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ant on the systems of policy pursued, and have been
accustomed to take all sides on all questions and to
or their courage or
with the orders of some
ttis‘ whose sole accoin-
sition ofa certain skill
use organ is as th-
t' fro t e service
they are in, as that of those celebrated soldiers offer-
tune, rush into the precincts of the ' ' '
it was a new an unex , and as much
for discovery, as if the records ofthe judiciary
and the legislature and the annals of our history were
a perfect blank To men like these, the Constitution
is not what it is, but what it should have been. They
make no distinction between the constitution and the
decisions of the Supreme Court, or the die a
favorite leader-the ntanifesto of a party convention,
or the acts of asitglr national or State legislature. All
’ I em, equally sacred as
, wouldsee-t that every
thing was tnding and irrevocable in their eyes, ex-
cept the Constitution and the decision of the Supreme
ind no decisions too positive
their ingenuity.‘ urged
o
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in
ourt.
To make the Supreme Court the judge of the con-
stitutionality of every act of eongress, however it
may present itself, won it seems to me, be more
effectual than any single thing to counteract this mor-
Iifylflfalllbs disheartening aberration in the spirit of
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some of our
most distinguished the highest stations, rush
madly from their ap area to become the leaders of
revolt, and the advocates of the most absurd heresies
Instead of beholding the Constitution, which was in-
tended as a mere frame-work, dismantled as fast as it is
completing itself by its own ‘constructive instinc
Every addition made to our national s stem ofcon2ti-
tion which preceded it; we should see it gradually
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fabric of government was compl
with security, and avail ourselves of without mis-
But what reasonable hopes can we have of the
progress, nay, of the stability of our government,
when we hear a vote of the people cited by our chief
magistrate asof more uuthorit in the interpretation
was in the beginning," and was, not to profane a sa-
cred reading, the power omnipotent atthe creation of
our national existance. But the rights of Revolution,
even of making Constitutions, are powers which are
'nary occasions, an with
great aolemnit . The people will hesitate to changc
the Consiitntion at every shifting e.finterest- Bust-'
they will be bound by it whenever in erest shifts
again. But aslong as they can alter it by a more
change of interpretation, they do not hesitate to do
so; for what Ihey have voted to be unconstitutional to
:-
ru
n
THE NEW
try since 1787. “ The exislingstate oflhe country,"
said Mr. Cluy, in his speech of the 2152 of January,
“presents very much the same aspectas the old con-
federation with its weakness and imbacility.” in
1787 the Convention were appealed to to prevent [lip
rnlirtmcnt ofthe H prophecies of the American down-
all" lt is not a very desirable office to be the first
i ' were possible, after this declaration
ofM . Clay's) at sentimen of treason-as it mi ht be
periment of Republicanism is a torn failure.
is a conclusion so rnorrirying, so dlscourngitlg-even
with the little patriotism, the little attachment which
we have displaye ur the Institutions of 17s7sth‘nt
see ll , and one might in expressing it, on ress A
public as Cassius is imagined to have done Brutus in
a case of real conspiracy.
44 Tnrrrcrore, good public, be prepared to hear,
it, since you cannot see yourself
reflection,l your gluii,
will modest y diacoverto yourself
That of yourself which you yet ituow not of."
We have in fact advanced as far as it is possible to
go wit a hope ofretura to that state of delapidation
of the Constitution, nfwhichl have already venture
to predict the possibility, in which the poople woul
be ready to throw it away, as unlit for the purpose
for which it is contrived, and good for nothing except
to produce confusion an dissention; an tiers are
already many who like our forefathers in the last
century, are so
H Gmaning under thii age‘! yoke"
that they would prefer to try some newgoverntriental
experiment rather than to adhere to the present,
"Under such hard conrlitionr ur this time
I: like to lay upon us.
which was anticipate upon the cause of liberty
they thought the confederation a failure, and were
ready “ to prophecy the American downfall,” than I
see noreason whythey should anticipate any thing bet-
ter, now that we have madewith abetter Conslitutittrl;
and in a second experiment reduced ourselves to the
same helpless and desperate condition. e Atlantic
ars across its water from tli's shore, the same isle
of distress, the same compl fa b t trea-
sury, commerce and indusl
ofthc public credit, annihilation ofthe currency, dis-
sensions between states, civil war and an audible cry
for disnnion.
“ Quivi ioiplrl pisnti. ed alto gnai
Resonnvan per 1' cars senzit Itelle
ribille fsvelle
Paroli di do orc accenti d’ ira
voci alti o nocchi e alien in man con oils,”
and the conclusion which they suggest to the trans
atlantic spectator, may very ikely not inaccu-
rately expressed by the e ' '
the poet in the Inferno, introduces his disciple to th
scene or those sounds or w ich,we have borrows
his description, to express those which now pervade
our unfortunate country.
