Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1823-08-05


ecency of the transaction and the yigor OF
youthful recollection ON bis side, and say
what resemblance you see between them
what KIND ot copy is this of such an original
But let us return from this DEPRESSION, TO
the last answer or rather excuse for the Au-
gusta Address. That Mr.. Crawford was a
ftdcrallst IN 1893, this address places beyond
doubt. IL Is ln,natrrial what Judge TAFT
may have thought on the subject. The adj
dress is matter oi record and Outw eighs all his
Ihnkings, -profOund and solemn as they are
admitted to be. This point then being settled
as To 1913, how stands the case as 10 '99 70 The
assertion is that when Mr.. Crawford went
up from Augusta to Oglethorpe county to
practice the law in 100, he was considered a
republican; and his special political friends, in
order to extricate him from this desperate
plunge, have certified that they consider. u
him 81 in that year ('99) and had always under
stood that he WAS so considered generally
throughout the country.
The first remark which shall make on this
subject is. hat the violence of the fact is by
no means satisfactory; the second, that il true
II coufers no honor on Mr.. Crawford.
And first as to the fact: what is the evi-
dence oft the certificate of Mr.. Abbot, Mr.
Tat and some other gentlemen, the particular
friends of Dir. Crawford, stating their impres g.
that those gentlemen who have given their
certificates and who are such warm supporters
ot Mr.. Crawford's election, were theuisel, es
all iederasts, with the exception of one gen
teman, whose politics are unknown. They
stale no republican act done by Mr.. Crawford
IN w, IN support OF their assefion*: they state
no public political argument, nor do they even
specify any private occasion on " hich he mark
ed himself decided republican in that
year They give Only their own vague inn
pressons without the specification of a single.
TACT, and every man, at all acquainted with
human nature, knows how little these vague.
impressions are To be trusted at the distance
OF thirty years, more especially when the nem-
DRY Is set TO work by the affections.
But let 1t admitted for the sake of argument
Una, these impressions existed on the mind
oil these gentlemen in '99. Whence were they
derived ? From the conversations of Mr..
Crawford They could have been derived
from no other source more authentic, or il
would have been specified. Now is it not a little
surprising that In the county of Oglethorpe,
when Is understood 10 have been always repub-
hcan, we have no evidence of Mr.. C's republi-
cahlsin from any one prominent gentleman on
that side OF the question 1t was busy po-
,ulcal season and there was much TO he done
as well as said il he was then 10 truth a re-
publican, the republicans of the county must
nave had his active co operation and must
have remembered it. How does it happen
then That there is no proof of his republican
ism' drawn from that source from which it
was SO naturally to have been expected and
from winch 1t would have come with such de
clslve weight ? We have not anv evidence
even of his associating with the republicans
oil Oglethorpe in that year. His associations
seem To have been altogether with the federal
lists and whether in his conversations with
them he took the republican side from that
sportIve opposition 81 common with young
lawyers, or IN apparent gravity and sober ear
nest, the proof that he was then, at heart, a
republican is equally unsatisfactory. For the
result of the combined proof would he, that
we have him acting on the federal side in
aususia IN 1913, and talking on the republican
Side IN OSlethorpe III '99, thus placing himself
as 1t were between the two encampments, with
an equal right to throw himself into either as
the occasion might require One of those
rqu'ocal positions which this gentleman las
1t will hereafter appear is but too fond of
taking.
But let 1t be admitted that in $50, he did be-
come republican, what honor does it confer
on nm, what claim does il give him on the
respect aud gratitude OF the republican party
was the change upon principle or was il upon
IA mere calculation of interest ? To answer this
question fairly, we must look at the political
history OF the times and consider human Ma
ture as 1t is, not as it should be-
what was the immediate cause that Undue
ed The republican party to raise, openly. the
standard OF resistance in 1913, and To embudy
themselves for the purpose of bringing about
change in the administration The answer
IS Obvious 1t was the alien and sedition laws
81, al
took their respectives sides and that Mr. Craw
ford took his in the federal ranks VIVA, sub
seqnent measure ofthe government was there
10 induce change There was none. After
the allen and sediiOn laws, there was no new
measure of offence on the part Of the govern
mfnt, To lead any one IT their friends TO re-
nounco them. The man who could digest the
aUen ana sediiion laws, and still remain a fe-
deraiist, had no reason, an The conduct Of the
government, to become republican in go
since then the solution Of the change is not to
be found in the conduct of the government.
where else shall we seek il !? In the historical
iact thai I'D 80, the state of parties was so far
ascertained as to render IL almost certain thai
the federal party must go down, and that he
VINO chose to- remain fedPralist, must go
down with them. The result of the invcsii
CATION then is this in '93, when the federal
I. ""' :" "''iiy INeu DIS 10 luSliy Ine De
'lei that they could grind their adversares into
dustand ashes, MIR. Crawford was frderalist :;
but after the Virginia resolutions of '98 had
sounded the alarm, after the strong excite
ment among the people every where and the
great correspondent movements of the several
stale governments had rendered il highly
probable, II not certain, that the republicans
were about to become the lords of the ascen-
dant, then Mr. Crawford became a republican
In other words, although be forsook us in our
adverslty' he was ready enough TO come to
us ~ our prosperity. This is The whole merit