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Rantoul, Robert
An Oration. , .
Boston, 1336.

Ckia

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1942

AN

OEATION

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

DEMOCRATS AND ANTIMASONS,

OF THE COUNTY OF PLYMOUTH:

AT SCITUATE,

ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1836.

BY ROBERT RANTOUL, Jr.

PUBLISHED BV REQUEST.

BOSTON:
PRINTED BY BEALS & GREENE.
1836.

a\3

ORATION.

The annual celebration of the commencement of our nation
al existence is a custom that deserves to be approved and per
petuated. If thgse who live under governments in which the
subjects have no share can feel a patriotic interest in the com
memoration of the victories that have illuminated their annals,
much more may we, a self-governing, sovereign people, exult
in our joint inheritance of joy and pride. If the battles in
which the selfish ambition of rivals for power has deluged every
corner of the earth in fraternal blood, are held in everlasting
remembrance by the posterity of the victors, to keep alive the
national spirit and to nourish that enthusiasm, which, blind and
preposterous as it may sometimes be, is yet the strongest safe
guard of a nation's honor, union and independence, how much
rather should we embalm in our hearts an act of self-sacrificing
devotion unsullied with any mixture of sordid interest — an act
which stands, and must forever stand, alone, in its original, un
approachable sublimity. The blasts which have rung loudest
and most frequent from the trumpet of fame have ever pealed
in honor of mere vulgar slaughters, an unavailing and a lavish
waste of life, over which pure philanthropy could only weep.
How delightful is the contrast of our American jubilee, when
our grateful anthems ascend in devout thanksgiving to Him

4
who inspired the founders of our independence to erect for
themselves that ever-during monument — a .work which, as it had
no model, though it may be often imitated, will have no equal
— forever peerless in its solitary grandeur.
If there be any event in the history of the world, that any
nation is called upon to celebrate by an annual festival, the
birth-day of a free and mighty empire presents the strongest
claim to this distinction. On such an occasion it is natural to
revert to the fundamental principles of our social compact, to
investigate the spirit of our institutions, to discuss our duties
and our prospects, as well as to kindle the fire of patriotism.
Indeed, were it not for the vast variety of topics which a sub
ject so rich in interesting reflections as the declaration of Amer
ican Independence necessarily suggests to the mind, one might
almost despair of gilding with the charm of novelty a theme
which has been so often exhibited by your poets and your ora
tors. But such a subject is a mine of inexhaustible wealth. As
far as you explore its diverging veins, new treasures will still
reward your search as bright as those that blushed at the first
opening of the soil.
The Fourth of July, 1776, was the date of our political separ
ation from Great Britain. The separation left the Colonies,
Independent States. But political Independence was only a
single step towards freedom from foreign influence. Much re
mained to be done — alas! much yet remains to be done — before
these United States can be pronounced to be completely and
in the broadest sense independent of Great Britain. The Brit
ish spirit is still largely felt; it still in a great measure pre
dominates over our literature, our manners and customs
through the whole tone of our society, in the whole tenor and
spirit of our laws, and in far too much of our domestic and for
eign policy. It was natural that this should have been so; it
is inexcusable that it should remain so. It is high time that
we were independent, not only politically, but intellectually,
morally, and without qualification.
The founders of our States were British emigrants. They
brought with them the spirit of liberty, but it was the spirit of
British liberty, as modified by British institutions, and as qual-

ified by British prejudices. They were firm, consistent, and
loyal friends of the British Constitution, and they were disposed
to yield a hearty obedience to the British Government, within
the limits of the British Constitution. The British Government
undertook to impose upon them burthens which the British
Constitution did not warrant, and like true Englishmen they
resisted. They vindicated for themselves the rights and pri
vileges of Englishmen. This brought on alienation, war, se
cession, and those who at first meant only to hold fast their
birth-right as British subjects, ended by casting off their alle
giance to the British crown.
At the commencement of the revolution, our fathers were,
generally speaking, whigs: that is to say, they were warmly
attached to the British Constitution as it then existed. They
were attached, and adhered with a loyal fervor, to hereditary
monarchy in the protestant succession, to a hereditary peerage,
and to that elective aristocracy, the House of Commons, which
by a legal fiction was said to represent the people of Great
Britain. They were thoroughly imbued with British principles
— with whig principles, but in the course of a seven years war
most of them got gradually, though effectually, rid of these
principles — they ceased to be British whigs, and became Amer
ican democrats.
The mere act however of severing the political connection
between ourselves and the mother country did not, of itself,
necessarily and immediately, alter the whole complexion of
every article in the political creed of every American. Some
no doubt, who were most bigoted in their attachment to British
principles, continued in the faith in which they were brought
up — continued to be whigs. It has even been said, that, long
after the war was over, there were distinguished men who still
held fast to the whig system. It was said that Alexander Ham
ilton declared that the British Constitution, with all its faults,
and with all its corruptions, was the most admirable Constitu
tion upon the face of the globe, and that without its corruptions
it would be altogether impracticable. If this were so, this
great man must have been a thorough whig after the Federal
Constitution had been some years in operation. Whether the
tradition be correct or not, and our authority for it is the word

of Mr Jefferson, it cannot be doubted that there were those
who entertained, if they did not avow, the sentiment attributed
to Hamilton. Such sentiments, under various disguises, have
survived to the present day. There is reason to suppose that
genuine whigs may yet be found in New England, the part of
the country which most nearly resembles Old England, still
cherishing, through good report and evil report, the political
faith which they inherit from ante-revolutionary times; like
Bourbons, forgetting nothing, learning nothing, — unchangeable
through sixty years of hard experience. These whigs however,
must be antiquities and curiosities, — few and far between,
contrasting oddly enough with rational American demo
crats. The majority of the people however, are not, and never
again can be whigs. They desire, and have long desired, to
cast off that British influence, which weighs so heavily upon
us, from education and habit, but which is so repugnant to our
institutions, condition, and character. It is therefore an inter
esting inquiry to ascertain, as nearly as may be by a general
and cursory examination, by what steps, and how far, we have
discarded the unwholesome control of notions derived from our
colonial dependence; and by what measures, and to what ex
tent it is expedient that we should endeavor to eradicate the
leaven that remains, and to make ourselves in very deed and
truth, as our fathers declared that we are, and of right ought
to be, Free and Independent States.
The power to tax the Colonies without their consent was
never constitutionally possessed by Great Britain. The at
tempt to exercise this power brought on resistance, and a war,
in the course of which the Declaration of Independence was
issued, and maintained. The successful issue of that contest
under the auspices of Washington, forever freed our necks
from the yoke of foreign political supremacy. After the peace
the incompetency of the confederation, and the evident tenden
cy towards anarchy in the several States, produced a reaction
in favor of the British system, which, while the war was raging,
had fallen into disrepute. The British Constitution was held
up, as the only model, and the perfect model, of a free govern
ment. A leading whig of those times, a more consistent, not

to say more honest whig than any of the present day, pro
posed an Executive for life, to have the power of nominating
the governors of the different States, with a Senate during good
behavior, in effect for life, as conservative institutions to coun
terbalance the democratic force of the popular impulses that
make themselves felt in our Government. The democracy
however was then so strong that not ajl the genius of Hamil
ton, with the authority of the genuine whigs associated with
him, mighty names some of them, could impose upon the peo
ple a scheme bearing these aristocratic features. Under the
mediation of Washington a compromise was effected. A gov
ernment too strong for the fears of Patrick Henry and of Jef
ferson, and many other sagacious, patriotic, and eminent states
men, but not strong enough to answer the views of Hamilton,
and the other admirers of the British Constitution, was recom
mended by the Convention, and adopted by the popular suffra
ges. The crisis was safely passed, and the father of American
freedom was a second time the Savior of his Country.
Washington not only burst asunder the British chain, but
his wisdom and his weight of character introduced that expe
dient, I mean our existing Constitution, which averted the na
tural and the threatening revulsion of British principles; a re
vulsion which would have been absolutely irresistible after a
few years of suffering and anarchy.
The Constitution, I say, was an expedient which saved us on
the one hand from anarchy and its miseries, on the other hand
from that reaction in favor of the high-toned and aristocratic
doctrines of the whigs, which must have followed anarchy. It
was admirably adapted — it was almost miraculously adapted to
its objects, considering the circumstances under which it orig
inated. It soon became apparent however that the Federal
Government was not to be an exception, to the ordinary prin
ciples which regulate the action of ambitious men placed in
situations calculated to stimulate their ambition. Power is to
ambition what wealth is to avarice. Instead of satisfying the
desire, it creates an insatiable craving for more. The dispo
sition of power to arrogate to'itself more power was exemplified
in the Federal Government, as it has been in every other since
the world began. This became its guiding and its governing

8
principle; opposition to this was the criterion and the substance
of democracy. In its course it swelled and grew like a snow
ball, till it accumulated to the magnitude, and moved with the
ponderous momentum of an avalanche.
The fundamental article of the democratic creed is this, that
the General Government ought to be strictly confined within
its proper sphere. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, taken
from an official opinion drawn up by him while Secretary of
State, they ' consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid
on this ground, that all powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States, or to the people. To take a single
step beyond the boundaries thus drawn around the powers of
Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power,
no longer susceptible of any definition.'
Congress overstepped these boundaries, in 1791, by the
charter of the bank, in spite of the strenuous opposition of the
republicans of that day, with Jefferson and Madison at their
head. Hamilton, the most ardent admirer of the British Con
stitution, then Secretary of the Treasury, aimed to place that
department ' in such an attitude as to command the whole ac
tion of the Government.' He believed that mankind could be
governed only in two ways, by force, or by corruption. Force
was out of the question here, of course corruption was the only
alternative. Sir Robert WalP°le> the most distinguished whig
minister of Great Britain, while first lord of the treasury and
chancellor of the exchequer, has the credit of having originally
introduced this system of government, which has been charac
teristic of the whig party ever since, wherever it has been in
power, with means at its disposal. ' For self-defence, where
argument failed,' says his biographer, ' he had recourse to the
more powerful influence of corruption; and this latter mode of
conviction, which he not only practised from necessity but
systematically vindicated and recommended, gave a distinguish'
character to his administration, and entailed reproach on his
memory.' It must be allowed that the Bank party in the Uni
ted States are richly entitled to be considered legitimate fol
lowers of Sir Robert Walpole, whose maxim was that ' every
man has his price,' and so far at least they have a ri<rht to the

appellation of whigs — being not only admirers of the British
Constitution in theory, but admirers and imitators of its prac
tical operation, under the most celebrated of whig administra
tions. Having once overstepped the boundaries of the Constitution
in the creation of a Bank, the Government by degrees went on
to take possession of that boundless field of power, no longer
susceptible of any definition,' which was thus opened to them.
The obstinate resistance of the democratic party could not pre
vent such legislative constructions of the Constitution, as made
it a very different thing from what the people thought they had
submitted to. Those sweeping powers which Hamilton and
his friends had sought in vain to incorporate into the Consti
tution were extorted from it by virtue of the doctrine of impli
cation. It was tortured into any shape that might suit their
purposes. 'Legislative explanations,' says Jefferson, 'were
given to the Constitution, and all the administrative laws were
shaped on the model of England, and so passed.' The alien and
sedition laws, the muzzling of the press, the unrelenting pro
scription for opinion's sake, made that period emphatically the
reign of terror.
The bone and muscle of the nation, the hope and strength
of the people were roused at last, and took the power into their
own hands. They perceived that it was their own quarrel
which was to be fought out against the lovers of power and
wealth, who were fast monopolizing both, to the imminent
danger of the general freedom. They rallied therefore under
the early and inflexible champions of the democracy; truth
and reason were the weapons they employed; union gave them
strength, and the aristocracy was prostrated before them.
The immortal Jefferson was seated at the helm of state, and at
once ' restored the Government to the Republican tack.'
Mr Jefferson disallowed the binding force of British prece
dents, and undertook to conduct the government upon Amer
ican principles. His untiring efforts through the eight years
of his presidency did much towards carrying back the adminis
tration to its original, constitutional simplicity, and to accom
modate our institutions, which had begun to be warped after
a foreign model, to our own situation, character, and circum-
2

