GREAT AND IMPORTANT MEETING OF DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS, At a meeting of the Democratic Republican Electors of the City and County of New- York, held at the City Hall, January 2d, 183S, pursuant to public notice, the call having been read, the meeting was- organized by the appointment of the following officers : — M. M. QUACKENBOS, President, Preserved Fish, James N. Wells, John Delamater, Henry P. Robertson, Gideon Lee, Edward Sandford, Andrew C. Wheeler, Ezra S. Conner, John R. Rhinelander, Frederick A. Gay, Effingham H. Warner, William H. Tyack, Daniel Jackson, George Greer, William Timpson, George Mills, Wm. B. VanNortwick, John C. Bergh, Cornelius C. Jacobus, Charles O'Conner, A. B. Haxtun, S. Jones Mumford, Eibridge G. Stacy, A. 0. Millard, VICE PRESIDENTS. Judah Hammond, Joseph Meeks, Samuel Swartwout, Benjamin C. Gale, William L. Morris, Levi Cook, Uzal P. Ward, Benjamin Birdsall, Isaac Adriance, Daniel Howell, Elijah W. Nicholls, Isaac Lucas, Burr Wakeman, John G. Rohr, John J. Cisco, James Harriott, Willett Seaman, Richard H. Winslow, James B. Murray, SECRETARIES. George W. Soule, Mortimer Demott, William A. Smith, Luther R. Marsh, Edwin Townsend 7 John Harlow, Isaac H. Underhill, Henry Anderson, Edward Jenkins, George Sharpe, John Harris, Amos Palmer, Peter S. Titus, Stuart F. Randolph, John R. Peters, Andrew Lockwood, James D. Oliver, Anthony Woodward, James C. Stoneall, James B. Douglass, James Dusenbury, Henry D. Gale, William H. Peck, and Isaac Townsend. Jacob V. Carmer, Caleb W. Lindsley, William WycofF, Jacob S. Baker, The following Resolutions were presented and unanimously adopted : — 1 . Resolved — That the present crisiscalls upon theDemocratic Repuhlican party to erect the standard of Jefferson and Madi- son, and to proclaim and reinstate the principles of '98 ; to frown upon every effort to engraft novel doctrines upon the great "es- sential principles" established by those patriarchs of democracy, and to maintain uncompromising hostility against all disturbing financial measures of government, and against all radical and destructive doctrines and sentiments. 2. Resolved — That, in a Republic, it is essential to the liberty, safety, and happiness of the citizen, that the government and its officers should receive their rule of action from the people; that when this vital principle ceases to operate, when the convenience of the many is disregarded or made subservient to political am- bition and self interest, it becomes a public duty to bring the ad- ministration back to first principles, to guard against future en- croachments, and by cherishing the spirit of liberty and curbing that of licentiousness, to secure at once the stability of the gov- ernment, and the prosperity of the people. 3. Resolved — That the past history of our country strikingly illustrates the truth of the declarations of Washington "that the foundations of our national policy ought to be laid in the pure and immutable principle of private morality." That "there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble connection between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity." 4. Resolved — That the course of the administration which has so deeply and suddenly affected the financial condition of the nation, and placed the general government in an attitude of open hostility to the institutions of the States and the business inte- rests of the people, and which is now coupled with an effort to unite in effect the sword and the purse, evinces the existence and predominating influence in our national councils, of a spirit which has greatly endangered and threatens to subvert our re- publican form of government, our social institutions, and indi- vidual happiness. 5. Resolved — That the scheme of destroying all state institu- 3 tions which has been deliberately formed, and which is now dis- tinctly and boldly avowed as an "ulterior object" which is so systematically and perseveringly followed in despite of popular suffrage, will, if successful, virtually annihilate the State sove- reignties, cast the whole power over the institutions and business of the country, into the hands of the national govern- ment, and accomplish the ultra federal design of consolidation, thereby practically establishing an absolute tyranny over these States. 6. Resolved — That the sub-treasury scheme is an important feature in the accomplishment of these "ulterior objects." That we have seen no reason to dissent from the declaration of the government press in 1834, stigmatizing it as a measure "disor- ganizing and revolutionary; subversive of the principles of our "government, and of its entire practice from 1789 to this day, "and which will incalculably enlarge the powers of the Execu- tive and expose the public treasure to be plundered by an hun- "dred hands where one cannot now reach it." 7. Resolved — That we cannot regard with greater favour the proposed substitution of a special deposite for the sub-treasury scheme, both contemplate the same odious principle of hoarding the precious metals, and shutting them out from circulation among the community to whom they rightfully belong — produc- ing violent fluctuations in the price of labour and value of pro- perty, making an invidious distinction between the currency of the People and that of their Servants, to the prejudice of the former, and we believe that the disapprobation of these measures, just expressed by the democratic State of Georgia, will be followed by an immense majority of the great republican family in the Union. 8. Resolved — That any system of national finance which leaves the public treasure under " the liberal supervisory powers of" any individual, or which has for its foundation " the volun- tary principle " recommended by the Executive, is unwise and inexpedient, and greatly harassing and vexatious to the People. 9. Resolved— That, since the " ulterior object " of annihilating the "Stale Institutions and destroying the paper currency of the People has been avowed, we look upon the late recommendation of a Bankrupt Law applicable to " Corporations and other Bank- 4 ers " as an effort to bring the business interests, and of the people under the control of the Federal Government. That on this subject we fully concur in the declarations made by the Honour- able Martin Van Buren, in the Senate of the United States, in the year 1826, when opposing the adoption of a similar project : that " now the attempt is to be made, if not in an open and une- u quivocal manner, at least in an indirect way, to strip the States u of the power of chartering Banks. That it interferes with the il regulations which the States may have adopted for the govern- " ment of these institutions, and is an odious exercise of power u not granted by the " constitution, and that this was never done u . and never attempted in any country on the face of the globe." 10. Resolved — That we distinctly trace the War upon our State institutions to the doctrines promulgated in this city in 1829, by a faction, of which Robert Dale Owen, a disciple of Fanny Wright, was leader, among the most prominent of which were the necessity of " a civil revolution which would leave " behind it no trace of any government that had not provided "for every human being, an equal amount of property on arriv- u ing at the age of maturity, and during minority, equal food, u clothing, and education, at the public expense," and which would totally subvert the existing " unequal appropriation and " transmission to posterity of the soil of the State and banking " institutions, as the great cause of the existing unhappy con- dition of society," and that the proper means of relief was " the election of men who, from their own sufferings, know how to feel, and from consanguinity of feeling would be disposed to afford the remedy. 11. Resolved — That the Democratic Republican party, or- ganized by our Fathers, and as we maintain it, has no principles in common with these Destructives, whether pursuing their " ul- terior objects " under their various names of " workingmen's par- ty," " anti-monopoly party," " equal rights party," or " loco-foco party." That their dangerous designs were held in merited con- tempt, until some leading portions of their policy were declared governing principles of the federal administration, and some consanguinity of feeling " was exhibited from high official sta- tions. 