They think that government may vary like modes of
dress, and with as little ill effect; that there needs no principle of
attachment, except a sense of present convenience, to any constitution
of the state. They always speak as if they were of opinion that
there is a singular species of compact between them and their
magistrates which binds the magistrate, but which has nothing
reciprocal in it, but that the majesty of the people has a right to
dissolve it without any reason but its will. Their attachment to their
country itself is only so far as it agrees with some of their fleeting
projects; it begins and ends with that scheme of polity which falls in
with their momentary opinion.
These doctrines, or rather sentiments, seem prevalent with your
new statesmen. But they are wholly different from those on which we
have always acted in this country.
I hear it is sometimes given out in France that what is doing
among you is after the example of England. I beg leave to affirm
that scarcely anything done with you has originated from the
practice or the prevalent opinions of this people, either in the act
or in the spirit of the proceeding. Let me add that we are as
unwilling to learn these lessons from France as we are sure that we
never taught them to that nation. The cabals here who take a sort of
share of your transactions as yet consist of but a handful of
people.
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