Litchfield enquirer., 1840-08-06

accentis his nomination as Hector of President in the State of Maryland:
 have never had but one scheme in pOli- tics, and that is Republication scheme of government, raised by the founders of our Constitution, by which the ciul liberties ot the people are guarded by their political fiber. lies-a government originating from, and based upon the power of the people, when truly and legitimately expressed, and which, when so expressed, clothes their representa- tives, for the time being, with all the censtI- tutional powers, wholly exempt from the dlc- tation, capricious withdrawals, and arbitrary instructions and qualifications imposed by crude and hasty meetings, so often assem-
 bled, and actuated by mere party excite- .ments and purposes; government, m me- of fixed principles, of laws, of known mea- sures, and of wholesome certainty.
 It is, however, a lamentable fact, that this pure and we'll designed government, un- der which we have flourished for time, has been greatly corrupted in theory. and yet more largely in practice, not by the people so much as by their confidants, and their treacherous leaders. The people, as truly believe, are generally wise enough, and vir- tuous enough, to judge and to act soundly but no man, nor body of men, were ever yet found sufficiently stern in their virtue and wisdom to resist the artifices of intrigue; to subdue the poison of those passions which unprincipled demagogues so we'll know how ao excite to see clearly through the meshes eof false facts, most artfully presented to them. with the fixed purpose of deceiving; and all this, as is we'll known, is constantly, and even systematically practised, by that mis. shapen and wonderful party, that has dared to assume, and much to abuse, the venerable name of DEMocRAcY-a name, which, m our a~1H nnnIVQIPnf coordinate with RepublicGnisnl, and nothing more but, which, unhappily, has been ren- .dered odious, only because thus vilely abu- @sed; a name that should never have been divorced from the interpretation given It Dy our Constitution; name only to be venera- ted when brought back to It's original import; a name wholly at variance with the reckless and lawless Locofocoism of our day a name, in fine, essentially different from destructive ness, and which knows nothing of those odi- ous distinctions between man and man, and classes of men, which these disorganizers are constantly making the people believe arc favored by the Wings; an accusation so grossly false, that the people are now begln- ming to perceive that the 0cc"sers, as IS some times the case, are far more guilty than the accused.
 But this much abused word Democracy must have had a definite meaning; and that meaning can import nothing more than that the people are all equally entitled, according to their respective abilities and virtues, to rise in life to any of those stations of honor, trust, profit, and influence, for which they respectively fit themselves; name which means that we have no arbitrary and artIfl- scial impediments, no stations, classes, and degrees of mans making but that all and every one may, by the blessing of God and his own good exertions, attain to every once of trust, of honor, or of profit success m its pursuit being dependent upon no privileged or aristocratic contrivance, but solely upon the skill and virtue of the aspiranl, and this is the genuine democracy of our forefathers, not that spurious, mongrel, and Gristocratic demo- cracy of the party which now rules the desti- nies of this once truly great, but now almost withered country. 1truly believe, and most conscientiously assert that belief. that the dominant party have most arttully retained the name of democracy, without even the sha. doo of its genuine substance; and that the Whig party have much more of its vitality, though so ingeniously deprived of its talis- manic name and influences. It is, then, for the people to say which of the two they pre- fer, the shadoacy name of democracy, retained by the Tories, or the reritable substance of de- mocracy, zealously enforced by the Wings.
 That the people may be theoretically sove- reign, and yet practically slaves, is truth that would not have been easily believed, had not the two last administrations estab- lished it beyond a doubt! government, despotic in theory, but paternal in practice. is not a greater anomaly; both. indeed, are very rare but the former baffles all compre- hension, since nothing can be more wonder full than to see people. endowed with all the means of selfpreservation, confidently entrusting to few the most gigantic powers; and then calmly submitting to privations. and to ruin, which, if perpetrated by an Groped tyranny, could not fail to end in total bOulerersen,enf, and even the condign punish menf of their oppressors How wonderful, then, is the influence of mere name how much may a nation be made to suffer by the artful expedients of a comparative few, whose unholy vocation is to deceive the people. withhold the truth, pervert the clearest things, deal largely in faithless promises, cor rupt by the most potent bribery. vilify by a systematic mendacity, excite mems passions into fury by the most wicked misrepresenta- tions, and wield the complicated machinery of government with aS much recklesSneSS as if all the losses were their individual gains, and all out of their party, and all posterity, too, were mere nonentities, in no wise to be consulted!
 We are said to be tho freest people on earth and yet our government cannot be sued, Gas most foreign governments mayD but we must petition, cap in hand, for poSSl- ply series of years, till hope becomes lost in delay, and in vexatious expense, and until the sod of the valley reposes upon our bo- som, leaving to our heirs the onerous duty of prosecuting what our fathers have failed to attain, but the justice of which is evidenced