Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1850-01-05

: to a hopeful present and golden future. Where
: now would be those institutions we love so much
/. and defend SO constantly, whose promises are
boundlessly rich had not their first uprsings been
watered with mans bloed, and had they not been
planted here with surest trust in their power The
stronger always overcomes the weaker, and always
: will, in nature and in society. There is dispo-
: siton on the part of man, in obedience to Gods
law, to advance at all hazards and at any expense
: All history teaches us this. Man, degraded
by barbarism, broken down by the falsity OF
: the social and political laws, under which he
exists, takes has first step up1Card by Uading
: through the field Of battle. The universal law
'of PROGRESS takes in this element, ranging it by
the side of others, giving it its proper rank in
: the elementary means of reform. Power is the
great controlling influence of course, and it
must be physical power before ii IS moral. 1t is
'hard to find war out of which good has net
grown either from the attendant reform of abuses,
the establishment OF political rights, or the COM
pusion of nation to its first step towards enlight
eminent. 1t is useless to prove this by instances.
The law is sufficient, and it is our weakness, not
our strength, which makes us start back when we
contemplate it. We dread the horrors of bat
tie but we would, as Independent, firm, unshrnk-
ing PREDECESSORS, march steadily on to the highest
glory. Men, as unconscious instruments in the
hands of God, are obedient to the great law of
power; and euen ,Ohen blinded by circumstances,
and filled with the lo,oest passions, are Dorking
out the great results his la,os demand. These
memorable laws bind all men, individually and in
masses. From them alone comes their retribution.
The tmid man, who cannot contemplate them,
may never know them while he who contends for
his rights with the sword of the Lord and of Gid
con, and he Vho forces his ,oay ,cith the torch Of
civilization and the sacordnto degraded countries,
each opens the way for the glory and moral ete-
aofio, IF oft Or
as blind nstrumentin the universal government"
| To those who delight in being classed on the
high party authority ofthe i" Unon," as representa-
tives of the Democratic or Progressive principle"
this portrait of what the objects and aims of the
fanatics or demagogues who have taken out patent
for that entirely new improvement upon old-fash-
Toned Democracy-this view Of the agencies and
means by which it proposes to accomplish the per-
lection of human wisdom and virtue-may be in
structive We commend it to their most serious
consideration.
Having given Democratic explanation of the
word Progressive" as applied by the party It
self, rather by one wing or division of that par
y-limited, we trust, as well in numbers as in its
capacity for mischief-we shall dedicate the re-
mainder of this article to some notice of an attempt
on the part of the Union to disparage the cha
racter of CONSERVATISM which we claim for the
WHIe party of the United States We quote from
the Union of December %, as follows:
"THE CONSERVATIVE PARrr.-The National htelH-
gencer with tenaciy which be accounted for only by
its own peculiar instincts and associations still perss-and
think very propery-n calling the Federal party of the
United States the CONSERVATIVE party. When the true
meaning Of the is understood it will be conceded by
every intelligent friend of republican liberty that cossER
is the true and proper term by which the principles
and practices of Federalism may be most clearly expressed
OF the Editors Of the Ltegencer will not pretend
to that Conservatism in America any thing
or less than Conservatism in Europe No English word
have meanings If conservatism is the representative
principle system of public poliy, expression
used define peculiar quality characteristic of par
ties, it the thing whenever and wherever
used, whether in Europe America This suppose thu
Editors of the Iategencer will presume deny
consequently have right to infer that they understand
conservatism the thing in country il
another, and that represents the ideas in the Untet
States as it does in England or in Austria
Borrowing from the Union'' for the use of the
moment one Of its own rguments-without in
tending, of course, to it otherwise than in the
process of reducing to absurdity another of them
we say that, in gratifying its malice by attempting
to excite hostility to the Wings in the minds Of
ignorant and preudiced readers, by applying the
epithets Federalists'' and Federalism to the
Wing party, the Union must be =" aware that no
English word can have two meanings" If Fed
ralism is the representative of princple1r a
system of public polity, mere expression USED
to define some peculiar quality or cha-cterisnc OF
parties, it must mean the same thinr whenever ana
wherever used.' The term Fererdt came into use
at the formation Of the Govenment OF the United
States, as designating tb, particular form OF that
Government, and to distinguish it from Confe-
deration," such ., that of the old German Empire,
in which, thorgh Confederation, one member might
wage wsr against another, whilst the different
States of )" the United States had given up, among
other things, all political power in regard to foreign
affairs, commerce, &c. The term Federal thus
came to designate those who advocated the adop-
ton of the Constitution. In our Dictionaries, the
definition of the word Federal is, Friendly to
the Constitution of the United Sates.'' In no other
sense has the term federalism at this day any
sense or Specification whatever. We are friendly
to the Constitution Of the United States, we ac-
knowledge, and, as the " Union says both by in
stinct and by association. To the " Union" we
leave the profession of the converse Of that propo
sition. In the way that things now going on, it
may not be long before it will in earnest have to