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V A S T A T E M E N T 
 
 OF SOME LEADING PRINCIPLES AND MEASURES 
 
 ADOPTED BY 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 IN HIS 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT; 
 
 AND OF THE EFFECTS OF THOSE 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND MEASURES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 I IVIOIV, PROSPERITY AI¥D COIVSTITUTIO.\ 
 
 OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 CITIZEI^S OF RHOD£.I$LAj¥D, 
 
 IN ANSWER TO THEIR CALL ON THE 
 
 DELEGATION OF THIS STATE IN CONGRESS 
 
 BY ASHER BOBBINS, OF THE SENATE, 
 
 AND 
 
 TRHTAM BURGBS, OF THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES. 
 
 PROVIDENCE: 
 WILLIAM MARSHALL AND CO. PRINTERS. 
 
 18 3 2. 
 

 r\ 
 
 PnoviiiESCi:, Ooi. G, 1832. 
 "",» the Rhjde-J.,lan(J d;fegaiion in both Houses of Congrcis: 
 
 fji.jfri.EMEK, — Considering the pniH^ut as n nnisl perilous cij>i3 in our natwnal al'- 
 Saj-s, anJ deoming it of great jmpoitiuice tiujl the people orthis ^'tates-boiild havcjcorricj 
 intomiatioa from tiutbentic sonrce.s, in which Ihey would implicitly rely, we respt'ctfuU v 
 fO^^uest that you, who have had ample opportunities from persona! obseryalion and from 
 Nour oiScial situation to obtiiiii correct views of the situation of our national atTair.'*, 
 would furnidh us, a portion ol yoar constituents, with vour %iews of the uiea and luua.-.- 
 ures of the present adaiinistration of the General Government, witii peruiUsion to iay th^ 
 L-aiue before the pu!)!ic. 
 
 iftephe-n Olncy, A''urth ProviJeHce; 
 jr. A". Rhodes, do do 
 
 James Jlnthony, do d^j 
 
 .Eliiihi Olncy, Smithfit'd; 
 DanUl Jenks, do 
 Bariui Angell. do 
 <S?.s«tJ».« Morrny, dj 
 Klishct SiiijUi, do 
 John Fcnner, do 
 
 lirael Saunders, do 
 Hrown IV. Stoeettdo 
 .K«.'/iJ!.v !Sweet, do 
 
 Ezekiel An^tll. SmithfieJd. 
 Benjamin IViliiams, do 
 Jieuben Mincry, do 
 
 John Dexter, do 
 
 George Olney. do 
 
 Jeremiah Uhipplc, Cumbtriand. 
 William llhodcg, JVartoick; 
 Wells Reynolds, Richmond; 
 Robert Reynolds, do 
 
 Benjamin S. Olney, Providence, 
 Williajti Fabodiv, d# 
 
 }f1lliam Sheldsn, d» 
 
 1m. 
 
TO THE 
 
 PEOPLE OF RHODE-ISLANR 
 
 FEM.aw Citizens — 
 
 VVe, members of your Delegation ia Congress, convinced as v,fl 
 nrc, that a continuance of the present administration of the General 
 Government will be ruinou^^ to the most valuable institution^", and to 
 the groat interests of the Country, and particularly so to the prosper- 
 ity of this State, beg leave to lay before you the grounds of that con- 
 viction; that if you thinlc with us,' you may be induced to exert your- 
 selves at the coming election; and by affecting a change of that ad- 
 ministration, provide a remedy against these impending evils. Vv itU 
 the People, lies the remedy; with them too, if the remedy be not ap- 
 plied, lies the responsibility. We believe it to be a crisis fellow citi- 
 zens, in which every one of you should feel as if the fate of his Coun- 
 try, and involved in that, his own fate, might depend on his single 
 vote, and should act accordingly. 
 
