Gender Equality in America

THE DOCUMENTS

Introduction to Documents 1–4

The first set of documents includes two anti-Jackson and two pro-Jackson political broadsides. Three were used in the campaign of 1828, and the fourth, entitled King Andrew the First, was created in 1832 after Jackson’s controversial veto of Congress’ rechartering of the Bank of the United States. What is the intended message of each broadside? How does each combine images and words to convey that message? [Note: These images can be found at  http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/jackson/6-3.html .]

Introduction to Documents 5–8

The Benefits of Jacksonian Democracy

Each document in this set advances the merits of Jackson and his agenda.  Document 5  is an editorial from a newspaper published shortly after Jackson took office that warns the Democrats not to become complacent, and  Document 6  is an advertisement published during Jackson’s reelection campaign in 1832.  Documents 7  and  8  are excerpts from pro-Jackson speeches, the former delivered in 1835 by the eminent historian and Democrat partisan George Bancroft, and the latter delivered in 1837 by Jackson himself as his farewell address to the American people. Based upon these selections, how did the Jacksonians define the American creed and why did they support this president? What assumptions underlay these selections?

DOCUMENT 5  From  The Democratic Republican.

The causes which have produced so great an excitement among the freemen of these United States, during the late political conflict, have ceased, and genuine Republicanism has once more triumphed. Andrew Jackson has taken the chair of State, and his enemies and calumniators are humbled at his feet. In reflecting upon these important facts, and while we feel rejoiced at so signal a victory over the remnant of Aristocracy, there is imminent danger, that all this excitement and all this joy will be succeeded by apathy, and a criminal, fatal neglect of the important duties, which always devolve upon freemen. But, Heaven forbid, that the advantages which have been gained, and the pure principles, which have been so firmly established, by the recent victory, should be forgotten or neglected. Every man, we repeat it, every man has political duties devolving upon him, of a nature calculated to awaken attention and call forth his best energies. And, in this country of freedom, it would seem most astonishing, that any individual should be indifferent to the important concerns of the nation. It is indeed not sufficient, that we appear at the ballot boxes and cast our suffrages for our rulers—it is not sufficient, that we attach ourselves to a particular party and perform the ordinary duties of freemen—we must improve every opportunity of increasing our political knowledge and unite heart and hand in promoting the cause of liberty.

Are we essentially our own rulers?—and can we, with so great a consideration before us, be contented to yield to others the prerogative of judgment? That man is superlatively base, who has so far degraded himself as to depend upon others for direction, in the common duties of a freeman; and he is not less a slave, who is thus dependant, than the sable African about whose feet the iron shackle has been locked. Let freemen, and especially the genuine democratic republicans of this nation, reflect upon these subjects, and they will perceive, that all our political prosperity depends upon them; and no man, however humble his condition, should suffer himself to believe that his opinion or his influence is trifling.…

We feel secure on account of our recent success, and this feeling of security may prove our ruin. And, while we are sluggish and inactive, our enemies are vigilant, and no arts or devices will be left untried by them. The enemies of Jackson have nothing to lose; and they are desperate to a degree of madness never before exhibited in this country. Our venerated Chief Magistrate has been the object of their bitterest and most adhorred assaults for the last four years, and now, that he is exalted by the free suffrages of his fellow citizens to the highest and most enviable station on earth, their tongues have become envenomed and their hearts hardened.… And they in their rage have not been satisfied with hurling their poisoned shafts upon Jackson alone—the partner of his bosom, while living was their jest and sport; and the grave affords no security against their slander. Yes, not only have the very portals of the tomb been broken, by the hands of these worse than barbarians; but our Hero, whose heart was filled with anguish for his loss, has been himself the object of renewed attack. And what must we not expect from those men, who deride the finer feelings of humanity, and to the overwhelming sorrows of the afflicted, add their most malignant poison? We must expect that such men, destitute of the common feelings of our nature, will exercise the grossest and most detested passions, in all their doings. It is not a matter of wonder, that they object to every step, which President Jackson takes, be it good, bad, or indifferent. It is not surprising, that at this early hour, they should use every means to embarrass his measures, and endeavor to cheat the public into a belief that ‘all is wrong.’ These things they unblushingly do; and nothing can defeat their malicious designs, but the determination of his friends, honestly to defend him; and, to make a sure defense, one and all must awake to duty, and rest assured that although the ‘battle’s fought and victory’s won,’ ‘the danger is not over.’

