The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-07-17
PRINCIPLES SMOTHERED IN PROSPECTS.

IL is good to be zealously affected in @ good
cause and we cannot help thinking that Mr.
Webster might better use some of his spare power
occasionally in preaching and propagating first
principles, than occupy himself exclusively with
the defence Of last Compromises. II the Union
ever was in danger, it is not now assailed in the
quarter from which he is constantly ooaxing con-
cessions, but from that section and faction which
he is fattering, and which most needs to be lee
tured upon the fundamental points in republican
policy.
The Washington Union, speaking for large
party, North and South, denies the natural equal
ity of men, and their birthrght freedom IL de-
clsres that "Liberty and Freedom are not in
themselves expressive Of a standard which ex-
cludes the idea of dependence and servitude y
which the context shows is meant to cover the
chattel slavery Of caste. The Mem Orleans Bull
letm says of the declaration oil men are born free
and equal, that it is ga memorably epigrammstic
announcement, in which great statesman sacri-
feed the truth of history, philosophy, and fact,
and the sound equality Of existing relations, to
ambitious phraseology' A New Jersey member
of Congress Of the United States holds that this
general expression is applicable to men only in
their national and not in their individual charac-
ter y in effect that nothing is intended than
that nations are naturally independent Of each
other And the slavery propagandists Of the
South, generally, treat this axiom, on which our
Revolution was built, and all human liberty must
rest, as q mere rhetorical flourish" Add to
this the zeal manifested by the American Pope
| of the Catholic Church, Archbishop Hughes,
both in and out of place, in the mischievous work
Of subduing American sympathy for European
progress, by attacking the very first principles Of
natural liberty and we say considering the num-
Der and nature of all the agencies at work to dis
credit the creed of Republican government, and
disappoint tho purpose Of it's PRONUNCIATION, an
occasional word from the great peripatetic eI-
FOUNDER Of patriotism and missionary Of concilis-
ton, in defence and vindication Of the truth Of
all truths in the theory of human relations,
might be expected.
II must be noticed that the assault made upon
the fortress Of our common faith is not mere
verbal criticism, or construction of phrase, or
difficulty Of a definition, but denial Of its truth
in the extent and to the purpose for which IL
stands in the document, to wit the liberty and
equality of men before the laws Of the land, and
in all that pertains to self-government by meth.
DDS Of civil society conformed to such equality
Jefferson meant no mere abstraction by the
phrase he wrote il In the current of the govern.
ing thought, and in the drift Of the grea, argu.
ment upon which the inalienable right of Ameri.
can freemen to issue that declaration, and under.
take it's resulting resolution, rested
And it is just in this true sense Of this true
principle, and TO this end that the denial, in il
multiform varieties is now permitted to afront
the world unwhipped of justice, and to pass IN
rebuked by the Orator Of Bunker Hill, and the
Oracle Of the Administration
Is not the matter even worse than this IL mol
the hue and cry of threatened dissolution raised
and kept up like the cry Of +" Stop thiefp by ths
thief himself, to throw the vigilance OF honss'
men into the wrong track Or 10 u oil dsms'
gogue trick for personal ends1 Les eAssoss 'o'
high positions, and only means Of reaching 'Ae@
have induced terrible departures ffsn h'sA pF'n
pie In men ~ good ~ our politioaass are hAe''
to be-
| Fortunately for the discipline y ss'sds' Oh ~