Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-07-21
Communication.
TO JONATHAN ROBERTS, ESQ.


Fellow CitiZenS-The cause Of our country
seems, al this juncture, so closely blended with
the political elevation Of Gen. ANDREW JACK
son, that watchlul and vigorous efforts to pro-
mote the latter, must receive the aid and appro-
baton OF all sincerely attached TO the former
Our government is based upon the peoples
will. If this foundation be removed, or it, as
in Europe, il be disregarded, the structure Of
our civil liberties must fall or be ultimately o.
verthrown. Unless we are willing TO change
our system: to sink into tho condition whence
we are but just emancipatcd and 10 entail upon
our descendants all the degradation and wretch
edneSs from which our ancestors, at the hazard
Of life and fortune, rescued themselves and us:
we should vigilantly and fearlessly enforce our
rights against the Entertainments OF power aid
the subtle arts Of ambition.
Until the period made memorable by the e.
lection Of the present President Of the United
States, the principles Of the revolution Of rs,
especially in reference to the duty Of public a
gents and the sovereignty Of the peoples will,
had been saciedly pursued and most happily
exemplihed. On that occasion, however, they
were openly yiolated: and their violation &C
cnmpanied by indications Of corruption truly
appropriate to the event, and well calculated to
alarm our patriotism. Although the election
was, by the provisions the constitution, right
fully within the power Of the house Of represen-
tatives, who could expect that the people would
be spurned BY their delegates? Who could ex-
pect that the public servant would unbushngly
deny his master? Who anticipated that the re-
preventative, known, existing in no other cha
racter, SHOULD defy, repel, and insult his con-
slituents' And who, in the land Of WASHING
TON and JEFFERSON; while the first was yet
fresh in Immortality, and the second still mors
tai; could expect to find political promotionB
follow upon political infdelily, and the peoples
offices showered upon him who betrayed and
Knocked the people?
1t will be remembered that in the house of
representatives the presidential election is Con-
Quoted by states; that Gen. JACKSON, though
lar ahead OF his competitors on the return of
the electoral ballots, there received but eight
votes that the representatives Of Kentucky
gave their state vote to Mr.. Adams, in favor of
whom, not single man OF their constituents
had, by suffrage, declared himself: that the re-
| preventative Of Illinois, unmindful Of public
| pledge, acted in the same manner: that the re.
| preventative from Missouri followed in this
| wake, even aitel the repeated and protracted
| struggles OF conscious sense of duty: and that
| Louisiana, whose soil had been redeemed, and
whose matrons had been shielded by TIE tran
scendent herosism Of JACKSON from the barbar-
Gus pursuit of beauty and booty" abused by
two Of her representatives, turned upon her
preserver, and against the will Of her citizens,
pierced him with the pang of unparalleled in
gratitude. Nor can we forget, that the master
spirit, by the power Of whose influence, mystic
triously exertcd, these effects, so opposite to
repubcanism, we're produced, was himself in
stantly rewarded with the office of Secretary of
State, long an object of his ambition.
SuSh examples warn us TO be wary in time;
unless speedily and empha,ically condemned
they will ripen into precedents, and afford con.
spicuous apologies for future misconduct 1t
merits remark, that MIR. Adams, elated perhaps
to indiscretion by his triumph over The people,
In his very first message to congress, insinuates
that our representatives should not be "palsied
by the will of their constituents" in other words
that they should disregard that will, however
clearly ascertained, when inconsistent with
their own personal views or opinions. Such is
the inevitable tendency, as it constituted the
ground work of the principles upon which his
election was accomplished
In the fall Of this year we shall be called mp.