University of Virginia Library

FRAGMENTS.

WHAT is the reason that there is usually more talent
in a new settlement than in an old? Is it the fact?
That would lead to a discussion of some delicacy, in our
republic, and induce comparison, which, according to the
proverb, is odious. But there is doubtless some ground
for the assertion, that our best generals, and ablest orators
in congress, have come from the west, or been of the
new states. As to generals, Harrison, Brown, and Jackson
might be mentioned. As to orators, we have had
Patrick Henry, of a frontier in Virginia; and I might
mention one of my own name of Kentucky, though he
spelt it Breckenridge as my father did; but thinking
him wrong I altered it, because I found the bulk of the
same stock spelt it so; and particularly doctor Brackenridge
of the philosophical society in London. Clay,
Crawford, &c. of the congress in later times, are examples.
But supposing it the fact, can I assign the cause?
It is sometimes accident. Sallust in his introduction to
the Bellum Catalinarium, asks, How came it, that the Roman
state rose to such eminence, the Greeks being before
it in arts, and the Gauls in valour? Reflecting on
the subject, he resolves it into the circumstance of a few
great men having arisen in it.

Nevertheless, though it may be sometimes a matter of
casualty, yet it would seem to me that it cannot well be
otherwise, but that in new countries the human genius
will receive a spring, which it cannot have in the old.—
But the cause lies deeper; and in this, that the strongest
minds, and the most enterprising, go there. They
are thrown upon the vigour of their own intellect. Why
is it that subterranean fire bursts from the earth, but because
it has an energy that breaks through obstructions,
and ascends to a higher element? The plodding cub
stays at home, while the more active tatterdemalion, quits
his paternal roof, and goes to build a cabin, and make a
new roof for himself, in the wild woods of Tennessee, or
elsewhere. The same elasticity and spirit of mind, which
brought him there, gives him distinction where he is.—
The independence of his situation contributes to this;
fettered by no obligation, and kept down by no superiority

of standing. Why is it in the arts, that an age of great
men cannot but be succeeded by an inferiority of powers?
This holds true in poetry, which is the province of
the imagination. Why did the slaves, on a certain occasion,
defy the swords of their masters, but yielded to
their whips? It was owing to the subjugation of habit.—
People accustomed to feel superiority in a certain way,
are discouraged in their efforts.

The streams of a new country are more abundant, and
the springs burst more plentifully. This is owing to
the shades which hang over them; which not only render
their margins and fountain heads more pleasing, but
serve to protect from the exhaling heat, and conciliate
dews, and the moisture of the clouds. Hence it is, that
it is greatly blameable to cut down the trees about a spring
head; or, if it can be dispensed with, the grove on the
hill above. For these wonderfully contribute to preserve
the abundance of the current; and the perennial
flow. It is for this reason I was delighted with the cascades
of a new country, tumbling over rocks; because
when one thinks of bathing, there are mossy banks to
strip upon, and deep shades to embower, and conceal
from the nymphs. For one is not afraid of any one else
there, unless, perhaps, a young girl looking after cows,
who would not much mind it, being used to see people
without much covering to their carcases, nor much caring
whether they have any. For it is in cities and the
abodes of luxury and false taste, where we depart most
from the simplicity of Eve in paradise, who

or pantaloons, when he had a pair.

I feel the grandeur of these water falls, and at the
same time have a sense of the salubrity of the immersion.
For I take the application of cold water to the body
in hot seasons, to be not only pleasant, but wonderfully
medical. The effusion of cold water removes heat, and
by the direct action which we call a shock, braces the
system.

The visionary philosopher having put himself at
the head of an institution for teaching beasts, had collected
sundry of what he thought the most docile animals.
He had in his academy, as it might be called, under scholastic
discipline, a baboon, a pet squirrel, a young bear,
and half a dozen pigs, &c. &c. The squirrel, as in the
case of young masters, with the sons of rich people, he
encouraged, or coaxed, to get his task by giving him
nuts to crack; and the pigs, by throwing them rinds of
pompions, or parings of apples; the bear and the baboon,
in like manner, by something in their way; and so with
all the others. Some he intimidated by the ferule and
the birch. He was instructing them according to the
Lancastrian mode, or method, to make marks on sand,
and to write before they began to read.