10
stances. It was impossible for him to return to the primitive
purity of our system, however, so strongly had the British
virus impregnated the whole body. He did what could be
done, but to complete the work was reserved for his more for
tunate successor. The Constitution had been deeply violated,
but the violation could not at that time be redressed. Mr Jef
ferson had given his written opinion on the fifteenth of Febru
ary, 1791, that 'the incorporation of a Bank, and the powers
assumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated
to the United States by the Constitution.' He might haye sta
ted this as a fact, for while the Bank Bill was under discussion,
Judge Wilson was reminded by Mr Baldwin of the following
occurrences in the grand Convention. Among the powers
enumerated, in the draft of the Constitution, was that to erect
corporations. On debate, it was stricken out. Particular powers
were then proposed; among others, that to establish a NA
TIONAL BANK. This was opposed and REJECTED.
Judge Wilson admitted the correctness of this statement, which
is now well known from other sources.
The late lamented Mr Madison concluded his speech against
the Bank, in 1791, by remarking, that the power, exercised by
the bill then pending, was
' Condemned by the silence of the Constitution.
' Condemned by the rule of interpretation arising out of the
Constitution.g ' Condemned by its tendency to destroy the main characteristic
of the Constitution.
' Condemned by the expositions of the friends of the Consti
tution, whilst depending before the public.
' Condemned by the apparent intention of the parties which
ratified the Constitution.
' Condemned by the explanatory amendments proposed by
Congress themselves to the Constitution.'
That such a power, loaded with such condemnation, should
notwithstanding, have been usurped and exercised, was enough
to introduce a tooted and general corruption which could not
be removed until the cause was eradicated. Mr Randolph in
1824, after speaking of the ' vagrant power ' to charter the
Bank ' seeking through the different clauses of the Constitution

11
where to fix itself,' and the vagrant power of internal improve
ments, ' after being whipt from parish to parish, at last seeking
a settlement under the war-making power ' — in the same
speech in which he asserted that a new sect had arisen, who,
in their latitudinarian constructions of the Constitution, as far
transcended Alexander Hamilton and his disciples, as they
transcended Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Tay
lor of Carolina — attributed all those loose interpretations of the
Constitution which favor consolidation, to the establishment of
the banking power, as their original source. ' Sir,' said he,
' when I consider this war-making power, and this money-ma
king power, and suffer myself to reflect on the length to which
they go, I feel ready to acknowledge that in yielding these, the
States have yielded every thing. The last words of Patrick
Henry on this subject, although uttered five and twenty years
ago, are now ringing in my ears. I am sorry to say that all
the difficulties under which we have labored, and now labor,
on this subject, have grown out of a fatal admission, by one of
the late Presidents of the United States, which gave a sanction
to the principle, that this government had the power to charter
the present colossal Bank of the United States.'
The unconstitutional, anti-American, and strictly British
character of such an Institution was attested, as long ago as
eighteen hundred and eleven, by Henry Clay, whom we may
fairly offer as an unexceptionable witness against the consoli-
dationists, the British, or whig party. ' When gentlemen at
tempt to carry this measure on the ground of acquiescence or
precedent,' said Mr Clay in his speech against the recharter of
the old bank, ' DO THEY FORGET THAT WE ARE NOT
IN WESTMINSTER HALL ?'
' To legislate upon the ground merely that our predecessors
thought themselves authorized, under similar circumstances to
legislate, is TO SANCTIFY ERROR AND PERPETUATE
USURPATION.'
' The great advantage of our system of government over all
others is, that we have a written Constitution defining its lim
its, and prescribing its authorities, and that, HOWEVER FOR
A TIME, FACTION MAY GONVULSE THE NATION,
and passion and party prejudice sway its functionaries, the

12
season of reflection will recur, when calmly retracing their
deeds, all aberrations from fundamental principles will be cor
rected. But once substitute practice for principle, the expo
sition of the Constitution for the text of the Constitution, and
in vain shall we look for the instrument in the instrument itself-
IT WILL BE AS DIFFUSED AND INTANGIBLE AS
THE PRETENDED CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND.'
' What would be our condition if we were to take the inter
pretations given to that sacred book, which is or ought to be
the criterion of our faith, for the book itself? We should find
the Holy Bible buried beneath the interpretations, glossaries
and comments of councils, synods, and learned divines, which
have produced swarms of intolerant and furious sects, partaking
less of the mildness and meekness of their origin, than of a
vindictive spirit of hostility towards each other. They ought
to afford us a solemn warning to make that Constitution which
we have sworn to support our invariable guide. I conceive
then, Sir, that we are not empowered by the Constitution, nor
bound by any practice under it, to renew the charter of this
Bank.' Mr Clay believed the Bank to be, not only British in princi
ple, but identified with British interests.
' May not the time arrive,' he asks, ' when the concentration
of such a vast portion of the circulating medium of the country
in the hands of any corporation, will be DANGEROUS TO
OUR LIBERTIES ? By whom is this immense power wield
ed? By a body who, in derogation of the great principle of all
our institutions, responsibility to the people, is amenable to a
few stockholders and they CHIEFLY FOREIGNERS. Sup
pose an attempt to subvert this government, would not the trai
tor first aim, by force or corruption, to acquire the treasure of
this company? Look at it in another aspect. Seven tenths of
its capital are in the hands of foreigners, chiefly English sub
jects. We are possibly on the eve of a rupture with that na
tion. Should such an event occur, DO YOU APPREHEND
THAT THE ENGLISH PREMIER WOULD EXPERI
ENCE ANY DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING THE EN
TIRE CONTROL OF THIS INSTITUTION?'
' Go to the other side of the Atlantic, and see what has been

13
achieved for us there, by Englishmen, holding seven tenths of
the capital of this Bank. Has it released from galling and ig
nominious bondage, one solitary American seaman, bleeding
under British oppression? Did it prevent the unmanly attack
upon the Chesapeake?
'Are we quite sure that on this side of the water, it has had
no effect favorable to British interests? It has often been sta
ted, and although I do not know that it is susceptible of strict
proof, I believe it to be a fact, that this Bank exercised its in
fluence in support of Jay's treaty, and may it not have contri
buted to blunt the public sentiment, or paralyze the efforts of
this nation against British aggression?'
' The Duke of Northumberland is said to be the most con
siderable stockholder in the Bank of the United States,' &c.
Mr Clay, of course, considered it to be his imperative duty
to oppose with his whole powers the perpetuation of such an
usurpation. He did not forget that he was not in Westminster
Hall. 'I felt myself bound,' said he, 'to obey the para
mount duties I owe my country and its constitution; to make
one effort, however feeble, to avert the passage of what appears
to me a most unjustifiable law.'
' The power to charter companies is not specified in the
grant, and I contend, is of a nature not transferable by mere
implication. It is one of the most exalted attributes of sove
reignty. In the exercise of this gigantic power, we have seen
an East India Company created, which has carried dismay,
desolation and death, throughout one of the largest portions of
the habitable world.'
' Is it to be imagined that a power so vast would have been
left by the wisdom of the constitution to doubtful inference?'
' Where is the limitation upon this power to set up corpora
tions? You establish one in the heart of a state, the basis of
whose capital is money. You may erect others whose capital
is land, slaves, and personal estate, and thus the whole proper
ty within the jurisdiction of a state might be absorbed by these
political bodies. '
' The question is, shall we stretch the instrument to embrace
cases not fairly within its scope.'
The instrument having been thus perverted in 1791, it was

14
impossible for Mr Jefferson, and those with whom he acted, to
restore it in 1801; for had they undertaken to revoke the
charter of the Bank, Mr Clay has told us what would have
been the consequence. ' The judiciary would have been ap
pealed to, and from the known opinions and predilections of
the judges then composing it, they would have pronounced the
act of incorporation, as in the nature of a contract, beyond the
repealing power of any succeeding legislature.'
Although the Bank expired, at the expiration of its charter^
in 1811; yet it revived, with augmented power, in 1816; and
it was left for Andrew Jackson to fight the great battle for the
Constitution, and decisively to vindicate its supremacy. He
settled the question of the Bank charter, upon American prin
ciples, by his veto message of July 10, 1832. In that immor
tal document, which prostrated the monied power, our children,
and our children's children, will read the fundamental maxims
of a genuine, republican policy. It contributed much towards
the consummation of our Independence, that statesmanship,
such as that paper displays, should grapple with a death-grasp
the first, the last, the greatest and the worst of those innova
tions, of foreign origin and uncongenial to our institutions,
which had fastened themselves, with pernicious influence, upon
the beautiful simplicity of our government. Let us recur to
the closing paragraphs, for they may be read here very appro
priately, after the Declaration of Independence.
' It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often
bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinc
tions in society will always exist under every just government.
Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth, cannot be pro
duced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the
gifts of Heaven, and the fruits of superior industry, economy
and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law.
But when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just
advantages, artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities and
exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer, and the potent
more powerful, the humble members of society, the farmers
mechanics and laborers, who have neither the time nor the
means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to
complain of the injustice of their government.'

15
' There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils ex
ist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal pro
tection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike
on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be
an unqualified blessing. In the act before me, there seems
to me a wide and unnecessary departure from these just prin
ciples. Nor is our government to be maintained, or our
Union preserved, by invasions of the rights and powers of
the several States. In thus attempting to make our gen
eral government strong, we make it weak. ITS TRUE
STRENGTH CONSISTS IN LEAVING INDIVIDUALS
AND STATES AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE TO THEM
SELVES — in making itself felt not in its power but in its be
neficence, not in its control but in its protection, not in bind
ing the States more closely to the centre, but leaving each to
move unobstructed in its proper orbit.'
' Experience should teach us wisdom. Most of the difficul
ties our government now encounters, and most of the dangers
which impend over our Union, have sprung from an abandon
ment of the legitimate objects of government, by our national
legislation, and the adoption of such principles as are embodied
in this act. Many of our rich men have not been content with
equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to
make them richer by acts of Congress. By attempting to grat
ify their desires, we have in the results of our legislation, ar
rayed section against section, interest against interest, and
man against man, in a fearful commotion, which threatens to
shake the foundations of our Union. If we cannot at once in
justice to interests vested under improvident legislation, make
our government what it ought to be, we can at least take a
stand against all new grants of monopolies, and exclusive priv
ileges, against any prostitution of our government, to the ad
vancement of the few at the expense of the many, and in favor
of compromise and gradual reform in our code of laws and sys
tem of political economy.'
By doctrines such as these, our illustrious President, while
perfecting the independence of his country from foreign influ
ence and foreign example, naturally earned for himself the
hatred of our British, or whig party, who still answer to the

16
description given of them in their principal organ in the old
world, the Edinburgh Review, 'THE STRENGTH OF THE
WHIGS LAY IN THE GREAT ARISTOCRACY, IN
THE CORPORATIONS, AND IN THE TRADING OR
MONIED INTERESTS.' But how Could they expect to
bend from his purpose, by exhibitions of their futile wrath, the
man who discomfited their allies at New Orleans. They
should have remembered that the * quick discernment — prompt
decision — and energetic execution which characterize a man
fitted to command an army,' make him competent also ' to dis
cern and adopt the measures calculated to promote the welfare
of his country in his civil administration.'* That ' a strong
mind will soon grasp a new subject to which it turns its atten
tion;' and that the first subject to which the attention of a
democratic President must be turned was no other than the
British Bank. They should have remembered the assurance
given by Thomas Jefferson, ' Andrew Jackson is a clear head
ed, strong minded man, and HAS MORE OF THE ROMAN
IN HIM THAN ANY OTHER MAN NOW LIVING.'
They should have remembered that it was to him alone that
Jefferson looked to finish this very work which he had begun,
the restoration to the States and people, of powers not granted
to the Federal Government by the Constitution. ' It is fortu
nate,' said the Patriarch of democracy — 'it is fortunate for the
country, that General Jackson is likely to be fit for public life
at the end of the present four years; (from 1825) for in him is
the only hope left of avoiding the dangers manifestly about to
arise out of the broad construction now again given to the
Constitution of the United States, which effaces all limitations
of power, and leaves the general government, by theory, alto
gether unrestrained.' They should have remembered the
character ascribed to him by James Monroe, ' a man fit for
any emergency; a statesman, cool and dispassionate; a soldier
terrible in battle, and mild in victory; a patriot whose bosom
swelled with the love of country; in fine, a man whose like we
shall scarce look upon again.' They should have remembered
that from the path of duty, he never turned aside; for this they

'Timothy Pickering's letter to Philip Van Cortland, April 18th, 1828.

