University of Virginia Library

TO PHILIP MAZZEI.[97]

Your book, as I prophesied, sells nowhere but in
Virginia. A very few copies only have been called
for either in New York or in this city. The language

in which it is written will account for it. In order
to attract notice, I translated the panegyric in the
French Mercure, and had it made part of the advertisement.
I did not translate the comment on the
Federal Constitution, as you wished, because I could
not spare the time, as well as because I did not approve
the tendency of it. Some of your remarks
prove that Horace's "Cœlum non animum mutant
qui trans mare currunt" does not hold without exception.
In Europe, the abuses of power continually
before your eyes have given a bias to your political
reflections which you did not feel in equal degree
when you left America, and which you would feel less
of if you had remained in America. Philosophers on
the old continent, in their zeal against tyranny,
would rush into anarchy; as the horrors of superstition
drive them into Atheism. Here, perhaps, the
inconveniences of relaxed government have reconciled
too many to the opposite extreme. If your
plan of a single Legislature, as in Pennsylvania, &c.,
were adopted, I sincerely believe that it would prove
the most deadly blow ever given to Republicanism.
Were I an enemy to that form, I would preach the
very doctrines which are preached by the enemies to
the government proposed for the United States.
Many of our best citizens are disgusted with the injustice,
instability, and folly, which characterize the
American Administrations. The number has for
some time been rapidly increasing. Were the evils
to be much longer protracted, the disgust would seize
citizens of every description.

It is of infinite importance to the cause of liberty
to ascertain the degree of it which will consist with
the purposes of society. An error on one side may
be as fatal as on the other. Hitherto, the error in
the United States has lain in the excess.

All the States except North Carolina and Rhode
Island have ratified the proposed Constitution. Seven
of them have appointed their Senators, of whom
those of Virginia, R. H. Lee and Col. Grayson, alone
are among the opponents of the system. The appointments
of Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia
will pretty certainly be of the same stamp with the
majority. The House of Representatives is yet to
be chosen everywhere except in Pennsylvania. From
the partial returns received, the election will wear a
federal aspect, unless the event in one or two particular
counties should contradict every calculation.
If the eight members from this State be on the side
of the Constitution, it will in a manner secure the
majority in that branch of the Congress also. The
object of the Anti-Federalists is to bring about another
general Convention, which would either agree on
nothing, as would be agreeable to some, and throw
everything into confusion, or expunge from the Constitution
parts which are held by its friends to be
essential to it. The latter party are willing to gratify
their opponents with every supplemental provision
for general rights, but insist that this can be better
done in the mode provided for amendments.

I remain, with great sincerity, your friend and
servant.