12. Resolved— That we observed with pain and regret that 5 portion of the late message of the President which refers to the recent elections and attempts to explain the result. That we deem it due to the character of the citizens of this State, and to the great cause of self government, to declare that the President has been in that respect grossly mistaken, and in his delusion has cast an unfounded reproach upon the citizens of his native State, and unwarrantably impeached the intelligence and integrity of an enlightened and incorruptible people. 13. Resolved — That we highly approve of the firm and inde- pendent stand taken by the Honorable N. P. Tallmadge, and his compatriots in the senate, in defending the rights and pros- perity of our citizens against the various experiments of these "new lights" in government finance and political orthodoxy, whose brief sway of the party organization has produced such general embarrassment in the business concerns of the people, and involved the administration in pecuniary and political bank- ruptcy. 14. Resolved — That those representatives in Congress, who have been officially denounced for daring to vindicate the sanc- tity of the public faith, and advocate the protection of private property, who deeming absolute aequiesence in the will of the executive, or ot his counsellors, to be a rule of despotic govern- ment, and not a portion of the Democratic Republican creed, have preferred the dictates of justice and conscience in coinci- dence with the manifest interests and plainly expressed will of the people, to the smiles of executive favor and the encomiums of the loco-focos, are entitled to the highest confidence and en- during gratitude of the people. 15. Resolved — That we approve the talent, zeal, and fidelity which has marked the course of the Madisonian, and recommend it to the support of our republican fellow citizens through the Union. 16. Resolved — That the various experiments made during the last few years to improve our currency and enlarge our spe- cie circulation, have ended in the derangement of one, and the total disappearance of the other. That the present sufferings of the people demand the application of practical sense, and the les- sons of experience to our financial legislation, and the retraction t 6 of steps hastily taken on which experience has shown to have been unwisely adopted. 17. Resolved — That the attempt to stifle discussion, and prevent the heresies of those in power from being exposed to the public view, by excluding the meeting of Democratic Repub- licans from Tammany Hall, notwithstanding the consent of the proprietor, and the approbation of the officers of the Democratic Republican General Committee was first obtained, is an addition- al evidence of the audacious and proscriptive spirit which cha- racterises the destructives, and of their determination to pros- trate liberty of speech and thought. 18. Resolved — That the act of excluding this meeting* from a place where most of us have spent our political lives, receives ad- ditional and fearful importance from the fact that it has been produced by the unwarrantable interference of Custom House Officers, in the pay of the Treasury Department, and pourtrays the dangers which are justly apprehended from a further exten- sion of executive patronage, in colors stronger than language can express. 19. Resolved — That we call upon our fellow citizens through- out the State, to sever all connection with the loco focos, and to rally under the old banner of Democratic Republican principles. 20. Resolved — That a General Committee of Vigilance and Correspondence, consisting of three members from each Ward, be forthwith appointed, with power to confer with our brethren in the country, to call future meetings, to aid in procuring an organization in the several wards, and to adopt such other mea- sures as may tend most effectually to arrest the progress of radi- calism, and maintain the ascendancy, and perpetuate the princi- ples of the Democratic Republican party. The following persons were appointed to form the said Com- mittee. GENERAL COMMITTEE. 1st Ward — Benjamin C. Gale, Thomas W.Wells, John R.Peters. 2d Ward— Willett Seaman, George C. Baldwin, Henry D. Gale. 3d Ward — John W. Degraw, William Tyack, William Timpson. 4th Ward — Elijah W. Nichols, Mortimer De Mott, Abraham R. Van Nest. 5th Ward— Joseph Meeks, John G. Rohr, John Harlow. 7 6th Ward — Oliver Woodruff, Isaac Adnance. Jacob S. Baker. 7th Ward — Levi Cook, John J. Cisco, James C. Stoneall. 8th Ward — Ezra S. Connor, C. C. Jacobus, Elbridge G. Stacy. 9th Ward— Richard B. Fosdick, Wm. L.Morris, Garrett Gilbert. 10th Ward— M. M. Quackenbos, Wm. H. Peck, Peter S. Titus. 11th Ward — Jeremiah Dodge, George Willis, John Heeney. 12th Ward — John Harris, Andrew Sitcher, Charles H. Hall. 13th Ward— E. D. Comstock, George W. Youle, Andrew Mills. 14th Ward — Alfred Stoutenburg, John R. Rhinelander, Edwin Town send. 15th Ward — Frederick A. Gay, E. H. Warner, Isaac Lucas. 16th Ward — James N. Wells, John Delamater, James Flannagan. 17th Ward — James B. Murray, Edward San ford, Isaac H. Un- derbill. Resolved — That the officers of this meeting be a Committee to prepare, forthwith, and publish An Address to the Democratic Republican Electors of the State of New- York, in conformity with the resolutions just adopted. Resolved — That Messrs. Winslow, Sanford, Gay, and Jenkins be a Committee to publish the proceedings of this meeting, to- gether with the Address and Resolutions. The officers of the meeting adopted the following ADDRESS TO THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN ELECTORS OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK. Fellow Citizens! On ordinary occasions the Democratic Republican Electors of the City and County of New- York would not take the liberty of addressing you upon the deeply interesting questions of our party politics and public government. The events of the last three years have placed the Democratic Republican party, to which we are attached, in a situation highly perilous and critical ; involved the commerce, navigation, manufactures, and internal trade of the country, in the deepest embarrasments, and inflicted the most unparalleled suffering and protracted distress throughout our once prosperous and happy land. In the midst of a profound and universal peace among nations, in the possession of all our former resources, and surrounded by 8 all the elements of our former enjoyment, we have been thrown into convulsions violent and unnatural, precipitated through long suffering into an abyss of ruin, from which issues forth nothing but a long train of evils and misery. In conjunction with these affecting calamities, and deeply connected with them as a pri- mary and aggravating cause, the spirit of radicalism made its open appearance, elevating its voice of destruction over the awful ruin, and demanding sudden and extensive changes of public policy in matters vitally concerning all members of society. The further manifestations of the same spirit has led to an organiza- tion of a new party, and the publication of rules of faith and practice, not known to the old Democratic Republican principles and usages, has endangered the Republican principle, threatened the destruction of institutions demanded by the exigencies of civi- lized society, and alarmed our citizens for the safety of " that state of property, whether equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry, or that of his fathers." Du- ring the early part of the period to which we have referred, these dangerous feelings and sentiments were confined to a compara- tively few individuals in the city of New- York, who have main- tained for several years a species of seperate organization, and acted politically with or against the Democratic Republican party, as the means of best subserving their own interests dicta- ted. Previonsly to the year 1834 they had been known as the workingmens' party, and in the autumn of that year, through the organization of a Trades Union, they procured a partial share in the honours of representation, at the hands of the Democratic Republican party. Our fellow citizens entertained but little apprehension of the general prevalence of radical and destructive sentiments in the community at large, and the confident belief that these danger- ous doctrines could never reach the elevated places in the govern- ment of the nation, until individuals, distinguished for their hos- tility to many of our civil institutions and the sacred rites of re- ligion, were chosen and installed as public legislators in our State and National councils. — Thus honoured, and receiving character through the errors committed by the Democratic Re- publican party, and deriving subsequently some countenance for a portion of their sentiments from the State and National ad- ministrations, "the equal rights" party openly endeavoured to 9 assume the