p.

TO THE

HONOURABLE DANIEL WEBSTER.

SIR,

IN your public addresses or speeches, and in those of
other gentlemen of high political distinction, I have often
seen an opinion expressed like this--That intelligence and
virtue are the basis of a republican government, or that in-
telligence and virtue in the people are necessary to the pre-
servation and support of a republican government. These
words, intelligence and virtue, are very comprehensive in
their uses or application, and perhaps too indefinite to fur-
nish the premises for the inference deduced from them.
Men may be very intelligent in some departments of litera-
ture, arts and science; but very ignorant of branches of
learning in other departments. By intelligence, as applica-
ble to political affairs, it may be presumed that those who
use the term, intend it to imply a correct knowledge of the
Constitution and laws of the country, and of the several
rights and duties of the citizens.

But, Sir, the opinion that intelligence in the people of a
country will preserve a republican government, must depend,
for its accuracy, on the fact of an intimate, or necessary con-
nection between knowledge and principle. It must suppose