  NEW YORK, 1788. An ADDRESS to YUNG LADIES. my amiable frends, Altho men in general are expozed to the suspicion of your sex, and their opinions are often construed into flattery or stratagem, yet the tenor of the following remarks wil, it iz presumed, bear such marks of sincerity az to giv them a place in your confidence. They are not the precepts of a morose instructor, nor the opinions of a hoary sage who haz lost all relish for the joys of life, and wishes to restrain the innocent plezures of sense. They do not proceed from a peevish old bachelor, whom a phlegmatic constitution, or repeeted disappointments, hav changed into a hater of your sex; but they come from a heart capable of being softened by your charms or your misfortunes; a heart that never harbored a wish but to see and make you happy. They are the sentiments of a yung frend; one who haz lived long enuf, if not to feel his own faults, at leest to discuver thoze of others; and to form a tolerable estimate of your worth in social life. Our Saviour, when on erth, took a child in hiz arms and said, "of such iz the kingdom of heaven." I never view a circle of little misses without recollecting the divine comparison. A collection of sweet little beings, with voices az melodious az the notes of the nightingale, whoze cheeks even a whisper wil cuver with blushes, and whoze hearts are az pure az the falling snow drop; iz heaven in miniature. Such iz the description of my little female frends in the bloom of childhood. To prezerve that delicacy of mind, which nature furnishes; which constitutes the glory of your sex, and forms the principal gard of your own virtue, iz the bizziness of education. In this article, you hav A woman without delicacy, iz a woman without reputation; for chastity really exists in the mind; and when this fountain iz pure, the words and actions that flow from it, wil be chaste and delicate. Yung misses therefore should be remooved az far az possible from all company that can taint their minds, or accustom them to indecency of any kind. Their nurses, their companions, their teechers, should be selected from peeple of at leest uncorrupted morals and amiable manners. But a more advanced stage of life, the time when yung ladies enter into society, iz, with respect to their future reputation, a period extremely critical. Little, my deer friends, do you reflect, how important iz the manner in which you enter into life. Prudery and coquetry are extremes equally to be shunned, becauze both are equally disagreeable to our sex, and fatal to your reputations. It haz been said that coquetts often looze their reputation, while they retain their virtu; and that prudes often prezerve their reputation, after they hav lost their virtu. I would only add this remark, that coquetts are generally, but prudes almost always suspected; and suspicion iz az fatal to a female karacter, az a crime. Iz this unjust? Coquetry and prudery are both affectation; every species of affectation dezerves punishment; and when persons relinquish their own natural karacters for thoze which are borrowed, iz it unjust to suspect their motivs, az a punishment for the offence? You are taught to suspect the man who flatters you. But your good sense wil very eezily distinguish between expressions of mere civility and declarations of real esteem. In general one rule holds, that the man who iz most lavish in declarations of esteem and admiration, luvs and admires you the leest. A profusion of flattery iz real ground for suspicion. Reel esteem iz evinced Permit me here to suggest one caution. You are told that unmeening flattery iz an insult to your understandings, and sometimes you are apt to resent it. This should be done with great prudence. Precipitate resentment iz dangerous; it may not be dezerved at the time; it may make you an enemy; it may giv uneeziness to a frend; it may giv your own harts pain; it may injure you by creating a suspicion that it iz all affectation. The common place civilities of dangling beaux may be very trifling and disagreeable, but can rarely amount to an insult, or dezerve more than indifference and neglect. Resentment of such trifles can hardly be a mark of tru dignity of soul. At this period of life, let the prime excellence of your karacters, delicacy, be discuvered in all your words and actions. Permit me, az one acquainted at leest with the sentiments of my own sex, to assure you, that a man never respects a woman, who does not respect herself. The moment a woman suffers to fall from her tung, any expressions that indicate the leest indelicacy of mind; the moment she ceeses to blush at such expressions from our sex, she ceeses to be respected; becauze az a lady, she iz no longer respectable. Whatever familiarity of conversation may be vindicable or pardonable in ether sex alone, there iz, in mixed companies, a sacred decorum that should not be violated by one rude idea. And however dispozed the ladies may be to overlook small transgressions in our sex, yet unforgiving man cannot eezily forget the offences of yours, especially when thoze offences discuver a want of all that renders you lovely. If your words are to be so strictly watched, how much more attention iz necessary to render your conduct unexceptionable. You charge our sex, with being the seducers, the betrayers of yours. Admit the charge But when a woman iz incautious, when she iz reddy to fall into the arms of any man that approaches her, when she suffers double entendres, indecent hints and conversation to flow from her lips in mixed companies, she remooves the barriers of her reputation, she disarms herself, and thousands consider themselves at liberty to commence an attack. When so much depends on your principles and reputation; when we expect to derive all the happiness of the married life from that source, can it be a crime to wish for some proof of your virtu before the indissoluble connection iz formed? Iz that virtu to be trusted which haz never been tempted? Iz it absurd to say that an attack may be made even with honorable intentions? Admit the absurdity; but such attempts are often made, and may end in your ruin. The man may then be retched in hiz mistake becauze he iz disappointed in hiz opinion and expectations. Be assured, my frends, that even vile man cannot but esteem the woman who respects herself. We look to you, in a world of vice, for that delicacy of mind, that innocence of life, which render you lovely and ourselves happy. Do you wish for admiration? But admiration iz az transient az the blaze of a meteor. Ladies who hav the most admirers, are often the last to find valuable partners. One sex iz formed for the more hardy exercizes of the council, the field and the laborious employments of procuring subsistence. The other, for the superintendance of domestic concerns, and for diffusing bliss thro social life. When a woman quits her own department, she offends her husband, not merely becauze she obtrudes herself upon hiz bizziness, but becauze she departs from that sphere which iz assigned her in the order of society; becauze she neglects her duty, and leeves her own department vacant. The same remark wil apply to the man who visits the kitchen and gets the name of a betty. The same principle which excludes a man from an attention to domestic bizziness, excludes a woman from law, mathematics and astronomy. Eech sex feels a degree of pride in being best qualified for a particular station, and a degree of resentment when the other encroaches upon their privilege. This iz acting conformably to the constitution of society. A woman would not willingly marry a man who iz strongly inclined to pass hiz time in seeing the Ladies however are not generally charged with a too strong attachment to books. It iz necessary that they should be wel acquainted with every thing that respects life and manners; with a knowlege of the human hart and the graceful accomplishments. The greatest misfortune iz, that your erly studies are not always wel directed; and you are permitted to devour a thousand volumes of fictitious nonsense, when a smaller number of books, at less trubble and expense, would furnish you with more valuable trezures of knowlege. To be lovely then you must be content to be wimen; to be mild, social and sentimental; to be acquainted with all that belongs to your department, and leeve the masculine virtues, and the profound researches of study, to the province of the other sex. That it may be necessary, for political purposes, to consider man az the superior in authority, iz to me probable. I question whether a different maxim would not destroy your own happiness. A man iz pleezed with the deference hiz wife shows for hiz opinions; he often loves her even for her want of information, when it creates a kind of dependence upon hiz judgement. On the other hand, a woman always despises her husband for hiz inferiority in understanding and