republic was, as it were, in its infancy. Its strength was not developed. Its resources were limited. The country was threatened, both at home and from abroad; yet no man has since taken a more decided stand, or more unflinchingly maintained and defended the national honor than did he. The force of his character, and the integrity of his party were such, that although he came into power by a mere casting vote in the House of Representatives, he was at the end of four years triumphantly reelected by the people, and brought the second term of his service to a brilliant close, by the election of a Democrat as his successor. We shall need just such a Democratic party next year. They were a goodly heritage, left by Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Madison, for his support in what he was to encounter in the war of 1812.

The hatred of the Federal party for every thing Democratic, did not end with Mr. Jefferson's administration; but, if possi ble, was exhibited towards that of Madison in even greater violence and atrocity. The same priesthood, and the same politicians were still alive; and their bigotry on the one hand, and disappointed ambition on the other, seemed to have lost none of their virulence, but on the contrary, to have reached in madness, the verge of treason. On the fanatic side, in the war of 1812, England was toasted as the "Bulwark of our religion, and the World's last hope." On that of the politicians, Madison was denounced in every form of malignant vituperation of which language is expressive. Such things ought not to be entirely forgotten; and therefore we will offer the following, merely as a sample, for it is only an instance among ten thousand. It is a sentiment offered by a distinguished Federalist, on a public occasion: "James Madison-unfit for Heaven-too bad for Hell: may the angel of darkness convey him beyond the bounds of either." We do not mean to insinuate that either Fusionists, Know-Nothings, or Abolitionists would now so far forget themselves, as to denounce President Pierce in terms of such utter disrespect; but they have come as near to it as the present state of civilization will permit.

The noble Democracy which Mr. Jefferson had trained, were the shield and buckler of Mr. Madison's administration to the end of the war. Its close was brilliant. It shed a light upon the enormities perpetrated towards their country by the Federal party, Hartford Convention and all, which caused them to shrink from public view. The party was never heard of again, as such, for ten years. It had been practically dead from the election of Mr. Monroe, to that of Mr. Adams; and the first

notice we had of its resurrection, was the announcement by Josiah Quincy, of Boston, we think on the 4th July, 1825, in a toast in honor of Mr. Adams: "Those who fell with the first Adams, have risen with the second." The election of 1828 taught them, that if they had thus risen, it was only to fall again.

Of the faithfulness and energy of the Democracy, not only in the violent struggle which resulted in General Jackson's election, but in the subsequent events that marked the administration of that heroic man, it were useless here to speak. They are as familiar to all as household words. It is enough to say of the Democracy of Jackson's time, that they stood by their principles, and their illustrious leader, with unflinching firmness to the last, and placed in the chair of state as his successor his chosen man.

But General Jackson, great and faithful as he was, did not leave to Mr. Van Buren a duty without its great and embarrassing difficulties, He had himself most evidently foreseen, that a financial crisis was approaching; for, in the summer of 1836, nearly a year before the expiration of his official term, he had caused an order to be issued, requiring the payments for the public lands, purchased on speculation, and not for actual settlement, to be made in gold and silver, instead of banknotes, which had up to that time been received. The crisis his wisdom and forecast had thus anticipated, did not arrive till after Mr. Van Buren's accession in 1837. It was such as caused an almost universal suspension of specie payments, by the banks throughout the country, a prostration of business, and a general state of bankruptcy for several years.

In this emergency, Mr. Van Buren called a special session of Congress, and submitted to that body a remedy for the then existing evil, so far as the public treasury is concerned, which has since been reädopted, and as we trust become a settled policy, to wit: that all the public dues, of every nature and description shall be paid, and all its disbursement made in specie. The proposition seems not to have been finally acted. upon by Congress, till the people in the election of a new one, had had an opportunity to be heard. But in the first session of the next Congress, Mr. Van Buren's sub-treasury bill became a law, and received his approval on the 4th of July, 1840. It was in the midst of the political hurricane of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too;" and in that drunken canvass, in which professed religion and positive debauchery, walked arm in arm and shoulder to shoulder, it had before its passage become the

only open issue the enemies of Mr. Van Buren offered. The man of straw without principles, whom they had chosen for a candidate, was, under, the circumstances of the crisis, triumphantly elected President of the United States. Many men supposed, that thereupon, the Democratic party would wrap itself in grave-clothes, and die off as decently as possible. But the history shows a far different result.

