to raise them on lawless chance, and then declare the law of their continuance? to give them first to fortune and then to the gods? Absurd conclusion of the Senator! This nation have fortune in their hands, and can whirl her idle wheel backward or forward at their pleasure. They have but to agree that honor and honesty shall rule, and they rule that the Constitution shall remain, and it remains. On that side they have a divine, an omnipotent authority; on the other they are powerless. On the one side, they have fortune-on the other, divinity; here chance, there reason ; here favor, there honor ; here lying, there truth; here robbery, peculation, conquest, fear, and the sinking of all in mere despond; there law observed, credit, equity, hope, and the fruit of all the past. And yetit was only by a figure of rhetoric that the orator appealed to Fortune, to inspire us with a salutary terror; and when he afterward points out the true cause of our danger, and shows that it is rather through forgetfulness that we are falling, it is evident that he is truly no worshipper of Fortune, but a firm believer in the laws of Reason and of Nature. "Sir, there is no solicitude now for liberty. Who talks of liberty when any great question comes up? Here is a question of the first magnitude as to the conduct of this war; do you hear anybody talk about its effect upon our liberties and our free institutions? No, sir. That was not the case formerly. In the early stages of our government the great anxiety was, how to preserve liberty. The great anxiety now, is for the attainment of mere military glory. In the one we are forgetting the other. The maxim of former times was, that power is always stealing from the many to the few; the price of liberty was perpetual vigilance. They were constantly looking out and watching for danger. Not so now. Is it because there has been any decay of liberty among the people? Not at all. I believe the love of liberty was never more ardent, but they have forgotten the tenure of liberty by which alone it is preserved. "We think we may now indulge in everything with impunity, as if we held our charter of liberty by "right divine"--from heaven itself. Under these impressions we plunge into war, we contract heavy debts, we increase the patronage of the Executive, and we talk of a crusade to force our institutions, of liberty, upon all people. There is no species of extravagance which our people imagine will endanger their liberty in any degree. Sir, the hour is approaching--the day of retribution will come." It will This warning comes from no noisy declaimer, or heated enthusiast. It is the voice of years and of experience. It is not a trope, or stroke of rhetoric; it is the plain announcement of a fact. We have secured our liberty, and believe that it will remain secure, while we are occupied in destroying that of other nations. We think that by augmenting our power we shall only perfect our freedom; forgetful that not power, merely, but lawful forms of power, are the support of freedom. Our power may indeed fret and spend itself in vast enterprises; but we are losing the grand privilege of freemen, to control the councils of the nation: we may retain our domestic freedom, but we are powerless in the affairs of our country. Party Organization, the sole lever of the politician, neglected by one party, and skillfully employed by the other, has wrested the sceptre from our gripe; we have allowed ourselves to believe in Public Opinion, until, too late, it is discovered that Party Organizations are manufactories of public opinion. We have neglected to manufacture a quantum of true and liberal opinion on the side of Justice and the Constitution, and the consequences are just beginning to be felt by ourselves and by the world. As it was not by fortune nor the concurrence of fortunate accidents, that we arrived at our present condition, but by strenuous and virtuous endeavor for our country and kind, so it will not be by evil fortune that we fall, if fall we must, but by the neglect of those means by which we rose. And what were those means ?. The purifying first of our own. and next of other minds; the banishment of all but the most elevated passions, the trial of all public questions by the rule of private morality; the fearless and spirited declaration of right opinion, in the face of unpopularity and false enthusiasm, by all who can speak or write with force or with discretion; the constant inculcation of the faith in principles,-that principles are strictly the expression of divine laws "which execute themselves," and must be proclaimed and obeyed by all men and nations who are ambitious of power, or of permanent and universal wealth--these | and public men. To accomplish this end, means, well used, cannot fail to effect their ends. "But it is also necessary to have faith in the people." What is meant by faith in the people? A question worth answering. Put the case that the same multitude were addressed by two orators, and on the same question and occasion; that the first of these orators considered in his mind that the people he addressed were to be controlled by several passions, fear, vanity, admiration, interest, envy, the lust of power, and the enthusiasm of a novel enterprise; that accordingly, having this opinion of the men he addressed, an opinion drawn necessarily from the study of his own heart, he begins by a skillful flattery,-throws in arguments to the purse, to national vanity, to the admiration of great names, to popular enmities and prejudices, the love of domination and the love of change,-and rousing in his hearers' hearts