That as to trusting to a popular assembly for
the preservation of our liberties, it was the merest chimera imaginable;
they never had any rule of decision but their own will; that he would
as lieve be again in the hands of our old committees of safety, who made
the law and executed it at the same time; that it had been observed by
some writer (I forget whom he named), that anarchy did more mischief in
one night, than tyranny in an age; and that in modern times we might say
with truth, that, in France, anarchy had done more harm in one night,
than all the despotism of their Kings had ever done in twenty or thirty
years. The point in which he views our Senate, as the colossus of the
constitution, serves as a key to the politics of the Senate, who are
two thirds of them in his sentiments, and accounts for the bold line of
conduct they pursue.
* He observed, that eight or ten years ago he gave only
fifty dollars to a common laborer for his farm, finding him
food and lodging. Now he gives one hundred and fifty
dollars, and even two hundred dollars to one.
March the 1st. Mr. Tazewell tells me, that when the appropriations for
the British treaty were on the carpet, and very uncertain in the lower
House, there being at that time a number of bills in the hands of
committees of the Senate, none reported, and the Senate idle for want
of them, he, in his place, called on the committees to report, and
particularly on Mr.
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