Alexandria Gazette

Correspondence of the Baltimore Patriot.

WASHINGTON, April 14, 1841.

No act of General Harrison's Administration -- perhaps nothing connected with his public life -- more strongly establishes his claims to the respect of the American People, nor will call forth greater applause from the impartial Historian, than the great measure adopted for prohibiting the interference of Federal Officers in elections. The Circular, from the Department of State, manifested the determination of the Whig Cabinet to exert the just powers of the Executive for the accomplishment of an object which the Whigs in Congress, when out of power, had for years vainly attempted to bring about by legislative enactment. The friends of our free institutions have seen with pleasure, from the Address of President Tyler, that he is equally determined to carry out the principles of the Circular, by all the means the Constitution places in his hands, and also to invoke the action of Congress on the subject. This is not mere talk. It is not the mere official ticker, so often resorted to, under the last two administrations, whose practices on all questions of Reform were exactly the opposite of their promises and professions. He -- John Tyler -- means what he says. And, we prove it, every day, by outlaying propriety. A few days ago, an over-zealous friend of a candidate for a partisan office, while opposing very earnestly the re-election of his competitor, urged that if the other should be appointed, he would have no politics we hear and would bring no political influence against the administration. The President wittily replied, "I do not intend that he shall exercise any political influence." You may imagine how the importunate solicitor was dished in his rebuke.

Thus, then is to be the established policy of John Tyler. It is unquestionably a great measure of Reform. It puts a stop to the habitual violation of the elective franchise by officers of Government, which, under Jackson, and Van Buren, had grown into a system. It leaves the people to the free and independent exercise of their rights as voters, unawed by corruption, unseduced by bribery, unawed by intimidation, and out of the reach of the thousand electioneering arts and appliances which were so much in use by the agents of the official tram bands. The People, in short, are to be shielded, in their elections from the oppression and encroachments of those powers and influences which belong necessarily to Official Station.

Now, let us look to some of the effects of this policy. One of the immediate results must be to bring into the front rank of active politicians, a class of men very different from those, who, during the two last Administrations, have appeared there. Gen. Jackson and Martin Van Buren relied on their patrons of office and paid troops -- on the discipline, activity, tactics, and obedience to the corrects of office-holders and office-seekers to carry them through. The Custom Houses, the Post Offices, Land Offices -- and, in some cases, the United States Judiciary (Judges and District Attorneys!) furnished the most busy and indefatigable electioneers that were seen anywhere during every campaign. This reliance is broken up now, absolutely and entirely -- The present Administration has voluntarily deprived itself of these mercenary services; and President Tyler has officially proclaimed that he places on the patriotism and intelligence of the people, his only sure reliance.

We are, then, no longer to have a Government Manufactory of Public Opinion, carried on through the officers and agents of the Cabinet at Washington. The people will take the management of their elections into their own hands; and in proportion as the influence of the office-holders, who are invested by Executive favor of power with certain authority or prerogative is subdued, will the proper influence of others, whose talents, disinterestedness and patriotism has secured for them the confidence of the people, rise therein, and rendered far more beneficial. The people will come out and discuss the principles and measures of the Government, without the hazard of having the argument on the one side or the other voted up or voted down, at the polls, by a disciplined army, without erudiment and without principle. Public speakers and public writers -- themselves a portion of the people -- the conductors of the free press of the land -- the candidates in popular elections -- who are public men to-day, but to-morrow mingle in the ranks of their fellow-citizens these will become the advocates and organs of opinion.

What a change will this bring about in our system, and our whole Administrative policy. Statesmen henceforth will have to look, not to an army of collar-men for sustaining them, but to the people themselves: and to those whose intelligence, active dispositions, and talents as public speakers, and public writers, or counsellors in political affairs, have given them prominence, and gained for them the confidence of their fellow-citizens. These being brought into constant and immediate intercourse with the people -- representing their opinions and feelings -- and authorized to declare the wishes and determinations of the people, will be the men of real consequence in the State.