cases, the state is the same party. A change of representation no more alters the identity of the party to a contract, than a man changing his coat makes him another man.

It is not unusual for a state, in granting charters, to reserve the right of repealing the act-a reservation which shows that legislatures have always considered a grant without such reservation as not repealable. Indeed all the principles of justice and right, in regard to the contracts of individuals with each other, are applicable to grants and contracts of

states.

The citizen or citizens who accept a charter, with a clause of reservation as above stated, accept the grant on the condition specified, and no injury is done by the legislature in taking back the grant.

The doctrine that there can be no vested rights subverts the foundation of society; and a country, adopting and acting on that doctrine, would soon be depopulated, or compelled to submit to be governed by a military force.

Many of our public evils have evidently proceeded from false opinions, propagated by some of the founders of our government. Their ideas of a free government were not always correct. Mr. Jefferson, and many other distinguished men, believed, that men can govern them. selves without a master; meaning, probably, without a king. True, but they can not govern themselves without a controlling power, a force of some kind or other that shall be sufficient to keep them in subjection. If the citizens of a state will voluntarily create such a power, they can be governed; if they will not, they can not be governed; that is, there can be no regular administration of just laws without a coercive power. If men will not have a king, they must have laws and magistrates, armed with power to bring them all into obedience. If this is not the fact, there is no free government.

We hear it constantly proclaimed, that men may be governed by reason. Why then have they never before been governed by reason? Why do not men govern their social actions without law? Why do not parties in controversy settle their private disputes by the dictates of their reason? Why are courts, consisting of men uninterested in the controversies of individuals, established to decide upon questions of private rights? If men are capable of governing themselves by rea son, why have all democratic and republican governments come to ruin ? Why have they not been permanent ?

Corruption, it will be said, has ruined them. True; and this is conceding the whole question. It is the depravity of man which has ruined all former free governments, and which will ruin ours.

We have already had terrible examples of the manner in which men govern themselves without a master, that is, not only without a king, but without a competent force of law. And it is not a little singular, that when the citizens of Baltimore had suffered immensely by popular violence, they had no remedy except to organize a military force of volunteers for their protection. What is more worthy of notice, they gave the command to one who had, all his life, been devoted to demo. cratic principles, and who thus became the master of the people, who were supposed to be able to govern themselves without a master.

The truth is, many of our leading political men, during and after the Revolution, were visionary enthusiasts, who had read history without profit, or due application of historical facts. Their ideas were crude, and utterly at variance with the truth of history, and with all experience. They seem to have supposed, that to obtain liberty, and establish a free government, nothing was necessary but to get rid of kings, nobles, and priests; never considering that the same principles of human nature, and the same disposition to tyrannize, exist in all other men, and that the people, when they have the power, will abuse it, and be as tyrannical as kings. This mistake has led to deplorable consequences; one of which is, that people mistake the nature of tyranny or oppression, supposing that the sovereign people may do that which a king can not do without oppression. One judge has publicly declared, that if a small number of persons are guilty of violating law, they may be indicted; but if a great multitude outrage law and rights, they can not be indicted or punished. It is painful to the friends of a republic that such a monstrous doctrine should be uttered by any man whose duty is to carry laws into effect.

We continually hear eulogies on the happy condition of the citizens of the United States; resulting from the freedom of our government. These eulogies, to a certain extent, are well founded. Our active, industrious, and enterprising citizens, possessing a vast extent of fertile land, growing and profitable manufactures, and a commerce that reaches every spot on the globe, enjoy blessings-beyond those of any other country. But, on the other hand, we are subjected to injustice and tyranny in a thousand ways. For thirty years past, party spirit has produced a constant series of oppression; the triumphant party using its power to deprive the defeated party of its rights. The proscriptions inflicted on men in office for holding political principles different from the dominant party, are among the most detestable acts of tyranny.

The infringements of the most solemn treaties, the palpable violations of the constitution, and the usurpation of unconstitutional powers by the executive, exhibit most woful departures from the genuine principles of a free government. And it may be questioned, whether any kingdom in the civilized part of Europe has suffered so many violations of public and private rights, as the people of the United States have suffered within thirty years, without an attempt to punish their oppressors.

And now we read, in our public prints, repeated complaints of misrule, and outbreakings of popular violence; and the writers seem to be surprised at such events. They do not consider, that these outrages are the natural, not to say necessary, consequences of the doctrines which they themselves, in many cases, have been preaching or eulogizing ever since the constitution was formed. Such men are beginning to learn that men must have something to govern them besides reason. Most persons seem to think that the election of a good president will remedy all our evils. This is a vain hope; a temporary alleviation is all that is to be expected from the best chief magistrate that the United States can find. There are defects in our form of government, and errors in popular opinions, that no administration can rectify; and until such defects are amended, and such errors corrected, we shall continue

to be a divided, distracted community; incessantly agitated by violent factions; each in its turn triumphing and oppressing the other.

One thing is certain, that the election of the chief magistrate must be conducted in some way that shall effectually prevent intriguing for the office. If this can not be effected, the constitution, for securing a just administration and equal rights, is not worth a straw.

Another thing is equally certain, that unless executive and judicial officers can be placed beyond the influence of popular caprice, many of them at least will be time-servers, the laws will be feebly executed, and impartiality will be banished from our tribunals of justice.

