0" O ^ '^Q 
 
 .'^^ _. 
 
 
 >\i:^. ■ ^f-' cv ''♦o^^* o'^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^. 
 
 
 
 mr. 
 
 ,.0 
 
 •^ .?-^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 *^^ o"^ 
 
 ■" A 
 
 ^. 
 
 
 ^'Jv^ 
 
 ^. 
 
 ;^"-'''V.^' 
 
 4 o 
 
 o V 
 
» -z<f/i/- ^ 
 
 3, *.,.• aO "^^ 
 
 
 •v^-^ 
 
 > % 
 
 'Mm0: 
 
 ''Co. ♦ - „ n ' aT 
 
 
 °^ "^ ^^° 
 
 •>"<•* "^b 
 
 ♦ j' 
 
 
 "-^o^- 
 
 ^•l^^. 
 
 o V 
 
 
 '' J^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 * .0- 
 
 
 ^ 'o..* G^ 
 
 "<i- 
 
 
 
 ^C' 
 
 V ' • "- c 
 
 
 ^^-^^^ 
 
 
 V « ' • o- c 
 
 .^ % ^'h 
 
 "°o 
 
 ^* ^0 
 
 
 '.^^^.V ^-^ ^^ 
 
 '^^ ,.<• 
 
 .0' 
 
 
 -^^ 
 
 % 
 
 
 ** .L'J^-, *-*> 
 
 
 i' i'te'%-^^ '-A - 
 
 JP-/. 
 
 -•' ^0 
 
 
 '^0^ 
 ^^°«. 
 
 .0' s^:*'. ';^ 
 
 » " ° *^ 
 
 '^- 
 
 
 
 . .V 
 
 -f. -4 
 
LETTER 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 HON. WILLIAM C. RIVES 
 
 VIRGINIA 
 
 
 CavsTLE Hill, Feb. 15, 1840. 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 You inquire of me what are my views on 
 the subject of the pending Presidential elec- 
 ''tion, and what course I think ought to be pur- 
 sued in it by those of us in general of the Re- 
 publican parly who have been opposed to the 
 ieading measwrcs of the present administra- 
 don. 
 
 While my name v/as recently before the 
 Legislature, by the act of my friends, as a 
 I. candidate for re-election to the Senate of the 
 United States, 1 declined, in answer to vari- 
 ous communications from members of that 
 body, to give any pledge of support to either 
 of the Presidential candidates, as the condi- 
 tion of my election. I did so, because, while 
 it is clear that, under the Constitution, a Se- 
 nator of the United States can, in no possible 
 contingency, be called on, as such, to give 
 any vote or perform other act in the election 
 of President, I believed that the practice of 
 requiring of those Avho might be brought for- 
 ward for the office of Senator, pledges to sup- 
 jiort this or that man for the Presidency, how- 
 ever it may be otherv/ise viewed by many 
 honorable and patriotic men, is a practice fa- 
 . tally calculated to destroy the independence 
 I of the Legislative Department, and to pros- 
 trate it at the feet of the Executive power, 
 whose inordinate growth and overshadowing 
 influence already threaten the very existence 
 of our free institutions. In regard to all those 
 questions of public policy and legislation 
 which were likely to come before the Senate 
 
 of the United States for its appropriate antl 
 legitimate action, my opinions were fully 
 known, or if they were not so, I was ever 
 ready to declare and explain them to the best 
 of my ability, in answer to any inquiries 
 which might be addressed to me. 1 had, 
 moreover, been very recently in the public 
 service, and my acts in the discharge of the 
 trust confided to me, which were neither few 
 nor equivocal, nor unattended with circum- 
 stances of peculiar trial, were before the coun- 
 try, affording, as it seemed to me, the most 
 authentic interpretation of my principles, as 
 well as the surest guarantee of my futuro 
 course. 
 
 For these various reasons, I felt that I 
 ought not to give any pledge of support to any 
 of the Presidential candidates, as the condi- 
 tion of my election to the Senate of the United 
 States, and accordingly declined to do so 
 while my name was recently before the Le- 
 gislature, in connection with the election for 
 that office. These motives of reserve have 
 now ceased. My name is no longer before 
 the Legislature for that or any other office ; 
 and as, in time past, it has never been by any 
 act or solicitation of mine, so, whether it shall 
 at any time hereafter be, will depend on the 
 free will of others, not mine. And, in the 
 event, even, of my name being again present- 
 ed to the Legislature, by the partiality and ge- 
 nerous confidence with which my friends and 
 fellow-citizens have been heretofore pleased 
 to distinguish me, the Presidential electioa 
 will have been determined, and we shall all, 
 
of necessity, have taken our equal and respon- 
 sible parts in it, beiore the Legislafure, ac- 
 cordiiijr 'o their recent decision on the sub- 
 joct, will proceed to the election of Senator 
 of the United iSlates. Under these circum- 
 stances, 1 can no longer feci the shghtest de- 
 licacy, as a private^ citizen, in expressing to 
 you, freely and without reserve, my opinions 
 on the interesting question you propound to 
 me. 
 
 Your inquiry naturally divides itself into 
 two branches. The first is, can we support 
 the re-election ol the present Chief Magis- 
 trate — those of us, I mean, who have been 
 in earnest in our opposition to the leading 
 measures and prevading policy of his admi- 
 nistration ? And this-^qiiestion. would seem 
 j)roperly and plainly to resolve itself into an- 
 other. Has he abandoned or withdrawn any 
 of those measures, to which we have been, 
 and are still thus opposed 1 iso far from it, 
 we have seen that, in his recent Message to 
 Congress, he has again brought forward 
 and urged, with increased determination of 
 purpose, his now cherished Sub-treasury 
 scheme, which, at the time of his election, all 
 his political friends believed to be fraught, 
 and which we still believed to be iVaught, 
 with the direst evils to the country. He has 
 not oidy again earnestly recommended this 
 scheme, but he has urged its adoption in the 
 most obnoxious and ohjeciionabifc! of all the 
 forms it has ever assumed. I refer, of course, 
 to what has been commonly called the specie 
 clduse, or requisition of the public dues in gold 
 and silver alone. This rigorous feature of 
 the scheme had been pretermitted by the Pre- 
 sident, in his more recent expositions of it, 
 and was believed to be finally abandoned by 
 him ; but is now brought forward in bold re- 
 lief, it is understood as the sine ijua non of the 
 new political alliance, which has been an- 
 nounced to the country. And the President 
 eten IcUs us that he " believes no period will 
 be more auspicious" for the introduction of 
 this hard money policy in the operations of 
 the government, •' than the present" — when 
 we know, tliat in two-thirds or three-fourths 
 ol the Slates specie is at an average premium 
 often per cent, above the common currency! 
 West "auspicious," indeed, for the interests 
 of those who are the recipients and beneficia- 
 ries of the public contributions, but surely not 
 for the interests of the people, who are the 
 payers, immediate or uliimate, of all these 
 conlribuiions. 
 
 In compliance with this recommendaticn 
 
 of the President, we have just seen the Sub-- 
 treasury bill, with the obnoxious specie clause, 
 hurried through one branch of the National 
 Legislature, by a minorilij vote, in the absence 
 of many members, when, if that body (the 
 Senate,) had been full, and its members iiad 
 voted in conformity to the opinions and wish- 
 es, either expressed or understood, of their 
 respective States, the measure would have 
 been defeated. And yet, in the face of such 
 facts as these, appeals are still made in the 
 name of a blind and abject party-allegiance, 
 to many who are truly opposed to this scheme 
 from a thorough conviction of its most danger- 
 ous and fatal tendencies, to support the re- 
 election of the President, by whose influence^ 
 and anti-republican contutnacy it is to be im- 
 posed and permanently fastened upon the 
 country. A poor attempt is now made to ., 
 give plausibility and effect to this appeal, by^^ 
 representing the Sub-ireasury scheme as a 
 mere question of expediency, on which men 
 may agree to differ without any compromise 
 oi principle, on either side ; and this attempt 
 is made, too, by those who have themselves 
 but recently denounced the scheme in the 
 strongest terms, as dangerous to the public ' 
 liberty, by giving the President the immediate 
 control of the public money, putting into his 
 hands "a fund of corruption" and alarmingly 
 increasing the power and influence of his 
 ofKce, '-already too great for a republic." — 
 Surely, when considerations such as' these 
 are involved, the question is one of vital 
 and fundamental importance. In ibis as- 
 pect — as a measure alike hostile to the 
 public liberty, and warring upon the pros- 
 perity of the country, directly and indirect- 
 ly, in all its most essential interests, — the 
 Sub-treasury project has ever been viewed by 
 those Oonservalive Republicans, who have 
 ii'iven evidence of the sincerity of their faitb 
 by fearlessly and vrijiinchin^lp meeting the 
 denunciations which its profession has drawn 
 down upon them. Entertaining such opinions., 
 can they, as honest men, and as freemen, sg« 
 far surrender their minds and their wills to the 
 slavish discipline of party, as to support the 
 re-election ol a President, whose pohcy they 
 believed to be fraught with consequences so 
 calamitous to their country ? I humbly think 
 not. 
 
