The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1845-04-17

and nublio services, but principally by the enormous
sums which be gave or loaned to the prominent men
In Florence. Nearly ell the citizens Of the Republic
were his debtors, aud they found II more convenient
TO pay their debts by selling the freedom oil 'her
country than by sacrificing thor private property
The CITY had reached that state when was vain 10
invoke the name either Of the people or OF liberty,
for the one was deaf and the other dead In great
republic, man who would expect TO reach the su-
prsme power by means Of his purse, what is called
family influence, would not succeed. II such an en-
terpise were possible II would, at any rate, require
more enormous wealth than has ever yet been found
in the hands Of u single man. II thirty millions oil
freemen could DO induced either by secret or open
bargain, to sell their liberty, know not the banker
from the Medici TO the Rothsehilds, whose Golfers
could supply the purchase money.
IL is said that republics destroyed by parties.
There some parties that injurious and others
that beneficial to free states. Those parties
which spring from interested attachment to men or
TO families; which may properly be called seets or
factions which composed in fact OF personal re-
tainers and hired partisans, always pernicous.-
The parties which distracted for ages, and at last
destroyed the Florentine Republic, Of this des-
cription 1t will be difficult TO show that they were
generally divided upon any fundamental principle
either policy rconsututionallaw They were
ly the adherents and followers ofhs that noble fami
iy in lis struggle for power They in fact called
after the of their leaders; and the ends of the
chiefs selfish and the motives Of the psrtisans
corrupt the destruction of liberty and the downfall
Of the Republic the natural consequence of their
fierce struggles and vndictve laws. Such calsmities
will not probably happen in great Republic. 1t is
impossible fer personal influence to extend over very
wide limits and family which might be able 10 re-
vouonize single city would be utterly Insignificant
in a great Republic. Those men who acquire wide
influence in a great Republic, obtain it by the force
of the principles whsch they represent When those
principles are abandoned, the influence which they
gave disappears. When, therefore, in a country like
the United States of America, any combination Of
men ceases to be party formed for the support Of
great principles and becomes faction elevated solely
to the elevation of a certain man a certain family
to power its proceedings should not only be watched
with suspicion but crushed in the bud. In the end
they destructive of the prosperity and ruinous to
the liberty of the commonwealth. Indeed the history
of our own country shows that Republican Gov
ernment with the federatve principle hourishes best
in vast territory. The discontents and rebellion of
one or two States which might oveIturn a small con-
federscy, easily put down either by reason or by
constitutional force in that is large The fedora
tive principle is emnently expansive for by it the
wants of the minutest part not neglected. and the
common glory of the great whole most nobly pro-
noted.
The path from slavery to liberty is through fiery
furnace. Freedom has nowhere been permanently
established except by great but necessary sacrifice
of blood and treasure. When the State has been pu-
rihed by this ordeal; when the minds of men have
been elevated and their hearts enlarged by the nobest
struggle in which they be engaged, and when vic
tory has at last crowned with their patriotic
efforts, they in fit state to lay the stone
Of that glorious edce which they design for their
future shelter and security If the Federal Constu-
ton had not been framed Immediately after the Reyo
luton, the present age might well be disrusted to
make such wise and patriotic instrument. Prepared
by men whose devotion to their country had been
tested not only in the council but in the camp and
ratified by people who had shed their blood on
cry field where the foe was to be found, grateful
Postery, like their fathers still hail it the only
ark of national safety and universal freedom. Other
states, that have not been braced by such stern
counters, FORM abolish, and constitutions with
every change of party and every caprice of fashion
The fundamental law, instead of being an anchor
that moors the ship of state is perfdious rudder,
without pilot, that whirs it to every point of the
compass. Such was the fate of unfortunate
Florence; and what page of her history does
not display the countless disasters which the rapid
change of her constitutions produced Those con-
stltntions in fact but the DEGREES of party and
were framed for the purpose of Iegaizing tyranny.
They were overturned by the minority as soon as it
gained the ascsndency, and a new form of govern
ment established 10 re'aliate the injuries which it had
suffered from its opponents. ....
Ia small republic, men run much more easily into
factions, and the spirit Of family feud seems to have
always been Characteristic trait of the Florentines
The reason of this is, that to overurn the govern
ment of such republic, the combination of few
persons is sufficient and men readily engage in plots
which they see easy to execute. | do not recognise
the heresy that any nation or any people ncapa
BILE of freedom. 1t is the hackneyed apology of ty-
rants, and would be excuse for every oppression
Iii libel upon God to say that he intended his own
image to be slave. But when, by human laws and
human wickedness the great designs of Providence
have been retardva-when The mind of man as been
debased and bis heart benumbed by the oppression of
centuries it is not by gentle that he is to be
reused from his dea'h-ike sleep 1t requires lions
effort to bust the soldered bands. The dead air
must be purified by the thunderbolts of heaven.
They who have borne down their kind in the up
ward march marked out by its nature must look for
the rebound and fer the reaction when il aya kes
to sense of its true dignity. And if, in the grea,
struggle for liberty blood she'd it is those who
strike the blow for freedom but those who rendered
the violence of revolution necessary, who are
Ponsible before God and man for the loss of human