The Star and Republican banner. (Gettysburg, Pa.) 1832-1847, July 21, 1840, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    IPb2)Q. za,,—xpo4 a
Office of the Star & Banner
CoUNTY DUILDINO, Atiovn TIIR orric l n OF
THE REOI3TER AND RECORDER
1. The Srku & REPUBLICAN BANNER is pub
iisbed at TWO DOLLARS per annum (or Vol
woo of 52 own'iers.) payable half-yearly in ad
vance: or TWO DOLLARS & Fl I' I'Y CENTS,
if ant paid , s after the expiration of the year.
11. N.) 5..0)4 •ription will he received fir a shorter
period th in siC mouths; nor will the paper be dis
continued until all arrearages are paid, unless at
the option of the Editor. A failure to notify a die
continn tic,e will he considered a now engagement
and the piper forwarded accordingly.
HI. Ait vsart E,I ENV; not exceeding a square
will bo inserted times for $l, and 25 cents
fir each subsequent insertion—the number of in
sertion to be marked, or they will be published till
forbid and charged accordingly; longer ones in
the some proportion. A reasonablededuction will
be made to those who advertise by the year.
IV. All Lettersand Communications addressed
to the Editor by mail must be post-paid, or they
will not be attended to.
POLITICAL.
ADDRESS OF
The Democratic Republican members of
the Legislature, to the People of Penn•
sylvania :
The undersigned Democratic Republican
members of the Legislature, being about to
separate after the termination of a 'cog and
eventful Session, and many of them to sur
render the trusts which they have held for
the people of this Commonwealth, back to
the hands of those by whom they were con
ferred, have felt that it would not be amiss
to render to their constituents an account of
the manner in which those trusts have been
discharged. They are aware that the body
of which it was perhaps their misfortune to
be members, has presented a spectacle by
no means flattering to the pride of this an
cient Commonwealth, and has achieved lit
tle which is calculated to entitle it to a very
exalted place amongst those assemblies
which have impressed upon our Statute
books the inspirations of a lofty political mo
rality, or the spirit of an enlarged and en
lightened patriotism. They are deeply
sensible that the heavy judgment of the
people has already fallen upon the majority
of that Assembly of which they have formed
a part, and that a portion of the obloquy
with which that majority has been visited,
is likely to be reflected upon the unwilling
participants of their deliberations, whose
opinions have been uniformly disregarded,
and whose numbers were entirely inadequate
to their enforcement. In the righteousness
of that judgment they are, in all honesty,
constrained to acquiesce—against the pro
priety of its infliction they have no argument
to offer, unless they may be allowed the
humble plea that though little has been ac
complished which could redound either to
the honor or the advantage of the State,less
has perhaps been done of a mischievous
character than could, under the circumstan
ces, have been reasonably expected. They
protest, however, against its application to
themselves. They have enjoyed no power
except that of remonstrance, and they are
obnoxious to no responsibility but that of a
failure to employ the feeble weapon with
which they have been armed, in defence of
the Constitution of the State, and the rights
and interests of the people.
The last annual election resulted, as you
aro aware, in the complete ascendency of
the Federalists in both branches of the Le
gislature. A triumphant majority of that
party, flushed with their recent victory,and
breathing nothing but destruction to the
banking and credit systems of this Common
wealth, accordingly assembled at Harris.
burg, and the patriots of the land contempla
ted with alarm the mustering of those ex
plosive, and insurrectionary elements which
had gathered above the political horizon,
and threatened to pour their accumulated
wrath upon the devoted heads of the people
of this State. The materials of which that
majority wall composed were of a character
well adapted to the purposes with which it
wan charged. Men of no practical experi
ence in the affairs of life—beardless enthu
siasts, full of crude and chimerical notions
of reform, and with no better idea of a bank
ing institution than such as might be picked
up in the various but unmeaning vocabulary
of a village newspaper —tyrnes to political
science whose whole knowledge was confin
ed to the noisy inanities of a town meeting
—such were the master-spirits whom the
fermentation of the political cauldron, and
the chances and changes of political life had
thrown upon tho surface, and invested with
the power of legislating upon the rights and
property of their fellow men. With such
men, of course, our government itself was
but a subject for experiment, and the inter
ests of the poop'e as nothing when compared
with the application of a favorite system, or
the success of a new and untried theory.
