The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1858-12-23
For the Portage Sentinel,


-et~s%-
For the Portage Sentinel,
To the Editors Of the "Portags Co. Dem."
In your last weeks issue, l observe, you
attack President Buchanan's late message
in style that appears to me undgnifed
harsh, and extremely unjust. As it appears
to me, that in a Democratic Republican gov.
ernment, every citizen is bound in right anc
honor to stand by and defend all our public
officers in the right, and more particularly
to stand firmly by, and defend the President
OF our choice, in the measures he deems just
and when we also deem them Just and benefi.
cial; as soy we arc thus bound to support the
right, |, private citizen, will venture 10 ex
press my views also Of that message, and o
your treatment Of It.
have been in the habit of reading every
message Of our Presidents for more than &c
years, and OF reading them carefully, and
must uy / have seen very few more able
and proper messages in my time, than Presi.
dent Buchanan's last. / have also seen no.
tees OF the message, as published in several
papers in different parts of the Union, ond
by papers more or less opposed to Buchanan
all which, except yours, that have seen,
express their general approval Of the mes
sage among them, the New York Herald
and the New York Times, both of which op.
posed the election OF Buchanan and support.
ed Fremont, the Chicago Times, the reput-
ed organ OF Senator Douglas, and the Cleve.
land Plaindealsr, which has lately, often
foolishy, opposed Buchanan, and the De-
troit Free Press, which was strongly anti.
Lecompton during the pending of the LIE.
compton Bill in Congress, and is one of the
most ably edited papers in the States. All
of those papers speak in terms of general
approval OF the Message, and yet, with you,
it is all wrong; you charge the President
with, ga monstrous and outrageous perver-
sion Of facts ard clearest TRUTH" you say,
she magnifes, distorts and misre presents,
and shows himself utterly and recklessly
Of those facts, which will in due
time become the truths Of history" You
also coin many other expressions that CRATE
equally harsh on the ears of true Patriots
and Democratic Republicans of our country;
and to crown all, you bring in some Wing
Presidents to share with Democrats in your
aenunciations. Your opposition appears to
partake Of the monomaniuc, when you say,
'When the history Of the past few admins.
Lrative years shall be written, if the secrets
of the Cabinet and OF diplomats can be made
known, the administrations of Tyler, Polk,
Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan, will take
'ank with the darkest, most corrupt and un.
Princjpled administrations of the degenerate
Roman Emperors, when Rome was declin.
ng and tottering to its fall." And yet DUR
ng those same administrations which YOU
ienounce, our country has prospered, as nev.
'r any other country prospered. Is it that
prosperity you so much deprecate ! And
'ou and those with you, have opposed every
'ther administration of our government for
he last 30 years, except the one month Of
len. Harrison's administration snd few
months Of Toylor's. Are you not almost
discouraged with the experiment Of self.gov.
rnment in these States!-the most pros per-
'us and best administered government in the
world. |
You speak of the message as containing
many falsehoods. Win you in your next
'articulorize them, 80 that we can meet the
;harges :! Was 1t false that Congress, "by
IN almost unanimous vote, recognized the
principle that Territory might come into
he Union, either os free or q Slave State.
according to the will of m ojori,y of its peo.
'le," as expressed at the Ballot box !-see
'ote on the Montgomery bill, and on the
Lecompton bill, at the last session. Was
he statement false in the 5th paragraph of
he message, that "the unfortunate expert
snce of Kansas has enforced the Lesson 90
'ften already taught, that resistance to law.
ful authority, under our form Of government
cannot fail in the end to prove disastrous to
Ia authors" IL it false that, call resistance
o the territorial government established by
congress has been finally abandoned" in |
Kansas F!
Unless you proceed TO prove some of the |
allegations you have made, there may be
LANCER that some Of your friends-amone
~hom ! hope you count me one--will doubt
me entIre'iairness of your criticisms. espe.
;laily your comparison Of go many of our
ate i!iussEious Presidents to the tYraDt Ro-
nan BmPerors, Nero and CalisAla: q &
Very respectfully. crs 4 |
M.ar JOHN HARMON. |