"That our opponents are strongly impressed with the belief that General Porter will be elected, is obvious, in a great degree, from the virulence with which they assail him, and the gross misrepresentations to which they continually resort. They allege that the democratic party is hostile to the best interests of the people, and is continually engaged in endeavouring to break up the credit-system under which the community has prospered. They aver that it is hostile to all banking institutions, and is seeking their overthrow and ruin, and endeavouring to impose upon the country a mere metallic circulation. This, suffer us to remark, is a sheer imposition upon the credulity of the community, and is at war with all the principles ever entertained by the republican party of the country. The acts of all democratic legislatures, heretofore, corroborate this remark, and show that banks have been brought into existence, and fostered and protected by democratic administrations. Even the last official organ of the party, which assembled at Harrisburg (we allude to the fifth of March convention), have exposed the fallacy of a contrary notion, and have vindicated the party from this slander of the enemy."

I had the honour to be chosen a member of this Corresponding Committee, at the nomination of which the people were made to believe that we were all opposed to fraudulent banks; and, indeed, they pledged us to do all we could to put them down. I attended two or three of the meetings of this committee; and I declare to God that I never, till then, believed that the people could be so deluded as to be made to choose for their servants such base and unprincipled men! At the time, and in the public newspapers, I denounced them as such, resigned, and resolved never again to be the servant of men, sovereigns or not, who had not sense to see and courage to redress such grievous wrongs. I have often seen, at "C great meetings," where the fawning demagogue has professed to exult because majesty, in all its glory, was present, and about to execute that most important prerogative, the delegating power to form a ticket," to be voted at the ensuing election. Oh, with what solemnity do their "majesties" there resolve and decree! But the very moment their royal backs are turned, their doings are cast to the wind, and a ticket formed of materials exactly opposite to those just commanded to be used. The people have, for these last eight years, declared hostility to their own acts, and particularly to the banking system; and yet they are annually presented with a ticket, composed chiefly of bankers themselves! At first sight of such ticket they are terribly enwrathed, and swear that they will not support or stand by the doing of their own delegation; but they are soon persuaded, for that one time, to bear with them, for the sake of the party on behalf of which, night after night, do the orators eloquently and most affection

ately appeal. They allow that the ticket is not as it should have been ; but, say they," We must not split, we are the crew of the gallant ship 'Democracy:' she is in imminent peril and danger, and will you not bear a hand to save her from impending destruction ?"

"The question, fellow-citizens," say the paid orators," is not less than-whether you will vote for tyrants, or whether you will rally, as usual, round the standard of liberty-the star-spangled banner, that proclaims to the world the land of the free and the home of the brave? We cannot do otherwise, fellow-citizens, than vote the ticket (bad as it may be) whole and entire, upon the principle that a bad democrat is better than a good aristocrat. No scratching, then; he that scratches is no democrat."

. With these, and such like appeals, their "majesties" are pacified, and, again, give to the bankers "the long pull, the strong pull, and the pull altogether." Thus, some are cajoled, some frightened, and the rest bribed, till the thing is managed with far more ease than it could be under any other description of despotism.

It is astonishing, Sir, to see what American “ eloquence" will do. When England becomes a republic all sensible and consistent discourse must be laid aside-the stranger the doctrine the better; if it be but eloquent, all will throw up their caps and drive the orator into a rich place, such as none but democrats have to dispose of. But, a word more of the corresponding committee; it spoke truth, when it said that its party brought into existence the banks. And, it might have added, all other villanous things that have been fostered by the legislature of Pennsylvania for these last thirty-five years, with the exception of the three years of the late administration. And this, Sir, is worthy of your attention. Here are men governing themselves, no obstacle that they know of in their way. The governors have, all this time, been of their own choice. The senate and house of representatives, called the National Assembly, have emanated directly from them; at least their form of government calls upon us to believe this; but, in truth, they have no more to do in these matters than had the Moors, in matters of the kind, under the Dey of Algiers. And General Jackson said when President," that sooner than live in a country where such a power (meaning the bank power) prevailed, he would seek an asylum in the wilds of Arabia."

Why, Sir, the common people-oh! no, I beg their pardon, there are no common people in the United States, but the working peopleknow no more at the commencement of an electioneering contest, which takes place every year, where they are to be led by the sleight-of-hand mountebanks, or what they shall be done with, than the little black

Welsh beasts know what is to be their fate, when Taffy is getting them together, in droves, for the English market.

I have been speaking principally of the democrats, and then there is another "party" called at present the "Whigs." They often alter their names; but, under whatever name, they are always considered to be, and are, aristocrats, desirous of none but property suffrage, altogether opposed to democracy, and not very fond of republicanism in any shape. These are the Adamses and the Hamiltons. They are the first people in the country in point of education and wealth. were they that Jefferson speaks of, who, at the public dinners, drank Washington's health sitting, and George the Third's standing, with three times three, while Paine was declaring that, in all America, a man could not be found that did not despise royalty. Jefferson again informs us that John Adams, the second President, while dining with him, gave it as his opinion that the British constitution, if some of its defects and abuses were corrected, would be the most perfect constitution ever devised by man. Hamilton asserted that, even with its existing vices, it was the most perfect model of government that could be formed, and that the correction of its vices would render it an impracticable government. This party are, and always have been, very powerful; but, for all this length of time, have never, in Pennsylvania, been powerful enough, with the above-named single exception, to do anything in matters of government, contrary to the wishes, as expressed at the polls, of the democratic sovereign people. Therefore, whatever has been done are their acts and deeds. They have none but themselves to blame for that despicable state of things, which brings a blush on the cheek of every sensible and honest man, who has ever believed it possible for a thoughtless multitude to govern themselves to their own advantage.

men.

