Constitutional Whig

From the National Intelligencer.

In the following letter, which reached us by the last mail from Harrisburg, from a source entitled to full credit, our readers will find other "signs of the times," not less striking than any we have yet spread before them.

"HARRISBURG, March 16, 1827.

"The 'Signs of the Times' are, indeed, ominous of an unprincipled combination of aspiring men, who are determined to raise themselves into office, and that by any means, and at any price—even the destruction of the very elements of our excellent Government. You are correct in your interpretation of Mr. Van Buren's threat in the Senate: for a part of the 'combination' have been here, with a purse in one hand and a club in the other. One of them, (who, by the way, had forgotten his prudence,) stated to me that they had in their hands $2,000, for the purpose of establishing a Press here, and if the Editors of the Pennsylvania Intelligencer would turn into the pack, and bellow lustily in favor of Gen. Jackson, and the disorganizers who make his gallant services a cloak to hide their dishonest purposes, their patronage should be increased to double its extent; if not, that the $2,000 should be applied to establishing a Press to answer those purposes, and crush them. Such is the course these men adopt; but as their schemes become known, I feel assured that the good sense of this State will ultimately put down such unholy combinations. Whatever the opinion of this State may be in relation to the next Presidential Election, this is certain: that the great majority of the People here are decidedly favorable to the policy pursued by the present Administration. Its policy is the same which has always been contended for by the Republican Party of this State; and if the Combination pursue that indiscriminate opposition, a reaction will be produced. Principles cannot be lost sight of in our support of men. It is rumored that part of the plan is to oppose the State Administration, and overthrow it too, unless it will enter into their views. This, I am convinced, the Administration of this State will never do. They will take such course as may be decided upon by the Republican Party of the State, and none other. Governor Shulze has just been unanimously re-elected by the Democratic Party, and by his prudence, has secured a greater degree of public approbation than any man who has ever held the office.

With him goes the Democratic Party.

"There can be no doubt that messengers have been despatched to every State in the Union with the motives that brought those here, and it is right that the People should know it."

This Letter, we repeat, is from a source in which we repose implicit faith. It shows the extent and ramifications of the intrigues which are on foot. We do not know who compose the Mission which it describes; but we venture to say, that they have exceeded their commission, if they have made the support of General Jackson a sine qua non with the Harrisburg Intelligencer. If they had understood their instructions, they would probably have recommended, in addition to an unqualified opposition to the present Administration, that by all means the Intelligencer should avoid "premature committals" as to the successors to the Presidential and Vice Presidential Chairs. Because, it is well understood, that, in the prospect of the success of the newly organized party, whose "sentiment" has been "concentrated" at Washington recently, a candidate is yet to be determined on by the party for one of those chairs—and possibly for both.

But, however the embassy to Harrisburg may have been instructed, the fact above disclosed is really appalling. What are we to come to, when this sort of "improvement" of the press, commencing in the core of the Government, is made to insinuate itself wherever there exists an influential press which has not already been subdued? At the very moment of making this reflection, we have met with the following, in the Trenton True American of Saturday last:

"In addition to what has already been disclosed on this subject, we are informed by an opposition gentleman, a short time since, who pretended to know, but who could not, it appears, keep the secrets of his party, that they must succeed, as they had a fund of $50,000, which they intended to employ in establishing presses in the several States, which were to be employed in writing down the Administration, and argued from this, that Mr. Adams could not be re-elected. Attempts have been made, we are well assured, to purchase two other presses, that are now established, or to employ their Editors in slandering the Administration, under the promises of large supplies and liberal support: but happily without effect; the Editors of those papers being too pure, too honest, and too high-minded, to be thus bought up. It is thus that the leaders of the Opposition (not the People) are determined to control public opinion, and corruptly elevate themselves to office, over the ruins of those who now preside over the Nation."

It is a most sinister state of things which this paragraph describes—so monstrous, indeed, that we do not yield to it an easy faith. If the act can be proved which is alluded to in the above, and of which faint rumors have before reached us, we shall see where the epithets of Coalition, corruption, &c. properly belong.

Let us not be supposed to charge these things on the body of the friends of General Jackson. Most of them are too honest and direct in their political purposes to resort to such means as these to sustain the claims of their candidate. It is only veteran traders in politics, who could contrive such a plan for subsidizing the press, where it is venal, and breaking it down where it cannot be seduced. We mistake "the signs of the times," if the original friends of Gen. Jackson do not in time find that they have suffered themselves to be the sport of the superior tact and dexterity of the more accomplished "leaders" in whose service they are at present blindly enlisted.

Extract of a letter from a gentleman now at Harrisburg, dated March 13th, 1827.

"Dear Sir: I got here last evening, and find an increasing good feeling for the Administration, and a corresponding disgust at the proceedings of the Opposition, which is likely to be increased by the strong, and I would say, strange effort now making to obtain an expression of public opinion in favor of their candidate. Not satisfied with using the influence of their own citizens, Gov. CARROLL, of Tennessee, is here, with the ex-Governor FINDLAY, using their efforts to induce the Intelligencer, an old established paper, to "come out in favor of Jackson." And as the Editors do not appear disposed to be driven into measures they cannot approve of, they are threatened with the establishment of a rival paper; to support which, it is said, $2,000 dollars are provided, $500 of which it is said, comes from General E. To-morrow a dinner will be given to Gov. Carroll, and no doubt but a full cup of gall will be emptied on the heads of the Administration. But let them alone; all this violence will tend to open the eyes of those who are finally to settle the question. The people will speak in a language which few perhaps, at this moment, look for. This moment I learn that the German Lancaster paper has come out in favor of the Administration."

Recent occurrences have fortunately changed that extraordinary state of things that has existed for two years; we mean, a state of real, active, and determined, but at the same time, of unprofessed and disavowed opposition to the Government. This unmanly and hypocritical policy, gentlemen at last are obliged to abandon, and they are compelled to come in the open field much against their inclination. At this early development of objects and motives, we sincerely rejoice. Not that they are new to us; we have long known their existence; but because the country will be able now to see both men and things in their true colors. A stranger state of things never was, than has existed, especially in the Middle and Northern States, since the election of Mr. Adams. In hardly any of these States has any body of men been found, except in Pennsylvania, who avowed hostility to the Administration; yet, in almost all of them, candidates came before the people for election, without uttering a word of complaint or opposition, who, nevertheless, the moment they are chosen, are claimed by certain prominent leaders as opposition men. New York, under a particular management, has been the most signal theatre for the display of this noble, manly, honorable policy. At the election of Members of Congress last fall, we did not observe that more than one candidate risked his election on a profession of opposition to Mr. Adams. Yet, hardly was the election over, before it was announced that such, and so many, were friends of General Jackson. Mr. Van Buren himself, down to the very day of his recent re-election to the Senate, was not open and professed in his opposition. No: He only exercised the right of individual judgment, in differing, on particular