That the political body, like the animal, is liable to violent diseases,
which, for a time, baffle the healing art, is a truth which we all
acknowlege, and which most of us lament. But as most of the disorders,
incident to the human frame, are the consequence of an intemperate
indulgence of its appetites, or of neglecting the most obvious means of
safety; so most of the popular tumults, which disturb government, arise
from an abuse of its blessings, or an inattention to its principles. A
man of a robust constitution, relying on its strength, riots in
gratifications which weaken the _stamina vitæ_; the surfeiting pleasures
of a few years destroy the power of enjoyment; and the full fed
voloptuary feels a rapid transition to the meagre valetudinarian. Thus
people who enjoy an uncommon share of political privileges, often carry
their freedom to licentiousness, and put it out of their power to enjoy
society by destroying its support.
_Too much health_ is a _disease_, which often requires a very strict
regimen; _too much liberty_ is the worst of _tyranny_; and _wealth_ may
be accumulated to such a degree as to _impoverish_ a State. If _all_ men
attempt to become _masters_, the _most_ of them would necessarily become
_slaves_ in the attempt; and could _every man_ on earth possess millions
of joes, _every man_ would be _poorer_ than _any man_ is now, and
infinitely more wretched, because they could not procure the necessaries
of life.
My countrymen, it is a common saying now, that _the devil is in you_. I
question the influence of the devil, however, in these affairs. Divines
and politicians agree in this, to father all evil upon the devil; but
the effects ascribed to this prince of evil spirits, both in the moral
and political world, I ascribe to the wickedness and ignorance of the
human heart. Taking the word _Devil_ in this sense, he is _in_ you, and
_among_ you, in a variety of shapes.
In the first place, the _weakness of our federal government is the
devil_. It prevents the adoption of any measures that are requisit for
us, as a nation; it keeps us from paying our honest debts; it also
throws out of our power all the profits of commerce, and this drains us
of cash. Is not this the devil? Yes, my countrymen, an empty purse is
the _devil_.
You say you are jealous of your rights, and dare not trust Congress.
Well, that jealousy is an evil spirit, and all evil spirits are
_devils_. So far the devil is in you. You act, in this particular, just
like the crew of a ship, who would not trust the helm with _one_ of
their number, because he might _possibly_ run her ashore, when by
leaving her without a pilot, they were _certain_ of shipwreck. You act
just like men, who in raising a building, would not have a master
workman, because he _might_ give out wrong orders. You will be masters
yourselves; and as you are not all ready to lift at the same time, one
labors at a stick of timber, then another, then a third; you are then
vexed that it is not raised; why let a master order thirteen of you to
take hold together, and you will lift it at once. Every family has a
_master_ (or a _mistress_--I beg the ladies' pardon.) When a ship or a
house is to be built, there is a master; when highways are repairing,
there is a master; every little school has a master; the continent is a
great school; the boys are numerous, and full of roguish tricks, and
there is no _master_. The boys in this great school play truant, and
there is no person to chastise them. Do you think, my countrymen, that
America is more easily governed than a school? You do very well in small
matters; extend your reason to great ones. Would you not laugh at a
farmer who would fasten a cable to a plough, and yet attempt to draw a
house with a cobweb? "And Nathan said unto David, _thou art the man_."
You think a master necessary to govern a _few_ harmless children in a
school or family; yet leave thousands of great rogues to be governed by
_good advice_. Believe me, my friends, for I am _serious_; you _lose
rights_, because you will not giv your magistrates authority to _protect
them_. Your liberty is despotism, because it has no control; your power
is nothing, because it is not united.
But further, luxury rages among you, and luxury is _the devil_. The war
has sent this evil demon to impoverish people, and embarrass the public.
The articles of rum and tea alone, which are drank in this country,
would pay all its taxes. But when we add, sugar, coffee, feathers, and
the whole list of baubles and trinkets, what an enormous expense? No
wonder you want paper currency. My countrymen are all grown very tasty!
