country by a revolution, and to establish another. It is in consequence of the overwhelming evils of anarchy and revolution, that the duty of civil obedience has been prescribed in so strong language. Still no attempt is made to fix limits to an obedience, to which, from the nature of the case, no well marked limits can be assigned. All Christian duties are treated alike, in this respect, in the New Testament. Thus the duty of husbands and wives, of parents and children, of masters and servants, are all prescribed, but no attempt is made to assign the exact limits of these duties. The right of revolution, or making forcible resistance to civil government, cannot be ascertained by any precise boundaries ;it commences at the point where civil obedience ceases to be a virtue. What this point is, those who undertake a revolution must of necessity judge for themselves, upon a view of all the circumstances and under the weight of the most solemn responsibility to God, their country, and mankind. In undertaking to make forcible resistance to government, "the end should be seen from the beginning ;" and to bear present evils while they are tolerable, is preferable to rushing into a revolution, where the evils are certain and very great, and the good in prospect must always be, in a considerable degree, problematical. "The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end, and resistance must begin, is," says Mr. Burke, "faint, obscure, and not easily definable. It is not a single act, or a single event, which determines it. Governments must be abused and deranged, indeed, before it can be thought of; and the prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience of the past. When things are in that lamentable condition, the nature of the disease is to indicate the remedy, to those whom nature has qualified to administer, in extremities, this critical, ambiguous, bitter potion, to a distempered state. Times, and occasions, and provocations will teach their own lessons. The wise will determine from the gravity of the case, the irritable, from sensibility to oppression, the high-minded, from disdain and indignation at abused power in unworthy hands, and bold, from the love of honorable danger, in a generous the brave cause; but, with or without right, a revolution will be the very last resource of the thinking and the good." *. Our Declaration of Independence has marked the right and duty of resistance with as much definiteness as seems practicable. "Prudence will dictate," it says, "that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; but, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them (a people) under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security." Is it not one of the characteristics of the present day, to rush into revolutions with too little regard to the circumstances and consequences?† The duties of patriotism may be ranged under seven divisions. I. The moral duties of rulers of every grade. II. Duties of citizens or subjects towards the civil magistrate. III. The duty of exercising the elective franchise with integrity and discretion. IV. The duty of cultivating a patriotic spirit and the patriotic virtues. V. The duty of citizens to keep themselves well informed respecting public men and public measures. VI. The duty of aiding in the defence of the country, and in the administration of justice by serving on juries, giving testimony on oath, &c. VII. Moral duties of the United States, viewed as communities, towards each other. CHAPTER I. MORAL DUTIES OF RULERS OF EVERY GRADE. Ir is not within the province of ethics, to discuss the constitutional, legal, or other official duties of public officers of any particular grade; and, in doing so, the author would be going out of his way; but the moral duties of them all are so similar, that they * Burke's Works, Vol. V. p. 73. London, 1803. may be treated under the same division. Nor is it within the author's province to do more than advert to the personal qualifications, physical, intellectual, or moral, which the various public officers may rightfully be expected to bring to the discharge of the duties of their respective offices. His concern is with their special moral duties, arising from the stations which they fill. The public officers particlarly referred to, comprise the President of the United States, and the chief executive officers by whom he is aided in the discharge of his high duties, the members of both houses of Congress, the governors of the several states and territories, the members of the state and territorial legislatures, the judges of the national and state courts, the officers of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states. All these various officers make up a mighty host; and, however different may be the spheres of their official duty, still they all occupy a common ground and sustain a common relation to their country, from which spring moral duties of the most important kind. Their power of influencing the public happiness is great, in proportion as their stations are elevated; and their influence for good or for evil is felt through all the ramifications of society. The greatest evil by which a free government is beset and endangered is, the excessive prevalence and extreme virulence of faction and party spirit. This source of public danger is great and threatening in proportion to the freedom of the government of a country and