Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1827-02-03
RIOHGoND, FEB. 8
To the EDITORS of the Enquirer.

GENTLEMEN
The fidelity with which you have defended
the rights of the States against the hmens
of the Federal Government. euboldeos me to call |
your attention 10 a new point at which those
rights have Of late, been most powerfully inv AIDED:
speak of ELEcrIoNs, and Of the efforts of the
General Admins ration direct and contI oil them.
That this most sacred right Of the States is now
suffering general and sys,ematical invasion f. ON
the present administrators of the Federal Govern
ment. is fact, as true as it is lamenlabe, scan
daIous as IL is notorious, and corrupt and detes
table the practice itself is unconstitutional and
illegal. Not only in elections TO the Federal
Senate and House of Representatives is this inva>
sion practiced, bu in he choice nf our local
and state officers. No Governor of Slate, no
Senator, or Represents alive in a State Legislature
can now be chosen without contest 18th the Fee
der al Government. In every election for these of
icers the Federal Gov ernme have their candidate
in opposition TO the State didate, and thus en-
deavour L" make the whole mach ery o. Safe
Governments subordinate 10 the action of the Fe:
deral Government, and conducive TO the personal
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF the individuals a. its head. In
the election OF Senators and Representatives in
Congress, the administration candidates penly
Gdxeffed at Washington, and the state candida =
are as openly prescribed and denounced When
| too weak TO SCI ur a candidate OF ;heir own, the
Machiavelian maxim, DIVIDE & oNoUER,"
| Is openly resorted to- Thus that double process
OF gaining scribe Congress, aud serciie State
Legislatures, is carried on at the same time; and
| ii it continues 10 make the frishtfu progress
for six years more that 1t has made for two years
past, then the President of the United States ~ i'll
be as absolute in North America a. Simon Bolivar
| is in the South. But why look forward six years
1t is enough to see things they now are: L,
| see majority ofthe Federal Senate, and majority
OF the House oil Representatives, protesting a
blind submission the val OF the Preside t. aad
openly acting upon the old Tor. doctrine nf ''no,
resistance and passive obedience to The potcers
that be - Happily, he Presiteis has not ye, 20
two hids OF the Senate chained to bis car. 1t he
had, he would Immediately be entire nel SOLE and
SUPREME LEGISLATOR for the Union, and TIE
Judicial and legislative powers of The staie- and OF
| the General Government, would fall PROSTATE at
bis feet The treaty making faculty would accom-
piish this stupepdous purpose The President and
two-thirds OF the Senate make neaies, aud ,reaies
! are the SUPREME law OF The lad: If the. two
thirds OF the Senate become the in -,ruments OF the
| Preside I, he alone becomes the SUPREME LIE
| GIsLAToR! Our present administrators know
This, and are sira'ning NIGH and main to gain the
| majority of two-thirds. Hence their Tremendous
exe'tons in the Senatorial cleo ions of the present
| season; hence the interchangeable activity of four
| hundred administration presses empIoy ei to black
! en- the character OF independent Senator's; hence
the open violence and secret intrigue of which so
many OF The State Legislatures have been the the
aire and the victim The mole of eiectiog Sen
a'ors Is favorable to the accom- lishment of these
|
Government. They cleo ed by the small bp-
dies OF men, acting independently of the People, &
peculiarly exposed, frem The paucity OF their
numbers, TO the seducIons oil patronage, the in
ftuence OF power, the Establishments of ar and
| the workings of intrigue. - But / am running far
ahead OF what intended TO do took up my
pen, not TO write dissertation upon cleo ions az
conducted among ourselves, but 10 give the history
OF one as conducted In the country from which -
derive the CHIEF part oil our political example,; /
mean the election OF sixteen peers sit fni Scot
land in the British Parliament of 1874 Your
readers will recoliect that, by he articles oil Union
between England ard Scotland. the Scottish peers,
then about fifty in number, 10 elect sixteen
| OF their own body To represent them In The Hou
OF Lords, and the people If Scotland were to elect
forty nve commoner5 10 represent them in he
House of Commons. The British Minister for
the time being, usually influenced these elections
| AT the time from which propose % draw an ex-
ample, they were under the direction of the cele.
brated Sir ROBERT WALPoLE, that notofIou.
miuster, whose name alone announces every thing
that is scandalous in corrup ion, and audacous in
intrigue. In the college of Peers, which was
small, like our legislative bodies he rarely failed;
among the people,where the voters were numerous
like they are in congressional districts he Of
ten mlscarried. OIe OF the most signal instances
OF this success among the peers, and miscarriage
-belore the people, occurred in 1884, when the Mi
mister carried every peer and lost cry commoner
~
the British Parliamentary History, (for it was
m de subject OF parliamentary discussion) that
propose TO send you The patriotic American
will read il with some interest: his involuntary
mind will make the applications! He will marx
The condolences between a Scottish election in
1884, under the auspices OF George the 2nd and
Sir Robert Walpole, and the American elections
in 1926, under the foul coalition of Adams CLAW
and Webster. He WILL in fact, discover but one
point of dissimilitude between them and that To
the advantage Of the British; for, Sir ROBERT
WALPoLE had the decency TO send ou' his list of
ministerial candidates by private agent while our
administration has The amazing impotence to pub
lish theirs In their official Gdze,ies!
Extracts from the British Parliamenfarv
History.
HOUSE LORDS, Feb 18Th, 1875.
Z" The Duke oil Bedford ted the following
petition:
Z" To the Right Honorable, the Lords, spiritual
and temporal in Parliament assembled. The hum
BILE peiiiou Of James, Dixie OF Hamilton, Charles,
Duke OF Qaeensburg, James, Duke Of Monuose
Thomas, Earl Of Dundonald, Alexander, Earl
of Msrchnon' snd John, Earl of Stair, sheweh,
g. That, al the last election nj sixteen Peers to
serve in this Parliament for that psrl of Great
Il itain, called Scotland, majority Of votes was
Obtained for The Duke OF Athoe. s. (ffteen others,
naming them.) who returned accordingly:
Your petitioners, however, conceive II their
duty 10 repre-eDt TO your Lord-hips, that several
undue hods and Illegal practices were.u used to-
wards carrying this election, and list of six
teen Peers hid been framed by persons In high
trust under the Crown, long previous 10 the cleo
tioE, which was called the KING's LIST, and
from which there to he variation, unless 20
make way for one or two particular Peers, on