Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-02-11
THE PRESIDENTIAL QUESTION

Mr.. Everett, in a melancholy letter to
Union meeting in Philadelphia, contemplated
the time when, the existing Union having been
broken into fragments, and after calamities
and woes for which history has no parallel,
new constitution would be dictated at the
mouth Of the cannon by military chieftain
Il will serve as an illustration of the "gorgOns,
hydras, and chimeras dire" which appear in
every important conjunction of public events,
to those who maintain kind of morose mac
tivity outside of the field, because they can
not agree with either of the combatants.
Men who have been out of the pub.
lie service so long as to have lost all
faith in it, and have acquired the habit Of
faultfnding and complaint over movements
which they will not cannot influence and
control, are not likely to be silent at the APP
proach of crisis, intrinsically important, and
where grave and solemn interests are really at
stake. Bulletins may be regularly anticipated
from these idle prophets of calamity, until the
contest is settled by the triumph of one side
or the other. And if, in the Providence of
God, the enemies of constitutional govern
ment and constitutional liberty achieve mo.
mentary success, history will not hold these
men guiltless who sat upon the walls-hooting
like night owls-while the foe was storm.
ing the fortress in which the imperilled hopes
Of the country had taken refuge.
The first impulse of every one who cherish
es an honest regard for the public welfare is to
effect constitutional and salutary reform.
Take any candid man outside of his political
associations, and it will be impossible for him
to witness the degradation which twenty-five
years of almost unbroken misrulc has brought
npon us, without feeling of inexpressible
shame. We live under a government which
paralyzes conscience, which denies self-evident
truth, which makes burlesque of the princ-
pies of Democracy, and recognizes in
justice as an element to be consulted
and maintained. There is no govern
ment on the face of the earth which filings
such an insolent and audacious defiance
into the face of its great professions, as that
which rules over us. 1t enslaves innocent
men, 1t makes war upon uuofending citizens.
1t steals land from its neighbors. 1t encour-
ages public malfeasance, and private robbery
1t tolerates filibustering on the land and piracy
on the high seas. The natural and inevitable
consequence of such a career of immortality
and crime appears in the fact that individuals
have come to accept the practice, as substi-
tute for the canons of the moral law, which
are outcast and exile from every seat of politi-
cal authority and power. The uniform ten
dency of Democratic" government has been
to Generalization and anarchy. The Republi-
can party, composed of the reserved and I'M
corrupted forces, which adhere to the original
doctrines of the Republic, insists upon its i'm
mediate overthrow.
1t is a matter practically of slight conse-
quence which of the wings or factions of the
party now in power obtains ascendancy in its
councils. The organization itself is PERM
cious. Its mischief is inherent and independ.
ent of any differences of doctrine relative to
the methods of extending slavery. 1t is, by
the force of its position, and by the fortune of
the states where it is ascendant, the buwark
and defence of slavery. And it cannot be
otherwise. The only difference worthy to be
considered at all is that one side claims the
prudence and sagacity to make its infamy
eternal, while the other side, in its passion
would ensure tia swift and easy descent to per-
dition That conflict must come with such
party, however organized, was inevitable
And that it should come, as it does in such
manner as to give promise of peaceful res
toration of the government to republican prin-
ciples, without destroying or radically chang
ing any of its essential institutions, is one of
the chief causes which should enlist the active
interest of every man who cares to see it
brought to speedy and righteous end.
There is at least no place on this field for
third party-neither in Massachusetts,, nor in
Kentucky, nor in the shadows of Independ-
ence Hall. Sectionaism is not exclusively ge-
ographical. The sectionasm which is most
nearly internal is that which justifes a section
al oppression through vile and cowardly fear
of its malice.