; and they are not fonder of seizing more than their own, than they are of deliver- ing it up again to the worst bidder, with then- own into the bar- gain. For although, in their corrupt notions of divine worship, they are apt to multiply their gods ; yet their earthly devotion is seldom paid to above one idol at a time, of their own creation, whose oar they pull with less murmuring, and much more skill, than when they share the leading, or even hold the helm?

It will be perceived by the style, that it is Dr. Swift that has been speaking ; otherwise the reader might have been deceived,

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 389

and imagined that I was entertaining him with further reflections upon the short account previously given, in these letters, of the modern republics. There is not an observation here that is not justified by the history of every government we have considered. How much more maturely had this writer weighed the subject than M. Turgot! Perhaps there are not to be found in any library so many accurate ideas of government, expressed with so much perspicuity, brevity, and precision.

Dr. Franklin

DR. FRANKLIN.

As it is impossible to suppose that M. Turgot intended to recommend to the Americans a simple monarchy or aristocracy, we have admitted, as a supposition the most favorable to him, that, by collecting all authority into one centre, he meant a single assembly of representatives of the people, without a governor, and without a senate; and, although he has not explained, whether he would have the assembly chosen for life or years, we will again admit, as the most benign construction, that he meant the representatives should be annually chosen.

Here we shall be obliged to consider the reputed opinion of another philosopher, I mean Dr. Franklin. I say reputed, be- cause I am not able to affirm that it is really his. It is, however, so generally understood and reported, both in Europe and Ame- rica, that his judgment was in opposition to two assemblies, and in favor of a single one, that in a disquisition like this it ought not to be omitted. Shortly before the date of M. Turgot's letter, Dr. Franklin had arrived in Paris with the American con- stitutions, and among the rest that of Pennsylvania, in which there was but one assembly. It was reported, too, that the doctor had presided in the convention when it was made, and there approved it. M. Turgot, reading over the constitutions, and admiring that of Pennsylvania, was led to censure the rest, which were so different from it. I know of no other evidence that the Doctor ever gave his voice for a single assembly, but the common anecdote which is known to everybody. It is said, that in 1776, in the convention of Pennsylvania, of which the Doctor was president, a project of a form of government by one assem- bly was before them in debate; a motion was made to add another assembly, under the name of a senate or council. This 33*

390 ' ON GOVERNMENT.

motion was argued by several members, some for the affirm- ative, and some for the negative ; and before the question was put, the opinion of the president was requested. The president rose, and said, that "two assemblies appeared to him like a practice he had somewhere seen, of certain wagoners, who, when about to descend a steep hill with a heavy load, if they had four cattle, took off one pair from before, and chaining them to the hinder part of the wagon drove them up hill ; while the pair before and the weight of the load, overbalancing the strength of those behind, drew them slowly and moderately down the hill." *

The president of Pennsylvania might, upon such an occasion, have recollected one of Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion, namely, — " that reaction must always be equal and contrary to action," or there can never be any rest. He might have alluded to those angry assemblies in the heavens, which so often over- spread the city of Philadelphia, fill the citizens with apprehension and terror, threatening to set the world on fire, merely because the powers within them are not sufficiently balanced. He might have recollected, that a. pointed rod, a machine as simple as a wagoner, or a monarch, or a governor, would be sufficient at any time, silently and innocently, to disarm those assemblies of all their terrors, by restoring between them the balance of the power- ful fluid, and thus prevent the danger and destruction to the pro- perties and lives of men, which often happen for the want of it.

However, allusions and illustrations drawn from pastoral and rural life are never disagreeable, and, in this case, might be as apposite as if they had been taken from the sciences and the sides. Harrington, if he had been present in convention, would have exclaimed, as he did when he mentioned his two girls divid- ing and choosing a cake, " O ! the depth of the wisdom of God, which, in the simple invention of a carter, has revealed to man- kind the whole mystery of a commonwealth ; which consists as much in dividing and equalizing forces ; in controlling the weight of the load and the activity of one part by the strength of

1 " The answer of Dr. Franklin is oracular ; that is to say, is ambiguous. It may be taken both ways, like the oracles of old." S.

Dr. Franklin's marked characteristic was caution. The only inference that can be drawn from this declaration is to be obtained from the decision of the assembly. Since the publication of his Writings, however, there can be no doubt of his opinion. See Sparks's Franklin, vol. i. p. 409, vol. v. p. 165, vol. x. pp. 345, 361.

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 391

another, as it does in dividing and choosing." Harrington, too, instead of his children dividing and choosing their cake, might have alluded to those attractions and repulsions by which the balance of nature is preserved ; or to those centripetal and cen- trifugal forces by which the heavenly bodies are continued in their orbits, instead of rushing to the sun, or flying off in tan- gents among comets and fixed stars ; impelled or drawn by dif- ferent forces in different directions, they are blessings to their own inhabitants and the neighboring systems ; but if they were drawn only by one, they would introduce anarchy wherever they should go. There is no objection to such allusions, whether simple or sublime, so far as they may amuse the fancy and illus- trate an argument ; all that is insisted on is, that whatever there is in them of wit or argument, is all in favor of a complication of forces, of more powers than one ; of three powers indeed, because a balance can never be established between two orders in society, without a thud to aid the weakest.

All that is surprising here is, that the real force of the simile should have been misunderstood ; if there is any similitude, or any argument in it, it is clearly in favor of two assemblies. The weight of the load itself would roll the wagon on the oxen and the cattle on one another, in one scene of destruction, if the forces were not divided and the balance formed ; whereas, by checking one power by another, all descend the hill in safety, and avoid the danger. It should be remembered, too, that it is only in descending uncommon declivities that this division of strength becomes necessary. In travelling in ordinary plains, and always in ascending mountains, the whole team draws together, and advances faster as well as easier on its journey ; it is also certain, there are oftener arduous steeps to mount, which require the united strength of all, with all the skill of the director, than there are precipices to descend, which demand a division of it.

Let us now return to M. Turgot's idea of a government con- ^ sisting in a single assembly. He tells us our republics are " founded on the equality of all the citizens, and, therefore, ; orders ' and ' equilibriums ' are unnecessary, and occasion dis- putes." But what are we to understand here by equality? Are the citizens to be all of the same age, sex, size, strength, stature, activity, courage, hardiness, industry, patience, ingenuity,

392 ON GOVERNMENT.

wealth, knowledge, fame, wit, temperance, constancy, and wis- dom ? Was there, or will there ever be, a nation, whose indi- viduals were all equal, in natural and acquired qualities, in vir- tues, talents, and riches ? The answer of all mankind must be in the negative. It must then be acknowledged, that in every state, in the Massachusetts, for example, there are inequalities which God and nature have planted there, and which no human legislator ever can eradicate. I should have chosen to have mentioned Virginia, as the most ancient state, or indeed any other in the union, rather than the one that gave me birth, if I were not afraid of putting suppositions which may give offence, a liberty which my neighbors will pardon. Yet I shall say nothing that is not applicable to all the other twelve.

In this society of Massachusettensians then, there is, it is true, a moral and political equality of rights and duties among all the individuals, and as yet no appearance of artificial inequalities of condition, such as hereditary dignities, titles, magistracies, or legal distinctions ; and no established marks, as stars, garters, crosses, or ribbons ; there are, nevertheless, inequalities of great moment in the consideration of a legislator, because they have a natural and inevitable influence in society. Let us enumerate some of them : — 1. There is an inequality of wealth ; some individuals, whether by descent from their ancestors, or from greater skill, industry, and success in business, have estates both in lands and goods of great value ; others have no property at all ; and of all the rest of society, much the greater number are pos- sessed of wealth, in all the variety of degrees between these extremes ; it will easily be conceived that all the rich men will have many of the poor, in the various trades, manufactures, and other occupations in life, dependent upon them for then daily bread ; many of smaller fortunes will be in their debt, and in many ways under obligations to them ; others, in better circum- stances, neither dependent nor in debt, men of letters, men of the learned professions, and others, from acquaintance, conversation, and civilities, will be connected with them and attached to them. Nay, farther, it will not be denied, that among the wisest people that live, there is a degree of admiration, abstracted from all dependence, obligation, expectation, or even acquaintance, which accompanies splendid Wealth, insures some respect, and bestows some influence. 2. Birth. Let no man be surprised that this

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 393

species of inequality is introduced here. Let the page in history be quoted, where any nation, ancient or modern, civilized or savage, is mentioned, among whom no difference was made between the citizens, on account of their extraction. The truth is, that more influence is allowed to this advantage in free repub- lics than in despotic governments, or than would be allowed to it in simple monarchies, if severe laws had not been made from age to age to secure it. The children of illustrious families have generally greater advantages of education, and earlier opportuni- ties to be acquainted with public characters, and informed of public affairs, than those of meaner ones, or even than those in middle life; and what is more than all, an habitual national veneration for then names, and the characters of then* ancestors described in history, or coming down by tradition, removes them farther from vulgar jealousy and popular envy, and secures them in some degree the favor, the affection, and respect of the public. Will any man pretend that the name of Andros, and that of Winthrop, are heard with the same sensations in any village of New England ? Is not gratitude the sentiment that attends the. latter, and disgust the feeling excited by the former ? In the Massachusetts, then, there are persons descended from some of their ancient governors, counsellors, judges, whose fathers, grand- fathers, and great-grandfathers, are remembered with esteem by many living, and who are mentioned in history with applause, as benefactors to the country, while there are others who have no such advantage. May we go a step farther, — Know thyself, is as useful a precept to nations as to men. Go into every vil- lage in New England, and you will find that the office of justice of the peace, and even the place of representative, which has ever depended only on the freest election of the people, have generally descended from generation to generation, in three or four families at most. The present subject is one of those which all men respect, and all men deride. It may be said of this part of our nature, as Pope said of the whole : —

" Of human nature, wit her worst may write, We all revere it in our own despite."

If, as Harrington says, the ten commandments were voted by the people of Israel, and have been enacted as laws by all other nations ; and if we should presume to say, that nations had a

394 ON GOVERNMENT.

civil right to repeal them, no nation would think proper to repeal the fifth, which enjoins honor to parents. If there is a difference between right and wrong ; if any thing can be sacred ; if there is one idea of moral obligation ; the decree of nature must force upon every thinking being and upon every feeling heart the con- viction that honor, affection, and gratitude are due from child- ren to those who gave them birth, nurture, and education. The sentiments and affections which naturally arise from reflecting on the love, the cares, and the blessings of parents, abstracted from the consideration of duty, are some of the most forcible and most universal. When religion, law, morals, affection, and even fashion, thus conspire to fill every mind with attachment to parents, and to stamp deep upon the heart their impressions, is it to be expected that men should reverence their parents while they live, and begin to despise or neglect their memories as soon as they are dead ? This is in nature impossible. On the con- trary, every little unkindness and severity is forgotten, and nothing but endearments remembered with pleasure.

The son of a wise and virtuous father finds the world about him sometimes as much disposed as he himself is, to honor the memory of his father ; to congratulate him as the successor to his estate ; and frequently to compliment him with elections to the offices he held. A sense of duty, his passions and his inte- rest, thus conspiring to prevail upon him to avail himself of this advantage, he finds a few others in similar circumstances with himself; they naturally associate together, and aid each other. This is a faint sketch of the source and rise of the family spirit ; very often the disposition to favor the family is as strong in the town, county, province, or kingdom, as it is in the house itself. The enthusiasm is indeed sometimes wilder, and carries away, like a torrent, all before it.1

These observations are not peculiar to any age ; we have seen the effects of them in San Marino, Biscay, and the Grisons, as well as in Poland and all other countries. Not to mention any notable examples which have lately happened near us, it is not many months since I was witness to a conversation between some citizens of Massachusetts. One was haranguing on the jealousy which a free people ought to entertain of their liberties,

1 The late election of a president in France, by the popular vote, will occur as a striking illustration of the force of these observations.

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 395

and was heard by all the company with pleasure. In less than ten minutes, the conversation turned upon their governor ; and the jealous republican was very angry at the opposition to him. " The present governor," says he, " has done us such services, that he ought to rule us, he and his posterity after him, for ever and ever." " Where is your jealousy of liberty ?" demanded the other. " Upon my honor," replies the orator, " I had forgot that; you have caught me in an inconsistency ; for I cannot know whether a child of five years old will be a son of liberty or a tyrant." His jealousy was the dictate of his understanding. His confidence and enthusiasm the impulse of his heart.

The pompous trumpery of ensigns, armorials, and escutcheons are not, indeed, far advanced in America. Yet there is a more general anxiety to know their originals, in proportion to their numbers, than in any nation of Europe ; arising from the easier circumstances and higher spirit of the common people. And there are certain families in every state equally attentive to all the proud frivolities of heraldry. That kind of pride, which looks down on commerce and manufactures as degrading, may, indeed, in many countries of Europe, be a useful and necessary quality in the nobility. It may prevent, in some degree, the whole nation from being entirely delivered up to the spirit of avarice. It may be the cause why honor is preferred by some to money. It may prevent the nobility from becoming too rich, and acquir- ing too large a proportion of the landed property. In America, it would not only be mischievous, but would expose the highest pretensions of the kind to universal ridicule and contempt. Those other hauteurs, of keeping the commons at a distance, and disdaining to converse with any but a few of a certain race, may in Europe be a favor to the people, by relieving them from a multitude of assiduous attentions and humiliating compli- ances, which would be troublesome. It may prevent the nobles from caballing with the people, and gaining too much influence with them in elections and otherwise. In America, it would justly excite universal indignation ; the vainest of all must be of the people, or be nothing. While every office is equally open to every competitor, and the people must decide upon every preten- sion to a place in the legislature, that of governor and senator, as well as representative, no such airs will ever be endured. At the same time, it must be acknowledged, that some men must take

396 ON GOVERNMENT.

more pains to deserve and acquire an office than others, and must behave better in it, or they will not hold it.

We cannot presume that a man is good or bad, merely because his father was one or the other ; and we should always inform ourselves first, whether the virtues and talents are inherited, be- fore we yield our confidence. Wise men beget fools, and honest men knaves ; but these instances, although they may be frequent, are not general. If there is often a likeness in feature and figure, there is generally more in mind and heart, because educa- tion contributes to the formation of these as well as nature. The influence of example is very great, and almost universal, especially that of parents over their children. In all countries it has been observed, that vices, as well as virtues, very often run down in families from age to age. Any man may go over in his thoughts the circle of his acquaintance, and he will probably recol- lect instances of a disposition to mischief, malice, and revenge, descending in certain breeds from grandfather to father and son. A young woman was lately convicted at Paris of a trifling theft, barely within the law which decreed a capital punishment. There were circumstances, too, which greatly alleviated her fault ; some things in her behavior that seemed innocent and modest ; every spectator, as well as the judges, was affected at the scene, and she was advised to petition for a pardon, as there was no doubt it would be granted. « No," says she ; " my grandfather, father, and brother were all hanged for stealing ; it runs in the blood of our family to steal, and be hanged. If I am pardoned now, I shall steal again in a few months more inexcusably ; and, there- fore, I will be hanged now." An hereditary passion for the halter is a strong instance, to be sure, and cannot be very com- mon ; but something like it too often descends, in certain breeds, from generation to generation.

If vice and infamy are thus rendered less odious, by being familiar in a family, by the example of parents and by educa- tion, it would be as unhappy as unaccountable, if virtue and honor were not recommended and rendered more amiable to children by the same means.

There are, and always have been, in every state, numbers pos- sessed of some degree of family pride, who have been invariably encouraged, if not flattered in it, by the people. These have most acquaintance, esteem, and friendship with each other, and

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 397

mutually aid each other's schemes of interest, convenience, and ambition. Fortune, it is true, has more influence than birth. A rich man, of an ordinary family and common decorum of con- duct, may have greater weight than any family merit commonly confers without it.

It will be readily admitted, there are great inequalities of merit, or talents, virtues, services, and what is of more moment, very often of reputation. Some, in a long course of service in an army, have devoted their time, health, and fortunes, signal- ized their courage and address, exposed themselves to hardships and dangers, lost their limbs, and shed their blood, for the peo- ple. Others have displayed their wisdom, learning, and eloquence in council, and in various other ways acquired the confidence and affection of their fellow-citizens to such a degree, that the public have settled into a kind of habit of following their ex- ample and taking their advice.

There are a few, in whom all these advantages of birth, for- tune, and fame are united.

These sources of inequality, which are common to every people, and can never be altered by any, because they are founded in the constitution of nature ; this natural aristocracy among mankind, has been dilated on, because it is a fact essen- tial to be considered in the institution of a government. It forms a body of men which contains the greatest collection of virtues and abilities in a free government, is the brightest orna- ment and glory of the nation, and may always be made the greatest blessing of society, if it be judiciously managed in the constitution. But if this be not done, it is always the most dangerous ; nay, it may be added, it never fails to be the destruc- tion of the commonwealth.

What shall be done to guard against it ? Shall they be all massacred? This experiment has been more than once at- tempted, and once at least executed. Guy Faux attempted it in England; and a king of Denmark,1 aided by a popular party, effected it once in Sweden ; but it answered no good end. The moment they were dead another aristocracy instantly arose, with equal art and influence, with less delicacy and discretion, if not principle, and behaved more intolerably than the former.

1 This is an allusion to the massacre of Stockholm, committed by Christian II., denominated the Nero of the North.

VOL. IV. 34

I

398 ON GOVERNMENT.

The country, for centuries, never recovered from the ruinous con- sequences of a deed so horrible, that one would think it only to be met with in the history of the kingdom of darkness.

There is but one expedient yet discovered, to avail the society of all the benefits from this body of men, which they are capable of affording, and at the same time, to prevent them from under- mining or invading the public liberty ; and that is, to throw them all, or at least the most remarkable of them, into one assembly together, in the legislature ; to keep all the executive power en- tirely out of their hands as a body ; to erect a first magistrate over them, invested with the whole executive authority ; to make them dependent on that executive magistrate for all public executive employments ; 1 to give that first magistrate a negative on the legislature, by which he may defend both himself and the people from all their enterprises in the legislature ; and to erect on the other side an impregnable barrier against them, in a house of commons, fairly, fully, and adequately representing the people, who shall have the power both of negativing all their attempts at encroachment in the legislature, and of withholding from them and from the crown all supplies, by which they may be paid for then services in executive offices, or even the public service may be carried on to the detriment of the nation.

We have seen, both by reasoning and in experience, what kind of equality is to be found or expected in the simplest people in the world. There is not a city nor a village, any more than a kingdom or a commonwealth, in Europe or America; not a horde, clan, or tribe, among the negroes of Africa, or the savages of North or South America ; nor a private club in the world, in which jnegualit ies are not more or less visible. There is, then, a certain degree of weight, which property, family, and merit, will have in the public opinion and deliberations. If M. Turgot had discovered a mode of ascertaining the quantity which they ought to have, and had revealed it to mankind, so that it might be known to every citizen, he would have deserved more of grati- tude than is due to all the inventions of philosophers. But, as long as human nature shall have passions and imagination, there is too much reason to fear that these advantages, in many instan- ces, will have more influence than reason and equity can justify.

1 " If this means the appointment to offices, it is not advisable any more than the negative." S.

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 399

Let us then reflect, how the single assembly in the Massa- chusetts^ in which our great statesman wishes all authority con- centrated, will be composed. There being no senate nor council, all the rich, the honorable, and meritorious will stand candidates" for seats in the house of representatives, and nineteen in twenty of them will obtain elections. The house will be found to have all the inequalities in it that prevailed among the people at large. Such an assembly will be naturally divided into three parts. The first is, some great genius, — some one masterly spirit, who unites in himself all the qualities which constitute the natural foundations of authority, such as benevolence, wisdom, and power ; and all the adventitious attractions of respect, such as riches, ancestry, and personal merit. All eyes are turned upon him for president or speaker. The second division comprehends a third, or a quarter, or, if you will, a sixth or an eighth of the whole ; and consists of those who have the most to boast of resembling their head. In the third class are all the rest, who are nearly on a level in understanding and in all things. Such an assembly has in it, not only all the persons of the nation, who are most eminent for parts and virtues, but all those who are most inflamed with ambition and avarice, and who are most vain of their descent. These latter will, of course, constantly endeavor to increase their own influence, by exaggerating all the attributes they possess, and by augmenting them in every way t they can think of; and will have friends, whose only chance of rising into public view will be under their protection, who will be even more active and zealous in their service than themselves. Notwithstanding all the equality that can ever be hoped for among men, it is easy to see that the third class will, in general be but humble imitators and followers of the second. Every man in the second class will have constantly about him a circle of members of the third, who will be his admirers, perhaps afraid of his influence in the districts they represent, or related to him by blood, or connected with him in trade, or dependent upon him for favors. There will be much envy, too, among indivi- duals of the second class, against the speaker, although a sincere veneration is shown him by the majority, and great external respect by all. I said there would be envy ; because there will be among the second class several whose fortunes, families, and merits, in the acknowledged judgment of all, approach near to

400

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the first ; and, from the ordinary illusions of self-love and self- interest, they and their friends will be much disposed to claim the first place as their own right. This will introduce contro- versy and debate, as well as emulation ; and those who wish for the first place, and cannot obtain it, will of course endeavor to keep down the speaker as near upon a level with themselves as possible, by paring away the dignity and importance of his office, as we saw was the case in Venice, Poland, and, indeed, everywhere else.

A single assembly thus constituted, without any counterpoise, balance, or equilibrium, is to have all authority, legislative, exe- cutive, and judicial, concentrated in it. It is to make a constitu- tion and laws by its own will, execute those laws at its own pleasure, and adjudge all controversies that arise concerning the meaning and application of them, at its own discretion. "What is there to restrain it from making tyrannical laws, in order to execute them in a tyrannical manner ? Will it be pretended, that the jealousy and vigilance of the people, and then power to discard them at the next election, will restrain them ? Even this idea supposes a balance, an equilibrium, which M. Turgot holds in so much contempt ; it supposes the people at large to be a check and control over the representative assembly. But this would be found a mere delusion. A jealousy between the elect- ors and the elected neither ought to exist, nor is it possible to exist. It is a contradiction to suppose that a body of electors should have at one moment a warm affection and entire confi- dence in a man, so as to intrust him with authority, limited or unlimited, over their lives and fortunes ; and the next moment after his election, to commence a suspicion of him, that shall prompt them to watch all his words, actions, and motions,1 and dispose them to renounce and punish him. They choose him, indeed, because they think he knows more, and is better dis- posed than the generality, and very often even than themselves. Indeed, the best use of a representative assembly, arises from the cordial affection and unreserved confidence which subsists be-

1 " But future conduct may give just cause of suspicion ; and, therefore, the representative, (according to the English constitution in its purity,) was elected only for a single session, the cause of which, if novel, was expressed in the elec- tion writs ; and the representative had no right to determine in any new device, without consulting his constituents. These are the proper checks to aristocracy."

S.

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 401

tween it and the collective body of the people. It is by such kind and candid intercourse alone, that the wants and desires of the people can be made known, on the one hand, or the necessi- ties of the public communicated or reconciled to them, on the other. In what did such a confidence in one assembly end, in Venice, Geneva, Biscay, Poland, but in an aristocracy and an oligarchy ? There is no special providence for Americans, and their nature is the same with that of others.

Dr. Price

DR. PRICE.

To demonstrate the necessity of two assemblies in the legisla- ture, as well as of a third branch in it, to defend the executive authority, it may be laid down as a first principle, that neither liberty nor justice can be secured to the individuals of a nation, nor its prosperity promoted, but by a fixed constitution of govern- ment, and stated laws, known and obeyed by all. JYI. Turgot, indeed, censures the " falsity of the notion, so frequently repeated by almost all republican writers, ' that liberty consists in being subject only to the laws ; ' as if a man could be free while oppressed by an unjust law. This would not be true, even if we could suppose that all laws were the work of an assembly of the whole nation ; for certainly every individual has his rights, of which the nation cannot deprive him, except by violence and an unlawful use of the general power."

We often hear and read of free states, a free people, a free nation, a free country, a free kingdom, and even of free republics ; and we understand, in general, what is intended, although every man may not be qualified to enter into philosophical disquisi- tions concerning the meaning, or to give a logical definition of the word liberty.

Our friend Dr. Price has distinguished very well, concerning physical, moral, religious, and civil liberty ; and has defined the last to be " the power of a civil society to govern itself, by its own discretion, or by laws of its own making, by the majority, in a collective body, or by fair representation. In ' every free state every man is his own legislator. Legitimate government consists only in the dominion of equal laws made with common consent, and not in the dominion of any men over other men."

M. Turgot, however, makes the doctor too great a compli-

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ment at the expense of former English writers, when he repre- sents him as " the first of his countrymen who has given a just idea of liberty, and shown the falsity, so often repeated by almost all republican writers, that liberty consists in being sub- ject only to the laws."

I shall cheerfully agree with M. Turgot, that it is very possible that laws, and even equal laws, made by common consent, may deprive the minority of the citizens of their rights. A society, by a majority, may govern itself, even by equal laws, that is by laws to which all, majority and minority, are equally subject, so as to oppress the minority. It may establish a uniformity in re- ligion ; it may restrain trade ; it may confine the personal liberty of all equally, and against the judgment of many, even of the best and wisest, without reasonable motives, use, or benefit. We may go farther, and say that a nation may be unanimous in consenting to a law restraining its natural liberty, property, and commerce, and its moral and religious liberties too, to a degree that may be prejudicial to the nation and to every individual in it. A nation of catholics might unanimously consent to prohibit labor upon one half the days in the year, as feast days. The whole American nation might unanimously consent to a Sunday law and a warden act, which should deprive them of the use of their limbs one day in seven. A nation may unanimously agree to a navigation act, which should shackle the commerce of all. Yet Dr. Price's definition of civil liberty is as liable to this objec- tion as any other. These would be all equal laws made with common consent ; these would all be acts of legitimate govern- ment. To take in M. Turgot's idea, then, we must add to Dr. Price's ideas of equal laws by common consent, this other — for V the general interest or the ■public good. But it is generally sup- posed that nations understand their own interest better than another ; and, therefore, they may be trusted to judge of the public good ; and in all the cases above supposed, they will be as free as they desire to be ; and, therefore, they may with great propriety be -called free nations, and their constitutions free republics. There can be no way of compelling nations to be more free than they choose to be.

But M. Turgot has mistaken the sense of republican writers, especially of the English ones. What republican writers he had in view, I know not. There is none that I remember, of any

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 403

name, who has given so absurd a definition of liberty. His countryman, Montesquieu, who will scarcely be denominated a republican writer, has said something the most like it ; but it is manifest that his meaning was confined to equal laws, made by common consent. Although there may be unjust and unequal laws, obedience to which would be incompatible with liberty ; yet no man will contend that a nation can be free that is not governed by fixed laws. All other government than that of per- manent known laws, is the government of mere will and plea- sure, whether it be exercised by one, a few, or many. Repub- lican writers in general, and those of England in particular, have maintained the same principle with Dr. Price, and have said that legitimate governments, or well ordered commonwealths, or well constituted governments, were those where the laws prevailed ; they have always explained their meaning to be equal laws made by common consent or the general will — that is to say, made by the majority, and equally binding upon majority and minority. As it is of importance to rescue the good old repub- lican writers from such an imputation, let me beg your patience while we look into some of them.

Aristotle says, that " a government where the laws alone should prevail, would be the kingdom of God." This indeed shows that this great philosopher had much admiration of such a government. But it is not the assertion that M. Turgot con- demns, namely, — that liberty consists in being subject to the laws only.

Aristotle says too, in another place, " Order is law, and it is more proper that law should govern, than any one of the citi- zens ; upon the same principle, if it is advantageous to place the supreme power in some particular persons, they should be appointed to be only guardians and the servants of the laws." These too are very just sentiments, but not a formal definition of liberty.

Livy, too, speaks of happy, prosperous, and glorious times, when " Imperia legum potentiora fuerunt quam hominum." But he nowhere says that liberty consists in being subject only to the legum imperio.

Sidney says, " No sedition was hurtful to Rome, until, through their prosperity, some men gained a power above the laws."

In another place he tells us too, from Livy, that some, whose

404 ON GOVERNMENT.

ambition and avarice were impatient of restraint, complained that "leges rem surdam esse, inexorabilem, salubriorem inopi quam potenti."

And, in another, that " no government was thought to be well constituted, unless the laws prevailed against the commands of men." But he has nowhere defined liberty to be subjection to the laws only.

Harrington says, " Government de jure, or, according to an- cient prudence, is an art, whereby a civil society of men is insti- tuted and preserved upon the foundation of common interest ; or, to follow Aristotle and Livy, it is an empire of laws and not of men. And government, to define it according to modern prudence, or de facto, is an art by which some man, or some few men, subject a city or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private interest ; which, because the laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a man, or a few families, may be said to be the empire of men and not of laws."

Harrington 1 agrees, that law proceeds from the will of man, whether a monarch or people ; and that this will must have a mover ; and that this mover is interest. But the interest of the people is one thing — it is the public interest ; and where the public interest governs, it is a government of laws, and not of men. The interest of a king, or of a party, is another thing — it is a private interest; and where private interest governs, it is a government of men, and not of laws. If in England there has ever been any such thing as a government of laws, was it not magna charta ? and have not our kings broken magna charta thirty times ? Did the law govern when the law was broken ? or was that a government of men ? On the contrary, hath not magna charta been as often repaired by the people ? and, the law being so restored, was it not a government of laws, and not of men ? Why have our kings, in so many statutes and oaths engaged themselves to govern by law, if there were not in kings a capacity of governing otherwise ? It is true, that laws are neither made by angels, nor by horses, but by men. The voice of the people is as much the voice of men as the voice of a prince is the voice of a man ; and yet the voice of the people is the voice of God, which the voice of a prince is not. The

1 Pollticaster, scene 2.

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 405

government of laws, said Aristotle, is the government of God. In a monarchy, the laws, being made according to the interest of one man, or a few men, must needs be more private and par- tial than suits with the nature of justice ; but in a common- wealth, the laws, being made by the whole people, must come up to the public interest, which is common right and justice ; and if a man know not what is his own interest, who should know it ? and that which is the interest of the most or greatest number of particular men, being summed up in the common vote, is the public interest.

Sidney says, " Liberty consists solely in an independency on the will of another ; and, by a slave, we understand a man who can neither dispose of his person or goods, but enjoys all at the will of his master." And again, "As liberty consists only in being subject to no man's will, and nothing denotes a slave but a dependence upon the will of another ; if there be no other law in a kingdom but the will of a prince, there is no such thing as liberty."

M. Turgot might have perceived in these writers that a govern- ment of laws and not of men was intended by them as a descrip- tion of a commonwealth, not a definition of liberty. There may be various degrees of liberty established by the laws, and enjoyed by the citizens, in different commonwealths ; but still the general will, as well as the general interest, as far as it is understood by the people, prevails in all that can be denominated free. As the society governs itself, it is free, according to the definition of Dr. Price. The inquiry of these writers, in such passages, was not into the highest point of liberty, or greatest degree of it, which might be established by the general will and the common sense of interest, in their results or laws. They have taken it for granted that human nature is so fond of liberty, that, if the whole society were consulted, a majority would never be found to put chains upon themselves by their own act and voluntary consent.

But all men, as well as republican writers, must agree, that there can be no uninterrupted enjoyment of liberty, nor any good government in society, without laws, or where standing laws do not govern. In despotic states, in simple monarchies, in aristo- cracies, in democracies, in all possible mixtures of these, the indi- vidual continually enjoys the benefit of law, as he does that

406 ON GOVERNMENT.

of light and air, although, in most of those governments, he has no security for the continuance of it. If the laws were all repealed at once, in any great kingdom, and the event made known suddenly to all, scarcely a house in the great cities would remain in possession of its present inhabitants.

The great question therefore is, What combination of powers in society, or what form of government, will compel the forma- tion, impartial execution, and faithful interpretation of good and equal laws, so that the citizens may constantly enjoy the benefit of them, and may be sure of their continuance ? The controversy between M. Turgot and me is, whether a single assembly of representatives be this form ? He maintains the affirmative. I am for the negative. Because such an assembly will, upon the first day of its existence, be an aristocracy ; in a few days, or at least years, an oligarchy ; and then it will divide into two or three parties, who will soon have as many armies ; after which, when the battle is decided, the victorious general will govern without or with the advice of any council or assem- bly, as he pleases ; or else, if the assembly continues united, it will in time exclude the people from all share even in elections, and make the government hereditary in a few families.

In order to be fully convinced of this, we must take an exten- sive view of the subject; and the first inquiry should be, what kind of beings men are ? You and I admire the fable of Tris- tram Shandy more than the fable of the Bees, and agree with Butler rather than Hobbes. It is weakness rather than wicked- ness, which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power. The passions are all unlimited ; nature has left them so ; if they could be bounded, they would be extinct ; and there is no doubt they are of indispensable importance in the present system. They certainly increase too, by exercise, like the body. The love of gold grows faster than the heap of acquisition ; the love of praise increases by every gratification, till it stings like an adder, and bites like a serpent; till the man is miserable every moment when he does not snuff the incense. Ambition strengthens at every advance, and at last takes possession of the whole soul so absolutely, that a man sees nothing in the world of importance to others or himself, but in his object. The subtlety of these three passions, which have been selected from all the others because they are aristocratical passions, in subdu-

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 407

ino- all others, and even the understanding itself, if not the con- science too, until they become absolute and imperious masters of the whole mind, is a curious subject of speculation. The cunning with which they hide themselves from others, and from a man himself too ; the patience with which they wait for oppor- tunities ; the torments they voluntarily suffer for a time, to se- cure a full enjoyment at length ; the inventions, the discoveries, the contrivances they suggest to the understanding, sometimes in the dullest dunces in the world, if they could be described in writing, would pass for great genius.

We are not enough acquainted with the physical or metaphy- sical effects produced on our bodies or minds, to be able to explain the particular reason why every instance of indulgence strengthens and confirms the subsequent emotions of desire. The cause has hitherto been too deep, remote, and subtle, for the search of corporeal or intellectual microscopes ; but the fact is too decided to deceive or escape our observation. Men should endeavor at a balance of affections and appetites, under the monarchy of reason and conscience, within, as well as at a balance of power without. If they surrender the guidance for any course of time to any one passion, they may depend upon finding it, in the end, a usurping, domineering, cruel tyrant. They were intended by nature to live together in society, and in this way to restrain one another, and in general they are a very good kind of creatures ; but they know each other's im- becility so well, that they ought never to lead one another into temptation.* The passion that is long indulged and con- tinually gratified becomes mad ; it is a species of delirium ; it should not be called guilt, but insanity. But who would trust his fife, liberty, and property to a madman or an assembly of them ? It would be safer to confide in knaves. Five hundred or five thousand together, in an assembly, are not less liable to this extravagance than one. The nation that commits its affairs to a single assembly, will assuredly find that its passions and desires augment as fast as those of a king. And, there- fore, a constitution with a single assembly must be essentially defective.

* 01 nleXcToi xav.6i. The majority are wicked. Bias. (J. A.) The notes marked with the author's initials have been found written in the / margin of his copy.

408 ON GOVERNMENT.

Others have seen this quality in human nature through a more gloomy medium.

Machiavel says, " those who have written on civil government lay it down as a first principle, and all historians demonstrate the same, that whoever would found a state, and make proper laws for the government of it, must presume that all men are bad by nature ; that they will not fail to show that natural depravity of heart whenever they have a fair opportunity ; * and that though it may possibly lie for a while concealed, on account of some secret reason, which does not then appear to men of small experience, yet time, which is therefore justly called the father of truth, commonly brings it to light in the end." Machia- vel's translator remarks, that although this seems a harsh suppo- sition, does not every Christian daily justify the truth of it, by confessing it before God and the world? and are we not expressly told the same in several passages of the Holy Scrip- tures, and in all systems of human philosophy ?

Montesquieu says, " Constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it. He pushes on till he comes to something that limits him. Is it not strange, though true, to say that virtue itself has need of limits? To prevent the abuse of power, it is necessary, that, by the very disposition of things, power should be a check to power. A government may be so constituted, as that no man shall be com- pelled to do things to which the law does not oblige him, nor forced to abstain from things which the law permits."

" So endless and exorbitant are the desires of men, that they will grasp at all, and can form no scheme of perfect happiness with less. It is hard to recollect one folly, infirmity, or vice, to which a single man is subjected, and from which a body of com- mons, collective or representative," (and he might have added a body of nobles,) " can be wholly exempt." Swift.

" Laws are intended not to trust to what men will do, but to guard against what they may do." Junius.

* Hooker's Ecc. Pol. lib. i. ss. 1 ; Ibid. ss. 10.

" Laws politic, ordained for external order and regiment amongst men, are never framed as they should be, unless presuming the will of man to be inwardly obstinate, rebellious, and averse from all obedience unto the sacred laws of his nature ; in a word, unless presuming man to be, in regard of his depraved mind, little better than a wild beast, they do accordingly provide, notwithstanding, so to frame his outward actions that they be no hindrance unto the common good for which societies are instituted ; unless they do this, they are not perfect."

Opinions Of Philosophers

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS.

409

«0<rni uomo si fa centro di tutte le combinazioni del globo."

Beccaria.

« The ambitious deceive themselves, when they propose an end to their ambition ; for that end, when attained, becomes a

means." Rochefgucg/uliL.

" Experience evinces that the happiest dispositions are not proof against the allurements of power, which has no charms but as it leads on to new advances. Authority endures not the very idea of restraint ; nor does it cease to struggle, till it has beaten down every boundary." De_Lohne,..

Hobbes, Mandeville, Rochefoucauld, have drawn still more detestable pictures ; and _Rqusseau, in his Inequalities among Mankind, gives a description of a civilized heart, too black and horrible to be transcribed.*

Even our amiable friends, those benevolent Christian philoso- phers, Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley, acquaint us that they are con- strained to believe human nature no better than it should be. The latter says, there is no power on earth but has grown exorbitant when it has met with no control. >

The former : " Such are the principles that govern human VY£ nature ; such the weakness and folly of men ; such their love of domination, selfishness, and depravity, that none of them can be raised to an elevation above others, without the utmost danger. The constant experience of the world has verified this, and proved that nothing intoxicates the human mind so much as power. In the establishment, therefore, of civil government, it would be preposterous to rely on the discretion of any men. A people will never oppress themselves or invade their own rights ; but if they trust the arbitrary will of a body or succession of men, they trust enemies."

Shall we say that all these philosophers were ignorant of hu- man nature ? With all my soul, I wish it were in my power to quote any passages in history or philosophy, which might demon- strate all these satires on our species to be false. But the pheno- mena are all in their favor ; and the only question to be raised with them is, whether the cause is wickedness, weakness, or insanity ?

In all events, we must agree, that human nature is not fit to y

VOL. IV

* " Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but himself That hideous sight, a naked human heart."

Night Thoughts. Narcissa.

35

(J. A.)

410 ON GOVERNMENT.

be trusted with M. Turgot's system, of all authority in a single assembly.

A single assembly will never be a steady guardian of the laws, if Machlayel is right when he says : " Men are never good but through necessity. On the contrary, when good and evil are left to their choice, and they can practise the latter with impunity, they will not fail to throw every thing into disorder and con- fusion.1 Hunger and poverty may make men industrious, but laws only can make them good ; for, if men were so of them- selves, there would be no occasion for laws ; but, as the case is far otherwise, they are absolutely necessary. After the Tarquins were dead, who had been such a check upon the nobility, some other expedient was wanting that might have the same effect ; so that, after much confusion and disorder, and many danger- ous contests between the patricians and plebeians, certain offi- cers, called tribunes, were created for the security of the latter ; who, being vested with such privileges and authority as ena- bled them to become arbiters betwixt those two estates, effect- ually curbed the insolence of the former." Or, in the language of Dr. Franklin, the people insisted upon hitching a yoke of cattle behind the wagon, to draw up hill, when the patricians before should attempt to go too fast ; or, in the style of Harring- ton, the commons, finding the patricians disposed to divide the cake unequally, demanded the privilege of choosing.

If Harrington's authority is not of great weight with some men, the reasons he assigns in support of his judgment are often eternal and unanswerable by any man. In his Oceana, he says : " Be the interest of popular government right reason, a man does not look upon reason as it is right or wrong in itself, but as it makes for him or against him. Wherefore, unless you can show such orders of a government as, like those of God in nature, shall be able to constrain this or that creature to shake off that inclination which is more peculiar to it, and take up that which regards the common good or interest ; all this is to no more end, than to persuade every man in a popular government not to carve for himself of that which he desires most, but to be man- nerly at the public table, and give the best from himself to decency and the common interest. But that such orders may be

1 So great is the depravity of the human heart, that ministers, who only can know it, are in charity to mankind bound to keep it a secret, &c. (J. A.)

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 411

established, as may, nay must, give the upper hand in all cases to common right or interest, notwithstanding the nearness of that which sticks to every man in private, and this in a way of equal certainty and facility, is known even to girls ; being no other than those which are of common practice with them in divers cases. For example, — two of them have a cake yet undivided, which was given between them. That each of them, therefore, might have that which is due, ' divide,' says one, ' and I will choose; or let me divide, and you shall choose.' If this be but once agreed upon, it is enough ; for the divident, dividing unequally loses, in regard that the other takes the better half; wherefore, she divides equally, and so both have right. And thus, what great philosophers are disputing upon in vain, is brought to light by two harmless girls ; even the whole mystery of a com- monwealth, which lies only in dividing and choosing."

Now, if all authority is to be collected into one central assem- bly, it will have the whole power of division and choice ; and we may easily conjecture what division and choice it will be. It will soon have possession of all the cakes, loaves, and fishes.

Harrington proceeds ;_ " Nor has God, if his works in nature be understood, left so much to mankind to dispute upon, as who shall divide and who choose, but distributed them forever into two orders ; whereof the one has the natural right of dividing, and the other of choosing. For example,- — a commonwealth is but a civil society of men. Let us take any number of men, as twenty, and immediately make a commonwealth. Twenty men, if they be not all idiots, perhaps if they be, can never come so together but there will be such a difference in them, that about a thud will be wiser, or, at least less foolish, than all the rest. These, upon acquaintance, though it be but small, will be discovered, and (as stags that have the largest heads) lead the herd. Foi*, while the six, discoursing and arguing one with another, show the eminence of their parts, the fourteen dis- cover things that they never thought on, or are cleared in divers truths which had formerly perplexed them. Wherefore, in matter of common concernment, difficulty, or danger, they hang upon then lips as children upon their fathers ; and the influence thus acquired by the six, the eminence of whose parts are found to be a stay and comfort to the fourteen, is the authority of the fathers — auctorUas patrum. Wherefore, this can be no other than a

412 ON GOVERNMENT.

natural aristocracy, diffused by God throughout the whole body of mankind, to this end and purpose ; and, therefore, such as the people have not only a natural, but a positive obligation to make use of as their guides ; as where the people of Israel are com- manded to take wise men, and understanding, and known among their tribes, to be made rulers over them. The six then approved of, as in the present case, are the senate ; not by hereditary right, or in regard to the greatness of their estates only, which would tend to such power as might force or draw the people ; but by election for their excellent parts, which tends to the ad- vancement of the influence of their virtue or authority, that leads the people. Wherefore, the office of the senate is not to be commanders, but counsellors of the people ; and that which is proper to counsellors, is first to debate, and afterwards to give advice in the business whereon they have debated ; whence the decrees of the senate are never laws, nor so called — senaius consulta ; and these, being maturely framed, it is their duty to propose to the people. Wherefore, the senate is no more than the debate of the commonwealth. But to debate is to discern, or put a difference between things, that, being alike, are not the same ; or it is separating and weighing this reason against that, and that reason against this ; which is dividing:

" The senate, then, having divided, who shall choose ? Ask the girls ; for, if she that divided must have chosen also, it had been little worse for the other, in case she had not divided at all, but kept the whole cake to herself; in regard that, being to choose too, she divided accordingly.

" Wherefore, if the senate have any further power than to divide, the commonwealth can, never be equal. But, in a com- monwealth consisting" of a single council, there is no other to choose than that which divided. Whence it is, that such a council fails not to scramble, that is, to be factious ; there being no other dividing of the cake, in that case, but among themselves ; nor is there any other remedy, but to have another council to choose. The wisdom of the few may be the light of mankind ; but the interest of the few is not the profit of mankind, nor of a commonwealth. Wherefore, seeing we have granted interest to be reason, they must not choose, lest it put out their light. But as the coun- cil dividing consists of the wisdom of the commonwealth, so the assembly or council choosing should consist of the interest

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 413

of the commonwealth ; as the wisdom of the commonwealth is in the aristocracy, so the interest of the commonwealth is in the whole body of the people. And whereas this, in case the com- monwealth consist of a whole nation, is too unwieldy a body to be assembled, this council is to consist of such a representa- tive as may be equal, and so constituted as it can never contract any other interest than that of the whole people. But, in the present case, the six dividing, and the fourteen choosing, must of necessity take in the whole interest of the twenty. Dividing V and choosing, in the language of a commonwealth, is debating and resolving; and whatsoever, upon debate of the senate, is proposed to the people, and resolved by them, is enacted by the authority of the fathers, and by the power of the people — aucto- ritate patrum et jussu populi ; which concurring make a law."

Upon these principles, and to establish a method of enacting laws that must of necessity be wise and equal, the people of most of the United States of America agreed upon that division of the legislative power into two houses, the house of represent- atives and the senate, which have given so much disgust to M. Turgot. Harrington will show us equally well the propriety and necessity of the other branch, the governor. But, before we pro- ceed to that, it may be worth while to observe the similitude between this passage and some of those sentiments and expres- sions of Swift, which were quoted in a former letter ; and there is in the Idea of a Patriot King; written by his friend, Lord Bolingbroke, a passage to the same purpose, so nobly expressed, that I cannot forbear the pleasure of transcribing it. " It seems to me that, in order to maintain the moral system of the uni- verse at a certain point, far below that of ideal perfection, (for we are made capable of conceiving what we are not capable of attaining,) it has pleased the Author of Nature to mingle, from time to time, among the societies of men a few, and but a few of those on whom he has been graciously pleased to confer a larger proportion of the ethereal spirit, than in the ordinary course of his providence he bestows on the sons of men. These are they who engross almost the whole reason of the species. Born to direct, to guide, and to preserve, if they retire from the world their splendor accompanies them, and enlightens even the darkness of their retreat. If they take a part in public life, the effect is never indifferent. They either appear the instruments

35*

414 ON GOVERNMENT.

of Divine vengeance, and their course through the world is marked by desolation and oppression, by poverty and servitude ; or they are the guardian angels of the country they inhabit, studious to avert the most distant evil, and to procure peace, plenty, and the greatest of human blessings, liberty."

If there is, then, in society such a natural aristocracy as these great writers pretend, and as all history and experience demon- strate, formed partly by genius, partly by birth, and partly by riches, how shall the legislator avail himself of their influence for the equal benefit of the public? and how, on the other hand, shall he prevent them from disturbing the public happiness ? I answer, by arranging them all, or at least the most conspicuous of them, together in one assembly, by the name of a senate ; by separating them from all pretensions to the executive power, and by controlling in the legislative their ambition and avarice, by an assembly of representatives on one side, and by the exe- cutive authority on the other. Thus you will have the benefit of their wisdom, without fear of their passions. If among them there are some of Lord Bolingbroke's guardian angels, there will be some of his instruments of Divine vengeance too. The latter will be here restrained by a threefold tie, — by the execu- tive power, by the representative assembly, and by their peers in the senate. But if these were all admitted into a single popular assembly, the worst of them might in time obtain the ascendency of all the rest. In such a single assembly, as has been observed before, almost the whole of this aristocracy will make its ap- pearance, being returned members of it by the election of the people. These will be one class. There will be another set of members, of middling rank and circumstances, who will justly value themselves upon their independence, their integrity, and unbiased affection to their country, and will pique themselves upon being under no obligation. But there will be a third class, every one of whom will have his leader among the members of the first class, whose character he will celebrate, and whose voice he will follow ; and this party, after a course of time, will be the most numerous. The question then will be, whether this aristocracy in the house will unite or divide? and it is too obvious, that destruction to freedom must be the consequence equally of their union or of their division. If they unite gene- rally in all things, as much as they certainly will in respecting

OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS. 415

each other's wealth, birth, and parts, and conduct themselves with prudence, they will strengthen themselves by insensible degrees, by playing into each other's hands more wealth and popularity, until they become able to govern elections as they please, and rule the people at discretion. An independent mem- ber will be their aversion ; all their artifices will be employed to destroy his popularity among his constituents, and bring in a disciple of their own in his place.

But if they divide, each party will, in a course of time, have the whole house, and consequently the whole state, divided into two factions, which will struggle in words, in writing, and at last in arms, until Csesar or Pompey must be emperor, and entail an endless line of tyrants on the nation. But long before this catastrophe, and indeed through every scene of the drama, the laws, instead of being permanent, and affording constant pro- tection to the lives, liberties, and properties of the citizens, will be alternately the sport of contending factions, and the mere vibrations of a pendulum. From the beginning to the end it will be a government of men, now of one set, and then of another; but never a government of laws.

CHAPTER V. WRITERS ON GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER V.

Writers On Government. Machiavel

WRITERS ON GOVERNMENT.

MACHIAVEL.

Discourses upon the First Decade of Livy.

I

The whole chapter is very much to the purpose, but the fol- lowing paragraphs more particularly so : —

Mil

"According to some authors, there are but three sorts of govern- ment, namely, — monarchy or principality, aristocracy, and demo- cracy ; and that those who intend to erect a new state, must have recourse to some one of these which they like best. Others, and, as many think, with more judgment, say there are six sorts; three of which are very bad, and the other three good in them- selves, but liable to be so corrupted that they may become the worst. The three good sorts have been just now mentioned. The other three proceed from these ; and every one of them bears such a resemblance to that on which it respectively depends, that the transition from one to the other is short and easy ; for mo- narchy often degenerates into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into licentious anarchy and confusion. So that, whoever sets up any one of the former three sorts of govern- ment, may assure himself it will not be of any long duration ; for no precaution will be sufficient to prevent its falling into the other that is analogous to it, on account of the affinity which there seems to be in this case betwixt perfection and imper- fection.

" This variety of governments among mankind appears to have been the effect of chance. For in the beginning of the world, the inhabitants being few, they some time lived separate from each other, like beasts ; but afterwards, as they multiplied, they began to unite for their mutual defence, and put themselves under the protection of such as were most eminent amongst

* Book i. c. 2.

MACHIAVEL. 417

them for courage and strength, whom they engaged to obey and acknowledge as their chiefs. Hence arose the distinction betwixt honest and dishonest, just and unjust. For when any one injured his benefactor, his ingratitude excited a sort of fellow- feeling and indignation in others, as well as kindness and respect for those that behaved differently ; and, as they considered that they might, some time or other, perhaps, be treated in the same manner themselves, if proper measures were not taken to prevent it, they thought fit to make laws for the reward of good men, and the punishment of offenders. This first gave rise to justice in the world; and from this consideration it came to pass in process of time, that, in the election of a new chief, they had not so much regard to courage and bodily strength, as to wisdom and integrity. But, afterwards, as this kind of government gradu- ally became hereditary, instead of elective, the heirs of these chieftains soon began to degenerate from the virtue of then- ancestors, and to behave themselves as if they thought the main duty of a prince consisted in surpassing all other men in luxury, extravagance, effeminacy, and every sort of voluptuousness ; by which, beginning to be odious to their subjects, they, in turn, became fearful of them, and quickly passing from distrust to the commission of offences, there sprung up at once a tyranny. This first occasioned combinations and conspiracies for the de- struction of princes ; not amongst the weak and pusillanimous part of their subjects ; but among such as, being more eminent for their generosity, magnanimity, riches, and birth, could not endure any longer to submit to the shameful life of such sovereigns.

"The multitude, therefore, swayed by the authority of the nobles, rose in arms against their prince ; and, being freed from Q his yoke, they transferred their allegiance to their deliverers, who, being thoroughly disgusted at monarchy, changed the form of government, and took it into their own hands. At first, they conducted both themselves and the state according to the plan they had formed, preferring the common good to any particular advantage ; and behaving, in private as well as public affairs, with assiduity and moderation, whilst the remembrance of then- past sufferings continued fresh upon their minds. But this authority afterwards devolving upon their sons, who had not known changes of fortune, nor experienced evil, these began to grow so dissatisfied with that sort of civil equality, that they a 2

w

418 ON GOVERNMENT.

cast off all restraint, and giving themselves up to rapine, ambi- tion, and lust, soon changed the government again from aristo- cracy into an oligarchy. Their administration, however, becom- ing as insupportable, in a while, as the tyranny of the other had formerly been, the people naturally began to look out for some deliverer ; and, having fixed upon a leader, they put themselves under his banners, and destroyed the oligarchy. But when they had done this, and came to reflect upon the oppressions they sustained under a tyrant, they resolved never to be again go- verned by any one man, and therefore agreed to set up a popular government ; which was constituted in such a manner, that no authority was vested either in a prince or in a powerful few.

" Now, as all new establishments are held in some degree of reverence and veneration at first, this form subsisted for some time ; though no longer than those people lived who had been the founders of it ; for, after their death, their descendants dege- nerated into licentiousness, and such a contempt for all authority and distinction, that, every man living after his own caprice, there was nothing to be seen but confusion and violence. So that, either by the advice of some good and respectable man, 'or com- pelled by the absolute necessity of providing a remedy for these disorders and enormities, they at last determined once more to submit to the dominion of one. From which state they fell again in time, through the same gradations, and from the above-men- tioned causes into misrule and licentiousness.

"And this is the rotation to which all states are subject; never- theless, they cannot often revert to the same kind of government, because it is not possible that they should so long exist as to undergo many of these mutations. For it frequently happens that, when a state is laboring under such convulsions, and is destitute both of strength and counsel, it falls a prey to some other neighboring community or nation, that is better governed ; otherwise, it might go the round of the several above-mentioned revolutions to infinity.

"All these sorts of government, then, in my opinion, are infirm and insecure ; the three former from the usual shortness of their duration, and the three latter from the malignity of their own principles. The wisest legislators, therefore, being aware of these defects, never established any one of them in particular, but contrived another, that partakes of them all, consisting of a

MACHIAVEL. 419

prince, lords, and commons, which they looked upon as more firm and stable, because every one of these members would be a ff check upon the other; and of those legislators, Lycurgus cer- tainly merits the highest praise, who constituted an establish- ment of this kind in Sparta, which lasted above eight hundred years, to his own great honor, as well as the tranquillity of the citizens.

" Very different was the fate of the government established by Solon at Athens, which, being a simple democracy only, was of so short continuance, that it gave way to the tyranny of Pisis- tratus before the death of the legislator. And though, indeed, the heirs of that tyrant were expelled about forty years after, and the Athenians not only recovered their liberty, but reestablished Solon's laws and plan of government ; yet they did not main- tain it above one hundred years, notwithstanding they made several new regulations to restrain the insolence of the nobles and the licentiousness of the commons, the necessity of which Solon had not foreseen. So that, for want of tempering his de- mocracy with a share of aristocracy and princely power, it was of short duration in comparison of the constitution of Sparta.

" But, to return to Rome. Though that city had not a Lycur- gus to model its constitution at first, in such a manner as might preserve its liberty for a long course of time ; yet, so many were the accidents which happened in the contests betwixt the patri- cians and plebeians, that chance effected what the lawgiver had not provided for ; so that if it was not lucky at the beginning, it became so after a while ; for though the first laws were deficient, yet they were not absolutely out of the right road to lead to its future perfection ; since not only Romulus, but all the rest of the kings that succeeded him, made many and good laws, and such as were well calculated for the support of liberty. But, as it was their intention to found a monarchy, and not a republic ; when that city had shaken off the yoke of a tyrant, there seemed to be many provisions still wanting for the further maintenance of its freedom. And though the kings finally lost their power, by the ways and means above mentioned, yet those who had chiefly contributed to it, immediately created two consuls to supply the place of royalty ; by which it came to pass, that the name alone, and not the authority of princes was extinguished ; so that the supreme power being lodged only in the consuls and senate, the

420 ON GOVERNMENT.

government consisted of no more than two of the three estates, which we have spoken of before, that is, of royalty and aristo- cracy ; it remained, therefore, still necessary to admit the people into some share of the government ; and the patricians growing so insolent in time, (as I shall show hereafter,) that the plebeians could no longer endure it, the latter took arms, and obliged them to relinquish part of their authority, lest they should lose the whole. On the other hand, the consuls and senators still retained so much power in the commonwealth as enabled them to support their rank and dignity with honor. This struggle gave birth to certain officers, called tribunes of the people ; after the creation of whom, that state became more firm and compact, every one of the three degrees above mentioned having its proper share in the government. And so propitious was fortune to it, that although it was changed from a monarchy into an aristocracy, and afterwards into a democracy, by the steps and for the reasons already assigned, yet the royal power was never entirely abolished and given to the patricians, nor that of the patricians wholly to the plebeians. On the contrary, the author- ity of the three estates being duly proportioned and mixed together, made it a perfect commonwealth. And this was owing in a great measure, if not altogether, to the dissensions that happened betwixt the patricians and plebeians, as shall be sjiown more at large in the following chapters. /

Algernon Sidney

ALGERNON SIDNEY.

" Some small numbers of men, living within the precincts of one city, have, as it were, cast into a common stock, the right which they had of governing themselves and children, and, by common consent, joining in one body, exercised such power over every single person as seemed beneficial to the whole ; and this, men call perfect democracy. Others chose rather to be governed by a select number of such as most excelled in wisdom and virtue ; and this, according to the signification of the word, was called aristocracy. When one man excelled all others, the go- vernment was put into his hands under the name of monarchy. But the wisest, best, and by far the greatest part of mankind, rejecting these simple species, did form governments, mixed or composed of the three, as shall be proved hereafter, which com-

SIDNEY. 421

monly received their respective denomination from the great part that prevailed, and did deserve praise or blame, as they were well or ill proportioned." p^ 22, § K f ''' >

" The best governments of the world have been composed of ' monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy."

"As for democracy, I believe i,t can suit only with the conve- nience of a small town, accompanied with such circumstances as are seldom found. But this no way obliges men to run into the other extreme, inasmuch as the variety of forms, between mere democracy and absolute monarchy, is almost infinite. And if I should undertake to say, there never was a good government in the world that did not consist "of the three simple species of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, I think I might make it good. This at the least is certain, that the government of the Hebrews, instituted by God, had a judge, the great sanhedrim, and general assemblies of the people. Sparta had two kings, a senate of twenty-eight chosen men and the like assemblies. All the Dorian cities had a chief magistrate, a senate, and occasional assemblies. The cities of Ionia, Athens, and others, had an Archon, the Areopagi, &c, and all judgments concerning mat- ters of the greatest importance, as well as the election of magis- trates, were referred to the people. Rome, in the beginning, had a king and a senate, while the election of kings and judgments upon appeals remained in the people ; afterwards, consuls repre- senting kings and vested with equal power, a more numerous senate, and more frequent meetings of the people. Venice has at this day a duke, the senate of the pregadi, and the great assembly of the nobility, which is the whole city ; the rest of the inhabitants being only incolce, not cives ; and those of the other cities or countries are their subjects, and do not participate in the government.

" Genoa is governed in like manner. Lucca not unlike to them. Germany is at this day governed by an emperor, the princes or great lords in their several precincts ; the cities by their own magistrates ; and by general diets, in which the whole power of the nation resides, and where the emperor, princes, nobility, and cities have their places in person, or by their depu- ties. All the northern nations which, upon the dissolution of the Roman empire, possessed the best provinces that had com- posed it, were under that form, which is usually called the

VOL. IV. 36

422

ON GOVERNMENT.

Gothic polity. They had king, lords, commons, diets, assem- blies of estates, cortes, and parliaments, in which the sovereign powers of those nations did reside, and by which they were exer- cised. The like was practised in Hungary, Bohemia, Sweden, Denmark, Poland ; and, if things are changed in some of those places within a few years, they must give better proofs of having gained by the change, than are yet seen in the world, before I think myself obliged to change my opinion.

" Some nations, not liking the name of king, have given such a power as kings enjoyed in other places to one or more magis- trates, either limited to a certain time, or left to be perpetual, as best pleased themselves ; others, approving the name, made the dignity purely elective. Some have in their elections principally regarded one family as long as it lasted; others considered f ■> q nothing but the fitness of the person, and reserved to themselves a liberty of taking where they pleased. Some have permitted the crown to be hereditary as to its ordinary course ; but restrained the power, and instituted officers to inspect the pro- ceedings of kings, and to take care that the laws were not vio- lated. Of this sort were t the Ephori of Sparta, the Manes du Palais, and afterwards the constable of France, the justiciar in Aragon, the reichshofmeeter in Denmark, the high steward in England ; and in all places, such assemblies as are beforemen- tioned under several names, who had the power of the whole nation, &c." p. 138, ch. ii. § 16.

" It is confessed, that a pure democracy can never be good, unless for a small town, &c." p. 147, § 18.

"As to popular government in the strictest sense, that is, pure democracy, where the people in themselves, and by themselves, perform all that belongs to government, I know of no such thing ; and, if it be in the world, have nothing to say for it.

" If it be said that those governments in which the democrati- cal part governs most, do more frequently err in the choice of men, or the means of preserving that purity of manners which is required for the well-being of a people, than those wherein aris- tocracy prevails, I confess it, and that in Rome and Athens, the best and wisest men did for the most part incline to aristocracy. Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Livy, Tacitus, Cicero, and others were of this sort. But if our author there seek patrons for his absolute monarchy, he will find none but Pha-

MONTESQUIEU. 423

laris, Agathocles, Dionysius, Catiline, Cethegus, Lentulus, with the corrupted crew of mercenary rascals who did, or endeavored to set them up ; these are they, quibus ex honesto nulla est spes ; they abhor the dominion of the laiv, because it curbs their vices, and make themselves subservient to the lusts of a man who may nourish them." p. 161, ch. ii. § 19.

" Being no way concerned in the defence of democracy, &c, I may leave our knight, like Don Quixote, fighting against the phantasms of his own brain, and saying what he pleases against such governments as never were, unless in such a place as San. Marino, near Sinigaglia, in Italy, where a hundred clowns go- vern a barbarous rock that no man invades, and relates nothing to our question." p. 165, § 21. r^T'

The republic of San Marino, next to that of Millingen in Swit- ft zerland, is the smallest republic in Europe. The limits of it extend no farther than the base of the mountain on which it is seated. Its insignificance is its security. No neighboring prince ever thought it worth his while to destroy the independency of such a beehive.*

" However, more ignorance cannot be expressed, than by giv- ing the name of democracy to those governments that are com- posed of the three simple species, as we have proved that all the good ones have ever been ; for, in a strict sense, it can only suit with those where the people retain to themselves the adminis- tration of the supreme power; and more largely, when the popular part, as in Athens, greatly overbalances the other two, and the denomination is taken from the prevailing part." p. 258.

Montesquieu

MONTESQUIEU.

Spirit of Laws.-\ — Of the Constitution of England.

" In every government there are three sorts of power, — the legislative ; the executive, in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive, in regard to things that depend on the civil law.

" By virtue of the first, (that is, the legislative power,) the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and

* See Blainvitte's Travels, vol. ii. p. 227 ; Addison's Remarks on Several Parts ' of Italy.

f Book 11, c. vi.

424 ON GOVERNMENT.

amends or abrogates those that have been already enacted. By the second, he makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies, establishes the public security, and provides against invasions. By the third, he punishes criminals, or determines the disputes that arise between individuals. The latter we shall call the judiciary power, and the other simply the executive power of the state.

" The political liberty of the citizen, is a tranquillity of mind, arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In order .to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so consti- tuted, as that one citizen need not be afraid of another citizen.

" When the legislative and executive powers are united in the

same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no

3 / Z- liberty ; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch

or senate, or the same senate should enact tyrannical laws, to

execute them in a tyrannical manner.

"Again, there is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers. Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the citizens would be exposed to arbitrary control ; for the judge would then be legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with all the violence of an oppressor.

" There would be an end of every thing {tout seroit perdu) were the same man, or the same body, whether of princes, of the nobles, or of the people, to exercise those three powers, — that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and that of judging the crimes or differences of individuals.

"Most kingdoms in Europe enjoy a moderate government; because the prince who is invested with the two first powers, leaves the third to his subjects. In Turkey, where these three powers are united in the sultan's person, the subjects groan under the weight of a most frightful oppression. In the repub- lics of Italy, where these three powers are united, there is less liberty than in our monarchies. Hence their government is obliged to have recourse to as violent methods for its support as even that of the Turks ; witness the state inquisitors at Venice, and the lion's mouth, into which every informer may at all hours throw his written accusations. What a situation must the poor citizen be in under those poor republics ! The same body of magistrates are possessed, as executors of the laws, of

21*

MONTESQUIEU. 425

the whole power they have given themselves in quality of legislators. They may plunder the state by their general deter- minations; and, as they have likewise the judiciary power in then* hands, every private citizen may be ruined by their parti- cular decisions. The whole power is here united in one body ; and, though there is no external pomp that indicates a despotic sway, yet the people feel the effects of it every moment.

" Hence it is, that many of the princes of Europe, whose aim has been levelled at arbitrary power, have constantly set out with uniting in their own persons all the branches of magistracy, and all the great offices of state.

" I allow, indeed, that the mere hereditary aristocracy of the Italian republics does not answer1 exactly to the despotic power of the eastern princes. The number of magistrates sometimes softens the power of the magistracy; the whole body of the nobles clo not always concur in the same designs ; and different tribunals are erected, that temper each other. Thus, at Venice, the legislative power is in the council, the executive in the pre- gadi, and the judiciary in the quarantia. But the mischief is, that these different tribunals are composed of magistrates all belonging to the same body, which constitutes almost one and the same power.

" The judiciary power ought not to be given to a standing senate ; it should be exercised by persons taken from the body of the people, as at Athens, at certain times of the year, and pursuant to a form and manner prescribed by law, in order to erect a tribunal that should last only as long as necessity re- quires.

" By this means, the power of judging, a power so terrible to mankind, not being annexed to any particular state or profes- sion, becomes, as it were, invisible. People have not then the judges continually present to their view. They fear the office, but not the magistrate.

" In accusations of a deep or criminal nature, it is proper the person accused should have the privilege of choosing, in some measure, his judges, in concurrence with the law; or, at least, he should have a right to except against so great a number, that the remaining part may be deemed his own choice. The other two powers may be given rather to magistrates, or permanent bodies, because they are not exercised on any private subject;

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426 ON GOVERNMENT.

one being no more than the general will of the state, and the other the execution of that general will.

"But, though the tribunals ought not to be fixed, yet the judgments ought, and to such a degree as to be always conform- able to the exact letter of the law. Were they to be the private opinion of the judge, people would then live in society without knowing exactly the obligations it lays them under.

" The judges ought, likewise, to be in the same station as the accused, or, in other words, his peers, to the end that he may not imagine he is fallen into the hands of persons inclined to treat him with rigor.

" If the legislative leaves the executive power in possession of a right to imprison those subjects who can give security for their good behavior, there is an end of liberty ; unless they are taken up in order to answer, without delay, to a capital crime ; in this case they are really free, being subject only to the power of the law.

" But should the legislative think itself in danger, by some secret conspiracy against the state, or by a correspondence with a foreign enemy, it might authorize the executive power, for a short and limited tirrie, to imprison suspected persons, who, in that case, would lose their liberty only for a while, to preserve it for ever. And this is the only reasonable method that can be substituted to the tyrannical magistracy of the Ephori, and to the state inquisitors of Venice, who are also despotical.

"As, in a free state, every man, who is supposed a free agent, - t-y ought to be his own governor ; so the legislative power should

reside in the whole body of the people. But since this is impos- sible in large states, and in small ones is subject to many incon- veniences, it is fit the people should execute by their represent- atives, what they cannot execute by themselves.

" The inhabitants of a particular town are much better ac- quainted with its wants and interests than with those of other places; and are better judges of the capacity of their neighbors than of that of the rest of their countrymen. The members, there- fore, of the legislature should not be chosen from the general body of the nation ; but it is proper that, in every considerable place, a representative should be elected by the inhabitants.

" The great advantage of representatives is, their being capa- ble of discussing affairs; for this the people collectively are

HARRINGTON. 427

extremely unfit, which is one of the greatest inconveniences of a democracy.

" It is not at all necessary that the representatives, who have received a general instruction from their electors, should wait to be particularly instructed on every affair, as is practised in the diets of Germany. True it is that, by this way of proceeding, the speeches of the deputies might, with greater propriety, be called the voice of the nation. But, on the other hand, this would throw them into infinite delays ; would give each deputy a power of controlling the assembly ; and, on the most urgent and press- ing occasions, the springs of the nation might be stopped by a single caprice."

Harrington

HARRINGTON.

In searching for the principles of government, we may divide them into two kinds ; the principles of authority and the princi- ples of power. The first are virtues of the mind and heart, such alTwisdom, prudence, courage, patience, temperance, justice, &c. The second are the goods of fortune, such as riches, extraction, knowledge, and reputation. I rank knowledge among the goods of fortune, because it is the effect of education, study, and travel, which are either accidents, or usual effects of riches or birth, and is by no means necessarily connected with wisdom or virtue ; but, as it is universally admired and respected by the people, it is clearly a principle of power. The same may be said of reputation, which, abstracted from all consideration whether it is merited or not, well, or ill-founded, is another source of power.

Riches will hold the first place, in civilized societies, at least, among the principles of power, and will often prevail, not only over all the principles of authority, but over all the advantages of birth, knowledge, and fame. For, as Harrington says, " Men are hung upon riches ; not of choice, as upon the other, but of necessity, and by the teeth. Forasmuch as he who wants bread, is his servant that will feed him ; and if a man thus ' feeds a whole people, they are under his empire." It already appears, that there must be in every society of men superiors and infe- riors, because God has laid in the constitution and course of nature the foundations of the distinction. And, indeed, as Har-

i//

428 ON GOVERNMENT.

rington says, "an army may as. well consist of soldiers without officers, or of officers without soldiers, as a commonwealth con- sist of a people without a gentry, or of a gentry without a people."

" Let states take heed," says Lord Bacon, " how their nobility and gentlemen multiply too fast, for that makes the common subject grow to be a peasant and base swain driven out of heart, and, in effect, but a gentleman's ' laborer. How shall the plough, then, be kept in the hands of the owners, and not mere hirelings ? how shall the country attain to the character' which Virgil gives of ancient Italy, Terra potens armis, atque ubere gleba? how, but by the balance of dominion or property?"

Notwithstanding M. Turgot's aversion to balances, Harring- ton discovered, and made out, as Toland, his biographer, informs us, that " empire follows the balance of property, whether lodged in one, a few, or many hands." A noble discovery, of which the honor solely belongs to him, as much as the circulation of the (/ blood to Harvey, printing to Laurence Coster, or the invention of guns, compasses, or optic glasses to the several authors. If this balance is not the foundation of all politics, as Toland asserts, it is of so much importance, that no man can be thought a master of the subject, without having well weighed it. M. Turgot, it is plain, had not the least idea of it.

" Tillage," says Harrington, " bringing up a good soldiery, brings up a good commonwealth ; for, where the owner of the plough comes to have the sword too, he will use it in defence of his own. Whence it has happened, that the people of England, in proportion to their property, have been always free ; and the genius of this nation has ever had some resemblance with that of ancient Italy, which was wholly addicted to commonwealths, and where Rome came to make the greatest account of her rustic tribes, and to call her consuls from the plough. For, in the way of parliaments, which was the government of this realm, men of country lives have been still entrusted with the greatest affairs, and the people have constantly had an aversion to the ways of the court. Ambition, loving to be gay and to fawn, has been a gallantry looked upon as having something in it of the livery ; and husbandry, or the country way of life, though of a grosser spinning, as the best stuff of a commonwealth, according to Aris- totle, such a one being the most obstinate assertress of her

/»•■»?

HARRINGTON. 429

liberty, and the least subject to innovation or turbulency. Com- i ~_ monwealths, upon which the city life has had the stronger influ- / ence, as Athens, have seldom or never been quiet; but, at the best are found to have injured their own business by overdoing it. Whence, the Urban tribes of Rome, consisting of the turba forensis, and libertins, that had received their freedom by manu- mission, were of no reputation in comparison of the rustics. A commonwealth, consisting of but one city, would doubtless be stormy, in regard that ambition would be every man's trade ; but where it consists of a country, the plough in the hands of the owner finds him a better calling, and produces the most innocent and steady genius of a commonwealth.

" Domestic empire is founded upon dominion, and dominion is property, real or personal ; that is to say, in lands, or in money and goods. Lands, or the parcels of a territory, are held by the proprietor or proprietors of it in some proportion ; and such, (except it be in a city that has little or no land, and whose reve- nue is in trade,) as is the proportion or balance of dominion or property in land, such is the nature of the empire. If one man be sole landlord of a territory, or overbalance the people — for example, three parts in four — he is grand signior; for so the Turk is called from his property; and his empire is absolute monarchy. If the few, as a nobility and clergy, be landlords, or overbalance the people to the like proportion, it makes the Gothic balance, and the empire is mixed monarchy, as that of Spain, Poland, and once of England ; and if the whole people be landlords, or hold the lands so divided among them, that no one man, or number of men, within the compass of the few, or aris- tocracy, overbalance them, the empire is a commonwealth.

" If force be interposed in any of these three cases, it must either frame the government to the foundation, or the founda- p tion to the government ; or, holding the government not accord- ing to the balance, it is not natural, but violent ; and, therefore, if it be at the devotion of a prince, it is tyranny ; if, at the devo- tion of the few, oligarchy ; or if in the power of the people, anarchy. Each of which confusions, the balance standing other- wise, is but of short continuance, because against the nature of the balance ; which not destroyed, destroys that which opposes it." Oceana, p. 37.

Here, it would be entertaining to apply these observations to

430 ON GOVERNMENT.

the force of fleets and armies, &c., applied by Great Britain in the late contest with America. The balance of land, especially in New England, where the force was first applied, was neither in the king nor a nobility, but immensely in favor of the people. The intention of the British politicians was to alter this balance, " frame the foundation to the government, by bringing the lands more and more into the hands of the governors, judges, counsel- lors, &c. &c, who were all to be creatures of a British ministry." We have seen the effects. The balance destroyed that which opposed it.

Harrington proceeds. — "Bui there are certain other confu- sions, which being rooted in the balance, are of longer continu- ance and of worse consequence ; as, first, where a nobility holds half the property, or about that proportion, and the people the other half; in which case, without altering the balance, there is no remedy, but the one must eat out the other ; as the people did the nobility in Athens, and the nobility the people in Rome. Secondly, when a prince holds about half the dominion, and the people the other half, which was the case of the Roman empe- rors, (planted partly upon their military colonies, and partly upon the senate and the people,) the government becomes a very shambles, both of the princes and the people. It being unlawful in Turkey that any should possess land but the grand signior, the balance is fixed by the law, and that empire firm. Nor, though the kings often fell, was the throne of England known to shake, until the statute of alienations broke the pillars, by giving way to the nobility to sell their estates. While Lacedasmon held to the division of land made by Lycurgus, it was immovable ; but, breaking that, could stand no longer. This kind of law, fixing the balance in lands, is called agrarian, and was first introduced by God himself, who divided the land of Canaan to his people by lot.

" The public sword, without a hand tothold it, is but cold iron. The hand which holds this sword is the militia of a nation ; and the militia of a nation is either an army in the field, or ready for the field upon occasion. But an army is a beast that has a great belly, and must be fed ; wherefore this will come to what pastures you have, and what pastures you have will come to the balance of property, without which the public sword is but a name. He that can graze this beast with the great belly, as the

V

HARRINGTON. 431

Turk does his timariots, may well deride him that imagines he received his power by covenant. But if the property of the nobility, stocked with their tenants and retainers, be the pasture of that beast, the ox knows his master's crib ; and it is impossi- ble for a king, in such a constitution, to reign otherwise than by covenant ; or, if he breaks it, it is words that come to blows.

"Aristotle is full of this balance in divers places, especially ip '?? where he says that immoderate wealth, as where one man, or the few, have greater possessions than the equality or the frame of the commonwealth will bear, is an occasion of sedition, which ends, for the greater part, in monarchy ; and that, for this cause, the ostracism has been received in divers places, as in Argos and Athens ; but that it were better to prevent the growth in the beginning, than, when it has got head, to seek the remedy of such an evil.

" Machiavel, not perceiving that if a commonwealth be galled * . by the gentry, it is by their overbalance, speaks of the gentry as hostile to popular governments, and of popular governments as hostile to the gentry ; which can never be proved by any one example, unless in civil war ; seeing that, even in Switzerland, the gentry are not only safe, but in honor. But the balance, as I have laid it down, though unseen by Machiavel, is that which interprets him, where he concludes, — 'That he who will go about to make a commonwealth where there be many gen- tlemen, unless he first destroys them, undertakes an impossi- bility. And that he who goes about to introduce monarchy, where the .condition of the people is equal, shall never bring it to pass, unless he cull out such of them as are the most turbulent and ambitious, and make them gentlemen or noblemen, not in name, but in effect ; that is, by enriching them with lands, cas- tles, and treasures, that may gain them power among the rest, and bring in the rest to dependence upon them ; to the end that they, maintaining their ambition by the prince, the prince may maintain his power by them.'

" Wherefore, as in this place I agree with Machiavel, that a / vf h nobility or gentry overbalancing a popular government, is the utter bane and destruction of it, so I shall show in another, that a nobility or gentry, in a popular government, not overbalancing it, is thevery life and soul of it.

" The public sword, or right of the militia, be the government

432 ON GOVERNMENT.

what it will, or let it change how it can, is inseparable from the overbalance in dominion.

" The balance of dominion * in land is the natural cause of empire ; and this is the principle which makes politics a science undeniable throughout, and the most demonstrable of any what- ever. If a man, having one hundred pounds a year, may keep one servant, or have one man at his command, then, having one hundred times so much, he may keep one hundred servants ; and this multiplied by a thousand, he may have one hundred thou- sand men at his command. Now, that the single person or nobility of any country in Europe, that had but half so many men at command, would be king or prince, is that which I think no man will doubt. But ' No money, no Swiss.'(£ The reason why a single person or the nobility, that has one hundred thou- sand men, or half so many, at command, will have the govern- ment, is, that the estate in land, whereby they are able to main- tain so many, in any European territory, must overbalance the rest that remains to the people, at least three parts in four. Now, for the same reason, if the people hold three parts in four of the territory, it is plain there can neither be any single person or nobility able to dispute the government with them. In this case, therefore, except force be interposed, they govern them- selves. So that by this computation of the balance of property or dominion in the land, you have, according to the threefold foundation of property, the root or generation of the threefold kind of government or empire, t If one man be sole landlord of a territory, or overbalance the whole people, three parts in four, or thereabouts, he is grand signior ; for so the Turk, not from his empire, but his property, is called ; and the empire, in this case, is absolute monarchy, rra the few, or a nobility, or a nobility with a clergy, be landlords to such a proportion as overbalances the people in the like manner, they may make whom they please king ; or, if they be not pleased with their king, down with him, and set up whom they like better ; a Henry IV. or VII., a Guise, a Montfort, a Nevil, or a Porter, should they find that best for their own ends and purposes ; for, as not the balance of the king, but that of the nobility, in this case, is the cause of the government, so not the estate of the prince or captain, but his

* Prerogative of Popular Government, c. iii. p. 226.

HARRINGTON. 433

virtue or ability, or fitness for the ends of the nobility, acquires i that command or office. This for aristocracy or mixed monarchy. But if the whole people be landlords, or hold the land so divi- ded among them, that no one man or number of men, within the compass of the few or aristocracy overbalance them, it is a commonwealth. Such is the branch in the root, or the balance of property naturally producing empire."

Then follows a curious account of the laws in Israel against usury, and in Lacedaemon against trade, &c, which are well worth studying.

" That which, introducing two estates, causes division, or makes a commonwealth unequal, is not that she has a nobility, without which she is deprived of her most special ornament, and weakened in her conduct, but when the nobility only is capable of magistracy or of the senate ; and where this is so ordered, she is unequal, as Rome. But where the nobility is no otherwise capable of magistracy, nor of the senate, than by elec- tion of the people, the commonwealth consists but of one order, and is equal, as Lacedasmon or Venice. I? Where the nobility holds half the property, or about that proportion, and the people the other half, the shares of the land may be equal ; but, in regard the nobility have much among few, and the people little among many, the few will not be contented to have authority, which is all their proper share in a commonwealth, but will be bringing the people under power, which is not their proper share in a commonwealth ; wherefore this commonwealth must needs be unequal ; and, except by altering the balance, as the Athen- ians did by the rescission of debts, or as the Romans went about to do, by an agrarian, it be brought to such an equality that the whole power be in the people, and there remain no more than authority in the nobility, there is no remedy, but the one with perpetual feuds will eat out the other, as the people did the nobility in Athens, and the nobility the people in Rome. Where the carcass is, there will be the eagles also ; where the riches are, there will be the power. So if a few be as rich as all the rest, a few will have as much power as all the rest ; in which case the commonwealth is unequal, and there can be no end of staving and tailing till it be brought to equality." p. 254.

" The estates, be they one, or two, or three, are such as was VOL. IV. 37 b 2

I"'

434

ON GOVERNMENT.

t

V

said by virtue of the balance upon which the government must naturally depend," exemplified in France, &c.

"All government is of three kinds, — a government of servants, a government of subjects, or a government of citizens. The first is absolute monarchy, as that of Turkey ; the second, aristocrat- ical monarchy, as that of France ; the third, a commonwealth, as Israel, Rome, Holland. Of these, the government of servants is harder to be conquered and the easier to be held. The govern- ment of subjects is the easier to be conquered and the harder to be held. The government of citizens is both the hardest to be conquered and the hardest to be held.

" The reason why a government of servants is hard to be con- quered, is, that they are under a perpetual discipline and com- mand. Why a government of subjects is easily conquered, is on account of the factions of the nobility.

" The reasons why a government of citizens, where the com- monwealth is equal, is hardest to be conquered, are, that the invader of such a society must not only trust to his own strength, inasmuch as, the commonwealth being equal, he must needs find them united ; but in regard that such citizens, being all soldiers, or trained up to their arms, which they use not for the defence of slavery, but of liberty, a condition not in this world to be bettered, they have, more especially upon this occasion, the highest soul of courage, and, if their territory be of any extent, the vastest body of a well-disciplined militia that is possible in nature. Wherefore an example of such a one, overcome by the arms of a monarch, is not to be found in the world." p. 256.

In the art of lawgiving, chap. i. he enlarges still farther upon this subject ; and instances Joseph's purchase of all the lands of the Egyptians for Pharaoh, whereby they became servants to Pharaoh ; and he enlarges on the English balance, &c.

In America, the balance is nine tenths on the side of the peo- ple. Indeed, there is but one order ; and our senators have influence chiefly by the principles of authority, and very little by those of power ; but this must be postponed.

N?j

CHAPTER VI. OPINIONS OF HISTORIANS.

CHAPTER VI.

Opinions Of Historians

OPINIONS OF HISTORIANS.

My design is more extensive than barely to show the imper- fection of M. Turgot's idea. This might be done in a few- words and a very short process of reasoning; bnt I wish to assemble together the opinions and reasonings of philosophers, politicians, and historians, who have taken the most extensive views of men and societies, whose characters are deservedly revered, and whose writings were in the contemplation of those who framed the American constitutions. It will not be con- tested that all these characters are united in Polybius, who, in a fragment of his sixth book, translated by Edward Spelman, at the end of his translation of the Roman Antiquities of Dionysius Halic amass en sis, says,- — ^ ?

" It is customary, with those who professedly treat this sub- ject, to establish three sorts of government, — kingly government, aristocracy, and democracy. Upon which one may very pro- perly ask them, whether they lay these down as the only forms of government, or as the best ; for in both cases they seem to be in an error; since it is manifest that the best form of govern- ment is that which is compounded of alt three. This is founded not only in reason, but also in experience, Lycurgus having set the example of this form of government in the institution of the Lacedaemonian commonwealth." . . .

" Six kinds of government must be allowed, — kingly govern- ment and monarchy, aristocracy and oligarchy, democracy and the government of the multitude. . . .

" Lycurgus concluded that every form of government that is simple, by soon degenerating into that vice that is allied to it, must be unstable. The vice of kingly government is monarchy ; Y/J~~ that of aristocracy, oligarchy ; that of democracy, rage and vio- lence ; into which, in process of time, all of them must degene- rate. " Lycurgus, to avoid these inconveniences, formed his government not of one sort, but united in one all the advanta- ges and properties of the best governments ; to the end that no

Yn

f

Mil

436 ON GOVERNMENT.

branch of it, by swelling beyond its due bounds, might degene- rate into the vice which is congenial to it; and that, while each of them were mutually acted upon by opposite powers, no one part might incline any way, or outweigh the rest ; but that the commonwealth being equally poised and balanced, like a ship " or f a ivagon" acted upon by contrary powers, might long remain in the same situation ; /while the king was restrained from excess by the fear of the people, who had a proper share in the com- monwealth ; and, on the other side, the people did not dare to disregard the king, from their fear of the senate, who, being all elected for their virtue, would always incline to the justest side ; by which means, that branch which happened to be oppressed became always superior, and, by the accessional weight of the senate, outbalanced the other. This system preserved the Lace- daemonians in liberty longer than any other people we have heard of ever enjoyed it.

"All the three principal orders of government were found in the Roman commonwealth ; every thing was constituted and administered with that equality and propriety by these three, that it was not possible, even for a Roman citizen, to assert posi- tively, whether the government, in the whole, was aristocratical, democratical, or monarchical. For, when we cast our eyes on the power of the consuls, the government appeared entirely mo- narchical and kingly; when on that of the senate, aristocratical; and when any one considered the power of the people, it ap- peared plainly democratical.

" The consuls, when they are at Rome, and before they take the field, have the administration of all public affairs ; for all other magistrates obey them, except the tribunes of the people. They introduce ambassadors into the senate. They also pro- pose to the senate those subjects of debate that require im- mediate despatch ; and are solely intrusted with the execution of their decrees. To them belongs the consideration of all public affairs of which the people have cognizance ; whom they are to assemble upon all occasions, and lay before them the decrees of the senate, then pursue the resolutions of the majority. They have almost an absolute power in every thing that relates either to the preparations of war, or to the conduct of it in the field ; for they may give what orders they please to their allies, and appoint the tribunes ; they may raise forces, and enlist those

POLYBIUS. 437

who are proper for the service. They also have power, when in the field, of punishing any who serve under them ; and of expending as much as they please of the public money, being always attended by a quaestor for that purpose, whose duty it is to yield a ready obedience to all their commands. So that whoever casts his eyes on this branch may with reason affirm, that the government is merely monarchical and kingly.

" The» senate have, in the first place, the command of the k • / - / public money. For they have the conduct of all receipts and disbursements ; since the quaestors cannot issue money for any particular service without a decree of the senate, except those sums they pay by the direction of the consuls. The senate have also the power over all disbursements made by the censors, every fifth year, in erecting and repairing public buildings ; takes cognizance of all crimes committed in Italy, such as treasons, conspiracies, poisonings, and assassinations ; sends embassies out of Italy to reconcile differences, use exhortations, signify commands, admit alliances, or declare war; determines when ambassadors come to Rome, in what manner they are to be treated, and the answer to be given them. For these reasons, when a foreigner comes to Rome, in the absence of the consuls, the government appears to him purely aristocratical.

" There is still a share in the government left for the people, and that the most considerable. They only have the power of distributing honors and punishments, to which alone both mo- narchies and commonwealths, and, in a word, all human institu- tions, owe their stability. For, wherever the difference between rewards and punishments is not understood, or injudiciously applied, there nothing can be properly administered, since the worthy and unworthy are equally honored !

" They often take cognizance of those causes where the fine is considerable, if the criminals are persons who have exercised great employments ; but in capital cases they alone have juris- diction ; and a custom prevails with them, to give those who are tried for their lives a power of departing openly to voluntary banishment.

" They have the power of conferring the magistracy upon those they think worthy of it, which is the most honorable reward ' of merit any government can bestow.

" They have the power of rejecting and confirming laws, and 37*

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438 ON GOVERNMENT.

determine concerning peace and war, alliances, accommodations, and conventions.

" So that, from hence again, one may with reason assert, that the people have the greatest share in the government, and that the commonwealth is democratical.

" These orders, into which the commonwealth is divided, have the power to oppose, assist, and balance each other, as occasion may require. •

" Though the consul, at the head of his army in the field, seems to have an absolute power to carry every thing he proposes into execution ; yet he still stands in need of the people and senate, and without their assistance can effect nothing ; for, neither corn, clothes, nor pay can be furnished to the army with- out the consent of the senate ; who have also the power of send- ing another general to succeed him, as soon as the year is expired, or of continuing him in the command. Again, they may either magnify and extol, or obscure and extenuate, the victories of the generals ; for these cannot celebrate their triumphs, unless the senate consents to it, and furnishes the necessary expense.

"As the power of putting an end to the war is in the people, the generals are under a necessity of having then approbation, who have the right of ratifying and annulling all accommoda- tions and conventions. It is to the people that the generals, after the expiration of their command, give an account of their conduct ; so that it is by no means safe for them to disregard the favor either of the senate or of the people.

" The senate is under a necessity of showing a regard to the people, and of aiming at their approbation ; as, not having the power to punish crimes of the first magnitude with death, unless the people confirm the previous decree. If a law is proposed, by which part of the power of the senate is to be taken away, their dignities abolished, or even their fortunes diminished, the people have it in their power either to receive or reject it. If one of the tribunes of the people opposes the passing of a decree, the senate are so far from being able to enact it, that it is not even in their power to consult or assemble at all. For all these rea- sons, the senate stands in awe of the people.

" The people, also, are subject to the power of the senate, and under an obligation of cultivating the good-will of all the sena- tors, who have many opportunities both of prejudicing and ad-

POLYBIUS. 439

vantaging individuals. Judges are appointed out of the senate in most causes that relate to contracts, public or private. There are many rivers, ports, gardens, mines, and lands, and many- works relating to erecting and repairing public buildings, let out by the censors, under the care of the senate ; all these are under- taken by the people ; some are purchasers, others partners, some sureties for the contracts. All these things are under the control of the senate, which has power to give time, to mitigate, and, if any thing has happened to render the performance of the contract impracticable, to cancel it. The people, thus dependent on the senate, and apprehending the uncertainty of the occasions in which they may stand in need of their favor, dare not resist or oppose their will.

" In like manner, they are not easily brought to obstruct the ^1 designs of the consuls ; because all of them in general, and every one in particular, become subject to their authority, when in the field.

" Such being the power of each order to hurt and assist each other, their union is adapted to all contingencies, and it is not possible to invent a more perfect system. When the common Fear of a foreign enemy compels them to act in concert, such is the strength of the government, that nothing necessary is omit- ted, or comes too late, since all vie with each other in directing then- thoughts to the public good, and then endeavors to carry their designs into execution. The commonwealth, from the peculiar frame of it, becomes irresistible, and attains whatever it proposes.

" When, in consequence of victory, they live in prosperity and affluence, enjoying their good fortune free from the fear of a foreign enemy, they grow, through ease and flattery, insolent and proud ; their commonwealth is then chiefly observed to relieve itself. For, when any branch of it becomes ambitious, and, swelling beyond its bounds, aims at unwarrantable power, being subject to the control of the other two, it cannot run into any excess of power or arrogance ; but all three must remain in the terms prescribed by the constitution."

Thus, my dear sir, you see that Polybius's opinion of different orders, checks, and balances, in a commonwealth, is very dif- ferent from that of M. Turgot. The Roman constitution formed the noblest people and the greatest power that has ever existed.

440 ON GOVERNMENT.

But if all the powers of the consuls, senate, and people had been centred in a single assembly of the people, collectively or repre- sentatively, will any man pretend to believe that they would have been long free, or ever great ?

The distribution of power was, however, never accurately or judiciously made in that constitution. The executive was never sufficiently separated from the legislative, nor had these powers a control upon each other denned with sufficient accuracy. The executive had not power to interpose and decide between the people and the senate.

As we advance, we may see cause to differ widely from the judgment of Polybius, 'that it is impossible to invent a more perfect system of government? We may be convinced that the constitution of England, if its balance is seen to play, in practice, according to the principles of its theory ; that is to say, if the people are fairly and fully represented, so as to have the power of dividing or choosing, of drawing up hilt or down, instead of being disposed of by a few lords, is a system much \j more perfect. The constitutions of several of the United States, it is hoped, will prove themselves improvements both upon the Roman, the Spartan, and the English commonwealths.

The generation and corruption of governments, which may, in other words, be called the progress and course of human passions in society, are subjects which have engaged the attention of the greatest writers ; and whether the essays they have left us were copied from history, or wrought out of their own conjectures and reasonings, they are very much to our purpose, to show the utility and necessity of different orders of men, and of an equilibrium of powers and privileges. They demonstrate the corruptibility of every species of simple government, by which I mean a power without a check, whether in one, a few, or many. It might be sufficient to show this tendency in simple democracy alone, for such is the government of one assembly, whether of the people collectively or representatively ; but, as the generation and corruption of all kinds of government have a similitude with one another, and proceed from the same qualities in human nature, it will throw the more light upon our subject, the more particularly we examine it. I shall confine myself chiefly to the writings of Plato, Polybius, and Sir Thomas Smith.

Polybius thinks it manifest, both from reason and experience,

POLYBIUS. 441

that the best form of government is not simple, but compounded, because of the tendency of each of the simple forms to degene- rate. Even democracy, in which it is an established custom to worship the gods, honor their parents, respect the elders, and obey the laivs, has a strong tendency to change into a govern- ment where the multitude have a power of doing whatever they desire, and where insolence and contempt of parents, elders, gods, and laws soon succeed.

"From whence do governments originally spring? From the P-^fl weakness of men, and the consequent necessity to associate ; / and he who excels in strength and courage, gains the command and authority over the rest ', as among inferior animals, who are not influenced by opinion, the strongest are, by common consent, allowed to be masters. This is monarchy. . But when the nation, by living together, acquire some tincture of honor and justice, gra- titude, duty, and their opposites ; and the monarch countenances these moral qualities, and treats everyone according to his merit, they are' no longer afraid of violence, but submit to him, and unite in supporting his government, although he may again be- come weak and advanced in years. By this means, a monarch insensibly becomes a king, that is, when the power is transferred from courage and strength to reason. This is the origin of true kingly government ; for the people preserve the command, not only to them, but to their descendants, being persuaded, that those who have received their birth and education from such men will resemble them also in their principles. But if they are dissatisfied with their descendants, they then choose magistrates and kings with regard only to superior sense and reason, and not to bodily strength and courage ; having, by experience, been convinced of the difference between them. Those who were once chosen, and t invested with the royal dignity, grew old in the enjoyment of it, possessed themselves of a territory, surrounded it with walls, f and fortified advantageous posts ; thus consulting the security of their subjects, and supplying them with plenty of provisions, differing little in their clothes or table from the people with whom they passed their lives, they continued blameless and un- envied. But their posterity, succeeding to the government by right of inheritance, and finding every thing provided for security and support, they were led by superfluity to indulge their appe- tites, and to imagine that it became princes to appear in a dif-

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ferent dress, to eat in a more luxurious manner, and enjoy, with- out contradiction, the forbidden pleasures of love. The first produced envy, the other resentment and hatred. By which means kingly government degenerated into tyranny.

"At the same time a foundation was laid, and a conspiracy formed, for the destruction of those who exercised it ; the accom- plices of which were, not men of inferior rank, but persons of the most generous, exalted, and enterprising spirit ; for such men can least bear the insolence of those in power. The people, having these to lead them, and uniting against their rulers, kingly government and monarchy were extirpated, and aristocracy be- gan to be established.

" For the people, as ' an immediate acknowledgment to those who had destroyed monarchy, chose these leaders for their go- vernors, and left all their concerns to them. These, at first, pre- ferred the advantage of the public to all other considerations, and administered all affairs, both public and private, with care and vigilance. But their sons, having succeeded them in the same power, unacquainted with evils, strangers to civil equality and liberty, educated from their infancy in the splendor of the power and dignities of their parents, some giving themselves up to ava- rice, others to intemperance, and others to the abuse of women, by this behavior changed the aristocracy into an oligarchy.

" Their catastrophe became the same with that of the tyrants ; for, if any person, observing the general envy and hatred which these rulers have incurred, has the courage to say or do any thing against them, he finds the whole body of the people in- spired with the same passions they were before possessed with against the tyrant, and ready to assist him. Thereupon, they put some of them to death, and banish others; but dare not, after that, appoint a king to govern them, being still afraid of the injustice of the first. Neither dare they intrust the govern- ment with any number of men, having still before their eyes the errors which those had before committed. So that, having no hope but in themselves, they convert the government from an oligarchy to a democracy, and take upon themselves the care and charge of public affairs.

"And as long as any are living who felt the power and domi- nion of the few, they acquiesce under the present establishment, and look upon equality and liberty as the greatest of blessings.

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POLYBIUS.

443

But when a new race of men grows up, these, no longer regard- ing equality and liberty, from being accustomed to them, aim at a greater share of power than the rest, particularly those of the greatest fortunes, who, grown now ambitious, and being unable to attain the power they aim at by their own merit, dissipate their wealth in alluring and corrupting the people by every method ; and when, to serve their wild ambition, they have once taught them to receive bribes and entertainments, from that mo- ment the democracy is at an end, and changes to force and violence. For the people, accustomed to live at the expense of others, and to place their hopes of a support in the fortunes of their neighbors, if headed by a man of a great and enterprising spirit, will then have recourse to violence, and, getting together, will murder, banish, and divide among themselves the lands of their adversaries, till, grown wild with rage, they again find a master and a monarch.

" This is the rotation of governments, and this the order of nature, by which they are changed, transformed, and return to the same, point of the circle.

"Lycurgus observing that all this was founded on necessity and the laws of nature, concluded that every form of government that is simple, by soon degenerating into that vice that is allied to it, and naturally attends it, must be unstable. For as rust is the natural bane of iron, and worms of wood, by which they are sure to be destroyed, so there is a certain vice implanted by tin hand of nature in every simple form of government, and by her ordained to accompany it. The vice of kingly government is monarchy ; that of aristocracy, oligarchy ; and of democracy, rage and violence ; into which all of them, in process of time, must necessarily degenerate. To avoid which, Lycurgus united in one all the advantages of the best governments, to the end that no branch of it, by swelling beyond its bounds, might degenerate into the vice that is congenial to it, and that, while each was mutually acted, upon by opposite powers, no one part might outweigh the rest. uThe Romans arrived at the same end by the same means."

Polybius, you perceive, my dear sir, is more charitable in his representation of human nature than Hobbes, Mandeville, Roche- foucauld, Machiavel, Beccaria, Rousseau, De Lolme, or even than our friend Dr. Price. He candidly supposes that the first kingly

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government will be wisely and honestly administered, during the life of the father of his people ; that the first aristocracy will be conducted with caution and moderation, by the band of patriots to whom is due the glory of the expulsion of the tyrant ; and that the people, for a generation at least, who have deposed the oligarchy, will behave with decorum.

But perhaps it might be more exactly true and natural to say, that the king, the aristocracy, and the people, as soon as ever they felt themselves secure in the possession of their power, would begin to abuse it.

In M. Target's single assembly, those who should think them- selves most distinguished by blood and education, as well as for- tune, would be most ambitious ; and if they found an opposition among their constituents to their elections, would immediately have recourse to entertainments, secret intrigues, and every popu- lar art, and even to bribes, to increase then parties. This would oblige their competitors, though they might be infinitely better men, either to give up their pretensions, or to imitate these dan- gerous practices. There is a natural and unchangeable incon- venience in all popular elections. There are always competi- tions, and the candidates have often merits nearly equal. The virtuous and independent electors are often divided ; this natu- rally causes too much attention to the most profligate and unprincipled, who will sell or give away their votes for other considerations than wisdom and virtue. So that he who has the deepest purse, or the fewest scruples about using it, will gene- rally prevail.

It is from the natural aristocracy in a single assembly that the first danger is to be apprehended in the present state of manners injVmerica ; and with "a balance of landed property in the hands of the people, so decided in their favor, the progress to degene- racy, corruption, rage, and violence, might not be very rapid ; nevertheless it would begin with the first elections, and grow faster or slower every year.

Rage and violence would soon appear in the assembly, and from thence be communicated among the people at large.

The only remedy is to throw the rich and the proud into one group, in a separate assembly, and there tie their hands ; if you give them scope with the people at large or their representatives, they will destroy all equality and liberty, with the consent and

DIONYSIUS. 445

acclamations of the people themselves. They will have much / more power, mixed with the representatives, than separated from them. In the first case, if they unite, they will give the law and govern all ; if they differ, they will divide the state, and go to a decision by force. But placing them alone by themselves, the society avails itself of all their abilities and virtues ; they become a solid check to the representatives themselves, as well as to the executive power, and you disarm them entirely of the power to do mischief.

Dionysius Of Halicarnassus

DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS.

t

Dionysius Halicarnassensis, in his seventh book, has given us an excellent speech in the senate, made by Manlius Valerius, M ^aWjoA a man venerable for his age and wisdom, and remarkable for his constant friendship for the people. _—

" If any of you, fathers, are alarmed with an apprehension that ■ you will introduce a pernicious custom into the commonwealth, if you grant the people a power of giving their suffrages against the patricians, and entertain an opinion that the tribunitian power, if considerably strengthened, will prove of no advantage, let them learn that their opinion is erroneous, and their imagi- nation contrary to sound reasoning. For if any measure can tend to preserve this commonwealth, to assure both her liberty and power, and to establish a perpetual union and harmony in all things, the most effectual will be to give the people a share in the government ; and the most advantageous thing to us will be, not to have a simple and unmixed form of government ; neither a monarchy, an oligarchy, nor a democracy, but a constitution tempered with all of them ; for each of these forms, when simple, very easily deviates into abuse and excess ; but when all of them are e^ualh/jmixedj that part which happens to innovate and to exceed the customary bounds, is always restrained by another that is sober, and adheres to the established order. Thus mo- narchy, when it becomes cruel and insolent, and begins to pur- sue tyrannical measures, is subverted by an oligarchy, consisting of good men ; and an oligarchy, composed of the best men, which is your form of government, when, elated with riches and dependents, it pays no regard to justice or to any other virtue, is destroyed by a wise people. And in a democracy, when the

VOL. IV. 38

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446 ON GOVERNMENT.

people, from being modest in their deportment, and observant of the laws, begin to run into disorders and excesses, they are forced to return to their duty by the power with which, upon those occasions, the best man of the commonwealth is invested.

" You, fathers, have used all possible precautions to prevent monarchical power from degenerating into tyranny ; for, instead of a single person, you have invested two with the supreme power ; and though you committed this magistracy to them, not for an indefinite time, but only for a year, you nevertheless appointed three hundred patricians, the most respectable both for their virtue and their age, of whom this senate is composed, to watch over their conduct ; but you do not seem hitherto to have appointed any to watch over your own, and to keep you within proper bounds. As for yourselves, I am as yet under no apprehensions, lest you should suffer your minds to be corrupted by great and accumulated prosperity, who have lately delivered your country from a long tyranny ; and, through continual and lasting wars, have not as yet had leisure to grow insolent and luxurious. But with regard to your successors, when I consider how great alterations length of time brings with it, I am afraid, lest the men of power in the senate should innovate, and silently transform our constitution to a monarchical tyranny.

Whereas, if you admit the people to a share in the government, no mischief can spring from the senate ; but the man who aims at greater power than the rest of his fellow citizens, and has formed a faction in the senate of all who are willing to partake of his councils and his crimes, (for those who deliberate concerning public affairs ought to foresee every thing that is probable,) this great, this awful person, I say, when called upon by the tribunes to appear before the people, must give an account both of his actions and thoughts to this people, inconsiderable as they are, and so much his inferiors ; and, if found guilty, suffer the punishment he deserves. And, lest the people themselves, when vested with so great a power, should grow wanton, and, seduced by the worst of demagogues, become dangerous to the best citi- zens, (for the multitude generally give birth to tyranny,) some person of consummate prudence, created dictator by yourselves, will guard against this evil, and not allow them to run into excess ; and being invested with absolute power, and subject to no account, will cut off the infected part of the commonwealth,

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and not suffer that which is not yet infected to be vitiated; reform the laws ; excite the citizens to virtue, and appoint such magistrates as he thinks will govern with the greatest prudence. And having effected these things within the space of six months, he will again become a private man, without receiving any other reward for these actions than that of bein^ honored for havinsr performed them.

" Induced, therefore, by these considerations, and convinced that this is the most perfect form of government, debar the peo- ple from nothing ; but as you have granted them a power of choosing the annual magistrates who are to preside over the commonwealth, of confirming and repealing laws, of declaring war, and making peace, which are the greatest and most import- ant affairs that come under the consideration of our government, not one of which you have submitted to the absolute determina- tion of the senate, allow them, in like manner, the power of try- ing offenders, particularly such as are accused of crimes against the state, of raising a sedition, of aiming at tyranny, of concert- ing measures with our enemies to betray the commonwealth, or of any other crimes of the like nature; for the more formidable vou render the transgression of the laws and the alteration of discipline, by appointing many inspectors and many guards over the insolent and the ambitious, the more will your constitution be improved."

It is surprising that Valerius should talk of an equal mixture of monarchical, aristocratical, and democratical powers, in a commonwealth where they were so unequally mixed as they were in Rome. There can be no equal mixture without a nega- tive in each branch of the legislature. But one example of an equal mixture has ever existed in Europe, and that is in England. The consuls in Rome had no negative ; the people had a nega- tive, but a very unequal one, because they had not the same time and opportunity for cool deliberation. The appointment of tri- bunes was a very inadequate remedy. What match for a Roman senate was a single magistrate seated among them? His abilities could not be equal ; his firmness could not always be depended on. But, what is worse, he was liable to be intimi- dated, flattered, and bribed. It is really astonishing that such people as Greeks and Romans should ever have thought four or five ephori, or a single tribune, or a college of ten tribunes, an

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adequate representation of themselves. If Valerius had proposed that the consul should have been made an integral part of the legislature, and that the Roman people should choose another council of two or three hundred, equally representing them, to be another integral- part, he would then have seen that the ap- pointment of a dictator could never, in any case, become neces- i sary.

PLATO.

Plato has given us the most accurate detail of the natural vicissitudes of manners and principles, the usual progress of the passions in society, and revolutions of governments into one another.

In the fourth book of his Republic, he describes his perfect commonwealth, where kings are philosophers, and philosophers kings; where the whole city might be in the happiest condition, and not any one tribe remarkably happy beyond the rest ; in one word, where the laics govern^ and justice is established ; where the guardians of the laws are such in reality, and preserve the constitution instead of destroying it, and promote the happiness of the whole city, not their own particularly ; where the state is one, not many ; where there are no parties of the poor and the rich at war with each other; where, if any descendant of the guardians be vicious, he is dismissed to the other classes, and if any descendant of the others be worthy, he is raised to the rank of the guardians ; where education, the grand point to be at- tended to, produces good geniuses, and good geniuses, partaking of such education, produce still better than the former ; where / >7£ the children, receiving from their infancy an education agreeable to the laws of the constitution, grow up to be worthy men, and observant of the laws ; where the system, both of laws and educa- tion, is contrived to produce the virtues of fortitude, temperance, wisdom, and justice, in the whole city, and in all the individual citizens ; where, if among the rulers or guardians of the laws, there be one surpassing the rest, it may be called a monarchy, or kingly government ; if there be several, an aristocracy.

Although there is but one principle of virtue, those of vice are infinite ; of which there are four which deserve to be mentioned. There are as many species of soul as there are of republics, — five of each. That which is above described is one.

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PLATO. 449

In the eighth book of his Republic he describes the other four, and the revolutions from one to another. The first he calls the ■> *.

Cretan or Spartan, or the ambitious 1 republic ; the second oli- garchy ;2 the third democracy ; and the fourth tyranny, the last disease of a city.

"As republics are generated by the manners of the people, to which, as into a current, all other things are drawn, of necessity there must be as many species of men as of republics. We have b ,\ \ already, in the fourth book, gone over that which we have pro- ' nounced to be good and just. We are now to go over the contentious and ambitious man, who is formed according to the Spartan republic ; and then him resembling an oligarchy ; then the democratic ; and then the tyrannic man ; that we may con- template the most unjust man, and set him in opposition to the most just, that our inquiry may be completed ! The ambitious republic is first to be considered. It is indeed difficult for a city constituted in this manner, that is, like Sparta, to be changed ; but, as every thing which is generated is liable to corruption, even such a constitution as this will not remain forever, but be dis- solved."

I shall pass over all the astrological and mystical whimsies which we meet with so often in Plato, interspersed among the most sublime wisdom and profound knowledge, and insert only what is intelligible. The amount of what he says in this place about numbers and music is, that mistakes will insensibly be made in the choice of persons for guardians of the laws; and by these guardians, in the rewards and promotion of merit. " They will not always expertly distinguish the several species J of genius, — the golden, the silver, the brazen, and the iron. Whilst iron shall be mixed with silver, and brass with gold, dis- similitude and discord arise, and generate war, and enmity, and sedition. When sedition is risen, two of the species of genius, 3 the iron and brazen, will be carried away after gain, and the acquisition of lands and houses, gold and silver. But the golden and silver geniuses, as they are not in want, but naturally rich,

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"H re ino t<ov nolhov £7iouvovfiei>Tj.

" That which is praised by many." *

2 2u%vo)v yifiovaa xaxiov.

" Full of many evils." 38 * C 2

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will lead the soul towards virtue and the original constitution. Thus divided, drawing contrary ways, and living in a violent manner, will not this republic be in the middle, between aris- tocracy and oligarchy, imitating, in some things, the former republic, and in others oligarchy ? They will honor their rulers ; their military will abstain from agriculture and mechanic arts ; they will have Common meals, gymnastic exercises, and contests of war, as in the former republic ; but they will be afraid to bring wise men into the magistracy, because they have no longer any such as are truly simple and inflexible, but such as are of a mixed kind, more forward and rough, more fitted by their natural genius for war than peace, esteeming tricks and stratagems. Such as these shall desire wealth, and hoard up gold and silver, as those who live in oligarchies. While they spare their own, they will love to squander the substance of others upon then pleasures. They will fly from the law as children from a father, who have been educated not by persuasion but by force. Such a republic, mixed of good and ill, will be most remarkable for the prevalence of the contentious and ambitious spirit."

" What now shall the man be, correspondent to this republic ? He will be arrogant and rough towards inferiors, mild towards equals, but extremely submissive to governors ; fond of dignity and the magistracy, but thinking that political management and military performances, not eloquence, nor any such thing, should entitle him to them. While young, he may despise money ; but the older he grows, the more he will value it, because he is of a covetous temper, and not sincerely affected to virtue and reason. Such an ambitious youth resembles such a city, and is formed somehow in this manner: — His father, a worthy man in an ill-regulated city, shuns honors, and magistracies, and law-suits, and all public business, that, as he can do no good, he may have no trouble. The son hears his mother venting her indignation, and complaining that she is neglected among other women, be- cause her husband is not in the magistracy, nor attentive to the making of money; that he is unmanly and remiss, and such other things as wives are apt to whine about concerning hus- bands. The domestics, too, privately say the same things to the sons, stimulating them to be more of men than then father, and more attentive to their money. When they go abroad, they hear the same things, and see that those who mind their own

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affairs are called simple, and such as mind not their affairs are commended. The young man, comparing the conduct, speeches, and pursuits of his father with those of other men, the one watering the rational part of his soul, and the other the concu- piscible and irascible, he delivers up the government within him- self to a middle power, that which is irascible and fond of con- tention, and so he becomes a haughty and ambitious man."

We have now the second republic, and the second man.

" This second republic will be succeeded by oligarchy, founded on men's valuations, in which the rich bear rule, and the poor have no share in the government. The change from the ambi- tious republic to oligarchy is made by that treasury which every one has filled with gold. For, first of all, they and their wives find out methods of expense, and to this purpose strain and dis- obey the laws, one observing and rivalling another, the generality become of this kind ; and, proceeding to greater desires of mak- ing money, the more honorable they account this to be, the more will virtue be thought dishonorable. Virtue is so different from wealth, that they always weigh against each other. Whilst wealth and the wealthy are held in honor in the city, both virtue and the good must be more dishonored, and what is honored is pursued, and what is dishonored is neglected. Instead, then, of ambitious men, they will become lovers of gain. The rich they praise and admire, and bring into the magistracy ; but the poor man they despise. They then make laws, marking out the bound- ary of the constitution, and regulating the quantity of oligarchic power according to the quantity of wealth; more to the more wealthy, and less to the less. So that he who hath not the valu- ation settled by law is to have no share in the government.

" What think you of this constitution ? If we should appoint pilots according to then valuation, but never intrust a ship with a poor man, though better skilled in Ms art, we should make very bad navigation. Again, such a city is not one, but of necessity two ; one, consisting of the poor, and the other of the rich, dwelling in one place, and always plotting against one another. They are, moreover, incapable to wage war, because of the necessity they are under, either of employing the armed multitude, and of dreading them more than the enemy, or to appear in battle, truly oligarchic, and at the same time be unwil- ling to advance money for the public service, through a natural disposition of covetousness.

2 l~

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452 ON GOVERNMENT.

" In such a government almost all are poor, except the govern- ors ; and where there are poor, there are somewhere concealed thieves and pursecutters and sacrilegious persons, and workers of all other evils ; these the magistracy with diligence and force restrains ; these are drones in a city, with dangerous stings.

" This is oligarchy. Now let us consider the man who resem- bles it. The change from the ambitious to the oligarchic man is chiefly in this manner, — the ambitious man has a son who emu- lates his father and follows his steps ; afterwards he dashes on the city, as on a rock, wasting his substance in the office of a general or some other principal magistracy ; then falling into courts of justice, destroyed by sycophants, stripped of his digni- ties, disgraced, and losing all his substance. When he has thus suffered and lost his substance, in a terror he pushes headlong from the throne of his soul that ambitious disposition ; and, being humbled by his poverty, turns to the making of money, lives sparingly and meanly, and applying to work, scrapes together substance. He then seats in that throne the avaricious disposition, and makes it a mighty king within himself, decked out with Persian crowns, bracelets, and sceptres. Having placed the virtuous and ambitious disposition low on the ground, he reasons on nothing but how lesser substance shall be made greater, admires and honors nothing but riches and rich people. This is the change from an ambitious youth to a covetous one, and this is the oligarchic man.

" Democracy is next to be considered, in what manner it arises, and what kind of man it produces when arisen. The change from oligarchy to democracy is produced through the insatiable desire of becoming as rich as possible. As those who are govern- ors in it govern on account of their possessing great riches, they will be unwilling to restrain by law such of the youth as are dissolute, from having the liberty of squandering and wasting their substance ; that so, by purchasing the substance of such persons, and lending them on usury, they may still become richer, and be held in greater honor. While they neglect educa- tion, and suffer the youth to grow licentious, they sometimes lay under a necessity of becoming poor, such as are of no ungene- rous disposition. These sit in the city, some of them in debt, others in contempt, hating and conspiring against those who possess their substance, and with others very desirous of a

PLATO. 453

-?n

change. But the money-catchers, still brooding over it, and drawing to themselves exorbitant usury, fill the city with drones and poor. They neglect every thing but making of money, and make no more account of virtue than the poor do. When these governors and their subjects meet on the road, at public shows, in military marches, as fellow-soldiers or sailors, or in common dangers, the poor are by no means contemned by the rich. A robust fellow, poor and sunburnt, beside a rich man, bred up in the shade, swollen with flesh, and panting for breath, and in agony in battle, thinks it is through his own and his fellows' fault that such men grow rich, and says, Our rich men are good for nothing. The city soon grows into sedition between the oli- garchic and democratic parties ; and the poor prevailing over the rich, kill some and banish others, and share the places in the republic and the magistracies equally among the remainder, and for the most part the magistracies are disposed in it by lot. In what manner do these live, and what sort of republic is this ? A democracy. The city is full of all freedom of action and speech, and liberty to do in it what any one inclines. Every one will regulate his own method of life in whatever way he pleases. In such a republic will arise men of all lands. This is the finest of all republics, variegated like a robe with all lands of ■? ? / flowers, and diversified with all sorts of manners. The multi- tude, it is likely, judge this republic the best, like children and women gazing at variegated things. In truth, it contains all kinds of republics, and it appears necessary for any one, who wants to constitute a city, as we do at present, to come to a democratic city, as to a general fair of republics, and choose the form that he fancies ; he will not be in want of njodels. Is not this a sweet and divine manner of life for the present ? To be under no necessity to govern, although you were able to govern ; nor to be subject, unless you incline ; nor to be engaged in war when others are ; nor to live in peace when others do so, unless you be desirous of peace ; and though there be a law restraining you from governing or administering justice, to govern neverthe- less, and administer justice if you incline ? Have you not ob- served, in such a republic, men condemned to death or banish- ment continuing still, or returning like heroes, and walking up and down openly, as if no one observed them ? Is not this indulgence of the city very generous, in magnificently despising

*"5?

454 ON GOVERNMENT.

all care of education and discipline, and in not regarding from what sort of pursuits one comes to act in public affairs, but honoring him, if he only say he is well affected towards the mul- titude ? These things, and such as these, are to be found in a democracy ; and it would be a pleasant sort of republic, anarchi- cal and variegated, distributing a certain equality to all alike, without distinction,

" Let us consider now the character of a democratical man, and how he arises out of that parsimonious one who, under the oligarchy, was trained up by his father in his manners. Such a one by force governs his own pleasures, which are expensive, and tend not to making money, and are called unnecessary. Eating, so far as conduces to preserve life, health, and a good habit of body, is a pleasure of the necessary kind ; but the desire of these things beyond these purposes, is capable of being curbed in youth; and, being hurtful to the body and to the soul, with reference to her attaining wisdom and temperance, may be called unnecessary. In the same manner we shall say of venereal desires and others. We just now denominated a drone the man who was full of such desires and pleasures ; but the oligarchic man, him who was under the necessary ones. The democratic appears to arise from the oligarchic man in this manner. ^ When a young man, bred up without proper instruction, and in a parsimonious manner, comes to taste the honey of the drones, and associates with those vehement and terrible creatures, who are able to procure pleasures every way diversified, from every quar- ter ; thence imagine there is the beginning of a change in him, from the oligarchic to the democratic. And as the city was changed by the assistance of an alliance from without, with one party of it, with which it was of ldn, shall not the youth be changed in the same manner, by the assistance of one species of desires from without to another within him, which resembles it, and is akin to it ? By all means. If any assistance be given to the oligarchic party within him, by his father or the others of his family admonishing and upbraiding him, then truly arises sedi- tion and opposition and a fight within him with himself. Some- times the democratic party yields to the oligarchic ; some of the desires are destroyed, others retire on the rise of a certain modesty in the soul of the youth, and he is again rendered somewhat decent. Again, when some desires retire, there are others akin

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, PLATO. 455

to them which grow up, and, through inattention to the father's instructions, become both many and powerful, draw towards intimacies, and generate a multitude. They seize the citadel of the soul of the youth, finding it evacuated of noble learning and pursuits and of true reasoning, which are the best watch- men and guardians in the understandings of men beloved of the gods ; and then false and boastful reasonings and opinions, rushing up in their stead, possess the same place in this person. These false and boastful reasonings, denominating modesty to be stupidity ; temperance, unmanliness ; moderation, rusticity ; decent expense, iEiberality ; thrust them all out disgracefully, expel them their territories, and introduce insolence and anarchy, luxury and impudence, in triumph, with encomiums and ap- plauses, shining with a great retinue, and crowned with crowns. Insolence they denominate education ; anarchy, liberty ; luxury, magnificence; and impudence, manhood. In this manner, a youth bred up with the necessary desires, changes into the licen- tiousness and remissness of the unnecessary and unprofitable pleasures ; his life is not regulated by any order, but deeming it pleasant, free, and happy, he puts all laws whatever on a level ; ■like the city, he is fine and variegated, and many men and women too would desire to imitate his life, as he hath in him a great many patterns of republics and of manners.

" It remains that we go over the most excellent republic, which is tyranny, and the most excellent man, who is the tyrant. The change is from democracy to tyranny, as from oligarchy to demo- cracy. An insatiable desire of riches, and a neglect of other tilings, through attention to making money, destroys oligarchy ; and an insatiable thirst of liberty destroys democracy. When a city is under a democracy, and is thirsting after liberty, and hap- pens to have bad cup-bearers, and grows drunk with an insuffi- ciently diluted draught of it, it punishes even the governors, if they will not be entirely tame, and afford a deal of liberty, accusing them as corrupted, and leaning towards oligarchy. Such as are obedient to magistrates are abused, as willing slaves and good for nothing. Magistrates who resemble sub- jects, and subjects who resemble magistrates, are commended and honored, both in public and private ; in such a city they of necessity soon go to the highest pitch of liberty, and this inbred anarchy descends into private families. The father resembles

456 ON GOVERNMENT. #

the child, and is afraid of his sons. The sons accustom them- selves to resemble the father, and neither revere nor stand in awe of their parents. Strangers are equalled with citizens. The teacher fears and flatters the scholars, and the scholars despise their teachers and tutors. The youth resemble the more ad- vanced in years, and rival them in words and deeds. The old men, sitting down with the young, are full of merriment and pleasantry, mimicking the youth, that they may not appear to be morose and despotic. The slaves are no less free than those who purchase them ; and wives have a perfect equality and liberty with their husbands, and husbands with their wives. The sum of all these things, collected together, makes the souls of the citi- zens so delicate, that if any one bring near to them any thing of slavery, they are filled with indignation, and cannot endure it ; and at length they regard not the laws, written or unwritten, that no one whatever, by any manner of means, may become their master. This is that government so beautiful and youthful, whence tyranny springs. But any thing in excess, in animal or vegetable bodies, in seasons or in republics, is wont to occasion a mighty change to the reverse ; and excessive liberty seems to change into nothing but excessive slavery, both with a private person and a city. Thus licentiousness destroys the democracy. " Out of no other republic is tyranny constituted but out of democracy ; and out of the most excessive liberty, the greatest and most savage slavery. The race of idle and profuse men, one part of which was more brave, and were leaders, the other more cowardly, and followers, we compared to drones, the one with, and the other without stings. These two springing up in a repub- lic, raise disturbance, as phlegm and bile in a natural body. Let us divide a democratic city into three, as it really is ; for one such species as the above grows through licentiousness in it, no less than in the oligarchic, but is much more fierce. In oligarchy, because it is not in places of honor, but is debarred from the magistracies, it is unexercised, and does not become strong ; but in a democracy this is the presiding party, excepting a few; and now it says and does the most outrageous things. Some other party is now always separated from the multitude ; and while the whole are somehow in pursuit of gain, such as are the most temperate become the wealthiest, and have the greatest quantity of honey ; hence the greatest quantity of honey, and what comes

PLATO. 457

with the greatest ease, is pressed out of these by the drones. Such wealthy people are the pasture of the drones. The people who mind their own affairs, and meddle not with any others, who have not much property, but yet are the most numerous and the most prevalent in democracy, whenever it is fully assem- bled, would be a third species ; but it will not often fully assem- ble, if it does not get some share of the honey. It does, however, always get a share, for their leaders rob those who have sub- stance, and give it to the people, that they may have the most themselves. These, then, who are thus despoiled, are obliged to defend themselves, saying and doing all they can among the people. Others, then, give them occasion to form designs against the people, and so they become oligarchic, even although they should have no inclination to introduce a change of government ; thence they go to accusations, lawsuits, and contests, one with another, the leaders slandering and the drones stinging.

" The people are wont always to set some one in a conspicuous manner over themselves, to cherish him, and greatly to increase his power. Whenever a tyrant rises, it is from this root, and from nothing else, that he blossoms. What, then, is the begin- ning of a change, from a president into a tyrant ? The wolf in the temple of Arcadia, dedicated to Lycaean Jupiter, had this inscription: " That whoever tasted human entrails, mixed with ty<P other sacrifices, necessarily became a wolf." In the same man- ner, he who, being president of the people, and receiving an ex- tremely submissive multitude, abstaineth not from kindred blood, but unjustly accusing them, and bringing them into courts of justice, stains himself with bloodshed, and banishes and slays, and proposes the abolition of debts, and division of lands, must not such a one either be destroyed by his enemies, or exercise tyranny, and from being a man become a wolf? He now be- comes seditious towards those who have substance, and when he fails, he goes against his enemies with open force, and becomes an accomplished tyrant ; and if they be unable to expel him, or put him to death by an accusation before the city, they conspire to cut him off privately, by a violent death. On this account, all those who mount up to tyranny, invent the celebrated tyran- nical demand of the people, certain guards for their persons, that the assistance of the people may be secured to them. The people, afraid of his safety, but secure as to their own, grant

VOL. IV. 39

458 ON GOVERNMENT.

them. Then those who have substance, and the crime of hating the people, fly ; and if any one of them is caught he is put to death. This president of a city, thus not behaving like a truly great man, tumbles down many others, and sits in his chair a consummate tyrant, instead of a president of a city.

" Consider, now, the happiness of the man and the city in which such a mortal arises. In the first days, he smiles and salutes every one he meets; says he is no tyrant; promises many things, both in private and in public ; frees from debts ; distributes lands, both to the people in general, and those about him ; affects to be mild, and of the patriot spirit, towards all. But when he has reconciled to himself some of his foreign enemies, and tranquil- lity is restored, he raises wars, that the people may want a leader, and that, being rendered poor by the payment of taxes, they may be under a necessity of becoming intent on a daily sustenance, and less ready to conspire against him. If he suspects any of them, who are of free spirits, will not allow him to govern, in order to have some pretext for destroying them, he exposes them to the enemy. On these accounts, a tyrant is always under a necessity of raising war. While he is doing these things, he must become more hateful to his citizens. Some of those who have been pro- moted along with Mm, and are in power, speak out freely, both to him and among themselves, finding fault with the transactions. It behoves the tyrant, then, to cut off all those who are of a more manly spirit, if he means to govern, till he leave no one, friend or foe, worth any thing. He must carefully observe who is courageous, magnanimous, wise, rich, and of necessity he must be an enemy to all these, and lay snares, until he cleanse the city of them. Thus he must live with wicked people, and be hated by them too, or not live at all. The more he is hated, the more guards he will want. But the worthy men being de- stroyed, the worst must be his guards. What a blessed posses- sion ! But this army of the tyrant, so beautiful, so numerous, and multiform, must be maintained. If there be any sacred things in the city, these they will spend, and the people obliged to pay the lighter taxes. When these fail, he and his drunken com- panions and associates, male and female, shall be maintained out of the paternal inheritance ; and the people who have made the tyrant shall nourish him. If the people be enraged, and say that they did not make him to be slaves to his slaves, but that

PLATO. 459

they might be set at liberty from the rich in the city, who are now called good and worthy men, and order him and his com- panions to be gone out of the city, as a father drives out of his house his son, with his tumultuary, drunken companions ; then, indeed, the people shall know what a beast they are themselves, and what a beast they have generated, hugged, and bred up. While they are the weaker, they attempt to drive out the stronger. The tyrant will strip them of their armor. The people, defend- ing themselves against the smoke of slavery, have fallen into the fire of despotism ; instead of that excessive and unseasonable liberty, embracing the most rigorous and wretched slavery of bondmen. Thus, to speak modestly, we have sufficiently shown how tyranny arises out of democracy, and what it is after it is risen. ^r-^^L

" The tyrannical man, himself, remains yet to be considered, in lh~j what manner he arises out of the democratic, and what kind of man he is, and whether he is wretched or happy. Of those pleasures and desires which are not necessary, some are repug- nant to law. These, indeed, appear to spring up in every one ; but, being chastised by the laws and the better desires, along with reason, they either forsake some men altogether, or are less in number and feeble ; in others they are in greater number and more powerful. These lawless desires are such as are excited in sleep, when the rational part of the soul which governs it is asleep, and the part which is brutal and savage, being filled with meats and drunkenness, frisks about, and, pushing away sleep, wants to go and accomplish its practices. In such a one, it dares to do every thing, as being loosed and disengaged from all mo- desty and discretion ; for it scruples not the embraces, as it ima- gines, of gods, men, or beasts ; nor to kill any one ; in one word, is wanting in no folly nor impudence. There is in every one a certain species of desires, which is terrible, savage, and irregular, even in some who seem to us to be entirely moderate.

" Recollect, now, what kind of man we said the democratic one was ; educated from his infancy under a parsimonious father, who valued the avaricious desires alone ; but being afterwards conversant with those who are more refined, running into their manner, and all sort of insolence, from a detestation of his father's parsimony. However, having a better natural temper than those who corrupt him, and being drawn opposite ways, he

460 ON GOVERNMENT.

settles into a manner in the middle of both, and participating moderately, as he imagines, of each of them, he leads a life neither illiberal nor licentious, becoming a democratic man from an aristocratic. His son is educated in his manners ; but the same things happening to him as to his father, he is drawn into all kinds of licentiousness, which is termed, however, by those who draw him off, the most complete liberty. His father, the do- mestics, and others, are aiding to those desires which are in the middle. But when the tyrant-makers have no hopes of retain- ing the youth in their power any other way, they contrive to excite in him a certain love, which presides over the indolent desires, and such as minister readily to their pleasures ; and when other desires make a noise about him, full of their odors and perfumes, and crowns and wines, and the pleasures of the most dissolute kind, then, truly, he is surrounded with madness as a life-guard, and that president of the soul rages with frenzy, till he kills all modesty, is cleansed of temperance, and filled with additional madness. This is the formation of a tyrannical man. After this, there are feastings among them, and revellings, banqueting, and mistresses, and all such things as may be ex- pected where the tyrant's love, drunkenness, and madness govern all in the soul. After this, there is borrowing and pillaging of substance, and searching for every thing which they are able, by rage and frenzy, deceit and violence, to carry off; pilfering and beguiling parents. When the substance of father and mother fails, he will break into houses, rob in the streets, rifle temples. Those desires which heretofore were only loose from their slavery in sleep, when he was yet under the laws and his father, when under democratic government, now, when he is tyrannized over by his passions, shall be equally loose when he is awake, and from no horrid slaughter or deed shall he abstain ; but the tyrant within him, living without any restraint of law and government, shall lead him on to every mad attempt. Such as these establish as tyrant the man who among them hath himself most of the > "*-■ tyrant, and in greatest strength, within his own soul. If the city relucts, he shall bring in other young people, and chastise his formerly beloved mother and father country J as the Cretans say. But liberty and true friendship the tyrannic disposition never tasted. Let us finish then our worst man. He will be awake such as we described him asleep, and he who appears the most

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PLATO. 461

wicked, shall really be the most wretched ; as many men, as many minds; as city is to city, in regard to virtue and happiness, so will man be to man ; kingly government is the best, and tyranny is the worst. No city is more wretched than that which is under tyranny, nor any more happy than that under regal power. Both the city and the tyrant shall be slavish, poor, timorous; and you will find more lamentations and groans, weepings and torments, than in any other city. We should not merely conjecture about matters of such importance, but most thoroughly inquire into them,, by reasoning of this kind, for the inquiry is concerning the most im- portant matter, a good life and a bad.

" Such private men as are rich, and possess many slaves, have this resemblance at least of tyrants, that they rule over many. If they live securely, and are not afraid of then domestics, it is because the whole city gives assistance to each particular man. But if a god should lift* a man, his wife, and children, with fifty slaves, out of the city, and let them down in a desert, in what kind of fear would he be about himself, his wife, and children, lest they should be destroyed by the domestics !

" Such, and much worse is the tyrant in his tyrannical city ; envious, faithless, cowardly, unjust, unfriendly, unholy, and a sink and breeder of all wickedness.

" Now tell me which is the first and which the last, as to hap- piness, the regal, the ambitious, the oligarchic, the democratic, and the tyrannic man and city. The best and justest is the hap piest."

Let me add to the researches of Polybius and Plato, concern- ing the mutability of governments, those of Sir Thomas Smith, who, as he tells us, on the twenty-eighth of March, 1565, in the seventh of Elizabeth and fifty -first year of his age, was ambassa- dor from that queen to the court of France, and then published, f- The Commonwealth of England," not as Plato made his republic, Xenophon his kingdom of Persia, or Sir Thomas More his Utopia, feigned commonwealths, such as never were nor shall be, vain imaginations, fantasies of philosophers, but as England stood and was governed at that day.

In his seventh chapter and the two following he gives us his opinion of the origin of a kingdom, an aristocracy and demo- cracy. The third he supposes to grow naturally out of the second, and the second out of the first, which originated in patri-

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462 ON GOVERNMENT.

archal authority. But as there is nothing remarkable, either in favor of our system or against it, I should not have quoted the book in this place, but for the sake of its title. The constitution of England is in truth a republic, and has been ever so con- sidered by foreigners, and by the most learned and enlightened Englishmen, although the word commonwealth has become unpopular and odious, since the unsuccessful and injudicious attempts to abolish monarchy and aristocracy, between the years 1640 and 1660.

Let me proceed then to make a few observations upon the Discourses of Plato and Polybius, and show how forcibly they prove the necessity of permanent laws, to restrain the passions and vices of men, and to secure to the citizens the blessings of society, in the peaceable enjoyment of their lives, liberties, and properties ; and the necessity of different orders of men, with various and opposite powers, prerogaljves, and privileges, to watch over one another, to balance each other, and to compel each other at all times to be real guardians of the laws.

Every citizen must look up to the laws, as his master, his guardian, and his friend ; and whenever any of his fellow-citi- zens, whether magistrates or subjects, attempt to deprive him of his right, he must appeal to the laws ; if the aristocracy encroach, he must appeal to the democracy ; if they are divided, he must appeal to the monarchical power to decide between them, by joining with that which adheres to the laws ; if the democracy is on the scramble for power, he must appeal to the aristocracy and the monarchy, which by uniting may restrain it. If the regal authority presumes too far, he must appeal to the other two. Without three divisions of power, stationed to watch each other, and compare each other's conduct with the laws, it will be impossible that the laws should at all times preserve then author- ity and govern all men.

Plato has sufficiently asserted the honor of the laws and the necessity of proper guardians of them ; but has nowhere deline- ated the various orders of guardians, and the necessity of a balance between them. He has, nevertheless, given us premises from whence the absolute necessity of such orders and equipoises may be inferred ; he has shown how naturally every simple spe- cies of government degenerates. The aristocracy, or ambitious republic, becomes immediately an oligarchy. What shall be

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done to prevent it ? Place two guardians of the laws to watch the aristocracy, — one, in the shape of a king, on one side of it ; another, in the shape of a democratical assembly, on the other side. The aristocracy become an oligarchy, changes into a democracy. How shall it be prevented ? By giving the natural aristocracy in society its rational and just weight, and by giving it a regal power to appeal to, against the madness of the people. Democracy becomes a tyranny. How shall this be prevented ? By giving it an able, independent ally, in an aristocratical assem- bly, with whom it may unite against the unjust and illegal designs of any one man.

LOCKE.

Chimerical systems of legislation are neither new nor uncom- mon, even among men of the most resplendent genius and extensive learning. It would not be too bold to say, that some parts of Plato and Sir Thomas More are as wild as the ravings of Bedlam. A philosopher may be perfect master of Descartes and Leibnitz, may pursue his own inquiries into metaphysics to any length, may enter into the inmost recesses of the human mind, and make the noblest discoveries for the benefit of his spe- cies ; nay, he may defend the principles of liberty and the rights of mankind with great abilities and success ; and, after all, when called upon to produce a plan of legislation, he may astonish the world with a signal absurdity. Mr. Locke, in 1663, was em- ployed to trace out a plan of legislation for Carolina ; and he gave the whole authority, executive and legislative, to the eight proprietors, the Lords Berkley, Clarendon, Albemarle, Craven, and Ashley ; and Messieurs Carteret, Berkley, and Colleton, and their heirs. This new oligarchical sovereignty created at once three orders of nobility ; barons,1 with twelve thousand acres of land ; caciques, with twenty-four thousand, &c. ; and landgraves, with eighty thousand. Who did this legislator think would live under his government ? * He should have first created a

1 Here are slight errors. The barony was a geographical division, and not a title. There were no barons in Mr. Locke's plan ; arid the landgraves had forty- eight, and not eighty, thousand acres assigned them.

*. " It cannot be imagined that Mr. Locke considered this as the best plan of government, but that he was employed to lay out a plan of legislation, and was under the necessity of forming such a one as would best suit the oligarchical

464 ON GOVERNMENT.

new species of beings to govern, before he instituted such a government.

Milton

MILTON.

A man may be a greater poet than Homer, and one of the most learned men in the world ; he may spend his life in defence of liberty, and be at the same time one of the most irreproacha- ble moral characters ; and yet, when called upon to frame a con- stitution of government, he may demonstrate to the world that he has reflected very little on the subject. There is a great hazard in saying all this of John Milton ; but truth and the rights of mankind demand it. In his " Ready and Easy Way to Esta- blish a Free Commonvjealtli" this great author says, " I doubt not but all ingenuous and knowing men will easily agree with me, that a free commonwealth, without single person or house of I lords, is by far the best government, if it can be had ; . . .

" For the ground and basis of every just and free government, is a general council of ablest men chosen by the people to con- sult of public affairs, from time to time, for the common good. In this grand council must the sovereignty, not transferred, but delegated only, and, as it were, deposited, reside ; with this cau- tion, they must have the forces by sea and land committed to them for preservation of the common peace and liberty ; must raise and manage the public revenue, at least with some inspect- ors deputed for satisfaction of the people how it is employed ; must make or propose civil laws, treat of commerce, peace, or war with foreign nations ; and, for the carrying on some particu- lar affairs with more secrecy and expedition, must elect, as they have already, out of their own number and others, a council of state.

"And although it may seem strange at first hearing, by reason that men's minds are prepossessed with the notion of successive parliaments, I affirm that the grand or general council, being well

views of the proprietors. A similar plan was formed by the late Lord Egmont for the settling the island of St. John, by which his nobles had almost an arbi- trary power of punishing their dependents. And this being made by his lord- ship an inducement to an acquaintance of mine to go thith er and carry with him a number of settlers, he answered that he had not, for his own part, any objec- tion in possessing the power of whipping and scourging those who might be under him, but he doubted whether he should be able to get anybody to submit to it."

H.

MILTON. 465

chosen, should be perpetual ; for so their business is, or may be, and ofttimes urgent; the opportunity of affairs gained or lost in a moment. The day of council cannot be set as the day of a festival ; but must be ready always to prevent or answer all occasions. By this continuance they will become every way skilfullest, best provided of intelligence from abroad, best ac- quainted with the people at home and the people with them. The ship of the commonwealth is always under sail ; they sit at the stern, and if they steer well, what need is there to change them, it being rather dangerous ? Add to this, that the grand council is both foundation and main pillar of the whole state ; and to move pillars and foundations, not faulty, cannot be safe for the building. I see not, therefore, how we can be advan- taged by successive and transitory parliaments ; but that they are much likelier continually to unsettle, rather than to settle a free government ; to breed commotions, changes, novelties, and uncertainties ; to bring neglect upon present affairs and opportu- nities, while all minds are in suspense with expectation of a new assembly, and the assembly, for a good space, taken up with the new settling of itself. . . . But if the ambition of such as think themselves injured, that they also partake not of the government, and are impatient till they be chosen, cannot brook the perpetuity of others chosen before them ; or if it be feared that long continu- ance of power may corrupt sincerest men, the known expedient _ o a is, that annually, (or if the space be longer, so much perhaps the f> ' better,) the third part of senators may go out," &c.

