Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-06-09
WHAT WE NEED MOST.

In many cases, what is called "shrewd poll
cyl is in reality nothing but cowardice or
treachery. Shivcring cowardice is always
imbecile and contemplate and it always
fails, no matter how good the cause which it
pretends to support, while audacity, that never
hesitates or trembles, gives the most internal
cause success. If those who SO anxiously dis
cuss the policy of the Republican, party will
take due account of this fact, it may guide
them to just views of policy. And perhaps it
may also show them how to dismiss much of
their soIcitude and gain serener confidence
in the future.
If the slave power in this country were as
cowardly as most of its opponents, it could
not succeed in anything. We should not see
it demanding and exercising supremacy in the
Republic. Its influence would disappear from
the national councils and it would retiN
quietly to the States where it tolerated,
and there behave lilzerahy other decrepid
and dying barbadfsm. But, the accomplished
politicians who manage that institution and
.ttkhsfive by it, understand very well, that the
that faint-heartedness never wins battle, and
that there is no policy so lordly in its influence
or so magical in its operation as AUDACITY.
By means ofaudacity that never shrinks, new
er sleeps, and never bushes, they control the
general government, although they constitute
a small minority of the people and have but
few other elements of power. 1t requires
some nerve to stand up in the nineteenth CEN
fury, amid democratic institutions, and in the
face of modern civilization, and put forth such
atrocious claims in behalf of slavery and the
whole world would laugh at the man who
should do it with the tone and manner of a
sneaking poltroon. But we all know how
different the case is with the customary tone
and bearing of the Shareholders.
We shall do well to study the lesson they
afford us and profit by their example. Those
of our friends who discuss the probable policy
of the party with SO much anxiety may profit.
ably take this matter into consideration. Has
not our party too much of that chicken-heart-
ed policy which serves only to make men con-
temptible We think it likely that those who
enquire carefully will come to the conclusion
that nothing is more needed in the party than
the predominance of bold, selfasserting man.
hood 1t would do us good as party to be
more confident in the power of our principles,
more downright in asserting them, more fear
less of consequences. In this struggle be.
tween right and wrong light and darkness,
civilization and barbarism, our side has nothing
to be ashamed of. Truth enhaloes its fearless
yotaries and why, with such cause as ours,
should we get upon our knees and beg pardon
for being engaged in it? or why should we
sneak to our work like miserable towards, and
be forever protesting that we don't mean any
thing serious? 2" This white-livered anxiety of
caution in all we do against the slave power
is, to foreign statesmen who visit this country,
the most astonishing thing in American poll
tics. Richard Golden, now in the country,
makes the following observation =
ga Democrat swaggers in as if the govern
ment belonged to him; Republican, on the
contrary hesitates, doubts, and acts as if
victory were too good for him. The one ut
tiers, fearlessly, the most atrocious sentiments,
as if they were merit; the other apologies
Your Republican party lacks pluck"
1t is this habit of hesitating, doubling and
begging pardon, that makes some Republicans
willing to emasculate their platform. 1t is
the chief business of such men to devise meth
dds for depriving the party of vigor and power
and making it inofensivc. They are about as
fit to lead great political movement against
the slave power as a timid, ghost-haunted old
woman would be to conduct the storming
of fortified den of buccaneers. The side
of freedom and justice in this controversy,
has suffered too deeply from such counsels
to tolerate them much longer. 1t is not
by such counsels, nor by such leaders, that the
party will be guided to victory. We have had
too much of them already, and it is high time
to try something more excellent. But the spir-
it of the party is drawer than the counsel of
some of those who undertake to dictate its pol
icy and it has gallant leaders under whose
influence it will assume the proper tone and
bearing, and make the towards sufficiently
contemplate. We hope the day is not far dis
tant when disinterested observers who criticise
the Republican party will not have occasion to
say it "acks pluck"