Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1853).djvu/154

138 there had been added to this example those of Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, in all of which the Republican form had been found equal to the task of carrying them through the severest trials. In this State alone did there exist so little virtue, that fear was to be fixed in the hearts of the people, and to become the motive of their exertions and the principle of their government? The very thought alone was treason against the people; was treason against mankind in general; as rivetting forever the chains which bow down their necks, by giving to their oppressors a proof, which they would have trumpeted through the universe, of the imbecility of Republican Government, in times of pressing danger, to shield them from harm. Those who assume the right of giving away the reins of government in any case, must be sure that the herd, whom they hand on to the rods and hatchet of the dictator, will lay their necks on the block when he shall nod to them. But if our assemblies supposed such a resignation in the people, I hope they mistook their character. I am of opinion that the government, instead of being braced and invigorated for greater exertions under their difficulties, would have been thrown back upon the bungling machinery of county committees for administration, till a convention could have been called, and its wheels again set into regular motion. What a cruel moment was this for creating such an embarrassment, for putting to the proof the attachment of our countrymen to Republican Government. Those who meant well of the advocates for this measure, (and most of them meant well, for I know them personally, had been their fellow laborers in the common cause, and had often proved the purity of their principles,) had been seduced in their judgment by the example of an ancient Republic, whose constitution and circumstances were fundamentally different. They had sought this precedent in the history of Rome, where alone it was to be found, and where at length too it had proved fatal. They had taken it from a Republic, rent by the most bitter factions and tumults, where the government was of a heavy-handed, unfeeling aristocracy, over a