"Representative Men": Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, Part I [pp. 521-530]

SOUTHIERN LITERARY MIESSENGER.
PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT THREE DOLLARS PER ANNUM —JNO. R. THOMPSON,. EIDITOR.
RICHMOND, SEPTEMBER, 1853.
machinery and excitement were occasionred,
by a contest for a bank, a tariff, a distribu, tion of proceeds of public property, and the
like measures of police. At least these were
the avowed principles. But it may be
doubted if they were the secret or source of
party excitement. It may well be doubted
whether the personal question were not the
substantive one, the who rather than the what,
the man rather than the measures. We do
not speak in condemnation of parties, nor is
it worth while to say anything ill animadversion of the undue excitement of party
spirit; we must take the evil with the good.
But while the principles which have divided
parties are doubtless important, it is simply
r idiculous to attribute to them, either in their
immediate or remote effects, in their causes
or their results, or in the mode in which they
were carried or presented, the degree of importance attached to them by partisans. The
country could have gone on under either
scheme and the difference in its condition
could scarcely have been noticed. Apart
from and rising above mere party questions,
doubtless, were others in which the great
men whose names head this article were
conspicuously concerned, and which were
well worthy of all the efforts made in their
behalf. Such were the questions of the War
with Great Britain, the three compromises of
1820, 1832 and 1850-in all of which Mr.
Clay was a prominent actor. Compared
to these in importance those questions which
were peculiar to the respective party creeds
-the Texas annexation question in its principles and its ultimate effects, perhaps excepted-were of little moment; the main
and characteristic principles of Republican
fect the scheme of our respective constitu- government being equally conceded by both
tions. and equally the basis of Whig and Democratic
When we look back upon tle fierce strug- I organization and profession.
gles through which the nation has passed, and But it was through these questions and
recall the exaggerated declamation the fero- through this organization, that the characters
cious criminations, the bustling activities and; of Jackson and Clay were impressed upon
pervasive organizations of party, we feel the country, and their weight and influence
inclined to smile when we think that all this in the formation of opinion were felt by the
VOL. XIX-66
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VOL. XIX.
ii REPRESENTATIVE MEN."
ANDREW JACKSON AND HENRY CLAY.
The mists of party prejudice are fast disappearing from the land. European tourists
and statesmen wondered while the party
strife, commencing in the year 1835, and
extendino- to 1845, was rao-iii(y in our country, that questions so small in maonitude and
principles of such little moment as, compared to their own, existed between the Wlii,and Democratic parties, should have so influenced and a,itated the public mind, and so
widely and bitterly divided the American
people. In Europe, parties have been formed,. it must be confessed, upon a wider base.
The politics of a nation in Europe involved,
for the most part to a reater or less deree,
the foreio-ii as well as the domestic relations
of the nation; and the interests, not to say
the fate of other countries or dynasties. And
even when the, policy was more local in its
character and effect, it often involved more
radical principles,-the oro-anism rather than
the mode of administerino- a rovernment
upon a commonly recotnised basis or around
work.
We have the benefit of a written constitution and a Republican system. We have
the leadino- principles of Government limited
arid defined. Here all are Republicans.
Here the rio-hts of all freemen and the rio-hts
ot' all the States are equal. Here the powers of the Federal Government and those of
the State Government are marked out with
such precision, that it is almost impossible
to make any such mistake as will vitally ef