tru, it appears to me propery especially as it may conduce to a mere distinct exprethon of the public. voice, that I thould now apprize you of the refolution I have formed, to decline being coah, dered among the number of thofe out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the fame time, to do me the justice to be affured, that this res folution has not been taken, without a strict regard to all the confiderations appertaining to the relation which binds a dariful citizen to his country, and that, in withdrawing the tender of fervice which filence in my fituation might imply, Dam influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future intereft; no deficiency of grateful refpect for your paft kindness but am fupported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in the office to which your fuffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform facrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your defire. I conftantly hoped, that it would have been much earlier in my power, confit tently with motives which I was not at liberty to difregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reJuctantly drawn. The ftrength of my inclination to do this, previous to the laft election, had even led to the preparation of an Addrefs to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical pofture of our altairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of perfons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.

rejoice that the ftate of your concerns, external as well as internal, no fonger renders the purfuit of inclination incompatible with the fentiment of du ty or propriety; and am perfuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my fervices, that in the prefent circum. tances of our country, you will not difapprove my determination to retires

The impreffions with which I first undertook the arduous truft, were explained on the proper occafion. In the difcharge of this trufe, I will only fay, that I have with good intentions contributed towards the organization and adminiftration of the government, the best exertions of which a very fallible judge. ment was capable. Not unconfeious m the outlet of the inferiority of my quaNatations, 'experience in my own eyes,

PAPER S.

perhaps ftill more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffi dence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the fhade of re. tirement is as neceifary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any cir cumstances have given peculiar value to my fervices, they were temporary ;. I have, the confolation to believe, that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political fcene, patriotism does not forbid ips

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to fufpend the deep acknow, ledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honours it has conferred upon me: ftill more for the stedfaft confidence with which it has fupported me and for the opportunities I have thence en joyed of manifefting my inviolable attachment, by fervices faithful and per fevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have refulted to our country from thefe fervices, let it always be remembered to your praife, and as an inftructive example in our annals, that under circumftances in which the pathons, agitated in every direction, were liable to noflead, amick appearances fometimes dubious, vicith tudes of fortune often difcouraging, in fituations in which not unfrequently want of fuccefs has countenanced the fpirit of criticism, the conftancy of your fupport was the effential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Brofoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong iss citement to unceasing vows that Heavca may continue to you the choiceft tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetuale that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be facredly maintained; that its Adminiftrations in every department may be fiamped with wildom and virtue'; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of Liberty, may be made complete, by fo careful a prefers vation and fo prudent a use of thisoblefs fing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the appiadfer the aft Fection and adoption of every nation Which is yet a stranger to in ga pay? Mare, perhaps, I ought to stop, But ‚XXX The foll

folicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the ap. prehenfion of "danger natural to that folicitude; urge me, on an occafion like the prefent; to offer to your folemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, fotte fentiments, which are the result of much reflection, of no inconfiderable obfervation, and which appear to the all important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. -Thefe will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only fee in them the difinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can poffibly have no perfonal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my fentiments on a former and not diffimilar occafion.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is neceffary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

The unity of Government which conftitutes you one people, is alfo now dear to you. It is justly fo; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real indepen. dence, the fupport of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your fafety; of your profperity; of that very liberty you fo highly prize. But, as it is eafy to forefee, that from different caufes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the bat teries of internal and external enemies will be most conftantly and actively (though covertly and infidiously) direct, ed, it is of infinite moment, that you fhould properly estimate the immenfe value of your national Union, to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habi tual, and immoveable attachment to it; accuftoming yourfelves to think and Speak of it as of the palladium of your political fafety and profperity; watch. jug for its prefervation with jealous anxiety; difcountenancing whatever may fuggeft even a fufpicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawn ing of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the reft, or to enfeeble the facred ties which now link together its various parts,

For this you have every inducement of fympathy and intereft. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, VOL. XXX. Nov. 1796.

that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of AMERI CAN, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the juft pride of patriotifm, more than any appellation derived from local difcrimi nations. With flight fhades of difference, you have the fame religion, man. ners, hapirs, and political principles. You have in a common caufe fought and triumphed together; the Independence and Liberty you poffefs are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of common dangers, fufferings, and fuc-ceffes.

But thefe confiderations, however powerfully they addrefs themselves to your fenfibility, are greatly outweighed by thofe which apply more immediately to your intereft.-Here every portion of our country fads the most commanding motive for carefully guarding and preferving the Union of the whole.

