The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-07-17
DEFINING FHRIR POsLTION.

measures. At the recent anniversary dinner Of
the State Society Of the Cincinnati he took the OPP
portunity to express his views We quote from
the report Of his speech in the Ne'o York COwisr
"When the Compromise measures of the last
Congress were under consideration, they did not
meet his + Mr. Fish'sl approval. In several par
tioulars he thought them liable TO objection. One
particularly, he thought open to exception well
on the ground Of omission as Of enactment He
recognised the rights which the Constitution had
guaranteed to the South, and be believed the
South to be entitled to the enactment Of laws
which should be efficient TO the enjoyment Of
those rights. lie thought that those laws (the
Compromise measures might have been made
equally effective as measure Of relief and pro-
lection TO the South, while they might have been
deprived Of some features which tend to irritate
and excite the North, and at the same time, by
possibility, unnecessarily TO leopard the rights Of
the free citizen. He thought that without i'm
pairing any principle they might have been inn
proved so as 20 afford the country suba0mial re-
| pose and to silence clamor and opposition from
any section.
"But these measures passed into laws in the
! spirit Of compromise and Of mutual concession.
! lt was not to be expected that they should EN-
body exclusively such enactments as any one sec
tiOn would have preferred. They were enacted,
as he believed constitutionally and in conformity
| with all the requirements aud forms necessary to
secure obedience, and to demand submission to
their provisions IT, in any respect, either Of
them was liable to any constitutional objection,
the Constitution itself provided the tribunal
which was TO sdjudge the question.
" He had been asked here this day, DO you
approve of the Compromise measuresP He had
given his answer-while he does not approve, he
fully and unreservedly acquiescesn
{" Mr. Fish has not the frmness,n says the Ns'r
| York Post, I" TO keep his ground on the COmpro-
mise question, and this speech is simply an ex-
cuse for abandoning it-sn apology for the timid
surrender Of principles 10 which he once attached
the highest importance. He is against the Com
promise in the abstract and in favor Of 1t practi-
cally He would be glad to see it altered or mod
fled but then there is risk Of agitation, Of which
| be processes the same fear as Mr.. Webster and
| MIR Cass lis has his objections to the Compro.
mise, but he is not anxious to press them-tbere
is danger Of reviving sectional controversies. The
! present moment is not the time as Mr.. Noodle
wisely said, in the GRAFTON reported for him by
the Rev Sidney Smith the time Of excitement
is not in hi, opinion, the time for wise and pru-
! A.. >-''~->' Xs Fish is as much the friend Of
an amendment Of the Compromise as Mr.. Csss
was in favor of the Wilmot Proviso at that most
Ridiculous period Of Eta polNic>, ~-.SSe.4uS wheu
he was zeslously in favor Of the principle Of that
| measure but only held that the time for applying
| il had not yet arrived. Mr.. Fish, however is
not without his hopes Of q time when all this ex-
element will cease, and become matter of history
| Then will be the time for wise and prudent &C
tom When people no longer care for the ques-
tion-when this concern for the rights invaded
| by the Fugitive Slave Law has subsidized into in
difference-then will be the moment for pressing
the objections Of which Mr.. Fish acknowledges
| ha md pnniifuin1 a 10 in such a
ner as that it shall speak to mems sense of JUS
tce
I" Has Mr.. Fish's experience Of political life
yielded him no other fruit than the unhappy de-
fusion that any important reform can be carried
without agitation; that any great measure has a
chance Of being successful, when il is not urged
by men who feel strong interest in its success
and who are likely to inspire others with their
own enthusiasm? IL fever the period should ar
rive when the slavery question is no longer in
controversy, the time Of amending the Compro.
mise measure will have passed away.
Z" If the opinions of Mr.. Fish, on this and other
political questions, were not Of importance in his
| present post of Senator elect, we should have
spared ourselves this exhibition Of his weakness
as political man We should have drawn the
veil over the exhibition he has made of himself
as haunted by sickly horror of agitation-by q
childish fear of what he calls sectional contro-
versies AN idle dread Of redressing wrong toe
soon after it is committed-and timid desire to
postpone the responsibility Of doing right to the
moment, lift should ever arrive, when TO do right
will give no offence in any quarter"
Commodore Stockton, the recently elected Sen.
stOr from New Jersey, delivered a speech al
ElizabethtOwn, New Jersey, on the 4th inst.
when he said in allusiOn to new territory
"That the citizens Of the South had a perfect
right to carry their slave property upon all such
acquisitions, and that any attempt Of the Genera
Government to invade that right was an aggres
sion upon the guaranty of the Constitution
In the Jsrsey City Telegraph IAN Anti-RailrOad
Monopoly paper we find the following addition
al extracts:
The following is not a bad specimen of the
egotism displayed:
"You have known me- more or less, from my
youth up. You have known that my life has
been rather life of action than Of words. That
| have not been educated a speech maker-that
am no orator-that have not learned the art OF
seductive eloquence. Ioome here for no oratori-
cal display or effect | come to address you to-
day because you invited me to do so, and because
| was ambitious of the honor Of being introduced
TO you IL was but a few days since that | re-
ceved your invitation, and more willing
that my reputation as a public speaker should
suffer, than that should seem to be Indifferent
| to your kindness But fellow. citizens | bring
with me that which will perhaps answer my pur-
pose on this occasion better than the highest Or
der Of eloquence or the most elaborate prepara-
ton | bring with me a heart full OF devotion to
my country and her institutions | bring with
me,o &c.
And again
"My morning matin and my evening lullaby
we're tuned to the praises Of the Union and |
have lived for the Union, the whole Union, and
nothing but the Union. | can remember nothing
before the Union, and desire to know nothing
and to remember nothing otter it shall be dis
solvedo
And once more:
al am not, fellow. citizens in the habit Of using
equivocal language or ambiguous inuendOes"
But the browning eIcellency of the whole ad-
dress is contained in the following elegant ex-
tract
"If a dissolution Of the Union is inevitable
then would prefer that the lines Of separation
should be drawn along the Hudson and the Lakes
rather than the Potomac and The Ohio. have nc
doubt that In such an event the Northwestern
States would unite with New Jersey, Pennsyl
yania, and the South"
Wretched man His brain reels in the su
perhuman effort to WOO the South, and, If posi-
BILE, secure it's vote for the Presidency. But b.
II known TO thee, Commodore Stockton, that thy
chance for a Lunatic Asylum Is ten to one NOR,
favorable than for any Office whatever which de
ponds upon the vote Of the people Of any section
ofthe country, without the poor Monopoly-rid
DEM State Of New Jersey.
But we have said quite enough, and leave the
speech Of the gallant gentleman to be copied al
length by thai portion Of The press which was paid
for with money, and which therefore must be ever
loud-mouthed in praise Of Monopoly" and IT'D
"Lordsp
PRESIDENTIAL.