To oppose these political,:speculatists who
aimed only at acquiring notoriety by the
novelty and boldness of their opinions, with
out regard to the public cost, was a feeble
array of representatives, scarce strong
enough to embarrassand wholly incompetent
to resist the.revolutionary movement, which,
milder the impulse administered to it at the
polls, threatened at first to trample down all
fritervening obstacles, and turning neither
to the right hand nor to the left, to open for
pull a pathway of ruin in its onward march.
towards the goal at which it was professedly
aimed. The friends of order end of law,
who, reepecting the teachings et experietice,
were content to be no wiser than those who
had gone Were them, and deprecated every
thing like experiment upon the properly
land industry of the people, wore reduced to
a minority in the Senate, and overwhelmed
by the disparity of numbers in the popular
I branch, and the State of Pennsylvania, do•
livered over into the hands of a few mis
guided theorists, seemed destined by the
decrees of an inscrutable Providence to un
dergo all the tortures which the extremest
fully, and the wildest fanaticism could con
veniently inflict.
As if to deepen the gloom which overhung
the Commonwealth at the crisis to which
wo have adverted, another chapter in that
series of calamities which has so pro emi
nently distinguished the present administra
tion of the General Governmer.t, was unroll
ed almost contemporaneously with the fall
elections. In that contest the destruction
of the Banks had been the banner cry of the
successful party, and with the announcement
of their triumph, and the shouts which wont
up with the smoke of the battle field, and
disclosed the results hf the struggle, the
light of hope seemed to be at once extin
guished, and confidence fled affrighted from
the land. A second suspension of specie
payments on the part of the Banks, originat
ing in the State of Pennsylvania, and soon
pervading nearly the whole Union, seemed
to present at the auspicious moment, the
Tong sought opportunity of destroying those
institutions,and paving the way for the grand
experiment of an exclusive metallic curren
c), which, by reducing the wages of labor,
and the prices of agricultural products from
the_lnominaP (or paper,) down to the 'real',
(or specie) standard of the hard money
countries of Europe, should enable as to
dispense with a Tartfrof Protection, and in
the language of one of our own Senators,
"cover this great country with benefits and
blessings." The Banks were at the mercy
of the Legislature, prostrated by the long
and disastrous war which had been waged
against the credit and the commerce of the
country of which they had been the main
instruments, and ready to receive the doom
which had been so long threatened, at the
hands of those who denied the obligation of
contracts, and respected nat the sanctity of
charters. Every accident of the times
seemed to conspire in presenting a conjunc
ture unusually favorable to the execution of
the long cherished designs of the now domi
nant party. That conjuncture waq hailed
by their presses throughout the State, as
particularly auspicious to the realization of
all their dreams of financial perfectability,
and that portion of the people who had been
persuaded into the same way of thinking
accordingly looked forward to the assem
blage of their representatives as the sig nal
of a revolution which should cure thedis
eases of the currency, and restore to them
the prosperity of which they had been so
long deprived.
The day of the meeting of (ho Legisla
ture, and of the expected deliverance of the
people from the chains which were suppo
sed to have been forged about them by the
Banks, at length arrived, and as the refer
mation of those institutions and the iepeal
of charters had been made the great ques
tion at the polls, they became, of course,the
great question of the session. The reform
ers, us they were pleased to term them
selves, were soon industriously at work in
both branches; n proposition was introduced
into either house for the repeal of the char-
ter of the United States Bank, and bill after
bill ih rapid succession, distinguished by
ever) variety of whim, and uniform only in
the deplorable ignorance of the whole sub•
ject which was discoverable in all, was
evolved from the revolutionary crucible,
and laid on the legislative anvil to be elabo
rated and fashioned into a thousand shapes,
and then dismissed for some Other absurdi
ty, more transcendent than any which had
gone before. To none of these bank regu•
tutors however did it seem to occur that
any information was necessary to guide
them to the proper result. Whether the
Banking Institutions of State had abused
the indulgence of the people by extending
their issuessince the suspension, or whether
the people at largo were desirous that they
should be hurried into a premature resump
tion, were inquiries which seemed to be un
worthy of the consideration of thowe who
were so ready to undertake the important
business of reform, and to adjust the delicate
and nicely balanced machinery of that com
plicated system whose every movement was
connected with the property and the labor
of the community, and whose violent de
rangement might readily prove fatal to both.
