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sissippi, Ohio and Missouri. 5th. A Bill for making a road in Missouri. 6th. A Bill to subscribe to the stock in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company. 7th. A Bill to extend the Cumberland road to Zanesville. 8th. A Bill authorizing a subscription to the Portland and Louisville Canal Company. On the passage of all these bills, General Jackson's name was recorded in the affirmative; and his vote in favor of the tariff of 1824, a tariff which was founded on the principle of protection, afforded sufficient evidence that his opinions accorded rather with those of Mr Adams, Clay and Calhoun, than with those of the supporters of Mr Crawford.

In the presidential contest of 1824, therefore, the friends of the Secretary of the Treasury stood alone in the attitude of opposition to the established policy of the country. The supporters of the other candidates indeed had their personal preferences, but in point of principle there was no essential difference between them. At an early period of the canvass the Secretary of War (Mr Calhoun) was withdrawn by his friends in Pennsylvania, who, yielding to the popular feeling of the State, fell in to the support of General Jackson. This example was followed by his adherents throughout the Union, with some few exceptions, and they mainly contributed to the sudden and rapid augmentation of the strength of General Jackson during that canvass.

In this transfer of support, however, no sacrifice of principle was supposed to have been made. It

was merely relinquishing a personal preference under the pressure of circumstances, and the election of General Jackson, equally with that of Mr Adams, would then have been regarded as a pledge to the country of the continuance of the policy of the preceding administration. Mr Clay's principles were similar; but from the ardor of his character, his fearless disregard of consequences and his avowed opinions in behalf of the American System, and on the subject of South American independence, apprehensions were entertained that he would not sacrifice enough to expediency, but would follow those opinions out to their legitimate consequences. Hence it was obvious that no sacrifice of principle was involved in the support, indifferently, of any of these candidates who stood on a common ground of policy. Mr Crawford alone was supported upon opposite principles, and as it was manifest that in such a contest his weakness would be evinced, an attempt was made to represent him as the only orthodox republican candidate, and to nominate him as such to the suffrages of the nation through a caucus of the members of Congress assembled at Washington. The attempt totally failed. It was regarded by a great majority of the people as an unauthorized interference with their constitutional privileges, and it terminated in the caucus candidate's being brought by the votes of Virginia and Georgia and a few scattered votes from New York and Delaware, into the House of Representatives as the

lowest of the three candidates, from which the President was to be chosen. Here the choice fell upon Mr Adams, and from the moment of his election the partizans of the unsuccessful candidates united in opposition, either avowed or secret, to his administration. Those who had originally advocated the claims of General Jackson found a sufficient motive to opposition in the defeat of their favorite, whose election they asserted was demanded by the people. That reason however could not be urged by the friends of the caucus candidate, who had been zealously sustained to the last, in spite of ill health, although the result in the electoral colleges had demonstrated that he had but a slight hold upon the public favor. Indeed the entire failure of this party in their election plainly indicated the unpopularity of its political creed, and at the commencement of Mr Adm' administration it held itself aloof and apparently uncommitted as to its future course. The candidate who was boldly taken up as the opposition candidate, had evinced as latitudinarian sentiments concerning the powers of Congress as his successful rival, and to come in to his support would be to abjure those political doctrines which were deemed so essential to the independence of the States.

The political principles of the party already organized, therefore, were as heterodox as those of the existing Cabinet, and any combination which might take place must be founded upon the sacrifice of principle by one of the

sections of the opposition. This discordance in its materials prevented any harmonious concert of action at the first session of the nineteenth Congress; but during the vacation and the succeeding session, great efforts were made to promote a closer union between the different sections of the opposition, and before the adjournment it had assumed a consistent shape. The first public intimation of this union was given by a leading opposition member from Virginia, who shortly before the close of the second session of the 19th Congress, announced, that the combinations for effecting the election of General Jackson were nearly completed. Shortly before this public declaration, an intimation almost equally distinct of future opposition, was given by one of the most prominent leaders of the caucus party in a letter to the Legislature of New York, expressing his acknowledgments for his re-election to the federal Senate. In this letter he promises zealously to exert himself to protect the remaining rights reserved to the States and to restore those of which they had been divested by construction.

Other indications, which could not be mistaken, were given of the intention of the caucus party to join the opposition, and that one of the main grounds of opposition would be, that certain powers which the Federal Government had habitually exercised were unauthorized by the Constitution and that they ought no longer to be submitted to. It had been a favorite doctrine of the Virginia

school of politics, that the powers of the General Government had been extended beyond their constitutional limits, and the dispute between the federal authorities and those of Georgia in relation to the Creek treaty, had rendered it convenient for that State to contend most earnestly for the same construction of the Constitution. A most intimate connexion had been cultivated between the politicians of this school and the leading supporters of Mr Crawford in New York, who inclined to the same construction of the Constitution, and who were not much behind their southern coadjutors in declaring their determination to favor the election of General Jackson. This determination of the opposition to combine in his support, induced much speculation as to the nature of the pledges, which were said to have been given as to his political course, and it was boldly predicted, that an opposition so constituted, could not continue united after the government should fall into its hands, without a complete sacrifice of principle by one of the sections of the combined party.