Can one read, without shuddering, this wild reverie of the divine, immortal Milton ? If no better systems of government had been proposed, it would have been no -wonder that the peo- ple of England recalled the royal family, with all their errors, follies, and crimes about them. Had Milton's scheme been adopted, England would have been a scene of revolutions, car- nage, and horror, from that time to this, or its liberties would have been at this hour the liberties of Poland, or the island would have been a province of France. What ! a single assembly to I govern England ? an assembly of senators for life too ? What ! did Milton's ideas of liberty and free government extend no further than exchanging one house of lords for another, and making it supreme and perpetual ? What ! Cromwell, Ireton, Lambert, Ludlow, Waller, and five hundred others of all sects d 2

466 ON GOVERNMENT.

and parties, one quarter of them mad with enthusiasm, another with ambition, a third with avarice, and a fourth of them honest men, a perpetual council to govern such a country ! It would have been an oligarchy of decemvirs on the first day of its sitting ; it would have instantly been torn with all the agitations of Venice, between the aristocracy and oligarchy, in the assembly itself. If, by ballots and rotations and a thousand other contri- vances, it could have been combined together, it would have stripped the people of England of every shadow of liberty, and grown in the next generation a lazy, haughty, ostentatious group of palatines ; but if they had fallen into divisions, they would have deluged the nation in blood, till one despot would have ruled the whole. John Milton was as honest a man as his nation ever bred, and as great a friend of liberty ; but his great- ness most certainly did not consist in the knowledge of the nature of man and of government, if we are to judge from this performance, or from " The Present Means and Brief Delineation of a Free Commonwealth" in his letter to General Monk.

HUME.

Americans in this age are too enlightened to be bubbled out of their liberties, even by such mighty names as Locke, Milton, Turgot, or Hume ; they know that popular elections of one essential branch of the legislature, frequently repeated,* are the only possible means of forming a free constitution, or of pre- serving the government of laws from the domination of men, or of preserving their lives, liberties, or properties in security ; they know, though Locke • and Milton did not, that when popular elections are given up, liberty and free government must be given up. Upon this principle, they cannot approve the plan of Mr. Hume, in his " Idea of a Perfect Commonivealth.,ir*i Let all the freeholders of twenty pounds a year in the county, and all the householders worth five hundred pounds in the town parishes, meet annually in the parish church, and choose, by ballot, some freeholder of the county for their member, whom we shall call the county representative. Let the hundred county representatives, two days after their election, meet in the county town, and

* " Not less frequently than for every session."

f

HUME. 467

choose by ballot, from their own body, ten county magistrates and one senator. There are, therefore, in the whole common- wealth, one hundred senators, eleven hundred county magis- trates, and ten thousand county representatives ; for we shall bestow on all senators the authority of county magistrates, and on all county magistrates the authority of county representatives. Let the senators meet in the capital, and be endowed with the whole executive power of the commonwealth ; the power of peace and war, of giving orders to generals, admirals, and am- bassadors, and, in short, all the prerogatives of a British king, except his negative. Let the county representatives meet in their particular counties, and possess the whole legislative power of the commonwealth ; the greater number of counties deciding the question ; and where these are equal, let the senate have the casting vote. Every new law must first be debated in the senate ; and, though rejected by it, if ten senators insist and protest, it must be sent down to the counties. The senate, if they please, may join to the copy of the law their reasons for receiving or rejecting it," &c.

The senate, by the ballot of Venice or Malta, are to choose a protector, who represents the dignity of the commonwealth, and presides in the senate ; two secretaries of state and a council of state, a council of religion and learning, a council of trade, a council of laws, a council of war, a council of the admiralty — each of five persons, all senators ; and seven commissioners of the treasury.

If you compare this plan, as well as those of Locke and Mil- ton, with the principles and examples, you will soon form a judgment of them ; it is not my design to enlarge upon them. That of Hume is a complicated aristocracy, and would soon behave like all other aristocracies. It is enough to say that the representatives of the people may by the senators be deprived of a voice in the legislature ; because the senate have their choice of sending the laws down, either to the county magistrates or county representatives. It is an ingenious device, to be sure, to get rid of the people and their representatives ; besides that the delays and confusions would be endless, in sending the laws to be debated in as many separate commonwealths as there are counties. But the two decisive objections are, — 1. Letting the nobility or senate into the management of the executive power ;

468 ON GOVERNMENT.

and 2. Taking the eyes of the people off from their represent- atives in the legislature. The liberty of the people depends entirely on the constant and direct communication between them and the legislature, by means of their representatives.

The improvements to be made in the English constitution lie entirely in the house of commons. If county members were abolished,1 and representatives proportionally and frequently chosen in small districts, and if no candidate could be chosen but an established, long-settled inhabitant of that district, it would be impossible to corrupt the people of England, and the house of commons might be an immortal guardian of the national liberty. Instead of projects to abolish kings and lords, if the house of commons had been attended to, wild wars would not have been engaged in, nor countless millions thrown away, nor would there have remained an imperfection, perhaps, in the English constitution. Let the people take care of the balance, and especially their part of it. But the preservation of their peculiar part of it will depend still upon the existence and inde- pendence of the other two. The instant the other branches are destroyed, their own branch, their own deputies, become their tyrants.

1 " Why the county members should be abolished is not easy to say." S.

" The patriotic party which attempted to reform the constitution, thought the county members ought to be increased, and not abolished." H.

The preceding comments are illustrative of the difference which exists be- tween the English and American way of viewing similar questions. To the former, the county representation is indicative of the popular sentiment. To the latter, it signifies an unequal rule of representation. That this is the reason of the author's objection is plain, from his proposal of a substitute, in "representatives proportionally chosen," &c.

CHAPTER VII. ANCIENT DEMOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.

CHAPTER VII.

Ancient Democratical Republics. Carthage

ANCIENT DEMOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.

CARTHAGE.

In order to show the theory of Socrates, as reported by Plato, in a clearer light, and to be convinced that he has not exagger- ated in his description of the mutability in the characters of men and' the forms of government, we should look into the history of those ancient republics from whence he drew his observations and reasonings. Although it is probable that Greece was his principal theatre, yet we may reasonably suppose that Carthage and a multitude of other republics in Italy, besides that of Rome, were not unknown to him.

The history of Greece should be to our countrymen what is called in many families on the continent a boudoir, an octagonal apartment in a house, with a full-length mirror on every side, and another in the ceiling. The use of it is, when any of the young ladies, or young gentlemen if you will, are at any time a little out of humor, they may retire to a place where, in whatever direction they turn their eyes, they see their own faces and figures multiplied without end. By thus beholding their own beautiful persons, and seeing, at the same time, the deformity brought upon them by their anger, they may recover their tempers and their charms together. A few short sketches of the ancient republics will serve to show, not only that the orders we defend were common to all of them ; but that the prosperity and dura- tion of each was in proportion to the care taken to balance them ; and that they all were indebted, for their frequent seditions, the rise and progress of corruption, and their decline and fall, to the imperfection of their orders, and their defects in the balance.

As there are extant no writings of any Carthaginian philoso- pher, statesman, or historian, we have no exact information con- cerning the form of their commonwealth, but what appears in a few hints of Greek and Roman authors. Their commerce and riches, their empire of the sea, and extensive dominion of two

VOL. IV. 40

3 '*

470 ON GOVERNMENT.

thousand miles on the sea coast, their obstinate military contests with Rome, and the long duration of their government, prove both that their population and power were very great, and their constitution good ; especially as, for the space of five hundred years, then tranquillity was never interrupted by sedition, nor their liberties attempted by the ambition of any of their citizens.

The national character was military, as well as commercial ; and, although they were avaricious, they were not effeminate.

The monarchical power was in two suffetes, the aristocratical in the senate, and the democratical was held by the people in a body. These are said to have been nicely balanced, but we know not in what manner. The chief magistrates were annually elected by the people. The senators were elected too, and, although it is not certain, it is most probable, by the people; but it appears that three qualifications were indispensable in every senator, — birth, merit, and wealth. This last requisite rendered commerce honorable, even in the first of the patricians and senators themselves, and animated the commercial genius of the nation. This government, thus far, resembles those of the States of America, more 'than any other of the ancient repub- lics, perhaps more than any of the modern ; but when we inquire for the balance, it is not to be found. The suffetes had not more authority than Roman consuls ; they had but a part of the exe- cutive, and none of the legislative power. Much of the execu- tive and all the legislative was in the senate and people. The balance, then, could only be between these two. Now, it is im- possible to balance two assemblies without introducing a third power ; one or other will be most powerful, and, whichever it is, will continually scramble till it gets the whole. In fact, the people here had the whole as much as in any of our states ; so that, while the citizens were uncorrupted and gave their votes honestly for suffetes and senators, all went well. And it is ex- tremely remarkable that, with all their acknowledged eagerness for money, this people were so many centuries untainted with luxury and venality, and preserved their primitive frugality of manners and integrity in elections. As to the Roman accusa- tions of insincerity, there is no more reason to believe them, than there would be to believe a Carthaginian who should retort the reproach. This, as well as other instances, may lead us to doubt the universality of the doctrine, that commerce corrupts manners.

CARTHAGE. 471

There was another remarkable institution, that the senate should always be unanimous ; and if any one senator insisted upon his own opinion again sti all the rest, there could be no decision, but by an appeal to the people. This, again, gave a strong demo- cratical cast to the constitution. Such a tendency could only be balanced by the laws, which, requiring a large fortune for every senator and public officer, in order to support his dignity, and • f/ Y secure him against the temptations to corruption, confined the choice to the first . families and abilities united. This was liable to great objection ; because great abilities might often be pos- sessed by men of obscure original and smaller property, who were thereby excluded. To this law, nevertheless, may be ascribed the duration of the republic.

Another remarkable check, which was, perhaps, the model I from whence the Venetian inquisition was copied, was a com- ' * mittee of one hundred and four members of the senate appointed to watch the ambition of the great families. To this body all their admirals and generals were required to render an account of their conduct at the end of every year.

Out of this body were elected a sub-committee of five, who had very great power. Their office was for life ; and they filled up their own vacancies out of the one hundred and four, and all the vacancies, even in the one hundred and four, out of the senate ; they had the supreme tribunal of criminal jurisdiction. This power must have been terrible to all, — to the people, senate, and suffetes ; yet it was the check which preserved the state from sedition and convulsions. It grew unpopular ; and the law which at last made it annual and elective, probably laid the foundation of the ruin of the commonwealth, by changing the balance, and introducing the dominatio plebis. The balances in this, the most democratical republic of antiquity, contrived by the people them- selves to temper their own power, are extremely remarkable. The suffetes represented, tike the consuls at Rome, the majesty of the commonwealth, and had a share of executive authority ; the council of five had criminal jurisdiction and inquisitorial power; the one hundred and four were a body chosen out of the senate, by the five, for their support ; then comes the senate at large ; and, last of all, the people at large. Here are five orders completely distinct, besides the necessary legal qualifica- tion of great wealth ; yet all these checks, although they pre-

472 ON GOVERNMENT.

served the state five hundred years, could not prolong its period above seven hundred; because, after all, the balance was not natural nor effectual. The executive power was not separated from the legislative ; nor the different parts of the legislature properly divided or balanced. Both the executive and judicial power were chiefly in legislative hands.

The noble families, thus secured in possession both of legisla- tive and executive power, could not be restrained by all the liga- ments which had been contrived to preserve the equipoise between them and the people. They divided into two factions, with the family of Hanno at the head of one, and that of Barcas of the other. They first attacked the council of five, whose power was unpopular, as well as odious to the nobles ; then easily procured a law to make it annually elective, or, in other words, an instru- ment always in the hands of the prevailing faction, as such a small body, so changeable, must ever be ; and, lastly, overturned the constitution. The Romans had all the advantage of these dissensions in the war, by which they finally destroyed their rival power so effectually, that scarce a trace of it remains to be seen, even in ruins. Their virtues were not extinguished to the last ; and some of the greatest examples of patriotism and heroism were exhibited even in their expiring agonies.

Athens

ATHENS.

Cecrops, an Egyptian, conducted a colony that settled in Athens, and first engaged the wandering shepherds and hunters of Attica to unite in villages of husbandmen. Although the government of Egypt was an absolute monarchy, he found it necessary to establish his own upon a more limited plan.

The two rival families of Perseus and Pelops, anciently con- tended for the dominion of the Grecian peninsula. The fortune of the descendants of the latter prevailed, and their superior pros- perity led them to persecute their enemies. The descendants of Hercules, who was a son of Jupiter by Alcmena, of the line of Perseus, were stripped of all their possessions, and driven into exile. After a series of misfortunes, Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus, descendants in the fifth degree from Hercules, con- ducted an expedition into Greece and conquered the whole country.

ATHENS. 473

The governments of the little states of Greece in the first ages, though of no very regular and certain constitution, were all / 7 o limited monarchies. When, therefore, the Heraclides possessed themselves of Peloponnesus, they established everywhere that hereditary limited monarchy, which was the only government assimilated to the ideas and temper of the age, and an equality among themselves. Those vigorous principles of aristocracy, f and some traces of the spirit of democracy, which had always ,; / i existed in the Grecian governments, began to ferment ; and, in i the course of a few ages, monarchy was everywhere abolished. The very name of king was proscribed ; a republic was thought the only government to which it became men to submit ; and the term tyrant was introduced to denote those who, in opposi- tion to these new political principles, acquired monarchical authority. Absolute monarchy was unknown as a legal consti- /'( tution. The title of king implied a superiority of lawful dignity and authority in one person, above all others, for their benefit, not a right of absolute power. Legislation was never within their prerogative.

A distinction of families into those of higher and lower rank obtained very early throughout Greece, and nowhere more than at Athens, where, by the constitution of Theseus, the Eupa- tridse, or nobly born, formed a distinct order of the state with great privileges. Afterwards wealth became the principal crite- rion of rank, which amounted probably to the same thing, as the nobly born were generally most wealthy. Every citizen in every Grecian state was bound to military service, as in modern times, among the feudal kingdoms. It was natural that the rich should serve on horseback ; and this was the origin of knighthood both in ancient and modern nations. Where the noble or the rich held all the power, they called their own government aristocracy, or government of the better sort, or optimacy, government of the best sort. The people allowed the appellation of aristocracy only to those governments, where persons, elected by themselves for their merit, held the principal power. Democracy signified a government by all the freemen of the state or the people at large, i y j" forming in assembly the legal, absolute sovereign. But as this, above all others, was subject to irregularity, confusion, and absurdity, when unchecked by some balancing power lodged in fewer hands, it was called ochlocracy, or mob rule. Most of the

40*

474 ON GOVERNMENT.

Grecian states had some mixture of two or more of these forms. The mixture of oligarchy and democracy, in which the former was superior, yet the latter sufficed to secure liberty and equal right to the people, might, according to Aristotle, be called aristocracy. That mixture where the democratic power pre- vailed, yet was in some degree balanced by authority lodged in steadier hands, is distinguished by that great author by the name of polity. An equal mixture of all three was never known in Greece, and, therefore, never obtained a distinct name in that language.

A war happened between the Athenians and Peloponnesians ; the armies were encamped near each other, and the Delphian oracle was consulted. The answer of the Pythoness implied, that the Peloponnesians would be victorious, provided they did not kill the Athenian king. Codrus, disguising himself like a clown, with a fagot on his shoulder and a fork in his hand, determined to devote his life, entered the enemy's camp, and was killed. The Peloponnesian chiefs finding the body to be Codrus, and fearing the prophecy, withdrew their forces, and a peace ensued. Medon, the eldest son of Codrus, was lame ; and bodily ability was held in so high rank in popular esteem, that his younger brother disputed the succession. Each had a power- ful party ; but the dispute brought forward a third, which was for abolishing the royalty, and having no king but Jupiter. Fatal dissensions were apprehended, when a declaration of the oracle was procured in favor of Medon ; and it was amicably accom- modated that Medon should be first magistrate, with the title of archon, but not king. Although the honor was to be hereditary, and the archon to be accountable to the assembly of the people for his administration, it was agreed that a colony should be sent to Asia Minor, under Nelius and Androclus, younger sons of Codrus. The most restless spirits joined in the migration, and no further materials for history remain for several generations.

From the period where Homer's history ceases, to that in which the first prose historians lived, a space of two hundred and fifty years, there is little light to be obtained. Twelve archons are named, who followed Medon by hereditary succession, and filled up three hundred years. On the death of Alcmason, Cha- rops was raised to the archonship, upon condition of holding it for ten years only. Six archorts followed Charops, by appoint-

ATHENS. 475

ment, for ten years ; but on the expiration of the archonship of Eryxias, it was resolved that the office should be annual, and that there should be nine persons to execute it. They had not all equal dignity, nor the same functions ; one represented the majesty of the state, and was usually called the archon ; the second had the title of king, and was head of the church ; the polemarch was third, and chief of military affairs. The other six had the title of thesmothetes ; they presided as judges in 2 '/ r ordinary courts of justice. The nine together formed the coun- cil of state. Here methinks I see the Polish nobles running down the king, or those of Venice the doge, and dividing the spoils of his prerogative among themselves. Legislation was in the assembly of the people ; but the whole administration, civil, military, religious, and judiciary, was with the archons, who were commonly appointed by lot ; but sometimes the assembly of the people interfered, and exercised the power of naming them. From the appointment of annual archons there was nothing but intestine troubles. That weight which, from earliest times, a P few principal families possessed among the Attic people, and which was in a great degree confirmed to them by the constitu- tion of Theseus, remained, amid all the turbulence of democracy, to a late period. Among those families the Alcmaeonides, claim- ing some connection by blood with the perpetual archons and kings of the ancient Neleid line, were of great fame. Megacles, head of this family, was archon when Cylon, a man of a very ancient and powerful family, attempted to acquire the sove- reignty of his country. He seized the citadel of Athens, with some troops he received from Theagenes, tyrant of Megara, whose daughter he had married. His vanity was excited not only by his birth and marriage, but his personal merit, having been victor in a chariot race at the Olympic games. The people ran to arms under their archons, and laid siege to the citadel. Cylon fled, and his party fled to the altars. They were promised pardon, but condemned and executed. This was an atrocious infidelity, and made the actors in it as odious, as it rendered Cylon and his party again popular and powerful.

The miseries of a fluctuating jurisprudence became insuffera- ble, and all parties united at last in the resolution to appoint a lawgiver. Draco was raised to this important office ; a man whose morals and integrity recommended him to the people, but

476 ON GOVERNMENT.

whose capacity was equal to no improvement in the political constitution, and to no greater invention for reforming the judica- tures, than that of inflicting capital punishments in all offences ; and the knowing ones had no other remedy than to get the ora- cle to pronounce that the laws of Draco were written in blood ; an expression which struck the imagination and touched the heart, and, therefore, soon rendered this system unpopular.1

Salamis, perceiving the divisions at Athens, revolted, and allied itself to Megara. Several attempts to recover it having failed, the lower people, in opposition to their chiefs, carried a law, making it capital to propose a renewal of the enterprise. Solon, of an ancient royal family, who had hitherto pursued nothing but literature and poetry, perceiving that this rash act of the populace began to give general disgust and repentance, especially to the young Athenians, ventured to lead the people to repeal it. He caused it to be reported that he was mad, and for some time kept his house ; in this retirement he composed a poem, such as he thought would excite the multitude; then watching his opportunity, during an assembly of the people, he ran into the Agora like one frantic, mounted on a rock, and read his poem to the people. Some of his friends, who were in the secret, were present, and ready to wonder and applaud. The enthusiasm spread, the law was repealed, and an expedition sent under Solon's friends, which, being skilfully conducted, recovered the island. But the party of Cylon were still clamorous against the partisans of Megacles, for their breach of faith. Solon per- suaded the accused to submit to a trial. They were condemned to banishment ; but this punishment not being sufficient to appease the deity, the bones of those who had been executed were removed beyond the mountains.

During these troubles Salamis was retaken. Superstition now gained the ascendant ; phantoms and omens were seen, and expiations and purifications were necessary. Epimenides, a Cretan philosopher, of great reputation for religious knowledge,

1 Yet it seems clear that he discriminated in the moral nature of offences.

" The few fragments of the Draconian tables which have reached us, far from exhibiting indiscriminate cruelty, introduce, for the first time, into the Athenian law, mitigating distinctions in respect to homicide ; founded on the variety of concomitant circumstances." Grote, Hist, of Gh'eece, vol. iii. p. 102.

It is difficult also to account for the popularity the author of so unpopular a system is reputed to have enjoyed till his death.

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ATHENS. 477

and an intimate friend of Solon, was invited to superintend the religion of Athens. Epimenides was the ostensible director, but Solon concerted with him the various improvements in jurispru- dence. By means of religious pomp, ceremony, sacrifices, and processions, he amused the people into some degree of order and suspension of their factions ; but the tranquillity was not likely to be lasting. Three political parties existed, — one for demo- cracy, composed of the landholders of the mountains ; another for an aristocracy of the rich, consisting of the possessors of the plain ; a third preferred a mixture of oligarchy and democracy, consisting of the inhabitants of the coast, and the most disin- terested men. There was another division of the people, into the parties of the rich and the poor. Dangerous convulsions were so apprehended, that many sober men thought the esta- blishment of a tyranny, in one, necessary to prevent greater evils. Solon's reputation for wisdom and integrity was universal ; and, as he had friends in all parties, they procured the place of archon, with power to reform the constitution. His first object was to reconcile the rich with the poor ; this he accomplished by lower- ing the interest "without annulling the debt,1 and by taking from the creditor the exorbitant powers over the person and family of the debtor. He found such a predilection for democracy in the minds of the citizens, that he preserved to every free Athenian his equal vote in the assembly of the people, which he made supreme in all cases, legislative, executive, and judicial. He had not, probably, tried the experiment of a democracy in his own family, before l>e attempted it in the city, according to the advice of Lycurgus ; but was obliged to establish such a government as the people would bear, not that which he thought the best, as he said himself.

As the laws of Solon were derived from Crete and Egypt, were afterwards adopted by the Romans as their model, and have by them been transmitted to all Europe, they are a most interesting subject of inquiry ; but it is not possible to ascertain

1 The extent to which he went in his interference between the debtor and creditor, is a subject which, like almost every other connected with these times, has been much disputed. But the better opinion is, that the statement in the text is below the truth. He diminished the weight of the money of account more than a quarter part, and probably annulled, directly or indirectly, the mortgages on all lands. It may be doubted whether any more radical measure was ever adopted in legislation.

478

ON GOVERNMENT.

f"

f

(V.

/

exactly which were his, which were those of Epimenides or Theseus, or what was, in fact, the constitution of Athens. The first inquiry is, who were citizens? By a poll that was taken in the time of Pericles, they were found to be fourteen thousand persons. By another, in the time of Demetrius Phale- reus, they were twenty-one thousand. At the same time, there were ten thousand freemen, consisting of foreigners and freed slaves, and four hundred thousand souls in actual bondage, who had no vote in the assembly of the people. The persons, there- fore, who shared the power being not a tenth part of the nation,1 were excused from labor, in agriculture as well as manufactures, and had time for education ; they were paid, too, for attendance on public affairs, which enabled the poorer citizens to attend their duty. This is one circumstance which rendered a govern- ment so popular practicable for a time. Another was, the divi- sion of Attica into tribes and boroughs, or districts, like the American counties, towns, and parishes, or- the shires, hundreds, and tithings of England. The tribes, at first, were four, after- wards ten. Each tribe had its presiding magistrate, called phy- larchus, analogous to trie English Sheriff; and each borough, of which there were one hundred and seventy-four, its demarchus, like a constable or headborough. As the title of king was pre- served to the high-priest, so the "person presiding over the religion of each tribe was called philobasileus, king's friend, and was always appointed from among the nobly born, eupatridce. /fFhus religion was always in the hands of the aristocratical part of the community. As the oracles and priests were held by the people in so much sacred veneration, the placing them, with all their splendid shows and rites, always in the power of the aristocrati- cal families, or persons of best education, was as great a check to the democracy as can well be imagined. It should be here recollected, too, that almost all these eupatridce, or nobles, among the Greeks, were believed to be descended from the gods, nearly or remotely. Nobility, as well as royalty, was believed of

1 This subject has been since very carefully examined by Boeckh, in his work on The Public Economy of Athens, and he makes the mnnber of citizens of Attica twenty thousand, in a population of half a million. Clinton comes to the same result. Fast. Hell. vol. ii. appendix, p. 477.

There are about the same number of citizens at this time, 1851, in Boston, with a population of one hundred and forty thousand ; and the proportion is smaller there than in other parts of Massachusetts, and the free States generally.

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ATHENS. 479

divine right, because the gods and goddesses had condescended to familiar intercourse with women and men, on purpose to beget persons of a ) superior order to rule among nations. The superiority of priests and nobles was assumed and conceded with more consistency than it is in Poland, Switzerland, and Venice ; and they must have had a proportional influence with the people.

Another check to this " authority in one centre," the nation, 1 established byJBqloil, was countenanced by precedent introduced by Theseus, who divided the Attic people into three ranks. All magistrates were taken exclusively out of the first. Solon, by a new division, made four ranks, determined by property, and con- fined all magistracies to the first three. By this regulation, he excluded all those who had no will of their own, and were de- pendent on others ; but by still allowing to the fourth, who were more numerous than all the others, their equal votes in the assem- bly of the people, he put all power into hands the least capable of properly using it ; and, accordingly, these, by uniting, altered the constitution at their pleasure, and brought on the ruin of the na- tion. By these precautions, however, we see the anxiety of Solon to avail himself of every advantage of birth, property, and religion, which the people would respect, to balance the sovereign demo- cracy. With the same view, he instituted a senate of one hun- dred persons out of each of the four tribes;1 and this great coun- /f/ , cil, to which he committed many of the powers of the archons, he hoped would have a weight which all the archons together had not been able to preserve. It was afterwards increased to

1 The precise manner in which this body was formed is not clearly under- stood, and it has therefore given rise to much discussion. Niebuhr and some later writers maintain that the four Ionic tribes were exclusively of the class of Eupatridse, in which case, the senate must have been purely aristocratic, and made still more so by the property qualifications superinduced by Solon. The weight of authority must be conceded to be against this construction. But, whether this be correct or not, the effect of an exclusive distinction granted to a well-defined portion of the community was very certainly in the end to create, if it did not merely confirm, an aristocracy. To form an idea of the effect of it, we have only to imagine what would now be the case had a similar exception been made in favor of the first Puritan families of Massachusetts, or of the Dutch race in New York, or of the Quakers in Pennsylvania. That this must have been a consequence at Athens is clear, from the fact, that one of the first steps taken by Cleisthenes, the real founder of the democracy, was to do away with the confined division of the Ionic tribes, and to form the more extended one mentioned in the text, by which the nature of the senate was completely altered, and it was subjected to popular influences.

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480 ON GOVERNMENT.

five hundred, when the tribes were increased to ten, fifty out of each, and was then called the council of five hundred. They were appointed annually by lot ; but certain legal qualifications were required, as well as a blameless life. The members of each tribe, in turn, for thirty-five days, had superior dignity and addi- tional powers, with the title of prytanes, from whence the hall was called Prytaneium. The prytanes were by turns presidents, had the custody of the seal, and the keys of the treasury and citadel, for one day. The whole assembly formed the council of state of the commonwealth, and had the constant charge of its political affairs ; the most important of which was the prepara- tion of business for the assembly of the people, in which nothing was to be proposed which 'had not first been approved here. /This was Solon's law ; and, if it had been observed, w'ould have formed a balance of such importance, that the commonwealth would have lasted longer and been more steady. But factious demagogues were often found to remind the people, that all authority was collected into one centre, and that the sovereign assembly was that centre ; and a popular assembly being in all ages as much disposed, when unchecked by an absolute negative, to overleap the bounds of law and constitution as the nobles or a king, the laws of Solon were often spurned, and the people demanded and took all power, whenever they thought proper.

Sensible that the business of approving and rejecting magis- trates, receiving accusations, catalogues of fines, enacting laws, giving audience to ambassadors, and discussions of religion, would very often be uninteresting to many even of the most judicious and virtuous citizens ; that every man's business is no man's ; Solon1 ordained it criminal in any one not to take a side in civil disturbances. Qertain times were stated for the meeting of the general assembly ; all gates were shut but that which led to it ; fines were imposed for non-attendance ; and a small pay allowed by the public to those who attended punctually at the hour. Nine proedri were appointed from the council; from whom the moderator, epistates, was appointed, too, by lot, with whom sat eleven nomophylaces, whose duty it was to explain the tendency of any motions contrary to the spirit of the constitu-

1 Mr. Grote, in his late work on Greece, assigns a different cause for this regulation, — the necessity of bringing such disturbances to an end as soon as possible, by the active interposition of the whole community.

ATHENS. 481

tion. The prytanes, too, had distinct and considerable powers in the assembly. When any change in the law was judged necessary by the people, another court, consisting of a thousand persons, called nomothetce,1 were directed to consider of the best ^ mode of alteration, and prepare a bill ; after all, five syndics were appointed to defend the old law before the new one could be enacted. A law, passed without having been previously pub- lished, conceived in ambiguous terms, or contrary to any former law, subjected the proposer to penalties. It was usual to repeal the old law before a new one was proposed, and this delay was an additional security to the constitution.

The regular manner of enacting a law was this : a bill was prepared by the council ; any citizen might, by petition or me- morial, make a proposition to the prytanes, whose duty it was to present it to the council; if approved by them, it became a proboidema; and, being written on a tablet, was exposed for several days for public consideration, and at the next assembly read to the people ; then proclamation was made by a crier : " Who of those above fifty years of age chooses to speak ? " When these had made their orations, any other citizen, not dis- qualified by law, for having fled from his colors in battle, being deeply indebted to the public, or convicted of any crime, had an opportunity to speak. But the prytanes had a general power to enjoin silence on any man, subject, no doubt, to the judgment of the assembly. Without this, debates might be endless. When the debate was finished, the crier, at the command of the proedri, proclaimed that the question waited the determination of the people, which was given by holding up the hand. In some un- common cases, particularly of impeachments, the votes were given privately, by casting pebbles into urns. The proedri ex- examined the votes and declared the majority. The prytanes dismissed the assembly. Every one of these precautions demon- "~ strated Solon's conviction of the necessity of balances to such an assembly, though they were found by experience to be all ineffectual.

1 Many -writers consider this court as one of the conservative checks upon the popular will devised by Solon. In fact, it became the lever by which to shake the whole system. It is scarcely possibly that a sagacious lawgiver could have made so great a mistake. The probability would seem to favor the idea, founded on the language of Aristotle, that Cleisthenes made some changes in the forma- tion of the court which let in the democratic influence.

VOL. IV. 41 E 2

482 ON . GOVERNMENT.

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From the same solicitude for balances against the turbulence of democracy, he restored the court of Areopagus, improved its constitution, and increased its power. He composed it of those who had held with reputation the office of archon and admitted them into this dignity and authority for life. The experience, the reputation, and permanency of these Areopagites must have been a very powerful check. From the Areopagus alone, no ap- peal lay to the people ; yet if they chose to interfere, no balanc- ing power existed to resist their despotic will. The constitution authorized the Areopagus to stop the judicial decrees of the assembly of the people ; annul an acquittal, or grant a pardon ; to direct all draughts on the public treasury ; to punish impiety, immorality, and disorderly conduct ; to superintend the educa- tion of youth ; punish idleness ; to inquire by what means men of no property or employment maintained themselves. The court sat in the night, without light,1 that the members might / be less liable to prejudice. Pleaders were confined to simple narration of facts and application of laws, without ornaments of speech or address to the passions. Its reputation for wisdom and justice was so high, that Cicero said, the commonwealth of Athens could no more be governed without the court of Areopa- gus, than the world without the providence of God.

The urgent necessity for balances to a sovereign assembly, in which all authority, legislative, executive, and judicial, was col- lected into one centre, induced Solon, though in so small a state, to make his constitution extremely complicated. No less than ten courts of judicature, four for criminal causes, and six for civil, besides the Areopagus and general assembly, were esta- blished at Athens. In conformity to his own saying, celebrated among those of the seven wise men, that " the most perfect go- vernment is that where an injury to any one is the concern of all," he directed that, in all the ten courts, causes should be decided by a body of men, like our juries, taken from among the people; the archons only presiding like our judges. As the archons were appointed by lot, they were often but indifferent lawyers, and chose two persons of experience to assist them. These, in time, became regular constitutional officers, by the name of Paredri, assessors. The jurors were paid for their ser-

r . I * This statement depends upon authority comparatively modern, and some-

what questionable.

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ATHENS.

483

vice, and appointed by lot. This is the glory of Solon's laws. It is that department which ought to belong to the people at large ; they are most competent for this ; and the property, liberty, equality, and security of the citizens, all require that they alone should possess it. Itinerant judges, called the Forty, were appointed to go through the counties, to determine assaults, and civil actions under a certain sum.

Every freeman was bound to military service. The multitude of slaves made this necessary, as well as practicable. Rank and property gave no other distinction than that of serving on horse- back.

The fundamental principle of Solon's government was the most like M. Turgot's idea of any we have seen. Did this pre- vent him from establishing different orders and balances ? Did it not render necessary a greater variety of orders, and more complicated checks, than any in America? Yet all were insuffi- cient, for want of the three checks, absolute and independent. Unless three powers have an absolute veto, or negative, to every law, the constitution can never be long preserved ; and this prin- ciple we find verified in the subsequent history of Athens, not- withstanding the oath he had the address and influence to per- suade all the people to take, that they would change none of his institutions for ten years. Sqon__after his departure, the three parties of the highlands, lowlands, and coasts began to show themselves afresh. These were, in fact, the party of the rich, who wanted all power in their own hands, and to keep the people in absolute subjection, like the nobles in Poland, Venice, Genoa, Bern, Soleure, &c. ; the democratical party, who wanted to abolish the council of five hundred, the Areopagus, the ten courts of judicature, and every other check, and who, with furious zeal for equality, were the readiest instruments of despotism; and the party of judicious and moderate men, who, though weaker than either of the others, were the only balance between them. This last party, at this time, was supported by the pow- erful family of the Alcmseonides, of whom Megacles, the chief, had greatly increased the wealth and splendor of his house, by marrying the daughter of the tyrant of Sicyon, and had acquired fame by victories in the Olympian, Pythian, and Isthmian games. The head of the oligarchic party was Lycurgus, not the Spartan lawgiver. The democratical party was led by Pisis-

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484 ON GOVERNMENT.

tratus, claiming descent from Codrus and Nestor, with great abilities, courage, address, and reputation for military conduct in several enterprises. Upon Solon's return, after an absence of ten years, he found prejudices deeply rooted ; attachment to their three leaders dividing the whole people. He was too old to direct the storm. The factions continued their manoeuvres ; and at length Pisistratus, by an artifice, became master of the com- monwealth. Wounding himself and his horses, he drove his chariot violently into the Agora, where the assembly of the people was held, and, in a pathetic speech, declared " that he had been waylaid as he was going into the country ; that it was for being the man of the people that he had thus suffered ; that it was no longer safe for any man to be a friend of the poor ; it was not safe for him to live in Attica, unless they would take him under their protection." Ariston, one of his partisans, moved for a guard of fifty men, to defend the person of the friend of the people, the martyr for their cause. In spite of the utmost opposition of Solon, though Pisistratus was his friend, this point was carried. Pisistratus, with his guards, seized the citadel ; and, his opponents forced into submission or exile, he became the first man, and from this time is called the Tyrant of Athens ; a term which meant a citizen of a republic, who by any means obtained a sovereignty over his fellow-citizens. Many of them were men of virtue, and governed by law, after being raised to the dignity by the consent of the people ; so that the term tyrant was arbi- trarily used by the ancients, sometimes to signify a lawful ruler, and sometimes an usurper.

Pisistratus, of whom Solon said, " Take away his ambition, cure him of his lust of reigning, and there is not a man of more virtue, or a better citizen," changed nothing in the constitution. The laws, assembly, council, courts of justice, and magistrates, all remained ; he himself obeyed the summons of the Areopagus, upon the charge of murder. Solon trusted to his old age against the vengeance of the tyrant, and treated him in all com- panies with very imprudent freedoms of speech. But Pisistratus carried all his points with the people ; and had too much sense to regard the venerable legislator, or to alter his system. He returned his reproaches with the highest respect ; and gained upon him, according to some authors, to condescend to live with him in great familiarity, and assist him in his administration.

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P-ilY

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ATHENS. 485

Others say that Solon, after having long braved the tyrant's resentment, and finding the people lost to all sense of their dan- ger, left Athens and never returned.

Solon died at the age of eighty, two years after the usurpation. The usurper soon fell. The depressed rival chiefs, Megacles and Lycurgus, uniting their parties, expelled him ; but the confede- rated rivals could not agree. Megacles proposed a coalition with Pisistratus, and offered him his daughter in marriage. The con- dition was accepted ; but the people in assembly must be gained. To this end they dressed a fine girl with all the ornaments and armor of Minerva, and drove into the city, heralds proclaiming before them, " O Athenians, receive Pisistratus, whom Minerva honoring above all men, herself conducts into your citadel." The people believed the maid to be a goddess, worshipped her, and received Pisistratus again into the tyranny.

Is this government, or the waves of the sea ?

But Pisistratus was soon obliged to retire to Eretria, and leave the party of Megacles masters of Athens. He strengthened his connections ; and in the eleventh year of this his second banish- ment, he returned to Attica with an army, and was joined by his ^ ( friends. The party of Megacles met him with another army, ill disciplined and commanded, from the city, were attacked by sur- prise and defeated. Pisistratus proclaimed that none need fear i who would return peaceably home. The known honor, human- ity, and clemency of his character, procured him confidence ; his enemies fled, and he entered the city without opposition. He made no fundamental change in the constitution, though, as head of a party, he had the principal influence. He depended upon a large fortune of his own and a good understanding with Thebes and Argos to support him in it. He died in peace, and left his son successor to his influence.QtBbth his sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, were excellent characters ; and arts, agriculture, gardening, and literature, as well as wisdom and virtue, were singularly cultivated by the whole race of these tyrants. Har- modius and Aristogiton, however, conspired the death both of Hippias and Hipparchus ; the latter was killed, and Hippias was led to severities. Many Athenians were put to death. Hippias, /, to strengthen his interest with foreign powers, married his only daughter to the son of the Tyrant of Lampsacus. Her epitaph shows that the title of tyrant was not then a term of reproach, —

41* '

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486 ON GOVERNMENT.

" This dust covers Archedice, daughter of Hippias, in his time the first of the Greeks. Daughter, sister, wife, and mother of tyrants, her mind was never elated to arrogance."

The opposite party were watchful to recover Athens, and to increase their interest with the other Grecian states for that end. The temple of Delphi was burnt. The Alcmaeonides, to ingra- tiate themselves with the oracle, the Amphictyons, and all Greece, rebuilt it with Parian marble, instead of Porine stone, as they had contracted to do, without asking any additional price. The consequence was, that whenever the Lacedaemonians con- sulted the oracle, the answer always concluded with an admoni- tion to give liberty to Athens. At length the oracle was obeyed ; and, after some variety of fortune, the Alcmaeonides, aided by Cleomenes the Spartan, prevailed, and Hippias retired to Si- geium.

It was one maxim of the Spartans, constantly to favor aristo- cratical power; or rather, wherever they could, to establish an , oligarchy. For in every Grecian city there were always an aris- f tocratical, oligarchical, and democratical faction. Whenever the Grecian states had a war with one another, or a sedition within themselves, the Lacedaemonians were ready to interfere as me- diators. They conducted the business generally with great cau- tion, moderation, and sagacity ; but never lost sight of their view to extend the influence of their state ; nor of their favorite measure for that end, the encouragement of aristocratical power, or rather oligarchical ; for a few principal families, indebted to Lacedaemon for their preeminence, and unable to retain it with- out her assistance, were the best instruments for holding the state in alliance. This policy they now proposed to follow at Athens. Cleisthenes, son of Megacles, head of the Alcmaeonides, was the first person of the commonwealth. Having no great abilities,1 a party was formed against him under Isagoras, with whom most of the principal people joined. The party of Cleisthenes was among the lower sort, who being all powerful in the general assembly, he made by their means some alterations in the con- stitution favoring his own influence. Cleisthenes was now

1 The tendency among modern scholars who have pursued their investiga- tions into the nature of the institutions of Greece with extraordinary industry, is to consider Cleisthenes as the real author of the democratic system of ancient Athens. He scarcely could have been a man of " no great abilities."

Grote, Hist, of Greece, vol. iv. p. 186.

ATHENS. 487

Tyrant of Athens, as much as Pisistratus had been. In the contests of Grecian factions, the alternative was generally vic- tory, exile, or death ; the inferior party, therefore, resorted some- times to harsh expedients. Isagoras and his adherents applied to Lacedasmon. Cleomenes, violent in his temper, entered with zeal into the cause of Isagoras, and sent a herald to Athens, by whom he imperiously denounced banishment against Cleisthenes and his party, on the old pretence of criminality for the execu- tion of the partisans of Cylon. Cleisthenes obeyed. Exalted by this proof of a dread of Spartan power, Cleomenes went to Athens with a small military force, and banished seven hundred Q-c families at once.

Such was Athenian liberty.

TTewas then proceeding to change the constitution to suit the views of Spartan ambition, by dissolving the council of five hundred, and committing the whole power to a new council of three hundred, all partisans of Isagoras. Athens was not so far humbled. The five hundred resisted, and excited the people, who flew to arms, and besieged Cleomenes and Isagoras in the citadel ; who the third day surrendered, upon condition that the Lacedaemonians might depart in safety. Isagoras went with them. Many of his party were executed, and Cleisthenes and the exiled families returned ; but conscious of their danger from their hostile fellow-citizens in concert with Lacedsemon, they sent to solicit an alliance with Artaphernes, the satrap of Persia. The answer was, If they would give earth and water to Darius they might be received, otherwise they must depart. The am- bassadors, considering the imminent danger of their country and party, consented to these humiliating terms. W-Although Athens was distracted with domestic factions, and pressed with the fear of an attack from Cleomenes, the conduct of her ambassadors, in acknowledging subjection to the Persian king, in hopes of his protection, was highly reprobated upon their return ; and it does ■* ' not appear that Persian assistance was further desired. Yet the danger which hung over Athens was very great. Cleomenes, bent on revenge, formed a confederacy against them, of the The- bans, Corinthians, and Chalcidians. These could not agree, and the Athenians gained some advantages of two of them.

Cleomenes then pretended that Sparta had acted irreligiously in expelling Hippias, who ought to be restored ; because, when

488 ON GOVERNMENT.

he was besieged in the citadel at Athens, he had discovered a collusion between the Delphic priests and the Alcmseonides. Sparta was willing to restore Hippias ; but Corinth, their ally, was not. Hippias, despairing of other means, now in his turn applied to Persia, and brought upon his country the Persian war; from which it was delivered by Miltiades, at the battle of Mara- thon. Miltiades became the envy of the Alcmseonid family. Xanthippus, one of the principal men of Athens, who had mar- ried a daughter of Megacles, the great opponent of Pisistratus, conducted a capital accusation against him. He was condemned ,, in a fine of fifty talents, more than he was worth. His wound,

which prevented him from attending the trial, mortified, and he died in prison. In order to brand the family of Pisistratus, the fame of Harmodius and Aristogiton was now cried up. They had assassinated Hipparchus from mere private revenge ; but they were now called asserters of public liberty. The tyranni- cide, as it was called, was celebrated by songs, statues, ceremo- nies, and religious festivals.

It must be acknowledged that every example of a government, which has a large mixture of democratical power, exhibits some- thing to our view which is amiable, noble, and I had almost said, divine. In every state hitherto mentioned, this observation is verified. What is contended for, is, that the people in a body cannot manage the executive power, and, therefore, that a simple democracy is impracticable ; and that their share of the legisla- tive power must be always tempered with two others, in order to enable them to preserve it, as well as to correct its rapid tendency to abuse. Without this, they are but a transient glare of glory, which passes away like a flash of lightning, or like a momentary appearance of a goddess to an ancient hero, which, by revealing but a glimpse of celestial beauties, only excited ' regret that he had ever seen them.

The republic of Athens, the schoolmistress of the whole civil- ized world for more than three thousand years, in arts, eloquence, and philosophy, as well as in politeness and wit, was, for a short period of her duration, the most democratical commonwealth of Greece. Unfortunately her history, between the abolition of her kings and the time of Solon, has not been circumstantially preserved. During this period, the people seem to have endea- vored to collect all authority into one centre, and to have avoided

ATHENS. 489

a composition of orders and balances as carefully as M. Turgot. But that centre was a group of nobles, not the nation. Their government consisted in a single assembly of nine archons chosen annually by the people. But even here was a check ; for by law the archons must all be chosen out of the nobility. But this form of government had its usual effects, in introducing anarchy, and such a general profligacy of manners, that the peo- ple could at length be restrained from even the most ordinary crimes by nothing short of the last punishment. Draco accord- ingly proposed a law, by which death should be inflicted on every violation of the law. Humanity shuddered at so shocking a severity ! and the people chose rather that all offences should go unpunished, than that a law thus written in blood, as they termed it both in horror and contempt, should be executed.

Confusions increased, and divided the nation into three fac- tions ; and their miseries became so extreme, that they offered Solon an absolute monarchy. He had too much sense, as well as virtue, to accept it ; but employed his talents in new-model- ling the government. Sensible, from experience, of the fatal effects of a government too popular, he wished to introduce an aristocracy, moderated like that of Sparta ; but thought the habits and prejudices of the people too strong to bear it. The archons he continued ; but, to balance their authority, he erected a senate of four hundred, to be chosen by ballot of the people.1 He also revived the court of Areopagus, which had jurisdiction in criminal cases, and the care of religion. He excluded from the executive or the magistracy all the citizens who were not possessed of a certain fortune ; but vested the sovereignty in a legislative assembly of the people, in which all had a right to vote. In this manner Solon attempted a double balance. The Areopagus was to check the executive in the hands of the archons ; and the senate of four hundred, the fickleness and fire of the people. Every one must see that these devices would have been no effectual control in either case ; yet they were bet- ter than none. It was very right that the people should have all

1 This is declared by Wachsmuth not to be sustained by any authority, as it certainly conflicts with the statement "made a few pages back, (p. 480,) that they were chosen by lot. Dr. Thirlwall, on the other hand, maintains that they were elected. The truth is,~that" very little is known of the constitution of Solon's senate. Wachsmuth, Historical Antiquities of the Greeks, translated by E. Wool- rych, vol. i. p. 378 ; Thirlwall, History of Greece, vol. ii. p. 42.

if

490 ON GOVERNMENT.

elections ; but democratical prejudices were so inveterate, that he was obliged not only to make them, assembled in a body, an essential branch of the legislature, but to give them cognizance of appeals from all the superior courts. Solon himself, in his heart, must have agreed with Anacharsis, that this constitution was but a cobweb to bind the poor, while the rich would easily break through it. Pisistratus soon proved it, by bribing a party, procuring himself a guard, demolishing Solon's whole system before his eyes, and establishing a single tyranny. The tyrant was expelled several times by the opposition, but as often brought back, and he finally transmitted his monarchy to his sons. One of these was assassinated by Harmodius and Aristogiton ; and the other was driven into banishment by the opposition, aided by the neighboring state, Sparta. He fled to the Persians, excited Darius against his country, and was lolled at Marathon.

These calamities in spued the people with such terrors of a single tyrant, that, instead of thinking to balance effectually their "orders," they established the ostracism, to prevent any man from becoming too popular. A check indeed, but a very injudi- cious one ; for it only banished their best men. History nowhere furnishes so frank a confession of the people themselves, of their own infirmities and unfitness for managing the executive branch of government, or an unbalanced share of the legislature, as this institution. The language of it is, " We know ourselves so well, that we dare not trust our own confidence and affections, our own admiration and gratitude for the greatest talents and sub- limest virtues. We know our heads will be turned, if we suffer such characters to live among us, and we shall always make them kings." What more melancholy spectacle can be con- ceived even in imagination, than that inconstancy which erects statues to a patriot or a hero one year, banishes him the next, and the thud erects fresh statues to his memory ? 1

Such a constitution of government, and the education of youth which follows necessarily from it, always produce such characters as Cleon and Alcibiades ; mixtures of good qualities enough to acquire the confidence of a party, and bad ones enough

1 Mr. Grote's defence of the ostracism as a conservative feature of the govern- ment^ on the grounds recited in the text, is deserving of consideration on account of its ingenuity, even if it do not create entire conviction of its soundness.

History of Greece, vol. ill. pp. 200-215.

ATHENS. 491

to lead them to destruction ; whose lives show the miseries and final catastrophe of such imperfect polity.

From the example of Athens, it is clear that the government of a single assembly of archons, chosen by the people, was found intolerable ; that, to remedy the evils of it, Solon established four several orders, — an assembly of the people, an assembly of four hundred, an assembly of archons, and the Areopagus ; that he endeavored to balance one singly by another, instead of form- ing his balance out of three branches. Thus, these attempts at an equilibrium were ineffectual ; produced a never-ending fluctu- ation in the national councils ; continual factions, massacres, proscriptions, banishment, and death of the best citizens. And the history of the Peloponnesian war, by Thucydides, informs us how the raging flames at last burnt out.

The people in each of the United States, have, after all, more real authority than they had in Athens.1 Planted, as they are, over large dominions, they cannot meet in one assembly, and, therefore, are not exposed to those tumultuous commotions, like the raging waves of the sea, which always agitated the ecclesia at Athens. They have all elections of governor and senators, as well as representatives, so prudently guarded, that there is scarce a possibility of intrigue. The property required in a representative, senator, or even a governor, is so small, that mul- titudes have equal pretensions to be chosen. No election is con- fined to any order of nobility, or to any great wealth ; yet the legislature is so divided into three branches, that no law can be passed in a passion, nor any inconsistent with the constitution.

1 " There was no want, at Athens, of well-conceived and strict regulations ; but what is the use of provident measures, where the spirit of the administration is bad '? Men have at all times been unjust, and covetous, and unprincipled, and above all, the Greeks distinguished themselves for the uncontrolled gratification of their own desires, and their contempt for the happiness of others. If any competent judge of moral actions will contemplate their character without j)reju- dice, and unbiased by their high intellectual endowments, he Avill find that their private life was unstable, and devoid of virtue ; that their public life was a tissue of restless intrigues and passions ; and, what was the worst of all, that there existed, to a far greater degree than in the Christian world, a want of moral principle, and a harshness and cruelty in the popular mind. The display of noble actions, it is true, has ceased, and will never re-appear with the same brilliancy ; but the principles of the majority of mankind have been elevated, even if we allow that some distinguished individuals in ancient times were as pure as the most exalted characters in modern days ; and in this general eleva- tion consists the progress of mankind." Boeckh's Public Economy of Athens, translated by Lewis, p. 194.

492 ON GOVERNMENT.

The executive is excluded from the two legislative assemblies ; and the judiciary power is independent, as well as separate from all. This will be a fair trial, whether a government so popular can preserve itself. If it can, there is reason to hope for all the equality, all the liberty, and eveiy other good fruit of an Athe- nian democracy, without any of its ingratitude, levity, convul- sions, or factions.

The Policy Of Antalcidas

THE POLICY OF ANTALCIDAS.

In the year 1774, a certain British officer, then at Boston, was often heard to say : " I wish I were parliament ; I would not send a ship or troop to this country ; but would forthwith pass a statute, declaring every town in North America a free, sove- reign, and independent commonwealth. This is what they all desire, and I would indulge them. I should soon have the plea- sure to see them all at war with one another, from one end of the continent to the other." This was a gentleman of letters, and perhaps had learned his politics from Antalcidas, whose opinion concerning the government of a single assembly is very remarkable. But the Greek and the Briton would both have found their artifices in America ineffectual. The Americans are very far from being desirous of such multiplications and divi- sions of states, and know too well the mischiefs that would follow from them. Yet such a spirit among the people would, in a course of time, be the natural and inevitable effect of M. Turgot's system of government.

It is not very certain whether Antalcidas was a Spartan or not. If he was, he had violated the law of Lycurgus by travel, had resided long in Persia, and maintained an intercourse and cor- respondence with several noble families. He was bold, subtle, insinuating, eloquent ; but his vices and corruption were equal to his address. f The stern Spartan senate thought him a proper instrument to execute an insidious commission at a profligate court. The institutions of his own country, Sparta, were the objects of his ridicule ; but those of the democratical states of Greece, of his sovereign contempt. The ancient maxim of some of the Greeks, " That every thing is lawful to a man in the service of his country" was now obsolete, and had given way to a purer morality ; but Antalcidas was probably one of those philosophers

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who thought every thing lawful to a man which could serve his private interest. The Spartan senate never acted upon a prin- ciple much better ; and therefore might, upon this occasion, have given their ambassador the instruction which he pretended, namely, — to offer "to resign all pretensions to the Greek cities in Asia, which they would acknowledge to be dependencies of the Persian empire; and to declare all the cities and islands, small and great, totally independent of each other." These articles, in consequence of which there would not be any repub- lic powerful enough to disturb the tranquillity of Persia, were more advantageous to them than the most insolent courtier would have ventured to propose. The ambassador was rewarded by a magnificent present ; and the terms of peace transmitted to court, to be ratified by Artaxerxes. The negotiation, however, languished, and the war was carried on with violence for several ^ years ; and all the art, activity, and address of Antalcidas were put to the trial before he obtained the ratification. The treaty was at last completed : " That all the republics, small and great, should enjoy the independent government of their own hereditary laws; and whatever people rejected these conditions, so evidently 1 1 y- calculated for preserving the public tranquillity, must expect the utmost indignation of the Great King, who, in conjunction with the republic of Sparta, would make war on their perverse and dangerous obstinacy, by sea and land, with ships and money."

Antalcidas, and Tiribazus, the Persian satrap, with whom he had concerted the treaty, had foreseen that, as Thebes must resign her authority over the inferior cities of Bceotia ; as Argos must withdraw her garrison from Corinth, aud leave that capital in the power of the aristocratic or Lacedaemonian faction ; and as Athens must abandon the fruits of her recent victories, there might be an opposition made to the treaty by these three states. To guard against which, they had provided powerful armaments by sea and land, which, with Spartan and Persian threats, so intimidated all, that all at last submitted.

This peace of Antalcidas forms a disgraceful era in the history of Greece. Their ancient confederacies were dissolved ; the smaller towns were loosened from all connection with the large cities ; all were weakened by being disunited. What infamy to the magistrates of Sparta, and their intriguing, unprincipled am- bassador ! But Athens, Thebes, and Argos, by the friendship of

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the democratical cities and confederacies, had become powerful, and excited their haughty jealousy. The article which declared the smaller cities independent was peculiarly useful to the views of Sparta ; it represented them as the patrons of liberty among the free. The stern policy of Sparta had crushed in all her second- ary towns the hope of independence. The authority of Athens, Thebes, Argos, and all the democratical confederacies, was less imperious ; the sovereign and subject were more nearly on a footing of equality ; and the Spartans knew, that '.' men are disposed to reject the just rights of their equals, rather than revolt against the tyranny of their masters ; " their own slaves and citizens had furnished them with constant proof of this.

But Sparta, by this masterpiece of roguery, meant, not only still to hold all her own subordinate cities in subjection, not merely to detach the inferior communities from her rivals, but to add them to her own confederacy. To this end, by her emissa- ries, she intrigued in all the subordinate cities. How ? by pro- moting liberty, popular government, or proper mixtures of a well- ordered commonwealth ? By no means ; but by supporting the aristocratical factions in all of them ; fomenting animosities among the people against each other, and especially against their capitals. Complaints occasioned by these cabals, were referred to the Spartan senate, which had acquired the reputation of the patron of the free, the weak, and the injured, and which always decided in its own favor. But the ambition of Spartans, cool and cunning as it was, had not patience to remain long satisfied with such legal usurpations ; they determined to mix the terror of their- arms with the seduction of policy.

Before we proceed to an account of their operations, we must develop a little more fully the policy of Antalcidas. Besides the free republics of Attica, Thebes, and Argos, which consisted of several cities, governed by their first magistrate, senate, and people, in which the subordinate cities always complained of the inordinate influence of the capital, there were several republics reputed still more popular, because they were governed by single assemblies, like Biscay, the Grisons, Appenzel, Underwald, Glarus, &c. These republics consisted of several towns, each governed by its own first magistrate, council, and people ; but confederated together, under the superintendence of a single diplomatical as- sembly, in which certain common laws were agreed on, and cer-

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tain common magistrates appointed, by deputies from each town. These confederacies are the only examples of governments by a single assembly which were known in Greece. Antalcidas knew that each of these towns was discontented with the administra- tion of the common assembly, and that all, in their hearts, wished for independence. It was to this foible of the people that he addressed that policy, in his Persian treaty, by which he reduced to atoms, as if it had been a rope of sand, every democratical city and confederacy, and every one in which democracy and aristocracy were mixed, throughout all Greece.

The first victim of this ambitious policy was Arcadia, in the centre of Peloponnesus, whose principal town was Mantinea. Arcadia was a fertile and beautiful valley, surrounded by lofty mountains. The scattered villages of shepherds, inhabiting these hills and vales, had grown into cities, by the names of Tegea, Stymphalis, Hersea, Orchomenus, and Mantinea. The inhabit- ants were distinguished by their innocence, and the simplicity of their manners ; but, whenever they had been obliged from necessity, to engage in war, they had displayed such vigor, energy, and intrepidity, as made their alliance very desirable. The dangerous neighborhood of Sparta had obliged them to fortify their towns and maintain garrisons; but jealousies arose between Tegea and Mantinea, and emulations to be the capital. The year after the treaty of Antalcidas, ambassadors were sent by the Spartan senate to the assembly at Mantinea, to com- mand them to demolish the walls of their proud city, and return to their peaceful villages. The reasons assigned were, that the Mantineans had discovered their hatred to Sparta, envied her prosperity, rejoiced in her misfortunes, and, in the late war had furnished some corn to the Argives. The Mantineans received the proposal with indignation ; the ambassadors retired in disgust. The Spartans proclaimed war, demanded the aid of their allies, and marched a powerful army under their king, Agesipolis, and invaded the territory. After the most destructive ravages of the country, and a long siege of Mantinea, they were not able to subdue the spirit of this people, until they turned the course of the river Ophis, and laid the walls of the city under water ; these, being of raw bricks, dissolved and fell. The inhabitants, intimi- dated, offered to demolish the walls, and follow Sparta in peace and war, upon condition they might be allowed to continue and

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live in the city. Agesipolis replied, that, while they lived together in one city, their numbers exposed them to the delusions of sedi- tious demagogues, whose address and eloquence seduced the multitude from their true interest, and destroyed the influence of their superiors in rank, wealth, and wisdom, on whose attach- ment alone the Lacedaemonians could depend; and, therefore, that they must destroy then: houses in the city, separate into four communities, and return to those villages which their ancestors had inhabited. The terror of an immediate assault made it necessary to comply ; and the Spartans made a mighty merit of suffering sixty of the most zealous partisans of democracy to fly, unmurdered, from their country.

The little republic of Phlius, too, like every other where a balance is not known and preserved, was distracted by parties. The popular party prevailed, and banished their opponents, the friends of aristocracy. The Spartans threatened, and the ruling party permitted the exiles to return; but not meeting with re- spectful treatment enough, they complained ; and the Spartans, under Agesilaus, appointed commissioners to try and condemn to death the obnoxious leaders of the people in Phlius. This odious office was executed with such unexampled severity, as ter- rified those who survived into "an invariable attachment to Sparta.

The confederacy of Olynthus was next attempted. A number of towns, of which Olynthus was the principal, between two rivers, had been incorporated or associated together, and had grown into some power and greater hopes. This was enough to arouse the jealousy of Sparta! They sent four or five succes- sive armies, under their ablest kings, to take the part of the aris- tocratical faction, and conquer this league. Such was the spirit and resources of this little spot, that they defended themselves for four or five campaigns, and then were forced to submit.

In consequence of the peace of Antalcidas, Thebes had been torn with aristocratic and democratic factions, and Sparta joined the latter, which ultimately produced long and obstinate wars, and the exalted characters of Pelopidas and Epaminondas, who, with all their virtues, were not able finally to establish the inde- pendency of their country, though both perished in the attempt ; Epaminondas, to the last, refusing to the several communities of Boeotia then hereditary laws and government, although he was one of the democratical party.

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Sparta, in the next place, sent a detachment to support the partisans of aristocracy in Argolis, Achaia, and Arcadia, but was compelled by Pelopidas and Epaminondas to evacuate those countries ; but Epaminondas supported aristocratic government. As soon as he retired, the Arcadians complained against him, that a people, who knew by their own experience the nature of aristocracy, should have confirmed that severe form of govern- ment in an allied or dependent province. The multitude in Thebes condemned the proceedings of Epaminondas, and sent commissioners and a body of mercenaries into Achaia, who assisted the populace to dissolve the aristocracy, to banish or put to death the nobles, and institute a democracy. The foreign troops were scarcely departed, when the exiles, who were very numerous and powerful, returned, and, after a desperate and bloody struggle, recovered their ancient influence. The leaders of the populace were now, in their turn, put to death or expelled ; the aristocracy reestablished ; and the magistrates craved the protection of Sparta, which was readily granted.

It would be endless to pursue the consequences of the peace of Antalcidas. Uninterrupted contests and wars in every demo- cratlcal state in Greece ; aristocratical and democratical factions eternally disputing for superiority, mutually banishing and butch- ering each other ; proscriptions, assassinations (of which even Pelopidas was not innocent), treacheries, cruelties without num- ber and without end. But no man, no party, ever thought of introducing an effectual balance, by creating a king with an equal power, to balance the other two. The Romans began to think of this expedient, but it was reserved for England to be the first to reduce it to practice.

Would M. Turgot have said, that if Thebes, Athens, Argos, and the Achaean, Arcadian, and Olynthian leagues, had been each of them governed by a legislature composed of a king, senate, and assembly, with equal authority, and each a decisive negative, that the cause of liberty, in all Greece, would have been thus crumbled to dust by such a paltry trick of Antalcidas ? Would the childish humor of separating into as many states as towns have ever been indulged or permitted ? Most certainly not. And if the power of negotiation and treaties and the whole executive had been in one man, could the perfidious ambassa- dors of Sparta and the other states have intrigued and embroiled every thing as they did ?

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Achaia

ACHAIA.

The Achaeans, whose republic became so famous in later times, inhabited a long but narrow strip of land upon the Corinthian Gulf, which was destitute of harbors, and, as its shores were rocky, of navigation and commerce ; but the impar- tial and generous spirit of their laws, if we are to credit Polvjoius and their other panegyrists, was some compensation for the natural disadvantages of their situation and territory. They admitted strangers into their community on equal terms with the ancient citizens ; and, as they were the first, and, for a long time, the only republic of Greece which had such liberality, it is not strange that they should have enjoyed the praises of all foreigners. In all other states of Greece, in which the people had any share in government, there were constant complaints that one powerful capital domineered over the inferior towns and villages, like Thebes in Bceotia, Athens in Attica. In Laconia, Lycurgus avoided this inconvenience by two popular assemblies, one for Sparta, and one for the country ; but in Achaia there was no commercial town, and all were nearly equal, having com- mon laws and institutions, and common weights and measures. Helice, which is distinguished by Homer as the most considera- ble town of Achaia, was the place of assembly of the congress, until it was swallowed up in an earthquake ; then iEgae became the seat of congress, which annually appointed presidents in rota- tion, and generals, who were responsible to the congress, as the members of congress were to the cities they represented. This is said to have been an excellent system of government, because it checked the ambition of Achaia, while it maintained its inde- pendence. And Polybius is full of the praises of this people for their "virtue ancTprobity in all their negotiations, which had acquired them the good opinion of the whole world, and pro- cured them to be chosen arbitrators between the Lacedaemo- nians and Thebans ; for their wise councils and good disposi- tions ; for their equality and liberty, which is in the utmost per- fection among them ; for their laws and institutions ; for their moderation and freedom from ambition," &c. Yet whoever reads his own history, will see evident proofs, that much of this is the fond partiality of a patriot for his country ; and that they

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had neither the moderation he ascribes to them, nor the excellent government. Better indeed than the other republics of Greece it might be ; and its congress, as a diplomatic assembly, might have governed its foreign affairs very well, if the cities represented in it had been well constituted of a mixture of three independent powers ; but it is plain they were not ; and were in a continual struggle between their first magistrates, nobles, and people, for superiority, which occasioned their short duration and final ruin.

As this example deserves to be fully examined by every Ame- 1 / rican, let us explain it a little more particularly.

Atreus, King of Argos and Mycena?, was the son of Pelops, and father of Agamemnon, who was the father of Orestes, who was the father of Tisamenus. Pelops, after whom Pelopon- nesus was named, was the son of Tantalus, a king of Phrygia ; and Tantalus was the son of Jupiter by the nymph Plota.

Tisamenus, flying from Sparta, upon the return of the Hera- clidse, governed in Achaia, and was the first king of that people. The dominion by him there founded was continued, in a rightful succession, down to Gyges. Notwithstanding his descent from Jupiter, his government was probably like that of Alcinous in Phaeacia, — twelve archons presided over the twelve cities, who, each in his district, was the first magistrate; and all able to make out, some way or other, their connection with some of the ancient families, who were all alike honorably descended, at least, from an inferior god or goddess. Tisamenus made the thirteenth, and was first among equals at least. The sons of Gyges not governing by law, but despotically, the monarchy was abolished and reduced "to a popular state ; probably it was only an aristocracy of the twelve archons.. These hints at the gene- alogy of these kings are to show how intimately theology was intermixed with politics in every Grecian state and city ; and, at the same time, to show that the whole force of superstition, although powerful enough to procure crowns to these persons, yet, for want of the balance we contend for, was not sufficient to restrain the passions of the nobles, and prevent revolutions almost as rapid as the motion of a wheel. Nothing has ever been found to supply the place of the balance of three powers. The abolition of this limited monarchy was not effected by the people for the purpose of introducing democracy or a mixed government ; but by the nobles, for the sake of establishing an

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aristocracy. The new government, consequently, was a con- federation of twelve archons, 'each ruling as first magistrate in a separate city, with his council and people, as an independent state. The twelve archons met in a general assembly, some- times in person, and sometimes by proxy, to consult o£ general affairs and guard against general dangers. This whole state could not be larger than another Biscay, and each city must have been less than a merindade, and its general assembly like the junta-general. Yet such is the passion for independence, that this little commonwealth or confederacy of commonwealths could not hold together. The general assembly was neglected ; the cities became independent. Some were conquered by foreigners, and some lost their liberties by domestic tyrants ; that is, by their first magistrates assuming arbitrary power. Polybius discovers as much affection for this little republic as Rousseau did for Geneva, and is very loth to confess its faults. He colors over the revolutions they underwent for a course of ages, by saying, that " though their affairs were governed accord- V » ing to the diversity 01 times and occurrences, all possible endea- vors were used to preserve the form of a popular state. The commonwealth was composed of twelve cities, which are in being at this day, Olenus and Helice only excepted, which were swallowed up by the sea in an earthquake that happened not long before the battle of Leuctra ; which cities are Patra, Dyma, Phara, Tryteea, Leontium, iEgira, Pellene, iEgium, Bura, Cerau- nia, Olenus, and Helice. After the death of Alexander, and since the Olympiad we have mentioned, these cities fell into dangerous dissensions, chiefly by the artifices of the Macedonian princes, when every city apart meditated on nothing but its own private profit and ends, to the prejudice and destruction of its neighbors ; and this gave occasion to Demetrius and Cassander, and afterwards to Antigonus Gonatus, to put garrisons in some of their cities ; and others were invaded and governed by tyrants, who, in those days, were very numerous in Greece. But about the one hundred and twenty-fourth Olympiad, when Pyrrhus invaded Italy, these people began to see the error of their dissen- sions, and labored to return to their former union. Those who gave the first example were Dyma, Patra, and Phara. Five years afterwards, iEgium, having cast out the garrison that was placed over it, was received into the confederacy. Bura followed

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the example, having first killed the tyrant ; and soon after Cerau- nia did the like ; for Iseas, their tyrant, considering how that those of iEgium had expelled their garrison, and that he who governed in Bura was already slain by the practices of Marcus and the Achaians, and that it would be his lot to have them all quickly for enemies, resigned the dominion, after having first stipulated with the Achaians for indemnity for what was passed, and so the city was incorporated into the union of the Acha- ians

" The cities, then, we have mentioned continued for the space of five-and -twenty years to preserve their form of government unchanged, choosing in their general assembly two praetors (or presidents) and a secretary. Afterwards, they concluded to have but one praetor only, who should be charged with the manage- ment of their affairs ; and the first who enjoyed that dignity was Marcus the Carian, who, after four years of his administra- tion, gave place to Aratus the Sicyonian, who, at the age of twenty years, after he had by his virtue and resolution rescued his country from tyranny, joined it to the commonwealth of the Achaians ; so great a veneration had he from his youth for the manners and institutions of that people. Eight years after, he was a second time chosen prastor, and won Aero- Corinth, which Antigonus had fortified with a garrison, whereby Aratus freed all Greece from no small apprehension. When he had restored liberty to Corinth, he united it to the Achaians, together with the city of Megara, which he got by intelligence during his prae- torship. ... In a word, Aratus, who, in a short space, brought many and great things to pass, made it manifest, by his councils and actions, that his greatest aim was the expulsion of the Macedonians out of Peloponnesus, to suppress tyranny, and assert the liberty of his country. So that, during the whole reign of Antigonus Gonatus, Aratus constantly opposed all his designs and enterprises, as he did the ambition of the iEtolians, to raise themselves on the ruins of their neighbor states. And, as in all the transactions of his administration he gave singular evi- dence of a steady mind and firm resolution, all his attempts suc- ceeded accordingly, notwithstanding many states confederated to hinder the union, and to destroy the commonwealth of the Achaians. I

"After the death of Antigonus, the Achaians entered into a

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league with the JEtolians, and generously assisted them in then- war against Demetrius ; so that the ancient hatred between these two people seemed for the present extinguished, and the desire of concord began by degrees to grow in the minds of the ^Eto- lians. Demetrius died, when many great and noble occasions were given to the Achaians, of finishing the project they had conceived ; for the tyrants who reigned in Peloponnesus, having lost the support of Demetrius, who greatly favored them, began now to despair ; and, on the other hand, being awed by Aratus, who admonished them to quit their governments, on promise of great honors and rewards to such as voluntarily resigned, and threatening others with hostility who refused ; whereupon, they resolved to despoil themselves of their dignities, restore their people to liberty, and incorporate them with the Achaians. As to Lysidas, the Megalopolitan, he, wisely foreseeing what was likely to come to pass, frankly renounced his dominion during the life of Demetrius, and was received into the general confede- racy of rights and privileges with the whole nation. Aristoma- chus, tyrant of the Argives, Xeno, of the Hermionians, and Cleonymus, of the Phliasians, resigning their authority at the time we mentioned, were likewise received into the alliance of the Achaians.

" In the mean time, the iEtolians began to conceive jealousies at the growing greatness and extraordinary success of the Acha- ians, and basely entered into a league with Antigonus, who at that time governed Macedon, and with Cleomenes, King of the Lacedaemonians."

These three powers, Macedonia, Lacedaemon, and iEtolia, were to invade Achaia on all sides ; but the great political abili- ties of Aratus^defeated the enterprise. " He considered that An- tigonus was a man of experience, and willing enough to make alliances; and that princes have naturally neither friends nor enemies, but measure amities and enmities by the rules of interest. He therefore endeavored after a good understanding with that prince, and determined to propose the joining the forces of the Achaians to his." He proposed to cede him some towns; and the alliance was formed, and the Cleomenic war commenced. In the prosecution of it, Cleomenes and his Spar- tans displayed the utmost ferocity and cruelty, particularly at iEgium, where " he put in practice so many outrages and cruelties

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of war, that he left not so much as any appearance that it had been ever a peopled place." 1 There is great reason to suspect that the Achaians were not less guilty of cruelty ; for Polybius professes to follow the account given by Aratus himself, in a history which that praetor wrote of Achaia, who may be well suspected of partiality ; and Polybius himself was the son of Lycortas of Megalopolis, who perfected and confirmed the con- federacy of the Achaians, and he discovers throughout his history a strong attachment to this people. If the history of Clearchus was extant, we might possibly see that the Achaians, the Spar- tans, and Macedonians were equally liable to the accusation of inhumanity. Mantinea was subjected to unspeakable calami- ties as well as ^Egium ; but Polybius endeavors to cover this over with a veil by abusing Clearchus, accusing him of depart- ing from the dignity of history, and writing tragedies, by repre- senting women with dishevelled hair and naked breasts, embrac- ing each other with melting lamentations and tears, and com- plaints of men, women, and children, dragged away promiscu- ously. He attempts to justify the punishment of this city, by charging it with treacherously betraying itself into the hands of the Spartans, and massacring the Achaian garrison. But this was no more than the usual effect of the continual revolutions in the Greek cities, from democracy to aristocracy, from that to monarchy, and back again through the whole circle.

In every one of these cities there were three parties, — a mo- narchical party, who desired to be governed by a king, or tyrant, as he was then called ; an aristocratical party, who wished to elect an oligarchy ; and a democratical party, who were zealous for bring- ing all to a level. Each faction was for collecting all authority into one centre in its own way ; but, unfortunately, there was no party who thought of a mixture of all these three orders, and giving each a negative by which it might balance the other two. Accordingly, the regal party applied to Macedonian kings for aids and garrisons ; the aristocratical citizens applied to Sparta for the like assistance ; and the democratical factions applied to Aratus and the Achaian league. The consequence was, as each party prevailed, it brought in a new garrison, and massacred the old one, together with the leaders of the faction

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1 Polybius, vol. i. b. 2, translated by Sir H. S.

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subdued. But is such a system to be recommended to the United States of America ? If the Americans had no more dis- cretion than the Greeks, no more humanity, no more considera- tion for the benign and peaceful religion they profess, they would still have to consider, that the Greeks had in many places forty, and in all ten, slaves, to one free citizen ; that the slaves did all the labor, and the free citizens had nothing to do but cut one another's throats. Wars did not cost money in Greece ; happily for the world, at present they are very expensive. An American soldier will not serve one year, without more money for pay than many of these Greek cities had for their whole circulating medium.

There is but one possible means of realizing M. Turgot's idea. Let us examine it well before we adopt it. Let every town in the Thirteen States be a free, sovereign, and independent demo- cracy ; here you may nearly collect all authority into one centre, and that centre the nation. These towns will immediately go to war with each other, and form combinations, alliances, and poli- tical intrigues, as ably as the Grecian villages did. But these wars and negotiations cannot be carried on but by men at leisure. The first step to be taken, then, is to determine who shall be freemen, and who slaves. Let this be determined by lot. In every fifty men, forty are to be slaves, and stay at home unarmed, to labor in agriculture and mechanic arts, under certain overseers provided with good whips and scourges. All commerce and navigation, fisheries, &c. are to cease, of course. The other ten are to be free citizens, live like gentlemen, eat black broth, and go out to war; some in favor of tyrants, some for the well-born, and some for the multitude. For, even in the supposition here made, every town will have three parties in it ; some will be for making the moderator a king, others for giving the whole govern- ment to the selectmen, and a third sort for making and execut- ing all laws, and judging all causes, criminal and civil, in town meeting. Americans will well consider the consequences of such systems of policy, and such multiplications and divisions of states, and will universally see and feel the necessity of adopt- ing the sentiments of Aratus, as reported by Plutarch : " That small cities could be preserved by nothing else but a continual and combined force, united by the bond of common interest; and as the members of the body live and breathe by their mutual

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communication and connection, and when once separated pine away and putrefy, in the same manner are cities ruined by being dismembered from one another, as well as preserved when, linked together in one great body, they enjoy the benefit of that provi- dence and council that governs the whole."1 t These were the $- sentiments which, according to the same Plutarch, acquired him so much of the confidence of the Achaians, " that, since he could not by law be chosen their general every year, yet every other year he was, and by his councils and actions was in effect always so ; for they perceived that neither riches nor repute, nor the friendship of kings, nor the private interest of his own country, nor any other thing else was so dear to him as the increase of the Achaian power and greatness."2

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This celebrated island, with the fantastical honor of giving birth to some of the gods of Greece, had the real merit and glory of communicating to that country many useful improve- ments. Their insular situation defended the people from inva- sions by land, and their proximity to Egypt afforded them an easy intercourse of commerce by sea with the capital of that kingdom. Here Rhadamanthus, in his travels, had collected those inventions and institutions of a civilized people, which he had the address to apply to the confirmation of his own author- ity. Minos is still more distinguished. In his travels in the East, he saw certain families possessed of unrivalled honors and unlimited authority, as vicegerents of the Deity. Although the Greeks would never admit, in the fullest latitude of oriental superstition and despotism, this odious profanation, yet Minos, taking advantage of his own unbounded reputation, and that enthusiasm for his person which his skill and fortune in war, his genius for science, and talents for government, had excited among wandering credulous savages, spread a report that he was ad- mitted to familiar conversations with Jupiter, and received from that deity his system of laws, with orders to engrave it on tables

1 " In the same manner, numerical divisions of the people connect and unite the whole, each smaller part being restrained and awed by a larger, and the whole by the resolution of the general assembly." S.

~ "A noble character of the patriot Aratus." S.

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506 ON GOVERNMENT.

of brass. The great principle of it was, that all freemen should be equal, and, therefore, that none should have any property in lands or goods ; but that citizens should be served by slaves, who should cultivate the lands upon public account. The citizens should dine at public tables, and then: families subsist on the public stock. The monarch's authority was extremely limited, except in war. The magistracies were the recompense of merit and age; and superiority was allowed to nothing else. The youth were restrained to a rigid temperance, modesty, and morality, enforced by law. Their education, which was public, was directed to make them soldiers. Such regulations could not fail to secure order, and what they called freedom, to the citizens ; but nine tenths of mankind were doomed to slavery to support them in total idleness, excepting those exercises proper for war- riors, become more necessary to keep the slaves in subjection, |^m>t(r than to defend the state against the pirates and robbers with

whom the age abounded. Idomeneus, grandson of Minos, and commander of the Cretan forces in the Trojan war, was among the most powerful of the Grecian chiefs, and one of the few who returned in safety from that expedition. Here was a govern- ment of all authority in one centre, and that centre the most aged and meritorious persons of the nation, with little authority in the king, and none in the rest of the people ; yet it was not of sufficient strength to hold together. The venerable old men could not endure the authority, or rather the preeminence of the Icing. Monarchy must be abolished; and every principal city became early a separate, independent commonwealth ; each, no doubt, under its patriarch, baron, noble, or archon, for they all signify the same thing ; and continual wars ensued between the several republics within the island ; and Cretan valor and martial skill were employed and exhausted in butchering one another, until they turned all the virtues they had left against mankind in general, and exerted them in piracies and robberies, to their universal infamy throughout all Greece. Nor was Crete ever of any weight in Grecian politics after the Trojan war.

Corinth

CORINTH.

Monarchy remained in this emporium of Greece longer than in any other of the principal cities ; but the noble families here

CORINTH.

507

could no better endure the superiority of a monarch, than others in all countries ; and with numerous branches of the royal family, (named Bacchidae, from Bacchis, fifth monarch in succession from Aletes,) at their head, they accordingly put to death Teles- tes, the reigning monarch ; and, usurping the government, under an association among themselves, they instituted an oligarchy. An annual first magistrate, with the title of Prytanis, but with very limited prerogatives, like a doge of Venice, was chosen from among themselves. Several generations passed away under the administration of this odious oligarchy ; but the people at length finding it intolerably oppressive, expelled the whole junto, and set up Cypselus as a monarch or tyrant. He had long been the head of the popular party, and was deservedly a popular charac- ter, possessed of the confidence and affection of his fellow citi- is to a great degree, or he never could have refused the guard

zen

which was offered him for the protection of his person against ~y the attempts of the defeated oligarchy. His moderation and clemency are allowed by all ; yet he is universally called by the Grecian writers Tyrant of Corinth, and his government a Tyranny* Aristotle f informs us that his tyranny continued thirty years, because he was a popular man and governed without guards. Periander, one of the seven wise men, his son and suc- cessor, reigned forty-four years, because he was an able general. Psammetichus, the son of Gordius, succeeded, but his reign was short ; yet this space of seventy-seven years is thought by Aris- totle one of the longest examples of a tyranny or an oligarchy. At the end of this period the nobles again prevailed ; but not without courting the people. The tyranny was demolished, and a new commonwealth established, in which there was a mixture of oligarchy and democracy, to prevent the first from running into excess of oppression, and the other into turbulence and license. Here we find the usual circle. Monarchy first limited by nobles only ; then the nobles, becoming envious and impatient of the monarch's preeminence, demolish him, and set up oli- garchy. This grows insolent and oppressive to the people, who set up a favorite to pull it down. The new idol's posterity grow insolent ; and the people finally think of introducing a mixture

n

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i.li

* " But this had not then an odious meaning." f On Government, 1. 5, c. 12.

508 ON GOVERNMENT.

of three regular branches of power, in the one, the few, and the many, to control one another, to be guardians in turn to the laws, and secure equal liberty to all.

Aristotlej in this chapter, censures some parts of the eighth book of Plato, and says, " That in general, when governments alter, they alter into the contrary species to what they before were, and not into one like the former. And this reasoning holds true of other changes. For he says, that from the Lace- daemonian form it changes into an oligarchy, and from thence into a democracy, and from a democracy into a tyranny ; and sometimes a contrary change takes place, as from a democracy into an oligarchy, rather than into a monarchy. With respect to a tyranny, he neither says whether there will be any change in it ; or, if not, to what cause it will be owing ; or, if there is, into what other state it will alter. But the reason of this is, that a tyranny is an indeterminate government, and, according to him, every state ought to alter into the first and most perfect. Thus, the continuity and circle would be preserved. But one tyranny often changed into another ; as at Sicyon, from Myron to Clis- thenes ; or into an oligarchy, as was Antileon's at Chalcis ; or into a democracy, as was Gelo's at Syracuse ; or into an aristo- cracy, as was Charilaus's at Lacedsemon and at Carthage. An oligarchy is also changed into a tyranny. Such was the rise of most of the ancient tyrannies in Sicily ; at Leontium, into the tyranny of Pansetius ; at Gela, into that of Cleander ; at Rhe- gium, into that of Anaxilaus ; and the like in many other cities. It is absurd also to suppose, that a state is changed into an oli- garchy, because those who are in power are avaricious and greedy of money ; and not because those, who are by far richer than their fellow citizens, think it unfair that those who have nothing should have an equal share in the rule of the state with themselves, who possess so much. For in many oligarchies it is not allowable to be employed in money-getting, and there are many laws to prevent it. But in Carthage, which is a demo- cracy, money-getting is creditable ; and yet their form of govern- ment remains unaltered."

Whether these observations of Aristotle upon Plato be all just or not, they only serve to strengthen our argument, by showing the mutability of simple governments in a fuller light. Not denying any of the changes stated by Plato, he only enumerates

s,j

ARGOS. 509

a multitude of other changes to which such governments are lia- ble ; and, therefore, shows the greater necessity of mixtures of different orders and decisive balances to preserve mankind from those horrible calamities which revolutions always bring with them.

ARGOS.

In order to form an adequate idea of the miseries which were brought upon the Greeks by continual and innumerable revolu- tions of government, it should be considered that the whole Pelo- ponnesus was scarcely two hundred miles in length and one hun- dred and forty in breadth, not much more extensive than the smallest of the thirteen states of America. Such an inherent force of repulsion, such a disposition to fly to pieces, as possessed the minds of the Greeks, would divide America into thousands of petty, despicable states, and lay a certain foundation for irre- concilable wars.

Although Thucydides and Aristotle, as well as Homer, inform us that kingdoms were hereditary, and of limited authority, yet the limitations appear to be very confused ; they were the limit- ations of nobles rather than of people ; and the first struggles for power were between kings and archons. The kings had no standing armies ; and all the forces under their authority, even when they took the field, could be commanded only by the nobles, who had their peculiar districts of land and people to govern. These were illustrious and independent citizens ; like the barons who demanded the great charter, communicated to each other their grievances, and took measures to remove them. But, being generally as averse to popular as to regal power, their constant aim was an aristocracy ; they accordingly extinguished monarchy, but did not secure the rights of the people. The immediate effect of this revolution only multiplied evils. Op- pressed by kings, Greece was much more oppressed by archons ; and, anciently too much divided, was still more subdivided under the new forms of government. Many inferior cities disdained the jurisdiction, and even the superior influence of their respect- ive capitals ; affected independent sovereignty ; and each town maintained war with its neighbors. Each independent state had a right to send two members to the Amphictyonic council. The

43*

510 ON GOVERNMENT.

abolition of royalty rendering the independent states more nume- rous, increased the number of Amphictyons to one hundred members and more ; and an oath was required that the member should never subvert any Amphictyonic city. Yet every excess of animosity prevailed among the Grecian republics* notwith- standing the interposition of the Amphictyons.

Argos was founded by Danaus, the Egyptian, about the time that Athens was settled by Cecrops. At the Trojan war it was the first of the states, and ever continued the rival of Sparta. Though the royal dignity seemed more firmly settled under Aga- memnon than under any other chief, yet Argos was one of the first of the states upon the continent to abolish monarchy, and that as early as on the death of Celsus, son of Temenus, the descendant of Hercules. No account of its new constitution is preserved. But, from analogy we may be convinced that a rest- less body of nobles overturned the monarchy; and, as it. was subject to frequent and violent disorders, that the archons could not agree upon the form of then oligarchy ; and set up for inde- pendency in their different districts, states, or cities, a little sooner than in other republics. The higher and lower ranks were con- tinually at variance ; the democratical faction was commonly superior ; sometimes tyrants were set up over all ; and once, according to Herodotus,* the slaves got possession of the city, took upon them the administration of affairs, and exercised the magistracies.

The government must have been ill constituted, as no Ehada- manthus or Minos, no Lycurgus or Solon, no Zaleucus or Cha- rondas, nor any other legislator of superior wisdom and probity, ever acquired the power ; and no fortunate coincidence of cir- cumstances ever occurred, to unite liberty and administration, law and government, upon a stable basis. One famous tyrant, Pheidon, lineal successor of Hercules, a prince of great abilities, but no moderation, raised himself, rather than his country, to a superiority which ceased with him. For want of distinct orders and steady balances, by which the will and the forces of the peo- ple might have been subjected to the laws, Argos lost that pre- eminence among the Grecian states, which it had obtained under a monarchy. Every little town in Argolis was seized with the

* Lib. vi.

Y<fK

ELIS. 511

caprice of independence, and opposed the general government, at the same time that the metropolis betrayed an ambition to / Jj domineer over the inferior towns. Civil wars ensued. Mycenae, V -,£] Troezene, Epidaurus, and other villages of less consequence, were often conquered and garrisoned, but never subdued. ^Necessity taught them to unite. They reproached Argos with tyranny, and Argos them with rebellion. Union enabled them to set at defiance their capital, by means of intrigues and alliances with Lacedaemon, the never-failing resource of one party or the other >* in every democratical state. The pretence was, the Persian war, * which Argos declined. This was called a base dereliction, and excited, by the help of Spartan emissaries, hatred and contempt in Sicyon, Naupila, Heliaea, and other towns, besides those before-mentioned. Argos alone, of all the cities in the Pelopon- nesus, openly espoused the cause of Athens. This single circum- stance, if it was not accidental, is enough to show that this city had more sense and profound wisdom than all the rest ; for Sparta was certainly then leading all Greece to destruction. In other respects the Argives discovered the same temper and the same understanding with all the others ; for they led their whole forces against Mycenae, took it by storm, decimated the inhabit- ^ yk/ ants, and demolished the town, fjis it not sublime wisdom, to rush headlong into all the distractions and divisions, all the assassinations and massacres, all the seditions, rebellions, and eternal revolutions, which are the certain consequence of the want of orders and balances, merely for the sake of the popular caprice of having every fifty families governed by all authority in one centre ? Even this would not satisfy ; the fifty families would soon dissolve their union, and nothing would ever content them short of the complete' individual independence of the Mohawks ; for it may be depended on, that individual independ- ence is what every unthinking human heart aims at, nearly or remotely.

ELIS.

Eleia had been the scene of athletic games, celebrated with

great pomp by assemblies of chiefs from various parts of Greece.

_Iphitus3 a grandson of Oxylus, succeeded to the throne of Elis.

Active and enterprising, but not by inclination a soldier, he was

m

/<?/.

512 ON GOVERNMENT.

anxious for a remedy for the disorderly situation of his country. Among all the violence, feuds, and wars, superstition maintained its empire, and the oracle of Delphi was held in veneration.

Iphitus sent an embassy to supplicate information from the deity, " How the anger of the gods, which threatened total de- struction to Peloponnesus, through the endless hostilities among its people, might be averted ? " He received an answer, which he had probably dictated, " That the Olympian festival must be restored. For that the neglect of that solemnity had brought on the Greeks the indignation of Jupiter and Hercules ; to the first of whom it was dedicated, and by the last of whom it had been instituted." Iphitus proceeded to model his institu- tion ; and ordained that a festival should be held at the temple of Jupiter at Olympia, near Pisa in Eleia, for all the Greeks to partake in, and that it should be repeated every fourth year ; that there should be sacrifices to Jupiter and Hercules, and games in honor of them ; that an armistice should take place throughout Greece for some time before the commencement of the festival, and continue some time after its conclusion. A tradition was reported, that the Heraclides had appointed Oxylus to the throne of Elis and the guardianship of the temple of Olympian Jupiter, and consecrated all Eleia to the god. A reputation of sanctity became attached to the whole people of Eleia, as the hereditary priesthood of Jupiter ; and secluded them from all necessity of engaging in politics or war. But it was not possible, by any institutions of religion, to destroy that elasticity given by nature to the mind of man, which excites continually to action, often palpably against men's interests, which "was strong in the general temper of the Greeks, and which can never be subdued or restrained in any nation but by orders and balances. Restless spirits arose, not to be satisfied. The Eleians often engaged as auxiliaries in the wars of other states, on pretence of asserting the cause of religion ; but even in that cause itself they could not agree among themselves. While monarchy subsisted in the posterity of Iphitus, as it did for some generations, Eleia contin- ued under one government ; but at length the spirit of demo- cracy prevailed there, as elsewhere in Greece, and with the same effects. Every town claimed independency ; Pisa and Elis became separate commonwealths. Olympia was situated within the territory of Pisa, on the northern bank of the river Alpheius,

ELIS. 513

which alone separated it from that city. Elis was thirty miles distant; but the Eleians retained the guardianship of the temple and superintendency of the festival. The Pisaeans now disputed their right ; wars arose between the two cities ; each endeavored to gain allies. At one time Pheidon, Tyrant of Argos, claiming to be by birth the proper representative of Hercules, took to himself the guardianship of the temple, and presided at the games ; at another time the Pisseans prevailed, and presided at some Olympiads. At length the Eleians destroyed Pisa so entirely, that not a ruin was left ; and ever after, excepting in the one hundred and fourth Olympiad, when the Arcadians vio- / ¥ lently interfered, they held the presidency undisturbed.

If a democracy could ever, in any case, hold together, it would be natural to expect it in this institution of Iphitus, which, founded wholly, on religion, had procured so much prosperity and veneration to his people. But it is as rational to expect that a glass bubble, with a drop of water inclosed in it, will resist the heat of the fire. The vapor within will blast it into dust and atoms.

Thebes

THEBES.

Fable, and history too, relate that this city was governed anciently by kings ; sixteen of whom, from Cadmus the Phceni- I !jskJ-4m>*** cian, who founded it, to Xanthus, are enumerated. After the death of the last, the Thebans changed their government to a democratical republic. Their orders and balances are not known ; but their factions and divisions, as well as their dul- ness, are remembered. From the analogy of all the other Gre- cian states, it is probable that archons presided over the several cities of Bceotia, as their separate districts, and had a king at their head, like Ulysses in Ithaca, and Alcinous in Phseacia ; that the king, whose domain was Thebes, had sometimes an inclination to favor his capital more than the subordinate towns ; and that the archons grew impatient of his monarchy, and aspired at independency. The jealousy and rivalry of cities favored the factious views of the archons, and were probably fomented for that purpose.

Is it an instance of their want of penetration, or was it from necessity, that they chose the two heads of opposite factions for

g 2

hi

Hi

514 ON GOVERNMENT.

their highest annual magistrates ? Ismenias was one ; an honest man, a friend to liberty, and consequently an advocate for an equilibrium of powers in the constitution. Leontidas, the other, was ambitious of the whole power to himself, and of governing by a council of his friends ; but finding his rival more popular than himself, he sold the citadel to a Spartan general, upon con- dition that he and his party should rule. When this was effected he seized his colleague, and had him tried, condemned, and exe- cuted, for caballing against the government. The friends of Ismenias fled in a panic, and were banished by a public edict ; for it seems that a revolution without banishments and confisca- tions, at least, is a degree of moderation and self-government of which nations are wholly incapable. The exiled citizens, who, in this case, were the honest men and friends of liberty, and among whom was Pelopidas, returned from Athens in disguise, destroyed the tyrant and his crew, and with the help of Epami- nondas and his friends, regained the citadel. These two sages and heroes had now enough to do ; first, to inspire a little un- derstanding and unanimity into their fellow-citizens; then to discipline them for war, and conquer their enemies ; and, at last, to frame a good constitution of government. To their immortal glory, they accomplished all but the last; but Pelopidas was killed in battle, before the war was finished ; and Epaminondas grew unpopular, and was rejected by faction even from the com- mand of the army ; a sufficient proof that the aristocratical and democratical factions were nearly equal. He was reinstated, in- deed, after the blunders and defeats of his successor had brought the citizens to repentance ; but was slain in battle at the mo- ment of victory. So that the Theban republic never had the benefit of his advice in the formation of a new code of laws. She had never made any figure, excepting a momentary one, under these two great men, and was at length totally destroyed by Alexander.

The ruin of Boeotia was occasioned by the finesse of Antalci- das, in his Persian treaty. The Thebans, as well as Argives, had withheld their assistance in the Persian war. Antalcidas knew that the subordinate cities of Thespiae, Platea, Aulis, An- themon, Larymna, Aschrcea, Coronea, Labadea, Delium, Alal- komene, Leuctra, Chaeronea, all wished for independence ; they accordingly rejected the jurisdiction and sovereignty of Thebes.

SYBARIS. 515

The Thebans solicited Sparta to take a part in their domestic quarrels ; and, against her own favorite treaty, made by her artful ambassador, she accepted the proposal. The virtuous and amiable Spartan senate perceived that it was equally their interest that Argos should lose her jurisdiction over her revolted towns, and that Thebes, the rival neighbor of Athens, should recover her authority in Boeotia ; but, notwithstanding partial successes, she could not regain her authority over all the cities, until Epami- nondas arose, after eighty years of civil wars.

Had there been a governor in Bceotia, and a senate, and a house of representatives, composed of an equitable proportion of deputies from Thebes and all the lesser cities , — and each of these branches possessed of an independent negative in the legislature, while the whole executive was in the governor, — would these civil wars have happened ? these endless contentions between the nobles and people, the capital and subordinate cities? these intrigues of one party with Athens, and another with Sparta ? The very disinclination, both in Thebes and Argos, to engage in the Persian war, arose wholly from their domestic dissensions; and these from the want of judicious orders and balances.

After the abolition of monarchy in Bceotia, there was an effort to collect all authority into one centre ; but the nation found, that, although laws might be thus made, they could not be so executed. There must, therefore, be an executive magistrate; but not being able to agree, in order to please both sides, the leader of each faction must be chosen. As might have been foreseen, they could not agree, and split the nation at once into two hostile armies ; one of which sought the alliance of Sparta, and the other that of Athens. Thus it ever was, and ever will be, in similar cases. It is much to be regretted that Epaminon- das did not live to display his talents as a legislator ; the world might possibly have been blessed with something like an Eng- lish constitution, two or three thousand years sooner than it was.

Sybaris

SYBARIS.

The city of Sybaris was a Grecian colony in Italy, planted by Achaians; and, according to Diodorus Siculus,* its beautiful

* Lib. xii. p. 6

516 ON GOVERNMENT.

situation between two rivers, the Crathis and the Sybaris, the extent and fertility of its territory, and the freedom of its laws, had, in a short space of time, drawn together a prodigious num- ber of inhabitants, and greatly enriched them.

But the common fate of all nations and cities attended them. They had three parties ; a chief, a better sort, and a people. The most powerful citizens were caballing, as usual, against the chief, whose name was Telys, and, whatever his character for virtue was, he appears to have had more cunning than Grecian chiefs commonly had; at least he discerned better where the balance lay ; for he courted the people by flattering their follies. He ex- cited a popular cry against the aristocratical party, drove them from the city, confiscated their fortunes and distributed them among the rest of the citizens. The exiles fled to Crotona. Telys sent ambassadors to demand them, on pain of war. Py- thagoras thought the cause of his aristocratical friends just, and persuaded his fellow-citizens to refuse to deliver them up. The Sybarites marched an army ; but were met by another from Crotona, with Milo, the strong man, at their head, whose repu- tation prevailed ; the Sybarites were all massacred, and their I city pillaged and left a desert. First happy effect of a govern- ment without acknowledged orders and legal balances !

Fifty-eight years afterwards, some Thessalians established themselves at Sybaris. They had not been there five years, when the Crotonians came and drove them out. Under Callimachus, f I 'i archon of Athens, it was repeopled the third time, and had the

name of Thurium. A populous colony was sent there, under Lampon and Xenocritus, who built a beautiful city for a capital, and twenty-five subordinate cities. But the inhabitants could not long live in good intelligence among themselves ; they fell into dissensions, grew extravagant, luxurious, and effeminate to a proverb. The quarrel began in this manner : — The old inha- bitants of Sybaris erected themselves into a kind of nobility, and arrogated to themselves all the public employments of any distinction, vouchsafing to the new-comers only those of least importance. They insisted, moreover, that their wives should sacrifice the first to the gods, and that the other ladies should not commence their devotions till the first had concluded. Not content with distinctions so assuming, they went farther, and took to themselves, in the distribution of the lands, all those

SYBARIS. 517

which were nearest the city, and left only the more distant to those whom they called foreigners. The latter being more nume- rous and more brave, carried their resentment so far as to put all the old families to death, and remained sole possessors of all the territory within the walls. Not having people enough left, they invited others from various parts of Greece, divided houses and lands among them, entered into alliance with Crotona, and be- came opulent. They divided the people into ten tribes, and established among them a democratical government, and chose for their legislator Charondas, who, having examined to the /?/ foundation the laws of all countries, chose out of them, for his country, the wisest and most convenient. Some others he added, drawn from his own meditations. His laws are lost, and, there- fore, his orders and balances are not known. It is nevertheless certain, from certain regulations preserved by Diodorus, that orders and balances existed in his institution.

1. He excluded from his public councils all men who, having children, should marry a second time ; and thus mortify their children with the authority of a step-mother.

2. As another check to his democracy, he ordained that all who should be convicted of calumny, should be conducted through the streets crowned with tamarin ; a punishment so infamous, that several put an end to their own lives rather than submit to it.

3. He prohibited all society with wicked men ; for, says he, / f ^ the disposition to evil is very strong, and many of those who at

first love virtue, are often drawn in, by the charms of secret seductions, to the greatest vices.

4. He ordained that all the sons of every family should learn , ^ ^ to write and read, under masters in the pay of the public. This , law alone has merit enough to consecrate to immortality the memory of this legislator, and deserves to be imitated, at least

by every free people.

5. That the property of orphans should be administered by . ^ the relations of the father ; but their persons and education in- trusted to those of the mother.

6. All those who should refuse to take arms for their country, or quit their ranks in the army, instead of being punished by death, should be exposed three days in a public square of the city, in women's clothes.

VOL. IV. 44

518 ON GOVERNMENT.

7. To preserve his democratical arrangement, he thought it necessary to prohibit all proposals of change in his laws. His principle was, it is as advantageous to submit to the laws, as it is dangerous to subject the laws to individuals ; and, therefore, in trials, he reprehended and silenced all criminals who substi- tuted turns of eloquence and arbitrary interpretations in place of the letter of the laws, and he charged them with violating their authority and majesty. The question is, said Charondas, " Whether you shall save the law or the criminal."

8. Struck with the disorders and seditions which he had seen in many democratical cities, he ordained that no citizen should present himself in the public assembly, to propose any reformation or alteration in the law, without a halter about his neck, which he should wear till the people had deliberated and determined. If the people decreed the proposed alteration hurt- ful or unnecessary, the reformer should be strangled on the spot. This regulation silenced all new legislators so entirely, that only three examples occurred of any change.

All his precautions were insufficient. Returning from the country with his sword, which he had taken to defend himself against highwaymen, he found the assembly in division and con- fusion. He hastened to compose the tumult. One of his ene- mies reproached him with violating his own law, by coming armed into the assembly. Charondas, who had forgotten the sword, cried, I mean to observe and enforce the law, and plunged it into his own heart, wearied, most probably, into a contempt of life by the disorders incident to unbalanced parties.

When every legislator who has attempted a democratical esta- blishment, has confessed its inherent tendency to immediate dis- solution, by resorting to the strongest rigors against proposals of innovation, and numberless other provisions to control it, which have all been found ineffectual, is it worth while still to cherish the fond idea, when three branches are found, by experience, so effectually to check each other ; when in two independent as- semblies improvements and reformations may be so easily and safely proposed and adopted, and such as are not beneficial re- jected ?

LOCRIS. 519

Locris

LOCRIS.

Zaleucus was of Locris in Italy, not far distant from Sybaris. /) He was a disciple of Pythagoras, of noble birth, and admirable morals. Having acquired the esteem and confidence of his fel- oJ- low-citizens, they chose him for their legislator. Unfortunately, little remains of his laws but their preamble. But this is in a style so superior to that of all the other legislators, as to excite regret for the loss of his code. In this preamble he declares, that all those who shall inhabit the city ought, above all things, to be persuaded that there is a God ; and, if they elevate their eyes and thoughts towards the heavens, they will be convinced that the disposition of the heavenly bodies, and the order which reigns in all nature are not the work of men nor of chance ; that, there- fore, they ought to adore the gods, as the authors of all which life presents us of good and beautiful; that they should hold their souls pure from every vice, because the gods accept neither the prayers, offerings, or sacrifices of the wicked, and are pleased only with the just and beneficent actions of virtuous men. Hav- ing thus, in the beginning of his laws, fixed the attention of his fellow-citizens upon piety and wisdom, he ordains, above all things, that there should never be among them any irreconcilable enmity ; but, on the contrary, that those animosities which might arise among them, should be only a passage to a sure and sin- cere reconciliation ; and that he who would not submit himself to these sentiments, should be regarded as a savage in a civilized community. The chiefs of his republic ought not to govern with arrogance nor pride ; nor should the magistrates be guided in their judgments by hatred nor by friendship.

This preamble, instead of addressing itself to the ignorance, prejudices, and superstitious fears of savages, for the purpose of binding them to an absurd system of hunger and glory for a family, like the laws of Lycurgus, places religion, morals, and government upon a basis of philosophy which is rational, intelli- gible, and eternal, for the real happiness of man in society, and throughout his duration.

The principle adopted by this legislator, as the motive to action next to the sense of duty and social obligation, was the sense of honor, like that of Lycurgus. As Zaleucus was a dis-

520 ON GOVERNMENT.

ciple of Pythagoras, whose favorite plan of government was a well-tempered aristocracy, we may conjecture that such was the form recommended to the Locrians. But all are lost ; and cer- tainly no argument can be drawn from them in favor of one popular assembly. If, in visiting the Sybarites and Locrians, we have found nothing in favor of M. Turgot's system, nor any thing very material against it, we have found a greater advance towards civilization than in all the laws of Lycurgus and Solon, excepting only the trial by jury, instituted by the latter ; I mean the preamble of Zaleucus ; and the general education to letters in schools, at the public expense, by Charondas.

ROME.

Plebeians scrambling; after Patricians ; or Democracy hunting down Aristocracy ; or Tribunes in chase of a Senate.

We elsewhere see, in the history of Rome, with what eager- ness the aristocracy pursued and demolished the monarchy. The kings are commonly reproached with tyranny, and the nobles are applauded for resistance to them ; but it is clear that the nobles were as tyrannical as they ; and that their eternal plots and con- spiracies against the kings, their power, their crown, and their lives, were the cause and the provocation to that tyranny. It is impossible to say which were worst, the nobles or the kings; both were bad enough in general, and both frequently violated the laws, as will ever happen when there are but two branches. The people, as yet, had no adequate power to aid or control either. By the institution of Romulus, indeed, the Roman peo- ple, even the lowest class of the citizens, instead of being pro- hibited to engage in all kinds of labor, after the example of the Spartans, were directed to apply themselves to pasturage, agri- culture, and mechanic arts. This had its natural effect ; and immediately after the revolution, by which the monarchy was abolished and aristocracy set up, though we find the patricians at their usual game of encroaching on the people, yet there was a people, a numerous, hardy, courageous people, who were not disposed to submit. They soon began a resistance, and to de- mand more power to resist; and having obtained one conces- sion, they required another, until they obtained an equality with the patricians.

ROME.

521

So far they were in the right ; and if the two powers could have remained equal, justice, liberty, and happiness, the effect of equal laws, might have been enjoyed. But human nature can never rest ; once in motion, it rolls, like the stone of Sisyphus, every instant when the resisting force is suspended. Diodorus Siculus is very right, lib, xix., when he says : " It is of the nature of man to aspire continually at something greater than his pre- sent condition, and to wish that his power might increase, in- stead of decreasing or resting as it is." Dr. Ferguson, who follows very accurately Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Livy, and Polybius, will furnish us with a good account of the steps by which the Roman people proceeded to augment their own power, and diminish that of the senate, until they obtained the whole. I shall give an abridgment of the story, very nearly in Ferguson's words.1 In their career, however, the people lost their morals and their wisdom, as they ever will in such a course, and they were ready to confer the sovereignty on the line of Caesars, even before they had completely obtained it. Those irregulari- ties, and that final catastrophe, were all occasioned by the im- perfections in their balance. If the consuls had been possessed of a negative in the legislature, and of all the executive authority, and the senate and people had been made equal and independ- ent in the first establishment of the commonwealth, it is impos- sible for any man to prove that the republic would not have remained in vigor and in glory at this hour.2

" The government of Rome," (in the two hundred and forty- fourth year from the building of the city, after the expulsion of Tarquin,) " was become wholly aristocratical. The nobles, exclu- sively, had the legislative, executive, and judicial power, without any third party to hold the balance between them and the peo-

1 The following pages contain a summary of the first^book of Adam Fergu- son's History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman lirpuhlic, accom- panied, however, with a running commentary, as usual, which it is difficult with- out collation to distinguish from the text.

During the last half century, the industry of scholars in investigating the nature and origin of the Roman government has been unwearied ; and so much progress has been made, that Dr. Ferguson's work now seems but a superficial production. Nevertheless, much yet remains to be done fully to elucidate the , difficulties under which the subject labors. It is to be regretted that the author's analysis of this, the most extensive and successful republican experiment ever made, should not have been more complete.

2 " The affirmative is as difficult of proof as the negative." H.

44*

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f*r*

pie ; for the consuls, although they were executive magistrates, united in their persons the dignities of the state, those of judges, magistrates, and military leaders, were understood to come in the place of kings, and performed all the functions of royalty; yet they were only parts and ministers of the senate.

" While the exiled king was endeavoring, by continual inva- sions, to recover his power, disputes arose between the parties who had joined to expel him. Creditors, supported by the aris- tocracy, of which the nobles were now in full possession, became severe in the exaction of debts, or the patrons laid claim to more than the clients were willing to pay. The state was distracted at once by its enemies from abroad, and by the dissension of parties at home. The authority of the new government not being sufficient to contend with these difficulties, the senate re- solved to place themselves and the commonwealth, for a limited time, under the power of a single person, under the title of dic- tator.

" The inferior class of the people, almost excluded from any share in the new government, soon found that, under its influ- ence, they had more oppression to fear from their patrons, than they had ever experienced from the prince they had banished. So long as the king and the senate shared in the powers of the state, the one took part with the people, when the other at- tempted to oppress them ; and it was the ordinary interest and policy of the prince to weaken the nobles, by supporting the plebeians against them. This effect of the monarchy still, in some measure, remained so long as the exiled king was alive, maintained his pretensions, and made the united services of the people necessary to the senate ; but, upon the death of the king, the nobles availed themselves of their power, and enforced their claims on the people with extreme severity. In the capacity of creditors, they imprisoned, whipped, and enslaved, those who were indebted to them, and held the liberties and lives of their fellow-citizens at their mercy. The whole body of plebeians was alarmed ; they saw more formidable enemies in the persons of their own nobility, than in the armies of any nation whatever. Many, who had already suffered under the rod of their credit- ors, when called upon to enlist, showed their limbs galled with fetters, or torn with stripes, which they had received by command of their merciless patrons.

ROME. 523

" These distractions obliged the senate to have recourse to another dictator ; and Valerius, who was appointed for his popu-

larity, repelled the enemy. The senate, upon his return, not ful- filling his promises to the people, they retired to the Sacred Mountain. The senate was obliged to negotiate, to mitigate the severities against insolvent debtors, and consent to the ap- pointment of tribunes. This was in the year 260, sixteen years after the revolution."

Had the plebeians " discontinued their collective assemblies for every purpose but elections, and increased their tribunes" to four or five hundred representatives, even this would not have been a radical cure, without separating the consuls from the senate, and giving them, or one of them, the executive power, and a negative both upon the senate and popular assembly in the legislature ; but there was too much prejudice, and too little knowledge, for so great an improvement. The people contented themselves with the appointment of a leader, under the name of Tribune, who, without power effectually to protect them, had enough to head every popular tumult, and blow up every spark to a flame. An assembly of representatives would have had an equal right with the senate to propose laws, to deliberate, debate, alter, amend, improve. But the tribunes were authorized only to forbid any measure they thought injurious ; but not to propose any law, or move any resolution. Not permitted to mix with the senators, they had places at the door of the senate house, as their office was felt to be a dangerous one. Their persons were made sacred ; and every one was devoted to the infernal gods who should even strike them. An oath was to be taken to ob- serve this law; and the idea of the sanctity of a tribune took such deep root, that the emperors afterwards were protected from assassins by this sacred title of Tribune.

" The college of tribunes, at first, was not limited to any num- ber ; but, in process of time, they increased from three to ten."

Patricians could not by law be elected; yet the people, to show that they ne\er will be steady to any law, even to those most directly contrived for their benefit, sometimes departed from this.

" The tribunes were at first elected in the curiae, where the £ vote of the poorest citizen was equal to that of the most wealthy. But, even here, the patricians, besides their great influence, had

t

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even a negative on all proceedings, by holding the auspices. For this reason, it was thought necessary to alter the form of the assembly in which the tribunes were elected, to that of the tribes ; and by this means to enable the people to make then- election without any control from the nobles, either in virtue of the authority of the senate, or the interposition of the augurs."

These would have been real improvements of the constitution, if they had proportionally augmented the authority of the con- suls at the same time ; but probably there would have been as many prejudices against such a proposal among the people as in the senate. All the popular jealousies and alarms at regal au- thority would have been excited by demagogues in the senate as well as in the comitia ; for there are in all nations aristocratical demagogues as well as democratical.

" These expedients were adopted by the senate to quiet the animosities of parties ; but tended, in fact, only to render the contest between them more equal, and to multiply the subjects of dispute. The tribunes, being vested with power to assemble the people, could not long be confined to the mere negative with which they were first intrusted. The party of the plebeians, with these magistrates at their head, were then in a posture not only to preserve their right, but likewise to gain to their order continual accessions of power. Happily for the state, there was yet much ground to be gained, without transgressing the bounds of order, or the authority of equitable government. The bar of hereditary distinction was the strongest obstacle which the popular leaders in this career had to break through."

The nobles among the Komans, as well as amortg the Greeks, generally traced back their lineage, in some manner or other, to gods and goddesses ; and the divine original of nobility, and the essential distinction between the two orders of nobles and com- mons, the one being believed a superior order of beings to the other, was founded in their institutions of religion, and in the popular belief; and, although some pretensions are still set up, in many parts of Europe, to the divine right of nobility, yet they are generally held in so little estimation, that a modern can hardly form an idea of the difficulty the tribunes must have found to overcome this inveterate prejudice of superstition. No personal merit, no actual service, no measure of ability or virtue, could remove, as it was pretended, the disqualification of ple- beian birth.

ROME. 525

" One of the first steps towards abolishing this distinction, was to preclude every other power in the state from a negative p , on their proceedings. For this purpose, it was enacted by the tribes, that no one, under pain of death, or of a fine at discre- tion, should interrupt a tribune while he was speaking to the people."

Nothing can- be more curious than these popular efforts to get the better of their own superstitious prejudices. They could not depend upon their own firmness to support their own peculiar magistrate, till they made themselves believe that his person was sacred, as well as the other magistrates.

" Being thus provided against interruption, as they were by a *y / former law against violence to their persons, they not only took up the complaints of their constituents, but suggested new claims to be made by them ; and at every succession to office, endea- vored to signalize their term by some additional establishment for the benefit of the people. They interrupted the state in its councils and wars, and hung upon the wheels of government until the grievances they complained of were redressed, or the de- mands they made were complied with. In order to increase the number of plebeian officers, whose aid the tribunes alleged was necessary to themselves", they, soon after their own institution, procured that of the aediles, who were to inspect the market, and _, have charge of the public buildings and public shows.

w The qualifications of candidates for the office of consul, fur- nished, during some ages, fEeT subject of continual debates. Civil and military transactions were constantly blended together. The senate frequently involved the state in war, in order to suspend its intestine divisions ; and the people as often took occasion, from the difficulties in which the community was involved by its enemies, to extort a compliance with their own demands.

" The first subject of contention was the distribution of the corn which the senate had purchased as a provision against the famine, which the late interruption of industry and agriculture, by the secession of the people, had occasioned. Coriolanus was for compelling the people, by hunger, to part with their tribunes, and the other concessions which had been extorted from the senate. The younger nobility applauded his sentiments; but 2-£ the majority were afraid of another storm, and agreed to deliver corn from the public granaries at a moderate price. The people,

If,

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526 ON GOVERNMENT.

however, were not appeased ; they were greatly incensed against Coriolanus ; and the tribunes cited him to appear before the tri- bunal of the people, to answer for the insult he had offered them. The senate and patricians were disposed to protect him ; but expected to be able to acquit him in the comitia of the centuries, the only tribunal before which any capital accusation of a citizen had ever been tried. " The tribunes, however, determined to introduce an innovation, and insisted that the people should assemble in their tribes. Coriolanus, seeing himself already con- demned by this method of proceeding, withdrew, and joined the enemies of his country."

This novelty made a total change in the constitution ; for " the assembly of the centuries formed an aristocracy, that of the tribes a democracy, as it was not with any precision deter- mined by law what business should be done in one assembly, and what in the other, the patricians and plebeians, instead of balancing each other by regular checks, were in danger of render- ing the administration of the state a continual scene of contra- dictions," which served to the last hour of the republic as an object of popular zeal, and furnished a specious pretence to am- bitious and designing men. This very uncertainty, producing continual altercations and wars, produced great statesmen and warriors, no doubt.* But a regular, well-ordered constitution, will never fail to bring forth men capable of conducting the national councils and arms ; and it is of infinitely more import- ance to the national happiness, to abound in good merchants, farmers, and manufacturers, good lawyers, priests, and physi- cians, and great philosophers, than it is to multiply what are called great statesmen and great generals. It is a miserable servitude, whether you call it a republic or a despotism, where the law is uncertain and unknown ; and it is only under the security of certain and known laws, that arts, sciences, agricul- ture, commerce, and trades, can ever be made to flourish.

Another subject of dispute was soon introduced, "which served to the last hour of the republic as' an object of popular

* This alludes to the following sentiment of Dr. Ferguson, which is not cited in the text.

" This singular constitution will appear to possess at least one of the highest political advantages, in being the most excellent nursery of statesmen and war- riors, and in forming the most conspicuous example of national ability and suc- cess."

ROME. 527

zeal, and furnished a specious pretence to ambitious and design- ing men td captivate the ears of the populace — an equal divi- sion of land, known by the name of an agrarian law."

By this was by no means meant a community of goods and lands, or an equal division of all the lands and goods ; the Roman people had too much sense and honesty ever to think of intro- ducing into practice such an absurd figment of the brain. But the Romans, during the late aristocratical times, and the wars against Tarquin, had " suffered the conquered lands to pass by connivance, occupancy, or purchase, into the hands of powerful citizens," instead of dividing them equally among the people. Spurius Cassius, the consul, who was in favor with the people, fa and affected still farther popularity by flattering the passions of the inferior classes, foreseeing that the tribunes would soon think of this object, determined to make a merit to himself by antici- pating them. " Possessing himself some of these lands, he ostentatiously made a division of them among the more indi- gent citizens ; and obtained an appointment of three commis- sioners to inquire into the evil and consider of a remedy."

" The patricians were alarmed ; but Cassius had numbers on p , his side, and was so confident of success, that he betrayed too / soon his ambitious design, by offering the freedom of the city to aliens, who, at his invitation, crowded from all parts to vote in the assemblies of the Roman people. This convinced all parties that his views were, by the means of aliens and indigent citizens, to usurp the government.1 All parties combined against him, and he was condemned for treason. The tribunes had no sooner /> - destroyed Cassius, than they adopted his project, and insisted on the law for the nomination of three commissioners."

1 It is a common trick of parties to assail the motives of formidable opponents, in order to weaken their influence, if not to destroy them entirely. The result proves that the measure of Cassius was felt to be reasonable, even though he was himself sacrificed as the advocate of it. Yet it is not uncommon among popular men to push good measures from bad reasons.

The course of modern criticism has been to doubt the correctness of many of the judgments passed upon men in the ancient republics, but it can do no more than doubt. In high party times, a vanquished reformer is most likely to be branded by the victors as an incendiary and a demagogue, as on the other hand a conservative statesman, Avhen overthrown, is liable to be handed down as unfaith- ful to popular government. And these judgments are made up under excite- ment, which leaves no room for an analysis of the merits of the questions put at issue. It is not unlikely that the best critics of ancient politics in Greece and Rome, may yet be found hereafter among the statesmen active in the struggles of America.

528 ON GOVERNMENT.

From this time commences a struggle between the tribunes and senate, patricians and plebeians, the various operations of •which would take up too much space to relate. " The tribunes were honored in proportion to the part they took in support of the popular cause, and their animosity against the senate. Every new tribune endeavored to signalize his year, by suggest- ing some new point to be gained by the people. One law was obtained to substitute the assembly of the tribes for that of the curiae, in the election of tribunes ; another to exclude the patri- cians entirely from the assembly of the tribes. The agrarian law they frequently moved in the interval of other pretensions, or together with other claims, in order to alarm the senate, and force them to a compromise."

The powers and artifices of both parties were soon exerted in another contest, in which the people were in the right, and pursued the most rational and necessary object imaginable, — a new code of laws which should regulate the forms of judicial proceedings ; yet even this was not pursued so much from the love of justice, or the spirit of liberty,1 as to gain a point from the patricians, whose power was greatly supported by the discretion- ary judicial powers they had in their hands. This great object, which the English nation have pursued for so long a course of time, under the names of Folcright or Common Law, they alone have had the wisdom to accompany with prerogatives to the crown and privileges to the nobility, which have secured those two branches of the constitution ; at the same time that, by establishing a body of laws and regular formal proceedings in the courts of justice, they have secured their own rights and liberties. The Roman people were not so wise ; by neglecting to give any adequate prerogatives to the consuls, and by undermining the power of the senate in proportion as they introduced regular law to protect their own rights, they undermined every other power in the constitution, and devolved the whole upon themselves. In the career they lost all their integrity and morals. " They opposed an ardor not to be cooled or discouraged, or restrained

1 It is difficult at all times to analyze the springs of popular movements. Mul- titudes are necessarily subject to an infinite diversity of impulses, the precise extent of each of which cannot be defined. But there is no reason in this case to suppose that the love of justice and the spirit of liberty did not animate the same breasts in which the other motive had its play. The desire for victory is an inevitable attendant upon eager contention for even the best object.

ROME. 529

by scruples in the choice of means, to the great authority and address of the nobles. A popular party are apt to think that the rules of veracity and candor may be dispensed with, and that deceit and violence may, without any scruple, be employed in their own favor. With less honor and dignity to maintain than their adversaries, they are less afraid of imputations that detract from either ; and their leaders, supported by the voice of the -* -> more numerous party, are less apprehensive of evil fame. In this contest, accordingly, fictitious plots and conspiracies were fabri- cated by the popular side, and fictitious designs against the liber- ties of the people were imputed to the patricians, in order to render them odious, and to deter them from appearing in support of their real pretensions." l

" The senate at last agreed to the nomination of three commis- sioners, to be sent to Greece, and make a collection of laws. The report they made was accepted, and the decemvirs appointed by the senate and people to compile a body of laws. These ten were intended only as a committee to prepare a draught for the consideration of the senate and people. Yet they had so much credit with the people as to be vested with a temporary sove- reignty ; and superseded the authority of the senate as well as the consuls ; and had unlimited power over the lives and for- tunes of their fellow-citizens. They presented a number of laws, engraven on ten tables or plates, containing a summary of the privileges of the people, the crimes to be punished, and the forms of judicial proceedings. They said then plan was unfinished; _*, and, desiring a renewal of their powers, obtained it for another year. Two more tables were added, which, with the former ten, made the Law of the Twelve Tables.

" In these laws the distinction of patrician and plebeian was •? i so great, that persons of these different orders were not permitted to intermarry. Bankruptcy was made a crime ; and, without any distinction between fraud and misfortune, it exposed the insolvent debtor to the mercy of his creditors, who might put him to death, dissect, or quarter him, and distribute his members -? X among them."

This law was brought from Greece, and shows the atrocious ideas and manners of the age. Although we have no account

1 It is hardly reasonable in a historian of a popular government to suppose that these labors are all confined to one party.

VOL. IV. 45 H 2

530 ON GOVERNMENT.

of the law being executed in its utmost extent, we know that, in consequence of it, debtors were, by the courts of law, delivered bound into the hands of creditors, and frequently scourged and whipped in a most cruel and unmerciful manner. Giving to fathers the power of magistrates, or the power of life and death, over their children, may have some reasons assigned for it ; but nothing can ever account for the people's accepting such a law of debtor and creditor among the Greeks or Romans, but the supposition that property was entirely in the hands of patricians ; and that the people had the blindest superstitious opinion, that the patricians, as descendants of gods, were a superior order of beings. It is no wonder that the people, after this, often clamored for an abolition or diminution of debts. Why they never de- manded an abolition of the law, is another question.

One other of these laws deserves particular notice. " In pri- vate, every family were free to worship the gods in their own way ; and in public, though certain forms were required, yet there was not any penalty annexed to the omission of them, as the punishment of offences in this matter was left to the offended god." This, probably, was the source of that wise and humane toleration which does so much honor to the Romans, and reflects disgrace on almost every Christian nation.

The ardor of the people to obtain this code had nearly cost them then liberties. " The power of a magistrate was supposed to determine only by his own resignation. The decemvirs, taking advantage of this defect in the constitution, continued the exercise of their power; and the people," to show that they never can be jealous of men who are in possession of their confidence, " acquiesced in their usurpation ; until the father of Virginia, by exercising his lawful authority in defence of his daughter's honor, exhibited a spectacle of horror which gave a turn to the imaginations, and aroused all the passions of the people to the expulsion of the decemvirs, as such another event had before given occasion to the abolition of monarchy.

" Patricians and plebeians now united, and a tide of mutual confidence began to flow. Two very popular persons were chosen consuls. The consecration of the tribunes was renewed, and extended to the sediles and other inferior officers, who acted under the tribunes in preserving the rights of the people. The patricians consented to have the acts of the senate formally re-

ROME. 531

corded, placed in the temple of Ceres, and committed to the care of the aediles. As the consuls had been hitherto the keep- ers and interpreters of their decrees, and had often suppressed or earned into execution their acts at their pleasure, this was a con- siderable diminution of the power of the consuls.

"The comitia were of three sorts, — the curiae, the centuries, l^( and the tribes. The centuries, alone, in which the patricians had an undoubted majority, as well as in the senate, had as yet the authority of making laws for the commonwealth. This still preserved the aristocratical character of the republic. Now the plebeians denied the legislative authority of the senate ; and the senate denied the right of the tribes to make laws. Equity re- quired that the plebeians should have a voice in the legislature ; but, instead of becoming a branch of it, instead of aiming at a deliberative or negative voice in it, by which they might concur with the senate and comitia of the centuries ; or, which would have been infinitely better, with the senate and consuls as two independent branches, they obtained a separate and independent power of legislation. Hence the intricacy of this constitution ; hence three distinct sources of laws, — decrees of the senate, acts of the centuries, and resolutions of the tribes, — senatus consulta, leges, plebiscita ;" a source of division, distraction, and tumult, which never ceased to issue streams till the authority of the senate was wholly destroyed, and a dominatio plebis began.

" The plebeians, having removed these inequalities, grew so much the more impatient of those which remained. They were still excluded from the office of consul, from that of the priest- hood, and were forbidden intermarriage with the nobles. In the year of the city, 308, Canuleius, a plebeian and a tribune, moved to repeal the law of the twelve tables, which prohibited the in- ) . . termarriage of patricians and plebeians ; and the nine other tri- | bunes claimed that the office of consul should be held by plebei- ans as well as patricians.

" The senate, and the whole order of nobles, by studied delays, and by the usual artifice of involving the state in foreign wars, suspended the determination of these questions; but at length y$ were obliged to gratify the people respecting the intermarriage of different ranks, in order to pacify them on the refusal of their claim to the consulate. To elude this demand, it was said that the sacrifices and other duties of the priesthood, many of which

532 ON GOVERNMENT.

were to be performed by the consul, could not, by the sacred laws of religion, be performed without profanation by persons of plebeian extraction, or by any but those of noble birth. This argument silenced the people for some time;" but neither super- stition, nor the true religion, any more than education, oaths, morals, or any other tie, will long restrain an unbalanced party, urged by its interest, and stimulated by a growing passion for power. An evasion, a mere change of a word, will answer the purpose of eluding superstitious fears, and even the dictates of conscience.

" The title of Consul was changed for that of Military Tri- bune ; and no sacerdotal function being included in the duties of this office, plebeians, though not qualified to be consuls, were elected military tribunes, with consular power. The military and sacerdotal functions had before been united ; they were now separated, and, as the people thought, without profanation. But another office remained to tempt the people and their tribunes, that of Censor. The cerisus had been a principal object of the executive power ; the kings had always held it, and after them the consuls. At every period of five years, they could dispose of every man's rank, assign him his class, place him in the rolls of the senate or the knights, or strike him off of either, degrade or disfranchise him, as they thought proper. A power so im- portant, although it had not been hitherto flagrantly abused, might easily be so ; and the senate would naturally dread the admission of plebeians to it. While they admitted them, there- fore to be elected tribunes, with consular power, they stipulated that the census should be separated from it, and that this charge should remain with persons of patrician birth."

The invasion of the Gauls had burnt the city, and it was thought, extinguished the republic forever. Manlius saved the capitol, and Camillus restored the commonwealth. " During a period of one hundred and seventeen years which followed, the Romans were ' involved in perpetual wars against the Equi, the Volsci, the Hernici, the Etruscans', and some of their own Latin confederates ; yet these did not wholly suspend their inter- nal convulsions, which gave birth to new political institutions. The plebeians, far from being satisfied with their past acquisi- tions, made continual efforts to extend their privileges. The tribunes, by traducing the senate, and by displaying in their

r<f

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ROME. 533

harangues the severities of the patrician creditor, and the suffer- ings of the plebeian debtor, still inflamed the animosity of the popular party. The republic itself was so feebly established, that ambitious citizens were encouraged, by means of factions raised among persons of the lower class, to entertain thoughts of subverting the government. In this manner, Manlius, the champion of the capitol, presuming on his merit, thought him- self above the laws, and incurred the imputation of aspiring to be king. Four hundred citizens, whom he had redeemed from their creditors, and released from chains ; the spoils of thirty enemies, slain by himself, in battle ; forty badges of honor, con- ferred on him by generals under whom he had served ; many citizens whom he had rescued from the enemy, among whom was Servilius, the second in command to the dictator; could not save him from being thrown from the rock on which he had so (% lately signalized his valor."

Such was the influence of the senate ; such " the treasons for which the friends of the people were to be sacrificed to the senate," as he said ; and such the popular prejudice against the name of a king. Yet it is certain that the best thing the Ro- man people could have done at that time, would have been to have made him a king, with a negative ; preserving, at the same time, their own negative, and that of the senate." 1

The plebeians had been now above forty years in possession of a title to hold the office of consular tribune, but had not been able to prevail over the influence of the patricians at any elec- tion. By the increase of their numbers in the first and second classes, by their intermarriages with patrician families, and by the assiduity and influence of individuals who aspired to the office, they at last obtained the dignity of consular tribune for

1 Something akin to this is expressed by Niebuhr : —

" Instead of relieving the distress, the patricians obstinately insisted on their rights, and thus arose a contest between beneficent ambition on the one hand, and the most stubborn oligarchy on the other. The natural consequence was, a very general feeling that any change would be better than such a government ; and that Manlius, as a usurper, might be as useful as many a Greek tyrant. This state of things undoubtedly became very dangerous. When a government is in a bad course, and unwilling to retrace its steps, it drives men to sin, and has much to answer for before God and man." Lectures on the History of Rome, edited by Dr. L. Schmitz, vol. i. p. 280.

The adoption of the Licinian laws seems to have been the popular reversal of the patrician verdict against Manlius. Some further comments on his case are made in the concluding chapter of this work.

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534 ON GOVERNMENT.

one of their own order, and from thenceforward began to divide the votes of the centuries with the patrician candidates. They soon aspired to the title of consuls. Stolo and Sextius were placed in the college of tribunes, to urge this point. They pro- posed three laws : — 1st. For relief of insolvent debtors, by cheat- ing their creditors of part of their debts. 2dly. To limit estates in land to five hundred jugera, about three hundred acres. 3rdly. To restore the election of consuls, in place of consular tribunes, with an express provision that at least one of the consuls should be of plebeian descent. The patricians prevailed upon some of the tribunes to dissent from then colleagues, and suspend, by their negatives, all proceedings upon these laws. Licinius and Sextius, in their turn, suspended the usual election of magis- trates, and put a stop to all the ordinary affairs of state. An anarchy of five years ensued. The patricians still insisted on the sacrilege and profanation that would be incurred, by suffering the rites usually performed by the consuls to pass into plebeian hands. The tribunes, to elude this mysterious objection, which laid fast hold on the superstitious minds of the people, contrived a shift. They moved, that the ordinary attendants on the sacred rites should be augmented from two to ten ; and that of these one half should be named of plebeian extraction. The patricians struggled as long as they could, but were at last obliged to give way, — 1st. To the acts in favor of insolvent debtors. 2dly. To the agrarian law, or limitation of property in land. 3dly. To the new establishment relating to the priesthood, and to the com- munication of the consulate itself to persons of plebeian rank. The plebeian party prevailed in all their points, and raised Sex- tius the tribune to the office of consul ; and, from one step to another, they obtained all the offices, whether of praetor or sedile, of dictator or censor, to be, in process of time, filled with persons of either rank.

" The only effect it now had was favorable to the plebeians, as it limited the choice of tribunes to their own order ; while, in common with the patricians, they had access to every other dig- nity in the state.

" In this account of the Roman constitution, we are now come nearly to that state of its maturity, at which Polybius began to admire the felicity of its institutions, and the order of its admin- istration." The mass, however, was far from being so well com-

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ROME. 535

pacted, or the unity of power so well established, as it is in the English constitution ; the senate and the popular assemblies, in their legislative capacities, counteracted one another. However, from this time forward, through a long period of wars, with Greeks, Gauls, Italians, and Carthaginians, the domestic policy of the state appears to be wise and orderly. The distinction between patrician and plebeian was become altogether nominal ; the descendants of those who had held the higher offices of state were, in consequence of the preferments of their ancestors, con- sidered as noble ; and, as the plebeians now found no difficulty in obtaining the offices of state, they were continually opening the way of their posterity to the rank of nobles. The plebeians were entitled by law to claim one of the consul's seats, and fre- quently occupied both. The authority of the senate, the dignity of the equestrian order, and the manners of the people in general, were guarded, and in a great measure preserved, by the integrity and strict exercise of the censorial power. The wisest and most respected of the citizens, from every condition, were raised into office ; and the assemblies, whether of the senate or the people, without envy and without jealousy, suffered themselves to be governed by the counsels of a few able and virtuous men. The spirit of the people was, however, in a high degree democratical ; and though they suffered themselves to be governed by the silent influence of personal authority in a few of their citizens, yet they could not endure any species of uncommon preeminence, even that which arose from the lustre and well-founded pretensions of distinguished merit.

The conduct of the Romans towards the Greeks should not be forgotten ; since it appears to have been copied from the policy of Antalcidas in his Persian treaty. " The states of the Achaean -_ ^ league, already on the decline, hastened, by the temerity and distractions of their own councils, the career of their fortunes to its termination. The Romans, even while they suffered this famous republic to retain the show of its independence, had treated its members, in many particulars, as subjects. At the close of the war with Perseus, they had cited to appear at Rome, or had taken into custody as prisoners of state, many citizens of Achaia. Of these they had detained about a thousand in differ- ZJT$ ent prisons of Italy. After a period of seventeen years, three hundred who remained alive were set at liberty. Polybius was

536 ON GOVERNMENT.

one of them. He attached himself to Scipio, the son of Emilius, and no doubt contributed much to his education and great cha- racter.

" The Romans, while they detained so many Greek prisoners, assumed the administration of affairs in Greece, and disposed of every distinction, whether of fortune or power, to their own tools. They received appeals from the judgments of the Achaean coun- cil, and encouraged its members, contrary to the express condi- tions of their league, to send separate embassies to Rome. The Spartans, having been forced into the Achaean confederacy, con- tinued refractory in most of its councils. By some of their com- plaints at Rome, they obtained a deputation from the senate, to hear parties on the spot, and to adjust then differences. The Achasan council, incensed at this insult which was offered to their authority, proceeded to enforce their own decrees against the republic of Sparta, marched an army, and defeated the in- habitants of that city who ventured to oppose them. The Roman commissioners arriving after these hostilities, summoned the par- ties to assemble at Corinth, and, in the name of the senate, gave sentence, — That Lacedcemon, Corinth, Argos, Heraclea, and Or- chomenos, not having' been original members of the Achaean con- federacy, should now be disjoined from it ; and that all the cities which had been rescued from the dominion of Philip should be left in full possession of their freedom and independency." A war ensued, in which Metellus and Mummius defeated the Greeks, and the Achaean league was dissolved.

" The enmity and the friendship of the Romans was equally fatal. As the Achaean league was dissolved, on having incurred their resentment, so the remnant of the Spartan republic perished, in having accepted their protection." And nothing could be more just than that the Spartans should perish under an insidious policy, which they themselves had first invented, practised, and suggested to the Romans ; who, under the command of Flami- nius, about fifty years before this date, in order to detach the Grecian cities from Philip, proclaimed with so much ostentation, at the Isthmus of Corinth, general independence, and the free exercise of their own laws, to all the republics of Greece. " The Achaean league was dissolved, and all its conventions annulled. The states which had composed it were deprived of their sove- reignty, subjected to pay a tribute, and placed under the govern-

ROME. 537

ment of a person annually sent from Rome with the title of Prae- tor of Achaia.

But the success of the Roman arms abroad, became the source of a ruinous corruption at home. In the state itself, the govern- ing and the governed felt separate interests, and were at vari- ance from motives of avarice, as well as ambition. Two hun- dred and thirty years had elapsed since the animosities of patri- cian and plebeian were extinguished by the equal participation of public honors. —uFhis distinction itself was, in a great measure, obliterated, and gave way~fo a new one, which, under the deno- mination of nobles and commons, or illustrious and obscure, with- out involving any legal disparity of privileges, gave rise to an aristocracy, which was partly hereditary, founded on the repeated succession to honors in the same family ; and partly personal, founded on the habits of high station and on the advantages of education, such as never fail to distinguish the conditions of men in every great and prosperous state. TfThese circumstances con- ferred a power on the nobles, which, though less invidious, was not less real than that which had been possessed by the ancient patricians. The exercise of this power was lodged with the senate, a body which, though by the emulation of its members too much disposed to war, and ambitious of conquest, was never surpassed in magnanimity, ability, or in steadiness, by any coun- cil of state whatever.

" The people had submitted to the senate, as possessed of an authority which was founded in the prevailing opinion of their superior worth ; and even the most aspiring of the commons allowed themselves to be governed by an order of men, amongst whom they themselves, by proper efforts and suitable merit, might hope to ascend. The knights, or the equestrian order, y -, *> being persons possessed of estates or effects of a certain valua- tion, and secluded from the pursuit of political emolument or honor, formed, between the senate and the people, an interme- diate rank, who, in consequence of their having a capital, and being less engaged than the senators in affairs of state, became traders, contractors, farmers of the revenue, and constituted a species of moneyed interest. «

" Circumstances which appear to be fixed in the political state P of nations, are often no more than a passage in the shifting of scenes, or a transition from that which a people have been, to

538 ON GOVERNMENT.

what they are about to become. The nobles began to avail themselves of the high authority and advantages oi their station, and to accumulate property as well as honors. ''Citizens con- tended for offices in the state, as the road to lucrative appoint- ments abroad ; and when they had obtained this end, and had reigned for a while in some province, they brought back from their government a profusion of wealth ill acquired, and the habit of arbitrary and uncontrolled command. When disap- pointed in the pursuits of fortune abroad, they became the lead- ers of dangerous factions at home ; or, when suddenly possessed of great wealth, they became the agents of corruption, to dis- seminate idleness and the love of ruinous amusements in the minds of the people, if The city was gradually crowded with a populace, who, tempted with the cheap or gratuitous distribu- tion of corn, by the frequency of public shows, by the conse- quence they enjoyed as members of the popular assemblies, flocked to Rome. There they were corrupted by idleness and indigence ; and the order itself was continually debased by the frequent accession of emancipated slaves. A turbulent populace tyrannized, in their turn, over the masters of the world, and wreaked on the conquerors of so many nations the evils which they themselves had so freely inflicted on mankind.

" Citizens of this extraction could not for ages arrive at any places of trust, in which they could, by their personal defects, injure the commonwealth ; but they increased, by their numbers and their vices, the weight of that dreg, which, in great and pros- perous cities, ever sinks, by the tendency of vice and misconduct, to the lowest condition. They became a part of that faction, who are ever actuated by envy to their superiors, by mercenary views, or by abject fear ; who are ever ready to espouse the cause of any leader against the restraints of public order ; disposed to vilify the more respectable ranks of men, and, by their indiffer- ence on the subjects of justice or honor, to frustrate every prin- ciple that may be employed for the government of mankind, besides fear and compulsion. Although citizens of this descrip- tion were yet far from being the majority at Rome, yet it is pro- bable that they were in numbers sufficient to contaminate the whole body of the people ; and if enrolled promiscuously in all the tribes, might have had a great weight in turning the scale of political councils. This effect, however, was happily prevented,

ROME. 539

by the wise precaution which the censors had taken, to confine all citizens of mean or slavish extraction to four of the tribes. These were called the tribes of the city, and formed but a small proportion of the whole.

" Notwithstanding this precaution, we must suppose them to ^<5^ have been very improper parties in the participation of sove- reignty, and likely enough to disturb the place of assembly with disorders and tumults. While the inferior people sunk in their characters, or were debased by the circumstances mentioned, the superior ranks, by their application to affairs of state, by their education, by "the ideas of high birth and family distinction, by the superiority of fortune, began to rise in their estimation, in their pretensions, and in then* power ; and they entertained some degree of contempt for persons, whom the laws still required them to admit as their fellow-citizens and equals.

