The North-Carolina standard., 1844-05-01

try's ruin, through the crafiness of aspiring poll
ticians That this picture is not too highly CO.
lored, must appear to every candid mind, from the
fact that both of the two great parties which now
divide country, claim to be republican, and
each in It's turn denounces the other as federal
lists. Now, to set things right on these subjects,
and understand correctly who are the republicans
and who the tederGIists, we must "recur to first
principles" :" we must recur to the history of the
past, and having ascertained the principles that
actuatcd our republican fathers, we will be able
clearly to discern which of the two great parties
now merit the name, for which both so anxionsly
contend.
Now as these party distinctions sprang up upon
the adoption of our present federative system; and
as they embodied, in the or the other, alt that
was done or attempted on that occason-so every
important public measure, from that to the present
time, will be found, upon analyzing it, to be the
offspring OF the one or the other of these systems.
1t matters not, therefore, what names parties may
assume since it is the measures they advocate that
must determine their real character. And by
this test, honestly and faithfully applied, we shall
be able to see who, at this day, are the true re-
pubIicans. That which distinguished the origin
al Federaists as party, was their efforts to give
what was considered by the republicans of that
day an undue degree of strength to the General
Government, and to infuse into the Constitution of
the United States powers incompatible with State
sovereignty and tending to consolidation. On the
other hand, the Republicans maintained the con-
trary doctrine. They were jealous of the rights
of the people and of the States and, as these
were the only sources Of power or right from
which were derived all the powers of the General
Government and as the Constitution of the Uni
ted States is the only medium through which these
powers are derived, they have always maintained
that that instrument should be construed fairly and
strictly, and that such powers only are conveyed
to the General Government, expressly
granted in the Constitution, or andispensably ne
ceSs0ry to carry into effect some power thus ex-
pressly granted; and that all other powers not
included as above, are as they were before the
adoption of that instrument with the States OF the
people. That any man of sane mind, with any
sort Of patriotic feelings, could for moment dis
sent from principles so clear these, is matter of
extreme astonishmcnt But such is the fact, that
some, nay many of the great men Of our nation
dazzIed with the splendor of great Central Gov
ernment, have waged and even now wage this
federal war, backed by the most powerful local
interests that the aristocracy of wealth and power
can command. The watch-word of the Republi-
can party, as we have seen, is the rights of the
States and of the People," and the same is fire.
quently caught up by men whose whole life ex-
hibits little else than continued war upon repub-
Iican principles, because there is thought to be
power in the name or rather, because an honest
people believed to be attached their country
and the institutions of their patriotic forefathers;
and they are sought to be made the dupes of party
politicians (who are as dexterous in varying their
position on the political arena, as General would
be in the field, in order that by some fnesse or
adroitness in the rapidity and diversity of his
movements, he might gain an advantage over an
adversary,) by the copious use of terms which
they cannot explain, and BY claiming to be one
thing while their works prove them to beanolh
er. Thus the advocates of federal measures
nO10, will, instead of attempting to show that
they and their measures are republican, (which
would be impossible), content themselves by prov
ing that there was time when they acted with
tho republican party and wish that to be taken as
conclusive that they are SUCH But by their fruits
we shall know them. 1t is because know these
things to exist, and that through these means ma
ny homes; republicans arc now sustaining party
who have, in the short space of four years, either
totally changed or materially modified every radi-
cal principle they profcssed, that have been con-
strained, in this public manner to discuss the poll
tics of Wings and Democrats, and thereby justify
myself in Withdrawing from the Wing party.
In 1910 the Wing party united upon man for
the presidency, of acknowledged republican prin-
ciples, and during that memorable contest they
universally acquiesced in the principles of the
Compromise; and with nearly equal unanimity
denied that the issue then made was "Bank or no
Bank" But no sooner were they in power, than
they overturned the Compromise, and fastened up
on the country an unequal and oppressive Tariff,
especially so upon the agricultural interests of the
South and West-a Tariff, the only effects of
which can be to build up the rich manufacturer,
at the expense of the humble farmer! In 1910
we put down MIR. Van Buren, because we were
f0ld that his policy tba