THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

My greatest fear has been, that the nation would not be sufficiently cool and moderate, in making arrangements for the security of that liberty of which it seems to be possessed.

1790.

ANARCHY AND TYRANNY.

There is a natural and necessary progression, from the extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny; and arbitrary power is most easily established, on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

REPUBLICANISM.

Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination. On the contrary, laws, under no form of government, are better supported, liberty and property better secured, or happiness more effectually dispensed to mankind.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

That the Government, though not actually perfect, is one of the best in the world, I have little doubt.

DEMOCRACY.

It is among the evils, and perhaps not the smallest, of Democratical Governments, that the people must feel, before they will see. When this happens, they

are roused to action. Hence it is, that those kinds of government are so slow.

EVILS OF DEMOCRACY.

It is one of the evils of Democratical Governments, that the people, not always seeing, and frequently misled, inust often feel before they can act right; but then evils of this nature seldem fail to work their own cure.

MONARCHY.

I am fully of opinion, that those who lean to a Monarchial Government have either not consulted the public mind, or that they live in a region, which, (the levelling principles in which they were bred being entirely eradicated,) is much more productive of monarchial ideas, than is the case in the Southern States, where, from the habitual distinctions which have always existed among the people, one would have expected the first generation, and the most rapid growth, of them.

I am told, that even respectable characters speak of a Monarchial Form of Government, without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking; thence to acting is often but a single step. But, how irrevocable and tremendous ! What a triumph for our enemies to verify their predictions! What a triumph for the advocates of Despotism, to find, that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty, are merely ideal and fallacious!

1786.

It is a little strange, that the men of large property in the South, should be more afraid that the Constitution will produce an Aristocracy or a Monarchy, than the genuine democratical people of the East.

1788.

NOBILITY AND KNIGHTHOOD.

It appears to be incompatible with the principles of our national Constitution, to admit the introduction of any kind of Nobility, Knighthood, or distinctions of a similar nature, amongst the citizens of our republic.

HERALDRY AND REPUBLICANISM.

It is far from my design to intimate an opinion, that Heraldry, Coat-armor, &c., might not be ren

dered conducive to public and private uses with us; or that they can have any tendency unfriendly to the purest spirit of Republicanism. On the contrary, a different conclusion is deducible from the practice of Congress, and the States; all of which have established some kind of Armorial Devices, to authenticate their official instruments.

II. LIBERTY.

Give the leave, my dear General, to present you with a picture of the Bastille, just as it looked a few days after I had ordered its demolition,-with the main key of the fortress of despotism. It is a tribute, which I owe, as a son to my adoptive father, as an Ald-de-camp to my General, as a Missionary of liberty to its Patriarch. LAFAYETTE, March 17, 1790.

CIVIL LIBERTY.

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.

The political state of affairs in France, seems to be in a delicate situation. What will be the issue, is not easy to determine; but the spirit which is diffusing itself, may produce changes in that government, which, a few years ago, could hardly have been dreamt of.

The American Revolution, or the peculiar light of the age, seems to have opened the eyes of almost every nation in Europe.