Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1856-07-18
MYTHICAL Opinions.

bourcd article OF three columns aud MATT clalna 10
have demolished every charge brought against Mr..
Buchanan in respect to the slavery questions pub
fishes the foreQone conclusion in the cxtravagant cap
ton "a record without blemish" first-in chro-
biological order the Enquirer salves over the Laneas
ter resolutions with the denial Of Mr.. J. Clancy
Jones Ii does not tell why that denial slept from
1919 till 1856 and without assigning reason WHY,
for thirty-seven years, The act Of Mr. Buchanan :
friends in his behalf went forth uncontradctcd The
Enquirer seeks from this significant lapse of time 10
draw the reluctant argument of ohsoleteoess-and
thus continues; passing from this remote and mgfh
cal age to historic times" Sc
The opipions or rather the expressions OF Nr
Buchanan flor, as TO his opinions the Democracy
widely differ among themselves) upon this essential
topic do not acquire the obscurity OF mythe, only
from antiquity On the contrary, II would seem thai
the most ancient are the most clear and explicit the
most recent the mos, oracular 10 their double mean
ing. Indeed collected series of his expressed orin-
ions upon the abstract question of slavery in IL r.
latons TO the Federal Government, presents the not
usual result with trmmers, of being separately dis.
tipc,. collectively unintegiblr Believing rs he
has declared that slavery in itself was "a great NOR
nj ard political evil il was not strange that la
should vote for striking out the words moral AMI
religious from Mr. Calhouns second resolution IA
ls36--yet he assigned as reason that he thought
the resolution ne strong without those words With
them the voting for these resolutions is claimed
triumphant rindcaton ofhs soundness. The vota
was given twenty years ago, and II Limitations are TO
be pleaded, that vote would suffer along with tho
troublesome Lancaster resolutions.
But--"to come to more historic times" II tho
vote the resolutions of 1896 show that he
then sound, the Sanford letter comedies to the
mics Of the South the entire principle declar
ing that the sovereign and exclusive right to legis-
late upon the subject of slavery in the territories
aides in Congress.
The acquisition of Texas, while in itself a measure
tending 10 strengthen the South, and so, in the nh
siract well enough be cited in Mr. Buehanans ia.
ror so far by his vote he assisted to accomplish,
it, loses MI its force in his behalf when his nvowea
motive is oontrasied with the act itself ifPierea
deserves little credit at the hands ofthe South To-
sign nj the Nebraska bin, because he regardedh rs
proposition in Ia, OF offieedom how much shall b.
awarded to Mr. Buchanan tot advocating the annex
alton of Texas as "a means of limiting slavery
In times still more recent and historic, his declare.
ton grows rlorc mythical and dark The Cincinnati
Convention, after making terms with the New Yorl.
Softs adopted platform approving of the Kansas
Nebras legislation, and select Mr. Buchanan n.
their nominee. His letter of acceptance contained +.
declaration of the pernicous doctrine of Squatlri
soyereigntytoo explicit to be misunderstood looh
ing to the terms Of the letter alone Some of on
Democratic friends gave up that such was its fore
and meaning-nor was II till perverted ingenuit
had time to construct sophsms, sufficiently pausibl
TO impose upon willing minds, that they could be n
assured that their nominee was not welded TO Ii ,
ugly idol so unsparingly denounced by the Virgin
Ia democracy. One the chief of these sophisms i
ounded on the contents of the SANFORD letter In
erpretng language too plain to need interpretations
and thus violating cardinal rule of consiructonl
by other language used years before Mr. Buchanan
avowa of Squatter Sovereignty is sought to be neu-
rallied by his belief in the sovereign and EXCLUSIVE
power of Congress to legislate upon the subject
slavery in the territories. We are at loss to per-
ei,c how the alternative benefits the character of tho
andidate either for consistency soundness--to say
nothing of sineery-uness it be that the opposite
qualities Of the two letters, like nm acid and alkn
mutually destroy and neu,ralizc each other Which
does Mr. Buchanan believe in, the popular sover-
eighty dogma of Gen Cass or his own theory of the
exclusive sovereignty oil Congress over the subject
slaveryn the territories2
The fog in which these letters have immersed his
friends is significantly illustrated by the convenient
results worked out from them The letter of accept
nee proves quite satisfactory to Benton the Van
Burens, Barclay, &c, who freely support Mr.. Bueh
anan upon the faith of his latest declaration of opn
ion The Sanford letter is ished up Just in time 10
prevent Southern Democrats from making mpruden
remarks upon that oracular document Mr. .Bueh-
anan is lucky man in having written at an interval
Of some years letters which serve in the present
luncture so convenient purpose. Conceding To
Southern Democrats the merit Of sincerity in their
attachment to Southern Rights, for men naturally
love their own,) the company they keeping, AMI
the reasons assigned by their free-so eonerers for
uniting with them in support of the Cincinnati ticket
show that the former deficient in logic as the
latter are in principle somewhat similar instance
OF dexterity, when the reasoning of the party dixie
that of Martin Van Buren, good as his moral
lily was Infamous, evoked the sentiment that the
children of this world wiser in their generation
than the children of Light ~