bled into a heap of ruins. From the period of the tur
bulent sway of the Barons, until the days of king Wil
liam, revolution succeeded revolution, under all of
which vicissitudes the nation endured every variety of
suffering, and under some, was made to bleed at every
pore. That the American republic, therefore, is sub
ject to violent agitations and convulsions from the
conflicts of party, is no uncommon fate, and if the peo
ple are faithful to themselves and the honour and glory
of their country, these storms, like those of the ele
ments, will pass harmlessly by, serving only to venti
late and purify the political atmosphere. On this point,
however, I candidly admit, I am not without my
anxiety and apprehensions, (such as immortals feel),
so much depends in our republic upon the good
sense, the virtue, the intelligence, the moderation and
patriotism of the people. The great misfortune with






21

republics has ever been, that the members of it have
exhibited a discontent, restlessness and turbulence dur
ing the enjoyment of their liberties which have never
been quelled but by the iron hand of a master. May
heaven avert this fate from my beloved country! The
privilege of foreseeing the fate of empires is not be
stowed even upon immortals, but reserved as the dis
tinguishing prerogative of the great Supreme; but con
fident I am, that by wise and moderate counsels, by a
just and equitable administration of the government,
by calling into operation all those moral causes which
tend to humanize, enlighten and purify the public
mind, the American republic may long protract if
not finally avoid this destiny. That there will be occa
sionally violent and embittered conflicts of party, is to
be expected under a free government. These are
storms naturally engendered in the atmosphere of
freedom. They are at once a proof, a pledge, and un
der wise and wholesome restrictions, a guarantee of
the liberties of the people. So far from countenancing
those wicked political persecutions by which a domi
nant party may attempt to quell the murmurs of oppo
sition, I would not entirely silence their bickerings if
I could. If the oppositions of party be conducted upon
fair, liberal and manly principles if a devoted attach
ment to our constitution and laws forms a bond of
union between the most bitter and irreconcileable po
litical opponents if the indivisible union of the states
becomes a rallying point in all conjunctures of emer
gency and danger if the safety and prosperity of the



22

great republic be the polar star, towards which the
efforts of all are invariably directed, whatever may be
the prevailing difference of opinions as to the wisest
and best plans of civil policy the great and perma
nent interests of the nation are still secure, notwith
standing the temporary paroxysms into which she may
be thrown by the contests of party animosity, or the
partial injury she sustains from the unsound policy of
any given administration of government. An indisso
luble union of the states, the permanence and inviola
bility of our constitution and laws, should be the watch
words at which every American heart should thrill,
and which every American tongue should respond
with enthusiasm. Palsied be the head that projects a
separation of the states, and leprous the hand that would
dare attempt the demolition of our present constitution
and laws,







DIALOGUE II.

WASHINGTON, HAMILTON, AND FISHER AMES.

AMES.

It appears evident to my mind, that the United
States must separate, and that all the evils which,
during my lifetime, I foresaw and predicted, are upon
the very point of breaking forth. The silken band
which connects together these confederated republics,
has been gradually frittered away, and will soon be cut
asunder. The train is already laid, and wants only the
application of the match to produce an explosion which
will convulse the continent, and afterwards consume
it with a mighty conflagration. I faithfully forewarned
the American nation of the approach of these calami
ties, but they turned a deaf ear to my admonitions, and
must now meet the consequences. I apprised them
that that cloud which in my days was no larger than a
man's hand, would soon overspread the land with its
deadly shade and deluge it with mischief. My predic
tions are now receiving a complete and fearful ac
complishment. I consider the American nation, at this
moment, as standing upon the very brink of a preci
pice, at whose feet lies the horrible gulph of a civil
war. They have but one step more to take, and they
plunge into it.



HAMILTON.