17
knew, not only from his history, but from the testimony 6f our
Massachusetts statesman, John Quincy Adams. 'General
Jackson justly enjoys in an eminent degree the public favor,'
said the late President; 'and of his worth, talents and services,
no one entertains a higher or more respectable opinion than
myself.' 'An officer whose services entitle him to the highest
rewards, and whose whole career has been signalized by the
purest intentions, and most elevated purposes.' They should
have remembered that so unquestionable were these virtues as
to extort from an envious rival, Henry Clay, professions of ad
miration. ' Towards that distinguished Captain, who has shed
so much glory on our country, whose renown constitutes so
great a portion of its moral property, I never had,' said the
Western Orator, 'I never can have, any other feelings than those
of profound respect, and of the utmost kindness.' They should
have remembered, that, at the age of thirty, a senator in Con
gress, when the latitudinarian expositions of the Federalists
were breaking down the landmarks of the Constitution, and
consolidating the States into one sovereignty, Andrew Jackson
was found on the side of those Republican principles peculiar
to America, and essential to her liberty; and that ever since
that time he has been a firm, consistent, and unwavering dem
ocrat; and then they could never have doubted that the antici
pations of Mr Jefferson would be realized, that the fate of the
Bank was sealed by his election, and that the renovation of the
Constitution was to be the last Herculean task of Andrew Jack
son. The task was his, and he was equal to its accomplish
ment. This brave and wise old man, whom King-loathed Columbia
has so long delighted to honor, is approaching the goal at which
his patriotic labors are to terminate. Having filled full the mea
sure of his country's glory, covered with the laurels of martial
and of civic triumph, rich in the gratitude of millions redeemed
from the scourge of monopoly, and cheered by the hope that
the blessings he has won for his country may be perpetual as
the love of freedom in the hearts of Americans, there is still in
store for him a higher and purer enjoyment than any of these.
When his long career of public duty shall have been finished,
and he shall seek the peaceful Hermitage, to dedicate to need-
3

18
ed and wished-for repose the evening of his days, with what
tranquil satisfaction will he look back upon the many, the weigh
ty, and the lasting services, which a benignant Providence has
made him the chosen instrument to render to this Heaven-pro
tected nation! With what delightful consciousness may he then
reflect upon the faithful performance of the vast obligations de
volving on such a man, upon the good use which he has made
of the many talents wherewith God has gifted him, upon the
large part allotted to him, in the wide sphere of action in which
he has moved, done — all done — and well done! Fortunate sol
dier, statesman, patriot and philanthropist!
You have defended our soil from invasion, restored our vio
lated Constitution, disarmed and prostrated the most dangerous
foe of our liberties, brought a whole great people by your judi
cious policy into a palmy state of prosperity never known be
fore, and by the successful issue of an honest and straight for
ward course of plain dealing, have demonstrated to mankind
that the same principles of morality and honor may govern,
and ought to govern, the intercourse of nations, which regulate
and dictate our conduct in our individual relations. The bright
example of the Republic over which you preside has penetrated
the darkness that so long has brooded over the Old World. It
towers and glows, refulgent and beautiful, a beacon light to
the tempest-tost pilgrims of Liberty, kindled late but shining
far through the pervading gloom of transatlantic tyranny, re
viving dying hope even in the bosom of despair. Self-govern
ment is no longer a visionary dream. Republics no longer tend
irresistibly to consolidation and despotism. A truly Roman
energy has thwarted and turned back that tendency, and has
reinstated the Constitution in its primitive purity, with its orig
inal vigor, but without the superadded and unnatural impetus
wliich would have drawn every thing into its vortex, or else
have torn it asunder by the increasing violence of its own mo
tions. Through what a series of toils, and perils, and vicissitudes
have you reached the crowning period of your life, when your
opposers looked up to you, with the same confidence as your
friends, to vindicate, as you always have vindicated, and always
will vindicate, our insulted honor. The countr/y knew that its

19
honor was safe, for it remembered your declaration, 'the honor
of my country shall never be tarnished in my hands ;' and it
had the sure guaranty of your life and character, before that
emphatic sentence was uttered. The almost unanimous elec
tion which placed you for a second term in the Presidential
chair, has been followed by an approbation of your administra
tion approaching still more nearly to unanimity; and in your
retirement from office, you will be followed by that universal
respect and affection, of which the world has seen but one
illustrious instance, in the person of your earliest predecessor.
From the level of humble poverty, by honest industry and
prudence in every station he was called to fill, Andrew Jackson
has reached ah easy affluence. From a friendless obscurity,
by the exercise of those heroic virtues which in all ages have
commanded the admiration of mankind, he has raised himself
to that splendid eminence beyond which there is no higher pin
nacle of fame. He has occupied with signal merit the most
honorable office in the world, the elective chief magistracy of
an independent nation of freemen.
Fortunate to have run this unexampled, this wonderful ca
reer ! Beyond the eight hundred millions of your contemporaries
most fortunate! Fortunate beyond comparison in the varied
annals of history! Beyond comparison save one, for between
Jackson and Washington how close is the parallel.
There are three great names which mark three distinct epochs
in our progress towards a complete Independence: Washington,
who threw off the yoke of British power: Jefferson who broke
the charm of British precedents, and British authority: Jackson
who cancelled what remained of British institutions, and Bri
tish policy. There are numerous points of resemblance be
tween the three, but more especially between the first and
last. To the Heroes of the first and of the second war of Indepen
dence, it was equally objected, that their early education had
been in some degree defective. As if every man of genius did
not educate himself, in maturer life, for whatever of duty de-:
volved upon him; as if Marlborough we're any the less a gen
eral or a statesman unrivalled in his day, because, as Lord
Chesterfield tells us, in terms not applicable to Washington or

20
Jackson, ' He was extremely illiterate, wrote bad English and
spelled it worse;' as if both were not well versed in practical
politics, familiar with public affairs as with the air they breath
ed; and as if that were not a well known truth which the elder
Adams remarked in his defence of the American Constitutions,
' Knowledge is by no means necessarily connected with wisdom
or virtue.' It was also urged against both by their enemies,
that they were military chieftains. As if the qualities that fit
a man for bold and judicious conduct in war, were not the re
quisites of bold and judicious conduct in the cabinet: as if it
did not need as firm a hand to grasp steadily the helm of state,
as to direct the columns, or marshall the ranks for a battle; as
if Julius Caesar, Cromwell, Napoleon, and Wellington, were
inferior, as practical statesmen, to Cicero, Charles the First,
Louis the Sixteenth, or Canning. But these charges had little
weight with the sober sense of the American people, who form
ed a correct estimate of the genius of each, notwithstanding
the efforts of their revilers.
That Washington was what is called a self-made man is well
known to us all, yet Washington was pronounced by Patrick
Henry, on his return from Congress in 1774, to be the greatest
man for information and judgment in that body. That Jack
son has been emphatically the artificer of his own fortunes is
equally undeniable. He has built up his enviable and surpass
ing fame, not by the aid of family connections, hereditary
wealth, or favorable opportunities; but in despite of adverse
circumstances, and inveterate opposition. The man in abuse
of whom the powers of language have been daily exhausted
for some years; on whom has been lavished, without stint, the
whole vocabulary of envy, wrath, malice and all uncharitable-
ness, having been honored with the confidence of every Presi
dent, from Washington down to his own immediate predeces
sor, has three times received far the largest number of votes for
the highest office in the gift of the people; and has twice been
called, by an overwelming majority of suffrages, to fill the Pre
sidential chair, thereby evincing that he possessed 'the un
bounded confidence and expectation of the nation,' of which
the ballot box is the only sure test.
By his own unaided merit has he risen to that proud emi-

21
nence. Having seen his only brother perish by the cruelty of
the enemy, in the war of the revolution, and his broken-hearted
mother follow her son to the grave, he went alone, friendless
and pennyless, from his native state. to Tennessee, where he
had not a single blood relation, and when scarcely more than
a boy, we find him selected to assist in framing a Constitution
for that state, a member of the first Legislature of Tennessee;
selected by Washington, endowed like himself with a wonder
ful sagacity in the discrimination of character, for the respon
sible office of District Attorney; soon after delegated among
the first representatives in Congress from the State of Tennes
see, and as soon as he was constitutionally eligible, being only
thirty years of age, he was placed in the Senate of the United
States. This post he soon after resigned, but he could not be
suffered to remain in retirement, and he was almost immediate
ly appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of that State.
In this early and rapid promotion of a friendless stranger, we
may see the evidence of talents for civil service, for he was
not yet a military chieftain; and it was the ability evinced
in these situations, which led, no doubt, to his military ap
pointment during this period as Major General, commanding
the militia of Tennessee, and afterwards to be Major General
in the United States service.
In times of extreme difficulty and imminent danger, if there
be among the citizens a spirit cast in nature's noblest mould,
and fully equal to the exigency, the country turns her eyes at
once to him. History has recorded how Washington was sum
moned hf the spontaneous voice of the people to conduct to an
honorable close the war of the Revolution. His accomplish
ment of the trust justified their confidence, and crowned his
fame with laurels which time cannot wither. So it was, with
in our memory, with our own Jackson.
The youth who had discharged with honor the important
trusts enumerated, was destined to be recalled from the retire
ment which he loved, and which he had sought, to perform for
his country services both civil and military, which were essen
tial to her salvation, and which perhaps no other man in the
nation could have performed. Governor Brooks, a staunch
federalist as he was, but a soldier and a man of honor, what-

22
ever might be his impressions of the commencement of the
war, surrendering party bigotry to honest national pride, frank
ly acknowledged, ' that it terminated gloriously.' Both branch
es of the Legislature of Massachusetts — ay, FEDERAL"
MASSACHUSETTS— voted the thanks of the Commonwealth
to the successful general, a testimony no less creditable to
themselves than to him.
A vast plan of invasion sketched by military genius, and be
gun to be executed with a boldness that did not dream of de
feat, by solid columns of picked men, from the veterans of
more than twenty years warfare; officered by the flower ot
British chivalry; led by generals of undoubted talent, tried va
lor, and consummate skill! trained to conquer and exulting in
their anticipated success, on the eighth of January, eighteen
hundred and fifteen, received from Andrew Jackson's arm its
fatal check, its final wreck, and total overthrow. ' Never,
said the Essex Register, a democratic paper at that time pub
lished in Salem, ' Never were greater expectations formed, and
never were anticipations more exceeded than in this event.
We attributed every thing to the discipline and comprehension
of the General, and we had been taught to expect everything
from the courage, the strength, the perseverance of the west
ern troops. We have been surprised by the glory which sur
rounds our arms. We can now unite to the greatest success
over the hostile savages, the more surprising defeat of the best
troops from a European enemy. The same man who has pre
vented any future danger from savages on this side of the Mis
sissippi, has been able to teach the civilized world, that, in the
career of ambition, the sons of freedom can defend their soil
against the best troops that can be sent to disinherit them. *
* -* # The news of General Jackson's victory was received
in Salem with every expression of public joy. The circum
stances were so extraordinary, that the public astonishment,
over-raised by the great success of this hero, would have, been
equal to the highest praise our country has ever bestowed, by
a less glorious action. The greatness of the victory was not
incredible, from the unbounded confidence and expectation of the na
tion. But even what at first might seem exaggerated praise,
was found, from the dispassionate history of the conqueror,

23
far short of the unrivalled glory of the event. The Hero is
IMMORTAL, AND OUR COUNTRY HAS THE BLESSING.'
But however striking may be the resemblance in the char
acter and history of the heroes of the two wars, the brilliant
consummation of the last arduous contest more naturally sug
gests to our minds our own Massachusetts battle, with which
the first struggle opened after the prelude at Lexington and
Concord. The commencement of the first war with Great
Britain made our Independence inevitable, even before the De
claration was published; the conclusion of the last war with _
Great Britain secured it. forever. These two events are the
pivots on which our history turns; let them, therefore, be in-
dissolubly connected in our memories.
Ask a Yankee when absent from his native land, what thrice
holy spot of all New England's hallowed soil rises readiest to
his repollection, if ever the foreigner tells him tauntingly that
the American continent is barren of historical monumental
scenes? With a swelling heart, and a beaming eye, he will
answer, Bunker Hill. Put the same question to the hunter
of the West, or to the quick and fiery Southron, and you
know his answer well: it is New Orleans.
It is fortunate for us, gentlemen, that the two great battles
in our history, happened in opposite extremities, almost, of our
Union. The North cannot reproach the South, neither can the
South vaunt it over the North. Each possesses one imperish
able glory, before which the lustre of the brightest victories,
won in battles between contending tyrants, turns pale ; but
neither can assert and neither attempts to arrogate peculiar
and exclusive possession of either portion of the splendid inher
itance. Both claim a common property in the trophies of these
two memorable days, the seventeenth of June and the Eighth
of January; the first of which cut out work for the Fourth of
July, and the last completed it. Both walk together in the
light of these two glowing beacon fires, kindled on that stormy
coast where liberty has taken up her eternal abode, to illumi
nate, with the cheering radiance of hope, her benighted pil-
o-rims, who can look nowhere else for hope but to this Western
World. Yes, my friends, Warren falling in his prime, Tn a sad and

