our ministers of peace; and their demands amounting to tribute; could not fail to excite in me, sentiments corresponding with those that my countrymen, have so generally expressed, in their affectionate addresses to you.

Believe me, sir, no man can more cordially approve the wise and prudent measures of your administration. They ought to inspire universal confidence, and will no doubt, combined with the state of things, call from congress such laws and means as will enable you to meet the full force and extent of the crisis."

We will not undertake to say that Washington had in view the alien and sedition laws in using any of the expressions above quoted, but the fact is, that the sedition law was passed on the 14th of June, 1798; and the alien law on the 22d of the same month. There was not only abundant time for Washington to have known of the passing of these laws, when he wrote his letter, but also, that such laws were under discussion for some days before they passed.

John Adams having been vice president four years, and president four years, under the federal administration, it was never questioned, so far as we know, until this review appeared, whether he was a federalist. The point on which Mr. Adams differed from his federal friends, was on the sending of ministers to France to treat of peace. He thought this the proper course. His cabinet, and other distinguished men, were of opinion, that it belonged to France to send, ministers to the United States. There were causes which widened this breach, but we are inclined to think they belonged not to the public policy, but were entirely personal. After Mr. Adams's retirement, he changed his views. All this can easily be accounted for, if it were worth while to do it.

As the true end of government in the United States is, to secure liberty, property, life and character, according to LAW; and national independence, according to the constitution, through peace, if practicable, and through war, if inevitable; every considerate man, who knows any thing of the history of men; and every one who has been an observer of men, cannot but regard the future of this country with serious concern.

So long as State constitutions, and the national constitution, are rightly understood, and wisely administered, the people of this country, in comparison with all other people that are or have been, will be eminently prosperous and happy. What then are the real dangers? We think they will be found in the answers which time will give to these questions:

1. Will wise, honest, patriotic citizens, who are lawfully placed in authority, usurp power on the foundation of the constitution, and gradually approach to despotism; annihilating in their course all State authority, and form a consolidated empire? We may venture to anticipate the answer of time to this question; such citizens are incapable of so managing the affairs of their country.

2. Will one or more of the States, assume under Mr. Jefferson's theory and example in 1798, to pronounce that acts of the general government are illegal and void; and resist them with force and arms? To this question also an answer may be anticipated, at least for some time to come, judging from the recent and very general disapprobation of such measures. Mr. Jefferson is the author of all this contention about State rights. The

States have their rights, and the national government has its rights. If the States are seditious and rebellious, the national government must exercise its power. If the latter usurps power which the constitution does not give, the States may, undoubtedly, take care of themselves. They may even become, in some future day, the conservative power, which the twenty-five barons were in king John's time. But this would be a very different affair from fomenting sedition, rebellion, and civil war in the States.

3. Will the needy, the craving, the cunning, and the ambitious, (who think with maréchal D'Ancre, that mankind were made to be machines of" superior minds," and that any system of policy is right, however much it may overlook all law; and that any means are right, however criminal, so that their own purposes can be promoted,) be able to obtain and to exercise power in this land? We may venture here also to anticipate the answer. There will be, there have ever been, there are such men in this country. They will ever have ingenuity enough to work with the bad propensities of human nature; and to attract to their banners, by well known arts, perhaps a majority of the voters of the whole country. Such a party in power, will be restrained by no consideration, but this; CAN WE DO IT? Can we possess ourselves of the purse and the sword? If they believe they can, what should stop them? What has ever arrested the career of such men in any other land, but the last resort, force? The Americans have one advantage over all other people. They have a free press, the right of assembling to confer on the common good, and frequent elections. If the community can be aroused to an impend ing peril, in season, they have a safe, sure, peaceable remedy in their own hands. We are now passing through such a crisis. It is highly consolatory and encouraging to the friends of liberty, as defined by law, to perceive that a majority of the people are breaking from the shackles of "the people personified"-from "the age," and assuming to be the guardians of their own liberties and rights.

But the elections of this autumn do not touch the supreme executive of the nation. This unfortunate citizen, who is too obstinate to be counselled, and too helpless not to be governed, is to rule and to reign yet for two years from the 4th of March next. Meanwhile every citizen who knows what liberty defined by law is, must strive to inform himself who is the most suitable person among us to restore the constitution (which has been swerving from its base ever since March 4, 1801) to its true foundation, and who will devote his whole heart and mind to the preservation of our rights. There are such men among us, and some one among them all, is the best and fittest for this high trust. We pretend not to name that man, nor any man, having no motive to wish for the election of any one, but for the single reason that he is the best.

4. If there be laid out of the case, the tendency to usurpation, which it requires high virtue, intelligence, and self-respect to avoid; and also, the bad passions, fraud, and cunning, which some men consider indispensable to their purposes; there are still difficulties inseparable from the nature of government under which we live. Constitutional questions, and points of expediency, will continually recur, on which men may honestly differ. Partisans will adhere to party allegiance, against their own convictions as to what is right and dutiful. And when a whole generation has passed away, we shall find men still ready to vindicate party, against the whole weight of evidence, which time and experience have made conclusive. Thus the reviewer justifies the third and fourth presidents, and

all opposition made to the first and second; and laments that any one should have the hardihood to question the constitutionality, expediency, or honesty of the measures of the third.

There will be yet other exciting questions, entirely foreign to all provisions of national, or State constitutions, but which will nevertheless figure in elections. Who, for example, could have conceived, that antimasonry could have so connected itself with public policy, as to have become decisive in the minds of some citizens, as to qualification for any office?

It is still possible, that religion (though entirely and properly separated from all political measures; and left, as it should be, for each man's regard, according to his own perception of duty) will become a political question, and find its way into elections.

