The people may have faults, but they should never be trifled with. I think Mr. Pitt's quotation in the British parliament of Mr. Prior's couplet for the husband and wife, to apply to the course which the king and ministry of England should pursue to the then colonies of the _now_ United States, might be a genuine rule of action for some of the _breath-made_ men in high places to use towards the posterity of this noble, daring people:-- Be to her faults a little blind; Be to her virtues very kind. We have had Democratic Presidents, Whig Presidents, a pseudo-Democratic-Whig President, and now it is time to have _a President of the United States;_ and let the people of the whole Union, like the inflexible Romans, whenever they find a _promise_ made by a candidate that is not _practiced_ as an officer, hurl the miserable sycophant from his exaltation, as God did Nebuchadnezzar, to crop the grass of the field with a beast's heart among the cattle. Mr. Van Buren said, in his inaugural address, that he went "into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every attempt, on the part of Congress, to abolish slavery in the district of Columbia, against the wishes of the slave holding States, and also with a determination equally decided to resist the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists." Poor little Matty made this rhapsodical sweep with the fact before his eyes, that the State of New York, his native State, had abolished slavery without a struggle or a groan. Great God, how independent! From henceforth slavery is tolerated where it exists, constitution or no constitution, people or no people, right or wrong: _Vox Matti--Vox Diaboli_ ("the voice of Matti"--"the voice of the Devil.") And, peradventure, his great "sub-treasury" scheme was a piece of the same mind. But the man and his measures have such a striking resemblance to the anecdote of the Welshman and his cart-tongue, that when the Constitution was so long that it allowed slavery at the capitol of a free people, it could not be cut off; but when it was so short that it needed a _sub-treasury_ to save the funds of the nation, _it could be spliced!_ Oh, granny, granny, what a long tail our puss has got! (As a Greek might say, _Hysteron proteron_, (the cart before the horse)). But his mighty whisk through the great national fire, for the presidential chestnuts, _burnt the locks of his glory with the blaze of his folly_!