06126 4249

Slade, Williaiii
An Oration. . .
Middlebury, Vt., 1829.

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1942

MR. SLADE'S ORATION.

 '8
PUiBClSRSP FOR TjaE BENEFIT OF THE AUTHOR.
From the Press of the Vermont Amel^can.
16^.

AN

ORATION,

PRONOUNCE!?

AW m^im^m^w^ ^^ww 4* mm^

BY WILLIAM SLADE, ESQ.

Published by Request.

JWrttrlrttttfi, 17t.
PRINTED BY OVID MINER.
MDCCCXXIX.

ORATION.

Friends and Fellow Citizens:
The occasion which calls us together is one of deep in
terest. It is interesting to us as Americans ; as patriots ; as
philanthropists ; as Christians. It interests the human race ;
for it is the birth day of a great republic, founded in the
principle that "all men are born free and equal," and ex
hibiting an experiment upon that principle which hope
embraces as the final refuge of persecuted freedom.
But the interest of this occasion is not limited to the
mere event we celebrate. We stand at the distance of
fifty-three years from it ; and the awful and fearful subli
mity of its origin, yields to the simple grandeur with which
distance invests it; while other objects are interposed to
claim our attention. In surveying them, we dwell upon
the early condition of the country; upon the interesting
epoch which brought forth our Federal Constitution ; upon
the character of those to whom was committed its early
administration; upon the subsequent developement of our
resources; and upon the severe test, to which, in the pro
gress of events, our political institutions have been subjec
ted. And we survey, too, the present interesting part of

the scene; exhibiting, as it does, a remnant of the Fathers
ofthe Republic, in the act of giving their farewell advice
to its children, and making their exit from the stage;
while we look around, and behold the institutions of the
country in their perilous transition from the hands of their
founders to a succeocling generation.
Looking back upon the conflict, which resulted in our
emancipation from the shackles and the oppressions of our
colonial condition, we admire the daring, fearless spirit,
which stood up in the face of a powerful oppressor, and
pledged " life, and fortune, and sacred honor," in the cause
of freedom : and we follow, too, with deep and thrilling in
terest, our country's fortunes through the tremendous strife
of arms which succeeded, and which terminated in her fi
nal triumph. But it becomes us to do more than gaze in
giddy astonishment and undefined admiration at the mere
events of the Revolution, or the exhibitions, simply, of the
tourage, and heroism, and intrepidity which grappled with
the strength of the British Lion, and compelled him to
loose his grasp of us. There is a moral sublimity in that
scene, to the just contemplation of which we should ele
vate ourselves, and upon which we should _^.c our contem
plation, until it transforms us into its own image, and in
spires us with all that was pure, and virtuous, and disinter
ested, and holy, in the patriotism of those times. And we
should do this, too, to some purpose. We should not kin
dle a flame to-day, which shall go out to-morrow. The in
spirations of this occasion should not resemble the boilings
of a cauldron under an open atmosphere, which are per
ceived, chiefly, in the foam and the noise they create.
They should rather resemble the regulated and efficient
force of the power, which Fulton's genius put in motion to
move the world. They should elevate us to a just sense
of the responsibility connected with the sacred trust com
mitted to us as freemen, and should become fixed and un
alterable principles of action, impelling and guiding us in

the discharge of that trust, in a manner worthy the imme
diate descendants ofthe Fathers ofthe Republic.
This, my fellow-citizens, , is the great end we should
always propose to ourselves, when we meet in remem
brance of our country's birth-day: and the well known
character of this community — the very face of the vast as
semblage of virtuous and intelligent freemen now before
me, gives assurance that such motive constitutes the pre-
sidii>g genius of this occasion.
And how, I may ask, can we better keep alive the fire
of patriotism, than by a frequent recurrence to the early
days of the Republic ; than by studying the character, im
bibing the spirit, and striving to walk in the ways, of the
men whose sufferings purchased our freedom, and whose
wisdom laid the broad foundations of our political fabric.
Those were, indeed, days which tried the souls of our fa
thers. They tried their love of liberty, their sense of justice,
their moral courage, their fortitude, their firmness, their pa
tience, and all the train of virtues which cluster in the love
of country. But they came forth from the furnace of the
Revolution, like gold seven times purified. British prow
ess had not daunted, nor British gold corrupted, nor Brit
ish power crushed, them. They were poor ; but it was a
virtuous poverty. Their wealth they had exchanged for
liberty; and they would cheerfully have exchanged their
personal interest, even in that liberty, to the end of their
lives, to have secured its blessings to their posterity.
From the hands of such men, our coimtry received its
Independence ; and to their hands was committed the dif
ficult task of framing a government, and commencing an
administration of it, which should secure the blessings of
that independence to themselves and their children. What
their valor had won, they proved themselves competent to
secure, by a system of government, which may justly be
regarded as the richest product of human wisdom.
How interesting is it to contemplate the condition and

character of the country, at the close of the Revolutionary
contest. It was burthened with a debt of seventy-five mill
ions. Its fields were a waste; its cities desolate. It was
withoiit commerce; without a navy; without manufactures;
without money. Poverty sat upon it like an incubus — But
it was free. Yes — thanks to the virtue, and valor, and pa
tience of the immortal band of revolutionary heroes; and
yet higher thanks to a watchful and sustaining Providence
— it was free. But in that very freedom there was dan
ger; — danger that a brave people, just emancipated from
a state of dependence, by the force of their own valor,
exerted through a conflict, distinguished for the severity of
its sufferings, should, in the moment of triumph, have mis
taken licentiousness for rational liberty, and spurned the
restraints which constitute its only guaranty.
But this danger they happily escaped. No people, be
fore, or since, have emerged from the government of oth
ers to the government of themselves, under circumstances
more favorable to a just estimation of their rights, or more
capable of infusing into a form of government the practical
wisdom necessary to their security. They were the de
scendants of the Pilgrims * — of a race of men whose very
existence was identified with the genuine spirit of free
dom : — not a mere freedom from external restraint ; but
freedom of thought, of enquiry, of judgment; a freedom
which elevates and ennobles human nature, and wliich puts
in motion all its energies. It was the same spirit which
broke the chains of Popery in the 16th century, and which
has been gradually gaining strength, and will gain it, till,
by its moral force, it shall move the world. It was this
spirit that put in motion the ball of the Ptevolution, that
defied the thunders of British power, and that finally con
quered an honourable peace.
But it was more than I have yet described. It was con-
* Strictly true only of tlic people of Ncw-Eiisland, but in a liberal sense,
of thp whole country, ns actuated by i(^ kindred spirit.

trolled and regulated by virtuous principle. It was disin
terested; it was benevolent; it was patriotic. It was
reared to maturity, too, in the light of revealed truth ; and
while it denied the right of one man, arbitrarily, to rule
another, it recognized the weakness and the wickedness of
men, and sought in a well regulated government, that se
curity which the spirit of the French Revolution sought,
in vain, in the fancied perfectibility of human nature.
Such was the spirit of that age ; and it formed the prom
inent trait in the character ofthe men, to whom was com
mitted the task of framing a government, which should
" form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure do-
" mestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro-
"mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings bf
" liberty to themselves and their posterity."
Happily for our country, and happily, we trust, for the
world, a Constitution was formed, as perfect, probably, in
its general outlines, as any which human wisdom is capa
ble of producing.
What an interesting spectacle is here exhibited! A gov
ernment founded upon the only just theory of human
rights; binding together thirteen independent sovereign
ties; and invested with powers, rightly understood, of de
veloping the exhaustless resources of a country, destined,
as we would hope, to become the mightiest empire on
earth, and to exert, by its physical power, and its moral
force, an influence upon a world of intelligent, accounta
ble beings to the end of time !
With how lively an interest must this,' and every future
generation regard the incipient operations of this govern
ment ; and with how much profit, as well as pride, shall
be cherished the recollection of the character of the peo
ple, to whom was committed the exceedingly delicate
trust of commencing those operations. They were patrir-
ots ; and patriotism, then, was something besides a name.
They were Republicans; and then Republicanism was a