Things were going on very well to all appearance, and
to the satisfaction of the tutor, when a catastrophe which
now took place brought the matter to a conclusion. It
was not from the lady who had brought the pet squirrel
to be taught, though she had expressed some impatience
at the favourite not making a more rapid progress, because
she was sure it had genius. But she had forbidden
the professor to use the rod; and what ground could
she have to expect a close application, and a quickness
of perception without a stimulus to the mind, by the
feelings of the body? However, it was not from the lady
taking away her scholar, or that of any of the other employers
and subscribers withdrawing their rabbits or
other students, but from that wicked fellow, Will Watlin,
followed by Harum Scarum with a switch, who, breaking
into the menagerie, exclaimed to the professor, or
principal; it is not of much consequence now which he
is called; What, said he to the master of the hall, is it in
imitation of your pupils, that you are here in your bare
buff? Sans culottes, have you nothing to cover your nakedness?
Had you put yourselves in your sherryvallies,
or overalls, there would have been some decency.—
Every thing is French now-a-days. Is it French that
you are teaching these to speak, or write? I see a baboon
there; Lewis, I suppose is his name. He will learn
French fast enough, if that is all you have put upon his
hands. He was a Frenchman as far back as Arbuthnot.
The squirrel may chatter something, and it may sound
to us like French. Do you mean to make the bear a parlez-vous?

No wonder that the two John Bulls, senior
and junior, the Old and the New England, should talk of
French influence. Do you expect your pigs will be
made officers under Bonaparte, interpreters, perhaps?
I would have you know that we have too much French
amongst us already. If the French should come over
to us in an oyster-shell; for I do not see what else they
have to come over in; and this they could not do, unless
like Scotch witches, there might be some use in currying
favour with Napoleon.

But is the discipline of your school correct, even if
there was something to be taught that would be of use,
in science, in agriculture, or in commerce. Do you instruct
them in history and good breeding? To keep
their persons clean, to pare their nails, and shave their
beards, those of them that are grown gentlemen? That
fellow there, the racoon, does not appear to me to have
had his beard shaved these two weeks. It is true, I do not
see any of them with a cigar in his teeth, like the American
monkies and opossums, the greater part of them
of a bad family education; and so farewell. But that
mongrel between the terrier and the pointer breed, with
a collar on his neck, may be said to have a collar without
a shirt to it. I am tired of these remarks; away with
you, away.

With that, Will Watlin drawing his watlin, and Harum
Scarum using his switch, they began to lay about
them. The monkey leaped; the pigs squealed; the
squirrel chattered, and ran into his cage; the bear growled;
the pointer howled, &c. &c. &c. The education
was thus interrupted, and the institution broken up.

The bog-trotter complaining of neglect; alleging
his services at the original establishment of the government
in trailing a pine log, and thereby intimidating the
populace at his coming to the settlement, the governor
was constrained to give him an office; and selecting one
for which he thought he might be, in some respects,
qualified, he made him an auctioneer. It could not be
said that he had not a pretty strong voice; and in knocking
down an article with his mallet, “once, twice, tree
times,” with the assistance of a clerk, the sales were pretty

rapidly effected. Occasionally he made a blunder, as
knocking down a frying pan, and at another time a brass
kettle, he rung too long, because the sound pleased him.
He alleged that a hive of bees had swarmed, and he was
wringing to get them to cluster. All agreed that he
made a pretty good vendue master; but still he was not
satisfied; and an ambassador being about to be appointed
to the Barbary powers, he was willing to go to Algiers
Tunis, or Tripoli. His friends favoured his pretension,
Thady O`Connor, and some others, who had an
expectation of accompanying him; Thady as secretary,
and others in different offices. The governor resisted
the application on the ground that one office was enough
at a time. His resignation even would not justify it; because
it would look as if there was a penury of men of
talents, when it behooved to take one from his duty, as if
another person could not be found who was as well qualified.
The junto, and Teague himself, spoke of the appointment
of John Jay to the court of London, while he
was chief justice, not resigning; and of Ellsworth, also
a chief justice, in a similar situation; and of Albert Gallatin,
who was secretary, and continuing such; yet maugre
all the clamour, and even good grounds, as Jefferson
and Madison, and others thought, he, the said Albert
was appointed by the said Madison to an embassy.

These things were all wrong, said the governor. I
do not mean the finding fault, but the doing that with
which the fault was found.

Could Washington do wrong? said a stickler on the
side of the bog-trotter. Yes, said the governor, and
Adams too. These were the bad precedents that Madison
followed. I shall not copy after; not questioning
but that these treaty-making people might be very capable,
or perhaps the most capable; but were they the only
persons to be found that were adequate to the task?
I will not say but that my bog-trotter might make a very
good ambassador, with instructions, and the advantage
of a secretary; but is Teague O`Regan alone, in all the
land, to be singled out for this trust? After searching the
whole country from Dan to Beer-sheba, can I find no
other that can sustain the weight of this negociation?
If I do appoint him, he must resign his place as auctioneer,
and does he know that the Algerines are

Turks? and if he goes there, I mean to the Barbary coast,
he must be circumcised, and loose—

Loose what? said Thady O`Connor.

