Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-06-16
OF MEM HIS.
OFFICE-FIRsT NATIONAL BANK.
DIRECTORS :

on the Joint resolution In reference to the
Madison Papers, February 10th, 1887, he
said that
He had been much struck with the
, sagacity and foresight Of Mr.. Jefferson,
iu remark of that great statesman, that
legislative usurpation would always pre-.
cede executive, but that executive would
always succeed legislative usurpation =
Governor Floyd, of Virginia, in 1919,
replying to Mr.. Clay's attack upon Gen.
Jackson, said:
"The honorable speaker (M. Clay
tells us that Rome had her Cesar, Britain
her Cromwell, France her Napoleon, and
we may profit by their example. / am
about to hazard an opinion, new in a de.
gree, and very opposite to that of the
honorable speaker, which is, that no
government has ever been destroyed by
a successful military chieftain. l ap-
peal to history to support me If my con.
struction be right If / recollect the
words of the historian: Cesar, having
less reputation, like wise champion,
retired to distance, for exercise, while
the two great factions preyed upon the
liberties of Rome Then, not till then,
did Cesar return to Rome, which, ever
since the wars of Marius and Sylla, had
known no liberty.
"Nor is the overthrow of the British
Government attributable to Cromwell.
The speeches of Parliament, and the
treacbery of members, produced the rev.
olution. When all was in commotion,
Cromwell, by canting and preaching, Sc
cured the stronger party, and became the
Protector. Nor can the French revolu-
ton be attributed to anything but the in
sincerity of the orators in the States
General, and to none in a higher degree
than to that greatest of orators and worst
of men, Mirabeau. If, in aftertimes, as
in all other revolutions, Napoleon se-
cured the stronger party and swayed the
government, he cannot be said to have
overturned it. No, Mr.. Chairman, our
liberties are not to be endangered by
successful chieftain, returning to us with
his gaudy costume, even after hundred
victories of New Orleans. IL is here, in
the Capitol, on this floor, that our iber-
ties are 10 be sacrificed, and that by the
hollow, treacherous eloquence of some
ambitious, proud, aspiring demagogue
Going further back-to September,
l796-we find, in Washington's Farewell
Address, this language:
"The alter nate domination of one fac
ton over another, sharpened by the spirit
of revenge, natural to party dissenslon,
which in different ages and countries has
perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is
itself frightful despotism. But this
leads at length to a more formal and per-
manent despotism. The disorders aud
miseries which result, gradually incline
the minds of men to seek security and
repose in the absolute power Of an indi-
vidual; and sooner or later the chief OF
some prevailing faction, more able or
more fortunate than his competitors,
turns this disposition to the purposes OF
his own elevation on the ruins OF public
liberty"
IAN extremity of this kind" he adds,
ought not to be entirely out of sight
Calhoun, the elder Floyd, Washington
aud Jefferson, we're all great men, whose
suggestions are worthy of being remem-
bered at all times; but the passages
above quoted are specially worthy OF
consideration now, that Congress, rec ov-
ering from the confusion into which they
were thrown by the fall elections, have
been rallied once more unto the breach,
to strike down with rapid blows both the
executive and judiciary. When all shall
be com motion, as all history proves all
soon will be, as the result of these legis-
lative usurpations, then will Grant only
have to follow out long and UNMARRIED
line of precedents, and bring order out of
chaos by placing the crown on his own
head,