Democratic standard. [volume] (Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio) 1837-1850, 1840-09-30


Of serious doubt, the ancient Fedora
doctrine, "that the representative is no
TO be trammeled by the will of his con
stituents," supposed 10 have been over
thrown and forever put to rest, by the
reelection Of Mr.. Jefferson, is again re-
vived, and practically acted upon, by thil
candidate for the highest Office in the
gift ofthe nation. Let this doctrine be
once firmly established, and let the ex.
ample be set, to serve as a precedent in
all future time, of candidate elected 10
,ho chief magstracy of the republic, by
a careful concealment Of his views in re.
laton TO the great measures and prin.
ciples of public importance involved in
the contest; and what, we demand, will
elections hereafter be but blindfold
choice of a tyrant, instead of an intelli-
gent selection of a magistrate?
But, fellow-ctizens, The design of this
concealment is not less criminal than the
concealment itself is ant-republican
and wrong. 1t is the same motive that
prompted these men 10 abandon their orr
ginal name of Federalists, and, without
any change Of principles, to assume the
title ofNational republicans; to throw off
this title as soon as it ceased to conceal
their unpopular views, and adopt, in its
stead, the appellation Of wings; and,
when this last designation had failed to
procure the desired success, to modify
and change it, by the multitude of pre-
fixes and additions with which we see it
daily pronounced. Aware that the prin-
ciples they cherish, and the measures they
desire to adopt, are those which the great
body of the American people have re-
peatedly condemned, and which they can
never be brought to approve and support,
the leaders of the federal party place
their hopes Of success in a cautious con-
cealment Of their present sentiments and
ulterior views, and a skilful diversion of
the public mind from the true and impor-
tant questions involved in the contest, to
the consideration of issues, frivolous, false
and immateral. Another reason for this
concealment is to be found in the fact,
that the party now in opposition are held
together by 10 one common bond of prin-
ciple. To unite all the various parties
and factions of the country, opposed to
the Democracy, in one general assault
upon the present administration, is a pri-
mary object of the federal plan. Bank
and anti-bank, tariff and anti-tarif, aboi-
tionists and shareholders, all are alike
made welcome TO the mock log-cabn Of
Harrison reform. AS no measure or
system of public policy receives the COM
mon appreciation of this incongruous mass,
the parts are only kept in unison by a
careful avoidance of public declaration
of principles, and by giving private assu-
RANGES TO each portion of the league, that
its particular views will form the polar
star of the new administration. The abo-
litionist is thus taught to behold, in the
elevation of Harrison, the certain triumph
of his tanatcal zeal; the fears of the
STAKEHOLDER are quieted with the declara-
ton, that "no man north of Mason and
Dixon's line has suffered so much in de-
fence of southern rights as the chivalrous
hero of Tippecanoe;" the advocate Of a
National Bank sees, in the overthrow Of
Martin Van Buren, the restoration of his
idol, the great regulator" whilst the en-
my of that institution is asked to rely,
with generous confidence, OIL the consti-
stitutional objections of the unchanged
and Interchangeable patriot of North Bend.
1t was in order to avail themselves of
these numerous and adverse principles,
in the different sections of the Union
where each might find its peculiar advo-
Gates, that the leaders of the federal par
ty, in convention at Harrisburg, resolved
to pass by Webster, the index of their
sentiments, and Clay, their ancient and
venerated chief, to confer the nomination
for the Presidency on an available can
didate," whose history and politics, un-
known to the people at large, might be
made the subjects of representations as
various as there we're various interests in
the republic to court. This candidate
they found in the person of William Hen
ry Harrison, gentleman of the most ap-
proved and ancient federal stamp, hut
whose obscurity Of life, for many years
past, ..fForded the amplest hope that his
sentiments could be concealed. Upon
him the choice of the convention accord
ingly fell, and then that body, true to the
design of which we have spoken, adjourn
ed without "any declaration of the views
of the great opposition party" to the pre-.
sent Democratic administration. The
subsequent conventions of that party have
adopted this precedent as the governing
rule of their action, and pertinaciously
adhered to course unexampled in the
history of the United States.
Nor has Gen. Harrison himself beer
backward in carrying out this disreputa
BILE design. In answer to questions o
public importance, respectfully asked By
an association Of citizens Of the State of n
York, he replied, through a cOnfdentia