Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1855-02-14

entire success for years. They were the
most cunning and artful men Of the State,
who hesitated in the use Of nothing, however
corrupt, duplicity however vile. to accom-
piish their purpose. And jet, with all these
appliances, they succeeded BY bare major
ity Of two in the Senate and -four ia the House.
Even this lean triumph was secured by the
vilest treachery that ever marked political
contest. Men who were plastercd with
pledges all over against the return of Mr..
Sevard-who could no more have been cleo
ted to the Legislature, bad their constituents
suspected their future action, than they could
have rolled back the current of Niagara
voted for him. Every member of the Leg
islature knew, and most of them acknowl-
edged, that they were giving broad mega
ton to the popular will-doing violence to
the sentiments Of their constituents. They
were not blind to the fact that great revo-
luton had taken place in the public mind in
regard to the return of Mr.. Seward TO the
Senate.
But Mr.. Seward is elected. And what
then Those who suppose that the great
American party was organized simply In OPP
position toiMr Seward made great mistake.
To that party, he, as we'll as any other in
diyidnal man, is as nothing. Incidently it
may come in collision with him, or rather
with the principles he processes. If be stands
in the way of it's progress, it will stride right
on over him or sweep him away. His sue
cess or defeat in this election will have no
bearing on the future. The American SEN
timent will sweep right on as before, increas-
ing in volume and growing in power. As
the election in the Twenty-ninth district re-
suited in its triumph. so will that of every
other District next fall, and the next, for
twenty years to come.
We have now come TO the parting of the
ways, point which has not been before
reached. The path of American men, who
make up the American party, leads to the
right that Of the frag'nentary remains Of
the old organizations, fused into an agglom-
crate of opposition leads to the left. If the
SAVIOR of the ancient feshpots has been too
strong for the protested American men in the
Legislature, it has not been so with the peo-
pie If those men have in the blindness of
their infatuation mistaken the death throes
of the leviathan, for returning and invigora-
ted vitality, the people are laboring under
no such delusion They are awake and in
earnest, and will carry this great American
movement forward to successful consumation,
and the election or defeat of Mr. Seward will
no more alter the future, than would a straw
thrown to the winds A temporary triumph
secured by such instrumentalties, will not
for moment check the overwhelming march
of revolution that is sweeping over the State
Mr. Seward is elected, and again we ask,
what then This American party, only a
year in existence, entered the arena against
the strongest o ponent that could possibly be
found, the most un crupulous combinations
that ould possibly be formed Itself undis
clplned. unskiled in strategy, against the
veterans of thirty years experience in party
tactics and political intrigue, and yet on the
first trial came within six votes of overthrow
ing these hitherto invincible opponents AT
the battle Of Bunker Hill the Americans
were driyes.from the field They failed to
achieve victory, but their courage in re-
ssting the tried veterans of hundred bat
ties, fresh from the fields of their fame, gave
a prestige Of success that achieved at last
the triumph of the revolution From that
defeat even, arose future victories ltprov-
ed that resistance to wrong was an element
of the American character that could not be
overcome--that it could neither be seduced
into submission nor conquered by power
That same element exists still, and will con-
quer nov, as it did then. The course of the
American party will be onward and upward
in the future as in the past, and the election
of Mr.. Seward will not advance or retard its
final triumph single hour.