lead, and make their dogmas the creed of the Demo- cratic Republican faith. That our fallow citizens may under- stand whither we are tending, while being drawn ihto this new vortex of revolution, we deem it our duty to place briefly before them the declared designs of radicalism, that the "ulterior objects" of the present movements maybe foreseen, and circumvented by the people. In the year 1329 the radicals of this city, organizing then as "the world ugmens' party," declared themselves "against Banks, Auctions, Charters, Exemptions of Church and Priests' property from taxation." and, in their published report at that time, call for the abolition of Banks, and furnish a plan which may have been the basis of the sub-treasury scheme of our own day. They declare against the existence of wealth, against the laws of inheritance by which property is to be transmitted to posterity, and demand a civil revolution, that no trace may be left of a government which has denied to every human being an EQUAL AMOUNT OF PROPERTY OX ARRIVING AT THE AGE OF maturity, and previous thereto, equal food, clothing and instruction at tke public expense. They call our citizens "robbers and plunderers," who deny to them the equal en- joyment of the "materials of nature, which" they declare to be " the common and equal right of all." They propose to accom- plish this "civil Revolution," by electing men "who, from con- sanguinity of feeling will be disposed to do all they can to afford a remedy." These were no secret proceedings of a band of conspirators against liberty and happiness, but the open sentiments of a pub- lic meeting, composed of many of the men afterwards forming the "equal rights," and now the "loco foco party," and having entire "consanguinity of feeling," with the loco foco party of the present day ! Fellow Citizens ! we have maintained a faithful, vigorous, and for a time, we hoped, a successful war against these innovations. The Democratic Republicans met them hand to hand, and over- threw them on the memorable occasion of their lighting their torches, and obtaining their distinctive name of loco foco, and triumphed in the election of an unpledged Democratic Republi- can ticket. Entertaining a generous disposition at all times to conciliate without sacrificing our principles, to promote the suc- 2 LO cess of our political party, we have since at times endeavored to bring the loco focos to the principles and usages of the Demo- cratic Republican party, and without surrendering our princi- ples, or betraying our cause to maintain its political ascendancy. These various efforts have established the conviction on our minds, of the utter and irreconcilable difference between Demo- cratic Republicanism and loco focoism ! We have uniformly found them acting in bad faith towards us, and our candidates, when professing union and concord: promoting the election of their own candidates, and striking off the names of the Demo- cratic Republicans on the same ticket, and presenting the extra- ordinary spectacle of a state of war against us, while we were under a treaty of peace with them. While this contest between the antagonist principles of Demo- cratic republicanism and loco focoism has continued unabated, but by our efforts to conciliate, occasional advantages have been gained by the loco focos, and their numbers have become en- larged by the addition of those who are studious of the current of executive favour, from the similarity traced between some ex- ecutive communications and portions of their declared senti- ments. These occasional coincidences have been greeted by the loco focos, as evidences of "consanguinity of feeling" on the part of the distinguished authors, but not credited as such by the great body of our fellow citizens until the past autumn. When the first message of the president was communicated to Congress, and published through the land, that document was hailed by the loco focos as the mirror of their doctrines and feel- ings, they hastened to assemble at their established place of meeting in this City to express the approbation "of the whole genuine democracy," "of a governmental system of finance foun- ded exclusively upon the constitutional currency " gold and sil- ver," and pledged themselves to rally around and uphold the present administration " in the speedy restoration of a gold and silver currency." The journal published in this city which was looked to as the fountain of ultra loco focoism recognized in the avowal of principles and recommendation of measures of that message, the principles which that paper had uniformly and zealously asserted, and honoured the President by expressing great joy to find them repeated from the representative of the ) 1 American people. — And yet this journal, claiming to he the origi- nal source of the "principles and measures" of the first message, had never claimed to he a supporter of, or been recognized by the Democratic Republican party! Had the^President in the first message expressly designed to secure the favour and support of the loco focos, instead of pre- senting himself -in the attributes which can win the affections of the American people and command the respect of the world," he could not probably have gained more applause from the loco focos, or more surprised the great mass of his fellow citizens! We have been active and zealous in effecting the advance- ment of the chief magistrate of the nation to his present elevated station. Many of us have been devoted to his political interests, and entertained personal regard and attachment towards him in less prosperous political seasons, and in early days of little pro- mise. We entertained the hope and expectation that the Presi- dent would come to the administration of the general govern- ment in a magnanimous spirit, that he would check the tenden- cy to depart from the old established principles and land marks of the Republican party, that he would adhere to the Republican principles avowed by Jefferson and Madison, as the basis of their respective administrations, and in so far as we might have "deviated, in concessions to the loco focos, would hasten to re- gain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety." We participated in the general surprise and disappointment with which the first message was received. We found measures recommended for the special and immediate action of Congress, which, in our judgement, were not calculated to aid the country in its distress, but on the contrary, to increase the difficulties and aggravate the existing disorders. These measures hacTnot been demanded, except by the loco focos, these comprising a very small part of the great body of our fellow citizens, and we avail- ed ourselves of the recommendation of the President, and gave the subject " a J hill and free discussion? At an early period after the publication of the first message, we assembled in public meeting and made known the results of li our dispassionate com- parison of opinions.^ In regard to the sub-treasury scheme and the national bank- rupt law, applicable solely to incorporations and bankers, we could not, as consistent Democratic Republicans, concur in the 12 recommendations of the President, and accordingly published our dissent to the world. Without entering into a particular ex- amination of the merits of these propositions in this place, it will suffice to remark that the sub-treasury scheme was originally an opposition project, introduced to the attention of Congress in 1834, and then disapproved of unqualifiedly by General Jackson and his Cabinet, by Vice President Van Buren, and all the De- mocratic members of Congress ; and the opposition of Senator Van Buren to the bankrupt law of 1826, and his declaring its in- terference in the regulations of the State governments " was an odious exercise of povier not granted by the constitution" was one of the most prominent of his acts which secured to him the favour and confidence of the Democratic Republican party. From the avidity with which the President's first message was received by the loco focos, and adopted as a faithful exposition of the views for which they contended, and from a perfect know- ledge of the total difference between Democratic Republicanism and loco focoism, and^a firm belief that " uncompromising and unqaltfied hostility " to loco focoism is demanded by " the hon- or and interests of the country." We have seen with deep anx- iety and deep regret a determination on the part of the national Executive to persist in his course, the tendency of which is to give the predominance to that faction in whose hands our citizens are convinced there would be neither safety to the public