 We have said, and such is our .-.olemn conviction, ihat the most val- 
 uable institutions, and the great interests of this Country, arc in im- 
 inent danger of being destroyed; and that nothing can avert this dan- 
 ger, and prevent a consummation of this ruin, but a change of tho 
 present administration of the General Government. In the first place, 
 we invite your attention to the great interests of the Country, and to 
 the {)eri!s that threaten them. We all have witnessed for a number 
 of years past the great and growing prosperity of the Country; for the 
 fact has been as obvious to every eye, as it has been cheering to every 
 heart; but all do not penetrate and comprehend fully the sources of 
 this prosperity; tor these are not so obvious; they, do not lie at the 
 surtace of things; they lie deep in the institutions and laws of the 
 country, and in their silent operation. Reflect, fellow citizens, and 
 you will see that the sources of this great and growing prosperity are 
 these; lirst, that system of policy which has called and is calling out 
 all the resources of the country; that is giving profitable employment 
 to all the labor and all the capital of the country; that has opened a 
 boundless field for enterprise; and made success in it morally certain. 
 This is all done by giving to our own industry, capital and enterprise 
 the full benefit of our own markets. In the second place, by {ho«u 
 works, in aid of that system, wliich have, and are still further 
 to improve the facilities and reduce the expenses of intercourse 
 and transportation. And in the third place by a creation of a national 
 currency, every where at par value with gold and silver; and every 
 
where convertable at will into gold and silver; whereby all the inlanti 
 exchanges of our country are effected with safety and despatch ; and 
 without cost or risque of loss to the parties in making them. These 
 three parts make together the American System; and each is a ne- 
 cessary part of the whole. Their mutual bearings, and how power- 
 lully each comes in aid of the other, and augments their joint effect 
 in producing our national prosperity, must be seen by any one who is 
 capable of reflection, and will give himself the trouble to reflect. 
 This great system, so wisely devised for the good of our country; so 
 essential to it, so productive of it, is all to be demolished, if the pres- 
 ent administration of the General Government is to be continued. 
 The work of destruction has already been begun, and will then be 
 completed. Already General Jackson has given the blow that must 
 deprive tbc country of a national currency, if he be re-elected. The 
 national Bank in that event is to go down. Then that pillar of the 
 system will be gone; and with it is gone a powerful instrument of our 
 national prosperity. Its w^ant will be felt by the whole business com- 
 munity throughout our country. We shall have no medium for mak- 
 ing our inland exchanges, which gave such a stimulus to business and 
 f.-nterprise; no permanent standard of value to property, but the infl- 
 iiifo losses and injustice; arising from the want of such a standard; 
 no agent for receiving and disbursing the public revenues, whenever 
 to be disbursed, at home or abroad without expense or risque to the 
 (jQverpment; saving millions annually to the public treasury. Sucli 
 i^'ill be 9, f?w, and bui a few of the many deplorable consequences to 
 attend the destruction of that wise and necessary institution. The 
 whole of the protecting policy that favors our own industry and en- 
 terprise, though not yet destroyed, is to be destroyed. This is the 
 settled plan and determination of the present administration. The 
 pame veto-message that destroyed the National Bank and thereby 
 the National Currency, announces this determination as to the pro- 
 (xicting policy. This was not necessary to the veto message; it had 
 properly nothing to do with it; yet the President went out of his way 
 to denounce this policy, as if to apprize the country, that it was to he 
 «lestroyed, In that document he denounces this policy as the off- 
 spring of improvident legislation; as a partial, not a national policy; 
 jis unjust, as having been obtained by the importunities of one class 
 for their exclusive benefit, and at the expense of the common good of the 
 country ; and says that the evil must be corrected ; that what has been 
 so improvidcntly done must be undone; not indeed by one stroke, but 
 by degrees. The policy is to die a lingering death. The part of the 
 Veto message alluded to, is in these words. 
 
