220 GovtRNMKNT, Laws, [Part Ih 



401. Leaving definitions of this sort to such con- 

 ceited bunglers as the Professor, I will just give a 

 sketch (for it can be nothing more) of the Government 

 and Laivs of this country. 



402. The country is divided into States. Each of 

 these States has its own separate governnient, consisting 

 of a Governor, Legislative Body, and Judiciary De- 

 partment. But, then there is a General Government ^ 

 which is, in fact, the government of the whole nation ; 

 for, it alone can do any thing with regard to othfir 

 nations. This General Government consists of a Pre- 

 sident, a Senate, a House of Representaiives, all which 

 too-ether are called the Congress. The President is 

 elected for four years, the Seaate for /bur years, and the 

 House of Representatives for two years. 



403. In most of the State-Governments, the election 

 is annual for the House of Representatives. In some 

 the Governor and the Senate are elected for a longer 

 period, not exceeding four years in any case. But, in 

 some, the whole, Governor, Senate, and Representatives, 

 are elected ANNUALLY ; and this last appears now to 

 be the prevailing taste. 



404. The suffrage, or qualification of electors, is 

 very various. In some States every free man ; that is, 

 every man who is not bondman or slave, has a vote. In 

 others, the payment of a tax is required. In others, a 

 man must be worth a hundred pounds. In Virginia a 

 man must be a. freeholder. 



405. This may serve to show how little Mr. Jerry Bbn- 

 THAM, the new Mentor of the Westminster Telemachus, 

 knows about the political part of the American govern- 

 ments. Jerry, whose great, and, indeed, only argument, 

 in support of annual parliaments and universal suffrage, 

 is, that America is so happy under such a system, has, 

 if we were to oion him, furnished our enemies with a 

 complete answer ; for, they have, in order to silence 

 him, only to refer to the facts of his argument of happy 

 experience. By silencing him, however, I do not 

 mean the stopping of his tongue, or pen ; for nothing 

 but mortality will ever do that. This everlasting bab- 

 bler has aimed a sort of stiletto stroke at me ; for what 

 God kuows, except it be to act a consistent pat, by en- 