8
substantial reality, deriving force and meaning from the
relation it bore to the great principles which had been suc
cessfully asserted in the war for independence. They
were intelligent ; for they had learned to think, — and learn
ed, too, that it was their right and their duty, to think, for
themselves. They felt the noble independence of freemen ;
for they understood what was meant by their being consti
tuted the sovereigns of the country, and felt the responsibil
ity connected with that high character. They were vigilant;
for they regarded themselves as sentinels on the watch-tow
er of freedom. They understood the value of the treasure
committed to their care ; for they knew what it had cost
them. They were uncorrupted, and incorruptible ; for they
had nobly triumphed in a cause in which property and life
hung in one scale, while liberty trembled in the other.
Such was the great body of the people ; and such, of
course, were the men to whom they delegated the trusts
contemplated in the Constitution. They were identified, in
interest and feeling, with the people they represented ; and
sought to do their will, in the true spirit of representative
responsibility, rather than to use the powpr with which
they were invested, to mislead the judgment, and control
the will, of their constituents. And what shall I say of
their patriotism.' Never did that noble paision burn with
a purer flame : never was devotion to country more ardent
and exclusive. Nor was it a blind devotion. They were
men of high intellectual attainments ; men who had been
raised up amid the conflicts of mind, which distinguished
the period immediately preceding the adoption of the Con
stitution, and who brought to bear upon every subject con
nected with the public weal, the efforts of sound heads as
well as honest hearts. And their bosoms, too, were stran
gers to the maddening ambition, which is the besetting sin
of more modern times. If they sought elevation, it was
less from a love, simply, of power, than from a regard to
the beneficent ends which it is capable of accomplishing ;

less from an ambition of mere personal distinction, and
posthumous fame, than from a sincere desire to strengthen
the free institutions which they had labored to establish,
and transmit them, in their purity, as a heritage to their
children. Thus weak in physical resources, but strong in the virtue,
the intelligence, and the patriotism of the people and their
rulers, an experiment was undertaken upon a form of gov
ernment, till then untried, in the success of which, were
deeply involved, not only the destinies of this Republic,
but the cause of human freedom throughout the world.
The experiment, thus undertaken, has been subjected to
the test of forty years' trial. It has been sustained by the
founders of the Republic. Their virtue, unsubdued by the
shocks of adversity, has proved itself equally capable of
withstanding the seductive influence of power upon its
possessor: while their wisdom, formed of the materiel of
plain, strong, practical sense, has guided, successfully, the
affairs of our country.
But while progressing in our onward course, we have not
been exempt from the trials which are the ordinary lot of
man, upon earth. We have been called to encounter the
jealousies, naturally excited by our growing prosperity and
power. Injustice has invaded our rights, and war has
visited us with its scourge ; while party spirit Jias shaken
our political fabric to its very foundations. But we have
withstood these shocks ; not so much from any supposed
inherent strength in our institutions, as from the influence
of the stern, incorruptible patriotism, and virtue, and vigil
ance of the men who survived the Revolution. They have
cultivated our soil : — they have educated the children of
the Republic : — they have been in our councils, and every
thing has felt their influence. Fifty- two anniversaries of
this day, have seen that gradually diminishing band of pat
riots rallying around the tree of liberty, which their toils had
planted, and their blood watered, and their wisdom reared,
2

10
to recount those toils, to survey their precious fruit, and to
send up ascriptions of praise to the Father of all their mer
cies. And where are they now ? Alas, the few survivors,
whose venerable heads, with their locks waving in the
winds of death, grace this assemblage, tell — impressively
tell !
Thus have rolled away forty years of experiment upon
our Federal Constitution. There are points of contrast
between the period of its formation and the present, which
it is exceedingly interesting to contemplate. Then, the
Constitution was an untried experiment. It has since en-'
countered the vicissitudes of time, has sustained the tem
pests of party, and the shock of war, and now stands the
proud monument, at once of the wisdom of its founders,
and the virtue and intelligence of the people who have
submitted to its authority. From three millions, our pop
ulation has increased to twelve. Our commerce, then just
released from the paralyzing grasp of colonial monopoly,
now spreads its sails to every breeze, traverses every ocean,
and brings to our shores the products of every clime. Our
navy, which, forty years ago, had not a being, has since
struggled into existence, ; and triumphing over both the
prejudices of our own citizens, and the supposed invincibil
ity of the " mistress of the seas," has forced its way to an
eminence which kindles the pride of our country, and
commands the admiration of the world. Our territory,
originally limited at the west and the south by foreign
possessions, now ranges from Passamaquoddy to the Gulf
of Mexico, and embraces within its longitude half the
compass of the habitable globe. The vast valley of the
Mississippi, which, at the close of the Revolution, consti
tuted a savage, wilderness frontier, which the foot of
civilization had scarcely dared to penetrate, is now cov
ered with millions of freemen, whose resistless ener
gies will soon climb the Rocky Mountains, and bear the
standard of freedom to the shores of the Pacific. The

11
capacities of our rich and varied soil have been developed.
Science has lent her aid to the arm of industry. Our val
leys teem with the products of agriculture. Our hills are
covered with flocks. The bowels of the earth have been
penetrated, and our mountains surrender to us their min
eral treasures. The mechanic arts have arrived at a point
of high cultivation ; and Manufacturing Industry, combined
with genius and enterprize, is making a progress which,
imchecked, will give solidity and strength to our national
independence. And with these rapid developements, have
been multiplied and extended the means of internal com
munication. Roads, greatly improved, now penetrate every
part of the country. Its most important points are con
nected, or connecting, by canals and rail-ways. The crook
ed places are made straight, and the rough places smooth.
Mountains bow their heads before the march of Internal
Improvement ; while the power of steam lends its mighty
energies, at once to move our commerce, and give strength
to our union.
And then, too, there is the general march of mind — the
planting upon solid and, we may hope, enduring founda
tions, institutions for the higher developements of our in
tellectual resources ; while a system of general education,
which none but a free government will cherish, and by
which none but a free government can be sustained, diffu
ses its life-giving influence through almost every part of
our country.
And Religion, too — the religion ofthe Bible, unshackled,
and uncontaminated, by a union of church and state, walks
forth in her native loveliness and freedom, erects her tem
ples in the city and in the wilderness, and exerts by her
sublime doctrines, her pure morality, and her awful sanc
tions, a salutary influence upon the intellectual, the social,
and the political condition of our country.
Such is our origin, our history, and our present condi
tion ; the outline of which, even thus imperfectly-sketched.

