New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-05-24
THE WHIG P.4RTY.


port that the whig party was IN articuio NOR.
It's, that its principles were defeated and aban-
doned, its vitality exhausted, its popularity
gone, and itself sinking rapidly into the grave.
with the great chieftains and statesmen who
were its support
The report is false The wing party is not
dead, nor even threatened with death; but, in
stead thereof living stronger life, with a
higher promise, and more glorious future,
than at any period for the last six years. Those
troubles which have heretofore disturbed its
quiet, and hindered its success, have been, by
one means or another, either removed or extir-
psted, and leave it now harmony aad a ma
tionality that for a long time past it has not
enjoyed. Notwithstanding the prophecies of
our opponents. notwithstanding the more serious
injuries arising from internal dissensions and
bitter defeat, the great party which had its
birth at the same time with the Constitution,
and has grown up in its defence and application
the party which has produced such men as
Hamilton, and Clay, and Webster-the ablest
soldiers, and the most distinguished states.
men of the Republic; the party whose plans
have been broadcast, and soundest, and safest,
Dest chiculdteu 10 dufdHCe tHe interests, pre-
serve the honor and maintain the union of
the States, is now living with power of useful
ness as great as ever, and probability of sue
cess that daily enlarges. The foundation upon
which the party is based, the root and germ
from which it springs, are indeed indestructible,
and beyond the power of defeat and death but,
these limbs and branches which some months
since might have seemed lifeless as well as leaf
less are now bursting into blossom with a
greater luxuriance than ever, and every sign
30 far as we are gifted to translate their sense
and Specification, gives renewed assurance of
strength and vitality
That the party has passed through trying
period-a period of difficulty, disaster, and de-
feat-is not to be denied; but, we maintain that
it has suffered nothing capable of destroying its
organization or affecting its growth, nothing
which could produce more than temporary
and trivial injury; and that it has come out of
the conflict lightened of much needless weight,
purified Of much possible evil, and more trust
worthy from the very troubles it has survived
There can be no doubt that the prominent part
which was taken by the Administration and
the leading men Of the wing party in the adjust
ment Of the late slavery troubles in Congress,
weakened the force of the party in the Northern
and Western States, without proportionately in
creasing its power in the South-that it was
attacked by the abolitionists with rancor and
virulence, and not suitably or sufficiently de-
fended and that it was an object among
many men In other localities to convert the
organization into a great anti-slavery party
The Compromise resolutions originated with
Clay, were defended by Webster, and carried
into full execution by Fillmore and his Cabinet
1t is an honor to the meu as well as to the party
that such was the case but it proved a disas-
trous honor. and one which Injured only to the
detriment of those it should have benefited
The troubles that defeated US in the last election
have, nevertheless, served to free the party of
that rabid abolitionism caused its defeat, and
we are now far healthier and stronger than
before their commencement
We have always suffered and shall doubtless
continue to suffer from the prevalent misunder-
standing among emigrants and foreigners in
duced by our name. In their catalogue of
opinions, liberty and democracy are one and the
same, and they fail TO see, and do not compre-
bend that whiggery and d, mocracy are in fact
the same. and that whiggery is indeed truer
democracy than the mispamed Organization
which monopolizes the title with only portion
of the essence. But that is a trouble under
which we have SO long labored as to be ftly
deemed constitutional, and is one which rene
dies itself as the years roll along, and the con-
slant emigration as constantly improves its
knowledge and education in the ranks of citi
zenship
We say that these troubles which we have
passed through have not annihilated the party
that the efforts of the malicious, the errors of
the misled, the loss of great Leaders, and the
misfortune Of defeat, have failed to weaken the
organization or injure its power We say, fur
thermore, that no possible losses or defeats can
destroy the party-that it is based upon princi-
Piles which are immortal, and grounded on doc
frines that are imperishable. 1t is the great
element of the Union, embodying
The conservative feeling and sentiment of the
nation-upheld by the most wealthy, the most
educated and the most intelligent; those who
loresee what dangers are ahead and what means
should be taken to avert them Not that mis-
1AA'~ sonocr'aeism WHICH Hangs on the heels OF
progress and labors to retard all advancement,
but that conservatism which protects and pre-
serves and which alone renders progress safe
me conservatism that the helmsman exercises
over the ship that would be otherwise gulphed |
IN the pillows or beached on the shore. The
Of internal improvement and of
that it has advocated and still
=, 10 advocate, are only the results of
inc principles of the party and not the
principles themselves. They are but mea-
sures, and as such must shift and chance
witn the times, in order to render themselves
always applicable; whereas the PRINCIPLES never
snift' never change, never alter. but remain tho
of measures-applcable to all times I
anu all questions. 1t may be, though we neither !
ioresee nor fear it, that in the coming times Tho
of the party shall be lost and its I
organization be destroyed; but even then the {
principles upon which it is built and of which II
" merely an exponant, will remain as the Germ I
anu essence OF the party which succeeds It. for /
sous party such as this the country needs and I
must , nave. When that day comes we will unwil- ,
,lneiy chronicle it, and faithful to the old tro
unions and the old leaders let the nav name
asurp the place of the old and continue opr ,vor
rare as vigorously as ever As it is We bo1;oro
that tne wing party is progressing to v;ctor;os