Altar of Liberty was reared amid seas of blood, and stained with the gore
of innocent victims.

The measurable failure of this struggle in France, teaches the necessity
of due preparation before a people can advance to the permanent possession
and enjoyment of their rights. The American colonists had been trained to
rational conceptions of freedom, by lessons of wisdom and sagacity read
them by their Puritan fathers, and by the experience in self-government,
afforded during a century and a half of enjoyment of a large share of
political privileges, granted by the mother country. They were thus
prepared to lay deep and strong the foundations of an enlightened
government, which, equally removed from the extremes of despotism on the
one hand, and anarchy on the other, and granting its subjects the exercise
of their right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," shall
endure through ages to come. But the people of France, shut up in darkness
during centuries of misrule, passed at a step from abject servitude to
unlimited freedom. They were unprepared for this violent transition. Their
conceptions of liberty were of the most extravagant description. What
wonder that they became dizzy at their sudden elevation! What wonder that
blood flowed in rivers!--that dissension and faction rent them asunder--
that a fearful anarchy soon reigned triumphant--or that the confused and
troubled drama closed in the iron rule of a military conqueror--the Man of
Destiny! Let not this lesson be lost upon the world. Let a people who
would enjoy freedom, learn to merit the boon by the study of its
principles and a preparation to exercise its privileges, under those
salutary restraints which man can never throw off and be happy!

The odium excited throughout Europe by the excesses of the French
Revolution, was heaped without measure upon the American people. They were
charged with the origin of the misrule which convulsed France, and filled