34 



is as much a duty, and rebellion as black a sin, when 

 the people have the sovereign sway, as when a single 

 person is King/'^ They are also seen in the opinion, 

 that necessity justifies a violation of law; again, in that 

 odious political maxim, that if to the interest of a par- 

 ty, to support a bad man for office, the scruples of vir- 

 tuous men of the party must yield; in the prostitution 

 of the praise and abuses of the press; and in the vile 

 and forever damned and damning sin and shame of re- 

 pudiation, by a State, of its promises to pay a debt. 



We now ask, who are to assist in averting these 

 evils, and who are to be looked to as leaders in the 

 glorious work of improving the destinies of men? 



You, who annually meet to represent the sovereign 

 interests of Alabama, nature calls on you for your part. 

 Shall your time be spent in fruitless disquisitions as to 

 who shall fill this office and who that 1 Shall political 

 success alone distinguish you, the law makers and 

 statesmen of your time? Shall the perfection with 

 which you discipline your parties ; and the prosperity 

 with which you imitate the policy of a Talleyrand, 

 establish alone your title to a page of the State's his- 

 tory? God forbid ! — see — social and individual happi- 

 ness are gradually expanding under the benign influ- 

 ence of knowledge and morality, and all nature be- 

 speakingyouto become the protectors of virtue, of litera- 

 ture, of science, and of the arts. Happy the age which 

 exhibits its utmost strength in the cause of ethicks and 

 mind. Happy the men who are patrons of the efforts 

 producing new developments, in these attributes of hu- 



aUse and abuse of Parliaments. 