insti- tutions, nor protection to private property and personal freedom. We have shown to you the designs of some of these deluded men in the year 1829, and we know them personally ; and theirs is the general character of the factious, the turbulent and discon- tented in every free country. They are chiefly idle and unem- ployed, or filling small offices, and chiefly profligate in their per- sonal lives, having little to lose in property and nothing to hurt in conscience. We cannot better illustrate the insecurity of Re- publican Institutions and the danger of individual liberty and property in their hands, than by reference to their proceedings at a public meeting held last spring in the Park of this city. They were called together by handbills, posted in various parts of the city, bearing prominent inscription of the catch words used by their party, "the friends of equal rights," "opposed to all monopolies and special legislation," "in favour of a separation of Bank and State." After passing a series of resolutions propo- 13 sing to abolish all laws for the enforcement of contracts, the as- semblage proceeded in a body to the vicinity of the large ware- houses of domestic produce, and there sacked several stores in open day, in defiance of the civil authorities, and exhibited a scene of public riot, lawless violence, and wanton destruction ! Can we, who have witnessed this, be soothed into a state of insensibility to our danger as Republicans and Citizens. When we behold the common principles and sentiments of these men " repeated from the representative of the American people?" "When we behold the current of official confidence and commu- nication addressed to the leaders of these wretched men, and when by the new interpretation of old rules, and new glosses upon exploded doctrines and theories, a systematic and deliberate effort is making to create what in practice we believe will be found to be a strong consolidated Anti-Republican and irresisti- ble executive government? In the name of Jiberty we answer no ! We have yet, fellow citizens, our rights and our elective franchise, and we trust that we shall not J^e deterred from the use of the one for the protection of the other ! In view of this situation of the Democratic Republican party, we feel called upon to express our sentiments with deliberation and fidelity, and to summon those who with us, in embracing the Democratic Republican faith, consecrated themselves to the defence of the rights of the States and of the people, against the invasions of licentiousness and the encroachments of usurpation, to erect the standard of Jefferson and Madison, and rally on the old land marks of principle. We have chosen and placed in power Democratic Republican Rulers, who will not be unfaithful to their principles, if our political brethren remain true to them- selves. In a government founded by the people for their own benefit, and by the Constitution of which the will of the people is the paramount law, with frequent elections and vote by ballot, there is little reason to apprehend that any portion of our rulers will continually disregard the demands of the public interests, or insult the majesty j question the capacity for self government and intelligence, or impeach the integrity of the people. In other Re- publics instances have occurred in which the mere creatures of the people's will, raised by their voice to high stations, have, in the plenitude of their power, forgotten the source and foundation of their greatness, and swayed an iron sceptre over the people. i [ These innovators gained power by small additions, disclaiming all wish to possess it, while the eager hand was stretched forth to grasp it, and endeavouring to show that each new demand was but a shade different from that before acquired, until the very shadow of freedom was lost in the increasing gloom of des- potism. Kings have "refused their assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good," and our ancestors threw of the yoke imposed upon their necks by such a grievance ; but we have no petty tyrants in the growth of this soil of freedom " to fatigue us into a compliance with their measures " or to pre- vent our assembling " to oppose with manly firmness all inva- sions on the rights of the people." We declare ourselves friends of human liberty to the utmost extent compatible with protection, and friends of the Constitu- tion administered upon Democratic Republican principles, re- garding the People as the sole and safe depository of all power, principles, and opinions which are to direct the government. We proclaim an incessant hostility to despotism and tyranny in any and every shape, whether ruling with a dictatorial and im- perious sway by a single autocrat, or by directing and controlling a strict party organization with bitter and persecuting intoler- ance. We avow independence of mind, freedom of thought, freedom of discussion, "the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason," as the essential attributes of freedom; and the civil and moral obligation of all citizens to " improve their reason and obey its mandates" as the only safeguard in a Democratic Republican Government. We have witnessed many evidences that the practice under our government is an invasion of the theory; that public senti- ment is looked for from our rulers instead of from the people ; that the views of leaders have been made to control the party in- stead of the views of the party having controlled the leaders; that, in an appalling crisis, when general alarm and anxiety pre- vailed and the general enquiry has been from citizen to citizen " what can we do to restore the prostrate honour of the country?" some have delayed an expression of their opinion and said " let us wait until the message of the president appears and then we shall knoxo what to do ! That when considering the means of best promoting the general welfare and advancing the great- est good to the whole, others have enquired what the President 15 might think and not what the People demanded or would ap- prove. We have witnessed occasions in which some of the re- presentatives of the people, coming fresh from their constituents, thrilling with their feelings and burning under the sense of their dishonour and the discredit of our beloved country, in the gen- erous fervor of their hearts, have honestly blamed some errors and faithfully disapproved of some measures "their consciences did not sanction ;" and we have since seen in the columns of a journal claiming to be " distinguished by the present confidence of the Administration," laboriously endeavouring to destroy these individuals and strip from them the confidence and support of the People! Such things were not practised in the name of the Democratic Republican party in the early history of the Re- public. Permit us briefly to advert to the first course of the adminis- tration of the general government, and to the origin of the De- mocratic Republican party of the nation to ascertain the princi- ples upon which they were based, and to enable us to define our political course hy the rules of well settled authority and success- ful experience. General Washington was elected the first President of the United States, and had been the President of the Convention which framed the Consitution. He commenced his administra- tion by declaring to Congress that "the welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be di- rected." He early congratulated the representatives of the Peo- ple upon the fertility of our resources ; the increase of national respectability and credit ; and bore honorable testimony to the patriotism and integrity of the mercantile and marine portion of our citizens, declaring that " the punctuality of the merchants in discharging their engagements had been exemplary." He further declared that uniformity in the currency of the United States is an object of great importance and ought duly to be at- tended to, and that agriculture, commerce, and manufactures ought to be advanced by all proper means. He was succeeded by John Adams, under whose administra- tion there was a manifest tendency to enlarge the Executive powers of the general government, to encroach upon the rights of the States and the liberties of the people, and to hold up a consolidated and overshadowing central government. In oppo- t 16 sition to this course of things, to counteract this tendency of the general government and to maintain and defend the rights of the States and of the People, the Democratic Republicans of '98 united as a political party and elevated Thomas Jefferson. Their designs and desires were to limit the general govern- ment to the