DOCUMENT 6  Ten Reasons for Advocating the Re-Election of General Jackson

· 1. Because our country was never more prosperous than under General Jackson’s administration.

· 2. Because by a majority of the votes of his countrymen, he has twice been declared to be the choice of the people.

· 3. Because he will be the last President from the number of Revolutionary heroes whom the people may honor with their suffrages.

· 4. Because of his firmness in opposing the “great monied aristocracy” which seeks to master our government, and threatens to overthrow our free institutions.

· 5. Because of his wise and humane policy with regard to the Indian tribes.

· 6. Because of his efforts to suppress “the undue exertion of federal power” and his endeavors to maintain the rights of the States.

· 7. Because of his wise policy as respects foreign nations, of whom he “asks nothing that is not clearly right, and submits to nothing that is wrong.”

· 8. Because he has settled difficulties with foreign nations which have baffled the diplomacy of previous administrations.

· 9. Because he has ever shown himself anxious to cherish and perpetuate the liberties of the people.

· 10. Because in the discharge of his duties he has invariably taken a straight forward course, proving himself to be the disinterested patriot, the upright statesman, and the honest man.

Utica Observer

DOCUMENT 7  Selections from George Bancroft’s The Office of the People in Art, Government and Religion: An Oration Delivered Before the Adelphi Society of Williamstown College, in August 1835.

… [T]he best government rests on the people and not on the few, on persons and not on property, on the free development of public opinion and not on authority; because the munificent Author of our being has conferred the gifts of mind upon every member of the human race without distinction of outward circumstances. Whatever of other possessions may be engrossed, mind asserts its own independence. Lands, estates, the produce of mines, the prolific abundance of the seas may be usurped by a privileged class. Avarice, assuming the form of ambitious power, may grasp realm after realm, subdue continents, compass the earth in its schemes of aggrandizement, and sigh after other worlds; but mind eludes the power of appropriation. It exists only in its own individuality; it is a property which cannot be confiscated and cannot be torn away; it laughs at chains; it bursts from imprisonment; it defies monopoly. A government of equal rights must, therefore, rest upon mind; not wealth, not brute force, the sum of the moral intelligence of the community should rule the State.…

The public happiness is the true object of legislation, and can be secured only by the masses of mankind themselves awakening to the knowledge and the care of their own interests. Our free institutions have reversed the false and ignoble distinctions between men; and refusing to gratify the pride of caste, have acknowledged the common mind to be the true material for a commonwealth. Everything has hitherto been done for the happy few. It is not possible to endow an aristocracy with greater benefits than they have already enjoyed; there is not room to hope that individuals will be more highly gifted or more fully developed than the greatest sages of past times. The world can advance only through the culture of the moral and intellectual powers of the people. To accomplish this end by means of the people themselves is the highest purpose of government. If it be the duty of the individual to strive after a perfection like the perfection of God, how much more ought a nation to be the image of Deity. The common mind is the true Parian marble, fit to be wrought into likeness to a God. The duty of America is to secure the culture and the happiness of the masses by their reliance on themselves.…

[G]overnment by the people is in very truth the strongest government in the world. Discarding the implements of terror, it dares to rule by moral force and has its citadel in the heart. Such is the political system which rests on reason, reflection, and the free expression of deliberate choice. There may be those who scoff at the suggestion that the decision of the whole is to be preferred to the judgment of the enlightened few. They say in their hearts that the masses are ignorant; that farmers know nothing of legislation; that mechanics should not quit their workshops to join in forming public opinion. But true political science does indeed venerate the masses. It maintains, not as has been perversely asserted, that “the people can make right,” but that the people can discern right. Individuals are but shadows, too often engrossed by the pursuit of shadows; the race is immortal. Individuals are of limited sagacity; the common mind is infinite in its experience. Individuals are languid and blind; the many are ever wakeful. Individuals are corrupt; the race has been redeemed. Individuals are time-serving; the masses are fearless. Individuals may be false; the masses are ingenuous and sincere. Individuals claim the divine sanction of truth for the deceitful conceptions of their own fancies; the Spirit of God breathes through the combined intelligence of the people. Truth is not to be ascertained by the impulses of an individual; it emerges from the contradictions of personal opinions; it raises itself in majestic serenity above the strife of parties and the conflict of sects; it acknowledges neither the solitary mind nor the separate faction as its oracle, but owns as its own faithful interpreter the dictates of pure reason itself, proclaimed by the general voice of mankind. The decrees of the universal conscience are the nearest approach to the presence of God in the soul of man.

