The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-02-13
THE ARBrTRATIoN SCHEME.

others boar directly on the spread Of free io'tiin
lions and the wslI-bsing Of the masses OF men on
Ibis eondnent--ir u not enough that, upon the-e
questions, the whs party permitted Itself 10 take
sand Of opposition to the interests, the wishes a"o
|hs rights Of the American people, and on ihH'
r.nd me, hopeless rout and oseuhrowi h 10 not
soourh tina, even with such sad experience for It's
instruction, the wing party, since the opening OF the
present Congress, has with some noble exeep-
|aons, which we are happy to note and record)
made itself to be more than suspected OF In
|smi,y Of purpose and faintnsss of heart in the
indication Of American soil from foreign az
,s.sion; il is not enough that some men Of the
xhig party, already staggering under the odlum OF
he Odiou portions Of the Washington TRAY, have yet
been fool hardy enough to stand up or the floor OF
Congress, and elsewhere, and heap dishonor on the
nd, Of America aud proclaim the force Of the title OF
Great Britain to a territory to which Henry Clay,
d, "EubOdim,ni," said, in 1927, that "Grest Brit
ain had and could make out color d iis iohaisrsr
il is no, enough that many most leading wing
ourna should lend ilself TO coun,enance 10 the full
extent this mons,rous violation Of all patriotic du-
y, involving, as il does, most astounding blum
Der in party policy it is not enough that these fore
doomed proceedipgs-proceedings to which the
name Of error, even in It's grossest sense, gives
only a feeble des,gnstion--should have hesped
voon a portion Of the wings a load Of obloquy
and Of suspicion, which, in any appeal to the Peo-
pIe in canvass, even in the Saturnaiia of 1910,
would have sunk PROSTATE on the earth any
party strength which this country ever saw; il is
not enough that these proeeedings-their folly seen
100 lae-should have encountered the stern rebuke
Of the popular house Of Congress in that recent over
vh.mins vote by which the people, through their
representatives, set their broad seal Of approval and
,,6csrion to our title to Oregon; il is not enough
,hs, this rebuke Of the House of Representatives
mould have been at once edged, and driven home to
the very quick, by the plain sefrsbuks administered
to the party leaders and the party journals, by no
ANAL portion Of the rank andfle Of the wing party
in the House, who, in fidelity to American instincts,
and in breach Of all party ties, came up in the very
crisis Of the question: to record their names in sup
port Of our title against Great Britain thereby clear
y showing that, a, party, the wing party had no
counier policy to that OF the administration, which
they would unite in offering to the country, and
that therefore TO their honor be this spoken)
hey would forget, on the Oregon question,
that they were wings, in order to remember
that they were .amsrieans all these things land we
fairly pause for breath at the end Of the enormous
sentence into which We have vainly endeavored to
crowd the whole catalogue)-all these things not
it seems, enough. There is yet another chapter.
There is yet slower deep profound" beneath even
this "serbonian Bog" of party failure and discom.
future, into which some leading men Of the wings
mot all, not ALLY had resolved-perhaps we may say
Aar, resolved--that the wing party must descend
This "lo,per deep" Is that scheme already doomed
to wide and lasting celebrity under the name Of
tn. ARBITRATION PLOT. ...... ...... ..
Under the very most favorable circumstances,
arbitration must always be an excsptionable and
suspicious mode Of adjusting territorial questions
Especially must this be so, when the people and moi
the government are recognised as the rightfu
owners of the soil. Most especially must this be SO
when the question arises in fact between a grea
republic on the one hand, and on the other a grea
and grasping corporation which stretches itself ou
nix thousand miles as the arm and HAND
Of an unrelenting commercial and coloniziDs
monarchy. Arbitration with such power
must always be repugnant to American pstri
otism. And IL the question Of right be clear
the chance of impartial arbitration be hopeless
the stake be Of immense and incalculable value tt
one party, and Of comparatively very little value te
the other-if the value to the parties be indeed ex
sc,ly in inverse ratio to their respective rights-ant
,be party of the worse right have, in fact, by thu
position, constitution, and character Of it's govern
msnt all the chance Of concentrated and controlling
influence over the arbi,ra,ing power--then we say
that under such circumstances, (snd they are ex
sctly the circumstances of our Oregon controversy
with Great Britain,)a resort by our government IL
the federal constitution, must be almost always ant
every way dangerous and Objectionable. But, ii
view Of tho fac, that il il a procedure wholly un
known to our constitution and foreign to lis spirit
tina, il assumes what is very doubtful, the right o
our government 10 alien our soil--what Ia NOR
than doub,ful--the right of the government t
put the possession of our soil out OF tn
control Of our people, who are themselves 1t
owners--n view Of all these facts, a resort I
arbitration by. our government on a question
like the question Of Oregon seems to DO re
sponsbility which no administration, mindful OF II
relations and Of it's duties to the people, can eve
PERM, itself in any manner to assume.
But this array OF objections 10 arbitration In a'sl
and we have only glanced at matter which w
may have occasion to discuss more fully hereafter
these objections to arbitration in itsclf we say, con
sttute only tithing--s mere fraction--of the por
'entous scandal Of the WHO ARBITRATION RIOT.
se do not btlisve--it is not suspected-that al
the distinguished wing leaders in Washington con
Cured IN this movement, or participated in the con
situations 1t is supposed that many Of Them dis
dained the machinery Of him who affected to b
the manager in the scheme. We have som
evidences Of this indignant feeling in the Bosto
Atlas, and in the New York Tribune, in seeing tn
revelations through the medium Of the New Yorl
Courier
But that PLOT, in the hands Of those who az
responsible for IT. was nothing more nor less than
deliberate and systematic effort Of factous opposition
/" home, rallyng in secret conclave on contro
versy between our country and England, to fore