constitution, the
prospect of a war, in which we shall stand alone, land-tax, stamp-tax,
increase of public debt, &c. Be this as it may, in every free and
deliberating society, there must, from the nature of man, be opposite
parties, and violent dissensions and discords; and one of these, for
the most part, must prevail over the other for a longer or shorter time.
Perhaps this party division is necessary to induce each to watch and
delate to the people the proceedings of the other. But if on a temporary
superiority of the one party, the other is to resort to a scission of
the Union, no federal government can ever exist. If to rid ourselves of
the present rule of Massachusetts and Connecticut, we break the Union,
will the evil stop there? Suppose the New England States alone cut off,
will our natures be changed? Are we not men still to the south of
that, and with all the passions of men? Immediately, we shall see a
Pennsylvania and a Virginia party arise in the residuary confederacy,
and the public mind will be distracted with the same party-spirit.
What a game too will the one party have in their hands, by eternally
threatening the other, that unless they do so and so, they will join
their northern neighbors. If we reduce our Union to Virginia and North
Carolina, immediately the conflict will be established between the
representatives of these two States, and they will end by breaking into
their simple units. Seeing, therefore, that an association of men who
will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed,
from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town-meeting or a
vestry; seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel with, I had rather
keep our New England associates for that purpose, than to see our
bickerings transferred to others. They are circumscribed within such
narrow limits, and their population so full, that their numbers will
ever be the minority, and they are marked, like the Jews, with such a
perversity of character, as to constitute, from that circumstance, the
natural division of our parties. A little patience, and we shall see
the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people
recovering their true sight, restoring their government to its true
principles. It is true, that in the mean time, we are suffering deeply
in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war, and long oppressions
of enormous public debt. But who can say what would be the evils of a
scissio