The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-08-08

a desolate orphan ~. O. Delta.
;. SPEECH OF MIR. CLAYTON,
4. OF DELAWARE,
IN DEFENCE OF GENERAL TAYLOR
RI IN THE U. S. SENATE, July 5, 1s4s.
= [Concluded.1
On the other hand, how stands the man
we support on this great and vital subject?
He %denouDces the kingly power-the power
Tor the exercise of which a Stuart and a
Bourbon lost their heads-nnd confines the
veto 10 the cnses in which the fathers OF the
republic intendedit TO be exercised. He treats
II as a thigh conservative power" So did
they. They declared. by their exposition in
the "Federalist," that IFS chief object was "to
enable the Executive to defend himself when
attacked" They meant il TO be a shield,
not a sword. I'm my opinion says Gen. Tay
Tor in his letter TO Capt. Allison, 't should
never be exercised except in cases of clear
violation OF the constitution, or manifest haste
and wan of consideration by Congress-
He modcstly adds indeed, | have thought
that for many years past the known opinions
and wishes of the Executive have exercised
undue and injurious influence upon the legisla-
tive department of the Government and from
this cause l hare thought our system ras in dan
ger Of undergoing q great change from It's true
theory" Sir, if he had been forty years in
these halls instead of the tented field, he could
not have more thoroughly understood the true
theory of this Government and its actual and
inevitable tendency, as now administered. 1t
is evident he has, in the silent hours allowed
him in the camp, by the watchfre in the night,
| Or opat1 tho intervals Of hoffla onI ,~,.Eo..
service, deeply studied the genius of our Gov
eminent and its practical administration.
Sir, it would consume more time than is
necessary for my purpose to show how often
the will of the people, expressed by their Rep
resentatives in Congress, has been defeated BY
the IRON will Of a President, and especially by
the exercise of his monarchical negative on the
laws. In the language of a distinguished states
man, "the extreme medicine of the c~onstitu-
ton has become our daily food" Every man
who remembers the history of the last twenty
years, will bear me witness that in this respect
the modern Democracy have drifted to a re-
turnless distance from the old landmarks of
republicanism. The Executive prerogative
is no longer the object of attack, but its advo-
Gates have been the unccasine assailants ofthe
rights of the people and of the popular branch
OF the Government. "The powerofth crown
has increased, is increasing, and ought TO be
diminished" He has broken Down the power
OF the people to improve their rivers and har-
bors dictated a new and untried system OF
currency, in despite of their expressed opin-
ion and even gone 50 far as to deny the right
of Congress to pay a private claimto an Amer
lean citizen. Irefcr to the claim for French
spoliations on our m prior to 1900, for
the liquidation of which a bill passed both
Houses of Congress two years ago: a bill, the
principles of which he never understood a
bill, to which, it is palpable, he never gave a
weeks attention in his life, though Congress
passed it after having held it under considera-
ton for a period of nearly fifty years. The
Government has ceased TO be a Government
of the people, and has become a Government
ofone man. Power, says Junius, is %continu-
ally stealing from the many to the few, and, l
may add, from the few to one. The one man
power is the subject of unceasing eulo5y among
some of the advocates of the Baltimore Con-
%vention platform, and one of the delegates
lately made a speech to show its superiority in
concentrating all responsibility in one head,
instead of dividing it among many, thus frank
ly avowins his preference for the monsrchical
to the republican principle.
We must arrest this tendency to monarchy
II w u ND dEcpuDltC- w Utn YOU
talk to me about Wing principles, tariffs, the
currency. internal improvements, land bills,
and public economy, l tell you that, although
| am a Wing, have always been a Wing, and
expect to die a Wing, yet l hold that, in COM
parison with the great principle now at issue
between Lewis Cass and Zachary Taylor, the
other principles of any party ever vet known
in this country sink into insignificance. l am
called upon, in the election Of Zachary Tay-
lor, to vindicate the great right of man TO self
government, and the right of the People,
through their Representatives in Congress, to
make laws. ! am called upon to deny the
right of the President Of the United States to
assume the position of a legislator and, when
ever the day shall come that his right to legis-
late shall be acknowledged, that moment the re-
publican character of our Government utterly
ceases to exist. You may call it what you
please-you may style the man at the head of
the Government a President, as Bonaparte
was in the first instance styled the First Con-
sui, and afterwards Emperor of the Republic
but to all intents and purposes your repub-
lie is at an end. 1t becomes a monarchy, an
elective monarchy, the meanest and most des-
picable form in which that kind Of Govern
ment can exist.
Here, then, is the principle upon which |
make issue with the honorable gentleman from
Mississippi in the approaching Presidential
campaign. mean to stand by Gen. Taylor
as the representative ofthe right of man to self
government. / mean to support him because
he has boldly and nobly proclaimed himself
before the country as the champion of this
great principle, that the majority should gov,
ern. In all those cases where the fathers Of
the republic intended that the veto power