a tumultuous, uneasy enthusiasm, which then he and his colleagues direct to their ends :-this orator may be fairly said to have no faith in the people; he rather believes that they are creatures of passion, and subject to none but base and selfish impulses. But now the second orator rises, a Chatham, a Webster, a Pericles, a Clay; his generous spirit expands itself through the vast auditory, and he believes that he is addressing a company of high-spirited men, citizens. They see the grandeur in his eye, and before a word has escaped his lips, they are struck with an irresistible sympathy with the man. Then, he speaks. When he says "fellow-citizens," they believe him, and at once, from a tumultuous herd, they are converted into men-into a nation, for the time being; the universal voice is speaking, and every man's soul is attuned by it; a common purpose seizes them, a common energy, and by a wonderful effect, their thoughts and feelings rise to an heroical height, beyond that of common men or common times. This second orator "had faith in the people;" he addressed the better part of each man's nature, supposing it to be in him ;--and it was in him. The great problem of our politics is, to bring the minds of the majority up to a pitch of knowledge and confidence that will enable them to use their private judgment upon public questions every spirited citizen will strain every thought. If he has accumulated wealth, he will apply his acquired knowledge of economy and finance to the consideration of the public finance. If he is a lawyer, his knowledge of the nice differences of rights will serve him to detect the fallacies and dishonesties of men in power. If he is a clergyman, he has the law of God, "which fulfills itself," written in his mind in a clear and legible scripture, easily applied to all events and all actions as a rule. If he is a farmer, or an independent mechanic, he knows that individual liberty begins with him-that representative government is sustained by him-in its original purity and force, and that in his place he is the main pillar of the state, on whom depends finally the Union and the public security; but being no linguist nor much read in the law, he will be compelled to shape his estimate of public men and measures by those plain rules from which all laws spring, and which come to him direct from heaven. But especially, at this crisis, when the polity of the nation is being settled for a course of centuries, by the establishment of new forms of opinion and new modes of government, it becomes the men of leisure and of letters to throw themselves into the strife; not like gladiators shining with the oil of sophistry, and wielding an unscrupulous sword, but rather firm and sure, organized, with the modern obedience and the modern discipline. If, instead of degrading themselves by idle and aimless production, the frivolous trifling of boys, they would remember that they are citizens of a Republic more magnificent than Athens, and that soon must be the irresistible power of the world that in this Republic there is no aristocracy but that which rests in native uprightness and sincerity, no fame but that of usefulness, no respectability but in the public service; they would cease from their trifling, and unite their exertions and labors to overthrow the ambitious man who usurps, the impostor who misleads, and the coward who sells himself. If, despising toil and resigning the poor privilege of a little fretful originality, a thing smiled upon and pitied by the truly great, they would join as true fellow-soldiers against lying, quackery, and tyranny, of whatever kind; in less than an age, the Union would be settled upon eternal foundations, and the men of this age be remembered as the second founders of the Republic. Men do not respect that which is a growth of accident or fortune, and could they bring themselves to regard the institutions of their fathers as the fruit merely of happy concurrences, they would despise their very liberty, and wish to defy fortune, and let her do her will. Regarding the Union as transitory and fortuitous, we are less grieved with the thought of corruption in the general state: we become accustomed to contemplate its decay, and are less indignant when it is proposed to reduce it to an association for gain. That despair, too, which sometimes affects good men of a feeble temper, may well spring out of this opinion, that we lie at the mercy of chance. To know the obstacle is half to conquer it; to know the danger is almost to escape it, with a spirit of that temper of which freemen are made. Let it, therefore, be fairly seen and defined: different men will see it differently and with different degrees of apprehension; but he cannot be esteemed worthless, or unserviceable, who gives his sole attention to that shape of the public danger which affects him most, and which threatens the most immediate peril. The Senator has distinctly indicated the present danger of the Republic-"the increasing power of the Executive," its assumption of an authority and an influence beyond the spirit, if not beyond the letter of the Constitution, its aggression upon the liberties of the States and of the nation. It is discovered at last, that in our own, as in the English Constitution, the only effectual control over an Executive backed by a powerful minority, is by the refusal of supplies, or by the affixing of conditions to appropriations. It is necessary to thelife of all great powers, that they should tend to burst their bonds, and seem continually to threaten tyranny: the power of wrong must be coincident in them with the