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ments of the speaker; but it is to be observed, that the speaker was Mr. Van Buren, distinguished by his skill in mystification, and his art of giving to his sentences an hermaphrodite character. We draw from the declaration the inference, which, considering Mr. Van Buren as a candidate for the highest office of the country, is as important as it is alarming; showing how unlimited are his ideas of power pertaining to the General Government-the inference that Mr. Van Buren deems that Congress, by a judicious revision, (a phrase admirably appropriate, from its obscurity and indefiniteness, to the assumption of forbidden powers) may improve, that is direct and control, the press throughout the United States. This text is fully explained by the practical commentary which was immediately given to it, by the dismissal of Gales and Seaton, supporters of the administration, from the employment of the Senate, and by the distribution of the public printing, and all other official favours, by the administration of General Jackson, of which Mr. Van Buren is the vital spirit, as he was the creator.)

In assigning to Mr. Van Buren this high and responsible position, we are sustained by his conduct at this period, as well as by the fatal influence he has had upon the measures of the country during the last six years, which we trust fully to develope in these pages. In the election of 1824, the State of New York gave Mr. Adams 26 votes; Mr. Crawford 5; Mr. Clay 4; and General Jackson 1! We may, therefore, confidently believe, that, that State deemed the General incompetent to the station to which he aspired. With the principles of Mr. Adams, it was certainly content, and the measures of his administration were in perfect harmony with those principles. But to the election of General Jackson, the vote of that State seemed indispensable, and Mr. Van Buren charged himself with (what shall we term it?) the labour, the pleasure, of her seduction. The charge was executed with as much adroitness as success. But his efforts were animated by the most exhilarating hope, that he might, possibly, obtain for himself the favours he had engaged to solicit for another. His senatorial term ended, in March 1827; he aspired to a re-election; but he, also, aspired to the Presidency of the United States.

90. In raising his eyes, at this period, with hope, to the first magistracy of the country, Mr. Van Buren has been charged with gross presumption. He had rendered, it was said, no service to the country that could claim any, much less

so high, a reward; he had filled but one distinguished station in the General Government, and had not the merit which long enjoyment of office is, strangely, supposed to give. But, Mr. Van Buren had seen, capacity for civil service, much less than he could boast, greeted by the hunters of office, even though the candidate was encumbered with many and grievous offences against the laws and Constitution of his country; and having well studied his position, and his associates, he believed it practicable, whilst the lion and the tiger were contending for the quarry, fox like, to steal in and seize it for himself. To this purpose, for a season, the policy of non-committal was essential. It was enough to have it known by his contemplated dupes, that he was opposed to the administration, and disposed, under certain undefined contingencies, to support the pretensions of General Jackson.

91. With this view, he carefully avoided the sessions of the organized cabal of which we have spoken, and caused cautionary monitions against premature committal, for any candidate, to be circulated throughout his State. Uncommitted himself, he was anybody's, and, consequently, everybody's man, and was re-elected to the Senate by a very unanimous vote. The inference was drawn, that the vote of New York in the next Presidential election was placed in his hands. New importance was thence given to his position at Washington, and he was emboldened, more openly, but with scarce more efficiency, to mingle in the intrigues against the administration, and to appear at the secret cabal, at which the great combination was effected.

92. Of the existence of this combination, the circumstantial proof is abundant, but we have proof direct. Its formation was not only avowed, but it was, ostentatiously, proclaimed. Mr. Floyd, in a formal speech, duly and artistly prepared, according to the most approved rules of party misrepresentation, at a dinner in Richmond, in February 1827, declared that "combinations have been formed, and are forming, which will wrest the power from those hands so unworthy to hold it." A letter of the same period says, "To the friends of Jackson and Crawford, those of John C. Calhoun are added; and the union forms such a force of numbers, talents, and influence, that it seems impossible to be effectually met by Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, and their friends, aided by their united experience, ability and patronage, and official advantages, great as they are. Men are so very sincere in their dislikes, that the most opposite natures will coalesce to diminish

the power of an object of a higher common aversion, and will surrender the strongest personal competition to unite for mutual safety."

93. The combination and its object being thus clearly established, let us inquire, for a moment, into the character of its component parts, with the view of ascertaining the true motive of its formation, of explaining the means by which parts so heterogeneous could be cemented.

The members of the combination in the Senate registered their names in the vote on the appointment of printers. We find on the list, Woodbury, of Maine, now Secretary of the Treasury; Van Buren, of New York, Vice President; McLane and Ridgely, of Delaware; the former late Minister to London, late Secretary of the Treasury, and late Secretary of State; Barnard, of Pennsylvania; Tazewell and Tyler of Virginia; Macon and Branch, of North Carolina: the latter late Secretary of the Navy; Hayne and Smith, of South Carolina; Berrien and Cobb, of Georgia; the former late_Attorney General of the United States; Kane, of Illinois; Benton, of Missouri; Eaton and White, of Tennessee; the former late Secretary of War, and now Governor of Florida; McKinley and King, of Alabama; Williams and Ellis, of Mississippi; Smith, of Maryland; Dickerson, of New Jersey, now Secretary of the Navy; and Chandler, of Mainc.

