Introduction

A firm union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the states as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection. It is impossible to read the history of the petty republics of Greece and Italy without feeling sensations of horror and disgust at the distractions with which they were continually agitated. The advocates of despotism have drawn arguments, not only against the forms of republican government, but against the very principles of civil liberty. They have indulged themselves in malicious exaltation over its friends and partisans. Happily for mankind, stupendous fabrics reared on the basis of liberty, which are flourished for ages, have refuted their gloomy sofisms. And I trust,