knowlege, and blushes at the figure he makes in the company of men who possess superior talents. Do not theze facts justify the order of society, and render some difference in rank between the sexes, necessary to the happiness of both? But this superiority iz comparativ, and in some mezure, mutual. In many things, the woman iz az much superior to her husband, az he iz to her, in any article of information. They depend on eech other, and the assumption of any Ladies are often ridiculed for their loquaciousness. But ridicule iz not the worst punishment of this fault. However witty, sprightly and sentimental your conversation may be, depend on it, az a maxim that holds without exception, that the person who talks incessantly, wil soon ceese to be respected. From congress to private families, the remark iz tru, that a man or woman who talks much, loozes all influence. To your sex, talkativness iz very injurious; for a man wil hardly ever chooze a noizy loquacious woman for hiz companion. A delicate rezerv iz a becuming, a commanding characteristic of an amiable woman; the want of which no brilliant accomplishments wil supply. A want of ability to converse, iz scarcely so much censured, az a want of discretion to know when to speek and when to be silent. In the choice of husbands, my fair reeders, what shall I say? It haz been said or insinuated, that you prefer men of inferior talents. This iz not tru. You are sensible that a good address and a respectful attention, are the qualities which most generally recommend to the esteem of both sexes. A philosopher, who iz absent and stupid, wil not please az a companion; but of two persons equal in other respects, the man of superior talents iz your choice. If my obzervations hav not deceeved me, you pride yourselves in being connected with men of eminence. I mention this to contradict the opinion maintained in the Lounger, that ladies giv a sort of preference to men of inferior talents. The opinion wants extension and qualification; it extends to both sexes, when tru, but iz never tru, except when men of talents are destitute of social accomplishments. Money iz the great object of desire with both sexes; but how few obtain it by marriage? With respect to our sex, I confess, it iz not much to a man's credit to seek a fortune without any exertions of hiz own; but After all, ladies, it depends much on yourselves to determin, whether your families shall enjoy eezy circumstances. Any man may acquire something by hiz application; but economy, the most difficult article in conducting domestic concerns, iz the womans province. You see with what frankness and candor I tell you my opinions. This iz undoutedly the best mode of conducting social intercourse, and particularly our intercourse with the fairest part of the creation. I rite from feeling; from obzervation; from experience. The sexes, while eech keep their proper sphere, cannot fail to render eech other social and happy. But frail az yours iz commonly represented, you may not only boast of a superior share of virtu yourselves, but of garding and cherishing ours. You hav not only an interest in being good for your own sakes, but society iz interested in your goodness; you polish our manners, correct our vices, and inspire our harts with a love of virtue. Can a man who loves an amiable woman, abandon himself to vices which she abhors? The END. FOOTNOTES: [1] This remark is confined solely to its construction; in point of orthography, our language is intolerably irregular. [2] In our colleges and universities, students read some of the ancient Poets and Orators; but the Historians, which are perhaps more valuable, are generally neglected. The student just begins to read Latin and Greek to advantage, then quits the study. Where is the seminary, in which the students read Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Dionysius Halicarnasseus, Livy, Velleius, Paterculus and Tacitus? How superficial must be that learning, which is acquired in four years! Severe experience has taught me the errors and defects of what is called a liberal education. I could not read the best Greek and Roman authors while in college, without neglecting the established classical studies; and after I left college, I found time only to dip into books, that every scholar should be master of; a circumstance that often fills me with the deepest regret. "Quis enim ignorat et eloquentiam et cÆteras artes descivisse ab ista vetere gloria, non inopia hominum, sed desidia juventutis, et negligentia parentum, et inscientia prÆcipientium, et oblivione moris antiqui?—Nec in auctoribus cognoscendis, nec in evolvenda antiquitate, nec in notitia vel rerum, vel hominum, vel temporum satis operÆ insumitur."—Tacitus, de Orat. Dial. 28. 29. [3] The veneration we have for a great character, ceases with an intimate acquaintance with the man. The same principle is observable in the body. High seasoned food, without frequent intervals of abstinence, loses its relish. On the other hand, objects that make slight impressions at first, acquire strength by repetition. An elegant simplicity in a building may not affect the mind with great pleasure at first light; but the pleasure will always increase with repeated examinations of the structure. Thus by habit, we become excessively fond of food which does not relish at first tasting; and strong attachments between the sexes often take place from indifference, and even from aversion. [4] Great caution should be observed in teaching children to pronounce the letters of the alphabet. The labials are easily pronounced; thus the first words a child can speak are papa and mama. But there are some letters, particularly l and r, which are of difficult pronunciation, and children should not be pressed to speak words in which they occur. The difficulty may produce a habit of stammering. [5] How different this practice from the manner of educating youth in Rome, during the flourishing ages of the republic! There the attention to children commenced with their birth; an infant was not educated in the cottage of a hireling nurse, but in the very bosom of its mother, whose principal praise was, that she superintended her family. Parents were careful to choose some aged matron to take care of their children; to form their first habits of speaking and acting; to watch their growing passions, and direct them to their proper objects; to guard them from all immodest sports, preserve their minds innocent, and direct their attention to liberal pursuits. "—Filius—non in cella emptÆ nutricis sed gremio ac sinu matris educabatur, cujus prÆcipua laus, tueri domum, et inservire liberis. Eligebatur autem aliqua major natu propinqua, cujus probatis spectatisque moribus, omnis cujuspiam familiÆ soboles committeretur, coram qua neque dicere fas erat quod turpe dictu, neque facere quod inhonestum factu videretur. Ac non studia modo curasque, sed remissiones etiam lusus que puerorum, sanctitate quadam ac verecundia temperabat." In this manner were educated the Gracchi, CÆsar, and other celebrated Romans. "QuÆ disciplina ac severitas eo pertinebat, ut sincera et interga et nullis pravitatibus detorta unius cujusque natura, toto statem pectore, arriperet artes honestas."—— Tacitus de Orat. Dial. 28. The historian then proceeds to mention the corruption of manners, and the vicious mode of Education, in the later ages of Rome. He says, children were committed to some maid, with the vilest slaves; with whom they were initiated in their low conversation and manners. "Horum fabulis et erroribus teneri slatim et rudes animi imbuuntur; nec quis quam in toto domo pensi habet, quid coram infante domino aut dicat aut faciat."—— Ibid. 29. [6] The practice of employing low characters in schools is not novel—Ascham, preceptor to Queen Elizabeth, gives us the following account of the practice in his time. "Pity it is that commonly more care is had; yea and that among very wise men, to find out rather a cunning man for their horse, than a cunning man for their children. They say, nay, in word; but they do so, in deed. For to one they will give a stipend of two hundred crowns, and loth to offer the other two hundred shillings. God, that sitteth in the Heaven, laugheth their choice to scorn and rewardeth their liberality as it should: for he suffereth them to have tame and well ordered horses; but wild and unfortunate children: and therefore in the end they find more pleasure in their horse, than comfort in their child." This is old language, but the facts stated are modern truths. The barbarous Gothic practice has survived all the attacks of common sense, and in many parts of America, a gentleman's groom is on a level with his schoolmaster, in point of reputation. But hear another authority for the practice in England. "As the case now stands, those of the first quality pay their tutors but little above half so much as they do their footmen."