vantageously compared, in their situation, with that of the laborers of Europe. Still it is a hideous blot, as peculiarities of the race,

15. 468. well from the

as that, with them, physical compulsion to action must be substituted for the moral necessity which constrains the free laborers to work equally hard. We feel and deplore it morally and politically, and we look without entire despair to some redeeming means not yet specifically foretheir emigration to the westward lightens the difficulty by dividing it, and renders it more practicable on the whole. (To William Short, 1823.)

seen

W

HAT a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and, the next moment, be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow-man a bondage, one 17. 103. hour of which is fraught with more misery. than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must await, with patience, the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these, our suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full, when their groans shall have involved Heaven itself in darkness, doubtless, a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, or, at length, by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to the things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of a blind fatality. (Monsieur De Meusnier, 1786.)

T

I. 44I.

CHAPTER II

LOYALTY AND SECESSION

HE REV. MR. COFFIN

tions for a college

soliciting dona

in Tennessee, tells me

he wrote a paper recommendatory of the

enterprise, which he meant to get signed by persons in a civil character, at the head of which he wished Mr. Adams to put his name, he being then President. . Mr. Adams, after reading the paper and considering, said "he saw no possibility of continuing the Union of the States; that their dissolution must necessarily take place; that he therefore saw no propriety in recommending to New England men to promote a literary institution in the South; that it was in fact giving strength to those who were to be their enemies; and therefore he would have nothing to do with it." (December 13, 1803.)

I

SEE, with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States and the consolidation in itself, of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that, too, by constructions which, if legitimate leave no limits to their power.

16. 146. Under the authority to build post roads, they claim that of cutting down mountains for the construction of roads, of digging canals and what is our resource for the preservation of the Constitution? Reason and argument? You might as well argue with the marble columns encircling them Are we then, to stand to our arms, with the hot-headed Georgian? No. That must be the last resource, not to be thought of until much longer and greater sufferings. If every infraction of

a compact of so many parties is to be resisted at once, as a dissolution of it, none can ever be formed which would last one year. We must have patience and longer endurance then with our brethren when under delusion; give them time for reflection and experience of consequences; keep ourselves in a situation to profit by the chapter of accidents; and separate from our companions only when the sole alternatives left are the dissolution of our Union with them, or submission to a government without limitation of powers. Between these two evils, when we must make our choice, there can be no hesitation. But in the meantime the States should be watchful to note every material usurpation of their rights; to denounce them as they occur in the most peremptory terms; to protest against them as wrongs to which our present consideration shall be considered, not as acknowledgment or precedent of right, but as a temporary yielding to a lesser evil, until their accumulation shall overweigh that of separation. I would go still further, and give to the federal member, by a regular amendment of the Constitution, a right to make roads and canals of intercommunication between the States, providing sufficiently against corrupt practices in Congress (log rolling, etc.), by declaring that the federal proportion of each State of the moneys so employed shall be in works within the State, or elsewhere with its consent. the course which I think safest and best Consolidation the next book of their history they now look to a single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and moneyed corporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures, commerce, and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered plowman and beggared yeomanry. (To William Giles, 1825.)

becomes

This is

as yet.

I'

'T HAS often been said that the decisions of Congress are impotent because the Confederation provides no compulsory power. But when two or more nations enter into a compact, it is not usual for them to say what shall be done to the party who infringes it. Decency for

bids this, and it is as unnecessary as indecent, be17. 121. cause the right of compulsion naturally results to the party injured by the breach. When any one State in the American Union refuses obedience to the Confederation by which they have bound themselves, the rest have a natural right to compel them to obedience. Congress would probably exercise long patience before they would recur to force; but if the case ultimately required it, they would use that recurrence. Should this case ever arise, they will probably coerce by a naval force, as being more easy, less dangerous to liberty, and less likely to produce much bloodshed. It has been said that our governments, both federal and particular, want energy; that it is difficult to restrain both individuals and States from committing wrongs. This is true, and is an inconvenience. On the other hand, that energy which absolute governments derive from an armed force, which is the effect of the bayonet constantly held at the breast of every citizen, and which resembles very much the stillness of the grave, must be admitted also to have its inconveniences. We weigh the two together, and like best to submit to the former. (1786.)

D

ANGERS

might be apprehended more reasonably from this perfect and distinct organization, civil and military, of the States; to wit, that certain States from local and occasional discontents

might attempt to secede from the Union. This is certainly possible; and would be befriended by this regular 13. 21. organization. But it is not probable that local discontents can spread to such an extent as to be able to face the sound parts of so extensive a Union; and if they should reach a majority, they would then become the regular government, acquire the ascendency in Congress, and be able to redress their own grievances by laws peaceably and constitutionally passed.

F

ORTY years of almost constant absence from the State (Virginia) have made me a stranger in it, have left me a solitary tree, from around which the axe of time has felled all the companions of its youth and growth. The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. We ought for so dear a State 13. 27. to sacrifice every attachment and every enmity. Leave the President free to choose his own coadjutors, to pursue his own measures, and support him and them, even if we think we are wiser than they, honester than they are, or possessing more enlarged information of the state of things. "If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object; but if we break into squads, every one pursuing the path he thinks most direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check. I repeat again that we ought not to schismatize on either men or measures. Principles alone can justify that. If we find our government in all its branches rushing headlong, like our predecessors, into the arms of monarchy, if we find them violating our dearest rights, the trial by jury, the freedom of the press, the freedom of opinion, civil, or religious, or opening on our peace of mind or personal safety the sluices of terrorism, if we see them raising standing armies, when the absence of all other