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OF

THE AMERICAN REVIEW.

Ir having been determined to establish a Political and Literary Monthly Review, to be conducted in the city of New-York by GEORGE H. COLTON, Esq., and devoted to the permanent maintenance of WHIG principles and improvement of AMERICAN literature:

The undersigned, Whig members of the Twenty-eighth Congress, from the several sections of the Union, in consideration of the great importance of such a work, do most cordially approve of the design, and urge it upon the Whigs of the Republic for their effective and unwavering support. We believe it to be most strongly demanded by the permanent interests of the country: and the appeal is made to those having these interests most at heart. And for the sake of perfect confidence in its political course, assurance is hereby given, that the continual assistance of leading men of the Whig Party has been secured, and that full trust is reposed in the views and abilities of the Editor.

Members of the Senate.

Willie P. Mangum, N. C., President of Senate.
George Evans, Maine.

J. J. Crittenden, Kentucky.
J. Macpherson Berrien, Georgia.
James F. Simmons, Rhode Island.
James Alfred Pearce, Maryland.
Richard H. Bayard, Delaware.
J. W. Huntington, Connecticut.
Samuel S. Phelps, Vermont.
Alexander Barrow, Louisiana.
J. T. Morehead, Kentucky.
W. C. Rives, Virginia.

William Woodbridge, Michigan
Ephraim H. Foster, Tennessee.
W. L. Dayton, New-Jersey.
John Henderson, Mississippi.

Members of the House.

Garret Davis, Kentucky.

Charles Hudson, Massachusetts.
George W. Summers, Virginia.
Samuel T. Vinton, Ohio.
John White, Kentucky.
Daniel P. King, Massachusetts.
K. Rayner, North Carolina.
George B. Rodney, Delaware.
S. C. Sample, Indiana.
F. H. Morse, Maine.
Milton Brown, Tennessee.
Washington Hunt, New-York.
Henry Y. Cranston, Rhode Island.
Charles M. Reed, Pennsylvania.
John J. Hardin, Illinois.

C. H. Carroll, New-York.

William A. Moseley, New-York.
James Dellet, Alabama.

Robert C. Schenck, Ohio.

J. Phillips Phoenix, New-York City.
Alexander H. Stephens, Georgia.

Earnestly approving of the plan of such a national organ, long needed and of manifest importance, the undersigned agree to contribute for its pages, from time to time, such communications as may be requisite to set forth and defend the doctrines held by the united Whig Party of the

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Rufus Choate, rop of
of Boston.

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Hamilton Fish, of New-York City.
J. Collamer, of Vermont.

W. S. Archer, of Virginia.
Alexander H. Stephens, Ga.
D. D. Barnard, of Albany.
E. Joy Morris, of Philadelphia.
John Macpherson Berrien, of Ga.
Thomas Butler King, of Georgia,
J. P. Kennedy of Baltimore.
John J. Hardin, of Illinois.

The reasons leading to the design of this Review are many and obvious. There has long been, and, it is feared, will be, a faction in the Republic, assuming popular forms, but led on by demagogues, against the true interests of the country. Under such guid ance they have already inflicted many injuries on the body of the Commonwealth-have crippled our commerce, reduced our manufactures, diminished our revenue, dissipated our treasure, deranged our currency, dishonored our schools, corrupted popular suffrage, yet strengthened Executive power, diminished the hard earnings of the laborer, and placed a disastrous check on the whole course of internal improvements.

In addition to these injuries, they are promulgating or giving countenance to the most dangerous doctrines: That law should have no vitality or force apart from the popular will; that legislation is to be no more stable than party power; that contracts and covenants of to-day may be set aside by a change of majorities to-morrow; that the solemn seats of judicature, and the tribunals of justice, are to be directly controlled by the populace; that change, in a word, is progress, and the antiquity of an institution hardly compatible with its utility; that crime is rather to be pitied than punished; that companies, corporations, and institutions of learning, are monopolies to be warred against; and that in every transition of Government, to the victors belong the spoils; with many other Jabcobinical opinions, from which, if suffered to gain ground, we can look for nothing but the corruption of our morals, the degradation of our liberties, and the ultimate ruin of the Commonwealth.

