The North-Carolina standard., 1849-03-21
THE NEW ADMINISTRATION.

We take occasion to inform our neighbor OF. the
Register that we have not "caught the scent OF
opposition to the new Administration, either from
the Washington Union or from any other quarter
We are not in the habit of taking the cue, as II ls
called. from any man. We have already, In former
numbers of this journal, expressed our opinion as
to the means by which Gen. Taylor was elected, as
we'll as in relation the policy he will probably pur-
sue: and that opinion we have thus far seen
on to change.
The idea, advanced by Gen. Taylor in his Inaugu-
rail- and sought by Whig journalists generally to be
sereotyped into the public mnd that in his interpre
taton of the Constitution heiwould be governed by
the action Congress and the decisions of the Supreme
Court is simply absurd. He takes the oath to pre-
serve, protect and defend that Constitution-not
Congress the Supreme Court may understand it, but
as he, with all the lights from every quarter before
him, may understand it. AS coordinate branches OF
the Government, they are bound to exercise their
peculiar powers, and they entitled to his unquali-
fed respect; but he has also his powers and his du-
ties from which there is no escape. Does he swear
for the Court, or for Congres? And is he, as the
Representative OF the American people, armed with
the right to forbid well the right to recommend,
to sit down quietly and permit those bodies to think
for him? If so, then is his oath mockery and the
Office he holds useless sinecure.
We repeat it, we shall not prejudge the new Ad-
ministration, nor condemn it in advance. We hope
it may prosper, because the interests of the country
we all love well inseparabIy identified, for
four years at least with its policy and its measures.
But it only prosper, we beg leave to say, by ex-
ering its energies to keep things they and by
accommodating itself to the present condition of
things. 1t may preserve and perpetuate but it can
not improve, except time and the course of events
may aid it SO to do.
If, however, it should violate its solemn pledges
in regard to nopartyism and appointments to office,
and should attempt revival of those odious Whig
measures which the people put under their feet In
defeating Henry Clay in 1874, we shall oppose it,
from the first letter to the last line, and shall labor
in common with thousands of Others for its discom-
future and overthrow. The s' old Democratic Guard''
is not dead, yet sleeping. Upon the sounding
of the first notes of danger, Its ranks will again be
marshalled and its banners flying; and profting by
the experience of the past, the time it marches
forth meet the enemy it will go forward without
divisions or discord, and therefore to victory.
But aside from all this, the Register does well to
lecture US in regard to- our course towards the new
Administration. How has that paper treated Mr..
Polk! During his whole term, while he was estab-
fishing the very measures which Whigsm now
knows better than to touch and while by his manly
conduct and superior craftsmanship he eliciting
the applause of millions here at home, and eevating
the American name in foreign eyes, the Register de-
nounced him, without proof, as demagogue and
usurper; and resorted to every means to bring him
and the great party which sustained him into odium
and contempt Was that lberall Was it iust4 Was
it such course as an american press-whose duty
it is refine and raise up, and to vulgarze and
degrade the public mind-ought TO have pursued !?
We shall not initiate that paper in this respect. We
shall approve when can, and condemn when We
must; and any other course, in opinion, mat
ter who what may be the object concerned, is un-
just to the people generally and injurious to the very
which is sought to bepromoted and sustained.