THE

NEW-ENGLAND MAGAZINE.

NOVEMBER, 1834.

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSES OF THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS.

We have prefixed to this article the title of one of the most esteemed among the writings of Edmund Burke, which is remarkable for its perfect adaptation, in many particulars, to our country at the present time; and we purpose to lay before our readers some of its pertinent passages, with such commentary as they may require and suggest; premising only, that the system of administration, against which Burke aimed this piece, is the same, which drew upon itself the ire, and called into action the pen, of the terse and vigorous Junius.

We begin with an extract disclosing the general text of the essay :"It is the nature of despotism to abhor power held by any means but its own momentary pleasure; and to annihilate all intermediate situations between boundless strength on its own part, and total debility on the part of the people. To get rid of all this intermediate and independent importance, and to secure to the court the unlimited and uncontroled use of its own vast influence, under the sole direction of its own private favor, has for some years past been the great object of policy. If this were compassed, the influence of the crown must of course produce all the effects, which the most sanguine partisans of the court could possibly desire. Government might then be carried on without any concurrence on the part of the people."

Here is the very scheme of the party now in power, described in just such language as the times demand :-To secure to the court (Executive) the unlimited and uncontroled uses of its own vast influence, under the sole direction of its own private favor; so as, in the usual temper of despotism, to hold power only by its own pleasure, and to level down all the degrees and checks between boundless strength on its own part, and helpless debility on the part of the people. But how was this end to be reached?

"The first part of the reformed plan was to draw a line which should separate the court from the ministry. By this operation, two systems of administra

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tion were to be formed; one which should be in the real secret and confidence; the other merely ostensible, to perform the official and executory duties of government. The latter alone were to be responsible; whilst the real advisers, who enjoyed all the power, were effectually removed from all the danger.

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Secondly, a party under these leaders was to be formed in favor of the court against the ministry: this party was to have a large share in the emoluments of 44

VOL. VII.

government, and to hold it totally separate from, and independent of, ostensible administration.

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"The third point, and that on which the success of the whole scheme ultimately depended, was to bring parliament to an acquiescence in this project. Parliament was therefore to be taught by degrees a total indifference to the persons, rank, influence, abilities, connexions, and character of the ministers of the crown. By means of a discipline of which I shall say more hereafter, that body was to be habituated to the most opposite interests, and the most discordant politics. Members of parliament were to be hardened into an insensibility to pride as well as to duty. Thus parliament was to look on, as if perfectly unconcerned, while a cabal of the closet and back-stairs was substituted in the place of a national administration. With such a degree of acquiescence, any measure of any court might well be deemed thoroughly secure. The capital objects, and by much the most flattering characteristics of arbitrary power, would be obtained. Every thing would be drawn from its holdings in the country to the personal favor and inclination of the prince. This favor would be the sole introduction to power, and the only tenure by which it was to be held; so that no person looking towards another, and all looking towards the court, it was impossible but that the motive, which solely influenced every man's hopes, must come in time to govern every man's conduct; till at last the servility became universal, in spite of the dead letter of any laws or institutions whatsoever."

Here we have the secret springs of all the public mischief exposed to the eye. First,-two cabinets were to be formed, one composed of the ostensible ministers, and the other of a back-stairs cabal; secondly, a party attached to the back-stairs cabinet, and hostile or indifferent to the responsible heads of department, was to be organized and cemented together by official bribes and public jobs; and, thirdly, Congress was to be corrupted, or bullied into taking its cue from the back-stairs court of the White House. To set these new springs in action, it was necessary for the conspirators to make many alterations in political arrangement.

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"In the first place, they proceeded gradually, but not slowly, to destroy every thing of strength, which did not derive its principal nourishment from the immediate pleasure of the court. The greatest weight of popular opinion and partyconnexion were then with and Neither of these held their importance by the new tenure of the court; they were not, therefore, thought to be so proper as others for the services which were required by that tenure. was first attacked. Not satisfied with removing him from power, they endeavored, by various artifices, to ruin his character. The great ruling principle of the cabal, and that which animated and harmonized all their proceedings, how various soever they may have been, was to signify to the world, that the court would proceed upon its own proper forces only; and that the pretence of bringing any other into it was an affront to it, and not a support. Therefore, when the chiefs were removed, in order to go to the root, the whole party was put under a proscription, so general and severe, as to take their hard-earned bread from the lowest officers, in a manner which had never been known before, even in general revolutions. Thus, for the time, were pulled down the two only securities for the importance of the people: power arising from popularity, and power arising from connexion."

