The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1854-07-07
SOTHERN WHIGS-THEIR DESTINY
AND THEIR DUTY.
FROM THE BALTIMORE PATRIoT.I

this important party division renders IL I'M
portant to enquire what will be its destiny
and its dnty. In doing so, it will not be
out of place to review the history of the
Southern Wing party. n is intended as a
just eulogy. Perhaps it may answer for an
cptaph. No representative of political opin-
ion has in our belief ever given more conclu-
sive evidences of disinteresed patriotism
1t formed the original VI s'ard in that great
conflict against Executive power, to which
the wing party owesits name and its organi-
zation. The Southern Wings won the right
of the line in one of the loftiest conflicts
ever fought. Their opposition to the ag-
grsssions of General Jackson was neither
caused by personal hostility nor political dis
content Many of his strongest southern
opponents had been his warmest admirers
They thought his acts tended 70 impair the
Constitution, and this admiration for the man
made more meritorous the condemnation of
the officer. But as this war continued the
combatants insensibly shred their ground
Many of the leaders of ne Wing party had
been inimieal to the obj xious administration
alb origine. They appeared to certain inter-
ests of great Importance to the Northern
people. The commercial incidents of fiscal
system carried several important electoral
States. The prospect Of increased wages
enlisted the manufacturers. The expense of
transportation influenced the agricultural in
terests of the West, and the Wing party
from having contended for the great principle
of State and popular rights, began to rely
upon the success of certain measures of adj
mnistratve policy. Its purpose was thus
perverted and its baptismal doctrines forgot.
ten. Executive dictation was no longer the
object of reprobation. The limitation of the
prerogatve-the separation of the purse and
sword, and the publication of the Govern
ment, no longer awakened by the eloquence
of Clay, aPreston, a Calhoun, or Prentis.,
But the duty on foreign wool, or cut nails
were topics of general discussion, and the
custody of the public money, wrested from
the hands of the representatives and never
returned TO them, was submitted to without
material complaint, because itvirtually trans
ferred the public deposits from Chestnut to
Wall street, and gave every incidental ad-
vantage of exchange, discount and circulation
to the cities of the North. There were other
issues. Issues of dollars and cents. Issues
of expedency, and the tide of the battle
rolled north, where those issues were most
important. The Southern Wings now served
us cohort in an army which they had once
commanded. They could not join the Dem
ocratic party-though many individuals did
So That had never been shriven of the OBJ.
noxious Executive abuses. 1t had elected
Van Buren, and Polk, neither of whom ever
relinquished an atom of power, or failed to
regulate their appreciation of an act by the
test Of party advantage. So the Southern
Wings fought on in their subordinate rela-
ton to their own party, covering themselves
with glory, when the issues correspondent
with their original principles, or abashed in
confusion when their leaders gained victory
over corruption, forgot the correction of
Others in their ardent pursuit of spoils-
turned from the limitation of Executive pow.
or to increasing the duty upon iron or en-
ployed the popular enthusiasm in favor of a
good and gallant man, to secure = general Jail
delivery ofall the bankrupts in the land
Thus the Southern Wings being in local
and Federal minority, received their issues
from the North as duly as dry goods. The
Texas was proposed, and the
Wing party was committed against 1.-THE
Southern Wings found principle of opposi-
tionn the illegal manner of its introduction
the Northern,in spirit Of sectional luminosity
alone. A war with Mexico might have been
declared ten years before with ample cause,
in the wrong done our citizens. Some of the
Southern Wings opposed the war because it
had been commenced by the Executive with
out warrant of law. They then went in
to the war aud won by their galantry
the admiration of their opponents. The
Northern Wings opposed the war for the
same reason that they had opposed the an
nexation of Texas.
During the exciting scenes of 1850, the
Southern wings were found restraining the
of their own section on tho one
hand, and enforcing the laws over fanatics on
the other. In the last campaign the Wing
Convention repudiated every Fillmore and
Webster man who had stood by the Com
promise and the rights of the South They
took up distinguished candidate deservedly
popular for his military services and his per.
sonal virtues. But this man who had al
ways conquered the enemies of his country
was ANONYMOUSLY defeated by a distrust of
his friends. In all these conflicts the South
ern Wings have never spared themselves, nor
been spared by their opponents. They have
fought the battles of their Northern allies
with fidelity, trusting only to be rewarded by
the reform of those original evils which they
had so long combated. They had gained
one victory. The government was in the
hands of their trends. The President proved
to be man of exemplary character, but the
members of the administration fell into the