THE PRESIDENT AND THE PEOPLE.

The President intends spending the summer months in his native State, and has left this city for that purpose, traversing the rich farming section of Pennsylvania on his way. It is one of the most gratifying signs of the times, in connection with the great struggle for the final and decisive disconnection of the Federal Government from all "entangling alliance" with the broking, banking, and stock-jobbing interests, which have so often degraded it and convulsed the land, and its restoration to the simple principles of Republican Democracy, which, commenced under his auspices, is now agitating the whole Union-that all the power, strength, ingenuity and hatred of the immense party interested to their very existence in oppo. sition to this policy, have not availed to fix upon the public mind any portion of the calumny and aspersion, with which they have pursued himself and this grand measure from its first promulgation. No President of the United States ever stood in a higher position than Mr. Van Buren at present occupies before the country. The financial policy of his Administration was met with a storm of clamour and vituperation, the most furious and withering that Faction had ever raised ;-repelled with every mark of studied insult and contumely from Congress, it went before the people in the last resort, and for two years has now been discussed with an ability, earnestness, and force of argument on either side, that have never been surpassed; and, as a consequence, has won friends and silenced enemies in every quarter of the Union, until it is now left in acknowledged possession of the field of argument, and looked to, universally, by a majority of the people, as the surest, safest, and most speedy remedy of the deep-seated commercial disorders which have so long been preying on the vitals of the country. It is one of the noblest political victories ever achieved.

Not less strikingly successful have been the other measures of his Administration. The peace of the country preserved-its honor vindicated; faction rebuked, and the constitution preserved; the supremacy of the laws maintained, and every measure regulated by an undeviating adherence to the simple, transparent principles of Democratic Republicanism;—these have been distinguishing traits of his policy, and they have fixed his name in the affections of his countrymen, and already elevated it as a banner under which to rally as a certain talisman of success in the great struggle for the continuation of that policy, and the preservation of those principles, which will take place in the Presidential election of 1840. The people have found him faithful in his high trust to his first principles, and his most violent enemies even themselves confessed, when the imminence of national peril allowed them no subterfuge, and admitted of no retreat, the shameless groundlessness of their daily charges. At that perilous hour, with one act and voice they placed the destiny of the country in his hands-for war or for peace-investing him in unshared responsibility with power never accorded to a President before, and placing in his hands, without a check, unstinted millions of the treasure, which their speeches and their prints accused him of attempting to plunder, or possess himself of for the basest purposes. This reluctant tribute to his character and his trust-worthiness, wrung from reluctant faction, had the effect that might have been expected; and the grateful welcome of his native State, already swelling into a noble enthusiasm of popular development, will put to rest, finally and effectually, the last surviving slander of his foes.

But the policy and the character of Mr. Van Buren have been drawn, in so masterly a manner, by a hand truly capable of delineating them with accuracy, and with so many happy touches of eloquence and philosophical discrimination, in the following speech by Mr. Ingersoll, that we gladly embrace the present opportunity, which we have long sought, of placing it in our pages, not merely as a merited compliment to the President, but as a distinguished specimen of just, elegant, and profound delineation of character.

