Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/406

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as well as by the alarming character of those measures which they were pushing forward in America. They were suspected and accused of a preference for a go- vernment of ranks and orders, and a secret love of titles of nobility; of which it was said, one of their principal leaders had furnished a decisive proof, so far as he was concerned, by having proposed the introduction of titles in the continental convention which had framed the constitution. The party which urged these charges, took the name of republicans and democrats; declared themselves the friends of liberty and the people, and the firm advocates of a government of the people by the people. They were devoted, with enthusiasm, to the cause of liberty in France; considered man as the only title of nobility which ought to be admitted, and his freedom and happiness as the sole objects of govern- ment; this, they contended, was the principle on which the American revolution had turned; that the great objects of the revolution could be no otherwise attained, than by a simple, piire, economical, and chaste admi- nistration of the federal government; and by restricting the several departments, under the new constitution, to the express letter of the powers assigned to them by that instrument.

The federalists, on the other hand, denied and re- pelled, with great acrimony and vehemence, the charges which had been urged against them by their adversa- ries. They contended that the measures complained of, were warranted by the constitution, and were neces- sary to give to the federal government, the effect which was intended by its adoption. They insisted that they were simply, the friends of order and good govemment; and in their turn, branded their adversaries with the

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