Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1836-09-08

y
slumbcr and resist not; ifyou now con-
cede that which is demanded by the go.
vernment, it is easy TO predict that The
time is not very remote when you will
either lack nothing Of a monarchy but
the name of q king, or be driven to
seek freedom in revolution.
the argument addressed TO you on
the other side that Mr.. Van Buren, IS
the favorite ofthe president, shall not,
as we humbly hope it will, have repui-
sive power enough to deprive him OF
your votes, it must be because there IS
some redoeming virtue 10 the person
who comes so recommended to your
choice, Let US briefly trace his public
character, recall his public acts, and
trace, we can, that latent merit which
lis friends have been unable to discoy.
err, or unwilling to disclose.
Alternately the friend and foe of
Clinton, Madison, Adams, and Jackson
he has been constant to no man but
himself--has he been more constant to
any principle save his interest.
In the Missouri controversy, when
the rights of the States were ussaled,
his views of office were confined to the
North, and he cheered on the cry "a
gaiust you. Now when the same
rights are in another form menaced,
but the horizon of his ambition has ex-
tended to the South, who has not mar
ked him with contempt and disgust,
shrinking, cringing, hesltating, paller-
ing with you in a double sense, and
excusing himself, upon the plea that
his safety might bo implicated, from for
ming or from utterng, direct, firm,
and manly judgment upon a question
vitality affecting your interests and the
public peace.
The Tarif-wben it was about to
cemc before the Senate in its worst
form, be deprecated any instruction of
hi, constituents to vote for it, on the
ground that he was already committed
to its support. Secretly in the Senate
he discouraged it. To the surprise OF
the southern delegation he voted for it
and to complete the shame of such
duplicity, his vote is now justified by
the instructions which he declared UNI
! necessary.
Internal improvement By the Gener-
al Gorern n ent.--Iie voted for it in all
instances in which that obnoxious pow
CIR was carried to It's furtherest and
worst extent. But he was not content
to be on one side only in that con.
:roversy. After all his votes were gil
ven, and when the subject was not be-
fore the Senate, he made a speech on
the other side. Since then, the power
has been placed by him and his adhe-
rents, upon grounds which concede all
that its friends desire, and multiply its
mischiels by converting il into an en-
CINE of executive patronage and cor
rupton.
The Bank-So much was he its
friend, that he desired to transfer it
bodily to his own " Imperial city" UNI
til its doom was sealed by the people
then he cried out unceasing hostility
to it.
The removal Of the Deposiies-He
opposed to it in his private mind but
when the president had ordered, he Of
course approvedit.
The Van Buren, committee in late
address, have informed you that in the
New York Convention of 1921, called
to amend the constitution of that state
adopted in l777, san effort was made
to place the free negro upon an equali-
~ with the white man, as he stood un-
der the old constitutions" To this Mr..
Van Buren, was opposed, &c.
If Mr.. Van Buren, was decidedly OPP
posed to it, he has mode of indicating
his hostility peculiar to himself, and
and which will captivate his adverse
ries. For the truth is, and we appeal
to the journal ofthat convention for the
| profit, that the committee on the right
of suffrage having reported in favor OF
confirming it to free white persons, and
a motion being made to strike out the
word white Mr.. Van Buren, voted for
the motion, and it prevailed. The cf-
feet Of his vote was to place free ne
groes upon an equality with the white
man. Afterwards at the remonstrance
ofGcneral Root, the right OF negro suf-
frage was modified with the assent of
Mr.. Van Buren,, by requiring proper
ty qualification.
On occasion of this subject it hap
pens that Mr.. Van Buren, was singu-
larly felicitous, for although he both
spoke and voted, yet for once his vote
and speech were in perfect unison.
The vote is not to be defended by
the fact that free negroes had right to
vote under the old constitution. They
had a right to vote simply because in
l777, they were too inconsiderable a
class in number to attract attention,
| they were not cXcluded becauso thew