Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1856-05-31

CUiuS iutilblHcu, dlN IL tHlb NGSildtioH HOl
a few were disposed to become confirmed
when they remembered the glorious po-
sition which the Wing Party once oe-
cupied, and those ilustrious names that
were its boast and which viii follow it in
to history. Sir, you can readily con-
ceive, and this Convention will not be
slow to realize, how difficult a thing it
was, and must ever be, for men to sur
render the names and associations Of a
lifetime, which have come to sound Ike
household words. Such attachments
spring from the best impulses Of our ma
ture, and address themselves to our most
generous feelings. They are the poetry
of politics, and will linger around the
heart long after their representative
principles shall have ceased to bind the
Judgment. And to men who had been
enlisted in so pure cause as the Wing
Party once representeds-how truly great
might the struggle reasonably have been,
when they were called upon to make a
stern and imperative choice between the
glorious memories of days gone by, and
the solemn duties Of the days that are !
But, Sir the Wings of Southern Mary
land, while they deeply cherished these
feelings, yet with that patriotic and con-
sentative impulse for which | may be
excused for saying, they are distinguish
ed, Applause, were prompt to recognize
the broad distinction between old memo
ries and old principles-bctwcen reve-
renee for great deeds and great men that
were and are not, and the pressing con,
1icts of these perilous times in which, as
patriots, they could not stand idle ZAP
plause. We could easily see that, of
the old Wing principles, some had been
manifestly abandoned some had become
evidently against the policy of our sec
ton, and therefore could not be support
ed by any party;. while most of them had
undergone final solution by Legislation
amounting in MANY cases to reasonable
compromise between the extreme views
of the Wings and the extreme views of
the Democrats, and were therefore driven
from public attention as having been
definitely settled. Thus did it appear
that, on all questions of vital concern, on
all matters except mere names and pre-
judices, the old Wing and the old Dem
ocratic party, after fighting desperately
for twenty-five years, had, in the yeai
90, come down to a common point-and
having nothing in the world to fgh
about, very sensibly abstained from fight
ing at all. Applause. Sir, the peo
pie of Southern Maryland at least were
not the people to prolong war whof
they beheld all the substantial evidence
of peace they were not the thoughtlos
citizens to incite domestic quarrels in th'
city when an enemy lay in waiting at th'
Fgate; Applause, they were not the mel
TO stand apart for the sake of old pre-
JUDGES, when common sense and thu
pcrils of the times babe them stand to-
gether for the sake Of the country
i Loud Applause. OF how thoroughly
they have made sacrifice of private
dislikes on the altar of public duty, you
have abundant evidence in the many Old
Line Wings who sit in this Convention
deyotedly attached as men can be to the
essential principles of the Democratic
Party as it now exists. Renewed APP
! plause.
III the meantime another Richmond
had entered the field of our politics, arm
ed for contest with every living cham
pion and. ready for any sort of work
which did not require him to show his
face in the light of day. | allude, OF
course, to the notorious Sam-an indi-
vidual who will live in our historyto adj
monish our descendants how poor a figure
politicians make when maddened by IA
naticism and hungry for thespoils Of Office.
| Laughter and applause. When we
first saw the Know-nothing party, its
face was flushed with victory, and lit up
with the prospect Of political revolution
and glorious feast on thc-loayes and
fishes. Applause. 1t met the Wings
who were walking abroad, and without
any acquaintance with them, either by
sight or a congeniality of habits, laugh
ter, boldly offered its hand, and with
characteristic impudence claimed our
fellowship without the formality of an
introduction, as being a scion of the old
Wing family. Laughter and applause /
Not being willing to commit breach Of
polfteness, we kindly consented to ex-
anime the credentials of the stranger, to
determine his right to our hospitality. -
! need hardly say We quickly concluded
that if he were of Wing descent at all 4,
he must be bastard, laughter, and
that If the. Wing party were its father.
then that old gentleman could not have
been very choice in at least one Of his
amours. We therefore dismissed the
young imposter, and though sorry to
display any want of courtesy, yet we felt
obliged, in letting Sam 90 on, to give
him kick as he went. Loud laughter
and applause.
Sir, what first turned our stomachs
against .Kpow-nothing physie .was a re-
Fiction. on what composed it. We had
no taste for mixed liquors, Above all,
we abhorred a.mixture of bad liquors.
Laughter. In the time Of tunlult and
uncertainty there might have been many
parties attractiye.to us but il was mo-
rally impossible we should join a party
composed of the fag-ends of all other
parties, and clothed in the rags Of old
doctrines which they had long ago cast
off Applause. There might haye
been many. combipatfops of men agree
able to pus4sbut we could never, hope,
find our account in combination of rap
eoal1;ona tyhon,s oil oh - 80. L i =