power of right; and few men there are-there is no man, of a spirit fit to be the chief servant of the nation, who will not sometimes encroach on liberty; not because he does not love y, or that he means to be tyrannical, but because it is in human nature to err. It is, therefore, always necessary for a free people to watch their rulers, and check the career of their ambition. We, the private citizens, must make the man in place respect and fear our free vote, and our free opinion. On perpetual vigilance, and not on a curiously adjusted system of checks and balances, must we rely for the vindication of our rights. But first, before attempting to check or limit any power, it is necessary to know, to feel, its exact weight and importance. It is idle to argue against it, or pretend not to see it-to smile at, or disrespect it; we must estimate it, measure it, take its full dimension, compare it with others and with itself, and finally, consider its growth, permanency, and tenacity of life. A dry study of the Constitution, or of historical commentaries, will not give a true idea, much less a true feeling, of the central power. It springs from each one of us, as from millions of living roots. We concede to it, in the economy of the whole, a power original and forever established; it is the most efficient and unobstructed Executive Power in the world, and able, by keeping a vast number of persons in the hope, or in the fearful and conditional enjoyment, of office, to exercise a direct personal power over one half the people. When supported by a strong minority in Congress, it can initiate any law it pleases, and suppress any which it thinks may be injurious to itself. It is not afraid of impeachment, for it will always control a strong minority in the Senate and the House. It is not disposed to encroach openly upon the Constitution, but has always advocates and excuses to defend itself against the direct charge. It is instinctively ingenious with the people, and takes care never to seem to injure the landed interests. It never touches, or seems to touch, the liberty of the individual, or of the State, of which the northern and southern Democracy are so exclusively jealous; but it reaches over the heads of both, and eludes both. Its immense power rests unmoved upon the tumultuous sea of opposing interests and passions; the small waves (if we may so speak) of local tumults cannot overturn it. The broader the base the more securely it stands; and should its power ever be extended over both continents, and over the islands, it would almost inevitably perpetuate itself and rise to an imperial height. The first symptom of the rise of an imperial power is in the ambition of conquest. The ambition of the people is roused, a secret influence everywhere urges them. It emanates from the Central Power, and the body of intriguers which sustain and use it. The head wishes to feel itself the head, and out of an ambitious wantonness, puts the body in motion. The evil passions of the multitude respond to the ambition of the central faction, and the whole force of the government is precipitated upon enterprises of war. This it does without impairing the liberties of the States, or of the citizens; but these powers forget, that as the head is exalted the body is diminished and debased. Government is in its very nature aggressive and usurping; tending toward unlimited power and unlimited territory. The checks which hem it in and restrain it, require to be kept up with a lively jealousy. Weaken or impoverish your aristocracy, and your king becomes a despot; yield the powers of the House and of the Senate in the least particulars, and your President has moved so far toward supreme authority. The limitation of the Presidential term to four years is no security against the steady increase of the power, in the hands of a succession of intriguers, usurpers, and well-managed weaklings. The party now effectually in power have maintained a succession of Presidents, who have each added a little to the power of the office. This party, the original opposers of the Constitution, always insisting upon State rights and democratic liberty, has elected a series of Presidents who have made every use of the Central Power, and showed the greatest readiness to abuse and extend it. Democracy, meanwhile, wisely jealous for its individual rights, but near-sighted, has not observed, and perhaps cannot perceive how the stature of the Executive swells and grows. The WILL OF THE NATION, permanently expressed in the Constitution, while it established this power, established also certain checks upon it, even within its proper limits. The Executive cannot declare war, nor march an army upon a neighbor's territory, without permission from Congress. It cannot ratify treaties without the consent of two-thirds of the Senators pre sent. Its patronage may be diminished by Congress, who have power to vest the appointment of inferior officers in the courts of law, or the heads of departments. It is liable to impeachment; and the power to be taken away by the decision of the Senate. It is founded on an oath, by which it swears to become the defender of the Constitution. These defences are such as would be erected against a power naturally inclined to become absolute. The conflict in future is not to be that old traditional one of State Rights. What do those vast crowds of foreigners, and migratory persons that people the new lands of the West, know or care about the old jealousies of State Rights? They are under the protection of the Central Government, and their first desire and respect is toward the nation; the