" In this disposition of parties, so dangerous in a common- f wealth, and amidst materials so likely to catch the flame, some ' sparks were thrown, that soon kindled up anew all the popular animosities, which seemed to have been so long extinguished. Tiberius Gracchus, born of a plebeian family, but ennobled by the honors of his father, by his descent, on the side of his mother, from the first Scipio Africanus, and by his alliance with the second Scipio, who had married his sister, being now tribune of the people, and possessed of all the accomplishments required in a popular leader, great ardor, resolution, and eloquence, formed a project in itself extremely alarming, and in its consequences dan- gerous to the peace of the republic.

" Being called to account for his conduct as quaestor in Spain, ^ the severity he experienced from the senate, and the protection he obtained from the people, filled his breast with animosity to the one, and a prepossession in favor of the other. ^Actuated by these dispositions, or by an idea not uncommon to enthusiastic minds, that the unequal distribution of property, so favorable to the rich, is an injury to the poor, he proposed a revival of the law of Licinius, by which Roman citizens had been restrained from accumulating estates in land above the value of five hundred jugera, little more than half as many acres. This was become impracticable, and even dangerous, in the present state of the republic. The distinctions of poor and rich are as necessary, in h .24 states of considerable extent, as labor and good government. The

540 ON GOVERNMENT.

poor are destined to labor ; and the rich, by the advantages of edu- cation, independence, and leisure, are qualified for superior stations. The empire was now greatly extended, and owed its safety and the order of its government to a respectable aristocracy, founded on the possession of fortune, as well as personal qualities and public honors. The rich were not, without some violent con- vulsion, to be stript of estates which they themselves had bought, or which they had inherited from their ancestors. The poor were not qualified at once to be raised to a state of equality with persons inured to a better condition. The project seemed to be as ruinous to government as it was to the security of property, and tended to place the members of the commonwealth, by one rash and precipitate step, in situations in which they were not at all qualified to act.

" For these reasons, as well as from motives of private interest affecting the majority of the nobles, the project of Tiberius was strenuously opposed by the senate ; and, from motives of envy, interest, or mistaken zeal for justice, as warmly supported by the opposite party." Acting in concert with Appius Claudius, whose daughter he had married, a senator of the family of Crassus, who was then at the head of the priesthood, and Mucius Scsevola the consul, he exhausted all his art, and displayed all his eloquence in declamation. " But when he came to propose that the law should be read, he found that his opponents had procured M. Octavius, one of his colleagues, to interpose his negative, and forbid any further proceeding in the business. Here, according to the law and the constitution, this matter should have dropped^ But inflamed and unbalanced parties are not to be restrained by laws and constitutions. " The tribunes were instituted to defend their own party, not to attack their opponents ; and to prevent, not to promote innovations. Every single tribune had a negative on the whole."

The rest of the story I must leave. The constitution thus violated, Gracchus next violated the sacred character of his col- league, the tribune. The senate were transported with indigna- tion ; violence ensued, and the two Gracchi fell. Afterwards, Marius carried the popular pretensions still higher; and Sylla might, if he would, have been emperor. Caesar followed, and completed the catastrophe.

This commonwealth, by the splendor of its actions, the extent

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ROME. 541

of its empire, the wisdom of its councils, the talents, integrity, and courage of a multitude of characters, exhibits the fairest prospect of our species, and is the most signal example, except- ing England, of the wisdom and utility of a mixture of the three powers in a commonwealth. On the other hand, the various vicissitudes of its fortune, its perpetual domestic con- tests and internal revolutions, are the clearest proofs of the evils arising from the want of complete independence in each branch, and from an ineffectual balance.1

1 The author leaves us here without clearly defining the points in the Roman system in which the balance was defective. His observations on the same sub- ject, scattered in the last chapter of the work, are more forcible than this analy- sis. Some valuable reflections upon the subject have been supplied by Lord Brougham, in his Political Philosophy, part ii. ch. 13, and others are to be found scattered in the pages of Niebuhr and Dr. Arnold ; but a thoroughly repub- lican and philosophical history, written by one familiar with all the phases of a popular government, remains yet to be written.

VOL. IV. 46

CHAPTER VIII. ANCIENT APJSTOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.

CHAPTER VIII.

Ancient Apjstocratical Republics. Rome

ANCIENT APJSTOCRATICAL REPUBLICS.

ROME.

Dionysius Halicarnassensis, in the speech which he puts into the mouth of Valerius, has not only given us his own judgment, that the most perfect form of government is that which consists of an equal mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, but he has repeated the same sentiment, in his own name, in other parts of his work. In the seventh section of his second I book of the Roman Antiquities, he says of Romulus, that he was extremely capable of instituting the most perfect form of government. And, again ; " I shall first speak of the form of government he instituted, which I look upon, of all others, to be the most self-sufficient to answer all the ends both of peace and war." This is a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and demo- cracy, extolled by Polybius ; and is nearly the same with that of Lycurgus, instituted at Sparta about a hundred years before. As the constitutions of Rome and Sparta lasted so many cen- turies longer than others of Greece and Italy, and produced effects so amazing upon the human character, we may rationally ascribe that duration and those effects to this composition, although the balance was very imperfect in both. The legal power, both of the kings and people, in both, was unequal to that of the senate, and, therefore, the predominant character in both was aristocracy. In Sparta, the influence of the mo- narchy and democracy was derived chiefly from the oath taken by the kings and ephori to support each other. An authority founded thus, in opinion, in religion, or rather in superstition, and not in legal power, would keep the senate in some awe, but not in any certain restraint.

Romulus divided all the people into three parts, and appointed a person of the first rank to be the chief of each of them. Then he subdivided each of these into ten others, and appointed as many of the bravest men to be the leaders of these. The greater

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divisions he called tribes, and the lesser curies. The commanders of the tribes were called tribuni ; and those of the curiae, curiones. He then divided the land into thirty portions, and gave one of them to each curia. He distinguished those who were eminent for their birth, virtues, and riches; and to these he gave the name of fathers. The obscure, the mean, and the poor, he called ple- beians, in imitation of the government at Athens, where, at that time, those who were distinguished by their birth and fortune, were called " well-born," to whom the administration of govern- ment was committed ; and the -rest of the people, who had no share in it, " husbandmen." Romulus appointed the patricians to be priests, magistrates, and judges. The institution by which every plebeian was allowed to' choose any patrician for his patron,1 introduced an intercourse of good offices between these orders, made the patricians emulate each other in acts of civility and humanity to their clients, and contributed to preserve the peace and harmony of Rome in so remarkable a manner, that, in all the contests which happened for six hundred and twenty years, they never proceeded to bloodshed.

The king, according to the institution of Romulus, had several important functions, namely, — 1. Supremacy in religion, cere- monies, sacrifices, and worship. 2. The guardianship of the laws, and administration of justice, in all cases, whether founded on the law of nature, or the civil law ; he was to take cognizance of the greatest crimes in person, leaving the lesser to the senate; and to observe that no. errors were committed in their judgments; he was to assemble both the senate and the people ; to deliver his opinion first, and pursue the resolutions of the majority. Ro- mulus, however, wisely avoided that remarkable Spartan absurd- ity of two kings.

The senate were to deliberate and determine, by a majority of votes, all questions which the king should propose to them. This institution, also, Romulus took from the constitution of the La- cedaemonians. The kings, in both constitutions, were so far from being absolute, that they had not the whole executive power, nor any negative upon the legislature ; in short, the whole power of the government was vested in the senate.

1 Upon this relation, as well as the story of the early kings, much has been ■written of late years, calculated to throw doubt upon former impressions, but not to substitute entirely clear ideas.

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544 ON GOVERNMENT.

The people had three privileges, — to choose magistrates (yet all the great employments must be confined to patricians); to enact laws ; and to determine concerning war, when proposed by the king. But the concurrence of the senate being necessary to give a sanction to their decisions, their power was not with- out control.

To separate the executive from the legislative power, and the judicial from both, and to give the king, the senate, and peo- ple, each a negative in the legislature, is so simple, and to us appears so obvious an improvement of this plan, that it is sur- prising it did not occur to Romulus as well as to Lycurgus ; but, in those early times, perhaps neither kings nor nobles, nor people were willing to have their prerogatives and privileges so exactly ascertained. The nobles in both nations had almost all the in- fluence, and were no doubt as jealous of royal as they were of popular power. It is certain that, although the government was called monarchical, it was in reality aristocratical in a high degree. There is a remarkable example of aristocratical art in the manner of obtaining the determination of the people. They were not permitted to vote in one common assembly ; they were called in their curiae ; the majority of votes in a curia decided its voice ; and a majority of curiae was the resolve of the whole people.

Had Romulus died in peace, and left a son, his monarchy would probably have descended in his family. But a contest arose immediately here (as it has done in all other nations where the people had not a negative, and where the executive power has been partly in the hands of a king, and partly in a senate,) between the king and the nobles ; and Romulus was put to death by the patricians for aiming, as they pretended, at more power than his share. This enabled the patricians to carry their first point ; for it was always the first point of the aristocracy to make the first magistrate elective ; in this they are always at first joined by the people ; but, after seeing the use which the nobles make of these elections a few times, the people them- selves have always made it hereditary.

Numa was chosen; a man of peace, piety, and humanity, who had address enough to make the nobles and people believe that he was married to the goddess Egeria, and received from his celestial consort all his laws and measures.

ROME. 545

Tullus Hostilius, a man of great merit, was chosen in his stead ; but after a glorious, at least a victorious, reign of thirty- two years, was murdered by the patricians, headed by Ancus Marcius, grandson of Numa by his only daughter, who thought his family right prior to that of Tullius.

Ancus was elected king, and died a natural death.

Lucius Tarauinius, after a reign of thirty-eight years, in which he had enlarged the territory, beautified the city, and shown himself worthy of the crown, was assassinated in his palace by the two sons of Ancus Marcius, who had learned the family policy. But their project was unfortunate; the people loved Lucius, execrated the instruments of the murder, banished the two sons of Ancus, and confiscated their estates.

Servius Tullius, who had married the daughter of Lucius, was now elevated to the throne by the people, much against the will of the senate and patricians, because Lucius was not one of them, but of Greek extraction. Tullius was chiefly supported by the people, always disagreeable to the patricians, who held his advancement to the throne to be illegal. The administration of Tullius is an artful system of duplicity, to preserve his charac- ter of the man of the people, and, at the same time, appease the fury of the patricians, by really undermining the authority of the people, and throwing the whole power into their hands.1 In pur- suance of his principle, to please both sides, he made excellent equitable regulations for registering the people, establishing a militia, and proportioning the burdens of war according to the property and abilities of all ranks ; but he subdivided the six classes into one hundred and ninety-three centuries. The first class was composed wholly of the rich, and contained ninety- eight of the centuries. If the centuries of the first class were unanimous, as they generally were, they carried every point by a majority of three ; if they disagreed, the centuries of the second class were called ; if they disagreed, the third came forward ; and so on, till ninety-seven centuries agreed. If the numbers con- tinued equal, ninety-six to ninety-six, the sixth class was called,

1 " Deinde equitum magno numero ex omni populi summa separato, reliquum populum distribuit in quinque classes, senioresque a jimioribus divisit ; eosque ita disparavit, ut sufiragia non in multitudinis sed in locupletium potestate essent ; curavitque, quod semper in republica tenendum est, ne plurimum valeant plurimi." Cicero. Be Rep. ii. 22.

46* 12

546 ON GOVERNMENT.

which was composed wholly of the poorest people, and con- tained but one century ; but even the votes of the fourth class were rarely called for, and the votes of the fifth and sixth were generally useless. When the people voted by curiae, the vote of every citizen was given, and, as the poor were most numerous, they were always sure of a large majority ; but, when thus taken by centuries, that numerous body of the poor, which composed the sixth century, were wholly insignificant, and those of the fifth and fourth very nearly so. By changing the votes from curia? to centuries, Tullius wholly changed the fundamental con- stitution, and threw the elections of magistrates, civil and mili- tary, the power of enacting and repealing laws, declaring war, and making peace, all into the power of the rich patricians. The people had not sense enough to see this; nor to see another thing of more importance, namely, — that the Icing had been driven to the necessity of this artful flattery of the patricians, by his not being independent of them, and by then sharing with him in the executive power. Tullius had two daughters, married to the grandsons of his predecessor, Aruns and Tarquinius. The patri- cians were still caballing against Tullius, and set up Tarquin, one of his sons-in-law, against him ; but as a majority were not for his deposition, Tarquin and his impious and incestuous wife joined the cabal in the murder of her first husband and her father. Tarquin, in time, murdered on all hands, patricians and plebeians. He was expelled by Brutus.

This whole history, from Romulus to Tarquin, is one con- tinued struggle of the noble families for the first place ; and another unanswerable proof of the necessity of having three orders, and each order independent, in order to form an effectual equilibrium. The people were very little regarded by the senate or patricians ; the kings only now and then courted the people for support against their rivals among the patrician families. The tyranny of Tarquin made the name of king odious and un- popular. The patricians, who were the principal conductors of the revolution, took advantage of this — for what ? To restore and improve Romulus's plan of a mixed government ? No ; but to establish their favorite aristocracy upon the ruins of mo- narchy. Two consuls, in imitation of the two Spartan kings, were to be elected annually, by the votes of the people, which carried the name of a democratical power ; but the votes were

ROME. 547

taken by centuries, not by tribes, which made the patricians masters of the elections, and constituted an aristocracy in reality. From this moment a haughty faction of selfish patricians ap- pears, who affected to despise the people, to reduce them to ser- vitude, and establish a despotic oligarchy. The people had suf- fered their prejudices to blind them so far as to be tricked out of their king, who was at least a better friend to them than the pa- tricians were ; and now, the contests were wholly between pa- tricians and plebeians. The former had got the consuls, and consequently the executive power, as much in their hands as ever the nobles in Venice had then doge, or as the nobles in Po- land have their king.

The plebeians were now in a most wretched situation. They were obliged to serve in the wars, to keep out the Tarquins and their allies, at their own expense, which frequently obliged them to borrow money at exorbitant interest of the patricians, who had engrossed the greater part of the wealth ; and, as the coun- try was often ravaged by the enemy, many lost all their effects. Unable to pay the principal, with loads of interest accumulated upon interest, they were frequently confined in chains by their creditors, and scourged with whips ; for the law, to which they had foolishly consented, had made the debtor a slave to the creditor. The people began to demand an abolition of debts ; the senate appointed a dictator. A confusion of foreign wars and domestic dissensions ensues, till we come to the story so beautifully told by Livy and Dionysius, of the man who had been in twenty-eight battles, who appeared before the people, and showed on his back the bleeding scars inflicted by a merci- less creditor. At this time, the patricians had plunged into their usual difficulty, a violent contest among themselves, between a furious headlong party, which always appears for an oligarchy, and the moderate men, who desire to continue the aristocracy ; the young patricians generally follow the haughty Claudius, and the mild Valerius courts the people. The oligarchy prevails, and the decemvirate is established ; their tyranny drives the people to the sacred mountain ; and, at last, the tribunate was established.

Here is the first symptom of any system pursued by the peo- ple. This was a balance ; but what kind of a balance ? No- body thought of another council, a house of representatives, who

548 ON GOVERNMENT.

should have a negative; and, if they had, it would not have availed without* a king ; for such a new assembly would soon have been either wholly subjected to the senate, or would have voted it useless. In truth, the monarchical power being sup- pressed, and the executive authority, as well as legislative, being now only in the senate and people, a struggle commenced be- tween these two.

The people were on the scramble for more power ; and first obtained a law, that all laws passed in their assemblies by tribes, should have equal force with those made in the assembly by cen- turies ; then, that all posts and dignities should be enjoyed by the plebeians equally with the patricians ; and that the decrees of the people should have the same force, and affect the patri- cians in the same manner, as those passed by the senate. All this was very just, and only brought the democracy to an equal- ity with the aristocracy ; but whenever these two are equal in legal power, numbers will soon turn the balance in favor of the democracy, unless there is a third power to intervene. Accord- ingly it so happened here, and the people went on from step to step, increasing their own importance, and diminishing that of the senate, until it was found shut up in Utica ; but, before this, the people were divided into parties, and Caesar, at the head of one, passed the Rubicon, that is, set the most sacred law of his country at open defiance. From this time the government became a government of men, and the worst of men.

From this example, as from all others, it appears that there can be no government of laws without a balance, and that there can be no balance without three orders ; and that even three orders can never balance each other, unless each in its depart- ment is independent and absolute. For want of this the struggle was first between the king and senate ; in which case the king must always give way, unless supported by the people. Before the creation of tribunes, the people were in no sense independ- ent, and, therefore, could not support the kings. After the aboli- tion of kings, the senate had no balance either way, and accord- ingly became at once a tyrannical oligarchy. When the people demanded their right, and obtained a check, they were not satis- fied ; and grasped at more and more power, until they obtained all, there being no monarchical power to aid the senate. But the moment the power became collected into this one centre, it

LACED^EMON. 549

was found in reality split into three ; and as Caesar had the largest of the three shares, he instantly usurped the whole.

Laced.Emon

LACED.EMON.

From the days of Homer to those of Lycurgus, the govern- ments in Greece were monarchical in name and pretension, but aristocratical in reality. The archons were impatient of regal government, constantly struggling against their kings ; and they had prevailed in every other city, except Sparta, to abolish the royal authority and substitute an aristocracy of archons in its place. In Lacedaemon, too, where there were eight-and-twenty archons contending against two kings, they had brought the whole country into the utmost confusion. The circumstance of two kings, which perhaps prolonged the regal power longer in Sparta than in any other city, originated in the fondness of a mother. Aristodemus, one of the descendants of Hercules, to whose share Laconia fell, upon the division of the Peloponnesus, after the return of that family from banishment, died leaving twin sons, Eurysthenes and Procles ; their mother refusing to deter- mine which had the right of primogeniture, it was agreed that ^-/pvV both should succeed to the crown with eoual authority, and that / / 3 the posterity of each should inherit. The nobles took advantage of all the jealousies which arose between the two families, obliged each to court them, and from time to time to make them conces- sions, until the royal authority was lost ; and as the archons could not agree, each party now began to court the people, and universal anarchy prevailed. j fJ^J

Lycurgus, of the family of Procles, and only in the tenth ^^ descent from Hercules, succeeded his brother Polydectes; but -p being told his brother's widow was with child, he declared him- self protector only, and resigned the crown. Such a disinterested indifference to a crown in any one of royal or noble blood, was so unexampled in that age, that no wonder it was much admired and very popular. The ambitious princess, his sister, offered to marry him and remove out of his way the only competitor, by ^

procuring an abortion. He deceived her by counterfeited tender- ness ; and diverted her from the thoughts of an abortion, by pro- mising to take the disposition of the child upon himself when it should be born. The infant was sent to him, when at supper

/

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550 ON GOVERNMENT.

with the principal magistrates. He took it in his arms, and cried, "A king, Spartans, is born to you," and placed it in his own seat. The company were touched at the tenderness of the scene, and fell into a transport of enthusiasm, both of piety to the blood of Hercules, and admiration of the disinterested inte- grity of Lycurgus, who, like an able statesman, perpetuates the memory of the event, and the joy at it, by the name with which, upon the spot, he christens the boy Charilaus, the people's joy. But all this exalted merit, added to his acknowledged divine descent, and the undoubted possession of royal power, were not sufficient to overawe the jealousy of the nobles, a strong party of whom joined the irritated queen and her brother, and raised con- tinual factions against him, Weary of cabals, and stimulated with a thirst for knowledge, he determined to travel ; visited Crete and Egypt, the two sources of the theology and policy of Greece ; and brought home with him, on his return to his own country, Thales, the poet, and the writings of Homer, with the resolution to adopt the 'martial discipline and political liberty which he read in the poet, and had seen exemplified in Crete. Nothing could be better calculated than his two poets, to inspire the nation with that enthusiasm which he wanted, and confirm the belief, that kings were from Jupiter, and beloved by him, excepting the response of the oracle, which he took care to pro- cure. " Welcome, Lycurgus, to this happy place, thou favorite of heaven ! I stand in doubt whether I shall pronounce thee god or man ; inclining still to think thou art a god !" *

The disorders in Sparta were now become insupportable ; the j. kings had as little authority as the laws. All parties, except the two kings, in despair of their private schemes, applied to the great legislator, pointed out to all, by his divine original, the inspiration of Homer and Thales, his own integrity, wisdom, knowledge, and commanding authority over the minds of men, as well as his special divine mission pronounced by the oracle, to be the only man capable of new-modelling the constitution.

In Crete he had acquired a deep insight into human nature, at least he had informed himself fully of the length and breadth, the height and depth, of the passion of ambition in the human heart. That complication of affections, which is called by so many

* Herodotus.

LACEDJEMON. 551

names, the love of esteem, of praise, of fame, of glory ; that sense of honor in which Montesquieu tells us monarchies are founded ; which Tacitus tells us made the ancient Teutons submit quietly to be sold by their inferiors, when they had gambled away their liberty ; which at this day enforces so punctual a payment of debts of honor contracted at play ; which supports against all // laws throughout Europe the custom of duelling, and produces more suicides than any other cause ; which is commonly known by the denomination of the point of honor, and may with as much propriety be called ambition, Lycurgus appears to have under- stood better than any other legislator, and to have made the foundation of his institution. For this reason, Plato with great propriety calls it " The ambitious republic."

Lycurgus in secret consulted the nobles, but not the kings; formed a powerful party, and called an assembly of the people, be- fore whom his friends appeared in arms. Charilaus and Archelaus were not in the secret, but found themselves obliged to submit. What is all this but a body of-; nobles completing, by the aid of Lycurgus, that abolition of monarchy which they had been pur- J suing for ages, unrestrained by any legal check in the people, and unresisted by any adequate power in the crown ? But what was his new institution ?

In compliance with old prejudices, and from attachment to his family, he confirmed the two families on the throne, established the hereditary descent of the crown, but limited its authority. The kings were to continue high priests, to be commanders-in- chief of the armies, and presidents of the senate. Charilaus and Archelaus, terrified by the fate of all the other kings of Greece, agreed to accept of a certain, though limited authority, in lieu of pretensions more absolute and more precarious.

The ancient dignities of the nobles were confirmed and en- larged. A senate of eight-and-twenty of their chiefs was formed, k I &7 at the head of whom the two kings were placed. To the people ' he committed the election of future senators. But as the present twenty-eight were for life, and the influence of kings and sena- tors would be commonly used with great unanimity, in favor of the eldest son, to fill up a vacancy made by the death of his father ; and as the people were not permitted to debate, their choice was perhaps * little more than a consent by acclamation to * " No authority for this ' perhaps.' " S.

552

ON GOVERNMENT.

so

a nomination made by the king, and amounted to the same thing with a hereditary house of peers. To this senate the whole executive power was committed, and the most important part of the legislative ; for as all laws were to originate there only, they had a negative before debate. Here is indeed all authority nearly collected into one centre, and that centre the nobility ; for the king was but the first among equals, having no negative upon the senate.

If the legislator had rested here, his institution would have been in effect a simple hereditary oligarchy, possessed of the whole legislative, executive, and judicial power, and probably as restless as ever, to reduce the kings to elections for life or years, then to take from them the power of religion, the command of armies, and lastly to change the title from king to archon, or from the family of Hercules to other houses. With a view to counter- balance this dangerous authority, he instituted assemblies of the people, but intrusted them only with the power of confirming or rejecting what the senate proposed, and expressly forbade them all debate. The citizens were to give their simple ayes or noes, without beingT allowed to speak, even so far as to give a reason for their vote. He instituted, moreover, as a farther check upon the senate, five magistrates to inspect the administration and maintain the constitution ; to convoke, prorogue, and dissolve both the greater assembly of the people, composed of nine thou- sand inhabitants of the city, and the lesser, consisting of thirty thousand inhabitants of the country or inferior villages. These magistrates were called the ephori, and were to be annually appointed. But the lawgiver saw that the king and people were both too weak, and the senate would still have power to scram- ble after both ; he therefore contrived a kind of solemn alliance to be perpetually renewed between the monarchical and demo- cratical branches, by which the senate might be awed into mode- ration. He ordered an oath to be taken every month, by the kings and the ephori. The former swore to observe the laws, and the latter swore, for 'themselves and the people whom they repre- sented, to maintain the hereditary honors of the race of Hercules, to revere them as ministers of religion, to obey them as judges, and follow them as leaders. This was indeed a balance founded in opinion and in religion, though not a legal and independent check ; as it was not a negative in either.

LACEDiEMON. 553

In this constitution, then, were three orders, and a balance, not indeed equal to that of England, for want of a negative in each branch ; but the nearest resembling it of any we have yet seen. The kings, the nobles, the senate, and the people, in two assem- blies, are surely more orders than a governor, senate, and house. The balance here attempted was as strong as religion operating on human nature could make it, though not equivalent to a negative in each of three branches. Another balance was attempted, in the rigorous separation of the city from the coun- try, in two assemblies. It avoided the danger of jealousies between town and country in the deliberations of the people, and doubled the chances both of the monarchy and democracy, for preserving their importance in case of encroachments by the senate. If the senate and nobles should prevail in one assembly of the people, so far as to carry any unconstitutional point, the kings and ephori would find a resource in the other to lead them back. The Lacedaemonian republic may then, with propriety, be called monarchical, and had the three essential parts of the best possible government ; it was a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. It failed, however, in that essential particular, the balance. The aristocracy had a legal power so eminent above that of king or people, that it would soon have annihilated both, if other precautions had not been taken, which destroyed all the real merit of this celebrated institution.

That the glory of the descendants of Hercules and of their republic might be the pride of every citizen, and that a supersti- tious attachment to both might be perpetuated, it was necessary to extinguish every other appetite, passion, and affection in hu- man nature. The equal division of property ; the banishment of gold and silver ; the prohibition of travel and intercourse with strangers ; the prohibition of arts, trades, and agriculture ; the discouragement of literature ; the public meals ; the incessant warlike exercises ; the doctrine that every citizen was the pro- perty of the state, and that parents should not educate their own children ; although they served to keep up the constant be- lief of the divine mission of Lycurgus, and an enthusiastic pas- sion for the glory of the republic, and the race of Hercules ; and although they are celebrated by the aristocratical philosophers, historians, and statesmen of antiquity ; must be considered as calculated to gratify his own family pride rather than promote

VOL. IV. 47

554 ON GOVERNMENT.

the happiness of his people. Four hundred thousand slaves must be devoted to forty thousand citizens ; weak and deformed child- ren must be exposed; morality and humanity, as well as all the comforts, elegancies, and pleasures of life must be sacrificed to this glaring phantom of vanity, superstition, and ambition. Separated from the rest of mankind, they lived together, desti- tute of all business, pleasure, and amusement, but war and poli- tics, pride and ambition ; and these occupations and passions they transmitted from generation to generation, for seven hun- dred years ; as if fighting and intriguing, and not life and happi- ness, were the end of man and society ; as if the love of one's country and of glory were amiable passions, when not limited by justice and general benevolence ; and as if nations were to be chained together forever, merely that one family might reign among them. Whether Lycurgus believed the descent of his ancestor from Jupiter, the divine inspiration of Homer and Thales, or the divinity of the Oracle, any more than Mahomet believed his divine mission, may well be doubted. Whether he did or not, he shackled the Spartans to the ambitious views of his family for fourteen successions of Herculean kings, at the expense of the continual disturbance of all Greece, 'and the con- stant misery of his own people. Amidst the contradictions of ancient and modern writers, that account has been followed con- cerning the institution of the ephori, which appears most favor- able to Lycurgus.1 The Roman tribunes, and perhaps the Vene- tian inquisitors, were borrowed from this institution.

Human nature perished under this frigid system of national and family pride. Population, the surest indication of national happiness, decreased so fast, that not more than one thousand old Spartan families remained, while nine thousand strangers had intruded, in spite of all their prohibitory laws. The con- quest of Athens gave them a taste of wealth, and even the fear of the penalty of death could not restrain them from travelling. Intercourse with strangers brought in foreign manners. The ephori were sometimes bribed. Divisions arose between the two kings, Agis and Leonidas; one joined with the people, the

1 " That opinion is continually gaining ground, which in the main regards Lycurgus as the regulator of existing institutions, and in particular instances only, as the author of original laws." Wachsmuth, Historical Antiq. of the Greeks, vol. i. p. 322.

LACED.EMON. 555

other with the nobles, and the sedition proceeded to blood. Kings became so fond of subsidies from foreign powers, that Agesilaus received them from a King of Egypt, and his enemy at the same time. Agis was murdered by the order of the ephori, who, instead of honoring the blood of Hercules, according to their oath, took the sovereign power into then own hands. Here the balance broke ; Cleomenes, who endeavored, like Agis, to restore the old laws and maxims, fell a sacrifice ; and nothing appears afterwards in the history of Sparta but profligacy, tyranny, and cruelty, like that in Rome under the worst of the Ceesars.

The institution of Lycurgus was well calculated to preserve the independence of his country, but had no regard to its happi- ness, and very little to its liberty. As the people's consent was necessary to every law, it had so far the appearance of political liberty ; but the civil liberty of it was little better than that of a man chained in a dungeon — a liberty to rest as he is. The in- fluence of this boasted legislation on the human character was to produce warriors and politicians, and nothing else. To say that this people were happy, is to contradict every quality in human nature except ambition. They had no other gratification. Science and letters were sacrificed, as well as commerce, to the ruling passion ; and Milton had no reason to " wonder how museless and unbookish they were, minding nought but the feats of war;" since it was not so much because Lycurgus was « addicted to elegant learning, or to mollify the Spartan surliness with smooth songs and odes, the better to plant among them law and civility," that he brought the scattered works of Homer from Ionia, and Thales from Crete; but merely to propagate his own and his family imposture. The plan was profound, and means were with great ability fitted to the end ; but, as a system of legislation, which should never have any other end than the greatest happiness of the greatest number, saving- to all their rights, it was not only the least respectable, but the most detest- able in all Greece. To do it justice, however, it is much to be desired, that exercises like those established by Lycurgus, run- ning, wrestling, riding, swimming, skating, fencing, dancing, should be introduced into public and private, education in Ame rica, which would fortify the bodies and invigorate the minds ) of youth ; instead of those sedentary amusements which debili- tate, and are taking entire possession of society all over the

7

556 ON GOVERNMENT.

world. The ladies, too, might honor some of these entertain- ments, thoughnot all, with their presence and participation, to the great advantage of their own health, and that of posterity, without injury to their charms or their reputations. But, above all, the existence of an all-perfect Intelligence, the parent of nature, the wise and moral ruler of it ; the responsibility of every subordinate intellectual and moral agent ; a future state of re- wards and punishments ; and the sacred obligation of oaths, as well as of the relative duties of social life, cannot be too clearly fixed by rational arguments in the minds of all the citizens. In this respect Lycurgus merits praise.

But, as a civil and political constitution, taken all together, it is infinitely inferior to another, which Americans have taken for their model. The English constitution is the result of the most mature deliberation on universal history and philosophy. If Harrington's council of legislators had read over the history, and studied the constitution of every nation, ancient and mo- dern, remarked the inconveniences and defects of each, and bent the whole force of their invention to discover a remedy for it, they would have produced no other regulations than those of the English constitution, in its theory, unless they had found a peo- ple so circumstanced as to be able to bear annual elections of the king and senate. This improvement, the Americans, in the pre- sent stage of society among them, have ventured on ; sensible, however, of the danger, and knowing perfectly well a remedy, in case their elections should become turbulent. Of this, at pre- sent, there is no appearance.

Crotona

CROTONA.

Pythagoras, as well as Socrates, Plato, and Xenophon, was persuaded that the happiness of nations depended chiefly on the form of their government. They were fully sensible of the real misery, as well as dangerous tendency, both of demoeratical licentiousness and monarchical tyranny ; they preferred a well- tempered aristocracy to all other governments. Pythagoras and Socrates, having no idea of three independent branches in the legislature, both thought, that the laws could neither prevent the arbitrary oppressions of magistrates, nor turbulent insolence of the people, until mankind were habituated, by education and

CROTONA. 557

discipline, to regard the great duties of life, and to consider a reverence of themselves, and the esteem of their fellow-citizens, as the principal source of their enjoyment. In small communi- ties, especially where the slaves were many, and the citizens few, this might be plausible ; but the education of a great nation can never accomplish so great an end. Millions must be brought up, whom no principles, no sentiments derived from education, can restrain from trampling on the laws. Orders of men, watching and balancing each other, are the only security ; power must be opposed to power, and interest to interest. Pythagoras found this by experience at Crotona, where the inferior ranks, elated with the destruction of Sybaris, and instigated by an artful, am- bitious leader, Cylon, clamored for an equal partition of the conquered territory. This was denied them, as inconsistent with an aristocratical government; a conspiracy ensued against the magistrates, who were surprised in the senate-house, many put to death, and the rest driven from their country. Pytha- goras was one of the banished, and died soon afterwards, in extreme old age, at Metapontum. The Crotonians had soon cause to repent their insurrection ; for they were defeated, with all their forces, by the Locrians and Rhegians, with smaller numbers.

The other Greek cities of Italy, which had imitated the exam- ple oT Crotona, in deposing their magistrates, were harassed with wars against each other, and against their neighbors. In consequence of these distresses, the disciples of Pythagoras again recovered their reputation and influence ; and about sixty years afterwards, Zaleucus and Charondas, the one in Locris, and the other in Thurium, revived the Pythagorean institutions. In forty years more, a new revolution drove the Pythagoreans entirely from Italy, and completed the misery of that beautiful country. Thus, experience has ever shown, that education, as well as religion, aristocracy, as well as democracy and monarchy, are, singly, totally inadequate to the business of restraining the passions of men, of preserving a steady government, and pro- tecting the lives, liberties, and properties of the people. Nothing has ever effected it but three different orders of men, bound by their interests to watch over each other, and stand the guardians of the laws. Religion, superstition, oaths, education, laws, all

47*

l/

558 ON GOVERNMENT.

give way before passions, interest, and power, which can be re- sisted only by passions, interest, and power.

It is no wonder that M. Turgqt should have entertained very crude conceptions of republican legislation ; it is a science the least understood of any in the whole circle. All other orders of men of letters in Europe, as well as physicians, for a long time, have thought it " litter a nihil sanantes." It is a kind of erudition • which neither procures places, pensions, embassies, chairs in academies, nor fame nor practice in the pulpit, at the bar, nor in medicine. A minister of state, of great abilities and merit, as well as reputation, advanced to the head of the affairs of a respectable monarchy, by one of the greatest princes that have ever lived, I mean the Baron de Hertzberg, has, within a few years, set an example, in a royal academy of sciences, of inquiry into this subject. In a learned and ingenious discourse,1 delivered by himself, he has attempted to show the advantages of simple monarchy over all kinds of republican governments, even that best species of them, limited monarchies. But did this worthy minister expect that any of his brother academicians would con- test with him the merits of such governments ? Men of letters are not fond of martyrdom in this age, nor of ruining their repu- tations. It is not, however, my design to discuss any questions at present concerning absolute monarchies, though the principles I contend for might be traced through the history of every mo- narchy and empire in Europe. Even in these there are orders, checks, and balances contrived, at least against abuses in ad- ministration, and for the preservation of the laws.

1 " Sur la forme des gouvernemens, et quelle en est la meilleure ? "

This dissertation was read at Berlin, on the twenty-ninth of January, 1 784, the sixty-third anniversary of the birthday of Frederic II. Of course, as Baron Hertzberg was the King's minister, it is not surprising that he proceeds to assume the government of Prussia to be one of the best in the world, and one " which will serve as a model for princes and for centuries to come."

The main proposition is, that " a hereditary monarchy, tempered by good fundamental laws, adapted to the situation of a country and the character of a nation, is that form of government best fitted to create and to perfect the happi- ness of men, of societies, and of nations."

There is no attempt made in it to show the nature of the foundation upon which the laws, tempering the absolute power of such a sovereign as Frederic II., are to rest. Neither is the texture of the argument, in support of his propo- sition, much stronger than is that of an ordinary oration, delivered on the fourth of July, in America, in favor of a republic. Eulogy is equally the purpose of both.

CROTONA. 559

The science of government has received very little improve- ment since the Greeks and Romans. The necessity of a strong and independent executive in a single person, and of three branches in the legislature instead of two, and of an equality among the three, are improvements made by the English, which were unknown, at least never reduced to practice, by the ancients. Machiavel was the first who revived the ancient politics. The best part of his writings he translated almost literally from Plato "and Aristotle, without' acknowledging the obligation; and the "worst of the sentiments, even in his Prince, he translated from Aristotle, without throwing upon him the reproach. Montesquieu borrowed the best part of his book from Machiavel, without ac- knowledging the quotation. Milton, Harrington, Sidney, were intimately acquainted with the ancients and with Machiavel. They were followed by Locke, Hoadley, &c. The reputation which is to be acquired by this kind of learning may be judged - of by the language of Mr. Hume : — " Compositions the most despicable, both for style and matter, such as R-apin Thoyras, Locke, Sidney, Hoadley, &c, have been extolled and propagated and read, as if they had equalled the most celebrated remains of antiquity." * Such is the style in which this great writer speaks of writings which he most probably never read. But although the time is long since passed when such writings were extolled, propagated, or read, the contempt of them is as fashionable, as likely to procure places and pensions, and to make a book sell now, as it was when Mr. Hume wrote.f

M. Turcot was as little conversant in this kind of erudition as Mr. Hume. The former, however, was a lover of liberty ; but it was of that kind of liberty which he meditated to introduce into France, and could reconcile with a simple monarchy. He was

* History of England, chap. lxxi. Concluding Observations, t^

f The fact's here given relative to Venice, are taken frorri the Able Laug'wr and Moore's Travels; those relative to the ancient republics, excepting the authorities already quoted, are taken from Robertson, Montagu, Potter, the Universal History", and especially from Mitford, Gillies, and Ferguson, three very valuable and elegant productions, which deserve to be carefully studied by all America. I have made free use of then- expressions as well as reflections, with- ' out noting them.

[The enumeration of these authorities will prove to most students of the present day only a landmark of progress in the knowledge of ancient history ; a field in which the Germans have most particularly distinguished themselves during the present century. Ed.]

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560 ON GOVERNMENT.

too good a subject to think of introducing a free constitution of government into his own country. For the liberty of commerce, the liberty of religious sentiments, and the personal liberty of the subject, such as are established by the laws, in a monarchy, he was *an enthusiast ;- and enthusiasm for liberty, the common cause of all mankind, is an amiable fervor, which is pardonable even when it is not according to knowledge. But he was neither an enthusiast for a free constitution of government, nor did he know in what it consisted.

CHAPTER IX. ANCIENT MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS.

CHAPTER IX.

Ancient Monarchical Republics. Ancient Germans

ANCIENT MONARCHICAL REPUBLICS.

ANCIENT GERMANS.

The ancient German nations, mentioned by Tacitus, had among them at least two sorts of government. One was mo- narchy ; and the king was absolute, as appears by these words : — " Exceptis iis gentibus quae regnantur ; ibi enim et super inge- nuos, et super nobiles, ascendunt libertini ; apud ceteros, impares libertini libertatis argumentum sunt." * The other species of government was aristocracy ; for though there was a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, yet the power of the king and people was so feeble, and that of the nobles, as comprehended under the titles of princes, dukes, and counts, was so predominant, that the government must be denominated aristocratical. " De minoribus rebus principes consultant, de majoribus omnes; ita tamen, ut ea quoque, quorum penes plebem arbitrium est, apud principes pertractentur." If those things which were most clearly in the power of the people, were first discussed among the nobles, the reference to the people afterwards seems to have been rather a communication to them of the result of the senate, than a sub- mission of it to the popular judgment.1

* There cannot be a stronger proof than this, that the monarchy was of the most absolute kind, that it was indeed a simple despotism; and Tacitus himself gives the explanation of it, in his account of the origin of this kind of slavery : " Aleam sobrii inter seria exercent, tanta lucrandi perdendive temeritate, ut, cum omnia defecerunt, extremo ac novissimo jactu, de libertate et de corpore contendant. Victu3 voluntariam servitutem adit; quamvis junior, quamvis ro- bustior, alligari se ac venire patitur. Ea est in re prava pervicacia ; ipsi fidem vocant. Servos conditionis hujus per commercia tradunt, ut se quoque pudore victorias exsolvant,

" Libertini non multum supra servos sunt, raro aliquod momentum in domo, nunquam in civitate, exceptis duntaxat iis gentibus qua; regnantur," &c. If in these nations those freedmen, who were nothing in the others, neither in the family or the state, were held in more estimation and advanced to more power than the citizens, even than the nobles, these kings must have been despots in the strictest sense of the word ; otherwise, neither nobles nor people would have suffered the indignity. Tacitus, Germania, c. xxv.

1 " But then it could not be ' penes plebem arbitrium,' for this proves that the business was still according to the people's will, after the great men or principes

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562 ON GOVERNMENT.

The nature and extent of the royal dignity and authority appears from these words : — " Reges ex nobilitate summit ; nee regibus infinita aut libera potestas." Kings were taken1 from the nobility, or kings were chosen for their noble descent ; so that ordinarily the office descended to the next of kin. But it is here expressly ascertained that their power was neither unlimited nor independent. They had no negative, and might in all things be overruled, at least by the nobles and people conjointly.

The nature and extent of the aristocratical dignities and authorities may be collected from what follows : — " Duces ex virtute summit ; et duces exemplo potius quam imperio ; si prompti, si conspicui, si ante aciem agant, admiratione praesunt." The feudal hierarchy,2 even in these early times, was fully esta- blished, although it was afterwards enlarged. The titles of dukes and counts, the rank and power they conferred, descended in families, although there was the bare formality of an election in the grand council. "Arm a sumere, non ante cuiquam moris, quam civitas sufTecturum probaverit ; turn, in ipso consilio, vel principum aliquis, vel pater, vel propinquus, scuto frameaque juvenem ornant. Insignis nobilitas, aut magna patrum merita, principis dignationem etiam adolescentulis assignant." " When the young men were first admitted into public society, it was in the great council ; when some one of the dukes, or the father, or

had debated the matter. The princes had a right to advise, but not to determine for the people ; for the arbitrium was penes plebem, in the people's own power."

S.

1 " Not ' were taken,' nor ' were chosen,' for the verb is active, not passive, and must, therefore, have a very different construction ; so that the nobilitas here mentioned must mean mental nobility, or personal virtue and honor ; and not hereditary honor." S.

This is not the construction of Montesquieu, who says in reference to the same passage, —

" Tacite dit que dans le choix de leur roi ils se determinoient par sa noblesse et dans le choix de leur chef par sa vertu. Voila les rois de la premiere race et les maires du palais ; .les premiers etoient hereditaires, les seconds etoient electifs." De I'Esprit des Loix, livre 31, c. iv.

A remarkable instance of the sense attached to the word by Tacitus, is found in the sixth book of his Annals, where, speaking of Manius Lepidus, he says, —

"Neque nobilitas diutius demonstranda est; quippe iEniilium genus feeundum bonorum civium, et qui eadem familia corruptis moribus, illustri tamen fortuna egere."

2 " The word hierarchy seems improperly applied in this place ; but with respect to the supposed hereditary nobility or dukes of those times, the preceding Latin quotation proves a contrary doctrine ; the duces surely were not dukes, that is, not hereditary titled dukes", but mere leaders, by the example of their valor, rather than their authority." S.

ANCIENT GERMANS. 563

other relation, adorned the youth with arras. And if he is of very noble birth, or his father has great merit, the dignity of a duke is assigned to him, young as he is." From this it is pretty clear that the crown, as well as the titles of dukes and counts, descended in the family line ; 1 although the formality of an admission into council was kept up. The nobles, among whom, the king was little more than the first among equals, at least he was not more superior to the dukes than the dukes were to the counts, had the game in their own hands, and managed a rude

1 "And the counts have as little foundation as the dukes. The comites and eoniitatus mean here the "whole body of companions, or the whole band or com- pany of each leader. See the next page, which shows the sense of eoniitatus, and p. 565 shows the sense of comites." S.

Mr. Hallam has examined this subject with his usual fidelity, and expresses what is probably the correct meaning of the word : —

" There has been some dispute about the origin of nobility in France, which might perhaps be settled, or at least better understood, by fixing our conception of the term. In our modern acceptation, it is usually taken to imply certain dis- tinctive privileges in the political order, inherent in the blood of the possessor, and, consequently, not transferable like those which property confers. Limited to this sense, nobility, I conceive, was unknown to the conquerors of Gaul, till long after the downfall of the Roman empire. They felt no doubt the common prejudice of mankind in favor of those whose ancestry is conspicuous, when com- pared with persons of obscure birth. Though I do not think that the tribes of German origin paid so much regard to genealogy as some Scandinavian and Celtic nations, there are abundant traces of the respect in which families of known antiquity were held among them."

And further on, — . "Although in the lapse of four centuries between the ages of Tacitus and CIo- vis, some change may have been wrought by long intercourse with the Romans, yet the foundations of their political system were unshaken.

" The kingdom of Clovis was divided into a number of districts, each under the government of a count, a name familiar to Roman subjects, by which they ren- dered the graf of the Germans. The authority of this officer extended over all the inhabitants, as well Franks as natives. It was his duty to administer justice, to preserve tranquillity, to collect the revenues, and to lead, when required, the free proprietors into the field. The title of a duke implied a higher dignity, and commonly gave authority over several counties. These offices were originally conferred during pleasure ; but the claims of a son to succeed his father would often be found too plausible or too formidable to be rejected ; and it is highly probable that, even under the Merovingian kings, those provincial governors had laid the foundations of that independence which was destined to change the countenance of Europe."

To which Mr. Hallam appends the following as part of a note : — " That the offices of count and duke were originally but temporary, may be inferred from several passages in Gregory of Tours ; as 1. v. c. 37, 1. viii. c. 18. But it seems by the Laws of the Alemanni, c. 35, that the hereditary succession of their dukes was tolerably established at the beginning of the seventh century, when their code was promulgated. The Bavarians chose their own dukes out of one family, as is declared in their laws ; tit. 11, c. i. and c. xx. &c. &c.

View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, part ii. chapter i.

564 ON GOVERNMENT.

people as they pleased. This will appear probable from other passages: — " Caateri robustioribus, ac jampridem probatis, aggre- gantur ; nee rubor inter comites aspici. Gradus quinetiam et ipse comitatus habet, judicio ejus, quem sectantur. Magnaque et comitum semulatio, quibus primus apud principem suum locus ; et principum, cui plurimi et acerrimi comites. Hsec dig- nitas, hse vires, magno semper electorum juvenum globo circum- dari, in pace decus, in bello preesidium ; nee solum in sua gente cuique, sed apud finitimas quoque civitates, id nomen, ea gloria est, si numero ac virtute comitatus emineat ; expetuntur enim legationibus, et muneribus ornantur, et ipsa plerumque fama bella profligant.

" Cum ventum in aciem, turpe principi virtute vinci ; turpe comitatui, virtutem principis non adasquare. Jam vero infame in omnem vitam, ac probrosum, superstitem principi suo ex acie recessisse. Ilium defendere, tueri, sua quoque fortia facta gloriae ejus assignare, praecipuum sacramentum est. Principes pro vic- toria, pugnant ; comites pro principe. Si civitas, in qua orti sunt, longa pace et otio torpeat, plerique nobilium adolescentium petunt ultro eas nationes qua? turn bellum aliquod gerunt ; quia et ingrata genti quies, et facilius inter ancipitia clarescunt, mag- numque comitatum non nisi vi belloque tueare ; exigunt enim principis sui liberalitate ilium bellatorem equum, illam cruentam victricemque frameam. Nam epulae, et quamquam incompti, largi tamen apparatus pro stipendio cedunt. Materia munifi- centiae per bella et raptus. Nee arare terram, aut expectare annum, tarn facile persuaseris, quam vocare hostes et vulnera mereri ; pigrum quinimmo et iners videtur sudore acquirere, quod possis sanguine parare."

When the foregoing ties, by which the people or the common soldiers were attached to the nobles, and the young and inferior nobles to the superior, are considered, a better judgment may be formed of the authority which the people really had in the grand council or national assembly.

The powers and privileges of the people, in assembly, appear from the following passages : — " Coeunt, nisi quid fortuitum et subitum incident, certis diebus, cum aut inchoatur luna, aut im- pletur; nam agendis rebus hoc auspicatissimum initium credunt. Illud ex libertate vitium, quod non simul nee ut jussi conveniunt, sed et alter et tertius dies cunctatione coeuntium absumitur." By

ANCIENT GERMANS. 565

this it should seem that the people were so far from esteeming the privilege of meeting, that the king and nobles could scarcely get them together.1 They had such an aversion to these civil and political deliberations, that the chiefs could hardly col- lect them to receive their orders : " Ut turbae placuit, considunt armati. Silentium per sacerdotes, quibus turn et coercendi jus est, imperatur. Mox rex, vel princeps, prout setas cuique, prout nobilitas, prout decus bellorum, prout facundia est, audiuntur, auctoritate suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate. Si displi- cuit sententia, fremitu aspernantur ; sin placuit, frameas concu- tiunt." Here is some appearance of popular liberty. But when it is considered that the nobles were probably all the speakers; that the numbers were not counted, nor voices distinctly taken ; as- sent expressed by a clash of arms, and dissent by a murmur or a groan ; and especially the dependence of the people on their leaders, and attachment to them by oath ; we may consider these assemblies rather as called to receive the proclamation of the laws or minds of the nobles, than as any effectual democratical check. There was one thing, however, of great importance done in these assemblies, — judges, the posse comitatus, and juries were here appointed to administer justice. " Eliguntur in iisdem conciliis et principes, qui jura per pagos vicosque reddunt. Cen- teni singulis ex plebe comites,2 consilium simul et auctoritas, ad- sunt." An hundred commoners attended the judge, and out of these were juries appointed to give their opinion, "consilium;" and others, or perhaps the same, to afford their assistance, " auc- toritas," in putting the sentences and judgment into execution.

From other particulars related by Tacitus, it is very probable there had been communications between Germany and Greece ; from the worship of Hercules, Mars, Minerva, &c. ; if not from the altar of Ulysses, and the name of Laertes, and the other monu-

1 " On the contrary, the text declares that they are not summoned at all."

S.

2 " The comites mentioned in the preceding page were equally commoners, or else he might as well have deemed these counts." S.

That there was a difference between the offices referred to appears clear, from the Laws of the Alemanni, tit. xxxvi. leg. 1. " Conventus secundum antiquam consuetudinem fiat in omni centena coram comite, aut suo misso, et coram cen- tenario ipsum placitum fiat."

Tit. xxxvi. leg. 2. " Ipsum placitum fiat de sabbato in sabbatum, aut quali die comes, aut centenarius voluerit." See Brotiefs note to the twelfth chapter of Tacitus on the Germans.

VOL. IV. 48

566 ON GOVERNMENT.

ments, and inscriptions in Greek letters, of which he speaks more doubtfully. However this may have been, there is a remarkable analogy between these political institutions of the Germans, and those described by Homer in the times of the Trojan war. It was, in both, the prerogative of the king to lead in war and to rule in peace ; but it is probable he was not fond of deliberating, any more than of fighting, without company ; and though he may have done both sometimes, yet numbers of his followers were ready to attend him in either. The nation acknowledged him for their leader ; but they were accustomed, on great occa- sions, to assemble, and, without any studied form of democracy, took the sovereignty upon themselves, as often as their passions were strongly enough affected to unite them in a body. The superior classes, among themselves, came as naturally to hold their meetings apart ; and assembled frequently, when the occa- sion was not sufficient to engage the attention of the whole. There is one remarkable difference between the Germans and the Greeks. Among the former, the priests were a distinct body, and seem to have had more decisive authority than the kings, nobles, or people in the general assemblies, — " Silentium per sacerdotes, quibus turn et coercendi jus est, imperatur ;" whereas, among the latter, the kings were themselves at the head of the priesthood.

In this second kind of German governments, we see the three orders, of king, nobles, and commons, distinctly marked ; but no balance fixed ; no delineation of the powers of each ; which left room for each to claim the sovereignty, as we know they afterwards did ; at least the king and the nobles claimed and contended for it for many ages ; the people sometimes claimed it, but at last gave it up to the king, as the least evil of the two, in every country except England.

Before we proceed to the Greeks, we may even mention the savages. Every nation in North America has a king, a senate, and a people. The royal office is elective, but it is for life ; his sachems are his ordinary council, where all the national affairs are deliberated and resolved in the first instance ; but in the greatest of all, which is declaring war, the king and sachems call a national assembly round a great council fire, communicate to the people their resolution, and sacrifice an animal. Those of the people who approve the war, partake of the sacrifice ; throw

PH/EACIA. 567

the hatchet into a tree, after the example of the king ; and join in the subsequent war songs and dances. Those who disap- prove, take no part of the sacrifice, but retire.

In the kingdom, or rather aristocracy, of Phaeacia, as repre- sented in the Odyssey, we have a picture at full length of those forms of government which at that time prevailed in Greece.

There is a lung Alcinous ; there is a council of twelve other kings, princes, archons, or peers, for they are called by all these names ; and there is a multitude ; but the last do not appear to have any regular, legal, or customary part in the government. They might be summoned together by the heralds, or called by the sound of trumpet, or a horn, to receive information of the results of their chiefs ; to assist at a sacrifice or procession ; to see a stranger, or a show, or to partake of a feast ; or they might assemble of themselves in a rage against an oppressor, from en- thusiasm for the royal sceptre, or other causes. And the kings had often much dependence on their attachment to their heredi- tary right, their descent from the gods, and the sacred authority of the poets, who were generally royalists. The archons, too, were often afraid of the superstition of their people for the king, and his regal popularity. But the legal power of the people was very far from being a constitutional check ; and the struggle lay between the kings and nobles. The last finally prevailed, as they ever will, against a king who is not supported by an ade- quate popular power. The authority in Phaeacia was collected into one centre, and that centre was thirteen kings, confederated together under a president only. Each archon was a king in his own island, state, or district, in which his dignity and power were hereditary ; and, in case of a foreign war, he commanded his own division in the general camp.

Ulysses is represented, at his first entrance into the Phaeacian

dominions, as observing and admiring the palaces of the archons,

after having surveyed the gardens, palace, and particular territory

of Alcinous : —

" He next their princes' lofty domes admires, In sep'rate islands, crown'd with rising spires." *

* Od. vii. 57.

568

ON GOVERNMENT.

Alcinous is afterwards represented as describing the form of government to Ulysses : —

" Twelve princes in our realm dominion share, O'er whom supreme imperial power I bear." *

Mr. Pope, indeed, in this translation, has given him the air of a sovereign"]" but there is nothing like it in the original. There, Alcinous, with all possible simplicity and modesty, only says, — " Twelve illustrious kings, or archons, rule over the people, and I myself am the thirteenth." Alcinous and his twelve archons were all present at this interview : —

" Night now approaching, in the palace stand, With goblets crown'd, the rulers of the land," &c.

" The nobles gaze, with awful fear opprest ; Silent they gaze, and eye the godlike guest," &c. f

" Pleas'd with his people's fame, the monarch hears, And thus, benevolent, accosts the peers," &c.

" Th' assenting peers, obedient to the king, In haste their heralds send, the gifts to bring.

The precious gifts th' illustrious heralds bear, And to the court th' embodied peers repair.

Then to the radiant thrones they move in state, Aloft the king in pomp imperial sate." J

We must not forget the poet, who, with his inspiration from the Muses, was a principal support of every Grecian king. It was the bard who sung the praises of the king, and propagated the opinion that he was sprung from Jupiter, and instructed as well as dearly beloved by him.

" The bard a herald guides ; the gazing throng Pay low obeisance as he moves, along. Beneath a sculptured arch he sits enthron'd, The peers, encircling, form an awful round. Lives there a man beneath the spacious skies, Who, sacred honors to the bard denies ?

* Od. viii. 425.

f Od. vii. 182-194.

t Od.\m. 421-459.

PH^ACIA. 569

The Muse the bard inspires, exalts his mind ; The Muse indulgent loves th' harmonious kind. O more than man ! thy soul the Muse inspires, Or Phoebus animates with all Ms fires." *

Every peer, in his own district or state, had another subordi- nate council and a people ; so that the three powers, of the one, the few, and the many, appeared in every archonship ; and every archon, in his own district, claimed his office to be hereditary in his family ; and all the archons agreed together to support each other in this claim, even by arms. This, therefore, was rather a confe- deracy of thirteen little kingdoms, than one great one. The first archon of the confederation was called king of all the people, and claimed his office as hereditary, and often as absolute. The other archons were always disposed to dispute the hereditary descent, and to make it elective. The subordinate councils of the archons, in then; several districts, were probably often dis- posed to deny their offices to be hereditary, and to insist upon elections. Ulysses, who was himself one of the greatest and ablest of the Grecian kings, discovers his perfect knowledge of the hearts of Alcinous, his queen, and nobles, in the compliment he makes them. Addressing himself to the queen, the daughter of great Rhexenor : —

" To thee, thy consort, and this royal train, To all that share the blessings of your reign,

So may the gods your better days increase, And all your joys descend on all your race ; So reign forever on your country's breast, Your people blessing, by your people blest." f

This supplication was addressed to the king and queen, the princes, archons, dukes, counts, barons, peers, call them by what name you please, and it concludes with a compliment very flat- tering to all. Ulysses knew the ruling passion of Grecian kings and nobles to be, that their dignities, even such as had been con- ferred by the election of the people, should become hereditary. Mr. Pope has disguised this sentiment, and made it conformable to the notions of Englishmen and Americans ; but has departed from the sense of Homer and from the fact.

* Od. viii. 515-532. f Od. vii. 196-205.

4R*

570 ON GOVERNMENT.

" May you transmit to your children your possessions in your houses, and whatever gifts, rewards, or honors the people hath given you."

It is plain the kings claimed a hereditary right ; yet the suc- cession was sometimes set aside in favor of some other noble, or branch of the royal blood ; and perhaps it was always set aside, when any one of the nobles had more power than the heir apparent. The nobles, too, claimed their honors to be heredi- tary, and they generally were so ; but the people were some- times bold enough to set up competitors, and give them trouble. But perhaps there were never any very formal elections.1 Pre- senting a successor, in presence of the king and the other nobles, to the people for their acclamations, was probably the most that was done ; for, as there were no records, nor written constitution, or laws, the right of kings, archons, and people, must have been very loose and undefined.

Ithaca

ITHACA.

The court of Ithaca, in the absence of Ulysses, is an admira- ble example of the intrigues of the archons, and their insatiable ambition. The throne of Ithaca, and the sceptre of Laertes and former kings, were the objects which had so many charms in the eyes of the suitors ; and Penelope's hand was chiefly courted, because that would reconcile the archon who should possess her to the superstition of the people, and enable him to wield the sceptre. The suitors deny the sceptre to be hereditary; and Telemachus himself is doubtful. He threatens, indeed, to call a council or assembly of the people ; but is afraid to trust them, for fear they should set up some other Grecian prince, whose blood might be nearer that of their ancient kings.

' To tempt the spouseless queen with am'rous wiles, Resort the nobles from the neighb'ring isles 5 From Samos, circled with th' Ionian main, Dulichium, and Zacynthus' sylvan reign. Ev'n with presumptuous hope her bed t' ascend, The lords of Ithaca their right pretend.

1 " But perhaps otherwise ; it is as good an argument, and weighs as much."

S.

ITHACA. 571

My sentence hear ; with stern distaste avow'd, To their own districts drive the suitor crowd.

I, to the peers assembled, shall propose The firm resolve, I here in few disclose. No longer live the cankers of my court ; All to your several states with speed resort ; Waste in wild riot what your land allows, There ply the early feast and late carouse.

Elect by Jove, his delegate of sway, With joyous pride the summons I'd obey.

Should factious power dispute my lineal right, Some other Greeks a fairer claim may plead, To your pretence their title would precede. At least, the sceptre lost, I still should reign Sole o'er my vassals, and domestic train." *

" If ruin to our royal race ye doom, Be you the spoilers, and our wealth consume. Then might we hope redress from juster laws, And raise all Ithaca to aid our cause ; But while your sons commit th' unpunished wrong, You make the arm of violence too strong." f

" To heaven, alone, Refer the choice to fill the vacant throne. Your patrimonial stores in peace possess, Undoubted, all your filial claim confess. Your private right should impious pow'r invade, The peers of Ithaca would arm in aid." J

It is thus agreed, on all hands, that, as one of the archons, his hereditary title to his estates, vassals, and government, was in- disputable. This was the common cause of all the archons, and they would arm in support of the claim of any one. But the throne and sceptre of Ithaca were to be disposed of by augury, by the will of Jove, signified by some omen. To this Telema- chus pays some respect ; but still insists on his right of blood, "and says, that if the omen should be unfavorable to him, it would not promote the hopes of any of the archons of Ithaca; but some other Greeks, nearer of kin to the royal blood, would set up their claims. The archons, not likely to succeed in their scheme of getting the sceptre by the marriage of Penelope, nor

* Od.i. 315-508. fOdii. 83-88. J Od. i. 509-514.

572 ON GOVERNMENT.

by persuading Telemachus to submit the question to Jupiter and his omens, and afraid to appeal to the people, or to call them out in arms to dispute the succession; knowing the family of Laertes and Ulysses to be more popular than themselves, take the resolution to assassinate the young prince : —

" But die he shall, and thus condemn'd to bleed, Be now the scene of instant death decreed.

Wait ye, till he to arms in council draws The Greeks, averse too justly to our cause? Strike, ere, the states conven'd, the foe betray, Our murd'rous ambush on the wat'ry way. Or choose ye vagrant from their rage to fly, Outcasts of earth, to breathe an unknown sky ?

But if, submissive, you resign the sway, Slaves to a boy ; go, flatter and obey ; Retire we instant to our native reign, Nor be the wealth of kings consum'd in vain." *

Telemachus had before declared, that, if any archon of Ithaca, or any other Greek, obtained the sceptre, he would no longer remain in the confederation, but would reign separately over his paternal domain. Now, Antinous declares, that, if the rest of the archons submit to the boy, he will not,ibut will retire to his native archonship.

" Amphinomus ascends, Who o'er Dulichium stretch'd his spacious reign, A land of plenty, bless'd with every grain.

O friends, forbear, and be the thought withstood ! 'Tis horrible to shed imperial blood ; Consult we, first, th' all-seeing powers above, And the sure oracles of righteous Jove." f

Neither in Poland nor in Venice was the aristocratical rage to render weak, unsteady, and uncertain the royal authority, more conspicuous than it was here. They were afraid of the people and the auguries ; but neither was a legal check ; and we shall see, hereafter, that these struggles of the archons very soon abo- lished every monarchy in Greece, even that of Sparta, until it

* Od. xvi. 386 - 405. f Od. xvi. 409 - 419.

ITHACA. 573

was renewed, upon another plan, by Lycurgus. And the same progress of passions, through seditions, rebellions, and massacres, must forever take place in a body of nobles against the crown, where they are not effectually restrained by an independent people, known and established in the legislature, collectively or by representation.

That the Grecian kings, claiming from Jupiter, and supported by their auguries and bards, thought themselves absolute, and often punished the crimes of the archons very tyrannically, is true. Ulysses is an example of it. Instead of bringing the suit- ors to trial before the nation, or their peers, he shoots them all, without judge or jury, with his own bow. A more remarkable assertion of a claim to absolute monarchy cannot be imagined.

Antinous would retire to his native district, and spend his revenues among his own people, not consume his royal wealth by attendance at a court of a confederation which would be no longer to his taste. This was a popular sentiment in his own dominions ; his people wished to have their king reside among them, and were very willing to have the confederacy broken. This principle it was that afterwards crumbled all the Greek confederations to dust.

The similitude between the ancient Greek monarchies, as they are generally called, though the predominance of aristocracy in all of them is very manifest, and the feudal aristocracies described by Tacitus, is very obvious. The democratical power is never- theless much more regular, though not independent, in the latter; for, in addition to what is before quoted, it appears that the judi- cial authority was commonly exercised in national assemblies : — " Licet apud concilium accusare quoque, et discrimen capitis intendere. Distinctio pcenarum ex delicto ; proditores et trans- fugas arboribus suspendunt; ignavos, et imbelles, et corpore infames, coeno ac palude, injecta insuper crate, mergunt. Diver- sitas supplicii illuc respicit, tanquam scelera ostendi opporteat dum puniuntur, flagitia abscondi. Sed et levioribus delictis, pro modo, pcena ; equorum pecorumque numero convicti multantur ; pars multse regi, vel civitati, pars ipsi qui vindicatur, vel propin- quis ejus exsolvitur." *

Although the mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy,

* Germania, c. xii.

574 ON GOVERNMENT.

is visible in the republic of Phteacia, yet the king appears little more among the archons than the first among equals, and the authority of the people is still more faint and feeble. In Ithaca, there appears a strong claim of sovereignty in the king, and as strong a pretension to it in the archons ; and, although the peo- ple are dreaded by both, and their claim to interfere in the dispo- sition of the crown is implicitly acknowledged, yet it seems to be as judges of certain religious ceremonies, by which the will of Jupiter was to be collected, rather than as any regular civil authority.

Homer was a royalist, at least as much as Plato and Aristotle.

" Jove loves our chief, from Jove his honor springs. Beware ! for dreadful is the wrath of kings.

Be silent, wretch ! and think not here allowed That worst of tyrants, a usurping crowd. To one sole monarch Jove commits the sway ; His are the laws, and him let all obey." *

The name of a republic is not found in any of his writings. Yet, in every Grecian government described by him, we find a mixture, not only of an aristocracy, consisting in a council of princes ; but of a democracy, in an assembly of the people.

Agamemnon, in the second Iliad, calls together the whole

body.

" The king despatched his heralds with commands To range the camp, and summon all the bands. The gathering hosts the monarch's word obey, While to the fleet Atrides bends his way. In his black ship the Pylian prince he found, There calls a senate of the peers around. Th' assembly plac'cl, the king of men exprest The counsels lab'ring in his artful breast. Friends and confed'rates ! with attentive ear Receive my words, and credit what you hear ;

111 fits a chief who mighty nations guides, Directs in council, and in war presides, To whom its safety a whole people owes ; To waste long nights in indolent repose.

Now, valiant chiefs ! since heaven itself alarms, Unite, and rouse the sons of Greece to arms.

* 11. ii. 233 - 244.

ITHACA. 575

But first, with caution, try what yet they dare, Worn with nine years of unsuccessful war. To move the troops to measure back the main Be mine ; and yours the province to detain.

The kings without delay

Dissolve the council, and their chief obey. The sceptr'd rulers lead ; the following host, Pour'd forth by thousands, darkens all the coast.

Nine sacred heralds now, proclaiming loud The monarch's will, suspend the list'ning crowd.

The king of kings his awful figure raised, High in his hand the golden sceptre blazed —

Ye sons of Mars ! partake your leader's care, Heroes of Greece, and brothers of the war !

Fly, Grecians, fly ! your sails and oars employ, And dream no more of heaven-defended Troy. His deep design unknown, the hosts approve Atrides' speech ; — the mighty numbers move." *

It appears from the whole narration, that the great body of the people were discontented and desirous of raising the siege. The king alarmed, was obliged to call them together, with an artful design to obtain their consent to persevere. He feigns an inten- tion to return home ; the people were rejoiced at it. Then Ulys- ses., in concert with Agamemnon, receives the sceptre of com- mand, and endeavors to persuade the people to make another effort. To this end Ulysses harangues them.

" He runs, he flies through all the Grecian train, Each prince of name, or chief in arms approved, He fired with praise, or with persuasion moved.

But if a clam'rous, vile plebeian rose,

Him with reproof he checked, or tamed with blows.

Be still, thou slave, and to thy betters yield,

Unknown alike in council or in field !

Ye gods ! what dastards would our host command !

Swept to the war, the lumber of a land.

Be silent, wretch ! and think not here allow'd

That worst of tyrants, an usurping crowd.

* II. ii. 61-174.

576 ON GOVERNMENT.

"With, words like these the troops Ulysses rul'd, The loudest silenc'd, and the fiercest cool'd. Back to th' assembly roll the thronging train, Desert the ships, and pour upon the plain.

Thersites only clamor'd in the throng, Loquacious, loud, and turbulent of tongue. Aw'd by no shame, by no respect control'd, In scandal busy, in reproaches bold, With witty malice studious to defame, Scorn all his joy, and laughter all his aim. But chief he gloried, with licentious style To lash the great, and monarchs to revile.

Spleen to mankind his envious heart possest,

And much he hated all, but most the best ;

Ulysses or Achilles still his theme ;

But royal scandal his delight supreme.

Long had he liv'd, the scorn of ev'ry Greek,

Vext when he spoke, yet still they heard him speak." *

If from this only, and the subsequent harangue of Thersites, we were to form a judgment, we should conclude that popular assemblies were very frequent, and that the freedom of speech in them was far advanced and well established ; but the furious answer of Ulysses, and the unmerciful flogging he gives him for his boldness, in the face of the whole assembly, which is ap- plauded universally, shows that the demagogues had yet but very little influence, very little courage, and that popular assem- blies had as yet very little constitutional power.

The principles of government were very little understood, and all the political institutions extremely confused, in the time of the Trojan war, and from thence to Homer's time. Nothing was precisely defined; no laws were written. The most distinct rules, which are now to be traced, were a supremacy of kings, in religion and war. Sometimes they exercised judicial power. Monarchies were generally hereditary ; yet a right of the nation to interfere and alter the succession is admitted. The right of the sons of the archons, to succeed to their estates and districts, was an agreed point among them ; but these very archons chose to keep open to competition the succession to the throne, so that there might always be room for the pretensions of the most pow-

* 11. ii. 224-272.

ITHACA. 577

erful, who would easily make themselves thought the most worthy. The most celebrated kings, when advanced in years and unable to sustain the fatigues of war and cares of govern- ment, were obliged to resign their power. The anxiety of Achil- les, expressed to Ulysses in the Shades, is a proof of this.

" Say if my sire, the reverend Peleus, reigns Greal in his Pthia, and his throne maintains ; Or, weak and old, my youthful arm demands To fix the sceptre steadfast in his hands '? O might the lamp of life rekindled burn, And death release me from the silent urn ! This arm, that thunder'd o'er the Phrygian plain And swell'd the ground with mountains of the slain, Should vindicate my injur'd father's fame, Crush the proud rebel, and assert his claim.*

Kings and their families, claiming their descent and power from Jupiter, contended very naturally and consistently that the one was hereditary and the other absolute ; and, accordingly, when the prince who swayed the sceptre was active, brave, and able, he kept the archons in awe, and governed as he pleased. But when he was feeble, the archons grew ambitious, disputed the succession, and limited the royal power. To this end, both they and the kings, or heirs of kings, sometimes looked to the people, and seemed to admit in them a right to be present at the religious ceremonies, by which the will of Jupiter was to be declared ; for all parties agree, that the will of Jupiter confers the sceptre, not the mere election of the people.

The right of primogeniture was favored by popular opinion, as well as hereditary descent, because the family was the family of Jupiter, related to him, and descended from him by blood ; and it was natural to suppose that Jupiter's inclinations for descent and primogeniture resembled those of other fathers of families.

The chiefs, who are all called kings, as well as the head of them, or archons, were like the Teutonic counts or feudal barons, who exercised royal rights within their own districts, states, or sepa- rate territories. This principle preserved the real and legal power chiefly in their hands, and constituted the whole government more properly an aristocracy than a royalty. This gave an

* Od. xi. 605. VOL. IV. 49 K 2

I

578 ON GOVERNMENT.

uncontrollable pride to these nobles, which could not willingly submit to the pretensions of the kings, (as representatives of Jupiter,) to omnipotence, at least to unlimited power. Hence the continual straggle between the kings and archons, from Homer's time to that great and memorable revolution through- out Greece, from monarchy to aristocracy ; that is, from kings to archons. The people not yet possessing nor claiming an author- ity sufficiently regular and independent to be a check to mo- narchy or aristocracy, the latter at last prevailed over the former, as it ever did and ever will, where the contest is merely between these two.

The people, only in extraordinary cases, in the most essential matters, and when the chiefs were greatly divided, were at all consulted ; yet, in the course of the struggle between the kings and archons, the multitude were so often called upon, and so much courted, that they came by degrees to claim the whole power, and prepared the way in many of the Grecian states for another subsequent revolution from aristocracy to democracy.

Through the whole of Tacitas and Homer, the three orders are visible both in Germany and Greece ; and the continual fluctua- tions of law, the uncertainty of life, liberty, and property, and the contradictory claims and continual revolutions, arose entirely from the want of having the prerogatives and privileges of those orders defined, from the want of independence in each of them, and a balance between them.

CHAPTER X. CONCLUSION.

CHAPTER X.

Conclusion

CONCLUSION.

By the authorities and examples already recited, you will be convinced that three branches of power have an unalterable foundation in nature ; that they exist in every society natural and artificial ; and that if all of them are not acknowledged in any constitution of government, it will be found to be imperfect, unstable, and soon enslaved ; that the legislative and executive authorities are naturally distinct ; and that liberty and the laws depend entirely on a separation of them in the frame of govern- ment ; that the legislative power is naturally and necessarily sovereign and supreme over the executive ; and, therefore, that the latter must be made an essential branch of the former, even with a negative, or it will not be able to defend itself, but will be soon invaded, undermined, attacked, or in some way or other totally ruined and annihilated by the former. This is applicable to every state in America, in its individual capacity ; but is it equally applicable to the United States in then federal capacity ?

The people of America and their delegates in congress were of opinion, that a single assembly was every way adequate to the management of all their federal concerns ; and with very good reason, because congress is not a legislative assembly, nor a representative assembly, but only a diplomatic assembly.1 A

1 This sentence drew from Mr. Jefferson a remonstrating comment. In a let- ter dated Paris, 23 February, 1787, hitherto unpublished, occurs the following- passage, which, in view of the subsequent history of both the parties, is worthy of record.

" I have read your book with infinite satisfaction and improvement. It will do great good in America. Its learning and its good sense will, I hope, make it an institute for our politicians, old as well as young. There is one opinion in it, however, which I will ask you to reconsider, because it appears to me not entirely accurate, and not likely to do good. ' Congress is not a legislative, but a diplomatic assembly.' Separating into parts the whole sovereignty of our states, some of these parts are yielded to congress. Upon these I should think them both legislative and executive, and that they could have been judiciary also, had not the confederation required them for certain purposes to appoint a judiciary. It has accordingly been the decision of our courts, that the confedc-

580 ON GOVERNMENT.

single council has been found to answer the purposes of con- federacies very well. But in all such cases the deputies are responsible to the states ; their authority is clearly ascertained ; and the states, in their separate capacities, are the checks. These are able to form an effectual balance, and at all times to control their delegates. The security against the dangers of this kind of government will depend upon the accuracy and decision with which the governments of the separate states have their own orders arranged and balanced.

The necessity we are under of submitting to a federal govern- ment, is an additional and a very powerful argument for three branches, and a balance by an equal negative, _in all the separate governments. Congress will always be composed of members from the natural and artificial aristocratical body in every state, even in the northern, as well as in the middle and southern states. Their natural dispositions, then, in general will be, (whether they shall be sensible of it or not, and whatever integrity or abilities they may be possessed of,) to diminish the prerogatives of the governors and the privileges of the people, and to augment the influence of the aristocratical parties. There have been causes enough to prevent the appearance of this inclination hitherto ; but a calm course of prosperity would very soon bring it forth, if effectual provision against it be not made in season. It will be found absolutely necessary, therefore, to give negatives to the governors, to defend the executive against the influence of this body, as well as the senate and representatives in their several states. The necessity of a negative in the house of representa- tives will be called in question by nobody.

Dr. Price and the Abbe de Mably are zealous for additional powers to congress. Full power in all foreign affairs and over foreign commerce, and, perhaps, some authority over the com- merce of the states with one another, may be necessary ; and it islhard to say that more authority in other things is not wanted. Yet the subject is of such extreme delicacy and difficulty, that the people are much to be applauded for their caution. To col- lect together the ancient and modern leagues, — the Amphic- /tyonic, the Olynthian, the Argive, the Arcadian, and the Achaean

ration is a part of the law of the land, and superior in authority to the ordinary laws, because it cannot be altered by the legislature of any one state. I doubt whether they are at all a diplomatic assembly."

CONCLUSION. 581

confederacies, among the Greeks ; the general diet of the Swiss cantons, and the states-general of the United Netherlands ; the union of the Hanse-towns, &c, which have been found to answer the purposes both of government and liberty ; to compare them all with the circumstances, the situation, the geography, the com- merce, the population, and the forms of government, as well as the climate, the soil, and manners of the people, and consider what further federal powers are wanted, and may be safely given, would be a useful work.

According to M. Turgot's idea of a perfect commonwealth, a single assembly is to be possessed of all authority, legislative, executive, and judicial. It will be a proper conclusion of all our speculations upon this, the most interesting subject which can employ the thoughts of men, to consider in what manner such an assembly will conduct its deliberations and exert its power. The executive power is properly the government ; the laws are a dead letter until an administration begins to carry them into execution. Let us begin, then, with this. If there is an army to raise, this single assembly is to appoint all its officers. The man of the most ample fortune, the most honorable descent, the great- est abilities, especially if there is any one among them who has had experience, rendered important services, and acquired fame in war, will be chosen general. This event is a great point gained by the aristocracy ; and a great advance towards the selection of one, in case of convulsions and confusions, for mo- narchy. The general has vast influence, of course, with the whole nation, and especially with the officers of his army ; whose articles of war, and whose habits, both of obedience and com- mand, establish a system of subordination of which he is the centre, and produce an attachment that never wears out. The general, even without being sensible of it, will naturally fall in with the views of the aristocratical body, in promoting men of family, property, and abilities ; and indeed, in general, it will be his duty to do this, as such are, undoubtedly, in general, the fittest for the service. His whole corps of officers will grow habitually to respect such only, or at least chiefly, and, it must be added, because experience proves it, and the truth requires it to be mentioned, to entertain some degree of contempt for the rest of the people, as "rank and file." The general's recom- mendation will have great weight in the assembly, and will in

49*

582 ON GOVERNMENT.

time be given chiefly, if not wholly, to men who are either of the aristocratical body themselves, or at least recommended by such as are so. All the other officers of the army are to be appointed by this assembly ; and we must suppose that all the general offi- cers and field officers will be of patrician families, because each candidate will be unknown to nine tenths of the assembly. He comes from a part of the state which a vast majority of the members of the assembly do not particularly represent and are unacquainted with ; they must, therefore, take his character upon trust from his patron in the house, some member who is his neighbor, and who, perhaps, owes his election to him or his par- ticular friends. Here is an endless source of debate and delay. When there are two or more candidates for a commission, and there will generally be several, how shall an assembly of five hundred or one hundred men, collected from all the most distant parts of a large state, become informed of the merits and preten- sions of each candidate ? It can only be done in public or in private. If in public, it exposes the characters of the candidates to a public discussion, which few men can bear ; it consumes time without end ; and it will frequently happen that the time of the whole assembly shall be wasted, and all the public affairs delayed, for days and weeks, in deliberating and debating, affirm- ing and denying, contradicting and proving, in the appointment of a single officer ; and, after all, he who has friends of the most influence in the house, who will be generally of the aristocratical complexion, will be preferred. It is moderate to say, that the loss of time and delay of business will be a greater burthen to the state than the whole support of a governor and council.

If there is a navy, the same process must be gone through respecting admirals, captains, and all other officers. All the offi- cers of revenue, police, justice, must be appointed in the same way. Ambassadors, consuls, agents to foreign countries, must be appointed, too, by vote of assembly. This branch of business alone would fill up the whole year, and be more than could be done. An assembly must be informed before it can act. The understanding and conscience of every member should be clearly satisfied before he can vote. Information is to be had only by debate and examination of evidence. Any man may see that this must be attended with difficulty ; but no man who has not seen the inside of such an assembly, can conceive the confusion,

CONCLUSION. 583

uncertainty, and procrastination of such proceedings. The Ame- rican provincial congresses had experience enough of this ; and gentlemen were more convinced, by what they there saw, heard, and felt, of the necessity of three branches, than they would have been by reasoning or reading ; it was generally agreed that the appointment of officers by lot would have been a more rational method.

But this is not all. The army, the navy, revenue, excise, cus- toms, police, justice, and all foreign ministers, must be gentlemen, that is to say, friends and connections of the rich, well-born and well-educated members of the house ; or, if they are not, the community will be filled with slander, suspicion, and ridicule against them, as ill-bred, ignorant, and in all respects unqualified for their trusts ; and the plebeians themselves will be as ready as any to join in the cry, and run down their characters. In the second place, there never was yet a people who must not have somebody or something to represent the dignity of the state, the majesty of the people, call it what you will, — a doge, an avoyer, an archon, a president, a consul, a syndic ; this becomes at once an object of ambition and dispute, and, in time, of division, fac- tion, sedition, and rebellion.

The next inquiry is, concerning the administration of justice. Shall every criminal be brought before this assembly and tried ? shall he be there accused before five hundred men? witnesses introduced, counsel heard ? This again would take up more than the whole year ; and no man, after all, would consider his life, liberty, or property, safe in such a tribunal. These all depend upon the disquisitions of the counsel, the knowledge of the law in the judges, the confrontation of parties and witnesses, the forms of proceedings, by which the facts and the law are fairly stated before the jury for their decision, the rules of evi- dence, by which the attention of the jury is confined to proper points, and the artifices of parties and counsel avoided. An assembly of five hundred men are totally incapable of this order, as well as knowledge; for, as the vote of the majority must determine, every member must be capable, or all is uncertain. Besides, it is the unanimity of the jury that preserves the rights of mankind. Must the whole five hundred be unanimous ?

Will it be said that the assembly shall appoint committees to try causes ? But who are to make these appointments ? Will

584 ON GOVERNMENT.

not a few haughty palatines in the assembly have influence enough to determine the election in favor of then friends ? and will not this make the judges the tools of a party ? If the lead- ers are divided into parties, will not one prevail at one year, and another the next? and will not this introduce the most wretched of servitudes, an uncertain jurisprudence ?

Will it be said that the assembly shall appoint committees for the nomination of officers? The same intrigues and greater struggles would be introduced for the place of a committee-man ; and there would be frequent appeals from those committees to the body that appointed them.

Shall the assembly appoint a governor or president, and give him all the executive power ? Why should not the people at large appoint him ? Giving this power to the assembly will open a wider door to intrigue for the place ; and the aristocrat- ical families will be sure, nine times in ten, to carry then choice in this way ; and, what is much worse, the first magistrate will be considered as dependent on every obscure member of the house, but in reality he will be dependent only on a dozen or a score, perhaps on two or three, of the whole. He will be liable to daily motions, debates, and votes of censure. Instead of thinking of his duty to the people at large, he will confine his attention chiefly to the assembly, and believe, that if he can satisfy them, or a majority of them, he has done his duty.

After all, any of these devices are only changing words ; they are, in reality, erecting different orders of men, and aiming at balances, as much as the system which so much displeases M. Turgot ; they are introducing, in effect, all the inequalities and disputes that he so greatly apprehends, without any of that security to the laws, which ought to be the principal object; they render the executive power, which is in truth the govern- ment, the instrument of a few grandees. If these are capable of a combination with each other, they will seldom disagree in their opinion, which is the richest man and of the first family ; and, as these will be all their inquiries, they will generally carry their election. If they are divided, in constant wrangles with each other, and perpetual attacks upon the president about the discharge of his functions, they will keep the nation anxious and irritated, with controversies which can never be decided nor ended. If they agree, and the plebeians still carry the vote

CONCLUSION. 585

against them, the choice will nevertheless probably fall upon one of their number, who will be disposed to favor them too much ; but if it falls upon a plebeian, there commences at once a series of contests between the rich and the poor, which will never end but in the ruin of the popular power and the national liberty; or at least in a revolution and a new constitution. As the ex- ecutive power, the essence of government, is ever odious to popular envy and jealousy, it will ever be in the power of a few illustrious and wealthy citizens to excite clamors and uneasiness, if not commotions and seditions, against it. Although it is the natural friend of the people, and the only defence which they or their representatives can have against the avarice and ambition of the rich and distinguished citizens, yet, such is their thought- less simplicity, they are ever ready to believe that the evils they feel are brought upon them by the executive power. How easy is it, then, for a few artful men among the aristocratical body to make a president, thus appointed and supported, unpopular, though he conducts himself with all the integrity and ability which his office requires?

But we have not yet considered how the legislative power is to be exercised in this single assembly. Is there to be a consti- tution ? Who are to compose it ? The assembly itself, or a convention called for that purpose? In either case, whatever rules are agreed on for the preservation of the lives, liberties, pro- perties, and characters of the citizens, what is to hinder this assembly from transgressing the bounds which they have pre- scribed to themselves, or which the convention has ordained for them ? The convention has published its code and is no more. Shall a new convention be called, to determine every question which arises concerning a violation of the constitution ? This would require that the convention should sit whenever the as- sembly sits, and consider and determine every question which is agitated in it. This is the very thing we contend for, namely, — that there may be two assemblies ; one to divide, and the other to choose. Grant me this, and I am satisfied; provided you will confine both the convention and assembly to legislation, and give the whole executive power to another body. I had almost ventured to propose a third assembly for the executive power ; but the unity, the secrecy, the dispatch of one man has no equal; and the executive power should be watched by all

586 ON GOVERNMENT.

men ; the attention of the whole nation should be fixed upon one point, and the blame and censure, as well as the impeachments and vengeance for abuses of this power, should be directed solely to the ministers of one man. But to pursue our single assembly. The first year, or the first seven years, they may be moderate; especially in dangerous times, and while an exiled royal family, or exiled patricians or nobles, are living, and may return ; or while the people's passions are alive, and their attention awake, from the fresh remembrance of danger and distress. But when these transitory causes pass away, as there is an affection and confidence between the people and their representatives, suppose the latter begin to make distinctions, by making exceptions of themselves in the laws. They may frank letters ; they are exempted from arrests ; they can privilege servants ; one little distinction after another, in time makes up a large sum. Some few of the peo- ple will complain ; but the majority, loving then representatives, will acquiesce. Presently they are exempted from taxes. Then their duration is too short ; from annual they become biennial, triennial, septennial, for life ; and at length, instead of applying to constituents to fill up vacancies, the assembly takes it upon itself, or gives it to their president. In the mean time, wars are conducted by heroes to triumph and conquest, negotiations are carried on with success, commerce flourishes, the nation is pros- perous ; the citizens are flattered, vain, proud of their felicity, envied by others. It would be the basest, the most odious in- gratitude, at least it would be so represented, to find fault with their rulers. In a word, as long as half a score of capital cha- racters agree, they will gradually form the house and the nation into a system of subordination and dependence to themselves, and govern all at their discretion — a simple aristocracy or oli- garchy in effect, though a simple democracy in name. But, as every one of these is emulous of others, and more than one of them is constantly tormented with a desire to be the first, they will soon disagree ; and then the house and the nation gradually divides itself into four parties, one of which, at least, will wish for monarchy, another for aristocracy, a third for democracy, and a fourth for various mixtures of them ; and these parties can never come to a decision but by a struggle, or by the sword. There is no remedy for this, but in a convention of deputies from all parts of the state ; but an equal convention can hardly

CONCLUSION. 587

be obtained, except in times like those we have lately seen, when the danger could only be warded off by the aid and exertions of the whole body of the people. When no such danger from with- out shall press, those who are proud of their wealth, blood, or wit, will never give way to fair and equal establishments. All parties will be afraid of calling a convention ; but if it must be agreed to, the aristocratical party will push their influence, and obtain elections even into the conventions, for themselves and their friends, so as to carry points there which perhaps they could not have carried in the assembly.

But shall the people at large elect a governor and council an- nually to manage the executive power, and a single assembly to have the whole legislative ? In this case, the executive power, instead of being independent, will be the instrument of a few leading members of the house ; because the executive power, being an object of jealousy and envy to the people, and the legislative an object of their confidence and affection, the latter will always be able to render the former unpopular, and under- mine its influence. But if the people for a time support an executive disagreeable to the leaders in the legislative, the con- stitution will be disregarded, and the nation will be divided be- tween the two bodies, and each must at last have an army to decide the question. A constitution consisting of an executive in one single assembly, and a legislative in another, is already composed of two armies in battle array ; and nothing is wanting but the word of command to begin the combat.

In the present state of society and manners in America, with a people living chiefly by agriculture, in small numbers, sprinkled over large tracts of land, they are not subject to those panics and transports, those contagions of madness and folly, which are seen in countries where large numbers live in small places, in daily fear of perishing for want. We know, therefore, that the people can live and increase under almost any kind of govern- ment, or without any government at all. But it is of great im- portance to begin well ; misarrangements now made, will have great, extensive, and distant consequences ; and we are now em- ployed, how little soever we may think of it, in making establish- ments which will affect the happiness of a hundred millions of inhabitants at a time, in a period not very distant. All nations, under all governments, must have parties ; the great secret is to

588 ON GOVERNMENT.

control them. There are but two ways, either by a monarchy and standing army, or by a balance in the constitution. Where the people have a voice, and there is no balance, there will be everlasting fluctuations, revolutions, and horrors, until a standing army, with a general at its head, commands the peace, or the necessity of an equilibrium is made appear to all, and is adopted by all.

End Of Volume Iv

END OF VOLUME IV.

The Works of John Adams, vol. 10 (Letters 1811-1825, incl. Adams-Jefferson)

# The Works of John Adams, vol. 10 (Letters 1811-1825, incl. Adams-Jefferson)

pibrar^

N The Custody Of The Boston Public Library

N THE CUSTODY OF THE

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY.

SHELF N°

ADAMS I 3 0. 1

Jo\. \Q

The Works Of John Adams

THE WORKS

OF

JOHN ADAMS

B O S T 0 IT PUBLISHED BT CEAELES C LITTLE Sc JAMES B1CT

THE

WORKS

OF

JOHN ADAMS,

SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

WITH

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,

BY

HIS GRANDSON CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

VOL. X.

BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY,

1856.

YX

6Lntcv^

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by Charl.es Francis Adams in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

ISO. ( ^ 10

RIVERSIDE. CAMBRIDGE:

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED B Y

II. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME X.

1811.

October 15. To Benjamin Stoddert

27. Benjamin Stoddert to John Adams November 25. To Samuel Smith

30. Robert Smith to John Adams December 1. Samuel Smith to John Adams 6. To Robert Smith

13. To Samuel Smith

25. To Benjamin Rush

1812. June

August

November

1813. January

2. To Thomas McKean 13. Thomas McKean to John Adams 21. To Thomas McKean 28. To Thomas Jefferson

6. To Samuel B. Malcom 25. To William Keteltas

5. To J. B. Varnum 24. To John Langdon

27. John Langdon to John

28. To Elbridge Gerry February 11. To Elbridge Gerry

23. To James Monroe

March 22. To John Lathrop

28. To William Plumer

April 14. To Elbridge Gerry

a*

Adams

PAGE

3

4 7 8 8 9 9 10

12 14 15 17 20 22

24

27 28 29 30 32 33 35 36

VI

CONTENTS.

July

1813. Juue 5.

10.

14.

28.

30.

9.

13.

17.

18.

16.

20.

31.

September 2.

14.

15.

22.

28.

4.

12.

August

October November

December

1814. January

March

April

May

July

November 1 >ecember

1815.

January

25.

To Benjamin Waterhouse

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jeffersqn .

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jefferson .

Thomas McKean to John Adams

To Thomas McKean

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jefferson .

Thomas McKean to John Adams

To Thomas Jefferson .

To Thomas Jefferson .

Thomas McKean to John Adams

To Thomas Jefferson .

Thomas McKean to John Adams

14. To Thomas Jefferson . 9. To John Taylor . .

30. To Richard Rush

15. To Mrs. Mercy Warren

16. To Thomas Jefferson . 28. To James Madison

2. To Rufus King . ;

17. James Madison to John Adams

To James Lloyd

CONTENTS.

vii

1815.

PAGE

February

6. To James Lloyd . . . . .114

11. To James Lloyd ,

. 116

14. To James Lloyd

. 120

7. To James Lloyd

. 123

21. To James Lloyd

. 126

March

3. To William Cranch

4. To Dr. J. Morse 6. To James Lloyd

12. To James Lloyd . .

26. To James Lloyd

27. To James Lloyd

29. To James Lloyd

30. To James Lloyd

31. To James Lloyd

. 131 . 133 . 134 . 136 . 139 . 143^ . 146 . 149 . 152

April

5. To James Lloyd 5. To Richard Rush 24. To James Lloyd

. 155

. 159

162

July

6. To Thomas McKean 13. To F. A. Vanderkemp . . , 30. To Thomas McKean

166 168 171

August

24. To Thomas Jefferson .

172

November

13. To Thomas Jefferson .

20. Thomas McKean to John Adams

20. To Dr. J. Morse .

26. To Thomas McKean

29. To Dr. J. Morse

174 176 178 180 182

December

2. To Dr. J. Morse . 5. To Dr. J. Morse .... 22. To Dr. J. Morse ....

185 188 192

1810.

January

1. To Dr. J. Morse .... 5. To Dr. J. Morse .

197 201

s

VI 11

CONTENTS.

1816.

January

20.

March

2.

May

3

6.

26.

August

1

9

September

9

30

November

4

16

December

12.

18

27

1817.

January

24

February

4

March

29.

Ajjril

15

19

22

June

1

5

13

17

December

30

1818.

January

5.

9

14

23

30

February

6

To Dr. J. Morse .

To Thomas Jefferson

To Thomas Jefferson

To Thomas Jefferson

To F. A. Vanderkemp

Thomas Jefferson to John Adams

To Thomas Jefferson

To William Tudor

To Thomas Jefferson

To Thomas Jefferson

To William Tudor

To Thomas Jefferson

To William Tudor

To F. A. Vanderkemp

To William Tudor To William Tudor To William Tudor To William Tudor To Thomas Jefferson To James Madison To William Tudor To William Tudor To Henry Colman To James Madison To John M. Jackson

To William Wirt

To John Jay

To H. Niles

To William Wirt

To Benjamin Waterhouse

To Benjamin Waterhouse

PAGE

204

210

213

216

219

222

224

226

227

228

230^

232

232

234

236 241 244 249 253 256 258 262 266 267

269

271, 272

2U) 277 279 280

CONTENTS.

ix

1818.

PAGE

13. To PL Niles .

. 282

25. To William Tudor .

. 289

March

7. To William Wirt .

. 292

11. To William Tudor ,

. 295

April

5. To William Tudor .

. 298

May

29. To Thomas Jefferson .

. 312

June

1. To William Tudor .

. 314

9. To William Tudor

. 317

1 7. To William Tudor .

. 320

24. To William Tudor

. 323

July

9. To William Tudor

. 825

14. To William Tudor

. 328

1 7. To William Tudob

. 332

27. To William Tudor

. 335

30. To William Tudor .

. 337

August

6. To William Tudor

. 338

11. To William Tudor

. 343

16. To William Tudor

. 346

21. To William Tudor

. 349

September

10. To William Tudor

. ^352J

13. To William Tudor

; . 354

18. To William Tudor

. 356

23. To William Tudor

. 359

November

13. Thomas Jefferson to John Adams .

. 362

December

8. To Thomas Jefferson .

. 363

1819.

February

9. To William Tudor . . .

. 364

21. To William Willis . ...

. 365

23. To Thomas Jefferson .

. 366

March

7. To William Tudor

. 367,

12. To John Taylor, of Caroline,

. 375

30. To J. H. Tiffany .

. 377

1819.

April

30.

June

8.

22.

July

15.

August

11.

21.

December

14.

18.

1820.

January

17.

March

7.

July

8.

September

4.

November

o O.

1821.

February

9.

24.

May

14.

19.

22.

September

1.

November

28.

1822.

March

31.

August

10.

1823.

March

9.

9.

August

15.

September

17.

1824.

April

8.

April

12.

Contents. Page

CONTENTS.

PAGE

To J. H. Tiffany

. 378

To Robert J. Evans

. 379

To Thomas Jefferson .

. 380

To William Bentley .

. 381

To Richard Bland Lee

. 382

To William Bentley .

. 383

To William E. Richmond

. 384

To Thomas Jefferson .

. 385

To Thomas Jefferson .

. 387

To Elihu Marshall

. 388

To Samuel Miller

. 389

To Charles Holt

. 391

To Henry Channing

. 392

To George Alexander Otis .

. 394

To Richard H. Lee

. 395

To Richard Rush

. 397

To Thomas Jefferson .

. 398

To David Sewall

. 399

To John Marston

. 399

To Richard Rush

. 400

To Richard Peters

. 402

To William Thomas

. 403

To Thomas Jefferson .

. 405

To F. A. Vanderkemp .

. 407

To Thomas Jefferson .

. 408

To Thomas Jefferson .

. 410

John Taylor to Jonx Adams

. 411

To John Taylor

. 413

Contents. Xi

CONTENTS.

XI

1825. January 22. To Thomas Jefferson .

23. To Thomas Jefferson . February 18. To John Quincy Adams June 7. To John Whitney

10. To Jacob B. Taylor and others

PAGE

414 415 416 416 417

APPENDIX (A.)

Address to the Cadets of the Military Academy of West

Point . . . . . . . .419

Indexes

INDEXES.

Letters from John Adams . .

Letters to John Adams

Miscellaneous Letters

Speeches and Messages to Congress

proclamations

Addresses and Answers to Addresses

General Index ....

. 423

. 435

. 440

. 443

. 445

. 445 449-519

GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE

CONTINUED

VOL. X.

GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE

CONTINUED.

TO BENJAMIN STODDERT.

Quincy, 15 October, 1811.

Dear Stoddert, — Your obliging letter of August 16th was presented to me by your son-in-law, Dr. Thomas Ewell, and his amiable lady, your daughter. Although I was confined with a wounded leg, which is not yet healed, and afflicted with a series of misfortunes, afflictions, and deaths among my tenderest con- nections, such as rarely happens to any man even in this trouble- some world, I was not the less obliged to you for giving me an opportunity of seeing this sensible and amiable couple. These causes, however, have retarded my answer, and I hope will plead my excuse. I am happy to hear that your health is good, and I hope your happiness unalloyed.

I am as happy as ever I was in my life, as happy as I can ever expect to be in this "world, and I believe as happy as any man can be, who sees all the friends of his youth dropping off about him, and so much sickness among his nearest relations, and who expects himself to drop in a very short time. Public affairs move me no more than private. I love my country and my friends, but can do very little for either. Reconciled and resigned to my lot in public and private, I wait with patience for a transfer to another scene.

After an introduction so solemn and gloomy, you will be surprised to find me turn to so ludicrous a subject as friend Timothy. You have seen his addresses to the people, in which he has poured out the phials of his vengeance against me, after

4 CORRESPONDENCE.

having nourished and cherished it in his bosom a dozen years. He has implicated General Sam Smith and his brother Robert Smith, the late Secretary of State, in a manner that ought in my opinion to bring them out in vindication of themselves and me.

God knows, I never made any bargain with them or either of them. I never knew or suspected that they had any animo- sity against Pickering, more than they had against you or McHenry, Wolcott or Lee. No hint was ever given to me, directly or indirectly from either, that they wished Pickering removed, or that they would vote for me on any condition, or in any circumstances whatsoever. When I appointed Winchester Judge, in opposition to the wish of Robert Smith, as you know very well, I had the best opportunities to conciliate the Smiths, if I had been so disposed. Pickering knows this as well as you. How, then, can he tell such an abominable story ? I cannot think that he believes it himself. Had I not scruples about setting an example of a President's vindicating himself against such attacks from a mortified, disappointed, and vindictive mi- nister, I should be at no loss for reasons to justify the removal of Mr. Pickering.

B. Stoddert To John Adams

B. STODDERT TO JOHN ADAMS.

Bladensburg, 27 October, 1811.

I sincerely thank you for your kind letter of the 15th. It always affords me the highest satisfaction to hear of you and from you, and more particularly when I hear favorable accounts of your health and contentment.

I have seen and regretted the attack of Colonel Pickering on you, in a point affecting your moral character. In relation to any intrigue of my countrymen, the Smiths, with you, for his removal from the office of State, I have at all times felt the strongest conviction that you never did descend to such base- ness, not only because I knew you were incapable of such degradation, but because I had reason to know that there was no kind of private intercourse between you and General Smith (and his brother was not at the seat of government), about the

CORRESPONDENCE. 5

time of Colonel Pickering's removal. I knew it from this cir- cumstance. A day or two before the New York election, in which Colonel Burr exerted himself with so much success as to produce a result that disappointed every body, and at a moment when members of Congress and all about the government believed that city would be entirely federal, General Smith and a Senator of high standing called on me at my office, and ex- pressed their satisfaction with most of your measures, though disapproving of some which they seemed disposed rather to ascribe to the influence of others than to you, and signified a desire to have a friendly interview with you, and asked my opinion if such an interview would be agreeable. My reply, in substance, was, that I could not doubt it, but that I would speak to you on the subject, and let them know.

It so happened that I did not speak to you before the result of the New York election was known in Philadelphia. This result afforded Mr. Jefferson a prospect of the Presidential chair he seemed not to have had before. But for this result, I ques- tion whether it would not have been decided, about that time, by his friends, to suspend his pretensions for four years longer, and that their support, if from no other motive, for the chance of having influence in your administration, should be given to you.

If I never afterwards mentioned to you my visit from the General and the Senator, it was because I thought I perceived that then- views had changed, with the change of prospect occa- sioned by the result of the New York election. They spoke to me no more, and I am very confident they avoided you.

I am not good at remembering dates ; and, never meaning to be a public man, I never kept memoranda of any political trans- actions. But I believe this election was just before the close of the session of Congress ; and that at the close, or a day or two before, Colonel Pickering was removed. On the morning of the day of the removal, you communicated to Mr. Lee and myself, who chanced to meet at your house without being sum- moned, your intention, and observed, your mind had been made up on the subject before the commencement of the session, but that, to avoid a turbulent session (Colonel Pickering having many warm friends in both Houses), you had delayed to take the step until the close of the session. You said you respected

l*

fi CORRESPONDENCE.

Colonel Pickering for his industry, his talents, and his integrity, but mentioned instances to show that he wanted those feelings a Secretary of State should possess for the character of a Pre- sident, and wanted temper to enable you to make peace with France, or preserve it with England ; and, upon something sug- gested by Mr. Lee or myself to induce reconsideration on your part, you added, that you felt it a sacred duty to make a change in the Department of State, and proposed, that Mr. Lee or my- self should communicate your decision to Colonel Pickering in terms least calculated to hurt his feelings. We both too sin- cerely respected him to undertake a task so disagreeable. I have never since conversed with Mr. Lee on this subject; but I do presume, were he to relate the occurrence, his relation would agree substantially with mine.

Colonel Pickering, like most honest, warm-tempered men, may be too partial, perhaps, in tracing to the best motives the actions of his friends, and too prone to ascribe to the worst the conduct of those whom he does not like. After hearing of the prediction of Mr. R. Smith at Annapolis (which I presume has been within the last two years), made ten or twelve days before his removal, that he would be removed, it was not extraordinary that he should imagine Mr. R. Smith, his brother, the General, and others, had successfully intrigued with you for his removal as the price of their support. And when he made the charge against you, I cannot, from what I think I know of his charac- ter, persuade myself for a moment to doubt that he did most religiously believe in its truth.

Were I to venture to account for Mr. R. Smith's prediction at Annapolis, it would be in this way. The visit to me, of which I have spoken, shows that the most respectable of that party, with whom Mr. Smith was closely linked, were at least balanc- ing in their minds whether their surest road to more influence in public affairs would not be to attach themselves to you, especially as your reelection seemed at that time certain. Colo- nel Pickering, of all your ministers, was most obnoxious to those gentlemen. And it might have been contemplated by them, with the knowledge of Mr. R. Smith, to ask his removal in return for their support. And as it was too well known that the proper harmony between the President and Secretary of State did not exist, Mr. Smith being sure, as he thought, the

CORRESPONDENCE. 7

offer would be made, might conclude, without great violence to probability, that the offer would be made, and, unacquainted with your honorable principles, that it would not be rejected.

If any use can be made of this feeble, though sincere testi- mony, in removing from that reputation you so justly value a transient cloud, most freely do I consent it should be so used. I may dissatisfy men, whose friendship I prize most highly, and make others my enemies, by this ; but consideration of self never did nor ever shall deter me from doing an act of justice.

With my best respects, &c, &c.

Ben. Stoddert.

To Samuel Smith

TO SAMUEL SMITH.

Quincy, 25 November, 1811.

Sir, — Colonel Pickering, in his letters or addresses to the people of the United States, has represented to the world, and supported by certificates or testimonies, which some persons think plausible, that a corrupt bargain was made between your- self and your brother on one part, and me on the other, that I should dismiss the then Secretary of State from his office, in consideration of your votes and influence for me at the next election of President and Vice-President.

As such a kind of traffic would be as dishonorable to your- self and your brother as to me, I think it would become all three of us to take some prudent measures to disabuse the public, if not to vindicate our characters.

For my own part, I declare upon my honor, and am at any time ready to depose upon oath, that no such communication, intimation, or insinuation ever passed, directly or indirectly, between me and yourself, or your brother. You must, therefore, know and feel the imputation both upon me and yourself to be false and injurious. Consequently I can see no objection that either of us can have to clearing up this matter before the public. I should be obliged to you, Sir, for your sentiments upon this subject, and continue to be, with much respect, your most obedient and humble servant.

Memorandum. Wrote on the same day, in the same words, mutatis mutandis, to the Hon. Robert Smith at Baltimore. J. A.

8 CORRESPONDENCE.

Robert Smith To John Adams

ROBERT SMITH TO JOHN ADAMS.

Baltimore, 30 November, 1811.

Sir, — In reply to your letter of the 25th of this month, I have no hesitation in stating to you, that, at no period of your administration did I consider or understand that any kind of bargain or arrangement had, directly or indirectly, in any man- ner or form, been proposed or made, between yourself on the one part, and my brother and myself, or either of us, on the other part, in relation to the dismission of Mr. Pickering from the office of the Department of State.

Be pleased to accept an assurance of the great respect, with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your humble servant,

It. Smith.

Samuel Smith To John Adams

SAMUEL SMITH TO JOHN ADAMS.

Washington, 1 December, 1811.

Sir, — I had the honor, yesterday, to receive your letter of the 25th ultimo, in which you say, " that Colonel Pickering in his letters to the people of the United States has represented to the world, that a corrupt bargain was made between your- self and brother on the one part, and me on the other, that I should dismiss the then Secretary of State from his office, in consideration of your votes and influence for me, at the next election of President and Vice-President."

You appear to be of opinion, that some notice ought to be taken of this assertion to disabuse the public, justly observing that no such communication had ever passed directly or in- directly between you, my brother, and myself.

I have taught myself to despise every attack upon my poli- tical character ; and I cannot persuade myself, that any man acquainted with your high character will believe that you would have permitted any person to have made to you a proposition so very dishonorable. For myself I declare, that I never held any conversation with you, respecting Colonel Pickering ; that I never heard you utter one word disrespectful of that gentle-

CORRESPONDENCE. 9

man ; that I never did insinuate or express a wish to you that you would dismiss Colonel Pickering from office, nor did I ever insinuate or say, that I would, for any consideration whatsoever, support you by my vote or influence at the election of President and Vice-President. I never believed myself in your confidence. On the contrary, I did at that period think that you were per- sonally hostile to me. It is well known, that I opposed your first election and your reelection, openly, on political ground. It is not known to me, that you had any knowledge of my brother Robert at the period alluded to ; if any communication had ever passed between you and him, it must have been known to me. I never knew of any, and am certain that none did take place.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

S. Smith.

To Robert Smith

TO ROBERT SMITH.

Quiney, 6 December, 1811.

Sir, — Yesterday I received from the post-office in this town your favor of the 30th of November, in answer to my letter to you of the 25th of that month.

I thank you, Sir, for the promptitude, punctuality, and accu- racy of your reply, which is fully satisfactory. It is such, indeed, as I knew it must be from the immutability of truth.

TO SAMUEL SMITH.

Quiney, 13 December, 1811.

Sir, — I have received your letter of the 1st of this month in answer to mine of the 25th of November. It is not less frank and candid than prompt and punctual.

I have only to remark that you were certainly mistaken when you thought that " I was personally hostile to you." Your brother Robert I "never saw in my life, nor had any communica- tion with him of any kind while I had any share in government.

10 CORRESPONDENCE.

To Benjamin Rush

TO BENJAMIN RUSH.

Quincy, 25 December, 1811.

I never was so much at a loss how to answer a letter as yours of the 16th.

Shall I assume a sober face and write a grave essay on reli- gion, philosophy, laws, or government?

Shall I laugh, like Bacchus among his grapes, wine vats, and bottles?

Shall I assume the man of the world, the fine gentleman, the courtier, and bow and scrape, with a smooth, smiling face, soft words, many compliments and apologies ; think myself highly honored, bound in gratitude, &c, &c. ?

I perceive plainly enough, Rush, that you have been teasing Jefferson to write to me, as you did me some time ago to write to him. You gravely advise me " to receive the olive branch," as if there had been war ; but there has never been any hostility on my part, nor that I know, on his. When there has been no war, there can be no room for negotiations of peace.

Mr. Jefferson speaks of my political opinions ; but I know of no difference between him and myself relative to the Constitu- tion, or to forms of government in general. In measures of administration, we have differed in opinion. I have never approved the repeal of the judicial law, the repeal of the taxes, the neglect of the navy; and I have always believed that his system of gunboats for a national defence was de- fective. To make it complete, he ought to have taken a hint from Moliere's " Femmes precieuses" or his learned ladies, and appointed three or four brigades of horse, with a Major- General, and three or four brigadiers, to serve on board his gal- leys of Malta. I have never approved his non-embargo, or any non-intercourse, or non-importation laws.

But I have raised no clamors nor made any opposition to any of these measures. The nation approved them ; and what is my judgment against that of the nation ? On the contrary, he disapproved of the alien law and sedition law, which I believe to have been constitutional and salutary, if not necessary.

He disapproved of the eight per cent, loan, and with good

CORRESPONDENCE. 11

reason. For I hated it as much as any man, and the army, too, which occasioned it. He disapproved, perhaps, of the partial war with France, which I believed, as far as it proceeded, to be a holy war. He disapproved of taxes, and perhaps the whole scheme of my administration, &c, and so perhaps did the nation. But his administration and mine are passed away into the dark backwards, and are now of no more importance than the administration of the old Congress in 1774 and 1775.

We differed in opinion about the French revolution. He thought it wise and good, and that it would end in the esta- blishment of a free republic. I saw through it, to the end of it, before it broke out, and was sure it could end only in a restor- ation of the Bourbons, or a military despotism, after deluging France and Europe in blood. In this opinion I differed from you as much as from Jefferson ; but all this made me no more of an enemy to you than to him, nor to him than to you. I believe you both to mean well to mankind and your country. I might suspect you both to sacrifice a little to the infernal Gods, and perhaps unconsciously to suffer your judgments to be a little swayed by a love of popularity, and possibly by a little spice of ambition.

In point of republicanism, all the difference I ever knew or could discover between you and me, or between Jefferson and me, consisted,

1. In the difference between speeches and messages. I was a monarchist because I thought a speech more manly, more respectful to Congress and the nation. Jefferson and Rush preferred messages.

2. I held levees once a week, that all my time might not be wasted by idle visits. Jefferson's whole eight years was a levee.

3. I dined a large company once or twice a week. Jefferson dined a dozen every day.

4. Jefferson and Rush were for liberty and straight hair. I thought curled hair was as republican as straight.

In these, and a few other points of equal importance, all miserable frivolities, that Jefferson and Rush ought to blush that they ever laid any stress upon them, I might differ ; but I never knew any points of more consequence, on which there was any variation between us.

12 CORRESPONDENCE.

You exhort me to " forgiveness and love of enemies," as if 1 considered, or had ever considered, Jefferson as my enemy. This is not so ; I have always loved him as a friend. If I ever received or suspected any injury from him, I have forgiven it long and long ago, and have no more resentment against him than against you.

You enforce your exhortations by the most solemn considera- tions that can enter the human mind. After mature reflection upon them, and laying them properly to heart, I could not help feeling that they were so unnecessary, that you must excuse me if I had some inclination to be ludicrous.

You often put me in mind that I am soon to die ; I know it, and shall not forget it. Stepping into my kitchen one day, I found two of my poor neighbors, as good sort of men as two drunkards could be. One had sotted himself into a consump- tion. His cough and his paleness and weakness showed him near the last stage. Tom, who was not so far gone as yet, though he soon followed, said to John, " You have not long for this world." John answered very quick : " I know it, Tom, as well as you do ; but why do you tell me of it ? I had rather you should strike me." This was one of those touches of nature which Shakspere or Cervantes would have noted in his ivory book.

But why do you make so much ado about nothing? Of what use can it be for Jefferson and me to exchange letters ? I have nothing to say to him, but to wish him an easy journey to heaven, when he goes, which I wish may be delayed, as long as life shall be agreeable to him. And he can have nothing to say to me, but to bid me make haste and be ready. Time and chance, however, or possibly design, may produce ere long a letter between us.

To Thomas Mckean

TO THOMAS MCKEAN.

Quincy, 2 June, 1812.

Our ancient and venerable friend Clinton is gone before us. It had long been my intention to write to him, but while 1 was busied about many things perhaps of less importance, he has

CORRESPONDENCE. 13

slipped out of my reach. I am determined no longer to neglect to write to you, lest I should glide away, where there is no pen and ink.

Nearly thirty-eight years ago our friendship commenced. It has never been interrupted, to my knowledge, but by one event. Among all the gentlemen with whom I have acted and lived in the world, I know not any two who have more uniformly agreed in sentiment upon political principles, forms of government, and national policy, than you and I have done, except upon one great subject — a most important and momentous one, to be sure. That subject was the French revolution. This, at the first appearance of it, you thought a " minister of grace." I fully believed it to be " a goblin damned." Hence all the estrangement between us, that I know, or ever suspected. There is no reason that this should now keep us asunder, for I presume there can be little difference of opinion at present upon this subject. "When Pultney accepted a peerage, some droll wit wrote, —

" Of all the patriot things that Pultney writ, The earl of Bath confutes them every bit."

We may now say, —

" Of all the glorious things French patriots writ, The emperor confutes them every bit."

There can be no question of honors or profits, or rank or fame, between you and me at present. Personal friendship and private feelings are all that remain. I should be happy to hear of your health and prosperity, but I cannot conclude with- out one political observation. In ancient times Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia agreed very well. Why should they be at variance now ?

I hope, Sir, you will excuse this intrusion, and believe me to be still, with much esteem, your friend and servant.

vol. x.

14 CORRESPONDENCE.

Thomas Mckean To John Adams

THOMAS MCKEAN TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, 13 June, 1812.

On my return from a tour to the State of Delaware, I found your kind letter of the 2d instant, and thank you for this mark of esteem.

Our venerable friend Clinton has gone before us; so has the illustrious Washington, eleven years ago ; and I have nearly outlived all my early acquaintance. I remain the only surviv- ing member of the first American Congress, held in the city of New York in October, 1765 ; and but three more, of whom you are one, remain alive of the second, held in this city in Septem- ber, 1774. It was my fate to be delegated to that trust annually during the revolutionary war with Great Britain, until the pre- liminary articles of peace were signed in 1782, which afforded me an opportunity of knowing every member of Congress dur- ing the whole of that time ; and I declare with pleasure, and also with pride, that I embraced the political sentiments of none with more satisfaction (being congenial with my own) than yours, nor do I recollect a single question in which we differed.

It is true, I was a friend to the revolution in France, from the assembly of the Notables until the king was decapitated, which I deemed not only a very atrocious but a most absurd act. After the limited monarchy was abolished, I remained in a kind of apathy with regard to the leaders of the different parties, until I clearly perceived that nation was incapable at that time of being ruled by a a popular government; and when the few and afterwards an individual assumed a despotic sway over them, I thought them in a situation better than under the government of a mob, for I would prefer any kind of govern- ment to such a state, even tyranny to anarchy. On this sub- ject, then, I do not conceive we differed widely.

My dear Sir, at this time of our lives there can certainly be no question, as you observe, of honors, profits, rank or fame, between us. I shook hand with the world three years ago, and we said farewell to each other. The toys and rattles of child- hood would, in a few years more, be probably as suitable to me as office, honor, or wealth ; but, I thank God, the faculties of my mind are as yet little, if any thing, impaired, and my affec-

CORRESPONDENCE. 15

tions and friendships are unshaken : I do assure you that I venerate our early friendship, and am happy in a continuance of it.

Since my exemption from official and professional duties, I have enjoyed a tranquillity never (during a long protracted life) heretofore experienced, and my health and comforts are suffi- cient for a reasonable man.

Our country is at this moment in a critical situation ; the result is in the womb of fate. Our system of government, in peace, is the best in the world ; but how it will operate in war, is doubtful. This, however, is likely to be soon put to the test, and I sincerely regret it.

There is a cheerful air in your letter that evidences health, peace, and a competency, which that you may long enjoy is the sincere wish and ardent prayer of, dear Sir, your old friend and most obedient servant

Thomas McKban.

TO THOMAS MCKEAN.

Quincy, 21 June, 1812.

I have received your kind letter of the 13th of this month with emotions like those of two old friends after a separation of many years, such as we may suppose Ulysses to have felt on meeting one of his ancient associates (not one of the suitors) on his return to Ithaca.

Your name among the members of Congress in New York, in October, 1765, is, and has long been a singular distinction. I wish you would commit to writing your observations on the characters who composed that assembly, and the objects of your meeting. Otis and Ruggles are peculiarly interesting to me, and every thing that passed on that important occasion is and will be more and more demanded (and it is to be feared, in vain) by our posterity.

Of the Congress, in September, 1774, there remains Governor Johnson, of Maryland, Governor McKean, of Pennsylvania, Governor Jay, of New York, Judge Paine, of Massachusetts, and John Adams, not forgetting our venerable Charles Thom- son, Secretary.

You had an opportunity that was denied me in 1778, 1779,

16 CORRESPONDENCE.

1780, 1781, 1782. I was in Europe from 1778 to 1788. There -was a great change in Congress soon after 1778. The Massa- chusetts men were chosen of a very different stamp from Han- cock, Sam Adams, and Gerry. Higginson, Gorham, King, Jackson, and Lowell were a batch of loaves of a very different flour from their predecessors. I would now give any thing for your knowledge of their oratory, dialectics, and principles and opinions. This nation now groans, and future ages, I fear, will have reason to rue the hunting of that day. After the peace, New York and Pennsylvania followed the example of Massachusetts, and brought in lukewarmness instead of zeal, not to say toryism in the place of whiggism.

I acknowledge that the most unaccountable phenomenon I ever beheld, in the seventy-seven years, almost, that I have lived, was to see men of the most extensive knowledge and deepest reflection entertain for a moment an opinion that a democratical republic could be erected in a nation of five-and- twenty millions of people, four-and-twenty millions and five hundred thousand of whom could neither read nor write.

My sentiments and feelings are in symphony with yours in another particular. The last eleven years of my life have been the most comfortable of the seventy-seven. I have never en- joyed so much in any equal period. Mr. Jefferson, I find, is equally happy. I have had opportunity, however, to know that the illustrious Washington was not, and that to his uneasiness in retirement great changes in the politics of this country were to be attributed, perhaps for the better, possibly for the worse. God knows. I am as cheerful as ever I was ; and my health is as good, excepting a quiveration of the hands, which disables me from writing in the bold and steady character of your letter, which I rejoice to see. Excuse the word quiveration, which, though I borrowed it from an Irish boy, I think an improve- ment in our language worthy a place in Webster's dictionary. Though my sight is good, my eyes are too weak for all the labor I require of them ; but as this is a defect of more than fifty years standing, there are no hopes of relief. The trepidation of the hands arising from a delicacy, or, if you will, a morbid irritability of nerves, has shown itself at times for more than half a century, but has increased for four or five years past, so as to extinguish all hopes that it will ever be less.

CORRESPONDENCE. 17

The danger of our government is, that the General will be a man of more popularity than the President, and the army pos- sess more power than Congress. The people should be apprised of this, and guard themselves against it. Nothing is more essential than to hold the civil authority decidedly superior to the military power.

Wishing you life as long as you desire it, and every blessing in it, I remain, &c.

To Thomas Jefferson

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 28 June, 1812.

I know not what, unless it were the prophet of Tippecanoe, had turned my curiosity to inquiries after the metaphysical science of the Indians, their ecclesiastical establishments, and theological theories ; but your letter, written with all the accu- racy, perspicuity, and elegance of your youth and middle age, as it has given me great satisfaction, deserves my best thanks.1

It has given me satisfaction, because, while it has furnished me with information where all the knowledge is to be obtained that books afford, it has convinced me that I shall never know much more of the subject than I do now. As I have never aimed at making any collection of books upon this subject, I have none of those you have abridged in so concise a manner. Lafitau, Adair, and De Bry were known to me only by name.

The various ingenuity which has been displayed in inven- tions of hypotheses to account for the original population of America, and the immensity of learning profusely expended to support them, have appeared to me, for a longer time than I can possibly recollect, what the physicians call the liter ce nihil sanantes. Whether serpents' teeth were sown here and sprung up men ; whether men and women dropped from the clouds upon this Atlantic island ; whether the Almighty created them here, or whether they emigrated from Europe, are questions of no moment to the present or future happiness of man. Neither

1 This letter is not published in Mr. Randolph's edition of Jefferson. It re- lates entirely to the Indians, their manners and habits.

2 *

18 CORRESPONDENCE.

agriculture, commerce, manufactures, fisheries, science, litera- ture, taste, religion, morals, nor any other good will be pro- moted, or any evil averted, by any discoveries that can be made

in answer to these questions.

... * *

The opinions of the Indians and their usages, as represented

in your obliging letter of the 11th June, appear to me to resem- ble the platonizing Philo, or the philonizing Plato, more than the genuine system of Judaism.

The philosophy both of Philo and Plato is at least as absurd ; it is indeed less intelligible./ Plato borrowed his doctrines from oriental and Egyptian philosophers, for he had travelled both in India and Egypt. .The oriental philosophy, imitated and adopted in part, if not the whole, both by Plato and Philo, was, 1. One God, the good. 2. The ideas, the thoughts, the rea- son, the intellect, the logos, the ratio of God. 3. Matter, the universe, the production of the logos, or contemplations of God. ' This matter was the source of evil., ,

Perhaps the three powers of Plato, Philo, the Egyptians and Indians, cannot be distinctly made from your account of the Indians ; but,

1. The great Spirit, the good, who is worshipped by the kings, sachems, and all the great men in their solemn festivals, as the author, the parent of good.

2. The devil, or the source of evil ; they are not metaphysi- cians enough as yet to suppose it, or at least to call it matter, like the wiseacres of antiquity and like Frederic the Great, who has written a very silly essay on the origin of evil, in which he ascribes it all to matter, as if this was an original discovery of his own.

The watch-maker has in his head an idea of the system of a watch, before he makes it. The mechanician of the universe had a complete idea of the universe before he made it, and this idea, this logos, was almighty, or at least powerful enough to produce the world ; but it must be made of matter, which was eternal. For creation out of nothing was impossible, and mat- ter was unmanageable. It would not and could not be fashioned into any system, without a large mixture of evil in it, for matter J was essentially evil.

The Indians are not metaphysicians enough to have dis- covered this idea, this logos, this intermediate power between

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good and evil, God and matter. But of the two powers, the good and the evil, they seem to have a full conviction ; and what son or daughter of Adam and Eve has not?

This logos of Plato seems to resemble, if it was not the pro- totype of the Ratio and its Progress, of Manilius, the astrologer, of the Progress of the Mind, of Condorcet, and the Age of Jleason, of Tom Paine. n I would make a system, too. The seven hundred thousand soldiers of Zengis, when the whole or any part of them went to battle, set up a howl which resem- bled nothing that human imagination has conceived, unless it be the supposition that all the devils in hell were let loose at once to set up an infernal scream, which terrified then enemies and never failed to obtain them victory. The Indian yell resembles this ; and therefore America was peopled from Asia.

Another system. The armies of Zengis, sometimes two, three, or four hundred thousand of them, surrounded a province in a circle, and marched towards the centre, driving all the wild beasts before them — lions, tigers, wolves, bears, and every living thing — terrifying them with their howls and yells, their drums and trumpets, &c, till they terrified and tamed enough of them to victual the whole army. Therefore the Scotch high- landers, who practise the same thing in miniature, are emigrants from Asia. Therefore, the American Indians, who, for any thing I know, practise the same custom, are emigrants from Asia or Scotland.

I am weary of contemplating nations from the lowest and most beastly degradations of human life to the highest re- finement of civilization. I am weary of philosophers, theolo- gians, politicians, and historians. They are immense masses of absurdities, vices, and lies. Montesquieu had sense enough to say in jest, that all our knowledge might be comprehended in twelve pages in duodecimo ; and I believe him in earnest. I could express my faith in shorter terms. He who loves the workman and his work, and does what he can to preserve and improve it, shall be accepted of him.

I also have felt an interest in the Indians, and a commisera- tion for them, from my childhood. Aaron Pomham, the priest, and Moses Pomham, the king of the Punkapaug and Neponset tribes, were frequent visitors at my father's house, at least seventy years ago. I have a distinct remembrance of their

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forms and figures. They were very aged, and the tallest and stoutest Indians I have ever seen. The titles of king and priest, and the names of Moses and Aaron, were given them, no doubt, by our Massachusetts divines and statesmen. There was a numerous family in this town, whose wigwam was within a mile of this house. This family were frequently at my father's house, and I, in my boyish rambles, used to call at their wig- wam, where I never failed to be treated with whortleberries, blackberries, strawberries, or apples, plums, peaches, &c, for they had planted a variety of fruit trees about them ; but the girls went out to service and the boys to sea, till not a soul is left. We scarcely see an Indian in a year. I remember the time when Indian murders, scalpings, depredations, and confla grations, were as frequent on the eastern and northern frontiers of Massachusetts as they are now in Indiana, and spread as much terror. But since the conquest of Canada all this has ceased ; and I believe with you that another conquest of Canada will quiet the Indians forever, and be as great a blessing to them as to us.

The instance of Aaron Pomham made me suspect that there was an order of priesthood among them ; but according to your account, the worship of the good spirit was performed by the kings, sachems, and warriors, as among the ancient Germans, whose highest rank of nobility were priests ; the worship of the evil spirit by the conjurors, jongleurs, praestigiatores.

We have war now in earnest. I lament the contumacious spirit that appears about me, but I lament the cause that has given too much apology for it, the total neglect and absolute refusal of all maritime protection and defence. Money, mari- ners, and soldiers would be at the public service, if only a few frigates had been ordered to be built. Without this, our Union will be but a brittle China vase, a house of ice, or a palace of glass.

To Samuel B. Malcom

TO SAMUEL B. MALCOM.

Quincy, 6 August, 1812.

Your favor of July 11th was duly received. Your resolution to subjugate yourself to the control of no party, is noble ; but

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have you considered all the consequences of it ? In the whole history of human life this maxim has rarely failed to anni- hilate the influence of the man who adopts it, and very often exposed him to the tragical vengeance of all parties.1

There are two tyrants in human life who domineer in all nations, in Indians and Negroes, in Tartars and Arabs, in Hin- doos and Chinese, in Greeks and Romans, in Britons and Gauls, as well as in our simple, youthful, and beloved United States of America.

These two tyrants are fashion and party. They are some- times at variance, and I know not whether their mutual hostil- ity is not the only security of human happiness. But they are forever struggling for an alliance with each other; and, when they are united, truth, reason, honor, justice, gratitude, and humanity itself in combination are no match for the coalition. Upon the maturest reflection of a long experience, I am much inclined to believe that fashion is the worst of all tyrants, be- cause he is the original source, cause, preserver, and supporter of all others.

Nothing short of the philosophy of Zeno, Socrates, Seneca, and Epictetus could ever support an ancient, and nothing short of the philosophy of Jesus could ever support a modern, in the resolution you have taken. Nothing less than the spirit of mar- tyrdom is sufficient; for martyrdom will infallibly ensue. Not always in flames at the stake, not always in the guillotine ; but in lies, slanders, insults, and privations, oftentimes more diffi- cult to bear than the horrors of Smithfield or the Place dc Louis XV.

Men have suffered martyrdom for party and for fashion in sufficient numbers ; but none for contempt of party and fashion, but upon principles of the highest order.

But to descend from these romantic heights. I wish to know the name and age of your son, and the meaning of the letter B in your name. Your printed publications I am anxious to see. I am sorry you left your practice at the bar. There is the scene of independence. Cannot you return to it? Integrity

1 Mr. Malcom had been Mr. Adams's private secretary during a part of his Presidential term. He had just, been an unsuccessful applicant for a judicial office under the federal government, to obtain which he had solicited Mr. Adams's aid. Mr. Jefferson had also been applied to. His letter to President Madison respecting it is in Mr. Randolph's collection. Vol. iv. p. 175.

22 CORRESPONDENCE.

and skill at the bar, are better supporters of independence than any fortune, talents, or eloquence elsewhere. A man of genius, talents, eloquence, integrity, and judgment at the bar, is the most independent man in society. Presidents, governors, senat- ors, judges, have not so much honest liberty ; but it ought always to be regulated by prudence, and never abused.

Judge Vanderkemp is a great man, a star of the first magni- tude under a thick cloud.

Smith has been the enemy of no man but himself ; I lament the loss to the nation of military talents and experience, but I fear it is irremediable.

Without entering into any moral, political, or religious dis- cussions of the subject of private combats, and individual ad- ministration of justice in one's own case, I cannot but lament that the sacred, solemn bench of justice should exhibit perpe- tual exemplifications of the practice before the people. This is not conformable to the policy even of Europe, where duelling is not carried to such rancorous, deliberate, and malicious excess as it is in America. Aristides, 1 do not remember to have read.1 Colonel Burr, Attorney- General Burr, Senator Burr, Vice-President Burr, almost President Burr, has returned to New York. What is to be his destiny ?

Emulation, rivalry, ambition, have unlimited scope under our forms of government. We have seen enough already to ad- monish us what we have to expect in future. My poor coarse boudoir, five or six-and-twenty years ago, held up mirrors in which our dear countrymen might have seen their pictures. If this is vanity, it is also cool philosophy.

From your real well-wisher.

To William Keteltas

TO WILLIAM KETELTAS.

Quincy, 25 November, 1812.

Sir, — I have received your polite letter of the 6th of the month and your present of the " Crisis." You will excuse a

1 A pamphlet with this signature, ascribed to Mr. W. P. Van Ness, who ob- tained the office for which Mr. Malcom had applied. He was Colonel Burr's second in the duel with Mr. Hamilton.

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question or two. In page first, you say, " Our administrations, with the exception of Washington's, have been party adminis- trations." On what ground do you except Washington's ? If by party you mean majority, his majority was the smallest of the four in all his legislative and executive acts, though not in his election.

You say, " our divisions began with federalism and anti- federalism." Alas ! they began with human nature ; they have existed in America from its first plantation. In every colony, divisions always prevailed. In New York, Pennsylvania, Vir- ginia, Massachusetts, and all the rest, a court and country party have always contended. Whig and tory disputed very sharply before the revolution, and in every step during the revolution. Every measure of Congress, from 1774 to 1787 inclusively, was disputed with acrimony, and decided by as small majorities as any question is decided in these days. We lost Canada then, as we are like to lose it now, by a similar opposition. Away, then, with your false, though popular distinctions in favor of Washington.

In page eleventh, you recommend a "constitutional rotation, to destroy the snake in the grass ; " but the snake will elude your snare. Suppose your President in rotation is to be chosen for Rhode Island. There will be a federal and a republican candi- date in that State. Every federalist in the nation will vote for the former, and every republican for the latter. The light troops on both sides will skirmish ; the same northern and southern distinctions will still prevail; the same running and riding, the same railing and reviling, the same lying and libelling, cursing and swearing, will still continue. The same caucusing, as- semblaging, and conventioning.

In the same page eleventh, you speak of a " portion of our own people who palsy the arm of the nation." There is too much truth in this. When I was exerting every nerve to vin- dicate the honor, and demand a redress of the wrongs of the nation against the tyranny of France, the arm of the nation was palsied by one party. Now Mr. Madison is acting the same part, for the same ends, against Great Britain, the arm of the nation is palsied by the opposite party. And so it will always be while we feel like colonists, dependent for protection on France or England ; while we have so little national public

24 CORRESPONDENCE.

opinion, so little national principle, national feeling, national patriotism ; "while we have no sentiment of our own strength, power, and resources.

I thank you, Sir, for reminding me, in page twelfth, of my " many blunders in my administration," and should have been still more obliged to you, if you had enumerated them in detail, that I might have made a confession of them one by one, repented of them on conviction, and made all the atonement for them now in my power. In the same page, you observe, that " you never knew how far I extended my views as to a maritime force." I will tell you, Sir. My views extend very far — as far as Colonel Barre's, when, in his last speech in parliament, he exclaimed, " Who shall dare to set limits to the commerce and naval power of this country?" Yet I know that Washington city was not built in a day, any more than Rome. I am not for any extravagant efforts. Your plan of a ship of the largest size for the whole, and a frigate of the largest size for each State, would satisfy me for the present.

Your last sentence is a jewel, " a monarchy of justice, an aristocracy of wisdom, and a democracy of freedom."

As I never knew your person, nor heard your name, till I read it in your letter, I hope you will excuse the freedom of your obedient servant.

To J. B. Varnum

TO J. B. VARNUM.

Quincy, 5 January, 1813.

The foundation of an American navy, which I presume is now established by law, is a grand era in the history of the world. The consequences of it will be greater than any of us can fore- see. Look to Asia and Africa, to South America and to Europe for its effects. My private opinion had been for fri- gates and smaller vessels, but I rejoice that the ideas of Con- gress have been greater. The four quarters of the world are in a ferment. We shall interfere everywhere. Nothing but a navy under Heaven can secure, protect, or defend us.

It is an astonishment to every enlightened man in Europe,

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who considers us at all, that we have been so long insensible and inattentive to this great instrument of national prosperity, this most efficacious arm of national power, independence, and safety.

I could give you many proofs of this, but I will confine my- self to two. In June, 1779, I dined with Monsieur Thevenard, intendant of the navy at Lorient, certainly one of the most experienced, best read, and most scientific naval commanders in Europe. That excellent officer said to me, in the hearing of the Chevalier de la Luzerne, Mr. Marbois, and twenty offi- cers of the French navy, " Your country is about to become the first naval power in the world." My answer was, " It is im- possible to foresee what may happen a hundred, or two or three hundred years hence, but there is at present no appearance of probability of any great maritime power in America for a long time to come." " Hundred years ! " said Thevenard, " It will not be twenty years before you will be a match for any mari- time powers of Europe." " You surprise me, Sir ; I have no suspicion or conception of any such great things. Will you allow me to ask your reasons for such an opinion." " My rea- sons ! " said Mr. Thevenard, " My reasons are very obvious. You have all the materials, and the knowledge and skill to em- ploy them. You have timber, hemp, tar, and iron, seamen and naval architects equal to any in the world." " I know we have oak and pine and iron, and we may have hemp ; but I did not know that our shipwrights were equal to yours in Europe." " The frigate in which you came here," said Mr. Thevenard (the Alliance, Captain Landais) " is equal to any in Europe. I have examined her, and I assure you there is not in the king's service, nor in the English navy, a frigate more perfect and com- plete in materials or workmanship." " It gives me great plea- sure, Sir, to hear your opinion. I know we had or might have materials, but I had not flattered myself that we had artists equal to those in Europe." Mr. Thevenard repeated with em- phasis, " You may depend upon it, there is not in Europe a more perfect piece of naval architecture than your Alliance, and indeed several other of your frigates that have already arrived here and in other ports of France." My reply was, " Your character forbids me to scruple any opinion of yours in naval affairs ; but one thing I know, we delight so much in

vol. x. 3

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peace and hate war so heartily that it will be a long time before we shall trouble ourselves with naval forces. We shall pro- bably have a considerable commerce and some nurseries of seamen, but we had so much wild land, and the most of us loved land so much better than sea, that many years must pass before we should be ambitious of power upon the ocean. We had land enough. No temptation to go abroad for conquests. If the powers of Europe should let us alone, we should sleep quietly for ages without thinking much of ships of war."

I returned to America, and staid about three months, when Congress sent me to Europe again. We landed at Ferrol, in Spain. In a few days a French squadron of five ships of the line came in. I was soon invited to dine with the Admiral, or, as the French call him, General or Chef d'Escadre, the Count de Sade, with all the officers of the squadron, on board his eighty gun ship. At table, in the hearing of all the company, the Count said to me, " Your Congress will soon become one of the great maritime powers." " Not very soon, Monsieur le Comte ; it must be a long time first." " Why a long time ? No people have such advantages." " There are many causes in the way." " What difficulties ? No nation has such nurse- ries for seamen so near it. You have the best timber for the hulks of ships, and best masts and spars ; you have pitch, tar, and turpentine ; you have iron plenty, and I am informed you grow hemp ; you have skilful ship-builders. What is wanting ? " " The will, Monsieur le Comte ; the will may be wanting and nothing else." " We have a maxim among us mariners, that with wood, hemp, and iron, a nation may do what it pleases. If you get your independence, as I doubt not you will, the trade of all nations will be open to you, and you will have a very extensive commerce, and such a commerce will want pro- tection." " We must have a considerable commerce, but our lands will be so much out of proportion to our trade, that if the powers of Europe do not disturb us, it must be ages before we shall want a navy, or be willing to bear the expense of it."

I said I would give you two anecdotes. I will add a third. In 1778 I went to France in the Boston, frigate. We took a very rich prize commanded by a captain who had served twenty years in the British navy, several of them as a lieutenant. The captain became very curious to examine the ship. Captain

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Tucker allowed him to see every part of her. As we lived together in the cabin, we became very intimate. He frequently expressed to me his astonishment. He said he had never seen a completer ship; that there was not a frigate in the royal navy better built, of better materials or more perfectly equipped, fur- nished, or armed. " However," he added, " you are the rising country of the world, and if you can send to sea such ships as this, you will soon be able to do great things."

To John Langdon

TO JOHN LANGDON.

Quincy, 24 January, 1813.

I feel an irresistible propensity to compare notes with you, in order to ascertain whether your memory and mine coincide in the recollection of the circumstances of a particular transaction in the history of this country. As it lies in my mind, Captain John Manly applied to General Washington, in Cambridge, in 1775, informed him that British transports and merchant ships were frequently passing and repassing unarmed, and asked leave to put a few guns on board a vessel to cruise for them. Washington, either shrinking from the boldness of the enter- prise, or doubting his authority, prudently transmitted the in- formation to Congress in a letter. When the letter was read, many members seemed much surprised ; but a motion was made, and seconded, to commit it to a special committee. Op- position was made to this motion, and a debate ensued; but the motion prevailed by a small majority. The committee ap- pointed were John Langdon, Silas Deane, and John Adams. We met, and at once agreed to report a resolution, authorizing General Washington to fit and arm one or more vessels for the purpose. A most animated opposition and debate arose upon this report, but the resolution was carried by a small majority. Under the authority of this resolution, Washington fitted out Manly, who soon brought in several prizes, the most important of which was that transport loaded with soldiers, arms, ammu- nition, and that immortal mortar, which was called the Con- gress, and finally drove the British army out of Boston, and

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their fleet out of the harbor. This splendid success inspired new courage into Congress. They appointed a new committee, consisting of yourself, Governor Hopkins, Richard Henry Lee, Mr. Gadsden, and me, to purchase, arm, equip, officer, and man ships. We met every night, and, in a short time, had the Al- fred, Columbus, Cabot, Andrew Doria, Providence, at sea under Commodore Hopkins. The naval enterprise of Congress increased fast. They soon appointed a committee of one from each State, of which you was one, and ordered twelve frigates to be built.

My recollection has been excited lately by information from Philadelphia, that Paul Jones has written in his journal, " My hand first hoisted the American flag," and that Captain Barry used to say, that the " first British flag struck to him." Both these vain boasts I know to be false, and, as you know them to be so, I wish to have your testimony to corroborate mine.

