PAPERS OF l\lIRABEAU Buo. APARTE LAMAR i 377 in the attitude of a private individual. We are taught, by what we ee around ns in early childhood, to reverence wealth and pm er; and it is almost impos ible in after life to emancipate the mind from the slavish thraldom; so that when we approach the guilty lord of crea- tion, there is an involuntary shrinking back as if we 9eemed them privileged in enormity!and not amenable to us for their outrages. We feel that we should not deal with them as we would with ordinary men. If a peasant convicted of murder, shall offer a bribe for the preserva- tion of his life, it meets with prompt and indignant repulsion, but if a prince under like circumstance , shall in the fullest of his power, pro- pose some lordly favor, it is accepted with avidity as if the acceptance were upon our part a virtuous performance of duty. Besides this, we .flatter ourselves that there is nothing wrong in the transaction, because we are not personally and privately the beneficiaries of the bargain; but cel'tainly the right or wrong, doth not depen,d upon who are the recipients, whether the public or an individual. If we have a right thus to act for the good of the nation, we can do the same for the good of a community; and if for a community we can for a family; and if for ~ family, why may not that family be our bwn. This mode of reasoning will readily exhibit the fallacy, if not the immorality of that doctrine, which draws a distinction between a high and a low offender, and justifies a negotiation with the one, which would be odious and criminal with the other. Let us apply it to the case be- fore us. A man is in our custody as a prisoner, who is guilty of the most exalted crimes-perfidy and murder-and who if he were a private individual, we should feel ourselves bound in conscience to God and man to hang upon a gallows as high as Haman's; but who in consideration of his being President of a mighty nation; a man of popularity and influence, is allowed to purchase exemption from pun- i. hment, and bid defiance to the united condemnation of justice and of vengeance. And we hope to escape all censure and reproach £or this partial and mercenary _proceeding, because it is done, not for our own, but for the public good. Really I know of no principle in that pure and acred code published upon smoking Sinai that will at all excuse this invidious di til).ction and obvious elfishness in the administration of public justice. The dignity of a criminal cannot sanctify his crime ; neither should his gold or his infl.nence be per- mitted to purchase impunity. It is in vain that the slayer of my people approach with his bond and signet ;-though he bind himself upon a sheet of steel, to fill the public coffers with the gold of Ophur and to exalt my nation to the rank of l\facedon, it shall not turn aside the course of natural justice, which urely ought for weal or woe, to fall on all alike; To act up to this principle requires no ordinary moral effort. We have to struggle a'7ainst the force of in- tinct, education and habit. But certain I am that no draft will ever be dishonored when fairly drawn upon the conscience and integrity of thi Cabinet. I am only endeavoring to convince them that the one which they are about to discount is unworthy of acceptance, because it wants the endorsement of reason. Without a full' reliance upon their high integrity, •I should not thus address myself to their understanding. It is because I ~ow them from personal acquaintance
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