ted, and tells you,
it is because he proceeds upon his own judgment; that he acts on the
merits of the several measures as they arise; and that he is obliged to
follow his own conscience, and not that of others; he gives reasons
which it is impossible to controvert, and discovers a character which it
is impossible to mistake. What shall we think of him who never differed
from a certain set of men until the moment they lost their power, and
who never agreed with them in a single instance afterwards? Would not
such a coincidence of interest and opinion be rather fortunate? Would it
not be an extraordinary cast upon the dice, that a man's connections
should degenerate into faction, precisely at the critical moment when
they lose their power, or he accepts a place? When people desert their
connections, the desertion is a manifest _fact_, upon which a direct
simple issue lies, triable by plain men. Whether a _measure_ of
government be right or wrong, is _no matter of fact_, but a mere affair
of opinion, on which men may, as they do, dispute and wrangle without
end. But whether the individual _thinks_ the measure right or wrong, is
a point at still a greater distance from the reach of all human
decision. It is therefore very convenient to politicians, not to put the
judgment of their conduct on overt acts, cognizable in any ordinary
court, but upon such matter as can be triable only in that secret
tribunal, where they are sure of being heard with favor, or where at
worst the sentence will be only private whipping.

I believe the reader would wish to find no substance in a doctrine which
has a tendency to destroy all test of character as deduced from conduct.
He will therefore excuse my adding something more, towards the further
clearing up a point, which the great convenience of obscurity to
dishonesty has been able to cover with some degree of darkness and
doubt.

In order to throw an odium on political connection, those politicians
suppose it a necessary incident to it, that you are blindly to follow
the opinions of your party, when in direct opposition to your own clear
ideas; a degree of servitude that no worthy man could bear the thought
of submitting to; and such as, I believe, no connections (except some
court factions) ever could be so senselessly tyrannical as to impose.
Men thinking freely, will, in particular instances, think differently.
But still as the greater part of the measures which arise in the course
of