12
exhibits advances in improvement rarely equalled. But
while thus in the " full tide of successful experiment," it
cannot be concealed that our country is passing through
an exceedingly interesting crisis. Its institutions have just
passed from the hands of the men whose wisdom founded,
a^id whose parental care has been unceasingly exerted to
sustain, them. A new generation has arisen. They culti
vate our fields ; they occupy our workshops ; they bustle
upon our exchanges ; they fill our halls of legislation ; and
they give laws to our country.
To a free government, founded like ours in public opin
ion, and feeling, as it should feel, in all its operations, the
direct influence of the people,— such a transition cannot
be otherwise than momentous. The questions, therefore,
now present themselves to us with force and meaning ;— -
Have the high toned love of liberty, the sense of justice,
the vigilance, the firmness, and the patriotism of the Fa
thers of the Republic descended to their children, in all
their freshness, and purity, and vigour ? and have no caus
es come into operation tending to impair the strength of
these virtues, to control, unduly, the people's will, to put
out the light which should guide them, and to transfer the
power from the hands of the many to the hands of the few ?
It hardly need be said that in this stage of our national
existence, there is little danger from open and direct at
tempts to subvert our liberties. Upon such an attempt,
thousands of swords would leap, instantly, from their scab
bards, to defend the citadel, of freedom. But the danger
lies rather, and chiefly, at this moment, on the one hand, in
the indifference of the people to the affairs of government,
except when under the influence of the worst of all excite-
ments — party spirit ; and on the other, in the means which
the ingenuity of modern demagogues has devised to con
trol, by party discipline, the public will : — and it is painful
to add to these — the open and undisguised prostitution of
Executive Patronage, in the reward of intemperate parti-

13
sans, and in the subsidizing of a venal and a profligate
press. It needs no prophet to foretell the fate of this re
public, if the^e causes do not meet an efficient check in
the renovated virtue and vigilance of the people.
There is an utter fault in the moral goodness of this age
which strikingly distinguishes it from that of the period
immediately succeeding the revolution. Now, as then, in
deed, it feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, instructs the
ignorant, strives to reclaim the vicious, holds up the mir
ror of revealed truth, and does good to all men as it has
opportunity. But it does not, as then, appreciate the value
of our civil institutions. It is not as strongly, as it then
was, identified with patriotism. It is more disposed than
then, to regard government as a mere secular concern,
with which good men, as such, have little or nothing to
do ; and is ready to yield the guidance of public affairs to
the hands of busy, managing, unprincipled politicians. It
is, in short, insensible to the truth and force of the maxim,
that " eternal vigilance is the condition on which liberty is
vouchsafed to man."
I will not now stop to prove that "these things ought not
so to be." That they are so, is undeniable ; and that their
existence is utterly inconsistent with the fundamental prin
ciple of our constitutions — that the sovereignty is lodged,
and safely lodged, in the hands of the people, is equally
undeniable. And with this apathy of men of principle, is there not a
general, corresponding deterioration of the political moral
ity of the country ? Has not its standard become gradually
lowered.' — and are not the people prepared to^witness, with
comparative indifference, and, too often, with positive ap
probation, exhibitions of political profligacy, which would,
once, have roused the indignation of the entire communi
ty ? To put this subject in a strong light, I need only ask,
what effect Would have been produced upon the public?
feeling, forty years ago, by the declaration of one of the

14
most prominent newspaper editors in the country, that
?' all is fair in politics ?" And what would have been
thought of the first President of the United States, if he
had bestowed a highly important and lucrative office upon
the editor, who had not only uttered such a sentiment, but
had made it the uniform rule of his conduct ? And yet, in
this forty-first year of the administration of our govern
ment, has such profligacy been openly rewarded with such
patronage !*
The truth is, and it cannot be disguised — there was a
sternness, an inflexibility, and an elevation, in the political
virtue of the early days of the Republic, which do not be
long to the present period.
With the gradually extending influence of this political
paralysis, has sprung up a race of politicians, who can exist
only in a diseased state of the body politic. Destitute of
solid talents, and substantial merit, they do not seek to
gain the confidence of the public, by frank, and manly ap
peals to its virtue and good sense. With them, politics is a
trade; and falsehood, sophistry, cunning, and confidence,
constitute the capital stock employed in it. They are al
ways in the political market; are perpetually watching the
tendencies of the political interests and passions of men, —
ever ripe for political bargains, and never wanting in ex
pedients to effect them. Public trusts they consider as
treated, not for the public, but for individual, benefit.
They, therefore, regard them as a species of property, of
which they may freely make merchandise ; and every man
who aids them in obtaining the objects of their ambition, —
no matter how mercenary his motives, or unhallowed the
means he employs, is entitled to a " reward." And who
can describe the artifices they employ to operate upon the

* There are very few who need to be informed that the sentiment above quo
ted, has been proclaimed by iv[. M. Noah, Editor of the New- York Enquirer,
and faithfuUy acted on by him, during the whole of the late presidential con
test J and that the very same Noah has lately been " rewarded " by the Presi
dent of the United States with an office worth $3000 per annum !

15
public credulity, and mislead the public, judgment ? The
passions are sought to be inflamed, and prejudices to be
enlisted, by the use of watch-words and party names. Every
excitement is blown up to its highest possible pitch ; be
cause a feverish state of feeling is unfavorable to the exer
cise of sound reason, and an enlarged patriotism, and is,
therefore, precisely suited to the success of their opera
tions. Carefully studying the characters of men, they ap
peal to their pride, their vanity, or their interest, as either
may be discovered to be their ruling passion. Their whole
character, in fine, is purely artificial ; formed, not upon
the elevated principles which constitute the basis of the
character of the sound, upright, conscientious statesman ;
but upon principles of political expediency, adapted to the
ends of a selfish ambition.
But there is an instrument of power which modern inge
nuity has put into the hands of this class of politicians,
which deserves a more particular consideration. I need
hardly tell you that it is the Caucus Engine, impelled by
Party Spirit.
It seems to be a universal propensity of men in their
associated condition, to form themselves into parties. In
deed, wherever freedom of enquiry is enjoyed as a right,
and, especially, where it is, as under our free institutions,
almost enjoined as a duty, will the spirit of party be seen,
more or less, to operate. So universally true is this of free
governments, that it has come to be almost a settled max
im, that party spirit is necessary to their existence. And
this is certainly true, if, by party spirit be meant no more
than a mere difference of opinion, exercised in the temper
ate discussion of questions involving the public welfare.
Such discussions are indispensable to the wise administra
tion of a free government. They elicit truth, and serve
to establish the measures of the government " upon the
best and surest foundations :" and they may be, as they
always should be, conducted with forbearance and mode-

16
ration. But such, unfortunately, is not the party spirit
which has too much prevailed in the United States, and of
whose agency it is my present purpose to speak. It is vio
lent, vindictive, exterminating ; laboring less to convince
than to condemn, and aiming less at the eliciting of truth,
than the triumphs of victory. Even such a party spirit,
however, when connected with a contest of principle, in
volving measures of vital interest to the country, great as
are its evils, is to be preferred to the languor and indiffer
ence which nothing can provoke to discussion, and which
no public interest — not even the imminency of great public
danger — can rouse to effort. But if, in such case, it is only
tolerable, what shall be said of it, when, involving no
question of principle, and no measures of the government,
it becomes a mere personal contest between rival aspi
rants for popular favor, and their devoted followers ? And
who can paint the horrors of such a contest, when, to the
ordinary incitements to violence, growing out of it, is ad
ded the promise of the spoils of conquest, as rewards to the
greedy followers of the Victor Chief.' We have all been
in the habit of regarding party spirit as necessary to the
healthy action of a free government. But who that has
witnessed its conflicts in this country, and marked its des
olating progress, and, especially, that contemplates the
new character it has recently assumed, does not tremble,
when he thinks of the danger of committing the destinies
of the country to its maddening influence .'
And so far as excitements to vigilance are wanting, can
there be found no substitute for this infatuating, misgui
ding spirit? Have we so soon forgotten the primitive days
of the Republic .' Shall the example of its founders be lost
upon us ? Can we find nothing in their pure, invigorating,
steady patriotism, which will supply the place ofthe fever
ish, fitful operations of the spirit of party? Shall that
spirit rouse to their highest effort all the energies of the
soul; and shall love of country— the pure, the ennobling.

