The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1810-05-09

'aorrent to the temper and character OF eur
peopie,the doctrines, with which this volume
teens, where to be ushered into puhlick view,
whenever prospect for their favourable re-
cePtion might appear. MIR. Ames, in writing
these papers, and others, published bef"re his
death, disclosing not quito SO clearly "a sys-
TEN OF the party, was acting lpasr an nnfuise
u wAich ne svas himself NOT asave.--But the
period Of his death happening just ut me-
ment ot great national difficulty and distress,
the chosen ..our was concluded TO have arriv-
cd, when these theories might be circulated
Win the greatest effect; and when disgust az
our popular institutions, contempt for our
own country, detestation Of France, ,,end sub
serviency to Britain, might be SO mingled up
with this infuance OF Mr. Ames's panne, that
the whole would &c swallowed by the publics
without examination, and all contribute To tho
purposes OF the party. The proceedings of
the state Legislature during the present year
have furnished ample proofs, th az these hrin.
citles have been at the root of their whole
system OF measures. 1t is also fact per-
fectly well known, that many of these meas.
ures have been carried by reluctant votes
that many members Of the majority have
must unwillingly assented TO them and on
one occasion when single spirited member
presumed TO have an opinion of his own, BIC
was attacked in one Of the presses of the fac
ton, for daring to think for himself. The
legislature OF the succeeding year viii be of
the same political party as the last. They
will not be checked by a chief magistrate of
different opinions, and the country has been
thretened with no cquivocal anticipation of
what will be attempted, "when the qvhoie gov.
ernment Of the state should be united in ono
mir Of rt Vvtt th>r
and objects are similar to our own" II il.
therefore sense Of duty to the country,whch
cnjoins pointed attention to the tcnets Of
this book, as well as to their practical effects
in the administration Of eur affairs.
Mr.. Ames (says his biographcr) was em-
phatacally a REPUBLICAN. Let his republican.
ism be tested by these extracts, to which q
thousand others Of the same cast Of character
might be added. The first extracts declare
that the affairs Of rcpublicks arc governed By
perverse fatality--the second, that il is im-
possible to love republick--the third, that
there can be 10 such thing as patriotism in y
republick, and least of all in one like ours.
the fou,th, that our annual elections are a
moral pestilcnce, that begins with rottenness
in the marrow--and the Efth,that the federal.
ism which formed our national constitution
was manifestly founded on a mistake, in sup.
posing the existence Of political virtue.
The reasoning in the second deserve par.
ticular notce--it is impossible to love the re.
publick because the rcpublick is creature
OF hciion and because love, to be any thing
must be sefecf and EXCLUSIVE. Instead Of
the republck, let the word be our country
the argument is precisely the samc--our
country Is Creative of fiction. Our country.
comprises the whole Lation to which we be.
iong.--The love OF our co1atry, il it be sny
tning, can neither be select nor exclusive !,
is the love of the whole comni.nitv. ara
prompts to zeal for the welfare Of all, .ithout .
distinction of party or of place. The s.,ti.
ment of the heart which disowns oil love, bL>
such as is select and exclusive, is neither
cCngenial with rcpublicanism nor with Chris
tianity. Mr.. Amcs acknowledged the author.
tv of him whose injunction to his disciples,
was, butI say unto you, LovS yoOR Enc
MIEs." Was this select or exclusive I'm
truth, this principle Of selection and ereiusion
in the appl Cation Of our affections to the fo-
iticul relations Of society, is pcrnicious err
rour of morals as we'll as Of politicks. Mr..
Amcs would have found no such doctrine In
Cicero's Rocks Of Ofices.-And the consc-
quences Of this principle arc as snischievoue
as its origin is contracted. II is the seminal
principle from which .Jaesion takes its birth.
II is this select and creiusive love, which
breeds the wbimsey, that there are scarcely
six hundred out Of six millions, who look for
liberty any where but upon Paper. 1t shar-
pens all the aipcritics Of party spirit, and
makes fedcralists and republicans consider
one a.other, not as fellow citizens having
common interest but AZ two rival nations
marshaled in hostile array against each other.
Had Mr.. Ames, but given himself time to
reflect upon his own labours, he must have
perceived the faacy Of cohfodnding that sen.
liment Of social benevoIence, which in our
country is properly dcnominated the Love Of
the Republick, with that select and exclusive
,Hectlon which belongs to the connections Of
domestick Iife-Parcntal, cohjual, and 6lial