Feathers and jordans must all be imported! Certainly gentlemen, the
devil is among you. A Hampshire man, who drinks forty shillings worth of
rum in a year, and never thinks of the expense, will raise a mob to
reduce the governor's salary, which does not amount to three pence a man
per annum. Is not this the devil?
My countrymen--A writer appeared, not long ago, informing you how to
redress grievances.[40] He givs excellent advice. Let every man make a
little box, and put into it _four pence_ every day. This in a year will
amount to six pounds one shilling and eight pence, a sum more than
sufficient to pay any poor man's tax. Any man can pay three or four
pence a day, though no poor man can, at the end of a year, pay six
pounds. Take my advice, every man of you, and you will hardly feel your
taxes.
[40] See page 125.
But further, a _tender law_ is the _devil_. When I trust a man a sum of
money, I expect he will return the full value. That Legislature which
says my debtor may pay me with _one third_ of the value he received,
commits a deliberate act of villany; an act for which an _individual_,
in any government, would be honored with a whipping post, and in most
governments, with a gallows. When a man makes dollars, one third of
which only is silver, and passes them for good coin, he must lose his
ears, &c.
But Legislatures can, with the solemn face of rulers, and guardians of
justice, boldly give currency to an _adulterated coin_, enjoin it upon
debtors to cheat their creditors, and enforce their systematic knavery
with legal penalties. The differences between the man who makes and
passes counterfeit money, and the man who tenders his creditor one third
of the value of the debt, and demands a discharge, is the same as
between a thief and a robber. The first cheats his neighbor in the dark,
and takes his property without his knowlege: The last boldly meets him
at noon day, tells him he is a rascal, and demands his purse.
My countrymen, the devil is among you. Make _paper_ as much as you
please; make it a tender in all _future contracts_, or let it rest on
its own bottom: But remember that past contracts are _sacred things_;
that Legislatures have no right to interfere with them; they have no
right to say, a debt shall be paid at a discount, or in any manner which
the parties never intended. It is the business of justice to fulfil the
intention of parties in contracts, not to defeat them. To pay _bona
fide_ contracts for cash, in paper of little value, or in old horses,
would be a dishonest attempt in an individual; but for Legislatures to
frame laws to support and encourage such detestable villany, is like a
judge who should inscribe the arms of a rogue over the feat of justice,
or clergymen who should convert into bawdy-houses the temples of
Jehovah. My countrymen, the world says, the devil is in you: Mankind
detest you as they would a nest of robbers.
But lastly, mobs and conventions are devils. Good men love law and legal
measures. Knaves only fear law, and try to destroy it. My countrymen, if
a constitutional Legislature cannot redress a grievance, a mob never
can. Laws are the security of life and property; nay, what is more, of
liberty. The man who encourages a mob to prevent the operation of law,
ceases to be _free or safe_; for the same principle which leads a man to
put a bayonet to the breast of a judge, will lead him to take property
where he can find it; and when the judge dare not act, where is the
loser's remedy? Alas, my friends, too much liberty is no liberty at all.
Giv me any thing but mobs; for mobs are the devil in his worst shape. I
would shoot the leader of a mob, sooner than a midnight ruffian. People
may have grievances, perhaps, and no man would more readily hold up his
hand to redress them than myself; but mobs rebel against laws of their
own, and rebellion is a crime which admits of no palliation.
My countrymen, I am a private, peaceable man. I have nothing to win or
to lose by the game of paper currency; but _I revere justice_. I would
sooner pick oakum all my life, than stain my reputation, or pay my
creditor one farthing less than his honest demands.
While you attempt to trade to advantage, without a _head_ to combine all
the States into systematic, uniform measures, the world will laugh at
you for fools. While merchants take and giv credit, the world will call
them idiots, and laugh at their ruin. While farmers get credit, borrow
money, and mortgage their farms, the world will call them fools, and
laugh at their embarrassments. While all men liv beyond their income,
and are harrassed with duns and sheriffs, no man will pity them, or giv
them relief. But when mobs and conventions oppose the courts of justice,
and Legislatures make paper or old horses a legal tender in all cases,
the world will exclaim with one voice--_Ye are rogues, and the devil is
in you!_
No. XI.