it most wantonly and fatuitously. We were on the verge of its total loss. A little further progress in folly and madness, and we should have been undone. We had by rapid strides, approached the banks of the Rubicon. Whether we should plunge in, and ford the stream, or, struck with a due sense of our errors and our danger, make a retrograde movement, and regain the elysium whence we started, was in the womb of time. Heaven directed us to the blessed alternative! Beyond the stream verges a dreary desert, where anarchy and civil war hold their terrific reign, with all their long train of horrors, and where the devious paths lead directly to ruthless despotism.

It was time, therefore, to make a solemn pause-to retrace our steps and, since we refused to profit by the sad experience of other ages and nations, to avail ourselves of our own. By honest endeavours-by abating the odious violence of party spirit--by mutual compromise- by rending asunder the odious, the degrading, the pernicious yoke of the violent men whose influence and prosperity depended on public commotions-we might happily regain the ground we had lostwe might dispel the delusion that was leading us to temporal perdition.

To vindicate myself from the charge of folly, in my gloommy apprehensions and anticipations, I submit to the reader a few specimens of the unceasing efforts which for years have been made to enkindle the flames of civil war. That we have not yet been involved in it, is not justly chargeable to the want of a due degree of labour and industry. Never was more activity displayed-never was a cause more sedulously or ably advocated. And never was there less scruple about the means provided the end was accomplished.

"On or before the 4th of July, if James Madison is not out of office, a new form of government will be in operation in the eastern section of the union. Instantly after, the contest in many of the states will be, whether to adhere to the old, or join the new government. Like every thing else foretold years ago, and which is verified every day, this warning will be also ridiculed as Visionary. Be it so. But Mr. Madison cannot complete his term of service, if the war continues. It is not possible: and if he knew human nature, he would see it." Federal Republican, November 7, 1814.

"Is there a federalist, a patriot in America, who conceives it his duty to shed his blood for Bonaparte, for Madison or Jefferson, and that HOST OF RUFFIANS in Congress, who have set their faces against US for years, and spirited up the BRUTAL PART OF THE POPULACE to destroy ust Not one-Shall we then any longer be held in slavery and driven to desperate poverty, by such a graceless faction?-Heaven forbid." Boston Gazette.

"If at the present moment, no symtoms of civil war appear, THEY CERTAINLY WILL SOON, unless the courage of the war party fail them." Sermon by David Osgood, D. D. Pastor of the church of Medford, delivered June 26, 1812, page 9. 26

"A civil war

becomes. as certain as the events that happen according to the known laws and established course of nature." Idem, page 15. "If we would preserve the liberties, by that struggle (the American revolution] so dearly purchased, the call for RESISTANCE against the usurpations of our own government is as urgent as it was formerly against those of our mother country."*

"If the impending negociation with Great Britain is defeated by insidious artifice; if the friendly and conciliatory proposals of the enemy should not, from French subserviency, or views of sectional ambition, be met throughout with a spirit of moderation and sincerity, so as to ter minate the infamous war which is scattering its horrors around us, and arrest the callamities and distress of a disgraced country, it is necessary to apprise you, that such conduct will be no longer borne with. The injured States will be compelled, by every motive of duty, interest, and honour, by one manly exertion of their strength, to dash into atoms the bond of tyranny. It will then be too late to retract. The die will be cast. Freedom preserved."

"A separation of the States will be an inevitable result. Motives numerous and urgent will demand that measure. As they originate in oppression, the oppressors must he responsible for the momentous and contingent events, arising from the dissolution of the present confederacy, and the erection of seperate governments, It will be their work. While posterity will admire the independent spirit of the Eastern section of our country, and with sentiments of gratitude, enjoy the fruits of their firmness and wisdom-the descendants of the South and West will have reason to curse the infatuation and folly of your councils." (Idem, page 9.)

