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438 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

his heart glow with an ardor, which he took for a love of lib-
erty and his country, and had formed to himself no design
fatal to its privileges. He recollected, no doubt, that he had
heretofore exposed himeelf for its service. He had bared his
bosom in defense of his native soil, and still felt the sinart of
wounds received in conflict for his king and country. Could
that spirit, which had braved the shafts of foreign battle,
brook the keener wounds of civil contest? The arrows which
now pierced him, pierced as deep and rankled more than
those of former times.

It is rational to imagine much harmony could long sab-
sist? We must take human nature as we find it, and not
vainly imagine, that all things are to become new at such a
erisis. There are an order of men in every commonwealth,
who never reason, but always act from feeling. That their
rights and liberties were filched away one after another, they
had often been told. They had been taught by those whom
they believed, that the axe was now laid to the root of the
tree, and one more stroke would eomplete its fall, It was in
vain to expect to silence or subdue these emotions by reasons,
soothings or dangers. A belief, that nothing could be worse
than the calamities which seemed inevitable, had extended it-
eelf on all sides, and arguments drawn from such sources had
Vittle influence. Esch day gave rise to new occurrences,
which increased animosities. Heartburnings, heats and bick-
erings became more and more extensive. Reciprocal insults
soured the temper, mutual injuries embittered the passions.
Can we wonder, that when everything tended to some impor-
tant action, the period so soon arrived? Will not our won-
der be increased to find the crisis no sooner taking place, when
80 many circumstances united to hasten its approach? To
use an allusion somewhat homely, may we not wonder that
the acid and the alkali did not sooner ferment?

‘A thought here imperceptibly forces itself on our minds,
and we are led to be astonished, that persons so discordant in
opinion, and so opposite in views, attachments and connec-
tions should be stationed together. But, here, gentlemen, we

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