Crawfordsville Record, Volume 4, Number 33, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 9 January 1836 — Page 1

ECORB 2d "JLIBERTV AND UNIOX NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE."

Volume IV. Number 33.

PUBLISHED WEEKLY, BY O.F. WADE, At $2.00 per annum, payable in advance, or witthin three months after the time of subscribing; $2.50 within the year; or $3.00 after the year expires. No paper will be discontinued, unless at our option, without special notice and payment of all arrearages. Advertisements Not exceeding 12 lines, will be inserted three times for one dollar; and 25 cents for each subsequent insertion. Advertisements, for a limited time, or, from a distance, must be paid for in advance, otherwise they will be continued at the expense of the advertiser. Letters on business must be post paid. Lyceum room, Crawfordsville, la., Dec. 11, 1835. Sir: At a meeting of the board of managers of the (Crawfordsville Lyceum. this eve-

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ning, the secretary was authorised to soli- j effect than to blind the popular cit of you, for publication, a copy of the j mjn am pjant deep the Seeds of address that you delivered before the Lyce- j f? c m;n urn on Thursday evening last. . . i Yours respectfully, j unbiased by prejudice or interest, T. XV. WEBSTER, sec. j and could it be made fully acquainII. D. Humphreys, esq. j ted with the representations of each

Crawfordsville, Dec. 11, 1835. Gentlemen, board of managers of the Crawfordsville Lyceum: In compliance with your request, I herewith send you a copy of my address. Though prepared in haste, and while suffering under a severe cold, accept it with the assurance of my regard for yourselves and the Lyceum. H. D. HUMPHREYS. T. W. Webster, sec. C. L. ADDRESS. Gentlemen: The subject which I have selected for this occasion is political error-- its causes, effects, and remedies. It is unnecessary to prove to this audience, that there are, and have been, prevailing in different sections of the country, dangerous political errors. Of this fact we have almost daily proof We see it at our elections we hear it echoed from the halls of congress, and we feel it in the convulsions with which our republic is distracted. What, but this, has rent and convulsed this nation to its very center, for a a few of the past years-- threatening to extinguish forever the flame of liberty which has been glowing, for the last half century, on these American shores? Once and again has the tempest of political dissension swept over these United States, like the deadly Sirocco; and the kind angel of hope, in despairing anguish, has almost taken its flight to other spheres, and left us in the gloom of despair. What, then, in the first place, we inquire, are some of the causes of our political errors? for we cannot, effectually apply the remedy to any evil unless we understand its causes. Prominent, if not first, in the train, we observe, the licentiousness of the tongue and the press. This evil has been aptly represented as a monster, stalking through the land, and scattering on every side firebrands, arrows, and death. Our licentiousness has already become a proverb and a by-word abroad--already are we held up to the scorn and derision of European jealousy. The two candidates for the highest honors of the nation have been published, in the German papers, as the veriest scoundrels-- the vilest of the vile-- fit rather to reign in Pandemonium than to preside over the interests of a free republic--and extracts from American papers given in corroboration! How should this disgrace humble us, and check the risings of extravagant pride in which we are so prone to indulge! (would to Heaven with sufficient reason.) Is a man nominated to public office-- on the one hand he is villified and denounced in the most unqualified terms, as the enemy of his country-- as the advocate for doctrines directly subversive of the government; while, on the other hand, he is lauded to the skies as the most immaculate patriot. On one hand the vocabulary of denunciation and abuse is exhausted to crush the wretch; and, on the other,

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the whole army of intensitives and superlatives is pressed into service to display his splendid talents--his angelic virtues, and exalted patriotism. Is not this sober fact? I appeal to the political speeches,and newspapers, and reviews of the day. The licentiousness of the tongue and the press stands out in bold relief --more-- it grates its harsh thunder in every ear, and flashes its death-beaming flames in every eye! Must there not be error in such a case as this? As certainly as that truth and error are perfect opposites. Such being the character of our popular speeches and periodicals, what other can be the effect than to blind the popular mind, and plant deep the seeds of fatal error? Were every mind unbiased by prejudice or interest, and could it be made fully acquainted with the representations of each party-- and were it competent to discriminate between the truth and error, the licentiousness of the one might, in a good degree, neutrulize that of the other. But this cannot be. The industrious yeomanry of the country cannot be thus illumined into the truth. They have neither time nor disposition to hear the whole case. Their opinions, in most cases, have been made up from the extravagant representations of interested politicians. Their conclusions have been correct, but the premises, from which they have drawn them, false; and thus all their motives to action are drawn from the distorted and licentious representations of blind partizanism. Nor is the licentiousness of which I speak confined to any particular section of the country or class of individuals. It covers the whole length and breadth of the land-- it pervades the hall of legislation the holy sanctuary of religion, and the school of literature and science, as well as the tumultuous popular assembly. The evil is deeply seated in the heart of the nation. The Capitol of the United States, which should be the sanctum sanctorum of American liberty, is profaned by its unhallowed footsteps-- indeed it is the very fountain head of political error, pouring forth its torrents of desolation over every portion of our fair heritage. Does any one doubt this? Let him go to the capitol and listen to the debates of congress-- see the torrents of personal invective poured forth-- witness the zeal and talent and perseverance with which doctrines of vital consequences, diametrically opposed to each other, are avowed, in solemn council upon the interests of the nation; and not only avowed and enforced by the utmost power of sophistry and eloquence, but disseminated thence, by the press, to every section of the country, clothed with all the authority which the magic of great names can throw around them. Intimately connected with the licentiousness of the tongue and the press, is a pride of opinion, which, instead of neutralizing the former evil, tends directly to enhance it, and plant more deeply the roots of political error. This is one of the necessary evils of our form of government. l say necessary evil, because in any community, however enlightened, there must be a large class of men whose opinions are governed by the mere dicta of others ; and there are never wanting those who are ready, and seeking opportunity, to practice upon the credulity of the unsuspecting. Our theory of government is founded upon the assumption that the people are virtuous and enlightened-- the theme with which interested politicians are ever prone to tickle the ears of the people. Listen to a demagogue speech! What pathetic appeals to the sove-