17
the exalted, the sacred passion, which burned intensely in
the bosoms of the fathers of the Republic, and led them
to meet the most appalling dangers, and even death itself,
with the calm, invincible fortitude of the martyrs ; — shall
this yield, in point of strength and influence, to the grovel
ling, debasing, degrading spirit of partizan idolatry ?
But if party spirit is thus dangerous in its ordinary opera
tions, what tremendous evils may it not inflict on the
country when its influence is concentrated, by the force of
party discipline, in the caucus system; a system by whose mys
terious agency, individual ambition may control the opera
tions of a party, with the same precision that a skilful gen
eral can direct the movements of an army of veteran sol
diers. The time has been, when the agency of a caucus sys
tem was beneficially employed to concentrate the strength
of conflicting parties ; when the magnitude of theprinci-
ples and measures involved in party contests seemed to justi
fy the employment of such an expedient, to give that effect
to the efforts, of men of the same principles, which could
only be secured by a perfect union. Such were the con
tests connected with the last war ; and such was the cau
cus system as applied to them. It was then justifiable on
precisely the same ground that it would now be, in the ex
isting contest between the friends and the opponents of the
American System. Indeed, a greater necessity" for it, in
its original form, perhaps has never existed, than now ex
ists, to enable the friends of that System to unite their
strength, to withstand the open assaults, and the insidious,
and, therefore, more dangerous, efforts, of its enemies for its
destruction. But the caucus system is not now what it once was. It.
retains, indeed, its original name, and, that it may exert
its baneful influence with surer effect, professes to rally un
der the standard of Republicanism. .But in the hands of am
bitious, designing men, it has lost its original character, and
become perverted from its original purpose. Its character
3

18
has become that of secret cahal; its purpose, the gratification
of individual ambition ; and its main instruments, intrigue,
and the prostitution of ofiicial patronage. Through its in
strumentality, a single individual may operate, unseen,
and yet with the most unerring efficiency, upon a whole
state, and even upon our entire confederacy. He waves
his magic wand, and an empire moves at his bidding. And
the tyranny which it exercises over public opinion, is of
the most degrading character. It demands the surrender
of the right of private judgment to caucus dictation, on pain
of excision from " the party;" — the party, whose existence
is, perhaps, nowhere to be found, but in the person of some
aspiring demagogue, whose practiced cunning has enabled
him to transfer the zeal once felt for the success of a party,
whose existence was identified with principles, to himself,
recreant, perhaps, to those very principles, and reckless of
every thing but his own individual aggrandizement.
Nothing can be conceived of, more at war with the ge
nius and spirit of our institutions, than such a system. The
fundamental principle of our government is the uncon
trolled exercise of the right of private judgment at the bal
lot boxes. Our whole political fabric rests upon this prin
ciple, — a principle whose life can only be sustained by en
lightening the understanding, and cherishing and elevating
the virtue, of the great body of the people. The modern
caucus system, on the contrary, adopts the maxim that " ig
norance is the mother of devotion." It seeks, therefore, to
put out the light, and to prevent the freemen (if there can
be any such under this system) from thinking freely and
acting independently; while, in its general tendencies, it
debases and degrades them, and, by degrees, makes them
ready and willing, and, therefore fit, to become the subjects
of a despot.
Such is the system which has sprung up to an alarming
maturity in a neighboring state ; elevating men, whose tal
ents and services have been principally distinguished in
their skilful managment ofthe machinery of party, and their

19
open defiance of the people's will. And such is the sys
tem which is now attempted to be fastened upon the whole
confederacy, and to be made, if possible, to control the des
tinies of this great Republic. It resembles the power of a
pigmy, cautiously and insidiously operating upon the
strength of a giant. It plays around him with its arts, —
lulls him into a fatal re{)0se, — shears him of his strength, —
and finally delivers him over to the hands of his enemies,
that they may put out his eyes, and make him an instrument
of sport in the temple of their idolatry.
And does not the success of this system, thus far, furnish
mournful evidence of our political degeneracy ? Would the
stern, inflexible independence of our fathers have borne it ?
Would not the men who should have attempted, forty years
ago, to put it into operation, have been regarded as trai
tors to the cause of real republicanism, — that republicanism
whose name it now audaciously inscribes on its banners ?
I have, thus far, contemplated the system of party, cau
cus discipline, as exhibited in its more limited, local ope
rations. And I would that I could stop here. I would that
I were not compelled to look at it upon a more extended
scale, and as exerting a more dangerous, because a more
general, and it may be feared, permanent, influence. But
it has been reserved to an administration of the national
government, brought into power under the pretence of re
forming abuses, and restoring the government to its primi
tive purity, and reinvigorating the republicanism* of the
country, to wield the whole of the immense patronage of
that government, to sustain, ineffect,^the very system I have
been describing. To this end, it employs the same agents ;
it appeals to the same passions ; it binds by the same influ
ence ; it holds out the same rewards ; and it threatens the
same punishments. Under the delusive name of " Reform,"
it enters the Chief Executive Departments, the Legations
of the United States at Foreign Courts, the Custom-Houses,

*Sce nolo A.

20
the Post-Office Department, and every department which
its power can reach, and thrusts from their places* tried
and.faithful public servants, for no cause-but their friend
ship to the late Administration; while it puts in their stead
the partizans of the victorious chief, upon the open and
shameless avowal that it is done to " reward " them for
their services to himself!
Who is so blind as not to perceive, at a single glance,
that this system of administration saps the foundation of
the Constitution ; changing the government from what it
is in that instrument — a governmentofopmon, founded on
the virtue and good sense of the people, exercised in their
free suffrages — to a government of infiuence, exerted, as in
Great Britain, through the dispensation of Executive favor ?
Such an administration relies for its strength, not on the
enlightened confidence of the people, but upon the mer
cenary attachment, and personal influence, of the thou
sands of officers, scattered through the country, who have
either received their places, or been permitted to retain
them, as rewards for partizan services ; and who, of course,
understand that they hold them upon the condition oi con
tinuing those services.
But the worst feature in this system of rewards remains
to be noticed. To make it the more effectual in accom
plishing the unworthy purpose of controlling public opin
ion, it has been applied, systematically, to the Press of the
country. Yes — the press, that sentinel on the watch-tower
of our freedom, is bribed — purchased ! — and that, too, not
in the persons of temperate, fair, upright Editors, but in
those of a precisely opposite character. More than twenty
of the most violent, intemperate, partizan Editors have al
ready been rewarded with valuable oflSces ; thus at once
lending the sanction ofthe government to the licentiousness
ofthe press, and holding out to every Editor in the country
a direct temptation to set a price upon his independence.
* See uote B.

21
And all this is done by the men who have, for four years,
been filling the world with clamors about the supposed
corruption in which the last Administration originated ! —
yea, through the agency of the very man who, but yester
day, told the world, that the reform of the abuse by which
the patronage of the government had been brought into con
flict with the freedom of elections, was inscribed on the list
of his executive duties ! !
Who does not see that the government, thus adminis
tered, ceases to be the government of the people, and be
comes, in effect, the government of one man ? No matter
by what name he may be called, — whether Emperor, King,
or President — it is his government, and not the govern
ment of the people. It is, to sum up the whole, the gov
ernment which has been the property, and in the undispu
ted possession, of the people of these United States, for
forty years, converted to his own use by the Agent entrust
ed with its management ; moulded by him into a party en
gine ; and wielded to corrupt and control the public senti
ment, and perpetuate his ill-gotten and abused power.
And what would the Founders of our Republic * say to
these things could they now rise from the dead, and survey
this scene ? Would this Administration dare to stand up in
judgment before them, for the deeds it is now doing ?
These measures may, indeed, receive the plaudits of the
zealous, unfaltering friends of Gen. Jackson, — of those
who think he "can do no wrong :" they may furnish a tem
porary gratification to the embittered feelings engendered
in the late contest, and enable malice to satiate itself upon
the objects of its hatred. But the end must come. Reason
will resume her empire; and justice, inexorable justice,
pronounce the sentence of condemnation.
And is it possible that it should be otherwise ? Will the
people of these United States deliberately sanction a course
of administration, which, if it shall be permitted to operate
* See note C.

