ADVERTISEMENT. THE substance of the following Letters was, several years since, written and communicated to some individuals, who were engaged in the examination of the subject of which they treat. The writer has been per This has given occa suaded to allow their appearance before the public. While the author has not attempted to conceal his devotion to the freedom, honour, and permanent Union of these States, he has been desirous of giving prominence to his firm conviction, that in order to the continuance of these there must be a progressive extension of moral influence through every department of the social fabric. That influence must flow from the enlightened recognition of the Redeemer and his religion by the citizens in every relation of life. This, instead of encroaching upon, will prove to be the most powerful safe guard of the natal and lov civil rights of man. Should the following pages be, in any measure, the occasion of eliciting motives to sound moral action on the subject under consideration, the writer will have gained his end in yielding to their publication. Duanesburgh, March, 1832. LETTER I. ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND DUTIES OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. Dear Sir, DID the offering of a few remarks from me upon the subject of this letter require an apology, your request would furnish it. But none is called for. The subject occupies a prominent place in every system of morals; in it every citizen has a deep concern, and to it our attention is called for a purpose very different from that which engages the mere political partisan. You do not need, nor does the occasion require, that any remark should be made on the several forms of government which have obtained among the nations. You and I perfectly accord in the preference of our own well regulated rperesentative Democracy, to either the oligarchy or the monarchy ; or any modification of these, such as we find in the British empire. All you require, and all I shall give, will be a mere outline of what occurs to me at the moment, upon the subject. You will take the following positions as containing the principles of my political creed, considered abstractly from any existing government; and I flatter myself, when some unhappy prejudices now existing shall have passed away, and when party conflict shall have been forgotten, they will be found in accordance with the views of most, if not of all, reflecting christians and enlightened statesmen. POSITION I-Civil government is the ordinance of God, as the Creator and Governor of the world, for good to man, founded in the moral law of our social nature, the principles of which law are the standard of its actual constitution and administration. The social nature of man and his social interests are too clearly seen and felt, to require any argument in proof of 2 |