it saw less danger in preferring the friendship of this latter power, in which it found a surer guarantee of the commercial and maritime independence of the confederacy. The practices of the ambitious could not be long concealed, and they lost all their influence as soon as their true designs were known. It was even in the northern states that they experienced the strongest opposition, and at the moment that we are writing a great change is accomplished. Animosities and feelings of hatred have been, by degrees, dissipated. Harmony is now the soul of this great confederacy. From New Hampshire to Louisiana the prevailing principle is, that a good understanding between the different parts of the Union ought to be maintained, even at the price of some sacrifices, as the basis of the public tranquillity, and of the prosperity of each individual state. Party names are almost always an artifice of those who wish to have among the same people, in the same nation, two hostile nations, and it is in this way that enmities are perpetuated. The names of federalists and republicans are now no longer in use. The title of opposition is, however, still given to a party, which is really composed of observers, who, far from being opposed to the government, confine themselves to cautioning it against falling into errors. During a period of forty years congress has made a great and honourable experiment: it has constantly observed the fundamental laws, to which it owes its existence, and it has scarcely ever been found in direct opposition to the opinion of the people. What had long been only a matter of hope and theory has become a truth confirmed by fact; namely, that the confederacy has within itself the principle of its own strength and permanency, and that nations are the only sure guarantees of their own repose and happiness. |