The North, in an unrestrained inter-` courfe with the Souch, protected by the equal laws of a common Govern ment, finds in the productions of the latter, great additional refources of ma ritime and commercial enterprife, and precious materials of manufacturing induftry. The South, in the fame intercourfe, benefiting by the agency of the North, fees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand; turning partly into its own channels the feamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and while it contributes in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national naviga tion, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime frength, to which itself is unequally adapted, The Eaft, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progreffive improvement of interior communication by land and water, will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The Welt derives from the Eaft fupplies requifite to its growth and comfort and what is perhaps of ftill greater confequence, it must of neceffity owe the fecure enjoyment of indifpen fable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime ftrength of the Atlantic fide of the Union, directed by an indiffo luble community of intereft as one Na tion. Any other tenure by which the Weft can hold this effential advantage, whether derived from its own, feparate ftrength, or from an apostate and unnaBbb

tural

tural connection with any foreign Pow er, must be intrinfically precarious.

While then every part of our Country thus feels an immediate and particular intereft in Union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mafs of means and efforts, greater ftrength, greater refource, proportionably greater fecurity from external danger, a lefs frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations, and, what is of ineftimable value they must derive from Union an exemption from thofe broils and wars between themfelves, which fo frequently afflict neighbouring countries not tied together by the fame Government; which their own rivalthips alone would be fufficient to produce, but which oppofite, foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would ftimulate and im bitter. Hence, likewife, they will avoid the neceffity of thofe overgrown eftablishments, which under any form of Government are inaufpicious to Liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hoftile to Republican Liberty; in this fenfe it is, that your Union ought to be confidered as a main prop of your Liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the prefervation of the other.

These confiderations speak a perfus five language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic defire. Is there a doubt whether a cominon Government can embrace fo large a fphere? Let experience folve it. To liten to mere fpeculations in fuch a cafe were criminal. We are authorifed to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the Auxi liary Agency of Governments for the refpective Subdivifions, will afford a happy iffue to the experiment. 'Tis well worth a fair and full experiment. With fuch powerful and obvious motives to Union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience thall not have demonftrated its impracticability, there will always be reafon to diftruft the patriotifm of thofe, who in any quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands.

In contemplating the caufes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of ferious concern, that any ground should have been furnished for characterising parties by geographical difcriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Weftern; whence defign. ing men may endeavour to excite a belief that there is a real difference of lo

cal interefts and views. One of the ex pedients of party to acquire influence, within particular diftricts, is to mifre prefent the opinions and aims of other diftricts. You cannot shield yourfelves too much against the jealoufies and heart. burnings which spring from these mifreprefentations: they tend to render alien to each other, thofe, who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had an ufeful leffen on this head; they have feen, in the negocia tion by the Executive, and in the unnimous ratification by the Senate, of the Treaty with Spain, and in the univerfal fatisfaction at the event, throughout the United States, a decifive proof how unfounded were the fufpicions propagated among them of a policy in the Ge neral Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their intereits in regard to the Miffiffippi; they have been witneffes to the formation of two Trea ties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which fecure to them every thing they could defire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their profperity.. Will it not be their wifdom to rely for the prefervation of thefe advantages on the Union by which they were procured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to thofe advifers, if fuch there are, who would fever them from their brethren, and connect with aliens ?

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a Government for the whole is indifpenfable. No alliances, however ftrict, between the parties can be an adequate fubftitute; they muft inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first effay, by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calculated than your former for an intimate Union, and for the efficacious manage ment of your common concerns. This Government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full inveftigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its prin ciples, in the diftribution of its powers, uniting fecurity with energy, and containing within itfelf a provision for its own amendment, has just claim to your confidence and your fupport. Refpect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiefcence in its meafures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of

trut

true Liberty. The bafis of our political fyftems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Conftitutions of Government; but, the Conftitutión which at any time exifts, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is facredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government, prefuppofes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government.

All obftructions to the execution of the Law, all combinarions and affociations, under whatever plaufible character, with the real defign, to direct, controul, counteract, or awe the regular delibera. tion and action of the Conftituted Authorities, are deftructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They ferve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a fmall but artful and enterprizing minority of the community; and, accord. ing to the alternate triumphs of diffe rent parties, to make the public adminiFration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of confiftent and wholefome plans, digefted by common councils, and modified by mutual interefts.

