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CHRONICLE & SENTINEL. !
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From the Constitutionalist of yesterday.
Mr. Calhoun’s Assailants and their Mo
tives.
The bitter and scurrilous abuse of Mr. Cal
houn, by certain papers published in the South,
for his efforts in behalf of Southern rights on
the Slavery question, provoke the inquiry—t oho
are his assailants, and what are their motives ?
When men attack the motives of others, and
charge with corrupt designs, those who pro
fess to have worthy objects in view, they pro
voke a game at which two sides can play.
If a man’s own declarations of what he in
tends upon public matters in which he acts are
not to viesignate his position, but his assailants
are to be allowed to ascribe to him designs which
he disavows, he and those who defend him
have a right to fight his assailants in the same
way.
We lay down this propo iton preliminary to
taking a position in defence of the motives of
Mr. Calhoun, whom we consider unjustly and
outrageously assailed and vilified. We shall
examine the motives, as we best can infer
them, of those who arraign Mr. Calhoun’s
motives, and seek to weaken his influence
and depreciate hia services. We shall give
u tit for tat and inquire what is the real
purpose in view—what the end aimed at.
In this discussion of motives, we shall use as
plain language, as may be necessary to convey
our meaning.
Few just minded men will compassionate
the worsted parly who suffers by a mode of
warfare he provokes, or will pity the smashing
of his glass house, who wantonly casts the first
stone. An enlightened sentiment of public
gratitude and respect for long tried and emi
nent ability in the country’s service, will de
prive that assailant of public sympathy, whose
chief labor is to pull down a reputation built
up by nearly a half century ol patriotic toil.
Mr. Calhoun has done more to shed lustre on
the American name, and to promote the great
interests of his country, than could ten thou
sand such men, were a spirit of true patriotism
breathed into their hearts, and their lives pro
longed to ten thousand years.
We commence our task by stating that Doc
tor Daniel Lee, the Editor of the Augusta
Chronicle Sf Sentinel, has been lavish of abuse
efMr. Calhoun—has ascribed to him want of
sincerity in his professions of devotion to the
true interests of his country, and has charged
him repeatedly, with keeping up agitation on
the slavery question for the purpose of produ
cing a dissolutidn of the Union. He has com
pared him with Aaron Burr, as like him, aim
ing to break up the confederacy, in order to
establish a Southern Republic, and has applied
to him the term “Arch Disunionist,” and rang
changes on it in every variety of form.
We here single out and specify Dr. Lee, be
cause he is in fact the real editor of the Chron
icle 8$ Sentinel. It is his intellect, a clear and
strong one, and his pen, ably and adroitly wield
ed, which gives to the Chronicle 8f Sentinel its
present editorial celebrity, its position and its
influence. The proprietors and nominal edi
■ —75 ■ .Loir lucubrations, but a
ognise from their pen an occasional cftmuuu
tion, following some strongly abolition tinc
tured editorial in their paper which calls forth
indignant comments from Southern editors.
In these propitiatory offerings to outraged
Southern sentiment, the editorial tee is assumed,
and the pie-ba’d concern is spoken of “as
Southern men, identified by birth, education,
interest and feeling with the South,” &c.
Thus the real editor is sheltered behind this ed
itorial we, and passed off, no doubt, upon many
confiding readers of the Chronicle 8? Sentinel,
as a Southern man, “ identified by birth, ed
ucation, interest and feeling with the South-”
This being believed, his motives for his bitter
assaults en a pure high-minded Southern states
man like Mr. Calhoun, whose great soul and
intellect glow with honest enthusiasm for the
cause of his beloved South, escape the suspi
cion of being prompted by hostility to slavery.
Yet hostility toslavery is the true key, wedo not
doubt, to Dr Lee’s animosity to Mr Calhoun.
Mr. Calhoun stands before the world the great
champion of the institution of slavery. While
Secretary of State, his able letters to our am
bassador to the Court of France, Mr King,
were published in Europe and this country,
and brought down upon him the fierce animos
ity and hate of the abolitionists of both hemis
pheres. He is assailed by them as the great
slavery propagandist of his age and section.
The political anti slavery men of the North
dread his influence at the South, and would re
joice to see him broken down at home. They
well know that as long as he can rally the
Southern people to the defence of their consti
tutional rights, and induce, on their part, a firm
resistance to anti-slavery encroachment, their
designs w ill be defeated, and the march of anti
slavery checked. But let Mr. Calhoun be
destroyed, and a great blow will be struck in
behalfof their cause—a great stumbling block
will be removed from their path. By the same
blow that strikes him dow n will be swept away
all the ultras—the slavery propagandists, as they
term them, whose attitude es resistance to
Northern aggression presents so formidable a
barrier to their attacks.