—Guardian, No. 94. "'Tis monstrous indeed that men of the best estates and families are more solicitous about the tutelage of a favorite dog or horse, than of their heirs mate."—Ibm. [7] The fact related by Justin, of an ancient people, will apply universally. "Tanto plus in illis proficit victiorum ignoratio, quam in his cognitio virtutis." An ignorance of vice has a better effect, than a knowlege of virtue. [8] Plus ibi boni mores valent, quam alibi bonÆ leges. Tac. de Mor. Germ. 19. [9] Spirit of Laws. Book 4. [10] The power of entailing real estates is repugnant to the spirit of our American governments. [11] I have known instructions from the inhabitants of a county, two thirds of whom could not write their names. How competent must such men be to decide an important point in legislation! [12] Middleton's life of Cicero, volume 1, page 14. [13] It is worthy of remark, that in proportion as laws are favorable to the equal rights of men, the number of crimes in a state is diminished; except where the human mind is debased by extreme servitude, or by superstition. In France, there are but few crimes; religion and the rigor of a military force prevent them; perhaps also, ignorance in the peasantry may be assigned as another reason. But in England and Ireland the human mind is not so depressed, yet the distribution of property and honors is not equal; the lower classes of people, bold and independent, as well as poor, feel the injuries which flow from the feudal system, even in its relaxed state; they become desperate, and turn highwaymen. Hence those kingdoms produce more culprits than half Europe besides. The character of the Jews, as sharpers, is derived from the cruel and villanous proscriptions, which they have suffered from the bigotry of Christians in every part of Europe. Most of the criminals condemned in America are foreigners. The execution of a native, before the revolution, was a novelty. The distribution of property in America and the principles of government favor the rights of men; and but few men will commence enemies to society and government, if they can receive the benefits of them. Unjust governments and tyrannical distinctions have made most of the villains that ever existed. [14] It has been already observed that a child always imitates what he sees and hears: For this reason, he should hear no language which is not correct and decent. Every word spoken to a child, should be pronounced with clearness and propriety. Banish from children all diminutive words, all whining and all bad grammar. A boy of six years old may be taught to speak as correctly, as Cicero did before the Roman Senate. [15] Nothing can be more fatal to domestic happiness in America, than a taste for copying the luxurious manners and amusements of England and France. Dancing, drawing and music, are principal articles of education in those kingdoms; therefore every girl in America must pass two or three years at a boarding school, tho her father cannot give her a farthing when she marries. This ambition to educate females above their fortunes pervades every part of America. Hence the disproportion between the well bred females and the males in our large towns. A mechanic or shopkeeper in town, or a farmer in the country, whose sons get their living by their father's employments, will send their daughters to a boarding school, where their ideas are elevated, and their views carried above a connexion with men in those occupations. Such an education, without fortune or beauty, may possibly please a girl of fifteen, but must prove her greatest misfortune. This fatal mistake is illustrated in every large town in America. In the country, the number of males and females, is nearly equal; but in towns, the number of genteelly bred women is greater than of men; and in some towns, the proportion is, as three to one. The heads of young people of both sexes are often turned by reading descriptions of splendid living, of coaches, of plays, and other amusements. Such descriptions excite a desire to enjoy the same pleasures. A fortune becomes the principal object of pursuit; fortunes are scarce in America, and not easily acquired; disappointment succeeds, and the youth who begins life with expecting to enjoy a coach, closes the prospect with a small living, procured by labor and economy. Thus a wrong education, and a taste for pleasures which our fortune will not enable us to enjoy, often plunge the Americans into distress, or at least prevent early marriages. Too fond of show, of dress and expense, the sexes wish to please each other; they mistake the means, and both are disappointed. [16] Cicero was twenty eight years old when he left Italy to travel into Greece and Asia. "He did not stir abroad," says Dr. Middleton, "till he had completed his education at home; for nothing can be more pernicious to a nation, than the necessity of a foreign one."—Life of Cicero, vol. 1. p. 48. Dr. Moore makes a remark precisely in point. Speaking of a foreign education, proposed by a certain Lord, who objected to the public schools in England, he says, "I have attended to his Lordship's objections, and after due consideration, and weighing every circumstance, I remain of opinion, that no country but Great Britain is proper for the education of a British subject, who proposes to pass his life in his own country. The most important point, in my mind, to be secured in the education of a young man of rank of our country, is to make him an Englishman; and this can be done no where so effectually as in England." See his View of Society and Manners, &c. vol. 1, page 197, where the reader will find many judicious remarks upon this subject. The following are too pertinent to be omitted.—"It is thought, that by an early foreign education, all ridiculous English prejudices, will be avoided. This may be true; but other prejudices, perhaps as ridiculous, and much more detrimental, will be formed. The first cannot be attended with many inconveniencies; the second may render the young people unhappy in their own country when they return, and disagreeable to their countrymen all the rest of their lives." These remarks, by a change of names are applicable to America. [17] Not that the English nation was originally in slavery; for the primitiv Saxons and Germans were free. But the military tenures, established by the Gothic conquests, depressed the people; so that under the rigor of the feudal system, about the date of Magna Charta, the King and Nobles held their tenants in extreme servitude. From this depression, the English have gradually emerged into ancient freedom. [18] The first convention of deputies in a state, is usually designed to direct the mode in which future legislatures shall be organized. This convention cannot abridge the powers of future legislatures, any further than they are abridged by the moral law, which forbids all wrong in general. [19] The nominal distinction of Convention and Legislature was probably copied from the English; but the American distinction goes farther, it implies, in common acceptation, a difference of power. This difference does not exist in G. Britain. The assembly of Lords and Commons which restored Charles II, and that which raised the Prince of Orange to the throne, were called Conventions, or parliamentary Conventions. But the difference between these Conventions and an ordinary Parliament, is merely a difference in the manner of assembling; a Convention being an assembly or meeting of Lords and Commons, on an emergency, without the King's writ, which is the regular constitutional mode of summoning them, and by custom necessary to render the meeting a Parliament. But the powers of this assembly, whether denominated a Convention or a Parliament, have ever been considered as coextensive and supreme. I would just remark further, that the impossibility of establishing perpetual, or even permanent forms of government, is proved already by the experience of two States in America. Pensylvania and Georgia, have suffered under bad Constitutions, till they are glad to go thro the process of calling a new Convention. After the new forms of government have been tried some time, the people will discover new defects, and must either call a third Convention, or let the governments go on without amendment, because their Legislatures, which ought to have supreme power, cannot make altertations.