Thus the opinion which we respect is, indeed, not the opinion of one or of a few, but the sagacity of the many. It is hard for the pride of cultivated philosophy to put its ear to the ground and listen reverently to the voice of lowly humanity; yet the people collectively are wiser than the most gifted individual, for all his wisdom constitutes but a part of theirs.… It is not by vast armies, by immense natural resources, by accumulations of treasure, that the greatest results in modern civilization have been accomplished. The traces of the career of conquest pass away, hardly leaving a scar on the national intelligence. The famous battle grounds of victory are, most of them, comparatively indifferent to the human race; barren fields of blood, the scourges of their times but affecting the social condition as little as the raging of a pestilence. Not one benevolent institution, not one ameliorating principle in the Roman state was a voluntary concession of the aristocracy; each useful element was borrowed from the democracies of Greece or was a reluctant concession to the demands of the people. The same is true in the modern political life. It is the confession of an enemy to Democracy, that “all the great and noble institutions of the world have come from popular efforts.”

It is the uniform tendency of the popular element to elevate and bless humanity. The exact measure of the progress of civilization is the degree in which the intelligence of the common mind has prevailed over wealth and brute force; in other words, the measure of the progress of civilization is the progress of the people.…

DOCUMENT 8  Selections from Jackson’s Farewell Address entitled “The Cause of Freedom Will Continue to Triumph Over All Its Enemies.”

The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer all know that their success depends upon their own industry and economy and that they must not expect to become suddenly rich by the fruits of their toil. Yet these classes of society form the great body of the people of the United States; they are the bone and sinew of the country; men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws and who, moreover, hold the great mass of our national wealth, although it is distributed in moderate amounts among the millions of freemen who possess it. But, with overwhelming numbers and wealth on their side, they are in constant danger of losing their fair influence in the government, and with difficulty maintain their just rights against the incessant efforts daily made to encroach upon them.

The mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control; from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges which they have succeeded in obtaining in the different states and which are employed altogether for their benefit; and unless you become more watchful in your states and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will, in the end, find that the most important powers of government have been given or bartered away, and the control over your dearest interests has passed into the hands of these corporations.

The paper money system and its natural associates, monopoly and exclusive privileges, have already struck their roots deep in the soil; and it will require all your efforts to check its further growth and to eradicate the evil. The men who profit by the abuses and desire to perpetuate them will continue to besiege the halls of legislation in the general government as well as in the states and will seek, by every artifice, to mislead and deceive the public servants. It is to yourselves that you must look for safety and the means of guarding and perpetuating your free institutions. In your hands is rightfully placed the sovereignty of the country and to you everyone placed in authority is ultimately responsible. It is always in your power to see that the wishes of the people are carried into faithful execution, and their will, when once made known, must sooner or later be obeyed. And while the people remain, as I trust they ever will, uncorrupted and incorruptible and continue watchful and jealous of their rights, the government is safe, and the cause of freedom will continue to triumph over all its enemies.

But it will require steady and persevering exertions on your part to rid yourselves of the iniquities and mischiefs of the paper system and to check the spirit of monopoly and other abuses which have sprung up with it and of which it is the main support. So many interests are united to resist all reform on this subject that you must not hope the conflict will be a short one nor success easy.…

In presenting to you, my fellow citizens, these parting counsels, I have brought before you the leading principles upon which I endeavored to administer the government in the high office with which you twice honored me. Knowing that the path of freedom is continually beset by enemies who often assume the disguise of friends, I have devoted the last hours of my public life to warn you of the danger.

The progress of the United States under our free and happy institutions has surpassed the most sanguine hopes of the founders of the republic. Our growth has been rapid beyond all former example—in numbers, in wealth, in knowledge, and all the useful arts which contribute to the comforts and convenience of man; and from the earliest ages of history to the present day, there never have been 13 million people associated together in one political body who enjoyed so much freedom and happiness as the people of these United States. You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad; your strength and power are well known throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and gallant bearing of your sons.

