[48] LETTER VI.
Some of our fellow-citizens have ventured to predict the future state
of United America, if the system proposed to us, shall be adopted.
Though every branch of the constitution and government is to be
popular, and guarded by the strongest provisions, that until this day
have occurred to mankind, yet the system will end, they say, in the
oppressions of a monarchy or aristocracy by the federal servants or
some of them.
Such a conclusion seems not in any manner suited to the premises. It
startles, yet, not so much from its novelty, as from the respectability
of the characters by which it is drawn.
We must not be too much influenced by our esteem for those characters:
But, should recollect, that when the fancy is warmed, and the judgment
inclined, by the proximity or pressure of particular objects, very
extraordinary declarations are not unfrequently made. Such are the
frailties of our nature, that genius and integrity sometimes afford no
protection against them.
Probably, there never was, and never will be, such an instance of
dreadful denunciation, concerning the fate of a country, as was
published while the union was in agitation between England and
Scotland. The English were for a joint legislature, many of the Scots
for separate legislatures, and urged, that they should be in [49] a
manner swallowed up and lost in the other, as then they would not
possess one eleventh part in it.
Upon that occasion lord Belhaven, one of the most distinguished orators
of the age, made in the Scottish parliament a famous speech, of which
the following extract is part:
“My lord Chancellor,
“When I consider this affair of an union between the two nations, as it
is expressed in the several articles thereof, and now the subject of
our deliberation at this time, I find my mind crowded with a variety
of very melancholy thoughts, and I think it my duty to disburthen
myself of some of them, by laying them before and exposing them to the
serious consideration of this honourable house.
“I think, _I see a free and independent kingdom_ delivering up that,
which all the world hath been fighting for since the days of Nimrod;
yea, that, for which most of all the empires, kingdoms, states,
principalities, and dukedoms of Europe, are at this very time engaged
in the most bloody and cruel wars that ever were; to wit, _a power to
manage their own affairs by themselves, without the assistance and
council of any other_.
“I think I see _a National Church_, founded upon a rock, secured by a
claim of right, hedged and fenced about by the strictest and pointedest
legal sanctions that sovereignty could contrive, voluntarily descending
into a plain upon an equal level with Jews, Paptists, Socinians [50],
Armenians, and Anabaptists, and other Sectaries, &c.
“I think I see _the noble and honorable peerage of Scotland_, whose
valiant predecessors led against their enemies upon their own proper
charges and expences, now divested of their followers and vassalages,
and put upon such an equal foot with their vassals, that I think, I see
a petty English _exciseman_ receive more homage and respect, than what
was paid formerly to their quondam Mackallamors.
“I think, I see _the present peers of Scotland_, whose noble ancestors,
conquered provinces, overrun countries, reduced and subjected towns
and fortified places, exacted tribute through the greatest part of
England, now walking in the _court of requests_, like so many English
Attornies, laying aside their walking swords when in company with the
English Peers, lest their self-defence should be found murder.
“I think, I see _the honorable Estate of Barons_, the bold assertors of
the nations rights and liberties in the worst of times, now setting _a
watch upon their lips_ and _a guard upon their tongues_, lest they be
found guilty of _scandalum magnatum_.
“I think I see _the royal State of Boroughs_, walking their _desolate
streets_, hanging down their heads _under disappointments_; worm’d
out of _all the branches of their old trade_, uncertain _what hand to
turn to_, necessitated to become [51] apprentices to their unkind
neighbors, and yet after all finding their _trade so fortified by
companies_ and secured by prescriptions, that they despair of any
success therein.
“I think, I see _our learned Judges_ laying aside their practiques
and decisions, studying the common law of England, gravelled with
certioraries, _nisi priuses_, writs of error, _ejectiones firmæ_,
injunctions, demurrers, &c. and frighted with _appeals_ and
_avocations_, because of _the new regulations_, and _rectifications_
they meet with.
“I think, I see _the valiant and gallant soldiery_, either sent to
learn the plantation trade abroad, or at home petitioning for _a small
subsistence_, as the reward of their honourable exploits, while their
old corps are broken, the common soldiers left to beg, and the youngest
English corps kept standing.
