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. J. J. Crittenden, Kentucky. J. Macpherson Berrien, Georgia. Members of the House. Garret Davis, Kentucky. Charles Hudson, Massachusetts. C. H. Carroll, New-York. William A. Moseley, New-York. Robert C. Schenck, Ohio. J. Phillips Phoenix, New-York City. Earnestly approving of the plan of such a national organ, long needed and of manifest impor tance, 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 Union. Hamilton Fish, of New York City. J. Collamer, of Vermont. W. S. Archer, of Virginia. 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 guidance 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 le gislation 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 161, BROADWAY; AND 6, WATERLOO PLACE, REGENT-STREET, LONDON. PRINCIPAL AGENTS.-Vermont, V. Harrington, Burlington; Boston, Jordan, Swift & Co.; Rhode Island, B. Cranston, Providence; Zieber & Co., Philadelphia; Shurtz & Taylor, Baltimore, Edward O. Jenkins, Printer, 144 Nassau-street. After July 1st, the postage on the REVIEW will certainly not be over 7 cents, probably not over 6 cents for any distance. The first volume of the AMERICAN REVIEW closes with the present number, and we take this occasion to say, that we think we can congratulate our friends upon the prospects of the work, as we certainly have to thank them for their effective interest in its success. The very great importance of the enterprise has been from the first universally acknowledged. The Press have spoken firmly-for which we tender a grateful acknowledgment; but a greater proof of the prevalence of feeling in its favor lies in the fact, that notwithstanding the darkness and despondency following an unlooked for defeat, its remunerative circulation has approached to 3,000—and that in great part by voluntary subscription. But our readers must be aware that this is not enough to make the work a truly effective national organ. We state the case simply as it is. We have done what we could; but what with agency discounts, inevitable losses, and the great expense of the work itself, a circulation of some 2,700 will not allow us to recompense contributors adequately; and without such compensation to them, no Magazine can be effectively sustained. If our friends will aid us in raising its circulation to two or three times its present list-which can be done, if they but will it—we unhesitatingly pledge ourselves to produce a more powerful, a more generous, a more truly national periodical, than has yet arisen, and lived, in the country. We would add, that one great bar to a wider support of the work will be taken away by the new Post Office Law, which will reduce its postage, we believe, to 6 cents monthly. We intended to have given an index to Vol. I, with most of the names of its writers, but were unable for want of space. It will be given in the next number. Dissatisfaction, we were sorry to see, was expressed by some, in respect to the Engraving of John Quincy Adams. We have only to say, that it was executed from a fine head of the Ex-President, (in the Historical Society,) much admired by himself, Mr. Webster, and many other most reliable judges. Of this painting the engraving is a perfect similitude, and is considered by the personal friends and relatives of Mr. Adams to be the best ever executed of him. N. B. The Copy-right of the article entitled "MYSTERY OF INIQUITY," has been secured by the author, according to law. A full edition, with emendations, is already in press, and will be issued in two or three days. ERRATUM.--Page 574, first column, twelfth line from the bottom, after "shall” insert "not," so as to read " shall NOT take." A PASSAGE OF THE SECRET HISTORY OF AMERICAN POLITICS, ILLUSTRATED BY A VIEW OF METROPOLITAN SOCIETY. (Continued from page 453.) THE GREAT POLITICAL CONTEST OF 1844 was preluded by a series of minor circumstances, local in their origin and character, which gave direction, form and effect to the criminal agencies called into action through that momentous strife. However novel the inventions of fraud, however unexpected the new national questions finally presented, however sudden the changes of candidates and of the relative positions of parties, the incidents which controlled the great event were all antecedent to 1844. The great battle was lost and won, beyond retrieval, in 1842 and 1843. These local preliminary facts, therefore, have an import essential to a correct deduction of the effects from their proper causes. The autumnal election of 1843, in New York, first developed one of these essential facts. The success which was secured by wholesale fraud and perjury in the spring, brought with it varied and conflicting obligations. In the dominant party, two mutually hostile elements had been for a long time struggling into separate existence. It was ever the policy, and often the successful agency of that party, to array against each other the various classes of the community,-to excite and wage a "social war" between portions of the people distinguished from each other by occupation, property, position and rank, interest, religious opinion or place of birth. At one time, it was-the supposed natural and universal hostility of laborers against their employers, and the professional and educated classes; at another time, it was the imagined antipathy of mechanics and all other classes against the merchants and bankers; at another time, it was-of the debtors against the creditors, the borrowers against the lenders; at another time, it was of the stock-jobbers and capitalists against the speculative and enterprising; at another time, it was-of the