Amidst all tbat sterling worth and distinguished
greatness, Mr. Ames, which no one can more highly
estimate than myself, and which undoubtedly entitle
you to rank among the first and best men, America or
perhaps any other nation has produced, you seem to
have had a constitutional tendency to high- colouring
in your representations of things, and a kind of rheto
rical caricaturing in description. Whether it arose from
the amazing fertility of your fancy (and this faculty
was certainly in you a soil in which grew sponta
neously flowers of every variety of fragrance and hue,)
or that the hectic which shed its unnatural and intem
perate glows through your body, transfused them also,
in some degree, to your mind, from the intimate con
nection and sympathy known to subsist between the
one and the other, I pretend not to determine; but
certain it is, that to this circumstance alone is to be
ascribed the fault which blemishes your, otherwise,
masterly and admirable political writings. These pro
ductions are subject to the same objection which was
brought against the pictures of a celebrated painter,
who was said to take pleasure in exhibiting objects too
horrible to be contemplated. The blood curdles and
the hair stands on end, when you are depicting the fu
ture calamities which shall befall your country. God of
heaven! grant that your prophecies may never be ac
complished! I cannot, however, help indulging the
hope, that the events of her history, although partak*



25

ing, no doubt, of that commixture of prosperity and
adversity which is the common lot of nations as well
as individuals, will be less shocking and disastrous
than you have portrayed them. On this point, I would
say as Cicero did of his anticipation of immortality, of
which the sceptical philosophers by their controversies
and doubtful disputations would have bereft him, if my
hope be delusory, it is an agreeable delusion and I
wish not to be undeceived. I would not sadden and
torture my soul by anticipating such gloomy and hi
deous prospects for my country, which after all may
prove chimerical. If these dreadful evils, under the
awful and inscrutable dispensations of heaven, should
at last, overtake her, it will be soon enough to endure
the miseries they will inflict, when they shall have ar
rived. And, I trust, that although my countrymen will
no longer have a Washington and Ames to enlighten,
to guide and to save them; there will not be wanting able
and devoted patriots who will be as prompt in provid
ing as skilful in administering a remedy. I pretend not
to deny, that the hopes which I was disposed to enter
tain, in reference to those future fortunes which the
destinies were weaving for my country, were occa
sionally, and particularly in the latter part of my life,
shaded by the most painful apprehensions, and that
sometimes my heart was oppressed and overpowered
by the settled gloom of despondency; but I must be
allowed to remark, that a severance of the union, so
far from being the remedy which I would have re
commended, for these anticipated ills, is the very

D



26

result which, above all others, I should most fervently
have deprecated. The plan which I had projected, as
is well known among my countrymen, in order to
avoid the mischiefs which I was apprehensive would
result to the union, was to impart greater force and
efficiency to the federal government, and thereby not
only enable it to sustain itself, amidst the severe con
flicts which necessarily awaited it, but also to extend
such a powerful control over the state governments,
its natural rivals, as would, without annihilating their
independence or consolidating them with itself, enable
it to preserve them firmly and steadily in the several
spheres, in which they move round it,

AMES.

Ah, there, indeed, General Hamilton, lay the re
medy, and had it been applied in season would have
effected a radical cure. Had your wise and salutary
counsels been pursued, and the government, in its
original organization, been rendered sufficiently ener
getic to have perpetuated its powers and to have stayed
by its arm every effort at separation, then indeed, the
republic would have remained secure. But the time in
which she might have been rescued from destruction,
has elapsed, and she has let the opportunity pass away
unimproved, in which she might have foreseen and
avoided the numberless miseries which are now com
ing upon her. The hour of her sorrow and anguish
is at hand. Those hardy sons of the north, long tram-
pled upon by their administration, and ground as under



27

a mill-stone by its measures, are determined to rise in
their might and assert their claims. Having drunk to
the very dregs the cup of endurance and submission,
they are at this moment, prepared to draw the sword
from its scabbard, and at a single blow sever the bond
which connects them to the union.

HAMILTON.

