Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-06-29
The Boston Merchants and the United
States Senate.

States Senate.
We hope the Boston merchants have read
carefully what has been received by telegraph,
of the debate in the Senate upon their memo
rial. They were more fortunate than the
ministers In their defence; but the attack upon
them, by Mr.. Jones, of Tennessee, who, we
suppose, is to be followed by Mr.. Dixon, Of
Kentucky, is pretty much Of piece with the
onslaught which Douglas made upon the
clergy.
We shall, as soon as possible give to our
readers the eloquent remarks Of Senator Jones,
of Tennessee, in full. We judge that this
speech is one Of his best oratorical Efforts
Jones is quite favorte with New England
Wings; he is one of the "gallant Southern
Wings they tell us about, when they want
to persuade us that the I" National Wing par
t." is the only hope of the country. We
shall want to preserve and perpetuate that
part Of his speech in which he classed Joseph
Warren and James Batchelder together, as the
" first and last martyrs in our country's
cause" We apprehend that the telegraph
did not give us the whole of this passage -
Jones could not have failed to follow out his
happy idea by other comparisons. John Adj
ams's defence of the British soldiers Of course
suggested a comparison with Seth J. Thomas,
who poured forth his impetuous soul in de-
fence of Suttle's claim to his own niger.
James Otis and Ben. Hallett, being both
Cape Cod men, (if we are not mistaken, } must
have suggested another comparison. John
Hencock's wealth aud social influence no
doubt reminded Jones of the Curtis family
Col. Prescott, the hero Of Bunker Hill, was
very much such a man as Col. Isaac II.
Wright, at least both were colonies. And the
line might be further extended, so as to in
clude, finally. a classification Of George
Washington and Marshal Freeman, John Jay
and Commissioner Loring, Patrick Henry and
Anger IL. Byrnes, and so on. We wait
with impotence for full report of Jones's
speech.
The twenty-one hundred Boston men who
signed the Memorial, will find in this Senato-
rial debate much food for reflection. We be-
lieye that their language was perfectly cour-
teous, and in the usual form of petition. 1t
asked for the repeal OF the Fugitive Slave Bill;
that was all. They did not petition for an
alteration of the Constitution, nor dissolu-
ton OF the Union, nor any interference with
slavery in the States. They asked that law,
which was passed only four years ago, which
has no odor of sanctity or of nationality about
it, should be abrogated. They had peculiar
right to ask this, for their representative voted
for the bill, and they had successfully en-
forced 1t IN the case of Simms. Coming to
the conclusion, with reluctance, that it did
not work we'll; that as peace measure it
was failure; that the presence of slave catch
ers was @uieGnce in their city, they asked
that the statute only four years old, might be
removed For this, they are told, by one of
their own political brethren, for whom they
have shouted in Faneuil Hall, with whom
they have fought and bled in many well
contested field, that they are traitors, sed-
tionists, and murderers. This is the way the
shareholders always treat them when they
show my signs of discomfort. If the Boston
merchants will do their aoork, they are very
good sort of men; if they will volunteer to
catch Southern " niggers." and return them
to Virginia and Georgia, they are fit for re-
spectacle society; but when they cease to do
this, they are subjected to such language, and
such insulting comparisons as those of Sena-
tor Jones. The 2lO0 Boston men who signed
the memorial at the Merchants Exchange are
ta6ooed by Jones and his brethren; they are
no more respectable than the Aboltionists
Hallett, and Curtis, and John Riley, and
Coolidge, and Butman, and Black, and God
frey, are the " Representative men, of the
"literary emporium, at the fresides of the
chivalry Oh Boston! Boston J. Common
s0eaLth.