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PROCEEDINGS AND ADDRESS 
 
 DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF OHIO, 
 
 IIGLiD IN THE CITY OF COtUMBUS ON THE EIGHTH AND NINTH 
 DAYS OF JANUARY, 1844. 
 
 COLUMBUS 
 
 SAMUEL MEDARY, PRINTER. 
 1844. 
 

t 
 
 PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 Monday, January 8, 1&14. 
 Tlie Democracy of Ohio, responding to tiie 
 call o( tlic Slate Centra! Committee, and in ac- 
 cordance vvilii ancient usage, this day met in 
 Convention at the City Hall, at 10 o'clock. 
 
 The Convention wns called to order by the 
 Hon. Nki.so.^ P'uANKi.iN of Pickawav, on wtiose 
 motion Col. WlLLl.V.M .MKDILL of Fairfield, 
 was chosen President yj/'o tempore. 
 On motion of Jamks H. Ewing, Esq., 
 Thomas J. Gallagheii of Hamilton, and Jon- 
 ATHON D. Morris, of Clermont, were appointed 
 Secretaries, ;)ro tempore. 
 
 The Convention thus being organized, Allen 
 G. Thurman, Esq. of Rosa county, presented the 
 following resolutions, which, after attempts to 
 amend, were adopted: 
 
 Resolved, Th^t the respective delegations from 
 the several Congressional Districts be requested to 
 meet during the recess of this Convention at noon, 
 and each delegation appoint one committeeman to 
 serve as a member of a comniittcc of 21 for the 
 nomination of permanent officers of the Conven- 
 tion. Also, one other committeeman to serve as a 
 member of a committee of 21 to prepare and report 
 an address and resolutions. Also, one other com- 
 mitteeman to serve as a member of a committee of 
 21 to rei>ort delegates to the National Democratic 
 Convention, and an electoral ticket. 
 
 Ee»<died, That the Secretary do now call over 
 the Congressional Districts, by their respective 
 numbers, and as each district is called, some dele- 
 gate thfrctrom do announce a time and place of 
 meeting of the delegation from such District. 
 
 In obedience to the last resolution, the delegates 
 from each of the districts then named the place ol 
 laeeiing during the recess. 
 
 E. I\I. Stain-to.v, Esq., of Jefferson, then offered 
 the tollowing resolution, which was agreed to: 
 
 Resohe'l. That the following method of nomi- 
 natnig a Governor by this Convention, be adopted, 
 viz: 
 
 1st: That the vote be taken by legislative dis- 
 tricts, according to the apportionment m the House 
 o( Repvcsuiitatives of the present session. 
 
 2d: 'i liat, during the recess, tho legislative dis- 
 tricts meet and take their vote, and appoint a dele- 
 gate from their district to cast its vote in Conven- 
 tion. 
 
 On motion of D. A. Roeertson, Esq., of Fair- 
 field, the following resolution was then passed: 
 
 Resolved, That the delegates from each of the 
 counties present, during the recess, be requested to 
 prepare and to present, to the Secretaries of this 
 Convention, by counties, the names of the delegates 
 in attendance. 
 
 The Convention then took a recess until 3 o'clock 
 this afternoon. 
 
 AFTERNOON SESSION — 3 o'CLOCIC, P. .M. 
 
 The Convention re-assembled. 
 
 [The names of the delegates were not handed in, 
 in full; and those handed in to the Secretaries, very 
 imperfect. Some counties are known to have had 
 double the number of delegates present, to the 
 names handed in. They are, therefore, entirely 
 omitted.] 
 
 On motion of John Brough, Esq. 
 
 The Convention proceeded to vote for 
 a candidate for Governor, by legislative 
 districts, each district giving as many votes 
 as it has members of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives in the General Assembly. The 
 result was: 
 
 For David Tod, of Trumbull county, 64 
 For Robert Lucas, of Pike county, 1 
 
 It was thereupon announced, that all 
 the districts represented, except Coshocton, 
 had voted for David Tod, and that lie was 
 duly nominated. Whereupon: 
 
 On motion of W.m. Sawyek, of Mont- 
 gornery coixnty. 
 
 The nomination was unanimously con- 
 firmed by acclamation. 
 
 On motion of Thomas J. Buchanan, of 
 Clermont county, 
 
 The President appointed the following 
 committee to wait on the nominee, inform 
 him of his nomination, and request his at- 
 tendance on the Convention; to-wit: 
 
 ThotnasJ, Buchanan, David T. Disney, 
 George Kesling, and Rufus P. Spalding. 
 
 Immediately after which, the following commit- 
 tee, appointed by the delegates from the several 
 Congressional districts to select permanent officers 
 (or the Convention, to wit: 
 From the 1st District— David T. Disney, 
 '■ 2d " F. A. Cunningham, 
 
 " 3d " Fielding howrie, 
 
 '■ 4th " William Hunt, 
 
 " 5th " P. Hoagland, 
 
 " f)th " William Craighill, 
 
 " 7lh " James Loudon, 
 
 8ih " T. J. Wiiiship, 
 
 " 9th " S. Ewing, 
 
 " 10th " William Trevitt, 
 
 " llih " A.H.Patterson, 
 
 12ih " 
 
 13th " B. W. Conklin, 
 
 " 14th " T. W. Peacock, 
 
From the lothDistrict — Jarnes McNutt, 
 *' Kith " J. B. K<x;h. 
 
 " 17th " A. L. Frazicr, 
 
 ]8th " J. W. Crawford, 
 
 19ih " J. B. Bullies. 
 
 20ih '.' R. P. Ranney, 
 
 " 21st " E. M. Stone, 
 
 Reported, through Mr. Disney, of Hamilton, as 
 
 follows: 
 
 President. 
 
 WILLIAM MEDILL of Fairfield. 
 Vice Presideiiti. 
 
 Wm. R. KEKRot'Hamilton, 
 
 John \V. Irwix of Eutler, 
 
 Fielding Lowrie of Montgomery, 
 
 Jonas Ward ofMianii, 
 
 William Blackburn of Allen, 
 
 Thomas GiLLESPiEfof Crawford, 
 
 John H. Blair of Brown, 
 
 Robert Lucas of Pike, 
 
 Wm. Gill of Pickaway, 
 
 Jonathan R. Taylor of Licking, 
 
 Wm. Robbins of Marion, 
 
 Arthur Taggart of Morgan, 
 
 William Blocksom of Muskingum, 
 
 J. C. Vincent ofHarrison, 
 
 D. P. Leadeetter of Holmes, 
 
 Robert Filson of Columbiana, 
 
 Benjamin Jones of Wayne, 
 
 J. D. Cummins of Summit, 
 
 John Sherman of Aslitabuia, 
 
 John McGregor of Medina. 
 Secretaries, 
 Thomas J. G« //oir /«<?»* of Han; ilton. 
 Jonathan D. Jlon-is of Clermont. 
 Dixon Fullerton of Ross. 
 Lucius B. 0//« of Sandusky. 
 John Stevens of Hardin. 
 P. B. Ankeny of Guernsey. 
 Franklin Stokes of Butler. 
 
 On motion, the report was unanimously 
 agreed to. 
 
 The committee appointed to wait on 
 David Tod, the nominee lor Governor, re- 
 ported that they had attended to that duty, 
 and that he was present. 
 
 The President then introduced I\Ir. Tod 
 to the Convention, who, thereupon, brief- 
 ly and eloquently addressed the assem- 
 tilage, in substance as follows: 
 
 Mr. President and Genti.e.me.n: I feci deep- 
 ly .sensible of ihe liigli honor you have conferred 
 upon me. This distinguislied mark of y>iur con 
 fidence, afl'ecls nie to the very iiciirt, and puts 
 it out of rny power to express the deep 8e:i88 of 
 gratitude I feci. 
 
 The nomination for the first office within the 
 gift of the freemen of my native State, ty the 
 Demoeralic parly, is an honor I never e.\pccted, 
 and 1 feci novcr deserved. True, 1 liavo al- 
 ways shown my attachment to Democratic prin 
 
 ciplesby a uniform and steady support of Dem- 
 ocratic men and measures, under al! circum- 
 stances, without rctrard to the constqueii- 
 008 lo myself. But this was my dutv. 
 
 Believing, as I did, at the age the C"n»titu- 
 tion secured l<> me the rif;ht lo participate in the 
 government, thai ihere was at the tune of the 
 formation of our national irovernment, and still 
 existed, a party who sought to take power from 
 the many, and to give it to the fete, hi provide 
 for, and protect the rich, at the expense of the 
 ;)oor, it was my duty to oppos-e lhr-m;and not- 
 withstanding tliat party were, in the section of 
 country in which 1 have spent my life, greatly 
 in th3 ascsndant, the odds being ten to one, it 
 would have been cowardly in me not to jhavc 
 gone with them. To oppose this party it be- 
 came nccessarv to attach mv-^elfto ilio Demo- 
 cratic party, for they, and they alone, litive ever 
 warred against this odious political creed. 1 find 
 nothing then, in my past life, entitling' liio to this 
 mark of your confidence, and can oi.'.y look 
 upon it as an additional instance of the unliound- 
 ed generosity of the Democratic parly, and as 
 an additional evidence of the sincerity of their 
 professions "that all men are born equal." 
 
 ]\Ir. President and Gentlemen of llie Conven- 
 tion, I tliank }'ou, from the bottom of my heart 
 I thank you — and if a steady, unwavering and 
 unyielding support of Democratic principles, as 
 taught bv those illustrious men, Jefferson, Jack- 
 son and Van Buren, throughout the remainder 
 of the days allotted me on earth, will be di em- 
 ed a sufficient return on my pari, for this mark 
 of your confidence, I here pledge you in the 
 presence of high Heaven, that you shull h'lve it. 
 
 Gentlemen, you represent a party whose princi- 
 ples are sure to triumph They showed a front in 
 Ohio, even in the dark days ot 1840, when every 
 thing conspired to prostrate them, of nearly 130,000 
 strong, "^rhey are contending simp y (or equal and 
 exact privileges to all. They ask only that ihu laws 
 should protect and restrain a!! alike. T!;ey do not 
 desire any thing for themselves, which ility are un- 
 willing to concede to others. Such, in hriet, are 
 the principles ot the democratic parly, and such 
 have ever been their principles, since they took to 
 themselves that name— a name they have honored, 
 are prouci of, and en r will be proud of. 
 
 It is their love for these principles that induced 
 them to insist that the manufacturer shall not be 
 protected al the expense of the farmer— that the 
 Danker should not be exempt from the imynicnt of 
 his debts, while the farmer is compelled to pay his; 
 hence, their insertion of what is familiarly call- 
 ed the "jirivuto responsibility clause" in bank 
 charters; and hence, their dittrmtnation to iryist 
 upon that clause. It islheir love for the-^c princi- 
 ples that arrays ihem in opposition to the estnb- 
 ment of a National Bank, giving to a few the con- 
 trol of the currency of the country, and the custo- 
 dy of tln' funds of the nation, and induce them to 
 urge the re-establishment of the Independent Trea- 
 sury law, by the provisions of which the tunds 
 of the people arc kept by agents of their uwn se- 
 lecting. 
 
 It is tlieir love for these princioles too, which 
 
 induce ihem to lake ihe foreigner by the hand and 
 
 welcome him to our happy land, and invite liim to 
 
 I participate in our government. \\'e fmd no">iative 
 
 ' Americans" amongst ihe deiuocrals. 
 
Can such a party, wiih such principles at heart, 
 fail to iiiuiiii)h? To doubt it, is doubling the capa- 
 city of iiii'i li>r self-government. They cannot fail. 
 
 But should \vc want further assurance of our 
 success 111 lie coining contest, wc have only to look 
 to the iircsfiit coiidiiion of our poluical Ojiponents. 
 By tlie dcaiii of President Ilarriton liiey are taught 
 the neces.-iiy of running candidates who dare "make 
 disclosures i«)r the public eye."' 
 
 Tliis is all that is necessary to insure their defeat. 
 Had the democracy in 1810 been able to have 
 driven tliiMu lo this, the result of that contest would 
 have been ' ir different. What we then lailed to do, 
 however, i'lesident Tyler, the man of their own 
 choice, has done for us; and ihcy will now place 
 before till' public, candidates whose prmciplea arc 
 too well known to require further "disclosures for 
 the pui)lic eye". Indeed, 1 believe they will have 
 for their e.mdidatc for the presidency a man, said by 
 them to be the very "embodiment of whig princi- 
 ples." Be this as it may, it Mr. Clay is their can- 
 didate, his principles must be theirs, for he has 
 shown to tiie world that he is not to be "palsied by 
 the will of his constituents." 
 
 Wo have only, then, to look to the political prin- 
 ciples ot .Mr. Clay to learn what measures the 
 whig party will adopt, if honored with the confidence 
 of the p-^ople. We will here find that they are in 
 favor of a liberal construction of the constitution — 
 or in other words, treat it entirely as a dead letter— a 
 h'gh tariff" tor protection, accompanied as it always 
 has been, with an extravagant expenditure of the 
 public money— an assumption of the debts of the 
 L^tates, to benefit the rich bond holder — a distribu- 
 tion of tiiii public domain; and to complete our ruin, 
 the re establishment of an United States Dank. 
 And we would further find this whifr party backed 
 up by the wealth of this nation, and a portion ol 
 Europe's; and that they would stop not until these 
 measures were adopted. 
 
 Such, f' How citizens, is the issue between us and 
 our opponents; and such being the issue, ivho can 
 for a moiniMU doubt the result. 
 
 Again, remember that the ballot-box is now pro- 
 tected by law. It cannot now, as in 1810, be pol- 
 luted by the touch of the "pipe-layer" — it is open 
 now only to the citizen of the district in which it is 
 kept. 
 
 And with all this, should any faint-hearted demo- 
 crat still doubt our success, let me point him with 
 pride and pleasure to the assemblage here at this 
 inclement season of the year, of thousands of 
 freemen, who have left their homes to testify their 
 attachment to the glorio"s cause in which we are 
 engaged, and surely he can doubt our triumph no 
 longer. 
 
 The following persons were appointed from 
 their respective districts to nominate to the Con- 
 vention, Presidential electors, and delegates to 
 the National Convention: 
 
 1st District. Oliver Jones, 
 
 2d " Robert Hazclline, 
 
 3d " Adam Iloiick, 
 
 4th " Andrew C. McLaughlin, 
 
 5th " John VV. Waters, 
 
 6tfi " Moses McAiiclly, 
 
 7th " Samuel M. Wallriven, 
 
 8th " John Hough, 
 
 9lh " John Chaney, 
 
 lOlh " Frederick J. Zimnicrinan, 
 
 11th ■' Thomas W. Bartley, 
 
 12th 
 
 13th " James M. Gaylord, 
 
 lltli District. Tlionns M. Drake, 
 ir)th " lldward Archbold, 
 
 Kith " French W. Thornhill, 
 
 17th " I'ldwiu M. Stanton 
 
 ISth " Peter J\uulVriian, 
 
 filth •' John M. I::dward9, 
 
 2ilth " Henry H. Dodge, 
 
 tilst " Ebenczer Warner. 
 
 This committeo reported to tlio Convention, 
 the following persons as 
 
 ELECTORS. 
 Senatorial ) Joseph H. Larwill, of Wayne, 
 Electors. ^ Dowty Utter, " Clermont. 
 
 FOR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTORS: 
 1st District, Clayton Webb, of Hamilton, 
 
 i2nd " James M. Dorsey, of Darke, 
 
 3d " R. D. Foresman, of Greene, 
 
 4th " Judge John Taylor, of Champaign, 
 
 .'ith " David Higgins, of Lucas, 
 
 Gth " Gilbert Beach, of Wood, 
 
 7th " John D. White, of Brown. 
 
 8th " Thomas Megrady, of Ross, 
 
 9th " Valentine Kclier, of Pickaway, 
 
 lOlh " James Parker, of Licking. 
 
 11th " John Bartrum, of Marion, 
 
 12lh " George Corwinc, of Scioto, 
 
 13th " Cautious G. Covey, of Morgan, 
 
 14th *' Isaac M Lanning, of Guernsey, 
 
 I5th " Walter Jamicson, of Harrison, 
 
 l6th " Sebastian Brainard, of Tuscarawas, 
 
 17tli " James Forbes, sr. of Carroll, 
 
 iS'.h " Neal McCoy, of Wayne, 
 
 19lh '» Milestone, of Summit, 
 
 20th " Benjamin Adams, of Lake, 
 
 2ist " Stephen N. Sargent, of Medina. 
 
 Which report was agreed to, and the above na- 
 med persons were appointed by the Convention 
 for Presidential Electors. 
 
 The committee also reported the following 
 personsas delegates to the National Convention, 
 to be held at Baltimore, on the 4th Monday of 
 May next: 
 
 JFor Senatorial Delegates. 
 
 Samuel Medary of Franklin, 
 
 James J. Faran of Hamilton. 
 
 For Congressional Delegates. 
 
 1st District, Nicholas Schoonmaker of Hamilton, 
 
 2d " Absalom Dunn of Butler, 
 
 3d " Edwin Smith of Montgomery, 
 
 4th " Thomas J. S. Smith of Miami, 
 
 5th " John Alexander of Allen, 
 
 f.th " Kodolphus Dickinson of Sandusky, 
 
 7th " Jonathan D. Morris of Clermont, 
 
 8th " Thomas J. Winsliip of Koss, 
 
 9lti " Samuel Ewing of Fairfield, 
 
 loth " J.ihn K. Miller of Knox, 
 
 llih " Thomas W. Bariky ol llichland, 
 
 i2ih " William Wall of Athens, 
 
 13ili '• James Culberison oi Perry, 
 
 lUh " Gordius A. Hall of Muskingum, 
 
 l.')ih " William C. Walton of Monroe, 
 
 ItUfi " John Johnson of Coshocton, 
 
 17ih " VViliiam 1). .Morgan of Columbiana, 
 
 imh " Samuel l/ihm ot Stark, 
 
 19th " Joseph Lyman of Portage, 
 
 ■JOth " George H. .Merwin of Cuyahoga, 
 
 2l3t " Horace K. Kendall of Lorain. 
 
