Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-12-22
THE SENTINEL THE SENATE
PRINTING.

THE SENTINEL 1.-THE SENATE
PRINTING.
At the commencement Of the last Congress
the Union was candidate for the printing of
both Houses. It's course had been such that it
could not command the support of the Demo
cratic party, and it was only upon a change of
men, and promise OF change Of course, that
it secured it an election by the House. But in
the Senate, many Democrats, disappearing of
its past course and distrusting its future, re
fused to give it their support, and gave it to
the Sentinel, paper whose record to that time
could stand the test, and whose future promised
close adherence to Democratic principles
| The past errors of the Union were known.
| and its then future is now record of history.
How signaly that record justifes the distrust
entertained by Senator'S! We ask, and we ask
1t plainly, not in captious spirit, but as a
matter of business, whether the course of the
| Union has not been, and is not now, the stun
bling blockin the Democratic path? We ask en-
| phatically is there one among all the Senators
who favor the election Of the Union, who
approves the course of the Union? Is there
man in the Democratic ranks who will be bold
| enough to affirm that the Union presents a
proper record for the Democratic party-a re-
cord by which it can boldly stand /? The
Union in all its plenitude of papal authority
| in its election by the House, undertook to de-
nource and to excommunicate Senators. be.
cause, forsooth, they doubted its infallibility;
and with all its teeming errors, in frightful
multitude accommodating since that time, to Jus.
| tify and endorse the distrust of Senators, these
denunciations of the Union remain unre-
tracted. These Senators now lie under this
ban of the Union-and with this unaltered
record of their condemnation, the Union again
comes forward, and commands their support,
now that all their apprehensions of its heresy
have become facts And not only this, but
they are called upon to abandon an officer who
has fulfilled his duties, as such, to the satisfac-
ton OF the Senate.
| And in regard to judgment on the Sentinel,
we may presume without hazard Of mourning
censure for presumption or assurance, to say
that if there be Democratic paper in the
country, which presents record TO which the
Democratic party may safely refer, that paper
is the Washington Sentinel Apply the line
and plummet Of Democratic orthodoxy to all
the press Of the country, and is there one which
will conform more nearly to it than the Sen
tinel? None-then if none, why should the
Sentinel be rebuked2
Some parties withhold their support from
the Sentinel from personal prediction for
other parties; some under the imaginary sup
position that il might be construed into hostil-
ity to the Administration. Nothing can be
more unfounded. The Administration no,o
stands upon the record Of the Sentinel for its
defence and justification. The principles and
measures steadily advocated by the Sentinel
have noW become the settled policy of the AID.
ministration, and the Union is now copying
its record as the rubric Of the party.
1t is true the Sentinel has differed from the
Administration in some Of its views, but time
has developed the truth, and the Administra.
ton now see matters as we saw tbem-but the
columns Of the Sentinel, though sometimes Sc
we're, show nowhere a spirit Of rancor-no
good democrat lies under its ban, and person.
atty has never disgraced its columns
In regard to the admission of the Van Blu.
rem forces into the Democratic fold on equal
terms with its staunchest menlbers-we op-
posed IL, without some absolute, conclusive test
Of orthodoxy The Administration, in a spirit
Of mistaken Cancellation and pardon, was will.
ing to receive upon professions, Ito us clearly
hollow and deceitful,) and not only to receive
them, but to give them a preference over old
mistaken veterans, and to allow them TO retain
a distinct and separate organization in the
very midst Of he Democratic party-a Buffalo
imperium in Democratic imperio.
The error Of trusting Van Burenites without
the most searching, practical test was one
we could not silently overlook We dis.
cussed that matter with the freedom which
a Democratic journal should ever do which
desires a record worthy Of remembrance. But
we did justice to the intentions of the Admin
stration that they Jeiiercd, and, believing,
deemed IT wise and proper to barmonise the
party and to admit repentant members Had
these Buffalo proved real Magdaenes and not
Delilas, then we should have been placed in
the position Of doing injustice TO men sincerely
repentant. But the results have shown that
these men abused the generous intentions Of