Constitutional Whig

The decisive testimony of Gov. Coles and Mr. Gilmer, as to Mr. Jefferson's opinions of Gen. Jackson's fitness for the Presidency, has thrown the Jackson editors into a perfect rage. They storm and rave and endeavor to escape its point—in vain—haeret lateri, lethalis arundo. The true question which all their ingenuity cannot "blind," is not whether Mr. Jefferson's good opinion of Mr. Adams was not depreciated by his first message—that is admitted—but if it does not appear that he thought so indiffrently of the Genl's fitness, that respect to Mr. Jefferson himself forbids the supposition, that he could ever have wished to see him President? That is the question—and how stands it? He thought "a soldier might sooner be made of a goose or a sailor of a cat, than a President of Gen. Jackson"—his near approach to success in the last election, alarmed Mr. Jefferson for the durability of the Republic, "more than anything that had happened since the Revolution" his "habits, temper and education, disqualified him for all civil office"—his conduct in Florida, and his aptitude to substitute his own will for law, "proved him unfit to govern"—he was "a bull dog that served well in war, but that ought to be kept chained in time of peace." These are the recorded and established opinions of Mr. Jefferson of General Jackson—opinions in their nature unsusceptible of change, for they were founded upon acts of General Jackson, which could not be changed. Still the zeal of Gen. Jackson's friends call upon the public credulity to believe, that in the face of those most unequivocal expressions of his disapprobation, Mr. Jefferson favored the present success of Gen. Jackson. Do they wish to degrade Mr. Jefferson in the opinion of mankind? Do they desire to fasten on his memory, the charge of acting in diametrical opposition to his opinions? On the other hand, we are sensible, that Mr. Jefferson lost the confidence in Mr. Adams which had impelled him to pronounce him "an honest, able, and learned—the best of the New England men." But did his disapprobation of Mr. Adams, rival his abhorrence of Gen. Jackson as President? Are there any expressions of his which at all prove this? Thinking his first message proved him an ultra federalist, must he not still have preferred an ultra federalist (much as he detested one) to a man so personally dangerous and eminently unfit to govern, as he thought Gen. Jackson?

It ought not to be thought strange, that the friends of the Administration have appealed to Mr. Jefferson's opinions. What is it but the greatest compliment that they could pay to his memory? A distinct acknowledgment on their part, that his opinions were entitled to the greatest respect and veneration? If its enemies appeal to the opinions of Cheves, of Clinton, and other living eminent statesmen, may they not be allowed to appeal to those of the still greater dead? Where is the want of principle in this course?

As to Mr. Jefferson's latter opinions of Mr. Adams, we have no objection to their publicity. Let them be laid before the public, and let it decide, from comparison, which he thought the greater and which the lesser evil—Adams or Jackson.