24
sanguinary defeat— sad, yet more glorious than any victory the
muse of history had ever yet recorded,— Jackson, balancing at
New Orleans the account that was opened at Bunker Hill
closing the last act of the bloody drama of our strife with the
mother country, with a fitting catastrophe for so sublime a trag
edy — Jackson, achieving a victory doubly disastrous to the in
vaders, more than satisfying the highest expectations of a con
fiding country, putting to silence for awhile the clamorous
tongue of envy, and extorting sincere and heartfelt praise from
the vanquished brave — these are names that are, and ever must
be, dear to the whole people of the Republic. No sectional
jealousy shall be suffered to monopolize them; no party mad
ness shall shut our eyes against their lustre. Their fair fame
is the nation's common property; priceless, for gold could not
buy it; secure, for no reverse of fortune can tear it from us.
So long as language shall be faithful to its trust; so long as
tradition shall preserve the outline, after history has forgotten
the detail; so long as one generous emotion shall warm the
human heart; after the monument shall have crumbled, but
while Bunker Hill shall stand; after New Orleans shall have
sunk in the dust, but while the Mississippi shall flow, Warren
and Jackson shall be watchwords in the armies of liberty — the
memory of our two great battles shall eternally be renewed to
cheer the fainting courage of desponding patriotism, to revive
and invigorate hope when almost extinguished in the breast of
the despairing lover of his kind, and to restore and reanimate
his confidence in God.
To return to our parallel. Our two great commanders had
not only the same success in bringing the respective wars tri
umphantly to a close, but their success was mainly owing to the
same cause: they had both learned the same wisdom in the
same school of suffering, the school of Indian warfare. It was
in this that they were trained to arms, and taught that ever-
watchful circumspection, prudence in council with energy in
action, which they both exhibited throughout their whole career,
and which occasioned 'the unbounded confidence and expecta
tion of the nation ' to concentrate itself upon them. So implicit
was the reliance on the Western Hero, that its influence extend
ed even to the other side of the Atlantic. When Gouldbourn,

25
the British Commissioner at Ghent, remarked, ' by this time
New Orleans is ours;' Henry Clay could boldly answer, for
he knew the man, 'No: New Orleans is safe: Andrew Jack
son is there.'
The two military chieftains dismissed from the toils of war
longed eagerly for retirement and repose: to neither could it
be permitted. Their country still had claims upon them, claims
which none but they could satisfy.
A dissolution of the bonds which held together the sister
States, has twice since our separation from the mother country
seemed to be almost inevitable. Twice we have been rescued
from the danger, by these two patriot heroes, both strong in
the unbounded confidence of the people, both enjoying that
confidence from the same causes, both using it in the same way
and for the same ends, both eclipsing the lustre of their milita
ry glory, by the brighter splendor of their civic fame, and both
embalming the memory of their greatness in the applause, the
gratitude and devotion of their contemporaries, who witnessed
the salvation of their country, and of all posterity who shall
inherit the legacy of the free institutions which their hands es
tablished and perpetuated.
At the outset of our career of self-government the experi
ment of a confederation was tried, and resulted, as every ex
periment of that kind always had resulted, in a total failure.
Incompetent to govern, and too weak to preserve its own exist
ence, it seemed about to tumble into ruins, and anarchy, from
which there is a natural progression to tyranny, stared us full
in the face. The impossibility of propping up the rotten fabric
was apparent, yet the jealous patriotism of the people could
hardly endure the organization of a government strong enough
to sustain itself amidst the collisions of sectional interests, and
to maintain order at home, the dignity of the nation and the
security of its property and its citizens abroad, and to preserve
peace with all the world.
There would have been just cause for jealousy and alarm,
had not Providence preserved for this great occasion the Sa
vior of his Country, George Washington, the first military chief
tain in the annals of the world, whose unapproachable purity
was perfectly proof against all the seductions of ambition. The
4

26
whole people as one man, called upon him to direct the new
and national government, while it should develope its untried,
its necessary, yet much dreaded energies. He promptly un
dertook the arduous office, though in his address, at his inau
guration as President of the United States, on the 30th of
April, 1789, he tells us with characteristic modesty, that ' the
magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of his
country called him, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and
most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his
qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence, one,
who, inheriting inferior endowments from nature, and unprac
tised in the duties of civil administration, ought to be peculiarly
conscious of his own deficiencies.' In their answer to this ad
dress the Senate tell him truly and emphatically, ' We rejoice,
and with us all America, that in obedience to the call of our
common country, you have returned once more to public life.
In you all parties confide; in you all interests unite; and we
have no doubt that your past services, great as they have been,
will be equalled by your future exertions; and that your pru
dence and sagacity as a statesman will tend to avert the dan
gers to which we were exposed, to give stability to the present
government, and dignity and splendor to that country which
your skill and valor as a soldier so eminently contributed to
raise to independence and to empire.' Their expectations
were fulfilled and exceeded. Washington performed more than
he had promised. The pledges given at the opening of the
first Congress were amply redeemed, 'that the foundations of
our national policy should be laid in the pure and immutable
principles of private morality, and the preeminence of a free
government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win
the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the
world — since there is no truth more thoroughly established than
that there exists, in the economy and course of nature, an in
dissoluble union between virtue and happiness, — between duty
and advantage, — between the genuine maxims of an honest
and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public pros
perity and felicity — since we ought to be no less persuaded
that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on
a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right

27
which Heaven itself has ordained, and since the preservation
of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican
model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps
as finally staked, on the experiment intrusted to the hands of
the American people.' The government being conducted upon
these principles, the tongue of discord was hushed, the appre
hension of danger was forgotten, a period of universal prosper
ity followed, and so long as George Washington continued at
the head of the administration, ' the propitious smiles of Hea
ven ' continued to bless his ' honest and magnanimous policy.'
Since that time however, with the exception of a particular
interval, the action of the general government has been con
stantly and irresistibly enlarging itself. The ominous progress
of this series of encroachments upon our liberties, becoming
every day more rapid, could only be arrested by a man possess
ing a personal popularity second to none since Washington,
and disposed to use the power which his hold on the hearts of
his fellow citizens gave him, to reform the corruptions of the
government, and restore it to its original purity.
Fortunately for us, the times which required, as before,
produced that man. Respected for his talents and energy of
character, and trusted for his integrity and the soundness of
his political views; illustrious for the crowning victory of the
last war, which obliterated the memory of many defeats, and
outshone our other numerous victories; having on a former
occasion received a plurality of electoral votes, he was at last
called by an overwhelming majority of suffrages to fill the Pre
sidential chair. Unappalled by the difficulty of the task, he
proceeded steadily to his great purpose, and obstacles seem
ingly insurmountable gave way before him. The growth of
deep-rooted abuses was stayed at once, and he exerted all his
sagacity and decision to eradicate them from our system. His
reforms in office reduced to practice the great truth, that place
men are not possessors of office for their own emolument, but
holders of a trust to be administered for the benefit of the peo
ple; and in every department, method, order, punctuality and
economy superseded negligence, carelessness, procrastination
and prodigality.
In his intercourse with foreign nations, he built upon the

28
foundation of National Policy laid by Washington, 'the immu
table principles of private morality,' — proclaiming it at the
outset as a fundamental rule of his conduct ' to ask nothing but
what was clearly right, and to submit to nothing that was
wrong.' To this golden rule he has unalterably adhered, and
' the smiles of Heaven have abundantly approved his honest
and magnanimous policy.' His frank and manly advances to
other governments have met a ready and a cordial reception,
and obtained for his country advantages which the tortuous
diplomacy of former administrations either dared not attempt,
or attempted in vain.
Though holding the highest place in the affections of the
Western States, he dared to put his veto upon the log-rolling
system of corruption, which threatened to make Congress an
Exchange, where political brokers should be sent to barter
money laid out and expended for promotion had and received.
By this bold act he put a stop to the squandering of the mil
lions on millions of treasure annually drained from the sea
board, and applied our superabundant resources to the pay
ment of the national debt, which he was thus enabled to can
cel; and now, those who two years ago predicted that the re
venue would 'fall short one half, or at least one third,' have
no other ground of complaint left than the rapid accumulation
of surplus funds in the Treasury. Yet while the expenses of
the government have been kept so far within its income, by
the prostration of Mr Calhoun's internal improvement system,
the taxes of the people have been diminished to the amount of
eighty five millions of dollars, on goods imported for their use,
within the last five years, or more than one hundred millions
of dollars including the present year.
The system of unequal taxation, of pampering the producers
of a particular article, who are few, at the cost of the consum
ers, who are many, has been a fruitful source of miserv in
most of the civilized nations of modern times. After it had be
come the object of the abhorrence of the friends of freedom
everywhere else, it was introduced, chiefly under the auspices
of Mr Clay, into the United States. The tariff of 1828, justly
styled by Mr Webster 'a bill of abominations,' carried this
system to its height, and the consequent reaction at the South

29
produced the baneful heresy of nullification. This brought in
to jeopardy our Union, and Republican Institutions; and there
were those at the North who promulgated the unchristian sen
timent, ' our danger lies in concession,' while the arch nullifier
brandished before the South the torch of discord; and the dogs
of war, almost loosed from their leash, already seemed to snuff
the blood of brethren, deluging the land devoted to civil strife.
But the administration had taken for its rnotto, ' the Federal
Union, it must be preserved:' concession was made, liberal
concession, though the Catalines preferred Disunion, Civil
War, and Anarchy to concession. We have steered clear of
the rocks and quicksands that beset us, and in spite of the con
spiring mutineers that would have run her on a lee shore, that
they might take command of the wreck and parcel out the
plunder, the ship of state stands steadily on her proud course,
— thanks to the firm hand that has never let go the helm. May
a thousand ages roll away before our country is again environed
with perils imminent as she then escaped! Her escape she
owes, under God, to the far-seeing wisdom and unwavering
patriotism which presided over her destinies — a statesmanship
which will couple his name alone with that of Washington in
the memory of our remotest posterity.
When Andrew Jackson was first elected to the Presidency
of these United States we knew his patriotism and appreciated
his talents; but who could then have anticipated that the crisis
would come so soon which would put in requisition all his pa
triotism and all his talents, and which without those high qual
ities might have proved fatal to us. Eighteen long years be
fore he had glory enough for one man, but now his cup is
filled to overflowing.
Each of the Hero Presidents received the sanction of the ap
probation of his fellow-citizens, after his system of administra
tion had been distinctly developed, by a re-election for a se
cond term of service, with a high degree of unanimity. And
as if to carry out and complete the parallel, each during his
second term found himself harassed by the embarrassing nature
of our relations with France. Both alike maintained an inde
pendent attitude towards that power, both commanded her re
spect; and the voice of congratulation rising from the whole

30
continent witnesses the universal satisfaction with which Amer
ica has welcomed the final adjustment of the late difficulties.
The resemblance is not confined to the history, but it ex
tends through the personal character of these two great men.
Judge Marshall in sketching the character of Washington ob
serves that in his civil administration, as in his military career,
were exhibited ample proofs of that practical good sense and
sound judgment which is perhaps the most rare, as it is cer
tainly the most valuable quality of the human mind. We are
told that he sought to acquire all the information which was
attainable, and to hear without prejudice all the reasons which
could be urged for or against a particular measure. His own
judgment was suspended until it became necessary to deter
mine; and his decisions, thus maturely made, were seldom if
ever to be shaken. No man-has ever appeared upon the thea
tre of public action whose integrity was more incorruptible, or
whose principles were more perfectly free from the contamina
tion of those selfish and unworthy passions which find their
nourishment in the conflicts of party. Having no views which
required concealment, his real and avowed motives were the
same; and his whole correspondence does not furnish a single
case from which even an enemy would infer that he was capa
ble under any circumstances, of stooping to the employment
of duplicity. No truth can be uttered with more confidence
than that his ends were always upright, and his means always
pure. He exhibits the rare example of a politician to whom
wiles were absolutely unknown, and whose professions to for
eign governments, and to his own countrymen, were always
sincere. In him was fully exemplified the real distinction
which forever exists between wisdom and cunning, and the im
portance as well as truth of the maxim, that honesty is the best
policy. Intrigue was never employed as the meamj to gratify
his ambition, nor was personal aggrandizement its object.
The various high and important stations to which he was called
by the public voice, were unsought by himself; and in consent
ing to fill them, he seems rather to have yielded to a creneral
conviction, that the interests of his country would be thereby
promoted, than to his particular inclination. Neither the ex
traordinary partiality of the American people, the extravagant

