Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/23

Rh extraordinary fact, that the same expedient was devised to conceal the murderers, in the well known case of Morgan, who fell a victim to the exaggeration and weakness of some of the members of the Masonic Fraternity.

By examining the different republicks of ancient and modern times, it would be found that most of them had little more than the profession of liberty, though all substituted in thorn the right of the community for that of a monarch, as a primary principle. This feature, then, must be taken as the distinction between this form of government and that of kingdoms, or of the sovereignties in which one rules, or is supposed to rule.

Republicks may be aristocratical, or democratical; and they may so nearly approach both, as to render it matter of doubt to which class they properly belong; for the political combinations of communities, in a practical sense, are so numerous as almost to defeat accurate general definitions.

ON THE REPUBLICK OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

The government of the United States, differs from all others that have preceded it, though some imitations have been attempted in the southern parts of this continent. Its novelty, no less than its complicated nature, arising from its double system, has given birth to many errors in relation to its principles and its action, even among its own citizens, as well as among strangers.