57 8
ESSAYS ON LIBERTY
roaring loom of time. In the chapter on Spoils it is not stated that the idea belongs to the ministers of George III. Hamilton's argument against removals is mentioned, but not the New York edition of The Federalist with the Inarginal note that "Mr. H. had changed his view of the constitution on that point." The French wars of specu- lation and plunder are spoken of; but, to give honour \vhere honour is due, it should be added that they were an American suggestion. In l\1ay 1790, Morris wrote to two of his friends at Paris: U I see no means of extricat- ing you from your troubles, but that which most men would consider as the means of plunging you into greater -1 mean a war. And you should make it to yourselves a war of men, to your neighbours a war of money. . . . I hear you cry out that the finances are in a deplorable situation. This should be no obstacle. I think that they may be restored during war better than in peace. You \vant also something to turn men's attention from their present discontents." There is a long and impartial inquiry into parliamentary corruption as practised now; but one wishes to hear so good a judge on the report that money prevailed at some of the turning-points of American history; on the imputations cast by the younger Adams upon his ablest contemporaries; on the story told by another president, of 223 representatives who received accolnmodation from the bank, at the rate of a thousand pounds apiece, during its struggle with Jackson. America as kno\vn to the man in the cars, and America observed in the roll of the ages, do not always give the same totals. We learn that the best capacity of the country is withheld from politics, that there is what Emerson calls a gradual withdrawal of tender consciences from the social organisation, so that the representatives approach the level of the constituents. Yet it is in political science only that America occupies the first rank. There are six Americans on a level with the foremost Europeans, with Slllith and Turgot, Mill and Humboldt Five of these were secretaries of state, and one was
