Gazette Of The United States

Extract from the Albany Gazette of August 2.

"AN appeal to the people is to be hazarded on very extraordinary occasions only; perhaps no case will justify it but an essential defect in the constitution. It is impossible to foresee or foretell the dangers of a dissolution of government; none can know where it will end or what establishment will be next. The moment that the people put into exercise that sovereign right of resuming their delegated powers, all forms of government cease, and there remains no rule but that of the passions, which are as uncontrollable as the winds; what destruction they may produce, or what direction they may take, is totally uncertain; and it is an equal chance whether they settle finally in the extremes of licentiousness or despotism.

I know it to be the wishes of many, perhaps they would carry with them the majority of the state, that an opportunity might be afforded to give our constitution more of a democratical cast. It is to be feared, that in attempting to deface what they call its aristocratic features they would vitally wound the excellencies for which it is now famed; and those who are most forward to urge on the drama, would have reason to rue the day on which they took a part in it. The volunteer toast of the mechanics of New-York, one of the most numerous class of citizens, on the late anniversary of independence, is but a spark escaped from the pent up fires of a volcano; and will suggest, to the mind of one who but a few years ago has seen what disorders entered the field of politics, as soon as the fences of government were thrown down, presages of no desirable aspect. What other toasts may yet be in reserve, may baffle the profoundest politician's researches. On the contrary, we know there are opinions prevailing, that it would promote our peace and welfare, if the interference of the people, in the appointment of their officers, were more limited than it is. In New-Jersey the governor is appointed by the legislature, and as we now have a national president and legislature, they naturally present to us another easier mode of obtaining such an officer than the turbulent one on which we have practised."

May the happy period soon arrive when every civil officer shall be immediately elected by the people.