The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-03-10

sophy TO be despised figd, who could walk un-
moved over any place dgni6sd by religion or liberty,
what must be thought of a people who would
lay sacregious hands upon political ed'fce, which
reared by pious architects and for whose sanc0y
poured forth the prayers of the oppressed and
All changes are dangerous for even those winch are
good lead to others that bad lfthere be any
qualities which Government needs, and upon
ch its and usefulness depend they ale per
manence, continuity, duration Aspiring to tie im-
mutabiity Of the Modes and Persians would almost
follow their example, and require that he who proposes
change the fundamental law should come into the
C. pito with halter round his neck SO that II ms
amendment were rejected he might be punished for
his rashness in presuming to alter CONSTITUTION
which wiser had framed.
Mr. Chairman: We are told that the Veto power
| is the monarchca feature of our Government. One
of the Senators from Kentucky, (Mr. Clay, has sg-
matised 1t as the one man Potosr when should Dc I'M
mediately swept from the Constitution. Upon this
take issue. Who is the President of the United
States Is he private person, whose individual will
is the law of the nation3 Is he placed in bis high
station by descent chance2 Is he not elected by
the fee OF majority of the people ofthe United
States Heis the Constitutional organ OF the whole
country and in his person Embodied the sentiments
OF the u non. Members of Congress are chosen from
personal popularity private interest, and variety OF
local causes; the Chief Magistrate is elected excu-
sively with view TO his opinions upon those great
questions of public policy that divide parties and ag
tate the Union. He is in peculiar and emphatic
sense the representative OF the nation anu until tne
people express different opinion at the polls, his
is the voice of the country Before treacheIy
is imputed the elected good faith should be observed
by the electors. After having voted for President
and Vice President, who was not fairly committed
upon hat is now pronounced their cardinal measure
portion of the Wing members of Congress arraign
the Chief Magistrate for the violation of pledges which
he made and not satisfied with the destruction
of thei party threaten to destroy the Consti
ton of their country. | am amazed the folly by
hole mo he tn the
| end, marked. l am alarmed at the extent to
which every thing in Congress is made to bend to the
succession. | am startled al the radical and dsorga-
nzing doctrines the majority has espoused and which
are in ill accordance with the conservative principles
it has heretofore protested. The question is, not
how the Constitution shall be construed, but whether
it shall be suffered to stand not how the Government
shall be administered but whether its foundation shall
be undermined. At such juncture scorn to min
gle in the squabbes of party or bndly follow the for
tunes Of any political leader | unfold the broad ban
ner of the Constitution and beneath its ample folds in
ve the honest and patriotic of all parties TO rally
| And amidst the stars and stripes with which it is
adorned, let those words dear to every American heart
be inscribed in letters Of living light: TIE CON
| STITUTION AS 1T is, LET 1T STAND
NOW AND FOREVER
Mr.. Chairman: They who look only at the sur
face Of things and easily led astray by appear
ances, are fond of drawing comparison between Eng
land and America and contrasting the disuse of the
Veto in that country with its frequent exercise in
this 1t is true that no King of England has exerted
this high prerogative since the reign of William III
The Majesty of Britain sits upon the throne by he
reditay right and not by election from the people
Sometimes man and sometimes woman at one Pc
Rod infant and at another dotard, the Executive
of that country has but little acquaintance with the
interests less sympathy with the feelings and
sponsbilty to the opinions of the people. If his mega
tive could forbid the passage of laws by the epresen-
tatives of the peOp e, the will of one man would IN
deed prevail against the voice of the nation. His pow
in ia K
erted. He is mere pageant to whom is entrusted
that power which must be deposited somewhere, but
who, he is not responsible for his acs of course
not allowed to be free agent who cannot select his
own minister's and who, although he has the right Of
using the sword, finds that without the purse, which
the people keep in their own grasp it falls from his
nerveless hand. The Parliament has found it very
convenient to leave unimpaired such prerOgatves as
are necessary for the harmless splendor Of royalty
but has always frowned upon the exercise OF pow
er which might deny their own omnipotence All
the most celebrated writers the Constitution have
declared that the beauty of the system in theory and
its excellence in practice, consist in preserving the
long established powers of each department I'M
impaired and preventing from encroachine
b upon the other. De Lolme will show that power
$ parcelled out and diffused is never so well sup
1 pressed and regulated as when it is confined to 9
sole indvisible seat which keeps the nation united
and awake that names do not alter things, and thai
the representatives of the people, when invested with
independent authority, will become their masters
}
when the ramparts of the Constitution broken
down by the Long Parliament, when Church and
State overturned when the evils were aggavat
ed which the reformers pretended to remedy and when
the same who until that lime, had talked of no
thing but the liberty and the great charter openly
: trampled both under foot The President of the
Q United States differs from British Royalty in the
tenure of his Office in his political responsibility and
in being substantive department. coordinate with
t each of the others, and check upon BOTH That
which the British government was designed to be In
theory, proved to he in practice; government
secured by the balance of power and the balance OF
interest. The noble panygeric which Sir William
Blackstone prOnounces upon the checks of the British
Constitution, and which has been declared by an
able writer to be fabulous invention, and a mytho-
logical account if not faithful picture of the English
Monarchy, at least accurate portrait of
f Republican Government. In that immortal fabric OF
wisdom which reared by the Federal Constitution
which will forever stand monument of the pa
trotlsm and foresight Of its founders and which
+ tans within itself cement that hardens with time
9 the world behold the achievement of work which
the philosophers and statesmen of other chimes and
| ages had only fancied and dreamed of Here is a
civil policy which supports and is supported-regu-
lates and is regulated by he rest and where, in the
t language of the commentators the several depart
ments like three distinct powers in mechanics, impe
: the machine of government in different direction
from each and partakng of ala direction which
sutes the true line of the liberty and happiness Of
2 the community. After it has passed through the
stormy tests and trials of more than huff
tury after it has whstood the assaults of local ea
lousy personal ambition, sectional hate domestic dis
sensons and foreign hostility let not be undermined
. by the dangerous hand of innovation. Let not its
friends and the friends of freedom be reduced to the
ptiabe condition of the Hollander, who trusting to
the national mounds looks unmoved upon the rising
eurge and raging storm, but shoulders at the worm
that penetrates the Dykes which alone protect his
j Ecountry from the foamng ocean.
!. Mr. Chairman: The basis of all free government
the entire separation of the different branches OF
which it is composed. In spite of the chimerical
dreams and Utopian plans of those who have labored
to draw the picture Ct perfect Commonwealth; in