The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-05-21

Administration cannot stand upon the principles
the MESA ge it does not expect to stand at ALL
IDANIxL WEBsTER's Letter to the Union Meeting
at Westchester.
The Presidents Tour and Internal Improve
ments.
The metropolitan organ of the Opposition is
very much scandalized at the idea that the
PRESIDENT and his Cabinet have had politi-
cal object in view in attending the railroad
celebration in New York. 1t alleges that there
is ''more chaffering for the votes of factionists
and third parties at this moment at the rail-
9 road festival of New York than has ever oc-
CURED in Tennessee or Texas" The Union
is not shocked that Senators DOUGLAS and
Dickinson should attend the celebration, and
participate in the festivities. They do not
WELD the patronage of this great Government,
But the views of our contemporary are SO pc
culiar on this point that we shall quote his par
agraph in regard to it entlre
at was very natural that Senator Douglas and
ex-S Senator Dickinson should participate in the
celebration of event which is credtabe to the
State Of New York. and which is of itself the most
conclusire denomination of the absmdity Of the
that could be produced. These gentlemen do not
WELD the patronage of this great Government.
They have no influence that be suspected of
an interference with the freedom Of elections
But il is far otherwise with the President and his
Cabinet, who belong 10 the party of internal i'm
provsments .ohen they made by the Federal Gouern
nsent, and not by the Siates-by the patronage of
Presidents, and not by the enterprise and capital
Of the people. The party of the President and
his Cabinet made quite great noise about the
Union and the Constitution, when they could not
get the public money to make little road from
Lexington to Maysville, as they now do about the
canals and railroads of New York, ,nhich hare
been made ,citlout their aid, and in direct opposition
TO their policy"
1t is all right for Senators DOUGLAS and
DICKINSON to attend this celebration, because
the event tits designed to commemorate demon
strates the absurdity Of the WING doctrines in
regard to internal improvement. Whereas,
the PRESIDENT and the Cabinet ought to have
staid away, upon the ground, among others, that
they "belong to the party of internal improve
ments when they are made by the Federal
Government, and not by the States" This lat
ter was very unfortunate allusion for the Union.
At all times, ever since the formation OF the
party, the Wings of New York have been the
uniform, consistent, and untiring friends OF the
State improvements and the DEMOCRATS,
or LocoFocos, have been their uniform, con
sistent, and untlring enemies. The WINGS
from the start have been the warm and earnest
advocates of the .NeW York and Erie Railroad,
and for extending to it the aid of the State.
The DEMOCRATS have with equal warmth and
ardor opposed it, and if it had not been for the
facilities extended to it by WING Legisla
ture, the road would never have been built, or
not built for a long time to come.
Any one who is ia miliar with the politics of
New York ten years ago remembers the posi-
ton of the cause of State Improvements at that
time. One of the most striking characteristics
of Mr.. VAN BUREN's administration, and. the
party which sustained it, was its hostility to the
prosecution of internal Improvements by the
National or State governments. There was no
one point on which Mr.. VAN buren, sought
more assiduously to define his position than on
his constitutional doctrines in this connexion.
He not only went full length with his iustri-
GUS predecessor, but step beyond him, and,
with Mr.. GRUMPY and Mr.. WOODBURY., con
spired to arrest even the Improvements Of the
States, by most unjustifable and wanton at
tack upon their capacity for managing their
own affairs, and the ability of redeeming their
own engagements Colonel YOUNG was at that
time at the head Of the anti-improvement party
in the New York Legislature, and, with Mr..
FLAGG and his allies of the ex- Regency stunned
the public ear with their direful outcries of
"Forty Million Debt" and with denunciations
of "profigate railroads" and "pauper canals"
The WINGS of New York, on the contrary,
have been uniformly in favor of a liberal exer-
else by the State Gas well as the FederaD
government Of its power in the construction of
works of internal Improvement. They have
thought that by increasing the facilities OF In
tercourse and transportation, and by giving a
general stimulus to internal industry by open
ing easy and ready markets for its results, the
State could be made to minister to the common
advantage Of agriculture, manufactures, and
commerce, and thus augment the profits and
the wages of LABOR employed in these vari-
Gus departments of industry, With these views
rit into the policy of prosecuting with vgor and
despatch the various railroads and canals that
had been commenced at different points in the
State, and particularly this enterprise Of the
.Neu York and Erie Railroad. They thought
as Mr.. CALHOUN thought and said in 1917
that in a country so extensive and so new as
ours there was room enough for all the gene