To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: Selected Writings of Gouverneur Morris

34 • Election Address (1810)

495 Gouverneur Morris Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University , item 855. The archivist has dated the manuscript as “prob. 1808,” but until 1821 New York governors were elected for three-year terms; Daniel Tompkins was elected in 1807 and reelected April 26, 1810. Two incidents mentioned in the manuscript, the Degen, Purviance, & Co. bankruptcy and the letter from Champagny to Armstrong, occurred in summer 1809, making 1810 a more likely date for the speech. 34 • Election Address (1810) This address was probably given to a group of New York voters sometime in April 1810, when Democratic-Republican Governor Daniel D. Tompkins was running for reelection against Jonas Platt. Party competition in New York was keen in this era, because it was a swing state and thus key to the national fortunes of the Democratic-Republican party. The current and previous vice presidents, George Clinton and Aaron Burr, had both been New Yorkers; Tompkins himself would serve as vice president under James Monroe. Morris’s address ignores New York politics, however, and instead develops further his criticism of the Madison administration’s conduct of foreign policy. •• Fellow Citizens I conceive it proper to communicate to you my Sentiments on public Affairs previous to the ensuing Election of a Governor, which will, in all Probability, decide the Fate of our Country. Your present Governor has been careful to display his Subservience to the federal Administration. His Efforts, and those of his Patrons, to carry thro Measures hostile to the Interest of the American People and fatal to their Freedom are recorded Proofs that if you bestow your Confidence on them it will be abused. I shall not imitate those who, on occasions like the present, pour forth a Torrent of unfounded Invective. I cannot avoid making serious Charges, but I shall adduce Facts to support them, and you shall judge. During the Course of those Events to which I am about to refer, the Eyes and Ears of 496 chaPtEr 34 many among us were closed by false Representations, so as neither to see Truth nor to hear Counsel. But this should not form a Subject of Reproach, for we are Men and cannot therefore be exempt from human Infirmity. It is the common Lot of our Nature to be, at Times, so blinded by Prejudice or transported by Passion as not to make just Observation of Characters Measures and Events. In that diseased Condition of Mind, we may assent to, and even applaud, Opinions and Actions which on cool Reflection we condemn and abhor. As no one of us pretends to be perfect, we ought not to expect Perfection in those who rule over us; so that if the national Administration had committed those Faults only which Men of good Intentions may be led into by Negligence or Incapacity, however we might have felt Regret we should not have uttered Complaint. But they have assailed the Constitution, impoverished the Citizens, dried up the Revenue, squandered the Treasure, hazarded the Peace and surrendered the Independence of the united States. Each of these Points I mean to establish by Facts. The first Message of Mr. Jefferson to the national Legislature was an Assault on the Judiciary, and therefore on the Constitution, of which it is an essential Part. His Followers, believing perhaps that he possest the Wisdom he wanted and the Virtue he pretended, gave (in Compliance with his Wishes) a deadly Blow to the Constitution, under the Pretext of saving public Money. They bade us look up to them as the faithful, and the only faithful, Guardians of our Treasure. They accused their Predecessors of Prodigality and Peculation. They promised to be saving and honest. The Falsity of the accusation has been long since demonstrated. As to the Promise , a List of Defaulters lately published proves that they their Agents and Friends have plundered the Treasury of more than enough to defray the Expense of the Judiciary to the present Day. More than $400,000 received by Collectors, South of this State, appear to be wholly lost. But the first was not the only Blow which has been aimed at the Independence of the Judiciary. In the persevering Malice which has pursued that Department, we trace the Spirit of the Administration. A Spirit equally hostile to Liberty and the Constitution. A Spirit which, to enforce the baneful System of Restrictions on Trade, subjected us (as far as Edicts which tho cloathed with the Forms, were opposed to the Principles of the...