Opis: John Bell's Record (Classic Reprint) - Party Constitutional Union

Excerpt from John Bell's Record

The following passage occurs in a speech delivered by Mr. Bell in the House of Representatives, on the 10th of February, 1829, on a bill for the preservation and repair of the Cumberland road:

"While I am upon the subject of this diversity of opinion which exists as to the safest mode of construing the Constitution. I hope it will not be considered improper or presumptuous in me to make a remark or two in regard to the two great parties which divide this country upon all questions of this kind. They had their origin as far back as the formation of the Federal compact. Their foundations were laid in the difference of sentiment which prevailed at that time, as to the wisdom of the provisions of that instrument. They are, in short, the fruit of that discord of opinions and feelings, without a compromise of which at the time, we should have had no Constitution at all. One opinion was, that sufficient power was not conferred u)on the Federal Government to assure the quiet, happiness, and prosperity of the country; while the opinion of others was, that the power actually conceded would prove too strong for the preservation of liberty. The most zealous and active of the partizans on both sides never abandoned their creeds; both parties became sufficiently powerful to propagate their opinions; and as one or the other predominated in the administration of the Government, a tincture c(the favorable notions of each was infused into its measures. Both have sought, by construction, to make the Constitution what they wished it to be in fact: the one by enlarging its powers beyond its letter and spirit, the other by narrowing them down to the standard of their wishes. Although it will be seen that I know and feel what party has had the ascendency for several years past, and where the great danger is, yet it may be said that both these great parties are in some degree hostile, not to liberty, not to their country, but to the Constitution as it is written; to that instrument which we are bound by the most sacred obligations to support; to that instrument, to which, for one, I am disposed to cling, with or without such modifications as maybe effected by amendment, Both the great parties to which I have alluded, seem to me to have abandoned the principle of compromise. I would adhere to it as the only principle by which the States were able to agree upon any compact, and without an acquiescence in which, we are not destined long to enjoy the blessings of the one adopted. He, sir, who shall renounce the extremes of both these great parties, as dangerous to order and union; he, who, by his talents, experience and weight of character shall succeed in placing himself at the head of a great constitutional party, and shall become the advocate of the administration of the Government upon the principle of compromise, as it was understood to have operated in the formation of the Constitution, will deserve the highest gratitude of his country." [See Congressional Debates, vol. 5, page 349.]

It cannot but be regarded as a most extraordinary coincidence, that more than thirty years after the utterance of these opinions, "a great Constitutional party" should rise up, which, "renouncing the extremes" of both the other great parties in the country, "as dangerous to order and union," should be led by its high estimate of Mr. Bell's "talents, experience, and weight of character," to select him to lead them in a contest for "the administration of the Government upon the principle of compromise, as it. was understood to have operated in the formation of the Constitution!"

Mr. Bell in 1832.

His Speech on the Tariff, June 8, 1832. - A Plea for the Union - Duty of a Representative.

With the dangers which threatened the Union in 1832, in consequence of the intense discontent which prevailed in the southern Slates, and particularly in South Carolina, at the working of the protective tariff, man

Szczegóły: John Bell's Record (Classic Reprint) - Party Constitutional Union

Nazwa: John Bell's Record (Classic Reprint)
Autor: Party Constitutional Union
Wydawnictwo: FB &c Ltd
Kod paskowy: 9781331072690
Języki: angielski
Ilość stron: 38
Format: 15.2x22.9cm
Oprawa: Miękka

Recenzje: John Bell's Record (Classic Reprint) - Party Constitutional Union