The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-08-13
THE CAUCUs-MR. ADAMS.

THE CAUCUS-MR. ADAMS.
We would rejoice, were we able to answer,
satisfactorily, repeated heterogeneous put to us
respecting Congress, but we cannot deceive
ourself, and would not deceive the People.
Long will be remembered, In the history of this
Government, the Caucus meeting of Tuesday
night and the time will come when the actors
in that midnight concave will look upon their
transactions with shame and disgust, while the
People of these great States will hold them in
as much adherence as we now do the members
of the celebrated Hartford Convention. Theya
have run to the brink Of the precipice with SO
much impetuosity that they cannot save them
selves, but must tumble head-long into the gulf
below, victims of their own foly-a prey to their
own weakness.
1t was on Tuesday night that many of the
majority were ready and'willing to abandon the
reckless game of hazard at which they have
been so long playing. On that night many
were DESTROYS ofrelinquishing the furious course
of dest roying one President to make ano-
ther, but there was no kind hand and strong
arm to save them from their friends. They he
STATED at the threshold of the gloomy pit, only
to be pulled in by the 6 iron rule" of their asso
ciatss, to which rule they had foolishly bound
themselves in moment of thoughtless phrensy.
The Veto was the topic Of discussion, and in
the nefarous determination to pull down the
temple about their own ears, it was resolved
that the Hon. Mr.. Adams should assail the Pre-
sident with all the eloquent fury for which
and almost for which alone, at the present day
he is so famous should move reference TO
committee, and call the previous question. No
friend of the Executive was to be permitted to
meet the wholesale denunciations of the EXPIRE
sident The liberty of speech was to be cut off
entirely, and by one, who during the present
session, has shrunk from being the victim him
self. Such was the determination of king eau
Gus, and ii was carried into effect in the House
the next day.
1t is but short time since Mr.. Adams was
called to the bar of the House for an alleged at
tempt to destroy the Government, and he then
inveighed with all his oratory, against being
deprived iof the right of speaking in his own
defence. But the tables are turned, and instead
the ex-President, the actual President is thus
arraigned, tried, and his friends gagged. The
gentleman, who was so bitter when charges
were made against himself, now rolls up his
sleeves, unbuttons his collar, binds the victim
on the altar of political phrensy, seizes the sa-
CRITICAL knife and performs the horrid rites COM
mitted to his hands as grand executioner.
The friends of the President attempt to Gu t
the cords and rescue the head of the nation,
but they are driven away and beaten down by
numbers They demand the right to be heard,
but the executioner, who has but just escaped
from similar predicament, lifts the axe in
their faces, and exults at the sanguinary plea
sures of his occupation, while the members of
the Caucus surround and protect him in. his
Fredericksburg recreation.
Not man of the Guard could be heard
The voice of justice in vain craved an hours
delay. "No! no no" rung through the Hall.
"We are the majority-we will do as we
please" The altar was ready, the fire was
kndled, and no time allowed but he who stood
accuser, stood also an advocate for the accusa-
ton judge, jury and executioner Not only
so, but, by exceeding adroitness, he contrived
to perform all these Offices in the same breath /;
and, before he closed, finished the grand design
for which he was selected but the night before.
What picture, this, to go before the Ameri-
can public What gloomy page in the his
tory of this country, for children to gaze up
on hereafter! What dark spot of factious
fanaticism to be unroed to the anxious and
Jealous gaze of foreign monarchies
But the grand actor gives an excuse for his
deed, and it is simply because this Congress IS
not responsible to the People, and can do as
they please Mr.. Adams said:
'Now, this Congress had, at best, but short time
to live on the third of March it dies at that
day every man here will be politically dead, save the
comparatively few who shall be reelected What
are to lose Our seats in this House 1t is very
possible, know, that shall lose mine"
care you appa these gentlemen with threats of re-
sponsibity and tremendous reckoning before the
people 2"
Acknowledging that their acts will destroy
them with the People, still they persist in in
ving that destruction. Acknowledging, also,
that all this is done for the purpose of assisting
Mr. Clay to the Presidential chair. they are
ready 10 make the Constitution dead letter.
because they are not responsible
Under the deluson of responsibility, they
- strike at the very foundation Of the Government
and would blot the history of the glorious past
from the book of nations, that under a new form
of consolidation and anarchy, one man may OBJ
tain the seat to which he has been aiming for
the last twenty-five years. They openly de-
clare, by proposed total alteration of the Con-
stitution, that this free Government has existed
long enough and that Republic is thing of
constant mutability. Knowing that the People
will never consent to embrace their views, they
assume the responsibility Of DESTROYING, while