The One Man Power

The ph rase one-man power, which, we believe, is ofourown coining, more ( pressivelv defines' what is understood by vionarchy than any other definition we know of, and henee we shall continue to . use it, while wc cali attention to its " progress," the only sort ofprogress we have made tle late years,in the United Stotes. Our one man power is named President which is now synonymous wiih Emperor or King, although never intended to bc so in our consiitutional Republic. Thus the power to declare war, exi-ting in Kings and Emperors, now, it is contended, by what calis rself Democracy, exists in our President. It is not, to be sure, so contended in express words ; but the principie is laid down that in the nrmed occupation of the territory west of the Nueces without an act oí Congress - a dispuled territory - Mr. Polk was righly although that occupation necessarily in vol ved u$ in the war wilh Mexico. So, when our Government has a dispute with another Government, it is now setlled as a democratie principie, that an Executive can go to war about it, 1 without consulting Congres, even though ' Congress be in session. The power to : involve U3 in, that is, to declare war, therefore, now exists in our President, just as it does in a King, or Emperor, 01 5 an Autocrat. It is a fully, then, heres after to speak of our country as a Repub' lic ; it is a monarchy, but the head of it s is softened down by the name of Presi1 dent, because King is unpopular yet. War thus existing, in spite of Congress, 3 but necessarily waged by Congress, when 1 the nation is thus forced into it bv its monarch, it is again laid down as demo: cratic principie, that what is conquered J is axxexed, and thus becomes pari and i parcel of our Union. Hear Mr. Doug' lass. of Illinois, a noted Democratieer, when speaking in Congress on that point. We quote f rom the Union : " Now he (Mr. D.) maintained that . that territory (New Mexico) was a part of the territory of the United States ' forethe General (Kuarney) issued the proclamation at all. It teas apart of the Unüed States ly virtue of the act of Congress which annexed it. It requiredno proclamation ; it required no other act than that of conquest ilself. And he mai ntainedfurthermore, thatifa trenty of peace were mode with Mexico without establishingher limiis, all these r.rv quered provinces were f art and paren qj Uniled States by right of conques!, t . must so remainforever unless ceded back to Mexico, or unless reconqueied. It toas, therefore, the act of conquest which annexed the territory, and it did not require ihe proclamation of General Kearny or Commodore Stockton. They merely declared the existence of a fact which had previously occuned. Conqest is anncxation ; and thus Tamaulipas, New Leon, Coahulin, Chihuahua, part of Vera Cruz, New Mexico, and ihe vast territory of Upper and Lower Califurnia, not only become " part and purcel" of the United States, bul are annexed to the United States. Hcrewesee, firt, the monarch starting a war on his own authority, and then, under that war, annexing to the Union itself, and all without an act of Congress. Rensoning in this spirit it is that Mr. Polk, in his messoge, says : "Itmay be proper to providefortht security of these important eonqursts, by making an adequate appropriationfor the purposc of creating fortifications and defraying the expenses necessarily incident to themaintenance of our posscssioii and aulhority over them." Here the monarch speaks as all motiarchs wouldspeLk of conquerred territory they intendcd to keep, (in the veio of Frederick the Grcat or a Napoleon,) and expressps his desire to have permanent fortifications erected at our expense, lor the permanent " maintenance of our possessions and authority over them." The violence done to Cree governn.ent in such assumptions by the one-man power as these, Mr. Polk bimself hns become 30 aware of, that it is painful to him to hear a discuseion of them. Henee, inlis message, he says : "The war has been represented as unust and unnece-snry, and as one of ag;reson on our part upon a weak and inured enemy. Such erroneous view, hough entertainedby but few, have been videly nnd extensively circulated. not it home, but hnve been spread throughut Mexico and the whole world. A nore eíTeetual meanscould not have been levised to encourage the enemy nnd proract the war, than to advocate nnd adicre lo tlieír cnusé, rxr.d thus give them aid and comfort." ' Ti.is impjíes treason to ony man who jas" dared to question the propriety nnd üstice of manner in which the Executive tiad originated and carried on the wnr. Mr. l'olk has quoled the words '; aid and somfori" from the constitulional defínition of trenson, with the evident iniention of intimnting thnt no man could quetion or in tho remotest manner express a doubt of the propriety of the war, or the manner in which it has been waged, without proving himself a traitor lo his country and disposed lo " aid and comfort" ils ene mies. Let us pause here, and sre he sirides of monnrchy in the Republic. First, tho Exrcutive créales a war, then it annrxes is conqupsls, and, after all is compleied, ie tells us it is treason to discuss his dongs, because, we presume, theAmrriean nonarch hns tiie presumptive prerogative of other monarchs,that of doing no ivrong. Morinrchy is thus complete in its a!leged prerogatives in these United States. Tle King can do no wrong, and it is treason, therofore. to impute wrong to him. War exiüts in consequence of his orders, and thcre must be no discussion of it. The oíd thirteen States of tho Union, that formed a consti'ution for their own government, are swampcd by tho nnncxatlon of vast territorios they had never heard of. When thfir constitution is violated, and when they are sinking, they are told it is treason to complain of the causes that have overwhelmed them.