Quasqueton guardian. (Quasqueton, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1856-1858, 1858-02-25
Henry Clay Dean.

otraWs snow which way the WIND
blows" 1t is only as an illustration of
this adagc that the long letter of the
81 Rev, HENRY CLAY DEAN, chaplain to
the United States Senate" in which he
reads the President out of the Democrat
ic party +" for an infringementof its doc
trlnes,' can be regarded as of any impor-
lance. 1t is indeed rather interesting and
instructive, as a phase OF human nature,
to see the supple toady, who yesterday
was
"Crooking the pregnant hinges of the knee,
That thrift may follow fawning,"
to-day growing as bold as a lion in de-
nunciation of the President, from whom
he has evidently nothing to hope or fear,
for violation of "our party law" and
in vain attempt to save from impending
total ruin party from which he does
hope for something. But, except as a
curious phenomenon, its value is chiefly
as an indication of the present stage OF
the growing sentiment which compels
office seekers and place hunters to trim
their sails to n new course.
Hitherto, for many years, the only road
to high national Office was through the
favor--only procured by the most abiect
services and promises-of the handful of
oligarchs, who, whatever their differ
ences of sentiment or party relation on
ostensible national issues, yet by per-
feet unity of purpose in regard to their
peculiar institution always main
tained, and ruthlessly used, the balance
OF power on any matter touching, though
never so gently or remotely, the interests
OF that institution. Aware of this, those
whose patriotism never forget self, who
wished to serve their country in lucra
tive and honorable position, have always
found it necessary TO bow to the Moloch
of Slavery, and to purchase promotion by
compliance with its demands. That such
the most shrewd, as we'll as the most
ambitious of them-should now boldly
cast off their old allegiance, and spit in
the face of this Moloch, is a sign that the
sceptre has departed from the hands that
have long welded it with the arrogance
of an assured despotism. Not that it is
intrinsically of any consequence what
position the "Rcv. Henry Clay Dean,
chaplain" DC, occupes-what he does
or promises to do. Nor what the minim
gigantic Senator Douglas, or the redoubt-
able Governor WISE, do, or promise to
do. Either of them might, perhaps,
be willing to be &C counted
The great chilles, whom opinion crowns
The sinew and forehand Of the host;''
but all that they can do, either to restrain
or augment the mighty moving of the
masses, is Of no account The important
fact lies farther back in the chain of
causes. 1t is really Of some significance
that such men, whose very life is the
sunlight of popular favor-or at least the
favor of the dispensers Of places Of hon
or and emolumcnt-in seeking to keep
their vessels headed toward the goal of
their ambition, find it necessary 10 set
their sails, not, as formerly, TO the south
ern breeze, but to the gale rising and
swelling from the north and west, with
the protesting voices of millions Of in
dignant freemen,
Palmer than language, and notwith-
standing the feeble disclaimers now and
then put in to qualify their recusancy, it
says to the slaveholding oligarchy =
" lchabod your power is broken, your
prestige is destroyed, YOU are supreme no
longer. We acknowledge another mas
ter, from whom pap and preferment are
henceforlh to comc-whom th erefore we
must conciliate. Our hearts are with
you still, but power dwclls in another
quarter; and therefore, with many re-
grets for your more genial service, thith
er we direct our worship"
To us it gives the assurance--for which
thank God that at last "there is a
North y Yes, thank God Not be-
cause one point of the compass is, per Sc,
better than another nor yet because it is
the section in which, from the accidents
of birth and residence, we have local
interest; but because, in the existing
condition of things, in that direction lies
the hope of Freedom, Therefore, we
rejoice that there is Northern sentiment
in opposition to that slaveholding and