p.

22

sirable, however, that the experiment should be fully tried,
to determine whether our government, with this feature, can
be rendered permanent.

A mode of electing the president may be devised which
shall preclude the possibility of his using undue influence
to obtain the office. But the practicability of introducing
such a mode is questionable.

There are errors of opinion on the subject of republi-
can government so long cherished, and so interwoven with
the habits of thinking among our citizens, that reasoning
will not remove or correct them. The opinion that the rich
are the enemies and oppressors of the poor, industriously
propagated by designing men for their selfish purposes ; and
the opinion that all incorporated companies are aristocratic
in their tendency, are among the false and most pernicious
doctrines that ever cursed a nation.

Equally injurious to the public interest is the attempt
to excite jealousies against learning and the seminaries in
which young men are to be qualified for the professions and
for the higher offices of government. This war against
superior attainments in science, and against large posses-
sions of property, is a most suicidal attempt to destroy the
dignity of the state, degrade our public character, and check
the spirit of improvement. The effect is, to raise to the
higher offices, men wholly incompetent to discharge their
duties with honour and advantage. To these dispositions
we may ascribe the derangement of our fnancial concerns,
and the disturbance of the usual course of business, pro-
ducing unparalleled distresses in the community. The
extensive and complicated operations of finance, in a great