Come forward then, my
dear Sir, and give us the aid of your talents and the weight of your
character towards the new establishment of republicanism; I say, for its
new establishment; for hitherto, we have seen only its _travestie_. I
have urged thus far, on the belief that your present office would not be
an obstacle to this proposition. I was informed, and I think it was
by your brother, that you wished to retire from it, and were only
restrained by the fear that a successor of different principles might
be appointed. The late change in your council of appointment will remove
this fear. It will not be improper to say a word on the subject
of expense. The gentlemen who composed General Washington's first
administration took up, too universally, a practice of general
entertainment, which was unnecessary, obstructive of business, and
so oppressive to themselves, that it was among the motives for their
retirement. Their successors profited from the experiment, and lived
altogether as private individuals, and so have ever continued to do.
Here, indeed, it cannot be otherwise our situation being so rural, that
during the vacations of the legislature we shall have no society but of
the officers of government, and in time of sessions the legislature
is become and becoming so numerous, that for the last half dozen years
nobody but the President has pretended to entertain them.
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