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their successors in the "path of honour, and the way to greatness," or check the ambitious, selfish design of some bold and daring innovator, who, reckless of all ties of country and of ulterior consequence, may avail himself of the uncontrolled authority invested in the chief magistrate of the Republic, and under the guise of a laudable patriotism, wield it with unerring and destructive aim, to the attainment of some sinister and dangerous purpose:-but these are of the natural consequences to be apprehended in confiding an unrestrained power of this kind to the hands of any one individual-an absolutism, uncontrolled by public opinion, or otherwise restrained by any of the guards, by which public liberty should ever be protected in its due and wholesome exercise.*

Accustomed as we are at this side, to the full and

*We feel assured that we shall be fully sustained in these opinions, by every American of intelligence, or who can soar above the prejudices of an early and narrowed education, to view these things in their proper light. We might recite instances where the same apprehensions, the same sentiments, have been acknowledged by men of all parties in the United States, even the most moderate in politics, who admit the evils we have pointed out, as inherent in the character or peculiar structure of their form of government, for which, however, they are seldom prepared to suggest or offer any remedy. We quote the follow. ing testimony in support of our views, from the published letter of General Winfield Scott, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army (and who is now among the candidates for the next Presidency of the Republic), of date 25th Oct., 1841, to the people of the United States, explanatory of his opinions, on this, as well as on various other important questions, connected with the Government and well-being of his country :

peaceful enjoyment of a rational freedom-the entire protection of life and property, under the mild and

"The President is, under the checks of the constitution and law, rightfully invested with the power of the sword, and he has again and again had that of the purse also. The House of Congress, it is true, lays taxes for imports, and regulates the sale of the public domain; but it is he (through his agents) who handles the proceeds. From 1833 to 1836, (to say nothing of the present) he alone nominated and dismissed all the agents who kept, as well as those who collected, distributed and disbursed the public revenue. The apophthegm-make us your executor, we care not who are your legislators-has a frightful application to such small agents, and the immense treasure that annually passes through their hands.

"The rapid increase and spread of population; the growth of national wealth; the amount of revenue collected and disbursed; the new relations (by the extension of commerce) with foreign countries; the additional appointments at home and abroad; the number and value of contracts-all constantly and necessarily on the increase; a general decay in morals, perhaps as great in Congress as elsewhere; the habit that we have seen prevail during the several Presidential terms- of filling public offices with but little or no regard to moral standing-have, taken together, already opened to government, elements of power and corruption, which it was impossible for the framers and adopters of the Constitution to foresee or to conceive. Who at that distant day, for example, ever dreamt of the spectacles which have recently disgusted every honest citizen: of post-masters, mail-contractors, mail-agents, and census-takers, covering the land with government pamphlets, handbills, and extra-gazettes, sufficient (if read) to sap the morals, public and private, of an entire generation? of Custom-house mercenaries in the large cities, living on the public, neglecting every duty for party meetings and the polls, and rendering to power the most bribe-worthy services? of district attorneys and collectors, rambling missionaries, defending every abuse of office-their own the most indecent-or in order to maintain power in the hands of their patron? All who have

GENERAL JACKSON AND THE BANK.

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salutary influence of just and wholesome laws, we can conceive nothing more threatening to peace and social order-nothing more alarming to the general well-being of society, or more destructive to a nation's welfare, its prosperity and advancement, than the excesses, with which the United States has been within late years familiarised,--the daring usurpation, the uncontrolled abuse of all authority, of which the recent government of General Jackson has given such fearful example: the putting aside of all legal "responsibility," as he termed it, unknown to, and unsanctioned by the constitution of his country; trusting to the forbearance -the quiescent temper of his fellow citizens-the apathy and indifference of the intelligent, perhaps from their incapacity to restrain his acts, and the shouts and plaudits of the multitude, in part made up of the ignorant of all classes, for a sanction to the most reprehensible conduct, in the pursuit and gratification of a mere personal hostility to the late Bank of the United States, the only remaining check to his morbid and sickly ambition: as also the unrelenting and party war waged by him, against the credit and entire monetary system of the country, which carried heart-burning and desolation in its train, ruining millions of industrious and enterprising citizens, and reducing to the utmost

reflected on the foregoing facts must be ready to affirm-that Executive patronage has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.'"

penury, many of the most wealthy, and previously independent of the community. For this even this, there was no remedy at hand to stay his progress; no means to which the country might resort, but patience—patience which the people were called upon to practise; though in testing the "experiment" of this obstinate old man, no less than seven-tenths of the mercantile community were reduced to a state of absolute bankruptcy and ruin! The Senate raised some feeble remonstrance against his monstrous usurpation, and after much noise and angry discussion, contented themselves by merely passing a resolution, carried by a majority of twenty-six to twenty, declaring that "the President in the late executive proceedings, in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself an authority and power, not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both.”

Yet,

If ever there was an act that deserved reprehension, and merited the united censure of an abused and outraged people, it surely was the unconstitutional and overhand measure of President Jackson. were there no further steps than these taken in vindication of the laws that had been abused-the constitution that had been thus trampled upon, to carry out the views and expositions of this modern political empiric, or to protect the country against its most wanton repetition. Even the Senate, which can seldom charge itself with any similar act of independence, neutralized this almost only effort on behalf of individual and popular rights, by expunging

from their records the condemnatory resolution, by which they had, only in the preceding session, recorded their opinion of the executive innovations of which it so justly complained; to administer to the vanity, and appease the wounded pride of the "old Roman," as President Jackson was familiarly termed, and to whom this august body, as if conscious of its worthlessness, bowed down in lowly and humble submission. But such is modern republicanism!such, it would appear, a necessary and conjoined part of the structure raised with so much cost by our transatlantic friends, and commended to our choice as the noblest effort of man's genius in human legislation. Still, the consequence, as the primeval cause of all this, belongs to themselves, to which they will have to look in time; or else be prepared to see their country visited by some periodical scourge of this kind, levelling all classes, and sweeping all before it with the destructive violence of a tornado.

Article 1st, sec. 2 and 3 of the Constitution, states, the legislative power to be vested in a Congress of the United States, consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives, and prescribes the duties devolving on both.

Of the Senate chamber, it may, with some degree of propriety be alleged, that they constitute the only deliberative assembly, apart from their late subserviency, that is really entitled to assume the namethat can be deemed to possess a reasonable share of talent in their body, or preserve the least decency, or decorum in their proceedings. Chosen, or ap