the shape their institutions must necessarily take. He was possessed
with the idea that liberty was in danger, and that the attempt was made
to change the republic into a monarchy, perhaps a despotism. This
delirious fancy beset him by day and was a terror by night. He was
haunted by the likeness of a kingly crown. Hamilton and Adams were
writing and planning to place it upon somebody's head. Federalist
senators, congressmen, Revolutionary soldiers, were transformed into
monarchists and Anglomen. Grave judges appeared to his distempered
vision in the guise of court lawyers and would-be ambassadors. The
Cincinnati lowered over the Constitution eternally. The Supreme Court of
the United States was the stronghold in which the principle of
tyrannical power, elsewhere only militant, was triumphant. Hamilton's
funding system was a scheme to corrupt the country. Even the stately
form of Washington rose before him in the shape of Samson shorn by the
harlot England. Strange as it may seem, Jefferson persisted in his
delusion to the end. A man in his position ought to have seen that in
spite of the old connection with the British crown, the States were and
always had been essentially republican in feelings, manners, and forms.
Nowhere in the world had local self-government been carried to such
extent and perfection. To build up a monarchy out of the thirteen
colonies was impracticable. Washington, more clear sighted, said that
any government but a republic was impossible: there were not ten men in
the United States whose opinions were worth attention who entertained
the thought of a monarchy. In his judgment the danger lay in the other
direction. The weakness of the Government, not its strength, might lead
to despotism through license and anarchy. He desired to keep the rising
tide of democracy within bounds by every legitimate barrier that could
be erected, lest it should overflow the country and sweep away all
government. Jefferson was for throwing open the floodgates to admit it.
He thought himself justified in combating the monarchists of his