2853. FACTION, Violent.—
I have seen
with regret the violence of the dissensions
in your quarter [Mississippi]. We have the
same in the Territories of Louisiana and
Michigan. It seems that the smaller the society
the bitterer the dissensions into which
it breaks. Perhaps this observation answers
all the objections drawn by Mr. [John] Adams
from the small republics of Italy. I believe
ours is to owe its permanence to its great extent,
and the smaller portion comparatively,
which can ever be convulsed at one time by
local passions.—
To Governor Robert Williams. Washington ed. v, 209.
Ford ed., ix, 166.
(Nov. 1807)
