By WILLIAM MANNING 
 
 
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Key of J^ibberty 
 
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 THE "Key of Libberty" manuscripts came to the Manning Manse 
 (built in 1696) from the Manning Farm, the estate of the late 
 William Manning, whose father, Theophilus, was born at the manse 
 and was a brother of the author. 
 
 Theophilus was a farmer who never kept his children from school a 
 day, and whose favorite expression was "Attend to your work and 
 you will not get into mischief." 
 
 His three sons, William (born 1823), Theophilus and Asa P., 
 originated the pop-corn and molasses candy business as school boys 
 in their Billerica home, from which their product was sold in large 
 loaves in Lowell, Reading and Wakefield, Mass. As these loaves were 
 found inconvenient to retail from, they were followed by corn-balls 
 up to 1862, then by corn-cakes and by patented cocoanut corn-cakes. 
 W 7 illiam was constantly devising special methods and equipment to 
 replace hand labor, and to utilize such by-products as the "old maids" 
 that would not pop. Original models, containers, many documents, 
 and the first big hand corn-poppers are now in the Manning family 
 collection at the manse in Billerica, Mass. 
 
 In 1846, William Manning married Mary Ann Baldwin from the 
 nearby Joel Baldwin homestead, built as was his father's home, early 
 in the last century. 
 
 In 1849, ne acquired his own Manning farm in East Chelmsford 
 near Lowell, where he soon built his home, his first factory, and grew 
 seed for farmers in New England and as far west as Michigan to 
 grow, on some hundreds of acres, the 5,000 bushels or more of pop- 
 corn required yearly. 
 
 Island of Mayaguez molasses was found to be so superior that 100 
 hogsheads per year were used for 25 years, nearly half the total 
 Island product. 
 
 In 1867, a big factory was erected on an acre of land purchased in 
 Lowell, on Broadway, at School Street, to meet demands from all 
 states. The brothers had passed out of the business long before this, 
 and a young man who had fought his own way up to success became 
 the principal assistant, married the only daughter, and now presents 
 this book as a tribute to his wife and to his friend, William Manning. 
 
 From.. 
 
 Manning Farm, East Chelmsford Mass. 
 
 Published by the Manning Association, Manning Manse, No. Billerica, Mass. 
 
 September 1922 
 
THE KEY OF LIBBERTY 
 
THE 
 
 KEY OF LIBBERTY 
 
 SHEWING THE CAUSES WHY A FREE 
 
 GOVERNMENT HAS ALWAYS FAILED, 
 
 AND A REMIDY AGAINST IT 
 
 Written in the year 1798 by 
 
 WILLIAM MANNING 
 
 of Billerica, Massachusetts 
 
 With notes and a foreword by 
 
 SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON 
 Lecturer on History, Harvard University 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE MANNING ASSOCIATION 
 
 BILLERICA, MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 1922 
 
COPYRIGHT 1922 
 BY WARREN H. MANNING 
 
 THE JORDAN & MORE PRESS 
 BOSTON 
 
Foreword 
 
 William Manning was a New England farmer, with 
 little in his outward life to distinguish him from the 
 rest of the Yankee yeomanry. His paternal ances- 
 tors came to Massachusetts from England, in the 
 great Puritan migration. He was born in North 
 Billerica in 1747, on the same farm that his great- 
 grandfather had hewed out of the wilderness; and 
 there he lived and died. 
 
 It was a level, fertile farmstead near the Concord 
 River, about four miles from its junction with 
 the Merrimac. The house, now known as the Old 
 Manse, was built by the same pioneer ancestor in 
 1696. During the Indian wars it served the com- 
 munity as a garrison house. 1 Framed in massive 
 oak, boarded with weather-rusted pine clapboards, 
 covered with a shingled roof which sloped almost to 
 the ground on the north side, the house was already 
 old-fashioned in 1797, when its owner was suffering 
 the growing pains of authorship. Its few, small 
 rooms, huddled about a great central chimney, 
 sheltered not only William and Sarah Manning and 
 ten or eleven of their thirteen children, but an occa- 
 sional traveller. For, situated as it was on the main 
 road between the seacoast and the upper Merrimac 
 Valley, the Old Manse had been used as a tavern 
 since the time of William's father. The tavern 
 books, kept in his hand, are still in existence, record- 
 ing sundry gills of rum, mugs of flip, suppers, nights' 
 
 1 William H. Manning, " The Manning Families of New England," Salem, 
 1902. 
 
Foreword 
 
 lodging, and baiting of horses. Likewise are noted 
 many days' work, with man and team, on the Middle- 
 sex Canal, which passed within half a mile of the 
 Old Manse on its way to Boston. 
 
 Our village Hampden, then, was fairly well-off, by 
 the frugal standards of his day. But his inner life 
 was a turmoil. The fire of liberty kindled in his 
 soul by the flaming words of Otis and Adams, had 
 never died down. His mind was not stagnant, as 
 the waters of the canal that ran hard by, nor placid 
 as the Concord River which bordered his east 
 meadow. It was more like the Merrimac, the roar- 
 ing of whose rapids rang in his ears during the sleep- 
 less nights when he pondered how that liberty he had 
 fought to win, might be preserved. 
 
 When the year 1775 opened, William Manning was 
 twenty-seven years old, and the father of four chil- 
 dren. As sergeant in Captain Solomon Pollard's 
 company of minute-men, he responded to the alarm 
 of the nineteenth of April, and marched to Concord, 
 arriving just too late to take part in the famous fight 
 at the bridge. Shortly after, he received a commis- 
 sion as second lieutenant, but seems to have per- 
 formed no military service after 1776. Ten years 
 later he was chosen for two terms a selectman of the 
 town of Billerica. No other facts of his outward 
 life have been preserved. 
 
 From his " Key of Libberty," however, it is easy 
 to deduce Manning's attitude on the political ques- 
 tions of the day. He was an out-and-out Jeffersonian 
 Republican. Like the average American farmer, he 
 had a profound distrust of governors and government. 
 
 VI 
 
Foreword 
 
 The political reaction that set in shortly after the 
 War of Independence, he viewed with dismay. 
 Understanding neither the necessity of Hamilton's 
 financial policy, 1 nor the wisdom of Washington's 
 foreign policy, he feared, with Jefferson, that they 
 portended militarism, a British alliance, and mon- 
 archy. The French Revolution, which the clergy, 
 the merchants and the gentry of New England viewed 
 with horror, William Manning regarded as the 
 greatest blessing in human history; a beneficient 
 spreading of that bonfire of tyranny he had helped 
 to kindle at Concord Fight. Yet the country as a 
 whole was slowly going over to the Federal party, the 
 instrument of Hamilton's genius. Massachusetts, 
 owing to the interested efforts of the merchants, and 
 the influence of the clergy, had become a stronghold 
 of Federalism. But Manning was not converted. 
 It used to be said of him by his friends that if William 
 Manning were drowned, they would seek his body 
 up-stream, for he would surely not float down with 
 the current like other people! 
 
 William Manning was " teased in his mind with 
 these things," as he writes " for many years." How 
 could Americans, who had fought for freedom and 
 liberty in 1776, vote for autocracy and slavery in 
 1796? Evidently, because they were misled by in- 
 terested persons. What was the remedy? Correct 
 information, and a union of the plain people against 
 the interested few. 
 
 1 Manning, in fact, had a financial policy of his own. In the family archives 
 is an essay in his hand entitled, " Some proposals for Makeing Restitution to the 
 Original Credtors of Government & to helpe the Continant to a Mediam of trade. 
 Submited to the Consideration of the Members of the State Legislater of Massa- 
 chusets February the 6t 1790." 
 
 Vll 
 
Foreword 
 
 It must have been difficult for this untutored 
 farmer to reduce his thoughts to order, and still more 
 to put them on paper. His spelling lends color to 
 his statement that he never had six months' schooling 
 in his life. But in the latter part of 1797 the situa- 
 tion became so alarming, from his point of view, that 
 he could no longer confine his thoughts to neighbors, 
 and the unwilling ears of tired travellers. 
 
 Following the ratification of Jay's Anglo-American 
 treaty, which the Jeffersonians regarded as shame- 
 ful, the French Republic took umbrage, and 
 loosed its corsairs at the new American merchant 
 marine. Here was the opportunity of the high 
 Federalists to turn American patriotism against its 
 former ally, to enter the monarchical alliance that 
 was seeking to crush the French Republic, to dis- 
 credit American democracy, and to militarize the 
 United States. President Adams had sent a mission 
 to France to demand reparation. Nothing as yet 
 had been heard from it. But military and naval 
 preparations were being pushed at Philadelphia. 
 There was talk of passing laws to banish the republi- 
 can refugees who had sought our shores, and to 
 silence the Republican press and politicians who 
 dared to oppose. So, with goose-quill and ink-horn, 
 forming the letters one by one like a child, William 
 Manning wrote his " Key of Libberty," made a fair 
 copy, and sent it to the editor of the Independent 
 Chronicle, the only Jeffersonian newspaper in Boston. 
 
 It is not difficult to see why the " Key of Libberty ' 
 was never published, at least by the Chronicle. The 
 " remidy " that William Manning prescribed, would 
 
 Vlll 
 
Foreword 
 
 have put the Republican doctors out of business. A 
 nation-wide association of laborers and farmers, 
 publishing a monthly magazine to supersede the 
 newspaper press, would hardly appeal to a newspaper 
 publisher. And the threatened storm broke in 
 April, 1798, the very month that the manuscript was 
 submitted. Our envoys at Paris reported their 
 famous negotiations with messieurs X, Y and Z, 
 whose insolent demands seemed completely to justify 
 the Federalist policy. Presently the continent was 
 resounding with " Adams and Liberty," " Millions 
 for defense and not one cent for tribute," and the 
 like. Military preparations were hastened. What 
 amounted to a naval war with France began. Jeffer- 
 sonian Republicans were regarded as little better 
 than traitors. A sedition Act was passed, and 
 several Republican editors spent a term in jail for 
 writing against the war, and warning the American 
 people that they were being deceived. 
 
 Among the victims of this persecution was the 
 very editor to whom Manning had sent his " Key." 
 Thomas Adams, proprietor and editor of the Chron- 
 icle, and Abijah Adams, his brother and clerk, were 
 arraigned for seditious libel, on account of some 
 favorable remarks on the Virginia Resolves of '98 
 which denounced the Sedition Act. Thomas Adams 
 died before his trial came on, but Abijah served a 
 term of thirty days in jail for his newspaper's te- 
 merity. Altogether this " Federalist Reign of Ter- 
 ror," as the Republicans called it, was the worst 
 period of reaction in American history, previous to 
 the World War. 
 
 IX 
 
Foreword 
 
 The manuscript was returned unread, but its 
 author did not lose heart. Almost a year after his 
 first attempt to break into print, William Manning 
 made an abridgement of the " Key " which he sent 
 to Abijah Adams with the following letter 1 
 
 Mr. Addams Sir 
 
 As this peace was laid before you last April 
 for your opinnion upon it, & you then seemed 
 to regret the want of helth & lasure to give it 
 a perusal, the Author haveing drafted it over 
 & made it shorter, he again requests you to 
 give it a thorough persual, & if you think 
 proper to take the opinion of some of the 
 Boston Republicans upon it. For it is thought 
 that if all or a major part of the Republican 
 printers, would Unite (under our present cir- 
 cumstances) to publish it with a page or two 
 left blank ready for signing, & at the same 
 time advertise the magazen Described in it, 
 such a society would be immediately formed, 
 & would make a common cause of defending 
 the Libberty of the press, So that Republican 
 printers would not be personal sufferers by any 
 prosicutions what ever. 
 
 It is also thought that unless some spedy 
 & cheeper method is adopted to convey 
 knoledg than by the present mode of news- 
 papers we shall not injoy the Libberty of the 
 press long, for their is not one fift part of the 
 
 1 Printed from Manning's copy. It was probably dated February 15, 1799, 
 which is the date on " A further description of the proposed Labourers Monthly 
 Magazen," on the back of the same sheet of paper. 
 
Foreword 
 
 common farmers & labourers that are the most 
 interested in the measures of the times, that 
 git any information from them, for they can- 
 not be at the expence of the time & money 
 they cost. 
 
 Therefore you are again requested to give 
 it a thorough perusal. 
 
 The barer will leave it with you, & it will 
 be called for again in the corse of a month, 
 purhaps. But if it should be thought worthey 
 of atention sooner, if you will inserte a single 
 line in the chronicle that, a conference is de- 
 sired with the Labourer, it will be Immediately 
 attended to. 
 
 N.B. that the peace is defitient in Many 
 respects is a truth. But if on the hole it is 
 thought worth printing it is proposed to have 
 it drafted over & corected by some Larned 
 Republican. 
 
 This " peace " evidently met the same fate as the 
 first. It was certainly never printed in the Chronicle, 
 nor, is it likely, anywhere else. There is no record 
 in the Manning papers of any further correspondence 
 on the subject. 
 
 Manning was probably consoled by the election of 
 his hero, Thomas Jefferson, to the presidency in 1801. 
 But he must once more have lamented the lack of 
 correct information among the people, when the 
 Federalists recovered their hold on New England, 
 and pursued a narrow sectional policy which cul- 
 minated in the Hartford Convention. Shortly before 
 
 xi 
 
Foreword 
 
 that event, on October 21, 1814, William Manning 
 died, in the house where he had always lived. He 
 was survived by his widow, by several married chil- 
 dren who lived elsewhere, and by his unmarried 
 children William, Jephthah, Sarah, Lucretia, Luna, 
 Roxa, Lucinda and Jerusha. They maintained the 
 farm and tavern as before, until 1857, when the last 
 survivor moved away. 1 
 
 And what of the " Key of Libberty " ? We do 
 not claim to have discovered a forgotten Locke or a 
 homespun Montesquieu. Yet apart from its value 
 as a curiosity the extraordinary spelling, the dic- 
 tion, racy of New England soil, the shrewd home- 
 thrusts on current politics the work has merits. 
 William Manning appears to have discovered for 
 himself what many great minds have exposed as a 
 fundamental weakness of democracy the fact 
 that its successful working requires an educated and 
 informed electorate. Unlike most American reform- 
 ers, Manning did not seek salvation in an exten- 
 sion of the franchise, although the Massachusetts of 
 his day lacked even full manhood suffrage. Nor did 
 he wish any radical alteration of political machinery. 
 Instead, he hoped to enlighten the existing electorate, 
 the great mass of which was unable to obtain correct 
 information on current issues. This defect in de- 
 mocracy, it may be said, is as glaring today as it was 
 in 1798. In spite of the cheap daily and weekly 
 press, it is difficult even for an educated person who 
 wants the truth on men and measures, to obtain it. 
 
 The other element of originality in Manning's 
 
 1 Lucinda Manning, who died in 1880, left the estate to trustees, the income 
 to be used for religious instruction. 
 
 Xll 
 
Foreword 
 
 work, is his discovery of the value of association. No 
 other American political writer of the Revolutionary 
 generation seems to have apprehended this truth as 
 a general principle, although leaders like Samuel 
 Adams devised political machinery for definite ends. 
 As Manning shrewdly observed, the upper classes of 
 the community, the merchants, lawyers, ministers 
 and physicians, all had their associations, through 
 which they obtained favorable legislation and a 
 friendly press. To prevent these small classes per- 
 verting the Republic to their selfish purposes, Man- 
 ning would establish a nation-wide association of 
 the " Many," the farmers and laborers. 
 
 Unknown to Manning, the crude foundations of 
 American trade unionism were being laid at Phila- 
 delphia at the time he wrote. But American trade 
 unionism has always been divided within itself, and 
 pursued economic rather than political ends. Man- 
 ning's aim is nearer that of the British Labour Party, 
 or of the Non-partisan League, than of the American 
 Federation of Labor. His proposal, looking as it 
 does to an eventual world-wide association, is a 
 lonely American whisper of Karl Marx's cry, " Work- 
 ers of the World, Unite! " 
 
 In his remarks on current political issues, Manning 
 is rather narrow and partisan, repeating for the most 
 part the views of his favorite paper, the Chronicle. 
 His mind was evidently of a type not yet wholly ex- 
 tinct in rural New England; misinformed and 
 prejudiced on particular issues, but shrewd and 
 penetrating on general principles. 
 
