CHAPTER IV.

OPPOSITION TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF MR. ADAMS.

79. The views which we have just exhibited of the powers of the General Government in relation to the American System, prevailed in the Northern, Middle, and Western States, and had many friends in the South; even in those States, which, generally, repudiated them. The sternest adversaries of the administration were most active in maintaining them; for, never in a state of peace, since the commencement of the Government, did the appropriations so far exceed the estimates of the treasury, as in 1828; when the Jackson party controlled both Houses of Congress. Being distinctly avowed as the policy of the new administration, it was not possible for the disappointed to take a hostile attitude against it; and there was great difficulty in finding other ground upon which malcontents could stand.

80. But who were the malcontents? All the States north of New Jersey, New York included, had voted in their electoral colleges for Mr. Adams, and approved the principles of his administration. New Jersey was so nearly divided between him and General Jackson, that a few hundred votes, only, had given her suffrages to the latter. Delaware had given Mr. Adams one vote and Mr. Crawford two; but her second choice was unquestionably Mr. Adams, as was that of Virginia. Mr. Adams, then, should have had, upon ordinary principles, the support of ten States, and portions of other States; making together a majority of the people; since he pursued, precisely, the measures which the candidate selected by any one of such ten States would have pursued. And such appeared to be the disposition of the Representatives from these States in Congress during the session of 1825-6.

81. But the policy of Mr. Adanis, though approved by the party for the country, could create no party for himself. Official aspirants could not consistently with their hopes sustain him. The prospect before them was too oppressive, for mercurial spirits, which longed to rise above the odious level of private life, and the pains of honest industry and virtuous economy. Their horrors could be known only to the idle and

ambitious; the industrious and thriving citizen cannot conceive them. Yet they were sufficient, not only to destroy old party forms, but to congregate the elements of a new party, vivified solely by the selfish principle of individual aggrandizement. The original friends of General Jackson, were, of course, irreconcilable. The friends of Mr. Crawford could not endure the prospective exclusion from place for eight years: nay, the very men who had borne Mr. Adams on their shoulders to the chair of State were impatient of the condition his patriotic policy imposed upon them. 82. But on what pretence could the two latter parties raise, or fly to, a hostile banner? The policy of Mr. Adams upon all important subjects, was their own. Portions of these parties from the South, might object to his construction of the Constitution in favour of the American System; but the West, the Central, and the Northern, States, had, and still cherished, such construction as indispensable to national prosperity. Other portions of the South might find reason to resist him, in his determination to give preference to the treaties and laws of the United States, over the ordinances of individual States, in relation to Indian interests; but the States which believed the national faith to be sacred, when pledged to these tribes, and the more sacred, on account of their feebleness, could not condemn the virtuous man, who, in the administration of justice, felt, that a superadded obligation, even higher than that of human authority, compelled him to enforce the laws and fulfil the duties of the nation. On what ground then, could all parties hostile to the adinin istration meet? Happily it was discovered, that the employment of publishing the laws had been transferred, in some ten or fifteen cases, from some persons to others, by the Secretary of State. Instantly, the cry of corruption of the press was raised. The Secretary was charged with selecting papers for political and personal objects; and a resolution was offered in the House of Representatives requiring him to communicate the changes which had been made and the reasons therefor.

83. A virtuous horror and indignation instantly seized upon the opponents of the administration, and an hour a day, for some weeks, was spent in pouring out the vials of wrath upon the heads of the President and Secretary. Unfortu nately, these estimable sentiments excluded, from the bosoms they possessed, the disposition to inquire whether the persons who had been dismissed from service had not merited their

dismissal, by neglect, or by availing themselves of the circulation the publication of the laws gave to their journals, to calumniate the administration. Either circumstance has been received in justification of the dismissal of a printer; but we are free to confess, that we do not consider the latter an adequate cause. The printer is employed to publish the laws. If he fulfil his contract in relation to his employment, his employer has no right to inquire into his conduct on other subjects; and if he assume to judge and punish it, he is guilty of oppression. But supposing such offence to have been committed, compared with the enormities of this character perpetrated by the succeeding administration, it was very venial.

84. The debate upon the proposed call on the Secretary, afforded an opportunity to the enemies of the administration, from every part of the Union, and from every section of party, to vent the bile which had been long forming. Inconsiderable as the subject truly was, it gave occasion for much heat, and formal invitations to some friends of the Secretary of State, to maintain his defence in arms. One invitation was cordially accepted; but the challenger, denied the weapons he preferred, declined the combat. Another was indignantly rejected by the sound and manly sense of the challenged. The inquiry was dropped-the House discovering that it had no jurisdiction of the case.

