PAPER OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LA L\B 189 counteract or awe the regular deliberations and action of the con- stituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principlE', and of fatal tendency. Towards the preservation of our govern- ment and the permanency of our present constitution, it is requisite that we not only steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to it~ 11cknowledged authority, but also, that we resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretext. I have already intimated to you the prevalence of local and party spirit; this spirit unfortunately is inseparable from our nature, having it.c: root in the strange t passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly thefr wor.st enemy. The alter- nate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissentions, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. It therefore becom·es the duty of a wise and prudent people to discourage and restrain it. It must appear evident to my fellow-citizens, who would take the trouble to reflect for a moment, what my situation as an officer must be. Acting a:s the intermediate officer in my Department without a constitutional head, to whom ~an I make my returns as the constitution and law requires 1 I plainly see and feel my situation, and know a an officer that my acts are nominal. Th!:! only good I can perform is to admonish and keep the links as much as possible together, until the constitutional chain can ~e by some means or other, fairly com- pleted. I have.now given you the true situation of the government: but what is that of the people Y They are indeed. as in the days of Noah. marrying and giving in marriage, eating and sleeping, and s~ll- ing their cotton forsooth, at a tolerable price; and this, the committee would pursuade them, are irrefragible proof that all was well. Do my fellow citizens see nothing in the signs of the times to awaken their patriotic apprehensions? Can they see no system of change in the fierce and relentless spirit of p~rty-the blind devo- tion or antipathy to men-the secrecy, low cunning, and manage- ment used in elections, and all popular deliberations; the low cant of the vulgar and deluded tools & demagogues, which echoes from the walls of grog shops; the degraded prostitution of talent; the keen avidity with which the officers of justice are assailed and lmnted down by vindictive party spirit; the feint and scarcely per- ceptible lines of discrimination between truth and falsehood; tho humbugs; the diminished confidence of the people, in the stability and purity of their institutions, and the virtue of their public men? Are these evils naturally incident to governments· so youthful as ours; or are they caused by some sinister and malignant influence- prematurely got up tQ blight our hopes in the bL1d Y From what- ever source they may spring, it is high· time they were corrected. The only possible means for correcting those, and evading greater evils; is the course in my opinion, which I have pointed out to you. 'l'his fello'\cv citizens, is not a matter of experiment, but of real ex- pediency and necessity, and resolves itself into this narw,v compass.
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