I hold in too high estimation, the good sense, the
intelligence and patriotism of that reflecting people to
the east, to imagine, for a moment, that they will per
mit any provocations to stimulate them to such fatal ex
tremities. They who have hitherto discovered that they
knew so well how to distinguish those limits in which
a rational liberty terminates and a mischievous licen
tiousness begins, will not, on this occasion, forfeit
the reputation they have obtained, and by a single rash
deed hazard their own peace and prosperity as well as
those of their sister republics.

AMES.

But why talk of the cool and philosophical calcula
tions of expediency and propriety to a people whose
families are wanting bread, and who are crushed by
their government as in a wine-press? The eastern peo
ple have perceived with indignation, for some time
past, that, from the addition of these new states and
territories to the south, they have lost all their influ
ence in our federal councils and become as the mere
dust of the balance. The embargo by precluding the



interchanges of commerce, checked the circulation of
the very life-blood of these countries. All these things
they have borne with patience and magnanimity. To
this fatal measure has succeeded a war the most odious
to them in its origin and character, and while a cruel
and ferocious enemy is let loose against them, they arc
left by the government vulnerable and defenceless at
every point; and to fill their cup of grievances to the
brim, while thus the sources of their wealth and pros
perity are dried up, while in a state of perpetual dis
quietude from the apprehensions of sudden and de
structive inroads from the enemy, the scanty wealth
they have left is rifled by the administration, and the
flower of the citizens dragged from those firesides
which it is their province to defend, to carry on a war
of conquest and ambition. Will that brave people
tamely submit to such aggravated wrongs as these?
They will not They will forcibly sever themselves
from that national government over whose measures
they have lost all influence, and which instead of be
ing known to them as a good government should be,
by the benefits which, under its guardian care, it dis
penses, is recognized only in the miseries it inflicts.

HAMILTON.

Whatever may be the real or supposed grievances
they suffer, if they act wisely they will form no rash
determination nor adopt any violent measures, during
their present resentment and irritation. The passions are
wretched counsellors and still more wretched guides.



In reference to the loss of influence in the national
councils and upon the national measures of which they
complain, and of which I am free to admit they do
not complain without reason, I would indulge myself
in a few observations, which, I think, may present to
the eastern section of our country some consolation
for the present sufferings they sustain from the war.
There is evidently arising in our country at this time,
as is perceptible to the eye of every philosophic ob
server, a southern and a northern or eastern influence,
which for some time to come will be perpetually con-
tending for the mastery; and this conflict, if it prove
not the rock upon which the republic immediately
splits, will, at all events, give rise to many of the fu
ture incidents of her history. Sometimes the southern
scale will preponderate, and at other times the eastern.
The eastern influence, moreover, as it is characteristi
cally commercial, will gradually extend itself until it
embraces the whole of the Atlantic states, for the At
lantic ocean itself forms to these states a strong, and
as it should be, indissoluble chain of connection. On
all great emergencies, these states will, I am convinced,
at no distant period, uniformly co-operate with each
other. The eastern states, therefore, need not be im
patient under that temporary suspension of their power
in the federal government, which is the cause of their
present dissatisfaction and alarm. By wise and mode
rate counsels, by adopting and firmly persevering- in
those plans of policy which will contribute to their
best and permanent interests, they will, in their turn



30

prevail, the present clouds which obscure the political
state of their country will be dispersed, and the day-
spring of peace, affluence and prosperity again visit
their borders. At any rate, before they resort to the
mad expedient of seceding from the union to obtain
relief from their present sufferings, let them seriously
reflect and weigh well the consequences. Were they
separated from their sister states, what would be
their condition? Would it be meliorated? To avoid
present inconveniences and injuries, may they not pull
down upon their heads the whole fabric of civil so
ciety, although like Sampson they themselves may be
crushed amidst the ruins? To escape the beatings of
the impending storm which cannot long endure, may
they not plunge into an abyss in which they may
perish forever?

WASHINGTON.