H Noi sevn venuti al luo o ov‘ io t‘ ho tletto
Che vovlrui le guntl do urusc
Ch’ hsnlto pcrduto '1 butitlello ’tttellc-tto.”
But as re ards ourselves, I do not consider this ex-
periment a total failure. But it is only because I
know that with men ofsnergy, and of fixed purpose,
the failure of un experiment for ii great object, gene-
rally leads to the trying itngairt, with newt-lements
anew mo e o treatment, because Ithinlt that
but for that excemive confidence ' ‘
tion, and resources unaided by experience, so com-
on int 1 country, or wh‘
well cured before longgthere isaftt-rall alarge re:-iduuiii
mmon se ' d that
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chance for it not to fall was, i I may he allowed the
Hiliern‘aii exaggeration, for it to fail entirely;
because the only way of return for a “ state that is
out of joint," to form and order is through chaos;
because the principle of entire decay is thelprinciplc
of regeneration, at total dissolution alone vlvtfirs the
norm of new tie, organ" rrlIi0l'l can only find strength
in the putrescent fermentation of the crold; and
because reversing the argument of Luccrtius, who
ve the eternity of the elementary atoms of
by that o
the system which, ltowcver,
by their
man wit ,
which has once been decided, and which carried out
would leave him subject to no restraint xcept the
ion rod ofthe majority (or whether ofthe whole coitu-
itry a ortion of it, which is omnipotent on I e
apotwhich he inhabits,) and a freetract for himselfin
causes and the rerne y.
“ La misere," as the French proverb has it, “ fatt
ttahie bien dc rellexions,” momenta ofmisery are vet)’
apt to be moments of leisure, and the fruits of such
leisure are apt to be reflections both salutary and bil-
l moment unitin so completely all the condi-
9 “Iii species of rtictilieation, misery and lots-
ll". Ind Hlntlgh of bath hasnot occurred in this coun-
[I
the heterogeneous fragineiitrr of past social systems.
And however long and violeutmay be lhalailurcalion
(that oiirivmrrn. ro use the ex ressive word which
in the tecllnoltigy ofthe Epicurean philosophy exprttsn
asimilar process of the physical elements) by whic
they type and shape themselves to each other, how-
ever various the forms of combination and the spe-
cies of rnovsment they may try,I believe llhatiike
those Epicurean ntoms, of immortal mli-Iella , an
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Full! ncvor fetuti, rumnii tioqui: gzn! t-inimsntnm
Floreat, at vivant iutrcntor ztleris ignei."
However correct may be the principles which
r as elements into a Constitution, it is "mp
t e into their
places and relationship and exert their rightpower sand
It is not within the power of any man,
or any sel of men, with a y models
even with what might be a perfect model for a dif-
o
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WORLD.
ferent state of society, to work up the best elemen-
triry principles in the world into -l1 perfect govern-
v. pnsstlirough aloiinserlesofagesr a ov-
I’
giee the product of events. To say that it shnll not
borrow something from all ages, is to condemn it to
be lht‘ contemporary of but one. are now in
that situation that, if we do not make some change
in ours, it is to he iituretl that its contempory genera-
tion is nasty ' ct. If we o nnt do soinetliing at
leirst to restore it where it was, and to keep it there
aafe from the attacks of Statesand parties-and there
is nothing which will do this so effectually as the
proposed change in theponstitutionft lS‘llmE to
' . Any Constitution would hr-
better than one that makes no provisions forits own
preservation and intepretatton. So far from its being
'ch ' always the great argument
used-a Constitu-
lf it cannot protect itself, how can it, protect those
who look to it fr protection and aid. “I coud
demonstrate," sai r. Cla , “ifthis were the time-
and occasion, lllat there has been an abandonment of
its just powers in relation to the States.” That is
not the worst of ' . Those just powers have been
violently wrested from it by the States. If they had
been ab.-ind d, they could be resumed. If t ey
h
which art
stronger than theirs; and because they had no ap-
propriate organ to define and proclaim them, an
to czllimpetatively upon the nther branches of the
’ am them, no seat of conscious-
tion ightbe entertained, ic i ht give nutty,
con stertcy, an a on of individuality to its is
rid principles, and create as it were asoul und
tes
lzreut enemies, the depredators upon the
of the Union. The sentiment of allegiance to the
States has been kept up at the expense of that nobler
and more enlarged one which was due to the coun-
try, because to Hatter the interest of the narrow circ e
which has it in its ower to roisethe ambitious to
some ephemeral and every-daycheapeniiig distinc-
tion the most e ‘c’ t means has been to raise the
cry of State Rights. part I am sick of the
cry of States Right; it is the device of limited under-
standin and narrow souls who cannot take in what
it
spectability, or even any prosperity, until the cry of
our Country shall become as magical and as popular
as that of State Rights has been. It is time the
niillatin positiortin which we areAof those much
abused and mlsapplied cries of State Rights and of
Liberty, and should raise at length those more appro-
priate to our situation, “The Union and Taxation."