 Had the " Key of Libberty," in a more polished 
 
 Xlll 
 
Foreword 
 
 form, been found among the papers of some well- 
 known statesman of Manning's generation, it would 
 long since have been printed and commented upon. 
 Had an Adams been the author, there would prob- 
 ably have been a book written about it. Yet the 
 appearance of so much political acumen and origi- 
 nality in so obscure a source, would be more aston- 
 ishing today than at the time Manning lived. The 
 New England farmer of that period was politically 
 minded. The talent for analysis and discussion, 
 inherited from his Calvinist ancestors, had been 
 turned to political objects by the contest with Eng- 
 land, and the need for new political institutions. 
 Some years ago, in a study of the adoption of the 
 Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, 1 I probed into 
 strata of political thought that had never gotten into 
 print; and found that the ordinary voters had de- 
 tected most of the flaws that time and experience 
 discovered in the Constitution of Massachusetts. 
 Professor Harold J. Laski of the University of 
 London, an authority on the history of political 
 theory, agreed with me that with the sole exception 
 of England of the Commonwealth, no community in 
 modern history has been so fecund in political 
 thought, as America in the revolutionary generation. 
 Manning belonged to this generation; and his 
 " Key " is proof that in 1797 its mental energy had 
 not yet been spent. Not improbably there were 
 hundreds of New England farmers who were Man- 
 ning's equal in political theory. We are fortunate, 
 indeed, to discover one who put his thoughts on paper. 
 
 1 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, L., 353. 
 
 XIV 
 
Foreword 
 
 A few years ago the Old Manse, where generations 
 of Mannings lived and labored, was saved from de- 
 struction, restored with loving care, and made the 
 headquarters of the Manning Family Association, 
 which is composed of descendants of the first Man- 
 ning who emigrated from England to the colonies 
 in 1633. To this association, and more particularly 
 to its secretary, Mr. Warren H. Manning, who lives 
 on the old farm at North Billerica, is due the credit 
 for preserving the family archives, among which the 
 '* Key of Libberty " was discovered. By publishing 
 this forgotten manuscript, the Association is help- 
 ing to maintain or to revive, if you will the 
 great American tradition of liberty. 
 
 S. E. MORISON. 
 HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 
 February, 1922. 
 
 xv 
 
The Key of Libberty. 
 
 Shewing the Causes why a free government has 
 
 Always Failed, and a Remidy against it. 
 
 Adresed to the Republicans, Farmers, 
 
 Mecanicks, &? Labourers 
 In the United States of Amarica 
 
 By a Labourer. 
 Finished February the 20th, 1798. 
 
 The Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FOREWORD v 
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CAUSES THAT RUEN 
 
 REPUBLICKS 5 
 
 A Description of Mankind & Nesecaty of Government 7 
 
 A Description of a Free Government 10 
 
 Shews how the Few and Many Differ in Their Interests 14 
 
 The Meens by which the Few Destroy it . . . . 19 
 
 Elustrating Remarks 24 
 
 On the Society of Cincinaty 24 
 
 On Speculators, Stock & Land Jobers 25 
 
 On Doctors; On Marchents 26 
 
 On Literary Men & Coledges 27 
 
 On Ministers of the Gospel 28 
 
 On Juditial & Executive Officers 30 
 
 On Lawyors 33 
 
 On Laming 35 
 
 On Knowledge 36 
 
 On Elections 37 
 
 On the Constitution of Massachusetts 38 
 
 On the Federal Constitution 39 
 
 On the Adoption of the British Trety 44 
 
The Contents Continued 
 
 PAGE 
 
 On the Treaty & War with France 47 
 
 On the Pitsburge Insurrection; On the Indian War . 51 
 
 On the Shais Afaire in Masachusets 52 
 
 On the Funding Sistim . . 55 
 
 On the Name of Woshingtone 56 
 
 On Partyes 57 
 
 THE REMIDY 60 
 
 Knowledge nesecary for a Freeman 61 
 
 The Meens of Obtaining it 61 
 
 Vindicating Remarkes 62 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE LABOURING SOCIETY .... 67 
 
 THE COVENANT 71 
 
THE KEY OF LIBBERTY 
 
NOTE 
 
 The essay has not been " drafted over & corrected by some 
 Larned Republican," as William Manning suggested; we have 
 thought best " on the hole " to print it verbatim et literatim^ 
 from one of the three manuscript copies, in the author's hand. 
 No liberties have been taken with the author's spelling and 
 grammar, but as he began almost every other word with a capital 
 letter, we have reduced many of these to lower case, in order to 
 make a more legible page. Some of the longer paragraphs have 
 been divided, and punctuation has frequently been supplied in 
 order to bring out the meaning. 
 
THE KEY OF LIBBERTY 
 
 all the Republicans i Farmers, Mecan- 
 cksj and Labourers In Amarica your 
 Canded attention is Requested to the Senti- 
 ments of a Labourer 
 
 Introduction 
 
 Learning 5? Knowledg is assential to the preservation 
 of Libberty s? unless we have more of it amongue us we 
 Cannot Seporte our Libertyes Long. 
 
 I am not a Man of Laming my selfe for I neaver 
 had the advantage of six months schooling in my 
 life. I am no traveler for I neaver was 50 Miles 
 from whare I was born in no direction, & I am no 
 grate reader of antiant history for I always followed 
 hard labour for a living. But I always thought it 
 My duty to search into & see for my selfe in all 
 maters that consansed me as a member of society, 
 & when the war began betwen Brittan & Amarica 
 I was in the prime of Life & highly taken up with 
 Liberty & a free Government. I See almost the 
 first blood that was shed in Concord fite & scores of 
 men dead, dying & wounded in the Cause of Lib- 
 berty, which caused serious sencations in my mind. 
 
 But I beleived then & still believ it is a good cause 
 which we aught to defend to the very last, & I have 
 bin a Constant Reader of publick Newspapers & 
 closely attended to men & measures ever sence, 
 
 [3] 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 through the war, through the operation of paper 
 money, framing Constitutions, makeing & con- 
 structing Laws, & seeing what selfish & contracted 
 ideayes of interests would influence the best picked 
 men & bodyes of men. 
 
 I have often thought it was imposable ever to 
 seport a free Government, but firmly believing it to 
 be the best sort & the ondly one approved oflf by 
 heaven it was my unweryed study & prayers to the 
 almighty for many years to find out the real cause 
 & a remidy and I have for many years bin satisfyed 
 in my own mind what the causes are & what would in 
 a grate measure prove a reamidy provided it was 
 carried into efect. 
 
 But I had no thoughts of publishing my sentiments 
 on it untill the adoption of the Brittish trety 1 in the 
 manner it has bin done. But seeing the unweryed 
 pains & the unjustifyable masures taken by large 
 numbers of all ordirs of men who git a living without 
 labour in Elections & many other things to ingure 
 the interests of the Labourer & deprive us of the 
 priviledges of a free government, I came to a resolu- 
 tion (although I have nither larning nor lasure for 
 the purpose) to improve on my Constitutional Right 
 & give you my sentiments on what the causes are & 
 a remidy. 
 
 In doing which I must study bravity throughout 
 the hole & but just touch on many things on which 
 voloms mite be written, but hope I shall do it so as 
 to be understood, and as I have no room for compli- 
 ments & shall often make observations on sundry 
 
 1 Jay's treaty of 1794 with great Britain, frequently mentioned hereinafter. 
 
 [4] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 ordirs of men & their conduct, I beg leave once for 
 all to observe that I am far from thinking any ordirs 
 of men who live with out Labour are intirely needless 
 or that they are all chargable with blame. But on 
 the conterary I firmly believe that their is a large 
 number in all ordirs who are true frinds to Libberty 
 & that it is from them that Libberty always has & 
 allways will receive its prinsaple seport. But I 
 also beleive that a large majority of them are actu- 
 ated by very different prinsaples. Also as I am not 
 furnished with Documents & other Information 
 that would be usefull I may represent Some things 
 different from what they really are & so desire that 
 they may be taken ondly as my Opinnion & belived 
 no further than they appear Evident. 
 
 A General Description of the Causes that 
 Ruen Republicks 
 
 The Causes that I shall Indeavor to Make appear 
 are a Conceived Difference of Interests Betwen those 
 that Labour for a Living & those that git a Living with- 
 out Bodily Labour. 
 
 This is no new docterin if I may judge from the 
 many scraps of history I have Seen of antiant Re- 
 publicks. The best information I ever had on this 
 Subject & the gratest colection of historical accounts 
 was by a writer who wrote ten long numbers in the 
 Chronicle in December [17]85 & January 86 stileing 
 himselfe a Free Republican. 
 
 In his 4 first numbers he recites a long & blody 
 history about the fudes & animosityes, contentions 
 
 [5] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 & blood sheds that hapned in the antiant Republicks 
 of Athens, Greesh & Roome & many other nations, 
 betwen the few & Many, the Perthiens, 1 & Plebians, 
 Rich & poor, Dettor & Creditor, &cc. In his 5th 
 No. he draws the dividing line betwen the few & 
 the many as they apply to us in Amarica amongue 
 the few he reacons the marchent, phesition the law- 
 yer & divine and all in the literary walkes of Life, 
 the Juditial & Executive oficers & all the rich who 
 could live with out bodily labour, so that the hole 
 controvercy was betwen those that labour for a 
 living & those who do not. Then tryes to prove 
 that unless these few can have wait or influence in 
 the Government according to their property & high 
 stations in life it can not be free. Then goes on to 
 shew how a government aught to be ballenced and 
 proposes grate alterations in the Constitution of 
 Masachusets better to acomidate the Interests of 
 the few --wishes to have the Senet represent the 
 hole property of the State & the Representitives the 
 persons ondly, & the Govenour to have as compleet 
 a nagative on both as the King of Ingland has on 
 the Parlement, which he thinks cant be so long as 
 the people vote annully for Govenour & Senetors. 
 
 These Sentiments being urged in such a masterly 
 manner just before the adoption of the federal 
 Constitution, & have bin so closely followed by the 
 administration eversence, (although they are directly 
 contrary to the prinsaples of a free government & no 
 dout written to destroy it) yet if they ware repub- 
 lished they would be of servis to the peopel in many 
 
 1 This is probably as near as the author could get to " patricians." 
 
 [6] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 things & convince the author (if he is yet alive) 
 that his unweried resarches for his ten numbers ware 
 not intirely lost any more than the doings of Josephs 
 Brethering ware when they sold him into Egypt, & 
 they would prove the truth of the reasons I give & 
 the need of the Remidy I shall describe. 
 
 I have often Looked over those ten Nos. & Searched 
 other historyes to satisfy my selfe as to the truth of 
 his asertions, but am very far from thinking as he 
 doth --that the destruction of free governments 
 arises from the Licentiousness of the Many or their 
 Representatives, but on the conterary shall indever 
 to prove that their destruction always arises from 
 the ungoverned dispositions & Combinations of the 
 few, & the ignorance of the Many. Which I Shall 
 attempt in the following Manner: - 
 
 1. Give a Description of Mankind & nesecaty of 
 Government. 21y. Give a Description of a free 
 government & its administration. 31y Shew how 
 the few & Many differ in interests under its oppera- 
 tion. 41y Shew how & by what meens the few 
 destroy it. Sly Elustrate by sundry remarkes 
 on the opperations of these causes in our governments. 
 
 1. A Description of Mankind & Nesecaty 
 of government 
 
 To search into & know our selves is of the gratest 
 importance, & the want of it is the cause of the 
 gratest evils suffered in Society. If we knew what 
 alterations might be made in our Minds & Conduct 
 by alterations in our Edication, age, Circumstances, 
 
 [7] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 & Conditions in this Life, we should be vastly less 
 sensorious on others for their conduct, & more 
 cautious of of trusting them when their was no need 
 of it. 
 
 Men are born & grow up in this world with a vast 
 veriaty of capacityes, strength & abilityes both of 
 Body & Mind, & have strongly implanted within 
 them numerous pashons & lusts continually urging 
 them to fraud violence & acts of injustis toards one 
 another. He has implanted in him a sence of Right 
 & Rong, so that if he would always follow the dic- 
 tates of Contiance & consider the advantages of 
 Society & mutual assistance he would need no other 
 Law or Government. Yet as he is sentanced by the 
 just decrees of heaven to hard Labour for a Living 
 in this world, & has so strongly implanted in him a 
 desire of Selfe Seporte, Selfe Defence, Selfe Love, 
 Selfe Conceit, Selfe Importance, & Selfe agrandise- 
 ment, that it Ingroses all his care and attention so 
 that he can see nothing beyond Selfe for Selfe 
 (as once described by a Divine) is like an object 
 plased before the eye that hinders the sight of every 
 thing beyond. 
 
 This Selfishness may be deserned in all persons, 
 let their conditions in life be what they will, & it 
 opperates so pourfully as to disqualify them from 
 judgeing impartially in their own cause, & a persons 
 being raised to stations of high Honour & trust 
 doth not clear him from this selfeishness. But on 
 the conterary it is a solemn truth that the higher a 
 Man is raised in stations of honour power and trust 
 the greater are his temtations to do rong & gratify 
 
 [81 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 those selfeish prinsaples. Give a man honour & he 
 wants more. Give him power & he wants more. 
 Give him money & he wants more. In short he is 
 neaver easy, but the more he has the more he wants. 
 
 The most comprehensive description of Man I 
 ever saw was by a writer as folio we th: --Viz 
 Man is a being made up of Selfe Love seeking his 
 own hapiness to the misery of all around him, who 
 would Damne a world to save him selfe from tem- 
 poral or other punishment, & he who denyes this to 
 be his real carrictor is ignorant of him selfe, or else 
 is more than a man. 
 
 Many persons ware they to hear such a description 
 of themselves would cry out as Haziel did, * what, is 
 thy Servent a Dog ' &CC. 1 But if they should once 
 git into the circumstances he was in, & have the 
 power & temtations he had, they would prove them- 
 selves to be just such a Doge as he did. Haman is 
 annother striking evidence of the depravity & pride 
 of the human hart, for though he could boste of the 
 highest preferments in the gratest kingdom on Earth, 
 the poor Divel exclamed * all this avails me nothing 
 so long as Mordica refuses to bow the knee.' 
 
 From this disposition of Man or the depravity of 
 the human hart, arises not ondly the advantage but 
 the absolute nesecaty of Sivil government without 
 it Mankind would be continually at war on their own 
 spetia, stealing roving fighting with & killing one 
 another. This all Nations on Earth have bin con- 
 vinced off, and have established it in some form or 
 other, & their soul aime in doing it is their safty & 
 
 1 2 Kings viii, 13. 
 
 [9] 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 hapyness. But for want of wisdom or some plan to 
 curb the ambition & govern those to hoom they gave 
 power, they have often bin brought to suffer as 
 Much under their governments as they would with- 
 out any and it still remains uncartain wheather 
 any such plan can be found out or not. 
 
 2dly. A Description of a free Government 
 & its administration. 
 
 Their are many sorts of governments, or rather 
 names by which they are distinguished, Such as 
 Dispotick, Monorcal, & Aristrocraticle. In these 
 the power to govern is in the hands of one or a few 
 to govern as they pleas, consiquently they are mas- 
 ters & not servents so, that the government is not free. 
 
