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nia, in all of which the republican form had been found 

 equal to the task of carrying them through the severest 

 trials. In this stale alone did there exist so little virtue, 

 that fear was to be fixed in the hearts of the people, and 

 to become the motive of their exertions, and principle of 

 their government ? The very thought alone was trea- 

 son against the people ; was treason against mankind 

 in general; as riveting forever the chains which bow 

 down their necks, by giving to their oppressors a proof, 

 which they woidd have trumpeted through the universe, 

 of the imbecility of repiihiican government, ifi times of 

 pressing danger, to sliield them from harm. Those 

 who assnnje the right of giving away the reigns of gov- 

 ernment in any case, must be sure that the herd, whom 

 they hand on to the rods and hatchet of the dictator, 

 will lay their necks oji the block when he shall nod to 

 them. But if our assend)lies sn|)posed such a resigna- 

 tion in the [)cople, I hope they mistook their character. 

 I am of opinion, that the government, instead of'being 

 braced and invigorated for greater exertions under 

 their difficuItiHs, would have l)een thrown back upon 

 the bungling machinery of county committees for ad- 

 njinistration, till a convention could have been called, 

 and its wheels again set into regular motion. What a 

 cruel moment was this for creatinjj such an embarrass- 

 nient, for putting to the proof the attachment of our 

 countrymen to republican governnjent ! Those who 

 meant well, of the advocates for this measure, (and 

 most of them meant well, for 1 know them personally, 

 had been their fellow-labourers in the common cause, 

 and had often proved the ])in-ity of their i)rinciples,) 

 had been seduced in their judgment by the example of 

 an ancient repid)Iic, whose constitution and circum- 

 stances were fundamentally <lifferent. They had sought 

 this precedeiit in the history of Rotne, where alone it 

 was to be found, anrl where at length too it had proved 

 fatal. They had taken it from a re[)ublic rent by the 

 most bitter factions and tumults, where the govern- 

 ment wasofa heavy-handed unfeeling aristocracy, over 

 a people ferocious, and rendered desperate by poverty 



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