the consequent fewness of the restraints of law. Faction and party spirit have, in truth, been the bane of all free governments. No one can read of the intrigues, machinations, and exterminating violence of faction in the republics of ancient Greece, each party, as it gained the ascendency, alternately wreaking its vengeance on the other, without being filled with aversion and disgust. The history of the Roman commonwealth and of the Italian republics of the middle ages, are too well fraught with instruction of the same melancholy kind. But we need not go back to ancient times, to be instructed in the evils of faction and party violence. The sanguinary scenes of the French Revolution, originating in, and consummated by, the madness of party and faction, have furnished a lesson to all mankind which ought never to be forgotten in all future time. We ourselves have tasted enough of the bitterness of party strife, to make us, if we are wise, patient under the voice of warning and admonition. The characteristics, as well as the evils, of party are substantially the same at all times. In transacting the business of life, it is constantly the duty of one man to cooperate with, and concur in promoting, the measures of another, on the ground of an entire or substantial concurrence of judgment; but much more than this is required of the man who enlists under the banners of partisanship. The well-trained partisan must not permit himself to be embarrassed by the trammels either of judgment or conscience. He must not hesitate to affirm what he knows to be false, to deny what he knows to be true, to approve what he is convinced is unwise, and to encourage what he deems reprehensible. To countenance thorough-going party spirit, is to justify and sanction all this, yea more, much more; it is to encourage factious orators, bold declaimers, needy and profligate adventurers, to join in combinations for the purpose of obtruding themselves into all the offices of government, and, under the name and garb of servants of the people, to impose on them chains too strong to be broken. It is to exclude men from employments, not because their characters are impeachable or doubtful; not because their talents are inadequate or unknown; but because they were born in a particular part of the country, are suspected of preferring measures to men, of an attachment to reason and the public good, rather than to party watchwords and appellations, and hesitate to promise implicit allegiance to the chief, and obedience to every order of the reigning political confederacy. These, as has before been said, are not the characteristics of any particular party, but of all party when uncurbed by moral principle; and will be displayed in stronger or fainter colors, according to the genius of the leaders and the circumstances of the times. Their prevalence at any period, not only puts at hazard the final welfare of the country, by dividing it into two conflicting parts; by perpetuating feuds, jealousies, and animosities; by threatening the annihilation of patriotism and public spirit; but tends continually to obscure the dignity, and destroy the authority, of government itself. When the chief magistrate of a nation permits this blighting spirit to enter into the policy of his administration, much more when he is himself instrumental in introducing it, when partisanship alone is rewarded and merit discouraged, he flagrantly betrays the high trust with which the confidence of the nation has invested him. On the other hand, when, rejecting all distinctions not originating in personal merit, he is willing to confer the honors and emoluments of the State upon any of the citizens possessed of virtues and talents capable of advancing its welfare; it is difficult to say, whether he secures, so far as an upright line of conduct can secure, more substantial advantages to his country, or more satisfaction, honor, and influence to himself. Roused by his impartial call, public spirit revives in the remotest extremities of the land, prompting every class of citizens to whatever exertions the general good may require. After these observations, it is not difficult to understand, that it is one of the highest moral duties of men invested with public office, to guard themselves against the fatal venom of party virulence, and, by discountenancing it in all over whom they have any influence, to prevent it from infecting and desolating the land. The demon of party is usually raised by the wand of a very few ambitious individuals in a community; and this, too, with a view to their personal aggrandizement. How many, also, have succeeded in raising this fierce demon from the shades, who have not been equally successful in conjuring it down at their bidding. Let the public man of whatever grade meet the spirit of faction with a resolute sense of duty, let no excitement of passion, however craving for indulgence, let no temptation of immediate interest, or alluring advantage in prospect, no desire of humbling a rival, supplanting a competitor, or crushing an adversary, prevail on him to lend himself to the intrigues of faction and the clamor of party violence. The sword of party, moreover, has more than a single edge; and many a man has, in the end, been cleft asunder by it in the midst, who has for a time wielded it successfully. Situated as we are in this country, it must ever be the fault of a very few men, clothed with high |