Such men cannot forgive Mr. Calhoun’s fer
vent devotion to the institution of slavery, and
they hate him for the intellectual power and its
legitimate influence, which he brings to its sup
port- He is the object of hatred alike to the
fanatical bigot, a part of whose religion it is to
abhor slavery, and of the calculating politician
of the North, whose object is to crush the man
who stands in the way of their schemes for ag
grandizing the North at the expense of the
South.
,f Behold the host! delighting to deprave,
Who track the steps of glory to the grave,
Watch every fault that daring genius owes
Half to the ardor which its birth bestows,
Distort the truth —accumulate the lie,
And pile the pyramid of calumny.”
One of the captains of this host is the editor
of the Chronicle, whose editorials here on slave
ry have won for him from a Northern free soil
paper the title “ The Vanguard of Anti-Slave- !
ry at the South.” Who is Dr. Lee ? Where
is he from—where educated, and what the
prejudices he has imbibed on the subject of
slavery ? What are the associations by which
he has been surrounded all his life down to the
very recent period at which he has come among
ns? These are pertinent inquiries to make of
one who comes into the very bosom of the
South to assail the motives of one of the great
est and ablest of all the sons of the South, act
ing on a great vital Southern question—a ques
tion involving our property, our lives, our so
cial existence? What can be the motives of
this man, whe so flippantly talks of traitors,
and impugns the motives of one whose voice
has never been raised in tones of aggression
upon the North, and whose language, so of
fensive to his assailant’s ears, has been only in
defence*of the threatened altars and firesides of
the South?
The answer is at hand. This assailant is
from the very hot bed of abolitionism in West
ern New York. He is from a portion of the
world where anti-slavery sentiments are im
bibed in infancy in the mother’s milk, and
breathed in the surrounding air—where chil- i
dren are doubtless taught to lisp the alphabet i
In spelling books garnished with wood cuts of
naked negroes writhing under the overseer’s
l ag h where men of his politics are forced, ac
cording to the acknowledgment of this editor
himself, to propitiate popular favor when seek
ing office, by the utterance of abolition sen
timents, and by truckling to anti-slavery so
cieties.
From this tainted political atmosphere, Dr-
Lee has been but recently translated and plant
ed among us of the South to lecture us upon
the value and application of slave labor, and
the constitutional rights of the South connect
ed with her slave property.
What the course of this editor on the slave
ry question has been since he has been giving
tone to the Chronicle 8? Sentinel has been made
known by us from time to time to our readers.
It early arrested our attention and caused us to
suspect him of being a Birneyite, and of having
voted for Birney, the abolition candidate for
President in 1844. Though more than once
interrogated upon the point, he never denied
having so voted, though he replied to the arti
cles in which the interrogatory was put and re
peated. The course of the editor may be brief
ly expressed in the language a gentleman once
used to his teeth. He told the editor that he
was editing the Chronicle 8y Sentinel in just such
away as Joshua R. Giddings would edit it,
were he in his place, for the purpose of prepar
ing the public mind South for the abolition of
slavery.
In this view of the course of the editor we
fully coincide, and have heard many express
themselves in the same way.
With this key to many editorials on slavery
which display a shallow pompousness on the
philosophy of labor, and a transparent claptrap
about the indefinite improvableness of slave
labor, and of slave population being crowded
with advantage into ten-fold its present density,
we are at no loss to divine the motives inspir
ing this unflagging zeal with which the war is
kepi up on Mr. Calhoun.
We are aware that there are other assailants
at the South of Mr. Calhoun. Even some few
Southern Democrats have shown a disposition
to join in the cry that he is a disunionist. But
the motive with these few is widely different.
They have yielded to ancient grudges and jeal
ousies treasured up or inherited from past par
ty conflicts, or from being sometimes provoked
and embarrassed by the sturdy independence
of the great Carolinian, who would not yield
his opinions and notions of duty to party exi
gency.
Some Southern Whig leaders have calumni
ated his motives in like manner, because his po
sition and influence were in the way of that/a
cilis descensus by which they contemplate sli
ding down into tame submission to the Wilmot
Poviso. But we venture the assertion, that
wherever an assailant at the South, whether by
newspaper or otherwise, of the motives of Mr.
Calhoun, excels in bitterness, and transcends
the point of abuse which Southern tactics call
for, it will generally be found that he is a North
ern man, who has not yet had the anti-slavery
prejudices of his early training worn off by con
tact with Southern institutions.
