Hannibal journal and western union. (Hannibal, Mo.) 1851-1852, 1851-12-25


ing one another ike Banquo's Kings, ihe last
one bearing that fatal glass "which shows us
many saors.s' We have seen the Governor of
sovereign State dragged from his capital by
the minions Of federal power 10 stand trial in
! distant city on evidence which forced the fed
/ eral attorney to enter a nole-proseqtn when the
case was brought into the Court. We have seen
the fugitive slave law insoenily nuuifed and
successfully resisted In Boston without the
slightest interruption from the Pesdent Of the
United States, holding in his hands the army
and the navy Of that strong government, and
bound by this oath 20 use them for the enforce
ment Of its statutes and for the protection of its
citizens. He had ''no official attenuation of
facts with which the world rung. He did not
wait for any information at all, or for any act
to be done, before he threatened Charleston with
bombardment and massacre should IFS State at
tempt TO exercise its constitutional and sover-
eign rights. We have seen this administration
absent from the seat of government seeking
pleasure at watering places running hither and
thither for the qualification of its vanity, and
electioneering for popularity and a new term of
Office with more assiduity and with less doca-
cy than we have ever seen in a candidate for the
place of constable in small city, at an hour
when the nation was trembling on the verge Of
civil war ut home anu a foreign war with
Spain.
During this administration we have seen fifty
American citizens, returning to their homes in
open boats, and without a single weapon among
them, picked up on the high seas, ard shot to
death by the Spanish authorities without even
the mockeries of a trial. We have seen this
done in direct defiance and violation of the stip-
ulated treaties between the United States and
Spain, and we have vet 70 hear the mrrnur cf
rumonstrance from President Fillmore. We
have seen another American citizen, Mr.. John
S. Thrasher, condemned without the trial Sc
cured to all our citizens by that treaty, to a
convicts life in the copper mines of Spain, with
out the form Of interference by Fillmore or that
appropriate representative, his Consul at Havana
We have seen the American mail steamer Fall
con, with the stars and stripes at her mast head,
insolently fired on by Spanish vessel of war
without the slightest national redress. Who
respects the American flag now? What is
American citizenship worth now? Paul, among
a half civilized and foreign people, cried II am
Roman citizen" and paralyzed the unified
hand OF power. 1t is but the other day that Eng
| land blockaded every port Of Greece because a
certain miserable Jew named Don Pacifco, who
knew no word of English, but who was vested
with the rights of an Englshman, had been
burnt out in a popular uproar. Thus did Rome,
thus did England, thus does every other great
nation protect the rights of her citizens. But
vvho, ,-,~otecton have the citizens Of the United
States? 81 an n. American citizen pleads
Thrasher TO the sneering SpniS.d, wmie tlll-
more stops his ears with cotton, and go5ss to a
State Fair.
And lastly, to cap the climax and end the cata-
logue, the mails of Wednesday evening bring
the heart-sickening intelligence that President
Fillmore-this incarnation Of imbecile .nc-n;r,
and mortal meanness, has actually agreed to all
the demands of the Spanish Crown in relation
to the New Orleans rIots-consents to all of
those demands which shocked, offended and in
suited the American people few days ago
consents to invite back the Spanish Consuls, to
bring him back in an American steamship bear
ing Spanish colors, to salute his flags, replace
him in his residence restore his effects, restore
the effects of all others who lost anything by the
riots or by his absence, and indemnify him for
all other losses out of the national treasury.
Such is the immaculate Administrations
the Admirable Crichton of all Administrations
this the Chevalier Bayard of Presidents-this
the government against which whisper of evil
has not gone forth-pure as snow, chaste as ice
ION Dian'stemple!