The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-08-01
scraps from the times. with Scraps fsom
Memory
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euERE DE- noe EFT euERE DE lilo!
Puzzled to my wits end for a clue to the real
pith Of pair of sentences / met with the other
day, yoked in adjoining columns of late number
of the Washington Union, betook myself strait
to a quondam typo hereabouts, in quest Of en-
Iightenment upon these points. Whether the edi-
tors of the same journal ever write to foil or
fay each others arguments' Whether, the first
words upon the Unions frontispiece, edited BY
Thomas Ritchie," is not TO be taken as infalible
proof that it is edited by no one else' And,
whether the worthy editor ever makes it BUSH
ness to write against HIMSELF The typo being
non est, have thought that you might have the
grace to unriddle me Of my riddle, should miss
the nails head in striking at it myself. And now
to the business
In lauding the enduring properties of the Com
mttee's Compromise, as one of its most shining
merits, the Union editorial head) discourseth in
this wise
eAny serious attempt to violate this eorenant,
would be such violation Of good faith, as would
prevent the South from reposing the slightest con-
fdence in their Northern brethren and the result
would be an inevitable dissolution of that great part
nership which has been made among the sovereign
parties to the original compact. !"
In an adjoining column, the Union editorial
head) thus lauds and surrenders the Missouri
Compromise:
"That measure gave peace to distracted peo-
ple and it has been acquiesced IN for thirty years
by all portions Of the country"
by my halidome!" that is true, every word
OF it. Ehl 1t was corenant too, was it not 7
Worked admirably, didn'titi "Gave peace to a
distracted people, " said you not 500 And is it
really true, that all portions of the country /"
acknowledged its obligations and prospered under
it for thirty years! Verify is it. Then surely,
ANY serious attempt to violate this covenant,
would be such violation of good faith, as would
prevent the South from reposing the slightest conf
dence in their Northern brethren; and the result
would benn inevitable dissolution of that great part
nership, SC.
That's what Mr.. Richie means, isn't it, That
the violation of the Missouri Compromise, after
being the law and " covenant Of territorial parti-
tons for 80 years with the happiest results, would
be such breach Of good faith, that the South
could never thereafter repose the slight conf
dence in our Northern brethren, eh' Does he
mean that! Not hel Nothing Of the sort; but
just the contrary. He means, that the North's
breach Of faith in violating the old compact of
compromise, shall be the basis and reliance for the
South s implicit confidence, that she will adhere
immutably and always to the new one! 1t shocks
while it amazes, to mark the inimitable complacen-
cy with which he parts from a compact which
saved the Union from rupture when the perils
were imminent, and vouchsafed "peace to dis
tracted people" for 80 years. How calmly he
resigns himself to the consequences in the very
next sentence! "We have always been ,oilling
to see the Missouri line extended to the shore of
the Pacific; but we have believed for several
weeks that majority could not be found to ex-
tend it,
In bygone years--in the birch and sachel days
Of Cesar and Xenophan--two scholarly chums
of mine, stood stripped and faced in battle array;
the one a blucherer, the other brave. Said the
former to the latter, "touch me with but the
weight of your finger, and l III smash you to the
earth and stamp out your life!" ready dab in
the mouth which made the dentals rattle and the
claret flow, was the pungent reply. And what
was the rejoinder' Why, that the neat time, he
would so fay and quarter him, as to ensure an
"inepitable dissolution" between body and soul,
prophet, though it is plain he the chief archi-
tect Of the triumph Of his own vaticination; for
having assured the South that she could not get
the Missouri Compromise, and having assured
the North that the South would be content with
ichatever she could GET it is wonder, is it that
the North should take him at his word, and vote
down the Missouri Compromise by a unanimous
concurrence, and did SO. But the worthy editor
would have spared the South the prediction, as
well as have foiled its realization, if he had only
stood by the counsel he had given the North some
time before, with this salutary warning: "The
South will acquiesce in the Missouri Compromise,
AND IN NOTHING LESS. Let not our friends in the
North deceive themselves upon this point. I'm
error here auo,lld be fatal and dare to say, it
will prove an error which demagogues may ex
pect TO despise but which all the ,cise and all the
good men may IN the TREMENDOUS CoNsE-
QUENcEs WHICH 1T MAY PRODUCT"
Good counsel that-and another prophesy too,
Of awful import awaiting fulflment should it not
be needed. And so the Missouri Compromise
was rejected in the Senate! Ay, it was even so !!
Not a vote could be had for it North Of Mason
and Dixon's line! Why you don't tell me so,
eh' Did the great national Democracy of the
North bolt outright from the support of that heal
ing measure, (Which the North itself had devised
and imposed by the power of numbers and which
Mr.. Richie says "gave peace to distracted peo-
pie, and has been acquiesced in for 80 years by
all parties of the country" Verify did they
to Senator and to man! Why, where was
New York's just and manly Aristides, who has
stood by the right when the world astray,
and the bravest quailedi Where were the Sena-
tors whom Michigan had loosed from their WiImot
bonds, and left free as the air, to yield to the
South whatever would give her peace, within the
scope and compass Of the South s own' And
above all, where was the gallant Old Harry Of
Kentucky, whom Father Gales has handed over.
"bag and baggage" to Father Richie, and who
is scarcely known nowadays, by his quandam
cronies, so bedaubed and bedabbled is he with