Newspapers / The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, … / Oct. 30, 1832, edition 1 / Page 2
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which, in common with the people of the Union, I entortain of their unwavering though unpretending patriotism and un spotted political faith, and the high grati fication I should derive from being tho't worthy of their confidence, I shall feel it a duty to be content with whatever disposi tion of the question they, in the honest exercise of their opinions, shall see fit to make. With sentiments of high consideration, I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, M. VAN BUREN. To Joseph II. Bryan, Josiah T.Granber ry and Memucan Hunt, Esq. Commit tee, &c. AN ADDRESS To the friends of Gen. JACKSON in North Carolina, and to the support ers of his Administration of the affairs of the General Government. Fellow Citizens: The Jackson Central Committee take pleasure in announcing the names of those who have been nominated by the people in our several districts, as Elec tors for North Carolina. This ticket is pledged to the support of General AN DREW JACKSON for President, and MARTIN VAN BUREN for Vice Pre sident of the United States and we con fidently believe that its success is certain, if the occasion shall call forth that activi ty and energy among its friends, which its importance to our country would seem to require. An early and active opposi tion to it had cast about our prospects some shades of doubt, but these have be gun to yield to the light of truth, and we are not without hope, that most of our op ponents will yet sacrifice their prejudices to the common cause of our parti and our country. However this may be, it is our right, and has become in some mea sure our duty, to address you on this subject. GENERAL JACKSON. General Jackson, fellow citizens, has now filled the office of President, nearly four years, and is once more a candidate for re-election. His pure patriotism, his uncorrupted integrity, his firm adherence to what he believes right, his distinguish ed ability, and disinterested devotion to the good of the whole country, have not indeed silenced opposition; but they have secured a successful administration of our affairs in times of perilous excite ment, and given to him fresh claims up on the gratitude and affections of the peo ple. He may yet be reviled, insulted, and traduced by those, who choose to gratify a corrupt taste for personal and political scandal, or he may be as unge nerously vilified by others, who, without any relish for defaming character, have yielded easy victory to the detestable mode of perverting all the acts of a public ogent to purposc3of a reckless opposition. Still we do not doubt that North Caro lina will be true to herself and to our ve nerable President in the coming contest, if hts friends will be united. He has won a place in the affections of our peo ple, that wc have no fears of sceino- yiel ded to the clamors of party, or lowered by the maledictions of disappointed am bition. Before his elevation, the oppo nents of Gen. Jackson sought to alarm the tears of his friends by warning them, that ho was a military chieftain, and would sot at defiance the restraints nf the dnn. stitution, and that by the indulgence of u" ""governed temper, he would embroil our country in disputes with foreign na tions. But now the notes of rnmnlnint are changed, and he is abused because he is too scrupulous of his constitutional ob ligations, and his oonosers are most cla morous, because he refuses to exercise powers, which then sav are vested in the federal head of the nation, but which he doubts, and therefore declines to as sutne. To the confusion of all their pre dictions, these soothsayers in politics are presented with a military chieftain, who can govern without violence, and render himself most obnoxious to his opposers hy a fearless resistance of the encroach ments of power upon the liberties of the people and the rights of the States. IIe was dangerous they said, because he would exceed the authority we gave him. He-fs dangerous they now sav, because he will not exercise the powers wc have conferred. The unbridled temper too, which we were told, was to involve us in fearful disputes, the opponents of the Chief Magistrate with a convenient uex- terity, choose to forget; and the liero 01 New Orleans! the proud patriot! the Pre sident of the United States! Andrew Jackson! is now charged with having bowed in mean humiliation at the foot stool of a foreign throne, and sacrificed the honor of his country!! We recur, in vain, to our foreign negotiations for the nroof of our disgrace. We find there nothing but a successful termination of protracted disputes. The results have been highly satisfactory. We may defy all the efforts of ingenuity to find in them the grounds of complaint: but a determi ned jealousy has fixed itself about the manner of the operation, and searched after something, that was not altogether suited to the refined modern system of diplomacy. Our venerable President, unpractised in the rules of deceitful pre tences, untaught in any other school, but that which inculcates the propriety of "asking nothing but what is clearly right, and yielding to nothing that is wrong" has illustrated by his practice, that with nations, as with individuals, "honesty is the best policy." But it was attempted to obscure the fame of the Hero of Neic Orleans, by casting over its brightness a cloud of re proach for the necessary means which were used to secure victory, and save the country. The success of the same patri ot in the administration