lled by its continuance. It is even not
uncommon to hear them laud the delights of a republican government, and
the advantages of democratic institutions, when they are in public.
Next to hating their enemies, men are most inclined to flatter them.
But beneath this artificial enthusiasm, and these obsequious attentions
to the preponderating power, it is easy to perceive that the wealthy
members of the community entertain a hearty distaste to the democratic
institutions of their country. The populace is at once the object of
their scorn and of their fears. If the maladministration of the
democracy ever brings about a revolutionary crisis, and if monarchial
constitutions ever become practicable in the United States, the truth of
what I advance will become obvious."

It appears, then, that the more respectable portion of its citizens have
retired, leaving the arena open to those who are least worthy: that the
majority dictate, and scarcely any one ventures to oppose them; if any
one does, he is immediately sacrificed; the press, obdient to its
masters, pours out its virulence, and it is incredible how rapidly a
man, unless he be of a superior mind, falls into nothingness in the
United States, when once he has dared to oppose the popular will. He is
morally bemired, bespattered, and trod under foot, until he remains a
lifeless carcase. He falls, never to rise again, unhonoured and
unremembered.

Captain Hamilton, speaking to one of the federalist, or aristocratical
party, received the following reply. I have received similar ones in
more than fifty instances. "My opinions, and I believe those of the
party to which I belonged, are unchanged; and the course of events in
this country has been such as to impress only a deeper and more thorough
conviction of their wisdom; but, in the present state of public feeling,
we _dare not_ express them. An individual professing such opinions
would not only find himself excluded from every office of public trust
within the scope of his reasonable ambition, but he would be regarded by
his neighbours and fellow-citizens with an evil eye. His words and
actions would become the objects of jealous and malignant scrutiny, and
he would have to sustain the unceasing attacks of a host of unscrupulous
and ferocious assailants."

Mr Cooper says, "The besetting, the _degrading vice_ of America is the
moral cowardice by which men are led to truckle to what is called public
opinion, though n