Stating in volume first, page sixty-third, the principle of
difference between the two great political parties here, you conclude
it to be, 'whether the controlling power shall be vested in this or that
set of men.' That each party endeavors to get into the administration of
the government, and to exclude the other from power, is true, and may
be stated as a motive of action: but this is only secondary; the primary
motive being a real and radical difference of political principle. I
sincerely wish our differences were but personally who should govern
and that the principles of our constitution were those of both parties.
Unfortunately, it is otherwise; and the question of preference between
monarchy and republicanism, which has so long divided mankind elsewhere,
threatens a permanent division here.
Among that section of our citizens called federalists, there are three
shades of opinion. Distinguishing between the leaders and people who
compose it, the leaders consider the English constitution as a model of
perfection, some, with a correction of its vices, others, with all its
corruptions and abuses. This last was Alexander Hamilton's opinion,
which others, as well as myself, have often heard him declare, and that
a correction of what are called its vices, would render the English
an impracticable government.. This government they wished to have
established here, and only accepted and held fast, at first, to the
present constitution, as a stepping-stone to the final establishment of
their favorite model.
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