PAPERS OF 1Im., r.~Au Buox,,PAHTE L.nrAR
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to him, anu there is no slander which inventiYe malice could produce, but . has been industriously launched against him-How far he has merited this violent opposition and extreordinary .accumulation o~ obliquy, can be ascertained only by an examination of the principles that he has promulgated and the measures that he ]ms originated-· This examination we design to make and if the just result of the investigation should he that his doctrines are sound, and his measures wise and politic, what must be the indignation of public toward that faction who has wared against the man and his administration with such vanclalic ferocity? Surely the honest part of the people cannot fail to withdraw their confidence from them, and bestow upon Govr. Troup, that applause & gratitude which is clue to every man who serves his country with zeal, ability and fidelity- In the prosecution of our purpose we design to lay aside the par- tizan and view whatever is connected with our subject with the eye of reason and in the Jight of truth. When it becomes necessary to advert to the conduct or character of the Ring-leaders of a disaffected faction whose intolerant & persecuting spirit has spread in society so many unhappy dissent.ions, we shall endeavor to do it free :from preju- dice and with all the moderation toward them which a rememberance of their heartless abarrations from principle will allow an honest mind to exercise. We will avoid indiscreet reproach, but cannot withhold merited reprehension. If they never had betrayed any other motive for their opposition than an honest difference of opinion- if they had never evinced their settled hostility to the political institutions of their country _by pertinaciously defending doctrins the most preposter- ·ous and adverse to the sacred principles upon which our government is established, we should most certainly forbear all animadversion, ancl extend to them that politeness and courtesy which is due only to gen- tlemen whose errors are attributable less to the heart than to the head. But when we consider how they have perverted the operations of truth & justice- how they have assassinated character- how they have laboured to render vice popular and virtue odious. When we view them as the subalterns of a higher faction at \Yashington City who have traduced our State and abused official authoritv to divest her of rights- and when we look upon them as an integral-part of the grand confederacy of Federalists throughout the union, organized for the distruction of State Sovereignty and the establishment of a consoli- dated government, we cannot but in justice to the cause of truth, de- nounce them as inveterate enemies of our countn- as well as the most execrable of mankind. It is not however against their calumny that we would defend either the character or the Administrntion of Govr. Troup. The-ir testimony crtn never effect the one, nor their influence diminish the public's confidence in the other; but there is a set of men, with no le~s rottenness of heart, but with more ability to injure, to gain their confidence and control the opinion of a large portion of an inlightenecl community is renly extreorclinary; and would certainly operate the ruin of our Govt. if Providence hacl not clecreecl a fatal instability to all power that is not founded on virtue- But it was apprehended that the man who paid so little regard to the morality of his means to gef into power, would, in all probability be ns little re- gardful of the moral nature of his efforts to retain it- And so it
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