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RETROSPECT 
 
 OK 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON'S 
 
 ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 That the Chief Magistrate may be enabled to approach the solemn 
 responsibilities of his officn uncommitted to any other course than the 
 strict line of constitutional duty, the President should be ineligible after 
 one term of service. anurevv jackson. 
 
 I owe it to myself to practise the maxims I recommend to others. 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 The President would feel it a most grateful compliment, if a com- 
 mittee of the Pennsylvania Legislature would address a letter to Jack- 
 eon, requesting him to consent to a re-election. 
 
 ANDREW J. DONELSON, 
 
 Jacksoii's Private Secretary. 
 
 71 L/ 
 
 1832. 
 
 ' / 1 -> ■ 
 

A RETROSPECT, &c. 
 
 To the Freemen of the State of New York : 
 Fellow-Citizens, 
 
 The provision in the constitution, leaving to the discre- 
 tion of the people the re-election of a Chief Magistrate, 
 was obviously intended to secure to them the privilege of 
 continuing an administration which had advanced the in- 
 terest and honor of the country; and also secure them 
 against the evils which might result from a weak, corrupt, 
 or despotic exercise of the executive power. 
 
 It is believed the great object of this constitutional pro« 
 vision was disregarded in the election of General Jackson; 
 and to avoid the evils which may result from the continu- 
 ance of his power, his re-election will be opposed, as we 
 confidently trust, by a great majority of the American free- 
 men. 
 
 The policy of re-electing a President, who has, by his 
 
 capacity and integrity, deserved the people's confidence, 
 has heretofore, by force of national habit, constituted a 
 rule of conduct too important and imperious to be dis- 
 pensed with for slight or trivial causes. 
 
 However often the charges of error and incompetency 
 against the present Chief Magistrate have been announced 
 to the public, it is proper at this time, when called upon to 
 re-elect him to that high office, to take a compendious view 
 of the events and measures which have characterized his 
 official conduct. 
 
 The great popularity of General Jackson has been an- 
 nounced so many millions of times, that many honest free- 
 men have been made to believe that he must have deserved 
 the people's confidence ; and that in deference to the will 
 
of the majority, he should recerve their suffrages. But 
 those who understand the poHtical character of man, know 
 too well that the syren song of popularity has been made 
 Instrumental, under the influence of party zeal, in consign- 
 ing to obscurity, to the dungeon and the scaffold, the wisest 
 and best of men in every age ; while by the same means, 
 weak and vicious miscreants have been elevated to posts 
 of honor and of power. Before the people again confer 
 on Andrew Jackson the Chief Executive power, it is be- 
 lieved they will require some other evidence of his title to 
 their confidence, than his having heretofore received a 
 majority of the people's suffrages. The question which 
 should engage the public mind in the approaching presiden- 
 tial election, is not whether he will not be able, (by some 
 means, no matter what,) to obtain more of the freemen's 
 suffrages than his competitor ; but whether his title to them 
 has been evinced bv his official conduct. 
 
 A retrospect of his administration for the last three 
 years of his presidency, must satisfy every unprejudiced 
 mind that he is not fit to be the ruler of a free people. 
 Notwithstanding the charges of error and incompetency 
 have often been announced to the public, it is proper that a 
 compendious view of his official conduct should impress 
 the recollection, at the very crisis when we are called upon 
 to give our suffrages for his re-election. 
 
 In the first place, he has forfeited all claims to any con- 
 fidence wc can have in his integrity, by conduct opposed 
 to his professed principles, and by violating his solemn 
 pledges. Previous to his election, he declared it as his 
 opinion, that it would endanger the liberties of the country, 
 if not bury them in ruin, for the Chief Magistrate to re- 
 move a public officer to gratify the ambition of a favorite 
 partizan. Yet we find that during the first year of his 
 administration he made nine hundred and ninety removals 
 from office — more than tb.irteen times the number of all 
 jho$e made by his predecessors ; and all for no other appa- 
 
rent cause, but to give support to certain individuals %vho»ff 
 peculiar claims on public confidence were evinced only by 
 their zeal in promoting his elevation to power. 
 
