Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1841-07-20
POLITICAL.
TnE PEXNY- POsTMAN-lN

IN Joux Tyirn. lice. President Of tie United States
Sir: believe-at least, hope-that you are a man
of too much good 10 take offence al being al
dressed by your true and proper tte even by 50 num-
bic fellow citizen enny-Postman That am
prompted by neither discourteons an unfrendly
spirit YOU WILL trust, be sufficiently satisfied before
we part Others may covertly insult you, by suppos-
ing that title which YOU have really no constu
tlonal nor legal right, will crafty SILLY vanity which
tie presumption III truth lmputes to You Others may
have been actuated in thrustlng upon you the name
and the office of "thc President, by obvious motives
Of interest to which scarcely conceive you TO be
entirely blind II there any lack OF The former
class Of obseGuious about person, dcsps
ino while they flaiter catering because they de-
spise it would be the first instance IN the annals OF
palaces of such phenomenon. And 1t on the other
hand the great rivals IN your own party, .os the
succession to the h with ell their friends
and partizans nv whom you surrounded, were
sensible 10 the Importance OF insisting on your beng
full "Presdent n0'e, to exclude you IRON any
future competition with their own aspirations, oy BRING
ing YOU within the application Ut the new.iashioned
zone term principle al which we have lately heard so
much they would r;i. belle their weli-earnec charac
tiers for quckuess the perception Of the interest OF
their immediate personal ambition, and for an equal
unscrupuousness 10 means IN lis pursuit l. SIR, am
neither false friend aerer; and Will therefore pay
you the higher respect, and perhaps the truer service
by addressing you simply By that inferior title which
alone you can have proper right to ciatn
That YOU should have thus allowed your own better
Judgment be msled in adopting the style and title
OF sthe President by Difference TO the opinions OF
Others whose sincerity whose disnterestedness IN
this counsel might well have been an object of just
suspicion you is indeed matter OF some surprise to
me will not believe that you aided to mslead your
self under unconscious influence OF petty pride
Of official dignity, alike unworthy oil your position ana
of your character If you induced to believe
that CHEST Of all the titles of emnence known to the
political institutions Of nations, the "PEEsiDEST OF
THE UNITED STATES, really and rghtiully yours, by
the Constitution of your country, and the VIII OF your
countrymen, | will not believe that il was because
.'1'he will father, Harry, 10 the thought.''
will do you The justice of presumng, that twas more
probably from unwi!lingness to appear disposed to
place Yourself directly the attitude OF Tresiden
lal candidate for lSiI-an attitude which would seem
inseparahe from the position ola Vice President call
ed discharge the Presidential duties under such cir
cumstaaces while at the same time calculated serious
" perhaps 10 cubarrass your administration, by pro-
vokng the jealousy and hostility Of the two leading
members OF your own party already referred to-
SCch was probably your motive "r perhaps, It was
a mixture Of all those TO which have alluded How
ever as your first step in your new position, 1t
was pity that il false one. The argument IS
exceedingly simple The clause Of the Constitution,
in which resides your right TO The seat you now fill IS
in the following terms
ain Of the removal Of the President IRON ONCE
Of hs DEATH resignation inability to discharge The
powers and duties o the SAID Office, the same shall de-
solve on the Wee President
The only question here Is TO which of the two an
tecedens admitted by the structure of the sentence,
the relative term 0,he same Is applicabe-to the
words the Office TO the words "the powers and
duties If TO the former, YOU now, Mr. Webster
and Mr. Clay have desired To make you-as you have
yourself assumed 10 be--and as the political favor OF
one portion and the personal courtesy OF the other,
of both branches of Congress have recognised you
in fact, and in name, BY full and perfect right and
title "rHE PRESIDENT" If 10 the latter you still
tha, which the will Of the people created you, The Tie
Presidea,-although the wall Of st'll higher power
has called into existence the contingency PROVIDED Tor
the above clause IN which, by virtue OF that capa-
city, the 'powers and duties OF the Presidential office
,irvolvc upon you. The grammatical construction ofthe
sentence Will equally admit either alternative IL, IN
the former case, be argued that the word coffee IS
fh nearest anecedent the other hand the latter,
Che words powers and duties constitute the main and
primary member Of the expression, the words "the SAID
Office being but secondary and dependent upon them
through the agency ofthe connecting proposition Vow,
the fact that among the several contingencies covered hy
the clause which the disabtv oil Tue ircsiaei,
NAV be merely temporary surely decisive OF the ques
ton against the Interpretation on which you have been
led to act The "nabiy provided against may he
caused by mental physical disease from which the
President may recover. You will scarcely contend,
that he would cease during that interval to be the
President, that he would he bound 10 wi'hara"
frol, the occupancy of the Presidential palace, tfor
il is, regre, 10 say, paace,)-or that there would
be any interInssian of his right 10 the full fru'ton
OF The Presidential salary Still less would you man
tain the absurdity that there could be two " fres
dents IN existence at one and the same time, each
entitled the honorable designation of the Office and
requiring double appropriation of IFS salary; nor 1t
mn incumbent had ceased to be "the President, by !
the constitutional transmission of .the said office To
the Vice President, that he could resume the Office
thus vacated, that he could recover the virtue thus
gone out of him. by any other process than that of po
pular election. And yet all these consequences are
clearly involved your present assumption of the of
flee and title to which you not elected by the PEG
pie
now fiji, instead of having been called 10 receive in
Heaven the reward Of blameess and vlrtnous life
earth, were a, the present moment, simply in con-
d,on of "inabty TO discharge the powers and duties
If the said office, which might be but temporary IN IT'S
for example, he were insane, or in
state trance, or ca,aepsy, or in such condition oil