AMERICAN PRINCIPLES. 
 
 REVIEW 
 
 A. / . 
 
 ^ 
 
 WORKS OF FISHER AMES, 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 A NUMBEfpP^IS FRIENDS. 
 
 FIRST PUBLISHED irf THE BOSTON PATRIOT 
 
 . " For I think it every man's indispensible duty to do all the 
 " service-he can to his country ; and I see not what difference he 
 " puts between himself and his cattle, who lives without that 
 
 "thought." 
 
 LOCKE. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED. BY EVERETT AND 
 ** * 
 
 1809.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE following papers were originally publifhed 
 in the BOSTON PATRIOT, under the title of " Review of 
 works of Fijher Ames, compiled by a number of bis friends " 
 This review was meant to beratherpolitical than literary. Of 
 the ftyle and compofition of his writings little is faid if. 
 was deemed unnecefiary to divert the attention of the read- 
 er from a difcuflion of the mod important principles, to 
 the mere flructure of difcourfe and verbal criticifm and, 
 in regard to the ftyle, it was unneceflary to enlarge : Mr. 
 Ames's biographer having characterized it with the ampli- 
 fying and extenuating hand of friendfhip, but with the dii- 
 cernment and elegance of genuine tafte. But the moral 
 and political doctrines, which were attempted to be ufhered 
 into circulation under the fanction of his amiable character 
 and refpected talents, were too portentous to be pafled over 
 without animadverfion. 
 
 The death of Mr. Ames happened at a very momen- 
 tous period of our national hiflory. At a time when rights 
 unqueftionable at the tribunal of Juftice, and eflential 
 to the independence of our country, were attacked by 
 all the power and all the artifice of the greateft naval em- 
 pire upon the globe. When in defence of thofe rights the 
 government of the Union had relorted to the only pofli- 
 ble remedy fhort of war ; and when a formidable party in 
 the heart of the country, had taken their fide in this great 
 controverfy with the foreign aggreflbr, and against their own 
 government So obvioufly was the juftice of this caufe on 
 OUR SIDE, that although every meafure adopted by this 
 party, was a meafure of encouragement to the adverfary 
 and of annoyance to our own defenders, yet no living mar? 

 
 had yet dared to pledge his flake in fociety to the direct 
 and unqualified indication of the Britifh pretenfions. In- 
 directly they were indeed juflified ; and while Britain was 
 heaping infolence upon injury in her treatment of this 
 country, fhe was fupported by thefe Americans as the ex- 
 alted champion of liberty, the defender of oppreflfed na- 
 tions, the lafl hope of the human race*. But even the 
 addreflers and reporters of the laft Maffachufetts Legifla- 
 ture, (anxious as they were to foment the fpirit of fubfer- 
 viency to Britain, urgent as they were to unfurl the repub- 
 lican banners againft the imperial ftandard^ intrepid as 
 they were to threaten and organize internal war, in aid of 
 the external enemy, againft our own government, ftrug- 
 gling in defence of OUR OWN CAUSE ; even they) Jhrunk 
 from the formal justification of the Britifh Orders of 
 Council. 
 
 But what no living man could be perfuaded to do, the 
 friends of Mr. Ames made him perform after his death. 
 During his life-time he had never chofen to pledge his 
 name to thofe doctrines ; and though he had given them 
 too much countenance in namelefs newfpaper paragraphs 
 and eflays, he had manifefted a fteady unwillingnefs to 
 avow them in the face of day. But fcarcely was he cold 
 in his grave, when his name was doomed by his friends to 
 ftand before the public, refponfibie for the affertion, that 
 on the moft momentous queftions at iflue between Britain 
 and us, fhe was right and we were -wrong. Nor was this 
 the only fatal error, promulgated in the pofthumous part 
 of this volume. The unreafonable veneration of every 
 thing connected with Britain the exceffive abhorrence of 
 every thing connected with France and the mixture of 
 
 * An American JUDGE had even talked of the impressment of British subject s 
 from American merchant vessels, as being agreeable to H RIGHT claimed and ex- 
 ercised for ages, and had undertaken to justify the British king's proclamation 
 of October 1C, 1807, under the pretence that it was merely an assertion of the 
 nation's RIGHT to the service of its subjects in time of war. The orders in coun- 
 cil too had been defended, as merely retaliatory upon France, and although some 
 straining had been manifested at the name of tribute, yet it was found that the 
 came thing might be swallowed with perfect ease under the name of a trar.si' 
 Jttfy.
 
 fcorn and contempt for his own country, which In his lafi. 
 days were at the bafis of all his political opinions, were 
 principles from which the mofl mifchievous deductions 
 naturally flowed. The averfion to Republics and Repub- 
 lican institutions the bitter invective again (I our popular 
 elections the humiliating dogma that our liberties de- 
 pended upon nothing but the Britilh navy ; the tenor, 
 that his children would be taken for Bonaparte' -. confcrip- 
 tion to St. Domingo, were calculated as far as they could 
 operate to fpread a contagion of falfe opinions upon ob- 
 jects of the higheft moment to the people of this country. 
 And the danger of thefe falfe opinions was aggravated in 
 proportion to the reverence for the talents and the refpect 
 for the perfonal character of the author, fo general 
 throughout the community. The natural and indiflbluble 
 connection between thefe opinions, and the public mea- 
 fures of thofe who dare not avow them, was material to be 
 ihewn ; and the rancorous prejudices againft our fellow 
 citizens in other parts of the Union, the contracted bafis 
 of exclufive love, upon which political attachment was 
 afferted to reft, the crude and undigefted notions of pa- 
 triotifm, with the long argument to prove that it cannot 
 exifl in this country, nor in any Republic^ were fo many 
 potions of poifon for the public mind, which the writer of 
 thefe papers lincerely thinks, loudly called for an antidote, 
 before they mould have time to circulate with all their 
 venom, in the veins and arteries of the body politic. 
 
 To defend the infulted reputation of our country, to 
 vindicate from falfe afperfions the character of the nation, 
 and its Republican inftitutions, to refute the groundlefs 
 charges againft our children and our brethren of the Wef- 
 tern and Southern States, to aflert the real foundation up- 
 on which our Independence muft ftand, to maintain its 
 RIGHTS againft the ruffian principles of the Britifh cabinet, 
 and to guard the fenfe and fpirit of the people againft the 
 miftakes of fancy ufurping upon the province of judgment, 
 in the eftimates of political morality fiirh were rhe motive? 
 which dictated thefe papers.
 
 To hold up to public view the errors of an ingenious 
 and amiable man, fo recently deceafed, was a talk, painful 
 to the feelings of the writer, and which nothing but the 
 importance of the errors, and the danger of the impref- 
 fions they were producing upon the public mind, could 
 juftify. The mod exceptionable principles, and the moft 
 important miftakes in point of fact, are quoted word 
 for word from the volume itfelf. In no one inftance 
 however has a quotation been made, which in its con- 
 nection with the other parts of the difcourfe would bear a 
 different afpect, from that which it bears in the fdeciion. 
 For thefe wanderings of intellect, it is abundantly manifeft 
 upon the face of the volume, that Mr. Ames never meant 
 to be refponfible to the public. They were intended 
 for his felecl and exclufive friends. They furnifhed food 
 for that modeft and generous opinion which they delight 
 to entertain ; that all the virtue, and all the talents, as 
 well as all the wealth of the American continent, is a 
 monopoly of their own ; and that the reft of the peo- 
 ple are a mere herd of Sodom, to be faved from the fire 
 of Heaven only by their tranfcendent merits. So long as 
 thefe maggots only crawled within the pale of the church, 
 their mifchief was confined to the annoyance of occafional 
 vifitors at the altar of the idol ; but when thus ufhered 
 abroad, they might have taken wing and fpread a plague 
 of locufts over the land. 
 
 It was then, an examination of the political fyftem of 
 fhefe felf-ftyled faviours of Sodom, which was propofed 
 by the writer of the following papers. Their doctrines 
 had never been fo fully and explicitly avowed, by any 
 man who had a character to pledge. Like the priefts of 
 Egypt, they had a revelation for the multitude, and a 
 fecret for the initiated. In its plenitude of perfection, their 
 creed was no where to be found in a tangible fhape. To 
 make way for this mafs of illumination, the real wifdom 
 and virtue of Mr. Ames's beft days, his public labours as 
 a ftatefman, at the organization of the federal government, 
 his fpeeches openly made in the face of the country, the
 
 great and folid foundation of his honourable fame, were 
 excluded from the compilation. Had the fame principles 
 been fcrutinized as appearing in newfpaper paragraphs and 
 anonymous pamphlets, the moment they were brought to 
 the teft they would have been univerfally difa vowed. For 
 the holders of thefe tenets, like the Dutch traders of 
 Japan, whenever traffic is to be obtained by denial of their 
 Lord, will trample upon his crofs to difprove their religion. 
 They have given at length their confeffion of political 
 faith to the world, and it was only under the fanclion of 
 Mr. Ames's name, that it could be properly canvafled. 
 
 It may perhaps be thought that the conduct of thefe 
 friends is here judged with too much feverity That in 
 publishing thefe opinions of Mr. Ames, they are not re- 
 fponfible for them as their own ; and that even the errors 
 of the volume ought to have been overlooked, in confider- 
 ation of the general excellence of the author, and the val- 
 uable matter with which they are blended. The writer 
 of the Review is not infenfible to the moral obligation in- 
 cumbent upon a man of generous feelings to " hide the 
 fault he fees," and to veil if poffible, even the failings of a 
 fellow citizen, diftinguifhed by talents, virtues and public 
 fervices. It is that obligation which he thinks the pub- 
 lifhers of the volume have violated. As a free-born 
 American citizen, he feels a duty to maintain the rights 
 and liberties of his country, not lefs imperious than that of 
 refpe&ing the repofe of death ; efpecially when he per- 
 ceives that a ftroke is aimed at every thing which this na- 
 tion ought to hold dear, under the fhelter of a prefump- 
 tion, that the fancluary of the grave would fhield the of- 
 fence from the purfuit of juftice ; and that a name entitled 
 to public veneration would prove a paflport for corrup- 
 tion to which no man living dared to pledge his own. 
 For it muft be obferved that the compilers have been as 
 penurious of their own names, as they have been prodigal 
 of that of their departed friend The title page tells us 
 that they are a number, but not who they are. The bi- 
 ography, a performance which in point of competition
 
 would do honour to any name, yet bears not that of its 
 author ; and the very private letters, divulged in the face 
 of their own injunctions of fecrecy, are directed to nothing 
 but afteriiks. 
 
 The writer is well aware that party fpirit, will neither 
 give him credit for his real motives in the publication of 
 thefe papers, nor forbear from the imputation of others. 
 But it is not to party fpirit, that he meant to addrefs him- 
 felf, nor to partizans that he holds himfelf amenable. Be- 
 lieving in the general fenfe and virtue of his countrymen, 
 he afks of his reader that effort of the mind which Male- 
 branche demands of every inquirer after truth To fepa- 
 rate from the fubject every prepofleflion, not belonging to 
 it, and to examine without any partial bias, the fentiments 
 advanced in the volume and contefled in thefe papers. If 
 [^principles to which the friends of Mr. Ames have feen 
 fit to pledge his reputation are founded in eternal truth, 
 to difpute them is nothing lefs than to war againft Om- 
 nipotence. If they are founded in error, no apology will 
 be neceflary, for an attempt to arreft the progrefs of their 
 influence at the threfhold. 
 
 Should the feader be one of thofe, whofe admiration 
 for the genius and character of Mr. Ames, is a feeling in 
 which he delights to indulge himfelf, and which he is un- 
 willing to fubmit to the crucible of ftubborn reafon, he is 
 requefted to lay afide the pamphlet, and continue in the 
 enjoyment of his fenfations. Should he think it a more 
 profitable courfe to teft his principles before he carries 
 them into action, let him examine the volume, and weigh 
 the objections againft a part of its contents, here advan- 
 ced ; after which he may ftill enjoy his admiration of the 
 man. This I have no inclination to difturb Let him, if 
 it can afford him any gratification, fufpett the motives of 
 the Reviewer. But let him renounce principles demon- 
 ftrated to be falfe, and of deadly import to the indepen- 
 dence and liberties of this country.
 
 American Principles. 
 
 A 
 
 REVIEW 
 
 NUMBER L 
 
 IN that ftrange medley of wit and weaknefs ; 
 of reafon and dotage ; of benevolence and rancour ; of 
 ardent fpirit and childifh terrour, which has juft been pub- 
 limed under the title of " Works of Ft/her Ames^ compiled 
 by a number of his friends" they have treated his memory , 
 as they did his body. 
 
 For the purpofe of a little brief impreflion upon popu- 
 lar fentiment, which they fancied would be produced by 
 the authority of his name, in favour of their darling fol- 
 lies, they have mixed up together with foine valuable per- 
 formances, really worthy of republication, a multitude of 
 old newfpaper effays, which he never could have expected 
 to furvive the moment or occafion for which they were 
 produced, and a number of private letters, certainly not 
 intended by him for the public eye, and which nothing but 
 the treachery of pretended friendlhip ever would have ex- 
 pofed. 
 
 Mr. Ames was a man of genius and of virtue he 
 meant well to his country, and ferved her with fidelity ac- 
 cording to his beft judgment. But at a very early period 
 of his public life, he connected himfelf with Hamilton, his 
 bank and his funding fyflem, in a manner which warped 
 his judgment and trammelled the freedom of his mind for 
 the remainder of his days. The reproaches, which at that 
 time, his political enemies caft upon him, as having con- 
 tracted zperfonafintereft, in the eftablimment of the fyftem, 
 B
 
 which, partly by the influence of his exertions, was made 
 to prevail, infilled a tincture of bitternefs in his fubfequent 
 political fentiments, not congenial to his natural temper- 
 he became wedded to his doctrines, not by the fordid felf- 
 ifhnefs of avarice, to which he was always superior, but 
 by the concern for his own fame, and by the virulence of 
 his antagonifts.* 
 
 Mr. Ames was not among the firft who difcerned the 
 real character and tendencies of the French revolution and 
 when he did difcover that it was not the introductory ave- 
 nue to the millennium, he (till continued to view it through 
 a partial medium. He changed his glafs, but still faw 
 through it darkly. From that time he became on this 
 subject a convert to the Englifti fchool, and with all the 
 opinions of the anti-revolutionift, mingled all the fear-en- 
 gendered fancies of the anti-gallican. He adopted the 
 wildefl extravagancies which the minifterial pamphleteers 
 in England diffeminate among the populace, to reconcile 
 them to the burdens of eternal war with France, and 
 transferring to his own country the real dangers of England, 
 from the profpect of a French invafion, he lived in a per- 
 petual panic, that America would finally be only the lad 
 morfel for the voracious maw of the monfter Bonaparte. 
 
