Vermont Watchman And State Journal

SCORCHING TRUTHS,

The Hon. Bailie Peyton, an able and independent Representative in Congress from Tennessee, was, in March last, invited to a public dinner, by the citizens of Williamsborough, North Carolina. In his letter, declining the invitation, he takes occasion to speak of General Jackson and his Administration. His remarks are so excellent, so caustic, and so true, that we cannot forego the pleasure of laying the following extract from the letter before our readers: and yet, with all the deplorable truths before the nation, we find numerous persons, professing to be patriots, shouting hosannas to General Jackson and his Administration! Who, in the pure days of Washington, could have anticipated such a disgraceful state of things, at so early a period of the government?

Here is the extract :—[Cincinnati Whig.]

"I have seen a party, to which I once belonged—a President I once supported, and upon whom was placed my proudest hopes of all that was pure and patriotic, falsify the brightest expectation of friends, verify the worst predictions of enemies, and violate pledges solemnly given to the country. I have seen a party, one of whose cardinal maxims was, 'that the patronage of the Federal Government should not be brought in conflict with the freedom of elections,' acquiesce in, and claim for the President the right to appoint his successor. I have seen an Administration which came into power upon the principles of reform, economy, and strict accountability of Public Officers, increase the expenditures from fifteen to thirty two millions—foster corruption in every department of the Government, and for a long time refuse inquiry into alleged abuses, and at last, attempt to stifle it, by the appointment of a committee composed of six to three against investigation. I have seen the President of the United States rebuke the House of Representatives for daring to constitute such committee to inquire into Executive abuse, and the doors of the Executive department bolted and barred against a select Committee of the House of Representatives, while an Executive order was issued, directing that obnoxious members of Congress should be made to swear to their speeches, delivered on the floor, under the Executive denunciation of being calumniators if they did not, and of perpetrating perjury if they did swear to the truth of the charges which they had made. This I have seen and felt, for I was forced to submit to this engine of executive torture, and sealed my belief with an oath, for which I am prepared to answer before my God and my country. And at the time this fatal blow was aimed at the freedom of Debate upon the floor of Congress, the President denied to the Representatives of the people the right of inquiring into alleged abuses, and claimed for the heads of his department the same right to withhold that evidence against themselves, which the public archives, the public property of the people, would furnish, which a felon has to conceal his own consciousness of guilt.

I have seen the revenues of the country used as a fund of pecuniary speculation and political corruption, in the hands of Executive Officers, while a vast surplus was refused, for the most patriotic and useful purposes. I have seen the President assuming upon himself legislative powers, repeal a law, or joint resolution of Congress, "which had stood upon the Statute-book for more than twenty years and which Congress had refused to repeal, and an odious discrimination made, requiring specie of one class of public debtors, while another was permitted to pay into the Treasury bank notes in discharge of public dues. I have seen this unjust and oppressive law of the Executive repealed by such a majority in each House of Congress as to place the passage of the act beyond the power of the Veto, & the President still defeat the measure by refusing to return the bill to the body in which it originated. It might seem there was nothing left to make this the government of one man; no encroachment which had not been made by the Executive upon the other departments of the Government: but I will add one more to the offensive catalogue. I have seen and had cause to know from the highest sources, that a Representative of the American people, who discharged his duty as became a freeman, was not safe from personal outrage, and that the President of the United States, the source of patronage and fountain of power, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy spoke in a manner well calculated to stimulate his followers to assail, out of office Members of Congress for discharging their official duties fearlessly. I have seen all this—the Executive arm growing stronger and stronger, while every other department was trembling, tottering, falling, beneath its giant blow."