Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-06-03
Gbe aailp SPY.
TUESDAY, JUNE 8 1856.
..a-..aern,ic Jeurual. ON abe Outrage.

.11..,acra,ic Journals on the Outrage.
We must confess our inability to express, in
ADEQUATE terms, our full sense of the infamy Of
the "cowardly, brutal, and murderous outrage,
committed by the assassin Brooks on Senator
Sumner. But. it is with still greater difficulty
that we can find words sufficiently strong TO ex-
press our detestatiou and adherence of the SEN
timents expressed by the leading administration
journals. and others, in apology for the deed
perpetrated as it was by one of their own lead
ing men, himself prominent wire-puller in the
politics of his State. and an ardent advocate OF
the re nomination of President Pierce
The Union, the administration organ at wash
ington. has at last broken silence, and Jusanes
the act, by abiding to it as the "resenting, oy
his nephew, of an insult offered to an absent
Senator, by chastislng the slanderer and drawing
blood from his head with his cane"
Is this, then, the hight of the morality to
which the leading organ of the Democracy in
Republican America has arrived, in the middle of
the Nineteenth Century, No other way to an
swer an argument but by playing the bully. and
resorting to clubs and bludgeons
The Washington Sentinel, Buchanan's leading
organ, and very high democratic authority, thus
remarks:
"What, then, under this state of things, was
to be done? Is there young man in whose DO
som there beats manly throb, who does not
justify the relative of Judge Butler IN resentlng
this gross assault in his absence upon his integ-
rity, intelligence, and virtues 1t seems there
are no rules of the Senate which are operative to
arrest such proceeding and to punish the OIL
fender If the Senate has not the power, or
having it, does not choose to exercise 1t, 10 I'M
peach or expel one of its own body for such dis
reputable conduct where does theiredreSs reside!
Ii Massachusetts, will not recall such man-h
the Senate will not eject him or control hlm-h
the man senator will not hold himself responsible
for such insults TO his fellow senator's iohat as to
be done? nothing in this wide world but to cow
hide bad manners ont Of him, or good manners
into him"
For what purpose is it, we would ask, thatrules
of the Senate are adopted, and that presiding
officer is set over it 10 enforce them, if it is not
to preserve order, and to see THAT there are no
personalities used, or other violations of decoum
committed in the debate? Who does not know,
that if Charles Sumner had said anything in his
two days speech which could be construed irto
violation of parliamentary rules, he would have
been called to order instanters How gross, then,
is the hypocrisy Of that pretence, for such an un-
heard of outrage ON the freedom of speech in
Congress.
Democratic journals in South Carolina, Vir-
GINA, and other States, exult in the most brutal
terms over the preparation of this outrage. The
sentiments uttered are too revolving to be quoted
Against them all, we put the sentiments express
ed in the Worcester Palladium, the ablest DEM
ocratic journal in New England, as almost the
only exception to the general tone of the Demo-
cratic press. We commend it to the perusal of
all Democrats, from whom border rufhanism has
not erased all their innate ideas of true Democ
raey:
at matters not who Charles Sumner is, or
what are his party relations, in such emer-
gency as this. 1t matters not what were the
topics on which he had spoken 1t is enough for
us to know that he acas constitaionGiiy and legal
ly misrepresentation of Massachusetts on the floor
Of the Senate; that he sohere right and duty
required he shoaLd be; that his speech, whatever
Its character, within the rules of debate, and
upon subject for whose introduction into the
Senate he himself not responsible. 1t was
Charles Sumner, the Sen tor, who assaulted !;
and every blow flom the rutfian's hand, was a
bloc aimed at the sovereignty and honor Of MaSsG-
chaSettS, whose representative he is
1--WE have no hall Sy as11nneations to make
as the manner of some is, two words OF condeni-
nation upon MR. Sumner to one upon his assail-
ant. Mr.. sumner may have spoken with free.
dom and boldness, inconsistent with partisan
ideas of propriety. His rhetoric might not have
suited the delicate sensibilities of Southern re.
hnement Hisillustrations, drawn from classical
writer's might lave been too sharp in their appli
cation. But It'll too late in the day of our his
tory for such objections to be taken to remarks
made IN such bear garden the capitol has
been for the last twenty ears. Mr. Sumner was
in the exercise Of his constitutional rightS. That
he had received many and repeated provocations
to make the retorts he did make, is not imp OBJ
able; that he had been charged with occupying
his seat traitor to his country, with perjury
on his soul, we all know Could such things be,
and not disturb the equanimiIy ofeyen chivalric
Sotherners And is, Northern man to be a,sas-
sinated because he may choose to hurl back the
caiumnies with which he has been despatched?
The place to meet and answer them, is upon the
same floor where they were uttered word for
word, rhetoric for rhetoric, denuncatOn for de-
nnnclatlon, to go broadcast over the country
upon the wings Of the press; and not by that
confession Of tnteriortty as nell as of coUardice
mat resorts to brute force as the only repy aCich
the assaitGnt feels himself competent TO make.
Much as value the union of the States, and
great as would be the calamities that would come
from disunion, we are prepared for them all, if we
cannot main tain the sovereignty, the rights. and
the honor Of Massachusetts as an equal in the
brotherhood OF States, without succumbing to the
lasn OF aSouthern task master, who would apply
.he gag to our free speech while he ap, lies the
lash to our backs. 1t is a craven spirit that will
not meet denunciation face to face and if worst
comes to worst, with sword to sword an defence NJ
freedom os thought freedom Of Speech and freedom
Of action"