The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-02-12
10 THE pEopLE or MARYLAND.

10 THE PEOPLE or MARYLAND.
The period is now rapidly approaching when
you are 10 choose your representatives in Con-
press and 10 cast your voles for a President OF
he United States. his is always an epoch Of
the deepest interest," 10 American freenen, ard
esRecIaliy a this peculiar junc,ure. You will
Mkall@ ~ upon ~ decide whether the pernicious
pS$cy Nhich wa pursued BY The Van Buren,
NdAnistration, ana which was sauended with.
such disastrous results TO the nation, is 10 he
resumed and perpetuated, or whether you VIII
give your suffraoes 10 nen who will carry INTO
execution the salulary principles OF him, who
has SO long and SO nobly supported those mea-
sures which have given, and are so well calcu-
lated 10 give, energy 10 the industry and pros
perity 10 all the great interests OF our republic.
1 You have much al stake, and IT behooyes you TO
consider well before you throw your State, and
perhaps the whole country, INTO the hands 81
those, from the biightng effects Of whose policy
the nation has not yet recovered. Il would
seem that the Locofoco party are determined to
nominate and support their lale defeated candi-
date, Martin Van Buren,. History records the
fact, that he was tired and found wanting. He
was elevated to the Executive chair by delu-
sion, and the influence Of a popular idol but
most of those who assisted in raising him to the
pinnacle from which he was cast, were disap-
POlHteQ III the man, duO Idlicu u SuUSC
blessings and advantages which they were led
TO believe would flow from his administration.
His party, it will be recolected, had come into
power upon solemn and reiterated pledge to
reform the abuses and retrench the expenses OF
the Government; but how was this pledge re-
deemed by Mr.. Van Buren, and his friends He
found a surplus in the Treasury Of twenty-five
millions Of dollars, and after four years misrule,
left il eight millions of dollars in debt The
-. I'D
minisration, was twenty-one millions aud the
average annual expenditures were twenty-eight
millions Of dollars-indeed, in the FIRST year of
his Presidency, those expenditures amounted TO
$39, 164 ,745, while, during the Wing admins
tration of Mr.. Adams, the extravaganza of which
had been SO brawlingly proclaimed and condemn
ed, the annual expenditures OF the Government,
exclusive Of the payments on account OF the
public debt, were but about twelve millions and
a half of dollars. The reform which had been
promised, consisted in allowing the public agents
TO plumber the Treasury to the amount OF mil
lions; and such was Mr. Van Buren's disregard
OF the public interests that where it was made
known to him and his Secretary Of the Treasury,
that Swartwout, Price, Hoyt, Harris, and many
other agents Of the Government, were default
ers to an alarming amount, he not only permit
ted them to remain IN Office, but to carry on
their system of population and public plumber
with entire impunity, and, consequently, by his
connivance and appreciation Under the protec-
tive tariff which existed when he came into
power, the revenue had been such as to pay of
the whole war debt of $l25,000,000, and after
it had been wholly discharged in 1882, the sur
plus revenue amounted annually TO $lS,00O,0OO.
If this surplus had been distributed among the
several States from that time 10 the present, the
indebted States might have been relieved from
their oppressive Burdens, and the States unin-
numbered with debt could have applied their
proportion of the distribution 10 objects calcu-
lated 10 render them prosperous and hourishing.
The aggregate amount, at this time, would have
been about $2l6, 100000, which, it will be seen
from the following statement, would have been
more than sufficient to pay off the whole Of the
<stafo doLts