It has been well remarked of surgery that
the boldest operator is ho who has the stout
est nerves and knows least of the delicate
structure and organization of the body which
has chanced unfortunately to fall beneath
his experimental hand. If the remark be
equ'ally true of legislation, wlrre interests
equally delicate and complicated are fre
quently involved, never was a legislative
body better qualified for a bold practice than
the Into House of Representatives of this
State. There was no misgiving there a.
mongst those who flourished the operator's
knife, provided they could carve distinction
for themselves. They did not stop to inquire
into the necessity or the probable conse
quences of the measures which they were so
forward to recommend. "Resumption!"
"immediate resumption I" "Reform! radi
cal reform!" without regard to the wants or
wishes of the people,was the unmeaning cry;
not a resumption which would be permanent
and healthful, but one which should be short
lived and unnatural—a mere galvanic move
ment which should be the precursor of a
second death more terrible than the first;
not a reform which should regulate and UM
prove, but
.one which inslesd of regulating
shtinld only evirpate and destroy. The
G. WASHING'T'ON BOW'MN, mr)vron & PROPRIETOR.
66 The liberty to know, to utter, and to argue, freely, is above all other liberlies.PP—MlLTON
021Wit#76321W,26 0 Wcaclo wwzaau)Qcnr. , /twazr silo aaaoc,
first step in the grand experiment of the Fed
eral Government to perpetuate its ill-gotten
and ill used power by overthrowing the mo
nied institutions of the States, and establish
ing a Government Bank upon their ruins,
was to be taken here. It was iii vain there•
fore fur the minority to attempt to resist the
vandal spirit which threatened to overturn
everything which fell within its desolating
track. Resistance seemed to be only cal
culated to exasperate it into still higher fury,
and they accordingly hesitated whether it
was not their duty to sutler it to flow on un
impeded until its violence was spent. They
were aware that the public mind io many
portions of the State had been inflamed by
the most incendiary appeals into a condition
of morbid excitement, which was but too
faithfully reflected by their representatives.
They knew that for years past the very at
mosphere had been loaded with the most
vehement and unmeasured denunciations of
those institutions—that the polished and
courtly phrases of "chartered monopolies,"
"licensed swindling shops," "wholesale rag
manufactories," and others of the like char
acter had been flung from newspaper to
newspaper and echoed and re-echoed [tiro%
out the Commonwealth, until they had be
come almost the exclusive staple of a profli
gate and licentious press—and that more•
over the party with which they were con
nected had been characterized as the espe
cial patrons, and systematic defenders of
those and all other offending corporations
The party which attributed its past failure
to the ascendency of the Republicans in one
or other branch of the Legislature, was now
in the undisputed ascendency in dl, and it
became a very grave question with the mi
nority whether they ought to take even the
responsibility of assisting in the defeat of
any of those long cherished projects of re
form which they had been uniformly charg
ed with resisting against the earnest wishes
of their political opponents, and to the great
prejudice of the people at large. They
were united in the belief that the very best
remedy for that rabid spirit of radicalism,
at once servile and imperious. which had
invaded our firesides, and threatened to pull
down our very altars, would be found in its
immediate though partial embodiment in
our laws, and its practical operation on the
business and interests of the community.—
They were not, however, at liberty to vote
otherwise than in strict accordance with the
conservative principlrs on which they were
elected. Though powerless for good they
might be still competent to a certain extent
to resist evil, and it was their obvious duty
to struggle against it while resistance con
tinued to be availing, and if they failed, to
acquit themselves at least of all participation
in the responsibilities of the fearful experi
ments which seemed to be in contemplation.
