may

so extensive as that of America, it must be by foreseeing, and providing remedies for the evils with which such government is threatened. If I can suggest any thing which induce a serious attention to the subject, from abler politicians, I shall think that I have not only deserved well of my country, but, to speak the language of your philanthropists, of human nature.*

1st. The experiment of a republican government has been frequently made, but never in a territory of any considerable extent has it succeeded, so as to produce internal happiness, or security to private persons or private property.

Athens was a republick, in which the voice of the many was all powerful. But Socrates was murdered by popular phrensy on one day, and deified by the same mob the next. Rome, during the existence of the republick, was powerful abroad, but all was distraction at home. The Gracchi, Marius, Sylla, and many other demagogues deluged the imperial city with blood.

* I hope to be excused for stating, in this place, my apprehensions of the evils which are to be feared in a re- . publican government, although the subject may be considered as not immediately connected with my Original Poems. In these times, when the pillars of society are shaken to their foundation, every good man is in duty bound to contribute, on every occasion, to their support.

But America is more enlightened than were the republicks of antiquity. True, the means of information are increased by the art of printing, and so are the means of deception. Political lies are diffused with such industry and facility by artful, aspiring, and unprincipled demagogues, that the people, misinformed relative to publick men and measures, take every step in the dark, and, it is to be feared, will flounder on from anarchy to despotism.

2nd. The old maxim of vox populi vox dei is not true. The multitude are nine times in ten wrong in their measures. "THEY MUST BE SAVED FROM THEMSELVES, OR ALL IS LOST." Otherwise the cunning, flattering, fawning, hypocritical demagogue, who is ever a concealed tyrant, like Absolom of old, steals their hearts, and makes himself the Cromwell or the Buonaparté of a nominal republick.

Society cannot exist independent of a power to coerce and punish. If this power be not delegated and marked by strict, known, and legal boundaries, it will be assumed by the most unprincipled persons in the community.

3rd. In America there are too many who are immediately concerned in the affairs of government. All power being lodged with the people, they have of course all heads, and no hands; or, in other

words, the mass of community neglect their private to attend to publick business.*

In America they have wheel within wheel. State legislatures clashing with that of the United States: and although it may be urged, that "in the multitude of counsellors there is safety;" yet we know that the responsibility, which is the basis of freedom, is lessened by being divided. A large collection of individuals will be guilty, collectively, of actions which would brand each, individually, with ignominy, and ought to subject him to punish

ment.

4th. The jealousy of republicans is likewise an impediment to good government, and the due regulation of society.

They fear a Washington or a Hamilton; but, not sensible that fools are always, to the extent of their abilities, knaves, they will trust a Lyon, or a Jn.

These are a few of the impediments, which, it appears to me, exist in a republican form of government. BUT I HOPE THEY WILL NOT PROVE FATAL. There is much to be expected from the

* The only remedy to this evil must be found in putting limits to the right of suffrage.

+ I am sensible that I shall be accused of being a person of anti-republican principles in consequence of the fore

national character of Americans. They are not so fickle and precipitate as Frenchmen; and their actions are more the result of deliberation. It is not amiss, however, to state that such are the evils to which their government is liable, and that such difficulties do exist in America. But this is not the place to discuss the subject minutely. Perhaps in some future publication I may dwell more at large on these topicks.

With regard to this little volume, I should not have hazarded its appearance; but having already commenced my career as an author, and passed the ordeal of British criticism much better than I had reason to apprehend, I was induced again to solicit the attention of the British publick.

In some instances, in this work, to use an expression of Burns, I have "rhymed for fun." In

going remarks. But, certainly it cannot be said, with propriety, that the pointing out the evils to which a system may be liable, is an evidence of hostility to such system. I am the more solicitous to explain myself on this subject, as I find that a jacobin English reviewer (see Aikin's Annual Register, vol. iii. p. 57) says that "Mr. Fessenden wants a king in America." But the truth is, that the foregoing observations are calculated to prevent the necessity of such an evil. It is time that the American people were convinced that subordination is the soul of freedom. That any attempt to found a government on any other basis will terminate in America as in France in a military despotism.

others I have had an aim. My allusions and metaphors are mostly taken from objects which I saw in America around me. My nymphs and swains are not of Arcadian breed. They are not those intelligent personages, of simple manners and refined conduct, who exist only in the creative imagination of the poet.

My Jonathans and my Tabithas are more like the Cloddipoles and Blouzelindas of Gay than the Damons and Daphnes of Pope; and I will not assert, that I have not, in some instances, caricatured the manners of the New England rusticks. Still, however, the peasantry of New England, as described in my poems, will be found to bear some semblance to what they are in real life; and I hope that the novelty of my descriptions will give them interest with the English reader.