Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1859-02-08
From tn. New orlean, Daily True DELTA
HENRY A. WISE.

An unSeclnly feud exists IN virginia between
the friends and admirers Of Henry A. Wise
and those of r. NJ. I. Hunter, one Of the able,
or, perhaps. it may, with more propricty, be
said, the able Senator Of that honorcd State. As
between these parties, and as regards them, it
is of the least possible consequence, outside OF
Virginia, what they may think, or what they
NAV do, as partisans Of their respective idols.
for the people of the Union will judge both Of
those distinguished men by their acts and their
known opinions, and not by the declarations
Of overheatcd and overzealous partisans, whose
judgments are blinded by rage, passion or vim
dictivencss.
Both Senator Hunter and Gov. Wise are able
and accomplished incn, and both stand deserv-
edly nigh, the former, more particularly, among
what are cllled the ultra State rights men, or
fire-eaters, the latter as the perfect representa-
tive man, who-ncvcr shrinks from the express
sion Of an opinion. the assertion Of a principle,
or the maintenance Of q political right. Hun
ter has contented himself, during the Senatorial
excitements and outof.doors agitations Of the
last two years with playing a waiting game. as
If the Presidency was a prize the obtainment OF
which was a matter Of vastly greater moment
in his eyes than a bold and daring policy, which
would place him in the very front rank Of the
statesmen of his day. In pursuance Of this view,
he has spoken rarely in his place in the Senate,
and more rarely remarkably on any Of the great
issues raised; while the uncalculating and in
trepid Wise concentrated upon himself the
eyes of the nation, and made the hearts Of
millions pulsate in sympathy with his heroic
and noble exertions in the cause of truth, JUS
tice and the Constitution. Who that is a true
republican. can ever forget his gubernatorial
canvass, when, sinsle-handed, he entered the
lists to combat the previously irresistible trea-
son Of Know-Nothingism, or the matchless
skill, inexhaustiblc logic, unsurpassed elo-
quence and fearless daring with which that
ingeniously-contrived Yankee scheme was
treated by him, before the always politically
sane, sound and intelligent people Of Virginia :
He tore it to rags, he exposed it, he denounced
it, and he trampled it so thoroughly, so deeply
and so irrecovcrably in the filth under his feet,
that since his wonderful triumph was achieved,
it has at every point in the Union, save among
the Thugs of Baltimore, unobtrnsively rotted
out of existence. So also was his noble and
patriotic stand on the Kansas question. No
paltry personal calculation. no trimming policy,
no running with the hare while holding with
the hounds influenced or animated the chival-
rous Governor of old Virginia; but rising equal
to the emergency and forgetting all else but the
sacredncss Of inalienable popular rights and the
claims Of eternal justice, he flung himself with
all the ardor Of his impetuous. yet discreet ma
ture, into the front rank Of the then small but
compact Southern body, who, taking the Con-
s~titution for their guide, recognise the people
MS the source Of all power, and their conclu-
sions as the only real basis Of popular sovereign
ty. The people must be allowed to determine
for themselves the nature Of the institutions
under which it may suit them to live; no pow
er Of Congress, no judicial authority, no com-
bination Of men or of States can be allowed TO
interfere with OF dictate to the people in their
free, sovereign and independent capacity, what
they shall do or how they shall do it; nor can
any cxtraneous influence ever be tolerated which
seeks 10 impose upon the free people Of n sore-
reign State other institutions than those they
NAV, of their own free and u%ninlucnccd choice,
deem proper for their purposes, On this plat
form Henry 4. Wise carly and promptly took
his stand, apparently forgctful alike OF Presi-
dental displeasure and the whirlwind Of abuse
which his personal enemies, and the opponents
of his policy, directed against him with more
or less virulence, from every State in the South.
The friendship Of Buchanan was to be inconti-
nently diverted from him, his influence over
administration determinations was to terminate
his political aspirations were to be thwarted,
traduced and opposed in every form. and re-
gardless Of every scruplc and consideration,
yet the unterrifed champion Of popular rights,
animated by the same spirit that repealed
ACKNOWLEDGMENT from Virginia, disregarded
all other considerations but those ~springing
from the most exalted dictates Of public duty,
and boldly exposed the righteousness, the infa-
my and the danger Of attempting to force upon
the people of a territory Of this Union a con-
s~titution which nine-tenths Of them loathed.
exccrated and rcpudiated. He demanded for
the people of Kansas the rights exercised and
enjoyed in the great Commonwealth of which
he is the deserving Executive, and repealed the
disgracefnl continuance Of an unworthy Con-
gress to force institutions upon a people
with which they had no sympathy, which we're
untitled to their condition, and which were
wholly inapplicable to their wants and opposed
to their wishes. Wise occupied in Virginia
upon the Lecompton Constitution, precisely
the same ground the orator and the statesman,
Douglas, did in Illinois; and what the latter
accomplished in the West, the former nobly
achieved in the South-thc recognition Of the
right Of the people at all times and places, and
under every conceivable circumstance 70 regu-
lato their domestic affairs as their will