History of the United States of America, Volume 4 (of 9) : $b During the second administration of Thomas JeffersonAdams, Henry
History
History of the United States of America, Volume 4 (of 9) : $b During the second administration of Thomas Jefferson
Adams, Henry
United States -- History -- 1801-1809; United States -- History -- 1809-1817
“Huzza! huzza! huzza!” he wrote[39] on hearing the news; “for no
language but that of violent and tumultuous and triumphant exclamation
can sufficiently describe the joy and satisfaction which I feel
at this complete overthrow and extinction of all the hopes of the
proselytes to new principles.... It is the lasting ridicule thrown
upon all systems of democratic equality,--it is the galling conviction
carried home to the minds of all the brawlers for freedom in this and
every other country,--that there never was, nor will be, nor can be, a
leader of a mob faction who does not mean to be the lord and not the
servant of the people. It is this that makes the name of Bonaparte
dear to me.... Henceforth, with regard to France and the principles
of France, or to any country similarly circumstanced as to extent,
population, manners, etc., _Republican_ and _fool_ are synonymous
terms.”
Canning had several qualities in common with Bonaparte, and one of them
was the habit of classifying under the head of fools persons whose
opinions he did not fancy,--from the man who believed in a republic to
the man who liked dry champagne. In his mouth such persons were either
fools or liars; and Americans, with few exceptions, came under one or
the other of these heads. After the 18th Brumaire the world contained
but one leader of a mob faction, brawling for liberty; but he was
President of the United States. No miraculous sagacity was needed to
foretell what treatment he was likely to receive at the hands of two
men like Canning and Bonaparte, should the empire of the world ever be
divided between them. To throw lasting ridicule upon all systems of
democratic equality was Canning’s most passionate wish, and his success
was marvellous. Even his squibs exploded like rockets. In literature,
his “Needy Knife-grinder” was a harmless piece of clever satire, but in
the “Anti-Jacobin” it was a political event.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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