external relations of the States and foreign nations, and to the mutual internal relations of the States, protecting the rights of the States against consolidation, and through the separate State sovereignties, protecting the persons, reputations and property of the Citizens. The inauguration of Mr. Jefferson took place in 1801, and his address on that occasion embodies forth the great essential principle of our government as contended for by the Democratic Republicans of his time, and which Mr. Jefferson declared ought to shape its administration." We embraced these princi- ples in early life; we have made them the rule of our faith and the cement of our political union, and we here declare an inflexi- ble determination to maintain them in their purity, and to defend them in their excellence, as "the sum of good government." We describe them on the pages of this address, and a just senes of their deep importance and solemn truth will cause them to sink deep into your minds. Jefferson declares these great "essential principles" to be "equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or per- suasion, religious or political : peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none ; the support of the State governments in all their rights as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies ; the preser- vation of the general go vern merit in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home, and safety abroad : a jealous care of the right of election by the people ; a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided ; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism ; a well dis- ciplined militia our best reliance in peace and for the first mo- ments of war, till regulars may relieve them ; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority ; economy in the public ex- r? pense, that labor may be lightly burdened, the honest payment of our debts, and the sacred preservation of the public faith ; en- couragement of agriculture and of commerce as its handmaid, the diffusion of information, and the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason — freedom of the press, and free- dom of the person under the protection of the Habeas Corpus, and trial by juries, impartially selected. " These principles " says the immortal Jefferson, " Form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of rev- olution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes, have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic in- struction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust, and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety." Here we have given to us the great land marks of Republican- ism, " the creed of our political faith, the Touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust/' and " he who is not with us is against us," and against the publicly declared principles of Thomas Jefferson. In the messages of Mr. Jefferson to Congress he declares that " agriculture, .manufactures, commerce, a nd navigation, are the four great pillars of our prosperity," and states that " protection from casual embarrassments may sometimes be seasonably inter- posed." Mr. Jefferson was always happy to commit the affairs of our government to the collected wisdom of the nation, and pledged himself to carry the legislative judgment into execution, and tendered his cordial concurrence in every measure for the public good. Mr. Jefferson also stated, that " he looked to Con- gress for the measures of wisdom which the great interests of the country committed to them demanded," and "gave them the opportunity of providing the means which he was to execute" He submitted to Congress whether " the great interests of agri- culture, commerce, navigation, and manufactures, could be aided in their relations, and whether any thing could be done to ad- vance the general good as within the limits of the functions of Congress." And he assured the representatives of the people that in " all matters which Congress might propose for the good of our country, they might count on his hearty co-operation and 3 L8 faithful execution/' Mr. Jefferson assumed the administration of the Executive (not Legislative and Executive) department, and promised co-operation with Congress in every measure that might tend to secure the liberty, property, and personal safety of our fellow citizens. " To their wisdom" Mr. Jefferson " looked for the course he was to pursue^' and declared that " he would pursue with sincere zeal that which they should approve." These, fellow citizens, were the Republican practices of Tho- mas Jefferson in the administration of the government of the na- tion for eight years. In them we behold a faithful exposition of the great ''essential principles'' declared at the commencement of his presidential term, a beautiful illustration of the Republican principle in his unlimited confidence in, and attachment to, the representative government, and a just sense of the Democratic character of our government in his frank, incessant and unquali- fied devotion to the freedom and happiness of all. We look in vain to the messages of Mr. Jefferson, for any indi- cations of a fancied superiority, on his part, in devotion to the constitutional and to the performance of the proper functions of his office, over the representatives of the people, or charges im- plying doubts of the capacity or integrity of the people in the management of their private affairs or public interests, or any alledged superiority in competency and fidelity of the officers of the federal government over their fellow citizens, to keep and disburse the public revenue : or any urging of specific measures not emanating from the people or their representatives, by the whole weight of executive influence, or any " forcing of bless- ings upon the people" against their will, and convictions of pub- lic benefit. During the period of the administration of Mr. Jefferson, we had banks, and we had a paper currency, and the government received, and the banks kept the public money in the same cur- rency, that the people had always used ; and yet we do not find in the messages of Mr. Jefferson, any suggestion, that, had the extension of the Banking system been foresee!:, it would proba- bly have been guarded against by the framers of the constitution, or that the same policy which led to the prohibition of bills of credit by the States, would have also interdicted their issues as a Currency in any other form, or that it would be an evi- 19 dence of " intelligence and virtue," on the part of the people to abandon them, or that " the federal government would promote the aceompiishment of that important object /" We do not find in the messages of Mr. Jefferson, any qustion of the propriety of the government's receiving and using the same money with the people, or of the people's using their mo- ney, until it was wanted by the government for their own pur- poses, or any proposition " to return to the constitutional cur- rency of Gold and Silver,'' or any mention made of a seperation of "Bank and State," or the necessity of the discrediting bank paper, or any wish manifesting to urge on the people to " un- tried expedients." Mr. Jefferson needs no eulogy at our hands, as the bold and eloquent supporter of human liberty, and the rights of man. The author of the Declaration of Independence has not yet been cast so far into the shade, by the discoveries of his successors in the great science of political freedom, as to require us to brush away any mists before the resplendent glory of his political life and public sentiments. Mr. Jefferson viewed the government of the United States as belonging to the people, and not the people as belonging to the government. He viewed the office of President as an execu- tive office, to carry the legislative judgment into execution, that Congress were to propose matters for the good of our Coun- try, and that he was faithfully to execute them. Under this Jeffersonian form of administering the government, the great measures of the people's interests, the people's wants, and the people's wishes, were placed in the hands of their im- mediate representatives in Congress chosen by them for that purpose, being among them, feeling and enjoying their prospe- rity, or suffering their adversity, subject to their instructions, and accountable to them for their public acts. To this body, thus happily formed to accomplish the great ends of a good government, the constitution has secured to our citizens, the sacred right of petition and of application for redress and re- lief. During the administration of Mr. Jefferson, there were ca- lamities suffered by the