The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1843-08-17
CHARLOTTESVILLE, July 81, le43.


CHARLOTTESVILLE, July 81, l843.
GENTLEMEN have the honor to acknowledge
your communication of the 26th inst inviting me, on
behalf of my friends in Amherst, to public dinner
at your Court House the 18th August and to as
sure you OF The pleasure 1t will afford me to unite
with you, and with those whose organ you are, in
testfyng our devotion to republican principles
While am not conscious Of having rendered any
public service which has not been than com
pcnsated by the continued confidence of my fellow
citiZens, | cannot be lnsensibe to this add tona
proof OF their regard, or unwilling, at their bidding
TO mingle our common sympalhies in behalf Of our
couDtfys best Interests around the festive board
on any other occasion which their generous hosp
tally shall select HoDors, like Offices, where it
the duty Of all to love and their country be-
long to no man They are part of the prerogaive
OF the people, who In comforting or Withholding
them, will have more regard to the public Interests
than TO private feelings In accepting your kind in
vation en,gentlemen, il is no afectation of modes
ty which induces me TO appropriate to myself only
very small portion Of a compliment hch is some
times n,iscoDstrucd as having higher import than
the meats and dishes of feast, or the appetite OF
guest We shall meet, gentlemen trust, not merely
TO eat or to drink, or to pass idle compliments to
men, but to warm up own, and to kinde in Others
zeal fer the free and glorious institutions Of
countrya zeal for principles too dear to all to be
sacrificed for personal predictions antipathes.
Allow ne to congratulate you too gentlemen, that
we shall meet under circumstances more proptious
for calm reflection and patriotic rejoicing, than we
have done since the relation OF constituent and repre-
sentative bound us together. The clouds of error
and prejudice which have obscured the judgments of
the best AID wisest in reference to the true interests
of the country, and which have impaired much
bitterness to cur party conflicts have been already
partially lisr by the light OF experience; and
the publc mind is beginning to investigate, and will
deciie the great political questions which have
been somames considered lament to say, more in
reference to the personal advancement of few than
the pertinent political interest of the many ] he
people hive discovered that they have little to gain
10 los. where political contests have no higher
objects lan the success Of or the defeat of
another that public men and political parties should
be known not by the names they assume, but by the
measures they advo ate that prom of relief are
ea,ily made before an election, than redeemed
afterwards that Government may do great deal to
encourage extravaganza, idleness, embarrassment,
and distress, from which the people must at last ex-
trcate themselves by honest, unrammelled industry
and economy; that national banks and bounties may
promote morbid system OF false credit, which,
though the evil day may be long postponed, will
eventually sacrifice the labor and property of its
tins without remOrse and without remedy; that with
out the agency Of these dangerous stmulants and in
despite Of their still perncious influences, times are
getting better, prices better, exchanges and interest
lower than they have been be fore, and conf
dence is gradually but surely revivng that true re-
form must begin at the foundation, and remove those
which render Governments corrupt and ndi
viduaIs sordid, which regard public debt and extra
VACANT approp iatons pretexts for high and un-
equal taxes, and encourage the citizen to exchange
the slow but acquisitions of industry for the
sudden gain of speculation and fraud that there is
nothing in the examples or the principles of Euro
pean Governments worthy of American imitation
especially in those examples those principles
which, under the spirit of enlightened commerce, are
relaxing their grasp Eng land that The
harmony and prosperity of our Union depend essen
TALLY on those very cau-es which, superficial OBJ
servation to threaten lis dissolution but which,
when properly understood lead to mutual depend
ence, rc,pect, confidence, and strength.
am, with sincere esteem, your ieIlow-citixen,
THOMAS w. GILMER.
To Nessrs. Geo. w. Davis, II. w. Quarles, and
Paulus Powell, Committee.