However combinations or affociations of the above description may, now and then, anfwer popular ends, they are like ly in the courfe of time and things, to potent engines, by which cunbecome ning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to fubvert the power of the people, and to ufurp for themselves the reins of Government; deftroying afterwards the very enemies which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Towards the prefervation of your Government, and the permanency of your prefent happy State, it is requifite, not only that you fteadily difcountenance irregular oppofitions to its acknowledged authority, but alfo, that you felift with care the fpirit of innovation upon its principles, however fpecious the pretexts. One method of affault may be to efect in the forms of the Conftirution, alterations, which will impair the energy of the fyftem, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time ud habit are at least as neceffary to fix the true character of Governments, as 9 other human inftitutions that expe

a

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with the particular reference to the founding of them in geographical difcriminations. Let me now take a more comprehenfive view, and warn you in the most folemn manner against the baneful effects of the fpirit of party, generally.

This fpirit, unfortunately, is infeparable from our nature, having its roots in the ftrongeft paffions of the human mind. It exifts under different thapes

in all Governments, a ore or lefs ftifled, controuled, or oppreffed; but in thofe of the popular form, it is feen in its greatest rank nefs, and it is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, tharpened by the ipirn of revenge,natural to party ditation, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormnities, iss itfelf a moft horrid Defpartin. Butthis. leads at length to a more formal and permanent Defpotifm. The disorders and miferics which refult, gradually in-cline the minds of men, to feek decurity and repofe in the abfolute power of an individual and, fooner or later, the Chief of fome prevailing Faction, more able or more fortunate than his compe titors, turns this difpofition to the purs poles of his own elevation on the ruins of Public Liberty.

Without looking forward, to amek A tremity of this kind (which, neverthe lefs ought not to be entirely out of fight) the common and continued mifchiefs of

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the

the fpirit of Party are fufficient to make the interest and duty of a wife people to discourage and restrain, ita foster It ferves, always to distract other Pub lic Councils and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Coins munity with ill founded jealousies and falfer alarms, kindles the aniinufity of one part against another, foments occas fionally riot and infurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and cor ruption, which find a facilitated accefs to the Government itself through the channels of party paffous. Thus the policy and the will of the country are fubjected to the policy and will of ano ther...

There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the Government, and ferve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true, and in Governments of a Monarchical caft, Patriotism may look with in dulgence, if not with favour upon the fpirit of party.

But in thofe of the popular character in Governments purely elective, it is a Spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every falutary purpose. And there being conftant danger of excefs, the effect sought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and affuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, left, inftead of warming, it should confume.

It is important likewife, that the habits of thinking in a free country fhould iipire caution, in thofe entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective conftitutional fpheres, avoiding in the exercite of the powers of one.department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachmeut tends to confolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of Government, a real defpotifin. A juft cimate of that love of power, and pronchels ro abufe it, which predominates in the human heart, is fufficient to fatisfy us of the truth of this position. The Deceffity of reciprocal checks in the exercife of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depofivtories, and conftituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal against Inyathons by the others, has been cvinced by aappppancs ancient and moderatioms of

thewin our country, and under our own eyes. Topreferve them must be as necef. fary as to institute them. If, in the opi nion of the people, the diftribution or modification of the Conftitutional Pow, ers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution dengaates. But let there be no change by ufurpation; fer though this, in one inftance, may be the inftrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which Free Governments are deftroyed. The precedent must always greatly over-balance in permanent evil, any partial or tranfient benefit which thẹ ufe can at any time yield,

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Of all the difpofitions and habits which lead to political profperity, Relis gion and Morality are indifpenfable fupports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotifm, who should labour to fubvert these great pillars of human happiness, thefe firmelt props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to refpect and to cherith them. A volume could not trace all their .comnection with private and public felicity. Let simply be asked, where is the fecurity for property, for reputation, for life, if the fenfe of religious obligation fed the Oaths, which are the intruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the fuppofition, that morality can be maintained without religion. What ever may be conceded to the influence of rehned education on minds of peculiar ftructure, reason, and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle,

'Tis fubftantially true, that virtue of morality is a neceflary spring of popular Government. The rule indeed extends with more or lefs force to every fpecies of free. Governments Who that is a fincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric ?

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, inftitutions for the general diffufion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of Government gives force to public opinion, it is elfential that public opinion should be enlightened.

As a very important fource of ftrength and fecurity, cherish public credit. One method of preferving it is, to use it as fparingly as poffible; avoiding occañons of expence by cultivating Peace, but re

mem.