We see, too, with sorrow and dismay, that there are men among us, who maintain, not only that slavery should be forthwith abolished, but that the negro is the equal of the white man, and alike entitled to all political and social privileges, even to the full extent of mingling the two races. This will probably become a political nucleus, around which D'Ancre-men will gather, who discern their prey afar off. This lamentable delusion may possibly sever the Union, though nothing else may do it; and will bring to the colored race the severest despotism from necessity, if not total extirpation.

There are, and there will be, many such excitements, which would, in other countries, produce tumult, violence, and revolution; but which may, perhaps, for a while, pass off here, through the ballot-box; as the dark and sooty smoke passes by the chimney, leaving the comfort of the cheerful hearth to be enjoyed.

Thus far, it must be admitted, that the "enlightened" Americans are subject to caprices, not unlike those which befall communities, wherein the unnatural opinion prevails, that a man of many vices, no virtues, and perverted intelligence, and even a woman, or an infant, may be a sovereign ruler in right of birth. Though we have superior advantages, political and social, to any other nation, these very advantages are necessarily accompanied with that entire freedom, which constitutes the insecurity and danger to government. Any man may speak, write, print, and declaim, as he pleases; and this is essential to free government, while no law is violated. But then it gives the best facilities to the selfish, craving, and corrupt, to master those who know nothing but what such men insinuate and teach. How otherwise could Mr. Jefferson and Andrew Jackson have gained such an ascendency in this country? Such is our condition; and the worst evil that ever happened to us, has been to put into high offices "the people personified," and "the spirit of the age." For, if history or experience are to be credited, these are the men who have always converted republics into despotisms.

The number of those who lived under Mr. Jefferson's personal dominion, and who were old enough to have known what it was, will, ere long, have disappeared. But while they do live, they must feel a deep solicitude for the welfare of those who are come, and are to come. But they can do little. The YOUNG MEN, who are just entering upon manhood, and their immediate predecessors, are the truly interested parties. They must not expect that such a government as they were born to, will go on well for them, if they take no care of it. Let them remember, that their duty is, to cultivate the tact of distinguishing between the Sidneys, the Hampdens, the Hamiltons, and Washingtons, and the men who are great only because

"the people feel enthusiasm for them, and give themselves up to them." It is always of such "superior minds" that it is audaciously proclaimed, they are "the greatest and the best" and "born to command." And it -is such men who do command, when they can, and in their own right; not in that of the people.

Finally: It is a melancholy proof of Mr. Jefferson's "mental superiority," that there are citizens who close their eyes to the light of history, and who refuse to profit by the lessons of experience. Sad, it deed, to see that so learned and accomplished a mind as that which conceived this review, still feels "love and enthusiasm," still feels "confidence," and is still willing "to give himself up" to this devious guide. We are rather disposed to reverence the discernment, the self-respect, and the patriotism of the American people; and to believe of them, that however the excitements of passing events may have influenced them, they will regard departed statesmen with gratitude and admiration, not because they were chiefs, howsoever they became such, but because their acts prove them to have been wise, honest, and good. What hope is there of a republic, where citizens convert the respect and devotion due only to the CONSTITUTION and LAWS, into "love and enthusiasm" for the MAN! For, where is the man, whom "the love and enthusiasm of the people" will not convert into a monarch? A WASHINGTON is "a light-house, on a thousand miles of coast."

Boston, September 1, 1834.

Note referred to on page 29.

We have no allusion to Mr. Jefferson in particular, in this note. The elements of social and political life so exist, and are so combined in this country, as to make of it the most favorable seat for the empire of calumny, that has been known in the world except in Rome, at a certain period of the republic. When the spirit of aggrandizement, miscalled patriotism, had spent itself successfully, against all people but the Parthians and the barbarians, that spirit necessarily exerted itself in Roman against Roman. They had not the press; and they were restrained in popular meetings, only by prudence and fear. But the tongue, in private, was converted into the assassin's dagger. They contended for riches, place, power, distinction, just as the Americans are doing, at this day. With them the comitia (or people) were to be courted, who were the fountain of honor. So is it with us. The people there (and here) must hate and respect, fear and love, detest and venerate, as rival aspirants might influence them. This is a state of things in which (though ever in the mouths of all parties, sincerely with some, falsely and treacherously with others) the public good is in imminent peril of being the last thing provided for. It is not, however, that calumny which lies on the surface that is most detestable. It is that which is palpable in whispers, sneers, and confidential communion among those who find a sympathy in mutual hatred of some third man, and, perhaps, in nothing else.

Suppose all that was whispered, sneered, and confidentially expressed in the city of Washington, from the first Monday in December to the thirtieth of June last, were published to the world, and taken to be true, could there ever have been found on the face of the earth so detestable an order of human beings as were there assembled?

Suppose a man to live in the belief that there are no "recording angels"; that he is destitute of the honor and refinement of a gentleman; that he is incapable of that self-respect which compels him to act, at all times, as though he had a recording angel in his own breast; suppose him to be ambitious, selfish, and to make no other estimate of means but in the single quality of adaptation to his purposes; suppose that he has an air of candor, sagacity, and friendliness, adapted to inspire confidence, and that he can make every one whose ear he has, believe himself to be the special object of confidence, what an instrument of mischief-making does such a man carry in his head! An instrument that is not impaired by use, but made more keen; that shows no stain of blood; but can profess to be the protector of the very character it stabs.

Character and motives must be discussed, in public and in private, in a free government. To do this in a manner which is just and honest, requires a far higher degree of moral refinement, than most men of this or any other country, have hitherto arrived at.