"Bold and resolute, when they step forth in the sacred cause of freedom and independence, the Northern people will secure their object. No obstacle con impede them. No force can withstand their powerful arm. The most numerous armies will melt before their manly strength. Does not he page of history instruct you, that the feeble debility of the South, never could face the vigorous activity of the North? Do not the events of past ages remind you of the valuable truth, that a single spark of Norther liberty, especially when enlightened by congenial commerce, will explode a whole atmosphere of sultry Southern despotism? You well know the termiration of the expidition of Xerxes, with his hundreds of thousands against the Greeks! The commercial Athenians taught the debilitated tyrant of Asia, on the plains of Marathon, and at the streights of Salamis, of what exertions freedom is capable, when roused by oppression. The hardy Macedonians not only defeated and dispersed countless hordes of Southern effeminacy, but traversed their country at pleasure." (Idem, page 12)

"When such are the effects of oppression upon men resolved not to submit, as displayed in the North and South of Europe, and in all ages of the world, do you flatter yourself with its producing a different operation in this country? Do you think the energies of Northern freemen are to be tamely smothered? Do you imagine they will allow themselves to be trampled upon with impunity? And by whom? The Southern and West

*discourse delivered before the lieutenant governor, the council, and the two houses composing the legislature of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, May 31, 1809. By David Osgood, D. D. p. 25.

†"Northern grievances, set forth in a letter to James Madison, by a North American." Published, May 1814, and circulated with great industry, throughout New England and New York. p. 4.

ern States! by men whose united efforts are not sufficient to keep in order their own enslaved population, and defend their own frontiers? by warriors whose repeated attempts at invasion of a neighbouring province, have been disgracefully foiled by a handful of disciplined troops! by Generals, monuments of arrogance and folly! by councils the essence of corruption, imbecility, and madness.

"The aggregate strength of the South and West, if brought against the North, would be driven into the ocean, or back to their own sultry wilds-and they might think themselves fortunate if they escaped other punishment than a de feat, which their temerity would merit. While the one would strive to enslave, the other would fight for freedom. While the councils of the one would be distracted with discordant interests; the decisions of the other would be directed by one soul. Beware! Pause! before you take the fatal plunge." (Idem page 13.)

"You have carried your oppressions to the utmost stretch. We will no longer submit. Restore the Constitution to its purity; give us security for the future indemnity for the past. Abolish every tyrannical law... Make an immediate and honorable peace. Revive our Commerce. Increase our navy Protect our seamen. Unless you comply with these just demands, without delay, we will withdraw from the Union, scatter to the winds the bonds of tyranny and transmit to posterity, that Liberty purchased by the Revolution."

(Idem page 16.)

"Americans! PREPARE YOUR ARMS-you will soon be called to use them. We must use them for the emperor of France, OR FOR OURSELVES. It is but an individual who now points to this ambiguous alternative. But Mr. Madison and his cabal may rest assured, there is in the hearts of many thousands in this abused and almost ruined country, a sentiment and energy to illustrate the distinction when his madness shall call into action."-Boston Repertory.)

"Old Massachusetts is as terrible to the American, now, as she was to the British cabinet in 1775; for America, too, has her Butes and her Norths. Let then the commercial states breast themselves to the shock, and know that to themselves they must look for safety. All party bickerings must be sacrificed on the altar of patriotism. Then, and not till then, shall they humble the pride and ambition of Virginia, whose strength lies in their weakness; and chastise the insolence of those madmen of Kentucky and Tennessee, who aspire to the government of these states, and threaten to involve the country in all the horrors of war."

(New York Commercial Advertiser.)

The language of the writers is plain and unequivocal. It admits of no mistake or misconstruction. That they intended to produce insurrection and dissolution of the union, unless they and their friends were enabled to seize upon the government, regardless of the frightful consequences, it would require consummate impudence to deny; it would be folly, or insanity to disbelieve. What might ultimately be their success, it was impossible to foresee. Every thing depended on the course pursued by those who had an interest in the public welfare. If they were not wanting to themselves and to their country, we were sure to rise triumphant over our difficulties and embarrassments. But if the then prevailing wonderful apathy continued; if we remained sluggishly with our arms folded, while our situation became daily more awful and alarming; ruin was inevitable. We should have afforded one of the most striking instances in history, of premature decay and decrepitude. The Lord in his mercy has averted such an awful fate!

