Part 27 (1/2)

The principles embraced by the ade, are evidently hostile to the whole systerounds_ Here, then, is _one_ great power struck at once out of the Constitution, and one great end of its adoption defeated And while this power is thus struck out of the Constitution, it is clear that it exists nowhere else, since the Constitution expressly takes it away froe denies the constitutional power of creating or continuing such an institution as our whole experience has approved, fora sound, uniform, national currency, and for the safe collection of revenue Here is _another_ power, long used, and now lopped off And _this_ power, too, thus lopped off from the Constitution, is evidently not within the power of any of the individual States No State can maintain a national currency; no State institution can render to the revenue the services performed by a national institution

The principles of the administration are hostile to internal improvements Here is another power, heretofore exercised in many instances, now denied The administration denies the power, except with qualifications which cast an air of ridicule over the whole subject; being founded on such distinctions as between salt water and fresh water, places above custom-houses and places below, and others equally extraordinary

Now, Sir, in all these respects, as well as in others, I think the principles of the administration are at ith the true principles of the Constitution; and that, by the zeal and industry which it exerts to support its own principles, it does daily weaken the Constitution, and does put in doubt its long continuance The inroad of to-day opens the way for an easier inroad to-morrow When any one essential part is rent away, or, what is nearer the truth, when many essential parts are rent aho is there to tell us _how long any other part is to reularly paradoxical We have an administration opposed to the Constitution; we have an opposition which is the overn to the very government which it administers powers that have been exercised for forty years; it denies the protective power, the bank power, and the power of internal iislature are all resisted by it These, strange as it may seem, depend on the _opposition_ for support We have, in truth, an opposition, without which it would be difficult for the governress present, (and I am happy to see overnment, if all the ress For myself, I declare my own conviction that its continuance would probably be very short Take away the opposition froress, and let us see ould probably be done, the first session

The TARIFF would be entirely _repealed_ Every enact protection by duties as its main object would be struck fro done Every work of internal improvement would be stopped This would follow, as o down, and a _treasury ency_ would take its place The Judiciary Act of 1789 would be repealed, so that the Supreme Court should exercise no power of revision over State decisions And ould resist the doctrines of NULLIFICATION? Look, Sir, to the votes of Congress for the last three years, and you will see that each of these things would, in all human probability, take place at the next session, if the opposition were to be withdrawn The Constitution is threatened, therefore, imminently threatened, by the very fact that those intrusted with its administration are hostile to its essential powers

But, Sir, in er threatens the Constitution and the government; and that is from the attempt _to extend the power of the executive at the expense of all the other branches of the government, and of the people themselves_ Whatever accustomed power is denied to the Constitution, whatever accustoress, or to the judiciary, _none is denied to the executive_ Here there is no retrenchment; here no apprehension is felt for the liberties of the people; here it is not thought necessary to erect barriers against corruption

I begin, Sir, with the subject of renal instances, as I think, of the atte measure, a cardinal point, in the course of the administration It has proceeded, from the first, on a settled proscription for political opinions; and this system it has carried into operation to the full extent of its ability The President has not only filled all vacancies with his own friends, generally those uished as personal partisans, but he has turned out political opponents, and thus created vacancies, in order that he ht fill them with his own friends I think the number of removals and appointments is said to be _two thousand_ While the ad to circu to other branches, it has thus seized into its own hands a patronage , an authority overmost tyrannical and odious, and a power to punish free ether intolerable

You will remember, Sir, that the Constitution says not one word about the President's power of removal from office It is a power raised entirely by construction It is a constructive power, introduced at first to meet cases of extreme public necessity It has now beco for no necessity, requiring no exigency for its exercise; to be employed at all times, without control, without question, without responsibility When the question of the President's power of reued for it liht arise, in which it would be _absolutely necessary_ to remove an officer before the Senate could be asseht abscond; and from these and other supposable cases, it was said, the public service ht materially suffer if the President could not remove the incumbent And it was further said, that there was little or no danger of the abuse of the power for party or personal objects No President, it was thought, would ever coht the power ought to exist, and to be exercised in cases of high necessity, declared, nevertheless, that if a President should resort to the pohen not required by any public exigency, and merely for personal objects, _he would deserve to be impeached_ By a very s vote of the Vice-President,--Congress decided in favor of the existence of the power of re the power in a case of clear and absolute necessity, and denying its existence everywhere else

Mr President, we should recollect that this question was discussed, and thus decided, when Washi+ngton was in the executive chair Men knew that in his hands the poould not be abused; nor did they conceive it possible that any of his successors could so far depart froht exa that abuse to its ute the essential character of the executive frouardian and executor of the laws into that of the chief dispenser of party rewards Three or four instances of reovernment At the commencement of Mr Jefferson's ad ht it expedient to give reasons to the people, in a public paper, for even the limited extent to which he had exercised the power He rested his justification on particular circurounds; which, whether substantial or not, showed, at least, that he did not regard the power of removal as an ordinary power, still less as a mere arbitrary one, to be used as he pleased, for whatever ends he pleased, and without responsibility As far as I remember, Sir, after the early part of Mr Jefferson's administration, hardly an instance occurred for near thirty years If there were any instances, they were few But at the commencement of the present administration, the precedent of these previous cases was seized on, and a _systeovernment_, a well-considered schee of office, and this patronage to be created by general removal, was adopted, and has been carried into full operation Indeed, before General Jackson's inauguration, the party put the system into practice In the last session of Mr Adams's administration, the friends of General Jackson constituted a majority in the Senate; and nominations, made by Mr Adams to fill vacancies which had occurred in the ordinary ere postponed, by this majority, beyond the 3d of March, _for the purpose, openly avowed, of giving the noe of the Suprenitude, were thus disposed of