I will not say what, said the governor; but you may
guess.

There is more effect in a hint, than when the story is
spoken out; and therefore Thady, and the auctioneer
also, their imagination outrunning their judgment, and
their fears their ambition, concluded it would be best to
stick to the hammer, and for Teague to remain a crier
of vendues, and Thady O`Connor clerk.

I have often thought, that if a president of the
United States in our time, had a Jewish prophet to denounce
to the people, their political transgressions; that
is to say, the swerving from the true faith; in other
words, his own party; how much more secure his standing
would be; how much less vexed by the calumny of
editors, and paragraphs in gazettes. Among the Britons,
the aborigines or early inhabitants, the druids, did
not denounce much; but what they lacked in speaking,
they paid away in acting; and a disturber of the government
being pointed out by these, it was not long before
he was in an ozier creel; the Simulacra contexta viminibus,
and his breath extinguished by the flame.

Would it not have been possible for president Madison,
for the $50,000 paid to Henry, to have secured as
many of the New England clergy in his favour, as would
have made them act as druidical priests in support of
his administration? I cannot, say I would wish to see the
wicker basket introduced; but I was thinking of the effect
of the practicability of establishing something that
would be in lieu of it: that is, the influence of the priesthood;
but not in the same way. Pulpit denunciations
have a prodigious effect to the eastward. It is no wonder
that the religious functionaries of that part of the
union have made a noise, both before and since the war.
If they really believed, and it is possible they did, that
Bonaparte had transmitted several tons of French crowns
to the United States; finding that none of them came
their way, what wonder if they became dissentients to the
war? Madison should have made a point of securing at

least a majority of these congregationalists. It was upon
this rock the witches split, in not having secured Cotton
Mather, when they made their descent upon New England.
The consequence was, that an uproar was raised
against them; and they were hanged, and drowned, till
the people began to be satisfied that there was not a witch
left; and for a plain reason, because there never had been
one. If the people were not satisfied at this, yet certain
it is, they ought to have been—so saith the writer of this
book. But I will not take a bible oath upon it, that there
are not John Bulls in that quarter, as true as ever crost
the ocean, and were imported to this country.

Take the individual man, and how difficult it is to
form him. Between the boy, and the man it is the most
difficult to govern him; from the time, that the voice
begins to break the treble of the puerile age to the
counter of that of manhood. Here we have to do with
the confidence of feeling some power of mind, and the
insolence of inexperience. It is the same with men in a
state of society. A constitution has been framed; it is
impossible to convince them that they cannot make a
better. The young, as they grow up, despise what has
gone before them. They are sanguine of temperament,
and take it for granted that the world has never seen
such a creature as they are, before. That whatever
errors others have committed, in the like situation, they
will have the judgment to avoid. It is not until by disappointment,
and the vexation attendant upon it, that
they can be brought to know themselves, and to rate
their natural talents, and their discretion at a lower estimate.
A man must be forty years of age, said lord
treasurer Burleigh before he begins to suspect that he is
a fool, and fifty before he knows it. It is on the same
principle that an individual must have lived a long time
in a republic before he can be a republican. Some have
gone so far as to say, he must have been born and brought
up under a republican government, to have the habits
and way of thinking of a republican. Rollin, I think it
is, who says, he must at least have lived fifty years before
he is fit to be trusted with affairs.

There is more in age as a qualification, for the right of
suffrage; or the right of delegation, than in that of property
REAL or PERSONAL. The longevity of our republic
will depend upon there being an amendment of
this nature. Young cocks should never be heard to
crow in the senate house, or young whelps to bark. It
is true the Scripture says, “Bray a fool in a mortar, and
he will not be wise.” All length of time and all experience
of consequences from his own errors, will not
correct. But he must be a fool indeed, an idiot, that
will not derive some advantage from what he has seen
and suffered. When a member has made a speech in
a deliberative body, of some hours continuance, and finds
that he grows no taller in reputation, and which he will,
in due time discover, he will not be unwilling to abridge
his ventriloquy on other occasions: for I call
it ventriloquy; it deserves no better name. There
were two Raneys here, some years ago, ventriloquists.
If we had them in congress to imitate jay-birds, and amuse
the members, till a decent time had passed to let
the question be put, it might be an improvement: I say
a decent time, because appearances would be saved, and
as we on the bench have an advisari vult sometimes out of
courtesy to the counsel as if the argument on the wrong
side had nevertheless puzzled us, so civility to adversaries
is not altogether lost, by affecting to think the matter
not just as plain as a pikestaff: you may conciliate,
and gain attention when you are wrong yourselves, that
is when they think you wrong.

