Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-01-07
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.

find votaries and believers in New England,
by murders, as part of its regular system
Murders perpetrated in obedience to the die.
tates of the sort of conscience" that induces
men to violate the law, under the plea that it
is repugnant to their individual and commun-
ity-sense Of the fitness of things. The differ
ence between numbering a stakeholder in
search Of what the Constitution guarantees to
him, under such circumstances as his prop
erty, wherever he may find it within the
nominal jurisdiction of the Federal Govern
ment, under the plea that higher law of
/" conscience" justifes the act in defence of
human freedom, is, in effect, identical in prin-
eiple with the murders committed recently in
Connecticut, by the Wakemanitss, under the
plea that their consciences assured them that
their acts of blood were necessary to their self.
preservation, if not to that of the whole world
All such things are fruit from the same tree.
From the tree of knowledge" as that is un.
derstood in New England; though they called
it there, the tree of progress, we believe.
The political effect of that sort of progress
was aptly illustrated in the legislation of the
last General Assembly of Massach usetts, whose
especial legislative turn was 50 aptly exempli-
fed by the doings of the never to- be forgotten
Hiss investigating committee, and the enact
ment of the celebrated personal liberty bill,
the cOnstitutionality of which, as far as We
have seen, was never for a moment asserted
by its most ignorant advocate. So also was
the sumptuary law of tho legislature of
Maine, SO Overwhelmingly repudiated by the
sober second thought of the people of that
State, but the result of the momentsry triumph
of conscience" such as we are writing Of
Impraeticability marks its every act when
In power. 1t repudiates law, experience,
justice, moral honesty and all restraint except
that of the ruling passion, prejudice or fanati-
els m of the hour, and essays to immediate in
stantly all who fail to bend that its jugger.
nsut car may have an easy road over their
necks. The case of the war on Judge Curtis
of Boston, aptly illustrates the truth of our
view of its tendency in this respect as a con-
solidator and cOnservstor of its own power
The present state of things in the House of
Representatives of the United States, is neither
more nor less than the effect of its influence in
determining the result of the last Congress
sonal elections in various -slavehoIding
States. Thus, it has sent gentlemen here un-
der pledges, at jail hazards and under any
possible combination Of circumstances to make
the work of abolitionizing the Government of
the United States, under the pretext of pro-
tecting +" the interests of freedom''-their
chief task above and beyond all others They
will not even organize before setting out to
think of nothing and do nothing but play out
their abolition game. They take candidate
at the dictation of Mr.. Giddings and the if-
teen or twenty gentlemen who agree with him
on all subjects, and compel large plurality
of the House to vote steadily to compass their
ends, under the fear of the influence of dema-
gogism at home.
There are at least thirty or forty members
who have voted, some repeatedly, and others
for Mr.. Banks, whose judgment
condemns them for yielding to the imperious
dictation of the 1" conscience" wing of his sup
pOrters; and who realize that they have thus
been made cO-workers in bringing about the
impracticability of Congress, which, they feel,
embraces proof of the faultiness of our system,
sufficient to superinduce melancholy forebo-
dings for the future Of their country, even in
their own minds. They realize that what
they have been aiding and abetting for the
last month is but part and parcel of such legis-
lation as marked the doings of the last Massa
chusetts Legislature, wherein common sense
and respect for the restraints Of fundamental
law were wholly ignored.
The problem to be solved is how long hence
ere the members who are being rode, booted,
and spurred, by their conscience fellow legisla-
tors, will see day breaking. They but await
the glimmering Of the action of healthier
state of public opinion in their respective dis
tricts, to burst the bonds in which they are
n ow confined.
The Secretary Of the Interior.-The peo-
pie of the District of Columbia owe much to
the Secretary of the Interior for the tenor and
details Of his recommendations concerning
their interests, as involved in those of the gov
eminent here. Three years experience in
his present position has enabled him to inform
himself thoroughly with reference to the par
ticulars Of the necessities of the government
at the federal city, and in his annual report
he states them so clearly and succinctly as
that every line of his recommend atoms in that
carries conviction to the mind of
the reader. 1t takes time and close observa-
ton to- enable public men properly to compre-
bend the fact that the expansion of our coun-
try in any element of greatness, wealth, rela-
tione, business, or anything else, insenslbly
increases the necessity for government accom-
modations here. What the Secretary says
with reference to the immediate future of the
Bureau of Patents affords an apt illustration
Of our meaning. He anticipates, from the
current increase of the demands of the public
on the services Of that bureau, that in three
or four years at most, all the vast pile, known
L.. d. nec