Gazette Of The United States And Daily Evening Advertiser

ON INSURRECTIONS.
An Extract from the Maryland Gazette.

Sad experience, has shewn insurrection to be the bane of ancient Republics; by it the rational faculties are suspended, the passions are armed with blind madness and enthusiasm, and by it the mind, like a raging torrent, becomes ungovernable, and hurried into the most violent excesses. The melancholy effects of an insurrection are general and confined to men of no order or denomination; by it the spirit of industry is damped, the sinews of commerce relaxed, the spring to enterprise clogged; and the energetic powers of government weakened. In viewing these melancholy consequences, what man, in cool deliberation, can contemplate it and not be alarmed? What man can countenance it and call himself a citizen? What man can promote it but the enemy of his country? But once establish it as a principle, that a few malecontents, too many of which are in every government, under an impression that a law is grievous, were justified to resist it by the assumption of arms, and adieu to all security of private property. Once establish it as a principle, that governments are to be influenced vi & armis, and adieu to all stability in administration. Once establish it as a principle, that a minority of any kind can counteract the measures of a majority, and adieu to all liberty. In such a situation, how ruinous the consequences, how insecure the government, how wretched the country—Such a doctrine would leave the stability of government to the caprice of a few, suffer every man to judge in his own cause, and destroy every vital principle of government.

No doubt but all men should be jealous of their rights, and when actually invaded are justified in making use of every laudable effort in opposition to the invaders; but nothing less than the clearest proof of the invasion will justify this opposition, subject to the direction of the constitution. Not the caprice of a few, not the opinion of a minority, nor the unfounded allegations of licentious anarchists, can impeach the purity of government, or sanction this opposition. Men in the discharge of so sacred and important a trust as the liberties and properties of their fellow-citizens, are supported upon a more firm basis.

Men chosen to watch our immunities and unalienable rights, justly claim a more exalted tribunal. Men delegated to guard and protect the commonwealth, are entitled to a more firm ground than the slimy current of popular opinion. It is true the people are the physical strength of every government; all power is mediately or immediately derived from them, and are justified in guarding it from the encroachments of government. But how? Is it by a few individuals raising the people to sedition and insurrection? Is it by the rage of enthusiasm. Is it in the blood chaos of licentious anarchy and confusion? Is it in the destruction of all law and political order, and, like our uncivilized ancestors in the infancy of civil society, determine all common affairs in scenes of rage, fury and violence? Such measures as these would be truly preposterous, and so far from securing the rights of a free and independent people, they strike at the root of all government; they are not only unfounded in reason, ruinous to the peace and order of society, but subversive of all rational liberty. The affairs of a nation are of too much importance to be tampered with, the commonwealth too sacred to be insulted, and their lives and properties too dear to be sported with by any such unbounded excesses.

Who then are to judge of our constitution in a representative capacity? Each question being cooly and dispassionately canvassed and determined by a majority, by men delegated from amongst and by ourselves, by men who are presumed to know our real interests, and endued with a sufficient degree of zeal to support them.