 During the lafl ten years of his life, Mr. Ames's 
 health was always in a precarious, and often in an alarm- 
 ing condition. His fpirits partook of his infirmities. The 
 mod diftinguifhing feature in his character was the vivaci- 
 ty of his imagination. The difeafe which was undermin- 
 ing his constitution, without impairing the fplendour of 
 his fancy, affected the tone of his nerves. Every thing 
 that he faw became coloured by his fears. He was con- 
 tinually, but ineffectually, labouring to impart his terrours 
 to his countrymen ; they grew ftronger upon him in pro- 
 portion as they proved inefficacious upon others, until he 
 worked himfelf up into a fort of reafoning frenzy, com- 
 pounded of adoration of Britilh power abhorrence of 
 
 * It is remarkable, that in this compilation, professedly made as an 
 honorary tribute of friendship, but obviously guided in the selection by the 
 fingers of faction ; the Speech against Mr. Madison's motion for ;i discrimi- 
 nation in funding the public debt, between the original holders and the pur- 
 chasers on speculation, though one of Mr. Ames's most eloquent effusions 
 in Congress is OMITTED !
 
 France, and contempt for his own countrymen. In fuch a 
 ftate of mind, he committed fometimes to the prefs fenti- 
 ments which will not bear the teft of a cool examination 
 but in his private letters he indulged his morbid humours 
 more freely ; and now, thofe fentiments which the hand 
 of fincere affection ought to have covered with the thick- 
 eft veil, are brought forth in all their nakednefs to the 
 world, becaufe they happen to fuit the purpofes of a fac- 
 tion. 
 
 The following are a very few out of a great number 
 of fuch fentiments. If any of Mr. Ames's number of 
 friends are prepared to defend them, let them be heard. If 
 they are fuch as no man living dare to defend, why were' 
 they not kept in the facred depofit of private friendfhip, to 
 which they were committed ? 
 
 " Our country is too big for union ; too fordid for 
 patriot if m / too democratic for liberty" 
 
 Letter of the 26th Oft. 1803^. 483. 
 
 " Yet I fee, that the multitude are told, and it is plain 
 they are told, becaufe they will believe /'/, that liberty will 
 be a gainer by the purchafe [of Louifiana.] They are 
 deceived o;j their weak fide ; they think the purchafe a 
 great bargain. We are to be rich by felling lands. If the 
 multitude were not blind before, their fordid avarice, thus 
 addreffed, would blind them." 
 
 31/2 Oct. 1803^. 485. 
 
 " Louifiana excites kfs intereft than our thankfgiving. 
 It is an old ftory. I am half of Talleyrand's opinion, when 
 he fays we are phlegmatic, and without any paffion except 
 that for money-getting. 
 
 29//J Nov. 1803 p> 487. 
 
 " Suppofe an attack on property, I calculate on the 
 " fenfibilities" of our nation. There is a fenforium. Like 
 a negro's fhins, there our patriotifm would feel the kicks, 
 and twinge with agonies that we mould not be able fo 
 much as to conceive, if we only have our faces fpit in." 
 
 Same letter p. 48
 
 " It is one of the moft confuming curfes of heaven AND 
 WE DESERVE IT to commit the affairs of a nation to rulers, 
 who find in their popularity, their rapacity, or their ambi- 
 tion, an intereft feparate from the intereft of the people." 
 
 iyth Nov. 1805 p. 496. 
 
 " As great geniufes fnatch the fceptre from the hands 
 of great little rafcals, the government rifes, though liberty 
 rifes no more. Ours is gone, never to return. To mitigate 
 a tyranny is all that is left for our hopes" 
 
 J\ 7 ov. 1805 Thankf giving evening. 
 
 " I have hoped that the f acred Jhield of cowardice, as 
 Junius calls it, would protect our peace. \ftill hope." 
 
 i/i.Feb. 1806. 
 
 " A fate feems to fweep the proflrate world along, 
 that is not to be averted by fubmiflion, nor retarded by 
 arms. The Britifh navy Hands like Briareus, parrying the 
 thunderbolts, but can hurl none back again ; and if Bona- 
 parte effects his conqueft of the dry land, the empire of 
 the fea muft in the end belong to him." 
 
 Feb. 1806- ^. 506". 
 
 " Two obftacles, and only two, impede the eftablifh- 
 ment of univerfal monarchy Ruffia and the Britifh navy." 
 
 Same letter p. 508. 
 
 " After her fall, ours would not cod Bonaparte a 
 blow. We are pro/irate -already , and of all men on earth 
 the jitteft to be Jlaves. Even our darling avarice would 
 not make a week's refiflance to tribute, if the name were 
 difguifed ; and I much doubt whether if France were lord 
 of the navies of Europe, we mould reluct at that, or even 
 at the appellation and condition of Helots." 
 
 Same letter p. 5 1 o. 
 
 " They [the adminiftration] need not fear the moral 
 fenfe, or fenfe of honour, or any other fenfe of our people, 
 except their nonfenfe, which they will take fpecial good 
 care to keep on their fide." 
 
 loth March, 1806 -p. 518.
 
 " It is the nature of thefe [white birch flakes] to fail 
 in two years ; and A REPUBLIC wears out its morals al- 
 moft as foon as the fap of a white birch rots the wood." 
 
 1 2th Jan. 1807 />. 514. 
 
 " Of our fix millions of people, there zrefcareelyfix 
 hundred, who yet look for liberty any where except on 
 paper." 6tb Nov. 1807 -p. 518. 
 
 Americans! Federalifts ! are thefe fentiments TRUE? 
 Are you that ftupid that infamous herd which you are 
 here reprefented to be ? No Nor could it po/Iibly be the 
 calm and difpailionate judgment of the writer that you 
 were. These ideas were part of his difeafe he was him- 
 felf fenfible that they were not fit for public infpe&ion 
 his memory ought not to be charged with the deteftation, 
 which fuch fehtiments ought to draw upon thofe, who, in 
 full pofifeffion of the moil moderate underftanding, could 
 deliberately entertain them. It is not the Saint of the Cal- 
 endar but the fraudulent monks at his fhrine, who at- 
 tempt to pafs off the pairings of his nails for relics of incfti- 
 raable price. 
 
 We are fenfible, that this inexprefTible contempt for 
 the whole American nation this fanatical idolatry of Bri- 
 tain, and this delirious dream of Bonaparte's coming in 
 the ihape of a tiger to eat up our children, have all be^ 
 come (landing articles of faith in the Junto creed. I have 
 heard it faid, that when His Mod Gracious Majefty was 
 under the difcipline of Dr. Willis, he fancied himfelf a 
 fox, and that he was hunted by Gen. Wafliington. The 
 nineteen twentieths men the " fcarcely fix hundred out 
 of the fix millions," who are fincere in thefe night-mare 
 vifions, have brains lefs modefl in their confufion than 
 thofe of the great King. He humbly conceived him- 
 felf turned into a cunning and cowardly bead, whofc 
 hunter was a hero. They, forfooth dream, not that they 
 themfelves, but that all their neighbours and countrymen 
 are transformed into hares, to be hunted by a tiger ; and 
 that in the chafe, the tiger's raven will not fpare even them 
 the fait of the earth, the heroic would-be faviours of their 
 bafe and fervile countrymen. It is a melancholy contem-
 
 plation of human nature to fee a mind fo richly gifted, 
 and fo highly cultivated as that of Mr. Ames, foured and 
 exafperated into the very ravings of a bedlamite. 
 
 What bitter pangs must humbled genius feel, 
 In their last hours to see a Swift or Steele ? 
 
 But the apology that is due for him, is not equally 
 the right of others. There are thofe, who, without be- 
 lieving a word of this abfurd and inconfiftent political 
 creed, are yet as eager for its propagation as he was veri- 
 ly they expect their reward. If they can frighten the whole 
 people into a madnefs, like that of the royal fox if they 
 can fill the brains of the nation with a fancy that we have 
 all been transformed into the vileft of the brute creation, 
 fave only the choice fpir its, amounting to, at moft, fix 
 hundred ; the next ftep follows of courfe The porcelain 
 muft rule over the earthen ware the blind and fordid 
 multitude muft put themfelves, bound hand and foot, into 
 the cuftody of the lynx-eyed SERAPHIC fouls of the fix 
 hundred ; and then all together muft go and fquat for 
 protection under the hundred hands of the Britifh Briareus. 
 Then, indeed, we may rely upon it, our country will be 
 neither " too big for union" nor " too democratic for lib' 
 erty." 
 
 To this volume is prefixed an elegant and ingenious bi- 
 ographical account of the author, written in a ftyle of mod- 
 eration, which we cannot but contraft with the violence and 
 intemperance of the late papers in the volume itfelf. The 
 learned biographer appears on more than one occafion em- 
 barrafled with the rantings of his fubject, and cools with a 
 feather dipt in oil the burning metal of his text. He tells 
 us that Mr. Ames was emphatically a republican -but that 
 he confidered a republic and a democracy as efientially dif- 
 tinct and oppofite. Probably this was the ftate of his 
 opinions at one period of his life but in his latter days, 
 when the Englifh fafcinations and the French antipathies 
 had obtained their uncontrouled afcendancy over his mind, 
 he appears to have had as little efteem for a republican 
 government as for the American people. It is not to a 
 democracy, but to a republic, that he compares the eflen- 
 tial rottennefs of the white birch (lakes, in one of the above^
 
 extracts. In fhort, Jie was too thoroughly Britonized to 
 preferve a relim for any thing republican ; and in the pa- 
 per laft publifhed before his deceafe, contained in this vol- 
 ume, he fays in exprefs terms, that " the immortal fpirit 
 of the wood-nymph liberty, dwells ONLY in the Britiih 
 oak." 
 
 The propofition once made in Congrefs, to declare 
 the American nation " the moft enlightened people upon 
 the globe," has been ridiculed quite as much as it deferv- 
 cd. If by the term enlightened, were to be underftood 
 merely the degree of proficiency attained by a few indi- 
 viduals in the arts and fciences, we certainly can have no 
 pretentions to a competition with moft of fhe European 
 nations but if it were meant only to exprefs the amount 
 of mental cultivation generally poffeffed by the body of 
 the people, I believe it was ftriftly true. It would be dif- 
 ficult at leafl to name the people in Europe, the great mafs 
 of whom poflefs fo much of that knowledge, which is 
 power, as the people of the United States. If, however, 
 there was fomething of national vanity manifefted in the 
 fentiment, it was at lead an innocent errour. But I could 
 never perceive either the wifdom or the virtue of proclaim- 
 ing the aifuredly falfe doctrine, that the people of America 
 are the bafefl and moft degraded of the human fpecies. 
 It is one of thofe fcandalous calumnies which a number of 
 ftarveling vagabonds in England, with Cobbett's Regifter, 
 and Moore, the minftrel of the brothels, have been for 
 fome years adminiftering to the malignant paflions of that 
 country ; but from the lips of an American, it is as little 
 the voice of patriotifm as of truth. The language of in- 
 fult and outrage applied to the people, is no better than the 
 language of adulation. If a tenth part of thofe horrible 
 reproaches upon the whole people poured forth in the ex- 
 tracts I have here given, and repeated under a thoufand 
 mapes in this volume, were true, the country would not 
 be fit for the refidence of a man who had a fpark of hon- 
 our in his compofition. He would fly from it as from a 
 land of Yahoos the very pretence of anxiety for the fate 
 of fuch a country, is worfe than abiurd. A man, who on 
 the THANKSGIVING evening of the year 1805, could de-
 
 8 
 
 liberately fit down and write that our liberty was gone, 
 never to return, and that to mitigate a tyranny was all that 
 was left for our hopes a man who could believe that our 
 country was too fordid for patriotifm that we had nothing 
 but the facred Oiicld of cowardice to protect us that we 
 were of all men on earth the fitteft to be flaves ; comes 
 with a very ill grace, when he tells us how much he loves 
 and refpects that very country and how his heart is 
 buHling with anxiety for the welfare of thefe dregs of cre- 
 ation. I reverence the virtues and the genius of Mr. 
 Ames ; but I know that in penning thofe billingfgate in- 
 veftives againft his country, he could not be in pofleffion 
 of a found mind j and I fubmit it to the feelings of every 
 generous fpirit, whether genuine friendship mould not 
 rather have been felicitous to mroud thefe infirmities from 
 the public eye, than xvith fuch remorfelefs hand to drag 
 them into day. 
 
 NUMBER II. 
 
 THERE is not perhaps in human Society, a trust 
 of higher importance and more delicacy, than that which 
 devolves upon the friends of an eminent literary man, re- 
 lating to the difpofal of the papers which he leaves behind 
 him. This truft has fo often been betrayed, that every 
 man who has acquired a reputation in the literary world, 
 ought himfelf much more studioufly to difpofc, before his 
 deceafe, of thofe productions of his mind, than of his 
 worldly eftate. Men of genius are treated like kings. 
 They who pretend to be their friends, are often nothing 
 more than fycophants, who attach themfelves to their fame, 
 for fordid purpofes of their own, and who from the mo- 
 ment that the fuperior Spirit has left its tenement of clay, 
 inftead of cherifhing and protecting that fame, think of 
 nothing but turning it to the account of fome wretched 
 paflion or intereft of their own to fpunge money from 
 the purfe of the public, or to pafs disgraceful sentiments 
 into circulation, for the wicked purpofes of faction. The 
 examples of Cbefterficld and Sterne are familiar to thofe
 
 17 
 
 converfant with the recent literary hiftory of England, of 
 men, whofe reputation has been blafted after their deceafe, 
 by the publication of papers, which they would have bu- 
 ried in eternal oblivion, but which the rapacity of 'a num- 
 ber of their friends , furrendered to the indignation of pof- 
 terity for the fake of a paltry tribute levied upon the pub- 
 lic curiofity. I know not who are the friends that pub- 
 limed the volume now before me, but I truft it has been 
 fhewn in a former paper, that both its feleftion and its 
 omijjion, were governed by motives very different from that 
 of regard for the lading reputation of the author. The 
 writer of this paper refpected Mr. AMES, and laments, that 
 others who by their particular intimacy with him, were 
 fpecially charged with the guardianmip of his fame, inflead 
 of adhering faithfully to that duty, have, for the poor pur- 
 pofe of promoting the views of a party, " drawn his frail- 
 ties from their dread abode" and expofed him to the im- 
 putation of doctrines, which the found judgment of his 
 better days would have rejected with horror, and for which 
 they alone ought to be refponfible to diftant nations and to 
 future ages. 
 