At the fall elections of 1841, it became perfectly apparent that the "Coon," and not the Democracy, had gone into a state of defunction. The animal was practically "skinned," from Maine to Louisiana. Nevertheless, it struggled hard to live, and had a sort of spasmodic existence. Under the banner of that great and talented man, (however fatally he may have erred in politics,) Henry Clay, the Whig party rallied again, and made a desperate effort against the Democracy, in 1844. It was a well-fought field, and, unlike that of 1840, it was a pitched battle, on the ground of political principles and principles of public policy. The friends of Martin Van Buren were wounded deeply, that he was not the chosen candidate to bear the Democratic flag in that fight, and have an opportunity to retrieve, in his own person, the defeat of 1840. Nevertheless, they were Democrats still, and no matter who the standardbearer might be, they were determined to have their full share of the fight. And so they did. New-York, wounded, as her Democracy might justly feel, at M. Van Buren's rejection by the National Convention, when he had gone into that body with a large majority, little less than two thirds, still stood firmly by the principles and the usages of the party. Silas Wright, then a Senator and the leading one in Congress, had been offered the nomination as Vice-President on the ticket, with Mr. Polk, and had declined it. But, when it seemed certain that Mr. Polk must lose the vote of the State and with it his election, unless the very strongest man in the affections and the confidence of the people of New-York could be placed in nomination, at the head of our State ticket, Mr. Wright's magnanimity was appealed to by the party. The great personal sacrifice he made when he accepted the gubernatorial nomination, and yielded his exalted position in the Senate, can scarcely be fully appreciated. Nor could such a sacrifice have been expected but from the most unselfish patriot whose name adorns the history of the Empire State. The close of the canvass told the value of the service he had rendered. had secured the election of the Democratic ticket, and, with that triumph, the vindication and reëstablishment of the solid,

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constitutional principles of public policy, which had marked the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren; and Mr. Van Buren, in his retirement, can not but regard one of the fruits of that campaign as a trophy of inestimable value. It secured the reenactment of the sub-treasury of 1840, upon which he had staked his reputation as a statesman; and the "sober second thought" of his countrymen has settled down upon it in contentment and peace, fully persuaded that it is the best and safest financial system, both for the government and the people, the wisdom of man can devise.

What administration of this government has conferred higher or more substantial benefits upon the country than that of Mr. Polk? If the Whigs of 1844 were alarmed at the annexation of Texas, and trembled, like the king of Babylon, at the war with Mexico, how deeply should they lament the acquisition of California, the establishment of the tariff of 1846, and the reëstablishment of the independent treasury, whose everlasting condemnation they vainly supposed they had pronounced in 1840.

The principal object of this article is to call to mind a few of the high claims the Democracy of the United States have upon the confidence and gratitude of the country, and to demonstrate, that the party who have accomplished so much are neither disbanded nor disheartened; but, on the contrary, are looking forward, with confident and firm resolves, to new triumphs and the achievement of still richer national benefits.

With the causes which produced the defeat of General Cass, in 1848, the people of New-York, at least, are perfectly familiar. If the Nicholson letter, asserting the right of "squatter sovereignty," had any share in producing the result, that truly great and patriotic man will find a source of just pride, in the fact, that the Congress of the United States, with the approval of a Democratic President, have as fully carried out his views on that question, as they have those of Mr. Van Buren in regard to the sub-treasury. Neither of those men needed the Presidency to make him great.

The defeat of General Cass accomplished nothing that the Whigs could claim as a victory, except the temporary possession of power without the means of using it for the establishments of any of their aristocratic dogmas or doctrines. The administration of Mr. Fillmore was relieved of its monotony by the "Compromise Acts" of 1850, in the passage of which the greatest and best men of both parties could and did cordially unite.

Benjamin F. Hallett, when the anti-masonic party to which he had belonged, was sold to the Whigs, in refusing to ratify the contract, pronounced the Whig party "the inherent minority in the United States," and their history, thus far, indicates that Mr. Hallett was not far from the mark.

In 1852, the Whigs offered a "military chieftain," as regular a war, pestilence, and famine" chief-captain as was General Jackson; one who had never drawn his sword but to be victorious; covered with laurels; ten times the man, in a military or civil point of view, that either Harrison or Taylor had been; the first choice of the great body of the Whigs; available; having all the isms and fanaticisms on his side; acceptable to the Romish Church; delighted with "the sweet Irish brogue,' and wondering at the varied richness of the German tongue.

Against such a candidate the Democrats placed in the field Franklin Pierce, of New-Hampshire, a man who had not been named in connection with the Presidency beyond the limits of his native State, twenty-four hours before his nomination. If the veracity of the Whigs can be relied on, his only military glory consisted in having fainted before Chapultepec. His principal available qualities were his acknowledged ability, his sterling patriotism, and his unswerving fidelity to the principles and usages of the Democratic party. He was placed before the country on a political creed or platform, unmistak ably plain and explicit in its terms, openly avowed, widely promulgated, at war with all the isms and fanaticisms, imploring the aid of no section or faction, but appealing, boldly and fearlessly, to the whole people of the United States for their verdict on its merits. The principles on which Franklin Pierce rested for victory were sufficient to insure it, no matter how small in stature he may have seemed, when compared with the "Giant of Gath." The "giant" took four States, the " stripling" the balance.

His administration has been distinguished by a faithful adherence to the platform on which he was elected. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, brought forward in Congress, and so ably and successfully advocated by the talented and intrepid Senator from Illinois for a time, threatened to raise a serious question; inasmuch, as it abrogated the "Missouri Compromise." A party was immediately organized, and made its appeal. Its only visible effect, thus far, has been the rending asunder of the Whig party proper, and giving the largest half to the "Know-Nothings," who seem to KNOW ENOUGH to repudiate the sectional malignity of the other portion; and they