 Another disingenuous device for entrapping 
 conservative votes, is founded on the assump- 
 tion that they differ with the President on but 
 a single question. Even were this so, ii would 
 be cause enough for the withdrawal of their 
 
suppoii, where the question is one of so grave 
 and fundamental a character as the Conserva- 
 tives honestly behove the Sub-treasury scheme 
 to be. But the assumption is wholly untrue. 
 The Conservativfi Republicans have diBored 
 and still differ with the President on other 
 pohits of the highest importance. They have 
 seen, through the whole course of his admi- 
 nistration and in the conduct of his friends, a 
 systematic desiirn to buiid up the practical su- 
 premacy of the Executive power, at the expense 
 of the Legislative departnjent, and of the peo- 
 ple tliemselves. They have .seen this design 
 pursued, not only by the persevering efibrts 
 which have been made to secure to the Presi- 
 dent and his agents the custody and control 
 of the public moneys, through the medium of 
 the Sub-treasury scheme, but also by the new 
 and alarming doctrine, which was broached in 
 h'is annual message at the commencement of 
 the late session of Congress in DeceiTd)er, 
 183S, that, in the management of the public 
 f'levenue, he shoidd be loft ' at liberty' to em- 
 ploy Banks or not, xciikout hj^al regulation 
 arid'at his mere discrelion, as depositaries and 
 fiscal agents of the government, — thus sub- 
 jfecting all the moneyed Institutions of the 
 country to his influence and control. In the 
 steady pursuit of the same gieat aim, they 
 have seen a system of party discipline iiitro- 
 duced and organized under the auspices of the 
 present Chief Magistrate, the fundamental 
 canon of which is that every member of the 
 |>arty which brought him into power, must 
 surrender his individual opinions and convic- 
 tions on public measures, however profoundly 
 entertained, to the dictum of the President, 
 and support whatever Ae shall recommend, un- 
 der pain of excommunication and political 
 death for disobedience. By these means, 
 tjombined with the [)owerful persuasives of 
 bis official patronage, the President is virtually 
 invested with mpreme pou-er. The debasing 
 principle has been openly avowed, as well as 
 {practically enforced, that the tirst dtity of the 
 public functionary is to the President who ap- 
 points, and not to the country which employs 
 him, and that so long as he renders good po- 
 litical service to his chief, no infidelity to his 
 public trust, not even the grossest peculation, 
 shall be suffiired to deprive him of his ofFice. 
 MS\\\\q unfaithful agents and public defaulters 
 have thus earned impunity and reward, others 
 who have been distinguished by the honest, 
 able, and examplary discharge of their official 
 cXities, have been arbitrarily removed from of- 
 fice, for no other reason th;m that they could 
 
 not conform the private and involuntary opera- 
 tions of their minds to the standard of Exe- 
 cutive faith, or that they I)elieved it unbecom- 
 ini: the proprieties of their situation, as public 
 officers, to take a part in those electioneering 
 exertions, which have come to be considered 
 the surest passport to favor and security. And 
 to cap the climax of these bold pretensions of 
 Executive power, we have seen a report so- 
 lemnly put forth and triumphantly carried 
 through, by the President's friends in the Se- 
 nate, proclaiming in the face of day, and in 
 contempt of the most revered oracles of An- 
 glo-x\.merican liberty, the daring heresy that it 
 is both the right and the duty of Executive 
 office-holders to intermeddle with the freedom 
 of elections, thus sacrificing the vital principle 
 of po[)ular sovereiitnty itself at the shrine of 
 this new idol of Pre.-idential supremacy'. 
 
 While in those measures and proceedings, 
 we have seen the President and his friends 
 pursuing with unvarying aim, as the piimary 
 object, it would seem, of their effiirts, the 
 dangerous aggrandizement of his power, — in 
 his plans of national policy we have been 
 constantly met with sui gestions and recom- 
 mendations aiming at the subversion of es- 
 tablished Institutions, and utterly destructive 
 of the repose and settled order of business in 
 the affiiirs of tlie country, and appealing to 
 the jealousies and worst passions of society 
 in their support. The special object to which 
 his schemes of innovation have been mainly 
 directed, is unfortunately the most delicate of 
 all the interests of society, and that which 
 requires to be touched with the wisest and 
 most cautious hand — the system of its cur- 
 rency, forming the common measure by which 
 the labor and property of every individual 
 ill the comnumity is estimtited or exchanged. 
 Instead of pursuing a salutary and practical 
 reform of existing abuses, whatever they may 
 be, (an object in which all good men and pa- 
 triots would heartily unite wiih him,) he has 
 brought forward crude and anti-social theories, 
 and has propagated them with all the influ- 
 ence of his high office, which go to the entire 
 destruction of that system of credit, which is 
 coeval with the settlement of our country, is 
 so peculiarly adapted to its circumstances, 
 and to which, whatever irregularities may 
 have sometimes attended it, (as, indeed, what 
 ifood. in the ordinances of nature or the in- 
 stitutions of man, is not liable to occasional 
 abuse,) every candid and well informed mind 
 must admit that the unparralleled develop- 
 ment of American prosperity and civilization 
 
4 
 
 lias been mainly owing. The President's 
 theories and recommendations, if tliey mean 
 any thing, go to the entire destruction of this 
 long established system, now indissokibly 
 connected with all the interests of society, 
 and to the cslahlishment, in its stead, of an 
 excUisive hard money currency, or something 
 praciif ally tantamount to it, operating a sud- 
 den and total revolution in the value of lal)or, 
 properly and contract.-, and involving the farm- 
 er, tlie mechanic, the tradesman, the merchant, 
 and in short every class of men, (with the 
 exception of creditors and puhlic officers en- 
 }oi/i II t^r Jlxed salaries from the government.) iu 
 one common ruin. As an essential part of 
 this policy, the President has proclaimed a 
 crusdde against Institutions, deriving their ex- 
 istence from, and responsible to the States 
 alone, and in his new-born zeal has so far 
 t'orgot his former opinions, as to recommend 
 lo Congress the enaction of a special bank- 
 rupt law, applying to these institutions ex- 
 clusively, and intended to put an end to their 
 existence by an act of the Federal authority 
 — a measure which but a few years before, he 
 had denounced in the strongest terms, as an 
 '• odious and unconstitutional invasion of the 
 rights of the .States." {See Iiis Speech in the 
 Senate of the United States, on a proposition 
 of Mr. Branch, of JV. C. on the Q>th of Feb., 
 1827, 3d. vol. Register Con. Deb., jo. 286.) 
 
 Upon all these subjects, the Conservatives 
 fiavi; diircred, and still dilier uith the Presi- 
 diMit, as well as upon his Sub-treasury scheme. 
 These difTcrences have been manifested by 
 them on various occasions, and in a variety 
 of forms — speeches, votes, and discussions of 
 popular assendjliesi In regard to myself, I 
 liave omitted no proper occasion, in both wiit- 
 t(;n and oral addresses to my fellow-citizens, 
 to |>roclaim them ; and yet I have seen with 
 infinite surprise, that some persons recently, 
 to cover their own change of position, have 
 allcgeil tl)at it had been heretofore understood 
 that I dilf'ered with the administration on but 
 a .single ijueHlion, that of the Sub-treasury ! 
 This allegation, too, is made in the face of the 
 notorious fact that I have been denounced by 
 the administ ation press from one extremity of 
 the country to the other, for daring in the con- 
 scientious discharge of my public duty, to 
 oppose and crposi- divers other acts and mea- 
 sures of the President and his party— his il- 
 licit and dangerous renewal of the connection 
 with the IJank of the United States, — his 
 alarming and anti-republican doctrine broach- 
 ed in his message to Congress at the com- 
 
 mencement of the last session of Congress 
 with regard to the discretionary employment, 
 of banks in general, as fiscal agents of the 
 Government, at his sole will and pleasure, 
 without any rule or limitation of law, — and 
 finally, the daring attack made by his friend^ 
 in the portentous doctrines of Mr. Wall's re- 
 port, on the vital principle of representati\e 
 Government — the freedom of elections. 0^^ 
 this last occasion, 1 characterized the general 
 policy of the administration by what seemed 
 to ine to be its leading features, and declared 
 my conviction that on all the great questions 
 of respect for the rights of the States, — limi- 
 tation of Executive patronage — economy in 
 the public expense — the independence of th? 
 legislative department — acquiescence in the 
 decisions of the majority — and a sacred regard 
 to the right of election — (the memorable land 
 marks of republicanism laid down by Mr. Jef- 
 ferson) — it had widely departed from every 
 principle held and acknow'edged by true repub- 
 licans. It is, moreover, well known, that at the 
 last session of Congress, I opposed,to the best 
 of my ability, another favorite measure of the ad- 
 ministration, commonly called the Graduation 
 Bill, for virtually giving away to certain favor- 
 ed States, th^t " common lund" of the puh- 
 lic lands, derived in gieat part from the mu- 
 nificence of Virginia, and in flic benefit of 
 which she expressly reserved her equal right 
 to participate. How idle then, the sugges- 
 tion recently invented, that either myself, or 
 the Conservatives in general, whose opinions 
 and destiny it is alike my pride to share, have 
 differed from the administration on but a sin- 
 gle question. 
 
