2955. FEDERALISTS, Defeated.—
Tell
my old friend, Governor Gerry, that I give
him glory for the resping with which he
rubbed down his herd of traitors. Let them
have justice and protection against personal
violence, but no favor. Powers and preeminences
conferred on them are daggers put
into the hands of assassins, to be plunged into
our own bosoms in the moment the thrust can
go home to the heart. Moderation can never
reclaim them. They deem it timidity, and
despise without fearing the tameness from
which it flows. Backed by England, they never
lose the hope that their day is to come, when
the terrorism of their earlier power is to be
merged in the more gratifying system of
deportation and the guillotine.—
To Henry Dearborn. Washington ed. v, 608.
(P.F.,,
Aug. 1811)
