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046 - Chapter 31 - Part 7 · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Section forty sixth of History of the Rise, Progress and
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. History of the Rise, Progress and
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  Speaker 1: Termination at the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one, Part seven. After Great Britain had acknowledged
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  Speaker 1: the independence of the dismembered colonies, mister Adams was sent
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  Speaker 1: to England with a view of negotiating a treaty of commerce.
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  Speaker 1: But the government too sore for the loss of the colonies,
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  Speaker 1: and the nation too much soured by the breach, nothing
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  Speaker 1: was done. He, however, resided there four or five years,
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  Speaker 1: and unfortunately for himself and his country, he became so
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  Speaker 1: inappolant with the British Constitution and the government manners and
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  Speaker 1: laws of the nation, that a partiality for monarchy appeared,
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  Speaker 1: which was inconsistent with his former professions of republicanism. Time
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  Speaker 1: and circumstances often lead so imperfect to creature as man
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  Speaker 1: to view the same thing in a very different point
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  Speaker 1: of light. After mister Adams's return from England, he was
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  Speaker 1: implicated by a large portion of his countrymen as having
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  Speaker 1: relinquished the Republican system and forgotten the principles of the
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  Speaker 1: American Revolution, which he had advocated for nearly twenty years.
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  Speaker 1: The political errors of men of talents sometimes spring from
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  Speaker 1: their own passions, often from their prejudices imbibed by local
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  Speaker 1: or incidental circumstances, and not unfrequently from the versatile condition
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  Speaker 1: of man, which renders it difficult at one period to
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  Speaker 1: decide on the best systems civil government, or at another
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  Speaker 1: on the most effectual means of promoting the general happiness
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  Speaker 1: of mankind. This may lead the candid mind to cast
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  Speaker 1: avail over that ambiguity which confounds opinion, and that counteraction
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  Speaker 1: of former principles, which often sets a man in opposition
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  Speaker 1: to himself and prevents that uniformity of conduct which dignifies,
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  Speaker 1: and that consistency which adorns the character. Pride of talents,
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  Speaker 1: and much ambition will undoubtedly combined in the character of
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  Speaker 1: the president who immediately succeeded General Washington, and the existing
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  Speaker 1: circumstances of his country, with his own capacity for business,
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  Speaker 1: gave him an opportunity for the full gratification of the
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  Speaker 1: most prominent features of his character, endowed with the comprehensive genius,
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  Speaker 1: while acquainted with the history of men and of nations,
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  Speaker 1: and having long appeared to be actuated by the principles
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  Speaker 1: of integrity, by a zeal for the rights of men,
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  Speaker 1: and an honest indignation the ideas of despotism, it was
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  Speaker 1: viewed as a kind of political phenomenon when discovered that
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  Speaker 1: mister Adams's former opinions will be clouded by a partiality
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  Speaker 1: for monarchy. It may, however, be charitably presumed that by
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  Speaker 1: living long near the splendor of courts and courtiers, with
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  Speaker 1: other concurring circumstances, he might become so biased in his
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  Speaker 1: judgment as to think that an aredditary monarchy was the
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  Speaker 1: best government for his native country. Footnote circumstances may in
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  Speaker 1: some future day render it necessary to adopt this mode
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  Speaker 1: of government. In the United States, Rome had not a
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  Speaker 1: master until the people had become prepared for the yelp
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  Speaker 1: by their dissensions and quollies. These, more than the arm
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  Speaker 1: of Caesar, revetted their chains and sent them to a
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  Speaker 1: level with the most abject and several nations, and a footnote.
