6568. PEOPLE, Deception of.—
The spirit
of 1776 is not dead. It has only been
slumbering. The body of the American people
is substantially republican. But their virtuous
feelings have been played on by some
fact with more fiction; they have been the
dupes of artful manœuvres, and made for a
moment to be willing instruments in forging
chains for themselves. But time and truth
have dissipated the delusion, and opened their
eyes.—
To T. Lomax. Washington ed. iv, 300.
Ford ed., vii, 373.
(M.
March. 1799)