It is not decent nor just that those emigrants, foreigners of the south, should falsely arrogate to themselves merit that be- longs to New England sailors, officers, and men. Wishing you a healthy, pleasant year, I remain your old friend.

John Langdon To John Adams

JOHN LANGDON TO JOHN ADAMS.

Portsmouth, 27 January, 1813.

Respected Sir, — I had the honor of receiving by the last mail your letter of the 24th instant, by which I see your time is taken up, and your mind continually on the stretch, for the sup- port and honor of our beloved country. You request me to call to mind " the circumstances of a particular transaction in the history of this country," to which I answer that, upon read- ing your correct statement of the proceedings of Congress on our naval matters, the appointment of Committees, of which we were a part, the struggle we had to begin our little navy, and the opposition that was made by many members of Con- gress, it brings to my recollection the circumstances that took place in 1775, in all which, as far as I can recollect, I most per- fectly coincide with you. The appointment of Manly, and his

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successes, must be well known throughout the United States. As to Paul Jones, if my memory serves me, pretending to say that " his hand first hoisted the American flag," and Captain Barry, that " the first British flag struck to him," they are both unfounded, as it is impressed on my mind that many prizes were brought into the New England States before their names were mentioned.

I am, dear Sir, always happy to hear from you that you are in good health, and able still to continue your preeminent ser- vices to your country.

Mrs. Langdon, who, I am sorry to say, has been very unwell for some time past, joins me in our most sincere respects to yourself and your good lady, whom we have in grateful remem- brance.

That your last days may be your best and happiest, is the wish of, &c. John Langdon.

To Elbridge Gerry

TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.

Quincy, 28 Januaiy, 1813.

Vive la bagatelle! How shall we cure that distemper of the mind, State vanity? You know to what a degree the ancient dominion was infected with it, and how many sacri- fices we have been obliged to make to it. You remember how Pennsylvania had it. Pennsylvania was " first in arts and arms ! " Philadelphia was " the heart of the Union ! " so said George Ross. Dr. Lyman Hall, of Georgia, readily acknow- ledged that she was the heart, because we know that " the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Now, New York is to be placed at the head. Our poor old tame, good-natured pussy Massachusetts, who has the distem- per in her heart deeper than any of them, has been obliged to turn and to flatter, to dissimulate and to simulate, in plain English, as Governor Hopkins once said, or rather was accused of saying, to coax, lie, and flatter in order to carry her points, and save herself from perdition. Her distemper, however, seems to be now rising, and approaching to the delirium of a fever. These are objects too great for my genius. I dare

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not rise to greater things than ensigns, midshipmen, pursers, or deputy-quartermasters. My present topic is smaller than either.

Philadelphia is now boasting that Paul Jones has asserted in his journal that "his hand hoisted the first American flag!" And Captain Barry has asserted that " the first British flag was struck to him ! "

Now, I assert that the first American flag was hoisted by John Manly, and the first British flag was struck to him. You were not in Congress in 1775, but you were in the State Con- gress, and must have known the history of Manly's capture of the transport which contained the mortar, which afterwards, on Dorchester heights, drove the English army from Boston, and navy from the harbor. I pray you, give me your recollections upon this subject. I wish to know the number of transports and merchant ships, and their names, captured by Manly or any of his associates, in 1775 — 6.

As your time and thoughts must be employed upon subjects of much greater moment, I hope you will not give yourself any trouble about this little thing. Your first recollections will be sufficient.

TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.

Quincy, 11 February, 1813

I am much obliged by your favor of the 9th, just received. Though I called the subject of my former letter a bagatelle, it is perhaps of some importance ; for, as a navy is now an object, I think a circumstantial history of naval operations in this country ought to be written, even as far back as the province ship under Captain Hallowell, &c, and perhaps earlier still.

Looking into the journal of Congress for 1775, I find on Fri day, September 22, 1775, Congress resolved that a committee be appointed to take into consideration the state of the trade of America.

Monday, September 25, 1775. Congress took into consider- ation the letters from General Washington, Nos. 5 and 6, and two others not numbered. Resolved, that a committee of three

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be appointed to prepare an answer. Mr. Lynch, Mr. Lee, and Mr. Adams were chosen. But our accurate secretary has not stated whether it was Samuel or John Adams.

Thursday, October 5, 1775. Resolved, that a committee of three be appointed to prepare a plan for intercepting two ves- sels, which are on their way to Canada, laden with arms and powder ; and that the committee proceed on this business im- mediately.

Our correct secretary has omitted the names of this commit- tee ; but if my memory has not created something out of no- thing, this committee were Silas Deane, John Langdon, and John Adams. On the same day, the committee appointed to prepare a plan for intercepting the two vessels bound to Ca- nada, brought in a report, which was taken into consideration.1

December 13th. Congress resolved, on the report of the com- mittee, to build thirteen ships ; five of thirty-two guns, five of twenty-eight, and three of twenty -four; and, December 12th, appointed a committee of thirteen, one from each State, to do the business. I was gone home, by leave of Congress ; but I presume Barry and Jones were appointed by this committee.

General Heath, in his Memoirs, page 30, says, November 4th, (1775,) "the privateers fitted out by the Americans about this time, began to send in a few prizes." Page 31, November 30th, he says, " intelligence was received from Cape Ann, that a ves- sel from England, laden with warlike stores, had been taken and brought into that place. There were on board one thirteen- inch brass mortar, two thousand stand of arms, one hundred thousand flints, thirty-two tons of leaden ball, &c, &c. A for- tunate capture for the Americans! December 2d, the brass thirteen-inch mortar, and sundry military stores taken in the ordnance prize, were brought to camp."

Pray, write to Captain John Selman, of Marblehead, and pray him to commit his recollections to writing. Broughton and Sel- man are important characters, and their ten prizes important events, as well as Governor Wright. Pray let me have the act and the preamble ; curiosities they are. Who was Captain Burke and the other, Campbell and military stores, &c. ? These

1 The list of Acts and proceedings of Congress is omitted, as the same is found in the autobiography. Vol. iii. p. 8-10.

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facts ought all to be ascertained. Heath was mistaken ; priva- teering was not yet authorized by Congress or the State.

P. S. What might not Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island do, at this day, had they the patriotism of 1775 ?

To James Monroe

TO JAMES MONROE.

Quincy, 23 February, 1813.

I thank you for your favor of the loth, and the able report of the committee of foreign relations, and a very conciliatory bill for the regulation of seamen. I call it conciliatory, because in theory it should appear to be so, and because I believe it was sincerely intended to be so. The views were upright and the motives pure which produced it, I have no doubt. But will the present ministry in Great Britain receive it with equal candor ? Will the parliament or the nation accept it ? 1 be- lieve not. My reasons for this opinion are too many to be enumerated in detail ; but one or two may be suggested.

1. Equality, reciprocity, and indeed the right of an independ- ent nation require that the imperial parliament of Great Britain should pass an act forbidding the employment of American seamen, not only in their royal navy, but in their merchant ser- vice. Will ministry, parliament, or nation consent to this? I think not, at least at present, nor for a long time to come. Why ? Because, if they do, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, indeed all other nations will demand a similar law relative to their seamen.

2. It is only necessary to look in the Index of the British Statutes at large, to find a number of statutes offering and pro- mising rewards, temptations, and allurements to foreign sea- men of all nations to enter the service in the royal navy and the merchant ships too, and promising them by the faith of the nation all the rights and privileges of natural-born subjects. Will they repeal all these laws ?

3. Will Great Britain stipulate to renounce the power of employing American seamen ? On this subject I may be de-

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ceived. And I desire to be understood to speak with diffidence. But I am suspicious, nay, persuaded, they have not only the im- pressed and enlisted American seamen on board their men-of- war to an amount of many thousands, but many more in their merchant ships and their transports. Among the documents attending one of their financial reports, was an article of four or five millions sterling for the pay of foreign seamen, in the merchant service, to the number of forty thousand. How came the government to pay seamen in the private service of mer- chants? I presume that foreign seamen have been em ployed not only in the transport service, but in forcing a clandestine commerce with the continent. And who were those foreign seamen ? Nine tenths of them probably Americans.

The next question is, will this bill conciliate and unite the American people ? It may put an argument into the mouths of some of the friends of the present administration, and take one away from some in the opposition ; but it will not diminish the dread of taxes in the sordid, of whom the number is very great, nor extinguish the ambition to become the dominant party.

I hope you have by this time letters from Petersburg. We have only two since August. One containing nothing but a me- lancholy account of the death of the only daughter my son ever had. The other I will venture to inclose to you, in confidence, praying you to return it to me by the post. It is to his mother, and not intended to be seen by any but his family ; but it con- tains more than usual of public affairs. We dare not correspond with him, nor he with us, upon public affairs. The times are too dangerous. Our letters have been almost all opened, many read by government in France and England ; some produced in Court of Admiralty, yet all sent on at last. We have never lost but one letter. You may conclude from this that we have not offended High Mightinesses in France or England.

To John Lathrop

TO JOHN LATHROP.

Quincy, 22 March, 1813.

Reverend Sir, — I thank you for your kind letter of the 19th, and for the valuable present of your discourse, occasioned

c

34 CORRESPONDENCE.

by the death of Dr. Eliot. I had, indeed, " an acquaintance with the late Dr. Eliot," and with his father, and " an affection " for both.

I believe them both to have been '' candid, pious, learned, sincere, and amiable," but I never had the felicity to belong to the same denomination in politics with either of them. Al- though I acknowledge much merit in the younger Dr. Eliot, in the labor and research discovered in his Biographical Dictionary, and its general utility, I must, nevertheless, own my regret for the numerous evidences of political prejudices. To such pre- judices, however, I have found through the whole course of my life the very greatest and the very best men more or less liable.

I know nothing of the mediation, nor of the hopes of peace. I carefully avoid all secrets of government. Nothing has been presented to my mind, on which I can ground my hopes of a speedy peace. Your aspirations, my dear Doctor, after peace, are becoming your philosophical, moral, and Christian character. But you and I must remember that " sufferings become power- ful means of checking the progress of folly and vice ; " that " the miseries we feel or fear are the consequences of mani- fold abuses of Divine goodness."

Let me add an observation which your learning and expe- rience must have made, because all ages and nations have attested to its truth ; — that mankind, in general, and our be- loved country, in particular, bear adversity much better than prosperity.

When I look back upon the period which has passed since you and I settled in Boston, in 1768, upon the lawyers, the physicians, and the merchants, who have departed, though I have made no exact enumeration, I cannot perceive that the number of divines is greater in proportion than in either of those professions. I see no reason, therefore, to surmise that the clergy have been distinguished from the laity in the important article of mortality. The moment cannot be distant, my excel- lent friend, when you and I must follow the multitude of our acquaintance, who have gone before us to a region where we shall meet the two Dr. Eliots, and other worthies of whatever nation, sect, or party, and smile at the little passions and smaller prejudices, which divide us in this region of wisdom and folly, virtue and vice, light and darkness, ignorance and knowledge,

CORRESPONDENCE. 35

where, however, the good predominates immensely over the evil, whatever in peevish moments we may think or say. I am, dear Sir, with high esteem and sincere respect, your friend.

To William Plumer

TO WILLIAM PLUMER.

Quincy, 28 March, 1813.

You inquire, in your kind letter of the 19th, whether " every member of Congress did, on the 4th of July, 1776, in fact, cor- dially approve of the declaration of independence."

They who were then members, all signed it, and, as I could not see their hearts, it would be hard for me to say that they did not approve it ; but, as far as I could penetrate the intricate, internal foldings of their souls, I then believed, and have not since altered my opinion, that there were several who signed with regret, and several others, with many doubts and much lukewarmness. The measure had been upon the carpet for months, and obstinately opposed from day to day. Majorities were constantly against it. For many days the majority de- pended on Mr. Hewes, of North Carolina. While a member, one day, was speaking, and reading documents from all the colonies, to prove that the public opinion, the general sense of all, was in favor of the measure, when he came to North Caro- lina, and produced letters and public proceedings which demon- strated that the majority of that colony were in favor of it, Mr. Hewes, who had hitherto constantly voted against it, started suddenly upright, and lifting up both his hands to Heaven, as if he had been in a trance, cried out, " It is done ! and I will abide by it." I would give more for a perfect painting of the terror and horror upon the faces of the old majority, at that critical moment, than for the best piece of Raphael. The question, however, was eluded by an immediate motion for adjournment.

The struggle in Congress was long known abroad. Some members, who foresaw that the point would be carried, left the house and went home, to avoid voting in the affirmative or negative. Pennsylvania and New Jersey recalled all their dele- gates who had voted against independence, and sent new ones

36 CORRESPONDENCE.

expressly to vote for it. The last debate but one was the most copious and the most animated; but the question was now evaded by a motion to postpone it to another day ; some mem- bers, however, declaring that, if the question should be now demanded, they should vote for it, but they wished for a day or two more to consider of it. When that day arrived, some of the new members desired to hear the arguments for and against the measure. When these were summarily recapitulated, Hie question was put and carried. There were no yeas and nays in those times. A committee was appointed to draw a decla- ration ; when reported, it underwent abundance of criticism and alteration ; but, when finally accepted, all those members who had voted against independence, now declared they would sign and support it.

The appointment of General Washington to the command, in 1775, of an army in Cambridge, consisting altogether of New England men, over the head of officers of their own flesh and choice, a most hazardous step, was another instance of apparent unanimity, and real regret in nearly one half. But this history is too long for this letter.

The taxes must be laid, and the war supported.

I have nothing from my son since 28th October. I know not how we shall ever get him home, though that is the most anxious wish of my heart. Pray write him as often as you can. I regret the change of hands in New Hampshire at this junc- ture very much.

TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.

Quincy, 14 April, 1813.

I have received your favors of the 8th and 10th, and the vo- lume of Benjamin Edes's Gazettes, printed at Watertown be- tween the 5th of June, 1775, and the 9th of December, 1776.

I am much obliged to you and to Mr. Austin for the loan of this precious collection of memorials.

I read last fall and winter The Scottish Chiefs, Thaddeus of Warsaw, and The Exiles of Siberia, and Scott's Lay, Marmion, and Lady, I must say, with much interest and amusement;

CORRESPONDENCE. 37

but this volume of gazettes, and the journals of Congress for the same period, which I have lately run over, have given me much more heartfelt delight. If these volumes appear to you as they do to me, how can we wonder at the total ignorance and obli- vion of the revolution, which appears everywhere in the present generation ? All the Boston orations on the 4th of July that I have ever read or heard, contain not so much of " the manners and feelings and principles which led to the revolution," as these two volumes of gazettes and journals.

The act printed in the Gazette of November 13th, 1775, " In the sixteenth year of the reign of George the Third, king, &c, an act for encouraging the fitting out of armed vessels to defend the sea-coast of America, and for erecting a court to try and condemn all vessels that shall be found infesting the same," is one of the most important documents in history.1 The decla- ration of independence is a brimborion in comparison with it. Why may not the Chronicle or the Patriot reprint this law? Surely, this could be no libel. Neither editors nor printers need consult lawyers, to know whether Chief Justice Parsons could find any expression in it, to give in charge to a grand jury.

The best care shall be taken of this volume, and it shall be returned to Mr. Austin with thanks.

Commodore Williams's " record of our earliest privateers and prizes " will be received with gratitude ; but I should be glad to see them in the Chronicle and Centinel. Had I not been in Congress at the time, and as anxious as Martha about many things, I should be ashamed to acknowledge that I am unac- quainted with his person, character, and residence.

I can conceive of no possible objection against the publica- tion of these things at this time, except that they do too much honor to Vice-President Gerry and to the memory of the late Governor Sullivan. " Quorum pars magna fui " might be as- sumed by them with more propriety than by your assured friend.

1 This act was drawn by Mr. Gerry and Mr. Sullivan, for the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts.

VOL. X. 4

38 CORRESPONDENCE.

To Benjamin Waterhouse

TO BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.

Quincy, 5 June, 1813.

I read, within a few days, an address to General and Go- vernor Gage, from the bar, and the name of Caleb Strong among the addressers. This, to be sure, is a characteristic trait. In former parts of my life I have known somewhat of the thing called a bar — a significant word, and an important thing.

By all that I remember of the history of England, the British Constitution has been preserved by the bar. In all civil con- tests and political struggles, the lawyers have been divided ; some have advocated the prerogatives of the crown, and some the rights of the people. All, or at least a majority, have united, at last, in restoring and improving the Constitution.

The principles, the characters, and the views of the American bar at this time are unknown or incomprehensible to me. What is the American bar ? Who are the men ? What are their names ? Has their education been alike ? Are their principles the same ? Are Tucker and Story united in theory ? I might proceed with my questions for half an hour. But, I will con- clude with an anecdote. When Governor Hutchinson was about to leave his government and embark for England, a meet- ing of the bar was summoned in Boston. We met. A motion was made to " address the Governor upon his departure from the government of his native province. It "was peculiarly pro- per for the bar, who had served under him as Chief Justice of the province, and witnessed his great abilities and integrity, to express publicly their high esteem of his character, and appro- bation of his conduct as Chief Justice, as Lieutenant-Governor, and as Governor."

No opposition was made, though father Dana, William Reed,1 Samuel Swift, and Josiah Quincy, Junior, Esquires, were pre- sent. All was going on swimmingly. After some time, John Adams, whose destiny has always been to mount breaches and lead the forlorn hope, arose from his seat and modestly inquired

1 The copy, which is quite defective, says John in one place and Joseph in the other, but John had been dead many years. Of William Reed, the only one of the name at the bar at this time, Mr. Washburn confesses his inability to gain any information. Judicial History of Massachusetts.

CORRESPONDENCE. 39

whether the proposed address was to be presented to the Go- vernor, and go to the public, as the address of the bar as a body, to be signed by their president or secretary, or whether it was to be signed and presented as the act of individuals. The answer from all quarters was, " by the bar as a body, to be sure." John Adams then said, it would be unfair to send out to the world an address, as an act of the whole bar, when some of them could not approve it. He had no desire to control any man in the expression of his sentiments, but was not willing to have his own suppressed. He had no objection to an address to be drawn, signed, and presented by those gentlemen who should approve it ; but the bar* was not a legal corporation, and had no public authority. The minority, therefore, however small, could not be controlled, and ought not to be restrained from expressing their opinions ; and ought not to be involved in a general vote. This ought to have been sufficient, but it was not. Still the cry was, " the bar ! " The address must be from the bar !

Poor John was obliged, at last, to rise once more and say, " To be sure, it is in the power of the majority to vote, and to address, and to present and publish their addresses as the act of the bar ; but it was not in their power to prevent the minor- ity from publishing their dissent. He knew not whether he should be joined or countenanced by any other ; but he would attend, and when the address should be discussed, he would give his opinions and his reasons, and, if an address was finally adopted by the bar, as a bar, in which any thing should be in- serted to which he could not agree, he would enter his protest against it, in writing, and assign his reasons. Whether any other gentlemen would join him, he knew not. But, if not, he would stand alone." Josiah Quincy, Junior, Esquire, and Sa- muel Swift, Esquire, as if appalled and astonished, sat mute. John Lowell, Esquire, said, in a kind of hurry, " This declaration does great honor to Mr. Adams" Daniel Leonard, Esquire, said : " If there is to be a protest, and reasons assigned, and all this to be published, the whole design will be defeated, and it would be better to have no address at «//."

John Adams then said, " he neither approved the administra- tion of Mr. Hutchinson as Lieutenant-Governor, as Chief Jus- tice, nor as Governor, and he would not suffer his opinion to be

40 CORRESPONDENCE.

equivocal." Your knowledge of human nature is deep enough to infer the character of Lowell, Leonard, and Quincy, from what they said or what they said not. The plan of an address from the bar, as a body, was laid aside.

Had John Adams been compelled to produce his protest, Richard Dana, William Reed, Samuel Swift, Benjamin Kent, and Josiah Quincy, Junior, would have signed it. Auchmuty, Sewall, Fitch, Samuel Quincy, Ben. Gridley, Blowers, Caz- neau, &c, &c, would have been against them.1

You have, and ought to have, a tenderness for the memories of Hutchinson and Olivers. So have I, more than you suspect. Yet you must know the truth, and nothing but the truth, from

John Adams.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 10 June, 1813.

In your letter to Dr. Priestley, of March 21st, 1801, you ask, " What an effort of bigotry in politics and religion have we gone through ! The barbarians really flattered themselves they should be able to bring back the times of vandalism, when ignorance put every thing into the hands of power and priestcraft. All advances in science were proscribed as innovations. They pre- tended to praise and encourage education, but it was to be the education of our ancestors ; we were to look backward, not for- ward, for improvement, the President himself declaring, in one of his answers to addresses, that we were never to expect to go beyond them in real science." I shall stop here. Other parts of this letter may hereafter be considered, if I can keep the book long enough ; but only four copies have arrived in Boston, and they have spread terror ; as yet, however, in secret.'2

" The President himself declaring that we were never to ex-

1 Hutchinson speaks of the address, which was actually presented, as having been signed by " the gentlemen of the law, with three or four exceptions only." None of the names of the persons placed in the first category are found attached to it. All those included in the second signed it.

2 This letter had just appeai-ed at this time, in the appendix to Belsham's Memoirs of TheopMlus Lindsey. It is included in Mr. Randolph's edition of Jefferson's Writings, vol. iii. p. 461.

CORRESPONDENCE. 41

pect to go beyond them in real science." This sentence shall be the theme of my present letter. I would ask what President is meant. I remember no such sentiment in any of Washing- ton's answers to addresses. I myself must have been meant. Now, I have no recollection of any such sentiment ever issuing from my pen or my tongue, or of any such thought in my heart for at least sixty years of my past life. I should be obliged to you for the words of any answer of mine that you have thus misunderstood. «

A man of seventy-seven or seventy-eight cannot commonly be expected to recollect promptly every passage of his past life, \ or every trifle he has written. Much less can it be expected of me to recollect every expression of every answer to an ad- dress, when, for six months together, I was compelled to answer addresses of all sorts, from all quarters of the Union. My pri- vate secretary has declared that he has copied fifteen answers from me in one morning. The greatest affliction, distress, con- fusion of my administration arose from the necessity of receiv- ing and answering these addresses. Richard Cromwell's trunk did not contain so many of the lives and fortunes of the Eng- lish nation as mine of those in the United States. For the honor of my country I wish these addresses and answers were annihilated. For my own character and reputation, I wish every word of every address and every answer were published.

The sentiment that you have attributed to me in your letter to Dr. Priestley, I totally disclaim, and demand, in the French sense of the word, of you the proof. It is totally incongruous to every principle of my mind and every sentiment of my heart for three score years at least.

You may expect many more expostulations from one who has loved and esteemed you for eight-and-thirty years.

When this letter was ready to go, your favor of May 27th came to hand.1 I can only thank you for it at present.

1 Published by Randolph, vol. iv. p. 191.

42 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 14 June, 1813.

In your letter to Dr. Priestley, of March 21st, 1801, you " ten- der to him the protection of those laws which were made for the wise and good like him, and disclaim the legitimacy of that libel on legislation, which, under the form of a law, was, for some time, placed among them." This law, I presume, was the alien law, as it was called.

As your name is subscribed to that law, as Vice-President, and mine as President, I know not why you are not as respon- sible for it as I am. Neither of us was concerned in the forma- tion of it. We were then at war with France. French spies then swarmed in our cities and our country; some of them were intolerably impudent, turbulent, and seditious. To check these, was the design of this law. Was there ever a govern- ment which had not authority to defend itself against spies in its own bosom — spies of an enemy at war ? This law was never executed by me in any instance.

But what is the conduct of our government now? Aliens are ordered to report their names, and obtain certificates once a month ; and an industrious Scotchman, at this moment kwiasc trkmsly laboring in my garden, is obliged to walk once a month to Boston, eight miles at least, to renew his certificate from the marshal. And a fat organist is ordered into the country, '&c All this is right. Every government has, by the law of nations, a right to make prisoners of war of every subject of an enemy. But a war with England differs not from a war with France. The law of nations is the same in both.

I cannot write volumes on a single sheet, but these letters of yours require volumes from me.

'" The mighty wave of public opinion, which has rolled over!" This is in your style ; and, sometimes, in mine, with less preci- sion and less delicacy. O, Mr. Jefferson ! what a wave of public opinion has rolled over the universe ! By the universe here, I mean our globe. I can yet say, "there is nothing new under the sun " in my sense. The reformation rolled a wave of public opinion over the globe, as wonderful as this. A war of thirty years was necessary to compose this wave. The wars of Char-

lie <

CORRESPONDENCE. 43

lemagne rolled a wave. The Crusades rolled a wave more mountainous than the French revolution. Only one hundred years ago, a wave was rolled, when Austria, England, and Holland, in alliance, contended against France for the domi- nion, or rather, the alliance of Spain.

Had " the clock run down," I am not so sanguine as you that the consequence would have been as you presume. I was determined, in all events, to retire. You and Mr. Madison are indebted to Bayard for an evasion of the contest. Had the voters for Burr addressed the nation, I am not sure that your convention would have decided in your favor.1 But what reflec- tions does this suggest ! What pretensions had Aaron Burr to be President or Vice-President ?

What " a wave " has rolled over Christendom for fifteen hun- dred years ! What a wave has rolled over France for fifteen hundred years, supporting in power and glory the dynasty of Bourbon ! What a wave supported the house of Austria ! What a wave has supported the dynasty of Mahomet for twelve hundred years! What a wave supported the house of Her- cules for so many ages in more remote antiquity ! These waves are not to be slighted. They are less resistible than those in the gulf stream in a hurricane. What a wave has the French revolution spread ! And what a wave is our navy of five fri- gates raising !

If 1 can keep this book, " Memoirs of Lindsey," I shall have more to say. Meantime,

I remain, &c.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 28 June, 1813.

It is very true that the denunciations of the priesthood are fulminated against every advocate for a complete freedom of religion. Comminations, I believe, would be plenteously pro- nounced by even the most liberal of them, against atheism,

' aA convention, invited by the republican members of Congress with the virtual President and Vice-President, would have been on the ground in eight weeks, would have repaired the Constitution where it was defective, and wound it up again." Jefferson to Priestley.

44 CORRESPONDENCE.

deism, — against every man who disbelieved or doubted the resurrection of Jesus, or the miracles of the New Testament. Priestley himself would denounce the man "who should deny the Apocalypse, or the prophecies of Daniel. Priestley and Lindsey have both denounced as idolaters and blasphemers all the Trinitarians and even the Arians." Poor weak man! when will thy perfection arrive ? Thy perfectibility I shall not deny, for a greater character than Priestley or Godwin has said, " Be ye perfect," &c. For my part, I cannot " deal damnation round the land" on all I judge the foes of God or man. But ^ I did not intend to say a word on this subject in this letter. As much of it as you please, hereafter ; but let me now return to politics.

With some difficulty I have hunted up or down the " address of the young men of the city of Philadelphia, the district of Southwark, and the northern liberties," and the answer.

The addressers say, "actuated by the same principles on which our forefathers achieved their independence, the recent attempts of a foreign power to derogate from the rights and dignity of our country, awaken our liveliest sensibility and our strongest indignation." Huzza, my brave boys ! Could Tho- mas Jefferson or John Adams hear these words with insensibility and without emotion? These boys afterwards add, "we regard our liberty and independence as the richest portion given us by our ancestors." And who were these ancestors ? Among them were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams ; and I very coolly believe that no two men among these ancestors did more towards it than those two. Could either hear this like a statue ? If, one hundred years hence, your letters and mine should see the light, I hope the reader will hunt up this address, and read it all, and remember that we were then engaged, or on the point of engaging, in a war with France.// I shall not repeat the answer till we come to the paragraph upon which you criti- cized to Dr. Priestley, though every word of it is true ; and I now rejoice to see it recorded, though I had wholly forgotten it.

The paragraph is, j Science and morals are the great pillars on which this country has been raised to its present population, opulence, and prosperity ; and these alone can advance, support, and preserve it. Without wishing to damp the ardor of curio- sity, or influence the freedom of inquiry, I will hazard a predic-

CORRESPONDENCE. 45

tion, that after the most industrious and impartial researches, the longest liver of you all will find no principles, institutions, or systems of education more fit, in general, to be transmitted to your posterity than those you have received from your ancestors^y^

Now, compare the paragraph in the answer with the para- graph in the address, as both are quoted above, and see if we can find the extent and the limits of the meaning of both.

Who composed that army of fine young fellows that was then before my eyes ? There were among them Roman Catho- lics, English Episcopalians, Scotch and American Presbyterians, Methodists, Moravians, Anabaptists, German Lutherans, Ger- man Calvinists, Universalists, Arians, Priestleyans, Socinians, Independents, Congregationalists, Horse Protestants, and House Protestants,2 Deists and Atheists, and Protestants " qui ne croij- ent Hen." Very few, however, of several of these species; nevertheless, all educated in the general principles of Christian- ity, and the general principles of English and American liberty.

Could my answer be understood by any candid reader or hearer, to recommend to all the others the general principles, institutions, or systems of education of the Roman Catholics, or those of the Quakers, or those of the Presbyterians, or those of the Methodists, or those of the Moravians, or those of the Universalists, or those of the Philosophers ? No. fThe general principles on which the fathers achieved independence, were the only principles in which that beautiful assembly of young men could unite, and these principles only could be intended by them in their address, or by me in my answer. And what were these general principles ? I answer, the general principles of Christianity, in which all those sects were united, and the gene- ral principles of English and American liberty, in which all those young men united, and which had united all parties in America, in majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her in- dependence. Now I will avow, that I then believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eter- nal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God ; and

1 For the whole of the answer, of which this is a part, see vol. ix. p. 188.

2 All the later letters of Mr. Adams are much marred in the copying- Unless these words refer to Messrs. Home and Howes, two of the disputants with Dr. Priestley in England, the editor cannot explain them.

46 CORRESPONDENCE.

that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature and our terrestrial, mundane system. I could, therefore safely say, consistently with all my then and present informa- tion, that I believed they would never make discoveries in con- tradiction to these general principles. ' In favor of these general principles, in philosophy, religion, a*hd government, I could fill sheets of quotations from Frederic of Prussia, from Hume, Gib- bon, Bolingbroke, Rousseau, and Voltaire, as well as Newton and Locke ; not to mention thousands of divines and philo- sophers of inferior fame.

I might have flattered myself that my sentiments were suffi- ciently known to have protected me against suspicions of nar- row thoughts, contracted sentiments, bigoted, enthusiastic, or superstitious principles, civil, political, philosophical, or eccle- siastical. The first sentence of the preface to my Defence of the Constitution, vol. i., printed in 1787, is in these words : " The arts and sciences, in general, during the three or four last cen- turies, have had a regular course of progressive improvement. The inventions in mechanic arts, the discoveries in natural phi- losophy, navigation, and commerce, and the advancement of civilization and humanity, have occasioned changes in the con- dition of the world, and the human character, which would have astonished the most refined nations of antiquity," &c. I will quote no farther, but request you to read again that whole page, and then say whether the writer of it could be suspected of re- commending to youth " to look backward instead of forward," for instruction and improvement. This letter is already too long. In my next, I shall consider " the terrorism of the day."

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

/

Quincy, 30 June, 1813.

Before I proceed to the order of the day, which is " the terror- ism of a former day," I beg leave to correct an idea that some readers may infer from an expression in one of your letters. No sentiment or expression in any of my answers to addresses was obtruded or insinuated by any person about me. Every

CORRESPONDENCE. 47

one of them was written with my own hand. I alone am responsible for all the mistakes and errors in them. To have

called council to deliberate on such a mass of would have

taken all the time, and the business of the State have been suspended. It is true, I was sufficiently plagued by P's and T's, and S's. These, however, were puppets danced upon the wires of two jugglers behind the scene ; and these jugglers were Hamilton and Washington. How you stare at the name of Washington ! ( But to return, /or the present, to " the sensations excited in frfe yet firm minds by the terrorism of the day." You say, " none can conceive them who did not witness them, and they were felt by one party only." l

Upon this subject/ 1 despair of making myself understood by posterity, by the present age, and even by you. To collect and arrange the documents illustrative of it, would require as many lives as a cat. You never felt the terrorism of Shays's rebellion in Massachusetts. I believe you never felt the terrorism of Mr. Gallatin's insurrection in Pennsylvania. You certainly never realized the terrorism of Fries's most outrageous riot and rescue, as I call it, — treason, rebellion, as the world and great judges and two juries pronounced it. You certainly never felt the terrorism excited by Genet, in 1793, when ten thousand people in the streets of Philadelphia, day after day, threatened to drag Washington out of his house, and effect a revolution in the government, or compel it to declare war in favor of the French revolution and against England, j The coolest and the firmest minds, even among the Quakers in Philadelphia, have given their opinions to me, that nothing but the yellow fever, which removed Dr. Hutchinson and Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant from this world, could have saved the United States from a fatal revolution of government. I have no doubt you were fast asleep, in philosophical tranquillity, when ten thousand people, and, perhaps, many more, were parading the streets of Philadel- phia on the evening of my Fast Day ; when even Governor Mifflin himself thought it Ms duty to order a patrol of horse and foot to preserve the peace ; when Market Street was as full as men could stand by one another, and, even before my door ; when some of my domestics, in frenzy, determined to sacrifice

1 See the whole letter of Mr. Jefferson in Mr. Randolph's collection, vol. iv. p. 193.

%

48 CORRESPONDENCE.

their lives in my defence ; when all were ready to make a des- perate sally among the multitude, and others were, with diffi- culty and danger, dragged back by the rest; when I, myself, judged it prudent and necessary to order chests of arms from the war-office to be brought through by-lanes and back-doors, determined to defend my house at the expense of my life and -j the lives of the few, very few domestics and friends within it.

yr .What think you of terrorism, Mr. Jefferson ? I shall investi- gate the causes, the motives, the incentives to these terrorisms. Shall I remind you of Philip Freneau, of Lloyd, of Ned Church, of Peter Markoe, of Andrew Brown, of Duane, of Callender, of Tom Paine, of Greenleaf, of Cheetham, of Jennison at New York, of Benjamin Austin at Boston? But, above all, shall I request you to collect the circular letters from members of Con- gress, in the middle and southern States, to their constituents ? I would give all I am worth for a complete collection of those letters. Please to recollect Edward Livingston's motions and speeches, and those of his associates, in the case of Jonathan Robbins.

The real terrors of both parties have always been, and now are, the fear that they shall lose the elections, and, consequently, the loaves and fishes, and that their antagonists will get them. Both parties have excited artificial terrorism, and, if I were summoned as a witness to say, upon oath, which party had

IfK ~ excited I the most terror, and -which had really felt the most, I could not give a more sincere answer than in the vulgar style, " put them in a bag and shake them, and then see which will come out first."

Where is the terrorism now, my friend ? There is now more real terrorism in New England than there ever was in Virginia, the terror of a civil war_« la Vendee, a division of the States, * , p &c, &c, &c. How shall we conjure down this damnable rivalry * between Virginia and Massachusetts ? Virginia had recourse to Pennsylvania and New York. Massachusetts has now re- course to New York. They have almost got New Jersey and Maryland, and they are aiming at Pennsylvania. And all this in the midst of a war with England, when all Europe is in flames !

1 One or two words not legible in the copy.

CORRESPONDENCE. 49

I will give you a hint or two more on the subject of terrorism. When John Randolph, in the House, and Stephens Thompson Mason, in the Senate, were treating me with the utmost con- tempt ; when Ned Livingston was threatening me with impeach- ment for the murder of Jonathan Robbins, the native of Danvers in Connecticut ; when I had certain information that the daily language in the insurance office in Boston was, even from the mouth of Charles Jarvis, " We must go to Philadelphia and drag that John Adams from his chair," I thank God that ter- ror never seized on my mind. But I have had more excite- ments to it, from 1761 to this day, than any other man. Name the other, if you can. I have been disgraced and degraded, and I have a right to complain. But, as I have always expected it, I have always submitted to it, perhaps with too much tame- ness.

The amount of all the speeches of John Randolph, in the House, for two or three years, is that himself and myself are the only two honest and consistent men in the United States ; him- self eternally in opposition to government, and myself as con- stantly in favor of it. He is now in correspondence with his friend Quincy. What will come of it, let Virginia and Massa- chusetts judge. In my next, you may find something upon correspondences, whig and tory, federal and democratic, Virgi- nian and Novanglian, English and French, Jacobin and des- potic. Meantime, &c.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 9 July, 1813.

Lord ! Lord ! what can 1 do with so much Greek ? When I was of your age, young man, that is, seven or eight years ago, I felt a kind of pang of affection for one of the flames of my youth, and again paid my addresses to Isocrates and Dionysius Halicarnassensis, &c, &c, &c. I collected all my lexicons and grammars, and sat down to Uepl avv&easuc dvofiuruv. In this way I amused myself for some time, but I found that if I looked a word to-day, in less than a week I had to look it again. It

vol. x. 5 d

50 CORRESPONDENCE.

was to little better purpose than writing letters on a pail of water.

Whenever I sit down to write to you, I am precisely in the situation of the wood-cutter on Mount Ida. I cannot see wood for trees. So many subjects crowd upon me, that I know not which to begin. But I will begin at random with Belsham, who is, I have no doubt, a man of merit. He had no malice against you, nor any thought of doing mischief; nor has he done any, though he has been imprudent. The truth is, the dissenters of all denominations in England, and, especially, the Unitarians, are cowed, as we used to say at college. They are ridiculed, insulted, persecuted. They can scarcely hold their heads above water. They catch at straws and shadows to avoid drowning. Priestley sent your letter to Lindsey, and Belsham printed it from the same motive, i. e. to derive some countenance from the name of Jefferson. Nor has it done harm

here. Priestley says to Lindsey, " You see he is almost one of us, and he hopes will soon be altogether such as we are." Even in our New England I have heard a high federal divine say, your letters had increased his respect for you.

" The same political parties, which now agitate the United States, have existed through all time." Precisely ; and this is precisely the complaint in the preface to the first volume of my Defence. While all other sciences have advanced, that of go- vernment is at a stand; little better understood, little better practised now than three or four thousand years ago. What is the reason ? I say, parties and factions will not suffer improve- ments to be made. As soon as one man hints at an improve- ment, his rival opposes it. No sooner has one party discovered or invented any amelioration of the condition of man, or the order of society than the opposite party belies it, misconstrues it, misrepresents it, ridicules it, insults it, and persecutes it. Re- cords are destroyed. Histories are annihilated or interpolated or prohibited ; sometimes by Popes, sometimes by Emperors, sometimes by aristocratical, and sometimes by democratical assemblies, and sometimes by mobs.

Aristotle wrote the history and description of eighteen hun- dred republics which existed before his time. Cicero wrote two volumes of discourses on government, which, perhaps, were worth all the rest of his works. The works of Livy and Taci-

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tus, &c, that are lost, would be more interesting than all that remain. Fifty gospels have been destroyed. Where are St. Luke's world of books that were written ?

If you ask my opinion, who has committed all the havoc? I will answer you candidly. Ecclesiastical and imperial despot- isms have done it to conceal their frauds.

Why are the histories of all nations, more ancient than the Christian era, lost ? Who destroyed the Alexandrian library ? I believe that Christian priests, Jewish rabbis, Grecian sages, and Roman emperors, had as great a hand in it as Turks and Mahometans. Democrats, rebels, and Jacobins, when they possess a momentary power, have shown a disposition both to destroy and to forge records, as Vandatical as priests and des- pots. Such has been and such is the world we live in.

I recollect, near thirty years ago, to have said carelessly to you/ that I wished I could find time and means to write sorae- thing upon aristocracy. You seized upon the idea, and en- couraged me to do it with all that friendly warmth that is natural and habitual to you. I soon began, and have been writing upon that subject ever since. I have been so unfor- tunate as never to be able to make myself understood. Your J&vrfoi are the most difficult animals to manage of any thing in Q-Xs the whole theory and practice of government. They will not suffer themselves to be governed. They not only exert all their own subtilty, industry, and courage, but they employ the com- monalty to knock to pieces every plan and model that the most honest architects in legislation can invent to keep them within bounds. Both patricians and plebeians are as furious as the workmen in England to demolish labor-saving machinery.

But who are these upiaroLi Who shall judge? Who shall Qj select these choice spirits from the rest of the congregation ? Themselves ? We must find out and determine who them- selves are. Shall the congregation choose ? Ask Xenophon. Perhaps, hereafter I may quote you Greek ; too much in a hurry at present ; English must suffice. ) Xenophon says, that the ecclesia always choose the worst men they can find, because none others will do their dirty work. This wicked motive is worse than birth or wealth.., ^Jere I want to quote Greek again, but the day before I received your letter of June 27th, I gave the book to George Washington Adams, going to the academy

52 CORRESPONDENCE.

at Hingham. The title is, hgikh nomsi^ a collection of moral sentences from all the most ancient Greek poets. , , In one of the oldest of them I read, in Greek that I cannot repeat, a couplet, the sense of which was : " Nobility in men is worth as much as it is in horses, asses, or rams ; but the meanest-blooded puppy in the world, if he gets a little money, is as good a man as the best of them." Yet birth and wealth together have prevailed over virtue and talents in all ages. The many will acknow- ledge no other upiaroi. Your experience of this truth will not much differ from that of your old friend.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 13 July, 1813.

Let me allude to one circumstance more, in one of your let- ters to me, before I touch upon the subject of religion in your letter to Priestley. The first time thai you and f differed in opinion on any material question was/ after your arrival from Europe ; and that point was the Frencri revolution. You was well persuaded in your own mind that the nation would suc- ceed in establishing a free republican government. I was well persuaded in mine, that a project of such a government, over five-and-twenty millions of people, when four-and-twenty mil- lions and five hundred thousand of them could neither read nor write, was as unnatural, irratibnal, and impracticable as it would be over the elephants, lions, tigers, panthers, wolves, and bears, in the royal menagerie at Versailles. Napoleon has lately invented a word, which perfectly expressed my opinion at that time and ever since. He calls the project ideology; and John Randolph, though he was, fourteen years ago, as wild an enthusiast for equality and fraternity as any of them, appears to be now a regenerated proselyte to Napoleon's opinion and mine, that it was all madness.

The Greeks, in their allegorical style, said that the two ladies, upiGTOKparia and dTifioKparia, always in a quarrel, disturbed every body in the neighborhood with their brawls. It is a fine obser- vation of yours that whig and tory belong to natural history.

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Inequalities of mind and body are so established by God Al- mighty in his constitution of human nature, that no art or policy can ever plane them down to a level. 1 have never read reason- ^ ing more absurd, sophistry more gross, in proof of the Athanasian creed, or transubstantiation, than the subtle labors of Helvetius and Rousseau to demonstrate the natural equality of mankind. Jus cuique, the golden rule, do as you would be done by, is all the equality that can be supported or defended by reason or common sense.

It is very true, as you justly observe, I can say nothing new on this or any other subject of government. But when Lafayette harangued you, and me, and John Quincy Adams, through a whole evening, in your hotel in the Cul de Sacg at Paris, and developed the plans now in operation to reform France, though I was silent as you was, I then thought I could say something new to him. In plain truth, I was astonished at the grossness of his ignorance of government and history, as I had been foi years before, at that of Turgot, Rochefoucauld, Condorcet, and Franklin. This gross ideology of them all first suggested to , me the thought and the inclination, which I afterwards executed in London, of writing something upon aristocracy. ^J was re- strained for years by many fearful considerations. Who and what was I ? Why, a man of no name or consideration in Europe. The manual exercise of writing was painful and dis- tressing to me, almost like a blow on the elbow or the knee ; my style was habitually negligent, unstudied, unpolished ; I should make enemies of all the French patriots, the Dutch patriots, the English republicans, dissenters, reformers, call them what you will ; and, what came nearer home to my bosom than all the rest, I knew I should give offence to many, if not all, of my best friends in America, and, very probably, destroy all the little popularity I ever had in a country where popularity had more omnipotence than the British parliament assumed. Where should I get the necessary books ? What printer or bookseller would undertake to print such hazardous writings ? r But/ when the French assembly of notables mety and I saw that Turgot's " government in one centre, and that centre the nation," a sen- tence as mysterious or as contradictory as the Athanasian creed, was about to take place ; and when I saw that Shays's rebel- lion was breaking out in Massachusetts ; and when I saw that

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even my obscure name was often quoted in France as an ad- vocate for simple democracy ; when I saw that the sympathies in America had caught the French name, I was determined to wash my own hands as clear as I could of all this foulness. I had then strong forebodings that I was sacrificing all the emoluments of this life; and so it has happened, but not in so great a degree as I apprehended.

In truth, my " Defence of the Constitutions" and " Discourses on Davila," were the cause of that immense unpopularity which fell like the tower of Siloam upon me. Your steady defence of democratical principles, and your invariable favor- able opinion of the French revolution, laid the foundation of your unbounded popularity. / Sic transit gloria mundi.

Now," I will forfeit my life, if you can find one sentiment in my Defence of the Constitutions, or the Discourses on Davila, which, by a fair construction, can favor the introduction of hereditary monarchy or aristocracy into America. They were all written to support and strengthen the Constitution of the United States.

The wood-cutter on Mount Ida, though he was puzzled to find a tree to drop at first, I presume knew how to leave off when he was weary. But I never know when to cease when I begin to write to you.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 17 July, 1813.

Your letters to Priestley have increased my grief, if that were possible, for the loss of Rush. Had he lived, I would have stimulated him to insist on your promise to him to write him on the subject of religion. Your plan I admire.

In your letter to Priestley, of March 21st, 1801, dated at Washington, you call the Christian philosophy " the most sublime and benevolent, but most perverted system, that ever shone on man." That it is the most sublime and benevolent, I agree ; but whether it has been more perverted than that of Moses, of Confucius, of Zoroaster, of Sanchoniathon, of Numa, of Mahomet, of the Druids, of the Hindoos, &c, &c, &c, I can-

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not as yet determine, because 1 am not sufficiently acquainted with these systems, or the history of their effects, to form a decisive opinion of the result of the comparison.

In your letter, dated Washington, April 9th, 1803, you say, " in consequence of some conversation with Dr. Rush, in the years 1798 — 99, I had promised him, some day, to write him a letter, giving him my view of the Christian system. I have reflected upon it since, and even sketched the outlines in my own mind. I should first take a general view of the moral doctrines of the most remarkable of the ancient philosophers, of whose ethics we have sufficient information to make an esti- mate, say of Pythagoras, Epicurus, Epictetus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I should do justice to the branches of morality they have treated well, but point out the importance of those in which they are deficient. I should then take a view of the deism and ethics of the Jews, and show in what a de- graded state they were, and the necessity they presented of a reformation. I should proceed to a view of the life, character, and doctrines of Jesus, who, sensible of the incorrectness of their ideas of the Deity and of morality, endeavored to bring them to the principles of a pure deism, and juster notions of the attributes of God, to reform their moral doctrines to the stand- ard of reason, justice, and philanthropy, and to inculcate a belief in a future state. This view would purposely omit the question of his divinity, and even his inspiration. To do him justice, it would be necessary to remark the disadvantages his doctrines have to encounter, not having been committed to writing by himself, but by the most unlettered of men, by me- mory, long after they had heard them from him, when much was forgotten, much misunderstood, and presented in very paradoxical shapes. Yet such are the fragments remaining as to show a master-workman, and that his system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime, probably, that has ever been taught, and more perfect than any of the ancient philo- sophers. His character and doctrines have received still greater injury from those who pretend to be his special disciples, and who have disfigured and sophisticated his actions and precepts from views of personal interest, so as to induce the unthinking part of mankind to throw off the whole system in disgust, and to pass sentence as an impostor on the most innocent, the most

56 CORRESPONDENCE.

benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime character that has ever been exhibited to man. This is the outline ! "

" Sancte Socrate ! Ora pro nobis ! " Erasmus. Priestley, in his letter to Lindsey, inclosing a copy of your letter to him, says, " he is generally considered as an unbeliever. If so, how- ever, he cannot be far from us, and I hope in the way to be not only almost, but altogether what we are. He now attends public worship very regularly, and his moral conduct was never impeached."

Now, I see not but you are as good a Christian as Priestley and Lindsey. Piety and morality were the end and object of the Christian system, according to them and according to you. They believed in the resurrection of Jesus, in his miracles and inspirations. But what inspirations ? Not all that is recorded in the New Testament or the Old. They have not yet told us how much they believe or disbelieve. They have not told us how much allegory, how much parable they find, nor how they explained them all in the New Testament or Old.

John Quincy Adams has written, for years, to his sons, boys of ten and twelve, a series of letters, in which he pursues a plan more extensive than yours, but agreeing in most of the essen- tial points. I wish these letters could be preserved in the bosoms of his boys. But women and priests will get them ; and I expect, if he makes a peace, he will have to retire, like Jay, to study prophecies to the end of his life.

I have more to say upon this subject of religion.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 18 July, 1813.

I have more to say on religion. /For more than sixty years I have been attentive to this great subject. Controversies be- tween Calvinists and Arminians, Trinitarians and Unitarians, Deists and Christians, Atheists and both, have attracted my attention, whenever the singular life I have led would admit, to all these questions. The history of this little village of Quincy, if it were worth recording, would explain to you how this hap-

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pened. I think I can now say I have read away bigotry, if not enthusiasm.

What does Priestley mean by an unbeliever, when he applies it to you? How much did he unbelieve himself? Gibbon had him right when he denominated his creed " scanty." We are to understand, no doubt, that he believed the resurrection of Jesus, some of his miracles, his inspiration; but in what degree? He did not believe in the inspiration of the writings that con- tain his history. Yet he believed in the Apocalyptic beast, and he believed as much as he pleased in the writings of Daniel and John. This great and extraordinary man, whom I sincerely loved, esteemed, and respected, was really a phenomenon ; a comet in the system, like Voltaire, Bolingbroke, and Hume. Had Bolingbroke or Voltaire taken him in hand, what would they have made of him and his creed ?

I do not believe you have read much of Priestley's " Corrup- tions of Christianity," his History of early opinions concerning Jesus Christ, his predestination, his no soul system, or his contro- versy with Horsley. I have been a diligent student for many years in books whose titles you have never seen. In Priestley's and Lindsey's writings, in Farmer, Cappe, in Tucker, or Edward Search's Light of Nature Pursued, in Edwards and Hopkins, and, lately, in Ezra Stiles Ely, his reverend and learned pane- gyrists, and his elegant and spirited opponents. I am not wholly uninformed of the controversies in Germany, and the learned researches of universities and professors, in which the sanctity of the Bible and the inspiration of its authors are taken for granted or waved, or admitted or not denied. I have also read Condorcet's Progress of the Human Mind. Now, what is all this to you ? No more than if I should tell you that I read Dr. Clarke, and Dr. Waterland, and Emlyn, and Leland's View or Review of the Deistical writers, more than fifty years ago, which is a literal truth.

I blame you not for reading Euclid and Newton, Thucydides and Theocritus, for I believe you will find as much entertain- ment and instruction in them as I have found in my theological and ecclesiastical instructors, or even, as I have found, in a profound investigation of the life, writings, and doctrines of Erastus, whose disciples were Milton, Harrington, Selden, St. John, the Chief Justice, father of Bolingbroke, and others, the

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58 CORRESPONDENCE.

choicest spirits of their age ; or in La Harpe's history of the phi- losophy of the eighteenth century; or in Vanderkemp's vast map of the causes of the revolutionary spirit, in the same and preceding centuries. These things are to me the marbles and nine-pins of old age ; I will not say the beads and prayer-books. I agree with you as far as you go, most cordially, and, I think, solidly. How much farther I go, how much more I believe than you, I may explain in a future letter. Thus much I will say at present. I have found so many difficulties that I am not astonished at your stopping where you are ; and, so far from sentencing you to perdition, I hope soon to meet you in an- other country.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, August, 1813.

Kpiovg fiev ml bvovg di&fieda, Kvpve, ml imrovg

'Evyevcag, mi rig fiovkzTai it; uya&uv Kr^aaadai ■ yr/fxai 6e mur/v mmv ov fieledaivsi

'EedXor uvi/p, ?]V oi xpTj/iara no'AAu didu.

Behold my translation !

" My friend Curnis, when we want to purchase horses, asses, or rams, we inquire for the well-born, and every one wishes to procure from the good breeds. A good man does not care to marry a shrew, the daughter of a shrew, unless they give a great deal of money with her." 1

What think you of my translation ? Compare it with that of Grotius, and tell me which is the nearest to the original in letter and in spirit.

Grotius renders it, —

Nobilitas asinis et equis simul, arietibusque Dat pretium : nee de semine degeneri Admissura placet. Sed pravse e sanguine pravo, Si dos sit, presto est optima conditio.

i " The expressions rjonfl and bad men, which in later times bore a purely- moral signification, are evidently used by Theognis in a political sense for nobles and commons." Miiller, Literatim of Ancient t In ere.

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This flower of Greek poetry is extracted from the

0EOrNIAO2 MErAPE'fiS IIAPAINESEIS.

Theognis lived five hundred and forty-four years before Jesus Christ. Has science, or morals, or philosophy, or criticism, or Christianity, advanced, or improved, or enlightened mankind upon this subject, and shown them that the idea of the " well- born" is a prejudice, a phantom, a point-no-point, a Cape Fly- away, a dream ?

I say it is the ordinance of God Almighty, in the constitution of human nature, and wrought into the fabric of the universe. Philosophers and politicians may nibble and quibble, but they never will get rid of it. Their only resource is to control it. "Wealth is another monster to be subdued. Hercules could not subdue both or either. To subdue them by regular approaches and strong fortifications, by a regular siege, was btrt my object in writing on aristocracy, as I proposed to you in Grosvenor- Square. If you deny any one of these positions, I will prove them to demonstration by examples drawn from your own Vir- ginia, and from every other State in the Union, and from the history of every nation, civilized and savage, from all we know of the time of the creation of the world. , r/

Whence is the derivation of the words generous, generously, generosity, &c. ? Johnson says, " Generous — a generosus, La- tin, not of mean birth ; of good extraction ; noble of mind ; mag- nanimous ; open of heart ; liberal ; munificent, strong, vigorous," and he might have added, courageous, heroic, patriotic.

Littleton happens to be at hand. " Generosus — hyevris, yevvaioc. Nobilis; ex proeclaro genere ortus ; qui a genere non defiectit. Born of a noble race, a gentleman born." See his examples.

What is the origin of the word gentleman ?

It would be a curious critical speculation for a learned idler tomirsue this idea through all languages.

/ We may call this sentiment a prejudice, because we can give what names we please to such things as we please ; but, in my opinion, it is a part of the natural history of man, and politi- cians and philosophers may as well project to make the animal live without bones or blood, as society can pretend to establish a free government without attention to it. I

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Quincy, 16 August, 1813.

I can proceed no further with this letter, as I intended.

Your friend, my only daughter, expired yesterday morning in the arms of her husband, her son, her daughter, her father and mother, her husband's two sisters, and two of her nieces, in the forty-ninth year of her age, forty of which she was the healthiest and firmest of us all. Since which she has been a monument to suffering and to patience.

THOMAS MCKEAN TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, 20 August, 1813.

I can, at length, furnish you with a copy of the proceedings of the Congress, held at New York, in 1765 ; it is inclosed here- with. After diligent inquiry, I had not been able to procure a single copy, either in manuscript or print, done in the United States, but fortunately met one published by J. Almon, in Lon- don, in 1767, with a collection of American tracts, in four octavo volumes, from which I caused the present one to be printed. It may be of some use to the historian at least.

The Marquis de Casa Yrujo, with my daughter, their child- ren and servants, made me a visit on his return from an em- bassy to the prince regent of Portugal, at Rio Janeiro, in Brazil, last June was a year, and remained here until a few weeks ago, owing to the embargo, war, blockades, &c, when they sailed for Cadiz. The above circumstances, with others, will, I trust, be some apology for my long delay in answering your last esteemed letter.

In the Congress of 1765, there were several conspicuous cha- racters. Mr. James Otis appeared to me to be the boldest and best speaker. I voted for him as our President, but Brigadier Ruggles succeeded by one vote, owing to the number of the committee from New York, as we voted individually. When the business was finished, our president would not sign the petitions, and peremptorily refused to assign any reasons, until I pressed him so hard that he at last said, " it was against his

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conscience" on which word I rung the change so loud, that a plain challenge was given by him and accepted, in the presence of the whole corps ; but he departed the next morning before day, without an adieu to any of his brethren. He seemed to accord with what was done during the session so fully and heartily, that Mr. Otis told me frequently it gave him surprise, as he confessed he suspected his sincerity.

There was less fortitude in that body than in the succeeding Congress of 1774; indeed, some of the members seemed as timid as if engaged in a traitorous conspiracy. Mr. Ogden, then speaker of the New Jersey assembly, following the example of the president, declined to sign the petitions, though warmly solicited by myself in private, and also by my father-in-law, Colonel Borden, his colleague. The consequence of my men- tioning this fact, as I returned to Newcastle through New Jer- sey, was to Mr. Ogden a burning in effigy in several of the counties, and his removal from the office of speaker, at the next meeting of the general assembly ; and to me, menaces of another challenge. The great mass of the people were at that time zealous in the cause of America. Other incidents of that day are recollected, but they are of trivial import.

In the year 1778, and afterwards, until the preliminaries of peace were signed, the members of Congress varied yearly in point of talents and exertions in favor of the revolution. They seemed to be considerably governed by the prospects before them, as they were promising or the contrary ; however, a great majority were staunch whigs at all times.

Whatever may be the fate of our government in the United States, I decidedly think with you, for the reason you assign, that a democratic form in France, in the present age, was pre- posterous. I entertain the same opinion of the Spanish pro- vinces in South America. The form established last year by the Cortes of Spain is admirably adapted to the state of civil- ization in the peninsula. It is a capital performance, but will be attacked and resisted by the inquisitors, Jesuits, monks, and all the bigots and petty tyrants.

It does not seem to me, that either of your successors enjoys more ease than your predecessor. Mr. Madison has paid too great a deference to the recommendations to office by low and designing men, who stood very much in need of recommenda-

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tions themselves, though excellent democrats, if they were to be credited. Mr. Jefferson split on the same rock. Many of their appointments have been exceedingly improper. Though General Washington conferred offices on some tories, yet they were capable, and only undeserving.

My paper is drawing to a close ; so is my life. I am now in my eightieth year, therefore more than a year older than you. Had you not noticed the quiveration of your hand (an expressive word, though newly used) I should not have discovered it; mine quivers very much when feverish, or agitated by severe exercise ; my eyes grow dimmer, my hearing duller, and I have other symptoms of age ; but why repeat grievances that cannot be redressed? May you not only continue to enjoy, but in- crease your health and otium cum dignitate with every other blessing. Dear Sir, your friend,

Tho's McKean.

TO THOMAS MCKEAN.

Quincy, 31 August, 1813.

Your friendly letter of the 20th, with the authentic account of the proceedings of the Congress held at New York, A. D. 1765, on the subject of the American stamp act, though they found me in the deepest affliction for the loss of my daughter, were very acceptable, and deserve my thanks.

There was a prior Congress held at Albany in 1754 or 1755, in which Franklin, Hutchinson, Wells, and Brattle, with others, assisted. Where is any account of that to be found ?

Can you account for the apathy, the antipathy of this nation to their own history ? Is there not a repugnance to the thought of looking back ? While thousands of frivolous novels are read with eagerness and got by heart, the history of our own native country is not only neglected, but despised and abhorred.

You may conjecture my suspicions from what follows. Were I a man of fortune, I would offer a gold medal to the man who should produce the most instances of the friendship of Great Britain toward this country from 1600 to 1813.

1 have had knowledge enough of the Marquis de Casa Yrujo and his lady, your lovely daughter, and notwithstanding all

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political flickerings, to esteem them both, and wish them all the felicity that you can desire for them. They live, as you and I have lived, in times of confusion and uncertainty more dis- tressing than the ordinary lot of humanity.

In times like those in which you and I have lived, we are not masters, we can scarcely be said to be fathers, of our own families. I have three children born in Quincy, one in Boston. I have one grandson born in London, another on Long Island, another in Berlin, several in Quincy, several in New York, several in Boston, one born and died in St. Petersburg. Is this a desirable history of a family ? I trow not.

I will not tell you what I would prefer. You would think me a dunce or an hypocrite.

Your history of Otis and Ruggles is familiar to me. I knew them both. Ruggles was my cousin; Otis, my friend and one of my patrons. I could not have drawn the character of either with more precision than you have done. Both high-minded men, exalted souls, acting in scenes they could not comprehend, and acting parts, whose effects and consequences will last longer than their names will be remembered.

You say that at the time of the Congress, in 1765, " The great mass of the people were zealous in the cause of America." " The great mass of the people " is an expression that deserves analysis. New York and Pennsylvania were so nearly divided, if their propensity was not against us, that if New England on one side and Virginia on the other had not kept them in awe, they would have joined the British. Marshall, in his life of Washington, tells us, that the southern States were nearly equally divided. Look into the Journals of Congress, and you will see how seditious, how near rebellion were several counties of New York, and how much trouble we had to compose them. The last contest, in the town of Boston, in 1775, between whig and tory, was decided by five against two. Upon the whole, if we allow two thirds of the people to have been with us in the revolution, is not the allowance ample ? Are not two thirds of the nation now with the administration ? Divided we ever have been, and ever must be. Two thirds always had and will have more difficulty to struggle with the one third than with all our foreign enemies.

A letter from you will always console your old friend.

64 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 2 September, 1813.

OvSe yvvy Hanoi avdpbc avaiverai elvai ukoltlq UAovoiov, uTJJ cMpveov fiovkerai uvt' uyaftov.

Xpr//iara yup tl^ugl • nal en kclkov eo&?mc eyrjjiE Kal Katcbc eij uyw&ov • tv'Aovtoc efiilje yivoq.

Grotius renders this into Latin thus :

Nee dedignetur ditemque malumque maritum

Femina : divitiae prae probitate placent. In pretio pretium est : genus et praenobile vili,

Obscurum claro, miscet avaritia.

I should render the Greek into English thus :

" Nor dees a woman disdain to be the wife of a bad rich man. But she prefers a man of property before a good man ; for riches are honored, and a good man marries from a bad family, and a bad man from a good one. Wealth mingles races."

Now, please to tell me, whether my translation has not hit the sense of Theognis as exactly as that of Grotius ?

Tell me, also, whether poet, orator, historian, or philosopher, can paint the picture of every city, county, or State, in our pure, uncorrupted, unadulterated, uncontaminated federal re- public, or, in France, England, Holland, and all the rest of Christendom or Mahometanism, in more precise lines or colors? Another translation of the whole passage of Theognis is this :

Arietes quidem et asinos quaerimus, Cyrne, et equos, Generosos, et quisque vult ex bonis admittere ; ducere autem malam (filiam) Mali, non renuit generosus vir, si ei pecunias multas dederit. Nulla (femina) mali viri recusat esse uxor divitis ; sed divitem vult Pro bono. Opes quidem ajstimat, et ex malo (natam) bonus dueet Et malus ex bono ortam. Divitias miscent genus.

o^

Now, my friend, who are the uptoToii Philosophers may an- swer, " the wise and good." But the world, mankind, have, by their practice, always answered, " the rich, the beautiful, and well-born." And philosophers themselves, in marrying their children, prefer the rich, the handsome, and the well-descended, to the wise and good.

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What chance have talents and virtues, in competition with wealth and birth and beauty ?

Hand facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstant Res angustae douii.

One truth is clear, by all the world confessed, Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed.

The five pillars of aristocracy are beauty, wealth, birth, genius, and virtue. Any one of the three first can, at any time, over- bear any one or both of the two last.

Let me ask again, what a wave of public opinion, in favor of birth, has been spread over the globe by Abraham, by Her- cules, by Mahomet, by Guelphs, Ghibellines, Bourbons, and a

miserable Scottish chief, Stuart, by Zengis, by , by -,

by a million of others. And what a wave will be spread by Napoleon and by Washington ! Their remotest cousins will be sought, and will be proud, and will avail themselves of their descent. Call this principle, prejudice, folly, ignorance, baseness, slavery, stupidity, adulation, superstition, or what you will, I will not contradict you. But the fact in natural, moral, political, and domestic history, I will not deny, or dispute, or question.

And is this great fact in the natural history of man, this unal- terable principle of morals, philosophy, policy, domestic felicity, and daily experience from the creation, to be overlooked, forgot- ten, neglected, or hypocritically waved out of sight, by a legis- lator, by a professed writer upon civil government, and upon constitutions of civil government ?

Thus far had I written, when your favor of August 22d was laid on my table from the post-office. I can only say at pre- sent that I can pursue this idle speculation no further, at least till I have replied to this fresh proof of friendship and con- fidence. Mrs. A. joins in cordial thanks with

J. A.

You may laugh at the introduction of beauty among the pil- lars of aristocracy. But Madame du Barry says, ula veritable royaute c'est la beaute" and there is not a more certain truth. Beauty, grace, figure, attitude, movement, have, in innumerable instances, prevailed over wealth, birth, talents, virtues, and

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every thing else, in men of the highest rank, greatest power, and, sometimes, the most exalted genius, greatest fame, and highest merit.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 14 September, 1813.

I owe you a thousand thanks for your favor of August 22d, and its inclosures, and for Doctor Priestley's " Doctrines of Heathen Philosophy compared with those of Revelation." Your letter to Dr. Rush, and the syllabus, I return inclosed with this, according to your injunction, though with great reluctance. May I beg a copy of both ? They will do you no harm, me and others, much good. I hope you will pursue your plan, for I am confident you will produce a work much more valuable than Priestley's, though that is curious, and, considering the expiring powers with which it was written, admirable.

The bill in parliament for the relief of Anti- Trinitarians, is a great event, and will form an epoch in ecclesiastical history. The motion was made by my friend Smith, of Clapham, a friend of the Belshams. I should be very happy to hear that the bill is passed. ^>*y\ie human understanding is a revelation from its maker, which can never be disputed or doubted. There can be no scepticism, Pyrrhonism, or incredulity or infidelity here. No prophecies, no miracles are necessary to prove this celestial communication, This revelation has made it certain that two and one make three, and that one is not three nor can three be one. We can never be so certain of any prophecy, or the fulfilment of any prophecy, or of any miracle, or the design of any miracle, as we are from the revelation of nature, that is, nature's God, that two and two are equal to four. Miracles or prophecies might frighten us out of our wits, might scare us to death, might induce us to lie, to say that we believe that two and two make five, but we should not believe it; we should know the contrary.

Had you and I been forty days with Moses on Mount Sinai, and admitted to behold the divine Shechinah, and there told that

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one was three and three one, we might not have had courage to deny it, but we could not have believed it. The thunders and lightnings and earthquakes, and the transcendent splen- dors and glories, might have overwhelmed us with terror and amazement, but we could not have believed the doctrine. We should be more likely to say in our hearts — whatever we might say with our lips — , This is chance. There is no God, no truth. This is all delusion, fiction, and a lie, or it is all chance. But what is chance ? It is motion ; it is action ; it is event ; it is phenomenon without cause. Chance is no cause at all ; it is nothing, and nothing has produced all this pomp and splendor, and nothing may produce our eternal dam- nation in the flames of hell-fire and brimstone, for what we know, as well as this tremendous exhibition of terror and false- hood.

God has infinite wisdom, goodness, and power ; he created the universe ; his duration is eternal, a parte ante and a parte post. His presence is as extensive as space. What is space ? An infinite spherical vacuum. He created this speck of dirt and the human species for his glory ; and with the deliberate design of making nine tenths of our species miserable for ever for his glory. This is the doctrine of Christian theologians, in general, ten to one. Now, my friend, can prophecies or miracles con- vince you or me that infinite benevolence, wisdom, and power, created, and preserves for a time, innumerable millions, to make them miserable for ever, for his own glory ? Wretch ! What is his glory ? Is he ambitious ? Does he want promotion ? Is he vain, tickled with adulation, exulting and triumphing in his power and the sweetness of his vengeance ? Pardon me, my Maker, for these awful questions. My answer to them is al- ways ready. I believe no such things. My adoration of the author of the universe is too profound and too sincere. The love of God and his creation — delight, joy, triumph, exultation in my own existence — though but an atom, a molecule organ- ique in the universe — are my religion.

Howl, snarl, bite, ye Calvinistic, ye Athanasian divines, if you will ; ye will say I am no Christian ; I say ye are no Christians, and there the account is balanced. Yet I believe all the honest men among you are Christians, in my sense of the word.X'

When I was at college, I was a mighty metaphysician, at

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least I thought myself such, and such men as Locke, Hemmen- way, and West thought me so too, for we were forever disput- ing, though in great good humor.

When I was sworn as an attorney in 1758, in Boston, though I lived in Braintree, I was in a low state of health, thought in great danger of a consumption, living on milk, vegetables, pud- ding, and water, not an atom of meat or a drop of spirit ; my next neighbor, my cousin, my friend, Dr. Savil, was my physi- cian. He was anxious for me, and did not like to take upon himself the sole responsibility of my recovery. He invited me to a ride. I mounted my horse, and rode with him to Hingham, on a visit to Dr. Ezekiel Hersey, a physician of great fame, who felt my pulse, looked in my eyes, heard Savil describe my regi- men and course of medicine, and then pronounced his oracle : " Persevere, and as sure as there is a God in Heaven you will recover." He was an everlasting talker, and ran out into his- tory, philosophy, metaphysics, &c, and frequently put questions to me as if he wanted to sound me and see if there was any thing in me besides hectic fever. I was young and then very bashful, however saucy I may have sometimes been since. J gave him very modest and very diffident answers. But when he got upon metaphysics, I seemed to feel a little bolder, and ventured into something like argument with him. I drove him up, as I thought, into a corner, from which he could not escape. " Sir, it will follow, from what you have now advanced, that the universe, as distinct from God, is both infinite and eternal." " Very true," said Dr. Hersey ; " your inference is just ; the con- sequence is inevitable, and I believe the universe to be both eternal and infinite." Here I was brought up. I was defeated. I was not prepared for this answer. This was fifty-five years ago. When I was in England, from 1785 to 1788, I may say I was intimate with Dr. Price. I had much conversation with him at his own house, at my house, and at the houses and tables of many friends. In some of our most unreserved con- versations, when we have been alone, he has repeatedly said to me : " I am inclined to believe that the universe is eternal and infinite : it seems to me that an eternal and infinite effect must necessarily flow from an eternal and infinite cause ; and an in- finite wisdom, goodness, and power, that could have been niduced to produce a universe in time, must have produced it

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from eternity. It seems to me, the effect must flow from the cause."

Now, my friend Jefferson, suppose an eternal, self-existent being, existing from eternity, possessed of infinite wisdom, goodness, and power, in absolute, total solitude, six thousand years ago conceiving the benevolent project of creating a uni- verse ! I have no more to say at present. It has been long, very long, a settled opinion in my mind, that there is now, ever will be, and ever was, but one being who can understand the universe, and that it is not only vain but wicked for insects to pretend to comprehend it.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 15 September, 1813.

My last sheet would not admit an observation that was ma- terial to my design. Dr. Price " was inclined to think," that infinite wisdom and goodness could not permit infinite power to be inactive from eternity, but that an infinite and eternal ^_universe must have necessarily flowed from these attributes.

Plato's system wasu&yatfof was eternal, self-existent, &c. His idea, his word, his reason, his wisdom, his goodness, or, in one word, his " Logos " was omnipotent, and produced the universe from all eternity.

Now, as far as you and I can understand Hersey, Price, and Plato, are they not of one theory, of one mind ? What is the difference ? I own, an eternal solitude of a self-existent being, infinitely wise, powerful, and good, is to me altogether incom- prehensible and incredible. I could as soon believe the Athan- asian creed. You will ask me, what conclusion I draw from all this. I answer, I drop into myself, and acknowledge my- self to be a fool. No mind but one can see through the im- measurable system. It would be presumption and impiety in me to dogmatize on such subjects. My duties, in my little infinitesimal circle, I can understand and feel. The duties of a son, a brother, a father, a neighbor, a citizen, I can see and feel ; but I trust the ruler with his skies, j

Si quid novisti reetius istis,

Candiclus imperii ; si non, his uterc mecum.

CV

c\J

70 CORRESPONDENCE.

This world is a mixture of the sublime and beautiful, the base and contemptible, the whimsical and ridiculous (according to our narrow sense and trifling feelings). It is a riddle and an enigma. You will not be surprised, then, if I should descend from these heights to an egregious trifle. But first, let me say, I asked you in a former letter how far advanced we were in the science of aristocracy since Theognis's stallions, jacks, and rams. Have not Chancellor Livingston and Major-General Humphreys introduced a hereditary aristocracy of merino sheep ? How shall we get out of this aristocracy ? It is entailed upon us forever. And an aristocracy of land-jobbers and stock-job- bers is equally and irremediably entailed upon us to endless generations.

Now for the odd, the whimsical, the frivolous. I had scarcely sealed my last letter to you, upon Theognis's doctrine of well- born stallions, jacks, and rams, when they brought me from the post-office a packet, without post-mark, without letter, without name, date, or place. Nicely sealed, was a printed copy of eighty or ninety pages, in large, full octavo, entitled, Sec- tion first. Aristocracy.

I gravely composed my risible muscles, and read it through. It is, from beginning to end, an attack upon me, by name, for the doctrines of aristocracy in my three volumes of Defence, &c. The conclusion of the whole is, that an aristocracy of bank- paper is as bad as the nobility of France or England. I most assuredly will not controvert this point, with this man. Who he is, I cannot conjecture. The Honorable John Taylor, of Virginia, of all men living or dead, first occurred to me.

Is it Oberon, is it Queen Mab, that reigns and sports with us little beings ? I thought my books, as well as myself, were forgotten. But, behold ! I am to become a great man in my expiring moments. Theognis and Plato, and Hersey and Price, and Jefferson and I, must go down to posterity together ; and I know not, upon the whole, where to wish for better company. I wish to add Vanderkemp, who has been here to see me after an interruption of twenty-four years. I could and ought to add many others, but the catalogue would be too long.

Why is Plato associated with Theognis, &c. ? Because no man ever expressed so much terror of the power of birth. His genius could invent no remedy or precaution against it, but a

CORRESPONDENCE. 71

community of wives, a confusion of families, a total extinction of all relations of father, son, and brother. Did the French revolutionists contrive much better against the influence of birth ?

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 22 September, 1813.

Considering all things, I admire Dr. Priestley's last effort, for which I am entirely indebted to you. But, as I think it is ex- tremely imperfect, I beg of you to pursue the investigation according to your promise to Dr. Rush, and according to your syllabus. It may be presumptuous in me to denominate any thing of Dr. Priestley's imperfect ; but I must avow, that among all the vast exertions of his genius, I have never found one that is not imperfect, and this last is egregiously so. I will instance, at present, in one article. I find no notice of Cleanthes, one of whose sayings alone ought to have commanded his attention. He compared " philosophers to instruments of music, which made a noise without understanding it or themselves." He was ridiculed by his brother philosophers, and called " an ass." He owned he was the ass of Zeno, and " the only one whose back and shoulders were stout enough to carry his burdens." Why has not Priestley quoted more from Zeno and his dis- ciples ? Were they too Christian ? Though he lived two cen- turies and a half before Christ.

If I did not know it would be sending coals to Newcastle, I would, with all my dimness of eyes and trembling of fingers, copy in Greek the hymn of Cleanthes, and request you to com- pare it with any thing of Moses, of David, of Solomon. Instead of those ardent oriental figures, which are so difficult to under- stand, we find that divine simplicity, which constitutes the charm of Grecian eloquence in prose and verse. Pope had read, if Priestley had not, the

KAEAN60Y2 TMNOS £12 AlA.

K.vdt.OT' a&avuTov, KoTMUvvjie, TvavKpareQ aiei Zev, (f>i>0Eoc upxvyt} vo/iov fiEra ttuvto. Kv(Sepvuv, Xalpe.

" Most glorious of immortal beings ! Though denominated by

72 CORRESPONDENCE.

innumerable names and titles, always omnipotent ! Beginning and end of nature, governing the universe by fixed laws, blessed be thy name ! "

What think you of this translation ? Is it too Jewish or too too Christian ? Pope did not think it was either, for the first sentence in his universal prayer is more Jewish and more Christ- ian still. If it is not a literal translation, it is a close paraphrase of this simple verse of Cleanthes, —

Father of all ! in every age, In every clime adored, By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord !

But it may be said, for it has been said, that Pope was a Deist, and Swift too, as well as Bolingbroke. What will not men say? But- is the existence, the omnipotence, the eter- nity, the alpha and omega, and the universal Providence of one Supreme Being governing by fixed laws, asserted by St. John, in his Gospel, or in the Apocalypse, whether his or not, in clearer or more precise terms ? Can you conjecture a reason why Grotius has not translated this hymn ? Were Grotius and Priestley both afraid that the stoics would appear too much like Unitarians, Jews, and Christians? Duport has translated the sentence thus : —

Magne Pater divuin, cni nomina multa, sed una Omnipotens semper virtus, tu, Jupiter, auctor Naturae, certa qui singula lege gubernas, Rex, salve !

Bougainville has translated it, —

Pere et maitre des dieux, auteur de la nature, Jupiter, O Sagesse ! O loi sublime et pure ! Unite Souveraine, a qui tous les mortels, Sous mille noms divers, elevent des autels ; Je t' adore, nos coeurs te doivent leur hommage, Nous sommes tes enfans, ton ombre, ton image ; Et tout ce qui respire, anime par tes mains, A celebrer ta gloire, invite les humains. Beni sois a jamais !

I am so awkward in Italian, that I am ashamed to quote that

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language to you ; but Pompeius, a gentleman of Verona, has translated it thus, and you will understand it.

O Glorioso fra gli eterni, in guise Molte nomato, omnipossente ognora, Tu che, tutto con legge governando, De la natura sei principio e duce, Salve, O Giove.

It appears to me that the great principle of the Hebrews was the fear of God; that of the Gentiles, honor the gods; that of Christians, the love of God. Could the quiveration of my nerves and the inflammation of my eyes be cured, and my age diminished by twenty or thirty years, I would attend you in these researches with infinitely more pleasure than I would George the Fourth, Napoleon, Alexander, or Madison. But only a few hours, a few moments remain for your old friend.

THOMAS MCKEAN TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, 28 September, 1813.

With sincerity I condole with you on the death of your daughter. I had five children who have died, three of whom have been married and left a numerous offspring. By these events we have sustained the deprivation of great comforts ; but our loss is their ineffable gain. They are in the bosom of their father and their God. These are among the common calamities of life ; resignation to the dispensations of Providence, and grati- tude for all the blessings left us, are indispensable duties.

Your favor of the 31st last month would have been acknow- ledged before now, but from a hope I entertained of giving you some account of the Congress at Albany, in 1754. However, after considerable inquiry, I have been disappointed.1 I have a faint recollection, that it was appointed by the British ministry for the ostensible purpose of ascertaining the boundaries of the several colonies to the eastward of Delaware ; but in reality to

1 Much has been published on this subject since. See Collections Massachu- setts Historical Society, vol. xxv. pp. 5 - 74. Hutchinson's Massachusetts, vol. iii. p. 20. Sparks's Franklin, vol. iii. pp. 22-36.

\fOL. X. 7

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propose the least offensive plan for raising a revenue in Ame- rica. In 1739, Sir William Keith, a Scotch gentleman, who had been a lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania, proposed such an assembly to the ministry. He also proposed the extension of the British stamp-duties to the colonies. He was then, I believe, in the Fleet prison. The hints he gave were embraced, the first in 1754, the second in 1764.

It has been long a matter of surprise to me, that no gentle- man of talents and character has undertaken to write a historv of the former British colonies, now United States of America, at least from 1756 to 1806, a period of fifty very important years. Such a work would not only be a great benefit to pos- terity, but also to the author. It would sell well.

To form an opinion, that a majority of the people of Penn- sylvania were against the American revolution at its commence- ment, was not uncommon, especially by strangers. The mis- take arose from the circumstance of a large majority of their representatives and civil officers being in the opposition. This State was first settled by a colony of Quakers, their proprietor and governor, William Penn, being at the head of the sect. They had the entire government or rule of Pennsylvania from 1682 until 1776, by the following means. The province was in the beginning divided into three counties, Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks, and when the three lower counties on Delaware (now State of Delaware) separated from them in 1700, each county had eight members in the legislature, and the city, hav- ing been incorporated and inhabited chiefly by that sect, was allowed two. Eight other counties were erected prior to the revolution, and were allowed, some two, some but one repre- sentative, so that in all they had but ten ; although, if they had founded the representation according to the number of human beings in each district or county, the Quakers would have been greatly overruled, even adding all the tories or enemies of the revolution to their number. The voice of the representatives was not the voice of the people, as is the case with the British parliament; the three Quaker counties, having twenty-four members in assembly, made all the laws. They gave great trouble to the whigs, but they were kept under by fear as well as by superior numbers. From that day, the people called "Friends," have ceased to rule Pennsylvania. They foresaw

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the consequences of an equal representation, as it would affect themselves, and this was a principal cause of their aversion to a change in the form of our government as a body, though many individuals of their society differed with them, and be- came active and good citizens.

In the marriage of our children, their, not our happiness, is to be chiefly consulted. I confess, my wish is to have them established in their native country.

On reflection, I cannot refer to a single instance of disinter- ested or evident friendship of Great Britain towards this country during the period you mention. Every act which might bear such an aspect, has been performed for the interest of the ad- ministration alone, although coupled in some cases with that of their own island.

I shall be always pleased with your correspondence, and happy in contributing to your amusement. Your able talent for writing history, and your eminent public stations, induced a hope that we should be favored with an account of the trans- actions in America, for at least the last sixty years, from your pen. Tho's McKean.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quiney, 4 October, 1813.

2e yap nuvTeom fti/Mg dpyroZoc npooavduv.

" It is not only permitted, but enjoined upon all mortals to address you." Why should not our divines translate it,

" It is our duty and our privilege to address the throne of thy grace, and pray for all needed lawful blessings, temporal and spiritual " ?

eifug was the goddess of honesty, justice, decency, and right ; the wife of Jove, another name for Juno. She presided over all oracles, deliberations, and councils. She commanded all mor- tals to pray to Jupiter for all lawful benefits and blessings. Now, is not this (so far forth) the essence of Christian devo- tion ? Is not this Christian piety ? Is it not an acknowledg- ment of the existence of a Supreme Being, of his universal Providence, of a righteous administration of the government of

76 CORRESPONDENCE.

the universe ? And what can Jews, Christians, or Mahomet- ans do more ? Priestley, the heroic Priestley, would not have

dared to answer or to ask these questions, though he might have answered them consistently enough with the spirit of his system. I regret, that Grotius has not translated this hymn, and cannot account for his omission of it. Duport translates the above line only by, —

" Te nempe licet mortalibus aegris, Cunctis compellare."

Where he finds his cegris, I know not; no such idea is in the Greek. All mortals, sick or well, have a right, and it is their duty, to pray, as far as I can understand the Greek. Bqu- gainville translates it, —

•• Et tout ce qui respire aniine par tes mains, A celebrer ta gloire, invite les humains. Beni sois a jamais ! "

This translation is Christian with a witness. None but a Jew, a Mahometan, or a Christian could ever have translated that simple line in this manner. Yet, the idea, the sentiment, translated into Christianity, is very well; well enough. The gentleman of Verona, Girolamo Pompei translates it thus, after " Salve, O Giove" for "Xaipe,"

" Perb che gli uomin tutti, Dritto e ben, che a te volgan le parole."

Now, tell me what resemblance of the Greek you can find in this Italian version ? In this manner are the most ancient Greek theologians rendered and transmitted to our youth by the Christians !

'E« gov yup yivoQ la/tEV, iifc /Jti/irjfia ^■0-xovTeg Movvov, baa C/oel te nal sp^Ei &v?jt' eki yalav.

■E/c aov yup yivog ea/niv, I presume, is the phrase quoted by Saint Paul, when he says to the Athenians, " one of your own poets hath said, we are all his offspring." Acts, xvii. 28. " For in Him we live and move and have our being ; as certain, also, of your own poets have said, ' for we are also his offspring.' Forasmuch, then, as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto silver, or gold, or stone graven by art and man's device." This reasoning is irresist-

CORRESPONDENCE. 77

ible ; for what can be more mad than to represent the eternal, almighty, omnipresent cause and principle of the universe by statues and pictures, by coins or medals ! Duport renders these two lines by, —

" Omnes tua namque propago Nos sumus, astern ae quasi imago vocis et echo Tanturn, quotquot humi spirantes repiimis."

Bougainville translates them thus : —

Nous sommes tes enfans, ton ombre, ton image, Et tout ce qui respire, anime par tes mains, A celebrer ta jjloire invite les humains. Beni sois a jamais !

Pompei renders them : —

Che siam tua stirpe, e solo noi, fra quanti Vivon mortali e muovon su la terra, Lo imitar de la voce abbiam sortito.

Moses says, Genesis i. 27 : " God created man in his own image." What, then, is the difference between Cleanthes and Moses? Are not the being and attributes of the Supreme Being, the resemblance, the image, the shadow of God in the intelligence and moral qualities of man, and the lawfulness and duty of prayer, as clearly asserted by Cleanthes as by Moses ? And did not the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Indians, the Chinese, believe all this, as well as the Jews and Greeks 1

Alexander appears to have behaved to the Jews as Napoleon did to the Mahometans in the pyramid of Grand Cairo. Ptole- my, the greatest of his generals, and a greater man than himself, was so impressed with what he learned in Judea, that he em- ployed seventy learned men to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, nearly three hundred years before Christ. He sent learned men to collect books from all nations, and deposited them in the Alexandrian library. Will any man make me be- lieve that Caesar, that Pompey, that Cicero, that Seneca, that Tacitus, that Dionysius Halicarnassensis, that PlutarchA had never seen or heard of the Septuagint ? Why might not Clean- thes have seen the Septuagint? a The curiosity of Pompey to see the interior of the temple shows that the system of the Jews was become an object of speculation. It is impossible

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to believe that the Septuagint was unknown and unheard of by Greeks or Romans at that time, at least by the great generals, orators, historians, philosophers, and statesmen, who looked through the then known world for information of every thing. On the other hand, how do we know how much Moses, Samuel, Joshua, David, Solomon, and Esdras, Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah learned in Babylon, Egypt, and Persia ? The destruction of the library at Alexandria is all the answer we can obtain to these questions. I believe that Jews, Gre- cians, Romans, and Christians all conspired or connived at that savage catastrophe, r I believe Cleanthes to be as good a Christ- ian as Priestley. /

But enough of my school-boy criticisms and crude philosophy, problematical history and heretical divinity, for the present.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 12 November, 1813.

As I owe you more for your letters of October 12th and 28th than I shall be able to pay, I shall begin with the P. S. to the last. I am very sorry to say that I cannot " assist your memory in the inquiries of your letter of August 22d." 1 I really know not who was the compositor of any one of the petitions or ad- dresses you enumerate. Nay, farther, I am certain I never did know. I was so shallow a politician, that I was not aware of the importance of those compositions. They all appeared to me, in the circumstances of the country, like children's play at marbles or push-pin, or, rather, like misses in their teens emu- lating each other in their pearls, their bracelets, their diamond pins and Brussels lace.

In the Congress of 1774, there was not one member, except Patrick Henry, who appeared to me sensible of the precipice, or, rather, the pinnacle on which he stood, and had candor and courage enough to acknowledge it. America is in total ignor- ance, or under infinite deception, concerning that assembly.

1 The principal inquiry was, who drew the petition to the king, in the Con- gress of 1774,

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To draw the characters of them all would require a volume, and "would now be considered as a caricature-print ; one third tories, another whigs, and the rest mongrels. There was a little aristocracy among us, of talents and letters ; Mr. Dickin- son was primus inter pares, the bellwether, the leader of the aristocratical flock. Billy, alias Governor Livingston, and his son-in-law, Mr. Jay, were of this privileged order. The credit of most, if not all, those compositions was often, if not gene- rally, given to one or the other of the choice spirits. Mr. Dick- inson, however, was not on any of the original committees. He came not into Congress until October 17th ; he was not appointed till the 15th by his assembly.1 Congress adjourned, October 27th, though our correct secretary has not recorded any final adjournment or dissolution. Mr. Dickinson was in Con- gress but ten days. The business was all prepared, arranged, and even, in a manner, finished before his arrival. R. H. Lee was the chairman of the committee for preparing " the loyal and dutiful address to his Majesty." Johnson and Henry were acute spirits, and understood the controversy very well, though they had not the advantages of education, like Lee and John Rutledge. The subject had been near a month under discus- sion in Congress, and most of the materials thrown out there. It underwent another deliberation in committee, after which they made the customary compliment to their chairman, by requesting him to prepare and report a draught, which was done, and after examination, correction, amelioration, or pejo- ration, as usual, reported to Congress. October 3d, 4th, and 5th were taken up in debating and deliberating on matters proper to be contained in the address to his Majesty.2 October 21st, the address to the king was, after debate, recommitted, and Mr. John Dickinson added to the committee. The first draught was made, and all the essential materials put together by Lee. It might be embellished and seasoned afterwards with some of Mr. Dickinson's piety, but I know not that it was.3 Neat and handsome as the composition is, having never had any confidence in the utility of it, I never have thought much

1 Journals, vol. i. p. 30.

2 Journals, vol. i. p. 22.

3 It is now well known to have been the composition of Mr. Dickinson. Much light is shed upon this question by an article in the American Quarterly Re- view, vol. i. p. 413.

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about it since it was adopted. Indeed, I never bestowed much attention on any of those addresses, which were all but repeti- tions of the same things, the same facts and arguments, — dress and ornaments rather than body, soul, or substance. My thoughts and cares were nearly monopolized by the theory of our rights and wrongs, by measures for the defence of the country, and the means of governing ourselves. I was in a great error, no doubt, and am ashamed to confess it, for those things were necessary to give popularity to our cause, both at home and abroad ; and, to show my stupidity in a stronger light, the reputation of any one of those compositions has been a more splendid distinction than any aristocratical star or garter in the escutcheon of every man who has enjoyed it. Very sorry I cannot give you more satisfactory information, and more so, that I cannot, at present, give more attention to your two last excellent letters.

N. B. I am almost ready to believe that John Taylor, of Carolina, or of Hazel Wood, Port Royal, Virginia, is the author of 630 pages of printed octavo upon my books, that I have re- ceived. The style answers every characteristic that you have intimated. Within a week, I have received and looked into his Arator. They must spring from the same brain, as Minerva issued from the head of Jove, or, rather, as Venus rose from the froth of the sea. There is, however, a great deal of good sense in Arator, and there is some in his Aristocracy.

THOMAS MCKEAN TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, 15 November, 1813.

The anecdote of Sir William Keith's proposal to the British ministry is to be found in the latter end of the 1st volume of American Tracts, printed by J. Almon, in London, 1767. It had been published in London in 1739, and is titled "A pro- posal for establishing by act of parliament the duties upon stamped paper and parchment in all the British colonies." Part of the anecdote I had by tradition, and in a novel, " Peregrine

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Pickle ; " for I have read and still read novels. These fabulous histories afford me not only amusement but pleasure, because they almost universally make vice detested and punished, and virtue triumphant, which is not the case of history of real life.

With respect to the histories of North America hitherto pub- lished, I concur with you in opinion. They were not popular, because the authors were little known, and it was known, that they had not an opportunity of personal knowledge of the facts they related, and in several of them were mistaken. The authors seem to have paid too much attention to those who they supposed would, from their reputation for wealth and in- fluence, be most likely to promote the sale of their books, or otherwise advance their fortunes. This temptation is now done away ; the favored characters are all dead, and very few of their descendants at present in any way distinguished.

I have briefly mentioned the situation of the people of Penn- sylvania at the time of the American revolution ; the like shall now be done with respect to Delaware. This small State was inhabited before Pennsylvania ; it consists of only three counties, namely — Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex ; the last was settled by a few families from Sweden, more from Holland, but the great mass from England. Kent was nearly in the same pro- portions ; and Newcastle was inhabited from Sweden, Holland, but the great majority were from Ireland ; there were a few from England and Scotland. In Newcastle, three fifths were at the time of the revolution Presbyterians, in Kent, about five eighths Protestant Episcopalians, and in Sussex, two thirds of the latter. The Society in London " for propagating the gospel in foreign parts," had about half a dozen missionaries, perhaps more, in the State of Delaware, to some of whom they gave a salary of 60/., to others 50/. sterling a year. These ministers foresaw, that if America became an independent state or nation, their salaries would necessarily cease. It was their interest, therefore, to oppose the revolution, and they did oppose it, though with as much secrecy, as practicable. They told their hearers, many of whom, especially in Sussex, were illiterate, ignorant, and bigoted, that it was a plan of the Presbyterians to get their religion established ; that it originated in New England, and was fostered by the Presbyterians in every colony or province A majority of this State were unquestionably against the inde-

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penclence of America ; but the most sensible of the Episcopa- lians, the Baptists and Quakers, and the Presbyterians, with very few exceptions, prevailed against them, as they believed they would be overpowered, with tlie help of the other colonies, if they resisted. I could not avoid remarking, that I was chosen, unanimously, speaker of the House of Representatives of this State, when, of all the members present, there were but six, including myself, who were esteemed whigs.

That you may continue to enjoy health and every other blessing is the sincere prayer of, dear Sir, your old friend, v

Tho's McKean.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 25 December, 1813.

Answer my letter at your leisure. Give yourself no concern. I write as a refuge and protection against ennui.

The fundamental principle of all philosophy and all Christ- ianity is, " Rejoice always in all things." " Be thankful at all times for all good, and all that we call evil." Will it not fol- low, that I ought to rejoice and be thankful that Priestley has lived ? Aye, that Voltaire has lived ? I should have given my reason for rejoicing in Voltaire, &c. It is because I believe they have done more than even Luther or Calvin to lower the tone of that proud hierarchy that shot itself up above the clouds, and more to propagate religious liberty than Calvin, or Luther, or even Locke. That Gibbon has lived? That Hume has lived, though a conceited Scotchman ? That Bolingbroke has lived, though a haughty, arrogant, supercilious dogmatist ? That Burke and Johnson have lived, though superstitious slaves, or self-deceiving hypocrites both ? Is it not laughable to hear Burke call Bolingbroke a superficial writer ; to hear him ask, " who ever read him through ! " Had I been present, I should have answered him: " I, I myself! I have read him through, more than fifty years ago, and more than five times in my life, and once within five years past. And, in my opinion, the epithet ' superficial ' belongs to you and your friend Johnson more than to him." I might say much more ; but I believe Burke and Johnson to have been as political Christians as Leo X.

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I return to Priestley, though I have great complaints against him for personal injuries and persecution, at the same time that I forgive it all, and hope and pray that he may be pardoned for it all above. Dr. Brocklesby, an intimate friend and convivial companion of Johnson, told me, that Johnson died in agonies of horror of annihilation ; and all the accounts we have of his death corroborate this account of Brocklesby. Dread of anni- hilation ! Dread of nothing ! A dread of nothing, I should think, would be no dread at all. Can there be any real, sub- stantial, rational fear of nothing? Were you on your death- bed, and in your last moments informed by demonstration or revelation that you would cease to think and to feel at your dissolution, should you be terrified? You might be ashamed of yourself for having lived so long, to bear the proud man's contumely ; you might be ashamed of your Maker, and com- pare Him to a little girl amusing herself, her brothers, and sis- ters by blowing bubbles in soapsuds ; you might compare Him to boys, sporting with crackers and rockets, or to men employed in making more artificial fireworks, or to men and women at fairs and operas, or Sadler's Wells exploits ; or to politicians, in their intrigues ; or to heroes, in their butcheries ; or to Popes, in their devilisms. But what should you fear ? Nothing. Emori nolo ; sed me mortuum esse nihil cestimo.

To return to Priestley — you could make a more luminous book than his upon the " Doctrines of Heathen Philosophers, compared with those of Revelation." /Why has he not given us a more satisfactory account of the Pythagorean philosophy and theology ? He barely names Ocellus, who lived long before Plato. His treatise of kings and monarchy has been destroyed, I conjecture, by Platonic philosophers, Platonic Jews or Christ- ians, or by fraudulent republicans or despots. His treatise of the universe has been preserved. He labors to prove the eter- nity of the world. The Marquis D' Argens translated it in all its noble simplicity. The Abbe Batteux has given another trans- lation. D' Argens not only explains the text, but sheds more light upon the ancient systems. His remarks are so many treatises, which develop the concatenation of ancient opinions. The most essential ideas of the theology, of the physics, and of the morality of the ancients are clearly explained, and their different doctrines compared with one another, and with the

84 CORRESPONDENCE.

modern discoveries. I wish I owned this book, and one hun- dred thousand more that I want every day, now when I am almost incapable of making any use of them. No doubt, he informs us that Pythagoras was a great traveller.

Priestley barely mentions Timaeus^; but-rtr does not appear that he had read him. Why has he not given us an account of him and his book ? He was before Plato, and gave him the idea of his Timaeus, and much more of his philosophy. After his master, he maintained the existence of matter ; that matter was capable of receiving all sorts of forms ; that a moving power agitates all the parts of it, and that an intelligence directed the moving power; that this intelligence produced a regular and harmonious world. The intelligence had seen a plan, an idea (logos), in conformity to which it wrought, and without which it would not have known what, it was about, nor what it wanted to do. This plan was the idea, image, or model, which had represented to the Supreme Intelligence the world before it existed, which had directed it in its action upon the moving power, and which it contemplated in forming the elements, the bodies, and the world. This model was distinguished from the intelligence which produced the world, as the architect is from his plans. He divided the productive cause of the world into a spirit, which directed the moving force, and into an image, which determined it in the choice of the directions which it gave to the moving force, and the forms which it gave to mat- ter.

I wonder that Priestley has overlooked this, because it is the same philosophy with Plato's, and would have shown that the Pythagorean, as well as the Platonic philosophers, probably concurred in the fabrication of the Christian Trinity,/ Priestley mentions the name of Archytas, but does not appear to have read him, though he was a successor of Pythagoras, and a great mathematician, a great statesman, and a great general. John Gram, a learned and honorable Dane, has given a handsome edition of his works, with a Latin translation, and an ample account of his life and writings. Zaleucus, the legislator of Locris, and Charondas of Sybaris, were disciples of Pythagoras, and both celebrated to immortality for the wisdom of their laws, five hundred years before Christ. Why are those laws lost ? I say, the spirit of party has destroyed them ; civil, poli-

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tical, and ecclesiastical bigotry. Despotical, monarchical, aristo- cratical, and democratical fury, have all been employed in this work of destruction of every thing that could give us true light, and a clear insight of antiquity. For every one of these parties, when possessed of power, or when they have been undermost, and struggling to get uppermost, has been equally prone to every species of fraud and violence and usurpation.— Why has not Priestley mentioned these legislators? The preamble to the laws of Zaleucus, which is all that remains, is as orthodox Christian theology as Priestley's, and Christian benevolence and forgiveness of injuries almost as clearly expressed.

Priestley ought to have done impartial justice to philosophy and philosophers. Philosophy, which is the result of reason, is the first, the original revelation of the Creator to his creature, man. When this revelation is clear and certain, by intuition or necessary induction^, no subsequent revelation, supported by prophecies or miracles, can supersede it. Philosophy is not only the love of wisdom, but the science of the universe and its cause. There is, there was, and there will be but one master of philosophy in the universe. Portions of it, in different de- grees, are revealed to creatures. Philosophy looks with an im- partial eye on all terrestrial religions. I have examined all, as well as my narrow sphere, my straitened means, and my busy . life would allow me ; and the result is, that the Bible is the best book in the world. It contains more of my little philosophy than all the libraries I have seen ; and such parts of it as I can- not reconcile to my little philosophy, I postpone for future investigation. Priestley ought to have given us a sketch of the religion and morals of Zoroaster, of Sanchoniathon, of Con- fucius, and all the founders of religions before Christ, whose superiority would, from such a comparison, have appeared the more transcendent. Priestley ought to have told us that Pythagoras passed twenty years in his travels in India, in Egypt, in Chaldea, perhaps in Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon. He ought to have told us^that in India he conversed with the Brahmins^ and read the Shasta, five thousand years old, written in the language of the sacred Sanscrit, with the elegance and sentiments of Plato. Where is to be found theology more orthodox, or philosophy more profound, than in the introduction to the Shasta ? " God is one, creator of all,

vol. x. 8

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universal sphere, without beginning, without end. God go- verns all the creation by a general providence, resulting from his eternal designs. Search not the essence and the nature of the Eternal, who is one ; your research will be vain and pre- sumptuous. It is enough, that, day by day and night by night, you adore his power, his wisdom, and his goodness, in his works. The Eternal willed, in the fulness of time, to communi- cate of his essence and of his splendor, to beings capable of perceiving it. They as yet existed not. The Eternal willed, and they were. He created Birma, Vitsnow, and Sib." These doctrines, sublime, if ever there were any sublime, Pythagoras learned in India, and taught them to Zaleucus and his other disciples. He there learned also his metempsychosis ; but this never was popular, never ruade much progress in Greece or Italy, or any other country besides India and Tartary, the region of the grand immortal Lama. And how does this differ from the possessions of demons in Greece and Rome, from the demon of Socrates, from the worship of cows and crocodiles in Egypt and elsewhere ? After migrating through various ani- mals, from elephants to serpents, according to their behavior, souls that, at last, behaved well, became men and women, and then, if they were good, they went to Heaven. All ended in Heaven, if they became virtuous. Who can wonder at the widow of Malabar ? Where is the lady who, if her faith were without doubt that she should go to Heaven with her husband on the one hand, or migrate into a toad or a wasp on the other, would not lie down on the pile, and set fire to the fuel ? Modi- fications and disguises of the metempsychosis had crept into Egypt, and Greece, and Rome, and other countries. Have you read Farmer on the demons and possessions of the New Testa- ment?

According to the Shasta, Moisayer, with his companions, rebelled against the Eternal, and were precipitated down to Ondero, the region of darkness.

Do you know any thing of the prophecy of Enoch ? Can you give me a comment on the 6th, the 9th, the 14th verses of" the epistle of Jude ?

If I am not weary of writing, I am sure you must be of read- ing such incoherent rattle. I will not persecute you so severely in future, if I can help it, so farewell.

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THOMAS MCKEAN TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, January, 1814.

In your favor of the 26th November last you say, " that you ventured to say, that about a third of the people of the colonies were against the revolution." It required much reflection be- fore I could fix my opinion on this subject; but on mature deliberation I conclude you are right, and that more than a third of influential characters were against it. The opposition consisted chiefly of the Friends or Quakers, the Menonists, the Protestant Episcopalians, — whose clergy received salaries from the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, — and from the officers of the crown and proprietors of provinces, with their connections, — adding the timid and those who believed the colonies would be conquered, and that, of course, they would be safe in their persons and property from such conduct, and also have a probability of obtaining office and distinction, — and also the discontented and capricious of all grades.

I have not heard the specific sum of money Mr. C. J. Mar- shall received for his copyright of the Life of Washington, nor have I been able to obtain any certain information concerning it ; but if he obtained a sixth part of what you mention, I think he ought to be contented.

During my protracted life, I neither have had leisure or in- clination to write a history, and at my present age it is out of the question. It is true I have often been spoken to, and even solicited by a great many of my learned acquaintance, to un- dertake that of the American Revolution, beginning at the year 1760 or before ; among them Dr. Rush, your former correspond- ent, was not the least anxious.

Though I shall never write a history, I will give you a histori- cal fact respecting the declaration of independence, which may amuse, if not surprise.

On the 1st July, 1776, the question was taken in the com- mittee of the whole of Congress, when Pennsylvania, represented by seven members then present, voted against it — four to three ; among the majority were Robert Morris and John Dickinson. Delaware (having only two present, namely, myself and Mr. Read) was divided ; all the other States voted in favor of it.

*H CORRESPONDENCE.

The report was delayed until the 4th, and in the mean time I sent an express for Csesar Rodney, to Dover, in the county of Kent, in Delaware, at my private expense, whom I met at the State-house door on the 4th of July in his boots ; he resided eighty miles from the city, and just arrived as Congress met. The question was taken ; Delaware voted in favor of independ- ence; Pennsylvania (there being only live members present, Messrs. Dickinson and Morris absent) voted also for it; Messrs. Willing and Humphreys were against it. Thus the thirteen States were unanimous in favor of independence.1 Notwith- standing this, in the printed public journal of Congress for 1776, vol. ii., it appears that the declaration of independence was declared on the 4th of July, 1776, by the gentlemen whose names are there inserted ; whereas no person signed it on that day, and among the names there inserted, one gentleman, namely George Read, was not in favor of it ; and seven were not in Congress on that day, namely Messrs. Morris, Rush, Clymer, Smith, Taylor, and Ross, all of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Thornton, of New Hampshire ; nor were the six gentlemen last named, members of Congress on the 4th of July. The five for Pennsylvania were appointed delegates by the conven- tion of that State on the 20th July, and Mr. Thornton took his seat in Congress for the first time on the 4th November follow- ing; when the names of Henry Wisner, of New York, and Thomas M'Kean, of Delaware, are not printed as subscribers, though both were present in Congress on the 4th of July and voted for independence.

Here false colors are certainly hung out ; there is culpability somewhere. What I have heard as an explanation is as fol- lows. When the declaration was voted, it was ordered to be engrossed on parchment and then signed, and that a few days afterwards a resolution was entered on the secret journal, that no person should have a seat in Congress during that year until he should have signed the declaration of independence. After the 4th of July I was not in Congress for several months, hav-

1 This account is not quite accurate. The writer has confounded the ques- tion on the motion to declare^ and that on Jlie form of the declaration. The first was taken on the 2d of July. The second was adopted on "the 4th. See Mr. Jefferson's clear statement rectifying this error, in his letter to S. A. Wells, in RandoljuYs edition, vol. i. p. 98.

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ing marched with a regiment of associators, as colonel, to sup- port General Washington, until the flying camp of ten thousand men was completed. When the associators were discharged, I returned to Philadelphia, took my seat in Congress, and signed my name to the declaration on parchment. This transaction should be truly stated, and the then secret journal should be made public. In the manuscript journal, Mr. Pickering, then Secretary of State, and myself, saw a printed half sheet of paper, with the names of the members afterwards in the printed jour- nals stitched in. We examined the parchment, where my name is signed in my own handwriting.*

A glimmering of peace appears in the horizon ; may it be real- ized ; but every preparation should be made for a continuance of the war. When the British arms have been successful, I have never found their rulers or ministers otherwise than haughty, rude, imperious, nay, insolent. They and their allies have this year been successful both in the north and south of Europe.

My sight fades very fast, though my writing may not discover it. God bless you. Your friend,

Tho's McKean.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 14 March,' 1814.

I was sitting, nibbing my pen and brushing my faculties, to write a polite letter of thanks to Mr. Counsellor Barton, for his valuable Memoir of Dr. Rittenhouse, though I could not ac- count for his sending it to me, when I received your favor of January 24th. I now most cordially indorse my thanks over to you. The book is in the modern American style, an able imitation of Marshall's Washington, though far more entertain- ing and instructive, a Washington mausoleum, an Egyptian pyramid. I shall never read it, any more than Taylor's Aristo- cracy. Mrs. Adams reads it with great delight, and reads to me what she finds interesting, and that is, indeed, the whole book. I have not time to hear it all.

1 This letter was commenced in February, and bears the date of that month in the very imperfect copy of it which remains. But from Mr. Jefferson's acknowledgment of the receipt, the actual date has been obtained.

8*

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Rittenhouse was a virtuous and amiable man ; an exquisite mechanician, master of the astronomy known in his time, an expert mathematician, a patient calculator of numbers. But we have had a Winthrop, an Andrew Oliver, a Willard, a Webber, his equals, and we have a Bowditch, his superior, in all these particulars, except the mechanism. But you know Philadelphia is the heart, the sensorium, the pineal gland of the United States. In politics, Rittenhouse was good, simple, ignorant, well-meaning, Franklinian, democrat, totally ignorant of the world, as an anchorite, an honest dupe of the French revolution, a mere instrument of Jonathan Sergeant, Dr. Hut- chinson, Genet, and Mifflin. I give him all the credit of his planetarium. The improvement of the orrery to the planeta- rium was an easy, natural thought, and nothing was wanting but calculations of orbits, distances, and periods of revolutions, all of which were made to his hands long before he existed. Patience, perseverance, and sleight of hand, is his undoubted merit and praise.

I had heard Taylor in Senate, till his style was so familiar to me, that I had not read three pages before I suspected the author. I wrote a letter to him, and he candidly acknowledged that the six hundred and fifty pages were sent me with his con- sent. I wait with impatience for the publication and annuncia- tion of the work. Arator ought not to have been adulterated with politics ; but his precept, " Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost," is of inestimable value in agriculture and hor- ticulture. Every weed, cob, husk, stalk, ought to be saved for manure.

Your researches in the laws of England, establishing Christ- ianity as the law of the land, and part of the common law, are curious and very important. Questions without number will arise in this country. Religious controversies and ecclesiastical contests are as common, and will be as sharp as any in civil politics, foreign or domestic. In what sense and to what extent the Bible is law, may give rise to as many doubts and quarrels as any civil, political, military, or maritime laws, and will inter- mix with them all to irritate faction of every sort. I dare not look beyond my nose into futurity. Our money, our commerce, our religion, our national and state constitutions, even our arts and sciences, are so many seed-plots of division, faction, sedi-

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tion, and rebellion. Every thing is transmuted into an instru- ment of electioneering. Election is the Grand Brama, the immortal Lama, I had almost said the Juggernaut ; for wives are almost ready to burn upon the pile, and children to be thrown under the wheel.

You will perceive, by these figures, that I have been looking into Oriental history and Hindoo religion. I have read voyages and travels, and every thing I could collect. Not the least is JPriestley's " Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with those _of the Hindoos and other Ancient Nations," a work of great labor, and not less haste. I thank him for the labor, and for- give, though I lament, the hurry. You would be fatigued to read, and I, just recruiting^ a little from a longer confinement and indisposition than I have had for thirty years, have not strength to write many observations. But I have been dis- appointed in the principal points of my curiosity. I am disappointed, —

1. By rinding that no just comparison can be made, because the original Shasta and the original Vedas are not obtained, or, if obtained, not yet.

2. In not finding such morsels of the sacred books as have been translated and published, which are more honorable to the original Hindoo religion than any thing he has quoted.

3. In the history of the rebellion of innumerable hosts of angels in heaven against the Supreme Being, who, after some thousands of years of war, conquered them, and hurled them down to the region of total darkness, where they suffered a part of the punishment of their crime, and then were mercifully released from prison, permitted to ascend to earth, and migrate into all sorts of animals, reptiles, birds, beasts, and men, accord- ing to their rank and character, and even into vegetables and minerals, there to serve on probation. If they passed without reproach their several gradations, they were permitted to be- come cows and men. If, as men, they behaved well, that is, to the satisfaction of the priests, they were restored to their original rank and bliss in heaven.

4. In not finding the Trinity of Pythagoras and Plato ; their contempt of matter, flesh, and blood ; their almost adoration of fire and water ; their metempsychosis, and even the prohibition of beans, so evidently derived from India.

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5. In not finding the prophecy of Enoch deduced from India, in which the fallen angels make such a figure.

But you are weary. Priestley has proved the superiority of the Hebrews to the Hindoos, as they appear in the Gentoo laws and institutions of Menu, but the comparison remains to be made with the Shasta.

In his remarks on M. Dupuis, p. 342, Priestley says : " the history of the fallen angels is another circumstance on which M. Dupuis lays much stress." According to the Christians, he says, vol. i. p. 336, " there was, from the beginning, a division among the angels; some remaining faithful to the light, and others taking the part of darkness," &c. " But this supposed history is not found in the Scriptures. It has only been inferred from a wrong interpretation of one passage in the second epistle of Peter, and a corresponding one in that of Jude, as has been shown by judicious writers. That there is such a person as the devil, is no part of my faith, nor that of many other Christians ; nor am I sure that it was the belief of any of the Christian writers. Neither do I believe the doctrine of demoniacal pos- sessions, whether it was believed by the sacred writers or not ; and, yet my belief in these articles does not affect my faith in the great facts of which the Evangelists were eye and ear witnesses. They might not be competent judges in the one case, though perfectly so with respect to the other."

I will ask Priestley, when I see him, do you believe those passages in Peter and Jude to be interpolations ? If so, by whom made, and when, and where, and for what end ? Was it to support or found the doctrine of the fall of man, original sin, the universal corruption, depravation, and guilt of human nature and mankind, and the subsequent incarnation of God to make atonement and redemption ? Or, do you think that Peter and Jude believed the book of Enoch to have been written by the seventh from Adam, and one of the sacred canonical books of the Hebrew prophets ? Peter, 2d epistle, chapter 2, verse 4, says : " for if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." Jude, verse 6th, says : " and the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." Verse 14th, "And Enoch also,

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the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all." &c. Priestley says, " a wrong interpreta- tion has been given to the texts." I wish he had favored us with his right interpretation of them.

In another place, p. 326, Priestley says, " there is no circum- stance of which M. Dupuis avails himself so much, or repeats so often, both with respect to the Jewish and Christian religions, as the history of the fall of man, in the beginning of the book of Genesis. I believe with him, and have maintained in my writ- ings, that this history is either an allegory, or founded on uncer- tain tradition ; that it is a hypothesis to account for the origin of evil, adopted by Moses, which, by no means, accounts for the facts."

March 3. So far was written almost a month ago ; but sickness has prevented progress. I had much to say about this work. I shall never be a disciple of Priestley ._ He is as ab- surd, inconsistent, credulous, and incomprehensible as Athana- sius. Read his letter to the Jews in this volume. Could a rational creature write it ? Aye ! such rational creatures as Rochefoucauld and Condorcet and John Taylor, in politics, and Towerses, Jurieus, and French prophets, in theology.

Priestley's account of the philosophy and religion of India appears to me to be much such a work as a man of busy re- search would produce, who should undertake to describe Christ- ianity from the sixth to the twelfth century, when a deluge of wonders overflowed the world; when miracles were performed and proclaimed from every convent and monastery, hospital, church-yard, mountain, valley, cave, and cupola.

There is a work which I wish I possessed. _It has never crossed the Atlantic. It is entitled Acta Sanctorum, in forty- seven volumes in folio.1 It contains the lives of the saints. It was compiled in the beginning of the sixteenth century by_B_ol- landus^ Henschenius, and Papebroch. What would I give to possess, in one immense map, one stupendous draught, all the legends, true, doubtful, and false ? These Bollandists dared to discuss some of the facts, and to hint that some of them were

1 Fifty-four volumes ; and it is still in course of publication. Two volumes have lately been issued under the auspices of the Belgian government.

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doubtful. E. g. Papebroch doubted the antiquity of the Car- melites from Elias ; and whether the face of Jesus Christ was painted on the handkerchief of St. Veronique ; and whether the prepuce of the Savior of the world, which was shown in the church at Antwerp, could be proved to be genuine^ For these bold skepticisms, he was libelled in pamphlets, and denounced to the Pope and the inquisition in Spain. The inquisition con- demned him ; but the Pope, not daring to condemn or acquit him, prohibited all writings pro and con. But, as the physi- cians cure one disease by exciting another, as a fever by a sali- vation, this bull was produced by a new claim. The brothers of the Order of Charity asserted a descent from Abraham nine hundred years anterior to the Carmelites.

A philosopher, who should write a description of Christian- ism from the Bollandistic saints of the sixth or tenth century, would probably produce a work tolerably parallel to Priestley's upon the Hindoos.

To John Taylor

TO JOHN TAYLOR.

Quincy, 9 April, 1814.

I have received from Mr. John M. Carter your " Inquiry " in 656 pages, neatly bound. If I had any rational expectation, in my seventy-ninth year, of life, health, unclouded eyes, and un- paralyzed fingers for twenty years to come, I would cheerfully engage with you in an analytical investigation of all those sub- jects which, you say, have amused some of your leisure hours for twenty years past.

The field is vast. It comprehends the first and the last phi- losophy ; the end of man in all his existence. In this letter, I shall confine myself to one topic. In your 519th page, and several that follow, you have taken notice of something of my composition. But i cannot understand it. I suspect, by some accident or other, you have confounded together a little pam- phlet with a letter that was never printed. Let me give you an unvarnished explanation, according to my best recollection. In January, 1776, six months before the declaration of independ- ence, Mr. Wythe, of Virginia, passed an evening with me, at

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my chambers. In the course of conversation upon the neces- sity of independence, Mr. Wythe, observing that the greatest obstacle, in the way of a declaration of it, was the difficulty of agreeing upon a government for our future regulation, I replied that each colony should form a government for itself, as a free and independent State. " Well," said Mr. Wythe, " what plan would you institute or advise for any one of the States ? " My answer was, " It is a thing I have not thought much of, but I will give you the first ideas that occur to me ; " and I went on to explain to him off-hand and in short-hand my first thoughts. Mr. Wythe appeared to think more of them than I did, and requested me to put down in writing what I had then said. I agreed, and, accordingly, that night and the next morning wrote it, and sent it in a letter to him. This letter he sent to R. H. Lee, who came and asked my leave to print it. I said it was not fit to be printed, nor worth printing; but, if he thought otherwise, he might, provided he would suppress my name. He went accordingly to Dunlap, and had it printed under the title of " Thoughts on Government, in a Letter from a Gentle- man to his Friend." Thus much for the printed pamphlet. Now for the imprinted letter. Some time in the ensuing spring, the delegates from North Carolina called upon me with a vote of the legislature of their State, instructing them to apply to me for advice concerning a form of government to be instituted in that State. I blushed, to be sure, to find that my name had reached so far as North Carolina; and still more at such an unexpected honor from so respectable an assembly.1

Overwhelmed, however, as I was at that period, night and day, with business in Congress and on committees, I found moments to write a letter, perhaps as long as that to Mr. Wythe, and containing nearly the same outlines. In what points the two letters agree or differ, I know not, for I kept no copy, and have never seen or heard of it since, till your volume revived

1 There can be no doubt that there were three separate letters of Mr. Adams in circulation, each of them embodying the same general idea, with more or less amplification. One of them is the printed pamphlet alluded to in the text; the second is that published by Mr. Taylor, which gave rise to this letter, and which that gentleman had obtained from Mr. John Penn, of North Carolina ; and stdl a third has been found in North Carolina, a copy of which was trans- mitted to Mr. J. Q. Adams, a few years before his decease, by Mr. Charles Philips, Secretary of the Historical Society of the University of North Carolina.

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the recollection of it. I suspect you have never seen either of the letters, but have taken extracts from them both, which may have been printed in newspapers, and blended them together ; for certainly there was not a word about North Carolina in the printed letter to Mr. Wythe.

I may possibly hear hereafter of another letter I wrote to Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, of New Jersey, in answer to an earnest solicitation from him to give him my sentiments of a proper form of government for that State. I took no copy, and have not heard of it for thirty-five or thirty-six years. Let it come to light, however. I have no wish to conceal any thing in any of these letters, though there may be many things I should not now approve. The experience of thirty-eight years alters many views. Opinionum commenta delet dies.

As you seem to have found some amusement in some of my scribbles, I beg your acceptance of another morsel, the Dis- courses on Davila, which you may call the fourth volume of the Defence of the Constitutions of the United States. I am, Sir, very respectfully, and with very friendly dispositions, &c.

TO RICHARD RUSH.

Quincy, 30 May, 1814.

Your favor of the 20th has given me great pleasure, because it informs me that you are happy. Your visit to Philadelphia must have been delightful, and the company of your excellent surviving parent on your return, and her domestication with you and the fair enchantress, must be more so. This family intercourse cannot be less pleasing to your mother. It will preserve her health and prolong her life, much more important to you, your brothers and sisters, than I dare say she esteems it for herself.

A stock of new law books, next to the renovation of social, domestic, and local feelings, was an object worthy of you. New law books, I hope, improve upon the old, but ought not to supersede them all. I fear you would laugh, if I should say that the Corpus Juris, Vinnius, and Cujacius, ought not to be

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■ wholly superseded by Hale and Coke, Holt and Mansfield. No,

nor by Parsons, Ingersoll, or Marshall.

Why are we " astonished at the events in Europe " ? They are every day occurrences in history. That heroes come to bad ends, has been the experience of all ages. Alexander, Csesar, Charles XIL, and Oliver Cromwell, and millions of others, as wild and delirious as they, have all come to a like catastrophe. Read the histories of our missionary societies. Is there not the same enthusiasm, the same heroism ? I scarcely dare to say what I know, that many a kept mistress has dared for her lover as great hazards and sufferings, as any of these sublime heroes, temporal or spiritual. While we know that enthusiasm pro- duces the most sublime and beautiful actions and events in human life, at times, we should always be jealous of it, watch its movements, and be prepared to escape, avoid, or resist its deleterious effects.

Alas ! the Massachusetts triumvirate is broken ! Judge Paine is no more ! An old German doctor, Turner, when I was a little boy, asked me the age of my father. When I told him as well as I knew, "Alas ! " said the old gentleman, " your father's age is so near my own, that, when one dies of old age, the other may quake for fear." If death were terrible to Gerry or to me, the death of Paine might make us " quake for fear."

" What would New England say ? " 1 She will say as she ought to say, and as she always has said on like occasions, " I have been cheated, deceived, deluded. I thought Britain our friend, but find I have been mistaken." The " intimations " you have had, have been made to me. The tories have " inti- mated " to me in various secret, confidential, round-about ways, these mighty bugbears. " Mr. Adams saved the fisheries once I hope his son will save them a second time. We have no con- fidence in Gallatin, Clay, Russell, or even Bayard ; we believe they would all sacrifice the fisheries for Canada or even for peace." My invariable answer has been, " You deceive your- selves with imaginary fears. You know that the men Bayard, Russell, Clay, and even Gallatin would cede the fee simple of the United States, as soon as they would the fisheries."

1 Mr. Rush had asked this question : —

" What, for example, would New England say to Great Britain talking a limit, excluding us from trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope, from the West Indies, and from the Newfoundland fisheries ? "

VOL. X. 9 G

98 CORRESPONDENCE.

Did you ever know a man, or nation, a coaTition or alliance that could bear success, victory, and prosperity ? Victory has destroyed Napoleon. Victory is in danger of destroying the allies. If not, and the Bourbons are restored, what is their prospect ? The Stuarts were restored ; for how long a time ? and how many plots ? how many Sidneys, Russells, Staffords, were beheaded ? I know by experience that the swell is as dangerous as the storm. We must learn to know ourselves, to esteem ourselves, to respect ourselves, to confide in ourselves under heaven alone. We must hold Europe at arm's length, do them justice, treat them with civility, and set their envy, jealousy, malice, retaliation, and revenge at defiance.

The lakes, the lakes, the lakes ! shocking, indeed, that we have not the command of the lakes! But I could convince you that it is still more shocking that we have not the com- mand of the ocean, or at least an independent power upon the ocean. But this would lead too far at present. If you have a curiosity upon this subject, I will give you a few hints in a future letter.

TO MRS. MERCY WARREN.

Quincy,15 July, 1814.

What brain could ever have conceived or suspected Samuel Barrett, Esquire, to have been the author of the " Group " ? l The bishop had neither the natural genius nor the acquired talents, the knowledge of characters, nor the political principles, sentiments, or feelings that could have dictated that pungent drama. His worthy brother, the major, might have been as rationally suspected.

I could take my Bible oath to two propositions, — 1st, that

1 " My next question, Sir, you may deem impertinent. Do you remember who was the author of a little pamphlet entitled The Group f To your hand it was committed by the writer. You brought it forward to the public eye. I will therefore give you my reason for naming it now. A friend of mine, who lately visited the Athenaeum, saw it among a bundle of pamphlets, with a high encomium of the author, who, he asserted, was Mr. Samuel Barrett. You can, if you please, give a written testimony contradictory of the false assertion." Extract from Mrs. Warren's letter.

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Bishop Barrett, in my opinion, was one of the last literary cha- racters in the world who ought to have been suspected to have written the " Group." 2d. That there was but one person in the world, male or female, who could at that time, in my opinion, have written it ; and that person was Madam Mercy Warren, the historical, philosophical, poetical, and satirical consort of the then Colonel, since General, James Warren of Plymouth, sister of the great, but forgotten, James Otis.

This Group has mortified and confounded me. Since the receipt of your letter, I went to Boston and demanded of my nephew and quondam secretary,1 the volume. He says he obtained it, with other pamphlets, from Governor Adams's collec- tion, with the strange certificate in manuscript, in the handwrit- ing, as he thinks, of Jo Dennie, the editor of the Port Folio.2 Jo Dennie in Sam. Adams's library is as great an oddity as Sam. Barrett, author of the Group. But this is not the worst. The Group has convinced me of the decay of my memory more than any thing that has yet occurred. Hazelrod, Judge Meagre, Hateall, Beau Trumps, Francois, Dupe, and Spendall, I can comprehend ; but Mushroom, Dick, Sapling, Crowbar, Fribble, Batteau, and Collaterals have escaped my recollection. The Group was printed in 1775. The " cawing cormorants " in the 16th page, and Novanglus and Massachusettensis in the 20th page, prove that it was written during the flickering between those two scribblers ; but as no allusion is found in it to the skirmishes of Concord or Lexington, it must have been written

1 W. S. Shaw, the librarian of the Boston Athenaeum.

2 This certificate yet remains attached to the volume at the Athenaeum, but another has been added, correcting the mistake. The Group has little merit as a literary work, but it will always be a curiosity on other accounts. Mr. Adams afterwards wrote with his own hand in the same copy, the names of the persons designed to be represented. And another copy in the same library has the names written in the hand of Norton Quincy, to whom it belonged. They are as follows :

Hazelrod, Peter Oliver, Humbug, John Erving,

Meagre, Foster Hutchinson, Spendall, Wm. Pepperell,

Hateall, Timothy Ruggles, Mushroom, Morrow,

Beau Trumps, Leonard, Crowbar, Edson,

Dick, Lechmere, Dupe, Flucker,

Sapling, N. R. Thomas, Fribble, Harrison Gray,

Francois, Boutineau, Collateralis, Brown, Batteau, Loring,

Harrison Gray was unquestionably intended, although the association of ideas prompted the accidental addition in the book, of the name of his grand- son, then a child.

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and printed before the 19th of April, 1775. Now, I cannot recollect to have been in Plymouth since the spring of 1774. Help ! O help my memory.

France is humbled and Napoleon is banished ; but the tyrant, the tyrant of tyrants is not fallen. John Bull still paws, and bellows terrible menaces and defiances.

Sincerely your friend.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 16 July, 1814

I received this morning your favor of the 5th, and as I can never let a sheet of yours rest, I sit down immediately to ac- knowledge it.

Whenever Mr. Rives, of whom I have heard nothing, shall arrive, he shall receive all the cordial civilities in my power.

I am sometimes afraid that my machine will not surcease motion soon enough ; for I dread nothing so much as " dying at top," and expiring like Dean Swift, a " driveller and a show," or like Sam. Adams, a grief and distress to his family, a weep- ing, helpless object of compassion for years.

I am bold to say^that neither you nor I will live to see the course which the " wonders of the times " will take. Many years, and perhaps centuries must pass before the current will acquire a settled direction. If the Christian religion, as I under- stand it, or as you understand it, should maintain its ground/ as I believe it will, yet Platonic, Pythagoric, Hindoo, and cabalist- ical Christianity, which is Catholic Christianity, and which has prevailed for fifteen hundred years, has received a mortal wounds of which the monster must finally die. Yet so strong is his con- stitutioiiy that he may endure for centuries before he expires. Government has never been much studied by mankind ; but their attention has been drawn to it in the latter part of the last century and the beginning of this, more than at any former period, and the vast variety of experiments which have been made of constitutions in America, in France, in Holland, in Geneva, in Switzerland, and even in Spain and South America, can never be forgotten. They will be studied, and their imme- diate and remote effects and final catastrophes noted. The

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101

result in time will be improvements 1 and I have no doubt that the horrors we have experienced for the last forty years will ultimately terminate in the advancement of civil and religious liberty, and amelioration^ in the condition of mankind. For I am a believer in the probable unprovability and improvement, the amenorability and amelioration in human affairs ; though I never could understand the doctrine of the perfectibility of the human mind. This has always appeared to me like the phi- losophy or theology of the Gentoos, -namely^ that a Brahmin, by certain studies for a certain time pursued, and by certain ceremonies a certain number of times repeated, becomes om- niscient and almighty.

Our hopes, however, of sudden tranquillity ought not to be too sanguine. Fanaticism and superstition will still be selfish, subtle, intriguing, andj at times,* furious. Despotism will still struggle for domination ; monarchy will still study to rival nobil- ity in popularity ; aristocracy will continue to envy all above it, and despise and oppress all below it ; democracy will envy all, contend with all, endeavor to pull down all, and when by chance it happens to get the upper hand for a short time, it will be revengeful, bloody^ and cruel. These and other elements of fanaticism and anarchy will yet for a long time continue a fer- mentation, which will excite alarms and require vigilance.

Napoleon is a military fanatic like Achilles, Alexander, Caesar, Mahomet, Zengis, Kouli, Charles XII. The maxim and prin- ciple of all of them was the same.

" Jura negat sibi lata, nihil non arrogat armis."

But is it strict to call him a usurper ? Was not his elevation to the empire of France as legitimate and authentic a national act as that of William 11^ or the house of Hanover to the throne of the three kingdoms ? or as the election of Washington to the command of our army or to the chair of ^tate,?

Human nature, in no form of it, could bear prosperity. That peculiar tribe of men called conquerors, more remarkably than any other, have been swelled with vanity by a series of victories. Napoleon won so many mighty battles in such quick succession^ and for so long a time^that it was no wonder his brain became completely intoxicated, and his enterprises rash, extravagant, and mad.

k/2

It*

<.

102 CORRESPONDENCE.

Though France is humbled, Britain is notf, jthough Bona is banished, a greater tyrant and wider usurper still domineers. John Bull is quite as unfeeling, as unprincipled, more powerful, has shed more blood than Bona. Johiy by his money, his in- trigues and arms, by exciting coalition after coalition against him, made him what he was, and at last what he is. How shall the tyrant of tyrants be brought low ? AyeJ there's the rub ! J still think Bona great, at least as any of his conquerors. " The wonders of his rise and fall " may be seen in the life of King Theodore, or Pascal Paoli, or Rienzi, or Dionysius, or Massa- niello, or Jack Cade, or "Wat Tyler. The only difference is^that between miniature,., and full length pictures. The schoolmaster at Corinth was a greater man than the tyrant of Syracuse, upon the principle^ that " he who conquers himself is greater than he who takes a city." Though the ferocious roar of the wounded lion may terrify the hunter with the possibility of another dan- gerous leap, Bona was shot dead at once by France. He could no longer roar or struggle, growl or paw, he could only gasp 44s grin of death ; I wish that France may not still regret him. But these are speculations in the clouds. I agree with you that the milk of human kindness in the Bourbons is safer for mankind than the fierce ambition of Napoleon.

The autocrator appears in an imposing light. Fifty years agq^English writers held up terrible consequences from " thaw- ing out the monstrous northern snake." If Cossacs and Tartars, and Goths and Vandals, and Huns and Ripuarians should get a taste of European sweets, what may happen ? Could Wel- lingtons or Bonapartes resist them ? The greatest trait of sagacity that Alexander has yet exhibited to the world^ is his courtship to the United States. But whether this is a mature, well digested policy^ or only a transient gleam of thought, still remains to be explained and proved by time.

The refractory sister will not give up the fisheries. Not a man here dares to hint at so base a thought.

I am very glad you have seriously read Plato, and still more rejoiced to find that your reflections upon him so perfectly har- monize with mine. Some thirty years ago^ I took upon me the severe task of going through all his works. With the help of two Latin translations and one English and one French trans- lation, and comparing some of the most remarkable passages

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with the Greek, I labored through the tedious toil. My disap- pointment was very great, my astonishment was greater, and my disgust was shocking. Two things only did I learn from him. First, that Franklin's ideas of exempting husbandmen and mariners, &e>j from the depredations of war, were borrowed from him | and-seeesad, that sneezing is a cure for the hiccough^ , Accordingly, I have cured myself and all my friends of that provoking disorder, for thirty years, with a pinch of snuff.

Some parts of some of his dialogues are entertaining, like the writings of Rousseau ; but his Laws and his Republic, from which I expected most, disappointed me most. I could scarcely exclude the suspicion* that he intended the latter as a bitter sa- tire upon all republican government?, as Xenophon undoubtedly designed by his essay on democracy to ridicule that species of republic. In a late letter to the learned and ingenious Mr. Taylor^ of Hazelwood>I suggested to him the project of writing a novel, in which the hero should be sent on his travels through Plato's republic, and all his adventures, with his observations on the principles and opinions, the arts and sciences, the manners, customsuand habits of the citizens, should be recorded. No- thing can be conceived more destructive of human happiness, more infallibly contrived to transform men and women into brutes, yahoos, or demons^ than a community of wives and property. Yet, in what are the writings of Rousseau and Hel- vetius wiser than those of Plato? " The man who first fenced a tobacco yard, and saidy ' this is mine^' ought instantly to have been put to death," says Rousseau. " The man who first pro- nounced the barbarous word _D£e%<ought to have been imme- diately destroyed," says Diderot. In short, philosophers, ancient and modern, appear to me as mad as Hindoos, Mahometans^ and Christians. No doubt they would all think me mad, and for any thing I know, this globe may be the Bedlam, le Bketre of the jiniverse.

After all, as long as property exists, it will accumulate in in- dividuals and families. As long as marriage exists, knowledge, property,, and influence will accumulate in families. Your and our equal partition of intestate estates, instead of preventing, will in time augment the evil, if it is one. The French revolu- tionists saw this, and were so far consistent. When they burned pedigrees and genealogical trees, they annihilated, as far as they

f

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could, marriages, knowing that marriage, among a thousand other things, was an infallible source of aristocracy. 1 repeat it, so sure as the idea and the existence of property is admitted and established in society, accumulations of it will be made, -t-f the snowball will grow as it roils.

Cicero was educated in the groves of Academus, where the name and memory of Plato were idolized to such a degree^ that if he had wholly renounced the prejudices of his education, his reputation would have been lessened, if not injured and ruined. In his two volumes of Discourses on government^ we may presume that he fully examined Plato's Laws and Republic, as well as Aristotle's writings on government. But these have been carefully destroyed, not improbably with the general con- sent of philosophers, politicians^, and priests. The loss is as much to be regretted as that of any production of/antiquity.

Nothing seizes the attention of the staring animal so surely as paradox, riddle, mystery, invention, discovery, wonder, teme- rity.

Plafayand his disciples, from the fourth century Christians to Rousseau and Tom Paine, have been fully sensible of this weakness in mankind, and have too successfully grounded upon it their pretensions to fame. I might, indeed, have men- tioned Bolingbroke, Hume, Gibbon, Voltaire, Turgot, Helvetius, Diderot, Condorcet, Buffon, De la Lande^and fifty others, all a little cracked!

" Be to their faults a little blind, VTo their virtues_ever kind."

Education ! oh, education ! Jfjhe greatest grief of my heart, and the greatest affliction of my life ! To my mortification I must confess that I have never closely thought or deliberately reflected upon the subject, which never occurs to me now with- out producing a deep sigh, a heavy groan^and sometimes tears. My cruel destiny separated me from my children almost con- tinually from their birth to their manhood. I was compelled to leave them to the ordinary routine of reading, writing^and Latin school, academy, and college. John alone was much with me, and he, but occasionally.

If I venture to give you my thoughts at all, they must be very crude. I have turned over Locke, Milton, Condillac, Rous-

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seau/ and even Miss Edgeworth, as a bird flies through the air. The " Preceptor " I have thought a good book. Grammar, rhetoric, logic, ethics, mathematics, cannot be neglected. Clas- sics, in spite of our friend Rush, I must think indispensable. Natural /history, mechanics, and experimental philosophy, che-

TO JAMES MADISON.

Quincy, 28 November, 1814.

When my son departed for Russia, I enjoined it upon him to write nothing to me, which he was not willing should be pub-

mistry, &lqiix at least their rudiments, cannot be forgotten. Geography, astronomy, and even history and chronology, though I am myself afflicted with a kind of pyrrhonism in the two latter, I presume cannot be omitted. Theology I would leave to Ray, Durham, Nieuwentyt, and Paley, rather than to Luther, Zinzendorf, Swedenborg, Wesley, or Whitefield, or Thomas Aquinas, or Wollebius. Metaphysics I would leave in the clouds with the materialists and spiritualists, with Leib- nitz, Berkeley, Priestley^ and Edwards, and, I might add, Hume and Reed. Or, if permitted to be read, it should be with romances and novels. . What shall I say of music, drawing, fencing, dancings and gymnastic exercises ? What of languages, oriental or occidental ? Of French, Italian, Ger- man, or Russian, of Sanscrit or of Chinese ? The task you have prescribed to me of grouping these sciences or arts^, under professors, within the views of an enlightened economy, is far beyond my forces. Loose^indeed^and undigested must be all the hints I can note.

Might grammar, logics and rhetoric be under one professor ? Might mathematics, mechanics, natural philosophy be under another? Geography and astronomy under a third? Laws and government, history and chronology, under a fourth ? Clas- sics might require a fifth. Condillac's course of study has excellent parts ; among many systems of mathematics, English, French and American, there is none preferable to Bezout's course ; La Harpe's Course of Literature is very valuable. y/But I am ashamed to add any thing more to the broken inivuenda. -£^-^6ecept assurances of continued friendship.

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lished in French and English newspapers. He has very scrupu- lously observed the rule. I have been equally reserved in my letters to him ; but the principle on both sides has been to me a cruel privation, for his correspondence when absent, and his conversation when present, have been a principal enjoyment of my life. In the inclosed letter he has ventured to deviate, and has assigned his reason for it. I think, however, that I ought to communicate it to you.

I have no papers, that I recollect, that can be of any service to him. I published in the Boston Patriot all I recollect of the negotiations for peace in 1782 and 1783. But I have no copy of that publication in manuscript or print, and I had hoped never to see or hear of it again.

All I can say is, that I would continue this war forever, rather than surrender one acre of our territory, one iota of the fisheries, as established by the third article of the treaty of 1783, or one sailor impressed from any merchant ship. I will not, however, say this to my son, though I shall be very much obliged to you, if you will give him orders to the same effect.

It is the decree of Providence, as I believe, that this nation must be purified in the furnace of affliction. You will be so good as to return my letter, and believe me, &c.

TO RUFUS KING.

Quincy, 2 December, 1814.

I am very much obliged to you for the information, melan- choly as it is to me, of the death of Mr. Gerry. A friendship of forty years, I have found a rarity, though not a singularity.

I am left alone. While Paine, Gerry, and Lovell lived, there were some that I seemed to know ; but now, not one of my contemporaries and colleagues is left. Can there be any deeper damnation in this universe than to be condemned to a long life, in danger, toil, and anxiety ; to be rewarded only with abuse, insult, and slander ; and to die at seventy, leaving to an amiable wife and nine amiable children nothing for an inherit- ance but the contempt, hatred, and malice of the world ? How much prettier a thing it is to be a disinterested patriot, like

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Washington and Franklin, live and die among the hosannas and adorations of the multitude, and leave half a million to one child or to no child ! Do you wonder at Tacitus and Quincti- lian ? I do ; but not at the profoundness of their philosophy. I am astonished at the shallowness of it. I am amazed at their vanity and presumption in pretending to judge the government of this all. Their only true philosophy should have been sub- mission and resignation.

JAMES MADISON TO JOHN ADAMS.

Washington, 17 December, 1814.

Your favor of the 28th ultimo was duly received, though with more delay than usually attends the mail. I return the inte- resting letter from your son, with my thanks for the opportunity of perusing it.