This report was also agreed to and confirmed, 
 and the above named persons were appointed by 
 the convention as delegates to the Democratic Wa- 
 tionnl Convention. 
 
 Thereupon, on motion of Edwin !\I. Stanton, the 
 following resolution was unanimously adopted : 
 
 Ilesolvtd, That the Senatorial and Congressional 
 Delegates to the National Convention, be and they 
 are hereby instructed to support Martin Van Buren 
 of New York, as the candidate ot the democratic 
 party for President of the United States, at the next 
 election. 
 
 The convention then adjourned to 9 o'clock, 
 
 A. I\I., of Tuesday morning. 
 
 Tuesday Mornixg, 9 o'clock. 
 The Ck)n mention met pursuant to adjourn- 
 ment. 
 
 The Committee appointed by their sev- 
 eral Congressional Districts, composed of 
 the following named gentleman, to wit : 
 \st District — Thomas B. Drinker, 
 2(Z " Franklin Stoke.'', 
 
 3d " William H. Baldwin, 
 
 Alh " Thomas J. S. Smith, 
 
 bth " George W. Andrews, 
 
 6//i '• J. B. Larwili, 
 
 "ilh " Thomas J. Buchanan, 
 
 «//i " A.¥aR. Cassidy, 
 
 9//t " William M'Laughlin, 
 
 10//1 " B. B. Taylor, 
 
 ] \lh " Thomas Stringer, 
 
 \2tk " 
 
 \2tli " Aaron Johnson, 
 
 14//i " George W. Manypenny, 
 
 Volk " R. H. Miller, 
 
 16//1 " B. M. Atherton, 
 
 nth " Edwin iM. Stanton, 
 
 18//1 " Samuel Lahm, 
 
 l9//t " Daniel P. Rhodes, 
 
 IQtk " Samuel Starkweather, 
 
 21s< " John McGregor, 
 
 reported through their Chairman, Thomas 
 
 B. Drinker, ot Hamilton, an Address and 
 Resolutions, which were adopted and or- 
 dered to be published in the proceedings 
 of the Convention. 
 
 [The Address follows immediately after the pro- 
 ceedings.] 
 
 The resolutions reported with the Address, 
 are as follows i 
 
 Resolved, That all Governments arc designed 
 lor the benefit of tiie governed, and derive their 
 just powers from thtir consent; tiiat the peojile are 
 the only legitimate source of authority in Ciovern- 
 mont; that it is the inherent right of every people 
 to alter or abolish, at will, an existing Govern- 
 ment; aiifl that nttiversai ecjiinlity in political rights, 
 privileges, imd immunities, is the only just basis 
 of Cnjvernmeni we regard as the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of all demoerncy. 
 
 IxegoU'i'l, That the Government of tlie United 
 States is the result of a compact between separate, 
 independent and sovereign States, iind that uH its 
 
 powers are derived from the terms of that com- 
 pact as expressed in the Constitution, as the bond 
 of Union under it; that the Constitution of the 
 United States, as such a bond, must be strictly 
 construed; and, consequently, that the Govern- 
 ment of the United States has no other powers 
 than such as are e.xpressly granted in iiu:t instru- 
 ment, or indisijensibly "necessary and proper to 
 carry into eflect'" the grantad powers. 
 
 fiisolvtd, That the power to incorporate a bank 
 is not one of the powers granted to the federal 
 Government by the Constitution; that such an in- 
 stitution is neither "necessary" nor "proper," with- 
 in tlie meaning of the Constitution, to carry into 
 effect any power granted; nor is it incidental to any 
 of them; that it was the design of the fiamers of 
 the Constitution to create a Government which 
 should avoid the evils of a system of Government 
 paper money, by denying it the right to create a 
 paper currency; that we regard the chart ling of a 
 bank by Congress not only as a direct assumption 
 of power not authorized ijy the Constitu;ion, but 
 as an infringement of the rights of tha States, as 
 dangerous to the Just indepelidence and integrity 
 of the Government, and fraught with immment 
 peril to the rights and libertiesljf the people. 
 
 Ecuolved, That while we are opposed to a high 
 protective tariti", for the sake of protection, regard- 
 ing it as a departure from the true spirit of the 
 Constitution — as unequal in its operation — as i:n- 
 posing heavy burdens of taxation upon the many 
 for the benctit of a few — as tending to depress com- 
 merce, and to diminish revenue, and to create the 
 necessity for direct taxation by the federal Govern- 
 ment; we are friendly to a discriminating revenue 
 tariff, such as will ensure a revenue sulr.Lient for 
 an economical and republican administration of 
 the Government, and afford as much incidental 
 protection to the American manufacturer, as we 
 believe his interests require. 
 
 liesolvid. That a distribution of the proceeds of 
 the sales of public lands among the several Stales 
 by the General Government, is a violation of the 
 sacred trust reposed in the Governmeiu of the 
 United States, by the States, who ceedid a portion 
 of those lands "for the co;nmon benefit ot all the 
 States," and not for the particular bentllt of each 
 State separately; and a departure from common 
 justice, as regards that large and valuable portion, 
 purchased by treaty with foreign nations, with the 
 common funds of the people ol the United States, 
 drawn from the National Treasury for the jturpose. 
 
 Ecsoh'ed. That we are inexorably oppi)sed to 
 any assumption of the debts of thcSictes, by the 
 Government of the Ignited Stales, regarding such 
 assump'.ioii as a violation of the Constitution of 
 the United States, as subversive of State sovreign- 
 ty and independence, destructive of the ju?t boun- 
 daries between the State and (Jeneral Govirnment, 
 established and defined by theConsiitution, as tend- 
 ing to render the States mere pensioners upon the 
 Federal Treasury, as creating an immense Na- 
 tional debt, and the apology, if not absolute ne- 
 cessity for a National Bank, a high protective tariff, 
 with the whole train of federal schemes and meas- 
 ures. 
 
 Jicsolrid, That we are opposed to any modifica- 
 tion of tiie Constitution, in respect to the veto of 
 the President— not regarding it in the light of an 
 odious one man power; but as a necessary ingredi- 
 ent in the legislative authority of the nation, as a 
 power necessary to j)rotect the country and the 
 rights of the pcoplt", against unwise, hasty, unjust 
 and factious legislation by a small congressional 
 mnjority, to secure the proper independence of the 
 
Executive against legislative encroachments— de- 
 signed by tile Constitution to ensure his responsi- 
 bility, and as the conservative power of the Consti- 
 tution against infractions by a party congressional 
 mnjority. 
 
 Resolved, That we are utterly opposed to a na- 
 tional or a state debt— that we regard ail public 
 
 "A strict construction of the Conslition; a ri- 
 gid restriction of the action of the Federal Gov- 
 crnment, to the limits priscribcd by theConsli- 
 tution;and the preservation to the Slates and 
 the people, of their reserved rights; no national 
 debt; no assumption of the debts of the States by 
 
 debts among the greatest evils that can be inthctcd \ l'>« t-eneral Government; no National Uank. or 
 upon any people, that thev arc especially inimical I l^r'l'ah Lxchequer; complete separation of the 
 to the interest of a llepublic, and dangerous to the Government from Banks; no distribution of the 
 
 rights and liberties of the people. 
 
 Hesoloed, That the times demands thorough 
 retrenchment and reform in all the departments 
 of the government, both State and National. — 
 Retrenchment and reform were promibcd us by 
 tho wliigs bpfore election, only to abuse our con- 
 fidence aflencurd. They have increased the 
 public expenditures, they have augmented the 
 national debt, and in the face of Ogle's Omnibus 
 of lies, tiiey asked and obtained new appropria 
 tions to furnish the White Mouse; they bestowed 
 upon the opulent widow of General Harrison, a 
 gratuity of twenty five thousand dollars, and 
 refused to refund to the patriot Jackson, the 
 line imposed upon him by a tory judge, forsavirjg 
 from sack and pill;ige, oiie of the most magnli- 
 ccnl cities in the Union, while they actually 
 |)r()posed to pay to the heirs of the traitor Hull a 
 compensation for iiis surrendering an American 
 army to tho British, and actually passed a b'll 
 for paying the .Massachusetts militia for not 
 fighting in the last war. 
 
 Resolved, That the boundaries of our terri- 
 torv, as established b}' law and ascertained by 
 treaty stipulations are sacred, and must not be 
 infringed; that our right to the Oregon territory 
 being thus ascertained, it is the duty of the 
 American government to take formal and im 
 mediate possession thereof, and to meet with 
 stern denial, and if necessary, with indign;iiit 
 rebuke, the insolent pretensions of England to 
 that put of our soil: that country is ours, and 
 our right to its possession must bo maintained, 
 "pcacibly if we can, forcibly if we must." 
 
 /?cso/i,f<i. That the violent dissolution of the 
 
 proceeds of the sales of tho Public Lands; low 
 duties; a discriminating revenue tariff; a preser- 
 vation of the Constitutional Veto of the Presi- 
 dent; universal suffrage; an economical adminis- 
 tration of the General Government; rctrencli- 
 ment in the cvpenditures, and reform of the abu- 
 ses in every department; a stern vindication of 
 the territorial rights of the United States; and 
 in all our intercourse with foreign nations, an 
 unfaltering adiicrence to the policy pursued by 
 Jackson, "to ask nothing but what is right and 
 submit to nothing that is wrong.' " 
 
 Resolved, That under David Tod, the Stand- 
 ard bearer of the Ohio Democracy, in the ap- 
 proaching contest, we will march to the battle 
 with full confidence that on the :2d Tuesday of 
 October, victory will perch upon our banner. 
 
 Resolved, That while we have a decided pre- 
 ference for Mr. Van Buren, as the democratic 
 candidate for the Presidency, because of his 
 stern and tried integrity, and because of the 
 manner in which he was sacrificed in 1840, still 
 we have a high estimate of tho worth and tal- 
 ents and patriotism of the other distinguished 
 democrats who have been named in connection 
 with that exalted station; and we hereby pledge 
 ourselves to give a willing and enthusiastic sup- 
 port to whomsoever shall receive the nomination 
 of the Baltimore Convention. 
 
 Resolved, That the public press is the watch- 
 tower of freedom, — that its sentinels to be faith- 
 ful and efficient, must be fearless in battling 
 with error, wherever it may be found, or by 
 whatever name ii may be endorsed, — that we 
 
 General Assembly of this State in 1842; bv the I acknowledge with unaffected pleasure, the no- 
 abrupt withdrawal of the whig members from ' hie stand of the democratic press of Ohio, in 
 that body, was an outrage upon the institutions ! advancing free principles, and bespeak for them 
 of the country, and an exhibition of that mnd a cordial and generous support on behalf of the 
 and reckless spirit which animates the whig ! people. 
 
 parly to march to power, even if it should be ,j^'J-^''l'^ff.\J^^^i,}]}, our Senators in Congress, the 
 over the ruins of the government. 
 
 Rosohed, That the Demooratic party of Ohio 
 firmly insist upon the enforcement of the laws 
 upon the subject of Banking now in force, and 
 do sternly and decidedly vindicate and innintain 
 theju.stand sound princii)le of the Individual 
 Lialiiliiy of Bankers for the debts of their banks. 
 
 Resolved, That in the following, we recog- 
 nize the creed of the democracy of Ohio in ref- 
 erence to State policy: "Retrenchment and re- 
 form in every department, no increase of the 
 Stale debt; tho credit of the Stnte to bo main- 
 tained at .^-ny cost; a sound circulating medium; 
 the individual liability of Bankers; and a just 
 vindication of tho constitutiopal rights of the 
 State." 
 
 Resolved, That we recognize the following as 
 the national democratic creed: 
 
 Hon. Benjamin Tappan and William Alien, we 
 recognize devoted and stedfast adherents to the 
 doctrines and principles of the democratic party, 
 and Ohio may proudly boast of them as wise, able, 
 and profound Statesmen, and true and faithful rep- 
 resentatives of ttie will of the people. 
 
 Resolved, That our worthy Governor, Vv'ilson 
 Shannon, lor his warm attachment to, and unceas- 
 inc exertions to sustain the measures of the great 
 democratic party, deserves the thanks of the people 
 of Ohio— that in him we recognize an honest man, 
 a true patriot, a faithful public servant, and a high- 
 minded honorable politician. 
 
 Resolved, That in Samuel Medary we recognize 
 a champion of the people— bold, able, true-hearted 
 and fearless, and worthy of the palmiest days of 
 any llepublic. 
 
 The (ollowins resolution was then offered by 
 John Chaney of Fairfield, and seconded by Thomas 
 J. Gallagher of Hamilton. 
 
8 
 
 Reiolved, That our confidence in the talents and 
 the democracy of Col. Riciurd M. Johnson is una- 
 bated, and that in view of his t-minent services in 
 the tented field— his successful struggle against the 
 foul and adulterous union ot Church and State— his 
 uncompromising hostility to all the measures of the 
 feueral party, and his unyielding hostility to the en- 
 croachments ol England in our territory of Oregon, 
 we declare that if his iriends deem it proper to pre- 
 sent his name as a candidate again for the second 
 office in the people's gilt, we freely declare Cul. 
 Richard M.Johnson, the first choice of the dem- 
 ocracy of Ohio for Vice President, and that with 
 the ticket of 1040, we will balance all nccounts with 
 whi^gery in 1844. 
 
 Tiie question being upon the adoption cf this re- 
 solution, a motion was made to amend it by in- 
 structing the delegates to support Col. Johnson in 
 the -Naiiunal Convention for Vice President; which 
 amendment was lost, and the original resolution 
 was thereupon adopted. 
 
 On motion of B. B. Taylor, it was 
 
 Resolved, That a State Central Committee of five 
 members be appointed by the Chair to serve until 
 their succfssors be appointed; and that sucli com- 
 raitiee have power to call such meetings and con- 
 ▼entionsof the democracy, as the interests of the 
 party may require. 
 
 On motion of D. P. LEADBErTER, it was 
 
 Resolved, That the State Central Co'mmittee be 
 authorized and empowered to fill all vacancies that 
 may occur on the electoral ticket. 
 
 On motion, it was 
 
 Resolved. That the delegates appointed to the 
 National Convention, wno may attend the same 
 have power to fill all vacanci.s that may occur in 
 their body; and the persons appointed to fill such 
 vacancies, are hereby instructed to vote for .Martin 
 Van Buren tor President. 
 
 On motion of J. W. Wilson, 
 
 Resolved, That this Convention respectfully re- 
 commend to the democracy of the several counties 
 and townships of this Jrtate, to organize "Hickory 
 Clubs" in each, for the purpose of discussing and 
 maintaining our principkss, as taught by Jetlerson, 
 Jackson and Van Buren, and thai the members of 
 this Convention consider ihem.-elves a committee 
 of the whole to carry into effect this resolution. 
 
 On motion. 
 
 Resolved, That five thousand copies of the 
 proceedings of the Convention be printed in 
 the German language, in nainplilet form, and 
 five thousand in English, and that the State Cen- 
 tral Committee have the same in charge for distri- 
 bution; and also, that those of the members of this 
 Convention who feel willing, do contribute the re- 
 quisite sum to defray the expense of printing the 
 same. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Ewing, of Hamilton, it was 
 
 Resolved, That "Native American Societies,'" 
 created for the purpose ol drawing political distinc- 
 tions between citizens from choice, and citizens by 
 birth, of this Republic, are contrnry to the spirit of 
 the Constitution, and repugnant to the principles of 
 the democratic party. 
 
 On motion of R. Filson, it was 
 
 Resolved. That the course pursued by Col. Sam- 
 del Mkmarv, Editor uftheOhioStatesinnn, in sus- 
 taining democratic princi|)les, and the iiuasures of 
 the party, rneot the ajjprobalion of tliis Conven- 
 tion, nmf that we tender him our warmest thanks 
 for his untirinir txcrtions, with the assurance that 
 he shall be sustainc-d; mavgre the efforts of the 
 federal party to break him down, either by Legis- 
 
 lative oppression, or the violation of law and sol- 
 emn contract. 
 
 On motion of A. G. TnrKMAJf, 
 
 Resolved., That the enterprize undertaken by B. 
 B. Taylor, of Lickin^, of^ publishing a Western 
 Democratic Review, dfeservcs, and should receive, 
 the patronage of every democrat who desires the 
 able discussion and pronmlgation of correct demo- 
 cratic principles, and the success of Western Litera- 
 ture. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Lahm of Stark, it was 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention 
 be tendered the Hon. Wllllvm Medill for the able 
 and satisfactory manner in which he has discharg- 
 ed the duties of his station. 
 
 On motion, 
 
 Resolved, That the Central Committee be rc- 
 
 ?uested to raise funds to defray the expenses of 
 Minting, &c.. and to compensate the proprietor of 
 the City Hall for its use, and that the thanks of 
 the Convention be also tendered to him. 
 On motion of A. G. TntniMAJf, it was 
 Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed 
 by the President to superintend the Printing, and 
 distribution of the proceedings of this Convention. 
 WTiereupon, the Chair appointed the following 
 gentlemen as said committee: 
 
 T. B. Drinker. A. G. Thurman, Thomas J. Gal- 
 lagher, E. M. Stanton and Franklin Stokes. 
 
 A motion for adjournment being then made, the 
 Convention were ably and eloquently addressed by 
 the Chairman; and, thereupon, 
 
 The Convention adjourned, sine die. 
 
 WILLL\.M MEDILL, Freside7il. 
 Wm. R. Kerr, 1 
 
 John W. Irwin, 
 Fielding Lowrie, 
 Jonas Ward, 
 WiLLiA.M Blackburn, 
 Thomas Gillaspje, 
 John H. Blair, 
 Robert Lucas, 
 Wm. Gill. 
 
