oblige us to admit that even such men may be actuated by upright intentions; and it cannot be doubted that much of the opposition which has already shown itself, or that may hereafter make its appearance, will spring from sources, blameless at least, if not respectable-the honest errors of minds led astray by preconceived jealousies and fears. So numerous, indeed, and so powerful are the causes which serve to give a false bias to the judgment, that, upon many occasions, we see wise and good men on the wrong, as well as on the right side of questions of the first magnitude to society. This circumstance, if duly attended to, would always furnish a lesson of moderation to those who are engaged in any controversy, however well persuaded of being in the right. And a further reason for caution in this respect might be drawn from the reflection, that we are not always sure that those who advocate the truth are actuated by purer principles than their antagonists. Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support, as upon those who oppose the right side of a question. Were there not even these inducements to modera

tion, nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit, which has, at all times, characterized political parties. For, in politics as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

And yet, just as these sentiments must appear to candid men, we have already sufficient indications that it will happen in this as in all former cases of great national discussion. A torrent of angry and malignant passions will be let loose. To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions, and to increase the number of their converts, by the loudness of their declamations, and by the bitterness of their invectives. An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government, will be stigmatized as the offspring of a temper fond of power, and hostile to the principles of liberty. An over-scrupulous jealousy of danger to the rights of the people, which is more commonly the fault of the head than of the heart, will be represented as mere pretence and artifice—the stale bait for popularity at the expense of public good. It will be forgotten, on the one

hand, that jealousy is the usual concomitant of violent love, and that the noble enthusiasm of liberty is too apt to be infected with a spirit of narrow and illiberal distrust. On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten, that the vigour of government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and wellinformed judgment, their interests can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearances of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us, that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that, of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people-commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants."

It was in this frank and manly strain-so unlike the nauseous flattery of later times-that Hamilton always addressed his countrymen. By thus appealing to their good sense and spirit of fairness, he was really paying them a higher compliment, than if he had sought to conciliate their prejudices, or pander

to their foibles. And there was yet enough of sound opinion in America, unspoiled by the base and grovelling adulation which has since exalted the popular idols into gods, to appreciate this mode of dealing with great subjects. The influence of the Federalist was felt throughout the Union, and left behind it an impression, which all the folly and arrogance of succeeding years have never wholly obliterated.

It is not intended here, to give a detailed account of this memorable treatise. It purports to discuss the utility of the Union-the insufficiency of the Confederation to preserve it-the necessity of a government at least equally energetic with the one proposed the conformity of the proposed Constitution to republican principles—its analogy to the State constitutions and the additional security which its adoption would afford to the preservation of a republican government, to liberty, and to property. While it exhausts the subject in hand, it abounds in general reflections of the highest value, and in passages rich with the sterling ore of true political wisdom. It anticipates and answers every objection to the main principles on which the authority of all government must be founded, and its arguments are in many respects as applic

able to our own or any other day, as they were to the particular times and circumstances in which they were first written.

The conclusion to which Hamilton came, and which he endeavoured to impart to his fellowcitizens, was, that the proposed Constitution, although not perfect in every part, was upon the whole a good one-the best, perhaps, that the present views and circumstances of the country would permit and such as promised every species of security which a reasonable people could desire. But he laboured also to impress on their minds, that its success or failure must depend, after all, upon them that institutions are in themselves of little avail, unless worked by the energy, and supported by the virtue of freemen. He wished to have a government strong enough to maintain itself against personal cupidity or ambition; but he looked for no permanent existence of such a government, unless it could command the confidence, acquire the affection, and be sustained by the active co-operation of the main body of the people. "If opposition to the National Government should arise," he says, "from the disorderly conduct of refractory or seditious individuals, it could be overcome by the same