 Let us now inquire whether the President 
 has changed his policy or practice on any of 
 these highly important questions, on which we 
 have ditfcred with him. Some of his noisv 
 partizans have claimed for him great credit 
 for the lavish professioss of economy he makes 
 in his late message to Congress. But what 
 has been the practice, which we are much 
 more interested in knowing than the empty 
 precepts of his administration ? According to 
 his own statement, the public expenditure 
 during the year 1837, the first of his presi- 
 dency, amounted to " the sum of thirty-three 
 mdlions of dollars ;" during the year 1S38, 
 he says this amount " was somewhat re- 
 duced ;" and for the year 1839, he thinks that 
 the public expenditure " will not in all proba- 
 bility have exceeded twenty-six millions of 
 dollars !" But this sum of twenty-six mil^ 
 lions of dollars happens to be just the double 
 
of the public expenditure under the adminis- 
 tration of John Q. Adams, which most of us 
 thought was so enormous and unjustifiable as 
 to merit the displeasure and rebuke of the 
 j>eople. What, however, are we to think i-f 
 the President's promise of " continued reduc- 
 tion" of the public expense, when we find on 
 tjie very same page of his message, the most 
 earnest recommendation by him to the favora- 
 ble consideration of Congress, of a plan of 
 the Secretary of War for recruiting a militia 
 Army of hco liimdred thousand men, one-half 
 to be in *' active service," the other half to 
 form a " reserve :" the term of service to be 
 eight years ; the troops to be armed, equipped 
 and paid by the United States, «' accordmg to 
 a rate of compensation to be fixed by law," 
 but in other respects to be under the " regu- 
 tiition" of the War Department ? The an- 
 nual cost of such a force, according to any 
 conception I can form of the Secretary's plan, 
 under the outlines he has i>iven of it, could 
 not fail to add many millions to the public 
 burthens. I now speak only of the question 
 of expense ; but in other aspect^:, this most 
 axtraordinaiy project, emphatically endorsed 
 as it is by the President, for, in his message to 
 Congress, he says, " I cannot recommend it 
 too strongly to your consideration," deserves 
 fhe most serious reflection of every friend of 
 the public liberty. 
 
 Is not militia force, as the Secretary choo- 
 ."jes to call it, or the one half of it, at least, 
 which is to be "in active service" — "recruit- 
 ed for eight years" — "stationed" wherever 
 the Secretary of War shall direct — "armed 
 iind paid" by the United States — to all intents 
 and purposes, a stantUno; army, and denomi- 
 nated a militia force, only to avoid the instinc- 
 tive jealousies which the name of a standing 
 army calls up in the mind of every freeman. 
 Can such a force be called militia in the 
 sense of the Virginia Bill of rights, which 
 declares that, "a vv-ell regulated militia, com- 
 posed of the body of the peoplr, trained to 
 arms, 13 the proper, natural, and safe defence 
 of a free state," or in the sense of the Con- 
 stitution of the United States which authoriz- 
 es Congress "to provide for calling forth the 
 militia to execute the laws of the Union, sup- 
 press insurrections and repel invasions^'' Is 
 tliere at this moment, insurrection, invasion, 
 resistance to the laws of the Union, which 
 would justify calling forth the militia into 
 V actual service," or if there were, would it 
 justify embodying them as " recruits," for 
 eight years term of service • No such con- 
 
 stitutional exigency exists or is alleged ; and 
 lean view the Secretary's plan in no other 
 light than as a proposition for raising a large 
 standing army, without encountering the well- 
 founded republican jealousies which its name 
 excites; or otherwi'ie, as a most ingenious de- 
 vice for extending the influence of the Fede- 
 ral Executive, by setting apart from the mass 
 of the people, two hundred thousand voting, 
 not fighting men, receiving pay from the Uni- 
 ted States as militia "in actual service,'' and 
 looking np to the President as "their Com- 
 mander in Chief," as the Constitution, in that 
 case, provides and directs. I know of but 
 one precedent for so profound a contrivance ; 
 and that was in the days of the " English 
 Connnonwealth, so called, when that wily 
 statesman Oliver Cromwell, divided the king- 
 dom into "twelve military jurisdictions, "justas 
 the Secretary now proposestodividc the United 
 States into "eight military districts," and un- 
 der cover of organizing the militia, caused 
 them to be "enlisted," or recruited, under 
 proper ofllcers, and "regular pay to be distri- 
 buted among them ;" which the historian 
 says, the Lord Protector found to be a most 
 etTectual "resource" lor repressing his politi- 
 cal enemies, but which all reasonable men 
 considered as "throwing aside the mask of 
 liberty," and "parcelling out the people into 
 so many sub-divisions of slavery." I have 
 no disposition to question the originality of 
 the Secretary, by insinuating that he may have 
 derived the hint of his plan from so celebra- 
 ted an authority. 
 
 But to return to the interesting question of 
 the financial condition and prospects of the 
 country, — Ke have just had a most impres- 
 sive admonition of the precarious and uncer- 
 tain character of Executive professions and 
 assurances on this subject. You doubtless 
 recollect that, in his message at the com- 
 mencement of the session of Congress, the 
 President exhibited a highly flattering; picture 
 of the condition of the Treasury, and of the 
 very successful manner in which its opera- 
 tions had been conducted. He told the Re- 
 presentatives of the people, "there is every 
 reason to believe, if t ongress shall keep the 
 appropriations within the estimates fin-ni.sbed 
 by the Executive, that the out standing Trea- 
 sury notes will be redeemed, and the public 
 expenses be defrayed" by the existhig and 
 current means of the Treasury, "without im- 
 posing upon the people any addiiionnlbyniUcu, 
 either of loans or increased taxes ;" and then 
 
prococtltM] to ilcscant on the "great evils of a 
 j)tiblic debt in lime of peace." This mes- 
 sage was delivered an the twenty-fourth of 
 December. 1839. But 
 
 Nescia mens hominnm fati sortisque futiiraj, 
 Ei servare inotlum, rebu.s sublata secundis — 
 
 On ihc 4lh day of February following, in 
 less than si.v weeks after these flattering as- 
 surances, and before any appropriation had 
 been made by Congress, except for their own 
 pay, another message is sent, communicating 
 an aj)prehended " dpficir.na/^ in tho revenue, 
 and urgently calling on congress to "make 
 early provision of certain and adequate" addi- 
 tionid " means to guard the public credit, and 
 to nit'ct prornpllv and faithfully any drficirncies 
 »« t/f revenue, from whatever cause they may 
 arise'' — or, in other words, by another issue 
 of Treasury notes, or a loan in some other 
 t'orm, to incur "that very creation of a public 
 ilcbt," with the denunciation of which he had 
 embellished his discourse at the opening of 
 ihe session of Congress. 
 
 Let us look a little farther into the Presi- 
 dent's late animal message to Congress, to see 
 if it furnishes to the Conservatives any ground 
 to expect a change either of policy or doc- 
 trine on any of the riuesdons on which they 
 have diflered with him. Does he renounce 
 any of those dangerous and anti-republican 
 claims ot executive power which we have seen 
 have been heretofore advanced by him and 
 his friends ? So far from it, he has, in the 
 ominous declaration he makes in his message 
 " that the Executive forms a cnmponcnt part of 
 the If'^idative power," put forth a new, and by 
 far the boldest and most imconstiiutional pre- 
 tension in l)ehalf of Executive power that ever 
 Avas avowed or countenanced by any states- 
 man in this country. Where can the Presi- 
 dent fmd any thing to give color to so darjger- 
 ous a dogma? The very first line of the Con- 
 stitution of the United States decisively repu- 
 diates it by expressly declaring that " oil le- 
 gislative powers herein grantedshall be vested 
 U) the Congress of the United States, which 
 shall consist of a Senate and House nf Repre- 
 senlutiocsy Will the President endeavor to 
 t'md some sanction to this !)oId pretension in 
 ihat provision of the Constitution which di- 
 rects that when " a bill has passed the two 
 Houses of Congress, it shall be presented to 
 the President for his signature ; and, if he re- 
 fuse to sign it, he may return it, with his ob- 
 jections, to the- House in which it originated ?" 
 13ut this very same provision expressly de- 
 
 clares that, though he has refused to sign if, 
 yet the bill " .yAa// become a lau\" without his\ 
 signature, '\i Xwo-^hnis of both House.s over- 
 ride his objections. The same provision also 
 declares that if " a bill be not returned by the 
 President within ten days after it shall have- 
 been presented to him, the same shall he a law 
 in like manner as if he had signed it ^ This 
 very provision of the Constitution, then, shew- 
 ing that a bill may " become a law" wilhout 
 the concurrence of the President, gives not 
 the slightest support to the sweeping claim 
 now brought forward by him that the " Exe- 
 cutive forms a component part of the legisla- 
 tive power;" while that claim, as already re- 
 marked, is most emphatically repudiated and 
 condemned by the first line of the Constitu- 
 tion, which declares that " all legislative 
 powers herein granted" are A^ested in the twd 
 Houses of Congress. 
 
