Southern pioneer, and Carroll, Choctaw and Tallahatchie Counties advertiser., 1841-03-27


more wholesome arrangement, and the more
in accordance with republican principle.
Connected with this subject is the character
of the currency The idea Of making it exclu-
sively metallic, however well intended, appears
to me to be fraught with more fatal consequent
ces than any other scheme, having no relation
to the personal rights of the citizens, that has
ever been devised. If any single scheme could
produce the effect of arresting, at once that
mutation of condition by thousands of our most
INDECENT fellow citizens, by their industry and
enterprise, are raised to the possession OF
wealth, that is the one. If there is one meas
ure better calculated than another to produce
that state of things so much deprecated by all
true Republicans, by which the rich are daily
adding to their boards, and the poor sinking
deeper into penury, it is an exclusive metallic
currency Or If there is process by which
the character of the country, for generosity
and nobleness of feeling, may be destroyed by
the great increase and necessary federation of
usury, it is an exclusive metallic currency.
Amongst the other duties ofa delicate char
acter which the President is called upon to
perform, is the supervision of the government
of the Territories of the United States. Those
of them which are destined to become members
of our great political family, are compensated
hood, for the partial and temporary deprivation
of their political rights. 1t is in this District,
only where, American citizens are to be found,
who under settled policy are deprived of
many important political privileges, without
any inspiring hope as to the future. Their
only consolation under circumstances of such
deprivation, is that of the devoted exterior
guards of camp-that their sufferings secure
tranquility and safety within. Are there any
of their countrymen who would subject them
to greater sacrifices, to any other humiliations
than those essentially necessary to the security
of the object for which they were thus sepera-
ted from their fellow citizens? Are their rights
alone not to be guaranteed by the application
of those great principles upon which all our
Constitutions are founded. We are told by
the greatest of British orators and statesmen,
that at the commencement of the War of the
Revolution, the most stupid men in England
spoke of "their American subjects" Are
there indeed citizens of any of our States who
have dreamed of their subjects in the District
of Columbia? Such dreams can never be real
lied by any agency of mine. The people of the
District of Columbia are not the subjects of
the people of the States, but free American
citizens. Being in the latter condition when
the Constitution was formed no words used in
that instrument could have been intended to
deprive them of that character. Ifthere is any
thing in the great principle of unalienable
rights, so emphatically insisted upon in our
Declaration of independence, they could nei-
ther make, nor the United States except, a
surrender of their liberties, and become the
subjects, in other words, the slaves of their for
mer fellow citizens.
If this be true, (and it will scarcely
be denied by any one who has correct idea
of his own rights as an American cltlZen,) the
grant to Congress of exclusive jurisdiction in
the District of Columbia can be interpreted, so
far as respects the aggregate people of the
United States, as meaning nothing more than
to allow to Congress the controlling power ne
cessary TO afford free and safe exercise of the
function assigned to the General Government
by the Constitution. In all other respects
the legislation of Congress should be adapted
to their peculiar position and wants, and be
conformable with their deliberate opinions o
their own interests.
| have spoken of the necessity of keeping
the respective departments of the Govern
ment, as we'll as all the otner authorities of oul
country, within their appropriate orbits. This
/ is matter of difficulty in some cases, as the
powers which they respectively claim are of
ten not defined by any distinct lines. Mis-
chievous, however in their tendencies, as col
issions of this kind may be, those which arise
between the respective communities which
for certain purposes, compose one nation, are
much more so; for no such nation can long eX
ist without the careful culture of those feelings
of confidence and affection which are the eff
fective bonds of union between free and confed
E Grated States. Strong as is the tie of interest
it has been often found Intellectual. Men, blin
ded by their passions, have been known t.
adopt measures for their country in direct op
position to all the suggestions of policy. Th'
alternative then is to destroy or keep down
bad passion by creating and fostering goot
one; and this seems to be the corner stone upol
which our American political architects hav'
reared the fabric of our Government Th
cement which was to bind it, and perpetuat
: its existence, was the affectonate attachmen