are essentially patriotic: With them selfishness itself is public virtue; by the laws of moral necessity they are obliged to will their own happiness.

7. To the practical class of the community, then, we address ourselves, with the purpose of communicating such light as we can obtain in relation to the designs of their public servants, in the confidence that they will not tolerate the assumption of unconstitutional power, but will, by the legitimate exercise of their force, restore the Constitution to its pristine strength and purity.

8. In pursuit of our object, it may be necessary to speak freely of the public conduct of men, but we shall scrupulously forbear their private lives, although with regard to public men inquiry into these might be lawful: for, as the basis of public virtue is private morals, the people have a right to demand of their servants that security for faithfulness which a well spent life affords. But as virtue and vice have their inseparable consequences, of which is the colour reflected upon the present by the past, it is scarce possible to refrain from assigning to a doubtful action, the motive known to have governed, habitually, the actor.

Thus, if one have, during life, been the slave of passion, arbitrary, and overbearing, prone to enlarge the power entrusted to him, and it become a question whether he have illegally assumed power, he must suffer the prejudice which his life imposes, as he would enjoy the benefit of a different reputation.

CHAPTER I.

PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES.

9. All free states are obnoxious to party divisions, originating either in difference of opinion, on the form of government, or on the mode of its administration; or, in the selfish love of power, wealth or fame, which seeks individual gratification, regardless of the public weal.

10. Parties are frequently denounced, as injurious, in all their forms, to public happiness. Party, we are told, naturally runs into extremes,-is unjust, cruel, and remorseless in excess, ruthless in its war upon private character-unscrupulous in the choice of means to obtain selfish ends,-sure eventually to dig the grave of free institutions, and inevitably to end in military despotism and unmitigated tyranny. Such, we may, unhesitatingly, admit, to be the character of all parties which depend upon individuals, and, which have no other cement than the peculiar interest of their members; and such may, possibly, at times, become the character of parties founded on a broader and more general basis. Still, it appears to us, that the existence of parties of the latter kind is not only inevitable in free states, but indispensable to their preservation. It is certain, that no instance of such government without party has ever been known.

11. As laws are indispensable, so are agents for their administration. These must have power, subsistence, consideration, which render their stations pleasurable and beget desire to perpetuate them. What shall check and restrain this desire within safe bounds, if it be not a passion for enjoyment as eager as itself, but which connected with patriotism, a more › noble selfishness, seeks the particular, in the general, welfare. Again, a free state is in danger from the disposition of one portion of its citizens to adopt aristocratic forms and principles, and of another portion, to pursue democratic license until they rush into anarchy or seek protection against it, in despotism. Aristocracy oppresses by the rigour and minuteness of its rules, and stifles prosperity in the straitness of its policy, and is alike jealous of the power of the one as of the many. Democracy is impatient of all formal restraint, yet

submissive to its leaders; confident, as rash and mutable, in its determinations; and while it resists the uniform and systematic sway of the few, is prone to yield to the arts of an individual. The demagogue is the momentary, but not less dangerous, king of the mob, who awaits opportunity, only, to consolidate and perpetuate his power. Our Government, happily, is neither aristocratic nor democratic, but partakes in a measure of both. There will always be in it a tendency to rigid rule, which will animate one party, and a disposition to an unrestricted demagogical power, which will inspire another: but the struggles of these parties preserve the equipoise of the state.

12. It was long the fate, the fortunate fate of this country, in its colonial, as in its independent, condition, to be influenced by parties of this general character. Such were the proprietary or regal, and popular parties, which preceded the revolution: Such the whig and tory parties of the revolution, and such, the parties which, for many years, succeeded that event. Individuals, doubtlessly, consulted their personal advantage in the choice of party, but the great mass of partisans appreciated their leaders as the apostles of their peculiar faith, as their ministers for the promotion of the public good. The people were like mariners embarked in a vessel, which was common property, destined to a haven desired by all. Differences might exist as to the course and mode of navigation, but no portion of the crew sought to obtain for themselves exclusive possession of the ship and freight; whatever party had the helm conducted the voyage for joint benefit.

