"Define Your Principles!"

"Btftili, or JYo Bank-Tañff or A o Tari (T, or vou cannot have any support here." ' A Rkpubucan. It is n trite objection to the Liberty party that it has bot "one idea." Their advershries tauntingly ask, what are their currency, or tariffl or Other views. Tlie cnption to ihis ariic'e is an instance. It waa written on a liandbill annonncing a lato Liberty meeting nt Jackson, whicli wns left in a store in that village. The author of'that objoction niay perhaps be surprised to fiud us occöpj'Tng ground on these qnesiiotis, jnst as defiued, and as explicit, but fur mote honest than either vhg or .Ipmocrat. If he is a whig-, it may startle him to know thnt the financial and lariff views, he designs to vote for in the Fall, are precisoly those of the democrat?, and if he be i democrot, he may suspect the integrity of hia principie, when he finds it lo be but ihát of the wliigs. The eneuing Fal! eleclion wü) plnce before the people three porties, who seek their suffrage. Every careful citizen wili posséss himself thörfuslily with the inerits of the party, or ral her the principies, for which he vates. Our institutions are upheld only by the ballot box: it does for Ihis country what the bayonet nccomplishes forothers: so lonp as the ballot bo is respected, republicana is secure: whenever ils frecdom is invadcd or it3 decisions are disregarded, Republicanism i otters. At present the ballot box is the exponent of public will, and the precursor of law. It ehould be the dtity of all to clothe it wilh respect, and thus to conimend its decisions to public veneration. Legal tribunal are of weight in proportion to the decoious respect conceded to them, by advoca'tes and suitors. but none will epteem the decisions of him, whose co'irt ís a brawl acene. So with the ballot box: if it be lightly approached: if it be fli'ppantly used : if it be rewrted to without forethought. and an appreciation of responsibiüty forthe use of so valuable a privilege, an example of disrespect is set: none can venérate the results it may then -declare. As we sow, 60 we reap, and if our suifrafre be carelessly cast, we sha!l aSfOíofllj ga'.hei the apropriate harvest of nrJiscriniination - painful regret and pnnishment.It is Ihe duy of every one, who woj]d wisely vote at the ensuing ek-ction, to investígate nnd contrast, each with the other, Ihe respective principies of the three severnl parties - the Democrnts - the Whicjs - and tlie Libcrtj Party. There have been periods at which it wns easy to have defiued the posiiions, and pointed out the confiictin; ohjects of the opposing Democrat8 and Wiiigs. The curren cy qutstion alone, with ts incidental consequences, was a brond line of demarcation be!veen the two; the distribntion of the surplus public monies arisinff froni revenue, and from land sales were. for a season. sources of difference: but the passing awiy of these contested snl'jects has wiped out a!l or neorly all of distinctive effort between these partie?, so tar as tbeir preeent objects are avowed. Pcrhops some think tliat the Uniled State? Bank qnestion has not passed awny: some may süll cherish this, the once, and the stili, loved object. Bnt all doubt on the subject has been set nt restby the events of the last three years. The decisive measures of the Jackson administration, and of the enti-bank party utterlv destroyedall the hopes of the Bankty. the time at least. The great strug-gle, then waged, bei ween these antagonist parlies, resulted in a blood ess, though in í'ocf, a decisive revolution in the country. lis era was one of those cri?ii-es to which a young country is necessarily sulij et. Ruin, confusión and bunkruptcy, bore witness to the fierce contest, whicli had deluged the land. We mean not to charge their consequences to either party: they resnltcti fiom the pre-exisiing state of ibiflgSj and the deadly war, wliich was declared against principies, lili Uien animoting the American conimuniíy, by a cominon consent. A change so sudden, and so radical could not hne. pioduced consequences, loss mnrked thon those, which in fact ensued. These conpeqnences wcre at once the assurnnce that an old state f things liad passed away, and the precursor of a coming1 system on now principies.So fnlly rlid the nation seem to jicquiesce in ihe victory of a new currency principie, thai [Inrinjf the piesideiüinl campaign of 1840, thete vvore lew, if any Whg pnpers in (he Union, or inñuenlinl meetings tliat ndvocatcd a United States Bank. Tt is known thnt even the Harrisburnrl; Convención was rot unanimoiis on the subject, nnd for reasons of prudence forebore to discuss it. 'J'he matter expired unrler ihe veto of hirn, to wbom this convenlion gave the power. J.Q,. Adame, in an address to his cnn9tit uents at Dedlmm, October 28, 1843, says: í:ÍV.id intpnd to have snid fom"lliing abont Öibenk, but I ani cnmpellod unwi]'ing1y to regord that as an obsolete idea" Mr. Webster, in his speech at Faneuil Hall, in 1842, said:"You wnnt a larjre and liberal provisión for exchnnpe," 8c. ''How will you do it? 1 need not say by a bank of tlie United S'ates. b.nsel upon private pnbscription, for tknt is ovi of the queslion. The mrm tcho purgues ihat. t olimos ni obsolete idea. Supptwe a lau liou!d epiobÜsh a bnnk, with a capitiil of 50 million?, wlio lvill sobfcnbe to it? What will you pivp per share? It is enürely out of the queslion. n Besides these direct mithorilies we may mention that wc knovr of only one Whigr pnpsr in the Union tliat directly and.explici'.ly advocates a Unilèd States B:mk, nor is it to be found among the principies of the Whig party as defined by Henry Cluy. The distrihutïon of the surplus public monies has set! led itsnlf. Tbcre never was such a surplus, except duringr the short interval o' fevored excitament, which stimnlnied person and property of every kind into such unnaturul bui false prosperity, as wns witnessed in 13:;6 nnd 7. The U. S. Treosury feit the mad impulse of tho times. The nation irnported extravagantly from nbroad: men became too idle to work, and all hastened to biiy public Innd, ae a magie road to wealth. - The Treasury, for the h'rst time, yiclded a surplus; bot as in common with nll else in the U. S. it had thus feit tho action, itrienced the rcaction of the times, and it has since been bankrupt, and was driven to seek fonds by loan. These rnntters thtsn, out of Ihe way, tliere seems to remain between theparLies, bnt the single question of a tariff. It is generally nnderstood thát the whigs are in fuvor óf a pro teciive tarilT, nnd that the democrats nre whol )y opposed to protection, and advocate free trade. In ihe North, the Wbigs, by editorial?, and exlrncts have labo.'ed to prove that the bost nteres-ts of the country ore promo'.ed by eneournging domestic manufactures, and thnt their poiicy is directed (o Uiis end. Henee that they will make such a lariff, os will eitfier exclude all foreign goods, tuat could compete with hoine tnanufacíuresj or will admit them to market at such high rate, as will cnable the domestic manufacturer to undersell them, but still to realize a proöt. Oú the other hand, tlie democrutic presses advócale free trade, and the total absence of a tariff, imless so far as may be necessory for revenue. Rcv:nue must be laised either by taxation, or tariff: and the latter is preferred. But the parties stand, Ihvs, as dinmetncally opposed;- protection on the one ei'le,- free trade on the other. We appeal to our reoders, f this is not ihe ide enen one hns of the present position of the democrats and whigs. Ytt such s not in fact the position of these parties: there is great delusion on the subject, - a delusion which both parlies seek to keep up, for party purposet?, and which we Ceel called upon to exposé. There is no real principio in contest beivveen these parties at ihis time, except that of party supromacy - nor any oiher object, than ihe single one - which sha!l sneceed to office, the Democrat, or the Whipr? In our next, we shall exhibit t)ie principies of the three pnrties in juxta-poj=iiioñ.