Must we, then, despair of the republic? No, sir, not yet. The people of this country are republican in principle; and will not abandon the hope that a republican government may be sustained. But, sir, that hope must be abandoned, unless the great men of our country will lay aside their party strife, and unite in some vigorous effort to amend the defects of our constitution. The leading men, sir, must cease to expend their breath in speeches about banks and monopolies and metallic currency, and mount up to the source of our public evils. There only can be applied the catholicon which shall be efficacious in restoring to the confederacy health and soundness. MARCELLUS.

CHAPTER XII,

ANSWER TO HIS Exc. JOHN BROOKS, GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

(FROM THE COLUMBIAN CENTINEL OF JUNE 5, 1819.)

MR. WEBSTER, of Amherst, of the committee on the subject, reported the following Answer to the Governor's Speech; which was unanimously accepted, and the committee directed to present it.

May it please your Excellency,

In meeting your Excellency, on your re-election to the office of chief magistrate of the commonwealth, and uniting with the other branches of the government, in deliberations on the means of promoting the public prosperity, the house of representatives most sincerely concur with your Excellency, in acknowledging the goodness of that Almighty Being, from whom are primarily derived all the blessings of peace, plenty, general health, good order and freedom. And it is with great satisfaction that we see a gentleman, whose patriotism and valor, in early life, contributed to defend the rights and establish the independence of his country, called by his fellow citizens, to preside over the administration of the laws in this commonwealth; and by the influence of venerable years and mature experience, recommending the cultivation of those virtues, and the encouragement of those institutions, which are adapted to give stability to republican government-to secure the rights, and elevate the character of freemen. Duly appreciating the importance of the privileges which the people of this commonwealth enjoy, under the constitution of the state, and of the United States, we can not be insensible to the high responsibility resting on us, to exert our best endeavors to guard the interests of the state, and to advance the prosperity of its citizens.

We rejoice that the people of this commonwealth have had the opportunity to form, and have now the happiness to enjoy, a republican constitution of government. We rejoice that man, doomed in former ages and in other countries, to be the victim of conquest and vassalage, has, in this part of the globe, resumed his natural rights, and vindicated his claim to govern himself. We admire the fortitude, the patience, and the sufferings of our venerable ancestors, who selected, settled, and defended this sequestered continent, as a secure retreat from the evils of the European world, no less than we reverence the intelligence, the virtue, and the piety from which we have derived institutions and systems of laws, probably more nearly perfect than any which have before fallen to the lot of man. But we perfectly accord in sentiment with your Excellency, that without intelligence and virtue in the people, from whom springs all legitimate government, there can be no rational expectation that these invaluable privileges can be long pre

served; and we feel that we should betray the trust reposed in us by our constituents, if we should neglect to cherish the principles, guard the rights, and improve the institutions, civil, religious, and literary, which we inherit from our ancestors and from the founders of our constitution.

In accordance with the opinion of your Excellency, the house of representatives number the early instruction and discipline of youth, among the most efficacious means of promoting the happiness and im proving the condition of society. Habits of early subordination, just views of moral obligation, and reverence of the Supreme Being, have, in our apprehension, the most powerful tendency to restrain the progress of vice, and extend the dominion of virtue. It is obvious from experience, no less than from the declaration of inspired truth, that the training of children in the path of integrity and virtue, is the best method to secure their future rectitude of conduct, their reputation, their influence, and their usefulness. We hold it to be a truth that ought to be impressed on the heart of every parent and guardian, and too important not to be repeated on every suitable occasion, that the rudiments of the public character of a nation or people, are unfolded in families and seminaries of learning. Families, the elementary associations of man, which spring from the divine institution of marriage, constitute the germs of all human society; and from the instructions and discipline of families and primary schools, the minds of youth receive a direction, which, in a great degree, gives to them their future character as members of a community.

Under these impressions, the house of representatives hold it to be their indispensable duty, as it is their highest interest, to encourage every practicable measure that may be suggested or devised, to carry into effect the requisitions of the constitution respecting the education of youth. To form plans for diffusing literary and moral improvement among the indigent classes of citizens, in connection with religious instruction, will be no less our pleasure, than it is a duty which we owe to society. To draw from the obscure retreats of poverty, the miserable victims of ignorance and vice; to enlighten their minds; to extirpate corrupt principles; to reform their evil habits; and to raise them from debasement to the rank of intelligent, industrious, and useful members of the community, will never cease to be an object of deep solicitude with a wise legislature; and we trust that no opportunity will be neglected by the house of representatives, to lend their influence to any measure calculated to promote this object.

The increase of pauperism is an evil to be deeply regretted. In this commonwealth, where property is diffused among all classes of people, and the means of subsistence are not difficult to be obtained, this evil is probably less alarming than in Europe. Yet in this state, the evil is too obvious not to be perceived, and to awaken apprehensions; and the view which your Excellency has presented to us, of the pauperism of some European countries, in connection with ignorance and crimes, can not fail to impress on our minds the importance of attending to every scheme that human wisdom can devise, to arrest its progress in this commonwealth. In regard to the most efficacious mode of preventing crimes, by early instruction and discipline, forming