The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1838-09-29

tier, that LORD DURHAM hdd resigned the
Governorship of Canada-his resignation
to take effect from the 10th day Of November
next. The government will temporarily como
under the charge of Sir J. Colburne.
The decision of the Home Government
that Lord Durham's course is illegal in regard
to the Canadian insurgents exiled by him to
Bermuda, particularly his declaring they
should be executed without trial il they re-
turned, is understood to be the immediate
cause Of his resignation.
MR.. BUCHANAN, THE OPPONENT OF THE
ENLARGEMENT OF POWER, AND THE
FRIEND OF STATE BANKS IN 1886.
MR.. BUCHANAN, THE ADVOCATE OF AUG
MENTING POWER, PARTICULARLY Exc
CUTIvE, AND THE ENEMY OF STATE
BANKS IN 1898.
No individual, in either branch Of Congress,
was more vehement in favor of regulating, by
law, the Deposite Banks, and thereby divest-
ing the President of all control over the public
moneys than Mr.. Buchanan. Few went
farther in support of the distributive part of
the act passed in 1886, than Mr.. B. He
advoted these measures on two grounds, viz:
to circumscribe Executive power and iifu-
ence; and to prevent extravagant appropria-
tons. We appeal to his reported speeches to
sustain our positions.
Mr.. Buchanan, in 1896, took alarm at the
smallest symptom that appeared, indicating an
increase Of power of any character whatever
in the country.
On the 30th June, 1886, Mr.. Buchanan
addressed letter from this place to Messrs.
F. r. Skunk, 0. F. johnson, and others, at
Harrisburg, Pa. in which he discoursed ex-
tensvely upon the power and consequent
danger of the Bank of the United States Of
Pennsylvania, that had been chartered by the
legislature Of that State few months pre-
viously.
We extract from that letter some sentiments
which would do honor to the head, heart and
patriotism of any one, who feels and acts IN
accordance with their true spirit.
Said Mr.. Buchanan, "Power, from its very
nature, is always seeking 10 ertend ITSELF" A
truer maxim never was uttered by mortal
man. 1t is much more applicable to the go
vernment of Republic, than to that Of a
Monarchy. The one is almost unrestrained,
while the other is checked and limited.
But what has been Mr.. Buchanan's recent
course? Why, he has been the sturdy advo-
cate for doing away with all restrictions to the
enlargement Of Executive power, already so
far overruling in 1886, that he was found fore
most in the ranks Of those who were devising
means for diminishing it. lie was recently
the advocate for removing all the barriers that
interposed to prevent the already overgrown
"power" Of the Executive, from i" extend
ing" as far as the unlimited custody and con-
troll of the public moneys would enable it to
reach!
Mr.. Buchanan has been the supporter Of
measure, which, if it had been carried through
Congress and become law, would have
armed the Executive with power that would
have enabled him to have crushed every mo-
neyed institution in the country, one after
another. This power was to have been ac-
qured through the proposition to place under
the immediate direction and control of the
Executive alone, "the collection, keeping,
and disbursement of the public revenues"
In the bank, that had been chartered few
months before Mr.. Buchanan wrote his letter
in June, 1886, he imagined he saw as many
dangers and evils to flow from it, as could
have been found in the tabled box of
Pandora. What is the power of the bank
without the fiscal agency Of the Govern
ment-the collection and disbursement
OF the public money! Nothing 1t is that,
and that alone which confers a paramount
power over all the moneyed institutions and
concerns of the country. Mr.. Buchanan,
however, is willing now, and ardently
desires to place the whole of this
enormous and even dcspotic power, uncon-
troIable, into the hands of tho Executive. Can
he discern no danger to be apprehended TO
public liberty from the concentration Of this