The President would of course be compelled to adopt the literal construction of the Constitution or to pursue the policy marked out by his predecessors. During the pendency of the election, the public might be left in doubt. Such as were inclined to promote his elevation in the north and west could justify their preference, by appealing to his votes when in the Senate in favor of the Tariff and Internal improvement, while his supporters in the South

could be equally zealous, either relying upon a more intimate acquaintance with his opinions, or upon those measures which his character as a candidate, sustained upon the principle of reform, should compel him to adopt in case of success. But after his inauguration he must decide between these conflicting pretensions, and this decision would compel those to whom that decision should prove unpalatable to decide in their turn between the abandonment of their political party or their principles. This very position properly viewed was but another of the fortunate circumstances in which the successful competitor for the Chief Magistracy found himself placed at the time of his elevation. Chosen by an unparalleled majority of the electoral votes, he owed his success to his own popularity. Generally sanctioning the policy under which our national institutions had been built up, he was at liberty to review his opinions and to establish them upon incontrovertible and immutable grounds. His administra tion was not bound to persist in any particular measures which experience had proved to be inexpedient; but claiming as it did to be constituted upon the basis. of reform, it was able to modify the existing policy, and to carry out its principles under all the advantages offered by the lights of experience and the development of public opinion. Equally uncommitted was he respecting the parties, which had formerly distracted the country. His advice to Mr Monroe in

1816 to

discard all party feelings, and to remember, that as Chief Magistrate he acted for the whole, and not for a part of the community, -sentiments which did equal honor to his head and his heart, and which he reiterated as his settled opinion in 1824, left him free to call to his councils the ablest and most virtuous men of the nation, without regard to the party denominations by which they had been previously distinguished. Under these fortunate circumstances General Jackson assumed the Executive Government on the fourth of March, 1829, with a surplus of more than five millions of dollars in the national treasury, the country respected abroad, at peace with all the world, and in a state of unexampled and progressive domestic prosperity.

After taking the oath of office he delivered according to the custom of his predecessors an inaugural address setting forth the principles upon which he intended to administer the government. That address is as follows:

FELLOW CITIZENS: About to undertake the arduous duties that I have been appointed to perform, by the choice of a free people, I avail myself of this customary and solemn occasion to express the gratitude which their confidence inspires, and to acknowledge the accountability which my situation enjoins. While the magnitude of their interests convinces me that no thanks can be adequate to the honor they have conferred, it admonishes me that the best return I can make, is the zealous dedication of my humble abilities

to their service and their good. As the instrument of the Federal Constitution, it will devolve on me, for a stated period, to execute the laws of the United States: to superintend their foreign and their confederate relations; to manage their revenue; to command their forces; and, by communications to the Legislature, to watch over, and to promote their interests generally. And the principles of action by which I shall endeavor to accomplish this circle of duties, it is now proper for me briefly to explain.

In administering the laws of Congress, I shall keep steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power, trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office, without transcending its authority. With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace, and to cultivate friendship, on fair and honorable terms; and in the adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise, to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation, rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people.

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In such measures as I may be called on to pursue, in regard to the rights of the separate States, I hope to be animated by a proper respect for those sovereign members of our Union; taking care not to confound the powers they have reserved to themselves with those they have granted to the confederacy.

The management of the public revenue-that searching operation in all Governments among the most delicate and im

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portant trusts in ours; and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered, it would appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously, both because it will facilitate the extinguishment of the National - Debt-the unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with real independence and because it will counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy which a profuse expenditure of money by the Government is but too apt to engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this desirable end, are to be found in the regulations provided by the wisdom of Congress, for the specific appropriation of public money and the prompt accountability of public officers.

With regard to aproper selection of the subjects of impost, with a view to revenue, is would seem to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and compromise, in which the Constitution was formed, requires that the great interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, should be equally favored; and that, perhaps, the only exception to this rule should consist in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of them that may be found essential to our national independence.

Internal Improvement, and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are of high impor

tance.

'Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments, in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of political experience, which teaches that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power.

The gradual in

crease of our Navy, whose flag has displayed, in distant climes, our skill in navigation, and our fame in arms; the preservation of our forts, arsenals, and dock yards, and the introduction of progressive improvements in the discipline and science of both branches of our military service, are so plainly prescribed by prudence, that I should be excused for omitting their mention, sooner than for enlarging on their importance. But the bulwark of our defence is the national militia, which, in the present state of our intelligence and population, must render us invincible. As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending, a patriotic militia will cover it with an impenetrable agis. Partial injuries, and occasional mortifications, we may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe.

To any just system, therefore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of the country, I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.

'It will be my sincere and con

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