The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-07-29

| iOI Ihosc WIN may NC Hluuo iV0
struments
Can it be doubted that grand extension OF
territory, adapted to the Slave interest Is the
plot The Isthmus n slice large enough tor
an empire, from the Mexican side OF the mo
Grande, and the island of Cuba, through pur-
chase or conquest, by the purse or the arms OF
the Union, and then-dissoluton Dlsunlon
when that is made practicable if the actual
control of the Federal Government is not sur
rendered to the Slave interest.
There is nothing more startling in this, moth
ing so improbable, as the annexation OF Texas
was when it was first announced by Mr. Adams
and his far-seeing compatriots in Congress
The history of the concessions OF the North and
the triumphs of the South for the last twenty
years, puts all this with warranty into the
prospectus of the next twenty that are before us.
New Mexico California, and Utah, have not
quite answered the expectation of the conspir-
ators The gold mines were not in the calcu-
latiou, and the speedy occupation of the Pacific
coast by free labor, to the exclusion of slavery,
was not anticipated. Not only is California
seized by a population which will not bear the
| ignominy and the injury of competition with
slave miners but emigration is under the un-
expected impulse, diverted from the region that
was mainly relied upon. This mishap must
be mended The Mexican provinces adjacent
to Texas, the acquisition of Cuba. and the divi'
sion of California, is the remedy, and Frank
Pierce and the Democratic party the instru'
ments and reliance of the monstrous plot. FoI
this, General Cass is rejected, as Van Buren,
was when Texas was to be annexed. Both
these men proved pliable enough and service.
able enough in preiminaries, but both were
American enough, Democratic enough, and old
enough in the sentiment of nationality and its
commitments to refuse an agency in the later
and holder stages of the design. Webster, too
mserably subseryient as he is for his own ends
is nevertheless a Yankee, in the lowest and
sharpest Southern meaning of the word and
if he once had his own aggrandizement and
the last favor secure, would turn tail upon his
overseers, and balk the progressive villany by
that very conservatism which up to certain
point serves so well to promote it. An ambition
wholly selfish and personal is not to be trusted
after its own ends are answered. The danger
is, that the godlike," so soon as he found him
self at ease in his possessions, would take to
talking fourth of July patriotism, Constitution
orthodoxy, and Union commonplaces in the
stentor style and with the Executive influence.
The dependency of the crawler looks like fidel-
ity; but, on his own legs once, he might choose
his own path, Not vote from the South
in the Baltimore Convention wandered out of
its way to honor the man who claimed the
Wilmot Proviso for his own thunder in 1913,
and might recover his memory again before
1856, if it happened to suit him. To be sure,
nobody trusts Webster, unless twenty nine
votes from the North is such a compliment
Nay, he is fallen so low that faction, mere
minority of the Native Americans, offer him
their nomination, as Familiarity as rowdy asks
a gentleman to drink with him after he has
fallen out of good society and got ragged and
bloated.
1t is a mere blunder to charge the South
with ingratitude in the cases of Clay, Webster,
Van Buren,, Cass, and Benton, of which the
nomination of such man as Pierce while the
two latter are still alive seems to be an in
stance. The shareholders are only not impol-
tic None of these men would serve for ute
rior purposes, however conformable in the
initial steps of the grand scheme. Men of no
men with no impracticable principles or preu-
dices in favor of old policies must be taken; and
the style and grade of Polk, Fillmore and Pierce,
is the exact pattern for hero and statesman
There is q science in it and still meaner men
than these will be selected when still meaner
work is demanded The only right explanation
of conduct 80 invariably successful is, that it
steadily drifts to an end and is prudently and
rigidly directed by its objects The use of the
right explanation is, that it discovers those OBJ
jects, and warns their instruments who are
working blindly now for treason, disunion, and
the overthrow of American nationality To
save the Union of these States, the Democratic
party must be rescued from the service of Sla-
very, their ticket defeated, the two-thirds rule
abolished, and the old style of Democratic &C
ton restored One more defeat, and they may
be trusted with the Government again, so far
as the integrity of the Union is concerned for
they will not again nominate nobody, with
the notion that because Clay was so defeated,
the trick is always a safe one Yes, to so poor
a condition are we fallen, that the only party
in the country which rs party, must be de-
feated to save the country from dimember-
ment SENIOR.