Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1844-02-22

VISION OF Congress. an Unconstitutional
and irresponsible Bank, with enormous
capital and overshadowing privileges
an institution. for the establishment OF
which all pretence has been removed by
the growing prosperity Of the country,
the increasing soundness OF its currency
and the equality Of its exchangcs-an
institution, which the people have over
and over again repudlated, and its best
friends pronounced an obsolete ideG He
claims to be the father of the Protective
Policy. which ten years ago. he pronounc-
ed cherished system IF policy essential 10
lite successful prosecution Of the industry
Of oar coun1ymen. and which he main
tanned and defended-until, under the
threats of resistance and revolution, he
was constrained, at the point Of the bay
onet. to modify and abandon it-until,
under more favorable auspices, (as the
Extra Session Of the Twenty Sever tn
Congress- it could be restored in its or
lgInal, unjust. unequal. and oppressive
form. He is the advocate Of a. deeply
| cherished scheme, of dividing Tie pro-
ceeds of the sale of public lands among
constitutional diversion Of common
fund-partialy and unequally divided
| among the recipients--a fragrant with
drawaI from the Treasury of its resour
ces, to furnish means to corrupt the
people. and to take from the States
their independence ant sovereignty
And as another means of humbling and
subjecting them to Federal usurpatior,
he was in favor of the celebrated Manda-
| mus Act, which impotently attempts to
compel the States, [without showing that
they had failed to comply with the re-
QUESTIONS of the Constitution-for, in
no instance. had thew failed,) to district
themselves for the election of members
of Congress and which in truth, with
out any just cause whatsoever. was de-
signed to compel them 10 surrender a
long-cherished privilege of electing their
members in their own way. He voted
for an unconstitutional, retrospective
Bankrupt law, which destroyed the OBJ
legation of contracts, and reversed eve
ny principle of justice, by rendering the
creditor dependent on the moral honesty
of his debtor, thus offering bounty to
unbounded fraud and moral baseness.-
For this, worse than agrarian law, he vo-
ted in open disregard and violation of
the expressed wishes of the House of
Representatives Of Kentucky. Whilst
his colleague, Mr. Morehead, following
the settled and we'll ascertained senti-
ments Of the Kentucky people, voted a
gainst this odious measure, he excused
the opposite course of Mr.. Clay, his col
league, in the Senate, for the assigned
reason, that be was the Representative
of the People Of the United States, and
not of Kentucky.
Since his abandonment of Republican
principles, so ably and beautifully set
forth in his own speech in 1911, he has
held in light estimation, the venerable
charter of our liberties, the Constitution
of the United States, and has often la
bored, by a iatitudinous and forced
construction, to make it embrace princi-
Piles, favorable to his policy, contrary to
its true intent and meaning, and is, at
this time, .arrayed in open hostility ag-
alnst one Of its most valuable features,
| the veto power, the grert conservative
principle in the hands of the president
of the people to guard them against has
ty, tyrannicaI or oppressive legislation;
and we of tie South, in protection OF
our dearest rights, can have no hope OF a
salutary exercise Of that veto power in
the hands of him who seeks to erase it
from the Constitution.
These are the principles of Henry
Clay; such the measures, to which he
has devoted the energies of his bold and
vigorous intellect for more than twenty
years. Though often repulsed by over
Whemirg majorities Of the people, who
have sternly rebuked his dangerous her
estes, he has ever returned with an IN
creased ardor, worthy of better and
nobler cause. When fraud and chca,
merry, aided by resistless spirit of
change, had procured for his measures
an accidental majority in congress. with
what 'hot haste and incorporating
zeal did he urge them through the forms
of legislation. All parliamentary rules
were set at defiance: the time-honored
safe guards against hurried and oppres-
sive legislation were swept away; a de-
fenceless minority slenced by means
unknown TO The Constitution; and his
hesitatng followers, alarmed at the bold
and reckless lead of Mr.. Clay were
whipped into service with the unreent-
ing figor of tyrant. He established an
organised Dictatorship--to use the Ian.
guage of competent witness, MIR Sena-
tor Rives of Virginia, who is now his eu-
losist and most obsequious followef-an
organised Dictatorship in permanent
session in the capitol, seeking to control
the whole action Of the government in
both the legislative and executive bran
ches, sending deputation after deputa
ton to the president of the y. States, to
teach him his duty and bring him to
terms:' A precedent, the same witness
declares, 'Irausht with far more danger
to the regular and salutary action Of our
balanced Constitution and liberties of the
people, than any secret cabal that ever
has existed or eyer will-exist.'