Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1824-09-09
PRESIDEN TIAL.
From tie Vheelias Gazette
Letter from P. Doddridge to col. Zane
CHI Llcolhe Sd August. 1891.

Chi Ilcoihe Sd August, 1924.
DEAR SIR The presidential cleo
ton is now approaching, but in its APP
proach appears to spread arou nd SO lii
! tie light, that the shades of doubt hang
ing over its issue, seem rather to thick
Ell than vanish. Ii has been my inten-
tion, from the moment that each men,
Der of the cabinet spread his wings to
the nation, soliciting to be made chief
magistrate of TINS people, to await until
. the evening of the contest, when the
path could be better felt, the notes in
| the political horizon better discerned,
and then to determine for myself, whe-
| Their it would be worth the labour OF
one individual, or of hundreds, acting
together, or separately, to attempt to
defeat an hereditary successics III the
cabinet, and to restore the election once
more TO the people. Many citizens of
Virginia, (not western alone) are consi-
derlng this subject. Many of these l
know have, and most, | believe, will,
come to the same resolution that have
done that the attempt ought to be
made. So far as know, twill be made
and supported by those who neither
have held, nor desire to hold, any place
| or emolument under the federal govern
ment.
If any one doubts that our elections
have become the work OF the cabinet
he mnst forget or never have known the
| history of all the elections that have
happened, the first excepted. Wash
ington was elected by the people. The
election of Adams was but an accident;
his power therefore was short Lived
! He was supported by caucus and oP
posed by them. After W Washington, jef-
ferson may be said to have been cleo
ted by the people in great measure
But in the last case the precedent is
claimed for general cauCuses, and claim
ed to have prevailed from that time to
| the present, and on this foundation the
| friends of Mr. Crawford build his princi-
pal pretentions. How much more glori-
Gus to build our efforts upon that first
| immortal precedent of election by the
people themselves. which placed the de-
liverer of his country upon the first chair
in the world.
If member of the federal conven-
ton, in the gloominess of his soul, had
foreseen, as possible, a time when every
secretary of the president, ana also his
principal general, just retiring from bat
tie, should come forth, claiming the high
est honour and greatest palm that this
nation can confer, and on that account
and to prevent the divisions and in
trigues would thence result, had propo
sed a clause like this:-"No secretary
of State, Of the Treasury, at War, or ol
the Navy, shall be eligible to the office
of President Of the United States. unit
at least four years shall have elapsed
since he shall have been removed from
such secretary s-ship, respectively" i
would have been felt, and perhaps said
that he dreams in the gloomincss of his
own thonghts.o In the convention oil
Virginia, when every thing which the in
genuity of ..lau could do was done, &c
discover defects or cause of future al
arm,-when so much Jealousy was man
Tested of political patronage, with all il,
tendency to corrupt the want of such g
| provision, as necessary to cut up thai
corruption by the roots, was never spo-
ken of. Indeed, no one ever did think
of what exists, until it happened. il
our case one may ask if patronage tend'
to corrupt how alarming is the stu
alton OF the country, when all that i
power, all that is office, all that Is patron
4 age, in short, are at once poured out