Alexandria Gazette

LOUDOUN WHIG FESTIVAL.

On Thursday, the 26th day of June, a numerous company assembled at Mr. Geo. Turner's Tavern, in Leesburg, to celebrate the result of the recent elections in Virginia. The dinner provided for the occasion, reflected the highest credit upon the liberality and taste of the enterprising host. Col. Wm. Ellzey presided, assisted by R. H. Henderson, Esq. After the removal of the cloth, the following toasts were drunk; and the company separated without the occurrence of any incident to mar the harmony of a meeting that will long be remembered by those who had the pleasure of being seated at the festive board:

REGULAR TOASTS.

1. The union and the liberty of the States.—May they be perpetual; not left to the guardianship of an executive chief, but sustained by the virtue, the intelligence, and the valor of the American people.

2. The Commonwealth of Virginia.—The same spirit which aroused her to resistance in '76 animates her now: to her, executive encroachment is equally abhorrent in an American President as in a British King.

3. Military Chieftains.—With one splendid and glorious exception, lovers of arbitrary power, and foes to human liberty.

4. George Washington.—The splendid and glorious exception.

5. The Government of the United States.—Designed by its illustrious framers to be a complex, not a "simple machine;" a system of checks and restrictions on power, and not an instrument to be directed by the will of one man.

6. Augustus Waterman, Esq., our respected Guest.—We honor him for his devotion to the true glory of his country. The only laurels that can be worn without dishonor, are those which are won in our efforts for the preservation of human freedom.

After the enthusiastic applause with which this sentiment was received had subsided, Mr. Waterman rose and returned his thanks to the company for the kind sentiment which they had just expressed for him. Mr. W. addressed the company in a speech of half an hour, in which he took many interesting views of the present aspect of our political affairs. His remarks were succeeded by the following sentiment:

The County of Loudoun.—Can the Whigs throughout Virginia now doubt that her voters were wise when they withheld their confidence from the "favorite of the State" in the elections of 1828 and '32.

7. Our free institutions.—Ordained by the wisdom, and established by the valor of our Fathers: now imperiled by the insane audacity of a corrupt and irresponsible cabal, exercising, in the name of a Republican President, powers more than kingly.

8. Chief Justice Marshall.—Full of years and of wisdom; crowned with the blessings of a grateful and admiring people.

9. Lafayette.—A genuine lover of true liberty; gone where the fantastic tricks of the despot, whether arrayed in the robes of a "citizen king," or a kingly President, can no longer vex his free spirit.

10. W. C. Rives vs. the Legislature of Virginia.—The issue tendered has been joined and tried, and the drill sergeant of the palace has been rebuked and humbled, by the tribunal from whose judgment there is no appeal.

11. Civil Liberty.—Sleepless and eternal vigilance is the condition on which it was granted to man. Samson slumbered and was shorn of his strength.

12. The memory of Patrick Henry.—Hitherto illustrious as a patriot and orator; the administration of Andrew Jackson has established his claim to the character of a sagacious and prophetic statesman.

13. Woman.—The star of existence: her gentle rays give a purer light to joy, and illumine the darkness of sorrow.

[After the reading of the regular toasts, the President stated to the company, that he held in his hand letters from many of the distinguished gentlemen who had been invited to attend our Festival, and that, if it was the pleasure of the company, he would read them. Letters were then read from Messrs. Clay, Calhoun, Leigh, Tyler, Poindexter, Ewing, and others, enclosing appropriate toasts, which were responded to by the company. Amongst the letters from invited guests were the two following.]

House of Representatives,

7 o'clock, p. m., June 25, 1834.

Gentlemen:—I received, with the liveliest emotion, your invitation to partake of a dinner to be given to-morrow, in the town of Leesburg, by a numerous body of my fellow citizens and friends, to signalize the late demonstration of public opinion against the misrule of the Federal Executive, and in favor of the great principles of constitutional freedom.

Bound to the county of Loudoun by feelings of gratitude which can cease only with my being, it would give me peculiar delight to mingle my congratulations with theirs on this auspicious occasion.

I have therefore delayed till the latest moment an answer to your kind and flattering invitation in the hope that the state of the public business would permit me to unite with them around the festive board which they are to spread to-morrow, to express my heart-felt sense of their repeated kindness, and my exultation at the recent triumph of their principles.

This hope I am now, however, compelled to surrender to an imperious sense of public duty. Prevented, by a long and dangerous illness, from taking an active part in the late debate, on the extraordinary conduct, and the still more extraordinary pretensions of the President, in exercising and continuing to claim an absolute control over the public treasure, I have nevertheless watched with anxious solicitude the progress of public sentiment, where alone, in the present condition of our legislative councils, relief can be expected by an outraged and abused people.

