Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1854-03-01

deral; and in the re-esta0llshment of old
party lines, which began TO take place
after the election of Mr.. Adams in the
House of Representatives, his afiDities
and policy became those of his former
party and as party. with many indivi-
dual exceptions, they became his sup
porters and his strength. General Jack
son, on the contrary, had always been
Democratic, so CHASING when he was a
Senator in Congress. under the admins
tration of the first Mr.. Adams, and when
party lines were most straightly drawn,
and upon principle; and as such now re-
ceiving the support of men and States,
which took their position at that time, and
had maintained it ever since Mr. Macon
and Mr. Randolph, for example, and the
States of Virginia and Pennsylvania
And here it becomes my duty to notice
an error, or congeries of errors of
Mons. de Tocqueville, in relation to the
causes of General Jackson's election, and
which he finds exclusively in the glare of
military fame, resulting from ga very or!
dinary achievement, only to be remem- :
bered where battles are rare" He says:
General Jackson, whom the Ameri-
cans have twice selected to the head
of their government, is man OF vi
olent temper and mediocre talent. No
one circumstance in the whole course of
his career ever proved tnat he is qualii-
ed to govern free people and indeed,
the e,majurity of the enlightened classes of
| the Union has always been opposed TO
him., But he was raised to the Presi-
dcncy, and has beea maintained in that
lofty station solely by the recollection oi
victory which he gained twenty years
ago, under the walls of New Orleans a
victory which, however, was a very or
dinary achievement, and which could on
| ly be remembered III a country where
battles are rare"
This may pass for American history
in Europe and in foreign language, and
even finds abettors here to make it Ame-
rican history in the United States, with q
preface and notes to enforce and COM
mend it; but America will find historians
fiber own TO do justice to the national
and to individual character. In the
meantime, [ have some knowledge ol
| General Jackson and the American peo.
pie, and the two Presidential elections
with which they honored the General
and will oppose it, that is, my knowledge
to the flippant and shallow statements
of Mons. de Tocqueville. A man ot
violent temper" Iought TO know some
thing about that-contemporaries will
understand the illusion-and 1 can say
that General Jackson had good temper
kind and hospitable to every body, and a
feeling o! protection in it for the whole
human race, and especially the weaker
and humber part of it. He had few
quarrcls on his own account; and pro
badly the very ones of which Mons
de TocquevilIe had heard, we're accident
al, against his WILL and for the succor ol
friends. Mediocre talent, and no ca
pacity to Govern free people" In the
first place. free people are not governed
by any man, but by laws. But to un-
derstand the phrase as, perhaps intended
that he had no capacity for civil admins
tration, let the condition of the country
from the respective periods when he tool
up and laid down the administration, an
swer. He found the country in domestic
distress-pecuniary distress-and the ma
tional and State legislation invoked b.
leading politicians, to'relieve it by empl
racal remedies: tariffs TO relieve one par
. of the country by taxing the other; in
, ternal improvements 10 distribute public
money; a national bank, TO cure pape
money evils, of which it was the author
the public lands the pillage of broker
bank paper deprecated currency ant
= ruined exchanges million and a-hatF o
, unavailable funds in the treasury;
large public debt the public money, The
prey of banks no gold in the country
only twenty millions of dollars in silver
f and that in banks which refused whel
they pleased, to pay it down in redemp
ton of their own notes, or even to rende
back to depositors. Stay laws, stop laws
replevin laws, baseless paper the resource
| in half the States to save the debtor iron
the creditor and national bankrupt law!
, from Congress, and local insolvent law:
. in the States, the demand Of every ses
sion. Indian tribes occupying half O.
quarter the area Of the Southern States
and unsettled questions of wrong anc
, Insult with half The powers of Europe
, Such was the state of the country wheG
. General Jackson became President; wha
was it when he left the Presidency !
Protective tariffs and federal internal i'm
provements discarded the national banl
left to expire upon its own limitatatlon =
the public lands redeemed from the pill
lage of broken bank paper no more "un
available funds;" an abundant gold and
. silver currency the public debt paid of
+ the treasury made independent OF banks
the Indian tribes removed from the States
indemnities obtained from all foreigT
powers for all past transgressions, and nj
new ones committed several treaties OBJ
tanned fl ON powers that never would dtrea
with US before peace, friendship and
commerce with all the world /; and th'
measures established which, after on
great conflict with the expiring bank o
the United States, and her affiliated bank