The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1845-10-31
cEBA's CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC.

The Hon. John O. Adams has addressed the
following letter to c. Edwards Lester, the translator
ofthis work. The book is good one; but Mr.
Adams's letter super-excelent. 1t will be read by
old and young with deep interest. We copy it
from the New Mirrors
QUINCY, Mass, Oct. IL, 1845.
DEAR SIR !: Indispostion has delayed the answer
which should have been Immediately returned to
your letter of the 23d last month, which received,
together with the "Citizen of Republic" by An
saldo Ceba. For both, offer you my cordial
thanks; and particularly for the dedication of the
book.
1t is remark believe of Burke, "That liberty
inheres in some sensible object, and that every
ton has formed to itself some favore point which,
by way of emnence, becomes the criterion of their
happiness. That the great contests for freedom in
England were, from the earliest times, chiefly upon
the question of taxing. That most of the contests
in the ancient commonwealth turned primarily on
the right of the election of magistrate, or on the
balance among the several orders of the state,
The question of money was not, with them, so inn
mediate"
And, pursuing the same idea, he shows that the
question of our revolution was contest of liberty,
according to English ideas, and on English prnci-
Piles; and that the champions of liberty in England,
for succession Of ages, had taken infinite pains 10
nculcate as fundamental principle, that in all mon
arches the people must, in effect themselves, me-
diatey or Immediately, possess the power of grant
ing their own money, or no shadow of liberty could
subsist "The colonies y he adds, drew from Eng
land with their e-blood, these ideas and prnci-
pies. Their foye of liberty, as with the English,
fixed and attached on this specific point of taxing
liberty might be safe, or might be endangered in
twenty other particulars, without their being much
pleased or alarmed here they felt its pulse; and
they found that beat, they thought themselves sick
or sound"
The cause of the American revofution, SO far as it
was a contest between Great Britain apd her colo
MICS, was thus question of property--a limitation
merely of the power of government to levy mooney
upon the people by taxation; It was, In principle,
John Hampden's question Of ship-money. When
the progress of the revolution changed the principle
Of the controversy to war for independence and the
colonies called to form constitutions of govern
ment, and a federative union for themselves, the
question of taxation became but one Of many other
principles in the organization of government, in
voving the whole theory Of human rights, and all
the foundations of liberty staked upon the fabric of
the social compact.
Perhaps the circumstances alluded to by Burke,
that our controversy with Great Britain had origi-
mated in those ideas of liberty which our fathers had
brought with them from England and which were
concentrated upon the simple point Of taxation, has
retained undue proportion of influence in our es-
innate of liberty down to the present times
The Italian republics Of the middle ages were
founded also upon principles Of liberty differently
modified, and indissolubly connected with the right
Of taxation. Our statesmen, patriots, Legislators, and
people, still confined, by the ties Of language, in
great degree to the literature of England. An Italian
writer of age preceding that Of the civil in
England, in the l7th century, writing on the duties
of "Cilizen of Republic" with the history of
Italy added to that Of Greece and Rome before him,
must have embraced wider scope in the considera-
ton Of liberty and Of human rights, than is to be
found in the contracted sphere of the conflicting prn-
ciple Of freedom and of power in the English writers
of the seventeenth century.
shall therefore make it point to read with at
tenton the work of Ceba, and, should the state Of
my health hereafter permit will freely give you my
opinion concerning it, Liberty is still in our coun-
try vital question of politics. morals, and religion
question upon which we have much to learn, and
our posterity much to act. The days of my parti-
cpaton in it passed, but the prayer for its prog
ress and universal prevalence remains to the last
moment of my life. ] am, dear sir, very respect
fully, your fellow-citizcn and friend,
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.