poses, we have uniformly been one people-each individual citizen every where enjoying the same national rights, privileges and protection. As a nation, we have made peace and war; as a nation, we have vanquished our common enemies, as a nation, we have formed alliances, and made treaties, and entered into various compacts and conventions with foreign states.

A strong sense of the value and blessings of union induced the people, at a very early period, to institute a federal government in order to preserve and perpetuate it. They formed it almost as soon as they had a political existence; nay, at a time when their habitations were in flames, when many of them were bleeding in the field, and when the progress of hostility and desolatian left little room for those calm and mature inquiries and reflections, which must ever precede the formation of a wise and well-balanced government for a free people. It is not to be wondered, that a government instituted in times so inauspicious should, on experiment, be found greatly deficient, and inadequate to the purpose it was intended to answer.

This intelligent people perceived and regretted these defects. Still continuing no less attached to union than enamoured of liberty, they observed the danger, which immediately threatened the former, and more remotely the latter; and, being persuaded, that ample security for both could only be fouud in a national government more wisely framed, they, as with one voice, convened the late convention at Philadelphia, to take that important subject under consideration.

This convention, composed of men who possessed the confidence of the people, and many of whom had become highly distinguished for their patriotism, virtue and wisdom, in times which tried the souls of men, undertook the arduous task. In the mild season of peace, with minds unoccupied by other subjects, they passed many months in cool, uninterrupted and daily consultations. And, finally, without having been awed by power, or influenced by any passion except love for their country, they presented and recommended to the people the plan produced by their joint and very unanimous

counsels.

It is not yet forgotten, that well-grounded apprehensions of imminent danger, induced the people of America to form the memorable congress of 1774. That body recommended

certain measures to their constituents, and the event proved their wisdom; it yet is fresh in our memories how soon the press began to teem with pamphlets and weekly papers against those very measures. Not only many of the officers of government, who obeyed the dictates of personal interest, but others, from a mistaken estimate of consequences, from the undue influence of ancient attachments, or whose ambition aimed at objects which did not correspond with the public good, were indefatigable in their endeavors to persuade the people to reject the advice of that patriotic congress. Many, indeed, were deceived and deluded, but the great majority reasoned and decided judiciously; and happy they are in reflecting that they did so.

But if the people at large had reason to confide in the men of that congress, few of whom had then been fully tried or generally known, still greater reason have they now to respect the judgment and advice of the convention; for it is well known that some of the most distinguished members of that congress, who have been since tried and justly approved for patriotism and abilities, and who have grown old in acquiring political information, were also members of this convention, and carried into it their accumulated knowledge and experience.

It is worthy of remark, that not only the first, but every succeeding congress, as well as the late convention, have joined with the people in thinking that the prosperity of America depended on its union. To preserve and perpetuate it, was the great object of the people in forming that convention; and it is also the great object of the plan, which the convention has advised them to accept. With what propriety therefore, or for what good purposes, are attempts at this particular period made by some men to depreciate the importance of the union?-or why is it suggested, that three or four confederacies would be better than one? I am persuaded in my own mind, that the people have always thought right on this subject, and that their universal and uniform attachment to the cause of the union rests on great and weighty

reasons.

They who promote the idea of substituting a number of distinct confederacies in the room of the plan of the convention, seem clearly to foresee, that the rejection of it would put the continuance of the union in the utmost jeopardy. That certainly would be the case; and I sincerely wish it

may be as clearly foreseen by every good citizen, that, whenever the dissolution of the union arrives, America will have reason to exclaim, in the words of the poet,-"Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!"

ON THE MORALITY OF OUR POLITICAL SITUATION.

SIMPLE as the matter may seem to be, we believe it is no easy thing to form a just and true appreciation of political freedom. And we are persuaded that much will be done towards leading men to a right use of this favored condition, when they are brought rightly to consider it. It was under the influence of such an impression, without designing to Overrate efforts of this nature so humble as ours must be, that we endeavored some time since to show that liberty is not only a blessing, but a trust; and that, in fact, it never is or can be a blessing, but when used as a trust. In pursuance of the same general design, and to bring the principle we then stated to a still more practical application, we shall now undertake to show that freedom, rightly considered, implies not only the highest state of privilege, but the loftiest condition of duty. The prevailing habit of thought on this subject, has been to contemplate liberty almost exclusively as a blessing and a privilege. It is time-we must venture to say it with emphasis-it is time to leave our childish exultation; and in the sober manhood of freedom, to consider that it devolves upon us weighty trusts, and demands of us unquestionable and serious duties.