 Jo.nati'an R Taylor, 
 Wm. Roebins, 
 -Arthur Taggart, 
 William Blocksom, 
 
 J. C Vl.NCENT, 
 
 D. P. Leadbetter, 
 Robert Filson, 
 Benjamin Jones, 
 J. D. Cummins, 
 John Suerman, 
 John McGregor, 
 Thomas J. Gnllas/ter,' 
 
 ' Vice FresiJents. 
 
 Jonalh'in D. Morris, 
 Dixon JFiillerlon, 
 Lucius B. Otis, 
 John Stevens, 
 P. B. Anhiiy, 
 Franklin Slohes, 
 
 S Secretaries. 
 
 democratic st .ate central com- 
 .■\iittee. 
 
 We have been handed the following from the Pre- 
 sident ot the State Convention, as the State Central 
 Committee: 
 
 S.AMUEL MEDARY, 
 WILLI. AM TREVITT, 
 S.A.MCEL D. PRESTON, 
 AS.AHEL CHITTENDEN, 
 JACOB REINHARD. 
 
ADDRE SS 
 
 As the representatives of the democracy 
 of the State of Ohio, in Convention assem- 
 bled, in view of the important objcct-5 
 souf^ht to be accomplished by our action, 
 and of the consequent responsibility incum- 
 bent upon us, we feel it at once our privi- 
 lege, and solemn duty, to declare to you the 
 views of the democracy of Ohio, upon 
 those great fundamental and constitutional 
 principles, which they believe to be the 
 basis and support of the American Union, 
 and of American freedom. 
 
 In the embodiment of these views, we 
 will be necessarily led into a developement 
 of the common principles of American de- 
 mocracy, of which we shall endeavor to 
 present you a fair and laithful exposition. 
 
 That all government is designed for the 
 benefit of the governed; that the people 
 are the original and only legitimate source 
 of all governmental power; that govern- 
 ments have no rights, or powers, except 
 such as are conferred upon them by the 
 people, as sanctioned by them, as conform- 
 able to their interests and will; that the ex- 
 ercise, by government, of powers not so 
 conferred, or saiictioned, is oppression, 
 usurpation, and a violation of the natural 
 rights of man, and that it is the inherent, 
 and inalienable right of every people, to 
 alter, modify, or abolish an existing govern- 
 ment, whenever it fails to promote the gen- 
 eral welfare, or to secure these rights, and 
 recognize these principles, we regard as 
 the first, and essential principles of all de- 
 mocracy. 
 
 These principles were, for the first time 
 in the history of the world, authoralively 
 announced as the principles of a nation, in 
 the Declarationof American Independence, 
 and constitute the invaluable inheritance 
 of every American citizen, handed down 
 to us by our Fathers, who maintained them 
 with their fives, and sealed them with their 
 blood. And they are the peculiar inheri- 
 tance of the democracy, as tlie followers of 
 the founder of tlieir party, the writer of the 
 Declaration of Independence, their consis- 
 tent advocate throughout a long life, the 
 apostle of democracy, the immortal Jef- 
 ferson. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States was 
 framed by a convention, and adopted by the 
 several States, previously associated under 
 articles of confedeiatiou, in order to perpet- 
 uate and secure to all posterity those groat 
 and original principles, and to establish a 
 more efficient government. 
 
 In order to the formation of correct opin- 
 ions in regard to the construction of this 
 constitution, it is important to bear in rnind, 
 that the convention which agreed upon it, 
 was a convention of States, composed of 
 delegates from separate sovereign (though 
 confederated) States; that every article and 
 clause of it was voted upon in convention, 
 by States, and finally, that when agreed up- 
 on in Convention, it was then submitted to 
 the several States, and was acted upon and 
 adopted, at different periods by them, in 
 their separate and sovereign capacities as 
 States. 
 
 The government which existed under 
 the old confederation, was found to be in- 
 efficient for the general national purposes 
 for which it was designed. The States had 
 conferred upon it, too little power; they had 
 retained too much of theiroriginal and nat- 
 ural sovereignty to themselves. To remedy 
 this evil, they framed and adopted the pre- 
 sent constitution, by which they established 
 a new general government, upon which 
 they conferred larger powers, by yielding 
 to it a greater portion of their individual 
 sovereignty. This historical fact, while it 
 illustrates the necessity for a certain degree 
 of vigor, in the General Government, in 
 order to iis efficiency and stability, likewise 
 clearly shows, that the Federal Government 
 is but the agent or creature, and the States 
 are the principals or creators. 
 
 In that convention appeared distinct and 
 tangible, the germs of the two great parties, 
 into which, since the organization of the 
 present government, the country has been 
 divided. On one side, were those who, 
 either utterly denied, or greatly doubted, 
 man's capacity for Felf-government — who 
 regarded the mass of the people, not as 
 men endowed with reason, judgment, and 
 discretion, but as beings incapable of un- 
 derstanding their own interests, not as men 
 
10 
 
 capable of appreciating their own rights, \ 
 and the value ol'lawsinsecurinf: them, but 
 as an unruly mob, swayed by passion, pre- 
 judice, and liatred of men better, or in bet- 
 ter circumstances tlian themselves, whore- 
 quired the iron hand of power to preserve 
 them from anarchy and self-destruction — 
 who believed, that men were made for gov- 
 ernment, and not that government was in- 
 stituted for man — who thought that gov- 
 ernment could only be safely conducted by 
 the intellectual few, and should be suppor- 
 ted by the wealthy, and the well-born, who 
 by the grant of official and other exclusive 
 privileges, should be attached to the gov- 
 ernmeiit, and made to teel an official, fam- 
 ily, or pecuniary interest, in the stability of 
 the State and its institutions. 
 
 At the head of this class, as their great 
 and intellectual leader, stood Alexander 
 Hamilton, a man of powerful mind, high 
 moral courage, and indefatigablt. energy. — 
 His darling and long cherished object, the 
 establishment of a strong concentrated 
 "National Government," possessing in it- 
 self all the powers of a government de jure, 
 overwhelming aud merging all the State 
 governments, and all the rigiits of the peo- 
 ple of the States, he pursued wiili a steady 
 energy and unintermitted perseverance, 
 that would have honored a better cause. 
 
 With a view to the accomplishment of 
 these purposes, he proposed, aud advocated 
 with zeal and energy in the convention, a 
 plan of a National Government, constitu- 
 ting a President, Senate, and Judiciary, 
 during good behavior, that is — for life. The 
 President and Senate to be chosen by Elec- 
 tors elected by the people in election dis- 
 tricts, and the Governors of tlie several 
 States, to be appointed by the National 
 Government This was a plan ofasiinple 
 elective monarchy. 
 
 On the other side, were tliosewho main- 
 tained, as they had contidence in man's 
 capacity lor sell-government — who did not 
 regard the mass of the peoj)le as a luob, 
 sunk in ignorance, and swayed by passion, 
 lit only tobc the tools of ambitious dema- 
 gogues, the footstool of despotic power, or 
 tiie i)lay things of a King — wiio regard- 
 ed all men as endowed by their Cre- 
 ator with equal aud inalienable riglits — 
 whicli ihey were capable of appreciating, 
 and which, they had wisdom and virtue to 
 secure to themselves, and transmit to their 
 posterity unimpaired; who regarded all gov- 
 ernment as deriving its authority from the 
 consent of the governed, and who believed 
 that government was instituted for man, 
 and not man created for government. — 
 
 They, therefore, opposed the concentration 
 of overwhelming powers in t!ie General 
 Government; they opposed the merging of 
 the State Governments in the National, 
 except 60 far as was necessary for the es- 
 tablishment of an efficient Government; 
 they opposed the abandonment, by the 
 States, of any powc-s, not indispensibly 
 necessary to the stability and efficiency of 
 the National Government, for the accom- 
 plishment of great national purposes. — 
 They sought to retain all powers in the 
 several States, and the people thereot re- 
 spectively, which it was not absolutely ne- 
 cessary to relinquish to the General Gov- 
 ernment. They opposed the concentra- 
 tion of power in the hands of the few, 
 seeking to leave it, as much as possible, 
 where it rightfully belonged, with tlie many 
 — the people of the States; they opposed 
 any association of the well-born and weal- 
 thy with the governtnent, by grants of ex- 
 clusive privileges, for the purpose of at- 
 taching them to the State by special inter- 
 est — believing that government would be 
 more safe, more stable and more just, when 
 disconnected from any partial interests, 
 and dependent solely upon the inteliiirence, 
 virtue and interests of the mass of the peo- 
 ple. They believed that, as the people 
 were the only legitimate source of power 
 in government, they had a right to a para- 
 mount and ultimate control and decision 
 in its conduct. 
 
 This latter class prevailed in convention, 
 as might naturally be expected, as well 
 from the superior liberality of their senti- 
 ments, and the inherent justice of their 
 cause, as fiotn the fact that the convention 
 was constituted of delegates, or represen- 
 tatives of States jealous of their indepen- 
 dence and sovereignty, and that every vote 
 was taken by States, and not per capita. — 
 The constitution, which was the reault of 
 their joint labors, was a compromise of nu- 
 merous, variant and antagonisiical interests 
 and principles, and when submitted to the 
 people of liio several States, and adopted 
 by them, it became a solemn and binding 
 compact among equally independent sover- 
 eignties; and, boing such a compromise aud 
 compact, it is evident that its terms nuist 
 be strictly construed, and that any exercise 
 of powers, by the government created by 
 it, not clearly contVrred, nmst be a viola- 
 tion of the compromise, and a breach of 
 the compact. But some of the States were 
 unwilling to leave this construction to in- 
 ference, however correct and inevitable; 
 and to prevent tlie possibility of miscon- 
 struction, and an undue extension of pow- 
 
11 
 
 er, they insisted upon numerous restric- 
 tive amendments, bel'oro they would- 
 consent to adopt it, and become parties 
 to the compact. Among these amend- 
 ments, made a part of the constiluiion, we 
 introduce only two, as Puflicictit to show 
 that the government estabhshed under it, 
 was designed to be one restricted to its 
 enumerated powers. Article 9 of the 
 amendments provides, that, ''the enu- 
 meration in the constitution of certain 
 rights, shall not be construed to deny or 
 disparage others retained by the people." — 
 And ar'icio 10 provides, that "the powers 
 not delegated to the United States by tlie 
 constitution, nor prohibited by it to the 
 States, are reserved to the States respec- 
 tively, or to the people." 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, the pointed 
 character of these amendments, and the 
 well known history of the constitution, no 
 sooner was the National Government orga- 
 nized under this constitution, than we find 
 powers claimed for it no where found in 
 that instrument. We perceive the endeav- 
 or made, and with temporary success, to 
 entwine around it the all pervading influ- 
 ence of the money power, and to concen- 
 trate in it the interests of the wealthy, 
 through the agency and instrumentality of 
 the Funding system and a National Eank. 
 The oiiginator of these schemes and move- 
 ments, was the same Alexander Hamilton 
 who had striven so hard, in the conven- 
 tion, for the establishment of a government 
 of an elective monarchy ,^nA Senatorial coun- 
 cils for life. Unfaltering in his perseve- 
 rence to erect a government which should 
 be dependent upon its own will only, for 
 its powers, and not upon the will of the 
 people, after he had failed in the conven- 
 tion, he resumed his efforts in the newly or- 
 ganized government. He sought, by fund- 
 ing the War Debt, and concentrating the 
 money power in a government Bank, to cre- 
 ate a moneyed oligarchy, attached to, and 
 intimately associated with the government, 
 with whose assistance the arm of govern- 
 ment might be so strengthened as to en- 
 able it, by latitudinous constructions of the 
 constitution, by the implicatiori or bold as- 
 6um{)tion of powers, finally to become, in 
 fact, what he most desired it to be, a gov- 
 ernment of unlimited powers, and not de- 
 pendent upon, or responsible to, the people 
 ibr their exercise. In opposition to these 
 eflTorts and designs of Hamilton and his 
 friends, were those who construed the con- 
 stitution strictly, and sought to confine the 
 action of the government within the lim- 
 its clearly defined in that instrument, and 
 
 to restrain it from the exercise of any pow- 
 er not exjjressly granted, or indisputably 
 "necessary and proper I'or carrying into 
 execution" the powers granted, and to 
 make it what, in fact, it was de.«ignpd to 
 be, a government of enumerated powers. 
 At the head of this class stood tiio pure 
 patriot, great statesman, and radical demo- 
 crat, Thomas JefFer-son. During th" first 
 eight years, after the government was in 
 operation, under the constitution, these 
 adverse elements were combined in the 
 cabinet of the groat and good, iho illus- 
 trious Washington, their efforts partly neu- 
 tralized and peace preserved. But when 
 he passed from the stage of political life, 
 and the elder John Adams glided, almost 
 unseen, beneath the shadow of depart- 
 ing greatness, into his vacated chair, then 
 the true nature of the contending elements 
 became developed. Division at once took 
 place — party lines were drawn from one 
 end of the Union to the other, and men 
 assumed the party names of federalist or 
 democrat, according as they ranged them- 
 selves as the followers of Hamilton and 
 supporters of Adams, or as the disciples 
 and adherents of Jefferson. 
 
 Federalism was now in power, and for 
 the first time, the opportunity was afforded 
 that sect of a full development of their 
 principles and policy. 
 
 Hamilton had already engrafted upon 
 the government his favorite Funding sys- 
 tem and National Eank, which formed the 
 basis of the whole scheme of federal poli- 
 cy. And now, in full possession of power, 
 with John Adams in the cliair of S;:ue.the 
 federal party threw off all disguise, and, 
 with more effrontery than discretion, ex- 
 hibited their despotic propensities, and the 
 monarchical tendencies of their principles, 
 by the enactment of the tyrannical "Alien 
 and Sedition laws," the odium of which 
 was such as to throw all their other mea- 
 sures, bad or bearable, into a temporary 
 shade, and at the end of his first Presiden- 
 tial term, to eject the federal chief from 
 the chair of State, and to elevate, in his 
 stead, the ciiampioJi of democracy, Thomas 
 Jefferson, by an overwhelming popular 
 vote against federalism. 
 
 The election of Jefferson was the tri- 
 umph of democracy over federalism — it 
 was the stern fiat of a free people, in con- 
 demnation of the federal creed of a con.sol- 
 iuated and irresponsible government, re- 
 gardless of the spirit and design of the 
 constitution and in approbation of the 
 democratic creed of a limited and respoiisi- 
 bjj government, confined in the exercise of 
 
V2 
 
 its functions, to the true spirit and letter of 
 the constitution. 
 
 This popular decision was connrmed by 
 the triumphant re-election of Jefferson, 
 and the democratic policy further estab- 
 lisheil, as conformable to the genius of our 
 government and institutions, by ilie elec- 
 tion o; the two following deciocratic Presi- 
 dents, iMadison and ^Monroe, for two terms 
 each; making the adminir^trations of three 
 successive democratic Presidents, to occu- 
 py the period of twenty-four consecutive 
 years. The name and principles of feder- 
 alism, had, during this time, become so ut- 
 terly oiJious to the people, that before John 
 Quincy Adams presumed to present him- 
 self before them for their suffrages, he felt 
 compelled to pay that tribute lo democracy, 
 which vice pays to virtue. lie attempted 
 to assume the garb of democracy, that he 
 might obtain credit for virtues which na- 
 ture never designed him to possess, and 
 which birth, education, and association, 
 alike forbade him to 'exercise. He repudi- 
 ated, the too odious name of federalist, and 
 with his pany, assumed that of national 
 republican, and under this disguise, and 
 with democratic principles upon his 
 tongue, tho' the black cockade was stamp- 
 ed upon his heart, he came before the peo- 
 ple, a candidate for that office, from which 
 they had, with stern indignation, and with- 
 ering scorn, ejected his father, a quarter of 
 a century before. He failed betbre the 
 people — but by the treachery of a miscall- 
 ed democrat, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, be 
 was elected in the House of Representa- 
 tives. Not in the first instance the choice 
 of the people, and havmg done nothing 
 duriYig his administration, to relieve himselt 
 of the odium attached to his name, and to 
 federalism, and consequent upon the cor- 
 rupt manner of his election; but having 
 thrown off his assumed democracy, and 
 developed his true federal character, having 
 recommended lo the Repiesentatives of 
 the people and the States, in Congress, not 
 to sulfer their arms to be "palsied by the 
 will of their constituents," and despotical- 
 ly affirmed against the will of the people, 
 and his previous professions, and an impi- 
 ous perversion of the sacred book, that 
 "those who fell with the first Adams, 
 should rise with the second," he was, at 
 the ex|)iratioa of his term, justly consign- 
 ed, with almost silent contempt, lo an huii:- 
 bler station, where, if he will do no good, 
 he has at least but little power for evil. 
 
 The election, and subsequent more glo- 
 rious re-eleciion of tho liero and patriot, 
 Andrew Jackson, were repetitions of the 
 
 Jeffersonian triumph of democracy. The 
 election of i\Iartin Van Buren was a ratifi- 
 cation by the people of the grea: principles 
 of democracy, developed and enforced un- 
 der the strong and stormy aJministratioa 
 of his glorious predecessor. And the de- 
 feat of Mr. Van Buren and the deiriocratic 
 party in lo40, by means the most nefarious, 
 has tended still more closely to entwine 
 round theheartsofthe people, their devotion 
 to the free principles of democracy, their 
 love for constitutional freedom, their hatred 
 of federal oppression and deceit, and their 
 veneration and attachment towards the 
 man who failed them not in that darkest 
 hour of perilous adversity. 
 
