Daily national Democrat., 1858-10-21

Mr.. jefferson, when President, wrote Mr..
Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury, "I
think the officers Of the Federal Government
are meddlng too much with the public elec-
tions. win it be best to admonish them pri-
yatey or by proclamation
1t was something unusual, in fact unheard
of, in the days Of the Washingtons and the
Jeffersons of this Republic, for officers of the
Federal Government to interfere, in any
manner, with the elections. If Jefferson was
almost tempted to issue n public proclama.
ton, as President of the United States, for
bidding Federal officers on pain of removal,
from meddling with elections, what would
he think, were he alive now, and could see
the present prostitution of tie Executive
Power of the Nation? The President, not
only not forbidding any interference with
elections, but positively commanding such
interference as an act of fealty to his Admin
istration Every day we see evidences of
an increasing Capitalization of power in the
hands of the Executive-a rapid tendency
towards Federalism The President not only
assumes to dictate to the Senate and House of
Representatives, as to the measures which
they shall pass, but he brings all the ma
ehinery of Administration patronage to bear,
in party conventions and at the ballot-box,
to elect such men to the National Legislature
as will carry out his views We see him
meddling now with the elections in New
York Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and
other States of the Union. All his myrmi-
dons, in the shape of Custom House, Post
Office and other appointees, are busy in every
city, hamlet, village and precinct, endeavor-
ing by all the contemplate enginery of elec
tioneering science (for science it may be
called, since it is reduced to the very perfec-
ton of systematized rules.) to have those
men, only, elected who are known to be the
plant tools of Federal Power. Every man
who has dared to say to the President that
he was wrong in any one of his measures of
public policy, or who has had the nerve to
stand by his principles when the President
desired him to abandon them-every man
who has stood unmoved by the Establishments
or the menaces of Executive Power, is pro-
scribed, hunted down and politically slaugh-
tered, whenever it is possible to be done, by
the Danites of the F, deral Army Free
speech and free thought are trammeled by
the Executive Will The Representatives of
the sovereign people are intimidated in their
seats, and made to favor a course Of legisla-
tion which they do no approve and to which
their constituents are opposed, for fear of be
ing followed up hereafter by the Presidential
wrath, with all the immense influence that
the Presidents antagonism could command,
and thus crushed out, together with all their
political hopes and ambitions, beneath the
wheels of a relentless Juggernaut. The only
security that honest and brave men have in
the Councils of the Nation against being sac
rihced for their adherence to principle, is in
the good sense, intelligence and moral integ-
rity of the people, who have it in their pow
er to sustain such men at the ballot box, in |
spite of all that the President or his host of |
myrmidons can do But the people, we are
sorry to say, very often fail to exhibit that
good sense, intelligence and moral integrity, |
which they should, in such cases, and very
frequently suffer those men, whom they should
delight to honor, to fall beneath the ven
geance Of INSCRIPTIONS partizans, and to sink
into obscurity. The masses are too much |
swayed by the pretensions of power, and too
much disposed to forget that the President is
net their master but their servant One
thing, however, is certain, and that is, if
they do not awake to their duty soon, it will
not be long before he will be master indeed,
and Monarch instead of President.