The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-06-22
THE TWO CONVENTIONS.

W. NOky Eky loiNSs
Whatever may be thought by the heated
members of either great political party, the
calm and rejecting mind must draw from the
proceedings Of both, auguries most favorable
to the indefinite existence Of our Union, ana
the equally indefinite series Of blessings when
we derive from il. The great maxim OF no
mas Jefferson with regard to this government
that II IL the strongest in the world, becomes
every day clearer to the perception oil even the
least rejecting. In Europe IT il FOUND neces-
sarv TO muzzle the press in order TO preserve
cdr and to prevent anarchy and blood
shed Not so in this country. Inc press
NAV sav what il pleases-it may, from day
to day, denounce the men and the mea-
.ures which control the government for the
time being-it may even bring those men and
those measures into utter contempt with all
classes Of the people-hut it cannot shake the
foundations of the Constitution. In Europe
secret societies are held to be dangerous to the
existence Of order, and even of government
itself. The Free Masons have been prosecuted
by more than one government, under the charge
of carrying on practises connected with poll
tics, under shelter of their oath of inviolate Sc
crecy, probably for no other reason than that
the object of their association was not under
stood by those governments. But here secret
societies are no more to be dreaded than socie-
ties for the relief of the poor the insane, or the
blind. The people know that the government
is their government. They know that let its
abuses, for the time, be what they may, they
have sure and infallible remedy in their
hands-a remedy which may be applied with.
out the employment of force-a remedy which
they themselves have reserved the only ply
siciaus who have the right to prescribe for the
diseases OF the pody polite.
d Sill stronger confederation of Mr.. Jeffer-
son's axiom 10 found in the proceedings of the
two Conventions. A person who did not un-
derstand the workings of our form of govern
ment-a thick skulled politician from the Euro
mean continent, like Hulsemann, or even more
enl;ghtened statesman from Great Britain, might
he induced to think, from the violence ofthe diff.
different sections into which each party is divi-
ded, that the Union, itself, was on the point of
dissolution. Yet, in the very agony of the strife,
we find that sacred regard for the Constitution
as the one. supreme, political good, was never
lost sight of by either. A vile band of fanatics,
enemies of the country, and of its institutions.
and DESTROYS to overwhelm both, have been
hanging ON to the skirts of each party. 1t has
been the object of these men, for years, to over
throw the Constitution, and to erect upon its
NH; tbay hoya rhn IN de.
nominate the "higher law" The first act of
each Convention was to trample this faction
into the dust-to shake ii off as foal and un-
natural incubus-to fix the seal of reprobation
upon its front, that all men may know it,
and avoid it, as the FIRST murderer was known
by the dark sign upon his forehead. Like the
lepers Of warmer climates, these men will, in
future, be collected into one vast iaazar House,
where they may poison only the atmosphere o
their own prison, without smpregnating the
air breathed by better and sounder men, with
the stencil Of theif rottenness. Such is the
effect of cwr glorious Constitution. Its pure
atmosphere purges of the foul efluvia Of fac
ton, even amid the very commissions that
seem to threaten its existence, as the tempest
in the physical world seourges before it the
lazy elements that would otherwise stagnate
into pestilence.
Upon another and most important article of
faith, the two Conventions are likewise agreed.
The policy OF Washington, of Jefferson and of
Madison, indicated by the expressive words
We will enter into no entangling alliances''-
that policy SO wise, so considerate, so admira-
bly, adapted to preserve the peace of the world
that policy, under the shadow of which, we
have grown and prospered, as nation never
grew or prospered before-is now recognised
by both the parties that divide the Union. To
have adopted a different line, would have been
to place the party adopting it on the same
platform with the Holy Alliance, that most exc
cradle Of all the combinations of which history
record as it is Of crime and suffering, has
made any mention. 1t would have been to have
declared in favor of eternal war-to have shut
the gates of mercy on mankind forever-to
have closed, to those who seek peace, an
asylum from the wars and massacres of the old
world, this house Of refuge, the last left to the
prosecuted upon earth-it would have been to
have laid the axe to that mighty tree planted by
our fathers in the wilderness, which has grown,
and, spread abroad like the cedars of Lebanon,
inviting all the birds of the air to take refuge
among its branches. Though there are those
among us who are mad enough to wish it, we
thank Heaven that the common sense, to say
nothing Of the patriotism which animated both
bodies, has declared against the doctrine of in
r
brother abolitionism, be regarded as extinct,
or existing in so small degree, as to be worthy
rather of contempt, than of any more serious
feeling. Let every patriot rejoice--,he Consii-
tuition is safe.
THE CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA.
The more we reflect upon the treatment
which the settlers of California are extending
10 the Chinese, and upon the important conse.
uuences IL will almost certainly produce the