Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-11-17
HONOR TO CALEB GUSHING.

AUNUh AZ OSaLGo
1t is said in s,me of the disunion dispatches
from South Carolina, that they are making
subscription in Charleston for "a miniature
silver ship, to be presented to Caleb Cushing
1t is meant as reward for the honor done Sc
cessionsm by the vessel partly owned by Mr.
Cushing which mounted the palmetto flag at
Charleston, the other day. That gentleman
has earned such honors and it would be rank
ingratitude in the palmetto fire caters, if they
should be long in completing that subscription
This Caleb Cushing has not for
long time worked in behalf of any civilized
or honest purpose in politics. Years have
passed since he had the confidence OF many
people in Massachusetts, where the popular
Judgment describes him as a man with an ac-
tive intellect, unsupported by heart Or con-
science At the outset of his career, he IA
vored liberal and genial sentiments, as a mat
ter of policy. At that time he spoke some
words in support of the anti-slavery sentiment
of New England words that have since been
quoted against him with about as much
effect as would follow the firing of wood
en- arrows at the hide of rhinoce
ros. They did not flow from conviction;
therefore it did not cost him much to tread
them under foot, 1t is nowlse likely that he
has ever had the experience of an earnest con.
viction on any subject Such things do not
grow in a nature where nothing but unscrup-
ulous intellect guided by selfshncss is allowed
to operate. As insincerity and lack of con-
viction cannot be long concealed, they were
soon apparent in Mr.. Cushing's case, and he
ceased to expect popular support in Massachu-
Sets Since that time he has been a servile
apologist of slavery, i'll order to secure consid~
Grafton and place from the black power that
has controlled the federal government.
At length the slave power gave him dis
tnguished position in the government. After
his memorable adventures in Mexico, which,
we fear, will never be suitably told either in
history or song he became one of the leading
spirits of the Pierce administration. Caleb
Cushing and Jefferson Davis were chiefly re-
sponsibIe for the policy of that administration
on the slavery question. They dragooned
the democratic party into repeating the Mis-
souri, compromise restriction. They cncour'
aged and protected border ruffianism in Kan
sas. They are guilty of the atrocities employ
ed to force slavery into that territory. And
their names should always be mentioned with
suitable intonations of voice, whenever the
amazing villanies of the Pierce administra
ton, in connection with Kansas, are brough
to mind. Since the Mexican war, the south
ern extremists have had 10 more ready and
unhestaling slave in all the country, than Ca
leb Cushing. With what stealthy and eager
compliance he plotted with them, while prep
arations were going on Tor the last democratic
national convention And with what yearn-
ing devotion he served them in the work of
breaking down that convention When the
war between Sardinia and Austria broke out,
last year, so far had he gone away from sym
pathy with free principles, that he published
in Boston paper a series OF articles in behalf
OF the Austrian side of that controversy. Des-
potism may change its form, but it is always
the same in principle; and we might learn
from Caleb Cushings example, if we had no
other source of information, that whoever is
won to support it in one form is sure to be its
friend in all other forms. 1t would cost that
man no sacrifice of conviction to enter the
service of the autocrat of Russia or work as
the paid agent OF Austria.
No honest mind, with the whole case before
it, is likely to mistake the significance of such
men as Caleb Cushing in American politics.
But, audacity, if not great thing, will some
times fill observers with establishment. just
before the presidential election, Caleb Cushing
wrote a letter to that Breckenridge committee,
in New York, which made itself notorious as
the "Dry Goods Committee" In this letter
he had the audacity to explain as follows the
calamitous consequences of that atrocious
"Kansas work." for which he was SO much re-
sponsible -
"a spirit of sour fanaticism, of bigoted prop
agandism, of insane zeal to force on the south
ern states our particular social system, seem'
to animate the northern states, and desperate
ly to impel them on 10 drive the southern
states to Secessioa-a disaster for which, if /
should happen, there is no remedy by any Law
of the land. no remedy by any provision of tn
constitution, and no contamination save eithe
an agreed dissolution of the Union or a san
culinary civil war in the vain effort OF the mort
to subjugate the south"
The man who wrote that is capable of an
thing false and villainous. lie would steal hi
own purse and charge the theft 10 his neS
neighbor lie would betray his friend, sian
der his mother, sell his country, do any thin
but speak the truth and lead an honorable lif