The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-08-10
From The ~ V Union.
THE HON. n. Z. TALLMADGE, SENATOR
IN CONGRESS FROM NEW YORK

SIR: 1t Is always symptom of an alarming crisis
when the busy citizen Is Oh turb d from has labor To
inquire into the administration OF public aflirs. Ii
such crisis that leaving the plough IN the half
finished iurrJw, demanded the aid al Bunker lIll OF
the sineAy hand that held it, The sober farmer, the
merchant the ingenious artisan, and the indus
rious of all elias are content 10 leave the affairs OF
Government to the guidance of ambitious and wordy
politicians, SO long they do not seriously disturb
the general prosperity and do not materially interfere
with individual interests But when trade stagnates
when the hand of industry is paIalyzed; when pro.
perry to be valuable and lie itself, under IN
cessant evils, becomes an intoerable burden; when
too Iemonstrance has followed com daint, aud indg-
nation has followed both, without any perceptlble ei
feet upon the councils OF the nation natural that
the people should abandon for time their now fruit
less avocatons, and call to an account the servants
who have wasted their substance.
II is Lord Bolngbroke, think, who says shat the
party which maintains distinctions, where there Is no
difference of principle, to be party, and be-
comes faction. National interests are sacrificed
and made subordinate 10 personal considerations d.
visions fmened for the worst designs, either 10
invade the liberties of the people which the utmost
lniquty To distract the movements of the various
branches of government, which is the utmost folly"
Whether parties in this country have thus degraded
themselves into factions, and whether you from whom
the country had right to expect once heretofore
they have received, magnanmousiy, different exam
pie have, this occasion, assisted In that degrade
ton, leave for public opinion, aad your own con.
science to decide. The characteristics of faction
are that disregards the public good 1t bears every
evil causes, without an attempt at remedy II is so
AFFORDED IN its own mad passion as 10 be indifferent
To the spolS which the rum II the country
throws in lis way and It is eher blind to that ruin
or ustiiies II upon the ground OF mutual hatred and
revenge. You, sir, while this ruin has fallen, and
continued upon u.s. whether caused by factions not
while your country is bleeding at every pore, while
the constituency of the noble State you represent
crushed to the dust have folded your Senatorial robes
around you and have looked with your teow-Sena-
tors and the members OF the other House, for
months upon the work of destruction that has been
going on with at least an apparent indifference. am
you do not wish To escape individual Responsible
IT, aud the country holds all to fearful retrlbution
who have forgotten that they have country to
rather than passion to pamper and public good TO
promote rather than private position to MAINTAIN.
In addressing you do not mean to imply that you
are peculiarly censurable; the contrary, it is
belief inspired by your enlightened and patriotic
duct, former occasions, that leads me to select
you, more open than most politicians to the con-
victons of duty when coming IN conflict with the
preiudces of party, with strong hope of Impress
ing you, and a fainter hope of impressng others,
with some sense of dereliction of that duty in the
present crisis of public affairs.
The Wing party into power with over
whelming majority, procured by promises and smu-
lated by expectations, beyond the reach of human
energy to fulfil. The country, reduced by misrule
to the utmost extremity of Distress relied on sudden
relief several important measures which need not
specify, were introduced into Congress for this pur-
pose and one of them was so modhed-with what
motive will not stop to inqure-as not to meet with
the sanction of the President The question of the
currency therefore, remained and still remains
settled but the misfortune IS, that this disagreement
ON this and some other Il. fling points between the
ordinate branches OF the government has put all the
elements of party dlscord INTO violent commotlon,
forced them into new combinations, and, while the
and yln1IctIye thus eupeuuprpd \
raging and those branches are continually making
points with each other, the country and ITS suffering
are lost sight ofthe army and navy, with all their
thousand dependencies, allowed to languish-the
channels Of the currency which should float the pro-
auctions of prosperous millions, are permitted to dry
up-and the revenue, whose only burden should be
to carry the public credit, is made pack-horse for
local and temporary projects And SIR, what Is most
appalling this state Of things is sustained by steady
maority-small it is true, but not the less pertina-
cols-in the representatives OF the people, against
their interests and in violation OF their repeated re-
menstrances. Sir, | fear maJorlties, when they re-
present parties that have degeneratcd into factions
Their tyranny is bitter than that of the most
absolute despotism; for 1t proscribes the person
though it may spare the life and il sacrifices nte
rests though it may not coniscate property and the
citizen-vctim may sorrowfuy eXcaim, with the dis
consulate Jew
g You take my life,
When you do take the means whereby live"
This tyranny is the more to be dreaded because it
affects masses rather than individuals and surely
that oppression which sends an offending individual
10 the deserts of Siberia is less disastrous its eff
fccts than that which converts whole country into
such desert. 1t is this tyranny that has made the
South American republics the worst despotisms in
the world and has desolatcd those countries, while
Russia hourshes under the government of an lndyl-
dual despot 1t is against this tyranny that Washing
ton has warned and is this the evils of which JEFF
ferson foresaw and was the fear Of IT that induced
the States of this Union to retain thersovereignucs, TO
guard against consolidation, and to make their Con-
sttution a compact From the first organization of
the Cove nment down to the present day. success
sion of enlightened statesmen and patriots have fore
seen a tendency to this evil and raised their warn
ing voice in time to prevent the contamination of
ruin and indeed never have ITS dangers been more
viydly portrayed nor the checks provided in the
Constitution against them been more distinctly point
ed out the consequences OF yielding to them been
more eloquerty described, than by an eminent mod
ern statesman now at the head of one of our most
important Executive departments. alude to Judge
Upshur, Secretary of the Navy. In his very able
work entitled, "a brief inquiry into the n9ture and
character Of oar Federal Government work which
evnces the clearest knowledge of the spirit of our
Government and breathes throughout the lotiest pa
trotism speaking of the tendency of our institutions
to consolidation, and to the tyranny of an rresponsi
bic majority, the eloquent writer remarks If that
majority find, either in the pursuit of their own
peculiar interests OF in the offices and emoluments
that flow from the patronage of the Government an
interest distinct from that of the minority they will
pursue that interest, and nothing will be left to the
minority but the poor privilege of complaining
Thus the government becomes tyrannous and OPP
pressyc and instead of the enlarged and general IN
terest which should check and restrain it, peculiar
interest is enlisted to extend its powers and sustain its
abuses Public virtue and intelligence avail little,
in such a condition of things as this; that virtue
falls before the temptations of interest which you
present to it, and that intelligence thus deprived of its
encouraging hopes serves only to point out new OBJ
ects of unlawful pursuit, and suggest new and baser
methods of attaining them" Again ''under such
system as this, ii Is cruel mockery to talk of the
rights of the minority If they possess rights, they