Massachusetts spy and Worcester advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1823-1825, 1824-03-17

PoPuIdi SoVSInnehts, between tne people and
their public servants. To impute these meas
ures to faction, is to set truth and reason at
defiance. The feelings which gave rise to
them pervaded majority Of all classes in town
and country, including very ample portion
ofthose most distinguished in every profession
and calling, by virtue, talents, wealth, and all
the qualities which merit and command nfu-
ence among an intelligent people. This is not
at all the history or character offaction. The
powers Of republic may indeed be ursurped
by individuals, and the rights and the will of
the people may become prey to the tyranny
OF three, ten, thirty, or five hundred tyrants,
without involving them in the culpability of
misgovernment. An oligarchy, or, if you
please, lunto Of ambitious and unprincpled
men, may obtain temporary ascendancy in
the most perfect Commonwealth, by the con-
sent OF the people: but unless they retain by
force what they have gained by deception or
surprise, the people are in fault-Bu, this is
not case of usurpation, nor of short lived
faction, nor OF surprise or fraud. If the Con
vention was q measure of political prohgacy,
the people of Massachusetts are either an intel
ligent people and guilty with generalization
--or they are an ignorant people, and the
dupes were hood-wink ed and led by the
knaves.
This latter hypothesis no body will serious
ly maintain-upon the former, (Which is the
hypothesis Of the speech, } not only is the char
acter Of the State dishonored, but the conf
dence and hopes Of the votaries of our Repub-
lican system are built upon the sand. The
Experiment Of a Republican Government can
never be made with more advantage than it
has been with the sons Of the Pilgrims. They
founded the American family' upon re-
publican rock at Plymouth-They were Re-
pu6hcans at heart before their emigraticn-the
manners, habits, prejudices, and education of
their descendants; their intelligence, state of
property, and sense of interest, growing out
OF actual prosperity, all conspired to render
the scene and the circumstances of the exper-
lment eligible beyond any which mankind
had witnessed. They had realized the mutu-
al protection and advantages of Confedera-
taon, forty years together, century and a
half ago. If then, the imputations, of those
who would hunt down the Hartford Conven-
ton, are correct, there must be in republican
governments, among the most intelligent and
virtuous people, and under the most favorable
circumstances, an inherent and rreversihie
tendency to degenerate; against which, we in
this western world, shall have in vain provided
the checks and balances of paper Constitu-
| lions. If for example, the majority of great
people of that description IN one or more States
with ample means of information, and init
mate acquaintance with public characters,
lnstigated by an unhallowed spirit of party,
could persevere through many consecutive
years, in confdng the administration OF affairs
to men who, bslying characters free from
former stain or reproach, had become so
dead to shame, and gangrened, at least, by
parted hate, as to combine" to favor the
views of public enemy, by discouraging
the defence OF he country in a war to whose
scourge they and their children and fortunes
were Unfortunately eXposed-If, say, the
citizens of we'll balanced republican govern
ments, exercising the faculty of annual cleo
! tons, knowing their men, and forewarned of
their policy, continued to "heart on'' and
| cheer with encouragement, those (who in the
| spirits OF the tenants of a penitentiary) would
delight In undermining the very foundations of
the Constitution-well might the friends of
| monarchy excaim, of what value is the parch-
ment citadel! Naturally might they consider
the cause of republics desperate, and that
such state of affairs implied the want, and
must be followed by the possession on some.
body's head, OF that " thing lchlch is hung I'D
IN the torer and sheen TO strangers for sirpencen
TO save the people from their own enemies
themselves.
1t is no answer to these suggestions, that the
body Of the nation was sound and that the dis
ease was local.-It was in vital part-it was
in New Eng!and-a part not predsposed TO
such an infection. Besides, symptoms of at
least equal malignity, with less of exciting
| cause, have been manifested in those regions of
| our body polite which during the war WERE
regarded as the most healthful. When the
| measures Of government or any of its depart
ments bear hard upon the prediction Of the
States, most enatnently patriotic, (if we take
| their word for it,) we hear a warmer tone Of
expostulation and louder note of prepare
ton for resistance than was ever sounded by
the Yankee bugle. A Missouri question:
contested claim of Jurisdiction by the Supreme
Court-the establishment of bank. the sale
of lottery ticket, or proposition to modify
the Tariff, produce speeches, resolutions. ana
remonstrances, in such 60 bold words,n as
shew determined spirit of resistance, and
would, if followed by &c deeds as bold,'' soon
break up the "family" establishment. and
bring down the house itself upon our heads.
iputit then with confidence to those friends
ofRepublican Government, who are not eaten
up with p-ejudices-apd to such of the s'rising
generation as have n9disposition to sully the
grey hairs of their fstners Gin order to obtain
an admission into the " American Familyn
by his Excellency's back stairs,) whether it
be not their duty and ought not to be their
pleasure to furnish themselves with the means
of repelling scandal which leads to these
sinister conclusions.-To examine impartially
the history OF the period reviewed in the
spcech-To judge from documents which can,
| not deceive, and from undeniable facts, wheth-
er there were not two sides to the great ques-
tion,& especially to that of the war concern
ing which honest minds might innocently dif.
fer-To determine, in a spirit of candor.
whether the then great federal party might
not have sincerely felt similar apprehensons of
danger to>the liberties of Europe and of Anne
rica also, from the avowed principles and am
bilious strides of the Emperor of France. to
Al, 4. III