 If this extraordinary declaration of the Pre- 
 sident were a mere barren theory, revolting as* 
 it is to the understanding, it might be permit- 
 ted to pass Aviihoul the expression of any 
 other sentiment than that cf "special won- 
 der" that a statesman who had passed through 
 a succession of public trusts to the very high 
 est known to the Constitution, should so 
 strangely have mistaken both the text and the 
 spirit of the " great charter" by which he 
 holds his office, and which, in limiting and 
 defining the powers and duties of public func- 
 tionaries, intended to give the highest practi- 
 cal security to the public liberties. But it 
 is no emi)ty speculation on the part of the Pre- 
 sident. It shows the overweening anxiety^ 
 wath which he is intent on the assertion of 
 executive prerogative and the enlargement of 
 his own powers, and how prone he is to con- 
 found the abuses of Executive influence over 
 the Legislative Department in the practical 
 administration of the government (which he 
 himself, by his system of party discipline, has 
 so largely contributed to introduce) with the 
 sacred text of the Constitution itself. This 
 new Execuiive readivg of the Constitution 
 was, doubtless, intended, and has been so 
 interpreted by the President's own party, to 
 claim a wide latitude in the use and applica- 
 tion of the veto power ; for, if the " Executive 
 be a comopnent part of the legislative power," 
 he would be justified in withholding his ap- 
 proval of any act of legislation on the same 
 principle which would justify the non-con- 
 currence of any other "■component part" of the 
 Legislature — of the Senate or House of Re- 
 
presentatives, for example, in respectively de- 
 
 ' ciding on bills sent from one House to the 
 other. And as a mere difTe.rence of opinion 
 as to the expediency of the measure proposed, 
 
 _ has ever been held to justify one House ia re- 
 jecting a bill passed by the other, so a like 
 difference of opinion, under this new reading 
 of the Constitution, would justify the Presi- 
 
 ' dent, as a " component part of the legislative 
 power," in applying the qualified negative or 
 veto, which the Constitution gives him for spe- 
 
 ,cial and extraordinary occasions, to any act of 
 legislation passed by the two Houses, of the 
 expediency of which he may not entertain the 
 same views that they do. 
 
 To show how utterly inconsistent this new 
 view of the application of the Presidential 
 veto, is with the old republican doctrines, I 
 
 ^need only refer you to Mr. Jefferson's official 
 opinion presented to Gen. Washington or the 
 constitutionality of the Bank charter in 1791, 
 in which he says, the veto was intended by 
 
 •^ the Constitution as a sJdtld to protect the con- 
 stitutional rights of tlu Slates, and of the co- 
 ordinate departments of the government from 
 
 ^ the invasions of the Legislature, and even in 
 such cases, it ought not to be interposed, un- 
 less the question should appear to the mind 
 of the President to be a " clear'' one, and free 
 
 \from all reasonable doubt. If, however, un- 
 der the novel theory broached bj' the present 
 Chief Magistrate, this hi^h and delicate pow- 
 er, from being " the extreme medicine, is to 
 become the daily food of the Constituiion," 
 and may be legitimately used to arrest an or- 
 dinary act of legislation, upon a mere differ- 
 
 , ence of opinion as to its expediency, it is 
 plain, that it works at once a fundamental re- 
 volution in our Republican system, imparting 
 to the Executive power an irresistible energy, 
 
 ■■ and enabling the President, in practice, habi- 
 tually to set at naught the decisions of the 
 Legislative department ; for, with the great 
 influence his station confers, he can rarely, if 
 ever, fail to command the support of one third 
 of one or the other of the two Houses of 
 Congress, which would be s>ifficient to sus- 
 
 ,1 tain Ids negative, and thus put it in his power, 
 by his single fiat, to control all the rest of 
 both bodies of the Legislature. 
 
 In relation to the dangerous schemes of 
 
 '■ radical innovation heretofore recommended 
 and encouraored by the President on the sub- 
 ject of the currency, and so deeply affecting 
 
 ^ those daily interests of life, which '-come 
 home to the business and bosoms of men," 
 the late Message, instead of disclosing any 
 
 salutarT,' modification of his former opinions, 
 reproduces those opinions, in a more naked, 
 unequivocal and alarnung form than they have 
 ever, heretofore, been presented. It is evi- 
 dent, whatever may have been said by his 
 partizans to the contrary, that he aims at a 
 total overthrow and destruction of the e.xiat- 
 ing monetary system of the country, and not 
 merely at a safe and prudent reform of the 
 errors ar>d abuses which may have attended 
 it. After speaking of certain gross irregu- 
 larities in the course of business lately pur- 
 sued by the Pennsylvania Bardi of the LI. !S. 
 and one or two other banks, (irregularities for 
 which the system, in general, cannot, wiih 
 justice be held answerable, for they consisted 
 in an acknowledged abandonment of the 
 fundamental principles and designs of bank- 
 ing, and " a deviation," as the President him- 
 self says, " from the former course of busi- 
 ness in this country,'') he proceeds to exhibit 
 a highly wrought picture of the evils and ca- 
 lamities which ensued ; and then pronoun- 
 ces his " delenda est Carthago'''' against the 
 whole system, in the sweeping declaration 
 that — "these consequences are inherent in 
 the present system — they are not inlluenced 
 by the banks being large or smyll, created by 
 National or State Governments — they are the 
 results of the irresistible laws of trade and 
 credit."' He follows up this declaration with 
 much more about the evils of " a credit cur- 
 rency," and the injuries inflicted " by the 
 resistless laws of a credit currency and credit 
 trade," and, finally, after earnestly urging the 
 policy and duly of the General Govermnent 
 to collect its dues and pay its debts in gold 
 and silver, he says, very significantly, that 
 its example in so doing, would serve as " a 
 rallying point by which our rvhole covntrij may 
 be bro'ight hack to that safe and honored 
 standard." Now this certainly sounds very 
 much like an exclusive hard money currency. 
 It is true that the President, in another part 
 of his Message says, that " in a cuntry so 
 commercial as ours, banks, in some form, will 
 probably always exist ;" but it is evident from 
 what he says, in the same connection, that he 
 means to exclude banks of circulation, as now 
 existing, and if we have banks at all, they 
 are to be banks of deposite, confined in their 
 o[)erations to their specie basis, or something 
 of that sort, which would virtually operate, 
 to all intents and purposes, as an exclusive 
 hard money currency. 
 
 My purpose now is not to discuss these 
 extraordinary opinions and recommendations 
 
8 
 
 of the President, or to point out the ruinous 
 consequences which so total arevolulion in the 
 ijionotary system of the country would bring 
 with it to every class of society, creditors and 
 salaried ofiijcrs, as I have before remarked, 
 alone excepted. This has been done with far 
 more ability than I can pretend to, by one of 
 the ablest and most distmguished wiiters on 
 political economy in our country, (and a Vir- 
 ginian, too, I urn proud to say,) who, though 
 removed from all connection with party poli- 
 tics, has been so startled by the dangerous 
 fallacies of the President's Message, on sub- 
 jects to which he has devoted the chief stu- 
 dies of his life, that he has felt it a duty, from 
 >\hich no good citizen is exempt, to aid in ex- 
 posing them. You will find his views, 'with- 
 out his name, however, which his retired and 
 unambitious course of life has doubtless caused 
 him to wish to be withheld from the public, 
 but which, if known, coidd not fail to draw 
 general attention,) in a letter recently address- 
 ed to a representative in Congress, and pub- 
 lished in the Madisonian of the 2Sth and 30th 
 of last month. I commend it to yom- atten- 
 tive perusal, and I most ardently wish that it 
 could be in the hands of every reading and re- 
 fieoting man in the country. 
 
