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Secretary of the Treasury not inclined to second his endeavours, he would remove him, and appoint another with principles more congenial to his own. The bill recognizing the authority was declared to contain the seeds of royal prerogative; and it was argued, that if the Chief Magistrate might take a man away from the head of a department, without assigning any reason, he might as well be invested with power, on certain occasions, to take away his life. This we have found to be prophecy.

196. The partisans of executive power denied these dangers. So differently did they consider the nature of office from that assigned to it at the present day, that they deemed it even impossible to conceive of the removal of incumbents, for other causes than the want of capacity or of integrity. It is amusing and yet painful to contrast the opinions of the influential men of that day with those of the Jackson men of this; and perhaps nothing can show more, how widely we are departing from the original sense of the Constitution. So far from considering the offices of the nation "spoils of victory," to animate every needy and unthrifty partisan to combat, they ran almost to the contrary extreme, and were disposed to view offices as the property of the incumbents, whilst they were fulfilled with ability and faithfulness. So far from conceiving. that men were removable for a difference of opinion, on political subjects, from the appointing officer, they recognized no other causes of removal, than treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. So far from apprehending, that a President could ever exist, who would delight in causing a "rotation in office," they dreaded, that from his reluctance to perform an ungrateful duty, more injury would arise from not removing evil officers, than from displacing good ones: and so far from supposing, that the first magistrate of the nation, the chosen of twelve millions of freemen, would carry to the executive chair a disposition to reward his friends, that is, his partisans, and punish his enemies, that is, his opponents at the polls, by the distribution of office, that they held him alike impeachable, for continuing an unworthy man in office, and the removal of a worthy man from office.

197. The decision on this subject, forms the most extraordinary case in the history of the Government-a case of power conferred, by implication, on the Executive, by the assent of a bare majority in Congress, which has not been frequently questioned. Even the most jealous opponents of constructive power, have slumbered over this vast stretch of

authority. But for this acquiesceuce, there is a satisfactory explanation. The evils of the power were not apparent, and were presumed not to exist. Until the advent of Jacksonism, the power had been, rarely, exercised, and only in cases of obvious propriety. During forty years, the removal of civil officers, so far as can be ascertained, from the public records, amounted to seventy-three, only-less than an average of two per annum. In the twelve years of the administration of Washington and the first Adams, there were twenty-two removals. Mr. Jefferson came into office when party feelings, greatly excited, might have stimulated and extenuated vindictive measures against sturdy adversaries, in possession of all the public offices. Some of these opponents, especially, Marshals and District Attornies, were odious for their over zeal in enforcing the obnoxious sedition law; others had been commissioned in the last moments of his predecessor, and their appointment indecorously taken from him; yet, under all these exciting circumstances, the whole number of removals, by Mr. Jefferson, in eight years, was thirty-six, only; less than five per annum. Mr. Madison, who held the President liable to impeachment, for the retention of an evil, and for the dismissal of a good, officer, in eight years, removed five civil officers-Mr. Monroe nine-and Mr. Adams, the reviled John Quincy Adams, in four years, two only. Of the removals made by General Jackson, and their cause, we have, already, abundantly spoken.

198. We have dwelt on this power of removal, from the conviction, that it is the weak place of the Government; that a corrupt use of it, will, if long tolerated, put the liberties of the country at the mercy of the Executive. By it, a subservient Congress may be obtained; and though the forms of the Government may be preserved, a tyranny as effectual as if sustained by armed cohorts, will be established. But this dangerous executive power, derived by implication, and by legislation, may be removed by an act of Congress by a volition of the people. The power of removal from office is necessary to the Government, but it may, it must, be modified into a shape less dangerous to the people. Their interests furnish the true, the only true, rule of right in politics; and whilst the people are free, those interests will, always, sooner or later, be pursued. Man, in the mass, as in the individual, is liable to err. Under deceptive lights, the people may mistake their welfare; but experience is ever at hand, with her correctives, and happy are the wanderers, if her lessons be not too dearly purchased.

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CHAPTER VIII.

CONGRESSIONAL MESSAGE OF 1829. DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLICY OF THE JACKSON ADMINISTRATION.

199. The foreign policy of our Government has a steadiness, resulting from the liberality and impartiality of the United States towards other nations, and from our freedom from foreign interests and foreign influence, which leaves little scope for executive experiment. In relation to it, therefore, the new administration could pursue no other course, than that of its predecessors prescribed by existing conventions, and the principles which had induced them. Happily, there was, here, little room for novelties, or for acquiring new powers to the Executive.

