Such dialogues with earnest face,
Held never Balaam with his ass.
With daring zeal and courage blest
Honorius first the crowd address'd;
When now our 'Squire returning late,
Arrived to aid the grand debate,
With strange sour faces sat him down,
While thus the orator went on.
As thus he spake, our 'Squire M'Fingal
Gave to his partizans a signal.
Not quicker roll'd the waves to land,
When Moses wav'd his potent wand,
Nor with more uproar, than the Tories
Set up a gen'ral rout in chorus ;
Laugh'd, hiss'd, hem'd, murmur'd, groan'd and jeer'd;
Honorius now could scarce be heard.
Our Muse amid th' increasing roar,
Could not distinguish one word more :
Tho' she sat by, in firm record
To take in short-hand ev'ry word;
As antient Muses wont, to whom
Old Bards for depositions come;
Who must have writ 'em; for how else
Could they each speech verbatim tell 's?
And tho' some readers of romances
Are apt to strain their tortur'd fancies,
And doubt, when lovers all alone
Their sad soliloquies do groan,
Grieve many a page with no one near 'em,
And nought but rocks and groves to hear 'em,
What spright infernal could have tattled,
And told the authors all they prattled;
Whence some weak minds have made objection,
That what they scribbled must be fiction:
'Tis false; for while the lovers spoke,
The Muse was by, with table-book,
And least some blunder might ensue,
Echo stood clerk and kept the cue.
And tho' the speech ben't worth a groat,
As usual, 'tisn't the author's fault,
But error merely of the prater,
Who should have talk'd to th' purpose better:
Which full excuse, my critic-brothers,
May help me out, as well as others;
And 'tis design'd, tho' here it lurk,
To serve as preface to this work.
So let it be for now our 'Squire
No longer could contain his ire ;
And rising 'midst applauding Tories,
Thus vented wrath upon Honorius.
"Have you forgot, Honorius cried,
How your prime saint the truth defied,
Affirm'd he never wrote a line
Your charter'd rights to undermine;
When his own letters then were by,
That prov'd his message all a lie?
To th' after-portion of the day,
I leave what more remains to say;
When I've good hope you'll all appear,
More fitted and prepared to hear,
And griev'd for all your vile demeanour :
But now 'tis time t' adjourn for dinner."
The Sun, who never stops to dine,
Two hours had pass'd the midway line,
And driving at his usual rate,
Lash'd on his downward car of state.
And now expired the short vacation,
And dinner done in epic fashion;
While all the crew beneath the trees,
Eat pocket-pies, or bread and cheese;
Nor shall we, like old Homer care
To versify their bill of fare.
For now each party, feasted well,
Throng'd in, like sheep, at sound of bell,
With equal spirit took their places;
And meeting oped with three Oh yesses:
As thus he said, the Tories' anger
Could now restrain itself no longer,
Who tried before by many a freak, or
Insulting noise, to stop the speaker;
Swung th' unoil'd hinge of each pew-door;
Their feet kept shuffling on the floor;
Made their disapprobation known
By many a murmur, hum and groan,
That to his speech supplied the place
Of counterpart in thorough-base:
As bag-pipes, while the tune they breathe,
Still drone and grumble underneath;
Or as the fam'd Demosthenes
Harangued the rumbling of the seas,
Held forth with eloquence full grave
To audience loud of wind and wave;
And had a stiller congregation
Than Tories are to hear th' oration.
But now the storm grew high and louder
As nearer thundrings of a cloud are,
And ev'ry soul with heart and voice
Supplied his quota of the noise;
Each listning ear was set on torture
Each Tory bell'wing out, to order;
And some, with tongue not low or weak,
Were clam'ring fast, for leave to speak;
The moderator, with great vi'lence,
The cushion thump'd with "Silence, silence;"
The constable to ev'ry prater
Bawl'd out, "Pray hear the moderator;"
Some call'd the vote, and some in turn
Were screaming high, "Adjourn, adjourn:"
Not chaos heard such jars and clashes
When all the el'ments fought for places.
Each bludgeon soon for blows was tim'd;
Each fist stood ready cock'd and prim'd;
The storm each moment louder grew;
His sword the great M'Fingal drew,
Prepar'd in either chance to share,
To keep the peace, or aid the war.
Nor lack'd they each poetic being,
Whom bards alone are skill'd in seeing;
Plumb'd Victory stood perch'd on high,
Upon the pulpit-canopy,
To join, as is her custom tried,
Like Indians, on the strongest side;
The Destinies with shears and distaff,
Drew near their threads of life to twist off;
The Furies 'gan to feast on blows,
And broken heads or bloody nose;
When on a sudden from without
Arose a loud terrific shout;
And strait the people all at once heard
Of tongues an universal concert ;
Like Æsop's times, as fable runs,
When ev'ry creature talk'd at once,
Or like the variegated gabble
That craz'd the carpenters of Babel.
Each party soon forgot the quarrel,
And let the other go on parole ;
And left the church in thin array,
As tho' it had been lecture-day.
Our 'Squire M'Fingal straitway beckon'd
The constable to stand his second,
And sallied forth with aspect fierce
The croud assembled to disperse.
The moderator out of view
Beneath a bench had lain perdue;
Peep'd up his head to view the fray,
Beheld the wranglers run away,
And left alone with solemn face,
Adjourn'd them without time or place.
[John Trumbull], M'Fingal: a Modern Epic Poem (Hartford, 1782), 6-48 passim.
28. Spirit of American Democracy (1783)
BY FRANÇOIS JEAN, MARQUIS DE CHASTELLUX
(TRANSLATED BY GEORGE GRIEVE, 1787)
Chastellux was an officer under Rochambeau during the latter part of the Revolution. His work, based on observations made during that period, displays an intelligent sympathy. This extract is from a letter addressed to Professor James Madison, the father of President Madison. For Chastellux, see Tuckerman, America and her Commentators, 58–76; Contemporaries, II, No. 137.— Bibliography: Channing and Hart, Guide, § 147. - For a later criticism, see No. 163 below.
F . . . we wish to form an idea of the American Republic we must be careful not to confound the Virginians, whom warlike as well as mercantile, an ambitious as well as speculative genius brought upon the continent, with the New Englanders who owe their origin to enthusiasm; we must not expect to find precisely the same men in Pensylvania, where the first colonists thought only of keeping and cultivating the deserts, and in South Carolina where the production of some exclusive articles fixes the general attention on external commerce, and establishes unavoidable connexions with the old world. Let it be observed, too, that agriculture which was the occupation of the first settlers, was not an adequate means of assimilating the one with the other, since there are certain species of culture which tend to maintain the equality of fortune, and others to destroy it.
These are sufficient reasons to prove that the same principles, the same opinions, the same habits do not occur in all the thirteen United States, although they are subject nearly to the same force [sort?] of government. For, notwithstanding that all their constitutions are not similar, there is through the whole a democracy, and a government of representation, in which the people give their suffrage by their delegates. But if we chuse to overlook those shades which distinguish this confederated people from each other; if we regard the thirteen States only as one nation, we shall even then observe that she must long retain the impression of those circumstances, which have conducted her to liberty. Every philosopher acquainted with mankind, and who has studied the springs of human action, must be convinced that, in the present revolution, the Americans have been guided by two principles, whilst they imagined they were following the impulse of only one. He will distinguish, a positive and a negative principle, in their legislation, and in their opinions. I call that principle, positive, which in so enlightened a moment as
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