Reliance was placed by those who denied the existence of the danger which I deprecated, upon the sober character of the nation. They regarded that character as a guarantee against civil war. I was well aware of this circumstance. I allowed it a due share of influence and importance. But the strong inference drawn from it, was unwarranted by history. And let it be ob served, once for all, that the only unerring guide in government, or politics, is history, to the neglect of whose lessons may be ascribed more than two thirds of our errors and follies.

The Athenians were a highly polished, and a refined people. No nation in ancient times, ever excelled them in these respects. I Yet they were occasionally seduced into the most frightful cruelties by their Cleons and other enrages. They often massacred their prisoners in cool blood, and long after they were taken. And the proscriptions and butcheries the adverse parties perpetrated on each other, as they gained the ascendency, are frightful subjects of reflection, and to us hold out most invaluable warnings.

No nation of modern Europe excelled France, few equalled her -in courtesy-in mildness-in urbanity. And yet never did mankind exhibit themselves under a more hideous aspect-never did they change nature more completely with wolves, tygers, and hyenas, than the French under Marat, Danton, Couthon, and Robespierre. These are awful lessons, to which those who were lending their aid to tear down the pillars of our government, ought to have attended.

Man is the same every where, under the same excitements. We have our Cleons, and our Couthons, and our Dantons, and our Robespierres, who only required suitable occasions to have given scope to their energies. Mild and gentle as is the American character generally, the revolution in this country exhibited in various places, where the parties were rancorously embittered against each other, many terrifying scenes. Prisoners were often hung up without trial by the partizans on both sides. Men and women were treacherously shot down in their houses. And not unfrequently private malice, to sate its rage, disguised itself under the cloak of public, spirit. Let us ponder well on those cireumstances. They are fraught with important admonitions.

To apply a remedy to any evil, moral or physical, it is indispensably necessary to explore its nature-to ascertain its causesand to trace its consequences. Any other procedure arises from error and folly, and is pregnant with defeat and disappointment. With this view I respectfully solicited the public attention. I took rapid retrospective glance at the folly and guilt, which the factious and discord

a

discordant state

of

our country

had generated. As far as in my power, I divested myself of any party bias, and treated the subject as if it belonged to another age or nation. Whatever errors I fell into,

arose not from sinister intention: they were chargeable to inadvertence and human imperfection. On my freedom from partiality, I felt the more reliance, from my unalterable conviction, that both the hostile parties that divide this country, and who regård each other with so much hatred and jealousy, had largely contributed towards the misfortunes that had befallen us the melancholy change that had taken place in our situation-and the dangers that threatened us. It was impossible for a candid mind to review the scenes through which we had passed for some years, without a thorough conviction, that each had been guilty of most egregious errors and follies, and occasionally of something worse than either; and that whenever the interests of the nation and the interests of the party came in collision, the former had been too frequently sacrificed by both federalists and democrats to the latter. No man who has any public spirit, can take a review of our history without feeling the deepest regret at the extent of the mischief this miserable system of conduct has produced. It has defeated many of the noblest plans that the wisdom of the country has ever devised. I may be wrong in my calculations; but I believe it has prevailed to at least as great an extent here, as in almost any other country, or at any other period of time. When the present generation sits for its picture to the historian, it will form a strong contrast to that which is past and gone. The errors or follies, however, of either party would have produced but little injury comparatively, had not those of the other conspired to give them malignity and effect.

:

From this exposition of my views, it was obvious I should steer a course very different from the generality of writers on political topics. With hardly a single exception, their object IS, having espoused party, to justify and emblazon its supporters, whether right or wrong, and, if needs be,

a

"To make the worse appear the better cause."

In pursuit of this object, their own partizans are all angels of light, whose sublime and magnificent plans of policy are calculated to produce a political millenium; and their opponents, demons incarnate, intent on the destruction of the best interests of the country. These portraits are equally unjust and incorreet. One is all beauty, with little resemblance to the pretended original the other a hideous caricature, equally foreign from honour, truth, and justice.

Among the frightful consequences resulting from this odious practice, a plain and palpable one presents itself. These

* This is one of the most lamentable and humiliating facts in our history.