 Their are also sundry names by which free govern- 
 ments are described, such as Democratical, Repub- 
 lican, Elective, all which I take to be senominus 
 tarmes, or that all those nations who ever adopted 
 them aimed at nearly the same thing, viz. to be 
 governed by known Laws in which the hole nation 
 had a Voice in making, by a full and fair Represen- 
 tation, & in which all the officers in every department 
 of Government are (or aught to be) servents & not 
 masters. Grate panes has bin taken & the wisdom 
 of many Nations & States have bin put to the racke, 
 to delineate the rights of the peopel & powers of 
 government & forme Constitutions so that the bles- 
 ings of government might be injoyed without being 
 oppresed by them, and it is thought that it has bin 
 much improved upon sence the Amarican Revolution. 
 
 f 101 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 The Constitution of Masachusets, although it 
 doth not meterially differ from all the other Consti- 
 tutions on the Continant, yet as it was later made & 
 the Convention who formed it had the advantage of 
 the others, took more time & fixed a Bill of Rights 
 to it, it is generally thought both in Urope & Amarica 
 to be the compleatest modle of a free government of 
 any existing. France has immitated it in her Con- 
 stitution & the Federal Constitution by a fair con- 
 struction both not meterially differ from it. There- 
 fore I shall describe a free government prinsaply 
 from it. 
 
 In the Bill of Rights it declares all men to be free 
 & equel as to their rights in & under the government, 
 as in Art. 1, & that all power lays in the peopel & 
 all the officers of government are their servents & 
 accountable to them, as in Art. 5. No man, Cor- 
 poration, or Body of Men however high by birth 
 riches or honour have no right by them any more 
 than the poorest man in the government, as in Art. 
 6 & 7th. The people have the Sole right to reforme, 
 alter & totally change their Constitution or Adminis- 
 tration of government when they pleas, as In Art. 
 7th, And have a right to meet and deliberate on all 
 matters of government at such times & in such 
 places & bodyes as they pleas, provided they do it 
 in a peasable Manner, as In Art. 19th. The people 
 have a right to know & convey to each other their 
 sentiments & circumstances through the medium of 
 the press, as in Art. 16th. 
 
 A free Government is a government of laws made 
 by the free consent of a majority of the hole people, 
 
 [in 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 But as it is Impossable for a hole Nation to meet to 
 gether & deliberate, So all their laws Must be made 
 judged & executed by men chosen & appointed for 
 that purpose. And the Duty of all those men are 
 to act & do in makeing judging & executing those 
 laws just as all the people would, provided they ware 
 all together & equilly knew what was for their in- 
 terest. If any of said officers or any who are chosen 
 to elect or appoint any person into office doth any 
 thing conterary to the true interests of the majority 
 of the peopel, he violates his trust and aught to be 
 punnished for it. 
 
 In makeing laws in a free Government their cannot 
 be two much pains or caution used to have them 
 plain to be understood & not two numerous to this 
 end. And as all bodyes of men are liable to the same 
 rashness & mistakes as individuals are, it is nesecary 
 that the Lejeslature Should be divided into two 
 Branches, a Senet & house of Representitives (not 
 that they have seperate interests or objects to act 
 from as some pretend), but that they may gard 
 against each others rashness & mistakes & to see 
 that the laws are made plane & not too numerous. 
 And as a further gard against unnesesary laws the 
 Executive may have a partial negative on the pasing 
 of laws, & in dificult cases the opinnion of the Judges 
 may be called in (not that the Juditial or Executive 
 powers aught to have a Voice in saying wheather a 
 law is nesecary or not), but wheather it can be 
 carryed in to execution or not. For their is nothing 
 more assential in a free Government than to keep the 
 Legeslative, Juditial & Executive powers intirely 
 
 [121 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 separate, as in Art. 30, not only seperate Departments 
 but intirely different sets of men (for reasons which 
 I shall hereafter give). 
 
 The Bisness & Duty of the Juditial power is to 
 hear & exammine all complaints & breaches of the 
 law & pass sentance (not on the law wheather it is 
 good or not) but wheather it is broken or not & in 
 every respect according to law. 
 
 The Bisness & Duty of the Executive power is to 
 execute all the laws according to the ordirs & pre- 
 cepts he receivs from the other Powers without any 
 referrance to their being right or rohg in his opinnon 
 for that would be lejeslateing & judgeing two. 
 
 The soul end of Government is the protection of 
 Life, Liberty & property. The poor mans shilling 
 aught to be as much the care of government as the 
 rich mans pound. Every person in the Nation 
 aught to be compeled to do justis & have it dun to 
 him promptly & without delay. All taxes for the 
 seport of government aught to be layed equilly 
 according to the property each person purseses & 
 the advantages he receives from it, and the peopel 
 aught to seport just so many persons in office as is 
 absolutely nesecary and no more, & pay them just 
 so much saleryes as will command sefitiant abilityes, 
 & no more. 
 
 Also in free Government the most sacred regard 
 must be paid to the Constitutions established by the 
 peopel to gard their Rights. No law aught or can 
 be made or constructed conterary to the true meen- 
 ing thereof without becomeing a nullity & those 
 becomeing gilty who does it, let them be either 
 
 [13] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 Lejeslative Juditial or Executive officers or bodyes 
 of men. And no parte of the Constitution can be 
 constructed conterary to the declared Rights of the 
 people. 
 
 In short a free Government is one In which all the 
 laws are made judged & executed according to the 
 will & interest of a majority of the hole peopel and 
 not by the craft cunning & arts of the few. To seport 
 such a government it is absolutly nesecary to have 
 a larger degree or better meens of knowledge amongue 
 the peopel than we now have, which I shall indevor 
 to make appear before I close. 
 
 3dly. Shews how the Few & Many Differ 
 in their Interests in its operation. 
 
 In the swet of thy face shall thou git thy bread 
 untill thou return to the ground, is the erivarsable 
 sentance of Heaven on Man for his rebellion. To be 
 sentanced to hard Labour dureing life is very un- 
 plesent to humane Nature. Their is a grate avartion 
 to it purceivable in all men --yet it is absolutly 
 nesecary that a large majority of the world should 
 labour, or we could not subsist. For Labour is the 
 soul parrant of all property -- the land yealdeth 
 nothing without it, & their is no food, clothing, 
 shelter, vessel, or any nesecary of life but what costs 
 Labour & is generally esteemed valuable according 
 to the Labour it costs. Therefore no person can 
 posess property without labouring, unless he git it 
 by force or craft, fraud or fortun out of the earnings 
 of others. 
 
 [14] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 But from the grate veriety of capacietyes strength 
 & abilityes of men, their always was, & always will 
 be, a very unequel distribution of property in the 
 world. Many are so rich that they can live without 
 Labour. Also the marchent, phisition, lawyer & 
 divine, the philosipher and school master, the Judi- 
 tial & Executive Officers, & many others who could 
 honestly git a living without bodily labours. As all 
 these professions require a considerable expence of 
 time & property to qualify themselves therefor, & 
 as no person after this qualifying himselfe & making 
 a pick on a profession by which he meens to live, can 
 desire to have it dishonourable or unproductive, so 
 all these professions naturally unite in their skems 
 to make their callings as honourable & lucrative as 
 possable. Also as ease & rest from Labour are 
 reaconed amongue the gratest pleasurs of Life, pur- 
 sued by all with the gratest avidity & when attained 
 at once creates a sense of superiority & as pride & 
 ostentation are natural to the humain harte, these 
 ordirs of men generally asotiate together and look 
 down with two much contempt on those that labour. 
 
 On the other hand the Labourer being contious 
 that it is Labour that seports the hole, & that the 
 more there is that live without Labour & the higher 
 they live or the grater their salleryes & fees are, so 
 much the harder he must work, or the shorter he 
 must live, this makes the Labourer watch the other 
 with a jelous eye & often has reason to complain of 
 real impositions. But before I proseed to shew how 
 the few & many differ in money matters I will give 
 a short description of what Money is. 
 
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The Key of Libberty 
 
 Money is not property of itself but ondly the 
 Representitive of property. Silver & Gold is not so 
 valuable as Iron & Steel for real use, but receives all 
 its value from the use that is made of it as a medium 
 of trade. Money is simply this a thing of lighter 
 carrage than property that has an established value 
 set upon it eyther by law or general Consent, For 
 Instance, if a doller or a peace of paper, or a chip, 
 would pass throughout a nation or the world for a 
 burshel of corne or any other property to the value 
 of said corne, then it would be the representitive of 
 so much property. 
 
 Also Money is a thing that will go where it will 
 fetch the most as naturally as water runs down hill, 
 for the posessor will give it whare it will fetch the 
 most. Also when their is an addition to the quan- 
 tity or an extrodinary use of barter & credit in com- 
 merce the prices of property will rise. On the other 
 hand if Credit is ruened & the medium made scarser 
 the price of all kinds of property will fall in propor- 
 tion. Here lays the grate shuffel betwen the few & 
 many. As the interests & incomes of the few lays 
 cheifly in money at interest, rents, salaryes, & fees 
 that are fixed on the nominal value of money, they 
 are interested in haveing mony scarse & the price of 
 labour & produce as low as possable. For instance 
 if the prices of labour & produce should fall one halfe 
 if would be just the same to the few as if their rents 
 fees & salleryes ware doubled, all which they would 
 git out of the many. Besides the fall of Labour and 
 produce & scarsety of money always brings the many 
 Into destress & compels them into a state of de- 
 
 [16] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 pendance on the few for favours & assistance in a 
 thousand ways. 
 
 On the other hand, if the many could rais the 
 price of Labour, &c one halfe & have the mony cir- 
 culate freely they could pay their debts, eat & drink 
 & injoy the good of their labour with out being 
 dependant on the few for assistance. Also high 
 prices opperates as a bounty on industry & economy 
 - an industrious & prudent man may presently lay 
 up something against time of need when prices are 
 high but if a person leaves off worke & lives high 
 when prices are up his mony or property will last 
 him but little while. 
 
 But the gratest dainger the Many are under in 
 these money matters are from the Juditial & Execu- 
 tive Officers, espatssilly so as their incomes for a 
 living are almost holly gotten from the follys and 
 destresse of the Many, & they being governed by 
 the same selfish prinsaples as other men are. They 
 are the Most interested in the destreses of the many 
 of any in the Nation, the scarser money is & the 
 grater the destreses of the many are, the better for 
 them. It not ondly doubles the nominal sume of 
 their pay, but it doubles & thribbles their bisness, 
 & the many are obliged to come to them cap in hand 
 & beg for mercy patience & forbearance. 
 
 This gratifyes both their pride & covetousness, 
 when on the other hand when money is plenty & 
 prices high they have little or nothing to do. This is 
 the Reason why they aught to be kept intirely from 
 the Legislative Body & unless their can be wisdom 
 anough in the Peopel to keep the three Departments 
 
 [171 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 of Government intirely seperate a free Government 
 cant be seported. For in all these conceived differ- 
 enc of interests, It is the bisness and duty of the 
 Lejeslative Body to determine what is Justis or 
 what is Right & Rong, & the duty of every individual 
 in the nation to regulate his conduct according to 
 their detisions. And if the Many ware always fully 
 & fairly represented in the Lejeslative Body they 
 neaver would be oppresed or find fault so as to trouble 
 the Government, but would always be zelous to 
 seport it. 
 
 The Reasons why a free government has always 
 failed is from the unreasonable demands & desires 
 of the few. They cant bare to be on a leavel with 
 their fellow cretures, or submit to the determinations 
 of a Lejeslature whare (as they call it) the Swinish 
 Multitude 1 are fairly represented, but sicken at the 
 eydea, & are ever hankering & striving after Monerca 
 or Aristocracy whare the people have nothing to do 
 in maters of government but to seport the few in 
 luxery & idleness. 
 
 For these & many other reasons a large majority 
 of those that live without Labour are ever opposed 
 to the prinsaples & operation of a free Government, 
 & though the hole of them do not amount to one 
 eighth part of the people, yet by their combinations, 
 arts & skeems have always made out to destroy it 
 soner or later, which I shall indeavour to prove by 
 considering 
 
 1 " Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of 
 a swinish multitude." Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1791). 
 
 18] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 4thly The Meens by which the few 
 Destroy it. 
 
 This I will indever to do by making a few remarks 
 on the doings of the few on the eight following things, 
 Viz. 1 1 on the Ignorance of the Many 2d on the 
 Combinations of the few. 3 on Laming 4 on 
 knowledge 5t on Constitutions 6tly on Money 
 or the Medium --7th on Elections Sthly on wars. 
 
 /. On the Ignorance of the Many 
 
 Solomon said, Train up a Child in the way he 
 should go, & when he is old he will not depart from 
 it. And it is as true that if a child is trained up in 
 the way he should not go, when he is old he will 
 keep to it. It is the universal custom & practis of 
 monorcal & dispotick government to train up their 
 subjects as much in ignorance as they can in matters 
 of government, & to teach them to reverance & 
 worship grate men in office, & to take for truth what 
 ever they say without examining for themselves. 
 
 Consiquently when ever Revolutions are brought 
 about & free governments established it is by the 
 influence of a few leeding men, who after they have 
 obtained their object (like other men) can neaver 
 receiv compensation & honours anough from the 
 people for their services, & the people being brought 
 up from their uths to reverance & respect such men 
 they go on old ways & neglect to search & see for 
 themselves & take care of their own interists. Also 
 being naturally very fond of being flattered, they 
 redily hear to measures proposed by grate men who 
 
 [19] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 they are convinced have done them good services. 
 This is the prinsaple ground on which the few work 
 to Destroy a free government. 
 
 2. On the Combinations of the Few. 
 
 In a free government the few, finding their scheems 
 & vues of interest borne down by the many, to gain 
 the power they cant constitutionally obtain, Always 
 indevour to git it by cunning & corruption, contious 
 at the same time that userpation when once began 
 the safty of the userper consists ondly in grasping 
 the hole. To efect this no cost nor pains is spared, 
 but they first unite their plans & scheems by asotia- 
 tions, conventions, & coraspondances with each 
 other. The Marchents asotiate by themselves, the 
 Phitisians by themselves, The Ministers by them- 
 selves, the Juditial & Executive Officers are by their 
 professions often called together & know each others 
 minds, & all letirary men & the over grown rich, 
 that can live without labouring, can spare time for 
 consultation. All being bound together by common 
 interest, which is the stronges bond of union, join in 
 their secret corraspondance to counter act the in- 
 terests of the many & pick their pockets, which is 
 efected ondly for want of the meens of knowledg 
 amongue them. 
 
 3. On Laming. 
 
 Laming is of the gratest importance to the seport 
 of a free government, & to prevent this the few are 
 always crying up the advantages of costly collages, 
 national acadimyes & grammer schooles, in ordir to 
 
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The Key of Libber ty 
 
 make places for men to live without work, & so 
 strengthen their party. But are always opposed to 
 cheep schools & woman schools, the ondly or prin- 
 saple means by which laming is spred amongue the 
 Many. 
 
 4. On Knowledge. 
 
 The gratest & best meens of obtaining the knowl- 
 edge nesecary for a free man to have, is by the 
 Liberty of the Press, or publick Newspapers. To 
 counter act and destroy this priviledge the few spare 
 no pains to make them as costly as posable & to 
 contradict everything in them that favours the 
 interests of the Many, puting Darkness for Light, 
 & Light for Darkness, falsehood for truth, & truth 
 for falsehood, &cc. 
 
 5. On Constitutions &? Laws. 
 
 The few have a grate advantage over the Many in 
 forming & constructing Constitutions & Laws, & are 
 highly interested in haveing them numerous, in- 
 tricate & as inexplicit as possable. By this they 
 take to themselves the right of giving them such 
 explanations as suits their interests, & make places 
 for numerous lawyers & Juditial & Executive officers, 
 which ads grately to their strength by numbers. 
 
 6. On the Medium of Trade. 
 
 Money or a Medium of trade is of such a nature 
 that their are innumerable ways by which the few 
 can manage it to the injury of the Many, such as 
 erecting banks & useing parshality in remitances, 
 
 [211 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 ruining publick & private credit, & stoping the circu- 
 lation of money &cc; by which they can bring the 
 Many into destress & set them to quariling & sewing 
 one another, & so make a plenty of bisness for their 
 party. 
 