31
praises which were bestowed upon him, nor the inveterate op
position and malignant calumnies which he experienced, had
any visible influence upon his conduct. The cause is to be
looked for in the texture of his mind.
It is impossible to contemplate the great events which occur
red in the United States under the auspices of Washington,
without ascribing them, in some measure, to him. If we ask
the causes of the prosperous issue of a war, against the glori
ous termination of which there were so many probabilities; of
the good which was produced and the ill which was avoided,
during an administration fated to contend with the strongest
prejudices that a combination of circumstances and of passions
could produce; of the constant favor of the great mass of his
fellow-citizens, and of the confidence which, to the last mo
ment, they reposed in him, — the answer, so far as the causes
may be found in his character, will furnish a lesson well merit
ing the attention of those who are candidates for political fame.
Endowed by nature with a sound judgment, and an accurate,
discriminating mind, he feared not that laborious attention
whioh made him perfectly master of those subjects, in all their
relations, on which he was to decide; and this essential quality
was guided by an unvarying sense of moral right, which would
tolerate the employment only of those means that would bear
the most rigid examination; by a fairness of intention which
neither sought nor required disguise, and by a purity of virtue
which was not only untainted, but unsuspected. Such are al
most the exact words of his biographer. How else could one
adequately describe the character of Jackson, than by repeat
ing what has been said of Washington .'
His enemies, even, have established this to be his reputa
tion by the nature of the charges they have brought against
him. More solid than brilliant judgment, rather than genius
constituted the most prominent feature of the character of
Washington. Often has our present President been reproached
because he never exhibited that brilliant oratorical genius which
distinguishes some of his senatorial rivals. Often has his dis
position to deliberate and consult been charged upon him as
the hesitation of an old man in his dotage, or the subserviency
of a weak-minded man to his leaders; though this calumny long

32
since disappeared before the full blaze of evidence to the con^
trary, as snow dissolves under the noonday sun. Of late
years, the pertinacity with which he adheres to his matured
decisions, has been a much more frequent topic, and it is re
presented as the obstinate perversity of an iron headed soldier.
The incorruptibility which withstood the approaches of in
trigue, in the Presidential campaign of 1824, as well as in all
other situations, is fresh in the recollection of all. Often has
he been rebuked for the noble advice which he gave to Mr
Monroe, in 1816, to disregard mere party feelings, and select
' characters most conspicuous for their probity, virtue, capac
ity, and firmness, without any regard to party,' and his own
liberal practice in this particular long furnished the pretence
for much abuse. The frankness and openness of his manner,
many have derided as undignified in a public station; and his
want of diplomatic cunning was one of the prominent objections
to his election; yet the maxim that honesty is the best policy
was never more happily exemplified than in his unprecedented
and unanticipated success in our foreign relations. That flat
tery could not seduce him, nor the malignant furv of party rage
intimidate him, is now so universally acknowledged that it
seems almost too trite to be repeated. For these qualities he
stands before the people with a fame imperishable as monu
mental marble— The man resolved and steady to his trust,
Inflexible to ill and obstinately just ;
Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremoved,
The stubborn virtue of his spirit proved :
Should the whole frame of nature round him break,
In ruin and confusion hurled,
He unconcerned would view the mighty wreck,
And smile secure amidst a falling world.
'In more instances than one,' as Judge Marshall has remarked
of Washington, 'we find him committing his whole popularity
to hazard, and pursuing steadily, in opposition to a torrent
which would have overwhelmed a man of ordinary firmness
that course which had been dictated by a sense of duty.'
' Trusting to the reflecting good sense of the nation for appro
bation and support, he had the magnanimity to pursue its real

33
interests, in opposition to temporary prejudices; and though
far from being regardless of popular favor, he could never stobp
to retain by deserving to lose i't.'
The great events in Which he has been concerned are justly
ascribed to his personal agency. The purity of his intentions,
and his elevated purposes are attested by his immediate pre
decessor, and now that the hoarse roar of party animosity is
hushed, no voice is heard to impeach them.
The State Papers of the first administration were nu
merous, highly important and much admired; and the fare
well address is among the richest of the legacies of wisdom
which we inherit from the revolutionary worthies. The State
Papers of the present administration will suffer nothing
by the comparison. The Maysville Road Bill Veto —
The Bank Veto — the Proclamation — the views of the President
read to the Cabinet on the 18th of September, 1833 — the Protest
— the several messages, especially those on Nullification, the
Bank, and' the French Affairs — have been a New Orleans bat
tery of heavy' ordinance- — the close columns of the British party
have never been able to make head against them. It is to be
hoped that the close of the Presidential term will be signalized
by the appearance of A FAREWELL ADDRESS, to embody
the parting counsels of the Restorer of the Constitution.
There is another point of resemblance in the possession by
Washington, of a trait of character often attributed by his ene
mies to lackson — liability to passion. An eloquent panegyrist of
General Washington, the Hon. Francis C. Gray, thus speaks of
this peculiarity, — ' History demands the whole truth, and will ask
if he had no failings. If he had any — for he was a man — they
have left no trace in the annals of his country, and no speck upon
his own bright fame. His enemies could never find any ; for all
the shafts of calumny seemed to be directed against the strongest
points of his character.' ' His friends could never find any, ex
cepting one. The frailty which reminded him of his nature,
was the possession of such violent passions, as rarely inhabit the
human breast. By minute scrutiny, a few instances may be dis
covered, in the courso of his active and varied life, in which,
when he was surprised by the gross cowardice or misconduct of
individuals on whom he had irelied, the storm gathered on his
5

54
brow, usually so serene, and wrath flashed forth like lightning ;
terrible as transient ; for, in an instant he was himself again.
No more will General Jackson's failings, be they what they may,
leave any trace in the history of his country.
America might be supposed a partial judge of the fame of her
favorites — but we find them respected abroad no less highly than
at home. The champion of the rights of juries at the English
bar, the great master of forensic eloquence, confessed, that he
stood in awe of Washington. The Prime Minister of the most
liberal administration Great Britain has ever yet seen, pronounced
Jackson to be the first of American Statesmen. Already a trans
atlantic reputation, which no one living, save himself, can claim,
associates his name with that of Washington, and anticipates the
sure award of coming generations.
I have already extended these remarks too far to allow time for
the parallel which might easily be drawn between our present
Chief Magistrate and Thomas Jefferson. Their character as bold
reformers, their common sentiments on all the great political ques
tions, the venomous but impotent abuse which assailed both, while
candidates, and followed all their measures after their election, the
amazing increase of their popularity, by the very means employed
to diminish it, the clamor excited by removals from office, the op
position which their efforts at retrenchment encountered, not to
go through the whole catalogue of subjects acted on during their
administrations, afford abundant materials for an instructive
comparison. It was urged, that Jefferson could not be a practical
Statesman, because, said the British party, he is nothing but a
whimsical philosopher ; that Jackson could not be a practical
Statesman, because, said the whigs, he is nothing but an ignorant
soldier. Loud, long, and vehement was the outcry against them,
that they were filling all subordinate offices with incompetent men.
Yet both succeeded, both grew stronger and stronger in the con
fidence of the people, and before, they reached the accomplish
ment of their mission, were greeted with a general chorus of
applause. A few still denounce Jackson, but they are those who
believe that ' history is a mere fablte, if Thomas Jefferson would
not have made his will the only lawj of the land, if opposition had
not wrought upon his fears ; ' and who admit, while they condemn
them both, that ' Jacksonism is but a revival of Jeffersonism.'

35
These three illustrious pioneers of genuine independence, have,
by their whole career of arduous service well rewarded, demon
strated the proposition, that the American people will sustain the
Statesman, who maintains American principles ; and, that noth
ing can be more grateful to their feelings, than whatever is per
fectly suited to our own institutions, character and situation;
free, equal, liberal, and manly.
Did time permit, I should delight to follow out ideas so appro
priate to the present occasion, and to show why it is that we have
scarcely anything that deserves to be called an American litera
ture, and endeavor to point out some means to encourage the de
velopment of native genius in natural and independent forms,
instead of subjecting it, for the most part, to the constraint of ser
vile imitation of foreign models, and repetition of foreign notions.
The masculine and republican dignity of style in which our state
papers were composed, during, and even before the revolution, as
well as at later periods, must exempt these documents from the
general censure. There are other brilliant exceptions; and, far
as the nation may be below the independent station which she
ought to hold in the literary world, it cannot be denied, that Mas
sachusetts has done her share towards throwing off the yoke of
foreign influence. Without derogating from the merits of others,
a single name may be mentioned here with commendation. A
citizen of this Commonwealth, George Bancroft, of Springfield,
is doing away the reproach, which rested on us so long, that we
have no history of our country, worthy of her greatness. He has
produced a work, unexceptionable for the accuracyof its statements,
patriotic in sentiment, delightfully interesting, admirable for the
purity and elegance of its diction, and the skilful conduct of the
story, and which, so far as it is published, leaves nothing to be
desired. Let all our educated men, whom nature has endowed
with a capacity for the higher walks of literature, employ their
powers with the same laudable zeal, and judicious choice of ob
ject, with which this gentleman exerts his fine talents, and we
might soon pay off the immense debt we owe to the old world, in
intellectual coinage, stamped with the impress of original genius.
True independence requires us to forbear from longer aping
foreign manners, when inconsistent with republican simplicity. It
requires the corrupt portion of the populption of our great cities,

36
to be kept in check by our sound, substantial yeomanry, our in
telligent mechanics, and our hardy tars. These, we may safely
trust, are uncontaminated.
Our legislation, also, should be of indigenous growth. The
laws should be intelligible to all, equal in their operation : and
shoulc} provide prompt and cheap remedies for their violation.
The Revision of the Statutes of this Cpmmqnwealth, just complet
ed, ha£ done something towards this great end — how much, the
public are hardly yet aware. It would have been worth all the time,
expense, and labor spent upon it, even though they had been ten
times greater than they were. It is the most important act of our
legislation since the Revolution. Not only is the whole mass
systematized, condensed, simplified, modernized, apd made con
sistent with itself; but improvements, almost innumerable, have
been introduced into every part, more in number and greater in
value, tlian our General Court would have elaborated, in their or
dinary mode of legislation, for many years.
But the Revised Statutes, excellent as they are, contrasted with
the chaos for which they are substituted, still, cover but a small
part of the ground. VVe are governed, principally, by the Cqmmon
Law ; and this ought to be reduced, forthwith, to a uniform writ
ten pode.
It is said, by writers on the subject, that there are numerous
principles of the Common Law, which are definitely settled and
well known, and tha), the questionable utility of putting these into
the form of a positive and unbending text, is not sufficient to out
weigh the advantages of leaving them to be applied by the Courts,
as principles of Common Law, whenever the occurrence of cases
should require if.
How can that which is definitely settled and well known, be
applied otherwise than as a positive and unbending text ? It is
because Judge-made-law is indefinitely and vaguely settled, and
its exact limits unknown, that it possesses the capacity of adapt
ing itself to new cases, pr, in other words, admits of judicial
legislation. Imperfect Statutes are, therefore, commended because they leave
the law, in the omitted cases, to be enacted by the Judges. Why
not carry the argument a little further, and repeal the existing
Statutes, so t,hat the Judges may make all the laws? Is it be-

37
cause the Constitution forbids Judges to legislate? Whj, then,
commend the legislation of Judges ?
The law .i/iould, b,e a positive and unbending text, otherwise
the Judge has an arbitrary power, pr discretion; and the discre
tion of a good man is often nothing better than caprice, as Lord
Camden has, very justly remarked, while the discretion of a bad
man is an odious and irresponsible tyranny.
Why is an ex post facto law, passed by the Legislature, unjust,
unconstitutional, and void, while Judge-made-law, which, from
its nature, must always be ex post facto, is not only to be obeyed,
but applauded ? Is it because Judge-made-law is essentially aris-
tocratical? It is said, the Judge only applies to the case the
principles of Common Law which exist already ; but the Legisla
ture applies to a whole class of cases, the principles of common
sense and justice, which exist already, and which have existed
from a much more remote antiquity.
The Common Law sprung from the dark ages ; the fountain of
justice is the throne of the Deity. The Common Law is but the
glimmering taper by which men groped their way through the
palpable midnight in which learning, wit, and reason were
almost extinguished ; justice shines with the splendor of that ful
ness of light which beams from the ineffable presence. The
Common Law had its beginning in time, and in the time of igno
rance ; justice is eternal, even with the eternity of the allwise and
just Lawgiver and Judge. The Common Law had its origin in
folly, barbarism, and feudality ; justice is the irradiance of Divine
Wisdom, Divine Truth, and the Government of Infinite Benevo
lence. While the Common Law sheds no light, but rather dark
ness visible, that serves but to discover sights of woe, — justice
rises, like the Sun of Righteousness, with healing on his wings,
scatters the doubts that torture without end, dispels the mists of
scholastic subtilty, and illuminates with the light that lighteth
every man that, cometh into the world. Older, nobler, clearer,
and more glorious, then, is everlasting Justice, than ambigu
ous, base-born, purblind, perishable Common Law. That which is
older than the creation may indeed be extolled for its venerable
age ; but among created things, the argument from antiquity is a
false criterion of worth. Sin and Death are older than the Com
mon i.aw; are they, therefore,, to be preferred to it? The mor-