Men of all sections, climes and countries are
welcome among us. The Southern people are
generous and hospitable, and warmly welcome
enterprising citizens to her bosom of every
creed and government, provided they come in
the spirit of loyalty to her institutions, and not
of hostile propagandism. She considers it no
crime in him that a man from a non-slavehold
ing section should have been taught from in
fancy to abhor slavery as a curse and an out
rage upon human rights and Christian princi
ples. But she expects all such who remain
among us, if they do not change those opinions,
to keep them to themselves. She will not tol
erate a war such as the Editor of the Chroni
cle has commenced, upon what he calls slavery
propagandism, but which she considers the
rightful and necessary policy of strengthening
‘- 1 -- «««» in tho emm/Ml* nf the. Union,
constitutional right to a share of the newly ac
quired territories. Whoever wars against this,
wars against the vital interests of the South.—
Whoever counsels her to yield them and submit
tamely to the Wilmot Proviso, counsels her to
dishonor herself, and bow her neck to the yoke
of Northern masters.
We speak in no personal hostility to Dr. Lee.
As an Agricultural writer we esteem him an
acquisition to the people of Georgia. But when
he gives voice to his anti slavery notions we are
reminded of a proverb, classic in its origin, but
as applicable to ug as in the critical days of an
cient Troy.
“ Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. ”
We fear the Greeks though they bring us
gifts.
Remarkable. —We learn from a source en
tirely authentic, that on Christmas-day. a stick
of hewn timber, seventeen inches square, and
thirty two and a half feet long, fell and rolled
upon a child, aged 6 years, daughter of Mr.
Niel M’Gregor of Cumberland county, and re
mained there until it was removed by the al
most superhuman efforts of four ladies, who
were at the house, without causing death, or
even breaking a bone in the child’s body! It
lay under the stick, about the middle of it, and
sustained the whole \yelghl of the mass, there
being no other obstacle whatever in tke way to
break its force ; yet the child lives, and is per
fectly sound and well. Rob Roy himself hardly
ever passed through a more perilous adven
ture.
The timber was lying across another piece,
the children were seesawingon it, and it turned,
rolled off, and caught this one under it.—
IVadesborough, ( A. C.) Argus.
Another Unfortunate Rencounter.—
News reached thu place yesterday, that Col.
A- M. Wallace of this citv, and Mr. Paul Her
riford, contractor of the stage lines running
from here to Nashville and Knoxville, had a
fight at Cleveland, Tenn., on Wednesday last,
and that Wallace had shot Herriford with a
revolver once through the abdomen, and twice
in one of his legs. In the affray Wallace shot
himself through the hand. He sent here yes
terday for Dr. Minis, who is his physician and
personal friend. From the messenger we de
rived the above information—who says that
when he left Cleveland, it was thought Htrri
ford could not survive his wounds.
P. S. We have just heard that Herriford died
on Thursday.— Dalton Eagle.
The Great Railroad.— The bill proposed
by Col. Benton for connecting the Mississippi
river with the Pacific ocean, discloses one of
the most sublime projects ever broughtforward
by a legislator. That it is liable to many ob
jections—that it does not exactly come up to the
ideas of many of us, with regard to strict con
struction—is true. But we believe, that in
view of the immense importance of the subject,
it will force its way with the people, and that
nothing can withstand it. Whether it should
do so or not, Benton certainly deserves the
character which this bill will give him with pos
terity; that of a statesman of enlarged views,
and unerring sagacity. Deriving experience
from the lessons of the past, ha has searched
narrowly into the his ory of ail the great Em
pires that have successively risen to awe and as
tonish the world, and he has found that their
grandeurhas been built upon this very orien
tal wealth which it is his object to invite, in a
mighty stream, along the course of his propos
ed . Jlroad. T icre are few men who would
have had the bo’daess to go so far ahead of the
age as he has dene.— Richmond Whig.
Reformation in Lafland. —Accounts from
Norway state that there is an extensive religi
ous movement among the supine and vice
sunken Laplanders. The revival commenced
on the Swedish frontier with the labors of Swe
dish missionaries, and has already extended far
into the Northern interior of Norway, working
wondrous changes. The writer say* :
*' Not only has more than one Laplander been
aroused to become a preacher of righteousness
and salvation by the Cross of Christ, but the
reality of the divine work is evidenced by the
fruits of a moral reformation—the proverbially
drunken Laplander becoming sober and tem
perate wherever this gospel zeal has spread.”
direnicle anU Sentinel.
AP6PSIA, &A:
WEDNESDAY MORNING, FE8.38, *49.
Northern mail failed last night be"
youd Charleston.
Our Weekly,
Embracing avast amountof reading matter,
—news, miscellany, commercial intelligence,
&c., —and a spirited portrait of the late Major
Vinton, will be issued this morning. Single
copies for sale at the office. Specimen copies
will be sent to any direction desired. Terms
—Two Dollars per annum in advance.
effort of the Constitutionalist to
escape the dilemma of an attempted defence
of Mr. Polk’s treachery to the South, by as
sailing one of the Editors of the Chronicle Sf
Sentinel, has imposed upon us the necessity of
occupying more of our space to-day with the
discussion of the slavery question than we
should otherwise have done, which excludes
our usual variety of matter. This is some
times ind spensable in the conduct of a politi
cal journal. We have, however, a high duty
to perform in exposing the purposes of the
agitators and disorganizes, who seek under
the gossamer veil of devotion to the South, in
connexion with the Anti-Slavery fanatics of
the North, to destroy the government, and we
must not hesitate in the performance of that
duty.
