The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-02-16
W A S H IN G I 0 N.
FRIDAY MORNING, FEB. 16, 1874.
ADDRESS OF THE CORRESPONDING COM
MlTrEE OF THE COLUMBIA, s. c. CLAY

ADDRESS OF THE CORRESPONDING CON-
MITrEE OF THE COLUMBIA, 5. &. CLAY
CLUB.
We have rarely met with more eloquent OF
condensed view Of the political questions which
divide the country, or more graphic delneatlon
OF the two parties and their respective leaders,
than is to be found in the address Of the Cores
ponding Committee Of the Richland Clay Club,
Of Columbia, South Carolina. II is string Of
brilliant gems, every sentence being text upon
which pages, and almost volumes may be writ.
ten. They ask upon what ground the great and
dec.s verdict against Van Burenism in l84O
should now be reversed? What have the party
now to promise but a repetition OF all that then
had SO justly drawn down upon them the over.
whelming public condemnation? What new
hoT es, what better pledges do they bring!
Have they any new measure, any new pur.
pose, any new principle? They found the coun-
try prosperous-,hey left it in ruin. They found
the public faith pure, they left it furnished and
a by-word. They found us with currency
they left us none. They found the public ad
ministration with the purity Of young Repub-
lie, and pecuation became the rule and not tht
exception"
How true, un 1ortuna,ely for the country. He
who is old enough to remember the rise OF thl>
destructive party in 1925, and has witnessed IT.
as we have, from the moment it was /" a cloud
not bigger than your hand" until, in lis rapic
growth, it covered the horizon and sent forth TIL
wild blast which Frustrated the loftiest an.
III IL. r., rnrdc ut de
s'ructive fury, can feel the force Of the abov,
language, and testify to its solemn truth.
Their mere absence from power has recov
cred the country; and in regard TO that grea
public crime and evil, which Government canno
skulk the responsibility Of, there has not been a
official defalcalon since Mr.. Van Buren, lei
Office"
What severer or more just commentary coul'
be made upon Mr.. Van Buren's Administration !.
Where now are those hordes Of public deiaulter
and peculalors which but lately thrust thei
ha IDS, unchecked and unrebuked, into the public
Treasury, and who were kept in office even afte
their crimes had become known, lest their intiu
ence should be exerled against those who wer.
willing TO purchase it by giving them free license
to plumber the people Gone, with the party Il
which they belong. Skunk away like wolves
driven into unfrequented forests before the morn,
ing sun and the face of man.
1--WE are opposed to the restoration OF Execu'
tive usurpa,ions, of wild and wreckless projects
of bankruptcy and detalcation; OF sPolls and
plumber; of reputation and Dorrism; TO the
restoration of a corrupt and broken down party
in which there is already such dissolution u
continuity that its limbs are dropping apart"
And SO is every WING and honest man in the
nation 1t is only those who long, once more,
to tatten upon plumber, to appropriate the spols'
10 transfer the deposites from the Government
Treasury TO their own pockets, that desire "the
restoration of the Bourbons." But the people de-
sire not the return of the spoilers and plunderers;
they are content to enjoy the prosperity which
has been restored TO them, and dread, as they do
war, pestilence, and famine, the appearance
again of those swarms of locusts which not only
devoured their substance, Frustrated their insti-
buttons, and paralyzcd their industry, but which
also attacked the good and the beautiful, and
caused them to suffer by piercing them to depos-
lite therein, as they did in every thing, their poi
sonous eggs.