t involves far higher
considerations than whether this or that individual shall be
president--this party or that shall exert a transient sway over the
destinies of the country. Our remarks are independent of men, or times,
or circumstances; and they are addressed to men of no party--to the
intelligent and patriotic of all parties--to that fund of good sense
which has ever characterized this nation.

As every officer of the government takes an oath to support the
constitution, his conscience is appealed to, and that which he honestly
and truly believes to be the meaning of the obligation he has incurred,
must influence his votes and acts under the constitution. It is
seriously and earnestly maintained by many of our citizens, that every
man's own interpretation of the constitution must be his guide; and no
matter what the public tribunals have determined--no matter for what
length of time, or by what degree of unanimity a particular
interpretation may have prevailed, it is to weigh as nothing with him,
so far as it seems contrary to the conviction of his own mind. But is
this a true understanding of the character of a written constitution,
and of the oath which it enjoins? If so, would not the means devised to
secure its more faithful observance be the most likely to defeat its
provisions; and would it not make such a constitution the most
impracticable and absurd form of government that human folly ever
devised? Let us consider the consequences of this doctrine.

In the first place, let us call to mind the great number of
constitutional questions which have arisen during the short period of
little more than forty years, since the Federal government went into
operation. In General Washington's administration, the most prominent of
those questions were suggested by the establishment of a national
bank--by the carriage tax--the proclamation of neutrality--and the
appropriations to carry the British treaty into effect: in that of Mr.
Adams, the elder, the alien and sedition laws: in Mr. Jefferson's, the
repeal of the Judiciary law--the embargo for an indefinite period--the
purchase of Louisiana: in Mr. Madison's, the United States Bank again,
the power of the federal government over the militia of a state--the
right of that government to construct roads: in Mr. Monroe's, the right
in congress to pass the bankrupt law--to lay a duty on imports for the
encouragement of manufactures--to appropriate money for the relief of
th