Martinsburg Gazette And Public Advertiser

A Washington correspondent of the New York Enquirer, says—

"In sending out Mr. Nelson to Naples, the President gave him very peremptory instructions on the question at issue between the governments; and if the Neapolitan government has not acted honorably, quickly, and decidedly in the demand, be assured the American flag, in no good humour, will soon float in the bay of Naples, to some essential purpose. The navy, now under the able management of Secretary Woodbury, was never in a higher state of efficiency and order. and. I have no doubt. thousands would like the chance of a brush with the Neapolitans."

It seems to be forgotten that the prerogative of war is given to Congress, in the Constitution, and not to the President. We are not aware of any act of Congress empowering the President to wage war upon Naples, however just or expedient that procedure might be as an alternative. There is a new kind of consolidation much to be apprehended; we mean the concentration of all real power in the executive branch of the general government It is an infringement of the rights of the states, and the rights of the nation, who are jointly and severally entitled to the constitution according to its text. with that distribution of faculties which forms one of its essential merits and distinguishing features. The attributes to the executive department have been alarmingly multiplied: under the new theory and practice, the President may expound in the last resort, both the constitution and the laws; he may nullify acts of Congress and decisions of the Supreme Court; he may make appointments without the advice and consent of the Senate; he may virtually give office to men whom the Senate have rejected; he may bombard a capital, of his own motion, he may exercise the veto or disapproval; which the framers of the constitution intended for extreme constitutional cases; on any occasion, and with a view to party controversies and objects All this amounts to complete supremacy; it is equivalent to an absolute final control over the legislative and judicial branches.—Nat. Gaz.