Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1810-02-20

.s.I1,z The finger Of Heaven; az well ~
re..o 1 ;s,,ice. and common sense, seems
to have pointed against hereditary rulers,
in an ares. Moses, to whom Washington
!. is compared, by" Messenger" was forbid.
den 70 enter.,he land of promise--and his
descendants were not suffered to rule it. In
after times of corruption, when the Israel:
ties blinaly called for king, God sen, a
prophet to warn them Of ,heir-danger, and
protest agains, their folly.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered
themselves together and came: to Samuel
unto Ranah, r..z.,. -.
=" And said unto him, Behold thou art
old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways -
now make unto as a king to judge Us like
allthe nations. r.,
But the thing dispseased ,Samuek' &c.,,
and Samuel prayed unto tho Lord."
d" And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hear
ken unto the voice Of tho people in all chat
they say'unso che e,,for.hey have not reject
ed thee, but they haze rejected ME, tina: ]
should not reign over them"
- As for Washingson's "spirit," il has
mounted 70 the skies and his house is
empty-he left no children indecd,tif he
had, they would be, rather [aceordiug to
the good Spartan maxim) the property, o.
: the children of the republic, than the inhe.
ritors of power: for, there are no rights
but such as the people confer. or nature
creates. The people have rights, says
: lord Lansdeune, but kings and princes have
none.
Il suppose, will not bere4uired to prove
what Sidney has ably established, IN his ex-
cellens reply to Fdmsr, that the pasriar.hs
were not kings. And since the Gilman
Washington family are extinct, l really
fear we must import the discarded duke OF
York, with the fret cargo OF dry goods,- CT
earthern ware No no We arc not pre-
pared for monarchy, which is the project
of Messenger. A..
1 "{2) There 10 in fac. no analogy between
the political state of Poland and America.
Consequently, the example of Poland is IN
applicable to US. There, there was no peo-
ble; factious nobility, held the populace
in vassalageI; when they were rent .asun-.
der by jealousies and jars, the monarch was
unsupported, and the country fell d victim
to its own frebleness, and the rapaciods
ambition of surrounding "monatchi:s a
memorable proof, that tree people, is the
grand balwa.k of nation. :
60 "An hereditary president-general! |"
This is insellieibie talk and, tor an Ame
rican mos. unaecountable. =" 1t appears to
me horrible and absurd 70 the last degree,
says Montesquieu, that whole people
should SUBJECT themselves to the caprice OF
one man, even it he were an ANGEL Fol
my own part, / would not live under him
a single day. This angel may become in y
moment, a monster thirsting after Blood"
This is the language and impression ose,
very genuine American. The day after
his inauguration, this president.general"
may become "a monster )" or if not his
descendant NAV be either fool or mad.
man. The chief magistrate ought ever to
be committed to the wisest and most wor-
thy citizen; because he is the chief stew.
ard of the people: but make it hereditary;
an6 there is no reward for service, wis.
dom or worth. To make Office hereditary,
you must exempt the officer from response
bili,y a measure alike fatal to freedom and
to virtue. mo person is free, where one
person can commit crimes with impunity,"
With this Irresistible truth, as with Par
THAN arrow, did ne .eloquent professor
Furguson transhx, the absurd tenet, pre-.
valen, IN menarchies, that the king can
DO no wrsng."
Messenger, however, is aot the only
man who has, honestly trust, imbibed
erroneous opinions of democratic inbecili-
,y: Jefersen, the great, the wise, the
vir,uous, the experienced, the venerable
Jefferson, was aware Of this growing he
resy; he examined it, and very eloquently
exposed it, in an anauswsrab'e manner in
his inaugural address 81" IF there be any
The well knew>there were many among 10
who could wish to dissolve this union, or
TO change its republican form, let them
stand undissinguished, 40 monumrnis Of the