The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-11-13

nowned instance Of the magnanimous subsection OF
private opinions and wishes TO constitutional duty
| In those cases in which Mr.. Tyler's course
has been unfavorably contrasted with Mr.. Madi-
sons and Mr.. Leigh's, the writer must certainly
claim the privilege of enjoying his own opinion
We believe the people of Virginia and Of the
United States, in the instance inwhich a compa-
rison ofcondnct between Mr.. Leigh and the Presi-
dent is drawn, have thought, and still think other
wise. Mr. Leigh, for the sake Of making speech,
(unless we do that gentleman great injustice
remained in his seat some three or four months
longer than Mr.. Tyler occupied his place, and
just sufficiently long to deny the right OF IN
struction, without any practical benefit to the
Union we conceive, anil to crush the Wing
parry in the State Of Virginia. Mr.. Tyler, apart
from his belief in the justice and efficiency and
his uniform advocacy Of the doctrine ofthe right
Of instruction, had pride which led him to
throw off the Senatorial mantle, and all the no
nor and dignity it involves, without moments
hesitation, although then wretchedly poor, and
return to the practice of the law, in the State of
Virginia, as common attorney, rather than be
regarded by any man as an ambassador to the
great Congress Of the nation at Washington,
without full credentials as to his being, in point
of actual fact the proud representative of that
noble State. He had northe slightest intention OF
re-paying the gratitude which he owed his ever
trustful State from whose breast he had derived
the political nutriment which had strengthened
him into proud political manhood, by refusing
fur her Ill II
less to oppose their consummation We recon-
mend Mr.. Tyler's letter of resignation, Of his
Senatorial office, to the writer writers for the
New World.
In the instance in which he is unfavorably
contrasted with Mr. Madison, we will remark
that, in the first place, Mr.. Madison had changed
his opinions about the constiutionality Of "a Bank
before he consented to sign the bill. But for
this change of opinion, could any one have
been an apologist for Mr. Madison's course P
Does not this change ofopinion, from long pre-
viously entertained and expressed opinions
about the constitutionality of the Bank, for more
than forty years, require sufficient argument to
prove the honesty of the change of sentiment, or
an apology for the change, from Mr.. Madison
himself. Certainly this distinguished man, him
self, thought so, and he accordingly gave his
reasons for his change of opinion. These rea-
sons, founded, for the most part, in supposed
erpediency and the certain popularity of the
measure, in his day, do not prevail mow, in any
| force. Mr.. Tyler has not, and declares he
cannot change his long cherished and Of
ten expressed opinions, upon the ques-
ton of federal banking; and, certainly, in
the aspect of the times, the reasons, ope-
rating change in Mr.. Madison, could not
influence him to change of sentiment, but, on
the contrary, must strengthen and rivet his pre-
vfously entertained opinions. Since Mr.. Madi-
sons change of opinion, the present President
has expressed the same opinions which Mr..
Madison formerly held, and it is entirely doubt
full question whether we shall most admire the
| for bank. One fact is certain. For forty
years Mr.. Madison thought bank unconstitu-
tional. Afterward, and for reasons, the adverse
of which now exist in the country, he thought
differently. Was the President to consult the
mere fact of Mr.. Madison's change Of opinion,
or the reasons of his change? Doing this, and
finding that no argument, which Mr.. Madison
urged, has now any strength, is it not fair to
presume that Mr.. Madison, himself, in the posi-
ton of the present President, would have pur-
sued the same course2 Mr.. Madison was an
| honest man. The President is an honest man.
The writer for the New World must draw his
| inference.
We must be permitted to close our article by
remarking that although Mr.. Webster may pos
sess "vast intellectual supremacy" and Mr..
Clay may possess "lordly will" and both Of
these gentlemen "may look like the disrobed
figures of heroes, naked of circumstance" Ito
quote the writer's language,) yet in the fact that
whatever the President has done, he has always
ably done, in the capacity of discerning right
from wrong and good from evil, which he emf
nendy possesses, in the great self-command
which he exercises, in his acknowledged sagaci-
ty and in his knowledge of men, in the lofty
courtesy of his demeanor, which the highest in
tellect can only command, in the enjoyment of
those virtues which fill us with admiration, and
in the possession Of an iron nerve, which never
shrinks from any contest however perilous, if it
involves his love of country or his own honor
and dignity,--in this faithful picture of his ma
ture we behold character which we would not
be willing to exchange for any mere "intellectu-
al supremacy" much less for the nhammatory
intellect, the demagogical spirit and the arrogant
and dctatoral intolerance of Mr.. Clay.
REFORM.
Much is said of reform, and without doubt
there is room for it, Yet reforms to be of ser