The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-04-04
The Cutting and Breckenridge Affair-Flic
True Solution.


The Cutting and Breckenridge Afair-rlic
True Solution.
For quietly suggesting, the other day that Gen.
Pierce was the invisible agency which impelled
Mr. breckenridge, of Kentucky, to undertake
the delicate and dangerous task Of questioning
the honesty Of another member of the House of
Representatives in the parliamentary course
which he had thought fiji to pursue upon the
Nebraska bill-for daring TO intimate that
General Pierce may have been responsible in
the premises-the New YORK HERALD was as
sailed by the Cabinet organ at Washington, in
terms so coarse and malignant as to astonish
every dispassionate reader Of the two sides Of
the question.
But The very violence Of the Washington or
gan in this matter-the uncalled for wrath and
Indignation which it has vented upon this jour
nal for the reasonable suggestion inculpating
the President-has only served to clinch the
nail in the confirmation Of our opinion 1t has
been made plain by the foolish anger of the Ca
binet organ that we did hit upon The most vul-
nerable point Of the controversy in holding the
adm glou responsible for the extraordina-
T. ct of Mr. breckenridge Had there
been no truth in our uggestion-nep lausibility,
~ probability of public belief, from the plain
reasoning of common sense--it would have
passed wholly unnoticcd by the administration,
or with but word of good tempered ridicule
from the administration organ. On the other
hand, abusive and sculrilous protestatons of
innocence are almost invariably the device of
Al. - Al
dencc are against him.
As entirely between Dir. Cutting and Mr..
Breckenridge, was there any cause for the Of
fensive reprimand which the latter thought fit
to administer to the former upon this Nebraska
question? None. Both these members are in
tellgent, high tened and amiable gentlemen
1t is not the habit of either lightly to arraign
and impugn the motives of other men, or to
question the straight forward explanations
which they may volunteer in behalf of their
conduct. The motion Of Mr.. Cutting to refer
the Nebraska bill was strictly parliamentary
the usual motion in such cases. His reasons
for ii were rational and consistent; and whether
it did or did not agree with the plan laid down
by the administration party in the House, we
the man in such a case, without u power
full influence behind the scenes, to under
take the presumptuous task of lecturng the
intractalle member rs he did. His lecture
reads, from beginning to end like proclama-
ton by authority" Was il not so? Is ii pro-
babe that these two sensible and prudent
men could have been guilty Of any offensive
mol a ~ >;po ho
tween themselves concerning an ordinary mo-
ton before the House? No. The chivalrous
Kentuckian was in the meshes of the admins
tration-he was doing its work; and had he sue
ceeded in flashing the refractory New Yorker
into submission and obedience it would all
have been well enough. His failure was Ca
binet failure, Presidential failure, under the
whip and spur of the Presidents agent, autho-
rized, OF believing himself to be authorized. to
do the work. whence the importance of the
question, the folly of Mr.. Breckenridge, and the
bitter chagrin of the whole White House party
and their organ.
We hold Gen. Pierce, then, to the RESPONSE
bility of this explosion between Cutting and
Breckenridge rupture which might have
ended in the violent and bloody death of
one or both Of the parties, but for the
active interposition, remonstrances and advice
of men of all parties of both houses. Such are
the desperate straits to which this impotent and
Tylerized administration is driven Elected to
power upon the platform Of the compromises of
1880 the Cabinet organ authoritatively and
nblushingly repudiates the compromise policy
Pledged az Baltimore to resist any and every
attempt to revive the agitation OF Che slavery
question, but pushed to the last resort by the
disclosures Of his free soil principles aud ante
cedents, we see Gen. Pierce. in his desperation
TO reclaim the confidence of the South, casting
into Congress The repeal of the Missouri com
promise as an administration measure, and thus
lighting up such fame Of free soil and aboli-
ton excitement as the country has never before
experienced. The principle involved in this
repeal is constitutional princple-it pro-
poses The abrogation of an unconstitutional
law and yet with upwards of seventy
democratic majority in the House, upon this
test Issue of Nebraska, we lind the admnstra.
ton powerless to persuade, resorting to the
rash eypedient Of coercion, and driving two
political and personal friends to the wretched
resolve of mutual assassination.
Such are the natural fruits Of the free soil
deception upon which Gen. Pierce was nomi
mated and clected--of the free soil coalition of
his Cabnet--of his free soil distribution Of the
spells and Of the imbecile and vascillating
efforts Of bis administration to recover It's lost
character in the South, by the immediate pas
sage, without amendment or discussion, of the
Nebraska bill. But there it lies, with moua-
tain upon its back, another melancholy example
that our present beautiful administration Is a
failure now, as il has been from the beginning
and viii be to the end Strange, indeed, that
such man as Breckenridge should consent to
torture himself to the extremity of a duel In