The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-07-04
HYPOCHONDRIACAL.


Its fate is omnous of all inierloping organs, and
hence we look for the early exit of another journal.
SIC trasst &C."
Such are the closing words of para
graph in the Union announcing, in the
usual vein of the sc sole organ" the dis
continuance of the National Whig. We
shall not pause to criticise the phraseology
in which our contemporary chronicles the
demise of neighbor. The more import
ant matter of the paragraph is the predic-
ton Of its own early death. Amy amount
Of lugubrious selfconceit may be pardoned
to the melancholy which sense of APP
preaching dissolution inspires, and hence
we should not be surprised that its own
fate occupied more Of its thoughts than the
subject of its irreverent obituary notice.
There is no paper published in this city,
to our knowledge, which falls within the
category of "interloping organs" except
the Union. 1t alone has claimed for itself
the soubriquet and dignities of an organ
"the sole organ," at the capital, of the
Locofoco party. 1t has elected itself to
that office. 1t is not the recognised rep
resentative of any fragment of the party,
north, south, east, or west. 1t has been
repudiated by sundry martyrs who felt no
relief from tears shed by proxy in their
behalf, and hence refused to acknowledge it
as the lachrymal organ of the party. Yet
it has set itself up as the "sole organ y of
all Locofocoism, embraced in the disgust
ing coalition between the Old Hunkers
and Free Soilers-to the party of "Frede-
rick Douglass the colored Abolitionist,"
and the deserters from Tammany Hall to
the sectional platform, "of all others the
most fatal" as the Union has it, "to
the union of these States.' If the Union
cannot show title to organship, other than
its own say-so, it comes under the defni-
ton of an interloper." 1t is, therefore,
an interloping organ" and the only one
in Washington. Hence it is manifest that
the "other journal" which is to make an
f" early exit " is the Union-the " sole or
gan '-the " interloping organ -
We hope, however, the Union's time is
not yet come. Its presentiment of death
arises out of hypochondriacal state of
mind superinduced by dangerous reminis-
cences. 1t can scarcely recall its wan
ton, scandalous, and malicious assaults
upon the pure and good men it has labored
to defame, without some qualms of con-
science. Nor can it reflect upon the OBJ
sequious and fulsome hattery it ever
poured into the ear of power, without be-
ing oppressed with sense of servility. 1t
is the "perilous stuff" which lies upon
its heart, that has filled its mind with
megrims.
Moreover, but few months ago, when
it cast its eyes toward the White House,
its breast was full of the milk of human
kindness; now it is all bonnyclabber.
Sudden changes from the extremes of heat
and cold are feeble types of the effect
wrought upon the Unions sensations by
the last elections. These terrible shocks
have deranged its nervous system. What
with unwholesome memories, severe neu-
ralgic visitations, and an acid condition of
the pancreatic juices, the Union has be-
come melancholy, hypochondriacal, and
foreboding. 1t sees its own doom in the
sepulchral forms with which a guilty con-
science and disordered fancy people the
prospect before it, If il would make
clean breast of it, and enter upon new
courses, il would have calmer dreams.
We hope it will make shift to do better,
though a career Of vice long followed is
too apt to resist amendment. Should we,
however, be mistaken in supposing the
Union's forebodings to be merely fantastic
If, indeed, it must and will die-the
friends of the /" sole organ " might find an
appropriate epitaph in what was said of
the blythesomest of the daughters of the
house of Pecksnith. For, in its devotion
to power, in its adulation of people who
could serve it, and in its hattery of its sup
porters, the sole organ " was, indeed,
81 gushing thing"
HISTORY INDICATED.