country, bearing heavily upon the in- dustry, the interests, and happiness of large classes of citizens. Applications were made to the Executive and Congress of 20 the nation lor relief, the difficulties and embarrassments under which our citizens laboured, and the measures of the general government, capable of bearing upon them and promoting the public welfare, were freely and publicly discussed by our citi- zens, without any consideration of how far the will of the peo- ple might or might not accord with the will of their executive servants; the people spoke their sentiments without "waiting for messages of the President," and if the people happened to dif- fer with their executive officer, their was no official journal to denounce them as corrupt, and no longer Democratic Repub- licans. Hence, we do not find in the administrations of Mr. Jefferson any indications that the complaints of the people are offensive to the Executive ; or that the people are too restive under their bur- thens ; or any executive admonition, that " communities are apt to look to government too much, or any special reprimand to the people of our own country, declaring them especially "prone to do SO." Mr. Jefferson entertained great doubts whether our organi- zation was not too complicated and too expensive ; whether offi- cers and offices had not been multiplied unnecessarily and in- juriously, and he began the reduction " that it might never be seen here, that, after leaving to labour the smallest portion of its earnings on which it can subsist, government itself shall con- sume the residue of what it was intended to guard." And we hear of no applications from Mr. Jefferson to create a multitude of new offices, and to quarter upon us large bodies of office hold- ers to "take from the mouth of labour the bread it has earned." During the administration of Mr. Jefferson the State sovereign- ties created banks and passed such acts of special legislation, as ap- peared to them best calculated to promote the public welfare, and we do not find any assaults, or any open or covert efforts to de- stroy, or assume the control, ("through the liberal supervisory powers of the Secretary of the Treasury,") and Bankrupt laws of the State institutions. Mr. Jefferson's views of "equal rights, equal laws, and equal justice," were not so far affected by these acts of the people, through their representatives, as to induce him to make mention in his messages of the existence or tendency of this state of things; and the discovery of these alleged violations has been made by later patriots and philanthropists, who claim 21 a more "genuine democracy r ' thon that of Mr. Jefferson and the Republicans of '98. Mr. Jefferson regarded the Union and Con- stitution of government of the United States as a Federal Repub- lic, and claimed to be a Republican; and in his messages we find the sound and just views of a Federal Republican recognizing and giving just effect to the Democratic principle, but not the 1 doctrines of Democracy in the broadest sense of the word.' We have thus called your attention to what was, and what was not Democratic Republicanism, in the days of Thomas Jef- ferson's administration, and of the foundation of our political party. Mr. Madison succeeded to the Presidential chair, and through- out all his messages we find the same Republican views of the Executive character of his situation, and of the power and duty of Congress to provide the means, and of his constant wish to be instrumental in promoting the welfare, happiness and pros- perity of the country, that characterized the administration of Mr. Jefferson; and his public life and writings form a monu- ment of what constituted Democratic Republicanism in his day, alike imperishable and glorious. These principles and practices, avowed and executed by Jef- ferson and Madison, form the essential principles of Demo- cratic Republicanism to which we have ever been, and still are, firmly attached. They have given fortitude to faith, and pa- tience to hope, in seasons of adversity ; and crowning success to our political efforts. But the faction to which we have called your attention, are ambitious of power and hope to accomplish their objects by inflaming the desires of the people for change. The struggles of these members of society would but little effect the great social compact, unaided by other causes; but our citi- zens suffer a misfortune at the same time in the agitations caused by the government of the nation. Our Republic having been founded in compromises, contains some exceptionable features, when separately compared with abstract standards, and these as- sumed patriots and would-be exclusive friends of the people, seize on these points, and would rudely tear them from the struc- ture, even though they should bring down the temple of liberty on our heads. We would stay their mad, destructive, and ruin- ous efforts. We feel as Democratic Republicans and Citizens, that the sacred fire of freedom and the last hope of Republican 22 Institutions are deeply and finally committed to the American people We were organized as a political party in support of what Jefferson termed "the essential principles" of our govern- ment. If we falter in their support, if we suffer ourselves to be drawn from the ground which we originally occupied, we peril our sa- cred trust and jeopard the holy cause of freedom and self-gov- ernment. We ought not, we will not be guilty of such acts of parricide ! We have read the second message of the President, and are free to declare, that we do not find in his perseverance and ad- ditional suggestions in relation to the Sub-Treasury scheme, any thing to remove the weighty objections and appaling danger which destroyed it with the Republican party in 1834. when it was brought forward as an opposition measure. We cannot dis- cover in it any more friendly or less dangerous features, because it is now brought forward by a man whom we have supported. It was the principle and not the source of the project that caused the Democratic Republicans to repudiate it, and we cannot now support the unchanged principle because it comes from a differ- ent set of men. Principles are in their nature immutable, and as the Sub-Treasury scheme was an opposition principle in 1834, we cannot admit or believe it to be Democratic Republic- anism in 1838. We oppose the Sub-Treasury scheme, either generally, or in the special deposite form suggested as a substitute, not only from the many objections in principle to be urged against each, as shifting the balance of the Constitution, but also because it is brought forward as the great antagonist of the credit system, and its effects contemplate the destruction of the credit system. We are in favour of the credit system because it is the pecu- liar offspring of liberty, and we oppose the sub-treasury hard money scheme, because hard money is " the constitutional cur- rency of all despotic governments. We support the credit system because it is essentially Democratic, equal and universal ; we oppose the hard money sub-treasury scheme because solid wealth is exclusive in its character, and never circulates among masses We support the credit system because it is genial to liberty ; we oppose the hard money sub-treasury project because it is aristo- cratic in its tendency. We support the credit system because it 23 gives to activity, enterprise, and merit, an equal footing and chance of success with realized wealth, and we oppose the hard money sub-treasury scheme because it would check competition, build up strong, enduring, and overshadowing business houses, and destroy the Republican features of our government. We support the credit system because the people have framed it, and are identified with it, and we oppose the hard money sub-treasury scheme because it is hostile to the interests and against the ex- pressed wishes of the people. We are in favour of the credit system because it is friendly to the laborer and producer, and scatters its blessings upon the poor man as well as the rich. We oppose the hard money sub-trea- sury scheme because it would make large and princely fortunes for the now wealthy, and degrade the middle and laboring citi- zens to the condition of their slaves. We are in favour of the credit system because by it the poor farmer is enabled to obtain his lands and implements of husbandry, the poor mechanic his instruments of art and stock in trade, the laboring man his daily wages and constant employment, and every man who bears a tolerable character, coupled with industry, has a certain means of bettering his condition. We oppose the sub-treasury scheme because it will cramp the