22
as a precedent, must, necessarily, give to every future presi
dential contest, a character entirely mercenary ? — a charac
ter worthy, only, a conflict of gladiators .'—a fierce, embit
tered warfare between the Ins and the Outs, tempting to
the employment ofthe worst means, inviting the indulgence
of the worst passions, and poisoning the very fountains of
social intercourse ? Where may a few such contests be
expected to terminate but at the point where Revolutiona
ry France was filled with desolation and covered with
blood ?
Thus have we adverted to the character of the men from
whose hands our country received its independence ; the
early condition of the country ; the formation of our Con
stitution ; and the character of the men to whom was com
mitted its early administration. Glancing at the practical
operation, through our subsequent history, of the experi
ment thus undertaken, we have marked the contrast in our
condition, at the commencement and termination of the
first forty years of this experiment, exhibiting a develope
ment of our physical and intellectual resources, rapid be
yond the example of any other country. We have seen
the noble band of patriots and statesmen, whose valor gave
us freedom, and whose wisdom framed its safeguards, and
erected its defences, gradually disappearing from the stage ;
and we have marked the transition of our institutions from
their hands to those of their children.
We have looked too, at the character of the present pe
riod ; and have enquired whether the virtues of the Fathers
of the Republic, have descended, in their purity, to their
children. We have contemplated the political causes which
are operating to impair the strength of those virtues, to con
trol, unduly, the people's will, and to change, essentially,
the practical character of the government. Among these
causes, we have adverted to the character of a class of our
leadings politicians ; to the means they employ to effect
their purposes; to the influence of party spirit; to the
power of party discipline ; and to the concentration of all

23
these causes in the prostitution of the patronage ofthe gov
ernment, by the present administration.
And while, in making this survey, we trace, with delight,
the rapid developement of the resources, and the steadily
advancing strength and prosperity of our country ; while we
contemplate the characters of the great and good men who
have adorned, and. who yet adorn it; while we rejoice in
the noble efforts that are making by the wise and the good,
to ameliorate its condition, and, prepare it to become the
perpetual abode of freedom ; and while we raise our hearts
to the Giver of all good, in gratitude for these mercies, —
can we avoid the painful conviction that causes are in op
eration, which, unchecked, will blight the fair prospects
that hope presents to our vision of future good ? Can we
mark the progress of our political degeneracy, and trace
the insidious operation of the causes which have produced^
and are now deepening it, without feeling the most anxious
solicitude for our country's future welfare.' — ^without per
ceiving that a crisis has arrived of a deeply alarming charac
ter ? — a crisis, in which the great contest is to be decided,
perhaps for ages, between the machinations of faction on the
one hand, and the legitimate operation of the spirit of our
free institutions on the other ?
But shall we despair ? Shall our country — great, power
ful and happy, — possessing the best constitution of gov
ernment on earth, and impelled by motives of the high
est character to aim at a noble destiny, be given up to be
come the sport of demagogues, the prey of corruption, the
reproach of the world ? Shall we not, rather, gather strength
from the dangers which press upon us, and, rousing our
selves to an effort worthy the descendants of Revolutionary
Fathers, shake off the political incubus that now bestrides
our great empire .' — Methinks I hear the response of a mil
lion of freemen, saying — it shall be done: — ambition, and
falsehood, and delusion and imposture have triumphed — but
they shall triumph no longer.
But whatever may be the immediate result of the con-

24
test ; however auspicious it may be to the cause of truth
and our country, the seeds of our present political disease
will yet remain. They will never be completely destroy
ed, while unholy ambition shall continue to exist, and false
hood can exert an influence upon the credulity, flattery
upon the pride, or corruption upon the selfishness, of the
human heart. But if the disease cannot be entirely eradi
cated, there are remedies, the steady application of which
may keep it in check, and stay the work of destruction.
But they are no temporary expedients of political empyrics
— not mere local applications. They reach the seat of the
disease, and pervade, with their sanitive influence, the en
tire system.
I cannot approach this part of my subject, without feel
ing deeply oppressed with a sense of its magnitude and
importance. It embraces in its range, all the salutary in
fluences which can be brought to bear upon the moral and
intellectual character of the country. Neither the proper
limits of this address, nor my own strength, nor your pa
tience, already, I fear, upon the point of exhaustion, will
permit me to do more than glance at a general outline of
the means which must be employed to preserve the healthy
action of our government, and save it from the dissolution
which has terminated the career of all the Republics that
have gone before it.
The broad principle on' which all our systems of free
government rest, is, that "all men are created equal,"
and possess the right of governing themselves. The proper
exercise of this right, it is manifest, requires the effort of
mind — of mind that has learned to think — of mind that is,
in some degree, enlightened and cultivated, and that pos
sesses some practical knowledge, at least, of the nature and
extent of the rights and duties of freemen, and the interests
of the country, of which they are the constituted guardians.
Without this, it is plain, that no experiment upon a free
government can ever be permanently successful. Reduce
a people to ignorance, and they are thereby reduced to

25
slavery,— ^a slavery which may, perhaps, be tolerable — but
yet it is slavery.
But the necessity of intelligence in the people is not
stronger than are the tendencies to degeneracy, — tenden
cies which unprincipled ambition is ever laboring to make
more sure and effectual.
There never was, and there neVer will be, a free gov
ernment without the existence of demagogues, who " lie
in wait to deceive." They approach under every guiSe, —
they seduce by every artifice. With an intelligent and
discriminating public, they have no hope of success. Ig-
tiorance is the soil in which they vegetate, and a healthy,
vigorous state of the public mind, an atmosphere in which
they wither and perish. They labor, therefore, to shroud
the people in darkness, to excite their passions, to deepen
their prejudices, and to pervert their judgment. They
seek, in short, to use them as instruments of their ambition,
rather than treat them as the intelligent, responsible, in
dependent source of power.
To counteract these tendencies to political degeneracy,
an unceasing effort must be made. The public intellect
must be elevated to a standard befitting the condition of
freemen. Education must be thorough and universal. It
should be made, in effect, the business ofthe State. All the
children should become its children ; and the abundance
of the rich, and the pittance of the poor, should be cast in
to this fountain of life to the Republic.
And men must be virtuous, too. What is a freeman — ¦
especially, what is a public man, worth to his country,
who does not feel the impulses of virtuous principle ? It is
not always enough that he is too intelligent to be deceived :
he must be too virtuous to be corrupted ; too virtuous to
be moved by any considerations which come in conflict
with the claims of duty — duty to his neighbor, to his coun
try, and to his God.
A course of plain, simple moral instruction, drawn from

26
the pure source of Revealed Truth, should, therefore, be
brought to bear, systematically, upon the entire mass ofthe
children of the community. It will be good seed, sown in
good ground, that shall bear fruit an hundred fold.
And how much intelligence and virtue can be expected
to be ibund, where intemperance sets up its degrading em
pire ? What — an intelligent and virtuous drunkard ! Who
ever saw such a being ? Who among us, alas, has not, on
the contrary, seen intelligence degraded into stupidity, and
the germs of virtuous principle uprooted, by the brutalizing
indulgence in the intoxicating cup ? What are our inde
pendence, and our systems of free government, worth, if
Ignorance and Vice and Intemperance, are suffered to ex
ert their unmitigated influence upon the freemen of this
Republic ?
Bear with me yet a moment, fellow citizens, while I com
plete the promised outline of remedies for impending evils,
by simply adding — that the licentiousness and profligacy of
the press, instead of being "rewarded," must be made to feel,
and to feel heavily the restraining force of pvhlic opinion : —
the public sentiment must be elevated to a proper estimate
of the value of oUr civil institutions, and the dangers to
which they are exposed :^'the people must be kept alive
to a just sense of their legitimate power in the government:
— they must be made to feel, deeply, their responsibility as
freemen: — they must shake off the trammels, and discard the
shibboleths, of Party ; and take for their motto — " Our coun
try, our whole country, and nothing but our country ;" — they
must make, and thus cause their rulers to make, capacity,
uprightness, and fidelity the test of qualification for office :
— they mu^t, on no occasion, omit the exercise of ihe right of
suffrage, but regard a prompt and uniform appearance at
the polls, in the same light in which a soldier, devoted to his
country's service, would regard the duty of being uniform
ly found in the ranks :— they must all, habitually, consider
t\iQmsG\vea a.s sentinels on post ; remember that the enemy