——[1789.] [20] This is the date of the first writs now extant, for summoning the Knights and Burgesses. [21] In Pensylvania, after the late choice of Delegates to Congress by the people, one of the Gentlemen sent his resignation to the President and Council, who refered it to the Legislature then sitting. This body, compozed of the servants of the people, I suppoze, solemnly resolved, that there was no power in the State which could accept the resignation. The resolv was grounded on the idea that the power of the people is paramount to that of the Legislature; whereas the people hav no power at all, except in choosing representativs. All Legislativ and Executiv powers are vested in their Representativs, in Councilor Assembly, and the Council should have accepted the resignation and issued a precept for another choice. Their compelling the man to serve was an act of tyranny. [22] This pernicious error subverts the whole foundation of government. It resembles the practice of some Gentlemen in the country, who hire a poor strolling vagabond to keep a school, and then let the children know that he is a mere servant. The consequence is, the children despise him and his rules, and a constant war is maintained between the master and his pupils. The boys think themselves more respectable than the master, and the master has the rod in his hand, which he never fails to exercise. A proper degree of respect for the man and his laws, would prevent a thousand hard knocks. This is government in miniature. Men are taught to believe that their rulers are their servants, and then are rewarded with a prison and a gallows for despising their laws. [23] "In a democracy there can be no exercise of sovereignty but by suffrage: In England, where the people do not debate in a collective body, but by representation, the exercise of this sovereignty consists in the choice of Representatives." Blackstone's Com. b. 1. ch. 2. This is the sole power of the people in America. [24] The septennial act was judged the only guard against a Popish reign, and therefore highly popular. [25] Notes on Virginia, page 197. Lond. Edit. Query 13. [26] Contracts, where a Legislature is a party, are excepted. [27] Some jealous people ignorantly call the proposed Constitution of Federal Government, an aristocracy. If such men are honest, their honesty deserves pity: There is not a feature of true aristocracy in the Constitution; the whole frame of Government is a pure Representativ Republic. [28] Calvini Lexicon Juridicum. [29] See Laws of the Saxon Kings. [30] Such is the article, which excludes the clergy from a right to hold civil offices. The people, might, with the same propriety, have declared, that no merchants nor lawyers should be eligible to civil offices. It is a common opinion that the business of the clergy is wholly spiritual. Never was a grosser error. A part of their business is to inform the minds of people on all subjects, and correct their morals; so that they have a direct influence on government. At any rate they are subjects of law, and ought as freemen to be eligible to a seat in the Legislature; provided the people incline to choose them. [32] It is a capital defect in some of the States, that the government is so organized as not to admit subordinate acts of legislation in small districts. In these States, every little collection of people in a village must petition the Legislature for liberty to lay out a highway or build a bridge; an affair in which the State at large has very little interest, and of the necessity and utility of which the Legislature are not suitable judges. This occasions much trouble for the State; it is a needless expense. A State should be divided into inferior corporations, veiled with powers competent to all acts of local police. What right have the inhabitants of Suffolk to interfere in the building of a bridge in Montgomery?[a] Who are the most competent judges of a local convenience; the whole State, or the inhabitants of the particular district? [a] This was written in New York. [33] An error, originating in mistake, is often pursued thro obstinacy and pride; and sometimes a familiarity with falsehood, makes it appear like truth. [34] New York. [35] Some have suspected from these sentiments, that I favor the insurrection in Massachusetts. If it is necessary to be more explicit than I have been in the declaration, "I reprobate, &c." I must add, that in governments like ours, derived from the people, I believe there is no possible situation in which violent opposition to laws can be justified; because it can never be necessary. General evils will always be legally redressed, and partial evils must be borne, if the majority require it. A tender law, which interferes with past contracts, is perhaps the wickedest act that a Legislature can be guilty of; and yet I think the people in Rhode Island have done right, in not opposing their's, in a violent manner. [36] Pensylvania. [37] This assertion may seem to be contradicted by the opposition of Connecticut to the half pay act; but that opposition did not even threaten violence or arms: It was conducted in a peaceable manner; and I do not know that the State has furnished an instance of a tumultuous interruption of law. [38] These remarks are not applicable to the mercantile part of the people, who, since the revolution, have been distinguished by their punctuality. [39] Published in Rhode Island, shortly after the preceding letter. [41] See the records of this State, where rum is called strong water. This was soon after the first distilling of spirits, and rum was not then named. It seems, however, that our pious ancestors had a taste for it, which their posterity have carefully improved. [42] I would just mention to my fair readers, whom I love and esteem, that feathers and other frippery of the head, are disreputable in Europe. [43] Some of the bills of rights in America declare, that the people have a right to meet together, and consult for the public safety; that their legislators are responsible to them; that they are servants, &c. Such declarations give people an idea, that as individuals, or in town meetings, they have a power paramount to that of the Legislature. No wonder, that with such ideas, they attempt to resist law. [44] As well may the New Zealanders, who have not yet discovered Europe, fit out a ship, land on the coast of England or France, and, finding no inhabitants but poor fishermen and peasants, claim the whole country by right of discovery. [45] General Prideaux was killed by the bursting of a mortar, before the surrender of the French. [46] It has been controverted whether the capture of General Cornwallis was the result of a plan preconcerted between General Washington and Count de Grasse; or rather whether the arrival of the Count in the Chesapeak was predetermined and expected by General Washington, and consequently all the preparations to attack New York a mere finesse to deceive the enemy; or whether the real intention was against New York, and the siege of Yorktown planned upon the unexpected arrival of the French fleet in the bay. The following letter will let the matter in its true light. Mount Vernon, July 31, 1788. Sir, I duly received your letter of the 14th instant, and can only answer you briefly and generally from memory; that a combined operation of the land and naval forces of France in America, for the year 1781, was preconcerted the year before; that the point of attack was not absolutely agreed upon,[b] because it could not be foreknown where the enemy would be most susceptible of impression; and because we (having the command of the water with sufficient means of conveyance) could transport ourselves to any spot with the greatest celerity; that it was determined by me, nearly twelve months before hand, at all hazards, to give out and cause it to be believed by the highest military as well as civil officers, that New York was the destined place of attack, for the important purpose of inducing the eastern and middle States to make greater exertions in furnishing specific supplies, than they otherwise would have done, as well as for the interesting purpose of rendering the enemy less prepared elsewhere; that by these means, and these alone, artillery, boats, stores, and provisions, were in seasonable preparation to move with the utmost rapidity to any part of the continent; for the difficulty consisted more in providing, than knowing how to apply the military apparatus; that before the arrival of the Count de Grasse, it was the fixed determination to strike the enemy in the most vulnerable quarter, so as to ensure success with moral certainty, as our affairs were then in the most ruinous train imaginable; that New York was thought to be beyond our effort, and consequently that the only hesitation that remained, was between an attack upon the British army in Virginia and that in Charleston: And finally, that, by the intervention of several communications, and some incidents which cannot be detailed in a letter, the hostile post in Virginia, from being a provisional and strongly expected, became the definitiv and certain object of the campaign. [b] Because it would be easy for the Count de Grasse, in good time before his departure from the West Indies, to giv notice, by expressing at what place he could most conveniently first touch to receive advice. I only add, that it never was in contemplation to attack New York, unless