Their very first members of Congress, according to Jefferson's own showing, were more fit for Botany Bay than they were fit for CongressIn a letter to E. Randolph, in 1794, he says, "I declare to my countrymen the shameless corruption of a portion of the representatives in the first and second congress, and their implicit devotion to the treasury." Then, in another letter to the same, he shows us what was the portion he alluded to. Speaking of some resolutions of a Mr. Giles, he says, "Mr. Giles and one or two others were sanguine enough to believe that the palpableness of these resolutions rendered it impossible the House could reject them. Those who knew the composition of the House, 1st, of bank directors; 2nd, holders of bank-stock; 3rd, stockjobbers; 4th, blind devotees; 5th, ignorant persons who did not comprehend them; and 6th, lazy persons. The men who knew these

characters, foresaw that the three first descriptions, making one-third of the house, the three latter would make one-half of the residue, and, of course, that they would be rejected by a majority of two to one."

What could we expect from self-government other than what we now behold, when its infant state is thus described by him who wrote the "Declaration of Independence," and did more to establish democracy than all the rest-being, perhaps, the only man of any consequence that really desired to have a republic; and he, directly after he had succeeded, found out his mistake, and, in a letter, to John Randolph, says, "I would rather be dependent on Great Britain, properly limited, than on any other nation upon earth, or than on no nation." And again, in another letter to the same, he said, " Believe me, dear Sir, there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do." He speaks of Washington's grievous complaints to him of the abuses going on in different departments, and says, “I told him that a system had, in the treasury, been contrived for deluging the states with paper money instead of gold and silver; for withdrawing our citizens from the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, and other branches of useful industry, to occupy themselves and their capitals in a species of gambling, destructive of morality, and which had introduced its poison into the government itself. That they had from time to time aided in making such legislative constructions of the constitution as made it a very different thing from what the poor people thought they had submitted to."

See, Sir, how the poor creatures were cheated! The ink was scarcely dry with which was written the solemn compact by which they had agreed to be governed, before it was construed so as to be entirely different from what the people thought they had submitted to.

Is it any wonder that a monarchical party should spring up? Would it not be infinitely better for a people to live even under a despot, whose interest as well as his duty requires that he should be just towards his subjects; would it not be better to live under him, than under a miserable, cheating, designing set of creatures such as this ex-president describes? Why, Sir, I never met with a man or woman in America that was old enough to remember what was the state of things before the revolution, that did not, with tears in their eyes, deplore the change. "A monarchical party sprung up," said Jefferson, "consisting of the executive, the judiciary, two out of three of the branches of the legislature, all the officers of the government, all who want to be officers, all timed men, who prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty. The fact is, that the leading people of America, in the first place, never intended nor desired to have a republic, but, when they had passed

the Rubicon, they were obliged to tell the people that, if they would fight, they should all be kings together. There was not a man of any consequence among them that did not regret before one year had passed that he had ever sanctioned the rebellion. They all saw to what it would lead; and Washington himself expressed his doubts, but remarked to Jefferson, that as he had pledged his life, his fortune, and his sacred honour to support republicanism, he would do so with the last drop of his blood.

And Jefferson himself tells us that the people soon became indolent, extravagant, and unfaithful to their engagements; and that, to make them better, he looked forward to the abolition of all credit as the only remedy. This puts me in mind of some remarks made on this subject by an English friend of mine, a farmer in the United States, whom I, one scorching day, found in his hay-making field, and sitting nearly naked under the shade of the catalpha. "Sir," said I, "you seem in a very contemplative mood." "Yes," said he, "I have been considering of that which I have often before considered of without success; but now I have satisfied myself. The question before me was, what can be the cause of the extraordinary tricking, scheming, cunning, and unfaithful conduct of these Americans, considering that they are descended from countries that bear no resemblance to them in these things? and the conclusion I have come to is, that it is occasioned by the heat of the climate: I do not wonder that any man, who has to work under this broiling sun, should devise means, if possible, to live without work; and, when he has succeeded, like begets like, until such conduct has become national."

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I think," said I," that in part you are right; but it appears to me that the form of the government has also something to do with it, which seems, instead of checking, to give facility to every species of villany." "Ah!" said he, "I have thought of that before; and I have wondered whether it was the habits of the people that caused the corruption and wickedness of the government, or whether it was the government that caused the corruption and wickedness in the people,"-a point that we did not agree upon, but left open for further discussion.

The romance-writer, Captain Marryat, intimates, that what the Americans are now the English were formerly; that all the former's energy and activity are of British origin. In one word, he institutes a sort of comparison between the two people, and appears to show that they resemble each other in many respects. Now, the fact is, they resemble each other in nothing excepting in speaking the same language. The British people never were, are not now, and, I think, never will be, any more like the great mass of the American republicans, than is the pickpocket of the town like the plain, honest, hard-working country farmer,