State with them is secondary; their sons may understand it, but they never will. Every foreigner who sets foot upon this continent, increases the importance of the Central Government, and diminishes the jealousies of the States. We repeat, that it is our firm belief, that the danger with us lies not in the fear of a revolt of individual States-our Union having at length become, or fast becoming, a nation-but in a want of perception and foresight, to guard against the excessive influence of the Executive itself. Under such convictions, what are we to think of the party now in power? That their policy and doctrines will defend us against evils approaching from that quarter? They know that it is necessary for a nation to be engaged in great enterprises, but they prefer the enterprises of war, and turn the forces of government upon foreign objects. They cry out against a paper currency, against credit, and indirect taxation; while they are issuing millions of Treasury Notes, secured only by the credit of the nation, and dare not propose a tax adequate to the payment of the mere interest of the public debt. They oppose the creation of a Bank for the economical management of the public funds, while they are creating a bank of the worst character, founded on the issue of depreciated paper. They contend for the Sovereignty of the People, (which no man denies,) while they are engaged in destroying the sovereignty of a neighboring people, and would force a sister Republic to cede, not only her territory, but her citizens, as political slaves. They talk of progress, and the advance of liberty and enlightenment, nay, even of Christianity; which progress, enlightenment, and liberty, nay, which Christianity, they are eager to force upon their neighbors at the point of the bayonet. We are no advocates for political consistency in the abstract; as though it were not sometimes the part of a wise man to change his course, and in view of impending ruin to his country, oppose a policy advocated by a party once his own, but ceasing to be his when they depart from principles upon which he has taken his stand; but when it appears that every act of a party in power is at variance with some principle which themselves claim, are we not to regard their inconsistency as a proof that they employ their principles as a veil to their purposes? Let us never listen, then, for an instant, to their protestations, but watch their measures. The measures of the party now in power, are the measures of unjust men they are employing the Executive power of the Union, in a way to give it an unnatural and despotical authority; they mean to give it all the vigor necessary to carry out their designs; they care not for the Constitution, nor for the principles of private and public liberty of which it is the sole existing charter. Can we refuse to listen to the warning— "Who talks of liberty now?" Aye! who? It is time then to begin to talk about liberty. State Rights have had their defenders. The States know very well how to defend their own rights. They know the limits of their own sovereignties, and will defend them. But who will defend the rights and sovereignties of the people? Every member of this Republic is connected by a slender thread with the Central Power. This thread passes through and above the system of the State, scarcely ching it. By this the Central Power can draw after it every individual citizen as by a line of fate. The millions of lines meet in the hand of the Central Power. Along them moves taxation, the call to arms; influence, fine but sure, moves along them. The people reciprocate influence with their head; but while each one of them knows him alone and his will, he knows them all, and by a superior wisdom can rule one by the knowledge he has of another-by many he can rule one, and this in a thousand ways. By the artifices of the politician, the whole nation is moved through these lines. It is the duty of the people to watch, each man his own, and reciprocate, meeting the worse by a better will. Government is in its very nature aggressive and usurping. So well persuaded are all men of this, it has become a maxim with politicians, that every great authority in the State should be left open to impeachment, and where impeachment is not allowed, the government is either despotic, or it is nominal-the real power, as in the English Constitution, being in other hands. But it is hardly possible to conceive of an Executive Power more crescent and cumulative in its character than our own; forto say nothing of its being only apparently subject to impeachment-a vote of twothirds of the Senate being required for conviction of treason, which would scarcely be obtained against a President supported by a strong party; and unless so supported, he would not venture upon violations of the Constitution-a succession of enterprising usurpers, such as have gov erned this country since the election of General Jackson, have it in their power to create the popularity, and the popular | opinion, upon which they rest. Nay, it is not yet certain, whether a power completely efficient for the demoralization of the nation might not be created within the limits of the Constitution itself. Government is not a machine; after all the barriers that political science can devise have been erected about a moral power, disposed to be arbitrary and usurping, it will still, within these formal limits, continue to be arbitrary and usurping; it will still continue to be necessary THAT REALLY GREAT AND TRIED MEN SHOULD BE ELECTED. † The usurpation of the war power. granted by the Constitution to Congress |