I have caused the archives of the Department of State to be searched, with an eye to what passed during the negotiations for peace on the subject of the fisheries. The search has not fur- nished a precise answer to the inquiry of Mr. Adams. It ap- pears from one of your letters, referring to the instructions accompanying the commission to make a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, that the original views of Congress did not carry their ultimatum beyond the common right to fish in waters distant three leagues from the British shores. The negotiations, therefore, and not the instructions, if no subsequent change of them took place, have the merit of the terms actually obtained. That other instructions, founded on the resolutions of Congress,' issued at subsequent periods, cannot be doubted, though, as yet, they do not appear. But how far they distinguished between the common use of the sea, and the use, then common, also, of the shores, in carrying on the fisheries, I have no recollection.

The view of the discussions at Ghent presented by the pri- vate letters of all our ministers there, as well as by their official despatches, leaves no doubt of the policy of the British cabinet so forcibly illustrated by the letter of Mi*. Adams to you. Our enemy, knowing that he has peace in his own hands, speculates on the fortune of events. Should these be unfavorable, he can

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at any moment, as he supposes, come to our terms. Should they correspond with his hopes, his demands may be insisted on, or even extended. The point to be decided by our ministers is, whether, during the uncertainty of events, a categorical alter- native of immediate peace, or a rupture of the negotiation, would not be preferable to a longer acquiescence in the gambling pro- crastinations of the other party. It may be presumed that they will, before this, have pushed the negotiations to this point.

It is very agreeable to find that the superior ability, which distinguishes the notes of our envoys, extorts commendation from the most obdurate of their political enemies. And we have the further satisfaction to learn, that the cause they are pleading is beginning to overcome the prejudice, which misre- presentations had spread over the continent of Europe against it. The British government is neither inattentive to this ap- proaching revolution in the public opinion there, nor blind to its tendency. If it does not find in it a motive to immediate peace, it will infer the necessity of shortening the war by bring- ing upon us, the ensuing campaign, what it will consider as a force not to be resisted by us.

It were to be wished that this consideration had more effect in quickening the preparatory measures of Congress. I am unwilling to say how much distress in every branch of our affairs is the fruit of their tardiness ; nor would it be necessary to you, who will discern the extent of the evil in the symptoms from which it is to be inferred.

I pray you, Sir, to accept assurances, &c.

James Madison.

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, January, 1815.

Although I have no recollection that I ever met you more than once in society, and that, I presume, was the instance you have recorded, yet I feel as if I was intimately acquainted with you. The want of familiarity between us, I regret, not only because I have known, esteemed, and I may say, loved your family, from an early age, but, especially, because whatever I

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have heard or read of your character in life, has given me a respect for your talents and a high esteem for your character.

Having read Mr. Randolph's letter to you, and your answer to him, I shall not question the propriety of your taking so much notice of him.1 It would give me pleasure to dilate on the various parts of your letter, and mark the many points in which I fully agree with you, as well as the few which are not so clear to me ; but I shall confine myself at present to those things which personally relate to myself and my administration. You say, Sir, that " I built upon the sand." And so, indeed, I did. I had no material for a foundation, but a rope of it. The union of the States was at that time nothing better. In this respect I was in a worse situation than Mr. Madison is at this hour.

You are pleased to say, Sir, that " upon the earlier part of my administration you could dilate con amoreP I believe you, Sir. The addresses, of which Mr. Randolph " defies you to think without a bitter smile," will remain immortal monuments, in proof that one third at least of the people of the United States thought and felt as you did. But, Sir, did you then consider, or have you since considered, that this Mr. Randolph, with two thirds of the people of the United States, then " dilated on that earlier part of my administration," con odio ?

There is not, Sir, in your masterly letter a more correct or important observation than that of " the unhappy ignorance which exists among the members of this great family, but resi- dent in different sections of it, with regard to the objects and qualities of each other. This ignorance, the offspring of narrow prejudice and illiberality, is now presenting brimful the chalice of envy and hatred, where it should offer nothing but the cup of conciliation and confidence. It sprang from the little inter- course and less knowledge which the people of the then British Provinces possessed of each other antecedently to the American revolution, and instead of being dissipated by an event so hon-

1 Mr. John Randolph had addressed a letter, dated Philadelphia, 15th Decem- ber, 1814, through the newspapers, to Mr. James Lloyd, of Massachusetts, depre- cating a resort to extreme measures by the federalists of New England. He was

y answered by Mr. Lloyd in a letter published in the Boston Daily~Ad-yertiser, of January 1815. In both letters there were allusions to Mr. Adams, that called forth the series of letters which now follow each other very closely in this volume.

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orable to them all, has been cherished and perpetuated for political party purposes, and for the promotion of the sinister views and ambitious projects of a few restless and unprincipled individuals, until the present period."

Of this ignorance, when I went to Congress in 1774, I can assure you, Sir, I had a most painful consciousness in my own bosom. There I had the disappointment to find, that almost every gentleman in that assembly was, in this kind of informa- tion, nearly as ignorant as myself; and what was a more cruel mortification than all the rest, the greatest part even of the most intelligent, full of prejudices and jealousies, which I had never before even suspected. Between 1774 and 1797, an in- terval of twenty-three years, this ignorance was in some measure removed from some minds. But some had retired in disgust, some had gone into the army, some had been turned out for timidity, some had deserted to the enemy, and all the old, steadfast patriots, weary of the service, always irksome in Con- gress, had retired to their families and States, to be made go- vernors, judges, marshals, collectors, &c, &c. So that in 1797, there was not an individual in the House of Representatives, in the Senate, or in either of the executive departments of government, who had been in the national controversy from the beginning. Mr. Jefferson himself, the Vice-President, the oldest V in service of them all, was but a young and a new man in com- parison with the earliest conductors of the cause of the country, the real founders and legitimate fathers of the American repub- lic. The most of them had been but a very few years in public business, and a large proportion of these were of a party which had been opposed to the revolution, at least in the beginning of it. K I were called to calculate the divisions among the people of America, as Mr. Burke did those of the people of England, I should say that full one third were averse to the revolution. These, retaining that overweening fondness, in which they had been educated, for the English, could not cor- dially like the French ; indeed, they most heartily detested them. An opposite third conceived a hatred of the English, and gave themselves up to an enthusiastic gratitude to France. The middle third, composed principally of the yeomanry, the sound- est part of the nation, and always averse to war, were rather lukewarm both to England and France ; and sometimes strag-

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glers from them, and sometimes the whole body, united with the first or the last third, according to circumstances.

The depredations of France upon our commerce, and her in- solence to our ambassadors, and even to the government, united, though for a short time, with infinite reluctance, the second third with the first, and produced that burst of applause to the administration, in which you concurred, though it gave much offence to Mr. Randolph. Nor to him alone, I assure you. It appeared to me then, and has appeared ever since, that a great majority of the people of the United States, and even in New England, in their hearts disapproved of those addresses as much as they did of those pompous escorts, public dinners, and child- ish festivals, which tormented me much more than they did them. They thought, that such things led to monarchy and aristocracy as well as to a long and interminable war, a war with France, our sister republic ; and a war with any body, must bring expenses and taxes. Those hosannas, moreover, excited envy and bitter jealousy in many breasts in the first class, whose names I will not mention at present.

National defence is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman. On this head I recollect nothing with which to reproach myself. The subject has always been near my heart. The delightful imaginations of universal and perpetual peace have often amused, but have never been credited by me. From the year 1755 to this day, almost three score years, I have thought a naval force the most natural, safe, efficacious, and economical bulwark for this country. In 1775, I labored day and night to lay the foundation of a navy, and in the four last years of the last century I hesitated at no expense to purchase navy yards, to collect timber to build ships, and spared no pains to select officers. And what was the effect? No part of my adminis- tration was so unpopular, not only in the western, the southern, and middle States, but in all New England, and, strange to tell, even in Marblehead, Salem, Newburyport, and Boston. The little army, the fortifications, the manufactures of arms and ammunition, were all unpopular. They were the reign of ter- ror. They were to introduce monarchy and aristocracy. John Adams and John Jay were sold to Great Britain.

In this critical state of things, when Virginia and Kentucky, too nearly in unison with the other southern and western States,

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were menacing a separation ; when insurrection was flaming in Pennsylvania ; when Baltimore, at the head of one half of Maryland, -was glowing with opposition ; when the two great interests in New York, headed by the Clintons and Living- stons, were united with Colonel Burr, General Gates, and their little band, in open opposition to the administration and the contest with France ; when the administration was threatened, even in the town of Boston, I will not say at present by whom, nor with what ; there was not one man in either house of Con- gress of the then majority, nor in any executive department of government, who was not chargeable with the grossest ignorance of the nation, which you impute to the north and south before and since the revolution, nor one who had any experience of foreign affairs. Never was any majority more grossly deceived in their opinion of their own importance and influence. No ! not Napoleon, when he undertook the conquest of Russia. Had the administration persevered in the war against France, if would have been turned out at the election of 1800 by two votes to one. Had Washington himself, with his transcendent popularity and all the fascination of his name, been a candi- date, he would have undergone the same fate.

The democratic societies, affiliated without number and con-

catenated to an unknown extent, had long been laying their trains to explode Washington, to sacrifice Adams, and bring in Jefferson. The population in the southern and western States had increased, and their votes with it to an astonishing degree. Yet, all these things were unknown to the ruling majority ; or, if partially known, they were not sufficiently considered. Their self-love deluded them to believe what they wished to be true. Washington was aware of this, and prudently retreated. But what had he done before he left the chair? Ellsworth, the firmest pillar of his whole administration in the Senate, he had promoted to the high office of Chief Justice of the United States ; King, he had sent ambassador to London ; Strong was pleased to resign, as well as Cabot ; Hamilton had fled from his unpopularity to the bar in New York ; Ames, to that in Bos- ton ; and Murray was ordered by Washington to Holland. The utmost efforts of Ellsworth, King, and Strong in the Senate had scarcely been sufficient to hold the head of Washington's ad- ministration above water, during the whole of his eight years.

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And how was I elected? By a majority of one, or at most two votes. And was this a majority strong enough to support a war, especially against France ? Mr. Madison can now scarcely support a war against England, a much more atrocious offender, elected as he was, and supported as he is, by two thirds of the votes. And what was my support in the Senate ? Mr. Goodhue, from Massachusetts. Of this man I will say nothing ; let the world speak. Mr. Sedgwick, without dignity, never able to win the complacency, or command the attention of his hearers in either house, but ever ready to meet in private caucuses and secret intrigues to oppose me. Mr. Langdon, of New Hampshire, was constant in opposition, as was one from Rhode Island. Had Ellsworth, Strong, and King been there, the world would never have heard of the disgraceful cabals and unconstitutional proceedings of that body.

You say, Sir, that my missions to France, " the great shade , in my Presidential escutcheon, paralyzed the public feeling and weakened the foundations of the goodly edifice." I agree, Sir, that they did with that third part of the people, who had been averse to the revolution, and who were then, and always, before and since, governed by English prejudices ; and who then, and always, before and since, constantly sighed for a war with France and an alliance with Great Britain ; but with none others. The house would have fallen with a much more vio- lent explosion, if those missions to France had not been insti- tuted.

I wish not to fatigue you with too long a letter at once ; but, ' Sir, I will defend my missions to France, as long as I have an j eye to direct my hand, or a ringer to hold my pen. They were the most disinterested and meritorious actions of my life. I reflect upon them with so much satisfaction, that I desire no other inscription over my gravestone than : " Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility of the peace with France in the year 1800."

In the mean time, I recommend to you, Sir, to inquire into the state of the nation at that time, and into the state of Europe, especially France and Great Britain, and the state of our rela- tions with both, and to consider, at the same time, the important question, whether it is our interest to enlist under the banners of either against the other, or to support at all hazards, and at

10* II

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every sacrifice, our independence of all. I am, Sir, with great esteem and sincere affection, your friend.

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 6 February, 1815.

In my first letter I requested the favor of you to recollect and consider the positive and relative state of this nation, at the time when my " missions to France " were instituted. I now request you to look over the list of senators and representatives in Congress at that time, and then tell me whether you think that the war party had influence enough in this nation to carry on a long war with France. If you should be at a loss con- cerning the influence of any individual of either party in either house, I promise you I will decompose the character of that individual as a chemist analyzes a mushroom. And then you shall judge for yourself whether the war party had power to maintain a war against France or not.

I affirm that they had not ; and nothing but that ignorance of the nation, of which you and I are so sensible, could ever have deluded them into such a confidence in their own power, and such a vain conceit of their own importance, as they then exhibited.

I think, Sir, that in the fair field of controversy, I have a right to request of you a frank and candid declaration of your opinion, whether that party had or had not power to support a war with France for any considerable time, and for what length of time.

But supposing, for argument's sake, what I peremptorily deny, that they could have continued war and maintained their superiority at the then approaching election; supposing, the strongest case that can be imagined, that the President of 1801 had been as absolute as Louis XIV., or Napoleon, able to com- mand by conscriptions the whole population of the United States, for what end or object should the war have been con- tinued ? Cui bono ? What profit ? "What loss ? Losses enough. Ta^es enough. If three or five millions could not be borrowed

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under an interest of eight per cent., you may easily conjecture how soon we should have seen as glorious a bankruptcy as we now feel. The French had no commerce to enrich our pri- vateers, though they had privateers to enrich themselves upon our commerce. They had no territories accessible to our land forces, to tempt us with prospects of conquests. Were our hopes of aggrandizement in South America or in St. Domingo ?

Let me repeat to you once more, Sir, the faction was dizzy. Their brains turned round. They knew not, they saw not the precipice on which they stood.

In my last I observed, that all the old supporters of the Con- stitution and of Washington's administration, had foreseen the evil and hid themselves. I forbore to mention one of more importance than any of the rest, indeed of almost as much weight as all the rest. I mean Mr. Jay. That gentleman had as much influence in the preparatory measures, in digesting the Constitution, and in obtaining its adoption, as any man in the nation. His known familiarity with Madison and Hamilton, his connection with them in writing the Federalist, and his then connection with all the members of the old Congress, had given to those writings more consideration than both the other writers could have given them. But Mr. Jay, wearied with labors and disgusted by injuries, had retired and refused all further concern in the government.

To despatch all in a few words, a civil war was expected. The party committed suicide ; they killed themselves and the national President (not their President) at one shot, and then, as foolishly as maliciously, indicted me for the murder. My own " missions to France," which you call the " great shade in my Presidential escutcheon," I esteem the most splendid diamond in my crown ; or, if any one thinks this expression too monarchical, Twill say the most brilliant feather in my cap. To such an extent do we differ in opinion. I have always known that my missions to France were my error, heresy, and great offence in the judgment, prejudices, predilections, and passions of a small party in every State ; but no gentleman in the fifteen years past has ever publicly assailed those missions till your letter to Mr. Randolph. A few years ago, a scurrilous scribbler in Bal- timore, as I suppose, one of those vagabonds, fugitives from a halter, a pillory or a bailiff, in Great Britain or Ireland, threw out

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his billingsgate upon me and my missions to France. I pub- lished what I thought a vindication of my missions to France. Mr. Pickering accused me, as I remember, of writing a hundred pages in justification of them. Those hundred pages I am afraid you have never read. If you had, I am confident you would not at this day have assailed my administration on that quarter. I have a right to ask you candidly, whether you have read it or not. If you have, I shall wonder at your censure of my " missions " ; if you have not, I shall wonder less.

Mr. Randolph, in his letter to you, says : " The artillery of the press has long- been the instrument of our subjugation" Such a confession I never expected to see from such a penitent. And which were the presses that formed the fortresses ? And who were the engineers that directed this artillery ? Mr. Randolph's own dear friends, Ned Church, Philip Freneau, Peter Markoe, Andreiv Brown, James Duane, Greenleaf Dennison, Cheetham, Tom Paine, Stephens Thompson Mason, Callender, Wood, the classical author, who wrote the history of the administration of John Adams, in two large octavo volumes, and last, not least, Benjamin Austin and his Old South, not to mention his own dear Cooper, Matthew Lyon, Parson Ogden, Parson Austin, or Christopher Macpherson. I believe, Sir, you understand little of this fatras, but you must understand it all, and much more which may be hereafter explained, before you can judge " avec connaissance de cause," of the merit and demerit of my " mis- sions to France."

We differ so widely upon this important point, that I feel an ardent zeal to make a proselyte of you to my faith, and I do not despair of it.

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 11 February, 1815.

We are ignorant, as you intimate, of one another. We are ignorant of our own nation ; we are ignorant of the geography, the laws, customs, and manners and habits of our own country. Massachusetts, as knowing as any State in the Union, is de- plorably ignorant of her sister States, and, what is more to be

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lamented still, she is ignorant of herself. She is composed of two nations, if not three. One party reads the newspapers and pamphlets of its own church, and interdicts all writings of the opposite complexion. The other party condemns all such as heresy, and will not read or suffer to be read, as far as its influence extends, any thing but its own libels. " The avenue to the public ear is shut" in Massachusetts, as Mr. Randolph says it is in Virginia. With us, the press is under a virtual imprimatur, to such a degree, that I do lio^Jid£ev^..J^could get these letters to you printed in a newspaper in Boston. Each party is deliberately and studiously kept in ignorance of the other. Have naked truth and honest candor a fair hearing or impartial reading in this or any other country ? Have not narrow bigotry, the most envious malignity, the most base, vulgar, sordid, fishwoman scurrility, and the most palpable lies, a plenary indulgence, and an unbounded licentiousness? If there is ever to be an amelioration of the condition of man- kind, philosophers, theologians, legislators, politicians and mo- ralists will find that the regulation of the press is the most difficult, dangerous, and important problem they have to resolve. Mankind cannot now be governed without it, nor at present with it. Instead of a consolation, it is an aggravation to know that this kind of ignorance is not peculiar to Massachusetts. It is universal. It runs through every State in the Union. It is at least as prevalent in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, as in Massachusetts. Parties in politics, like sects in religion, will not read, indeed they are not permitted by their leaders to read, any thing against their own creed, nor indeed to converse with any but their own club. The Bible is forbidden to the vulgar by all parties.

Let me give an example. Coming down from the Senate chamber, when I was Vice-President, a hawker, at the bottom of the stairs presented to me an octavo volume. Turning to the title-page, I found it was the "American Remembrancer," written by Callender. I knew nothing of the book or its author, gave the pedlar his price, and pocketed the book. Turning over the leaves at home, I found it full of the grossest lies and calumnies against Washington, against myself, and the whole government. I pointed to passages, but the gentlemen of the ruling party would take no notice of them. " They were below

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contempt." New England is ignorant of this book, but it was circulated in the middle and southern States, and believed as an oracle. No measures were taken to counteract an engine that contributed so essentially to the final prevalence of the

southern over the northern interests. " The Prospect before Us " appeared afterwards, but no measures were taken as an anti- dote to that poison. Not only was ignorance permitted to remain, but error and falsehood to run and be glorified.

If we turn our attention to another subject, we shall see the same ignorance, inadvertency, nonchalance, or apathy in the leaders of the faction, who were for continuing the war. The utmost exertions of all their recruiting officers, with all the in- fluence of Hamilton and Pinckney, reenforced by the magical name of Washington, had not been able to raise one half of their favorite little army. That army was as unpopular, as if it had been a ferocious wild beast let loose upon the nation to devour it. In newspapers, in pamphlets, and in common con- versation they were called cannibals. A thousand anecdotes, true or false, of their licentiousness, were propagated and be- lieved. There was not in the house of representatives a more unbridled tongue or a more licentious vituperatory orator against war, the army, the navy, the administration, and all their mea- sures and men, than Mr. Randolph. He called the army raga- muffins, and was not even called to order. Yet all these things did not remove from the minds of those leaders the ignorance of the faintness of their own influence and the imbecility of their power. No proper measures were taken by means of the press to counteract abuses. Indiscreet and injudicious prose- cutions were instituted by some of the law officers of the United States, which did more harm than good ; yet these were thought sufficient to suppress all opposition. I pray you to remark, Sir, that I speak of the leaders, of the advocates for continuing the war. The soundest statesmen of the ruling party in both houses approved of my missions to France, and were highly pleased with them, as I will show you hereafter.

Another demonstration of the inattention and inconsideration, if not of the ignorance of those leaders, arose from an unfashion- able source of mischief, which I fear labitur et labetur in omne volubilis cevum. I mean that stream of misrepresentations of the men and measures of the administration in circular letters from

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members of Congress to their constituents in the middle and especially in the southern States, which began as early as 1789, when Congress was held in New York, and continued through the eight years of Washington's administration, flowing all the time in peculiarly copious abundance against me, and which, in the electioneering parliamentary campaign of 1796, and from thence to 1801, swelled, raged, foamed in all the fury of a tempest at sea against me. A collection of those circular let- ters would make many volumes, and contain more lies in pro- portion to the time than the Acta Sanctorum. Yet no measures were taken to raise dikes against this inundation !

Another proof of ignorance may surprise you ; I hope it will not offend you. Washington, Hamilton, and Pinckney were assembled at Philadelphia to advise in the selection of officers for the army. The history of the formation of this triumvirate would be as curious as that of Pompey, Csesar, and Crassus, or that of Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, and the effects of it have been and may be, for any thing I know, as prosperous or adverse to mankind. One thing I know, that Cicero was not sacrificed to the vengeance of Antony by the unfeeling selfish- ness of the latter triumvirate more egregiously than John Adams was to the unbridled and unbounded ambition of Alexander Hamilton in the American triumvirate.

Washington, Hamilton, and Pinckney depended for the sup- port of their power and the system of their politics entirely on New York and Pennsylvania. The northern and the southern States were immovably fixed in opposition to each other. If this triumvirate did not know this, they were as ignorant as you and I know, and acknowledge, we all are of each other. Pennsylvania -was compounded of Germans, Irish, Quakers, and a few ancient English families, who had been generally attached to the proprietary government. These were the great capital classes. The subdivisions of Roman Catholics, Epis- copalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Anabaptists, Moravians, &c, &c, &c, were infinite. The Quakers were all in principle hostile to war.

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TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 14 February, 1815.

The Quakers, as I said in my last, were in principle against all wars, and, moreover, greatly prejudiced against New Eng- land, and personally against me. The Irish, who are very numerous and powerful in Pennsylvania, had been, and still were enthusiasts for the French revolution, extremely exaspe- rated against old England, bitterly prejudiced against New England, strongly inclined in favor of the southern interest and against the northern. The Germans hated France and Eng- land too, but had been taught to hate New England more than either, and to abhor taxes more than all. A universal and per- petual exemption from taxes was held up to them as a tempta- tion, by underhand politicians. The English, Scotch, and Irish Presbyterians, the Methodists, Anabaptists, the Unitarians and Universalists, with Dr. Priestley at their head, and all the other sectaries, even many of the Episcopalians themselves, had been carried away with the French revolution, and firmly believed that Bonaparte was the instrument of Providence to destroy the Pope and introduce the millennium. All these interests and parties were headed by Mr. McKean, an upright Chief Justice, an enlightened lawyer, a sagacious politician, and the most experienced statesman in the nation ; by Mr. Mifflin, one of the earliest in the legislature of Pennsylvania and the first and second Congresses of the nation, an active officer in the revolutionary army, always extremely popular; by Jonathan B. Smith, an old revolutionary character. Dr. Rush, George Clymer, Mr. Ingersoll, wished well to the administration, but saw that nothing could be done, and were quite discouraged. Mr. John Dickinson and the venerable Charles Thomson were decidedly against us. Gallatin and Dallas, able and indefati- gable men, as opposite to us as the poles, and Tenche Coxe, a runaway from his master Hamilton.

My triumvirate were either ignorant or wholly inattentive and inconsiderate of all these things. Mr. Jefferson knew them all. These parties had all been making their court to him for fifteen years. And what had my triumvirate to depend upon to support a war against France? The Willings, the Chews,

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and the Aliens, three very respectable families, it is true, but who lost all their influence in Pennsylvania by their invariable opposition to the American revolution. A complete revolution had taken place in the minds of the people, against the national administration, as appeared by the election of Mr. McKean for governor, by a majority, I believe, of thirty thousand votes. The revolution in the legislature, though not yet so decisive, was nevertheless so great that the friends of the national ad- ministration, apprehensive of losing all the votes, were obliged to beat a parley with their antagonists, and agree to appoint half their electors of President and Vice-President from one party, and half from another. Such was the state of things when I received two letters, one from Frederic Augustus Muh- lenberg, and another from Peter Muhlenberg. These two Ger- mans, who had been long in public affairs and in high offices, were the great leaders and oracles of the whole German interest, in Pennsylvania and the neighboring States. Augustus very respectfully requested me to appoint him to some office. I sug- gested the idea to some of the heads of department, but none would hear it with patience. I had determined against it my- self, because he had failed in business, and several reports were in circulation unfavorable to his integrity, as always happens in cases of bankruptcy. As his poverty might tempt him to misapply public money, I was afraid to trust him in any office that would give him the disposal of any of it, and no other em- ployment occurred. Peter had served with reputation in the revolutionary army as a general officer, commanded a brigade of German troops, was universally allowed to be a brave and able officer ; he had long been a member of Congress, had the universal character of an honest man, representing a district of honest Germans. It is true, he had voted generally against the administration. This gentleman wrote me a letter, asking nothing, but offering his services in the army, and expressly declaring that he would make no stipulation with regard to rank.

Detesting in my heart that contracted principle of monopoly and exclusion, which had prevailed through Washington's ad- ministration, and to which I had so often been compelled. to submit, I was very desirous of relaxing it upon this occasion. I determined to propose it to the triumvirate. Accordingly I took an opportunitv to propose it to General Washington, in a

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conference between him and me alone. General Washington said, " By all that I have seen and heard in the late war, Gene- ral Muhlenberg is a good officer." But the triumvirate would not consent. I was provoked enough to have nominated him notwithstanding; but I knew that he would be negatived by the Senate. Hamilton would give the hint to Pickering, Picker- ing to Goodhue and Hillhouse, Sedgwick and Bingham, &c, &c, and down would fall the guillotine of a negative upon the neck of poor Muhlenberg. Unwilling to expose him to such an affront, or myself to another, for this would not have been the first, I forbore to nominate him. And what was the conse- quence ? These two Muhlen bergs addressed the public with their names, both in English and German, with invectives against the administration, and warm recommendations of Mr. Jefferson. Although I dreaded the change, well knowing that the party about to come into power would conduct themselves

as they have done, I could not very severely condemn the Muhlenbergs ; for a faction, selfish and contracted, so entirely devoted to such a leader as Hamilton, would pursue a system more destructive than the other.

The Muhlenbergs turned the whole body of Germans, great numbers of the Irish, and many of the English, and in this manner introduced the total change that followed in both houses of the legislature, and in all the executive departments of the national government. Upon such slender threads did our elec- tions then depend! The federalists had marched for twelve years " super ig-nes suppositos cineri doloso." What strength, what power, what force, had such a party to support a war against France, when she held the olive branch to us, with both her hands, upon our own terms ?

With feelings and sentiments that I am not master of lan- guage to express, I must enter on another subject. If American history is ever to be understood or related with truth, two cha- racters must be explained. Their portraits must be drawn at full length. Their birth, their education, their services, their marriages, their religion, their morals, their manners, their poli- tical principles and connections, their lives and their deaths, must be narrated by a historian, under the oath of the President de Thou, " Pro veritate historiarum mearum Deum ipsum ob- testor." I myself could write a volume of biography for each

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of them, if I had clear eyes and steady hands ; but, if I should spend years in writing them, I know they would not be read by any party ; and, after all, I should not dare to take the oath of Thuanus. These characters are Aaron Burr^ and Alexander Hamilton.

But I must pause to acknowledge your favor of February 6th. Its sentiments are worthy of the best men and citizens. I may be more particular hereafter. Your sagacity has penetrated one cause of the impossibility of maintaining the war against France, to wit, " prostration of public credit." The gulf of national bankruptcy yawned. The monsters, paper money, tender law, and regulation of prices, all stalked in horrors before me. I have hinted at this subject in a former letter, and will consider it more in detail in a future one.

Meantime, with unfeigned regard.

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 17 February, 1815.

I have never known, in any country, the prejudice in favor of birth, parentage, and descent more conspicuous than in the in- stance of Colonel Burr. That gentleman was connected by blood with many respectable families in New England. He was the son of one president and the grandson of another pre- sident of Nassau Hall, or Princeton University; the idol of all the Presbyterians in New York, New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and elsewhere. He had served in the army, and came out of it with the character of a knight without fear and an able officer. He had afterwards studied and practised law with application and success. Buoyed upon these religious partialities and this military and juridical reputation, it is no wonder that Governor Clinton and Chan- cellor Livingston should take notice of him. They made him attorney-general, and the legislature sent him to Congress as a senator, where he served, I believe, six years. At the next election he was, however, left out, and being at that time some- what embarrassed in his circumstances, and reluctant to return

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to the bar, he would have rejoiced in an appointment in the army. In this situation, I proposed to General Washington, in a conference between him and me, and through him to the tri- umvirate, to nominate Colonel Burr for a brigadier-general. Washington's answer to me was, " By all that I have known and heard, Colonel Burr is a brave and able officer; but the question is, whether he has not equal talents at intrigue." How shall I describe to you my sensations and reflections at that moment ? He had compelled me to promote, over the heads of Lincoln, Gates, Clinton, Knox, and others, and even over Pinck- ney, one of his own triumvirate, the most restless, impatient, artful, indefatigable and unprincipled intriguer in the United States, if not in the world, to be second in command under himself, and now dreaded an intriguer in a poor brigadier ! He did, however, propose it to the triumvirate, at least to Hamil- ton. But I was not permitted to nominate Burr. If I had been, what would have been the consequence ? Shall I say, that Hamilton would have been now alive, and Hamilton and Burr now at the head of our affairs ? What then ? If I had nomi- nated Burr without the consent of the triumvirate, a negative in Senate was certain. Burr to this day knows nothing of this. But what followed ? A volume would be necessary to explain the consequences. A few hints must suffice. Hamilton made a journey to Boston, to Providence, &c, to persuade the people and their legislatures, but without success, to throw away some of their votes, that Adams might not have the unanimous vote of New England ; consequently that Pinckney might be brought in as President and Adams as Vice-President. Washington was dead, and the Cincinnati were assembled at New York to choose Hamilton for their new President. Whether he publicly opened his project to the whole assembly of the Cincinnati or not, I will not say ; but of this I have such proof that I cannot doubt, namely, that he broached it privately to such members as he could trust; for the learned and pious Doctors Dwight and Badcock, who having been chaplains in the army, were then attending as two reverend knights of the order, with their blue ribbons and bright eagles at their sable buttonholes, were heard to say repeatedly in the room where the society met, " we must sacrifice Adams," " we must sacrifice Adams." Of this fact I have such evidence that I should dare to appeal, if it were

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worth while, to the only survivor, Dr. Dwight, of New Haven University.

About the same time, walking in the streets of Philadelphia, I met, on the opposite sidewalk, Colonel Joseph Lyman, of Springfield, one of the most amiable men in Congress, and one of the most candid men in the world. As soon as he saw me, he crossed over to my side of the street, and said, " Sir, I cross over to tell you some news." "Aye ! what news ? I hope it is good." " Hamilton has divided the federalists, and proposed to them to give you the go-by and bring in Pinckney. By this step he has divided the federalists, and given great offence to the honestest part of them. I am glad of it, for it will be the ruin of his faction." My answer was, " Colonel Lyman, it will be, as you say, the ruin of his faction ; but it will also be the ruin of honester men than any of them." And with these words I marched on, and left him to march the other way. I was soon afterwards informed by personal witnesses and private letters, that Hamilton had assembled a meeting of the citizens and made an elaborate harangue to them. He spoke of the President, John Adams, with respect ! But with what respect, I leave you, Sir, to conjecture. Hamilton soon after called an- other more secret caucus to prepare a list of representatives for the city of New York, in their State legislature, who were to choose electors of President and Vice-President. He fixed upon a list of his own friends, people of little weight or consideration in the city or the country. Burr, who had friends in all circles, had a copy of this list brought to him immediately. He read it over, with great gravity folded it up, put it in his pocket, and, without uttering another word said, " Now I have him all hol- low; " but immediately went to Governor Clinton, General Gates, Chancellor Livingston, &c, &c, stirred them all up, and persuaded the Governor and the General to stand candidates, with a list of the most respectable citizens, to represent the city in the legislature. Burr's list was chosen, as common sense must have foreseen, by a great majority, went to Albany, and chose electors, who voted unanimously for Mr. Jefferson, though New York at all antecedent elections voted unanimously for Adams. Thus ignorant of the character of this nation, of Pennsylvania, and of his own city and State of New York, wa3 Alexander Hamilton ! And how could it be otherwise ? Born

11*

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in Nevis, educated in Scotland, spending a short time at Colum- bia College, and then as aid-de-camp in the army, depending wholly on the Cincinnati, the old English tory interest in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, — had such a faction, with such a leader at their head, influence or power to support a war against France ? The very supposition is ridiculous. Espe- cially when France had cried Peccavi; when France had re- nounced all her claims and demands of tribute ; when France had abandoned all demands of apologies from me, for certain free expressions in my speeches to Congress and answers to addresses ; when France, by an authentic act of her sovereign authority, authentically certified to me through several chan- nels, had solemnly pledged herself to receive my ambassadors in their highest character. The rage of the Hamilton faction upon that occasion appeared to me then, and has appeared ever since, an absolute delirium.

I thank you, Sir, for your kind note of the 13th. Madam Breck and Mrs. Lloyd will confer an obligation on Mrs. and Mr. Adams, whenever they can find it convenient to make a visit to Quincy, and Mr. Lloyd's company with them will en- hance the favor.

It is not my design nor desire to excite you to a controversy. Be assured, I considered what you said of me, exactly as you intended it, and that in a very friendly light. My wish is equally friendly to give you information of some facts, of which, from your age, I presume you were not aware.

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 21 February, 1815.

In my letter of the 6th of this month, I asked you " if three or five millions could not be borrowed, under an interest of eight per cent., you may easily conjecture how soon we should have seen as glorious a bankruptcy as we now feel." In your letter to me of the same date, February 6th, you admit that " all would have proved fallacious, if public credit had become as prostrate, and all national feeling as callous, as they seem to be

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at the present moment." Here, Sir, is a coincidence of senti- ment, certainly without any concert, intercourse, or communi- cation between us, somewhat remarkable. Your sagacity accorded with my bitter experience. I most sincerely condole with you over that " callousness of national feelings " which has appeared in our dear New England more grossly, if we ex- cept Washington and Alexandria, than anywhere else. That callousness, however, in another year of war, notwithstanding the " prostration of public credit," would have been softened, if not wholly dissolved. And this the British Ministry have had cunning enough to perceive. Witness the treaty of peace of 24th December, 1814.

How shall I explain to you, Sir, the horrors of national bank- ruptcy, of paper money, of tender laws, and of regulation of prices, which then stared me in the face ? For this purpose I must make a tedious and disagreeable circuit, and must hope and beg to be pardoned for that egotism and vanity which you think my " strong foible."

My hobby-horse was a navy ; Alexander Hamilton's, an army.

I had no idea that France, involved as she was in Europe, could send any formidable invasion to America. A petty squadron, a single ship of war, or privateer, might insult our coasts and harbors, as they had done, and a very small force of sailors and soldiers might lay some of our cities under contribution. Against this danger, I thought brigantines, sloops, schooners, and frigates, well armed and manned and officered, the most economical, the most certain and effectual defence ; and as many fortifications as we could afford to erect in the best chosen places, for the protection of our most exposed cities, ought to be erected and garrisoned as soon as possible. Accordingly in my •communications to Congress, I recommended strong mea- sures for maritime and naval defence, and four or six regiments or companies (I forget which, and will not spend time to ascer- tain) of artillery to garrison the fortresses already built or in- tended to be immediately erected.

But Alexander Hamilton, who fled from his own unpopu- larity, and I may say from national hatred, to the bar at New York, to acquire the character of an unambitious man, was found to be (to borrow a little modest oratory from your corres- pondent, Mr. Randolph) " commander-in-chief" of the House

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of Representatives, of the Senate, of the heads of department, of General Washington, and last, and least, if you will, of the President of the United States. This language, you will say, is highly figurative ; but in fact and in essence, it is strictly and literally true. I am thankful that the sequel proved that he was not the " commander-in-chief" of the nation. This great genius, this sublime statesman, this profound politician, found that he could not apply himself to the black-letter law, in Latin and French ; that he could not devote his attention to the interests and causes of his clients. This indeed had never been his inten- tion. Nothing was further from his thoughts. His deep medi- tations were for the salvation of the United States, not for Nevis, his native_country. Accordingly he sits down and writes a long, elaborate, and voluminous letter to a confidential friend in Con- gress, in which he graciously condescended to delineate a per- fect system of administration. He projected negotiations, and nominated ambassadors ; he urged the establishment of an army of fifty thousand men, ten thousand of whom to be cavalry ; he advised to seize upon all the sources of revenue not yet occu- pied, to "invigorate the treasury." This letter was brought to me, I believe by Mr. Tracy. The arrogance and presumption of it, I despised; the extravagance of it astonished me; the gross ignorance it betrayed, and the fatal influence I knew it would have with the ruling party, grieved me to the heart. This letter still exists, as I believe. If it does not, more than monkish knavery has been exerted to destroy it. I appeal to Wolcott and Pickering, and might appeal to many others now living, and to many who are dead. The House of Representa- tives dared not adopt the extravagance of the plan, but with- out consulting the President, who was far beneath their notice, they adopted part of the scheme of then leader, and voted, as I remember, about twelve thousand men.

Here must be a hiatus valde deflendus ! If you wish to have it filled up, I will hereafter attempt it.

This army, small as it was, called for revenue. Revenue de- manded taxes. Taxes had already raised three rebellions, as they were called, and threatened three times, if not ten times three. The public necessities were so apparent, that Congress authorized me to borrow five millions of dollars. They were so apprised of the difficulty and uncertainty of raising this

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small sum, that they dared not ascertain and limit the interest at which it was to be borrowed, but threw all the risk and re- sponsibility upon me to determine the terms of the loan. Of course, consultation after consultation took place between me and my secretary of the treasury, Mr. Wolcott, concerning the terms of this loan, — a loan that now appears but a trifle. Mr. Wolcott's opinion was, that the loan could not be obtained at a less interest than eight per cent. I objected to this interest. I thought it extravagant and unnecessary. I thought it might be had at six per cent. Where were we going ? What were we about ? Five millions would be but a sprat for the nourish- ment of leviathans. We must borrow more, if we give ten or twelve per cent. ; and so on without end. Mr. Wolcott, who appeared to me then, as he does now, to be perfectly honest and disinterested in the business, said, " The legal interest in several of the States, is seven or eight per cent. The interest given in private transactions is much more, amounting to ten, twelve, and still more, and I do not believe the money can be obtained at less than eight." I desired him to consider of it, and inquire farther. At another interview, Mr. Wolcott persevered in his opinion that eight per cent, was the lowest interest at which the loan could be obtained. He said his situation in the trea- sury, as controller and as secretary, had given him opportunities to know the quantity of money in the country ; that there was not such a plenty of it as some people thought ; that, if the loan should fail, it would be a fatal discouragement to the peo- ple ; that the recruiting service for the army would be stopped ; that the treasury would be embarrassed, &c, &c. I said, " surely there are in the United States men of wealth enough, who love their country well enough, to lend five millions at six per cent, upon the faith of the United States, which ought to be as si able as the soil. Think and inquire again." I was so distressed with this question, that I wrote a letter to Mr. Wolcott, remon- strating against that interest of eight per cent., in which I said, that fifteen years before, I had borrowed a larger sum in Hol- land for four and a half, five and a half, and never more than six per cent., upon the naked pledge of the faith of the United States, and therefore I could not but think an unfair advantage was taken of the public.1 Mr. Wolcott, however, at our next

1 Vol. ix. p. 57.

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conference, persisted in his opinion, was afraid to publish pro- posals for the loan at a less interest than eight per cent. My patience, which had been put, by enemies and friends, to so many severe trials, was quite exhausted, and I broke out, " This damned army will be the ruin of this country ; if it must be so, it must ; I cannot help it. Issue your proposals as you please" I ask pardon for that peevish and vulgar expression ; but for the truth, in substance and essence, of this narration, I appeal to Mr. Wolcott himself. I know that Oliver Wolcott dare not lie ; and if he does not recollect these facts, his memory is not so good as mine.

At the rate of our expenses for the support of government, the navy, and that army, I was sure that national bankruptcy must occur in one year ; and what resource had we ? Paper money ! I had been a witness of the nature and effects of old tenor, from 1745 to 1751, and of continental currency from 1775 to 1782, indeed to 1791 ; and must we buffet our way through such a chaos to support an army already called ragamuffins and cannibals, in total idleness and inaction? Unless they spent their time in pillage and plunder, in debauching wives and se- ducing daughters.

I think, Sir, I have suggested considerations enough to con- vince you that the then dominant party had not sufficient influ- ence in the nation to proceed in the war against France, after the government of that nation had offered us peace upon honorable terms ; no, nor after she had offered us negotiations upon honor- able terms. But if I had possessed the hands of Midas, and could have changed trees and rocks into gold, or could I, by stamping on the ground, have called up legions of infantry and cavalry, for what purpose should I have continued the war ? The end of war is peace ; and peace was offered me. Had I continued the war, and raised a great army, every wise man in the world would have said of me, in the language of Boileau, " Midas ! le roi Midas a les oreilles d'ane ! " Mr. Hamilton and his friends might have said Ao? nov otu, not ttjv yr/v tivnou. But he had not the ttuv ctu. This nation was not then harnessed in taxes, nor broken to the draught.

I ask again a question, which I am not certain you will fully understand. If you do not, I will explain it to you hereafter. The question is, whether Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Pickering ex-

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pected to draw their resources from South America or St. Do-

mingo.

In your note of the 13th, you congratulate me on the " news of the day." On the news from New Orleans, I reciprocate your congratulations. On the news of peace, I say, " rejoice always in all things." But with what feelings of indignation, of grief, sorrow, and humiliation, I rejoice, I leave you to consider, after reading the inclosed letter, which, in full faith in your honor and candor, I trust to you, in confidence that you will re- turn it to me by the post, without making any improper use of it.1

TO WILLIAM CRANCH.

Quincy, 3 March, 1815.

Our fisheries have not been abandoned. They cannot be abandoned. They shall not be abandoned. We hold them by no grant, gift, bargain, sale, or last will and testament, nor by hereditary descent from Great Britain. We hold them in truth, not as kings and priests claim their rights and power, by hypo- crisy and craft, but from God and our own swords.

1. The author of nature and common father of mankind has made his ocean free and common to all his human children. We have, therefore, as clear a moral and divine right to the fisheries, at least as the English, Scotch, Irish, or any other people.

2. We have all the rights and liberties of Englishmen in the fisheries, in as full and ample a manner as we had before the revolution ; we have never forfeited, surrendered, alienated, or lost any one punctilio of those rights or liberties. On the contrary, we compelled the British nation to acknowledge them, in the most solemn manner, before God and the world, in the treaty of peace of 1783.

3. We have a stronger, clearer, and more perfect right than the Britons or any other nation of Europe, or on the globe, for

1 The allusion is to an extremely interesting confidential letter of J. Q. Adams, written to his father from Ghent, after the signature of the treaty, explaining his position, as one of the negotiators, upon the disputed point of the fisheries. It was this that gave rise to the letter immediately succeeding.

132 CORRESPONDENCE.

they were all indebted to us and our ancestors for all these fisheries. "We discovered them. We explored them. We dis- covered and settled the countries round about them, at our own expense, labor, risk, and industry, without assistance from Bri- tain. We have possessed, occupied, exercised, and practised them from the beginning. We have done more towards ex- ploring the best fishing grounds and stations, and all the bays, harbors, inlets, creeks, rivers, shores, and coasts, where fish of all sorts were to be found, and discovered, by experiments, the best means and methods of curing, preserving, drying, and per- fecting the commodity, as well as extending and improving the commerce in it, than all the Britons and all the rest of Europe.

4. If conquest can confer any right, our right is at least equal and common with Englishmen in any part of the world. In- deed, it is incomparably superior, for we conquered all the countries round about the fisheries. We conquered Cape Bre- ton, Nova Scotia, and dispossessed the French, both hostile and neutral. We did more, in proportion, towards the conquest of Canada than any other portion of the British empire, and could, and would, and should have done the whole at an easier ex- pense to ourselves, both of men and money, if the British government would have permitted that union of the colonies, which we projected, planned, earnestly desired, and humbly petitioned in 1754. In short, we have done more, in propor- tion, than any other part of the British empire towards protect- ing and defending all these fisheries against the French. For all these reasons, if there is a people under heaven who could advance a color of a pretension to any exclusive privileges, or any rights of one nation more than another in the fisheries, that people are the inhabitants of the United States of America, and especially of New England. But we set up no such par- tial claims. We demand only those equal rights and privileges that we have always held, possessed, and enjoyed. These we assert, and these we will have. They are of more importance to us than to any other nation. It would be illnatured in the English to deprive us of them, if they had the power, which they have not. There is room enough, and fish enough, for both nations.

As you are famous for indefatigable research, I wish you would ransack all the books and all the rules for the construe-

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tion of treaties, and concerning the dissolution and renovation of treaties, to show that the article in the treaty of 1783 is still in force. I say, as it is an acknowledgment only of an ante- cedent right, it is of eternal obligation.

TO DR. JEDIDIAH MORSE.

Quincy, 4 March, 1815.

Thanks for your favor of the 1st, and the sermon. I have never seen Trumbull's History in print, and know nothing of it, but from the very hasty perusal of the manuscript you sent me. I esteem Dr. Morse and Dr. Ware ; the vote of the former against the latter * never diminished my esteem for either, be- cause I believed both to be able and conscientious men. I esteem Dr. Morse and Miss Adams, and the flickerings and bickerings between them have made no change in my regard for either. In short, Sir, I have been a reader of theological, philosophical, political, and personal disputes for more than sixty years, and now look at them with little more interest than at the flying clouds of the day.

When you apply to me to assist you in writing history,2 I know not whether I ought to laugh or cry. I have little faith in history. I read it as I do romance, believing what is pro- bable and rejecting what I must. Thucydides, Tacitus, Livy, Hume, Robertson, Gibbon, Raynal, and Voltaire, are all alike. Our American history for the last fifty years is already as much corrupted as any half century of ecclesiastical history, from the Council of Nice to the restoration of the Inquisition in 1814. If I were to write a history of the last sixty years, as the facts rest in my memory, and according to my judgment, and under the oath of "pro veritate historiarum mearum Deum ipsum ob- testor" a hundred writers in America, France, England, and

1 In the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, on the ground, that the election of a person of Dr. Ware's theological opinions would be a violation of the statutes of Mr. Hollis, the founder of the professorship to be filled. This act was the origin of a long and sharp controversy in Massachusetts.

2 Dr. Morse proposed to continue Trumbull's History, but he finally con- verted a portion of the materials collected for that purpose into a work, entitled Annals of the American Revolution.

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134 CORRESPONDENCE.

Holland, would immediately appear, and call me, to myself, and before the world, a gross liar and a perjured villain.

I have never preserved newspapers or pamphlets. The few I have ever attempted to save, I have long since given away. Mr. Shaw has in his Athenaeum more of them than any other person. Private letters I have preserved in considerable num- bers, but they ought not to be opened these hundred years, and then, perhaps, will not be found of much consequence, except as memorials of private friendship.

If you desire it, I may hereafter give you two or three sam- ples of such a history as I should write ; anecdotes, of no kind of consequence now, unless they should serve to show how many thousand facts are wholly concealed and unknown to the world, and how many more will be finally unknown to posterity ; facts, which mark characters, and might materially influence great events.

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 6 March, 1815.

As method is of no importance in my letters, I will deviate from the course I was in, to speak of the project of the inde- pendence of South America in 1798. Since my glances at this subject have excited your curiosity, it shall be gratified. As the prudence and necessity of my mission to France are cogently demonstrated by this history, I pray you to read it with patience in detail.

During our revolutionary war, General Miranda came to the United States, travelled through many, if not all of them, was introduced to General Washington and his aids,, secretaries, and all the gentlemen of his family, to the other general officers and their families, and to many of the colonels.1 He acquired the character of a classical scholar, of a man of universal know- ledge, of a great general, and master of all the military sciences, and of great sagacity, an inquisitive mind, and an insatiable curiosity. It was a general opinion and report, that he knew more of the families, parties, and connections in the United

1 He seems to have had long conferences with M. Marbois, the French Charge d'Affaires, at Philadelphia, and to have communicated through him with the government at Versailles. Histoire de la Louisiane, p. 161.

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States, than any other man in them ; that he knew more of every campaign, siege, battle, and skirmish that had ever occur- red in the whole war, than any officer of our army, or any states- man in our councils. His constant topic was the independence of South America, her immense wealth, inexhaustible resources, innumerable population, impatience under the Spanish yoke, and disposition to throw off the dominion of Spain. It is most certain that he rilled the heads of many of the young officers with brilliant visions of wealth, free trade, republican govern- ment, &c, &c, in South America. Hamilton was one of his most intimate friends and confidential admirers, and Colonel Smith, I presume, was another. Of Burr I will say nothing, because I know nothing with certainty. Of Dayton I will say but little. Of Wilkinson, nothing at all, at present. But of Winthrop Sargent, Governor of the Mississippi Territory, and one of the most intelligent of them all, I will say, that he acknowledged to me, with apparent humiliation and grief, that he had been one who had been carried away by. the fashionable enthusiasm, and been charmed with the ideas of wealth, glory, and liberty, "which the independence of South America exhi- bited. General Knox was also one of his intimates. I had never seen Miranda^and have never seen him yet. But this was the universal language concerning Miranda, of all the Ame- ricans whom I met in France, Holland, and England, without one exception.

Some years after the peace of 1783, Miranda came to Eng- land, and was several weeks in London. He never came near me. I never heard he had been there till years afterwards. I have lately heard, that his apology for avoiding my house was, that if he had been seen there, the Spanish ambassador might have been informed of it, and the Marquis del Campo might have procured from court an order for his arrest. This excuse may be true, and I may and do conjecture other reasons that may be equally true, though I need not explain them at pre- sent. But he did meet Colonel Smith, secretary of legation to my commission to the Court of St. James ; was intimate with him, though I knew nothing of it, and persuaded him to travel to Holland, Prussia, and Germany. On this journey he per- suaded Smith to lend him money to the amount of some hun- dred guineas to pursue his travels to Russia. The money he

r

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136 CORRESPONDENCE.

afterwards honorably and punctually remitted to his benefactor. He afterwards entered the service of France, commanded ar- mies, was accused of treason, tried, and honorably acquitted. But he soon went over to England, procured audiences and conferences with Mr. Pitt and Mr. King, some of the results of which I shall proceed to state to you.

On the 25th of August, 1798, I received a letter at Quincy from Mr. Pickering, Secretary of State, dated Trenton, 21st August, 1798,1 inclosed in a large packet of papers, among which was a letter from Mr. King, one from Mr. Joseph Pedro Caro, and one from Miranda. Mr. Pickering informed me, that he had received under the same cover two letters, one for Colonel Hamilton and the other for General Knox, which he forwarded by the same post to those gentlemen.

Mr. King's letter to the Secretary of State, Mr. Pickering, dated February 26th, 1798, was in these words.2

I inclose Mr. Pickering's original letter and an authenticated official copy of Mr. King's, requesting the return of them by post. In my next, I will develop more of this mystery, which, I think, abounds with instruction to American statesmen, among whom you, Mr. Lloyd, will be enumerated, whether you will or no. You are in a cage. Like Sterne's starling, you " can't get out."

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 12 March, 1815.

I am infinitely obliged to you for your letter of March 8th. From 1758 to 1775, I practised at the bar, and, suffering under ill health, I rode the circuits of the province more than any other lawyer in the States, and this more for exercise and the reco- very of my health than for any profit I made by these excursions ; for I could have made more in my office at home. I practised considerably in the county of Essex, and became somewhat intimately acquainted with King, Hooper, and Colonel Lee, of

1 See vol. viii. p. 583.

2 For this letter, see vol. viii. p. 585.

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Marblehead, and my uncle, Isaac Smith, of Boston, the three greatest employers of fishermen and greatest exporters of fish in the county of Essex. I also attended the courts in the counties of Plymouth and Barnstable, made one tour of a fortnight, to Martha's Vineyard, and, in short, became much acquainted with merchants, sea-captains, and even sailors employed in the fisheries of whale, cod, salmon, seals, and mackerel, in Nan- tucket, the Vineyard, and Cape Cod. I had argued many causes, both in Essex and on the Cape, in which the fisheries of all descriptions were explained. I saw the value of them to New England. When the conferences opened at Paris, in 1782, I thought myself tolerably well informed on the subject of the fisheries, and accordingly represented to my colleagues and the British agents our right to them, our constant posses- sion of them, our proximity to them, our discovery and defence of them, and, above all, their essential importance to us in every branch of our commerce with Europe, the West Indies, the southern States, &c. In short, they were our only staple com- modity. These representations, however, made not all the im- pression I desired. I was thought to be too zealous, sanguine, and ardent. Even my own colleagues seemed to think I greatly exaggerated the value and importance of all the fisheries, espe- cially those on the coasts of Labrador, in the gulf of St. Law- rence, &c, &c. The Comte de Vergennes, too, appeared more eager to cheat us out of them even than the English. And the Comte had more influence with one of my colleagues than I had. And both of them thought peace, and the acknowledgment of our independence, much more essential than the fisheries. Deter- mined never to consent to peace, nor to set my hand to any treaty without an explicit acknowledgment of our right to them all, and hearing of the arrival in Holland of some of our Nantucket sea-captains, Coffins, Folgers, and Rotches, I wrote to them, stating all the questions relative to the subject, and received very prompt and obliging answers, containing ample details, not only of the course and practice of all the fisheries, but of their great value and indispensable necessity to New England, and especially to Massachusetts. These letters I communicated immediately to my colleagues, as well as to our opponents, but I never could obtain from either of the former his consent to make the fisheries a sine qua non, an ultimatum, nor from the

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latter the least appearance of relaxation, till the last moment, when Mr. Laurens, who joined us for the first time on the last evening of the conferences, united with me in the explicit and decided declaration, that we never would sign the treaty, with- out the article securing to us the fisheries. There were but four of us, Adams, Franklin, Jay, and Laurens (Jefferson never dared to cross the Atlantic before the peace) ; two against two could make no treaty. Peace was indispensable for Great Britain ; France, Spain, Holland, armed neutrality, desolation of commerce, manufactures, and consequently agriculture, re- venue, scarcity of seamen, &c, &c, all conspired to produce despair in England and exultation in France and Spain ; Lord George Gordon's rebellion, too. In such a moment, Oswald, Whitefoord, Fitzherbert, and, I believe, Strachy too, after long and tedious deliberation among themselves, in a separate apart- ment, came to us, and announced their consent to the article relative to the fisheries, which was the only article which had not been settled long before.1

Upon such terms did we live with Great Britain then, and upon such terms do we live with her now; and upon such terms shall we live, till we have a naval power capable of protecting her as well as ourselves. I wish I could amalgamate oil and water; I wish I could reconcile the interests, passions, preju- dices, and even the caprices of Britons and Americans. But I have despaired of it more than sixty years, and despair of it still. Ratio ultima Rerum-publicarum must ultimately decide.

Wounds, deadly wounds have been inflicted on both sides. Contempt and disgrace never can be forgotten by human nature, and hardly, very hardly forgiven by the sincerest and devoutest Christianity.

Your letter has suggested every thing on both sides of the great question. It shall not be lost to your country, nor to yourself. Posterity, at least, will give you credit. This is cold comfort, I

know by experience ; but you will have neighbor's fare.

1 See the full account of this, written at the time, in the Diary, Vol. iii. pp. 333 - 335. The only difference among the American commissioners seems to have been upon making the admission of the right a sine qua non in the treaty.

CORRESPONDENCE. 139

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 26 March, 1815.

1. I now 1 inclose to you the original Spanish letter to me, dated Falmouth, 10th May, 1798, from Don Pedro Josef Caro, apologizing for his not coming to me in person.

2. I next inclose a translation of Pedro's letter to Pickering, dated Falmouth, 10th May, 1798.2

March 18th. Last night I received your favor of the 14th, with the inclosures. I have been and still am desirous, that you should see the original documents in this great and pro- found political intrigue, for the pretended, ostensible independ- ence of South America. They throw some light on the policy of England and France, and the dupery of Spain, at the same time that, in my conscience, I believe, as I have always believed, that they prove to a demonstration the wisdom of my missions to France.

But before I proceed, Mr. Lloyd, I must settle some prelimi- naries with you.

1. I have no insidious design of drawing from you any opi- nion on any facts stated, or inferences 'or conclusions drawn, by me. You may reserve all your judgments. I only wish to furnish you with evidence, which I believe you never could derive from any other source.

2. I pray you to take your own time to answer or acknow- ledge my letters. I wish not to interfere with a moment of business or amusement. My object is to convince you, that my missions to France were not less dictated by deliberate prudence, than compelled by cogent necessity.

3. You can never " trespass on my time or retrospection ; " both at your service ; neither is of any value to me, but as it may possibly at some time be of some use to the public or to posterity. There is not a fact in my memory that I will not reveal to you, if you ask it.

1 In a preceding letter, dated 9th March, Mr. Adams had inclosed a transla- tion of General Miranda's letter to him, printed in Vol. vhi. of this work, p. 569.

2 Omitted, because printed in Vol. viii. p. 584. What follows, seems to have been written earlier, but inclosed in the same letter.

J 40 CORRESPONDENCE.

4. 1 ask your pardon for translating Miranda's letter. I be- lieved that you understood the language ; but was not certain, and thought it not amiss to furnish you with the sense in which I understand it. I will now inclose to you, Sir, the remainder of the South American packet, with a request that you will return it to me with the same punctuality that you have ob- served in all my former communications.

1. A magnificent confederation, association, platform, or con- spiracy, call it which you will, of three great personages to separate all South America from Spain, erect an independent empire over that vast region, under the form of a federative republic ; and these three great personages were Don Josef del Pozo y Sucre, Don Manuel Josef de Salas, and Don Francisco de Miranda. This was certified to me by Miranda.

2. The." Pouvoirs" signed and sealed by Josef del Pozo y Sucre, Manuel Josef de Salas, and Francisco de Miranda.

I need not proceed further, Mr. Lloyd ! Here is enough to furnish a volume of reflections. Nay, if you were to pursue all the investigations and speculations that these papers suggest, you might write as many folios as Priestley or Voltaire ever produced. I read all these papers over and over, with great and very serious attention; and the oftener I read them, the more my astonishment was increased. After mature deliberation, -I knew not whether I ought to laugh or to weep. In the sequel, laugh I did, most heartily ; weep I did not, for I too cordially despised the whole business to cry over it. Give me leave to recapitulate the heads of my speculations or reveries upon that occasion.

1. What was to be done with these papers ? "What was the dictate of my duty? We are at peace with Spain. We are engaged in a friendly demarcation of the limits between their territories and ours ; negotiations are in train for compensation for spoliations on our commerce, with a fair prospect of an ami- cable termination. Is it my duty to communicate these docu- ments to Yrujo, the Spanish minister?

No, surely not. I cannot be obliged to act the part of a spy, a sycophant, or informer, to Spain or any other nation or govern- ment. Besides, "what good can come of it ? None, but to expose Miranda to the guillotine in France, and his associates to the rack or the stake in Spain or Spanish America. Besides, what

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fuel would these papers have thrown into the flames, the vol- cano of European politics and wars at that time !

Should I communicate them to Mr. Liston, the British minis- ter ? Surely not. If Mr. Liston had received any instructions from Mr. Pitt, it was his duty to impart them to me.

Should I transmit them to the Senate and House in Con- gress ? No. This would give the greatest possible publicity. And what could Congress do with them ? Should I summon the heads of departments, lay the packets before them, and ask their opinion and advice ? No. I wanted none of their advice in so plain a case. Who ever thought of summoning a board of mathematicians to deliberate upon the question, whether two and two are equal to four? So intuitively ob- vious and certain was the answer to every question that I could imagine relative to the subject, that my judgment was made up as soon as I had read the despatch. If the British

minister should present a memorial in the name of his master to the Secretary of State, proposing the tripartite alliance, I should instantly dictate the answer to the Secretary, very civilly and respectfully apologizing for declining the engagement on account of the juvenility of our nation, the infancy of our go- vernment, the instability of our financial establishments, the aversion of our people to war, the difficulty of raising men, the vastness, difficulty, and uncertainty of the enterprise, and the want of powers and authority in the agents for South Ame- rica; and, above all, as it would be a departure from our established system of policy, a neutrality in all the wars of Europe as long as we could preserve it.

My reflections did not stop here. What was I to think of Mr. Pitt and the British cabinet ? Was it possible that Miranda should be such a conjurer as to bewitch Mr. Pitt and his col- leagues into a serious belief, that South America was to be revolutionized so easily by Miranda and his two Jesuits ? Did they believe the South Americans capable of a free government, or a combination of free federative republics, according to Mi- randa's plan? Or did Mr. Pitt deliberately project an insidious plan to dupe me into a rash declaration of war against France, and a submissive alliance, offensive and defensive, with him ? Does he think me as raw, awkward, and ignorant a boy as I know him to be ? If he does, he will find himself mistaken.

142 CORRESPONDENCE.

Having despatched the great and renowned Mr. Pitt in this laconic style, my next inquiry was, who and what is Miranda ? He is either an Achilles, hurt by some personal injury, real or imaginary, by being deprived of his girl, as likely as any thing else that we know, who has adopted the maxim of so many other heroes, " Jura neg-at sibi lata, nihil non arrogat armis ; " or he is a knight-errant, as delirious as his immortal countryman, the ancient hero of La Mancha. In the next place, what could I think of Don Josef y Pozo y Sucre^ and Don Manuel Josef de Salas ? I knew nothing about them but that they wereJesuits^ And what were Jesuits ? Ask Pascal in his Provincial Letters.

Spain had abolished the order, and these might be taking ven- geance for their imaginary wrongs. They might boil with revenge against the king of Spain for abolishing their order. They were certainly corrupted by British mercenary policy. But what was I to think of Don Pablo de Olavide ? Here was a fact, a history, a secret, unknown to Pitt, King, Miranda, and all their Jesuits. The fact is, I personally knew Olavide^ his history, his character. I had been in company with him at festive convivial dinners with the Duke Rochefoucauld, the hereditary representative of the famous Sully, the bishop of Langres, a brother of the great Lamoignon, a duke and a peer, who had assisted at the coronation of the King at Rheims, where the holy oil had been poured on the royal head ; that holy oil which was brought down from heaven in the bill or the claws of a pigeon.

Olavide was an old man, had been in Spain a great man, a member of the Council of Seville, &c.' A head stuffed with learning, and curiosity insatiable. Touched with the contagious heresy of the holy church philosophy, of which Voltaire was the sovereign pontiff, he had suffered to escape him sentiments which alarmed the Inquisition. He was obliged to fly, as the Count d'Aranda had been, to France, as an asylum from the persecutions of the Court and the Inquisition in Spain. In Paris, he was tormented with ennui; he knew not what to do with himself. He told me, " mes momens ne sont pas si courts" He went daily to the mesmeric experiments. I heard him say, he saw there miracles as inexplicable as those of the Abbe Paris in a former century.

One of the highest frolics I ever enjoyed was with this Ola-

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143

vide, at a dinner with the highest characters in France, eccle- siastical and civil,1 in which the question was discussed between Olavide and me of an alliance, offensive and defensive, between North and South America. The history of it would be as diverting as the feast of Plato. You will see with what eager- ness Miranda and his associates courted Olavide to join them, and you will see the total neglect and contempt of them shown by Olavide. I was confident he had too much sense to have any connection with them. They never could get him to meet them, or to answer their invitations. This Olavide afterwards hit upon the happy expedient of translating from French into Spanish a work in favor of Christianity, which appeased the wrath of the Inquisition, and procured his return to Spain.2 But who were the "Junta" in Spain? Who were the Junta in South America ? Whom did Miranda and his two Jesuits

represent ? Where were their full powers ?

I will not fatigue you with too much speculation at once. I beg you to read the inclosed papers, and I will soon again trespass on your patience with a few more of my lucubrations.

V

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 27 March, 1815.

Let me put a case like a lawyer. Suppose Samuel Adams, John Dickinson, Patrick Henry, and Christopher Gadsden, had been enterprising and romantic enough in 1773 to go to France, and propose to the Due de Choiseul a triple alliance between the crowns of France and Spain and the United, or to be United, States of North America. WThat would the duke have said? " Gentlemen, show me your full powers ! Whom do you repre- sent ? " " Oh ! " say the American patriots, " the people are un- easy, ardent to throw off the yoke of Great Britain. A few ships of the line and a few thousand men from France and Spain will

1 See the Diary, vol. iii. p. 3G2.

2 A curious account of this person's life up to 1782, is given by Diderot, from papers furnished by a Spaniard. It is found in the Literary Correspondence of Baron de Grimm, vol. xi. p. 233.

144 CORRESPONDENCE.

unite all North America ; they Mall instantly rise, renounce Great Britain, become independent, and enter into an eternal alliance, offensive and defensive, with France and Spain." What would the duke have said ? " Gentlemen, this is a deep, dangerous, and difficult subject. It interests the whole globe. I myself pretend not to fathom the depth of it. But you show me no authority. You have no powers ; you represent nobody. You appear to us only in the light of rebels and traitors to your lawful sovereign. Return, then, home to your country with as little eclat and publicity as possible, and think yourselves very fortunate, if I do not denounce you all at St. James's as traitors and rebels to your king." That this supposition is no exaggera- tion, would appear from the history of the reception of Franklin, Deane, and Lee, by the Comte de Vergennes, in 1776, and till the 6th February, 1778 ; an epoch of great importance in the history of mankind, of which my dearly -beloved citizens of the United States are as ignorant as they are of the Sanscrit Shasta, its origin and progress. Before Franklin, Deane, and Lee ap- peared in France, the royal governments in America were all annihilated, Congress was sovereign and supreme, de facto and dejure, and those ambassadors had authentic records to show for every step of the progress, from 1761 to 1778. What had Mi- randa and two obscure, unknown, unheard of Jesuits to show ? "Nothing, absolutely nothing but their ipsi dixerwd. But, al- though they show no commission, no delegation, no deputation from any original power, any physical force, any animal strength, much less from any regular assemblies of people, any legitimate authority of any kind, what is the probability of their pretensions? The people of South America are the most ignorant, the most bigoted, the most superstitious of all the Roman Catholics in Christendom. They believe salvation to be confined to themselves and the Spaniards in Europe. They can scarcely allow it to the Pope and his Italians, certainly not to the French ; and as to England, English America, and all other Protestant nations, nothing could be expected or hoped for any of them, but a fearful looking for of eternal and unquench- able flames of fire and brimstone. No Catholics on earth were so abjectly devoted to their priests, as blindly superstitious as themselves, and these priests had the powers and apparatus of the Inquisition to seize every suspected person and suppress

CORRESPONDENCE. 145

every rising motion. Was it probable, was it possible, that such a plan as Miranda's, of a free government, and a confede- ration of free governments, should be introduced and established among such a people, over that vast continent, or any part of it ? It appeared to me more extravagant than the schemes of Condorcet and Brissot to establish a democracy in France, schemes which had always appeared to me as absurd as similar plans would be to establish democracies among the birds, beasts, and fishes. What should I think of Mr. King ? My disposi- tion was very good to make a plausible apology for him. He might think it, and, indeed, it might be his duty to transmit this information to me. I could not, however, avoid remarking a little enthusiastic leaning in favor of the sublime project, and more symptoms of credulity than became a cautious and wary statesman. I did not, however, reflect with any severity upon Mr. King. Had Miranda's powers been unexceptionable, his associates known, and Mr. Pitt made an official proposal of such a triple alliance, could I for one moment have deliberated on the question, whether I should accept it or not ? Certainly not. Britain had not then displayed all her omnipotence in the Nile, at Copenhagen, or Trafalgar. France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, and Russia, had naval forces, some of them danger- ous and powerful. These would require all the naval and military forces of Britain to defend her own island and watch the hostile fleets of her enemies, which were all the maritime powers of Europe. But had Mr. Pitt, in complaisance to the great Miranda, sent ten ships of the line to South America, who would have had the advantage ? Most certainly the South Americans would have been in favor of Spain and France. And as certainly the North Americans, too, even though Adams, Washington, Hamilton, and Pickering had been ever so strenuous and enthusiastic advocates and parti- sans and allies of the great Miranda.

If I looked at home, I was to send four or six thousand in- fantry and two thousand cavalry to South America. And for what? To make of Miranda a king Theodore or a Pascal Paoli. Where could I get six thousand infantry and two thou- sand cavalry ? We had them not ; and in my opinion we could not obtain them. I had before had sufficient experience of the difficulty of recruiting regular soldiers in the United States.

vol. x. 13 j

146 CORRESPONDENCE.

Where should we find transports? What would be the in- terest of money ? Had we not had rebellions enough against taxes? And were we not threatened with more and greater, and even with division, disunion, dismemberment, a dissolu- tion of the constitution, and a total anarchy ? Miranda's pro- ject is as visionary, though far less innocent, than that of his countryman Gonzalez, of an excursion to the moon in a car drawn by geese trained and disciplined for the purpose. Such were my reflections. In my next you shall know the insigni- ficant result of all these meditations, from, &c.

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 29 March, 1815.

In my last, I promised you the result of all my deliberations on this great subject. It was this, " What shall I do with these papers ? " The answer was, " Lock them up in my desk, and there let them be." I did accordingly lock them up, and there they lay till I had forgotten them ; and there they would have remained to this hour, if the Edinburgh reviewers first, and Bristed after them, had not implicated Mr. King and me in their ignoranl and nonsensical speculations and censures.

Pickering, without consulting me, had sent a letter to Knox, and another to Hamilton. I presumed both were from Miranda. I believed Knox to have too sound and sober a judgment to be seduced into any folly by Miranda. I never thought it worth while to ask him a question about the letter or the subject. Very probably Madam Knox can produce the original letter. What Miranda had written to Hamilton, I neither knew nor cared. Hamilton's answer, however, has been intercepted somewhere among Miranda's papers, and published to the world in some magazine or review that I have seen, but do not now possess. He says, " We have an army of twelve thousand men" x — (by the way, more than half exaggeration) — " He must refer to the government ; " and concludes with, " You know

1 The words are, " We are raising an army of about twelve thousand men." Hamilton's Works, vol. vi. p. 348.

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my sentiments." This, you see, was sagacious policy enough, and would have given me no alarm, if I had seen the letter in its time. But I knew nothing of it, and thought nothing about it. My imagination was amused with very different pictures. Seven thousand men and two thousand horses, crowded into transports in the Gulf stream, bound to South America, two thirds of them, within a fortnight after their landing, dead with the rot, the jail fever, the yellow fever, or the plague, and their fathers and mothers, wives and children, brothers and sis- ters, weeping and wailing their losses, and cursing John Adams as a traitor to his country, and a bribed slave to Great Britain, — a Deane, an Arnold, a devil !

After all, Mr. Lloyd, I must go a step further, and with frankness and candor acknowledge a truth, a principle, an opi- nion, and a system, in which I have great doubts whether you will concur with me. For full forty years, three points have been settled in my mind after mature deliberation.

1. That neutrality in the wars of Europe is our truest policy ; and to preserve this, alliances ought to be avoided as much and as long as possible.

But, if we should be driven to the necessity of an alliance,

2. Then France is our natural ally ; and,

3. That Great Britain is the last power, to which we should, in any, the last extremity, resort for any alliance, political or military.

These three propositions appear to me as clear, as obvious, and as demonstrable as any political principles whatever, and almost as any proposition in Euclid.

Miranda's plot, Mr. Pitt's plot, and Mr. Hamilton's plot (if, indeed, he had any hand in it), was in direct opposition to my system, and wholly subversive of it. On the one hand, I was determined not to submit to the insolence and injuries of the French government ; on the other, to enter into no alliance with Great Britain, nor any kind of connection that might embarrass us in making peace with France, whenever her government should come to her senses and show a disposition to do us jus- tice.

Very fortunately for me and for this nation, the French Di- rectory had a lucid interval, and gave me a fan- opportunity to institute that mission to France, que vous fletrissez, that mission

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148

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to France which you describe as the "great shade in my Presi- dential escutcheon," and which I wish to inscribe on my grave- stone ; and which, if we had escutcheons in this country, I would contrive to introduce into mine. I would rather have it there than seventeen quarters of marquises and dukes, princes, kings, or emperors. I would not exchange it for the name of Bowdoin or Baudoin, the most splendid name that I have read in history, far superior to Bourbons or Guelphs. Sic transit glo- ria. Far greater than Medicis or Napoleons ; almost equal to those of Hercules and Mahomet.

On April 10th, 1809, I commenced in the Boston Patriot a series of letters in vindication of my missions to France. These letters were imprudently published in pamphlets. If you have ever seen one of them, you must remember that ninety-five pages of it are devoted to a vindication of my missions to France. If you have never seen it, I pray you to look it up ; and, if you cannot find it, I will send it to you. I had done with it forever, as I thought. I wished never to see it or hear of it again. But a grandson of mine, not yet fourteen years of age, has picked them up and bound them in a volume. I have borrowed it of him, and if you cannot find it elsewhere, I will lend it to you, upon condition that you will return it to me, for I know of no other copy. After that publication, I did not expect to see a slur cast upon my missions to France by any man of intelligence and honor.

Will you linger and loiter with me a little in this place ? Did Mr. Pitt and Mr. Miranda believe me to be a lover of revolu- tions, deeply smitten with their charms, ready and eager to seize upon any and every opportunity to involve myself and my country in any revolutionary enterprise?! had been plunged head and ears in the African revolution from 1761 to 1798 (for~it had been all revolution during the whole period). Did Mr. Pitt and Mr. Miranda think that I had trod upon feathers, and slept upon beds of roses, during those thirty-seven years ? I had been an eye-witness of two revolutions in Holland ; one from aristocracy to a mongrel mixture of half aristocracy and half democracy, the other back again to aristocracy and the splendid restoration of the Stadtholder. Did Mr. Pitt and Mr. Miranda think that I was so delighted with these electric shocks, these eruptions of volcanoes, these tremblemens de terre, as to

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be ambitious of the character of a chemist, who could produce artificial ones in South America ? I had been an ear-witness of some of the first whispers of a revolution in France in 1783, 1784, and 1785, and had given all possible attention to its rise and progress, and I can truly say, that it had given me as much anxiety as our American revolution had ever done. Could Mr. Pitt and Mr. Miranda believe me so fascinated, charmed, en- chanted, with what had happened in France, as to be desirous of engaging myself and my country in most hazardous and expensive and bloody experiments to excite similar horrors in South America?

The last twenty-five years of the last century, and the first fifteen years of this, may be called the age of revolutions and constitutions. We began the dance, and have produced eighteen or twenty models of constitutions, the excellences and defects of which you probably know better than I do. They are, no doubt, the best for us that we could contrive and agree to adopt.

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 30 March, 1815.

I need not say any thing about our constitutions, or the diffi- culties that have been experienced to reconcile the people to them, or the dangerous diversities of opinion, in the construc- tion of them, or the dissatisfaction with them, the uneasiness under them, or the perpetual projects to alter and amend them.

Since we began the career of constitutions, the wisest, most learned, and scientific heads in France, Holland, Geneva, Swit- zerland, Spain, and Sicily, have been busily employed in devis- ing constitutions for their several nations. And brilliant com- positions they have produced, adorned with noble sentiments in morals, wise maxims in politics, if not sound doctrines in religion and salutary precepts in private life. But has there been one that has satisfied the people ? One that has been ob- served and obeyed, even for one year or one month ? The truth is, there is not one people of Europe that knows or cares any

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thing about constitutions. There is not one nation in Europe that understands or is capable of understanding any constitu- tion whatever. Panem et aquam, et vinum et cir censes are all that they understand or hope or wish for. If there is a color- able exception, it is England. On this subject, I scarcely dare to write, speak or think. Once loose the spirit of democratical revolution, and the three kingdoms will rival France in anarchy, as triumphantly as they have in policy, commerce, naval and military power. These, Sir, were the results of ten years' care- ful, attentive, anxious, and (if without vanity I may use the word) philosophical observation in France, Spain, Holland, Austrian Netherlands, and England. What could I think of revolutions and constitutions in South America? A people more ignorant, more bigoted, more superstitious, more implicitly credulous in the sanctity of royalty, more blindly devoted to their priests, in more awful terror of the Inquisition, than any people in Europe, even in Spain, Portugal, or the Austrian Netherlands, and infinitely more than in Rome itself, the imme- diate residence of the head of the holy church.

I did not say, as my old friend Lord St. Vincent did, though I thought as much. You cannot understand this without an anecdote of General Moreau, who related, that Fulton carried from Mr. Pitt to Lord St. Vincent a recommendation to his lordship to try the experiment of Fulton's projects, to blow up ships by machinery under water. The only answer that the old lord-admiral gave to Fulton, was, " Pitt is a damned fool, and I will have nothing to do with your project." The story, which I had from our Commodore Rogers, who, I understood, heard it from Moreau's own mouth, was embellished with many beautiful circumstances, infinitely more worthy to be transmit- ted to posterity than the letters of that mixture of Napoleon, Petrarch, and Werter^JLord Nelson.

But I have not yet stated all my reflections upon this subject. Had Mr. Pitt thought of the consequences of opening a navi- gable canal across the isthmus to the South Sea ? Who was to have the jurisdiction and dominion of that canal ? What would be the effect of an independent, free government in South Ame- rica ? Could common sense in South America not think of a navy? No country has greater advantages for commerce and naval power. What would soon happen in Hindostan and in

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China, if a communication of commerce, navigation, and naval power was opened between South America and the East In- dies ? What is to become of the East India Company and the British possessions ? Where is this ignorant, thoughtless boy Jeading his king and country ? I am apprehensive you will think me as mad now as I then thought Pitt and Miranda. But my reading and observations on men and nations were then fresher in my head than they are now; and I assure you, I am not conscious of having insinuated a thought to you in this correspondence, that did not pass through my mind upon reading and considering those despatches from Mr. King and Miranda.

Should I have any thing to do in the business ? No ! If both houses of Congress, and Washington and Hamilton, should all agree in an address to me, advising and requesting me to engage in such a Quixotic attack of a windmill, I never would put my hand to it. I would resign my office, retire to Braintree, follow my plough, and leave the nation to follow its own wis- dom or folly.

It was impossible not to perceive a profound and artful plot hatching in England, France, Spain, South and North Ame- rica, to draw me into a decided instead of a quasi war with France, Spain, Holland, and all the enemies of England, and a perpetual alliance, offensive and defensive, with Great Britain ; or in other words, to entangle us forever in all the wars of Eu- rope. This plot I was determined to resist and defeat, if I could; and accordingly I embraced the first overtures from France to make peace with her upon terms honorable and ad- vantageous to the United States. This was completely effected. In my letters in the Boston Patriot before referred to, from April « 10th, 1809, to June 10th, 1809, you will see the history of the rise and progress of the negotiations with France, which led to that happy conclusion.1 On the subject of that happy conclu- sion, I have a few words hereafter to say. Meantime, what shall I do with these letters and the subject of them ? I have no inclination to publish them. They will remain in my letter- book, to enable my children to apologize for my memory. You are at liberty to quote them hardily whenever and wherever

' Vol. ix. pp. 241 - 310, of the present work.

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you please. You may show them, or print them, if you will. And I will give an account of all the reason that is in me to any gentleman, who in his proper name shall ask me any questions about them. If they were all printed in a pamphlet, I should admire to read an Edinburgh or Quarterly review of it. If I could see Mr. Bristed, I would ask him to print them as an appendix to the second edition of his Hints. Shall I send the documents to our Historical Society ? to our Antiqua- rian Society ? or to the Historical Society of New York, where, I believe, they would be more welcome ? or shall I still keep them locked in my desk ?

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 31 March, 1815.

Before I proceed to St. Domingo, I have a few words more to say. And, after all, I expect to forget and omit more than half that I ought to say. In my last, I hinted at the happy conclusion of the peace with France in 1801, and its fortunate effects and consequences. Here, Sir, I must ask indulgence. I cannot repent of my " strong character." Whether I have one or not, I know not. I am not conscious of any character stronger than common. If I have such a nature, it was given me. I shall neither be rewarded nor punished for it. For all my foibles, strong or weak, I hold myself responsible to God and man. I hope to be forgiven for what I humbly acknow- ledge I cannot justify, and not be too severely censured for what, in my circumstances, " humana parum cavet natural I did not humble France, nor have the combined efforts of em- perors and kings humbled her, and, I hope, she never will be humbled below Austria, Russia, or England. But I humbled the French Directory as much as all Europe has humbled Bo- naparte. I purchased navy yards, which would now sell for double their cost with compound interest. I built frigates^ manned a navy, and selected officers with great anxiety and care, who perfectly protected our commerce, and gained virgin victories against the French, and who afterwards acquired such laurels in the Mediterranean, and who have lately emblazoned

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themselves and their country with a naval glory, which I trem- ble to think of. God forbid that American Saaval power should ever be such a scourge to the human race as that of Great Britain has been ! I was engaged in the most earnest, sedulous, and, I must own, expensive exertions to preserve peace with the Indians, and prepare them for agriculture and civilization,

through the whole of my administration. I had the inexpres- sible satisfaction of complete success. Not a hatchet was lifted in my time ; and the single battle of Tippecanoe has since cost the United States a hundred times more money than it cost me to maintain universal and perpetual peace. I finished the de- marcation of limits, and settled all controversies with Spain. I made the composition with England, for all the old Virginia debts, and all the other American debts, the most snarling, an- gry, thorny, scabreux negotiation that ever mortal ambassador, king, prince, emperor, or president was ever plagued with. I say I made it, and so I did, though the treaty was not ratified till Jefferson came in. My labors were indefatigable to com- pose all difficulties and settle all controversies with all nations, civilized and savage. And I had complete and perfect success, and left my country at peace with all the world, upon terms consistent with the honor and interest of the United States, and with all our relations with other nations, and all our obli- gations by the law of nations or by treaties. This is so true, that no nation or individual ever uttered a complaint of injury, insult, or offence. I had suppressed an insurrection in Penn- sylvania, and effectually humbled and punished the insurgents ; not by assembling an army of militia from three or four States, and marching in all the pride, pomp, and circumstance of war, at an expense of millions, but silently, without noise, and at a trifling expense. I pardoned Fries ; and what would a triumph- ant, victorious, and intoxicated party, not to say faction, under the "command-in-chief" of John Randolph, have done with honest Judge Chase and Judge Peters, if I had hanged him ? But I am not about to laugh off this question. What good, what example would have been exhibited to the nation by the execution of three or four obscure, miserable Germans, as igno- rant of our language as they were of our laws, and the nature and definition of treason ? Pitiful puppets danced upon the wires of jugglers behind the scene or under ground. But I am

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not going to make an apology here. Had the mountebanks been in the place of the puppets, mercy would have had a harder struggle to obtain absolution for them.

The verdict of a jury, and the judgment of the court, would, to be sure, have justified me in the opinion of the nation, and in the judgment of the world, if I had signed the warrant for their execution ; but neither, nor both, could have satisfied my con- science, nor tranquillized my feelings. If I had entertained only a doubt of their guilt, notwithstanding verdicts and judg- ments, it was my duty to pardon them. But my determination did not rest upon so wavering a foundation as a doubt.

My judgment was clear, that their crime did not amount to treason. They had been guilty of a high-handed riot and res- cue, attended with circumstances hot, rash, violent, and dan- gerous, but all these did not amount to treason. And I thought the officers of the law had been injudicious in indicting them for any crime higher than riot, aggravated by rescue. Here I rest my cause on this head, and proceed to another.

As I am not now writing a history of my administration, I will sum up all I have to say in a few words. I left my coun- try in peace and harmony with all the world, and after all my " extravagant expenses " and " wanton waste of public money," I left navy yards, fortifications, frigates, timber, naval stores, manufactories of cannon and arms, and a treasury full of five millions of dollars. This was all done step by step, against perpetual oppositions, clamors and reproaches, such as no other President ever had to encounter, and with a more feeble, divided, and incapable support than has ever fallen to the lot of any admi- nistration before or since. For this I was turned out of office, degraded and disgraced by my country ; and I was glad of it. I felt no disgrace, because I felt no remorse. It has given me fourteen of the happiest years of my life ; and I am certain I could not have lasted one year more in that station, shackled in the chains of that arbitrary faction.

Virtus, repulsae nescia sordidae, Intaminatis fidget honoribus ; Nee sumit aut ponit secures Arbitrio popularis aurse.

As I had been intimately connected with Mr. Jefferson in

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friendship and affection for five-and-twenty years, I well knew his crude and visionary notions of government as well as his learning, taste, and talent in other arts and sciences. I expectecT \ * his reign would be very nearly what it has been. I regretted it, but could not help it. At the same time, I thought it would be better than following the fools who were intriguing to plunge us into an alliance with England, an endless war with all the rest of the world, and wild expeditions to South America and St. Domingo ; and, what was worse than all the rest, a civil war, which I knew would be the consequence of the measures the heads of that party wished to pursue.

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 5 April, 1815.

The halcyon days of New England prosperity were the first six years of Mr. Jefferson's administration. Was this felicity owing to the wisdom, the virtue, or the energy of Mr. Jefferson ? Or was it the natural, necessary, and unavoidable effect of the universal peace and tranquillity abroad and at home, and with universal nature, civilized and "savage, entailed upon him by his predecessor, in spite of friends and enemies ?

Had Mr. Hamilton and his host, for he was " commander-in- chief," been good citizens, submitted to the legitimate consti- tuted authorities, relaxed their rigid, bigoted monopolies and exclusions, suffered the executive to be independent and mode- rate the fury of parties, the federal administration might and would have been triumphant, might have had a navy, might have maintained their neutrality. But, alas ! Hamilton would not endure it. " Othello's occupation was gone," and jealousy and Moorish revenge again stabbed and murdered Desdemona. And Deacon Phillips has called a noble block of buildings " Hamilton place," in lasting honor of Othello ! Such is the honor, the dignity, the virtue, the piety, the religion, the moral- ity, the patriotism, the philanthropy, of the head-quarters of principles, sometimes good and sometimes bad !

Such was the faD of the house that Jack built. Such the

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overthrow of the lofty palace, the sublime and beautiful build- ing that he then thought, and still thinks, he had erected and finished, though he all along knew he was building on the sand ; he could only lament, as he did, that he could not find a rock. He was sometimes vain and foolish enough to please himself wdth visions of studies and labors to promote the felicity of the nation, by encouraging agriculture, commerce, certain manufactures, national defence, safety and security by fortifica- tions and wooden walls, by arts and sciences, by systems of education, and by canals and roads ; but he soon saw that such delights were forbidden to him, and he submitted to the decree. He thought he had answered the end of his creation, as far as he could see any use of his existence upon earth, and was con- tent it should come to an end, physically or politically, if it was the pleasure of the Supreme Ruler.

But I cannot relieve you yet. You must read a little more curious history. There is extant a volume in print, Boston, 1810, published by Edward Oliver, 70 State street, " The history of Don Francisco de Miranda's Attempt to effect a Revolution in South America," with a very apt motto from Shakspeare, " Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot unlikely wonders." If ever more unlikely wonders were plotted in this world than those plotted by Pitt, Miranda, and King, I have never read them in history or romance. There is not an Arabian tale more extravagant. This volume deserves your perusal, and so do the writings of Nimrod Hughes and Christopher Macpher- son, quite as much as those of Paine, Callender, and Hamilton, for without them you never can know the character of your country and its government. I shall leave this volume to your perusal, and proceed to something which has harrowed up my soul and all its feelings. I neither know, nor suspect, nor have ever heard of a conjecture, who the author of this history is. I know not whether I had heard a rumor, retired as I was, of the arrival of Miranda in America, when I received a letter from Dr. Rush, informing me that General Miranda had been in Philadelphia, had visited him, dined with him, and given him an account of the politics of all the courts of Europe, as fami- liarly as if he had been in the inside of all the kings and princes. Miranda was then upon his return from Washington, where he had conversed with Jefferson and Madison, and Rush assured

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me that Miranda had assured him that we should have no war with Spain. I thought little more of the matter. I considered Miranda as a vagrant, a vagabond, a Quixotic adventurer, and cared no more about him than about Abraham Brown or Par- son Austin.

How can I proceed in the narration ? The next news I heard was that Miranda had sailed a fortnight or three weeks before, with a military and naval armament to set South America free ; and that my grandson, W^J^Smith, had been taken from col- lege, when senior sophister, on the point of taking his degree, and sent with Miranda to liberate South America. "What do you think were my sensations and reflections ? I shudder to this moment at the recollection of them. I saw the ruin of my only daughter, and her good-hearted, enthusiastic husband, and had no other hope or wish or prayer than that the ship, with my grandson in it, might _be sunk in a storm in the Gulf stream, where I had myself been for three days in momentary danger and expectation of perishing in 1778, eight-and-twenty years before !

I had never the most distant intimation or suspicion of this expedition, till I heard it had been at sea for weeks. I can truly say, that information that the ship had gone to the bottom would at the same moment have been an alleviation of my grief. I gave up my grandson as lost fore verL But what could I think of his father ? Was he more mad than Pitt or King ?

In course of time, news came that my grandson was in prison at Caraccas, with many of his companions, waiting for trial and execution. Yrujo, who had known me in Europe and America, came forward with an offer to Interpose for a pardon for my grandson. I took no notice of it. No ! My blood should flow upon a Spanish scaffold, before I would meanly ask or accept a distinction in favor of my grandson. No ! He should share the fate of his colleagues, comrades, and fellow- prisoners. Colonel Smith answered Yrujo in a style that atoned in some measure for his previous imprudence, in a lan- guage consistent with his professed principle, however erro- neous, in the whole enterprise ; in short, in the tone of the elder Brutus, when he sacrificed his sons for conspiring with Tarquin.

When Mr. Bristed, in his " Broad Hints," announced John Adams as the defeater of Mr. Pitt's and Mr. King's projects for

vol. x. 14

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separating South America from Spain, I printed in the Patriot a short apology for my conduct, and some of the documents I have sent you. In consequence of that publication, I soon received the letter and paper, which I will now inclose to you with the request that you will return them to me. The letter is dated " Baltimore, June 7th, 1810," and signed " B. Irvine, Edit. "Whig." The object of the letter was, as it professed to be, " to obtain farther information on the subject of Miranda's project, and the designs of the British ministry, or rather the reason why the valuable information communicated by me to the public relative to that project was so long withheld, to the

injury of Mr. Jefferson's character, and to the danger of the commonwealth." Inclosed with this letter was the newspaper called the Whig, of June 7th, 1810, in the second column of the second page of which you will find a paragraph, headed "An explanation wanted," in which I am called to an account, somewhat rudely and impertinently, and by implication, at least, charged or suspected of aiming to waft my son into place, and restore myself to favor.

I have never answered this letter, nor acknowledged its re- ceipt, nor taken any notice of it or its Whig. Who was this Mr. Irvine ? Who his honest inquirers ? What authority had they to catechize me ? Did they think that I had courted the mission of my son to Russia ? I had infinitely rather he had remained at home in his private station. I could have told them, that a general suspicion ran through the continent, which indeed prevails to this day, that he was sent away as a danger- ous rival, too near the throne. What favor had I to restore myself to ? What have I to restore myself to ? What favor have I ever asked of government or people ? Never once since I came out of my mother's womb. Miranda's expedition from New York was infinitely better known to Jefferson and Madi- json than" to me. I never had the least intimation or suspicion of it, till he had been three weeks at sea.

I will also inclose an estimate in Spanish, sent me by Mi- randa, of the Spanish dominions in South America, with a translation in English, made by a Spanish gentleman, a go- vernor of Chili, who said the estimate was very low. All those regions, however, were to become republican under our confederation !

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TO RICHARD RUSH.

Quincy, 5 April, 1815.

Your two letters of the 27th ultimo have been received, with the inclosures, for all which I thank you.

You ask " some reflections of my own." My dear Sir, it would require a folio volume to give you the histories, disserta- tions, and discussions which you require. How can I, sans eyes, sans hands, sans memory, sans clerks, sans secretaries, sans aids-de-camp, sans amanuensis, undertake to write folios ?

Let me ask you, Mr. Rush, is the sovereignty of this nation a gift ? a grant ? a concession ? a conveyance ? or a release and acquittance from Great Britain ? Pause here and think. No ! The people, in 1774, by the right which nature and nature's God had given them, confiding in original right, and original power, in 1774 assumed powers of sovereignty. In 1775, they assmned greater power. In July 4th, 1776, they assumed ab- solute unlimited sovereignty in relation to other nations, in all cases whatsoever ; no longer acknowledging any authority over them but that of God Almighty, and the laws of nature and of nations. The war from 4th of July, 1776, to 30th of November, 1782, six years and some months, was only an appeal to Heaven in defence of our sovereignty. Heaven decided in our favor; and -Britain was forced not to give, grant, concede, or release our independence, but to acknowledge it, in terms as clear as our language afforded, and under seal and under oath.

Now, Sir, they say that the late war has annihilated our treaty of 1782, and its definitive in 1783. Let me ask, has it annihilated our independence and our sovereignty ? It has annihilated our sovereignty as effectually as it has any one par- ticle of our rights and liberties in the fisheries. We asked not our independence as a grant, a gift, a concession from Great Britain. We demanded, insisted upon it as our right, derived from God, nature, and our own swords. The article in the treaty ought to have been, " The United States have been for seven years, now are, and of right ought to be free, sovereign, and independent States." But it was not thought necessary to hurt the delicacy of royal or popular feelings by language so emphatical, though so literally true.

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Now, Sir, does not the article relative to the fisheries stand upon the same foundation with that of our independence ? We claim and demand the fisheries in their utmost extent, from God and nature and our own swords, as we did our independ- ence. And we will have them, God willing.

Neither nature nor art has partitioned the sea into empires, kingdoms, republics, or states. There are no dukedoms, earl- doms, baronies, or knight's fees, no freeholds, pleasure grounds, ornamented or unornamented farms, gardens, parks, groves, or forests there, appropriated to nations or individuals, as there are upon land. Let Mahomet, and the Pope, and Great Britain say what they will, mankind will act the part of slaves and cowards, if they suffer any nation to usurp dominion over the ocean or any portion of it. Neither the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the four seas, or the North Sea, are the peculium of any nation. The ocean and its treasures are the common property of all men, and we have a natural right to navigate the ocean and to fish in it, whenever and wherever we please. Upon this broad and deep and strong foundation do I build, and with this cogent and irresistible argument do I fortify our rights and liberties irf the fisheries on the coasts as well as on the banks, namely, the gift and grant of God Almighty in his creation of man, and his land and water ; and, with resignation only to the eternal counsels of his Providence, they never will and never shall be surrendered to any human authority or any thing but divine power.

You will accuse me of the bathos, if I descend from this height to any inferior ground ; but the same rights from the same source may be deduced and illustrated through another channel.

2. We have a right — (I know not very well how to express it) — but we have the rights of British subjects. Not that we are now British subjects ; not that we were British subjects at the treaty of 1783, but as having been British subjects, and entitled to all the rights, liberties, privileges, and immunities of British subjects, which we had possessed before the revolution, which we never had surrendered, forfeited, or relinquished, and which we never would relinquish any farther than in that treaty is expressed. Our right was clear and indubitable to fish in all places in the sea where British subjects had fished or ever had a right to fish.

3. We have a stronger and clearer right to all these fisheries

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in their largest extent than any Britons or Europeans ever had or could have, for they were all indebted to us and our ances- tors for all these fisheries. We discovered them ; we explored them; we settled the country, at our own expense, industry, and labor, without assistance from Britain or from Europe. We possessed, occupied, exercised, and practised them from the beginning. We have done more towards exploring the best fishing grounds and stations, and all the harbors, bays, inlets, creeks, coasts, and shores, where fish were to be found, and had discovered by experiments the best means and methods of preserving, curing, drying, and perfecting the commodity, and done more towards perfecting the commerce in it, than all the Britons, and all the rest of Europe.

4. We conquered Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, dispossessed the French, both hostile and neutral, and did more, in propor- tion, towards the conquest of Canada, than any other portion of the British empire ; and would and could and should have done the whole, at an easier expense to ourselves, both of men and money, if the British government would have permitted that union of colonies, which we projected, planned, earnestly desired, and humbly petitioned. In short, we had done more, in proportion, towards protecting and defending all these fisheries against the French, than any other part of the British empire. For all these reasons, if there is a people under heaven who could advance a claim or a color of a pretension to any exclusive privileges in the fisheries, or any rights in one part of the old British empire more than another, that people are the inhabitants of the United States of America, especially of New England. But we set up no claims but those asserted and acknowledged in the treaty of 1783. These we do assert, and these we will have and maintain.

As you ask my opinion, it is that stipulations in acknow- ledgment of antecedent rights, in affirmance of maxims of equity and principles of natural and public law, if they are suspended during war, are revived in full force on the restora- tion of peace. Former treaties, not formally repeated in a new treaty, are presumed to be received and acknowledged. The fisheries are therefore ours, and the navigation of the Mississippi theirs, that is the British, as much as ever. I will answer any question you may ask.

If K

162 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO JAMES LLOYD.

Quincy, 24 April, 1815.

I have not yet treated your letters to me, which I esteem above all price, with the respect they deserve, nor indeed with common civility. I cannot but hope, that in the great order of things, which we for the moment are so apt to think confusion, tome good may accrue to our country from this correspondence.

In your favor of February 6th, 1815, you have given a pro- verb, a maxim of more value to the statesmen of this nation than diamonds. " The progress of the horseman can only be proportioned to the speed of his horse." Had Hamilton, the " commander-in-chief" of both houses of Congress, of all the five heads of departments of General Washington, and conse- quently of the President of the United States, been aware of your principle, and acted upon it, the revolution of 1801 would not have happened. There is no rodomontade, no exaggera- tion, Mr. Lloyd, in this language. In essence, it is strictly true.

Your allusion to the trial of Captain Preston and his soldiers, touches me more nearly than you can imagine. To this hour my conduct in it is remembered, and is alleged against me to prove that I am an enemy to my country, and always have been. It was one of those cases, of which I could give you the history of many, in which my head or my heart, and perhaps a conspiracy of both, compelled me to differ in opinion from all my friends, to set at defiance all their advice, their remon- strances, their raillery, their ridicule, their censures, and their sarcasms, without acquiring one symptom of pity from my enemies.

I could give you several other anecdotes, curious enough, perhaps memorable, of the same kind, which, if you wish to read them, shall be at your service. At present, I will confine myself to one.

After the battles or skirmishes of Concord and Lexington on the 19th of April, 1775, the militia of Massachusetts, Connecti- cut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, marched to Cambridge, Roxbury, Medford, Charlestown, &c, to drive the British army into the sea ; and if their first ardor had not been restrained by considerations of the Union of the Colonies, they would have done it,

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When, in the beginning of May, Congress met, no man knew whether the skirmish at Concord, the battle of Lexington, or the assembly of an army of militia at Cambridge and the other neighborhood of Boston, in hostile array against his Majesty's regular, disciplined, and veteran troops and fleets, would be approved or condemned by that continental assembly. Those who had been members the year before, that is, in 1774, and now met the same gentlemen again, I assure you had great reasons for doubts and apprehensions, fears and jealousies.

The army at Cambridge had poor arms, no cannon but the Hancock and Adams, no tents, no barracks, no provisions but from day to day, no clothing for change, no magazines, very little powder, and but few balls. Congress could not be brought to look the crisis in the face. It was easy to see that the mem- bers dared not, either on the one hand, to command or advise the assemblage about Boston to disperse and go home, or on the other, to approve and adopt it as a continental army. A majority of them lived in hourly expectation of news, that the British troops had marched out of the town of Boston, and scattered the militia of New England, at Cambridge, to the four winds. For the opinion, that four or five thousand regulars could march where they pleased in America, was not peculiar to parliament or ministry. As many believed it in this country, in proportion, as in England. But when days and weeks passed away, and instead of any such intelligence, all accounts agreed that the Britons were completely imprisoned in the town, they began to think what must be done, and the people began to be clamorous that something should be done. Should they give up the contest ? No. The people, at least the Whigs, out of doors, and in their own colonies, would stone them. Should they adopt the army at Cambridge, or raise a new one of their own ? This last project would require a long time, and it was very uncertain whether it would ever be practicable. If they adopted the army now on foot, who should command it? A New England army under a New England General, they were pleased to say, would be dangerous to the other colonies, for no man then dared to utter the word State or nation. Who, then, should be General? On this question, the members were greatly divided. A number were for Mr. Han- cock, then President of Congress, and extremely popular

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throughout the United Colonies, and called " King Hancock " all over Europe. A greater number (can you believe it ?) were for General Charles Lee, then in Philadelphia, extremely assi- duous in his visits to all the members of Congress at their lodg- ings, and universally represented in America as a classical and universal scholar, as a scientific soldier, and as one of the greatest generals in the world, who had seen service with Bur- goyne in Portugal and in Poland, &c, and who was covered over with wounds he had received in battles. In short, this General Lee was a kind of precursor of Miranda. He excited much such an enthusiasm, and made as many proselytes and partisans. A number were for Washington. But the greatest number were for Ward.

In the midst of this chaos, the Massachusetts delegates daily received letters from their friends and constituents at home, entreating them to urge Congress to a decision, for the army wanted many things, and every thing was uncertain. The anxiety of New England, and her members in Congress, may be well imagined, may be easily conceived. In this state of things, John Adams, who had previously taken unwearied pains with his own colleagues, and with other members, in private, to form some plan and agree upon something to be done, with- out success, met Samuel Adams in the State House yard in Philadelphia, from various walks and avocations. " What shall we do to get Congress to adopt our army ? " said Samuel Adams to John Adams. " I will tell you what I am determined to do," said John to Samuel. " I have taken pains enough to bring you to agree upon something, but you will not agree upon any thing, and now I am determined to take my own way, let come what will come." " Well," said Sa- muel, " what is your scheme ? " Said John to Samuel, " I will go to Congress this morning, and move, that a day be ap- pointed to take into consideration the adoption of the army before Boston, the appointment of a General, and officers ; and I will nominate Washington for commander-in-chief." J

From this narration it appears, that Washington was the creature of a principle, and that principle was the Union of the

1 The. account which follows is a mere amplification of that given in the Autobiography, vol. ii. pp. 416 - 418, and omitted on that account.

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Colonies. He knew it, and it is not wonderful that he preached union. But is it not wonderful that one party should now found their arguments in favor of union, principally on the authority of Washington, and that the other party, in his name, and under pretence of his authority, should intrigue and cabal the destruction of the Union ? Good God ! Is there a man or woman in the United States, of common sense and information, who wants the authority of Washington to prove the necessity of Union ? Is there one who can abuse the name of Washing- ton, to influence a separation or division ? From this narration it also appears, that the boast of your correspondent, Mr. Ran- dolph, is vain and unfounded. We owe no thanks to Virginia for Washington. Virginia is indebted to Massachusetts for Washington, not Massachusetts to Virginia. Massachusetts made him a general against the inclination of Virginia. Vir- ginia never made him more than a colonel.

Would Mr. Randolph now say, that John Adams was " ill- omened " in his exertions to get Washington appointed a gene- ral, not only against the judgment and inclinations of his own colleagues, but of the most respectable and able of the dele- gates from Virginia herself?

Is there, Mr. Lloyd, in the history of nations an example of submission to a mere point of policy, to be compared to the compliance of New England, their general, their army and all its officers, with an arrangement, which placed a total stranger over the heads and bodies of them all ? At a moment, too, when they were flushed with victory at Bunker's Hill ? For a victory indeed it was, the most important event, and to this day, the most glorious action in the history of North America. It gave unshaken confidence to the people, from New Hamp- shire to Georgia, in their own valor, which nine tenths of them to that hour had doubted. It was not owing to any want of sensibility, I assure you, Sir, that no public remonstrance was made, and no public murmurs heard. Poor John Adams, upon his return to the army and his constituents, had enough to do to apologize for the part he had taken in the change. " Was there ever known, in the history of the world, an instance of changing the commander-in-chief of an army in the sight of an enemy, and in hourly expectation of another battle more bloody

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and desperate than the first ? Was it not unexampled to su- persede a general, a commander-in-chief, universally esteemed, beloved and confided in by his army and their country, by ap- pointing another, an entire stranger, whom they had never seen, whose name they had scarcely heard? Was there another army or country that would submit to it ? Was it not asto- nishing that a high-spirited, independent militia had not shoul- dered their firelocks and marched home ? or at least refused to receive the new commander? Was it not to have been ex- pected, that the officers would have resigned their commissions, when such a flight of officers of high rank, all strangers, was sent and placed over them ? How could you, in such critical circumstances, assist in putting the cause of your country at such imminent hazard ? "

These questions, Mr. Lloyd, and many other questions of similar import, were put to me wherever I went, by my best friends, and I had no other way to soften their hard thoughts, but by appeals to their patriotism, by urging the policy and necessity of sacrificing all our feelings to the union of the colo- nies, and by panegyrics upon Washington, Lee, Gates, Mifflin, Reed, &c. In a few words, I was subjected to almost as bitter exprobrations for creating Washington commander-in-chief, as I had been, five years before, for saving Preston and his soldiers from an unrighteous judgment and execution. Are not these facts as new to you as any political tale that could be brought you from Arabia, or by a special messenger from Sirius, the dog-star ?

Should I take the oath of Thuanus, the great martyr to the faint ideas of his age, of religious liberty, " Pro veritate historia- rum me arum Deum ipsum obtestor" would you believe me? It is sufficient for me to say that the facts are true, and I attest them with my hand.

TO THOMAS MCKEAN.

Quincy, 6 July, 1815.

Your friendly letter of the 1st of this memorable month, bear- ing in the handwriting, the sentiments, and the arrangement,

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every mark of undecayed vigor of mind and body, while it delights me in every other point of view, mortifies me by a comparison with my own quivering infirmities, which make it painful and difficult for me to write.

The history of mankind, as far as we can trace it, is full of wonders, and the greatest wonder of all is, the total destruction of all the monuments and memorials by which we could have formed a correct and impartial judgment of characters and events. The present question before the human race, that great democratical tribunal, is whether the jus divinum is in men or in magistrates ; in human nature or in instituted offices ; in human understanding or in holy oil ; in good sense and sound morality, or in crowns, sceptres, crosses, and Episcopal and Presbyterian ordination. When and where shall we date the commencement of these struggles? I fear it must be from the death of Abel. But, to leap over all former ages and nations, shall we begin with Constantine and the council of Nice ? With Clovis ? With the Crusades ? With the wars of the Hussites ? With Luther ? With Charles V., Louis XIV. ? Shall we recollect the Waldenses, the powder plot, the Irish massacre, St. Bartholomew's day, Robespierre, or Equality, the Duke of Orleans, or his predecessor, the Regent of France, and his Mississippi bubble ? Shall we come down to Napoleon and the grand council at Vienna ? These are all

" Bubbles on the sea of matter borne."

The question is still before the democratical tribunal of the human race. Is the Court as yet sufficiently enlightened to give a verdict and judgment, and according to law ? Will the verdict be in favor of Zinzendorf, or Swedenborg, or Whitefield, or Wesley, or Hopkins, or Priestley, or Voltaire ? Philosophy and religion will still mix with politics, and both, like matter, are infinitely indivisible. As the mariners say, " I can yet see no blue sky." Your parallel between John and J. Q,. is amus- ing enough. Whether it will continue a step or two farther, is a question before the democratical tribunal, and there I leave it. But I have a presentiment, that if it should be protracted for a leap or two, it will end in a perfect resemblance of disgrace, contempt, or neglect.

Mr. Madison's administration has proved great points long disputed in Europe and America.

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1. He has proved, that an administration under our present Constitution can declare war.

2. That it can make peace.

3. That money or no money, government or no government, Great Britain can never conquer this country or any consider- able part of it.

4. That our officers and men by land are equal to any from Spain and Portugal.

5. That our trans- Alleghanian States, in patriotism, bravery, enterprise, and perseverance, are at least equal to any in the Union.

6. That our navy is equal, ceteris paribus, to any that ever floated.

In a few minutes I shall be elevated to your honorable rank of an octogenarian.

TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.

Philadelphia, 13 July, 1815.

I have read D'Argens' Ocellus, Timssus, and Julian. In- stead of being sincere, he appears to me to be a consummate hypocrite, in the beginning, the middle, and the end ; the most frank, candid, impudent, and sincere liar I ever read. It is plain that he believed neither Old Testament nor New, neither Moses nor Jesus. He labors to destroy the credibility of the whole Bible, and all the evidence of a future state, and all this for the sake of establishing the infallibility of the Pope and the church, the necessity of forbidding the Bible to the people, and placing all religion in grace, and its offspring, faith. Among all the disciples of Loyola, I never read a more perfect Jesuit. He is a complete exemplification of Condorcet's " precious con- fessions," as you called them. You speak of his " superficial reflections." I have not found them. They are all deep, and aiming at the same end, a complete system of Antichristianity. No epic poem, no dramatic romance, not even Don Quixote himself, ever amused me more. Call him not superficial ; his Greek and his Latin are remarkably correct, his reading is immense, his system pursued with undeviating uniformity.

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I thank you for your letters to Mr. Everett, who, I believe, will not disgrace you or me. Frederic's works are in my library over the way. But I have lost my George,1 who alone could look them up, and I am too indolent to go in search of them. Indeed, I have no great veneration for the hero, — not more than for Napoleon. He was more " superficial " than D' Argens.

You ask, " What ! have you more grandchildren about you ? " Yes, I have four pretty little creatures, who, though they dis- arrange my writing-table, give me much of my enjoyment. Why, you seem to know nothing about me. I have grand- children and great grandchildren, multiplying like the seed of Abraham. You have no idea of the prolific quality of the New England Adamses. Why, we have contributed more to the population of North America, and cut down more trees, than any other race ; and I hope will furnish hereafter, if they should be wanted, more soldiers and sailors for the defence of their country.

If, as our friend De Gyselaer says, " it were lawful to envy," I should envy Mrs. Vanderkemp, her children and grandchildren, their delicious meeting. It must be as delightful as any thing we find in this pleasant world, as I call it. I cannot call it " a vale of tears." This is false philosophy and false Christianity. If it is at any time a vale of tears, we make it such.

My friend, what opportunities have I had to do good things, and how few have I done ! I am ashamed, I grieve, I am mortified and humiliated, at the recollection of what I have been and where I have been. Yet, I have done nothing to reproach myself with. I have done all in my power to do, and have been overwhelmed by a dispensation, uncontrollable by any talents or virtues I possessed.

My friend, again ! the question before mankind is, — how shall I state it ? It is, whether authority is from nature and reason, or from miraculous revelation ; from the revelation from God, by the human understanding, or from the revelation to Moses and to Constantine, and the Council of Nice. Whether it re- sides in men or in offices. Whether offices, spiritual and tem- poral, are instituted by men, or whether they are self-created and instituted themselves. Whether they were or were not

1 A grandson, who had lived in his family until now. VOL. X. 15

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brought down from Heaven in a phial of holy oil, sent by the Holy Ghost, by an angel incarnated in a dove, to anoint the head of Clovis, a more cruel tyrant than Frederic or Napoleon. Are the original principles of authority in human nature, or in stars, garters, crosses, golden fleeces, crowns, sceptres, and thrones ? These profound and important questions have been agitated and discussed, before that vast democratical congrega- tion, mankind, for more than five hundred years. How many crusades, how many Hussite wars, how many powder plots, St. Bartholomew's days, Irish massacres, Albigensian massacres, and battles of Marengo have intervened ! Sub judice lis est. Will Zinzendorf, Swedenborg, Whitefield, or Wesley prevail? Or will St. Ignatius Loyola inquisitionize and jesuitize them all ? Alas, poor human nature ! Thou art responsible to thy Maker and to thyself for an impartial verdict and judgment.

" Monroe's treaty ! " I care no more about it than about the mote that floats in the sunbeams before my eyes. The British minister acted the part of a horse-jockey. He annexed a rider that annihilated the whole treaty.

You are " a dissenter from me in politics and religion." So you say. I cannot say that I am a dissenter from you in either, because I know not your sentiments in either. Tell me plainly your opinions in both, and I will tell you, as plainly, mine. I hate polemical politics and polemical divinity as cordially as you do, yet my mind has been involved in them sixty-five years at least. For this whole period I have searched after truth by every means and by every opportunity in my power, and with a sincerity and impartiality, for which I can appeal to God, my adored Maker. My religion is founded on the love of God and my neighbor; on the hope of pardon for my offences; upon contrition ; upon the duty as well as necessity of supporting with patience the inevitable evils of life ; in the duty of doing no wrong, but all the good I can, to the creation, of which I am but an infinitesimal part. Are you a dissenter from this

(religion ? I believe, too, in a future state of rewards and punishments, but not eternal.

You have again read Tacitus. What do you think of his religion, his philosophy, his morality ? When Nero wished he could cut off the heads of the whole Roman empire with one stroke of his falchion, was this sentiment dictated by tyranny

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or philosophy, or humanity? And if any man should wish he could cut off the head of every Frenchman, Englishman, or Russian, at one blow, would he not be as wise, as benevolent, and philosophical ? And those who wish they could decapitate Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, are they wiser or better?

As I did not expect to hear again from that manly character, my respected and beloved friend, De Gyselaer, your communi- cation has been very delightful. Tell him, that although the affairs of my country have been administered in many respects very differently from my system, yet they have not been upon the whole so ill conducted as I fear he has been taught to be- lieve. We have made advances, we have acquired glory, we have gained confidence in our Union, our Constitution, and our administration.

If I had good eyes and fingers, I could write you sheets, if not volumes ; but I must soon cease to write at all, even the name of

John Adams.

TO THOMAS MCKEAN.

Quiney, 30 July, 1815.

Who shall write the history of the American Revolution? Who can write it ? Who will ever be able to write it ? The most essential documents, the debates and deliberations in Congress, from 1774 to 1783, were all in secret, and are now lost forever. Mr. Dickinson printed a speech, which he said he made in Congress against the declaration of independence ; but it appeared to me very different from that which you and I heard. Dr. Witherspoon has published speeches, which he wrote beforehand, and delivered memoriter, as he did his ser- mons. But these, I believe, are the only speeches ever com- mitted to writing. The orations, while I was in Congress, from 1774 to 1778, appeared to me very universally extemporaneous, and I have never heard of any committed to writing, before or after delivery.

These questions have been suggested to me by a review in the Analectic Magazine for May, 1815, published in Philadel-

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phia, p. 385, of the Chevalier Botta's " Storia delta guerra Ame- ricana." The reviewers inform us, that it is the best history of the revolution that has ever been written. This Italian clas- sic has followed the example of the Greek and Roman histo- rians, by composing speeches for his generals and orators. The reviewers have translated one of Mr. R. H. Lee, in favor of the declaration of independence. A splendid morsel of oratory it is ; how faithful, you can judge.

I wish to know your sentiments and opinions of this publi- cation. Some future Miss Porter may hereafter make as shin- ing a romance of what passed in Congress, while in conclave, as her Scottish Chiefs.

Your friend, durante vita.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 24 August, 1815.

If I am neither deceived by the little information I have, or by my wishes for its truth, I should say that France is the most Protestant country of Europe at this time, though I cannot think it the most reformed. In consequence of these reveries, I have imagined that Camus and the Institute meant, by the revival and continuance of the Acta Sanctorum, to destroy the Pope and the Catholic church hierarchies, de fond en comble, or in the language of Frederic, Voltaire, D'Alembert, &c, " e eraser le miserable" " crush the wretch." This great work must con- tain the most complete History of the Corruptions of Christian- ity that has ever appeared, Priestley's not excepted, and his History of Ancient Opinions not excepted.

As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the revolution ? The war ? That was no part of the revolution ; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lex- ington. The records of thirteen legislatures, the pamphlets, newspapers in all the colonies, ought to be consulted during

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that period, to ascertain the steps by which the public opinion was enlightened and informed concerning the authority of par- liament over the colonies. The Congress of 1774 resembled in some respects, though I hope not in many, the Council of Nice in ecclesiastical history. It assembled the priests from the east and the west, the north and the south, who compared notes, engaged in discussions and debates, and formed results, by one vote and by two votes, which went out to the^world as unani- mous.

Mr. Madison's notes of the Convention of 1787, are consist- ent with his indefatigable character. I shall never see them, but I hope posterity will.

That our correspondence has been observed, is no wonder, for your hand is more universally known than your face. No printer has asked me for copies, but it is no surprise that you have been requested. These gentry will print whatever will sell ; and our correspondence is thought such an oddity by both parties, that they imagine an edition would soon go off, and yield them profits. There has, however, been no tampering with your letters to me. They have all arrived in good order.

Poor Bonaparte ! Poor devil ! What has and what will be- come of him ? Going the way of King Theodore, Alexander, Caesar, Charles XII., Cromwell, Wat Tyler, and Jack Cade; that is, to a bad end. And what will become of Wellington ? , , , Envied, hated, despised by all the barons, earls, viscounts, marquises, as an upstart, a parvenu, elevated over their heads (for these people have no idea of any merit but birth), Welling- ton must pass the rest of his days buffeted, ridiculed, scorned, and insulted by factions, as Marlborough and his duchess did.1 Military glory dazzles the eyes of mankind, and for a time eclipses all wisdom, all virtue, all laws, human and divine ; and after this it would be bathos to descend to services merely civil or political.

Napoleon has imposed kings upon Spain, Holland, Sweden, Westphalia, Saxony, Naples, &c. The combined emperors and kings are about to retaliate upon France, by imposing a king upon her. These are all abominable examples, detestable pre- cedents. When will the rights of mankind, the liberties and in-

1 This prediction has by no means been justified by the event. No man ever lived and died more honored by his country.

15*

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\

dependence of nations be respected?, ,.When the perfectibility

of the human race shall arrive at perfection. When the progress of Manilius's ratio shall have not only

" Eripuit coelo fulmen Jovisque fulgores,"

but made mankind rational creatures. V It remains to be seen whether the allies were honest in their declaration, that they were at war only with Napoleon.

Can the French ever be cordially reconciled to the Bourbons again ? If not, who can they find for a head ? The infant, or one of the generals ? Innumerable difficulties will embarrass either project.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quiney, 13 November, 1815.

The fundamental article of my political creed is, that despot- ism, or unlimited sovereignty, or absolute power, is the same in a majority of a popular assembly, an aristocratical council, an oligarchical junto, and a single emperor. Equally arbitrary, cruel, bloody, and in every respect diabolical. Accordingly, arbitrary power, wherever it has resided, has never failed to destroy all the records, memorials, and histories of former times, which it did not like, and to corrupt and interpolate such as it was cunning enough to preserve or to tolerate. We cannot therefore say with much confidence what knowledge or what virtues may have prevailed in some former ages in some quar- ters of the world.

Nevertheless, according to the few lights that remain to us, we may say that the eighteenth century, notwithstanding all its errors and vices, has been, of all that are past, the most hon- orable to human nature. Knowledge and virtue were increased and diffused ; arts, sciences, useful to men, ameliorating their condition, were improved more than in any former equal period.

But what are we to say now ? Is the nineteenth century to be a contrast to the eighteenth ? Is it to extinguish all the lights of its predecessor ? Are the Sorbonne, the Inquisition, the In-

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dex expurgatorius, and the Knights-errant of St. Ignatius Loyola to be revived and restored to all their salutary powers of sup- porting and propagating the mild spirit of Christianity ? The proceedings of the allies and their Congress at Vienna, the accounts from Spain and France, and the Chateaubriands, and the Genlis, indicate which way the wind blows. The priests are at their old work again ; the Protestants are denounced, and another St. Bartholomew's day threatened. This, however, will probably, twenty-five years hence, be honored with the character of " the effusions of a splenetic mind, rather than as the sober reflections of an unbiased understanding."

I have received Memoirs of the life of Dr. Price, by William Morgan, F. R. S. In page 157 and 185, Mr. Morgan says, " So well assured was Dr. Price of the establishment of a free con- stitution in France, and of the subsequent overthrow of despot- ism throughout Europe, as the consequence of it, that he never failed to express his gratitude to Heaven for having extended his life to the present happy period, in which, after sharing the benefits of one revolution, he had been spared to be a witness to two other revolutions, both glorious. But some of his cor- respondents were not quite so sanguine in their expectations from the last of these revolutions, and among these the late American ambassador, Mr. John Adams. In a long letter, which he wrote to Dr. Price at this time, so far from congratu- lating him on the occasion, he expresses himself in terms of contempt in regard to the French revolution ; and after asking rather too severely, what good was to be expected from a nation of atheists, he concludes with foretelling the destruction of a million of human beings, as the probable consequence of it. These harsh censures and gloomy predictions were particularly ungrateful to Dr. Price ; nor can it be denied, that they must have then appeared as the effusions of a splenetic mind, rather than as the sober reflections of an unbiased understanding."

I know not what a candid public will think of this practice of Mr. Morgan, after the example of Mr. Belsham, who, finding private letters in the cabinet of a great and good man, after his decease, written in the utmost freedom and confidence of inti- mate friendship by persons still living, though after the lapse of a quarter of a century, produces them before the world. Dr. Disney had different feelings and a different judgment. Find-

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ing some cursory letters among the papers of Mr. Hollis, he would not publish them without my consent. In answer to his request, I submitted them to his discretion, and might have done the same to Mr. Morgan. Indeed, had Mr. Morgan pub- lished my letter entire, I should not have given him nor myself any concern about it. But as in his summary he has not done the letter justice, I shall give it with all its faults.1

Mr. Morgan has been more discreet and complaisant to you than to me. He has mentioned respectfully your letters from Paris to Dr. Price, but has given us none of them. As I would give more for those letters than for all the rest of the book, I am more angry with him for disappointing me than for all he says of me, and my letter, which, scambling as it is, contains nothing but sure words of prophecy.

THOMAS MCKEAN TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, 20 November, 1815.

I can now answer the questions in your favor of the 30th of July last, namely, " Who shall write the history of the Ameri- can Revolution, &c. ? "

Major-General James Wilkinson has written it. He com- mences with the battle of Bunker's or Breed's hill, at Boston, and concludes with the battle near New Orleans, on the Mis- sissippi, a period of forty years. It will be published in three volumes, large octavo, each containing about five hundred pages.

The General, I am informed, confines himself to military transactions, with a reference to a very few of the civil. 1 knew him personally nearly forty years ago, but have not seen or heard from him for the last seven years. I think him above mediocrity. He has been in the army during the whole time, and is better qualified to give a description of its proceedings, than any gentleman with whom I am acquainted.

This history has been written within the last seven or eight

1 See the letter to Dr. Price, vol. ix. p. 563.

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months, at Germantown, about six miles from this city, though I have not heard of the General being there until lately ; he has kept himself quite retired and private.

I do not recollect any formal speeches, such as are made in the British Parliament and our late Congresses, to have been made in the revolutionary Congress, though I was a member for eight years, from 1774 until the preliminaries of peace were signed. We had no time to hear such speeches ; little for deli- beration ; action was the order of the day. The speech of Mr. Richard H. Lee, given by the Italian, the Chevalier Botta, which I have read, may have been delivered, but I have no remembrance of it, though in Congress, nor would it do any member much credit. I have no favorable opinion of the Che- valier ; he appears to me a vain and presuming character to have attempted such a history ; perhaps the res angustce. domi (poverty) impelled him.

Although we may not in the United States have a Thucydi- des, a Tacitus, Hume, Robertson, or Gibbon, who have been reckoned the best historians in Greece, Rome, or Great Britain, yet we have gentlemen of great talents, and capable of writing the history of our Revolution with at least as much regard to truth as any of them has exhibited.

With respect to General Wilkinson, I recollect an anecdote. He was, in 1777, an aid to General Gates, and by him sent to Congress at Yorktown, in Pennsylvania, with the despatches, giving an account of the surrender of Sir John Burgoyne and the British army to the Americans at Saratoga. On the way he spent a day at Reading, about fifty miles from Yorktown, with a young lady from Philadelphia, whom he afterwards married. When the despatches were read in Congress, propo- sitions were made for paying a proper compliment to the favor- ite of General Gates, who brought us such pleasing news. Governor Samuel Adams, with a grave and solemn face, moved Congress, that the young gentleman should be presented with " a pair of spurs."

What ghanges in Europe have occurred since I had the pleasure of writing to you last! Louis XVIII. is again on the throne of France ; the great Napoleon at the bottom of the wheel, never to rise more, a prisoner for life. The French nation miserable ; Spain has reestablished the tribunal of the

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Inquisition, and restored the Jesuits. The rulers of Portugal void of common sense. South America in a state of opposition to the government of Spain, and in all appearance will soon be independent of it. Whatever is, is right, said Mr. Pope, the first of poets and moralists.

I have nothing to do with politics, nor much with any- thing else in this world, but I hear and listen. It is said, that James Monroe, Secretary of State, John Armstrong, late Secre- tary at War, Dewitt Clinton, late Mayor of New York, and perhaps Rufus King, now a senator, will be proposed as candi- dates for the next Presidency. I do not think the prospect of either, or any of them, very encouraging.

Mr. John Q. Adams has been named ; but it is not known whether this may not create jealousy, or injure him with the present administration, which his friends would by all means avoid.

My sheet is almost finished. God bless you.

Your old friend,

Tho's McKean.

TO DR. J. MORSE.

Quincy, 20 November, 1815.

The pamphlet I lent you, and the letters from Governor McKean, you may retain for the time you mention. The pam- phlet I would give you, if I had or could procure another. The rise and progress of that pamphlet is this. On my return from Philadelphia, in November, 1774, I found that Mr. Draper's Massachusetts Gazette had been long pouring forth torrents of scurrility against the Whigs, and dreadful denunciations of the irresistible power of Great Britain, and her implacable ven- geance against any resistance to her government over us in all cases whatsoever. Among this mass of billingsgate and terror, I soon distinguished the hand of my bosom friend, Jonathan Sewall, then Attorney- General and Judge of Admiralty for Hali- fax, over the signature of Massachusettensis. This gentleman had been the most intimate and familiar friend I ever had at the bar, and had been as ardent an American and as explicitly

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for resistance to Great Britain, in arms, as I ever had been or ever have been ; but the insolvency of his uncle, the Chief Jus- tice Sewall, to whose estate he was administrator, induced him to petition the legislature for a grant to enable him to pay the debts of his deceased uncle.

Colonel Otis, of Barnstable, and his son, the great Boston orator, statesman, and patriot, had not supported his petition with as much zeal as he wished, and his resentment of their non- chalance became bitter. Hutchinson, Trowbridge, and Bernard, soon perceived this ill humor, and immediately held out to him prospects of honor, promotion, and wealth. They created a new office for him, that of Solicitor- General, and upon the death of Mr. Gridley made him Attorney- General, and soon after pro- cured for him from England the office of Judge of Admiralty for Halifax, with a salary of three hundred pounds sterling per annum. Such was the character of Massachusettensis.1 He had a subtle, insinuating eloquence that often gained slowly and imperceptibly upon his hearers, but none of that command- ing, animating energy, that vehemence of enthusiasm, that sometimes carries all before it. Draper's paper, I found, dis- tressed the Whigs, and spread alarms and terrors among the people ; and none of the writers half so much as Massachuset- tensis. I set myself about preparing some antidote against his poison, and began, I believe, in December, 1774, and continued ' weekly till the 19th of April, 1775, a series of papers under the signature of Novanglus, in Edes and Gill's Boston Gazette. Coarse and rough as they are, like every thing else that has ever been published by me, who never had time to polish, cor- rect, or transcribe any thing, they were sent to England in the Boston Gazette, I never knew by whom, picked up by Almon, the famous printer and bookseller, and printed by him in a volume of Prior Documents, which followed his Remembrancer for the year 1775, under a title which he gave them, much too pompous, of " History of the Disputes, &c." Stockdale, who had been an apprentice of Almon, afterwards reprinted them, under Almon's title, in the pamphlet I sent you. You may find them in the Boston Gazette, from December, 1774, to 19th April,

1 It is almost needless to repeat, that Mr. Adams before his death had occa- sion to alter his opinion on the authorship of Massachusettensis. Probably Daniel Leonard wrote it. See vol. iv. p. 10, note.

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1775, or in Almon's Prior Documents ; but of Stockdale's pam- phlet I know of no copy in America but mine, and one that Judge Trumbull, of Hartford, has.

I thank you for the prospectus. From all I have heard or read of your sons, I believe them to have a genius for letters as well as for the fine arts, and wish them success in all their laud- able pursuits ; but I cannot subscribe.

The proposal of taking my bust, can only make me smile. If your son had proposed it, I would have written him a letter too ludicrous for you to read, describing the portraits and busts which have already transmitted me to posterity.

TO THOMAS MCKEAN.

Quincy, 26 November, 1815.

Your favor of the 20th revives me. A brother octogenarian, who can write with such vigor of hand and mind, excites a kind of emulation even in these old veins.

A history of the first war of the United States is a very differ- ent thing from a history of the American Revolution. I have seen in France a military history of France during the reign of Louis XIV., by the Marquis of Quincy. This work was held in high esteem by military men, but it was nothing like a his- tory of the reign of that monarch. General Wilkinson may have written the military history of the war that followed the Revolution ; that was an effect of it, and was supported by the American citizens in defence of it against an invasion of it by the o-overnment of Great Britain and Ireland, and all her allies, black, white, and pied ; but this will by no means be a history of the American Revolution. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and in the union of the colonies, both of which were accomplished before hostilities commenced. This revolu- tion and union were gradually forming from the year 1760 to 1775. The records of the British government, and the records of all the thirteen colonies, and the pamphlets, newspapers, and handbills of both parties must be examined, and the essence extracted, before a correct history can be written of the Ameri- can Revolution.

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I agree with you, that General "Wilkinson's talents are by no means inconsiderable. His openness of soul, and a little too much pomp, have as usual made him enemies and given them advantages. I do not recollect that my impatience was ever wrought up to a higher pitch than by the total failure of all intelligence, official and unofficial, from Saratoga, for so long a time after we had heard a confused, fugitive rumor of the defeat of Burgoyne. Wilkinson, according to your anecdote, which I never heard before, seems to have put an amorous construction on the precept, cedant arma togce. Had I known that he had fallen in love at Reading with so fine a woman as his after wife really was, my rigorous heart would have somewhat re- lented.

I remember a jocular suggestion thrown out in a private con- versation, in which Mr. Samuel Adams and Mr. Hancock were present, on the morning after "Wilkinson's arrival and before Congress met, that it would be proper to present the courier with a horsewhip and a pair of spurs ; but I never before heard that a motion was actually made in Congress, in jest or in earnest, to that purpose. I must have been absent at that moment upon some committee.

Awakenings and revivals of religion always attend the most cruel extremities of anarchy, despotism, and civil war. They have brought again the Pope and all his train of Jesuits, Inqui- sitions, Sorbonnes, massacres, &c. The pendulum swings as far on one side as on the other. You and I should be convinced that our friend, Governor Adams, was in the right when he said, that anarchy was better than tyranny, because it was of shorter duration, if we did not know that anarchy is always followed by more permanent despotism.

Washington and Jefferson have introduced a custom of retir- ing after eight years, and Madison, it is said; will follow their example. I am not enamored with this practice. I may be wrong.

I have heard the names you mention, and Governor Tomp- kins, of New York, added to them. I can only conjecture ; but I presume Mr. Monroe will be nominated by the republicans, and Mr. King by the federalists. The event cannot be doubt- ful in your mind or mine. A Vice-President will probably be sought by the republicans in New York. I know not who will

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be selected by the federalists, unless it be Mr. Harper, of Mary- land ; but in the present posture of men and things, Mr. King for President and Mr. Harper for Vice-President, will not be an equal match for Mr. Monroe for President and any one of the gentlemen of New York you have named, as Vice-President, or any respectable gentleman of Pennsylvania.

I must acknowledge 1 contemplate with pleasure the rising generation. As much secluded as I am from the world, I see a succession of able and honorable characters, from members of Congress down to bachelors and students in our universities, who will take care of the liberties which you have cherished and done so much to support. The greatest danger is, that their numbers are so great, and their pretensions will all he so high, that rivalries pernicious to the nation and her union may arise.

The federalists will still hold up their pretensions and nomi- nate their men, however desperate their prospect may be.

TO DR. J. MORSE.

Quincy, 29 November, 1815.

A history of military operations from April 19th, 1775, to the 3d of September, 1783, is not a history of the American Revolu- tion, any more than the Marquis of Quincy's military history of Louis XIV., though much esteemed, is a history of the reign of that monarch. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people, and in the union of the colonies ; both of which were substantially effected before hostilities commenced.

When, where, by what means, and in what manner was this great intellectual, moral, and political change accomplished ? Undoubtedly it was begun in the towns of Boston and Salem, where the British government first opened their designs, and first urged their pretensions.

In the month of February, 1761, the great cause of writs of assistance was argued before the supreme judicature of the province, in the council chamber in Boston ; and this important question was tainted from the beginning with an odious and

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corrupt intrigue. Chief Justice Stephen Sewall, who was an enlightened friend of liberty, having great doubts of the legality and constitutionality of this projected writ of assistance, at No- vember term, 1760, at Salem, where it was solicited by Cockle, a custom-house officer, had ordered the question to be argued be- fore the court at the next February term in Boston ; but Sewall in the mean time died, and Bernard, instead of fulfilling the promises of two of his predecessors, Shirley and Pownall, to give the next vacancy on that bench to Colonel Otis, appointed Hutchinson, for the very purpose of deciding the fate of the writs of assistance, and all other causes in which the claims of Great Britain might be directly or indirectly implicated, though Hut- chinson was then lieutenant-governor, judge of probate, mem- ber of council, his brother, Oliver, secretary, and his brother, Oliver, judge of the .Supreme Court; and himself furnished with no education to the law, and very little knowledge of it. When the cause came on, however, Mr. Otis displayed so com- prehensive a knowledge of the subject, showed not only the ille- gality of the writ, its insidious and mischievous tendency, but he laid open the views and designs of Great Britain, in taxing us, of destroying our charters and assuming the powers of our government, legislative, executive, and judicial, external and internal, civil and ecclesiastical, temporal and spiritual ; and all this was performed with such a profusion of learning, such con- vincing argument, and such a torrent of sublime and pathetic eloquence, that a great crowd of spectators and auditors went away absolutely electrified. The next May, Mr. Otis was elected by the town of Boston into the legislature, and for ten years afterwards ; during the whole of which period his tongue and his pen were incessantly employed in enlightening his fel- low-citizens and countrymen in the knowledge of their rights, and developing and opposing the designs of Great Britain. He governed the town of Boston and the House of Representatives, notwithstanding a few eccentricities, with a caution, a pru- dence and sagacity, which astonished his friends and confounded his enemies. His fame soon spread though the continent, and three or four years afterwards was emulated by Mr. Dickinson in his Farmer's Letters ; and some other gentlemen in Virginia began to think.

Here, then, Sir, began the revolution in the principles, views,

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opinions, and feelings of the American people. Their eyes were opened to a clear sight of the danger that threatened them and their posterity, and the liberties of both in all future gene- rations. From Boston these alarms spread through Massachu- setts and all New England ; and in course to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. A general aspiration for a union of the colonies soon followed, the first attempt at which necessary measure was made in a Congress at New York, in 1765, of which Brigadier Ruggles was President, but Mr. Otis the soul. The President and Colonel Partridge, Mr. Otis's colleagues, were devoted Hut- chinsonians. The former ran away. Mr. Ogden, too, a man of great weight in the middle States, also deserted. Timidity was too general. None supported Otis with more uniformity and decision than McKean and Rodney, of Delaware. Both of those gentlemen have repeatedly told me, and Mr. Rodney more frequently, that of all the members of that body, not one appeared to be so complete a master of every subject, or threw so much light on every question, as Mr. Otis.

The rise and progress of this knowledge, the gradual expan- sion and diffusion of the change in the minds of the people, and the growing hopes of a union of the colonies, and their dependence upon it as the future rock of their salvation, can- not be traced but by a diligent perusal of the pamphlets, news- papers, and handbills of both parties, and the proceedings of the legislatures from 1761 to 1774, when the union of the colonies was formed.

If strength should remain, I may hereafter point to a few periods, in which knowledge made the greatest advances, and the revolution in the understanding and affections of the people made the most rapid progress.

But I must conclude at present, with an assurance of the respect and regard of your old friend,

John Adams.

P. S. I should have candidly added, in its place, that Ber- nard was not bound by the promises of Shirley and Pownall ; but his fault was in appointing a judge so evidently and noto- riously partial as Hutchinson. Nor do I approve of Shirley's and Pownall's promises of a vacancy before it happened; a

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practice very common in Europe, and too frequent in America, before and since the revolution. I never countenanced it in any one instance.

TO DR. J. MORSE.

Quincy, 2 December, 1815.

If I ever comply with your request, I must make haste and employ the few intervals of light which my eyes afford me.

Where is the man to be found at this day, when we see Methodistical bishops, bishops of the church of England, and bishops, archbishops, and Jesuits of the church of Rome, with indifference, who will believe that the apprehension of Episco- pacy contributed fifty years ago, as much as any other cause, to arouse the attention, not only of the inquiring mind, but of the common people, and urge them to close thinking on the con- stitutional authority of parliament over the colonies? This, nevertheless, was a fact as certain as any in the history of North America. The objection was not merely to the office of a bishop, though even that was dreaded, but to the authority of parliament, on which it must be founded. The reasoning was this. The archbishops and bishops in England can neither locate and limit dioceses in America, nor ordain bishops in any part of the dominions of Great Britain, out of the realm, by any law of the kingdom or of any of the colonies, nor by any canon law acknowledged by either. The king cannot grant his conge d'elire to any people out of his realm; there is no power or pretended power, less than parliament, that can create bishops in America. But if parliament can erect dioceses and appoint bishops, they may introduce the whole hierarchy, establish tithes, forbid marriages and funerals, establish religions, forbid dissenters, make schism heresy, impose penalties extending to life and limb as well as to liberty and property. Here, Sir, opens an extensive field of investigation, even for a young his- torian, who might be disposed to undertake so laborious an enterprise.

The opinions, the principles, the spirit, the temper, the views, designs, intrigues, and arbitrary exertions of power, displayed

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by the church of England at that time towards the dissenters, as they were contemptuously called, though in reality the churchmen were the real dissenters, ought to be stated at full length. The truth is, that the Congregationalists, the Presby- terians, the Anabaptists, the Methodists, or even the Quakers, or Moravians, were each of them as numerous as the church- men ; several of them immensely more numerous, and all of them together more than fifteen to one.

In Virginia, the church of England was established by law, in exclusion and without toleration of any other denomination. The British statute, called the act of uniformity, was acknow- ledged as law, and carried into execution by the magistrates. It is worthy of inquiry, whether the same law was not in force in Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia. In Pennsylvania, the Quakers, the Presbyterians, the German Lutherans and Calvin ists, the Anabaptists, the Methodists, the Dunkers, the Mennonists, and the Roman Catholics, were so numerous, and the church of England so few, that the latter found it difficult to support their cause ; and the ridiculous incurvations and ter- giversations of the Proteus, Dr. Smith, and that other weaker Proteus, Duche, and the bigotry of Coombs, showed their awkward struggles to preserve their cause from contempt. White, now bishop, then young, behaved with uniform candor, moderation, and decorum.

In New York, the church of England displayed its essential character of intolerance. The royal governors, counsellors, judges, &c, had such overbearing influence, that they dared to grant large tracts of fertile lands to the churches of England, and laid the foundation of the ample riches they still hold, while no other denomination could obtain any. Even Dr. Rogers's congregation, numerous and respectable as it was, could never obtain a legal title to a spo't to bury their dead. The writings of Livingston and Smith furnish evidence enough of the spirit of these times. Great exertions were made in New York to propagate Anglican Episcopacy in Connecticut ; and a famous Dr. Cutler, and a more famous Dr. Johnson, and his still more celebrated son, were employed with success in that service, — with such success, indeed, that an English church and an Episcopal priest soon appeared in all the towns from New Haven to New York.

