State of Parties and the Country [pp. 1-53]

State of Parties and the Country.
those who prepared the way, and wrought upon the public
mind, until it was ripe for the grand issue with the mother
country. To say that he was ready and able to serve this
revolutionary temper, in his own sphere, more efficiently than
any other man could have done, whenever the people
were prepared for the movement, is, in this respect, all that
we may say with safety. The colonies, once separated from
Great Britain, Washington waged no warfare against Brit ish institutions; and would perhaps have looked indifferently
- upon our adoption of them, as a separate community. He
was not a reformer in affairs of government. He had read
but little in the schools of ancient and modern philosophy knew nothing of Rousseau, and was too much of an English man, perhaps, to have been willing to tie lessons in law or
morals from any Frenchman. Under.?shington, the Fed eral party found protection and sympat~ With Hamilton,
as a favourite adviser, it could not well be otherwise.
;!:' ohn Adams, more speculative more progressive, endowed
With the spirit of the reformer, and versed in the questions
A. of the scho6lmen, in matters of government, held yet the same
general tendencies with Washington. The differences be ten them were rather those of temperament and society
an of principle; and may be summed up, briefly, by saying
that the one was a Southron, the other a Yankee; the one
possessed strong veneration, the other precious little; both
had large self-esteem, but, in the one case, it had been tem pered by the amenities of a society which made forbearance
a duty; while all the lessons of the other taught moral hardi hood, and the resolute assertion of self, without much re gard to any other considerations.
The issue was joined with these great leaders, by the Re publicans, even before the first formation of the government.
Jefferson, representing the latter, differed largely with them
both. His moral was less scrupulous than either; his geni ous more excursive. His views of things had been less fet tered by place and routine. He had early imbibed notions of
human perfectability, which, in all ages, have more or less
cheered the dreamer of utopia, and which had been lately
revived in colours of particular brightness by the French
1853.1
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