I cannot forbear to mention that there is reason to believe that a bosom friend of the Presi dent, a gentleman of great purity of character and superiority of intelligence, now by voluntary and honorable resignation no longer a member of his Cabinet, was his chief confidential adviser in this admirable appeal to popular virtue, intelligence, and independence. They both knew that there was no hope for it but in the very people, a few well-informed men of property, and the many men of industrious independence, who live without connection with banks, or regarding the increase of their store as the greatest good. It was hardly to be expected that victory would be so soon now as it seems to be. But it appears that the mass understands and appreciates a principle so just, so simple; and after a year's elucidation, by dint of sharp controversy, become so familiar that nearly every unprejudiced person is now its advocate, women and all, and more than all. The ebb of opposition, with all its noisy rush, is nearly out: the tide of majorities is constantly setting in, from Maine, one of the first to go and to return, to unchangeable Missouri; State after State, from North to South, rallying to the rescue of an Executive, only asking the country to support a plan which surrenders vast Executive influence, by merely disconnecting Government funds from private speculation, collecting them in good money, and managing them without the interference of corporations. All the South feels its rights restored by it; and all the North will find that justice to the South is benefit to the North. Mr. Van Buren's taking high ground against reckless abolition, was another master stroke of Union. I will not say that his administration of our foreign affairs has been as satisfactory as in these its leading domestic measures,* by which he has proved himself to be a man of the first class, made of that stuff which Mr. Adams thought was not in his nature, qualified to govern a great nation, and in whose sagacity, wisdom and firmness, not only a party, but a community may place full reliance. I confess that I do not approve of his policy with regard to the Canadian troubles, though I do him the justice to own that he has much better opportunities of knowing what ought to be done than I can pretend to; and I respect his deep-rooted aversion to war and anxious desire to preserve peace with a nation whose connections are so intimate with ours. Still with all deference, it seems to me that the United States cannot be expected to maintain an army on the St. Lawrence, at great expense, to prevent Americans from sympathising with their neighbors in a cause just like their own, and that after the outrage at Schlosser it is very bad policy to be so forbearing.

Another difficult principle of Democracy much favored in the Middle and Northern States, his adhesion to which was doubted during the first few months of his quiet administration, Mr. Van Buren has carried into full effect with exemplary propriety. mean the principle of rotation in office, which Penn, Jefferson, and all other patriarchs, as well as the philosophy of Republican Government, inculcates as one of its fundamental regulations. I believe I am warranted by the truth in declaring that Mr. Van Buren has in no instance arbi. trarily removed an individual from office, while he was faithfully administering the laws which vacate offices at terms of years, by the appointment of fresh incumbents; which is the true principle of rotation. In his appointments likewise he appears to have considered himself a trustee to the public will, not at liberty to gratify any capricious predilections or aversions. His selections of men have been made with praiseworthy anxiety for public good and approbation, looking to public fitness and private worth; and the promotion which he has bestowed on many of those distinguished for literary and intellectual attainments, reflects a credit on his Administration that will last, besides being a policy that secures the best support in time of need, and makes provision for historical vindication. It is not doing justice to his Administration to forget that it inherited much of his predecessor's, so that the present President, with his forbearing prepossessions, is hardly yet at perfect liberty.

It forms no part of my purpose to compare the President with his competitors, without reference to whom Mr. Van Buren has proved himself eminently worthy and capable of the Chief Magistracy. Many will not approve of his Administration under any circumstances. But those who put him at the head of the country have found him a man of talents, principle, sincerity, decision and firmness, under whose government the United States are prosperous, and advancing, by simple institutions, to their great destiny; the Union is safe; republican institutions are flourishing; our foreign relations are conducted by a sincere lover of peace, who will, nevertheless, we trust, maintain the honor of the greatest republican empires; and our internal concerns are settling upon that basis of true political economy which all modern intelligence and experience attests as the broadest and best. Mr. Van Buren has

* This was spoken before the occurrence of the Maine Boundary troubles.

not General Jackson's personal popularity; he never will have it. But though no victory has ennobled or veto illustrated his career, he is the author of the greatest reform attempted in this country, and a pilot who has weathered many a storm more fearful than battle. His personal deportment has been so unexceptionable, that he has probably not made an enemy, while Mr. Clay, in Senate, is his personal eulogist; and his friends have reason to be gratified with his conduct. All considerate and dispassionate Americans must acknowledge the ster→ ling merits of his personal Chief Magistracy, which has disarmed opposition of most of its materials, as his measures have dissipated the elements of panic and excitement on which it throve. Calm but unfaltering, deferential yet inflexible adherence to principle, with dignity, both personal and official, he has engaged the attention, the consideration, and the approval of an increasing majority of the people, on whose intelligence and virtue he cast anchor. The worst is over, much sooner than might have been expected. The Presi dent put his Administration on an issue which many of his real, and all of his pretended, adherents considered fatal to him. But he has proved the wisest. Even if he had fallen it, would have been with honor untarnished, and a good conscience to repose upon afterwards. But he has risen; he has succeeded; he will succeed; and Democracy now owes him a large debt of acknowledgment.

