Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-02-28

THE NATIONAL INTELLIGEHcER
ON THE PHILADELPHIA NOMINAL
TIONs.
We have felt more than an ordinary degree
of curiosity as to the course of our neigbor, the
Litettgencer, in regard to the nominations
made by the Philadelphia Convention. In its
issue of yesterday, the hatelligencer plainly in.
dicates its course After saying that its editors
are not members of the Know-nothing Order,
and after paying high compliment to EXPIRE
sident Fillmore, it says:
What course the Wings may pursue under
the present political circumstances of the coun-
try, what candidate they may select or what per
son they may support for the Chief Magistracy,
| IT IS not for us to decide or for any one now to
say. 1t will doubtless be deemed proper by
| them TO take counsel together as to the path
which their duty to the country and to their
principles shall prescribe and that path we, as
unwaveriDg adherents of the party, shall be
! prepared to tread without hesitation and with
out faltering. Whether they shall resolve upon
| an independent course or not, and whether it
lead to success or failure, belong to the future;
but we should be unfaithful to our known SEN
| timents and uniform avowals if we were to
| suppress now the expression of our opinion
of the merits of Mr.. Fillmore, and the conf
| dence with which, on trial, he inspired the
country in his qualifications for wise and safe
and conservative President"
1t appears from the above Ahat the I,telli-
gencer is in favor of drumming up the lost and
scattered Wings for the purpose of holding a
l ~, he 49, III
nations of such convention, but that it would
| prefer the adoption by the Wings of the Nnow-
nothing ticket.
The motion for Wing convention comes
too late. The cynic of old could scarcely find
| bakers dozen of them with the aid of his
candle. The Democratic party claims the
| triumph of rescuing the best of them from ruin.
Men in this representative country, where all
must be, to greater or less degree, politicians,
cannot long maintain neutrality. To be neu-
| trail, is to be nothing. Most of the good old
| Wings and active young Wings in the South,
when deserted by their ow-nothing brethren,
cast in their fortunes with the Democracy, and
| they will never repent it I
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT PIERCE.
The following letter was written by the Pre-
sident to the Boston Mercantile Library Asso-
| citation in response to an invitation to attend
the celebration by them of Washington's birth
day.
WASHINGTON, February Is, 1856.
GENTLEMEN: l duly received your letter of
the 3lst ult., inviting me, in the name of the
| members of the Mercantile Library Associa-
tion of Boston, to join with them in celebrating
| the approaching birthday of Washington. 1t
would be most grateful to me to listen to the
| instructive thoughts and eloquent words which
| will on this occasion be addressed to the asso-
citation, but this, of course, will not be in my
| power.
| honor the purpose Of rendering the tribute
of your afectionate reverence of the memory
| of him who was the hero of our independence
the statesman of the revolution-the fore.
most among the founders of the American
| Union.
He lived the leader and the guide of our
fathers; he died to become the type of great
ness TO us and TO our posterity. 1t is no fabul-
GUS glory which surrounds his name; his are
no doubtful lineaments, delusively magni6ed
| to the eye in the dim obscurity Of antiquity.
| tory, with all his faultless proportions of mind
as of person distinctly visible.
Whether in war at the head of armies or in
peace at that of cabinets-whether in the exer-
else of public authority or in the calm scenes
OF coveted retirement-hs entire life, military
and civil, public and private, is one long lesson
OF wisdom and OF instruction to his country.
| bis career possesses a completeness, his char
acter dignity of style, his fame noble sym
metry, which will cause him in all time to stand
forth as the representative man Of this republic,
and the moral patriot of the world.
| If the people of every State and Territory Of
the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES and mothers, sons
and daughters-would assemble annually on
the I'D of February, in their respective cities,
towns, and hamlets, and listen 10 the Farewell
Address of the Father Of his Country, it would,
IN my judgment, accomplish more in the way
of awakening a deep sense Of constitutional
duty, Of settling questions Of moral obligation
in relation thereto Of Graduating sectional pre-
JUDGE, of dissipatng errors of sentiment and
opinion, and of insuring security and perpetuity
10 the blessings which we enjoy, than any
other instrumentality which mans wisdom can
i devise
| In pausing for day, as you propose, to
dwell upon the great life Of Washington and to
call to mind all the patriotism which, by act
and by speech, he inculcated, you cannot fail
TO refresh the love Of country in your breasts,
and to feel your own hearts swell, as his,
through life, never ceased to do with devotion
TO the common veal, not narrowly confined TO
place or section, but coextensive with the broad
limits Of the Union.
With my best wishes for the usefulness and
enjoyment Of your gathering, am, gentlemen,
your obliged friend and servant,
FRANKLIN PIERCE.
Messrs. Charles G. Chase, Carlos Pierce, w.
II. Learnard, jr., A. L. Sise, Edw. w Foster,
Committee.
| a Pertinent Question.
/ Saws the Now York Dav RooL.