DSVILLE, INDIANA, JANUARY 9, 18 3G.

reign people! the infallible people! --the virtuous, the enlightened, the noble, the magnanimous people!--O! how does he love the people and the country!-- yea, he is ready, he burns, to sacrifice his life at the altar of his country's freedom!--True, indeed, the people are sovereign-- would to heaven they were infallible-- they should be virtuous, and enlightened, and noble, and magnanimous. But how inconsistent with this is the proud conceit which such flattery is calculated to inspire! For where is the individual mind so pure and enlightened as not to need the inculcation of knowledge and virtuous principles? There is nothing more fatal to the best balanced mind than flattery; but to the popular mind it is death --political death. This trait in the American character has attracted the attention, and elicited the severe criticism, of both the candid and uncandid foreigners who have visited our shores. Nor have we been criticised without reason. Look at the case as it really is; travel thro' the country; and if there is any single fact that will stare you in the face, in all sections, and with all classes, it is a pride of opinion, ever thrusting itself in your way insolent and haughty; unable to brook contradiction; frowning at the approach of truth; disdaining to be instructed ; dealing out its anathemas against everv thing which, in the least, contravenes its views; and urging on its deluded votaries in an unholy warfare of extermination against all who happen to fall under the ban of its irrational and unchristian proscription. Ah! it is a pride of opinion, always concomitant with narrowness and illiberality of views, which has ever kindled the fires of persecution, and roasted its innocent victims at the stake; and it is a lamentable fact that there is prevailing, in American politics, too much of that same spirit which, in the dark ages, burnt its thousands at the stake. Another cause of political error, to be mentioned in this connection, is local interests. However much we may boast of our immaculate patriotism and political orthodoxy, the history of the country bears full testimony to the humbling fact, that local interests give character to the political creeds of different sections of the country. Massachusetts considered the embargo law of 1807 unconstitutional-- it ruined her commerce. South Carolina declared the tariff law of 1824 unconstitutional-- it injured her cotton market. New England could not indulge a scruple as to its unconstitutionality-- it promoted her manufacturing interests. South Carolina and Georgia were clamorous for the doctrines of nullification-- the cotton interests of the one and the Indian lands of the other were in the question . The new states think Mr. Clay's land bill constitutional; the old states think it unconstitutional-the former receive twelve and a half per cent. more than their proportion of the proceeds, while the latter are deprived of the same. Give me the pecuniary interests of any particular section of the country, for my data, and ten to one I can calculate its political doctrines. We are a nation of yankees. As a nation we are far-famed for our love of pelf. Every thing must be subservient to our pecuniary interests. What holy writ has said of individuals is preeminently true in respect to nations: that 'the love of money is tho root of all evil.' It kills the better feelings of the soul, and blinds the mind to all objects but the insignificant one of acquiring and hoarding up wealth. The interests of the different narts of the country arc as various as the

different objects of pursuit. This must ever be the case, and unless there is a mutual spirit of sacrifice and compromise, civil war is the inevitable consequence. Another cause of political error,

