6426. PARTIES, Motives.—
That each
party endeavors to get into the administration
of the government, and exclude the other from
power, is true, and may be stated as a motive of
action: but this is only secondary; the primary
motive being a real and radical difference of
political principle. I sincerely wish our differences
were but personally who should govern,
and that the principles of our Constitution
were those of both parties. Unfortunately,
it is otherwise; and the question of preference
between monarchy and republicanism, which
has so long divided mankind elsewhere,
threatens a permanent division here.—
To John Melish. Washington ed. vi, 95.
Ford ed., ix, 374.
(M.
Jan. 1813)