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Is not this exact? We leave it to our readers to supply the blanks according to their own judgment: they can be at no loss to discern the true analogy. This administration has, indeed, labored diligently to pull down the only securities for the importance of the people. But such a change could not be made without a mighty shock of the public system; and,

"To reconcile the minds of the people to all these movements, principles correspondent to them had been preached up with great zeal. Every one must remember that the cabal set out with the most astonishing prudery, both moral and political. Those who, in a few months after, soused over head and ears into the

deepest and dirtiest pits of corruption, cried out violently against the indirect practices in the electing and managing of parliaments, which had formerly prevailed. This marvelous abhorrence, which the court had suddenly taken to all influences, was not only circulated in conversation throughout the kingdom, but pompously announced to the public, with many other extraordinary things.

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"To recommend this system to the people, a perspective view of the court, gorgeously painted, and finely illuminated from within, was exhibited to the gaping multitude. Party was to be totally done away, with all its evil works. Corruption was to be cast down from court, as Até was from heaven. Power was thenceforward to be the chosen residence of public spirit; and no one was to be supposed under any sinister influence, except those who had the misfortune to be in disgrace at court, which was to stand in lieu of all vices and all corruptions. A scheme of perfection, to be realized in a monarchy, far beyond the visionary republic of Plato. The whole scenery was exactly disposed to captivate those good souls, whose credulous morality is so invaluable a treasure to crafty politicians. Indeed, there was wherewithal to charm every body, except those few, who are not much pleased with professions of supernatural virtue, who know of what stuff such professions are made,-for what purposes they are designed, and in what they are sure constantly to end."

Is it possible to depict more accurately, to describe with more cutting truth, the hypocritical pretensions of purity and reform, which General Jackson paraded in advance of himself, at all times, before he became President, and the gross and abominable corruptions, of which those extravagant professions were the harbinger?" Those who, in a few months after, soused over head and ears into the deepest and dirtiest pits of corruption, cried out violently against the indirect practices in the electing and managing of parliaments, which had formerly prevailed!" How emphatically does this represent General Jackson's twaddle about appointing members of Congress to office, and interfering with the freedom of elections! "And party was to be done away, with all its evil works!" So General Jackson exhorted Mr. Munroe. 66 Corruption was to be cast down from court!" Ay, there was to be "no more cakes and ale." Retrenchment and reform were legibly inscribed upon the list of executive duties; and we see the moral of it in the extra twenty millions of public money, which, although they have utterly "vanished,"

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As the baseless fabric of a vision;

Yet, unlike that, have left "a rack behind."

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Substituting, in the next extract, the words "members of Congress" for 66 peers and commons," and it truly represents the obliquity of all the Jackson slander of the opposition Senators and Representatives. "One of the principal topics which was then, and has been since, much employed by that political school, is an affectual terror of the growth of an aristocratic power, prejudicial to the rights of the crown and the balance of the constitution. It is true, that the peers have a great influence in every part of the public concerns. If any particular peers, by their uniform, upright, constitutional conduct, by their public and private virtues, have acquired an influence in the country, the people, on whose favor that influence depends, and from whom it arose, will never be duped into an opinion, that such greatness in a peer is the despotism of the aristocracy, when they know and feel it to be the effect and pledge of their own importance. He is but a poor observer, who has not seen that the generality of peers, far from supporting themselves in a state of independent greatness, are but too apt to fall into an oblivion of their proper dignity, and to run headlong into an abject servitude. Would to God it were true, that the fault of our peers were too much spirit! It is worthy of some observation, that these gentlemen, so jealous of aristocracy, make no complaints of the powers of those peers, neither few nor inconsiderable, who are always in the train of a court and whose whole weight must be considered as a

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portion of the settled influence of the crown. This is all safe and right; but if some peers,-I am very sorry they are not as many as they ought to be,-set themselves, in the great concerns of peers and commons, against a back-stairs influence and clandestine government, then the alarm begins; then the constitution is in danger of being forced into an aristocracy.”

We have alluded, already, to the system of a double cabinet, which distinguishes the Administration. It is truly set forth in the following passage:

"All sorts of parties, by this means, have been brought into administration, from whence few have had the good fortune to escape without disgrace; none at all without considerable losses. In the beginning of each arrangement, no professions of confidence and support are wanting, to induce the leading men to engage. But while the ministers of the day appear in all the pomp and pride of power, while they have all their canvas spread out to the wind, and every sail filled with the fair and prosperous gale of royal favor, in a short time they find, they know not how, a current, which sets directly against them; which prevents all progress, and even drives them backwards. They grow ashamed and mortified in a situation, which, by its vicinity to power, only serves to remind them the more strongly of their own insignificance. They are obliged either to execute the orders of their inferiors, or to see themselves opposed by the natural instruments of their office. With the loss of their dignity, they lose their temper. In their turn they grow troublesome to the cabal, which, whether it supports or opposes, equally disgraces and equally betrays them. It is found necessary to get rid of the heads of administration; but it is of the heads only."

