The American patriot., 1855-07-07

our posterity. When the compromise was
passed you all know that there was party,
called at the North, Aboltionists and at the
South, Nullifiers, who insisted that that meas
was a base surrender of State rights, and who
set on foot measures which, if carried out,
would have produced immediate bloodshed
and civil war.-This party at the South had
an organ whose columns teemed with the dir
tiest abuse of every man who could not SUBJ
scribe to its scheme of holding Southern Con-
gress, with powers not only to declare the
compromise unconstitutional, but to provide
for its resistance, precisely as South Carolina
had done in 1889. When the great and lamcn-
ted Webster delivered his speech, on the occa-
sion of laying the corner stone Of the new cap
itol, the response of this Southern Rights Dem.
ocratc sheet was, that it was a vain ceremony
that the people of the South should be put
ting their arms in order, to Alta, k the North
instead Of indulging hopes for the preservation
of the Union.
Gentlemen, one of the first acts of Mr.. Pierce
was to give the editor of that disunion sheet
an important Consular and Diplomatic Office.
And if you examine the character of his ap-
pointments generally you will find that in ev
cry quarter of the country they have been
marked by an open contempt for his profession
as friend of the doctrines of the Democratic
party.
Yes, gentlemen, assert without the fear of
successful refutation from any quarter, that the
conduct of President Pierce is distinguished,
if distinguished for anything, for insdious OPP
position to the doctrine always maintained by
the Democratic party on the subject of State
Rights. Mr. Madison his told us over and
over again that his party in 1898 repudiated
the doctrine of notification as claimed by South
Carolina in 1882, and as insisted on by the
Southern Convention assembled at Nashville.
You remember the celebrated letter of Mr..
Madison in which he thanks Mr.. Webster for
his able rcfutation of the absurd idea that
State could enforce her own construction of
other States, and the decisions of the Supreme
court. The records of Tammany Hall will also
bear witness that the party supporting Messrs.
Jefferson and Madison during the time of the
embargo and up to the assemblage of the
Hartford Convention, maintained every where
in Congress and out of Congress, that the Gen
cral Government possessed the power of remo-
wing any and every obstruction to the eXccu-
ton of the laws passed in pursuance of the
Constitution.
advert to these great and leading facts to
remind you where | Stood and where Gen'l
jackson stood and where the Democratic party
stood, on this doctrine of State Rights.
Suppose, gentlemen, that in 1900 Mr.. JEFF
ferson had lavished his favors on those who
passed the alien and sedition laws-or that the
war party in 1912 had called to the cabinet or
the chief military commands, men who held
out blue lights to the enemy, or that Gen'l
jackson in carrying out his measures against
internal improvements as advocated by Mr..
| Adonr chould how uivap fl,n hi0h rlococ of
Government to his opponents-would you not
have called the policy of doing so suicidal and
unjust? Suppose that in 1882 a cabinet had
been formed of men who opposed the policy of
the Government and the sentiment of the
country in respect to the doctrines of nullifca-
tion and secession, what would the people have
thought of it? To ask such question seems
almost to insult the common intelligence, for
even in the worst Governments in Europe it is
admitted that public measures of importance
can only be entrusted to those who are friendly
to such measures, and that when the measures
change. the men to execute them must change
accordingly. We have seen numerous Illus
trations Of this fact in the recent conduct of
the British, French and German Governments
and even in Turkey. But here in the United
States, where public opinion is omnipotent,
where discussion is as free as the air, and
where the Statesman looks to the people for
reward, elevation and rcnown, when his labors
and services entitle him to be considered the
author of a system calculated to aid the pros
try, President Franklin Pierce undertakes to
set up the doctrine that the patronage of Office
can supcrsede the relation between a measure
and its supporter, and that the true way to
govern people is to conciliate parties by Civ
ing place to leaders without reference to their
agency in defeating or advancing the great
principles of yirtuous administration.
You have had the evidence, gentleman, Of
this doctrine in your own city, when you saw
! the noble and honest Bronson thrown down and
crushed, because he would not become the
instrument of miserable attempt to conciatc
abolitionists and freesoile-s, by selling out the
| Custom-house offices to ,cm as the hucksterer
does his beef and his corn. And the spectacle
which you have witnessed has been felt in every
quarter of this wide Union. Now compare the
practice of this administration on this subject
with that of Gen. Jackson or every and all of
his predecessors. The maxim has been to look
to honesty, fidelity and capacity; and above
all, not to bring the patronage of the Federal
Government into conflict with the freedom of
elections. Why. gentlemen, so far from look
ing to these conditions in the use of the APP
pointing power, it seems to be the duty of the
Attorney General to telegraph or cause to be
telegraphed. on the eve of important elections
Just what is necessary to defeat candidates who
have not given in their adhesion to this new
school doctrine about State Rights.
Look at Washington and what do you see
there that changes the view I have taken of
President Pierce's i,fdelity to the great prin-
ciplcs of Democracy. Did you ever hear of
Mr. Marcy's standing by any body or helping
any body because he took the true position in
the great battle which Mr.. Pierce declared was