HISTORY OF VERMONT, 333 



should find it expedient or convenient ; and that 

 thp American republic, already involved in the 

 violence and war of party and faction, and dis- 

 regarding her constitution the most sacred of 

 all her political attainments, would end like all 

 the ancient republics in division and anarchy, 

 and of course in the introduction of monarehy, 

 despotism, and tyranny. 



Different] udgments will probably be form- 

 ed, of the weight and importance that ought to 

 be assigned, to these different topics and meth- 

 ods of reasoning. It will be impossible for the 

 historian to ascertain in which party, the influ- 

 ence of virtue and moral principle had the as- 

 cendency ; for they had both of them totally 

 changed their principles and votes, in the course 

 of four years. When the same question was 

 agitated at Windsor, in the year 1799, all the 

 federalists were in favor of making such an aU 

 teration in the constitution, and all the republi- 

 cans voted against it. In the year 1803, all was 

 the reverse ; the republicans were united ia 

 urging and voting for the alteration, and all the 

 federalists were united in opposing it. 



With regard to the alteration itself, it seems 

 safe to assert that when a measure is fit and 

 proper to be done, it must be done at a time, 

 when the minds of the people are prepared to 

 receive and adopt it ; and that there cannot be 

 any certain remedy in a free government, against 

 the effects of popular fury and faction. The 

 physical strength, in all governments, is in the 

 people ; and when they become united and in- 

 flamed either by oppression, faction, or folly, 

 there can be nothing in a free government that 



