Newspaper Page Text
From the Boston Allas.
PRECIOUS RELICS.
A venerable friend of ours, who is curi
ous ill such matters, informs us thut the
remnants which yet remain of ilie unco
powerful tribes of Indians in our vicinity, I
have letters which were addressed to them j
prior to and during our Revolutionary strug
gle—and which letters they keep sacred,
as among the most cherished relics of their
tribes, and which they now adduce as evi
dence of the weight and consequence which
they once held in the scale of human af
fairs.
The Passamaquoddy & Penobscot tribes
have several of these interesting documents
—and our friend has furnished us with a
copy of one of them, a letter written by
General Washington to their tribe, early in
the war. We do not recollect that Mr.
Sparks, in his excellent and remarkably
thorough collection of the writings of Wash
ington, has adverted to the existence of any
such letters:
“ By his Excellency George Washing
ton, Esquire, General and Commander-in-
Chief of the Armies of North America.
Friends and Brothers : It gives me great
pleasure to hear that you are determined
to keep fast hold of the chain of friendship
which has so long existed between yon and
your brothers who inhabit this country.
You are our brothers and countrymen.
Let us keep the chain bright for ever. Our
fathers who live over the great water, want
10 take from us our lands and our homes,
our wives and our children. They are
grown old and covetous and wicked We
are grown up to manhood. We are strong
and will not let them hurt you nor our
selves. We don’t want you to take up the
hatchet for us, except you choose it; but
we desire that you will not assist our one
mies who want to destroy us and you.
We will protect you and we will assist
you, for you are our brothers.
Your brothers of Massachusetts Bay.
have, to serve you, established a Truck
bouse and Truck-master at Me.chias who
will supply you with every thing you want.
He will be reasonable and not impose up
on you.
Given under my hand, at H ad-Quart
ers, Cambridge, this 20th dav of February,
1776. Signed G. WASHINGTON.
To our Friends and Brothers of the Pas
samaquoddy Tribe, Machias.
, REPEAL.
The Irish Repeal Association of Charles
ton, recently held a meeting- to take into
consideration the speech of Mr. O’Con
well before the Repeal Association of Dub
lin, wherein that individual most grossly
calumniated this country, particularly the
slave-holding portion of it. Several addres
ses were made and a suitable report and re
solutions adopted, dissolving the Associa
tion, and after paying its debts, directing
that the surplus funds bo given to the La
dies’Fuel Society, and the Society of (lie
Sisters of Charity.
The Repeal Association of Baltimore has
likewise had a meeting on the same subject,
at which resolutions were passed condem
ning Mr. O Connell’s course in the most
decided and unequivocal language. We
subjoin the two closing resolutions:
Resolved, That we, Irishmen, now the
adopted citizens of America, enjoying all
the rights and privileges of freemen—we
who have found an asylum in this land of
liberty, and protection beneath the flag that
Mr. O’Connell has wantonly assailed, have
heard with astonishment his call upon us
“to come out of such a land.” Let our in
dignant response be this, “America is the
land of our adoption and the country of our
children ; in it we have found an asylum
and a home, which the arm of constituded
power dares not invade, and the arrogance
of wealtli and accidental superiority is
bound to respect; we have found political
institutions that have recognized us as man,
and thrown open to us all every avenue to
wealth, influence and power ; given us a
full participation in administering the af
fairs of this great people, and constituted
each and all of us as guardians of our own
rights, and independent architects of our
own fortune, we will never forsake it.; we
have sworn to defend it, its laws, institu
tions, and the integrity ofits union ; and we
will do so with the last drop of our t>b>od.”
Resolved, That deploring the necessity
which has forced upon us this tone of con
detonation in relation to the leader of the
Irish people, this association cannot con
ceive it diminishes in any degree the just
claims which that suffering and injured
people have upon our sympathy, but that
wc arc prepared to extend to them the band
■of friendship; and while their cause con
tinues asjust, legal and constitutional as it
now is, and until we are convinced that the
sentiments of Mr. CTConnei! are those of
the entire people of Ir land, we will contin
ue as an association, and aid them in their
peaceful efforts.