energies and blast the happiness of our people. We support the credit system because it has been the great lever of our advancement as individuals, and as a nation, in wealth and prosperity. It has enabled us to pay off an immense national debt, covered our lands with fertile fields, thriving vil- lages, towns, and cities ; constructed canals, rail roads, and man- ufactories ; increased commerce and navigation, and in the short space of half a century, elevated our youthful nation to an equal station with the Kingdoms of ages in the old world. We oppose the hard money scheme, because examples derived from Monarchies are not models for Republican imitation, and while we look upon the splendour of Kings, Princes, and Nobles of Europe, and the "gold glittering through the silken meshes of their purses," we behold the chains of slavery upon their poor degraded people. We support the credit system because it is a part of the great legacy of freedom and happiness transmitted to us, with our political rights, by our ancestors, and we oppose the sub-treasury scheme because it is " disorganizing and revolution- ary, subversive of the principles of our government, and of its 24 entire practice from 17S9 to this day." We oppose the sub-trea- sury scheme because it will plant a new phalanx of tax-gather- ers among the people, drawing from them by the strong arm of Executive power, their hard earnings and hard money, leaving to the people on whom they fatten, a naked subsistence, and a broken currency. We oppose the sub-treasury scheme because it will add another cohort to the army of officers of the general government now quartered upon the people, disturbing their de- liberations in public assemblies, interfering with and destroying the purity of their elections, and attempting to overawe all ex- pressions of dissatisfaction with the measures of the federal gov- ernment. We oppose the sub-treasury scheme because it will incalculably " enlarge the powers of the Executive," unite the sword and purse in his hands, contrary to the intent and spirit of the Constitution, endanger the safety of the public money, and "expose it to be plundered by an hundred hands where one cannot now reach it." We oppose the sub-treasury scheme because it is destructive of the industry, enterprise, prosperity, happiness, and independence of the people ! Since this scheme has received an official and executive coun- tenance from the departments of the general govenment, elec- tions have been held in several of the States of the Union, at which the candidates were supported on the grounds of favour or opposition to this dangerous project, and the ballot boxes have proclaimed with a decisiveness unexampled in our history, the attachment of the people to their own institutions, and their settled convictions against the measure. "Absolute acquiescence in the will of the majority is the vital principle of Republics," and the sub-treasury scheme has been submitted to this JerTer- sonian touch-stone and found wanting. We have referred to the origin of the sub-treasury scheme to show that it was never a measure of the Democratic Republican party, and to include this forlorn hope of the oppositton in the articles of Republican faith, it has been lately for the first time contended that whatever shall be recommended by the executive chosen by one party must be supported by the Democratic Re- publicans as a part of their political creed ! We warn you fel- low citizens against this dangerous attempt upon your own liberty and the freedom of your country ! To submit to this is to sacrifice independence of mind, freedom of thought, freedom 25 of discussion, freedom of conscience, and liberty of the will; to sacrifice all the great principles of freedom for which the pil- grims braved the perils of the ocean and sought an asylum in the savage wilderness ; to yield up all the manly attributes for which our ancestors declared their independence and waded through the blood of the revolution, and surrender a glorious birthright, without receiving even a "mess of pottage.'' But, we thank Heaven, fellow citizens, that it has not yet come to this; we can yet hold our servants accountable for their political opi- nions and public conduct to the sovereign people, and the peo- ple are not yet subjected to arraignment for their sentiments and conduct at the charge of their public servants. Fellow Citizens, — Is it not time that these agitating and ab- sorbing questions should be quieted and composed? Cannot the people purchase their peace, and stay the agitating arm of Gov- ernment, which rocks and shakes the social fabric and business affairs of our country to their foundations, without surrendering their liberties and institutions? It was generally supposed before the meeting of Congress at the present session, that the recent elections had settled the sub-treasury scheme, on the JefTersonian rule of acquiescence, in the will of the majority. The President, in his last message, has deemed it proper to look behind the bal- lot-box, and to judge of the causes which brought the people to the polls, and the motives and inducements which gave or with- held the votes, and to decide that the people have not really spo- ken. However eager we may suppose the advocates of the sub- treasury scheme to be, to escape the conviction of having totally mistaken the character of the people, we were not prepared by any previous Republican example, for any attempt to overrule or adjust the decision of the people through the ballot box. Much less did we anticipate that the patriotism and integrity of our citizens were to be impeached, their purity and intelligence questioned, or the sentiment proclaimed that the executive ser- vants and representatives in the councils of the nation, were not to be influenced by the suffrages of a majority of the voters of the State of New- York ! It is due to the character of the citi- zens of this State, and not less to the Republican institutions of our country, to declare that the President in his last message, in respect to our late election, and the cause assigned by him for the result, has adopted a most unfounded and wanton libel upon 4 26 our citizens of all political parties, only worthy of its original source in the official paper. We regretted this not only because a citizen of our own State had been induced to credit the infamous charge, but because we think it indicates that accurate informa- tion of the state of public feeling and sentiment is most unrigh- teously kept from the first magistrate of the nation. t Having assembled to express our sentiments to you in candor at a time when the people are " bound in sackcloth," and hum- bled in the dust of adversity, convulsion and ruin ; and when a proposition is strenuously urged which will put upon the Ser- vants of the People a golden livery, we cannot refrain from ask- ing of your reason and judgment, whether the federal govern- ment can stand exonerated from all participation in producing the distresses which the People are suffering? Whatever other circumstances may have existed, we believe that the financial embarassments and pecuniary distress have been highly aggrava- ted and protracted by the course of the executive department in respect to the currency. Let us look at the condition of the People of the United States before the system of experimenting commenced: — were we 'not the most free, the most prosperous, the most fully employed and happy people on the face of the globe? In what other country in the wide expanse of the universe, was the condition of the jk)or, the mechanical, laboring, and producing citizens, so thriv- ing, so untrammelled and free ? We have experienced since a series of measures of govern- ment and finance attended with distress, suffering, and want ; depriving the poor of their employment, the manufacturer of his purchaser, and closing up with general public and private bank- ruptcy. The highest prosperity has been suddenly changed to the lowest adversity, the greatest happiness to the greatest suf- fering and misery, the greatest abundance to need and want. And for what purpose have we been enduring evils more fearful and suffering more agonizing than the distresses of a state of war. Has it been to prepare us for an " untried expedient. ?" Who shall answer to us for its success? Who shall save us from b the ruinous consequences of its failure.? We are opposed to the " untried expedient," in both the Sub- Treasury and " Special Deposit " forms. We are opposed to 27 all separation and all discrimination between the government and the people. ' L We still recognise the people as constituting the government, and the money