 For thirty-six of the forty years, from 
 1801, when the first real party contest oc- 
 curred, to the year 1840, has tlie democrat- 
 ic party had control of the government, ap- 
 proved and sustained by a discerning peo- 
 ple. In fact, the federal party never have 
 succeeded before the people, upon their 
 principles. Whenever their principles 
 have been openly avowed, and their true 
 position and policy clearly defined, they 
 liave been signally rejected and repudiated 
 by the people 
 
 The elder John Adams succeeded to the 
 Presidency beneath the mantle of a Wash- 
 ington, before party lines were drawn, or 
 the antagonisiical principle of federalism 
 and democracy w^ere fully developed; but 
 he was rejected, and federal principles con- 
 demned, when he came before the people 
 for their approbation of his administration. 
 Twenty-four years afterwards, John Quin- 
 cy Adams was defeated before the people, 
 even when he claimed affinity to democra- 
 cy, and abjured tederalism, and four years 
 at'terwards was signally rebuked by the 
 same people, for the deception he bad at- 
 tempted to practice upon them, and tederal 
 principles were again condemned. The 
 whigs of 11340, taking warning from the 
 past, not only denied their federal creed, 
 but abandoning their federal leaders, they 
 attached themselves to men, who, upon all 
 cardinal principles and measures, had al- 
 ways been opposed lo them, and to feder- 
 alism, under every name. When called 
 upon to declare their principles, and the 
 policy they designed to pursue in the ad- 
 ministration of the government, if the peo- 
 ple should place them in power, they 
 pointed to the letters, speeches, and votes 
 of Gen. Harrison and John Tyler, as con- 
 tainining the principles by which they 
 would be governed, and as embodying and 
 indicating the policy they proposed to 
 adopt. Both of these men were well 
 
13 
 
 known to have been always opposed to a 
 National Bank, on con.sfituiional, and other 
 [frounds — opposfd to a IukIi Protective Tar- 
 iff", on grounds of common justice and 
 constilutinni'Jity. They insisted, strenu- 
 ously, upon a r\\s,\d adherence to the Com- 
 promise Act of 1832-3, and in the language 
 of Gen. Harrison, in his Zane.-ville letter, 
 dated November 2d, I806, were for "sup- 
 porting the Compromise," and would "nev- 
 er agree to its being altered or rcj)ealcd," 
 and tiiey favored a distribution of the pro- 
 ceeds ot the sales of tlie public lands, only, 
 in case the land fund was not needed in 
 the national Treasury, for the economical 
 administration of the government under 
 the operation of a Compromise Tariff; with 
 these men, and upon these professed prin- 
 ciples, and under circumstances which 
 were a disgrace to the country, a reproach 
 upon Republicanism, a mockery, a derision, 
 and a fraud upon the sacred right of popu- 
 lar suffrage, they succeeded in deceiving 
 the people, and gaining possession of tlie 
 government. Placed in possession of pow- 
 er, they at once threw olF the fraudulently 
 assumed mantle of democracy that had cov- 
 ered, like charily, the multitude of their 
 federal sins, and presented themselves to 
 the astonished gaze of an injured, insulted, 
 and betrayed people, in their true charac- 
 ters, as rank Hamiltonian Federalists. 
 
 THEY HAD TOLD THE PEOPLE THAT A BANK 
 WAS NOT IN ISSUE. 
 
 At the first, the extra session of their 
 Congress assembled in May, 1841, three 
 Bank bills were introduced; one, submitted 
 to thetn by their Executive, was rejected 
 by the Senatorial Dictator, Henry Clay, 
 although it was, perhaps, the least obnox- 
 ious of the three, chiefly because it did ema- 
 nate from the Executive, and not from 
 himself. Two other bills for the charter of 
 a mammoth Bank of the United States, of 
 the worst description, were successively 
 passed by Congress, under the direction 
 of the same Dictator, and successively fai'ed 
 to become laws, for the want of approbation 
 and signature of the Executive. 
 
 The opposers before the election of a 
 high protective tariff, they afterwards 
 enacted a tariff, little, if any, less onerous 
 than the bill of abominations, the tariff of 
 1828. The stern asserters of the inviola- 
 bility of the Compromise act of '32-3. They 
 violated it in tlie Distribution act, and utter- 
 ly abrogated it by their tariff law. They 
 were the advocates of a distribution of the 
 proceeds of sales of public lands, only when 
 those proceeds were not necessary in the 
 
 administration of the treasury under a 
 ti^riff conrorrncd to the provisions of the 
 Compromise act. The national treasury 
 became bankrupt, undrr their administra- 
 tion of it; a public debt was created to 
 suj)ply the daily necessities of the treasury, 
 to keep the government in operation, the 
 Compron)ise act violated and abolished, a 
 high protective tariffenacted, the same whig 
 party in Congress passed an unconditional 
 and absolute di.~iribution bill, alike regard- 
 less of the condition of the treasury, the 
 fate of the Compromise act, of the tariff, 
 and of their pledges to the people. They 
 were opposed to a national debt, and prom- 
 ised 10 reduce tlie debt, which they falsely 
 charged as having been created during the 
 preceding administration. They have in- 
 creased it, from less than five millions of 
 transient debt, in the form of treasury notes 
 not yet matured or redeemable, to a per- 
 manent debt of thirty millions, exclusive of 
 treasury notes. 
 
 The high toned and peculiar advocates 
 and representatives of morality, honesty 
 and good faith, they enacted a corrupt and 
 corrupting bankrupt law, for the benefit of 
 bankers, bank stock and land speculators, 
 swindling bankrupts and bankrupt poli- 
 ticians, to the great injury and grievous 
 wrong of sound merchants and honest 
 laborers of every calling, and to the incalcu- 
 lable depravity of public and private moral- 
 ity and virtue. A law under which there 
 has probably been more legal and moral 
 perjury in one year, than there has been 
 under all the insolvent laws of all the States, 
 since the foundation of the government — 
 a law which strikes at tlie very root of so- 
 ciety — confidence between man and man. 
 
 They made many other promises and 
 pledges before the election: such as, to 
 "procribe proscription" — to "dimini.-h Ex- 
 ecutive patronage" — to "disconnect the 
 government from partizan presses," &c. 
 kc; all of which promises they have re- 
 deemed in like manner and spirit as those 
 already adverted to. From these facts, and 
 many others not here referred to, it is evi- 
 dent that the present whig party, true to 
 tiieir federal'origin and instincts, are the 
 same now as their predecessors in the days 
 of Hamilton, Adams and the Ali-^n and 
 Sedition laws. 
 
 From the conduct of the whigs in the 
 last Congress, and from the course of their 
 partizan presses, it cannot be doubteil the 
 whig party are determined, if possible, to 
 accomplish the assumption of the debts of 
 the States by the General Government. 
 
14 
 
 There is, in fact, in iheir principles and 
 policy, ihe same tendency to tlie concen- 
 tration ol'all power in the General Govern- 
 ment, and the consolidation oC all Stale 
 sovereignties in one grand central power; 
 the ri:iMie desire lor the exercise by the 
 government of powers not granted in the 
 con.stituiion; the same design of rendering 
 the government independent of the will 
 of the people, by throwing around it, and 
 concentrating in it, the interest and influ- 
 ence of associated wealth, through the 
 agency of a national debt, with its fund- 
 holders preying upon the vitals of the 
 treasury — a National Hank, WMth immense 
 capital, and its Briarean arms drawing into 
 its [)0wer every commercial, landed and 
 poliiical interest of tiie country. A high 
 protective tariff, creating an aristocracy of 
 ■wealthy manufacturers, and the assumption 
 of 200 millions of State debts, creating at 
 dnce the apology and necessity for all the 
 rest. 
 
 The accomplishment of these purposes 
 would fulfill tiie design of Hamilton — the 
 creation of a strong government, supported 
 by special interests, and rendered indepen- 
 dent of any other will than its osvn, and 
 irresponsible to the people. Add to these 
 the abolition of the presidential veto, as con- 
 ferred upon him by the constitution, and 
 their scheme is perfected, and all power 
 vested in a congressional majority. 
 
 The democratic party, on the contrary, 
 contend for a strict construction of the con- 
 Btitution, and deny that there exists any- 
 where the right to so construe it as, by ira- 
 plicaiion, to confer upon the government, 
 or any department of it, powers no where 
 found in that constitution; believing that 
 it best fulfills the true spirit and design of 
 tl»e constitution, and conduces most to the 
 happiness and welfare of the people, when 
 it least encroaches upon the prescribed 
 limits of Stale auihoriiy — and least inter- 
 fores with the individual citizens of the 
 several States, except lo protect him in 
 his rights and defend him from wrong, 
 where iho Stale governments are inefK- 
 cieni for the purpose. They are, there- 
 fore, opposed to tlie whole scheme of fed- 
 eral whig policy: consisting of a national 
 bank, high protective tariff, distribution of 
 the proceedsof sales of public lands among 
 the .States, the abolition of the constitution- 
 al veto of the President, and the assump- 
 tion of the debts of the several Stales by 
 the federal government. 
 
 THE DEMOCRACY ARE OPrOSED TO 
 A NATIONAL BANK : 
 
 1st. Because the government of the 
 United Stales is one of specific and limited 
 powers, enumerated in the coustiiution; 
 and can exercise no powers noi therein 
 granted, or "necessary and proper" to 
 carry into effect such as are granted. And 
 the authority to charter a bank is no where 
 conferred by that instrument; nor is a bank 
 "necessary and proper" to carry into effect 
 any of the granted powers. It is not "ne- 
 cessary," because-^'ery power granted can 
 be carried into effect without the instru- 
 mentality of a bank. Such an institution 
 is not necessary to the regulation of com- 
 merce — to the "coining of money, or the 
 regulation of the value thereof;" nor to pro- 
 vide for the "common defence and general 
 welfare." All the important functions of 
 the government have been successfully 
 and happily exercised and fulfilled with- 
 out the aid of a bank; nor is it necessary 
 to the "collection, safe keeping and dis- 
 bursement of the public revenue." There 
 is no power in the government whose 
 successful execution requires the agency 
 of a bank. It is not 'proper,' because, aa 
 it is not 'necessary' within the intention of 
 the constitution it cannot be constitutional; 
 because such an institution is variant from 
 the true spirit and genius of our free insti- 
 tutions; because it is inconsistent with and 
 dangerous to the rights of the States; be- 
 cause it is destructive of that equality of 
 rights and privileges that pertains to a free 
 government; because it tends to depreciate 
 the value of the higher iniellectual and 
 moral qualities, which are the basis upon 
 which depends the stability of our govern- 
 ment — deriving its authority from the pop- 
 ular will, by attaching to an employment 
 demanding none of the higher virtues or 
 intellectual attainments, too large a portion 
 of ihe honors, distinctions and emoluments 
 of life. 
 
 2. Because, as the lOth Art. of the 
 Amendments to the Constitution declares 
 that, "The powers not dele>>ated to the U- 
 niied Stales by the Constitution, nor prohi- 
 bited by it, to the States are reserved to the 
 States respectively or to the people," and 
 as the power to incorporate a Bank was 
 not " delegated" to the United States by 
 the Constitution, it is therefore "reserved 
 to the States respectively or to the people," 
 and the Incorporation of a Bank by tho 
 Government, would be a violation of the 
 "reserved" rights of the Slates and the 
 people. 
 
15 
 
 The establishment by the Government of 
 the United States, of a l^ank with brandies 
 or ag;pncies in the several Statee, is not on- 
 ly assumption of power beyond its consti- 
 tutional rights, and a consequent violation 
 of the reserved abstract rights of the States, 
 but it is an actual pradical infringement 
 upon the territorial sovereignty of the states: 
 and the circulation of its notes within the 
 limits of a State, operates as an unconstitu- 
 tional restriction upon the right of taxation 
 reserved to the States. The States reserv- 
 ed to themselves all powers of taxation ex- 
 cept the laying of "duties and imposts, 
 upon imports or exports." They have 
 therelbre the absolute right to tax among 
 other things, the paper circulation within 
 their territorial limits. Eul they are denied 
 the right to tax the paper of a Bank charter- 
 ed by the general government, which may 
 entirely displace their own circulating 
 medium, and thus divest the States of all 
 power over this subject of taxation. 
 
 3. Because it was designed by the fra- 
 mersof the Constitution, to deny the gov- 
 ernment the right to grant a charier of in- 
 corporation for any purpose. The proposi- 
 tion was several times made in the conven- 
 tion which agreed upon the Constitution, 
 to confer the power for certain specified 
 purposes, and as often rejected by decisive 
 votes, for various reasons, and for this 
 especially, that the power to incorporate 
 for any purpose would be construed by 
 some, to convey the general power of in- 
 corporation for every purpose, and would 
 be made use of to charter a Bank. They 
 liad in their day, experienced and learned 
 to appreciate the evils of paper money, and 
 therefore desired and designed that the 
 government they were framing should es- 
 cape them, by being deprived of the power 
 of creating or recognizing, as money, any 
 thing but gold and silver. 
 
 4. Because the whole power of the gov- 
 ernment over the currency, conferred by 
 the Constitution is, "to coin money and to 
 regulate the value thereof, and of foreign 
 coins;" whereas by the incorporation of a 
 national bank, it assumes and e.xercises the 
 pow'er of regulating and controling the pa- 
 per currency of the states as well as of crea- 
 ting and issuing one of its own. If the 
 states have the right by the incorporation of 
 local or state banks, to authorize the issue 
 of a paper circulation, it is a "reserved" 
 and sovereign power, and the exercise of 
 a control over it by any means, by the gov- 
 ernruent of the United States, is an assump- 
 tion of power not authorized by the Consti- 
 tution, a violation oftlie rights of the states, 
 
 and a breach of the federal compact. If 
 the Slates liave tlie right to charter banks of 
 issue, those banks are state insiituitons, re- 
 sponsible only to the states under whose 
 authority they exist, and the general gov- 
 ernment can exercise no control over them, 
 either directly by specific legislation, or in- 
 directly through the agency of a national 
 bank. But if the government of the Uni- 
 ted Slates can make or recognize any thing 
 as money, except "coin," it is then under 
 a constitutional obligation to "regulate" it, 
 to assume the wIidIg control of it, and at 
 once to divest the states of all power over it. 
 This presents a dilemma, the only escape 
 from which is the recognition of the true 
 principle of the Constitution, that the gene- 
 ral governtTient cannot make, in any way 
 director indirect, or recognize, by receiv- 
 ing it as such, any thing as money, but 
 "coin." This relieves us of all di/Ticulty, 
 and precludes the federal governtiient from 
 receiving or using as money, any piper of 
 banks and aforllori, from creating any such 
 paper itself. It cannot therefore charier a 
 bank with the power of issuing a paper cir- 
 culation. 
 
 5. Because the government of the Uni- 
 ted States has no right to confer the special 
 privilege upon a iew individuals, of using 
 the public moneys for their private purpo- 
 ses. The money received in the national 
 treasury is collected from the people, for 
 the common benefit, the support of their 
 government, and cannot justly or constitu- 
 tionally be appropriated to any other pur- 
 poses. Yet the revenues of the United 
 Stales aie deposited in a bank of the Uni- 
 ted States, not as a species of bailment, or 
 special deposite, simply to be kept safely, 
 and returned as deposited when called for, 
 but to be returned only in like amount, and 
 to be used in the meanwhile, for the spe- 
 cial benefit of favorites, and private stock- 
 holders of the bank. The Constitution of 
 theU. S. provides, that "no money shall be 
 drawn froiii the treasury, but in conse- 
 quence of appropriations made by law." — 
 A national bank is to all intents and purpo- 
 ses in fact, the treasury of the United States, 
 and the withdrawal of the moneys of the 
 government theret'rom, in the iorm of pri- 
 vate loans, discounts and e.xchanges, is a 
 withdrawal of "money from the treasury" 
 not "in consequence of appropriations 
 made by law," and is a violation of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 6. Because an institution of this kind is 
 contrary to the spirit and design of our 
 whole system of government — conferring 
 exclusive and greatprivileges upon the few, 
 
16 
 
 concentrating the influence of wealth in 
 one irresponsible corporate monopoly, 
 transferring the management of the reve- 
 nues of the government, to hands not 
 amenable to tlie people, and thus virtually 
 conveying away, the control of the gov- 
 ernment itself through its finances, from 
 those to whose charge it was committed by 
 the Constitution, to others not known to 
 the Constitution nor responsible to the peo- 
 ple. In fact, creating a government within 
 a government, well calculated & interested 
 to obtain command over and thus to super- 
 cede the government of the Constitution es- 
 tablished by the states and the people. 
 
 7. Because a national bank, is danger- 
 ous to the liberties of the people and to the 
 existence of a free government. 
 
 In proof of this position, it is unnecessary 
 to recount the history of the last ten years; 
 to instance the great and fearful contest, 
 between the legitimate conptiiutional au- 
 thorities of the nation, and the late "Bank 
 of the UnitedStates," for the independence 
 of the government, on one side, and the 
 control of the government and of the 
 rights of the people on the other, it is need- 
 less to exhibit in detail the unprecedented 
 and unjustifiable eflforts, on the part of 
 that institution, to influence and control 
 the elections, we need not specify the 
 means resorted to, to accomplish this nefa- 
 rious purpose; we need not depict the dis- 
 gusting spectacle of corruption presented 
 by it, upon its dissolution — these things are 
 all fresh in your remembrance and the re- 
 collection of them will be sufficient to warn 
 you against incurring such dangers in fu- 
 ture, by supporting a party which is identi- 
 fied with that institution and its corrup- 
 tions, and upon the restoration of which, 
 or the creation of one of a similar character, 
 they have largely staked their hopes o! suc- 
 cess, and their claims upon your suffrages 
 in the apj)roaching contest. 
 
 THE DEMOCRACY ARE OPPOSED TO 
 A HIGH PROTECTIVE TARIFF. 
 1. Because government is instituted for 
 the common good of the whole, and not 
 for the special benefit of a part. When 
 therefore government undertakes to confer 
 special favor or boutiiies upon one class, 
 or depariment of business and does not ex- 
 tend the same favors or bounties to every 
 other, it departs from the true ohject and 
 design of all government — and because the 
 govi-rnmeni of the United States by means 
 of a Proioctive Tarifl", does so confer spe- 
 cial and exclusive favor or bounties upon 
 a favored class, the manufacturers, wliich 
 
 are not only denied to all other classes and 
 departments of business, but are an actual 
 burden and heavy tax upon them. 
 
