The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-09-16

! mained firm. Coffee without change. Freights
were less active, but rates to English ports continued
| finn.
| The Courier md Enquirer and the Rump of
the Old Wing Party.
| 1t is generally understood that it was the
editor Of the Courier and Enquirer who christen-
ed the wing party in or about 1888; il is fitting
| that he should now be the man to bury it..
| Clergymen always consider they have pre-
| emptivc right to inter persons they have bap-
| tized. The function, too, will divert attention
from the Courier itself, which will not bear close
| inspection just now. While the editor is wrap
| ping pompous winding sheet of words round
! the old wing corpse, and sobbing obituary
| paragraphs profusely over the coffin, the crowd
may forget to notice his own oddities and rid-
cules. On looking back, indeed, over the two
histories of the wing party, and that Of
| the Couier--it may be doubtful which affords
most food for merriment but the former GER
tainly possesses the advantage in point OF
| grandeur.
! The wings as every one knows, were manu-
featured by the manufacturers Of the North
| and their friends in the West to be used rs q
was calculated by their inventor that, with
good management, they might effect a saving
OF fifty per cent to each manufacturer by in
creasing his profits to that extent by means of
protective tariffs. The dangers to be apprc-
hended in working the machine were restive-
ness on the part of the taxpayers, folly
leading to exOrbitant greed on the part
Of the manufacturers, and rust in the
machinery itself owing to corruption
among its component parts Certainly the
most wonderful triumph Of the inventor--iar
greater than the invention itself-was his con-
quest Of Henry Clay. That Daniel Webster,
after fighting for free trade in his youth,
should have voted for protection in his mature
years, against every dictate Of his head and
! heart, may be explained to some extent by the
| character OF the community he represented,
| and the peculiar view he took of bis duty as
| the exponent Of their will. But that Henry
| Clay born with every free impulse, aud led
by every principle innate in his noble soul to
scout selfish doctrines whether in politics or
morals-that he should have come to be the
tool of the industrials, that he should have
followed their predatory excursions with his
name, and impaired responsibility to their
cause by allowing himself to be identified with
it-those arc really mysteries, and fully JUS
tify any encomium on the skill Of the original
inventors Of whiggery.
III General jackson had had Congress to
work with him, and establish b-Treasury
if he had possessed sufficient strength in that
body to exercise the influence he always de-
sired, and the constitution allowed him, over
the currency of the country, it seems as GER
tain as any such event can be that the
wings never would have elected a Prcsi-
dent. They would have been obliged to
content themselves, as John Van Buren,
says, with coming in occasionally. and
taking a look at the books. They had not
single requisite for a national party. Take
away the manufacturers-who were all for
high tariffs and big profits-and the rest of the
wings were nothing at the best OF times but
unprincipled politicians in search Of spols,
and the general riiiraiE Of the political world
They had no great principles 10 which man
could cling for support, and over which he
could privately, when there was no one to see
him and nothing to be made by it, grow warm
at the heart. Their principles were make
shifts. In an age Of insincerty they were the
most insincere OF parties We have seen them
year after year, at Baltimore and elsewhere
protest their undying fidelity to the Uniou:
yet the moment il is given out that the wing
party is dead, we find all these same men
looming up as abolitionists and free sellers
They swore when they wanted the Irish vote
that they believed the immigrants were the sal
walton OF the country yet, to-day. these
same fellows are noisy Know Nothngs, and
will hardly let Catholic 90 to mass They
would have gone for free trade long ago
If it had offered the slightest promise Of
success. more thoroughly contemplate
party than these wings, in short, is not to
be found in the history of constitutional gov
ernments.
And now they are gone, And poor
old General Webb, who held the i'll
starred infant in his arms, now covers
The despised corpse with handful Of pious
earth. But where is he? Alas. poor man
he has been drifting on unconsciously with the
tide this many a-day and when his friends who
are on the bank see him drift past them, and
hail to ask where he is drifting 10. he cries n
a feeble cracked voice. Oh. We hay'nt moved
We re just where we always were, on the strong
hold of old conservative whigism. The hon
est old soul believes in his heart that he hasn't
stirred an inch and, when he declares he
would sooner see Garrison President than the
Nebraska Act unrepealed he has mt The slight
est idea that he has drifted miles away from
The conservative whigism which used to be
typliled in Henry Clay. lie doesn't sec that
the tide carries him on on, on, and that in
few months or years he must be in the sea
Of abolition Oh if he had but a single prin-
ciple to cling 70 in this his hour of trial. a
single oar to stem that current; but no. the