Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1845-11-08
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.


n his time and rather noted since, whom his spon-
sors caused to be baptized Alexander the Great ;
and who, after much fighting and after many be-
neyoleni tears when his tired soldiers would not go
on to the end of the EARTH so that he (poor fellow
was obliged 10 stop short of that universal desolaon
which his heroic soul coveted to spread, came back
TO certain town, reared up by preceding man-hun-
ter one Nimrod !; where, some say from drinking and
others from ague and fever, he died, leaving the vast
and various dominion which he had founded he
rtage of slaughter, the swords Of his ambi-
tious captains, who cut il up between them
A clever young man was he, this same Alexan-
der of a genius vast and bold, abilities fit to design
sagacity to contrive, valor and military skill to exc
cute projects the most gigantic. Yet, with all these,
he can scarcely be said TO have left an empire but
only name and moral behind him. OF these
two things, h0gs might appropriate for their im-
tation the name but People should surely have
appropriated the nlorat--should always have seen
that wide conquests can usually build up, even for
princes, but precarious and personal dominion !;
that II must invariably be temporary and unhappy
somewhat in proportion its suddenness of rise and
extent; that the State from which such an over
grown and violent realm is formed is uniformly left,
at its dissolution sunk in degeneracy and disorder
slavery, even lower than any other part of that
tract Of earth on which it has, for time, imposed its
own laws master and that thus the madness of
those Kings who seek TO build for themselves a
name and a sway the terror and the curse of their
times and subjects, may, bad it Is, be said to have
method and motive in it, in comparison with the in
sanity Of their People, in suffering the ambition or
rapacity Of their rulers to lead them on, with the
vanity of subjugating other nations, to the loss OF all
their own freedom and public happiness.
1t is not long since, upon occasion OF some artl-
Gle in the " Democratic Review both clever and
conservative, we felt bound to say that if it would
give US one such only at each monthly issue, we
would vow ourselves TO its support and become It's
fast friends We trust il is taking us at word
for once more, no long interval, we called on
to hail. in its leading article for last month"; paper
breathing an opinion and purpose which in gene
raj we must heartily applaud
Its subject is that on which we have slightly |
touched-conquest and its consequences as to the |
happiness and duration of the victor people, rather
than the vanquished. Of this it treats under the
softer name of g TERRITORIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT: -
for, as Courtpreachers, in good DIR. Donne's time,
dealt tenderly with the sins in fashion,
"Apd shunnd to speak of hell to polite"
so, nowadays, must they, who preach to ears
not polite, find nice, smooth, silken, gilded terms
Somewhat necessary seems 1t to be-radant and |
pure as is that far-difused ether which forms the I
great medium of all democratic thought
thus to honey with fattering terms each little |
medicine OF truth that can be ventured to be |
administered to it. OF that we have symptoms
enough in the well-intentioned article before us |
where the learned leech obviously sees perfectly |
well that his not very manageable patient has dis
ease exceedingly likely to lay him where taste for
power and plumber has laid the freedom and the |
happiness of other nations; but where the doctor
knows that it concerns his own safety, not less than
the patients, that his physc should be wrapped
up in some wel-tasted peMculum that it shall be
swallowed otherwise, however good, both ne and
his prescription are certain to be flung out at the
window
1t is for this reason that our reviewer, in the
opening of his subject sirups the dose presently to
come with proPitiatory popular phrases like the
following
stThe rapidy with which public opinion natures in this
country Of the extraordinary results OF peculiar
political system. With infinite newspaper circulation,
and with party organizations snguary complete and penetra
ing the uitermost Of the nation, doctrine can
be suggested, discussed and determined with much
nay prompness, than ordinary suit at law be
begun and concluded"
-Ay, so it can but not without very strong
touch, all must confess Of that glorious uncer-
tainty ''sfor which the law has somewhat i'll cele-
brity. Decisions sometimes sadly huddled up !;
but then again, like chancery causes, they stretch
from generation to generation and, meantime, whe-
ther swift slow, is there continual appeal and
most frequent reversal What question has been
made, before that rapid tribunal which the reviewer
so lauds, on which we have yet decision For
decision il is none, unless il binds-uness it stands
OF the great public questions which came into de-
bate at the origin of Government, ho,o many
are yet any more settled than ciien started? That
Of bank was debated and affirmatively decided in
1891. In 1871 that judgment reversed. In
1916 il was.re-affirmed. In 1884 il was reversed
again. In lS4l it was again legisiatireiy affirmed,
but that decision overturned las indeed it had been
in 1892 by the single voice of the Executive. The
protective policy, that of internal Improvements,
that of regular army, Of fortfcations of military
academy, OF the management of the public domain,
Of the keeping and Of the distribution of the reye-
nue. of the power to repeal charters Of that to
tract State debts Of that to pay them out of the
tonal funds Of the nvioabity of the records of the
Senate, Of the binding force Of acts of Congress on
States and even on single branch of Congress |;
whether not the Executive interpret the laws
and constitution he pleases, and without any re-
gard to judicial decisions and legislative declara-
tons; whether or not he can dispose of the pub
lie moneys against the will of Congress; whether
he keep men in office whose appointment the Sc
nate has refused to confirm whether he is to inter-
fere with the legislative function by limitations of
retoes and Of his will whether he shall be permit
ted to sfrdagle laws in his pocket which about
10 De passed IN spite Of his uefo whether or not
ne snail nominate and elect his successor twice or
thrice hese and many more such questions have
Deen again ana again made, and decided as to the
Pending elections, but surely not as to any thing
else. but, to take the httest example-that of the
very uing Oh winch the Democratic Reviewer -