 2. Because the Constitution does not 
 authorize the government to confer special 
 privileges, except for the specified purpose 
 of promoting "the progress of science and 
 the useful arts," !)y "securing for limited 
 
 I times, to authors .Jc inventors the exclusive 
 I right to their respective writings and dis- 
 I coveries." And because a Protective Ta- 
 riff does so confer other special and exclu- 
 sive privileges upon a few, the manufac- 
 turers, not accorded to the many engaged 
 in other pursuits. 
 
 3. Because government has no right to 
 impose taxes upon the majority of the peo- 
 ple, for the benefit of the minority. And 
 because a Protective TariflF is sucli a tax 
 upon millions of men employed in the 
 various mechanic arts, in planting, farming, 
 comm.erce, and all the other multifarious 
 pursuits of industry, for the peculiar bene- 
 fit ofcomparatively few thousands, engaged 
 in manufacturing. The great majority of 
 the people of the United States, esptcially 
 in the west and south, are occupied in the 
 cultivation of the soil. Agriculture is the 
 great pursuit of Americans. It is the pri- 
 mal and unfailing source of national wealth, 
 it is the broad and strong foundation of na- 
 tional greatness. The hardy yeomanry of 
 America are the real supporters of t!ie gov- 
 ernment in time of peace, its safe- 
 guards and stern defenders iit war. It is 
 therefore upon them the government should 
 bestow its care, it is their rights and their 
 interests, that government should guard 
 with ever watchful eye and protect with 
 the strong arm. It should as far as its 
 powers will enable it, secure to him the 
 just reward of his toil, by opening wide 
 the markets of the world to his surplus pro- 
 ductions, or at least do nothini: in close 
 those markets and thus prevent lu.- obtain- 
 ing the best price for the products of his 
 labor. Yet he is most heavily taxed by 
 the ojieration of the high tariff, which at 
 the same time shuts him up from the mar- 
 kets of the world, by excluding importa- 
 tions from those markets to pay for his pro- 
 ductions. The farmers of the west and 
 the plantersof the south are at once the 
 largest producers of American exports and 
 the greatest consumers of articles of foreign 
 import and domestic manufactures. And 
 as the greatest consumers of articles of ma- 
 nufacture, such as clothes, woolens, coarse 
 cottons, &c., they pay the largest amount 
 ofrevenues of the general government rais- 
 ed by the tariti'of duties ou imports, while 
 
17 
 
 at the same time ihey produce by far the 
 largest amount of staples of export, by 
 which those imports are paiJ ior in the 
 foreign market, and without wliicli, those 
 impo'rts could not be made, or the revenues 
 of government raised. The existence of 
 ihis stale of things cannot be defended 
 upon any correct principles of sound poli- 
 tical economy, and is palpable and gross in- 
 justice. 
 
 4. Because a Protective Tariff i/icrcase* 
 the price of articles of consumption, whe- 
 ther imported, or manufactured in this 
 country — while at the same time it dimin- 
 ishes tlio value of articles of production, 
 and exportation. Imports canno*. of course 
 be made and sold at the same price when 
 a heavy duty must first be paid upon them, 
 as they could when a light duty or no duty 
 at all is required to be paid. This is too 
 simple and clear a proposition to need 
 illustration. The imposition of duty, then 
 raises the price of the imported article in 
 proportion to the amount of the duty. — 
 Men will always obtain as much for their 
 goods as they can. Therefore if the price 
 of the imported article is increased by a 
 lariff, the same or similar article of domestic 
 manufacture will be increased in price to 
 exactly the same extent. And a high ta- 
 riff by thus auginenting the price of arti- 
 cles of consumption, both of foreign and 
 domestic manufacture, we regard as an un- 
 just and oppressive burden upon the ma- 
 jority of the people, for the sole advan- 
 tage of a meagre minority of already 
 wealthy manufacturers. 
 
 A protective tariff by excluding importa- 
 tions from foreign countries, diminishes to 
 the same extent, the ability of those coun- 
 tries to purchase our surplus productions. 
 The exports of our surplus productions of 
 cotton, tobacco, sugar, wheat, flour, corn, 
 beef, pork, ix:z. kc, must be chictiy paid for 
 in the surplus productions, (for the most 
 part inanufactures) of those countries who 
 buy from us, and therefore whatever ex- 
 cludes their surplus productions diminishes 
 to the same extent their ability to buy ours. 
 A high protective tariflf does so exclude 
 them, by the imposition of duties so heavy, 
 as to render it impossible to import and sell 
 them in competition with the protected 
 domestic manufactures. They are there- 
 fore unable to buy of us, because they are 
 prevented from paying in the only way 
 they have the means of paying, in their 
 own productions. We refuse to take their 
 goods, they cannot take ours. The conse- 
 quence of this mad, corrupt and suicidal 
 policy, is, that the markets of the world are 
 
 partially closed against the products of 
 labor, of the vast majority of the productive 
 classes of the United States. 
 
 The American producer nmst, therefore, 
 either not sell at all or sell at great disad- 
 vantage, and at reduced prices, while he 
 is by the same cause compelled to purchase 
 articles of consumption at a mucli higher 
 price. 
 
 A protective tariff is, therefore, in truth 
 a tax upon exports, which the govern- 
 ment ought never to impose, directly, or 
 indirectly, by means of duties upon imports 
 beyond what is indispensibly necessary for 
 competent revenue. 
 
 5. Because the power to "lay and col- 
 lect taxe.^, duties, imports and excises," 
 was granted to the government by the con- 
 stitution, for the sole purpose of enabling it 
 to support itself and to pay its debts; to 
 raise revenue sufficient for its proper and 
 economical administration in time of peace, 
 and its defence in war. The States and 
 the people who formed, acceded to, and 
 ratified the constitution, as a solemn, bind- 
 ing compact, never intended that the gov- 
 ' ernment created by it should employ the 
 powers, granted to it solely for its main- 
 tenance and support, to confer peculiar 
 favors and bounties upon a small class of 
 the citizens of a few States, to the conse- 
 quent grievous injury and oppression of 
 all the other States, and a vast majority of 
 the whole people. It cannot for a moment 
 be supposed that sovereign States, acting 
 in their sovereign capacity, and jealous of 
 their power, could ever have entered into 
 a compact which admitted such inequality 
 and injustice; or that the people of the 
 States could ever have been induced to 
 ratify and sanction such a compact. 
 
 THE DEMOCRACY ARE OPPOSED TO 
 A DISTRIBUTION AMONG THE 
 STATES OF THE PROCEEDS OF 
 SALES OF PUBLIC LANDS: 
 1. Because at the present time the treas- 
 ury of the United States requires them in 
 the conduct of the fiscal affairs of the gov- 
 ernment. The revenue under the present 
 high protective tariff is insufficient, even 
 when aided by the land fund, to meet the 
 financial exigencies of the National Trea- 
 sury. The deficiency exclusive of the Pub- 
 lic Debt is estimated by millions. 
 
 2 Because a portion of the public lands 
 were ceded to the United States by the 
 Stales to whom they belonged, in trust for 
 the "common benefit of all the States," 
 and not for the particular benefit of each 
 State; and therefore the government has 
 
18 
 
 no right to divide and distribute the pro- ' 
 ceeds among the States separately, but is 
 bound by tlie conditions of the trust to be- 
 etow them in the conmion treasury of all 
 the States, the treasury of the United States, 
 to be employed for the common benefit ol 
 all; for national purposes, according to ap- 
 propriations made by Congress, in common 
 with the revenues derived from other 
 sources. Adistribuion would be an aban- 
 donment, or a refusal to fulfill the trust, 
 jnd a violation of it. But the government 
 has no right either to surrender, neglect or 
 violate the trust. It must continue to 
 execute the trust, in good faith, according 
 to its terms, until the fund be exhausted. 
 
 3. }3ecause another, and very large por- 
 tion of the public domain, was purchased 
 with the common funds of the nation, 
 drawn for the purpose from the National 
 Treasury, into which it was collected in 
 revenues derived from duties upon im- 
 ports, and from other sources, and with 
 other considerations and equivalents of a 
 national character, all agreed upon by treaty 
 with foreign nations. To distribute the 
 revenues arising from these lands would 
 be tantamount to a distribution of funds 
 collected from duties and other sources, 
 directly. It would be collecting revenues 
 from duties upon imports imposed for the 
 purpose of distribution among the States. 
 The right to do which will not be con- 
 tended for or defended. 
 
 4. Because the tendency of distribution 
 is to impair the just and constitutional in- 
 dependence of the Slates. "The command 
 of the revenue is the command of the 
 State." And so far as the federal govern- 
 ment had command of the revenues of the 
 Slates, by means of this distribution, 'it 
 •would have a controlling and corrupting 
 inriuence in their affairs. 
 
 5. Because we regard the magnificent 
 pi blic domain as a sacred, inviolable and 
 inalienable basis of national credit— as a 
 safe, permanent, and almost inexhaustible 
 resource in times of danger, financial dif- 
 ficulty or war — as a reliance, security and 
 fiafe-guard, such as is possessed by no other 
 people in the world, which should, on no 
 consideration, be alienated Ironi the nation. 
 THE DEMOCRACY ARE OPPOSED TO 
 
 THE ABOLITION OR MODIFICA- 
 TION OF THE VETO POWER AS 
 VESTED IN THE PRESIDENT BY 
 THE CONSTITUTION. 
 1. Because it is necessary to the har- 
 mony of that system of government devi- 
 sed and established by the Fathers of the 
 
 Country, under the guidance of Divine 
 Providence, for a nation whom he seems 
 to have chosen for peculiar I'avor, and upon 
 whom he has been pleased to bestow bles- 
 sings never before enjoyed by any people. 
 This government is a peculiar one, posses- 
 sing, it would appear, the capacity of adap- 
 tation to all emergencies, and embodying in 
 itself a wisdom far greater and higher than 
 its franurs themselves possessed or dreamed 
 ot imparting to it. 
 
 The Representatives in Congress are 
 elected for i!ie most part, by the people of 
 particular sections or districts of the sev- 
 eral States of this Union. The Senators 
 are elected by the States in their corporate 
 and sovereign capacities, through their leg- 
 islatures. The President alone i:^ elected by 
 all the people of all the several States. The 
 Representative has for his constituency, the 
 people of his particular district, and is res- 
 ponsible only to them. The Senator hag 
 for his constituency, the Legislature of his 
 State, and to that only is he amenable. The 
 President has for his constituency, the 
 whole people of all the several States, and 
 is alike responsible to all. He alone is the 
 representative of all the people in all the 
 Slates, and he alone is bound to guard the 
 interests of all. The Representative acts 
 for his district, the Senator ibr his State, 
 but the President alone acts for the whole 
 people. He alone, from an exalted emi- 
 nence, surveys all the multifarious inter- 
 ests of all Sections and all classes, and 
 feels, and thinks, and acts, for the common 
 interest of the whole. 
 
 He therefore, was wisely andjustly made 
 a component and necessary ingredient in 
 that legislative power, wliich was designed 
 to elicit and enforce the will of the people 
 of the States, in the peculiar manner desig- 
 nated and provided in the Constitution.— 
 It was designed by the constitution, to 
 create a Government by a compact among 
 sovereign States, which should maintain to 
 a certain extent, the independent sover- 
 eignty of those States, and give expression 
 to their will as such, by means of the Sen- 
 ate;— which should possess some feaiuresof 
 a Representative democracy, eliciting the 
 will of the people, as such, of the several 
 States directly, by meansofihe House ofRep- 
 resentatives, and also secure the represen- 
 tation of the combined will of the majority 
 of all the people of all the several States, hj 
 means of the President of the United 
 States. Bv thus combining all tbe elements 
 that entered into the compact, the framers 
 of the consiilution hoped to give a full and 
 
19 
 
 perfect expression to the will of all the 
 parties toth;u coinj)act. Tliisobject would 
 have been but iruperl't'Ctly atiaiiied, if the 
 Pcesident had not been t^iveii a voice in the 
 enactment of laws, which as national laws 
 must act upon the whole people, by re- 
 quiring his approbation before they could 
 become operative and permitting him the 
 right of withholding his approval and sig- 
 nature. 
 
 2. JJecausc llie power of dissent from 
 the acts of the legislature is necessary to 
 preserve the proper independence of the 
 Executive and to protect his constitutional 
 rights and functions, against legislative vi- 
 olation or encroachment These were doubt- 
 less the primary objects of the framers of 
 the Constitution in conferring upon the 
 Presidejit this suf:j)ensive check upon con- 
 gressional action. They believed that an 
 increase and assumption of power to them- 
 selves & encroachment upon the distinctive 
 powers of other Departments, was more to 
 be feared from the Legislative than the Ex- 
 ecutive Department of <TOvernment; and 
 experience hasjustified their apprehension. 
 But they designed tliat each department 
 should in its own sphere, be independent, 
 of every other, and alone responsible for 
 the proper exercise of its functions, and the 
 performance of its con^^titutional duties. — 
 To secure this Independence and respon- 
 sibility in the Executive the protective pow- 
 er of the Veto was necessary. 
 
 3. Eecause the Veto power is necessa- 
 ry to protect ttie weaker sections, and inter- 
 est of the country, asainst violatioiis of their 
 rights by stronger. Constituted in the pecu- 
 liar manner that our government is, it may 
 happen and in Congressional history often 
 has occurred, that combinations of particu- 
 lar, sectional or party interests may be Ibrm- 
 od, making a majority in both houses of 
 Congress capable and corrupt enough to 
 legislate at will for the benefit of their par- 
 ticular, sectional or party interest, while 
 that majority may not represent, either a 
 majority of the people of the States, of the 
 productive interests, or of the wealth 
 of the country. The Veto power is 
 here clearly necessary to protect the major- 
 ity of the people, Slates and interests, 
 agalnbt the unjust and oppressive legisla- 
 tion of the Congressional Representatives 
 of a minority of all these interests. Again 
 reverse the case, let the Congressional ma- 
 jority represent a majority of States, people 
 
 and interests, the nnnority of all these have 
 rights which are entitled to be respected. — 
 The President alone has an interest and 
 an ability to interpose and protect them. 
 
 4. Because the su^5pensive veto is necessa- 
 ry to guard the country against the evils of 
 hasty and ill-advised legislation. 
 
 There are times of excitement and great 
 popular commotion, when prii.cip!(! and 
 prudence are merged in the convulsions of 
 the hour. The Representatives of the peo- 
 ple and States become infected by sympa- 
 thy, and their legislation does noi result 
 from calm deliberation, and dispassionate 
 reflection, but is characterized by indiscre- 
 tion and folly, instead of wisdom. Here, 
 the President, from his elevation above the 
 tumult beneath him, coolly interposes, calls 
 upon Congress to reconsider their habty and 
 indiscreet acts; re-enact, by a majority of 
 two-thirds of each House; abandon them 
 altogether, or refer them to the "sober sec- 
 ond thought of the people." And it is a 
 remarkable fact, worthy to be noted here, 
 that never yet have the people failed in 
 their sober second thoughts, to sustain a 
 President's appeal of this description. 
 
 5. Because, we regard the veto power as 
 the great protective power against legis- 
 lative violations of the constitution, as an < 
 essentially democratic feature of our consti- 
 tution and government, and as the great 
 reliance of the people against oppression 
 and disregard of their rights by an unjust 
 and factious party congressional majority; 
 and because the main argument for the abol- 
 ition of the veto power, namely, that popular 
 majorities should always prevail and con- 
 trol, would apply with equal force to the 
 abolition of the Senate and the Judiciary, 
 in the election or appointment of neither 
 of which does the element of direct popu- 
 lar majority enter at all. If, then, the ar- 
 gument is good to alx)lish the veto power 
 of the President, it is equally good to abol- 
 ish the dissenting vote ot the Senate, which 
 is the Senatorial veto upon the acts of the 
 House, and the power of the Judiciary to 
 declare a law of Congress unconstitutional 
 and void, whicli is the Judicial veto upon 
 tlie legislative acts of the President and 
 both Houses of Congress. This argument 
 of popular majoiities would, in fact, destroy 
 the whole constitution and system of gov- 
 ernment established under it, and sweep 
 away Senate, President and Judiciary, 
 leaving the House of Representatives, the 
 only remnant, in the general wreck of a 
 government which, as it now stands, com- 
 plex, yet simple, composed of many, yet 
 harmoniously united into one, with one 
 common will, the unitive emanation of 
 many, seems almost like the devise of a 
 higher wisdom, and the workmanship of a 
 mightier hand than man's. 
 
90 
 
 Besides, the power of the veto is but a 
 suspensive power. It can, in its utmost 
 extension, control the action of Congress 
 only for a short time, until the sense of the 
 people shall have been elicited upon the 
 question. If the President was wrong, 
 the people will so determine, by the elec- 
 tion of a Congressional majority against 
 liim: and it is not to be supposed that a 
 President would ever oppose birr.self to 
 the will of the people thus emphatically 
 expressed. 
 
 Moreover, the veto does not absolutely 
 annul the action of Congress — it simply 
 renders it incumbent upon that body tore- 
 pass the act negatived, by a majority of 
 two-thirds of each House; and it would be 
 a rejection upon the intelligence and pat- 
 riotism of any Congress, to suppose that 
 they would fail to re-pass the act negatived 
 by a majority of two-tliirds, if such act was 
 really important, and imperatively demand- 
 ed by the interests of their consliiucncy; 
 and a reflection upon the President, and 
 upon the people who elected him, to sup- 
 pose that he would negative a bill thus im- 
 portant and necessary. 
 
 At all events, it is not an absolute and 
 conclusive, but only a suspensive negative. 
 Jtcan control only a small majority of Con- 
 gress, who may or may not represent a ma- 
 jority of States, people or interests. 
 
