freedom for his country, he presided in the presidential chair for eight years; * and never would take, for all his arduous and important services, the eighth part of a cent: yet alas! his memory has not been reverenced by his ungrate ful countrymen, as it ought to have been. This I have for a long time lamented to see: hence, about a year ago, I published my "Poetical Apotheosis of Gen. George Washington ;" which has sold much worse than any of my works, although I have produced fourteen others, on different subjects, the majority of them between 300 and 400 pages each! and some of them have passed through different editions.

We will now proceed briefly to investigate, the primitive and present power of royal princes. Their origin we have already pointed out; and their power is the same now, as it has been ages past; I mean ABSOLUTE, in many parts of the world. But of all the absurd pretensions of monarchy, none is more ridiculous than hereditary succession. A man, if he happens to be born

the eldest son of a king, (though a rogue or a fool) can, at the age of 18, ascend the throne, and rule a nation of wise men, although not qualified for the of fice of constable, or even herdsman. Thus we see in monarchical countries, the son of a king inherits a nation of rational beings, in the same way a young man in America, inherits his father's herd of cattle, with this difference; in the latter case, he cannot come to his inheritance until he is 21 years of age; but in the former case, at 18 years, and without any reference to his mental or moral character. And yet there are people in America, enjoying the precious sweets of liberty, who vindicate such a ludicrous system! Although one is led to suppose, that any people who would endure such an outrage on society, invert the order of human nature, and thus insult common sense deserve to be slaves ;* yet it ought to be remembered, that the people have

* The servile wretch who winks at wicked laws,
Free men may pity, but they must despise.

from time to time, struggled against the arbitrary power, and absurd pretensions of their kings; which has for many centuries produced the most sanguinary civil wars, and also foreign wars for where can there be any security for the peace of a nation, when the whim, caprice, or pride of one man, and that man a tyrant or a fool, and perhaps both, can plunge it into all the horrors of war? Surely this is infringing the rights of God with a witness.

When the true philanthropist views with his intellectual eyes, the accumulated and complicated miseries of hist fellow creatures, throughout this wretched world, he sickens at the sight. Through the cruelty of ambitious politicians, and the craft of interested priests, man, who was made little lower than the angels, is reduced far below the level of the brute creation. Bad example, bad education, but above all, bad government, is the radical cause of the miseries of man. If we for one moment, cast our eyes to Europe, Asia and Africa, we shall view exhibitions

K

of human wretchedness, which would make a midnight robber melt into tears! and yet, in all these countries, there is no diminution in the gifts of nature. The brilliant sun illuminates and invigorates them with his benign influence; the trees blush and bend with delicious fruit; the fields wave with golden grain; and the seas teem with shoals of silver fish. I recollect myself to have seen in Norway, delicious fish taken up in baskets and buckets, on board of a brig, they were so abundant. Yet, although nature is thus prolific, governments counteract her beneficence, and thus infringe the rights of the God of nature: For it is a lamentable fact, that in the most fertile countries, thousands of human beings suffer and die for want; owing to the prohibition, and penal sanctions of cruel governments. Fear is of course, the predominant passion, in despotic countries: pusillanimity supercedes independence, and man becomes, not like a lion, but a spaniel dog: he licks the dust his tyrant walks upon; and only asks liberty to eat,

drink, and die; but alas! asks in vain. And yet in the United States, there are miscreants who participate the blessings of liberty, and yet calumniate the only free government the ravages of despotism have left, in the whole world! and applaud, and even vindicate the cause of the traitors and tyrants of mankindpardon the tautology; I cannot refrain from repeatedly exposing such base ingratitude and servility. Hence so much ignorance of man's natural rights, which I call ignorance of the most destructive nature, is so prevalent in this world. Hence millions of human beings, are more senseless and servile than the beasts that perish. Ignorance and cruelty are seated upon superb thrones, while ignorance and misery are eated on stinking dunghills. A bad government, I will therefore contend, is not only an infringement on the rights of God, but is also the scourge of man, and the curse of the whole earth. Imagination cannot conceive, nor language express its fatality. And I believe it is the duty of every honest