the garrison should first have been so far degarnished to carry on the southern operations, as to render our success in the siege of that place, as infallible as any future military event can ever be made. For I repeat it, and dwell upon it again, some splendid advantage (whether upon a larger or smaller scale was almost immaterial) was so essentially necessary, to revive the expiring hopes and languid exertions of the country, at the crisis in question, that I never would have consented to embark in any enterprise, wherein, from the most rational plan and accurate calculations, the favorable issue should not have appeared as clear to my view as a ray of light. The failure of an attempt against the posts of the enemy, could, in no other possible situation during the war, have been so fatal to our cause. That much trouble was taken and finesse used to misguide and bewilder Sir Henry Clinton, in regard to the real object, by fictitious communications, as well as by making a deceptiv provision of ovens, forage, and boats, in his neighborhood, is certain: Nor were less pains taken to deceive our own army; for I had always conceived, where the imposition did not completely take place at home, it could never sufficiently succeed abroad. Your desire of obtaining truth, is very laudable; I wish I had more leisure to gratify it, as I am equally solicitous the undisguised verity should be known. Many circumstances will unavoidably be misconceived and misrepresented. Notwithstanding most of the papers, which may properly be deemed official, are preserved; yet the knowlege of innumerable things, of a more delicate and secret nature, is confined to the perishable remembrance of some few of the present generation. With esteem, I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, G. WASHINGTON. To ——. [47] A dollar, in sterling money, is 4s6. But the price of a dollar rose in New England currency to 6s; in New York to 8s; in New Jersey, Pensylvania and Maryland to 7s6; in Virginia to 6s; in North Carolina to 8s; in South Carolina and Georgia to 4s8. This difference, originating between paper and specie, or bills, continued afterwards to exist in the nominal estimation of gold and silver. Franklin's Miscel. Works, p. 217. [48] A dollar was usually cut in five pieces, and each passed by toll for a quarter; so that the man who cut it gained a quarter, or rather a fifth. If the State should recoin this silver, it must lose a fifth. [49] This pernicious opinion has prevailed in all the States, and done infinit mischief. [50] Columbian Magazine for May, 1787. [51] The existence of a custom of paying respect to these Indian heaps, as they are called, is proved by a ludicrous practice, that prevails among the Anglo Americans in the vicinity, of making strangers pull off their hats as they pass by this grave. A man passing by with one who is a stranger to the custom, never fails to practise a jest upon him, by telling him that a spider, a caterpillar, or some other insect is upon his hat; the unsuspecting traveller immediately takes off his hat, to brush away the offending insect, and finds by a roar of laughter, that a trick is put upon him. I have often seen this trick played upon strangers, and upon the neighbors who happen to be off their guard, to the great amusement of the country people. The jest, however, is a proof that the aborigines paid a respect to these rude monuments, and in ridicule of that respect, probably, originated the vulgar practice of the English, which exists to this day. [52] Camden's Britannia, volume II, page 759. [53] Mona Antiq. Restaur, page 47. [54] That the primitiv Britons may claim a very direct descent from the ancient inhabitants of Syria and Phenicia, whose languages were but branches from the same common stock, with as Hebrew, may be made to appear probable by a comparison of their customs; but may be almost demonstrated by a collation of the old British language with the Hebrew roots. See my Dissertations on the English Language, Appendix. [55] Britannia, volume I, page 127. [56] One as large as that is said to be found at Grave Creek, about eighty miles above Muskingum. [57] Volume II, page 763. [58] Camden, volume II, page 751. [59] Mons. Mallet, in his Northern Antiquities, has produced unquestionable testimony, from the Chronicles of Iceland and others histories of the north, that the American continent was discovered about the tenth century; and the esquimaux are clearly of the same race as the Greenlanders. [60] Elements of Criticism. Vol. I, page 198. [61] A line of houses built on the descent of land to the river, with a street adjacent to the houses on both sides. [62] This title, and many of the following ideas, are borrowed from a treatise of Mr. Michaelis, director of the Royal Society of Gottingen. [63] Any person may prove this by a trifling experiment. Let him place a glass receiver or bowl over the grass in a summer's day, and the next morning he will find as much dew under it as around it. The truth is this; the particles of water are constantly exhaled from the earth by the heat of the sun. During the day time, these particles ascend in an imperceptible manner, and furnish the atmosphere with the materials of clouds and rain. But in the night, the atmosphere grows cool, while the earth, retaining a superior degree of heat, continues to throw off the particles of water. These particles, meeting the colder atmosphere, are condensed, and lodge upon the surface of the earth, grass, trees and other objects. So that the expression, the dew falls, is in a degree true, altho it first rises from the earth. [64] It is a fact, supported by unquestionable testimony, that the savage nations on the frontiers of these States, have fewer vices in proportion to their virtues, than are to be found in the best regulated civilized societies with which we are acquainted. [65] Uxores habent deni, duodenique inter se communes; et maxime fratres cum fratribus, et parentes cum liberis. Sed si qui sunt ex his nati; eorum habenter liberi a quibus primum virgines quÆque ductÆ sunt.—— CÆsar de bell. Gall. Lib. 5. [66] Let an individual depend solely on his own exertions for food, and a single failure of crops subjects him to a famin. Let a populous country depend solely on its own produce, and the probability of a famine is diminished; yet is still possible. But a commercial intercourse between all nations, multiplies the chances of subsistence, and reduces the matter to a certainty. China, a well peopled country, is subject to a famin merely for want of a free commerce. [67] Jacob Dict. word, domesday. [68] Cowel Dict. Daysman. [69] Coke Litt. 3. 248. [70] It iz singular that the last syllable of this word domesday, should hav been mistaken for day, a portion of time; for the latter in Saxon waz written daeg and daegum, az in the Saxon version of the Gospels; whereaz the termination of domesday waz formerly, and ought now to be, spelt dey. [71] Cowel, Law Dict. dome. [72] In some words dom is substituted for the ancient termination rick; and in one sense, it iz equivalent to rick, which implies jurisdiction or power. King rick waz used az late az Queen Elizabeth: Bishop-rick iz stil used, denoting the territory or jurisdiction of a bishop. [73] Johnson derives lay from the Greek ?a??; as he does all other words which hav some resemblance to Greek words in sound or signification. I beleev the Saxon or Gothic original and the Greek may be the same, and of equal antiquity. [74] Blackstone Com. vol. I. 112. [75] Camden's Britannia. Baron. [76] Let no one question the probability of such changes of consonants which are formed by the same organs; for to this day b and v are often used promiscuously. In the Spanish language, we are at liberty to pronounce, b az v, or v az b; and with us, marble is often pronounced marvle. It is also certain that the Roman vir is found in the word mentioned by Cesar. Com. 11. 