The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1809-07-14

industry and peace. instead of violence * war
all these are circumstances which render
our situation as novel as it is Important. It
requires new theories; it has forced upon VS.
new and bold, and in soue cases. doubtful ex
perimen,s il calls for deepfehection en- the
prOpcnsitieS ut human nature and accu-
rate acquaintance with the HISTORY of hum AN
actionsS and what is perhaps t;.c most diff
cult 10 attain, a wise Discrimination sn,oi,g
the maxiias of wisdom. or wnat az: such in
other times and nations, to determine which.
OF them are applicable and which would be
detrimental to the end we have in view /
would by Homean, insinuate that we should
reject the councils of antiquity in mass, or
turn deaf ear to the voice of modern ex :
perience, because 1t is not our own. So far as
the policy OF other nations is founded on the
rear relations of social man, on his moral ma
ture undiSguised, it may doubtless be wor-
thy elimination but so far as it is drawn from
his moral nature disguised by habits materi-
ally different from ours, such policy is 10 be
suspected, it is to be scrutinizet, and brought
to the test, not perhaps of our experience.
for that may in certain cases be wanting, but
the test OF the general principles of our in
situations, and the habits and maXims, that
arise out of them.
There has been no nation either ancient
or modern, that could have presented human
nature in the same character as ours does
and will present it; because there has ex
isted no nation whose government has resem-
bled ours: A representative democracy on
a large scale, with a fixt constitution, had
never before been attempted, and has no
where else succeeded. n federal govern
ment OF democraticai principles is equally
unprecedented, and exhibits still greater
innovation ON all received ideas of statesmen
and lawgivers. Nor has any theorst inpo-
lltlcal science, any among those powerlcss
potenates OF reason, the philosophers who
nave taught us SO many valuable things, ever
framed system or conceived combination
OF principles producing such a result
Circumstances beyond our control had
thrown in our way the materials for this
wonderful institution. Our first merit lay in
not rejecting them. But when our sages
began to discern the use that might be made
OF materials then so unpromising they dis
covered great talents and patriotism in coul-
bining them into the system we now find in
operation. 1t is indeed stupendous fabric !;
the greatest political phenomenon, and pro-
badly viii be considered as the greatest adj
vahcement in the science of government, that
all modern ages have produced
ms is not the moment to goinsoa disser-
tation on the peculiar character of our poll
teal constitutions. The subject being well
understood by so respectable portion of this
assembly. and the time allotted TO this part
OF the exercises of the day being necessarily
short, should hardly expect to obtain Your
indulgence, if ] wereieven capable of doing
justice to so great n theme. Otherwise the
whole compass of human affairs does not
admit OF more profitable enquiry. Every
citizen should make it his favorite study, and
consider it as an Indispensable part of the
education of his children
But nations are educated like individual
infants. They are what they are taught to
be. They become whatever their tutors
desire, and invite and prepare and force
tAem to become. They may be taught to
reason correctly; they may be taught to rea-
son perversely they may be taught not to
reason at ALL The last is the case of des.
potism the second, where they reason per-
Versely, is the case of nation with an UNI
settled and unprincipled government, by
whatever technical name it may be distin-
guished /; for a democracy without a consti-
tuition, though generally and justly called the
School OF disorder and pefyersity, is no more
liable to these calamities, than a monarchy
Ill defined and without known principle of
action, and where the arm of power has not
that steady tension which would render it
completely despotic. The first, the case
IN which they reason correctly, if it ever ex-
listed or ever is to exist, must be ours. Our
nation must, it can. its legislators ought to
say 1T shall. be taught to reason correctly, to
act justly, to pursue its own interest upon so
large scale as not to interfere with the in
terest, or at least, with the rights of other
nations. For the moment it should interfere
with theirs, it could no longer be said to be
pursuing its own.
What then are the interests of this nation,
mich 1T becomes us as private citizens with
out any mission but the autocratical right of
individually to recommend to the great body
OF the American people on this suspicious
occasion! The most obvious, and believe,
the most important are comprised in two
words and to them shall confine my OBJ
servations fu6Hc iD,ltrouements and hubHc
instrnction.p These two objects, though dis
tinct in the organization which they will re-
quire, are so similar in their effects, that
most OF the argu .-ents that will apply to one,
will apply equally to both. They are both
necessary tn the preservation of our princi-
pies OF government; they are both necessary
to the support OF the system into which those
principles are wrought, the system we now
enjoy they are each OF them essential, per-
haps in an equal degree, to the perfecting of
that system, to our perceiving and preparing
the authorizations of which it is susceptible
shall dwell exclusively on these two objects,
not because they are the only ones that might
be pointed out, but because their importance,
their immediate and pressing importance,
seems to have been less attended to and pro-
badly less understood than it ought to have
been among the general concerns of the uni
on.
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