"eS ae 
On Party-Prejudice. 17 
down to modern times, we shall find,—that, so far 
as those parties were governed by the superior as- 
cendency of any distinguished individual; and from 
that cause, proved fatal to the tranquillity and liber- 
ties of a state, the examples just recited, will ex- 
hibit the leading features which have characterized. 
all party-chiefs, and their followers. An important 
lesson may, hence, be taught to the adherents of par- 
ty, in all free states. The danger arising, from a 
prejudiced and blind attachment to these s* Gods of 
their idolatry,” ought to be forcibly impressed on 
their minds. That state must be sunk to the lowest 
ebb of profligacy, in which a Catiline and his asso- 
ciates, should succeed in their attempts against its 
liberties. Fear and dismay are capable of producing 
a temporary dereliction of the support of order and 
freedom, in a government composed, for the most 
part, of able and virtuous citizens; but (as happen- 
ed at Rome) they will, at length, rally around the 
constitution of their country, and annihilate the 
daring disturbers of public tranquillity. The exam- 
ple of an open and criminal attack against the con- 
stitution of any government, by a party notoriously 
infamous; and whose avowed purpose is the destruc- 
tion of social order, and of respected and establish- 
ed forms, requires only to be held up to view to be 
detested. But when dissentions among the separate ° 
orders of a mixed state are founded upon principle, 
and supported by leaders of character and abilities, 
VOL. Vv. a 