 7. On Elections. 
 
 This is a grate object with the few, to carry their 
 points in elections, this being the ondly meens by 
 which the Many can seporte their Rights. Consi- 
 quently the few all unite in extoling the goodness & 
 abilityes of their candidates, & of runing down & 
 blackgarding the candidates on the other side. Also 
 they will appeal to the electors in a veriaty of ways. 
 Some they will flatter by promises of favours, such 
 as being customers to them, or helping them out of 
 debt, or other difficultyes; or help them to a good 
 bargain, or treet them, or trust them, or lend them 
 money, or even give them a little money, if they will 
 vote for such & such a man. Others they will 
 thretten, * if you dont vote for such & such a man/ 
 or ' if you do ' &cc, ' you shall pay me what you owe 
 me/ or ' I will sew you ' 'I will turne you out of 
 my house ' or * off of my farm ' 'I wont be your 
 customer any longer ' 'I will wager a ginna that 
 you dare not vote for such a man if you do you 
 shall have a bloody nose for it/ Or they will hire 
 some body to communicate these things to the 
 electors. Also they will hinder votes from being 
 counted or returned right, & often will themselves 
 (or hire others to) put in two or three votes apeace. 
 All these things have bin practised & may be again. 
 
 [22] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 8. On Wars. 
 
 So apt are Mankind to be rought up into a pashon 
 by false reports & slight ofences that it is an easy 
 matter for cunning men to set peasable familyes & 
 frinds at variance, whare their is no grounds for it on 
 either side. In the same manner Towns States & 
 Nations may be set at war against each other, & I 
 have no dout but that it has bin the case many a 
 time, that thousands & Millions have bin slain on 
 both sides equilly thinking that they have bin fight- 
 ing in a good cause, when the hole matters in dispute 
 would have mad little or no dispute between honest 
 neighbours. Nor do I despute but that it has bin 
 agreed upon by Rulers of Nations to make war on 
 each other, ondly that they might have a pretense to 
 raise & keep up standing armies to deprive their own 
 subjects of their Rights & Libbertyes. This is a 
 grate object with the few, & when they attain it, It 
 ads so much to their number, strength & importance 
 that they have but little more to fear, and the Many 
 have but little reason to expect that they can main- 
 tain their Libertyes Long. 
 
 In the foregoing remarks I have but just touched 
 on the prinsaple meens by which the few destroy 
 free governments. 
 
 I Shall now proseed 
 
 23 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 Sthly To Elustrate them by Sundry Remarks 
 
 on the Operation of these Causes in our own 
 
 Governments. 
 
 I Shall not here atempt to say any thing on the 
 want of knowledge amongue the peopel, seposeing 
 that it will fully oppear by the remarks I shall make 
 on the combinations & doings of the few. 
 
 Remarks on the Society of Cincinaty 1 
 
 Toards the close of the late War the Officers of the 
 Continental army ware considerably borne upon, by 
 not being paid according to contract, & many of 
 them thought they ware not notifed anough in the 
 fraiming the State Constitutions. At the close of 
 the War they formed themselves into a Sociaty by 
 the name of Cincinaty. This Institution caused 
 grate alarm & many pointed publications in news- 
 papers, considering it as a daingerous Body. 
 
 This uneasiness caused them at their first General 
 Meeting to make very assential alterations in their 
 Constitution, which they published together with a 
 very plausible Circular Letter, indevouring in it to 
 make the world believ that they neaver would nor 
 could prove any harme. But from that time their 
 was a continual noys & wrighting from one end of 
 the Continent to the other against the badness of 
 publick credit, & the weekness & insefitiancy of the 
 Federal Government. 2 
 
 When the Shais affair happened in Masachusets it 
 
 1 The author here repeats charges against the Society of the Cincinnati which/ 
 
 were generally believed by plain folk at that time, but without foundation iif~~ 
 fact. 
 
 2 The Articles of Confederation, not the Federal Constitution. 
 
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The Key of Libberty 
 
 was heded by one of this ordir & many of the rest of 
 them put under pay to surpress it. 
 
 Immediately after a Convention was caled to 
 amend the federal Government, when a hard tusel 
 was made chiefly by this ordir to establish a monor- 
 cal government in ordir to have their president made 
 King. But though they failed in that yet by some 
 meens or other they have rigeled themselves into 
 almost all the posts of profit & honour in the federal 
 Government. And from this ordir also origenated 
 the funding sistim, by which those that labour for a 
 living will have millions and millions of dollors to 
 pay, for which the publick neaver riceived nor the 
 posessor naver gave one single farthing for. Also 
 from this ordir originated the Indian war which has 
 cost us thousands of lives & six millions of dollors 
 without the least advantage to us. From this ordir 
 also originated the breach of the federal Constitution 
 & a breach of the French Aliance by makeing the 
 Brittish Treety, which has brought us almost to the 
 brink of ruen. 
 
 When I charge these things to Cincinaty I do not 
 meen that they did them alone but as planners & 
 leaders in them, for to them also may be charged the 
 organisation of allmost all the ordirs of the few who 
 follow after & seport them in their diabolical ma- 
 sures which I will remark upon seperately as 
 followeth. 
 
 On- Speculators, Stock 6? Land Jobers 
 
 These ordirs of jnen ar made up prinsaply of Cin- 
 cinaty, & by the funding sistim have risen like a black 
 
 [251 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 cloud over the Continant, & have gained welth like 
 the Nabobs of the East. They have got the prin- 
 saple command of our funds, & not ondly swindle 
 honest individuals out of their property, but by their 
 bribery & corruption have grate influence in our 
 elections, & agitate our publick Counsels. By their 
 land speculations & bribery they shook the govern- 
 ment of Jorgia almost to its foundation & agitated 
 the federal Government so that one of the Senetors 
 chellenged one of the Representitives for a Duel, 
 right in the midst of one of the most important de- 
 bates they Ever was or ever will be ingaged in. 1 
 
 On Doctors 
 
 The Doctors have established their Meditial So- 
 cietyes 2 & have both their State & County Meetings, 
 by which they have so nearly enielated Quacary of 
 all kinds, that a poor man cant git so grate cures of 
 them now for a ginna, as he could 50 years ago of an 
 old Squaw for halfe a pint of Rhum. The bisness of 
 a Midwife could be purformed 50 years ago for halfe 
 a doller & now it costs a poor man 5 hole ones. 
 
 On Marchents 
 
 The Marchents have organised themselves & have 
 their Chambers of Commerce & corraspondance from 
 one end of the Continent to the other. Although 
 they are in many respects a grate advantage to the 
 
 iThe period 1791-96 was one of intense speculation, especially in land. See 
 Edward Channing, History of the United States, III, chapter iv. The author 
 here refers to the notorious Yazoo land frauds in Georgia, in which several wealthy 
 New Englanders were involved. Senator Gunn of Georgia challenged Abraham 
 Baldwin, representative from that state, to a duel in 1796, after a dispute over the 
 Yazoo affair 
 
 2 The Massachusetts Medical Society was incorporated in 1781. 
 
 [26] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 Many, by makeing vent for our produce & furnishing 
 us with nesecaryes & conveniences from other cun- 
 tryes, yet if we should be drawn into a war by their 
 adventures we should pay very dear for all the ad- 
 vantages we receive from them. Besides, forron 
 trade not well regulated is the most dangerous to the 
 interest of the Many of any thing we have to fear. 
 Our money may be all carryed off from amongue us 
 for that which will do us no good. 
 
 Foron manufactoryes may be cheepest at first cost 
 but not in the long run. Marchents may grow rich 
 on the ruens of our mecanicks & manufactoryes, & 
 bring us into as bad a condition as we ware in 1786, 
 for they look ondly to their own interests. It is 
 evident that a large parte of the marchents were in 
 favour of the Brittish treaty & fond of carrying on a 
 trade with that sinking Nation, which trade leaves a 
 ballence against Amarica of more than 4 million of 
 dollers annually, which will ruen ous in a few years 
 unless it is Stopt. 1 
 
 On Literary Men & Co ledges 
 
 The true prinsaples of Republicanisam & a free 
 government may be taught to the Uths in some of 
 our Coleges & Acadimies for aught I know, but it is 
 evident that other political prinsaples are admited in 
 many of them, or we should not be stunded with 
 Exhibitions in favour of Monocyes & runing down 
 
 1 The merchants of this period, bankers and ship-owners as well as traders, 
 were largely Federalist and pro-British in politics. See the editor's Maritime 
 History of Massachusetts, chapter xii. That England was a " sinking nation " 
 and that American trade with her would sink America, were fixed opinions among 
 Jeffersonian Republicans. 
 
 27 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 Republican prinsaples as we often be. 1 One thing 
 is prity cartain, that the Schollers are taught to keep 
 up the dignity of their professions, for if we apply 
 for a preacher or a School Master, we are told the 
 price is So Much, & they cant go under, for it is 
 agreed upon & they shall be disgrased if they take 
 less, let their abilityes for the servis be what they 
 will. 
 
 On Ministers of the Gospel. 
 
 The Ministers of the Congeragational ordir & 
 others for aught I know have formed them selves in 
 to Societyes & many of them are incorporated & 
 have their State & County Meetings which may be 
 of grate service or absolutly nesecary in their Sacred 
 functions. But it is no brech of Charity to sepose 
 that they have some political purposes in them, nor 
 do I deny their right to meddle in politicks. But as 
 they receive their seport for teaching piety, religion, 
 morality & things relitive to another world, & their 
 hearers being not all of them capable of desarning 
 betwen divinity & politicks, they aught when ever 
 they teach obediance to the sivil Laws or reprove for 
 disobediance &cc., to teach & explain to them the 
 true prinsaples of our free government as Established 
 in our Constitutions. Insted of preaching about & 
 praying for Officers of government as infalible 
 beings, or so perfect that we aught to submit to & 
 prais them for all they do, (when in fact they are all 
 our servents & at all times accountable to the 
 peopel) they aught to teach their hearers to be watch- 
 
 1 Harvard College, then the only college in Massachusetts save the small and 
 struggling Williams, was thoroughly Federalist, and some of the commencement 
 orations gave great offense to Jeffersonians. 
 
 [28] 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 full of men in power, & to gard their own Rights & 
 priviledges, with a jelous eye, & teach them how to 
 do it in a Constitutional way. 
 
 If their prinsaples forbid this they had better let 
 politicks intirely alone, for if they use their grate 
 influence to mislead & prejidice their hearers against 
 the true prinsaples of a free government (as Many of 
 them have done of late) by praising our Executive 
 for making the British treety, & in short by praising 
 Monorcal & Dispotick government, & running down 
 & blackgarding Republican prinsaples & the French 
 Nation, they are in fact acting a treesonable & rebel- 
 lious part & doing all in their power to destroy the 
 Government, & their hearers aught not to attend on 
 such teachings. 1 It is this conduct in Ministers that 
 is the prinsaple reason for the neglect of publick 
 worship & Religious Institutions that is so much 
 complained of by the Ministers now. 
 
 Ministers have it more in their power to turn the 
 minds of their hearers Right or Rong than any other 
 ordir of men, & it has bin the general practis of all 
 arbitrary governments to prostitute Religion to 
 political purposes, & make a handle of this ordir of 
 men to misleed, flatter, & drive the people, by the 
 terrors of the other world into submission to their 
 political scheems & interests. Consiquently they 
 aught to be watched & garded against above all 
 other ordirs, espatially when they preach politicks. 
 
 These thrusts at the clergy were not undeserved. The New England parsons, 
 horrified at the excesses of the French Revolution, had for the most part espoused 
 the cause of England and of the Federal party with great vigor. Political ser- 
 mons were the order of the day. 
 
 29 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 On Juditial and Executive Officers 
 
 Free governments are commonly destroyed by a 
 /combination of the Juditial & Executive powers in 
 favour of the interests of the few, & they do it by 
 construing & explaining away the true sence & meen- 
 ing of the constitutions and laws, & so raise them- 
 selves above the Lejeslative power, & take the hole 
 Administration of Government into their own hands, 
 & manige it according to their own wills. The Free 
 Republican in N 9 saith that in many of the antiant 
 Republicks the Juditial power became the mear 
 instruments of tirony, & proposes lawyers as a 
 nesecary ordir in a free government, to curbe the 
 arbitrary will of the Judge. But that appears to me 
 like seting the Cat to watch the Creem pot. 
 
 Whoever takes a vue of the conduct & doings of 
 our Juditial & Executive powers, both State & 
 federal, for a few years back, must purceive a groing 
 uneasiness & avertion in them to be bound down to 
 the strict sence & meening of our Constitution & 
 Laws. It is this Conduct in them that is the prin- 
 saple cause of all our differences with France, & our 
 contentions amongue ourselves. It would take Vol- 
 ums to define them, therefore I shall not attempt 
 here to describe but one, & that is but of little consi- 
 quence. The one I shall attempt to describe is the 
 call of General Hull on the Divition of Melitia under 
 his Command, including the hole of the County of 
 Middlesex, to dress themselves in Uniform & appear 
 at Concord for a Military Exhibition. 
 
 The Laws nor Constitution of Masachusets doth 
 
 [301 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 not impower any officer, not even the Govenour, to 
 call the Militia together in larger bodyes than Rigi- 
 ments, nor them, whare it causes more than 20 miles 
 travel for any Company (acepting on invation or 
 insurrections), & their is no law to oblige any Soldier 
 to git a Uniforme. 
 
 This call at first came out ondly as a request, & 
 but few if any thought that they ware obliged to 
 comply with it. But the ambition of the Rigimental 
 officers was soon stired up to a high degree to see 
 which would appear the most respectable with their 
 Rigiments & Companies. All the arts of flatery 
 ware used to obtain their ends. But seeing they 
 ware likely to fail in them, they soon had recorse to 
 thretning & falsehoods, declaring that their was 
 ordirs & laws to oblige them to dress & go, & although 
 the laws demand ondly 10 shillings for non appear- 
 ance at Musters, hundreds of them ware made to 
 believ that they must pay 4 times that sume if they 
 disobayed. Consiquently thousands attended the 
 Muster. Some went 30 or forty miles which took 
 them 4 or 5 Days, & ware at 10 or 12 dollors Cost for 
 a Uniforme. Some that did not go paid their fines 
 rather than dispute their officers. Uthers being 
 contious that their was no law for such things, stood 
 tryal before the Justises, & some of them got cleared, 
 But far the gratest part had both fine & cost to pay. 
 (Thus much Juditial & Executive officers can do 
 without any assistance from the Lejeslature). It is 
 Seposed that a fair Cost at Least, in uniforming, time 
 & Money 30 thousand dollors, without any advantage 
 to the publick or satisfaction to those that planed it. 
 
 [31] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 For it pleased the Almighty to send a tremendious 
 Storme upon them at the very moment they ware 
 about to Exhibit, which spilte all their fun. But as 
 it was all done without or in opposition to law, the 
 authors of it have grate reason to be thankful that 
 it did not rain fire & brimstone upon them insted of 
 cold water. 1 
 
 I should not have swelled my remark with this 
 narative, did I not believe that their was more in- 
 tended than pretended by it. The pretence was to 
 revive a Military Spirit & make us appear more 
 formidable to other Nations, which appears to me to 
 have a contery efect. For wheir a Nation pretends 
 to a well organised & efetient government as we do, 
 for individuels to start up in such a manner to do the 
 bisness of government proved its weekness, for it is 
 the duty of all in a free government to wait the 
 
 1 I have found no reference to this amusing incident in contemporary news- 
 papers, but the main facts that Manning mentions are confirmed by the files of 
 the Adjutant-General's office in the State House. At this period the militia 
 included all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 45, who with certain 
 exceptions were required to turn out and drill once a year, providing their own 
 equipment. After the Revolution the militia declined, but in 1797, anticipating 
 a war with France, the Federalists endeavored to revive efficiency and morale. 
 On June 13, 1797, the Adjutant-General issued a general order, in which he re- 
 marks that " the addition of a Uniform has been found to give great Animation 
 to the Exercises of the Field. Tho' this depends upon the Ambition and 
 Voluntary Efforts of Individuals, the Commander in Chief is highly gratified to 
 Learn that numerous Corps in the Militia have supplied themselves in this par- 
 ticular in the most respectable manner. He returns them his sincere thanks for 
 their Laudable exertions and hopes they will not relax, in Pursuing an Object, 
 which adds so greatly to their Martial Appearance." On August 10, 1797, he 
 orders that " Major General Hull of the Third Division, having represented to 
 the Commander in Chief that the Several Regiments and Corps composing his 
 division, have made Extraordinary exertions in procuring a Uniform, and prepar- 
 ing themselves for a Public Review," is to assemble his division " in some con- 
 venient Place, for the purpose of being Reviewed." Finally, in a general order 
 of September 28, 1797, the Adjutant-General congratulates the citizens of Middle- 
 sex County on their uniform appearance at Concord, and regrets that an " Equi- 
 noctial Storm " forced them to give up the manoeuvres. " The Patiance and 
 Fortitude discover'd by both Officers and Men, under their Disappointment did 
 them much Honour; and the Emulation and Ardour of the Several Corps under 
 such Discouragements, evinced that tho' thoroughly wet, their Military Fire was 
 not Extinguished." The leader of this fiasco was that unfortunate General Wil- 
 liam Hull who surrendered Detroit in 1812. 
 