I have listened to your discussion, gentlemen, with
the most profound interest and attention, as this is a
subject which has lately occupied a large share of my
reflections and awakened within me the most painful
solicitude. We who have attained to these realms of
light and happiness, having our minds cleansed from
the discolouring prejudices and prepossessions of party,
can view every subject offered to our contemplation
in the calm lights of a mild and just philosophy. Let
us, therefore, proceed to a cool and dispassionate con
sideration of the subject whose merits you are now
canvassing.



31

I perceive with no little pain and displeasure, that
the dissolution of a union formerly regarded as sacred,
as the ark of the covenant, which no one presumed to
touch but with veneration and awe, has now become a
topic of ordinary and familiar conversation among my
countrymen, its advantages and disadvantages are
coolly descanted upon, and there are not wanting those
who are daring enough to declare it as their opinion,
that it has become both necessary and expedient. Now,
this is a circumstance deeply to be regretted by every
American patriot, as we all know how rapid is often
times the transition from the habitual contemplation of
an act to the guilty performance of it. Divines inform
us, that in order to preserve ourselves from the con
tamination and seductive influence of vice, and perse
vere in a course of virtuous conduct, it is necessary,
not only that our outward deportment should be un
exceptionable, but even our imaginations should not
be allowed to be vitiated by the intrusion of illicit
images and thoughts. The maxim is not without apti
tude in its application to the present case. States so
happily confederated together as are those of America
for the promotion of important and national purposes,
should ever regard the ties which connect them as
consecrated, and should never permit themselves to
think it possible that there can be a dismemberment
of their empire. It is dangerous even to indulge them
selves in such trains of thinking, and the nation cannot
too speedily by a kind of moral expiation, purify her
self from the impiety of having yielded to them,



AMES.

Where, then, is the redress which a state or num
ber of states is to obtain when it feels itself oppressed
and ruined by the measures of the administration? Is
there no point at which the endurance of a people
must cease?

WASHINGTON.

They can obtain no other redress and they should
desire no other, than that which is extended to them
in the provisions of the constitution. I allude not now
particularly to the controversy which the eastern sec
tion of our union is carrying on with the general go
vernment. It falls not within my plan to decide upon
the merits of that case. If we wish that our federal
government, the offspring of our own wisdom and the
adoption of our own choice, should ultimately suc
ceed, and we may be assured that with its success are
intimately connected the vital interests of this country,
there are certain great and fundamental principles, to
which, amidst the bitterest conflicts of party, we should
all steadily and pertinaciously adhere. Within the boun
daries prescribed by the constitution, let the parties
rage, foam and exhaust their animosity, but let them
never dare overstep those sacred limits. It is a mockery
to have a written constitution and laws, unless they be
rigidly and scrupulously adhered to. But to return to
the point we are now investigating. What kind of re
dress of grievances, is that which the eastern states



33

would obtain by a severance of the union? It would
be the redress of a man who, in a paroxysm of rage
against an adversary, cuts, maims and perhaps destroys
himself. When I hear men talking coolly and with
apparent unconcern, about the separation of the States,
I imagine I see children playing with edged tools, or
in their wanton gambols, scattering sparks in those
places in which they may kindle those subterranean
fires that produce an earthquake. Men are, surely,
ignorant of the long train of miseries and calamities
which an event of this nature, may, and in all probabi
lity, will draw upon them. I can regard the separation
of the American States, take place at what period it
may, and from whatever quarter it may come, under
no other similitude than that of opening in the new
world, the box of Pandora. More evils than imagina
tion can picture or the tongue of an angel adequately
describe, would be its inevitable results.

AMES.

But why, General Washington? Whence the neces
sity of such direful consequences? Could not the
eastern states which entered voluntarily into the fede
ral compact, from the prospect of the advantages which
would redound to them, now that they find it produc
tive of mischief, peaceably retire from the union?

WASHINGTON.