 I will not touch upon the topics which he 
 has so ably treated ; but I cannot forbear to 
 notice the extraordinary and unprecedented 
 tone of dictation and deimnciation, which the 
 President, in tlie fiery zeal with which he is 
 animated lor the propagation of his favorite 
 schemes, has permitted himself to assume in 
 his Message towards the sovereign States of 
 the Union. He indulges in the most vehement 
 animadversions on their systems of State po- 
 licy. He invokes a ruthless spirit of exter- 
 mination against ihi^r Banking Institutions, 
 "lOy u-Iwsii tiicans" he says the jirovisions of 
 the Constitution, authorizing Congress " to 
 coin money and regulate the value thereof," 
 and prohibiting the Slates "to coin money, 
 emit bills of credit," &:c., have been "prac- 
 ticiillii snhvevled.'" lie calls upon the States, 
 "from whose legislation" he says "these evils 
 have sprung," to "apply the remedy," and 
 especially to enforce "an injlexihle execulioii 
 of the laws" against Banks which may have 
 .suspended specie payments, or in other words 
 rigidly to exact n Joifcilure of Ihcir charters! 
 After these imprecations on the State Banks, 
 he arraigns the State Legislatures for "pluug- 
 ing their rc:s[)ectiv(! Smtes into embarrass- 
 ment and debt," telling them that "our people 
 will not long be insensible to the extent of the 
 
 burthens entailed upon them*^' and holds up 
 the States to the view of the world, for their 
 extravagance and improvidence, in such a 
 manner as cannot fail seriously to prejudice 
 their credit, whatever be their resources. So ' 
 vehement is his horror of the credit system, 
 that he seems to view with instinctive aver- 
 sion eveiy thing which it may have assisted to , 
 create, and proceeds to denounce those noble 
 and most useful State improvements, whiclr 
 have caused the recent wilderness of Ameri- 
 ca to "blossom as the rose," as "splendid bu^ ' 
 in many instances profitless rail-roads and ca"-- 
 nals, absorbing the fruits of national industry 
 for years to come, and securing to posterity" 
 no adequate return !" After this onslaught on 
 the policy of the States, and their institutions 
 and establishments, he summons up the spirits 
 and enkindles the zeal of his followers for the 
 work of demolition before them, by the war- 
 cries of " monopoly," " privileged associa- 
 tions," " partial legislation," and tells them 
 that "the abuses which they have the power 
 peaceably to remedv are such as have else- 
 where caused the e[fxision of rivers of blood, 
 and the sacrifice of thousands of the liiunan 
 race" but that he "hopes they will carry 
 through the reform which has been so well' 
 begun," "submitting to temporary sacrifices, 
 however great, to ensure their permanent wel- 
 fare." 
 
 Upon what new conception of the powers 
 and duties of a Chief Magistrate of the Union, 
 the President has felt himself authorized thus 
 to interfere with the domestic concerns of the 
 States, and to arraign, lecture, and dictate tc 
 them in regard to matters belonging to their 
 exclusive jurisdiction, (an interference which 
 seems to me to be consolidation in its worst 
 form, and if submitted to in this instance^ 
 would be a precedent justifying an interfe- 
 rence with any other, even the most delicate of 
 all the domestic institutions of the States,) I 
 know not. But no reflecting or sober minded 
 man can fail to perceive, for an instant, the 
 wide-spread ruin which would ensue to the 
 whole country, if this war upon its industrious 
 pursuits and its estal)lished policy and Insti- 
 tutions shall continue to be prosecuted, in the 
 destructive and fanatical spirit which the Pre- 
 sident encourages, if he has not infused, into 
 his iollovvers. " Great as are the sac7-ifices,^^ 
 which he himself anticipates, they bid defi- 
 ance even to his powers of description. Let 
 those Institutions wliich supply the currency 
 and contribute in so large a degree to uphold 
 the credit of tne States, be annihilated— Let 
 
those noble Stale Improvement?, which ojve 
 value to the products of Agriculture, and life 
 and animation to industry, in creatiu"- and 
 opening a way to profitable markets, be aban- 
 doned and suffered to become " an heap of 
 stones," — let the value of every description of 
 labor and property be brought down to the 
 standard of an exclusive hard money curren- 
 cy, — and the imagination may conceive, but 
 no pen can adequately portray the general 
 scene of desolation and distress which will 
 follow. To my mind, the most appropriate 
 type of it is presented in the ravages of Attiia, 
 in the fifth century, over the face of the fairest 
 portion of Europe. It was the boast of that 
 celebrated chieftain, " that the o-rass never 
 grew upon any spot where his horse liud trod;^' 
 and if the destructive doctrines of the Presi- 
 dent shall be carried out, in the spirit of his 
 Message, he, too, may boast of a similar tri- 
 umph over the prosperity, happiness, and ci- 
 vilization of his country. 
 
 Plave we not, already, had some foretaste 
 of the disastrous consequences, which the pro- 
 pagation of this spirit and these doctrines, is 
 likely to produce, in the recent proceedings of 
 the President's party in the Legislature of one 
 of the most powerful States of the Union — I 
 allude to Pennsylvania. Under the instiga- 
 tion of the President's message, we have seen 
 his political friends there bringing in and tri- 
 umphantly carrying through one branch of the 
 Legislature, by dint of parly discipline, a Bill 
 (or forcing a resumption of specie payments 
 by the Banks ivil kin fifteen days, which, it was 
 understood, would have been promptly passed, 
 under the same influence, by the other branch, 
 but for the patriotic intervention of the Govern- 
 or, who, seeing the inevit ible distress and ruin 
 which so precipitate a measure must bring up- 
 on the community, and that it had already in- 
 flicted a serious blow on the credit of the State 
 herself, by rendering it impossible to meet the 
 payment of a large amount of interest on her 
 public debt, on the day it fell due, and thus ex- 
 posed that great commonwealili to the injuri- 
 ous effects as well as mortification, of a vio- 
 lation of her solemn engagements, came for- 
 ward nobly, in the face of the party denuncia- 
 tions which he foresaw and declared would be 
 visited upon him, and earnestly appealed to 
 the Legislature to pause, and re-consider the 
 dangerous measure which was in progress. — 
 But in Washington itself, under tiie personal 
 surveillance and direction of the movements 
 of his party by the President, we have seen a 
 still more alarming exhibition of this reckless 
 
 and unconstitutional spirit of interference with 
 the domestic concerns and credit of the 
 States. On motion of a member of the Se- 
 nate, fresh, not from the people, but from the 
 cabinet of the President, of which he was but 
 a tew days ago, a member, we have seen a 
 comiTiittee raised, upon a feigned issue of as- 
 sumption, (which no State, or any one on be- 
 half of a State had proposed,) to take co<r- 
 nizance of the subject of State debts, callin'g 
 up the States in succession to the bar of the 
 Senate, passing in review their pecuniary en- 
 gagements and condition, and so glaringly to 
 all intents and purposes, sitting as'a conmis- 
 sion of bankruptcy on the affairs of the Slates, 
 that when their report came in, it was indig- 
 nantly sent back, to the committee by which 
 it was prepared, with the concurrence of ma- 
 ny of their political friends, to have a portion 
 ot it suppressed and expunged. 
 
 When to these, and the other evidences of 
 contemptuous disregard for the rights and 
 dignity of the states, to which I have already 
 referred, we add the bold act of pariy-poiccr, 
 by which the President's friends in the other 
 House of Congress did not hesitate to disfran- 
 chise a sovereign State of the Union of her 
 Constitutional ri^ht of representation, in or- 
 der to efiect the election of a party Speaker, 
 (in which object, however, as if by the retri- 
 butive judgment of Providence, they were at 
 last disoppointed) — adisl'ranchisement which 
 to this day is continued, and may be indefi- 
 nitely pridonged, — we may form some idea 
 of the modesty, as well as justice, with which 
 the President and his party have presumed to 
 appropriate to themselves the name of State 
 Rights Republicans. In ray humble judg- 
 ment, the present Chief Magistrate, has de- 
 paried from every leading principle of Re- 
 publicanism, the profession of which brtxight 
 him into ofBce ; and for myself, I canncit con- 
 ceive how any one who is truly a P.epublican 
 and a Conservative — who, in the administra- 
 tion of the government is the advocate of a 
 conservative as opposed to a destructive policy, 
 — who is the friend of State-rights in o;>po- 
 silion to Federal consolidation, — who would 
 maintain Legislative independence agsiinsl Ex- 
 ecutive supremacy, — who would see the go- 
 vernment of this great confederacy adminis- 
 tered as a high national trust, and not as a 
 parlrj job, — who, in short, loves liberty more 
 \.\\M\ power — can support his re-clectioti. Let 
 others decide as they may, I certaiidy cannot . 
 