I avail myself of the occasion, to congratulate you and my fellow-citizens of Loudoun, on the wisdom and firmness manifested throughout the late disastrous state of our affairs, by that branch of those councils, to which our admirable constitution teaches us to look for constancy in seasons of public calamity and danger. I anticipate your union with me in the confident trust that the intelligence and virtue of the American people will reward their fidelity and extend the influence of their intrepid example.

In this spirit, allow me to offer you the toast which I have subscribed, while I assure you, and through you, my friends and fellow-citizens of Loudoun, that present or absent, my most fervent wishes ascend to heaven, for their and your welfare and happiness. Your friend and fellow-citizen,

C. F. MERCER.

The Senate of the United States.—The faithful, firm, and intrepid guardian of constitutional liberty.

By the Committee:

C. F. Mercer, our representative in Congress.—Faithful to his constituents and his country.

Cedar Grove, 24th June, 1834.

Gentlemen: Having been from home for some days past, I did not receive your welcome favor of the 21st, until to-day. And I fear that the interval, between this and the 26th., is too short to enable you to receive my apology in time to submit it to those of my much valued constituents, who have, through you, honored me with an invitation, to unite with them on that day, in their celebration of the recent triumph of Whig principles in Virginia.

It is, indeed, with unfeigned and inexpressible regret, that I shall be denied the gratification of being present upon that occasion. But a previous and positive engagement, involving pecuniary interests, important to others, and which I cannot now postpone or violate, without a breach of honor, will deprive me of the pleasure of mingling with old and dear friends, in the celebration of a triumph which is directly identified with liberty itself. The Whigs of Virginia have ample reason to rejoice at their present success, as affording a happy omen of the future triumph of their principles, at the approaching elections in our sister states. Should they, like Virginia, be awakened to a just sense of the enormity of the late executive usurpations, then may we be restored to our constitutional rights. But if they shall still prefer an idol to the constitution, the dictum of the President will continue to be the law, and we shall presently hold our heads, as we now hold our liberty by the precarious tenure of his will. The President will be left by Congress, in possession of the public purse. While he is suffered to retain it, and while he claims and exercises the alarming powers which are set forth in his "Protest," he presents a terrific instance of Executive omnipotence, who has hurled the Government from its original foundations, and converted it into a rank despotism. Those who prefer men to principles, may still call ours a Republic if they will. The present state of the country may be traced to the general acquiescence of the people in some of the early measures of the Administration, and the people were ever after appealed to, to sanction every subsequent stretch of power. I allude to the division of "spoils," and to that system of "rewards and punishments" which marked the cold-blooded policy of the victors. But as it was a branch of the promised "reform" which had been trumpeted forth in the Inaugural, it was generally sanctioned. To this deceptive pledge may be traced, the origin of that tempest of Executive fury which is, even now, sweeping over the land, uprooting everything that was valuable in our once free and happy institutions. It is for the Whigs to arrest the devastating progress of this profligate Administration, and if they are true to their principles, they cannot be false to their suffering and oppressed country.

But, gentlemen, your kind invitation, conveyed in such partial terms, will justify the privilege I take, of sending a toast, which I request may be read at your festival, at the same time that you communicate the cause which prevented my personal attendance.

Your friend, truly,

WM. M. McCARTY.

By the committee:

Wm. M. McCarty, Esq.—Unlike the venal sycophants of the day, he spurned office when it ceased to comport with integrity and honor.

VOLUNTEERS.

By Wm Ellzey, (President of the day.)—Daniel Webster; the enlightened statesman, and patriot.

By R. H. Henderson (Vice President of the day)—Benj. Watkins Leigh—Oblivion to past differences of opinion; let us rally round the champion of liberty and law.

B W Harrison.—The two Houses of the present Congress; a contrast—The one shines in the zenith of its fame for talents and usefulness; Executive influence has cast its shadow over the glories of the other.

Mr Fleming Hixon begged permission to offer a sentiment, which he said he did, with increased pleasure, from the conviction which he felt that the compliment was in every way richly deserved. Mr. H. proposed.

The health of John Janney, Esq.; A member elect of the next House of Delegates, of Virginia. A fearless and talented representative the commencement of whose political life has fulfilled the expectations of his constituents, and given flattering promise of his future distinction and usefulness.

[After the long and continued applause with which this sentiment was received had subsided, Mr. Janney rose, and expressed his sense of gratitude for the compliment which had so unexpectedly been paid him. It would be doing Mr. J. injustice to attempt a report of his brief and energetic speech: he concluded by offering the following sentiment:]

The Commonwealth of Virginia.—She has given a glorious demonstration that party shackles are too weak to bind her to those who have abused confidence, and betrayed her principles.

Hector Osburn.—James Madison: Let him live until the dark and portentous cloud, that now hangs over the destinies of his country, be dispelled; and let the evening of his life be as peaceful as its meridian was refulgent and glorious.

Capt. John Moore.—Henry Clay: The man who has loved his country's prosperity more than her favor: bright and beautiful will be the page that records the story of his fame.

