hey denote the temper and constitution of mind of different
individuals. To come to our own country, and to the times when you and
I became first acquainted: we well remember the violent parties which
agitated the old Congress, and their bitter contests. There you and
I were together, and the Jays, and the Dickinsons, and other
anti-independents were arrayed against us. They cherished the monarchy
of England, and we the rights of our countrymen. When our present
government was in the mew, passing from Confederation to Union, how
bitter was the schism between the Feds and Antis. Here you and I were
together again. For although, for a moment, separated by the Atlantic
from the scene of action, I favored the opinion that nine States should
confirm the constitution, in order to secure it, and the others hold
off, until certain amendments, deemed favorable to freedom, should
be made. I rallied in the first instant to the wiser proposition of
Massachusetts, that all should confirm, and then all instruct their
delegates to urge those amendments. The amendments were made, and
all were reconciled to the government. But as soon as it was put into
motion, the line of division was again drawn. We broke into two parties,
each wishing to give the government a different direction; the one
to strengthen the most popular branch, the other the more permanent
branches, and to extend their permanence. Here you and I separated for
the first time: and as we had been longer than most others on the public
theatre, and our names therefore were more familiar to our countrymen,
the party which considered you as thinking with them, placed your
name at their head; the other, for the same reason, selected mine. But
neither decency nor inclination permitted us to become the advocates
of ourselves, or to take part personally in the violent contests which
followed. We suffered ourselves, as you so well expressed it, to be
passive subjects of public discussion. And these discussions, whether
relating to men, measures, or opinions, were conducted by the parties
with an animosity, a bitterness, and an indecency, which had never been
exceeded. All the resources of reason and of wrath were exhausted
by each party in support of its own, and to prostrate the adversary
opinions; one was upbraided with receiving the anti-federalists, the
other the old tories and refugees, into their bosom. Of this acrimony,
the public papers of the day exhibit ample testimony, in