Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1839-11-07
TO THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA.

The period is rapidly approaching when you will
be called upon again To exercise one OF the highest
attributes ola free and sovereign people. The cleo
ton of a Chief Magistrate TO preside for the term
Of four years over the extensive and diversified in
terests of this great confederacy, IS an event that
ought at all times to excite a deep interest, among
a people properly approaching their free institu-
lions, and determined to maintain them in their pu.
rity. But in the present condition of our country,
and of public affairs, it is calculated to inspire, in
the breast of every rejecting patriot, more than or
binary solcitude. Our Republic is no longer in its
infancy. The rapid increase of population and
wealth over our boundless, diversified, and feriiie
territory,-the vast augmentation Of the power and
patronage of the Federal Government the melan-
choly truth which history teaches and our own ex-
perience verifes, that nations grow in corruption ms
they increase in wealth and power,-all admonish
US, that if we would avoid the fate of former repub-
lies, and transmit our free institutions, pure and
uncorrupied, TO our posterity, we must guard them
with s~leepless vigilance. The calm and dispassion-
ate exercise of the inestimable righ, Of suffrage, by
a virtuous and intelligent people, is the best, indeed,
The only electual safeguard of republican i~nstitu.
tons. No republic has ever fallen by violence, I'M.
til its foundations have been sapped by corruption.
Deeply impressed with these truths, and with the
importance of the crisis, we beg leave respectfully,
but earnestly, to invite your attention to some Of The
numerous considerations that should influence your
votes at the approaching presidential election.
In executing the duty assigned us, we shall en-
deavor to be governed by a spirit of candor and
moderation. We are conscious Of no motive bu,
an ardent desire to promote the public good. We
shall address you as a body of enlightened freemen,
capable of understanding your true interests, and of
maintaining your sacred and inalienable rights
We shall appeal to your reason, scorning an address
to your prejddices as equally unbecoming in us, and
insulting TO you. Animated by such motives, and
governed by such principles, we think we have a
right to claim for the deeply interesting views thai
we design to present, the candid and dispassionate
attention of the impartial, considerable, and patriotic
of all parties.
The rejecting mind, in surveying the rise, pro-
gress, and present state of the Federal Government,
is at once arrested by the rapid and enormous in
crease OF executive power and patronage. So re-
maIkable has been this change. that the Govern
ment seems to have undergone a revolution, whilst
the written Constitution has remained unaltered.
According TO the theory of the Federal Constitu.
ton, as expounded by its original advocates, il was
supposed that the President would be a Republican
Chief Magistrate, with little or no more power than
the Governor of a State. How entirely has this
theory been falsified by experience = The Presi-
dent, following the example of the British Crown,
" has found the means Of substituting influence for
authority, or the art of gaining a majority in one or
tN VNHSA ~ tWC W. hodoCe TOT EONsLliuLIOndi
power, and has thus become, in fact, the source and
centre of all power, Legislative as well as executive,
and wants only the name of King, to constitute him
an elective Monarch The truth OF these DECLARE
tons, that cannot be questioned by any candid and
attentive observer Of the course of the present exc
cutive, might be fully illustrated and enforced by
recurring TO the history of the various usurpations
Of the late administration.
Whatever may be the cause Of this remarkable
-.,l,,t,o - omx 4
MED, that the power of the executive has incres-
sed, is increasing. and every patriot win admit,
ought to be diminished"
Among the objections so powerfully Urged BY
the illustrious Henry, against the adoption of the
Federal Constitution, its tendency to Mop,rchy
seems to have been most seriously ents, tained. and
pressed with the greatest ssaaour. at has an
awful squirting, (said hs,) it squist, towards Mon
Archy. -Four President may easily become a King.