James N. Callhan.—Responsibility; due to the laws only, and not an automaton, which, by some strange fatality, has been endowed with volition, but denied understanding.

James C. Janney.—Messrs. Ewing, Clayton, and Knight, the Majority of the post office committee: They have exposed the abominations of the Augean Stable, but an arm less powerful than that of Hercules cannot cleanse it.

W. C. Selden, jr.—Gen. Jackson: the restorer of "the golden age," when neither gold, nor silver was to be found in the land.

J. M. Harrison.—B. W. Leigh; his present station, conferred not sought; on such terms promotion is honorable.

Mr. John Stephenson said he would ask to present a sentiment, and with the permission of the company he would propose the following toast.

John M. McCarty, member elect of the next House of Delegates of Virginia. The freemen of the county of Loudoun, sensible of the critical state of our country, called into exercise the patriotic spirit of an enlightened and magnanimous freeman.

[After the rapturous applause had subsided, with which this sentiment was received, Mr. McCarty rose to respond to the compliment, which he said had been paid him, more from the kindness of friends, than from any merit of his own. His speech was marked by force and eloquence, comprising a limited view of the steps of the Administration and the state of the country, and the style of delivery was imposing and satisfactory. He concluded by offering the following sentiment;]

Virginia.—She lives but to be free; she resisted the tyranny of George the 3d in 76—animated by the same spirit, she resists the tyranny of Andrew the 1st. in 1834.

By a Guest.—W. C. Rives and Thomas Jefferson Randolph; the pupil and grandson of Thomas Jefferson—The supporters of the reckless usurpations of Andrew Jackson;

"Shame, where is thy blush!"

B. A. Lee.—Power; when rightly used, a blessing to the givers and the possessors; when abused, a curse to both.

By a Guest.—The Public Deposites: We ask where are they, and the echo of Paddy Blake answers, "nowhere."

Hector Osburn.—The Nationals and Nullifiers: misery brings us acquainted with strange bed-fellows.

John Stephenson.—The Whigs of '76, '98 & '34 great revolutions in which the independent spirit of freemen, and the noble principles of liberty, triumphed over kingly tyranny, and federal usurpation.

By a Guest.—Ex-Speaker Stevenson; may his place in the House of Representatives be filled as quickly as the citizens of his district can say Jack Robinson.

Mr. A. M. Kitzmiller rose to offer a sentiment, with the single remark, that we have been deprived of the pleasure of the company of the gentleman to whom the toast refers, by indisposition, which compelled him to retire from the festive board. He would propose;

Lewis Beard, Esq., delegate elect for the county of Loudoun—The love and esteem of his constituents, are based upon his discriminating intelligence, and uncompromising spirit of patriotism.

[The applause with which this sentiment was received, testifies the high approbation in which this gentleman is deservedly held by his political friends. Mr. Beard has furnished the following sentiment:]

L. Beard.—Virginia!—Not always right, but never wilfully wrong—her motto in war, "Sic Semper Tyrannis" in peace, "Principles not men."

John M. McCarty.—The citizens of Loudoun County—Patriotic, intelligent, and industrious; preferring individual exertions to executive patronage, they dare be free.

A. M. Kitzmiller.—The memory of Lafayette; From youth to age, during the Administration of Dictators, Kings, and Emperors, uniformly devoted to the principles of civil liberty.

Fleming Hixon.—George McDuffie; We rejoice in the restoration of his health, and welcome his return to the theatre of his fame and usefulness.

By a Guest. Senator Clayton of Delaware his lash is keener than that of Timothy Upham, and its application as richly merited.

A Addison.—Henry Clay—The earth rocked the tempest roared, and the waves of faction beat against his sides, but he stood in proud and conscious integrity, "firm as the surge resisting rock."

The following sentiment was proposed by Major Alexander:

John M. Harrison, Esq.—The faithfulness and zeal with which he discharged his duty as a public man, are only equalled by his worth as a private citizen.

[The sentiment was cordially received by the company, and when order was restored, Mr. H. briefly expressed his acknowledgements for the honor paid him in the unexpected sentiment, which had been so kindly and warmly received by the company. Mr. H. took his seat by proposing,]

Virginia.—May Principles, not men, be always her motto.

Sent by Jacob Brown.—The party in power May the people shake their rulers, until the scales fall from their eyes, as they did from those of Saul of Tarsus.

Charles Shreve.—Virginia, the good old mother of us all,—I had rather fall with her, than stand without her.

By a Guest.—The memory of Martin Van Buren:

We'll carve not a line, we'll raise not a stone,

But leave him alone in His Glory.

W. C. Selden, jr.—The rejection of Stevenson and Taney:—thank the Lord for all his mercies.

C. A. Alexander.—Official responsibility—But little understood by those who at the present day most frequently invoke it. It signifies the deep reproach, inevitable defeat, and unending infamy which are coming upon all those who work iniquity in high places.