“I think, I see the _honest industrious tradesman_ loaded with _new
taxes and impositions_, disappointed of the equivalents, drinking
water in place of ale, eating his saltless pottage, petitioning for
_encouragement to his manufactories_, and answered by counter petitions.
“In short, I think I see the _laborious ploughman_, with his corn
spoiling upon his hands _for want of sale_, cursing the day of his
birth; dreading the expence of his burial, and uncertain whether to
marry or do worse.
“I think I see the incurable difficulties of _landing men_, fettered
under the golden chain of equivalents, their pretty daughters
petitioning [52] for want of husbands, and their sons for want of
employments.
“I think I see _our mariners delivering up their ships_ to their Dutch
partners, and what through _presses and necessity_ earning their bread
as underlings in the English navy. But above all, my lord, I think, I
see _our ancient mother Caledonia_, like Cæsar, sitting in the midst
of our senate, ruefully looking round about her, covering herself with
her royal garment, attending the fatal blows and breathing out her last
with a——_Et tu quoque mi fili_.
“Are not these, my lord, very afflicting thoughts? And yet they are the
least part suggested to me by these dishonorable articles. Should not
the considerations of these things vivify these dry bones of ours?
Should not the memory of our noble predecessors’ valor and constancy
rouse up our drooping spirits? Are our noble predecessors’ souls got so
far into the English cabbage-stalks and cauliflowers, that we should
shew the least inclination that way? Are our eyes so blinded? Are
our ears so deafened? Are our hearts so hardened? Are our tongues so
faultered? Are our hands so fettered? that in this our day, I say, my
lord, that in this our day, we should not mind the things that concern
the very being and well being of our ancient kingdom, before the day be
hid from our eyes.
“When I consider this treaty as it hath been explained, and spoke to,
before us these three weeks by past; I see the English constitution
remaining firm, the same _two houses_ of Parliament [53], the same
_taxes_, the same _customs_, the same _excises_, the same _trading
companies_, the same municipal laws and courts of judicature; _and all
ours either subject to regulations or annihilations_, only we are to
have _the honor_ to pay _their old debts_, and to have some few persons
present for witnesses, to the validity of the deed, when they are
pleased to contract more.”(56)
Let any candid American deliberately compare that transaction with
the present, and laying his hand upon his heart, solemnly answer
this question to himself—Whether, he does not verily believe the
eloquent Peer before mentioned, had ten-fold more cause to apprehend
evils from such an unequal match between the two kingdoms, that any
citizen of these states has to apprehend them from the system proposed?
Indeed not only that Peer, but other persons of distinction and
large numbers of the people of Scotland were filled with the utmost
aversion to the union; and if the greatest diligence and prudence had
not been employed by its friends in removing misapprehensions and
refuting misrepresentations, and by the then subsisting government
for preserving the public peace, there would certainly have been a
rebellion.
Yet, _what were the consequences_ to Scotland of that _dreaded_ union
with England? The cultivation of her virtues and the correction of her
errors—The emancipation of one [54] class of her citizens from the
yoke of her superiors—A relief of other classes from the injuries
and insults of the great—Improvements in agriculture, science, arts,
trade, and manufactures—The profits of industry and ingenuity enjoyed
under the protection of laws—peace and security at home, and encrease
of respectability abroad. Her Church is still eminent—Her laws and
courts of judicature are safe—Her boroughs grown into cities—Her
mariners and soldiery possessing a larger subsistence than she could
have afforded them, and her tradesmen, ploughmen, landed men, and her
people of every rank, in a more flourishing condition, not only than
they ever were, but in a more flourishing condition, than the clearest
understanding could, at the time, have thought it possible for them to
attain in so short a period, or even in many ages. England participated
in the blessings. The stock of their union or ingraftment, as perhaps
it may be called, being strong and capable of drawing better nutriment
and in greater abundance, than they could ever have done apart,
“Ere long, to Heaven the soaring branches shoot,
“And wonder at their height, and more than native fruit.”