Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-08-19

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1857.
Hon. Emmerson Etherldge.

thy which has pervaded the ranks of our !
friends this year, and permitted the cause
of conservatism and good government to
suffer a most disastrous defeat. While we
deeply regret the general misfortune, we
confess to painful degree of modification
at the defeat of Mr.. Etheridge. He has
served but four years in the National
House of Representatives, but during that
time he has acquired distinguished repu-
tation for whatever most adorns the char
acter of a ststesman-great talents, hon
esty, patriotism, courage and boldness. In
that position he has developed to the adj
miratiOn of the country a character such as
might have been seen in the Roman Senate,
while Rome was great and free. Going
into Congress a Wing, under the influence
of sober, conservative whig sentiments, a
clear intellect led him to discern the wick
ed jugglery by which Democracy was lash
ing the waters of sectional bitterness into
fury, and enabled him to expose it so truth
fully and powerfully, that he early became
prominent object of the wrath of the
| partizans of that school, Unawed, how
/ ever, by the clamor of the sectional dema-
gogues about him, and the prophecies of
the political destruction which awaited him,
he nobly dared to do what he conceived to
be right Since then he has been embalm-
ed in the esteem of his political friends, by
the fierce abuse which he has received from
the disunion Democracy of the South.
/ During the last Congress he still further
incensed this pestilent brood of agitators
! by introducing a resolution which throttled
in its inception another of their artful and
miSChieVOus manGuVres--we refer to his res
olution condemnatory of the African slave
| trade. The sentiment of this resolution,
which can but meet the unqualified appro-
val of every man not utterly obliviOus to
| humanity and the common decencies Of life,
| received but a reluctant endorsement from
| Southern Democrats, and some Of them,
in the madness Of sectionalism, refused
even this But the man who had the NOR
II
! Congress a rebuke to the proposition made,
in high quarters, to reopen this traffic, has
never been forgiven. The instruments of
party have We'd with each other in the VIC
lence with which they have assaulted him.
! Their efforts to PROSTATE MIN, in the gen
eral dependence which oVercame his party,
have succeeded. We sincerely regret to
record his downfal-though, in the full
faith of a returning sense of justice in the
people, we believe it will be but temporary.
He made a most heroic struggle, and
deserved success if he could not win it.
He did what no other candidate of his
party in the State was able to do. He re-
duced the majority against him. Mr.. Buch-
anan carried his district by 402 votes. His
opponent is only elected by 127-being a
clear gain of 275 votes, despite the power
full opposition which the Democratic press
and speaking corps of the State waged
against him. Though defeated, he retires
covered with honOrs, and sustained by the
consciousness, that whatever may have been
the remissness of others, he has done his
duty.
While conservative men every where
throughout the nation must feel grieved at
what seems to be the almost complete ex-
tinction of every thing like moderation in
politics, they especially lament the over
throw of such valiant bulwarks against
radicalism and extremism as Mr.. Etheridge
His defeat is indeed loss to the nation;
and his friends can only hope that the day
will not be too late, in which the country
shall shake off the thraldom of Democ.
racy; and that when the fumes of the pre-
sent dreadful intoxication shall pass away,
the "sober second thought" will restore
him and men like him to the public coun
ellis
His successful opponent is a clever, anna
bic, upright gentleman, and is as moderate
man as his party affords, but we car
never recur to the contest in the 9th district
without feeling,
"That a faoon, towering in his pride Of place,
Was by a housing owl hawked at and Allied"