The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1845-07-07

ing and directing measures for governing men, for
bringing order out of confusion, and, by that pru-
dent judgment and foresight, securing the good
which many too often attribute to fortune;-that he
was fitted for the chief magistracy Of such coun-
try and people, by all the qualities of his great
mind and character, and by all the habits of his
public and private life;--that it would be vain TO
say, that man nurtured in the bosom Of freemen,
every one of whom was by birthright politician
SUCCESSFULLY filling, by the choice of such people,
high and important Offices in the legislative, execu-
tive, and judicial departments of goyenment-was,
Notwithstanding all his experience, and such proofs
Of public esteem and confidence, incompetent to the
administration of popular government cali
ed, as he had been, from the pursuits Of civil life to
military command, he had become at once, and
without regular military tuition, great captain;-
that having to trust to his own resources, and to
depend for success on the active and commanding
energies of his own mighty mind, he did not then
| disappont his country;-that his combinations and
conduct established skill, sagacity, and judgment,
that would have done honor to the most renowned
commander that had ever devoted whole life
time to the profession Of arms;-and that, if such
had been the results Of General Jacksons capacity
and talents in profession which he had but little
followed the results would not be less beneficial or
glorious when the same capacity, and talents, and
integrity, should be devoted TO Office more con-
genial to his habits;-that it true he was not
these, he had common sense, discretion and pru-
dence, which nothing could supply and without
which knowledge was useless and genius contempti-
ble;-that he was man who never mistook whGt
TO do or trhat he doing that, in regard to the
fundamental questions of constitutional doctrines
and national policy he had been politically nurtured
in the school of our republican fathers and that to
these tcnets of his youth he still adhered and that
lastly, in the language of Mr.. Jefferson, he was
"honest, sincere, firm, and srong-minded-of sound
public principles; and that, if he should be brought
into the presidency, TO correct the alarming tendency
towards favorite and otherwise irremediable evils,
which were beginning to develop themselves in the
administration of the federal government, he Jack
sony would be found entirely faithful to the object"
These were the grounds on which he was presented
to the country; and in the election Of 1898, he
placed by the people in the presidential chair.
The duties of his administration, though less
arduous, in many respects, than those of his mill
tary command, yet required all the forlitude and
| sagacity which his previous command had so
Iconspicuously displayed He accordingly de-
clared that TO guard against the evils which MIR.
Jefferson had Swallowed forth--to retract the gov
eminent back to its republican tack, and give it
stability and energy, and preserve to his country
her blessings of union and peace-should be the
first and great object of his duty. And, as his
friends had rightly supposed, few men had clearer
conceptions of the public good, or greater discern
ment in the selection of measures and men to pro-
mote it, than General Jackson None knew better
the great interests of his country its history domes
tic and foreign relations the points Of its public pol
icy; the temper of the people; the genius Of our po-
tcal institutions, and the spirit of free government
He knew that the genius Of our own institutions,
the experience of other governments, the records of
history, and the sad and melancholy fate Of long
train of fallen republics, admonished that liberty
was only safe when guarded by the wisdom and
vigilance of frugal, Industrious, and virtuous free
men! And it is not, therefore, wonderful that the
result of his administration should have been that,
as statesman, he was no less distinguished than
a warrior. Throughout his whole public career, we
look in vain for any of those vices which oppose
the prosperity of nations and the peace of the world
and which, at one time, was so much apprehended,
from his rule, by his political opponents. His state
papers and administration afford abundant proofs of
the purity, as well sodity, of his principles; and
it is impossible to read them, and trace the whole
course OF his public career, without admitting that
he performed justly, skifuly and magnanimously,
all the Offices both public and private, of peace and
war. That there was considerable, nay, a large
portion of his countrymen, who settled down in the
conviction that General Jackson committed great
errors in his administration, and inflicted deep
injuries upon his country, is true; but this hos
tlity was to be expected, and must therefore be
garded as the result of party feeling, under our
institutions and form of government, rather than
the evidence of deliberate and candid judgment.
Indeed, in government like ours, where opin-
surrounds US, who expects that we should all
agree in the to produce any given ends II is
this difference which creates, and must contn-
ue TO create, parties in free governments. To time
and experience must therefore, be left the decision
of many of these great questions. But who knows
that these convictions and opinions, even when un-
influenced by party feelings, may not have been the
result Of less profound views of the understanding
of many of those measures of his administration!
National virtue, national freedom and greatness and
H.. - -I... e
ment-these were the great objects and purposes
which absorbed most Of this great mans attention,
and in connection with which his administration
must be regarded. May not the views Of others be
too much overstrained to national wealth and ma
tional display Have they looked to the conse-
quences, regard posterity, as well as our free in
stitutionsi What if avarice and selfshness, and
national vanity, should supplant the love of country!
What if these should be cherished and nurtur-
ed into growth that shall chastise those simple and
manly virtues, without which men care little by
whom, or in what manner, they are governed! Our
warriors and patriots of the revolution were not
handled in the lap of pleasure, or pampered with
foreign Injuries. They sought not substance and
wealth amidst the skirts and quicksands of moneyed
institutions; fought for the trappings which deck
fictitious greatness. only to conceal the miseres ac-
than General Jackson, the baleful influence of a
passion for gain, in its progress often so degra-
ding to national character, dangerous to the tram
quillity of the world, fatal TO every ennobling
sentiment and destructive to social feeling;
and which, becoming the vulgar passion of free
governments, enslaves their people. He dreaded,
moreover that extension of the spirit of traffic and
trade, apart from legitimate commerce, which can
only flourish in the ntrgues and articles of remorse
less spectators. He had before him the experience
and history of the world; the long catalogue Of fallen
nations; and the annals of that ruin and decay pro-
duced by the love of gain, and the ravages Of luxury
and corruption. He had not forgotten that Lace
damon. with her savage manners, her rigid sumptu-
airy laws, and her stern Ephori, at last SO con-
taminated by wealth aud luxury, that the most illus
trious virtues and examples could not restore her
ancient institutions; and that Rome the mistress of
the world and the arbier Of the fate of nations was
overturned more by the excessive love of wealth. and
the profigacy of her manners, than by the arms of
the Cloths and Vandals! II was under these views.
and to these ends, that Of the most important
and efficient measures Of his administration were d.
rected. II the boast of one of the Roman empe-
perors that he found the city Of brick and left it of
marble twas General Jackson's, that he found the
government one of paper and he IN aaye