 Let «s now see what are the public prin- 
 
10 
 
 ciplcs and opinions, the life and character, of 
 (ieneral IIahrison, the sole opposing can- 
 didate for the Presidency, and if they do not 
 present a lieiter guarantee lor the safe repub- 
 lican administration of the government. It 
 has been the singular fortune of General 
 Harrison to have been more misrepresented 
 and consequently misunderstood, particularly 
 in his native i^tate, than any other distin- 
 guished citizen of our country. The reason 
 of this is, doubtless, to be found in the cir- 
 cumstance that for the last ten or twelve 
 rears of his life, he has been withdrawn from 
 the scenes of active political employment, 
 and that, while his name was before the 
 country, in the last Presidential election, ex- 
 posing him, of course, to much denunciation 
 itnd misrepresentation from his political ad- 
 versaries, the attention of the opposition par- 
 tvof the South was mainly directed to a dis- 
 tinguished citizen of their own section, so 
 that there was no party interest felt at that 
 time, in the South, in dcte<^'ting and exposing 
 the numerous and gross misrepresentations 
 of which he was made the subject by an un- 
 scrupulous press. From this state of things, 
 it has arisen, that in the South generally, and 
 in Virginia particularly, the most unfounded 
 charges have been widely pro|)agated in re- 
 gard to his public principles, and conduct, 
 and till lately without efficient contradiction 
 and exposure, — thus imposing on many good 
 citizens, who will be now eager to repair the 
 injustice they have done him. The most pro- 
 minent of these charges, which is still wan- 
 toidy repeated, is that General Harrison is an 
 abolitionist. I have recently investigated 
 with care, all the evidences of his principles 
 and c(mduct on this, as well as other important 
 public (juestions, and I am thoroughly con- 
 vinced that if there be one man, who has en- 
 tilled himself to the gratitude of the South, 
 l)eyond all others, by the noble and disinter- 
 ested zeal, he has at all times manifested, the 
 sacriiices he has freely made, the single- 
 heartedness with which he has exposed him- 
 self to persecution and political proscription, 
 in defence of the Constitutional rights of the 
 South, and the peace and safety ol their fire- 
 sides, against all interference whether of fana- 
 ticism or political ambition, that man is Wm. 
 He.nry Harriso.n, of Ohio. 
 
 Von have doubtless read the speech made 
 by him at V^incenncs., in the State of Indiana, 
 in 1 83.'}, in which, in the face of a non-sbve- 
 hidding audience, he gallantly volunteered to 
 defend the rigUtd and interests of the South. 
 
 Where can be found, even in the productions 
 of any southern statesman, a more energetic 
 and unsparing denunciation of the .schemes 
 of the abolitionists I He pronounces them to 
 be " weak, presumptuous and unconstitution- 
 al" — " illegal, persecuting and dangerous ;" 
 and after depicting in glowing language the 
 fatal consequences to which they must lead, 
 he calls upon his audience ^\hh indignant 
 earnestness, to ^^froivn upon measures which 
 are to produce results so much to be depre- 
 cated." He lays down in the broadest and 
 most unequivocal terms, the fundamental 
 principle that the subject of slavery is under 
 the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the 
 States in which it exists, and that neither the 
 General Government nor the non-slave-hold- 
 ing States have any right whatever to inter- 
 fere with it; and he inoreover contends that 
 discussions upon the subject in the non-slave- 
 holding States, tending in their consequences, 
 as they do, to jeopard the peace and impair 
 the rights of the slave-holding States, are an 
 abuse of the freedom of speech and of the 
 press, in violation of the spirit and p<?rvading 
 design of the Constitution. The same de- 
 clarations were made by him, and with greater 
 emphasis, if possible, in an address delivered 
 to an assembly of his fellow-citizens at Che- 
 viot, in Ohio, on the 4th of July, 1833 ; from 
 which an isolated passage, (in which the au- 
 thor admitting slavery to be an evil, says he 
 would gladly see the surplus revenue of the 
 Union devoted to its progressive extinction by 
 the purchase, and colonization of the slaves, 
 ^rintti the sanction of the Stales holding tliem,'') 
 has been artfully culled, and given to the pub- 
 lic, carefully suppressing the context, in which 
 General Harrison maintains, in the strong and 
 unqualified language I am about to cite, that 
 '• the slave population is under the exclusive 
 control of the States which possess them," 
 and that " neither the General Government 
 nor the non-slave-holding Stales can interfere 
 in any way, with the right of j)roperty in 
 slaves," and at the same time denounces the 
 schemes of the abolitionists as fraught with 
 '' horrors, upon which an incarnate devil only 
 could look with approbation." 
 
 But even if the incidental and abstract 
 suggestions above noticed in the Cheviot 
 speech of Gen. Harrison were to be looked 
 at, disconnected from its context, however 
 we might differ from him both as to its prac- 
 ticability and some of the principles involved, 
 justice and candor would still require us to 
 bear in mind that, but a few years ago, simi- 
 
11 
 
 hr sentiments were freeh' expressed both by 
 the press and public councils of Virginia, and 
 that a p an for effecting the same object, al- 
 most idpruical with that thrown ont by Gen. 
 Harrison, was developed and earnestly advo- 
 cated by Mr. Jeflerson, in a letter addressed 
 by him, during the last years of his life, to Mr. 
 Sparks, which you will lee in the 4th Vol. 
 of his wrhiiigs, page 378-391. But I again 
 repeat, \v litre is the man, whether of the 
 south or of the north, who in the practical 
 assertion of the riohts of the south, and in 
 energetic and decisive reprobation of the pro- 
 jects of the abolitionists, has gone farther 
 than Gen. Harrison? A just people catmot 
 forget the noble and self sacrificing devotion 
 with which he stood alone, out of all the re- 
 presentatives of the nsstern jion-slave holdino 
 States, and in a little band of but two or three 
 from the whole non-slave holding region of 
 the Union, in steadily resisting, on behalf of 
 the rights and interests of the south, the me- 
 morable Missouri restriction, and the kindred 
 proposition made at the same period to restrict 
 the introduc'ion of slaves into the Territory 
 of Arkansas — a patriotic self-devotion, by 
 which lie lost his seat in Congress, and in- 
 curred popubir odium and proscription, for a 
 season, in his ovvn State. All this Gen. 
 Harrison did freely, from a ^ense of duty to 
 the Coi;-tiiution of his country, and to the 
 rights and interests of the Southern States, at a 
 time when he had nothing to ask at their hands. 
 What w:;s the course of the present Chief 
 Magistratt , in whose behalf Gen. Harrison is 
 now soi:aht to be stigmatised as an aboUtion- 
 ist, und; r the same circumstances ? He, 
 then, as a member of the Senate of New- 
 York, vuted in favor of instructions to the Se- 
 nators ;ind Representatives of that State, in 
 Congress, to support the Missouri restriction, 
 and a year or two afterwards, as a member 
 of the SfMiate of the United States, voted in 
 favor of the proposition to restrict the intro- 
 duction (if slaves into the Territory of Flori- 
 da. We'l. therefore, might the south require 
 of him s.>!iie pledge of fidelity to their rights, 
 when he became a candidate for their suffra- 
 ges to elevate him to the statiitn he now oc- 
 cupies. But what further vr higher pledge 
 can Gei: Harrison have to give, than his con- 
 duct ami "pinions, iniifonnli/ sustained through 
 every change of circumstances, and at every 
 person; 1 -acriflce, coupled with that just and 
 Republit; n definition of the true province of 
 the PresiJential veto in his letter to Sherrod 
 Williams, Esq., in which he says " it js a 
 
 conservative power intended only to be used 
 to secure the constitution itself from violation, 
 and to protect the rights of the minority and 
 the iveaker members of the Union" — a defini- 
 tion obviously framed, in its last clause par- 
 ticularly, with reference to that vital interest 
 of the South, of which he has proved him- 
 self, through good and through evil report, the 
 disinterested and patriotic champion. 
 
 Another denunciatory charge against Gen. 
 Harrison, and alike destitute of foundation, 
 which has been extensively propagated, is, 
 that he was " a black cockade Federalist and 
 an advocate of the Alien and Sedition Laws," 
 during the administration of the elder l\Tr. 
 Adams. This charge has been most deci- 
 sively met and refuted by Judge Burnet, a dis- 
 tinguished citizen, and lately one of the Sena- 
 tors in Congress, of the State of Ohio, who, 
 from an intimate personal acquaintance with 
 Gen. Harrison at the period alluded to, de- 
 clares that " he was a firm, consistent, un- 
 yielding Republican of the Jefferson school, 
 and warmly advocated the election of Mr. 
 Jefferson against Mr. Adams." Gen. Harri- 
 son himself, in a debate in the Senate of the 
 United States, in March, 1826, in replying to 
 snme observations of Mr. Randolph, import- 
 ing a similar charge, explicitly declared that, 
 while in common with his constiuients, the 
 Legislature of the Northwestern Territory, 
 whose delegate in Congress he then was, he 
 approved the course of Mr. Adams' adminis- 
 tration in the controversy with the French 
 government, and had a great personal respect 
 for Mr. Adams as an honest man and a pa- 
 triot, "his opposition to the Alien and Sedi- 
 tion Laws was so well known in the Terri- 
 tory, that a promise was extorted from him 
 by his friends in the Legislature that, as he 
 had no vote in the proceedings of Congress, 
 he would not unnecessarily compromise the 
 local interests of his constituents by the ex- 
 pression of his political opinions." But whe- 
 ther Gen. Harrison has been or is a Federal- 
 ist must depend on the character of his politi- 
 cal principles, and not on the arbitrary classi- 
 fication of personal or party prejudice. Now, 
 it so happens that we have an authentic and 
 most lucid exposition of his political princi- 
 ples by himself, at a period of life when they 
 must have been fully matured and thoroughly 
 settled, in an address to the voters of his dis- 
 trict, before whom he was then a camlidate 
 for a seat in Congress, which was published 
 in the Cmcinnati Inquisitor, under date of the 
 17th September, 1822. 
 
