Pains are yet to be taken & much Wisdom is requisite that we may stand
as a Nation in a respectable Character. Better it would have been for
us to have fallen in our highly famed Struggle for our Rights, or even
to have remaind in our ignoble State of Bondage hoping for better
Times, than now to become a contemptible Nation. The World have given
us an exalted Character, & thus have laid on us a heavy Tax! They have
raised Expectations from us! HOW shall we meet those Expectations? They
have attributed to us Wisdom! HOW shall we confirm them in their
Opinion of us? Inexperiencd as we are in the Refinements of Nations,
Can we expect to shine in the World as able Politicians? Shall we then
be hacknied in the Path of Deception because some others famed for
their Dexterity in Politicks have long trod that Path & thought they
have gaind Advantage by it? Or, because it is said All Nations are
selfinterested & that No Friendship in Treaties and National
Transactions is almost as proverbial as No Friendship in Trade, shall
we depart from that excellent Rule of Equity, the Observance of which
should be characteristick of all Nations especially Republicks, as it
is of all good Men, to do to others as we would have them do to us?
Could we be indued thus to prostitute ourselves, HOW should we appear
in the Eyes of the Virtuous & Wise? Should there be found a Citizen of
the United States so unprincipled as to ask, What will become of us if
we do not follow the corrupt Maxims of the World? I should tell him,
that the Strength of a Republick is consolidated by its Virtues, & that
Righteousness will exalt a Nation.

Was it true as some affirm, that the old World is absorbd in all kinds
of Vice, unhumanizd & enslavd, it would indeed be a melancholly Subject
to contemplate, and I should think that common Prudence would dictate
to a Nation situated as we are, to have as little to do with them as
possible. Such indiscriminate Censure, however, may spring from