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bly bruised, and one of the bones broke, and j
that was all the hurt there was on me. 1
must have gone lengthways right in between
two buckets of the water-wheel, and that
saved iny life. But this poor leg and foot
got such a bruising I wasn’t able to go a
step on it for three months, and never got
entirely over it to this day.’
‘ Then your lameness is in the leg and
foot both, is it not V said Major Grant, hop
ing at this favorable point to get an answer
to this question.
‘ Oh, it wasn’t that bruising under the
mill-wheel,’ said Mr. Jack Robinson, ‘ that
caused this lameness, though I’ve no doubt
it caused a part of it and helps to make it
worse ; but it wasn’t the principal cause.
I’vo had tougher scrapes than that in my
day, and 1 was going onto tell you what I
s’pose hurt my leg more than any thing else
ever happened to it. When I was about 18
years old 1 was the greatest hunter there
was within twenty miles round. I had a
first-rate little fowling-piece ; she would
carry as true as a hair. 1 could hit a
squirrel fifty yards twenty times running.
And at all the thanksgiving shooting match
es I used to pop off the geese and turkeys so
fast, it spoilt all their fun ; and they got so
at last they wouldn’t let me fire till all the
rest had fired round three times a piece.—
And when all of’em had fired at a turkey
three times and couldn’t hit it, they would
say, “ well, that Turkey belongs to Jack
Robinson.” So 1 would up and fire and
pop it over. Well, 1 used to be almost ev
erlastingly a gunning ; and father would
fret and scold, because whenever there was
uny work to do. Jack was always off in the
woods. On” day I started to go over Bear
Mnun'ain, about two miles from home, to
see if I couldn’t kill some raccoons; and 1
took my brother Ned, who was three years
younger than myself, with me to help bring
home the game. We took some bread anil
cheese and doughnuts in our pockets, for
wo calculated to be gone all day, and 1
shouldered my little fowling-piece, and took
a plenty of powder and shot and small bul
lets, and off we started through the woods.
When we got round the other side of Bear
Mountain, where I had always had the best
luck in hunting, it was about noon. On
the way 1 had killed a couple of gray squir
rels, a large fat raccoon, and a hedge-hog.
We sot down under a large beech tree to
eat our bread and cheese. As we sot eat
ing, we looked up into the tree, and it was
very full of beech nuts. They were about
ripe, but there had not been frost enough to
make them drop much from the tree. So
says 1 to Ned, let us take some sticks and
climb this tree and beat off some nuts to
carry home. So we got some sticks and
up we went. We hadn’t but jest got clev
crly up into the body of the tree, before we
heard something crackling among the bush
es a few rods off. We looked and listen
ed, and heard it again, louder and nearer.
In a minute we seethe bushes moving, not
three rods off from the tree, and something
black stirring about them. Then out came
an awful great black hear, the ugliest look
ing feller that ever I laid my eyes on. He
looked up towards the tree we were on, and
turned up his nose as though he was snuf
fing something. 1 began to feel pretty
Btreaked ; I knew bears was terrible climb
ers, and I’d a gin all the world if I'd only
had my gun in my hand, well loaded. But
there was no time to go down after it now,
and I thought the only way was to keep as
still as possible, and perhaps he might go
off again about his business. So we didn’t
stir nor hardly breathe. Whether the old
feller smelt us, or whether he was looking
for beech nuts, I don’t know ; hut he reared
right up on his hind legs and walked as
straight to the tree as a man could walk.
He walked round the tree twice, and turned
his great black nose up, and looked more
like Ol.d Nick than any thing that l ever sec
before. Then he stuck his sharp nails into
the sides of the tree, and begun to hitch
himself up. I felt as if we had got into a
bad scrape, and wished wo was out of it.—
Ned begun to cry. But says Ito Ned,
‘ It’s no use to take on about it ; if he’s
coming up we must fight him off the best
way we can ’ We dim up higher into the
tree, and the old bear come hitching along
up after us. I made Ned go up above me,
and as I had a pretty good club in my hand.