19. Vergo bretus, an annual magistrate among the Ædui, a nation of Germany. This word is derived from vir, and guberno, altho Cesar and Tacitus never suspected it. The same word iz mentioned by Mc Pherson, az stil existing in the Erst language, Fergubreth; and its meaning iz the same az in Cesar's time: A decisiv argument that vir, fer, and bar, are radically the same; and that the ancient Celtic language had a common origin with the Latin. A similar change of consonants iz observable in the words volo and bull (the Pope's decree) which are radically the same; az also the German woll and the English will. So the ancient Pergamus iz called by the modern Turks, Bergamo. See Masheim's Eccle. Hist. Vol. I. and my Dissertations on the Eng. Language, Appendix. [77] The feudal system iz commonly supposed to hav originated in the conquest of the Roman empire by the northern nations. The rudiments of it however may be discovered az erly az the Cimbric invasion of Italy, a century before the Christian era. Se Florus. lib. 3. c. 3. The Cimbri and Teutones were tribes of the same northern race, az the Germans and Saxons. [78] So it iz spelt in the Saxon laws; but its root waz probably circe, from sciran, to divide. C before i and e was in Saxon pronounced ch or neerly; hence circe is chirche. [79] Blackstone Com. vol. I, 112. That each shire had its bishop, seems to be obvious from a law of Edgar, c. 5, where, respecting the county court, it iz ordered, "celeberrimo huic conventui episcopus et aldermannus intersunto;" not unus episcoporum, but the bishop and erl. [80] Parson iz said, by Coke and others, to be derived from persona, because this officer represents the corporation or church, vicem seu personam ecclesiÆ gerere. This reezon seems to be obscure and unsatisfactory. It iz possible the word may proceed from the same root az parish, viz. par. [81] Great synod—great meeting. [82] Stuarts English Constitution, p. 275. [83] Mallets North. Antiq. Vol. I. 61. The northern nations had, like the Greeks, twelv principal deities, and this article in their religious beleef might originate the institution of twelv preests, twelv judges, &c. Many civil institutions among rude nations, may be traced to their religious opinions; and perhaps the preference given to the number twelv, in Germany, in Greece, and in Judea, had its origin in some circumstances az ancient az the race of the Jews. Odin, which in Anglo Saxon, waz Woden, waz the supreme god of the Goths, answering to the Jupiter of the Greeks: And it iz remarkable that the words, god, good, odin and woden, all sprung from one source. We shall not be surprized that the same word should begin with such different letters, when we reflect that such changes are very common. The Danes omit w in word; a dictionary they call ord-bog, a word book; and the Spaniards, in attempting to pronounce w, always articulate g. See my Dissertations, p. 335. [84] North. Antiq. Vol. I. 169. [85] London, in England, probably had its name from this place. [86] North. Antiq. Vol. II. 41. [87] See Chardin's Travels, Vol. III. [88] Tac. de Mor. Germ. c. 7. [89] Tac. de Mor. Germ. c. 11. [90] C. 12. [91] De Bello Gallico. lib. VI. c. 21. [92] Com. Vol. III. 35. This cannot be strictly true; for the principes were electiv; and therefore could not hav owned the land (pagus) or exercised the office of judge in right of their property. The kings, princes, and generals of the ancient Germans were elected; some for their nobility, that iz, the respectability of their families, arising from the valor and merits of their ancestors; others, az their duces, military commanders, were chosen for their virtues, their personal bravery. This I take to be the meening of that passage in Tacitus, "Reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute sumunt." "The Comites ex plebe," says Selden, chap. 18, "made one rank of freemen superior to the rest in wisdom." The Saxon nobles were called adelingi, or wel born; the freemen, frilingi, or free born; the latter might be assistants in the judicial department. The lower ranks were called lazzi or slaves; and indolence iz so necessary a consequence of bondage, that this word lazzi, or lazy, haz become sinonimous with indolent, sluggish. This word iz a living national satire upon every species of slavery. But the effect of slavery iz not merely indolence; its natural tendency iz to produce dishonesty; "almost every slave, being, says Dr. Franklin, from the nature of hiz employment, a theef." Az a striking proof of this, we may instance the change of meening in the words villain and knave, which at first denoted tenant and plowman, but during the oppressions of the feudal system, come to signify, a rogue. Vassal also denoted originally, a tenant or feudatory of a superior lord. It waz an honorable name, the barons being called the kings vassals. But servitude iz to natural a consequence of the tenure of lands under a proprietor, in see, that vassal haz become sinonimous with slave.[c] The change of meening in theze words iz a volum of instruction to princes and legislators. Reduce men to bondage, and they hav no motiv but feer to keep them industrious and honest, and of course, most of them commence rogues and drones. Why hav not the tyrants of Europe discovered this truth? Good laws, and an equal distribution of the advantages and the rights of government, would generally be an effectual substitute for the bayonet and the gallows. Look thro Europe; wherever we see poverty and oppression, there we find a nursery of villains. A difference in the property, education and advantages, originates the difference of character, between the nobleman of nicest honor, and the culprits that swing at Tyburn. [c] Blackstone, Vol. II. 52, says, "we now uze the word vassal opprobriously, az sinonimous to slave or bondman, on account of the prejudices we hav justly conceived against the doctrins grafted on the feudal system." So good a man ought not to hav uzed the word prejudice; and so great a man ought to hav assigned a better reezon for this opprobriousness of the modern word vassal. [93] De Mor. Germ. c. 13. [94] The practice of choosing assistant judges in the Roman commonwealth, waz something similar to our mode of impannelling a jury. Theze assistants were sometimes a hundred, and it iz not improbable, the Roman and German customs of electing that number might be derived from the same original. [95] See Coke Litt. and Hargraves notes on this subject. [96] Mallets North. Antiquities. [97] Mentioned in the preceding note, copied from Mallet. [98] These facts gave rise to Cokes quaint remarks, "that the law delighteth herself in the number of twelv;" and he adds, "the number of twelv iz much respected in holy writ; as 12 apostles, 12 stones, 12 tribes, &c." On juries, fol. 155. [99] Com. Vol. I. 398. [100] Com. Vol. I. 399. [101] I am by no meens certain that this derivation of counts from comites, iz just; it iz at leest az probable az otherwise, that contees may be a Gothic word. But this iz conjecture. [102] See Cowel on the word thane; and in Domesday, "thanus, est tenens, qui est caput manerii." [103] Com. Vol. I. 403. "But the same author, in page 399, says, the right of peerage seems to hav been originally territorial, that iz, annexed to lands, manors, &c. the proprietors of which were, in right of thoze estates, allowed to be peers of the relm;" that iz, in plain English, certain men, in right of their estates, were allowed to be equals of the relm. This will not pass for reezon and truth on this side of the Atlantic. [104] Horne, in hiz Mirror of Justices, chap. I. sect. 2. says, "altho the king ought not to hav any peer (that iz, equal) in the land, yet because he cannot be a judge in a case where he iz a party, it waz behovefull by the law that he should hav companions to heer and determin of all writs and plaints of all wrongs, &c. Theze companions are now called countees, earles, according to the Latin comites, &c." This iz singular! The king ought to hav no equal; therefore he ought to hav companions for judges; or, in plainer words, if possible, the king ought not to hav equals in the kingdom, therefore he should hav peers to heer and determin criminal causes. Common sense at leest, if not etymology, will say, "the king ought not to hav equals, but he must hav judges." [105] Blackstone, Vol. I. 157, from Staunford P C. 153. [106] It iz now held that e converso, a vote of the spiritual lords, if a majority, iz good against all the temporal lords; but Coke douts it. Supposing this to be admitted, the privilege is modern, and makes nothing against my supposition. [107] It haz been remarked that baron iz the most general title of nobility; indeed every nobleman waz originally a baron. Coke. I. 74. The lords of manors, both in England and on the continent, were the suitors in the king's court, and called pares curtis or curiÆ. The lords tenants were called the peers of hiz court baron. See Blackstone, Vol. I. ch. 4. [108] The Norman princes might well call their councils parliaments, meetings of barons; for they often summoned none but the barons and clergy, and sometimes but a few of the barons. Henry the third, once summoned but twenty five barons of two hundred and fifty, then in the kingdom, and one hundred and fifty of the clergy. Yet this meeting waz a parliament. Selden, chap. 67. [109] Thoze who wish to see a more particular account of the extensiv judicial powers of the barons in Europe, may consult Robertson's Charles V. Vol. I. page 49, and note [Z] page 250, where the authorities are referred to. [110] Coke Litt. 74. That the freeholders were judges iz tru; but that the barons and freeholders derived their authority from kings, iz wholly a mistake. [111] 1. Coke Litt. 73. [112] Cap. I. Sect. III. [113] He must speak of the state of things after the conquest, otherwise justices in eyre would not hav been mentioned. [114] Law Dict. Court baron. [115] Bacon's Selden chap. 24. [116] Some say this see waz eight hundred akers of land; others, six hundred and eighty, or 20l. a year, which, considering the difference in the value of money, waz equal perhaps to 300l. or 400l. at the present time. Here seems to be a confusion of ancient and modern ideas. The ancient knights see waz a certain tract of land; in later times that see was valued at 20l. in money. [117] Hale's Hist of Com. Law, 154. [118] L L Ethel. c. 4. [119] We find by ancient records, that the clergy, before the conquest, were sometimes summoned az jurors or judges in the temporal courts.