[Pamphlets. American history]

38
tical republicanism, and contributed most materially, as
has been justly stated by the elder President Adams, to
the great result. Still more efficacious than institutions,
the same simple manners, the same frugal habits,-the
same home virtues, which existed in 1775, remained unchanged in 1783; and were equally appropriate to colonial life and to political independence. The same unterrifled spirit of liberty, which stood the ordeal of the war,
had existed from the settlement of the country.
These circumstances will account for the ease with
which, all things considered, the new republican governments were established, and which is one of the most
striking novelties in the march of revolution. When we
follow the train of events in Europe, from the year 1789
to the present day, we are ready to think that the task
of reconstituting a state on liberal principles,-I might
say on any principles,-is the most arduous and hopeless
which can be undertaken by man. We there behold a
great and enlightened people,-among the most refined
of modern states,-boasting among her sons a large number of the leading minds of the age,-engaged for two
generations in the work of reforming the government,subverting this year the constitution of the last, passing
from monarchy to republicanism, from the wildest anarchy to the sternest military despotism, scourged and
betrayed by each new dictator, tribune, and demagogue,
and plunging, with fatal recklessness, from experiment to
experiment of bloodshed and ruin.
In the establishment of the American republics, on
the other hand, we witness the grave and quiet action of