This is not the language of flattery, or solicitation, but of a calm, watchful, and even critical observer, anxious indeed for Mr. Van Buren's well-doing, but determined, and always ready to denounce him if necessary. It is vindication offered less for him than to the Democratic interest with which his Administration is identified, whose cohesion it is meant to cherish; not for the man, but for the measures of which he is the representative. It is contradiction of indiscriminate opposition, and discriminating support of the Administration, such as I deem the true ground of an independent American.

It is right to form a proper estimate of the talents, disposition, and qualifications of an individual with whose character as Chief Magistrate that of the country altogether, and the fate of republican institutions, is intimately connected. General Jackson filled so large a space in universal attention by his immense popularity, founded on military renown, civic distinction, and heroic temper, encouraging him to undertake and enabling him to achieve great exploits, that it would be trying to any man to follow such a predecessor. Mr. Van Buren announced his resolution to carry out the measures of the Jackson administration, concerning all of which he was no doubt confidently advised with when suggested, and many of which, it is supposed, he suggested himself. But in his inaugural address he gave it to be understood that ways of pleasantness and paths of peace are those he prefers. He made no promise to try to change his nature; but with that unassuming good sense, which is one of his principal characteristics, acknowledged the difference between General Jackson and himself; and accordingly has never attempted to imitate the man, while effectuating his measures. With similar principles, their manner of enforcing them has been entirely different. It remains to be seen whether Mr. Van Buren's mild, forbearing, quiet, and deferential, but tenacious mode of doing things, will not prove a surer way than the more conspicuous energy of his illustrious forerunner in the race of Democratic reforms. The beauty and strength of Mr. Van Buren's position is his unquestionable sincerity. We all feel that he is not attempting measures to which he has been converted, but pursuing a system to which he was uniformly attached. Brought up in the midst of what has been called the Albany Regency, he has always been perfectly pure of all lucrative designs, with which party rancor has never taxed him, and seems to be admirably fitted for contend. ing with a great money power by his independence of it as a man of competent fortune honorably acquired; never a money-seeker, and having, at all times, while associated with many of its greatest votaries, kept himself entirely unspotted by that world. The Chief Magistracy of this vast Union has become a most complicated and difficult task; but, in addition to its great labors and perplexities, it was Mr. Van Buren's lot to encounter, at the outset of his Administration, obstacles, embarrassments, and even misfortunes, much severer than those experienced by any preceding President. During the first few months of his Chief Magistracy many began to be uneasy. Washington, with the organization of the Federal Government-Jefferson, with the civil revolution he headed, and the maritime troubles he could not get the better of, but left to his successor-Madison, at war with the greatest enemy we could have-Jackson, uprooting the deep-seated internal improvement system, settling the tariff, and making head against the Bank of the United States-had none of them difficulties to cope with equal to those which beset Mr. Van Buren in the suspension of specie payments, hostility of a thousand banks, and contrivances of their millions of debtors