Their efforts however were at first entire
ly unsuccessful. A sullen determination to
execute the work to which they supposed
themselves to have been called, seemed to
have taken possession of the minds of the
majority. Resistance was apparently use•
less. Argument, entreaty, expostulation,
were alike vain. They heeded not the
remonstrances of the minority, but moved
onward in unbroken rank, and with the reg.
ulanty and percision of a disciplined host
towards the consummation of their darling
schemes. There were some amongst them
it is true, and foremost amongst that num
ber was the Speaker of the House of Rep
resentatives himself, who had intelligence
enough to foresee the probable consquen
ces of the measures which they were adopt.
ing. They were about to do a deed which
in his emphatic language, would "produce
a scence o f unparalleled ruin and disaster,
from the tre to the circumference of thi*
commonw alth," but like him they were
borne onward by the general current which
had floated into the seat which he disgraced,
and like him they had not "the nerve to
resist the will of the democracy," and to
give the lie to the professions upon which
they had been elected. Their own little
ephemeral interests as politicians far out
weighed the high and solemn obligations in
public duty, and the great permanent and
abiding interest of the people. General,
admitted public disaster—ruin unexampled
and universal, pervading all interests, and
circling outward from the centre to the re•
molest boundaries of the state, was ns noth
ing when compared with the petty and short
bighted ambition which had traded on an
imposture and would be bankrupted by its
detection. If they should fail in meeting
the honest but mistaken views of those
whom they had themselves assisted in de.
ceiving, thry were destined to encounter not
merely the wrath of an Offended constituen
cy but the still mere terrible frowns of the
Federal Executive. If on the other hand '
they succeeded even at the expense of that
ruin which was so graphically depicted by '
Speaker Hopkins, they could seek refuge
from the storm which they might have pro
voked at home, in the arms of that Execu
tive with whom the condemnation of the
people has never failed to furnish a passport
to the highest Ever. The wishes and opin
ions of the administration at Washington
were not left merely to be guessed at by
their admirers and supporters at Harrisburg.
The extent and application of their patron
age were equally well understood. It was
essential to the success of their gigantic
and oft defeated though never abandoned
schemes of political and personal aggrand
izement that the first blow should be struck
in Pennsylvania; because her powers of en
durance and her fidelity to the party were
supposed to be the strongeat, and tt may be
readily conceived that they were not likely
to want instruments where the interests of
the representative could be so conveniently
arrayed in opposition to those of the people.
Such was the condition of parties in the
Legislature, when at the critical .moment
the Executive of this Commonwealth find
ing her credit to he trembling to its fiaunda•
Lions under the influence of the destructive
counsels which seemed to hold undisputed
sway and to menace its entire ruin, felt It to
be his duty to interpose for the purpose of
arresting the mad career of those who had
hurried her to the brink of the precipice,
and were about to take the final and the fa
ml plunge. Perhaps it would have been
more respectful and certainly more conform.
able to the gains of our institutions if that
officer had been content to await the final
action of the Legislature, and take the re-
sponsibility of the constitutional negative.
He seems however to have considered the
peril too imminent for delay, and he accord
ingly thought proper to assume the still
higher responsibility of meeting the ques
tion in advance and arresting the measure
which was then in progress by an anticipa
tory veto. Ile stretched forth his hand over
that body, and though that hand no longer
dispensed as heretofore the bounties of the
State, it was still potent enough to roll hack
the lava flood which threatened to desolate
the land. The nerves of the timid were
strengthened by the example of their tmme•
diate chief, and those of the majority who
were able to appreciate the effects of their
legislation, under the lead of the honorable
Speaker, seperated at once from their do•
structive confederates.
