Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1856-10-01
The Richmond Enquirer.


The Richmond Enquirer of Thursday last,
contains libellous attack upon the american
Organ, under the head Of "one Of the frauds"
in which that press falsely attributes to the
Organ "a fraudulent garbling of the record"
for the purpose Of showing that Mr.. Buchanan
had voted against the South on the nth of
January, 1888, in the Senate, upon PROPOSE
ton made by the Hon. VIM. @. Rives, as an
amendment to Mr. Clay's amendment of one of
the resolutions offered few days before by
Mr.. Calhoun.
The Enquirer copies the following from our
daily Of the 10th September, to-wit:
"BUcHANAN's yorE.--The following resolution
was introduced by the Hon. w. G. Rves Of Va,
into the United States Senate on the tn of Jan
uary, 1888, against which James Buchanan, of
Pennsylvania voted
:" Resolved That any interference with the sub.
ject of slavery, in the Territories Of the United
States in which it may exist Is inhibited by all the
considerations in regard to the rights and interests
of the inhabitants of the said Territories the secu-
rty of the slaveholding States, and the danger to
the Union, which are mentioned in the preceding
resolution, as forbiddng any interference with, or
action on the subject Of slavery in the District of
people of those Territories, when admitted into
the Union States, will be exclusively entitled to
decide the question of the existence of slavery
within their respective limits for themselves
Among those who voted for the resolution on
direct vote, were John @. Calhoun, Alfred Cuth-
bert, Wilson Lumpkin, and Rives and Roane of
Virginia.
flames Buchanan voied against ii on a direct
vote.
"Yet Mr.. Buchanan is now supported by many
Southern men, on the ground that he is safer
examine his record, and purge themselves of such
inconsistency"
The Enquirer says of the above, thus:
:" If the above article had appeared originally in
another paper than the american Organ, we
would have read it with some surprise. In the
isolation in which 1t is presented, with no connex-
ion or dependence on any other proposition, and
without any narration of the circumstances Of its
introduction into the Senate, the resolution looks
as If it should have commanded the votes of all
conservative men. 1t is not surprising that in the
absence OF all explanation some Just people should
be disposed to censure Mr. Buchanan for not sup
porting the resolution. Fortunately, the reputa-
ton of the Americdn Organ is so suggestive of
fraud that suspicion attaches to all its statements
So incredible a story is well associated with such
unreliable authority"
The Enquirer, in the first line of the above
comment, asserts an untruth by implication
for the resolution of Mr. Rives was found by
us in an Augusta, Georgia, paper, precisely as
we copied it, without the resolutions of Mr.
Calhoun or the amendments of Mr. Clay at
tached thereto, and the Organ therefore gar
bled no part OF the record in this connexion,
as the Enquirer has charged in another por-
ton of its editorial But the Enquirer would
fsin drag down the american Organ to level
with itself, by the utterance Of the foul calum-
ny that "the reputation Of the Organ is so
suggestive of fraud, that suspicion attaches to
all its statements" If by this Wholesale abuse
of the Organ, the youth of the Enquirer ex-
poets to change our relative positions in any
respect whatever, he may learn, when he is
older, that the plea of "set off," is not always
allowable
We shall now, without fui Their personal allu-
sion, endeavor to grapple fairly and openly
with the Richmond Enquirer on three points
assumed by it. in the article above referred to,
and, unless we overrate the force oftruth, and
grently over estimate our ability to copy plain
language, the young man will not hereafter
say to ms, We entreat the american Organ
to try its hand again"
0mitiing less important, and easily contro-
verted positions found in the Enquirer's article
now under review, we copy the following pro-
positions therein assumed, first
Mr.. Bucbanan's position on slavery is impreg-
nable. He never deviated hairs breadth from
the straight line ofjustice and constitutional duty
This position is boldly taken by the Enquir
er, and deserves to be boldly met and shall be