of our foreign affairs, would be too dazzling in the view of a jealous opposition, if no intervening shade were formed to throw about its splendor. Hence, for the first time, in our history, the venerable sages of this land, have been stimulated to exert all their faculties, in the noble cnterprize of degrading their country, that they might disgrace her rulers. Our President is a tried and faithful officer. He would be more than man, if he did not sometimes err, yet his administration of the affairs of the Union has been honorable to him self, and prosperous to the nation. The times of trial, to which he has been ex posed, he has met with an unflinching in dependence of character, and conduct, that must extort even from those, who did not approve his acts, the reluctant homage of their admiration for the virtue, that enabled him to perform them. Wc know, that these just encomia on the con duct of a public servant will be perverted by some into the simulations of a party zeal; but they are no more than sheer jus tice, when applied to the great and lead ing acts of Gen. Jackson's administra tion. We then Fellow Citizens, oiirrlit , - not to vote for him only as a "choice of evils, but give to him a free and gene rous support, because he has been proved to be "faithful, capable, and honest. THE VICE PRESIDENT. The supporters of the present adminis tration, before last May, had recommen ded in differenfStates, as candidates for Vice President on the Jackson ticket, Mr. Dicker son of New Jersey, Mr. Wilkin s of Pennsylvania, Judge Smith of South Ca rolina, Col. Johnson of Kentucky, Judge Barbour of Virginia, and Mr. Van Bu rnt of New York. It became obvious that the public will, could not be united upon either one of these, while all of them were held up as candidates our di visions would prevent any election by the people, and transfer the choice of Vice President to the Senate, where Mr. Ser geant might be appointed that where Gen. Jackson's majority was not large, it would endanger his re-election by hav ing more than one Jackson ticket of elec torsand therefore it was proposed by the Republican members of the New Hampshire Assembly to all the fritntU of Gen. Jackson, that a Convention of Delegates from each State should be as sembled at Baltimore for the purpose of uuii.ug uiC jmny oy a nomination of some one candidate, for Vice President. This was the trueorigin of the Baltimore Con vention, about which you have read and heard so much. The proposal met with approbation in all parts of the country and the Convention was accordingly sion of sufficient interest in the Union, to convoke three hundred and fifty delegates, representing oil the States excepting one. In that Convention Martin Van Buren was nominated as the Republican Jack son candidate for Vice President. The . 4 li n n tut A vote tor mm was more uiuu uvu thirds of the whole Conventionand the sentiment in his favor with our party, as developed by our friends in that body, was so manifest that the minority who had voted for Jndge Barbour and for Col. Johnson acquiesced in the nomination, and it was made uncnimously. We do not know it, if the Convention was a mea sure that incurred in North Carolina any avowed hostility, before the result of its deliberations had been published or at least before it had been anticipated from the current of public opinion. But tho' the friends of Judge Barbour, in that Convention, fairly yielded their own pre ference to the sentiment of a majority, and for the sake of uniting the Jackson party; though he and his friends there and here and elsewhere availed themselves of this chance to unite on him, the whole vote no sooner has their disappointment been announced, than it is met witli ef forts to divide our strength by a nomina tion of Jude Barbour in North Carolina and an opposition to Mr. Van Buren. We state to you facts; with the motives of our opponents we have nothing to do. The warmestadvocates of Judge Bar bour's nomination arc bound to concede that he has now no chance of being elect ed by the people. They do not, they cannot, pretend, that his prospects are better, than a possibility on account of multiplied divisions to be returned before the Senate of the United States, as one of the two, between whom they must choose. Even this, we are persuaded, is illusive. And will you lend your aid in dividing the votes of our parly; for the purpose of taking from the people the election of their own officers Shall the lessons of experience be lost sight of and forgotten! Have you discarded all re membrances of the memorable crisis in our political history, when, (in 1801) the election of President was cast on the House of Representatives, and of the tri al, which our liberties encountered in the strife it created! Have you so soon cast into oblivion the events of a similar elec tion (in 1825) when the voice of the peo ple was unheeded and their "wills were paralyzed in the election of Mr. Adams over Gen. Jackson?" Shall the angry con test which ensued this event, in the elec tion of 1828, and by which the rights of the people were vindicated and re-established be once more invited, and its effects on the temper of freemen dared? And shall all this be done before the expira tion of his term of office, in whose per son, the wishes of the people were vindi cated! But if a choice of Vice President by the people shall be defeated, no fair doubt remains but that Mr. Sergeant, the oppo nent of Gen. Jackson, will be one of the two candidates, between whom the Sen ate must choose and it is extremely prob able, that he will be elected. Are you prepared to risque it! His whole system of politics is opposed to yours. The Vice President is ex officio the presiding officer of the Senate, where the friends and opposers of the present administra tion are so nearly divided, that his cast ing vote may frequently enable him to thwart or promote the most interesting measures that come before that body. It might be too, in the providence of God, that the President will not live to the close of his next term and his friends would find their country, and themselves seriously embarrassed, if such a calamity (may heaven avert it) should reduce them to the necessity of giving the reins oi our government into the hands of r r I ... . v I UUC. UJ M n rv I . . I . 