12 
 
 In that admirable address, he declares that 
 he is " a llrpublican of the old Jefftirsonian 
 school," nnd derives his principles of constitu- 
 tional interpretation " from the celebrated re- 
 solutions of the Viri^inia Legislature of '98 
 and '99" — that he, therefore, " denies to the 
 General Govcrninenc the exercise of any 
 power but wliat is expressly given to it by the 
 Constitution, or what is essentially necessary 
 to carry the powers expressly given into ef- 
 fect" — that " he believes the charter given to 
 the Bank of the United States tvas unconsti 
 tulionar — that " lie believes in the tendency 
 of a large public debt to sap the foundation of 
 the Constitution, by creating a moneyed aris- 
 tocracy, whose views and interests must be in 
 direct hostility to those of the mass of the peo- 
 ple," and that he is, therefore, " in favor of 
 every practicable retrenchment in the expendi- 
 tures of the government" — that " he believes 
 in the right of the people to instruct their re- 
 presentatives^ when elected" — and, finally, 
 that he believes " upon the preservation of the 
 union of the States depends the existence of 
 our civil and religious liberties — that the true 
 cement of this Union is the brotherly love and 
 regard which the citizens of the several States 
 possess for each other — and that, as tlie union 
 was effected only by a spirit of mutual con- 
 cession and forbearance, so only can it be pre- 
 served." A political creed more truly Re- 
 publican and patriotic than this, [ think you 
 will agree with me, has never been submitted 
 to the American people ; and as it was deli- 
 vered to the world when the experience and 
 reflection of a life then but little short of fil\y 
 years had impressed their seal upon his opin- 
 ions, it must, in candour, be presumed to form 
 the basis of his public policy and conduct. 
 
 Ikit, it is said llnit Gimi. Harrison has voted 
 for a protective Tarilf, for Internal Improve- 
 ments by the General Government, and is in 
 Javur of a National Bank. In regard to this 
 last allegation, I thirdc I shall l)e able to show 
 you [ireseutly that it is wholly gratuitous. As 
 to the others, what more has Gen. Harrison 
 done than Mr. Van Buren? Mr. Van Burcii 
 voted for the worst of all the Tarid's, the Ta- 
 rilf of 1828, commonly called the Bill of 
 abominations. Very gross and wanton in- 
 justice has been done Gen. Harrison, by per- 
 verting a passage in an address delivered by 
 him to an agricultural society in Ohio in 1831, 
 so as to make the impression that he would 
 not be willing to n lax or abandon the Tariff 
 policy " till under its operation the grass was 
 found to grow in the streets of Norfolk and 
 
 Charleston.*' The truth is that this expression 
 was quoted by Gen Harrison from an agricul- 
 tural address of Mr. James M. Garnett of our 
 own State, who had argued that such was the 
 actual effect of the Tariff on the South, and 
 Gen. Harrison, responding to the argument, 
 declared, if such were really its efTect, then 
 "he would instantly give his voice for its tnodi- 
 fication or entire repeal." The sentiments of 
 Gen. Harrison are known to be those of dis- 
 tinguished liberality on this subject ; for in his 
 Cheviot speech he declares, with as much just- 
 ness of thought as elegance of expression, 
 that " even .:: jases where the injurious 
 operation of a r-nsasure of the General Govern- 
 ment is confined to a few, and it is beneficial 
 to a large majority of the States, it wodld be 
 evidence of as little foresight, as of moral rec- 
 titude in the latter, to countenance the injury." 
 On the subject of Internal Improvements, 
 General Harrison, I apprehend, never gave 
 so strong- a vote in affirmation of the power 
 of the General Government, as Mr. Van Bu- 
 ren's vote for the erection of toll-gates on 
 the Cumberland road, according to his own 
 admission, was; and if you look into the re- 
 cent Report of the Secretary of War, you will 
 find that that officer, as the organ of the admi- 
 nistration in this branch of the public policy, 
 distinctly asserts the conslihilional power of 
 Internal Improvements in the federal govern- 
 ment, " in regard to such works as are of ge- 
 neral utility," while his statements and re- 
 marks show that appropriations for works even 
 of a different character have received the offi- 
 cial approval and signature of the Presidents 
 Gen. Harrison, in his letter to Sherrod Wil- 
 liams, Esq., decliires his opinion that '• no mo- 
 ney should be taken from the Treasury of the 
 United States to be expended on Intt rnal Im- 
 provements, but for those luhich are strictly 
 national^'' and mculcates, with great f rce, the 
 propriety of '■'■ forbearance and concili itioa in 
 regard to a power, the exercise of which, had 
 produced, and would, doubtless, continue to 
 produce jealousies and dissension." 
 
 Let us now f;ee what foundation th're is for 
 the assertion that Gen. Harrison is in favor of 
 a National Bank. We have already seen that, 
 in his address to the voters of the Cincinnati 
 district in 1822, he expressly declared that 
 "he believed the charter given to the Bank of 
 the United States was unconstitutional." In 
 his letter to Mr. Sherrod Williams, in answer 
 to the query, "whether if elected Pr. sident, 
 he would sign a bill with proper mri'hfications 
 and reslrictions, for chartering a Bunk of the 
 
13 
 
 United States," he replies in the following 
 very specific and guarded terms— "I would, ff 
 it were clearly asceftained that the public in- 
 terest in relation to the collection and dis- 
 bursement of the revenue would materially 
 sutler without one, and there were uneqxiivocal 
 munijeslatiom of public opinion in its favor. I 
 thhik, however, the experiment should be fairly 
 tried to ascertain whether the financial opera- 
 tions of the <^overnment cannot be as well 
 carried on without the aid of a National Bank. 
 Ifi7 is not necessary for that purpose, h does 
 not appear to me that one can be constitution- 
 ally chartered. There is no construction 
 which 1 can give to the Constitution which 
 would authorize it, on the ground of aifording 
 facilities to commerce." It is to be remarked 
 that Gen. Harrison here speaks, not of what 
 he would recommend, or is personally in fa- 
 vor of, but what he would do, in the event of a 
 bill for chartering a bank, under proper modi- 
 fications and restrictions, being passed by 
 Congress and presented to him for his signa- 
 ture ; and even in that case he says he would 
 sign it only under the special contingencies he 
 enumerates, to wit, that it had been clearly as- 
 certaincil by experience lo be necessary for 
 carrying on the financial operations of the go- 
 vernment, and that there were unquivocal 
 tnanifestaiions of pi\blic opinion in its favor," 
 and, he adds emphatically, that unless it 
 should be shown "to be necessary for conduct- 
 ing the financial operations of the govern- 
 ment, ho does not think one can be constitu- 
 tionally chartered." Connecting what Gen. 
 Harrison here says with the declaration in his 
 address to the voters of his district in 1822, it 
 is evident that his own leanings are decidedly 
 acainst a National Bank. While this is Gen. 
 Harrison's position on the question of a Na- 
 tional Bank, Mr. Van Buren is, we know, ac- 
 tively exerting all the influence of his high 
 office to force upon the country a oreat go- 
 rerument bank, (under the disguise of his 
 Sub-treasury scheme,) controlled entirely by 
 executive agency, and thus effecting, in the 
 hands of the President that union of the mo- 
 neyed and political power of the government, 
 which has ever been held fatal to the liberties 
 »f a free people. 
 
