Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1856-06-05
Col. Webb's Sentiments.

NOl "SUU'S NCUtluCuiS.
James Watson Webb. of the New York Courier and
Enquirer, one of the abest editors in the country
and the eloquent champion of liberty and equal
rights contributes to his paper of the best arti
ces which the shameful attack Sumner has called
forth. The letter is terrible reproach against slave
ry, and administers scathing rebuke to the perpe
traitors of the recent outrage bully Brooks finds
nothing personally offensive, and expresses himself
perfectly satisfied with it. Some curiosity at
first felt to understand why Brooks should challenge
Gen. Wilson, and then fail to discover anything OBJ
jectonabe in Col Wcbbs letter, which is infinitely
more severe than Summers speech Wilson's re-
marks The reason was that the coward was aware
Wilson would not fight, and he knew too that Col.
Webb was an excellent marksman, had fought one
duel and would rather than not fight another! So
much for South Carolina chivalry.
We copy two paragraphs from the letter, and should
like to give the whole:
Richly will the people of the free North have
mcrted the outrages and contumely which are
daily heaped upon them by men UNNECESSARILY
their interiors in all that constitutes manhood
and civilization, if they hesitate to vndcate
their right to freedom of speech, or to falter in
their determination to drive back into the fens
and marshes where it properly belongs, the ir
sttution which Washington and Jefferson and
Madison alike condemned, but of which PIERCE
and Douglas and the Doughfaces of the North,
acting under the lash of the Slave power, have
become the willing propagandists.
Tn my comments upon the recent outrages in
the Senate, have Intentionally kept ont of
view both Mr. Sumner aud Mr. Brooks-look-
ing at it solely as an insult to the country, a
| tramplng upon the Constitution ard an out
rage upon the sanctity of the Senate Chamber,
which merted death on the spot from any Pa
triot present who was in a position to inlct the
punishment. Neither the character of the par
ty assailed, nor that of bis assailant, which was
heretofore without spot or blcmish, nor the ma
ture of tho provoeation, have any weight with
me in writing this letter The Constitution has
been trampled upon, Senator has been as
sailed in the Senate Chamber for words spoken
in debate, the Country has been disgraced, and
the Representatives of the Slave-power in the
House of Representatives have with two hon
orable exceptions justified the outrage--and
for these wrongs invoke the spirit of freedom
at the North, to demand redress. 1t is due to
Mr.. Sumner however, to say, as a fact familiar to
| all who are accustomed to read the debates in
the Senate that in each and every of the last
five sessions of Congress, Messrs, Seward, Hale
and Sumner have received at the hands of Sen
ators from the Slave States and the plant
tools of the North, ten times-nay, hundred
times the abuse, which in his late incompatible
speech he SO scathingly hurled back upon his
| assaants. All this has heretofore been sub
mitted to in silence and in my judgment, too
long submitted to !; and now, when forbearance
ceases to be a virtue, and the Member from
Massachusetts, in vindieation of his manhood
aud in the exercises Of his privilege, retorts up
on his assaants 1.-THE only, of the abuse they
have so long and SO unsparingly heaped upon
him and his friedas, he is told that his audac-
Iity" is absolutely incomprehcnsible, and his
purposes uncomfortable Alike astounded that
the an of peace, and the meek, modest and
retiring scholar, should dare to repei any attack
whatever, and cowed and crushed by its sea-
thing severity, Mr.. Douglas exclaims under the
smart of the wounds inflicted" What does
the Senator meom by this attack upon the ma
jority of this body? What, ask, does the
Senator meant What does he want us to do
We already refuse to know him socially. Does
he want us to KIcKahim ask again--Does
he trast ms to KICK him Mr.. Mason Of Viz
ginia, follows in similar vein, and Mr.. Brooks
OF Sonth Carolina, a member of the House of
Representatives, resorts to the bludgeon, and
assaiis him in his seat in the Senate Chamber
of the United States.