When these are felt, as
they soon will be, all must unite in repelling it, and acknowledge that
the United States are contending in a cause common to them all, and more
important to the liberal Governments of Europe than even to themselves;
for it is too obvious to escape the slightest attention that the
Monarchies of Europe by which they are surrounded will have all the
advantage of this supervision of the domestic councils of their
neighbors without being subject to it themselves. It is true that in
the representative Governments of Europe executive communications to
legislative bodies have not the extension that is given to them in the
United States, and that they are therefore less liable to attack on that
quarter; but they must not imagine themselves safe. In the opening
address, guarded as it commonly is, every proposition made by the
ministry, every resolution of either chamber, will offer occasions for
the jealous interference of national punctilio, for all occupy the same
grounds. No intercommunication of the different branches of Government
will be safe, and even the courts of justice will afford no sanctuary
for freedom of decision and of debate, and the susceptibility of foreign
powers must be consulted in all the departments of Government.
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