It is from within, among yourselves, from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for power, that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have especially to guard yourselves. You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May He who holds in His hands the destinies of nations make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed and enable you, with pure hearts and pure hands and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time the great charge He has committed to your keeping.

My own race is nearly run; advanced age and failing health warn me that before long I must pass beyond the reach of human events and cease to feel the vicissitudes of human affairs. I thank God that my life has been spent in a land of liberty and that He has given me a heart to love my country with the affection of a son. And, filled with gratitude for your constant and unwavering kindness, I bid you a last and affectionate farewell.

Source: Farewell Address of Andrew Jackson to the People of the United States: and the Inaugural Address of Martin Van Buren, President of the United States, 1837,  pp. 3 – 16 .

Introduction to Documents 9–13

Critics of the Jacksonian Vision

Because most of the original states limited suffrage to male property owners or taxpayers, in the early years of the republic only about one-half of white males were eligible to vote. Later states, including Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, either opened suffrage to all white males over 21 or lowered the taxpayer qualifications to levels that allowed almost all white adult males in these states to vote. Meanwhile, during the early decades of the nineteenth century, some of the original states, including New Jersey, Maryland, and New York, also adopted the practices of the newer states by eliminating voter property qualifications. Unfortunately, this movement toward universal white manhood suffrage stymied or reversed the fortunes of free blacks and propertied women, citizens who had enjoyed voting privileges in some of the original states before “white manhood” replaced property as the determining suffrage qualification. Although a few states (Rhode Island, Virginia, and Louisiana) maintained property qualifications, by 1840, more than 90 percent of the adult white men in the United States could vote, but few other Americans had this privilege.

Some Americans opposed the trend toward an electorate of all white males because of who it left out, while others opposed it because it opened government too broadly.  Documents 9  and  10 , each published in 1829 when the commonwealth of Virginia was considering the issue of revising its suffrage qualifications, present arguments for each of these positions.  Documents 11  and  12  are examples of anti-Democratic campaign pieces. The final selection,  Document 13 , is an excerpt from a longer article that equates Jacksonianism with radicalism. According to the arguments in these selections, who opposed Jackson and what were the defects and dangers inherent in this vision for America? What did Jacksonianism threaten?

DOCUMENT 9  Headline: Rights of Women

… Why are we denied the privilege of voting? Why are we eternally to be kept in the bondage of a despotic government? ‘Have we not eyes? have we not hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,—subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a man is? if you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us,’ shall we not, (no not revenge!) but assert our rights, and expose your gross injustice.

Aye: injustice; gross, flagrant injustice? You are born stronger than we are; and that is the only advantage you have over us. Nature has endowed you with more physical, brute strength, and upon that foundation, you raise up all your boasted pretensions. You can beat us, and therefore you make us your slaves. All your pretended right revolves itself into might. It is the law of tyrants; the triumph of the strong over the weak—and upon this honorable basis, you raise the standard of your power.—Having conquered us, you shut us out of the great means of improvement. You are acting the party of the other discreet conquerors. You first subdue us by force; and then by keeping us in ignorance, you attempt to perpetuate your own power and make us your slaves. This is the history of all despotism; and upon this wise and noble hint you have justly acted?—Have you any better reasons for your usurped dominion?

You say, we have not intellect enough to vote, and assist in the government. Where are the proofs of your superiority? You keep us in ignorance—and then you boast of your superior attainments. You make us embroider for you; thrum upon the guitar or piano; draw sketches of your lordly faces; convert us into spinsters and seamstresses, to make your garments but you exclude us from your best schools.—You prevent us from cultivating science, studying politics, improving our understanding; and then you insist upon our ignorance as the evidence of our menial incapacity—forgetting that we rank among our sex the De Staels and Daciers of France, and the Moors and Edgeworths of England and Ireland.—Thank you, that we have not as much native strength of mind to give our votes properly, as more than half of your sovereign sex! And that with a little advantage of education, we could select fit officers, as well as you can?

You boast too, of your superior independence of mind.—You say, that you alone can exercise the right of suffrage, firmly and freely. Indeed! and what say the disfranchised non-freeholders to this arrogant assumption—and what ought we say to it! That it is not founded in truth—that if we enjoyed greater opportunities of improvement, we too, who know how to make you Lords of the Creation tremble at our feet, could think, and feel and act for ourselves, in matters of government, with as much independence as you do. Make us feel our consequence more, and we shall know better how to value and assert it.’

