The spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1840-1844, 1840-10-30

| ed boys who have since increased in number abor
as much as in stature. The same, ina word, who
now so pertnaciously and approximately begin
and "bragging" that of us, the boon of ambition
the power of office, which he once so unceremon
iously snatched from US per force. How any man
who has thus so obstinately set himseyin oppOsi
ton to the wiH cfthe people, and who has so otte
and invariably abused what little of power has eve
been confded to him, can be so impudent now a
tolask to be favored to be trusted, is unaccountabc
except upon the supposition that his uncurbed AM
unbounded ambition is only exceeded by his hatred
to the very first principles of Republicansm, sub
mission to the constitutional will of the majority o
the constituent But, at the same time, it is wei
that he is not more popular, when we consider tina
the labor of his life has been to identify himself ant
his fortunes with every political subject or "Sys
tenn" in which majority the States are interes
ted or majority of interests are concerned. Or
constitutional questions he has invariably taker
part with expectancy, and on question of expectancy
he is sure to side with majority ofvotes. On the
subject of Internal Improvements, for instance, he
is Observation-Disclosures. lie assumes power to the
General Government to construct roads and canals
against the consent of the States. Pennsylvania
or any Western State, would not ask of any polti-
clan so much On the subject of the TARIFF also
he is wholly and solely for the"protective System,
unmodicd and unmitigated The people ofNEw
YoRK even were disposed to be much more leni-
ent and compromising towards the South. In fine,
on every important subject of Federal Legislature,
Mr. Clay goes sealously Nth the great Northern,
Middle and Western States, and yet is it not
strange that majority ofttem should not 80 with
Clay for the Presidency There is surely some
thing in this question and the answer is easy.
Those States have always regarded Mr. Clay as a
selfish Politician. lie for himself and not for hiss
country. lie is not for Tariffs, or Turnpikes, or
Banks for their sake, and much less is he for fasts
and prayers for Gods sake. His selfishness of
late has been too eager and too apparent. During
the last session of Congress, he and his party in the
Senate were careful to mingle items of totally dC-
ercnt character in the bill of appropriation to In
ternal Improvements, in order 10 cempel the Pres
iccnt either to :" Velo" projects of"national i'm
portance" which he had acknowledged should be
sanctioned, or to sanction others of the same kind
as the Maysville road bill which he had before
ioed. And the fact itself showed, that little did
Mr. Clay care whether works national importance
were sacrificed or those Of mere neighborhood mo-
ment were paid for by the Government in violation
of the Constitution, 80 that Jackson, either by his
sanction of the one or his "reio" of the other was
made unavodably inconsistent and rendered unpOp-
ular.
"And his course upon the United States Bank
has been much more selfish as well as inconsistent
and the case is much more easily made out against
him. In the year 1911, he opposed the Bank char
ter most strenuously, and voted against it upon con-
stutional grounds. lie opposed it upon every
ground oflaw and expcdicncy at time when it
could bcarly be tolerated as necessary evil, be-
fore it grew into mammoth influence and its evils
were, in fact but little known But since it has
cured the objections of distinguished advocates with
the appliances of retaining fees--now that it has
laid its angs upon the purse strings of popularity
now that by supporting the bank, he is advancing
his election, he has turned compleat somerset,
and is not only for charter, but though the "fth-
err" and as system beget systems and he is now
getting DID, he will soon be denominatcd by the
aduaton of his worshippers, The great grand faith
err of'he American system: yet upon the Bank qucs-
ton of 1882, he is for any thing but an American
corporation for monopoly, for privileged franchise
of State taxation and exclusive privi-
lepcs derogatng from the powers of Congress in the
in part of Foreign Stock ! Again,
that the President in his former messages having
seasonabe directed The attention merely of Con-
gress to the Bank, and having suggested that the
importance Of the subject was such as to require
their consideration then, with view to their final
dispositions, Mr. Clay, in one of his dinner speech
tours through the State Of Ohio, at the city of Gin
cnnat, openly censured the providcnt advice oftnc
President, as being too far in advance of the time
for the cxporation Of the present charter in 1886,
and declared it to be impolitic and unwise to at
tempt to modify new charter SO far in anticipa-
ion, withouta loreknowledge of the vissitudes of
commerce and the mutations ofrade for the inter-
vcnng time. But afterwards recollec,ins that the
Presidential Election comes on in November next,
and calculating. with season, that the Bank influ-
ence in his favor would be almost omnipotent, he
actually seized upon those rery messages which he
had before ccnsured as premature, as the shallow
pretext for taking up the Bank subject Immediate
ly. And although Gen. Jackson, in his last mes
sage, had expressly le1 the subject to the inresti-
gallon of an enlightened people, and their repres-
eatives, yet Mr. Clay and his party added to the
friends of the Bank actually spun out the last scs-
sion of Congress TO the unexamplnd length of seven
months, in order to hurry the Bank bill, through
all its stages, in one session, and, after il had pas
sed both house, and they were ready to adjourn,
prolonged the session from the 9th to the Is fully,
for the avowed purpose Of awaiting unnecessarily,
the decision ofthe Executive, heartily hoping for
that ,v;th which they were fully gratifed Teio