...
I will not trespass much longer upon the time of the committee;
but I trust I shall be indulged with some few reflections upon the
danger of permitting the conduct on which it has been my painful duty
to animadvert, to pass without the solemn expression of the
disapprobation of this House. Recall to your recollection the free
nations which have gone before us. Where are they now?
"Gone glimmering through the dream of things that were,
A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour."
And how have they lost their liberties? If we could transport
ourselves back to the ages when Greece and Rome flourished in their
greatest prosperity, and, mingling in the throng, should ask a Grecian
if he did not fear that some daring military chieftain, covered with
glory, some Philip or Alexander, would one day overthrow the liberties
of his country, the confident and indignant Grecian would exclaim,
No! no! we have nothing to fear from our heroes; our liberties will be
eternal. If a Roman citizen had been asked if he did not fear that the
conqueror of Gaul might establish a throne upon the ruins of public
liberty, he would have instantly repelled the unjust insinuation. yet
Greece fell; Caesar passed the Rubicon, and the patriotic arm even of
Brutus could not preserve the liberties of his devoted country! The
celebrated Madame de Stael, in her last and perhaps her best work,
has said, that in the very year, almost the very month, when the
president of the Directory declared that monarchy would never more
show its frightful head in France, Bonaparte, with his grenadiers,
entered the palace of St.
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