In
America, the rights of man were eventually tacked on to the tail of
the American Constitution as an afterthought to conciliate the timorous,
"a tub thrown to the whale," as the first ten amendments have been
called. In France, the rights of man overshadowed the working part of
the constitution, delaying essential details by their incorporation,
and ultimately furnishing a pretext for interfering with other peoples.
When once the Americans had secured a constitution, they desired nothing
so much as to be left alone to work out their own destiny. When once
the French had evolved a system, with true propagandist spirit they
wished to foist it on others. "With cannon for treaties and millions
of freemen as ambassadors," they demanded that the feet of all nations
should keep step with the march of what they deemed liberty. Hamilton,
as usual, had proven a seer when he wrote to Lafayette in France at
the very beginning of the French movement, "I fear much the final
success of the attempt, for the fate of those I esteem who are engaged
in it, and for the danger in case of success, of innovations greater
than will consist with the felicity of your nation.
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