American Political Writing During the Founding Era: 1760–1805: Two Volume Paperback Set

68. Joel Barlow, To His Fellow Citizens of the United States. Letter II: On Certain Political Measures Proposed to Their Consideration,

PolWritV2_1051-1100.indd 1099 2/23/12 2:06 PM [68} JOEL BARLOW I754-I8I2 To His Fellow Citizens of the United States. Letter II: On Certain Political Measures Proposed to Their Consideration PHILADELPHIA, 180 1 In q88 a business venture took Barlow to Europe , and there, mainly in France, he remained for nearly twenty years, entranced by the French Revolution and its parallels with American experience in launching a new political system. These observations stirred him to a series of shrewd analyses of the French effort to build a new order. Several of them took the form of letters, one of which is reproduced here. While not as famous as his Advice to the Privileged Orders (1792), which warned against ruling for class interest, or his epic poem The Cofumbiad, or his Letters to the National Convention ofFrance on the Defects in the Constitution of I 79 I (for which he was awarded an honorary French citizenship), the "letter" reproduced here is a discussion of Federalism in a general, international context that justifies a federal structure for all nations of a considerable population and does so with a sophistication equal to his other more well known writings. Fellow Citizens, In my first letter to you I signified an intention of addressing you a second time on political subjects; and of suggesting certain measures which appear to me to be within your power, for securing your own liberty both civil and commercial, and for laying the foundation of a pacific intercourse among all maritime nations, on a plan which may perpetuate itself and become universal. Some of my observations may [ 10991 PolWritV2_1051-1100.indd 1100 2/23/12 2:06 PM ( I I 00 } PHILADELPHIA, I8or appear superfluous, as being already familiar to the minds of thinking men; and some of my theories may be thought impracticable because they are not familiar. Could I know beforehand what would really prove superfluous, and what impracticable, I would certainly retrench all that should come under both these descriptions ; though it might go to the whole contents of my work; for my object is to aid the exertions of those who wish to do good; and not to embarrass them in the choice of means. The art of governing a nation is the art of substituting a moral to a physical force. It is only in [2] their rudest state, antecedent to government and previous to any experience, that men can be supposed to be impelled or restrained altogether by the action of other men , applied as bodily strength. The right of the strongest among individuals, or in sections of the same society, supposes the absence of that controling power which is held over them by the society at large; and which, being confided to the hands of the magistrate, constitutes the moral force with which the government usually acts . As the absolute independence of one man upon another is incompatible with a state of society, personal strength becomes no longer necessary to personal protection; but, on the contrary, it is a general maxim, that individual safety is best secured where individual exertion is least resorted to. Our submitting to any force whatever, whether physical or moral, is the choice of self-interest; resulting in the first case from real defect, and in the last, either from calculation or from habit. The consciousness of public power gives rise to public opinion; and while experience teaches us to calculate their energy, it brings on the habit of respecting their authority. We thus refrain from mutual injury by an habitual sense of convenience, which resembles the instinct of self-preservation, and is almost as strong in us, as that sensitive horror which prevents our stepping off a precipice. Hence great societies may be moved, millions of persons protected, industry and virtue universally encouraged, idleness and violence completely restrained, without lifting the hand of one man upon another. These reflections open to our view an immense career of improvement , and explain the theory of the whole progress of society, past, present and to come. Great strides have been taken in this [3] wonderful career; and a considerable elevation in the ascending scale of improvement is already attained. Whoever will compare the present state of the species with r ·hat it was when every thing was decided by bodily PolWritV2_1101-1150.indd 1101 2/23/12 2:08 PM ( IIOI} ]OEL BARLOW 1754-r8r2 strength...