The daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1863-1864, 1863-12-09
Executive Power.

preached, and Justly, for its unoeasing de-.
nuncistion Of HENRY CLAY, while he was .
leader in Congress or candidate for the
Presidency. The wrong has been fully
atoned for, however, and full justice has
been donsto the merits of that great man.
But unjust as that inyeetive. in its extreme
bitterness, certainly was, it was seldom in
deed that any one was SO nisled by party
zeal as to charge that Mr.. CLAY, in any OF
his measures, was actuated by motives in
imical to our free institutions and every
student of our peculiar form ofgovernment'
at this day, must be strongly impressed
with his wonderful foresight and sagacity
concerning many questions that are now
regarded of vital interest
Perhaps there was no danger to which
Mr.. CLAY called the attention of his coun-
trymen more frequently, or with more ear
nestness and sloqusnos, than that which is
to be apprehended from the Entertainments
and assumptions of Executive Power. He
traced, with great clesrness and force, the
history of this government from the sim
plicity of the days of the fathers of the re-
public down to time within the memory
of US all. He demonstrated that the Exc
cutive has been constantly striving for the
mastery of the purse and the sword, and he
tells us plainly that when that is fully &C.
complished our liberties will be at an end
"The march of power" said he, lis ever
onward. As times and seasons admon.
ished, it openly and boldly, in broad day,
makes its progress or, if alarm DO excited
by the enormity of its pretensions, it silent
" and secretly, in the shades of night,
steals it's devious way. 1t now storms and
mounts the ramparts of the fortress Of lib
erty it now saps and undermines its foun'
dations. Finally, the command of the army
and navy being already in the president
and having acquired aperfect control over
the treasury ofthe United States, he has con
summated that frightful union of purse and
sword, SO long, 80 much, so earnestly depre
Gated by all true lovers of civil libsrty."-
Colton's Clay, 495.
"The executive branch of the govern.
msnt was eternally in action; it was ever
awake it never slept; its action was con
tinuous and unceasing, like the tides o.
some mighty river, which continued flow
ing and flowing on, swelling, and deepening
and widening, in its onward progress, till it
swept away every impeachment, and broke
down and removed every frail obstacle which
might be set up to impede its course. Lei
gentlemen look at all history, and they
would find that it had ever been so. The
legislative branch of government met only
periodically; the moment it adjourned, its
power disappeared; it was dissipated, gone
but there stood the president at the head o.
the executive department, ever ready to en-
force the law, and to seize upon every ad
vantage which presented itself, for the ex-
tension and augmentation of its powers -
ID. 499.
In England the people were compelled to
resist this power for centuries. Sometimes
the reigning prince would arrogate to him
self authority that was almost despo1ic but
the people, in the end, would awake to q
sense of their danger, and regain their sto-
len liberties. Lord Campbell says that the
crisis in the struggle occurred in the times
of Lord Coke, when final effort was made
to destroy the independence of the judi
ciary. The King endeavored to compel the
Judges to give an extra judicial opinion in
favor of certain prsrogatives, which until
then had never been set up in his favor
and Lord Campbell says, that if the Judges
had yielded to the extraordinary demand,
the liberties of the English people would
probably have been lost for all time.
Strange it is that any one can yield to
the delusion that men in authority in this
country are more pure and incorrupt; or
less disposed to encroach on the rights
of the people, than men in power elsewhere.
But such there are. And Rev. Robert ].
Breckenridge, designing to break the force
of the charge Of usurpation of power, now
so loudly made against Mr.. Lincoln and his
advisers, has recently called our attention
to the fact, that there has not been an Ad-
ministration since the origin of the Govern
ment, against which the charge has not been
made that it had tramplsd on the constitu-
ton in something thatit had done. He might
have added with equal truth, that the love
of power is as strong with us as with any
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