Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-07-01

Locofocos can be- and seeking as earnestly as we
are TO promote and perpetuate it = and he ends
by charging those very Wings with being ultra
federalists, unbeieyers in the possibility of Re-
publican Government, and really enemies of the
people. Such are the slanderous innuendoes which
he clearly means to convey. We beg special
attention to the purport Of his seventh and eighth
paragraphs, where the faacious charges which he
makes and the purely Jacobin doctrine which he
| holds forth are found.
Our Government .(he says) is founded in the
will of the whole peoples, in other words, a
popular government. In the capacity of the mere
people at large-the popuiace as conradistnguished
from the pohticians-to conduct such govern
ment successfully chat is, happily he represents
one party 1.-THE Locofoco) as believing, the other
the Whig) as not believing. This unbeef they
derive, he avers from the great Federal Statesman
whose creed they have always retained, although
striving to conceal it and to deceive the people by
changing the name, not the doctrines. Pm real ef-
feet, Mr.. CAss-who has just before admitted the
Wings to be quite as true and patriotic citizens as
the Locolocos-accuses those very Wings of being
political infdels and knaves, who are false at heart
to the country and constitution they live under;
are bent on strong government, (which, in the Lo-
cofoco dialect, means government Of king or
nobles,) and to conceal their wicked designs from
the People and hide their Federal identity, resort
to aliases. like an association Of house-breakers or
of horse-thieves.
Our happy country-readers, who live where
sights of human wo and abasement seldom come,
must, when visiting cities, have witnessed with
many sigh the multiplied forms of degraded oc-
cupaton to which restitution brings men; how
these ply, amidst poverty, hunger, and dirt, some
wretched craft, with eyes that ache with watching
and fingers worn to the bone; how those 60 about
in rags and beg; how some purvey from blind al
legs meal which the dogs and cats have scorned;
while others, bent stick and foul wallet all their
wealth, fish from the oozy cutters scanty and re-
voting subsistence. One views these things with
a heaving of the heart that the necessity of iving
should drive men to such degradation but one
shakes his head and Gains his feelings by suppo-
sing that all this must be so that such is the pc
nalty Of peoples growing too fast; that some
must starve where there are more mouths than
meals. And now just such sad reflections these
things suggest in the streets rise to our bosoms
many forms Of mortal misery how many poor
workies slave it barely to keep soul and body to-
gether what numbers beg or steal, or make
livelihood of lies; what crowds go poking behind
every kitchen and backcourt for scraps and offal;
how others rake the very cutters for their spoils
Heartsick at the sight of all this-at debasement,
a sordidness, wretchedness that every day be-
come sadder and sadder, we too forced to say
to ourselves, Alas, politics have grown over
populous; too many have to live by them de-
basement and crime have become almost inevitable
as the means of subsistence talent and worth
will scarcely support mans family little can be
got fairly and by merit; blockhead that steals
can thrive but not the cleverest that will not;
to be legitimately great by abilities and truth, and
toll, and the courage and the public devotedness
to face tyrant or mob alike, is no longer possible"
Still there are arts, which, though they may
bring success in inferior gradations, are danger
Gus personally to practise when one is near
ing the topmost graduation of all for then one
stands too conspicuous safely to perform disrepu-
table things. We think, then, that General CAss,
lifted suddenly SO much into view, has done wrong
to attempt from that position, to do his own SLAM
dering of about one-half of his fellow -ctzens.
He who sets himself up for throne must first of
all, so look and SO act that men shall be dazzled
with native majesty Of worth, sweetness, and
command in him, which seem to want the crown
ing only as ceremony of course. The candidate
should, in aspect and conduct, be - every inch a
king" already-nay, higher, flor so is the proper
elevation,) every inch President" Now, shall
prince lay by the scepHe 10 fling dirt on all his
subjects that displease him. Shall king turn
penny scrbbler, print farhing proclamations under
the great seal to belle his own people, and write SO
viely against them that Grub street herself will
4 disown him Alas, for the force of habit Surely,
but for that he would consider how much more
gracefully monarch swears al his lieges by proxy,
and makes his grooms vilify them.
i At best, the charge which Gen. CAss has made,
come from whom it might, was indecent: for to iu-
inmate such charge against the permanent deli
berate purposes and principles Of great and In
ellgent party, Of probably half the citizens OF the
United States--of that very half who have con-
s,antly, as party, most steadfasty sriven TO up,
hold not merely the laws, but institutions them
.oIyas tha paai .a,;,iar will m prnbodied in con-