Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-08-19

The Voice or Another Dfsttnxuished Old
Lime Whtg Of Massachusetis.
George I. Curtis, Esq, has addressed an
elaborate and very sbly written letter to the
chairman of the Massachusetts Wing State
Central Committee, in which he clearly exposes
the disunion purposes Of the Republican party,
and the inevitable tendency Of its success to an
alarming result. The following is the conclud-
ing portion of this patriotic communication
II am, therefore, by every obligation Of duty,
by the primary law Of all duty, by the first ad-
: monitions OF patriotism, bound to ascertain
how my individual vote or influence can be
most effectually used to avert the dangers by
which we are surrounded This Is the first
time in the history Of this country, since it had
q constitution, that political party has been
organized to carry Presidential election upon
doctrines that are positively revolutionary. All
former parties that have ever existed, and all
others that now exist, have been content to
take the Declaration of Independence for what
it truly was-a bold assertion of natural rights
by col0nists who were about to throw off the
yoke of their mother country, by o revolution,
existing internal relations Of the inhabitants
Of any Of these colonies. All other parties
too, have been content to recognize in the fede-
raj Constitution compact between sovereign
States, some Of which are slaveholding and
some Of which are non.saveholding communi-
ties, for certain limited and special purposes ;
and all have respected the limitation, which the
Constitution expressly establishes, when it de-
clares that one Of its objects is to secure the
blessings Of liberty to the people Uho made ii,
and to their posterity. But now we are told that
this limitation ia to be disregarded that the
principles of the Declaration of Independence,
in all their naked force, are embodied" in the
federal Constitution and the primary object of
their constitution was to enforce and carry out
the doctrine Of the universal emancipation.
In the face of the facts Of history and the
statute book, which show US that Washington,
and John Adams and Jefferson, who may be
presumed to have known the relations between
the Declaration of Independence and the fede-
raj CONSTITUTIONAL gave the Presidential APP
proval to laws establishing or sanctioning negro
slavery in territories where the Constitution
had exclusive jurisdiction, we are now told that
the primary object and Interior design of that
\Constitution was to establish in those terrific
fries the liberty Of all men, The day will come,
therefore, and will come instantly on the sue
cessfu maintenance Of this doctrine by the votes
of the entire North, when it will he idle to say
that it was put into party platform to an
swer the mere temporary purposes OF an cleo
ton. 1t is an attempt to reverse, by the sol
emn judgment Of the American people, the
whole basis on which the Constitution has hith-
erto rested, and to overturn the principles on
which it has hitherto been administered; and
when q majority of the American people have
sanctioned this doctrine, there can be and will
be no step backwards, but all the results Of an
inevitable sequence must follow in quick sue
cession from the premises. There never has
been an instance in our history, in which the
people have pronounced for Constitutional
doctrine, that it has not been attempted to be
put into operation, and there never will be one
so long as the Constitution continues to exist.
q observe that great exertions are made to
inculcate the idea that Mr.. Webster's sentiments
on theextension Of slavery into territories would
have led him, if living, to give his sanction to
the organization called the Republican party.
1t is difficult, with all the charity that one can
summon to meet the demand, to suppose that
this opinion is sincere. 1t is nothing less than
an attempt to argue that he whose whole ex-
istence was given to the defence of the Union
who in 1850, for the sake Of that Union, i'm
ploring his countrymen to hear him, for his
cause" barred his head to the ruthless storm of
local prejudice, encountered the GOODNESS OF
friends, and hazarded the love of people
whose love and gratitude we're objects second
only with him to their safety and welfare--that
he would have Joined himself to an effort to
array onehalf Of this country in political and
social strife against the other half. Others
may delude themselves with this extravaganza
supposition. AS for me, think have the
right to say that he never would have done 1t,
for the maintenance of any opinion, the further
ance of any purpose, the accomplishment OF
any object that can be conceived. These are
reasons for my faith. When in l84S, Mr.. Web
ster for a long time held himself back from the
support of General Taylors nomination, he did
me the honor to call me with others into his
counsels. The faction out Of which this Re-
publican party has since grown was then form
ing. There were individuals in it who counted
on Mr.. Websters defeat in the Wing National
Convention as means of inducing HIM 10
place himself on the Buffalo platform They
little knew how small part of the merely vul-
gar elements Of ambition and personal selfish
ness entered into the grand total Of his nature.
They little knew with how wide range he was
then surveying the whole political horizon
with what fixed contemplation of its remotest
as we'll as is nearest signs he was then casting
the horoscope of his whole country. DE fore.
saw what the Buffalo party would come to, If
it were not scattered by the course Of events |;
and hence it was, that afterwards, in 1850, he
gave the whole of his mighty energies to in
duce the Northern mind to look steadily to the
preservation Of the Union, ms the one great
and paramount object of all political action.
Guided in lS48 by this prescience, by this in
sight into the future, he saw that he must sacri-
fee his personal objections to the nomination
which the Wing party bad made. Gentlemen,
he said, when we had given him what he was
pleased to call our advice, you are right /
must support this nomination of General Tay-
lor or go cut Of public life. When / cease to
be national, cease to be anything. In all my
life have acted only with those whose princi-
pies can be maintained throughout the Union.
This sentiment Of free soil is no sentiment to
found party upon; and besides, II it were,
the party that is formed upon 1t is merely Sec