 So far from its being the much paraded 
 and odious 'one man power,' as it is un- 
 justly termed, and tending to an increase 
 of executive ])owt'r, every exercise of it 
 diminishes and reslrains his power. The 
 President is the executor of the laws, and 
 his power and patronage are derived solely 
 from those laws, enacted by Congress. — 
 Therefore, every veto of a President de- 
 prives him of the execution of the provi- 
 sions of that act so disproved of, and is, to 
 that extent, a restriction upon liis patron- 
 age and power. 
 
 THE DEMOCRACY ARE OPPOSED TO 
 THE ASSUMPTION HY THE FED- 
 ERAL GOVERNMENT of the DEUTS 
 OF THE STATES: 
 1. Because such an assumption by the 
 Federal Government, would be an exer- 
 cise of power in direct ami pHl[)able viola- 
 tion of the constitution. The authority to 
 assume the debts of tlie Stales, is no where 
 conferred, or intended to be conterrnd, by 
 that instrument. Nor can it, by ilu' most 
 la itudinarian construction, be deduced 
 from any of the granleil powers as incident 
 10 ihem, nor derived from it by any species 
 of implication. Indeed, the only plausible i 
 
 I ground upon which this power is attempt- 
 ed to be assumed, is that all governments 
 are established for the common good, and 
 therefore, that they can dowhaiuver may 
 in their opinion, conduce to the general 
 welfare. And they assume, that the as- 
 sumption of Slate dehtj! by the general 
 government, would conduce to ;he general 
 welfare, and thence conclude, that the 
 federal gcvc-rnment can and ougii: to exer- 
 cise this power. This ar:;uuie:it i.s no bet- 
 ter, however, than ihe'r argument, ol' nu- 
 merical majorities, as a[)[)lied to liie aboli- 
 tion of the Veto, — it is doubly false when 
 applied to the government of the United 
 States. The government of the United 
 State.s is indeed designed to promote the 
 general welfare, but not the gem-ral wel- 
 fare of a simple absolute numerical majority, 
 but the general welfare of all tlie several 
 elements or interests, of the federal gov- 
 ernment. Slates, people of states, and peo- 
 ple of the United Stales, when combined 
 and aicertained in the peculiar manner 
 and by the several different meau.-5 pre- 
 scribed by tiie Constitution. And no one 
 portion or department of that general gov- 
 ernment can presume^ for the gt-neral wel- 
 fare, but can only contribute its share to- 
 wards the developement and elfectuaiion 
 oftlie general good or will of all, in con- 
 formity with the mode and provision of the 
 Constitution. And in no event can it be 
 the will of the people or conducive to the 
 general welfare, to violate the Constitution, 
 for that is the permanent supreme will of 
 the people, paramount to any temporary 
 feeling or interest. To do wliat is not 
 therein aiitliorized, the people have them- 
 selves determined, that there must be au 
 amendment oftlie Constitution, and tboy 
 have with a view to the perpetuity of the 
 government of the Constitution, jjiovided 
 in that instrument for amendmeni.s, when- 
 ever lapse of lime or change of circum- 
 stances iiiay render them necessary. 
 
 2. Because such assumption by the 
 t'ederal government would tend more than 
 anyone other measure of federalism, and 
 [)erhaps more tlian all others together, to a 
 consolidation of the States. It would obli- 
 terate the ancient landmarks of the Consti- 
 tution, and remove tlie Constitut'onal bar- 
 riers between the t^tate and national gov- 
 ernments. It would at once destroy tlie 
 beautiful equilibrium established by the con- 
 stitution, between the relative powers and 
 duties of tlie federal and state governments, 
 by giving a preponderating and corrupting 
 influence to iho federal government over 
 the slates, by means ol its control over the 
 
"21 
 
 treasury and revenues of tiin Slates. — 
 It would auniliilate the iudcpendcnct? 
 and sovereignty of the States; hy ren- 
 derinp; tlieui mere peneiouers upon the 
 federal treasury. It would transfer the 
 duty and power of taxation to pay 
 State de'ois and defray S:at>> expenses, 
 from the State itself lo the General Gov- 
 ernment, and by so transferrin!^ taxation, 
 destroy all check upon State extravagance 
 in contracting debts, and in other expen- 
 diture^^, by relieving thonn from responsi- 
 bility to the people. What is the check 
 upon lepislative extravagance in our own 
 or any State'? The knowledge of the leg- 
 islators that the debts contracted by them 
 or by iheir authority must be paid for by 
 the peoj.le of the State in taxation, and 
 that they are themselves responsible to the 
 peoph^ for these taxes. If the General 
 Government assume these debts, the re- 
 straint no longer exists — the responsibility 
 is gone. 
 
 3. Because it would be palpably and 
 grossly unjust to the non-indebted States. 
 Many of the States of thi.s Union have 
 contracted no debts, while others, urged 
 on bv the wild spirit of speculation and 
 the mania of inten^.al improvement, have 
 involved themselves in enormous debts for 
 improvements and schemes of various 
 kinds, injurious, in some cases, to them- 
 selves and of no possiJjle benelit to any 
 other State. And yet all the other States, 
 whether indebted or not, are, by this ini- 
 quitous scheme, required lo contribute to 
 the payment of these foolish, imprudent, 
 or fraudulent debts, whii;h they never had 
 any agency in contracting, which they had 
 no power to restrain, and for which they 
 never were in any possible manner or de- 
 gree liable or respon."ible. Beside^, theas- 
 buinpiion of these debts by the Federal Go\^- 
 ernment would afford no real relief to the 
 poopie of the indebted Slates, because the 
 government must raise the amount off the 
 people either by direct taxation, or by a 
 great increase of ihealready oppressive ta- 
 riff, of duties upon imports. Direct taxa- 
 tion by the General Government, though 
 it might be the most economical and least 
 burdensome, is yet the most unsatisfactory 
 to the people. because inquisiiorial,and is not 
 advocated by any statesman or party. Indi- 
 rect taxation, by a system of duties upon im- 
 ports, lias been adopted as least itiquisitorial 
 and most agreeable to the people, aliiioitgh it 
 is really by tar the most burdensome; and es- 
 pecially to the West and Soutli, who are the 
 greatest consumers of articles of import, 
 and consequently the greatest tax payers to 
 
 government, and who, being farthest fron 
 tlie place of import or manufacture, in fact 
 pav several and even many percentages, 
 both upon the profit of the manufacturer, 
 and importer, and upon the duty. First 
 to the original manufacturer and importer, 
 and afterwards to the several parties, of 
 eastern jobber, western city merchant, 
 and country store-keeper, kc, through 
 whose hands tho article passes, before it 
 reaches the consumers. Thus the great 
 consumers, the planters and farmers of ihe 
 South and West, farthest from the ])laces 
 of import, bear the heaviest burdens of 
 governmental taxation, through the me- 
 dium of a tariff upon imports, and yet such 
 is the evil of this system of taxation, the 
 government receives no part ofliis increas- 
 ed payments, but they are like seed scat- 
 tered by the way side, dropped here and 
 there along the route from the place of im- 
 port and manufacture, to the place of con- 
 sumption, but chiefly into the coffers of 
 the eastern manufacturer. 
 
 And as the States who suffer most from 
 their own debts, are chiefly those farthest 
 from the eastern seaboard, the place of im- 
 port, it is believed that their people would 
 encounter much heavier burdens of taxa- 
 tion when imposed by the General Govern- 
 ment, to pay their State debts, than they do 
 by direct taxation by their own State Leg- 
 islature for the same purpose. 
 
 4. Because the pledge of the Public 
 Lands, (as proposed) to the payment of 
 these debts, when assumed by the General 
 Government, would be a violation of the 
 trust reposed in the government, by the 
 States who ceded to it a large portion of 
 these lands for the "connnon benefit of all 
 the States," and a violation of justice, to 
 iho whole people, as regards that portion of 
 the public domain, which was purchased 
 by the common money of all the people, 
 drawn from the national treasury for the 
 purpose. Tiio first portion were appro- 
 priated in perpetuity to the support oi the 
 General Government to pay the national 
 war debt, and to diminish the necessity for 
 taxation. And whenever a surplus arises 
 in the national treasury, instead of distrib- 
 uting the proceeds of the Public Lands, or 
 
 j appropriating them to the payment of the 
 State debts, the duties on imports should 
 be decreased, until the revenue is brought 
 
 I down to the proper standard of an econom- 
 ical administration. 
 
 And as to the latter portion they were 
 paid for ouiof the common treasury of the 
 whole people, and cannot without positive 
 injustice, be disposed of for the special ben- 
 
22 
 
 efit of particular parts. They belong em- 
 phatically to the connmon treasury. 
 
 5. Because we are utterly opposed to a 
 National Debt. The assumption of the 
 debts of the Sta'es, would impose upon the 
 Federal Gevernmenta national debt of 200 
 millions, which must be provided for by 
 vastly increased burdens of taxation upon 
 the people. While the Federalists have al- 
 ways considered a national debt, as a "na- 
 tional blessing," the Democracy have ever 
 regarded it as a national curse, 
 
 6. Because this national debt would 
 create the necessity for a great increase of 
 the present already unjust and oppressive 
 tariff of duties upon imports. Even with 
 the small debt now resting upon the Gov- 
 ernment, of about 30 millions, with an an- 
 nual expenditure of not more than 25 or 30 
 millions, and with the existing high tariff, 
 the national revenues are less than the ex- 
 penses, by a deficiency estimated officially, 
 by millions. By the assumption of this 
 200 millions of debt, the deficiency would 
 be proportionally augmented. This sub- 
 sisting and newly increased deficiency 
 would have to be met and provided for by 
 either, an increase of the present tariff, and 
 its extension to such necessaries of life as 
 are now classed among "free articles," or by 
 a resort to direct taxation by the General 
 Government. Such an increase of the ta- 
 riff would add to the wealth and intiuence 
 of that already powerful privileged class of 
 protected eastern manufacturers, and give 
 them an unjust and dangerous power in 
 the administration of the General Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 7. Because it is the most certain means 
 of accomplishing the great Federal design, 
 of a strong concentrated and consolidated 
 Government, under the direction and con- 
 trol of a powerful, privileged and protected 
 class of wealth, interested in the support 
 of the government, in oppression for their 
 benefit. 
 
 The assumption of this amount of debt and 
 the issue of scrip, based upon the public 
 lands, would demand the agency or some 
 institution, or special department toman- 
 age that large amount of debt. This insti- 
 tution would be either a National Bank, 
 such as that established by Alexander Ham- 
 ilton for the same purpose, or some scheme 
 of an American British Exchequer. In 
 this scheme of assumption then, is devel- 
 oped as consequent upon it, the whole an- 
 cient, modern, and only system, or 
 scheme, of Federal measures and policy, 
 of tioverument. An enormous national 
 debt, with its thousand cormorant fund- 
 
 c 
 
 holders, fiittenmg upon the revenues o' 
 government, wrenched from the hard 
 hands of oppressed, despised, and de- 
 graded labor. A National Bank with 
 immense real or fictitious capital, as ne- 
 cessary lor the management of the debt, 
 drawing into its corrupt and corrupting 
 vortex, every pecuniary interest ot the 
 country, by its direct and indirect bribes to 
 politicians in the form of "accommoda- 
 tions," "facilities," and "fair business 
 transactions," poisioning the stream of lib- 
 erty and law, in the halls of National Leg- 
 islation, and by controlling the legislators, 
 governing the Government. And finally 
 a high protective tariff; creating an aris- 
 tocracy of wealth in the manufacturers, 
 more odious than the hereditary noblesse 
 of monarchy, interested in Kustainini< the 
 government, and the bank, in oppression, 
 injustice, and disregard of the rights and 
 interests of the States and of the people. 
 These would indeed constitute a govern- 
 ment, capable of mantaining itself a2;ainst 
 the ignorance, the passions and ti;e folly of 
 that senseless and unruly mob, as federal- 
 ism seems ever to regard the people. 
 
 Secure these measures, and abolish the 
 veto power, and a corrupt party congres- 
 sional majority rules supreme. Federal- 
 ism is the same now under the name of 
 whigisni, and under the dictatorial lead of 
 Clay, as it was in the days of Hamilton and 
 the Elder Adams. I isguise it, deny it, as 
 they may, their interests, their sympathies, 
 their objects, and their Uieasures, are still 
 the same. Like the Bourbons of France, 
 "they learn nothing, and forget nothing." 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to argue: 
 
 8. That the scheme is utterly impractica- 
 ble. 
 
 When we see the Government with a 
 debt of only thirty millions, and a high 
 tariff, such as the present, with the aid of 
 the proceeds of sales of public lands, una- 
 ble to meet an annual expenditure of 
 twenty-five millions. We know not which 
 to wonder at most, the besotted folly, or 
 the base corruption of men, who would 
 advocate the voluntary assumption, in vio- 
 hition of the Constitution ami of common 
 justice, of a debtof 200,000,000, which the 
 Government never contracted, or had any 
 agency or control in creating. The inter- 
 est of this debt, even at the low rate of 
 three per cent., would add jusi 6,000,000 
 per annum, to tlie burdens of the National 
 Treasury; and if the principal were to be 
 provided for (as proposed in Win. Cost 
 Johnson's scheme) in oO years, there would 
 be 6,666,666 additional per annum, making 
 
23 
 
 for principal and interest for 30 years, an 
 annual burdnn upon the treasury, and tax- 
 ation upon the people of $12,6CG,G66. 
 
 Yet, unconstitutional, unjust, oppressive, 
 and impracticable as this scheme is, it is, in 
 our opinion, thr* stilled, determined and 
 favorite policy of tlie whig parly. They 
 deny it when directly charged upon them 
 — they evade or dodge it when called up- 
 on for a distinct vote of approbation or con- 
 demnation. Yet, while they deny it in 
 one place, they are insidiously urging it 
 in another. It is too appropriate for the 
 accomplishment of their purposes, and too 
 well calculated to effectuate their views 
 and wishes in regard to Government and 
 system of measures, for them not in their 
 hearts to desire its success. They know, 
 too, that if a "proper understanding" is had 
 with the American and Foreign holders of 
 State bonds, those bond-holders could af- 
 ford to furnish nnliions for the conduct of 
 the canvass, in order to the success of their 
 party, and make money by the operation. 
 They will, therefore, prohai'dy continue as 
 they have done heretoforo, to deny and 
 urge, urge and deny the project, so as to 
 be enabled, with as much justice as they 
 did in 1841, in regard to a Eank, to assert 
 that the people have decided in favor of 
 assumption. Forewarned by the past, we 
 must be forearmed for the future. 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 In connection with our national policy, 
 we cannot withhold an expression of our 
 opinion in regard to a subject which has 
 recently greatly agitated the public mind — a 
 subject upon whicii the West, especially, 
 feel a deep and abiding interest — a subject 
 in which are involved the national rights 
 and the national honor; we allude to the 
 Oregon question. The whole territory of 
 Oregon, included between 42 deg. and 54 
 deg. 40 min. North, and the Rocky Moun- 
 tains on the East, and the Pacific ocean on 
 the West, belongs to llie United States, by 
 every right, recognized by the laws of na- 
 tions, as conferring title. It is ours by 
 riglu of prior discovery, and by Treaty 
 with nations having title by discovery. — 
 This territory is larg^ in extent, feriiie of 
 soil, capable of great production, and en- 
 dowed by nature, with every advantage of 
 position and navigation, for great commer- 
 cial pur])Oses. The magnificent Oregon 
 or Columbia river, llows from the loot of 
 the Rocky Mountains, through the whole 
 territory, to the Pacific Ocean. The mouth 
 of that river, convenient as it is to commerce 
 with China and the East Indies, must, in 
 
 time, become the greatest commercial em- 
 porium of tho Western world. 
 
 This territory, ours as it is by discovery, 
 and by treaty, must, on no account, be 
 alienated from the United States — and least 
 of all, must it be yielded to the unjust, un- 
 founded, and dangerous pretensions of 
 England. 
 
 England is the hereditary foe of Amer- 
 ica. Her statesmen can never forgive 
 the descendants of those who wienched the 
 brightest jewel out of England's crown. — 
 From the day of their ruluctant acknowl- 
 edgment of our independence, as a nation, 
 to the present hour. She has lost no oppor- 
 tunity to control our government and our 
 people by indirection, and the influence of 
 her money power. She has sought to hem 
 us in on every side by her possessions, or 
 her influence over those who hold domin- 
 ion of the soil. Willi Canada on the North, 
 her West India Islands on the South, she 
 now seeks to render Texas a pi ovince, sub- 
 ject to her will — and by aggression and 
 diplomacy, to hold dominion over Oregon, 
 north of the Columbia. 
 
 These pretentions, and these efforts, 
 must every where be resisted, and resisted 
 sternly, decidedly, and with the arm of 
 power, made strong by the cause of justice, 
 and of freedom, against injustice, and ag- 
 grandizing European despotism. 
 
 The time has certainly now arrived when 
 the soil of the continents of America should, 
 in conformity with the sentiment of Mon- 
 roe, be no longer '-subjects of European 
 colonization." America has been selected 
 out from all the world, by the God of Liber- 
 ty, to be the asylum of the oppressed of 
 every nation, and his chosen land of free- 
 dom. The foot of monarchy should never 
 desecrate its soil; and we, his chosen and 
 peculiarly favored people, would render but 
 an ill return of gratitude, and make but an 
 unworthy acknowledgement of thanks for 
 benefits received, were we, upon slight oc- 
 casion, or by neglect or indifference to- 
 wards our rights, to yield an acre of our sa- 
 cred soil to the purposes of despotic monar- 
 chy. 
 
 llie people will insist upon what isjust, 
 and show the world of despots that the 
 people of Republican America know their 
 rights, and knowing, dare maintain them. 
 
 WE NOW TURN FROM NATIONAL 
 TO STATE AFFAIRS. 
 