Would it not seem as if these expressions had been conceived and written in view of the fate of Messrs. Ingham, Branch, and Berrien ; and especially that of Mr. Duane? Hear what Mr. Duane himself says, and compare the two statements. "Mr. Reuben M. Whitney called upon me, at my lodgings, at the desire, as he said, of the President, to make known to me what had been done, and what was contemplated, in relation to the United States Bank. * * The communication thus made to me created surprise and mortification. I was surprised at the position of affairs which it revealed, and mortified at the low estimate which had been formed of the independence of my character. * I had heard rumors of the existence of an influence at Washington, unknown to the Constitution. The conviction that such influence existed, at least in relation to the matters then pressed upon me, was irresistible. I knew that four of the six members of the Cabinet, before I became a member of it, had been opposed to any present action in relation to the deposites; and I also knew that four of the six members of the existing cabinet entertained the same views. I felt satisfied, not only that the President was not in the hands of his constitutional advisers, but that their advice was successfully resisted by persons, whose views I considered at variance with the public interest and the President's fame." Surely, Mr. Duane and Burke are speaking with reference to the same facts and the same policy.

But let us examine the inner constitution of the cabal, camarilla, kitchen-cabinet, or whatever it may be, which Burke and Mr. Duane had in their mind's eye.

"That this body may be enabled to compass all the ends of its institution, its members are scarcely ever to aim at the high and responsible offices of the state. They are distributed with art and judgement through all the secondary, but efficient, departments of office, ** so as on one hand to occupy all the avenues to the throne, and on the other to forward or frustrate the execution of any measure, according to their own interests."

Just the position of William B. Lewis, Amos Kendall, and the rest of the cabal.

"With the credit and support which they are known to have, though for the greater part in places which are only a genteel excuse for salary, they possess all the influence of the highest posts; and they dictate publicly in almost every thing, even with a parade of superiority. Whenever they dissent, as it often happens, from these nominal leaders, the trained part of the Senate, instinctively in the secret, is sure to follow them; provided the leaders, sensible of their situation, do not of themselves recede in time from their most declared opinions."

We think no member of Congress, or other person, familiar with affairs at Washington, can fail being struck with the faithfulness of this representation. In all the proceedings upon the bank, it was more especially apparent; and the insolence of the cabal, its "parade of superiority," its disposition to "dictate publicly in every thing," and the instinct of the "trained" members of Congress, were all manifest together on occasion of the choice of a Speaker of the House last winter in place of Mr. Stevenson.

"It will not be conceivable to any one who has not seen it, what pleasure is taken by the cabal in rendering these heads of office thoroughly contemptible and ridiculous. And when they are become so, they have then the best chance of being supported."

Yes Mr. Cass is a good sort of a man who cannot take a hint ; Mr. Woodbury is "yes and no;" Mr. Branch, Mr. Ingham, Mr. Berrien, Mr. Duane, Mr. McLane, are thrust out of place with various degrees of indignity; Mr. Barry alone, willing to be made "thoroughly contemptible and ridiculous," is "well supported." Is it not literally true?

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"The members of the court-faction are fully indemnified for not holding places on the slippery heights of the kingdom, not only by the lead in all affairs, but also by the perfect security in which they enjoy less conspicuous, but very advantageous situations. Whilst the first and most respectable persons in the kingdom are tossed about like tennis-balls, the sport of a blind and insolent caprice, no minister dares even to cast an oblique glance at the lowest of their body. If any attempt be made upon one of this corps, immediately he flies to sanctuary. Conscious of their independence, they bear themselves with a lofty air to the exterior ministers. Like janissaries, they derive a kind of freedom from the very condition of their servitude. They may act just as they please; provided they are true to the great ruling principle of their institutions; enjoying at once all the spirited pleasure of independence and all the gross lucre and fat emoluments of servitude. The whole system, comprehending the exterior and interior administrations, is commonly called, in the technical language of the court, double cabinet."

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We may add, that General Jackson himself has borne testimony to the existence of the cabal or camarilla behind the throne; since, on a well-known occasion, he spoke of the heads of department, the only cabinet known to the laws, as his cabinet proper; on which account the people have very aptly styled the other cabinet, his cabinet improper. Some are accustomed to call it the kitchen-cabinet, we suppose, by way of indicating its meanness. However, as one of the organs of the administration in the Senate, Mr. Ether Shepley of Maine, has expressly vindicated and justified the kitchen, we take this last to be, at present, on the whole, the authorized, and, as it were, classical denomination of the interior and improper cabinet.