New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-08-24
YANCRYfsM.

We confess to not having very high opinion of
the popular intelligence prevailing in large portion
of our sister States south of Mason aud Dixon's
Line, but have hitherto nevertheless, chung to the
conviction that they were not all fools. We know
they have only to depend upon that scant portion
of mother-wit with which God has endowed them,
for they have natural prejudice against schools
as the invention of people among whose staple
products are wooden hams and wooden pumpkin
seeds. But this uncultivated mother-wtt we
have supposed was enough to enable them to I'M
derstand that two and two do not make fye and
that white and black were not the same color.
| But our faith is shaken.
Our faith is shaken by speech of Mr.. William
L. Yancey. Mr.. Yancey is not q fool. He is
well up in his arithmetic and is as familiar with
the difference of hues, and more particularly the
difference between white and black when it has a
human relation, as any man we know But MIR.
Yancey presumes 20 much upon the utter ABSENCE
of any logical faculty, upon the absolute nom
existence Of the commonest sort of common sense,
in his auditors, that he almost constrains US to be-
ieve, in spite of our cherished convictions, that
his compatriots are men whose intelligence it is not
at all necessary to compliment BY rational
discourse.
Mr.. Yancey addressed the citizens at Memphis,
Tennessee, on the 14th inst. His object was two
fold: to defend the Democratic party, and to de-
fend himself To defend the Democratic party
he went into history of the late Democratic Con-
yer TONS and in that fight he showed, 10 doubt to
bis own and to the satisfaction Of his hearers that
the Breckenridge party came out first, aud the
Douglas party second. We have no fault 10 tind
with that conclusion. The fight is pretty fight
as it stands, and long may it wave" Tee next
Douglas orator who next takes the rostrum can
make quite as good showing on his part as Mr.
Yancey does on the other. Indeed, at one moment
that gentleman's candor rather got the better OF
him-for, as be relied on the fact that Mr.. Douglas
had not twO-thirds electoral vote for his nomiDa
tiOn, and can not, therefore, be the candidate OF
the Democratic party so he naiyely confessed
that Mr. Breckinridge 80 far as the nomination is
concerned, is in the same category. But bis de-
fence of himself comes to even lamer conclusion.
Mr.. Yapcey denies that ne is disunonist. We
need not tell him that this announcement filled us
with delight for we fear that he does not honor us
by reading TIE TRIBUNE'with that avidity with
which we wish he did, and he may not hear us.
But we, nevertheless, assure the public OF our
qualification. 1t is pleasant to see how he warns
up with his theme, as he talks of the glorious
Union. He dsuDionist Not he There are
none of us can talk with glibber tongue of those
"graDd old days Of yOre" than Yancey. lie
knows all about that tax upon tea, and believes
that John Hancock might have dropped his share
Of it for a year out of his breeches pocket and
never have known it, And Washington might
have dropped his share of it, ALSO for six or even
nine months, from similar receptacle, and been
unconscious of the loss. Yancey, also, gores in the
Declaration of Independence, and never hints that
it was " generality" He hOnors the men of the
Revolution, whether they came from Massachusetts,
or Virginia. He does not shrink from naming half
dozen Of them, then and there in Memphis, though
every one ofthese was in bis day an Emancipation
ist. That fact, indeed be does not mention, though
he knows il as well as We do, for his faith IN the
ignorance of his auditors was unbounded. And
he also knew as well that, if there be man living
whose life is devoted TO undermining the principles
OF the men he praised, that man is himself. But
he praised them and glored in them, and worshiped
them none the less for that for he was acquainted
with his audience. The only risk he ran was In
saying that some Of them came from Massachusetts,;