Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1858-05-13
From foruey's Press Of May 1.
A Dark and Fatal Friday:

portunity 20 assist in a betrayal. as wanton
as IL was causeless and unnecessary. To
see these men gibbeIed ard .ransfixec before
the eyes OF the world may be a melancholy
satisiactiOn; and to this extent the black
business OF the blacklist Friday that ever
thus century has seen, may be full of tom
peusatIon.
But We have no rejoicing over q common
shame. We have no words Of congratulation
a, all event winch inAicts disgrace upon our
Common Country. The more we deliberate
Upon the record of the last fourteen months.
The more do feel that a blow has been struck
at The very heart Of our institutions, from
which We may never recover.
We saa in this Kansas business, when il
assumed its new shape, last autumn, the
seeds of a fatal Generalization Previous
to ihtI period il bore the aspect of eminent
fairness. Mr.. Buchanan appeared to Us, in
all his eariy movements in regard to it, to
INSPIRED by a Washing tonian patriotism. IL
had been a difficult problem to others; to
hun II was as Clear as a sunbeam. He felt
SO himssl: up to the moment when he SUD.
posed he could change his course, and be
sustained BY The country. That was the
weight which pulled him down. The whole
action stood appalled, at the Transformation
His very r~thce-holders hesitated, and there
was hot a Northern Senator or Representa-
tive; within our circle OF acquaintance, who
did not, al first. doubt or denounse the unex.
Pected and extraordinary example. The
only interest that applsuded his course was
that extreme pro. slavery cabal, known to
desire a dissolution of the Union J VIII ch
had induced him 10 leave those true and gsi.
lsnt spirits who had So long upheld his
standard, and 10 surrender Il e holy princi-
pie, without which he would be reposiny in
honorable quiet ut Wheatland.
From that moment to the present, wha,
have We witnessed! Nothing but a success
son OF personal and political degradations.
The principle Of the "will o. the Majority
has became overwhelming. The principe
OF fidelity To sworn pledge, and to q conse-
Grated creed, had sunk into all hearts. The
President, the Cabinet-aP men had me,
upon this patriotic platform. Il was built
upon hoaor, and riyetied aud eli nched bv a
thousand stlemn assurances. To DESTROY il
requires herculean exertion, and a series OF
operations, before which all the efforts of
past Administrations have paled the r inef.
~fectual fires. 1t stood ont full-armed before
the nation, instinct with energy, and resist.
less from the associations that surrounded
il. But the word had gone forth, and THOUGH
it could not be annihilated, it ,Oas at least BE-
trayed. And to accomplish th is betraya al,
the character of the Democratic party. and
OF the country, has been shamelessly dis
hoBored.
Independent men, who would not bow to
the attempt to sacrifice a principle, were
turned ont OF office, and base and character.
less knaves put into their places.
Solemn assurances to high sunctionsries.
written, spoken. and prin ted, were ruthlessly
broken.
Representatives We're compelled TO change
their Votes and to violate their plighted faith,
and where conscience failed to approve pat
runase came in to support then.
C%alumnies, the most strocious and cruel
were buried against all who dared to BIZ
t ue to the truth. Is this ALI Would that
1t were! The formal declaration of a proud
national party was sought to be nullifed bv
the action Of Congress, and in substitution
TOR a principle, imposingly declared and
so.emnly sealed, before the ewes of the
whole country, we had offered to us a mis-
cradle cheat. The dark deed of a gang of
cE
reckless spectators in Kansas was nude
the test OF Democratic faith. Fraud and
f'dlsehood were erected into cardinal vir-
tues, and the protests of fifteen thousand
freemen against this deed were laughed at.
as the protests of our fathers in the Revolu
uun were laughed at as the rawlings OF rebels,
and the threats Of a mob.
So far Tor the footprints Of this unhal- |
lowed Despotism. They are m trked on the
historic page as the evidences of u recedino
mora lity and a degenerating Democracy.
They turn back the hands on the dial plate
of time, and remind US that we are living in
the feudaI ages. Nay, worse than hat; for
then. if power was great. public men were
brave, ard The knave that sold his character
died the death of the infamous.
But the crime did not stop here. One
wrong after another was tried, till at last. as
If TO mock at even the sembIance of right,
the so called Engl sh bi was proposed, the
incarnation of treschery and dupIicity-a
bill, be it understood, which differed from
its presidents in this: that they were swim
dies and this was a bribe; which, profess: ny
to submit Leeom0ton to the people, did not
submit 1t according 10 its Southern expound-
ers; and which, starting out in the preamble
u scancalous misstatement, crowned
the whole proceeding with a declaration
if the people Of Kansas did not take it,
they should tester In Discussions till il suited
their masters to admit them.
And this Is the scheme that was forced
yesterday-THE BLACK FRIDAY OIL
'ur century!
Well may the Senator from New York
'ry "shame" uron the damning deed. j