"When we draw aside the veil of words and professions--when we attend to what is _done_ and what is _said_--we shall find that Liberty is a cant term of faction and freedom of speaking and acting, used only to serve the private interests of a party. What else can be the cause of our unhappy disputes? What other reason for the continual struggle for superiority and office? What other motive for the flood of calumny and reproach cast upon each other? Behold the leading men meeting in cabals [caucusses] and from thence dispersing themselves to the several quarters to delude the people. The people are called together in tippling houses, their business neglected, their morals corrupted, themselves deluded--some promised offices for which they are unfit and those with whom these arts will not prevail are tempted with the wages of unrighteousness and are offered a bribe to falsify their oath and betray their country. By these scandalous practices elections are carried and officers appointed. It makes little difference whether the officer who obtains his place in this manner is otherwise a good man--put in by a _party_ he must do what _they_ order without being permitted to examine the rectitude even of his _own_ actions. The unhappy malady runs through the whole body politic. Men in authority are not revered and lose all power to do good. The courts of judicature catch the infection and the sacred balance of justice does not hang even. All complain of the present administration and hard times and wish they might grow better. But complaints are weak, wishes are idle, cries are vain--even _prayers_ will be ineffectual if we do not universally amend." This catalogue of evils is followed by a strain of paternal advice that should come home to the reader like a voice from the tomb.