[d] But the thanes were the most usual judges in the courts baron. The proper Saxon name of this court waz halimate or halmote, hallmeeting; "Omnis causa terminetur vel hundredo, vel comitatu, vel halimote, socam habentiam, vel dominorum curia."[e] And in W. Thorn, Anno 1176, the judges of this court are expressly said to be thanes, "thanenses, qui in Halimoto suo, in Thaneto, omnia sua judicia exerceri," (debent.) Selden, chap. 47, mentions a law of Henry I, which recites a custom of that time, by which "the bishops and erls, with other the cheef men of the county, were present in the county court az assistants in directory of judgement." Nothing can be more explicit. And altho Selden, in a passage hereafter quoted, mentions a compromise between Gunthrune, the Dane, and the Saxon king, that men of a rank inferior to lords should be tried by their equals, yet this inferior rank could extend only to freemen; for others were never admitted upon juries. [d] See Selden, tit Sax. bishops. [e] L. L. Hen. I. cap. 10. [120] "And the sheriffs and bailiffs caused the free tenants of their bailiwicks to meet at the counties and hundreds, at which justice waz so done, that every one so judged hiz nabor by such judgement az a man could not elsewhere receev in the like cases, until such times az the customs of the relm were put in writing, and certainly established."—— Mirror. chap 1. sect. 3. [121] Fleta. lib. I. c. 47. [122] Laghman, to this day, iz the name of a judge or magistrate, both in Sweden and Iceland. In theze countries it retains its primitiv and tru English meening.—Mallets North. Antiq. Vol. I. [123] Selden waz forced to confess the jure consulti and Ætate superiores, so often mentioned in the Saxon laws, az composing the homage or jury of twelv, to hav been cheef men both for experience and knowlege. To such as stumble at this conceet, as he expresses it, he remarks that the work of jurors requires them to be cheef men, az they judge of matter of fact; (a reezon drawn from the modern notions of jurymen's province.) And he adds, the jurors, who were co-assessors, with the bishop or sheriff in the court, were seeted in the most eminent place, and might hav held it to this day, az they do in Sweden, had the cheef men still holden the service. But the great became negligent of such public duties, and left the business to thoze of a meener condition, who would not or durst not take the bench; and therefore took their seets on the floor—(took separate seets.) He says further, that the Danes, on their settlement in England, would not associate with men of this condition; so that a compromise took place between Alfred, the Saxon king, and Gunthrune, the Dane, by which it waz decreed, that a lord or baron should be tried by twelv lords, and one of inferior rank, by eleven of his equals and one lord. This waz in the case of homicide only; tho afterwards the law might extend to other cases and civil suits. By hiz own account of the matter, this writer supposes the trial by twelv waz originally a trial by the cheef men, (thanes lahmen) and the idea of equality waz never suggested in the practice till the ninth or tenth century. But juries existed az courts for centuries before; and the word peers iz acknowleged to hav had its origin on the continent, where it signified the lords or members of the high court instituted by Charlemagne. In modern use, trial by peers iz trial by equals generally; for men are mostly become freemen and landholders; but this waz not the primitiv practice; nor was equality the basis of the institution. Even if we suppose the word peer to hav signified equal, as uzed originally on the continent, it extended no privilege on that account to the body of the nations where it waz used; for it ment only the kings equals, hiz comites, hiz dukes, erls and barons, among whom he waz merely primus inter pares. In England Bracton, who wrote under Henry III, declares the king waz considered in this light; and that the "erls and barons are his associates, who ought to bridle him, when the law does not."[f] The courts then which Charlemagne instituted in France and Germany, consisted merely of the kings peers or equals; and in theze countries, the courts remain mostly on the ancient footing; so that none but the nobility can be tried by their equals. In this sense of the word therefore juries were not used in England, till the compromise between Alfred and Gunthrune, about the year 900. Before that period, the jurors were not called or considered az equals; but they were thanes, jure consulti, lahmen and clergymen. A distinction afterwards took place, and lords were tried by their equals, and commoners by theirs. [f] L. I. c. 16. [124] "The division of the county waz done by freemen, who are the sole judges thereof."[g] Selden, Matthew, Paris, and others, testify that the folk-mote, peeple's meeting or county court, waz a county parliament, invested with legislativ or discretionary powers in county matters. In theze small districts, they appeer to hav been competent to decide all controversies, and make all necessary local regulations. The legislativ, judicial and executiv powers, both civil and ecclesiastical, were originally blended in the same council; the witena-gemote had the powers of a legislature, of a court of law, and of a court of equity over the whole kingdom, in all matters of great and general concern. But this court waz composed of lords, bishops, and majores natu or sapientes, men respected for their age and lerning, who were of the rank of freemen. All the freemen were bound also to do suit in the lords court, and to attend the folk-mote on the sheriffs summons; but twelv were usually selected to sit az judges in common cases. [g] Selden on the authority of Polydore. The vast powers of the county court, when the freeholders were all summoned and actually sat in judgement, may be understood by two facts. One, the conquerors half-brother, and Lanfrank, archbishop of Canterbury, had a dispute about certain lands and tenements in Kent. The archbishop petitioned the king, who issued hiz writ, and summoned the freemen of the county, to take cognizance of the suit. After three days trial, the freemen gave judgement for the archbishop, and the decision waz final. In like manner, two peers of the relm, a Norman and an Italian, submitted a title in fifteen manors, two townships, and many liberties, to the freeholders of the county, whose judgement waz allowed by the king.[h] [h] Selden. Chap. 48. [125] "Magnaque et comitum Æmulatio, quibus primus apud principem suum locus; et principum, cui plurimi et acerrimi comites."[i] The princes kept az many of these retainers in their service in time of peace, az they could support. "HÆc dignitas, hÆ vires, magno semper elestorum juvenum globo circumdari, in pace, decus, in bello, prÆsidium. Ibid." [i] Tacitus de mor Germ. c. 13. [126] In the time of Henry II, there were in England eleven hundred and fifteen castles, and az many tyrants az lords of castles. William of Newbury says, in the reign of Stephen, "Erant in Anglia quodammodo tot reges, vel potius tyranni, quot domini castellorum." It waz the tyranny of theze lords or their deputies, which rendered the intervention of twelv judges of the naborhood, highly necessary to preserve the peeple from the impositions of their rapacious masters. Hence the privilege of this mode of trial derived an inestimable valu. [127] Connecticut. [128] About the year 580. [129] Heriots or reliefs. [130] LancÆe. [131] Possibly for MancusÆ, i. e. thirty pence. [132] Capatanei. [133] This opinion of the lerned Camden, adds no small weight to my conjectures reflecting the origin of trial per pares. [134] Optimos. [135] Blackstone Com. Vol. I. 100. [136] Lelands Introd. to Hist. of Ireland. [137] L. L. Hoeli. [138] See my Dissertations on the English language, 313. [139] This iz not accurate. The thaneships or lordships of the Saxons, at the conquest, took the title of baronies; but the divisions probably existed before. [140] Curtis, court and the Spanish Cortez are all the same word. [141] In a conversation I had at Dr. Franklin's on this subject, the doctor admitted the principle, and remarked, that a man who haz 1000l. in cash, can loan it for six