osed to the monarchizing its features
by the forms of its administration, with a view to conciliate a first
transition to a President and Senate for life, and from that to an
hereditary tenure of these offices, and thus to worm out the elective
principle. I am for preserving to the States the powers not yielded
by them to the Union, and to the legislature of the Union its
constitutional share, in the division of powers; and I am not for
transferring all the powers of the States to the General Government,
and all those of that government to the executive branch. I am for
a government rigorously frugal and simple, applying all the possible
savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt:
and not for a multiplication of officers and salaries merely to make
partisans, and for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the
principle of its being a public blessing. I am for relying, for internal
defence, on our militia solely, till actual invasion, and for such
a naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors from such
depredations as we have experienced: and not for a standing army in time
of peace, which may overawe the public sentiment; nor for a navy, which,
by its own expenses and the eternal wars in which it will implicate us,
will grind us with public burthens, and sink us under them. I am for
free commerce with all nations; political connection with none;
and little or no diplomatic establishment. And I am not for linking
ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of Europe; entering
that field of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in the
confederacy of kings to war against the principles of liberty. I am for
freedom of religion, and against all manoeuvres to bring about a legal
ascendency of one sect over another: for freedom of the press and
against all violations of the constitution to silence by force and not
by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens
against the conduct of their agents. And I am for encouraging the
progress of science in all its branches: and not for raising a hue and
cry against the sacred name of philosophy; for awing the human mind by
stories of raw-head and bloody-bones to a distrust of its own vision,
and to repose implicitly on that of others; to go backwards instead of
forwards to look for improvement; to believe that government, religion,
morality, and every other science were in the highest perfection in
ages of