Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1852-08-31
Fnls.aEe. yyebster aud the North.

FORAGE Mann, one of the ablest men in New
ENGLAND has recently made a speech in the House
of Representatives. We take some extracts
from this speech for the purpose of enlightening
the Southern Wings, as to the true sentiments
and feelings of the North. How long! oh, how
long will it be before Southern Wings shall see
the awful gulf into which their party prejudices
are now rushing them.
In speaking of the President, he says:
As to Mr.. Fillmore, on whom the South were
more unanimous than on any one OF all the other
candidates, his bloody right hand had signed tae
fugitive Slaue Ldc; and therefore it was as GER
tain, as anything future can be, that he could not
obtain a single electoral vote north of Mason g.
Dixon's line. The infinite mercy of God may
wash that blot from his name in another world,
but it can never be forgotten in this.
In speaking of Webster's support of the fugi-
tive slave law, he says:
l am about to speak Of his downfall in no spirit
of personal exultation. though he has done me
the greatest wrong. Because, when sitting on
the top of his political Olympus, he hurled his
shafts at me, | ,scorn to retaliaLe when he lies de-
serted and despairing at its base. The man does
not live, (unless now it be himself,) who felt a
more. poignant grief a: his ruin than was felt in
this heart of mine. But it was not on.the 2lst
of June last, and at Baltimore that he Tell but
VI luG III ~. 4oiSL P#AOSOr ia LAS. SAAHA ~ SAS
United States. 1t was then that he sunk his
beamiDg forehead in the dust. never again, Ifeer,
to be lifted up. 1t was then that he tore from
his brow the glorious diadem of anne and cast its
clustered stars away-a diadem richer than ever
blazed upon the brow of royalty, for its gems
were not gathered from rock or mine, but from
the more precious treasures of wisdom aud elo:
qucnce. Ten thousands of hearts were wrung
with anguish as cold, relentless, and bIaspbem-
ing those a~postate doctrines fell from his lips. l
say no bosom, save now perhaps his own, was
ever more deeply saddened at the spectacle of
that moral ruin than mine.
The grandeur of Mr. Webster's intellect-the
first point always made in his defence-I readily
admit. On this point | give his friends ccrle
blanche Of concession aud agreement-the whole
argument their own way.
But, on the next point, / claim to have the
whole concession and argument my own way -
that though his intellect were fitted to fill a
dome of Thought - vast as one of those EgyP-
tian statues that have been lately found on the
banks OF the Nile, from whose craniums the ma
tives have long been in the habit of cutting mill
stones without sensibly diminishing their bulk,
yet If he could exchange it all TO blot out the his
tory of that 7th of March speech, he would make
a divine speculation.
So certain has been the fate of Mr.. Webster,
for the last eighteen months, that ] and all those
with whom | am politically associated, have fore
eeen it and predicted it with as much confidence
as an astronomer ~fore;elIs an eclipse. Let us
trust that the fate of such victims will not be lost
for the future upon northern men.