them authority, is another question. I am a Whig, I
always have been a Whig, and I always will be one; and if there are any
who would turn me out of the pale of that communion, let them see who
will get out first. I am a Massachusetts Whig, a Faneuil Hall Whig,
having breathed this air for five-and-twenty years, and meaning to
breathe it as long as my life is spared. I am ready to submit to all
decisions of Whig conventions on subjects on which they are authorized
to make decisions; I know that great party good and great public good
can only be so obtained. But it is quite another question whether a set
of gentlemen, however respectable they may be as individuals, shall have
the power to bind me on matters which I have not agreed to submit to
their decision at all.

"A full and final separation" is declared between the Whig party of
Massachusetts and the President. That is the text: it requires a
commentary. What does it mean? The President of the United States has
three years of his term of office yet unexpired. Does this declaration
mean, then, that during those three years all the measures of his
administration are to be opposed by the great body of the Whig party of
Massachusetts, whether they are right or wrong? There are great public
interests which require his attention. If the President of the United
States should attempt, by negotiation, or by earnest and serious
application to Congress, to make some change in the present
arrangements, such as should be of service to those interests of
navigation which are concerned in the colonial trade, are the Whigs of
Massachusetts to give him neither aid nor succor? If the President of
the United States shall direct the proper department to review the whole
commercial policy of the United States, in respect of reciprocity in the
indirect trade, to which so much of our tonnage is now sacrificed, if
the amendment of this policy shall be undertaken by him, is there such a
separation between him and the Whigs of Massachusetts as shall lead them
and their representatives to oppose it. Do you know (there are gentlemen
now here who do know) that a large proportion, I rather think more than
one half, of the carrying trade between the empire of Brazil and the
United States is enjoyed by tonnage from the North of Europe, in
consequence of this ill-considered principle with regard to reciprocity.
You might just as well admit them into the coasting trade. By this
arrangement, we take