Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/220

 1817.[116] Congress then passed a law for increasing the very moderate compensation for the services of members. The act was conceived to be unconstitutional: an alarm was sounded all over the country; the supporters of increased compensation were left out in the election of 1818; and the offensive law was repealed in the ensuing session. A veneration for the constitution is probably the most universal characteristic of American citizens: but they act, as if their united exertions were necessary to keep it in force; and are sensible, that neglect on their part might soon render the important document a dead letter. Every timely check given to the progress of corruption, is removing the necessity of convulsion to a later date. The people having the means of correction in their own hands, the political institutions of this country are to be esteemed as less mutable than the systems that consist entirely of the unmixed ingredients of disease and death. It would be too sanguine to suppose that the American people shall preserve their liberties for ever; but it may be safe to affirm, that nothing decisive in the fate of this country {188} is to be augured from the histories of republics without representation, or of monarchies without popular control. Before Americans relinquish free government, they must be ignorant of their present knowledge; they must cease to teach their children to prize their privileges; and no longer inculcate esteem for the memory of their dauntless ancestors, who fought for the inheritance. Washington, Franklin, and an host of other patriots, must be for-*