The secession however was not immedi
ately fatal. The struggle was not vet ended
The Administration at Washing was not to
bo foiled in its favorite purpose without a
further effort, and the Representative Halls
were converted into an arena on which the
antagonist powers of the State and the Gen
eral Governments—the advocates and the
opponents of the credit system, contended
for the mastery. In that contest the under
signed could not hesitate to take sides with
those who stood up in the defence of the
rights and interests of their own State
against the encroachments of Federal pow
er. If they had acted otherwise they would
have been false to the principles to which
they stood pledged, and equally false to the
State of which it was their pride to be citi
zens. They wore aware that her prosperi
ty was in a great measure dependant on the
preservation of that system which the Gen•
eral Government was endeavoring to des
troy, and that with the enormous debt of
thirty-four millions of dollars which she had
already incurred in the prosecution of her
gigantic schemes of improvement, .the des
truction of that system and the reduction of
all prices to a metallic standard would more
than quadruple the burthens of her people,
and bring down tho value of her whole free
hold almost to the level of the immense debt
for which it stood pledged. With an anuu•
al deficiency at present in her revenue of
more than a million and a half ot• dollars,
which must probably be supplied by taxa
tion, and would constitute an annual burthen
of nearly five dollars on every tax payer in
the Commonwealth, they could not consent
to aggravate that burthen by diminishing
the resources of the productive classes to
such an extent as to require twenty days la
bor, or as many bushels of wheat, to pay a
debt which could now be discharged with
five only of either. It was not their desire,
however to legislate at all on the question
of resumption. They were satisfied with
the existing laws,.and were content to leave
in the hands of the people that power of co
ercion which they already enjoyed, and
would be sure to exercise whenever it should
become necessarry to their own interests.
It was not, however, for them to chose their
own course. The majority were agreed as
to the necessity of some species of legisla
tine in order to preserve appearances at least,
and the undersigned had no alternative than
to choose between that which would, pre
serve though tt might perhaps deceive, and
that which would inevitably destroy. They
chose the former, and the result is now be
fore you in the act of the late session legal
izing the suspension of specie payments
until the fifteenth day of January next, and
stipulating, doubtless on the principles of
divorce recommended in the annual mes
sage of the Executive, for a loan of three
millions of dollars for the purpose of supply-
ing the immediate wants of the Govern
ment. The great measure of bank reform
which had convulsed the Coinmonwealth to
its foundations, and cost so much travail to
its authors, perished of neglect at last; sev
erg of the old Banks were re-chartered, and
a new one of an experimental character pre
sented to the Governor for his approbation;
and the bill to repeal the charter of the Bank
of the United States, which at the critical
moment had once more interposed to sustain
the credit of the State by paying the semi
annual interest on her immense debt, was
permitted to slumber undisturbed on the files
of both Houses, where it has been consign
ed to oblivion among the rubbish of the ses
sion, and will probably know no resurrec
tion hereafter.
Connected with, and essentially depend
ent on the foregoing, were other questions
of infinite magnitude and Interest which en
gaged our anxious attention, and, occupied
a large share of our deliberations. The
prosecution ofour public Improvements was
one of those, and one too on which our own
ideas were as various as the supposed
interests of our respective constituences,
some of us being of the opinion that the de
pressed condition of our public credit,' and
the extreme embarrassment of our treasury
required an immediate suspension' of the
work on the , several unfinished lines of Ca
nal, while others entertained the belief that
true economy required those improvements
on which large sums of money had been al
ready expended to be pushed forward with
nll possible activity to completion. Amidst
this diversity of opinion, and on a question
which has always been of at local and never
of a party character, there was no room, of
course, with the minority, for the indulgence
of noy thing like party feeling. It is not
to be denied, however, that some of those
who advocated a suspension may have been
confirmed in their opinions of its propriety
by t heir conviction of the complete irrespon
sibility of the Canal Commissioners, and
their utter want of confidence in the integ
rity of the men under whose direction the
moneys appropriated must necessarily have
been expended. The fact was notorious,
and it deserves to be remembered by the
people, that within a little more than a year
after the installation of the present Execu•
tive, the expenditures for the single article
of repairs on the several finished lines of
Canals and Rail Road within this Com
monwealth had swollen to the unexampled
and astounding sum of about nine hundred
and eighty thousand dollars, (S9SO,-
000!) being within six thousand dollars of
the wholeamount expended for the like pur
pose during the three years of the previous
administration, with the exception of the
extraordinary casualty above Huntingdon
in the summer of 1838, and exceeding by
nearly one hundred and sixty thousand dol
lars ($160,000!), the sum total of revenue
derived from all our public works during
the last fiscal yearl The 'appropriations to
that object at tho previous session, inclusive
of a provision of one hundred and forty-five
thousand dollars ($145,000) for debts incur
red for the like purpose prior to the Ist of
February, 18:39, amounted to no less than
eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
and yet the Legislature was informed that
on the first day of April of the present year,
the whole amount had been expended, and
a new debt incurred without authority of
law, to,the extent of nearly two hundred and
seventy•five thousand dollars; and that a
further appropriation of at least six hundred
thousand dollars would be required to pay
that debt, and continue the several lines in
active operation during the present season.