Some of the Irish paper;, devoted to the
cause of Repeal of the Union between Ire
land and Great Britain, congratulate the
country upon the coming into it of
bodies of British soldiers: The soldiers
are sent of course, for the purpose of over
awing thejualconti nts, and in pursuance of
the declarations of Lord Wellington and
Sir Robert Peel, that the Union would be
maintained at all hazards. But the idea
seems to be enjprtained in Ireland, that the
soldiers, in their intercourse with the poo
pie of the country, will become indoctrin
ated with the liberal principles of the day,
have their sympathies excited in behalf of
jlreland, and be more likely to turn their
arms against the Government titan against
/lie people, if affairs reach that crisi
There may be truth in the suggestion.—
Such things have happened as a soldiery I
raised fpr the defence of the crown, deser- |
ring in favor ofthe popular cause, in the]
hour of trial. The sending of British troops i
nm !:■’ ‘and may, • he"efore, hasten irnpor- !
tant and interesting events which are al- I
ready casting their shadows, into the fu- |
tore.—A'. O. Bul/rlion.
‘Texas and Slavery. —The National Vin
dicator, a Government journal published at
Washington, Texa*, in the course of an ar
tide vindicating President Houston from
the attacks of the New Orleans press, has
the following paragraph:
“We beg leave most distinctly to state
that the only man ever connected with the
Government of Texas who favored these
[abolition] doctrines was Gen. Janies Ham
ilton, the Lamar Loan Commissioner. —
When Gen. Hamilton was in London ne
gotiating the loan, he entered into corres
pondence with the members of the Aboli
tio.i Society of Exeter Hall, the end of
which was the selling of the wild lands of
Texas, for his own and confederate’s bene
fit, with false, or, at least, second or third
survey titles, at the moderate price of $5
per acre. And to engage this powerful so
ciety in favor of his selfish ends, he offered
them a quid pro quo, in the shape of assur
ing them that they could easily abolish sla
very in Texas, and he would use his ut
most aid in effecting an object so desirable.
We have printed documents to show for this,
printed at the lime and on the spot. They
will be published if the worthy editors de
sire it. F'or this, among other misdemean
ors, Hamilton was dismissed by General
Houston as a dangerous man, who would
not scruple to sacrifice the interests of
country to his own.”
Free Trade. —We find in the Montreal
Transcript, a very good illustration of the
principles of free trade, applied to that Pro
vin under present circumstances :
Togrant a free trade appears very like
the bargain between two farmers, one of
whom was remarkable for the goodness,
and the other for his total want of fences.—
The latter proposed t opasture in common.
and thereby save a great annual expense in
keeping up fences, which, after all, when
looked at on general principles, argued the
latter, could not but be viewed as unneces
sary barriers.
The former answered—l have no objec
tion to allow my cattle to run in your fields,
when your pasture happens to be better
than mine ; but notwithstanding general
principles, I shall take care that my fences
shall at all times keep out j our cattle from
my pastures.
Not unlike this is the system ofgranting
free trade to nations who still continue pro
tective or prohibitive duties. When their
own markets are best, they keep their pro
ductions at home ; but when the prices are
greater in a foreign market, they have no
objection to supply it. This may be a
homely comparison, but there is a good
deal of truth in it nevertheless ; and all the
fine-spun theories of free trade, of buying
in the cheapest and selling in the dearest
market, are only theories, and very falla
cious ones, as long as one of the parties can
regulate his own market by piotective du
ties. on grounds directly opposed to those
practised hv Ins generally unprincipled as
sociates.
An Interesting Circumstance. —General
Dearborn has communicated the following
to the Boston Courier:
“When I entered the room at Concert
Hall, on the morning of the 17th, where the
members of the Society of Cincinnati were
to asserflble for the purpose sf joining the
procession, I found several old soldiers of
the revolution, who had come there by mis
take, instead of going to the State House.
