Venegas had, in the meantime, made preparations to resist. The Archbishop first formally excommunicated Hidalgo, and, this measure having been adopted, troops were sent out against him. The Spanish soldiers, at the Viceroy's disposal, were few in number but well disciplined; besides these, were some regiments of native regulars, whose adherence to the royal cause might reasonably be doubted. Had the latter joined Hidalgo, the contest would, in all probability, have been at once decided in his favour; Venegas, however, determined to trust them, and they set out with the Spaniards to meet the insurgents, under the command of one of their countrymen, Lieutenant Augustin Iturbide.

The two armies met, on the 30th of October, at Cruces, a place almost in sight of Mexico, to which the insurgents had advanced from Guanaxuato. The Curate's forces were supposed to have been in number not less than sixty thousand; those of the Viceroy, commanded by Colonel Truxillo, did not exceed seven thousand. In the first action, as might have been reasonably anticipated, the royal troops were worsted; the native regulars, however, behaved with gallantry and determination, and it was easy to see that the undisciplined and badly armed mob of Indians, of which the Curate's army consisted almost entirely, would be unable to resist the attack of a force much larger than that which had been repulsed.

Hidalgo also became aware of this, and commenced a retreat, in which he was pursued by the Viceroy's troops, under the command of Don Felix Maria Calleja, and defeated on the 7th of November, at Aculco. The indefatigable priest, however, soon raised another force at the city of Guadalaxara, which was visited by his cruelties and extortions; but this was likewise overthrown by Calleja, and entirely dispersed on the 17th of January, 1811, at the bridge of Calderon, about seventy miles from the last mentioned city. Hidalgo, with some of his principal adherents, thence endeavoured to make their way to the United States; they were, however, betrayed, made prisoners, and tried at Chihuahua, where they were all shot.

These results convinced the leaders of the Mexican Insurgents, that no reliance could be placed on the forces which they could collect, in general engagements with disciplined troops, and that they could only hope to succeed by spreading their men over the country in detached masses; taking care, at the same time, to preserve their communications with each other open, so that they might, when expedient, be united into compact bodies. By this means the whole territory was occupied; the royal troops, as well as the inhabitants, were harrassed by bands of fierce marauders, agriculture was neglected, and the utmost misery every where prevailed. It was at this time that many persons rose into notice, who subsequently bore conspicuous parts in the history of the country; such as the priests Morelos and Matamoros,—the wild and chivalrous Indian, (or as same say mulatto) Guerrero, who began his career as a muleteer,-Rayon,—the Bravos, father and two sens, of whom one of the latter survives,-José Maria Fernandez, better known under the name of Guadeloupe Victoria, which his vanity induced him to assume,—and the cruci, beastly Father Torres.

In order to give consistency to the movements of these partisan leaders, a Junta was installed at Zitacuaro, in the province of Michoacan, under the protection of Morelos, who was considered as the chief of the revolutionists after the death of Hidalgo. This Junta, like those in other parts of America, professed to act in the name of King Ferdinand, and under this pretext endeavored to effect a compromise with the Viceroy; its propositions, however, were rejected, and the war continued to rage with fury in every part of this allicted land.

To describe minutely the events which followed would be inconsistent with the design of these articles; we have, however, considered it proper to show in what manner the fiery ball of civil war was set in motion in each section of Spanish America, and what were the feelings which actuated the opposing parties at the commencement of the contest. In our next number a succinct view will be presented of their subsequent history, and of their present actual political condition.

THE

UNITED STATES MAGAZINE

AND

DEMOCRATIC REVIEW.

Vol. 1. No. 3.

EXECUTIVE USURPATION.*

6

THE Whig Opposition of our day may be compared to that wonderful magician of the fiddle-stick, Paganini, with his single string. They have one perpetual note, on which, with every imaginable variety of voice and intonation, they are forever discoursing most eloquent music. Executive Usurpation is the incessant cry, in season and out of season, with which they pierce the vault profound',— in the hope, apparently, that clamorous perseverance may perchance accomplish what every other means have so long failed to effect. to destroy that foundation of popular confidence and affection upon which the present democratic Administration and its truly democratic policy are based.

