The New Hampshire Gazette

The President has been greeted with distinguished tokens of respect and gratitude on his visit to the Hermitage. Every where have his affectionate fellow-citizens, old and young, turned out, and given him a most enthusiastic welcome to his home. On the President's approach to Nashville, he was met by a large body of his fellow-citizens, and addressed in an eloquent and impressive manner by Hon. Geo. W. Campbell, Chairman of the Committee appointed for that purpose. To this address the President made a most happy reply, which we regret we can not at present lay before our readers. We find the address and reply in the Nashville Union of the 18th ult. So much has been said by the opposition relative to the advice given by the President to Mr. Monroe to 'obliterate party lines' that we cannot forbear quoting from his admirable reply the annexed extract, which fully justifies the change of opinion which has furnished the opposition with such an unfailing theme of railing and abuse. (Saco Dem.)

There was a time sir, when I thought the democratic principles of our system might be maintained with less of the rigidity, in the policy which excluded their opponents from a leading influence in the councils of the government, than had been observed by some of the administrations which preceded mine. Experience, however, soon satisfied me, that in the latitude in which I indulged this opinion, I did not give due weight to the causes that influence the conduct of public men. I could not fail to learn by the circumstances to which you have alluded, when tracing the means resorted to by the bank of the United States, and by the advocates of nullification on the one hand, and of consolidation on the other, that it will be almost impossible to obtain an administration true to the constitution and faithful to the great trusts it creates for the good of the people, unless themselves exercise the most sleepless vigilance not only in respect to the measures of Government but to the agents they employ to carry them into execution. It is true that the chief interest of the people is in the measures of Government. But measures cannot be carried into effect without agents, and they must from the nature of things fail unless these agents are faithful representatives, and give their hearts as well as their promises to the constitutional objects of their appointment. Practically, therefore, the difficulties of an administration consist less in knowing and adopting what is just and proper in itself, than in being able to obtain that co-operation through agents which is necessary to secure to the people the advantages they have a right to expect from a government established for their good alone. Thus whilst we have seen—in the system of local improvements by the General Government—in the encroachments and corruptions of the Bank of the U. States—in the resort to disunion through the process of nullification—in the attempt at consolidation by the exercise of power defined only by the discretion of Congress—the various forms through which the old enemy of republicanism has attempted to engraft new features on the constitution and make it by construction an implication what the people never intended it to be; we have also seen how greatly the dangers of this foe can be increased by its power to interest in its cause those who owe their elevation to the people and who have professed an attachment to republican principles in the very acts of their betrayal of them.

If, sir, by the course which I have pursued, I have disappointed this secret, but ever active foe to the true and lasting interests of the country, and shall have awakened the people to a more vivid and salutary sense of the importance of their vigilance and union in digesting and executing the measures calculated to perpetuate a system of Government founded upon their supreme will and authority, I shall deem myself fortunate indeed. The consciousness, at least, of having labored assiduously to produce this effect, and the assurances I have already received of the public approbation, will render powerless the attempts which have been made to misrepresent my acts and calumniate my motives.

I was aware of the responsibility devolved upon me when the people elevated me to the Presidency, and I was not long in perceiving that the attempts to curtail their rights and privileges would have to be met by bold and energetic measures, differing in the extent of their importance and delicacy of their execution from those which I had been called on to pursue in the military service, but similar in the risks to which they exposed me. To be now called a dictator and an usurper can therefore bring no new terrors to me, whatever impressions such epithets may make for the moment. I have too much confidence in the virtue and intelligence of my countrymen to suppose that their judgment will ever be founded on any other considerations than those of truth and justice.