While in conversation with one of the
members of the society, l was supprised to
hear the notes of a fife in the room, and
turning in the direction from whence they
proceeded, discovered an aged man, seated
among the old soldiers, who was perform
ing on that instrument. I immediately
went and took a seat beside him and listen
ed until he had concluded playing Wash
ington’s March, when the followingconver
sation ensued :
Were you a fifer in the revolutionary
army? ‘I was.’ In what corps? ‘Nixon’s
Regiment and Nixon’s brigade. How long
did you serve? ‘Three years. I was in
the campaigns in the Jerseys, and I was
present at the execution of Major Andre.
How old are you ? ‘I am in my 83d year.’
Where do you live? ‘ln Springfield.’—
What is your name? Ferry.’
He then played Yankee Doodle, and re
markably well. He had a grandson with
him, who appeared to be ten or twelve years
old, and who had accompanied hisgrandfa
ther, apparently, to take care of him, as the
veteran was feeble, and so deaf as to ren
der it difficult toconverse with him.
How remarkable that after the lapse of
time which had intervened since the close
of the revolution, there should be heard, in
the Society of the Cincinnati, on the 68th
anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, a
fifer of Washington’s army playing the
march of that illustrious patriot, and the
spirit stirring national air of Yankee Doo
lie. which had so often cheered the Amer
ican camp during the glorious struggle for
liberty and national independence.
- ■
Severe Sentence. —lt will be remember
ed that sometime since, Mr. Jacob Stan
hope, a respectable and industrious butcher
of Wilmington, Dtd. was most brutally at
tacked and beaten by a negro man named
Uriah Hinsen, who immediately absconded,
but was fortunately subsequently arrested.
On Wednesday last he was tried in that
town for assault with intent to kill, convic
ted, and sentenced as follows.
‘ 1 hour in the pillory—l2o lashes on the
bare back—2 years and 6 months impris
onment—37 years sold as a servant and
$12,000 fine.
This is certainly a severe sentence, but
as crime of every hue is increasing in our j
country with fearful rapidity, it is the boun- !
den duty of the Judges of our courts, to in- i
flict a corresponding severity of sentence.!
Nothing else will suffice.— Balt. Clip.
THE REVOLUTIONARY PATRIOTS
AT BUNKER HILL.
One of the most pleasing traits of the late
celebration in Massachusetts was the pres
ence of tho Hundred and Ten veterans of
the Revolutionary struggle, who formed a
part of the procession.
The papers have abounded with anec
dotes of these interesting veterans, whose
actions on the time-honoured mount during
the delivery of the splendid oration of Mr.
Webster, were all remarked with deep in
terest by a multitude of spectators. But
nothing gave me more pleasure on the oc
casion than a conversation which we had
with an old acquaintance of our childhood,
who in those days all were wont to call
“ Miller Adams.” This old gentleman is
now about eight v-four years of age, and is
a resident of Newbury Oldtown, in Essex
county, Massachusetts. He wasa Revolu
tionary soldier, and is now enjoying a pen
sion from government. He is in full pos
session of his faculties, and converses with
cheerfulness on “the times that tried men’s
souls.” Indeed, it seems a great satisfac
tion to him to do so. He was engaged in
the military operations in Rhode Island, and
was at West Point at the detection of Gen.
Arnold’s treason.
The Newbury port [lerald relates an in
teresting legend as to Braddock’s defeat,
which is handed down to us, through this
Mr. Adams, as related to him by a veteran
engaged in that memorable incident in the
Old French War. As we heard it from
the “ Old Miller’s” own lips but a few days
since, we can vouch for its authenticity.
