Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-10-31
Yours to serve,
4 VIRGINIA FARMER.
HARTFORD, October IS.

HARTFORD, October IS.
.s,:e-scs,. Rsaublicans. hosy changed from
er.rsne jealousy 10 bind e;rfdence Z guard
less security.
1T was an observation of Cardinal de Retz,
> celebrated French writer. "a that the things
Which happen IN our own times, and which
We sac ourselves. DO not susprlze Us near so
much as the things we read OF IN times past,
though pos in the least more extraordinary !;
srd nc adds. iha; he IS persuaded, that when
Caifrula made his horse a Consul, the people
oI Rene. At that time, were noe greatly sur
pr;sed at II, having necessarily been N some
degree prepared for Ii. by al lnsensible gra-
taiioa of extravaganza from the same quar-
ter.'s
This remark Of de Retz vas never per-
hans more clearly verified, than 1t Is at the
present dav. and II our own country We the
peop!e have been so long accustomed to con-
stan, succession OF political wonders and pro-
disses, that they cease TO move US: alter being
made themes OF conversation and newspaper
discussion for few weeks, they pass Of, one
after another, and are forgotten; the Anne
rican public SINKS into lis wonted apathy, III
reused again Sy some new occurrence more
marvellous than any thing that had preceded
il.
Comparing great things TO small, nation,
In the ieryor OF extreme liberty, may be llken-
ed 10 noble sfred unaccustomed 10 the bril-
die. At first he is shittish s FESTIVE, champs
the bit, Will bear neither the spur nor the
whip, scorns to sustain burden upon his
back, rears himself erect, or tnsses up his
heels. and throws his rider. Yet, notwlth-
standing all this high metal and skittishness,
ne can, by little and littl e, be made to be the
most docile and submissive OF animals. lbs
spirits NAV be so broken, that be resists not
nor complains, though YOU hay lis sides
with the spur or thong, or bird q double bur-
den upon MS back, or ride or draw hin 10
death.
History records divers nations, which, u
some particular period, were jealous OF their
rights in the exiTeme, and then shortly after
manifested all the patient servility of a dIay-
horse. Witness the republics OF Greece and
Rome. Witness the English, at tie time
they brought the FIRST Charles to the block.
and then afterwards under the despe;ism O.
Cromwell and Of Charles second. At those
different periods they seemed as unlike, as
almost any two different nations that can be
named: at one time, quite ungoseTnabie at
another. as tame as cattle OF bnrden-zealcus-
" holding the seryile doctrines OF the divine
RIGHT of kings, passive obedience and Ic1.-re-
sistance. Witness also the French, whose
sudden transition from parox;sms OF zeal for
what they called liberty to patient endurance
Of the most degrading and tormenuns slavery,
must be fresh In the minds OF all our readers.
/, is the common course of poor human Ia
ture. more especially of the bulk OF mankind,
10 swing directly from one extreme TO Its op-
posite Ike the pendulum OF clock.
The United States of America seem to be
going fast the way nj all the earth. From the
period of the termination of our revolutionary
var TO that of the adoption of our federal con-
stitution, we could hardly be said to have
had any general government at ali, owing TO
the extreme jealousy of the people. Almost
every necessary power was withheld from the
congress of the old confederation, for fear they
would abuse it. They urged their request,
year after year, for permission to lay five
per cent. impost. as necessary means Of sup
porting public credit this request was all a.
long refused by some one or other of the
states. through jealousy that the money aris-
ing from the impost might possibly be impro-
perly applied. After the convention had
framed our present constitution and sent it
out to the people, the minds cf al classes
were wrong hit to very high degree Of sensi-
bility upon the subject. On the one hand, the
necessity of government Of some strength
was obvious on the other. nultitudes, many
of them honestly and others iasidiously, aYow-
ed their fears that the new government would
swallow up the Liberties of the Nation. The
Chesterhsld's Letters