 [32] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 detarmination of the Lejeslative power & punc- 
 tually obey them. Then they would be general 
 formidable. 
 
 I believe that this fus was more intended to sound 
 the peopel, & try the strength of the Executive & 
 Juditial powers over the Lejeslatives, & to set the 
 Militia to murmering so as to form a pretext for a 
 standing army, for if it should once become a law to 
 dress in such costly uniforms & attend such musters 
 it would be cheeper to seport an Army than submit 
 to it. I am Led to these conclutions of it, by the 
 exetreordinary precautions & consultations that 
 ware taken in giving out the ordirs, & they being 
 such as may be fairly constructed into either positive 
 ordirs or ondly requests. So that their is no way for 
 a delinquent to defend his cause but by impeaching 
 the Justis that gave judgment for his fine, & if we 
 may judge from the trials of Hunt & Blunt, a single 
 person had better submit to pay a hundred times 
 ten shillings than seek for a remidy in that way. 
 Consiquently the Executive & Juditial powers when 
 united may take just such sums from individuals & 
 execute just such military enterprises as they pleas. 
 
 On Lawyers 
 
 The Lawyers have established their Bar Meetings 
 & become the most formidable & influential ordir of 
 any in the Government, & though they are nither 
 Juditial nor Executive officers, but a kind of Mule 
 ordir, ingendered by, & many times overawing both. 
 This ordir of men git their living intirely from the 
 quarrils follyes disputes & destreses of the Many & 
 
 [331 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 the intricacy of our Laws, & it is from the arts & 
 doings of these men, that the Juditial & Executive 
 officers are furnished with the chief of their bisness 
 & imploy. Consiquently they are bound together 
 by the strongest bonds of union. 
 
 Many have bin the complantes against the Law- 
 yers in years bak & of the intricacy of our laws, & 
 much time spent & pains taken by the Lejeslature to 
 remidy the evil. But all to little or nor purpose, & 
 the soul reason is because we send these fee officers 
 as Representitives to make our laws. Unless the 
 peopel can be brought to calculate more upon the 
 opporation of these little selfish prinsaples on man- 
 kind, & purge the Lejeslatures from fee officers, 
 they cannot be governed by laws very long. 
 
 Thus we see all the ordirs of the few compleetly 
 organised, & they have of late got so monstrusly 
 crouded with numbers that it is imposable for them 
 all to git a living by their professions, & being in 
 want of imploy they are aiding in all the plans & 
 scheems of Cincinaty to influence the Many. 
 
 I would not be understood to be against the aso- 
 tiations of any ordirs of men, for to hinder it would 
 hinder their improvements in their professions, & 
 hinder them from being servisable to the Many. 
 Their need ondly one Society more being established, 
 or proper meens of information amongue the Many 
 to hinder their being daingerous in politicks. In 
 ordir to promote those meens of information among 
 the peopel their has bin many sociatyes established, 
 by Constitutial, Democracticle & other names, made 
 up of men of Republican prinsaples & grate abilityes 
 
 [341 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 who did all in their power to inliten the peopel into 
 their true Interests. But for want of the Society I 
 have mentioned, or a proper chanel of conveying 
 their sentiments to the peopel, & by the joint exer- 
 tions of a majority of the other ordirs I have men- 
 tioned to hinder their usefulness & pregidis the minds 
 of the peopel against them, have brought them almost 
 into disuse. But I have no dout but that they will 
 revive again when they think they can do any good. 
 But before I proseed to describe the Society or meens 
 of Knowlidge I have mentioned I must make sundry 
 Remarks on what has bin & provibly may be done 
 by the joint exertion of the few to inslave the Many, 
 unless they meet with a check. 
 
 On Laming 
 
 No person who is a frind to Libberty will be against 
 a large expence in Laming, but it aught to be pro- 
 moted in the cheepest & best manner possable, which 
 in my oppinnion would be: --For every State to 
 maintain as many Coledges in conveniant parts 
 thereof as would be attended upon to give the highest 
 Degrees of Laming, & for every County to keep as 
 many Grammer Schools or Acadimies in conveniant 
 parts thereof as would be attended too by both sects 
 summer & winter, & no student or scholer to pay 
 anything for tuition, and for the County Schooles 
 to pay a purticuler attention to teaching the Inglish 
 langueg & qualifying its scholors to teach & govern 
 Common Schools for little children. 
 
 And for Every Town to be obliged to keep as 
 Much as six weeks of wrighting school in the winter 
 
 [351 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 & twelve weeks of a woman school in the summer in 
 every parte of the town. So that none should be 
 thronged with two many schollers, nor none have 
 too far to travel, & every person be obliged to send 
 his children to school, for the publick are as much 
 interested in the Laming of one child as an other. 
 
 If this method of Laming was established we should 
 soone have a plenty of school masters & mistrises as 
 cheep as we could hire other labour, & Labour & 
 Laming would be conected together & lesen the 
 number of those that live without work. Also we 
 should have a plenty of men to fill the highest offices 
 of State for less than halfe we now give. But insted 
 of this mode of Laming the few are always striving 
 to oblige us to maintain grait men with grate sal- 
 leryes & to maintain Grammer Schools in every 
 town to teach our Children a b c all which is ondly 
 to give imploy to gentlemens sons & make places for 
 men to live without worke. For their is no more 
 need of a mans haveing a knowledge of all the lan- 
 guages to teach a Child to read write & cifer than 
 their is for a farmer to have the marinors art to hold 
 plow. 1 
 
 On Knowlidge 
 
 The prinsaple knowledge nesecary for a free man 
 to have is obtained by the Libberty of the press or 
 publick newspapers. But this kind of knowledge is 
 almost ruened of late by the doings of the few. But 
 a few years ago we could have the hole news by one 
 paper in a week, & could put some dependance on 
 
 1 These criticisms were well taken. The common school system established 
 by the colonists was shamefully neglected after the Revolution, while many 
 academies for classical education were being founded. 
 
 [361 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 what was printed. But the few, being closely com- 
 bined & determined to destroy our Government, 
 find it nesecary to destroy the Liberty of the press 
 first. To efect this they imploy no printers, but 
 those that will adhear strictly to their vuies & inter- 
 ests, & use all the arts & retrick hell can invent to 
 blackgard the Republican printers & all they print, 
 & strive to make the peopel believe falsehood for 
 truts & truts for falsehood, & as they have money 
 & lasure they have their papers every day in the 
 week. Consiquently the Republican printers double 
 their papers, so that a labouring man must now be 
 at the expence of three or four dollers anually & read 
 & studdy halfe his time, & then be at a loss to know 
 what is true & what not thus the few have almost 
 ruened the Libberty of the press. 1 
 
 On Elections 
 
 The hole interest of the Many lays in giting and 
 keeping fully & fairly represented in the several 
 branches of government, & this depends intirely in 
 the Electors hayeing a knoledge of the carictor, 
 abilityes & politicle sentiments of those they vote 
 for, & it is imposible for all to have a personal knol- 
 edge of them. In large towns their are some in- 
 stances wheir the electors do not all know those 
 they vote for in them. The State Senetors are more 
 unknown, the govenour & federal Represent! tives 
 
 1 The first daily paper in Boston, the Federal Gazette, was founded in January, 
 1798, but it lasted less than three months. There was no other daily until 1813. 
 At the time Manning wrote, there were four semi-weeklies and one weekly pub- 
 lished in Boston; two semi-weeklies and eight weeklies elsewhere in the state. 
 All were four-page sheets, containing mostly foreign news, and violently partisan 
 in politics. All but two or three were Federalist. The annual subscription was 
 generally three dollars. 
 
 [371 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 are furder off still, & the Electors of president, being 
 chosen ondly for a single Act & not accountable for 
 his Conduct in that all Important Act. I have often 
 wondered that under the present meens of knowl- 
 edge, and in opposition to the numerous arts of 
 flatery, deception thretnings & falsehoods practised 
 by the few in elections, that the Many git so fully 
 represented as they do, & that their are so many 
 Representitives that expose themselves to the abuse 
 of the few by Seporting our caws, when we seport 
 them so poorly, & all the hopes I have of seporting 
 our Libbertyes is by a reformation or improvement 
 in this thing. 
 
 In our State Elections for federal Representitives 
 & Electors, although their was the gratest pains takin 
 on both sides to colect all the votes they could yet 
 their was not halfe the peopel brought to act on 
 either side & I will appeal to the returns for evidence. 
 For according to the best calculations I can make 
 their is not short of six thousand Voters in every 
 district for a federal Represent! tive, & in many of 
 them they ware chosen with less than 500 Votes, & 
 those colected chiefly by the influence of the few 
 & their dependant, & from inconsiderate young men. 
 The men of Consideration being at a loss who to 
 vote for, chose not to act rather than be moritfyed 
 after wards by finding that they had voted for those 
 who did more hurt than good. 
 
 On the Constitution of Masachusets 
 
 The Constitution of Masachuset plainly declares 
 in Bill of Rights Art. 30th that the Lejeslative, 
 
 [381 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 Juditial, & Executive powers shall be kept intirely 
 seperate from each other, but from misconstruction 
 & inatention or want of knowlidge amongue the 
 peopel of the little interests that govern Mankind, 
 they have in general if not always had a majority of 
 the General Court Made up of Juditial & Executive 
 Officers, untill our laws have become so numerous 
 & intricate that it often costs a man a hundred dol- 
 lers to git a shilling worth of Justis, & misses of it 
 at last. 
 
 It also declares in Chapter 4th that the Deligates 
 to Congress shall be chosen by Joint Ballet of the 
 Senet & house of Represent! tives in one rome as- 
 sembled. 1 But it has long sence bin broken over, 
 by the Senet clameing a negative on the house in the 
 choice of those important officers, & when ever their 
 has bin a choice ever sence they have disagred & 
 some times it has lasted several days. But by the 
 arts practised in elections the Senet always carry 
 the day. If it had not bin for this breach of our 
 Constitution we should not bin disgrased with two 
 Senetors voting for the treety, nor would it ever 
 have taken place. 
 
 On the federal Constitution 
 
 The Federal Constitution by a fair construction is 
 a good one prinsapaly, but I have no dout but that 
 the Convention who made it intended to destroy our 
 free governments by it, or they neaver would have 
 spent 4 Months in making such an inexpliset thing. 
 As one said at the time of its adoption, it is made like 
 
 J This chapter became obsolete when the Federal Constitution was adopted. 
 
 [39] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 a Fiddle, with but few Strings, but so that the ruling 
 Majority could play any tune upon it they pleased. 
 The trety-making power which has caused so much 
 rout was as well garded as any part of it, but as it 
 has bin exercised, destroys the hole foundation & 
 end the peopel had in makeing of it. For the soul 
 end the peopel had in vue was to establish a govern- 
 ment for national purposes ondly, reserving local 
 consarns to the State governments, & in ordir that it 
 mite be Represent! tive, declared that they would not 
 be represented with less than one from every thirty 
 or forty thousand inhabitants, in said government. 
 
 The letter of the Constitution as it respects the 
 trety stands thus. In part It Sect It it saith All 
 Lejeslative powers herein granted shall be vested in 
 a Congress of the United States, which shall consist 
 of a Senet & a house of Representitives, & it declares 
 that all powers & soverantyes not expresly given to 
 Congress, is reserved to the State Governments, & 
 all the express powers given to Congress are enumer- 
 ated in part It Sect 8th without the least excepttion 
 for any legeslative athority aniwheir else. In part 
 2d Sect 2d their is a solitary claws that Saith the 
 president shall have power by & with the advice & 
 consent of the Senit to make tretyes but dont say 
 what kind of tretyes and their are saveral sorts of 
 them. 1 Their are tretyes of peace with foron na- 
 tions, & with rebels & insurgents, that need no law 
 to carry them into execution. These he may make 
 with advice &cc but not without, for this clause must 
 
 1 Jay's treaty precipitated a debate on the treaty making power in the federal 
 government, which surpassed in length and vehemence even the debates on the 
 treaty of Versailles. 
 
 [401 
 
The Key of Libber -ty 
 
 be considered as a restriction rather than an inlarge- 
 ment of his power. For the true & ondly meening 
 of the letter of the Constitution & of the peopel that 
 excepted of it, was that all tretyes & dealings with 
 forron nations should be done by the supreem 
 authority of the Nation, which is the Legeslative 
 power, & negotiated through the president, in the 
 same manner as the president corrasponds with 
 foron Ministers through his sicratary. 
 
 Much has bin said about treatys being the Supreem 
 Law of the Land, which if admited would finely in- 
 large the power of the Juditial & innable them by 
 constructions to destroy all our laws. But I cant 
 se a word of it in the Constitution. In part 6th 
 their is a clause that plainly declares that the Federal 
 Constitution, the federal laws, & all treetys shall be 
 supreem to the state laws & constitutions, but noth- 
 ing determining which of the three is supreem, 
 excepting that it appears reasonable to take them as 
 they stand, viz: --It the Constitution. 2dly, the 
 Laws. 3dly, tretys. 
 
 By such an explanation the Judge is bound by his 
 oath not to give judgment against either of them in 
 favour of a treaty. If he doth he pergures himselfe. 
 I would not be understoot that I think tretyes are 
 less binding than laws when they are constitutially 
 made, for it is the duty of the federal Legeslature to 
 see that the Constitution, tretyes and laws do not 
 clash with each other, & as their objects of legeslation 
 are few they are to blame if their is any clash. 
 Consiquently the bisness of the Juditial & Executive 
 powers must be clear & plane. 
 
 [411 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 This is a fair construction of the letter of the Con- 
 stitution & the sence & meening of the peopel when 
 they excepted it. As to the mening of the Conven- 
 tion that formed it, it has nothing to do in the ques- 
 tion, & it was an insult on the peopel to keep their 
 debates secret at that time, & a grater one to site us 
 to them now for an explanation, as Worshington 
 did to the house of Representitives. The peopel 
 excepted of it as it is, & no other way. So that the 
 plane truth is that the British trety 1 was unconsti- 
 tutionly & treasonably made & those that made it 
 aught to have bin impeached & brought to tryal 
 immediately, before ah here is the rub. The 
 house of Representitives can impeach by a bare 
 majority, but the Senet must try all impeachments, 
 & two thirds of them agreed before they can punnish, 
 so that in this case one halfe the trators must agree 
 to condemn themselves before any of them can be 
 condemned. Blush Amaricans, blush at your bosted 
 Constitution. This proves the dainger of chuseing 
 Senetors or men into office for 6 or even four years, 
 for it was known & published in Ingland long before 
 the treaty arived in Amarica that 20 of our Senetors 
 had agreed to sign the treaty before they see it. 
 
