The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-10-02
WASHINGTON, d. c..
LETTER FROM FRANCIS P. BLAIR.
TO MY NE6HBoRS.

TO Ny NEI6 HBORS
We have been highly honored of late by the
dignitaries of Washington City-the office-ho
ers and their satellites Political meetings, to
instruct or gather the sense Of our county, have
been heretofore held in its central villages-in
Rockville, Brookville, Poolesvile, Colesville,
and other points, most convenient for such
purposes. Are we not, then, under lasting OBJ
legations to the Chief Magistrate of the city of
Washington, 1.-THE Mayor to the city Postmss
ter. 20 the editor of the most special organ of
the Presidents man-ofall-work in the Cabinet
to al ex-member of Congress from the North,
who, having lost his position with his constitu-
cuts ia the cause of the Administration, is will
ing to serve IT in any capacity that promises
future promotion-are we not deeply indebted
to such functionaries and their followers, for
having deigned to call the county TO its line
ai Silver Spring, and there treat it with so
many good things provided for it in the city
not merely good things appealing to the appe-
tItes. but good sayings uttered, and signs ex
Eibited, directing US In our duties? Not being
one of the invited, can only return my thanks
for the insignia with which they were so good
"a to sdorn the confines of my farm, placing it
in the eye Of my dwelling, and, for the personal
bonor done me, in holding my course as pri-
waite citizen of such import as to merit animal
version. For one portion of the lofty decora-
ton which floats over the scene OF my humble
employment, / am really grateful. 1t is the
Flag of the Union, brought, am told, from the
Navy Yard of the Metropolis. 1t may have
displayed its constellation of stars at the mast
head Of some noble seventy -four, and shed its
glory over the great deep, where the proudest
triumphs Of our flag have been achieved. 1t
spreads its folds to the inland breeze from
an hickory hundred feet high! If its flag
staff had been elevated upon the summit of this
noble tree as il grew and fourished, with all its
leafy honors, on its free mount that overlooks
the headlong fall of the Anacostia, it would
have been a fit emblem to awaken recollections
of the illustrious chief with whose glory its
name is associated. But it was cut down at
the instance of the city officiels-its branches
Topped, and dragged from its wild and airy
height along the dusky thoroug hfares-hoisted
by ropes on the highway-and crowned with
the skull and horns of an old Buck! There
the Imagination associates it with the idea of a
deaths head and gibbet.
What an emblem to be exalted above the
flag of the country, and on the hickory tree
which has given It's name to one of its greatest
heroesl OF all animals, the deer is the most
timid; and although the head of the buck is ct
one season of the year armed with multitude
of points as sharp spears, it never confronts
an enemy that 1t can escape with flying feet.
The grand antlers are the mere emblem of war
like prowess, and evidence only Of that species
of gallantry that distinguishes the stag, and
gives to a class of gentry Of our species the
name of bucks young or old.
The old buck is sort of old bachelor, like
his fellow of the woods, addicted to no mate.
and whose insignia of horns have, time out of
mind, been held to characterize his pursuits.
Is this an ensign to be exalted above that of
the country, and chosen TO exemplify the virtues
of one who aspires to the Chief Magisracy?
If the browning virtue be attributed to the
coronet which distinguishes the old bucks bead
and which now take the place of the liberty
cap on Democratic banners, it should be re-
membered that it is virtue that comes and
goes with the seasons. An old bucks honors
begin to bud and grow In the balmy spring
time-they are in the velvet in June, and
throughout the summer. This smooth cover
ing is slipped off in October. In November,
their vitality is bhghted, and in March the
crown Of weather beaten sntlers drop from the
old bucks brow, and he hides, droops in soil |
tude, abandoned by all his fellows. The hunt |
ers of the Alleghanies and of our frontiers will |
apply this piece of natural history, and inter
pref its augury.
The occasion of raising this trophy to Mr.
Buchanan was taken TO denounce me to my
neighbors as " an arch t-aitor!" and " a flash
Of lightning inroked TO bring dorm the
justice IF Hearea on my head" These men.
who uphold the Legislation which has lighted
the torch of civil war in our land, and made
violence and bloodshed the order Of the day,
seem to think they have only to point their
finger at a victim in this quarter, to make him
a sacrifice. They know little of the deep-seated
feeling which broods in silence in the South,
and which will ere long overwhelm them with
reprohation. Freedom Of opinion, freedom of |
speech, freedom in every good sense which en-
deared it to the hearts of Americans when |
struggling for it against foreign foe, is still |
held precions among the masses in the South, |
as well as at the North; and the arrogant Ca
iumnistors who came from the city to assail
me for the views L have deemed it my duty to
promulgate, found 1t so. The orator who I'M
dertook TO point the indignation of the commu-
nifty IN which live against me, for the honest,
disinterested opinions L have avowed, found
his attempt promptly repealed by a neighbor,
who flung back his accusation by direct con-
tradiction; and | am grateful to learn that the
speech of my defender (who opposes the party
to which i belong) had the approval of the
throng to whose prejudices the attack was
meant as an appeal.
owe 1t to my countrymen who so generous
ly resented misrepresentation against an alb
sent man, and which, under the sectional aspect
now given to the political controversy, could
hardly fail to provoke hostility against me, to
lay before them my thoughts on public affairs.
that they may calmly decide how much | am
their enemy.
do not believe that the motives wi ich led
Messrs. Atchison, Butler, Mason, and hunter.
1.-THE rump of the body of Nulliiers led by Mr..
Calhoun in the Senate of the United States,
and who still labor to effect his plan,) are well
understood. The deeply plotted, thoroughly
organized scheme to repeal the Missouri Com
promise, which they were enabled TO carry by
promises securing the help of Presidential as
pirants in the North, was not fully comprehend
ed by them, or their party of doughiaces Sc
duced by the patronage the balance Of power
vote of the South was to give them Il was
not merely to acquire an additional slave State
that the contract was violated which gave
Missouri to the Shareholders, and reserved Kan
sas for free labor. The great project of the
Nulli6ers, of which the repeal was the first step.
now revealed, evidently reaches to extend
the slave line with the parallel bounding Kan
on the north to the Pacific, and to include
all south of that line belonging to this CONT
nent, including Cuba, in slave empire.
The Cincinnati resolutions expressly assert q
right TO 'dScendency," to 'preponderance," to
control and not only over the land, but the
seas OF this region. The resolutions which
prompted and sustained By the vote of
the whole South, and to which its acknowledged
candidate pledged himself, as swallowing up
his individuality, and rendering him a mere
machine for their effectuation, did not mean
that this vast conquest, from which Slavery is
now banished, should be added to our Union as
the nursery of free States A portion of the
slaveholding class, now predominant over the
party which issued this manifesto hold that the