Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1850-04-02
HereSy.

Many members of Congress Of both
Houses, but principally Southern men,
have made il good deal of practice OF
late 10 talk about their great love of the
Union, but their greater love OF their own
Section, or their own State. Mr.. Hunter.
one of our U. S. Senators has given wind
to this heresv, heresy assumed to Justl.
Cv a tone of remark with respect to tho
UniuA that has got 10 be fashionable with
all those politicians who hold communion
with The spoiled and autocratic Richmond
School. We believe Mr.. Hunter to be
clever man personally, but we have We
~ decided lack Of confidence in his PoIlt.
ical soundness. These iroublous times
are good for one purpose at least like
earthquakes, they throw up the strata, and
let US see what has hitherto been kept III
1concealment. Mr.. Hunters speech Of
last week ought not, and we hope wilt not
meet the approval of the people Of Virgin
| IA. In this connexion we take il that the
following are just remarks:
The North and the South.
IF we were to initiate the spirit which
has tempered, or rather dislenpered. the
debates in Congress for The last three
months, we shoull, in speaking ot the
United States under the general designa-
Iucu ~ nc Neil: end S"nrh. instead Of
employing the copulatve conjunction, say
rather the North UerSuS the South, aud
conversely. The North and the South
are no longer terms denoiing geographical
position, or parallels of latitude; they per-
tain to the domestic and social institutions
Of the several States, and they are used in
sense so exclusive as 10 divide the great
West into North and South, as the States
belonging TO that denomination assimilaie
one or other extreme in their internal
structure. And the same confusion OF
speech in regard to geographical position
obtains in respect 10 representative char
acter. The same state Of things which
has absorbed the East and the West into
III. South and the North. has expanded
the constituencies of every member TO the
entire area of one or other Of these dlvis-
ions and they all speak, with here and
there bright exception. as though IN en-.
IarpinV their responsibilities 10 one'half OF
the Union they owed no allegiance out of
the denomination of States in which their
nar,icular districts are restricted. Nay
more, they too often assume 1t as fact
that there was popular haired and natural
antaOonism between the two sections oil
The Union, for and against which they
speak.
Ia representative in Congress, in ASST
ming to speak for other constituencies
than his own, would only embrace the
whole Union in his expanded representa-
tive character-if he would speak for The
Union, for all sections and all geograPhr-
cal and sv,,;.l divisions, II would be an
improvement. But when this a''r!!:hca-
tion of responsibility is restricted 10 one
division Of States, II serves only to con-
soIdate sectional dlscOD,ents, and infuse
Into geographical contests The bitterness
land acrimony Of neighborhood collisions.
According to the theory of our Constr
tuition, a representative from Georgia is as
much the representative o: Maine as he is
OF Louisiana; and a representative from
I Massachusetts, should guard The rights Of
Virginia with the same zeal he evincesio
the Iighss Of Ohio. There is no other
allegiance than a purely local and pure.
fly national one, There IS no sectional,
Eor, ST. to speak. no Northern or Southern
allegiance. When not speaking for Peo-
pie, or the State to whom ne IS directly
responsible, the representative shonh bear
in mind that he is a member Of The Con.
gress Of the United States, and speaks for
sIl.-Wash. Republic.