President Madison's Appeal.
JAMES Madison, the fourth
President of the United States
was born in Orange County,
Va. March 5, 1751. His home
"Montpelier" still stands. He spent
much time in Charlottesville and vicinity,
where he was well acquainted
with Jefferson and scores of others. After
finishing his administration he became
a member of the Board of Visitors
and the Rector of the University of Virginia.
Even in those early days ugly
rumors of civil war were afloat and
Madison while here in an eloquent appeal
for the Union said in part:
"I submit to you, my fellow-citizens
these considerations, in full confidence
that the good sense which has so often
marked your decisions will allow them
their due weight and effect; and that
you will never suffer difficulties, however
formidable in appearance, or however
fashionable the error on which
they may be founded, to drive you into
the gloomy and perilous scenes into
which the advocates for disunion
would conduct you. Hearken not to
the unnatural voice which tells you
that the people of America, knit together
as they are by so many cords
of affection, can no longer live together
as members of the same family; can
no longer continue the mutual guardians
of their mutual happiness; can no
longer be fellow citizens of one great,
respectable, and flourishing empire.
Hearken not to the voice which petulantly
tells you that the form of government
recommended for your adoption
is a novelty in the political world; that it
has never yet had a place in the theories
of the wildest projectors; that it rashly
attempt what it is impossible to accomplish.
No, my countrymen, shut your
ears against this unhallowed language.
Shut your hearts against the poison
which it conveys; the kindred blood
which flows in the veins of American
citizens, the mingled blood which they
have shed in defense of their sacred
rights, consecrate their union, and excite
horror at the idea of their becoming
aliens, rivals, enemies. And if
novelties are to be shunned, believe me,
the most alarming of all novelties, the
most wild of all projects, the most rash
of all attempts, is that of rending us
in pieces in order to preserve our liberties
and promote our happiness. But
why is the experiment of an extended
republic to be rejected; merely because
it may comprise what is new? Is it
not the glory of the people of America
that, whilst they have paid a decent
regard to the opinions of former times
and other nations, they have not suffered
a blind veneration for antiquity,
for custom, or for names, to overrule
the suggestions of their own good
sense, the knowledge of their own
situation, and the lessons of their own
experience?" To this manly spirit posterity
will be indebted for the possession,
and the world for the example,
of the numerous innovations displayed
on the American theatre in favor of
private rights and public happiness.