“ It will be recollected by many that
Governor Everett, in some of his research
es, obtained information which led him to
suppose that Braddock was killed by his
own men. This is fully confirmed by the
siatement of Mr. Adams, which tye derived
from Capt. llsley, of Newbury. The
French General, Dieskau, who defeated
Braddock, was himself defeated the next
year by Sir William Johnson ; and Uslev
being a soldier under Johnson at that time,
became acquainted with a man who was
with Braddock, and who was standing by
when that General fell. He stated that the
principal officers had previously advised a
retreat, which the General would not listen
to ; and after nearly all the principal offi
cers had been killed, a captain approached
the general and renewed the advice for a
retreat; whereupon Braddock immediately
shot down the captain. The captain bad a
brother who was a lieutenant, and was
standing near at the time, and who, upon
seeing his brother fall, raised his carbine
and shot Braddock. Several of the soldiers
saw the whole of this scene, but they said
nothing concerning it, as a word from them
would have sealed the fate of the lieuten
ant. Braddock wore a coat of mail in
front, which would turn a musket ball, and
the ball which proved fatal to him entered
his back and was stopped in front of the bo
dy by this coat of mail,
Cftpi. Haley, from whom Mr. Adams had
this account, was with Gen. Johnston in the
French war and afterwards drove a meal
wagon in this town, which he relinquished
to Mr. Adams in 1790. He was captain
of the far-famed Silver Greys, which were
raised in this town. A brother of his was
one of the most distinguished officers of the
revolutionary war, and on one occasion led
on a forlorn hope, which after its departure
was recalled by the commanding general,
who, on deliberation, came to the conclu
sion that tlie object to be attained would re
quire too great a sacrifice of life to be at
tempted.
Just before the battle between Dieskau
and Johnston, the French commander sent
a flag of truce to Johnston, telling him that
he should sleep in the tent of the latter that
night. Capt. llsley was wont to remark on
this story, that the Frenchman did sleep
there, but he had a sentinel to guard him,
and was badly wounded. The French
force which attacked Johnston in his en
trenchment was nearly annihilated in this
battle.”
Chinese Etymologies. —A writer in the
Boston Courier, who takes the signature
Choong Kwoh, says:
When the thirteen stripes and stars first
appeared at Canton, much curiosity was
excited among the people. News was cir
culated tiiat a strange ship had arrived
from the further end of the world, bearing
a flag as “beautiful as a flower.” Every
body went to see the kawkee chuen, or ‘flow
er-flag ship.’ This name at once estab
lished itself in the language, and America
is now called kawkee kwoh, the “flower flag
country;” and an American, kaw kee kwoli
xjin, “flowerflag countryman”—a more,
complimentary designation than that of
“red-hcaded barbarian,” the name first be
stowed upon the Dutch.
It is well known that all proper names in
Chinese are significant, every character in
the language expressing a tiling or an idea,
as well as a sound. There aro consequent
ly no unmeaning names in Chinese corres
ponding to our Tom, Dick, and Harry,
Jones, Davis, and Jenkins ; but a man’s
narne must be something like House or
Barnes, White or Brown, Flood or Stone,
Wood or Waters. Foreign names, howev
er unmeaning originally, acquire, when
written in Chiuese, a significance which is
often strikingly curious.
Yankee Doodle and Washington are the
most remarkableofthese etymologies which
have yet come under my notice. The two
Chinese characters Yang kee, signify “the
flag of the ocean”—a most appropriate
name for the banner which is now lobe seen
wherever there is blue water.
The Chinese have no D, and “Yankee
Doodle” would be written Yankee too-to-le,
“the flag ofthtf ocean, Sovereign people of
the world !” This is an omen sufficiently
flattering, and if the Chinese do not suspect
there js “something in it,” we must give
them credit for being less superstitious than
many other people.
VWashington” is no less happy in his
transition into Chinese, for Wo-shing-tong, j
as it would be written, signifies no less than )
“rescue and glory at last. ‘ - Could the ‘
namo of the father of his country be expres
sed with more felicitous truth ? -
The Chinese attach great importance to
expressive ami high-sounding names ; and
an ambassador .to the court ot 1\ king,
whose name had not something imposing in
Chinese, would be received pretty much in
the way that Bubb Doddington anticipated
when he thoughtofgoing minister to Spain.
