nger statement. Though Washington did not know what
was going on, he cannot be acquitted of a lack of due
precaution in patronizing leading agents of these
speculations, and introducing them in France.--_Editor._

Some vices make their approach with such a splendid appearance, that we
scarcely know to what class of moral distinctions they belong. They
are rather virtues corrupted than vices, originally. But meanness and
ingratitude have nothing equivocal in their character. There is not a
trait in them that renders them doubtful. They are so originally vice,
that they are generated in the dung of other vices, and crawl into
existence with the filth upon their back. The fugitives have found
protection in you, and the levee-room is their place of rendezvous.

As the Federal Constitution is a copy, though not quite so base as the
original, of the form of the British Government, an imitation of its
vices was naturally to be expected. So intimate is the connection
between _form and practice_, that to adopt the one is to invite the
other. Imitation is naturally progressive, and is rapidly so in matters
that are vicious.

Soon after the Federal Constitution arrived in England, I received a
letter from a female literary correspondent (a native of New York) very
well mixed with friendship, sentiment, and politics. In my answer
to that letter, I permitted myself to ramble into the wilderness of
imagination, and to anticipate what might hereafter be the condition
of America. I had no idea that the picture I then drew was realizing
so fast, and still less that Mr. Washington was hurrying it on. As the
extract I allude to is congenial with the subject I am upon, I here
transcribe it:

[_The extract is the same as that given in a footnote, in
the Memorial to Monroe, p. 180_.]

Impressed, as I was, with apprehensions of this kind, I had America
constantly in my mind in all the publications I afterwards made. The
First, and still more the Second, Part of the Rights of Man, bear
evident marks of this watchfulness; and the Dissertation on First
Principles of Government [XXIV.] goes more directly to the point than
either of the former. I now pass on to other subjects.

It will be supposed by those into whose hands this letter may fall, that
I have some personal resentment against you; I will therefore settle
this point before I proceed further.

If I have any resentment, you must acknowledge that I have no