 In a former paper it was obferved, that the private let- 
 ters contained in this compilation were certainly not intend- 
 ed by their writer for the public eye ; and that they con- 
 tained fentiments which he himfelf was fenfible were not 
 fit for public infpe&ion. The evidence of thefe affertions 
 is contained in one of thofe very letters ; and in thefe 
 words : 
 
 " It is ever a misfortune for a man to differ from the 
 political or religious creed of his countrymen. You will 
 not fail to perceive, that I am worfe than a lingerer in my 
 faith in the conclufivenefs of the reafoning of Mr. MADI- 
 SON, and Co. This however, 1 keep to myfelf and lefs than 
 half a dozen friends." Page 507. 
 
 Is it not ftrange paffing ftrange, that with this direct, 
 and explicit admonition ftaring him in the face, one of the 
 lefs than half a dozen friends to whom the fecret was com- 
 mitted, mould divulge not or.ly to the country, but to the 
 enemies of the country thofe opinions, which their author 
 was amamed or afraid to avow when alive ? 
 
 C
 
 Strange indeed it is ; but the motive is obvious enough. 
 The fubject fpecially alluded to in this letter, upon which 
 it was Mr. Ames's misfortune to differ from the creed of 
 his countrymen, and upon which he was worfe than a lin- 
 gerer in his faith in the conclufivenefs of the reafoning of 
 Mr. Madifon and Co. was the great queftion of our neu- 
 tral rights to the colonial trade with the enemies of Great 
 Britain. The date of the letter is i4th Feb. 1806 juft 
 after the time, when Mr. Madiion's unanfwerable vindica- 
 tion of the neutral caufe appeared feveral excellent mem- 
 orials, written fome of them by men who have fmce de- 
 ferted that honorable flandard and joined the banners of 
 the enemy, were alfo then before Congrefs ; and it is to 
 them that Mr. Ames refers, by the defcription of Mr. Mad- 
 ifon, and Co. 
 
 The letter was written to a member of Congrefs, who, 
 as appears from a fubfequent paiTage in it, was then on the 
 fide of his country upon this great queftion. He has fmce 
 changed his fide, and the publication of this letter was 
 doubtlefs intended to anfwer the double purpofe of giving 
 countenance to him and other apoftates from the Ameri- 
 can principle, and of propagating among the people of 
 this country, the opinion that the Britim doctrine on that 
 controversy was the correct one, and that our claim had 
 not theiblid foundation of juftice. 
 
 The queftion of our right to the colonial trade, is 
 next to that refpecting impreffments, the mod important 
 of any which has ever been agitated between Great Britain 
 and us, fince the peace of our Independence. It would 
 evc;n take the lead of that, if the fecurity to perfonal liberty 
 were not prior in the nature and dudes of government, to 
 any poffible queftion relating to mere property. As it af- 
 fects the intereft of this Union, its greatefl importance is 
 to the eaftern and commercal fection ; to New-Kngland 
 commerce and navigation, it is abfolutely vital. It is by 
 means of this trade, and of this alone, that we are provid- 
 ed with fubftitutes tor thofe rich ftaples of commerce, 
 which nature has bountifully bellowed upon the foil and 
 climate of our fouthern brethren, and which (he has denied 
 to us. To abandon the right to this colonial trade, there-
 
 19 
 
 fore, is to facrifice not only one of the beft rights of an in- 
 dependent nation, but the peculiar and moft precious in- 
 terefts of New-England. At the time when this letter 
 was written, Great Britain had ftruck a deadly blow at this 
 unqueftionable right, and this momentous intereft. Ac- 
 cording to her ufual cuftom, fhe had begun, without an 
 hour's notice, to sweep the ocean clear of American prop- 
 erty, under the afiumption of a new pretended principle, 
 and fhe had fet her moft accomplifhed fophifts in the 
 jfchools of national jurifprudence, at work, to colour her 
 robberies with a mow of argument. At that time, the 
 caufe of truth, of juftice, and of America was POPULAR. 
 The very day before this letter of Mr. Ames was dated, 
 the principle of the American right had been afferted by an 
 unanimous vote in the Senate of the United States. There 
 was not a man of any character as a Statesman, in the U- 
 nited States, who dared to advocate the Britim pretenfions. 
 The very banks and infurance offices refounded with the 
 cry of Britifh injuftice and of American independence. 
 Even then, however, Mr. Ames and fome lefs than half 
 a dozen others, had been brought to imagine that they 
 had probed this fubject to the bottom, and had found that 
 the true principle was that afierted by Britain, and that the 
 beft thing we could do, would be tofub?nit. The procefs 
 by which this conviction was wrought upon the mind of 
 Mr. Ames, was an operation upon the three articles of 
 creed, which the fanatics of his political feet had impofed 
 upon his underftanding, and which were unfolded in my 
 laft paper the ivorjhip of Britifh power execration of 
 France' and contempt for the people of America. His letter 
 of the 2yth November, 1805,10 the fame member of Con- 
 grefs, confined altogether to the discuffion of this topic, 
 proves that the fophiftry of the Britifh pamphleteers, had 
 taken complete pofieflion of his mind. The Britim princi- 
 ple was right, becaufe the Britifh power on the fea was ir- 
 refiftible. It was right becaufe it was neceffary to Britain 
 fighting for her exiftence It was right becaufe France had 
 no navy It was right becaufe France would not permit 
 us to trade with her colonies in time of peace. This reafon- 
 ing fo exactly refembling that of ^Efop's wolf, in his dif-
 
 20 
 
 pute with the lamb, had actually proved too ftrong for 
 Mr. Ames's dialectics. He had a confiderable pecuniary 
 intereft at (lake upon the iffue of refiftance againil that ially 
 of Britifh rapine. But money, even his own money, was 
 nothing and lefs than nothing in his eyes, when the necef- 
 fity of Britain's agonies or the fupremacy of Britain's na- 
 val dominion, came in conflict with it, in a druggie againfl 
 France. His opinion of Britifh fpirit was as exalted as his 
 idea of Britifh logic, and from his contempt for our facul- 
 ties, both of heart and head, he concluded that we mould 
 only blufter, but that John Bull would fay he was " as lit- 
 tle convinced as afraid," and that we mould ultimately ac- 
 quiesce. It did fo happen, that we perfevered in our 
 claims, and that John Ball, whether convinced or afraid, 
 did at that time abandon his pretenfion. 
 
 It was, however, again affumed in fubflance, by the far 
 famed orders of council of i ith November, 1807. The 
 profpect of a war with England was now rendered much 
 more probable. As it advanced, and the dangers of our 
 country increafed, the worfhippers of Britain faw a dawn 
 of hope, that with the aid of the Britifh doctrines, they 
 might hurl from power the then adminiflration, and vault 
 into their feats themfelves. They renounced all pretence 
 to any claim of right againfl Great Britain, and immedi- 
 ately after the outrage upon the Chefapeake, formally un- 
 dertook to juflify in a public newfpaper of this town, the 
 act of the Britifh admiral Berkeley, upon a pretended right 
 of the Britifh to take feamen from an American national 
 fhip, by force. 
 
 Mr. Ames's number of friends have not feen fit to in- 
 dulge the public with his fentiments upon that tranfa&ion. 
 We know not whether he had reconciled his foul to the 
 belief, that every Britilh naval Lieutenant had a right to 
 fearch an American fhip of war for men ; but we confefs 
 that judging from the fpecimens they have given of his late 
 fentiments upon Britifh rights, we do not regret the lofs of 
 his opinions upon the affair of the Chefapeake. 
 
 The people were alarmed by the near profpect of a 
 war with England. The people were diftrefled by the 
 operation of the embargo. T he people were partially de-
 
 luded by the impoflure of a pretended miflion to atone for 
 the attack on the Chefapeake. At this critical moment, 
 one of thofe very Senators, who in February, 1806, had 
 voted that the Britifh pretenfion to exclude us from the 
 colonial trade in time of war, was a violation of our rights 
 and an encroachment upon our independence, came out in 
 a printed pamphlet as the champion for that very Britifh 
 pretenfion. The argument of Mr. Ames's letters doubt- 
 lefs had converted him from the American error of his 
 ways ; and although Mr. Ames, when writing thofe letters, 
 had felt it to be the duty of " a good citizen, to be Jilent 
 'while our fide was argued" yet his friends have not thought 
 it indecorous, at the very moment when OUR SIDE was in 
 the moft imminent jeopardy, to fummon him from the fi- 
 lence of the grave, to bear his tefhmony in favour of our 
 adverfary. 
 
 Thanks to the good and wife difpofer of all events, 
 that this weapon has alfo fallen blunted to the ground 1 
 Thanks to almighty God, that the nation has been faved 
 from the difgrace and ruin, which fubmiffion to this info- 
 lent and groundlefs pretenfion of Great Britain, would 
 have brought upon them ! The purpofe of breaking down 
 the fenfe and fpirit of this people, to that level of degra- 
 dation which would have alfented to the hollow fophiflry 
 of the Britifh claim, has been defeated. The opinions of 
 Mr. Ames, will not now avail, as an apology for treache- 
 ry to the rights of the country. 
 
 There is indeed one point of view, in which the pub- 
 lication of thefe letters will be ferviceable to the public. 
 They have difcovered, beyond all contradiction and denial, 
 the real fundamental principles, of that political feft, 
 which has obtained the controul of our flate adminiflration, 
 and which for the lafl two years has been driving with 
 fuch furious zeal to a diflblution of the Union combi- 
 ned with an alliance, offenfive and defenfive, with Great 
 Britain. 
 
 The laft half of this volume might be denominated, 
 the political bible of the junto. If there be a reflecting 
 man in any of our fifler ftates, not infected with the fcab 
 of this political leprofy, who has any doubt what the junto
 
 principles really are, let him attentively read that part of 
 this volume which had never before been publimed. Here 
 he will find thofe principles which they have heretofore 
 circulated in whifpers among themfelves, and denied when 
 charged with them in public ; which in their fecret con- 
 claves they profefs as articles of faith, and which in their 
 public manifeftoes they repel with indignation, as ilander- 
 ous afperfions. Here he will find, fpun from a degenerate 
 plant of our own foil, that three-fold cord of Proftration 
 to Britain, Horror of France, and Contempt for America, 
 which binds together the whole political fy ftemof the faction. 
 
 But although the pretenfions contended for by Great 
 Britain, has once more been withdrawn, and will, in all 
 probability, not now form a fubjeft of controverfy between 
 the two nations, we have no fecurity that in the firft hour 
 of fuccefs which the chances of war may evolve in her 
 favour, (he will not aflert it again. Should the tempta- 
 tion of a rich and defencelefs commerce, expanded over 
 every ocean, and immediately under the fangs of her naval 
 power, again concur with that " envious jealoufy and 
 canker'd ipite," which fickens many of her mod influen- 
 tial ftatefmen at the fight of American profperity, that ac- 
 commodating principle of Britim law of nations, which 
 like the devils of Milton's Pandemonium, fwells into a giant 
 or fhrinks into a pigmy, as its occaftons require, will again 
 make its appearance " in its own dimenfions, like itfelf." 
 The rule of the war of 1756, painted with fome new fo- 
 phiftical varnifh. will iflue again from the dens of Doctor's 
 Commons, as an Afiatic panther leaps from the thicket 
 upon the unwary traveller. The commerce of America 
 will be its viftim ; and the Canning of the day, with fome 
 farcaflic fneer, may refer us, for the j unification of Brit- 
 im depredations, to the opinions of an American ftatefman. 
 One of your own jurifts, he will fay, has fettled the ques- 
 tion againfl you. Mr. Ames has fan&ioned the Britifh 
 doctrine. 
 
 There is another public mifchief which may refult 
 from the publication of thefe private letters of Mr. Ames, 
 refp t r ing this queflion. There are two remarkable pe- 
 culiarities in the American character : The people of this
 
 country have a more profound refpect for Right and Juf- 
 tice, than any other nation upon the face of the earth. 
 They would never contend for any claim, the juftice of 
 which they mould not fmcerely believe to be on their 
 fide. They are alfo very much influenced in their opin- 
 ions by the authority of refpected names. Thefe two 
 qualities are, upon the whole, much to their honour j 
 although the faction, whofe principles I have undertaken 
 to .expofe, have made this love of Juftice, for many years, 
 the theme of their ridicule. Mr. Jefferfon, who was well 
 acquainted with this characteriftic of his countrymen, 
 often, very often appealed to this ftrong fenfe of Juftice, 
 and exprefied his confidence in its operation. His reli- 
 ance upon it has been one of the moft copious fountains of 
 merriment and derifion, played by his antagonifts upon 
 him a merriment and derifion, in which it appears from 
 this volume, the mind of Mr. Ames himfelf did not dif- 
 dain to participate. The floods of farcafm and invective 
 which have gufhed upon him, for his repeated references 
 to the umphage of reafon, are univerfally known ; and 
 this fagacious mirth might be indulged as harmlefs, were 
 it not infeparably connected with a political fyftem. If, 
 then, the people of America could be prevailed upon to 
 think that they have no right to claim a free trade with 
 the colonies of Britain's enemies, in time of war, they 
 would never aflfert it ; they would, without a ftruggle, 
 furrender the trade, whenever it might fuit the purpofes 
 of the Britifh cabinet to take it from neutrals, and give it 
 exclufively to their own people. When this book was 
 publifhed the two countries were on the brink of war, 
 chiefly upon this very queftion ; and the intention of the 
 publication manifeftly was to ftagger the faith of the na- 
 tion in their right. Had the recent trial of our perfe- 
 verance and fortitude continued much longer, the abhor- 
 rence of war would have given the flimfieft cobweb of 
 fophiftry the confiftency of found logic, in the minds of a 
 great portion of the people of New England : efpecially 
 when the Britifh party might have rung in the ears of ev- 
 ery trembling patriot, that Mr. Ames had declared himfelf 
 againft our right to the object in conteft. I have no
 
 24 
 
 doubt that if this right fhould again be denied by Britain, 
 and again call for our exertions to defend it, the fame par- 
 ty will refort to the fame expedient, and that the authori- 
 ty of Mr. Ames's opinion will be vouched to feal the de- 
 gradation of the nation, and the furrender of this great 
 and unqueftionable right. 
 