 Previous to his election, he declared it as his opinion that 
 the appointment of members of congress to federal offices 
 would make corruption the order of the day, and even 
 recommended such an amendment to the constitution as 
 would render every member of congress ineligible to office 
 under the federal government during the term for which he 
 was elected. Yet he chose a large portion of his foreign 
 ministers, and many inferior officers of the government, 
 from those whom he professed to believe ought to be inel- 
 igible. 
 
 He advised President Monroe to exterminate that mon- 
 ster party spirit ; and in making appointments to office, 
 not to regard the distinction created by party names, but 
 to regard merit only ; yet, instead of adopting this rule in 
 his appointments to office, he has departed from it to an ex- 
 tent unprecedented in our history; and instead of making 
 capacity and fidelity the standard of preferment, he has 
 introduced a new tenure of office, obedience to his will, 
 and entire devotion to his views of self-preferment. Unless 
 a man will assume the name of Jackson, to designate the 
 party which he would support, he is excluded from all 
 patronage from the Chief Executive ; a vote against him- 
 self at the last Presidential election, he has considered a 
 sufficient ground for removal from office. 
 
 The advocates of his election were unwearied in their 
 efforts to impress the public mind with the belief, that the 
 administration of Mr. Adams was chargeable with waste- 
 ful extravagance in their expenditures ; and to encourage 
 an expectation that a more rigid system of economy would 
 be introduced, President Jackson remarked in his inaugural 
 address, that the searching operation w'ould be applied, 
 with a view to ascertain what offices could be dispensed with 
 
and what expenses retrenched ; obviously intending there- 
 by to induce a beUef, that one important result of his ad- 
 ministration would be the retrenchment of useless expenses. 
 Yet we find that the application of this searching operation 
 has resulted in a resolution, on the part of General Jackson 
 and his cabinet counsellors, that many more offices should 
 be created, and the expenses and salaries in every depart- 
 ment of the government should be increased. Instead of 
 retrenchment we find a most disastrous dereliction from 
 the economy of those measures, on the discredit and ruin of 
 which his advocates sought to elevate him to power. It 
 appears by the documents of his administration that the 
 expenses of the government have been nearly ten millions 
 of dollars more than those of his predecessor ; and that in- 
 stead of ever making a single effort to retrench expenses, 
 he has wantonly occasioned unnecessary causes of expense. 
 Among these may be enumerated more than 8200,000 in 
 recalling able and faithful foreign ministers, and supplying 
 their places with no apparent object but that of rewarding 
 his favorite partisans ; to one of whom, John Randolph, has 
 been paid 822,500 on a pretended mission to Russia, in per- 
 forming which his whole time, except eleven days, was spent 
 in London for the purpose of improving his health, and that 
 with the express permission of President Jackson. Also 
 the sum of i 14,000 to furnish and improve his mansion 
 house ; which sum appropriated for that use had been de- 
 chned and saved by Mr. Adams. Also the sum of $18,000 
 paid to Martin Van Buren on a mission to Great Britain, 
 which the interest of the country did not require should be 
 made in the absence of the senate, and without their con- 
 sent. Also the expenditure of 8300,000 accumulated by 
 the economy'of Mr. McLane in the Post-office Department. 
 By the appointment of Mr. Barry, the present Post-master^ 
 not only has the above sum has been expended, but the 
 revenue subjected to an annual expense of about 880,000 
 
to sustain the department. And while no excuse has been 
 offered for these extraordinary defalcations, but the increase 
 of mail facilities and the establishment of new post routes, it 
 is found that those amount to less than one fourth of those 
 established by his predecessor ; and his friends in congress 
 have defeated every effort to investigate the causes which 
 have reduced the general Post-office to its present disas- 
 trous condition. Another item of expense peculiarly char- 
 acteristic of his unfitness for any office in a government of 
 laws, is that of $55,000 incurred in the defence made by his 
 advocates in congress, for the assault made by General 
 Houston on the person of Mr. Stansbury, in the streets of 
 the capital, for words spoken by him in debate. The expense 
 incurred by this outrageous invasion of the privilege of 
 speech guarantied to the members of congress by the usages 
 of legislation, the constitution and laws, may well be charged 
 to the credit of the President, inasmuch as General Hous- 
 ton's conduct was approved of by him, in strong and une- 
 quivocal terms. 
 
