er warn
against yielding to that sleek, contented security, and that overweening
fondness for comfort and repose, which are produced by a state of
prosperity and peace. These tend to unnerve a nation; to destroy its pride
of character; to render it patient of insult; deaf to the calls of honor
and of justice; and cause it to cling to peace, like the sluggard to his
pillow, at the expense of every valuable duty and consideration. Such
supineness ensures the very evil from which it shrinks. One right yielded
up produces the usurpation of a second; one encroachment passively
suffered makes way for another; and the nation which thus, through a
doting love of peace, has sacrificed honor and interest, will at length
have to fight for existence.

Let the disastrous reign of William the Testy serve as a salutary warning
against that fitful, feverish mode of legislation, which acts without
system, depends on shifts and projects, and trusts to lucky contingencies;
which hesitates, and wavers, and at length decides with the rashness of
ignorance and imbecility; which stoops for popularity by courting the
prejudices and flattering the arrogance, rather than commanding the
respect, of the rabble; which seeks safety in a multitude of counsellors,
and distracts itself by a variety of contradictory schemes and opinions;
which mistakes procrastination for weariness--hurry for
decision--parsimony for economy--bustle for business, and vaporing for
valor; which is violent in council, sanguine in expectation, precipitate
in action, and feeble in execution; which undertakes enterprises without
forethought, enters upon them without preparation, conducts them without
energy, and ends them in confusion and defeat.

Let the reign of the good Stuyvesant show the effects of vigor and
decision, even when destitute of cool judgment, and surrounded by
perplexities. Let it show how frankness, probity, and high-souled courage
will command respect and secure honor, even where success is unattainable.
But, at the same time, let it caution against a too ready reliance on the
good faith of others, and a too honest confidence in the loving
professions of powerful neighbors, who are most friendly when they most
mean to betray. Let it teach a judicious attention to the opinions and
wishes of the many, who, in times of peril, must be soothed and led, or
apprehension will overpower the deference to authority.

Let the empty wordiness of his factious subjects,