Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/151

Rh Thee obervations are not peculiar to any age; we have een the effects of them in St. Marino, Bicay, and the Grions, as well as in Poland, and all other countries. Not to mention any notable examples, which have lately happened near us, it is not many months ince I was witnes to a converation between ome citizens of Maachuett's: one was haranguing on the jealouy which a free people ought to entertain of their liberties, and was heard by all the company with pleaure; in les than ten minutes the converation turned upon their governor; and the jealous republican was very angry at the oppoition to him. "The preent governor," ays he, "has done us uch ervices, that he ought to rule us, he and his poterity after him for ever and ever." Where is your jealouy of liberty? demanded the other. "Upon my honour," replies the orator, "I had forgot that; you have caught me in an inconitency; for I cannot know whether a child of five years old will be a on of liberty or a tyrant." His jealouy was the dictate of his undertanding: his confidence and enthuiam the impule of his heart.

The pompous trumpery of enigns, armorials, and ecutcheons, are not indeed far advanced in America. Yet there is a more general anxiety to know their originals, in proportion to their numbers, than in any nation of Europe; ariing from the eaier circumtances and higher pirit of the common people: and there are certain families in every tate, as attentive to all the proud frivolities of heraldry. That kind of pride which looks down on commerce and manufactures as degrading, may indeed, in many countries of Europe, be a ueful and neceary quality in the nobility: it may prevent, in ome degree, the whole nation from