 "P^xpcrience should teach us wisdom. Mcst of the difliculties our 
 Government now encounters, and most of the dangers which impend 
 uv.er our union, have sprung from an abandonment of the legitimate 
 
objects of Government hy our national Icgirslatlon, ntul tlio adoption 
 of such principles as arc embodioil in this art. :\[any of our ricli 
 men have not been content with equal protection and equal ijcncfUs; 
 i)ut iiave besought us to make thein richer by act of Conirro^s. By 
 .ittempting to gratify their desire,-!, we have in the results of legislation, 
 arrayed section against section, interest against intf^rc-t, and man 
 aoaiust man, in a fearful commotion which threatens to shake th^- 
 foundations of our Union. It is time to pause in our career, to review 
 our principles, and if possible revive that devoted patriotism and sjiir- 
 it of compromise, which distinguished the sages of the revolution 
 and the fathers of our Union, li' we cannot at once, in justice to in- 
 terests vested under improvident legislation, make our government 
 what it ought to be, we can at least take a stand against all new grant-* 
 of monopolies and exclusive privileges, against any prostitution of our 
 government, to the advancement of the few, at the expense of tho 
 >many, and in favor of compromise and gradual reform in our code of 
 laws and system of political economy." 
 
 You will judge for yourselves whether any other interpretation 
 than that we have given, can be fairly put upon these words. Th<' 
 report of his Secretary of the Treasury for a taritt^of duties was the 
 commencement of his scheme for the gradual destruction of this poli- 
 cy. That inroad upon it, had it taken effect, would have been fatal 
 to the whole w oollen business of New-Engla.nd, both as to the growth 
 and manufacture of wool. That blow was not suffered by Congress 
 to take entire effect; but you see, by the Veto message, tbat the at- 
 tack is to be renewed and that blow to be followed up till the policy is 
 destroyed. You see that General Jackson is pledged to lend all his 
 weiofht to the accomplishment of this object. 
 
 Fellow citizens, you have more capital em!>arked under the pro- 
 tection of this policy, far more in proportion to our numbers, than any 
 other State in the union; and a much greater proportion of our labor- 
 ing population are dependent on that policy, for the means of a corner 
 tbrtable living, for themselves and families. This policy will • tall 
 with ruin every where, but with much greater ruin here than else- 
 where; it will make our State one wide scene of waste, of destruction, 
 of desolation. . 
 
 The bills and surveys for the improvement of the means and e.Kpe^ 
 ditions, and economical intercourse, and transportation with all parts 
 of our country, both on the sea board and inland, have all been stop- 
 ped, by the President, except the one for his own State. Appropria- 
 tion Bills by which we in this State were to have a break-water in the 
 passage on the east side of Rhode Island, making a secure harbor 
 ihere; one much wanted and easily reached by vessels on our Coa^t 
 in times of distress; in times when the prevailing winds make it dif- 
 ficult to enter any other harbor; by which lives in grc&t numbers, 
 
ftiid property to a vast amount may be rescued from destruction; bills 
 by which to remove the situation of the Ligh^-House at the north 
 entrance of Newport Harbor, necessary to become a safe guide to 
 vessel?, which is now rather a decoy to their destruction than a safe 
 guide, orders for surveys by which to make a break-water at the 
 mouth of Bristol Harber, to make it a safe harbor at all times; bills 
 by which also to make improvements for the navigation of the 
 waters of Providence Harbor; by which also to make improve- 
 ments at Block Island, important to vessels making that Is- 
 land, and to the Island itself; all these bills andj'orders for surveys 
 for all these improvements have been lost by the hostility of Gene- 
 ral Jackson to this part of thegreat American System Nor are they, 
 Fellow-Citizens, to be expected by you, and for you, and for the 
 Country if he is re-elected; at least the idea must be abandoned for 
 another four years, and after that too, if his principles prevail with 
 his successor, and they will prevail if his successor should be the 
 man whom he has designated. 
 
