The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-02-26
Fres-so,l and MIR. tdd,nxs.

or man Of his honesty, e are we'll per-
suaded that the one is aknave and the
other wanton. We do ot pique our
selves on the possession | that, the abb
sence of which would rend, us contempt
ible in our own eyes and iithose of the
world.
With similar conviction le regard the |
especial champions of Fretsoil in free |
States. 1t is fair to assumehat the peo-
pie of the non-slaveholding Safes are OPP
posed to slavery; otherwise, they would |
establish it in their own borsrs. They
have right to entertain theilpreference
for free soil, whether it arises iom sense
of interest, convenience, duy, or any
other sentiment. They all shae it, But
when man among them arrogaes to him
self any especial merit on this score, and
makes it the subject of favorable contrast
between himself and his neiglbors, and
of an appeal for political power and nDre
especially, when he travels out Of his JUS
diction to wound, or annoy, or create pr
JUDGES against men whose institutions
differ from those among which his lot il
cast-we class him in the same category
with rogues who pirate Of their integrity,
and cyprians who chatter about virtue.
1t may be gathered from the above,
without drawing any very violent infer
ence, that we look not merely with dis
trust, but with aversion, upon the leaders
in those movements during the late Presi-
dental canvass, which resulted in the
Buffalo convention and the nomination of
MARTIN VAN buren, for the Presidency.
That gentleman was fit type and repre-
sentative of the party by which he was
put in nomination. He had distinguished
himself by his subserviency to the very
interests which he was put forward to OPP
pose. He had been used and discarded
and had thus qualified himself for lead
ership in a cause which numbered in its
ranks the RooTs, GIDDINGsEs, ALIENS,
GARRIsoNs, and CHAsEs, who entertain
as sincere a reverence as himself for the
principle of Free-soil, and who would be
as ready as himself to sacrifice all the
principles and guarantees of freedom for
the qualification Of their personal ambition.
But these gentlemen, some of them,
have gone far beyond their leader. Mr..
VAN buren, was but playing political
game. He employed dangerous weapons,
but he was not unskilled in the use of
edged tools. He designed to revenge
himself upon his enemies. His purpose
was to subvert the elite of the distin-
guished Democrats of Richmond, who had
once thwarted his own plans for advance
ment, and who had evoked, by their ma
lignant and profigate policy, the spirit
which he designed to profit by and master.
For years, the Washington Telegraph,
the Globe, and the Richmond Enquirer,
had been raising the cry Of abolition
list against all the men at the North
who were opposed to the dynasty of
the elite. Every Northern man who re-
fused to come under their iron yoke was
denounced far and wide as an Abolitionist.
General HARRISON was stigmatized as an
Abolitionist. Mr.. CLAY was stigmatized
as an Abolitionist. At the very time that
all the forces of the Abolitionists Of the
North were arrayed against these great
WIG leaders, and seeking their over
throw, the organs Of the elite were infus-
ing into the southern mind the venom Of
these insidious falsehoods. At length,
they succeeded in raising an antagonist
spirit at the North; and it was as much
owing to this, as to any false philanthropy
in the masses, that so many middle-men
and moderate party men were induced to
array themselves under a sectional stand
ard during the last Presidential canvass.
And now this sectional spirit has been
so reused and stimulated by the arts and
denunciations Of such journals as the En-
quirer and Union, that while moderate
men have been made sectional, ambitious
and sectional men have been made trail
tors-traitors in feeling and almost in ac-
ton to the Constitution they have sworn
to support. 1t arises from the state of the
public mind which these presses have en-
kindled, that Mr.. GrDDrNes ventures to
sport with the position and character Of a
representative, and TO offer in his seat a
petition calling upon Congress TO devise
means for peaceful dissolution Of the
Union. While we condemn the legis-
lator who thus abuses and disgraces
the trust con6ded to him-who, with the
oath 10 support the Constitution on his