 It becomes, therefore, a duty to declare, that from 
 Mr. Ames's difcuffion of this queftion, in thefe private 
 letters, not a fmgle fcintilation of new light upon the fub- 
 jeci: has been elicited ; that he pins his faith upon Sir 
 William Scott, and the minifterial pamphleteers ; that the 
 two great pillars of his argument are power and necejfity 
 Both thefe pillars Mr. Madifon had broken up into 
 atoms, utterly harmlefs and contemptible, in his examina* 
 tion of the Britifh doctrine, and even the talisman of Mr, 
 Ames's eloquence i< not adequate to the recompofition of 
 their duft into folid columns. The expofition of found 
 principle and irrefragable proof in that work, is a fub- 
 ftantial pledge to the nation that Mr. Madifon will never 
 abandon the right which he fo clearly vindicated, and 
 while we drop a tear of compafli m upon the political 
 weaknefs of Mr. Ames's declining days let us rejoice that 
 the maintenance of our national rights againft Great Brit- 
 ain has been committed to men of firmer minds. The 
 honour of disclaiming the liberties of the nation, will not, 
 I believe, foon be contefled againft Mr. Ames, but when 
 the pretenders of friendfhip, fitted with their unhallowed 
 hands the deadly night-made, inftead of the laurel to his 
 lifelefs brows, \vas there not fome minifter of eternal juf- 
 dce to interpofe, and fix it with the merited difhonour up- 
 on their own ? 
 
 NUMBER III. 
 
 1. " THERE is a kind of fatality in the affairs OF 
 REPUBLICS, that eludes the forefight of the wife as much 
 as it frustrates the toils and facrifices of the patriot and the 
 hero." 
 
 " Dangers of American Liberty " p. 380 of the volume.
 
 , 25 
 
 2. " It is pretty enough to fay, the republic com* 
 mands, and the love of the republic dictates obedience 
 to the heart of every citizen. This is fyflem, but is it 
 nature ? The republic is a creature of fiction ; it is every 
 body in the fancy, but nobody in the heart. Love, to be 
 any thing, must befelect and exclujtve. We may as well 
 talk of loving geometry as the commonwealth." p. 395. 
 
 3. " It is faid, that in republics, majorities invariably 
 opprefs minorities. Can there be any real patriotifm in a 
 (late, which is thus filled with thofe who exercife and 
 those who fuffer tyranny ? But ho-iv much lefs reafon has 
 any man to love that country, in which the voice of the 
 majority is counterfeited, or the vicious, ignorant, and nee- 
 dy are the inflruments, and the wife and worthy are the 
 victims of oppreffion." p. 413. 
 
 4. " Is there in human affairs an occafion of profli- 
 gacy, more fhamelefs or more contagious than a general 
 election ? Every spring gives birth and gives wings to this 
 epidemic mifchief. Then begins a fort of tillage, that 
 turns up to the fun and air the moft noxious weeds in the 
 kindlieft foil ; or tofpeak (till more ferioufly, it is a mortal 
 peftilence, that begins with rottennefs in the marrow." 
 
 p. 415. 
 
 5. " Federalifm was, therefore, manifeftly founded on 
 a miftake, on thefuppofed exiftence of fufficient political 
 virtue, and on the permanency and authority of the public 
 morals." p. 416. 
 
 Thefe ftrains of panegyric upon republics, and repub- 
 lican inflitutions, are extracted word for word from a dif- 
 fertation upon " the Dangers of American Liberty," writ- 
 ten by Mr. Ames, and communicated in February, 18O5, 
 to one of his friends, but never publifhed until after his de- 
 ceafe, in this compilation. 
 
 Its title, " The Dangers of American Liberty," is a 
 mifnomer The whole fcope of its argument is to prove 
 the pofition, which on the Thankfgiving evening of the 
 
 D
 
 lame year he wrote in a private letter to another friend- 
 that American liberty " was gone ; never to return." 
 
 An ingenious annotator has seized upon one short 
 paragraph, a.s indicating the motive for which this " gloo- 
 my picture of the affairs of our country" was delineated. 
 He fays it was to defer, or mitigate our fate by alarming 
 the hone it part of our citizens. 
 
 If this was really the motive, (and as the faireft in fa- 
 vour of the author's intentions, to which it can be afcribed, 
 I have the strongest inclination to believe it) the perform- 
 ance was ill adapted to the defign for the only poffible ap- 
 plication to be drawn from it by a rational being, would be, 
 not exertion but dtfpalr Every principle, every illuftration, 
 every inference leads the mind irrefiftibly to the conclu- 
 fion, that the miferies of our condition were beyond the 
 reach of counfel ; that the virtue and wifdom of the coun- 
 try were under the irretrievable dominion of its vice and 
 folly ; and that there was nothing left among the good 
 and great of this nation, but to mew with what aprofufion 
 of rhetorical flowers they could ftrew the grave of liberty, 
 and in how many graceful varieties of attitude they could 
 bite their chains. Its natural effect was, not alarm, but 
 convul/ion. 
 
 It was not intended by its author for publication. In 
 the letter to the friend to whom it had been communicated, 
 he exprefsly fays, that " to be of value enough for the au- 
 thor to own /'/, he muft be allowed time, muft bcflow on it 
 more thought, fearch for facts and principles in pamphlets 
 and larger works, and in fhort, make it entirely overagain." 
 
 I agree entirely with him, that it was not of value 
 enough for the author to own it ; and think that his friends 
 would have proved their affection for him, as well as their 
 refpeft for the public, if they had fhewn more deference to 
 his opinion in this cafe, and lefs eagernefs to fpread abroad 
 their favourite tenets. Whether the pamphlets or larger 
 works, to which alone in his temper of mind he would have 
 reforted for facls and principles, would have improved the 
 complexion of his work, is notneceffary to enquire if the 
 only objection againft it were its want of value, I mould 
 neither complain of the editors, nor prefent the above ex-
 
 2 7 
 
 tracts to the meditations of the public But it contains, up- 
 on a fubject deeply interefting to thi> country, principles 
 at war with reafon, and aflertions at war with fact. Had 
 thefe been merely the errors of Mr. Ames, I would have 
 lamented in silence the indifcretion of his friends, in expo- 
 fmg them to the world, and fuffered them to perifh by the 
 natural decays of their own abfurdity But they are not 
 the wanderings of Mr. Ames's imagination They are the 
 principles of a faction, which has fucceeded in obtaining 
 the management of this commonwealth, and which afpired 
 to the government of the Union. ' Defeated in this laft ob- 
 ject of their ambition, and fenfible that the engines by 
 which they have attained the maflery of the ftate are not 
 sufficiently comprehenfive, nor enough within their control 
 to wield the machinery of the nation, their next refort 
 was to difmember what they could not fway, and to form 
 a new confederacy, to be under the glorious fhelter of Brit- 
 ifh protection. To prepare the public mind for changes 
 fo abhorrent to the temper and character of our people, 
 the doctrines, with which this volume teems, were to be 
 ufhered into public view, whenever a profpect for their fa- 
 vourable reception might appear. Mr. Ames, in writing 
 thefe papers, and others, publifhed before his death, difclof- 
 ing not quite fo clearly the fyftem of the party, was acting 
 under an impulfe of which he was him/elf not aware But 
 the period of his death happening jufl at a moment of great 
 national difficulty and diftrefs, the chofen hour was con- 
 cluded to have arrived, when thefe theories might be cir- 
 culated with the greateft effect ; and when difgufl at our 
 popular inflitutions, contempt for our own country, detef- 
 tation of France, and fubferviency to Britain, might be fo 
 mingled up with the influence of Mr. Ames's name, that 
 the whole would be fwallowed by the public, without ex- 
 amination, and all contribute to the purpofes of the party. 
 The proceedings of the ftate legiflature during theprefent 
 year have furnimed ample proofs, that thefe principles have 
 been at the root of their whole fyftem of meafures. It is 
 alfo a facl perfectly well known, that many of thefe meaf- 
 ures have been carriedby reluctant votes ; that many mem- 
 bers of the majority have moft unwillingly affented to them:
 
 and ononeoccafion when afmglefpirited member prefumed 
 to have an opinion of his own, he was attacked in one of 
 the preflos of the faction, for daring to think for himfelf. 
 The Icgiilature of the fucceeding year will be of the fame 
 political party as the laft. They will not be checked by 
 a chief magiftrate of different opinions, and the country 
 has been threatened with no equivocal anticipation of what 
 will be attempted, " when the whole government of the 
 ftate mould be united in one joint effort, with other ftates, 
 whofe interefh and objects are fimilar to our own." It is 
 therefore a fenfe of duty to the country, which enjoins a 
 pointed attention to the tenets of this book, as well as to 
 their practical effects in the adminiftration of our affairs. 
 
 Mr. Ames (fays his biographer) was emphatically a 
 republican. Let his republicanifm be tefled by thefe ex- 
 tracts, to which a thoufand others of the fame cafl of 
 character might be added. The firft extract declares that 
 the affairs of republics are governed by a perverfe fatali- 
 ty the fecond, that it is impoflible to love a republic 
 the third, that there can be no fuch thing as patriotifm in 
 a republic, and leaft of all in one like ours the fourth, 
 that our annual elections are a mortal peftilence, that be- 
 gins with rottennefs in the marrow and the fifth, that 
 the federalifm which formed our national conftitution was 
 manifeftly founded on a miftake, in fuppofing the exift- 
 ence of political virtue. 
 
 The reafoning in the fecond deferves particular no- 
 tice it is impoffible to love the republic ; becaufe the re- 
 public is a creature of fiction ; and becaufe love, to be any 
 thing, muft befelefl and EXCLUSIVE. Inftead of the re- 
 public, let the word be our country the argument is pre- 
 cifely the fame our country is a creature of fiction. Our 
 country comprifes the whole nation to which we belong 
 The love of our country, if it be any thing, can neither 
 be felect nor exclufive : it is the love of the whole com- 
 munity, and prompts to zeal for the welfare of all, without 
 diftinction of party or of place. The fentiment of the 
 heart which difowns all love, but fuch as is felect and ex- 
 clufive, is neither congenial with republicanifm nor with 
 Chriflianity. Mr. Ames acknowledged the authority of
 
 29 
 
 him whole injunction to his difciples was, " but I fay unto 
 you, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES." Was this feleft or exclu- 
 five ? In truth, this principle of /election and exclufion, in 
 the application of our affections to the political relations of 
 fociety, is a pernicious error of morals as well as of poli- 
 tics. Mr. Ames would have found no fuch doctrine in 
 Cicero's Books of Offices And the confequences of this 
 principle are as mifchievous as its origin is contracted. It 
 is the feminal principle from which faction take- its birth. 
 It is thisfelecJ and exclufive love, which breeds the whim- 
 fey, that there are fcarcely fix hundred out of fix millions, 
 who look for liberty any where but upon paper. It mar- 
 pens all the afperities of party fpirit, and makes federalifts 
 and republicans confider one another, not as fellow-citi- 
 zens having a common intereft ; but as two rival nations 
 marfhalled in hoftile array againft each other. 
 
 Had Mr. Ames, but given himfelf time to reflect up- 
 on his own labours, he muft have perceived the fallacy of 
 confounding that fentiment of focial benevolence, which 
 in our country is properly denominated the Love of the 
 Republic, with that feledt and exclufive affedtion which 
 belongs to the connections of domeftic life Parental, con- 
 jugal and filial love, no doubt is felecl: and exclufive, yet 
 its limitations are not in the paffion. but in its objects. 
 The love of the Republic, which is the love of our coun- 
 try upon the fame general foundation of good will, ex- 
 pands with the extent of its object, and can embrace a 
 whole continent with as much e,-fe as a fingle city. But 
 like all the focial virtues it requires cultivation, and will 
 not thrive upon ridicule and contempt. 
 
 Incorrect as this paflage is with regard to principle, 
 it is not more fo than the fourth extract, in point of fat. 
 What muft be the opinion of refpectable foreigners who 
 mall read this terrible invent ve againft our annual elec- 
 tions ? And what muft be their furprife on being in- 
 formed that it is merely a picture of the imagination That 
 it has no foundation in reality. If indeed a reader can 
 difcard the prepoifeffion arifing from the Author's name, 
 there are in this extract f >me internal marks of inaccura- 
 cy. The accufation of Jhame lefs profligacy is in thofe
 
 30 
 
 broad and general terms, which fo often ihelter a delu- 
 fion. No fpecific example of this fuppofed profligacy is 
 alleged. The remainder of the paragraph may be cited 
 as a curious inftance of Judgment extinguiflied in the blaze 
 of Fancy. Our elections are held in the Spring. The 
 Spring flarts an idea of tillage : tillage leads the thoughts 
 to Summer, and that gives the hint of an Epidemic. 
 From that moment the accefforial images become the 
 principal figures. The tillage turns up noxious weeds 
 The epidemic becomes a mortal peftilence The election 
 is entirely gone from the mind both of the writer and the 
 reader Nothing remains but the noxious weeds and the 
 peftilence. 
 