The Putnam Meeting—Another Failure.
We trust none of our readeas will omit to
read the account given by our Correspondent
“ Putnam” of the Meeting in Putnam County,
got up by the agitators for the purpose of mak
ing a little political capital abroad. Really the
promoters of discord and the propagandists of
sectionalism are subjected to severe rebuffs by
the intelligent Slaveholders of Georgia.
It is quite amusing to see the reports of the
proceedings of the Meetings of Bibb and Put
nam Counties paraded in the organs of Mr.
Calhoun and his faction as a reflex of public
opinion in Georgia, and an evidence that *Geor
gia is Moving .’ A few more such ' Movings’
and the faction will be beyond the reach of re
surrection.
Fire. —We learn that fire was communica
ted probably by a spark from an Engine, on
Sunday last, to the Cotton at the Greensboro
and Covington Depot, on the Georgia Rail
road, which consumed about thirty bales of
Cotton.
At Greensboro it extended to the stable of
the Hon. W. C. Dawson, which with its con
tents of provender and three horses were con
sumed. Such was the violence of the wind
at the time that a spark ignited a Gin-house
near a mile distant which was also consumed.
We did not learn to whom the Gin-house be
lonsed.
Mr. tainouu— j. nuumim......
For the two-fold purpose of “ keeping it be
fore the people, ” and refreshing the memory
of the agitators at the South, who constitute a
part of “ Mr. Calhoun’s tail, ” we republish
the resolution adopted by the Anti-slavery So
ciety of Massachusetts, in which they declare
openly, their purpose “is the immediate disso
lution of the American Union, ” and laud Mr.
Calhoun for the efficient aid he affords them ;
Resolved , That the one great object to be attempted
and achieved, to ensure the emancipation of our en
slaved countrymen—to assert and protect the rights
of the people of the North—and to impose the awful
criminality involved in the slave system exclusively
upon the incorrigible tyrants of the South, is the im
mediate dissolution of the American Union— a
Union based on the prostrate bodies of three millions
of people, and cemented with their blood—a Union
which gives absolute power and perfect security to
the wholesale trafickers in human flesh, by its com
bined military and naval power, the overthrow of
which would inevitably burst asunder the chains of
every bondman—a Union in which freedom of speech
and of the press, the right of petition, and safe and
equal locomotion are cloven down, and the citizens of
one porti iof the country are seized for no alleged
crime in another portion, hurried to prison, kept in
chains, plundered of their properly, and in numerous
instances sold on the auction block at public vendue
as slaves in lots to suit purchasers.
Resolved, That in openly and unequivocally advo
cating Slavery as a just, beneficent and Democratic
Institution, J, C. Calhoun of South Carolina is to
be commended for his frankness and directness ; that
for his earnestness, consistency, intrepidity, and self
sacrifice, in defending and seeking to extend and
perpetuate what he thus professes to regard as super
latively excellent, he is equally to be commended;
and that, he stands in honorable contrast, and is incom
parably to be preferred to those Northern time-ser
vers and dough-faces, who professedly look upon
Slavery with abhorrence, and yet are found ever
ready to compromise the sacred principles of liberty,
to betray the rights of the North, and on bended knees
to worship the slave-power of the South.
Thera is no mistaking the language and pur
port of these resolutions. They declare open
hostility to the Union. Nor are the friends
and admirers of Mr. Calhoun, and his support
ers in South Carolina, less cautious in the de
claration of their purpose to dissolve the Union,
thus establishing the truth of the trite adage,
that “extremes meet” What a beautiful com
mentary upon the policy of Mr. Calhoun in
his ceaseless and untiring agitation of the sla
very question, to find him thus lauded for his
course, by the abolitionists of Massachusetts.
We commend it most cordially to those devoted
admirers of the great agitator, who would
make the support of his disorganizing, section
al measures the test of devotion to Southern
rights and interests.
Hoax.—The account of the killing a man in
Missouri, who had attempted to rob his own
house, by his wife, which we published a few
days since, i* said to be a hoax.
The Steamer Autocrat left Memphis for N.
Orleans recently, with 4790 bales of Cotton, be
sides other freight on board.
The Sub-Treasury at New York is said to
contain three millions of dollars in coin .
