Edwardsville Spectator

AN EXTRACT

From a charge delivered by Judge Rush to the Grand Jury of Northampton county (Pennsylvania,) on his Circuit in the year 1799.

"It cannot be denied, that the public prosperity of our land, depends upon the virtue of the people, and that the practice of vice, like a cancer in the natural body, will at last extend itself to the vital of the country and cut off our national existence. If this be the case, we may safely assert, that no man loves his Country who lives in the habitual violation of any rule in her moral code; because by so doing he contributes his aid to accomplish her destruction. He may call himself a Federalist or Anti-Federalist--a Republican or Democrat--or whatever he pleases; it is certain, he is but a pretender to the character of a Patriot. It is impossible he can love his Country, whose life and actions are hostile to her true interests. Party and personal prejudices he may possess in abundance, which to the world, and perhaps to himself, he may cover with a mantle of zeal for the public good: But the love of his country is a stranger to his heart. Examine for a moment, Gentlemen, the force of this observation by your own experience in private life--Suppose one of your neighbors, to profess a regard and affection for you, and at the same time to make a practice of thwarting your views, and defeating the plans you had laid to promote your happiness, or your interests; there is no doubt you would despise his professions, and call him a hypocrite. Nor can he be pronounced any thing better, who tells you he loves his country, and is, at the same time, habitually infringing those laws, on which her salvation and prosperity essentially depend. Away with all such Patriotism! It is hail! Master with the lips, and at the same instant a stab to the heart. I call that man a disorganizer, let his political principles be what they may, who is spreading through the moral world, the seeds of disorder and vice, and thereby sapping the foundation of all Government."