Washington sentinel., 1853-12-16

Does it understand the tenets OF its own BRO
iessed faith? If it does, what is its meaning in
its studious effort to prove the Sentinel aati.de.
mocratic. 1t assures us it will discharge its
whole duty to the democratic party. We re-
peat, we are glad it; and commend its good
resolution to the charity of our readers Sure.
ly there is much need for improvements, for,
upon the most important point of political diff.
ference between the two great political parties
of the country the Union has taken the most
latitudinous and federal ground. Upon this
point-we mean the Pacific railroad-we have
the endorsement Of the best federal authority,
an editorial of the 29th of July, in the Wash
ington Union by our distinguished contempo-
rary of the Intelligencer.
We give the whole article of the latter, that
our readers may judge for themselves who are
the true representatives of democratic princi-
PIES The shock created in the democratic
party throughout the country at the time, rem
ders the insertion of the Union's article un
necessary. 1t is fresh in the minds of all.
"An article of great significance, as we re-
gard it, appeared in the Washington Union of
yesterday. 1t was the leading editorial of that
number, devoted to the discussion Of the con.
stitutional power of the government to con-
struct a railroad "to connect the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans" We cannot be in error in
presuming that the article expresses the views
of the Executive on this important question |;
its formality, and its justification of the opin-
i ,ort ,,<ar
in public speeches week or two ago on the
same subject, leave no doubt of its semi-oficial
character Viewing it in this light, we could
hardly believe that we read it Alright. Save for
its greater ability, we could almost imagine
that we were reading an article of the hteHi-
| qencer of the olden time, when we used to do
battle for the same doctrines against the school
| of strict constructionists, who denied to the
| government almost every power except that OF
making war and laying taxes and when we
had read the article through, we could hardly
| persuade ourselves that we had not been pc
rusing one of Mr.. Clay's noble speeches in de-
fence of the constitutional power of internal
Improvement, so similar are the arguments Of
the two. If we have read the article Alright, it
is auspicious of wiser counsels and an import
ant change Of policy in the dominant party.
Reason and the public veal, we trust are about
to assert their long lost supremacy in the demo-
cratic creed The idea is almost too cheering
for belief. We will wipe our spectac1es and
give the article more careful examination"
After having felt the democratic pulse, and
receiving a just censure for this invasion of
the principal issue dividing the two parties
after lauding Mr.. Davis and Mr.. Guthrie for
their views, in which the latter absolutely
pledged the surplus in the Treasury over which
he presided, to make the Pacific railroad, the
Union changes their ground-not its o,cn-and
says they did no such thing and this, too, in
the teeth of its own editorials commencing their
reported speeches made upon the occasion re-
| ferred to.
Indeed, upon almost every subject treated by
it in the last three months, it has so wired in
and wired out, that even the Unions best friends
have been as much bothered as the witnesses of
the examination of the individuality of Junius
at the celestial gate" in Byrons, celebrated
Vision of Judgment:
"The moment that you pronounced him one,
Presto, his face changed, and he was another;
And when that change was hardly well put on,
II varied till don't think his own mother
If that he had mother,) would her son
Have known, he shifted so from one to t'other,
Till guessing, from pleasure, grew task"
We, upon this statement, cheerfuly go before
the country with the Washington Union, to be
Judged of our democracy. The Unions course
has been reprobated by thousands of the truest
democrats in the land, while the political in
tegrity of the Sentinel has been unquestioned.