 The conduct of the president in his apointing men 
 to office & turning out those that are faithfull to 
 
 1 Jay's treaty widened the breach between the Hamiltonian Federalists and 
 the Jeffersonian Republicans. Although humiliating to the United States in 
 some of its terms, the treaty was probably as favorable as could have been obtained 
 at that time, and it certainly prevented a war with Great Britain. But it required 
 America to observe a benevolent neutrality toward that power in her war with 
 France. Washington lost much of his popularity in urging ratification, which 
 was done by a bare two-thirds majority of the Senate. In 1796 an attempt of 
 the House of Representatives to repudiate the treaty by refusing the necessary 
 supplies was narrowly averted, and the election of 1796 turned largely on this 
 issue. Manning's description of the merchants' efforts to have the treaty ratified 
 and respected is not exaggerated. 
 
 [42] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 their trust, as he did in turning out Mr. Munro 1 & 
 others, proves the dainger & folly of trusting men 
 with such grate powers, that are elected so sildom 
 into office. When the patriotick State of Virginia 
 moved for amendments to the Constitution so as to 
 have the time shortned for the election of Senetors, 
 & another tribunal for the tryol of impeachments, 
 I thought & am still confident that their might be 
 corts erected in each district to try impeachments 
 & remove from & appoint to all offices within the 
 same, & every man be well paid for his services with 
 less cost than we are now at. For it appears very 
 unreasonable & absurd for a hole Legeslature or any 
 branch of it to be detained on a tryal of impeachment 
 & witnesses to travel 500 Miles when the hole issew 
 is ondly the loss of a pety office, when their is hun- 
 dreds stand ready to fill them that can sarve the 
 publick better than those removed. Some may say 
 that if such corts ware erected it would discorage 
 men from undertaking in offices, but I dare say that 
 if the duties of officers ware made as plain as they 
 might be by the Legeslature & a single blunder in an 
 officer was made Death, their would be anough of 
 defitient abilityes that would undertake for halfe 
 the pay some of them receiv now. But these 
 alterations never will take place without better 
 meens of knowledge amongue the peopel. 
 
 1 James Monroe, later President of the United States, was replaced as Ameri- 
 can minister to the French Republic, by someone more sympathetic with Presi- 
 dent Washington's policy of neutrality. The Republicans considered him a 
 martyr to British influence. 
 
 43 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 On the Adoption of the British trety 
 
 A Short Revue of the Combined Doings of the 
 few at the adoption of the British trety will Show 
 the Importance of which they vued it to their 
 interests. 
 
 When the Monster came furst into vue, it was 
 reprobated from one end of the Continant to the 
 other. Scarsely one dare say a single word in favour 
 of it. But as it wase an instrument that but few of 
 the common peopel could comprehend, the petitions 
 against it ware chiefly from the seeport towns, & 
 although they ware almost unanimous & couched in 
 humble tarmes, yet the presidend signed it & pro- 
 clamed it the Supreem Law of the Land. Hence 
 arose a grate question, whether it was binding or 
 not, & how we could get rid of it. Grate dependanc 
 was put on the State Legeslatures for a Remidy, but 
 as it had bin vary prosperous times for the Many for 
 some years, & the few had bin borne upon by the 
 high prices of Labour & produce, & as prosparity 
 is a time of inatention, & Nesecity the Mother of 
 Invention, so the few by close attention in elecions 
 had got a large majority of the State Legeslatures 
 made up of Lawyers & other fee officers favourable 
 to their interests. So that at their first meetings 
 after the trety was published, to our grate surprise 
 the question of undiminished confidence in the 
 president was put & carryed, in almost all the States. 
 
 Then all our hopes lay in the federal house of 
 Representitives. When they met the same question 
 was put but met with a check, & when the question 
 
 [44] 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 or the treety came forward, their was a large number 
 of the most powerfull Representitives advocated it, 
 thundering out treason & rebellion against all those 
 that dare say anithing against it, declaring that it 
 was constitutionly made. But to the immortal 
 honour of the other side, after near 20 Days warm 
 debate, they declared to the conterary by nearly two 
 to one. And hear the Monster must have dyed for 
 want of seplyes, had it not bin for the most treason- 
 able arts & doings of the few. But finding their 
 carrictors if not their lives in dainger they racked 
 their inventions to compel the house to grant seplyes 
 for said trety. To efect this, circulor letters wear 
 sent from the senter, to every part of the Continant, 
 with a printed petition & Memorial redy for signing, 
 attended with a colection of the most horred & 
 frightful falsehoods that ever was invented by the 
 Divel. In ordir to fright the peopel to petition the 
 house to grant said Seplyes, representing that the 
 house ware unconstitutianly with holding the se- 
 plyes and trying to userp all the powers of Govern- 
 ment to themselves, & that unless the trety took 
 place Britain would sartainly make war with us, & 
 that their power over us & Vengence upon us would 
 be such that they would rouse off a grate gun 3000 
 miles distance & blow all our brains out if we stept 
 out to piss. 
 
 They also represented the sartainty of a Sivil 
 War in such a manner that we could almost hear the 
 small-armes crackel, & that the house of Represen- 
 titives ware led intirely by one Galatine 1 who was a 
 
 1 Albert Gallatin, then leader of the Republicans in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 [45] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 vagarent foronor & had no interest in this cuntery, 
 & was trying to overset the government, & had bin 
 the soul cause of the Pitsburg Insurrection which 
 had cost the Government more than twelve hundred 
 thousand dollors, & that the ondly choice we had was 
 to follow this odious Galitine, or the virtuous wise & 
 glorious Washington who had led us by the hand for 
 20 years, & had bin the cause of all the blesings 
 & prosparity we had received for eight years back, 
 & that now was the ondly time to chuse which of 
 these carrictors we would follow, & if any person 
 attempted to controdict them in these cursed lyes, 
 their eyes would sparkel, their chins quiver, & they 
 would call them Jacobines, Shasites, 1 Disorganisers 
 & Enemyes to all government. I do not pretend 
 to say that such representations ware every whare so, 
 but they appeared so to me wheir I was, & I thought 
 that if the Swinnish Multitude had a behaved so 
 they would soone have had the adultrious Ham- 
 bleton 2 after them with fifteen thousand men, & 
 though he could find nobody but men peasobly 
 following their honest callings, yet he would have 
 bosted of the expence of twelve hundred thousand 
 dollers & laid all the blame to gabrial or some person 
 as innosent, as he as he did the Pitsburg Insurrection 
 to Mr. Galatine. 
 
 But sad to relate, for want of the meens of knowl- 
 edge amongue the peopel they ware so frited with 
 
 1 The Federalists commonly called the Republican party the " Jacobins," 
 on account of their sympathy with the French Revolution. " Shaysite " meant 
 a follower of Dan Shays in the Rebellion of 1786. 
 
 2 Alexander Hamilton in 1797 was forced by the Republicans into a dilemma 
 which required him to expose his relations with Mrs. Reynolds, rather than suffer 
 the implication of financial irregularities when Secretary of the Treasury. The 
 fifteen thousand men refers to the force which suppressed the whisky or Pittsburg 
 insurrection. 
 
 [46] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 these lyes that they hastned to see which cold git 
 his name to the memorial first, & I asked many 
 afterwards what they signed for, & some would say 
 they singed for the treaty, some for the good of the 
 cuntry, some to keep from war, some for Washington 
 & some to stand by the Constitution, & when I told 
 them the true circumstances of the afair they would 
 like lambs that are dumb after they are sheared, 
 turne away & wish to hear no more about it. But to i 
 returne, these petitions thronging in upon the house 
 from all quarters gave grate corage to the minority 
 & equilly depresed the majority, so that after a long 
 resistance a bare majority was gained & the seplyes 
 granted for the treety. 
 
 Thus by the combinations of the few, with the 
 ordir of Cincinaty at their hed, a seal is put upon 
 the breach of our Constitution & almost innumer- 
 able other disadvantages which may appear by re- 
 marks on the trety its selfe. 
 
 On the British treaty & war with France 
 
 To describe all the bad efects of this treaty would 
 take vollums. I shall therefore ondly mention two 
 or three which have a direct tendancy to deprive ous 
 of a medium & git us in to wars, espatially one with 
 France. 1 
 
 In one of the article of said treaty it is agreed that 
 no higher dutyes shall be laid on articles imported 
 from Britton. Conciquently we shall be thronged 
 
 1 The French government took umbrage at certain clauses in Jay's treaty, 
 severed diplomatic relations with the United States, and began spoliations on 
 American commerce. In this controversy, Jeffersonian Republicans took the 
 French side, placing all blame for the rupture on the treaty and its supporters. 
 
 I 47 ] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 with their manufactoryes, made by their slaves who 
 by the oppression of their government are obliged 
 to worke for a trifel & live upon less, so that they 
 will undersell & destroy all our manifactoryes, carry 
 all our mony away from us, & all our futuer taxes 
 must be colected 'from our lands property & dealings 
 in the cuntry. In Art. 10th it is declared that their 
 shall be no confiscations or seasures on private 
 property belonging to subjects of either nation in 
 case of war betwen the two powers, which the Laws 
 of Natons declares to be just. This Article deprives 
 us of our almost ondly defence against the Nation; 
 for the emence sumes they have in our funds, banks 
 & due from our marchents, together with the advan- 
 tages of our trade to them, would be a grater gard 
 against their makeing war with us than 50 sail of 
 the line. But this is given up so that the property 
 of these creditors who have grate influence in both 
 nations will be safe in case of war, So that they will 
 not be interested to oppose war but will redily join 
 the few in both nations to make war for the sake of 
 keeping standing Armies to inslave the Many. 
 
 But the gratest dainger from this treety is a war 
 with France, & this seems to have bin the design of 
 our Administration ever since the treaty was in 
 contemplation. 
 
 For his grate Bul[l] of Imparshall Nutrality, 1 
 (however agreable it might be to the peopel that did 
 not know our obligations to France) was a direct 
 violation of our trety with them, for by the treaty 
 of Commerse Art 17th& 22d we ware bound to give 
 
 1 Washington's Neutrality Proclamation of April, 1793. 
 
 [48] 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 them, very grate priviledges, & to witholde them 
 from their enemyes in time of war. Also by the 
 trety of Aliance Art 11 we ware bound to garantee 
 their west india Ilunds, a grate part of which they 
 have lost for want of our fulfiling our obligations. 
 Besides, the Cause of France was our own Cause, 
 the Combination against them was against the Rights 
 of Men & free governments all over the world, which 
 we had just bin fighting for ourselves & provibli 
 never should obtained if france had not assisted us, 
 So that we ware solemly bound by treaty, interest 
 and gratitude to be on the side of France, & all 
 these obligations would gladly bin fulfiled by the 
 peopel if the Administration had done their duty. 
 If insted of sending Jay to make the treety they had 
 adopted Mr. Medisons Resolutions, kept on the 
 Imbargo, 1 stopt the importation of Brittish goods, 
 sequestred the British property in our hands, &cc., 
 & let them a made war on us as sone as they dared, 
 it is more than provable (had this bin done) that the 
 war in Urope would bin over before now King 
 Jorg under ground with Lois the 16th Ingland a 
 Republick Amarica in good credit & other ways 
 much better orf than they be now. 
 
 But insted of this and in ordir to hinder the Leges- 
 lature from addopting those just resolutions, the 
 government sent Jay to make the treaty, hypocriti- 
 cally & falsely pretending that he was sent ondly to 
 
 1 In January, 1794, when relations with Great Britain were most critical, 
 James Madison offered a set of resolutions discriminating against British trade in 
 favor of nations that had entered a commercial treaty with the United States. 
 The resolves passed the House, but were lost in the Senate through the influence 
 of Hamilton. Shortly after, an embargo was laid on foreign commerce, but 
 removed in a few months' time at the instance of the French minister, who wished 
 to despatch a fleet of provision ships to France. 
 
 [49] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 demand restitution for our plundered property & 
 the western postes, & charged our minister to tel 
 the same lyes to France. But insted of fulfiling 
 this Declaration by the treety he abandoned the 
 modorn Laws of nations which he was bound to 
 seport both by our trety with france & his own 
 proclamation, & gave Britan libberty to sease their 
 enimyes property on bord our vessels and to sease 
 provisions going to their Enemies ports. Also made 
 many articles controband that ware not so by the 
 Laws of nations. This being done, the french 
 ondly took the advantage of the 2d Art of our trety 
 with them which is that nither party shall grant any 
 purticulor favours to other Natons, Respecting 
 Navigation & Commerce, which shall not immedi- 
 ately become common to the other party, who shall 
 injoy the same favour freely. So that the french 
 are not to blame for takeing our vessels no more 
 than brittan, & by the tretys giving this libberty it 
 is seposed we have lost near halfe the shiping we 
 owned three year ago. This is a true statement of 
 the case that anybody may be convinced of it they 
 will ondly looke on the treetyes & Mr Munroes & 
 Fouchets pamphlets. 1 
 
 Yet we see these combined ordirs, trety-mungers 
 & British agints under Cincinaty who ware so 
 horrably fritned a little while bak for fear of going 
 to war with Brittan, a crying out and are ready to 
 tare their hare off to persuade us to go to war with 
 
 1 James Monroe, A View of the Conduct of the Executive in the Foreign Affairs 
 of the United States, and Joseph Fauchet (French minister at Philadelphia), 
 Sketch of the Present State of our Political Relations with the United States. Both 
 pamphlets appeared in 1797. 
 
 [50] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 France, who alone has concord almost all Urope & 
 now in their full Strength & vigour. But the plane 
 truth is the treaty and those that made it are the 
 causes of all our disgrace & difficulty and it was 
 unconstitutially made, & aught to be for ever dis- 
 ownd and all those that made it, banished from the 
 Continant, & their property confiscated toards 
 paying the dammages. But if this cant be done we 
 had infinitely better give france 2 or 3 million of 
 dollers than go to war with them two years. This 
 may appear by taking a short vue of the little wars 
 & Insurrections we have had sence our Independence. 
 
 On the Pitsburg Insurrection^ 
 
 The Pitsburg Insurrection would neaver have 
 hapned if it had not bin for some unreasonable 
 iritations imposed on the peopel by trying to inforce 
 the Excise Law their before it was put in execution 
 in other parts of the Continant, or if they had known 
 the mindes of the peopel on it in other parts, & after 
 it had breok out might have bin settled for a trifel 
 if fatherly & kinde measures had bin used. But as 
 it was maniged, it cost the Continint, upwards of 
 twelve hundred thousand dollers. 
 
 On the Indian War 
 
 The Indian war was started under the Adminis- 
 tration of Saint Clark 2 with out any just provocation 
 & has cost us upward of six million of dollors & 
 seaveral thousand of lives without any advantage 
 to us. 
 
 1 Generally called the Whisky Rebellion. 
 
 * General Arthur St. Clair. His unfortunate campaign of 1791 is referred to. 
 
 [51] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 On the Shais Affair in Masachusets. 1 
 
 As I lived near wheir this afair hapned, & received 
 some frouns from the acttors on both sides of the 
 actt because I was apposed to their measures, I will 
 indaver to give a more full but impartial account 
 of it. 
 
 At the close of the late war with Brittan, although 
 our paper money had dyed away, & left the peopel 
 grately in debt by it, & a large publick det on us by 
 the war, Yet their was a large quantity of hard mony 
 amongue us sefitient for a Medium. But for want 
 of a proper regulation of trade, & the prices of Labour 
 & produce being higher here than in other cuntryes, 
 our marchents shiped it off lode after load by the 
 hundred thousand dollers together untill their was 
 but little left, & taxes ware extreemly high. Some 
 countyes ware two or three years behind, & the 
 price of Labour & produce falling very fast, creditors 
 calling for old debts that they would not take in 
 paper Money, & those that had money demanding 
 30, 40, & some 50 pursent interest, fee officers de- 
 manding double, thribble & some 4 times so much as 
 the law alowed them, and all of them so crouded with 
 bisness that it was hard to git any done, & property 
 selling every day by execution for less than halfe 
 its value, & jales crouded with debttors ; & the 
 peopel being ignorant that all their help lay in being 
 fully and fairly represented in the Legeslature, 
 many towns neglected to send Representitives in 
 ordir to save the cost, so that the few ondly ware 
 
 1 Shays's Rebellion of 1786. The author's account of this affair is just and 
 accurate, except for the references to the Cincinnati. 
 
