The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1839-08-06

| -..Hs February %, 1889. ar1as,Hs 4.
| .4. -.-tfr.4 a. CoNCLUDED ...- .-
Professions TO democracy.
| But, Mr.. Chairman, these violations OF pledges
are scarcely less wonderful than the expedients
which have been employed to keep up the deusion
| and retain the confidence of an abused and betray
ed People. cannot explore this field but must
advert, in passing, to ono of the most prominent oil
these expedients 1t is the extavagant profession oil
a regard for democracy. Nothing can exceed it,and
nothing has eversequalled it, but the profession OF
! the 'put down party from 1925 to 1899
Democracy Yes, sir; Notwithstanding the
complete organization of an Executive corps
throughout the country, moved by common i'm
| pulse from the Executive head, regarding his will
as their law, striving, in the strength of single
master principle, to perpetuate his power, and ee-
waite it above every other in the Government, and
acting with an unceasing reference to interests dis
tinct from, and adverse to, the interests of the
People notwithstanding all this, have we heard
from the authors and nshers of this system of Ex-
ecutve corruption and tyranny the loud and inces-
SAINT cry OF democracy democracy :! DEMocRA-
cY !" Nothing can exceed the love professed
for the dear People, and the regard pretended for
their rights. Sir, the men who knew how to de-
ceive the People to gain their confidence, know
how to Halter them for the purpose Of retaining II,
lhey can 'stoop to conquer. They know that,
though :he People cannot be corrupted, they may
be deceived and that approaches to absolute pow
er may be successfully yelled by professions of
gard for popular lights. They have not consulted
the history of usurpation in vain. They know
how insidiously poaoer has encroached on right in
! every country where liberty has found a grave, or
ambition throne. ..
1t is wonderful as il is painful to observe the
progress which has been made within the last ten
years in the career of popular deception. General
Jackson, at his inauguration, protested to "loolS
with generation to the lights that flowed from the
mind that reformed our system" Jefferson was
the reformer whom he thus protested to Venerate,
and to whose light the leaders of the party still
profess to look for guidance. But, sir, they have
left MIR. Jefferson, and the principles Of his reform
! at slghtless distance behind them. He was a Re-
| publican, and an enemy of accumulated, over
grown Executive power. He respected the equal
rights of the People, and labored to and
! perpetuate them. But there conservative
| principles in his administration, which shall in
vain look Tor IN this 'Repubticanisn, then the
word republicansm regulated and controlled by
CONSTITUTIONAL republicansm Jealous Of pOaoer-
a repubicansm whose essential element was tai1
and free representation of the People, uncontrolled
by Erecutioe influence. The madness of that sort
| Of democracy which breaks open flour Stores
threatens to bank edifces their foundations
| and enters halls of legislation with armed
force TO assert the constitutional rights then
! unknown Mobs had not then become part of
| tho Government of the country, and Lynch law
had not name ...
But behold the change .Noao, republican is an
| obsolete word, for whose meaning we must consult
the dictionary while democracy is the first word
that is learned after the phabe is mastered. Eve
ry man who obtains an election through the power
of Executive influence will you hear boasting that
he has been elevated through the power of the de-
something besides the People, and the whole Peo-
pie. Nothing can exceed the impudence of the
systematic attempt to make that portion of the
People of the United States who constitute the
party and who subjected to the mysterious
action of Executive influence, the democracy, and
the exclusive democracy; while that portion of
the same People, who are struggling to break the
charm Of tha influence, resist the encroachments
OF power, and maintain popular rights, upon
broad, liberal, and constitutional basis, treated
as though they formed no part of The People, and
NC n IoH hu hat hos haay,
ciated with odium and reproach in political his
tory.
To blind the People to the falsity and absurdty
of these pretensions to exclusive democracy, and
veil tho receptions practised on them, the mana
gers, with the art of the juggler who, by sleght
of hand, dIverts attention from the true point of
observation, take to dirct the atention of the
People to other objects with which they more
famiisr and which are capable of being brought to
bear mora directly OIL their feeling and interests.
While Executive power seems great way OIL, and
Executive influence, though aaVancing with sure
and steady step, is of nature not to be immediate
ly felt in its bearing on private interests there is
class of objects near home, which the m@nagers
know how to present so as to engross the popular
attention. Thus, the rich are made an object of
Jealously to the poor. The aborer is excited a.
ganst the captasts-the indolent and improvi-
dent against the industrious and frugal-the ig- |
norant against the learned and int lgent-and ev-
en- the vicious and abandoned against the virtuous
and the upright. Associated wealth, no matter
how widely 1t may embrace men of small means
or how greatly it may stimulate and reward indus,
try, is declared to be monopozng and dangerous |
Banks, however prudently and safely managed ,are
denounced as the money making machines of the
wealthy, designed only to make the rich richer,
and the poor poorer Factous distinctions are
created. ,Jeaousies are excited. An imaginary
arstocracy is raised up in the midst of every COM
muniy and nothing can be heard but the war
cry--down with monopolies. and down with the
aristocracy. .i. 81, s..ot s, s!s.- ~ .f-a |
- President the champion Of democracy. ,.s, /
And the grand movement, 1t to /
put the President at the head of sthe democracy,
and make him its great champion and leader in the
war. ~ And behold Forth from hundreds of we'll |
disciplined partisan leaders in every quarter of the
country there go high sounding praises of the SUI
pereminent democracy of the President He is the |
democratic President, and has been elected by the
democracy. There Isl moreover, claimed for him |
the representative character. Under the Admins |
tratons that preceded the advent of the great re-
former, the Chief Magistrate was simply the Pres |
ident of the United Staes-the constitutional E1e. |
cuti1e The Representatives character was under !
stood to belong emnenty to this body, drawn as 1T