THAT the Whigs have gained the election, not by management or corruption, but by the effect of free discussion and of the moral sentiment and enthusiasm of the people; aided by a conviction that the interests not only of the manufacturing classes, but of all who live by honest industry, either of the hand or head, required a change of policy; that it is a victory not of one section of the country, or of one class or interest over another, but of an equalized majority; that it was achieved in the face of an executive faction, proposing, as party watchwords, the glory of our arms, "the extension of our empire," "the freedom of trade," "democracy," and other great sayings, fine catch-words in the mouths of demagogues; how and by what causes this has come about-by the operation of what sentiments, motives and convictions, is indeed an inquiry well worth the attention of every serious man, of every lover of freedom, and (for a warning sign,) of every opposer of the great course of liberty.

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It will not, perhaps, be regarded as a speech of mere presumption, or of affected wisdom, to say that this remarkable victory must be attributed first to the

PUBLIC SPIRIT, the sincere patriotism of the WHIGS-exhibited in their opposition to the grounds of the war, and their advocacy of a just system of national economy and policy; and, no less, to the character of their candidates, in whom appeared those traits most admired by a free people, the traits of honor, of truth and of courage, and the wisdom of moderation, of economy and of prudence. By the joint power of their principles, their measures and their men, together indicating a public spirit agreeable to the bias and enthusiasm of modern and Christian freedom, the Whig party have achieved this great and singular victory.

A people of more than eighteen millions, of a temper and courage unsurpassed, richer than the wealthiest monarchy of the old world, more laborious and more enterprising than any; a nation founded like Rome by refugees, but not like Rome by robbers and assassins, composed of exiles from all lands in search of liberty and lawful happiness; such a people, self-educated, self-governed; such a people, without agitation or civil tumult, have ejected from their seats, under the forms of their constitution, a set of rulers whose policy it has been to misemploy that noble temper and manly

to depress and deny its natural protection to that unequalled industry and enterprise; to imitate the policy of a nation founded by robbers and assassins, and to convert the exiles of freedom from all lands into a community of land pirates.

Those, on the other hand, who have been chosen in their places, are men who, with the greatest distrust in their own abilities, have abjured all speculations of their own; impressed with a wise and tempered respect for the wisdom of our ancestors, they have proposed to themselves, as guides of conduct, the maxims and the principles of those of their predecessors, by whose prudent care this great and flourishing empire has grown to its present height of glory.

When, with a manly and becoming modesty, the candidate professed himself unequal to the task of governing a great nation, and suggested that the people should be permitted, as their fathers had been, to legislate for themselves, our ears, accustomed so long to the bragging accents of demagogues, would hardly receive the sounds, and we seemed only to be listening to some new kind of deception, so totally had the style of heroism and forbearance passed out of our remembrance. Our faith in the honesty of rulers had languished by the absence of examples, and the idea of power had become separated and almost naturally opposed to that of honesty. Enough, however, was left, either of the tradition, or of the instinct, of greatness, to move the hearts of the people.

Nor was that true ambition, which preferred the choice of a people to the choice of a party, less a problem to us than the modesty that would not assume a function which it could not justly use; we mistook it for the low ambition of the intriguer, who rides into power on the back of confusion. Accustomed so long to disbelieve and to distrust, we had no ears for truth; our imaginations, occupied so long with rumors of plots and deceptions, would not receive a clear unbroken image of the truth. It was too simple and dignified; the cry was, "well acted," not "well done." We waited to observe the changes, the inconsistencies, the vacillations, the anxiety, but they did not ap

But who were they that elected honesty and consistency in place of falsehood and deceit? The Whigs; they saw it first, and preferred it.

Honor, says Montesquieu, is the principle of monarchies, virtue that of republics; but that is an imperfect distinction; for if virtue be in the people, honor will be in the rulers. A republic, therefore, may lay claim to both these principles, of which monarchy asks but one.

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During the reigns of the Kings of Spain, of the Austrian family, whenever they were at a loss in the Spanish councils it was common for their statesmen to say, that they ought to consult the genius of Philip the Second." With our statesmen, the genius of Washington presides over sincere and difficult deliberations; the genius of the Spanish conqueror misled and deceived, has almost destroyed, his nation; but the genius of Washington has so far saved and sustained ours. But who, of all that have come after him, have so nearly, and with such a close communion of spirit, taken counsel from our great founder and guide, as the candidate who, modestly professed his unwillingness to attempt to do what the Congress alone should do, and who goes into office with but two pledges, the oath to maintain, and the promise not to usurp, the powers of the Constitution?