 These items of expense are given as only exemplifica- 
 tions, by which we may estimate the wisdom and economy^ 
 which has cost the country already ten millions of dollars 
 more than the administration of Mr. Adams. 
 
 After having expressed his opinion that the Chief Magis- 
 trate would be better enabled to approach the solemn re- 
 sponsibilities of his office uncommitted to any other course 
 than the strict line of constitutional duty, by limiting the 
 duration of his office to one term, we find him not only con- 
 senting to stand as a candidate for a second term, but that 
 his disposition for a re-election might appear to be in con- 
 formity to the public sentiment, we find him even soliciting 
 his own nomination, which was highly derogatory to the 
 dignity of his office, dishonorable to his character, and dis- 
 graceful to his country. What confidence then, it may 
 be asked, can be placed in a Chief Magistrate who has 
 
thus violated liis most solemn pledges and important profe*- 
 Bcd principles ; and who, instead of even pretending thero 
 was'any defence for this conduct, has insulted the American 
 people by telling them there was no law to punish him for 
 thus doing ? 
 
 On the subject of the Tariff, which involves questions of 
 great national interests, essential to the welfare of our 
 country and the preservation of its institutions, he has so 
 concealed his sentiments, or obscured them in ambiguity 
 and mystery, as to countenance any opinion that might 
 further his designs of personal preferment. "While he has 
 expressed to the public, views favorable to a judicious 
 tariff, he has advised his friends to attack it in detail, as 
 the surest way effectually to destroy the whole system ; 
 and we can only adjudge his principles, if he has any, 
 upon that important subject, from the fact, that the op- 
 posers of this policy are almost exclusively to be found 
 among the number of his friends. 
 
 After pledging himself that he w^ould select as members 
 of his cabinet, characters distinguished for probity, virtue, 
 capacity, and firmness, we have seen him creating dissen- 
 tions among them for no other discoverable cause, than 
 that they would not permit him to control the private 
 intercourse of their families, or dictate their views respect- 
 ing Martin Van Buren's claims to the Vice Presidency. 
 And to avenge this ridiculous offence, we have too much 
 reason to believe that he encouraged one of his favorites 
 to assassinate an obnoxious member ! 
 
 It would seem General Jackson was apprehensive that 
 the inauspicious incidents of his past life might tend to 
 create distrust of his of^cial conduct, rather than confi- 
 dence. To strengthen the fidelity of his friends, and 
 encourage the hopes of his opposers, he therefore volun- 
 teered a pledge, that he would be careful not to exceed the 
 constitutional authority of his office. Thus by his naked 
 
9 
 
 promise, he would, it seems, add force to an obligation 
 which was before made indispensible by his oath to sup- 
 port the constitution. Yet we find that both his pledge 
 and his oath are set at-dcfiance, and some of the most im- 
 portant provisions of the constitution treated by him with 
 the most reckless contempt. The constitution gives to 
 the Chief Magistrate no power to appoint officers of go- 
 vernment but by the advice and with the consent of the 
 senate. In direct violation of this provision, he has ap- 
 pointed a minister to the Turkish dominions ; also one 
 Stambou, Indian agent and interpreter ; and recently an 
 agent to the land office ; not only without the advice and 
 consent of the senate, but after that body had expressly 
 refused to give their consent. 
 
 He has violated a solemn treaty made with the Indian 
 tribes in Georgia, which had been approved and ratified 
 as constitutional and just by his predecessors in office, 
 and by congress, for a long period of time. His disposition 
 to make his will the sole rule of his conduct, has been 
 evinced not only by his positive violation of the constitution 
 and laws, but in the exercise of the veto power, in many in- 
 stances manifestly against the will of the majority, and for 
 purposes for which it was never intended. It was given to 
 him as a protection against the propensity of the legisla- 
 ture to encroach on the rights of the other departments of 
 the government. But by the use of this power, President 
 Jackson has shown a strong propensity to intrude upon the 
 legislative department, and by several successive acts of 
 arbitrary power has taken from Congress almost half its 
 powers, and from the senate more than half. Among the 
 bills for internal improvement, the Maysville road bill passed 
 by a majority of 17 votes ; that of the Frederic road by a 
 majority of 35 ; that of the Louis canal by 43 ; and the 
 Harbor bill by 51. There could not therefore have been 
 
