The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-06-24
THE REPU BLIC

is quality that highly adorns woman"-even
an old one and there are men, also, to
whom this amiabe quality may lend becom-
ing grace We would not wound the delicate
sensibilities of the Union by protruding its
merits upon the public notice, however worthy
of commentator they might be, if it were not
that public duty has claims paramount to any
Of those scruples of diffidence which might
prompt fragrant political flower to waste its
sweetness on the desert air.
No; we will drag this reluctant benefactor
into the public view, there to receive those ac-
acknowledgements so justly due TO valuable ser
vices. Let that voice which warned the coun-
try more than year ago of the dangers of sec
tional exctements and controversies which
spoke SO eloquently concerning the great princi-
pie Of State rights, and the elements from which
it springs-which indicated the right of peo-
pie TO determine for themselves the nature and
character of their own domestic institutions,
let that voice be heard again in its echoes, since
it has become dumb in utterance nO,o upon those
points, OF harshly dscordant with its previous
tones We do not praise the Union for any
thing which it now says or does, and do not ex-
pect to have occasion to say word in common
dation of its course; yet, although the evil that
men do lives after them, while ''the good is of
inferred with their bones" we do not intend
that the Union shall be deprived Of the benefit
of resurrection. Its present and daily sins
need some atonement; and where can that be
more appropriately found than in its former good
deeds2 The ghost shall speak in behalf of the
living creature; its memory may claim con
sideration Of which its daily life is unworthy
in this appendix of its existence.
Merit, like murder, will out. When the
Union requests that we shall not say word in
its praise, the inference may be that it is SO
confident of superior excellence as to think il
needs no conmendation or, in another view, il
may be laboring under an excess of modesty
which may be called the prudery of diffidence
But we have obligations to the public. We
are bound to recognise and to approve sound
and constitutional views, well expressed, wher-
ever we may meet with them, without regard
| to the shrinking delcacy which would fain keep
such views, so well expressed, from the cogni-
sance and the admiration Of the country. 1t is
| something worth while TO be MEcRNAs to All
| unobtrusive VIRGIL.
We will do the Union that justice which il
seems indsposcd to claim for itself. Yes, in
the very face Of its daily inanities and its dull
monotony Of rigmarole, repeated and reiterated
to the surfeit of all digestive readers, we will
boldly maintain that the Union newspaper did
once talk sensibly; and however extraordinary
the assertion may seem, we will undertake &c
show, if dared to the proof, that there are upon
record, and in good English, opinions, views, ar
| guments, and sentiments, from that journal, adj
mrably adapted to the settlement of the sectional
controversy which is now disturbing the public
councils, and paralyzing the action Of Congress
The Union shall not lack champion when il
is in the right.