The commissioner from the United States
is very luckily gifted in this respect, for
Cu-slung means “ancient glory”—a name
that will satisfy the most fastidious courtier
at the Mean Tang, and augurs a prosperous
issue to the “whole pigeon,” as the Chinese
would say.
Chinese lias been said to boa language
almost impossible to be learned by any for
eigner. This, the writer pronounces to be
a monstrous exaggeration, and affirms that
it is not more difficult than Greek or Ger
man. He adds, that China is full of books
produced by a literature which is three
thousand years old ; and he suggests that
the liberal Boston merchants should ship a
few books for America along with their car
goes of tea.— Eve. Post.
How to write Poetry fast, if not well. —
Put on a straight jacket so constructed as
to leave the right arm freo ; stick a flannel
cup saturated with hartshorn and spirits of
turpentine on your head to make the ideas
scratch about briskly ; drink alcohol and
creosote sufficient to set the eyes rolling in
“fine frenzy;” put on tight boots filled
with peas—and then, pen, ink and paper
being ready, sit down on a hard bench
stuck full of pins and needles, and the waj r
rhyme and blank verse will fly from your
pen’s point will be a curiosity to Hottentots.
Preserving Eggs. —lt would be quite a
valuable discovery to farmers in the neigh
borhood of a large market,’ as well as to
household economy, if a cheap and easy
method of preserving eggs could be prac
tised, whereby the price would be more c
qualized through the arious seasons of the
year. Reaumer, the inventor of the ther
mometer which hears his name, tried ma
ny experiments for this purpose, and found
that the cheapest and most effectual method
was to apply oil or grease, with which they
were rubbed, or into which they were dip
ped. He found that they were preserved
quite as well by the thinnest layer of fat,
as by the thickest coating, so that every
part of the shell, (which is porous and ad
mits air.) was covered. All sort of fat,
grease or oil, he found well adapted to pre
serve eggs, & he kept them in this way, lie
says, for nine months, as fresh and good as
the day they were laid. Will some of our
readers try a few dozen in this way, and
let us know the result.— Newburyport Her
ald.
That Sheep Story. —ln his speech here,
Gen. Saunders related an anecdote about
Mr- Macon and his sheep, which we hope
he wfll tell wherever it goes. Iris dry, to
be sure, but the Whigs will laugh at it, if
the Locofocos wont. After premising that
his object was to illustrate the propriety of
adhering literally to the very letter of the
Constitution, wo may relate the story,
which ran somewhat thus :
Mr. Macon, on starting for Congrpss on
one occasion, gave his overseer written di
rections as to the management ofhis plan-
tation during his absence which he calcu
lated would not be longer than May. One
item tis the instructions was, that his sheep
were to be kept in a certain‘field. Weil,
the overseer obeyed instructions to the let
ter, and the old gentleman, when he came
home, at a somewhat later period than lie
had expected, called for an account of hit
stewardship. Among the rest, “how are
the sheep?” demanded he. “Dead, sir.”—
“Dead ! how’s that ?” “Why, sir, you told
me to keep them in the field, and when the
Summer came on, the water dried up,, and
they all died.” But why didn’t you move
them to another field!” “Oh sir,” I looked
into the paper you gave me, and it wasn’t
thar.”
We must say that we have seldom seen
a joke so much relied on by its author, so
little relished by his friends. They ap
peared to be sensible, if the General was
not, that by his own showing, his great fa
vorite, Calhoun, has proved a most unfaith
ful overseer ; for he lias advocated Protec
tion, Tariff, Bank, and Interna! Improve
ments, though the General asserts, and
every body is willing to admit, that neither
Tariff, Bank, nor Internal improvements, is
once mentioned in the Constitution. They
doubi.ess thought, too, that rather than all
j the sheep should have died, the overseer
would have done well to exercise a little
.j common sense ; just as, under the 17th pa
ragraph of the Bth section of the Ist article
of the Constitution, Congress is vested with
power to use a little discretion to do what
“may bo necessary and proper” for car
rying on tho government. But the Gen
eral’s idea is, that the Government had bet
ter be permitted to die. than do any thing
not expressly laid down in the constitution.
