whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favour of the rights of mankind. The experiment is made, and has completely ſucceeded: it can no longer be called in queſtion, whether authority in magiſtrates, and obedience of citizens, can be grounded on reaſon, morality, and the Chriſtian religion, without the monkery of prieſts, or the knavery of politicians. As the writer was perſonally acquainted with mod of the gentlemen in each of the ſtates, who had the principal ſhare in the firſt draughts, the following letters were really written to lay before the gentleman to whom they are addreſſed, a ſpecimen of that kind of reading and reaſoning which produced the American conſtitutions.
It is not a little ſurpriſing that all this kind of learning ſhould have been unknown to any illuſtrious philoſopher and ſtateſman, eſpecially one who really was, what he has been often called, "a well of ſcience." But if he could be unacquainted with it, or it could have eſcaped his memory, we may ſuppoſe millions in America have occaſion to be reminded of it.—The writer has long ſeen with anxiety the facility with which philoſophers of greateſt name have undertaken to write of American affairs, without knowing any thing of them, and have echoed and re-echoed each other's viſions. Having neither talents, leiſure, nor inclination, to meet ſuch champions in the field of literary controverſy,
