New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-02-25
FROM BO5 ron.
=. IN OK Own Correspondent.

| F.onn OK Own Correspondent.
| BOsTON, Feb. 90, 1S53.
| The twenty-second of February made a Il gal
holiday in this State by the Legislature Of lsjG and
| IN that year and the year succeeding there wa;
Legislative observance Of the day, on a snail aud
cheap scale. WaslDgton's Farewell Address was
read in 1856, if ] remember rightly, by Mr.. l.. G..
Baker then President Of the Senate, and in lcJ7 by
| Mr. c. A. Phelps, Speaker of the House. An at
| tempt was made in 1S57 10 lay out considerable
sum of money, for music and decorations, but the
Republican majority in the Senate refused its
cent. For reason or other, probably because
the Know NOthiDgs found, after hearing the Farewell
Address read twice that there was not particle OF
Know Nottingham III il, but something different:
fOrths or some other reason nOpropOStiOn Was made
this year to have the Address read. A Boston rep
resentative-One of those sad relics Of departed
worthlessness, to wit, Gardnerism--prOpOsed that
the two branches should meet i'll JOINT Convention,
that the Governor should be invited to preside. and
that Mr.. President pham and Mr.. Speaker Rock
well, with the Chapains Of the two branches,
should deliver addresses. 1t is the common impress
sion that even if this plan had been carried out, the
amount of technical Americanism' dispensed
from the desk would have been ncOnsiderdblc. But
the proposition beng referred to the COMMITTEE on
Finance came back i'll such shape that IFS origin
ator did not like the looks Of it, by general
sent the whole subject laid upon the table; and
instead of listening to speeches IN the tat Of the
House, the members adjourned over and went home
to see their wives and their constituents. And they
had most of them at least, no reason to avoid their
constituents their conduct as legislators having
been exemplary, however It may have been with
their behavior as husbands.
Before 1 dismiss the birthday OF our common
Father, let me take notice OF one heretlcal remark
contained in his Farewell Address. II is this
ha hasi If
the people to make aud to alter their Constitutions Of
Coy eminent.
This sounds very much Ike Ant-LecoIaptOnisnl,
Black Republcsnsm, or downright AbOltlonlsm.
Surely no such doctrine prevails in the Democratic
party which is represented by Mr. buchanan and
The Haslineton UaiOn. The nearest approach to
it, by any OF the Administration party, is made by
Senator Pugh and some others, who hold that Inc
people Of Kansas have the right 10 "aLer" their
Constitution, but not to make 1t; to "aAer' II,
if they can, after John Calhoun has made II for
them. 1t is doubtful if Pugh viii not be read Out OF
the party for going so far as this. The prevailing
doctrine at the White House, ana in the Senate ham
Der IT, that the people of Kansas have no right either
TO make or alter their Constitution, but that
they must submit 10 just such Goyern-
ment as the Shareholders Of the Missouri border
| NAV see fit to give them. As Democracy pro-
crossed the earlier Presidents must come more
| and more into dsrepute. jefferson was branded
| as a visionary and theOrist, long ago; the Adj
| amses never were in much favor with the South
| Madison must be regarded with extreme suspicion
on account Of the squesIulshness he exhibited on
| the subject Of Slavery when the Constitution was
| formed; il is doubtful whether Jackson OF Polk
| could stand the modern tests Van Buren, snd
| Pierce possibly might Old Buck. however, Is the
| only remaining repository of genuine Dencc-
| racy. The article he keeps can be safely
| warranted to bear no resemblance 70 any
| thing ever known by that nsme from the days Of
| Washington to the days of Fierce. How shock.
ingly the people OF this country have been imposed
upon for the last seventy years. The delusion INTO
| which Washington fell, captlvated ali the other
great men of the country until the great Buchanan
arose. Ii is not, therefore, surprising that stu
dent of American history, Ike Mr.. Bancroft, should
| himself be deceived by the specious dOgms
| which have quoted from the Farewell Address.
| Luckily, We have other historians TO whom our
| annals can be safely intrusted. Mr.. Rlchsrd
rockingham. author OF The Siege OF Boston, an
| nominees in The Post that his confidence in Mr..
Bancrofts History is seriously impaired by bis re-
cent course on Lecompton. Let Mr.. rockingham
| be installed as the Democratic historian. Per
| haps Mr.. Postmaster Capen who IS SAID TO have
| written History Of Democracy, though l never
| saw but one man who processes to have seen II,
might be associsted With hlIn
| In all practical measures designed 10 bring aoout
the halcyOn era when Americans shall rule Americs,
our Legislature is as remss as in the ornamental ones
The history o the attempts 10 amend the Cohstitu-
ton, IN respect to the suffrage persons oil iOreigh
birth, Is curious and somewhat amusing. Perhaps
YOU remember that Gardner's first Legislature
undertook to dc something in this line but by ITS
peculiar use of language instead OF stpulatlng that
foreigners should not VOTE il stipulated that none
but jor1gHcrs Should rote The honor of drawing
up th1s constitutional provision, or perhaps should
say The honor Of not drawing il up, rests between
the lion X: i. Hall, now in Congress, and the
hon n L; Carey Of the town of Ipswich.
Carey says that Hall is the author: or TO use
bls own language, Hall done it !" But if Z" Hall
done II he done IT y out Of malice prepense,
ignorance. At any rate the mischief was :" done. {"
Even Gardner had sense enough to see that this
would not do, and SO he told the Legislature in
1856. But then acknowledgement had already be-
gun to decline, and compromise had 10 be sfIected
Cd fourteen Year,. In le57 the Republicans bal