It is from the natural ariſtocracy in a ſingle aſſembly that the firſt danger is to be apprehended in the preſent ſtate of manners in America; and with a balance of landed property in the hands of the people, ſo decided in their favour, the progreſs to degeneracy, corruption, rage, and violence, might not be very rapid; nevertheleſs it would begin with the firſt elections, and grow faſter or ſlower every year.
Rage and violence would ſoon appear in the aſſembly, and from thence be communicated among the people at large.
The only remedy is to throw the rich and the proud into one group, in a ſeparate aſſembly, and there tie their hands; if you give them ſcope with the people at large, or their repreſentatives, they will deſtroy all equality and liberty, with the conſent and acclamations of the people themſelves. They will have much more power, mixed with the repreſentatives, than ſeparated from them. In the firſt cafe, if they unite, they will give the law, and govern all; if they differ, they will divide the ſtate, and go to a deciſion by force. But placing them alone by themſelves, the ſociety avails itſelf of all their abilities and virtues; they become a ſolid check to the repreſentatives themſelves, as well as to the executive power, and you diſarm them entirely of the power to do miſchief.