 These internal improvements of our Country besides, their infini- 
 nite iniportance, in peace and in war, to the dispatch and economy of 
 intercourse and transportation, would constitute so many chains to 
 bind the States together in a more indissoluble Union. And this too 
 would have been eminently the effect of the land bill, as it is called, 
 had it been permitted to pass. By that Bill our immense unappro- 
 priated domain, the common property of the United States, would 
 have been a common fund tor the payment of annuities to the several 
 States, in a just and ratable proportion, amounting to each, to a sum 
 exceeding the whole of its civil list expenses; and exempting each 
 from taxation to that amount; to this State, this annuity would have 
 been at once Twenty Thousand Dollars and upwards; but the Bill 
 was not permitted to pass; it was Mr, Clay's Bill, and if passed it 
 must be placed to his credit with the Country; adding another title to 
 his many titles to her favor. It passed in the Senate, but in the 
 House it was defeated; it was well understood that the President 
 was hostile to the bill, and it was confidently said by his partisan* 
 :hat he was prepared to put his Veto to its becoming a law, but in the 
 House his partisans rallied and rescued him from the necessity. By 
 a change of the present administration, this bill would be carried 
 through and take efiect. It would be as we have intimated, another 
 perpetual Bond of Union to the States. As the Domain now is, it 
 threatens to be a bone of contention between the Western and At- 
 lantic States, and may be the cause of their ultimate separation 
 
 The doctrine has been broached in son>e of the Western States, 
 and advocated by some of their leaders in Congress that the public 
 Domain is the exclusive property of the States within which it lies; 
 and it will become the exclusive property of the Territories within 
 
the Territories as soon as they become States. This doctrine, enor- 
 mous and iniquitous as it is, is even popular in some of those States. 
 Now they are too feeble for the purpose; but the time is coming 
 when their numbers may enable them to make good their doctrine, 
 and to accomplish their object. Of all subjects, it is already the most 
 exciting of any we have in Congress, the most troublesome and di(- 
 ticult to deal with. Session after session we have been annoved and 
 are to be, with graduation bills ;'intended'to affect the same object but 
 in a different mode; that is, by forcing the alienation of the whole 
 domain within a limited time; and that a short period; by reducing 
 the price from time to tim^ within that period; and by ceeding to the 
 several States, what shall remain unsold at the expiration of that peri- 
 od. This scheme is not so barefaced as the other; but it is equally 
 calculated to deprive the Atlantic States of all share in this fund. 
 Perhaps you are not aware of the immensity of this domain and of itis 
 boundless value. The acres in it are not to be told by millions, they 
 amount to billions; figures may designate, but our ideas cannot 
 .stretch to their immensity. Our proportion of that immense domain 
 would exceed many fold the whole extent of our State. The pro- 
 ceeds of the sales now produce a nett revenue of three millions an- 
 nually, and they are annually increasing. For a century to come 
 thev would give this State an annual revenue, beginning with Twen- 
 ty Thousand Dollars, and annually increasing for all that time. This 
 great pecuniary boon to this State, this greater political boon to the 
 United States, as a perpetual bond of Union is only to be had by a 
 change of the present administration of the General Government, and 
 by that it certainy may be had. 
 
 We now fellow citizens, invite your attention to the great institu- 
 tions of the country and the peril they stand in, if the present admin- 
 istration of the General Government is to be continued. You can- 
 not fail to see their danger, in the danger to the Constitution itself. 
 The Executive power of this Country is now wielded by a chief mag- 
 istrate, who assumes to himself a power paramount to both the con- 
 stitution and the law. He tells you in the same Veto message, that 
 the constitution is what he understands it to be; that law is law, on- 
 ly, when it is made in pursuance of the constitution, as he under- 
 stands the constitution; that he is to determine whether a law is, or 
 is not to be executed; and to govern himself accordingly. What is 
 this but to substitute his will for the law ? and what is this but despo- 
 tism? With a free people, the reign of law is the reign of freedom; 
 but the reign of the arbitrary will of any one man is despotism. Can 
 it be that the people of this country are willing and prepared to con- 
 tinue the reign of despotism, and to put on the livery of servitude? 
 Whatever others may think, however others may act, is it possible 
 that the freemen and freeborn sons of Rhode-Island, are willing and 
 
