of luxury and vice, is following the same course, and fast approaching the same rocks, which have proved fatal to so many before us. Already may we hear the roaring of the surge; already do we begin to circle round the vortex which is soon to engulf us. Yet we see no danger. In vain does experience offer us the wisdom of past ages for our direction: in vain does the genius of history spread her chart, and point out the ruin towards which we are advancing: in vain do the ghosts of departed governments, lingering round the rocks on which they perished, warn us of our approaching fate, and eagerly strive to terrify us from our course. It seems to be an immutable law of our nature, that nations, as well as individuals, shall learn wisdom by no experience but their own. That blind, that accursed infatuation, which ever appears to govern mankind when their most important interests are concerned, leads us, in defiance of reason, experience, and common sense, to flatter ourselves, that the same causes which have proved fatal to all other governments, will lose their pernicious tendency when exerted on our own.'

Alluding to the reigning policy of our government in relation to commerce, and to a navy as a means of national defence, and classing among its effects the blockade of our ports, the detention of our vessels, and the plundering of our property by every petty freebooter, he thus states and exposes the argument by which it had been defended:

'As some consolation under these accumulated evils, we have lately been told, that the United States are a land animal-an elephant, who is resistless on land, but has nothing to do with the dominion or navigation of the sea. Grant that they are so; yet if this elephant can neither cool his burning heat, nor quench his thirst, without losing his proboscis by the jaws of the shark or

the tusks of the alligator, what does it avail him, that he is allowed to graze his native plains in safety?'

Some of his paragraphs seem less like the language of an ardent youth, than the prophetic warnings of the

seer:

That virtue, both in those who command, and those who obey, is absolutely essential to the existence of republics, is a maxim, and a most important one, in political science. Whether we retain a sufficient share of this virtue, to promise ourselves a long duration, you, my friends, must decide. But, should the period ever arrive, when luxury and intemperance shall corrupt our towns, while ignorance and vice pervade the country; when the press shall become the common sewer of falsehood and slander; when talents and integrity shall be no recommendation, and open dereliction of all principle no obstacle to preferment; when we shall entrust our liberties to men, with whom we should not dare to trust our property; when the chief seats of honour and responsibility in our government shall be filled by characters, of whom the most malicious ingenuity can invent nothing worse than the truth; when we shall see the members of our national councils, in defiance of the laws of God and their country, throwing away their lives in defence of reputations, which, if they ever existed, had long been lost; when the slanderers of Washington and the blasphemers of our God shall be thought useful labourers in our political vineyard; when, in fine, we shall see our legislators sacrificing their senses, their reason, their oaths, and their consciences at the altar of party--then we may say, that virtue has departed, and that the end of our liberty draweth nigh.'

After drawing a most striking and vivid contrast between the circumstances and prospects of the country as they existed at the time, and as they had been at a former period, he proceeds:

The imperfect sketch of our situation, which has just been given, is not drawn for the sake of indulging in idle complaints, or querulous declamation; and still less is it intended to lead to a conclusion, that our case is desperate. But it is intended, if there be yet remaining one spark of that spirit, one drop of that blood, which animated and warmed the breasts of our fathers, to rouse it to vigorous and energetic exertions. It is to the want of such exertions, that we must ascribe the rapid and alarming spread of disorganizing and demoralizing principles among us; and we can, in fact, blame none but ourselves for the evils we suffer. Had we paid half that attention to the interests of our country and the preservation of liberty, that we have to the calls of indulgence, of pleasure, of avarice, never should we have seen the sun of American glory thus shorn of his beams, and apparently about to set for ever. It is true, indeed, that when aroused by some particular interesting object, we have started from our slumbers, and seen the fiendlike form of faction sink beneath our efforts. But no sooner was the object of our exertions accomplished, than we returned to our couches, and while we were exulting in our strength, and rejoicing in our victory, suffered our indefatigable foe to regain all she had lost. It is not sudden and transient efforts, however vigorous and well-directed, that can preserve any state from destruction. There is in all popular governments a national tendency to degenerate, as there is in matter to fall; and nothing can counteract this tendency, and the continual endeavour of unprincipled men to increase it, but the most energetic and persevering exertions. On no easier terms can the blessings of freedom be enjoyed; and if we think this price too great, it evinces that we are neither worthy nor capable of enjoying them.

This inexcusable neglect, so fatal to our liberties,

and so disgraceful to ourselves, is occasioned, in some measure, by the indulgence of hopes not less dangerous than they are groundless and delusive. We are told, that the torrent of licentiousness, which is rushing in upon us, is not a just cause for alarm; that it will cease of itself when it has run its career; and that the people, having learned wisdom by experience, will know how to prize the blessings of order, and return with alacrity to their former correct habits. True it will cease when it has run its career; and so will the conflagration that destroys your dwelling; but will you, therefore, use no endeavours to extinguish it? Beware of indulging any hopes, but those which are founded on exertions. The torrent which approaches us, is the overwhelming deluge of Vesuvius or Ætna, which calcines or consumes what it cannot remove, leaves nothing behind it but a black sterility, and renders ages insufficient to repair the havoc of a day.

men.

Away, then, with those idle hopes and frivolous excuses, which defraud us of the only moments in which our safety can be secured. Away with that indolence, so unworthy, so inconsistent with the character of freeThis is the very crisis of our fate. We stand on the extremest verge of safety; a single step may plunge us headlong, never to rise. The immense wheel of revolution may be put in motion by a fly, though it would require more than mortal power to arrest its progress. Those who attempt to check its career, must fall the first victims to its ponderous weight; while those only, who urge it forward, and rejoice in the horrid devastation it occasions, can be safe. But let us not, therefore, give way to despair. The same maxim that bids us never presume, teaches us likewise never to despair. By neglecting the first of these precepts, we have begun our ruin; let us not complete it by neglect

ing the last. Let us endeavour to open those eyes whose sight is not totally extinguished by the virulence of the disease. The bright rays of truth and reason condensed, and reflected from a polished mind, may penetrate even the shades and mists of prejudice.

Remember, that, when good is to be promoted, or evil opposed, it is the duty of every individual to act as if the whole success of the enterprise depended on himself. Remember, too, that there is no individual so insignificant, that he cannot afford some assistance in the struggle for liberty and order.

'But let us be careful, my friends, to engage in this struggle, in a manner, and with arms, worthy of the cause we profess to support. Why should we disgrace that and ourselves, by contending for the most important interests of our country in language fit only for a tenant of Billingsgate, disputing about the property of a shrimp or an oyster? Why should we quit the high ground of reason and argument, on which we stand, to wrestle with our antagonist in the kennel of scurrility and abuse? Why should we exchange weapons with which we are certain of victory, for those which our adversaries can wield with equal, and, perhaps, superior dexterity?

'It ought never to be forgotten, that, except in some few instances, where they are inseparable even in idea, it is not men, but principles, we are to attack. Experience has at length, in some measure, taught us, what we ought long since to have learned from reason, that, though ridicule can irritate, it cannot convince. On the contrary, it rouses to opposition some of the strongest passions in the human breast; and he must be something different from man, who can be scourged out of any opinion by the lash of personal satire.

'But all our exertions, however animated by zeal,