 [52] 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 Represented at cort, with an Aristrocratical Bodoin 1 
 as Govenour at their head. 
 
 Under all these circumstances the peopel ware 
 drove to the gratest extremity. Many countyes 
 took to Conventions, Remonstrances & petition to a 
 Corte where they ware not halfe represented. But 
 not being heard to or in some instances charged with 
 saditious metings & intentions some countyes ware 
 so follish as to stop the Corts of Justis by force of 
 armes. This shook the government to its foundation, 
 for insted of fatherly councals & admonitions, the 
 dog of war was let loose upon them & they ware 
 declared in a state of Insurrection & Rebellion. In 
 these circomstances, the few ware all alive for the 
 seporte of Government, & all those who would not 
 be continually crying Government Government 
 or dared to say a word against any of their measures 
 ware called Shasites & Rebels & thretned with 
 prosicutions &cc. But a large majority of the 
 peopel, thinking that their was blame on both sides, 
 or vueing one side as knaves & the other as fooles, 
 it was with grate difficulty & delay before a sefitient 
 number could be raised & sent to surpress them. 
 But it was done with the loss of but few lives. 
 
 This put the peopel in the most zelous sarches 
 after a remidy for their greviences. Thousands & 
 thousands of miles ware rode to consult each other 
 on the afair, & they hapily efected it in a few months. 
 Ondly by useing their priviledges as electors, Bodoin 
 was turned out from being govenour (& in a few 
 years sickened & dyed) & Hancok was almost 
 
 1 James Bowdoin. The popular John Hancock had refused reelection that 
 year, scenting the approaching storm. 1 ! 
 
 [531 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 unanimously Chosen in his rbme. Many of the 
 old Representitives shaired the same fate, & a full 
 Representation sent to Cort from every parte of the 
 State, which soone found out meens to redress the 
 grevances of the peopel, though they ware attended" 
 with the most dificult circumstances. So that 
 everything appeared like the clear & plesent sunshine 
 after a most tremendious storme. This is a streiking 
 demonstration of the advantages of a free elective 
 government, & shews how a peopel may run them- 
 selves into the gratest difficultyes by inatention in 
 elections & retreve their circumstances again by 
 attending theirtoo. 
 
 This Shais afair neaver would have hapned if the 
 peopel had bin posesed of a true knowledge of their 
 Rights, Dutyes, & Interests, or if the government 
 had done their duty according to the oaths they 
 ware under, & if they had have had such a govenour 
 as Hancok at that time. Even after the Corts ware 
 stoped he would have Settled the hole afare for less 
 than a thousand dollers. But as it was maniged it 
 cost the State seaveral hundred thousands dollers, 
 & this is always the way in wars. The few that are 
 imployed to manage them make them as costly as 
 posable & if the mater was sarched to the bottom it 
 would be found that some of the ordir of Cincinaty 
 have bin at the bo torn of all these wars, & got into 
 bisness & grone rich by them & the farmers & La- 
 bourers have yet the cost to pay & So it will be 
 again if we have a war with France. 
 
 54 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 Remarkes on the Funding Sistim 1 
 
 The funding sistim was established by Congress 
 before we ware equilli represented their. Notwith- 
 standing it was alway apposed by a very large num- 
 ber, & after a long & warm debate was agreed to by 
 a majority of ondly one, 40 against 41 & by raking up 
 all the State debts & the old Continental mony from 
 its tomb, mounted it up to near Eighty Millions of 
 Dollers, when according to the opinnion of the other 
 side their was not much more than twenty millions 
 justly due, & we have alreadi paid near forty millions 
 Interest on this debt, the one halfe of which would 
 have eniulated the hole debt. 
 
 Consiquently what we have already paid & have 
 now to pay comes to a hundred million of dollors 
 that the publick never received nor the posessor 
 naver gave a single fathing for, & seposing that 
 their is 4 million of persons belonging to the United 
 States, it is 25 Dollors apeas for each man woman 
 & child to pay, & seposeing their is as many women 
 as men & all of it assesed on the males, makes it 50 
 dollers apeace, which according as taxes are leaveled 
 in Masachusets it would come to near two hundred 
 dollers apeace for common or midling farmers to 
 pay, And this is not halfe the dammages of the 
 funding Sistim, for it is ondly made a pretext for al 
 the imposed dutyes excises & land taxs that are 
 laid upon the peopel, when the real intent is to make 
 places for numerous sets of Officers with high 
 saliryes & fees to colect them & is always so managed 
 
 1 A typical Jeffersonian Republican view of Alexander Hamilton's financial 
 system. 
 
 [55] 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 that it takes the hole Revenue to pay the interest & 
 seport government, & seldome doth that. For it is 
 a declared fact that Warshingtones eight years 
 glorious administration, (while the Cuntry was in 
 as prosperous circumstances as ever they was or 
 ever will be) run us above eight millions of dolers 
 into Debt. 
 
 On the Name of Washington 
 
 Grate use has bin made of this name to deceive 
 the peopel & make them content with the Adminis- 
 tration of Government, & much time has bin spent 
 in our Legeslative bodyes, & sacred pulpets, in 
 the most fulsome & sickish praises & adulations of 
 Warshington for what he aught to have bin bannished 
 for, which has deceived thousands & thousands of 
 honest peopel into their measures, which was prin- 
 saply done, by pretending (in adition to his real 
 services in the war) that he was the cause of all the 
 prosperity we ware under, for all are sonsable that 
 the times have bin veri prosperous to the interests 
 of the Many. But this was not in the Least oweing 
 to the measure of Administration but to the Repub- 
 lican opposition their too, or prinsaply to the three 
 following Causes. 
 
 1. The free circulation of money arose prinsaply 
 from the State banks which ware erected to oppose 
 the parshality of the Continental Bank, which was 
 cheafly imployed in speculation. But this would 
 neavour have raised the price of Labour & produce, 
 that arose from two other causes. One is that all 
 the ordirs of men who live without Labour have got 
 
 [56] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 so monstrously crouded with numbers & made it 
 fashanable to live & dress so high, that Labour & 
 produce is scarse. If all of them would go to work 
 & live as prudently as commonly labourers do, that 
 are not absolutly needed by the publick it would 
 soone make an ods in the price of Labour & produce. 
 But the gratest cause is the Uropean Wars, which 
 has made all kinds of produce in the gratest demand 
 while we had a free trade, which provibly might 
 have continued to this day if the treeaty had not 
 bin made. But as these good times for the Many are 
 in proportion bad for the few, so all the measures of 
 Administration have bin opposed to them & the 
 trety was made on purpose to ingure the rights of 
 the Many & it has already efected it, for the lawyurs 
 & all fee men have had more bisness within two 
 years back than they had for sex years Before. 
 
 On partyes 
 
 Much has bin said of late about partyes & Many 
 are the names by which they are described, such as 
 Monorcal & Republican, Aristrocratical, & Dema- 
 cratical, Royallests, & Jacobines, Toryes & Whigs, 
 the few & the Many, all which names appear to me 
 to describe but two sets of men differing about one 
 & the same thing, or that the causes of their disputes 
 arise from the conceived differance of interests I 
 have bin discribing & the unreasonable desires of the 
 few to tironise over & inslave the many, & the 
 glorious Revolution that has lately taken place in 
 France has alarmed the few to a very high degree. 
 When it first brock out almost all the kings of Urope 
 
 [57] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 openly combined to destroy them or restore Mon- 
 orca & tirony over them again, & so grate was their 
 confidence of suckses that they agreed amongue 
 themselves how to divide the taritory & Spoils. 
 But as the Lord is always on the side of a people 
 contending for their Rights & Libbertyes, he so 
 inspired france with wisdome & corage that they 
 have already cut & tore them to peaces, so that they 
 have all but one bin obliged to make peace with 
 them on their own tarmes. 
 
 But all this has not discoraged that party. They 
 are yet in hopes of efecting by bribery & corruption 
 what they cant do by force of armes, for their com- 
 binations are extended far & wide & are not confined 
 to Urope & Emarica, but are extending to every 
 part of the world. Gog & Magog are gathered 
 together, to destroy the Rights of Man & banish 
 Libberty from the world, & they had nearly efected 
 one of their nefarious plan in france last sumer, 
 ondly by their arts & bribery in Elections, & for 
 want of the meens of knoledge amongue that grate 
 peopel. For by said arts they had got a governing 
 parte of the Legeslature a large parte of the Juditial 
 power & two of the Directory, combined in favour 
 of overthroughing the Republick & seting up Roialty. 1 
 
 And the hand of providance was neaver more 
 evident than in the overthrough of the Royallest on 
 the 4th of September, for although their was abun- 
 
 1 This version of the coup d'etat of the 18 fructidor, year 5 (September 4, 
 1797), was the one generally believed by Jeffersonian Republicans. What ac- 
 tually happened was that the moderate Republicans in France, who desired peace 
 with England and a decent policy toward neutrals, won the elections in the 
 summer of 1797, whereupon the militant triumvirate of the Directory annulled 
 the elections, filled the vacancies with its own partisans, and invented a royalist 
 conspiracy to cover its misdeeds. 
 
 [58] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 dant evidence of the Conspiracy, yet it could not 
 have bin expected that a bare majority of the Direc- 
 tory with all the assistance they could git would 
 have attempted it, from mear prinsaples of virtue 
 & obediance to their oaths to seporte the Constitu- 
 tion espatially when their complicated Constitution 
 had not purticularly proveded for such an afair. 
 But providenc had so ordired it that their lives ware 
 in dainger & they ware compeled to do their duty by 
 selfe preservation & thus the Royallest ware over 
 throne & that Grate Republick not ondly saved but 
 established by it on a stronger foundation than ever 
 they stood before. 
 
 That their is such an extensive combination in 
 favour of Royalty is evident from the grate knoledg 
 & grate calculations that ware made upon it all over 
 Urope & in Amarica long before it took place, for 
 the Royal news papers ware full of hints about it. 
 Also its being published in Ingland that 20 of the 
 Amarican Senetors had agreed to sign the British 
 treety before ever it arived here is another evidence 
 of said combinations, & thousands of others might 
 be mentioned. Therefore I am strongly led to 
 believe, by the grate zeal of our Administration, to 
 send so many ministers to foron Nations & the 
 carictors they send, & the grate opposition made in 
 Congress to granting seplies for that purpose, that 
 they are many of them somewhat ingaged in this 
 combination. I also believe by the grate zeal of 
 these partyes in Amarica, which appears in news- 
 papers & the warm debates in Congress, that one 
 party or tother will soone govern, or their will be a 
 
 [59] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 scrach for it. Therefore conclude that it is high 
 time for the Republicans to Unite as well as the 
 Roiallist. 
 
 Thus haveing indevoured to shew the causes that 
 ruen all free governments and the circumstances we 
 are brought into by them I request your canded 
 atention to what I shall propose as a 
 
 Reamidy Against It 
 
 The ondly Remidy against these evils is by im- 
 proveing our Rights as freemen in elections, nor do 
 we need any other if we ware posesed of knowledge 
 anough to act rationally in them. For as I have 
 before shewed, the duty of a Representitive or any 
 person chosen into office is to act as all his Constitu- 
 tiants would if they ware all present & all knew what 
 was for their own interests. And as men being 
 elected into neavour so high offices, remain men 
 still and are moved by the same prinsaples & passions 
 as other men are, so that the temtation & emolument 
 of 25 thousand dollors a year or any other some & 
 to^be worshiped into the bargain hath ten thousand 
 charme with it, so that the love of office will compel 
 them to aim at pleasing their Constituants. Consi- 
 quently if elections are closely attended to by all the 
 peopel & they look well ever after their Representi- 
 tives, their is no dainger but that they will do their 
 duty. Therefore the ondly Remidi is knowledge. 
 
 I Shall therefore It Describe the knowledge 
 nesecary for a freeman. 2dly Describe the Meens by 
 which it may be obtained. 3dly Vindicate the plan 
 by Sundri Remarkes. 
 
 [60] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 1. Knowledge nesecary for a freeman 
 
 The Knowledge nesecary for every freeman to 
 have is A Knowledge of Mankind A Knowledge 
 of the differend interest that influence all ordirs of 
 men A Knowledge of the prinsaples of the gov- 
 ernment & Constitution he lives under A Knowl- 
 edge of all the laws that immediately consarnes his 
 conduct & interests A knowledge that when laws 
 are once constitutially made, they must be obayed, 
 let them be neaver so rong in his mind, and that 
 their is no remidy for greevences but by petitioning 
 the authority that made them & useing his Right in 
 Elections A knowledge of the true prinsaples, 
 carictor & abilityes of all those he votes for into any 
 kind of office A knowledge of the existing senti- 
 ments wishes & circumstances, of all those of his 
 interest in the town, county, State or Nation to 
 which he belongs, so that he may unite in the choice 
 of the ablest & best men to take care of & defend 
 their interests. Also Unite in petitioning for redress 
 of grevances. Also a knowledge of the moste in- 
 teresting debates in the Legeslature & the side his 
 own Representitive takes in the desition. He aught 
 to have all this knowledge independant of any 
 ordirs of men, or individuals who may be interested 
 to deceive or misleed him. 
 
 2. The Means by Which it May be obtained 
 
 As this knowledge cant be obtained without the 
 expence of a continued sereies of publications that 
 can be red with confidence as to their truth, and as 
 
 [61] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 newspaper knowledg is ruened by the few, & as the 
 ordir of Cincinaty have purformed such wonders by 
 their Asociations, I propose a Sociaty of Labourers 
 to be formed as near after the ordir of Cincinati as 
 the largeness of their numbers will admit of. 
 
 The Society to be composed of all the Republicans 
 & Labourers in the United States who will be at the 
 expense of obtaining the above described Knowledg. 
 
 And in ordir to be clearly understood how this 
 Society may be formed, I have draughted a Con- 
 stitution as nearly after the Constitution of Cincinaty 
 as the circomstances will admit of, to which I refer 
 the readers, to which he may find at the close of this 
 adress. 
 
 Remarkes In Vindication of the Society 
 
 As all new things make a grate stir at first, so it 
 may be expected this will, & many objicttions raised 
 against it. The ordirs of the few may denounce it 
 as daingerous to Government. But if all the powers 
 of Hell should rise up & assume the wisdom & grate- 
 ness of Angels & try to overthrow it they aught not 
 to be heard to nor minded, for it is perfectly Consti- 
 tutianal, & what all the ordirs of the few have prac- 
 tised! upon (as I have before shewen) & their opposi- 
 tion to it arises holly from selfeish vues. Therefore 
 I will not say much on this objection. 
 
 But the trouble & expence of it may be a more 
 serious one. Therefore I request your attention to 
 the following statements & calculations. As to such 
 a Magazein, it is not like three or four newspapers in 
 a week that are good for nothing ondly when they 
 
 [621 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 are fresh from the press. But this will answer the 
 same purpose if red anitime in the Month. Consi- 
 quently one will do for a hole Neighbourhood, and a 
 Librarian would be well paid for his trouble by have- 
 ing them handy. As to the Town, County & State 
 presidents & other officers, if they should do their 
 duty without any pay but the honour, they would 
 receive as much as Militia officers & many town 
 officers for their services. But if they are well paid 
 it cant be much to an individual. 
 
 As to the cost of the Magazein, I have no dout 
 but that a good Republican printer would deliver 
 one in every town in the State for 9/0 1 a year full 
 large anough for a Labourer to reade, & seposeing 
 six neighbours should join it would be but 1/6 
 apeace, for which they would have such valuable 
 reading for themselves & hole familyes a year. As 
 to spending three or 4 howers on the 4th of July to 
 choose officers, it is no more than thousands do now, 
 & if their did not more than a quorter parte of the 
 Society meet the officers might be chosen & the 
 organisation kept up, as well as if they ware all their. 
 