8 
 
 pmparcd to do thia? T.et them answer this question at the poll.'?. 
 Ot'all people you have been the most jealous of your freedom and the 
 most resolute in its defence. Surely that noble spirit has not now be- 
 come extinct. Can any one deny or doul)t, that General Jackson 
 has assumed to himself the paramount power? Pray look for your- 
 selves at his acts as chief magistrate, and to the principles he has 
 avowed; at what he has done and what ho may do acting on these 
 principles; and then determine for yourselves. He has not only ex- 
 ercised this assumed power, in ••epeated instances, over the constitu- 
 tion and over the laws, but he has deliberately defended the exercise, 
 in one of the most solemn acts]of his government. We mean his Veto 
 message above referred to; he has, there formally claimed the power 
 as his prerogative. His words are, 
 
 "If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole ground 
 of this act, it ought not to control the co-ordinate authorities of this 
 Government. The Congress, the Executive and the Court, must 
 each for itself, be guided by its own opinion of the constitution. 
 Each public officer who takes an oath to support the constitution, 
 swears that ho will support it as he understands it; and net as it is 
 understood by others. It is as much the duty of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, of the Senate and of the President, to decide upon the 
 constitutionality of any bill, or resolution, which may be presented 
 to them for passage or approval, as it is of the supreme judges when 
 it may be brought before them for judicial decision The opinion 
 of the judges has no more authority over Congress, than the opinion 
 of Congress has over the judges; and on that point the President is 
 independent ofboth. The authority of the Supreme Court must not, 
 tliercfore, be permitted to control the Congress, or the Executive, 
 when acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only .such in- 
 fluence as the tbrco of their reasoning may deserve." 
 
 The constitution gives to the Congress of the United States a 
 power to regulate intercourse with the Indian tribes within their lim- 
 it,^. Congress in 180ii, under Mr. Jelferscn's'administration, passed 
 a law regulating that intercourse; and charged the Executive with 
 the especial duty of executing its provisions. General Jackson, as 
 this Executive was called upon l)y the tribes to see to the execution 
 of these provisions, which had been violated to their grievous injury. 
 He rejected the application and refused to interfere, because it was 
 liis will to consider the act — which had been passed in 1802 and ap- 
 proved by Mr. Jcficrson, and which had been uniformly maintained 
 by M. Jefierson and all his successors, down to General Jackson 
 — as unconstitutional, and, therefore, not binding upon him. 
 
 The United States have formed numerous treaties with those tribes, 
 all duly ratitied according to the forms of the constitution; treaties 
 containing stiptilations all important to these tribes; among others a 
 
