Litchfield enquirer., 1840-08-06


 lessened control of parents over children in the relaxed discipline of schools ot every kind in the declining estimation for worth' talenis, learning, industry, sobriety m the preponderance of ill-gotten wealth over tnat intellectual tone which exerted so salutary an influence in the outset of our government i; in the extreme superficialnesS (thOugh uni
 versatility of knowledge in the morbid ex- citements of the poor against the rich, (so mercilessly and wickedly inflamed even by the organs of our government ) in the pain ful and disgusting adulation of political ta- voriteS; in the unmeaSured and unprincl- pied abuse of all the great men in the nation, when in opposition in the contempt shown towards our highest judicial tribunals; in the Viilifying en mGSSe, of the legal pro1es- sion: m the jealousy against, and even ha- trcd of, all universities and other eminent In- stitutions of learning; in the power and growing corruption of the press; III the ln- creasing severity of our sectional jealousIeS ; in the diminished love of the Union m tbe narrow hostility ot societies to the interests of cities; in the intolerance sometimes man- ifested towards Catholics, Masons, societies for the suppression of intemperance, and for the diffusion of Gospel light. We further discover these evils of ultraism. or of locoto- COtSubS luC 1IIlpOVCIISuCO uLO character of nearly all the addresses (verbal or written) made to the " sovereign peOple") dealing with them as if corrupt and silly beings, instead of sober and honest men, in pursuit of truth and of happiness. We find these evils in the less refined and meagre tone of conversation in nearly all of our social intercourse; in the punishment of nearly all the salutary formalities and re- straints that moderate and purify all assem- blages of people. We find them in the neg lect of the fine arts in the decline of the higher drama in disregard of subordina- ton in courts in q reckless indifference to the sacredness of vested rights in numerous wild experiments of political economy, de- of commercial prosperity in dis regard of the rights of foreign nations in an and daily augmentation of na- tional vanity; in a wild and unprincipled coveting of new territories; in new and mer- ciless modes of warfare in the fearful in- crease of seif-revenge in a reckless disre- gard of human life; in open and daring in fidelity and, finally, in the almost total con- tempt of those elevated morals, honorable principles, and regulated manners, which characterized what is called the OLD SCHOOL, in the days of our Washington, Franklin, Madison, and others.
 This is no fancy sketch, but fearful reality i; one which threatens the we'll being, and even the existence, of our people as one nation.
 If we turn our eye from these general and evils of perverted and false de- mocracy, we shall find, in it's particulars, like evils. There we find the glorious de- mocracy of our forefathers most wickedly abandoned. The chief magistrate of this country should be the nations unbiased once was so, and we were happy, and prosperous. When thus select ed, he is truly an honored man; and lawful ly wields an astonishing mass of constitu- tional power, generously and freely confer red by the deliberate judgment of a grateful people. But now, all this glory contents not the voraciouS maw of locofocoism our President must hc yet more powerful-a de- mocrat in name, he must be despot in fact :! With patronage unknown to any other go- vernment, he now seeks to extend it indefi- nitely, and yet still retains the felicitous name! Possessed of a power that endures but for four or eight years, he so exercises it as to influence the nations miserable destiny, perhaps for as many centuries. With pre- scribed constitutional and legal duties, he and his minions do nearly as they please with tribunal for the interpretation of that and of those laws, he takes that onus upon himself!-with Senate, posses sed of defined and CO o-ordinate powers, he as- sumes the control of some, the disregard of others, and spurns the dignity and weight of all, whenever that body is in the opposition 1; and even now, when the Senate. shorn of to treat it with official insolence and the ar- rogance of self.constructed independence l! Our President finds a currency, the best in the world, the pride of all who were truly experienced, and yet persuades the people to annihilate the whole, and to substitute that, which were it fully within his power, (which it never can be,) must inevitably diminish all existing property to one third of it's value, all commercial operations in yet greater degree, and the wages of labor to a most starving pittance; and yet the people are called upon to believe that all this is democrG- cy! With an overflowing treasury, these two Presidents would persuade the people to deal with it as national c0lamity; and hence measures arc soon adopted to impoverisb not only the National Fisc, but the people at large and, the once retrenching administra- ton spends forty millions of dollars in cap- turing few Indians and, in less than three years, expends more than forty millions of dollars beyond what were expended during MT. Adams four years. This same econOmi- cal President in theory, but m0dnsGn in prac- tice, has a thousand offices to fill, more than are wisely filled, and yet has a thousand more credted, for sinister purposes: he has ambassadors at expensive courts, whose compensation it is democratic not to increase, but which he Qhrough the arIitices of ;he appointing power) fully com- pensates!
 But these arc not tithe of the evils of our much abused democracy, connected with the Presidency. The high incumbent, after eight years employment of the peoples favor.