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The efforts in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, though they ought to be recorded, I pass over, and hasten to Massachusetts. And here I want to write a volume. Here the clergy, and prin- cipal gentlemen among the laity, were high churchmen indeed. Passive obedience and non-resistance, in the most unqualified and unlimited sense, were their avowed principles in govern- ment, and the power of the church to decree rites and ceremo- nies, and the authority of the church in controversies of faith, were explicitly avowed. I know not where to begin, nor when to end. The anecdotes which I could relate as an eye and an ear-witness, would be innumerable. This north precinct of the large and ancient town of Braintree, now called Quincy, in which I was born and bred, and in which my father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather, lived, died, and lie buried, was a very focus of Episcopal bigotry, intrigue, intolerance, and persecution. I could introduce here a dra- matis personce of names, which I will not now commit to paper, and entertain you with plots and intrigues, which would compose a comedy equal to any of Moliere or Shak- speare, if corruption, prostitution, and dupery can compose a comedy. Waving this for the present, we will proceed to Cambridge. Several branches of our Braintree family of Vassals had removed and planted themselves in the very front of the university, and they must have an Episcopal church. Our Braintree family of Apthorps instantly turned their atten- tion to that seat of the muses and dissenters. Mr. East Ap- thorp, hot from Oxford, and still more warmed by holy orders from Episcopal hands, returned to his native country, and soon after arose a splendid edifice, as it was then thought, which every-body immediately concluded was intended for an Episco- pal palace and in time for a Lambeth. All sensible men knew that this system could not be effected but by act of parliament ; and if parliament could do this, they could do all things ; and what security could Americans have for life, liberty, property, or religion ? The Society for Propagating the Gospel had long perverted their revenues from their original design to the sup- port of the church of England ministers. Upon the death of Dr. Miller, of Braintree, a satirical irony appeared in a news- paper, the point of which turned upon this abuse of the society's resources. This jeu d1 esprit soon produced an explosion. Mr.

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Apthorp came out with an eloquent and zealous pamphlet. Dr. May hew appeared with his comparison between the charter and conduct of the society, showing their non-conformity with each other. The controversy soon interested all men, spread through America and in Europe, brought forward the aged Dr. Johnson, and at last the Archbishop of Canterbury. All deno- minations in America became interested in it, and began to think of the secret, latent principle upon which all encroach- ments upon us must be founded, the power of parliament. The nature and extenl of the authority of parliament over the colo- nics was discussed everywhere, till it was discovered that it had "none at all, a conclusion still more forcibly impressed upon the people by the Canada bill, by which the Roman Catholic reli- gion and Popish bishops were established in that province by authority of a British parliament. The people said, if parlia- ment can do this in Canada, they can do the same in all the other colonies ; and they began to see and freely to say, that parliament had no authority over them in any case whatsoever.

TO DR. J. MORSE.

Qnincy, 5 December, 1815.

If such was the spirit of the English church in America, and especially in Virginia, before the revolution, can you wonder that men so enlightened as Richard Henry Lee and his brothers, Patrick Henry, Chancellor Wythe, Chief Justice Pendleton, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, &c, though they had been all educated in that church, became afterwards disciples of Locke, Black- burne, Furneaux, and William Penn, and united in destroying all ecclesiastical establishments in that State ?

But to return to the narration of the progress of investigation into the nature and extent of the jurisdiction of Great Britain, and especially of the authority of parliament over these North American colonies.

From 1761 to 1764, America was all alive with jealousies and apprehensions of the designs of the British ministry and their own governors and their adherents. In 1764, Mr. George

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Grenvillo moved and carried in the House of Commons a num- ber of fifty-five resolutions, that it would be expedient to lay taxes, particularly stamp duties, upon the colonies.

Here the cloak was thrown off", and the mask trampled under foot. Nothing in religion or government ever touched to the quick the people of all classes in any country, like taxation. The cry was, if parliament can tax us, we are undone forever, in soul, body, and estate. They can give us what religion and government they please, and do what they will with our pro- perty, persons, and consciences. Resistance to the last extre- mity, at whatever risk, must be made. How often have I heard in conversation in private companies, and how often was it said in the streets, " I will never live to see such acts of parlia- ment executed in this country ; " and how constantly was it echoed from man to man, " nor I," " nor I," " nor I ; " and no man thought it expedient to say " I will ! "

I remember to have read somewhere, I believe in the writings of Dr. Tillotson, that Providence had been pleased, in the per- son of Martin Luther, to raise up a bold and daring genius, a proper wedge for splitting so hard and knotty a block as the Papal usurpation upon mankind. Providence was now raising up in the person of Mr. Otis a genius, equally bold and daring, equally well tempered and qualified, as a wedge to split the knotty lignum vitce block of parliamentary usurpation over the colonies.

Mr. Otis, whose tongue and whose pen had never been idle in the cause of his country, from 1761, now printed his " Rights of the Colonies Asserted and Proved," a work that was so popu- lar, that it was read in the House of Representatives, and went out to the public under a kind of sanction from that body, who by their resolutions solemnly denied the right of parliament to tax the colonies. The next year, on the 29th of May, 1765, the same resolution was adopted in Virginia, and not long after- wards by all the other colonies. Between the denial of Massa- chusetts and that of Virginia, namely, on the 22d of March, 1765, the stamp act was passed.

Here, then, was a declaration of war on both sides. Here were already two nations directly and explicitly at issue con- cerning their fundamental laws ; for if the sovereignty of the empire was vested in parliament, a denial of its right to tax the

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colonies was a declaration of total independence on parliament ; and the stamp act was a declaration of war against the colo- nies, by King, Lords, and Commons. As the King had con- spired with his Lords and Commons in the treasonable invasion of the legal sovereignties of the colonies, his Majesty was, upon their principles, a rebel, a traitor, and a declared enemy, and they had a right, if they pleased, " to cashier him," notwith- standing the musical insolence of Mr. Burke against Dr. Price, in the strictest sense of the Doctor's expression. Nay, they had as clear a right to hang, draw, and quarter him, upon their prin- ciples, as he had upon his, notwithstanding his anointment with holy oil, to practise a similar inhumanity upon Samuel Adams and John Hancock, for which he has recorded to endless ages so ardent a desire.

At this period, events crowd upon my memory in such num- bers, that I can only refer you to the records and journals of 1764 and 1765. Massachusetts wrote circular letters to all the colonies, requesting a general Congress. Ministerial monkery was practised in New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, to prevent those colonies from sending delegates. Nine colonies only were represented in the Congress who met on the 7th of October, 1765. While Mr. Otis was absent upon this legation, Mr. Samuel Adams was chosen by the town of Boston, a member of the legislature of the province. If Otis was Martin Luther, Samuel Adams was John Calvin. If Luther was rough, hasty, and loved good cheer, Calvin was cool, abstemious, polished, and refined, though more inflexible, uniform, and consistent. The people in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and everywhere else, arose like a hur- ricane, and bore down the stamp act and the stamps, their officers and principal abettors, as nullities.

This open resistance by force was a virtual declaration, by the people of all the colonies, of their independence on parlia- ment, and on the crown too, whenever that crown should cease to defend and protect their fundamental laws and essential liberties, and especially when it united with Lords and Com- mons in a plan to destroy them all. For this resistance was as decided to the executive, as it was to the legislative power of Great Britain.

The violent sensation and the profound reflection excited by

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this universal hostility to the whole authority of Great Britain, setting at open defiance all its boasted power, disseminated the freedom of inquiry and the spirit of investigation into the four corners of the colonies. The principles, the objects, and the ends of government became the topics of discussion in all com- panies, and at the firesides of private families. Writers on the laws of nations were more read, and more definite notions of our relation to Great Britain were formed, than ever had pre- vailed. The opinions of the people were more unanimous at that epoch than they ever have been since. No party was yet formed against their country. A great majority of the partial friends of Great Britain would acknowledge the rectitude of the American cause, and would vote against the authority of parliament. Their last resort was to the omnipotence of Great Britain, and the imbecility of the colonies. It was a child of five years old, challenging his father to single combat. The boy was right, and the man wrong, arbitrary, cruel ; but resist- ance was vain, and would only provoke the old gentleman to greater moroseness and more cruel severity.

It has been a question, whether, if the ministry had persevered in support of the stamp act, and sent a military force of ships and troops to enforce its execution, the people of the colonies would then have resisted. Dr. Chauncy and Dr. Mayhew, in sermons which they preached and printed after the repeal of the stamp act, have left to posterity their explicit opinions upon this question. If my more extensive familiarity with the senti- ments and feelings of the people in the eastern, western, and southern counties of Massachusetts may apologize for my pre- sumption, I subscribe without a doubt to the opinions of Chauncy and Mayhew. What would have been the conse- quence of resistance in arms ?

Here opens an unbounded field of speculation. The condi- tion of Britain, the state of parties in it, the state of France and Spain, the ungristled youth of George Rex, the unpopular- ity of his mother and preceptor, would have forced Chatham into power, and Chatham might have fallen from a more envi- able height than Napoleon has in 1815.

192 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO DR. J. MORSE.

Quincy, 22 December, 1815.

You are examining me upon interrogatories. I must tell you the truth, and nothing but the truth ; but to tell you the whole truth is impossible. It would require more volumes than I can calculate. I am as incapable of composing or writing them, as I am of commanding the sun to stand still. I can only note a few broken hints.

In 1765, the colonies were more unanimous than they ever have been since, either as colonies or States. No party was formed against their country. The few who voted against the general sentiment, were but a handful. The resistance in America was so universal and so determined, that Great Britain with all her omnipotence dared not attempt to enforce her pre- tensions. She retreated and resorted to an insidious policy. She was by long practice and habit too perfect a mistress of the maxim, " In bello stratagemata sunt licita" to forget it upon this critical emergency. She saw, she felt, that she could do nothing without her Chatham. He was called in to com- mand the forlorn hope, and, at the same time, to invent the ruse de guerre. Ducente Chatham, the stamp act was repealed, and the statute passed, that " parliament was sovereign over V the colonies in all cases whatsoever." 1 Such was the great Chatham, a great national minister, because he always flat- tered and gratified the national passion for war, victory, and conquest, but he was not a wise minister; he was not an Elizabeth's minister ; he was not a Cecil. He died a martyr to his idol. He fell in the House of Lords, with the sovereignty of parliament in his mouth. Who, or which, was the most extravagant, Great Britain in openly and avowedly asserting the sovereignty of the seas, Napoleon without asserting, yet attempting to exercise the sovereignty of Europe by land, or Chatham, perishing with the sovereignty of parliament over the whole globe ? For if parliament had any sovereignty beyond the realm, they had it wherever they could carry their arms and

i Chatham certainly favored it, but the declaratory act seems to have been a concession to the Yorke family, and to Edmund Burke's private influence over Lord Rockingham.

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conquests in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, a more uni- versal empire than Napoleon, Louis XIV., Henry IV., or Charlemagne ever usurped or assumed. When the immortal Chatham had established in the laws of his kingdom and in the minds of his people, — for they were his in a stricter sense than they were those of George the III., — his fundamental principle, that parliament was sovereign, supreme, unlimited, and uncontrollable over the colonies in all parts of the world, the ministry had recourse to address, intrigue, artifice, and stratagem. Hopes and fears, promises and threatenings, avarice and ambition, were excited ; promotion, advancement, honor, glory, wealth, and power were promised ; disgrace, ruin, poverty, contempt, torture, and death, were threatened ; and this pious moral system was pursued with steady and invariable perse- verance for ten years, that is, from 1765 to 1775. And what was their success ? Blot it out, my tears ! But the recording angel has noted it, and my lamentation would be vain. In the course of these ten years, they formed and organized and drilled and disciplined a party in favor of Great Britain, and they seduced and deluded nearly one thud of the people of the colo- nies.

If you can spare the time and take the pains to inquire, you may find a catalogue in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Con- necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Geor- gia, of names, among whom were many men of the first rank, station, property, education, influence, and power, who in 1765 had been real or pretended Americans, converted during this period to real Britons.

Let me confine myself to Massachusetts, and here to a few only of individuals. In 1764 and 1765, Harrison Gray, Esquire, treasurer of the province, and member of his Majesty's council, and Colonel Brattle, of Cambridge, also a member of his Majes- ty's council and colonel of a regiment of militia, were both as open and decided Americans as James Otis. In 1766, Dr. Mayhew, who had been an oracle to the treasurer, died, and left him without a Mentor. Had Mayhew lived, it is believed that Gray would never have been a refugee. But the seducers prevailed, though he had connected his blood with an Otis, by

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marrying his beautiful daughter to a brother of the Great Pa- triot, James Otis, Jr.

Brattle was a divine, a lawyer, and a physician, and, how- ever superficial in each character, had acquired great popularity by his zeal, and I must say, by his indiscreet and indecorous ostentation of it, against the measures of the British govern- ment. The two subtle spirits, Hutchinson and Sewall, saw his character, as well as Trowbridge, who had been his rival at the bar, for many years. Sewall was the chosen spirit to convert Brattle. Sewall became all at once intimate with Brattle. Brattle was soon converted and soon announced a brigadier- general in the militia. From this moment, the Tories pro- nounced Brattle a convert, and the Whigs an apostate. This rank in the militia in time of peace was an innovation, and it was instantly perceived to have been invented to take in gud- geons.

Jonathan Sewall, Daniel Leonard, and Samuel Quincy were my brother barristers at the bar, and my cordial, confidential, and bosom friends. I never, in the whole course of my life, lived with any men in more perfect intimacy. They had all been patriots as decided, as I believed, as I was. I have al- ready hinted at the manner and means of Sewall's conversion.

Daniel Leonard was the only child of Colonel Ephraim Leo- nard, of Norton. He was a scholar, a lawyer, and an orator, according to the standard of those days. As a member of the House of Representatives, even down to the year 1770, he made the most ardent speeches which were delivered in that House against Great Britain, and in favor of the colonies. His popu- larity became alarming. The two sagacious spirits, Hutchinson and Sewall soon penetrated his character, of which, indeed, he had exhibited very visible proofs. He had married a daughter of Mr. Hammock, who had left her a portion, as it was thought, in that day. He wore a broad gold lace round the rim of his hat, he had made his cloak glitter with laces still broader, he had set up his chariot and pair, and constantly travelled in it from Taunton to Boston. This made the world stare ; it was a novelty. Not another lawyer in the province, attorney or barrister, of whatever age, reputation, rank or station presumed to ride in a coach or a chariot. The discerning ones soon per- ceived, that wealth and power must have charms to a heart that

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delighted in so much finery, and indulged in such unusual expense. Such marks could not escape the vigilant eyes of the two archtempters, Hutchinson and Sewall, who had more art, insinuation, and address than all the rest of their party. Poor Daniel was beset with great zeal for his conversion. Hutchin- son sent for him, courted him with the ardor of a lover, reasoned with him, flattered him, overawed him, frightened him, invited him to come frequently to his house. As I was intimate with Mr. Leonard during the whole of this process, I had the sub- stance of this information from his own mouth, was a wit- ness to the progress of the impression made upon him, and to many of the labors and struggles of his mind, between his interest or his vanity, and his duty.

Samuel Quincy was born in the same town and parish with me. I was three years at college with him, and as intimate with him, as with any one there. We were sworn at the bar in October, 1758, together on the same day. He was upright at first in his views, though he meddled not much in politics ; but he belonged to a club, who affected to be thought neutral, though their real propensities were all on one side. This gen- tleman could not escape the notice of Hutchinson and Sewall, who had married his cousin. History must search the human heart. Josiah Quincy, Jr., was by many years younger than Samuel, his brother ; many years after him at college and at the bar. Possessing more energy of character, more ardor of spirit, more obstinate and patient and persevering application to study and to business, and an eloquence more popular and imposing than all his other qualities, and openly espousing the cause of his country, soon eclipsed his brother, attracted and commanded much more business, and much more important and lucrative business in his profession than his elder brother. Such a rivalry and such a jealousy was more than human nature could bear, at least in this instance. Hutchinson and Sewall perceived it. They accordingly applied their magic arts to him. He was made Solicitor-General, as successor to Sewall, and became henceforward a Tory and a refugee.

My classmate, Brown, a solid, judicious character, was once a disciple of James Otis, and a cordial supporter of him and his cause in the House of Representatives. This I know from his own lips, as well as from his recorded votes. But they

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made him a Judge of the Superior Court, and that society made him a refugee. A Tory, I verily believe, he never was.

I know the grief, the resentment, and the rage that this nar- ration will excite in many families. But I owe nothing to them, and every thing to truth. I could descend to minuter details and to many inferior examples in Boston and Massa- chusetts, but these may suffice for the present, as specimens or exemplifications of the arts that were employed in all the colo- nics for ten years, that is, from 1765 to 1775, to divide the people and form a party in favor of Great Britain. Where is the historian who can and will travel through the United States, and investigate all the similar intrigues in each of them for the same purpose ? Yet, without this, the real history of the United States, and especially of their revolution, never can be written. I could crowd sheets of paper with anecdotes and names, which would surprise you, of conversions in the other States. If you insist upon it, I may hereafter give you a few of the most conspicuous names and characters. But I give you notice, that not one of your friends, the federalists, through the continent, will thank you for your curiosity.

There is another very remarkable source of historical inform- ation now totally forgotten. So unanimous were the senti- ments and so universal the congenial feelings of the people of Massachusetts in 1764 and 1765, that almost, if not quite, every town in the province was aroused to instruct their representa- tives in the General Court ; all breathing the same spirit, all decided against submission. These instructions were read in the House, and it was proposed and expected that they should be published in volumes. But the expense, and especially the repeal of the stamp act prevented it. I know not how well or how ill the records and files of our legislature have been pre- served, but these documents ought now to be found somewhere. Still less do I know, how the records of towns have been kept or preserved ; but these instructions ought to be in the hands of the town clerks.

There is another large tract of inquiry to be travelled in the correspondence of the committees of the town of Boston with the other towns and States, commonly called the committees of correspondence. For reasons too numerous to be stated at present, I never belonged to any of these committees, and have

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never seen one of their letters, sent or received. None of them have ever been published ; at least, I have never seen one. Never- theless, I doubt not they exist. Where they are, I know not, and I never knew ; indeed, I never inquired. But, in my opi- nion, the history of the United States never can be written till they are discovered. What an engine ! France imitated it, and produced a revolution. England and Scotland were upon the point of imitating it, in order to produce another revolution, and all Europe was inclined to imitate it for the same revolu- tionary purposes.

The history of the world for the last thirty years is a sufficient commentary upon it. That history ought to convince all man- kind, that committees of secret correspondence are dangerous machines. That they are caustics, and incision knives, to which recourse should never be had but in the last extremities of life, in the last question between life and death.

In this year, 1765, the Congress met at New York. Their proceedings must be stated ; but it must also be remembered that a part of that body, very important at that time, was hos- tile to the business, and their influence is visible in the com- plexion of the results. The assembly, nevertheless, was so prominent a phenomenon as to draw the attention of other nations as well as this, to the question concerning the authority of parliament, and raised the hopes of the people to a union of the colonies, to be accomplished and perfected by future and more universal Congresses, for their defence, protection, and security.

TO DR. J. MORSE.

Quincy, 1 January, 1816.

From 1760 to 1766, was the purest period of patriotism; from 1766 to 1776 was the period of corruption ; from 1775 to 1783 was the period of war. Not a revolutionary war, for the revolution was complete, in the minds of the people, and the union of the colonies, before the war commenced in the skir- mishes of Concord and Lexington on the 19th of April, 1775.

In 1766 commenced the separation of parties. The stamp

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act was repealed. Universal rejoicings had run like wildfire through the continent. But Chatham's declaratory act of the sovereignty of parliament hung like a cloud over the whole American continent. Thinking men and discerning eyes saw it, and amidst all the popular rejoicings dreaded its ominous appearance. The public opinion thought it a brutum fulmen, a mere device to preserve the nominal dignity of Great Britain without any intention of ever bringing it forward into action.

When the General Court met in May, Mr. Otis's services, sacrifices, and exertions had been so splendid, that the House of Representatives, by a spontaneous and almost unanimous feeling of gratitude, chose him their Speaker. Bernard nega- tived him. Hutchinson, without whom Bernard was nothing, was instantly believed to be the adviser to this declaration of hostility. The conviction flashed like lightning through the community, that the sovereignty of parliament was not in- tended to be relinquished, and that future calamities must be expected. The House of Representatives was electrified to such a degree, that when the election of counsellors came upon the carpet, Hutchinson, though Lieutenant-Governor and Chief Justice, and all his brother judges of the Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assizes, and general gaol delivery, were turned out of the Council, and a general looking for future troubles took place. It was now seen, that every man who espoused the cause of his country, must prepare himself for the fate of a martyr or confessor, and that every man of any con- sequence, who would betray his country, might expect lucrative as well as honorable rewards ; honorable, I mean, in the common sense of the word in the world. It was not long before these apprehensions were confirmed. A bill was brought into par- liament, imposing taxes on glass, tea, paper, colors, &c, im- ported into the colonies. The great Chatham was destined to

" Close his long' glories with a sigh to find The unwilling gratitude of base mankind."

e e>

Although his name still carried great power, the mortification arising from the loss of so much of his popularity, by his ac- ceptance of a peerage and a pension, the unbounded licentious- ness of the press in abusing him for it, and perhaps, above all, the embarrassments he had found in forming a ministry among

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the factions of Rockingham, Bedford, and Bute, when his brother, Lord Temple, and even the Duke of Portland, deserted him, aggravated the natural and habitual infirmity of his con- stitution, and rendered him incapable of that activity in busi- ness, and that fire which inspired every-body with his own enthusiasm, which had been so conspicuous in all parts of his former life.

This new act of tyrannical taxation rekindled all the fires of opposition and resistance on this side the water. The associa- tions against its execution were universal through all the colo- nies, and ought to be stated and related in detail, because they illustrate the jprogress of the revolution in the minds of the people, against the authority of parliament, towards a union of the colonies and a total independence on the one hand, and the progress of seduction and corruption on the other.

Another innovation was contrived, and a board of commis- sioners of the customs created ; but the remonstrances and associations against the execution of the acts were so formi- dable, that the ministry thought it necessary to send a fleet and army to protect Temple, Hallowell, Paxton, Birch, and Robin- son, their adherents and followers. In 17G8, there appeared a general disposition to oppose their landing by force ; but many gentlemen, apprehending confusion from unconcerted resistance, took measures for inviting a Convention of the province. The circumstances of this year ought to be distinctly developed, and the result of the Convention stated. The fleet was drawn up to fire upon the town, and protect the landing of those illus- trious personages, the commissioners and their drunken secre- tary, and their defenders, the troops, which were given out to be four thousand men, though, probably, they were not half the number. These poor creatures, the soldiers, were in a for- lorn condition, — no barracks, no shelter, hungry and cold. The inhabitants shut their doors, and would admit panthers and serpents as soon. The address of their officers upon this dangerous crisis, I shall never forget. They became suppliants, and appealed to humanity. Had the door of a citizen been broken, to let in the soldiers, such was the inflammation of spirits that they would all have been made prisoners before morn- ing ; but the officers had too much sense. They put themselves and their men upon the compassionate list. " The poor soldiers

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were innocent. They knew not why they were sent here. Can you see your fellow-creatures perish in your streets for -want of shelter ? " Humanity prevailed. The troops were paraded on the common. One regiment appeared every day in Brattle Square, with their left flank before the front of the white house, where I then lived. Every morning I saw from my front win- dows Major Small exercising his battalion or his regiment, and admired his patient, persevering assiduity no less than the regularity of his men. What were my reflections and feelings at these sights ! Poor puppets ! you know nothing of the invis- ible hand, which dances you upon its wires ! No more than the cogs and wheels of a clock, of the weights that move them, or the hand which they point to the hour. The men who understand the machinery, and are the first springs of its move- ment, know no more of what they are doing than you do. They are heaping up vengeance against the day of vengeance, against you, against themselves, and against unnumbered thou- sands of others as innocent as you. Major Small and I passed each other every day, but never spoke. Twenty years after- wards, we passed each other at public places of amusement in London, as Dido and ^Eneas passed each other in the shades, and never spoke. The troops lived in Boston for a few months more than a year, as the allied forces now reside in France, the blood of the inhabitants boiling with indignation, and the continent sympathizing with them. Wrangles and quarrels frequently occurred between the citizens and the soldiers ; ex- asperation increased on both sides, till it broke out in the melancholy catastrophe of the 5th of March, 1770. Now ap- peared the spirit of freemen ; multitudes from Boston and the neighboring towns assembled spontaneously the next day, and from day to day. Strong guards were placed in the State House, and every luan appeared to be ready at the toll of a bell or the sound of a gun to turn out with his arms. The assembly applied to the governor and council. Mr. Hutchinson ■was Lieutenant-Governor and commander-in-chief. Colonel Dairy mple was sent for. Samuel Adams appeared in his true character. His caution, his discretion, his ingenuity, his saga- city, his self-command, his presence of mind, and his intrepidity, commanded the admiration and loud applauses of both parties. The troops were ordered to the Castle, and Lord North called them from this time " Sam Adams's two regiments."

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TO DR. J. MORSE.

Quincy, 5 January, 1816.

The trials of the officer and soldiers, who were indicted for the slaughter in King Street, were pending for the greatest part of the year 1770, and when they came on, consumed six or seven days each. The discussions and decisions in those cases convinced the people that they could depend on no protection against the sovereignty of parliament but Providence and their own arms. Accordingly they were found in Boston and all the neighboring towns, forming companies for voluntary mili- tary exercises. Even Salem, Marblehead, and Newbury, caught the flame, though the county of Essex, next to' Worcester and Hampshire, was the last to abandon the ministry and their governors.

These trials, as important in the history of mankind as any that are recorded in the history of jurisprudence, never have been, and never can be truly, impartially, and faithfully repre- sented to posterity. The first was taken down, and transmitted to England, by a Scottish or English stenographer, without any known authority but his own. The British government have never permitted it to see the light, and probably never will.

The second trial was taken by the same stenographer, by permission of the court, and allowed to be published. The Court allowed him to show his manuscript to the counsel. He brought it to me. Upon reading it over, I found so much inac- curacy and so many errors, that I scratched out every thing but the legal authorities and the testimonies of the witnesses. Mr. Quincy and Mr. Paine were consulted, and the result of their deliberations appears in the printed trial. Mr. Sewall, the Attor- ney-General, who ought, at the hazard of his existence, to have conducted those prosecutions, disappeared ; and Mr. Paine and Mr. Samuel Quincy were substituted, nobody knew whether by the Court or the Attorney- General. I leave to the masters of chess to make their reflections on this curious arrangement of kings, knights, and pawns, upon the board. I speculated little on these puppetshows and idle games. " To the law and the testimony," was my only maxim. The law and the testimony prevailed, and destroyed as much of my popularity as Mr. Pitt

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lost by accepting a peerage and a pension. It was instantly- propagated that I had been bribed by an immense fee, to sell my country. I never uttered a word or suggested a hint allud- ing to fees from first to last. A single guinea was put into my hand by the Irish infant, for a retaining fee ; ten guineas were offered on the first trial, and eight at the second, and accepted without looking at them, or uttering a word. These nineteen guineas -were all the fees I ever received for a Avhole year of distressing anxiety, and for thirteen or fourteen days of the hardest labor in the trials that I ever went through. Add to all this the taunts and scoffs and bitter reproaches of the Whigs, and the giggling and tittering of the Tories, which was more provoking than all the rest.

This great event turned the attention of all the colonies to it, and the supremacy of parliament stared all men in the face. If parliament was omnipotent, could enact "what statutes it pleased, and employ armies and navies, governors, counsellors, and judges to interpret them, and carry them into execution, of what use could our houses of representatives be ? And what were our religion, liberties, properties, or existence worth? I recollect no event which increased the horror of parliamentary usurpation so much as this. The journals, the pamphlets, and the records of this period ought to be collected and examined with patient attention. About this period, parties in England were as angry as in America* Wilkes and Junius agitated king, ministry, parliament, and nation. Opposition pretended friendship for America ; but no members of either house, of administration or opposition, ever dared to avow the true American principle, or to express a doubt of the supreme, un- limited authority of parliament over all the dominions of the crown. " Standing armies in time of peace, stationed in popu- lous cities to preserve internal peace," Cato's Letters and the Independent Whig, and all the writings of Trenchard and Gordon, Mrs. Macaulay's History, Burgh's Political Disquisi- tions, Clarendon's History of the Civil War, and all the writings relative to the revolutions in England became fashionable read- ing. Hutchinson, whose ambition made him as weak as water, had declared publicly in council, that he had no authority over the king's troops ; that the military force had a separate com- mand, and he could do nothing without Dalrymple. " Good

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God!" said the public, "is this our situation already? Is a military authority already erected over the civil authority, or independent of it ? Is a lieutenant-colonel of a regiment com- mander-in-chief of the province, or even independent upon him ? We remember the time when Brigadier Timothy Ruggles, com- mander-in-chief of Massachusetts troops, was put under the command of a British ensign for a whole campaign. Is the whole civil authority of the province now to be placed under the command of a lieutenant-colonel of a British regiment ? To talk or think of liberty or privileges under a military govern- ment, is as idle and absurd as under an ecclesiastical govern- ment.

How slightly soever historians may have passed over this event, the blood of the martyrs, right or wrong, proved to be the seeds of the congregation. Not the battle of Lexington or

Bunker's Hill, not the surrender of Burgoyne or Cornwallis were more important events in American history than the battle of King Street, on the 5th of March, 1770. The town of Boston instituted an annual oration in commemoration of this catas- trophe, " upon the danger of standing armies, stationed in popu- lous cities in time of peace," and among the first orators were such names as Hancock, Warren, and Lovell. These orations were read, I had almost said by every-body that could read, and scarcely ever with dry eyes. They have now been con- tinued for forty-five years. Will you read them all? They were not long continued in their original design, but other gen- tlemen with other views had influence enough to obtain a change from " standing armies," to " feelings which produced the revolution." Of these forty-five orations I have read as many as I have seen. They have varied with all the changes of our politics. They have been made the engine of bringing forward to public notice young gentlemen of promising genius, whose connections and sentiments were conformable to the prevailing opinions of the moment. There is juvenile ingenuity in all that I have read. There are few men of consequence among us who did not commence their career by an oration on the 5th of March. I have read these orations with a mixture of grief, pleasure, and pity. Young gentlemen of genius de- scribing scenes they never saw, and descanting on feelings they never felt, and which great pains had been taken that they

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never should feel. When will these orations end ? And when will they cease to be monuments of the fluctuations of public opinion and general feeling in Boston, Massachusetts, New England, and the United States ? They are infinitely more indicative of the feelings of the moment, than of the feelings that produced the revolution.

Remember, Sir, that I am not writing history nor annals. I am only stating a few facts, and suggesting a few hints. If I could be fifty years younger, and had nothing better to do, I would have these orations collected, and printed in volumes, and then write the history of the last forty-five years in com- mentaries upon them.

TO DR. J. MORSE.

Quincy, 20 January, 1816.

In the order of time, I have passed over a tragical event which excited much interest, and contributed largely to render the sovereignty of parliament odious, detestable, and horrible to the people, and I can conscientiously add, accelerated the catas- trophe of the 5th March, 1770.1

In 1769, a little before the recall of Governor Bernard, the British frigate, The Rose, sent a lieutenant, a midshipman, and a pressgang of sailors on board a ship of Mr. Hooper, of Mar- blehead, then returning from Bilboa, upon the recruiting service. The lieutenant demanded of the captain a sight of his crew. The crew were called. "Are here all? " No answer. " Search the ship," said the imperious lieutenant. Away flew the mid- shipman and his gang of loyal soldiers, through every part of the ship to search for hidden seamen. At last the cry was heard, " here they are." Four sailors had hid themselves in the forepeak of the ship, the place most likely to be overlooked in a search. The forepeak was immediately invaded by the lieute- nant, the midshipman, and the whole pressgang armed with

1 The account which follows is in some measure a repetition of what has been already printed in the second volume, pp. 224 - 226, note, and also in the ninth volume, pp. 317-319. But as it forms one of the series addressed to Dr. Morse, and opens some views of the subject not there touched upon, it has been thought best to retain it.

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swords and pistols. Michael Corbet and Lieutenant Panton argued the cause, but neither being convinced, resort was had to the ratio ultima, and an amiable youth was laid dead at the feet of Michael Corbet. A boat was sent to the Rose, and a strong reenforcement to the pressgang soon broke down all before them, seized the four sailors, one of whom was bleeding with an arm broken by a pistol ball, shot by the midshipman at random among the four, in the first assault upon the forepeak.

A special Court of Admiralty was summoned, according to act of parliament, to try these four sailors for piracy and mur- der on the high seas, in killing Lieutenant Panton ; when in law, truth, and conscience, the commander of the Rose frigate ought to have been prosecuted for piracy and murder on the high seas, in illegally sending a pressgang to enslave freemen, and compelling them in self-defence to destroy their invader and intended destroyer ; or in the better language of the boat- swain of the Rose frigate, " to deprive honest men of their liberty."

The constitution of this Court ought to be stated by a his- torian. It consisted of the Governors of Massachusetts, Ber- nard, and New Hampshire, Wentworth ; Judge of Admiralty, Auchmuty ; Commander of the Navy, Commodore Hood ; and counsellors from several colonies, to the number of fifteen. Whether Hutchinson sat as Lieutenant-Governor or as Chief Justice, I know not. When the Court opened, the counsel of the poor prisoners presented pleas to the jurisdiction of the Court, and if that should be overruled, requesting and demand- ing that a jury should be summoned to try the facts, according to the course of the common law.

What has become of the records of this Court, whether they have been sent to Halifax or to London, whether they remain in any repository in Boston, or whether they have been burned, like most of the records of this world, I know not. But if they exist, they will show four pleas, drawn at great length, stating the laws, principles, and reasonings on which they were founded, and each of them signed by one of the four prisoners, or by his counsel. These pleadings, contemptible as they may appear at this day, cost the counsel many days of painful research, and the mere composition and draught of them cost more than one sleepless night, in the handwriting.

vol. x. 18

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When the prisoners were arraigned, they presented these four pleas to the Court, and their counsel appeared to support them, with his arguments and books of authority, against Mr. Sewall himself and the other counsel for the crown.

But the counsel on neither side were permitted to say a word. Hutchinson started up, and with a countenance, which remains deeply graven on my retina to this hour, expressive of the designs and passions, the fears and apprehensions, that agitated and tormented his soul, moved that the Court should adjourn to the council chamber. No opposition ! no reasons pro or con ! The countenances of the innocents and the sim- ple on the bench, indicating some surprise, but the knowing ones manifesting a knowledge, or, at least, a pleasing conjec- ture of the secret. The prisoners were remanded ; parties, wit- nesses, counsel, audience, dismissed ; and the Court adjourned to the council chamber, where they remained in secret conclave, till late in the evening. When they arose, it was given out and propagated through the town that they had decided in favor of the pleas, and that jurors were to be summoned the next morn- ing, to try the prisoners.

Whether this rumor had any foundation in truth, or whether it was invented and circulated to soften the keen asperity of the public feeling, I know not ; but this is certain, the Court met again early next morning in secret conclave in the council chamber ; and then it was believed by many, conjectured by more, and reported generally, that Hutchinson and his con- fidential few had been alarmed at the decision of the preced- ing evening, and had contrived a secret meeting in the morning to reconsider the vote. Whether there was any truth in these whispers, rumors, and murmurs, I know not. But one thing is certain, that "when the Court opened in form, the four pleas, without permitting one word to be said for them or against them by the counsel on either side, were pronounced by the president, Bernard, to be overruled.

The prisoners were now at the bar, and the trial commenced. The witnesses on both sides examined and cross-examined.1

' The notes taken by Mr. Adams in this trial have been found since the publication of the prior volumes. They are very full, and entirely confirm the accuracy of this account given from memory nearly half a century afterwards. Hutchinson says, however, that it was he who pronounced the decision of the Court.

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All agreed in every fact and circumstance. No contradictory- testimony; British sailors and American sailors all agreed. What morality and what religion, Dr. Morse, in these sons of Neptune ! Oh ! for the honor of human nature, that I could say the same of the Court !

When the examination was ended and taken down by the clerk and the counsel in writing, the argument of counsel was expected. The counsel for the prisoners had taken great pains to search and research, through every law, human and divine, the doctrine of homicide in all its divisions, distinctions, and limitations. As this was said to be a civil law court, he had ransacked every writer on the civil law, that the town of Boston possessed. He had examined every authority in the laws of England upon the subject, and, superadded to all, he had brought forward that volume of the British Statutes at Large, which contained the act of parliament which expressly prohi- bited the impressment of seamen in America. All these books were piled up on the table before him, in the sight of the Court, when the counsel arose, in the ordinary course of proceedings, to argue the cause of his clients, the poor prisoners at the bar. After addressing the court in the usual style of respect, he begged their attention to the authorities in law, and to the testi- monies, which he should apply, to show that the action of the prisoners in killing Lieutenant Panton could amount to nothing more than justifiable homicide in necessary self-defence.

The words " justifiable homicide " were scarcely out of his mouth, before Hutchinson started up in very indecorous haste, and moved that the prisoners be remanded, and the Court adjourned to the council chamber. The prisoners, the crowded audience, the bar, the counsel, were all thunderstruck. But what were prisoners, audience, bar or counsel, against " sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro ratione voluntas " ? The Court was ad- journed to the council chamber, and there inclosed, like a con- clave of cardinals, in secret intrigues for the rest of the day.

When the Court opened the next day, and the prisoners or- dered to the bar, all the world expected that the trial would commence, and the argument on the law and the evidence pro- ceed. But after a solemn pause and total silence, Governor Bernard, the President of the Court, arose, and with a counte- nance so solemn and gloomy as made the audience shudder, as

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if a sentence of death "was coming, addressed himself to the prisoners by name, and pronounced, " The Court have con- sidered the evidence in support of the libel against you, and are unanimously of opinion that it amounts only to justifiable homicide ; you are accordingly acquitted and discharged from your imprisonment." Not another word was said, except by Mr. Auchmuty, the Judge of Admiralty, who cried out, " The Court is unanimous in this opinion."

I will leave to poets and writers of romance to describe the joy that glowed in every heart, and lighted every countenance at this denouement of the tragedy. One circumstance is too characteristic to be omitted. The counsel for the prisoners descending from the chamber where the Court sat, to the lower floor of the Court House, was met at the bottom of the stairs by the boatswain of the Rose. " Sir," said he, " we are all greatly obliged to you for your noble conduct in defence of these brave fellows ; yet, Sir, this is the employment in which I have been almost constantly engaged for twenty years, fight- ing with honest men to deprive them of their liberty. I always thought I ought to be hanged for it, and now I know it."

This trial, Dr. Morse, is a mystery never yet explained, — a labyrinth without a clue ! an enigma that never can be un- riddled. Though all hypothesis must be unavailing in investi- gating this phenomenon, so strange, so unprecedented in the history of jurisprudence, I must be permitted to suggest a few hints for your consideration and inquiry.

First. Where can you find a secret court of judicature ? In courts martial, in the Inquisition, or in the Lion's mouth at Venice ? The star chamber and the high commission court in England, even Jeffreys's courts were open and public.

Second. Here were the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Chief Justice, the Judge of Admiralty of Massachusetts, the Governor and counsellors from New Hampshire, counsellors from Rhode Island, and the commander-in-chief of the royal navy, Commodore Hood, now, if alive, Lord Bridport, skulking and hiding in total silence from open court to secret council chamber, like Indians fighting behind bushes, and running in the dark from one bush to another to avoid detection.

Third. Upon what law, upon what principle were the pri- soners acquitted of piracy and murder ? Nobody knew, nobody

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could conjecture. Every honest soul was delighted with the decision, but none knew or could surmise upon what grounds it was made.

Fourth. Was the decision according to the law of nature, the law of nations, the civil law, the common law, or the statute law ? No man could answer any of these questions. All was darkness, mystery, uncertainty, and confusion. The honest lawyers said, " misera servitus est, ubi jus est vagum aut incos-nitumP

Fifth. There was an act of parliament expressly forbidding impressments in America, then lying on the table before the judges, produced by the counsel for the prisoners, and ready to be read at a moment's warning, which would have justified the decision of the Court, to the king, the English nation, and the American public, without any other authority or argument. Why did not the Court permit this statute to be read or men- tioned ? Why did they not produce it and read it themselves, if the counsel had through ignorance or forgetfulness omitted it.

Sixth. Can it be credible, that this Court, and all the counsel for the crown, and all the naval and custom-house officers -were ignorant of this statute ? However incredible it may appear, I have always believed and still believe that not one of them all had the least knowledge or suspicion that such an act existed. There was at that time but one copy of the Statutes at Large in the Massachusetts, and that set had been imported by the coun- sel for the prisoners.

Seventh. Was the sentence of the Court founded on the principle of the universal illegality of impressment ? I sincerely believe it was, and, moreover, that not one judge upon that bench would have dared to give an opinion of its legality. The oracular and equivocal dictum of Lord Chatham had not then been pronounced, nor the opinion of the first Pitt, as ignorant as it was dogmatical, that it was a common-law prerogative of the crown. Candor obliges me to acknowledge that Mr. Sewall conducted this prosecution like a judicious lawyer and a polite gentleman ; but Hutchinson appeared hurried between his ter- ror of the crown and its officers on one hand, and his dread of unpopularity on the other.1 No trial had ever interested the

1 'Hutchinson has explained this whole matter. He admits that the change in the action of the Court upon the application tor a jury was owing entirely to

N

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community so much before, excited so much curiosity and com- passion, or so many apprehensions of the fatal consequences of the supremacy of parliamentary jurisdiction, or the intrigues of parliamentary courts. No trial had drawn together such crowds of auditors from day to day ; they were as numerous as those in the next year, at the trials of Preston and the soldiers. Nevertheless, every thing relative to this great event must remain mysterious. The whole transaction seems totally for- gotten. None of our historians appears to have ever heard of it. Mrs. Warren has not remembered it, and Dr. Gordon has taken no notice of it ; yet Dr. Gordon has minutely related the action of Mr. Richardson in shooting young Snider, and its effects. Mr. Richardson and his exploit were thought worthy to be recorded, while Panton and Corbet were to be forgotten ! And who was Richardson ? If there was even a color of justice in the public opinion, he was the most abandoned wretch in Ame- rica. Adultery, incest, perjury were reputed to be his ordinary crimes. His life would exhibit an atrocious volume. This man was selected by the board of commissioners for a custom- house officer. His name was sufficient to raise a mob, and I had almost said to the honor of the mob. Mr. Richardson and the innocent victim, Snider, ought to have been remembered, but Panton and Corbet ought not to have been forgotten. Preston and his soldiers ought to have been forgotten sooner.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 2 March, 1816.

I cannot be serious ! I am about to write you the most fri- volous letter you ever read. Would you go back to your cradle, and live over again your seventy years ? I believe you would return me a New England answer, by asking me another ques- tion, " Would you live your eighty years over again? "f^If I

his interference ; and he rests the final decision upon the fact, that neither the lieutenant nor his superior officer was acting by any warrant or special authority from the lords of the admiralty. This avoided the question of their power to give such authority. History of Massachusetts, vol. iii. p. 232, note.

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211

am prepared to give you an explicit answer, the question in- volves so many considerations of metaphysics and physics, of theology and ethics, of philosophy and history, of experience and romance, of tragedy, comedy, and farce, that I would not give my opinion without writing a volume to justify it. J/1 have lately lived over again in part, from 1753, when I was junior sophister at college, till 1769, when I was digging in the mines as a barrister at law for silver and gold in the town of Boston, and got as much of the shining dross for my labor, as my utmost avarice at that time craved. At the hazard of the little vision that is left me, I have read the history of that period of sixteen years, in the six first volumes of the Baron de Grimm. In a late letter to you, I expressed a wish to see a history of quarrels, and calamities of authors in France, like that of D'Israeli in England; I did not expect it so soon, but now I have it in a manner more masterly than I ever hoped to see it. It is not only a narrative of the incessant great wars between the ecclesiastics and the philosophers, but of the little skirmishes and squabbles of poets, musicians, sculptors, painters, architects, tragedians, comedians, opera singers, and dancers, chansons, vaudevilles, epigrams, madrigals, epitaphs, sonnets, &c.

No man is more sensible than I am of the service to science and letters, humanity, fraternity, and liberty, that would have been rendered by the encyclopedists and economists, by Vol- taire, D'Alembert, Buffon, Diderot, Rousseau, La Lande, Fre- deric and Catherine, if they had possessed common sense. But they were all totally destitute of it. They seemed to think that all Christendom was convinced, as they were, that all religion was "visions judaiques" and that their effulgent lights had illuminated all the world ; they seemed to believe that whole nations and continents had been changed in their principles, opinions, habits, and feelings, by the sovereign grace of their almighty philosophy, almost as suddenly as Catholics and Cal- vinists believe in instantaneous conversion. They had not con- sidered the force of early education on the minds of millions, who had never heard of their philosophy.

And what was their philosophy ? Atheism, — pure, unadulte- rated atheism. Diderot, D'Alembert, Frederic, De La Lande, and Grimm, were indubitable atheists. The universe was mas- ter only, and eternal. Spirit was a word without a meaning.

212 CORRESPONDENCE.

Liberty was a word without a meaning. There was no liberty in the universe; liberty was a word void of sense. Every thought, word, passion, sentiment, feeling, all motion and action was necessary. All beings and attributes were of eternal neces- sity ; conscience, morality, were all nothing but fate. This was their creed, and this was to perfect human nature, and convert the earth into a paradise of pleasure.

Who and what is this fate ? He must be a sensible fellow. He must be a master of science ; he must be a master of spheri- cal trigonometry, and great circle sailing ; he must calculate eclipses in his head by intuition ; he must be master of the science of infinitesimals, " la science des infiniment petitsP He must involve and extract all the roots by intuition, and be familiar with all possible or imaginable sections of the cone. He must be a master of the arts, mechanical and imitative ; he must have more eloquence than Demosthenes, more wit than Swift or Voltaire, more humor than Butler or Trumbull ; and what is more comfortable than all the rest, he must be good- natured ; for this is upon the whole a good world. There is ten times as much pleasure as pain in it.

Why, then, should we abhor the word God, and fall in love with the word fate ? We know there exists energy and intel- lect enough to produce such a world as this, which is a sublime and beautiful one, and a very benevolent one, notwithstanding all our snarling ; and a happy one, if it is not made otherwise by our own fault.

Ask a mite in the centre of your mammoth cheese, what he thinks of the "t6 ndv." I should prefer the philosophy of Timaeus of Locris, before that of Grimm, Diderot, Frederic, and D' Alem- bert. I should even prefer the Shaster of Indostan, or the Chal- dean, Egyptian, Indian, Greek, Christian, Mahometan, Teuto- nic, or Celtic theology. Timseus and Ocellus taught that three principles were eternal: God, matter, and form. God was good, and had ideas ; matter was necessity, fate, dead, without form, without feeling, perverse, untractable, capable, however, of being cut into forms of spheres, circles, triangles, squares, cubes, cones, &c. The ideas of the good God labored upon matter to bring it into form ; but matter was fate, necessity, dulness, obstinacy, and would not always conform to the ideas of the good God, who desired to make the best of all possible

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worlds, but matter, fate, necessity, resisted, and would not let him complete his idea. Hence all the evil and disorder, pain, misery, and imperfection of the universe.

We all curse Robespierre and Bonaparte ; but were they not both such restless, vain, extravagant animals as Diderot and Voltaire ? Voltaire was the greatest literary character and Bona the greatest military character of the eighteenth century ; there is all the difference between them ; both equally heroes and equally cowards.

When you asked my opinion of a university, it would have been easy to advise mathematics, experimental philosophy, na- tural history, chemistry, and astronomy, geography, and the fine arts, to the exclusion of ontology, metaphysics, and theology. But knowing the eager impatience of the human mind to search into eternity and infinity, the first cause and last end of all things, I thought best to leave it its liberty to inquire, till it is convinced, as I have been these fifty years, that there is but one being in the universe who comprehends it, and our last resource is resignation.

This Grimm must have been in Paris when you were there. Did you know him or hear of him ?

I have this moment received two volumes more ; but these are from 1777 to 1782, leaving the chain broken from 1769 to 1777. I hope hereafter to get the two intervening volumes.

■m

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 3 May, 1816.

Yours of April 8th has long since been received.

J. Would you agree to live your eighty years over again ?

A. Aye, and sans phrase.

J. Would you agree to live your eighty years over again for ever ?

A. I once heard our acquaintance, Chew, of Philadelphia, say, he should like to go back to twenty-five, to all eternity. But I own my soul would start and shrink back on itself at the prospect of an endless succession of boules de savon, almost as

214 CORRESPONDENCE.

much as at the certainty of annihilation. For what is human life ? I can speak only for one. I have had more comfort than distress, more pleasure than pain, ten to one ; nay, if you please, a hundred to one. A pretty large dose, however, of distress and pain. But, after all, what is human life ? A vapor, a fog, a dew, a cloud, a blossom, a flower, a rose, a blade of grass, a glass bubble, a tale told by an idiot, a boule de savon, vanity of vanities, an eternal succession of which would terrify me almost as much as annihilation.

J. Would you prefer to live over again rather than accept the offer of a better life in a future state ?

A. Certainly not.

J. Would you live again, rather than change for the worse in a future state, for the sake of trying something new ?

A. Certainly, yes !

J. Would you live over again once or forever rather than run the risk of annihilation, or of a better or worse state at or after death?

A. Most certainly I would not.

J. How valiant you are !

A. Aye, at this moment and at all other moments of my life that I can recollect ; but who can tell what will become of his bravery, when his flesh and his philosophy were not suffi- cient to support him in his last hours. D' Alembert said, Happy are they who have courage, but I have none. Voltaire, the greatest genius of them all, behaved like the greatest coward of them all, at his death, as he had like the wisest fool of them all in his lifetime. Hurne^ awkwardly affects to sport away all sober thoughts. Who can answer for his last feelings and reflections, especially as the priests are in possession of the custom of making the great engines of their craft, procul este profani.

J. How shall we, how can we, estimate the value of human life?

A. I know not ; I cannot weigh sensations and reflections, pleasures and pains, hopes and fears in money scales. But I can tell you how I have heard it estimated by some philosophers. One of my old friends and clients, a mandamus counsellor against his will, a man of letters and virtues, without one vice that I ever knew or suspected, except garrulity, William Vassal,

CORRESPONDENCE. 215

asserted to me, and strenuously maintained, that pleasure is no compensation for pain. A hundred years of the keenest de- lights of human life, could not atone for one hour of bilious colic that he had felt. The sublimity of this philosophy my dull genius could not reach. I was willing to state a fair account between pleasure and pain, and give credit for the ^ balance, which I found very great in my favor. -Another philo- n~ sopher who, as we say, believed nothing, ridiculed the notion of a future state. One of the company asked, " Why are you an enemy to a future state ? Are you wearied of life ? Do you detest existence ? " " Weary of life ! Detest existence ! " said the philosopher, " no, I love life so well and am so attached to existence, that to be sure of immortality, I would consent to be pitched about with forks by the devils among flames of fire and brimstone to all eternity." I find no resources in my courage for this exalted philosophy. I would rather be blotted out. II fant trancher le mot. What is there in life to attach us to it, but the hope of a future and a better ? It is a cracker, a bouquet, a firework, at best.

I admire your navigation, and should like to sail with you either in your bark or in my own, alongside with yours. Hope, with her gay ensigns displayed at the prow ; fear, with her hob- goblins behind the stern. Hope remains. What pleasure ? I mean, take away fear, and what pain remains ? Ninety-nine hundredths of the pleasures and pains of life are nothing but hopes and fears. All nations known in history or in travels have hoped, believed, and expected a future and a better state. The Maker of the universe, the cause of all things, whether we call it fate, or chance, or God, has inspired this hope. If it is a fraud, we shall never know it ; we shall never resent the impo- sition, be grateful for the illusion, nor grieve for the disappoint- ment; we shall be no more.

Credant Grimm, Diderot, Buffon, La Lande, Condorcet, D'Holbach, Frederic, Catherine, non ego. Arrogant as it may be, I shall take the liberty to pronounce them all ideologians. Yet I would not persecute a hair of their heads; the world is wide enough for them and me.

Suppose the cause of the universe should reveal to all man- kind at once a certainty, that they must all die within a cen- tury, and that death is an eternal extinction of all living powers,

216 CORRESPONDENCE.

of all sensation and reflection. What would be the effect? Would there be one man, woman, or child existing on this globe twenty years hence ? Would every human being be a Madame Deffand, Voltaire's " aveugle clairvoyante" all her life- time regretting her existence, bewailing that she had ever been born ; grieving that she had ever been dragged without her consent into being? Who "would bear the gout, the stone, the colic, for the sake of a boule de savon, when a pistol, a cord, a pond, a phial of laudanum, was at hand ? What would men say to their Maker ? Would they thank him ? No ; they would reproach him, they would curse him to his face.

Voild , a sillier letter than my last ! For a wonder, I have filled a sheet, and a greater wonder, I have read fifteen volumes of Grimm. Digito compesce labellum. I hope to write you more upon this and other topics of your letter. I have read also a history of the Jesuits, in four volumes. Can you tell me the author, or any thing of this work ?

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 6 May, 1816.

Neither eyes, fingers, nor paper held out to despatch aU the trifles I wished to write in my last letter.

In your letter of April 8th, you wonder for what good end ' the sensations of grief could be intended. You wish the patho- logists would tell us what is the use of grief in our economy, and of what good it is the cause, proximate or remote. When I approach such questions as this, I consider myself likd one' of those little eels in vinegar, or one of those animalcules in black or red pepper or in the horseradish root, that bite our tongues so cruelly, reasoning upon the to wav. Of what use is this sting upon the tongue ? Why might we not have the benefit of these stimulants without the sting ? Why might we not have the fragrance, the beauty of the rose, without the thorn ?

In the first place, however, we know not the connections be- tween pleasure and pain. They seem to be mechanical and inseparable. How can we conceive a strong passion, a sari-

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guine hope, suddenly disappointed, without producing pain or grief? Swift, at seventy, recollected the fish he had angled out of water when a boy, which broke loose from his hook, and said, " I feel the disappointment at this moment." A merchant places all his fortune and all his credit in a single India or China ship. She arrives at the Vineyard with a cargo worth a million, in order. Sailing round the Cape for Boston, a sudden storm wrecks her ; ship, cargo, and crew all lost. Is it possible that the merchant, ruined, bankrupt, sent to prison by his cre- ditors, his wife and children starving, should not grieve ? Sup- pose a young couple, with every advantage of persons, fortune, and connection, on the point of an indissoluble union. A flash of lightning, or any one of those millions of accidents which are allotted to humanity, proves fatal to one of the lovers. Is it possible that the other, and all the friends of both, should not grieve ? It should seem that grief, as a mere passion, must necessarily be in proportion to sensibility.

Did you ever see a portrait or a statue of a great man, with- out perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety ? These fur- rows were all ploughed in the countenance by grief. Our juvenile oracle, Sir Edward Coke, thought that none were fit for legislators and magistrates but sad men; and who were these sad men ? They were aged men who had been tossed and buffeted in the vicissitudes of life, forced upon profound reflection by grief and disappointments, and taught to command their passions and prejudices.

But all this, you will say, is nothing to the purpose ; it is only repeating and exemplifying a fact, which my question supposed to be well known, namely, the existence of grief, and is no answer to my question, what are the uses of grief? This is very true, and you are very right; but may not the uses of grief be inferred, or at least suggested by such exem- plifications of known facts ? Grief compels the India merchant to think, to reflect upon the plan of his voyage. " Have I not been rash to trust my fortune, my family, my liberty to the caprice of winds and waves in a single ship ? I will never again give loose to my imagination and avarice. It had been wiser and more honest to have traded on a smaller scale, upon my own capital." The desolated lover^and disappointed connec- tionSv are compelled by their grief to reflect on the vanity of

vo2. x. 19

J

218 CORRESPONDENCE.

human wishes and expectations ; to learn the essential lesson of resignation, to review their own conduct toward the deceased, to "correct any errors or faults in their future conduct towards their remaining friends, and towards all men ; to recollect the virtues of their lost friend, and resolve to imitate them; his follies and vices, if he had any, and resolve to avoid them. Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart ; it compels them to rouse their reason, to assert its empire over their passions, propensi- ties and prejudices, to elevate them to a superiority over all human events, to give them the felicis animi immotam tran- quilitatem; in short, to make them stoics and Christians.

After all, as grief is a pain, it stands in the predicament of all other evil, and the great question occurs, what is the origin and what the final cause of evil.. This, perhaps, is known only to Omniscience. We poor mortals have nothing to do with it, but to fabricate all the good we can out of all inevitable evils, and to avoid all that are avoidable ; and many such there are, among which are our own unnecessary apprehensions and ima- ginary fears. Though stoical apathy is impossible, yet patience, and resignation, and tranquillity may be acquired, by considera- tion, in a great degree, very much for the happiness of life. /

I have read Grimm in fifteen volumes, of more than five hun- dred pages each. I will not say, like Uncle Toby, " you shall not die" till you have read him, but you ought to read him, if possible. It is the most entertaining work I ever read. He appears exactly as you represent him. What is most of all remarkable, is his impartiality. He spares no characters, but Necker and Diderot. Voltaire, Buffon, D'Alembert, Helvetius, Rousseau, Marmontel, Condorcet, La Harpe, Beaumarchais, and all others are lashed without ceremony. Their portraits are faithfully drawn as possible. It is a complete review of French literature and fine arts from 1753 to 1790. No politics. Criti- cisms very just. Anecdotes without number, and very merry ; one, ineffably ridiculous, I wish I could send you, but it is immeasurably long. D'Argens, a little out of health and shiver- ing with the cold in Berlin, asked leave of the King to take a ride to Gascony, his native province. He was absent so long that Frederic concluded the air of the south of France was likely to detain his friend, and as he wanted his society and services,

CORRESPONDENCE. 219

he contrived a trick to bring him back. He fabricated a mandement in the name of the Archbishop of Aix, commanding all the faithful to seize the Marquis d' Argens, author of Ocellus, Timseus, and Julian, works atheistical, deistical, heretical, and impious in the highest degree. This mandement, composed in a style of ecclesiastical eloquence, that never was exceeded by Pope, Jesuit, Inquisitor, or Sorbonnite, he sent in print by a courier to d' Argens, who, frightened out of his wits, fled by cross-roads out of France and back to Berlin, to the greater joy of the philosophical court for the laugh of Europe, which they had raised at the expense of the learned Marquis.

I do not like the late resurrection of the Jesuits. They have a general now in Russia, in correspondence with the Jesuits in the United States, who are more numerous than everybody knows. Shall we not have swarms of them here, in as many shapes and disguises as ever a king of the gypsies, Bampfylde Moore Carew himself, assumed ? In the shape of printers, edit- ors, writers, schoolmasters, &c. ? I have lately read Pascal's letters over again, and four volumes of the History of the Jesuits. ^ If ever any congregation of men could merit eternal perdition on earth and in hell, according to these historians, though, like Pascal, true Catholics, it is this company of Xioyola. Our sys- tem, however, of religious liberty must afford them an asylum ; but if they do not put the purity of our elections to a severe trial, it will be a wonder.

TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.

Quincy, 26 May, 1816.

Reverend, Honorable, Learned, Venerable, and Dear Sir, — As I stand in need of a casuist in philosophy, morality, and Christianity, to whom should I apply but to you, whom I consider as the best qualified of all my friends ?

The stoics, the Christians, the Mahometans, and our North American Indians all agree that complaint is unmanly, unlaw- ful, and impious. To bear torment without a murmur, a sigh, a groan, or a distortion of face and feature, or a writhe or con- tortion of the body, is consummate virtue, heroism, and piety.

220 CORRESPONDENCE.

Mr. Lear has completed the glory of great and good Washing- ton, by informing us that he suffered great distress without a sigh or a groan. Jephtha's daughter, Agamemnon's Iphigenia, the Hindoo widows, who roast and broil and fry with their husband's bones, probably utter no shrieks. The son of Alno- mac never complained. Brissot and some of his colleagues are said to have pronounced " Vive la repub — ," when the guillotine has cut off the head, which hopping and bouncing and rolling has articulated the syllable " lique" after it was sundered from the shoulders.

I can almost believe all this. The history of the Christian martyrs, and the French clergy on the 2d of September, seem to render it credible. Indeed, in the course of my strange life I have had at times some feelings of a like kind ; but I do not give so much weight to all these as to the cool declaration of our excellent and blessed, though once passionate, Dr. Chauncy, that he had found by experience that a man could lie all night upon his pillow under the most excruciating torment of tooth- ache, headache, rheumatism, or gout, unable to sleep a wink, without uttering a groan, sigh, or syllable. Now, Sir, please to tell me what virtue there is in all this ? A common man, as 1 am informed, was lately asked what he meant by the word resignation. His answer was, " I cannot help UP Could So- crates have given a better reason ?

Resignation is our own affair. What good does it do to God ? Prudence dictates to us to make the best we can of inevitable evils. We may fret and fume and peeve, and scold and rave, but what good does this do ? It hurts ourselves, and may hurt our neighbors by the weak, silly, foolish example, but does no good in the universe that we can imagine.

Voltaire, for the last ten years of his life seemed to adopt as a kind of motto, " vieux et malade" and I might adopt for mine, " vieux et malade, paralytique et presque aveugie" My wife has been sick all winter, frequently at the point of death, in her own opinion. I have been sick in the beginning of winter and the beginning of spring, and good for nothing all the year round. 1 have lost the ablest friend I had on earth in Mr. Dexter. Is all this complaint ? If I say I have the toothache, the headache, the earache, the colic, the gout, the gravel, the stone, or the rheumatism, is this complaint ? As I have alluded

CORRESPONDENCE. 221

to Washington, I may quote Franklin. The aged philosopher alighted from his coach at my door, at Auteuil, on an invitation to dinner. I never saw a more perfect picture of horror, terror, or grief than his countenance. I was shocked with surprise and compassion. He turned to his coachman and said, " You need not come for me. I will walk home " (to Passy, about two miles). He then turned to me and said, " I will never enter the door of a coach again, at least if I cannot find a coachman who has the stone." I believe he kept his word ; but was this complaint?

I see nothing but pride, vanity, affectation, and hypocrisy in these pretended stoical apathies. I have so much sympathy and compassion for human nature, that a man or a woman may grunt and groan, screech and scream, weep, cry, or roar, as much as nature dictates under extreme distress, provided there be no affectation ; for there may be hypocrisy even in these expressions of torture. I have not alluded to the crucifixions of the convulsionnaires of Paris. Pray enlighten my conscience.

Now for the travels on and about the Oneida lake, which I read with more interest than Scott's monument of clannish fable, " The Lady of the Lake." Receiving it without any letter, I concluded it was to be returned to you. Wishing Mr. Johnson might have the pleasure and advantage of reading it, I requested him to return it to you. I no more suspected it to come from Dewitt Clinton than from the prophet of Wabash or the prophet of Oneida, or the up and down philosopher and hero of Elba and St. Helena. Had Mr. Clinton condescended to drop me a line, I should have delivered the manuscript to Mr. Q,uincy, as you intended.

I lament the misfortunes of friend Gyselaer's family, as I do those of my friend Gerry's, and many others of the most vir- tuous and meritorious men I have known. I cannot say I have never seen the seed of honest men begging bread ; but I be- lieve equity as well as goodness will prevail in the universe throughout. This is a fundamental article in the faith of your friend.

19

222 CORRESPONDENCE.

THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN ADAMS.

Monticello, 1 August, 1816.

Your two philosophical letters, of May 4th and 6th, have been too long in my carton of " letters to be answered." To the question, indeed, to the utility of grief, no answer remains to be given. You have exhausted the subject. I see that with the other evils of life it is destined to temper the cup we are to drink.

Two ums by Jove's high throne have ever stood, The source of evil one, and one of good ; From thence the cup of mortal man he fills : Blessing to these, to those distributes ills ; To most he mingles both.

Putting to myself your question, Would I agree to live my seventy-three years over again forever, I hesitate to say. With Chew's limitations, from twenty-five to sixty, I would say yes ; and I might go further back, but not come lower down. For at the latter period, with most of us, the powers of life are sen- sibly on the wane ; sight becomes dim, hearing dull, memory constantly enlarging its frightful blank, and parting with all we have ever seen or known, spirits evaporate, bodily debility creeps on, palsying every limb, and so faculty after faculty quits us, and where, then, is life ? If, in its full vigor, of good as well as evil, your friend Vassall could doubt its value, it must be purely a negative quantity, when its evils alone remain. Yet I do not go into his opinion entirely. I do not agree that an age of pleasure is no compensation for a moment of pain. I think, with you, that life is a fair matter of account, and the balance often, nay generally, in its favor. It is not, indeed, easy, by calculation of intensity and time, to apply a common measure, or to fix the par between pleasure and pain ; yet it exists, and is measurable. On the question, for example, whether to be cut for the stone, the young, with a longer pros- pect of years, think these overbalance the pain of the operation. Dr. Franklin, at the age of eighty, thought his residuum of life not worth that price. I should have thought with him, even taking the stone out of the scale. There is a ripeness of time for death, regarding others as well as ourselves, when it is

CORRESPONDENCE. 223

reasonable we should drop off, and make room for another growth. When we have lived our generation out, we should not wish to encroach on another. I enjoy good health. I am happy in what is around me ; yet I assure you, I am ripe for leaving all, this year, this day, this hour. If it could be doubted, whether we would go back to twenty-five, how can it be, whether we would go forward from seventy-three ? Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect ; but of all human contemplations, the most abhorrent is body without mind. Perhaps, however, I might accept of time to read Grimm before I go. Fifteen volumes of anecdotes and incidents, within the compass of my own time and cognizance, written by a man of genius, of taste, of point, an acquaintance, the measure and traverses of whose mind I knew, could not fail to turn the scale in favor of life during their perjisal. I must write to Ticknor, to add it to my catalogue, and hold on till it comes.

There is a Mr. Vanderkemp, of New York, a correspondent, I believe, of yours, with whom I have exchanged some letters, without knowing who he is. Will you tell me ?

I know nothing of the History of the Jesuits you mention, in four volumes. Is it a good one ? I dislike, with you, their restoration, because it marks a retrograde step from light towards darkness. We shall have our follies without doubt. Some one or more of them will always be afloat, but ours will be the follies of enthusiasm, not of bigotry, not of Jesuitism. Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds ; enthu- siasm, of the free and buoyant. Education and free discus- sion are the antidotes of both. We are destined to be a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism. Old Europe will have to lean on our shoulders, and to hobble along by our side, under the monkish trammels of priests and kings, as she can. What a colossus shall we be, when the southern continent comes up to our mark ! What a stand will it secure as a ralliance for the reason and freedom of the globe ! I Like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. So good night. I will dream on, always fancying that Mrs. Adams and yourself are by my side marking the progress and the obli- quities of ages and countries.

Thomas Jefferson.

224 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 9 August, 1816.

The biography of Mr. Vanderkemp would require a volume, which I could not write if a million were offered me as a reward for this work. After a learned and scientific education, he en- tered the army in Holland, and served as a captain with repu- tation ; but loving books more than arms, he resigned his commission, and became a preacher. My acquaintance with him commenced at Leyden, in 1780. He was then minister of the Mennonist congregation, the richest in Europe, in that city, where he was celebrated as the most elegant writer in the Dutch language. He was the intimate friend of Luzac and De Gyselaer. In 1788, when the king of Prussia threatened Holland with invasion, his party insisted on his taking a com- mand in the army of defence, and he was appointed to the command of the most exposed and most important post in the seven provinces. He was soon surrounded by the Prussian forces ; but he defended his fortress with a prudence, fortitude, patience, and perseverance, which were admired by all Europe, till, abandoned by his nation, destitute of provisions and am- munition, still refusing to surrender, he was offered the most honorable capitulation. He accepted it, was offered very ad- vantageous proposals, but despairing of the liberty of his coun- try, he returned to Antwerp ; determined to emigrate to New York, he wrote to me in London, requesting letters of intro- duction. I sent him letters to Governor Clinton and several V others of our little great men. His history in this country is equally curious and affecting. He left property in Holland, which the revolutions there have annihilated, and I fear is now pinched with poverty. His head is deeply learned, and his heart is pure. I scarcely know a more amiable character. A gentleman here asked my opinion of him. My answer was, " he is a mountain of salt to the earth." He has written to me occasionally, and I have answered his letters in great haste. You may well suppose that such a man has not always been able to understand our American politics. Nor have I. Had he been as great a master of our language as he was of his own, he would at this day have been one of the most conspicuous characters in the United States.

CORRESPONDENCE. 225

mch for Vanderkemp. Now for your letter of August [our poet, the Ionian, Y suppose^ ought to have told us,

whether Jove, in the distribution of good and evil from his two urns, observes any rule of equity or not ; whether he thunders out flames of eternal fire on the many, and power, glory, and felicity on the few, without any consideration of justice. Let us state a few questions tsub ros12.r „

1. Would you accept a life, if offered you, of equal pleasure and pain, i.'g{ one million of moments of pleasure and one million of monu nts of pain ? tjOOO,000 pleasure = 1,000,000 paill. Suppose the pleasure as exquisite as any in life, and the pain as exquisite as any, e. g-. stone, gravel, gout, headache, ~ earache, toothache, colic, -&<}> I would not. I would rather

be blotted out.

2. Would you accept a life of one year of incessant gout, ti» headache, &c, for seventy-two years of such life as you have

enjoyed ? I would not.M li_year of cholic = 72 of boule de sa- von. Pretty, but unsubstantial. I would rather be extinguished. You may vary these algebraical equations at pleasure and with- out end. All this ratiocination, calculation, call it what you will, is founded on the supposition of no future state. Promise me eternal life, free from pain, though in all other respects no better than our present terrestrial existence, I know not how many thousand years of Smithfield fires I would not endure to obtain it.ii,xIn fine, without the supposition of a future state, mankind and this globe appear to me the most sublime and beautiful bubble and bauble that imagination can conceive. Let us, then, wish for immortality at all hazards, and trust the ruler with his skies. I do, and earnestly wish for his commands, which, to the utmost of my power, shall be implicitly and piously obeyed. ,—

It is worth while to live to read Grimm, whom I have read. And La Harpe, and Mademoiselle d'Espinasse, the fair friend of d'Alembert, both of whom Grimm characterizes very dis- tinctly, are, I am told, in print. I have not seen them, but hope soon to have them.

My History of the Jesuits is not elegantly written, but is sup- ported by unquestionable authorities, is very particular and very horrible. Their restoration is indeed " a step towards dark- ness," cruelty, perfidy, despotism, death and — ! I wish we

o

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were out of danger of bigotry and Jesuitism. May we be " a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism." What a colossus shall we be ! But will it not be of brass, iron, and clay ? Your taste is judicious in liking better the dreams of the future than the history of the past. Upon this principle I prophesy that you and I shall soon meet better friends than ever. So wishes

J. A.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

—

Quincy, 9 September, 1816.

I thank you for your kind letter of the 5th of this month, which our meritorious friend, Mr. Shaw, put into my hand yesterday. I had before seen the paragraph in the Daily Advertiser. The Baron de Grimm himself, in a subsequent volume, sufficiently explains and confutes the error of the rumor which had been propagated, I know not by whom, in 1782.1 You will find at the end of the first volume of the " Defence of our Constitutions," a postscript and a letter, in French, which will explain, somewhat too cavalierly and vul- garly, the whole matter. If you think it of any importance, however, as soon as the weakness of my eyes and the trem- bling of my hands will permit, I will give you a more decent statement of the facts, and the letter to the Abbe, in our lan- guage, I never saw the Baron till 1785, when I left Paris, never to see it more. He was then only a secret correspondent of the empress of Russia, and some of the sovereigns of Ger- many. He was sopn appointed a public minister, admitted into the diplomatic corps, and consequently became known to Mr. Jefferson. The Baron's great work in fifteen volumes will be read with different views. The lovers of romance, founded on truth, will find it an exquisite entertainment. I need not tell you how the amateurs and connoisseurs of the fine arts, of architecture, painting, sculpture, statuary, music, poetry, elo- quence, &c, and every species of theatrical instruction and

1 That the Abbe <le Mably had been applied to by the United States, f aid to form a code of laws. Baron de Grimm corrected the error in 1784. Vol. v. Appendix, p. 491.

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amusement will be delighted with it. I own to you, I admire it as_the best history of the causes, the rise, and progress of the { French revolution, to 1790, that I have seen.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 30 September, 1816.

The seconds of life that remain to me are so few and so short (and they seem to me shorter and shorter every minute) that I cannot stand upon epistolary etiquette ; and though I have written two letters yet unnoticed, I must write a third, because I am not acquainted with any man on this side Monticello who can give me any information upon subjects that I am now analyzing and investigating, if I may now be permitted to use the pompous words now in fashion.

When I read Dr. Priestley's remarks upon " Dupuis," I felt a curiosity to know more about him. I wrote to Europe, and engaged another to write. I had no idea of more than one or two volumes in octavo or duodecimo ; but lo ! I am overwhelmed with eight or ten volumes, and another of planches !

Sixteen years of research the author acknowledges ; and as he quotes his authorities, I would not undertake to verify them in sixteen years, if I had all his books, which surely are not to be found in America. If you know any thing of this Monsieur Dupuis, or his Origine de tons les Cultes, candidus imperii.

I have read only the first volume. It is learned and curious. The whole work will afford me business, study, and amusement for the winter.

Dr. Priestley pronounced him an atheist, and his work the " ne plus ultra of infidelity." Priestley agrees with him, that the history of the fall of Adam and Eve is an " allegory," a fable, an Arabian tale, and so does Dr. Middleton, to account for the origin of evil, which, however, it does not. Priestley says that the Apocalypse, according to Dupuis, is the most learned work that ever was written.

With these brief flStrissures, Priestley seems to have expected

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to annihilate the influence of Dupuis's labor, as Swift destroyed Blackmore with his

" Undid Creation at a jerk, And of redemption made damned work."

And as he disgraced men as good, at least, as himself by his

» Wicked Will Winston " And

" Good Master Ditton."

But Dupuis is not to be so easily destroyed. The contro- versy between spiritualism and materialism, between spiritual- ists and materialists, will not be settled by scurrilous epigrams of Swift, nor by dogmatical censures of Priestley. You and I have as much authority to settle these disputes as Swift, Priestley, Dupuis, or the Pope ; and if you will agree with me, we will issue our bull, and enjoin it upon all these gentlemen to be silent till they can tell us what matter is, and what spirit is, and in the mean time to observe the commandments, and the sermon on the mount.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 4 November, 1816.

Your letter of October 14th has greatly obliged me. Tracy's Analysis I have read once, and wish to read it a second time. It shall be returned to you ; but I wish to be informed whether this gentleman is one of that family of Tracys with which the Marquis Lafayette is connected by intermarriages.

I have read not only the Analysis, but eight volumes out of twelve of the " Origine de tons les Cultes" and, if life lasts, will read the other four. But, my dear Sir, I have been often obliged to stop and talk to myself, like the reverend, allegorical, hiero- glyphical, and apocalyptical Mr. John Bunyan, and say, " so- brius esto, John, be not carried away by sudden blasts of wind, by unexpected flashes of lightning, nor terrified by the sharpest crashes of thunder."

We have now, it seems, a national Bible Society, to propa-

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gate King James's Bible through all nations. Would it not be better to apply these pious subscriptions to purify Christendom from the corruptions of Christianity than to propagate those corruptions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America? Suppose we should project a society to translate Dupuis into all lan- guages, and offer a reward in medals of diamonds to any man or body of men who would produce the best answer to it.

Enthusiasms, crusades, French revolutions, are epidemical or endemical distempers, to which mankind is liable. They are not tertian or juartan agues. Ages and centuries are some- times required to cure them.

It is more worth your while to read Dupuis than Grimm. Of all the romances and true histories I ever read, it is the most entertaining and instructive, though Priestley calls it " dull"

Conclude not from all this that I have renounced the Christ- ian religion, or that I agree with Dupuis in all his sentiments. Far from it. I see in every page something to recommend Christianity in its purity, and something to discredit its corrup- tions. If I had strength, I would give you my opinion of it in a fable of the bees. The ten commandments and the sermon on the mount contain my religion.

I agree perfectly with you that " the moral sense is as much a part of our condition as that of feeling," and in all that you say upon this subject.

My History of the Jesuits is in four volumes in twelves, under the title of " Histoire Generate de la Naissance et des Prog-res de la Compagnie de Jesus, et V Analyse de ses Constitutions et ses Privileges" printed at Amsterdam in 1761. The work is anony- mous, because, as I suppose, the author was afraid, as all the monarchs of Europe were, at that time, of Jesuitical assassina- tion. The author, however, supports his facts by authentic records and known authorities which the public may consult.

This society has been a greater calamity to mankind than the French Revolution, or Napoleon's despotism or ideology. It has obstructed the progress of reformation and the improve- ment of the human mind in society much longer and more fatally.

The situation of England may be learned from the inclosed letter, which I pray you to return to me. Little reason as I have to love the old lady, I cannot but dread that she is going

J

VOL. X.

20

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after France into a revolution, which will end like that of England in 1660, and like that of France in 1816. In all events our country must rise. England cannot.

We have long been afflicted with a report, that your books, and Harvard College books, and John Quincy Adams's Uranolo- gia were lost at sea. But lo ! the Astronomy has arrived in one ship and College books in another. We hope your books are equally safe, but should be glad to know. It seems that father and son have been employed in contemplating the heavens! I should like to sit down with him and compare Dupuis with his TJranologia.

I have been disappointed in the review of Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia. Those cunning Edinburgh men break off at the point of the only subject that excited my curiosity, the ancient and modern religion and government of Persia. I should admire to read an Edinburgh or Quarterly review of Du- puis's twelve volumes. They have reviewed Grimm, who is not of half the importance to mankind. I suspect the reviewers evaded the religion of Persia for fear they should be compelled to compare it with Dupuis.

A scrap of an English paper, in which you are honorably mentioned, and I am not much abused, must close this letter from your friend.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 16 November, 1816.

Your favor of the 11th has conjured up in my imagination so many ghosts, that I am in danger of being frightened as much as the old lady of Endor was at the sight of Samuel.

Many are the years in which I have seriously endeavored to strip from my mind every prejudice, and from my heart every feeling, unfavorable to Mr. Hutchinson. The subject is so familiar to my thoughts that I could draw his character faster than my pen could fly. I feel no animosity against his memory. I could write his life as coolly as that of Alexander or Cassar. But on a deliberate second view of my own portrait of him, I should feel doubts of my own impartiality.

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He was a memorable and an awful example of disappoint- ment in the career of ambition. Cromwell and Napoleon will be more known, but neither was a more distinct example.

You may form some conjecture of my feelings, when I tell you, or, perhaps, I might more properly say, when I remind you, that he seduced from my bosom three of the most intimate friends I ever had in my life, Jonathan Sewall, Samuel Quincy, and Daniel Leonard. Every one of these had been as ardent and explicit a patriot as I was, or ever pretended to be. By means more artful, but as corrupt as any ever employed by Sir Robert Walpole, did that Jesuit seduce three of the most amiable young men from the cause of then- country to their own ruin. He practised all his arts upon me. My constant answer was, " / cannot in conscience." I would give the whole history in detail, but you would say, and the world would say, John Adams is an old Pharisee, thanking God that he is not like other men. I had rather they would say, he is a publican, praying God to be merciful to him, a sinner. But in either case, poor John would be accused as a fanatic or a hypocrite.

I could not write the character of Hutchinson without de- scribing my three friends, Sewall, Quincy, and Leonard, and many others that would harrow up my soul ; among the rest myself, and this would make me blush. If you desire it, how- ever, and will give me your honor they shall not be published, I will give you a few anecdotes, of the probability of which you shall judge from your own recollections.

You say Hutchinson's moral character was good. This must be understood with great exceptions.

You say his judicial character was good. This must be con- strued with great limitations.

You say his private character was good. Of this I know not enough to say any thing.

Of his literary character the world will judge by his writings. They are valuable. He had great advantages from his birth, and hereditary collections of pamphlets and manuscripts, and especially from his family connections with the Mathers, and his neighborhood to Mr. Prince, for writing the history of Massa- chusetts Bay.

There was much affectation, much dissimulation, and, I must add, deep hypocrisy in his character. Though his father

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had made a fortune by speculations in a depreciating paper currency, he had great merit in abolishing that instrument of injustice in 1750.

But who, my friend, who shall do justice to the characters of James Otis, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, who breasted a torrent of persecution from 1760 to 1775, and ever since ?

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 12 December, 1816.

I return the Analysis of Dupuis, with my thanks for the loan of it. It is but a faint miniature of the original. I have read that original in twelve volumes, besides a thirteenth of plates. I have been a lover and a reader of romances all my life, from Don Quixote and Gil Bias to the Scottish Chiefs, and a hun- dred others. For the last year or two I have devoted myself to this kind of study, and have read fifteen volumes of Grimm, seven volumes of Tucker's Neddy Search,1 twelve volumes of Dupuis, and Tracy's Analysis, and four volumes of Jesuitical History ! Romances all ! I have learned nothing of importance to me, for they have made no change in my moral or religious creed, which has, for fifty or sixty years, been contained in four ! short words, " Be just and good." In this result they all agree with me.

I must acknowledge, however, that I have found in Dupuis more ideas that were new to me, than in all the others. My conclusion from all of them is universal toleration. Is there any work extant so well calculated to discredit corruptions and impostures in religion as Dupuis ?

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 18 December, 1816.

Your kind letter of the 13th contains much truth, and nothing but the truth. I may return to it hereafter, but at present, with

1 TI e Light of Nature Pursued, by Edioard Search, the well known work of Abraham Tucker.

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your leave, I will continue a few hints on the judicial character of Chief Justice Hutchinson. I pass over that scenery, which he introduced, so showy and so shallow, so theatrical and so ecclesiastical, of scarlet and sable robes, of broad bands, and enormous tie wigs, more resembling fleeces of painted merino wool than any thing natural to man and that could breathe with him. I pass over, also, the question, whether he or his court had legal authority to establish a distinction be- tween barristers and attorneys. Innovations, though often necessary, are always dangerous.

But to return to writs of assistance. In February term, 1761, the new Chief Justice and his court ordered Chief Justice Sew- all's question to be argued in the council chamber, and that argument produced the American Revolution. Otis demon- strated the illegality, the unconstitutionality, the iniquity and inhumanity of that writ in so clear a manner, that every man appeared to me to go away ready to take arms against it. No harangue of Demosthenes or Cicero ever had such effects upon this globe as that speech. Such was the impression, that the court dared not give judgment in favor of it.1 Curia advisare voluit. After many days, the Chief Justice arose, and, with that gravity and subtilty, that artless design of face, which will never fade in my memory, said, " the Court could not, at pre- sent, see any foundation for the writ of assistance, but thought proper to continue the consideration of it till next term, and, in the mean time, to write to England, and inquire what was the practice and what were the grounds of it there."

The public never was informed, what was the correspondence with England, what was the practice or the grounds of it there. The public never was informed of the judgment of the Court. No judge ever gave his opinion, or discussed the question in public. After six or nine months, we heard enough of custom- house officers breaking houses, cellars, shops, ships, casks, and bales, in search of prohibited and uncustomed goods, by virtue of writs of assistance. Is this the conduct of " a good, judicial character " in a free country, and under a government of laws ? Jeffreys himself was never more Jesuitical nor more arbitrary.

1 Hutchinson himself admits that, " if judgment had then been given, it is uncertain on which side it would have been." History of Massachusetts, vol. iii. p. 94.

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In my next, I may give you more proofs of his " good judicial character," in the trial of Michael Corbet and his three mess- mates, for killing Lieutenant Panton, the commander of a press- gang from the Rose frigate.^ When courts of justice dare not speak in open air, nor see the daylight, where is life, liberty, or property ?

Were I writing history, I should not write in this style. I should study a language of more philosophical moderation and dignity. But I now express to you the feelings of my friends and myself at those times, and our opinions too.

TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.

Quincy, 27 December, 1816.

I do declare that I can write Greek better than you do, though I cannot say, so well as you can if you will. I can make no- thing but pothooks and trammels of the frontispiece of your amiable letter of the 15th. If you had quoted your authority, I might have found it.

Jesus is benevolence personified, an example for all men. Dupuis has made no alteration in my opinions of the Christian religion, in its primitive purity and simplicity, which I have entertained for more than sixty years. It is the religion of reason, equity, and love ; it is the religion of the head and of the heart.

It would be idle for me to write observations upon Dupuis. I must fill thirteen volumes. If I was twenty-five years old, and had the necessary books and leisure, I would write an an- swer to Dupuis ; but when, or where, or how should I get it printed ? Dupuis can be answered, to the honor and advantage of the Christian religion as I understand it. To this end I must study astrology as well as astronomy, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit.

But to leave Dupuis to be answered or reviewed in Edin- burgh or London, I must inquire into the attributes given by

1 This letter is printed in vol. ii. p. 224, note.

CORRESPONDENCE. 235

the ancient nations to their divinities ; gods with stars and new moons in their foreheads or on their shoulders ; gods with heads of dogs, horns of oxen, bulls, cows, calves, rams, sheep, or lambs ; gods with the bodies of horses ; gods with the tails of fishes ; gods with the tails of dragons and serpents ; gods with the feet of goats. The bull of Mithra ; the dog of Anubis ; the serpent of Esculapius ! ! ! !

Is man the most irrational beast of the forest ? Never did bullock, or sheep, or snake imagine himself a god. What, then, can all this wild theory mean ? Can it be any thing but alle- gory founded in astrology ? Your Manilius would inform you as well as Dupuis.

The Hebrew unity of Jehovah, the prohibition of all simili- tudes^ appears to me the greatest wonder of antiquity. How could that nation preserve its creed among the monstrous theo- logies of all the other nations of the earth ? Revelation, you will say, and especial Providence ; and I will not contradict you, for I cannot say with Dupuis that a revelation is impos- sible or improbable.

Christianity, you will say, was a fresh revelation. I will not deny this. As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody reli- gion that ever existed ? How has it happened that all the fine arts, architecture, painting, sculpture, statuary, music, poetry, and oratory, have been prostituted, from the creation of the world, to the sordid and detestable purposes of superstition and fraud ?

The eighteenth century had the honor to discover that Ocel- lus of Lucania, Timseus of Locris, Aristotle, Tacitus, Quinti- lian, and Pliny, were in the right. The philosophy of Frederic, Catharine, Buffon, De la Lande, Diderot, d'Alembert, Condor- cet, d'Holbach, and Dupuis, appears to me to be no more nor less than the philosophy of those ancient men of science and letters, whose speculations came principally from India, Egypt, Chaldea, and Phoenicia. A consolatory discovery, to be sure ! Let it once be revealed or demonstrated that there is no future state, and my advice to every man, woman, and child would be, as our existence would be in our own power, to take opium.

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For, I am certain, there is nothing in this world worth living for but hope, and every hope will fail us, if the last hope, that of a future state, is extinguished.

I know how to sympathize with a wounded leg, having been laid up with one for two or three months, and I have felt the delightful attentions of a daughter. May you have the felicity to celebrate as many more lustres of Madam Vanderkemp as human nature can bear.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 24 January, 1817.

Bernard, Hutchinson, Oliver, the commissioners of the cus- toms, and their satellites, had an espionage as inquisitive as zealous, and as faithful as that in France, before, during, or since the revolution, by which the Tories were better informed of the anecdote which I am about to relate to you, than the Whigs themselves were in general. That the Tory histories may not hereafter misrepresent it without detection, I will now state the facts in writing, that they may remain in your ar- chives and mine, to be used as an antidote to the poison that may hereafter appear.1

The public had been long alarmed with rumors and predic- tions that the king, that is the ministry, would take into their own hands the payment of the salaries of the Judges of the Su- preme Court. The people would not believe it ; the most think- ing men dreaded it. They said, " With an executive authority in a Governor possessed of an absolute negative on all the acts of the legislature, and with Judges dependent only on the Crown for salaries as well as their commissions, what protection have we ? We may as well abolish all limitations, and resign our lives and liberties at once to the will of a prime minister at St. James's." You remember the controversy that General Brattle excited concerning the tenor of the Judges' commissions, and the universal anxiety that then prevailed on this subject. The des-

1 The substance of this letter appears in another form in this work, but as there is an interval of fifteen years in the date of the two compositions, it may be interesting to the curious to compare them. See vol. ii. pp. 328-332.

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patches at length arrived, and expectation was raised to its highest pitch of exultation and triumph on one side, and of grief, terror, degradation, and despondency on the other. The Legislature assembled, and the Governor communicated to the two houses his Majesty's commands.

It happened that I was invited to dine that day with Samuel Winthrop, an excellent character, and a predecessor in the respectable office you now hold in the Supreme Court. Arrived at his house in New Boston, I found it full of counsellors and representatives and clergy. Such a group of melancholy coun- tenances I had rarely, if ever, seen. No conversation, except some insipid observations on the weather, till the great topic of the day was introduced, and at the same time a summons to the feast. All harps upon the willow, we sat down to a triste dinner, which all the delicacies before us could not enliven. A few glasses of good wine, however, in time brought up some spirit, and the conversation assumed a little vigor, but it was the energy of grief, complaint, and despair. All expressed their detestation and horror of the insidious ministerial plot, but all agreed that it was irremediable. There was no means or mode of opposing or resisting it.

Indignation, and despair too, boiled in my breast as ardently as in any of them, though, as the company were so much supe- rior to me in age and station, I had not said any thing ; but Dr. Winthrop, the professor, then of the council, observing my i silence, and perhaps my countenance, said, " Mr. Adams, what is your opinion ? Can you think of any way of escaping this snare ? " My answer was, " No, Sir ; I am as much at a loss as any of the company. I agree with all the gentlemen, that petitions and remonstrances to king or parliament will be in- effectual. Nothing but force will succeed ; but I would try one project before I had recourse to the last reason and fitness of things." The company cried out, almost or quite together, "What project is that? What would you do?" A. "I would impeach the judges." " Impeach the judges ! How ? Where ? Who can impeach them ? " A. " The House of Representatives." " The House of Representatives ! Before whom ? Before the House of Lords in England ? " A. " No, surely. You might as well impeach them before Lord North alone." " Where, then ? " A. " Before the Governor and

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Council." " Is there any precedent for that ? " A. " If there is not, it is now high time that a precedent should be set." " The Governor and Council will not receive the impeachment." A. " I know that very well, but the record of it will stand upon the journals, be published in pamphlets and newspapers, and perhaps make the judges repent of their salaries, and de- cline them; perhaps make it too troublesome to hold them." " What right had we to impeach anybody ? " A. " Our House of Representatives have the same right to impeach as the House of Commons has in England, and our Governor and Council have the same right and duty to receive and hear impeachments as the King and House of Lords have in Parliament. If the Governor and Council would not do their duty, that would not be the fault of the people ; their representatives ought neverthe- less to do theirs." Some of the company said the idea was so new to them, that they wished I would show them some reasons for my opinion that we had the right. I repeated to them the clause of the charter, which I relied on, the constant practice in England, and the necessity of such a power and practice in every free government.

The company dispersed, and I went home. Dr. Cooper and others were excellent hands to spread a rumor, and before nine o'clock half the town and most of the members of the. General Court had in their heads the idea of an impeachment. The next morning early, Major Hawley, of Northampton, came to my house under great concern, and said he heard that I had yesterday, in a public company, suggested a thought of impeach- ing the judges ; that report had got about and had excited some uneasiness, and he desired to know my meaning. I invited him into my office, opened the charter, and requested him to read the paragraphs that I had marked. I then produced to him that volume of Selden's works which contains his treatise on Judicature and Parliament ; other authorities in law were pro- duced to him, and the State Trials, and a profusion of impeach- ments with which that work abounds. Major Hawley, who was one of the best men in the province, and one of the ablest lawyers and best speakers in the legislature, was struck with surprise. He said, " I know not what to think. This is in a manner all new to me. I must think of it." You, Mr. Tudor, will not wonder at Major Hawley's embarrassment, if you

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recollect that my copy of Seidell's works, of the State Trials and the Statutes at Large, were the only ones in Boston at that time. I think, also, Mr. Tudor, that you must know that I imported from England Selden, State Trials, and Statutes at Large. Now, Sir, will the editor of the North American Review, will the Athenseum Shaw, will the Historical Society, will the Society of Antiquarians, please to investigate this important point? My opinion is that there was not another copy of either of those works in the United States. Let them convict 1/ me of error, if they can.

My strange brother, Robert Treat Paine, came to me with grief and terror in his face and manners. He said he had heard that I talked of an impeachment of the Judges ; that it had excited a great deal of conversation, and that it seemed to pre- vail, and that, according to all appearances, it would be brought forward in the House ; he was very uneasy about it, &c. I knew the man. Instead of entering into particular conversation with him, I took him into my office, and showed him all that I had before shown to Major Hawley, He had not patience to read much, and went away with the same anxious brow. This man had an upright heart, an abundance of wit, and upon the whole a deeper policy than I had. He soon found, however, that the impeachment was popular and would prevail, and prudently acquiesced. Major Hawley, always conscientious, always deliberate, always cautious, had not slept soundly. What were his dreams about impeachment, I know not. But this I know ; he drove away to Cambridge to consult Judge Trowbridge, and appealed to his conscience. The charter was called for ; Selden and the State Trials were quoted. Trow- bridge said to him what I had said before, that " the power of impeachment was essential to a free government ; that the char- ter had given it to our House of Representatives as clearly as the Constitution, in the common law or immemorial usage, had given it to the House of Commons in England." This was all he could say, though he lamented the occasion of it.

Major Hawley returned full in the faith. An impeachment was voted, a committee appointed to prepare articles. But Major Hawley insisted upon it in private with the committee, that they should consult me, and take my advice upon every article before they reported it to the House. Such was the

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state of parties at that moment, that the patriots could carry nothing in the House without the support of Major Hawley. The committee very politely requested me to meet them. To avoid all questions about time and place, I invited them to my house in the evening. They came, and produced a draft of articles, which were examined, considered, and discussed, article by article and paragraph by paragraph. I objected to some, and proposed alterations in others ; sometimes succeeded, and often failed. You know the majority decide upon such occa- sions. The result, upon the whole, was not satisfactory to me in all points, but I was not responsible.

Next day I met Ben Gridley, who accosted me in his pom- pous style, " Brother Adams, you keep late hours ! Last night I saw a host of senators vomit forth from your door after mid- night." Now, brother Tudor, judge you whether this whole transaction was not as well known at head-quarters, and bet- ter too, than in the House of Representatives. This confidence of Major Hawley in me became an object of Jealousy to the patriots. Not only Mr. Paine, but Mr. Adams and Mr. Han- cock could not refrain from expressing, at times, their feeling of it. But they could do nothing without Major Hawley. These little passions, of which even the Apostles could not wholly divest themselves, have in all ages been small causes of great events ; too small, indeed, to be described by historians, or even known to them or suspected by them.

The articles were reported to the House, discussed, accepted ; the impeachment votedj and sent up in form to the Governor and Council; rejected, of course, as everybody knew before- hand that it would be; but it remained on the journals of the House, was printed in the newspapers, and went abroad into the world. And what were the consequences ? Chief Justice Oliver and his Superior Court, your Supreme Judicial Court, commenced their regular circuit. The Chief Justice opened his court as usual. Grand Jurors and Petit Jurors refused to take their oaths. They never, as I believe, could prevail on one Juror to take the oath. I attended at the bar in two coun- ties, and I heard Grand Jurors and Petit Jurors say to Chief Justice Oliver to his face, " The Chief Justice of this Court stands impeached, by the representatives of the people, of high crimes and misdemeanors, and of a conspiracy against the char-

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ter privileges of the people. I therefore cannot serve as a Juror, or take the oath." The cool, calm, sedate intrepidity with which these honest freeholders went through this fiery trial, filled my eyes and my heart.

In one word, the royal government was from that moment laid prostrate in the dust, and has never since revived in sub- stance, though a dark shadow of the hobgoblin haunts me at times to this day.

1/

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 4 February, 1817.

Your worthy son, William, in a kind letter of the 2d, has asked my opinion of " Pownall's Administration of the Colo- nies, and of its author." It is nearly forty years since I read the work, and I cannot read it again ; but I would advise Mr. Tu- dor to read it, and his Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe, and another to his own Sovereign, and a third to the Sovereigns of the United States of America, not forgetting a small tract concerning the Gulf Stream.

A reader who has patience to search for good sense, in an uncouth and disgusting style, will find in those writings proofs of a thinking mind, and more sagacity than in any thing that remains of his two more celebrated successors, Bernard or Hutchinson.

I am sorry that the name of Pownalborough has been changed to that of Dresden, that of a virtuous and sensible man to that of a scene of frivolity. Pownall was a Whig, a friend of liberty, a lover of his country, and he considered North America a part of his country as much as England, Scotland, or Ireland.

Your son has requested my " opinion of the man as well as of his administration." What an explosion of reminiscences has this question excited in me ! To answer this question, I must draw the character of Chief Justice Pratt, of Colonel and Judge John Tyng, of Hutchinsons and Olivers, as well as Samuel Waterhouse.

There is an overweening fondness for representing this coun- try as a scene of liberty, equality, fraternity, union, harmony,

vol. x.

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and benevolence. But let not your sons or mine deceive them- selves. This country, like all others, has been a theatre of par- ties and feuds for near two hundred years. m Look into all our memorials, histories they cannot be called, Winslow's, Winthrop, Morton the first, Morton the second, Hubbard, Mather, Prince, and even Hutchinson himself, and then judge how sweetly harmonious our ancestors have been. There is one morsel which I beg leave to recommend to the deliberate perusal of your sons and mine. It is my friend Emerson's " History of the First Church." See there elements that have been fermenting, frothing, and foaming ever since.

There was always a court and country party in the province. The town of Boston had been, almost invariably, at the head of the opposition, that is, of the country party. If, at any time, it had coincided with a Governor, it had always been by a small majority against a numerous, powerful, and formidable minority in opposition.

Under Shirley's administration, which had been supported by Hutchinson, Oliver, Otis, Trowbridge, Leonard, Chandler, Stoddard, Choate, &c, there had been a formidable opposition in Boston, that very much embarrassed the government. Pow- nall, when he came into administration, thought there ought to be a good understanding between the capital and country, and a harmony between both and the government. This conciliatory and comprehensive system was too refined and too sublime for human nature in this contentious, warring world. In pur- suance of it, however, he sometimes consulted Pratt and Tyng ; and their advice did not always coincide with that of Hutchin- son and Oliver. These aspiring spirits, who had been the prime ministers and principal agents of Shirley, excepting a constant understanding of Church of England influence that would cost a volume to explain, could not bear the competition of Pratt and Tyng, much less to be overruled and supplanted by them.

Accordingly, they and their adherents blew them up, as many others, before and since, have been blown up, and many others supported, by profligate scribblers. Not a quaint expression in his speeches, writings, or conversations, escaped satire and ridicule. Every thing he said or did was perverted. When Whiggism, under Pitt, declined, and when Toryism, under Bute, revived, Pownall faded, and Bernard flourished.

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If the plan of subjugating America did not originate in Shir- ley's administration, it was meditated, and matured, and di- gested, and there Hutchinson learned it. Pownall did not favor it, and therefore displeased Hutchinson, and his friends in America, and his patrons in Scotland and England. Pownall was the most constitutional and national Governor, in my opinion, who ever represented the crown in this province. He engaged in no intrigues, he favored no conspiracies against the liberties of America. Hinc Wee lacrimce.

I have been deeply afflicted with a mixture of pity, grief, and indignation, on reading in Dr. Eliot's Biographical Dictionary the slurs on the character of Mr. Pratt. His malignity was hereditary. His father was Hutchinson's parish priest, and his devoted idolater. Pratt was a man, in talents, learning, and integrity, too, far superior to Hutchinson and his priestly dis- ciples.

The most magnanimous vote that ever was passed in North America, was that of a statue to Lord Howe. Pratt exerted all his eloquence, and I never heard eloquence more impressive, except from James Otis, Junior, in support of that vote. Hutch- inson's party put that statue in motion. It marched through the province, and knocked down all before it. Not only De Witt, of Marlborough, who had never before, for twenty years, voted for a grant of money, but Pratt and Tyng, in our noble town of Boston, fell a sacrifice, and with them Pownall' s admi- nistration. It "was an affair of five hundred pounds. I have heard Brigadier Ruggles say, " that statue strided through the streets of Marlborough, and, roaring like a lion, shook down old De Witt." Our nation have this year, according to Mr. Randolph, discarded " their watch-clogs " for a per diem.1

It must be acknowledged, that our good people are steady to one principle, when they think they understand it. They will contend for dollars, sometimes ; but suffer themselves to be pil- laged for ages by old tenor, continental currency, and banks as numerous as the stars, of millions of eagles. I saw Pownall ir public as other people did, during his administration ; but

1 This alludes to an act of Congress, passed at this period, changing the com- pensation of the members from the old mode of payment, according to the days of service, to a fixed annual sum. Almost all those who voted for it lost their seats, and the law was repealed.

244 CORRESPONDENCE.

he never saw me, and, probably, never heard of me. I never met him, and was not even presented at a dinner that he gave to the bar. But in 1783 he made me repeated visits with his lady at Auteuil, near Paris, and dined with us more than once. Near the end of the same year, he visited me again at Stock- dale's in Piccadilly. In 1785, 1786, 1787, he visited me occa- sionally, and I returned his visits, and, at his invitation, went out and dined with him at his seat on Richmond Hill. He was very reserved on all the events of his administration, and on all the characters of his friends and enemies. Though manifestly a disappointed man, he was less dejected and less embittered than most men I have known in such circumstances. The loss of his wife affected him most. I heard him make a candid and conciliatory speech in the Royal Society, on a heated contest, when Horseley displayed a very different spirit. He voluntarily relinquished his seat in parliament, and appeared no more in public affairs.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 29 March, 1817.

Is your daughter, Mrs. Stuart, who I am credibly informed is one of the most accomplished of ladies, a painter ? Are you acquainted with Miss Lydia Smith, who, I am also credibly informed, is one of the most accomplished ladies, and a pain- ter? Do you know Mr. Sargent? Do you correspond with your old companion in arms, Colonel John Trumbull? Do you think Fisher will be an historical painter ?

Whenever you shall find a painter, male or female, I pray you to suggest a scene and a subject for the pencil.

The scene is the Council Chamber in the old Town House in Boston. The date is in the month of February, 1761, nine years before you entered my office in Cole Lane. As this was five years before you entered college, you must have been in the second form of master Lovell's school.

That council chamber was as respectable an apartment as the House of Commons or the House of Lords in Great Bri- tain, in proportion, or that in the State House in Philadelphia,

CORRESPONDENCE. 245

in which the declaration of independence was signed, in 1776. In this chamber, round a great fire, were seated five Judges, with Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson at their head, as Chief Justice, all arrayed in their new, fresh, rich robes of scarlet English broadcloth ; in their large cambric bands, and immense judicial wigs. In this chamber were seated at a long table all the barristers at law of Boston, and of the neighboring county of Middlesex, in gowns, bands, and tie wigs. They were not seated on ivory chairs, but their dress was more solemn and more pompous than that of the Roman Senate, when the Gauls broke in upon them.

In a corner of the room must be placed as a spectator and an auditor, wit, sense, imagination, genius, pathos, reason, pru- dence, eloquence, learning, and immense reading, hanging by the shoulders on two crutches, covered with a great cloth coat, in the person of Mr. Pratt, who had been solicited on both sides, but would engage on neither, being, as Chief Justice of New York, about to leave Boston forever. Two portraits, at more than full length, of King Charles the Second and of King James the Second, in splendid golden frames, were hung up on the most conspicuous sides of the apartment. If my young eyes or old memory have not deceived me, these were as fine pictures as I ever saw; the colors of the royal ermines and long flowing robes were the most glowing, the figures the most noble and graceful, the features the most distinct and characteristic, far superior to those of the King and Queen of France in the Senate chamber of Congress — these were worthy of the pencils of Rubens and Vandyke. There was no painter in England capable of them at that time. They had been sent over without frames in Governor Pownall's time, but he was no admirer of Charles or James. The pictures were stowed away in a garret, among rubbish, till Governor Bernard came, who had them cleaned, superbly framed, and placed in council for the admiration and imitation of all men — no doubt with the advice and concurrence of Hutchinson and all his nebula of stars and satellites.

One circumstance more. Samuel Quincy and John Adams had been admitted barristers at that term. John was the young- est ; he should be painted looking like a short thick archbishop of Canterbury, seated at the table with a pen in his hand, lost

21 *

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in admiration, now and then minuting those poor notes which your pupil, Judge Minot, has printed in his history,1 with some interpolations. I will copy them from the book, and then point out those interpolations.2

You have now the stage and the scenery ; next follows a narration of the subject. I rather think that we lawyers ought to call it a brief of the cause.

When the British ministry received from General Amherst his despatches, announcing the conquest of Montreal, and the consequent annihilation of the French government in America, in 1759, they immediately conceived the design, and took the resolution, of conquering the English colonies, and subjecting them to the unlimited authority of Parliament. With this view and intention they sent orders and instructions to the collector of the customs in Boston, Mr. Charles Paxton, to apply to the civil authority for writs of assistance, to enable the custom- house officers, tidewaiters, landwaiters, and all, to command all sheriffs and constables, &c., to attend and aid them in breaking open houses, stores, shops, cellars, ships, bales, trunks, chests, casks, packages of all sorts, to search for goods, wares, and merchandises, which had been imported against the prohibi- tions or without paying the taxes imposed by certain acts of Parliament, called the acts of trade ; that is, by certain parlia- mentary statutes, which had been procured to be passed from time to time for a century before, by a combination of selfish intrigues between West India planters and North American royal governors. These acts never had been executed as re- venue laws, and there never had been a time, when they would have been or could have been obeyed as such.

Mr. Paxton, no doubt consulting with Governor Bernard, Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, and all the principal crown officers, thought it not prudent to commence his operations in Boston. For obvious reasons, he instructed his deputy collector in Salem, Mr. Cockle, to apply by petition to the Superior Court, in November, 1760, then sitting in that town, for writs

i Vol. ii. pp. 89-99.

2 The extract is omitted, as the same speech is printed, with the omission of the interpolations, in vol. ii. of this work, Appendix, p. 523. It was not in the letter as first published.

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of assistance. Stephen Sewall was then Chief Justice of that Court, an able man, an uncorrupted American, and a sincere friend of liberty, civil and religious. He expressed great doubts of the legality of such a writ, and of the authority of the Court to grant it. Not one of his brother judges uttered a word in favor of it; but as it was an application on the part of the crown, it must be heard and determined. After consultation, the Court ordered the question to be argued at the next February term in Boston, namely in 1761.

In the mean time Chief Justice Sewall died, and Lieute- nant-Governor Hutchinson was appointed Chief Justice of that Court in his stead. Every observing and thinking man knew that this appointment was made for the direct purpose of deciding this question in favor of the crown, and all others in which it should be interested. An alarm was spread far and wide. Merchants of Salem and Boston applied to Mr. Pratt, who refused, and to Mr. Otis and Mr. Thacher, who accepted, to defend them against the terrible menacing mon- ster, the writ of assistance. Great fees were offered, but Otis, and, I believe, Thacher, would accept of none. " In such a cause," said Otis, " I despise all fees."

I have given you a sketch of the stage, and the scenery, and the brief of the cause, or, if you like the phrase better, the tra- gedy, comedy, or farce.

Now for the actors and performers. Mr. Gridley argued with his characteristic learning, ingenuity, and dignity, and said every thing that could be said in favor of Cockle's peti- tion ; all depending, however, on the " if the Parliament of Great Britain is the sovereign legislature of all the British em- pire." Mr. Thacher followed him on the other side, and argued with the softness of manners, the ingenuity and cool reasoning, which were remarkable in his amiable character.

But Otis was a flame of fire! — with a promptitude of clas- sical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eye into futurity, and a torrent of impetuous elo- quence, he hurried away every thing before him. American | independence was then and there born ; the seeds of patriots and heroes were then and there sown, to defend the vigorous youth, the non sine Diis animosus infans. Every man of a

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crowded audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbi- trary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child Inde- pendence was born. In fifteen years, namely in 1776, he grew up to manhood, and declared himself free.

The Court adjourned for consideration, and after some days, at the close of the term, Hutchinson, Chief Justice, arose and said, "■ The Court has considered the subject of writs of assist- ance, and can see no foundation for such a writ ; but, as the practice in England is not known, it has been thought best to continue the question until next term, that in the mean time opportunity may be given to write to England for information concerning the subject." In six months the next term arrived, but no judgment was pronounced, no letters from England were produced, and nothing more was ever said in Court con- cerning writs of assistance ; but it was generally reported and understood that the Court clandestinely granted them, and the custom-house officers had them in their pockets, though I never knew that they dared to produce them or execute them in any one instance.

Mr. Otis's popularity was without bounds. In May, 1761, he was elected into the House of Representatives by an almost unanimous vote. On the week of his election, I happened to be at Worcester, attending the Court of Common Pleas, of which Brigadier Ruggles was Chief Justice, when the news arrived from Boston of Mr. Otis's election. You can have no idea of the consternation among the government people. Chief Justice Ruggles, at dinner at Colonel Chandler's on that day,

said, " Out of this election will arise a d d faction, which

will shake this province to its foundation." Ruggles's foresight reached not beyond his nose. That election has shaken two continents, and will shake all four. For ten years Mr. Otis, at the head of his country's cause, conducted the town of Boston, and the people of the province, with a prudence and fortitude, at every sacrifice of personal interest, and amidst unceas- ing persecution, which would have done honor to the most vir- tuous patriot or martyr of antiquity.

The minutes of Mr. Otis's argument are no better a re- presentation of it than the gleam of a glow-worm to the

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meridian blaze of the sun. I fear I shall make you repent bringing out the old gentleman. Ridendo dicere verum quid vetat ?

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 15 April, 1817.

I have received your obliging favor of the 8th, but cannot consent 1o your resolution to ask no more questions. Your questions revive my sluggish memoiy. Since our national legislature have established a national painter, — a wise mea- sure, for which I thank them, — my imagination runs upon the art, and has already painted, I know not how many, historical pictures. I have sent you one ; give me leave to send another. The bloody rencounter between the citizens and the soldiers, on the 5th of March, 1770, produced a tremendous sensation throughout the town and country. The people assembled first at Faneuil Hall, and adjourned to the Old South Church, to the number, as was conjectured, of ten or twelve thousand men, among whom were the most virtuous, substantial, independent, disinterested, and intelligent citizens. They formed themselves into a regular deliberative body, chose their moderator and secretary, entered into discussions, deliberations, and debates, adopted resolutions, appointed committees. What has become of these records, Mr. Tudor ? Where are they ? Their reso- lutions in public were conformable to those of every man in private, who dared to express his thoughts or his feelings, " that the regular soldiers should be banished from the town at all hazards." Jonathan Williams, a very pious, inoffensive, and conscientious gentleman, was their Moderator. A remonstrance to the Governor, or the Governor and Council, was ordained, and a demand that the regular troops should be removed from the town. A committee was appointed to present this remon- strance, of which Samuel Adams was the chairman.

Now for the picture. The theatre and the scenery are the same with those at the discussion of writs of assistance. The same glorious portraits of King Charles II. and King James II., to which might be added, and should be added, little miserable

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likenesses of Governor Winthrop, Governor Bradstreet, Go- vernor Endicott, and Governor Belcher, hung up in obscure corners of the room. Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, com- mander-in-chief in the absence of the Governor, must be placed at the head of the council table. Lieutenant- Colonel Dairy mple, commander-in-chief of his Majesty's military forces, taking rank of all his Majesty's counsellors, must be seated by the side of the Lieutenant-Governor and commander-in-chief of the province. Eight-and-twenty counsellors must be painted, all seated at the council board. Let me see — what costume ? What was the fashion of that day, in the month of March ? Large white wigs, English scarlet cloth cloaks, some of them with gold-laced hats, not on their heads, indeed, in so august a presence, but on the table before them, or under the table beneath them. Before these illustrious personages appeared Samuel Adams, a member of the House of Representatives and then clerk, now at the head of the committee of the great assembly at the Old South Church. Thucydides, Livy, or Sallust would make a speech for him, or, perhaps, the Italian Botta, if he had known any thing of this transaction, — one of the most important of the revolution, — but I am wholly incapable of it; and, if I had vanity enough to think myself capable of it, should not dare to attempt it. He represented the state of the town and the country ; the dangerous, ruinous, and fatal effects of standing armies in populous cities in time of peace, and the determined resolution of the public, that the regular troops, at all events should be removed from the town. Lieutenant-Governor Hutch- inson, then commander-in-chief, at the head of a trembling council, said, " he had no authority over the king's troops ; that they had their separate commander and separate orders and instructions, and that he could not interfere with them." Mr. Adams instantly appealed to the charter of the province, by which the Governor, and in his absence the Lieutenant-Go- vernor, was constituted commander-in-chief of all the military and naval power within its jurisdiction. So obviously true and so irrefragable was the reply, that it is astonishing that Mr. Hutchinson should have so grossly betrayed the Constitution, and so atrociously have violated the duties of his office by asserting the contrary. But either the fears or the ambition of this gentleman, upon this and many other occasions, especially

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in his controversy with the two houses, three years afterwards, on the supremacy of Parliament, appear to have totally disar- ranged his understanding. He certainly asserted in public, in the most solemn manner, a multitude of the roundest false- hoods, which he must have known to be such, and which he must have known could be easily and would certainly be de- tected, if he had not wholly lost his memory, even of his own public writings. You, Mr. Tudor, knew Mr. Adams from your childhood to his death. In his common appearance he was a plain, simple, decent citizen, of middling stature, dress, and manners. He had an exquisite ear for music, and a charming voice, when he pleased to exert it. Yet his ordinary speeches in town meetings, in the House of Representatives, and in Congress exhibited nothing extraordinary ; but, upon great occasions, when his deeper feelings were excited, he erected himself, or rather nature seemed to erect him, without the smallest symptom of affectation, into an upright dignity of figure and gesture, and gave a harmony to his voice which made a strong impression on spectators and auditors, — the more lasting for the purity, correctness, and nervous elegance of his style.

This was a delicate and a dangerous crisis. The question in the last resort was, whether the town of Boston should become a scene of carnage and desolation, or not ? Humanity to the soldiers conspired with a regard for the safety of the town, in suggesting the wise measure of calling the town together to deliberate. For nothing short of the most solemn promises to the people that the soldiers should, at all hazards, be driven from the town, had preserved its peace. Not only the immense assemblies of the people from day to day, but military arrange- ments from night to night, were necessary to keep the people and the soldiers from getting together by the ears. The life of a red coat would not have been safe in any street or corner of the town. Nor would the lives of the inhabitants have been much more secure. The whole militia of the city was in requi- sition, and military watches and guards were everywhere placed. We were all upon a level ; no man was exempted ; our military officers were our only superiors. I had the honor to be sum- moned, in my turn, and attended at the State House with my musket and bayonet, my broadsword and cartridge-box, under

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the command of the famous Paddock. I know you will laugh at my military figure ; but I believe there was not a more obe- dient soldier in the regiment, nor one more impartial between the people and the regulars. In this character I was upon duty all night in my turn. No man appeared more anxious or more deeply impressed with a sense of danger on all sides than our commander, Paddock. He called me, common soldier as I was, frequently to his councils. I had a great deal of conver- sation with him, and no man appeared more apprehensive of a fatal calamity to the town or more zealous by every prudent measure to prevent it.

Such was the situation of affairs, when Samuel Adams was reasoning with Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson and Lieute- nant-Colonel Dalrymple. He had fairly driven them from all their outworks, breastworks, and entrenchments, to their cita- del. There they paused and considered and deliberated. The heads of Hutchinson and Dalrymple were laid together in whispers for a long time ; when the whispering ceased, a long and solemn pause ensued, extremely painful to an impatient, expecting audience. Hutchinson, in time, broke silence ; he had consulted with Colonel Dalrymple, and the Colonel had authorized him to say, that he might order one regiment down to the castle, if that would satisfy the people. With a self- recollection, a self-possession, a self-command, a presence of mind that was admired by every man present, Samuel Adams arose with an air of dignity and majesty, of which he was sometimes capable, stretched forth his arm, though even then quivering with palsy, and with an harmonious voice and decisive tone said, " If the Lieutenant-Governor or Colonel Dalrymple, or both together, have authority to remove one regiment, they have authority to remove two, and nothing short of the total evacuation of the town by all the regular troops, will satisfy the public mind or preserve the peace of the province."

These few words thrilled through the veins of every man in the audience, and produced the great result. After a little awkward hesitation, it was agreed that the town should be evacuated, and both regiments sent to the castle.

After all this gravity, it is merry enough to relate that Wil- liam Molineux was obliged to march side by side with the

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commander of some of these troops, to protect them from the indignation of the people, in their progress to the wharf of em- barcation for the castle. Nor is it less amusing that Lord North, as I was repeatedly and credibly informed in England, with his characteristic mixture of good humor and sarcasm, ever after called these troops by the title of " Sam Adams's two regiments."

The painter should seize upon the critical moment, when Samuel Adams stretched out his arm, and made his last speech.

It will be as difficult to do justice as to paint an Apollo ; and the transaction deserves to be painted as much as the sur- render of Burgoyne. Whether any artist will ever attempt it, I know not.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 19 April, 1817.

/ My loving and beloved friend, Pickering, has been pleased to inform the world, that I have " few friends." I wanted to whip the rogue, and I had it in my power, if it had been in my will to do it, till the blood eaine. But all my real friends, as I thought them, with Dexter and Gray at their head, insisted that I should not say a word ; that " nothing that such a per- son could write, would do me the least injury ; " that " it would betray the constitution and the government, if a President, out or in, should enter into a newspaper controversy with one of his ministers, whom he had removed from his office, in justifi- cation of himself for that removal or any thing else." And they talked a great deal about " the dignity " of the office of President, which I do not find that any other persons, public or private, regard very much.

Nevertheless, I fear that Mr. Pickering's information is too true. It is impossible that any man should run such a gauntlet as I have been driven through, and have many friends at last. This " all who know me, know," though I cannot say "who love me, tell." I have, however, either friends, who

von. x. 22

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wish to amuse and solace my old age, or enemies, who mean to heap coals of fire on my head, and kill me with kindness, for they overwhelm me with books from all quarters, enough to obfuscate all eyes, and smother and stifle all human un- derstanding — Chateaubriand, Grimm, Tucker, Dupuis, La Harpe, Sismondi, Eustace, a new translation of Herodotus, by Beloe, with more notes than text. What shall I do with all this lumber ? I make my " woman-kind," as the Anti- quary expresses it, read to me all the English ; but, as they will not read the French, I am obliged to excruciate my eyes to read it myself. And all to what purpose ? I verily believe \J I was as wise and good seventy years ago, as I am now. At that period Lemuel Bryant was my parish priest, and Joseph Cleverly my Latin schoolmaster. Lemuel was a jocular and liberal scholar and divine, Joseph a scholar and a gentleman, but a bigoted Episcopalian of the school of Bishop Saunders and Dr. Hicks ; a downright, conscientious, passive obedience man in church and state. The parson and the pedagogue lived much together, but were eternally disputing about govern- ment and religion. One day, when the schoolmaster had been more than commonly fanatical, and declared, " if he were a monarch, he would have but one religion in his dominions," the parson coolly replied, " Cleverly ! you would be the best man in the world, if you had no religion." Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been on the point of breaking out, " this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there was no religion in it ! ! ! " But in this exclamation, I should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company — I mean hell. So far from believing in the total and universal depravity of human nature, I believe there is no indi- vidual totally depraved. The most abandoned scoundrel that ever existed, never yet wholly extinguished his conscience, and, while conscience remains, there is some religion. Popes, Je- suists, and Sorbonnists, and Inquisitors, have some conscience and some religion. So had Marius and Sylla. Cassar, Catiline, and Antony, and Augustus, had not much more, let Virgil and Horace say what they will. What shall we think of Virgil and Horace, Sallust, Quintilian, Pliny, and even Tacitus ? And even Cicero, Brutus, and Seneca ? Pompey I leave out

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of the question, as a mere politician and a soldier. Every one of these great creatures has left indelible marks of conscience, and, consequently, of religion, though every one of them has left abundant proofs of profligate violations of their conscience, by their little and great passions and paltry interests.

The vast prospect of mankind, which these books have passed in review before me, from the most ancient records, histories, traditions, and fables that remain to us, to the present day, has sickened my very soul, and almost reconciled me to Swift's travels among the Yahoos. Yet I never can be a misanthrope. Homo sum. I must hate myself before I can hate my fellow- men, and that I cannot and will not do. No, I will not hate any of them, base, brutal, and devilish as some of them have been to me. From the bottom of my soul I pity my fellow- men. Fears and terrors appear to have produced a universal credulity. Fears of calamities in life, and punishments after death, seem to have possessed the souls of all men. But fears of pain and death here do not seem to have been so unconquer- able as fears of what is to come hereafter. Priests, hierophants, popes, despots, emperors, kings, princes, nobles, have been as credulous as shoe-blacks, boots, and kitchen-scullions. The former seem to have believed in their divine rights as sincerely as the latter. Auto-da-fes in Spain and Portugal, have been celebrated with as good faith as excommunications have been refused1 in Philadelphia. How it is possible that mankind should submit to be governed as they have been, is to me an inscrutable mystery. How they could bear to be taxed to build the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the pyramids of Egypt, Saint Peter's at Rome, Notre Dame at Paris, St. Paul's in London, with a million et ceteras, when my navy yards and my quasi army made such a popular clamor, I know not. Yet my peccadilloes never excited such a rage as the late compen- sation law ! ! !

I congratulate you on the late election in Connecticut. It is a kind of epocha. Several causes have conspired ; one, which you would not suspect Some one, no doubt instigated by the devil, has taken it into his head to print a new edition of the " Independent Whig," even in Connecticut, and has scattered

1 So in the copy, but evidently an error.

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the volumes through the State. These volumes, it is said, have produced a burst of indignation against priestcraft, bigotry, and intolerance, and, in conjunction with other causes, have pro- duced the late election. When writing to you, I never know when to subscribe

John Adams.

TO JAMES MADISON.

Quincy, 22 April, 1817.

As I can make no apology for so long forgetting to return the volumes inclosed, I must, without qualification, beg your pardon. This work, though it bears the name of Condorcet alone, was understood to be written in concert between him and his great patron, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, as well as the " New Haven," and several other publications in favor of a government in one centre, — genuine disciples of M. Turgot. I was personally treated with great kindness by these three great and good men. But I lamented and deplored, notwithstanding their profound science and learning, what appeared to me their blind infatuation to a chimera. I shuddered at the prospect of what appeared to me inevitable consequences of their theory, of which they made no secret. I wondered the more at this, because the Abbe de Mably was their intimate friend, their social and convivial companion, whose writings were familiar to them.

The truth is, that none of these gentlemen had ever had any experience of a free government. It is equally true, that they had never deliberately thought, or freely spoken, or closely reasoned upon government, as it appears in history, as it is founded in nature, or as it has been represented by philosophers, priests, and politicians, who have written upon the subject. They have picked up scraps, but digested nothing. Condor- cet's Observations on the twenty-ninth book of the Spirit of Laws ; Helvetius, too, in his Letters to Montesquieu, printed in Mr. Jefferson's translation of Tracy ; Condorcet' s Life of Turgot ; his Progress of the Human Mind, and even Necker's Executive Power, appear to me the most pedantical writings that ages have produced. Every one of these writers must be an original

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genius. He must discover something that no man had ever conceived before him. Genius with them is a more privileged order than ever existed among men.

Is not despotism the simplest of all imaginable govern- ments ? Is not oligarchy the next, aristocracy the third, and a simple democracy of twenty-five millions of men the fourth ? All these are simple governments, with a vengeance. Erect a house of a cubic form, one hundred feet square at the base, without any division within into chambers, parlors, cel- lars, or garrets ; would not this be the simplest house that ever was built? But would it be a commodious habitation for a family ? It would accommodate nothing but a kennel of hun- ter's hounds. These gentlemen all affect to be great admirers of nature. But where in nature do they find the models of their adored simplicity ? Is it in the Mynheer Lyonnet dissec- tions and microscopic observations on the willow caterpillar, in which he has found more veins and muscles and fibres than in the human body ? No. The real wisdom, the genuine taste, the correct judgment consists in adapting necessary means to necessary ends. Here too much simplicity cannot be applied. I am not an implicit believer in the inspiration or infallibility of Montesquieu. On the contrary, it must be acknowledged, that some of these philosophers have detected many errors in his writings. But all then: heads consolidated into one mighty head, would not equal the depth of his genius, or the extent of his views. Voltaire, alone, excels or equals him. When a writer on government despises, sneers, or argues against mixed governments, or a balance in government, he instantly proves himself an ideologian. To reason against a balance, because a perfect one cannot be composed or eternally preserved, is just as good sense as to reason against all morality, because no man has been perfectly virtuous. Not only Montesquieu, but the Abbe de Mably, who, some of them said, never wrote any thing but "choses communes en style commun" might have taught them more sense, though he, too, indeed, was not always steady nor correct in his opinions. Scattered here and there, in his_ writings, are correct sentiments. Accidentally his Phocion is on my table. In the second conversation, pages 45 and 46, he says, " Plato censured monarchy, pure aristocracy, and popular govern- ment. The laws are not safe under these administrations, which

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leave too free a career to the passions. He dreaded the power of a prince, sole legislator, sole judge of justice and law. He was terrified, in aristocracy, with the pride and avarice of the grandees, who, believing that every thing is theirs, will sacrifice, without scruple, the interests of society to their private advan- tages. He shuddered, in democracy, at the caprices of a multi- tude, always blind, always extreme in their desires, and who will condemn to-morrow with fury that which they approve to-day with enthusiasm." What is the security against these dangers ? According to Plato, Phocion, and De Mably, " an able mixture of all these governments ; the public power should be divided into different parts, capable of overawing, of balancing, and of reciprocally moderating each other." In the Abbe's own re- marks upon this second conversation, page 204, he says, " all the ancient philosophers thought like Plato, and the most cele- brated statesmen have always wished to establish in their cities a mrxed policy, which, by confirming the empire of the laws over the magistrates, and the empire of magistrates over the citizens, should unite the advantages of the three ordinary go- vernments, and have none of their vices," &c. " To ask which is the best government, monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, is to ask what greater or lesser evils can be produced, by the pas- sions of a prince, of a senate, or of a multitude. To ask whether a mixed government is better than any other, is to ask whether the passions are as wise, as just, and as moderate as the laws." The accidental discovery of your books in my library, and the name of Condorcet, have drawn my thoughts to a subject, which I had long since endeavored to forget, as wholly desper- ate. I fear, Sir, you will wish that I had feloniously appro- priated your books to my own use, rather than have returned them with so impertinent a letter. I return them with thanks for the loan of them, and with thanks for your long, laborious, able, and successful services to your country.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 1 June, 1817.

That Mr. Hutchinson repented as sincerely as Mr. Hamilton did, I doubt not. I hope the repentance of both has been ac-

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cepted, and their faults pardoned.- And I hope I have repented, do repent, and shall ever repent of mine, and meet them both in another world, where there will need no repentance. Such vicissitudes of fortune command compassion ; I pity even Na- poleon.

You " never profoundly admired Mr. Hancock. He had vanity and caprice." I can say, with truth, that I profoundly admired him, and more profoundly loved him. If he had vanity and caprice, so had I. And if his vanity and caprice made me sometimes sputter, as you know they often did, mine, I well know, had often a similar effect upon him. But these little flickerings of little passions determine nothing concerning essential characters. I knew Mr. Hancock from his cradle to his grave. He was radically generous and benevolent. He was born in this town, half way between this house and our congregational temple, son of a clergyman of this parish, and grandson of a clergyman of Lexington, both of excellent cha- racters. We were at the same school together, as soon as we were out of petticoats. His father died when he was very young. His uncle, the most opulent merchant in Boston, who had no children, adopted him, placed him in Mr. Lovell's school, educated him at Harvard college, and then took him into his store. And what a school was this ! Four large ships con- stantly plying between Boston and London, and other business in proportion. This was in 1755. He became an example to all the young men of the town. Wholly devoted to busi- ness, he was as regular and punctual at his store as the sun in his course. His uncle sent him to London, from "whence, after a residence of about a year, he returned to his store, with the same habits of business, unaltered in manners or deportment, and pursued his employments with the same punctuality and assiduity, till the death of his uncle, who left him his business, his credit, his capital, and his fortune ; who did more — he left him the protector of his widow. This lady, though her hus- band left her a handsome independence, would have sunk into oblivion, like so many other most excellent widows, had not the public attention been fastened upon her by the fame of her nephew. Never was a nephew to an aunt more affectionate, dutiful, or respectful. No alteration appeared in Mr. Hancock, either from his travels in England, or from his accession to the

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fortune of his uncle. The same steady, regular, punctual, in- dustrious, indefatigable man of business ; and, to complete his character with the ladies, always genteelly dressed, according to the fashions of those days.

What shall I say of his fortune, his ships ? His commerce was a great one. Your honored father told me, at that time, that not less than a thousand families were, every day in the year, dependent on Mr. Hancock for their daily bread. Con- sider his real estate in Boston, in the country, in Connecticut, and the rest of New England. Had Mr. Hancock fallen asleep to this day, he would now awake one of the richest men. Had he persevered in business as a private merchant, he might have erected a house of Medicis. Providence, however, did not in- tend or permit, in this instance, such a calamity to mankind. Mr. Hancock was the delight of the eyes of the whole town. There can be no doubt that he might have had his choice, and he had his choice of a companion ; and that choice was very natural, a granddaughter of the great patron and most revered friend of his father. Beauty, politeness, and every domestic virtue justified his predilection.

At the time of this prosperity, I was one day walking in the mall, and, accidentally, met Samuel Adams. In taking a few turns together, we came in full view of Mr. Hancock's house. Mr. Adams, pointing to the stone building, said, " This town has done a wise thing to-day." " What?" " They have made that young man's fortune their own." His prophecy was lite- rally fulfilled; for no man's property was ever more entirely devoted to the public. The town had, that day, chosen Mr. Hancock into the legislature of the province. The quivering anxiety of the public, under the fearful looking for of the ven- geance of king, ministry, and parliament, compelled him to a constant attendance in the House ; his mind was soon en- grossed by public cares, alarms, and terrors ; his business was left to subalterns ; his private affairs neglected, and continued to be so to the end of his life. If his fortune had not been very large, he must have died as poor as Mr. S. Adams or Mr. Gerry.

I am not writing the life of Mr. Hancock ; his biography would fill as many volumes as Marshall's Washington, and be quite as instructive and entertaining. Though I never injured or justly offended him, and though I spent much of my time, and suffered

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unknown anxiety, in defending his property, reputation, and liberty from persecution, I cannot but reflect upon myself for not paying him more respect than I did in his lifetime. His life will, however, not ever be written. But if statues, obelisks, pyramids, or divine honors were ever merited by men, of cities or nations, James Otis, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, deserved these from the town of Boston and the United States. Such adulations, however, are monopolized by profligate libel- lers, by cringing flatterers, by unprincipled ambition, by sordid avarice, by griping usurers, by scheming speculators, by plun- dering bankers, by blind enthusiasts, by superstitious bigots, by puppies and butterflies, and by every thing but honor and vir- tue. Hence the universal slavery of the human species. Hence a commentary on the well known and most expressive figure of rhetoric, " It grieved the Almighty, at his heart, that he had made man." Nevertheless, this is a good world, and I thank the Almighty that he has made man.

Mr. Hancock had a delicate constitution. He was very in- firm ; a great part of his life was passed in acute pain. He inherited from his father, though one of the most amiable and beloved of men, a certain sensibility, a keenness of feeling, or, in more familiar language, a peevishness of temper, that some- times disgusted and afflicted his friends. Yet it was asto- nishing with what patience, perseverance, and punctuality he attended to business to the last. Nor were his talents or attainments inconsiderable. They were far superior to many who have been much more celebrated. He had a great deal of political sagacity and penetration into men. He was by no means a contemptible scholar or orator. Compared with , Washington, Lincoln, or Knox, he was learned. So much, fori the present, of Mr. Hancock.

When, in the beginning of this letter, I agreed with you in your opinion of Mr. Hutchinson's repentance, I should have added, he had great reason for repentance. Fled, in his old age, from the detestation of a country, where he had been beloved, esteemed, and admired, and applauded with exaggera- tion — in short, where he had been every thing, from his in- fancy— to a country where he was nothing; pinched by a pen- sion, which, though ample in Boston, would barely keep a house in London ; throwing round his baleful eyes on the exiled com-

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panions of his folly ; hearing daily of the slaughter of his coun- trymen and conflagration of their cities ; abhorred by the greatest men, and soundest part of the nation, and neglected, if not despised, by the rest, hardened as had been my heart against him, I assure you I was melted at the accounts I heard of his condition. Lord Townsend told -me that he put an end to his own life. Though I did not believe this, I know he was ridiculed by the courtiers. They laughed at his manners at the levee, at his perpetual quotation of his brother Foster, searching his pockets for letters to read to the king, and the king turning away from him with his head up, &c. A few words concerning S. Adams in my next.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 5 June, 1817.

You " never profoundly admired Mr. Hancock." I have sug- gested some hints in his favor. You " never profoundly ad- mired Mr. Samuel Adams." I have promised you an apology for him. You may think it a weak one, for I have no talent at panegyric or apology. " There are all sorts of men in the world." This observation, you may say, is self-evident and futile ; yet Mr. Locke thought it not unworthy of him to make it, and, if we reflect upon it, there is more meaning in it than meets the eye at the first blush.

You say, Mr. S. Adams "Jiad too much sternness and pious bigotry." A man in his situation and circumstances must pos- sess a large fund of sternness of stuff, or he will soon be anni- hilated. His piety ought not to be objected to him, or any other man. His bigotry, if he had any, was a fault ; but he certainly had not more than Governor Hutchinson and Secre- tary Oliver, who, I know from personal conversation, were as stanch Trinitarians and Calvinists as he was, and treated all Arians and Arminians with more contempt and scorn than he ever did. Mr. Adams lived and conversed freely with all sec- tarians, in philosophy and divinity. He never imposed his creed on any one, or endeavored to make proselytes to his reli-

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gious opinions. He was as far from sentencing any man to perdition, who differed from him, as Mr. Holley, Dr. Kirkland, or Dr. Freeman. If he was a Calvinist, a Calvinist he had been educated, and so had been all his ancestors for two hundred years. He had been, from his childhood, too much devoted to politics to be a profound student in metaphysics and theology, or to make extensive researches or deep investigations into such subjects. Nor had any other man attempted it, in this nation, in that age, if any one has attempted it since* Mr. Adams was an original — sui generis, sui juris. The variety of human characters is infinite. Nature seems to delight in showing the inexhaustibility of her resources. There never were two men alike, from the first man to the last, any more than two pebbles or two peas.

Mr. Adams was born and tempered a wedge of steel to split the knot of lignum vitcc, which tied North America to Great Britain. Blunderheaded as were the British ministry, they had sagacity enough to discriminate from all others, for inexorable vengeance, the two men most to be dreaded by them, Samuel Adams and John Hancock ; and had not James Otis been then dead, or worse than dead, his name would have been at the head of the triumvirate.

James Otis, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock were the

three most essential characters ; and Great Britain knew it,

though America does not. Great and important and excellent characters, aroused and excited by these, arose in Pennsylva- nia, Virginia, New York, South Carolina, and in all the other States ; but these three were the first movers, the most con- stant, steady, persevering springs, agents, and most disinterested sufferers and firmest pillars of the whole Revolution. I shall not attempt even to draw the outlines of the biography of Mr. Samuel Adams. Who can attempt it ?

" Quce ante conditam condendamve urbem, po'cticis mag-is decora fabulis, quam incorruptis rerum gestarum monumentis traduntur, ea " : nee possum refellere. Quia non tempus, nee oculos, nee ma- nus habeo. But, if I had time, eyes, and fingers at my command, where should I find documents and memorials ? Without the

1 Livy finishes the sentence thus, nee affirmare nee refellere, in animo est. The addition in the text is bv the •writer.

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character of Samuel Adams, the true history of the American Revolution can never be written. For fifty years, his pen, his tongue, his activity, were constantly exerted for his country without fee or reward. During that time, he was an almost incessant writer. But where are his writings ? Who can col- lect them ? And, if collected, who will ever read them ? The letters he wrote and received, where are they ? I have seen him, at Mrs. Yard's in Philadelphia, when he was about to leave Congress, cut up with his scissors whole bundles of letters into atoms that could never be reunited, and throw them out of the window, to be scattered by the winds. This was in summer, when he had no fire ; in winter he threw whole handfuls into the fire. As we were on terms of perfect inti- macy, I have joked him, perhaps rudely, upon his anxious cau- tion. His answer was, " Whatever becomes of me, my friends shall never suffer by my negligence." This may be thought a less significant anecdote than another. Mr. Adams left the letters he had received and preserved in possession of his widow. This lady, as was natural, lent them to a confidential friend of her husband, Mr. Avery, who then "was, and had been secretary of the commonwealth under the administration of Mr. Adams and Mr. Hancock. Mr. Avery informed me, that he " had them, and that they were a complete history of the Revolution." I will not say into whose hands they fell, after Mr. Avery's death, and I cannot say where they are now ; but I have heard that a gentleman in Charlestown, Mr. Austin, undertook to write the life of Mr. Adams ; but, finding his papers had been so garbled that the truth could not be discovered, he abandoned his design. Never will those letters, which Secretary Avery possessed, be brought together again ; nor will they ever be found. So much for Mr. Adams, at present. Now for Mr. Otis.

I write no biographies or biographical sketches ; I give only hints. James Otis was descended from our most ancient fami- lies. His education was the best his country afforded. He was bred to the bar under Mr. Gridley, the greatest lawyer and the greatest classic scholar I ever knew at any bar. His appli- cation was incessant and indefatigable. Justice Richard Dana has often told me, that the apartment in which Otis studied, when a pupil and a clerk of Mr. Gridley, was near his house ; that he had watched him from day to day, and that he had

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never known a student in law so punctual, so steady, so con- stant and persevering. Accordingly, as soon as he was admitted to the bar, he became a conspicuous figure. And among whom ? Gridley, Pratt, Trowbridge ; and he was much admired, and as much celebrated as any of them. His generous, manly, noble character, as a private gentleman, his uncommon attainments in literature, especially in the law, and his nervous, com- manding eloquence at the bar, were everywhere spoken of. The government soon discerned his superiority, and commis- sioned him Advocate- General. He married a lady, who, in that day, was esteemed a fortune. From 1755 to 1758, 1 heard my master, Colonel James Putnam, of Worcester, who was a critical judge, and Mr. Trowbridge, the then Attorney-General, and his lady, constantly speaking of Otis as the greatest, the most learned, the most manly, and most honest young man of his age. All this was before I had ever seen Mr. Otis. I never saw him till late in the autumn of 1758, nor Mr. Samuel y/ Adams till after that year.

To sum up in a few words, the two young men, whom I have known to enter the stage of life with the most luminous, unclouded prospects, and the best founded hopes, were James Otis and John Hancock. They were both essential to the Revolution, and both fell sacrifices to it. Mr. Otis, from 1760 to 1770, had correspondences in this province, in New England, in the middle and southern colonies, in England, and in Scot- land. What has become of these letters and answers ?

