The Partisan Leader (review of Tucker's novel) [pp. 73-89]

SOUTHERN LITERARY ilESSENGER.
they colncur in it, until they lose that proud feeling of
independence, and that ardent love of liberty and of
their country, by which they have heretofore been distinguished.
The results of these consolidationl doctrines have
already been realized in some of the leading measures
of the present administration. In the earlier periods of
our political history, attacks upon the constitution were
generally made indirectly, and under plausible pretences.
The pulblic mind was not then prepared to see that instrulment openly defied. The alien and sedition laws
did indeed violate it plainly enough, and those laws
cost the administration which passed them their places.
The power of the people displayed itself effectuaally
on that occasion, and established principles which prornised to secLure the states and the people against any
similar attack upon their constitutional rights for atges
to come. It required that generations should pass away
blefoe tlie exploded doctrines of 179S could be again
opel-ly brought into the administration of thle governlmealt. In the meantime, however, thiose doctrines )were
still checrished at the north, and were secretly and
treaclherously working their way, step by step, into
povwer. Their progress may be easily traced, for it wvas
not so secret as to be unobserved. At every stage
they %,ere boldly met by the south, and in every contest they triumphled. Notliing was wanting bist a fit
occasion to bring them again before the public, as the
avowed doctrines of the goveroment; and unhappily,
that occasion vas soon presented. It was reserved for
the uncalculating hardihood of General Jackson to aimn
the first blow at the Union, thlrough the heart of state
sovereignty. The proclamation asserted every principle necessary to make ours a consolidated government,
and not a federative union of independent states. It is
true that this blow was struck by a southern hand; but
that lhand, it is notorious, ws as guided by northern inflluencee. It cost the administration its ablest fiientds at
the south, whilst at the north it was hailed with one
general acclaim of approbation and praise. Instantly,
and as if actuated by one irresistible impulse, those
who lhad been the most firm in their support of the preceding administration, and lho boasted that the pinciples which fell with the elder Adams should risc aigain
withl the younger, rushed to the support of General
Jackson, and becarie his warmest and most approved
friends. In this they were perfectly consistent. In
supportinig the proclamation they did but sulpport their
own cherished principles, lon, openly denounced by all
administrations, aid nowv again brought into power
wvitlh fresh declat and redot'ubledl strength. The force bill
w-as the natural and necessary consequence of thle
piriuciples asserted in the proclamation. F'rom the moment that bill passed, the wisest and maost devoted patriots at the south considered tile constitution as virtually destroyed. They were willing to struggle y,et a
little longer (and they have struggled) for the restoration of the true principles of the governmeit; but
hitherto they have st uggled in vain, so far as its actual
administration is coaecnired. 5Vith as little success they
have invoked the aid of tihe northern states. The doctrines of the pr oclamaztion are still their doctrines, and
the force bill still dishonors the statute book. say,
the south has not forgotten that that bill was regarded
as the peculiar and distinul ishing trimumph of iiords.ern
principles. Notwitlhsta-di ig the perilous position in
whicii it placed t-he country; iiotsvitistcisinding the ablsolute certailnty that, if carried out in practice, it would
produce civil wvar, and thus at once dissolve the Union
notwithstanding the countless evils wliclh that event,
occurring under such circumstances, must have brought
in its trailn, the detestable measure was urged with a
zeal arnd perseverance wholly uncalled foir by the occasion. Indeed, Mr. WTebster, the great leader of the
triumphant party at the north, did not hesitate to place
the propriety and necessity of the measure upon his
own peculiar ground. The south heard him, with astonishment, declare that the occasion was a fit one, and
ought for that reason to be embraced, to test the powers of
the federal governiiient! Such an appeal could scarcely
be heard with indifference by those who had been endeavoring, ever since the adoption of the constitution,
to enlarge the powers of that government. Accordingly, the northern members of Congress, almost wvithout a dissenting voice, voted for the force bill, and their
constituenats approved and siustained them.
The principles thus established, denying the sovereignty of the states, and stubjecting them to military
coercion whenever they shouAld presume to resist the
usurpations of the federal government, necessarily
declared that government to ble supreme and irresponsible. All that has since followed has been but the
natural course of events, and therefore should not excite any surprise wh latever. All experience proves that
the distribution of the powers of government between
the three separate and co-ordinate branches, the legislative, executive, and judiciary, affords no substantial
security to the people. The independence of those
departments is lierely iorminal. It is the natural tendency of all power to increase; and it is not in human
wisdom to contrive any balance so accurate as to prevent it. The cheek nmust be extraeieoans of the governmealt itself, or else it cannot be found any where. Of
all the departmenitsofvgoverunmeut, the executive has the
stronlgest temptation to enlarge its own powvers. The
other departmencts ire composed of many persons, to
whom in the agtre,grte tlieir po awers belong, and vwho cannot individually exert ally conrsiderable portion of them.
On the other hand, the executive is oue, and the powers
of his office rest in himt alone. It requires more virtue
than we usually find in public rulers, to distinguish betweetn the personal righlts and powers of such an executtive, aind those whliicli belon, to his public station.
Every addition to the powers of his office soon comes
to be considered an addition to his own; and thus hle is
under the strongest personal temptation to make them
as great as possible. Thus invited to encroach upen
the other departments, his very position enables him to
do so. Eren in England, where a free House of Commons and an independent Judiciary now exert a saitttury check lrpon the pow ers of tihe cr'onu, the enciuoachments of thre kin bavre cost the couintry more than one
revolution. So fal as our own executive is concel-red,
we have amnple eviden ce, i;I the experience of the last ferv
years, that he possesses ahoundaut means to subject all
the other pawers Gf the governireut to his owrn. To
declare, thereflire tha t the iederal goverument is supreme, is in effect to declarie that thie Presideat is
supreme.'liy, then, shotuld we abe surprised that
Congress and thre Judiciary art Isis creatures; that all
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