Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-03-03
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.
The Enlistment Question With tn. ex

ception Of the National Intelltgencer, every
journal coming to hand since the publication
of the documents bearing on the difficulty be-
tween the United States and Britain on the En-
listment question, emphatically endorses the
views oft for which this Government has been
contending. 1t matters not with which political
party these newspapers affiliate, or how much
venom they have heretofore displayed toward,
the President and Secretary of State, they
unite in declaring that the positions those
functlonaries have assumed in this connection
are eminently wise and patriotic. The New
1ork Herald, not long since remarkable for
the vehemence of its abuse of the American
Government for an alleged disposition to get
up unnecessarily a war with England, by
driving Mr. Champion ANONYMOUSLY from the
United States, now suddenly changes its tune,
and berates the President and Secretary of
State for having failed to turn that gentleman
neck and heels out of the country long since
Its characteristic wheel-about in this con-
nection is amusing, as q forcible illustration
of the utter want Of fixed rules or principles
in its conduct; and as making plain the fact
that it gladly becomes "pig or puppy" upon
any and all questions, when there may be a
likelihood that by playing the hog 1t will sue
coed better in its always -kept-in-view purpose
of bringing the Administration into disrepute,
than by playing the dog-and ptce versa.
With the exception of that single journal,
whose reversed comments on the document
take the ground that there has been too much
forbearance on the part Of the United States,
all arc loud in commendaton of the course
pursued by the President, now that the facts
are known, and profuse in their declarations
that the country applaud and will sustain its
government in the matter, with an unanimity
heretofore unknown upon any question what
ever between the United States and foreign
power.
The already celebrated despatch of Mr..
Marcy, Of the 18th Of December. wherein the
whole case is argued with perspicacity and
perfectly irresistible reasoning, is certainly
regarded by public men Of all parties in this
city, as being one Of the ablest state papers
marking the history of this Governments ne
gotiatioDs; bringing, as it does, forcibly to the
minds of the prudent and experienced, the i'm
portnnce Of keeping the immediate conduct of
our foreign relations, more especially in times
of so general International connection as the
present, in the hands Of a we'll balanced, firm,
sagacious, experienced and powerful states.
man, such as now holds the helm of the Amer.
lean State Department. We never knew a
more forcible illustration Of the power Of in
tellect and judgment than this case irresisti-
bly, presents.
Up to the PRONUNCIATION of the message in
question everybody in the Opposition was
crying out against the Governments policy
and measures with reference to the question.
The instant the country came to understand
precisely what had been done in Washington.
and the true circumstances producing that &C
ton, the sentiments Of all those to whom We
refer above changed; and they are now loud
est In praise of the policy pursued by the
Chief Magistrate, and of the consumm ate
ability and craftsmanship with which that
policy has been carried out by his Minister for
Foreign Relations.
Mr.. Francis P. Blair.-This gentleman
published in the Baltimore papers of Satur.
day last card, wherein he protests that he
did not assume recently to represent himself
as the delegate of the Baltimore mercantile
interest at Pittsburg; but only of such Balti-
more merchants as were membe rs Of " the
Republican association" of Baltimore, who
seem, by the by, to be comprised on one in
dividual Mr.. Corkran, who, we hear, Is a
Quaker dealer in shingles, boards, &c. Mr..
Blair owes the unenviable position in which
he finds himself placed in this connection,
wholly to the efforts Of his party friends, who
seem to hold as an article in their creed, the
duty of incorporating facts whenever that
may appear likely to increase their party
capital. They wrote far and near, from Pitts
burg, that he had boasted that the commercial
interests of Baltimore symp athised in the Re.
publican party (abolition) cause, and held out
hopes that ere long the South would come to
listen complacently to Free Soil arguments.
He protests, too, that his part in the pro-
cesdings was not to justify abolitionism, but
SIMPLY to aid the cause of the restoration of
the Missouri restriction.
With men Of common sense his protest ations
will not weigh fig lie was there cahood-
ling" with all the leaders of the red mouth
Abolitionism of the day; presiding over them
while they were preaching such vengeance
upon and hostility to the South, as the same
parties-Nessrs. Giddings, Greeley, q Co..
preach ordinarily. A man is known, politi-
cally, as otherwise, by the company he keeps
Mr.. Blair has no right to expect that those
among whom he resides will regard him as any
more entitled to their respect and confidence
as man, than they do the men he has chosen
for his political friends and sympathising as
sociates, who make it boast that they regard
it virtuous act to aid in stealing the negroes
of his neighbOrs or any others of the South
1t strikes us that in accepting his recent Baltl.
more appointment. and in acting as the Presi.
i L