The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-08 00:00:00

would destroy the idea of property, now so gene-
rally connected with official station ;and although
individual distress may be sometimes produced,
it would, by promoting that rotation which con-
stitutes a leading principle in the Republican
creed, give healthful action to the system." The
great object of the Federalists, of whom Hamil-
ton was the head, was to make all business as
complicated as possible, that it might not be un-
derstood by the public ; to create offices right and
left ; in short, to have the Government conducted
for the benefi' of nten in office. The people of
the United States had a narrow :escape from
becoming, like the people of every other country,
the property of their Government. They :were
running fast into debt. All sorts of jobbers and
depredators of money were let loose on them,
and they might have bid adieu for ever to the
hope of getting rid of internal taxes and a
heavy national debt. There was no lack of men
In the United States, more than in other coun-

tries, to, lend themselves as readily to the-bus
ness of dishonesiy and corruption. Fortunately,
two or three individuals, possessed of singular
ability, and still more singular disinterestedness,
rushed to the relief of their country at the critical
period, and saved it from those calamities. which
are now weighing us down. Who knows what
changes the example of America may yet pro-
duce in the world I It is a standing exposure of
• the mystific—ations ,
abused. We see here twelve millions of men
in the full employment of the advantages of
self-government ; and, from the simplicity of
their system, five hundred millions may as easily
be governed under it as five millions. The
healthy play of the system turns on the limita-
tion of the powers of the general Government to
specific objects, while the affairs of the people
generally are managed in the separate States.—
It was the remark of Jefferson, that if the Fe-
deral Government were to draw to itself general
powers over the whole of so extended a
country, it would be the most corrupt Govern-
ment under the sun ; and there are sufficient
indications in his Memoirs and Correspondence
of the soundness of his opinion. True in this
respect to the democratic principles, the Pre-
sident observes—
" The great mass of legislation relating to our in-
ternal affairs was intended to be left where tine
matt' to ihe'clatrtlitislift—ill it—in the. State Govern-
!' carat I
ments. Nothing is clearer, in my view, than that
we are chiefly indebted for the success of the Con-
stitution under which we are now acting, to the
watchful and auxiliary operation of the State autho..
rides. This is not the reflection of a day, but
belongs to the most deeply-rooted conviction of my
mind. I cannot, therefore too strongly or to
earnestly, for my own sense of its importance, warn
you against all encroachments upon the legitimate
sphere of State sovereignty. Sustained by it
healthful and invigorating influence, the Federal
system can never fall."
The permanence of this system depends on
the intelligence and easy circumstances of the
population. The question in which the world
is so much interested is, can we hope that the
circumstances which render self-government
now practicable will continue ? 'Why not ?
In Europe the people have not so much
sunk, as they have not risen high. The
lower orders were more degraded formerly than
they are now, in every country of Europe. Rob-
bers, and plunderers, and villains and slaves,
were the materials which first formed European
society. The Americans started under more
favourable circumstances ; the New England
colonists, the parents of the United States, were
the elite of England, as far as integrity was con-
cerned ; and the prejudices they took with them
have gradually disappeared. Why should we
anticipate from time what time does not exhibit
elsewhere, a deterioration of character ? The
population of Europe is wretched, but almost
everywhere improving under great disadvantages,
and why should increasing population in Ame-
rica lead to increasing wretchedness ? An in-
creasing population in America will avail them-
selves, in the various changes of circumstances,
of increasing intelligence. We have sometimes
wished that the plan of D'Alembert, to make a
bonfire of all books every fifty years, were car-
ried into execution. As it is in Europe, the
great business of after life is to rid ourselves of
the erroneous notions imbibed in the books put
iiito our hands in youth. Thus we hear every
day, from one writer repeating it after
another, that small states only are fitted for
Republics. There is an admirable passage
with respect to this point in a letter
from Jefferson to D'lvernois, dated 6th
Feb., 1795 :—" 1 suspect that the doctrine that
' small States alone are fitted to be Republics
will be exploded by experience, with some other
brilliant fallacies accredited by Montesquieu and
other' potitical writers. Perhaps it will be
found, that to obtain a just Republic and it is
to secure our just rights that we resort to Go-
vernment at all), it must be so extensive as that
local egotisms may never reach its greater part ;
that on every particular question a majority may
be found in its Councils free from particular in-
terests, and giving, therefore, an uniform pre-
valence to the principles of justice. The smaller
the Societies the more violent and convulsive
their schisms. 'We have chanced to live in an
age which will probably be distinguished in his-