HISTORY OF VERMONT. 433 



and profit, will not fail to convince all men in 

 public employments, that it would be best for 

 the public to put more confidence and power in 

 them. While they thus wish and aim to in- 

 crease and add strength to their own powers 

 and emoluments, those powers and emoluments 

 will be called the powers and the dignity of 

 government. It may be doubted whether men 

 are much to blame, for wishing and aiming at 

 that, \vhich their situation and employment 

 naturally leads to. The effect seems to be uni- 

 versal. It has ever been the case that govern- 

 ment has had an universal tendency, to increase 

 its own powers, revenues, and influence. No 

 people ought to expect that things will have a 

 different tendency among them : That men will 

 cease to be men, or become a more pure and 

 perfect order of beings, because they have thei 

 powers of government committed to them. 



Upon what then can the people depend, for 

 the support and preservation of their rights and 

 freedom ? Upon no beings or precautions un- 

 der heaven, but themselves. The spirit of lib- 

 erty is a living principle. It lives in the minds, 

 principles, and sentiments of the people. It 

 lives in their industry, virtue, and public senti- 

 ment : Or rather it is produced, preserved, andi 

 kept alive, by the state of society. If the body 

 bf the people shall lose their property^ their 

 knowledge, and their virtue, their greatest and 

 mo.st valuable blessings are lost at the same 

 time. With the loss of these, public sentiment 

 will be corrupted : With the corruption of the 

 public sentiment, bills of rights, constitutions, 

 u'rittcn upon paper, and all the volumes oi 



VOL. II F 3 