per cent. profit only; but he may bild a house with it, and if the demand for houses iz sufficient, he may rent hiz house for fifteen per cent. on the value. This iz a fair state of the argument, and I challenge my antagonists to giv a good reezon for the distinction which the laws make in the two cases; or why a man should hav an unrestrained right to take any sum he can get for the use of hiz house, and yet hiz right to make profit by the loan of money, be abridged by law. [142] See Blackstone on this subject, Com. Vol. II. 455, where the author's reezoning holds good, whether against fixing the value of horse hire or money lent. All exorbitant demands are unjust in foro conscientiÆ; but what right haz a legislature to fix the price of money loaned, and not of house-rent? [143] The legislatures of several states during the late war, were rash enough to make the attempt; and the success of the scheme waz just equal to the wisdom that planned it. [144] Blackstone Vol. II. 462. [145] What are marine insurances, bottomry, loans at respondentia and annuities for life, but exceptions to the general law against usury? The necessity of higher interest than common iz pleeded for theze exceptions. Very good; but they proov the absurdity of attempting to fix that, which the laws of nature and commerce require should be fluctuating. Such laws are partial and iniquitous. [146] Robertsons Charles V. Vol. I. 280. [147] Blackstone Com. Vol. I. 369. [148] Blackstone remarks that allegiance iz applicable, not only to the political capacity of the king, or regal office, but to hiz natural person and blood royal. I would ask then what blood royal there can be in a man, except in hiz kingly capacity? [149] Except the case of Ambassadors or other agents. [150] It may be said, that moral right and rong must ultimately be resolved into the wil of Deity, because society itself depends on hiz wil. This iz conceded; I only contend that moral fitness and unfitness result immediately from the state of created beings, with relation to eech other, and not from any arbitrary rules imposed by Deity, subsequent to creation. [151] By the ancient laws of England, relations in the same degree, whether by consanguinity or affinity, were placed exactly on a footing. See the suttle reezoning by which the prohibitions were supported, in Reeve's History of the English Laws, Vol. IV. [152] Lands in Connecticut desend to the heirs in the following manner: First to children, and if none, then to brothers and sisters or their legal representativs of the whole blud; then to parents; then to brothers and sisters of the half blud; then to next of kin, the whole blud taking the preference when of equal degree with the half blud. [153] See my Dissertations on the English Language, page 106. [154] See Winthrop's Journal, Mather's Magnalia, and Hutchisons Collection of papers. [155] During the late war, eight thousand newspapers were published weekly at one press in Hartford. [156] This iz an evil of great magnitude. [157] Uxor deinde ac liberi amplexi; fletusque ab omni turba mulierum ortus, et comploratio sui patriÆque, fregere tandem virum.—Liv. lib ii. 40. [158] The foregoing facts are taken from Leaming and Spicer's Collection; a concise view of the controversy, &c. published in 1785; and from the acts of the legislature of New Jersey. [159] See Dr. Franklins Review of the guvernment of Pensylvania. [160] The powers of legislation by the late constitution, were designed to be vested in the peeple; but in fact were vested no where. The pretended legislature consisted of but one house; and no bill, except on pressing occasions, could be passed into a law, until it had been published for the assent of the peeple. [161] Clerk or register. [162] See the proceedings of the legislature of Maryland in 1785. [163] Virginia however iz not alone in this mezure. Rhode Island formerly took the same steps, and stil adheres to its liberality. [164] The consumption of beef in New England iz the reezon why the exports of that article do not exceed thoze of Ireland. Most of the laboring peeple in New England eet meet twice a day, and az much az their appetites demand. Suppose eech person to eet but six ounces a day on an average, which iz a low estimate, and the inhabitants of New England consume more than one hundred million pounds of meet, in a yeer. I do not know what proportion of this iz beef, but the greatest part iz beef and pork, worth two pence, and two pence half penny a pound. By the best accounts from Ireland, it iz probable the inhabitants do not consume a twentieth part of the meet, consumed in the northern states, in proportion to their numbers. But suppoze they consume a tenth; let the New England peeple reduce the consumption of meet in the same proportion, and they would save ninety millions for exportation. This at two pence a pound makes the sum of two million five hundred thousand dollars, which iz a very handsome commercial income. Let the reduction proceed to all kinds of food and clothing; let our common peeple liv like the poor of Ireland in all respects, and they would save twice the sum. I would not recommend this to my countrymen; I wish them to enjoy good eeting and drinking. But I make theze estimates to show them that they never wil hav much money; for they eet and drink all they ern. [165] I say Boston, but I beleev the observations to be made at Cambridge. [166] I once passed the cape at five or six leegs from the breakers, and found but seven fathoms of water. [167] It iz evident, from the silence of all ancient monuments, that the heeling art waz not cultivated, and scarcely known among the old Romans. For several ages from the bilding of Rome, there iz hardly any mention made of a physician. Pliny relates, that Rome flurished, six hundred yeers, without physicians; that iz, the profession waz not honorable, being confined to servants or other low karacters. In Seneca's time, many of theze had acquired estates by the bizziness; but they were stil held in no estimation. "Bona in arte medendi humillimisque quibus contingere videmus." After the conquest of Greece and Asia, the manners of the Romans were corrupted by the luxuries of the eest; diseeses multiplied, and the practice of physic became more necessary and more reputable; but the art of surgery waz not separated from that of medicin, til the times of the emperors. [168] Qui diutissime impuberes permanserunt, maximam inter suos ferunt laudem: HÔc ali staturam, ali vires, nervosque confirmari putant. Intra annum vero xx feminÆ notitiam habuisse, in turpissimis habent rebus.—— Cesar De Bel. Gal. lib. 6. 19. [169] The ancients were wiser than the moderns in many respects; and particularly in restraining certain vices by opinion, rather than by positiv injunctions. Duelling and profane swearing are prohibited by the laws of most countries; yet penalties hav no effect in preventing the crimes, whilst they are not followed by loss of reputation. Vices which do not immediately affect the lives, honor or property of men, which are not mala in se, which are eezily conceeled, or which are supported by a principle of honor or reputation, are not restrainable by law. Under some of theze description fall, duelling, profane swearing, gambling, &c. To check such vices, public opinion must render them infamous.[j] Thoze who hav the distribution of honors and offices, may restrain theze vices by making the commission of them an insuperable bar to preferment. Were the Prezident and the executivs of the several states, to be az particular in enquiring whether candidates for offices are given to gambling, swearing or debaucheries; whether they hav ever given or receeved a challenge, or betrayed an innocent female; az they are in enquiring whether they are men of abilities and integrity; and would they, with undeviating resolution, proscribe from their favor and their company, every man whoze karacter, in theze particulars, iz not unimpeechable, they would diminish the number of vices, exclude some wholly from society, banish others from genteel company, and confine their contagion to the herd of mankind. But where iz the man of elevated rank, of great talents, of unshaken firmness, of heroic virtue, to begin the glorious reformation? America may now furnish the man, but where shall hiz successor be found? [j] See Vattels Law of Nations, b. I. ch. 13. [170] See my Dissertations on the English Language, 4. TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: In some essays the writer makes extensive use of phonetical spelling. Inconsistencies in spelling have therefore not been corrected. Missing punctuation has been silently corrected. Unmatched double quotation marks in the text were not corrected. The text on page 37 has been moved to a footnote after the second paragraph on page 5 as the author suggests. CORRECTIONS:
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