We have faith in that innate light which Providence has placed in the
hearts of all men, to which he has confided the preservation and
improvement of our race-_interest_ (since we must call it by its
name), which is so active, so vigilant, so provident, when its action
is free. What would become of you, inhabitants of New York, if a
Congressional majority should take a fancy to substitute for this
power the combinations of their genius, however superior it may be
supposed to be; if they imagined they could submit this prodigious
mechanism to its supreme direction, unite all its resources in their
own hands, and decide when, where, how, and on what conditions
everything should be produced, transported, exchanged, and consumed?
Ah! though there may be much suffering within your bounds, though
misery, despair, and perhaps hungry exhaustion may cause more tears to
flow than your ardent charity can dry, it is probable, it is certain,
we dare to affirm, that the arbitrary intervention of government would
multiply these sufferings infinitely, and would extend to you all,
those evils which at present are confined to a small portion of your
number.
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