But it was the Lilliputians upon Gulliver. Our
countrymen have recovered from the alarm into which art and industry had
thrown them; science and honesty are replaced on their high ground; and
you, my dear Sir, as their great apostle, are on its pinnacle. It is
with heartfelt satisfaction that, in the first moments of my public
action, I can hail you with welcome to our land, tender to you the
homage of its respect and esteem, cover you under the protection of
those laws which were made for the wise and good like you, and disclaim
the legitimacy of that libel on legislation, which under the form of a
law was for some time placed among them.*
[* In the margin, is written by the author, 'Alien law.']
As the storm is now subsiding and the horizon becoming serene, it is
pleasant to consider the phenomenon with attention. We can no longer
say there is nothing new under the sun. For this whole chapter in the
history of man is new. The great extent of our republic is new. Its
sparse habitation is new. The mighty wave of public opinion which has
rolled over it is new. But the most pleasing novelty is, its so quietly
subsiding over such an extent of surface to its true level again. The
order and good sense displayed in this recovery from delusion, and in
the momentous crisis which lately arose, really bespeak a strength
of character in our nation which augurs well for the duration of our
republic: and I am much better satisfied now of its stability, than I
was before it was tried, I have been above all things solaced by
the prospect which opened on us, in the event of a non-election of a
President; in which case, the federal government would have been in the
situation of a clock or watch run down.
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