27
is always on the alert ; and that, as a sleepy sentinel may
sacrifice an army, so may a sluggish, indifferent freeman
sacrifice his country.
And now I will only add — that if the faithful application
of these and kindred remedies shall fail to arrest the dis
ease which is preying upon our political system, and threat
ening its final destruction, — then, indeed, has the decree
of Heaven gone forth, that Liberty shall find no permanent
resting-place on earth ; then shall we have tasted its sweets
only to make more bitter the cup of slavery; then shall
oppression rivet anew her chains ; while Liberty, pouring
out her tears over a land unworthy of her blessings, shall
spread her wings, and speed her flight to her native
Heavens.

APPEJVDIX.

[NOTE A.]
During the whole ofthe late presidential election. Republicans were told that
General Jackson was the Republican candidate, and that under him the " great
Republican family" were to be reunited. To Republicans the same language
is still held. Gen. Jackson is called "the Repv^lican President:" his sup
porters are all termed Republicans — his opponents, all Federalists ; and all the
papers which disapprove his measures, are called "federal papers."
For the benefit of such as may have been, and are still, liable to be, deceived
by such artifices, it may be well to put by the side of these declarations, a few
facts. Immediately after it was ascertained that Mr. Monroe was elected to the
Presidency, in 1816, Gen. Jackson addressed him on the subject of the policy
which should be pursued in the formation of his cabinet, and in hia appoint
ments generally. On that occasion, he said — "In every selection, party and
' " party feelings should be avoided. Now is the time to externmate that monster
" Party Spirit. By selecting characters most conspicuous for their probity, vir-
" tue, capacity and firmness, without regard to party, you will go far to, if not
'* entirely, eradicate those feelings which, on former occasions, threw so many
** obstacles in the way of government, and, perhaps, have the pleasure and hon-
•' or of uniting a people heretofore J>oliticaliy divided. Tile Chief Magistrate
" of a great and powerful nation should never indulge in party feelings. His con-
" duct should be liberal and disinterested, always bearing in mind that he acts
" for the whole, and not a part, ofthe community. By this course, you will
" exalt the national character, and acquire for yourself a name as imperishable
" as monumental marble. Consult no'party in your choice. Pursue the dictates
"of that unerring judgment which has, so long, and sq often benefitted our coun -
" try, and rendered conspicuous its rulers."

28
In a subsequent letter to Mr. Monroe on the same subject, he sa^s, " Permit
*' me to add that names of themselves are but bubbles, and sometimes used fo*
" the most wicked purposes."
It may be well for those who have seen in Gen. Jackson nothing but the fath
er ofthe great Republican family, to consider, not only that the above advice
was given by him; but that it was given at a time when the lines of party were
yet broad and deep; and when, to have followed that advice, would have been
to do violence to the feelings of the great body of the Republicans, who consti
tuted a large majority of the country. Mr. Monroe, it seems, looked at the sub
ject in this light. He, regarded the advice of Gen. Jackson as premature; and
feeling an attachment to the Republican party and its principles which General
-Jackson, with all his subsequently boasted Republicanism, did not feel,-he filled
his Cabinet, as well as almost every office which it became his duty to fill, ex
clusively from the Republican party.
How plain is it, if Gen. Jackson s advice had been followed, that, instead of
being the " Father of the great Republican family" he would have been, em
phatically, the Father of Amalgamation ?
The propriety of calling Gen. Jackson the "Republican" candidate (or the
Presidency being thus tested, it remains to be seen with how much propriety
he can be called the " Republican" President.
The first act of his administration was, to bring into his Cabinet, and make
his confidential advisers, two " Federalists," Messrs. Branch and Berrien, in
the place of two distinguished " Republicans," Messrs. Southard and Wirt, who
had formed part of the preceding administration. Mr. Barbour, one of the most
distinguished "Republicans ofthe Jefferson School," and an equaUy distinguish
ed and efficient Governor of Virginia, during the last war, was next recalled
from London, to make room for Mr. McLean, a decided and uniform " Federal
ist." In pursuance ofthe same system, Mr. Pope of Kentucky, has been made
Governor of Arkansas, Mr. Baylies of Masssachusetts appointed to a Collector-
ship, upon the removal of a "Republican," and a great number of other officers
have been appointed from among the " Federalists ofthe Old School." So far,
indeed, has the appointment of " Federalists" been carried by Gen. Jackson,
that Mr. Walsh, the distinguished Federal Editor of the National Gazette, on
his recent return from a visit to the President, says : — " every patriotic citizen
" owes thanks and honor to Gen. Jackson. He has first disregarded the unjust
" and mischievous distinction of quondam Federalist and Democrat, in the
" choice offunctionaries of the highest rank." And the same declaration, too,
has been made in substance, by the veteran Federal Editor of the New-York
Evening Post.
It thus appears that the pledge impliedly given by Gen. Jackson in his ad
vice to Mr. Monroe, and which was actually urged upon the Federalists during
the late contest, to secure their support, has been redeemed, to the entire satis
faction of some of the most distignished of that party.
The writer of this does not complain that Gen. Jackson follows his own ad
vice. He does not complain, indeed, that " Federalists" are appointed to of
fice ; though he marvels, that " old Republicans," are, in many instances, remo
ved to make room for them. On the contrary, since Gen. Jackson has entirely
disregarded the spirit of his advice to Mr. Monroe, as well as his professions
on many other occasions, it is not without considerable satisfaction, that he
is found, in a single particular, disposed tn be consistent with himself. But that
the man who gave that advice, and especially at that time, should have been
held up in the face ofthe nation, for four years, as the exclusive "Republican"
candidate for the Presidency; and, especially, that an administration so con
ducted, as to draw from the most distinguished ofthe old " Federal" party the
boast that it " disregards the unjust and mischievious distinction of quondam
Federalist and Democrat,"— that such an administration should now be called
Xiie" Republican" administration, "uniting the great Republican family," is
subjecting the good sense of the country to absolute mockery. The histories
of all the popiilar governments that ever existed, are challenged to produce
another instance of deception equal to that which has been practised, and is stiU
practisiug, in the attempt to hold up Gen. Jackson as the palladium of " Re-
pubhcafwmi." Little ground as have the " Republican" party for confidence in Gen. Jack
son, the " Federal" party have, in truth, after all, as little. For, while his
amalgamating advice to Mr. Monroe has been urged upon the " Federalists " to
secMre their support, he has, at the same time, omitted no opportunity to pay

