Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1831-11-29
Tbe CONSTITUTIONAL ggsbte.
Friday EUes.ssss, Woe. ss5.
MIR. CLAWS OPINIONS AND COURSE IN
THE SENATE.

since those politicians found il expedicnt ia decrv
him in order to tho State for Mr.. Crawfor I'd
first, and Gen. Jackson after ards-has been na;nt
cd by those politicians, among whom the yenera.
bio Editor of the Enquirer is foremost if not in
dignity and weight, certainly in illiheraty and in
'u'iaug aoieness-as constitutional monster
;other men are represented loose and latitudi.
nous IN constitutional constructions; Mr.. Cal
'houn, Mr.. Van Buren,, &c. Sc, but they arc still
supposed to have limit, 10 acknowledge and
respect some mctes and bounds 10 tho grant of Fe-
'derpl power, beyond which pressure of necessi-
fy, no temptation of advantages, could render it
lawful to go. Mr.. Clay on tho other hand, has been
Snest Justly. most nsidiously most falsely held
up, as resolving the Constitution into the rule of
exPedlency, as owning constitutional consci-
snco, as viewing that instrument DIS SO much pa
per, ink and wax, which could interpose no bar
:Tisr between the Government and the accomplish
mont OF any end which advantageous, or the
:seiestion OF any means, which expedient-'
Did Henry Clay deserve this character, ho would
also deserve the maledictions of hch his enemies
shaTe been prouse. the dstrust Of every patriot
may tho execration of all, as n man whom oaths
could not sway, or the most solemn obligations,
ibind' Does he deserve it? Ho,o has he deserved
iit1 BY holding that tho Constitution confers the
ments, and protecting the industry of the country
from being overwhelmed by foreign capital In
deed! Mr.. Clays constitutional SHINING has this
,oxtent-no more Other men, as Mr.. Monroe,
Mr. Lowndes, Mr.. Calhoun, Mr.. Van Buren,, Con.
.Jackson-nay as to the Tariff, Mr.. P. p. Barbour,
and many others ofthe most unsupported political
rshastity, have held the same opinions-have sim
ned, and found absolution from the Pope of the
trar -l1ora g. 4
spoken and written, dccsive!y and as horeticai
ly, as Henry Clay himself More than this-Jacks-
son, Gen. Andrew Jackson, Farmer jackson, Jack
son the Curse Jackson the Saw our that very jack
son we mean, who is at this identical moment the
object of the Enquirers intense admiration and
udoration-that very Presideattt Jacks oisis now,
was then, and always has been as far 2Gshumon
opinion be inferred from words and #orks,
convinced that the constellation does aas6orise
Internal Improvement-does authorize a pro-
tteeting tariff. We can surprise no INTEL gent
man, by making this declaration. No intelligent
man be ignorant of the fact. If these w.re
not Jacksons opinions in 1924, he pcrjured him
self, for he voted for both road and tariff in the Sc
nate. If they not his opinions within the last
IL months, he is forswcrn to Internal Improve
.ments, because in March last, he signed various
bills for their benefit, and far as the Tariff is
concerned, most distinctly admitted its constitution
atty in his last annual message. Still he is consi-
dered not orthodox merely, but of orthodoxy, the
standard itself He is the scale and weights, by
which the sufficiency and tho short coming of all
other mon weighed, marked, asccrtained and
determined! Mono patriotic, none SO tried,
mono so able, none SO unexceptionabe, that weigh
ed in these memorable scales, they do not kick the
BEAM unless little JaCksonisn be thrown into
their end to assist their specific gravity. Is this in
truth intelligent nation? Is the Virginia COM
-lmunitY competent to form a correct judgment of
public men and things? So have been taught
to believe, and teach. Nevertheless, there
facts which all must admit tend somewhat to
invadate the conclusion, and arc measurably ire
concilabe to it, for nothing is certain and
rious, than that while Jackson has been forgiven,
caressed, honored, rewarded, adored and deilcd,
Henry Clay, native of Virginia, whose shi-
ming talents have contributed to consocrate her
soil the chosen land of Genius, formerly her ia
vorite Champion in the days of foreign aggression,
so immeasuraby the others superior in every in
tellectual gift and high attainment, that sycophan-
ICY itself in it's most seryile and complying mood
would shrink from drawing the compa rison-guilty
of neither greater less alteration from the
strait line of her political Religion than that other
has been driven from her confidence, reved and
,reProsched, man reproachcd before. In
credible would the fact be thought, if it did not
stare the world in tho face-if a whole people
were conusant of it. The causes of this strange
contradiction, deserve the consideration and the
investigation of Virginia The people have been
conducted mperceptbly into it. They have fol
Lowed the stream of their Preudices, without per-
ceiving where It conducted them. "A few men
have first excited then guided those preudices for
their own purposes. Is it not true, that Mr. Clay
and Gen, jackson have been thus differently, thus
partially, dealt by7 Is it not true that politic
ans, their creods coincident? Is it not true
,that while Mr.. Clay's has damned him, Gen. Jack
son has found his obstacle to great popularity
zaad the supreme power7 Will any sensible and
unprecedented yirginian, (ofice hunters excepted,
ask himself, why he should entertain prejudice tc
Mr. Clay, and love to Gen. Jackson-why he
should distrust the one, and confids in tho other
We do not address the question to tho fool who
shouts "Now Orleans" TO every possible enquiry
or objection-or to the candidate for Congress o.
ne Legislature, who would bo fo- Bclzcbub coul,
It atchevo his patriotic wish TO servo his country
but to the Of tho community, who are
both intelligent and disinterestcd. Let the self ca
techst Of VIC can prevail on him to make tho cxa
mination,) 60 a little farther, and enquire why
certain sett of politicians in Virginia whose oppo
stion has perhaps regulated his own, are so person
al, so intolerant, and so inveteruto, towards an,