Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-08-09
THE HOPE OF THE OPPOSITION.


Very many well-meaning people have been
anxious to know whether the Democracy OIL
the Opposition is the more useful party in the
slave States. As question of proportion and
quality, it reminds us of the answer which DR.
johnson gave to the inquiry whether Derrick
or Smart was the better poet. "Sir," said he
"there is no settling the point of presidency
between louise and flea Estimate them
in contemplation of their respective capacities
for mischief we should make very different
comparison. But for all that either OF them
have promised to accomplish in behalf OF
correct public sentiment, or for the promotion
of equal rights their quarrels are witnessed
with the most profound indifference.
The result of the Southern elections can be
told in few words. The Opposition in Ken
lucky have been very badly defeated. The
Democracy have lost some in Tennessee, a
trihe in North Carolina and very much IN IN
Texas. The EmancpatieHists are still sue
cessful in Missouri; but they are pursuing
there policy equally hostile to the Demo-
cratic and the Opposition parties as they are
developed in other slave States. The opposi-
ton to the Democracy has not, even in the
slave States, common and homogeneous
purpose. In kentucky, in its useless zeal to
outstrip that party in Difference to slave.
ry, it has already fretted its puny body
to decay, and will probably never make a
healthy appearance upon that soil again. In
Tennessee the Opposition hestated to swallow
the allopathic dose of slave code for the Ter
ritories, and will preserve its vigor little
longer. In Texas the issue was still more
sharply defined, the Democrats having jumped
at the poisoned bait presented by the extrem-
lists, while all others, under the guidance and
direction of Gen. Houston, planted themselves
on kind of conservative and inofensive ba-
SIS, protesting about equally against the inno-
vations of the fire eaters and the hope of any
well-deiined and defensible reform.
The morale of these elections has been given
in various ways. Those who are unfriendly
to the measures and the policy of the Republi-
can party are delighted with the hope that
literal "union with the opposition" is impossi-
bic. Others who are not unfriendly but who
regard such union as the chief thing desir-
able, hasten to urge an immediate coalition of
all organizations which have not yet seen fit
to work in political union with the Democrat
ic party. Yet both seem to agree that
the elections of the week proved disastrous
to the cause which the friends of equal
rights are most DESTROYS to promote. The
fallacy of both consists in the assumption
that the Democratic party is the only
Carthage which it is desirable to destroy
when in fact, the evil genius, against which
we contend and which is hated by all right
thinking and right-mnded men, whether they
know it or not, incarnates itself as readily in
an Opposition as for Democratic party, if it can
be made useful for its purposes.
1t is very easy to denouuce those who hest
tate to enter into an indiscriminate carnival
for the sake of winning the custom houses and
to question the motives of those who do not
choose to trust their enemies without hostages.
But it is not wise or polite for those whose
path is bloody with defeats to assume the ex-
elusive prerogative OF defining the way of vic
tory. If the purpose of the opposition is in
any respect like that which has been manifest
ed in the late elections, its success is not at all
desirable. And the failure of the hope of such
a union is not disaster but signal triumph
Success is not worth much unless it is the sue
cess of right principles. History is full of ig-
noble triumphs, and of worthy victories but
those which excite any admiration were
achieved over sacrifices and disasters like
these. The Marlborough and Sunderland,
" no found safety by quick discernment of the
critical moment in the rise and fall of parties,
by never deserving cause till the moment be-
fore it was discovered to be desperate, are
not models for imitation, though they may in
this way, have found means to cling to power
or to acquire it, and to creep through stormy
revolutions without being crushed.
We ought to have learned that the shortest
road to ruin is that which DIVORCES farthest
from the line of duty. Timid people, who
mistake skirmishes for battles, who confound
Castenedolos with Solterinos, are those who
stand in the way of all progress. Like the
soldier who complained that his fingers which
were buried in Flanders ached every cold
morning in Chelsea, they allow no crises to
approach without lamenting over the losses
of their early and irrctrieyable misfortunes
Audacity is an eminent virtue; but the
audacity of despair is the last resort of cow
ardice, and is only worthy to be despised In
the present state of political organizations, the
hope of the opposition consists with the Re-
publican party. There is nothing in the slave
States with which it can hope to unite, and
there is nothing else in the free States which
can afford it any safe foundation. 1t is the
only party which has just claim to be called
union party, as it is the only one which, wher-
ever 1t has an organization, is the friend and
defender of the equal rights of mankind. Its
concessions, its sacrifices, its compromises.
have been already made From a liberal
comprehensive, and generous platform, it in.
vites the assistance and cooperation of all who
believe in its principles, and have faith in the
ultimate certainty of its success
SLAVE TRADERS AT SALEM.-The New
York Times has special dispatch from Bos.
ton, stating that there are al this time two yes