DOCUMENT 10  Virginia Convention

Benj. Watkins Leigh, one of the most able members of that Convention, is a strenuous advocate of excluding all but Freeholders from the right of suffrage. His concluding remark in the following speech is sound and worthy of remembrance.…

Now, Mr. L said, he was against any rule whose natural tendency was to work corruption. But if one man, through the interposition of property, shall possess the power of completely controlling another, to give that other the power of voting, was, in effect, to invite corruption. Now if a landlord can, at will, seize at quarter day, or at the end of the year, on any other fixed term of payment, distrain the property of his tenant, seize every particle of personal property he owns in the world, sell the bed from under his sick wife, and sell the cradle on which his infant reposes, he holds that man by the very strings of his heart. The landlord can do this, and more; he can thereby deprive his tenant voter of the very thing on which his power to vote wholly depends; and therefore he exercises over him, through the possession of property, the most absolute and irresistible influence which one man can exercise over another. He had no idea that any attempt would at this time be made, nor for many years to come, to bring this power directly and openly to bear, for the avowed purpose of controlling the vote of any citizen of this Commonwealth. No man would dare to do it, either now or for a long time to come. But, said Mr. L., let gentlemen remember that this nation is in a state of progress; of progress toward corruption.… It has been the case in all other nations, all the world over: our nation is in its infancy,—and it is with nations as with children, they are ever purest at their birth.…

Sir, said Mr. L. to the Chairman, I am for a property qualification that will act directly, openly, and not by corruption. Yet, here, it is proposed to us, at the first hop, (if I may be pardoned to use a very vulgar expression) to give the right of suffrage to a mere tenant, a lessee for a single year, to a man who is directly and entirely within the influence of another man.

In North Carolina they have approached pretty nearly to the exercise of universal suffrage—(I believe there is the payment of some tax required,) and what is the consequence? Why, sir, I am told that it is a part of the regular system of electioneering to pay the tax for the poor man that he may be qualified. I do not vouch for this statement—but I have it from respectable sources—remember, sir, I do not say the poor man is corrupted—he honestly means to vote, but his tax is paid merely to put it in his power to do so.…

Mr. Chairman, if the general principle I have laid down be a correct one, then the principle of this amendment ought not to be sustained. If you are to have a property qualification at all, it must be in such a shape that its effect can be guarded from corruption: but by the measure proposed, corruption, instead of being guarded against, is rendered all but inevitable. As to universal suffrage, it is a plan for which I believe no gentleman here is disposed to contend: but certainly, sir, some gentlemen here are steering very near the wind.

The gentleman talks about a minority ruling the majority, but I say, that a majority, however great, have no right to take the property of the minority. I do contend, that if I stood alone, the sole possessor of property in a society however large, that society would have no right whatever to take my property away. Such is not the purpose of Government. The purpose, and the only purpose of Government, is to prevent men from doing injustice to each other. All government is negative in its principle: it is a system of restraints.

DOCUMENT 11  Why, What Evil Hath He Done?

‘Why, what evil hath he done?’—is an inquiry which a Jackson press, (and but one in the country, has ever) had the temerity to make with respect to the present executive. We will again answer it, in the words of truth and soberness, drawn from various sources and unimpeachable in point of fact.

General Jackson, since his election, has broken every promise, forfeited every pledge, and departed from every principle, which, before his election he professed to hold as sacred or regard as important.—He has gone upon the avowed principle of ‘rewarding his friends and punishing his enemies;’ of turning out those who had voted against him, and putting in those who had voted for him.—He has compelled all who enjoy office, as a compensation for their appointments, and under the penalty of instant ejection, to support his measures, whether right or wrong, and to submit to exactions upon their salaries for the support of new presses and extra publications, and hired election minions.—He has re-appointed men to office whom the Senate have twice rejected, thereby entirely destroying the share of the Senate in the appointing power, and the weight which the constitution gives it as a body of advice and of restraint upon the executive.