29
court to the prejudices of the " Republicans" to secure theirs. A striking ex
ample of this is exhibited in his celebrated letter to the Governor of Indiana in
February 1828. The Governor, it appears, had made certain enquiries of him
respecting his opinions on the subject of the Tariff. He repliedto these enquiries ;
and after referring the Governor to his letter to Dr. Coleman in 1824 for his views
upon that subject, closes with the following remarkable declaration — " I will re-
^' peat that my opinions remain as they existed in 1823 and '4, uninfluenced by the
** hopes of aggrandizement; and that I am sure they will never deprive me of
*' the proud satisfaction of always having been a sincere and consistent Repub-
**lican." Who suspected, who could suspect, they would deprive him of that
eatisfactionl For, what had those opinions to do with the /aci of his having been
Vi Republican ; or with the sincerity or consistency of his Republicanism; or
with the satisfaction, or even the proud satisfaction, arising from that sourcel
Why did he not say he was sure that his opinions about tne Tariff could not
deprive him of the recollections ofthe battle of New-Orleans, and the *' proud
satisfaction" which those recollections brought with them"? Is there a child
capable of reading, who cannot see that Gen. Jackson had an itching desire to
put forth, in some way or other, the idea that he had been ^Republican — a sin
cere and consistent Republican^ Is there a " Republican" or a *' Federalist" in
the United States who cannot understand all this'?
The real truth is, and it is vain to attempt any longer to disguise it, that,
much as General Jackson has labored to create the impression among *' Re
publicans," that his election was necessary to " unite the Republican family,"
and prevent the breaking down ofthe party, he has nevertheless not the slightest
claim on the confidence of that party : and after all his promises Sind fulfilments
to "Federalists," he has, in reality, as little claim on their confidence. He
would break down either party\ or bothparties to buildup nrs oww. And thus it
is, in fact; that under his administration, the old party distinctions, and, it is
painful to add, all distinctions, are lost, in the grand distinction between those
who have supported, and those who have opposed, bis election. No man's re
publicanism is, now, worth any thing — no matter how much he may have sacri
ficed in the cause — unless it has been melted down, and re-cast with Jackson's
image and superscription upon it; — while no man's federalism can escape the
penalties of the " Second Section" unless it has undergone the same purifying
iftnd transforming process.

[NOTE B.j
It was not the purpose of the author of this Address to allude in it, to the sub
ject of removals f omj so far as became necessary in considering the alarm
ing exercise of the appointing power. There are, however, a few arguments
which he finds frequently urged to sustain the present extraordinary exercise
ofthe power of removal which he thinks proper now to notice.
It is said that the removals are justifiable on the principle of " rotation in of
fice;" — that is to say — on the ground that no man, nowever capable or faithful,
ought to be permanently retained in any office; but that, after he has derived
from it a certain amount of supposed benefit, he must give it up to another;
and he, in due time, to another. The idea of rotation cannot be contemplated
a moment without perceiving that impartiality is essential to its very nature —
that all similarly situated in point of time, must be alike subject to its operation.
Now what must be thought of an administration, that removes, without any re
gard to time, men of one political party, and retains, without any regard to tim£y
all of the other party, and yet calls this the application of the principle of " rota
tion in office ?** Wnat is this hut an insult to the common sense of the whole
community ?
Itis sometimes attempted to justify the removals npon the eround that the in
dividuals removed have been partizans, and that Gen. Jackson wants men in
office who will do their duty, and not meddle with politics. If it were true that
all who have been removed fram office were partizans (though it is notorious
that very many of them were not)— it may, in the first place, be asked,— if
Gen. Jackson really wants to clear the public offices of partizanp, so that the
public business may be more faithfully done, why does he not dismiss the host
o{ his own partizans, who have been '* compassing sea and land," for four years,
to make proselytes to himself.^ It is as notorious as that he is President, that a W
those men are retained, and some of them actually advanced to more luoriafive

30
posts, And yet we are gr»vely told that Gen. Jackson wants the pviUe bvsineu
done ! But it may, in the next place be asked— who are the men whom General
Jackson appoints to fill the places of the warm-hearted friends of the late Ad
ministration, who have been turned out— iecause Ae wants the business done ?
Are they not, in nine cases out of ten, high pressure Jackson men, recommend
ed chiefly by their intemperate partizan zeal f and is there a sober, thinking
man in the country who believes that the appointment of such men, under
such circumstances, will have any other effect than to increase the very evil
which it professes to remedy t ^ t t r>
Another plea for removals is, that the President, being entrusted by the Con
stitution wfth the duty of " taking care that the laws be faithfully executed,'
cannot discharge tibat trust, unless the various subordinate officers, through
whose instrumentality the laws are executed, are in the exclusive possession
of his "friends." This is assuming that a man of probity and fidelity in all the
 ... . , A__ i__=__ ._i_.^ jl,g _..i,. .„

every officer, in effect, the mere creature ofthe President, instead of a minister of
the law ; and entirely merges his responsibility to the latter, in his supposed sub
serviency to the former. The government is thus converted frona a govern
ment of the Constitution and laws, into the government of an individual. It
is not " the laws," that are to be " executed," out the pleasure ofthe President ;
and as to the "faithfulness" of execution, that, according to the " reformed"
system of expounding the Constitution, does not mean faithfulness to the Con-
slitution and Laws, but faithfulness to the mon who dispenses patronage ! Carry
this doctrine into full effect, and how long will it be before " vive la Constitution,
will be changed to " vive Jackson"— and that, to " vive PEmpereur ?"
Another attempted justification of the removals is that peculators and default
ers have been discovered. So, then, it seems, that to have wrongfully obtained
the public money, or to have failed to account for what has been rightfully ob
tained, is a crime of a character so peculiar, as that a single case of the former,
and two or three of the latter* (the extent of the number which the administra
tion have dared to name). is sufficient to justify the removal of as many hundreds
of officers, against whom, individually, no one has ventured to intimate the
charge of default or peculation. WTiat strange process is this, that imputes tho
crime, or even the fault, of one man, to a hundred '^ And who carries this pro
cess into execution 1 Why, it is General Jackson ; who, to say nothing of his re
cent appointment of a public defaulter t to an important trust, has long cherish
ed as his valued friend, and confidential adviser, one of the most distinguished
defaulters in the country ;{ and among the first acts of his administration has
given that defaulter the most substantial proof of friendship and confidence, by
offering him the situation of Minister Plenipotentiary to France !
But when the doctrine of imputation fails, and the injustice and the cruelty
of insinv.ations are exposed, there yet remains one other resort. Wait, say
the right-or-wrong advocates of the Administration — ^wait, and you shall, by
and by, see a sufficient cause for every removal. As much as to say, — we ad
mit that the existence of incompetency, or unfaithfulness, is really necessary to
justify removals ; and, although it is not pretended that they have been discov
ered, [indeed, it cannot be, since, in the few cases of pretended discovery, ev
ery appearance of evil has been eagerly caught at and promulgated,] yet the
public may rest assured, that they will be discovered, and brought forth to the
astonishment of the nation !
If the existence of incompetency or unfaithfulness is not necessary to justify
removals, let the advocates of " reform '* say so, at once. But to admit, as most
of their attempts at excuse, do admit, that it is necessary, and vet, to admit, at
the same time, that no incompetency or unfaithfulness has 6ecn discovered, but
call on the public to wait until they can be, is an absolute mockery, at once of
justice and common sense.
* These latter cases are alluded to as though they were, in realiiy, all that
they have been alleged to be, by the advocates of proscription ; but without in
tending to assert that they are not suscMitiile of satisfactory eiplaruition.
t Wm. B. Lewis— Reported as a d^uUer by the 3d Auditor cf the TVcojun/, at
every session of Congress for the last seven'years—appoiiUed by General Jackson 2d
.4udi(or— Solarj/ $3000.
X Mr. Livingston, of Louisiana, a defaulter to the amount of ohe hurdrib
THOeSAHD BOLIABS.