38
tal transgression of Cain was anterior to the Common Law : does
it therefore furnish a better precedent?
Judge-made-law, is ex post facto law, and therefore unjust. An
act is not forbidden by the Statute Law, but it becomes by judi
cial decision, a crime. A contract is intended and supposed to
be valid, but it becomes void by judicial construction. The Leg
islature could not effect this, for the Constitution forbids it. The
Judiciary shall not usurp legislative power, says the Bill of Rights ;
yet it not only usurps, but runs riot beyond the confines of legis
lative power.
Judge-made-law, is special legislation. The Judge is human,
and feels the bias which the coloring of the particular case gives.
If he wishes to decide the next case differently, he has only to
distinguish, and thereby make a new law. The Legislature must
act on general views, and prescribe at once, for a whole class of
cases. No man can tell what the Common Law is ; therefore it is not
law : for a law is a rule of action ; but a rule which is unknown,
can govern no man's conduct. Nothwithstanding this, it has been
called the perfection of human reason.
The Common Law is the perfection of Human Reason — just as
alcohol is the perfection of sugar. The subtle spirit of the Com
mon Law, is Reason double distilled, till what was wholesome and
nutritive, becomes rank poison. Reason is sweet and pleasant to
the unsophisticated intellect ; but this sublimated perversion of
reason bewilders, and perplexes, and plunges its victims into
mazes of error.
The Judge makes law, by extorting from precedents, something
which they do not contain. He extends his precedents, which
were themselves the extension of others, till, by this accommodat
ing principle a whole system of law is built up without the author
ity or interference of the Legislator.
The Judge labors to reconcile conflicting analogies, and to de
rive from them a rule to decide future cases. No one knows what
the law is, before he lays it down ; for it does not exist even in the
breast of the Judge. All the cases carried up to the tribunal of
the last resort, are capable of being argued, or they would not be
carried there. Those which are not carried up, are not law, for
the Supreme Court might decide them differently. Those which

39
are carried up, argued, and decided, might have been decided
differently, as will appear from the arguments. It is, therefore,
often optional with the Judge to incline the balance as he pleases.
In forty per cent of the cases carried up to a higher Court, for a
considerable term of years, terminating not long ago, the judg
ment was reversed. Almost any case, where there is any differ
ence of opinion, may be decided either way, and plausible analo
gies found in the great storehouse of precedent to justify the
decision. The law, then, is the final will or whim of the Judge,
after counsel for both parties have done their utmost to sway it to
the one side or the other.
No man knows what the law is, after the Judge has decided it.
Because, as the Judge is careful not to decide any point which is
not brought before him, he restricts his decision within the nar
rowest possible limits ; and though the very next case that may
arise, may seem, to a superficial observer, and even upon a close
inspection, by an ordinary mind, to be precisely similar to the last,
yet the ingenuity of a thorough-bred lawyer may detect some un
suspected shade of difference, upon which an opposite decision
may be founded. Great part of the skill of a Judge consists in
avoiding the direct consequences of a rule, by ingenious expedi
ents and distinctions, whenever the rule would operate absurdly :
and as an ancient maxim may be evaded, but must not be annul
led, the whole system has been gradually rendered a labyrinth of
apparent contradictions, reconciled by legal adroitness.
Statutes, enacted by the Legislature, speak the public voice.
Legislators, with us, are not only chosen because they possess the
public confidence, but after their election, they are strongly influ
enced by public feeling. They must sympathize with the public,
and express its will : should they fail to do so, the next year wit
nesses their removal from office, and others are selected to be the
organs of the popular sentiment. The older portions of the Com
mon Law, are the work of Judges, who held their places during
the good pleasure of the king, and of course decided the law so as
to suit the pleasure of the king. In feudal times, it was made up
of feudal principles, warped to be sure, according to the king's
necessities. Judges now are appointed by the Executive, and
hold their offices during good behavior — that is for life, and are
consequently out of the reach of popular influence. They are

40
sworn to administer Common1 Law as it came down from the dark
ages, excepting what' has been repealed by the Constitution and
the statutes, which exception they are always careful to reduce
to the narrowest possible^ limits. With them, wrong is right, if
wrong has existed from time immemorial: precedents are every
thing: the spirit of the age is nothing. And suppose the Judge
prefers the Common Law to the Constitutions of the State and of
the Union ; or decides in defiance of a statute ; what is the reme
dy? An astute argument is always at hand to reconcile the open
violation of that instrument with the express letter of the Consti
tution, as in the case of the United States Bank — or to prove an
obnoxious statute unconstitutional, as would have happened in the
case of the Warren Bridge, but for the firmness of Judge Morton.
Impeachment is a bugbear, which has lost its terrors. We must
have Democratic Governors, who will appoint Democratic Judges,
and the whole body of the law must be codified.
It is said, that where a chain of precedents is found running
back to a remote antiquity, it may be presumed that they origin
ated in a statute, which through lapse of time, has perished. Un
paralleled presumption this ! To suppose the legislation of a
barbarous age richer and more comprehensive than our own. ft
was without doubt a thousand times more barren. But what if
there were such statutes? The specimens which have survived
do not impress us with a favorable opinion of those that may
have been lost. Crudely conceived, savage in their spirit,
vague, indeterminate and unlimited in their terms, and inco
herent when regarded as parts of a system, the remains of an
cient legislation are of little use at present, and what is lost
was probably still mote worthless. If such laws were now to
be found in our statute book, they would be repealed at once;
the innumerable judicial constructions which they might have
received would not save them. Why then should supposed
statutes, which probably never had any but an imaginary exist
ence, which if they ever existed were the rude work of barba
rians, which cannot now be ascertained, and if they could be
would be despised and rejected as bad in themselves and
worse for our situation and circumstances — why should such
supposed statutes govern, in the nineteenth century, the civil
ized and intelligent freemen of Massachusetts?

41
These objections to the Common Law have a peculiar force
in America, because the rapidly advancing state of our coun
try is continually presenting new cases for the decision of the
judges; and by determining these as they arise, the bench
takes for its share more than half of our legislation, notwith
standing the express provisions of the Constitution that the
Judiciary shall not usurp the functions of the Legislature. If
a Common Law system could be tolerable anywhere, it is only
where everything is stationary. With us, it is subversive of
the fundamental principles of a free government, because it
deposites in the same hands the power of first making the gen
eral laws, and then applying them to individual cases; powers
distinct in their nature, and which ought to be jealously sepa
rated. But even in England, Common Law is only a part of a system,
which, as a whole, would be incomplete without Equity. We
strive to make the part supply the place of the whole. Equity
is the correction of that wherein the law by reason of its gen
erality is deficient; yet we have taken the law, deficient as it
confessedly is, without the correction, except in certain cases,
where by degrees, and almost without the knowledge of the
people, equity powers have been given to the courts. A court
of chancery would not be tolerated here, for reasons which I
have not time to enter upon; and without that adjunct, the
Common Law system would not be tolerated in England. The
remedy is to fuse both into one mass, adopting such principles
of equity as are really necessary, simplifying the whole, enact
ing the result in the form of statutes, and, from time to time,
supplying defects and omissions, as they are discovered. It is
hardly necessary to observe, that in doing this, opportunity
should be taken to reform and remodel the great body of the
law, which stands in need of such a revision more than any
other science. Some immense advances, it is true, have been
made within the last two years, of which the total abolition of
special pleading is not the least remarkable. But instead of
being satisfied with what has been gained, it should only en
courage us to step forward more boldly in what remains to do.
All American law must be statute law.
In our state policy, the principles of civil and religious free-
6

42
dom are the only sure foundation to build on. Existing laws
grossly inconsistent with these principles should be repealed.
The democracy of the State have already struggled hard to re
peal them. They have had some success, and hope for more.
In our national policy, free trade, no bank, no debt, light
taxes, and an economical government are the American doc
trines. The government must be confined within its proper
sphere; the supply of a sound currency free from fluctuations,
the care of our foreign relations, the defence of the national
honor, and the preservation of the Union. It should be re
stricted within the narrowest constitutional limits, and where
any power is doubtful, it should not be exercised.
The leading idea of the American policy is Freedom. The
sole purpose of Government is to prevent the rights of the citi
zen from being infringed or encroached upon. Every man
should be left in the full enjoyment of his natural liberty, so
long as he does not thereby interfere with any of the natural
rights of his neighbor. When he invades the hallowed boun
dary of another's rights, then the Government should put forth
its strong arm to protect them: but so long as he refrains from
any such invasion, an American citizen may claim, as his birth
right, perfect and unrestrained liberty of action. Within these
limits, wherever his interests, wherever his inclination may
lead him, he may take his own course, and Government has no
right to place in his path the very slightest impediment. He
may rove free as the free air which he breathes, calling no
man his master, acknowledging no power above him but in
heaven, subject to no other restraint but the obligations of
virtue and the dictates of conscience and honor, unshackled
by arbitrary, vexatious, and galling restrictions, untrammelled
by human legislation, so long as he obeys the guidance of an
enlightened monitor within. I'or him the whole object of gov
ernment is negative. It is to remove, and keep out of his way
all obstacles to his natural freedom of action. So long as it
performs this duty, he cheerfully contributes towards its sup
port. If it fails in the performance, he sets his shoulder to the
wheel to bring about the requisite reform: he removes the in
efficient, or incompetent, or unfaithful agents, and substitutes
in their place those who understand and will take care to effect

43
the object of their appointment. But if his agents have ex
ceeded their commission; if the power entrusted to them, to
guard and to protect his liberty, has been employed insidious
ly to steal from his possession, or forcibly to wrest from his
grasp that liberty, then indeed he no longer lives under a free
government, but under a despotism; and it should be his night
ly prayer and daily endeavor to burst asunder the chains it
will fasten around him before they are riveted too strongly to
be broken. I want no government to prescribe to me when,
and where, and how I may enjoy my natural rights. That is
my own affair. I only ask the Government to stand by, a
watchful sentinel, a mighty guardian, to take care that I am
not interrupted in the enjoyment of them. It should be our
presiding genius, ever near us and around us to avert all evil
from us: covering us with the broad aegis of its protection, yet
at the same time, unseen, unfelt, unknown, leaving us with our
unrestricted energies to work out, in our own way, our own
highest happiness.*
It is in these particulars, features indeed more striking than
any other, that our constitutions are peculiarly American and
purely democratic. The great dividing line between our par
ties originally was, generally has been, and for the most part
will be, between the friends of arbitrary power on the one
hand, and the friends of constitutional freedom on the other —
between those who wish, by wholesome limitations originally
imposed, and by a strict construction of them, to confine gov
ernments to the few objects which have been specified, and to
leave the people otherwise individually free to govern them
selves, and those who by a lavish grant of power origina'lly,
and a broad latitude of interpretation, and a free use of impli
cation afterwards, would enable the government to control and
regulate every action, and would make it, in fine, a mere en
gine for the aggrandizement of the few at the expense of the
* The nature and purpose of government are discussed much more at
large in a report on the subject of Capital Punishment, made in the House
of Representatives of Massachusetts, February 22d, 1836, printed as docu
ment of the House No. 32, from the eighth to the thirtieth page. In sever
al of the above paragraphs free use has been made of the discussion in that
report, to which the reader is referred.