He has cruelly and wantonly refused to execute treaties made with Indian nations, which have been ratified by the Senate, approved by every President, and adjudged valid by the Supreme Court.—He has claimed and exercised supreme power over the people, congress and courts of the United States in his late veto message, and advanced doctrines subversive of the foundations of the government, connected with the disgraceful and dishonest appeals of a demagogue, for the purpose of prejudicing the different parts of the community against each other.—He has made frequent and illegal use of the veto power, without any reference to principle in its use; for he has applied it in some cases, and not in others which were of a precisely similar character. He has applied it in capricious and wanton attempts to ruin the internal improvements of the country, to break down industry and destroy its profits, to introduce an unsettled currency, and depreciate to a great amount the value of property.…

He has enacted in time of peace greater taxes for the people than any previous President, and squandered them on profligate favorites, for idle and totally useless purposes. He has threatened to beat Senators, and rejoiced because Representatives were cudgeled for the free expression of their opinions. He has threatened to shoot fellow citizens while in the peaceable pursuit of their business; invited ministers of the gospel to his house under the pretence of cordial intercourse, and then driven them into corners and bullied them; approved of schemes to cheat the public treasury of its funds, and appropriated those funds to a great extent in bribery and corruption.

Will any of our fellow-citizens, after a proper consideration of these charges, every one of which has been substantiated by irrefutable proof, bestow their suffrages to continue the elevation of a man, whose character is thus ‘marked by every act which may define a tyrant?’

DOCUMENT 12  Reasons for Not Supporting the Democrats: A Satire.

FOR THE  NEW-HAMPSHIRE SENTINEL.

Roman Catholics.

Those who are in fear of Roman Catholics getting too much power, let them unite with the Catholics at the polls, and support such men as wish to put the government into the hands of one man; for they can do but little harm while the government is in the hands of the whole people.

Slavery.

Those who are opposed to slavery, let them send such men to Congress as will unite and assist in putting the government of the U. States under the control of the slave-holding States.

Intemperance.

Those who are opposed to intemperance, let them send such men to the Legislature to make laws, as are in the habit of using ardent spirit themselves; also of selling it to the drunkard, whose wives and children are suffering for want of victuals and clothing.

Sin and Wickedness.

Those who are opposed to sin and wicked men; let them encourage such, by rewarding them with the highest offices of honor and profit.

Taxes.

Those who are opposed to paying large taxes, let them condemn such men as were in office previous to 1829, for their extravagant and wasteful expenditures, and support such men as will expend and squander away nearly double the amount; also send such men to Congress as are opposed to dividing the proceeds of the PUBLIC LANDS among the States; whereas New-Hampshire would probably receive yearly about sixty thousand dollars; also such men as will unite with, and support a President who has promised to give this land away to the States wherein it is situated!!

Laborers’ Wages.

Those who have complained of the laborers’ wages being so low, and of the rich grinding the poor; let them send such men to Congresses as are opposed to encouraging our own industry; such men as are in favor of destroying our own manufactories, by reducing the duties of foreign goods, or taking them off altogether, as in the article of silk brought from Europe, and compete the laboring class of this country to enter into competition with the paupers of Europe. By destroying our own manufactories, you will release perhaps 10,000 females in New-England alone, who are now at work for high wages in the factories, and who will come home and soon reduce the wages of those who are now otherwise employed.—The same with the men.

Party Spirit.

Which has been the cause of civil wars, and of destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, if not millions, and brought distress upon women and children: let all those who are opposed to it, support a man for President who will turn out of office every man that did not vote or hurrah for him, and put in such as will hurrah for him.

Educating Children While Young.

Those who are in favor of public schools and of educating children when young, and when they are incapable of doing much business, instead of being obliged to go to school at the age of 19 or 20, to get an education sufficient to do the common business of life, as is the case with many for want of sufficient funds; let them support such men as Mr Isaac Hill, who made such a hue and cry about Mr Bell, when Governor, for recommending that $60,000 literary fund money to be distributed among the towns in the State for the benefit of common schools; when Mr Isaac Hill wanted the same to be appropriated to the building of a College in his own town. However to the credit of Mr Bell and his friends in the Legislature, and to the mortification of Mr Hill and many of his friends, the money was distributed among the towns for the benefit of common schools.

Internal Improvement.

Those who are opposed to the appropriation of the public money for internal improvements, as the Legislature of New-Hampshire did a few years ago; let them support a President who signed a bill appropriating—thousand dollars toward the improvement of the Cumberland river in his own State; also many other similar bills, and refusing to sign the Wabash bill, and many others of a similar kind.