Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-07-01
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST.


The political campaign is now opened; the can
ddates Of the two great parties are in the field.
On the one side, Gen. CAss is presented as the
representative of that spirit of radcalsm which,
while il is ready to fawn on the people TO OBJ
tain power, does not hesitate, when in Office, to
exercise the Executive prerogative with the same
arbitrary will that led Louis XIV to proclaim "
am the State" On the other hand. comes forward
man, raised up specially like WASHINGTON, by
the exigences of the times, Gen. ZACHARY TAY-
LoR, the representative of the spirit of conservatism,
which struggles restore the republic to its origi-
nal purity as administered by the earlier Presidents
before kingly vetoes had practically converted the
Government into an Elective Despotism.
The elementary difference which lies at the
foundation of party distinctions in every age: the
one advocating strong central Erecutiue POWER,
the other contendng for the supremacy of the legs
lative department, is now brought prominently into
view. In short, it is the old contest of Wing and
Tory revived--a dividing line which, in the Ian
guage Of Mr.. JEFFERsoN's letter to LAFAYETTE in
IN 1924, will always exist however party names
may be changed
Hence Cen TAYLOR, an old-fashioned republic
can, untainted by the party intrigues of the last
twenty years, in trying present parties by this
touch-stone, was not long detecting modern demo-
cracy as counterfeit coin, and determining that
more nearly assimated to those of Mr.. JEFFERSON
than those of their opponents. See the MgersoH
Letter.
The coming Presidential campaign will be as
much struggle OF Popular Liberty against Execu-
tive Prerocatye as that which existed between the
Crown and the Commons in the days of Charles |,
an issue to which all others should be Subordinate
for, if the people cannot govern themselves through
their representatives in Congress, without the
slant and INSCRIPTIONS interposltion of the only
monarchicai power in the constitution, we had bet
ter have King at once, since an elective monar-
chy is the worst Government ON earth. The name
of King would be much less dangerous than the
prerogatiUe soithoM tie name, for then Executive
tyranny could not cloak itself under the pretext
that it acted the representative and depository of
the Peoples sovereignty, which, according to the
modern democratic theory, is in allegiance, except
by two-thirds yote during the Presidential term,
until the next election, when it will again be let
out another guardian to protect the dear people
from themselves doctrine more odous in its
consequences than that of " the divine right of
kings" for it shifts the responsibility Of its own
acts of usurpation on the People, and, in the name
of Liberty, commits crimes that would have cost
the perperaor his head, had he been seated on the
ti,ular throne.
This tendency to central!ze all the powers of the
Government in the hands of the Executive was
never more strongly exhibited than during the Mex
lean war, when every man who dared 10 express
an opinion on that subject was denounced trail
tor even the independent representative Of the
people on the floor of Congress, and on memoir
able occasion the whole Senate of the United States,
for hestaing to pass the ten regiment bill. Traitors
and traitors TO what! TO the country? No; but to
the President, whose mnions assumed that he alone
constituted the Government and that the legislative
hannd ,licitlx nha he
hess without discussion. To overthrow such ar
rogant pretensions in republican Government the
present effort is made to rally all the friends of
Privilege UerSns Prerogative. The protective tariff,
though essential to our prosperity, is minor ques-
ton, when it is 10 be decided whether we are TO
remain free people or the Slaves of an imperious
Executive master, backed by host of ofice-hold-
ers. Federalism. IN its palmest days, never car
ried the doctrine of strong Executive power fur
Their than the present dynasty in its code Of "moral
treason" alias sedon laws, in its levying tariff
on American citizens in foreign land, notwiih
standing the provision of the constitution that Con-
gress shall regulate captures land and sea- and
In its appointing sdfrdps over conquered provinces ;
in Its pocketng internal improvement bills in
short, in seizng upon the highest prerogatives OF
sovereignty during the Mexican war without con-
suting the representatives Of the people. All which
flowers of the crown it wishes 10 transfer uT-
touched to its anoiated successor by legitimate
right in the true democratic church.
Let the Court Journal carp as much as it pleases
about principles, in 1910. Gen. TAYLOR, if elect
ed, will restore the Government to the policy Of
the Madisonian platform Of 1916, adopted after a
war which left the. country in circumstances
very similar TO the present. To this platform,
from which the Government has been so long rude
ly thrown, conservative statesmen wish TO return,
before the interest of the country is lost ia the maze
Of foreign politics. in which vortex the wild theories
of Gen. CAss would soon involve us.
HELVIDIUS
XExIA, 0aIo JusE 30, 1913.
ron THE NATIONAL IrTKLLIaxNcsR.