Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-01-03
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.


this Administration makes Of War and Peace, of as
sertion and abandonment OF headlong and sweep
inc claims of every thing with offers prompt 10
take half and of negotiation with the denunciation
of every freeman who has the manliness to advise
it, we have as our readers may have observed, latter
" considered il well to leave to the Representatives
of the People in the Capitol-in the hope that they
may better comprehend it-this bello-pacifc states
manshp, which smooths the way to accommo-
dation with one neighbor by acts of war, and helps
along arrangement with another by irritation
and rodomontade. Averse to write of what it is
not given us to apprchend, we have of late orborne
to give ourselves and our readers the pain OF COM
mentary upon methods in public affairs, in finance
and diplomacy, which embanass us by the utter
absence Of any thing likely, in other times to
elucidate them. But, if we cannot understand the
plans and purposes of the Administration, we are
not left in any doubt to the manner in which the
friends of that peace, which we believe the Presi-
dent to be engaged in making, are to be treated by
those who profess to be the opponents of his will
And understanding this, we shall occasionally inter-
pose to justify the advocates and the ofpeace,
of honorable moderation, and of good counsel for
Z,
it may be.
Certain of the ultra-Admnistration presses, and
among them that senior official one near us, seize
upon the commentators, in the London Times and
other English papers, of Mr.. WEBSTER and his
Fanuel Hall speech on the Oregon controversy,
and make, most fty, of all these foreign marks of
respect, arguments why the man thus compliments
ed should stand thereby convicted of the most fla
grant disloyalty to his own country. With the new
offence against Oregon and its sacred sunquestion-
ableness," some of them join against him of Marsh
field the old atrocity of having negotiated the
Treaty of Washington, thus rcduplicaing the enor-
nifty Of now desiring peace with that of having
once secured it, and compcating the crime Of be-
ing admired abroad with that of being gratefully
remembered at home.
As to Mr.. WEBSTER, he has little need of any
zeal on our part TO defend him. on the score either
of the Treaty of Washington or his Faneun Hall
Speech. His treaty has long ago justified itself in
the eyes of full threefourths ofhis countrymen and
his opinions on the Oregon business will vindcate
themselves probably quite as soon as he desires
There is magnitude of reputation which confers
not only authority but independence; of which the
year or generation and which must speak,
therefore, when it does speak for popularity the
favor and esteem of two that laugh at the spleen,
the envy, and the hate of the demagogues ofthe day:
by which two we mean Time and Truth. On
point of remote policy, then, such this of an al
most indefinite extension of our dominion, it is not
our purpose nor our care to defend one whose in
tellectua superiority gives such weight TO his calmly
pronounced views: we are only bound to defend
Mr.. WEBSTER, and only care to defend him, because
his justification is that of the SOBER the peaceoving
the just, the prudent, who detest all experiments
upon the happiness of people already most fortu-
nate, and, above all experiments that of ambitious
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT for nation with ninc-tenths of its
soil unoccupied, that of needless and cruel war
with great nation with whom we may easily have
an honorable peace.
First, then, word Of the Washington treaty. Ii
was negotiated with British statesman selected for
his personal relations of affection and lbcrality to-
wards this country, and on whom has been heaped,
in his own, by partisans, reproach though not ca
lumny quite like that which the adverse Plenpoten-
tiary has incurred here from enemies and faction
who have entirely failed to win the public ear.
uCdty 10 WtIi hiOWl w nave ildu, III It's SUI
puations the concurrence and the aid to perfect il
Of one of the most enlightened and able iurists of
national law, as well as one Of the honestest and
most patriotic statesmen that have adorned our
times-the late Attorney General LEGARE Ii re-
ceved the assent of Cabinet embracing the names
of WEBSTER, LEGARE, SPENCER, UPsHUR and what
is there in the existing Administration when il shall
have settled the Oregon question, that can claim
superiority in the public confidence in their abilities
to the authority of such names!
The arrangement effected by this treaty satisfied
the only party affected by the territorial concession
MAINE. On the question of maritime rights, i
contented our Navy and even the jealous spirit O
New England and her sons of the sea. On wha
concerned Slavery, it was acceptable both to the
South and 10 the Abolitionists-parties before
pleased with the same fact.
In that high tribunal for the supervision of diplo-
matte acts, the Senate it obtained and keeps the
assent of all the members of the party most oppos
ed 10 the Administration whose work il was and Of
all the leaders, except one, (Mr. BENToN,) of the
very party whose constituted organ now denounces
them in denouncinga.
Popular from the first il has only grown by the
r. -