Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1856-07-11
The Old Whig Cause.

ing of the Wing State Convention In the city OF eh-
mond We express our qualification in advance nj
the prospect Of another assembage The soil OF Nr-
ginia of body of gentlemen drawn together by no
selfish or sordid consideration but under the impulse
of heartfelt devotion TO country, and an anxious
concern for the condition of public affairs In the
free and unprejudiced communion of patriots, liberty
and law aud the common veal may yet, we trust,
find shelter from the whose angry portents hang
so thicky in our horison.
We rejoice TO belieye--not that Wing principles
still live for they debut that there are
men above the yenal seductons of power, men for
whom absence from official station has no terror, men
who have the courage to stand by minority--that
there are such men vet be found in this State, ali
smitten b, marty desposn and misrule as II Is who
are willing to link their political destnies with those
of the Wing cause who cherish its high and inspiring
traditions who yenerate the of the noble old
cbicfans whose genius and patriotism illustrate its
annals, who look hopefully and prayerfully forward
TO the day when its principles shall setbe established
and who, like true soldiers, ready Of the trumpet
cali to grid on their armor and unfurl their banner
to the battle and the breeze.
Who that wishes we'll for the land we dwell in and
the liberties We enjoy would desire to such an or
ganixaton the ancient Wing party cease to exist
Whatever may the confidence in the justice and be-
ncence Of their political opinions OF those who adj
here to other faiths apd known by other names,
who does not feel that the conservative tenets of such
a party must exercise wholesome and sautary
traint under government and among people
progressive expanding, so active, so full of enter
prise aad adventure, fond of novelty, and in
clined to radicalism ours but to prevent evil
to check the of power and resist the lcen
tiousness of the lawless, though the Wing party
should again acquire control of the government,
still by its curbng influence ii would accomplish
good enough to render its existence blessing to the
country. And this II may be Is the high mission II
Is destined yet to fulfill. The highest efficiency,
the greatest vigilance, is frequently found in mnor-
ees
Power always needs to be watched with a sleepess
and suspicious eye Its tendency is ever to absorb
and overbear. by this process the rankest despo-
tsms on earth have been created. The rights of the
governed have, by slow degrees yielded TO the en-
croachments of those who held authority until tho
mightier than the privileges of the people-and the
capacity to Cypress greater than the Of rcsis-
lance This Is the mode by which popular liberty
power acquired Another but less to be apprchendcd
in this country is the bold and sudden grasp of all
the rens Of government by the daring hand of usur
patton. England under different dynasties, has ai-
forded several examples of the former and France in
the person Of her present Emperor, furnishes signal
illustration Of the latter.
In this country except at periods of popular excite
ment and sectional madness like the present, the
Executive Department is that which needs to be most
yiglantiy observed. We need scarcely apprehend an
abrupt and violent wrestling Of their rights from the
people. We have rather to fear the gradual and
steathy enlargement of the executive functions, until
the equiponderance of the other departments is lost
and the government has degeneraed into practical
monarchy people who have been indoctr-
mated in the principles Of self-governmen and have
tas ted the sweets of civil and religious liberty, will
not submit 10 their orcibe and precipiate overthrow
but they may be ulled into submission If only an oe-
casonal infringement occurs. point gained
in this way is never receded from. Power takes no
step backward, unless driven by the strong arm of
revolution Against these furtive encroachments,
we have need to be most watchful.
In other lands men have made themselves inn
mortal, who have raised the standard of opposition
rights, and they whose shine most brightly on
the pages of history in the bold and perous main
tenance of law and right, those who adopted the
name of WING, and consecrated it TO the cause of
human freedom. In all time, Pym and Hampden and
Harrison and their compeers will be remembered Ms
the defenders of the institutions of their country,
and the champions Of civil liberty
In our own country the Wing party had its OF igin
- u 4 r At.
were all Whigs) in similar necessity though, hap
PLY, its baptism was not with blood. When Jack
sons nvasions of the rights Of the States and of the
functions of the coordinate departments with the
executive, threw into opposition many of his own
former adherents, the issues all upon the abuse
of power. When he would have made of the federal
government a central sun around which the states
should revolve sateites-when, by the removal of
the deposits he took the public treasure from theeus
todyof the peoples representatives and asserted the
right Of the Executive to manage it, when, by the dis
missal Of Duncan he sought to make inferior official
incumbents dependent Presidential favor, and,
thereby subservient to his use-when by his refusal
either to sign veto the Land Bill he contemptuous-
ly dsregarded the power ofthe people by depriving
them Of opportunity for legisatng, and devisng
means of defeating their will at pleasure--when, by
Withholding nominations from the Senate, he prae-
ticaly denied to that body the constitutional right OF
participation in the appointment of public officers
and insulted the majority of the States represented
when, by these and other most dangerous exerei-
ses of power he threatened the integrity of the
sttution and the sovereignty of the people, the Wing
party sprang into existence to save the and vim
dictate the other.
Their history was for twenty years succession o
triumphs and defeats-an alienation from power t.
its loss-but unbroken series of patriotic efforts
in which despair found place aud surrender NJ
advocate Their banner upheld by the knight
,est hand that beckoned followers to the fray
and fheix defended by nd