 The two great vices, to which the experience of 
 ancient and modern times, in other countries has ihewn 
 popular elections to be liable, are bribery and violence. 
 I appeal now to the confcioufnefs of every citizen of the 
 Commonwealth. Are the inftances of either, common 
 in our Elections ? I affirm with the mod perfect confidence 
 that they are extremely rare. There is fometimes an ex- 
 cefs of zeal, and an emhufiafm of party fpiritin favour of 
 the refpective candidates, and the newfpapers on both fides 
 are too acceflible to fcurrility and calumny againft the per- 
 fonswhofe names are held up for the fuffrage of the voters. 
 The general election is always a period of fome agitation, 
 and it ftimulates and fharpens the anti-focial paflions of 
 many individuals. But I have no fear of being contra- 
 dicted when I fay that our elections are remarkable for 
 the purity, the mildnefs and the decorum with which they 
 are conducted. It is inconceivable that a man acquaint- 
 ed with the Roman hiftory, in the age of Cicero and Clo- 
 dius fhould fay as Mr. Ames does lay, that " thofe times 
 were not more corrupt than our own."* 
 
 The ' deep corruption of tho*e times' is described by the Poet Lucan, not 
 with metaphors ahou r noxious weeds, and epidemic mischiefs ; but with the spe- 
 cific characters of truth. 
 
 " Mensuraque juri* 
 
 " Vis erat : hinc leges, et plebis scita coactae ; 
 " Et cum Consulibus turbantes jura Tribuni ; 
 " Hinc rapti precio fasces sectorque favoris 
 ' Ipse sui populus ; letalisque ambitus urbi, 
 Annua venali referens certamina Campo,
 
 31 
 
 But perhaps no one of thefe extracts deferves more 
 ferioufly to be reflected upon than the fifth Which fo ex- 
 plicitly afierts that federalifm, at the eftablifhment of the 
 Conftitution, was manifeftly founded on a mi/Jake, in fup- 
 pofmg the exiftence of virtue in the people. 
 
 It was obferved in a former paper that the friends of 
 Mr. Ames, who with fuch anxious induftry have gather- 
 ed all the gleanings of the newfpapers of late years, for 
 hafty crudities, which he never avowed, and who have 
 abufed the confidence of private correfpondence, by pub- 
 liming letters which on the face of them appear confiden- 
 tial, have at the fame time omitted from this compilation 
 one of the moft eloquent fpeeches, which as a public man, 
 as a Reprefentative of the People, he ever made. The 
 remark might have been much more extenfive in its ap- 
 plication. It applies to all his fpeeches in Congrefs from 
 the eftablifhment of the Government, until January 1794. 
 In the firft Congrefj< objects of great and lading impor- 
 tance were difcufled. The adminiftration was organized. 
 The principles were fettled, and the conftitution itfelf was 
 in fome refpe&s new modelled. We are told by the 
 learned Biographer, and it is known to every man whofe 
 memory can trace fo far back the progrefs of our hiftory, 
 that in all thefe difcuffions Mr. Ames took an active and 
 confpicuous part. Yet of all the fpeeches which he de- 
 livered on thofe occafions, the Compilers of this volume, 
 have not thought one worthy of prefervation, until they 
 come to that upon Mr. MADISON'S Commercial Refolu- 
 tions. Why all thefe omiflions ? and why this feleftion ? 
 - " The 'why is plain as way to parifh church." The 
 
 " Hence pliant, servile voices were comtrainJ, 
 " And force in popular assemblies reign'd. 
 ' Consuls and tribunes with opposing might 
 ' Join'd to confound and overturn the rijfht : 
 ' Hence shameful magistrates were made for grid, 
 ' And a bate people by ibemtelver vpere sold: 
 ' Hence slaughter in the -venal fie'd returns, 
 'And Rome her" yearly competitions mourns." 
 
 Howe's Lucar.. 
 
 Is it not a perversion of the essential nature of things, to draw political prin- 
 ciples from such a state of society, as applicable to ours ? Yet Mr Ames, after 
 referring to some of the worst transactions of this very period in the Roman 
 history, asks " Is not ALL THIS apparent in the Waited States ?"
 
 compilers hold that the federalifm which founded the na- 
 tional conftitution was manifejlly founded on a miftakc. 
 They have renounced the principles of their better days, 
 and withhold from the public every thing which could re- 
 vive their influence or recall their recollection. This de- 
 generacy from the honourable principles which they once 
 maintained, is not a new phenomenon in the hiftory of 
 parties. In all free countries it is an event by no means 
 uncommon, and it calls for the mod watchful attention of 
 the genuine patriot. It is by fimilar derelictions of their 
 principles, that legitimate parties degenerate by degrees 
 into intriguing factions and treafonable confpiracies. 
 
 After thus formally renouncing the original principles 
 of federalifm, what has this feel of American politicians 
 fubflituted in their (lead ? The volume upon which i 
 have already beftowed fo much confideration, and which 
 will yet require more, furnifhes the anfwer. 
 
 The " Dangers of American Liberty" is a fable with- 
 out a moral. It paints in the gloomy colours of a difturb- 
 ed imagination the fuppofed evils of our condition ; and 
 labours with painful argumentation to prove that none of 
 the remedies or alleviations which minds of healthier hue, 
 had fuggefted, can have any efficacy to reftore us to the 
 enjoyment of freedom. It indicates no remedy as advifa- 
 ble to be tried. What was the reafon of this ? 
 
 In a free country the firft ftep of ambitious and difap- 
 pointed leaders, whofe only refource is in a revolution, 
 muft naturally be to make the people difiatisfied with 
 their condition To perfuade them that their fituation is 
 intolerable The next, to extinguifh all their hopes of its 
 amendment from the natural courfe of things, and exift- 
 ing inftitutions The third is Revolution. Until the two 
 firft are accomplifhed, the inftigators to the laft, muft of- 
 ten conceal, and fometimes difguife the means for its ac- 
 complifhment. 
 
 A revolution, not in the adminiftration, but of the 
 conftitution, was obvioufly the only remedy within the 
 reach of human powers, upon the mind of Mr. Ames. 
 Taking the fafts and the principles exhibited in this trea- 
 fcfe for true, and the duty of infurrection againft fuch a
 
 33 
 
 ftate of things follows as an irrefiftible inference ; but the 
 time was not come when this might fafely be committed 
 to paper. It is now known that the pro] eel: for a difmem- 
 berment of the Union, by a plan which required a milita- 
 ry tommander, had been very ferioufly propofed to Mr. 
 Hamilton, fhortly before hi> death. It had probably been 
 known to Mr. Ames, though he faid nothing of it in his 
 eulogy of Hamilton. The paper drawn up by thi.s gentle- 
 man, previous to his meeting with Col. Burr, manifeftly 
 alludes to that propofition, and to a ftate of things for 
 which it was material to the public, that he mould keep 
 his military character unqueftioned. He had difapproved 
 and rejected the fcheme of difmemberment, and Mr. Ames, 
 in this work fpeaks of fuch an expectation, as one of thofe 
 flattering hopes^ which would not be realized. Poffibly 
 Mr. Ames was unwilling himfelf to look full in the face the 
 expedients, which, on his ftatements, alone remained for 
 the redemption of the country. The eflay on a Britifh 
 alliance, the dangers of American liberty, and the review 
 of a late pamphlet on the Britifh conftitution, all difcover 
 him entangled in the toils between his premifes and his 
 conclufions. Like the poetical image of Fear, he firft 
 lays a bewildered hand amid the chords, and then recoils, 
 he knows not why, 
 
 " E'en at the sound himself had made." 
 
 The practical comment upon thefe principles is to be 
 found, in the publication of thefe papers againft the clear 
 injunction of their author, and in the meafures of the 
 Maffachufetts Legiflature, precipitated by the men who 
 believe in the fame doctrines. 
 
 One of their firft acts, on fecuring a majority in the 
 legiflature, was to manifeft their hatred of popular elec- 
 tions, by taking a very important election from the peo- 
 ple, to exercife it themfelves ; to mew that federalifm was 
 founded on a miftake, they undertook to dictate (under 
 the pretence of a requeft,) to the reprefentatives of the 
 people in Congrefs, how they mould act, and when fome 
 of thofe reprefentatives difcovered, in a firm, though ref- 
 pectful manner, their fenfe of their own rights and obliga- 
 
 E
 
 34 
 
 tions to the People, they replied, with infulting contume- 
 ly. They have attempted, and but for the negative of the 
 chief magtftrate, would have authorized direct and forci- 
 ble refiftanot againft the laws of the Union. They have 
 countenanced the grofleft outrages committed againft us 
 by Great-Britain, and have not fcrupled to call aloud upon 
 Congrefs to go to war with France. They have openly 
 avowed the intention of a partial affociauon with fome of 
 the neighbouring ftates, and to manifeft their feleft and 
 exclufi-ve love, they have fomented local jealoufies, and in- 
 ftigated invidious animofities againft our fellow-citizen;* in 
 other parts of the union. 
 
 My countrymen ! the feeds and the fruits are both 
 before you. If the extracts at the head of this paper are 
 emphatically Republican, the leading meafures of the Le- 
 giflature have been emphatically patriotic. They flow 
 from the fame fources ; proftration to Britain, horror of 
 France, and contempt for the American people. 
 
 NUMBER IV.. 
 
 SUBSERVIENCY to Britain Abhorrence of 
 France and contempt for the American people. Such 
 are the three foundation ftones upon which the political 
 fyftem of Mr. Ames, in his laft days was erected. This 
 political fyftem has become the predominating policy of 
 the petty majority in the Legiflature of this Common- 
 wealth. It is upon this bafis that their principal meafures 
 of the laft year have arifen. It is believed that a large 
 proportion of that fmall majority, have been reluctantly 
 drawn into the current of this fatal vortex. It is hoped 
 that an expofure of thefe principles in their naked de- 
 formity, a demonftration of their pernicious tendency to 
 the peace and liberties of this nation, and a difclofure of 
 the chain of connection between the doctrines of the vol- 
 ume, and the proceedings of the party, will not be without 
 its ufe to the people of the Commonwealth and of the 
 Union. 
 
 For this purpofe fome extracts from this publication
 
 35 
 
 have been given in former papers. And as partial quota- 
 tions of fmgle fentences are not of themfelves a fufficient 
 foundation from which the principles of a writer can be 
 inferred, a view has alfo been taken of the general char- 
 after and tendency of thofe writings of Mr. Ames which 
 are now publifhed for the firft time. The anti-republican 
 prejudices which originated in his exceffive admiration of 
 Britain, and his extreme contempt for our country, were 
 exhibited in the furvey taken in my laft paper, of his pro- 
 jected work, which his editors have chosen to entitle " The 
 Dangers of American Liberty." 
 
 A natural confeqnence of the mean eftimation in which 
 he held the whole people of America, was the jealoufy, 
 and it is not too much to fay rancor, with which he con- 
 templated the people of thofe parts of the Union not in 
 our own immediate neighbourhood. I propofe in this pa- 
 per to prefent a number of extracts from that fame trea- 
 tife, indicating the temper of his ft-ntiments upon this fub- 
 jecl:, and to fuggeft fome obfervations upon them, for the 
 confideration of my readers. 
 
 1. " The progrefs of party has given to Virginia a pre- 
 ponderance, that perhaps was not forefeen. Certainly, 
 fince the late amendment in the article for the choice of 
 Prefident and Vice-Prefident, there is no exifting provi- 
 fion of any efficacy to counteract it.*' />. 385. 
 
 2. " If ftates were neither able nor inclined to obftrucl 
 the federal union, much indeed, might be hoped from fuch 
 a confederation. But Virginia, Penhsytvdnia, and Nciv- 
 Tonfrareof an extent fufficient to form potent monarchies, 
 and, of courfe, are too powerful, as well as too proud, to 
 be fubje&s of the federal laws. Accordingly, one of 
 the firft fchemes of amendment, and the mod early ex- 
 ecuted, was to exempt them in form from the obligations 
 ofjuftice," p. 385. 
 
 3. " Here let Americans read their own hiftory. Here 
 let even Virginia learn, how perilous and how frail will be 
 the confummation of her fchemes." p. 387. 
 
 4. " The great ftate of 'Virginia has fomented a licentious 
 fpirit among her neighbours." p. 388.
 
 36 
 
 5. " What fhall we denominate the oligarchy that fways 
 the authority of Virginia ?" p. 399. 
 
 6. " Virginia has never been more federal than it was, 
 when from confiderations of policy, and, perhaps, in the 
 hope of future fuccefs from its intrigues, it adopted the 
 new conftitution ; for it has never defifted from obftrucV 
 ting its meafures, and urging every fcheme that would re- 
 duce it back again to the imbecility of the old confedera 
 tion. To the difmay of every true patriot, thefe arts have 
 at length fatally fucceeded ; and our fystem of govern- 
 ment now differs very little from what it would have been, 
 if the impofl propofed by the old Congrefs had been 
 granted, and the new federal conflitution had never been 
 adopted by the ftates." 
 
 7. "The ftraggling fettlements of the fouthern part 
 of the Union, which now is the governing part, have been 
 formed by emigrants from almoft every nation of Eu- 
 rope. Safe in their folitudes alike from the annoyance of 
 enemies and of government, it is infinitely more probable, 
 that they will Jink into barbarifm than rife to the dignity 
 of national fentiment and character." 
 
 8. " Are not the wandering Tartars or Indian hunters 
 at leaft as fufceptible of patriotifm as thefe flragglers in our 
 weftern forefts, and infinitely fonder of glory ? It is difficult 
 to conceive of a country, which, from the manner of its 
 fettlement, or the manifeft tendencies of its politics, is 
 more deftitute or more incapable of being infpired with 
 political virtue." p. 414. 
 
