Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-06-12
From The New York Freeman's Journal.
The Crisis.

anead. W readily concede the lustnesS o.
this remark abstracting it from the many hasty
and absurd ones which have been hazarded
upon the people and country. Crockett was
the man who started the motto into circulation
in this form, Be sure you are right, then go
ahead" Analyze it carefully, and something
Of this sort may be got out Of it, "When you
think you are wrong STOP"
For sometime we have been noting, in these
columns, the progress of certain religio-polti-
cal movements, and predicting catastrophe
as their natural result. We have even fancied
that the people concerned would themselves
come to suspect that their speed was trife too
rapid, and could suffer abatement without se-
rious damage to anybody. But truth compels
the avowal that there were no apparent mis-
givings on their part as to the entire safety of
their headlong and foolhardy career.
Does any plain, sober man, Of common sense
doubt that this country has, for number of
years. been steadily tending towards revolu-
tion? Is it necessary to cite evidence? Shall
we summon the writings of Garrison and Gerrit
Smith, the abolition journals, the rank section
alism of the Tribune and the Times, the Uncle
Tom OF Mrs. Stowe, the philippics of Theodore
Parker, the creed of the Know-nothings? Or
shall we recall to sad recollection the diving
struggles OF the immortal Clay-the broken
heart of the peerless Webster? This ceaseless
assault upon the foundations of the govern
ment cannot 90 on so forever Nobody ever
imagined that the Constitution can survive the
alienation OF the affections of the people of the
United States. 1t was never meant TO be a
bond to bind together hostile sections in
hateful discord. If the people are dissatisfied
with their government-if its principles and
It's original compacts are become odious to
them, II they cannot conscientiously live under
1t, and are seriously bent upon something bet
ter or differentiated the system has already
Jaited. We are in the closing scenes of the
great drama, and disaster is all that remains
behind. Was it ever before known that ma
ton nnassailed by disease, unvisited by the first
touches OF decay, in its pride of strength, in the
buoyancy of youthful vigor, met an end so
mournfu and so shameful? And how? The
welfare and the hopes of twenty-four millions
OF white men sacrificed on account of three
millions OF black men-the whole conledera-
ton OF existing States shivered to fragments
for unpeoped Territories. Such inevitably
must be the disgraceful record of this Union,
unless the American people shake off the
nightmare which besets them.
We have among us a body Of men who are
the malignant enemies Of our government.
Their daily avocation, their nightly dream, is
set-aggrandizement. They are pursued, beset,
possessed by that devil, the lore of pocer
They have mounted upon the neck of the Anne.
upon Sinbad the Sailor, and there is no shak.
ing them of. With a detestable dexterity
these incarnations of mischief seize upon every
impulse of the popular feeling, and direct it to
the profit of their own advancement and i'm.
portance. They are spectators, gamblers
as much so as the dealer in stocks or faro
and some of them have amassed large fortunes.
and, Others are amasSing them, by administer
ing to the excitability and ,gulibility of the
people. This recent unhappy Gaming affair in
Washington has been for them fortunate hat
Just as the woody horse was TO Barnum
Processing more purity, greater wisdom, higher
patriotism than the founders Of the republic,
they are at bottom the courtiers of popular
government, the fiatterers and parasites of
PoiceT, wherever it may reside, and they have
pushed the country to the verge of ruin. The
contamination Of their course is at hand, and
II can be stayed only BY the aroused indigna-
ton and energy of the people.
How long will the people tolerate this tam
pering with the lfesprings of their confede-
racy? How long permit individuals among
them to cultivate latent treason as an art, and
to follow up agitation as "the chief end of
manY When is the Constitution TO be let
aloRef When are the attacks upon it to cease?
Is there such crime in State as suicide, or
such right as political selfdefence? Shall
the man who strikes down a single life be
branded as a murderer, while the enormous
villain who foments ciDH lodr escapes all retri-
butionp This must not and will not be. The
time is gone by when the masses Of the people
could be hurled into conflict and mutual dis
cussion, while the projectors Of the mischid
passed unscathed. An intelligent and injured
people will seek out with faultless sagacity
the true authors Of their undoing. They covet
n high place before the excited multitude
they may live TO mount one higher than they
bargained for. The heads Of Danton, Marat
and Robespierre fell at length by that guillo-
tine which had so long dripped with the blood
Of their victims.
Are these gentlemen endowed with that de-
gree Of desperation which is needfnl to the
game they are playing2 Mr.. Theodore Parker,
full Of brave words, and fluent in fierce denun-
citation, grew pale at the sight Of blood, and
humbly suppicated for protection that law he
thought he had desp,sed. The men who rush
into excited mass meetings at the whirring Of
a gutta- -percha stick, and who whisper in alarm
yet strung to the mood which is fitting to en-.
counter the terrible agouies Of an expiring
State. These fanatics who are perilling every
thing for US all belong to the class Of mock
heroes whose courage mounts with the abb
sence Of the danger. II is one thing to Gull
the vocabulary of abuse, and TO play the
Thyrsi,es Of the press at leisure and sale dis
tance, and il is another to stand where blows
are falling, where sudden death leaps from the
fold Of cartridge, or flashes from the point
of bayonet.S We say that the emergency
which is Fastening on demands this sort Of de-
termination. Hot words and reckless writing
are about 10 issue into stern deeds. There is
no ground to believe, and we not believe, that
the people Of one quarter Of this Union pos
sess higher courage or resolution than those Of
another part Of II. The essential difference
will be the rectitude Of the cause alone. The
umpire will be the constitution and the laws.
We do not desire to see the issue adjourned
evaded, or escaped, but met. We desire to
know once for ALL whether we live under a
government able to protect itself, or whether
demagogues and factionists are our lords and
IL. Al Al.