and should be recognised in every State, unless we mean by aristocracy institutions or doctrines, which create artificial distinctions between man and man, subordinating the many to the few. Whatever opposes the maintenance of all the natural rights of every citizen, should be opposed; but we are aware of nothing in the Senate, either in its constitution or the mode in which its members are selected, that makes it in the least more hostile to these natural rights, than is the House of Representatives; nor do we discover that the Senate has ever shown any more disposition to abridge the natural freedom of the citizen, than is commonly shown by our State Legislatures. We believe some of the most distinguished advocates of equal rights, the country can boast, are to be found at this moment in the Senate. If such men as Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Walker, Mr. Wright, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Benton, not to mention any more, are aristocrats, where are our democrats, in any sense in which it would not be a misfortune to be a democrat? It will hardly do to call a body, of which such men as these are leading members, aristocratic. That aristocracy which consists in the possession of eminent talents, in being distinguished by the performance of eminent services to one's country, is honorable, not censurable, and deserving of confidence, not dis

trust.

But we close. We have introduced this objection mainly for the purpose of protesting against the tendency in our community of which we regard it as one of the symptoms. We would warn our countrymen against this tendency, a tendency of which they who are governed by it are in general unconscious. With this, we leave the suggestions we have thrown out, to go for what they are worth.

EDITOR.

ART. VII. Message to the two Houses of Congress. June 1. By the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE present is the most important and interesting crisis that has occurred in our political affairs, since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Governments,

as individuals, are rarely able to extricate themselves from the fatal consequences of their primitive mistakes. But our government is now in a condition to do it, to abandon its past errors, and to assume a new direction, one in harmony with the Constitution and the true interests of the Confederacy.

The existing administration came into power under the most favorable circumstances. It had not to incur the odium of breaking down the fabrics of past error and folly; for they had been demolished by the two preceeding administrations, which for doing it had been driven from power. The ground was then already prepared to its hand; a glorious opportunity was given it of redeeming the country, and of securing it the blessings of good government. But from the first we have been compelled to ask, will this new administration prove equal to its position? Is it composed of men of enlarged and patriotic views, who can comprehend what is demanded of them, of pure minds and pure hearts, who will not shrink from doing whatever is necessary to be done? Will they put the government on the right track, in the direction pointed out by the lights of fifty years' experience, and by the wants of a great and growing empire?

We asked these questions, we own, not without some misgivings; but we resolved to repose a generous confidence" in the new administration, and hold ourselves in readiness to give it a cordial support, if it should prove itself at all worthy of the high trust committed to its charge. We have, therefore, waited not without anxiety for a development of its policy. That development, to a certain extent, we now have in the Message before us; and we must say, that all our doubts

are confirmed, and nothing, but the weakness of the document itself, saves us from the fear that the most fatal measures will be fastened upon the country.

From General Harrison we had never hoped for aught remarkably sound in policy or vigorous in execution, and we were not surprised that the Goddess of Liberty dropped from her hand the scroll of the Constitution as he approached the Capitol. But him an Allwise Providence early removed, and we may not, therefore speak of him as we might, were he still living, and at the head of the government. We are not his judge; we will not be his accuser; and we have seen nothing in his official career to make us his eulogists. He is gone, and while many weep, we say, peace to his ashes. We will merely add, that we think our clerical brethren, who have recently flooded the land with their fulsome eulogies, might have been as well employed, had they remembered that it is their especial vocation to rebuke sin, and praise only God. From Mr. Tyler, however, we own, we hoped something more. We had been accustomed to regard him as a faithful disciple of the old Virginia school of politics, as a strict constructionist; and, though perhaps not a man of the highest order of intellect, as capable of appreciating a wise policy, and possessed of the moral firmness to sustain it. It was not then without some degree of satisfaction, that we saw him at so early a day placed, by the death of the President, at the head of the government. We felt that now the Constitution would be safe, and that if all the good we wished should not be effected, at least the evils we most dreaded would be averted. We would fain feel so still; but this Message puts it out of our power, and compels us to regard him as one of those men, whose apparent size diminishes in proportion to the height they are elevated.

The only redeeming trait of the Message, as we have already hinted, is its imbecility; but imbecility placed in certain positions never wants the power to do incalculable mischief. The policy it develops is, with but

slight modifications, the very policy which has hitherto proved disastrous; and it will require the President to give his support to measures which cannot be adopted without corrupting the government, and through that destroying the liberties of the people. If Congress shall sustain this policy, as we fear it will, the government will be placed in the same false direction that has hitherto defeated the intentions of its founders, and which it must, without the interposition of Providence, pursue for at least another half century; and before another half century can elapse, the country, under the influence of a mischievous policy, will be lost to liberty; the few will become so wealthy, the many so poor, and all so corrupt, that Freedom will disdain to dwell among them.

The Message is not very explicit, nor very consistent with itself; but we can make out, we think, its dominant tendency, and its principal recommendations. One of its recommendations is the repeal of the SubTreasury. On the policy of what is called the SubTreasury we have heretofore given our views at length, and will not therefore go into its discussion again. Nothing since the passage of the law has occurred to change our views of the policy on which it is founded, and we were not a little gratified to find that Mr. Tyler himself had nothing to allege against it, but the very questionable fact, that the people, in voting for General Harrison, stamped it with their disapprobation. But the people, in our judgment, have not decided against the Sub-Treasury. The party, which may be thought to have voted against it, did not vote against it in fact, for they were, so far as the immense majority of them were concerned, as innocent of any acquaintance with it, as the babe unborn. It was during the presidential canvass no uncommon thing to find a zealous Whig declaiming against what he called the SubTreasury, but it was an uncommon thing to find one that had even read the law establishing it. The fact is, our Whig friends during the late Presidential canvass, drank too much hard cider, and were too busy in

hurrahing for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," to be able to investigate at all the policy on which they made war. That presidential campaign is a curious passage in our history, and will perhaps be read with some interest by the grand-children of those now in power. We are happy to find that the men, who a year ago sang the praises of hard cider, and encouraged scenes of midnight revelry, are now the ardent friends of temperance, and have set themselves at work in right down earnest to reform the inebriate. This augurs well, and foretells other conversions. After a night of debauch, men are frequently disposed to be moral, and do sometimes "fast and pray."

Another measure recommended to Congress is the establishment of a (( fiscal agent" of some sort, which shall aid the government in collecting and disbursing its revenues, and establish a currency of uniform value. What this "fiscal agent" is to be, we cannot at the moment of writing conjecture. It is not to be a revival of what was called the "pet bank system," for that, the Message tells us, the people have condemned; nor a United States Bank, for that also the people have unequivocally condemned. What then is it to be? It must, we presume, be some kind of a bank, and a bank of issue too; for one of its offices is to be that of establishing a currency of uniform value.

As a fiscal agent we see not its necessity. The government has now, it would seem, as many agents for collecting and disbursing its revenues as the people ought to be called upon to support. Very few of these will be dismissed, whatever new agent may be created or adopted. It will then be only an additional burden to be borne by the people, a new agent for plundering them, and all the more efficient, because it may plunder them without their being able to say, in all cases, when, where, how, or how much it plunders them. Is this its chief recommendation? There are politicians whose chief merit consists in their skill to devise ways and means to tax the people, without suffering them to know that they are taxed; but we