Mr. Otis, soon after my earliest acquaintance with him, lent me a summary of Greek Prosody of his own collection and composition, a work of profound learning and great labor. I had it six months in my possession, before I returned it. Since my return from Europe, I asked his daughter whether she had found that work among her father's manuscripts. She answered me with a countenance of woe that you may more easily ima- gine than I can describe, that she " had not a line from her father's pen ; that he had spent much time, and taken great pains, to collect together all his letters and other papers, and, in one of his unhappy moments, cojnjnitted them all to the flames." 1 have used her own expressions.

Such has been the fate of the memorials of Mr. James Otis and Mr. Samuel Adams. It was not without reason, then, that

vol. x. 23

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I wrote to Mr. Niles, of Baltimore, that the true history of the American Revolution is lost forever. I could write volumes of other proofs of the same truth, before, during, and since the Revolution. But cui bono ? They would be read by very few, and by very few of those few would be credited, and, by this minimum of a few, would be imputed to the vanity, egotism, ill humor, envy, jealousy, and disappointed ambition of your sincere friend, John Adams ; for the character of this nation is strangely altered.

TO HENRY COLMA.N.

Quincy, 13 June, 1817.

When I have heard you say, and you have repeatedly said it to me, that you were determined to read " The Origin of all Worships," I certainly sympathized with you ; but whether that sympathy had in it more of congratulation or of compas- sion, I cannot say.

When you have once read Dupuis, you will find yourself irresistibly impelled to read Court de Gebelin's Primitive World, and then Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, and then Sir William Jones's works, and then Herodotus, and all the Greek historians, and then over again your Eustace, and Si- mond, and last, not least, Hugh Farmer's four volumes, con- taining all his works, namely, his Temptation and his Worship of Human Spirits, his Miracles, and his Demons. To these you will wish to add Sir John Malcolm's recent History of Persia, and the millions of authorities quoted by all these writers.

And, when you shall have done all this, you will find your- self precisely where you are now, an adorer of the Christian religion in its purity, mourning over the knavery and folly of your species, and, above all, deploring the corruptions and heathenish superstitions and idolatries introduced into the reli- gion of Jesus by his professed disciples and " most holy priests."

Were your life as useless as mine, which, I am confident, it never can be, you might waste your time, as I have done agreeably enough, in these enigmatical amusements. It is

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curions that Gebelin, Bryant, Jones, and Dupuis, and Farmer should have composed their systems without any knowledge of each other. Had they been united in a council, they might have been agreed ; for, it seems to me, that a consistent plan might be extracted from them all, compared together.

That you may be long continued in your benevolent studies and labors, is the prayer of your friend.

TO JAMES MADISON.

Quincy, 17 June, 1817.

Accept my thanks for your favor of last month. The safe arrival of your books has quieted my conscience.

There is nothing within the narrow compass of human know- ledge more interesting than the subject of your letter. If the idea of a government in one centre seems to be everywhere " exploded," perhaps something remains undefined, as danger- ous, as plausible, and pernicious as that idea. Half a million of people in England have petitioned Parliament for annual parliaments and universal suffrage. Parliament is unanimous against them. What is this state of things short of a declara- tion of war between the government and people ? And is not this the picture of all Europe ? Sovereigns, who modestly call themselves legitimate, are conspiring, in holy and unhallowed' leagues, against the progress of human knowledge and human liberty.

War seems on the point of breaking out between govern- ment and people. Were the latter united, the question would be soon decided ; but they are everywhere divided into innu- merable sects, whereas the former are united, and have all the artillery and bayonets in their hands ; and what is most melan- choly of all, an appeal to arms almost always results in an exchange of one military tyranny for another.

The questions concerning universal suffrage, and those con- cerning the necessary limitations of the power of suffrage, are among the most difficult. It is hard to say that every man has not an equal right ; but, admit this equal right and equal

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power, and an immediate revolution would ensue. In all the nations of Europe, the number of persons, who have not a penny, is double those who have a groat ; admit all these to an equality of power, and you would soon see how the groats would be divided. Yet, in a few days, the party of the pennies and the party of the groats would be found to exist again, and a new revolution and a new division must ensue.

If there is anywhere an exception from this reasoning, it is in America; nevertheless, there is in these United States a major- ity of persons, who have no property, over those who have any. I know of nothing more desirable in society than the abolition of all hereditary distinctions. But is not distinction among voters as arbitrary and aristocratical as hereditary distinctions ? You will remember that, between thirty and forty years ago, the Irish patriots asked advice of the Duke of Richmond, Dr. Price, Dr. Jebb, &c. These three great statesmen, divines, and philo- sophers, solemnly advised a universal suffrage. Tracy, in his review of Montesquieu, adopts this principle in its largest ex- tent. A party among mankind, countenanced, at this day, by such numbers and such names, is not to be despised, neglected, nor easily overborne.

There is nothing more irrational, absurd, or ridiculous in the sight of philosophy than the idea of hereditary kings and nobles ; yet all the nations of the earth, civilized, savage, and brutal, have adopted them. "Whence this universal and irresistible propensity ? How shall it be controlled, restrained, corrected, modified, or managed ? A government, a mixed government, may be so organized, I hope, as to preserve the liberty, equality, and fraternity of the people without any hereditary ingredient in its composition. Our nation has attempted it, and, if any people can accomplish it, it must be this ; and may God Al- mighty prosper and bless them !

I have seen the efforts of the people in France, Holland, and England. You have read them in all Europe. We both know the result. What is to come, we know not.

My personal interest in such disquisitions can last but a few hours; but, still, homo sum, and homo I shall be.

May you live to a greater age than mine, and be able to die with brighter prospects for your species than can fall to the lot of your friend.

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TO JOHN M. JACKSON.

Quincy, 30 December, 1817.

In 1774, I became acquainted with McKean, Rodney, and Henry. Those three appeared to me to see more clearly to the end of the business than any others of the whole body. At least, they were more candid and explicit with me than any others. Mr. Henry was in Congress only in 1774, and a small part of 1775. He was called home by his State to take a mili- tary command. McKean and Rodney continued members, and, I believe, I never voted in opposition to them in any one in- stance. When, as it happened, I was appointed to draw the plan of a treaty to be carried to France by Dr. Franklin, and proposed by him, Mr. Deane, and Mr. Lee, to the French court, I carefully avoided every thing that could involve us in any alliance more than a commercial friendship. When this plan was reported to Congress, my own most intimate friends, Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee, differed from me in opinion. They thought there was not sufficient temptation to France to join us. They moved for cessions and concessions, which implied warranties and political alliance that I had stu- diously avoided. My principle was perpetual peace, after that war should be concluded, with all powers of Europe, and per- fect neutrality in all their future wars. This principle I was obliged to support against long arguments and able disput- ants, and, fortunately, carried every point ; and, in every point, McKean and Rodney adhered to me, and supported me with inflexible perseverance. And, for four years, I know not that Mr. McKean ever differed from me in a vote. Mr. McKean, however, was not constantly in Congress. He was soon ap- pointed Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, and, afterwards, Chief Justice ; and the duties of those offices, though he was always a member of Congress, often necessarily prevented his attendance in the House. While I was in Europe, nothing passed between Mr. McKean and me, except, now and then, a few lines of introduction for a travelling friend abdfit to cross the Atlantic ; and except that my bookseller, by my advice, sent a quantity of those dull volumes, called "A Defence," to Mr. McKean, who committed them to Mr. Dobson for sale.

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Mr. McKean often expressed to me his entire approbation of the system, and concurrence in all the sentiments in that work.

"When I met Mr. McKean again in person at Philadelphia, which was in 1790, after a separation of eleven years and more, I found him, as well as President Washington and all his family, and all his ministers, both Houses of Congress, the city of Philadelphia, and all mankind, for I know not one exception, glowing with sanguine hopes and confident expectation of a revolution in France that should produce a free, democratical republic, as sister to ours, in the first nation in Europe. I stood alone, would agree with nobody in opinion upon that subject. I could foresee nothing but calamities to France and to the world, and the French constitution of 1789 confirmed all my fears. I saw a disposition everywhere to enter into closer connections with our sister republic, and unite with her in a war against all her enemies. Mr. McKean was arranged with Mr. Mifflin, Mr. Sergeant, Dr. Hutchinson, Mr. Kittenhouse, Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Findlay, Mr. Swan wick, and even my bosom friend, Dr. Rush, in this enthusiasm for the French Revolution, and a closer connection, and an alliance, offensive and defen- sive, with our young sister democratical republic at the head of all Europe.

This appeared to me not only a total departure from our old system, " Friendship with all nations, but entangling alliances with none," as fully understood and determined by Congress ; but a policy which must be ruinous and destructive to our country. From this source arose, I will not say a separation or an alienation between Mr. McKean and me, for we still continued on terms of mutual civility ; but a cessation of that intimacy which had formerly subsisted between us. But it was impossible that either of us should ever forget the other.

I wish I could extend this letter ; but it is impossible. If I regret the infirmities of age, it is not because they announce the rapid approach of the end of my life, but because they dis- able me to associate and correspond with my friends according to their wishes and my own. And this must be my apology for the shortness of this letter.

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TO WILLIAM WIRT.

Quincy, 5 January, 1818.

Your sketches of the life of Mr. Henry have given me a rich entertainment. I will not compare them to the Sybil conduct- ing iEneas to see the ghosts of departed sages and heroes in the region below, but to an angel conveying me to the abodes of the blessed on high, to converse with the spirits of just men made perfect. The names of Henry, Lee, Bland, Pendleton, Washington, Rutledge, Dickinson, Wythe, and many others, will ever thrill through my veins with an agreeable sensation. I am not about to make any critical remarks upon your work, at present. But, Sir,

Eraut heroes ante Agamemnona multi.

-£>"

Or, not to garble Horace,

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Multi ; seel omnes illacrimabiles Urguentur, ignotique longa Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.

If I could go back to the age of thirty-five, Mr. Wirt, I would endeavor to become your rival ; not in elegance of composition, but in a simple narration of facts, supported by records, histo- ries, and testimonies, of irrefragable authority. I would adopt, in all its modesty, your title, " Sketches of the Life and Writ- ings of James Otis, of Boston," and, in imitation of your ex- ample, I would introduce portraits of a long catalogue of illustrious men, who were agents in the Revolution, in favor of it or against it.

Jeremiah Gridley, the father of the Bar in Boston, and the preceptor of Pratt, Otis, Thacher, Cushing, and many others ; Benjamin Pratt, Chief Justice of New York; Colonel John Tyng, James Otis, of Boston, the hero of the biography ; Ox- enbridge Thacher, Jonathan Sewall, Attorney- General and Judge of Admiralty ; Samuel Quincy, Solicitor- General ; Daniel Leonard, now Chief Justice of Bermuda; Josiah Quincy, the Boston Cicero ; Richard Dana, and Francis Dana, his son, first minister to Russia, and afterwards Chief Justice ; Jonathan Mayhew, D. D., Samuel Cooper, D. D., Charles Chauncy, D. D.,

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James Warren and his wife; Joseph Warren, of Bunker's Hill; John Winthrop, Professor at Harvard College, and a member of council ; Samuel Dexter, the father ; John Worth- ington, of Springfield; Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, and James Lovell, of Boston ; Governors Shirley, Pownall, Bernard, Hutchinson, Hancock, Bowdoin, Adams, Sullivan, and Gerry; Lieutenant-Governor Oliver, Chief Justice Oliver, Judge Ed- mund Trowbridge, Judge William Gushing, and Timothy Ruggles, ought not to be omitted. The military characters, Ward, Lincoln, Warren, Knox, Brooks, Heath, &c, must come in, of course. Nor should Benjamin Kent, Samuel Swift, or John Read, be forgotten.

I envy none of the well-merited glories of Virginia, or any of her sages or heroes. But, Sir, I am jealous, very jealous, of the honor of Massachusetts.

The resistance to the British system for subjugating the colo- nies, began in 1760, and in the month of February, 1761, James Otis electrified the town of Boston, the province of Massachu- setts Bay, and the whole continent, more than Patrick Henry ever did in the whole course of his life. If we must have pane- gyric and hyperbole, I must say, that if Mr. Henry was Demos- thenes and Mr. Richard Henry Lee, Cicero, James Otis was Isaiah and Ezekiel united.

I hope, Sir, that some young gentleman of the ancient and honorable family of the " Searches," will hereafter do impartial justice both to Virginia and Massachusetts.

After all this freedom, I assure you, Sir, it is no flattery, when I congratulate the nation on the acquisition of an Attorney- General of such talents and industry as your " Sketches " de- monstrate.

TO JOHN JAY.

Quincy, 9 January, 1818.

« Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry," by

William Wirt, of Richmond, Virginia, has been sent to me by

Mr. Shaw, of the Athenaeum. My family are reading it to me,

every evening, and though we have not finished it, we have

CORRESPONDENCE. 273

proceeded far enough to excite an earnest desire to know your opinion about it.

There is, in section fourth, page 108, a passage which no man now living but yourself can explain. I hope you have read the volume ; but as it is possible you may not have seen it, the pa- ragraph is this.

"A petition to the king, an address to the people of Great Britain, and a memorial to the people of British America, were agreed to be drawn. Mr. Lee, Mr. Henry, and others were appointed for the first ; Mr. Lee, Mr. Livingston, and Mr. Jay for the two last. The splendor of their debut occasioned Mr. Henry to be designated by his committee to draw the petition to the king, with which they were charged ; and Mr. Lee was charged with the address to the people of England. The last was first reported. On reading it, great disappointment was expressed in every countenance, and a dead silence ensued for some minutes. At length it was laid on the table for perusal and consideration till the next day ; when first one member, and then another, arose, and, paying some faint compliment to the composition, observed, that there were still certain consider- ations not expressed, which should properly find a place in it. The address was, therefore, committed for amendment ; and one prepared by Mr. Jay, and offered by Governor Livingston, was reported and adopted, with scarcely an alteration. These facts are stated by a gentleman, to whom they were communicated by Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Harrison, of the Virginia delegation (except that Mr. Harrison erroneously ascribed the draught to Governor Livingston), and to whom they were afterwards con- firmed by Governor Livingston himself. Mr. Henry's draught of a petition to the king was equally unsuccessful, and was recommitted for amendment. Mr. John Dickinson (the author of the Farmer's Letters) was added to the committee, and a new draught, prepared by him, was adopted."

This passage is not so luminous as many parts of the book ; but, as I understand it, I think it is not correct. There is no man now living who is able perfectly to correct it but yourself, and, in my opinion, it is your conscientious duty to do it.

The question, who was the draughtsman of the address to the people of England, however unimportant to the public it may appear at this day, certainly excited a sensation, a fer-

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mentation, and a schism in Congress, at the time, and serious consequences afterwards, which have lasted to this hour, and are not yet spent. I fear, but I do not know, that this animo- sity was occasioned by indiscretions of R. H. Lee, Mr. Samuel Adams, and some others of the Virginia delegates, by whom Adams was led into error. I never had a doubt that you were the author of that manly and noble address. But, as the sub- ject is now brought before the public by Mr. Wirt, and will excite speculation, you, who alone are capable of it, ought to explain it, and, as I know you will, if at all, without favor or affection.1

TO H. NILES.

Quincy, 14 January, 1818.

In a former letter I hazarded an opinion, that the true history of the American Revolution could not be recovered. I had many reasons for that apprehension, one of which I will attempt to explain.

Of the determination of the British cabinet to assert and maintain the sovereign authority of Parliament over the Colo- nies, in all cases of taxation and internal policy, the first demon- stration which arrived in America was an order in council to the officers of the customs in Massachusetts Bay, to carry into execution the acts of trade, and to apply to the Supreme Judicature of the province for writs of assistance, to authorize them to break and enter all houses, cellars, stores, shops, ships, bales, casks, &c, to search and seize all goods, wares, and merchandises, on which the taxes imposed by those acts had not been paid.

Mr. Cockle, of Salem, a deputy under Mr. Paxton, of Boston, the collector of the customs, petitioned the Superior Court in Salem, in November, 1760, for such a writ. The Court doubted its constitutionality, and consequently its legality ; but as the king's order ought to be considered, they ordered the question

1 Mr. Jay's clear and convincing reply, which set the question at rest forever, is printed in his Life by his son, William Jay, vol. ii. p. 881.

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to be argued before them, by counsel, at the next February- term in Boston.

The community was greatly alarmed. The merchants of Salem and of Boston applied to Mr. Otis to defend them and their country against that formidable instrument of arbitrary power. They tendered him rich fees ; he engaged in their cause, but would accept no fees.

James Otis, of Boston, sprang from families among the ear- liest of the planters of the Colonies, and the most respectable in rank, while the word rank, and the idea annexed to it, were tolerated in America. He was a gentleman of general science and extensive literature. He had been an indefatigable student during the whole course of his education in college and at the bar. He was well versed in Greek and Roman history, philo- sophy, oratory, poetry, and mythology. His classical studies had been unusually ardent, and his acquisitions uncommonly great. He had composed a treatise on Latin prosody, which he lent to me, and I urged him to print. He consented. It is extant, and may speak for itself. It has been lately reviewed in the Anthology by one of our best scholars, at a mature age, and in a respectable station. He had also composed, with equal skill and great labor, a treatise on Greek prosody. This he also lent me, and, by his indulgence, I had it in my posses- sion six months. When I returned it, I begged him to print it. He said there were no Greek types in the country, or, if there were, there was no printer who knew how to use them. He was a passionate admirer of the Greek poets, especially of Homer ; and he said it was in vain to attempt to read the poets in any language, without being master of their prosody. This classic scholar was also a great master of the laws of nature and nations. He had read Pufendorf, Grotius, Bar- beyrac, Burlamaqui, Vattel, Heineccius ; and, in the civil law, Domat, Justinian, and, upon occasions, consulted the Corpus Juris at large. It was a maxim which he inculcated on his pupils, as his patron in profession, Mr. Gridley, had done be- fore him, " that a lawyer ought never to be without a volume of natural or public law, or moral philosophy, on his table or in his pockety In the history, the common law, and statute laws of England, he had no superior, at least in Boston.

Thus qualified to resist the system of usurpation and despot-

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ism, meditated by the British ministry, under the auspices of the Earl of Bute, Mr. Otis resigned his commission from the crown, as Advocate- General, an office very lucrative at that time, and a sure road to the highest favors of government in America, and engaged in the cause of his country without fee or reward. His argument, speech, discourse, oration, harangue — call it by which name you will, was the most impressive upon his crowded audience of any that I ever heard before or since, excepting only many speeches by himself in Faneuil Hall and in the House of Representatives, which he made from time to time for ten years afterwards. There were no stenographers in those days. Speeches were not printed ; and all that was not remembered, like the harangues of Indian orators, was lost in air. Who, at the distance of fifty-seven years, would attempt, upon memory, to give even a sketch of it ? Some of the heads are remembered, out of which Livy or Sallust would not scruple to compose an oration for history. I shall not essay an analysis or a sketch of it at present. I shall only say, and I do say in the most solemn manner, that Mr. Otis's oration against writs of assistance breathed into this nation the breath of life.

Although Mr. Otis had never before interfered in public affairs, his exertions, on this single occasion, secured him a commanding popularity with the friends of their country, and the terror and vengeance of her enemies, neither of which ever deserted him.

At the next election, in May, 1761, he was elected, by a vast majority, a representative in the legislature, of the town of Boston, and continued to be so elected annually for nine years. Here, at the head of the country interest, he conducted her cause with a fortitude, prudence, ability, and perseverance, which has never been exceeded in America, at every sacrifice of health, pleasure, profit, and reputation, and against all the powers of government, and all the talents, learning, wit, scurri- lity, and insolence of its prostitutes.

Hampden was shot in open field of battle. Otis was basely assassinated in a coffee-house, in the night, by a well-dressed banditti, with a commissioner of the customs at their head.

During the period of nine years, that Mr. Otis was at the head of the cause of his country, he held correspondence with gentlemen, in England, Scotland, and various colonies in Ame-

CORRESPONDENCE. 277

rica. He must have written and received many letters, collected many pamphlets, and, probably, composed manuscripts, which might have illustrated the rising dawn of the revolution.

After my return from Europe, I asked his daughter whether she had found among her father's manuscripts a treatise on Greek prosody. With hands and eyes uplifted, in a paroxysm of grief, she cried, " Oh ! Sir, I have not a line from my father's pen. I have not even his name in his own handwriting." When she was a little calmed, I asked her, " Who has his papers ? Where are they ? " She answered, " They are no more. In one of those unhappy dispositions of mind, which distressed him after his great misfortune, and a little before his death, he collected all his papers and pamphlets, and committed them to the flames. He was several days employed in it."

TO WILLIAM WIRT.

Quincy, 23 January, 1818.

I thank you for your kind letter of the 12th of this month. As I esteem the character of Mr. Henry an honor to our coun- try, and your volume a masterly delineation of it, I gave orders to purchase it as soon as I heard of it, but was told it was not to be had in Boston. I have seen it only by great favor on a short loan. A copy from the author would be worth many by purchase. It may be sent to me by the mail.

From a personal acquaintance, perhaps I might say a friend- ship, with Mr. Henry of more than forty years, and from all that I have heard or read of him, I have always considered him as a gentleman of deep reflection, keen sagacity, clear foresight, daring enterprise, inflexible intrepidity, and untainted integrity ; with an ardent zeal for the liberties, the honor, and felicity of his country, and his species. All this you justly, as I believe, represent him to have been. There are, however, remarks to be made upon your work, which, if I had the eyes and hands, I would, in the spirit of friendship, attempt. But my hands and eyes and life are but for a moment.

When Congress had finished their business, as they thought,

vol. x. 24

278 CORRESPONDENCE.

in the autumn of 1774, I had, with Mr. Henry, before we took leave of each other, some familiar -conversation, in which I expressed a full conviction, that our resolves, declarations of rights, enumeration of wrongs, petitions, remonstrances, and addresses, associations, and non-importation agreements, how- ever they might be expected by the people in America, and however necessary to cement the union of the Colonies, would be but waste paper in England. Mr. Henry said, they might make some impression among the people of England, but agreed with me that they would be totally lost upon the government. I had but just received a short and hasty letter, written to me by Major Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, containing " a few broken hints," as he called them, of what he thought was pro- per to be done, and concluding with these words, " after all, we must fg'ht." 1 This letter I read to Mr. Henry, who listened with great attention ; and as soon as I had pronounced the words, " after ail, we must fight," he raised his head, and with an energy and vehemence, that I can never forget, broke out with " By G — d, I am of that man's mind." I put the letter into his hand, and, when he had read it, he returned it to me with an equally solemn asseveration, that he agreed entirely in opinion with the writer. I considered this as a sacred oath, upon a very great occasion, and could have sworn it as religiously as he did, and by no means inconsistent with what you say, in some part of your book, that he never took the sacred name in vain.

As I knew the sentiments with which Mr. Henry left Con- gress, in the autumn of 1774, and knew the chapter and verse from which he had borrowed the sublime expression, " we must fight," I was not at all surprised at your history, in the 122d page, in the note, and in some of the preceding and following pages. Mr. Henry only pursued, in March, 1775, the views and vows of November, 1774.

The other delegates from Virginia returned to their State, in full confidence that all our grievances would be redressed. The last words that Mr. Richard Henry Lee said to me, when we parted, were, " We shall infallibly carry all our points. You will be completely relieved; all the offensive acts will be repealed;

1 This letter is printed in full in the Appendix to vol. ix. of this work.

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the army and fleet will be recalled, and Britain will give up her foolish project"

Washington only was in doubt. He never spoke in public. In private he joined with those who advocated a non-exporta- tion, as well as a non-importation agreement. With both, he thought we should prevail ; without either, he thought it doubt- ful. Henry was clear in one opinion, Richard Henry Lee in an opposite opinion, and Washington doubted between the two. Henry, however, appeared in the end to be exactly in the right.

Oratory, Mr. Wirt, as it consists in expressions of the coun- tenance, graces of attitude and motion, and intonation of voice, although it is altogether superficial and ornamental, will always command admiration ; yet it deserves little veneration. Flashes of wit, corruscations of imagination, and gay pictures, what are they ? Strict truth, rapid reason, and pure integrity are the only essential ingredients in sound oratory. I flatter myself that Demosthenes, by his " action ! action ! action ! " meant to express the same opinion. To speak of American oratory, an- cient or modern, would lead me too far, and beyond my depth.

I must conclude with fresh assurances of the high esteem of your humble servant.

TO BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.

Quincy, 30 January, 1818.

As " the accurate Jefferson " has made the Revolution a game of billiards, I will make it a game of shuttle-cock. Henry might give the first impulse to the ball in Virginia, but Otis's battle- dore had struck the shuttle-cock up in air in Massachusetts, and continued to keep it up for several years before Henry's ball was touched. Jefferson was but a boy at college, of fifteen or sixteen years of age at most, and too intent on his classics and sciences to know, think, or care about any thing in Boston. When Otis first fulminated against British usurpation, I was but twenty-five years and three months old. Jefferson is, at least, nine, I believe teu_years younger than I, and, conse- quently, could not be more than fifteen or sixteen. He knew

280 CORRESPONDENCE.

more of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites than he did of what was passing in Boston.

You presume that I " am certain as to the date." You need not take my word. Look into Judge Minot's History of Mas- sachusetts Bay, anno 1761 ; search the records of the Supe- rior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize and General Gaol Delivery, at Salem term, 1760, and Boston term, 1761 ; look up the newspapers of 1761 ; ascertain the time when Chief Justice Stephen Sewall died; call for Dr. Mayhew's printed sermon on his death ; search the date of Chief Justice Thomas Hutchinson's commission as Chief Justice ; ascertain the time when the bench and the bar assumed their scarlet and sable robes, and you will not find much reason to call in question my veracity or memory. If ever human beings had a right to say,

" Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores ; Sic vos, non vobis, mellificatis apes,"

they were James Otis and Samuel Adams ; and to them ought statues to be erected, and not to

John.

TO BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.

Quincy, 6 February, 1818.

Waterhouse, — You ought to tell me the name of that ani- mal who " faced you down " against dates and Otis ; he must have been an inveterate, indurated old tory, with an iron heart, and a brazen face, or, at least, a son or grandson of such a one, who has inherited all his ancestor's envy, malice, hatred, mor- tified pride, and demoniacal revenge.

" James Otis had no patriotism ! ! ! " Had the adored Hutch- inson patriotism, when he mounted to the head of the supreme judicature, on purpose to sanctify the most odious chain that ever was forged to fetter the hands and feet of a free people, as the writs of assistance would have been, in the hands of an executive power and a supreme, sovereign, unlimited, un- controllable legislative authority, three thousand miles distant ?

CORRESPONDENCE. 281

Had any of his idolaters patriotism, when they excited a bloody war of eight years against their country, to enslave it to a foreign sovereignty ?

Would Mr. Otis, because his father had been disappointed of an office, which had been promised him by two successive governors, worth one hundred and twenty pounds sterling, at most, have resigned an office, which he held himself, worth two or three hundred pounds sterling, at least ? If he had no patriotic feelings, his filial affection must have been very strong !

It has been, in all times, the artifice of despotism and super- stition to nip liberty, truth, virtue, and religion, in the bud, by cutting off the heads of all who dared to show a regard to either. But when a process so summary could not be effected, the next trick was to blast the character of every rising genius, who excited their jealousy, by propagating lies and slanders to destroy his influence.

Jews and Pagans imputed the conversion of St. Paul to dis- appointment in love. They said that he courted the daughter of his master, Gamaliel, but the learned Pharisee thought him too mean in person and fortune for a match with the beautiful and accomplished young lady, and forbade his addresses. Re- venge for this affront excited a mortal hatred against all Phari- sees, and Paul became an apostate from Judaism, and a convert to Christianity, from spite. And this calumny has lasted more than seventeen hundred years ; and, I hope, the defamation of Otis will last as long, because it will be an immortal proof of the malice and revenge of the scurrilous, persecuting tyrants, against whom he had to contend.

The Romans, and all of their communion, say that " the Re- formation owed its origin, in Germany, to interest, in England, to love, and in France, to novelty ; that all the kings and princes who favored it, were seduced by the temptation of the confisca- tion of lands, and gold, and diamonds of the churches, monas- teries, and convents."

Is Christianity the less divine, is the Reformation less glo- rious, is the American Revolution less beneficial, for these enve- nomed slanders ?

I must know who that ugly fellow is, whom you quote with so little disapprobation. Do you not abhor him ? If you .had loved James Otis in your youth, as much as I did in mine, and

24 *

282 CORRESPONDENCE.'

if you had smarted as often as I have, under the hornet stings, the chew-balls, the serpent's teeth, and the poisoned arrows of these old tories, you would hate him with a perfect hatred.

TO H. NILES.

Quincy, 13 February, 1818.

The American Revolution was not a common event. Its effects and consequences have already been awful over a great part of the globe. And when and where are they to cease ?

But what do we mean by the American Revolution ? Do 'we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious senti- ments of their duties and obligations. While the king, and all in authority under him, were believed to govern in justice and mercy, according to the laws and constitution derived to them from the G6d of nature and transmitted to them by their an- cestors, they thought themselves bound to pray for the king and queen and all the royal family, and all in authority under them, as ministers ordained of God for their good ; but when they saw those powers renouncing all the principles of author- ity, and bent upon the destruction of all the securities of their lives, liberties, and properties, they thought it their duty to pray for the continental congress and all the thirteen State congresses, &c.

There might be, and there were others who thought less about religion and conscience, but had certain habitual senti- ments of allegiance and loyalty derived from their education ; but believing allegiance and protection to be reciprocal, when protection was withdrawn, they thought allegiance was dis- solved.

Another alteration was common to all. The people of Ame- rica had been educated in an habitual affection for England, as their mother country ; and while they thought her a kind and tender parent, (erroneously enough, however, for she never was such a mother,) no affection could be more sincere. But when

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they found her a cruel beldam, willing like Lady Macbeth, to " dash their brains out," it is no wonder if their filial affections ceased, and were changed into indignation and horror.

This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.

By what means this great and important alteration in the religious, moral, political, and social character of the people of thirteen colonies, all distinct, unconnected, and independent of each other, was begun, pursued, and accomplished, it is surely interesting to humanity to investigate, and perpetuate to poste- rity-

To this end, it is greatly to be desired, that young men of letters in all the States, especially in the thirteen original States, would undertake the laborious, but certainly interesting and amusing task, of searching and collecting all the records, pamph- lets, newspapers, and even handbills, which in any way con- tributed to change the temper and views of the people, and compose them into an independent nation.

The colonies had grown up under constitutions of govern- ment so different, there was so great a variety of religions, they were composed of so many different nations, their customs, manners, and habits had so little resemblance, and their inter- course had been so rare, and their knowledge of each other so imperfect, that to unite them in the same principles in theory and the same system of action, was certainly a very difficult enterprise. The complete accomplishment of it, in so short a time and by such simple means, was perhaps a singular example in the history of mankind. _T^hirteen clocks were made to strike together — a perfection of mechanism, which no artist had ever before effected.

In this research, the gloriole of individual gentlemen, and of separate States, is of little consequence. The means and the measures are the proper objects of investigation. These may be of use to posterity, not only in this nation, but in South America and all other countries. They may teach mankind that revolutions are no trifles ; that they ought never to be un- dertaken rashly ; nor without deliberate consideration and sober reflection ; nor without a solid, immutable, eternal foundation of justice and humanity ; nor without a people possessed of intelligence, fortitude, and integrity sufficient to carry them

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with steadiness, patience, and perseverance, through all the vicissitudes of fortune, the fiery trials and melancholy disasters they may have to encounter.

The town of Boston early instituted an annual oration on the 4th of July, in commemoration of the principles and feelings which contributed to produce the revolution. Many of those orations I have heard, and all that I could obtain, I have read. Much ingenuity and eloquence appears upon every subject, except those principles and feelings. That of my honest and amiable neighbor, Josiah Quincy, appeared to me the most directly to the purpose of the institution. Those principles and feelings ought to be traced back for two hundred years, and sought in the history of the country from the first plantations in America. Nor should the principles and feelings of the English and Scotch towards the colonies, through that whole period, ever be forgotten. The perpetual discordance between British principles and feelings and of those of America, the next year after the suppression of the French power in America, came to a crisis, and produced an explosion.

It was not until after the annihilation of the French dominion in America that any British ministry had dared to gratify their own wishes, and the desire of the nation, by projecting a for- mal plan for raising a national revenue from America, by par- liamentary taxation. The first great manifestation of this design was by the order to carry into strict executions those acts of parliament, which were well known by the appellation of the acts of trade, which had lain a dead letter, unexecuted for half a century, and some of them, I believe, for nearly a whole one.

This produced, in 1760 and 1761, an awakening and a revival of American principles and feelings, with an enthusiasm which went on increasing till, in 1775, it burst out in open violence, hostility, and fury.

The characters the most conspicuous, the most ardent and influential in this revival, from 1760 to 1766, were, first and foremost, before all and above all, James Otis ; next to him was Oxenbridge Thacher; next to him, Samuel Adams; next to him, John Hancock ; then Dr. Mayhew ; then Dr. Cooper and his brother. Of Mr. Hancock's life, character, generous nature, great and disinterested sacrifices, and important services, if I

CORRESPONDENCE. 285

had forces, I should be glad to write a volume. But this, I hope, will be done by some younger and abler hand. Mr. Thacher, because his name and merits are less known, must not be wholly omitted. This gentleman was an eminent barrister at law, in as large practice as any one in Boston. There was not a citizen of that town more universally beloved for his learning, ingenuity, every domestic and social virtue, and con- scientious conduct in every relation of life. • His patriotism was as ardent as his progenitors had been ancient and illustrious in this country. Hutchinson often said, " Thacher was not born a plebeian, but he was determined to die one." In May, 1763, I believe, he was chosen by the town of Boston one of their representatives in the legislature, a colleague with Mr. Otis, who had been a member from May, 1761, and he continued to be reelected annually till his death in 1765, when Mr. Samuel Adams was elected to fill his place, in the absence of Mr. Otis, then attending the Congress at New York. Thacher had long been jealous of the unbounded ambition of Mr. Hutchinson, but when he found him not content with the office of Lieute- nant-Governor, the command of the castle and its emoluments, of Judge of Probate for the county of Suffolk, a seat in his Majesty's Council in the Legislature, his brother-in-law Secretary of State by the king's commission, a brother of that Secretary of State, a Judge of the Supreme Court and a member of Coun- cil, now in 1760 and 1761, soliciting and accepting the office of Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, he con- cluded, as Mr. Otis did, and as every other enlightened friend of his country did, that he sought that office with the deter- mined purpose of determining all causes in favor of the ministry at St. James's, and their servile parliament.

His indignation against him henceforward, to 1765, when he died, knew no bounds but truth. I speak from personal know- ledge. For, from 1758 to 1765, I attended every superior and ' inferior court in Boston, and recollect not one, in which he did not invite me home to spend evenings with him, when he made me converse with him as well as I could, on all subjects of reli- gion, morals, law, politics, history, philosophy, belles lettres, theology, mythology, cosmogony, metaphysics, — Locke, Clark, Leibnitz, Bolingbroke, Berkeley, — the preestablished harmony of the universe, the nature of matter and of spirit, and the

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eternal establishment of coincidences between their operations ; fate, foreknowledge absolute ; and we reasoned on such un- fathomable subjects as high as Milton's gentry in pandemo- nium ; and we understood them as well as they did, and no better. To such mighty mysteries he added the news of the day, and the tittle-tattle of the town. But his favorite subject was politics, and the impending, threatening system of parlia- mentary taxation and universal government over the colonies. On this subject he was so anxious and agitated that I have no doubt it occasioned his premature death. From the time when he argued the question of writs of assistance to his death, he considered the king, ministry, parliament, and nation of Great Britain as determined to new-model the colonies from the foun- dation, to annul all their charters, to constitute them all royal governments, to raise a revenue in America by parliamentary taxation, to apply that revenue to pay the salaries of governors, judges, and all other crown officers ; and, after all this, to raise as large a revenue as they pleased, to be applied to national purposes at the exchequer in England ; and further, to establish bishops and the whole system of the Church of England, tithes and all, throughout all British America. This system, he said, if it was suffered to prevail, would extinguish the flame of liberty all over the world ; that America would be employed as an engine to batter down all the miserable remains of liberty in Great Britain and Ireland, where only any semblance of it was left in the world. To this system he considered Hutchinson, the Olivers, and all their connections, dependents, adherents, shoelickers, &c, entirely devoted. He asserted that they were all engaged with all the crown officers in America and the understrappers of the ministry in England, in a deep and trea- sonable conspiracy to betray the liberties of their country, for their own private, personal, and family aggrandizement. His philippics against the unprincipled ambition and avarice of all of them, but especially of Hutchinson, were unbridled; not only in private, confidential conversations, but in all companies and on all occasions. He gave Hutchinson the sobriquet of " Summa Potestatis," and rarely mentioned him but by the name of " Summa." His liberties of speech were no secrets to his enemies. I have sometimes wondered that they did not throw him over the bar, as they did soon afterwards Major

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Hawley. For they hated him worse than they did James Otis or Samuel Adams, and they feared him more, because they had no revenge for a father's disappointment of a seat on the superior bench to impute to him, as they did to Otis ; and Thacher's character through life had been so modest, decent, unassuming ; his morals so pure, and his religion so venerated, that they dared not attack him. In his office were educated to the bar two eminent characters, the late Judge Lowell and Josiah Quincy, aptly called the Boston Cicero. Mr. Thacher's frame was slender, his constitution delicate ; whether his physi- cians overstrained his vessels with mercury, when he had the smallpox by inoculation at the castle, or whether he was over- plied by public anxieties and exertions, the smallpox left him in a decline from which he never recovered. Not long before his death he sent for me to commit to my care some of his business at the bar. I asked him whether he had seen the Virginia resolves : " Oh yes — they are men ! they are noble spirits ! It kills me to think of the lethargy and stupidity that prevails here. I long to be out. I will go out. I will go out. I will go into court, and make a speech, which shall be read after my death, as my dying testimony against this infernal tyranny which they are bringing upon us." Seeing the violent agitation into which it threw him, I changed the subject as soon as possible, and retired. He had been confined for some time. Had he been abroad among the people, he would not have complained so pathetically of the " lethargy and stupidity that prevailed ; " for town and country were all alive, and in August became active enough ; and some of the people pro- ceeded to unwarrantable excesses, which were more lamented by the patriots than by their enemies. Mr. Thacher soon died, deeply lamented by all the friends of their country.

Another gentleman, who had great influence in the com- mencement of the Revolution, was Doctor Jonathan Mayhew, a descendant of the ancient governor of Martha's Vineyard. This divine had raised a great reputation both in Europe and America, by the publication of a volume of seven sermons in the reign of King George the Second, 1749, and by many other writings, particularly a sermon in 1750, on the 30th of January, on the 'subject of passive obedience and non-resistance, in which the saintship and martyrdom of King Charles the First are con-

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sidered, seasoned with wit and satire superior to any in Swift or Franklin. It was read by everybody ; celebrated by friends, and abused by enemies. During the reigns of King George the First and King George the Second, the reigns of the Stuarts, the two Jameses and the two Charleses were in general dis- grace in England. In America they had always been held in abhorrence. The persecutions and cruelties suffered by their ancestors under those reigns, had been transmitted by history and tradition, and Mayhew seemed to be raised up to revive all their animosities against tyranny, in church and state, and at the same time to destroy their bigotry, fanaticism, and incon- sistency. David Hume's plausible, elegant, fascinating, and fallacious apology, in which he varnished over the crimes of the Stuarts, had not then appeared. To draw the character of Mayhew, would be to transcribe a dozen volumes. This trans- cendent genius threw all the weight of his great fame into the scale of his country in 1761, and maintained it there with zeal and ardor till his death, in 1766. In 1763 appeared the con- troversy between him and Mr. Apthorp, Mr. Caner, Dr. Johnson, and Archbishop Seeker, on the charter and conduct of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. To form a judgment of this debate, I beg leave to refer to a review of the whole, printed at the time and written by Samuel Adams, though by some, very absurdly and erroneously, ascribed to Mr. Apthorp. If I am not mistaken, it will be found a model of candor, sagacity, impartiality, and close, correct reasoning.

If any gentleman supposes this controversy to be nothing to the present purpose, he is grossly mistaken. It spread an uni- versal alarm against the authority of Parliament. It excited a general and just apprehension, that bishops, and dioceses, and churches, and priests, and tithes, were to be imposed on us by Parliament. It was known that neither king, nor ministry, nor archbishops, could appoint bishops in America, without an act of Parliament;- and if Parliament could tax us, they could establish the Church of England, with all its creeds, articles, tests, ceremonies, and tithes, and prohibit all other churches, as conventicles and schism shops.

Nor must Mr. Cushing be forgotten. His good sense and sound judgment, the urbanity of his manners, his universal good character, his numerous friends and connections, and his

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continual intercourse with all sorts of people, added to his con- stant attachment to the liberties of his country, gave him a great and salutary influence from the beginning in 1760.

Let me recommend these hints to the consideration of Mr. Wirt, whose Life of Mr. Henry I have read with great delight. I think that, after mature investigation, he will be convinced that Mr. Henry did not " give the first impulse to the ball of independence," and that Otis, Thacher, Samuel Adams, May- hew, Hancock, Gushing, and thousands of others, were laboring for several years at the wheel before the name of Henry was heard beyond the limits of Virginia.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 25 February, 1818.

As Mr. Wirt has filled my head with James Otis, and as I am well informed, that the honorable Mr. Benjamin Austin, alias Honestus, alias Old South,1 &c, roundly asserts, that Mr. Otis had no patriotism, and that " he acted only from revenge of his father's disappointment of a seat on the Superior Bench," I will tell you a story which may make you laugh, if it should not happen to melt you into tears.

Otis belonged to a club, who met on evenings, of which club William Molineux, whose character you know very well, was a member. Molineux had a petition before the legislature, which did not succeed to his wishes, and he became, for several eve- nings, sour, and wearied the company with his complaints of services, losses, sacrifices, &c, and said, " That a man who has behaved as I have, should be treated as I am, is intolerable," &c. Otis had said nothing, but the company were disgusted and out of patience, when Otis rose from his seat, and said, " Come, come, Will, quit this subject, and let us enjoy ourselves. I

1 Benjamin Austin was a voluminous writer under these signatures, in the Boston Chronicle, in the early part of the present century, and an active leader of the republican side in politics. He was known during the rest of his life as Honestus, or rather Hony Austin.

VOL. X. 25 " S

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also have a list of grievances; will you hear it?" The club ex- pected some fun, and all cried out, "Aye ! aye ! let us hear your list."

" Well, then, Will ; in the first place I resigned the office of Advocate- General, which I held from the crown, which pro- duced me — how much do you think?" "A great deal, no doubt," said Molineux. " Shall we say two hundred ster- ling a year?" "Aye, more, I believe," said Molineux. " Well, let it be two hundred ; that for ten years is two thousand. In the next place, I have been obliged to relinquish the greatest part of my business at the bar. Will you set that at two hundred more ? " " Oh ! I believe it much more than that." " Well, let it be two hundred. This, for ten years, makes two thousand. You allow, then, I have lost four thousand pounds sterling." "Aye, and more too," said Molineux.

" In the next place, I have lost a hundred friends, among whom were the men of the first rank, fortune, and power in the province. At what price will you estimate them ? " " Damn them," said Molineux, " at nothing. You are better without them than with them." A loud laugh. " Be it so," said Otis. " In the next place, I have made a thousand enemies, amongst whom are the government of the province and the nation. What do you think of this item ? " " That is as it may happen," said Molineux.

" In the next place, you know I love pleasure. But I have renounced all amusement for ten years. What is that worth to a man of pleasure ? " " No great matter," said Molineux, " you have made politics your amusement." A hearty laugh. " In the next place, I have ruined as fine health and as good a constitution of body as nature ever gave to man." " That is melancholy indeed," said Molineux. " There is nothing to be said upon that point."

" Once more," said Otis, holding his head down before Moli- neux, " Look upon this head ! " (where was a scar in which a man might bury his finger.) " What do /ou think of this ? And what is worse, my friends think I have a monstrous crack in my skull." This made all the company very grave, and look very solemn. But Otis, setting up a laugh, and with a gay countenance, said to Molineux, " Now, Willy, my advice to you is, to say no more about your grievances ; for you and

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I had better put up our accounts of profit and loss in our pockets, and say no more about them, lest the world should laugh at us."

This whimsical dialogue put all the company, and Molineux himself, into good humor, and they passed the rest of the eve- ning in joyous conviviality.

It is provoking, it is astonishing, and it is mortifying, and it is humiliating, to see how calumny sticks, and is trans- mitted from age to age. Mr. Austin is one of the last men I should have expected to have swallowed that execrable lie, that Otis had no patriotism. The father was refused an office worth twelve hundred pounds old tenor, or about one hundred and twenty pounds sterling ; and the refusal was no loss, for his practice at the bar was worth much more, for Colonel Otis was a lawyer in profitable practice, and his seat in the legisla- ture gave him more power and more honor ; for this refusal the son resigned an office which he held from the crown, worth twice the sum. The son must have been a most dutiful and affectionate child to the father ; or rather, the most enthusias- tically and frenzically affectionate.

I have been young, and now am old, and I solemnly say, I have never known a man whose love of his country was more ardent or sincere ; never one, who suffered so much ; never one, whose services for any ten years of his life were so important and essential to the cause of his country, as those of Mr. Otis from 1760 to 1770.

The truth is, he was an honest man, and a thorough taught lawyer. He was called upon in his official capacity as Advo- cate-General by the custom-house officers, to argue their cause in favor of writs of assistance. These writs he knew to be illegal, unconstitutional, destructive of the liberties of his coun- try, a base instrument of arbitrary power, and intended as an entering wedge to introduce unlimited taxation and legislation by authority of Parliament. He therefore scorned to prostitute his honor and his conscience, by becoming a tool. And he scorned to hold an office which could compel him or tempt him to be one. He therefore resigned it. He foresaw, as every other enlightened man foresaw, a tremendous storm coming upon his country, and determin^l to run all risks, and share the fate of the ship, after exerting all his energies to save her,

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if possible. At the solicitation of Boston and Salem, he ac- cordingly embarked, and accepted the command. To attribute to such a character sinister or trivial motives, is ridiculous.

You and Mr. Wirt have " brought the old man out," and, I fear, he will never be driven in again till he falls into the grave.

TO WILLIAM WIRT.

Quincy, 7 March, 1818.

Be pleased to accept my cordial thanks for the present of an elegant copy of your Sketches of Mr. Henry. I know not whether I shall ever have time to make you any other return than thanks ; but, as I see you wish to investigate the sources of the American Revolution, if you will give me leave, I will give you such hints as my memory affords, to assist you.

In 1764 was published, in Boston, a pretty little pamphlet, " The Sentiments of a British American," the motto of which ought to have warned Great Britain to desist from her tyran- nical system of taxation.

Asellum in prato tiroidus pascebat senex. Is, hostium clamore subito territus, Suadebat asino fugere, ne possent capi. At ille lentus : quseso, num binas mihi Clitellas impositurum victorem putas ? Senex negavit. Ergo quid refert mea Cui serviam ? clitellas dum porteni meas !

Phcedrus.

Considering "An Act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America," of the 4 G. III., he says ; " The first objection is, that a tax is laid on several commodi- ties, to be raised and levied in the plantations, and to be remit- ted home to England. This is esteemed as a grievance, inas- much as they are laid without the consent of the representatives of the colonists. It is esteemed an essential British right, that no person shall be subject to Miy tax, but what, in person or by his representative, he has a voice in laying."

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I am indebted to you, Sir, for the reperusal of this pretty little thing. I had never seen it for fifty-four years, and should never have seen it again ; but your book has excited me, having no copy of it, to borrow it as a great favor for a short time. It was written by Oxenbridge Thacher, a barrister at law in Bos- ton. There is so much resemblance between this pamphlet and Mr. Jay's address to the people of England, written ten years afterwards, that, as Johnson said of his Rasselas and Vol- taire's Candide, one might be suspected to have given birth to the other.

In 1764 was published, in Boston, " The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved," by James Otis, Esq. This work was read in the House of Representatives of Massa- chusetts, in manuscript, in 1764, and, though not ordered by them to be published, it was printed with their knowledge. In it these propositions are asserted as fundamental.

" 1. That the supreme and subordinate powers of legislation should be free and sacred in the hands where the community have once rightfully placed them.

2. The supreme, national legislative cannot be altered justly till the commonwealth is dissolved, nor a subordinate legislative taken away without forfeiture or other good cause. Nor then can the subjects in the subordinate government be reduced to a state of slavery, and subject to the despotic rule of others.

3. No legislative, supreme or subordinate, has a right to make itself arbitrary.

4. The supreme legislative cannot justly assume a power of ruling by extempore arbitrary decrees, but is bound to dispense justice by known, settled rules, and by duly authorized, inde- pendent judges.

5. The supreme power cannot take from, any man any part of his property, without his consent in person, or by re- presentation.

6. The legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands.

These are their bounds which, by God and nature, are fixed ; hitherto have they a right to come, and no further.

1. To govern by stated laws.

2. Those laws should have mo other end ultimately but the good of the people.

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3. Taxes are not to be laid on the people, but by their consent in person, or by deputation.

4. Their whole power is not transferable.

These are the first principles of law and justice, and the great barriers of a free State, and of the British Constitution in particular. I ask, I want no more ! "

This work, which in 1764 was as familiar to me as my alpha- bet, I had not seen for fifty-four years, and should never have seen it again, if your Sketches, for which I again thank you, had not aroused me. With some pains, and as a great favor, I have obtained the loan of it for a short time. In page 73 is an elaborate and learned demonstration, that all acts of Parlia- ment, laying taxes on the Colonies, without their consent, are void.

In an appendix to this work is a copy of instructions, given by the city of Boston at their annual meeting, in May, 1764, to their representatives, Royal Tyler, James Otis, Thomas Cush- ing, and Oxenbridge Thacher, Esqrs. These instructions were drawn by Samuel Adams, who was one of those appointed by the town for that purpose. These instructions are a sample of that simplicity, purity, and harmony of style, which distin- guished all the productions of Mr. Adams's pen. I wish I could transcribe the whole ; but the paragraph most directly to the present purpose is the following.

" But what still heightens our apprehensions is, that these unexpected proceedings may be preparatory to new taxations upon us. For, if our trade may be taxed, why not our lands ? Why not the produce of our lands, and every thing we possess or make use of? This, we apprehend, annihilates our charter right to govern and tax ourselves. It strikes at our British privileges, which, as we have never forfeited them, we hold in common with our fellow-subjects, who are natives of Britain. If taxes are laid upon us in any shape, without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves ? "

This whole work was published more than a year before Mr. Henry's resolutions were moved. Excuse the trouble I give you, and believe, &c.

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TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 11 March, 1818.

Your pupil, Mr. Minot, was a young gentleman of excellent character, pure, spotless in morals and manners, loving truth above all things. Agreed. But can you accuse me of preju- dice or malignity, when I perceive a tang of the old cask of toryism in his History ? He studies, he labors for impartiality ; but does he always hit it ?

In page 142, of his second volume, he says, " There was a pause in the opposition to the measures of the Crown and Par- liament!" "A pause," indeed, there was! & hiatus valde de- flendus ! I never could account for it, and I cannot, to this day, account for it, to my own entire satisfaction. There was an appearance of coalition between Otis and Hutchinson, which had wellnigh destroyed Otis's popularity and influence forever. The rage against him in the town of Boston seemed to be without bounds. He was called a reprobate, an apostate, and a traitor, in every street in Boston. I have heard sober, substantial, independent householders lament, with tears in their eyes, the fall of Otis, and declare that they never had so high an opinion of any man before, and they never would have so much confidence in any man again. The indignation of all his political friends against him was universal. His colleague, Mr. Thacher, was, in private, as explicit as anybody in con- demning him. If I may, without or with vanity, mention myself in such company, I must acknowledge that I was stag- gered and inflamed. I said, " What ! is a controversy between two quarters of the globe become a dispute between two petty names of office and seat on the bench of Common Pleas at Barnstable, on the other ? " 1 A meeting of the bar was called, upon some critical point connected with politics.2 Otis did not

1 The copies made of these late letters are often exceedingly defective. There is obviously an omission of some words in the first part of this sentence, which makes the whole of it unintelligible.

2 As the dates exactly coincide, it seems not unlikely that this is the same bar- meeting described in the Diary, vol. ii. p. 142. But that was not connected with politics. The indignation excited against Mr. Otis, who was present and opposed the bar rules there agreed upon, may have been much increased by his vacillation in politics. It was violent enough, at all events. Thacher shared in it largely.

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appear. Though several messages were sent for him, he would not come. I suspected him of skulking, and was so provoked that I rashly said, and publicly to all the bar, young as I was, " Otis is a mastiff that will bark and roar like a lion one hour, and the next, if a sop is thrown in his way, will creep like a spaniel." Horresco referens I I shall never forgive myself for this wild sally. Thacher beckoned me to come to him. He whispered in my ear, "Adams, you are too warm." Happy would it have been for me, if I had always had so faithful a monitor! But I then suspected and believed that Otis was corrupted and bought off, and expected that Otis and Hutchin- son would in future go hand in hand, in support of ministerial measures and parliamentary taxation, and that all the ministe- rial people would, at the next election, use all their influence to secure his reelection into the legislature. And this was the general opinion. But, when the election drew near, it was found that all this was an artful stratagem to turn Otis out. The old calumnies were revived, that Otis's sole motive had been vengeance for his father's disappointed ambition ; and, but a few days before the election, appeared an envenomed song,1 in which Otis was abused more virulently than the elder Pitt was, on his acceptance of a pension and a peerage. This con- vinced the people that Otis had not committed the unpardon- able sin against them, and he was again elected, though by a small majority. I heard him afterwards, in the House, attempt a vindication of himself, but it was not to my entire satisfac- tion. He represented the clamor that had been raised against him ; said that he had thought himself ruined ; but he added, " the song of the drunkard saved me." Samuel Waterhouse, an old scribbler for Hutchinson against Pownall, was supposed to be the author of the song, and Samuel Waterhouse was reported to be intemperate.

Mr. Otis cannot be exculpated from the charge of wavering in his opinions. In his " Rights of the Colonies Asserted and Proved," though a noble monument to his fame, and an im- portant document in the early history of the Revolution, there are, nevertheless, concessions in favor of authority in Parlia- ment inconsistent with the ground he had taken, three years

' Jemmybullero.

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before, in his argument against the sugar act, the molasses act, and writs of assistance, and with many of his ardent speeches in the legislature, in the year 1761 and 1762. Otis had ploughed, harrowed, and manured a rich, strong soil, and sown the best seeds ; but, as the worthy farmers in my neighborhood express themselves, " there was a slack after planting." A light cloud passed over the province, which diminished its lustre ; but not over the town of Boston, for that still glowed with light and heat. Who could account for this phenomenon? Otis, the son, had no conceivable object. Colonel Otis, the father, was the undisputed head of the bar in the three counties of Barnstable, Plymouth, and Bristol, besides occasional- engage- ments in other counties. His profits must have been much greater than the pitiful emoluments of the office to which he was appointed. Besides, he was supposed to be rich, and he was rich for those times. Certainly, he was rich in connections, in popularity, in power, and in property.

But the strange, unaccountable election of Hutchinson to the agency was an astonishment and a cruel mortification to all the inflexibies. It was committing the tender kid to the cus- tody and guardianship of the hungry lion. There was little confidence in any of the agents, De Berdt, Mauduit, or Jackson. They could know nothing with certainty of London characters, but it is certain they had better have appointed Will Molineux or Dr. Young than Hutchinson. The legislature was, indeed, to be pitied. They knew not whom to trust.

To account for Hutchinson's election to the agency, look to your pupil's second volume, pages 144, 145, 146, &c.

In page 146, Hutchinson is employed " in draughting instruc- tions to Mr. Mauduit, against the several acts of Parliament so detrimental to the trade and fishery of the province." But your pupil does not inform us who were united with Hutchinson in draughting these instructions. He ought to have given us the instructions, word for word. No historian ought to be trusted in abridging state papers so critical as this. The only con- struction I can put upon this whole transaction is, and was, that Hutchinson was intriguing with all his subtilty and simu- lation, to get himself elected agent ; that he assumed so much the appearance of an angel of light as to deceive the very elect. There are moments when the firmest minds tremble, and the

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clearest understandings are clouded. Who would believe that Catharine de Medici could deceive the Admiral Coligni, the profoundest statesman, the honestest man in Europe, to his own destruction, and that of the Protestant religion in France ?

In the Boston Gazette of the 4th of April, 1763, Mr. Otis published a vindication of himself, with his name. Where can you find a more manly morsel ? Charles Paxton, the essence of customs, taxation, and revenue, appears to have been Go- vernor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary, and Chief Justice. A more deliberate, cool, studied, corrupt appointment never was made than that of Hutchinson to be Chief Justice. It was done for- the direct purpose of enslaving this whole continent, and, consequently, Britain and man ; and, if Otis did say he would set the province in a flame, it was one of the sublimest expressions that ever was uttered, and he ought to have a statue of adamant erected in honor of it. But, I believe, he only said, " Hutchinson's appointment will set the province in a flame." But I care not a farthing for the difference ; in either case it was a glorious prophecy, equal to any in Daniel, and as perfectly fulfilled.

It never was pretended that Otis voted for Hutchinson to be agent, and it soon appeared that he was no traitor. He again appeared the life and soul of the Revolution, and continued such to his assassination. Hutchinson was soon excused from his agency.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 5 April, 1818.

In Mr. Wirt's elegant and eloquent panegyric on Mr. Henry, I beg your attention to page 56 along to page 67, the end of the second section, where you will read a curious specimen of the agonies of patriotism in the early stages of the Revolution. " When Mr. Henry could carry his resolutions but by one vote, and that against the influence of Randolph, Bland, Pendleton, Wythe, and all the old members, whose influence in the House had till then been unbroken ; and when Peyton Randolph, after-

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wards President of Congress, swore a round oath, he would have given five hundred guineas for a single vote ; for one vote would have divided the House, and Robinson was in the chair, who he knew would have negatived the resolution."

And you will also see the confused manner in which they were first recorded, and how they have since been garbled in history. My remarks, at present, will be confined to the anec- dote in page 65. '"Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third ' — ' Treason,' cried the speaker, — 'Treason, treason,' echoed from every part of the House. Henry finished his sentence by the words, ' may profit by their example.' If this be treason, make the most of it."

In Judge Minot's History of Massachusetts Bay, volume second, in pages 122 and 123, you will find another agony of patriotism. In 1762, three years before Mr. Henry's, Mr. Otis suffered one of equal severity in the House of Representatives of Massachusetts. Judge Minot's account of it is this.

" The remonstrance offered to the Governor was attended with aggravating circumstances. It was passed after a very warm speech by a member in the House ; and at first con- tained the following offensive observation :

' For it would be of little consequence to the people whether they were subject to George or Louis, the King of Great Bri- tain or the French King, if both were arbitrary, as both would be, if both could levy taxes without Parliament.' "

Though Judge Minot does not say it, the warm speech was from the tongue, and the offensive observation from the pen of James Otis. When these words of the remonstrance were first read in the House, Timothy Paine, Esq., a member from Wor- cester, in his zeal for royalty, though a very worthy and very amiable man, cried out, " Treason ! Treason ! " The House, however, were not intimidated, but voted the remonstrance, with all the treason contained in it, by a large majority ; and it was presented to the Governor by a committee, of which Mr. Otis was a member.

Judge Minot proceeds, " The Governor was so displeased at this passage, that he sent a letter to the speaker, returning the message of the House, in which, he said, the King's name, dig- nity, and cause were so improperly treated, that he was obliged to desire the speaker to recommend earnestly to the House, that

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it might not be entered upon the minutes in the terms in which it then stood. For, if it should, he was satisfied they would again and again wish that some parts of it were expunged ; espe- cially if it should appear, as he doubted not it would, when he entered upon his vindication, that there was not the least ground for the insinuation, under color of which that sacred and well-beloved name was so disrespectfully brought into question.

Upon the reading of this letter, the exceptionable clause was struck out of the message."

I have now before me a pamphlet, printed in 1762, by Edes & Gill, in Queen street, Boston, entitled "A Vindication of the Conduct of the House of Representatives of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, more particularly in the last Session of the General Assembly, by James Otis, Esq., a member of said House," with this motto : —

" Let such, such only, tread this sacred floor, Who dare to love their country and be poor ; "

" Or good, tho' rich, humane and wise, tho' great; Jove give but these, we 've nought to fear from fate."

I wish I could transcribe the whole of this pamphlet, because it is a document of importance in the early history of the Revo- lution, which ought never to be forgotten. It shows, in a strong light, the heaves and throes of the burning mountain, three years, at least, before the explosion of the volcano in

Massachusetts or Virginia.

Had Judge Minot ever seen this pamphlet, could he have given so superficial an account of this year, 1762 ? There was more than one " warm speech " made in that session of the legislature. Mr. Otis himself made many. A dark cloud hung over the whole continent; but it was peculiarly black and threatening over Massachusetts and the town of Boston, against which devoted city the first thunderbolts of parliamentary omni- potence were intended and expected to be darted. Mr. Otis, from his first appearance in the House in 1761, had shown such a vast superiority of talents, information, and energy to every other member of the House, that in 1762 he took the lead, as it were, of course. He opened the session with a speech, a sketch of which he has given us himself. It depends upon no man's memory. It is warm ; it is true. But it is

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warm only with loyalty to his king, love to his country, and exultations in her exertions in the national cause.

This pamphlet ought to be reprinted and deposited in the cabinet of the curious. The preface is a frank, candid, and manly page, explaining the motive of the publication, namely, the clamors against the House for their proceedings, in which he truly says : " The world ever has been, and will be pretty equally divided between those two great parties, vulgarly called the winners and the losers; or, to speak more precisely, be- tween those who are discontented that they have no power, and those who never think they can have enough. Now, it is absolutely impossible to please both sides either by temporizing, trimming, or retreating ; the two former justly incur the cen- sure of a wicked heart, the latter, that of cowardice ; and fairly and manfully fighting the battle out, is in the opinion of many worse than either."

On the 8th of September, A. D. 1762, the war still continu- ing in North America and the "West Indies, Governor Bernard made his speech to both Houses, and presented a requisition of Sir Jeffery Amherst, that the Massachusetts troops should be continued in pay during the winter.

Mr. Otis made a speech, the outlines of which he has recorded in this pamphlet, urging a compliance with the Governor's recommendation and General Amherst's requisition ; and con- cluding with a motion for a committee to consider of both.

A committee was appointed, of which Mr. Otis was one, and reported not only a continuance of the troops already in service, but an addition of nine hundred men, with an augmented bounty to encourage their enlistment.

If the orators on the 4th of July really wish to investigate the principles and feelings which produced the Revolution, they ought to study this pamphlet, and Dr. Mayhew's sermon on pas- sive obedience and non-resistance, and all the documents of those days. The celebrations of independence have departed from the object of their institution as much as the Society for the Pro- pagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts have from their charter. The institution had better be wholly abolished than continued an engine of the politics and feelings of the day, instead of a memorial of the principles and feelings of the Revolution half a century ago — I might have said for two centuries before.

vol. x. 26

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This pamphlet of Mr. Otis exhibits the interesting spectacle of a great man glowing with loyalty to his sovereign, proud of his connection with the British empire, rejoicing in its prosper- ity, its triumphs, and its glory, exulting in the unexampled efforts of his own native province to promote them all ; but at the same time grieving and complaining at the ungenerous treatment that province had received from its beginning from the mother country, and shuddering under the prospect of still greater ingratitude and cruelty from the same source. Hear a few of his words, and read all the rest.

" Mr. Speaker, — This province has upon all occasions been distinguished by its loyalty and readiness to contribute its most strenuous efforts for his Majesty's service. I hope this spirit will ever remain as an indelible characteristic of this people," &c. &c. " Our own immediate interest, therefore, as well as the general cause of our king and country, requires that we should contribute the last penny and the last drop of blood, rather than by any backwardness of ours his Majesty's measures should be embarrassed, and thereby any of the enterprises that may be planned for the regular troops miscarry. Some of these con- siderations, I presume, induced the Assembly upon his Majes- ty's requisition, signified last spring by Lord Egremont, so cheer- fully and unanimously to raise thirty-three hundred men for the present campaign ; and upon another requisition, signified by Sir Jeffery Amherst, to give a handsome bounty for enlisting about nine hundred more into the regular service. The colo- nies, we know, have often been blamed without cause ; and we have had some share of it. Witness the miscarriage of the pre- tended expedition against Canada, in Queen Anne's time, just before the infamous treaty of Utrecht. It is well known, by some now living in this metropolis, that every article, that was to be provided here, was in such readiness, that the officers, both of the army and navy, expressed their utmost surprise at it upon their arrival. To some of them, no doubt, it was a dis- appointment ; for in order to shift the blame of this shameful affair from themselves, they endeavored to lay it upon the New England colonies. I am therefore clearly for raising the men," &c. &c.

" This province has, since the year 1754, levied for his Ma- jesty's service, as soldiers and seamen, near thirty thousand men,

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besides what have been otherwise employed. One year, in particular, it was said that every fifth man was engaged in one shape or another. We have raised sums for the support of this wrar, that the last generation could hardly have formed any idea of. We are now deeply in debt," &c. &c.

On the 14th of September, the House received a message from the Governor, containing a somewhat awkward confession of certain expenditures of public money with advice of council, which had not been appropriated by the House. He had fitted out the Massachusetts sloop-of-war, increased her establishment of men, &c. Five years before, perhaps, this irregularity might have been connived at or pardoned ; but since the debate con- cerning writs of assistance, and since it was known that the acts of trade were to be enforced, and a revenue collected by authority of Parliament, Mr. Otis's maxim, that " taxation with- out representation was tyranny," and that " expenditures of public money, without appropriations by the representatives of the people, were unconstitutional, arbitrary, and therefore tyrannical," had become popular proverbs. They were com- monplace observations in the streets. It was impossible that Otis should not take fire upon this message of the Governor. He accordingly did take fire, and made that flaming speech, which Judge Minot calls a " a warm speech," without informing us who made it or what it contained. I wish Mr. Otis had given us this warm speech, as he has the comparatively cool one, at the opening of the session. But this is lost forever. It concluded, however, with a motion for a committee to consider the Governor's message and report. The committee was ap- pointed, and Otis was the first after the speaker.

The committee reported the following answer and remon- strance, every syllable of which is Otis.

" May it please your Excellency, —

" The House have duly attended to your Excellency's mes- sage of the eleventh instant relating to the Massachusetts sloop, and are humbly of opinion that there is not the least necessity for keeping up her present complement of men, and, therefore, desire that your Excellency would be pleased to reduce them to six, the old establishment made for said sloop by the General Court. Justice to ourselves and to our constituents obliges us io remonstrate against the method of making or increasing establishments by the Governor and Council.

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" It is, in effect, taking from the House their most darling privilege, the right of originating all taxes.

" It is, in short, annihilating one branch of legislation. And when once the representatives of the people give up this privi- lege, the government will very soon become arbitrary.

" No necessity, therefore, can be sufficient to justify a House of Representatives in giving up such a privilege ; for it would be of little consequence to the people, whether they were subject to George or Louis, the King of Great Britain or the French King, if both were arbitrary, as both would be, if both could levy taxes without parliament.

" Had this been the first instance of the kind, we might not have troubled your Excellency about it; but lest the matter should go into precedent, we earnestly beseech your Excellency, as you regard the peace and welfare of the province, that no measures of this nature be taken for the future, let the advice of the Council be what it may."

This remonstrance being read, was accepted by a large ma- jority, and sent up and presented to his Excellency by a com- mittee, of whom Mr. Otis was one.

" The same day the above remonstrance was delivered, the town was alarmed with a report, that the House had sent a message to his Excellency, reflecting upon his Majesty's person and government, and highly derogatory from his crown and dignity, and therein desired that his Excellency would in no case take the advice of his Majesty's Council."

The Governor's letter to the Speaker is as Judge Minot repre- sents it. Upon reading it, the same person who had before cried out, " treason ! treason ! " when he first read the offensive words, now cried out, " rase them ! rase them ! " They were accordingly expunged.

" In the course of the debate, a new and surprising doctrine was advanced. We have seen the times when the majority of a council, by their words and actions, have seemed to think themselves obliged to comply with every thing proposed by the chair, and to have no rule of conduct but a Governor's will and pleasure. But now for the first time it was asserted that the Governor, in all cases, was obliged to act according to the advice of the council, and consequently would be deemed to have no judgment of his own."

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In page 17, Mr. Otis enters on his apology, excuse, or justi- fication of the offensive words, which, as it is as facetious as it is edifying, I will transcribe at length in his own words, namely :

" In order to excuse, if not altogether justify the offensive passage, and clear it from ambiguity, I beg leave to premise two or three data. 1. God made all men naturally equal. 2. The ideas of earthly superiority, preeminence, and grandeur, are educational, at least acquired, not innate. 3. Kings were, and plantation governors should be, made for the good of the people, and not the people for them. 4. No government has a right to make hobby-horses, asses, and slaves of the subject; nature having made sufficient of the two former for all the lawful purposes of man, from the harmless peasant in the field to the most refined politician in the cabinet ; but none of the last, which infallibly proves they are unnecessary. 5. Though most governments are de facto arbitrary, and, consequently, the curse and scandal of human nature, yet none are de jure arbitrary. 6. The British constitution of government, as now established in his Majesty's person and family, is the wisest and best in the world. 7. The King of Great Britain is the best as well as most glorious monarch upon the globe, and his subjects the happiest in the universe. 8. It is most humbly presumed, the King would have all his plantation governors follow his royal example, in a wise and strict adherence to the principles of the British constitution, by which, in conjunction with his other royal virtues, he is enabled to reign in the hearts of a brave and generous, a free and loyal people. 9. This is the summit, the ne plus ultra of human glory and felicity. 10. The French King is a despotic, arbitrary prince, and, consequently, his subjects are very miserable.

"Let us now take a more careful review of this passage which by some out of doors has been represented as seditious, rebellious, and traitorous. I hope none, however, will be so wanting to the interests of their country, as to represent the matter in this light on the east side of the Atlantic, though recent instances of such a conduct might be quoted, wherein the province has, after its most strenuous efforts during this and other wars, been painted in all the odious colors that avarice, malice, and the worst passions could suggest.

2G * T

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" The House assert, that ' it would be of little consequence to the people, whether they were subject to George or Louis, the King of Great Britain or the French King, if both were arbi- trary ; as both would be, if both could levy taxes without Par- liament.' Or, in the same words transposed, without the least alteration of the sense, ' it would be of little consequence to the people, whether they were subject to George, the King of Great Britain, or Louis, the French King, if both were arbitrary, as both would be, if both could levy taxes without Parliament.'

" The first question that would occur to a philosopher, if any question could be made about it, would be, whether the posi- tion were true. But truth being of little importance with most modern politicians, we shall touch lightly upon that topic, and proceed to inquiries of a more interesting nature.

" That arbitrary government implies the worst of temporary evils, or, at least, the continual danger of them, is certain. That a man would be pretty equally subjected to these evils, under every arbitrary government, is clear. That I should die very soon after my head should be cut off, whether by a sabre or a broadsword, whether chopped off to gratify a tyrant, by the Christian name of Tom, Dick, or Harry, is evident. That the name of the tyrant would be of no more avail to save my life than the name of the executioner, needs no proof. It is, there- fore, manifestly of no importance what a prince's Christian name is, if he be arbitrary, any more, indeed, than if he were not arbitrary. So the whole amount of this dangerous proposition may, at least in one view, be reduced to this, namely : It is of little importance what a king's Christian name is. It is, indeed, of importance, that a king, a governor, and all other good Christians, should have a Christian name, but whether Edward, Francis, or William, is of none, that I can discern. It being a rule to put the most mild and favorable construction upon words that they can possibly bear, it will follow that this pro- position is a very harmless one, that cannot by any means tend to prejudice his Majesty's person, crown, dignity, or cause, all which I deem equally sacred with his Excellency.

" If this proposition will bear a hundred different construc- tions, they must all be admitted before any that imports any bad meaning, much more a treasonable one.

" It is conceived, the House intended nothing disrespectful to

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his Majesty, his government, or governor, in those words. It would be very injurious to insinuate this of a House, that upon all occasions has distinguished itself by a truly loyal spirit, and which spirit possesses at least nine hundred and ninety-nine in a thousand of their constituents throughout the province. One good-natured construction, at least, seems to be implied in the assertion, and that pretty strongly, namely, that in the present situation of Great Britain and France ; it is of vast importance to be a Briton rather than a Frenchman, as the French King is an arbitrary, despotic prince, but the King of Great Britain is not so de jure, de facto, nor by inclination. A greater difference on this side the grave cannot be found than that which subsists between British subjects and the slaves of tyranny.

" Perhaps it may be objected, that there is some difference even between arbitrary princes in this respect, at least, that some are more rigorous than otners. It is granted; but, then, let it be remembered, that the life of man is a vapor that soon vanisheth away, and we know not who may come after him, a wise man or a fool; though the chances before and since Solomon have ever been in favor of the latter. Therefore, it is said, of little consequence. Had it been no instead of little, the clause, upon the most rigid stricture, might have been found barely exceptionable.

" Some fine gentlemen have charged the expression as inde- licate. This is a capital impeachment in politics, and therefore demands our most serious attention. The idea of delicacy, in the creed of some politicians, implies, that an inferior should, at the peril of all that is near and dear to him, that is, his interest, avoid every the least trifle that can offend his superior. Does my superior want my estate? I must give it him, and that with a good grace ; which is appearing, and, if possible, being really obliged to him, that he will condescend to take it. The reason is evident ; it might give him some little pain or uneasi- ness to see me whimpering, much more openly complaining, at the loss of a little glittering dirt. I must, according to this system, not only endeavor to acquire myself, but impress upon all around me, a reverence and passive obedience to the senti- ments of my superior, little short of adoration. Is the superior in contemplation a king ? I must consider him as God's vice- gerent, clothed with unlimited power, his will the supreme law,

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and not accountable for his actions, let them be what they may, to any tribunal upon earth. Is the superior a plantation go- vernor? He must be viewed, not only as the most excellent representation of majesty, but as a viceroy in his department, and quoad provincial administration, to all intents and purposes, vested with all the prerogatives that were ever exercised by the most absolute prince in Great Britain.

" The votaries of this sect are all monopolizers of offices, peculators, informers, and generally the seekers of all- kinds. It is better, say they, to give up any thing and every thing quietly, than contend with a superior who, by his prerogative, can do, and, as the vulgar express it, right or wrong, will have whatever he pleases. For you must know, that, according to some of the most refined and fashionable systems of modern politics, the ideas of right and wrong, and all the moral virtues, are to be considered only as the vagaries of a weak or dis- tempered imagination in the possessor, and of no use in the world, but for the skilful politician to convert, to his own pur- poses of power and profit. With these,

' The love of country is an empty name ; For gold they hunger, but ne'er thirst for fame.'

" It is well known that the least ' patriotic spark ' unawares 'catched' and discovered, disqualifies a candidate from all further preferment in this famous and flourishing order of knights-errant. It must, however, be confessed that they are so Catholic as to admit all sorts, from the knights of the post to a garter and star, provided they are thoroughly divested of the fear of God and the love of mankind ; and have concen- trated all their views in dear self, with them the only ' sacred and well-beloved name ' or thing in the universe. See Cardi- nal Richelieu's Political Testament, and the greater Bible of the Sect, Mandeville's Fable of the Bees. Richelieu expressly, in solemn earnest, without any sarcasm or irony, advises the discarding all honest men from the presence of a prince, and from even the purlieus of a court. According to Mandeville, ' the moral virtues are the political offspring which flattery begot upon pride.' The most darling principle of the great apostle of the order, who has done more than any mortal towards diffusing corruption, not only through the three kingdoms, but

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through the remotest dominions, is, that every man has his price, and that, if you bid high enough, you are sure of him.

" To those who have been taught to bow at the name of a king with as much ardor and devotion as a Papist at the sight of a crucifix, the assertion under examination may appear harsh ; but there is an immense difference between the sentiments of a British House of Commons remonstrating, and those of a courtier cringing for a favor. A House of Representatives here, at least, bears an equal proportion to a Governor, with that of a House of Commons to the King. There is, indeed, one differ- ence in favor of a House of Representatives. When a House of Commons addresses the King, they speak to their sovereign, who is truly the most august personage upon earth. When a House of Representatives remonstrate to a Governor, they speak to a fellow-subject, though a superior, who is undoubt- edly entitled to decency and respect, but I hardly think to quite so much reverence as his master.

" It may not be amiss to observe, that a form of speech may be in no sort improper, when used arguendo, or for illustration, speaking of the king, which same form may be very harsh, indecent, and ridiculous, if spoken to the king.

" The . expression under censure has had the approbation of divers gentlemen of sense, who are quite unprejudiced by any party. They have taken it to imply a compliment rather than any indecent reflection upon his Majesty's wise and gracious administration. It seems strange, therefore, that the House should be so suddenly charged by his Excellency with impro- priety, groundless insinuations, &c.

" What cause of so bitter repentance, ' again and again,' could possibly have taken place, if this clause had been printed in the journal, I cannot imagine. If the case be fairly repre- sented, I guess the province can be in no danger from a House of Representatives, daring to speak plain English, when they are complaining of a grievance. I sincerely believe that the House had no disposition to enter into any contest with the Governor or Council. Sure I am, that the promoters of this address had no such view. On the contrary, there is the high- est reason to presume that the House of Representatives will, at all times, rejoice in the prosperity of the Governor and Council, and contribute their utmost assistance in supporting those two

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branches of the legislature in all their just rights and preemi- nence. But the House is, and ought to be, jealous and tena- cious of its own privileges ; these are a sacred deposit, intrusted by the people, and the jealousy of them is a godly jealousy" Allow me now, Mr. Tudor, a few remarks.

1. Why has the sublime compliment of " treason ! treason ! " made to Mr. Henry, in 1765, been so celebrated, when that to Mr. Otis, in 1762, three years before, has been totally forgotten ? Because the Virginia patriot has had many trumpeters, and very loud ones ; but the Massachusetts patriot none, though false accusers and vile calumniators in abundance.

2. I know not whether Judge Minot was born in 1762. He certainly never saw, heard, felt, or understood any thing of the principles or feelings of that year. If he had, he could not have given so frosty an account of it. The " warm speech " he mentions, was an abridgment or second edition of Otis's ar- gument in 1761 against the execution of the acts of trade. It was a flaming declaration against taxation without representa- tion. It was a warning voice against the calamities that were coming upon his country. It was an ardent effort to alarm and arouse his countrymen against the menacing system of parliamentary taxation.

3. Bernard was no great things, but he was not a fool. It is impossible to believe, that he thought the offensive passage treason, sedition, or of such danger and importance as he repre- sented it. But his design was to destroy Otis. " There is your enemy," said Bernard, (after a Scottish general,) " if ye do not kill him, he will kill you."

4. How many volumes are concentrated in this little fugitive pamphlet, the production of a few hurried hours, amidst the continual solicitations of a crowd of clients For his business at the bar, at that time, was very extensive and of the first im- portance, and amidst the host of politicians, suggesting their plans and schemes, claiming his advice and directions.

5. Look over the declaration of rights and wrongs issued by Congress in 1774. Look into the declaration of independence in 1776. Look into the writings of Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley. Look into all the French constitutions of government ; and, to cap the climax, look into Mr. Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Crisis, and Rights of Man. What can you find that is not to

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be found in solid substance in this " Vindication of the House of Representatives ? " •

•6. Is it not an affront to common sense, an insult to truth, virtue, and patriotism, to represent Patrick Henry, though he was my friend as much as Otis, as the father of the American Revolution and the founder of American independence ? The gentleman who has done this, sincerely believed what he wrote, I doubt not ; but he ought to be made sensible that he is of yesterday, and knows nothing of the real origin of the Ameri- can Revolution.

7. If there is any bitterness of spirit discernible in Mr. Otis's vindication, this was not natural to him. He was generous, candid, manly, social, friendly, agreeable, amiable, witty, and gay, by nature and by habit ; honest almost to a proverb, though quick and passionate against meanness and deceit. But at this time he was agitated by anxiety for his country, and irritated by a torrent of slander and scurrility, constantly pouring upon him from all quarters.

Mr. Otis has fortified his vindication in a long and learned note, which, in mercy to my eyes and fingers, I must borrow another hand to transcribe in another sheet.1

" This other original, Mr. Locke has demonstrated to be the consent of a free people. It is possible there are a few, and I desire to thank God there is no reason to think there are many among us, that cannot bear the names of liberty and property, much less that the things signified by those terms should be enjoyed by the vulgar. These may be inclined to brand some of the principles advanced in the Vindication of the House, with the odious epithets, seditious and levelling. Had any thing to justify them been quoted from Colonel Algernon Sidney, or other British martyrs to the liberty of their country, an outcry of rebellion would not be surprising. The authority of Mr. Locke has therefore been preferred to all others, for these fur- ther reasons. 1. He was not only one of the most wise as well as most honest, but the most impartial man that ever lived. 2. He professedly wrote his discourses on government, as he himself expresses it, 'to establish the throne of the great re-

1 Here follow quotations from Locke on Government, Part II. Cli. iv., Ch. xi., Ch. xiv., B. I. Ch. ii. and B. II. Ch. ii., touching the origin of government, which are omitted.

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storer, King William ; to make good his title in the consent of the people, which being the* only one of all lawful governments, he had more fully and clearly than any prince in Christendom, and to justify to the world the people of England, whose love of liberty, their just and natural rights, with their resolution to preserve them, saved the nation when it was on the brink of slavery and ruin.' By this title, our illustrious sovereign, George 3d (whom God long preserve), now holds. 3. Mr. Locke was as great an ornament, under a crowned head, as the Church of England ever had to boast of. Had all her sons been of his wise, moderate, tolerant principles, we should pro- bably never have heard of those civil dissensions that have so often brought the nation to the borders of perdition. Upon the score of his being a churchman, however, his sentiments are less liable to those invidious reflections and insinuations, that high-flyers, Jacobites, and other stupid bigots, are apt, too libe- rally, to bestow, not only upon dissenters of all denominations, but upon the moderate, and, therefore, infinitely the most valuable part of the Church of England itself."

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 29 May, 1818.

As Holly is a diamond of a superior water, it would be crushed to powder by mountainous oppression in any other country. Even in this he is a light shining in a dark place. His system is founded in the hopes of mankind, but they delight more in their fears. When will man have juster notions of the uni- versal, eternal cause ? Then will rational Christianity prevail. I regret Holly's misfortune in not finding you, on his account, to whom an interview with you would have been a lasting gratification.

Waterhouse's pen, " labitur et labetur." He has let it run on with too much fluency. I have not a tenth part of the vivacity, activity, memory, or promptitude and punctuality in corre- spondence which he ascribes to me. I can answer but few of the letters I receive, and those only with short scratches of the pen.

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I think, with you, that it is difficult to say at what moment the Revolution began. In my opinion, it began as early as the first plantation of the country. 1 (dependence of Church and Parliament was a fixed principle of jur predecessors in 1620, as it was of Samuel Adams and Christopher Gadsden in 1776 ; and independence of Church and Parliament was always kept in view in this part of the country, and, I believe, in most others. The hierarchy and parliamentary authority ever were dreaded and detested even by a majority of professed Episco- palians. I congratulate you upon your " canine appetite " for reading^ I have been equally voracious for several years, and it has kept me alive. It is policy in me to despise and abhor the writing-table, for it is a bunch of grapes out of reach. Had I your eyes and fingers, I should scribble forever such poor stuff as I have been writing by fits and by starts for fifty or sixty years, without ever correcting or revising any thing.

Helluo as I am, I hunger and thirst after what I shall never see, — Napoleon's publication of the report of his Institute of Cairo. Denon's volumes have excited an inextinguishable curiosity for an unattainable object.

Mr. Coffee 1 has been mentioned to me by my son ; he will be welcome. But though Robin's alive, he is not alive like to be. Mr. Coffee must be very quick, or Robin may die in his hands. Mr. Binon, a French artist, from Lyons, who has studied eight years in Italy, has lately taken my bust. He appears to be an artist, and a man of letters. I let them do what they like with my old head. When we come to be cool in the future world, I think we cannot choose but smile at the gambols of ambition, avarice, pleasure, sport, and caprices here below. Perhaps we may laugh as the angels do in the French fable. At a convivial repast of a club of choice spirits, of whom Gabriel and Michael were the most illustrious, after nectar and am- brosia had set their hearts at ease, they began to converse upon the mecanique celeste. After discussing the Zodiac, and the constellations of the solar system, they condescended to this speck of dirt, the earth, and remarked some of its inhabitants, the lion, the elephant, the eagle, and even the fidelity, gratitude, and adroitness of the dog. At last, one of them recollected

1 This gentleman was a sculptor, to whom Mr. Jefferson had given a letter of introduction.

VOL. X. 27

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man. What a fine countenance! What an elegant figure! What subtilty, ingenuity, versatility, agility, and, above all, a rational creature ! At this, the whole board broke out into a broad ha! ha! ha! that resounded through the vault of heaven, exclaiming, " Man a rational creature ! How could any rational being ever dream that man was a rational creature ? "

After all, I hope to meet my wife, and friends, ancestors and posterity, sages, ancient and modern. I believe I could get over all my objections to meeting Alexander Hamilton and Tim Pick, if I could see a symptom of penitence in either.

My fatigued eyes and fingers command me, very reluctantly, to subscribe abruptly.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 1 June, 1818.

No man could have written from memory Mr. Otis's argu- ment of four or five hours, against the acts of trade, as revenue laws, and against writs of assistance, as a tyrannical engine to execute them, the next day after it was spoken. How awkward, then, would be an attempt to do it after a lapse of fifty-seven years ! Nevertheless, some of the heads of his discourse are so indelibly imprinted on my mind, that I will endeavor to give you some very short hints of them.

1. He began with an exordium, containing an apology for his resignation of the office of Advocate- General in the Court of Admiralty ; and for his appearance in that cause, in opposition to the Crown, and in favor of the town of Boston, and the mer- chants of Boston and Salem.

2. A dissertation on the rights of man in a state of nature. He asserted that every man, merely natural, was an independ- ent sovereign, subject to no law, but the law written on his heart, and revealed to him by his Maker in the constitution of his nature and the inspiration of his understanding and his conscience. His right to his life, his liberty, no created being could rightfully contest. Nor was his right to his property less incontestable. The club that he had snapped from a tree, for a staff or for defence, was his own. His bow and arrow were

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his own •, if by a pebble he had killed a partridge or a squirrel, it was his own. No creature, man or beast, had a right to take it from him. If he had taken an eel, or a smelt, or a sculpion, it was his property. In short, he sported upon this topic with so much wit and humor, and at the same time so much indis- putable truth and reason, that he was not less entertaining than instructive. He asserted that these rights were inherent and inalienable. That they never could be surrendered or alienated but by idiots or madmen, and all the acts of idiots and lunatics were void, and not obligatory by all the laws of God and man. Nor were the poor negroes forgotten. Not a Quaker in Phila- delphia, or Mr. Jefferson, of Virginia, ever asserted the rights of negroes in stronger terms. Young as I was, and ignorant as I was, I shuddered at the doctrine he taught; and I have all my lifetime shuddered, and still shudder, at the consequences that may be drawn from such premises. Shall we say, that the rights of masters and servanls clash, and can be decided only by force ? I adore the idea of gradual abolitions ! But who shall decide how fast or how slowly these abolitions shall be made ?

3. From individual independence he proceeded to association. If it was inconsistent with the dignity of human nature to say that men were gregarious animals, like wild horses and wild geese, it surely could offend no delicacy to say they were social animals by nature, that there were mutual sympathies, and, above all, the sweet attraction of the sexes, which must soon draw them together in little groups, and by degrees in larger con- gregations, for mutual assistance and defence. And this must have happened before any formal covenant, by express words or signs, was concluded. When general counsels and delibe- rations commenced, the objects could be no other than the mutual defence and security of every individual for his life, his liberty, and his property. To suppose them to have surrendered these in any other way than by equal rules and general consent was to suppose them idiots or madmen, whose acts were never binding. To suppose them surprised by fraud, or compelled by force, into any other compact, such fraud and such force could confer no obligation. Every man had a right to trample it under foot whenever he pleased. In short, he asserted these rights to be derived only from nature and the author of nature ;

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that they were inherent, inalienable, and indefeasible by any laws, pacts, contracts, covenants, or stipulations, which man could devise.

4. These principles and these rights were wrought into the English constitution as fundamental laws. And under this head he went back to the old Saxon laws, and to Magna Charta and the fifty confirmations of it in Parliament, and the execrations ordained against the violators of it, and the national vengeance which had been taken on them from time to time, down to the Jameses and Charleses ; and to the petition of rights and the bill of rights, and the Revolution. He asserted, that the security of these rights to life, liberty, and property, had been the object of all those struggles against arbitrary power, temporal and spiritual, civil and political, military and ecclesiastical, in every age. He asserted, that our ancestors, as British subjects, and we, their descendants, as British subjects, were entitled to all those rights, by the British constitution, as well as by the law of nature, and our provincial charter, as much as any inhabitant of London or Bristol, or any part of England ; and were not to be cheated out of them by any phantom of " virtual representation," or any other fiction of law or politics, or any monkish trick of deceit and hypocrisy.

5. He then examined the acts of trade, one by one, and demonstrated, that if they were considered as revenue laws, they destroyed all our security of property, liberty, and life, every right of nature, and the English constitution, and the charter of the province. Here he considered the distinction between " external and internal taxes," at that time a popular and commonplace distinction. But he asserted there was no such distinction in theory, or upon any principle but " neces- sity." The necessity that the commerce of the empire should be under one direction, was obvious. The Americans had been so sensible of this necessity, that they had connived at the distinction between external and internal taxes, and had submitted to the acts of trade as regulations of commerce, but never as taxations or revenue laws. Nor had the British go- vernment, till now, ever dared to attempt to enforce them as taxation or revenue laws. They had lain dormant in that character for a century almost. The navigation act he allowed to be binding upon us, because we had consented to it by our

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own legislature. Here he gave a history of the navigation act of the first of Charles II., a plagiarism from Oliver Cromwell. This act had lain dormant for fifteen years. In 1675, after repeated letters and orders from the king, Governor Winthrop very candidly informs his Majesty, that the law had not been executed, because it was thought unconstitutional, Parliament not having authority over us.

I shall pursue this subject in a short series of letters. Provi- dence pursues its incomprehensible and inscrutable designs in its own way and by its own instruments. And as I sincerely believe Mr. Otis to have been the earliest and the principal founder of one of the greatest political revolutions that ever occurred among men, it seems to me of some importance that his name and character should not be forgotten. Young men should be taught to honor merit, but not to adore it. The greatest men have the greatest faults.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 9 June, 1818.

I have promised you hints of the heads of Mr. Otis's oration, argument, speech, call it what you will, against the acts of trade, as revenue laws, and against writs of assistance, as tyran- nical instruments to carry them into execution.

But I enter upon the performance of my promise to you not without fear and trembling, because I am in the situation of a lady, whom you knew first as my client, the widow of Dr. Ames, of Dedham, and afterwards as the mother of your pupil, the late brilliant orator, Fisher Ames, of Dedham. This lady died last year, at 95 or 96 years of age. In one of her last years she said, she "was in an awkward situation; for if she related any fact of an old date, anybody might contradict her, for she could find no witness to keep her in countenance."

Mr. Otis, after rapidly running over the history of the con- tinual terrors, vexations, and irritations, which our ancestors endured from the British government, from 1620, under James I. and Charles I. ; and acknowledging the tranquillity under the

27*

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parliament of Cromwell, from 1648, to the restoration, in 1660, produced the navigation act as the first fruit of the blessed restoration of a Stuart's reign.

This act is in the twelth year of Charles II., chapter 18,

"An act for the encouraging and increasing of shipping and navigation." " For the increase of shipping and encouragement of the navigation of this nation, wherein, under the good Providence and protection of God, the wealth, safety, and strength of this kingdom, is so much concerned, be it enacted, that from and after the first day of December, 1660, and from thence forward, no goods or commodities, whatsoever, shall be imported into, or exported out of, any lands, islands, plantations, or territories, to his Majesty belonging or in his possession, or which may hereafter belong unto or be in the possession of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, in Asia, Africa, or America, in any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels, whatsoever, but in such ships or vessels, as do truly and without fraud, belong only to the people of England or Ireland, dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick upon Tweed, or are of the build of, and belonging to, any of the said lands, islands, plantations, or territories, as the proprietors and right owners thereof, and whereof the master, and three fourths of the mariners, at least, are English ; under the penalty of the forfeiture and loss of all the goods and commodities which shall be imported into, or exported out of any of the aforesaid places, in any other ship or vessel, as also of the ship or vessel, with all its guns, furniture, tackle, ammunition, and apparel ; one third part thereof to his majesty, his heirs and successors ; one third part to the governor of such land, plantation, island, or territory, where such default shall be committed, in case the said ship or goods be there seized ; or, otherwise, that third part also to his Majesty, his heirs and successors ; and the other third part to him or them who shall seize, inform, or sue for the same in any court of record, by bill, information, plaint, or other action, wherein no essoin, jjrotec- tion, or wager of law shall be allowed. And all admirals and other commanders at sea, of any of the ships of war or other ships, having commission from his Majesty, or from his heirs or successors, are hereby authorized, and strictly required to seize and bring in as prize all such ships or vessels as shall have offended contrary hereunto, and deliver them to the Courts of Admiralty, there to be proceeded against ; and in case of condemnation, one moiety of such for- feitures shall be to the use of such admirals or commanders, and their com- panies, to be divided and proportioned among them, according to the rules and orders of the sea, in case of ships taken prize ; and the other moiety to the use of his Majesty, his heirs and successors."

Section second enacts, all governors shall take a solemn oath to do their utmost, that every clause shall be punctually obeyed. See the statute at large.

See also section third of this statute, which I wish I could transcribe.

Section fourth enacts, that no goods of foreign growth, pro- duction, or manufacture shall be brought, even in English ship-

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ping, from any other countries, but only from those of the said growth, production, or manufacture, under all the foregoing penalties.

Mr. Otis commented on this statute in all its parts, especially on the foregoing section, with great severity. He expatiated on its narrow, contracted, selfish, and exclusive spirit. Yet he could not and would not deny its policy, or controvert the necessity of it, for England, in that age, surrounded as she was by France, Spain, Holland, and other jealous rivals ; nor would he dispute the prudence of Governor Leverett, and the Massa- chusetts legislature, in adopting it, in 1675, after it had lain dormant for fifteen years ; though the adoption of it was in- finitely prejudicial to the interests, the growth, the increase, the prosperity of the colonies in general, of New England in parti- cular, and most of all, to the town of Boston. It was an im- mense sacrifice to what was called the mother country. Mr. Otis thought that this statute ought to have been sufficient to satisfy the ambition, the avarice, the cupidity of any nation, but especially of one who boasted of being a tender mother of her children colonies ; and when those children had always been so fondly disposed to acknowledge the condescending tenderness of their dear indulgent mother.

This statute, however, Mr. Otis said, was wholly prohibitory. It abounded, indeed, with penalties and forfeitures, and with bribes to governors and informers, and custom-house officers, and naval officers and commanders ; but it imposed no taxes. Taxes were laid in abundance by subsequent acts of trade ; but this act laid none. Nevertheless, this was one of the acts that were to be carried into strict execution by these writs of assist- ance. Houses were to be broken open, and if a piece of Dutch linen could be found, from the cellar to the cock-loft, it was to be seized and become the prey of governors, informers, and majesty.

When Mr. Otis had extended his observations on this act of navigation, much farther than I dare to attempt to repeat, he proceeded to the subsequent acts of trade. These, he contended, imposed taxes, and enormous taxes, burdensome taxes, oppres- sive, ruinous, intolerable taxes. And here he gave the reins to his genius, in declamation, invective, philippic, call it which you will, against the tyranny of taxation without representation.

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But Mr. Otis's observations on those acts of trade must be postponed for another letter.

Let me, however, say, in my own name, if any man wishes to investigate thoroughly, the causes, feelings, and principles of the Revolution, he must study this act of navigation and the acts of trade, as a philosopher, a politician, and a philanthropist.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 17 June, 1818.

The next statute produced and commented by Mr. Otis was the 15th of Charles II., that is, 1663, chapter 7, —

"An act for the encouragement of trade." Sec. 5. "And in regard his Majesty's plantations beyond the seas are inha- bited and peopled by his subjects of this his kingdom of England, for the main- taining a greater correspondence and kindness between them, and keeping them in a firmer dependence upon it, and rendering them yet more beneficial and advantageous unto it, in the further employment and increase of English ship- ping and seamen, vent of English woolen and other manufactures and commo- dities, rendering the navigation to and from the same more cheap and safe, and making this kingdom a staple, not only of the commodities of those plantations, but also of the commodities of other countries and places, for the supplying of them ; and it being the usage of other nations to keep their plantations trades to themselves."

Sec. 6. " Be it enacted, &c, that no commodity of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, shall be imported into any land, island, plantation, colony, territory, or place, to his Majesty belonging, or which shall hereafter belong unto or be in possession of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, in Asia, Africa, or America, (Tangier only excepted,) but what shall be bona fide, and without fraud, laden and shipped in England, Wales, or the town of Berwick upon Tweed, and in English built shipping, or which were bona, fide bought before the 1st of October, 1662, and had such certificate thereof as is directed in one act, passed the last session of the present Parliament, entitled, "An act for preventing frauds and regulating abuses in his Majesty's customs ;" and whereof the master and three fourths of the mariners, at least, are English, and which shall be carried directly thence to the said lands, islands, plantations, colonies, territories or places, and from no other place or places whatsoever; any law, statute, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding ; under the penalty of the loss of all such commodities of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, as shall be imported into any of them, from any other place what- soever, by land or water ; and if by water,_ of the ship or vessel, also, in which

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they were imported, with all her guns, tackle, furniture, ammunition, and ap- parel ; one third part to his Majesty, his heirs, and successors ; one third part to the governor of such land, island, plantation, colony, territory, or place, into which such goods were imported, if the said ship, vessel, or goods be there seized or informed against and sued for ; or, otherwise, that third part, also, to his Majesty, his heirs, and successors; andj^ie otherjthirdpart to him or them who shall seize, inform, or sue for the same in any of his Majesty's courts in such of the said lands, islands, colonies, plantations, territories or places where the offence was committed, or in any court of record in England, by bill, inform- ation, plaint, or other action, wherein no essoin, protection, or wager of law shall be allowed."

Sections 7, 8, 9, and 10 of this odious instrument of mischief and misery to mankind, were all calculated to fortify by oaths and penalties the tyrannical ordinances of the preceding sections.

Mr. Otis's observations on these statutes were numerous, and some of them appeared to me at the time, young as I was, bit- ter. But as I cannot pretend to recollect those observations with precision, I will recommend to you and others to make your own remarks upon them.

You must remember, Mr. Tudor, that you and I had much trouble with these statutes after you came into my office, in 1770, and I had been tormented with them for nine years be- fore, that is, from 1761. I have no scruple in making a con- fession with all the simplicity of Jean Jacques Rousseau, that I never turned over the leaves of these statutes, or any sec- tion of them, without pronouncing a hearty curse upon them. I felt them as a humiliation, a degradation, a disgrace to my country, and to myself as a native of it.

Let me respectfully recommend to the future orators on the 4th of July to peruse these statutes in pursuit of " principles and feelings that produced the revolution."

Oh! Mr. Tudor, when will France, Spain, England, and Holland renounce their selfish, contracted, exclusive systems of religion, government, and commerce ? • I fear, never. But they may depend upon it, their present systems of colonization can- not endure. Colonies universally, ardently breathe for inde- pendence. No man, who has a soul, will ever live in a colony under the present establishments one moment longer than necessity compels him.

But I must return to Mr. Otis. The burden of his song was '•'•writs of assistance." All these rigorous statutes were

u

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now to be carried into rigorous execution by the still more rigorous instruments of arbitrary power, " writs of assistance."

Here arose a number of very important questions. "What were writs of assistance? Where were they to be found? When, where, and by what authority had they been invented, created, and established? Nobody could answer any of these questions. Neither Chief Justice Hutchinson, nor any one of his four associate judges, pretended to have ever read or seen in any book any such writ, or to know any thing about it. The court had ordered or requested the bar to search for precedents and authorities for it, but none were found. Otis pronounced boldly that there were none, and neither judge nor lawyer, bench or bar, pretended to confute him. He asserted farther, that there was no color of authority for it, but one produced by Mr. Gridley in a statute of the 13th and 14th of Charles II., which Mr. Otis said was neither authority, precedent, or color of either in America. Mr. Thacher said he had diligently searched all the books, but could find no such writ. He had indeed found in Rastall's Entries a thing which in some of its features resembled this, but so little like it on the whole, that it was not worth while to read it.

Mr. Gridley, who, no doubt, was furnished upon this great and critical occasion with all the information possessed by the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary, custom-house officers, and all other crown officers, produced the statute of the 13th and 14th of Charles II., chapter eleventh, entitled, "An act to prevent frauds, and regulating abuses in his Majesty's customs," section fifth, which I will quote verbatim.

"And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in case, after the^ clearing of any ship or vessel, by the person or persons which are or shall be appointed by his Majesty for managing the customs, or any their deputies, and discharging the watchmen and tidesmen from attendance thereupon, there shall be found on board such ship or vessel, any goods, wares, or merchandises, which have been concealedJ*rom the knowledge of the said person or persons, which are or shall be so appointed to manage the customs, and for which the custom, subsidy, and other duties due upon the importation thereof have not been paid ; then the master, purser, or other person taking charge of said ship or vessel, shall forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds : and it shall be lawful to or for any person or persons authorized by writ of assistance under the seal oj ]tis~Majcst,/'s court of exchequer, to take a constable, headborough, or other public officer, inhabiting near unto the place, and in the daytime to enter and go into any house, shop, cellar, warehouse or room, or other place: and in case

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of resistance, to break open doors, chests, trunks, and other packages, there to seize, and from thence to bring any kind of goods or merchandise whatsoever, prohibited and uncustomed, and to put and secure the same, in his Majesty's storehouse in the port, next to the place where such seizures shall be made."

Here is all the color for " writs of assistance," which the officers of the crown, aided by the researches of their learned counsel, Mr. Gridley, could produce.

Where, exclaimed Otis, is your seal of his Majesty's court of exchequer ? And what has the court of exchequer to do here ? But my sheet is full, and my patience exhausted for the present.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 24 June, 1818.

Mr. Otis said, such a " writ of assistance " might become the reign of Charles II. in England, and he would not dispute the taste of the Parliament of England in passing such an act, nor of the people of England in submitting to it ; but it was not cal- culated for the meridian of America. The court of exchequer had no jurisdiction here. Her warrants and her writs were never seen here. Or if they should be, they would be waste paper. He insisted, however, that these warrants and writs were even in England inconsistent with the fundamental law, the natural and constitutional rights of the subjects. If, how- ever, it would please the people of England, he might admit that they were legal there, but not here.

Diligent research had been made by Mr. Otis and Thacher, and by Gridley, aided, as may well be supposed, by the officers of the customs, and by all the conspirators against American liberty, on both sides the water, for precedents and examples of any thing similar to this writ of assistance, even in England. But nothing could be found, except the following : An act of the 12th of Charles II., chapter 22. "An act for the regulating the trade of Bay-making, in the Dutch Bay-hall, in Colchester." The fifth section of this statute, " for the better discovering, finding out, and punishing of the frauds and deceits, aforesaid, be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the governors of the Dutch Bay-hall, or their officers, or any of them, from

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time to time, in the daytime, to search any cart, wagon, or pack, wherein they shall have notice, or suspect any such de- ceitful bays to be ; and also from time to time, with a constable, who are hereby required to be aiding and assisting them, to make search in any house, shop, or warehouse, where they are informed any such deceitful bays to be, and to secure and seize the same, and to carry them to the Dutch Bay-hall ; and that such bays so seized and carried to the said hall, shall be confis- cate and forfeit, to be disposed in such manner as the forfeitures herein before mentioned, to be paid by the weavers and fullers, are herein before limited and appointed."

The Dutch Bay-hall made sport for Otis and his audience; but was acknowledged to have no authority here, unless by certain distant analogies and constructions, which Mr. Gridley himself did not pretend to urge. Another ridiculous statute was of the 22d and 23d of Charles II., chapter 8th, "An act for the regulating the making of Kidderminster Stuffs."

By the eleventh section of this important law, it is enacted, " That the said president, wardens, and assistants of the said Kidderminster weavers, or any two or more of them, shall have, and hereby have power and authority to enter into and search the houses and workhouses of any artificer under the regulation of the said trade, at all times of the day, and usual times of opening shops and working ; and into the shops, houses, and warehouses of any common buyer, dealer in, or retailer of any of the said cloths or stuffs, and into the houses and workhouses of any dyer, shearman, and all other workmen's houses and places of sale, or dressing of the said cloths or stuffs, and yarns, and may there view the said cloths, stuffs, and yarns respectively ; and if any cloth, stuff, or yarns shall be found defective, to seize and carry away the same to be tried by a jury."

The wit, the humor, the irony, the satire played off by Mr. Otis in his observations on these acts of navigation, Dutch bays and Kidderminster stuffs, it would be madness in me to pretend to remember with any accuracy. But this I do say, that Horace's " Irritat, mulcet, verts terroribus implet" was never exemplified, in my hearing, with so great effect. "With all his drollery, he intermixed solid and sober observations upon the acts of navigation, by Sir Joshua Child, and other English

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writers upon trade, which I shall produce together in another letter.

It is hard to be called upon, at my age, to such a service as this. But it is the duty of

John Adams.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 9 July, 1818.

In the search for something in the history and statutes of England, in any degree resembling this monstrum horrendum ing-ens, the writ of assistance, the following examples were found.

In the statute of the first year of King James the II., chapter 3d, "An act for granting to his Majesty an imposition upon all wines and vinegar," &c, section 8, it is enacted, " That the officers of his Majesty's customs, &c, shall have power and authority to enter on board ships and vessels, and make searches, and to do all other matters and things, which may tend to secure the true payment of the duties by this act imposed, and the due and orderly collection thereof, which any customers, col- lectors, or other officers of any of his Majesty's ports can or may do, touching the securing his Majesty's customs of ton- nage and poundage," &c, &c, &c. I must refer to the statute for the rest.

In the statute of King James II., chapter 4, "An act for granting to his Majesty an imposition upon all tobacco and sugar imported," &c, section 5th, in certain cases, " the com- missioners may appoint one or more officer or officers to enter into all the cellars, warehouses, store cellars, or other places whatsoever, belonging to such importer, to search, see, and try," &c, &c, &c. I must again refer to the statute for the rest, which is indeed nothing to the present purpose.

Though the portraits of Charles II. and James II. were blaz- ing before his eyes, their characters and reigns were sufficiently odious to all but the conspirators against human liberty, to excite the highest applause of Otis's philippics against them and all the foregoing acts of their reigns, which writs of assist-

vol. x. 28

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ance were now intended to enforce. Otis asserted and proved, that none of these statutes extended to America, or were obli- gatory here, by any rule of law ever acknowledged here, or ever before pretended in England.

Another species of statutes were introduced by the counsel for the crown, which I shall state as they occur to me without any regard to the order of time.

1st of James II., chapter 17, "An act for the revival and con- tinuance of several acts of Parliament therein mentioned," in which the tobacco law, among others, is revived and continued.

13th and 14th of Charles I'L, chapter 13, "An act for prohibit- ing the importation of foreign bone-lace, outwork, embroidery, fringe, band-strings, buttons, and needlework." Pray, Sir, do not laugh ! for something very serious comes in section third.

" Be it further enacted, that for the preventing of the importing of the said manufactures as aforesaid, upon complaint and information given to the justices of the peace or any or either of them, within their respective counties, cities, and towns corporate, at times reasonable, he or they are hereby authorized and required to issue forth his or their warrants to the constables of their respective counties, cities, and towns corporate, to enter and search for such manufactures in the shops being open, or warehouses and dwelling-houses of such person or persons, as shall be suspected to have any such foreign bone-laces, embroideries, outwork, fringe, band-strings, buttons, or needle-work within their respective counties, cities, and towns corporate, and to seize the same, any act, statute, or ordinance to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding."

Another curious act was produced, to prove the legality of writs of assistance, though it was no more to the purpose than all the others. I mean the statute of the 12th of Charles II., chapter 3d, "An act for the continuance of process and judicial proceedings continued." In which it is enacted, section first, " That no pleas, writs, bills, actions, suits, plaints, process, pre- cepts, or other thing or things, &c, shall be in any wise dis- continued," &c.

But I must refer to the act. I cannot transcribe. If any antiquarian should hereafter ever wish to review this period, he will see with compassion how such a genius as Otis was com- pelled to delve among the rubbish of such statutes, to defend the country against the gross sophistry of the crown and its officers.

Another act of 12 C. II., ch. 12, "An act for confirmation of judicial proceedings," in which it is enacted, &c, " that nor any

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writs, or actions on, or returns of any writs, orders, or other proceedings in law or equity, had, made, given, taken, or done, or depending in the courts of chancery, king's bench, upper bench, common pleas, and court of exchequer, and court of exchequer chamber, or any of them, &c, in the kingdom of England, &c, shall be avoided, &c." I must refer to the statute.

In short, wherever the custom-house officers could find in any statute the word " writs," the word " continued," and the words " court of exchequer," they had instructed their counsel to pro- duce it, though in express words restricted to " the realm." Mr. Gridley was incapable of prevarication or duplicity.

It was a moral spectacle, more affecting to me than any I have since seen upon any stage, to see a pupil treating his master with all the deference, respect, esteem, and affection of a son to a father, and that without the least affectation ; while he baffled and confounded all his authorities, and confuted all his arguments and reduced him to silence.

Indeed, upon the principle of construction, inference, analogy, or corollary, by which they extended these acts to America, they might have extended the jurisdiction of the court of king's bench, and court of common pleas, and all the sanguinary statutes against crimes and misdemeanors, and all their church establishment of archbishops and bishops, priests, deacons, deans, and chapters ; and all their acts of uniformity, and all their acts against conventicles.

I have no hesitation or scruple to say, that the commence- ment of the reign of George III. was the commencement of another Stuart's reign ; and if it had not been checked by James Otis and others first, and by the great Chatham and others afterwards, it would have been as arbitrary as any of the four. I will not say it would have extinguished civil and reli- gious liberty upon earth ; but it would have gone great lengths towards it, and would have cost mankind even more than the French Revolution to preserve it. The most sublime, profound, and prophetic expression of Chatham's oratory that he ever uttered was, " I rejoice that America has resisted. Two mil- lions of people reduced to servitude, would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest."

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Another statute was produced, 12 C. 2, cap. 19.

"An act to prevent frauds and concealments of his Majesty's customs and subsidies." " Be it enacted," &c, " that if any person or persons, &c, shall cause any goods, for which custom, subsidy, or other duties are due or payable, &c, to be landed or conveyed away, without due entry thereof first made and the customer or collector, or his deputy agreed with ; that then and in such case, upon oath thereof made before the lord treasurer, or any of the barons of the exchequer, or chief magistrate of the port or place where the offence shall be committed, or the place next adjoining thereto, it shall be lawful to and for the lord-treasurer, or any of the barons of the exchequer, or the chief magistrate of the port or place, &c, to issue out a warrant to any person or persons, thereby enabling him or them, with the assistance of a sheriff, justice of the peace, or constable, to enter into any house in the daytime, where such goods are sus- pected to be concealed, and in case of resistance to break open such house, and to seize and secure the same goods so concealed ; and all officers and ministers of justice are hereby required to be aiding and assisting thereunto."

Such was the sophistry ; such the chicanery of the officers of the crown, and such their power of face, as to apply these statutes to America and to the petition for writs of assistance from the superior court.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 14 July, 1818.

Mr. Otis, to show the spirit of the acts of trade, those I have already quoted, as "well as of those I shall hereafter quote, and as the best commentaries upon them, produced a number of authors upon trade, and read passages from them, which I shall recite, without pretending to remember the order in which he read them.

1. Sir Josiah Child, "A new Discourse of Trade." Let me recommend this old book to the perusal of my inquisitive fel- low-citizens. A discerning mind will find useful observations on the interest of money, the price of labor, &c, &c, &c. I would quote them all, if I had time. But I will select one. In page 15, of his preface, he says, " I understand not the world so little as not to know, that he that will faithfully serve his country, must be content to pass through good report and evil report." I cannot agree to that word, content. I would substitute instead of it, the words, " as patient as he can."

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Sir Josiah adds, " neither regard I which I meet with." This is too cavalierly spoken. It is not sound philosophy. Sir Joshua proceeds : " Truth I am sure at last will vindicate itself, and be found by my countrymen." Amen ! So be it ! I wish I could believe it.

But it is hisfh time for me to return from this ramble to Mr. Otis's quotations from Sir Josiah Child, whose chapter 4, page 105, is " Concerning the Act of Navigation." Probably this knight was one of the most active and able inflamers of the national pride in their navy and their commerce, and one of the principal promoters of that enthusiasm for the act of naviga- tion, which has prevailed to this day. For this work was written about the year 1677, near the period when the court of Charles II. began to urge and insist on the strict execution of the act of navigation. Such pride in that statute did not become Charles, his court, or his nation of royalists and loyalists at that time. For shall I blush, or shall I boast, when I remem- ber, that this act was not the invention of a Briton, but of an American. George Downing, a native of New England, edu- cated at Harvard College, whose name, office, and title appear in their catalogue, went to England in the time of Lord Claren- don's civil wars, and became such a favorite of Cromwell and the ruling powers, that he was sent ambassador to Holland. He was not only not received, but ill treated, which he resented on his return to England, by proposing an act of navigation, which was adopted, and has ruined Holland, and would have ruined America, if she had not resisted.

To borrow the language of the great Dr. Johnson, this " dog " Downing must have had a head and brains, or, in other words, genius and address; but, if we may believe history, he was a scoundrel. To ingratiate himself with Charles II., he probably not only pleaded his merit in inventing the navigation act, but he betrayed to the block some of his old republican and revo- lutionary friends.

George Downing! Far from boasting of thee as my coun- tryman, or of thy statute as an American invention, if it were lawful to wish for any thing past, that has not happened, I should wish that thou hadst been hanged, drawn, and quar- tered, instead of Hugh Peters and Sir Henry Vane. But no ! This is too cruel for my nature! I rather wish, that thou

28*

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hadst been obliged to fly with -thy project, and repent among the rocks and caves of the mountains in New England.

But where is Downing's statute ? British policy has sup- pressed all the laws of England, from 1648 to 1660. The statute book contains not one line. Such are records, and such is history!

The nation, it seems, was not unanimous in its approbation of this statute. The great knight himself informs us, page 105, " that some wise and honest gentlemen and merchants doubted whether the inconveniences it has brought with it be not greater than the conveniences." This chapter was, therefore, written to answer all objections, and to vindicate and justify Downing's statute.

Mr. Otis cast an eye over this chapter, and adverted to such observations in it, as tended to show the spirit of the writer, and of the statute ; which might be summed up in this com- prehensive Machiavelian principle, that earth, air, and seas, all colonies and all nations were to be made subservient to the growth, grandeur, and power of the British navy.

And thus, truly, it happened. The two great knights, Sir George Downing and Sir Josiah Child, must be acknowledged to have been great politicians !

Mr. Otis proceeded to chapter 10 of this work, page 166, " Concerning Plantations." And he paused at the 6th proposi- tion, in page 167, " That all colonies and plantations do en- damage their mother kingdoms, whereof the trades of such plantations are not confined by severe laws, and good execu- tions of those laws, to the mother kingdom."

Mr. Otis then proceeded to seize the key to the whole riddle, in page 168, proposition eleventh, " that New England is the most prejudicial plantation to the kingdom of England." Sir George Downing, no doubt, said the same to Charles II.

Otis proceeded to page 170, near the bottom.

" We must consider what kind of people they were and are that have and do transport themselves to our foreign plantations." New England, as every one knows, was originally inhabited, and hath since been successively replenished by a sort of people called Puritans, who could not conform to the ecclesiastical laws of England ; but being wearied with church censures and persecutions, were forced to quit their fathers' land, to find out new habitations, as many of them did in Germany and Holland, as well as at New England ; and had there not been a New England found for some of them, Germany and Holland, pro-

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bably, had received the rest; but Old England, to be sure, had lost them all.

" Virginia and Barbadoes were first peopled by a sort of loose, vagrant people, vicious, and destitute of means to live at home (being either unfit for labor, or such as could find none to employ themselves about, or had so misbehaved themselves by whoring, thieving, or other debauchery, that none would set them on work), which merchants and masters of ships, by their agents (or spirits, as they were called), gathered up about the streets of London, and other places, clothed and transported, to be employed upon plantations ; and these, I say, were such as, had there been no English foreign plantation in the world, could probably never have lived at home, to do service for their country, but must have come to be hanged, or starved, or died untimely of some of those miserable diseases that proceed from want and vice ; or else have sold themselves for sol- diers, to be knocked on the head, or starved, in the quarrels of our neighbors, as many thousands of brave Englishmen were in the low countries, as also in the wars of Germany, France, and Sweden, &c, or else, if they could, by beg- ging or otherwise, arrive to the stock of 2s. Qd. to waft them over to Holland, become servants to the Dutch, who refuse none.

" But the pi-incipal growth and increase of the aforesaid plantations of Vir- ginia and Barbadoes happened in, or immediately after, our late civil wars, when the worsted party, by the fate of war, being deprived of their estates, and having, some of them, never been bred to laboi-, and others made unfit for it by the lazy habit of a soldier's life, there wanting means to maintain them all abroad with his Majesty, many of them betook themselves to the aforesaid plantations ; and great numbers of Scotch soldiers of his Majesty's army, after "Worcester fight, were by the then prevailing powers voluntarily sent thither.

"Another great swarm or accession of new inhabitants to the aforesaid plan- tations, as also to New England, Jamaica, and all other his Majesty's plan- tations in the West Indies, ensued upon his Majesty's restoration, when the former prevailing party being by a divine hand of Providence brought under, the army disbanded, many officers displaced, and all the new purchasers of public titles dispossessed of their pretended lands, estates, &c, many became impoverished and destitute of employment; and, therefore, such as could find no way of living at home, and some who feared the reestablishment of the eccle- siastical laws, under which they could not live, were forced to transport them- selves, or sell themselves for a few years to be transported by others, to the foreign English plantations. The constant supply that the said plantations have since had, hath been such vagrant, loose people as I have before mentioned, picked up especially about the streets of London and Westminster, and male- factors condemned for crimes, for which, by the law, they deserved to die ; and some of those people called quakers, banished for meeting on pretence of reli- gious worship.

" Now, if from the premises it be duly considered what kind of persons those have been, by whom our plantations have at all times been replenished, I sup- pose it will appear, that such they have been, and under such circumstances, that if his Majesty had had no foreign plantations, to which they might have resorted, England, however, must have lost them."

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Any man, who will consider with attention these passages from Sir Josiah Child, may conjecture what Mr. Otis's obser- vations upon them were. As I cannot pretend to remember them verbatim and with precision, I can only say that they struck me very forcibly. They were short, rapid ; he had not time to be long ; but Tacitus himself could not express more in fewer words. My only fear is, that I cannot do him justice.

In the first place, there is a great deal of true history in this passage, which manifestly proves, that the emigrants to Ame- rica, in general, were not only as good as the people in general, whom they left in England, but much better, more courageous, more enterprising, more temperate, more discreet, and more industrious, frugal, and conscientious. I mean the royalists as well as the republicans.

In the second place, there is a great deal of uncandid, unge- nerous misrepresentation, and scurrilous exaggeration in tins passage of the great knight, which proves him to have been a fit tool of Charles II., and a suitable companion, associate, and friend of the great knight, Sir George Downing, the second scholar in Harvard College catalogue.

But I will leave you, Mr. Tudor, to make your own observa- tions and reflections upon these pages of Sir Josiah Child.

Mr. Otis read them with great reluctance ; but he felt it his duty to read them, in order to show the spirit of the author, and the spirit of Sir George Downing's navigation act.

But, my friend, I am weary. I have not done with Mr. Otis or Sir Josiah Child. I must postpone to another letter.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 17 July, 1818.

Mr. Otis proceeded to page 198, of this great work of the great knight, Sir Josiah Child.

" Proposition eleventh. That New England is the most prejudicial plantation in this kingdom."

" T am now to write of a people whose frugality, industry, and temperance, and the happiness of whose laws and institutions, do promise to themselves long life, with a wonderful increase of people, riches, and power ; and although no

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men ought to envy that virtue and wisdom in others, -which themselves either cannot or will not practise, but rather to commend and admire it, yet I think it is the duty of every good man primarily to respect the welfare of his native country. And, therefore, though I may offend some whom I would not willingly displease, I cannot omit, in the progress of this discourse, to take notice of some particulars, wherein Old England suffers diminution by the growth of those colonies settled in New England, and how that plantation differs from those more southerly, with respect to the gain or loss of this kingdom ; — namely,

" 1. All our American plantations, except that of New England, produce com- modities of different natures from those of this kingdom, as sugar, tobacco, cocoa, wool, ginger, sundry sorts of dying woods, &c, whereas, New England pro- duces generally the same we have here, namely, corn and cattle. Some quantity of fish they do likewise kill, but that is taken and saved altogether by their own inhabitants, which prejudiceth our Newfoundland trade ; where, as hath been said, very few are, or ought according to prudence to be employed in those fish- eries but the inhabitants of Old England. The other commodities we have from them are some few great masts, furs, and train oil, whereof the yearly value amounts to very little ; the much greater value of returns from thence being made in sugar, cotton, wool, tobacco, and such like commodities, which they first receive from some other of his Majesty's plantations in barter for dry codfish, salt mackerel, beef, pork, bread, beer, flour, peas, &c, which they sup- ply Barbadoes, Jamaica, &c, with, to the diminution of the vent of those com- modities from this kingdom ; the great expense whereof in our West India plantations would soon be found in the advance of the value of our lands in England, were it not for the vast and almost incredible supplies those colonies have from New England.

" 2. The peojsle of New England, by virtue of their primitive charters, being not so strictly tied to the observation of the laws of this kingdom, do sometimes assume a liberty of trading contrary to the act of navigation, by reason whereof many of our American commodities, especially tobacco and sugar, are trans- ported, in New England shipping, directly into Spain and other foreign coun- tries, without being landed in England, or paying any duty to his Majesty, which is not only loss to the king, and a prejudice to the navigation of Old England, but also a total exclusion of the old English merchant from the vent of those commodities in those ports where the new English vessels trade ; be- cause there being no custom paid on those commodities in New England, and a great custom paid upon them in Old England, it must necessarily follow that the New English merchant will be able to afford his commodity much cheaper at the market than the Old English merchant ; and those that can sell cheapest, will infallibly engross the whole trade, sooner or later.

" 3. Of all the American plantations, his Majesty hath none so apt for the building of shipping as New England, nor none comparably so qualified for breeding of seamen, not only by reason of the natural industry of that people, but principally by reason of their cod and mackerel fisheries ; and, in my poor opinion, there is nothing more prejudicial, and in prospect more dangerous to any mother kingdom, than the increase of shipping in her colonies, plantations* and provinces."

" 4. The people that evacuate from us to Barbadoes, and the other West

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India plantations, as was before hinted, do commonly work one Englishman to ten or eight blacks ; and, if we kept the trade of our said plantations entirely to England, England would have no less inhabitants, but rather an increase of people by such evacuation ; because that one Englishman, with the ten blacks that work with him, accounting what they eat, use, and wear, would make employment for four men in England, as was said before ; whereas, peradven- ture, of ten men that issue from us to New England and Ireland, what we send to, or receive from them, doth not employ one man in England.

" To conclude this chapter, and to do right to that most industrious English colony, I must confess, that though we lose by their unhmited trade with our foreign plantations, yet we are very great gainers by their direct trade to and from Old England ; our yearly exportations of English manufactures, malt, and other goods, from hence thither, amounting, in my opinion, to ten times the value of what is imported from thence; which calculation I do not make at random, but upon mature consideration, and, peradventure, upon as much experience in this very trade as any other person will pretend to ; and, therefore, whenever a reformation of our correspondency in trade with that people shall be thought on, it will, in my poor judgment, require great tenderness and very serious circum- spection."

Mr. Otis's humor and satire were not idle upon this occasion, but his wit served only to increase the effect of a subsequent, very grave, and serious remonstrance and invective against the detestable principles of the foregoing passages, which he read with regret, but which it was his duty to read, in order to show the temper, the views, and the objects of the knight, which were the same with those of all the acts of trade, anterior and poste- rior to the writing of this book. And those views, designs, aud objects were, to annul all the New England charters, and they were but three, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut ; to reduce all the colonies to royal governments, to subject them all to the supreme domination of parliament, who were to tax us, without limitation, who would tax us whenever the crown would recommend it, which crown would recommend it, when- ever the ministry for the time being should please, and which ministry would please as often as the West India planters and North American governors, crown officers and naval com- manders, should solicit more fees, salaries, penalties, and for- feitures.

Mr. Otis had no thanks for the knight for his pharisaical compliment to New England, at the expense of Virginia and other colonies, who, for any thing he knew, were equally merit- orious. It was certain, the first settlers of New England were not all godly. But he reprobated in the strongest terms that

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language can command, the machiavelian, the Jesuitical, the diabolical, and infernal principle that men, colonies, and nations were to be sacrificed, because they were industrious and frugal, wise and virtuous ; while others were to be encouraged, fostered, and cherished, because they were pretended to be profligate, vicious, and lazy.

But, my friend, I must quit Josiah Child, and look for others of Mr. Otis' s authorities.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 27 July, 1818.

Another author, produced by Mr. Otis, was, " The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain Considered," by Joshua Gee, " a new edition, with many interesting notes and additions, by a mer- chant," printed in 1767. This new edition, which was printed, no doubt, to justify the ministry in the system they were then pursuing, could not be the edition that Mr. Otis produced in 1761. The advertisement of the editor informs us, that " this valuable treatise has for many years been very scarce, though strongly recommended by the best judges and writers on trade, and universally allowed to be one of the most interesting books on that subject." " The principles upon which it was written, continue, with little variation." But I am fatigued with quo- tations, and must refer you to the advertisement in the book, which will show, past a doubt, that this "was a ministerial republication. The " feelings, the manners and principles, which produced the revolution," will be excited and renovated by the perusal of this book, as much as by that of Sir Josiah Child. I wish I could fill sheets of paper with quotations from it ; but this is impossible. If I recommend it to the research, and perusal, and patient thinking of the present generation, it is in despair of being regarded. For who will engage in this dry, dull study ? Yet, Mr. Otis labored in it. He asserted and proved, that it was only a reenforcement of the system of Sir Josiah Child, which Gee approved in all things, and even quoted with approbation the most offensive passage in his book, the scurrilous reflections on Virginia and Barbadoes.

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Another writer, produced by Mr. Otis, was, " Memoirs and Considerations concerning the Trade and Revenues of the Brit- ish Colonies in America; with Proposals for rendering those Colonies more beneficial to Great Britain. By John Ashley, Esq."

This book is in the same spirit and system of Josiah Child and Joshua Gee.

Mr. Otis also quoted Postlethwait. But I can quote no more.

If any man of the present age can read these authors and not feel his " feelings, manners, and principles " shocked and insulted, I know not of what stuff he is made. All I can say is, that I read them all in my youth, and that I never read them without being set on fire.

I will, however, transcribe one passage from Ashley, painful as it is. In page 41 he says,

" The laws now in being for the regulation of the plantation trade, namely the 14th of Charles IL ch. 2, sec. 2, 3, 9, 10 ; 7 and 8 William III. ch. 22, sec. 5, 6 ; 6 George II. ch. 13, are very well calculated, and, were they put in exe- cution as they ought to be, would in a great measure put an end to the mischiefs here complained of. If the several officers of the customs would see that all entries of sugar, rum and molasses were made conformable to the directions of those laws ; and let every entry of such goods distinguish expressly, what are of British growth and produce, and what are of foreign growth and produce ; and let the whole cargo of sugar, penneles, rum, spirits, molasses and syrup, be inserted at large in the manifest and clearance of every ship or vessel, under office seal, or be liable to the same duties and penalties as such goods of foreign growth are liable to, this would very much balk the progress of those who carry on this illicit trade, and be agreeable and advantageous to all fair traders.

"And all masters and skippers of boats in all the plantations should give some reasonable security, not to take in any such goods of foreign growth from any vessel not duly entered at the custom-house, in order to land the same, or put the same on board any other ship or vessel, without a warrant or sufferance from a proper officer."

But you will be fatigued with quotations, and so is your friend,

John Adams.

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TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 30 July, 1818.

Another passage, which Mr. Otis read from Ashley, gave occasion, as I suppose, to another memorable and very curious event, which your esteemed pupil and my beloved friend, Judge Minot, has recorded. The passage is in the 42d page.

" In fine, I would humbly propose that the duties on foreign sugar and rum imposed by the before-mentioned act of the 6th of King George II. remain as they are, and also the duty on molasses, so far as concerns the importationMnto the sugar colonies ; but that there be an abatement of the duty on molasses imported into the northern colonies, so far as to give the British planters a reasonable advantage over foreigners, and what may bear some proportion to the charge, risk, and inconvenience of running it in the manner they now do, or after the proposed regulation shall be put in execution. Whether this duty shall be one, two, or three pence, sterling money of Great Britain, per gallon, may be matter of consideration."

Gracious and merciful indeed ! The tax might be reduced and made supportable, but not abolished. Oh, no ! by no means.

Mr. Hutchinson, however, seized this idea of Ashley, of reducing the tax on molasses from sixpence to threepence, or twopence, or a penny ; and the use he made of it you shall learn from your own pupil and my amiable friend, Judge Minot.1

"About this time there was a pause in the opposition to the measures of the crown and parliament, which might have given some appearance of the conciliation of parties, but which was more probably owing to the uncertainty of the eventual plan of the ministry, and the proper ground to be chosen for counteracting it. The suppressing of the proposed instructions to the agent by a committee of the House of Representatives indicated that this balance of power there was unsettled. Several circumstances showed a less inflexible spirit than had existed among the leaders. The governor appointed the elder Mr. Otis a justice of the court of common pleas, and judge of probate for the county of Barnstable. The younger wrote a pamphlet on the rights of the British colonies, in which he acknowledged the sovereignty of Parliament, as well as the obligations of the colonies to submit to such burdens as it might lay upon them, until it should be pleased to relieve them, and put the question of taxing America on the footing of the common good."

I beg your attention to Mr. Minot' s history, vol. ii., from page 140 to the end of the chapter in page 152. Mr. Minot has

1 Volume ii. page 142. VOL. X. 29 V

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endeavored to preserve the dignity, the impartiality, and the delicacy of history. But it was a period of mingled glory and disgrace. But as it is a digression from the subject of Mr. Otis's speech against writs of assistance, I can pursue it no further at present. Mr. Hutchinson seized the idea of reducing the duties. Mr. Otis and his associates seemed to despair of any thing more. Hutchinson was chosen agent, to the utter astonishment of every American out of doors. This was committing the lamb to the kind guardianship of the wolf. The public opinion of all the friends of their country was decided. The public voice was pronounced in accents so terrible, that Mr. Otis fell into a dis- grace, from which nothing but Jemmibullero saved him. Mr. Hutchinson was politely excused from his embassy, and the storm blew over. Otis, upon whose zeal, energy, and exertions the whole great cause seemed to depend, returned to his duty, and gave entire satisfaction to the end of his political career.

Thus ended the piddling project of reducing the duty on molasses from sixpence a gallon to fivepence, fourpence, three- pence, twopence, or a penny. And one half penny a gallon would have abandoned the great principle as much as one pound.

This is another digression from the account of Mr. Otis's argument against writs of assistance and the acts of trade. I have heretofore written you on this subject. The truth, the whole truth, must and will and ought to come out ; and nothing but the truth shall appear with the consent of your humble servant,

John Adams.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 6 August, 1818.

" Mid the low murmurs of submission, fear and mingled rage, my Hampden raised his voice, and to the laws appealed."

Mr. Otis had reasoned like a philosopher upon the navigation acts, and all the tyrannical acts of Charles II. ; but when he came to the revenue laws, the orator blazed out. Poor King William ! If thy spirit, whether in heaven or elsewhere, heard James Otis, it must have blushed. A stadtholder of Holland,

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by accident or by miracle vested with a little brief authority in England, cordially adopting the system of George Downing, Josiah Child, and Charles II., for the total destruction of that country to which he owed his existence, and all his power and importance in the world ; and, what was still worse, joining in the conspiracy with such worthy characters to enslave all the colonies in Europe, Asia, and America, and, indeed, all nations, to the omnipotence of the British Parliament and its royal navy ! The act of Parliament of the 7th and 8th of King William III. was produced, chapter 22d: "An act for preventing frauds, and regulating abuses in the plantation trade." I wish I could transcribe this whole statute, and that which precedes it: "An act for the encouragement of seamen." But who would read them ? Yet it behoves our young and old yeomen, mechanics, and laborers, philosophers, politicians, legislators, and merchants to read them. However tedious and painful it may be for you to read, or me to transcribe any part of these dull statutes, we must endure the task, or we shall never understand the Ameri- can Revolution. Recollect and listen to the preamble of this statute, of the 7th and 8th of William III. chapter 22d.

" Whereas, notwithstanding divers acts made for the encouragement of the navigation of this kingdom, and tor the better securing and regulating the plan- tation trade, more especially one act of Parliament made in the 12th year of the reign of the late King Charles II., intituled an act for the increasing of shipping and navigation; another act, made in the loth year of the reign of hi-s said late Majesty, intituled an act for the encouragement of trade ; another act, made in the 22d and 23d years of his said late Majesty's reign, intituled an act to prevent the planting of tobacco in England, and for regulation of the plantation trade ; another act, made in the 25th year of the reign of his said late Majesty, intituled an act for the encouragement of the Greenland and East- land fisheries, and for the better securing the plantation trade, great abuses are daily committed, to the prejudice of the English navigation and the loss of a great part of the plantation trade to this kingdom by the artifice and cunning of ill-disposed persons ; for remedy whereof for the future," &c.

Will you be so good, Sir, as to pause a moment on this pre- amble ? To what will you liken it ? Does it resemble a great, rich, powerful West India planter, Alderman Beckford, for example, preparing and calculating and writing instructions for his overseers ? " You are to have no regard to the health, strength, comfort, natural affections, or moral feelings, or intel- lectual endowments of my negroes. You are only to consider what subsistence to allow them, and what labor to exact of them

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will subserve my interest. According to the most accurate calculation I can make, the proportion of subsistence and labor, which will work them up, in six years upon an average, is the most profitable to the planter. And this allowance, surely, is very humane ; for we estimate here the lives of our coal-heavers upon an average at only two years, and our fifty thousand girls of the town at three years at most. And our soldiers and seamen no matter what."

Is there, Mr. Tudor, in this preamble, or in any statute of Great Britain, in the whole book, the smallest consideration of the health, the comfort, the happiness, the wealth, the growth, the population, the agriculture, the manufactures, the com- merce, the fisheries of the American people ? All these things are to be sacrificed to British wealth, British commerce, British domination, and the British navy, as the great engine and in- strument to accomplish all. To be sure, they were apt scholars of their master, Tacitus, whose fundamental and universal prin- ciple of philosophy, religion, morality, and policy was, that all nations and all things were to be sacrificed to the grandeur of Rome. Oh ! my fellow-citizens, that I had the voice of an archangel to warn you against these detestable principles. The world was not made for you; you were made for the world. Be content with your own rights. Never usurp those of others. What would be the merit and the fortune of a nation that should never do or suffer wrong ?

The purview of this statute was in the same spirit with the preamble. Pray read it ! Old as you are, you are not so old as I am, and I assure you I have conquered my natural impa- tience so far as to read it again, after almost sixty years acquaintance with it, in all its horrid deformity.

Every artifice is employed to ensure a rigorous, a severe, a cruel execution of this system of tyranny. The religion, the morality, of all plantation governors, of all naval commanders, of all custom-house officers, if they had any, and all men have some, were put in requisition by the most solemn oaths. Their ambition was enlisted by the forfeiture of their offices ; their avarice was secured by the most tempting penalties and for- feitures, to be divided among them. Fine picking, to be sure ! Even the lowest, the basest informers were to be made gentle- men of fortune !

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I must transcribe one section of this detestable statute, and leave you to read the rest ; I can transcribe no more.

The sixth section of this benign law of our glorious deliverer, King William, is as follows :

Section 6. "And for the more effectual preventing of frauds and regulating abuses in the plantation trade in America, be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all ships coming into, or going out of any of the said plantations, and lading, or unlading any goods or commodities, whether the same be his Majesty's ships of war or merchant ships, and the masters and commanders thereof, and their ladings, shall be subject and liable to the same rules, visitations, searches, penalties, and forfeitures, as to the entering, landing, and discharging their respective ships and ladings, as ships and their ladings, and the commanders and masters of ships, are subject and liable unto in this kingdom, by virtue of an act of Parliament made in the fourteenth year of the reign of King Charles II., intituled an act for preventing frauds and regulating abuses in his Majesty's customs. And that the officers for collecting and managing his Majesty's revenue, and inspecting the plantation trade, and in any of the said plantations, shall have the same powers and authorities, for visiting and searching of ships, and taking their entries, and for seizing and securing, or bringing on shore any of the goods prohibited to be imported or exported into or out of any the said plantations, or for which any duties are payable, or ought to have been paid, by any of the before mentioned acts, as are provided for the officers of the cus- toms in England by the said last mentioned act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of King Charles II. ; and also to enter houses or warehouses, to search for and seize any such goods ; and that all the wharfingers, and owners of keys and wharves, or any lightermen, bargemen, watermen, porters, or other per- sons assisting in the conveyance, concealment, or rescue of any of the said goods, or in the hindering or resistance of any of the said officers in the per- formance of their duty, and the boats, barges, lighters, or other vessels employed in the conveyance of such goods, shall be subject to the like pains and penalties, as are provided by the same act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of King Charles II., in relation to pi'ohibited or unaccustomed goods in this king- dom ; and that " the like assistance " shall be, given to the said officers in the execution of their office, as by the said last mentioned act is provided for the officers in England; and, also, that the said officers shall be subject to the same penalties and forfeitures, for any corruptions, frauds, connivances, or conceal- ments, in violation of any the before mentioned laws, as any officers of the customs in England are liable to, by virtue of the last mentioned act ; and, also, that in case any officer or officers in the plantations shall be seized or molested for any thing done in the execution of their office, the said officer shall and may plead the general issue, and shall give this or other custom-acts in evidence, and the judge to allow thereof, have and enjoy the like privileges and advantages, as are allowed by law to the officers of his Majesty's customs in England."

Could it be pretended, that the superior court of judicature, court of assize, and general gaol delivery in the province of

29*

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Massachusetts Bay, had all the powers of the court of exchequer in England, and consequently could issue warrants like his Majesty's court of exchequer in England ? No custom-house officer dared to say this, or to instruct his counsel to say it. It is true, this court was invested with all the powers of the courts of king's bench, common pleas, and exchequer in England. But this was by a law of the province, made by the provincial legis- lature, by virtue of the powers vested in them by the charter.

Otis called and called in vain for their warrant from " his Majesty's court of exchequer." They had none, and they could have none from England, and they dared not say, that Hutchinson's court was " his Majesty's court of exchequer." Hutchinson himself dared not say it. The principle would have been fatal to parliamentary pretensions.

This is The second and the last time, T believe, that the word " assistance " is employed in any of these statutes. But the words, "writs of assistance," were nowhere to be found; in no statute, no law-book, no volume of entries ; neither in Rastell, Coke, or Fitzherbert, nor even in Instructor Clericalis, or Burn's Justice. Where, then, was it to be found ? Nowhere but in the imagination or invention of Boston custom-house officers, royal governors, West India planters, or naval commanders.

