Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1840-06-26
FOB TIE ENQUIRER.
TO JAMES LYONS, ESQ.

Dear Sir:-This letter will probably reach you on
the day before that on which you will be a delighted
guest at that feast, to be given on the 9th, to the
prince Of eTablc Orators" will not wish to him,
and to you, the fate of Belshazzar and his jewellers; but
| venture the prediction, that the ror popuii will pro-
nounce the sentence, "7hou art reighcd in the baiGn-
ceS, and art found %aeaating,' : on all yc workers of po-
litical ~iniquity. For the transgresson of land, many
are the princes thereof; but by a man of understand
e '1g and knowledge the state thereof shall be p''''"s'
Some politicians, like the fashions of the milliners,
have their e%phcmcral life, and pass away into oblivion.
Its your fortune 10 be, just now, floating on the top
most breath Of a noisy factions applause, the admired
Of all lovers of tinsel and novelty. Unfortunately for
the permanency of your fame, your admirers are also
grearlorcrs of "Change." To-day you may be thickly
covered with IN .blushing honors-to.m morrow, "None
so poor as TO do you reverence
You say, in the conclusion Of your letter to the Edi-
tor of the Richmond Wing, "The good and the great
are always most reviled.' Now, sir, in a late address
to the people of Hanover, as ] am crcdibly informed,
you accidentally called the name of Thomas Benton,
and then called on God to forgive You for polluting
your lips with the name of such "a profigate and aban-
doncd creature" 1t is thus you speak of a man, who,
for more than a third of your lifetime, has represented,
in part, the sovereignty OF one OF the finest States OF
this Union, in the Senate of the Conicdcracy. You
must have taken lessons in prayer from the great CORA
tor of the West" In the same speech, you designated
the President Of the IT,. States as the "Carpet Knight.
Thus it is you speak of one who has been honored with
the highest confidence of the American people: and
who has never done aught 10 forfeit that confidence.
Thus it is you insult the sovereign people, who elevated
Van Buren, to the Presidency. James Lyons, Esq, IS
no 'tcarpet knight" No; not he. lie IS the humble
tenant Of a log.cabin a shame on such spouling
electors IA shame to those who listen TO one who
thus sports with the intelligence of n Virginia yeo-
manry. But, perhaps, 10 be consistent with your maxim,
sThe good and the great are always most reviled, you
intended all this for praiss. Perhaps you mean to join
the stable orator at the dinner, in many more such
hearty praises of the President, and his leading friends.
Do not fatter yourself, that ] intend 10 contribute my
mite of utilization towards making either you or Gen.
Harrison a good and great man. That is a mode of
making great men, for which | have no partiality.-
Great and good men, like Washington, Jefferson, Ma
olson, Jackson and Van Buren,, shine by their own ma
tive lustre. No man is ever lessencd in my estiina-
ton by the tongue of SANDER. No man IS ever raised
in my estimation by efforts, on. the part Of those inte-
rested in exalting him, 10 create an impression on the
public mind, that he is a prosecuted, a vihied patriot.
This is a stale, a WORKOUT party trick that begets no.
thing but contempt for those who resort to it. But,
Won would have the people to believe, that General
Harrison is rcviled BY those who say he IS 4 "fedcralIst
and Abolitionist;' and we, his accusers, are charged
with s'impudent l~alsehood." We appeal to the Fede-
ralists in your ranks 10 say, whether II be defamation
TO call Harrison a Federalist. We appeal TO the Abo-
litionists in your ranks to say, whether it be SANDER
to call Harrison an Abolitionist. You revilc him in
the Judgment of Federal Wings, when you say he is
a Republican. You revile him in the judgment OF
Abolition Wings, when you say he is not an Abolition
list. You s~candalize the very name OF Jefferson, when
you represent Harrison as a Jefersonian Republican,
which shall be able to prove from his letter to you, I'm
the next and last letter ] shall address you,) if not 10
the satisfaction of Lawyer Electors, to the entire salts
faction of every candid mind in the nation. Nay, !
will prove more from his own letter. | will show that
he is a trimmer. This is much the harslest thing |
have ever said of Harrison; and sorry am ], that truth
requires me 10 say it.
Your Wings are a strange phenomenon. You are
all Wings in general, that is, you all go for power and
ssmaking of spoil" but some of you are "Dcmocratic
Wings, some {" Republican Wings" some Abolition
Wings and some, among which you are included, are
indescribable Wings. Last winter, in the Senate of
Virginia, YOU complained of sgrcat nausea at the idea
of having to swallow VIM. G.. Rives. How you got
him down, has not been ~divulgcd; but We have a right
to suppose Senator Fontaine held your nose, while the
big doctor from the Botetourt district administered the
dose. disguised in some delicate conserve. Pardon this
short DEPRESSION.
No man of information, whether Wing or Republi-
can, doubts that the Abolition influence gave HARRISON
the preponderance over Clay in the Harrisburg nomina-
ton. This is what we charged and not that he was
an Abolitionist. After we found him keeping dark on
that subject, and that you lauded his "heroic frmness
and manly indie pendence" in refusing TO satisfy the
minds of the people by answering either "friend or foe,
we had a rieM to suspect him. But, when you found
thisp policy, for which you so highly appiauded hum,
would, with absolute certainty, lose him the whole
South. if not Kentucky, you began to weigh the con-
sideration whether it would not be better to risk the
loss of Abolition Wings, than incur the certainty OF
inter defeat. in the South. You are now playing a sort
of double game of halfway %treachery to the South, and
halfway treachery to your Abolition allies; and It wlll
..I.. ". p,xnn