There is no moral truth, the weight of which can
be felt without experience. What do I mean by moral
truth? I mean that which depends upon the nature of
man, and is the foundation of his actions. Who would
comprehend without feeling it, that it is of all things the
most difficult to govern men? The most simple way,
and doubtless the most effectual, is the same by which
you would govern a beast; the bridle and the whip. An
individual at the head of an organization may command
millions, and keep them in subjection: but in this case,
no one can be allowed a will of his own, to the smallest

extent. If the two legged thing that calls himself a man
under such a government, should attempt to speak or act
for himself, off his head goes, scalp and all, and there is
an end of the disturbance. There is one way, which is
to let the multitude alone altogether, and then there is
anarchy, or no government. If you let them alone,
it does not suit very well, for in that case, they rob;
and there being no security, there is no industry; and
consequently no improvement in the arts, or amelioration
in the condition of man. If you undertake to restrain
their passions, how will you go about it; but by force or
persuasion? Persuasion will go but a little way with a
man that is hungry to hinder him from puting his paw
upon whatever eatable there is before him. It must be,
therefore, force. All government must be therefore
founded in fear. It is but a conceit in Montesquieu, to
found a republic upon the principle of virtue; a monarchy
upon that of honour; and a despotism upon that of
fear. Fear, is the foundation of government, of man, as
much as of a horse, or an ass. The great secret is to
govern him, not just as you would a beast; but by the fear
of suffering a distant evil. The reason and reflection of
a man can comprehend this; that of a beast not so much.
What we have seen in this new settlement, is a
picture of the credulity, and restlessness of man, and
his constant struggle to break through that organization of
power by which he is restrained from that to which his passions
prompt. He will endeavour to break through, by
talking of changing the modes of government. But it is
not the mode, but the being governed at all that displeases
him. A constitution is that organization by
which a man is governed by rules that apply to every
individual of the community; and from which no one
is exempt, but all bound to obey. This is what is called
a republican government. The changing a constitution
begets the desire of change, and like a dislocated bone,
must produce a weak joint. It ought to be some great
defect that would justify a change. The one half the
effect of laws or general rules, is the being acted under.
It injures a saddle horse to put him in harness; because
he must change his gaits.

The governor had acquired considerable authority
over this mob, by the intimidation of scalping, and I take
it he will speak in a more decisive tone, and act with

proportioned firmness in the future exigencies of the
commonwealth. Fraud is sometimes called, pia fraus,
because it is a deception of the people for their own good.
But fraud is not admissible, but on the gound that they
are in a temporary phrensy, and not in a condition to hear
reason.

A book entitled, Incidents of the insurrection in
the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, in the
year 1794, gives a picture of a people broke loose from
the restraints of government, and going farther than they
had intended to go. If that book was republished at this
time, and circulated in the Eastern states, it could not
but contribute to shew the danger of even talking of a
severance of the union, or an opposition to the laws.—
The bulk will take one another to be in earnest in these
matters, when individually, they never thought of carrying
the project farther than talk. It is not a want of understanding
that prompts dissatisfaction in this part of the
republic, but a want of self-denial, and humility. Doubtless
it may be said that Virginia, though she has ore of a
good quality, has wrought her mine too much, in protruding
presidents; and there is no intelligent man, but will
approve of an amendment to the constitution of the
United States, to remedy such engrossing in time to
come; but they will support the administration, since it
is the will of the majority for the time being. An error
in the expedient, and this could be considered only an
error in what was expedient, is a small matter compared
with a violation of principle. Opposition to an administration,
is an error in principle, and may lead, though not
intended by the actors, to the destruction of the machine.

If, in giving a picture of a Hartford convention, in the
narrative of the proceedings of the new settlement, I
should, in due time, have a convention here too, I will
have no chaplains, because it looks like a burlesque; and
it would be ten to one, if the governor could keep Teague
O`Regan from being one of them. If the people would
insist upon it, how could he help it? The Reverend
Teague O`Regan, I presume, he must then be called, to
give the greater solemnity to his function; but this very
designation would but increase the farce.

I wonder what business our legislative bodies, of the
individual states; or governors, or congress, or presidents
have with proclaiming days of festivity, or humiliation
which ought to be left to the societies of religious
denominations. It savours of hypocrisy for the temporal
power to interfere.