Then everything was
done with especial reference to the will of the people. Their impulsion
was assumed to be the sole motive to action; and to them the ultimate
verdict was expressly referred. The whole machinery of alarm and
pressure--every engine of political and moneyed power--was put in
motion, and worked for many months, to excite the people against the
President; and to stir up meetings, memorials, petitions, travelling
committees, and distress deputations against him; and each symptom
of popular
discontent was hailed as an evidence of public will, and quoted here
as proof that the people demanded the condemnation of the President.
Not only legislative assemblies, and memorials from large assemblies,
were then produced here as evidence of public opinion, but the
petitions of boys under age, the remonstrances of a few signers, and
the results of the most inconsiderable elections were ostentatiously
paraded and magnified, as the evidence of the sovereign will of our
constituents. Thus, sir, the public voice was everything, while that
voice, partially obtained through political and pecuniary machinations,
was adverse to the President.
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