85. During the sessions of 1826-7, 1827-8, other subjects were got up for party action, which occupied, uselessly, much of the time and attention of Congress. Propositions for altering the Constitution were numerous; some of which, notwithstanding the motive, might, if changes were lightly admissible, be improvements to that instrument. They certainly were not required by any abuse of constitutional power, nor by any injury which the nation had suffered; but they gave further occasion to villify the administration. Inquiry was made into the public expenditures for many past years; and the new administration was charged with whatever could be darkly coloured in the conduct of its predecessors.

86. The history of the pretended effort for retrenchment, is one of the most disgusting in our annals. A committee on retrenchment, was appointed in the House of Representatives, to ferret out abuses; consisting of Messrs. Hamilton, Ingham, Rives, Wickliffe, Cambrelleng, (majority) Sergeant and Everett, (minority.) The report of the majority proposed: 1. The reduction of the number and salaries of the

clerks in the public offices: 2. A change in the character of some diplomatic agents, substituting Charges d'Affaires, for Ministers, to Colombia and Spain, and the curtailment of diplomatic expenses: 3. Diminution of the number of newspapers taken at the Departments: and 4, and lastly, a reduction of the expenses of public printing generally.

When power came into the hands of the Jackson` party, was any of these objects effected? Not one. The number of clerks was increased and more required. Diplomatic expenses were augmented, by outfits and infits, consequent upon the recall of some half dozen Ministers, to make room for favourites taken from the halls of Congress, and from the most influential adversaries of the preceding administration; among whom, Mr. Rives, a member of the Retrenchment Committee, was one. The Press was prostituted by the most profuse expenditure of the public treasure upon it. So soon as the election of General Jackson was proclaimed, the conductors of the public journals flocked from Kentucky, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and from every State in New England, to the seat of government. They came not in quest of paltry advertising, worth some eighty or one hundred dollars the year, although this they obtained; but to demand the offices of the country, as the spoils of the victory, which they obtained, also, as the reward of services rendered, or to be rendered, in their vocation. A government press was thus established and maintained in every part of the country. In the language of Mr. Chilton, the sincere but disappointed mover of reform, more than one hundred thousand dollars were spent in arguing the question in its various ramifications, but not one dollar was saved to the nation. The utmost reduction in the public printing was the curtailment of the printed documents of Congress of their title pages.

87. In this unholy conflict, a Chief Magistrate of uncommon simplicity of life and purity of character, was denounced as the imitator of oriental pomp, and the profligate corrupter of youth.-As able, faithful and patriotic a cabinet as has existed since the administration of Washington, abler than any which has followed, was condemned as weak, inefficient and corrupt.-An administration which, in three years, had applied thirty-three millions to the payment of the public debt, and had expended ten or twelve more in objects of public utility, was proclaimed profuse and extravagant,-an administration which came into power avowedly on the princi

ple of seeking out the best talents of the country for offices of trust and honour, and which, if it erred, erred in neglecting its friends, was charged with proscribing and persecuting its opponents.

88. Against such an administration the lust of office continued its powerful workings. Conclaves of distinguished members of Congress were holden, weekly, duly organized with President and Secretary, where the measures of the Government, requiring legislative action, were discussed and settled with the view of embarrassing the administration. A powerful party was thus, gradually, formed, involving a majority of the Senate. Its existence and character were first developed on the first of March, 1827, by the vote of the Senate on the choice of a printer. The nature of this vote is not a matter of inference merely. It is explained by the testimony of one who was a party to it, and avowed it to be a party vote. The editors of the National Intelligencer had been friendly to the election of Mr. Crawford, but had honestly pledged themselves to judge the new administration by its acts; finding these to be consistent with the universally and long established principles of the Republican party, they as honestly gave the administration their support. Many unsuccessful efforts were made to seduce them from their course; and their resistance was punished by the loss of the printing of the Senate. Thus, whilst the enemies of the administration were in the House of Representatives rebuking the Secretary of State, for tampering with the press, they were, in the Senate, prostituting their official patronage to the reprobated object.

89. The design of this vote is fully developed. He who had the greatest power in preparing it, distinctly avowed the Inotive; and as that forms an important feature in the political character of the individual, we advert to it with much interest.

"He had long been of opinion," he said, "that the public interest might be promoted, the condition of the Press, as well here as throughout the country improved, and respect for the Senate, and economy in the publication of the proceedings of the Senate, better secured, by a judicious revision of the laws relating to the public printing at large. At a more convenient season he hoped the subject would be revised; and he promised himself the best results from such revision, as the nature of the subject was susceptible of."

We have said, that, this is a distinct avowal of the senti