The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-06-14

trees. IL was OF old Virginia growth, Of Virgil
mia manufacture, the tree of which it was once a
part had been seen by Washington, and
beneath them he had reclined and made an ex-
preston worthy of the Father of his country
Vicksburgh Sentinel.
We find the above striking incident copied
into the Richmond Republican, accompanied by
4 series of very flcetious and sarcastic" com.
ments, truly remarkable as coming from the
State that produced WASHINGTON, and whose
soil still holds his ashes The most loyal SUBJ
ject Of an European colony could not evince a
deeper sense of inferiorty to and dependence
on the "sovereign,"-nO slave Of an Eastern
despot could more reverentially and hopelessly
bow his neck to the bow-string, than such coun-
sellers would have the South demean herself in
abject dread of divorce from the North-which
they would deem destruction. For thus speaks
the Republican, with bated breath and whis-
pering humbleness," whose voice used of yore
(before the election Of GEN. TAYLoR) to ring
out like clarion in defiance of Northern insult
and aggression. Quoting the paragraph from
the Vicksburg paper it adds:
Judge Smith and Dr. Johnson, the donors of
the above mentioned box. must be very face
tous and sarcastic gentlemen. We should
think that their present must have been better
answer to Gen. Quitmans speech than any ora
ton which could have been made. If General
Washington had been hung upon the tree of
which that sbox" was made, or if he had died
in the battle of the revolution, the South would
have been precisely in the condition to which
she would be reduced by observation-disclosures
erished, degraded, and province of Great Bri-
tain. The successful result of the labOrs of
the secession school, would be either to expose
the South, and her institutions to the enmity of
the North, Of Great Britain and of the world,
and thus to hasten and make inevitable the ul-
innate downfall of the Southern States or
else, which is more probable, to force the South
under the protecting arms of England, and rem
der her as much province of that kingdom, as
if such man as Washington had never existed.
And, for our own part, we should regard it as
better for his fame, if he had fallen at the battle
of Yorktown, than that the victory which he
there achieved, the tolls and sacrifices of his
whole revolutionary career, and the illustrous
virtues of his unrivalled character, should term-
nate in so ignoble an end q the speedy dissolu-
ton Of that republic which4le was raised up by
Providence to establish.
Admitting, even for an instant, that this pic
ture of Southern impotence and imbecility were
correct; that for the South and savery-like
the scorpion grit with fre-there was no hope
Of permanence and safety, except 10 the pro-
lection afforded both, by the existing alliance
with the Northern States, would it be wise, pa
triotic, or proper in Southern man to proclaim
it to the enemies of both Is it the part, even of
a politician--we will not say of statesman
while war is waged against his section, both at
home and abroad, on account of ga peculiar in
sttution," (as it il the cant of the day to call IT'D
TO invite aggression by declaration Of weak
meas, and an assertion that the South has the
choice alone Of clinging to the protecting arm
of the North under any and all circumstances,
or becoming Impoverished, degraded, and 3
Province of Great Britain 2, That such is her
helplessness and weakness that they will not
permit her any other choice than that of choos-
ing foreign or domestic tyrant? But was
such the successful result" for which WASH
McroN the stakeholder, and his noble compeers
perilled "life, fortune, and sacred honor!" Such
the lame and impotent conclusion TO which his
mighty energies and self-devotng patriotism
have brought that land which he loved far more
than life "a choice of masters for his idolized
Virginia-for If ever there was man intensely
sectional" in the true and noble meaning OF
that abused word, that man was GEORGE WASH
MGTos.
n (y1Un for nont tn fbn, dno
that such opinions are seriously entertained by
the men of Virginia, or even by her timid women
would wrong the descendants of those revolu-
tionary sires and visit on her whole people the
penalty which a few of her intriguing and wire-
pulling politicians should alone be called upon
to pay. Such never has been, and never can be
the creed of that old Commonwealth, that has
borne the Resolutions Of '9S 30 long upon her
banner. Were she hereafter to adopt il, her
proud emblem would be reversed in the read
ing, and the PROSTATE and tramped figure under
the feet of the armed man, be the sad type of
her own fallen state The editor himself, who,
in his attempt to pen facetious" paragraph,
has lost sight of the real drift and purport of
the admissions which il makes, we feel satisfied
would never consent to carry out the conclusion
TO which they inevitably lead--unconditionnl
submission 10 the North under all circumstances
Of aggression. For, if the inevitable result of
secession be but the choice of evils he has
painted-if that act would reduce the South to
the condition which she would have occupied
had the TRAITORS" who advocated the "seces-
sion" from Great Britain suffered a traitors
doom, and her position now be even worse than
then, with domestic and foreign foe both to
contend wth-under such circumstances we
say, submission to all and every outrage and
aggression perpetrated by the North, AFFECT
unlimited unconditional submission, would
alone be left the South.
Such is now and always has been the argu
ment by which our assailants at the North have