William Cobbett: A Biography in Two Volumes, Vol. 1Smith, Edward
History
William Cobbett: A Biography in Two Volumes, Vol. 1
Smith, Edward
Cobbett, William 1763-1835
[2] As Cobbett himself very correctly says, “The war once ended, and
the object of that war obtained, … the Congress became an inefficient
body, and each State, having carefully retained its independent
sovereignty, looked to its particular regulations, and its separate
interests, which were often (not to say always) opposed to the
regulations and the interests of all the other States.--“P. P. Works,”
i. 38.
[3] “Being fresh from the French Revolution, while in its first
and pure stage, and consequently whetted up in my own republican
principles, I found a state of things, in the general society of the
place (New York), which I could not have supposed possible. Being
a stranger there, I was feasted from table to table, at large set
dinners, the parties generally from twenty to thirty. The Revolution
I had left, and that we had just gone through in the recent change of
our own Government, being the common topics of conversation, I was
astonished to find the general prevalence of monarchical sentiments,
insomuch that in maintaining those of republicanism, I had always the
whole company on my hands, never scarcely finding among them a single
co-advocate in that argument, unless some old member of Congress
happened to be present. The furthest that any one would go, in support
of the Republican features of our new Government, would be to say, ‘The
present Constitution is well as a beginning, and may be allowed a fair
trial; but it is, in fact, only a stepping-stone to something better.’
Among their writers, Denny, the Editor of the _Portfolio_, who was a
kind of oracle with them, and styled the Addison of America, openly
avowed his preference of monarchy over all other forms of government,
prided himself on the avowal, and maintained it by argument freely and
without reserve, in his publications.”--T. J. to Wm. Short, Jan. 8,
1825: Jefferson’s “Writings,” vii. 390.
[4] “In the year 1794, or 5, a Mr. Rutledge, who was a judge in South
Carolina, made a speech, in which he besought his country to join
itself with the Republic of France in a mortal war against England.
‘She will,’ said he, ‘never forgive us for our success against her,
and for our having established a free constitution. Let us, therefore,
while she is down, seize her by the throat, strangle her, deliver
the world of her tyranny, and thus confer on mankind the greatest of
blessings.’ As nearly as I can recollect them, these were his very
words. I am sure that I have the ideas correct. I and many more cried
aloud against the barbarity of such sentiments. They were condemned in
speeches and pamphlets innumerable.”--“Political Register,” xxvi. 422.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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