JB/109/078/001

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1819 May 20

Those who condemn the principle of party, may disapprove
these associations as unconstitutional. To us who consider parties as inseparable
from liberty, they seem remarkable as examples of those undesigned
and unforeseen correctives of inconvenient laws which spring out of
the circumstances of Society. The Election of so great a Magistrate as
the President, by great numbers of Electors, scattered over a vast Continent,
without the power of concert, on the means of personal knowledge
would naturally produce confusion, if it were not tempered by the
confidence of the Members of both parties in the judgment of their
respective leaders. The permanence of these leaders, slowly raised by a
sort of insensible election to the conduct of Parties, tends to counteract
the evil of that system of periodical removal, which is peculiarly inconvenient
in its application to the important executive offices. The internal
discipline of parties may be found to be a principle of subordination
of great value in Republican Institutions. Certain it is, that the affairs
of the United States have hitherto been generally administered,
in times of great difficulty and under a succession of Presidents,
with a forbearance, circumspection, constancy and vigour, not
surpassed by those Commonwealths who have been most justly renowned for the wisdom of their Councils. The only disgrace or danger
which we perceive impending over America, arises from the execrable
institution of Slavery – the unjust disfranchisement of
free Blacks – the trading in Slaves carried on from State to State
and the dissolute and violent character of those adventurers, whose
impatience for guilty wealth spreads the horrors of Slavery over
the new Acquisitions of the South.* * See Mr Fearon's account of the Slave Trade on the Mississippi, and his frightful Extracts from the newspapers of New Orleans. Let the Lawgivers of that Imperial
Republic deeply consider how powerfully these disgraceful
circumstances tend to weaken the Love of liberty; the only bond which
can hold together such vast territories, and therefore the only source
and guard of the tranquility and greatness of America.

Identifier: | JB/109/078/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 109.
Date_1	1819-05-20	Marginal Summary Numbering	49-53
Box	109	Main Headings	Parliamentary Reform
Folio number	078	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	Copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	E12
Penner		Watermarks	[[watermarks::I&M [Prince of Wales feathers] 1818]]
Marginals	Jeremy Bentham	Paper Producer	Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
Corrections	Jeremy Bentham	Paper Produced in Year	1818
Notes public		ID Number	35733
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