Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-04-29

true dignity ana lis constitutional functions
who would redeem the State from the blight Of
official disbonor-who would repudiate and
condemn the doctrine that public morals is a
valueess ingredient in government, should aid
the nomination Of JAMES BUCHANAN.
THE PANTHER IN THE TURKY-PEN,
AND THE COON IN THE CAPITAL.
| That grand world within itself-our North
| American continent-the land Of material con-
trasts, animate and inanimate-wiih its mighty
rivers, stupendous cataracts, or inland oceans
with its tiny rlls or washingtub sized lakes
with its terrible grissy bear, majestic buffa-
10 and moose-with its humming-bird and
sand,fy, seems intellectually and politically to
offer no less remarkable contrasts. But these
Emergencies in nature help TO constitute COM
pleteness which no unitness mars, because
nature locates in the right places all her crea-
tons, great and small, so that each in their
| proper sphere conduce TO the harmony Of her
| grand whole. In the political world, where
incapacity and feebeness might have their use
as foils to vigor Of mind and force of character,
it happens unluckily that insigni6cance is
sometimes raised to the summit of the political
pyramid, while resolution and energy strain
their overtaxed siuews to roll up rocks below
to build up higher the future attitude of the
aspiring edifce. We all profess an anxiety to
see the right man in the right place, though
we perhaps have never witnessed, and proba
bly, may never witness, the complete accom-
| plishment Of that political desideratum, but,
at any rate, we have before us the unmistake.
able realization of its contrary in the present
occupant Of the Presidential chair. History
shows us every graduation in its prominent ac-
| tors between the extremes Of those who, with
small means, have done great things, and those
who, with great means, have done little things.
Has it never struck our readers how aptly we
can see these contrasts illustrated, by CHANGING
from Nicaragua to the White House? Has 1t
never struck our readers, that If, with small
means, General Walker has, undeniably, done
great things that Franklin Pierce, with great
means, cannot even be said to have done little
things, unless by little things we understand
mean ones? And does not herein lie, as we
have already ventured to suggest, the only pos
sible solution to the un-American persecution
to which he is subjected by the cabinet of
Washington?
On the one hand, if tomorrow the curtain
should descend forever on the bold adyenturer's
career, will not some future Prescott, when be
chronicles the New Worlds historic glories,
have to give as prominent place TO Walkers
deeds as to the story, rendered famous through
all time, Of the romantic daring however va
riously inspired, whether by ambition, love OF
glory, patriotism, or greed Of gold) which has
celebrated Pizzaro, or Cortez, or the bold
buccaneers who de6ed the power Of Spain, or
Bolivar who broke it, or that handful Of Anne
ricans who conquered and made captive the
despot Santa Anna on the territory they wrested
from him and added to their own.
That historian will have to record, that this
remarkable man, Walker, made his first expe.
dition TO Sonora, if without legitimate warrant,
at least with a warrant as legitimate as that Of
Cortez or Pizzaro, or Sir Walter Raleigh.
For we cannot, as Americans, hold that the
authorization Of Pope, or the commission Of
king, 10 impose foreign servitude and reli.
gious enthralment on the aboriginal popula.
ton, was more iusti6able than attempting with
armed hand 10 sieze the territories of an effete
race and force upon them free and enlightened
institutions. lie will have TO record that, in
this expedition, with nowise inferior daring,
Walker faced perils as great, and traversed
distances as vast, with means not superior, and
with numbers no larger, than the boldest Of the
Spanish conquistddores Victorious in the
held, but abandoned by force which disin.
tegrated when left without enemies 10 fight, he
made good his retreat for hundreds Of miles
through inhospi,able regions; and that discom.
future, which led the other adyenturer. Raops.
set de Boulbon, to the scaffold, left the Amer.
en-, Walker, in safety, with increased expert.
ence and augmented reputation.
From the ilibuster- THAT is to say, from the
category Of nearly all the first conquerors and
occupants, Spanish OF AngloSaxon, Of the
American continent)--the historian will next
have TO show Walker assuming the more re-
spectacle character, and, passing into the
school Of those who have devoted their talents
or their swords to the service OF those strup.
Cling in the cause Of freedom, and as lepiti-
mately as Lafayette, Kosciusko, Pulaski, DE
steuben and Paul Jones, only with an inau
ence far more marked than theirs on the for. !
tunes Of bis adopted country, he will have TO
show that, in few weeks, Walker put an end
o the civil war which for months and years !