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  Speaker 1: From his knowledge of men, he was sensible it was
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  Speaker 1: easy to in the title of public opinion in vapor
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  Speaker 1: of any system supported by plausible argumentation. Thus he drew
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  Speaker 1: a doleful picture of the confusion and dissolution of all republics,
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  Speaker 1: and presented it to the eyes of his countrymen under
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  Speaker 1: the title of the Defense of their Constitutions. This had
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  Speaker 1: a powerful tendency to shake their republican system through the
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  Speaker 1: United States. Yet the predilection of Americans in general in
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  Speaker 1: favor of republican form of government was so strong that
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  Speaker 1: few had the hardiness to counteract it until several years
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  Speaker 1: after the United States had become an independent nation. On
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  Speaker 1: mister Adams's return from England, he undoubtedly discovered a partiality
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  Speaker 1: in favor of Mondoctic government and few scruples to serve
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  Speaker 1: for time that he exerted his abilities to encourage the
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  Speaker 1: operation of those principles in America. But any further strictures
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  Speaker 1: are unnecessary in this place. On the character of a
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  Speaker 1: gentleman whose official stations, abilities, and services amidst the revolutionary
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  Speaker 1: conflict may probably excite some future historian to investigate the
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  Speaker 1: causes of his lapse from former Republican principles, and to
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  Speaker 1: observe with due propriety on his administration and its consequences
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  Speaker 1: while President of the United States. It is with more
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  Speaker 1: pleasure the writer records that, notwithstanding any mistakes or changes
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  Speaker 1: in political opinion, or errors in public conduct, mister Adams
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  Speaker 1: in private life supported it unimpeachable character. His habits of morality, decency,
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  Speaker 1: and religion rendered him amiable in his family and beloved
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  Speaker 1: by his neighbors. The opinions of a man of such
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  Speaker 1: sobriety of manners, political experience, and general knowledge of morals, law,
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  Speaker 1: and government will ever have a powerful effect on society,
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  Speaker 1: and must naturally influence the people, more especially the rising generation,
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  Speaker 1: the young men who have not had the opportunity of
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  Speaker 1: acquainting themselves with the character, police, and jurisprudence of nations,
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  Speaker 1: or with the history of their own country, much less
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  Speaker 1: with the principles of which the American Revolution was grounded.
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  Speaker 1: There is a propensity in the unkind to enlist themselves
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  Speaker 1: under the authority of names, and to adopt the opinions
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  Speaker 1: of men of celebrity, more from the fashion of the
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  Speaker 1: times than from the convictions of reason. Thus, with the
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  Speaker 1: borrowed language of their chieftain, they impose upon themselves until
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  Speaker 1: they think his opinions are their own, and are often
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  Speaker 1: brought up to such as fierce spirit of contention, and
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  Speaker 1: they appear ready to defend them in all the cruel
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  Speaker 1: modes of the savage, who is seldom actuated by motives
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  Speaker 1: of gander and forgiveness of injuries. Both history and experience
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  Speaker 1: have proved that when party feuds have thus divided a nation,
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  Speaker 1: urbanity and benevolence are laid aside, and influenced by the
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  Speaker 1: most malignant and corrupt passions. They lose sight of the
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  Speaker 1: sacred obligations of virtue, until there appears little difference in
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  Speaker 1: the ferocious spirits of men in the most refined and
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  Speaker 1: civilized society, nor among the rude and barbarous voids of
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  Speaker 1: the wilderness. Though some symptoms of this degradation of the
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  Speaker 1: human character have appeared in America, we hope the cloud
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  Speaker 1: is fast dissipating, and that no vicissitudes in human affairs,
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  Speaker 1: no intrigues of the interesting, nor any mistakes of upright men,
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  Speaker 1: will have a damned the prospect of the establishment and
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  Speaker 1: continuance of a republican system, which appears to be best
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  Speaker 1: adapted to the genius of Americans. This form of government
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  Speaker 1: has the voice of the majority. The energies and sacrifices
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  Speaker 1: of the Sons of Columbia have been exerted to leave
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  Speaker 1: a republican form defined, modified and digested as a model
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  Speaker 1: to promote the happiness of posterity. Yet there is still
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  Speaker 1: a division of parties and a variety of sentiment relative
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  Speaker 1: to a subject that has heated the imaginations and divided
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  Speaker 1: the opinions of mankind on the rise of the Roman
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  Speaker 1: Republic to the destruction of resplendid Empire, and from that
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  Speaker 1: day to the present, when the divisions of the literati
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  Speaker 1: of every age have called the attention of genius and
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  Speaker 1: ability to speculate and to dissent in their ideas of
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  Speaker 1: the best modents and forms of government, it may be
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  Speaker 1: a subject of wonder and inquiry that those so many
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  Speaker 1: ages have elapsed, and so great a part of the
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  Speaker 1: world been civilized and improved, that the science of politics
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  Speaker 1: is still darkened by the variety of opinions that prevail
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  Speaker 1: among mankind. Maybe beyond the reach of human genius to
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  Speaker 1: construct a fabric so free as to release from subordination,
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  Speaker 1: nor in the present condition of mankind, are ever to
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  Speaker 1: be wished. Authority and obedience are necessary to preserve social
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  Speaker 1: order and to continue the prosperity or even the existence
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  Speaker 1: of nations. But it may be observed that despotism is
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  Speaker 1: not always the certain consequence of monarchy nor freedom. This
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  Speaker 1: your results of republican theories. It would be presumption in
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  Speaker 1: the writer to entangle herself on a subject to such
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  Speaker 1: magnitude and importance as to decide peremptorily whether aristocratic, monarchical,
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  Speaker 1: or democratic government is best adapted to the general happiness
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  Speaker 1: of the people. This shall be left to bolder pens.
