tryman, who requested him to write down
his own name on the oyster-shell, what cause of complaint he had against
Aristides; the reply given was, "I have none; except, that I do not like
to hear him always called the _Just_." So it is with the free and
enlightened citizens of America. Let any man rise above his fellows by
superior talent, let him hold a consistent, honest career, and he is
exalted only into a pillory, to be pelted at, and be defiled with
ordure. False accusations, the basest insinuations, are industriously
circulated, his public and private character are equally aspersed, truth
is wholly disregarded: even those who have assisted to raise him to his
pedestal, as soon as they perceive that he has risen too high above
them, are equally industrious and eager to drag him down again.
Defamation exists all over the world, but it is incredible to what an
extent this vice is carried in America. It is a disease which pervades
the land; which renders every man suspicious and cautious of his
neighbour, creates eye-service and hypocrisy, fosters the bitterest and
most malignant passions, and unceasingly irritates the morbid
sensibility, so remarkable among all classes of the American people.

Captain Hamilton, speaking of the political contests, says, "From one
extremity of the Union to the other, the political war slogan is
sounded. No quarter is given on either side; every printing press in
the United States is engaged in the conflict. Reason, justice, and
charity; the claims of age and of past services, of high talents and
unspotted integrity, are forgotten. No lie is too malignant to be
employed in this unhallowed contest, if it can but serve the purpose of
deluding, even for a moment, the most ignorant of mankind. No
insinuation is too base, no equivocation too mean, no artifice too
paltry. The world affords no parallel to the scene of political
depravity exhibited periodically in this free country."

Governor Clinton, in his address to the legislature in 1828,
says--"Party spirit has entered the recesses of retirement, violated the
sanctity of female character, invaded the tranquillity of private life,
and visited with severe inflictions the peace of families. Neither
elevation nor humility has been spared, nor the charities of life, nor
distinguished public services,--nor the fire-side, nor the altar, been
left free from attack; but a licentious and destroying spirit has gone
forth, regardless of ev