9 
 
 stipulation to protect them in the enjoyment of their reservedliaiid?, 
 and the right of self-government ; and for whicli stipulations they had 
 paid to the United States great and valuable eonsiderations in the 
 cession to the United States of their title to other lands. Congress 
 had passed various laws to carry these treaties into effect. Here too 
 fhe E.xecutive was especially charged with the execution of these 
 ^reaties and laws. They all had been faithfully executed by the Ex- 
 ecutive, till General Jackson became that Executive. These tribe?5 
 appealed to him to be protected in these treaty riglits, secured to 
 them by treaty stipulations, which were all about to be destroyed by 
 fhe States in which they were situated. He was deaf to the appeal 
 and refused to protect them. Why? Because it was his will to con- 
 sider those treaties and those laws unconstitutional; and not binding 
 upon him. So far from aftbrding protection, he withdrew the troops, 
 who had been stationed there for that purpose. Some of these tribes 
 having appealed in vain to the Executive, General Jackson, for the 
 vindication of their rights and redress of their wrongs, appealed to 
 tlie Supreme Court of the United States for relief. That Court, 
 though thev have decided that these treaties and laws were all con- 
 stitutional and binding, yet decided that they could not decree relief 
 to these tribes, as tribes ; and that it belonged exclusively to the Exec- 
 utive Government of the United Srates to protect them; but they de- 
 cided that the Court was competent to decree relief to individuals 
 whose personal rights, secured by those treaties and laws, had been 
 violated. The missionaries were such individuals. They were re- 
 siding with the tribes under license from our Government; they were 
 acceptable to the tribes; pursuing the pious labors of their mission; 
 imparting instructions to be their guide in life and their consolation in 
 death; but in violation of those treaties and those laws, they wer(^. 
 torn from their abodes, sentenced to a penitentiary and condemne<l 
 to servile labor. They appealed to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States for relief; the Court decreed relief; but the decree is disre- 
 ^ garded by the civil authorities of Georgia; and those innocent men 
 are still sutTering the pains of that cruel and ignominious puniphmcnt. 
 It is said that the President cannot intei-tere to enforce that decree, 
 till there is a return of the process of the Supreme Court upon it and 
 an application is made to him to interfere and enforce the decree. 
 But can any one believe that he ever will interfere to give relief when 
 i he would not interfere to prevent the injury? Had he done his duty; 
 I had he seen to the faithful execution of those treaties and those laws, 
 ; as enjoined upon him by the constitution, as enjoined upon him by 
 I his oath of office, that injnry would have been prevented; all these 
 cruel and unmerited sufferinss would have been avoided. One of the 
 missionaries was a post-master, and held therefore the commission of 
 Jhe Government; this gave hina a special title to its protection. Thia 
 
10 
 
 commission v.as previously taken from him, as it would seem, for the 
 purpose ol" stripping him of this special title to protection, as one ol' 
 the public officers; and to relieve the Government frt n tlie necessity 
 of claiming his impunity and shielding him accordingly. What 
 probability is there that the Government will interfere for his relief, 
 when the Government would not suffer him to retain the special title 
 he had to its protection? 
 
 Fellow Citizens, we repeat that we pray you to look at these acts, 
 to look at these principles which he has avowed, and by which he de- 
 fend? those acts, and say is it not palpable that he assumes to him- 
 self a power paramount both to the constitution and the law; that he 
 claims this power as his Executive prerogative. We pray you lur- 
 therto consider his attempts to reduce the other departments of the 
 Government to the control of his own will; and to leave the power of 
 his Dejiartment unrestricted and unobstructed. When did any Exec- 
 utive before him ever lend his favor to the project of stripping the 
 Supreme Court of their most efficient power for maintaining tiie supre- 
 macy of the laws of the Union? In all cases where the constitution, 
 or law, or treaties of the United States came in conflict with the law 
 of any particular State, the Supreme Court, by the constitution of 
 the United States, have the final jurisdiction. The Union could not 
 .subsist without this power. The twenty-fifth section of the Judici- 
 ary act, provides the mode tor bringing these cases before the Su- , 
 premc Court, and without the aid of this section they could not be 
 brought there. The Administration party in the House ot Repre- 
 sentatives introduced a Bill to repeal this twenty-fifth section; that 
 party had strength enough, but they had too much patriotism to sup- 
 port the bill, and it tailed. It was often said, and never denied, a? 
 we have ever heard, that General Jackson favored the project and 
 regreted it.^ failure; that he complained that his friends deserted him 
 ♦'■utliat occasion; that he said the project, if carried', would have 
 drawn the teeth from the Tyrant, as he was pleased to denominate the 
 Supr'^mo Court. The Tyrant over the Legislative and our Execu- 
 tive, and that neither would be free till the Supreme Court was put 
 down. We firmly believe 'that he is prepared to concur in any pro- 
 ject, for impairing the efficiency of that department, if not, I'or de- 
 stroying the Department itself. The Senate of the United States, 
 the o-reat constitutional check against Executive encroachment and 
 abuse of power; and itself a co-ordinate branch of the Executive 
 power, is the constant theme of his abuse for the independent exer- 
 cise of its constitutional power; and also that of all, his partiza 
 presses, obviously to disparage the Department in the public estima- 
 tion, to impair its authority in the public mind, and to make it raort: 
 (Eubservient to his own will. 
 
