Gazette Of The United States, & Daily Advertiser

Extract from Essays on Political Society
now printing by Mr. William Young.

In surveying the political scene exhibited
on the western hemisphere, the attention is
attracted by that interesting phenomenon a
Council of Statesmen, convened by legislative
delegation from different parts of the
empire to consult on the general weal, and to
propose what they should deem most advisable
for meliorating the political system.

In that Council, are to be seen, men accustomed
to the walks of science and to the
scenes of active life ; men experienced in
policy and in arms ; of noble minds and
polished manners ; pillars of state, formed
to support, as well as to ornament, the
fabric of the social order: To regard them
as but "the corinthian capital of polished
society," would be far, I trust, from flattering
that dignified council in which WASHINGTON
presided.

Too intent on the interests of their country,
too conversant in great affairs, too
great in their real honors, to suffer the dignity
of their public character to be degraded
by the illusions of personal vanity.
The framers of the American constitution do
not appear to have thought of themselves,
except in common with their countrymen.
They were not vain enough to believe, that,
to guard against the dangers of their personal
influence, they ought themselves to be
subjected to a species of ostracism, and be
proscribed from administering the constitution
which they proposed. In a word,
they were not vain enough for that
ostentation of disinterestedness which
prevailed in what was called the French
constituting assembly. If they were
free from this the more amiable species
of vanity which displays itself in political
insolence: They did not require
a proportion of their own number to be
designated for administering the proposed
government.

Having completed the laborious work for
which they were delegated, the framers of
the American constitution refer it to the
will of society, through the medium of legislative
authority; and themselves revert to
the mass of citizens. Not a single function
of public administration, have they exercised.
during the time of their being convened,
nor have the ordinary operations of government
been suspended for a moment.

The form of political association, which
they have proposed as the result of their
labours, is to receive its authoritative existence
from the fiat of society Nothing is
yet changed ; but an event of sovereign importance
is approaching. A revolution,
without parallel in the annals of empire, is
hastening to its accomplishment. The efficacy
of reason is the force on which the
whole depends. To introduce a new form
of government, there is no appeal to instruments
of death, no display of constituent armies,
no forced choice of two thirds marching
into office through the blood over the
corpses of their countrymen.

At length, the national will is manifested ;.......The prior form of government is
entomb'd in the commencement of a new
order of things. Society, recognizing its
political omnipotence has willed its permanent
constitution. The constituted authorities
are executing that will.

It is an order of things commencing under
the dominion of reason and peace.
The renovation of empire, like the rejuvenescences
of nature, exhibits the world as awaking
to life. Young and fair as the
morning of spring, a moral aurora has appeared.
A nation is regenerated. From
the West. the glorious morning springs up
the front of Heaven.