and dependents, directed by a powerful opposition, flushed with hope of the overthrow of his administration. His trials were without example; and his manner of dealing with them was so different from General Jackson's overwhelming activity; there was something apparently so passive in Mr. Van Buren's personal resistance to opposition, such a total change from the Executive vigor we had become used to, and for several years upheld as the constitutional wand, that many of the President's best friends, supporting him, not for office, but on principle, began to apprehend that, if not unequal to the crisis, at least the mass would think so, as indeed many persons of all classes openly pronounced. Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison, considered patience and time-abiding reliance on popular intelligence as the true policy of Government founded on the sovereignty of the people. Most of us have witnessed the stupendous power and transcendant talents of Bonaparte, overcome at last by the less salient resistance of patient policy. And I believe it is now fast becoming a very general impression with the Democratic party, that the President they elected has proved himself eminently qualified to be a leader as well as Chief Magistrate, and that his system of government is working out success as effectually as if attempted to be achieved by a more towering administration. There is a time for all things. General Jackson's mode was well calculated for his time; but perhaps Mr. Van Buren's method may prove more efficacious at this period. Encountered in the very honey-moon of his connection with the Government by the most formidable complication of embarrassments, without faltering or over action, he instantly, calmly, and courageously met the exigency by a noble message to Congress, which, with great wisdom, virtue, and forecast, put his Administration before the country upon one plain, simple, and just principle, to stand or fall by. Leaving to Congress their share of a great responsibility, without the least encroachment on their province, he did not hesitate to take his own share. That principle was an Executive recommendation that the constituted authorities should put an end to all schemes of finance and sources of speculation, by closing forever that disastrous succession of Treasury experi ments and ministerial contrivances, by which the Federal Government had perplexed itself, distracted the States, and violated the Constitution, by banks, first National and then State; and restoring the public treasure to what and where it was fixed by the Constitution, simply but absolutely separate Government entirely from banks, leave banks to themselves, and the community in their commercial exchanges to themselves, and collect, keep, and pay the public dues in good money by individual agency. This is one of those recurrences to first principles which is among the best lessons of Republicanism. It is a measure which must immortalize its author, whether he succeed with it or not: a conception marked with the enduring simplicity of genius, in harmony not only with our Constitution and institutions, but with the tendency and intelligence of our great mother country, and with the genius of the age one of those indispensable reforms, like the separation of Church and State, whose adoption, sooner or later, is infallible, even though their authors fall before they ultimately succeed. Avarice, party prejudice, fear, and other unworthy passions, fell foul of it at once, as they do of all improvements, and the ballet boxes, from Maine to Mississippi influenced by banks, betrayed their power in furious opposition. It was an issue which seemed to be desperate, but which, it already begins to appear, was wisely ventured, and will be followed by a triumphant verdict of approval sooner than was anticipated.

Another seal of approbation to the course of Mr. Van Buren comes to us from the far South, as we write, in the following glowing tribute from Mr. Rittenhouse, of Alabama. The passage occurs in a speech replete with political knowledge, and expressed in a style of kindling eloquence that must soon win for its author a proud distinction. We regret that our limits oblige us to curtail it:

Could I consider him non-committal, who so frankly and early proclaimed himself on the new, and denounced Sub-Treasury? Could I consider him timid, who, though assaulted by more enemies, placed in greater difficulties, and submitted to a fiercer ordeal than administration ever yet encountered, has calmly and firmly carried out his policy, and smiled at the vindictiveness of his foes? Though threatened with committees of ten thousand armed enemies; though perceiving, in the hour of his necessities, squadrons of his earliest friends wheeling by States from his ranks, he dared hold on the march which both consistency and country enjoined. Sir, fate and malignity had scattered, like the savage ordeals of the olden superstition, burning ploughshares in his path that the darkness of our calamities had obscured. He had sailed, it was said, this sunshine pilot "these many summers on a sea of glory," and when the vessel of State was 'weathering its stormiest capes," loudly was it prophesied that he would blanch and tremble in the untried tempests of the wild latitudes he had reached. But did he tremble? I, sir, I, with no friendly view, curiously watched that solitary man at the helm, (solitary, from his own vast and unshared responsibilities,) and when I beheld him amidst the uproar of the elements and the noise and the menaces of a distracted crew, calmly gazing at the card, and firmly directing the wheel-I could not withhold from him the tribute of my admiration, my esteem and my applause. Of humble parentage, endowed with no transcendent eloquence, wearing no soldier's laurels-he has nothing wherewithal to dazzle the multitude from their propriety; and the sustained confidence of his countrymen s ino feeble evidence of the justice of his cause. I do not exaggerate his claims, therefore, when I pronounce him the firm, courteous, and able statesmen; the very man for the times; the pure impersonation of principle.