Indeed, to consider, to reflect, is itself one of the primary and indispensable duties of a freeman. He is not to reap the benefits of his condition from the operation of blind and unperceived causes. He is to consider and to understand from whence these benefits arise, and how they are to be preserved and perpetuated. He is to place no absolute or ultimate reliance on any mysterious Magna Charta, on any protecting Palladium, on any magic words written in the constitution. No constitution can preserve them free, who are unfaithful to the duties of freemen. And little benefit would it confer on them if it could, for the very end of rational liberty is the noblest intellectual and moral action. The members of a free community are not, and cannot be, like the subjects of despotic rule, mere portions and parts of

the machinery of society, moved by springs, not of their own making, nor of their own governing, nor for them to comprehend. They are themselves the springs, nay the sources of political action. The government is the expression of their will. Its movement is like that of the mighty ocean, where every drop and particle contributes to the combined strength and power.

Freemen must reflect, and they must act, wisely. They must reflect and act thus, in a great many cases, where other men have only to submit and obey. They have not to go before a Persian cadi, or a Turkish pacha, to receive a summary decision, right or wrong, upon their claims for justice. But they have to make the laws that govern them, to modify them according to the exigencies of their multiplying relations, to apply them to individual cases, to administer them according to the principles of truth and wisdom. And the laws that spring from free institutions-the laws, in other words, that are really and faithfully adapted to the wants of an enterprising, prosperous, and free people, will be numerous, precise, and complicated. There can be no greater mistake, and yet it is often committed, than to suppose that the best laws, amidst the highest freedom, would be very few and simple. Where action is free, the relations of business will be many. Where rights are accurately defined, and carefully adjusted to all the mutual relations of persons and things, the distinctions made will often be delicate and abstruse, and require, in those who would regard them, so much the more intelligence and reflection.

The condition of freedom, rightly regarded, demands also the greatest strength of moral purpose. He that will rightly enjoy this privilege should have taken, for his task-masters, reason and conscience. He has no despot to say to him, "Thou shalt do this, and this." He has a law, indeed, but that law is of his own ordaining. He should feel the solicitude about its observance, which the creation, the authorship of it, fairly imposes. He, who had proposed any enactment in the halls of legislation, would feel as if it was especially incumbent on him to respect and obey it. So in his measure should every man feel, who has contributed, either directly or indirectly, to the legislation of his country. He should keep the rule, which he has helped to establish. The last man in the world to say, with blind and headlong passion, 'I will, or I will not,'-and yet this, by many, is thought to

be the precise and special blessing of liberty, 'to do as they please,' but we insist, that the last man to say or do this, should be the free man, the republican.

Let us illustrate the strictness and sobriety that belong to this condition in two or three instances. A man born in India is obliged, by the institution of caste in that country, to follow a certain occupation. In many countries, the pursuits of every individual, though not imposed on him by his birth, are controlled and fettered by arbitrary laws and vexatious restrictions. In every country, where a titled aristocracy is established, the path of honorable ambition is nearly hedged up in some directions, and in others entirely closed. Even in England, there is but a bare possibility open to the commoner, that he may enter the peerage. But to every man in a free country, 'the world,' comparatively, 'is all before him where to choose.' He may pursue any business; he may adopt any profession; he may set before himself any aim, even the highest. Such a state of things affords the largest scope for enterprise and competition in business, for domestic rivalship, and the contests of political ambition. It is obviously a state of great temptation, and therefore, to be safe, must be a state of self-government, of self-denial, of strictness, of forbearance, of sobriety-of duty, in every form. If a free land is only made a field for the unrestrained conflicts of men's selfish interests; if it is only a battle-field for the rude and lawless passions, there will be haste and waste, disorder and desolation, instead of comfort, competence, and virtue. Our people, we are satisfied, do not sufficiently reflect on this. The eagerness of unfettered pursuit is carrying many too far; improvident and ambitious expenditures are ruining many more; the strife of boundless competition, between families, between rival claimants for office, and political parties, agitates society to its lowest depths. Every passion, in such circumstances,the love of gain, the love of display, in dress, furniture, equipage, the desire of distinction, and the fear, too, of the all-ruling public, must be more strictly governed and guarded.

SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

AGAIN, let us refer to the freedom of speech and of the press. In despotic states, a man has need to take care what