Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1854-10-27
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.

WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.
A Sweeping Change Of Tront.-For ten
years past the Abolitionists and Free Sellers
have been making the welkin ring with their
shouts for the equal rights of down-tredden
humanity. They have been preaching the
immoralityof tho South for refusing to On.
franchise her negro slaves, who, according To
the arguments of their ministers, lecturers,
writer's and stump slang whangers, are
endowed with all the attributes of intellectual
and moral manhood possessed by any class Of
the whites on this side of the Atlantic. II
ever men were committed irrevocably to any
political axiom, the Abolitionists have been
so committed to that of the justice and entire
propriety of at once restoring" the colored
race of the North American continent to the
rights of perfect equality, social and political
with the whites, which they insist are wrong.
fully withheld from them. This doctrine has
formed the very basis of all that the Adolf
tionists have been oontending for, and to
achieve which they have even recommended
the slaves not only to elope, but to poison,
murder and burn. Suddenly, however, We
find them striving to become the very head
and front of the new political anti Catholic
and anti-foreigner organization. In Maine
every candidate of the Know Nothings elect
ed--Governor, member of Congress or of the
Legislature, is also Free Soiler-every one
of them. So, also, in Ohio, Indiana and Penn
sylvania, nearly every one chosen in the re
cent elections, by the aid of the Know Nothing
votes, are vehement Free Soilers,-men who
a few short weeks ago, were proclaiming that
the negroes Of the South should be sntron.
chtsed. They have suddenly discovered that
their late cherished theory is all wrong. That
all men in this country should not be endowed
with all the privileges of citizenship. Ger
tainly that the native-born of the Catholic
faith, and all the foreign-born among US should
be exceptions to the rule otherwise to bs SO
general a to embrace under its blessings the
three millions of ignorant slaves of the South
ern States. "It is q poor rule which won't
work both ways" the old saw says.
In this case they have manifestly stultified
themselves. If they were right four months
ago, they are certainly very wrong now. Oh
if ight in their favorite axiom at this time,
they have been most egregiously in error fol
ten years past. We rejoice over the fact that
they have so soon endeavored to rush to the
front rank of the new political organization;
iDasmuch as their act, in so doing, is a COM
plete answer to all their arguments in favor of
tho enfr anchisement of the negro, on the
ground not only of his inherent right, but of
his fitness, to De socially and politically the
equal of the white in this country. Having
joined in proclaiming that birth in Ireland
or Germany, or belief in the tenets of the
Catholic church, if born in the United States,
should be good and sufficient cause for de-
priving their white fellow citizens of political
equality, they cannot hereafter, We trust, find
credit with any class of those surrounding
them, for sincerity in urging the propriety of
sending negroes to Congress and electing them
to other Offices.
While on this subject, We may not inap-
propriately add that the rise and progress of
the new political organisation to combine re-
igion with politics in this country, shows that
the vast expenditure Of breath, money, Mon
dacity and brass-ths capital on which Abo-
litionism has traded-hss, up to this hour,
made absolutely no impression on the popular
mind Of the North; the principle for which The
aforesaid new organization contends SO sue
cessfully thus far, being in direct and palpa-
bio opposition to that of tAs ants. SIoveryttss.
The Governments Obligations to Indian
Tribes.-It will be recollected, that in the
treaties made during the last session of Con-
gress with the various tribes of Nebraska and
Kansas Indians, clauses were introduced, in.
tended to initiate the proposed now system of
dealing with the aborigines, which looks to
their perpetuation and improvement as the
grand aim Of the Governments future dealings
with them, rather than to getting them out of
the way of the schemes of the rapacious whites
pressing upon them, at any cost to their future,
which has really formed the sum and substance
Of the policy of the United States towards the
tribes, one and all, up very nearly to this time,
though the aim Of those having the chief au-
thority here has, of course, been very differ.
erent. The clauses to which we refer not only
provide for the sale of portions of their lands
for their immediate benefit, as has been pro.
vided in many previous Indian treaties, but
authorizes the Government to administer the
funds thus created as in its judgment may
seem best for the future of its wards. In this
latter feature lies the difference. Experience
proves, that when money so obtained for the
Indians is payable directly to them or their
assignees in hard cash, it almost invariably
operates as powerful lever for increasing
their Generalization and Fastening their ex.
tinction. In fact, scenes always follow, in
paying Indian annuities in cash, such as those
in sea-ports have often witnessed after the