The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-02-12
From the g Union" of ye.terdav.


the virago IN her composition, who. from the doc
OF her hut on the seaside, seeing the tide rise hoh
or than she liked, forthwith seized her broomstic
and began in fury to sweep back the swellin
wave. But Dame Partington, fume and fret o
| she might, was match for the Atlantic. Sh
could make herself wretched and ridiculous; bu
that was all-the tide rose and rose till the irat
and struggling beldame became food for fishes
Such is the predicament of the Republic newspape
in it's present phrensied assault upon the House G
Representatives
| TO see what has brought the especial organ {
the Wing Administration to this sad plight,
| brief retrospect is necessary. During the fire
eighteen months of its existence the Republic be
| came notorious as the chosen mouth piece of tn
| worst and most odious Administration which ha,
ever afflicted this country. During all that time
devoted to the desperate schemes of the Abolition
list agitators of the Wing party it fought furiousIy
against the policy of compromise and Cancellation
| new Wing dynasty came in, and that same
policy OF compromise, in the face of old commit
| ments and convictions, became the chief rallyine
cry-the very shibboleth-of the new Administra.
ton. Forthwith the Republic rated 1t became
an organ Of the Compromise, which up to that
day 1t had opposed 1t proclaimed the Compro.
mise to be an issue transcending all party ques-
tons. II became the most furious denouncer OF
those very Wing agitationists on whose support
up to that day it had lived, and whose foulest
work upto that day it had been most jealous 10 do
And to make the infamy of this regeneration more
conspicuous and exquisitely complete, back to
its editorial chair thus to advocate the Compromise
came the very man who had first put the Republic
on it's antiCompromise tack and kept it there till
some misunderstanding or discomfort at the ar
rangements pertaining TO the Gaphin grab drove
him in dudgeon from his post. In no other hands
than his could the shame of the Republics unprin-
cpled and open selfcontradiction, in its advocacy
| of the Compromise, have been so curiously con-
summate. But the wretched 'organ's'' cup oil
degradation was not yet nearly full. Days and
events went on, and from day to day the Republics
hate and scorn of its old friends and patrons the
Wing agitationists, waxed hotter and louder. But
it was all in vain. The agitationists in the Wing
ranks strobe on from victory to victory. They
kicked the compromise out of their party caucus
called to prepare for their party convention. By
three to one of the Wing vote in the House. they
voted down the Compromise resolutions And,
finally, in stricken battle with the Compromise
Wings at Baltimore, the agitators won the day,
and placed the standard of the Wing party in the
hand OF the leader whom, two years before, their
chiefs had specially marked out and chosen az
their candidate. This transaction rived the Wing
party in twain. Half the Wing party-almost the
entire Wing party of one section of the country
stood ready to back the Republic against the TIL
umphant agitators, if the Republic would only
show the courage or the will to be honest. But al
this crisis, once again the Republic miserabIY
truckled- No! ''Truckled" is not quite the word
1t promptly made up it's mind to rat back again
to the service of the very men whom for a twelve
month it had steadily revied. Without one day
of decent delay to bury either it's Compromise con-
vctions, or the wrath with which it had vindcated
them, it put on its new livery, and plunged into
the drtiest work of the canvass of sectonalism
and agitation, with blindness of fury aud bra.
zen hardihood of mendacity that rose higher and
higher, till at last the astonished and disgusted
country saw the Republic-just before the special
organ of Compromise Administrations in
open furtherance of the wicked schemes of section
al agitation, zealously conspiring with the Adolf
tonists Foss and Fogg to lie down Franklin Pierce
as an Abotionst! From that hour the Republic
stood revealed. 1t Haunted sin the coore of its
trade,' and its name became the synonyme of DO
lltica prostitution! -
A few words more close the story and show what
has brought the Republic to that strait OF denented
desperation which finds its only vent in wholesale
abuse of the Congress of the United States. On
the morning of the Sd of November the Republic
found the Wing organization total wreck What
its own condition then? 1t had sold out all its
convictions SO often that buyer was to be
found in the Wing market Its character and its
vocation were alike clean gone. The leading
agitation presses of its party turned fiercely
upon it, and drummed it out of the Wing camp as
traitor and renegade. For this stissus'' at last
it had "filed it's mind" To this end it had bar
tered all it had to barter. So utterly had it lost
caste with its party-so openly mercenary
was it deemed to be-that leading Wing journals
circulated and credited the that it was about
to be sold to Democratic spectators in disorgani-
cation Thus hooted out of the ranks of legitimate
party warfare-thus stripped ofthe knightIy sword
and spurs-what remained to the Republic but the
stiieto of the bravo and the poniard of the assas
sin? The field of honorable war was closed to it,
but the of the freebooter and the bandit was
yet open. 1t could lay hold of special interests.
III en- lat in nfd Iofin
the public treasury, and, knife IN hand, it could
bid the officers and the prominent members Of
Congress by 'to stand and deIiueri'
Such is the explanation which we deem due to
the country of the unprecedented personal attacks
of the Republic upon those leading members of
Congress whom it regards chiefly instrumental
in defeating schemes to get money out of the trea
sury.
Having thus exposed the process through which
the Republic has now become the special organ of
the depredators. and having thus shown how il
has heretofore performed its work of organising to
the hostile factions of the Wing party, whose live
r!es ii has in rapid succession put on, feel that
little other defen is needed by any of the eminent
Democratic members of Congress whom that jour
nal now assails Let it parade the few instances
which ii can find in which able and earnest Demo-
Gratis, intent upon measures which they deem of
special Importance, have fit to express their
dissent from an adverse decision of the Speaker or
from the principle which bis decision is rested.
In every party, and under any organization of the
House, such occurrences may be expected to take
place. AS cited by the Republic, they will not shake
nor tend to shake, the confidence of the Democracy
In their able representatives, in the eminent and
experienced Democrat who presdes their DELHI
erations. Still less will the Republic harm any one
itself by noticing the instances in which Democrats
of known high character and standing have seen
fit 70 call for the ayes and noes on question of ad-
journment, or to move call of the House, when
such proceedings may have the effect of postponing
the consideration of particular measure. Consti
tuted as the House now is-with such a Wing mi
norlty in it-there may well be occasions in which
such postponement is both desirable in itself, and
in accordance with the wishes of decided maio
rity of the Democrats present absent. at any
rate, such proceedings by any member, on his re-
sponsibllty to the country and to his constituents,
are his clear constitutional right right secured
to every member for wise purposes. They may
become, in his judgment, his clear constitutional
duty And, without pretending TO investigate or
decide the particular cases of such parliam entary
tactics which the Republic has cited, we shall not
forbear to say that the country will presume that
they have not been resorted TO without some good
ground, when, as the Republic would seem TO init
mate, they have met the approval of such Demo
Gratis as the Speaker and the chairman of the Com
mittee of Ways and Means AT any rate-and
this is the main and sufficient answer this
point-the proceedings of the Democrats thus
raigned come before the country certified for ap-
protdI by the furious and wrathful abuse of the
fsorgdn Of depredattonP'