No intelligible account was furnished to the
Legislature of the manner in whtch any por
tion of this money had been expended, With
the exception of perhaps about two hundred
and ninety thousand dollars. To this extent
even all was mystery and confusion; beyond
this point, nothing but clouds and darkness
rested over the whole question. It was
impossible for the minority to guess even
the extent of the public necessities in this
particular; they did not hesitate to express
their suspicions that there was something
wrcng; they endeavored to unriddle the
mystery, but no pains seemed to be taken
to enlighten them, and the faith of ninny of
them was not sufficiently strong to author
ize an appropriation of the amount asked for,
upon the mere unsupported declarations of
the officers who were interested in obtaining
the funds, and might under the present sys
tem of unlicenced and ucontrolled expendi.
lure, apply it to any purpose, which they
might think proper. They wore moreover
advised that the number of officers, and with
them of course, the expenses of superinten
dence upon the public works, had been mul
tiplied cif late to an alarming extent, and
they were not disinclined to exercise their
control over the public purse for the purpose
of correcting these abuses, of limiting the
enormous power of the Canal Commission
ers, and of establishing some system of ac
countability which would bring them more
efTectually within the reach of the Legisla
ture. It is admitted therefore that these
considerations were not without their effect
in strengthening and fortifying the positions
of those who may have advocated a suspen•
sion upon other grounds, while, on tho oth
er hand it seemed to bo equally obvious that
a large appropriation for these purposes was
essential to the success of the bill. If a few
of the opponents of the administration were
disposed to apply the proper cheek to its ex
travagance by refusing to trust individuals
in whom they had no confidence, and who
were entirely unaccountable for its use,with
moneys which might be expended for polit
ical purposes, it is at least equally certain
that many of the votes of the federal major-,
ity were influenced by considerations exclu
sively referrable to the approaching elec
tions. If the fact were not so, it was clearly
not the fault of those individuals themselves.
There was no want of industry on their part
in endeavoring to impress. upon their politi
cal friends in the Legislature the impor
tance of further appropriations for that pur
pose, and the force of the argument may be
conjectured from its extraordinary results.
The most stubborn and inflexible of the op.
ponents of further appropriations at the for
mer session—the representatives of many
of those counties which have heretofore
been uniformly opposed to the whole Sys
tem of Improvement, were all at once mol
filled and subdued by some potent but mys
terious influence, and the singular spectacle
was presented to the public of a Bill suppor •
ted by the natural enemies of the system
and opposed by many of its warmest friends.
The undersigned aro .not unaware of the
species of magic which was employed to
work these marvellous transformations.—
The faCt is notorious that caucus after cau
cus of a strictly party character was holden
during the extra session within the secret
chambers of the Capitol, and that the whole
business of that session was made to wait
upon the tardy action of those midnight
conclaves wliere the will of a small majority
of the dominant party, and a very small mi
nority-of the Legislature was attempted to
wrexmatza (3132)0
bo substitoted for the legitimato authority,
'and a hand which was entirely ur.seen per
mitted to control the whole destinies of this
Commormealth. That formidable species
of party.drill was not however confined to a
single question. Almost the whole legisla
tion of the State seemed to have been trans•
ferred to that dread and irresponsible tribu
nal—unknown to the Constitution ar.d to the
past practice of this government—Micro
the fetters of party could be rivited npou
the limbs of the reluctant, their remenstran•
ces stifled, and the freedom of thought and
opinion which qught to Wong to the Rep
resentative extinguished under the pressure
of that heavy despotism which is alike fatal
to every thing like integrity of purpose and
independence of character. It is not how
ever for the minority, who were of course
excluded from these mysterious assembla
ges, to say what may have been the extent
of their influence upon the particular-ques
tion. They might perhaps be inclined to
differ in opinion on that subject, and they
merely state the fact as an item in the his
tory of the times, which deserves to be re
membered hereafter by those who may be
disposed to study the history, or scrutinize
the doings of this remarkable Legislature.
