Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1850-03-26
THE REGISTER.
ShepherdstOwn, Jefferson County, Va.
TUESDAY, MARCH rs, 1850.
e. Our thar Ks are due 10 Hon. ]. p.
Hale, and Hon. Richard Parker for print
ed Speeches sent US.

In concluding the course of remark we
fell into last week respecting the possible
if not probable tendencies Of that branch
of our political leaders who are known as
the Extreme South, we threw out the
idea that the spirit which actuates them is,
in fact, spirit alien 10 the character OF
this people taken as a whole, and Of the
! Constitution which binds US into a Ma
lional Unity.
Taking the distinguished Senator from
South Carolina Whose severe bodily i'll
ness we hear of with real regret as the
type OF this class Of politicians, we should
say that with all his native powers and
natural talents and acquired facilities, he
is vet not the man who either understands
or sympa,hizes with the age we live in.
As the world lives on from century TO
century and age 10 age, the means and in
struments for its government become sue
cessively more and more remote from the
torceful, the crafty, and the physical.
Coarse despotsm for the civilized world
has gone craft Of various kinds, civil and
ecclesiastical, is deep in its afternoon, and
the special "polcies that nations have
Rugged so closely even in this 10Th centu-
ry, are yearly fading away before higher,
and purer and more ethereal influences.
To hear Mr.. Calhoun and those lesser
rights that reflect his sentiments, one
would think this blessed Union was form
ed only for gross physical and commercial
objects, and that it is to be considered as
superfuous and even burdensome when
those gross objects can be probably Sc
cured in some other way. His notion
of the perfection of political system is
that it should care for and regard alone
the mortal, the material, the outward man {;
that done and all is done.
Now it so happcns-though ii takes no
little time and discipline to find 1t out
but so il is, that in this Universe of mat
ter and of mind, but particularly in the
mental department. the way Of wisdom Is
seldom the direct way of the intellect.
The conscience and the heart are the cho-
sen, though seemingly indirect avenues
through which Providence has elected TO
draw humanity forward and upward in
every department of excellence. How
deep philosophy there is in the apparent
naradox :" he that seeketh his life shall
lose it, and he that loseth his life shall
find it," the obserYant spirit knows. AND
it is under this very same system that ma
lions as we'll as individuals live and move
and have their being. Are those nations
The strongest who keep the largest bodies
of armed men! Ar. those states the
richest into whose lap have been thrown
The most abundant sources OF metallic
wealth ! Are those people the haPpiest,
most comfortable, contenled and patriotic,
upon whom nature has showered her most
distinguished blessings! On the other
and are not those nations the strongest
and most firmly set, by whom the iewest
,roops are employed! Have not the law
ish gifts of Nature often proved the rum
rather than the wealth ola people! TO wit
ness, old Spain. Are the fair & sunny fields
ofIialv trodden by a race that can compare
in all the elements Of national respectable
,tv with the Swiss of the rugged mountain,
or the Holander in his morasses
Thus then we would apply this great
truth, 4 truth the world is but beginning
10 understand, and would ask the advo-
cafes Of what is called Southern policy
whether they are not, in seeking 10
strengthen their end Of the Union by d.
rect organic changes, warning against the
true wisdom! The history OF the South
itself furnishes an irresistible instance OF
the operation of this great truth. When
the compact between the North and South
was made under The Constitution, I'VE know
that the South secured the ,rree-fifth prin-
cinIe for what is now called its 'equilibrl-
um.' Now here is an instance OF tile OPP
Grafton Of direct force, Of one dictated by
the mere intellect, but which has worked
so counter to its supposed tendencies, that
we have Mr.. Calhoun demanding new