Impossible It would be to defeat the great and
leading objects for which a federal government was in-

E



34

stituted. Why was this government established with
authority paramount to all others, and with an influ
ence diffusing itself over every part? For the express
purpose of preserving those parts from violent colli
sions and final separations. In the preliminary article
to the constitution it is declared that that instrument
was adopted to " preserve a more perfect union and
promote domestic tranquillity." Must not the govern
ment, then, be invested with powers competent to effect
these purposes? And would not all of them be at once
defeated were the states allowed to separate from each
other at their discretion? It was foreseen by those
illustrious patriots and ,sages who at that time wielded
the destinies of the nation, that an association of states
depending for its continuance upon the will of the par
ties, and capable of being severed whenever the inte
rest, passion or caprice of any one or any number
should propel it to such a measure, would, like the
Amphyctionic and Achaean leagues of Greece, the
Helvetic republic, and many others which might be
enumerated, prove as ineffectual to its ends as a rope of
sand. It was for the precise purpose of remedying the
imperfections of such a system that the sublime idea
was suggested and carried into execution, of modelling
a great national government, which extending its control
over the whole should bind them strongly and insepa
rably together, without absorbing them into its vortex,
as the sun by its attractive power preserves the planets
in their spheres. When the states entered into this so
lemn compact, they relinquished the right of retiring



35

from it at their pleasure, and for any violations of its
stipulations rendered themselves amenable to the tri
bunal of the union, which has a clear and undoubted
right to compel them to comply with the terms of their
agreement. Besides, what sort of government is that
which has not the power to coerce the submission and
obedience of the citizens, to every just and legitimate
requisition? Let it, therefore, be considered as a ruled
case, a settled and established point, that if at any time
any state in the union or any number of states con
jointly, shall determine to withdraw itself from tjie,con-
federacy, it is the province and the duty of the federal
government to compel it to return to that connec
tion.

AMES.

I suspect that in all such cases, which always pre
suppose a great degree of popular excitement, the states
will not be withheld from accomplishing their end, by
nice points of political casuistry.

WASHINGTON.

Let them be withheld, then, from an anticipation of
the horrible results. Suppose that the Eastern states,
(I do not believe, for a moment, that any such things
are to be apprehended from that moral and religious
people,) but suppose, that, in a paroxysm of resent
ment, worked up to phrenzy by their opposition to
the administration, they should enter into the fatal de
termination to secede from the union, what would be



the consequences? At the same moment that they
form this rash determination, they let loose the sword
from its scabbard. With one hand they sever the bond
which connects them to the union, and with the other,
hurl the firebrand of civil discord. Could the general
government look on with indifference and pusillani
mity, and not raise an arm to reduce to submission its
refractory members? It could not. It would be unfaith
ful to the powers with which the people have entrusted
it, unfaithful to the confederation, to its own honour and
duty, to the seceding states themselves, to the glory of
the republic, if it did. The attempt is, then, made to
compel the recreant states to return to their allegiance.
An army is set on foot by the government, and a war
commenced for this purpose. Say, that it is successful
in the horrid enterprise. At what a dreadful price has
its victory been purchased? What hecatombs of vic
tims have been offered up to the demon of civil dis
cord, what kindred have imbrued their hands in each
other's blood, what scenes of slaughter and cruelty
have been exhibited by those parties whose sentiments
of hostility have only been exasperated by their former
intimacy, what arrows of resentment left festering in
the heart, what seeds of animosity sown that will spring
up and grow into future wars!

AMES.

But they would not be successful. Those hardy
sons of the north, inured to toil from their earliest
years, habituated to hardships and fatigue, and accus.



37

tomed to breathe the atmosphere of freedom, could
not be subdued. What! shall they who were rocked in
the very cradle of liberty, who, in our revolutionary
war first raised its sacred standard and fought most
bravely under it, when once they have again reared
that animating symbol, ever strike it to an enemy?

WASHINGTON.

Such men should be the last to raise it against a Re
public, founded by their wisdom and cemented with
their blood. I again repeat, that I am confident, that
intelligent, brave and magnanimous people, will never
drive matters to such dreadful excesses. We are only