waive all pretensions (founded on such conduct), to their
countenance. I consider them in general as very ill qualified to judge for
themselves what government will best suit their peculiar situations; nor
is this to be wondered at. The science of government is not easily
understood. Cato will admit, I presume, that men of good education and
deep reflection, only, are judges of the _form_ of a government; whether
it is constituted on such principles as will restrain arbitrary power, on
the one hand, and equal to the exclusion of corruption and the destruction
of licentiousness on the other; whether the New Constitution, if adopted,
will prove adequate to such desirable ends, time, the mother of events,
will show. For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system, which, without
the finger of _God_, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by
such a diversity of interests. I will not presume to say that a more
perfect system might not have been fabricated; but who expects perfection
at once? And it may be asked, _who are judges of it_? Few, I believe, who
have leisure to study the nature of Government scientifically, but will
frequently disagree about the quantum of power to be delegated to Rulers,
and the different modifications of it. Ingenious men will give every
plausible, and, it may be, pretty substantial reasons, for the adoption of
two plans of Government, which shall be fundamentally different in their
construction, and not less so in their operation; yet both, if honestly
administered, might operate with safety and advantage. When a new form of
government is fabricated, it lies with the people at large to receive or
reject it--that is, their _inherent rights_. Now, I would ask (without
intending to triumph over the weaknesses or follies of any men), how are
the people to profit by this inherent right? By what conduct do they
discover that they are sensible of their own interests in this situation?
Is it by the exercise of a well-disciplined reason, and a correspondent
education? I believe not. How then? As I humbly conceive, by a tractable
and docile disposition, and by honest men endeavoring to keep their minds
easy, while others, of the same disposition, with the advantages of genius
and learning, are constructing the bark that may, by the blessing of
Heaven, carry them to the port of rest and happiness, if they will embark
without diffidence and proceed without mutiny. I know this is blunt and
ungracious r