There is no sense in raising the cry of ma og
when your house is on fire. The cry should point to
the danger. The cry of States Rrights may be con-
lllllltd until the Union is destroyed, and that of Lib-
erty until it becomes impossible to punish any crime
or r nforce any ill .
rid c n it be supposed that the perpetual unset-
tling of political principles does not operate by anal-
ngy n the moral! Can it be supposed that the
sophistry whichis perpetually undermining the social
contract is without its effect upon the sanctity of
indivitlual and mural obligation’! that a people so
peculiitrlypolitic litt tlieiridens, and whose chiefrtli-
mun is their political faith, do not npply tho: logic oi
the Capitol, to the casuiatry of private ltfoi ls there
no connection etween our political and our coni-
tnerci.-rl denmrultzatinn; riune between the siolid
bankruptcy of Ihe Treasury and the rt>cklPss inso
vertcy of individuals‘! If we could cut up the past
generation, would the rt-monstrance which the Con-
ession,
Sqlltln‘-l‘D&d and silver buckled merchant of the same
period might address to the merchants of 15-12‘.
It is already a stlllicierttly serious tlifllculty in this
country that, what with the perpetual changes in our
public men, and in the interests which they represent,
and what with their want ufri proper political cilltc
on, and that headlong experimental habit which
ends ever man to every thing, (which is
produced by the rapid changes of condition and of
fortune, the violent and injurious fermentation of Sn.
. ' ' up all classes and conlitttnding all the
distinctions of ellucation and occupation,) we have
already lost all those practical rules or a
tration which correspond to tie mere manual skill
in the other arts of life, und which should not be
merely in the head but at the lingt-r‘s ends ofsltatt‘s-
d which individuals can only make tllsrrt,
selves familiar with, as nations have learned them, by
practice. Our system lays ii '
The youthful and
yet undeveloped civilization of this country, presents
the exact extreme ol the social immobility of the
mutrtttty despotism of Asia, of w rich the emltttlmrd
bndy alone rt-mains, while the inventive genius, thr-
soul which breathed the breath of lite into their arts
and industr , and vthose vivifyiog stimulus developed
their whole social organization is extinct, or jug.
tctnpsichosized, pcrhttps, according tti their own tho.
ory into some newer national existence. in that coun-
lrytht: same empluyments descend unchanged from
generslitin to generation, from siret '
the mind exists, able and destined perhaps to animate
[MAY 21, 1842.
an immense and highly orgattizetl civilizatitnt, but
which has as yet not put on its mortulity-not us-
sumed those forms of social DI’g2Illl’l.’Ili(tlI In wlitr.li it
is to be embodied. This condition of the social de-
velopmenthasa tsnde yt gcncia v , ucuupa.
lions, and to equalize the qualtlicatitinswllit-h Iilt‘yl’t'-
quire. lvere are no particular modes, no eslzibli-lirvll
processes, and no ‘cl])]Il’8ntiGF‘SiIi]) I‘(-',qI.Ii[t‘li for Iht‘.
performance of any. Tiis is not an avnwe prllit-t-
plc, but merely a secret instinct, ivhicli is r-onslnntly
contro ed yt experience nnd lit‘ r,onservnu.<tn
of established interests, which prevent its at-rpiiriiig
the procluimcrl authority and ackntttvlt gvti power
0 s maxim of conduct, and which no doubt will
eventually convert an element ofdisorder to it princi-
ple of power. There is no better field for the vaga.
ties oflhls unembodied spirit of Liberty, none better
for the exer 'se c this national C.mpil’lCl>l]l, tliati ll“.t
of Legislation; and no butter trxeinplificatttin of its
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about eight to ten millions
only, enfee led and exhausted by a long war lor
their very existence, with a new and peiiirclly ex.
perimental government, in a few years Mr. Humil-
tnn’s atlmirtistratlon nPgOllEIKPLi the 5 pct (:t‘lll
stock of this country, which then owed 50IIll' svvonty
millions, at par. In 1842, a government which
has been in existence mort-Jtlinn hslfa ct-nttlry, willi
bl-
when it could be demonstrated that, with a proper
administration of the Finances, they could raise wit
times the amount at .6 per ccn .
