are now united. There is,
consequently, no color for an assertion, that the system in question
either created any _new_ debt, or made any addition to the _old_.

And it follows, that the collective burthen upon the people of the
United States must have been as great _without_ as _with_ the union of
the different portions and descriptions of the debt. The only difference
can be, that without it that burthen would have been otherwise
distributed, and would have fallen with unequal weight, instead of being
equally borne as it now is.

These conclusions which have been drawn respecting the non-increase of
the debt, proceed upon the presumption that every part of the public
debt, as well that of the States individually, as that of the United
States, was to have been honestly paid. If there is any fallacy in this
supposition, the inferences may be erroneous; but the error would imply
the disgrace of the United States, or parts of them,--a disgrace from
which every man of true honor and genuine patriotism will be happy to
see them rescued.

When we hear the epithets, "vile matter," "corrupt mass," bestowed upon
the public debt, and the owners of it indiscriminately maligned as the
harpies and vultures of the community, there is ground to suspect that
those who hold the language, though they may not dare to avow it,
contemplate a more summary process for getting rid of debts than that of
paying them. Charity itself cannot avoid concluding from the language
and conduct of some men, (and some of them of no inconsiderable
importance,) that in their vocabularies _creditor_ and _enemy_ are
synonymous terms, and that they have a laudable antipathy against every
man to whom they owe money, either as individuals or as members of the
society.

* * * * *

From a "Letter to Lafayette," October 6, 1789.

=_67._= THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

I have seen, with a mixture of pleasure and apprehension, the progress
of events which have lately taken place in your country. As a friend to
mankind and to liberty, I rejoice in the efforts which you are making to
establish it, while I fear much for the final success of the attempts,
for the fate of those I esteem who are engaged in them, and for the
danger in case of success, of innovations greater than will consist with
the real felicity of your nation. If your affairs still go well when
this reaches you, you will ask why this foreboding of ill, when all the
appear