ble combination of Indians and slaves....

I will not trespass much longer upon the time of the committee; but I
trust I shall be indulged with some few reflections upon the danger of
permitting the conduct on which it has been my painful duty to
animadvert, to pass without the solemn expression of the disapprobation
of this House. Recall to your recollection the free nations which have
gone before us. Where are they now?

"Gone glimmering through the dream of things that were, A schoolboy's
tale, the wonder of an hour."

And how have they lost their liberties? If we could transport
ourselves back to the ages when Greece and Rome flourished in their
greatest prosperity, and, mingling in the throng, should ask a Grecian
if he did not fear that some daring military chieftain, covered with
glory, some Philip or Alexander, would one day overthrow the liberties
of his country, the confident and indignant Grecian would exclaim, No!
no! we have nothing to fear from our heroes; our liberties will be
eternal. If a Roman citizen had been asked if he did not fear that the
conqueror of Gaul might establish a throne upon the ruins of public
liberty, he would have instantly repelled the unjust insinuation. Yet
Greece fell; Caesar passed the Rubicon, and the patriotic arm even of
Brutus could not preserve the liberties of his devoted country! The
celebrated Madame de Stael, in her last and perhaps her best work, has
said, that in the very year, almost the very month, when the president
of the Directory declared that monarchy would never more show its
frightful head in France, Bonaparte, with his grenadiers, entered the
palace of St. Cloud, and, dispersing with the bayonet the deputies of
the people deliberating on the affairs of the State, laid the
foundation of that vast fabric of despotism which overshadowed all
Europe. I hope not to be misunderstood; I am far from intimating that
General Jackson cherishes any designs inimical to the liberties of the
country. I believe his intentions to be pure and patriotic. I thank
God that he would not, but I thank him still more that he could not if
he would, overturn the liberties of the Republic. But precedents, if
bad, are fraught with the most dangerous consequences. Man has been
described, by some of those who have treated of his nature, as a bundle
of habits. The definition is much truer when applied to governments.
Precedents are their habits. There is one important differ