and by no means the least prominent, is the influence ol interested politicians. Their object is political power, and it matters little with them by what means it is acquired. Here is one of our most vulnerable points. The highest honors of the nation are within the reach of every man. This is the doctrine. The most dazzling prize ever presented to the grasp of mortals-- the highest honors in the gift of a free and mighty people-- is held up to the aspiration of every one; and not merely the highest honors of the nation, but every honor, every office both of honor and profit, is held up to the grasp of all. Here, then, is presented to the mind, not only the inducement of honor and dignity, but of wealth two of the most powerful motives that can act upon the mind combined. Would to heaven that all men who aspire to our offices of trust and emolument were influenced by a pure love of country and regard to the best interests of man; but it is not so; it never has been, and, until the nature of man is changed, it never can be. Tho history of the world bears ample testimony to the fact, and so does the history of our own country, and so does our own observation. Far be it from me to denounce the man who aspires to any office in the gift of the people; it is a worthy object of aspiration, and thrice dead must be the man who loves not the honor and confidence bestowed by the free will of a virtuous and enlightened people. But how can the demagogue succeed in his plans to raise himself to power? How did the serpent succeed in his,, purpose to deceive our first mother? By flattery and false doctrine. These are the instruments which the demagogue can wield, in a government like ours, with tremendous effect.--The people can be flattered-- they can be deceived; the most enlightened people have been; am I doing an injustice to the American people when I say that they can be deceived?-- that they have been, and that there must be, in our government, as there have been in all others, men of strong minds, well acquainted with the springs of human action, of heaven-daring ambition, whose objects can be accomplished only by blinding the minds of the people with political error? But the most prolific cause of all error is ignorance. Upon this point I need not enlarge. As I have before remarked, the theory of our government is founded upon the assumption that the people are enlightened as well as virtuous.--The incapacity of an ignorant people to govern themselves is admitted on all hands. There is no picture of human weakness and frailty more affecting than that presented in the struggles of an ignorant and patriotic people to govern them selves. Every effort only plunges them deeper in misery. Their patriotism is insufficient to protect them; and they become the wretched dupes and slaves of ambitious tyranny. What friend of humanity did not rejoice when Greece nobly thrust from her neck the yoke of Turkish bondage, which had been pressing her; in the dust for centuries? But how was that joy turned into sorrow and mourning when the same Greeks, who had nobly broken the arm of their Turkish oppressors, became their own relentless oppressors? And nothing could save them from worse than Turkish bondage but the imposition of a foreign sovereign by the

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willing allied powers. And why? Because the people were ignorant, and consequently unable to govern themselves. Their minds were open to the reception of every error which designing men were ready to implant. A necessary consequence of ignorance is vice in all its thousand forms. Curse any community with these evils; and by whatever name you may please to call them--whether christian or heathen-- they are worse than heathen. Truth has no access to their minds, and error, in every form, flourishes with a most luxuriant growth. We call ourselves an enlightened people; and I verily believe we are the most enlightened people on the face of the globe; but with all our boasted knowledge, how much of deplorable ignorance prevails in all parts of the country! What extravagant, what ridiculous, notions of civil liberty are entertained! How little do we know of ourselves! What does New England, with all her means of liberal knowledge, know of the south and west? And (with all deference to this enlightened audience,) how little do the south and the west know of New England? With many a southerner and westerner, a New Englander is no other than a coldhearted, calculating, money-making fellow; while, with many a New Englander, the backwoodsman is a savage, the Kentuckian a desperado, the Georgian a braggadocio, and the Virginian a proud aristocrat. With these incorrect notions prevailing, as they are, extensively, who can calculate the evils necessarily resulting to the government? Each section of the country considering its own opinion, in all matters, as the only orthodoxy, can exercise towards its neighbor none of that political charity indispensably necessary to the support of a free government, so extensive and various in its interests as ours; but mutual distrust, recrimination, and civil dissension, if not open disunion, must be the inevitable consequence. What the particular errors may be, it is not my purpose, here, to specify. I have only attempted to specify some of the causes in operation which must necessarily produce error. The effects of the evil under consideration are too palpable to be denied. They need only be mentioned to be admitted. The door is opened wide for the admission of interested politicians to power. We are disgraced abroad. Sectional jealousies and quarrels are fostered. Peace and harmony, and confidence, and business,are interrupted! Ruin is threatened! Such, in brief, are some of the effects of political errors. They stare us in the face, whatever way we turn. They stand out, in burning capitals, from the history of our country! The falling crash of every government proclaims them as with the voice of an earthquake! Aye! methinks we can almost hear the muttering of the distant thunder, and feel tho quaking, and see the smothered flames striving to burst forth and involve us in universal ruin! And must it be? Must we fall a prey to our own dissensions and must the last hope of liberty be extinguished in eternal night? We indulge the fond hope that we shall still live, before the world, a free, enlightened, virtuous and happy people. How then, we inquire, can these hopes be realized? How can we avert the destruction which threatens us? The question has been asked a thousand times. By the general diffusion of knowledge and virtue. Though threatening the evil we need not despond: for there is abroad in the land a redeeming spirit. The legislature of the nation, and the legislatures of the state, and philanthropic men, aware of the danger, have raised a standard against the foe, and put forth a resisting arm . The most liberal provision has been made, and is now making, for the establishment and support of colleges, and schools, and various other institutions, whose object is to enlighten the mind and improve the heart, and thus render the people able to appreciate and support our free institutions But it is not sufficient that liberal provision has been made for the promotion of virtue and education. The more liberal the provision the greater the curse, without the effort necessary to render the provision effectual. Education and virtue are the two main pillars upon which the fabric of our government rests; remove either, and the whole tumbles to ruin. They must be supported; and we, the people, must support them. Our fathers, our legislators, and benevolent men, who have given us these institutions, demand of us our energies to be expended in their support; and the blackest curse of Heaven will come down upon us if we prove ourselves neglectful and unworthy of the charge. Be ours, then, the privilege, as well as, the duty, of transmitting to our successors, unimpaired, this sacred palladium of the hopes