 By the theory of our Government, office under it is a trust for the 
 
11 
 
 benefit of the people, and the impliedconditionof the tenure ofoflicc 
 is fidelity to tlie public. General Jackson has discarded that condi- 
 tion and adopted another: •i"-^ ♦''••* condition is fidelity to himself 
 personally. E»cry one knows that no man can Uave office, nor hold 
 office, but upon that condition. Every member of that immense corps 
 who holds office under him feels this to be his situixtion; and that no 
 mefit with his country would retain him in office a moment against a 
 competitor who had a merit which he had not, namely, the merit of 
 personal devotion to Jackson himself. Why this departure from the 
 theory of our Government? obviously to engross power and to hold 
 it ; to make the will of that immense corps subservient to his own 
 will. 
 
 FellowCitizens, can you believe that the constitution and the laws 
 arc safe when the Executive power of the country is in such hands? 
 Why there is no security for the safety even of the Union itself for 
 one moment. Suppose the case of a rebellion against the execution 
 of the United States law in any State, (such a case has happened and 
 may again happen,) and General Jackson should say the law so resist- 
 ed, is unconstitutional as I understand the constitution; and there- 
 fore shall not be enforced. Would not that rebellion triumph, and- 
 would there not be an end to the Union? In 1793 there was a rebel, 
 lion in the Stat© ef Pennsylvania against the execution of the excise 
 law; General Washington was then President of the United States, 
 and it was suppressed. Suppose instead of Washington, Jackson had 
 then been President; and he had deemed the law to be unconstitu- 
 tional (we believe he was among those who did so deem it) and had 
 therefore refused to enforce it; rebellion would have trampled over 
 the Constitution, and the Union would then have breathed its last. — 
 It would have died in its infancy, in its first convulsion, and this 
 Government then, instead of existing as it now does, would now have 
 been a matter of history, of a theory long past away ; and our Coun- 
 try instead of being what it now is, would have exhibited the frag- 
 ments and ruins of a once great United Government . The parts if not 
 reduced to dependant provinces on some European Power; nor to 
 despotism, under some fortunate military chieftain, (neither an im- 
 probable event,) we should have seen them distracted and exhausted 
 by internal wars, exhibiting a poverty and barbarism probably not un- 
 like what we see in the States on the Barbary Coast. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens, there are many other enormities in the history of 
 the present administration of the General Government, well calcula- 
 ted to excite our fears and to animate your exertions to efllect a 
 change; but which we have not now touched upon, nor alluded to; 
 as the proper limits of this address, has not permitted their develope- 
 ment. We hope and trust however that we have said enough to 
 proY« to you, that the present is the most important crisis, that hM 
 
•'j.er occ\irred it. the history of our Country since the revolution, c.\ 
 coptoue; then the question was whether the constitution should bt- 
 fcdoptcd; DOW the question is whether it shall be preserved; now, as 
 u:n. tho future destini*'-' -^ toe Country, nang ou-.ppnded upon thr 
 •, /ent which the crisis is to determine; and that you ought to exert 
 '.lursolTva accordinglv'.in the tcming contet^t. 
 
 ASHER ROBJVf^S * 
 TRISTAM BUR(aES. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 Fellow Citizens — 
 
 We have seen and examined Gov. Knig^it's late address to you 
 on the same general subject as the above; but discussing some top- 
 ics which this does not; we take this opportunity to say, that we con- 
 ur with him in the statements he has made and the views he ha^- 
 raken. ASHER ROBBINS. 
 
 TRISTAM SURGES. 
 
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