Reaction and the Administration, No. 2 [pp. 545-550]

REACTION AND THE ADMINISTRATION.
of the course which has been pursued by England towards Brazil, and
the effects which that policy has accomplished, why have not the
same energetic measures been adopted in regard to Spain? If the
one was bound by treaty to close the market for African slaves, is not
the other under the same obligation? If the remissness on the part
of Brazil to perform the duty she had assumed justified England in
taking the matter into her own hands, and enforcing the obligation by
her own means, and if such policy has been proved by experience to
be thoroughly effective, why is not the same measure of coercion employed to enforce the same duty on Spain?
These and similar interrogatories, naturally growing out of the real
facts in the case, and suggested by the letter of Mr. Secretary Cass, so
frequently referred to, will continue to be put, and in our judgment
they merit a response. The United States, its Government, and its
people, its legislature, and its judiciary, its civil and military functionaries, have been arraigned at the bar of public opinion. The accusations which have been preferred are of the gravest character; they profess to be founded upon testimony, which, if it does not in all quarters
command implicit credit, yet, on its face is at least plausible, and has,
in the estimation of British functionaries, been regarded as furnishing
a sufficient basis upon which to found these heavy charges. On behalf of the parties thus arraigned, I plead not guilty to the charges.
I deny both the competency and the credibility of the evidence upon
which they profess to be sustained. I object to the accusing party as
being, from his own representations, so obviously the criminal, not
merely as accessory, but as principal, that he has no right to attempt
to shift the responsibility of his own acts and omissions fiom his own
shoulders and fasten it upon another. Unless I have entirely misapprehended the whole matter, and no pains have been spared to acquire
a just comprehension of the subject, if not in all, yet certainly in most
of its principal features, I feel authorized to demand and insist upon a
thorough investigation of the entire case. Unless very much deceived,
the result of such an inquiry, as has been suggested, would not only be
to pursue the strategetic policy of Scipio by carrying the war into
Africa, but it would be followed by equal results, which would not only
exonerate my country and its various representatives from unmerited
censure, but throw back upon the accuser the obloquy due to the
offender.
ART. IV.-REACTION AND THE ADMINISTRATION.
OPPOSITE systems of philosophy have alternately succeeded
each other, and determined in great measure the action of
governments and the conduct of individuals throughout all
recorded time. No doubt all of these systems were partially
true, and when moderately applied in practice, calculated to
alleviate, if not to correct, the prevalent social evils of the
day. But the diseases of society are as changeable as those
of the human body, and require frequent change of remedies;
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