successful and prosperous men of business against the unfortunate and the bankrupts; at another time, it was-the merchants, and especially the importers, against the mechanics and manufacturers; but, very uniformly, their great cry was-" the poor against the rich ;" and it was always -the Romish sectarian against the Protestant, and the foreign-born against the native of a republican country. Feeding thus the morbid and ravenous appetites of the basest and most malevolent, with mere clamors and with empty denunciations varying in note with every breeze, they had gradually, insensibly aroused among themselves a spirit of intolerance and animosity between classes, which finally became as perilous to the harmony and success of the party, as it had been to the peace and good order of the community. The mass of naturaliz ed voters were for a long time studiously trained to habits of disorder and insolence in their political action, and were continually taught to regard the peaceable portion of the community and the party associated with them, and the majority of native citizens, as their natural enemies, hostile to their continued enjoyment of equal political privileges and jealous of their intrusion. Assurances were multiplied to them that the party with which they generally acted contained their only friends; and that their only security for the maintenance of their rights, was the ascendency of that party. The strong religious sympathies and antipathies of those who were of the Romish sect were continually played upon; and the great portion of the Protestants, particularly of the more cultivated evangelical order, who predominated in the opposing party, were charged with desiring and designing to deprive Papists of their due share of the advantages of the public systems of education, and to convert the legislation of the State and the distribution of its bounties, to the dissemination of religious opinions hostile to the faith of Rome, among children in the public schools. The Papists, thus excited, became clamorous for new privileges and safeguards, which they finally extorted from their reluctant guardians, who never intended to put themselves to this trouble for them, or to do more than keep awake their hostility to the other party, and retain the great mass of naturalized citizens in support of their own schemes for obtaining and retaining political power. The services of their "adopted" friends, at the polls, in public meetings and in riots, were paid only with fine speeches, professions of peculiar affection and admiration for foreigners," and innumerable declamations against "the moneyed aristocracy," as the natural and deadly foes of the democracy and the hard-fisted working-men. Of the "spoils of victory" won by their labors, they seldom received even a pittance. From office they were almost uniformly excluded by those of American birth, who used them but as tools and stepping-stones for their personal advantage. Year after year, the accession of the peculiar friends of the "foreigners" to power brought but this result in spite of the dissatisfaction consequently accumulating. The time came at last, when this unequal management of patronage could be endured no longer. Emboldened by their success in obtaining special legislation for sectarian purposes, through their rebellious dictation in 1841, they took occasion, on the eve of the Charter Election of 1843, to threaten another schism and a separate organization, by which their previous political associates would be inevitably overthrown, and the party usually in apparent minority, placed in power almost without occasion for effort. Their ultimatum to the chief candidates and responsible organizations of the party was the demand of an unequivocal promise of "a fair division of the spoils" with the largest number of offices given to the naturalized citizens, who for some years had given more than half and sometimes nearly two-thirds of the lawful votes of that party. They claimed, with very little exaggeration, a force of not less than 10,000 voters of foreign nativity, entitled by every republican usage and rule to more than half the emoluments of the government; and as they were confessedly deficient in qualified candidates for their due proportion of the more honorable and higher-salaried offices, this was to be compensated by yielding to them a still larger number of appointments humbler in rank and pay. These claims, enforced by threats which they had less than two years before shown to be of serious significance, were, of necessity, recognized by the powers that were to be; and secret assurances were given to the claimants, that they should no longer be wronged of their share of the pecuniary benefits of success, and that they should have a full and fair apportionment of offices and employments. This contract was fulfilled in good faith by the dominant party, immediately after their accession to power. A violation or imperfect performance of it would have exposed them to certain overthrow, and political death from the vengeance of their naturalized friends. When the usual sweeping removal of all the incumbents took place, hundreds of appointments which were demanded and expected, as a matter of course, by faithful partisans of American birth, were conferred upon persons of foreign origin and accent, odious to the great mass of their political associates, and despised by them for their brutality, ignorance, and their enslavement to an obnoxious religion. Watchmen, lamp-lighters, street-sweepers, bell-ringers, dock-masters, &c., &c., &c., were found almost exclusively among a class who had before been accounted by |