Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-12-23
THE SOUTH SIDE DEMOCRAT AND
THE RICHMOND EXAMINER ON THE
WASHINGTON UNION.

WARRINGTON UNION.
While the Union publishes brace Of letters,
purporting to emanate from couple Of legis-
lators Of the good Old Dominion, in which the
opinion is intimated that, in rejecting General
Armstrong as public printer to the Senate, the
builders rejected the stone that was the head
of the democratic corner, (the Washington
Unioa,) and while the Enquirer is engaged in
its in-advised and insane attacks on us, we beg
leave to spread before our readers the two fol
lowing extracts from two Of the leading demo
cratic journals of Virginia-the Petersburg
South Side Democrat and the Richmond Exam
iner--on the same subject, but not to the same
effect We will merely premise our introduc-
ton ofthe article from the South Side Democrat
with protestando,' as to that passage Of it
which represents us as being rather too much
inclined to fault-6nding, and thus wearing "the
semblance Of factiousness."
From the South side Democrat of the Goth December
The Administration and the Virginia Dele
CATION. s
Studious attempts have been made, and are
still being made, to misrepresent the position
of the Virginia delegation towards the admin
istration In some cases their course has
been anticipated and threats have been made
in advance.
Not the least significant Of these attempts is
the letter in Sundays Washington Union, al
luded to in our issue of yesterday, purporting
to be from IA member of the Virginia legisla-
ture." The general drift Of this communities
ton may be inferred from the following con-
GLIDING extract of some Introductory comments
in the Union:
GAS our correspondent well remarks Virginia
will never be found in opposition TO democratic
administration whose principles are her princ!-
pies on any such pretext. She mayShave ambi-
tious or disappointed sons, las she has had In by
gone days) whose fealtv to democracy may be
broken upon selfish considerations, but she Will
be the first to condemn and the last to forgive such
recreant sons"
There is way Of stating a proposition
plumply and directly, leaving nothing to be in
ferred from inuendo; there is another way, by
which frequently insidious enemies create the
impression they desire, by cushioning the thorn
with conditional declarations and oily exple-
tives. The former method is the more manly,
frank, open, and ingenuous-the latter, the
more subtle, sly, cunning, and cowardly. The
Union ana It's correspondent have chosen to
adopt the latter course, and have asserted by
implication what they dared not assert in direct
and unequivocal terms. To those who are
familiar with the wailng and ranting of the
Washington Union for the last ten days, we
need assign no reason for its covert assault on
the Virginia delegation. To those who have
been deprived Of this rich privilege, the ex-
PLANTATION can be conveyed in four or five little
words, viz: its failure to get the Senate print
ing. Hinc i1a lachyynsR. Hence the con-
suming wrath which it has heaped upon every
democrat who happened not to have voted for
its proprietor as printer. Hence this sneaking
thrust at the democratic Senators from Vir-
ginia, whose names are not counted on its
list.
1t is not without good authority that we say
the administration has no truer or more cor
dial friends than the Senators and Representa-
tives of the Virginia delegation; nor has the
platform of principles on which the President
was elected any stauneher or more consistent
advocates. While the most of them differ with
the administration as to the propriety of the
course it pursued in the New York matter
while they conceive that the first letter to col
lector Bronson, officially recognizing the ex-
istence Of any wings in the democratic party
a mistake, yet they regard them as errors Of
policy, and not of principle, and consider them
as affording no sufficient reasons either for
interposing impediments in the path Of the adj
ininistration or for disbursing the relations Of
cordiality existing between it and themselves. I
When matter came up before the Senate
with which the administration legitimately had
nothing to do-when question arose as to
who should execute the printing Of that body,
and make therefrom liberal profit, no caucus
nomination having been made--the Senators
from Virginia, reserving to themselves the lib
erty Of acting independently in all questions
not involving the principles Of the democratic
party, voted their personal preference for Beyer-
ley Tucker. They did not consider Robert
Armstrong plank in the Baltimore platform.
On the contrary, they remembered that his
paper contended for the Pacific railroad pro-
iect a scheme in direct contravention of one
Of its leading features. They could not forget
that the Union newspaper, from what motives
it is immaterial to inquire, bounded down, with
all the relentless ferocity its corps of editors
could summon to their aid, Daniel s. Dickin-
son, one Of the truest and most unhinching
friends Of the south at the north. These things
the Virginia Senators could not have forgotten.
Nor do we believe that the course OF Mr..
fuckers paper met their approval. 1t IS true,
it has manifested strict adherence to all the
principles of the democratic party, yet 1t is an
opinion from which few democrats will dissent,
that the Sentinel has given the New York diff
Guilty o Fictitious importance, to which It's
merits did not entitle it. and exhibited fault
finding spirit that has worn the semblance of
factiousness. We. do not consider that the
Virginia Senators endorsed all the positions of
Mr. fuckers paper, in casting their votes for
him as their printer, any more than we believe
Mr.. Millson, who voted for Mr.. Armstrong in
the House, to have endorsed the views Of his
paper on the Pacific railroad, or its attacks
upon Governor Dickinson. The cases are
analogous The fact is, in the Union there had
been violation Of principle lin the Sentinel
there had been fnctious opposition upon a
had tendency to PROSTATE the strict construc-
ton creed of the democratic party, while the
course Of the latter, at most, was only at war
with the policy Of the President relative to the
distribution OF government patronage, and not
essentially interfering with the success Of the
administration. lilly becomes the Union and
its friends 10 attempt TO engender dissatisfaction
in the minds nf The Xirninia demncracx at the