and held in just horror in the eighteenth century. I know but one code
of morality for men, whether acting singly or collectively. He who says
I will be a rogue when I act in company with a hundred others, but an
honest man when I act alone, will be believed in the former assertion,
but not in the latter. I would say with the poet, '_Hie niger est; hunc
tu, Romane, caveto_.' If the morality of one man produces a just line of
conduct in him, acting individually, why should not the morality of one
hundred men produce a just line of conduct in them, acting together?
But I indulge myself in these reflections because my own feelings run me
into them; with you they were always acknowledged. Let us hope that our
new government will take some other occasion to show, that they mean to
proscribe no virtue from the canons of their conduct with other nations.
In every other instance, the new government has ushered itself to the
world as honest, masculine, and dignified. It has shown genuine dignity,
in my opinion, in exploding adulatory titles; they are the offerings of
abject baseness, and nourish that degrading vice in the people.

I must now say a word on the declaration of rights, you have been so
good as to send me. I like it, as far as it goes; but I should have been
for going further. For instance, the following alterations and additions
would have pleased me. Article 4. The people shall not be deprived of
their right to speak, to write, or otherwise to publish any thing
but false facts affecting injuriously the life, liberty, property, or
reputation of others, or affecting the peace of the confederacy
with foreign nations. Article 7. All facts put in issue before any
judicature, shall be tried by jury, except, 1. in cases of admiralty
jurisdiction, wherein a foreigner shall be interested; 2. in cases
cognizable before a court martial, concerning only the regular-officers
and soldiers of the United States, or members of the militia in actual
service in time of war or insurrection; and 3. in impeachments allowed