The Charlotte journal. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1835-1851, 1840-10-29


disciples Of the ancient school Of Virginia
long entertained the opinion that there vas
great danger Of encronchmeut by the Gen
eral Government, on the lus.,righs Of the
States but they were also alarmed at the
possibility Of an undue augmentation of the
Executive power. II becomes US at crl
SIS like the present, 10 recur TO first primer.
pes--io 20 back to our early history, and
10 see how the question actually stands.
You all we'll kana that, 10 the formation
Of Constitution Tor the government, Of this
country, the greet difficulty It's trainers en-
couutered was with regard 70 the Executive
power. Ii was easy to establish House
Of Representatives, aud second branch OF
The Government, 10 the form Of a Seuate,
for It was very obvious thing 10 say that
the States should be represented. But the
great and perplexlne question was, how to
Inns, and regulate the Executive power in
such manner that @hle 1t defended the
country, /, should not be able 10 endanger
civil liberty. Our fathers had seen aud
Eel; the Inconvenience dunag the revolution
airy war, Of a weak Executive in Govern
meul. The country had differed much
from that cause There was not any unity
Of purpose or efficiency Of action in It's Ex
ceu'ye power. As the country had just
emerged from unc war, and might be pune
ed INTO another, they were louklh. ln.enliy
20 such a constitution as should secure an
efficient Executive. Perhaps II remains
70 be seen, whether IN this respect they
had mol better have given less power to this
branch and taken all the inconvenience
arising from the v@at of il, rather than 10
hazard the grating q so much as might
prove dangerous ~, only TO the other dc
pariments Of Government, but to the safety
and freedom cf The country al large.
Because, in the dfsi place, il is the TX
eculiye which conters all the iayofs OF
Government. 1t has the patronage in us
Hands, and lf we look at the augmentation
Of patronage which has taken place 10 this
country, we shall see that 10 the course of
thing, mud TO answer the purposes Of men,
thus patronage has greatly increased. We
shall find the expenditures for office has sc
nv much increased We shall find that
this Is true Of the Civil and Diplomatic
departments We shall find II is true OF all
The departments Of the Post Office, and es
pccIalIy Of the Commercial Department.
Thus to toke an instance from one Of our
great commercial cities: In the Custom
House at Ne~ \ ort the humber Of officers
has N tseIgo years increased three fold
While the emoluments Of Office have been
augmented more than three fold, as well as
| remember. There is thus constau,
increase Of power from the bestowment Of
Office.
Then there is The power Of removal; a
power which in some instances has been
exercised most remorselessly. BY what
ever party 1t IS exercised, unless il be called
for by the actual eKigencies Of The public
sprsicc, Virginia, moro than any Safe OF
the Union, has ever rejected, dlsowned, DIS
ayowrd the power of removal for oplnlou'S
slke cloud cheersl do honor to Var
ginia ia this respect. That power his
been lar less pracused IN Virginia than in
CERTAIN States where the Spolls' doctrine is
known 70 be more popular. But this pow
ar of removal, sanctioned as It's by time,
docs exist, and have seen II exercised in
every part Of the country where public opin
ion tolerated il, with most TemorSeless
hand.
l will now say, however, tina, which
ADM, 10 DE very presgmptuous, because IT
a., 4 thI.,p ItF,tY hn . ~
horily Of one of the greatest Of your great
meu IA man better acquainted with the
Constitution Of the United States than any
other man man who saw II IN lis cradle
who held 1t in his arms, as one may say,
in ITS infancy presented aud recon,
mendcd II to the American people, and who
saw il adopted very much uuGar the force
Of his own reasoning and The weight of his
own repulatlou--who hyed long enough TO
see II prosperous-to enjoy its honors-and
who at last went down TO the grave among
ten thousand blessings for which morning
and evening he had thanked God II mean
James Madison. Yet even from tins great
and good man, whom | hold to be chef
among the just interpreters OF the Cons'iiu
ton, am constrained, however presump
tuous 1t may be considered TO differ IN rell
ton to one of his interpretations Of that in
slrument, refer to the opinion expressed
by hun, that the power Of removal from of
fee does exist IN the Constitution as an lnde.
pendent power. wish he had taken a
different view Of ii. do no, say that he
was wrong that IN me would be too great
presumption. l advert to this now, 10
shew, that am not now for the first time
preaching against the danger Of mn increase
of Executive power; for when the subject
was 10 discussion before Congress, ex
pressed there the same opinions which |
have nov uttered, aud which have been on
" the more confirmed by more recent ey
perlence. The power OF removal places
the hopes and fears. the living, the daily
bread of men q, the disposal of the Eyecu.
i've and does, thereby, cause a vast aug
mentallon of Executive influence and con
troll Then, again, from the very nature
OF things the Executive power acts constant
ly; it is always in being-always in the