The objections of those who are opposed to the institution (Cinncinati Society) shall be brieftly sketched. You will readily fill them up. They urged that it is against the Confederation-against the letter of some of our constitutions-against the spirit of all of them;-that the foundation on which all these are built, is the natural equality of man, the denial of every preeminence but that annexed to legal office, and particularly, the denial of a preeminence by birth; that, however, in their present dispositions would render these flattering, when a well-directed distribution of them might draw into the order all the men of talents, of office and wealth, and in this case, would probably procure an ingraftment into the government.
That in this, they will supported by their foreign members, and the wishes and influence of foreign courts; that experience has shown that the heridetary branches of modern governments are the patrons of privilege and prerogative, and not of the natural rights of the people, whose oppressors they generally that, besides these evils, which are remote, others may take place more immediately; that a distinction is kept up between the civil and military, which it is for the happiness of both to obliterate.
That when the members assemble they will proposing to do something and what that something may be, will depend on actual circumstances; that being an organized body, under habits of subordination, the first obstruction to enterprise will be already surmounted; that the moderation and virtue of a single character have probably prevented this revolution from being closed, as most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish; that he is not immortal, and his successor, or some of his successor, may be led by false calculation into a less certain road to glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment