The spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1840-1844, 1840-11-07
WING DUPLICITY AND DIsSIMU.
LATION.

1t will be seen that we deliberately charge upon
the leaders of the wing party, the political sin of
pUPLIcIrY and DISSEMINATION. There Is no
position which we take with clearer conviction of
duty, or more entire confidence of being able to
Justify and sustain our position, by an appeal TO
facts. And can it be possible that any one who
has read and thought dispassionately upon the sub
ject, can suspect US of any unkindness in making
an allegation which bears thus heavily, in politi-
cal point of view, upon the sincerity and veracity
of the leaders and wire-workers of the Opposition
party' Take up the subject, reader, look at it in
all its bearings-scan on all sides, and you
not fail of being convinced, or confirmed in your
convictions, that gross duplicity and assimilation
are justly chargable upon those men. And will
you follow such leaders practise upon such pot-
cal principles'
The candidate for the Presidency ON the wing
side, is one, whose name and services are familiar
to ALL Far be it from us to deprive Gen. HARR1-
SON of one plume justly earned, in the chapet Of
military fame, Nor shall we, at this late hour,
discuss the question of his merits, as " Military
Cnlefiain." Our object now is, to present before
the reader the naked fact, that, admitting Gen.
Harrison is entitled to all the renown which the
certificate mantle so broadly spread over him, by
his modern admirers and worshiPpers, would seem
to Indicate, it would only stamp the charge of du-
plcity in more abiding colors upon the LEADERS
in the wing conspiracy. The inevtableness ofthis
conclusion is apparent because, those leaders,
from Henry Clay, down to the mere corporal
in their ranks, were noisy and ncessant in their
opposition to Gen. ANDREW JACKSON, on the
very ground that he was Military Cheltain."
Every orator, every press, every tongue, every
thing of the opposition, was eloquent, pathetic, or
noisy, in warning the people against elevatlng to
the Presidency, man of Military Fame. What
them must we think of those same men, and Of
the self-same Party, when they present us with
Presidential candidate, under the contra-distn-
gushing ooynou,ca of u IIEno yes, Of II Hero,
too of battles which he never fought, of victories
which he never won lfthey were honest and
sincere then, what are they uop If they really
believed the liberties of our country were seriously
endangered by the elevation of military chief
tain to the highest Office at the the disposal of
free people, can we be so stupefed as to believe,
for moment that they are the friends Of shat
didate for that office Impossible Their motto
was, and is, availability and their object, the
overthrow Of Democratic Administrator. As
said the great CLINTON, "Mey would soccer
rule in he'll, than serre in hearcn." Hence, i'm
mcdiatey subsequent TO the Harrisburg conclave,
and in utter contemp, of all their former proesta
tons, the whole army, headed by Henry Clay and
Daniel Webster, was put in motion. from Maine to
Georgia, and from the Atlantic to the western will
derness, in boisterous cxultaton in favor of
"war, pesiiience and famine" candidate;--a
military chieltain! Can such men be actuaed by
noble and honorable motives! Arc hey entitled
to generous coniideuce'" Away with the idle
pretension.
But this is hardly the shadow of the first letter
in the alphabet of wing denominations. When the
selection Of the Harrisburg Convention was first
announced, it excited the astonishment, not to say
Indignation of the federal wing prints, whose COLI
ductors had not been let into the secret of the COL
fusion got up Harrisburg. They uttered the re-
al sentiments Of majority Of the wing party. The
Northampton Courier said of the Harrisburg NOM
nation, "Were it not a matter of fact, we should
think it were a Jurlesque, a cqrricature got mp
for a laugh" The editor calls it 'preposterous,
rdiculously silly lie says Gen. Harrison is a
man of no particular respectability of character,
and whoHy obscure as to talents, and deeidedly in
significant as TO needed Abilities SC. Denoun-
ces his nomination as IAN insuferabie insult 10
the tchigs, a scandal and disgrace to the party
Why, literally, says he, we feel ashamed to raise
our voice, or lit up heads to meet the merited
taunts and ridcule of our opponents. We are
overwhelmed with shame at such exhibition of SUI
perlative weakness and political pusillanimity.
Yes, the Courier adds, with emphasis and truth,
that Harrison was nominated, merely because he
has thrown around him that odious characteristic
of an eminent statesman, military popuiarity-a
feature Which The whigs, from the outset, have Sc
rerely reprobaied in Gen. Jackson. The Atlas
called Harrison a second rate man : and wing
prints, too numerous to MENTION spake Of bis nom
nation for the Presidency, in terms of decided dis
appreciation or disparagement. But no sooner was
it whispered through the land, by the authorized
talismen Of whiggery, fresh scented from the
concentration of all principles save the pure and
patriotic, that federalisls must abandon their old
maxim, diride and conquer and adopt the new
one, stoop TO conquer than the whole clique of
wbggery, raised shouts of praise and peans of glo-
ry for the Hero Of 7fppecanos' All went a.,
head, by hook or by crook, for the Hero, Hero,
Hero. Innumerable flags, paintings, signs and
picioridls were made TO rustic in the breeze and
glitter in the sunbeam, in honor of the new dis
covered hero That recent oiious Characters.