Doubrless, this difficulty however serious, is one
which is inherent in the pressnt state of our social
organization, and which our co utrtm neither
causes nor can cure. But it is plain that this uncer-
. . . d
tsinly in the mode of their adnllnlalrailon is inert-nu
e powers them-
, .
.i
ccrtaining and giving surety to those powers, lillore
dopted of carrying them into
u n tioii waste ntiivetl for the
press purpose of rescuing the country from j sue
a situation as we are now in, and it is impossible to
believe that, properly administered it would not
have prevented the total relapse which has now
taken place, or that this would huve taken pln
had it been properly providtd in its own irtech-uni.
Wll
perpetuity to its power and motion. tis re uncer-
tainty ofjessentiul parts, which Alias llius pnralyveil
it. What great power is t ere V ich ins teen
exercised by our government, effecting the great in-
terests of tilt’: country, even those hen:-ll . lly name
, wliicli has not been
-fiirmed, impeached and re-allirnied until it has l st
all oincncy for good-and until all confidence has liven
lost in its permanence or in the poss-ibllityol'its being
made permanent 1.
Another advantage or the proposed (hangs in our
Constitution, is the necessity it would create of IP]lfl‘
other considerations in which it is often and sumo.
times studitiusly pcrlisps rnvelopv . To lrorr‘ow on
illustration from the ru es of special pleading, thc ul-
tercations of tho parties in controversy would neces-
sarily envolve distinct issues of right or oft-xpetliellcy
to be separately consirlrrrrl and decided, each on it;
own merits It issonietimes diflicult rven for those
who are so disposed to make up properly these dis.
tinct issues; but it is easy enough so to confuse them
as to render the destination invisible to the no le
of the Constitution is olten invoked, so s nurorrtl in.
volopetl in a cloud of other (ttnsidrralions, llllit ll I‘!
impossible to see whet er he wears n slnilr or '
irown. Thurs is a cart‘ tlieoretical sacretlnt-'l=ii
very properly nttuched to the Constitution as the villi!‘-
ter or our liberties, which rtisltes t-ncli in-.n.-r’ in.
tr-rpretntion of it ttsort of religion, and his ctillsli.
tullonal cret-tl a runner for his private con.-ciriicv
only; which brings all the questions which grow tlut
ofit Within that clrclr of individual r.-rpnn-lluln
which admits of no de egatitln, and which nnrln-o oily.
slinacy faith, and tho insuhordinalion to nullronly
. in u royal govrrtllnerrt this tltllioully
might be surmounted. A king iorrlcliliirs tlrputt-s
the custody of his conscience as he does rim. ,.p M,
rrrrl to his high ollicers, but in our republic not eyr-n
those high priests of the Coitstitution, the iurlgrrr or
lhe‘SuprPme ourt, not even tlic most venr.p,,i,j,, (,1-
theirchiefs, can be trusted to he the keeps '
' an American President. T
more devout, with an awe more nppresgive 11,, ,1“.
divinity oflhe Constitution, have ollrti not subtnitltlti
to any mediation in-tweet. lhrlr consciences and that
sacred instrument. By removing the question of rho
Cunstiiutionality entirely from the consideration of
the Presiderit,we shall bring his conscience in vi
use of the Veto, down to Ille level, pliice jg ’ '9
easy footing with the rsstaf his facultit-a whirl 1
should at l.-rot consult before it rlocido. ,',,;d d,,,‘,' 5
onhut rwrul rellgiousprestigc which selimsto rrlgdioii
e
"'9'" 3'1"’ 5‘ ""9 I E "““l’liave the presumptir ii
'ser ’
no longer be thrown overt e him .1
or the criminality of the othei. "0 95'’ “ ‘he "“”’
A further advantnge of the I '
. . p in
it furnishes rhr best rentstly rnr ti’.)om‘v’:f;d.i,',”’ "””
guard against, which was the principal ttbyect iii’
Ella lltc Veto power In the Prt-sident, lot which ,,jf,,,,.
, , . . .
;;‘r1VRt;5:':n;ldEl’l:d[indlSpPnSHi)it’,fUl"Vf’hlCiI nlttnr, (an
. an e love the most positive ussminrrs of
its contrtvers) it was expected or intomlp
' dtu ln- used.
I menu that of encroachment of the I4Pgig]a[u[.v upon