Whenever any great good is to be ac
complished—the sheep to be preserved
from perishing for want of water—up starts
some Jjocofoco overseer with objections to
the exercise of a “doubtful power,”—but
it’s all right when Jackson and Van Buren
violate the Constitution to destroy the pub
lic prosperity.— Fayetteville N. C. Obser
ver.
A Question to be answered.—A Galena
(Illinois) paper adverting tothe popular ar
gument that the consumer has to pay on
every article upon which a duty is levied,
the amount of that duty in addition to the
cost of produQlion and transportation, asks,
why is it then, that Lead only brings 2 1-2
cents per pound, when the duty upon it is
3 cents ?
The Philadelphia Forum has discovered
that the real cause which induces John Ty
ler, Jr., the Private Secretary, to leave the
country and go to China with Mr. Cushing,
is the fear that the seventeen year locusts
are going to devour every thing green An
this country *
From the Richmond Compiler.
THE PARADE ABOUT PRESI
DENTS. ,
We observe that few papers have any
thing to say as to principle of the pompous
honors paid to the President of the United
States in his journeys about the country —
i. e., nothing as to the propriety of such
exhibitions as a custom of our country. —
The newspaper comments have generally
savored of the feeling entertained by the
editors towardsMr. Tyler. Mr. Jones, the
accomplished editor of the Madisonian, for
instance, thought nothing in the tide of time
equalled the spontaneous burst of patriotic
feeling and popular esteem, displayed in
the public honors accorded to the President
on his route northward. The presses, de
voted to the Administration, indulged'in the
same vein of exultation. The Whig pa
pers, which despise the President, condem
ned the scenes ofthe“Pilgrim’s Progress,’*
as they termed it, because Mr. Tyler was
unworthy of them. Some papers, again,
thought that the honors were not all inten
ded for the man, hut for the office. In re
ply to these, Mr. Jones facetiously inquired
if the young ladies who kissed Mr. Tyler,
kissed the office or the man ?
We should have been gratified if, amidst
the comments, there had been something
more said on the true question—tite propri
ety of these public exhibitions, thispagean
try and pomp, in honor of a public officer.
Are they in keeping with our institutions?
Do they comport with the independence
and self respect of the people, the source
of power and authority? These are the
questions.
We are against them on every ground.
As an honor to the office, they are not con
sistent with our idea of the genius of our in
stitutions. A marked difference between
our government and a monarchy, ought to
he that our highest officer is not shielded by
his office from public examination into his
acts, and the amenability ofall his dclin
quences to the public censure. The deifi
cation of the office, and the necessity of be
stowing upon it, through him, the highest
marks of popular respect, would go far to
obliterate this important distinction—a dis
tinction by which are strengthened the in
centives to virtue, in the rules of our coun
try.
They are unbecoming in us and unneces
sary as a means of honoring a Chief Magis
trate. They are unbecoming, because they
represent us in an attitude which detracts
from our self-respect. While they cannot
exalt the officer—because already raised
to the highest place to which our favor and
confidence can lift him—we ourselves are
humbled. They are necessary, as we have
already honored him by placing him in of
fice, and we should endeavor to keep in
mind that under our institutions the people
can honor an individual in no way so much
as to elect him from among thousands to.
preside over them. Once so exalted, he
•should regard himself as having attained
the highest pinnacle of honor at the hands
of the people. Beyond this the people
themselves should esteem any demonstra
tion superrogatory-: incapable of elevating
the officer, but widening the distance be
tween him and them, by degrading them
selves.
