chosen with a proper sense of responsibility, not to a party, but to a nation. Under the influence of Mr. Jefferson, it was so amended as to convert the dignity of the presidency into a commission to superintend a continually recurring scramble for favor and reward. This is the most lamentable of all Mr. Jefferson's errors. All others may be transitory; this will be permanent. For, if a majority concur in the necessity of amendment, they will not concur in what it shall be; much less will they restore the Constitution to its original excellence. If executive patronage be not always a corrupting and debasing machinery, it will be otherwise only by choosing Presidents, who have too much wisdom and conscience to make it so.

Closely connected with civil war and disunion is the question of slavery. A most unfortunate delusion has arisen, founded partly on hostility to the principle of slavery, (a principle, which, in the abstract, no reasoning can sustain,) partly on disregard of the true nature of the negro, partly on mistake of the common sentiment of all classes of society, but more than on either of these, on the error, that the condition of the negro can be bettered by general manumission, in a land where white population hold the political power and the physical strength. This is a subject full of fearful apprehension, so long as philanthropy so entirely misapplies itself, in territories where slavery does not exist, as to attempt to govern within territories where ages have interwoven slavery with all the desired objects of life. is already seen, that this matter resolves itself into a question of mere interest; and no teacher is needed to make known, that the next door neighbour to interest is force; and that this will surely be called in, when interest finds itself presumptuously assailed. What sort of philanthropists must they be, however amiable their motives, who propose to intelligent masters voluntarily to exchange condition with their

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slaves! The restoration of the colored to the regions, which their Creator originally assigned to them, by colonization, is a matter of very different character from that of "abolition."

There is one danger to national security and to republican institutions, which is daily becoming more and more obvious. It will be seen in the following pages, that Mr. Jefferson introduced this danger. It cannot be a long time, before Congress will be called on to provide an effectual remedy. State legislatures cannot perform their duties, until Congress comprehends and performs its duty. Certainly the citizens of the United States will not much longer confer office on men, who are willing that their land should be a home for the vice and pauperism of Europe; and perhaps subjected (by the mere exercise of political privileges) to foreign dominion.

One must be very assuming to foretell the condition of this, or any other nation, on general principles; but he may be allowed to make some deductions from experience. Thus it may be inferred, that in a country so extensive and varied as this, no fatal heresy will be universal, at the same time; and that no man can acquire, and long retain, a dangerous popularity. There will be, no doubt, alarming excitements in one or more states; but the strength of the federal government, powerful majorities in all other states, and strong minorities within the limits of the excitement, will parry the threatened evil till good sense returns. When the federal government transcends its limits, state authority will interpose salutary checks; and there will always be diligent and zealous minorities, in the federal government, to warn the people of their danger. Above all, there will be a pervading sense of safety and utility in the UNION, which no member of the confederacy will be seriously disposed to relinquish, as

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the inevitable consequence must be foreign alliance, and a return to colonial dependence.

The multiplication of states will be no evil. Each one containing a sovereignty in itself, breaks up one great whole into harmonious parts; and makes the great difference between the American and Roman republics. In the latter, Rome was the empire; whole countries, appendages. In like manner, this country is distinguishable from modern France, which is a sort of republic with a King for its chief; but France must always be restive and turbulent, while Paris is all France and all of France is Paris.

Vast as this country is, its remotest parts will not be strange to each other. Commerce, enterprise, mutual wants and dependence, facility of intercommunication, and the daily messenger, the press, will soften and wear away prejudice, the child of ignorance. The variety of religious sects will promote religion. As no one of them can strengthen itself by alliance with civil power, intolerance is deprived of its weapon, and will rather be useful than mischievous.

The American community may have some analogy in its progress to the seeming evils of the natural world. Vesuvius is not always casting forth its lava; it gives time for the verdure to return, and for human habitations to rise again, over the path of its desolation. A small portion of earth, or ocean, is exposed to the rage of any one tempest. Epidemics, by some unknown law, have their times and places; and though their existence any where, may sometimes awaken anxiety every where, they do not wrap the whole world in gloom at the same moment.

Those who are about to close their eyes on all earthly scenes need not, as we humbly conceive, to despair of the fate of their descendants. There is hope enough that their country will go on, as well as the lot of humanity will permit. Certainly, such hope should be cherished; for

when the present institutions are broken up, no power but that which can still the face of ocean, can compose the political and social relations of Americans, anew, in any similitude to rational freedom,

Boston, Nov. 1, 1834.