It seems that this is still to be the key-note of Opposition, though a new variation is to be played upon it, with all the brilliant fantasias and capriccios so readily at the command of the fertile imaginations of Congressional choristers. Heretofore, the particular subject of denunciation has been the direct usurpation of legislative powers in the exercise of the executive functions, in defiance of Congress, by such measures as the removal of the deposites, and the free use of the veto power-diversified with interludes of alarming committees of investigation into the corrupt mysteries supposed to exist in the secret recesses of all the Executive departments. Now, the same general idea is to be brought forward, and kept before the public eye in another point of view, namely, the corrupt influence exercised upon Congress itself by the wiles and power, 'half seduction and half force', of this same Executive monster.

These efforts may very safely be left to share the same fate already so often and so emphatically adjudged, by the sagacity of public opinion, to those of a similar character, which have exhausted

* SPEECH of Mr. Cushing, of Massachusetts, on the Executive Powers, delivered in the House of Representatives, December 19th, 1837.-Washington. Gales & Seaton, 1838.

VOL. I. NO. III.

themselves in vain on former occasions. We have no fears they can ever prevail to shake the ascendency of the Democratic influence. We feel that to be established high on a rock of strength, resting on the intelligence and integrity of the broad mass of the American people, far above the reach of the frothy waves of declamation which may toss and roar about its base. If the first premise of our political creed, confidence in the people, is not utterly false and void, we can have no apprehension as to the issue. The Whigs may make a very good Opposition,-in which relation the diversity of elements of which they are composed has, perhaps, a beneficial effect in keeping the party in power in check on so many different points, but they can never succeed in a general contest for the possession of the administration of the Government. No party composed of such heterogeneous materials, and destitute of any other broad common principles, than the single bond of cohesion afforded by the common interest of Opposition, can ever expect to accomplish the overthrow of the great Democratic Party. The only means promising a hope of compassing that object-namely, a recourse to the unworthy attempt of the last contest, to carry the struggle into the House of Representatives, where intrigue might afford a chance denied by the fair action of the popular will-is never, we trust, destined to be again successful in this country.

It is not, then, from alarm at any possible danger to be apprehended from this quarter of attack, that we make the little libellus, whose title is prefixed to this article, the occasion of a review. But rather because the subject is not only in itself one of deep interest to the student of the philosophy of our system of government, but at the present period--the commencement of posterity with respect to the administration of the extraordinary man who lately filled the Executive office--it presents itself in a point of view of peculiar interest; and the glorious though stormy history of that administration exhibits certain remarkable features to some of which we wish to direct attention.

We concede the broad fact, that during the late administration the influence of the Executive branch of our complex system was developed to a degree of energy and power unknown to former administrations. We acknowledge a deep-seated distrust and dislike of excessive Executive influence-yet do we see nothing in this concession to sully one leaf of the crown of civic glory which that noble old chief has added to his well earned military laurels, nor to weaken the reverential gratitude due to his honored memory. This concession is not commonly made, from the habit into which our political controversies have run, of indiscriminate attack and denial; each side placing itself sometimes in the wrong from the sole cause of its unwillingness to concede any portion of the right to its antagonist. There is no reason, however, to shrink from a frank avow

