2281. DUANE (William), Office for.—
Duane's defection from the republican ranks,
his transition to the federalists, and giving triumph,
in an important State, to wrong over
right, have dissolved, of his own seeking, his
connection with us. Yet the energy of his
press when our cause was laboring, and all but
lost under the overwhelming weight of its powerful
adversaries, its unquestionable effect in
the revolution produced in the public mind,
which arrested the rapid march of our government
towards monarchy, overweigh in fact the
demerit of his desertion, when we had become
too strong to suffer from it sensibly. He is, in
truth, the victim of passions which his principles
were not strong enough to control. Although,
therefore, we are not bound to clothe
him with the best robe, to put a ring on his
finger, and to kill the fatted calf for him, yet neither should we leave him to eat husks with
the swine. [152]
—
To James Monroe.
Ford ed., x, 275.
(M.
1823)
