Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-07-27
0Qortester 1ailp Syn.
From the Charleston Mercury, July 81.
VIRGINIA POLITICS.

HoHu w my, OIL Tie pOulcS OF virginia, IN
view of the next Presidential election Our
readers will perceive anticipated by us some.
time since) that the Opposition" of Virginia
will support the rights of the South in our ter
ritories. If the Democratic party at Chales-
ton shall ignore these rights, it will be over
thrown in the South. 1t is impossible to con-
vince any honest man in the South, that In a
party, the strength of which is in the South,
it is ineXpedient to assert the rights of the
South, supported by the Supreme Court of the
United States, whilst they are denied by the
great majority of its associates of the North.
The rights of the South are not to be asserted
in orfer that our associates of the Democratic
party of the North shall be able to deny that
they exist There is such mean trickery and
hypocrisy in such policy, that it is only as
tonishing that any statesmen or presses at the
South dare uphold it. That it will kill Mr.
Hunter in Virginia and the South we do not
doubt The structures of the Richmond Wing
on the course of himself and friends, on the
question of the rights of the South in our terri
tories are as just as they are forcible They
are the very last men in Virginia whom the
South could have suspected of a mean truck.
ling to party, or of meaner betrayal of the
rights of the South.
But although Governor Wise is now true to
the South on the question of her rights in our
territories he stands no more chance OF NOM
ination for the Presidency at the Charleston
Convention than Mr.. Hunter, unless, indeed,
he is taken up by the North, in consequence of
his anti-Lecompton services. He helped Walk
er to defeat the establishment of slavery in
Kansas, and he aided Douglas in defeating the
administration and the whole South on the ap.
plication of Kansas to be admitted into the
Union with a pro-slavery constitution. The
South, he may be assured, will not forget these
4 l,o1
her. The Northern States will, of course, by
the method of its organization have the con
troll Of the Charleston Convention. The New
England States, where the Democratic party
cannot carry a single vote for their candidate
in the Presidential election, will outvote in the
convention, South Carolina, Georgia, Alaba.
ma, Florida, and Louisiana. They and Vir-
ginia may take up Governor Wise and force
him on the South in the convention. This is
possible, but not probable. 1t constitutes the
only chance for the nomination of Governor
Wise for the Presidency His cratic, unreli-
able course, and the recent collapse of the Hun
ter Democrats in Virginia, on the rights of the
South in our territories, place both Mr.. Hun
ter and himself beyond all availability for the
Presidency. All the ''sound and fury of
these pretensions, in the public press, Signify
nothing.
Here in Virginia, there is an open and I'M
disguised war between the friends of Hunter
and the friends Of Wise. Nearly all the demo-
cratic papers in the State have taken sides,
and are now pitching into each other with the
most commendable nonchalence and vigor
The principal political issue existing between
them, and which is the ostensible cause of the
controversy now prevailing between the En-
quirer and Examiner, and their respective
followers, relates to the question of the protec-
ton of slavery in the territories. That is
the Enquirer, which is the leading organ of
the Wise party, insists upon Intervention
for the sake of protection" if such protection
should be considered necessary On the other
hand, the Examiner, which is the leading
organ for the Hunter party, admits the doc
trine contended for by the Enquirer, but, at
the same time scouts and repudiates it as a
"barren abstraction" and sturdily opposes its
incorporation into the democratic platform, by
the Charleston Convention.
Such, we repeat, so far as we are informed, is
the only political issue which divides the Wise
men and the Hunter men. Looking at it from
q neutral and impartial standpoint and as
Southern man, we are obliged to consider it
very grave and important issue, and one
well calculated to excite reflection in the
minds of southern democrats before they rash
ly commit themselves to the fortunes Of either
of the distinguished Virginia aspirants for the
Presidential nomination. AS for ourselves,
after much bordering of the subject, we agree
with the position taken by the Enquirer and
the friends of Wise. We believe that Con-
gress is constitutionally bound to afford just
and equal protection to all sorts and descrip-
ti0ns of property in the territories, slave prop
erty necessarily included. If the territorial
authorities refuse to grant such protection, it
&c 70
iy and effectually, and see that no mans
rights of property, in the territories Of the
Union, shall suffer any detriment in any re-
spect, either by studied neglect or "untriend-
ly legislation" on the part of the territorial
authorities who are only the agents and sub
ordinates of the Federal Government This
is the true Southern Rights doctrine, and has
been the special pet doctrine of the Hunter
class of politicians until the exigencies of the
approaching Presidential election caused them
to abandon it, and from pure motives OF what
they consider erpediency.
1t is passing strange, indeed, to hear the
anointed disciples and followers of Calhoun
and the Hunter men are the peculiar disciples
and followers of that great statesman-ridicul-
ing great and vital constitutional right, as
"barren abstraction" and intoxicating the doc
trine of expedency in political action-a doc
trine which they have never failed to deride
and boot at for'the last twenty-five or thirty
years. We repeat, that the position now oc-
cupied by the friends of Hunder in relation
to the duty Of Congress to protect slave prop
erty equally with all other kinds OF property
in the territories of the Union, is totally mex
pcable to us, except upon the reasonable n.y.
pothesis that they are ready to sacrifice all
which they have made themselves conspicuous
in contendng for, in order to secure to r. NJ
r. Hunter the nomination for the Presidency
at Charleston! And have these brave and
noisy sticklers for Southern Rights indeed low
cred their flag, with a view to the accomplish
ment of an object SO paltry? Have they come
over to the ground which they SO often de-
nounced the Wings for occupying, and fallen
out with "barren distractions" and set to
abusing and laughing at them Verify, these
friends of Hunter have turned maryellously
surprising and sudden summerset, and deserve
leather medal, and round of applause from
the whole country, for their agility.
But the question is-what will they make
by itl Will their gross abandonment of prin-
ciple-their startling change of front-lead to
the fulfllment of their wishes and expecta-
tons? Will Hunter obtain the nomination for
the Presidency at Charleston If we might
be permitted to express a modest opinion on
the subject, we should say, in all frankness,
that he stands scarcely the ghost of a chance.
He has never, indeed, stood much Of chance,
owing to his notorious political timidity and
non-commitalism. But the sudden ignoring,
by his friends and by himself Of the clear and
admitted constitutional rights of the South, for
the purpose of conciliating the advocates OF
"squatter sovereignty" at the North, has com
pletely and irretrievably blasted his Presiden-
tal prospects, and he may as well hang his
harp upon the willow without further cere'
mony. So ihr as the Presidency is concerned