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the task of legislation. Natural sagacity alone is not sufficient, even if that were always to be found. Many of the topics which of necessity frequently occupy the attention, even of the state legislatures, demand a degree of information and habits of research very foreign indeed to the pursuits of a large proportion of the members. The consequence is, that ignorance, a spirit of opposition, an impatience even of intellectual superiority, and a desire to appear to their constituents to be doing something, frequently defeat the most important and judicious measures of the enlightened minority; while that minority is diminished by an unwillingness on the part of the members of the community who are best qualified for the station to enter the list with noisy demagogues, whose declamations too often drown the voice of truth. It is particularly unfortunate that the most difficult questionsthose which arise in forming or establishing their constitution, and arranging the judiciary-are among the first which present themselves to the consideration of the legislatures of newly erected states, when it is reasonable to expect a more than ordinary proportion of raw and ignorant legislators, and a deficiency of practical skill even in the wisest. It really excites a smile to imagine the legislature of Indiana, after settling the question whether they should remove the seat of government to some town where the tavern-keeper would charge them 13s. 6d. instead of 18s. per week for their board, turning to the graver and more appropriate subjects of legislation,-inquiring what proportion of democracy they should infuse into their

constitution, and what collateral effects would result from each of the various modes of accomplishing their purpose--what should be the number and nature of their courts of justice, whether they should be established on the principle of concurrent or appellate jurisdiction, whether their judges should be removable at pleasure, their salary be liable to diminution, and numberless other intricate questions.

It is a happy circumstance for the newly erected states, that they may always have access to the more matured systems of their neighbours, and that the effects of their own errors are confined to themselves. Indeed, I think it is not one of the least advantages of the Confederation, that it admits of a course of experiments in legislation in each of the particular states, without the slightest danger of interrupting the movements of the general machine, and enables all, at the hazard only of their individual inconvenience, to contribute their quota of political experience to the common stock.

Another of the evils to which I referred, as flowing perhaps of necessity, from the democratical institutions of America, is the subserviency to popular opinion which they appear to entail on the legislative and executive officers. I had no idea of the degree in which popularity was made a primary and avowed object of pursuit here: nor of the extensive sacrifices of personal independence which are made at her shrine. In this free government, many of the senators and representatives are far

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less the servant than the slaves of their constituents; and they must be fond indeed of public honours who are willing to buy them at the price they frequently cost. Eminent talents indeed, combined with patriotism and disinterestedness too unequivocal to be suspected, will command popularity; but common men, if they would attain popularity, must make it their pursuit. I have seen nothing to lead me to suppose that the influence of such a pursuit on individual character is at all more ennobling or elevating on the western than on the eastern shores of the Atlantic, or to convince me that public spirit and patriotism are the natural and necessary results of republican institutions.

But, independently of the injurious moral effects of an insatiable appetite for popularity in the individual, a constant reference to popular favour imposes very inconvenient trammels on the representative, in the discharge of his legislative duties. He is too apt to consider himself as addressing his constituents rather than the legislative assembly, and to think less of the effect his speech is likely to produce in favour of his argument in the capitol, than in favour of himself at home. As an incentive to activity, this may have a good effect; but the efforts to which it prompts, especially in the way of oratorical flourishes, do not always produce advantages to the public, commensurate with the care and trouble, "the anxious days and sleepless nights," they may have cost the individual. I was informed that it is common for the new members to make great exertion soon after the meeting of congress, to send home a speech to their con

stituents in the National Intelligencer; and then, if they find that the genius of eloquence has not favoured them, they perhaps remain silent during the rest of the session. But this is hardly safe; for a silent representative is seldom a popular one. A friend informed me, that in passing through Pennsylvania, a Pennsylvanian, speaking to him of a member of congress, said, “He won't get in again, I guess for we never see no speech of his in the papers; and we can't have a man that says nothing for his pay."

But, after all, I think it impossible for an unprejudiced stranger to visit the beautiful Senate-chamber and House of Representatives in the capitol at Washington without being struck with the intelligence and practical skill of congress; the regularity of their proceedings; their ready, perspicuous, forcible, business-like style of eloquence, and, with some exceptions, their habitual courtesy and attention to the feelings of opponents. He would sometimes witness, in American oratory, the freshness of youth, the fervour of boundless anticipation, and that consciousness of personal identity with the glory and prosperity of his country, which a popular government infuses into the meanest citizen; but he would seldom be dazzled with the corruscations of cultivated genius, or electrified with bursts of impassioned feeling, and would seek in vain in the American Congress for that indefinable but irresistible chain which classical associations, the refinements of polished society, and a history rich in all that is illustrious and venerable, imparts to the eloquence of a British Parliament.

LETTER XIX.

Hartford, Connecticut, 1st March, 1821.

In my last letter I mentioned our arrival in Portland on the 16th ult. I will now give you a brief sketch of our journey from Portland to Hartford.

At Portland I found, at a respectable boardinghouse where I lodged, among other persons, the Governor of the state, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and eight or ten of the most respectable members. There was a common table at which all ordinarily assembled; and a common sitting-room, where they seemed to pass their leisure in reading the newspapers and smoking segars. For the very first time since my arrival in America, I had actually at this boardinghouse a parlour to myself, which arose from the circumstance of its being, in the first instance, designed for my bed-room. It was a luxury indeed to feel alone, and likely to remain so, without shutting myself up in my bed-chamber, in which I have lived for the last year when not in society or on the road. My hopes of retirement in my parlour, however, were soon shaken; for the landlord brought a gentleman to me, who, after conversing a few minutes, said, he was come to take me into the dining-room, to introduce me to the company. He was a young lawyer, gentlemanly in his manners, and, I found afterwards, had been educated at Harvard College, Cambridge. As we sat down to dinner, at one o'clock,

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