And I am
satisfied, that were our continent to be swallowed up by the ocean,
Great Britain would be in a bonfire from one end to the other. Mr.
Adams, as you know, has asked his recall. This has been granted, and
Colonel Smith is to return too; Congress having determined to put an end
to their commission at that court. I suspect and hope they will make no
new appointment.
Our new constitution is powerfully attacked in the American newspapers.
The objections are, that its effect would be to form the thirteen States
into one; that, proposing to melt all down into one general government,
they have fenced the people by no declaration of rights; they have not
renounced the power of keeping a standing army; they have not secured
the liberty of the press; they have reserved the power of abolishing
trials by jury in civil cases; they have proposed that the laws of the
federal legislatures shall be paramount the laws and constitutions of
the States; they have abandoned rotation in office; and particularly
their President may be re-elected from four years to four years, for
life, so as to render him a King for life, like a King of Poland; and
they have not given him either the check or aid of a council.
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