Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-06-16

plant about loose construction ofthe constitution
comes with q bad grace from those who sustained
all the high handed usurpations of Mr.. Folks ad-
minlstration. Mr.. Polk Invaded what he admit
ted to be a disputed territory, and thereby
usurped the war-making power, one of the high
est prerogatives of Congress He sent officers
holding the commission of the United States,
without the knowledge or consent of Congress,
to California, to stir up rebellion ia that province
and to wrest it from country with which we
were then at peace. He established civil gov
ernments, and exercised all the powers of an alb
solute monarch over the territories subdued by
the arms of the United States. He laid and col
lected taxes and imposts in Mexico at his own
will and pleasure, and rendered no account to the
representatives Of the people, But Mr.. Douglas
and his strict construction party nothing to
condemn in all this. On the contrary they
tanned with unbroken unanirnity all of these gross
and unwalTantable usurpations by the President,
of powers not conferred upon him by the consti
| tuition. And yet these same now have the
hardihood to style themselves strict construction
lists, and to stigmatise the Wings who resisted all
the above mentioned usurpations as the advocates
Oh laIlGuuluOuS lutorprotdtlOu Vi to CotSIltuCOu
Judge Douglas denounced the present admins
tration for its alleged extravaganza, abuse for
which he thought there was remedy but in a
change OF government. Folks administration,
which expended all the available resources of the
government and left debt of sixty millions con-
stitutes, we presume, his beau ideal of an eco
nomical administration. The Little Giant is no
better pleased with the foreign than the domestic
policy of Mr.. Fillmore. He comes out as the
apologist and partizan of the Cuban Fillibusters,
and should he ever be elevated to the Presidential
Chair, we presume that the stars and stripes, our
present national emplem, will be superseded by
| the sable flag and Deaths Head.
We subjoin some remarks from the Republic
on another portion of Mr.. Douglas remarks:
As in the event of Mr. Pierces election to the
| Presidency Mr.. Douglas will occupy an impor-
| tant AMI controlling relation to the administration,
it is interesting to know the measures which he
| will be likely to recommend, and the policy
which he foreshadows. Fortunately we are left
| in no doubt in this regard. At the recent demon
stration of defeated candidates in this city, Mr..
Douglas delivered himself very fully several
| matters in which the American people are much
concerned. Mr.. Orr, of South Carolina, to the
edification of the Great West has euogized Mr..
Pierce for his hostility to river and harbor inn
| provements, and has announced to Pennsylvania
that she may expect to see the duties on coal and
| iron reduced rather than increased" Mr..
Douglas undertakes to vouch for the foreign policy
of the promised administration. Let look at it.
| We will cite Mr.. Douglass own words:
II hold that the Caribbean and the Gulf of
| Mexico are AMERICAN WATERS, and should be
treated as closed to the exclusion of all Euro
pean poa0ers. The commanding position of this
great Republic, which extends from ocean to
ocean, with peculiar interests in the various 18TH
muses. of Panama, Nicaragua, Tehuantepec, and
every other throughfare across the continent, re-
quires that we should not only assert but main
| tain this declaration. will say, further, these
great principles of national policy can never be
carried out under Wing administration. Laugh
ter and applause
This is to the point. 1t is indicative of pro-
gress. Mr.. Douglas invites us to profuse enter
tainment. A few weeks since the "Y Dung Giant"
laid claim to all the contiguous islands on both
sides of the continent. Now he proposes to oc-
cupy couple of seas, and calls upon the people to
elect General Pierce to the Presidency because
Wing administration cannot be brought to toe his
saltwater mark.
All the readers of Mr.. Douglas may not re-
member that the Caribbean sea is portion of the
Atlantic ocean which is bounded west by Guate-
maa, east by the Caribbean islands, north by
SdiHdlCd OG. OoILluSo, VI IClCO duu Luo H.
gin islands, and south by Colombia. We do not
happen to own an inch of soil that borders on it,
Some ofthe European powers happen to possess
territory on the and IN the sea, and are sup
posed to have right of way to go and come, not
only over the Atlantic ocean in general, but over
that particular portion oft Now we admit that
it has not been the policy of the Wings to appro-
pirate to the United States the exclusive naviga-
ton OF the Caribbean sea-. The credit of this |
claim was reserved for the leading spirit of Mr..
Pierce's prospective administration. It required |
very fast man to conceive the idea, and a some
what bold man to express it; but Mr.. Douglas has
both speed and courage.
The exclusive navi cation ofthe Gulf of Mexico |
is another branch of Mr.. Douglass proposition-
We have very fair line of territory on the gulf,
and good right to the use of its waters, in COM
monwith all the other nations of the earth. Along
the extent of our own possessions we have some
peculiar rights within the range ola cannon shot.
But Mr.. Douglas thinks that no Wing administra-
ton will be likely to set up exclusive jurisdic-
ton over the Gulf of Mexico and insist on regard
ing it as ''closed sea- to all the European DOW
ers. Therefore he calls on the American people |
to inaugurate new era of saltwater acquisition,
by the election of Mr.. Pierce to the Presidency, |
In the light OF such councils these of his possible
prime minister senatorial leader.
GEN. PIERCE
The Democratic candidate for the Presidency |