 And here, likewise, in the Legislative 
 
 Halls, on the statute books, in the records 
 
 of the Judiciary, and upon the whole face 
 
 1 and history of the country, are every where, 
 
24 
 
 the incontrovertible evidences of the same 
 irresi.'^tible propensity in the federal party, 
 to concentrate all power in the govern- 
 ment, whether granted to the legislature, 
 or other department of the government or 
 not, by the people, in their State Constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 In this fact there would seem to be an 
 inconsistency involved; for while the fed- 
 eral party are seeking, by every means, to 
 merge and overwhelm the State Govern- 
 ments in one concentrated and consolida- 
 ted National Government, it would be natu- 
 ral to expect them to wrest from the States 
 and their departmentsofgovernment, every 
 power which could be withheld from them, 
 and thus compel the people to look to the 
 General Government alone. But, howev 
 er inconsistent they may appear in this 
 point of view, they are consistent in this 
 one grand purpose, the concentration of 
 all powers in government, wherever situa- 
 ted, and the withdrawal ot ihegovernment 
 beyond thereach and control of the people, 
 by vesting all power in the hands of a few, 
 and rendering that few a wealthy class, in- 
 terested in maintaining the government in 
 its assnmptioiisof power, by grants to thorn 
 of exclusive privileges, and the incorpora- 
 tion of them into spf^cial monopolies. 
 
 The possession of exclusive privileges 
 and monopolies, separates their possessors 
 from the rest of the conimuaily, cr?ates in 
 them interests distinct, and adverse from 
 those of the mass, renders them indepen- 
 dent of the people, and for a time inde- 
 pendent of the government which created 
 them; begets in them iiot only an interest 
 to sustain tlie government in usurpation, 
 but also an interest, an\ounting, at times, 
 to a necessity, (in self defence,) to seek to 
 control the government, in order to secure 
 a continuance of thoir special privileges, 
 after a forfeiture of them by violation ol 
 their charters, or a temporary inability to 
 comply with ihc terms, — or a renewal 
 of them upon the expiration of the pe- 
 riod for which the grant was made. — 
 And the interest of all these liolders of spe- 
 cial privileges is identical. Therefore, thus 
 prompted by interest, or impelled by neces- 
 sity, they act by combination, or simultane- 
 ously, without preconcert; and by their 
 wealth, concentration of power, communi- 
 ty of interest, and siuuiltaneous action, they 
 obtain an iniluence, and exercise control 
 over the Legislature and government of 
 the State, which cannot but be fraught with 
 injury and dangt^r to the interests and pros- 
 perity of all oilier classes, and with imnii- 
 neut peril to the rights and liberties of the 
 
 people. True to their federal nature and 
 origin, we find the Federal party the constant 
 and unwavering advocates of exclusive 
 privilege and monopolies for the favored 
 and weahhy few. 
 
 For many years the democracy of Ohio 
 have been waging an unceasing war in the 
 cause of Bank Reform. At every step, and 
 at every turn, have thoy met the unwearied, 
 ami united opposition of the whole feder- 
 al party. 
 
 Democracy, in former times, declared 
 its willingness to tolerate and sustain the 
 banks, so long as they conducted their 
 affairs honestly, and in roufoimity to the 
 provision of their charters. They did 
 so; but when the Banks forsook the path 
 of honesty, lent themselves to corrup- 
 tion, disregarded and trampled upon the 
 laws, deceived, defrauded and robbed the 
 people, and confining themselves no longer 
 to their legitimate business, entered the 
 political arena, sought to control elections, 
 dictate to the Legislature and to govern 
 the government; the democracy, true to 
 their principles and popular rights, repu- 
 diated them, denounced them, and took up 
 arms against them in defence of a wronged, 
 defrauded and outraged people. And 
 ■when, however, the banks by dishonesty 
 defeated the design of their creation, be- 
 came rotten and corrupt, trampled upon 
 the laws, sought to rule the government, 
 and the democracy rejected and cast the-ii 
 from them, the wliigs, with a sympathy or 
 instinct peculiar to federalisn, opened wide 
 their arms, received them to their bosoms, 
 and became at once their sponsers, their 
 friends and their defenders. They were 
 now fit instruments to serve their pur- 
 poses. But the democracy, true to prin- 
 ciple and the people, true to their rights 
 and their liberties, proved too strong for 
 them, backed and sustained as they were 
 by the wliole force of the infinence, the in- 
 tellect and wealth of th' whole federal 
 party. The democracy, after years of un- 
 intormitted labor and contest, with the ap- 
 probation and support of the people, have 
 triumphed. Popular rights and the pop- 
 ular will have triumphed over the Money 
 Power. Fieforms have beeti introduced 
 into the banking system, of the highest im- 
 portance, which have received the con- 
 firmation of the popular voice. The pop- 
 ular will has .'sanctioned them. The peo- 
 ple's will has bv'n^executed, and they ap- 
 pear for the time being to be satisfied; and 
 it Is believed, that for the present fuiiher 
 action upon the subject does not seem te 
 be required by the business interests of tho 
 
25 
 
 State, nor demanded by the people. Wheth- 
 er any t'urilier legislative rolorms in the 
 banking system, ami if any, of wliat char- 
 acter, shall hereafter be acceptable and re- 
 quisite lor tha protection and security of 
 the community, we leave to the future de- 
 cision of the people tliemselve.s. For the 
 present, we believe that a strict a<iherence 
 to, and risjid enforcement of, the les^islative 
 provisions already made, and santioned by 
 the people, will be more conducive to the 
 happinrss, prosperity and enterprise of the 
 several interests of the State and the peo- 
 ple, than a further immediate agitation of 
 this all-pervading, all-absorbing and vexed 
 question. 
 
 It is needless to argue this bank ques- 
 tion. The people comprehend, duly ap- 
 preciate, and have unalterably decided it; 
 they have endured and suffered too much 
 of oppression and depression, beneath the 
 iron yoke of corrupt and swindling banks, 
 ever to permit it again to be fastened on 
 their necks. Tney have been too long and 
 too largely robbed of their property, de- 
 spoiled of their rights and defrauded of the 
 hard earned rewards of their daily toil; they 
 have too long, and with too much suffer- 
 ing, seen and felt "the sweat of the poor 
 man's brow" poured out only "to fertilize 
 the rich man's rield," ever to suffer the 
 incubus of the old irresponsible banking 
 system again to be imposed upon them. 
 If any system of banking can hereafter be 
 tolerated by the people, it 7nust be a safe one, 
 it nmst be one which can and will, and 
 from its nature and conditions, viust be hon- 
 eilly conducled; none other will, or ought 
 be, established or endured. 
 
 INDIVIDUAL LIABILITY. 
 
 We have expressed our opinion that the 
 democracy will insist upon a otrict adhe- 
 rence to the laws upon banking already 
 enacted. And we further add our firm be- 
 lief, that they will especially insist upon a 
 rigid ai d unfaltering adherence to the great 
 and crowning jjrincip'.e now es ablished, 
 of the liability ot bankers for the debts of 
 their bank, in their personal capacity. iJank- 
 ing is a business, and a profitable one, and 
 a partnership business, and it is impossible 
 to discover any soand reason why it should 
 not be placed upon the same basis as any 
 other business; or why bankers sliould not 
 be equally liable for their debts, as partners 
 in any other business. There can be ad- 
 duced no sound reason why those who 
 enjoy the profits of banking, stiould 
 not likewise bear the losses. The injus- 
 tice of grantinsr to the bankers all the ad- 
 
 vantages and profits of banking, and im- 
 posing upon the rest of the community the 
 evils and losses, is tooetrikingly evident to 
 need illustration. This monopoly of pro- 
 fits, and sortirity against losses, connected 
 with the exclusion of the mass of the peo- 
 ple from liie emoluments, by special and 
 exclusive grants of incorporation to a fa- 
 vored \'e\v, and the imposition of all the 
 losses upon that majority so excluded, is so 
 palpably unjust as to bo incapable of the 
 least plausible defence. This injustice is 
 now prevented from entering into any 
 banking institutions which may hereafter 
 be pstabiished under existing laws. 
 
 The Democracy of Ohio have, in the es- 
 tablishment of this cardinal principle, taken 
 a noble, important and mighty stride, in the 
 great cause of Reformation, in the cause 
 of principle, and of that full and equal jus- 
 tice which a democratic government is 
 fairly required and expected to mete out 
 to all its citizens. 
 
 Since Ohio assumed the bold and deci- 
 ded stand upon the broad platform of Indi- 
 vidual Liability, she has occupied a lofty 
 position among the States of this Union. 
 Ilaving taken the lead in the cause of re- 
 form, and maintained her station in the van, 
 she has attained an elevation in a political 
 and moral point of view, and is exercising 
 an influence over public opinion and the 
 course of legislation in other States, whose 
 ultimate effects cannot fully be conjectured, 
 and can only be determined by the devel- 
 opcments of time. But by what is already 
 seen to be the effects of this moral power 
 of Ohio, we may form ^omc anticipations 
 what will follow. 
 
 Since Ohio assumed determinately her 
 position, her principles have been recog- 
 nized as correct in every section of the 
 Union. Democratic presses, Governors of 
 States, public meetings. Legislatures and 
 S ate Conventions have acknowledged, 
 endorsed and urged, the correctness and 
 practicability of the doc.riiies and princi- 
 ples enforced by Ohio Legislation. Adhere 
 firmly to our position, and eie long we will 
 see Stale after State following our Isad, im- 
 itating our example, and enforcing our 
 principles. To turn back now, to recede 
 from our position, to abandon our cherished 
 principles, would indeed bo to undo all 
 that we have done, to throw away all that 
 we have gained, to disappoint the lovers 
 of justice and equality everywhere, to roll 
 back the tide of democratic progress, and 
 render Ohio, instead of l!ie leader and pio- 
 neer in the cause of reform, the example 
 to other States, and the pride of the L nion, 
 
!L>6 
 
 as «he now is — the weak deserter of her 
 principles, the recreant to her phghted faith, 
 the shame, the ridicule, and the warning 
 of her neighbors. But the principle will 
 not be abandoned. Nothing that has been 
 gained in the struggle of principle and re- 
 form, will be yielded or surrendered. All 
 will be adhered to and maintained; and by 
 this stern adherence, we will deserve and 
 receive the confidence of the people, will 
 disappoint the hopes of our enemies, and 
 fulfill the just expectations of the friends of 
 democratic principles everywhere. 
 
 DISSOLUTION OF THE LEGISLATURE 
 IN 1842. 
 
 There is one circumstance in the recent 
 legislative history of the State to which we 
 cannot justly withhold a passing reference, 
 characteristic as it is of the true spirit and 
 genius of federalism, and illustrative of its 
 utter recklessness of law, constitution and 
 consequences. We refer to the conduct of 
 the Whigs, in dissolving the Legislature of 
 the State in the summer of 1842, by the res- 
 ignation of their membership of a sufl5cient 
 number of them, to deprive the Legislature 
 of a constitutional quorum lor the transac- 
 tion of business. 
 
 By this unprecedented proceeding, and 
 the consequent dissolution of the^ law- 
 making department of government, several 
 important acts then demanded by the peo- 
 ple were defeated, and prevented from 
 being perfected into laws. Among these 
 was an act for dividing the State into Con- 
 gressional districts, in order to the holding 
 of the elections for members of the 28th 
 Congress. By the defeat of this measure, 
 tlie election was prevented from taking 
 place at the time appointed by law, and did 
 not take place for the space of a year after, 
 60 that if any emergency had arisen in that 
 time, in the affairsof the nation, demanding 
 the consideration and action of Congress, 
 and the President in the exercise of his 
 constitutional power and duty, had con- 
 vened that body in extra session the great 
 State of Ohio, with all its important inter- 
 ests would necessarily have been without 
 any representation in the popular branch of 
 that body. 
 
 Another act of a far different kind from 
 the last, was likewise defeated by the same 
 means, an act providing for the payment of 
 certain laborers on the Slate works. The 
 wages of these laborers had been fairly and 
 fully earned; they were justly ihie by tiie 
 State. These claims ofihe in ilustrJous poor 
 constituted a debt, than which one moro 
 sacred and more incumbent upon the State 
 
 to pay honestly and promptly, cannot easily 
 be conceived. 
 
 This proceeding on the partof the whigs, 
 is alone a sufficient rehitation of their ofi 
 repeated assertions, that they are the only 
 conservators of the government, the con- 
 stitution and the laws, the opponents of 
 violence, faction, nullification, revolution, 
 and every departure from strict constitu- 
 tional forms; and that the democracy are 
 agrarians, faciitionists, destructionists and 
 barn burners. In this case they developed 
 their own true character and their utter 
 disregard of forms, laws and constitutions, 
 when they stand in the way of their own 
 political schemes and policv. What is nul- 
 lification'? The annulment of laws and re- 
 fusal to comply with their requisitions. — 
 These wliigs not only annulled legislative 
 enactments, and refused to comply with 
 their requisitions, or to suffer them to be 
 imposed, but they destroyed the law-making 
 power. Wliat is faction.' A combination 
 of a minority to thwart and defeat the will 
 of the majority. These whigsnotonly com- 
 bined to thwart the will of the majority, 
 but they deprived the majority of the peo- 
 ples' representatives, of the power of act- 
 ing at all, by destroying the legislature. — 
 What is revolution] The refusal to obey 
 the existing government, and the attempt 
 without the forms of law or bv violence, to 
 overturn the government. These whigs 
 refused to obey the existing government, 
 and without and in violation of the forms of 
 law and the requisitions of the constitution, 
 they overturned the legislative power of 
 the State erected under tjiat constitution. 
 If these whigs are not, who can be faction- 
 ists, destructionists, nullifiers and revolu- 
 tionists? 
 
 Such unjust, iniquitous and revolution- 
 ary conduct, cannot be too openly and too 
 sternly rebuked by an indignant people. 
 
 The course of the revolutionists, the re- 
 signing members, has been sustained, de- 
 fended and justified by the whole whig 
 party. They are therefore justly and fairly 
 responsible for the act, amenable to the 
 odium attached to it, and atisv/erable for 
 the destructive principles involved in it. 
 
 In regard to the condition of the State, we 
 can justly say, that the people never enjoy- 
 ed more happiness arid sound general pros- 
 perity, than at the present time. The busi- 
 ness of the .several commercial and produc- 
 tive classes was never more healthy. The 
 credit of the State was never better, and 
 the wants of the comnninity never loss. — 
 The leifitiinale currency of the state is sound 
 
27 
 
 and nothing; of our own is burdenpome but 
 taxation. This is in briet', tlio coiulition ot 
 the State, after two years of Democratic 
 adniinisiraiion of its government. In what 
 condition was tlie State transmitted to tlio 
 charge of the Democracy by the federal par- 
 t\] The State was disgraced! Its credit 
 dislionored in every market. Its bonds de- 
 preciated nearly 50 per cent. The whole 
 Stale infested with rotten and bankrupt 
 banks, converted into politic^il engines as 
 well to rule politically as to defraud pecu- 
 niarily. Property depreciated and depre- 
 ciatiiii^. Trade rotting in our marts. Pro- 
 duce lumbering our tlioroughfares without 
 a market. Imlustry & honest enterprise pal- 
 sied. Dailylabor unrewarded of its toil. The 
 currency diseased, depreciated, and bank 
 paper become a very nuisance. Taxation 
 burdensome, in proportion to the disorders 
 of the currency and the depreciation of the 
 value of property and labor, with nothing 
 prosperous but fraud and peculation, and 
 nothing successful but the speculation of 
 the designing and crafty few, upon the 
 honest and unsuspecting many. Such was 
 the pecuniary and business aspect of the 
 State when wrested by the people from the 
 political control of Federalism and coinnn"t- 
 ted to the charge of Democracy. Demo- 
 cratic administration has retrieved the 
 State. The only remnant of the evils of 
 whig domination still sensibly felt among 
 us, is one which can only be removed by 
 tmie, by the increased production, wealth 
 and general prosperity of the citizens of the 
 State. And that is Taxation, to meet the 
 annual interest and ultimately to liquidate 
 the principal of the State debt. This evil 
 no legislation can obviate, though by wise 
 provision and efficient retrenchment it 
 may, in some degree, be alleviated. But 
 it is an evil of which every true, honest 
 and patriotic! citizen, will cheerfully bear 
 his sliare, to sustain the credit, the inte- 
 grity and honor of his state. Every con- 
 sideration of honor, principle and state 
 pride demands that the honor of the State 
 should be maintained at any cost untar- 
 nished, and its credit unimpaired. This 
 debt was chiefly contracted, under federal 
 legislation, for wild and speculative schemes 
 of internal improvements, ostensibly to 
 "develope the resources" of the State, 
 though probably more truly for individual 
 benclit and' local interests. Eut its pay- 
 ment and the taxation necessary therefor, 
 was left by them to be provided for and 
 imposed by democratic legislation. The 
 stock composing this debt, became depre- 
 ciated in consequence of whig mismana"'e- 
 
 mcnt to near 50 per cent, below par, but 
 two short years of democratic administra 
 tion has restored it to its proper standing, 
 and appreciated it to morn than its original 
 par value. Such is the balance sheet of 
 democratic State government, which we 
 present to you for your consideration, and 
 such is the condition of the State when we 
 recommit it to your cliargc and surrender 
 to you the trust which you confided to our 
 management and execution. 
 
 We have now presented you a brief ab- 
 srract of prominent matters of National and 
 State concernment. We have developed 
 to you, as far as was necessary and possi- 
 ble on this occasion, the true nature and 
 spirit of our Constitutional National Gov- 
 ernment. We have exhibfed to you the 
 errors of ancient federal and modern whig 
 policy and measures, and shown you that 
 they are the same. We have defined the 
 position of democracy, as directly opposed 
 in spirit and in fact, to the whole design, 
 scheme, principles, policy and measures of 
 federalism, and have adduced this as the 
 creed of the democratic party: — In the 
 State, retrenchment and reform in every 
 department; no increase of the State debt; 
 the credit of the State to be maintained at 
 any cost; a sound circulating medium; the 
 individual liability of bankers, and a just 
 vindication of the constitutional rights of 
 the State. In the National Government, a 
 strict construction of the Constitution, and 
 a rigid restriction of the action of the Fed- 
 eral Government to the limits prescribed by 
 the Constitution, and a preservation, to the 
 States and the people, of their reserved 
 rights; no National debt; no assumption of 
 the debts of the States by the General Gov- 
 ernment; no National Bank or British Ex- 
 chequer; complete separation of govern- 
 ment from banks; no distribution of the 
 proceeds of sales of public lanj; low du- 
 ties; a discriminating revenue tariff; a pre- 
 servation of the constitutional Veto of the 
 President; universal suffrage; an economi- 
 cai administration of the General Govern- 
 ment; retrenchment in the expenditures, 
 and reform in the abuses, in every depart- 
 ment; a stern vindication of the Territo- 
 rial rights of ihe United States; and in all 
 our intercourse with foreign nations, an 
 unfaltering adherence to the policy pur- 
 sued by Jackson — 'to ask nothing but what 
 is right, and submit to nothing that is 
 wrong." 
 