 a doubt on the mind of the President after these votes had 
 
 o 
 
10 
 
 been given, what was the settled opinion either of Congress 
 or the people, yet all these bills were rejected by his veto ; 
 and two of them, which passed by majorities of more than 
 two thirds of the members, he retained until after congress 
 adjourned, and thereby prevented the majority from exer- 
 cising its constitutional power of repassing them, after con- 
 sidering his objections. Thus has the object of internal im- 
 provement been arrested in its progress, by the arbitrary 
 acts of the President, obviously against the well known 
 sentiments of a majority of the people. The use he has 
 made of his veto power is subversive of the fundamental 
 principle of a Democratic Republic, that the majority shall 
 rule. President Jackson has taken upon himself the legis- 
 lative power, as effectually as it has ever been exercised 
 by any sovereign of Europe. Although he does not enact 
 laws, he would have none enacted but such as he chooses, 
 which is in fact making the law^s himself. Should the King 
 of Great Britain put his negative upon a bill, w-hich had been 
 well considered and passed by both houses of Parliament, 
 it might cost him his life. Though the veto power is a part of 
 the British constitution, it has not been resorted to by the 
 Kings of England for the last century. 
 
 By his veto on the bill for re-chartering the bank of the 
 United States, he acted against the will of a great majority 
 of the people, by whom it is considered as one of their most 
 valuable institutions ; and by his message on that subject, he 
 has no longer left any one in doubt respecting his resolution 
 not to be controlled by any construction of the constitution, 
 than that he shall be pleased to give to it. Hear his own 
 words, " The congress, the executive, and the court, must 
 each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the constitu- 
 tion." And further, " the opinion of the Judges has no more 
 authority over congress, than the opinion of congress over 
 the Judges, and on that point the President is independent 
 of both." 
 
 .tJ^ 
 
11 
 
 It requires no argument to convince onfe, that the Chief 
 Magistrate who conforms his official conduct to such opin- 
 ions, is an Usurper and a Tyrant; and our constitu- 
 tion and laws, under his Chief Magistracy, are but a dead 
 letter. 
 
 By refusing to use the executive power committed to 
 him, in executing the judgment of the Supreme Court, 
 he virtually asserts the opinion, that the individual states 
 have a right to make laws independent of the federal con- 
 stitution ; and encouraged by his pernicious errors and 
 principles, South Carolina and Georgia are preparing to 
 resist the laws of Congress to ei'.forcc the tariff. To be 
 consistent with himself. General Jackson will not enforce 
 those laws ; and if those states, or any individual state, is 
 permitted to evade the laws of Congress with impunity, 
 the other states will have equal claims to the same indul- 
 gence ; civil commotions and civil wcr must inevitably 
 follow ; the union of the states will be virtually dissolved ; 
 and according to the prediction of Mr. Jefferson, the liber- 
 ties of thirteen millions of souls, and their descendants, 
 will be sacrificed to the glory of a military chieftain. 
 Then it would be found that the administration of Andrew 
 Jackson had constituted a jubilee for the friends of despo- 
 tism throughout the world ; and this last republic on earth, 
 which has claitned for itself the triumph of an immortal 
 existence, would be soon seen following in the long and 
 dismal train of fallen republics, and consigned to the 
 wretched dominion of despotic power. 
 
 For his arbitrary act in arresting the progress of inter*- 
 nal improvement, no reason has been assigned except the 
 pretence, that the money to be diverted from that object 
 was to be applied to the payment of the public debt. But 
 it will be recollected that ten millions of dollars of this 
 money has already been absorbed in useless and excessive 
 expenditure?. Besides, it is well known that the policy 
 
and wisdom of pibceding administrations has made provi- 
 sion by which the public debt might be paid by instal- 
 ments, which imposed no burden of which the people have 
 found cause to complain. Neither have we any evidence 
 that the money which a majority of the people choose to 
 apply to internal improvement, will be applied to the ex- 
 tinguishment of the public debt, except General Jackson's 
 pledge, which has been proved to be no evidence of his 
 intentions. 
 
