The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1848-09-30

the qualified veto. We have quite as
many laws passed now, session by ses-
sion, as the people desire to see passed.
AS guard against hasty and inconsid-
crate law.making- balance Of
power between coordinate depart
ments Of the government-as means
Of confining the vast array Of interests
embodied in every Congress within
their constitutional sphere-and as the
appropriate voice and action Of that pc
culiar constituency made up Of the peo-
| Pile numerically and Of the sovereign
states, which in its double character is
alone represented by the President,
chosen as he is by the electoral COL
lege--as the appropriate voice OF This
peculiar constituency, quite different
from the constituency Of the House or
Of the Senate--t veto power is cher,
ished by the people as being now. in
fact, what it was in its origin of old, a
safeguard of popular rights; and they
find alike strange and unwelcolne the
spectacle of a self-styled conservative
party rallying to display their conserv-
atism by rulhIessly plucking down SO
important pillar Of their constitution!
| But if the issue of the whigs-both
those which are avowed and those
which are kept more in the background,
) are thus fitted to bring down over
whelming defeat upon that party, the
course which i: has taken in its own
organization for the present canvass is,
perhaps, still more plainly suicidal. The
great error of the wings in this canvass
may be summed up in word-they
haze shown in all their movements an
utter contempt Of the intelligence of The
people,! 1t is u libel on the popular in
leligence, that the wings have gone in
; to the canvass without taking any
} ground whatever on the great question
of slavery, and without any declaration
Of political principles. 1t is an utter
contempt of the popular intelligence
that Gen. Taylor was nominated at
Philadelphia No honest whg dares
10 pretend that tha! nomination was
made because of fitness or qua|lfica-
ton, or any other good and sufficient
cause. No honest whig denies that
Gen. Taylor, brave and well deserving
soldier as he is, was nominated for any
other purpose than that the war.revi.
ling wings might appeal to blind and
ignorant military enthusiasm, which in
their hearts they utterly despise, and
, so bear their candidate into the presl-
dency on the groundswell Of an un.
meaning Buena Vista hurrah! 1t is an
honor to the whig party, that vast
masses of il are thoroughly disguised at
all this humiliation Of themselves and
of the politics Of their country; and that
while Taylor the soldier is every where
honored, Taylor the would be civilian,
the candidate, inexperienced, uniform.
ed, wholly incompetent, inconsistent
in his pledges and no pledges, unsettled
IN his opinions, insignificant in the
avowed course Of his future preslden'
tial action, with no political history,
with no political guarantees, every bo-
dy's representative, and truly repre-
senting nobody-it is, we say, honora'
bic to the whig masses, that as such a
politician, he is every where regarded
with an indifference and apathy which
the memory OF his brilliant battle.fieIds
alone prevents from deepening into
something near akin to contempt! We
take no pleasure in this idea. We would
rather have beaten candidate who, as
politician, had some strength some
where. But the opinion we have ex'
pressed stares out in the columns OF the
abIesl whig journals, like the New
York Tribune, and is hardly kept under
in wbig demonstrations, like those in
New York and Albany, where all the
apathy is for Taylor, and all the enthu
siasm,all the pangs ofregret are for Clay
| And thishopeless disorganlzatlon and
Decentralization Of the whig party ap'
pears at moment, when all the iorce
of its party enthusiasm, and all the
stringency of its party discipline, are
needed not only to sustain the unpopu
Iar,y Of its own position, but to meet
the determined energy OF the democra-
cy, every where confident Of success
every where justly proud Of its well,
tried and eminent standard-bearers--
every where devoted to its principles,
and every where, save in single
state, compact, united, and harmonious
in its determination TO maintain them.
| The present despair and dependency
Of the wings, unexampled as they are,
are the result of causes adequate to pro-
duce them; and the brilliant triumph
which awaits the democracy in No
vember next, will be but another teslI'