Senator from Ohio,— The telegraoh an
nounces the election of Soloman P. Chase of
Cincinnati, by the Legislature of Ohio, on the
4th ballot, as Senator from that State’for six
years from the 4th of March. Mr. Chase is
notorious as the leader of the Abolition party
in Ohio, and although from his former associa
tions it may be expected that on ordinary sub
jects of public policy, his views will accord
with those of the Whig party, his promotion
is an event to be deplored by all who deprecate
violence and dissention in our national coun
cils. He has the reputation of possessing tal
ents of a very high order.— Rich. Times.
“Mr. Calhoun’s Assailants and their Mo- *
tlves.” \
The Constitutionalist of yesterday contains t
along editorial under the above heading,which t
might pass unnoticed, if our silence would not j
be liable to mis-construction in the country, i
where the person assailed is unknown. The
article will be found in this paper.
Mr. Polk’s treachery to the South is tacit
ly admitted; it must be covered up. —
His unfortunate Administration, and the
platform of Mr. Cass on the slavery question,
are no longer to be defended. What next?
Mr. Calhoun’s platform is now the favorite ;
and no American citizen must presume to as
sail it. No Editor must be allowed to com
ment on the public acts and the public policy
ofthe greatly applauded favorite of the Massa
chusetts Anti-Slavery Society. That Society
has now a new candidate for its praise.
If our neighbor expects to aid either a good
or a bad cause, by making an attack by name,
on a private citizen, with the obvious intent to
excite against him whatever sectional prejudice
there may be in the community, he has yet to
learn that he underrates the intelligence, the
patriotism and the justice of the people of the
South. Such attacks can injure no one but
the unwise perpetrator.
Suppose for a moment that the Chronicle Sf
Sentinel suffers in character, in circulation and
in influence, because in the opinion of the
Constitutionalist, i * proprietors employ an in
competent man to write fer its columns. We
beg to know why this fact should distress the
Editor and proprietor of a rival newspaper,
and of one opposed to the Chronicle in politics?
In this country, no journal can long live which
mistakes popular sentiment ; or opposes, how
ever unintentionally, the interests of its rea
ders. They are the proper judges of its merits
and of its demerits. They care not a straw in
which State of the Republic, or in what foreign
nation an Editor was born. Os all the acci
dents which befall the members of a communi
ty, that of nativity, is least under their control.
Some meu appear to have exhausted their
whole stock of common sense in selecting the
best possible place to be born in ; and hence,
their peculiar lack of that commodity in after
life.
But waiving the above plea to the accident
of birth and early education, the person assailed
by the Constitutionalist, would inform his read
ers that he was born in New York when it was
a slave State, was brought up in a family where
servants were slaves, and has devoted no small
portion of his editorial labors, for many years,
to the duty of fighting abolitionists. The Con
stitutionalist has been once or twice before in
formed that the person attacked did not vote
for Birney in 1844 ; and that print is again as
sured that he never voted for, or supported
• with his pen or longue, a Presidential candidate
*• who prays for the abolition of slavery every
where.” Nor has he any recollection of being
informed that “he was editing the Chronicle Sf
Sentinel in just such away as Joshua R. Gid
dings would edit it, were he in his place.”
Suppose some one had made the remark :
what does it amount to ? Why should we pub-
Hear orTeai-nAyffie r
the Constitutionalist ? Do this, and Augusta
journalism would soon be a bye-word and a
1 disgrace to all concerned. We regard all per
sonalities as unworthy of the profession ; and
ever aim to avoid them.
Mr. Calhoun and the Editor of the Consti
tutionalist may have a taste for being by turns,
now on the Whig, now on the Democratic, and
now on neither side of politics. But why dis
pute about matters of taste ?
Stript of all disguises, the difficulty and evil
of the country may be thus briefly stated :
There is a large faction at the North which is
eager “to extend the area of freedom in the
United States. ” To do this, more territory was
greatly desired by the Free Soil party. This
. party, with the powerful aid of Birnzy and his
followers, defeated the election of Mr. Clat.
They placed at the head of our National Go
vernment James K. Polk, a Wilmot Proviso
President, who used all constitutional, and
many think not a little unconstitutional means,
to bring into the Union, territory enough to
form, according to the Constitutionalist, “ten
large States.” In this territory, slavery does
not exist; and according to Mr. Polk, it will
not, “ if left to the option of lha Slaveholding
States themselves. ”
It is important to bear in mind the fact, that
whilst Messrs. Cass and Birney, (both good
Democrats) were praying together for the abo
lition of slavery, they and their political associ
ates contrived to defeat the nomination of Mr.
