The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-02-12
THE ADMINISTRATION PARTY.

THE ADMINISTRATION PARTY.
Under every form of Government in which
freedom of thought and freedom of speech are
left untrammelled by tyrannical restrictions,
different opinions will be necessarily held and
expressed with respect to the measures which
should be adopted for promoting the common
welfare. The friendsand opponents ofthe various
measures proposed will consequently be arrayed
into opposing parties. Mutifarious minor divi-
sions may be produced by sectional prejudices
and sectional interests but all the discordant
elements will always be aggregated into two
grand parties-the one composed of the friends
OF the Administration, the other Of its oppo
nents. This term has, however, been some
times employed in different senses. "The ad-
ministration of Government, in its largest
sense, comprehends all the operations of the
body polite, whether Legislative, Executive, or
Judiciary but in its most usual, and perhaps in
its most precise Specification, it is limited to Ex
ecutive details, and falls peculiarly within the
Executive Department. The actual conduct of
foreign negotiations, the preparatory plans of
finance, the application and disbursement of the
public moneys in conformity to the general ap-
preparations of the Legislature, the arrangement
of the Army and Navy, the direction of the
operations of war-these, and other matters of
like nature, constitute what seems to be most
properly understood by the administration Of
| Government" In the last and usual sense we
employ the term The measures and conduct
of the Executive divide opinions and give orr
gin to parties He proposes measures for legis-
lative action; he is vested with a controlling
voice in the passage of laws, and he is intrust-
ed with the duty of seeing those laws exc
cuted. He is clothed with prominent powers
and placed in prominent position. The mem
bers of the two legislative bodies are chosen
with reference to their approval or disarproval of
his course. Indifference to his conduct must be
impossible. Every man in the country, if he
regard at all the good of the country, must be a
party MANN the moderate sense of the term
must be friend or an opponent of the Admin
istration. He must condemn or approve He
will, according to the opinion formed of the
course pursued by the President, vote for the
member of Congress who will be friend of the
| lllCdSuICS VI TIC ICSluCut, Vi lOI OuC WIN Will
oppose them. From the very nature of our in
situations there must be-call them by whal
name you please-an Administration party and
an anti-A Administration party. Ingenuity may be
exerted to find designations for both-motives oil
varied character may induce the assumption OF
a name by one side, while it endeavors to fix
another appellation on its opponents; but be the
names what you choose, the things named are
always the same-one party is friendly tc
the Administration, and the other opposed to
it. On no other principle can parties divi-
ding the people really be formed. No
matter how numerous the cohorts into which
differences of opinion may divide the great mass
of the people-the smaller divisions unite inva-
riably into two grand armies maintaining anita
gonist doctrines in relation to the measures of
the Administration. This position is incontro-
vertibe. Whatever, therefore, may be the
stand taken by the political combatants at the
present moment the issue must come, and come
soon, that the present Administration will be
identified with one party supporting its mea-
sures, and ASSOCIATED from those who are op-
posed to the principles and its policy. The re.
suit is inevitable. Ultimately there can be but
two parties A struggle for the ascendancy has
been maintained for years between the two par
| ties which have divided the whole nation. 1t
has terminated finally in the elevation of our
present Chief Magistrate, by an act of God, to
the place he holds Under the circumstances OF
his election, he was pledged to neither of the
great contending parties. He reached his pre-
sent position in the independent attitude of one
who was left to the unshackled dictates
of his own conscience as his guide in
the measures he would sanction. His prn-
ciples were well known; and from his past pro-
LESSONS, ii is not difficult to Judge what will be
his future course. From the past, all will be
able determine whether they agree with him
in the views he deems beneficial to the country
1t will be easy to decide from his future acts
whether they will think themselves justifabIe
in adhering to the party which will support him.
We will continue the subject in our next
PROVIDENTIAL INTERRUPTIONS OF THE
~ MAIL.