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PAPERS OF :M:rn.A.BE.A.u BuoN.A.P.A.RTE LAM.AR
J ever share the confidence and affection of those whos~ feelings are selfish, and whose purposes are base, is utterly impossible. Such men cannot appreciate my character; nor can they cherish any attachment to my person; for they know that my abhorrence of their principles is in- stinctive and unalterable, and that I cannot yield myself to their schemes of venality and corruption. Regarding me therefore, as an obstacle to their sordid and ambitious projects, they have been, and are still labouring to secure by their intrigues such an ascendancy in the ensuing Congre_ss, as will enable them to effectuate their ends inde- pendently of the Executive. But if the people be true to their country and to themselves, these hopes will meet with no fruition. If by the continued and active co-operation of the virtuous portion of the com- munity, I shall be enabled to frustrate the designs of selfishness, and preserve the government and its interests from the unhallowed grasp of cupidity, I shall feel that I have rendered the country a more perma- nent and essential good, than in the chastisement of our border enemies or any other of my official acts. To that portion of your letter gentlemen, which makes allusions to the past, I feel some difficulty in making a reply. Situated as I am, it is not for me to sit in judgment upon those who have gone before. This is the appropriate work of the historian; and it is to be hoped that the day is not distant when the tmth both as to men and measures.• will be made known to the world. Heretofore the infant condition of the nation, and the stirring events of the times, giving rise to every variety of passion, rendered the development of political truths both difficult and dangerous; and the fact that our people had been suddenly thrown into social and political combination without an adequate knowledge of each others character, yet mutually dependant on one another for protection and defence, contributed still farther to the suppression of personal investigations, and to the concealment of facts that could not be promulgated at the time, without public inconvenience and much individual discomfort. If under such a state of things, presumptuous profligacy has occasionally got the ascendancy of modest worth, and inordinate vanity has been invested with furtive laurels, it is only in accordance with the experience of other ages, and when exposed by the faithful historian, it can reflect no peculiar odium upon our young and rising country. But, gentlemen, the time has now arrived when it becomes the duty of every genuine patriot to draw the most rigid distinction between virtue and vice. Whatever may have made forbearance proper or prudent heretofore, these reasons exist no longer, ·and it is time now that we should speak of men as we know them and things as they are; not in the feeble voice of irresolution, but with the energy and integrity of freemen. The republic is now safe from ex- ternal violence-her resources are rapidlv developing-many men of eminent worth and approved abilities are knmvn to abide amongst us- and their is a deep and steady regard for virtue pervading our people, ,~hich renders the present a highly propitious season for such investiga- tion of men and measures, as will protect the Country from the arts of the demagogue, and the machinations of the selfish and perfidious. These th.ings may now be discussed with dignity and calmness-detected guilt may be repulsed with effect, and the tranquility of the nation preserved from the agitations of the lawless and vile.
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