Van Buren, although a majority in the Balti
more Convention was clearly in favor of his
nomination. Ihis done, they succeeded in
electing, as well as in nominating, a conveni
ent tool for the use of Northern free-te rrito ry
annexationists. The anti-slavery politicians of
the North, who nominated, and secured the
election of Mr. Polk, by making Northern vo
ters believe that “ he was a better tariff man
than Mr. Clay,” have controlled the polievof
his administration from beginning to end. The
Constitutionalist does not deny this.
In choosing a successor to Mr. Polk, what
part have the Constitutionalist, Mr. Calhoun
and South Carolina politicians taken?
Do they now stand on the platform of Mr.
Cass that of leaving the people of the acquir
ed territories to establish slavery or not, as to
them shall seem best? Have they and our
amiable neighbor turned a new somerset ?
All the Southern agitators put together have
not done so much as lift a finger, to transfer
one slave and slaveholder into New Mexico,
or California, with a view lo form one slave
State. It is certainly a pertinent question to
ask, What have the Cass and Calhoun agi
tators done to establish slavery west of the Rio
Grande? Do they believe Secretary Walker
when he asserts unequivocally, that slavery
never can exist there? The Constitutionalist
is bound to inform Southern citizens, whether
Southern Democracy has been utterly power
less to change in the least the«course of Mr.
Polk’s administration ? Whether it approves
ofthe annexation of so much free territory, on
the South of the slaveholding States, in which
the President assures us that the institution
cannot be maintained? Mr. Calhoun and all
other Southern agitators receive warm com
mendations from the Massachusetts Anti-Sla
very Society ; and why ? Because they avow 1
their purpose to be, the dissolution of the
Union. Mr. Calhoun is regarded as a friend
to that The writer of this has been
too long opposed to anti-slavery fanaticUm, to
join their zealous co-operators at the South, in
their openly avowed purpose, to overthrow the
F ederal Government.
Instead of strengthening and consolidating
the political power ofthe slaveholding States,
the policy of the ultraists in South Carolina,
who are ever “calculating the value of the
Union,” will inflict on the institution which
they profess to have so much at heart, an irre
parable injury. No mere human institution
can long endure the constant undermining of
hot-headed, injudicious friends. Whatthe pew
er of enemies could never accomplish, over
zealous agitators daily effect.
Slavery, no more than religion, marriage, or
any other social relation, should ever be drawn
into the arena of party politics. Slavery was
not extended by the too hasty annexation of
Texas; yet “the re-annexation of Texas and
the whole of Oregon were the chosen motto
of Southern Democracy, four years ago. What
have the citizens of the South gained under
the protection of Democratic statesmanship ?
This is a question of moment —not the accident
of any man’s birth place.
Agitation Meeting in Eatonton.
To the Editors of the Chronicle 5f Sentinel :
Gentlemen: —You no doubt have seen an
account ofthe meeting held in Eatonton, pro
fessing to be without distinction of parties.
Like all other such things, it was one of the
smallest two-penny party affairs that 1 have ever
known. It was gotten up altogether by the
Democrats and conducted by them, and so
strong was the party bitterness of its members,
that they could not help showing it in the pa
pers selected to publish their proceedings.
The largest number of persona present at any
one time was twenty-six ! a large majority of
whom were Whigs, who went to see the sport.
The resolutions were voted for by about half
a dozen Democrats, while not a Whig took any
part but to look on and laugh. And wasn’t it
a ludicrous sight to see the supporters of the
Michigan Abolitionist passing resolutions about
slavery? I have been to many a funeral when
the poor fellow was buried with much less so
lemnity, than Calhoun’s party address was com
mitted by this meeting to the people. The
Democrats called the meeting in hopes to gain
some little party advantage, and acting upon
that object refused to allow to the Whigs any
share in its getting up either by consultation,
or otherwise. They hoped to drive us from
the meeting, and then designed to make capital
out of it. This is their love of country. They
play with vital questions for party ends and
purposes, as though it were but the plaything
of a muster-ground, or a cross-road frolic.
The Whigs however will Snatch this question
from such desecration and place it where it de
serves to stand, upon high national ground.
Putnam.
California and New Mexico. —The Wash
ington Correspondent of the Charleston Cou
rier, writing under date of the 23J inst-, says :
anu
that Mr. Webster’s project for the temporary
government of California will succeed. The
question now is between the temporary gov
ernment and no government. Mr W.’s pro
ject is considered as less complicated and more
efficient than either Mr. Walker’s or Mr. Day
ton’s.
“A glorious speech in favor of Union and
harmony, and against Northern aggression or
Southern ultraisrn, was made to-day in the
House by Governor M’Dowell, of Virginia.—
It held the house in breathless attention. The
lofty and gentleman-like manner of Governor
M’Dowell, his mellow voice, and his tones of
pathos, were of enchanting effect He drew
tears to the eyes of many who are unused to
the melting mood. When the Chairman’s
hammer announced that the hour was out, the
House, unwilling to be disenchanted, impati
ently, and with one accord, insisted upon his
proceeding—a compliment which the House
never bestowed before upon any one, except
John Quincy Adams, and then in regard to the
Oregon question, in which Mr. A. had a deep
personal feeling.