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  Speaker 1: She will indulge little farther aberrations of hers after the
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  Speaker 1: expression of her wish. Then, amidst the heterogeneous opinions of
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  Speaker 1: a theoretic age, America may not trifle away her advantages
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  Speaker 1: by her own folly and lepidy, nor be robbed of
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  Speaker 1: any of the essential rights which have caused her so dear.
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  Speaker 1: But the intrigues or the ambitions of any class of men,
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  Speaker 1: the speculative of every age, have theorized on a system
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  Speaker 1: of perfect republicanism. But the experiment has much often failed
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  Speaker 1: in practice among all mankind, then been crowned with success
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  Speaker 1: those that have come near us. Thereto, the Free states
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  Speaker 1: of Greece, the Achi and League, the amfictions of the
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  Speaker 1: Confederacy fell under the power of Philip, Alexander and their successors.
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  Speaker 1: The Republic of Athens, the most conspicuous among the ancients,
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  Speaker 1: corrupted by riches and luxury, was wasted and lost by
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  Speaker 1: the intrigues of its own ambitious citizens. In Commonwealth, the
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  Speaker 1: proud boast, the pattern and exemplar of all republics, fell
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  Speaker 1: under the despotism of a long line of Caesar's, generally
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  Speaker 1: the most debauched and brutal race of emperors that ever
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  Speaker 1: disgraced human nature. More modern experiments venice, and indeed all
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  Speaker 1: the Italian states who boasted their freedom were subjected to
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  Speaker 1: the tyranny of an oligarchic or aristocracy, frequently more severe
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  Speaker 1: and cruel than that of bonarchy. In England, the struggles
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  Speaker 1: of Hampton and his virtuous associates were lost, and the
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  Speaker 1: strong reasonings of the patriots of that day in favor
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  Speaker 1: of freedom were obliterated after the death of Charles by
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  Speaker 1: the armful the hypocritical and the arbitrary Cromwell, and the
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  Speaker 1: most voluptuous of kings, was restored and receded on the
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  Speaker 1: throne of Britain. Thus, from the first of the Stewards
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  Speaker 1: to the last of the line of Brunswick, who have
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  Speaker 1: yet ran aimed their republican opinions in the freedom of
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  Speaker 1: the nation, have been in the wain, and have finally
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  Speaker 1: sunk into an empty name under the tyranny of George
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  Speaker 1: the Third. Indeed, the most enlightened, rational and independent characters
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  Speaker 1: in Great Britain continue still to defend the principles of
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  Speaker 1: liberty with their pends, or they have had reason to
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  Speaker 1: apprehend his total extinction through the realm. Innumerable other instances
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  Speaker 1: might be adduced of the defeat of republicanism in spite
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  Speaker 1: of the efforts of his most zealous friends. Yet this
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  Speaker 1: is no proof that this system of government may not
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  Speaker 1: be more productive of happiness to mankind than that of
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  Speaker 1: monarchy or aristocracy. The United States of America have now
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  Speaker 1: a fair experiment of republican system to make for themselves.
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  Speaker 1: They may perhaps be possessed of more materials that promise
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  Speaker 1: success than have ever fallen to the law of any
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  Speaker 1: other nation. From the peculiar circumstances of the emigration of
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  Speaker 1: the ancestors, there is little reason to fear that a
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  Speaker 1: vale of darkness, tyranny, and barbarity will soon overspread the
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  Speaker 1: land to which they fled. These were set of men
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  Speaker 1: very different of principles and manners from any that are
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  Speaker 1: to be found in the histories of colonization, where it
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  Speaker 1: may be observed the first plants have been generally either
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  Speaker 1: men of enterprise for the acquisition of riches or fame,
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  Speaker 1: or convicted villains transported for more civilized societies. In the
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  Speaker 1: outset of the American Revolution, the arm of foreign Powell
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  Speaker 1: was supposed by a people uncontaminated by foreign luxury, the
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  Speaker 1: intricacies of foreign politics or the theological jargon of metaphysical
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  Speaker 1: skeptics of foreign extract. Philosophy then conveyed honorable ideas of science,
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  Speaker 1: of religion, and morals. The character is since degraded by
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  Speaker 1: the unprincipled sience chasms of men of letters who assumed
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  Speaker 1: the dignity of philosophic thought. Instead of unfolding the sources
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  Speaker 1: of knowledge and inculcating truth, they often confound without convincing
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  Speaker 1: and by their sophistical reasonings leave the superficial Breeder their
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  Speaker 1: newly initiated disciple on the comfortless chores of annihilation and
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  Speaker 1: of Section forty six