Mrs » Wright's Travels in the United States. 
608 
may be said to be the case throughout 
the Union, except in two or three of 
the old republics of the south. The 
mode of election employed in the 
choice of senators varies a little in the 
different states; in many the term of 
service extends but to one year, in 
others to three, four, or, as in Mary¬ 
land, to five years ; but we cannot ex¬ 
actly calculate the varying popularity 
of the senatorial elections by the greater 
or less frequency of their occurrence; 
this is effected by the greater or less ex- 
tentionof the right of suffrage; greater 
qualifications by some constitutions 
being required to entitle a citizen to 
vote for aseuator than a representative ; 
by others these are declared to be equal, 
though the period of election should 
occur more frequently in the one case 
than the other. In Virginia, the go¬ 
vernor, representatives, and senators, 
are chosen annually, and yet her con¬ 
stitution is the least democratic of any 
state in the Union. In the eastern, 
central, and western states, all the 
elections are thoroughly popular. In 
Virginia and the Carolinas the suffrage 
neefis farther extension before they can 
be said to legislate truly upon American 
principles. 
The most admirable contrivance in the 
frame of these governments is, the pro¬ 
vision made in all for their alteration 
and amendment. The convention is at 
once the foundation and corner-stone 
in the beautiful structure of American 
government; by its means the constitu¬ 
tion of the state is shaped to the wishes 
of the people as easily and silently as 
its laws ; it is at once the safe-guard of 
the public rights, and the keeper of the 
public peace. The rights of this com¬ 
munity rest not on charters or ancient 
usages, but on immutable principles, 
which every head and heart is taught to 
understand and to feel. There is here 
no refining upon the meaning of words, 
no opposing of records to reason, no ap¬ 
pealing from the wisdom of the present 
to that of the past; the wisdom of to¬ 
day is often the ignorance of to-mor¬ 
row; what in one age is truth, in ano¬ 
ther is prejudice; what is humanity 
becomes cruelty; what justice, injus¬ 
tice ; what liberty, slavery; and almost 
what virtue, wickedness, and happi¬ 
ness, misery. All things are by com¬ 
parison ; the man of this generation, 
with views and feelings adapted to ear¬ 
lier ages, is cramped in a sphere of ac¬ 
tion which those before him found com¬ 
mensurate to their powers and their 
ambition. If law oppose barriers, his 
spirit is checked,’but not quelled. The 
flood of knowledge gathers strength, 
and the mound is swept away with a 
sudden fury, which shakes the very 
foundations of society, and spreads a 
momentary ruin over the wide field of 
civilized life. Power and liberty, exist¬ 
ing in the same state, must be at eternal 
war; it is only where one or other rules 
singly and undisputed, that the public 
peace can be preserved ; in the one case 
by the free exercise of all the human 
energies, in the other by their extinc¬ 
tion. 
The representative system, invented, 
or rather by a train of fortuitous circum¬ 
stances brought iuto practice in Eng¬ 
land, has been carried to perfection in 
America; by it the body of the people 
rule in every thing; by it they esta¬ 
blish their constitutions ; by it they 
legislate according to the constitutions 
established; and by it again they amend 
their constitutions, according to the 
gradual advance of the public mind in 
political wisdom. 
MR. JEFFERSON. 
It was the object of Mr. Jefferson to 
preserve, in every t rifle, that simplicity 
which he deemed the most appropriate 
characteristic of a republic. At his 
entrance into the presidency, he found 
himself a little troubled with the tri¬ 
fling etiquette which the foreign am¬ 
bassadors, and more especially their 
ladies, were essaying to establish in his 
own drawing-room; and, apprehending 
that the wives and daughters of his 
official brethren might catch the conta- 
gion, he let pass no opportunity of giv¬ 
ing it his discountenance. He wisely 
judged, that in this matter, as in most 
others, example was better than 
precept, and set about new ordering 
the manners of the £ity, much in the 
manner that Franklin might have 
taken. Did he go to make a morning 
visit, he rode without a servant, tied 
his horse to the gate, and -walked in as 
plain Thomas Jefferson. Did all the 
different legations come to dine with 
him, he received them with indiscri- 
minating politeness, and that simple 
dignity for which he is eminently dis¬ 
tinguished ; conversing with and wel¬ 
coming all, he left the company to ar¬ 
range themselves at his table, of which 
he so did the honours, as to spread ease 
and cheerfulness around it, and to 
make his guests in good humour with 
themselves and each other; tile Avife of 
the Spanish Minister, how T ever, upon 