“ The House is opposed, and the Senate is
hostile to the project which Mr. M’Dowell ad
vocates, to wit: the admission of California
and New Mexico as States ; but, nevertheless,
his solemn warnings against rash and exclusive
counsels wi,l not be unheeded,”
The Postage Treaty. —The Washington
Union of Friday, contains the President’s proc
lamation of the postal treaty between England
and the United States. The convention hav
ing been duly ratified on both parts, and the
respective ratifications exchanged at London,
on. the 26th day of January last, it now there
fore goes immediately into effect. The treaty
comprises twenty-three articles.
Anxious for News. —As the steamer Trav
eller wascoming through the Sound yesterday,
from New York, when off Eaton’s Neck, she
was hailed by a gentleman on the
ice, for a New York paper. It appears that
the Norwich boat (on which he was a passen
ger,) was lying at a distance, frozen, and the
ennui on board, had tempted him to intercept
our boat, for a paper. His passage back was
watched with some interest, as the ice under
him swayed fearfully, from the movement of
the steamer. It was an unusual and exciting
scene, but he was at last observed clambering
into his ice bound craft.— New Haven Register.
|Gila River. —The Victoria Advocate of the
9th inst. gives the folio wing information, which
may be ofsome moment to those intending to
go to California:
We learn that Major Gen. Worth has fixed
upon the Ist of April as the time to start for tho
Gila River. He will be accompanied by Col.
Hays, and perhaps many other Texans. We
look upon the general’s expedition as highly
important to Western Texas, as we predict it
will be the opening of the Route to California.
As we announced some weeks ago,Gen. Worth
goes to Gila to establish a military post upon
the new line between the United States and
Mexico. We would suggest to parties going
to California, the propriety of waiting until after
the departure of this expedition, as it will open
a road through the worst part of the distance,
and they can then go to California without pas
sing through Mexico, which would save them
much trouble.
l3TThe steamer Dee, Capt. Allain, arrived
at her anchorage near Mobile Point, at 3 o'-
clock eh Wednesday evening, from Vera Cruz.
She brought we understand, over forty passen
gess for New Orleans and ten for Mobile, and
about $4,000,000 in specie a portion of which
was for this city. The steamerjCora brought
up the mails and passengers on Wednesday
evening, aboutß o’clock. The Bee left yester
day at 3 p. m., on her return voyage to the Ha
v*”a - Capt. Liot was to return in her but
will be here again the ensuing month, when we
hope to have our arrangements completed both
for the Havana and Mexican news. Pic.
Bg tl)e magnetic ®elegrapl).
Transmitted for the Chronicle & Sentinel.
Savannah Market.
Tuesday, Feb. 27, P. M.— Colton. —Sales 1400
bales, at 5$ to 7£c.; no change in prices ; sales of the
week 7,300 bales.
Freights to Liverpool, 7-16 d; to New York f.
Sterling Exchange — 6J premium.
Charleston Market.
Tuesday, Feb. 27, P. M. — Cotton. —Sales to-day
5000 bales, at 6 a 7Jc.; prices very full; in some
instances an i higher; fair seven cents.
Our Baltimore dispatch did not reach us last
night, though we understand the line is again
in order.
Mr. Polk's Administration.
The Baltimore American makes the follow
ing strong and just observations on Mr.
Polk’s Administration, which is about to
to give place to one more in accordance with
the inclinations of the people :
Mr. Polk’s Administration now drawing to a
close,has been signalized by remarkable events
which, while they must give it a prominent
place in history, will have the curious effect al
so of illustrating the mediocrity of the man.
The President’s friends will claim that his
Administration has been highly successful ;
yet they must admit that he early lost the coidi
idence of his supporters and never regained
it. No voice in the convention of his party
was raised for his re-nomination. He passes
now from public life without eliciting from
any quarter an expression of regret. Indeed,
the general sentiment seems to be that in mov
ing from his present position to the obscure
range of private life aud its occupations, ho is
going into a congenial sphere where his abili
ties will find a theatre better fitted for their
useful exercise than that upon which he has
been for some time acting—where his good
qualities will appear to better advantage and
where his mistakes will do less harm.
It is a perilous post for any man to occupy—
that of the Presidency of the U. States. For an
inferior man it is fatal. No nominations of
Conventions, nor majorities of popular vote*,
can save one of that sort from the terrible or
deal of that inexorable judgment which tests
the inmost quality of mind and heart —that
judgment of the public, which, knowing no
sympathy for individuals, can jet pardon any
thing but weakness.
