Alexandria Gazette

THE TARIFF.

We congratulate the public that a tariff both
for Revenue and Protection, has at length
passed the House of Representatives: and
what is to us, at least, a source of proud satisfaction, we are happy to know that the People's Representatives have not yielded one
iota to the bold and daring usurpation of his
Accidental Excellency.

To all who are familiar with the history of
England and of our own Revolution, nothing
can be plainer than that this is the old con-
test of the people against the Crown, in exact
and all of which, thank God! the Anglo Saxon
race, have ever triumphed. In every struggle of this nature against the Crown—against
the one man power—the people have ever exhibited a noble abandonment of self and an
honest devotion to the great principles of Civil
Liberty, which are calculated to inspire similar disinterestedness in their descendants in
all future time—Whether it was against the
Edwards, the Charles or the Georges of England, or the weak and imbecile Johns of either Hemisphere, in all such contests the people have always triumphed, and are destined
to triumph so long as the spirit of civil and religious liberty burns in their hearts. To give
to the chief Executive officer of a nation— we
care not what you call him—the power of
controlling and arresting the entire legislation
of a country, is to convert the Government of
that country into a Despotism of the most odious character. It is not the name which the
Executive bears which constitutes the nature
of a Government, but the nature of the power
with which he is clothed. England is a limited Monarchy; and her Monarchs even now
possess, and formerly dared to exercise the
same power which John Tyler has now so
shamefully prostituted; but the people of England felt that the exercise of that power
changed their Government into a Despotism.
They, therefore, gravely, determined that their
Monarch should not exercise such a dangerous prerogative; and for more than a century
past, no King of England has dared to place
his Veto upon any bill which has once received the sanction of Parliament!

And shall it be said that here in Republican America, the Chief Executive, because
he is called a President, shall exercise a control over the legislation of the country which
our forefathers declared changed monarchical
England into a Despotism, and therefore, they would not permit their Kings to exercise? We think not. Whatever may be
the consequences—temporary they can only
be—those consequences will be freely met by
the Representatives of the People before they
will yield one jot or tittle to the impudent usur-
pation of a weak and wicked Executive. John
Tyler has commanded that the Land Distribution Law be repealed; not because he
thinks it inexpedient or unconstitutional, for
he has ever advocated it and gave it his ap-
proval but a few months since: but because he
has sold himself body and soul to his political opponents, and they exact of him additional
sacrifices in their favor.
evidence of his grossly time serving nature, before they will condescend to avail themselves of the Treason which they love, cumbered as it is with a traitor whom they disguise. The only question then, which presents itself, is whether the People's Representatives may loan themselves to this corrupt bargain and for the sake of harmony, surrender to the Executive the right of dictating and controlling the legislation of the country? "Do as I direct," says the President, "or I will not permit the country to have a Protective Tariff." To this threat the People's representatives respond-"We deny your right to interfere in any way with the legislation of the country and we the People's representatives are prepared to resist such a usurpation of the people's rights at any and every hazard to yourselves and to the country."-N. Y. Cour.