I thought I might be able to keep the old
feller down. He didn’t seem to stop for
the beech-nuts, but kept climbing right up
towards us. When he got up pretty near
I poked my club at him, and he showed his
teeth anJ growled. Says I, ‘ Ned, scrab
ble up a little higher ” We dim up two
or three limbs higher, and the old bear fol
lowed close after. When he got up so he
could almost touch my feet, I thought it was
time to begin to fight. So lup with my
club and tried to fetch him a pelt over the
nose. And the very first blow ho knocked
the club right out of my hand, with his
great nigger paw, as easy as I could knock
it out of the hand of a baby a year old. I
begun to think then it was gone goose with
pa. However, I took Ned’s club, and
thought I’d try once more ; but he knocked
it out of my hand like a feather, and made
another hitch and grabbed at my feet.—
We scrabbled up the tree, and he after us,
till we got almost to the top of the tree. At
last I had to stop a little for Ned, and the
old bear clinched my feet. First he stuck
his claw into ’em, and then he stuck his
teeth into ’em, and begun to naw. I felt as
if’twas a gone case, hut 1 kicked and fit,
and told Ned to get up higher ; and he did
get up a little higher, and I got up a little
higher too, and the old bear made another
hitch and come up higher, and begun to
naw my heels again. And then the top of
the tree begun to bend, for we had got up
so high we was all on a single limb as
twere ; and it bent a little more,and crack
ed and broke, and down we went, bear and
all, about thirty feet, to the ground. At
fust I didn’t know whether I was dead or
ahve. I guess we all lay still as much as j
a minute before we could make out to
breathe. When I come to my feeling a
little, I found the bear had fell on my lame
log, and give it another most awful crush
ing. Ned wasn’t hurt much. He fell on
of the bear, and the b~ar fell partly on
| me. Ned sprung off and goi out of the way
1 of the hear; and in about a minute more
the bear crawled up slowly on to his feet,
and begun to walk off, without taking any j
notice of us. And 1 was glad enough to see
that he went rather lame. When I com”
to try my legs 1 found one of’em was terri- I
bly smashed, and 1 couldn’t walk a step on !
it. So I told Ned to hand me my gun, and ‘
to go home as fast as ho could go, and get ]
the horse and father and come and carry
me home.
Ned went off upon the quick trot, as if ho
was after the doctor. But the blundering
critter—Ned always was a great blunder
er—lost his way and wandered about in the
woods all night, and didn’t get home till
sunrise next morning. The way I spent
the night wasn’t very comfortable, I can
tell ye. Jest before dark it begun to rain,
and I looked round to try to find some kind
of a shelter. At last 1 see a great tree, ly
ing on the ground a little ways off, that
seemed to be holler. 1 crawled along to it,
and found there was a holler in one end
large enough for me to creep into. So in 1
wont, and in order to get entirely out of the
way of the spattering of the rain, and keep
myself dry, I crept in as much as ten feet.
