The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1854-02-08
COL. BENTON'S HISTORY.
AMMO lS2o-JoHN QUINCY ADAMS, PRESIDENT,
Presidential Eiectioa Of 1928, and Furthe,
Errors Of Mons. De ToequsviRe.

AMMO 1S29-JoHN QUINCY ADAMS, PRESIDENT
Presidential Election Of 1928, and Furthe,
Errors Of Mons. De Tocqusuite.
| From the Evening Post
General Jackson and Mr.. Adams were the
candidates; with the latter, Mr.. Clay, (bis Sc
cretary of State, SO intimately associated in .ht
public mind, on account of the circumstances
of the previous Pres dental election in the
House of the Representatives, that their names
and interests were inseparablc during the can :
vass. Gen. Jackson was elected, having re-
ceived l7S electoral votes TO 50 received by MIR
Adams Mr. Richard Rush, oi Pennsy lvania
was the Vice Presidential candidate ON the tic
ket of Mr. Adlms, and received equal vote
with that gentleman.
MIR. Calhoun was the Vice Presidential can
dldate on the ticket with General Jackson, and
received slightly less vote-he efficiency be.
/ ing In Georgia, where the friends OF Mr.. Craw
ford still resented his believed connection with
| the IS A. B. plot In the prev Gus election he
had been neutral between General JACKSON and
Mr.. Adams, but was now decided on the part
OF the General, and received the same vote
everywhere, except in Georgia. In this elec-
ton there was circumstance to be known and
remembered Mr.. Adams and Mr.. Rush were
both from slaveholding states, Gen Jackson
and both large slave owners themse!ves--and
both received large vote as each) in the free
States and of which at least forty indis-
pensable to their election. There was no jeal-
ousy, or hostile or aggressive spirit in the
North at that time against the South
The election Of General Jackson was a tri
umph of democratic principle, and an assertion
OF The peoples right TO govern themselves.
/ That principle had been violated in the Presi-
DENTAL election in the House of Representa- :
/ tves in the session of lS24-'25; and the sane
tion, or rebuke, OF that violation was leading
question in the whole canvass. II also a
triumph over the high protective policy and the
Iatidulnous construction Of the constitution; and
of the democracy over the federaists, then
called national republicans; and was the re -es-
adjustment of parties on principle, according
to the landmarks Of the early age Of the gov
ernment For, although Mr.. Adams had re-.
ceived confidence and office from Mr.. Madison
and Mr.. Monroe, aud has cassed with the dem
ocratic party during the fusion of parties in the
"era of good feeling yet he had previously
been federal; and in the re-establishment Of old
party lines which began to take place after the
election OF Mr. Adams in the House Of Repre-
sentatives, his affinit es and policy became those
OF his former party; and as party, with many
individual exceptions, they became his support
ers and his strength. General Jackson, on the
contrary, had always been democratic, so clas-
sing when he was a senator in Congress under
the administration of the first Mr. Adams, and
when party lines were most straightly drawn,
and upon principle; and such now receiving
the support Of men and States which took their
pc ltIcal position at that time, and had NAM
tanned il ever since-Mr. Macon and Nr. Ran
dolph, for example, and :he the States Of
Virginia and Pennsylvania. And here it be-
comes my duty to notice an error, or a conger
les of errors Of Mons de Tocquevllle, in rea-
tion to the causes of General Jackson s election
and which he finds exclusively in the glare OF a
military fame, resulting from ga very ordinary
achievement, only to be remembered where
battles are rare He says:
I" Gen Jackson, whom the Americans have
twice elected to the head of their government,
lsa man of violent temper and mediocre talents.
No one circumstance in the whole course Of
his career ever proved that he is qualified to
govern free people, and, indeed, the majority
OF the enlightened classes of the Union has al
ways been opposed to him. But he was raised
to the Presidency, and has been maintained in
that lofty station, solely by the recollection ola
victory which he gained twenty years ago, un.
der the walls Of New Orleans a victory which,
however, was very ordinary achievement, and
which could only be remembered in a country
where battles are rare "
This may pass for American history, in Eu
rope and IN foreign language and even finds
abet rs here TO make it American history i'm
the United States, with preface and notes TO
enforce and commend it, but America will find
historians Of her own to d., justice 10 the ma ).
tional and to individual character In the mean
time have some knowledge OF General Jack.
son and The American people. and the two Pre-.
Edential elections with which they honored the
General, and will oppose it, that is my knowl.
edge, to the f'ppant and shallow statements of
Mons de Tocqueville. ga man of violent
temper l ought to know something abou,
that-cotemporares will understand the allu,
son-and can say that General Jackson had
good temper, kind and hosp,table to everybody,
and feeling Of protection in it for the whole
human race, and probably the very ones of
which Mons de Tocquevlle had heard were
accidental, against his will, and tor the succor
OF friends. Mediocre talent, and no capacity
to govern free people"
In the first place, free people are not govern.
ed by any man, but by laws But to understand
the phrase as, perhaps, intended, that he had
no capactity for civil admin s,ratlon, let the
condition of the country at the respective pc
rods when he took up, and when he laid down
the administration, answer. He found the
country In domestic dlstress-and the national
and state legislation invoked by leading politi
Clans to relieve it by empirical remedies, tariffs,
t. relieve one part of the community by taxing
the other, internal Improvement, to distribute
public money, national bank, to cure the
paper money evils, Of which it was the author
the public lands the pillage of broken bank
paper, depreciated currency and ruined ex
changes, million and half Of " "unavalabe
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, and that in banks which refused when
ihey pleased, to pay ii down in redemption of
tneir own notes, or even to render back to de-
positors Stay laws, stop laws, replevin laws,
baseess paper, the resource in halt the states
to save the debtor from the creditor, and nation
al bankrupt laws from Congress, and LOCAL in.
solvent laws IN the statrs the demand of every
session. lndian tribes occupying halt or
quarter OF the area OF southern sta es, and un.
settled question Of wrong and insult with half
the powers of Europe
Such was the state of the country when Gen
Jackson became President wha, was it when
he lett the Presidency Productive tariffs and
federal internal improvements discarded; the
national bank left TO expire upon Its own linn
lta,Ion, the public lands redeemed from the
pIllage OF bioken bank paper; no more " una
variable funds abundant gold and silver
currency, the public debt paid off, the treasury
Haoe ihdepe ndent OF banks; the indian tribes
removed from the states, indemni,ies obtained
from all foreign powers for all past aggressions,
and no new ones committed, several treaties
obtained from powers that never would treat
with us before, peace, friendship and Commerce,
with all the world, and the measures establish
ed which after one great conflict with the exp,-
ring Bank of The United States and her afflicted
banks in 1887. put an end to bank dominion IN
the United States, and ali its train of coutrac-
tons and expansions, panic and suspensions,
distress and empirical relief. This is the answ
(which the respective periods of the beginning
and ending Of General .acksnn's admlnstra
ton gives to the h,ppant imputaticn of no ca
Lpacity Tor civil government. pass on to the
next: " The majority Of the enlightened cas-
ses always opposed to him A majority Of
those classes which Mons de TocquevlIe
would chiefly sec in the cities, and along the
hways-bankers, brokers, jobbers, contrac-
tors, politicians aud speculators- were certainly
against him, and he certainIy against them,
but the mass of the intelligence of the country
was with him and sustained him in yvtrie wing
the country from the deplorable condition in
which the " enlightened glasses" had sunk it !!
and IN advancing il 10 that state OF felicity at