SI
" Doth bur law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth ?**-^
Was the question of a Jewish Ruler to the persecuting Pharisees. It confound
ed them-; and it would now confound, and put to silence, and to shame, the po-
iitical Pharisees, who are " blowing before them the trumpet " of " reform,"
imd pressing into the " uppermost rooms," if they had not arrived at a pitch of
" blindness," and " hardness," to wliich no ancient descendant of Abraham ev
er attained.

fNOTE C]
The frequency, with which the name of one of the founders of the Republic,
(Jefferson) is invoked to sanction the present system of proscription, seems to
render it necessary to look, a moment, at his Administration.
Nothing could be further from Mr. Jefferson^ than the spirit of Jacksonism.
His Inaugural Address, as well as his replies to the Various addresses presented
him from different quarters of the country, breathed a very different temper".
They inculcated a spirit of "harmony and affection," of "union," of *' benevo
lence,*' of " mutual toleration," and of ** candor, moderation, charity and for
bearance towards one another."* Mr. Jefferson, indeed^ made a tew remo
vals — (less, itis believed, than thirty during the first ten months of his adminis
tration; and several of these, for the purpose of reappointing those who had
been removed by his predecessor, and several others for incompetency ;) but it
is a remarkable fact, that none of the grounds on which he placed those remo
vals, now exist, to render even plausible the course pursued by this Administra
tion. If Mr. Jefferson's acts are quoted as authority, the motives which he
himself assigned for those acts, must, certainly, (unless we have a "reformed "
Bystem of ethics,) be quoted also, as forming a patt of them. Those motives,
we find stated fully, in a reply of Mr. Jefferson to a remonstrance against the
removal of a Collector at New-Haven, Connecticut. In that reply, he says —
" During the late Administration, -j- those who were not of a particular sect of
"politics were excluded from all office; and nearly the whole offices of the
" United States were monopolized by that sect. I proceed in the operation,
" [of removing] with deliberation and enquiry, that it may injure the best men
"least, and effect the purpos-es of justice and public utility, with the least pri-
" vate distress ; that it may be thrown, as much as possible, on delinquency, on
"oppression, on intolerance, on anti-revolutionary adherence to our enemies."
He then proceeds to say — " It would have been to me a circumstance of great
"relief, had I found a moderate participation of office in the hands ofthe major-
"ity. I would, gladly, have left to time and accident to raise them to their
"just share. But their total e3:clui8ion calls for prompt corrections. I shall
"correct the procedure; but, that done, shall returuj with joy to that state of
** things, when the only question concerning a candidate shall be' — is he hon-
•'estl — is he capable '?^is he faithful to the Constitution 1"
It may now be asked of those who rely on Mr. Jefferson as authority, what
point of resemblance there is between his removals and thosfe of the present Ad
ministration'? The causes suggested hy Mr. Jefferson, as the ground ofthe few
removals made by him, certainly do not exist in the present case. Gen. Jack
son, on coming into office, found no "monopoly," no "total exclusion," no
"intolerance," no "anti-revolutionary adherence to enemies." On the con
trary, he found " in the hands of the majority *' /ar more than a "moderate
participation of office :" he met a retiring Administration, distinguished for it*
* See Inaugural Address, and replies to addresses from N^ewbury, {Pa.) and
from the Legislature of Rhode- Islatid.
t The friends of Gen. Jackson cannot hate forgotten the strong sensation pro
duced among the Republicans of 1 800, by the supposed abuse of Executive patron
age by the elder Adams. A striking exempUJication df it appears in a letter ofthe
celebrated Matthew L/yon, to John AdamSy dated March 'ith, 1801, at " 59 minutes
before one o^ clock, A. M. ," in which he says — " offices and officers, almost without
*' number, have been created and app&inted out of the favored Cast; while merit
** and abilities have been disregarded. Capable, discerning, and popular m^n,
" have, by you and your minions, been discharged from the service of their countryt
" without being vouchsafed a reason for their degradation."
Whether this was or was not fact, with regard to that Administration — no one
can doubt its truth with regard f&tbii.

32
bolitical tolerance; (a tolerance rendered more remarkable, by the extreme
bitterness, and violence, and wantonness with which that administration was as
sailed,) whose illustrious Chief had reinoved no man on account of his opposi
tion, howevfer violent^ to himself, but had often appointed the talented and
meritorious friends, even of bis competitor. Yet, Gen. Jackson has not only
come up to Mr. Jefferson,buthas gone to an immeasurable distance beyond him ;
and instead of manifesting a disposition to "return with joy" to the enquiry,
" is he honest, capable, and faithful," presses on with inexorable rapaci^, cry
ing—" give ! give !"
Smely, a greater insillt cannot be offered to the " Jefferson Republicans *' of
the United States, than the attempt to identify the administration of that great
iuan, with the vindictive^ exterminating " reform " of Gen. Jackson.
Wliile contemplating the subject of removals, in the light shed npon it, by the
practice of Mr. Jefferson, it seems peculiarly proper to consult another authori
ty, equally respectable, and, it requires uothing but the intervention of death, to
snake equally venerable. Few men have participated more largely in our pub
lic affairs, — few have better understood the genius and sfdrit of our institutions, — ¦
and_ few enjoyed i more fully, and more deservedly, the public confidence, than
Mr. Madison i— and it may be added, there are few whose opinions it will, here
after, be deemed more saffe to follow.
Mr. Madison was a member of the first Congress, which convened after the
adoption of the Constitution ; among the first duties of which was thatof orga
nizing the necessary Executive Departments of the government. It was on
that occasion that the very power of removal, the abuse of which is now exci
ting the public attention, came under discussion. Mr. Madison participated in
that discussion^ It was, on one side, contended that, upon a just construction^
of the Constitution the President could not exercise the power of removal^
without the concurrence of the Senate ; and the danger of vesting so large a
power — a power so liable to abuse — in a single individual, was urged to sustain
that construction. Mr. Madison thought differently. He contended that the
Constitution did not prohibit the exercise of the power in question; and that,
moreover, there would exist checks to the abuse of it, which would materially
diminish, if not entirely obviate th6 apprehended danger. In considering
these checks, he said :—
" The danger, then, consists merely in this : — the President can displace from
** office a man whose merits require that he should be continued in it."
[What " merits,'* can, according to the doctrines now esteemed orthodox,
"I rehire" that a man should be continued in office, — unless it be the merit of be
lieving that Gen. Jackson, in the sycophantic language of one of his Secretaries
—is " the greatest and the best of men 1"]
" What (continues Mr. Madison) will be the motives which the President
*' can feel for such an abuse of his power, and the restraints that operate to pre-
" vent iti In the first place, he will be impeachable by this House before tho
" Senate, for such an act of mal-administration ; for I contend that the wanton
"removal of meritorious officers, would subject him to impeachment and rem ov-
" al from his own high trust. But what can be his motive for displacing a wor-
" thy man V' ^ ^
So, then, it seems that, in the opinion of Mr. Madison, merit and worth con
stitute A security against removal from office,— a security strengthened, too, by
the President's exposure to impeachment and removal, for abuse and mal-admin
istration !— How would Duff Green and Gen. Jackson have looked in that as
sembly with their doctrine of "rewards and punishments'?"
Alludina;, afterwards, to the President's dependence upon the " popular
Voice," his liability to impeachment, and other circumstances connected with
his situation, Mr. Madison says—" Will' he bid defiance to all these considera-
" tions, and wantonly dismiss a meritorious and virtuous officer'? Such an abuse
" of power exceeds my conception.** Mr. Madison was, indeed, too pure, too
upright, and too just, even to conceive of " such an abuse of power." Ambition,
and vindictiveness, and favoritism had no place in his bosom ; and so confident
v^^i i/° ^^ efficacy of the checks upon the President's power, to which he
had alluded, that he thought them sufficient to restrain that high functionary
from an indulgence in those dangerous passions. How much he was mista
ken, let the history of Gen. Jackson's administration, thus far, tell.

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