Berkeley and Jefferson intelligencer. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va.) 1802-1810, 1804-06-15

every lover OF America. we 0egtn 20
fear, that we have calculated too much
on the coed sense and the virtue Of the
land we live in; the land of our birth,
dear to US as such, and we fear perhaps
therefore ovcrrated with the Partially of
lilial reverence. We begin to suspect
that her foster sons, that the foreign out
casts she has received to her bosom, un-
derstand the disposition of Our country
much better than we dove begin to
fear, that the Duanes and Cheethams,
the Paines and Tony Pasquins. pestilent
dregs of another cline, Vomited on our
shores, have not SO greatly mistaken the
pub 'ic temper ofthese statesor the means
&C ratify ing and guiding Il for years yet
to5come. We begin to fear they find
something in that temper itsel which fits
numerous mass not only to be dupes,
butwhich renders them willing dnpes, of
whose vices there is as much ptage
to be taken by the demagogns their
ignorance. Every day obssr Lon for
ces reluctant belief THAT the source Of
our present disorders; the root of our
political evils, does not lie altogether in
momentary deceit, in q mere mistake
or series of mistakes to which theIfrailty
of man and the best Of men has been al
all times liable, but that it is fixed deep
in cause just as much more difficult to
remove as It is easier to rectify the errors
Of weakness than to cure those of wilful &
propense depravity. There is reason
more and more to apprehend that the mo-
raj principle of society is relaxed and
tainted to the core; and that it is in the
growing corruption ofour National Cha
racter that democracy, labouring to in
crease that, corruption, now feels her
strength and hopes to preserve it. Or
rather we might say she hopes and feels
this not only in the corruption of nation
al character, but in its loss and total OBJ
livion, Once, in the struggles1of our,
revolution, at the sra of the con ress of
indie aendence, Of the convention of PHI
lad.iphia, !. and of the constitution they
framed at FIRST put in trial in those hands
who were Immediately as if it were by
| the voice of one general assent called to
| administer it, in those times we had a
national character 1t was a character Of
| wisdom and integrity, for sober discern
ment, for constancy, for gratitude, for
public spirit, for the glow and vigilance
of national liberty and stubborness and
tenacity Of right, for decent and tempe.
! rate and legal and solemn restraints, il
not for the seriousness of hallowed Piety
and religious devotion. Such was, or
such was deemed to be our national cha
raeter, displayed, proved and confirmed
in the ordeal Of twenty years of doubt,
| difficulty and distress. Our republic APP
/ peared abroad to be once more realizing
ON earth the fables and dreams of hisro-
ry-or exemplifying its truths imam emu
lation and rivalshiP of Grecian and Ro-
man worth. The continent seemed ami
mated with one genius, pure and honor
able as we have described, Howingas its
vital blood through the whole body of the
community in every vein and member Of
| its very exuemities. Scarcely q limb or
! a Joint, the lowest or'most remote, bur
i what looked sound, as If contagion could
have no footheld to work with. In the
various emergencies Of that period, on
the momentous questions which were
from time to time submitted 10 the 2deci-
sion Of all ranks and classes, when once
informed right there was surety they
would decide right and for the mos,
part they decided with the promptness Of
intuition, ofintuition whose judgements,
never to be warped by passion, passion
itself generally concurred with. Ofeve-
ry individual the interest, essentially va
lued, has never yet run counter to their
duty But with our people as they then
were, interest, duty and pleasure alto.
| gether did not only never run counter,
thsy oteyen run in different, but always
il, one, and the same channel TWAS
IA proud. day for America, in whose
most adverse hour the world in adj
miring her could even forget she was
/ .sof ySrna r,roIle herolfee In an simon.