The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-02-15
w A S Fl | N G I @ N.
THURSDAY MORNING, FEB. Is, 1914.
MIR. VAN BUREN'S "MAGIC OF HONEST
PArRIOTISMn

MIR. VAN BUREN'S "MAGIC OF HONEST
PATRIOTISM"
with what inconsistency, rather with what
folly, is the human mind sometimes stricken! There
are still people in whose eyes Robespierre was
man, and Louis XVI. tyrant Anonymous
The effrontery of the Globe, in its eulogy of
Mr.. Van Buren, for qualities which he never pos
sessed, and its denunciisstion of Mr. Clay on
grounds no less arbitrarily assumed and known
by the managers of that paper to be false, can
have no beginning, and will have, probably, no
ending, except in and with their obvious contempt
for the capacity of the people of this country to
bring the knowledge and recollections they pos
sess respecting past events to aid their present
judgments of the two men thus placed in contrast
To every person as we'll informed of the past po-
ltical life of Mr.. Van Buren,, as large majority
of the people Of the United States, the heading of
an article in advocacy Of him, with the attractive
caption of 1.-THE MAGIC OF HONEST PATRIOTISM"
and an attempt 10 suborn such an idea into SER
vice, as titulary exponent of the influence upon
which Mr.. Van Buren, and his political godfathers
depend for reelection of him to the Presidency,
partakes so much of the spirit of burlesque, as
almost to entirely deaden the Indignation it would
naturally excite among the truly patriotic, were
the impudence of it regarded as positively serious
The dissertation of such sentiment by the
Globe for even the purposes of flattering the only
half resuscitated hopes Of its own dispirted and
conscience-smitten followers--whch is the high
est ascrption Of motive that we think can be
claimed for the act--is hardly excusable, in view
Of the principle of good morals that should always
be observed in political warfare.
However, if delusion, duplicity, and cajolery,
or, to use somewhat favorite and characteristic
word with a former congressional and now judi
cial protege of Mr.. Van Buren,, if hum6uggery
has not already done its most perfect work,
through the columns of the Globe and its kindred
prints of particular interest, upon The credulity
Of the supporters Of Mr.. Van Buren, in 1910, we
know not that we, his opponents, ought to find
fault with any renewed efforts upon them, and
while confined to them exclusively.
But lest the silence of others should be instru-
mental, as cumulative influence, in this work
of the Globe to impress the reluctant convictions
of its heretofore duped followers, respecting
"the magic of honest patriotism" now for the
first time in the progress of party .maneuvering
ascribed to Mr.. Van Buren, as distinctive cha
~acteristc, (!!!) we feel ourselves in some de-
gree called upon to recur cursory to the preten-
sions of the Globe in the article before u.s. X
The newly devised pill which the Globe asks
it's partisans to swallow, in the idea that Mr.. Van
Buren, is characterized by "the magic of honest
patriotism and that hence it is he is the great
preferred one over Cass, Calhoun, Buchanan,
Johnson, and all others of the same party, is at
tempted to be glded by the following laudation
of what it calls "ns,inct in the people," viz:
:" In disposing Of the chief power of the Gov
eminent, there is an instinct in the people which
directs them almost invariably to choose the man,
who, being equal 10 the office, seems least in
clnei to take it."-Glo6e Of Feb. 8.
Very well said. But if we take this philosophi-
cal trusm in the politics OF representative Gov
eminent, which the Globe advances, it inevitably
conducts the intelligent republican of Mr.. Van
Buren's own party to adopt one of two conclu-
sons, either Of which, let add, most manifestly
refutes and explodes all the merit which the whole
labor of the Globes article aims to work out for
Mr.. Van Buren,! That is to say taking that
/" in tnct," which the Globe says is " in the peo-
ple,' (and switch directs them,') for our guide,
and it must be admitted either
lst That that instinct in the people" was
wholly at fault in $780, when it gave Mr.. Van
Buren, the votes of only seven States out of
twenty-six, and gave him less chan majority of
the direct votes of "the people" by nearly one
hundred and fifty thousand; or,
I'd. That that "instiuct in the people" did
work true to its nature, and without fault, and
did truly discover, and emphatically proclaim,
Martin Van Buren, not to be that man who. be.
ing equal to the office, seems least inclined 10
take az"
But so it is, in the face of this truism of the
Globe, and. Of this recent solemn emphatic pro-
Runcistsou u tho people" svainst Mr. Van By