The party styling themselves the Democratic, and arrogating superiority of literary taste and accomplishment, have established, and for some time supported a Review, distinguished for ability, but devotedly maintaining many of these pernicious doctrines, while the con

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ROAD SONG OF EARTH'S TRAVELERS.-HYMN TO THE VIRGIN,

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161, BROADWAY; AND 6, WATERLOO PLACE, REGENT-STREET, London. PRINCIPAL AGENTS. Vermont, V. Harrington, Burlington; Boston, Jordan, Swift

& Co.. Rhode Island, H. Whiteker, Providence; Zieber & Co.,
Philadelphia; Shurtz & Taylor, Baltimore.

Edward O. Jenkins, Printer, 114 Nassau Street.

N. B.-All persons are warned not to hand any subscriptions, or pay any monies, to Thomas Chrystal, on account of the American Review.

TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS.

The portrait of JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, promised for the May No., has been executed in the most finished manner, and will appear in our next, together with a biographical sketch from a distinguished pen.

That our subscribers may have confidence in the future character of the Review, if they have not already acquired it from what has gone before, we would here state that a body of the Whig Senators, including Messrs. Webster, Berrien, Mangum, Evans, Morehead, Crittenden, Archer, John M. Clayton, and several others, taking a deep interest in the work as one long needed, capable of exerting a wide and beneficial influence for the advancement of every great interest of the country-voluntarily, a few days before the close of the last session, consulted together respecting its complete and powerful establishment, and pledged themselves to support it by monthly contributions-each engaging his attention for a month assigned. The consultation was earnest, and the public may expect those pledges to be fulfilled.

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WE had determined to say nothing of the dead Administration. We had wished that so weak and wicked a career should pass at once and utterly into oblivion, and the nation forget that they had ever made so sad an experiment of being governed by Chance. Forever to bury its memory-this, we felt, would be most desirable to all; for as very few were found to follow it to the grave, so none, we were persuaded, could wish hereafter to know its ghost.

But an Olympiad of guilt and folly is not so easily forgotten. An entire people betrayed, befooled and insulted, for a period of four years, cannot fail to carry with them a bitter remembrance. It can be none the less bitter and abiding, that a universal and profound contempt has long taken the place of indignation; since men had far rather be angry with their government, than blush for it. In view, therefore, of this--that the faith, so sacredly and deeply pledged to the strong necessities of the country, was summarily broken, like a rotten staff; that the great measures of relief for which the People had so sternly struggled, were by him-a leader!-contemptuously snatched from their victorious hands; that all the cherished principles, by proclaiming which he had alone dared to creep into a position to stumble upon power, were one by one blown away, like words spoken upon the wind; that rapidly, beyond all precedent, the floodgates of corruption were thrown open-the Curule Chair surrounded by unblushing claimants for offices not yet empty, quick credence given to every tale that could please the Ro

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man's' ear, men thrust from their seats without fault, to make room for others that came without merit, and power and place everywhere bought and sold, openly, as money in the Jewish Temple ;that his own provident cupidity, meanwhile, grew rich from sales, and contracts, and other public services; thatworse than this-the ancient dignity of the Commonwealth was constantly and recklessly violated, and the lustre of the national name began to sully, so that no citizen of this Republic could for years, at home or abroad, speak of its Chief Ruler without a feeling of shame; and—more than all-that he dared to encroach upon the sacred Constitution, and paid his hollow court to a hollow party, only less unprincipled than himself grasping idly at still larger power, like an infant for added baubles which it has not skill to hold :-in view of these things, and remembering that no keeping of silence can avail to blot them from the Records of History, it seemed well not to appear to other nations and other times insensible, at least, to our disgrace-and with hasty justice, as the public career of this man closed-how differently from its beginning!-we sat down with an indignant pen, and this line from the Great Dramatist before us—

"We are peremptory to destroy this traitorous viper."

But while our pen yet lingered on the bitter words of our motto, still another mood came over us. We were struck with profound sorrow, that any man

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