Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1816-03-04

fDcc0me 3 gtl1de 70 fae ruler. In the hrs
1.-THE reason and interests Of tile socief
govern ! in the second, their preiudices.
The foregoing remarks, which wen
published prier to the commencement o
Iour federate government, have beenfulh
sanctioned By experience. We hay,
witnessed the wide difference betweeo
republic and a democracy, and have ex.
pefienced the happy consequences of tho
lone, and The direful effects Of the other.
The first twelve years, and more es.
Ipecially the eight years of the admins.
ltration of Washington, the government
|of the United States was truly a Repdb-
IEc. That wise and excellent man, with
out partially, without hypocrisy, with
|ost fayoritism, and unswayed by the po-
pular passions Of the ,nolnent-regarded
the real and permanent good OF the ma
ton as his ultimate object Two most
important acts of his administration,
were done in defiance Of pupular prciu-
|dices and clamors We mean his pro,
Iclamation ofneutrality, in 1898, and his
ratification of Mr.. Jays treaty, in 1896.
By the first, the u. States were neutral
ized at the moment when the desperate
project Of making common cause with
France bad ripened into overt act. Bp
the second, war with England was pre-
vented, aud with her was made a com
Imercial arrangement which gave this
country ten years Of unexampled prospe.
Irity. Had the Wild spirit Of democracy
seized our government at.that early Pc
| Rod, this whole nation would have been
|precipitated into the deadly embrace Of.
revolutionary Franee.
The change in the administration BIZ
the accession Of Mr. Jefferson to the pre-
sidency, occasioned vital change in the
mature Of the government itself. No
longer did the administration present to
themselves the general good as the ob-
Eject Of all their measures no longer did
they seek TO promote and secure the per-
|manent interests of the great whole :;
cont, ariwise, the present popular feelings
land passions, Independently Of the pub
|lic good, became theirguide, and the firm
establishment Of dominant and domi-
Ineering faction. their main object.
4 great part of the calamitics that
|since hefel eur country, sprung from this.
tainted source they are the fruits, not
|ef genuine republican government, bat
'Ot rank and.unmixt democracy.
AS an elective republic, under the ma-
nagement of wise and patriotic ADM
pistration, is the best Of governments ]
it, on the contrary, when degeneratingj
3ato complete democracy, and falling un-
der the management Of artfaI, unprinci-
pied men, becomes one Of the worst ; and
never yet has it failed, in the !eng run,
to saccomb to a single despot. For ex-
amples--leaving cut the numerous exam
pies iii the records of antiquity-ti,el
English, several ages past, and theI
French. In our own ace, disguised withl
tAef.au,Is, the yillaaies, and the multi
form tyrannies, which democracy pracs
tiscd under the name of liberty. thew
took refuge in military deSpotism. TheYl
both groaned deeply the one under the
tyranny Of Cromwell, and the other un.
der that OF Bonararte but neither the
one nor theuther regarded the tyranny
Of their !nSitary despots as SO great an
evil, as Tue plague Of democracy, front
which they had escaped. -IbN.