PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAM.AR 55 for Executive patronage - can be tickled with straws and held in .executive abeyance There is then another class too frequently found in the halls of legislation that may properly be called neutrals. These are men of no decided character, without judgement to choose, and without courage to profess any principle whatever Such men can serve no cause, for this plain reason they have no cause at heart.- Tp.ey can at best work only as mere mercenaries They have not been guilty of great crimes; but it is only because they have not energy of mind to rise to any height of wickedness.. They are not hawks or kites; they are only mi~erable fowls whose flight is not above their dunghill or hen roost But they tremble before the authors of these horrors. They admire them at a safe and respectful distance. There ne,·er was a mean and abject mind that did not admire an intrepid and dexterous villian. In the bottom of their hearts they believe such bold and daring miscreants to be the only men qualified for great affairs: if you set them to transact with such persons they are instantly subdued. They dare not so much as look 'their antagonist in the face They are made to be their subjects not their arbiters or controllers. These men to be sure, can look at atrocious acts without indignation, and behold persecuted and suffering virtue without sympathy. Therefore they are considered as sober dispasionate men But they have their passions though of another kind, and which are much more likely to carry them out of their path of duty. They are of a tame, timid, languid, inert temper, where,·er the welfare of others is concerned. In such causes they have no motives to action;- they never possess any real ability, and are totally destitute of all resource. It is not enough in a situation of trust in the commonwealth, that a man means well to his country; it is not enough that in his single person he never did an evil act, but allways voted according to his conscience, and even harangued against ,every design which he apprehended to be prejudicial to the interests of his country. This innoxious and ineffectual character, that seems formed upon a plan of apology and disculpation, falls miserably short of the mark of public duty. That duty demands and requires that what is right, should not only be made ln1own but made prernlent, that which is evil should not only be detected, but be defeated. When the public man omits to put himself in a situation of doing his duty with effect, it is an omition that frustrates the purposes of his trust allmost as much as if he had formally betrayed it. It is certainly no very rational account of a mans life, that he has allways acted right, but has taken special care to act in such a manner, that his endeavors could not possibly be productive of any consequence. The men of in- dependence and integrity found in our Congress, are generally so far in the minority that no effort on their part can possibly be productive of any good And we are blindly delivered over to every speculative projector and adventurer, to every alchymist and empiric The foregoing interrogatories will now b<' taken up and for the sake of perspicuity will be considered under three heads, as they occur, in the form of question and answer Interrogatory 1st. Why this great, this sudden change from prosperity to adversity? Answer - Simply because there has been a change of officers. A new captain has been shipped on board the government barque who not having the fear of God before his eyes, nor the good of his country at heart; but instigated by his unholy desire for arbi-
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