Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-02-14

have hitherto expressed our opinions Of it al
some length. We would more frequently pub
lish full reports of the speeches made in the
two houses Of Congress, but for the exclusion
from our columns ofnews editorials, and com
munications, which they occasion.
1 THE NEBRASKA BILL-TRIBUTE TO
WHOM TRIBUTE IS DUE.
Justice is two-fold. It is to be melted out to
the just and to the unjust. It's divine admin.
istration, as connected with palpable princi.
pie, does not differ from its application to the
! government Of human actions. If the short
comings of men require our censure, upon the
same principle precisely their penitence and
reform demand our commentator. 1t is a
principle Of human progress that a man may
be wiser today than he was ycsterday--wiser
tomorrow than to-day. In this spirit, then, we
approach the treatment Of the present position
and prospect of the Nebraska territorial bill,
lieve to be the only proposition which fully
sustains and carries out the true spirit of that
instrument under whose, wise and just pro.
visions our compact was formed. We have
deliberately argued the merits of this bill, and
therefore will spare our readers a repetition Of
our views upon them. 1t is our purpose mere
ly in this article, to exhort all true friends Of the
| Constitution to come to the rescue, and to lend
their aid to the final settlement of this serious
element Of discord, that in all time to come
we may be, upon this subject at least, a common
| brotherhood. f4
| Not unhappily, as it has terminated, divisions
have been created in the ranks Of our party, in
| to which this question entered, in our opinion,
for wholesome and snlutary purposes. 1t is
one Of those cases where good has been drawn
Eout Of evil. Certain It'll that a portion of the
democratic party in great State, which we
| have characterized often and again as putrid
excrescence upon it, has been made to show
| its true colors, and finally, to resolve it.
self back into its original and congenial ele-
ments. In its paraded and by some sup
posed fairness, we confess ourselves to have had
no confidence. The seeming truth which
cunning times put on" to entrap the unwary,
found no Judgment in our Judgment Suisse
quent events have sustained our convictions
and justified our incredibly. M
In no spirit oftriumph, however, and with no
| feeling Of reproach, do we advert to this fact
We sincerely wish that from the eyes Of
even John Van Buren, ct I'd omse gesus the
scales had fallen, and that they stood firm
and subscribed to this the first test of their
sincerity. But it is not so. The first appli
cation Of what they professed themselves wiling
to stand to and abide by was as the coal of fire
to the back of the terrapin; it not only made
them moue, but exposed the cloren foot.
Against them, therefore, and all who counte-
nance and sympathize with them, we, and all
true democrats, and all true patriots of what
political organization soever, pronounce with
one voice, the political anathema, Maranatha
Let themkeep to themselves. The nucleus which
they once formed, and around which men more
frank and of consequence more honest than
themselves clustered, is in all time destroyed.
The democratic party is rid of them forever
and we rejoice in the fact that they have failed
to entice from the support Of the true principles
of the Constitution many who were classed in
their political organization. We congratulate
oil such that they have found these quondam
friends to be wolves in sleeps clothing We
rejoice in the belief that the strong arm Of the
administration will be prompt to strike these
traitors, wherever they may be officially regis
Il nd
overwhelmed with JOY that they are gone now
and forever from amongst us. They are politi-
cally exterminated.
We have said, tribute to whom tribute is due.
We have said this, first, because we have learn
ed that q large number of those who we're in
the same organization as the Van Burens, &C.,
are willing to yield their support to the Nebras.
ka bill. We tender them the right hand not
merely Of party, but of patriotic fellowship.
We want their aid, we want their influence !;
and we commend them for their independence.
Secondly, we have said "tribute to whom
tribute is DUE because we believe, and have
indeed reason to know, that this important
measure is fully and earnestly sustained and
its contamination devoutly wished by the pre-
sent administration. 1t has been our duty to
differ with the administration upon one point
of its policy. We shrank not from that duty,
howbeit it brought down upon our heads all
the phials Of Indignation and wrath of its SER
vile Aatterers. We have been not less the
friends Of the administration, because we would
not expend our editorial substance in the fal-
some adulation Of its members. We should
be sorry to believe that the adulations of others
have not nauseated even the subjects Of them.
We are the creatures Of no faction; the tools Of
no man, or set of men. We will never be.
Our democratic orthodoxy has been called
into question by some editorial wiseacres.
We viii compare records with any Of them.
We have not been in favor Of the Pacific
railroad as a government measure to-day,
and opposed to it tomorrow. We have advo-
Gated the true principles of the Constitution
and, as we believed, the true principles Of the