Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-06-03


very different story and mere spectators OF tue
work say that the democratic builders were proba-
bly, just about as harmonious as those of Babel.
DEMOCRATIC NOTIONS OF STRICT CON-
STRUCTIoN" OF THE CONSTITUTION.
The first distinct proposition of the Convention
is as follows:
sThat the Federal Government is one Of limited
powers, derived solely from the Constitution and
the grants of power shown therein ought to be
strictly construed by all the Departments and
agents of the Government; and that it is inexpe-
dent and dangerous TO- exercise doubtful consttu-
tiona powers
This principle is in SO direct opposition to the
whole course and tenor of the conduct of the
Democratic party when they have had the Co
vernment in their hands, that its ostentatious
annuncation at this moment, as the fundamental
principle of the politics of that party, is mere
mockery and contempt of the intelligence OF the
people to whom it is addressed.
To comprehend the full extent of the difference
between the profession and the practice of the De-
mocratic party, we must read, in connexion with
this proposition, the following, from subsequent
part OF the address:
That the fruits of the great political triumph
in 1914, which elected JAMES X. Polk and GEO.
M. DALLAS President and Vice President of the
United States hare fulfilled the hopes Of the De-
mocracy Of the Union, &c. and that in our OPT
nion it would be fatal to weaken the bands
of political organization by which THESE
GREAT REFORMS have been achieved, and
risk them in the hands Of their known adversaries,
with whatever delusive appeals they may solicit
our surrender of that vigilance which is the only
safeguard of liberty"
The fruits of the election of Mr.. Polk to the
Presidency, and the great reforms achieved" I'M
der his Administration, have been such as to make
of this fundamental proposition of the Baltimore
Convention piece of irony against its own party
as keen as human wit could have well devised For,
accidental possession of power by that party for the
last six or seven years has been signazed not only
by an almost unbroken series of Executive acts
of doubtful constutonality, but by the assumption
of powers denied to the Executive by having been ex
pressly conferred upon other coordinate branches
of the Government. And in this course of uncon-
stitutional action the Executive has been sustain
ed throughout by strict party votes in the legsla
tive bodies, whereby the whole party has become
responsible for whatever the Executive has done or
omitted. In the most fragrant of his acts-his un-
dertaking OF his own mere will to make war upon
Mexco-the Party in Congress sustained the Pre-
sident by an act of indemnity and in other acts
of more doubtful morality even than unconsttu-
tonality-such as his clandestine convention with
the exiled President of the Mexican republic, the
object of which was to place him at the head of the
Mexican forces destined to act against our own
gallant armies, &c.-the same party has continually
screened the Executive by its repeated relusals TO
inquire into either the facts or the motives of his
transactions.
But by way of improving the present opportu-
nifty, inviting to be neglected, it is worth while
to examine little more closely ,Chat are the
!" fruits which have been gathered, and What the
!" great reforms achieved by the political organ-
cation which it is the object of the Baltimore Con-
venton TO prevent from falling into hands in which
the continuance of such blessings may be en-
dangered.
To begin, then, with the beginning
As though in haste decisively 10 mark his fealty
to the blind dictm and decree of that irresponsi-
BILE Party Convention which had nominated him
a body huddled together in personal nirigues, and
settling, by few in a corner, when half had dis
persed, the gravest questions Of right and policy
as if at once to proclaim, with his first officia!
BREATH that he intended, during his term or terms,
to set aside all consultation with the coordinate
political authorities Of the land, and to reject even
the guidance and the pledges of all preceding Exc
cutives and their sober diplomacy, President Polk,
in his very Inaugural, by the ground which he SO
needlessy and prematurely assumed as to our I'M
questionable right" to all Oregon, would but for the
Senate, have plunged US into war the most fool
ish with Great Britain war which hung for a
time upon only the good sense and temper of the
adverse nation and its rulers, and which was last
averted only by the Presidents eating his own
words, and signing away by treaty onehaf Of those
very unquestionable rights" which he had so RASH
ly pledged himself not to yield. That the first
" fruit Of the Of the Democratic party in
the election of 1874.
The errors, the alarms, the equivocations, the
retractions that followed in the Executive manage
ment OF this matter; the perilous war in which ne
so nearly involved US, we need not now recite. An
history will take charge Of them. But
the facts stand too true foretaste Of the ready
sumption to WELD without stint illegal public