There is something decidedly farcical in
our eyes, in n multitude of men moving in
procession, hallooing and whooping at the
top of their voices, bearing banners, shoo
ting cannon, and so on, in honor of a man in
our day. If a Washington were receiving
such honors, there would be enough of
4 ::‘ness and grandeur in the character of
the man to give to tho scene the necessary
degret of gravity to prevent it from beoom
ipu a farce. There would be enough of
natione.i gratitude due him to make the ex
ini ition sincere, and worthy the bestowers
and the recipient. But in our modern day
popular demonstrations are altogether far.
cecal.
These honors to Presidents are of modern
invention ; they were declined by the Pre
sidents who preceded General Jackson, and
to those who did not decline them, they
were not accorded. People did not think
of such a thing. The disposition then was
to censure Presidents for leaving Washing
ton, rather than to decoy them off to be
shown and parade about the country.
This feeling was carried by the opposi
tion to Mr. Adams to the most insulting and
scandalous extremes, whenever he took a
short relaxation from tho duties ofhis office.
Witness the advertisement, published in
August, 1828, by a New York Jackson
paper, and which was copied throughout
the United Sta&s by the presses of the Jack
son party, some of them adding the cut of
a runaway negro with a bundle on his back f
Home Thrusts. —When you hear a Dem
ocrat railing at the tariff, just ask him how
it happens that cotton bagging, which used
to sell for 18, 20, 30, 40, and even 45 cents,
may now be bought for 12 i cents ? It does
not result from a decrease in the demand,
for the consumption of it is increasing.
Just ask him how it is that rope which is
subject to an enormous tariff, is greatly
cheaper than it was ever known, and may
be bought at 5 cents a pound ? Ask him
how it happens that iron, upon which he
will tell you there is a frightful tariff, may
now be bought for $65 a S7O a ton. Ask
how it is, that every thing that we buy un
der the operation of this tariff, is cheaper
than we have ever before bought .them. If
the tariff is a monster, why has it produced
no unpleasant oppression ?
Pickensvillc Register.
The Democratic Cauldron. —The multi
farious and heterogeneous ingredients of the
strange and troubled compound that boils,
bubbles and frets in the depths of the Loco
foco cauldron, are thus summed up by a
writer in*the Carolina Watchman :
Kye of Wright, and toe of Van,
Heart of torv Buchanan,
Wool of Dick, nose of Cass,
Kars of oid Virginia’s ass,
Throw therein some Lion’s fat,
Add thereto, a Rogue’s cravat,
Cool it. with a Traitor’s hlood,
Heedless his Ckmntrr’t'pood-
From, the Richmond Whig.
PRECEPT AND PRACTICE.
Adrnirublc is it to see with what facility
tho fanatics of the Constitution, the over
righteous of doctrine—who aro always ma
king a din over even the most ticklish points
of constitutional law, pocket their con
sciences, whenever a case comes where it
profits them or their party to be unscrupu
lous, and absolutely forget that there is any
such thing as a constitution in this countrv“.
Os this truth, we might cite, out of the pastT”
instances a good many more than we choose
to afflict our readers with : but just now we
will content ourselves with pointing out one
freshly occurring.
