THE PRESENT CRISIS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



THE year 1833, we venture to predict, will be memorable in the 

 annals of the world. Clouds are gathering upon the political horizon 

 of our own continent. From one end to the other, Europe, though 

 apparently in profound repose, is internally agitated by the attrition 

 of the two great principles that of the many and the few. Though 

 her physical energies seem dormant, the mind of man is progressing. 

 In the western world the Federal Republic of the United States of 

 America that Republic, whose rapid rise to its present elevated rank 

 in the scale of nations is unparalleled is threatened with desolation 

 it is perishing by the very principles that first gave it existence. 

 The reasons alleged by the State of South Carolina for the non-exe- 

 cution of the tariff, are precisely the same as those urged by Franklin 

 and Washington in I*J81, as the grounds of separation from the mo- 

 ther country. 



The dissolution of this great Republic, and the probable failure of 

 the mighty experiments in government of which it has been the 

 theatre, will be a fine subject for political parties to illustrate their 

 various prejudices. The upholders of despotism will singpseans over 

 its downfall the lover of liberty will mourn over what appears to be 

 the stern condition of man, to run alternately the career of improve- 

 ment and of degeneracy while the philosopher will recognize the 

 unerring operation of that great political axiom countenanced by the 

 highest authority, and proved by experience " That the natural pro- 

 perty of small States is to be governed as a Republic, of middling ones 

 to be subject to a monarch, and of large empires to be swayed by a 

 despotic prince, and that, therefore, the spirit of a state will alter in 

 proportion as it extends or contracts its limits." The framers of the 

 American constitution were not blind to an opinion confirmed by the 

 history of every government in the old world ; the difficulties that 

 attended their undertaking were manifest. When the idea of a Con- 

 federate Republic presented itself, a kind of constitution was formed, 

 which, according to the great Montesquieu, has all the internal ad- 

 vantages of a republican, together with the external force of a monar- 

 chical government. The expanding quality of such a government was 

 peculiarly fitted for the United States, the greatest part of whose ter- 

 ritory at that time was uncultivated. 



But while this form of government enabled them to surmount this 

 difficulty, it led them into another it left them without precedent or 

 guide ; and, consequently, without the benefit of that instruction to 

 be derived from the history of other nations. Several associations, 

 both in ancient and modern times, have been called by the name of 

 Confederate States, which have not, in propriety of language, deserved 

 that appellation. The Achaean league, the Lycean confederacy, and 

 the Amphyctyonic council in ancient and the Swiss Cantons, the 

 United Netherlands, and the Germanic Body in modern times but 

 none of these assemblages constituted a new one, and do not, there- 

 fore, correspond with the full definition of a confederate republic, 



M. M. No. 86. U 



