7348. REPUBLICANISM (Partisan), Seceders from.—
My opinion is that two or
three years more will bring back to the fold
of republicanism all our wandering brethren
whom the cry of “wolf” scattered in 1798.
Till that is done, let every man stand to
his post, and hazard nothing by change. And
when that is done, you and I may retire to
that tranquillity which our years begin to call
for, and review with satisfaction the efforts
of the age we happened to be born in,
crowned with complete success. In the hour
of death, we shall have the consolation to see
established in the land of our fathers the
most wonderful work of wisdom and disinterested
patriotism that has ever yet appeared
on the globe.—
To De Witt Clinton. Washington ed. iv, 521.
(W.
1803)
