Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-03-21
SPIRIT OF THE MORNING PRESS

SPlklT VI TIE 0ORNIN6 PRESS,
The intsttigsneer seems greatly potheret
to understand how Senator's could max,
up their minds to vote for the Nebraska.
Kansas bill when, as some such gentle
men declared yesterday, "there is, to
heir apprehension, nothing real and sub
stsntial to be gained from the bill by
that section of the country which it is
supposed to benefit" while " there is
danger of leaving the country to infer
that a period has arrived in our history
when the force and virtue of compromises
between conflicting opinions are no lon
ger operative. ;"
The Onion goes into ecstscies over the
result of the New Hampshire election, as
it were. The organ further replies to
the In.elligsneer's criticism upon its 1.-THE
Enion's) exposition Of the views Of the
Administration, upon the condition of our
relations with Spain; holding that the
Wing organs objections to them are pre-
cisely such as might be expected from
the London Times, the Paris Moniteu
and the Paris Gazette, and all that sort
of thing. This article concludes with
the usual " foreign organ" argument. In
another article upon the Intelligencer' S
habit of nearly always seeing the coun
try on the high road to Tophet, the Union
says:
'Nor win our venerable Mentor be instructed
~ its own half century Of failures in seeking
to apply Objectionable principles to the legis
lation of the day. Vainly was Texas annexed
-vainly California acquirsd-the prophet,
even while COMPOUNDED by the results, did not
cease to lament with all the fervor of Jeremiah
of old One after another have its darling
theories of convervatism been tested and de-
serted-in every instance succeeded by sound,
practical reform, which confers invaluable
benefits upon the people at large, but still the
IrtskHgencer grumbles and groans. In Satur-
days number of that highly respectable journal
we find the usual appeal to by-gone remedies
A long list of expressions in the North against
the Nebraska bill, having been collated by one
of the New York dailies, is carefully corrected
by the sage IuteLftgercer, and lugubriously
introduced to the world as q warning which
cannot safely be disregarded We are forcibly
reminded by this incident, of the manner in
which, for several years before the compro-
mise measures became laws, the northern
mind was csptivated by the so-cslled Wilmot
proviso. Not politicians only, but States
spoke in favor Of it. Monster meetings were
held to support it. Legislatures adopted
threatening resolutions. The whig as mass
went OF in a crusade agsinst the South. In
that hour, however, a brace of mon stood firm.
and boldly opposed that element of mischief
At first they were few and far between; but
gradually the justice of their cause, the force
Of their reasoning, the patriotism of their ends
and aims, swellsd their ranks into great and
imposing organisation. Even Mr.. Webster
went of, in the first Impulse of the movement,
IN favor Of the proviso, and with him many
other ssgaciOus uen. In a short year or two
the tide turned. The great argument of the
country and constitution prevailed, and the
cause, which at the first was scofsd and scorned,
rallied to it the true hearts of the nation. The
recollection is most familiar-most trite; but
Few, when the effort is again made to re-enact
"a" same sad farce, only yesterday hisssed from
the political stage, we feel that a recurrence
10 a "reminiscences 30 freshly remen bored may
not be Improbable We tell our respected
temporary, that it, upon every great ques-
ton, there were not timid tremblers at the
start, the sequel would not be 20 full of in
strurtion to posterity. and 80 full of grati6ca-
ton 10 those who remained stssdfast and true
from the beginning"