7 M,7 anneal opinions thev believe to be dangerous to its preservation and pu rity, whose rule over us, to be consistent, must aim at the advancement of a party whom we are professing to oppose. It seems to us, fellow citizens, that there are other considerations that must deter you from deliberately entailing on our country the misfortune of having the Vice President elected by the Senate of the United States. We say misfortune, tor surely there can be none greater than to poison the public confidence with jeal ousy towards this cssentiul branch of our political institutions, unless it may be t0 introduce just cause for this distrust. The Senate uncontaminated by the touch of party fury, will long preserve the nf. li tin I I nil am ICCMOIIS ui uib jjuwnv, twin ivvji JJTUVe ft barrier against the encroachments 0f power upon the just rights of the states and of the people. Yet suspicion and distrust will inevitably attach to their course in the present agitations. of ihc public mind, if an uncautious people transfer to them the choice of their clwj officers. Do we betray a weak timidity i() this warning! Are there no 'beginnings of evils,' that may justly call into action the vigilance of patriotism! We confi. dently nppeal to your own experience in these times of fresh trial on our union and our government. Discarding all party preferences, and looking beyond the par ticular individual, whom the Senate might elect, still those, between whom thev must choose, will come from different States, will represent different political parties, and the contest will gather about it the excitements which prevail in tho country. Who docs not know, that these will distract the harmony of their coun sels! Who docs not apprehend that the blaze, they will kindle, may help to des troy the best government in the world! If the evil were unavoidable, then its con sequences must be met: but now wo have time to take warning, and if wc incur the risque, its effects are deliberately invited! The vote of North Carolina for Air. Van Buren will, we believe, make his election by the people secure. It will not elect Judge Barbour. This we may assert with confidence, for where he to get the votes of all the States, where a Barbour ticket is nominated, he could not be elec ted. What then can be the design of those, who yet support Judge Barbour's election! The sure effect of such a course icill be, to divide the Jackson par ty and throw away the vote of the State: it may be to cast the election on the Sen ate, to embarrass Gen. Jackson, a second term, with a Vice President, who oppo ses him, and to endanger the peace and permanency of our government. The motives of those, who started this divi sion, we judge not, still we must be al lowed to say, that the bitterest enemy of Gen. Jackson could not have devised a scheme, that is better calculated to weak en his popularity, and to defeat even his re-election. Its effects are more danger ous to his cause, than optrn hostility. But are there no other objections to Judge Barbour's being a candidate. We indulge no motives to undervalue his claims upon your admiration. We will not deny, that he possesses public and private vir tues: yet in these, he is not superior to Mr. Van Buren, and in other respects, he does not equal him. The station, which he fills as a Judge of the United Statea Court, is one, towards which we should cherish, in the public mind, sentiments of high respect and habitual submission. The great nerve of the Judiciary is in that unsuspected' purity of its officers, which will secure a confidence among the people, that its deliberations are no't mingled with political prejudice, or per sonal ambition. Admit within its sacred halls, the strifes of party politics, and that purity may be stained, that confidence will be destroyed. Shall Judges be invi ted to descend from their high places in to the arena of politics,.and he, who is to day the dispenser of public justice, be come to-morrow, the table orator of a party! Shall he who 4s placed as a salu tary check upon all encroachments by the other branches of the government, be converted into a candidate for wieldin" the power he is charged to control, and thereby tempted to enlarge a posses sion, that he hopes to enjoy! May not jealous patriotism, without descending into vulgar prejudice, remember, that Judges are men? We are not to be un derstood, as predicting these evils to be a 7iecessar? .consequence from the pre sent state of things: but the example is new, and against the practice of the go vernment, u will be dangerous; its ulti mate consequences may be disastrous, (to be concluded in our next.) CA word's a thing that flies away, But writing may be made to stay.
The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.)
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Oct. 30, 1832, edition 1
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