The spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1840-1844, 1841-10-22
Tte Spirit of Tte age.
FRIDAY MORNING, OCTOBER %, 1871.
WHO CAN TELL!

"The wings" are the most remarkable, singu-
lar, undefnable, and, in one sense, unfndadle,
sort of beings that have habitaiion or a name.
They are, now, everything anything nothing,
politically, Who can define ,chig politics or,
the harder question may be, who can give def
milton of current whiggery, to which some part OF
their party, will not respond or agree' Why, such
a motley, confused, incongruous, "rng- sireaked
and specked" group of bipeds was never before
seen. Rational people can hardly believe their
own senses-their eyes, their ears, in this case.
True, was oreseen and foretold that the helero-
geneous party, formed last year by the scent OF
coon skins, the cheer of hard cider, the fiddle of
other liquids, the beat of drums, the cangor of
horns and songs, and the disgraceful revelry that
followed, could not long be kept in political con-
tiguity and cooperation. But who could have
conceived that such utter confusion, such irepara-
BILE desolations, would have come upon these
Babel-builders in so short time that, in few
short months, the demi-omnpotent arm Of ieder-
alism would be palsied the deep-laid schemes for
enslaving free and generous people, exposed and
given to the winds, (or the present, at least,) and
the great federal majority of the nation, broken in
to parts, parcels, and fragments, so that wha, is
whiggery in one latitude, is anti-whiggery in the
next Nay, you can scarcely find two men III
each score of wings, who agree in relation TO their
views of national policy, Their only hope is, that
either Clay or Webster, they care not which, may
succeed in again rallying the discovered and scat
tered fragments of the party, and, by hook or by
crook, by fair means or foul, by coaxng or threat
ening, induce the President to conform to their
views or, at least sanction some measure in re-
aton to the Bank question, by which " The wings"
can again be united, Rather forlorn hope.
The truth is that the very name "whg, has
been so abused and perverted by the federalsts,
that it has become offensive and unpaatable. And
this was the predicted result when it was first as
sumed by their leaders, Such has been the fate OF
every name which "t the old blues" have surrepll-
,iously taken, from Westinghouse, y" Nation
al Republicans &c. down to their present cog
nomen. They wear the livery of the very men
whose principles and measures, icderalisis have
always opposed, The honest portion of their party
and those uneasy and creduIous men, who in the
midst of pomp and carousal were swept away by the
gale ,-cnoled, sung, or cideri-ed into the federal
ranks,-are opening their eyes upon the facts oil
the case the singularity Of their position They
begin TO discover that the epithets, JcGersonian,
democratic, sc, as applied to whiggery, are per-
Observation-Disclosures! These names are used as
bats TO the hook-to take up the attention, and
divert it from the abomnaiion they are designed 10
conceal. But the deception is partly exposed-ihc
mask is rent in pieces, and be the name as it may
things again appear as they are
Every candid man will acknowledge that " the
wings" are divided, and sub-diyided, Till common
people do not know what whiggeryis. This noble
BaJvlonian science needs new nomenclature
Or shall we save the great 'god-ike Daniel The
labor Of such work, and call parties Of The party
Tyler-nen, Clay-mcn, Webser-men, Bank-men
Fiscal Agent men Something 1.-The -kind-men, We
to-men, Anli-Veto-men, and so on TO the end o
the chapter But if we adopt this racy course
our prospects are hardly betcred; for, portions o
each Of these parties are, aud will be, continually
changing sides, places, and positions. As said thu
honest Hibcrnian, in another case, "Put your fin
ger on one of them, and be fath, he's not here"
Now, if some one, deeply learned IN the com
pick subject of our inquiry,-some humble wor
shipper at the shrine of rhiggcry proper, as nov
protested by the federal party in porer,--(sav
the checks of the Teio-arm,) can give us any lis
in this case, we hope it will be made to shine
rnrthIyih