of persecution, which was directed against Mr. Porter. Detraction of the worst kind was employed to do its office. In early life he had been implicated in a partnership, which, through no fault of his, had been unfortunate in business, and though he had settled with his creditors in a manner that left the most honorable conviction of his integrity on their minds, he was paraded in the journals which assume to themselves all the decency, as a fraudulent bankrupt; and executive tools were not wanting, who testified on oath to stories of embezzlement so utterly without foundation, that the principal deponent was proved to have been only five years old when the facts he had sworn to were alleged to have taken place. These charges of perjury and forgery were, however, reiterated by the official cabal, and echoed by all their presses till the very day of election. Nor was this all; his domestic character was assailed by charges of almost every species of licentiousness and vice, and it is much to be regretted that the constant assertion of these things, tended to reduce the old fashioned majority of twenty-five thousand, which belonged to the State, though the falsehood of the charges. was so clearly and conclusively established as to defeat the objects of their invention, and to make many honest Whigs come forward to vouch for Mr. Porter's unblemished character, who were warmly opposed to his politics and would not vote for him.

Upwards of ten thousand non-resident voters were introduced, under the executive patronage into the State, and judiciously distributed on the various public works, so as to swell Ritner's majority in the hour of need, while the arrangement of the districts had been managed in such a manner, that it was calculated the Democratic party began the contest with a majority of nearly twenty thousand votes against them, which had to be neutalized before their efforts could tell in favor of their own candidates. This was so well understood, that, when the election had commenced, and was apparently going for Porter, a letter, announced as from a high authority in the State, was published in the National Intelligen. cer, for effect upon the South, which declared that unless the Democratic candidate should be elected by fifteen thousand majority, the State could not be considered safe for Van Buren in the next Presidential election. Besides all this, falsehood and deception of every kind were at work. A new Constitution was to be submitted. to the people, and in the eastern part of the State where the old Constitution was popular, Ritner was asserted to be its friend, while in other portions, where it was unpopular, he was as determinedly claimed as the friend of the amended Constitution.

It is characteristic and illustrative of the popular intelligence, that, deception on part of their rulers, never fails to recoil upon and discomfit themselves. A party or a politician who affect to disbelieve, or underate the sagacity of the people, can be successful only while undetected, and the popular distrust, when deeply rooted, can never

be overcome. The history of our parties and public men abound in pregnant illustrations of this great truth, which cannot be too fully impressed upon all public men. Mr. Ritner's ignorance of this great principle led him to commit a signal act of weakness and inconsistency for the purpose of throwing dust in the People's eyes, and which not only recoiled injuriously upon its author, but as a political move, was almost too ludicrous for effect.

The banks of New York resumed payment early in the spring of 1838; those of Pennsylvania prepared, and announced their intention to resume, on the first of August 1838, and accordingly, just before that day, Ritner made haste to issue a proclamation, ordering them to resume on or before the thirteenth of August or he would visit upon them the penalties of the law. Now it must be borne in mind that the banks suspended on the eleventh of May, 1837, and the Governor exhibited the farce of finding out the fact FIFTEEN MONTHS afterwards, denouncing its illegality and ordering a resumption, and all this only after they had announced their readiness and intention so to do. The cause of the movement was not apparent until by the entire Whig press Mr. Ritner was proclaimed the friend of specie payments and it was heralded throughout the State that he had made the banks resume, which otherwise they would not have done, and (to their shame be it spoken) the officers of the banks encouraged and promoted belief of what they knew was not true, with a view to aid his reëlection; more especially as his proclamation was filled with the usual quantum of abuse of the National Administration and praise of his own. The people, however, saw through the wretched trick, and the only effect it produced, was that of attaching to his administration, the discredit of such an arrant piece of political charlatanry.

The election day came and notwithstanding all the means used to prevent it, GENERAL DAVID R. PORTER has been elected Governor by the proud majority of above nine thousand votes. If to these be added at least ten thousand non-residents, brought into the State for the purpose of voting for Ritner, it will swell the FAIR majority to about twenty thousand. Proud may the Democrats of Pennsylvania be of such a triumph!

The party in power left no stone unturned, every engine was employed and every faculty exerted to secure its continuance in power, and they have sustained an inglorious and overwhelming defeat and most righteously. To no one political object have they been steadfast excepting ABOLITION; and in that they have been most consistent. The Ritner attorney general of the State is a strong abolitionist and so are almost all, down to the lowest State officers. Ritner in his first message, advocated the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia forthwith, and recommended discussion of the question in the State. Pennsylvania, it was probably intended, should be the head quarters of abolition, and

the Whig party of the State, and probably of the Union, was to be identified with the abolition party. Whether recent events will occasion abandonment of this determination remains to be seen.

Joseph Ritner was known (or supposed to be known) as the enemy of State debt, and yet he increased it upwards of THREE MILLIONS. He had avowed himself hostile to charters and yet there were more acts of incorporation passed during his Governorship than during all the previous years since Pennsylvania had been a State. He professed himself hostile to the banks, and yet he favored their views and acted pretty much as their agent and instrument. He avowed himself an Anti-Mason and equally opposed to Whigs and Democrats, but soon gave himself to the embrace of the Whigs and did all the things he had most opposed 'in days of yore.'

