Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1847-06-24

head the other, for the same reason, selected
mine"
Our necessarily hasty and superficial glance
at the history OF the last twenty years Is SUI
ficienf to satisfy every candid mind that the
Wigs OF the present day occupy the old
Republican platform, while their opponents,
although claiming 10 be the only authorized
expounders Of the Republican creed, are IN
ruth advocating Inc very principles, (Which
however, they push FAR beyond The claims OF
ancient federalism. Of the school OF Hamilton
jay and tie elder Adams. But the the Ad-
illustrations of Jackson and Van Buren,,
monstrous as were the powers and preroga-
tves then claimed by the Executive Depart
ment, have been thrown into the shade, in
this respect, by that Of Mr.. Polk. We need
no; enumerate the many instances, TO which
he has transcribed his constitutional power.
The war in which we are engaged is an ex-
ample of fragrant usurpation Of authority
compared with which all previous attempts
TO enlarge the boundaries of Executive power
sink into absolute insignihcance. The reno
val OF the Deposits by Gen. Jackson, in VIC
latlon OF az existing statue, and the issue OF
his specie circular in the absence Of all legal
authority, which Congress had refused to con-
fer upon him, were trivial and harmless, in
comparison with the assumption OF right to
adjust question Of boundary by force Of
arms, from which had resulted the war 10
which we are engaged, without declaration
OF war by the only department Of government
TO which the constitution had coniided that
delicate and responsible power. Nor is this
the only instance in which this fatal tendency
Of our system 70 degenerate into an Elective
Despotism has been exempli6ed, within the
l,cf Ao al rrf
necessity for others, so one act of usurpaton
is but the prelude to its repetition. The his
tory of the war as far as it has progressed,
shows tha, the exercise by the Executive Of
The war-makine power has embodied him 10
assume other prerogatives, which, if conse-
quen,ial upon the first, are not on that account
less dangerous themselves or less hostile 10
the genius CT our institutions. We need not
particuiarize the acts OF his Pro-Consuls in
New Mexico and California, IN which farce
aud tragedy are so strangely blended, that the
enormity of the outrage is lost SIGHT Of in the
ludicrous insigni6cance OF its results Nor is
il our object at this time to comment upon
these acts: This we have already repeatedly
done. Our design al present IS merely 10
show the inapplicability Of the epithet which
the modern Federalisis, wearing the Demo
cratic mask, apply to the Wings, and to place
the cap upon the heads to which it really be-
longs-though in doing so, we confess, we
shall do the ancient Federalists no little inJus-
tee; seeing that however erroneous may have
been their principles, they were comparatively
harmless in the extentto which they proposed
to carry them while the application given TO
them bv the Administration at the present day
absolutely threatens the subversIon of all the
checks and balances of the Constitution, and
it not arrested, will ultimately invest the Pres.
ident with powers more unlimited than those o.
British Monarch, while ii practically divests
him of even the shadow OF responsibility. II
this be not Federalism, according to Mr.. JEFF
ierson's definition, in its most ultra and dan
gerous form, that is without meaning-as in
truth il is, in the vocabulary of Locofocoism.