Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 182?-183?, 1832-07-06
ADDRESS.
OF the Charlottesville Jackson and Bar.
6ow Convention, 10 the people
Of Virginia.
TO THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA.


We, the delegates of a portion of the
citizens Of this Commonwealth having
assembled in Convention at Charlottes-
vile, for the purpose Of promoting the
reelection OF Andrew Jackson as Presi-
dent, and the election of Philip p. Bar
bour as Vice President of the United
States, deem it due TO ourselves, our
constituents, and to our countrymen. at
large, to declare with becoming candor
and sincerity, the motives and reasons
by which we are actuated. While we
would not cherish that wild and reckless
spirit oil faction which has already shed
its maledictions on our country,-we can
not basely betray our trusts as sentinels.
by crying that "all is well'' when we
behold the widespread and alarming
discontents which pervade our Union
We would speak, as we feel, the senti-
ments of Virginians and free men, who
love their country, and loving it, would
PerPetuate its peace, its happiness and
its glory.
Time and experience have long de-
monstrated that written Constitutions,
by which the powers of government
may be defined and restrained within
just limits, and the rights of the people
protected, are indispensable to the pres
ervation of human liberty. Where
these do not exist, or where they have
ceased to. answer the great ends for
which they were designed, there is no
guarantee ofthe rights and liberties of a
people, but the arbitrary and capricious
discretion of those who may usurp the
powers of government.
When powers which belong to the
people are thus usurped whether by
one despot, or by millions, there is no
standard of right-no bulwark Of free
dom, but the clemency of the usurpers.
AS American patriots-as Virginia
republicans, we have looked to this sa-
cred principle of Constitutional restric-
ton, as the last best earthly hope of an
oppressed world, which would ultimate
ly dispel the cloud, and burst the letters
Of tyranny every where, and fulfil all the
brilliant destinies of our happy country.
1t remains to be seen whether that great
moral experiment of which our country
has been the theatre since the period of
its glorious revolution, shall finally tri-
umph, or whether it can be baffied by
the restless and corrupt ambition of man,
which has sooner or later, subverted the
Liberties of all free nations who have
gone before us.
We are among those who believed
that the Liberties of our country, cannot
long survive its consttution.-Hence
our solicitude to preserve inviolate this
sacred charter of all the blessings which
we have inherited from our ancestors,
and which we hope to transmit to our
posterity. In popular governments, the
sovereign will is declared through the
medium of elections. No man can claim
the suffrages of the people by right
no one can deserve their confidence,
who would be an unsafe depository of
that power which is granted in trust for
their security and protection.
As our form of government is created
by written COnstitutions-so its spirit
and purity can only be preserved by the
vigilance of the people, and judicious
exercise ofthe elective franchise. The
fidelity of those public agents who may
be selected to administer the govern
ment, depends, essentially, on the eau
ton with which the people guard their
own exclusive and inalienable privilege
es. We cannot guard, in our elections,
with too much caution against the influ-
ence of that factious excitement which
is the degenerate offspring Of an elevated
party zeal.
When public honors cease to be con-
ferred as the reward Of public merit, our
elections can no longer fulfil their great
design, as opponents of the popular will,
but must be degraded into mere politi-
cal lotteries, where the most daring and
ambitious adventures may win, with
out deserving the power to WELD the
dcstinies of a government.
In the. present agitated and melancho.
ly condition of our country, we trace but
too distinctly the fatal consequences Of
that disregard of written constitutions,
which has marked the progress of our
federal government, and which but for
our undiminished confidence in the in
telligence of our countrymeD, would
seem to indicate the decline and fall of
our glorious republic. We cannot listen
without pain and sorrow to the confident
predictions which are already made, of
those awful calamities which may speed
lily ensue severance of our happy u
MON, or an absolute consolidation Of the
States. We would again appeal TO the
intelligence, the virtue, the patriotism of
our countrymen TO eyert ere IL is too