Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/407

 LIFE OF HENRT. 38S

name of jacobins, who having caught the mania from France, were for overturning all government, and throwing every thing into anarchy and uproar, in the hope of rising themselves to the top of the chaos. They alleged that the opposition was formed of the dregs of the American people, headed and goaded on by a few designing men, and fermented into faction by the revo- lutionary elements thrown among them, from abroad, in the shape of French and Irish emigrants and con- victs. They insisted, that it was indispensably neces- sary to the peace and order of the American nation, that those foreign incendiaries should be driven out from the land, and that the licentious fuiy of our own populace also, should be bridled. Under this impres- sion, were passed those alien and sedition laws, which are supposed to have put an end to the federal power in America.

It is not my function to decide between these par- ties; nor do I feel myself qualified for such an office. I have lived too near the times, and am conscious of hav- ing been too strongly excited by the feelings of the day, to place myself in the chair of the arbiter. It would, indeed, be no difficult task to present, under the en- gaging air of historic candour, the arguments on one side, in an attitude so bold and commanding; and to exhibit those on the other, under a form so faint and shadowy, as to beguile the reader into the adoption of my own opinions. But this would be unjust to the opposite party, and a disingenuous abuse of the confi- dence of the reader. Let us then, remit the question to the historian of future ages; who, if the particular memory of the past times shall not be lost in those great events which seem preparing for the nation.

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