7365. REPUBLICANS, Divisions among.—[further continued].
I see with infinite pain
the bloody schism which has taken place among
our friends in Pennsylvania and New York,
and will probably take place in other States.
The main body of both sections mean well, but
their good intentions will produce great public
evil. The minority, whichever section shall be
the minority, will end in coalition with the federalists,
and some compromise of principle;
because these will not sell their aid for nothing.
Republicanism will thus lose, and royalism gain,
some portion of that ground which we thought
we had rescued to good government. I do not
express my sense of our misfortunes from any
idea that they are remediable. I know that
the passions of men will take their course, that
they are not to be controlled but by despotism,
and that this melancholy truth is the pretext
for despotism.—
To Dr. George Logan. Washington ed. iv, 575.
Ford ed., viii, 352.
(W.
May. 1805)