I laid there and rested myself as well as I
could, though my leg pained me too much
to sleep. Sometime in the night, all at
once, 1 heerd a sort of rustling noise at the
end of the log where I come in. My hair
stood light on eend. It was dark as Egypt;
I couldn’t see the least thing, but I could
hear the rustling noise again, and it sound
ed as if it was coming into the log. 1 held
my breath, hut I could hear something
breathing heavily, and there seemed to he
a sort of scratching against the sides of the
log, and it kept working along in towards
me. I clinched my fowling-piece and held
on to it. ’Twas well loaded with a brace
of balls and some shot besides. But wheth
er to fire or what to do, I couldn't tell. I
was sure there was some terrible critter in
the log, and the rustling noise kept coming
nearer and nearer to mo. At last I heerd
a low kind of growl. I thought if I was
only dead and decently buried somewhere
I should be glad ; for to he eat up alive
there by hears, or wolves, or catamounts, 1
couldn’t bear the idea of it. In a minute
more something made a horrible grab at my
feet, and begun to naw ’em. At first I
crawled a little further into the tree. But
the critter was hold of my feet again in a
minute, and 1 found it was no use for me to
go in any farther. I didn’t hardly dare to
fire ; for I thought if I didn't kill the critter,
it would only be likely to make him fight
the harder. And then again I thought isl
should kill him, and he should be as large
as 1 fancied him to be, I should never be a
ble to shove him out of the log, nor to get
out bv him. While I was having these
thoughts the old feller was nawing and
tearing my feet so had, I found he would
soon kill me if I laid still. So I took my
j gun and pointed down by my feet, as near
the centre of the holler log as I could, and
let drive. The report almost stunned mo.
But when I come to my hearing again, I
laid still and listened. Every thing round
me was still as death ; I couldn’t hear the
least sound. 1 crawled back a few inches
towards the mouth of the log, and was stopt
by something against my feet. I pushed
it. ’1 would give a little, but I couldn’t
move it. I got ray hand down far enough
to reach, and felt the fur and hair and ears
of some terrible animal.
‘ That was an awful long night. And
when the morning did come, the critter fill
|ed the holler up so much, there was but
very little light come in where I was. I
tried again to shove the animal towards the
month of the log, but I found ’tvvas no use;
I couldn't move him. At last the light
corns in so much that I felt pretty sure it
was a monstrous great bear that I had kill
ed. Hut 1 begun to (eel now as isl was bu
ried alive; for 1 was afraid our folks
wouldn’t find me, and I was sure I never
could get out myself. But about 2 hours
after sunrise, all at once I thought 1 heerd
somebody holler “Jack.” I listened and
I heerd it again, and I knew ’twas father’s
voice. I answered as loud as I could hol
ler. They hept hollering and I kept hol
lering. Sometimes they would go further
off and sometimes come nearer. My voice
sounded so queer they couldn’t tell where
it come from, nor what to make of it. At
last, by going round considerable, they
found my voice seemed to be somewhere
round the holler tree, and bime-bv father
come along and put his head into the holler
of the tree, and called out, “ Jack, are you
here ?” “ Yes I he,” says I, “ and I wish
you would pull this bear out, so I can got
out myself. ’ When they got us out I was
about as much dead as alive ; but they got
moon the horse, and led me homo and nurs
ed me up, and had a doctor to set mv lec
again ; and it’s a pretty good leg vet.’
Here, while Mr. Robinson was taking a
nother sip from his tumbler, Major Grant j
glanced at his watch, and looking up to j
Doctor Snow, said, with a grave, quiet air, |
‘ Doctor, I give it up ; the bet is yours.’ j
the proper treatment of
INFANTS.
Widely different is the physical state of
an infant from that of an adult ; the newly
formed hones of the former are soft and flex
ible, and may easily be made to assume
any form, especially when the body is in a
diseased state. This accounts for the com
J mon origin of such irregularities of form as
arc not congenital, but occur at an early
period of life. In proportion, therefore, to
the delicacy of the infant, will he the care
required in its rearing. Much has been ef
fected in this way by constant and perse
vering attention ; and many weakly un- j
promising children have byjudicious treat
ment, been raised to maturity, aud have
passed through life in the enjoyment of a
considerable share of health and vigour
A finely formed body is favourable to the
enjoyment of sound health. Every one is
struck with the commanding figure, the
graceful appearance of a person so formed,
hut few inquire into the reason why all are
not so gifted. If parents would have their
offspring free from personal defects, if they
would have their limbs moulded into the
form indicative of grace, activity and
strength, they must commence their ntten
i tion to them from the time of birth ; and al
though they may not always succeed in se
curing for them the highest state ol physi
i cal perfection, yet they will generally be
|'able to effect such an improvement in their 1
| constitution, as will form the basis of future
j health. Children should not be too early
j set upon their feet, but should rather be
| placed on their backs upon the floor, that
I they may exercise their limbs with freedom
I the former practice is a frequent cause of
malformation in the lower extremities.—
Especial care should bp taken that the spi
al column, so tender in young children may
not take a wrong direction. The manner
in which, a child and especially a delicate
one, is suffered to sit on the nurse’s arm
should be very carefully attended to ; and
until it has acquired sufficient strength to
keep itself erect, its back ought to receive
proper support. By being suffered to sink
into a crouching posture, with the head and
shoulders inclined forwards, and the back
projecting, a bad habit is soon contracted,
which often leads to distortion of the spine.
