Excerpt from The Address of the Society of Constitutional Republicans These, then, fellow-citizens, are the pretexts for raising an artificial tempest, in a season of calm and fruitful prospe rity. \vith these pretexts, men deranged by Utopian theories or corrupted by foreign arts; men, formed turbulent by nature, or become so from necessity; men, who delight in confusion, and subsist upon defamation idlers, without social attach-a ments and politicians by trade gathering their scanty num bers into a malignant circle, have scattered envy and malice, fear and suspicion, throughout the land. It was nor to be ex pected, that, indulging a more than Gothic fury, for the de molition of our public institutions, the Malcontents would per mit the venerable m'kean (who had long laboured for their' establishment and preservation), to close his patriotic life in peace. His services and his renown are, indeed, coeval with the dawn of American independence for, he is among the few (the lamentably few) surviving members of the illustrious Congress of 1765; and in every vicissitude of the war of 1776, he was the firm and efficient servant of his country. But nei ther these testimonials nor all the assiduity since displayed by an enlightened mind, for the public good nor the courtesy which age might attract nor the gratitude which bounty should com mand have furnished a shield to protect him from obloquy the most unjust; or from insult the most cruel! A new order of things, required a new character of men. Those who had contributed to rear the fabric of civil government, could never sincerely be beloved, by those who seek to undermine and des troy it. The first election of Governor m'kean was espoused with a zeal that graced the noblest motives; and the second election was distinguished by an unprecedented majority of the suffrages of a free people. In these movements, however, the Malcontents (as far as their co-operation extended) contem plated their own interests, and not the interests of the commu nity. The well-known name of the Patriot, gave assurance of success on the day of election; and, it was imagined, the un suspecting nature of the man, would render him an easy vic tim to the arts of solicitation and intrigue. For awhile, too, the Malcontents seemed to reap the fruits of their speculation. Much was obtained for personal gratification; but more to indulge the vanity of a reflected patronage. To prove the first part of our assertion, we refer to the evidence of Commis sions and Contracts, of Petitions and Testimonials, on the public files of the Secretary's office and, as to the second part, the lapse of time is too short, to have impaired the recollection ofthe pains, which were taken, to create a popular opinion, that the recommendation of the leading Malcontents, was a certain, but an indispensable, passport, to Executive favor. During[16. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.