It was indeed a farce. The crown, by its agents, accumu- lated construction upon construction, and inference upon in- ference, as the giants heaped Pelion upon Ossa. I hope it is not impious or profane to compare Otis to Ovid's Jupiter. But

misso perfregit Olynipum Fulmine, et excussit subjecto Pelion Ossae.

He dashed this whole building to pieces, and scattered the pulverized atoms to the four winds ; and no judge, lawyer, or crown officer dared to say, why do you so ? They were ail reduced to total silence.

In plain English, by cool, patient comparison of phraseology of these statutes, their several provisions, the dates of their enactments, the privileges of our charters, the merits of the colonists, &c, he showed the pretensions to introduce the revenue acts, and this arbitrary and mechanical writ of assist- ance, as an instrument for the execution of them, to be so irra- tional ; by his wit he represented the attempt as so ludicrous and ridiculous, and by his dignified reprobation of so impudent

CORRESPONDENCE. 343

an attempt to impose on the people of America, he raised such a storm of indignation, that even Hutchinson, who had been appointed on purpose to sanction this writ, dared not utter a word in its favor ; and Mr. Gridley himself seemed to me to exult inwardly at the glory and triumph of his pupil.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 11 August, 1818.

The "Defence of the New England Charters" by Jer. Dummer, is both for style and matter one of our most classical American productions. "The feelings, the manners, and principles which produced the Revolution," appear in as vast abundance in this work as in any that I have read. This beautiful composition ought to be reprinted, and read by every American who has learned to read. In pages 30 and 31, this statute of 7th and 8th of King William, chapter 22, section 9th, is quoted, "All laws, by-laws, usages, or customs, at this time, or which here- after shall be in practice, or endeavored or pretended to be in force or practice in any of the plantations, which are in any wise repugnant to the before mentioned laws or any of them, so far as they do relate to the said plantations, or any of them, or which are any wise repugnant to this present act, or any other law hereafter to be made in this kingdom, so far as such law shall relate to and mention the plantations, are illegal, null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever." This passage Mr. Otis quoted, with a very handsome eulogium of the author and his book. He quoted it for the sake of the rule established in it by Parliament itself for the construction of his own statutes. And he contended that by this rule there could be no pretence for extending writs of assistance to this country. He also alluded to many other passages in this work, very applicable to his purpose, which any man who reads it must perceive, but which I have not time to transcribe.

If you, or your inquisitive and ingenious son, or either of my sons or grandsons or great-grandsons, should ever think of these things, it may not be improper to transcribe from a marginal

344 ' CORRESPONDENCE.

note at the end of this statute, an enumeration of the " Further provisions concerning plantations." *

The vigilance of the crown officers and their learned counsel on one side, and that of merchants, patriots, and their counsel on the other, produced every thing in any of these statutes which could favor their respective arguments. It would not only be ridiculous in me, but culpable to pretend to recollect all that were produced. Such as I distinctly remember, I will endeavour to introduce to your remembrance and reflections.

Molasses, or melasses, or molosses, for by all these names they are designated in the statutes. By the statute of the second year of our glorious deliverers, King William and Queen Mary, session second, chapter four, section 35. " For every hundred weight of molosses, containing one hundred and twelve pounds, imported from any other place than the English plan- tations in America, eight shillings over and above what the same is charged with in the book of rates."

The next statute that I recollect at present to have been introduced upon that occasion, was the 6th of George II., chap- ter 13, "An act for the better securing and encouraging the trade of his Majesty's sugar colonies in America."

Cost what it will, I must transcribe the first section of this statute, with all its parliamentary verbiage. I hope some of my fellow-citizens of the present or some future age will pon- der it.

" Whereas, the welfare and prosperity of your Majesty's sugar colonies in America are of the greatest consequence and importance to the trade, naviga- tion, and strength of this kingdom ; and whereas, the planters of the said sugar colonies have of late years fallen under such great discouragements, that they are unable to improve or carry on the sugar trade upon an equal footing with the foreign sugar colonies, without some advantage and relief be given to them from Great Britain : For remedy whereof, and for the good and welfare of your Majesty's subjects, we, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the com- mons of Great Britain, assembled in Parliament, have given and granted unto your Majesty the several and respective rates and duties hereinafter mentioned, and in such manner and form as is hereinafter expressed ; and do most humbly

1 II. W. 3, c. 12 ; 3, 4 of An. c. 5 and 10 ; 6 of An. c. 30, 8 of An. c. 13 ; 9 of An. c. 17; 10 An. c. 22 and 26 ; 4 Geo. 1, c. 11 ; 5 Geo. 1, c. 12 and 15; 13 Geo. 1, c. 5 ; 3 Geo. 2, c. 12 and 28 ; 4 Geo. 2, c. 15 ; 5 Geo. 2, c. 7 and 9 ; 6 Geo. 2, c. 15; 8 Geo. 2, c. 13; 8 Geo. 2, c. 19; 12 Geo. 2, c. 30; 15 Geo. 2, c. 31 and 33 ; 24 Geo. 2, c. 51 and 53 ; 29 Geo. 2, c. 5 and 35 ; and 30 Geo. 2, c. 9.

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beseech your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the king's most excellent Majesty, by and with the consent of the lords spiritual and tem- poral, and commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from and after the twenty-fifth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-three, there shall be raised, levied, collected, and (73 paid, unto and for the use of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, upon all rum or spirits of the produce or manufacture of any of the colonies or plantations in America, not in the possession or under the dominion of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, which at any time or times, within or during the continuance of this act, shall be imported or brought into any of the colonies or plantations in America, which now are, or hereafter may be, in the possession or under the dominion of his Majesty, his heirs or successors, the sum of niiiepence, money of Great Britain, to be paid according to the proportion and value of five shil- lings and sixpence the ounce in silver, for every gallon thereof, and after that rate for any greater or lesser quantity ; and upon all molasses or syrups of such foreign produce or manufacture, as aforesaid, which shall be imported or brought into any of the said colonies of or belonging to his Majesty, the sum of sixpence of like money for every gallon thereof, and after that rate for any greater or lesser quantity ; and upon all sugars and paneles of such foreign growth, produce, or manufacture, as aforesaid, which shall be imported into any of the said colonies or plantations of or belonging to his Majesty, a duty after the rate of five shillings of like money for every hundred weight avoirdupois of the said sugar and paneles, and after that rate for a greater or lesser quantity."

Now, Sir, will you be pleased to read Judge Minot's History, vol. ii., from page 137 to 140, ending with these words ; " But the strongest apprehensions arose from the publication of the orders for the strict execution of the molasses act, which is said to have caused a greater alarm in the country, than the taking of Fort William Henry did in the year 1757." This I fully believe, and certainly know to be true ; for I was an eye and an ear witness to both of these alarms. Wits may laugh at our fondness for molasses, and we ought all to join in the laugh with as much good humor as General Lincoln did. General Washington, however, always asserted and proved, that Vir- ginians loved molasses as well as New Englandmen did. I know not why we should blush to confess that molasses was an essential ingredient in American independence. Many great events have proceeded from much smaller causes.

Mr. Otis demonstrated how these articles of molasses and sugar, especially the former, entered into all and every branch of our commerce, fisheries, even manufactures and agriculture. He asserted this act to be a revenue law, a taxation law, made by a foreign legislature without our consent, and by a legisla-

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ture who had no feeling for us, and whose interest prompted them to tax us to the quick. Pray, Mr. Tudor, calculate the amount of these duties upon molasses and sugar. What an enormous revenue for that age ! Mr. Otis made a calculation, and showed it to be more than sufficient to support all the crown officers.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 16 August, 1818.

We cannot yet dismiss this precious statute of the 6th of George II. chapter 13.

The second section I must abridge, for I cannot transcribe much more. It enacts, that all the duties imposed by the first section, shall be paid down in ready money by the importer before landing.

The third section must be transcribed by me or some other person, because it is the most arbitrary among statutes that were all arbitrary, the most unconstitutional among laws which were all unconstitutional.

Section 3d. "And be it further enacted, that in case any of the said com- modities shall be landed, or put on shore in any of Ins Majesty's said colonies or plantations in America, out of any ship or vessel before due entry be made thereof, at the port or place where the same shall be imported, and before the duties by this act charged or chargeable thereupon, shall be duly paid, or with- out a warrant for the landing and delivering the same, first signed by the col- lector or impost officer, or other proper officer or officers of the custom or excise, belonging to such port or place respectively, all such goods as shall be so landed or put on shore, or the value of the same, shall be forfeited ; and all and every such goods as shall be so landed or put on shore, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, shall, and may be seized by the governor or commander-in-chief, for the time being, of the colonies or plantations, where the same shall be so landed or put on shore, or any person or persons by them authorized in that behalf, or by warrant of any justice of the peace or other magistrate, (which warrant such justice or magistrate is hereby empowered and required to give upon request,) or by any custom-house officer, impost, or excise officer, or any person or persons him or them accompanying, aiding, and assisting ; and all and every such offence and forfeitures shall, and may be prosecuted for and recovered in any court of admiralty in his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America, (lohich court of admiralty is hereby authorized, impowered, and required to proceed to hear, and finally determine the same,) or in any court of

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record in the said colonies or plantations, where such offence is committed, at the election of the informer or prosecutor, according to the course and method used and practised there in prosecutions for offences against penal laics relating to customs or excise; and such penalties and forfeitures so recovered there shall be divided as follows, — namely, one third part for the use of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to be applied for the support of the government of the colony or plantation, where the same shall be recovered, one third part to the governor or commander-in-chief of the said colony or plantation, and the other third part to the informer or prosecutor, who shall sue for the same."

Section 5th contains the penalties on persons assisting in such unlawful im- portation.

Section 6th. " Fifty pound penalty on molesting an officer on his duty. Officer, if sued, may plead the general issue. Fifty pound penalty, an officer conniving at such fraudulent importation.

Section 7th. " One hundred pound penalty, on master of ship, &c, permit- ting such importation.

Section 8th. " The onus probandi in suits to lie on the owners.

Section 1 2th. " Charge of prosecution to be borne out of the king's part of seizures, forfeitures, and penalties."

George II. was represented and believed in America to be an honest, well-meaning man ; and although he consented to this statute and others which he thought sanctioned by his pre- decessors, especially King William, yet it was reported and understood that he had uniformly resisted the importunities of ministers, governors, planters, and projectors, to induce him to extend the system of taxation and revenue in America, by say- ing, that " he did not understand the colonies ; he wished their prosperity. They appeared to be happy at present; and he would not consent to any innovations, the consequences of which he could not foresee."

Solomon, in all his glory, could not have said a wiser thing. If George III. had adopted this sentiment, what would now be the state of the world? Who can tell, or who can conjecture?

The question now was concerning the designs of a new reign and of a new prince. This young king had now adopted the whole system of his predecessors, Stuarts, Oranges, and Hanoverians, and determined to carry it into execution, right or wrong ; and that, by the most tyrannical instruments that ever were invented — writs of assistance. What hope remained for an American who knew, or imagined he knew, the character of the English nation and the character of the American people ? To borrow a French word, so many reminiscences rush upon

348 CORRESPONDENCE.

me, that I know not which to select, and must return for the present to Mr. Otis. By what means this young inexperienced king was first tempted by his ministers to enter with so much spirit into this system, may be hereafter explained.

Mr. Otis analyzed this statute, 6 George II. c. 13, with great accuracy. His calculations may be made by any modern mathe- matician who will take the pains. How much molasses, for example, was then subject to this tax? Suppose a million gal- lons, which is far less than the truth. Sixpence a gallon was full one half of the value of the article. It was sold at market for one shilling ; and I have known a cargo purchased at a pis- tareen. The duties on a million gallons would then be twenty- five thousand pounds sterling a year ; a fund amply sufficient with the duties on sugars, &c, and more than sufficient, at that time, to pay all the salaries of all the governors upon the conti- nent, and all judges of admiralty too.

Mr. King, formerly of Massachusetts, now of New York, in a late luminous and masterly speech in Senate, page 18, informs us, from sure sources, that " we import annually upwards of six million gallons of West India rum." The Lord have mercy on us ! " More than half of which comes from the English colonies. We also import every year nearly seven millions of gallons of molasses ; and as every gallon of molasses yields, by distillation, a gallon of rum, the rum imported, added to that distilled from molasses, is probably equal to twelve millions of gallons, which enormous quantity is chiefly consumed, besides whiskey, by citizens of the United States." Again, I devoutly pray, the Lord have mercy on us !

But calculate the revenue, at this day, from this single act of George II. It would be sufficient to bribe any nation less knowing and less virtuous than the people of America, to the voluntary surrender of all their liberties.

Mr. Otis asserted this to be a revenue law ; a taxation law ; an unconstitutional law; a law subversive of every end of society and government ; it was null and void. It was a viola- tion of all the rights of nature, of the English Constitution, and of all the charters and compacts with the colonies ; and if car- ried into execution by writs of assistance and courts of ad- miralty, would destroy all security of life, liberty, and pro- perty. Subjecting all these laws to the jurisdiction of judges of

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admiralty, poor dependent creatures, to the forms and course of the civil law, without juries, or any of the open, noble exa- mination of witnesses or publicity of proceedings of the com- mon law, was capping the climax, it was clenching the nail of American slavery.

Mr. Otis roundly asserted, that this statute, and the preced- ing statute, never could be executed. The whole power of Great Britain would be ineffectual ; and by a bold figure, which will now be thought exaggeration, he declared that if the King of Great Britain in person were encamped on Boston common, at the head of twenty thousand men, with all his navy on our coast, he would not be able to execute these laws. They would be resisted or eluded.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 21 August, 1818.

Mr. Otis quoted another author, " The Political and Commer- cial Works of Charles Davenant, LL. D." vol. ii. Discourse 3. " On the Plantation Trade." I cannot transcribe seventy-six pages, but wish that Americans of all classes would read them. They are in the same strain with Downing, Child, Gee, Ashley, Charles II., James II., William and Mary, William III., Anne, George II., and George III. ; all conspiring to make the people of North America hewers of wood and drawers of water to plantation governors, custom-house officers, judges of admiralty, common informers, West India planters, naval commanders, in the first place ; and, after all these worthy people should be amply supported, nourished, encouraged, and pampered, if any thing more could be squeezed from the hard earnings of the farmers, the merchants, the tradesmen, and laborers in America, it was to be drawn into the exchequer in England, to aggran- dize the British navy.

Mr. Otis proceeded to another species of statutes, relative to our internal policy, even our domestic manufactures and fireside comforts ; I might say, our homespun blankets and woollen sheets, so necessary to cover some, if not all of us, in our slum- bers in the long nights of our frozen winters. I shall refer to

vol. x. 30

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these statutes as they occur, without any regard to order, and shall not pretend to transcribe any of them.1

I cannot search for any more of these mincing laws. Mr. Otis alternately laughed and raged against them all. He said one member of Parliament had said, that a hobnail should not be manufactured in America; and another had moved that Americans should be compelled by act of Parliament to send their horses to England to be shod. He believed, however, that this last was a man of sense, and meant, by this admirable irony, to cast a ridicule on the whole selfish, partial, arbitrary, and contracted system of parliamentary regulations in America.

Another statute there is, and was quoted by Mr. Otis, by which wool was prohibited to be water-borne in America ; in consequence of which a fleece of wool could not be conveyed in a canoe across a river or brook, without seizure and forfeit- ure. But I am wearied to death by digging in this mud; with searching among this trash, chaff, rubbish of acts of Parliament;

of that Parliament which declared it had a right to legislate for us, as sovereign, absolute, and supreme, in all cases whatsoever. But I deny that they ever had any right to legislate for us in any case whatsoever. And on this point we are and were at issue before God and the world. These righteous judges have decided the question ; and it is melancholy that any Americans should still doubt the equity and wisdom of the decision.

Such were the bowels of compassion, such the tender mercies of our pious, virtuous, our moral and religious mother country towards her most dutiful and affectionate children ! Such they are still, and such they will be till the United States shall com- pel that country to respect this. To this end, poor and destitute as I am, I would cheerfully contribute double my proportion of the expense of building and equipping thirty ships of the line, before the year 1820.

1 " Furs of the plantations to be brought to Great Britain. 8 Geo. I. c. 15,

ss. 24."

" Hats not to be exported from one plantation to another. 5 Geo. II. c. 2 2." " Hatters not to have more than two apprentices. 5 Geo. II. c. 22, ss. 7." " Slitting mills, steel furnaces, &c, not to be erected in the plantations. 23

Geo. II. c. 29, ss. 9."

" No wool, or woollen manufacture of the plantations shall be exported. 10

& 11 Wm. III. c. 10, ss. 19."

" Exporting wool, contrary to the regulations, forfeiture of the ship, &c. 1 2

Geo. H. c. 21, ss. 11."

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Mr. Otis asserted all these acts to be null and void by the law of nature, by the English constitution, and by the Ameri- can charters, because America was not represented in Parlia- ment. He entered into the history of the charters. James I. and Charles I. could not be supposed to have ever intended that Parliament, more hated by them both than the Pope or the French King, should share with them in the government of colonies and corporations which they had instituted by their royal prerogatives. " Tom, Dick, and Harry were not to cen- sure them and their council." Pym, Hampden, Sir Harry Vane, and Oliver Cromwell did not surely wish to subject a country, which they sought as an asylum, to the arbitrary jurisdiction of a country from which they wished to fly. Charles II. had learned by dismal, doleful experience, that Parliaments were not to be wholly despised. He, therefore, endeavored to asso- ciate Parliament with himself in his navigation act, and many others of his despotic projects, even in that of destroying, by his unlimited licentiousness and debauchery, the moral character of the nation. Charles II. courted Parliament as a mistress ; his successors embraced her as a wife, at least for the purpose of enslaving America.

Mr. Otis roundly asserted this whole system of parliamentary regulations, and every act of Parliament before quoted, to be illegal, unconstitutional, tyrannical, null, and void. Neverthe- less, with all my admiration of Mr. Otis, and enthusiasm for his character, I must acknowledge he was not always consistent in drawing or admitting the necessary consequences from his principles, one of which comprehended them all, to wit, that Parliament had no authority over America in any case whatsoever.

But at present we must confine ourselves to his principles and authorities in opposition to the acts of trade and writs of assistance. These principles I perfectly remember. The author- ities in detail I could not be supposed to retain ; though with recollecting the names, Vattel, Coke, and Holt, I might have found them again by a diligent search. But Mr. Otis himself has saved that trouble, by a publication of his own, which must be the subject of another letter.1

1 The next letter contains nearly the whole of Mr. Otis's memorial, drawn up and sent to Jasper Mauduit by the House of Representatives, in June, 1 7G-i, the substance of which has been given by the younger Tudor in his Life of Otis, pp. 166 - 169. It is omitted here for want of space.

352 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 10 September, 1818.

The charters were quoted or alluded to by Mr. Otis frequently in the whole course of his argument ; but he made them also a more distinct and more solemn head of his discourse. And here, these charters ought to be copied verbatim. But an im- mense verbiage renders it impossible. Bishop Butler somewhere complains of this enormous abuse of words in public transac- tions, and John Read and Theophilus Parsons, of Massachu- setts, have attempted to reform it. So did James Otis. All with little success. I hope, however, that their examples will be followed, and that common sense in common language will, in time, become fashionable. But the hope must be faint as long as clerks are paid by the line and the number of syllables in a line.

Some passages of these charters must, however, be quoted ; and I will endeavor to strip them, as well as I can, of their use- less words. They are recited in the charter of King William and Queen Mary, dated the seventh day of October, in the third year of their reign, that is, in 1691.

" Whereas King James I., in the eighteenth year of his reign, did grant to the Council at Plymouth, for the planting and governing New England, all that part of America, from the 40th to the 48th degree of latitude, and from sea to sea, together with all lands, waters, fishings, and all and singular ether commo- dities, jurisdictions, royalties, privileges, franchises, and preeminences, both within the said tract of land upon the main, and also within the islands and seas adjoining, to have and hold all, unto the said council, their heirs and successors and assigns forever, to be holden of his said Majesty as of his manor of East Greenwich, in free and common socage, and not in capite, or by knights' ser- vice ; yielding to the king a fifth part of the ore of gold and silver, for and in respect of all and all manner of duties, demands, and services whatsoever."

But I cannot pursue to the end this infinite series of words. You must read the charter again. For although you have and I have read it fifty times, I believe you will find it, as I do, much stronger in favor of Mr. Otis's argument than I expected or you will expect. I doubt whether you will take the pains to read it again ; but your son will, and to him I recommend it.

The Council of Plymouth, on the 19th of March, in the third year of the reign of Charles I., granted to Sir Henry Rosewell

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and others, part of New England by certain boundaries, with all the prerogatives and privileges.

King Charles L, on the 4th of March, in the fourth year of his reign, confirmed to Sir Henry Rosewell and others, all those lands before granted to them by the Council'of Plymouth. King Charles I. created Sir Henry Rosewell and others, a body cor- porate and politic. And said body politic did settle a colony, which became very populous.

* In 1684, in the 36th year of King William and Queen Mary's dearest uncle, Charles II., a judgment was given in the court of chancery, that the letters-patent of Charles I. should be can- celled, vacated, and annihilated.

The~ligeuts— petitioned to be reincorporated. I can easily conceive their perplexity, their timidity, their uncertainty, their choice of difficulties, their necessary preference of the least of a multitude of evils, for I have felt them all as keenly as they did.

William and Mary unite Massachusetts, New Plymouth, the Province of Maine and Nova Scotia into one province, to be holden in fee of the manor of East Greenwich, paying one fifth of gold and silver ore.

Liberty of conscience to be granted to all Christians, except papists. Good God ! A grant from a king of liberty of con- science! Is it not a grant of the King of kings, which no puppet or roitelet upon earth can give or take away ?

The general court empowered to erect judicatories and courts of record. The general court empowered to make laws, " not repugnant to the laws of England." Here was an unfathomable gulf of controversy. The grant itself, of liberty of conscience, was repugnant to the laws of England. Every thing was repugnant to the laws of England. The whole system of colo- nization was beyond the limits of the laws of England, and beyond the jurisdiction of their national legislature. The gene- ral court is authorized to impose fines, &c, and taxes.

But the fell paragraph of all is the proviso in these words : —

" Provided always, and it is hereby declared, that nothing herein shall extend or to be taken to erect or grant, or allow the exercise of any admiralty court jurisdiction, power, or authority ; but that the same shall be, and is hereby re- served to us and our successors, and shall from time to time be erected, granted, and exercised by virtue of commissions to be issued under the great seal of England, or under the seal of the high admiral, or the commissioners for exe- cuting the office of high admiral of England."

30* w

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The history of this court of admiralty would require volumes. Where are its records and its files ? Its libels and answers ? Its interrogatories and cross-interrogatories ? Ail hurried away to England, as I suppose, never to be seen again in America, nor probably to be inspected in Europe.

The records and files of the court of probate in Boston were transported to Halifax. Judge Foster Hutchinson had the honor to return them after the peace of 1783. But admiralty records have never been restored, as I have heard.

The subject may be pursued hereafter by your servant,

John Adams.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 13 September, 1818. It is some consolation to find in the paragraph of the char- ter, next following the court of admiralty, that nothing in it

" stall in any manner enure, or be taken to abridge, bar, or binder any of our loving subjects whatsoever, to use and exercise the trade of fishing upon the coasts of New England, but that they and every of them shall have full and free power and liberty to continue and use their said trade of fishing upon the said coast, in any of the seas thereunto adjoining, or any arms of the said seas, or salt water rivers, where they have been wont to fish ; and to build and set upon the lands within our said province or colony, lying waste, and not then possessed by particular proprietors, such wharfs, stages, and work -houses, as shall be necessary for the salting, drying, keeping, and packing of their fish, to be taken and gotten upon that coast ; and to cut down and take such trees and other materials there growing or being upon any parts or places lying waste, and not then in posses- sion of particular proprietors, as shall be needful for that purpose, and for all other necessai'y easements, helps, and advantages, concerning the trade of fishing there, in such manner and form as they have been heretofore at any time accustomed to do, without making any wilful waste or spoil-, any thing in these presents to the contrary notwithstanding."

Fellow-citizens ! Recollect that " this our province or colony " contained the whole of Nova Scotia as well as the " Province of Maine, Massachusetts Bay, and New Plymouth." Will you ever surrender one particle, one iota of this sacred charter right, and still more sacred right of nature, purchase, acquisition, pos- session, usage, habit, and conquest, let the thunder of British cannon say what it will ? I know you will not. I know you

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cannot. And if you could be base enough to surrender it, which I know you cannot and never will be, your sons will reclaim it and redemand it at the price of whatever blood or treasure it may cost, and will obtain it, secure it, and command it forever. This pretended grant is but an acknowledgment of your antecedent right by nature and by English liberty. You have no power or authority to alienate it. It was granted, or rather acknowledged to your successors and posterity as well as to you, and any cessions you could make would be null and void in the sight of God and all reasonable men.

Mr. Otis descanted largely on these charters. His observa- tions carried irresistible conviction to the minds and hearts of many others as well as to mine, that every one of those statutes from the navigation act to the last act of trade, was a violation of all the charters and compacts between the two countries, was a fundamental invasion of our essential rights, and wras consequently null and void ; that the legislatures of the colo- nies, and especially of Massachusetts, had the sole and exclusive authority of legislation and especially of taxation in America.

The indecision and inconsistency, which appears in some of Mr. Otis's subsequent writings is greatly to be regretted and lamented. They resemble those of Colonel Bland, as repre- sented by Mr. Wirt. I wish I had Colonel Bland's pamphlet that I might compare it with some of Mr. Otis's.

I have too many daily proofs of the infirmity of my memory to pretend to recollect Mr. Otis's reasoning in detail. If, indeed, I had a general recollection of any of his positions, I could not express them in that close, concise, nervous, and energetic lan- guage, which was peculiar to him, and which I never possessed.

I must leave you, Sir, to make your own observations and reflections upon these charters. But you may indulge me in throwing out a few hints, rather as queries or topics of specu- lation than as positive opinions. And here, though I see a wide field, I must make it narrow.

1. Mr. Bollan was a kind of learned man, of indefatigable research, and a faithful friend to America ; though he lost all his influence when his father-in-law, Governor and General Shirley, went out of circulation. This Mr. Bollan printed a book very early on the " Rights of the Colonies." I scarcely ever knew a book so deeply despised. The English reviewers

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would not allow it to be the production of a rational creature. In America itself it was held in no esteem. Otis himself ex- pressed in the House of Representatives, in a public speech, his contempt of it in these words : " Mr. Bollan's book is the strangest thing I ever read. Under the title of ' Rights of the Colonies,' he has employed one third of his work to prove that the world is round ; and another, that it turns round ; and the last, that the Pope was a devil for pretending to give it to whom he pleased."

All this I regretted. I wished that Bollan had not only been permitted, but encouraged to proceed. There is no doubt he would have produced much in illustration of the ecclesiastical and political superstition and despotism of the ages when colo- nization commenced and proceeded. But Bollan was dis- couraged, and ceased from his labors.

What is the idea, Mr. Tudor, of British allegiance ? And of European allegiance ? Can you, or, rather, will you analyze it ? At present, I have demands upon me, which compel me to close abruptly.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 18 September, 1818.

The English doctrine of allegiance is so mysterious, fabulous, and enigmatical, that it is difficult to decompose the elements of which it is compounded. The priests, under the Hebrew economy, especially the sovereign pontiffs, were anointed with consecrated oil, which was poured upon their heads in such profusion that it ran down their beards, and they wei;e thence called " the Lord's anointed." When kings were permitted to be introduced, they were anointed in the same manner by the sovereign pontiff; and they, too, were called " the Lord's anointed." When the pontiffs of Rome assumed the customs, pomps, and ceremonies of the Jewish priesthood, they assumed the power of consecrating things by the same ceremony of " holy oil." The Pope who, as vicar of God, possessed the whole globe of earth in supreme dominion and absolute pro- perty, possessed also the power of sending the Holy Ghost

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wherever he pleased. To France it pleased his holiness to send him in a phial of oil to Rheims, in the beak of a dove. I have not heard, that my friend, Louis XVIII. has been consecrated at Rheims, by the pouring on of this holy oil ; but his worthy elder brother, Louis XVI., was so consecrated at a vast expense of treasure and ridicule. How the holy bottle was conveyed to England, is worth inquiry. But there it is, and is used at every coronation ; and is demurely, if not devoutly, shown to every traveller who visits the tower. These ideas were once as firmly established in England as they were in Rome ; and no small quantity of the relics of them remain to this day. Hence the doctrine of the divine right of kings, and the duties, in subjects, of unlimited submission, passive obedience, and non-resistance, on pain (oh, how can I write it ?) of eternal damnation. These doctrines have been openly and boldly asserted and defended, since my memory, in the town of Boston and in the town of Quincy, by persons of no small consideration in the world, whom I could name, but I will not, because their posterity are much softened from this severity.

This indelible character of sovereignty in kings and obedience in subjects still remains. The rights and duties are inherent, unalienable, indefeasible, indestructible, and immortal. Hence the right of a lieutenant or midshipman of a British man-of- war to search all American ships, impress every seaman his judgeship shall decree, by law, and in fact, to be a subject of his king, and compel him to fight, though it may be against his father, brother, or son. My countrymen ! Will you submit to those miserable remnants of priestcraft and despotism ?

There is no principle of law or government, that has been more deliberately or more solemnly adjudged in Great Britain than that allegiance is not due to the king in his official ^capa- city or political capacity, but merely in his personal capacity. Allegiance to Parliament is nowhere found in English, Scottish, or British laws. What, then, had our ancestors to do with

Parliament? Nothing more than with the Jewish Sanhe- drim, or Napoleon's literary and scientific Institute at Grand Cairo. They owed no allegiance to Parliament, as a whole or in parts ; none to the House of Lords, as a branch of the legislature, nor to any individual peer or number of individuals ; none to the House of Commons, as another branch, nor to any individual

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commoner or group of commoners. They owed no allegiance to the nation, any more than the nation owed to them ; and they had as good and clear a right to make laws for England, as the people of England had to make laws for them.

What right, then, had King James I. to the sovereignty, do- minion, or property of North America ? No more than King George III. has to Georgium sidus, because Mr. Herschell dis- covered that planet in his reign. His only color, pretension, or pretext is this. The Pope, as head of the church, was sove- reign of the world. Henry VIII. deposed him, became head of the church in England, and consequently became sovereign master and proprietor of as much of the globe as he could grasp. A group of his nobles hungered for immense landed estates in America, and obtained from his quasi holiness a large tract. But it was useless and unprofitable to them. They must have planters and settlers. The sincere and conscientious Protestants had been driven from England into Holland, Ger- many, Switzerland, &c, by the terrors of stocks, pillories, crop- pings, scourges, imprisonments, roastings, and burnings, under Henry VIII., Elizabeth, Mary, James L, and Charles I. The noblemen and gentlemen of th~ council of Plymouth wanted settlers for their lands in America, set on foot a negotiation with the persecuted fugitive religionists abroad, promised them liberty of conscience, exemption from all jurisdiction, ecclesiastic, civil, and political, except allegiance to the king, and the tribute, moderate, surely, of one fifth of gold and silver ore. This char- ter was procured by the council at Plymouth, and displayed off as a lure to the persecuted, fugitive Englishmen abroad ; and they were completely taken into the snare, as Charles II. con- vinced them in the first year of his actual, and the twelfth of his imaginary reign. Sir Josiah Child, enemy as he was, has stated, in the paragraphs quoted from him in a former letter, fairly and candidly the substance of these facts.

Our ancestors had been so long abroad, that they had ac- quired comfortable establishments, especially in Holland, that singular region of toleration, that glorious asylum for persecuted Huguenots and Puritans, that country where priests have been eternally worrying one another, and alternately teasing the go- vernment to persecute their antagonists, but where enlightened statesmen have constantly and intrepidly resisted their wild fanaticism.

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The first charter, the charter of James I., is more like a treaty between independent sovereigns than like a charter or grant of privileges from a sovereign to his subjects. Our ancestors were tempted by the prospect and promise of a government of their own, independent in religion, government, commerce, ma- nufactures, and every thing else, excepting one or two articles of trifling importance.

Independence of English church and state, was the funda- mental principle of the first colonization, has been its general principle for two hundred years, and now, I hope, is past dis- pute.

Who, then, was the author, inventor, discoverer of inde- pendence ? The only true answer must be the first emigrants, and the proof of it is the charter of James I. When we say, that Otis, Adams, Mayhew, Henry, Lee, Jefferson, &c, were authors of independence, we ought to saythey were only awakeners and revivers of the original fundamental principle of colonization.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 23 September, 1818.

If, in our search of principles, we have not been able to inves- tigate any moral, philosophical, or rational foundation for any claim of dominion or property in America, in the English na- tion, their Parliament, or even in their king; if the whole appears a mere usurpation of fiction, fancy, and superstition, what was the right to dominion or property in the native In- dians?

Shall we say that a few handfuls of scattering tribes of savages have a right of dominion and property over a quarter of this globe capable of nourishing hundreds of millions of happy human beings? Why had not Europeans a right to come and hunt and fish with them ?

The Indians had a right to life, liberty, and property in com- mon with all men ; but what right to dominion or property beyond these ? Every Indian had a right to his wigwam, his armor, his utensils ; when he had burned the woods about him,

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and planted his corn and beans, his squashes and pompions, all these were his undoubted right ; but will you infer from this, that he had right of exclusive dominion and property over immense regions of uncultivated wilderness that he never saw, that he might have the exclusive privilege of hunting and fish- ing in them, which he himself never expected or hoped to enjoy ? These reflections appear to have occurred to our ancestors, and their general conduct was regulated by them. They do not seem to have had any confidence in their charter, as con- veying any right, except against the king who signed it. They considered the right to be in the native Indians. And, in truth, all the right there was in the^case lay there. They accordingly

j^spected the Indian wigwams and poor plantations, their clam- banks and muscle-banks and oyster-banks, and all their pro- perty.

Property in land, antecedent to civil society, or the social compact, seems to have been confined to actual possession and power of commanding it. It is the creature of convention, of social laws and artificial order. Our ancestors, however, did not amuse, nor puzzle themselves with these refinements.

• They considered the Indians as having rights ; and they entered into negotiations with them, purchased and paid for

^their rights and claims, whatever they were, and procured deeds, grants, and quitclaims of all their lands, leaving them their habitations, arms, utensils, fishings, huntings, and planta- tions. There is scarcely a litigation at law concerning a title to land that may not be traced to an Indian deed. I have in my possession, somewhere, a parchment copy of a deed of Massasoit,1 of the township of Braintree incorporated by the legislature in one thousand six hundred and thirty-nine. And this was the general practice through the country, and has been to this day through the continent. In short, I see not how the Indians could have been treated with more equity or humanity

than they have been in general in North America. The histo- ries of Indian wars have not been sufficiently regarded.

When Mr. Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay first

1 Slight inaccuracies occur here. The deed is a deed of release, in 1665, from Wampatuck, the son of Chickatabut, deceased, of all lands in Braintree, with certain exceptions therein named, granted by his predecessors. The township •was incorporated in 1640.

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appeared, one of the most common criticisms upon it was the slight, cold, and unfeeling manner in which he passed over the Indian wars. I have heard gentlemen the best informed in the history of the country say, " he had no sympathy for the suffer- ings of his ancestors. Otherwise he could not have winked out of sight one of the most important, most affecting, afflict- ing, and distressing branches of the history of his country."

There is somewhere in existence, as I hope and believe, a manuscript history of Indian wars, written by the Reverend Samuel Niles, of Braintree. Almost sixty years ago, I was an humble acquaintance of this venerable clergyman, then, as I be- lieve, more than fourscore years of age. He asked me many questions, and informed me, in his own house, that he was endea- voring to recollect and commit to writing a history of Indian . wars, in his own time, and before it, as far as he could collect information. This history he completed and prepared for the press ; but no printer would undertake it, or venture to pro- pose a subscription for its publication. Since my return from Europe, I inquired of his oldest son, the Honorable Samuel Niles, of Braintree, on a visit he made me at my own house, what was become of that manuscript. He laughed, and said it was still safe in the till of a certain trunk ; but no encouragement had ever appeared for its publication. Ye liberal Christians ! Laugh not at me, nor frown upon me, for thus reviving the memory of your once formidable enemy. I was then no more of a disciple of his theological science than ye are now. But I then revered and still revere the honest, virtuous, and pious man. Fas est et ab hoste doceri. And his memorial of facts might be of great value to this country.1

What infinite pains have been taken and expenses incurred in treaties, presents, stipulated sums of money, instruments of agriculture, education, what dangerous and unwearied labors, to converl these poor, ignorant savages to Christianity! And,

alas! with how little success! The Indians are as bigoted to their religion as the Mahometans are to their Koran, the Hin- doos to their Shaster, the Chinese to Confucius, the Romans to their saints and angels, or the Jews to Moses and the Prophets. It is a principle of religion, at bottom, which inspires the Indians

i

A part of this history has been published by the Historical Society of Mas- sachusetts, in their Transactions, vol. vi. of the third series. VOL. X. 31

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with such an invincible aversion both to civilization and Christ- ianity. The same principle has excited their perpetual hostilities against the colonists and the independent Americans.

If the English nation, their Parliaments, and all their kings, have appeared to be totally ignorant of all these things, or at least to have vouchsafed no consideration upon them; if we, good, patriotic Americans, have forgotten them, Mr. Otis had not. / He enlarged on the merits of our ancestors in undertaking so perilous, arduous, and almost desperate an enterprise, in disforesting bare creation, in conciliating and necessarily con- tending with Indian natives, in purchasing rather than con- quering a quarter of the globe at their own expense, at the sweat of their own brows, at the hazard and sacrifice of their own lives, without the smallest aid, assistance, or comfort from the government of England, or from England itself as a nation ; on the contrary, constant jealousy, envy, intrigue against their charter, their religion, and all their privileges. Laud, the pious tyrant, dreaded them, as if he foresaw they would overthrow his religion.

Mr. Otis reproached the nation, parliaments, and kings, with injustice, ungenerosity, ingratitude, cruelty, and perfidy in all their conduct towards this country, in a style of oratory that I never heard equalled in this or any other country.1

THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN ADAMS.

Monticello, 13 November, 1818.

The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event,3 of which your letter of October 20th had given me ominous

1 By comparison of this sketch of Mr. Otis's speech with that taken at the time, vol. ii. pp. 521 -525, as well as with Mr. Otis's published writings, it is difficult to resist the belief that Mr. Adams insensibly infused into this work much of the learning and of the breadth of views belonging to himself. It looks

a little as Raphael's labor might be supposed to look, if he bad undertaken to simw how LVrug'mo [minted. h has a historical value independently of the generous endeavor to do justice to a man who had, at the moment, fallen into discredit and oblivion, most undeservedly. Later historians are giving him his fittino; position. ~ the death of Mrs. Adams.

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foreboding. Tried myself in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connection which can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to endure. The same trials have taught me that, for ills so immeasurable, time and silence are the only medicines. I will not, therefore, by useless condolences open afresh the sluices of your grief, nor, although mingling sincerely my tears with yours, will I say a word more, where words are vain, but that it is of some comfort to us both that the term is not very distant, at which we are to deposit in the same cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we shall still love and never lose again. God bless you and support you under your heavy affliction.

Thomas Jefferson.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 8 December, 1818.

Your letter of November 13th gave great delight, not only by the divine consolation it afforded me under my great affliction, but as it gave me full proof of your restoration to health.

While you live, I seem to have a bank at Monticello, on which I can draw for a letter of friendship and entertainment , when I please.

I know not how to pro ve^ physically- that we shall meet and know each other in a future state ; nor does revelation, as I can find, give us any positive assurance of such a felicity. My rea- sons for believing it, as I do most undoubtedly, are Nthat I can- not conceive \ such a being could make such a species as the rl human^merely to live and die on this earth. If I did not be- lieve a future state, I should believe in no God. This universe, this all, this to tv&v, would appear, with all its swelling pomp, a boyish fire-work. l AncL.if there be a future state, why should the Almighty dissolve forever all the tender ties which unite us so delightfully in this world, and forbid us to see each other in the next?

••

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Trumbull, with a band of associates, drew me, by the cords of old friendship, to see his picture, on Saturday, where I got a great cold. The air of Faneuil Hall is changed. I have not been used to catch cold there.

Sick or well, the friendship is the same of your old acquaint- ance.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR,

Quincy, 9 February, 1819.

In your last letter you consider me in debt, and I will not dispute it.

You seem to wish me to write something to diminish the fame of Sam Adams, to show that he was not a man of pro- found learning, a great lawyer, a man of vast reading, a com- prehensive statesman. In all this, I shall not gratify you.

Give me leave to tell you, my friend, that you have conceived prejudices against that great character ; and I wonder not at it. At present, I shall make only one observation. Samuel Adams, to my certain knowledge, from 1758 to 1775, that is, for seven- teen years, made it his constant rule to watch the rise of every brilliant genius, to seek his acquaintance, to court his friendship, to cultivate his natural feelings in favor of his native country, to warn him against the hostile designs of Great Britain, and to fix his affections and reflections on the side of his native country. I could enumerate a list, but I will confine myself to a few. John Hancock, afterwards President of Congress and Governor of the State ; Dr. Joseph Warren, afterwards Major- General of the militia of Massachusetts, and the martyr of Bunker's Hill; Benjamin Church, the poet and the orator, once a pretended, if not a real patriot, but, afterwards, a monument of the frailty of human nature ; Josiah Quincy, the Boston Cicero, the great orator in the body meetings, the author of the Observations on the Boston Port bill, and of many publications in the newspapers. I will stop here for the present. And, now, I will take the liberty of perfect friendship to add, that, if your Judge Minot, your Fisher Ames, or your honorable senator, Josiah Quincy the third, had been as intimately acquainted

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with Samuel Adams, as Hancock, Warren, and Josiah Quincy the second, they would have been as ardent patriots as he was. If Samuel Adams was not a Demosthenes in oratory, nor had the learning of a Mansfield in law, or the universal history of a Burke, he had the art of commanding the learning, the oratory, the talents, the diamonds of the first water that his country afforded, without anybody's knowing or suspecting he had it, but himself, and a very few friends.

I have much more to say concerning Samuel Adams, but I cannot write, and I am exhausted with dictating, and must content myself with adding that I am, and, I believe, ever shall be, your affectionate friend.

TO WILLIAM WILLIS.

Quincy, 21 February, 1819.

I thank you for your address to the New Bedford Auxiliary Society for the suppression of Intemperance, which I have read with pleasure and edification. It abounds in ingenuity and in- formation ; it is eloquent and pathetic, it is pious and virtuous ; it addresses itself to the understanding and the heart. A drunk- ard is the most selfish being in the universe ; he has no sense of modesty, shame, or disgrace ; he has no sense of duty, or sympathy of affection with his father or mother, his brother or sister, his friend or neighbor, his wife or children, no reverence for his God, no sense of futurity in this world or the other. All is swallowed up in the mad, selfish joy of the moment. Is it not humiliating that Mahometans and Hindoos should put to shame the whole Christian world by their superior examples of temperance ? Is it not degrading to Englishmen and Ameri- cans that they are so infinitely exceeded by the French in this cardinal virtue ? And is it not mortifying beyond all expres- sion that we, Americans, should exceed all other and millions of people in the world in this degrading, beastly vice of intem- perance ?

31*

366 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 23 February, 1819.

As you were so well acquainted with the philosophers of France, I presume the name and character of Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse is not unknown to you.

I have almost put out my eyes by reading two volumes of her letters, which, as they were printed in 1809, I presume you have read long ago. I confess I have never read any thing with more ennui, disgust, and loathing; the eternal repetition of mon dieu and mon ami,je vous aime,je vous aime eperdument, je vous aime d lafolie,je suis au desespoir, fespere la mort, je suis morte, je prend V opium, &c, &c.

She was constantly in love with other women's husbands, constantly violating her fidelity to her own keepers, constantly tormented with remorse and regrets, constantly wishing for death, and constantly threatening to put herself to death, &c, &c, &c. Yet this great lady was the confidential friend of M. Turgot, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, the Duchess d'En- ville, M. Condorcet, the only lady who was admitted to the dinners which Madame Geoffrin made for the literati of France and the world, the intimate friend of Madame Boufilers, the open, acknowledged mistress of the great D' Alembert, and much admired by Marmontel.

If these letters and the fifteen volumes of De Grimm are to give me an idea of the amelioration of society, and government, and manners in France, I should think the age of reason had produced nothing much better than the Mahometans, the Ma- melukes, or the Hindoos, or the North American Indians have produced, in different parts of the world.

Festina lente, my friend, in all your projects of reformation. Abolish polytheism, however, in every shape, if you can, and unfrock every priest who teaches it, if you can.

To compensate, in some measure, for this crazy letter, I in- close to you Mr. Pickering's1 Essay on the Pronunciation of the Greek Language, which, very probably, you have received

1 Mr. John Pickering, distinguished for his learning and his literary pursuits in paths little explored in America, in his day.

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from various quarters before now, and with it, I pray you to accept assurances of the unabated friendship of your humble servant.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 7 March, 1819.

On the 20th of January, 1768, the House of Representatives appointed a committee to prepare a petition to the king, and letters to his ministers, and a letter to the agent. Knowing that such a committee was appointed, and that they were busily employed in preparing those representations, and meeting Mr. Otis one morning, I asked him, " How do you proceed with your petitions and letters ? " He answered, " I have drawn them all up, and given them to Sam to quieu whew them." Whether this word is Arabic or Seminole, I know not. I believe it was an oddity of his own invention. These letters were printed in London, by Almon, in 1768, in a pamphlet. These letters, from beginning to end, demonstrate the rough cast of James Otis and the polish and burnish of Samuel Adams. The first is a petition to the king. In every sentence of this petition the hand of Otis is visible ; in page 8, in this paragraph, particu- larly.

" With great sincerity permit us to assure your Majesty, that your subjects of this province ever have and still continue to acknowledge your Majesty's high court of Parliament the supreme legislative power of the whole empire ; the superintending authority of which is clearly admitted in all cases that can con- sist with the fundamental rights of nature and the constitution, to which your Majesty's happy subjects in all parts of your empire conceive they have a just and equitable claim."

The next letter is to the Earl of Shelburne. This letter, also, in every paragraph, demonstrates the hand of Mr. Otis. In page 15 : —

" It is the glory of the British constitution that it has its foundation in the law of God and nature. It is essentially a natural right, that a man shall quietly enjoy and have the sole disposal of his own property. This right is engrafted into the British constitution, and is familiar to the American subjects; and your lordship will judge whether any necessity can render it just and equitable in

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the nature of things, that the supreme legislative of the empire should impose duties, subsidies, talliages, and taxes, internal or external, for the sole purpose of raising a revenue, upon subjects that are not and cannot, considering their local circumstances, by any possibility be ecmally represented, and consequently whose consent cannot be had in Parliament. The security of right and pro- perty is the great end of government. Surely, then, such measures as tend to render right and property precarious, tend to destroy both property and government ; for these must stand or fall together. Property is admitted to have an existence in the savage state of nature; and, if it is necessary for the sup- port of savage life, it becomes by no means less so in civil society. The House entreat your lordship to consider whether a colonist can be conceived to have any property which he may call his own, if it may be granted away by any other body without his consent; and they submit to your lordship's judgment, whether this was not actually done, when the act for granting to his Majesty certain duties for paper, glass, and other articles, for the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue in America, was made. It is the judgment of Lord Coke, that the Par- liament of Great Britain cannot tax Ireland quia milites ad parliamentum non mittant; and Sir William Jones, an eminent jurist, declared it as his opinion to King Charles II., that he could no more grant a commission to levy money on his subjects in Jamaica, without their consent by an assembly, than they could discharge themselves from their allegiance to the crown."

1 have selected this paragraph merely as a specimen ; but every other sentence in the letter carries demonstrative marks of the hand of James Otis. The next letter was to General Conway, dated February 18th, 1768. This letter, also, bears indelible marks of the hand of James Otis. Page 22d: —

" The House is at all times ready to recognize his Majesty's high court of Parliament, the supreme legislative power over the whole empire. Its superin- tending authority in all cases consistent with the fundamental rules of the con- stitution, is as clearly admitted by his Majesty's subjects in this province as by those within the realm."

This paragraph is an infallible stamp of the then character of James Otis's opinions. This opinion was not mine. I could not and would not have consented to it, for long before this^

time I was fully convinced that Parliament had no legal and constitutional authority over us, in any case whatsoever. T>age 23 : ^~

" It is the glory of the British prince and the happiness of all his subjects, that their constitution hath its foundation in the immutable laws of nature, and as the supreme legislative, as well as the supreme executive, derives its authority from that constitution, it should seem that no laws can be made or executed that are repugnant to any essential law in nature. Hence, a British subject is hap- pily distinguished from the subjects of many other States, in a just and well- grounded opinion of his own safety, which is the perfection of political liberty."

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This whole paragraph is James Otis in perfection ; the sense of every line of it is his. It may be thought a minute criticism, but it is characteristic and infallible. Otis and the majority of the committee derived all authority from the constitution. Samuel Adams would have derived it only from the people; the people with him were every thing, and constitutions nothing. Otis and Adams, however, might have agreed in expression, for it is certain that no constitution can be made by any other power than the people. The letter proceeds, page 23 : —

" It is acknowledged to be an unalterable law in nature, that a man should have the free use and sole disposal of the fruit of his honest industry, subject to no control. The equity of this principle seems to have been too obvious to be misunderstood by those who framed the constitution, into which it is engrafted as an established law. It is conceived that this principle gave rise, in early time, to a representation in Parliament, where every individual in the realm has since been and is still considered by acts of Parliament as present by himself or by his representative of his own free election ; consequently the aid afforded there to the sovereign is not in the nature of a tribute, but the free and voluntary gift of all."

All the subsequent paragraphs of this letter carry indelible marks of Otis's hand, smoothed with the oily brush of Sam Adams. The next letter is to the Marquis of Rockingham, "January 22d, 1768. Page 28 : —

" Your lordship is pleased to say, that you will not adopt a system of arbitrary rule over the Colonies, nor do otherwise than strenuously resist, where attempts shall be made to throw off that dependency to which the Colonies ought to sub- mit. And your lordship, with great impartiality, adds, ' not only for the advan- tage of Great Britain, but for their own real happiness and safety.' This House, my Lord, have the honor heartily to join with you in sentiment ; and they speak the language of their constituents. So sensible are they of their happiness and safety, in their union with and dependence upon the mother country, that they would by no means be inclined to accept of an independency, if offered to them."

This was the sentiment of James Otis and of a majority of that committee and of their constituents ; but whether it was cordially the sentiment of Sam Adams at that time, I submit to the judgment of his grandson. I could not have consented to that paragraph without limitations and explanations. If we could have been sure of continuing our old connection, 1 should have preferred it to independence ; but rather than submit to the sovereign authority of Parliament, I would not only have

x

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accepted independence, if offered, but would have fought for it, if refused. Page 29th : —

"My Lord, the superintending power of that high court" (the Parliament) " over all his Majesty's subjects in the empire, and in all cases which can consist with the fundamental rules of the constitution, was never questioned in this province, nor, as the House conceive, in any other. But, in all free States the constitution is fixed. It is from thence that the supreme legislative, as well as the supreme executive, derives its authority ; neither, then, can break through the fundamental rules of the constitution without destroying their own founda- tion. It is humbly conceived, that all his Majesty's happy subjects, in every part of his wide extended dominions, have a just and equitable claim to the rights of that constitution, upon which government itself is formed, and by which sovereignty and allegiance are ascertained and limited. Your lordship will allow us to say, that it is an essential right of a British subject, engrafted into the constitution, or, if your lordship will admit the expression, a sacred and unalien- able natural right, quietly to enjoy and have the sole disposal of his own pro- perty."

This and all the subsequent paragraphs in this letter are but abridgments of the sentiments uttered by Otis in 1761, in his arguments against the execution of the dormant acts of trade^ The next letter is to Lord Camden, page 33 : —

"If in all free States the constitution is fixed, and the supreme legislative power of the nation from thence derives its authority, can that power overleap the bounds of the constitution without subverting its own foundation ? If the re- motest subjects are bound by the ties of allegiance, which this people and their forefathers have ever acknowledged, are they not by the rules of equity entitled to all the rights of that constitution, which ascertains and limits both sovereignty and allegiance ? If it is an essential, unalterable right in nature, engrafted into the British constitution as a fundamental law, and ever held sacred and irre- vocable by the subjects within the realm, that what is a man's own is absolutely his own and that no man hath a right to take it from him without his consent, may not the subjects of this province, with a decent firmness, which has always distinguished the happy subjects of Britain, plead and maintain this natural constitutional right ? The superintending authority of his Majesty's high court of Parliament over the whole empire, in all cases which can consist with the fundamental rights of the constitution, was never questioned in this province^ nor, as this House conceive, in any other."

Here, Mr. Otis, Mr. Adams, and the whole committee, are undoubtedly in an error • they made too ample a concession. The authority of Parliament had always been questioned and always disputed until the year 1675, when it was denied not only by Governor Leverett, but the legislature of the colony, and it was ever after questioned by the best informed

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and thinking men both in this province and in many others, if not in all : —

" But they entreat your lordship's reflection one moment on an act of Parlia- ment passed the last session, and another in the fourth of his present Majes- ty's reign, both imposing duties on Ins subjects in America, which, as they are imposed for the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, are, in effect, taxes. The position, that taxation and representation are inseparable, is founded on the immutable laws of nature ; but the Americans had no represent- ation in the Parliament, when they were taxed ; are they not then unfortunate in these instances, in having that separated, which God and nature had joined V "

Every other paragraph in the letter is demonstrative of the hand of Otis. Page 36 : —

"A power without a check is always unsafe, and in some future time may introduce an absolute government into America. The judges of the land here do not hold their commissions during good behavior; is it not, then, justly to be apprehended that, at so great a distance from the throne, the fountain of national justice, with salaries altogether independent of the people, an arbitrary rule may take effect, which shall deprive a bench of justice of its glory and the people of their security ? "

The next letter is to the Earl of Chatham, February 2d, 1768. This is principally a letter of compliment, but it may not be amiss to quote a sentence or two. Page 38 : —

" It must afford the utmost satisfaction to the distressed colonists to find your lordship so exjjlicitly declaring your sentiments in that grand principle in na- ture, that ' what a man hath honestly acquired, is absolutely and uncontrollably his own.' This principle is established as a fundamental rule in the British constitution, which eminently hath its foundation in the laws of nature ; and consequently it is the indisputable right of all men, more especially of a British subject, to be present in person, or by representation, in the body where he is taxed. But, however fixed your lordship and some others may be in this car- dinal point, it is truly mortifying to many of his Majesty's free and loyal subjects that even in the British Parliament, that sanctuary of liberty and justice, a different sentiment seems of late to have prevailed."

The rest of the letter is but a repetition of the complaints in former letters, and a representation of the merits of the colonies in all former times in the public service. The next is a letter to the commissioners of the treasury. This, in general, is a repetition of the substance of the former letters, a little varied in expression. Page 45 : — They complain of the duties levied by the offensive acts of Parliament, as imposed with the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, and to be applied in the first place for the making a more certain and adequate provision

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for the charge of the administration of justice and support of civil government, &c, &c.

The next letter is a circular letter " to the speakers of the respective Houses of Representatives and Burgesses on this continent ; a copy of which was also sent to Dennis de Berdt, Esquire, their agent, by order of the House, that he might make use of it, if necessary, to prevent any misrepresentation of it in England." This letter is but a kind of recapitulation of the former letter.

The letter to the Earl of Shelburne, which follows, is dated January 22d, 1768. This letter relates to proceedings between Governor Bernard and the House, relative to a letter of his lordship which the House had been permitted to hear, but not to see, and relative to charges against them, which had been supposed to have been preferred by Bernard himself. 1 shall quote but one paragraph from their vindication of themselves for having left out the judges from their legislative council.

" The non-election of several gentlemen of distinguished character and station -was by no means the effect of party prejudice, private resentment, or motives still more blamable, but the result of calm reflection upon the danger that might accrue to our excellent constitution and the liberties of the people from too great a union of the legislative, executive, and judiciary powers of govern- ment, which, in the opinion of the greatest writers, ought always to be kept separate ; nor was this a new opinion, formed at a certain period, but it has been the prevailing sentiment of many of the most sensible and unexception- able gentlemen in the province for many years past, upon principles which your lordship's thorough knowledge of the constitution and the just balance of the several powers of government, this House is assured, will justify."

The last letter, dated January 12th, 1768, is to Dennis de Berdt, Esq., agent for the House. Page 59 : —

" The fundamental rules of the constitution are the grand security of all British subjects ; and it is a security, which they are all equally entitled to, in all parts of his Majesty's extended dominions. The supreme legislative in every free State derives its power from the constitution, by the fundamental rules of which it is bounded and circumscribed. As a legislative power is essentially requisite, where any powers of government are exercised, it is conceived the several legislative bodies in America were erected, because their existence and the free exercise of their power, within their several limits, are essentially im- portant and necessary to preserve to his Majesty's subjects in America the advantages of the fundamental laws of the constitution. When we mention the rights of the subjects in America, and the interest we have in the British con- stitution, in common with all other British subjects, we cannot, justly be suspected of the most distant thought of an independency on Great Britain. Some, we

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know, have imagined this of the colonists; and others, perhaps, may have indus- triously propagated it, to raise groundless and unreasonable jealousies of them; but it is so far from the truth, that we apprehend the colonies would refuse it, if offered to them, and would even deem it the greatest misfortune to be obliged to accept it. They are tar from being insensible of their happiness in being connected with the mother country, and of the mutual benefits derived from it to both," &c. &c.

Here, Mr. Tudor, let me pause. Whatever Mr. J. Otis or Mr. S. Adams, or Colonel Otis, or Major Hawley, or Mr. Sa- muel Dexter, the illustrious committee who sanctioned these letters, thought at that time, I could not have given my unquali- fied assent to the foregoing paragraph, for I certainly had dis- tant thoughts of an independency of Great Britain, long before I ever saw the face of any one of that committee, even as long ago as the years 1755, 56 and 57. When living at Worcester, and knowing the miserable conduct of Shirley, Braddock, Lou- don, Webb, and others, in conducting the war and managing American affairs, I ardently wished that we had nothing to do with Great Britain, and firmly believed that the American colo- nies, if left to themselves, and suffered to unite, might defend themselves against the French, much better without Great Britain than with her. Now we will proceed with our quota- tions from the letter.

" It is the glory of the British constitution that it hath its foundation in the law of God and nature. It is an essential natural right that a man shall quietly enjoy and have the disposal of his own property. This right is adopted into the constitution. This natural and constitutional right is so familiar to the American subjects, that it would be difficult, if possible, to convince them that any neces- sity can render it just, equitable, and reasonable, in the nature of things, that the Parliament should impose duties, subsidies, talliages, and taxes upon them, internal or external, for the sole purpose of raising a revenue. The reason is obvious ; because they cannot be represented, and, therefore, their consent can- not be constitutionally had in Parliament."

They then remark upon the declaratory act, and the subse- quent revenue acts, which I pass over, to page 63 : —

" It is observable, that though many have disregarded life and contemned liberty, yet there are few men who do not agree, that property is a valuable acquisition, which ought to be held sacred. Many have fought and bled and died for this, who have been insensible to all other obligations. Those who ridicule the ideas of right and justice, faith and truth among men, will put a high value upon money. Property is admitted to have an existence, even in the savage state of nature. The bow, the arrow, and the tomahawk, the hunting VOL. X. 32

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and the fishing ground, are species of property as important to an American savage, as pearls, rubies, and diamonds are to the Mogul, or a Nabob in the east, or the lands, tenements, hereditaments, messuages, gold and silver of the Euro- peans. And, if property is necessary to the support of savage life, it is by no means less so in civil society. The Utopian schemes of levelling, and a community of goods, are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the crown, are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional. Now, what property can the colonists be conceived to have, if their money may be granted away by others, without their consent ? "

To do justice to this letter, I must transcribe every word of it ; but I have already, you will think, transcribed too much, though every line is a diamond. We will pass to page 65 : —

"Our ancestors were in one respect not in so melancholy a situation as we, their posterity, are. In those times, the crown and the ministers of the crown, without the intervention of Parliament, demolished charters, and levied taxes on the colonies, at pleasure. Governor Andros, in the time of James II., de- clared that wherever an Englishman sets his foot, all he hath is the king's. And Dudley declared at the council board, and even on the sacred seat of justice, that the privilege of Englishmen not to be taxed without their consent, and the laws of England, would not follow them to the ends of the earth. It was also in those days declared in council, that the king's subjects in New England did not differ much from slaves, and that the only difference was, that they were not bought and sold. But there was even in those times an excellent attorney- general, Sir W. Jones, who was of another mind, and told king James that he could no more grant a commission to levy money on his subjects in Jamaica, though a conquered island, without their consent, by an assembly, than they could discharge themselves from their allegiance to the English crown. But the misfortune of the colonists at present is, that they are taxed by Parliament without their consent. This, while the Parliament continues resolved to tax us, will ever render our case, in one respect, more deplorable and remediless, under the best of kings, than that of our ancestors was, under the worst. They found relief by the interposition of Parliament ; but, by the intervention of that very power we are taxed, and can appeal for relief from their final decision to no power on earth ; for there is no power on earth above them."

For the rest of this admirable letter, I must refer you to the printed volume in which it is found, rich as it is, both in style and matter. Upon an attentive and careful review of all these letters, I can find nothing to ascribe to Mr. Adams. Every sentence and every word of them appears to me to be Mr. Otis's. They are but an abridgment, a concise compendium of Mr. Otis's argument against the execution of the acts of trade in 1761, seven years before these letters were written. If Mr. Otis himself had not informed me that he had given them all to Mr. Sam Adams to be revised, I should not have

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suspected that Mr. Adams had any thing to do in the compo- sition of them ; for Mr. Otis was as severe a critic, and as ca- pable of writing well, as any man of that time. He only did not love to revise, correct, and polish. If Mr. Adams had really any share in these compositions, it must have been only in the collocation of words. " Proper words in proper places," is a definition of style. Swift, in these four words, has expressed the essence of a learned, acute, and celebrated treatise of Dio- nysius Halicarnassensis concerning the arrangement of words. This arrangement of words is indeed a matter of great conse- quence. Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, owed more their fame to this than to their accuracy or impartiality ; woe to the writer in this age of the world, who is rash enough to despise or neg- lect it !

TO JOHN TAYLOR, OF CAROLINE.

Quiney, 12 March, 1819.

Worthy Sir, — The painful difficulty of holding a pen, which has been growing upon me for many years, and now, in the middle of the eighty-fourth year of my age, has become insupportable, must be my apology, not only for terminating my strictures upon your Inquiry, but for the necessity I am now under of borrowing another hand to acknowledge the receipt of your polite and obliging letter of February 20th.1 I have never had but one opinion concerning banking, from the institution of the first, in Philadelphia, by Mr. Robert Morris and Mr. Gouverneur Morris, and that opinion has uniformly been that the banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tran- quillity, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation, than they can have done or ever will do good. They are like party spirit, the delusion of the many for the interest of a few. I have always thought that Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Locke, a, hundred years ago, at least, had scientifically and demonstratively settled all questions of this kind. Silver and gold are but commodities, as much as wheat and lumber; the merchants who study the necessity, and feel out the wants of the community, can always

1 This letter is printed in vol. iii. p. 58, note.

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import enough to supply the necessary circulating currency, as they can broadcloth or sugar, the trinkets of Birmingham and Manchester, or the hemp of Siberia. I am old enough to have seen a paper currency annihilated at a blow in Massachusetts, in 1750, and a silver currency taking its place immediately, and supplying every necessity and every convenience. I cannot enlarge upon this subject; it has always been incomprehensible to me, that a people so jealous of their liberty and property as the Americans, should so long have borne impositions with patience and submission, which would have been trampled under foot in the meanest village in Holland, or undergone the fate of Wood's halfpence in Ireland. I beg leave to refer you to a work which Mr. Jefferson has sent me, translated by him- self from a French manuscript of the Count Destutt Tracy. His chapter " of money " contains the sentiments that I have entertained all my lifetime. I will quote only a few lines from the analytical table, page 21. " It is to be desired, that coins had never borne other names than those of their weight, and that the arbitrary denominations, called moneys of account, as <£, s., d., &Ci, had never been used. But when these denomi- nations are admitted and employed in transactions, to diminish the quantity of metal to which they answer, by an alteration of the real coins, is to steal ; and it is a theft which even injures him who commits it. A theft of greater magnitude and still more ruinous, is the making of paper money ; it is greater, be- cause in this money there is absolutely no real value ; it is more ruinous, because, by its gradual depreciation during all the time of its existence, it produces the effect which would be produced by an infinity of successive deteriorations of the coins. All these iniquities are founded on the false idea, that money is but a sign." Permit me to recommend this volume to your attentive perusal. •

Although an intimacy and a friendship existed between Mr. Patrick Henry and me in 1774, and continued till his death, yet I would not strip the laurels from other men to decorate his brows. Indulge me, Sir, in the vanity of inclosing to you a copy of an original letter from Mr. Henry to me, now in my hand, dated May 20th, 1776.1 I had sent him a copy of that

1 Printed in vol. iv. page 201.

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marble-covered pamphlet, which I once sent to you, entitled " Thoughts on Government," and it is of that he acknowledges the receipt, and expresses his opinion.

If you can contribute any thing, Sir, to convince or persuade this nation to adopt a more honest medium of commerce, you will have my most cordial wishes for your success.

TO J. H. TIFFANY.

Quincy, 31 March, 1819.

Your political chart is a happy thought, and an invention as useful as it is ingenious. Accept my best thanks for the pre- sent you have made me of it, and for your obliging favor of March 18th, which came to my hand but yesterday.

As I have always been convinced, that abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division in society, the time has been when I would have attended you with pleasure in your pursuit of correct de- finitions. Liberty and republic are two words which you have judiciously chosen ; but my forces are exhausted, and my days wellnigh spent. I therefore can be of no service to you.

Dr. Price has denned civil liberty, as distinguished from phy- sical, moral, and religious liberty, to be the power of a civil society to govern itself, by its own discretion, or by laws of its own making, by the majority in a collective body or by fair representations.

I would define liberty to be a power to do .as we would be done by. The definition of liberty to be the power of doing whatever the laws permit, meaning the' civil laws, does not appear to be satisfactory. But I would rather refer you to other writers than to any thing of my own. Sidney, Harrington, Locke, Montesquieu, and even Hobbes, are worth consulting, and many others.

Custom is said to be the standard of the meaning of words ; and for the purposes of common parlance it may answer well enough ; but when science is concerned, something more tech- nical must be introduced. The customary meanings of the

32*

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words republic and commonwealth have been infinite. They have been applied to every government* under heaven ; that of Turkey and that of Spain, as well as that of Athens and of Rome, of Geneva and San Marino. The strict definition of a republic is, that in which the sovereignty resides in more than one man. A democracy, then, is a republic, as well as an aris- tocracy, or any mixture of both.

The Federalist is a valuable work, and Mr. Madison's part in it as respectable as any other. But his distinction between a republic and a democracy, cannot be justified. A democracy is as really a republic as an oak is a tree, or a temple a build- ing. There are, in strictness of speech and in the soundest technical language, democratical and aristocratical republics, as well as an infinite variety of mixtures of both.

TO J. H. TIFFANY

Quincy, 30 April, 1819.

Of republics, the varieties are infinite, or at least as nume- rous as the tunes and changes that can be rung upon a com- plete set of bells. Of all the varieties, a democracy is the most natural, the most ancient, and the most fundamental and essen- tial.

In some writing or other of mine, I happened, currente calamo, to drop the phrase, " The word republic, as it is used, may sig- nify any thing, every thing, or nothing." For this escape, I have been pelted, for twenty or thirty years with as many stones as ever were thrown at St. Stephen, when St. Paul held the clothes of the stoners. But the aphorism is literal, strict, solemn truth. To speak technically, or scientifically, if you will, there are monarchical, aristocratical, and democratical republics. The government of Great Britain and that of Poland are as strictly republics as that of Rhode Island or Connecticut under their old charters. If mankind have a right to the voice of expe- rience, they ought to furnish that experience with pen and paper to write it, and an amanuensis to copy it.

I should have been extremely obliged to you, if you had

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favored me with Mr. Jefferson's sentiments upon the subject. As I see you have an inquiring mind, I sincerely wish you much pleasure, profit, and success in your investigations. I have had some pleasure in them, but no profit; and very little, if any, success.

In one of your letters, you say that my Defence has become rare. This is strange. Mr. Dilly published an edition of it in London. An edition of it was published in Boston, another in New York, another in Philadelphia, before the adoption of the present constitution of the national government, and before one line of the Federalist was printed. Since that, Mr. Cobbet, alias Porcupine, printed a large edition of the whole work in Philadelphia, and Mr. Stockdale, of Piccadilly, has published another large edition in London. It has been translated into the French and German languages. And what has become of all these copies ? Have they been torn up, or thrown away, to line trunks ?

TO ROBERT J. EVANS.

Quincy, 8 June, 1819.

I respect the sentiments and motives, which have prompted you to engage in your present occupation, so much, that I feel an esteem and affection for your person, as I do a veneration for your assumed signature of Benjamin Rush. The turpitude, the inhumanity, the cruelty, and the infamy of the African com- merce in slaves, have been so impressively represented to the public by the highest powers of eloquence, that nothing that I can say would increase the just odium in which it is and ought to be held. Every measure «*f prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States. If, however, humanity dictates the duty of adopting the most prudent measures for accomplishing so ex- cellent a purpose, the same humanity requires, that we should not inflict severer calamities on the objects of our commisera- tion than those which they at present endure, by reducing them to despair, or the necessity of robbery, plunder, assassination, and massacre, to preserve their lives, some provision for furnish-

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ing them employment, or some means of supplying them with the necessary comforts of life. The same humanity requires that we should not by any rash or violent measures expose the lives and property of those of our fellow-citizens, who are so unfortunate as to be surrounded with these fellow-creatures, by hereditary descent, or by any other means without their own fault. I have, through my whole life, held the practice of slavery in such abhorrence, that I have never owned a negro or any other slave, though I have lived for many years in times, when the practice was not disgraceful, when the best men in my vicinity thought it not inconsistent with their character, and when it has cost me thousands of dollars for the labor and sub- sistence of free men, which I might have saved by the purchase of negroes at times when they were very cheap.

If any thing should occur to me, which I think may assist you, I will endeavor to communicate it to you ; but at an age, when

" From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driveller and a show,"

very little can be expected from, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

H^ ^ f\ Quincy, 22 June, 1819.

May I inclose you one of the greatest curiosities and one of the deepest mysteries that ever occurred to me ? It is in the Essex Register^ of June 5th, 1819. It is entitled the Raleigh Register Declaration of Independence. How is it possible that this paper should have been concealed from me to this day ? Had it been communicated to me in the time of it, I know, if you do not know, that it would have been printed in every whig newspaper upon this continent. You know, that if I had possessed it, I would have made the hall of Congress echo and reiicho with it fifteen months before your Declaration of Inde- pendence, it What a poor, ignorant, malicious, short-sighted, crapulous mass is Tom Paine's " Common Sense^' in compa-

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rison with this paper! Had I known it, I would have com- mented upon itffrom the day you entered Congress till the fourth of July, 1776.c3f^The genuine sense of America at that moment was never so well expressed before^nor since. Richard Caswell, William Hooper, and Joseph Hewes, the then repre- sentatives of North Carolina in Congress, you knew as well as I, and you know that the unanimity of the States finally de- pended on the vote of Joseph Hewes, and was finally deter- mined by him, ^nd yet history is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine ! Sat verbum sapienti.1

TO WILLIAM BENTLEY.

Quincy, 15 July, 1819.

A few weeks ago I received an Essex Register, containing resolutions of independence by a county in North Carolina, fif- teen months before the resolution of independence in Congress. I was struck with so much astonishment on reading this docu- ment, that I could not help inclosing it immediately to Mr. Jefferson, who must have seen it, in the time of it, for he has copied the spirit, the sense, and the expressions of it verbatim, into his Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776. Had I seen that declaration at the time of it, it should have been printed in every whig newspaper on this continent. Its total concealment from me is a mystery, which can be unriddled only by the timidity of the delegates in Congress from North Carolina, by the influence of Quakers and proprietary gentlemen in Penn- sylvania, the remaining art and power of toryism throughout the continent at that time. That declaration would have had more effect than Tom Paine's " Common Sense," which ap- peared so long after it. I pray you to intercede with the print- ers to transmit me half a dozen copies of that Register, which contains it, and I will immediately transmit the money for them, whatever they may cost. That paper must be more universally made known to the present and future generation.

1 Mr. Jefferson's answer is printed in Mr. Randolph's collection, vol. iv. p. 314. He called the Mecklenburg paper " a very unjustifiable quiz."

382 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO RICHARD BLAND LEE.

Quincy, 11 August, 1819.

I thank you for your oration on the red letter day in our national calendar, which I have read with mingled emotions. An invisible spirit seemed to suggest to me, in my left ear, " nil admirari, nil contemner e ; " another spirit, at my right elbow, seemed to whisper in my ear, " dig-ito compesce labellum" But I will open my lips, and will say that your modesty and deli- cacy have restrained you from doing justice to your own name, that band of brothers, intrepid and unchangeable, who, like the Greeks at Thermopylae, stood in the gap, in defence of their country, from the first glimmering of the Revolution in the horizon, through all its rising light, to its perfect day.

Thomas Lee, on whose praises Chancellor Wythe delighted to dwell, who has often said to me that Thomas Lee was the most popular man in Virginia, and the delight of the eyes of every Virginian, but who would not engage in public life; Richard Henry Lee, whose merits are better known and acknow- ledged, and need no illustration from me; Francis Lightfoot Lee, a man of great reading well understood, of sound judg- ment, and inflexible perseverance in the cause of his country ; William Lee, who abandoned an advantageous establishment in England from attachment to his country, and was able and faithful in her service; Arthur Lee, a man of whom I can- not think without emotion ; a man too early in the service of his country to avoid making a multiplicity of enemies ; too honest, upright, faithful, and intrepid to be popular ; too often obliged by his principles and feelings to oppose Machiavelian intrigues, to avoid the destiny he suffered. This man never had justice done him by his country in his lifetime, and I fear he never will have by posterity. His reward cannot be in this world.

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TO WILLIAM BENTLEY.

Quincy, 21 August, 1819.

I thank you for the Raleigh Register and National Intelli- gencer. The plot thickens.

The name of the Cato of North Carolina, the honest, hoary- headed, stern, determined republican, Macon, strikes me with great force. But here is an accumulation of miracles.

1. The resolutions are such as every county in the thirteen colonies ought to have taken at that moment.

2. -The Suffolk resolves, taken about the same time, were sufficiently famous, and adopted by Congress.

3. I was on social, friendly terms with Caswell, Hooper, and Hewes, every moment of their existence in Congress ; with Hooper, a Bostonian, and a son of Harvard, intimate and fami- liar. Yet, from neither of the three did the slightest hint of these Mecklenburg resolutions ever escape.

4. Is it possible that such resolutions should have escaped the vigilant attention of the scrutinizing, penetrating minds of Patrick Henry, R. H. Lee, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Gadsden, Mr. Rutledge, Mr. Jay, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Samuel Adams ? Hand credo. I cannot believe that they were known to one member of Congress on the fourth of July, 1776.

5. Either these resolutions are a plagiarism from Mr. Jeffer- son's Declaration of Independence, or Mr. Jefferson's Declara- tion of Independence is a plagiarism from those resolutions. I could as soon believe that the dozen flowers of the Hydran- gea, now before my eyes, were the work of chance, as that the Mecklenburg resolutions and Mr. Jefferson's Declaration were not derived the one from the other.

6. The declaration of one of the most respectable of the inha- bitants of this city, Raleigh, ought to be produced.

7. The papers of Dr. Hugh Williamson ought to be searched for the copy sent to him, and the copy sent to General W. R. Davie. The Declaration of Independence made by Congress on the fourth of July, 1776, is a document, an instrument, a record that ought not to be disgraced or trifled with.

8. That this fiction is ancient and not modern, seems to be

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ascertained. It is of so much more importance that it should be thoroughly investigated.1

I know not whether I have written the tenth part of the reflections that have occurred to me ; but I have written more than my eyes and nerves can well bear.

TO WILLIAM E. RICHMOND.

Quincy, 14 December, 1819.

I have received your polite favor of the 10th, the subject of which is of great importance.

I am old enough to remember the war of 1745, and its end ; the war of 1755, and its close ; the war of 1775, and its termi- nation ; the war of 1812, and its pacification. Every one of these wars has been followed by a general distress ; embarrass- ment on commerce, destruction of manufactures, fall of the price of produce and of lands, similar to those we feel at the present day, and all produced by the same causes. I have wondered that so much experience has not taught us more caution. The British merchants and manufacturers, immediately after the peace, disgorged upon us all their stores of merchan- dise and manufactures, not only without profit, but at certain loss for a time, with the express purpose of annihilating all our manufacturers, and ruining all our manufactories. The cheap- ness of these articles allures us into extravagance and luxury, involves us in debt, exhausts our resources, and at length pro- duces universal complaint.

What would be the consequence of the abolition of all re- strictive, exclusive, and monopolizing laws, if adopted by all the nations of the earth, I pretend not to say. But while all the nations, with whom we have intercourse, persevere in cherish- ing such laws, I know not how we can do ourselves justice without introducing, with great prudence and discretion, how- ever, some portions of the same system.

1 This subject has been since very formally investigated by a committee of the General Assembly of North Carolina. Their report made in 1830-31, is printed in Force's American Archives, fourth series, vol. ii. c. 855, note. A copy of the_ paper has also been found in the archives of the British government. No his- . toxical fact is better established.

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The gentlemen of Philadelphia have published a very import- ant volume upon the subject, which I recommend to your care- ful perusal. Other cities are cooperating in the same plan. I heartily wish them all success, so far as this at least, that Con- gress may take the great subject into their most serious delibe- ration, and decide upon it according to their most mature wisdom. The publications upon this subject in this country, within the year past, have been very luminous, and I recom- mend them all to your careful investigation. Upon the subject of political economy at large, I know of nothing better than a volume lately printed at Washington, written by Senator Tracy, in France, but never published there ; well translated from a manuscript, by Mr. Jefferson. It contains the pith and marrow of the science ; the great works of Sir James Stuart, of Adam Smith, and the lesser work of the Chevalier Pinto, are well worth your study, though I believe you will not agree with them in all things. The writings of Dr. Quesnay, and his dis- ciples in France, may be worth your research and perusal, be- cause some ideas may be collected from them, though I con- fess I could never perfectly understand them, nor agree with them in many things which I thought I did understand.

Your prospectus of a manufacturer's journal promises to be useful, and you appear to be very well qualified to conduct it ; but I would not advise you to sacrifice your profession to it, because a man of talents and integrity at the bar is a character of great respectability and utility among his fellow-citizens.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 18 December, 1819.

I must answer your great question of the 10th in the words of D'Alembert to his correspondent, who asked him what is matter; " Je vous avow que je vUen sais rienP In some part of my life I read a great work of a Scotchman on the court of Augustus, in which, with much learning, hard study, and fa- tiguing labor, he undertook to prove that, had Brutus and Cas-

vol. x. 33 y

386 CORRESPONDENCE.

sius been conquerors, they would have restored virtue and liberty to Rome. Mais je n'en crois rien. Have you ever found in history one single example of a nation thoroughly corrupted, that was afterwards restored to virtue ? And without virtue, there can be no political liberty.

If I were a Calvinist, I might pray that God, by a miracle of divine grace, would instantaneously convert a whole contami- nated nation from turpitude to purity ; but even in this I should be inconsistent, for the fatalism of Mahometans, Materialists, Atheists, Pantheists, and Calvinists, and Church of England articles, appears to me to render all prayer futile and absurd. The French and the Dutch in our day have attempted reforms and revolutions. We know the results, and I fear the English reformers will have no better success.

Will you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the effects of temperance and industry ? Will you tell me how to prevent riches from producing luxury ? Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, ex- travagance, vice and folly?

When you will answer me these questions, I hope I may venture to answer yours. Yet all these things ought not to discourage us from exertion, for, with my friend Jebb, I believe no effort in favor of virtue is lost, and all good men ought to struggle, both by their counsel and example.

The Missouri question, I hope, will follow the other waves

under the ship, and do no harm. I know it is high treason to express a doubt of the perpetual duration of our vast American empire and our free institutions ; and I say as devoutly as father Paul, " Esto perpetual" but I am sometimes Cassandra enough to dream that another Hamilton, another Burr, might rend this mighty fabric in twain, or, perhaps, into a leash, and a few more choice spirits of the same stamp might produce as many nations in North America as there are in Europe.

To return to the Romans. I never could discover that they possessed much virtue or real liberty. Their patricians were, in general, griping usurers and tyrannical creditors in all ages. Pride, strength, and courage, were all the virtues that composed their national character. A few of their nobles affecting sim- plicity, frugality, and piety, perhaps really possessing them, acquired popularity among the plebeians, extended the power

CORRESPONDENCE. 387

and dominions of the republic, and advanced in glory till riches and luxury came in, sat like an incubus on the republic, " vic- tamque ulciscitur orbem"

Our winter sets in a fortnight earlier than usual, and is pretty severe. I hope you have fairer skies and milder air. Wishing your health may last as long as your life, and your life as long as you desire it, I am, &c.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 17 January, 1820.

When Harris was returned a member of Parliament, a friend introduced him to Chesterfield, whom he had never seen. " So, Mr. Harris," said his lordship, " you are a member of the House of Commons. You have written upon universal and scientific grammar; you have written upon art, upon music, painting, and poetry ; — and what has the House of Commons to do with art, or music, or painting, or poetry, or taste ? Have not you written upon virtue and happiness ? " "I have, my lord, in- dulged myself in speculations upon those subjects." "And what the devil has the House of Lords to do with either hap- piness or virtue ? " This idle tale, which I had from the mouth of Sir James Harris, now Lord Malmesbury, I repeat to you for a preface to another idle tale, which I am about to relate to you, namely — Too much confined by the cold weather, I have for a few' days past whiled away the time in reading these pieces of Harris, and another, entitled Philo- sophical Arrangements. The Dialogue upon Happiness is one of the first pieces of morals I ever read. The Hermes is acknowledged a masterpiece; the others, under the appear- ance of immense learning and much ingenuity, contain little information, and few ideas that are new. But I have read them with the fond delight of a young lady reading a romance, on account of the investigation of the sentiments of ancient philosophers, poets, and orators, and the quotations from them in their own words — such as are by David Williams called the beautiful rags and tatters of antiquity.

By Philosophical Arrangements, he says, he means categories

1

388 CORRESPONDENCE.

or predicaments, or general or universal truths, or the first phi- losophy ; but I have been most amused with his endeavors to find the meaning of the ancient philosophers concerning the first principles or elements of matter, which they reduce down to particles so nice and minute as to become geometrical points ; and this seems to me to be much more orthodox philosophy and mathematics, too, than Buffon's " Molecules organiques" or Epicurus's atoms. With such games at push-pin have the child- ish philosophers of all ages diverted and distracted themselves, not once considering that neither human sense, nor imagination, nor intellect, was ever formed to comprehend all things. /Harris's Dialogue on Happiness is worth all the metaphysical researches of philosophers, from the beginning of the world, into the nature of matter and spirit, of energy, of power, of activity, of motion, or any such thing. When we say God is a spirit, we know what we mean, as well as we do when we say that the pyra- mids of Egypt are matter. Let us be content, therefore, to believe him to be a spirit, that is, an essence that we know no- thing of, in which originally and necessarily reside all energy, all power, all capacity, all activity, all wisdom, all goodness./'

Behold the creed and confessionof faith of your ever affec- tionate friend.

TO ELIHU MARSHALL.

Quincy, 7 March, 1820.

Friend Marshall, — I thank you for the honor you have done me by your letter of the 16th of last month, and for the valuable present of the American Tutor's Assistant, which I believe to be a valuable book. At the moment I received these favors, I was deeply engaged in reading Cato Major, and I could scarce help thinking that I was reading Tillotson, Sher- lock, Butler, or our Buckminster or Everett ; for there are few Christian theologians who teach better doctrines or express more ravishing feelings. I can read Cicero de Senectute, be- cause I have read him for almost seventy years, and seem to have him almost by heart ; but he never appeared so delightful to me as on this last reading, which may be partly owing to

CORRESPONDENCE. 389

Cato's age so near my own ; he was in his eighty -fourth, and I in my eighty-fifth year.

I never delighted much in contemplating commas and colons, or in spelling or measuring syllables ; but now, while reading Cato, if I attempt to look at these little objects, I find my ima- gination, in spite of all my exertions, roaming in the milky way, among the nebulae, those mighty orbs, and stupendous orbits of suns, planets, satellites, and comets, which compose this incomprehensible universe ; and, if I do not sink into no- thing in my own estimation, I feel an irresistible impulse to fall on my knees, in adoration of the power that moves, the wisdom that directs, and the benevolence that sanctifies this wonderful whole.

As to writing a review of your volume, it is out of the ques- tion. My eyes are not able to read, nor my hand to write it ; but as IJiayeJbur grandchildren gone to school this morning where there are between one and two hundred scholars, I have given it to them to carry to their master, who is very capable of appreciating its value.

TO SAMUEL MILLER.

Quincy, 8 July, 1820.

You know not the gratification you have given me by your kind, frank, and candid letter. I must be a very unnatural son to entertain any prejudices against the Calvinists, or Calvinism, according to your confession of faith ; for my father and mother, my uncles and aunts, and all my predecessors, from our com- mon ancestor, who landed in this country two hundred years ago, wanting five months, were of that persuasion. Indeed, I have never known any better people than the Calvinists. Nev- ertheless, I must acknowledge that I cannot class myself under that denomination. My opinions, indeed, on religious subjects ought not to be of any consequence to any but myself. To develop them, and the reasons for them, would require a folio larger than Willard's Body of Divinity, and, after all, I might scatter darkness rather than light. Before I was twelve years of age, I necessarily became a reader of polemical writings of

33*

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religion, as well as politics, and for more than seventy years I have indulged myself in that kind of reading, as far as the wan- dering, anxious, and perplexed kind of life, which Providence has compelled me to pursue, would admit. I have endeavored to obtain as much information as I could of all the religions which have ever existed in the world. Mankind are by nature religious creatures. I have found no nation without a reli- gion, nor any people without the belief of a supreme Being. I have been overwhelmed with sorrow to see the natural love and fear of that Being wrought upon by politicians to pro- duce the most horrid cruelties, superstitions, and hypocrisy, from the sacrifices to Moloch down to those of Juggernaut, and the sacrifices of the kings of Whidah and Ashantee. The great result of all my researches has been a most diffusive and com- prehensive charity. I believe with Justin Martyr, that all good men are Christians, and I believe there have been, and are, good men in all nations, sincere and conscientious. That you

and I shall meet in a better world, I have no more doubt than

I have that we now exist on the same globe. If my natural reason did not convince me of this, Cicero's dream of Scipio, and his essays on friendship and old age, would have been sufficient for the purpose. But Jesus has taught us, that a future state is a social state, when he promised to prepare places in his father's house of many mansions for his disciples.

By the way, I wonder not at the petition of the pagans to the emperor, that he would call in and destroy all the writings of Cicero, because they tended to prepare the mind of the people, as well as of the philosophers, to receive the Christian religion.

My kind compliments to Mrs. Miller, and thanks for the obliging visit she made me. I interest myself much in her family. Her father was one of my most intimate friends in an earlier part of his life, though we differed in opinion on the French Revolution, in the latter part of his days. I find that differences of opinion in politics, and even in religion, make but little alteration in my feelings and friendships when once con- tracted.

I have not received Mr. Sergeant's speech, nor the sketch.

CORRESPONDENCE. 391

(

TO CHARLES' HOLT.

Quincy, 4 September, 1820.

The universal vanity of human nature must have obtruded itself on your observation, in the course of your experience, so forcibly, that you will easily imagine that your letter of August 27th has been received and read with much pleasure ; besides, you know that the just always rejoiceth over every ^ sinner that repenteth. Your letter,1 however, did not surprise me, because I had received many such testimonials from other persons. For example, Mr. Matthew Carey has, in letters to me, acknowledged the same error, and has lately repented to me, in person and in conversation, and, moreover, has repeat- edly printed handsome encomiums on my Defence of the Ame- rican Constitutions, which he had many years vilified, before he had read it. And, what is more agreeably surprising to me, Judge Cooper, the learned and ingenious friend of Dr. Priestley, has lately published, in the Portfolio, a very handsome eulogium of that work. And what, perhaps, will be considered more than all, the learned and scientific President Jefferson has, in letters to me, acknowledged that I was right, and that he was wrong.2

My plain writings have been misunderstood by many, misre- presented by more, and vilified and anathematized by multitudes who never read them. They have, indeed, nothing to recom- mend them but stubborn facts, simple principles, and irresistible inferences from both, without any recommendation from ambi- tious ornaments of style, or studied artifices of arrangement; notwithstanding all which, amidst all the calumnies they have occasioned, I have the consolation to know, and the injustice I

1 Mr. Holt, in 1800, was editor of the Bee, a partisan newspaper, published in Connecticut, and was imprisoned, under the sedition law, for a libel. In his letter he says: "I then wrote and published much against you, Sir, as an aristocrat in principle or royalist at heart, no friend to the " rights of man," and hostile to the " republicanism " of the United States. I had not read your " Defence of the American Constitutions," nor much of any political history, and but very little in the book of living experience. But, Sir, I have since, although publisher of a political gazette sixteen years after, seen and felt abun- dant cause for discarding the impressions I then entertained, and adopting opinions gathered from all observation and confirmed by all experience."

a Perhaps this is too general a statement. The allusion is to the opposite opinions entertained of the probable results of the French Revolution.

A

392 CORRESPONDENCE.

have suffered ought to excuse me in saying, that they have been translated into the French, German, and Spanish languages; that they are now contributing to introduce representative go- vernments into various nations of Europe, as they have before contributed to the introduction and establishment of our Ame- rican Constitutions, both of the individual States and the nation at large ; and that they are now employed, and have been, in assisting the South Americans in establishing their liberties, from the days of Miranda to this hour. I may say, with Lord Bacon, that I bequeathe my writings to foreign nations, and to my own country, after a few generations shall be overpast.

This letter has so much the appearance of vanity, that I pray you not to publish it in print ; though calumny, with her hun- dred cat-o'-nine-tails, has lashed me so long, that my skin has become almost as hard and insensible as steel, and her severest strokes would scarcely be felt. After all, I sincerely thank you for your frank and candid letter, which does you much honor, and is a full atonement for all your errors in relation to me, who am, Sir, your sincere well-wisher and most humble servant.

TO HENRY CHANNING.

Quincy, 3 November, 1820.

I have received your favor of the 26th of October, with the copy of the Connecticut constitution. This is the second copy which I have received from you, and I am afraid it is the first that has been acknowledged. For this negligence I beg your pardon, and pray you to accept my cordial thanks for both these valuable favors.

The cantilena sacerdotis will be sung as long as priesthood shall exist. I mean not by this, however, to condemn the article in our Declaration of Rights. I mean to keep my mind open to conviction upon this subject, until I shall be called upon to give a vote.1 An abolition of this law would have so great an

1 Mr. Adams had been chosen a member of the convention about to be held for the revision of the Constitution of Massachusetts. The third article is the one referred to. See vol. iv. p. 221.

CORRESPONDENCE. 393

effect in this State that it seems hazardous to touch it. How- ever, I am not about to discuss the question at present. In Rhode Island, I am informed, public preaching is supported by three or four wealthy men in the parish, who either have, or appear to have, a regard for religion, while all others sneak away, and avoid payment of any thing. And such, I believe, would be the effect in this State almost universally ; yet this I own is not a decisive argument in favor of the law. Sub judice lis est. The feelings of the people will have pomp and parade of some sort or another, in the State as well as in the Church. In the Church they have risen from the parson's band and the communion plate up to the church of St. Peter's and the Vati- can library. In the State they have risen from oaken crowns and olive branches up to thrones, sceptres, and diadems, gold, ivory, and precious stones to the amount of millions. In Pliny's Natural History you may see the gradual rise and progress for seven hundred years of luxury and ceremony, from iron rings upon the fingers, to the splendors of Lucullus, Antony, and Crassus.

I have great reason to rejoice in the happiness of my country, which has fully equalled, though not exceeded, the sanguine anticipation of my youth. God prosper long our glorious coun- try, and make it a pattern to the world !

As a member to the convention, I can be but the shadow of a man. An election, however, to this situation, at my great age and feeble condition of body and mind, I esteem the purest honor of my life, and shall endeavor to do as much of my duty as my strength will permit. I presume it will not be made a question now, as it was forty years ago, whether we should have a governor, or a senate, or judges during good behavior. What questions will be moved, I cannot say ; but I hope that no essential flaw will be found or made in the good old forty- two pounder, though it should be tried over again after forty years usage, by a double charge of powder and ball.

394 CORRESPONDENCE.

mj^ysle

TO GEORGE ALEXANDER OTIS.

Monticello, 9 February, 1821.

I thank you for your favor of the 29th of January, and your translation of Botta. r have not yet read it, for I receivedit out yesterday, and reading is to me so laborious and painful an occupation, that it requires a long time. But I cannot refrain from expressing the pleasure 1 have received from the reasoning of Mr. Jay upon the passage in Botta, " that anterior to the Revolution there existed in the Colonies a desire of independ- ence." There is great ambiguity in the expression, "there existed in the Colonies a desire of independence." It is true there always existed in the Colonies a desire of independence of Parliament in the articles of internal taxation and internal policy, and a very general, if not a universal opinion, that they were constitutionally entitled to it, and as general a determina- tion, if possible, to maintain and defend it. But there never existed a desire of independence of the crown, or of general regulations of commerce for the equal and impartial benefit of all parts of the empire. It is true, there might be times and circumstances in which an individual, or a few individuals, might entertain and express a wish that America was inde- pendent in all respects, but these were "ran nantes in gurgilc vastoP For example, in one thousand seven hundred and fifty- six, seven, and eight, the conduct of the British generals Shirley, Braddock, Loudon, Webb, and Abercrombie was so absurd, disastrous, and destructive, that a very general opinion pre- vailed that the war was conducted by a mixture of ignorance, treachery, and cowardice ; and some persons wished we had nothing to do with Great Britain forever. Of this number I distinctly remember I was myself one, fully believing that we were able to defend ourselves against the French and Indians, without any assistance or embarrassment from Great Britain. In 1758 and 1759, when Amherst and Wolfe changed the for- tune of the war by a more able and faithful conduct of it, I again rejoiced in the name of Great Britain, and should have rejoiced in it to this day, had not the King and Parliament committed high treason and rebellion against America, as soon as they had conquered Canada and made peace with France.

CORRESPONDENCE. . 395

That there existed a general desire of independence of the crown, in any part of America before the Revolution, is as far from the truth as the zenith is from the nadir. That the en-

croaching disposition of Great Britain would one day attempt to enslave them by an unlimited submission to Parliament and rule them with a rod of iron, was early foreseen by many wise men in all the States ; that this attempt would produce resistance on the part of America, and an awful struggle, was also foreseen, but dreaded and deprecated as the greatest cala- mity that could befall them. For my own part, there was not a moment during the Revolution, when I would not have given every thing I ever possessed for a restoration to the state of things before the contest began, provided we could have had any sufficient security for its continuance. I always dreaded the Revolution, as fraught with ruin to me and my family ; and, indeed, it has been but little better.

I could entertain you with many little trifling anecdotes, which, though familiar and vulgar, would indicate the temper, feelings, and forebodings among the people, that I cannot write.

I see at the end of the biography of the author, that Botta has written the biography of John Adams. I never saw or heard of it before ; but if he means me, it must be a curious mass, for he can certainly have no authentic information on the insignificant subject.1

TO RICHARD H. LEE.

Quincy, 24 February, 1821.

You have conferred an obligation upon me by your kind let- ter of February the 6th. In former years of my life I reckoned among my friends four gentlemen of your name; Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, William Ludwell Lee, and Arthur Lee, — all gentlemen of respectable characters for capa- city, information, and integrity. With your grandfather, Richard Henry Lee, I served in Congress from 1774 to 1778, and after- wards in the Senate of the United States in 1789. He was a

1 It is inserted in the large French work, entitled Biographie UniverseUe.

396 CORRESPONDENCE.

gentleman of fine talents, of amiable manners, and great worth. As a public speaker, he had a fluency as easy and graceful as it was melodious, which his classical education enabled him to decorate with frequent allusion to some of the finest passages of antiquity. With all his brothers he was always devoted to the cause of his country. I am glad you are about to com- mence a memoir of that illustrious patriot.

I cannot take upon me to assert, upon my own memory, who

were the movers of particular measures in Congress, because I thought it of little importance. I have read in some of our histories, that Governor Johnson, of Maryland, nominated Mr. Washington for commander-in-chief of the army ; Mr. Chase made the first motion for foreign alliances ; Mr. Richard Henry Lee for a declaration of independence. As such motions were generally concerted beforehand, I presume Mr. Johnson was designated to nominate a general, because the gentlemen from Virginia declined, from delicacy, the nomination of their own colleague. Mr. Richard H. Lee was preferred for the mo- tion for independence, because he was from the most ancient colony, &c. Mr. .Chase for foreign alliances, that too many motions may not be made by the same member, &c, &c. It ought to be eternally remembered, that the eastern members were interdicted from taking the lead in any great measures, because they lay under an odium and a great weight of unpopu- larity. Because they had been suspected from the beginning of having independence in contemplation, they were restrained from the appearance of promoting any great measures by their own discretion, as well as by the general sense of Congress. That your grandfather made a speech in favor of a declaration of independence, I have no doubt, and very probably more than one, though I cannot take upon me to repeat from memory any part of his speeches, or any others that were made upon that occasion. The principles and sentiments and expressions of the Declaration of Independence had been so often pronounced and echoed and reechoed in that Congress for two years before, and especially for the last six months, that it will forever be impossible to ascertain who uttered them, and upon what occasion.

I applaud your piety in recording the fame of your ancestor, and heartily wish you success in the enterprise.

CORRESPONDENCE. 397

TO RICHARD RUSH.

Quincy, 14 May, 1821.

Dear Mr. Rush, — I have been tenderly affected by the kind expressions of your friendship, in your letter of the 9th of Fe- bruary.

In the course of forty years I have been called twice to assist in the formation of a constitution for this State. This kind of architecture, I find, is an art or mystery very difficult to learn, and still harder to practise. The attention of mankind at large seems now to be drawn to this interesting subject. It gives me more solicitude than, at my age, it ought to do ; for nothing remains for me but submission and resignation. Nevertheless, I cannot wholly divest myself of anxiety for my children, my country, and my species. The probability is, that the fabrica- tion of constitutions will be the occupation or the sport, the tragedy, comedy, or farce, for the entertainment of the world for a century to come. There is little appearance of the prevalence of correct notions of the indispensable machinery of a free go- vernment, in any part of Europe or America. Neither Spain, Portugal, or Naples can long preserve their fundamental laws under their present constitutions. But I must recollect that I am not reading a lecture.

But, hazardous as it may be, I will venture one remark upon our National and State institutions.

The legislative and executive authorities are too much blended together. While the Senate of the United States have a nega- tive on all appointments to office, we can never have a national President. In spite of his own judgment, he must be the Pre- sident, not to say the tool, of a party. Ih Massachusetts, the legislature annually elect an executive council, which renders the Governor a mere Doge of Venice, a mere " testa di legno? a mere head of wood.

Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to liberty, and few nations, if any, have found it.

vol. x. 34

398 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

(U Quincy, 19 May, 1821.

Must we, before we take our departure from this grand and beautiful world, surrender all our pleasing hopes of the progress of society, of the improvement of the intellect and moral condi- tion of the world, of the reformation of mankind ?

The Piedmontese revolution scarcely assumed a form, and the Neapolitan bubble is burst. And what should hinder the Spanish and Portuguese constitutions from running to the same ruin ? The Cortes is in one assembly vested with the legisla- tive power. The king and his priests, armies, navies, and all other officers, are vested with the executive authority of govern- ment. Are not here two authorities up, neither supreme? Are they not necessarily rivals, constantly contending, like law, physic, and divinity, for superiority ? Just ready for civil war ?

Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catho- lic religion ? The art of lawgiving is not so easy as that of . architecture or painting. New York and Rhode Island are struggling for conventions to reform their constitutions, and I am told there is danger of making them worse. Massachusetts has had her convention ; but our sovereign lords, the people, think themselves wiser than their representatives, and in several articles I agree with their lordships. Yet there never was a cooler, a more patient, candid, or a wiser deliberative body than that convention.

I may refine too much, I may be an enthusiast, but I think a free government is a complicated piece of machinery, the nice and exact adjustment of whose springs, wheels, and weights, is not yet well comprehended by the artists of the age, and still less by the people.

I began this letter principally to inquire after your health, and to repeat assurances of the affection of your friend.

CORRESPONDENCE. 399

TO DAVID SEWALL.

Quincy, 22 May, 1821.

How do you do ? As we have been friends for seventy years, and are candidates for promotion to another world, where I hope we shall be better acquainted, I think we ought to inquire now and then after each other's health and welfare, while we stay here. I am not tormented with the fear of death, nor, though suffering under many infirmities, and agitated by many afflic- tions, weary of life. I have a better opinion of this world and of its Ruler than some people seem to have. A kind Providence has preserved and supported me for eighty-five years and seven months, through many dangers and difficulties, though in great weakness, and I am not afraid to trust in its goodness to all eternity. I have a numerous posterity, to whom my con- tinuance may be of some importance, and I am willing to await the order of the Supreme Power. We shall leave the world with many consolations. It is better than we found it. Super- stition, persecution, and bigotry are somewhat abated ; govern- ments are a little ameliorated ; science and literature are greatly improved, and more widely spread. Our country has brilliant and exhilarating prospects before it, instead of that solemn gloom in which many of the former parts of our lives have been obscured. The condition of your State, I hope, has been improved by its separation from ours, though we scarcely know how to get along without you.

Information of your health and welfare will be a gratification to your sincere friend and humble servant.

TO JOHN MARSTON.

Quincy, 1 September, 1821.

The Roman dictator was Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus. His master of the horse was Caius Servilius Ahala, whose daring and dangerous exploit was killing Spurius Maelius for aiming at royalty. The story is in Livy, book 4th, chapter 13th ; in Rol-

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lin's Roman History, vol. ii. p. 46 ; in Adams's Defence, vol. iii. p. 242.1 The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius Halicarnassensis come not down so low. His account is lost, but I presume the anecdote is to be found in every general Roman history.

Is it not remarkable, that this most memorable of all the ap- plications of the phrase, "Made virtute esto," is omitted in all the dictionaries ? Stephens, Faber, Ainsworth, amidst all their learned lumber, have forgotten this. They have quoted Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, and even the wag Horace, but overlooked Livy.2

Horace, the rogue, in his first book of satires, satire second, lines 31 and 32, puts these words into the mouth of Cato, and applies them for a very curious moral purpose, —

" Macte Virtute esto, inquit sententia dia Catonis. Nam siraulac venas inflavit tetra libido, Hue juvenes asquum est descendere, non alienas Permolere uxores."

Virgil, in his ninth iEneid, has made Apollo say to Ascanius, after his noble juvenile exploit in killing Numanus, —

" Macte nova virtute, puer ; sic itur ad astra, Dis genite, et geniture deos."

He afterwards descends from his cloud, in the shape of old Butes, the armor-bearer and janitor, and gives lulus good ad- vice.

" Sit satis, iEneada, telis impune Numanuru Oppetiisse tuis ; primam hanc tibi magnus Apollo Concedit laudem, et paribus non invidet armis. Cetera parce, puer, bello."

TO RICHARD RUSH.

Quincy, 28 November, 1821.

I love to see a young man, who, in the language of Montes- quieu, is capable de s'estimer beaucoup ; but in an old man this

1 Vol. vi. p. 27 of the present work.

2 In an address to the corps of military cadets from West Point, who paid a visit to Mr. Adams at hlsliouse, Mr. Adams had used these words. Mr. Mars- ton, who was a townsman and constant visitor, had asked for some account of them. The address itself, as coming from a man, then in his eighty-sixth year, is sufficiently remarkable to be preserved in the appendix (A) to this volume.

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is rather odious than amiable. The kind compliments in your letter of the 30th September make me too proud for a man in his eighty-seventh year ; but your idea of a picture overcame all my gravity, and made me laugh outright. What would the lords of the gentlemen's seats in England say to a picture of my house of eight rooms, as Fearon said, though he has diminished the number nearly one half? However, my ima- gination was soon seized with other questions. What point of time would a painter seize, and what particular scene would he select ? That in which the young gentlemen were at breakfast, under an awning, after a march of nine miles in a very hot morning ; or that, in which after breakfast they prostrated them- selves on the ground, under shades of trees, and went to sleep as decently and as soundly as if they had been at church; or that, in which they were drawn up on a small round elevation of green grass, opposite the house, on the other side of the road, going through their exercises and manoeuvres ? Or, when they were drawn up in a body, before the piazza, listening to an old man, melting with heat, quaking with palsy, tormented with rheumatism and sciatic, and scarcely able to stand, utter- ing a few words by way of commentary on their two mottoes, " Scientia ad gloriam" and " Paremus ? " After mature reflec- tion, I rejected all these, and fixed upon the last, when the whole body marched up in a file, taking the old man by the hand ; taking a final leave of him forever, and receiving his poor blessing.1

Never before, but once, in the whole course of my life, was my soul so melted into the milk of human kindness ; and that once was when four or five hundred fine young fellows appeared before me in Philadelphia, presenting an address and receiving my answer. On both occasions I felt as if I could lay down a hundred lives to preserve the liberties and promote the prosper- ity of so noble a rising generation. But enough, and too much, of this. No picture will ever be drawn ; indeed, the subject is too slight.

Is all Europe going together by the ears about the Turkish province of Albania ? • Are the Greeks rising, like the phoenix, from their ashes ? Is Britain sending forces to the Ionian islands to check the empires ?

1 This alludes to the same event mentioned in the preceding note. 34* *

402 CORRESPONDENCE.

The South Americans have translated the clumsy book you hint at into Spanish, but whether they will derive any benefit from it, I know not.

TO RICHARD PETERS.

Quincy, 31 March, 1822.

If you have brought upon yourself the garrulity of old age, you must blame yourself for it. Theophrastus at ninety, as some say, and at one hundred and fifteen, as others, in his last moments is recorded to have said, it was hard to go out of the world, when he had just learned to live in it. I am so far from his temper and his philosophy, that I think myself so well drilled and disciplined a soldier as to be willing to obey the word of command whenever it shall come, and in general or particular orders. Nevertheless, your letter has excited feelings somewhat like his. I agree with you in your recollection of the suffer- ing, the sacrifices, the dangers, distresses, and the disinterested character of the principal actors in the Revolution, but I have lately plunged into a new sea of reading. The collections of our Massachusetts Historical Society have lately attracted my attention, and though I am too blind to read thern^ I have put in requisition sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, grand- sons and granddaughters, or occasional friends, to perform the office of reader. In this way, I have heard read Hubbard's His- tory of New England, Johnson's Wonder- Working Providence, Morton's Memorial, the original writings of Winslow, Bradford, Gookin, Eliot, and twenty others, the most ancient memorials of emigrations to America. All the superstition, fanaticism^ quaintness, cant, barbarous poetry, and uncouthness of style have not prevented this reading exciting in me as ardent an interest as I ever felt in reading Homer or Virgil, Milton, Pope, or Shakspeare.

Silence, then, ye revolutionary heroeaf patriots, and sages! Never boast of your superiority for services or sufferings or sacrifices ! Our Hancocks and Washingtons never exceeded in disinterestedness dozens of emigrants to America two hun-

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dred years ago. In short, the whole history of America for two hundred years appears to me to exhibit a uniform, general tenor

of character for intelligence, integrity, patience, fortitude, and public spirit. One generation has little pretension for boasting over another.

I will add one other extraordinary. I have heard read the proceedings of the New York convention. They have been as entertaining to me as a romance. The gentlemen have saga- ciously and profoundly searched their own and one another's hearts, and very frankly, candidly, and penitentially confessed their sins to one another, like good Christians. A great num- ber of enlightened men have distinguished themselves by their information and by their eloquence. The new constitution is an improvement, upon the whole, upon the old, though a ten- dency to the extreme of democracy is apparent in that State, as in all the others in the Union.

If I have wearied your patience, I shall endeavor to be shorter for the future. I am, Sir, and will be, your friend, forever.

TO WILLIAM THOMAS.

Quincy, 10 August, 1822.

The grounds and principles on which the third article of the treaty of 1783 was contended for on our part, and finally yielded on the part of the British, were these.

1. That the Americans, and the adventurers to America, were the first discoverers and the first practisers of the fisheries.

2. That New England, and especially Massachusetts, had done more in defence of them than all the rest of the British empire. That the various projected expeditions to Canada, in which they were defeated by British negligence, the conquest of Louisburg, in 1745, and the subsequent conquest of Nova Scotia, in which New England had expended more blood and treasure than all the rest of the British empire, were principally effected with a special view to the security and protection of the fisheries.

3. That the inhabitants of the United States had as clear a

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right to every branch of those fisheries, and to cure fish on land, as the inhabitants of Canada or Nova Scotia ; that the citizens of Boston, New York, or Philadelphia had as clear a right to those fisheries, as the citizens of London, Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, or Dublin.

4. That third article was demanded as an ultimatum, and it was declared that no treaty of peace should ever be made with- out it ; and when the British ministers found that peace could not be made without that article, they consented ; for Britain wanted peace, if possible, more than we did.

5. We asked no pardon, we requested no grant, and would accept none. We demanded it as a right, and we demanded an explicit acknowledgment of that as an indispensable condi- tion of peace ; and the word right was in the article as agreed to by the British ministers, but they afterwards requested that the word liberty might be substituted instead of right. They said it amounted to the same thing, for liberty was right and privilege was right; but the word right might be more unpleas- ing to the people of England than liberty ; and we did not think it necessary to contend for a word. To detail the confer- ences and conversations which took place for six weeks on this subject, would require volumes, if they could now be remem- bered. Mr. Jay is the only person now living, who was offi- cially concerned in that negotiation, and I am not afraid to appeal to his memory for the truth of these facts. Lord St. Helens, then Mr. Fitzherbert, though not officially concerned in the negotiation, was instructed by the British minister to assist at our conferences, and he was freely and candidly ad- mitted by us. I dare appeal to his lordship's memory for the truth of these facts. There is another excellent character still living, Mr. Benjamin Vaughan, of Kennebec, who was then a confidential friend of Lord Shelburne, and an intimate friend of the British negotiators, and I dare appeal to his recollection of the representations made to him of the conferences concern- ing the fisheries, by Mr. Oswald, Mr. Fitzherbert, and Mr. Whitefoord.

6. We considered that treaty as a division of the empire. Our independence, our rights to territory and to the fisheries, as practised before the Revolution, were no more a grant from Britain to us, than the treaty was a grant from us of Canada,

CORRESPONDENCE. 405

Nova Scotia, England, Scotland, and Ireland to the Britons. The treaty was nothing more than mutual acknowledgment of antecedent rights.

If there is any other question that you wish me to answer, 1 shall be happy to do it, so long as my strength may last. I had omitted what follows.

7. We urged upon the British ministers that it was the in- terest of England herself that we should hold fast forever all the rights contained in that article, because all the profits we made by those fisheries went regularly to Great Britain in gold and silver, to purchase and pay for their manufactures ; that if it were in her power, which it was not, to exclude us from or abridge these rights, they would be the dupes of their weak policy.

8. That if we should consent to an exclusion, the stipulation would not be regarded ; our bold and hardy seamen would trespass ; they must keep a standing naval force on the coast to prevent them ; our people would fight and complain, and this would be speedily and infallibly the source of another war between the two nations.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 9 March, 1823.

The sight of your well-known handwriting in your favor of February 25th last, gave me great pleasure^ as it proved your arm to be restored, and your pen still manageable. May it continue till you shall become as perfect a Calvinist as I am, in one particular. Poor Calvin's infirmities, his rheumatism, his gout, and sciatica, made him frequently cry out, " Mon dieu ! jusqu'ci quand ? " " Lord ! how long ? " Pratt, once Chief Jus- tice of New York, always tormented with infirmities, dreamed that he was situated on a single rock in the midst of the At- lantic ocean. He heard a voice,

" Why mourns the bard V Apollo bids thee rise, Renounce the dirt, and claim thy native skies."

The ladies' visit to Monticello has put my readers in requisi- tion to read to me " Simond's Travels in Switzerland." I

406 CORRESPONDENCE.

thought 1 had some knowledge of that country before, but I find I had no idea of it. How degenerated are the Swiss ! They might defend their country against France, Austria, and Rus- sia, neither of whom ought to be suffered to march armies over their mountains. Those powers have practised as much tyranny and immorality, as ever the Emperor Napoleon did, over them, or over the roitelets of Germany or Italy. Neither France, Austria, or Spain, ought to have one foot of land in Italy.

All conquerors are alike. Every one of them, "jura negat sibi lata, nihil non arrogat armis" We have nothing but fables concerning Theseus, Bacchus, and Hercules, and even Sesostris, but I dare say that every one of them was as tyran- nical and immoral as Napoleon. Nebuchadnezzar is the first great conqueror of whom we have any thing like history, and he was as great as any of them. Alexander and Caesar were more immoral than Napoleon. Genghis Khan was as great a conqueror as any of them, and destroyed as many millions of lives, and thought he had a right to the whole globe, if he could subdue it. What are we to think of the crusades, in which three millions of lives, at least, were probably sacrificed. And what right had St. Louis and Richard Coeur de Lion to Palestine and Syria, more than Alexander to India, or Napoleon to Egypt and Italy ? Right and justice have hard fare in this world, but there is a Power above who is capable and willing to put all things right in the end, " et pour mettre chacun a sa place dans Vimivers ; " and I doubt not he will.

Mr. English, a Bostonian, has published a volume of his ex- pedition with Ismael Pasha up the river Nile. He advanced above the third cataract, and opens a prospect of a resurrection from the dead of those vast and ancient countries of Abyssinia and Ethiopia; a free communication with India, and the river Niger, and the city of Timbuctoo. This, however, is conjecture and speculation rather than certainty ; but a free communica- tion by land between Europe and India wTill ere long be opened. A few American steamboats and our Quincy stone-cutters would soon make the Nile as navigable as our Hudson, Potomac, or Mississippi.

You see, as my reason and intellect fail, my imagination grows more wild and ungovernable, but my friendship remains the same. Adieu.

CORRESPONDENCE. 407

TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.

Quincy, 9 March, 1823.

In one of your letters, if I remember right, you expressed a desire to see my letters to Mr. Calkoen. The history of those letters is this. At a dinner with a large company, I met with that learned civilian, who came to me, and seated himself by my side, and expressed an ardent curiosity to converse with me upon the subject of the American war. He asked me many questions in French, in which language he was very imperfect; he had no English, and I had no Dutch. I was about as clumsy In French as he was ; however, he asked me many questions, to which I gave him prompt answers. Some of the gentlemen present, who understood the language better, helped us a little to interpret; but at the conclusion of the conversation I said to him I feared I had not fully understood his questions, and not clearly expressed my answers, but if he would do me the honor to commit his questions to writing, I would give him the answers in writing. Accordingly, in a very short time I received from him twenty-six questions in Dutch. Mr. Le Roy (now, I presume, one of the most opulent merchants in New York) was then a young gentleman, very amiable, very intelligent, always very friendly to me, as was his aunt, Madame Chabanelle, and all her family. Mr. Le Roy offered to translate them for me into English, and he did so, in a very correct and literal sense. I immediately commenced writing answers, and I wrote him twenty-six letters, one letter every day. Mr. Calkoen acknow- ledged that I had comprehended his questions, and given him perfectly intelligible answers. Mr. Calkoen composed out of these letters a dissertation upon the question, whether the Ame- ricans would maintain their independence or not. He composed a comparison between the Dutch revolution and the American, and concluded by this observation, " as it was a miracle that the Dutch revolution succeeded, it would be, in his opinion, a greater miracle still if the American did not." This composi- tion he read to a society of men of letters, who met periodically at Amsterdam, and it consequently became a subject of much conversation in the city. But these letters had much less effect in opening the eyes of the Dutch nation, than two other mea-

408 CORRESPONDENCE.

sures. I had received from London two large pamphlets ; one from General Burgoyne, an apology for his conduct and ill suc- cess in America ; another from General Howe, containing his justification of his conduct in America and his want of success. Both these works represented the British cause in America as more forlorn and desperate than even I had done in my letters to Mr. Calkoen. I employed Cerisjex, to get these translated into French, and he had it done in so short a time as amazed me. I had a large edition of them printed, and scattered as many as 1 could, and they were scattered by others, and read by everybody who had given any attention to the war, and pro- duced a general conviction that the game was up with England. When you have kept this pamphlet as long as you please, and read it as much as you please, return it to me, as I have no other copy.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 15 August, 1823.

Watchman ! what of the night ? Is darkness that may be felt, to prevail over the -whole world, or can you perceive any rays of a returning dawn ? Is the devil to be the " Lord's anointed " over the whole globe ? or do you foresee the fulfil- ment of the prophecies according to Dr. Priestley's interpreta- tion of them ? I know not but I have in some of my familiar and frivolous letters to you told the story four times over ; but if I have, I never applied it so well as now. Not long after the denouement of the tragedy of Louis XVI., when I was Vice- President, my friend, the Doctor, came to breakfast with me alone. He was very sociable, very learned and eloquent on the subject of the French Revolution. It was opening a new era in the world, and presenting a near view of the millennium. I listened, I heard with great attention, and perfect sang-froid ; at last I asked the Doctor, " Do you really believe the French will esta- blish a free, democratic government in France ? " He answered, " I do firmly believe it." " Will you give me leave to ask you upon what grounds you entertain this opinion ? Is it from any thing you ever read in history? Is there any instance of a

CORRESPONDENCE. 409

Roman Catholic monarchy of five-and-twenty millions of people, at once converted into intelligent, free, and rational people ? " " No. I know of no instance like it." " Is there any thing in your knowledge of human nature, derived from books or expe- rience, that any empire, ancient or modern, consisting of such multitudes of ignorant people, ever were, or ever can be, sud- denly converted into materials capable of conducting a free government, especially a democratic republic? " " No. I know of nothing of the kind." " Well, then, Sir, what is the ground of your opinion ? " The answer was, " My opinion is founded altogether upon revelation and the prophecies. I take it that the ten horns of the great beast in Revelations mean the ten crowned heads of Europe, and that the execution of the king of France is the falling off of the first of those horns ; and the nine monarchies of Europe will fall, one after another, in the same way." _Such was the enthusiasm of that great man, that reasoning machine ! After all, however, he did recollect himself so far as to say, " There is, however, a possibility of doubt, for I read yesterday a book, put into my hands by a gentleman, a volume of travels, written by a French gentleman in 1659, in which he says he had been travelling a whole year in England, had travelled into every part, and conversed freely with all ranks of people. He found the whole nation earnestly engaged in discussing and contriving a form of government for their future regulation. There was but one point on which they all agreed, and in that they were unanimous, that monarchy, nobi- lity, and prelacy never would exist in England again." The Doctor then paused, and said, " yet in the very next year the whole nation called in the king, and ran mad with monarchy nobility, and prelacy.

I am no king killer, merely because they are kings. Poor creatures! they know no better; they sincerely and conscien- tiously believe that God made them to rule the world. I would not, therefore, behead them, or send them to St. Helena to be treated like Napoleon ; but I would shut them up like the man in the mask, feed them well, and give them as much finery as they please, until they could be converted to right reason and common sense.

vol. x.

35

410 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 17 September, 1823.

With much pleasure I have heard read the sure words of prophecy in your letter of September 4th. It is melancholy to contemplate the cruel wars, desolations of countries, and oceans of blood, which must occur before rational principles and ra- tional systems of government can prevail and be established ; but as these are inevitable, we must content ourselves with the consolations which you from sound and sure reasons so clearly suggest. These hopes are as well founded as our fears of tlfe contrary evils. On the whole, the prospect is cheering. I have lately undertaken to read Algernon Sidney on Government There is a great difference in reading a book at four-and-twenty and at eighty-eight. As often as I have read it and fumbled it over, it now excites fresh admiration that this work has excited so little interest in the literary world. As splendid an edition of it as the art of printing can produce, as well for the intrinsic merits of the work, as for the proof it brings of the bitter suffer- ings of the advocates of liberty from that time to this, and to show the slow progress of moral, philosophical, political illumi- nation in the world, ought to be now published in America.

It is true that Mr. Jay, as well as Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Johnson, contributed to retard many vigorous measures, and particularly the vote of independence, until he left Congress ; but I have reason to think he would have concurred in that vote when it was taken, if he had been there. His absence was accidental. Congress, on the 15th of May preceding, as I remember, had recommended to all the States to abolish all authority under the crown, and institute and organize a new government, under the authority of the people. Mr. Jay had promoted this resolution in New York, by advising them to call a convention to frame a new constitution. He had been chosen a member of that convention, and called home by his consti- tuents to assist in it, and as Duane told me, he had gone home, with my letter to Wythe in his pocket, for his model and foun- dation; and the same Duane, after the Constitution appeared, asked me if it was not sufficiently conformable to my letter to Wythe. I answered him, I believed it would do very well.

CORRESPONDENCE. 411

Mr. Jay was immediately appointed Chief Justice of the State, and obliged to enter immediately on the duties of his office, which occasioned his detention from Congress afterwards. But I have no doubt had he been in Congress at the time, he would have subscribed to the Declaration of Independence. He would have been neither recalled by his constituents, nor have left Congress himself, like Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Willing, Governor Livingston, and several others.

As you write so easily and so well, I pray you to write me as often as possible, for nothing revives my spirits so much as your letters, except the society of my son and his family, who are now happily with me after an absence of two years.

P. S. Warmly as I feel for the Spanish patriots, I fear the most sensible men among them have little confidence in their constitution, which it appears to me is modelled upon that in France of the year 1789, in which the sovereignty in a single assembly was every thing, and the executive nothing. The Spaniards have adopted all this, with the singular addition that the members of the Cortes can serve only two years? What rational being can have any well-grounded confidence in such a constitution ?

JOHN TAYLOR TO JOHN ADAMS.

Washington, 8 April, 1824.

During a long illness, from which I am not yet recovered, the reveries which usually amuse sick people visited me ; and among them the idea of writing a farewell letter to you pre- sented itself so often as to leave an impression, which I have not been able to subdue. In yielding to it, my free style will, I hope, be pardoned, in consideration of its being the last trouble I shall give you ; and also on account of its chief motive, namely, to make an humble addition to the multitude of testimonials which exist of your patriotism and integrity, from one who has been a spectator of political scenes, from a period some years anterior to the revolutionary war; from one who has often

412 CORRESPONDENCE.

differed with you in opinion, but has never ceased to be im- pressed with a conviction of your exalted merit.

So early, I think, (for at this place I must speak merely from memory,) as the year 1765, you braved the British lion, when his teeth and claws were highly dangerous, in a series of essays, containing principles which I have lately reperused with de- light; and, considering the early period at which they were written, with admiration. And I believe that in the progress of the struggle for the liberty of our country, your efforts in speaking and writing were a thousandfold more efficacious than those of many individuals of great celebrity — of our Henry, for instance. These designated you for a long series of the most important negotiations, conducted with a diligence, integrity, and capacity, universally admired by your countrymen; and the hopes which your early merits had inspired, being fulfilled, they placed you next to Washington.

When your Presidency commenced, party spirit was highly inflamed, and its capabilities may be conjectured by those who were not witnesses of its effects then, by contemplating its effects now, in carrying men into unpremeditated excesses, even though it is invigorated by nothing but a love of power. Yet during its bitterest prevalence, you soared above its prejudices, and saved your country from a ruinous war with France. This magnanimous act awakened the vengeance of an erroneous zeal, and your reelection was probably prevented by a pamphlet, subscribed "Alexander Hamilton," then beheld by those of us who advocated the election of Mr. Jefferson, as well calculated to advance our object ; but which, upon reading it lately, seems to me to be the most malicious, foolish, and inexcusable com- position, which was ever produced by a tolerable mind.

You will readily perceive that this letter is intended only for your own ear, as an additional excuse for its familiar and un- disguised style. As the last, at my age it will not be suspected of adulation. For this, no motive exists. My design is to file among your archives some facts, which may meet the eye of a historian, as well as to give some pleasure to a patriot, who I believe has served his country faithfully, and has done what man can do to please his God.

With ardent wishes for your happiness, &c.

John Taylor.

CORRESPONDENCE. 413

TO JOHN TAYLOR.

Quincy, 12 April, 1824.

I have received with kindness and thankfulness your learned work upon the Constitution. I have had as much read to me as I have been able to hear, but intend to have it all read to me, if I live.

It is long since I have ceased to write, read, speak, or think upon theories of government, and now, at half way on my eighty-ninth year, I am incapable of either. I see you have treated me with honor and respect enough, but I think you have not correctly comprehended the intentions of my poor book. That work was written under the old confederation, and had no relation at all to the General Government. It respected only a State Government, and particularly the Constitution of Massachusetts, and others that resembled it, as against Mr. Turgot, who had censured them all. There is but one allusion to the GeneraljGoyernment in the whole work ; in that, I ex- pressly say that Congress is not a representative body, but a diplomatic body, a collection of ambassadors from thirteen sove- reign States. A consolidated government was never alluded to, or proposed, or recommended in any part of the work ; nor in- deed, in any moment of my life, did I ever approve of a conso- lidated government, or would I have given my vote for it. A consolidated government under a monarchy, an aristocracy or democracy, or a mixture of either, would have flown to pieces like a glass bubble under the first blow of a hammer on an anvil. Nor had I any thoughts of recommending any hereditary branch of any State Government. But I am incapable of think- ing clearly, or pursuing any train of thought. Of the present Constitution I can only say, with father Paul, "Esto perpetua." I sincerely wish it ; but I cannot see how it can be converted into a consolidated government. But I cannot enlarge. Again I thank you for your present, and wish you may contribute to preserve the present Constitution.

35*

414 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 22 January, 1825.

Your letter of the 8th revived me. It is true that my hearing has been very good, but the last year it has decayed so much, that I am in a worse situation than you are. I cannot hear any of the common conversation of my family, without calling upon them to repeat it in a louder tone.

The Presidential election has given me less anxiety than I myself could have imagined.1 The next administration will be a troublesome one, to whomsoever it falls, and our John has been too much worn to contend much longer with conflicting factions. I call him our John, because, when you were at the Cul de sac at Paris, he appeared to me to be almost as much your boy as mine. I have often speculated upon the conse- quences that would have ensued from my taking your advice, to send him to William and Mary College in Virginia for an education.

As to the decision of your author,2 though I wish to see the book, I look upon it as a mere game at push-pin. Incision- knives will never discover the distinction between matter and spirit, or whether there is any or not. That there is an active principle of power in the universe, is apparent; but in what substance that active principle resides, is past our investiga- tion. The faculties of our understanding are not adequate to penetrate the universe. Let us do our duty, which is to do as we would be done by ; and that, one would think, could not be difficult, if we honestly aim at it.

Your university is a noble employment in your old age, and your ardor for its success does you honor ; but I do not approve of your sending to Europe for tutors and professors. I do be- lieve there are sufficient scholars in America, to fill your profes- sorships and tutorships with more active ingenuity and inde- pendent minds than you can bring from Europe. The Euro-

1 " I have had one advantage of you. This presidential election has given me few anxieties. With you this must have been impossible, independently of the question whether we are at last to end our days under a civil or military government?" Extract from Mr. Jefferson's letter.

2 Flourens's Experiments on the functions of the nervous system in vertebrated animals.

CORRESPONDENCE. 415

peans are all deeply tainted with prejudices, both ecclesiastical and temporal, which they can never get rid of. They are all in- fected with episcopal and presbyterian creeds, and confessions of faith. They all believe that great Principle which has produced \ this boundless universe, Newton's universe and HerschelTs uni- verse, came down to this little ball, to be spit upon by Jews. And until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.

I salute your fireside with best wishes and best affections for their health, wealth and prosperity.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 23 January, 1825.

We think ourselves possessed, or, at least, we boast that we are so, of liberty of conscience on all subjects, and of the right of free inquiry and private judgment in all cases, and yet how far are we from these exalted privileges in fact 1/ There exists, I believe, throughout the whole Christian world, a law which makes it blasphemy to deny or to doubt the divine inspiration of all the books of the Old and New Testaments, from Genesis to Revelations. In most countries of Europe it is punished by fire at the stake, or the rack, or the wheel. In England itself it is punished by boring through the tongue with a red-hot poker. In America it is not much better ; even in our own Massachu- setts, which I believe, upon the whole, is as temperate and moderate in religious zeal as most of the States, a law was made in the latter end of the last century, repealing the cruel punishments of the former laws, but substituting fine and im- ! prisonment upon all those blasphemers upon any book of the Old Testament or New. Now, what free inquiry, when a writer must surely encounter the risk of fine or imprisonment for adducing any argument for investigation into the divine authority of those books ? Who would run the risk of trans- lating Dupuis ? But I cannot enlarge upon this subject, though I have it 'much at heart. I think such laws a great embarrassment, great obstructions to the improvement of the

416 CORRESPONDENCE.

human mind. Books that cannot bear examination, certainly ought not to be established as divine inspiration by penal laws. It is true, few persons appear desirous to put such laws in exe- cution, and it is also- true that some few persons are hardy enough to venture to depart from them. But as long as they continue in force as laws, the human mind must make an awkward and clumsy progress in its investigations. I wish they were repealed. The substance and essence of Christianity, as I understand it, is eternal and unchangeable, and will bear examination forever, but it has been mixed with extraneous ingredients, which I think will not bear examination, and they ought to be separated. Adieu.

TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Quincy, 18 February, 1825.

My dear Son, — I have received your letter of the 9th.1 Never did I feel so much solemnity as upon this occasion. The multitude of my thoughts, and the intensity of my feel- ings are too much for a mind like mine, in its ninetieth year. May the blessing of God Almighty continue to protect you to the end of your life, as it has heretofore protected you in so remarkable a manner from your cradle ! I offer the same prayer for your lady and your family, and am your affectionate father.

John Adams.

TO JOHN WHITNEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGE- MENTS FOR CELEBRATING THE APPROACHING ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOURTH OF JULY, IN THE TOWN OF QUINCY.

Quincy, 7 June, 1826.

Your letter of the 3d instant, written in behalf of the com- mittee of arrangements for the approaching celebration of our

1 The day of his election as President of the United States.

CORRESPONDENCE. 417

National Independence, inviting me to dine on the 4th of July next with the citizens of Quincy at the Town Hall, has been received with the kindest emotions. The very respectful lan- guage with which the wishes of my fellow-townsmen have been conveyed to me by your committee, and the terms of affectionate regard towards me individually, demand my grate- ful thanks, which you will please to accept and to communicate to your colleagues of the committee.

The present feeble state of my health will not permit me to indulge the hope of participating with more than my best wishes in the joys and festivities and solemn services of that day, on which will be completed the fiftieth year from the birth of the independence of these United States. A memorable epoch in the annals of the human race ; destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall in time to come be shaped by the human mind.

I pray you, Sir, to tender in my behalf to our fellow-citizens my cordial thanks for their affectionate good wishes, and to be assured that I am very truly and affectionately, your and their friend and fellow-townsman.

John Adams.

TO MESSRS. JACOB B. TAYLOR, JOHN YATES CEBRA, STUART F. RANDOLPH, R. RIKER, AND HENRY ARCULARIUS, A COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS OF THE CITY CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

Quincy, 10 June, 1826.

Gentlemen, — Your very polite and cordial letter of invita- tion, written to me in behalf of the city corporation of New York, has been gratefully received through the kindness of General J. Morton.

The anniversary you propose to celebrate, " with increased demonstrations of respect," in which you invite me to partici- pate in person, is an event sanctioned by fifty years of expe- rience, and it will become memorable by its increasing age, in proportion as its success shall demonstrate the blessings it im-

2A

418 CORRESPONDENCE.

parts to our beloved country, and the maturity it may attain in the progress of time.

Not these United States alone, but a mighty continent, the last discovered, but the largest quarter of the globe, is destined

to date the period of its birth and emancipation from the 4th of July, 1776.

Visions of future bliss in prospect, for the better condition of the human race, resulting from this unparalleled event, might be indulged, but sufficient unto the day be the glory thereof; and while you, gentlemen of the committee, indulge with your fel- low-citizens of the city of New York in demonstrations of joy and effusions of hilarity worthy the occasion, the wonderful growth of the State, whose capital you represent, within the lapse of half a century, cannot fail to convince you that the indulgence of enthusiastic views of the future must be stamped with any epithet other than visionary.

I thank you, gentlemen, with much sincerity for the kind in- vitation with which you have honored me, to assist in your demonstrations of respect for the day and all who honor it. And in default of my personal attendance, give me leave to pro- pose as a sentiment for the occasion,

Long and lasting prosperity to the City and State of New York !

I am, &c.

John Adams.

APPENDIX

(A.)

In the month of August, 1821, the Cadets of the United States Military Aca- demy, under the command of Major Worth, paid a visit to Boston. One day was devoted by them to an excursion to|he seat of Mr. Adams at Quincy. They were received by him, drawn up before the portico in front of his house, and in a voice then much broken with age, he made them the following address : —

My young Fellow-Citizens and Fellow-Soldiers, —

I rejoice that I live to see so fine a collection of the future defenders of their country in pursuit of honor under the auspices of the national government.

A desire of distinction is implanted by nature in every human bosom, and the general sense of mankind, in all ages and countries, cultivated and uncultivated, has excited, encouraged, and applauded this passion in military men more than in any other, order of society. Military glory is esteemed the first and greatest of glories. As your profession is at least as solemn and sacred as any in human life, it behooves you seriously to consider, what is glory ?

There is no real glory in this world or any other but such as arises from wis- dom and benevolence. There can be no solid glory among men but that which springs from equity and humanity ; from the constant observance of prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. Battles, victories, and conquests, abstracted from their only justifiable object and end, which is justice and peace, are the glory of fraud, violence, and usurpation. What was the glory of Alexander and Caesar? " The glimmering" which those " livid flames " in Milton " cast, pale and dreadful," or " the sudden blaze," which " far round illumin'd Hell."

Different — far different is the glory of Washington and his faithful colleagues ! Excited by no ambition of conquest or avaricious desire of wealth ; irritated by no jealousy, envy, malice, or revenge ; prompted only by the love of their coun- try, by the purest patriotism and philanthropy, they persevered, with invincible constancy, in defence of their country, her fundamental laws, her natural, essential and inalienable rights and liberties, against the lawless and ruthless violence of tyranny and usurpation. The biography of these immortal cap- tains, and the history of their great actions, you will read and ruminate night and day. You need not investigate antiquity, or travel into foreign countries, to find models of excellence in military commanders, without a stain of ambition or avarice, tyranny, cruelty, or oppression towards friends or enemies.

In imitation of such great examples, in the most exalted transports of your military ardor, even in the day of battle, you will be constantly overawed by a

420 APPENDIX.

conscious sense of the dignity of your characters as men, as American citizens, and as Christians.

I congratulate you on the great advantages you possess for attaining eminence in letters and science, as well as in arms. These advantages are a pi'ecious de- posit, which you ought to consider as a sacred trust, for which you are respon- sible to your country and to a higher tribunal. These advantages, and the habits you have acquired, will qualify you for any course of life you may choose to pursue.

That I may not fatigue you with too many words, allow me to address every one of you in the language of a Roman dictator to his master of the horse, after a daring and dangerous exploit for the safety of his country,

" Made viriule esto."

INDEXES

VOL. X.

36

INDEXES.

No. I.

Letters, written by John Adams.

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

A.

Adams, Mrs. Abigail,

Abbema, B. E.

21 June, 1795,

I.

479

11 April,

1782,

VII.

568

23 — —

—

480

Adams, Mrs. Abigail,

24 — —

—

—

12 May,

1774,

I.

143

26 — —

—

—

16 September,

—

II.

368

7 January, 1796,

—

483

24 July,

1775,

—

412

20 — —

—

484

17 September,

—

I.

182

31 — —

—

485

7 October,

—

—

190

1 March, —

—

486

11 February,

1776,

—

198

13 — —

—

487

19 March,

—

—

205

1 April, —

—

489

3 July,

—

IX.

417

12 December, —

—

495

— —

—

—

419

5 March, 1797,

—

506

6 September,

—

I.

238

22 February, 1799,

—

544

5 December,

1793,

—

458

25 — —

—

545

19 —

—

—

459

Adams, Benjamin,

2 January,

1794,

—

460

22 April, 1799,

VIII.

636

9 —

—

—

461

Adams, Miss Hannah,

4 February,

—

—

462

10 March, 1791,

IX.

574

8 —

—

—

465

Adams, John Qoinct,

9 —

—

—

466

31 March, 1797,

VIII.

537

23 —

—

—

—

2 June, —

—

545

12 March,

—

—

467

18 February, 1825,

X.

416

15 —

—

—

468

Adams, Samuel,

27 —

—

—

469

8 September, 1776,

IX.

441

1 April,

—

—

—

17 — —

—

443

7 —

—

' —

470

21 May, 1778,

III.

159

15 —

—

—

471

27 April, 1785,

IX.

532

19 —

—

—

—

12 September, 1790,

VI.

411

22 —

—

—

472

• 18 October, —

—

414

5 May,

—

—

—

Adams, Zabdiel,

10 —

—

—

473

21 June, 1776,

IX.

399

17 —

—

—

474

Adiiemar, Count d',

19 —

—

—

—

3 June, 1786,

VIII.

399

27 —

—

—

475

Ailesbdrt, Earl of,

9 June,

1795,

—

477

28 February, 1788,

VIII.

481

11 —

—

—

478

Angier, Oakes,

20 —

—

—

479

12 June, 1776,

IX.

394

424

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

Avery, John, 21 March,

Vol. Page. 1777, IX. 457

B.

Bentley. William,

15 July, 1819, IX. 381

21 August, — — 383 Be'renger,

8 June, 1781, VII. 426 Bergsma,

5 March, 1782, VII. 535 Bicker, H.

6 November, 1780, VII. 324

10 — — — 327

20 February, 1781, — 369 1 March, — — 371

Biddle, Edward,

12 December, 1774, IX. 348 Bidwell, Barnabas,

27 August, 1800, IX. 79 Boston Gazette,

11 January, 1773, III. 519 18 — — — 524

25 — — — 536

1 February, — — 540

8 — — — 551 15 — — — 558

22 — — — 568

BOUDINOT, ELIAS,

26 January, 1801, IX. 93 Bourn, Silvanus,

30 August, 1789, IX. 561 Bowdoin, James,

9 May, 1786, VIII. 389

2 June, — — 397 Bowens,

7 November, 1780, VII. 326 Bullock, Abciiibald,

1 July, 1776, IX. 414 Burgh, James,

28 December, 1774, IX. 350

C.

Cabinet of the President,

14 April, 1797, VHI. 540

24 January, 1798, — 561

13 March, — — 568

21 September, 1799, IX. 34 24 April, 1800, — 50 20 May, — — 57

Calkoen,

October, 1780, VII. 266 Carmarthen, Marquis of,

14 July, 1785, VIII. 276

27 — — — 284

29 — — — 286 6 February, 1786, — 371

18 May, — — 392

27 January, 1787, — 426

22 September, — — 453

Vol.

Page

Carmarthen, Marquis of,

3 October, 1787,

VIII.

455

Carmichael, William,

8 April, 1780,

VII.

144

12 May, —

—

162

Castries, Marechal de,

9 December, 1784,

VIII.

215

Cerisier, A. M.,

22 February, 1784,

IX.

522

Channing, Henry,

3 November, 1 820,

X.

392

Chardon, Peter,

1761,