needy become formidable from its numbers, and they who had no
other stake in society than their naked assistance, could combine
to transfer the fruits of the labors of the more industrious and
successful to themselves by a simple recurrence to the use of the
ballot box. We do not say that such is to be the fate of this
country, for the great results that seem to be dependent on its
settlement raise a hope that the hand of Providence may yet guide
us in safety through the period of delusion, and the reign of
political fallacies, which is fast drawing around us. Evil is so
much mixed with good in all the interests of life, that it would
be bold to pretend to predict consequences of such magnitude in
the history of any nation. But we feel persuaded that radical
changes must speedily come, either from the powerful but
invisible control of that Being who effects his own purposes in
his own wise ways, or the time is much nearer than is ordinarily
supposed when the very existence of the political institutions of
this country are to be brought to the test of the severest
practical experiment. The downward tendency can hardly proceed
much further with the smallest necessary security to the rights
of civilized men. When a legislative body can be brought solemnly
to decide by its vote that because the principles of law leave
them the control of the rules for the descent of property,
therefore, whenever a landlord may happen to die, his tenant
shall have the privilege of converting his leasehold estate into
a fee on which the debt is secured in the shape of mortgage,
there is little left in the way of security to the affluent and
unrepresented. They must unite their means to prevent
destruction; and woe to that land which gives so plausible an
excuse to the rich and intelligent for combining their means to
overturn the liberties of a nation, as is to be found in abuses