Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-08-14
mIsAKRANGl4D POLITICIANS.

which we allude is, that great number Of even
our prominent politicians have misarranged them
selves Many who are Democrats in fact have
heretofore been acting with the Federal Wing or
hnowpotbing party, and rice rfrSd
In politics, in religion, men, as general
rule, adopt the faith of their fathers, and habit
and association keep them in a course which un-
biased reason would not have dictated. That
there are frequent cases Of men throwing of the
trammels Of habit, association, and education,
where reason does not approve, is true, but these
are the exceptions to tho rule.
We by no means intend 10 intimate, by what
we have said, that the many arrange themselves
against conviction.
The Heterogeneous of which we speak
generally honest. The human mind is not prone
to examine and investigate ,rhaf Il has accepted.
What the mind has accepted, though in early
life, as dogma, or by habit and association, is
thereafter packed away as "a fixed fact, /" as Mr..
Attorney General Gushing would say, and in rare
individual instances only is disturbed to undergo
the process of examination and investigation.
Pride in a distinguished ancestor, our love and
veneration for our fathers, tend also TO prevent
investigation into their political opinions Then
consistency and pride Of opinion! How many
dread the charge of Inconsistency; This dread
tends, we doubt not, in some instances to make
men keep doggedly on in course, received with
cut inquiry from their fathers, which their olrn
did not dictate.
That mans actions should be consistent with
his convictions is necessary 10 responsibility; but
If mans opinions at sixty should be identical
IL L.. II a
ofage, it indicates of two things, either that
he has profted nothing by experiences or, like
Pallas from the head If Jove, he has sprung full
armed into the arena in which men fight the bat
tie of life.
Our respectable contemporaries Of the IntelH-
gencer have been conducting that journal, not to
say institution, for forty-eght years! Now, if we
suppose that IN all that time they had seen no
cause to change any Of their opinions, our expe-
rienced neghbors would to-day be in no wise su-
peror as editors than when forty eight years ago
they were shaving for boards Any one who
claims credit for consistency, meaning thereby
continuity Of opinion for long period, cannot
with propriety, at the same time, lay claim to
consideration on the score Of experience. If one
= adopts opinions at twenty which continue
changed until he is sixty years of age, the opin-
ions Of sixty, being the same, are no better than
those Of twenty, and at twenty years Of age there
cannot be said to be experience.
Twenty-Five is the age, fixed by the Constitu-
ton, Of eligibility representative in Congress.
Twenty-Five is youthful, and of few or none Of our
distinguished men il be said that throughout a
long career they have not changed their opinions;
yet it is this continuity Of opinion which is the
consistency TO be charged with the want Of which,
is 50 much dreaded. The consistency which is
admirable teaches to conform action TO conyic-
ton. Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay entered public
life at about the same age and about the same
time. Both changed their opinions during their
long, distinguished and cotemporaneous careers.
Which was the more admrable-to con-
form their actions TO changed convictions, or with
changed convictions 10 continue unchanged their
actions The consistency winch conforms action
to viction is honorable, while that which con-
sists in continuity of opinion from early youth
advanced age may be honorable, but when hon
orable indicates in many cases incapacity 10 profit
by experenceor or pride Of opinion, which stiles
reason.
BY induction the mind j. led 10 the fact that
many are the misarranged politicians
In our own experience we have met gentlemen
who, while acting with the Wing party, were
Democrats in principle, ia temperament, and in
all things except party afi,laton while this i
the case, il is also true that some who act with
the Democratic party are in fact little better thar
Wings. II j. not every man who calls himself
Democrat that is No demagogue can be
one Indeed, il is not every one who desires 10 be
Democrat that can be 80. The capability Of be-
ing Democrat j. a gift conferred upon mortals
by the Creator, profusey il is true, but yet not
upon all.
The last mutation Of the old Federal or Wing
party will not, trust, be without its good re-
suit in bringing permanently into the Democratic
fold all who really belong 70 il by whatever party
name they may have heretofore been designated.
Already since the last mutation of the Federal
Wing party to know-nothingism, do we see dis
,nguished gentlemen who have heretofore been
in fact Democrats, though nominal Wings, acting
with the Democratic party, in which long ago
they should have enrolled themselves.
Prominent among these are the able and chiv-
alric Stephens Of Georgia, and bis distinguished
political and personal friend Toonbs
Of class, have ever been ia fact Wings, il has not
been since our acquaintance with them. Both
strict, not latitudinous, constructoniss; both
fully appreciate and duly value the reserved
rights Of the States and people; BOTH though
placing high value upon toe Union, the con,iifp-
honai Union a means 70 an end do not believe
that any union, constitutional or unconstitutional,
is q means TO the end Of establishing Justice, Of
ensurng domestic tranquility, Of providing for
the common defence, Of promoting the general
welfare and Of securing the blessings Of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity, but may be a
means to end the reverse Of all this, and there
fore both are firm and consistent advocates Of the
Union under ne Constitution, and strenuously op-
pose all attacks, open or insidious, upon that
great monument q the wisdom Of our fathers
the Constitution Of the United States
That such men-rnen positive, not men mega
tve-should ever have affiliated with the Wing