The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-04-30
MIR. BADGER.
" Time has been that when the brains were OUT
The man has died and that the end on't.'

We had scarcely SuppOSeu, iloh o"o"' -
,onal acquaintance with Mr.. ex-Secretary OF
War Badger, that he was so DESTROYS OF noto"l-
ety as 10 be continually thrusting himself and
the odor of odium which he constantly bears
with him, under the unwilling nose OF thecoun-
try. But we recollect the old maxim "that
whom God intends to destroy, he first makes
mad,n and we consequently withhold our asto-
nishment at our mistake The up-swelling voice
of this worthy gentleman
(" Now mournful as some plaintive soft-toned dove,
Now raging loudly at the bowling Storm"
accordingly as he bewais his hapless lot in being
to lose the six thousand dollars per
annnm and the dignity of a Cabinet appoint
ment, or as he pours forth his angry denuncia-
tons on the head of the President, or sounds
The clarion of imaginary victories to be obtained
at some future indefinite time by some future
indefinite means, has again risen upon the gale,
and been waited from that assemblage OF lndig-
nant patriot spirits composing the North Carroll
ma Convention to our unpalriotic and rery
treacherous loss. Heavens, how they Jingle
But, to be little serious, why cannot MIR.
Clay's other friends prevail on the learned ex-
Secretary to hold his rafting tongue. We
know it is with extreme difficulty that the more
knowing ones of the faction can control Mr..
Clay in his indiscretions and prevent him from
committing political suicide through his lmpru-
dences. But, when Mr.. Badger takes up the
echo of Mr.. Clay's incongruilies and absurdities
L. H.
tent, heightens that distinguished statesman's
tollies, and even, if possible, adds to the folly
of his own previous course. Witness, for IN
stance, the refusal very generally on the part OF
the Clay press 10 publish the Alexandria letter,
vet the orator the North Carolina Convention
spoils all, bv an iteration to certain extent, OF
Mr. Clay's angry and graceless denunciaton OF
the Chief Magistrate. The country has been
deceived, and disaster has overtaken it, because
of the {" taiMlessness" Of the President? Why
not have declared at once C one ro,urdo" that
the President "was weak, vacillating and faith
less" But how does Mr.. Badger sustain his
charge Of faithlessness on the part Of the Presi-
dent2 Let us see. Here is an extract from the
speech itself to sustain the grave charge
of treason 1.-The Extra session closed in
gloom and dependency. And he (Mr. Bad
ger) must be permitted to say that he regret
ted deeply, that our Wing friends in Con-
gress did not take up and pass the bill to
establish Fiscal Bank recommended by Mr..
Ewing, then Secretary of the Treasury AS a
matter of policy in this instance, he thought
the Wings had acted INJUDICIOUSLY"
What do you confess to this extract, Mr..
Badger? Pray now, to come to point, and
we congratulate ourselves upon the issue, why
was not Mr.. Ewing's bill taken up and passed
Was it not secuted at and despised from the
first moment of its development? Was it not
pronounced, at the very moment OF It's lntroduc
ton into the Senate chamber, thing, rick
ety thing Z. In the expressive language of the
Kentucky statesman, We thank thee, Jew,
for teaching US this word" Was not the
fact of Mr.. Clays opposition to it, the cause of
its rejection by the Wing party Are not all the
difficulties which have grown up in the Wing
party since that day traceable to this cause
Here, then, is the secret of the coultry's dis
tress-a confession from the lips of the enemy
himself Mr.. Clay was enabled through the
operation of the Caucus system, which we have
denounced, to control a majority of the Wing
members of Congress- This majority controlled
the whole body of Wing representation, the
minority possessed ofgood feelings and patriotic
interests, but yielding their better judgments to
the blind and exacting will Of the majority
A. hot hp-
comes of the charge of treachery Illuminated
against the President? The Wings acted IN
judiciously it seems, and because the President
would not yield to The same iryudicious con-
sderations he is traitor to the country.
Mr.. Badger opens his speech with eulogy
on General Harrison. We concur heartily, not
in the disgusting political designation of the
euogy, but in the terms of praise bestowed on
the character and virtues of the lamented late
President Harrison. He was an honest man,
.the noblest work of God" But if Mr. Badger
means to charge the memory of General Harri-
son, as he but too plainly does, with the odium Of
an intention, if he had lived, of administering
this Government upon partisan principles, fol
the benefit IN future of Mr.. Clay, we Indignantly
hur back the charge in the face of the man who
| makes it, General Harrison was our friend and
political leader in great and absorbing struggle
for the Presidency and we insist peremptorily
upon an admission of his honesty and virtue
and deny that he would have pursued any othel
course than what a patriotic Chief Magistrate
and high-souled gentleman would have fol
lowed. And we may add now, what il
our honest conviction, that if General Har
rison had lived, Mr.. Tyler and Mr.. Web
ster, during his entire term, would have
been found sustaining his firm, moderate
Identified Republican Administration, and Mr.