And what did itness, Sir, when the administration actually commenced, in the full exercise of its authority? One universal sweep, one undistinguishi+ng blow, levelled against all ere not of the successful party No worth, public or private, no service, civil or reediness of proscription Soldiers of the late war, soldiers of the Revolutionary war, the very contemporaries of the independence of the country, all lost their situations No office was too high, and none too low; for _office_ was the spoil, and ”_all the spoils_,” it is said, ”belong to the _victors_!” If aan office necessary for his daily support had presented himself covered with the scars of wounds received in every battle, from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, these would not have protected hiainst this reckless rapacity Nay, Sir, if Warren hi, and had possessed any office under governh or low, he would not have been suffered to hold it a single hour, unless he could show that he had strictly complied with the party statutes, and had put a well-marked party collar round his own neck Look, Sir, to the case of the late venerable Major Melville He was a personification of the spirit of 1776, one of the earliest to venture in the cause of liberty He was of the Tea Party; one of the very first to expose himself to British power And his whole life was consonant with this, its beginning Always ardent in the cause of liberty, always a zealous friend to his country, always acting with the party which he supposed cherished the genuine republican spirit most fervently, always estiainst this miserable petty tyranny of party as far as man could be But he felt its blow, and he fell He held an office in the custo course of years; and he was deprived of it, as if unworthy to serve the country which he loved, and for whose liberties, in the vigor of his early manhood, he had thrust himself into the very jaws of its enemies There was no , his Revolutionary services, were all well known; but they were known to no purpose; they weighed not one feather against party pretensions It cost no pains to reed heart with this retribution from his country for his services, his zeal, and his fidelity Sir, you will bear witness,[98] that, when his successor was nominated to the Senate, and the Senate were informed who had been removed to make way for that nomination, its members were struck with horror They had not conceived the ad; and yet, they said, What can _we_ do? The man is removed; _we_ cannot recall him; we can only act upon the noht otherwise; and I rejoice that we did think otherwise We thought it our duty to resist the noht it our duty to oppose this proscription, when, and where, and as, we constitutionally could We besought the Senate to go with us, and to take a stand before the country on this great question We invoked them to try the deliberate sense of the people; to trust themselves before the tribunal of public opinion; to resist at first, to resist at last, to resist always, the introduction of this unsocial, this erent principle into the practice of the government

Mr President, as far as I know, there is no civilized country on earth, in which, on a change of rulers, there is such an _inquisition for spoil_ as we have witnessed in this free republic The Inaugural Address of 1829 spoke of a _searching operation_ of govern operation, Sir, of the present administration, has been its search for office and place When, Sir, did any Englishor Tory, ever o down to loater- of tide-waiters? When did he ever take away the daily bread of weighers, and gaugers, and es, to disturb the little post-offices, the ree connected with government? Sir, a British minister who should do this, and should afterwards show his head in a British House of Commons, would be received by a universal hiss

I have little to say of the selections made to fill vacancies thus created It is true, however, and it is a natural consequence of the system which has been acted on, that, within the last three years, round of _unfitness_, than in all the preceding forty years of the government And these nominations, you know, Sir, could not have been rejected but by votes of the President's own friends The cases were too strong to be resisted Even party attachment could not stand them In some not a third of the Senate, in others not ten votes, and in others not a single vote, could be obtained; and this for no particular reason known only to the Senate, but on general grounds of the want of character and qualifications; on grounds known to every body else, as well as to the Senate All this, Sir, is perfectly natural and consistent The saood men out of office will push bad men in Political proscription leads necessarily to the filling of offices with incompetent persons, and to a consequent mal-execution of official duties And ina ht of conquest, unless the public shall effectually rebuke and restrain it, will entirely change the character of our governets the common weal in the pursuit of personal emolument; it tends to form, it does form, we see that it has formed, a political co its overnether simply as an association, under the charoverne_; and for this purpose agitating, and alar social life by the exercise of a tyrannical party proscription Sir, if this course of things cannot be checked, good es They will have nothing to do with popular elections They will see that such elections are but a overn, and the desperate

