supposing such a case to make good our argument.
Let it be as you say, that the government has been
foiled in its attempt to reduce them. Still the effort
has produced the evils before enumerated. Still all
those agonizing scenes have been exhibited which fur
nish matter for the tragic muse. If we wish to wake
our souls to the highest pitch of horror, we have only
to peruse the histories of Greece, Rome, England,
France, or any other country during their civil wars.
What, then, must the acting of such dreadful scenes
be? In the mean time what a spectacle olf scorn and de
rision, do we present to the nations of Europe, some
of whom would not want the malignity to rejoice in
our misfortunes! A number of states have attempted
to secede from the rest, the general government
has exerted its utmost force to prevent it, but in
vain, the disaffected members have made good their
defection at the point of the bayonet. What a triumph
to our enemies! What humiliation to our friends! The
glory of our republic is gone, her power sapped, her
pride humbled, the exalted rank she held among the
nations is forfeited, never to be regained; she is become
the object of contempt, and contumely, to those who
formerly envied and feared her as a rival. Our bitterest
enemies could not imprecate upon our heads a severer
punishment. But let us not stop here Let us pursue
the matter to its remotest consequences, following in
our progress the lights of history. The republic is
now forcibly divided, and two, or as some projectors
in politics will have it, three smaller republics, a
southern, middle and northern one, formed out of it.
Thus divided, are we to expect to enjoy the halcyon
days of peace, plenty and prosperity? By no means. As
before we might read our history in the civil wars of
Greece, Rome, England and France, so now we may
read the continuation of it, in the wars which were
waged between the rival republics of Rome and Car
thage, of Athens and Laced agmon. Parties would
soon spring up, more violent and embittered in pro
portion to the limited space within which their virulence
was confined, and convulse with still more portentous
throes, these new republics. A thousand causes of con
troversy and animosity would arise, as surely as the
malignant passions of the human heart would continue
to operate upon the affairs of mankind, and these would
lead to the most rancorous, ferocious and bloody wars.
These contests, animosities and wars would be en-
39
couraged and fomented by foreign nations, who al
though now they would despise us, would set in
operation all their arts of intrigue and diplomatic
seduction. These arts and intrigues, which during the
pure and vigorous days of our union, could make no
impression upon us, when divided and weakened,
would obtain a deadly influence in our councils. We
should soon see one of these rival republics enlisted
on the side of England and another on that of France,
in those long and sanguinary contests, which they
have maintained with each other through every period
of their history, and which are at this time asleep for
a season only to be speedily renewed with exacerbated
feelings. Thus should we at once launch the barks of
the petty republics we had modelled, on the perilous
and tempestuous sea of European politics; and no
sooner should the standard of war be elevated in the
old world between the great rival nations, than it
would become the signal for its commencement here.
And during all this time, what, in all probability, would
be the internal state of our country? Wars would rage
with the utmost violence and fury; all those scenes
which for centuries have been exhibited on the old
continent and which have disquieted, convulsed, and
wasted it, would be re-acted in the new. The struggle
for superiority and pre-eminence, would excite inces
sant commotions. Sometimes the northern force would
prevail, and at other times the southern; but whether the
preponderating power approached from the one quarter
or the other, were ingendered in a southern or northern
40
clime, it would equally prove a destrudj^ tempest. It
would be the difference only between the Siroc and arc
tic storm. During this period also, the relations between
the different republics being radically changed, and
those who were formerly amicable and sister common
wealths being converted into jealous and hostile states,
their political, civil and military institutions are un
dergoing fundamental alterations. Having forfeited
along with numberless other inestimable advantages,
that which we derive from the remoteness of our
situation from any power which in case of hostility
can become formidable to us, our governments must
be so modelled as to be accommodated to our new
situation, and suited to the exigencies to which they
must be now exposed. The mild genius of a republi
can government, our boast and pride, at this time, the
boon for which we expended our blood and treasure, so
adequate to all purposes of our present defence and
prosperity, would not be sturdy and robust enough in
its structure to repel the sudden invasions of formida
ble armies. Each republic, vulnerable at every pore,
must, now that it has a rival and enemy at its door,
commence adequate preparations of defence. The
banks of the Hudson and Potomac and the shores of
the Atlantic must be lined with fortifications erected
at immense expense, and these fortifications manned
with veteran troops. Large standing armies, which all
agree are so dangerous to liberty, must now be kept
up in time of peace in order to provide against the
exigencies of war. Thus the supreme magistrate in
41
each commonwealth has at his disposal a perpetually
standing force. In seasons of extreme difficulty and
peril, he is invested with dictatorial powers. This ex
periment is repeated but a few times, before some
Cassar or Cromwell arises, more bold than his prede
cessors, who rendering himself popular with the army,
bribes them to his interest, seizes upon the reins of
government and makes himself master of his coun
try, and then as a military despot rules it with a rod
of iron. This is not fictitious history, it is real and
written in Roman and Grecian characters.
Thus together with unnumbered other blessings,
would the American nation, in the dissolution of their
union, pave the way to the final wreck of their inva
luable rights. The happiness of our present situation
on the globe, more than any other circumstance, af
fords us the best security for the permanence and
perpetuity of our free institutions. Circumstances, it
has been said, make men. If this maxim be liable to
objection when applied to individuals, it is emphati
cally true that circumstances make governments.
Place England upon the continent of Europe by the
side of those powerful monarchies, and she could no
longer retain the freedom of her present constitution.
Transfer our republic to the same situation, and she
could no more defend herself, with her present form
of government, against attacks from those powers,
than the infant arm could wield the battle-ax. It would
become indispensably necessary to effect those great
F
and important purposes for which governments are in*
stituted, to assimilate them in a great measure in activity
and energy to those of the states that surround us. The
Americans, therefore, cannot too highly appreciate the
happiness of their present situation on the globe, and if
by one rash deed they will forfeit this advantage to
gether with unnumbered others connected with it, it
will be an act of suicide and insanity unexampled in
the history of mankind. To sum up in few words the
whole matter. With the preservation of our union,
are indissolubly connected our peace abroad and tran
quillity at home, our independence and glory as a
nation, the freedom of our institutions both political
and civil, our future greatness and prosperity. Let us
never cease to regard that union as sacred, which was
constructed by the hands of sages and cemented with
the blood of our revolutionary heroes. Let us venerate
and religiously preserve our present constitution as
the palladium of our rights, our ark of safety. Let the
states confederated together be considered as firmly
fixed in their stations as the constellations of heaven,
or as the planets that move round the sun. The gene
ral government, whatever clouds may occasionally
obscure its lustre, is to this country what that great
luminary is to the solar system. It diffuses through
it the animating and fructifying light of peace, do
mestic quiet, liberty and prosperity; while by its
gentle and controlling influence it makes the states to
move in harmony and order through their several
spheres. We have planted in the midst of us the tree
43
of liberty, let none of its branches be lopt off, but let
it grow and flourish that our children and our chil
dren's children may rejoice under its refreshing shade,
and pluck and live upon its goodly fruits. Let the
permanence of our present constitution, and an indis
soluble union of the states, be written upon our Capi
tol in the blood of our revolutionary heroes; let it be
inserted in our litanies and mingled with our most
fervent prayers to heaven, let it be inscribed upon the
door posts of our houses, as a sign to preserve us from
the sword of the destroying angel of civil discord,
Let us cherish our union, as the source of our country's
prosperity, the foundation of her future greatness and
glory, the depository of our invaluable rights, and our
best safeguard against unnumbered ills.
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