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BOSTON. LETTERS TO YOUNG MEN.—No. 1. Young Men !—Thousands of your number, for the first time, are soon to execute the noblest act of Free men,—the choice of agents to carry on the work of Gov ernment! And what do you behold? You behold efforts made to displace men in power, unparalleled in our his tory. You behold money poured out like water. You behold processions, banners, log cabins, and men at their head impelled by an enthusiasm that knows no mod eration, and a recklessness of assertion that mocks facts, and defies arguments. You behold the waves of public opinion lashed into fury ; you behold (in one word,) “a ferocious” political contest raging, such as our country never before witnessed. And what is it for ? Why does Daniel Webster appear at the head of a procession composed of citizens of the United States, at Bunker Hill? Why is Joan Davis set up as the candidate of a political party in Massachusetts for Governor ? Why does LEVERETT SaLtonsTaLy appear as a member of a committee, formed by whig members of Congress,and styled “ The Waic Executive Committee ?” What, again let it be asked, is all this for? These—no man will pretend to dispute the fact—are the WHIG LEAD ERS OF NEW ENGLAND. What is the object they seek to effect? A Circular dated Washington, Jan. 24, 1840,and SIGNED BY LEVERETT SALTONSTALL and eight others, anddressed to the members of the whig party, shall answer : its conclusion is as follows The consideration that we are in the service of an injured and crushed people, should animate us in the use of every honorable exertion TO EFFECT THE COMMON OBJECT IN VIEW—THE RESTORATION OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE DAYS OF HER PATRI OT PRESIDENTS.” Here is the object plainly, fairly stated. For this “common object” Dustyl Wesster, Joan Davis, LEVERETT SALTONSTALL are now so zealously striv ing. But who are meant by these “ patriot Presidents ? ”— What principles are intended to be set up? What are intended to be discarded, when the “ restoration ”’ shall have been completed? Are the “ patriot Presidents,” whose days these whig leaders and their associates would return, the Jeffersons, the Madisons, the Monroes, and the Jacksons? Are the principles they will establish, the republican principles these great men professed and act ed upon, and which the nation have canonized? Or are the days of the Adamses, and the principles of old Federalism, the ‘common object” for which WEBSTER, Davis, Sartonstat, and their associates are striving? Principles which the American people have twice sol emnly discarded ? Young Men! You have often heard it asserted that the whigs of the present day are identified in principle with the Federalists of John Adams’s days. This has often been demonstrated. To support the truth of it there is an array of testimony that cannot be gainsayed. I. Perhaps no stronger array of opposing principles has proved this more fully than ‘The Address of the Democratic Members of the Legislature of New York to the electors of the State,” dated May 4, 1840. It compares the Federal principles and the Democratic principles together ; traces them in their operation, in the formation of the Constitution ; in the first sessions of Congress ; in the memorable times of ninety-eight; in Jefferson’s administration; during the war of 1812; in the administration of John Q. Adams; and during the period of Jackson’s administration. THERE IS THE EVIDENCE to show that the principles and practices of Federalism and Whiggism are identical ; that the Feder alists and the Whigs are the same in character. 2. The FACTS in a late number of the “ Boston ‘Morning Post” show conclusively that the very men who rallied under the banner of Federalism, in the most important period of our National history, now rally, with a few trifling exceptions, under the banner of Whiggism; that those who were Federalists in the time of the war of 1812, who are alive, are Harrison-men now. There are the names, the dates, and the events to show this. They have not been, and cannot be, disputed, ~ 3. It is admitted by the Federalists themselves! Every thing that is alleged relative to the identity of the two parties, has been, and is, daily confessed by the Whigs. Read carefully, young men! the following testimony, not a tithe of what might be adduced. The editor of the Boston Courier, A PROMINENT WHIG JOURNAL, now laboring zealously to “ effect the common object,” (‘‘ the restoration of the days of the patriot Presidents ”’) March 7, 1840, declared as follows :— “The democratic republican theory, which forms the basis of our government was most religiously put in practice by Washington and the Adamses. It was il lustrated in all its beautiful and excellent features, IN ALL THE MEASURES OF THE OLD FEDERAL PARTY—slandered, outraged, vilified, and abused as that party was. IT WAS THE PRINCIPLE OF THE NA TIONAL REPUBLICAN PARTY OF A LATER PERIOD, and THIS DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLE IS THE PLATFORM ON WHICH THE WHIGS NOW STAND. Long may they stand, then, to defend the Constitution and the Laws against selfish partisans and profligate politicians—to redeem the country from the carse inflicted on it by the arbitrary conduct of a President, whose will was the only law he would acknowledge, and whose temper was principally instrumental in its execution.” Here, in a short compass, is an admission of all that the Democratic party contend for, in relation to their op ponents, namely : that Federalism exists in principle un der the name of Whigs, the same now, as it did in J. Q. Adams’ day, under the name of National Republicans, or that it did in the days of John Adams, under the name of Federalism. So, on the other hand, remains its antagonist principle, Democracy. It is the same now as it was under Jackson, Monroe, Madison, and Jefferson. Both parties can well adopt the celebrated motto used by the Boston Delegation of Federalists at the Baltimore Convention : ‘We are where we ever have been, and ever mean to be.’