44
many, like every other government upon the face of the globe.
The first constitute the democratic or constitutional party —
the latter are the aristocratic or consolidationist party, who
seem to be governed by British rather than American prin
ciples. The aristocratic party seem never to have abandoned the
doctrine that the people could not safely be trusted with polit
ical power. They consider the popular will too sandy a foun
dation to uphold the structure of government. For this reason,
after failing in the attempt to establish a government whose
leading features should be a President to serve during good
behavior — a Senate to serve during good behavior, and to have
the' sole power of declaring war — the Governor of each State to be
appointed by the Federal head and to have a negative on the
laws of the State — they set about building a consolidated gov
ernment under the forms of a democratic constitution. In
many respects the attempt has been alarmingly successful.
One who observes the little consideration which the States now
command, and how completely the central government absorbs
and draws into its vortex every interest and all ambition, can
not but feel some misgivings lest the States may have commit
ted the same fatal error in consenting to the Federal Govern
ment, which the forest committed in giving the axe wood
enough to furnish a handle. Such misgivings would have been
but too well founded had not the Roman energy of Andrew
Jackson arrested, before it was too late, the progress of con
solidation, and redressed the wrongs of the violated consti
tution. The original plan of the consolidationists was an elective
monarch, with elective lords, appointing their lieutenants in
the provinces. Such a scheme differed more in name than in
principle from the British monarchy. After the failure of that
scheme, it was natural that its author, and the other friends of
a strong government, when contriving how to fortify and en
large the Federal powers so as to overawe, and to hold the
people in subjection, should still continue to copy after British
models. The first auxiliary institution to prop up the fabric of
an energetic government was a copy of the Bank of England.
In 1693 the whigs of Great Britain patronized a scheme for a

45
National Bank, which they promised should be fruitful of vast
advantages of every conceivable description. A strong party
affirmed,* that it would become a monopoly, be subservient to
government views, be employed to the worst purposes of arbi
trary power, produce a swarm of brokers and jobbers to prey
upon their fellow creatures, encourage fraud and gaming and
corrupt the morals of the nation. The short sighted and selfish
William, then tenant of the British throne, affixed his signature
to the charter. The predictions of its opponents were fulfilled
to the letter. None of those splendid promises which ushered
in the magnificent delusion were ever realized. The evils which
were apprehended followed, in a lengthened and gloomy train;
and Great Britain is still smarting under their effects, which Will
not cease to plague her so long as her fast-anchored island
shall remain the seat of an independent empire. That mam
moth monopoly, so diametrically opposed to the spirit of our
institutions, the United States Bank, is the legitimate progeny
of its transatlantic prototype. Like that, it has performed
none of the many promises it made to the people. It is now
sinking under the weight of that universal odium which its
multiplied and aggravated offences have justly brought down
upon it. It is now about to receive the just reward for all its
trangressions — the wages of its sin will be its death. Wicked
ness may prosper for awhile, but justice will overtake it at last.
In the nature of events, and in the wise ordination of provi
dence, crime, whether secret or in high places, brings after it
necessarily, though sometimes slowly, its own appropriate retri
bution. The scarlet mother of corruption, who so long sat
secure within her marble palace, in vain looked to be exempted
from this universal law. The gilded Juggernaut that drove, as
it were but yesterday, her cruel car over prostrate and groan
ing misery, to grind the poor man to powder, and overwhelm
us with the double curse of want and slavery, that, when she
had withered and blasted far and wide with her pestilential
breath, she might tower supreme amid the desolation she had
made, is soon to be hurled from her lofty throne, and trampled,
in her turn, in the dust where she crushed her victims.
* Continuation of Hume by Smollet.

46
Assyria fell beneath the rod of Divine wrath. Rome — guil
ty Rome — saw an avenging world overrun, and dismember,
and extinguish her Empire. Mammon, with his paper dynasty,
is doomed like these to fall, never again to lift his horrid head — ¦
more fatal to liberty than Moloch — more hateful to the sight of
men than the brand on the forehead of Cain.
Yes, Mammon is dethroned, and shall be banished from our
borders, amidst the exulting shouts and anthems of the free.
Bitter is the taunt with which millions mock the paralized and
powerless monster. ' How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of
the morning ! How art thou brought low, thou that didst trou
ble the nations !'
The Bank whose death-warrant has been signed by Andrew
Jackson, was only one, though indeed the first and mightiest,
of those British engines of influence which were transplanted
to supply the supposed deficiencies of our own Constitution,
and to accumulate power in the hands that could wield them.
A splendid system of consolidated government, copied in all its
prominent features from the practice of the British government,
was devised, which held up glittering prizes for ambition, and
was calculated to enlist in the service of the leaders all the
wealth and all the talent in the nation that was not restrained
by principle. It was the conspiracy of avarice against liberty,
a system of partial privileges, partial taxes, and universal re
strictions. The highest democratic authority in America, fully sustains
this view of the whig policy. Thomas Jefferson thus charac
terized it in a letter to William B. Giles. Consolidation
opens with a vast accession of strength from their younger re
cruits, who having nothing in them of the principles of '76,
now look to a splendid government of an aristocracy — riding
and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeo
manry. This will be to them a next best blessing to the mon
archy of their first aim, and perhaps the surest stepping
stone to it. I see as you do, says the venerable patriarch, and
with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the
Federal branch of our government is advancing towards the
usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the con
solidation in itself of all powers foreign and domestic; and that

47
too by constructions which if legitimate, leave no limits to their
power. It is but too evident, that the three ruling branches of
the Federal Department are in a combination to strip their col
leagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them,
and to exercise themselves all functions, foreign and domestic.
' And what ' he exclaims — ' is our resource for the preservation of the
Constitution ? Reason and argument ? You might as well rea
son with the marble columns encircling them! '
There was but one resource for the preservation of the Con
stitution, and that was an energetic, democratic chief magis
trate. Providence, which in great perils raises up great de
liverers, has given us the man. He has fulfilled his destiny,
and routed the consolidationists as .effectually as he did their
British friends at New Orleans.
To return to the character of the whig or British party.
We need not resort to democratic authority to learn what was
the original distinction of sentiment, I do not say between ev
ery member of the two great parties, but between the leaders;
a distinction which still continues the same. The late Rufus
King, before he resigned his seat in the Senate, asserted in a
very remarkable speech which he delivered, that the people
would never have adopted the Federal Constitution if they
could have imagined the extent of power that would be claim
ed and assumed under it. This assertion every impartial reader
of our history knows to be undeniably true. James A. Bayard,
in 1804, declared, that the question between the two parties
was by no means the executive power, which he was not dis
posed to enlarge, but what amount of power should be given to
the Federal Government, and how much left to the States. It
may be demonstrated from history that this view also was cor
rect. Chief Justice Marshall tells us that the Bank was the
rock on which our parties split; a fact perfectly consistent
with, and no more to be doubted than the preceding. Gouverneur
Morris, hearing some one speak favorably of the new Constitu
tion, answered that that was according as it might be construed ;
an answer pregnant with meaning, when we consider the high
toned politics of the man — a true whig as we were assured on
the 3d of July last, by the Salem Gazette, the highest whig
authority in Essex. In 1811, while Henry Clay was yet a

48
democrat, he believed, and justly too, that the recharter of the
United States Bank, upon the ground of precedent, would
make our Constitution ¦ as diffused and intangible as the pre
tended Constitution of England. ' He probably still holds the
same opinion; and for this reason doubtless among others,, he
has been, ever since his apostacy, one of the most zealous ad
vocates of the recharter of that institution upon a much grand
er seale than was proposed in 1811.
The whig champion of the Constitution, Daniel Webster, ex
plained to the world his notions of the nature of government in
his speech in the Massachusetts Convention against basing the
Senate on population, and in favor of the basis of wealth. ' It would
seem,' said that gentleman, 'to be the part of political wisdom
TO FOUND GOVERNMENT ON PROPERTY'*—
' property being the true basis and measure of power. ' He
maintains that a government founded on property, is legitimate
ly founded, and that a government founded on the disregard of
property, IS FOUNDED IN INJUSTICE. ' These purely
British notions come quite up to Mr Jefferson's idea of the
' splendid government of an aristocracy. ' Such a government
would be very certain to take care of the rich, and let the rich
take care of the poor, in whatever way might suit their own inter
est. No wonder that a statesman holding such principles should
desire to build up our House of Lords info an irresponsible oli
garchy, capable of controlling every other branch of the govern
ment. No wonder that he should look with peculiar favor upon
every British feature in our institutions, and that he should
aim especially to make a national bank the main pillar of that
government, which he thinks it ' the part of political wisdom
to found on property.' The candidate of our Boston politi
cians should adopt for his motto the British maxim, ' Liberty
and Property ! ' It would be the most plausible version of his
creed, and make an admirable rallying cry for those friends of
a consolidated national Republic, who after so many discomfit
ures have folded up their tattered banners, whose broken ranks
were marshalled under the Bank flag only to be routed worse
than ever, and who had exhausted the American vocabulary
*See Journal of Debates, page 143.

49
before they sheltered their British principles under a British
name. 'The immortal spirit of the wood-nymph LIBERTY
DWELLS ONLY IN THE BRITISH OAK,' said Fisher
Ames, whose opinions must have coincided very nearly, one
would think, with those quoted from the Boston candidate.
Alexander Hamilton pronounced the British Government,
with all its corruptions, to be the best government ever establish
ed by the wisdom of man. A whig orator of some reputation,
while addressing an assembly of the man worshippers of the city,
dared to profane Fanueil Hall— the cradle of Liberty — with the
sentiment, that ' this Government, as now administered, is the
worst Government that God ever suffered to exist on the face
of the earth!' A party that believes the British Government,
with all its corruptions, to be the best, and our own Govern
ment, under a democratic administration, to be the worst of all
possible governments, must be British to the core and deserves
ft British name. Every member of such a party might respond
cordially to the exclamation of Tristam Burges, the whig
leader of a neighboring state, ' I thank my God heartily that I
am not a democrat, nor do I wish ever to be one!'
The democratic party, on the other hand, holds fast those
purely American principles which have already been described.
Again and again have they been put forward as our distinguish
ing doctrines, and it is upon the faithfulness with which they
have supported and applied these doctrines, that those who
stand foremost in our ranks must rest their claims to public
confidence. As no man has practically illustrated this creed
more consistently or with happier effect than our present chief
magistrate, so no man has given the theory a more beautiful
expression. ' The ambition which leads me on' — these were
the words- of that venerated patriot, uttered upon a memorable
occasion, with that noble frankness which only conscious rec
titude could inspire — ' the ambition which leads me on is an
noxious desire and a fixed determination, to return to the peo
ple, unimpaired, the sacred trust they have committed to my
charge — to heal the wounds of the Constitution and preserve it
from further violation; to persuade my countrymen, so far as<
I may, that it is not in a splendid government, supported by
powerful monopolies and aristocratic establishments, that they
7

50
will find happiness or their liberties protection, but in a plain
system, void of pomp, — protecting all and granting favors to none —
dispensing its blessings like the dews of heaven, unseen and unfelt save
in the freshness and beauty they contribute to produce. If the Al
mighty Being, who has hitherto sustained and protected me,
will but vouchsafe to make my feeble powers instrumental to
such a result, I shall anticipate with pleasure the place to be
assigned me in the history of my country, and die contented
with the belief, that I have contributed, in some small degree,
to increase the value and prolong the duration of American
Liberty.' To increase the value and prolong the duration of American
Liberty, there are three essential requisites — a strict observ
ance of its sacred charter the Constitution, the supremacy of
the laws under the Constitution, and the preservation of the
Federal Union. If the Constitution should be violated by the
adoption of the whig policy, of plundering the many to pamper
the few, consolidation would either bring on the dead calm of
Despotism, or provoke a tempest of resistance, ending in Nul
lification, and Revolution. If the laws may with impunity be
set at defiance, either by a Corporation exalting itself above
law, and gathering its strength to break down our constituted
authorities; or by a band of factious demagogues, disappointed,
revengeful, and disorganizing; or by seditious mobs instigated
to violence and outrage by the incendiary harangues of the
Catalines who preach panic, create distress, and cry to arms,
because they would willingly welcome war, pestilence, and fam
ine, rather than endure the prevalence of democracy — in either
case, anarchy, misrule and civil discord would stalk through the
land. If bold bad men, struggling to pull down the virtue they
cannot rise to emulate, should burst asunder the bands of our
National Union, the days of our Independence would soon be
numbered, and Liberty could not hope to survive. These
three fundamental truths, the President, in his usual compre
hensive and emphatic language, has condensed inio an apho
rism— 'THE CONSTITUTION and the LAWS are suprbme
AND THE UNION INDISSOLUBLE.'
This grand and simple annunciation of democratic doctrine
would have been a mere form of words without meaning, if

51
their author had not redressed the first and most fearful infrac
tion of the Constitution. The duty of the administration, as to
this point, was fully expressed in the sentiment of Mr Van
Buren — 'Unqualified and uncompromising opposition to the
Bank of the United States.— The interest and the honor of the
People demand it.'
No one that knew the bold heart and the firm hand that gui
ded the helm of state could doubt for a moment that the interest
and the honor of the people were safe. The opinion of the
early friend of Washington, the adopted child of America, the
apostle of universal liberty, the lamented of both Worlds, the
great and sood Lafayette, was also the opinion of the dem
ocrats of America, as 219 electoral votes bestowed upon the
author of the Bank Veto, against the 49 votes of the Bank or
whig party, may amply testify. The illustrious worthy to whose
opinion I have just alluded, shortly before he closed his sub
lunary pilgrimage, and went joyfully to receive the reward of
a long life of suffering, toil and virtue, expressed himself in
words which ought to be forever remembered. I quote them,
because they cannot be repeated too often, and because this
occasion ought not to pass without recalling freshly to our rec
ollection the sainted memory of Lafayette, by presenting to
our minds some one at least, of his recorded acts or sayings
most worthy of the man.
' General Jackson is the very man fitted for the present cri
sis ' — said that keen, judicious, and experienced observer of
human character. ' His stern and uncompromising republican
ism, and high sense of honor, will prove the best security for
our republican institutions — (for he calls every thing American
his own) For a long time I saw with pain the advances of an
aristocratic moneyed institution, which threatened to cast a
poisonous mildew over our precious liberties. They would
have rendered our fair country a passive instrument in their
hands, in which case freedom would have vanished from among
us. General Jackson possesses the honesty of a Regulus, the
patriotism of a Washington, and the firmness of a Timoleon —
in fact, I am unacquainted with any character in ancient or
modern history, which combines so much excellence with so
few of the errors of humanity.'

