The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1847-06-26
From the National Intelligencor.
The Administration and it's Or
gan once more.


We had much desired not shortly TO have
occasion again to trouble our readers with
the Administration or its Organ; but an ar
tiCle in the Union of Saturday leaves us
hardly any choice in the matter.
There are three points in the article to
which we refer that seem to deserve some at
,ention and which, in their order, we shall
dispose of as briefly as we can.
First. The application ofthe term Wed
eraL press and Federal party" to that great
CONSTITUTIONAL Party now undoubtedly the
majority ofthe People ofthis country, whose
present acknowledged designation is WING
We notice this deliberate misrepresentation
now, the rather that this same term "Fed-
eral" has been so frequently of late applied
By the organ of the Executive to the oppo-
nents of their high Tory doctrine and prac-
tice, that it is perhaps time that it received
some serious notice, instead of the contempt
uous silence with which it has heretofore for
the most part been treated by the Wing
press. The Tory doctrine and practice
which are peculiar characteristics of the
present administration and its organs, TO such
an extent as that without them its whole eX-
istence would be vacuum-its entire history
blank leaf-are those which refer every es-
sental power of Government TO the Presi-
dental authority, which claimed forit nearly
all the Prerogative; powers that in Monarch
ial Governments belong to kings-including
the Warmaking power, arrogated to the
President and exercised by him in every
particular, only partially excepting that of
raising and paying armies and navies-but
which in the Constitution of the Uuited
States are so effectively denied to the EX-
ecutive branch of the Government, that
Judge Tucker of Virginia, in his Notes on
Blackstone, when he comes to review the
d., 81 &c IL
down as matter ofcourse that the very idea
of Prerogative power has so far as concerns
this Republic, no existence. Honest man
Could he but have lived to this day, to wit
ness the eXertion of this supposed extinct
power, in the exercise by the President, of
the Prcrogative of establishing Governments
in foreign countries, and not only laying tax
es in them, but appropriating the proceeds of
such taxation to paying his Army and his
Navy, what would have been his sensations
at finding the Revolution and all its influence
es swept away, and himself again living I'M
der right Royal Government!
But to come to this term " Federal,' and to
show how ridiculously inapplicable, in the
actual relations ofparties to each other, it is
10 the great Wing party of the United States,
or 10 ourselves as the humbest of the assert
ers of its principles against the Toryism
which reigns i'll the palace and radiates from
its precincts What was tie true distinc-
ton between the Federal party and the Re-
publican party, as they respectively termed
themselves, when that distinction existed and
marked the line of division between the two
great parties in this Government
Instead of undertaking ourselves to define
il, we will take the definition as we find it
laid down by an authority to which, howev-
er it may cenfound him, the veteran of the
q Union must defer and submit. We bring
Thomas Jefferson into court.
In a letter of Mr.. Jefferson to John Adams
dated June q, 1912, we have the following
brief account ofthe origin and principles of
the Federal party and its antagonist:
"The terms of Whig and Tory belongl to
natural as well as to civil history. They
denote the temper and constitution of mind
of different individuals. To come to our
'own country, and to the times when you
and became first acquainted: we well re-
member the violent parties which agitated
the old Congress, and their bitter contests
3There you and / were together, and the
Jays and the Dickinsons and other anti-in-
= dependents were arrayed against us. They
= cherished the Monarchy of England, and
e we the rights of our countrymen. When
80 our present Government was in the NEW,
s passing from Confederation to Union, how
bitter was the schism between the Feds and
HnteS. Here you ana L were together
again" But as it was the Government
'was put into motion, the line of division
was again drawn. We broke into two par
u ties; each wishing to give the Government
"a different direction; the one 10 strengthen
- lie most popular branch the other the more
: permanent branches, aad 10 ertend their perma-
'nence. Here you and separated for the
first time; and as we had been longer than
most others on the public theatre, and our
: ames therefore were more familiar 10 our
countrymen, the party which considered
you as thinking with them placed your
name at their head the other, for the same
reason, selected mine."
Now, without one word of commentator
the case needs none it is clearer than light
itself-we put to our readers, and to every
reader within the bounds of the United
States, CFeXas to the Nueces included,) this
question: Suppose the Washington Union to
represent the Administration party, and the
-Ndtonat fntetigencer to represent the Wing
Opposition party, which of the two is the
yFe7srat organ? Certainly notthis papey, the
National Intcligencer, which stands up for
the authority of congress, aud desires to