Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1828-04-08

AAA0AANlOAAt w tihO ACoults
Three years ago, four candidates were
voted tor by the people. No one obtain
tanned a constitutional majority, and it
devolyed on the House of Representatives
to make selection from the three who
had received the greatest number of suf-
trages. The choice fell on one Of UNI
questioned talents, of extensive and ac-
curate political knowledge, of long expe-
rience, pronounced by Washington a.
mong the first of our public characters,
tried, trusted, and approved by jefferson,
Madison, and Monroe. He selected, for
the first station in his Cabinet, one of his
opponents, distinguished for genius. emil
nent as statesman, and ardently admir-
ed by his friends. Instantly, the zeal
Gus supporters Of the disappointed candi-
dates began the work of opposition. The
charge of corruption was sounded through
the land. Honorable and good men, ex-
asperated by disappointment, or enraged
by the contagious violence oftheir friends,
avowed determination to oppose the Ad-
mlnlstration, though it should be as pure
as the angels who surrounded the throne
of the Most High! Then commenced
the array of party against party in our ma
tlonal councils and, from that day, no
public measure has been censured or ap-
plauded, opposed or supported, without
view to its influence on the next Presi-
dental contest. The work of violence.
begun by the political chiefs, was prose-
cuted with bitterness by the subalterns of
the parties through the nation. The har-
mony OF social intercourse has been i'm
paired /; the purity of character of our
best citizens has been assailed; ancient
animosities have been revived new
schlsms have been created /; sectional
'preiudices have been reused; and MANY
OF our public prints have teemed with
abuse and SANDER.
Fellow-citizens, what course does a re-
gard for the tranquility of our country
call upon us to pursue The term for
which Mr.. Adams was elected has near
" expired, and, according to the well
known and approved usages of our coun-
try, he comes before us as a candidate for
reelection. All his adversaries have
united in the support of one opposing
ssSs"cct1 tiss,so- r.-.st
choose. 1t we vote at all, We must either
express our assent that Mr.. Adams shall
have the accustomed mark of his coun.
try's Appreciation continuance in office
fora second term-or we must Join to
eject him. by giving our suffrages for the
candidate of the Opposition. To us it
appears that no usage can be more aus
picious in its influence upon the tranquil
ty of our country, than the reelection, for
a second term, of President with whose
Administration there is no well-founded
and serious cause of complaint It is
surely desirable that there should be
breathing time between the violent con-
flicts which always occur on the approach
of contested Presidential elections that
there should be serene interval, in which
public men may quietly plan, and calmly
execute, what the public good requires,
unagitated by the passions which accom-
pany these conflicts and that the People
should not be kept, by the arts and exer-
tons of political partisans, in continued
state of feverish excitement, not less UNI
friendly to their peace than unfavourable
to the exercise of their Judgment. If,
when an individual is appointed to dis
charge the duties of President, it be
known that the question of his reelection
is to be determined without regard to the
manner in which those, duties shall have
been performed, we may hereafter expect
an unintermitted strife. The instant one
election is decided, the struggle for the
next will begin. The disappointed cam
ditates and their friends, without waiting
to witness the political course of the sue
cessful competitor, will instantly take the
field, angry, but not dispirited by defeat,
and wreak their united vengeance on him
who has been the cause of their common
discontinue. The hope fpublic appro-
baton, one of the strongest incentives to
public virtue, will be taken away. No
course, however wise or honest, will Sc
cure the President from obloquy, silence
opposition to his measures, or allay the
animosity of his enemies. He can have
no confidence that he will be allowed to
finish any beneficial scheme of national
policy which he may have begun, and
that he must not surrender his unfinished
work, A." together with his reputation, to a
successor unequal to the task" or UNI
friendly to his views. "Let us eat and
drink, for tomorrow we de-" is the Ian
guage of the sensualist. Let me enrich
my family and friends, let me strengthen
the power Of my adherents during the
short term Of my office, would then be the
natural suggestion ofavarice and ambition.
Let us not be misunderstood. We
are not advocates for an indefinite re-
eligibility of the President. Custom,
funded IN The nrecedeut set by the man