It seeular characteristic of the present adainst abuses, _which did not exist_, and then, as soon as it was in, as if in ence of the people, _it created those very abuses_, and carried theistrate himself, before he came into the chair, in a for ress to office He said, that, if that practice continued, _corruption would become the order of the day_; and, as if to fasten and nail down his own consistency to that point, he declared that it was _due to himself to practise what he recommended to others_ Yet, Sir, as soon as he was in power, these fastenings gave way, the nails all flew, and the pro proof of the manner in which political assurances are sometiress to office than any of his predecessors, in the longest period of administration Before his time, there was no reason to complain of these appointments They had not been numerous under any administration Under this, they have been numerous, and some of the instance of the exhibition of the saural Address, and in the subsequent practice, on the subject of _interfering with the freedoural Address declares, that it is necessary to reforovernment into conflict with the freedom of elections_ And what has been the subsequent practice? Look to the newspapers; look to the published letters of officers of the govern, friends and partisans to greater exertions in the cause of the party; see all done, everywhere, which patronage and power can do, to affect, not only elections in the general governovern abuses has been kept At what former period, under what former administration, did public officers of the United Stales thus interfere in elections?

Certainly, Sir, never In this respect, then, as well as in others, that which was not true as a charge against previous administrations would have been true, if it had assu the acts of the present

But there is another atterasp and to wield a power over public opinion, of a still erous effects

In all popular governents and instrureat degree, it contributes to forood or for evil, as itcan resist the force The conductors of the press, in popular governments, occupy a place, in the social and political systehest consequence They wear the character of public instructors

Their daily labors bear directly on the intelligence, the morals, the taste, and the public spirit of the country Not only are they journalists, recording political occurrences, but they discuss principles, they comment on measures, they canvass characters; they hold a power over the reputation, the feelings, the happiness, of individuals The public ear is always open to their addresses, the public sympathy easily made responsive to their sentih honor, that theirs is the only profession expressly protected and guarded by constitutional enacteneral consequences it is so intimately connected with the public happiness, that its security is provided for by the fundamental law While it acts in a manner worthy of this distinction, the press is a fountain of light, and a source of gladdening warmth It instructs the public mind, and animates the spirit of patriotis which would raise itself against the public liberty; and its blasting rebuke causes incipient despotism to perish in the bud

But remember, Sir, that these are the attributes of a FREE press only

And is a press that is purchased or pensioned more free than a press that is fettered? Can the people look for truths to partial sources, whether rendered partial through fear or through favor? Why shall not a manacled press be trusted with the hts? Because it is supposed to be under the influence of a pohich reater than the love of truth Such a press overnment, or be silent It may fear to speak And may it not fear to speak, too, when its conductors, if they speak in any but one way, overnment for bread no temptation to screen its abuses? Will the press always speak the truth, when the truth, if spoken,it for the future? Is the truth in no danger, is the watchman under no temptation, when he can neither proclaim the approach of national evils, nor seem to descry them, without the loss of his place?

Mr President, an open attempt to secure the aid and friendshi+p of the public press, by bestowing the emoluments of office on its active conductors, see we have witnessed, to be the overnment and the press

As far as its natural effect extends, it turns the palladiuency, activity, energy, and patronage of governeneral intelligence, and on the adoption or rejection of political opinions It so coovernment, it so entirely revolutionizes our whole system, that the chief business of those in power is directed rather to the propagation of opinions favorable to theation of opinions, through the press, becomes the main ad journals have been appointed to office by the present executive A stand has been , in the Senate, with partial success; but, by means of appointments which do not come before the Senate, or other means, the number has been carried to the extent I have mentioned Certainly, Sir, the editors of the public journals are not to be disfranchised Certainly they are fair candidates either for popular elections, or a just participation in office Certainly they reckon in their nueniuses, the best scholars, and the most honest and well-principled ainst the _systeuised attempt to secure the favor of the press by means addressed to its pecuniary interest, and theseno other than the appointed compensations for the performance of official duties Sir, the press itself should resent this Its own character for purity and independence is at stake It should resist a connection rendering it obnoxious to so many imputations It should point to its honorable denoovernment, and it should maintain the character, there ascribed to it, of a FREE PRESS

There can, Sir, be no objection to the appointment of an editor to office, if he is the fittestthe services which, in that or in any other capacity, he may have rendered his country He ression, and her character against insult

He may have honored, as well as defended her; and arded and selected, in the choice of faithful public agents

But the ground of co, by the press, of the election of an individual, is rewarded, by that saift of moneyed offices Men are turned out of office, and others put in, and receive salaries froround, either openly avowed or falsely denied, that they have rendered service in the election of the very individual who makes this removal and makes this appointment Every man, Sir, must see that this is a vital stab at the purity of the press It not only assails its independence, by addressing sinister motives to it, but it furnishes fro these motives It extends the executive power over the press in a ive a direction to opinion, not favorable to the governate; not favorable to the Constitution and laws; not favorable to the legislature; but favorable to the executive alone The consequence often is, just what ht be looked for, that the portion of the press thus ress, denounces the judiciary, complains of the laws, and quarrels with the Constitution This exercise of the right of appointly and alone It uses that power strongly against all other branches of the governle which it may be called on to make with the public opinion of the country Mr President, I will quit this topic There is , not only the purity and independence of the press, but also the character and honor, the peace and security, of the governs, to the consideration of the people