 In grouping together thefe fentiments, from a heart 
 ulcerated againft our fellow citizens beyond the borders of 
 New England, I am performing a tafk flill more ungra- 
 cious than when collecting the moft ftriking teflimonials of 
 the author's contempt for us all. If it be true, that the 
 people in the different quarters of this Union are not suffi- 
 ciently drawn together by the ties which form f he connec- 
 tions of a common country If it be true that they have in 
 every great fection certain varieties or fuppofed oppofitions
 
 37 
 
 of intereft, and many paflions and prejudices, which alie- 
 nate them from each other, let me afk, what ought to be 
 the principles, and the maxims, of a genuine American 
 ftatefman ? Can there be any patriotifm, can there be any 
 wifdom, can there be any humanity, in a painful exertion 
 of intellect, to awaken every fleeping ember of jealoufy, to 
 widen every breach of fepa'ration, to ftiffen coldnefs into 
 frofl, to exafperate indifference into rancour ? No, it is to 
 aggravate the very evil of which we complain. Crimina- 
 tion and reproach are not the natural inft rumen ts of con- 
 ciliation. Unjuft reproach inevitably calls forth and de- 
 ferves refentment ; its natural offspring are hatred and re- 
 venge. I cannot wafte words upon an argument to prove 
 that the firft of human bleflings to this country is Union. 
 I muft take this for granted ; and then I fay, legiflators 
 of America ! whether affembled in the halls of Congrefs, 
 or in the Aifemblies of the individual States ; whether 
 exercifmg the magiftracy delegated by the people and 
 your constitutions, or that natural magiftracy, which 
 among a free and virtuous people, is the prerogative of 
 genius and virtue, delegated by heaven, and operating by 
 the influence of your writings and examples j let it be 
 your firft ftudy to draw together thefe elements which 
 are too loofely aflbciated Promote a fpirit of concilia- 
 tion foften afperities cherifli a good under/binding 
 
 with your neighbours exhibit to them a confidence in 
 their integrity an accommodating difpofition toward 
 their interefts a cheerfulnefs in the fupport of common i 
 burthens ; a candid acknowledgement of participation in 
 common enjoyments a good humour and benevolence, 
 fuch as feldom fails among men with any degree of civil- 
 ization to meet with a like return. Do not totally es- 
 trange from each other thofe whofe common misfortune 
 it is not to be clofely enough allied. Do not make na- 
 tional enemies of thofe who are not fufficiently fellow cit- 
 izens. Do not enkindle fraternal fury among thofe whofe 
 greateft want is a fufficient ardour of fraternal affection. 
 There is no real oppofition of interefts between any 
 one part of this union and another. Nothing but difun- 
 ion can create fuch an oppofition ; but that would create
 
 38 
 
 it ; and in its train an endlefs perfpeftive of unextinguiiha- 
 ble war. Union is peace ; and peace is liberty. Dii- 
 memberment would from its origin breed war and def- 
 potifm at a Tingle birth. 
 
 When Burr and Biannerhafiet were attempting a 
 project of difunion, to be effected by a divifion of the 
 Weftern States, they circulated, in converfations and newf- 
 paper*, the fame excitements among them to jealoufy and 
 envy againfl their Atlantic fitters, as we find in thefe ex- 
 trafts againft the ftragglers of the forefts They urged 
 that the weftern people were opprefled by the commercial 
 dates ; that we had made them our tributaries ; that they 
 had paid a heavy load of taxes for our benefit ; that the 
 produce of their lands was applied to pay our debts ; that 
 the national government was without energy, and that from 
 all this mufl follow within five, or even two years, the dif- 
 folution of the Union. This language was as plaufible, and 
 not more delufive than that held forth to our felfifh paflions, 
 in the " Dangers of American Liberty.'* By a partial and 
 infidious reprefentation of things, nothing can be more 
 eafy than to paint any one part of the Union, as under 
 oppreffion from the reft A juft reprefentation, which 
 draws a candid balance of advantages and inconveniences, 
 muft prove alike to every part, that the anchor of their 
 falvation is union ; that the laft hope , of improvement in 
 the condition of man, would perifh for ever in our divifion. 
 Mr. Ames, to the laft hour of his life, appears to 
 have taken a pride in confidering himfelf as a difciple of 
 the Wafhington fchooj of American politics. I will not 
 repeat here the words of that great man, in which he cau- 
 tions his countrymen againft all fuch addreifes to their lo- 
 cal prejudices and reciprocal jealoufies. They have been 
 fo recently and fo often repeated in the public prints, that 
 they muft be upon the memory, as I would they were in 
 the hearts of all my readers. Between thefe fentiments 
 and thofe of the " Dangers of American Liberty," the 
 contraft is too ftriking not to be perceived by every per- 
 fon who will compare them But in renouncing the po- 
 litical principles of Wafhington, Mr. Ames could not 
 help renouncing his own. Thefe fcornful and contemp-
 
 39 
 
 tuousftriclures upon the inhabitants of the Weftern States, 
 how poor and unamiable do they appear, when compared 
 with thofe beautiful paflages in the fpeech upon the treaty 
 of 1794, where he urges the fituation, and the intereftsof 
 thofe very weflern people, as arguments for the appropri- 
 ations required by that inftrument. Thefe paflages com- 
 pofc perhaps the fined fpecimen of American eloquence 
 that ever was pronounced. And in what does their fupe- 
 rior excellence exift ? In what, but that ardent fellow- 
 feeling, that blaze of patriotifm, that keen and vivid parti- 
 cipation in their dangers, and that earneftnefs of zeal for 
 their fafety, which the fpeaker profefled, and which at that 
 time I have no doubt he really felt ? 
 
 It is in the nature of confederated republics, that ev- 
 ery member of the aflbciation fhould endeavour to raife as 
 high as poflible its own weight and influence over the 
 whole. It would be abfurd to complain of this difpofition, 
 becaufe it is inherent in the nature of men. All aflbcia- 
 tionsoffuch a political character ought to be calculated 
 upon it, and conilituted in fuch a manner as to control its 
 operations. Their mechanifm mould be fuch as to allow 
 each member of the fociety, its due and proportional 
 weight ; and at the fame time fo check in every one, by 
 the common intereft and effort of the reft that fort of af- 
 cendancy, which might tend to make one part fubfervient 
 to the other. The progrefs of party has perhaps contrib- 
 uted in fome degree to increafe the preponderance of Vir- 
 ginia, in the counfels of our union ; but a man niufl have 
 taken a very partial view of our late hiftory,not to perceive 
 that the concurrence of party politics with Virginian poli- 
 cy, is accidental and temporary ; that it cannot long con- 
 tinue, and that there is every profpecl: that thofe engines, 
 inftead of operating in concert, will foon be in opposition 
 to each other. It is not party, but the prefent Conftltu- 
 tion, which has given a folid and permanent increafe to 
 the influence of Virginia ; and if this was not forefeen 
 when the conftitution was adopted, it was becaufe confe- 
 quences which after the event are iound to have been inevi- 
 table, and extremely obvious, are often not anticipated, by 
 rhe forefight of the profoundeft flatefmen. Under the old
 
 40 
 
 confederation, every ftate had the fame power in the ad- 
 miniflration of the national affairs. Under the prefent 
 conftitution, a popular reprefentation was introduced, and 
 the mofl powerful branch of the Legiflature, was so com- 
 pofed, as to give the greateft influence to the ftate of the 
 largeft population. I fee nothing in this which ought to 
 affect or alarm an American patriot ; nor can I fubfcribe 
 at all to the opinion that the afcendency of Virginia has be- 
 come uncontrolable. 
 
 It is also a great error to reafon upon the hypothecs 
 that the State of Virginia as fuch has a fteady, uniform, 
 premeditated fyftem of policy, hoftile to the general gov- 
 ernment, which me conftantly purfues under all the changes 
 of her own adminiftration. Mr. Ames gives as little quar- 
 ter to Virginia federalifm^ as to Virginia oligarchy. He 
 would have us believe that me adopted the conftitution, 
 only from confiderations of policy, and in the hope of fuc- 
 cefs to her intrigues. This is the very wormwood of lo- 
 cal jealoufy. The federalifm of Virginia, had at that day 
 the same obftacles to encounter as the federalifm of Maf- 
 fachufetts. Its objects of purfuit were the fame, and it 
 fucceeded by a victory as hardly contefted, and by a ma- 
 jority of about the fame proportion, The firft prefident 
 of the United States was a native of Virginia ; but it is 
 not intimated that during his adminiftration of eight years, 
 the ftate of Virginia had an undue afcendency in the gov- 
 ernment of the nation. On the contrary, Mr. Ames's 
 great complaint is that (he was conftantly thwarting and 
 counteracting it. At length he fays (he fatally fucceeded 
 in reducing it to the imbecility of the old confederation. 
 I fhall not undertake the tafk of vindicating the pol- 
 icy of Virginia, while the government of the ftate was in 
 oppofition to the general government. It refembled too 
 much that of the prefent rulers of Maffachufetts, to har- 
 monize with my ideas of correct conftitutional principles. 
 But reflect upon the tranfactions of the Jefferfon adminif- 
 traUon. Reflect efpecially upon the tranfactions of the 
 two laft years. The part of perplexing, of obftructing, of 
 counteracting the meafures of the general government has 
 not been performed by Virginia. She has no otherwife
 
 41 
 
 interfered in the affairs of the nation than to pledge herfelf 
 in the moft folemn manner, to fupport the national author- 
 ides, at a moft perilous crifi* of our affairs. The " feleft" 
 and " exclujtve" friends of Mr. Ames, have exchanged 
 weapons with Virginia. But Virginia in the moft virulent 
 extreme of her oppofition never joined the banners of a 
 foreign enemy to flrike the ftandard of the union. 
 
 The ftate policy of Virginia, like that of Maflachu- 
 fetts and of every other State in the union, fluctuates ac- 
 cording to the iffue of her annual elections. In the great 
 party divifion which has pervaded the whole union, and 
 which exifted long before the federal confthution, Vir- 
 ginia, like all her fifters, was divided againft herfelf. 
 One effect of the conftitution was to new organize thefe 
 two parties, and give each of them a rallying point in the 
 perfon of one individual. The individual on both Jides, 
 was a native of Virginia. WASHINGTON was the leader 
 of the federalifts. JEFFERSON, of the republicans. The 
 Virginia reprefentation in CongrefN was always partly fed- 
 eral and partly republican. At the fecond prefidential 
 election, the vote of Virginia, like that of the other ftates, 
 was unanimous for Wafhington. To this day, the Chief 
 Juftice of the United States, and another Judge of the Su- 
 preme Court, are natives of Virginia, and federalifts. 
 Both of them, as well as the prefent Prefident of the Uni- 
 ted States, were among the a&ive fupporters of the fed- 
 eral conftitution, and members of the Virginia State Con- 
 vention which adopted it. In the election which has juft 
 taken place, four federalifts at leaft, and two or three 
 others, as far from the political fyftem of the Prefident, 
 as federalifm itfelf, have been chofen members of the 
 Houfe of Reprefentatives. Shall we be told that all this 
 fignifies nothing. That they are all Oligarchs. And that 
 all thefe federalist of Virginia, are moved only by con- 
 fiderations of policy, " and -the hope of future fuccefs 
 from their intrigues." Such is Mr. Ames's argument. 
 Such is the ftanding doctrine of his felecl: and exclufive 
 friends. But of all this may be truly predicated, what 
 Mr. Ames fays of federalifm It is all " founded upon a 
 miftake." 
 
 F
 
 The lame diflortion of objects from their real charac- 
 ter is apparent in the fecond extract above quoted. The 
 amendment of the Conftitutions which exempted the 
 States from fuability by individuals, in the courts of the 
 Union, is reprefented as having been effected by the great 
 States of Virginia, Pennfylvania and Neuu-Tork and as 
 having exempted them in form from the obligations of 
 Juftice. 
 
 Why was the odium of a meafure prefented under 
 fuch an invidious defcription confined to Virginia, Pennfyl- 
 <vania and New-Tork ? Why was not Maflachufetts inclu- 
 ded in the number ? Had Mr. Ames forgotten that this 
 very amendment was introduced into the Senate of the 
 United Stages by Mr. George Cabot then a Senator from 
 the flate of Maflachufetts ? Why was the meafure itfelf 
 prefented in fuch an invidious light ? Had Mr. Ames for- 
 gotten that as a member of the houfe of Reprefentatives 
 in Congrefs he had voted for this very amendment him- 
 felf ? If he confidered it as a fcheme to exempt States 
 from the obligation of Ju/tice^ he (lands felf-condemned 
 upon a charge of no trivial culpability. A charge, of 
 which I do not believe him to have been guilty. It is 
 not his vote in Congrefs in 1794, but his representation 
 in 1805, of the meafure for which he had given that vote, 
 which difclofes the partial and the prejudiced mind. That 
 amendment of the conftitution, was called for by the gen- 
 eral fenfe of the people throughout the union ; its object 
 was not to exempt the dates from the obligations of Jujtice, 
 but from being made parties at the fuit of individuals, 
 before the courts of the United States. The con- 
 clufion to which the argument leads is that a confed- 
 eration like that of the United States is impracticable, 
 becaufe the powerful members will not fubmit to the 
 laws of the whole body. This opinion is not new ; 
 but our experience hitherto has not fhewn its ac- 
 curacy. It is the moft facred duty of the American peo- 
 ple, to continue the proof that a confederated republic of 
 many mighty members is a practicable expedient of hu- 
 man alfociation and it follows as a duty no lefs incum- 
 bent upon their ftatesmen and fages, to inculcate fuch
 
 4 3 
 
 principles and fuch fentiments, as have a natural tenden- 
 cy to give duration and (lability to their Union. 
 
 The reflexions in the two laft of thefe extracts upon 
 the fouthern and weftern fedions of the Union, are not 
 only flagrant examples of that fpirit againft which we 
 were fo earneflly admoniflied by the paternal voice of 
 WASHINGTON ; they are as unfounded as they are un- 
 friendly. American patriotism, contemplates with very 
 different fenfations the rapid progrefs of thefe fettlements. 
 The active enterprize and hardihood of character which 
 diftinguifhes many of the fettlers ; the rapidity with 
 which population, cultivation, and focial enjoyments are 
 conftantly multiplying, with wealth and art, and science 
 in their train. To compare our fellow-citizens of the 
 fouthern and weftern ftates, with wandering Tartars or 
 Indian Hunters, to utter ferioufly the opinion that they 
 will probably fink into barbarifm^ is a demonftration of 
 the moft deplorable blindnefs to the true ftate of things. 
 Great numbers of the fettlers both in the fouth and weft, 
 are emigrants from New-England. They are literally 
 our children and our brethren. United to us not only 
 by the ties of civil fociety, but by thofe of kindred and 
 confanguinity. Were one of their diftinguifhed orators, 
 (and orators they have with whom Mr. Ames himielf 
 would not have been difgraced by being compared) to 
 affirm that the inhabitants of the atlantic ftates were fink- 
 ing faft into piracy and barbarifm ; that they had no 
 more patriotifm than Algerines, and were not half fo fond 
 of glory ; the picture would not be more unkind, nor 
 more unlike than that againft which I am here excepting. 
 
