ted as it could have been, being chosen by the
legislatures; for if these could not support them, he did not know what
could do it; that perhaps it might have been as well for them to
be chosen by the State at large, as that would insure a choice of
distinguished men, since none but such could be known to a whole people;
that the only fault in our Senate was, that it was not durable enough;
that hitherto, it had behaved very well; however, he was afraid they
would give way in the end. That as to trusting to a popular assembly for
the preservation of our liberties, it was the merest chimera imaginable;
they never had any rule of decision but their own will; that he would
as lieve be again in the hands of our old committees of safety, who made
the law and executed it at the same time; that it had been observed by
some writer (I forget whom he named), that anarchy did more mischief in
one night, than tyranny in an age; and that in modern times we might say
with truth, that, in France, anarchy had done more harm in one night,
than all the despotism of their Kings had ever done in twenty or thirty
years. The point in which he views our Senate, as the colossus of the
constitution, serves as a key to the politics of the Senate, who are
two thirds of them in his sentiments, and accounts for the bold line of
conduct they pursue.

* He observed, that eight or ten years ago he gave only
fifty dollars to a common laborer for his farm, finding him
food and lodging. Now he gives one hundred and fifty
dollars, and even two hundred dollars to one.

March the 1st. Mr. Tazewell tells me, that when the appropriations for
the British treaty were on the carpet, and very uncertain in the lower
House, there being at that time a number of bills in the hands of
committees of the Senate, none reported, and the Senate idle for want
of them, he, in his place, called on the committees to report, and
particularly on Mr. King, who was of most of them. King said that it was
true the committees kept back their reports, waiting the event of
the question about appropriation: that if that was not carried, they
considered legislation as at an end; that they might as well break up
and consider the Union as dissolved. Tazewell expressed his astonishment
at these ideas, and called on King to know if he had misapprehended him.
King rose again and repeated the same words. The next day, Cabot took
an occasion in debate, and so awkward a one