Mr. Polk is unfortunate in being afflicted
with that unpardonable fault. He exhibited it
early, and he exhibited along with it its ac
companiments, want of frankness, a disposi
tion to finesse, a proneness to deceive in little
things, and in great an affectation of oddness
with a shrinking timidity at the crisis. Lamen
table defects, these —and most lamentable in hia
position.
The Oregon business disclosed the man to
the whole nation. He has never been able to
look the public in the face since that. And yet
that very business which proved bis political
ruin might have been made, if he had been an
abler and a braver man, the sure means of the
most brilliant success. It does not suit the A
merican character to back out in anything.
The readiness to yield to England was placed
in a most unfavorable contrast for Mr. Polk, by
the eager promptitude with which he enforced
the utmost of a doubtful claim against Mexico.
Succumbing to a powerful adversary, he bullied
a weak one.
The war followed —a war full of brilliant
successes. But none of these could make
Mr. Polk a great man. But they disclosed to
the nation other great men—particularly one,
whose laurels gave their own tint of green to
the eyes of his Excellency. The people be
hoi/t ..MtJinqjonishment and indignation this
successful Lreneral—this nero aner men U v»»,
heart—this sturdy upholder of the stars and
stripes amid the smoke and carnage of repeat
ed battles—stripped of his best troops in the
heart of the enemy’s country, and left exposed
to the overwhelming force of an adversary co
ming down upon him like a bird of prey upon
its victim. Gen. Taylor seemed doomed to
sacrifice; and if he had fallen, if he and hia
brave companions had sunk under ihe ava
lanche which broke upon him at Buena Vista,the
American people at this moment and in all co
ming time would «ay that he fed a sacrifice to
the jealousy of a man who, from the White
House, envied his greatness and dreaded him
as a competitor.
The Administration of Mr. Polk claims cre
dit for large territorial acquisitions. We have
obtained New Mexico and California as the re
sult of the war and of the treaty which gives to
Mexico some fifteen or twenty millions of in
demnityandof claims assumed. Whether we
might not have got the territory at the price of
the indemnity, without the war, is a question
upon which every man may have his own
opinion.
Nevertheless it was a gallant war in the way
of fighting; and it was brought to a triumphant
conclusion even although the President’s Lieu
tenant-General did not get upon the field, while
Santa. Anna, by the President’s favor, did.
The greatness of this Republic, its wonder
ful power of vitality, its indomitable spirit of
progress, have been illustrated by Mr. Polk in
one respect: he has shown in his own case
how slightly the blunders of mediocrity can ef
fect the onward course of things, and that the
country must prosper even with the minimum
of wisdom at in head. This should be a mat
ter of conciliation to all good patriots, but it
ought not to encourage the people to make any
more mistakes in putting men into the Presi
dency who are not fit for it, and who really
have no business there.
- A little son fell from the cars or the road
between Lexington and Frankfort and his arm
was terribly crushed, and had to be amputated,
xhe Louisville Journal adds:
“As soon as the operation was over, his
afflicted mother went in tears to his bedside
and said to him, “My poor boy, your visit to
Louisville has been a dear one to you,” “Ah,
mother.” replied the little fellow, with a look
and tone of animation, “hut I saw the Greek
Slave.' 1 We do not believe that a more flat
tering compliment was ever paid to the eenius
of Hiram Powers ” 8
• ■ - ■ ■
Silver and Gold mine.— There has been dis
covered in Benton County,Tenn. near Wyatt’s
Mill, a gold and silver mine. It is said large,
amounts of silver and gold ore are found,
unusually rich—yelding some 75 or 80 per cent.
Considerable excitement prevails in that region
the owner of the land having it guarded day
and night.— West Tennessee Whig.
Curious Particulars in Relation to Marriage.
—The intervention of a priest or rather eccle
siastical functionary was not deemed indispen
sable to a marriage, until the council of Trent
in 1409. The celebrated decree passed in that
session, interdicted any marriage otherwise
than in the presence of the priest and of at least
two witnesses. But before the time of Pope
Innocent HI, (1148) there was no solemniza
tion of marriage in the church, but the bride
groom came to the bride’s house, and led her
home to his own, which was all the ceremony
then used. Bans were first directed to be
published by Canon Walter in the year 1200.
Crevasse at Algiers.—Another of those ex
traordinary land slides threatening destruction
to the property of our friends across the river,
occurred at Algiers yesterday. About 11
o’clock, a portion of the batture adjoining the
Carrol street Ferry landing, gave way, carrying
with it the ferry wharf and some small houses
in the vicinity. At intervals during the day,
the batture continued to give way, until about
75 to 100 feet of the batture, in all, tumbled in
to the river. Soundings were taken last night ,
about 10 o’clock, when one of our portmen