New-York daily tribune., 1858-12-25

Ii is useless 10 struggle against toe nature VI
ttirgs. The trick of dressing up asses in hons
sln,, or Of decking out msgpies with Peacock'
feathers. does not make either lions or peac"cks.
In spite Of this any other attempt At transform
stloD the ass will still be an asa and the magpe
msgpe and the brayiHg Of the one, and the ch.tter'
ing Of the other WILL sooner or later, oetray them
Not Only that, but. sooner or later the borrowed
skin will drop of the back Of the ass, and the boy
rowed feathers from the tai of the maybe, and
both beast and bird will stand confessed in their
true, original and proper features, skln sid plu
mage. 70 the derision Of all beholders. This IS
fully illustrated in the past and present history of
these United States. When the Union WAS first
formed, when the Continental Congress, first met,
when the Declaration Of Independence was agreed
to, when the first Continental army came together,
throughout the whole course of the Revolu-
tionary struggle and down, indeed, ts the meeting
of the first Congress under the Federal Ccn'tltu-
tion. very marked difference existed-tbe same
ss now-not only in the social system OF daerent
members Of the Union, but in the ideas and sentl-
ments which they avowed. The NeS-England
States, though they furnished By far the larger part
of the soldiers Of the Revolution, and were All
along both the brains and the hands, so to
spe.k, Of the Union, were yet regarded with
an ilLcOncesled contempt in the States south
of Mason and Dixons line, as democratic COM
muuities, in which the idea Of equality was
pushed to an absurd and ridiculous extent, and
whose ideas of Government was altogether too
mobocratc The Middle States constituted q de-
bsteable ground-Pennsylysnia and New-Jersey
ncIining to New-Eugland, aud New-York to the
South. This feeling was very strongly exhibited
upon the fret occasion in which large bodies of
New. England and Of Southern men we're brought
into contact in the ill-starred campaign of l776, in
which the defense of this City of New-York was
vainy attempted by an army drawn from all sec
tons Of the Union la the regiments from the States
south Of New. England there the same marked
distinction between officers and men-b,sed on
difference of rank and education-to be found then
and in the armies Of Great Britain. The officers
we're of the class calling themselves gentlemen"
the sodiers for the most part were very inferior
set, many of them atet! .indentured servants, and
much upon a par with tie present poor
whites" Of the South. In the New England
regiments. the other hand, large part
Of the officers were farmers and the sons Of far n
ers no hardly pretended to gentility aud, except
by the Temporary possession of commissions, hardly
distinguished from large proportion of those who
served in the ranks. The gentlemen officers of
the Southern and Middle States regiments turned
up their noses at these plebeian comrades with as
much contempt as had ever been exhibited by the
officers Of British regiments when called to
operate with Colonial Tories. Alexander Gray don,
then captain in a Pennsylvania regiment, men
tions, in his Memoirs" sitting on a court martial
for the trial of Lieut. Stewart of Smalwood's Mary
lsnd regiment, arrested for disrespect to Gen.
Sillman Of the Connecticut militia AS the msjOri
"ty of the court" says Graydon, "were Southern
men, il is not at all wonderful that Stewart was
" soon acquitted with honor. In go contemplate
"a light were the New. England men regarded that
I" it was scarcely held possible to conceive case
(Which could be construed into a reprehensiOe
contempt Of them Here we see fully described
the very current of sentiment and ideas which
lately led Senator Hammond Of South Carolina,
superior as he is, in sense aud intelligence, to the
common run Of South arn members OF Congress, and
him,elf, We believe, the son Of New England
aboriDg man, TO denouDce the laboring classes of
the North az the "mud ss Of society unfit for
anything but to bear the burden Of the superstruc
ture and specially unfit to be trusted with political
power.
Though this Revolutionary conflict between
Southern sristocrscy and Northern democracy made
itself most conspicuous in the Army, it was very
apparent also, in the Continental COngress-not
indeed, so much to the general public, from whom
the debates in that body were withheld but plainly
enough to those behind the curtain. John Adams
Samuel Adams and the other Massachusetts, mem
bers we're regarded, in l775, BY large part of their
Southern compitrots, with not little Of susp-
cion and dislike-as dangerous If not pestent dem
agogues.-desperate men, not possessed of fortunes
and not very safe guides associates for gen.
temen who hsd eststes in lands and slaves to be
forfeited. Even Washington hmself brought with
HIM to the camp before Cambridge something Of
this Southern arstocrstic contempt for New
nsland democracy. as clearly appears from the
confdentlsl correspondence with bis aid-de-caop,
Resd-he same wh-h. before publishing, Mr.
Jared Sparks thought it proper to whitewash a
little as if history not the narration of reai
ties but of the shams Of the Senate. House and the
studied deceptions Of drawing rooms. Washing |
ton soon learned that his main dependence must be !
on the sturdy and intelligent yeoman so'dery Of
New FL gland and on their sturdy and intelligent, |
if not always very polished, yeornan officers; but,
to the ls.i, even he was not able fully to sympa-
thize in the democratic sentiment of New Eng land
SIS applied to military affair. Though hi. feelings
were very strong for the officers, and though be