 I except againft it the more earneftly, because it is 
 one of the moft pernicious and fatal errors for the peo- 
 ple of any one part of this union to admit into their minds 
 fuch fentiments againft the reft -becaufe, not only the 
 publication of this volume but a multitude of news-paper 
 eflays, party refolutions, and incendiary pamphlets, with- 
 in the laft year have ihewn a fyftematic attempt to diffem- 
 inate among the people of New-England this groundlefs 
 jealoufy and hatred of the fouthern and weftern people. 
 Above all, becaufe the poifon of this fame jealoufy, and
 
 44 
 
 hatred has been circulated in a late addrei's of the Legifla- 
 ture of Maflachufetts to the people of the flate. It is 
 time to fay and to prove that all theie infidious inftiga- 
 tions againfl our own countrymen, are founded on miftake. 
 They expofe us to the merited contempt and fcorn of 
 thofe who are thu* flandered, and their moft inevitable 
 tendency is to excite and provoke that hoftility which 
 they proclaim. Prejudices and partialities exift in every 
 part of the union ; but to the difgrace of New-England 
 her portion is the firft where m n diftinguifhed as Mr. 
 Ames, and even legiflative papers have given countenance 
 and credit to thefe fictions of ignorance affecting to be 
 wife, and thefe phantoms of vulgar fear, affecting to be 
 provident. The legiflative addrefs indeed, after its hour 
 of authority has gone by, will be numbered with the dead. 
 Its patriotic glories are already withering upon the ftalk. 
 But the eloquence of Ames is deftined to longer life. 
 His genius will dill be admired, when its fallacious colours 
 will be detected at a glance, and lamented as the fading 
 yellow of a jaundiced eye. Had his friends valued his 
 reputation ; had they been capable of difcarding, for a 
 moment, the contracted and fordid paffions of a caucufing 
 committee^ they might have compiled from his wri- 
 tings and fpeeches a real monument of unfullied fame. 
 As it is, they have exhibited him, as the herald of party 
 /lander, and the dupe of Britifh impofition. Inftead of 
 rifmg with him to hold commerce with the Ikies, they 
 have funk him to a level with themfelves. 
 
 NUMBER V. 
 
 " Ah Fear ! ah frantic Fear ! 
 " I see, I see thee near. 
 
 " LET us affert a genuine independence of fpirit : 
 " we mall be falfe to our duty and feelings as Americans, 
 " if we bafely defcend to a fervile dependence on France 
 " or Great Britain." />. 57.
 
 45 
 
 Such was the language of Mr. Ames on the 27th 
 January, 1794, and with this juft and honourable fenti- 
 ment he clofed his fpeech egainft Mr. Madifon's refolu- 
 tions. To this fentitnent 1 now adhere, and in thefe papers 
 am endeavouring to defend it againfl the goblin terrors of 
 Mr. Ames himfelf, and the more deliberate alarms of his 
 publifhing friends. 
 
 1 he object of thefe terrors, was compounded of two 
 ingredients, which in 1794 had at lead an appearance of 
 congeniality and co operation. French power and democ- 
 racy. The alliance between thefe two tremendous mon- 
 flers was furely diflblved long before Mr. Ames portrayed 
 with fuch poetic powers the dangers of American liberty. 
 But although for ever feparated on the fcene of real life, 
 they were flill united in dreadful harmony in the world of 
 imaginary fear, and they tortured his fancy, with all their 
 horrid ihapes and fights unholy, as the images of the night- 
 mare pafs in confufed fucceflion before the waking (lum- 
 bers of difeafe. 
 
 The degree to which his underftanding was affected 
 by thefe horrible vifions can be defcribed only by himfelf. 
 In the " dangers of American liberty," afttr bitterly com- 
 plaining that even among the federalists there were per- 
 haps not five hundred who allowed themfelves " to view 
 the progrefs of licentiousnefs as fo fpeedy, fo fure^ and fo 
 fatal as the deplorable experience of our country mews 
 it is, and the evidence of hiflory and the conflitution of 
 human nature demonflrate that it miift be" He apolo- 
 gizes for thi> federal apathy by the following picture of his 
 own fenfations. 
 
 " Our days are made heavy with the preffure of 
 anxiety, and our nights reftlefs with vifions of horror. 
 We liften to the clank of chains, and overhear the \vhif- 
 pers of affaflins. We mark the barbarous diffonance of 
 mingled rage and triumph in the yell of an infatuated 
 mob ; we fee the difmal glare of their burnings and fcent 
 the loathfome fleam of human victims offered in facrifice." 
 
 p. 57.
 
 4 6 
 
 A man muft have no ordinary fhare of malice in 
 his compofition, who could wifh to fee his direft foe, in 
 the ftate of mind indicated by this paragraph. But this 
 was not the word. There is a fpecies of alienation in the 
 intellect, for which the miferies of a temporal life are not 
 fufficiently diftreffing. Melancholy derangement often 
 terminates in the belief of the unhappy patient that he is 
 a&ually fuffering the torments of eternity. The frequen- 
 cy with which the idea of Hell returns in the latter com- 
 pofitions of this volume, connected with French conqueft 
 and democratic triumph affords too ftrong prefumption 
 that the natural tendency of the auther's diftemper was to 
 that iffiie. 
 
 " It (Democracy) is an illuminated Hell that in the 
 midft of remorfe, horror and torture, rings with feftivity ; 
 for experience mows, that one joy remains to this moft 
 malignant defcription of the damned, the power to make 
 others wretched." p. 432. 
 
 By comparing this paragraph with one written fome 
 years earlier, we mail perceive that one Hell, was as 
 inadequate to the immenfity of Mr. Ames' fears, as one 
 world wa<= to that of Alexander's ambition. There was 
 the " Hell" France, and the " Hell" Democracy. 
 
 " Behold France, that open Hell, ftill ringing with 
 agonies and blafphemies, ftill fmoking with fufferings and 
 crimes, in which we fee their ftate of torment, and perhaps 
 our future ftate." Laocoon p. 9?. 
 
 This was written in 1799, when there remained in 
 the writer's mind fome hopes that we might poilibly efcape 
 thefe infernal regions. But in 1 805, thefe hopes were all 
 extinguilhed, and to Hell we muft go. For immediately 
 after the paflage which pronounces Democracy to be Hell, 
 comes a defeription of the French Revolution in the au- 
 thor's moft glowing manner, and which he clofes by fay- 
 ing, " I have written the hiftory of France. Can we look 
 ba k upon it without terror, or forward without def-
 
 When I confider the ftate of health in which thefe 
 things were written, I cannot but feel a fentiment of com- 
 paffion for the fufferings of the author, which checks the 
 dispofition, almoft irrefiftible to prefent them in the 
 ludicrous light which would be mod appropriate to 
 them. 
 
 The fame indulgence, however, is by no means necef- 
 fary for the editors who have publifhed thefe political 
 fpafms to the world for political wifdom. When Mr. 
 Ames fhrieks out, 
 
 " Look, look, fellow-countrymen, as we do, to your 
 " dear, innocent children. Afk your hearts, if they can 
 " bear fo racking a queftion, whether a mallow confidence 
 " in our unarmed fecurity againft Bonaparte, in cafe Great 
 " Britain mould fall, does not tend to devote them to the 
 " rage of a refllefs, unappeafable tyrant. We tremble at 
 " the thought that our own dear children will be in Bona- 
 " parte's confcription for St. Domingo, in cafe the Galli- 
 " can policy of our government mould be purfued, till its 
 " natural tendencies are accomplifhed," We remember 
 that thefe were among the laft flutterings of a nervous fyf- 
 tem in ruins. But when upon this paflage we find a note 
 at the bottom of the page, informing the reader that Mr. 
 Ames " could fcarcely fpeak of his children, dur'mg the 
 laft few months of his life, without expreffing his deep ap- 
 prehenfions of their future fervitude to the French," We 
 afk whether the annotator means it as a farcafm upon the 
 paffage, or a recommendation of the fentiment it contains ? 
 
 We are told by the biographical eulogift that Mr. 
 Ames had read Virgil, in the original, within two years of 
 his death with increafed delight. How much is it to be 
 lamented that the admirable mixture of philofophy and 
 of poetry in the Georgicks had not produced the effecl; of 
 compofing his mind to fome portion of tranquillity, 
 
 Felix, gtil fotait rerum cognosce re cauisas ; 
 A.tque meius omnis et inexorablle fatum 
 Subjecit pedibus, ttrepitumyue Acbcrontis avarif 
 
 Ilium nan popull fasces, ncn fttrfura regutn 
 Fltxif, et in-vidos agitans distordia fratret ; 
 Aut conjurato deicendens Dacus ah ffistrf : 
 -V0;i res Romanae feritura jut regne*
 
 48 
 
 The fenfe of this pafiage, fo appofite to the direful la- 
 mentations of Mr. Ames, may be rendered more accurate- 
 ly by a paraphrafe than by any exifting tranflation the 
 following will convey thefubftance of the ideas : 
 
 How blest the man, whose philosophic mind 
 
 The real causa of events can find ! 
 
 Who spurns base fear, defies the bolt of chance, 
 
 Nor ravei of Hell, Democracy and France. 
 
 Not royal robes, not faction's fe.irful name, 
 
 Not yearly suffrage shall convulse his frame. 
 
 His dreams no shape of Bonaparte scares, 
 
 His children s limbs BO phantom Frenchman tears. 
 
 Unmov'd he views the tyrant's transient sway, 
 
 And smiles at iron crowns and empires of a day. 
 
 This, however, was not the good fortune of Mr. 
 Ames. The extracts in thi* paper, are but a few, out of 
 many, which, from an attentive perufal might be collect- 
 ed, and which indicate the (late of his mind, when 
 they were written. It was a proverbial expreflion among 
 the ancients, that " fear was a bad counfellor," and cer- 
 tainly so it proved to Mr. Ames. For it totally broke 
 down that " genuine independence of fpirit," which in 
 his fpeech againfl Mr. Madifon's refolutions in 1794, he 
 had called upon us to affert. 
 
 It was this fear, which, mingling with the contempt 
 he felt for his own countrymen, drove his imagination to 
 the Britifh navy, as the only hope of falvation to man- 
 kind from the Tartarus of France and democracy. In 
 fixing the attention of the reader on thefe particular paf- 
 fages to which I mail confine this paper, I wifh him to in- 
 dulge me with a few remarks, which I mall make as 
 fhort as poffible, and leave them to his own meditations. 
 
 Firft Exceffive terror is a fentiment as unworthy of 
 a great flatefman, as it is unbecoming in a man. As a ba- 
 fis for a political fyftem, it is utterly incompatible with 
 any pretenfion to independence. 
 
 Secondly A man may perhaps be allowed to fear, 
 more for his children than for himfelf ; but he ought to 
 bring them up in the fear of nothing but of God. To teach 
 pufillanitnity by rule, is to make your children daftards, if 
 they were not born fuch. In Corneille's tragedy of the 
 Horatii, when the meflenger informs the father that two of
 
 49 
 
 his fons had been killed and the third had fled, he breaks 
 out, not into lamentations over the dead, but into indig- 
 nation againft the fugitive furvivor ; and when afked what 
 he would have had him do, one againft three, his anfwer is 
 " he fhould have died." This is the fublime of fenti- 
 ment. The contraft in the extract from Mr. Ames may 
 ferve as a fample of the anti-fublime. 
 
 American parents ! inftead of afking your hearts, 
 whether your children are to be refcued from Bona- 
 parte's confcription by the Britijh Navy, teach your chil- 
 dren, if it mould be neceflary, to die for their country. 
 Take your leflbn of parental affection as well as of patri- 
 otic virtue, from Corneille's Roman, and not from the 
 faithlefs friends, who have divulged the weaknefs of Mr. 
 Ames's laft hours. 
 
 NUMBER VI. 
 
 IN my laft paper, I prefented feveral extracts, de- 
 monftrating the revolution which had been effected in the 
 mind of Mr. Ames, between the year 1794, when his 
 found head and honeft heart difdained . a fervile depend- 
 ence either upon Britain or France, and the defpairing 
 period of 1 808, when the Britifh navy was his only hope 
 of redemption from the Hells of France and democracy. It 
 might perhaps be an entertaining, and not altogether an 
 uninftructive inquiry, by what procefs and by means of 
 what agency this revolution was accomplimed But this 
 is not neceffary to my prefent purpofe. 
 
 The opinion that nothing but the Britifh navy can 
 fave us from the dominion of Bonaparte, is one of the 
 thirty-nine articles of the felect and exclufive church 
 And as, in comparifon with it, tranfubftantiation is a ra- 
 tional and intelligible doctrine, it was neceflary to mark 
 the gradations of fear and horror, of France, and the 
 transitions from patriotic affection to unutterable con- 
 tempt for our own country, which preceded the intrufion 
 of this glaring abfurdity, into a mind fo capacious of bet- 
 ter things, as that of Mr. Ames. 
 
 G
 
 i coaipare it to traniubftantiation, becaufe it contains 
 \vithin itfeli an inconfiftency ; the mere flatement of the 
 pofition is its refutation American Independence, depend- 
 ent upon a Britifh navy ! Nor is the inconfiftency in the 
 \vord only It is rooted in the thing. The independence 
 cf a nation muft reft upon its own energies, and you 
 might as well talk of the liberties of an African flave, as 
 of the freedom of one nation fupported by nothing bun 
 the power of another. 
 
 It is in its nature a principle of fervile dependence < 
 And if the fact were so if the people of this nation were 
 fo utterly debafed beneath the name and character of 
 manhood as Mr. Ames has declared them to be ; if 
 " we are of all men on earth the fitted to be Haves," 
 of what consequence is it whether we are the ilaves of 
 French or Britifh maflers ? 
 