The condition of the public credit was
another of those topics, intimately. interwii
', yen with the foregoing, which challenged
the attentive consideration of your mare
sentatives. For some cause, perhaps not
altogether unconnected with
,the results of
the last elections, the
.stocks of this Com
monwealth, which had always enjoyed a
degree of credit commensurate with her
inexhaustible resources and hitherto untar
nished honor, began about that period to
descend in the market, and have so contin
ued until they have reached a point of de
preciation far below those perhaps of any
other State in the Union. How much of
that decline is attributable to the unskilful
management of her finances, for manyeyears
past, it is impossible to conjecture. It can
not bo doubted howeverlhat aiarge portion
of it may be fully ascribed to the ascendancy
of those opinions, which, in utter disregard
of the common obligations of Morality, as
well as the fundamental principles of our so
cial compact, either questioned the binding
efficacy of a solemn contract, or denied th;
authority of one generation •to bind that
which was to follow it. It is not to be dia.
puted that great industry had been employ.
ed in certain quarters to propagate the opin
ion in other lands that there was no consti.
tutioEial authority in this or any other State
to pledge the public faith for the perform . -
ance of any contract which its Legislature
might think fit to authorize and as though .
the means adopted elsewhere had not been
sufficient to accomplish the object in them
selves, the same doctrine was publicly an
nounced on the floor of the Senate of this
State, and in the most Imposing and author
itative manner, by the accredited organ of
the very committee to which that subject
most particularly appertained.
[CONCLUSION NEXT WEEK.]
WHOSE 02/ /9 GonED7---When John
Quinc) Adams was President, he signed all
the land patents himself, and was called an
aristocrat because ho used a silver pen for
that purpose! Martin Van Buren has an
appropriation of $l5OO per annum passed
for his son to perform that duty, and yet ho
is a democrat! Pehawl there is no more de-
mocracy in him, than tho autocrat of Rue
sta.—Pa. Telegraph.
TUE PROVIDENCE CLAM BAKE.—The
following items formed a part of the stores
provided for the great clam bake at Button
wood's on the 4th.--220 bushels of clams,
SO bushels quahogs, 1000 pounds bro Nn
bread, 500 pounds white bread, 5 barrels
fish for the chowder, 15 barrels crackers
and pilot bread, 8000 pounds ice, with other
things in proportion. Whether any clams
will be left on the Narragansett Shore after
this affair, is within the possibility ofa doubt.
FEVERAL POTATIONS.—The disgust which
federal aristocrats express at "hard cider"
has recalled to recollection, facts which re
buke their hypocrisy in a striking manner.
We well rememberon common with others,
when the first hickory pole was erected in
honor of Andrew Jackson, by the BucMails
of Now York, in front of Tammany Hall.
The foot of that pole was regularly christ
ened by throwing the contents of a pewter
mug of beer over it! and a barrel of the
same liquor was emptied into the hole dug
to receive it—the Grand Sachems of the
party stood around, dipped it up again with
their pewter pots, and the faithful drank or
it! If hard cidertsm be an "enormity,"
what are we to call that exhibitian
Pennsylvania Tel4graph.
REMARKABLE.—CharIes Cist, Esq. who ,
is engaged in tatting, the mitts at Cincin
nati, says:—l found a lady who, at the nge
of 29, had foutteen children, the oldest be
ing born on her fourteenth birth-day ! And
another—a case more remarkable--u , which
her son stood by her ,side within a few
months as old as she was when married, 'and
the mother not yet 26! Consequently, the
mother was about 13 when married.
TTOUBLE BREIWINO.- - It is said that Isaac
Hill is about to recede formally from ther
Loco .Foce regular party of New Hamp
shire. He , will stilt support the A dminst
tion, but intends hereafter to do it on his
own hook. Ho is about to establish a new
New Hampshire Patriot. Isaac wants !o
be cleated U.S. Senator in Hubbard's place,
but tne regulars say no.