Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-10-18
UNION OF CONSERVATIVE ELE-
MENTs IN SUPPORT OF THE CON-
STITUTION.


sTITUTION.
The Richmond Wing manifests q discreet
judgment and commendable spirit, when it
declares that it is not yet prepared to rejoice
over the victories achieved by the opposition
in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. That
opposition is not sufficiently defined, its con-
trolling elements are not sufficiently developed,
to assist sound and cautious mind to any
satisfactory conclusion. The full import and
precise aim of the sudden movement in the
North, remain yet concealed by a fog, as i'm
penetrable as that by which the Inflated Arctic
was enveloped when she received the shock
that gave her prey to the ocean.
No man, however wise and sagacious, can
satisfactorily interpret and explain the ends
and aims of this movement. That those ends
and aims are not good. we are constrained to
believe, for corrupt factions do not combine to
accomplish virtuous ends. Clouds and dark
ness hang around this movement. 1t is, per
haps, not understood by those most promi-
nently engaged in it.
The example, however, set by these factions
in forming this unholy combination, should not
be lost upon us. If bad men may combine to
work mischief, good men may combine to &C.
complish good. All the elements of conserva-
tism throughout the country should now unite
to protect the Constitution. Names, however
long cherished, and small differences, however
they may have been cultivated in times past,
should not, in such crisis as this, be walls Of
separation between honest men. Combination
ought to be met by combination.
We, Of course, do not mean that there should
be an amalgamaton Of all conservative parties
as parties. We simply mean that all who value
the institutions Of the country, all advocates of
law, order, and the Constitution, should vote
together to put down those who menace with
peril, il not with destruction, the most vital in
terests of the country. We believe that many
Wings in the south are disposed to forego the
rancorous animosities of past days and to unite
with the Democracy in sustaining and defend
ing the cherished doctrines Of the Constitution
State rights and State equality. The only
question with them is, as to how they shall
unite WITH uS-WneIner as u w mig organization
or as individuals. Pride would nodoubt prompt
them to come with flags flying and drums beat
ing but it is not pride, ii is the cause of patri
otism, that they ought to subserve.
The Democratic party is the more numerous
of the two. It's creed is now the same that it
has ever professed. 1t has not Topped off
principle, or given up single element of that
ancient creed. The Wings have. The sound
members of that party are not now what they
were in the days of Clay and Webster. Each
change, and each succeeding year has brought
them nearer and still nearer to the Democratic
party. Imaginary lines, and lingering party
prejudices rather than solid partitions, sepa-
rate them.
There is great and pressing political ne
cessity for the union Of all sound and conser-
vative elements, and we cannot repress the
hope that such a union viii be formed, and
formed on the right principles.