The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...
The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...
The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...
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<strong>Online</strong> <strong>Library</strong> <strong>of</strong> Liberty: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Diary</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Letters</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Gouverneur</strong> <strong>Morris</strong>, <strong>vol</strong>. 2<br />
legislatures, being under the immediate view <strong>of</strong> their constituents, will find the truth<br />
<strong>of</strong> the old adage, ‘Too much familiarity breeds contempt.’ <strong>The</strong> present amendment <strong>of</strong><br />
the Constitution is urged by Virginia <strong>and</strong> New York for the purpose <strong>of</strong> dividing<br />
between them, at the next election, the two first <strong>of</strong>fices <strong>of</strong> the Union. Virginia was<br />
almost in open re<strong>vol</strong>t against the national authority during Mr. Adams’s reign because<br />
a Yankee, <strong>and</strong> not a Virginian, was President, <strong>and</strong> laws are passed in conformity with<br />
fine maxims, assumed from the British constitution, which give to a Virginia<br />
President royal power. Not by mere inference, but by downright demonstration, it is<br />
shown that the republican party were not dissatisfied because the power <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Government was too great, but because it was not in their h<strong>and</strong>s. <strong>The</strong> false principles<br />
which they have dignified with the name <strong>of</strong> republican principles—hostile to all<br />
government, <strong>and</strong> immediately fatal to all republican government—were only assumed<br />
to lead honest men by slow but sure degrees to abjure the principles <strong>of</strong> our<br />
Constitution, <strong>and</strong> co-operate in their own subjugation to the aristocracies <strong>of</strong> Virginia<br />
<strong>and</strong> New York. You may, from what I have said, be inclined to set me down as a<br />
croaker, but in this you would be deceived. <strong>The</strong>re is always a counter-current in<br />
human affairs which opposes alike both good <strong>and</strong> evil. While the republican form<br />
lasts we shall be tolerably well governed, <strong>and</strong> when we are fairly afloat again on the<br />
tempestuous sea <strong>of</strong> liberty, our Cromwell or Bonaparte must so far comply with<br />
national habit as to give us an independent judiciary <strong>and</strong> something like a popular<br />
representation. Like the forked, featherless bipeds which have preceded them, our<br />
posterity will be shaken into the political form which shall be most suitable to their<br />
physical <strong>and</strong> moral state. <strong>The</strong>y will be born, procreate, <strong>and</strong> die like the rest <strong>of</strong><br />
creation, while here <strong>and</strong> there some accomplished scoundrels, rari nantes in gurgite<br />
vasto, will give their names to the periods <strong>of</strong> history.”<br />
“I like well your treaty with France,” <strong>Morris</strong> wrote to Robert L. Livingston,<br />
November 28th, “<strong>and</strong> have declared to my friends, some <strong>of</strong> whom are not pleased<br />
with the declaration, that it is in my opinion one <strong>of</strong> the best we have made. Our party,<br />
though with numerous exceptions, opposed it; for one reason, that it cost money the<br />
greater part <strong>of</strong> which we to the northward must pay, <strong>and</strong> it gains territory which will,<br />
in their apprehension, by giving strength to the Southern representation, diminish the<br />
Eastern influence in our councils. <strong>The</strong>y dislike it, also, because it has strengthened an<br />
administration which they abhor. To tell you an important truth, my friend, you have<br />
saved that administration, who, in return, will never forgive you for performing,<br />
without orders <strong>and</strong> without power, such great public service. Your conduct is a satire<br />
on theirs, for you have gained what they did not dare ask.<br />
“I agree with you in the opinion that the late negotiation was conducted miserably on<br />
the part <strong>of</strong> Britain. But mark how the affairs <strong>of</strong> this world run: the King’s Ministers,<br />
having bungled themselves into a miserable peace, bungled themselves out <strong>of</strong> it into<br />
an expensive war, <strong>and</strong> have thereby roused the national spirit, depressed before; <strong>and</strong><br />
now it is well within the circle <strong>of</strong> probabilities that events to which they are but<br />
solemn witnesses shall get them gloriously through the contest, <strong>and</strong> place their<br />
country foremost in the rank <strong>of</strong> nations. Britain, by continuing the war, may break the<br />
power <strong>of</strong> France; for even if the First Consul get over with fifty thous<strong>and</strong> men, his<br />
condition will be perilous. While hemmed up in Britain, his affairs on the Continent<br />
may run wild. If he be successful, the greater powers <strong>of</strong> Europe may perceive that<br />
PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 233 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1170