52
Such was the reliance of the wise Lafayette upon the Hero
who before the battle of JVew Orleans possessed 'the unbounded
confidence and expectation of the nation,' which confidence he
carried with him into his contest with the Bank. The event
showed that his sagacity was not deceived. The United States
Bank, having been chartered in defiance of the Constitution,
had become the most formidable foe of our liberties, and put
forward pretensions which amounted to a claim to perpetuity.
It took the field openly, and used the people's money to elec
tioneer against the President of the people's choice. It did all
that money could do. It bought the venal, cajoled or intimi
dated the weak, and deceived the simple. After the veto had
inflicted a wound that will finally prove mortal, it contracted
with the convulsive energy of despair. That vile monopoly
was locking in its vaults every dollar it could grasp, and pres
sing with gigantic strength to break the safety fund banks, to
break the merchants, to prostrate credit, and to lay the enter
prise and prosperity of the country in ruins, that it might re
build its own hated power on its only possible foundation here
after, UNIVERSAL RUIN. Then it was thatthe President,
taking upon himself the responsibility, stepped in and stayed
the wave of desolation, before it could sweep over and engulf
all in common destruction, and annihilate at once all means
and hope of future resistance or relief. He did this by ena
bling the local batiks to discount many millions without delay,
at the points of greatest pressure, in the very crisis of the dis
tress. The movement was decisive — it saved the country, and
filled full the measure of the hero's glory. It is enough for
one man that his administration has enlarged our commerce,
recovered our claims, vindicated our honor, redeemed our
Constitution from repeated violations, preserved the Union from
threatened dissolution, preserved property and credit from uni
versal prostration, preserved liberty from universal subjection,
preserved equality from the despotic reign of paper wealth con
densed into one vast monopoly, whose central throne is in a
marble palace, but whose fangs reach every where, grasping
controlling, subduing, over-ruling all.
From foul oppression, and from Mammon's ban,
Who hath redeemed aspersed democracy ?

53
King-loathed Columbia's brave and wise old man.
Rejoice, oh world ! God said, let Jackson be,
And at his feet died swoln monopoly.
Rejoice ! His triumph saves no single State,
But every State. It bids all lands be free.
Lone Washington ! Another, good, and °reat,
Hath earned a deathless name, and every villain's hate.
The burning vehemence of poetical inspiration has branded
the enemy of the patriot with a harsh epithet. We may rejoice
in the conviction, however, that there are none of those villains
anywhere in Massachusetts: most assuredly, my friends, there
cannot be. Some of us may judge of this from the evidence .of
our own senses. With our own eyes, we saw the aristocracy
of the City of Boston welcome the old hero with the homage
of the heart — for it could not have been all mere lip service.
We heard them send up the universal shout that almost rent
the blue concave. We saw them thronging his antechamber —
besieging his bed chamber — scarcely leaving uninvaded his re
fuge on the couch of sickness — so eager were they to pour into
his ear the testimony of their respect, their gratitude, and their
love. Our ancient university of Harvard bestowed her highest
honors upon her illustrious visiter, thereby honoring herself
more than she honored him. And at Bunker Hill, the scene
of the first great battle in the long struggle with British power
which he himself had closed so gloriously at New Orleans, one
of our most eloquent orators exhausted the language of pane
gyric to do justice to his virtues and his valor, for which ap
propriate tribute, in conjunction with his other merits, the
orator has been nominated and elected by the lately dominant
party in the Commonwealth to the office of Governor- Oh no,
gentlemen! King-loathed Columbia's brave and wise old man
cannot have earned the hatred of any citizen of Massachusetts.
We have no bold, bad men — no senators — like Cataline the
Roman Senator when he aspired to the Consulship, striving to
pull down the virtue they cannot rise to emulate. Thousands
witnessed the affection, it might almost be said the adoration,
which the whigs of Boston manifested in 1833, for the defender
and restorer of the Constitution, and since that time he has
done much, very much to strengthen their devotion, having

54
prostrated that deadly enemy whom we most hated and feared,
the United States Bank Monopoly. Nobody therefore within
the sound of my voice, even if it could reach the limits of the
State, can possibly entertain any ill will towards our democratic
President; and the lines quoted cannot have any personal bear
ing: so at least we would fain believe.
But their bearing upon the comparison between the demo
cratic, American, Independent policy, and the aristocratic, Brit
ish or whig policy, and the distinguished merit of the most
prominent champion of American principles, is quite direct
enough to justify the quotation. It might not be proper, in
this place, and on this occasion, to express, even if it were al
together charitable to entertain the belief, the opinion avowed
by the great statesman of New England, so long the acknowl
edged head and leader of the party in opposition to which the
present administration came into power. That gentleman, late
ly President of the United States, with the concurrence, if not
with the positive good will of the whigs of Massachusetts, has
told us what he thinks of the party ' so rotten with the corrup
tion of both its elements.' He bears testimony, and he ought
to know, for he has the most intimate familiarity with their de
signs and views, and with their whole history, that ' they have
no honest principle to keep them together. ' ' Their only ce
ment is a sympathy of hatred to every man of purer principles
than themselves. ' It is to be hoped that this sweeping con
demnation may be far from universally applicable, notwith
standing the almost irresistible weight of authority with which
it comes to us. Yet the sentiment of hatred may have been, it
would almost seem must have been engendered in the hearts of
many who have found their interests, involved in special legis
lation, sacrificed without scruple to the general welfare, by the
unflinching firmness with which our Hero maintained the great
contest between swoln monopoly and exclusive privileges on
the one hand, and aspersed democracy with equal rights on
the other. In many hearts, too, envy rankles; for the success
with which he came out of that critical contest stung to the
quick those who looked enviously on his former fame; and
alas for human nature, they were but too numerous, the more
so as his glory was more dazzling.

55
He who ascends to mountain tops shall find,
The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow ;
He who surpasses or subdues mankind
Must look down on the hate of those below.
Though high above the sun of glory glow,
And far beneath the earth and ocean spread,
Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow
Contending tempests on his naked head,
And thus reward the toils which to those summits led.
Can it be, my countrymen, that, there is any one among us
who would tarnish the splendor of the Nation's brightest jew
els, who would blot out the proudest pages from our annals,
and recompense with scorn and contumely, services which ap
plause and honor cannot adequately reward? There is but too
much cause to apprehend it. Envy which stands by the urn
of the great man, ages after he has gone, stirring his ashes
with her poisoned dagger, — Envy, which never ceased to re
vile the illustrious Jefferson while alive, and which has never
ceased to water his grave with the wormword and gall of ca
lumnious falsehood, — Envy could not spare, whom Providence
has spared, to be the last survivor of a noble race, our last Ro
man — Envy could not suffer to go down in peace to his final
resting place, the time honored head of him ' who filled the
measure of his country's glory."
Is it credible, you ask, that there crawls upon the surface of
the earth a wretch capable of entertaining so despicable a sen
timent? We have too much evidence that there are many: evidence
which we would, but cannot, forget. There is no word or act
of the Hero's life that has not been misrepresented, — no daz
zling achievement of his that has not been depreciated, — no
grand and original measure of a bold and wise policy that has
not been received with rancorous invective, — no benefit, no
blessing bestowed at his hands, but it has rankled in the breast
of black ingratitude, till derision of disinterestedness and ha
tred of all good have burst out in loud and bitter curses. Noth
ing that bears his honorable name, but the mention of it min
isters occasion for jeering and for imprecation. No lifeless
block that is carved into the likeness of his venerable features,

56
can be secure, for a moment, from insult and outrage, even
here, in sober New England.
Do we live in a Christian land ? Are those who originate
and countenance such speech, and such behavior, civilized
and educated men, members of a party laying claim to all
the decency? Is this the gratitude of Republics?
The Sole purpose of Government is the good of the whole
people, and the gratitude and love of the people will reward
him whom the enmity of the few would in vain strive to load
with dishonor. He has fought the good fight faithfully, and let
the disappointed and the envious detractor say what they may,
fifteen millions of freemen have already awarded to him the
meed of an undying fame.
My friends, the conflict which we have hitherto carried on
victoriously Under his auspices, is still to be continued; and
soon other leaders must be placed in the van. Perpetual vigil
ance is the price of liberty. Let no neglect of ours forfeit the
rich inheritance. In Union there is strength. Let us march
shoulder to shoulder to the decisive onset. Let us present to
the foes of the democratic cause, a concentrated, and therefore
a formidable front.
In our candidate for the first office in the gift of the people,
we can have nothing more to desire. The distinguished son
of the Empire State is the adopted favorite of the whole Union.
The arrows of his assailants have fallen harmless at his feet,
and our cleaf sighted yeomanry do justice to the leading traits
of his well balanced character.
To form a perfect statesman, the Knowledge of History, the
Wisdom of Experience, and the Inspiration of Genius must
combine to illuminate his understanding; while Courage to
dare, and Fortitude to suffer in the cause of humanity, must
arm him with an impenetrable panoply for that warfare against
the common enemies of our race, to which a generous philan
thropy will incessantly impel him. In which of these requisites
does not Martin Van Buren excel?
' Who '—said Mr Wilde of Georgia, no partial witness 
'who was a more dexterous debater? Better versed in the poli
tics of our country; or deeper read in the history of others-
above all, who was more thoroughly imbued with the idiom of

57
the English language, and its beauty, and delicacy, or mores
capable of breathing thoughts of flame in words of magic* and
tones of silver?'
From the momentous crisis of the war to this day, holding
the most important trusts, and filling the most responsible sta
tions, in state and nation, in a continued though varied career of
active and arduous duty, who can have reaped a richer harvest
Of EXPERIENCE?
At the outset of his public life, he stepped at once info the
front rank of the New York bar, where the Spencers, Kents,
and' Livingstons, and Hamilton had established tjie standard 0f
talent. At the time which tried men's soUs, the darkest period
of the war, on his first entrance to the senate of that state, he,
a youth, gave the efficient impulse to that body. Mounting to
higher theatres of fame, in every part he is called to act, he
distances all rivalship. When his enemies look for his eclipse
and downfall, they behold him shining brighter and soaring
higher, with the brilliancy of transcendent intellect, and the
buoyancy of paramount merit. His intrigues the service of
the people, his arts the faithful performance of duty, he has run
rapidly through a series of promotion, shedding lustre on every
post he occupies. Who can exhibit proofs more unequivocal
of genius of the highest order?
In the Legislature, the Senate, the Cabinet, through the war,
the great northern defection, and the struggle for the renewed
ascendancy of democratic principles, through the death grap
ple with the monied power, the courage he has manifested
cannot be called in question; neither can the fortitude with
which he smiles upon the systematic detraction, virulent beyond
example except in the history of Jefferson and Jackson, by
which he has been tried as by fire, but under which no man
ever saw him quail or waver.
' Uncompromising hostility to the United States Bank, the
interest and the honor of the people demand it,' has been the
maxim of his faith and practice. We have, with his express
pledge, the guaranty of his uniform course, from his first en
trance upon the political arena, that he will follow in the foot
steps of Andrew Jackson.
In politics men are put forward to represent principles, and

58
to effect the will of the masses. Let us elevate Martin Van
Buren to the chair of state, that we may not only maintain the
ground we have gained already, but during his Presidency,
soon about to open so auspiciously, eradicate from our system
and institutions, every vestige of foreign policy, introduced by
servile imitation, and discordantly combined with the original
home growth of freedom, only to mar its simplicity and unity.
When this, his destined work, shall have been fully accom
plished and his high mission performed to the end, then may we
celebrate without misgivings the Fourth of July; for then shall
we have secured the permanent stability of American Liberty.
Then* may we e*r*ult in the assurance that Independence is ours
forever.

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