employment, to adjust the relative _quantum_
of violence between these contending parties. There was enough in each,
as must always be expected in popular governments. With a great deal of
popular and decorous discussion, there was mingled a great deal, also,
of declamation, virulence, crimination, and abuse. In regard to any
party, probably, at one of the leading epochs in the history of parties,
enough may be found to make out another inflamed exhibition, not unlike
that with which the honorable member has edified us. For myself, Sir, I
shall not rake among the rubbish of bygone times, to see what I can
find, or whether I cannot find something by which I can fix a blot on
the escutcheon of any State, any party, or any part of the country.
General Washington's administration was steadily and zealously
maintained, as we all know, by New England. It was violently opposed
elsewhere. We know in what quarter he had the most earnest, constant,
and persevering support, in all his great and leading measures. We know
where his private and personal character was held in the highest degree
of attachment and veneration; and we know, too, where his measures were
opposed, his services slighted, and his character vilified. We know, or
we might know, if we turned to the journals, who expressed respect,
gratitude, and regret, when he retired from the chief magistracy, and
who refused to express either respect, gratitude, or regret. I shall not
open those journals. Publications more abusive or scurrilous never saw
the light, than were sent forth against Washington, and all his leading
measures, from presses south of New England. But I shall not look them
up. I employ no scavengers, no one is in attendance on me, furnishing
such means of retaliation; and if there were, with an ass's load of
them, with a bulk as huge as that which the gentleman himself has
produced, I would not touch one of them. I see enough of the violence of
our own times, to be no way anxious to rescue from forgetfulness the
extravagances of times past.

Besides, what is all this to the present purpose? It has nothing to do
with the public lands, in regard to which the attack was begun; and it
has nothing to do with those sentiments and opinions which, I have
thought, tend to disunion and all of which the honorable member seems to
have adopted himself, and undertaken to defend. New England has, at
times, so argues the gentleman, held opinions as dangerous as those
whi