 To represent and enforce these princi- 
 ples, in the National Administration, we 
 present you, in MARTIN VAN BUREN, 
 as a candidate before the Democratic Na- 
 
28 
 
 tional Convention for nomination to the 
 highest station in the nation, in every res- 
 pect worthy of your support, whetlier regar- 
 ded as a man or statesman. In private life 
 distinguished by all the virtues that elevate 
 the man and dignify humanity. Amidst all 
 the storms of ribald party slander liis private 
 name and character have been untarnished, 
 his worth Asocial virtues, passed unsullied. 
 In vain the Parthian arrows of envy and re- 
 venge have sped from bows, bent by arms 
 that should have sought ra'her to defend 
 than to assail him. In vain the open foe 
 has viliified and belied liim; their shafts have 
 fallen harmless at his feet. His character 
 shines brighter for having undergone the 
 fiery ordeal. 
 
 In public life, his course has beerrsteady, 
 firm and consistent, always open, candid 
 and honorable, liis principles are well 
 known, clearly defined and openly avowed 
 before the world. He has been faithful to 
 the democratic party, its principles and its 
 men. He has been tested in a fearful hour, 
 and not found wanting. His integrity and 
 firmness are past doubt or question. TFe 
 can trust him. 
 
 With a self-possessed, calm dignity, he 
 bowed to the maje;=ty of the erring storm 
 of popular will, confidently reposing faith 
 n the ultimate justice of Americans and 
 freemen. Unmoved by the scoffs and jeers 
 of an insulting foe, grown mad in their 
 unhallowed triumph over democracy and 
 truth, quietly he retired to the unostenta- 
 tious seclusion of private life, more eleva- 
 ted in true moral greatness and more hon- 
 ored in his retirement than in the proudest 
 hour of public triumj)h. Will the people 
 leave him there — will they willingly dis- 
 pense with his stern fidelity, his immove- 
 able integrity, his undaunted firmness and 
 lofty patriotism, in the administration of 
 their (iovernment? We believe not. They 
 will do him justice. They will fully justi- 
 fy that noble confidence reposed in them, 
 by placing him ajjain in that station from 
 which he was driven, when the democratic 
 party was expelled from the Capital by the 
 frauds, corruptions and violence of the 
 Goths and Vandals of federalism. With 
 him the party fell, with all its tavorite and 
 dearly cherished principles and measures, 
 and with him, we believe, they must rise 
 again and be retrieved. With them are 
 associated and entwined his name and 
 fame. He is identified with thriu; with 
 him they will be reinstated and restored. 
 Can they be without himi Innumerable ' 
 were the false charges maiie a2;ainst tiie i 
 democratic parly and the administration of | 
 
 Mr. Van Buren, false we knew them to be 
 false we proved them to have been; but we 
 were prostrated, and Mr. Van Buren defeat- 
 j ed. They had made their impression; our 
 ] defeat, to a certain extent, gave them force 
 and validity. They degraded us in the 
 public opinion of the world. We can 
 scarcely satisfy and fully convince the 
 I world of their falsity, except by success be- 
 fore the people under the same leader. 
 And we therefore believe that if we would 
 maintain the purity of our principles and 
 the integrity of the democratic party; if we 
 would restore its cherished measures and 
 policy, and wipe cut the stain of defeat; if 
 we would fully convince the world of the 
 falsity of the charges brought against us, 
 and reinstate our party in the public opinion 
 and respect of the world and of ourselves, 
 we should re-elect Martix Van Burex. 
 
 Yet, while we thus strongly recommend 
 Mr. Van Buren as the candidate for nomi- 
 nation, by the National Convention, we do 
 not design either to disparage the merits, 
 the claims, abilities, or patriotism of any 
 other individuals spoken of as candidates 
 for nomination to the same office, by that 
 Convention, or to imply any disposition to 
 dictate to the democracy of the United 
 Slates. Let the nomination of the Con- 
 vention fall upon whomsoever it may, we 
 will ingood faith acquiesce in the decision. 
 Our great o'.ijoct is, the triumph of democ- 
 racy, andthe utter overthrow offederalism. 
 
 These objects we think, can be better, 
 and with greater certainty, attained, under 
 the standard of Mr. Van Buren, than of 
 any other. 
 
 Nevertheless, \vefreehj,/nlli/, and confi- 
 detilhj, pledge ouisetncs, and lite democracy 
 of Ohio, to the slerii and nn/alterins: support 
 of the nominee of the Baltimore Democratic 
 A\itional Con vent ion . 
 
 Such is the man we [irescnt to you as 
 the candidate of the democracy lor the 
 highest office in the country, the most hon- 
 orable in the world, the Presidency of the 
 United States. On the oilier side, as the 
 candidate of federal whiggery, is ofl^ered 
 for your suffrages Henry Clay, of Kentucky 
 — a man wiiose private life, from early 
 youth to decrepit age, has presented a 
 striking contrast with that of him whose 
 name we place before you. 
 
 In his public course, he h;»s been as in- 
 consistent and corrupt, as, in private life, 
 he has been immora' — at one lime, an 
 avowed anil acknowledged democrat, he 
 opposed "blue-light federalism" with a spir- 
 it and energy unsurpassed by the sternest 
 vindicator of American rights; now, an 
 
29 
 
 avowed and acknowledged federalist ot" 
 the old scl'ool, the iriend, associate, and 
 chief of the very men whom he then so 
 justly denounced as traitors to their coun- 
 try; at one time, the unfalteriiis 0|i[)onont 
 of a national hunk, on coiistitutiotial and 
 other grounds; hn afterwards, in his con- 
 test with General Jackson, accepted the 
 aid of the hank, and com[)elIe(1 it into the 
 political field earlier than policy would have 
 dictated, in his behalf, as a condition, or 
 consideratiou for his advocacy of its rechar- 
 ter. In 1811, he made, in the Jiouse of 
 Representatives of the United States, the 
 ablest argument against the constitutionali- 
 ty of a bank, tliat he ever made, either before 
 or since. He is now the champion of the 
 bank parly. During the campaign of 
 1840, he repeatedly, and especially in his 
 "great Hanover speech," declared that the 
 question of a bank was not in issue — tliat 
 it was not necessary, &:c. Yet, in 1841, 
 he caused to be passed in Congress, two 
 bank bills, under his personal direction and 
 control, and made speeches of his own in 
 their favor. The acknowledged and here- 
 tofore avowed and boasted "father of the 
 Protective system," he now attempts, in 
 some parts of the Union, to deny his here- 
 tofore favorite offspring, and claims not to 
 be a "Protectionist;" while, in other sec- 
 tions, he still pertinaciously insists upon 
 the merits of its paternity as all his own. 
 But recently ihe stern proscriber of pro- 
 scription, he now declares it to be the duty 
 of the whig party, if they succeed to pow- 
 er, to expel every democrat from office; 
 and assures them, that, if they will but 
 make him President, as he already is their 
 supercilious Dictator, hn will do his duty 
 towards them in this particular. 
 
 Elected as a democrat to the United 
 States House of Representatives, he turn- 
 ed traitor to his constituents and his party 
 in 18-24-'25,by casting his vote against the 
 Hero of New Orleans, and in favor of John 
 Quiiicy Adams, and thereby electing him 
 President, contrary to the will of a vast 
 majority of the people of the United States, 
 as elicited at the polls; and afterwards, giv- 
 ing evidence of corruption, by accepting 
 the station of Secretary of State under him, 
 as a recompense for his treachery, and in 
 order to place himself in the "line of safe 
 precedents" towards the Presidency. Since 
 that time, he has hated democracy and per- 
 secuted democrats as vindictively as his 
 associate, Adams, has hated the west and 
 south, since they both cast every electoral 
 vote against him in 1828, and forever crush- 
 ed all liis political aspirations for liiinself 
 
 and his blood. With such a character, pri- 
 vate and political, tinconscious of lii • mor- 
 al control of principle, the uuforgiving, un- 
 relenting, and vindictive demagogue, this 
 Janus-faced candidate, this traitor to his 
 [»arty, and corrupt associate of the iron- 
 hearted federalist Adams, and reviier of the 
 hero, patriot, and statesman, Andrew Jack- 
 son, he is well fitted to be the ieadnr and 
 chief of that party, whicli has no common 
 principles, and which is Iteld together by 
 tio other tie than a "common hatred of ail 
 men of better and purer principles than 
 themselves." 
 
 Fellow citizens, "look upon that picture 
 and upon this," and say, if you will, on 
 thnt "mountain leave to feed and batten on 
 this moor" — we address you as sober, sen- 
 sible and honest men — choose ye between 
 the two, which you will have to preside 
 over you. 
 
 GUBERNATORIAL. 
 
 In DAVID TOD, of Trumbull county.as 
 our candidate for the Chief Magistracy of 
 Ohio, we offer you a man in every respect 
 deserving of your confidence — a man, in 
 private life, amiable, affable, and universal- 
 ly esteemed. In public life, a pure, decid- 
 ed, and unfaltering democrat, in head and 
 heart — upon whom, if the past be a guaran- 
 ty of the future, the democracy can im- 
 plicitly rely. Residing in a district in 
 which, for years past, the democracy have 
 been greatly in the minority, he has never 
 faltered in a stern adherence to the pure 
 principles of democracy, and a bold, open, 
 unhesitating avowal of them. He is a man 
 who, in his political life, in the cause of de- 
 mocracy, has gathered confidence from 
 trouble, strength from distress, and courage 
 from adversity. His past course is well 
 known ;o have been steady, firm and con- 
 sistent. 
 
 Such is, in short, the character of the 
 man we present for your suffrages, and we 
 feel confidence in asserting that, with him 
 as our Chief Magistrate, the true policy of 
 the State will be fully, fairly, and decisive- 
 ly sustained and enforced in his adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 Fellow citizens — we have done! and in 
 conclusion have only to invoke you to kar- 
 mony, union and action — to zeal, fidelity and 
 energy. Victory is ours, if we will choose 
 to win it. But to succeed we must be 
 united. There must be no lurniug back, no 
 faltering, no lukewannness on the part of 
 any, on account of minor differences of 
 opinion or personal feeling. Let all who 
 claim lo be democrats, lay their grievances 
 upon the altar of country, let them forget 
 
30 
 
 their personal preferences for men and look 
 only 10 the triumph of our common princi- 
 ole.*. Let ihem remember tliat iftlip party 
 fall, they fall wit!) it, and if it fall through 
 their di.-sensions or indifference, Ihey fall 
 like Lucifer never to rise again. Let iliein 
 bear in mind that the democracy have long; 
 memories. Tliey forg;et not, and rarely 
 forgive bad faith. They forget not and 
 never fail to reward fidelity. Who ever 
 knew a personal sacrifice roade by a demo- 
 crat for ilie £^ood of his party, to be forgot- 
 ten and unrewarded by the denjocra- 
 cyl If there is one characteristic of the 
 democratic party more striking than any 
 other, it is their sleepless love, and ever 
 watchful care of their true men. To ALL 
 we commend moderation, courtesy, and 
 forbearance towards all who honestly differ 
 upon inferior questions, or men. Lot ail 
 unite with us as democrats who are such 
 at heart, — who agree with us upon the great 
 cardinal principles of American democra- 
 cy, who are willing to conform to the usa- 
 ges of the party, abide by its decisions and 
 support its nominees. Such men can 
 have no real sympathies with federalism, 
 their hearts must be with us. Therefore 
 let this be our rule of action: "In those 
 thing- which are essential, let there be uni- 
 ty, in non-essentials, liberty, and in all 
 things charity." This course is not only 
 just and conformable to the free and liberal 
 genius of democracy; but it is necessary. 
 We have no puling enemy to contend 
 against. Our foes must not be despised, 
 and their strenth undervalu'nl. They are 
 strong, and ihey are determined. They 
 are organized, well drilled and well armed". 
 They have the sinews of war — they have 
 money, and sustained by the banking and 
 other pecuniary interests, and by the hold- 
 ers of State Bonds, they can raise whatev- 
 er they may need for the conduct of the 
 campaign, and for corruption. They will 
 again send out their missionaries in all di- 
 rections, they will again circulate their lies, 
 their slanders, and their false promises. 
 They will again abuse the franking privil- 
 ege to disseminate their unrighteous pub- 
 lications. In fine, they will strive tore-en- 
 act the scenes of 1840. To counteract 
 them, we too, must be united and organi- 
 zed. "When bad men combine, the good 
 must a^soct e, else they will fall an unpi- 
 tied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." 
 Organize, therefore, throughout the whole 
 and in every part. Organize in the State, 
 in the counties, in the townships and 
 wards, and in neighborhoods. Organize 
 everywhere! Let every neighborliood, 
 
 ward, township and county be polled. We 
 must know every man in the State who is 
 with us. Establish Clubs, for an exchan'.fe 
 of courtesies and sentiments among our- 
 selves and for the dissemination of infor- 
 mation among the people, by means of pa- 
 pers, pamphlets, speeches, and by every 
 correct means. 
 
 Think of the consequences of defeat. In 
 the national affairs, we will have fastened 
 upon us, a National Bank, with all its fes- 
 tering corruptions, diseasing the whole bo- 
 dy politic. A Protective Tariff, more bur- 
 densome than the present. The iniqui- 
 tous Assumption of State Deb's; and the 
 national curse of a National Debt. A Pro- 
 scription of every democrat in office, and 
 the unhallowed reign of a corrupt Con- 
 gressional niajority, subservient to the will 
 of theLc dictator, the arch traitor to democ- 
 racy of former times — the corrupt associate 
 of Adams, the high-priest of modern feder- 
 alism, the malignant and vindictive dema- 
 gogue, Henry Clay of Ky. Virtue shrinks 
 back with disgust, and patriotism with dis- 
 may, in contemplation of the consequences 
 of such an issue. In our State affairs would 
 follow upon defeat, the re-establishment of 
 the old, exploded, rotten, irresponsible 
 banking system, with all its pestilent Hoods 
 of irredeemable paper trash, denominated 
 ^'currency," the overthrow of all the re- 
 forms attained by the democracy after years 
 of .unintermitted toil and strife, the launch- 
 ing forth of the State again, into schemes 
 of wild speculation and internal im- 
 provements, and the consequent increasing 
 of the State debt, creaiins a necessity for 
 additional burdens of taxation, expansions 
 of Banks, inflations of the currency, ficti- 
 tious values of property, the crisis, the col- 
 lapse, the de[)reciation of the currency, 
 and Ute value of property and labor, and 
 finally the repitition of the scenes and suf- 
 ferings of the last five years; the discredit 
 of the State, breaking of banks, ruin of bus- 
 ine.'^ss, and general distress. 
 
 These are the fruits of the seeds sown 
 by Federalism — these are the legitimate off- 
 springs of federal domination. With these 
 evils to beavoided, and the present heal- 
 thy and growing prosperity to be preserv- i 
 ed, let the democracy, with the experience 1 
 of the past, and the lights of the present, 
 so govern their course in prudence, zeal, 
 fidelity, and energy, as to escape those 
 evils and ensure these blessings in the fu- 
 ture. 
 
 Let it not be said by contemporaries or 
 by posterity, of the Democratic people of J 
 Ohio: "These republicans were unworthy 
 
31 
 
 of victory, and unworthy of confidence, 
 liocaiise by tlieir "^v" ib'Iirp, thoy have 
 sacrificed ilu'ir riglus and liberties and the 
 inJ^titvuions of iheir country to a MONEY 
 KING." 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 For confirmation of llio Coiislllntional principles laid 
 down in lliis Addreps, see Mailipon's Reports of Dfliatcs 
 ill the Coiivcntinn wliicti framed tlic Conslitiilion; Al- 
 exander llaiiiiltoii's Dan of Government, and Speech 
 upon It; Madison Tapers, vol. ii, page 878 to 890, and 
 pase 890, 91 and 92- 
 
 For mode of Voiinj in Convention, see Rules, vol. 
 li, pase 72-4, and Votes and Debates at large. 
 
 For power over Currency, Coin, National Ranic, and 
 power of Incorporation, see Madison Tapers, vol. iii, 
 page lo7G and 1577, and Federalist, No. 44. 
 
 Upon the Veto Power, see Debates upon Executive 
 and Ejcecntive negative; Madison Tapers, vols, ii and ill, 
 at large; also Federalist, Nos 73 to 78. 
 
 For Character of Government under the Confedera- 
 tion, and ettablishmcnt of more ciricicnt Government, 
 see Federalist, Nos. 1 To 26. 
 
 For Conslitnlion of House of Representatives of U. 
 S., sec Federalist, from No. 52 to No. 58. 
 
 For Constitution of Senate of U. S., sec Federalist, 
 from No. 62 to No 66. 
 
 Of Trcsident, sec Federalist, from No. 67 to No. 72. 
 
 And upon all these several matters, see Madison Pa. 
 pers at large; Hamilton's Works; The Federalist; Elli- 
 ott's Deliatrs in Convention of the States upon the 
 adoption of the Constitution; I.uther Martin's Report to 
 the i^cgislature of Maryland; Secret Debates, &.c. by 
 Yeates & Lansing, &c. &c 
 
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