Now let us ask, what common interest could thus bind together the North, the South, the East, and the West? Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois, Tennessee, and Mississippi, were certainly in favour of the measures of the administration, for protecting manufactures and the system of internal improvements. Upon these questions Virginia had been, then was, and now is, divided. North Carolina was, at least, friendly to internal improvements: South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, were, perhaps, the only States, whose representatives in Senate were engaged in this cabal, which had, decidedly, an interest adverse to the policy of the adminis tration. Nay, South Carolina, and perhaps each of the others, too, were then, to a great extent, friendly to internal improvements. Where, then, was the common principle of union among these gentlemen? For the purpose of an answer, our catalogue of names is almost a catalogue raisonné; descriptive, certainly, of the views of many of the persons enrolled upon it. Thus we have twenty-three names, eight of whom have held high offices under General Jackson, and, of the

remainder, almost all have been desirous to obtain them. Cooperation in measures of a national character, clearly formed no part of the cement of this human porphyry. (It was bound together by self-interest alone, and which, alone, could have put into the heart of the Senator from Kentucky, (Mr. Johnson) the sentiment to which he gave utterance, that the administration should be put down, though it were as pure as the angels which stand at the right hand of God."

94. So absolute and powerful was this self-interest, that gentlemen from the South were willing to put aside, in the choice of a presidential candidate, all consideration of the tariff. Thus the Columbian Telescope of South Carolina, at this period, declared that "the whole tariff subject has but little to do with the selection of a presidential candidate, nor has the particular opinion of such a candidate much to do with that election." This gracious offering, of the South, on the altar of mutual interests, the northern portion of the coalition, as represented by Mr. Van Buren, could not fail to reciprocate. Mr. Van Buren had been a zealous supporter of high tariffs for the protection of domestic industry, maintaining those of 1824 and 1826, and an ultra advocate of the constitutional powers of the General Government to make roads and canals; voting not only for the Cumberland road, in 1822, but for the establishment of toll gates thereon. But, who would ask a wise man not to change his opinions. This would reduce him to a vegetable, to flourish and to fade in the soil in which he germinated. It is an adage, that, "the voyager changes his skies, not his opinions:" but Mr. Van Buren met this by another adage, more to his purpose "we change with the times." When he and Mr. Cambrelling made their progress through the South, in the spring of 1827, they were hailed, the one as "the zealous friend of State sovereignty;" the other as "the enlight ened advocate of liberal principles of commerce." Now, in the South, these phrases mean, the zealous enemy of internal improvements, and the fierce opponent of a protective tariff. In the spirit of non-committal, Mr. Van Buren dexterously parried this invidious praise, given in the form of a toast, at Charleston. But he was caught at Raleigh, where in a reply to a written invitation to an entertainment by the citizens, he was tempted, by an opportunity of railing at the administration, to write, "All dispassionate observers will admit that the measures (of the administration) to which you allude, justify the alarm you express. The spirit of encicn

ment has assumed a new and far more seductive aspect, and can only be resisted by the exercise of uncommon virtues." Now the very measures which the Raleigh Committee condemned, namely, acts of legislation upon constructive rights, had been frequently, earnestly and honestly advocated by both gentlemen. But the offering was required, and was made. That it was propitions, is apparent from the same Columbian Tellescope, proclaiming, "Mr. Van Buren is not unlikely to succeed General Jackson, if he keeps steadily to his present plan."

95. Mr. Van Buren certainly went to the sunny climes of the South to buy golden opinions, but he was disappointed in his efforts to bargain. He probably anticipated support of his immediate pretensions to the presidency. But Virginia frowned upon his suit, and as he is no Cæsar, he made up his mind to submit to be second, where he could not. be first. His designs of immediate elevation to the presidential chair were abandoned; and he prepared himself to become the keeper of the conscience, and the political guide of the next President-to enjoy the power, if he could not claim the title, of the office.

96. Of the motives of the coalition, nò illustration, more ample or apposite can be adduced, than the conduct of Mr. John Randolph. We know it is not permitted to speak evil of the dead. But this maxim, if applied to public men, would deprive us of the only benefit often deducible from their lives. The knowledge of evil, as of good, is useful; of the one, that it may be avoided, of the other that it may be pursued. On this maxim, history would lose all its value; it would be any thing but philosophy teaching by example. The sounder precept is, of the dead speak nothing but truth; and this we shall obey. In his speech on the motion for retrenchment, in February 1828, Mr. Randolph used the following very emphatic language.

"I do not pretend, that my own motives do not partake of their full share of the infirmity of our common nature-but of those infirmities, neither avarice nor ambition form one iota in the composition of my present motives. Sir, what can the country do for me? Poor as I am,-for 1 am much poorer than I have been-impoverished by unwise legislation, I still have nearly as much as I know how to use-more, certainly, than I have, at all times, made a good use of.—And as for power, what charms can it have for one like me? Sir, if power had been my object, I must have been less sagacious

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