 Quid refert mea 
 Cui serviam, clitellas dura portem meas ? 
 
 it the people of this Union were reduced to that de- 
 plorable condition of having only to deliberate " whofe 
 bafe herd they would be" ftill it would be incumbent 
 upon thofe who prefer the domination of Britain to that 
 of France, to mew that the Britifh yoke would be the ea- 
 fiefl that the protection of the Britifh navy would be a 
 fafe reliance that by redemption from the Hell of France, 
 we mould have a Paradife regained in Britain. Upon 
 this fubjecl: let us look at what has been paffing in the 
 world, from the commencement of the French revolution. 
 Within the lafl fifteen years there is not a nation in Eu- 
 rope, excepting France and Denmark, but has had the 
 promife of Britifh protection, and the curfe of a Britifh 
 alliance not one of them but has been plunged by it in- 
 to the jaws of perdition. And, what ought not to have 
 cfcaped the attention of an American ftatefman, it has in 
 the refult made them all dependent upon France. The 
 uniform courfe has been this : Britain firft infligates them 
 to unfurl their banners againft her enemy ; forms her 
 alliance with them ; makes them fight her battles ; facri- 
 ficcs them to her own projects of naval dominion or for-
 
 5 1 
 
 ign conqueft, and ends by abandoning them to the mei 
 cy of an exafperated and victorious foe. When fhe 
 has thus made them the helplefs victims of her own treach 
 ery, and of France's refentment, me feldom fails to turn 
 againft them her own thunders, and like the Prince of 
 Darknefs, becomes the final tormentor of thofe whom 
 me firfl feduced. This is the procefs through which the 
 Spanifh patriots are palling at this hour. It is the courfe 
 through which Sweden is pafling. It is the courfe 
 through which the people of this Union would beyond all 
 queftion now be pafling, if the government of the na- 
 tion had been in the hands of the political feel: who be- 
 lieve in thefe doctrines. 
 
 If our nominal independence of France refted upon 
 no other foundation of power than the navy of England, 
 the consequence would be that we fhould again be under 
 the domination of England. Her argument would be 
 that in all reafon we ought to contribute our (hare to fup- 
 port the expense of protecting us, and we mould foon be cal- 
 led upon for our contribution of men, as well as of money. 
 This is not fpeculative anticipation in fact both thefe 
 pretenfions have been advanced. The tribute claimed, 
 and in one inftance levied, under the orders in council. 
 \vas an undifguifed attempt to renew the project of taxa- 
 tion upon America, which fevered this continent from the 
 Britiih empire. The king's proclamation of October, 1 807 
 was an open authorization and command to his naval offi- 
 cers to imprefs hisfubjeffs, from American merchant vel- 
 fels and of the queftion who was or was not his fubject, 
 the man-ftealer himfelf was to be the only judge. With 
 thefe two principles once eftablifhed by our admiilion or 
 acquiefcence, no treaty of furrender, no articles of capitu- 
 lation would be neceffary to give to Great Britain an ar- 
 bitrary control over the perfons and property of Ameri- 
 cans, for contribution to fupport her wars. Our blood 
 and treafure would both be at her difpofal more rigor- 
 ous than Nahafh the Ammonite with the men of Jabem- 
 Gilead, the token by which alone fhe would make a cove- 
 nant with us was, that we mould firfl let her thrufl out 
 both our eyes.
 
 American independence muft reft upon the founda- 
 tion of American valor and American patriotifm. Such 
 is the eternal law of God and of nature. If the generous 
 purpofe of republican virtue is extinguifhed in the fordid 
 felfifhnefs of avarice ; if the fathers who fuffered unfubdu- 
 ed the conflagrations of Charleftown and Falmouth, of 
 Fairfield and New-London, of Efopus and Norfolk, who 
 fhed their blood in battle, and endured the lingering 
 martyrdom of prifon-fhips and dungeons for the liberties 
 of their country : if thefe fathers have begotten fons fo 
 degenerate as not to " reluct at the name and condition of 
 Helots," to figh for the protection of the Britifh navy is 
 to hang the load of Atlas upon the thread of a fpider's 
 web. What is the Britifh navy ? Wood and hemp 
 and iron and what are thefe without the nerve of the 
 Britifh arm, and the fire of the Britifh heart ? Inert, paffive, 
 obedient matter. That arm and heart belong to Britain, 
 and not to us. Enough have they to do to protect and 
 defend their own ifland. But is the American finew 
 more flaccid, is the American heart lefs ardent than thofe 
 of Britons ? Alas ! it was the mifery of Mr. Ames's mala- 
 dy, fo to believe ; it is the folly of his pretended friends 
 fo to publifh ! In him it was lamentable error In them it 
 is the moft inexcufable of calumnies, the calumny of their 
 own countrymen. 
 
 No, we are not that herd of fervile ufurers, that den 
 of daftardly jackalls which we are thus reprefented to be. 
 We have no ambitious wifh for war, no paflion for foreign 
 conquefl ; and of courfe no mallow love of needlefs ar- 
 mies and navies. Our very love of liberty fortifies, and 
 perhaps carries to excefs our jealousies of these double- 
 edged weapons, which might be brandifhed inward againll 
 ourfelves as well as outward againfl our foreign foes. 
 But the unconquerable will which carried us through all 
 the trials of the revolutionary war remains unimpaired, 
 and when called into action by the unequivocal voice of 
 the country, mines with undiminifhed luftre. The names 
 of Truxton, Little, and Preble, are as glorious to our re- 
 public as thofe of the naval heroes of the revolution, and 
 the annals of Roman hiftory cannot furnifh a fairer page
 
 53 
 
 than that to which the heroic devotion of Wadfworth, 
 Somers, Ifrael and Decatur is entitled. These are the 
 models of American character in the prefent age ; and if 
 the examples which they have exhibited to their country- 
 men are rare, it is only becaufe by the bluffing of God the 
 occafions to call them forth have been few. 
 
 Some of the extracts in my laft paper were felected 
 from an elaborate attempt to prove that in this country 
 there is not, and cannot, in the nature of things, be any 
 fuch thing as patriotifm. The whole paflage is too long 
 for felection ; but may be found in the volume, from the 
 middle of page 41 2 to the clofe of page 414. I mall not 
 here prefs the fubject any farther. I (hall forbear to mew, 
 as with the greateft eafe might be done, that both in point 
 of argument and of fact, it is but the " bafelefs fabric of a 
 y fion" But to exhibit the comparative (late 'of affeftions in 
 which Great Britain and America ftand in the hearts of 
 thofe who furnifhed the raw material of the author's lu- 
 cubrations, I requeft the unbiafled reader to reflect upon 
 the following paflage. 
 
 " Great Britain, by being an ifland, is fecured from 
 foreign conqueft ; and by having a powerful enemy with- 
 in fight of her more, is kept in fufficient dread of it to be 
 infpired with patriotifm. That virtue, with all the fervour 
 and elevation that a fociety which mixes fo much of 
 the commercial with the martial fpirit can difplay, has 
 other kindred virtues in its train ; and thefe have had an 
 influence in forming the habits and principles of action, not 
 only of the Englifli military and nobles, but of the mafs of 
 the nation. There is much, therefore, there is every 
 thing IN THAT ISLAND to blend felf-love with love of 
 country. It is impoflible, that an Englifhman mould have 
 fears for the government without trembling for his own 
 fafety. How different are thefe fentiments from the immova- 
 ble apathy of thofe citizens, who think a conftitution no better 
 than any other piece of paper, nor fo good as a blank on which 
 a more perfecJ one could be written." p. 427. 
 
 Let it be remarked that Mr. Ames in this place, and 
 in the other to which I have referred the reader, appears
 
 54 
 
 to confider fear as exclufively the primary foundation of 
 patriotifm ; and every other fource from which this vir- 
 tue may be fuppofed to derive, he feems to confider as 
 merely a theme of hypocritical declamation. I will not 
 recur to any fuppofition of benevolence, independent of 
 felfifh motives, as exifting in the heart of man ; from 
 which fome portion of patriotic feeling might originate. 
 But furely fear is not the only principle of focial attraction . 
 The fenfe of common rights, of common enjoyments, of 
 common moral and political principles, of congenial habits, 
 manners, fentiments and even prejudices, the inflincl: of 
 attachment to our native land,* the love of fame, which, 
 though an individual pafiion, identifies itfelf fo naturally 
 with the love of our country, ambition, which an accurate 
 and clofe obferver, will find burning in the American 
 breaft more fiercely than that avarice, which ftrikes the 
 fuperficial eye ; the obligation of focial duty, which Mr. 
 
 * 1 am aware that this is one of the feelings which cold metaphysics will di; 
 claim or deride ; and which Mr. Ames would not allow as a source of patriot- 
 ism. But upon questions of feeling we may appeal from abstraction to poetry. 
 This sentiment of attachment to the land of our nativity is painted with some oi 
 the most exquisite touches of nature in Wieland's Oberon. The hero of the po- 
 c-m and his squire Sherasmin, are riding along the banks of Euphrates, in silence, 
 and the thoughts of each of them are represented as dwelling on the distant ob 
 jects of their delight. 
 
 While in imaginary joy, the knight 
 
 Clasps to his breast, the bride, thus dearly won, 
 
 Steals unawares the old man's raptur'd sight 
 
 Forth from Euphrates to his dear Garonne, 
 
 Where first his childhood cull'd the flower's delight 
 
 " No thinks he nowhere does God's blessed Sun 
 
 So mildly shine as where by me first seen 
 
 No meadow blooms so gay so fresh no other green 
 
 Thou little spot, where light first on me shoae, 
 Where my first pang, my earliest joy I knew, 
 What though remote, unnotic'd and unknown 
 Yet shall my heart, to thee for ever true, 
 Still drawn by secret ties to thee alone, 
 E'en Paradise as exile from thee view. 
 Oh ! prove but true at least my boding mind 
 O lay me in thy lap, amid my sires reclin'd." 
 
 Oberon, Boot 4, st. 21, 22. Tie last line 
 is from SotMy's tran'ltiion. 
 
 Deny, or sneer at these sentiments, who will they will find an echo in every 
 Iionest heart, and true philosophy will recognize in them wre of the most pow- 
 erful impulses to patriotism.
 
 55 
 
 Ames certainly fuppofed himfelf to feel, and which there- 
 fore in candour he ought to admit as one impulfe of ac- 
 tion in others, all thefe are iburces of patriotifm, far more 
 copious, as well as far more noble, than his miferable 
 dread of being conquered. 
 
 But it is the contraft of feeling in the heart of the 
 writer, (or rather of his inftigators) between Great Brit- 
 ain and America, manifefled in this and many other 
 places, which demands the unqualified reprobation of 
 every virtuous American. It is the preference of a 
 foreign country to his own, fo undifguifed, fo glaring, 
 and refling upon fuch falfe foundations, upon which I call 
 the eye of the nation ; not for the paltry purpofe of affect- 
 ing his reputation, but to put the country upon their 
 guard againft the machinations and intrigues of the men 
 whofe politics are governed by the fame narrow views and 
 the fame vicious paflions. I have given this extract as a 
 fpecimen, but there is fcarcely a page after the firft hun- 
 dred in this volume, but bears the marks of the fame 
 
 fentiment fcarcely a page but proves that with the 
 
 idea of Great Britain, every aflbciated idea, was ef- 
 teem, love, veneration, idolatry while every thought af- 
 fociated with that of America was bitterness and rancour, 
 mingling with difguft and fcorn. 
 
 I might multiply the proofs of thefe anti-patriotic preju- 
 dices, until this review mould fwell beyond the fize of the 
 volume itfelf. But fomething muft be left to the judg- 
 ment and underftanding of the reader. I (hall therefore 
 only preient the following paffages in final proof of the 
 pofitions I have advanced, and if they leave incredulity 
 itfelf unconvinced, only afk him who defires more accu- 
 mulation of evidence to the fame point, to read the book. 
 
 " In that en/laved country (Britain) every executive 
 attempt at ufurpation has been fpiritedly and perfevering- 
 ly refilled, and fubftantial improvements have been made 
 in the conflitutional provifions for liberty. Witnefs the 
 habeas corpus, the independence of the judges, and the 
 perfection, if any thing human is perfeft, of their adminiftra- 
 tion of juftice, the refult of the famous Middlefex election, 
 and that on the right of iffuing general fearch warrants.
 
 Let every citizen who is able to think, and ivho can bear the 
 pain of thinking^ MAKE THE CONTRAST AT HIS LEISURE. 
 
 p. 429, 
 
 " For our part we deem her (Britain's) grandeur 
 intrinfic, the fair fruit of her conftitution, her juftice, her 
 arts, and her magnanimity. p. 376. 
 
 " The world's matter allows no neutrality. In fact 
 there are no neutrals. The maritime law fuppofes a foci- 
 ety of nations bound together by reciprocal rights and 
 duties. That fociety i> diffolved ; and it is chimerical, if 
 not unwarrantable for the United States to claim fingly 
 the aggregated and fuppofed refiduary rights devolved 
 upon us by the departed nations. The old fyflem is gone ; 
 and /'/ is a mockery, or ivorfe, for one nation to affect to 
 reprefent a dozen once independent flates, now fwallow- 
 ed up by a conqueror. Ambition will violate our moon- 
 jhine rights ; and if we fubmit to his decrees, we ourfelves 
 violate our neutral duties. What tyranny will do in con- 
 tempt of right, felf prefervation permits the other bellige- 
 rent to do in ftrict conformity with it. Where, then, is 
 neutrality ? LLT us BE ASHAMED OF A PJETULENT 
 
 STRIFE ABOUT LOST AND IRRECOVERABLE PRETEN- 
 SIONS." p. 377. 
 
 Gracious Heaven ! is this the language of an Ameri- 
 can ? Of a New-England man ? And is this the patriot- 
 ifm which animated the laft year's Legiflature of Mafla- 
 chufetts ? Yes thefe are the principles upon which the 
 fupreme authority of the ftate called with fuch importu- 
 nate outcry upon the government of the Union to un- 
 furl the republican banners againft the imperial ftandard. 
 Thefe are the doctrines which in 1809, are publiihed in 
 the metropolis of MafTachufetts for PATRIOTISM !
 
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