the people use and receive from each other, they will receive again from v the government. We avow ourselves hostile to any plan which imposes a condition that the public dues shall be received and disbursed in gold and silver only, as unnecessarily and oppressively tyrannical and arbitrary. Fellow Citizens — the crisis calls upon us to speak like free- men ! There is an urgency and haste in forcing this hard mo- ney measure so " subversive of the principles of our government " upon our representatives, which indicates a fear of the returning wave of popular indignation. The public feeling on this "dis- organising and revolutionary measure " is awakened, and the torrent cannot be resisted. The effort to check its expression, will but add power to the current, and the rights, liberty, and happiness of the people, will be preserved through their vigilance. While calling your attention to matters of public interest, we beg leave to direct your attention to a few topics within our own state. We apprehend that there has been a departure from the strict republican principle in one of the practices here, which in calling your attention to the old land marks, is worthy of no- tice. The Republican Candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, were originally nominated by the Republican Members of the Legislature, and they published an address to the Electors in connection with their proceedings. The movement of the people in the year 1824, caused an abandonment of the Legisla- tive Caucus, to make the nominations, and a State Convention was called in the year 1826, for that purpose, and has continued to be the mode of selecting candidates for Governor and Lieu- tenant Governor for the Democratic Republican party. The Republican Members of the Legislature, although no longer per- forming the office of selecting candidates, have continued to put forth an address to the electors, and have made the calls for the state conventions. We submit to you whether this is not an in- verson of principle, and causing the rule of party 'action to come from the servants instead of the people. These legislative ad- dresses have been generally framed with the aid of but few in- dividuals, and adopted by the mass of members, without the opportunity of an examination, and have afterwards been held 28 to contain the standard of political orthodoxy until the succeeding year should bring forth another test of political principle and measure of political conscience. It appears to us that the dele- gates of the people chosen for the purpose, and assembled in convention, are the competent and only appropriate Democratic Republican body, to make known their sentiments and intentions. We hold the Representatives, individually, accountable to the people, and would have each man answer for himself to his con- stituents ; but we would not have the people answer to their rep- resentatives, or to any set of men, for their own views and con- duct. We recommend this subject for your investigation and reflection, and tender our concurrence in the opinions of the ma- jority of our Republican fellow citizens. The currency of our State is also in a deplorable condition, demanding the early action of the people, through their repre- sentatives. Our citizens are compelled by necessity to receive and use as the common medium of circulation, the small bills issued by foreign corporations, while the banks of our own State are prohibited by law from supplying our citizens with this es- sential part of the currency at the present period. The exclu- sion of the small notes of our own State operates injuriously upon all, and subjects us to taxation in the interest upon the circulation to our Sister States. We arc in favour of a suspen- sion of the act prohibiting our Banks from issuing Bills under the denominatian of five dollars, that they may meet the wants and convenience of our citizens, and expel the foreign circula- tion. On the important subject of our State internal improvements, we beg leave to call your attention to its former grandeur and glory, and its present condition within our borders. During the administration of Dewitt Clinton, our S:ate acquired a standing for the extent of its public works, the boldness of its plans for improvements, and the sudden aud successful completion of their important details, worthy of its population and resources, and placing it in the front rank of the Confederacy. The noble example and proud results of this great employ- ment of our ample means and credit, have stimulated our sis- ter states to improve their territories and the means of inter- communication, and emulate us in the honorable career of ad- 29 vancement. But in the mean time the mighty and once active energies of our State seemed to have become paralized ; the works lately undertaken although of an important local, are wanting in a general character ; and our neighboring State Penn- sylvania has continued her gigantic efforts, undaunted by the obstacles of nature, unmindful of the doubts of the timid, and regardless of the sneers and reproaches of the envious and mis- judging, until she has become a powerful rival and dangerous competitor for the trade of the great West. Her Statesmen have most justly estimated her resources, and the rapid developement of her wealth and revenues ; and they have not paused in the discharge of their high and patriotic duties, to conciliate or ap- pease the factious or the designing ; no petty jealousies or dis- trust of her citizens or her strength has relaxed, her devotion to the public welfare and her rapid progress, now call upon the cit- izens of New- York to decide whether the "Empire Slate" shall take a second rank in the confederacy; — we feel proudly con- fident of the response our fellow citizens will make on this sub- ject. We cannot suppose that the Sub-Treasury scheme is to be re- commended within our own State, although we have seen some Resolutions of the loco foco's calling for it here. We cannot view but with abhorrence the proposition to collect the taxes from our farmers, the Canal Revenues, Auction and Salt duties, and interest on the Bonds and Mortgages, constituting the State funds, in Gold and Silver only, and to withdraw it from the people and hoard it in strong boxes. We conclude this address by again recurring to the distinc- tive principles of the Democratic Republican party as derived from its early organization and practices, and the necessity of proclaming and adhering to those principles from which the loco focos would have drawn us. In repeating our unwavering de- termination to maintain and defend these great "Essential prin- ciples" of our government, we may say in the language of James Madison "It is a contest which appeals for its support to every " motive that can animate an uncorrupted and enlightened peo- " pie to the love of Country, to the Pride of Liberty, to an emu- " lation of the glorious founders of independence, by a successful " vindication of its violated attributes, and to the sacred obliga- 30 " tion of transmitting entire to future generations, that precious " patrimony of national rights and independence which is held "■in trust by the present, from the goodness of Divine Provi- " deuce." M. M. aUACKENBOS, President. Preserved Fish, James N. Wells, John Delaraater, Henry P. Robertson, Gideon Lee, Edward Sandford, Andrew C. Wheeler, Ezra S. Connor, John R. Rhinelander, Frederick A. Gay, Effingham H. Warner, William H. Tyack, Daniel Jackson, George Greer, William Timpson, George Mills, Wm. B. VanNortwick, John C. Bergh, Cornelius C. Jacobus, VICE PRESIDEN Judah Hammond, Joseph Meeks, Samuel Swartwout, Benjamin C. Gale, W T illiam L. Morris, Levi Cook, Uzal P. Ward, Benjamin Birdsall, Isaac Adriance, Daniel Howell, Elijah W. Nicholls, Isaac Lucas, Burr Wakeraan, John G. Rohr, John J. Cisco, James Harriott, Willett Seaman, Richard H. Winslow, James B. Murray, John Harlow, Isaac H. Underhill, Henry Anderson, Edward Jenkins, George Sharpe, John Harris, Amos Palmer, Peter S. Titus, Stuart F. Randolph, John R. Peters, Andrew Lockwood, James D. Oliver, Anthony Woodward, James C. Stoneall, James B. Douglass, James Dusenbury, Henry D. Gale, William H. Peck, and Isaac Townsend. Charles O'Conner, A. B. Haxtun, S. Jones Mumford, Elbridge G. Stacy, O. A. Millard, SECRETARIES. George W. Soule, Mortimer Demott, William A. Smith, Luther R Marsh, Edwin Townsend, Jacob V. Carmer, Caleb F. Lindsley, William Wyckoff, Jacob S. Baker, izx ICtbrts SEYMOUR DURST When you leave, please leave this book Because it has been said " Ever thing comes t' him who waits Except a loaned book." Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library