In that Carolinian land were people
breakfast on thrice boulted inductions, lunch
it on analogy, dine on a distinction, and
sup on a syllogism, a meeting of the ii£jilus
ultra Demonocracy was held not long since,
for the purpose of settling some high ques
tion about the fit, the right and the detnon
ocratic time for holding that party Conven
tion which is meant to spare the people tho
trouble of electing another President of the
U. States, and to do it for them, some six or
eight months before that constitutional
shadow, the Electorial College* shall as
semble to record what an irregular, unau
thorized body, superseding them in their,
great function, has prescribed. They met,,
we say ; and in the Report which they a
dopted, we find the following curious avow,
al of the mischief and the illegality of that
which they are doing. Speaking of the a
buses of the old caucus system, and its a
bandonpient, tlfey pass to the prevailing
party organ, a Convention ; in regard to
which, they deliver themselves as follows :
“This new” plan is subject to many objec
tions, as must indeed be every scheme to
supersede the Constitution under the pre
tence of carrying out its provisions. It
should he resorted to only in cases of abso
lute necessity ; and as it is in effect an in
terpolation in the constitution,or ratiier a
substitute for the constitutional provision,
this National Convention in its organization
and action should be made to conform as
nearly.as possible to the principles of that
provision for which it is intended 1 as a sub
stitute. The delegates should therefore
equal iti number the Representatives and
Senators for each State, and vote as pre
scribed by the 2d article of the Constitu
tion, and the 12th ar'ticleofthe amendments;
that is, the vote should be per capita, and
each vote count for itself. Upon an oppo
site plan it is easy to perceive that two or
three great States, as Virginia and New
York, absorbing tlfeir minorities in the ma
jorily vote, would control the elections ; and
the smaller States, whose only chance of
being heard results from the divisions among
their more powerful neighbors, would he
mere idle spectators, while the ballot was
recorded, which fixed t.ieir destinies.”
How very conscientious! “Certainly,
(says they.) it is ail wrong—-“ir. complete
derogation and defeat of the Constitution :
hut what then? It suits the Democratic
party —that is, our portion of it; and ifin
tends, therefore, todoit. What’s the Con
stitution and its sacredness, in comparison
with the success of the Democratic party
candidate?—that is if we are not diddled
and circumvented by the tricks and in
trigues of certain dear friendsof ours, the
best and purest Republicans in the world,
but who never stop at any foul play to
wards “the dear people.” “It is altogeth
er an interpolation into the Constitution,
about which we are always blowing such
blasts: but we our portion of the demono
cracy—are going to do thatabominable act
in a manner peculiarly virtuous and re
publican. We intend to be very constitu
tional about the form of the thing, and only
to violate the substance and the spirit of
that revered instrument. But take care of
the fuglemen of the ‘Northern man with
Southern principles!’ They are publicans
and sinners. They are, to be sure, the
best republicans in the world, and their
principles admirably Southern : but they
were once “Rogues and Royists,” and even
now, their political inorals are somewhat
lax. In short, they’ll cheat you out of your
eye teeth, if you leave your mouth open ;
and they are totally careless of all those
decencies of the constitution which we prac
tice. For we never sin except in saintly
wise, and never commit a debauch without
saying a very long grace over it.”
In short, it begins to be pretty evident
how this game is played on both sides. Ori
ginally, the coalition, between parties em
bittered against each other by every public
and every personal wrong and obloquy,
could have no sincerity, since it was
brought about only by interest, and since
the reality of that interest depends altogeth
er on the honor of leaders, one of whom ne
ver, had any, and the other of whom strip
ped himself, by the alliance itself, of a
great part of that which he had. They set
aside, in the combination, all public prin
ciple, and all individual character; and
when these are gone, what is to hind men
together? Nothing but interest. But that
shifts, from day to day. Unquestionably
Mr. Calhoun’s original union with a parly
that had once hoped to hang him—whose
softest name for him was “traitor and “Ca
tiline ;” and upon whom he had heaped de
nunciations as little eapibleof being taken
back as any ever uttered, was prompted
only by an understanding that he was, alter
Mr. Van Buren had served his term, to
have the support ofhis party. On this con
dition only did he turn Democrat. But as,
unhappily, it is somewhat awkward to put
bargains of this sort into a form so distinct
that they can be proved, and that to prove r
them, is indeed the ruin of both parties, it
chances (as is now very well known,) that
the contracting powers differ as to the terms
of the contract. Both certainly expected,
with confidence, that Mr. V. B. would fin
ish his term in 1845. The one thinks thn*
he is entftled to repait the mis-hap of his
non-election by standing again : the other,
that he has had his chance, and that, after
having failed in 1840, and broken down his
party and the line of succession, he has no
claim to farther support—a view of the
matter notunreascaMtlfiUtnd which could
