These last are as good republicans as the
brethren whom they oppose, and differ from them only in the devotion
to England and hatred of France, which they have imbibed from their
leaders. The moment that these leaders should avowedly propose a
separation of the Union, or the establishment of regal government, their
popular adherents would quit them to a man, and join the republican
standard; and the partisans of this change, even in Massachusetts, would
thus find themselves an army of officers without a soldier.
The party called republican is steadily for the support of the present
constitution. They obtained, at its commencement, all the amendments to
it they desired. These reconciled them to it perfectly, and if they have
any ulterior view, it is only, perhaps, to popularize it further,
by shortening the Senatorial term, and devising a process for the
responsibility of judges, more practicable than that of impeachment.
They esteem the people of England and France equally, and equally detest
the governing powers of both.
This I verily believe, after an intimacy of forty years with the public
councils and characters, is a true statement of the grounds on which
they are at present divided, and that it is not merely an ambition for
power. An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over
his fellow-citizens. And considering as the only offices of power those
conferred by the people directly, that is to say, the executive and
legislative functions of the General and State governments, the common
refusal of these, and multiplied resignations, are proofs sufficient
that power is not alluring to pure minds, and is not, with them, the
primary principle of contest.
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