Laugh'd, hiss'd, hem'd, murmur'd, groan'd and jeer'd ; Grieve many a page with no one near 'em, And told the authors all they prattled; Whence some weak minds have made objection, Echo stood clerk and kept the cue. And tho' the speech ben't worth a groat, But error merely of the prater, Who should have talk'd to th' purpose better: May help me out, as well as others; "Have you forgot, Honorius cried, To th' after-portion of the day, I leave what more remains to say; The Sun, who never stops to dine, For now each party, feasted well, With equal spirit took their places; As thus he said, the Tories' anger As bag-pipes, while the tune they breathe, Harangued the rumbling of the seas, Than Tories are to hear th' oration. And some, with tongue not low or weak, The cushion thump'd with "Silence, silence;" Bawl'd out," Pray hear the moderator;" Some call'd the vote, and some in turn Were screaming high, "Adjourn, adjourn:" The storm each moment louder grew; To join, as is her custom tried, And strait the people all at once heard And left the church in thin array, Our 'Squire M'Fingal straitway beckon'd Beneath a bench had lain perdue; And left alone with solemn face, Adjourn'd them without time or place. [John Trumbull], M'Fingal: a Modern Epic Poem (Hartford, 1782), 6-48 passim. 28. Spirit of American Democracy (1783) BY FRANÇOIS JEAN, MARQUIS DE CHASTELLUX (TRANSLATED BY GEORGE GRIEVE, 1787) Chastellux was an officer under Rochambeau during the latter part of the Revolution. His work, based on observations made during that period, displays an intelligent sympathy. This extract is from a letter addressed to Professor James Madison, the father of President Madison. - For Chastellux, see Tuckerman, America and her Commentators, 58-76; Contemporaries, II, No. 137.- Bibliography: Channing and Hart, Guide, § 147. For a later criticism, see No. 163 below. IF we wish to form an idea of the American Republic we must be careful not to confound the Virginians, whom warlike as well as mercantile, an ambitious as well as speculative genius brought upon the continent, with the New Englanders who owe their origin to enthusiasm; we must not expect to find precisely the same men in Pensylvania, where the first colonists thought only of keeping and cultivating the deserts, and in South Carolina where the production of some exclusive articles fixes the general attention on external commerce, and establishes unavoidable connexions with the old world. Let it be observed, too, that agriculture which was the occupation of the first settlers, was not an adequate means of assimilating the one with the other, since there are certain species of culture which tend to maintain the equality of fortune, and others to destroy it. These are sufficient reasons to prove that the same principles, the same opinions, the same habits do not occur in all the thirteen United States, although they are subject nearly to the same force [sort?] of government. For, notwithstanding that all their constitutions are not similar, there is through the whole a democracy, and a government of representation, in which the people give their suffrage by their delegates. But if we chuse to overlook those shades which distinguish this confederated people from each other; if we regard the thirteen States only as one nation, we shall even then observe that she must long retain the impression of those circumstances, which have conducted her to liberty. Every philosopher acquainted with mankind, and who has studied the springs of human action, must be convinced that, in the present revolution, the Americans have been guided by two principles, whilst they imagined they were following the impulse of only one. He will distinguish, a positive and a negative principle, in their legislation, and in their opinions. I call that principle, positive, which in so enlightened a moment as |