7103. PUBLIC CONFIDENCE, Perversion of.—
What person, who remembers the
times and tempers we have seen, would have
believed that within so short a period, not
only the jealous spirit of liberty which shaped
every operation of our Revolution, but even
the common principles of English whigism
would be scouted, and the tory principle of
passive obedience under the new-fangled
names of confidence and responsibility, become
entirely triumphant? That the tories,
whom in mercy we did not crumble to dust
and ashes, could so have entwined us in their
scorpion toils, that we cannot now move hand
or foot?—
To Robert R. Livingston. Washington ed. iv, 297.
Ford ed., vii, 369.
(Pa.,
Feb. 1799)
