and Pennfylvania, in all of which the republican form had been found equal to the tafK of carrying tiiem through the fevereft trials. In this flate alone did I 245 J there exift fo little virtue, that fear was to be fixed in the hearts of the people, and to become the motive of their exer- tions, and principle of their government? The very thought alone was trea- fon againft the people ; was treafon againft mankind in general ; as rivetting for ever the chains which bow down their necks, by giving to their oppreflbrs a proof, which they would have trumpeted through the univerfe, of the imbecility of repubUcan government, in times of prefling danger, to fhield them from harm. Thofe who afTume the right of giving away the reins ofgovernment in any cafe, muft be fure that the herd, whom they hand on to the rods and hatchet of the didator, will lay their necks on the block when he fhall nod to them. But if our aflemblies fuppofed fuch a refig- nation in the people, I hope they miftook their charafter. I am of opinion, that the government, inftead of being braced and invigorated for greater exertions un- der their difficulties, would have been thrown back upon the bungling machinery of county committees for adminiftration.
till a convention could have been called, and its wlieels again fet into regular motion. What a cruel moment was this for creating fuch an embaraffment, for putting to the proof the attachment of our coun- trymen to republican government! Thofe who meant well, of the advocates for this meafure, (and moft of them meant well, for I know them perfonally, had been their fellow-labourer in the common caufe, and had often proved the purity of their principles,) had been feduced in their judgment by the example of an ancient repubHc, whofe conftitution and circum- ftances were fundamentally different. They had fought this precedent in the hiftory of Rome, where alone it was to be found, and where at length too it had proved fatal. They had taken it from a repubHc rent by the moft bitter faftions and tumults, where the government was of a heavy-handed unfeeling ariftrocacy, over a people ferocious, and rendered defperate by poverty and wretchednefs; tumults