Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1856-07-31
Disgusting Billingsgate.

Time qoas, when the Richmond Enquirer,
under the control of that most gentlemanly and
erudite politician, the lamented Thos Richie,
was model for partisan journal Firm, and
perhaps even obstinate in his adherence to the
policy of the old Democratic party, as that
policy was at different periods changed and
announced, ca cathedra, that patriarch among
politicians kept truth always in view, and uni
formly conducted his press with a strict OBJ
servance Of the courtesies prevailing among
gentlemen. His weapons were, facts, argument,
logic; and with the use Of these, he maintained
supremacy in Virginia, which was, for one
fourth of century resistless.
That press still remains in existencc--it is
still called by the same name as hitherto-but
no Thomas Richie is now at its helm-it is
conducted by youth who has learned nothing
Of the dignity Of his predecessor-one who is
unmindful of the lessons taught in the past, in
the columns of that press-one who, having SO
journed for a few months abroad, as the repre-
sentative of Frank Pierce, presumes now, on
his return, to speak of honored names with de-
rision-to attempt satire upon men who are as
far above his reach as saints are above sim
ners-to ridicule those whom the nation has
already honored, and on whom the nation will
again bestow its highest confidence.
To exhibit the present character Of the edi-
torials of the Richmond Enquirer, we insert
entire, an article from its daily issue of Tues
day last, to wit:
"THE WAsHINaToN-LIKE FILLaoRE.-Mr. Fill
mope's character and biography have been written
in a single phrase. He has been cruelty satirised
and daguerreotyped. Truth and sarcasm equally
abound in that phrase, Washington-like.' He
affects the bearing and manner of Washington
He Is about the same size and height He plays
Washington in the reception room, and enacts his
part as well Kean did that Of Richard the Third
or as Cooper that of Macbeth, He is dead
Washington, counterfeit Washington, statue
of Washington. He is as much like him as spu-
rious bank note is to a genuine one. He is the
counterfeit presentment of man. He has
nothing sui generis, nothing of his own. He is
the actor that plays part, not the real and earn
est man that yields power and directs events
'Nullaa siniils fst idsRa - nothing like is the
same
"He is like Washington, but not Washington.
He is nobody, he is nothing and his admirers have
30 pronounced him by the very eulogy they pass
the shadow of Washington for President, and the
name Of Andrew Jackson for Vice President
What a ticket for times that require stern, bold,
tried, rcsolute meni Fillmore and Donelson are
nameless, characterless humbugs, and as wholly
unfit for the stations to which they aspire as any
two men in the nation. Every man of every party
in the Union understands their character rather
their total want Of character; but some deceive
themselves with the hope that by doing nothing,
and by electng men who will do nothing, the storm
will pass Of, and the ship OF State reach the port
in safety. Il is q fatal delusioR. No phantom
captain, no incompetent pilot, no similitude of
man, can command the crew, still the storm, or
save the ship"
Willard Fillmore is here represented as the
" counterfeit presentment of a man" he is
nobody"--"he ia nothing "-" Fillmore and
Donelson are nameless, charaetsrlsss hgm5ugs"
:" everybody understands their fetal cant Of
Observation-Disclosures is phantom captain"
=" the similitpde of mani" Such is the
language of the leading anti-American journal
Of the State Of Virginia! If the people of
the Old Dominion do not re6uke the utterance
Of such disgusting Bilingsgate, when they
reach the polls next November, and teach that
beardless boy the observance of better man.
ners, we have wholly misunderstood their no.
BILE impulses-or they, too, have changed with
the change In the editorial department of the
Enquirer