Richmond Enquirer

THE ADMINISTRATION.

A desperate and reckless opposition to the present chief magistrate and his administration, commenced contemporaneously with his election; and what it wanted in numbers, it has endeavored to supply with the violence of unmeasured denunciation. Without waiting to know the policy or the measures of the administration, 'war was declared on the threshold,' which has increased in acrimony as it waned towards despair. Who, let us ask, constitute this party? Not the people, for they are every where tranquil, looking with complacency on the work of their own creation, and enjoying that repose so much to be coveted, after the distraction of the last few years. Then, if it be not the people, it matters little to those against whom war is waged, who compose this band of mal-contents. Yet, notwithstanding, we will describe them, that every counterfeit may be detected and every imposition exposed. They are those who figured during the late election at the head of venal presses—those who suborned these presses for their own aggrandizement—those who virtually advocate frauds upon the government—those who have daringly practised them—and those who have been, by timely removals, debarred the opportunity of using official stations for corrupt and dishonest purposes. Those are the persons who compose this party, whose denunciations are heard, and these only. It is not in the power of such a compound to intimidate by their threats, or to deceive by their false alarms. They have never belonged to the people, and cannot now claim affiliation. Their overt acts have given them characters as fatal as that which made Cain execrated, and which no lustration can purify. It is not the complaints of Watkins, Fillebrown, Hay & Co. nor those who shed for them crocodile tears, that can never tarnish the glory that our Chief Magistrate has won for himself, or impair that confidence which the people have in the man of their choice. It is not the ambitious demagogue, who has fixed his aim on honor's highest seat, and would reach it through 'war, pestilence and famine,' that will be accredited in his allegations, or sustained in his appeals. No, none of these, however loud the thunders of their opposition, will shake the steadfast hold of the people, or convince them that their government is not safe with those in whose hands they have placed it.

Since the present administration came into power, where has a voice of discontent been heard, that could not be traced to the ranks of the primitive opposition? Where is the man that has apostatized from his standard? Where is the evidence that those who belonged to the triumphant majority of 1828, are not with their armor on to consummate the advantages of that victory? Where has any portion of the press been lost that originally belonged to the popular party? In one word, where is the evidence that the people are not satisfied and confiding? We challenge the puissant fathers of the faction for the proof. No, the discontent of a people can never be equivocal,—it has the power of ubiquity and the force of the storm; a faction can no more counterfeit that power, than a mad man's stamp can the convulsions of an earthquake. Then away with this idle clamor; it is as impotent and harmless as the raving of an incarcerated madman. A more auspicious dawn has never beamed upon any administration than the present, and so will it continue to the end!