The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-09-19

old John Adams, they agloried" IN the
name of FederaI,t; but when they voted
for his son, they called themselves q Nation
al Republicans" and swore rormdly that
they never iaad been Federalists. Since that
time, it has been difficult to keep pace with
! the operations of that perpetual moulting
process-if we may so style it-whereby
the party is accustomed to rid itself of a
name which has outlasted its respectabiity,
and decorate itself with a new one of a less
offensive character No name, however, can
long serve its purposes; for, like a hod-car-
rier's shirt, it becomes hOpelessly soiled as
soon as their work is begun; whereupon, as
though it were foul garment, they proceed
to cast it of, and, taking up some cleaner
name, as yet unused for party purposes, they
put it on, without thought Of the necessity
of general ablntion, and appear before the
people-who are constrained meanwhile, to
hold their noses-as the incarnation of po-
litical purity-always loudly asseyerating
that they never wore those disgusting cast-off
names which so offend the popular eye and
nostril, but that they are the dirty linen of
various political parties, which have been
long defunct. BY turns-short turns, how
ever-they who were first called Federalists
have successively been known as National
Republicans" Wings" now-Nothings," !"
"Americans," "Thc Peoples Party" "The
Opposition" "The Constitutional Union
Party" etc. If we have omitted score or
two of their titles, they will pardon the
omission, and ascribc it only to defect of
memory.
But under whatever name this party has
presented itself before the American people,
it has always been characterized by the same
striking and unvarying pcculiarities which
distinguished it in the palmlcst days of tri-
umphant Federalism. The same doctrines,
with strongly centralizing tendencies, the
same assertion of the paramount authority
of the general government over the rights
of the States, the same latitudinarian con-
struction of the Constitution, the same con-
tempt for the popular intelligence and will,
the same disregard of all the lights of ex-
perience, and the same unbounded confidence
in the arts of deception, all these have marked
its career under its every change of name
and fortune. -Four times as we have seen,
have its leaders succeeded in placing them
selves in the seat of authority, and as often
have they been swiftly excluded from power
by the people whom they had momentarily
misled. They have never yet been able to
overcome the damnatory sentence of that
"sober second thought" which is certain,
sooner or later, to occupy the popular mind
in reference to public men and measures
and yet, this same party, with nothing in its
past history to invite confidence, and after
SO many repeated evidences of its incompe-
tency to administer the affairs of govern
ment, is arrogantly endcavoring to persuade
the people again to confido the government
to its control! A great peril is impending
over the country; and this party if it were
honest, and believed that it had the power to
avert the threatened evil, would stand forth
and declare to the people what it proposed
to do, and how it would proceed in order to
save the country; bnt true to its instincts,
and pursuing its tradtionary role of evasion
and deceit, it raises only the bald and un-
meaning cry of "The Union, the Consti-
tuition, and the Enforcement of the Laws"
fondly hoping, through the employment of
these delusive catch-words, to calm the anx-
icty of the public mind, and to win votes,
without attempting to answer that great and
vital question which the great heart of the
nation is putting to all parties" WHAT ARE
you GOING TO DO"
We cannot believe however, that this party |
ofever-vaying names is destined to succeed
for we are unable to conceive that an entire
people can be led astray by such devices as
Federalism is now rcsorting TO. What indi-
vidual would consent to intrust his private
affairs, for the fifth time, to an agent who
had already demonstrated, on four important
occasions that he was utterly faithless, and
incompetent to protect the interests confded
to his care, and who was openly and shame
lessly laying his plans to plunder and over
reach his principal again! Who would con-
ide in the honesty of an old rogue, just out
of the penitentiary for the fourth time, upon
the simple ground that he had changed his
name, and that he professcd to have been, all
his life, model of integrityl Those who
would employ the agent, and confide in the
rogue, in the cases just supposed, may sup
port Bell and Everett, without subjecting
themselves to the charge of inconsistency.
We have nOught to say, however, in regardb
to their sagacity. v
A Prophecy.
THERE Is not single Southern Statei in