200. But, such was not the fortunate condition of our internal relations. A half century had not sufficed to settle, firmly, our policy in the exercise of some of the most important functions of the Government. Although a majority of. the people had concurred in views, relating to them, they were opposed by small, but active minorities, whose members were the warmest friends of the President, and whose opinions, coinciding with his designs, he was disposed to support.

201. The first message of the President to Congress, in 1829, opened all the sources of dissention in the country; bringing up for consideration, not only the vexatious questions which had agitated it for years, but introducing new and most startling objects for discussion. Thus he urged upon Congress,

1. A change of the constitutional mode of electing the President and Vice President:

2. The adoption and legitimation of the maxim of "Rotation in office:"

3. The reduction of the Tariff established for the protec tion of domestic industry:

4. The abandonment of the system of internal improve

ments:

5. The subversion of the settled policy of the country, in relation to the Indian tribes, with the forfeiture of the pledged faith of the nation:

6. The substitution of a Government Bank, for the Bank of the United States.

We shall offer some remarks upon each of these propositions. 202. I. The proposed amendment to the Constitution, providing for the election of the President and Vice President, in all cases, immediately, by the people, and for limiting the service of the incumbent to one term of four or six years, and for disqualifying for office, the representatives in Congress, on whom the election may have devolved, had been discussed, but not approved, by the preceding Congress. The proposition is obnoxious to the general objection of the impolicy of tampering with, and thereby bringing into disrespect, so reverend an instrument as the Constitution of the country. The present mode of election, like other portions of the Constitution, was the result of the compromise of variant opinions; and there is little probability that any other mode would receive the necessary approbation of the people. If that mode were really a grievance, the people would have, through the State Legislatures, so, decidedly declared it. The probability is, that, hereafter, there will be, commonly, several candidates for these high offices; and if the election is to be returned to the people, until some one candidate shall have a majority of their voices, that two years, at least, perhaps more, out of every four, will be spent in the most dangerous political agitation.

But there is the best reason to believe that the proposition was insincerely made; with the view, only, to propitiate popular favour, by pretention to great deference for the popular will—a course so customary in the pursuit of unlawful power, that, every semblance to it, is subject to the most violent suspicion. For, the President might have demonstrated his sincerity, by setting a precedent, on such portions of his proposition as were in his power. The precedent made by Mr. Jefferson, virtually limited the presidential term to eight years. General Jackson, by his example, might have limited it to four. But so far from this, when, in 1831, the proposed amendment was again under consideration, and there appeared some probability of its favourable reception, those who introduced the proposition into the House, and zealously maintained it, were denounced, although original Jackson men, as "enemies to the administration," and "selfish intriguers." The cause of this denunciation was, simply, that the friends of the proposition, aye, and friends of the President, too, were disposed to take him at his word, and

make the amendment operate upon him, excluding him from a second term of service. "Must we," cried the Globe, the President's organ, "stand silently by, and see Faction, by legerdemain, thrust from the list of candidates, a man whom it cannot beat by open opposition? Must principle be violated, not in the passage of an usual law, but in an important change of our Constitution, to prevent the people from testifying their approbation of the course pursued by a President whom they elected?" And that the true men of the party, whose devotion to the chief was not to be cooled by any, inconsistency, might not be led astray, the Globe declared itself authorized to announce that the President would serve another term, if re-elected.

203. II. It cannot be doubted that the recommendation of rotation in office, was also intended, merely for effect_with Jackson partisans, being only a proclamation of the President's favour towards them. The act of 15th May, 1820, requiring that certain officers, therein mentioned, should be appointed, for four years, but should be removable at the pleasure of the President, was designed, by a short and limited tenure, to remind incumbents of their dependent condition, and to stimulate them to faithfulness; and might, with propriety, be extended with the same view, but, certainly, not, with the design to make a change, when the conduct of the officers was unimpeachable. The act did not secure the incumbent, however worthy, in the enjoyment of office, for the designated term; nor was it necessary to effect his removal; for among the first abuses of power by the new administration, was the removal of officers who had been recently appointed for four years. The utility of the maxim of rotation in office was found only in relation to the enemies of the administration. It was not applied to its friends. They have been continued, where faithful and serviceable, to their party, invariably, for a second term; thus showing, that, there was no honesty in this pretence of reform.

204. III. The protection of domestic manufactures by a tariff of duties, was the most cherished measure of at least eighteen States of the Union. But it was most odious to the remainder. whose suffrage was indispensable to the administration. To deny the constitutionality of this protection would have estranged the great majority; but to recognize that right, and to question the expediency and extent of its exercise, might propitiate the minority, and not offend the majority, irreconcileably. The President therefore, recommended a revision

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