 This question of Executive power is, after 
 all, the great and paramount question of the 
 day, threatening, as it does, the existence of 
 
 that civd and polilical freedom on which all 
 our mstitutions repose. We have seen what 
 a rapid and alarming development, by means 
 of party discipline, the abuse of official pa- 
 tronage, and the new and extraordinary pre- 
 tensions put forth by the President and his 
 friends, this power has recently attained ; till 
 the Government has been warped into practi- 
 cal monarchy of the worst sort, in which all 
 power IS centred in one man, to be used, not 
 for the good of the people, but for the exclu- 
 sive belief l of a party. To " correct this pro- 
 cedure'— to "restrain Executive power' 
 within its legitimate bounds— to bring back 
 the " administration to republican forrns and 
 principles," and to protect the "purity and in- 
 dependence of the lef^islativc department," 
 should now be the object of every republican 
 patriot, as it was that which, Mr. Jefferson 
 tells us, (4th vol, of liis writings, page 450,) 
 first aroused and united the republicans of '98 
 and '99. To enable you the better lo judge 
 of the principles and opinions of Gen. HaV 
 risen on this great question of Executive 
 power, in contrast with the doctrines and 
 practices of the present administration, I will 
 extract from his letter to the Hon. Harmar 
 Denny, written four years ago, certain cardi- 
 nal principles which be lays down »' as proper 
 to be observed by any Executive sincerely 
 desirous of restoring the Government to its 
 original simplicity and repul)licauism," and 
 then exhibit in immediateljuxtaposition tothem 
 the correlative princi[)les fairly dcducible from 
 the practice or express declarations of the 
 President or his friends. 
 
 Dnctrincx nj General Daclrincs or fvadice oj 
 Harrison laid doivn in Mr. Van Buren and hii 
 his teller to II. Denny, friends. 
 Esq. 
 
 1st. The Executive 1st. The E-xcciilive 
 
 should disclaim all con- should have the cusiody 
 
 irol over ihe public mo- and cooind of the public 
 
 iieys, except under .strict moneys, and be atliberty, 
 
 and precise limitation of moreover, lo employ 
 
 law. Banks at it.s discretion 
 
 withfiwt liuiiialionof law. 
 
 See Suh treasury scheme 
 
 and Presidtnt's JVlessagc 
 
 to Congress in December, 
 
 1S38. 
 
 2nd. He should never 2nd. It is the right and 
 
 attenipl to inUucnce elec- duty of E.xccntive odice- 
 
 tioiis, nor sutler the tede- holders to intermeddle 
 
 rnl ofiicers to lake any with clcciions. See Mr. 
 
 p;irt in Iheai farther than Wall's Report, counien- 
 
 lo give their own votes, anced by the Executive. 
 
14 
 
 3d. The veto power 
 may be exercised by Uip 
 Presideiu, being a 'com- 
 ponent part of the Legis- 
 laiive power," for mere 
 difl'erence of opiuion as 
 to ihe expediency of ihe 
 measure. See the Pre- 
 sident's last Message, and 
 interpretation if it in the 
 Richmond Enquirer. 
 
 4th. Public ofFicerSjhow- 
 ev'er capable and faith- 
 ful, may be remov^ed, and 
 others, however faithless 
 and incompetent, may be 
 reiamed, at the mere v:iU 
 of the President, as may 
 best serve the interests of 
 the party. See corres- 
 pondence of Secretary of 
 the Treasury, and prac- 
 tice of the President. 
 
 5th> The President 5th. "To the victor be- 
 should never sutler the long the spoils ot victo- 
 influence of his office to rv." See motto of Gov. 
 be used for purposes of a Marcy illustrated in the 
 purely party character. practice of the Adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 6th. That the Execu- 6th. The Executive 
 
 tive Department should practically the source oj 
 
 not be made the .<«?4/ce of all legislation under tlie 
 
 hgislation, but that the new system of party dis- 
 
 3d. The exerci.se of 
 the vcii> power should be 
 limited to cases ofuiicon- 
 stiltUioiMlily, encroach- 
 jnenion the rights of ihe 
 Stalesand indivitluals, or 
 cases, involving ike.p in- 
 terests, where there may 
 appear to have been in- 
 advertence or precipita- 
 tion m the action of Con- 
 gress. 
 
 4th. Removals from of- 
 fice should not be arbi- 
 trary, but for cav.ic to bt 
 stated to the Senate, if re- 
 quested, at the time of 
 nominating the succes- 
 sor. 
 
 cipline which requires 
 every member ol the 
 parly ti» support the re- 
 commendaiions of the 
 President,rightor wrong. 
 See modern practice of 
 party discipline. 
 
 whole business of malvinj^ 
 laws, ior the people 
 should be left to the tree 
 and independent action 
 of the Legislature. 
 
 All the above Repub- 
 lican rnaxims are laid 
 down in the letter of 
 General HarrisoQ to H. 
 Denny, Esq. 
 
 After running over this parallel of the 
 principles and doctrines of the two candidates 
 for the Presidency, in regard to the funda- 
 mental question of the powers and duties of 
 ihe Executive Department, no one can hesi- 
 tate as to which of the two is the Repuhlicau 
 candidate. But, it may be asked, what giiar- 
 ^ antee has Gen. Harrison to offer that he 
 ^ would faithfully carry out the principles which 
 he has so properly laid down as the guides 
 I und land marks of a llepubiican admini,stra- 
 , tion? Besides a character, unstained by 
 I treachery in private or public life, he offers a 
 ; security of no small importance in the formal 
 I and public declaration that, if elected, he 
 _ M'ould, under no circumstances whatever, al- 
 j low himself to be a candidate for re-election. 
 Coming into office with this express renuncia- 
 I tion of all future personal aspirations, he could 
 
 have but one motive to actuate him in the dis- 
 charge of his high duties — a patriotic devo- 
 tion to the interests and happiness of his 
 country, and a noble ambition to identify his 
 name with the permanence o( her free Re- 
 publican Institutions. The example which 
 Gen. Harrison has thus set, in contributing to 
 introduce a principle to which our wisest 
 statesmen have attached the highest impor- 
 tance, constitutes of itself a strong claim to 
 the support of a Republican people. It is 
 known that Mr. Jefferson, at the formation of 
 the Constitution, pronounced the re-eligibility 
 of the President to be its capital, and possi- 
 bly at some future day, its fatal defect. How 
 impressively have passing events added their 
 testimony to the sagacity and wisdom of his 
 fore-sight ! The first term of a Presidency 
 has now come to be almost wh(dly devoted to 
 securing the re-election of the incumbent, by 
 party combinations and arrangement, by the 
 surveillance and direction of popular elections; 
 by turning patronage to the best account, for 
 its possessor, and by all the other resources of 
 party tactics, (even to the unseemly partici- 
 pation of the Chief Magistrate himself in the 
 canvass,) to the great neglect and prejudice 
 of the national interest. He who by placing 
 himself on the principle of a self-imposed in- 
 eligibility after a single term of service in the 
 Presidential office, shall contribute to make 
 it henceforward a part of the political usages 
 and common law of the country, will have 
 closed up one of the most copious sources of 
 existing abuses, and have earned for himself 
 a lasting title to the respect and gratitude of 
 his countrj-men. 
 
 Regarding General Harrison, for the rea- 
 sons I have mentioned, as the true Republican 
 candidate for the Presidency of the two now 
 presented to the choice of the country, I shall 
 unhesitatingly give him my support, 1 shall do 
 so with the more cheerfulness, because, while 
 best consulting thereby, as I honestly believe, 
 those great republican principles which I have 
 ever considered to be inseparably united with 
 the happiness of my country, I shall assist to 
 confer its highest meed on an eminent citizen 
 who has rendered it the most signal and im- 
 portant services at a time, when to serve 
 meant something far other than merely to re- 
 ceive the emoluments of othce — on one who, 
 having successively enjoyed the confidence of 
 Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, would 
 be naturally prompted to emulate their high 
 example ; wlio, in all the various and delicate 
 trusts he has held, has ever shown that he pre- 
 
15 
 
 ferred his country to himself, and has retired 
 from them all, amid the numerous and alluring 
 temptations they presented to private gain, 
 with clean hands and unsuspected honor, 
 neither guilty of infidelity himself, nor wink- 
 ing at it in others, and who now in the hon- 
 orable retirement of private life, combining 
 the ennobling pursuits of the agriculturist, the 
 scholar, and the patriot-citizen, is emphatically 
 07ie of the people, knowing how to appreciate 
 their interests, as well as to maintain and de- 
 fend their rights. I cannot doubt that the 
 principles we have held in common will have 
 
 brought us to a common conclusion : hut 
 whether this should be the case or not, you 
 will, I am sure, do me justice to believe that 
 in forming the judgment I have done, upon the 
 most deliberate and careful reflection, I have 
 been actuated by no personal feeling, by no 
 mere party views, but by a sincere and anx- 
 ious wish for the liberty, happiueas and honor 
 of my country. 
 
 I am very respectfully 
 
 and truly, your friend, 
 
 W. C. RIVES. 
 To , Esq. 
 
 I • 
 I ^ 
 
RD S. ' 
 

 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 011 895 518 3 4 
 
 U^lll: 
 
 ^''t^^'§MM&iM 
 
 
 
 S'V'i 'li.l ■;'.''<''.( 'V'i\ J':-'.',' .'■^■■' ;>M * , V'' -S- V' ' ^Vi 
 
 XYSMisK 
 
 IM