Dedham, November 6,1807.
MY DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 28th October, covering the message and documents referred to, reached me yesterday somewhat unexpectedly. I had supposed you would not go on to Washington till November. Besides, shut up half my time in a sick chamber, and the other half in my parlor, I am unaffectedly sensible of my insignificance. If, however, you and my worthy friend Mr. Quincy think fit sometimes to send me intelligence, I shall be grateful. I am in the habit of thinking your comments better than the text.
I was disgusted about a fortnight since, on reading, in Ben Russell, a short piece tending to show that Great Britain had the empire of the sea and Bonaparte of the land; that both obtained it by force, which gives them all the rights they have, the one to subjugate the nations, and the other to make and expound the laws of nations. When federal newspapers publish such stuff, are we to wonder at the folly of our people? Have we any security, as long as that folly or worse reigns? I am ready to believe that we, as great boasters as the ancient Greeks, are the most ignorant nation in the world, because we have had the least experience. Fresh from the hands of a political mother, who would not let us fall, we now think it impossible that we should fall. Bonaparte will cure us of our presumption; or, if that task should be left to some other rough teacher, we shall learn at last the art, that is, the habits, manners, and prejudices of a nation, especially the prejudices which are worth more than philosophy, without which I venture to consider our playing government as a sort of free negro attempt. It is probably necessary, that we should endure slavery for some ages, till every drop of democratic blood has been got rid of by fermentation or bleeding. I dread to look forward to the dismal scenes, through which my children are to pass. As every nation has been trodden under foot, ground in a mill, and purged in the fire of ad-
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