with the whig leaders and wire pullers, the great mass of the people whom they have carried away, have not voted against the administration because they have condemned its measures. They have asked not for a change of measures, but of men. They have looked upon the present administration, in its administrative character, as low-minded and corrupt, as deficient in both capacity and integrity, and therefore as unfit to be entrusted with the management of public affairs. Here is the secret of the recent revolution, a revolution which in the minds of the majority of the people extends only to men. The people we need not say have been deceived, wofully deceived; but the moment they become aware of the fact, they will lose no time in rectifying their mistake. If the men, they have now placed in power, undertake to carry out a policy essentially different from that which has been pursued for the last twelve years, they will hurl them from power at the earliest moment permitted by the forms of the Constitution.

With this conviction, we cannot despair. We believe the present administration has been most grossly belied; but, in its purely administrative character, we have no disposition to take up its defence. In this character, it has no extraordinary claims on the affection of the people. It is remarkable neither for its sagacity nor its purity. There are, we should hope, many other men in the country who can administer the government as well as they have done. Still in justice to Mr. Van Buren, we must say, that in the measures requiring legislative action, which he has recommended or sustained, he has done well, been faithful to the Constitution, and deserves, as he will one day receive, the gratitude of his country.

Mr. Van Buren has been defeated; but he is much dearer to the American people to-day than he was when elected President. He has failed in his reëlection, not because he has lost in popularity, but because he never was the choice of the American people. The people never willed his elevation to the presidential chair. He

was elevated to that chair, not by his own popularity, but by the popularity of his predecessor, and by the management of party leaders. Since he became President, he has for the first time in his life gained a place in the affections of the American people, and he retires from the presidency, with an enviable popularity, and an honest fame which will endure.

We are, however, far from regarding Mr. Van Buren as entirely free from faults, and faults which in these times cannot be without results. He strikes us as deficient in boldness and enthusiasm. He has great coolness, is firm, and will die in the last ditch sooner than abandon his avowed principles; but his better qualities rarely manifest themselves till he is put upon his defence; and, though they may spread a glory around his grave and secure him a hero's fame, they generally come too late to retrieve the losses of his friends, or to change the fortunes of the day. His policy is to wait, to trust to time, to "the sober second thought of the people"; in other words to follow public opinion and events, not to lead them. His is not the bold master mind that seizes time by the forelock, that creates his own public, and bends it to his will. He may ride upon the storm, but he does not direct its course. Yet there is something almost sublime in the calmness, the composure with which he suffers himself to be carried along, whither he apparently sees not. He is not deficient in mere intellect, and his political information is respectable. In ordinary times, when passion is asleep, and reason awake, he were not ill qualified to be the president of a free people. But in these revolutionary times, his qualities are not of the sort most in demand. He wants elevation, nobility of ideas, and warmth of heart. Sober reasoning, calm reflection, mere good sense are not now the sovereigns of the world. Men's passions are aroused, their feelings are excited, and they are moved by appeals to their sympathies rather than to their understandings. They see not clearly, but they feel intensely; and they ask for a man to go before them who fears not the darkness, whose step falters

not, and who can lend them a confidence not their own. Such a man Mr. Van Buren has not proved himself. One such man we had in Thomas Jefferson; another we had in Andrew Jackson; another- we shall find

him in due time.

That the administration party has been defeated through its own faults, rather than through the frauds, falsehoods, and misrepresentations of the opposing party, of which there have been enough, and more than enough, for even Beelzebub's infinite satisfaction, we suppose it would not be difficult to show. But, what were the use in attempting to do it? It is a miserable disposition, that which delights to dwell on the blunders of friends, or which can bring itself to upbraid associates with the reverses which all must share in common. Defeat like the grave levels all distinctions, and hides all faults. If things had been different, they would have been different. This is the amount of all fault-finding with the past. But things were as they were, and the result is what it is, and there is the end of the matter, and no more need be said about it. It is not the temper of Democracy to weep over past errors, or to turn round and scold her friends when she chances to meet a repulse. Her face is ever towards the future, which alone is hers; and she labors to recruit her forces, and to stand ready for whatever may come. She knows that though she may be checked in her onward march for a moment, she cannot be driven back; and that though she may sometimes fail to win, she never loses. If her leaders managed badly yesterday and failed, she trusts that they will acquire wisdom from their mismanagement, and become able to conquer to

morrow.

We regret, deeply regret, the ill success of the democratic party; but we have no reproaches to cast on friend or foe. We are as ready to engage again with those with whom we fought side by side yesterday, as we should have been, had we entirely approved, as we did not, their arrangements. In this we are not alone. We express the feelings of the great body of those, who,

as friends of the Constitution and of Equal Rights, have struggled, with what skill and bravery were in them, to sustain the administration. We have been unsuccessful, but we have not lost our temper, nor are we disposed to run foul of one another. We have by a common fate become but the more endeared to each other. Personal animosities have subsided. The Democracy will hereafter be disturbed by no intestine divisions, by no personal rivalries; but will present to the enemies of liberty and social progress, an unbroken front, a closely knit body, animated by one and the same soul, and directed by one and the same will They are now indeed a band of brothers, sworn to stand by one another; and they will stand by one another in adversity, as they did not always in prosperity; and so long as one of them can stand, liberty shall not want a defender, nor social equality an advocate.

For the present the Democracy will wait the movements of the new dynasty. They will assume not the attitude of opposition, but of watchfulness. If the whig policy shall prove to be democratic, they will not oppose it, but give it their cordial support. But if it be at war with that which has been pursued by the administration for the last twelve years, as there is but too much ground to fear that it will, then it must count on an opposition, not factious, but calm, determined, uncompromising, whether successful or unsuccessful. The whig party has come into power by pretending to be democratic; it has come in, to a considerable extent, unpledged, and is therefore free to adopt the democratic policy if it chooses; we must then wait its movements, and hold ourselves free to sustain or oppose as it shall prove itself democratic or not.

During this period of waiting, we must not, however, be idle. We must avail ourselves of the comparative repose, with which we are favored, to fix the basis of our creed, to consolidate our policy, and to prepare ourselves to take the field again, if we must take it again, with a perfect understanding of the objects for which

we are to contend, and with as entire agreement as may be, concerning the methods by which we must proceed, and by which we may hope to win.

Two parties there are in this country, and two parties there always will be; a party in favor of Property, whose leading object will be to facilitate the profitable investment of business capital, to make the government a mere instrument for facilitating trade; and a party in favor of Man, whose leading object will be to secure to the workingman a greater share of the proceeds of his labor, and to elevate labor and make it honorable. These two parties have existed from the formation of the Federal Government, and they will not cease to exist under the new dynasty. Whether the whigs in their actual policy will ultimately prove themselves the first named party or the second, we shall not now attempt to determine. For our part, we shall always be found with the second, the party of the Constitution, of Equal Rights, of the workingman, whatever may be the name by which it may be called, and whether it be in power or out of power.

This second named party is properly the party of the Constitution, and of Equal Rights. It in reality comprises a large majority of the American population, and when it can be rallied, as it has not been effectually in the late contest, it is able to carry everything before it. The great aim of the friends of liberty, of social progress, and the practical realization of the principles incorporated into our free institutions, should be to rally this party, to unite in one body all who sympathize with it. This party has heretofore failed, because vast numbers of those, who properly belong to it, have not come to its aid. False issues have been made, and elections have not turned on the real matters in dispute. Hence this party, the true democratic party of the country, has been divided, and friend has, unhappily, fought against friend, and natural and irreconcilable enemies have fought in the same ranks side by side. This has created no little confusion, and caused all the disasters the Democracy has experienced. We must study to