(CONTINUED FROM THE HISTORICAL REGISTER, APRIL, 1839-PAGE 160.) On the other hand, it was argued that A challenge otherwise would be difficult the efficacy of the Bill to suppress duel- to prove, as well as an ineffective meetJing was doubtful, on account of the ing. Parties who intended to fight might severity of its penalties, which were evade the law in the easiest way in the cruel, unusual and unjust; that the Bill world, by making appointments for fictimade the duellist-whose conduct, it was tious objects, taking care to have the granted, was illegal and immoral, but true ones sufficiently understood by themnot unpardonable the associate and fel- selves. low-sufferer with felons of the vilest class; that the moral sense of the community would be shocked at it, and that such a Jaw would be rendered in practice a mere nullity.

All legislatures denounced duelling as evil in itself, and yet they had sometimes, in extreme cases, remitted the pains of their enactments against it by acclama

tion.

It was thought that imprisonment in the penitentiary was unjustly severe, without adding the proposition of Mr. Niles, which went to render them incapable of holding office ever after under the Government of the United States.

Various amendments were offered and

rejected, the substance of which has been given in this debate. Mr. Sevier then moved to lay the whole subject upon It was admitted that duelling could not the table, which was negatived. At be defended on the principles of Chris- length Mr. White moved to amend the tianity-neither could national war. It bill by striking out all after the enacting was quaintly remarked by Mr. Linn, that clause and inserting a substitute, profighting was like marrying the more viding that every person who should be barriers that were erected against it, the appointed to office under the General Gosurer were the parties to come together; vernment should, in addition to the usual that duelling was supported by public qualifications, take an oath that he had sentiment; some duels had been fought not-since the passage of the proposed act from light and trifling causes, but there been directly or indirectly concerned in were deadly insults which few men would a duel. Mr. White addressed the Senate not be ready at all risks to resent. So at some length in support of the amendlong as public sentiment was in favor of ment. His arguments were of a similar it, so long would it be worse than useless nature to those already given. His amendto legislate against it. The State laws ment was however rejected, and the bill had not had any great influence in pre- was ordered to be engrossed for a third venting duels within their bounds. Duel- reading without a division, Friday, April ling mitigated the indulgence of revenge- 6th. The term fixed upon for imprisonful passions, which, taking the milder and ment in the penitentiary was, not less more deliberate course, evaporated entire than five nor more than ten years. ly, or assumed a less atrocious form. On the Monday following, the bill came That it was better to send a challenge up on its final passage, and Mr. Clay, of than to draw a dirk. In the former case, Kentucky, who had taken no part in the time could be had for reflection and ad- previous debate, gave his reasons for votjustment; and even if the affair was ing in its favor. He considered duelling pushed to the extreme issue, there were a barbarous custom, and said that no man circumstances and chances which would could be happier than himself to see the go to make it less objectionable than sud- whole forever eradicated. He stated that den and violent personal rencontres. different sections of the country had differA duel was a matter of mutual con- ent opinions in relation to duelling-that sent; it was rencontre agreed upon and while one exacted a strict obedience to the deliberately arranged by both parties; custom, another was ready to sacrifice. the challenged party agreed to be shot at, the reputation of an individual who and agreed to shoot at the challenger. should be guilty of fighting-that when When Virginia took away the right of public opinion was renovated, and chasduel, she enlarged her laws against slan- tened by reason, religion and humanity, der, calumny and insult; and it was con- the practice of duelling would at once be tended that such must be done now, or discountenanced-that it was the office of the law would be evaded. legislation to do all it could to bring about It was argued that if the Bill must this healthful state of the public mindpass, the punishment should be lighter and although it might not altogether effect such as imprisonment in a common jail so desirable a result, yet he had no doubt for two years, and a fine of $2,000, for it would do much towards it. every offence.

The bill was then finally passed, by It was further argued that the punish- yeas 34, nays 1-(Mr. Sevier)—and sent ment should only extend to the principals, to the other House,-where, however, it by which means the seconds and surgeons was not destined to pass into a law at the could be used as witnesses to conviction. present session.

VOL. IV.

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