The Yazoo Whig and political register. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1840-1842, 1842-04-29

this vast continent nave had cordial, warm
hearted and devoted friends, who have long
known me and justly appreciated my motives.
To them, If language were susceptible of
fully expressing my acknowledgement
would offer them all the return have now
to make for their genuine, disinterested and
persevering fidelity and devoted attachment
But if l fail in suitable language to express
my gratitude to them for all the Kindness they
have shown me-what shall say-what can
say, at all commensurate with those feel.
ings of gratitude which ! owe to the State
whose humble representative and servant I
have been in this Chamber? Here Mr.. C.'s
feelings appeared to oVerpOwer him, and he
proceeded with deep sensibility and with diff
6cult utteTance.
I emigrated from Virginia to the State of
Kentucky now nearly fOrty-fve wears ago !;
went as an orphan who had not yet attain
ed the age of maiority-Who had never re-
cognised fathers smile nor felt his caresses;
-pennyless-Without the favour of the
great-with an imperfect and inadequate ed
ucatiOn, limited to the ordinary business and
common pursuits Of life; but scarce had l
set my foot upon her soil when / was seized
and embraced with parental fondness, caress-
ed as though had been favorite child, and
patronized with liberal and unbounded mu-
nifcence. From that period the highest ho-
nors Of the State have been freely bestowed
upon me; and afterward, in the darkest hour
Of calumny and detraction, when l seemed
to be forsaken by all the rest of the world she
threw her broad and impenetrable shield
around me, and, bearing me up aloft in her
courageous arms, repealed the poisoned shafts
that were aimed at my destruction, and vim
dictated my good cause from every false and
unfounded assault.
But the ingenuity of my assailants is never
exhausted, and it seems have subjected N.Y.
self to a new epithet; which / do not know
whethe: it should be taken in honor or dero-
CATION: l am held up to the country as a
Dictator A dictator! The idea of dicta-
torship is drawn from Roman institutions
and at the time the Office was created, the
individual who then welded the tremendous
weight Of authority il conferred, cOncentra-
ted in his own person an absolute power over
the lives and properties of his fellow citizens;
he could raise armies; he could build q man
naVies; he could levy taxes at VIII, and raise
any amount of revenue he might choose to
demand; and life and death rested on his fiat.
If had been a dictator, as / am said to have
been, where is the power with which / was
clothed? Had | any army! any navy? any
revenue? any patronage? in a word, any
power whatever? If had been dictator,
think that even those who have the most
freely applied to me the appellation must be
compelled to make two admissions: first, that
the dictatorship has been distinguished by no
cruel executions. stained by no blood nor soil
ed by no act of dishonor; and, in the second
place, think they must own though | do
not exactly know what date my mission of
dictator bears-I imagine, however, 1t must
have commenced with the extra SESSION. that
if did usurp the power of dictator, at
least voluntarily surrendered 1t within shor-
ter period than was allotted for the duration
of the dictatorship Of the Roman Common
wealth.
If to have sought, atthe extra session and
at the present, by the cooperation OF my
friends, to carry out the great measures IN
tended by the popular majority OF l84O, and
to have desired that they should all have been
adopted and executed; if to have anxlously
desired to see a disordered currency regula-
ted and restored, and irregular exchanges
equalized and adjusted; if to have laboured
| to replenish the empty Golfers Of the Treasury
! by suitable duties; if to have endeavored to
extend relief to the unfortunate bankrupts OF
the country, who had been ruined in great
measure by the erroneous policy, az we be-
! lieved, of this government; IT to seek to IL
nit, circumscribe, and retain Executive au-
thority; if to retrench unnecessary expendi-
ture and abolish useless offices and lnstltu-
tons if, whilst the public honor is preserved
untarnished by supplying revenue adequate
to meet the national engagements, incidental
profession can be afforded to the national in
dustry; if to entertain an ardent sollcltude
to redeem every pledge and execute every
promise fairly made by my political friends
with view to the acquisition OF power from
the hands of an honest and confidential peo-
people; if these objects constitute man a
DICTATOR, why, then, suppose | must be
contented to bear. although | still only share
with my friends, the odium or the honor Of
the epithet, as it may be considered on the
one hand or the other.
That my nature is warm, my temper ardent,
my disposition, especially in relation to the
! public service, enthusiastic, am fully ready
to own; and those who suppose that have
been assuming the dictatorship, have only
mistaken for arrogance or assumption thai
ferVent ardor and devotion which is nstura