Alexandria daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1803-1808, 1805-07-18
Fra :ae MO-1:srS Egeiz:.i35 Post.
DUgTON'5 CITATION.

sts-re ON tne July Anniversary, by War
sEN DurToy, Esq. the ptrusal Of which
has affofled US so much satisfaction, that
we think We cannot furnish our readers
with any ,hlag more worthy their acsept-
ance taaa a .copIous extract from II.
Sound principles, deep reflections, and
ius:rucTive Inference, expressed IN a style
ferse anl correct, characterise thls pro-
dactioa. We are proud to add that we
number ths author IN the. list OF personal
f.'iends.
Our government is so much founded
in, op.nion, that errors in speculation wit
frequently produce practical msschiets.,
Hence the importance OF correct notions.
and the utility OF exposing prevailing and
popular errors. Because the people OF
these stats are enllghsed, they have been
told sh.r they are ali intelligence; because
they are virtuoas, they hive been taught
thar they have no vices. But while l. Is
said with homes. pride that-no people ever
existed, whose habits, manners, and OPT
mons, could give such powerful aidsto
frce government, it ought 60 be said with
equal sincerity, that they are subject to
like passions with other men. lney con-
consist Of the rich aud she poor, the SIM
Die aud the wise, the idle and'.ihe indus
erious. the yirtuoas ADD the depraved.
They have prs. ,dices which are stfoag In
proportion as they are unreasonable 1aey
have yani,y which may be Aattered, and.
passions which may be excited. lhey are
i1nnarient of restraints when they are felt
they are credulous of course, the prey OF
lmpostors, liable to sudden impulses, blind
in their zesI, and violent in their resent
ments, These all belong to human nature,
and philosophy has not vet touad oat their
cure: till it does, government must be
suited 10 men as they are.
Recently escaped from the grasp OF ar.
bitrary power, and still smarting with the
pain, the people of this country behold no
dangers bur in the form Of monarc,y. The
prev sling sentiment is. that the people cam,
not have TOO much powey, nor the COVER
ment too little. While 1t is uncontrolled
in their own hands it Isl harmless, md be-
comes terrible only wien exercised in the
form of regular authority. Government
is regarded as matter OF convsniente,ra-
sher Ghan necessity; and as there is little
need Of any, il may be changed or new,
modelled without hazard. A revolution,
therefore, carries no ,errors with 1t, be-
cause il is considered as an experiment,
which, like apFescriptlon IN medicine, may
he safely tried till it succeeds. Such OPT.
HONS are natural, as they are founded IN a.
Just adherence of despotism; they are dam
derous because they are extreme ,and bllnd
us to the approach of evils more PalPable,
and nearer home.
Another popular error coAnectedwlth
this is, that the power of the people is their
liberty, or that whatever. they can do they
have right to do. 1t is true, that every
mao has right, by honest industry, 10
grow as rich aud as learned as his neighbor
but every man has not the disposition or
ability. Hence. distinctions will exist,
which are entitled to equal protecuoa; but
Incidence and vice say, are not all men e
quail, aud are, We not Poer? The member
of Congress from PennsylVa ia, in his late
adlfess to his constituents, observes, thai
he has now returned to his plough, and
shall use his best endeavors TO prevent all
rich men and men of talents from being G.
iscstd to cfEce. IF such sentiments pre-
vail neither the rich nor the wise can long
hope to remain In peaceful obscuri,y; the
property Of the one !. ill be con6scated, and
the other driven into exile. The opinion is
not new, but not the less dangerous tor
that reason. 1t is in the very spirit OF
Jack Cade's project for reformation, of a
grarian Laws and national decrces.
Liberty is not the creature of a day, nor
can it be occurred by merely making new
constitution or altering an old one. Itisto
the political body what health is to the ma
dural; the effect of well adjusted system.
tits the result of the moral sense orreligi-