Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-07-25


Among the grounds, assumptions, and pretensions
upon which the Administration defends its measures,
there are THREE which are entitled to some especial
notice, from the frequency with which they are
stated.
The first is, that nobody has any thing to do with
public measures but the Administration ITSELF The
Administration, it is modestly assumed, is the Gov
ernment, and the Nation, and the Country. Every
interest is its own interest," and every public con-
Thursday last holds this language:
q The gist and burden Of the whole attack upon
the new tariff bill hitherto is summed up in the
general and sweeping assertion that the Admins
tration in bringing forward this bill, Is not taking
proper care Of itself"
II would be out Of character for one of the slaves
Of the Pacha Of Egypt to trouble himself with the
Question whether his master was staking proper
care of himself' A serf Of Russia, while eat
ing his morse Of black bread, or lying down on the
ground to sleep, need not trouble himself with anx
iety lest the Emperor at ST. Petersburgh should not
g take good care Of HIMSELF And citizen of the
United States in like manner, is exercising quite
gratuitous df not rather am oficious and imper-
nent) duty, when he concerns himself about public
measures at Washington. His business is to be
content, under the conviction that the Administra-
ton will take proper Of ITSELF" and, if that
end be accomplished, there is nothing else to be
desired.
Will the revenue to be raised from the financial
measure now pending in Congress be probably suf-
fcent to pay the Army, and the Navy, and the
Volunteers, and meet the other heavy expenses
already pressing severely on the country? Will
the proposed manner of raising this revenue disturb
all the business of the community Will it drive
hundreds, and hundreds of thousands of industrious
men out of employment! Will it. bring pnching
want into families Will it deprive wives and mo-
theirs of the comforts which they have been accus-
toned to, and send children supperess to bed Will
it fill the streets Of cities and villages with loiterers
and iders, with nothing to do and nothing to live
on, melancholy pictures of prosperity destroyed and
happiness gone, and fair candidates for distinction
in degradation and vice In fine, will it violate
every pledge and break every promise which the
Government has given, to Industrious mechanics
and honest aboring men, from the very first day Of
its existence to the present hour, that it would en-
courage their labor and protect their means of living
Now, according to the doctrines of the Admins
tration, all these are questions with which the Peo-
pie of this country have nothing at all TO do. Any
one who asks any such question must be pestilent
Wing panic-maker.''
These doctrines of the Administration are found
ed, and be only founded, on the idea that
the interests Of the Country and the interests of
the Administration are identical: that, while one
is safe, the other is safe; that, if the Admins
tration accomplishes its purposes, and the pur-
poses Of all its members, it attans all just public
objects; and that as 1t must be supposed to be de-
srous of taking good care of ITSELF and as its wis.,
dom, honesty, capacity, and foresight not to be
questioned, the PEOPLE need not trouble themselves
about the propriety of its measures.
These are the sentiments of the supporters of an
American Administration in the year 1916!
The second pretence. repeated ten times day, is,
that all the changes effected or now proposed are
|" reforms" The abolition Of the Tariff of 1912 is
necessary /" reform" 1t is true, it has supplied
the Treasury; it has given employment, content,
and comfort to the People; il has been, and is now
entirely satisfactory to than three-fourths of
the country but still it is an abuse, and its de-
structon a necessary act of :" reform"
To turn out Of office almost every man, high or
low, who differed from Mr.. Polk in political opin-
ion, was his first measure Of g REFORM" To bring
into all posts and offices in the Government men
still hot and glowing with the fumes Of party strife
was his second measure of " REFORM To put
forth lofty and unfounded pretensons about Oregon
and disturb and agitae the country with fears of
English war, was his next measure Of REFORM"
To find anew boundary for Texas, order our Army
to the Rio Grande, and bring on war with Mexico,
and to make that war war of invasion very likely
to bring upon us debt of hundred millions of
dollars, was the next, and very distinguished in
stance, in the practice of necessary reforms"
And now, finally, to subvert well-tried system
Of revenue, IN TIME OF WAR, and TO put all the
finances of the Government upon the hazards of
newfanged experiment, and to break down every
branch Of the domestic industry Of the country, and
to bring general distress with the suddenness of
an avalanche-this is the last the most glorious,
the browning accomplishment of reform
The third false and shallow pretence Of the fore
most supporters of the Administration is, that the
opposition to its measures, which is now becoming
SO universal and intense, proceeds only from rich
manufacturers, lazy and ordy capitalists, and purse
proud corporations. The People, it is said, have
nothing to do with it. The g Democracy does not
partake in il. Ii is ONLY the work of panic-rna-