The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-08-15


9amss - Ax&fnI Inan1sss.
The following happy jsu de esprit. is from tn
New York Herald.
II may, perhaps, give Mr.. WEBsTsn more
credit for libsrality Of sentiment than he d.
serves. But Dir. WEBSTER is great man, and
IL il had been his fortune to DO born in South.
ern State, or even in middle State, the genius
of the man would have been emancipated from
the narrow sectionalism, and bitter fanaticism OF
the North. AS ii is, no observer of events can
have failed to see that the genius of Mr.. WEE
sreR has been cabined. eribbed, confined, by the
influences of his ultra Northern location:
The felicity and appropriateness of the classic
al quotations of the great New England orator
have often been admired even by his most vio
lent political opponents. His Grafton at the
laying of the foundation-stone Of the enlarged
Capitol at Washington, on the 4th Of July, has
been published in pamphlet FORM and motto
placed in the title page, which we regard as sig
nfcant OF the real opinions OF the Secretary Of
State, on great topc that has for some time
engrossed the attention of the people Of this
coniederacy, and is second only to, and in fact,
closely connected with the perpetuity of the fed
eral Union. That question is the annexation 10
this confederacy of countries adjacent aud con-
tigi,us to our borders, but not at the present
time under the panoply of our Constitution
We are rejoiced to notice this, as Mr.. Webster
has hitherto been regarded AZ being on the OPP
posite to the opular side of that great question
II we are right in our notion, he has fully re-
deemed himself from that objection, which
would have been nh insuperable obstacle to his
al tsA,x -, tf,,D ~. 81, ".L
ster's position, as head Of the department for
foreign affairs, doubtless restrained the express
sion of his views upon this topic, in a mode
that might have given offence to the govern
ments now governing the countries alluded to,
or excite them to alarm and yet, unless we
egregiOusly mistake him, he has quite signif.
canty told those governments, and his country
men also, where may be found the Sybne
leaves on which is recorded the future proud
career of this people, unless they mar their gIo-
rious destiny by their own mad folly and per-
verseness.
1t is said that Augustus Caesar entertained
the design of removing the capital from Rome
to Troy Horace wrote an ode, to induce him to
abandon his project. The poet magnes the
gods in council as TO the destiny Of Rome, and
that Juno announces, that so long as the capital
is undisturb, she will flourish, and conquer all
other nations, and annex them to herself, and
thus her power will ultimately extend over the
whole earth. Colonel Quintus Horatius FLAG
Gus was thorough going, whole hog annexa-
ZIONIST, and had he lived in these days and been
citizen of the United States, he would I'M
doubtedly have been 'a manifest destiny man."
and gone for the acquisition of Canada, New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, the Bahamas
Jamaica, Cuba, Porto Rico, and Santo Domingo
and for swallowing all Mexico likewise all
contiguous territory. The ode referred to dis
plays the .fli6usiero sentiments of the poet very
plainly, though we doubt, from the stylein which
he gded away from the battle of Phillippi, if he
was altogether as brave soldier as Quitman, or
even equal to Lopez He certainly showed in
that affair that his opinion was, "the better part
of valor is discretion"
Now Mr.. Webster has extracted from this
Identical flbusterorian-a ode, the
motto for the title page of his Grafton, in these
words -