13. Such was the character and such the result of party action, until the close of the administration of Mr. Monroe, when it seemed as if the principles of the respective parties had ceased to struggle; as if parties, like individuals, having passed through the inexperience of youth, and the fierce passions of early manhood, had adopted new views of the subjects which had divided them, with the sound and tolerant judgment of mature age. Each had ceded, progressively, somewhat to the other: and the development of the admirable qualities of the Constitution, evincing its adaptation to seasons of war, as of peace, had removed the doubts and fears which had created and sustained antagonist hosts. Their cohesion was dissolved, the masses reduced to their original elements, and the nation became all democrats, all federalists.

14. This was, emphatically, termed the era of good feelings. . The dominant party was disposed to forget the errors of its

adversary, and the vanquished to forgive its humiliation. The disputes which had arisen from adverse constructions of the Constitution were composed, if not extinguished, by the decisions of the competent tribunals; and whilst those decisions were gaining the solidity and veneration which time imposes, no new subjects for dissension appeared above the horizon. Universally respected by foreign nations, and unanimous at home, a halcyon season of political happiness seemed assured to the people.

15. Mr. Monroe was one of the very few among our statesmen and philosophers, who believed in the possibility of conducting the Government without the creation of parties. His assumption of the presidential labours. was cheered by the beatific vision of extinguished party feuds. It was a favorite portion of his policy, by the extermination of all party divisions, to give new strength and stability to the Government, and it seemed, for the moment, as if, against all experience, he had been successful.

16. Alas the vanity of human wishes! This calm was deceptive. The elements of party strife, like those of the quiescent volcano, were, though invisibly, still in action; and combinations were forming, more destructive in their tendency, than any which had previously existed. For, to resume the metaphor we have already employed, the contest among the crew of the bark, was about to be, not for the course to port, but, for the absolute property and possession of the vessel.

17. Whilst the members of either party were actuated by common principles, little difficulty had existed in the selection of candidates for the first office of the nation. In truth, a species of orderly succession was growing up which directed political honours and emoluments into a specific and narrow channel, to the exclusion of many men, who were as capable as they were ambitious, to participate in them. Thus, Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe, the chief disciples of Mr. Jefferson, had succeeded him; and Mr. Crawford, a distinguished pupil of the same school, was the heir apparent of their place and their policy. In the subordinate offices, this succession was also obvious. Upon the death or removal of an incumbent, some relative, friend or connexion of his, known, or well recommended to the President, succeeded him. Yet, it is a fact, from which a most beneficial lesson may be drawn, that, the public service was never better performed than with such incumbents. The true principles in relation to office were understood and practised. Office was

considered as a public commission, created for the service of the people, as the state itself is constituted for their benefit. The emoluments of the office were not held to be the object of its creation; nor rotation in office the leading principle of republican creed. On the contrary, change in office was deemed a misfortune; for, if it did not make an ingrate, it made, for the Administration, many enemies.

18. Could this condition of the state have been preserved, we should have attained, indeed, the highest grade of political happiness. Not only was there no fierce contention for place, but the principles of the Administration seemed to have settled into the "juste millieu," the centre, between the extremes of construction, which on the one hand gave too much and on the other, too little, power, for the safety of the state. But this might not be. If the possessors of power could have resisted the temptation to abuse it, those who coveted it, instigated by the passion which disturbed the peace of the very heavens, would not have refrained from attempting its overthrow.

19. The doctrine of rotation in office, as understood by political partisans, is most dangerous to the Constitution, and threatens, more than any other, the duration of our system. What is this doctrine? It is, that offices are established, not as the necessary means of administering the Government, but for the support of individuals at the public expense, and that the incumbents are to be removed, from time to time, so that the people generally may partake of official emolument. The immediate effect of the doctrine is to awaken the cupidity of all the idle and ambitious in the land; to turn them from every consideration of patriotism in the formation of party attachments, and to substitute, for it, a blind devotion to powerful leaders. It holds out the idea, that, all men are qualified for all offices, and decries the value of experience, faithfulness and skill: It invites the momentary incumbent, to fraud and negligence-to fraud that he may make the most of an opportunity, avowedly given to him to enrich him, and to negligence in fulfilling the duties of a station which he does not expect long to enjoy. But this doctrine is not more demoralizing than it is absurd. It may be acted upon to such extent as to be deeply injurious to the public welfare, but can never give, to a thousandth part of the people, participation in official emoluments. Even were we to limit its operation to such as are duly qualified, it must be obvious, that an attempt to reduce the doctrine to practice, would produce a change, every hour, in every office of the country.