Should the present revolution be distinguished by opening a new system of extended civilization, it will receive from heaven the highest evidence of approbation; and as this is a subject to which the Abbe’s powers are so eminently suited, I recommend it to his attention, with the affection of a friend, and the ardour of a universal citizen.

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POSTSCRIPT

Since closing the foregoing letter some intimations respecting a general peace, have made their way to America.  On what authority or foundation they stand, or how near or remote such an event may be, are circumstances I am not enquiring into.  But as the subject must sooner or later, become a matter of serious attention, it may not be improper, even at this early period, candidly to investigate some points that are connected with it, or lead towards it.

The independence of America is at this moment as firmly established as that of any other country in a state of war.  It is not length of time, but power that gives stability.  Nations at war know nothing of each other on the score of antiquity.  It is their present and immediate strength, together with their connections, that must support them.  To which we may add, that a right which originated to-day, is as much a right, as if it had the sanction of a thousand years; and therefore the independence and present government of America are in no more danger of being subverted, because they are modern, than that of England is secure, because it is ancient.

The politics of Britain, so far as respected America, were originally conceived in idiotism, and acted in madness.  There is not a step which bears the smallest trace of rationality.  In her management of the war, she has laboured to be wretched, and studied to be hated; and in all her former propositions for accommodation, she has discovered a total ignorance of mankind, and of those natural and unalterable sensations by which they are so generally governed.  How she may conduct herself in the present or future business of negotiating a peace is yet to be proved.

He is a weak politician who does not understand human nature, and penetrate into the effect which measures of government will have upon the mind.  All the miscarriages of Britain have arisen from this defect.  The former Ministry acted as if they supposed mankind to be without a mind; and the present Ministry, as if America was without a memory.  The one must have supposed we were incapable of feeling; and the other that we could not remember injuries.

There is likewise another line in which politicians mistake, which is that of not rightly calculating, or rather of misjudging, the consequence which any given circumstance will produce.  Nothing is more frequent, as well in common as in political life, than to hear people complain, that such or such means produced an event directly contrary to their intentions.  But the fault lies in their not judging rightly what the event would be; for the means produced only its proper and natural consequence.