* and when Daniel Webster, John Davis, and Leverett Saltonstall, with their whig associates, all represented as having in view “a COMMON OBJECT,” call upon the people to effect a restoration of the days of “ Patriot Presidents,” they can mean no other than the days of HamilTon’s influence, and the Adamsts’ power. But read, also, the following extract from one of the ablest why periodicals in the country ; a periodical, from which, during the time of the late Bank struggle, arti cles were struck off in pamphlet form, and circulated, by aid of the funds of the Bank, all over the country. The article from which this is taken, is entitled “ Our Politi cal Errors :” it speaks thus : “ We need go no farther than this one baneful, and, we presume, inevitable influence in a popular form of Government—the popularity of an individual—to account for our present distress, and to show our danger in the future. It is the second time we have suffered by the same means. In the case of Mr. Jefferson, indeed, the man was the less to be dreaded than the late President, though he has left a longer track of misfortune for us to pass over in the contest against, and triumph over, THE SWAY OF HIS PEDLER PRINCIPLES. The pop ularity of Washington was the gratitude of a nation for his services. * * * * * * His glory, his memory, deep respect for his virtue will always exist ; but the authority of his political character has long since deserted the people ; there is something too aristocratic in its lofti ness, and it has therefore, given way to the meaner and more intelligible notions of a more cunning man—ThOM AS JEFFERSON. ‘THE FIRST SYMPTOMS OF THE ELE VATION OF OUR FEELINGS AS A NATION, WILL BE A COMPLETE REVOLUTION IN OUR REGARD FOR HIS OPINIONS; but until then, we shall only go on multiplying our errors, and throwing obstacles in the way of our moral greatness. It was the predominance of his opinions that first turned us from a Republic into a Democracy, and has cast us upon the highway of na tions, to wander like vagrants, and earn experience by our sufferings. * * * * * * Still the visions of this man, (on equality,) in opposition to all experience, in opposi tion to the nature of man himself, and merely because they have an attractive popularity about them, and catch the superficial and ignorant, who are the ready in struments of the unprincipled and the ambitious, are made THE BASIS OF ACTION WITH A LARGE, AND, FOR THE PRESENT, PREPONDERATING PAR TY. All this is very natural, but it is unfortunate. A whole nation carried away by dreams, philosophical, though not profound ; an entire political fabric built up on the airy structure of mental hyperbole, and visions of the imagination, no age of the world ever before witness[ ed.” [See American Quarterly Review, Sept. 1837: an article entitled “ our political errors,” based on Jack son’s Farewell Address ] Young men read this carefully, and reflect well on its admissions . ( It is here admitted, that THE PEDLER PRIN CIPLES OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, (as they are sneeringly called,) are made the basis of action with the party now in power—that is, the Democratic party. That the elevation of our national feelings requires A COMPLETE REVOLUTION IN OUR REGARD FOR HIS OPINIONS—that is, the defeat of the De mocracy. Now if it can be shown that Daniel Wexster, Joan Davis, and Leverett SALTonsTaLt have repeatedly discarded the principles of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison—that they, with their political associates, were arrayed in their life-time in direct, bitter opposition to them—is it not clear that it cannot be their days THESE WHIG LEADERS are now laboring so zealously to re store? that when they talk of “ patriot Presidents,” it cannot mean Jefferson and Madison? and that, if all their associates have in view ‘‘a common object,’’ it is clear that something far different is intendedly the pres ent Whig or Federal party, than the restoration of the days of old Republicanism . Here is another witness. In William Sullivan's Fa miliar Letters,” printed in 1834, is the following, page 305. He is speaking of Jefferson , “ He triumphed and became President, and officially confirmed all that he had done as an individual. He ap plied the constitutional power, vested in him, to estab lish the dominion of party, UNDER WHICH THE UnitED STATES HAVE BEEN STRUGGLING EVER SINCE. The EFFECT OF HIS EXERCISE OF POWER, ON THE WELL
Newspaper Details
Boston Morning Post
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Tue, Sep 29, 1840
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Sean B.
CA 24 Jun 2026
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