Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1830-02-19

Sewere not The subjects OF defeat in Presiden-
tial contest except in common with the Constitution
and liberties of our country. If these went down,
we went with them.
If our candidate succeeded, we reioiced for our
conntry if his rival succeeded and the Constitution
al liberties OF the country were preserved, and its
welfare were promoted in an equal degree, We were
content, and had gained eur victory.
We did not dream of this reckless prescription for
opinions cake that now makes the land pale! OF
this ravaging persecution for the exercise Of the high
and sacred right of election, which tears the vi
tails of this repubic
1t never entered our ina gination that Combina-
tion guided by the friends of party-dscpline, office
hunting, and voe-auctione ering, could so soon
vert the high and happy privilege of free elections
into species Of contest for victory and vengeance
and the Presidential Elections of our country into
the sacking of cities by the troops of Suwarrow; and
the offices and honors and emoluments of our country
into the mere spoils of barbarian war;
we fondy believed the time 10 lie far-far in u,I-
known futurity, when the Presidential Elections of
the u States, the elections of the Emperors of
Germany end the Kings of Poland. should become
the signals for civil dscord and sectional strife; and
like them, prove the rock upon which the vessel of
State must be ultimately wrecked and lost.
| We behed great Nation spring up on this Con-
tlnent and suddenly extend itself from the Atlantic
Sea to the Mississippi, from stock of fugves from
persecution and prescription both religious and DO
litical in the Old World and we had been taught,
and fondy believed, that far from these demons of
human misery reaching us here, they had been eF.
tectually excluded by the ramparts of our own free
Constitution; that the exercise of this great nda
mental right Of Election which lies at the fouuda-
ton of all Liberties, would never even cmbitter
the charities of le disturb the haonies OF So
ciety for 4 moment; but that each freeman would
like the other better for his honest difference of op
ion, guaranteed to him by the sacred compact of our
cvil institutions, and consecrated by The blood Of tie
Revolution!
1t is true, we had been solenlnly warned in the
Farewell Address of the Father of his Country to the
People ofthe United States, in tie most anxious and
parental solicitude that Cataliues would arise in
days to come in these then happy States; and that
dema sogues and asprants would spring I'D amouo
US who objects would BE to CRAFTY their inordnate
and unhalowed ambition, whose means of mischief
Would be, to nfiame sectional prejudices and local
anmositles IN one portion of the Union against an
oter ia represent their interests to be different and
inconsistent with each other and TO cultivate and
cherish the young devils of discord to tear out the
vtals of the Union, and scatter them to the dops of
czil war and horrid anarchy-that such Catalines
might reign as champions of their deuded sections of
the Union and enjoy little illegatc and patriot
| da} renown
VI these, above all other enemies, the Father of
his Country had warned US to be on our guard!
Thus foyewarued in Is24-5, that great minority
believed they saw symptoms of the coming evil.
They behed the people Of the United States lire
an agItated ocean, threatened with the storms osec
tlonal ambition, and no revolutionary worthless at
hand, to seize the helm and guide the vessel of State
through the tempest, with the firmness of Wasbint
ton, aud the wisdom of Nester.
We conscIentiousy believed Mr.. Adams the better
Qualified OF the two PRINCIPAL candidates. General
jackson had taught us to divest ourselves of such
sectional preludices as our situation and educat ion
had subjected us to- and to revere Mr. a. for his vir
tues, aud to admire him for his talents and had landed
his appointment as Prime Minister to guide the Adj
tio5aTy Presidents
Our devotion TO the civil over the military sas
sIacefe. w perceived no essential differences ia
their political principles Their Construction of the
nP If
their great leadiDg principles of policy were the
same. We saw no difference then We see none
now.
ashIngton lad warned Us against sectional lea
ionsies, and we remembered that Neg England, the
cradle OF the Revolution, and the bfth-pace of Anne
r1can liberty, had given but four wears Presidency
since the foundation of the Republic. New ENGLAND
recommended her son. the friend of Washington, and
the guide OF Monroe, to suffrages and honored
him unanimously with her own.
We sincerely believed that old Virginia and North
Carolina, the mothers and grandmothers of so MANY
or us IN the West, with much of the South would
lead us III the same preference, so soon as thew
10 nnd they could not sucreed with their favorite
candidate.
Che organ Of Virginia politics had even placed
Gen. J. lover thdn we of the West could brook 20
see him placed.
we confidently believed we behed orr venar,te5
mothers pluck the fruit and taste it; heard them
nounce 1t good and safe and wholesome: and saw
them offer it to their children! We took it and ate:
HS'Oi iiidt II was afterwards to be
nonnced forbidden poison or thar we were TO he
damned for tasting it!
1t is not Wrginia-magnanimou Virginia. that
Proscnbes us nov. 1t is only what is called in the
country, e little Jacksons.' Yhe class that follows
the victor rather for the loaves and fishes than for the
words of political life.
The example of liberation of the difference of on
9lon IN the exercise of the high and sacred elective
FRANCHISE, which Virginia has set in the election of
members to her late Convention is Worthy of ali n,
talon!-of the imitation of every State in the Union
and PaFtcuaEy of the President of the United States
and his Board of rewards and puDisiments-called
Cabinet!
Aud II Virginia has seen, since the election of Mr..
A'ains, that new light mentioned in this debatel
winch causes the turning OF short annIn and we
nave Kept on straight course, in the direction She
then pointed us, our apology is, we did not see the
new light that led her around the corner; nor do we
question her belief that she saw it, nor her motives
IN Tying the track still less do we accuse nor If
having misled us at first For we are of the same
opinion still, as in 1824~25.
For myself, l should feel constrained to give NV
vote Tor Mr.. a. again, in like circumstances were i
practicable. Nor will I dol ii