Such is the state of things with which the Democratic party had to contend, and such is the character of the victory they have achieved. The Governor elect is a gentleman of unbending and invariable devotion to republican measures; has been consistent in his professions and practice, and is respected at home and wherever known, as one amiable and upright in all his relations. He has filled various offices without complaint even from his direst foes, and can be relied upon as one who will exert all proper means to keep Pennsylvania and her institutions free from improper influence, sustain her bright renown, and let no part of her importance be impaired by measures of doubtful policy or anti-republican tendency.

The election was a memorable one and its effects will be sensibly felt throughout the Union. Pennsylvania was the battle ground of the Union. Had the opponents of Democracy succeeded there, it would have inspirited them to hope of success at the national campaign; if defeated there, then they knew their chance would be utterly destroyed, and the warfare was waged with a reckless and exterminating spirit which showed their desperate situation. Fiercely was the battle fought, and gallantly was it won. A mutiny in the ranks had enabled the enemy to obtain possession of the citadel and the contest was, on the one hand, desperate, and fierce, and on the other, determined and conscious of the justice of its cause. To such a victory too much praise cannot be awarded, and to victors in such a struggle, should be given the plaudits and congratulations of the whole Republican party of the United States. The foe is conquered, and though it may again raise its arm to strike, it will again be conquered. The State has been delivered from the iron-handed rule of a despotic minority. Pennsylvania is erect, proudly and loftily as ever, proclaiming, as she did in 1776, that her coat of arms is, (and deservedly) "VIRTUE LIBERTY AND INDEPENDENCE."

THE THIRD VOLUME OF THE DEMOCRATIC REVIEW.

THOUGH neither circumstances nor custom render it necessary for a periodical work to address its readers on the recurrence of the cycle at which its numbers become a volume, yet as we lay each successive book before our readers, the consciousness that we have gained another stepping stone in a new career, watched with some interest by our friends, renders the occasion a proper opportunity of giving from time to time such explanations or information, as the character of our work affords no opportunity of saying in its regular pages.

We have received repeated suggestions from various parts of the Union, that such a modification of our plan as would admit notices of current literature, and new books, would be an improvement; and to these we reply, that we are sensible of the additional interest such a feature would give our journal, while it would be a congenial duty to ourselves, yet we have been induced to withhold it for sufficient reasons. We feel that while our pages are too limited now-liberal, as we are in this respect, beyond the precedent of all our monthly contemporaries—even for the many important public questions which press upon our attention, and which treated as they ought to be, with argument and illustration addressed to the reasoning faculties of the reader, will ever possess a far higher interest; it would be at the best but literary trifling to occupy a space, that can be so much better taken up, with merely temporary matter. Again, to notice new works with the care, candor, and thorough acquaintance with their contents, which we could alone admit as requisites for the task-and which would be indispensable to rescue such a department of a prominent periodical from the contempt or insignificance which so justly attach, generally speaking, to this branch of the press-would require a time and preparation that might be more advantageously devoted to subjects of enduring interest.

Objections have been made to the style of the likenesses which accompany our Gallery of Political Portraits. These arise from a mistaken conception of what should be the character of popular etchings of this description. They are not presented as, nor intended to be finished engravings, or accurate portraits of the respective originals, but outlines, spirited in conception and faithful in execution, of the individual, and such as might give to our distant readers a correct impression of the actual, living character, as exhibited in ordinary life, of those whose public history and acts are familiar to the whole land, while as individuals they can be known only to the limited circle with whom they may be brought in contact.

This, it will be admitted, has been fully accomplished in each number of the series published, and the interest as well as value which has in consequence attached to this feature of our work, prove to us a sufficient warrant for the additional expense which these engravings occasion. They will be continued, from time to time, as occasion may serve.

In our arrangements for the coming year, we do not contemplate any material deviation from a plan that has so fully received the sanction of the public; that it would argue a want of appreciation on our parts of an encouragement as generous as it has been kind, if we were not to meet it by increased exertions to render the Democratic Review more worthy of its name, and of the great party whose princi ples it advocates.

Up to the time of sending this number to press nine orders to stop the Democratic Review for next year have been received from our entire list. Of these, four were occasioned by deaths or removals in the different States. Since the commencement of the present Volume, four hundred and eighty-nine new Subscribers have been received, a voluntary encouragement, which renders almost certain the permanent establishment of the work.

It is proper to state that all the back numbers having been reprinted, some of them four times, full sets of the work from the commencement can be supplied to all who require them.

29 CASE, HOW STANDS THE
CHIPPINGS WITH A CHISEL →
CILLEY, Jonathan, Memoir of
Birth, and Character at College, 70; Politi-
cal Life, 71; Kindness of his Personal
Character, 71-'74; His Death, 75; Note
respecting his Funeral, 75.