Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-09-19
Our Candidate and Theirs.

cial object of wing hatred since his noml-
nation by the Republicans as their candidate,
for the governorship, he has been special
object of wing abuse. The wings hate Mr..
Wilson because he refused to follow their tor
tuous political course after they began bust
ness on the :" Conquer your prejudices' sys-
tenn and they abuse him because he, 'oorh-
ing man, is placed in competition with one OF
them, a gentleman, for gubernatorial honors'
When Henry Wilson was in the wing camp,
and inspirited his comrades, who fought I'M
der the gonfalon of Harrison, to the combat,
he was a delightful orator and partizan; but
when in lS47, he refused to be dragged by
the heels through the mud of slavery
and like good knight united with others
to maintain liberty and secure Justice at
ter those sacred principles had been abandon
ed by the wings, he became ga dreadful dem
agogue.' az place hunter" and "poiItl'
cian.'' The vocabulary of whiggery. that IN
1874 was not rich enough in eulogstc phras-
es, to describe Henry Wilson, seems now to
be opulent with insulting epithets, and Is
particularly lavish in its application of them
to him. To these vituperations, we believe,
Henry Wilson is inyulnerable.
Henry Wilson is working man. Well,
what thens We are proud of it. The glory
of this age is, that it has seen the thinker and
worker become one. Great men are not born
they are made-made by labor, trial, poverty,
aud all the numberless experiences of life. He
who is nursed in the lap of luxury, and whose
education is the distractions of books, is not
the one who is wanted by society, to lead it
UP to its destiny, and forward to its future.
1t wants a ,oorkmg man, cobbler-if you
please-anybody except petit aattre, hue
" gentleman" that thing of the past called a
wing. Henry Wilson has never been to Har-
ward. He cannot read Sophocles In the orig
inal; neither can he translate Catullus. But
black letter learning, now days, is no dis
tinction to a man. Any monk in his cloister,
can translate your dead humanities. He who
has head to devise what is best for the hv-
ing and the present, and who has a hand to
execute and develop his ideas, is the true arts
tocrat of the new era. Henry Wilson stands
confeasedly ahead of any wing in Massachu-
sets as man of suggestive and executive
political ability. He has been educated in
the philosophy of practical life, with the peo-
ple-amongst the people; his wing detractors
have been to Harvard and have read Black
stone-some of them with very little adyan-
tage to themselves or credit to their teachers.
But better and more important than Henry
Wilson as working man and as practical
intellect, is Henry Wilson as the true friend
of freedom. Mr.. Wilson's whole course
since IS47, has been splendid refutation of
the wing calunny that he is a Sc demagogue
and place-hunter. Demagogues and place
hunters 90 with the stream-like carrion.
They never associate themselves with the nu-
merically weak-but morally strong. They
never sacrifice their political preferment for
the sake of a principle. Henry Wilson has
done SO openly, boldly, unequivocally, and
heartily; and, in proportion as his course to-
wards liberty has been mauly and noble, that
of the leaders of the wing party towards him
has been base and vindictige.
But let us see what sort of a representative
man the wings themselves have got to lead
them in this campaign. One would suppose
that Apollo had consented to become their
candidate for governor, they are SO full OF
sneers and insnlts for our candidate. Candid
people would almost infer, from the airs of the
wings, that the gods had combined to supreme
ly grace one person with learning, dignity.
culture, craftsmanship, and all the attributes
of high manhood; and that they had then,
presented this person to the wing State Con-
vention as gubernatorial candidate. But it
Is not so. The candidate of the wings is
only Emory Washburn. And, who and what
is hes He never was anything more, from
his own native force, than third rate lawyer.
If he had been cobbler, like Henry Wilson,
he never would nave been anything else. He
was accidentally nominated by the wings as
their candidate in 1858, when he was out of
the country, and when no other wing would
permit his name to be used in the same con-
nection. He was elected by the help Of the
Catholic interest, upon the discovery, by the
Catholics, of the fact that the Wings were iu
favor of applying part of the school fund to
their use. And now, in 1854, he is renomi'
mated, the Boston brigade having found him
to be very docile circumstance, and having
consented to take him under their special
protection. What distinction has Emory
Washburn ever won in the forum, at the bar,
or in the chamber of the literateur: A few
frothy, foolish speeches, in support of Bun
combian resolutions, are all the intellectual
productions that fame records in honor of
this model wing statesman. Perhaps his pa
rade and public dinner orations, when gath
cred into volume, may place him on level
with Punch's model speech-1naker, the illus
trious duke Of Cambridge; but this is only
a hopeful supposition; the unimpeached re-
atty of his mediocrity of talent and of his
paucity of manliness, still stoutly and stub
bornly remain. Let the wings have somebody
for a candidate, before they attempt again to
disparage Henry Wilson.
We published, yesterday, from the Provi-
denee journal statement of the valuation Of
that city, last year and the present, from which
it appeared that the real estate was valued in
1858 at 1922, AGA, 900, and in 1874 at $S3 $685.
600, being an increase in one year of 81 49,
700. or within very trihing fraction of fifty
per cent. Now, as it is not supposable that
there has been any thing like such sudden