 If there is a single right which the people ought freely 
 to exercise, uncontrolled by the President's veto, it is that 
 of providing a revenue, and disposing of it according to 
 the will of the majority. Yet this right, so essential to the 
 interests and welfare of independent freemen, has been 
 arbitrarily controlled by the capricious and despotic 
 abuse of the power of the Chief Magistrate. 
 
 The present crisis in the history of our government may 
 well excite an extraordinary interest in the public mind. 
 The present Chief Magistrate is the first man who has 
 been elevated to that high office solely by the force of his 
 military fame. He is the first, and it is hoped the Great 
 Disposer of human events will so direct our future desti- 
 nies that he may be the last, whose favorite qualification 
 for the presidency was as he declared, a capacity to look 
 on scenes of blood and carnage with composure ; and the 
 heralds of whose power were authorized by him to pro- 
 claim, in language appropriate only to the views of a mili- 
 tary despot, that he would reward his friends and punish 
 his enemies. That the hopes and promises of these re- 
 wards were the only efficient means by which he was. 
 elevated to power, was attested by his favorite and distin- 
 guished partizan, who, on the event of his election, ex- 
 claimed,— " For what have we been fighting unless it is 
 for the spoils of victory !" It is by these rioters in the 
 spoils of victory that we are invited, that we are urged to 
 aid in the re-election of Andrew Jackson. 
 
13 
 
 And now that all the visions of reformation to b« 
 achieved by his power have vanished, and it becomes ne- 
 cessary to give a new and imposing influence to the farci- 
 cal array of patriotism by which he was ushered into pow- 
 er, the cry of his popularity is reiterated with redoubled 
 acclamations. The miserable dependents on his patronage 
 would have the people believe, that the extraordinary 
 efforts that are making for his re-election should be admit- 
 ted as evidence of his great popularity, and his claims to 
 the people's confidence. But however a short-lived and 
 ill-gained popularity may enable President Jackson and his 
 arch intriguer to insult the understanding and common 
 sense of the American people, it cannot subdue their spirit, 
 nor extinguish in them the light of truth. The means by 
 which General Jackson acquired his popularity are too 
 well known to admit the belief of intelligent men, that they 
 had any reference to his qualifications for the office of 
 Chief Magistrate. The tinsel splendors of power his 
 friends have thrown around him, cannot impart to him 
 one grain of capacity to manage the important and com- 
 plicated concerns of this great republic. Neither can they, 
 by all their fulsome panegyrics, blot out from the record 
 of his history the errors and deformities of his past life. 
 As well might they attempt to wash the Ethiopian white, 
 or rub out fi'om the leopard his spots. 
 
 The history of Andrew Jackson's Presidency is before 
 the world ; some of its most prominent features only have 
 been presented in this short address ; by glancing at 
 which, we have seen that all his most important avowed 
 principles, and solemn pledges relating to his official duties, 
 have been violated, thus proving himself a vStupendous 
 Impostor ; and having no apology for this outrage on the 
 intelligence of the people, he has insultingly told them 
 there was no law to punish him for it. He has arrested 
 the progress of internal improvement by his capricious 
 
14 
 
 and despotic act, against the known will of the people,and 
 by the same arbitrary means, attempted to abolish 
 the bank of the United States. By his insidious 
 efforts and base intrigues, he has encouraged the abolition 
 of the system of protection to our domestic industry. He 
 has, as he has declared, ordered Mr. McLane to lay our 
 national honor and independence at the feet of the British 
 King. He has drained millions of dollars from the treasury 
 to support an army of settlers and troops, to drench the 
 borders of the frontiers with the blood ol the wretched 
 half-starved Indians, without taking any efficient measures 
 to avert or diminish the calamity. — Under an insidious 
 pretence of a mission to Russia, he has permitted John 
 Randolph to draw $22,500 from the treasury to defray the 
 expence of his residence in London, to improve his health, 
 or indulge himself in pleasurable amusements. He has 
 violated an important provision of the constitution, by re- 
 jecting the concurrent and controlling power of the s-enate 
 in his appointments to office. He has assumed to himself 
 the power of deciding questions of constitutional law, the 
 right of which is, by the constitution, vested exclusively 
 in the Supreme Court of the United States. He has en- 
 couraged violence on the members of Congress, in the 
 streets of the capital, to deter the legislature from the 
 freedom of debate. He has descended from the dignity of 
 his office, to charge the members of Congress with bribery, 
 for voting against tlie overthrow of the bank of the United 
 States, He has, by an arbitrary act, dissolved his cabinet, 
 on pretences notoriously false and frivolous, to avenge the 
 offence of an excluded female. He has created numerous 
 offices, and filled them with his aspiring or hungry parti- 
 zans, to compensate them for their aid in furthering his 
 election. He has shown his contempt for the rights of the 
 people, by interposing his arbitrary act to control the 
 will of the majority in repeated instances. Instead of re- 
 
