The republic., 1851-04-12
THE REPUBLIC.

more In the habit of donling in careful distinc-
tions. In his letter Of March 10, 10 the city
authorities, the President says, through Mr..
Webster
"The President is confident that The great ma
Jority OF the citizens Of Boston entirely loyal to
tion all such outrages, and all attempts, whether
oy writing or speaking, to incite the ignorant and
minimizing TO such acts of violence; and that they
are ready to discharge the duties incumbent on
them, BY the Constitution and laws Of the United
States, faithfully and fearessly, under all circum
| stances, Whenever called upon by the proper au-
| thorities."
No doubt Of it-''schenever called upon bu
the proper authorities" Now, this seems to
me to give US little more Of the pholc story
But if the proper authorities-not the alder
men, nor the council, who were wholly unad
vised OF the threatened outbreak-but if the
worthy mayor, Mr.. John p. Bigelow, will give
orders to the chief of police moi to NEEDLE toith
the matter; or, after due notice of an impending
tumult, leave men and things to the tender
mercles OF mob, and go to his dinner-then
| the President will comprehend how such an
outrage may occur at any time. II is really TO
be regretted that the salary of this valuable
officer was not raised to S4 900 per annum, as
a very humane member of the council formerly
proposed, and with extra rations, at his office.
to save him the necessity, on such emergencies,
of going to his dinner.
! It is clear that, although the President and
the Cabinet, at the date of the letter, March
| 10, viewed the rescue as ian entire surprise
upon the Citizens" &c., and as the act Of ga
uery inc0nsiderabie number Of persons" &c.,
they well knew that an audacious spirit of mis-
rule existed in this Commonwealth. If they
did not, we do; and shall make it sufficiently
| manifest before we come to the end Of "the
| aUh0le story" 1t was doubtless upon the con-
4 viction that such spirit was abroad that the
following discriminating paragraph was APP
pended to the letter:
| "The President does not doubt that the people of
Massachusetts perfectly well understand the differ
between the freest discussion of political mea-
sures, and opposition to legal enactments already
made and established. He is quite that they
regard the law of the land not sentiment, or an
general authority, and which all bound to obey,
at the risk Of the penalties attached to its violation
| The attempt to give the late outrage the as
pect of an unimportant ntoccurrence-the work of
few individuals-an ordinary mob, &c., is
perfectly and palpably absurd The attempt
is quite unworthy of any honest man of ordi-
nary intelligence. The mere act of the mob,
in itself, may be of little importance, in COM
parison with the reasonable spirit which has
given it vitality. The ostensible, executive
agents may be exceedingly humble, obscure, and
| insignificant, contrasted with those in superior
stations, g ho,ceuer remote" who stimulate
and encourage, counsel, and assist.
| If the mob of February l5was collected for the
| purpose of committing solitary act-effecting
| the rescue of one individual-and with no ulte-
rior or continuous design of rescuing another,
| and another, intending to persevere, with the
view Of preventing the execution of law Of
the United States-then the editors Of the
Atlas are right; and the words, torn from the
context of the Presidents letter, and quoted by
them, tell the aChole story. But do they believe
the mob of February Is to have been such as
have supposed in the preceding passage2 If so,
Jud9us Apella was no match for these worthy
editors in credulity. II, on the other hand, it
can be satisfactorily shown that the mob of
February Is. whether it consisted or not of
the very same persons who assembled for the
rescue of Graft, was one Of series Of which
two have assembled and operated successfully
already, acting under the instigating and COM
fortiDg and sustaining influence Of certain bad
citizens of superior rank and education to their
own, lawyers, ministers, and others, and with
the continuous purpose of preventing the exc
cution of law of the United States-then the
Ohole story is of greater length and of deeper
interest to the good people of Massachusetts
and of the Union than these worthy editors
affirm it to be- 1t is, withal, of graver import
| than some persons seem to imagine, to "aU
those acho perform any part, ho,ceuer minute,
or hoacever remote from the scene of action, and
acho are actually leagued IN the general conspira-
cy'-for they, according to the decision Of the
Supreme Court Of the United States, delivered
by Chief Justice Marshall, g are to be consid-
cred as traitors" and, Of course, are liable to
be hanged.
cannot restrain myself, in the very midst Of
this grave matter, from noticing paragraph in
the Traveller of this day, March 2I, illustrative
of the activity of our worthy mayor and the po-
lice upon occasions which enlist his sympathy.
pair of runaway horses s'came in contact
with pung loaded with butter"
"The horse of this pung was thrown upon the
sidewalk & and part Of the butte, tumbled into the
pung was somewhat broken"
Some other mischief ensued; COL Hunting
escaped, very narrowly, &c.; and the Irareller
says:
"The mayor and police were quickly on the spot
and by directions of the former the broken carriage
was taken away, and directions were given to
left alone in the street. The 'driver of the pung
also informed that he could claim of the owner
of the carriage damages for the injuries to his
team"
Whether the sight of this butter reminded
our worthy mayor Of his dinner, or, whatever
particularly moved him, he was out instantly,
and in force, on account of the pung, and the
butter, and the collateral mischief. | almost
regret that, in his oath to support the Consti-
tuition Of the United States, there is nothing
about pungs and butter. Had such been the
case, we might have availed of his valuable
services. Pardon this levity; if not for my
sake, for the sake of him whose pleasant in
terrogatory was salted down, some eighteen
hundred years ago, for the use of future ages
-" Ridentem deere ver,m
Quid pefat?" SIGMA.
L ro..,,,,s.iou m, Clair,s sr.trst N~rtco