The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-10-07
WASHINGTON, D. C..
A SCRAP OF aIsToRY-CHANGEs.

in the great struggle Of 1910; the Wing par
Is. which had scarcely more than crystallized
into shape, embraced large numbers of men
who low belong TO the Republican party, men
Hho hsye net changed their position since, but
simrlv waited for things to come round, and
who were antiSlavery then, as now. Among
item was Mr.. GiddiDgs, and none lsbored
harder than he for the result of that memorable
year; and DC county or district of the whole
nstion gave so large a majority as that repre-
scented by him. In the natural course of things,
one who lad so labored, and whose constituents
had SO voted, might have expected share of
iavors Ct the new Administration. Bat the
poison of the slsyeholding influence ranked in
The national heart then as it does now, except
that It pervaded both parties then, while one
party now daTes seek cure OF the disease.
From Mr.. GiddiDgs we learn an incident In
the history of that day, which shows how deep.
Is shat poison infected the rulers at Washing.
ton, Of whatever party. Gen. Harrison spent
some weeks In Washington previous to his in
auguration and during that time Mr.. Giddings
made his frat Anti Slavery speech, upon and
against the bill of Mr.. Thompson, for support
ing the Florida War. In it he laid down the
great doctrines of the Republican party of to-
day, that the power and influence fthe General
Government should be exerted for Liberty, and
not for .Slauery-that Freedom was national,
and Slavery sectional. He spoke amidst con-
slant Interruptions; and the opposition imme-
dia:ely asssiled the Wings as an abolition par
ty, and furious assault was made upon the
Wings for holding fellowship with man who
could utter such sentiments. Mr.. Thompson,
al uhr,h had inof hrnu oh
forward that abominable bill, volunteered the
viudicstion of the Wings from such a charge, in
a speech in which he insultingly assailed Mr..
G., chaIacterizing him as the most obscure
member of the Wing party.
MIR. 6. replied with Just severity, intensely
exciting the lords of the lash, and was menaced
with assault by Mr.. Afford, of Georgia.
Many of the leading Wings were annoyed at
the charge of abolitionism, and, now that the
election was carried, were ready to cast eff
their true frie2ds, to proptiate the Slave Power.
Gen. Harrison even PROPOSED TO set the charge
of abolition at rest in his inaugural, and pre-
pared paragraph for that purpose, which, at
the instance of Mr.. Clay, was 80 changed as to
make it inofensive to Mr.. Giddings, and those
who sympsthized with him.
When Mr.. G. called on The President elect,
be saw in the coldness with which he Was re-
ceved the visible effects of Southern influence
so plainly that he never presented himself
again before the General, under whom he had
served IN the war of 1872, and for whose cleo
ton he had so sssiduously and effsctually la.
bored.
Neither Mr.. Thompson nor his State had
given the Wing party any efficient support;
Jet Mr.. T., being a stakeholder, was promptly
appointed Minister to Mexico, from which post
he retired, at the end Of four years, with an
4. loo L. haan nol.t
cally forgotten.
Ia the course of the eighteen years since
those days, the Wing party has disappeared,
and III IFS place has risen the Republican party
whose leading doctrines are the same as those
for which MIR. Giddings was denounced as an
obscure member" and in defence of which
the President, who had swept the political bat
tle.held like hurricane, dared not lift his voice.
but sought TO repudiate as a contamination
and the Charleston Mercury, the leading paper
OF South Carolina, now ACKNOWLEDGMENT says
Fer our part, we have for some time past
looked 10 the mastery Of the General Govern
ment By The ALOiuiORistS 10 be just as sure to
take place as any other eUent morally certain an
the course If human affairs. The whole his.
tory OF the country tor the last twenty or thirty
years points to this result as inevitable in the
usual course Of things. The South could, ere the
battle was fought and won, have broken up the
deadly sequence of effect from cause, which was
rolling over her destinies but she has failed to
interpose ter her protection, and notc no mortal
effort toithin The UhiOn in our Judgment, can ar
rest the triumph of abolitiOntsm IN SEEING the
GOreTnment. II may be propitiated and postpon-
ed, as the man pursued by wolves arrested their
attacks by throwing one child after another out
OF his csTrisge-but wolves overlook and de
voured him at last"
Through these changes, that President and
may OF his most prominent friends played out
their parts, and made their final exit Thomp-
son and Giddings still live, one rich in the
spoils of office, and the other rich in the con.
scious satisfaction Of duty done. We hope
they may yet see the fiual triumph of the prin-
ciples on which they then differed-Ashtabula
Sentinel.