15 
 
 trcnchment, economy, and reform, he has wontonly in- 
 creased the expences of the governmenL ten milUons of 
 dollars beyond those of his predecessor. 
 
 He has declared he will not interpose his authority for 
 the release of our free citizens, who are held in degrad- 
 ing bondage, the inmates of a loathsome penitentiary, 
 for the commission of no crime, or the violation of any 
 law : thus, in contempt of the power of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, conceding to Georgia an au- 
 thority independent of the constitution and the laws of 
 congress. 
 
 "When the constitution has made it the positive duty of 
 the Cliief Magistrate to give to congress correct informrt- 
 tion of the state of the union, he has in a public message 
 given a false view of the condition of the post office ; re- 
 presenting that it had been so improved as to make aft 
 annual saving of $72,000, which representation, as we 
 have seen, and is now well known to the public to have 
 been notoriously false, of which he could not have been 
 ignorant. But the mind sickens at the rehearsal of the de- 
 grading incidents which have marked the history of Gene- 
 ral Jackson's administration. 
 
 Enough has been referred to, and attested by documents 
 in the archives of the government, to prove to the world, 
 not only his want of common integrity, his violations 
 of his oath of office, his disregard of the constitution and 
 laws, and his contempt of the people's rights ; but that all 
 the democratic views and principles which have heretofore 
 characterized American freemen, have been by him set at 
 defiance. In his veto message alone we have irresistible 
 evidence that all the essential interests of the nation will 
 be put in jeopardy by his re-election ; that his arbitrary 
 will would be, (as Mr. Jefferson said it ever had been) 
 his only rule of conduct, however opposed it might be to 
 the will of the majority of the people, or to the constitu- 
 tion and laws. 
 
16 
 
 To extricate us from the evils which an hereditary 
 prince might impose upon us in the line of descent, through 
 his -weakness or despotism, our illustrious ancestors have 
 freely expended their blood and treasure ; and can it be 
 considered a privilege of which freemen should boast, that 
 they have the right of choosing the men who are to be the 
 instruments of their ruin ? Had we the misfortune to have 
 lived under an hereditary monarchy, and the ^ Great 
 Disposer of human events had, in his wrath, imposed on 
 us such a sovereign as Andrew Jackson in the line of 
 descent, it would have been considered a great national 
 calamity. And if his election to the chief magistracy 
 resulted from the unprejudiced and dispassionate expres- 
 sion of the people's will, it would evince that fatal degene- 
 racy of the national manners, which has been heretofore 
 the infallible precursor to the ruin of every free republic 
 on earth. But it is well known that his election was 
 achieved by fraud, by bribery, and collusion. Neither 
 can he be sustained through a re-election by any other 
 means. General Jackson's success in the approaching 
 election, will be in exact proportion to the extent and in- 
 fluence of his patronage. 
 
 Nothing but the majesty of the laws and the virtue of 
 the people can save us from the' profligate designs of a 
 Chief Magistrate, who would seek a little present prefer- 
 ment, and short lived popularity, at the expence of his 
 integrity, and the welfare and glory of his country. 
 
