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of men whom the people honor, have, for months, raged like a pestilence.

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Grant even the position of our enemies, that Heaven was afflicting us with wicked rulers, would men of ordinary feelings have prowled around the country at such a moment, insulting the community with offers of relief on conditions of political apostacy? Was a period of universal trouble the time to drive so hard a bargain? And did, indeed, no kinder intentions move their souls at our distress, than to plant their heels upon our necks? Truly they asked too much, when they required that we should accept this calamity in exchange for any other. They calculated too strongly, also, on our credulity, when they required that the Government should be subverted by reason of the pressure, and that they should be promoted for augmenting it— for augmenting it designedly and wickedly, when the worst which they allege against the Government is, that it produced the pressure ignorantly.

In every nation, its inhabitants are relatively intelligent, not in the degree of their relative wealth, but of their relative political privileges. Those who are politically disqualified, are everywhere the baser portion of the community. They are disqualified, not because they are base, but they are base because they are disqualified. The Greeks became corrupt as soon as they were enslaved by the Turks, and they became elevated in character the moment they cast off the Turkish subjection. Our institutions, as modified by Democracy, give to all men equal privileges; and to a great extent, all men here are equally virtuous, peaceable, industrious, and intelligent. By affixing so beneficial a result to so benevolent a policy, Heaven fairly bribes men not to oppress each other.

Political disqualifications are also as unjust to the merits

of the poor, as prejudicial to their morals. In war the country is defended on sea and land by the poor almost alone; while the arts of peace are prosecuted mainly by their strength and intelligence. Property seems not even a necessary ingredient in human preeminence. It is essential to the importance of only secondary intellects. The prodigies of genius, from Homer to Scott, have generally been poor; while, from Aristides to Jefferson, statesmen and warriors, who shine the most brilliantly in history, are those whose pecuniary effects have been insufficient to disburse their funeral expenses.

But the present political contest exhibits a new reason in favor of universal suffrage. What patriot but rejoiced last winter that the destinies of our country were not dependent on those alone who are most affected by a pecuniary pressure? A rich mechanic told me that, though conscientiously opposed to the Bank, his necessities had induced him to petition for its re-charter.

In the nominations of our opponents, we discover prejudices which are analogous to those against universal suffrage. Policy has lately compelled them to lower the standard of age, wealth and dignity, which they have heretofore deemed necessary to their candidates. The men whom we exalt are such as our opponents have usually stigmatized as new men. Had Satan devised a system to debase mankind, he could have produced no plan more efficacious than that which estimates a man by the qualities of his ancestors. A stammerer may by effort become eloquent; but when we are required to overcome the defects of ancestry, we are without hope, and hence without motive for improvement. Nothing is more benevolent, nothing more politic, than to dignify the obscure; we thereby stimulate to virtuous emulation the class of society which must ever constitute the mass of every population.

Another heresy of our adversaries is hostility to foreigners, towards whom they sigh for the fourteen years probation of Federalism-the probation which deferred the hope till the heart was sick--which, with the tree of life full in view, hedged it around, lest men should pluck its fruit and live. Equality of rights breathes into our adopted citizens a new-born self-respect and a new-born ambition. No matter from how much oppression they escaped, their moral sense dilates like air from which a circumambient pressure is removed; and speedily ennobled by the privileges which have ennobled you, they assume the dignity which God intended when he made man in his own image.

Such, briefly, are the political principles of our opponents, but their acts are more culpable than their principles ; and hence men who should, from their wealth, learning and talents, be a blessing in the councils of their country, are become so justly obnoxious to the majority of their fellow-citizens, as to constitute a proscribed class, and to live like aliens in the bosom of their native land. Ever against the country, their activity is always ominous of evil, like certain birds whose presence admonishes sailors of an approaching storm. They possess every virtue in private life, but, as politicians, misfortune has demoralized them. They may see in themselves how political exclusions debase a people. So disparaging, indeed, is their own estimate of their own popular standing, that like the plebeians of Rome, who never presumed to nominate a consul from their own ranks, our opponents have long ceased to nominate a governor from their own party. Even their present nominee is indebted for this distinction to a saving difference in his politics. They commenced in 1804 this self-abasement, with the nomination of Aaron Burr, and though I was not old enough to possess a voice

in the contest, I remember the qualms with which they yielded their virgin honor.

This slip from virtue produced its usual declension, and they became three years thereafter an easy conquest to Morgan Lewis. Every political libertine has since had them at his beck, and they are now arrived at the humiliation which solicits a nominal head, while the sin of their connection blasts every man who consents to the unenviable distinction. The ancient Pharisees were accused of compassing the earth to make a proselyte, but our enemies will encompass the earth to make a traitor. A proselyte will not answer. The value of the conquest consists in his being uncontaminated by their doctrines. Such a man will be used at public meetings, or (if a naturalized citizen) to publish addresses to his countrymen. The poor culprit, who in the days of his virtue was insignificant, revels in notoriety. His seducers having shown him in triumph to his former companions till the conquest is stale, cast him loathingly away.

Remarkable as our enemies are for mistaking public sentiment, the error is peculiarly conspicuous in the effects. which they expect from such a seduction. They imagine that some man among us can lead his fellow-citizens. If a man sagaciously discovers the direction in which the people mean to move, he may, by marching before them, seem to lead. The moment, however, he moves where the people dislike to travel, he finds himself marching alone. New-York, at its last charter election, furnished a striking illustration, except that the parties who were sought to be led were Irish-the last men who will swerve from Democracy. They come among us ravenous for liberty, and like eagles just fleshed, they are neither to be driven nor enticed from the quarry.

The most to which our enemies pretend in any controversy, is the demerits of their opponents; and hence arises a detraction of public measures and a slander of official servants, subversive of all confidence in public documents. They have lately seized on the Post-Office with the spirit of a spider, who, after much watching, has caught a fly. Of Major Barry, the Post-Master General, the little which I know entitles him to my gratitude, and to yours. Previously to October, 1830, the mails which were destined for New-York, and which arrived at Albany on Saturday, had to lie there till Monday. A man having a note to pay on Monday, and wishing to remit the money by mail, was compelled to have his money in New-York by Saturday. The aggregate loss of interest to the whole community must have been great. Unacquainted with Major Barry, I ventured to direct him to the evil, and immediately he answered me as follows:-" Instructions shall be given to the Postmaster at Albany, to put up a mail for New-York on Sundays as well as other days. The advantages to Utica, and other towns west of Albany, are most apparent, and shall be continued to them." Previously to Major Barry's administration, only one mail passed daily from Albany to Buffalo, while now two mails pass daily. The intercommunication of the Union has been aggregately augmented by him in nearly the same ratio. He stands eminent among the benefactors of the age; having accomplished more for the diffusion of intelligence than any other man now living. Still, if his zeal has exceeded the statutory limit,* let the enemy enjoy the discovery. I am not the man to snatch a bone from the mouth of famine. But I pray that the law may be altered, for nothing is more

At this period the expenditures of the General Post-Office were limited to the postage received.

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