With a President elected upon grounds so important to the people, and so respectable to himself, let us now inquire with what views of policy and principles of legislation, the party who have elected him comes into power; deducing these from a survey of their past conduct and professions.

They have elected a candidate who would give no pledges; because, by giving them, he would be compelled, in carrying them into effect, to usurp the powers of legislation, to exercise a corrupting patronage, and to put his will and opinion, adopted or conceived, in place of that of the representatives and judges of the people.

If the election be a test of their principles, the first and most characteristic of these must be, that Congress, and not the Executive, shall exercise the legislative

power, in agreement with the Constitu- | tion; which appoints a House of Representatives, to express the opinion and the policy of the people, and a Senate, to stand for the interests and rights of the governments, or States. The success of the election shows, that the majority of the nation are resolved to maintain their old law, in its original purity, and will not allow legislation to proceed from a power appointed only to execute laws. Despotism, whatever be its name or shape, is one and the same thing with the union of executive, legislative, and judicial power in one man, or in one body of men. An executive forbidding laws, or suggesting them with authority, and at the same time, influencing their construction in the courts, is a despotic executive; be it a king, a representative body, an aristocracy, a committee of public safety, or a dictator. This, then, as proved by the late election, is the first doctrine of the Whigs, that the President shall not assume the functions of a legislator, nor affect to carry out the measures of his party. If the party which elected him prevails in Congress, in the natural and constitutional order of events, he shall execute their laws if the other party prevail, he shall execute theirs; provided, in either case, they have not violated some direct and obvious provision of the Constitution; nor have not hurried through, with an indecent haste, a question that required time and deliberation.

The Whigs, by their late successes, have therefore, not only vindicated the Constitution, and established one of its most important and democratic features on a new foundation, namely, that of the approbation of the majority; whereas, before it was not known how far the spirit of the nation might not incline toward a despotic and monarchic construction of the laws;-but they have changed the character of the great election, and put it on a new footing. It will never again be necessary for a party to select a candidate for his skill in political intrigue, and his art of managing Congress and the people. The reasons of a party choice must now be found in the superior virtue of the candidate, in his dignity, his firmness, his weight of character, his personal and moral attributes; hereafter, we are to in

quire not of the political skill, the finesse, the favor, the adroitness, the probable bias, or the theoretic views of our candidate, but only of his fame, his courage, his eminence of character, and his fitness to moderate in the affairs of a great and peaceful empire. We are to seek henceforth, for the qualities of an Alfred, a Franklin, a Madison, and not for those of a Walpole, a Van Buren, or a Peel. Schemers, theorists, and politicians of two faces, are struck from the list, by this election. The people have recovered their courage and their self-respect; and are resolved from this time forth to make their own laws, by their own agents, under the regular forms of their old government.

So much for the first principle and corner-stone of the Whig platform, which was not made over-night, by a circle of wire-pullers, heated with a heavy supper and flowing cups, and published in a morning, like the daily news, or the face of a sycophant, modelled to the time; but rather, by the simultaneous movement of millions, over the face of the continent.

The present generation, who had come into active life within the last age, under the influences of the Jackson dynasty, could not at first understand the merit of this renunciation. They insisted upon knowing the private and speculative opinions of the candidate, as, whether he believed in such or such a tariff, permitted by some President of the Dynasty,-whether he would, if elected, extend his royal favor to those humble and meritorious citizens who live by the labor of their hands, and would permit his Congress, if they desired, or force them if they did not desire, to pass laws against English and French interferences. The candidate replied merely, by reiterating the doctrine of the old Whigs, that the opinions of a President could not, in any case, have the force of laws, either to forbid or to compel the adoption of particular measures; and that they were consequently "of no importance to be known to the people." Still, numbers were dissatisfied. Those who looked upon government as merely a board of commissioners for the suppression of nuisances, and who wished to convert the White House into an office of agency for Philanthropic Associations, did not approve of