Neither is it in the arms alone, that this at
tention is required ; the effect is not less in
jurious, if the child be suffered to sit upon
a chair, as, when fatigued, it will natural
ly adopt that position which at the moment
affords most ease. Here it may not be ir
relevant to notice the very common and re
prehensible practice of raising a young
child by its arms, in such a manner, that
the sides of the chest being pressed by the
hands, or rather the knuckles of the nurse,
its cavity is diminished, the sternum or
breast bone pushed out, and that deformity
produced in delicate children, commonly
called “pigeon breasted.”— Dr. Hare.
NEWS AND GAZETTL
WASHINGTON, GA.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1841.
“The Will of the Nation uncontrolled
bv the Will of ONE MAN : one Presiden
llAL TERM, A FRUGAL GOVERNMENT, AND NO Suß-
Treasuky, open or covert, in substance or
in fact : no Government Bank, but an insti
tution capable of guarding the People’s
treasure and administering to the People's
wants.”
oGovernor McDonald has issued his
Proclamation offering a reward of Three
Hundred Dollars for the apprehension of
the Laniers, who murdered Jernigan, in
Greenesboro’. The relatives of the de
ceased have also offered a reward of Five
Hundred Dollars, as will be seen by their
advertisement in our columns.
(Kr - Those of our readers whose busi
ness calls them to Augusta, will find the
United States Hotel, kept by Mr. Wm. M.
Frazer, whose card we publish to-day, an
excellent slopping place for weary and
hungry travellers. It possesses a great ad
| vantage over the other Taverns, in being
nearer the centre of business, the servants
are attentive, the landlord obliging and I
keeps every thing in apple-pie order.
oThe trial of John C. Colt, for (lie
murder of Mr. Adams, in New-York, was
postponed to Monday next. The evidence
is purely circumstantial, but is of the stron
gest kind. We think that Colt will be hal
tered.
The Veto Power.
Some of our Whig cotemporaries are
joining with their opponents in condemna
tion of that portion of the Address of the
Whig members of Congress, which declares
their opposition to the Veto power vested in
the President. They profess so fear that
if the power should be taken away from the
Executive, a majority in Congress might
enact some very bad laws, that their unre
strained will might he more dangerous titan
the power,which the President now possess
es, of defeating every measure, whether for
the good of the country or otherwise.
It had always been said, before the pres- j
■ ent days of new light and knowledge dawn
j ed upon the world, that to constitute a re
, public, the will of the people as expressed
by their representatives, should be sovc-
J reign and supreme. We may be behind
! the age, but we still think such a rule is
t essential to a republic. Can our govern
ment, then, be with any propriety called re
publican where the popular will can at any
time be defeated by the will of one man,
who may be induced to exercise it by per
sonal pique, by ambition, or many other
sinister considerations ? It seems to us to
be as well to confer all the law-making
power upon the President, for the danger of
I his enacting bad laws is not much greater
than exists, in his present power to prevent
the enactment of good ones.
Some very acute persons have supposed
that the Veto would be a shield to the South
in case Congress should happen to pass a
law abolishing slavery. But this idea is
chimerical. When the Veto forms the on
ly defence for Southern institutions, it will
be time to resort to other means of defence .
than Legislation.
The following able article on this sub
ject has appeared in the Charleston Courier:
The Veto Power —only used by the Kings of
England to keep the colonies in order.
Jl, (Kmg George the Third) has refused h.s
assent to laws the most wholesome and necessa
ry lor the public good.” —Declaration if Inde
pendence.
It has been most ignorantly contended
that the veto power was not burrowed from
the British Constitution, and is not a royal
prerogative. It is not only a Kingly pow
er, but a despotic one. The progress of
liberty in Europe has rendered this power
obsolete. It exists only in name in the most
liberal monarchy of the old world—the
British empire. The Kings of England
dare not put their single will against the
wisdom and will of the law making power—
the two houses of Parliament. This was
true in 177(i, when our fathers complained
of the exercise of it upon them, and it has
been true since and is now. In the lan
guage of Jefferson, it has not been exerted
as to the legislation of England, upon Eng
land, “ for several ages past.”
Let it bo noticed in passing, that Alexan
der Hamilton, the great advocate and de
fender of this high prerogative power, de
fended it upon the ground that it would be
used only in extreme and palpable cases,
and pointed to the example of the British
Kings, as warranting and justifying ihe spe
culation, that it would be so delicately, cau
tiously and sparingly used. This veto
power has not been exercised by the Brit
ish Kings once since 1776. and had not been
exercised before for several ages. Y’et
Hamilton, the strong government man, (the
monarchist, as he lias been called,) only
justified the giving this power to the Presi
dent, on the ground that the President of a
republican people would have at least as
much respect for the immediate represen
tatives of the people—the law making pow
er—as a King of England for the will of
Parliament. How utterly his anticipations
have been falsified, and how completely the
reverse of all he imagined has come to pass
the events of our own time are but too
strongly in proof. The British Kings have
not exercised this power, again to quote
Jefferson, for “several ages,” —John Ty
ler, a mere chance inheritor of power, has
exercised it twice in two months /
But again, Hamilton contended that, the
President would not dare to use it, but in
cases of palpable unconstitutionality. Yet
this same President vetoes a law, unani
mously and twice approved by theSuprrme
Court of the United States, and declared to
be clearly within the sound discretion of
Congress. He vetoes an institution which
has been a regular portion of the machine
ry of government for forty years. An in
stitution which we venture nothing in de
claring to have had the positive sanction of
seven out of eight of all the wise men who
fianied the Constitution itself.
We hazard nothing in asserting,that if it
could have been dreamed by the republican
sages, who met in convention to propose a
fundamental law for the government of a
great people, that at the close of half a con
fury, any man born in America, or out of
Asia, could, from any motive whatever,
conceit or levity, so wantonly pervert the
whole intention and purpose of this power,
as to be more conscientious than Washing
ton and Madison—more learned in the law
than the selected expositors of the law, the
Supreme Court—more soundly discreet
than five Congresses of the United Slates—
if it could have been conceived possible
that such an outrage could have been com
rnitted upon a free people, not one SOLI
TARY vote uould have been given for a
power which might enable one man thus to
Lord it over the living and the dead, and to
convert a republican constitution into a
monarchical despotism. Hamilton himself,
lover as he was of a strong Executive,
would have been the last man to erect up
on the free soil, just wrested from monar
chical domination, a throne, which would
cast the thrones of Flu rope into shadow, and
to impose upon a republican people the
fraud of a President, more a King than the
King, they had resisted unto blood. If Pat
rick Henry could have been armed with
tho experience, of these hitler days, the veto
power would never have survived its natur
al death in the British Constitution. Ham
ilton would have plead in vain, and in vain
have held up the example of the Kings of
England, who, in the language of Mr. Jef
ferson, “ FOR SEVERAL AGES PAST HAVE MO
DESTLY DECLINED THE EXERCISE OF THIS
POWER IN THAT PART OF THEIR EMPIRE
called GREAT Britain. If Patrick Hen
ry could have seen what we have seen, a
President, not the choice of the people, flip
pantly setting aside the judgment of the u
nanimous decision of the law expounding
power, the Supreme Court—overruling the
opinion of five Presidents, Washington and
Madison among the number—reversing the
discreet decision of five Congresses, the
law-making power—counting for naught
the will of the people, the primal source of
all just authority,—if the great orator of
the revolution could have presented such a
picture of monstrous license to the grave
men of the republic, what a mockery would
Hamilton’s whole argument have been, and
how the power would have been scouted,
which was 10 become such a RESERVE of
LEGALIZED, CAPRICIOUS, WANTON DESPO
TISM. The veto power never would have
been put in the constitution, or the constitu
tion itself would have been rejected by a
people above all things jealous of the man
who wields the purse and the sword—who,
with the glittering bribes of office, sub
stantial REWARDS for FAITHFUL PERSONAL
devotion, can PURCHASE adherents,
corrupt opinion, and thus defeat the will :
of the people, and the honest legislation of .
their representatives.
What has in fact this veto power brought
us to ? Fifty-two sage Senators, and two
hundred and fifty immediate Representa
tives of the peoph the carefully selected
legislators of a free people themselves de
nied the exercise of their proper constitu
tional office, waiting with all patience and
utter wonder, for a revelation of legisla
tive wisdom, from a confessedly weak Ex
rcTiTivF. Magistrate ! The majority of the
people and their representatives are to take
what this one man commands, or nothing ;
they are to pass the law which, at the point
of the veto, he commends to them, or to
have no law. What a spectacle is tiiis for
the monarehs of Elurope to chuckle at I
What a condition for a great people, to be
legally, constitutionally bound to accept the
wisdom of John Tyler as the highest wis
dom.
To one great body of the people lie says
that the sub-treasury is “ inconvenient and
oppressive.”
To another lie says the national bank is
unconstitutional, and ho vows never to con
cede it.
To a third, he remarks, that the State
banks are not to be thought of—“ they are
out of the question.”
What portion of the people has he not ve
toed ?
Has he not by, the velo, this instrument
of lawless domination, denied the wish and
the will of all parties and all men in the
country ; and not only defeated the will of
Congress, but usurped the whole legislative
power to himself.
Will any one contend that a power which
makes one man—a weak man, perchance,
as in the present case— absolute —which an
nihilates Congress, sets at naught the su
preme Court; denies the will and the wish
of every man in the nation, and brings Con
gress and the people to the feet of the liX
ECUTIVE, for law —is a republican pow
er ? It may bo any tiling else —but it is not
republican. Define a despotic power—and
you must define the veto —define the veto
and you must define despotic power. It is
a perpetual dictatorship. The people of
•South Carolina, who cheerfully submitted
themselves to the Dictatorship of John Rut
ledge, for a time during the exigencies of the
Revolution, would not bear even from him,
when he was Pres’l. of the Commonwealth,
the exercise of the veto. The Legislature
of the State refused to vote any supplies, &
he was compelled to resign .* Yes, South
Carolina, who had sufficient confidence, in
John Rutledge, to elect him to a temporary
Dictatorship, stopped the wheels of govern
ment, when he, as President of the State,
assumed to be wiser than the Legislature,
and put his will and his wisdom in opposi
tion to the law making power. Our repub
lican fathers were as jealous of this one
man power, whether ho was called King or
President, and hated the veto exercised by
John Rutledge, their own President, as
much as when used by their recent sove
reign George the Third. Their Constitu
tion is an abiding monument of their con
demnation of the veto —the march of liber
ty had stricken this prerogative from the
actual powers of the Kings of England, over
the laws of England ; the people of South
Carolina would not give it a place even in
name in their constitution ; they would not
tolerate the shadow, and the veto has no
existence for the Executive of South Caroli
na. If their constitution is violated, there
stands their Judiciary to say so.
Sei ing that this power was adopted into
our Federal Constitution, upon the express
ground that it would be used with exlrem
caution and in palpable cases, and that the
President of the United States, would take
patern after the Kings of England, who have
not exercised it for ages; forced to contem
plate the fact that this power intended only
as a negative and conservative, has been
used, and now used to draw all legislative
power to the executive, and to enable him to
dictate law to the law making power; see
ing that in its very nature it is despotic, ri
•ling alike over Congress, Judiciary and the
People ; considering that the hand which
wields this sweeping sceptre, holds too a
still more resistless power and in the purse
of the nation, can command the ready in
struments of ignorant, capricious or tyran
ic rule ; beholding the sorry spectacle of a
great nation, through its use, distracted, pa
ralyzed, dilapidated, subdued to the unli
censed yet legal control ofone weak man ;
ho wever we consider it, in whatever aspect
its origin, abuse, nature, and. positary,or fruit;
it justifies thehatrid of our fathers to all
despotic power ; it imposes the sternest jeal
ousy upon the dangerously powerful hand
that wields it; it forces the question wheth
er so much despotic power is essential to
preserve in health a free Constitution ;
whether a power, which binds the hands of
Cong ress and seals the lips of the Judicia
ry, and puts the people under foot, can be
safely lodged in the iiands of him who also
wields the sword and purse ; and if this
power be indeed necessary and can be used
as it has recently been used by President
Tyler, whether our Judiciary, and our Le
gislature, and our carefully contrived gov
ernment machinery, are not then the mere
mask and curtain and deceitful drapery of
a monarchical despotism, and our republi
can institutions a farce. E’LOYD.
*See Jefferson’s works—lstvol. page 110—
Remonstrance to the King of England on the is
sue of the veto.
fSee Carolina Gazette, 1778.
FEDERALISM AND DEMOCRACY.
We extract from the Philadelphia United
States’ newspaper, the following just re
marks upon the use of these terms :
“ General Jackson, who still partici
pates in the partisan strifes of the day,
when we think that he would exhibit quite
as much dignity by following the examples
of Jefferson and Madison, and keeping a
loof from them, has written a letter to a
committee of a ward meeting in New York
in reply to some resolutions which they had
sent to him, commending the veto messages
ofthe President; and in this letter he de
signates the political party now in favor of
a national bank by the term Federalism. —
We have nothing to say at preasant about
General Jackson’s political opinions, or the
particular views ofthe party which he thus
designates. But we object to the longer
application of this term to any of our polit
ical parties. Used thus, it has long been
a misnomer. In its genuine signification,
it is strictly national, and therefore should
be no longer desecrated by an exclusive ap
plication to any party.
The term originated during the session of
the convention which devised the Federal
constitution. One party afterwards called
federalists, objected to the national govern
ment as 100 weak ; another party, after
wards called democrats by the federalists,
and republicans by themselves, objected to
the National Government as too strong.—
The first thought that the State did not sur
render enough, the second that they sur
rendered too much. lit nee the second had
the best right to be called federalists, they
insisting upon the federal or confederative
union of the Independent State sovrcigtu v
ties, while their opponents were more in fla
vor of a national consolidation. But the
first party yielded first, and took the consti
tution as better than none ; and as it was a
federal and not a consolidated or national
constitution, they made a merit, and justly
of their adhesion, and called themselves
federalists. The second yielded also, and
took the constitution; but as they still feared
its tendency to consolidation and aristocra
cy, they continued to contend for State
rights under the name of republicans, and
as they were decidedly democrats, as the
French revolutionists were then raging,
and filling Franee with crime and blood in
the abused name of democracy, and as ma
ny really patriotic members of the federal
party through that democratic institutions
could not be maintained, the writers of the
federal party attempted to cast upon them
the reproach of French fraternity in politics
and called them, in reproach, Jacobins and
Democrats. The two parties being thus or
ganized, and both satisfied with the federal
constitution, they confined to quarrel about
a national policy, and to abuse each other
as all Anglo-Saxon parties ever have, and
we fear, ever will ; the federalist calling
their opponents jacobins, democrats, level
lers, disorganizers, sans-cullottes, and by
various other opprobrious epithets, and the
republicans retorting upon them such epi
thets as federalists, aristocrats, tories, rag
barons, (in allusion to the paper money sys
tem which they supported,)nobility, British
partisans, and various other vituperative
adjectives. Thus federalist and democrat
continued to be terms of reproach till the
close of the late war, when the federal
party, which had been a minority from the
first election of Mr. Jefferson to the Presi
dency in 1801, disbanded as a party.
Since this dissolution, most intelligent
and candid men have admitted that both
parties were assentially republican and es
sentially patriotic, that the fears of most
federalists about the weakness of the nation
al government were dispelled by the trial
of the late war ; and that the people of the
United States were, in the language of Mr.
Jefferson in his first inaugural address, “all
federalist and all republicans, federalist in
wishing the union of independent States,
and republicans in wishing institutions that
secured natural and equal lights.” They
have also admitted that the fears of the re
publicans about the consolidating tenden
cies oftiie federal constitution were ground
less, and that the system could not be es
sentiallv improved.
Such being the history of the terms fed
eralism, republicanism and democracy as
partisan designations, and the parties which
once bore them as parties having been dis
solved, we object to their continued use as
partisan terms, and insist upon the restora
tion of their original and worthier mean
ing. They are national terms, character
izing our political institutions, and there
fore should not be desecrated by any exclu
sive appropriation by parties; and there
fore we insist that any attempt to continue
them as terms of partisan reproach, for the
purpose of showing any connection or simi
larity between ancient and modern parties,
ought to be steadily resisted bv all inde
pendent men. Any party may call itself
republican or democratic; for every Amer
ican party will profess to be both, and every
party now on the stage appropriates both
terms. We are willing to let all parties
claim them indifferently, but are unwilling
to let any party claim them exclusively, or
deny them to any of its opponents, unless
such opponents really profess aristocratic,
monarchial or despotic principles, which
we have not yet witnessed in any party. —
And while unwilling to let any party claim
them exclusively, much less are we willing
to let any parly cast them upon any oppo
nents as terms of reproach. Republican
ism and democracy must not be mentioned
disrespectfully by Americans. We say
the same of federalism. As evey party
now on the stage profess attachment to the
federal constitution, all such parties are
federalists, and therefore none can appro
priate it exclusively. And as it designates
that union of independent sovreignties, that
federative or federal principle which is the
only safe foundation for large republics, ir
must not be used as a term of reproach.—
Hence we censure General Jackson for ap
plying it as a term of reproach to any party
now in favor of a national bank. If he re
ally thinks that such institution is aristo
cratic, and tends to consolidation, to accu
mulation of power in the federal goverment
he contradicts himself id calling its advo
cates federalists. As they apprach consol
idation, do they depart from federalism.
The Americans are democrats in conten
ding forequality of rights ; republicans in
contending for political institutions secu
ring and promoting the common good, or
good of the public, or whole ; and federal
ists in contending for a federal & not a con
solidated republic, an union of indepen
dent States in a confederacy, and not an a
inalgamation of provinces into one para
mount, all-controlling national government.
If General Jackson wishes to cast terms of
reproach upon opponents, let him not select
thosi which every American should regard
as sacred. Every American ought to be a
democratic republican federalist”.
<
Receipt for the ladies.- When your stock
ing has a hole in it, draw it down and tie a
string around it at the toe; it saves mending.
When your face gets dirty, cover it over
with wheat flour; it saves washing and pro “
sents a very enticing appearance to hungry
beau?. .