 As to establishing funds, sepose a class or an indi- 
 viduel puts inn 25 dollors, the interest of it would 
 pay for a Magazein for evear without the trouble of 
 anuel or quorterly payments. If the Legislature of 
 Masachusets should grant a fund sefitiant for the 
 hole State it would not cost more than the Shais 
 Afair did, which would naver a hapned if such a 
 Society had bin established then. 
 
 1 Nine shillings, or 31.50. Although our present monetary system had already 
 been established, New Englanders continued for many years to reckon in the 
 terms of their colonial currency, at six shillings to a dollar. 
 
 [63] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 Sepose Congress should grant funds for the hole 
 Continant, it would not cost much more than the 
 pitsburge Insurrection did, which would never bin 
 if such a Sosiety had bin formed. Nor would it 
 cost much more than the 3 frygates did which are 
 not much better to us than so many Birch Canows. 1 
 And if General Worshington should grant 20 thou- 
 sand dollors towards the funds (as it is sad he offered 
 toards a National Acadimi) it would be to a better 
 purpose and make thousands of peopel think much 
 better of him than they do now. 
 
 Some may sepose it would be very dificult to forme 
 such a Society, But ondly let a printer be agreed 
 with to advertise such a Magazein on tarmes that 
 would do, and thousands would take them if they 
 had nothing in vue but amusement, & they would 
 sone find that it would be the cheepest way to or- 
 ganise themselves (as proposed) for that purpose. 
 And if their should com on such times as their was 
 in Masachusets in 1786 all the many would gladly 
 be at the expence of obtaining such knowledge & the 
 Society would come together like a building well 
 framed & marked. 
 
 And by thus anually electing persons for corras- 
 pondaiice & to superintend the Magazen & news- 
 papers they take, the Editors thereof will be fur- 
 nished with the meens of conveying all the knowledge 
 above described, & will be strongly induced to do it 
 as compleat as possable from prinsaples of self 
 
 1 The Constitution, Constellation and United States. Jeffersonians were much 
 opposed to this new navy. The Boston Independent Chronicle of September 21, 
 1797, contains a sarcastic account of the launching of the " Federal Frigate " 
 Constitution. " How long the Frigate will endure, we know not; but if it ever 
 reaches the light-house, as Continental property, it is more than we believe." 
 
 [64] 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 interest. Consiquently they will be red with confi- 
 dence as to their truth, let the contridictions of the 
 few be what they will. 
 
 But some may think this will be a slow way to 
 bring about a Reformation in our Circumstances. 
 But if a large majority of the peopel are Republicans 
 (which I dout not), ondly let them do as the roiallest 
 do, vote no person into any office (even not in the 
 towns) but what they are confident are true Repub- 
 licans & purge the State legeslatures from all fee 
 officers. Also pay close attention to the choice of 
 jurimen & make a common cause of detecting male 
 administration & breaches of law by the Juditial & 
 Executive officers (all which might be easily done if 
 such a Society was formed), it would soone make an 
 ods in all the Departments of Government. They 
 would all feel as acting in the presents of their Con- 
 stituants & act as servents & not masters. Also by 
 being thus furnished with the meens of knowledge, 
 all impositions of all ordirs of men might be detectted 
 & surpresed, & all hurtful fashons & customes Might 
 be reformed, and Agruculture, Manifactoryes, In- 
 dustries & Econimy promoted. For it is for the 
 want of such meens of information that a grate parte 
 of the studdyes & improvements of larnt men & 
 Societyes established for these purposes are intirely 
 lost. 
 
 If such a Society was established our Representi- 
 tives in Congress would have some reason to boste 
 of our being the most free and inlightned peopel in 
 the world, & it would in their present disputes in- 
 corage one side & depress the other as much as the 
 
 [65] 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 memorials & petitions did that ware sent their in 
 favour of the Brittish treety. 
 
 Such a Society would convince the world that 
 Emarica can & will be free, & would do more to 
 prevent a war with france than all we have in our 
 power to do other ways. 
 
 And I have often had it impressed on my mind 
 that in some such way as this Society might be 
 organised throughout the world as well as govern- 
 ment, & by sotial corraspondance & mutual conses 
 tions all differences might be settled, so that wars 
 might be bannished from the Earth. For it is from 
 the pride & ambition of rulers & the ignorance of the 
 peopel that wars arise, & no nation as a nation ever 
 got anithing by making war on others, for what evr 
 their conquests may have bin the plunder goes to a 
 few individuals, & always increases the misiryes of 
 more than it helpes. 
 
 For the prinsapel hapiness of a Man in this world 
 is to eat & drink & injoy the good of his Labour, & 
 to feal that his Life Libberty & property is secure, 
 & not in the abundance he poseses nor in being the 
 instrument of other mens miseryes. All the advan- 
 tage of national dealings is commerce & the exchenge 
 of the produce of one cuntry for another, which if it 
 might be carried on without wars would increase the 
 hapiness of all Nations. But as it is in general 
 conducted it ads to the miseryes of mankind. 
 
 Thus my frinds I have tryed to describe to you 
 (not in the language & stile of the Larned for I am 
 not able) But in as plane a manner as I am capable, 
 the Causes that have always destroyed free govern- 
 
 [661 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 ments, & the daingerous circumstances we are 
 brought into by said Causes. Also described what I 
 think would prove a Remidy, which is not a costly 
 one, for if it should once become general, confident 
 I am that each penny laid out in it would soone save 
 pounds. I have also placed a Constitution at the 
 close of this adress with a Covenant ready for sign- 
 ing, which though an imperfect one may answer for 
 the beginning of said Society. And unless you see 
 more dificulty in applying the Reamidy or less need 
 of it than I do, you will immediately put it on foot 
 & neaver give over untill such a Society is established 
 on such a strong & lasting foundation that the gates 
 of hell can never prevail against it which may the 
 Almighty grant is the sincear desire of 
 
 A LABOURER. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE LABOURING SOCIETY 
 
 Introduction 
 
 It Whereas it hath pleased the Supreem Govenour 
 of the Universe for the fall of man to plase the ere- 
 varsable sentance on him that in the swet of thy face 
 shall thou eate thy bred, it is undoutedly the duty 
 of every person that is blesed with the facultyes of a 
 sound body & mind, to apply himselfe industerously 
 to some honest cauling for the benifit of himselfe & 
 Society. 
 
 2d Although their are many caulings by which 
 men may live honistly without Labour, yet as Labour 
 is the soul parrant of all property by which all are 
 seported, therefore the cauling aught to be honour- 
 able & the Labourer respected. 
 
 [67] 
 
The Key of Libber ty 
 
 3d And whareas not ondly the Constitutions of 
 our governments alow of asotiations & the Libberty 
 of the press, but all ordirs of men who live without 
 Labour have improved thereon, therefore we whoes 
 names are hereunto subscribed, in ordir to establish 
 as cheep, easy & sure conveyance of knowledge & 
 laming nesecary for a free man to have as posable, 
 & to promote a similiaraty of sentiments & manners, 
 Industry & Economy, Agraculture & Mani factor yes 
 &cc, Do hereby constitute ourselves into a Sociaty 
 of frinds by the Name of the Labouring Society. 
 
 Article I 
 
 Snct 1. The persones who Constitute this So- 
 ciety are all the free male persons who are 21 years 
 of age, who Labour for a living in the United States 
 and are willing to joine & submit to the Regulations 
 thereof. 
 
 SECt 2. Also their are admited into it all persons 
 of ani other denominations provided they subscribe 
 to its funds & submit to the Regulations of said 
 Sosiety. 
 
 Article II 
 
 The Society shall be divided into metings like the 
 ordir of Cincinaty, viz. Class Town County 
 State & Continental Meetings. 
 
 Class Meetings 
 
 SECt It. The Class Meetings may be formed by a 
 grater or less number just as their situation, circum- 
 stances, or inclinations Sute. A single person may 
 
 [68] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 be a class if he will be at the expence thereof, or 
 twenty may join together & have them a Librarian, 
 so use the Magazein by turnes or meet together & 
 have it red. 
 
 Town Meetings 
 
 Ssct 2. The Town Meetings to include all the 
 clases belonging to each town, unles they are two 
 large. In that Case they may divide as they find 
 nesecary, & they shall meet anually on the 4th of 
 July at 4 o'clock arfternoone & choose them a 
 president, Vice president, clurke & treasurer or 
 colector. 
 
 County Meetings 
 
 Ssct 3d. The County Meetings shall be formed by 
 the presidents of the Town Meting when they can 
 atend, & when they cannot the Vice presidents may 
 in their roome, who shall meet Annually on the It 
 tuesday in September & choose officers as the Town 
 Meetings did. 
 
 State Meetings 
 
 SECt 4th. The State Meetings to be formed by the 
 presidents of the County Meetings as the County 
 Meetings ware by the Town presidents, who shall 
 meet annually on the first tuesday In October & 
 chooes them officers as the County Meetings did. 
 
 Continental Meetings 
 
 SECt 5t. The continental meetings to be formed 
 by the State presidents, appointing a sefitiant num- 
 
 [69] 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 her of faithful persones somewhare neare the senter 
 of the Continant, to receive & convey by corras- 
 pondance, all nesecary information in the safest & 
 most expiditious manner possable. 
 
 Article III 
 
 The main bisness of all these officers & meetings 
 are to invent the cheepest & most expeditious 
 meathod of conveying all the knoledge described in 
 the 35 pages of this book, to the Clases, espatially 
 all they need in elections, by furnish[ing] the Clases 
 with a Munthly Magazein, & the Town president 
 with a weekly newspaper, & when nesecary by 
 spetial meetings, hand bills & other corraspondance. 
 Also to receive & examine all complantes against 
 Juditial & Executive Officers for breaches of the 
 Laws & Constitutions, & when nesecary to make 
 presentments, prosecutions, & manage impeachments, 
 receiving the pay for the hole from the Clases untill 
 other funds can be established for that purpose. 
 And as soone as can be thought proper, aply to the 
 State Legeslatures for acts of Incorperations, to 
 receive Donations & establish funds for the seport of 
 said Society & introduce the best regulations pos- 
 sable amongue them. 
 
 Article IV 
 
 If any persone belonging to the Society should be- 
 have unbecomeing or be mistrusted of imbesling the 
 Societyes money, neglecting the duty he undertakes, 
 or any ways trying to ingure the Society he may be 
 removed from it by a majority of the Meeting to 
 
 [70] 
 
 
The Key of Libberty 
 
 which he belonges, & if an Officer, another chosen in 
 his roome. 
 
 Article V 
 
 The president of either Meeting shall have power 
 to call the Meeting together at anitime when he 
 thinks nesecary, & in his absence the Vice president 
 may do the same, & they shall be oblige to do so 
 when ever fifteen Members of the Meeting requests it. 
 
 Article VI ', Or a Covenant to be Signed 
 
 We the Subscribers, Inhabitants of the Town of 
 
 in the County of and State of 
 
 haveing considered the foregoing Constitution & the 
 ends for which said Society is formed, Do hereby 
 ingage to submit to the Regulations & seporte the 
 Honour & Dignity thereof, so long as they are con- 
 ducted agreable to the Laws & Constitutions of the 
 government we live under, & punctually pay our 
 proportions of the cost of seporting the same, & that 
 we will always be riady to seporte the Constituted 
 Athorityes in the surpressions of Insurrections, 
 Rebellions, or Invation of a common enemy. Also 
 that we will take pains to informe ourselves into the 
 true prinsaples carictor & abilityes of all those we 
 vote for into any office in the Government we live 
 under, & that we will attend on all elections when we 
 can & put in a vote for those persones we think will 
 serve the publick the best. 
 
 Witness oure hand. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 [711 
 
10 W23 
 
 Key ofJ^ipberty 
 ^Manuscripts 
 

 DR. HENRY MANNING was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, on 
 January 15, 1787. His descent is from William Manning who 
 came to America before 1634, settled in Cambridge, Mass., and whose 
 grandson, Samuel, built the Manning Manse in North Billerica in 1696, 
 now held by the descendants of William as the Family Homestead. 
 Samuel Manning, Jr., kept the ferry in Billerica, and was entrusted 
 with the town stock of powder. He later occupied the old homestead in 
 Cambridge, Mass., and was a public officer there for nearly fourteen 
 years, and is referred to as Ensign Samuel Manning, Jr. In 1714 he 
 purchased land in W 7 indham, Conn., between Merricks and Beaver 
 Brook, andNwas selectman, tithing-man, and on the school com- 
 mittee at different periods. He died at the age of 90 years. His son 
 John acquired his property, and built a large house, that is still 
 standing in good condition, a saw-mill and a grist-mill. He was one of 
 the original Connecticut proprietors of the Susquehanna Purchase 
 acquired from Indians in Pennsylvania. His second wife, Sarah 
 Seabury, was a direct descendant of Governor W T illiam Bradford, who 
 came to Plymouth, Mass., in the Mayflower. Their son John was a 
 Revolutionary soldier, a prominent citizen of Lebanon, and a deacon 
 in the church. His wife, Mary Perkins, descended from John and 
 Judith Perkins of Ipswich, Mass., who came to America on the ship 
 with Roger Williams in 1631. 
 
 Dr. Henry Manning was the son of John Manning and Mary 
 Perkins, coming from an ancestory that developed successful pioneers, 
 
 
it was natural that he, too, should set his face toward the westward 
 after his school training at the Bacon Academy at Colchester, Conn., 
 and his medical training in the offices of Dr. Hutchinson of Lebanon, 
 and then with Dr. White of Cherry Valley, New York. During inter- 
 vals in this training he was teaching school. 
 
 In 181 1 he went on horseback to Youngstown, Ohio. 
 
 In 1812 he was a surgeon in the Ohio Militia on frontier service at 
 Cleveland, Huron, and Lower Sandusky. The affectionate regard of 
 his home regiment assured a successful medical career on his return 
 home in i8n, where he also established a drug-store with Col. 
 C. B. Wick. ' 
 
 He represented his county in the Legislature in 1819 and 1843; was 
 State Senator in 1844; Associate Justice of the Common Pleas, 
 1835-42; President of the Mahoning Bank from 1854 up to his 
 eightieth year; President of the First National Bank from 1862-1866, 
 and was always active in building up the industrial enterprises of his 
 town. 
 
 He married Lucretia Kirtland, and their daughter Mary married 
 William Johnson Edwards, and their daughter Louisa Mary is still 
 living in Youngstown. He married, second, Mary Bingham, and they 
 had eleven children, of which John received college degrees, practiced 
 medicine, engaged in business, and was Mayor of Youngstown. He 
 married Anna Sophia Edwards, and they had eight children in Young- 
 stown. Caroline Lord was very active in benevolent work in Youngs- 
 town. She married Richard Gustavus Garlick, and they had four 
 children in Youngstown. Lucretia Kirtland married Timothy Dwight 
 Baldwin and had ten children in Youngstown. Henry Manning was 
 engaged in business and was senior warden of St. John's Church for 
 many years. He married Sophia Arms, and had three children in 
 Youngstown. Rufus Perkins Manning was a quartermaster in the 
 Rebellion, in business in Youngstown. He married Clare Olive 
 Griffith, and then had ten children in Youngstown. 
 
 The successful career of these children of Dr. Henry Manning is 
 being continued by their children and grandchildren. 
 
 This second Key of Libberty Manuscript is being distributed to 
 institutions that have received the Key of Libberty book, to be 
 attached to this book, as a memorial to my father and mother, 
 Caroline Lord Manning and Richard Gustavus Garlick. 
 
 To..< 
 
 / I) 
 From 
 
 (Sign/ture) (HENRY MANNING GARLICK) 
 Youngstown, Ohio 
 
 Published by the Manning Association, Manning Manse, No. Billerica, Mass. 
 November, 1922 
 
\ 
 
DAY 
 
 
LD9-30m-12,'76(T2555s8)4185 S-87 
 
 YC o^ 
 
 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRA 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY