Washington, DC, 1998.
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Qui non facit, quod facere debet,
Videtur facere adversus ca, quia non facit.
Et qui facit, quod facere non debet,
Nen videtur facere id, quod facere jussus est
.
Dig. 50. 17. 121.
Agentes et consentientes pari pœna puniuntur
.
Sententiæ pueriles.
If you refer to the
Southern Patriot
, printed in Charleston, South-Carolina, you will see the following, under the head of Charleston, Monday Afternoon, 7th December, 1818:
“
General Jackson
—an extract of a letter from Huntsville, (Alabama Territory) dated 6th November, received in Philadelphia, says—The people of the country have shewn their respect to General Jackson, and their sense of his distinguished services in a mode quite novel. Yesterday the old Hero bid for a section of land which was understood to be very valuable: when, with one consent, the poor and the rich, the foreign speculator and the hardy cultivator of the ground, remained silent; and the land was knocked off at
two dollars
per acre!
Eighty-three
dollars per acre have been given for second rate land.”
Now compare that with the following extract from the
Virginia Herald
, Fredericksburg, July 17, 1824, and you may be able to see how far fish has been made of one and flesh of the other:
“
Cahawba, Alabama, June
19.
The State
vs.
A Land Speculator.
The public sales which commenced last week, will close this day. On Thursday last one of the class of persons denominated land speculators, was arrested on a charge of having received a bank bill, of the amount of one hundred dollars, as
Hush-Money
, not to bid against a settler, who wished to purchase a tract of land adjoining his residence, on which he had some improvements: After a lengthy and full investigation before a justice of the peace, and the examination of several witnesses, the charge appeared to be substantiated. The testimony produced on the part of the defendant, in effect, corroborating that which was urged by the prosecution, that he had received the money; but that he had said he did not want it, and that he did not intend to keep it. He was recognised in the sum of
four thousand!
dollars, to appear at the next Circuit Court to answer to an indictment, founded on the above charge. The penalty for this offence is a fine of not less than $300; nor more than $2000; and Imprisonment for not less than three, nor more than twelve months.”
There, my compatriots, are facts which I suppose will not be doubted, as I have very carefully copied them from the Charleston and Fredericksburg papers above mentioned; and which can be easily referred to by any one possessed of files of those papers; and as these facts have not been denied, or were not denied at the time, I suppose they may be taken for such: that is, be taken as facts.
Now let me inquire which of these two land speculators are the worst, or most criminal in a moral point of view? As to the legal point of view, I do suppose that the General is best off; for, tho' no one might have dared to bid against him, yet it could probably not be proved that he gave any absolute
Hush-Money
, to any one or more of the by-standers at the sale: Therefore the penalty of the act could not be made to bear upon him; and if it had, at the time, been incurred, it is now too late to prosecute; as probably a suit at law, or a prosecution, would be barred by some statute of limitations.
But now I think of it: as the General is a martial man, and has a great predilection for martial law, perhaps he might submit to be tried under that; for we ought to have charity enough to imagine that he is an advocate for the Christian maxim, “
Do as you would be done by
.” Yet I must, for my own part, say, that I myself, as an individual, am not so fond of it; and should be sorry to see even the General himself—even though he should for the sake of consistency make such a sacrifice!—To see him tried under that law! It is too prompt! so expeditious! For under it they string up a poor fellow before he can say, Jack Robeson! Sometimes even before he can make an appeal. But there is one thing that might possibly be done in favour of the General, under the omnipotence of this kind of law, when at a distance. The trial might perhaps, by consent of parties, be transferred to Washington: and then unless we had a President who could “
with composure dwell upon blood and carnage
,” there might be some chance of getting off with whole bones, and undergoing only the trifling supplice of fine and imprisonment!
But if the fact is so, that the land is really worth
eighty-three
dollars per acre, and was sold for only
two
, the sale is void in equity, if not by any special Act of Congress; or even if there be no trial either at common or martial law.
By the civil law, if real estate was sold for less than half its value, the sale was held to be void; and I believe this is now the law in most parts of Europe.
In England, as may be seen in the Index, in the 20th volume of Vesey's Chancery Reports, under the word “
Biddings
,” the Lord Chancellor will set aside a sale upon a
lezion
far less. Sometimes he will even let the biddings be opened, or in other words, allow of a resale, on a new bid of only 10 per cent, advanced, or bid higher, upon the amount of the former bid or sale; and if there is the least shadow of fraud, having been practised in the former sale, he would even suffer the biddings to be opened
de novo
, on an advance of far less than 10 per cent; especially if the estate should be large. 14 Vesey, 152,
White
vs.
Wilson
.
Now whether there was in fact any fraud in the conduct of the General himself, or his friends, or any criminal silence on the part of the by-standers in the purchase alluded to, it is very clear by the excessive inadequacy of the price that there is a presumption of a most egregious fraud. But as we ought not to believe that the General (a man standing so high in the opinion of some, as even
among them
to be a candidate for Chief Magistrate) could suffer a circumstance so highly
ornamented
with the
insignia
of fraud, and in which the presumption is so glaring, to pass unnoticed, even when practised in favour of
own dear self
, by circumvent friends; we find it difficult not to suppose that, by some miracle, perhaps something like that lately operated upon the good and faithful Mrs. Mattingly, in Washington, though in an opposite way, he, the poor General, was all of a sudden, “even in the twinkling of an eye,” struck blind: and to such a degree even, as not to be able to see the difference between “
two
” and “
eighty-three
,” the real worth of the land per acre. What a misfortune for a General!!
When any poor man has been the patient of such an extraordinary paroxysm of any particular distemper, it is natural to imagine that the disorder is not new; not even in a General who has the presumption to set himself up for a President! but on the contrary, we must suppose that it proceeds from an old inveterate cachexy; and therefore the presumption is that fits of the same kind have happened before, though perhaps not with so much violence, and so never found their way into the newspapers.
But before proceeding any further, let us stop a moment to calculate profits. Being not concerned myself in the land laws of the United States, I do not remember how much is in a section; but to the best of my recollection, each section is a mile square, or six hundred and forty acres. Then, at $2 per acre, a section will come to $1280, and at 83, the real worth of second quality, a section will come to $53,120. Making a difference of only $51,940, which is, however, so much clear gain in this single purchase, for the General; but in order to find the real worth of first quality, we may add perhaps an advance of 25 per cent which will make the worth of this quality equal to prime quality, or, as it is called, “
very valuable
” land: which advance makes the clear gain about SIXTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS—a very handsome sum for a single fit of ophthalmia!
And now to come back to this unfortunate and afflicting cachexy, or universal derangement of the whole corporal system, and sometimes perhaps of the mental faculties, to which the poor General it would seem was the unfortunate victim. Tho' anterior fits might not have been so violent as this one was, and so might not have got into the public newspapers; it is nevertheless true that they might also have been equally, and perhaps ten times more, violent; for the mere chance of this fit having been made public, is no proof but that hundreds of the like kind might have happened without ever coming to the knowledge of the public. And one reason why the public might not have been so immediately notified of these things may be, that it might not have been thought the public would be so well gratified at the heroic deeds of this Generalissimo in the art of speculation, as at the heroic exploits in the field of Mars: for the former might be altogether at their expense, whereas the latter would be entirely to their benefit; and therefore we may be confirmed in the opinion that it was a mere matter of chance, that this single act of speculating heroism ever came to public knowledge; and that the other gallant actions in this species of honour are known to but a few of his circumambient friends.
I have not the honour to be one of that number, nor do I know that I have the honour of being known to him, nor have I the misfortune of being more than a political enemy; and this only so far as that I do not think him in any way qualified for President; not even so far as to be capable of performing in the best manner the duties of that office, which relate only to the military affairs of the country; for I am not one of those who are led away by the blaze of a chance hit. I prefer the cool and deliberate logician, who by the profundity of his reasoning rises by slow and certain degrees to the very summit of the desired object; and who by the same means is able to repeat the same at all times and on all occasions. We have such a one for a candidate; and this description of him would be sufficient, without even mentioning the name of
Adams
.
But to return to the feats of our
menti-lippitudinic
Hero, who was so blind as not to see the difference between
two
and
eighty-three!
an excellent quality for a President! Perhaps he had not light enough. Had there been a Moscow nigh enough, he might have tried the invention of his grand Prototype, who was not able to see the error of his ways, till it was opened to him by the blaze of that city. His little Mexican Denterotype had not yet come into action or perhaps he might have borrowed some light from him to enable him to see an object of such magnitude. But what ought we to expect to find in any one who is in such a deplorable state of mental blindness, or who is subject to such appropriate fits of that malady, as not to see the
folle
audacity of his actions, and who is possessed of all the other qualities necessary for putting such a spirit into motion, especially with these two
types
before him of most consummate boldness and
folle bravoure?
Chance and audacity are his dependence. Should it chance that he should be made President, we need expect to see nothing but the dire effects of his hazardous career; and, whether
he
could or could not see,
we
should soon see him putting in practice the certain threats of
typing
, or rather
tipping
, the members of Congress, (à la mode de Bonny the Great) from their seats; and tipping himself, with a diadem on his head, into the Purple Robe.
Methinks already that I see him upon the imperial throne of the United States! Methinks I see the fatal catalogue of prescription. From the centre to the extremities, from every hole and corner has it been made out; not one exception! Each and every one must suffer the fatal effects of the self-created tribunal. Methinks already that I see the fatal machine, of novel and dire invention, yawning for its devoted prey, to satisfy the insatiable vengeance of the self-created Emperor of the ci-devant United States.
But let me not proceed in the description of the direful scene. Let me come to the
denouement
of the fatal tragedy. Methinks I see the separate states rising in their majesty and hurling the fell destroyer, from the height of his glory, down to the regions of infernal discord; the only appropriate abode for men metamorphosed to monsters.
Methinks already that I see him there, having usurped the throne of Pluto! On his right is seated his Corsican prototype—on his left the Mexican. The full trio in earnest
confab
.
And by what means came you here? say they to the Corse.
By my cries of “
Vive la Republique
.”
And by what means did you get here? say the others to the Mexican.
By my cries of “
Viva la Republica
.”
And how did you get here? say they to the ci-devant Emperor of the United States.
By my cries of “
Republicanism! Republicanism!
” and by a rigid observance of my old maxim,
Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit imperare
.
For who can arrive at an empire, but by the road of dissimulation? And besides, in like manner as my great prototype, and my little deuterotype, saw that their good people, the French, and the Mexicans, were not fit for Republicans, so I discovered that a Republic was not a proper government for the good people of the United States.”
And now methinks I see even his plutonic majesty, rising from his slumbers and foaming with rage, bearing in his hands the direful trident, the instrument of just punition; having found his throne usurped by the trio
in purple
, about to inflict—but let us stop—let us leave them in charge of his enwrathed majesty, and return to the speculations of the living General.
Our last calculations were only upon the single section, whose purchase has come to our knowledge: But as to all others, of which we know nothing, unless it be by presumption, we must go—indeed this absolutely necessary to proceed upon probability, and conjecture. Let us then, in submitting to this necessity, make a supposition on the number of the other exploits, which probably he may have performed anterior to that epoch; or perhaps since that time down to the present moment.
Let us say then that he has done ten of those feats in this noble art of speculation. We make use of the number
ten
because this even, and easy to calculate upon, and should it be too large, his friends can reduce it to the facts of the case; or should it be too small, they will have the candour this hoped to do so also. The supposition then being ten sections, and the presumption being that the profit on each was the same, the whole amount of clear gain is SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS! a very handsome sum for a blind General. No wonder he is so
blind
that his aspirations reach up to the Presidency!
But are heroic deeds, in that species of honour, confined to lands? Since the presumption is open, we have a right to extend it to other objects, even
ad infinitum
. When once the ice is broken, when once the
faux-pas
is made, when once the barriers of virtue are broken down, when virtue has only for once suffered herself to doze, the presumption of more or less is immediately opened. Every idea may then be admitted into the possibility. The dissipated
Roué
can with hardihood venture to attack his victim with language of this sort:
“But why so much ceremony, Madam?
Why, you know, it is but an old story
!”
How important, then, is it, whether it be the beautiful damsel who is in question, or the confidential public officer, to avoid the faux-pas. One false step gives place for thousands; and how happy might it be for our General, to have been upon his guard, and to have avoided it; and to have kept the door of every presumption against him, for ever closed. Circumspection and fortitude to resist temptation on his part might have prevented the writer of this the disagreeable necessity of taking up his pen upon the present occasion; and what an irreproachable candidate he might have been for the Presidency! But the ice is broke; the tale is told; the presumption is open; and each one is at liberty to set his imagination at work, and form conjectures, from the facts of the past, upon the probability for the future. Straws shew how the wind blows.
Let us then proceed with the idea of the old and inveterate cachexy, with which this presumable he has been so long the tormented victim, and let us presume that—but perhaps it is better to stop here at the threshold, than to travel over the immense field of conjecture, as to what might happen in land speculations, were he to obtain the Presidency. In this journey we might happen to find the true source of all the “
Errors of Judgment
” of which he is accused; from the memorable affair of Judge Hall to the
Calava
speculation. And should it turn out that the grand
coup de hardiesse
, towards that General, was originally bottomed on a land speculation, we might perhaps say that we always had an idea of that sort.
And a close inquiry of this kind might lead to results quite unexpected as well with respect to himself, as to his friends; should it be made by a dauntless court, where each individual, Judges, lawyers and witnesses, should all be able to speak their minds with the same coolness, as if the General, and all his friends, were in the land of Jericho; and in which court no petty tyrant, having by chance the command of, and assuming to himself unlimited control over, a few dozen subservient bayonets in defiance of the laws and the constitutions; and of each and every individual citizen of our country.
Let it not be forgot that he who tramples upon our laws insults each individual citizen who feels himself a freeman
.
The old rule is, “
Follow orders if you break owners:
” and also, “
Tis better to miss making, than to risk blame
.” This is the rule of every wise and prudent man, and such a man only is fit for our President. This opinion is that of the mass of our people, and there are but few, in proportion to the whole, who act, do, or think otherwise. There are but few—none indeed, but some few who are expecting favours, who would give the preference to the audacious, the aspiring desperado, who would break in upon the rights of our citizens, trample down the laws and constitutions, establish a precedent of absolute despotism, and even risk his own safety, rather than suffer a few acres of land to remain in jeopardy. What extravagant supererogation! A miracle, perhaps, which nothing could clear up, but a recurrence to the difference between
two
and
eighty-three
.—The whole matter then became a scrabble between the two Generals, and their friends; and which was the party who was to have the prize? The squabble was within the jurisdiction of our courts! and yet decided by the right of the Bayonet! Alas for our country, when this precedent was established! and when bayonet law becomes the order of the day!
Ideas of this kind may occur to any one, who is on his journey through the vast field of conjecture; and if they should be thought too severe, we can only answer, in the words of the poet, “what can we reason but from what we know?” Certain facts have become known to the public, and that these facts happened is not our fault. If
Hebe
suffered her lamp to go out, and strayed from the path of Minerva, it is not our fault. Whoever accepts of Hebe must take her as she is. The prudent man will keep aloof, but some there are who from their
fol
attachment, or from interested motives, may think to retrieve the fair damsel, and hazard the enterprise. Alas! what is bred in the bone will never come out at the skin; and Hebe will probably be Hebe all the days of her life. The wise man keeps within the sphere to which he belongs, and is aware of the consequences of deserting the path of Minerva; and the wise citizens of our country will avoid the man who has given us such terrible samples of his
modus faciendi
.
The prudent merchant discharges from his employ the imprudent captain of his ship who has in any instance had the hardihood to desert from his orders; for though by chance the fault may have been successful, the danger of such a captain is too great; and the poor captain, himself, finds it difficult to procure employ in another ship; and so it is with a General, or any man whose disposition is, to feel himself independent—to assume the independence of setting aside instructions and laws, to follow the dictates of his own brain; influenced perhaps, or surmised to be influenced, by interested views, which cannot be penetrated but by his devotees or associates.
