Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-11-02
AID POPULUM PROYOCO.
From the Missouri Republican.
TORCH LIGHTING. Nv.

commence their career Of ambition by profess
ing an ardent love for the people, and devo-
ton to civil liberty They stimulate the preiu-
dices, and assiduously court the favor of the
people, with view to their own aggrandize-
ment, and, if successful, almost invariably be-
come unrelenting oppressors. In word, they
commence demagogues, and end tyrants. In
our own times, this truth has been, exemplified
by Napoleon, in Europe, and in the brilliant,
but short-lived career of Iturbide, on this CONT
nent. Both were "milltary chieftains'' of great
renown. Protesting to be the devoted friends
of the People; the champions OF civil liberty,
and the defenders of the rights OF man, they
succeeded in deuding their too conGding coun-
trymen, until they reached the goal OF their am
biuon-power; when, for the first time, they
unmasked, AID q betrayed people beheld their
trcacherous leaders crowned Emperors, and
armed with the sceptre Of absolute authority,
supported by the forces which a mistaken con-
fdence had confded to their control. These
examples, with others familiar to those who
are at all conversant with history, ancient or
modern, ought, and it is hoped will, prove in
structive, as they are solemn warnings to the
people OF this republic A new faction Cor
party, if they please) has been organized for the
avowed purpose of investing mere military
chieftain'' with the Chief Executive authority
of the nation; one whose lust Of arbitrary pow
err has betrayed itself in every public act of his
life-a man who has treated The constitution as
an cold parchment unworthy his perusal and
beneath his respect. Yet, to subserve his am
bition, he, and his adherents, profess an ahec-
ton for the people, and a reverencefOr the con-
stitu,ion, equally wonderful and sudden. He
assumes the captivating appellation of the Spec
PIES candidate they, with equal propriety,
call themselves "people's men, and "triends Of
State rights" Fortunately, their headlong i'm
petuosity, SO far, outstrips their discretion, as
TO expose their designs too palpably to escape
the observation of those who are not blinded by
their zeal. or hoodwinked by interest. Their
Impotence under disappointment, their desire
OF preferment, and reckessness of the means,
admonish us how little their actions are govern
ed by The love of the people, or respect for the
constitution
No sooner was the late Presidential election
determined, than General Jackson resigned mis-
seat in the Senate, Gas he had before resigned
every civil. office conferred on him. without
having made solitary exhibition Of the talents
which had been imputed TO him by his adhe-
rents, and hitherto unfortunately concealed
from the rest of the world AS he accepted
seat in the Senate, pending the election Tor
President, and resigned as soon as the contest
was over, we have right 10 infer that II was
accepted, not with view to the public good,
but from the influence which was hoped from
his personal presence at Washington, and was
&C cOrdlngly resigned, as soon as 1t was known
that he could not overawe the Representatives
Of the people. Surely, his friends really be-
lieved him possessed of The abilities to entitle
him 10 the office of Chief Executive Magistrate
they owed il to him, to themselves, and 10 the
nation, 10 have used their eXertiOns to have re-
tanned his services in a station eminently calcu-
lated at once TO promote the common veal, and
to manifest his professions to public confidence.
Or, will they admit the humlllatlng fact, that
his retirement from an office to which he was
by no means equal, was dictated by prudence,
or was suggested by the mortified ambition OF
a capricious man, goaded by disappointment!
If General Jackson really believes IN the I'M
puted corruption of the present Administration
as he and his adherents pretend, 1t was neither
the part of a statesman and patriot, TO abandon
the important station which he declared was
not to be sough, or declined by any man; nor
was it consistent with his protested love Of the
people, to desert the post which had been as
signed him, to guard them against all uncon-
stitu,ional encroachments of power. Not
cannot be disguised, that the man who was sui
ficiently honored in being nominated for the
Presidency by a single state, has resigned an
office much above his just expectations, to "a
venee in some sort, the ahront which his over
weenng ambition has received, in not being
placed at the head OF the nation He will be
President or nothing. In the very act OF re-
signing his seat in the Senate, he announces,
that he does not decline but continues 10 seek the
office Of President; and by way of appealing
from the intelligence to the generosity OF the
nation, makes profession of ardent love for the
people, and recommends them to alter their
constitution, under the provisions of which his
ambition has been baf1ed He states as rea-
son for his retirement, that his proposed alter
alton (by previous arrangement, no doubt
would be brought before the Senate, and deli
cacy forbid his taking part in their delibera-
tons on the subject, which is nothing short of
an admission, that his only hope of success de-
ponds on the alteration of the constitution, and
that he is, therefore, directly interested in the
question
The proposition which comes thus recon-
mended by the authority and necessities OF