Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1844-10-24

manifest as we'll as the most sagacious ant
useful man Of his day this is, to us, in times
signal for The vcissitudes, the crimes, the pc
Iitical dcgraGations which they have witness
ed, glory far beyond that of any arms, I'M
less such as, in the most forlorn extremity
rescue the last hopes of a land and redeem i
nom destruction. Bv as much MS peace il
better than war, and the long turmoil of dis
tracted aud corrupt public affairs more dan
gerous than almost any mere contest in tht
field, by so much must the wel-judging place
far above the valor Of an instant in battle this
lofty and long-sustained civil courage, virtue
and prudence, that secures and confirms
through the long and many-shaped hazards Of
peace all mat battles are Tough, for.
Need we, at the mention oc such mer
as this, point 10 the man in whom it is found
Will not one half the land, with its acclama-
lions, and the other by the scarcely more
equivocal testimony of its Remuneration, al
! once avow him-0nc alone-but that one
whether loved or hated by party, to rise up
into every mans thought?
What man survives amongst us, the stnadi-
| ness, the magnitude of whose public services
and their superiority to all influences of sell
or of party, have been any thing like mis- For
more than thiriy-ive years he has stood in
! the very front rank of every fight of the pub
lie interest or honor, ever hazardng his per-
son freely as if he had been cased in i'm
penetrable arms, unrelaXed by success, I'M
wavering in defeat, with conslancy that new
er was shaken, with patriotism undated by
even the sharp, the bitter trials of long public
wrong, Of dshonor heaped upon his name, of
the foul triumph of factions that could never
have made their way to trusts of which they
were utterly unworthy except by trampling
over his body, always sure TO offer itself to
their blows, the most unfinching guard of the
State. Those factions would now joyfuly
pull down every public bulwark and disman-
tie the State itself rather Than see his statue.
an eternal reproach TO them, placed high a.
mong the fathers of our freedom and policy,
on those monuments Of both which he has
so nobly defended.
Hts public abors have-besides their sim
gular devotedness, the noble faith of patriot
ism and confidence in his country, which
could alone have sustained him through such
a career-another merit more rare brilliant
as they have been, they have been equally
solid. Though sharing 10 the full whatever
was wisely and truly liberal in the spirit of
his times, his great and penetrating sense, as
If with some undertaking instinct of what was
safe, has wandered from practice into none of
the visions of the day. Principles that ere real
~ snch--principles that embodied some truth
tina, could be put benehcently into action
principles that are not empty theories or the
specious pretences of those who would pay
with mere doctrine every debt of public duty
such principles no man has ever more con-
stanty respected, with service Of the heart
and hand, not the mere lip. From any devia-
ton from such, his public life has been free
beyond almost any other example. OF but
one change is he even accused-that on the
question Of United States Bank-a question
on which the entire Republican party. includ-
ing the venerable name of MADISON, chang
ed with him; and MIR. MADISON. pure as he
was, made other changes which he of whom
we speak never made, happier in this, (and
only thus far w:ser,) that. coming later to
public affairs, he could better see the results
of experience
To heart, then, inaccessible to fear, in
capable Of wronging his country for any weak
purpose of monenary selfish advancement.
and filled with the most magnanimous spirit
OF an honor for himself TO be won only
through that greatness and glory of the land
TO which he could by ability contribute, he
has joined, conspicuously beyond all others
now alive, the qualities cf the mind Which
could give effect ard energy in public affairs
TO a zeal so patriotic. Him the mazes of doc
trlne have never entangled; him the fne-spun
web Of a theory has never held in its meshes
through each of the many visions of the day,
his strong sight has constantly pierced to the
reality behind it, The fair forms Of things
in the distance. the gay hues with which an
imaginative statesman has often known how
TO decorate barren promontories or dangerous
rocks, have never tempted him out Of his
course, TO sail without his chart or his sound
ngs for Elysian climes and fortunate islands
III the sky. stout sailor in the storm. he
has been safe pilot in the calm, and has
never from taste for hypothesis stranded his
ship, nor with rich cargo on board, plenty
OF sed-room, and the very port and market
within reach where his owners wanted him
to be, pumped his vessel high and dry upon
the rocks of an untried ''experimenln among
wreckers and pirates.
! Large in all his craftsmanship, broad iii al
his views, man as little confined by the mar
row notions OF mere routine as the dupe o
| speculation and of closet philosophy drawn
! from books only, his are the sagacious poll
! tics OF great and sure COMMON SENSE, the
| only guide to which nations in their sense:
ever trusted, and TO whom they must ever be
presently driven back, with grievous mishap
when they desert her to run after philosophy
and its phantoms.
His direct and unequaed services, tia
extend over SO large part of what the me
mory OF the present generation can embrace
why should we attempt to enumerate Fo
there is scarcely a public measure of on
times that can be emembered-that is i'm
portani enough to be remettibered--in whicl
| he has not taken a conspicuous and a mani,