Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1845-03-24
From the Democratic Rcrier for March, 1915.
THE LATE ACTING PRESIDENT.

OF expression may be employed, with more
8 riot accuracy than AT the moment at which
il is now written. For even though the
hour has not We, quite arrived, which is TO be
frightened by the reflection that rylcrism
has ceased TO exist, in any other than the
past tense, YET. by the time this page shall
reach the eyes of most of lis readers, they
will have ceased 10 blush for Tie government
of their country
Ill will take the country long time be-
fore the morals of our politics can recover
from the bad influence which has been ex-
er,ed over them by the regime of 'Tylcrsm"
was the recent remark Of very eminent
statesman, occupying position entirely
aloof from it., and dsinteres:ed i'll regafd 10
it and who neither in his own person For
ina, of any friend, had been injured or as
sailed by il, but who had rather been, on
the contrary, an object of lis goodwill and
flahering attentions. And the remark was
true so true. that we scarcely know when
and how to expect the curative influence or
recuperaiive power which shall wholly undo
the mischief, wholly atone for the d sgracc,
so deeply and broadly wrongh, by the events
OF the last four years.
OF late, indeed, towards the conclusion
of Mr.. Tyler's tenn, certain events have
concurred to produce the effect of raising
little faint show of Fictitious popu!lriiy--
not his own but ano,hel's--wiich attaches
not 10 bis general administration, but partly
to particular mcasure-and which prevents
the full man; lestaton of that common co.,
tempt, wh,ca both Wing and Democratic
parties vie with each other in entertaining,
for that nondescript ter,ium quid which he
and an Insignificant band of nercenary ad-
heren!s have constituted, as hybrid novel
,y unimagned before i'll our political expo
renee. The strong arm OF the great States
man Of the Stu.h 50 far upholds him, as 10
/ let him down with decent show of dignity,
in his descent fiom the high place 10 which
accident alone raised him and the blaze Of
the s.Lcne S;al' streaming up over our
southwestern horizon. alone sheds GER
tain degree of feebly reflected light on his
| retiring person, TO redeem il from the eutive
darkness in which il would otherwise have
gone down.
Men rarely love treason so well, as TO
forget TO despise the traitor. Nor indeed is
it by any means clear, that in his detection
from the Wings, who had placed him IN the
position which gave him his power 10 harm,
Mr. TYLER is entitled even TO the usual good
treatment which the policy of war accords 10
descrters. TO desert voluntarily is one
thing; to be fairly scourgcd out of,hc ranks
and out of emp, and then driven over to
the enemy as the only place Of refuge, is
another, and very different thing. And
when the person thus expelled was himself
already dcscrter in the enemy's camp,
from the side to which he is thus again ~.
ANONYMOUSLY driven back-when his prolong-
ed continuance there up TO the time OF that
expulsion, has involved in itselfthe grossest
,reachery 10 the side from whom he again
duplicates refuge--it cannot be pretend
ed that any very strong case is made out
for very cordial welcome. This is no
overcha,g ed picture for Mr.. Tylet's posi-
ton.
In the yelr 1910, what VIII, ou:-Whig-
ged the renegade Virginia Republican,
Nay, not only was he a Wing of the in,en
, sest SOFT, but he was peculiarly, and par er-
cellence, a Henry Clay Wing. To be a
Harrison Wing, or Scot. Wing, at that
time, meant comparatively little or nothing
to be Clay Wing was fall of the deepest
and strongest meaning. There was no nom
communication about the bold Kentuckian.-
His name, his name alone, constituted as
distinct an announcement Of a system ofpo-
ltical doctrinc-and political doctrine OF
the worst soft-as could have been convey
ed in any form OF creed or cltechsm. And
in the Convention OF lS40, Mr.. Tyler was
so fIriously friend TO the selection of Mr.
Clay, to be the Presidential candidate and
national representative of the Why party,
that, as has been subsequently pro.ed,i it was
TO the bitterness of his lamentations for
Claws future of nomination that he partly
owed his own selection for The Vice Pres
dency.
We should not have made this fact alone,
''per So" the foundaiion cf the charge
against Mr.. Tyler of having been ..renc
gade Virginan Republican," he had no:,
by the pllpable corruption ofhs subsequent
course, reflected back upon his positions a /,
that time the clcafest OF lights by which 10
read his character and conduct. In his zeal
Gus Clayism ofthat day, there was no hon
esty ofconve'sion, from what he had of old
protested He was SHINING against great
light and he knew it. He has subsequent
y, when ambitious interest prompted di!.
ferent course, thrown himself back again,
with an ardor Of Rerublicanism reinvigora-
ted by lis long interm:ss;on Of reposc, upon
the cd principles, and tie old party. whics,
he was then beiraying. With no DISPOSE
ton 10 withhold from Mr.. Tyler chlrlta
BILE Judgment even, nevertheless the undis-
guised and unblusiIing excess of the politi-
| cal corruption which has rotcd through his
adminsiratlon-now, happily exhaing its
very last breaih-has been such as 10 COM
pei justice, in The Interpretation Of former
equivocal conduct, 10 accept in all cases the
worst construction as the more propabla
| Truth.
The history Of Mr.. Tyel's administration
my be briefly summed mp. Becoming Act
ing President by accident, his polar star
was second term. With this view he first,
in conjunction with Webster, aimed at an
amalgama;ion of parties, until i, became ev-
ident that ncithel Wings nor Democrats
would have anything 10 do with such
scheme The f,,tmcr e, rlv ccpurood n;,x,