 If our Republic is destined to be saved from the fate 
 ■which has befallen all others, it must be by the efforts of 
 those who are opposed to the political power of such men 
 as have been exemplified in the public and private charac- 
 ter of Andrew Jackson. Be persuaded then, fellow citi- 
 zens, by the veneration you owe to the constitution, by 
 yom- reverence for the holy relics of the sages and martyrs 
 of our history ; and by that awful influence imposed by 
 
17 
 
 the fate of unborn millions of posterity, to oppose by all lawful 
 means his re-election ; not forgetting it is solicited by himself 
 against his own avowed principles ; remembering also, that 
 the principles recently announced by him, in his veto message 
 on the bank, are incompatible with the existence of our gov- 
 ernment ; and if a majority of the people shall enable him 
 to carry them into practice, the dissolution of the Union is 
 inevitable, and the will of a Dictator must become the 
 supreme law. It is a sentiment pregnant with pernicious 
 error, to believe that our civil liberties will be preserved, 
 so long as the constitution remains in its present form. 
 Unless it is acknowledged as the supreme law of the land, 
 and executed as such by the Chief Magistrate, the consti- 
 tution is but a dead letter, and our boasted freedom an 
 empty name. 
 
 Those who, with honest intentions, have heretofore sup- 
 ported General Jackson's claims to the Presidency, cannot 
 expect he will be induced by the intervention of his friends 
 to relinquish his usurpations, or avoid his errors. It is ob- 
 vious that many of those who would defend his official con- 
 duct, are actuated by the same pride and ambition of power 
 which has generated in the spirit of party the absurd in- 
 fluence which induces the subjects of an hereditary prince 
 to ascribe to him absolute perfection. They boldly and 
 arrogantly contend that no Chief Magistrate, since the days 
 of Washington, has rendered himself so popular as General 
 Jackson — while scarcely a single measure he has recom- 
 mended has been adopted, except such as have been forced 
 by his veto power against the will of the majority ; neither 
 have his violations of the constitution and laws, resulted 
 from any inexplicable ambiguity in their construction, but 
 from a natural and habitual disposition to substitute his will 
 for the law. He is the man of whom our beloved Jefierson 
 admonished us from the brink of the grave, when he said 
 " my country though, too, will experience the fate which has 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 befallen every free government ; thy liberties will be sac- 
 rificed to the glory of some military chieftain. I had fondly 
 hoped to have found in thee an exception ; but thy support 
 of Andrew Jackson — a man w^ho has disregarded every 
 order he ever received, who has trampled under foot the 
 laws and constitution of his country, and who has substitu- 
 ted his owai ungovernable will as his only rule of conduct — 
 thy support of such a man, shakes my confidence in the ca- 
 pacity of man for self-government, and I fear all is lost." 
 His portentous admonitions have been too well evinced 
 by the results of his administration. General Jackson has, 
 by his lawless usurpations, inflicted deep and dangerous 
 wounds on the constitution, and his tyranny has gone very 
 far to discredit the whole system of popular government. 
 He has proved false to his promises, to his country, to liis 
 friends, to every thing but his own wretched ambition. 
 
 While thousands are continually deserting the ranks of 
 ills followers, to replenish them, resort is continually had to 
 new impositions. New promises are made, old ones re- 
 newed, and every effort to revive the dying hopes of disap- 
 pointed expectants. He who has descended from the dig- 
 nity, and the great duties of his high office to insult the 
 American people, by telling them he should pursue those 
 measures which he had declared would eminently endanger 
 our liberties, if not entirely bury them in ruins, because there 
 was no law which could punish him for it ; that man, we 
 may expect, will set no bounds to the corrupting influence 
 of his abused power, that he may consummate the triumphs 
 of delusion in his re-election. 
 
 If, in the course of human events, our republic is desti- 
 ned to the fate which has befallen all others, it is our duty 
 to exhaust the last cftbrt of intellect, that we may protract 
 its dying nature. 
 
 It is hoped every citizen who is not dead to sensibility, to 
 patriotism, to the interest and the glory of his country, will 
 
19 
 
 come forward at the approaching election in llie majesty 
 of virtuous and intelHgent freemen, end act as he would if 
 convinced that on his single sufirage depended the fate of his 
 country; and the cause of truth and reason will prevail; 
 liberty will be again restored to her altars, and our institu- 
 tions, purchased with the blood and treasure of our illustri- 
 ous ancestors, will be rescued from the ruins with which they 
 are threatened. That will be the most important crisis in the 
 history of our republic, when it shall be recorded of us that 
 our reason and wisdom triumphed over passion and preju- 
 dice ; not that period when by our courage we purchased 
 liberty, but when by our virtue we shall have stamped on 
 its existence immortal duration. 
 
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