To the Massachusetts Convention.
Gentlemen,
Suffer an individual to lay before you his contemplations on the great
subject that now engages your attention. To you it belongs, and may
Heaven direct your judgment, to decide on the happiness of all future
generations as well as the present.
It is universally agreed, that the object of every just government is
to render the people happy, by securing their persons and possessions
from wrong. To this end it is necessary that there should be local
laws and institutions; for a people inhabiting various climates will
unavoidably have local habits and different modes of life, and these
must be consulted in making the laws. It is much easier to adapt the
laws to the manners of the people, than to make manners conform to
laws. The idle and dissolute inhabitants of the south, require a
different regimen from the sober and active people of the north.
Hence, among other reasons, is derived the necessity of local
governments, who may enact, repeal, or alter regulations as the
circumstances of each part of the empire may require. This would be
the case, even if a very great state was to be settled at once. But it
becomes still more needful, when the local manners are formed, and
usages sanctified by the practice of a century and an half. In such a
case, to attempt to reduce all to one standard, is absurd in itself,
and cannot be done but upon the principle of power, which debases the
people, and renders them unhappy, till all dignity of character is put
away. Many circumstances render us an essentially different people
from the inhabitants of the southern states. The unequal distribution
of property, [he toleration of slavery, the ignorance and poverty of
the lower classes, the softness of the climate, and dissoluteness of
manners, mark their character. Among us. the care that is taken of
education, small and nearly equal estates, equality of rights, and the
severity of the climate, renders the people active, industrious and
sober. Attention to religion and good morals is a distinguishing trait
in our character. It is plain, therefore, that we require for our
regulation laws, which will not suit the circumstances of our southern
brethren, and the laws made for them would not apply to us.
Unhappiness would be the uniform product of such laws; for no state
can be happy, when the laws contradict the general habits of the
people, nor can any state retain its freedom, while there is a power
to make and enforce such laws. We may go further, and say. that it is
impossible for any single legislature so fully to comprehend the
circumstances of the different parts of a very extensive dominion, as
to make laws adapted to those circumstances. Hence arises in most
nations of extensive territory, the necessity of armies, to cure the
defect of the laws. It is actually under the pressure of such an
absurd government, that the Spanish provinces have groaned for near
three centuries; and such will be our misfortune and degradation, if
we ever submit to have all the business of the empire done by one
legislature. The contrary principle of local legislation by the
representatives of the people, who alone are to be governed by the
laws, has raised us to our present greatness; and an attempt on the
part of Great-Britain, to invade this right, brought on the
revolution, which gave us a separate rank among the nations. We even
declared, that we would not be represented in the national
legislature, because one assembly was not adequate to the purposes of
internal legislation and taxation.
Agrippa.
(Remainder next Tuesday.)
