The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1839-08-20
ADDRESS
OF THE DEMOCRATIC WING CONVENTION
TO THE FREEMEN OF VERMONT

| FELLoW-CITIZENs: Your Delegates assembled
in State Convention, having deliberated upon the
questions involved in the approaching State cleo.
ton, and selected candidates to be presented for
your sutfrages, deem the occasion appropriate to ad
dress you.
1t is, fellow citizens, noble privilege which we
| enjoy. of selecting by our free suffrages the men
who shall make our laws and administer our gov
| eminent. The magnitude of the trust committed
TO u.s. and the and varied interests involved in
its discharge, demand frequent and careful re
view OF our principles OF political acuon. That
action is, at this time, limited to State election;
but the State is part of great confederhted Re-
puolc, the principles of whose administration are
necessarily affected, directly indirectly, by those
OF each OF its constituent sovereignties. We never
act IN our political capacity without acting for the
whole nation, and under responsibilities vast as its
great interests, its various relations, and its mo-
mentous destiny can make them. If we act from
wrong principles, or, adopting right ones fail to
carry them out, we put at hazard the liberties of a
great people, and belray the interests of the HUI.
man
Our connexion with the other members of the
confederacy, and tho inf uence which we exert
upon Its government, always of high moment, are
rendered more importantb by considerations peculiar
to the present crisis While the Federal Govern
ment retained its just constitutional balance, each
department moving in Its appropriate sphere, and
exerting its appropriate power to promote the
country's welfare, there less need of solicit
tude, and less call for jealousy. While the gov
eminent was in the hands of the founders of the
Republic, we were safe. There was a security a.
gainst an abuse of power, either by the whole gov
eminent, or any branch Of it, of far higher char
acter than the force of mere parchment provisions.
1t was IN the stern virtue, and unbending integrity
of men who had perIlled everything for liberty,
and who knew, and seemed capable of knowing,
no other ambition but that of serving the country,
from whose soil they had driven the oppressor and
whose institutions they had laid on the broad basis
of the equal rights of man.
Half century has elapsed, and great and por-
tentous change has come over the country. We
have exircated ourselves from the embarrassm ents
,yhi fnl pnr Rav CTR in,
creased our population, augmented wealth,
and become great powerful and prosperous ma
ton.
But the Revolutionary aud Constitutional Faith
ers gone Our governments have ceased to be
administered by them. The stranstion has been
of fearful trial to institutions and 20 uone
more than TO the Constitution ofthe United States.
That Constitution was designed TO gov
eminent OF the people, in the true spirit of Demo
cratic Republication. Its foundations rested upon
their intelligence and virtue, and its integrity
guarded by their jealouslY of power. The great
and prominent business of making laws was con-
fded to Senate and House of Representatives,
subject to qualified CHI eek in an executive veto
The members OF, these bodies were the RePresen
tatives of the States and the people. The Presi-
dent was the executive of the laws made by them.
The idea that either Of the Legislative branches of
the Government to be, in any manner affected
either in their constitution legislative action, by
the President, entered the conceptions of
the trainers of the constitution. The President
was to execute the laws-superintend the foreign
reIatons-with the advice of :he Senate 10 make
treaties, and with their advice and consent, to ap-
point executive officers. But in the performance
of these duties he was supposed to be efectuaIly
restrained from an abuse of power. The execu-
ton of the laws made by Congress, supposed
to carry in the very nature of the duty, restraints
and limitations, OF no inconsiderable efficacy .
while the advice and consent of the Senate was
deemed sufficient guard against abuse TOT the
appointing power. To these supposed checks was
added that of constitutional liability of the Pres
dent to impeachment by the House of Represen-
tatves and trial by The Senate for the malversaton
in his Office.
A trial of fifty years has shown the practical
workings of this constitution ; and in part Of
it have the expectations of its founders been more
signally disappointed than in that which relates to
the power of the executive From the nature of
their constitution and duties, neither branch of
Congress have been found ca pabIe ofabusing pow.
err No motives of ambition could operate on eth
er of them, in their corporate capacity and indl-
vidual ambition in either, could find, in the ordi
nary discharge Of their duties, means Of gratif-
cation. Not so has it been with the executive
AS soon as the office came to be filled with men
who felt the movings of seltis ambition, and were
restless under the restraints of the constitution,
means were not wanting to crafty the one and sci
at defiance the other. Constitutional restraints
have, under the administrations of such men, been
found vain and Intellectual. The power for ex-
ample, of remov al from office which the trainers |
of the constitution did not deem it necessary to
restrain which they seemed in fact TO regard as
almost incapable of abuse, and 70. the exercise of
winch for sinister purposes, the father of the Con
sutution (Mr. Madison) declared the President
would be liable to impeachment, has been openly
abus ID tor the worst of purposes. The appoint
ment OF subordinate executive officers, which was
in the contemplation of the trainers of the const-
tuition, a high and delicate trust, tosbe executed for
the single purpose of faithful execution Of the
laws, has been converted into an instrument Of eX.
ecutive ambition The check of the Senate has
been rendered almost nugatory by the power
winch the PRESIDENT has been able TO exert over
that BODY by his influence, brought to bear upon
the election of its members, and upon themselves
oil Tho n n
executive officers, multiplied to n vast extent, and
located in evory State and Territory, and in almost
every town and village, in the Union, have by the
avowed principle of their appointment and liability |
to removal, been brought into state OF such com
plete dependence on the executive, as TO attach
them most strongly to his interests, in opposition to
the other branches ofthe government. Thousands
OF officers have been removed because they would
not become the parlisans of the executive, and
put in their places because they ,ooaid
The spirit of executive parisaDship has been thus
infused into the whole corps of executive officers
and been armed with their whole power and nfu-
ence to aid in giving the executive control over