If it is his disposition to follow these dictates and of it we have manifold proofs, not only in one, but in every case where the opportunity presented; if his boldness, his hardihood, his audacity, his false
bravoure
, have not been checked; not even by a single
response
, not even by a
sham response
, to the public justice of our country; if on the contrary these terrible qualities have been rewarded with the loud plaudits of the public voice;—if the fond mother, instead of checking the incipient
penchant
of her darling child, receives from time to time, with plaudits and congratulations, the direful fruits of his furtive acquirements; how can we expect but a continuation of the same conduct in the child, and of the same pursuits? His boldness therein at each repetition, by this encouragement of his deluded mother, becomes still more audacious. The success of one enterprise is an encouragement to another of still greater magnitude; till finally the ruined child arrives at the boldest feats in highway robbery, which lead him to the gallows; and the guilty mother sinks to the grave, under the dire effects of her own folly, tenderness, and want of foresight;—If the daring, the enterprising, the fool-hardy General; who by his feats of audacity has become the idol of every interested, or inconsiderate man in the community;—if his reiterated extravagancies and violations of law, justice, and common decency are heard, considered, and applauded, with the highest marks of approbation; is it in human nature to withstand such adulation? And especially, is it in any nature, so prone to extravagance and audacity, and so often by him repeated, and so often by his devotees applauded, to withstand such adulation; and to withstand the temptations of any fair opportunity which might offer, or even of making an opportunity, for assuming a crown?
Then will the fond people, like the fond and deluded mother, when, alas! it will be too late, be obliged to sink under the weight of their own folly and want of foresight.
The old saying is that fire is a good servant but a bad master. But a bad master ought to be avoided; and a good servant ought to be liberally paid, and ought liberally to enjoy your gratitude. If our Generalissimo in pecuniary speculation has not found the way of paying himself; if the six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, more or less, have not satisfied
his
desires, and
our
gratitude; he ought to have more. But we have also a prototype whose advice was not “
to pay too dear for the whistle
.”
Why then single out this only man as an object of such super-abundant gratitude? Why overload him! Why single out him alone to bury alive with honours, and adulation, and gratitude? Why wish to give up our all, our every thing, even the dearest object of a freeborn soul, even our liberty itself? Have we so soon forgot the universal, the
mille-fois
reiterated cry, which but a few years ago resounded from pole to pole, “
Liberty or death?
” Is all forgot? Must all be paid for one single debt of gratitude? Must all be paid to one alone who has earnt but a portion? Must the Hero of Erie, whose single victory was far more complete, and all the other Heroes of the Revolution, or the late war, whether officers or privates! Must all be forgot, all absorbed in the naked name of Jackson!
Summum jus, summa est injuria!
For my part I wish not to see any more revolution. Although it may be certain in our country to come in a future day, I wish none of it in my time. I wish to put off the evil day as long as possible. And as for them who are so very desirous of demonstrating their gratitude upon a single object, and other at the expense of their liberty, I imagine that, as liberty is not susceptible of a pecuniary estimation, any more than gratitude; so they think them, viz. liberty and gratitude, to be both of the same value; and being fond of novelty, are desirous of making an exchange of one
inestimable
for another. Heaven avert the experiment!
Pelletier
was curious to know whether a certain Gas would destroy life. He tried the fatal experiment on himself, and fell; the unfortunate victim of his own curiosity!
Since pecuniary rewards are the only ones suited to the genius of our constitutions, let me recommend a mode by which these grateful souls may gratify to the full the desires of their hearts. Let a box, in every town or city of the country, be placed in some certain public house; where each one can have an opportunity to contribute, in money, to the full value of all the gratitude he wishes to bestow; and should this be but a single dollar, or even in some of the poor but one single cent, it would be far less to each individual, and far more to the General, than all the gratitude which may be due to him; unless his ambition should be so insatiable, as to require that the inestimable gratitude should be paid in kind; or with a price that is in like manner inestimable! or in other words, the liberty of our country!!
Summum jus, summa injuria!!
LAKE ERIE.
N. B. Printers of newspapers are requested to insert this in whole, or any part of it as they may find most convenient.