al of it, -a sound and just cause has nothing to lose, but every thing to gain, in truth and candor. It may generally be taken for granted that in political parties, as in religious sects, there is some portion of truth, however overladen with error, in all,-which in fact constitutes the sole element of vitality that preserves the whole mass from immediate dissolution; and the most effectual way to destroy error is to pluck from it that support of partial truth, to which it always instinctively seeks to attach itself. There has, then, been some portion of truth-grossly, indeed, perverted and abused-in the charge of the extension of Executive power, which has of late years constituted the principal rallying cry of the Opposition. In this has consisted its strength and life,—far more effective than even the potent moneyed interests which have been involved in it. This has constituted its sole title to the venerable and noble old party name which it has so fraudulently usurped; and it has been only by the use of an eloquent sophistry and dazzling declamation on this theme, appealing to our natural distrust of monarchical powers, that it has been able to delude so large a portion of the public mind in some sections of the country, into an unnatural hostility to an administration, than which our country has not seen a more honest, sound and purely democratic. The only way of effectually disarming the Opposition of this its principal weapon of attack, is by meeting it openly and frankly.

The truth is, that the Executive branch of our system was intended by its authors to possess a high degree of powerful, substantive, and original energy, as one of the three co-ordinate departments into which the system was divided. All familiar with the ideas and views which were compromised in the formation of the Constitution, know, that a large proportion of the most influential members of the Convention were in favor of even a far more powerful Executive, than was the result of the profound deliberations of that wonderful body of men. And such as it was, it is well known to all, that the preponderant monarchical character of the Executive, as created and endowed with power by that instrument, was perhaps the objection the most strenuously urged against it by the party which opposed its adoption. It was opposed by a large portion of the Democratic party of that day, with whom popular liberty was the cardinal idea,from their distrust of the vast powers with which it armed the Federal centre, and especially its Executive; and its adoption was considered a triumph of the party which favored rather the strength and majesty of energetic, controlling, governmental power. This remark is true only in a broad sense, for-from its very character as a great compromise-it united in its behalf such a proportion of all parties and all views as to compose a large majority of the whole people; and many eminent democrats were most earnest in their exertions for its adoption. They knew the native might of the democratic element in every mixed system, however hampered with forms

and controlling checks. They knew that, with all the aristocratic and monarchical features which were conceded to satisfy the views of the different parties represented in the Convention, there was left a sufficient infusion of democracy to acquire, in the course of time, the ascendency and control over the whole; they knew that that would and must become the animating spirit of all its forms and checks, which it would conquer, in succession, to itself; and that thus all would contribute to its own energetic, though deliberate and wise efficiency. For this reason it was that they did not fear to entrust large and active powers to the Executive,-because they knew that those powers never could be abused to any very formidable extent, as they never could be efficient for any purpose, without the support of reason, wisdom, patriotism, and the approval of public opinion. They made the Executive powerful for good, and impotent for evil. Responsibility to public opinion was the all-sufficient check (independently of the co-ordinate departments of the Government) with which they paralysed its powers, whenever they should tend to a direction hostile to the democratic principles which must ever animate the mass of the people. And never, indeed, has a political system been contrived, in which, while an ample independent energy is infused into the Executive arm, it has been so admirably regulated by all the most effectual restraints upon the possible abuse of its powers. Those powers are certainly vast. In some respects, we confess, the remark is not destitute of truth, which has been made by foreigners, that they are greater than those possessed by the Executive in the constitutional monarchy of England,-though on the whole, that assertion is immeasurably wide of the fact. The correct version of it is, that in all subjects of personal power, influence and splendorall that can tempt or gratify a corrupt ambition—our Executive is comparatively nothing; while, in his proper sphere of public duty, as the representative and agent of the People, to carry fully and energetically into effect their will, the Law, his executive power is not inferior, either in the the theory or the practical operation, to that of the constitutional monarch of Europe,-and this is the highest culogium that can be pronounced upon the admirable wisdom that organized the system.

There can be no doubt that it was a primary idea with the framers of the Constitution, to preserve widely and inviolably distinct the three departments of the Government, the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial,-excepting only the points of mutual contact specifically prescribed, to which, as exceptions to a general rule, the strictest construction is to be applied. Without examining here the relations between the Executive and the Judiciary, we have now in view chiefly those subsisting between the former and the Legislature. The distribution of power is unquestionably one of the essential principles on which, in connection with the kindred one of