5126. MASSACHUSETTS, Apostasy.—
Oh Massachusetts! how have I lamented the
degradation of your apostasy! Massachusetts,
with whom I went in pride in 1776, whose vote
was my vote on every public question, and
whose principles were then the standard of
whatever was free or fearless. But she was
then under the counsels of the two Adamses;
while Strong, her present leader, was promoting
petitions for submission to British power and
British usurpation. While under her present
counsels, she must be contented to be nothing;
as having a vote, indeed, to be counted, but
not respected. But should the State, once more,
buckle on her republican harness, we shall receive
her again as a sister, and recollect her
wanderings among the crimes only of the parricide
party, which would have basely sold what
their fathers so bravely won from the same
enemy. Let us look forward, then, to the act
of repentance, which, by dismissing her venal
traitors, shall be the signal of return to the
bosom, and to the principles of her brethren;
and, if her late humiliation can just give her
modesty enough to suppose that her southern
brethren are somewhat on a par with her in
wisdom, in information, in patriotism, in
bravery, and even in honesty, although not in
psalm-singing, she will more justly estimate her
own relative momentum in the Union. With
her ancient principles, she would really be
great, if she did not think herself the whole.—
To General Dearborn. Washington ed. vi, 451.
(M.
March. 1815)
