Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-10-24
Mr.. Badger Regrets the best and most Patriotic
Act OF his Public Lille.

Mr.. Badger Regrets the best and most Patriotic |
Act OF his Public Lille.
At the recent Know Nothing. Opposition mass
meeting in Salisbury, Mr. Badger is represented as
having said that "he looked back to place in the
past where he had differed with John Bell as one Of
the great errors Of his life He now believed that
he ought to have voted as did Mr.. Bell against the
Kansas Nebraska BILL"
z Now, no one knows better than Mr.. Badger does
TALLY repealed the Missouri restriction and establish
ed the doctrine of non-intervention. Mr.. Badger
was decided advocate of those measures, while
Mr.. Bell, if he supported them at all did so coldly
and reluctantly In 1854 the Kansas Nebraska act
was pissed. That act repealed, in SO many words,
the Missouri restriction. 1t opened all the Terri
tories north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes to
the slaveholding States 1t was an act of simple
justice to Mr.. Badgers constituents; and one Of the
reasons, as he we'll knows for direct and unquali
fled abrogation of tine Missouri restriction in 1854,
was that the Northern States had never respected
the line referred to- but had endeavored various
occasions by the application Of the Wmot Proviso,
to exclude the South from all the Territories well
south as north of the line. No Senator advocated
the Kansas Nebraska bill with more zeal than Mr.
Badger did. Side by side with Stephen A. Douglas
he exposed the injustice of the Missouri restriction
and urged the Senate to repeal It Mr.. Douglas
commanded in the great intellectual conflict which
resulted in the triumph of the friends of the Con-
sttutional rights Of the slaveholding States Mr.
Badger acting as his Lieutenant Mr.. Badger even
went far in his zeal for this measure as to commit
clared Without authority and the consequence was
a rather acrimonious discussion in the Senate BE-
tween Messrs. Bell and Badger, in which the former
charged that the latter had spoken for him without
authority, while the latter in substance accused Mr.
Bell with having acted in bad faith Now Mr.. Badger
declares that lone Of the great errors Of his life
in not acting and voting Mr.. Bell did on that
occasion! He regrets that he voted to remove an
unconstitutional restriction which touched not only
the rights but the honor of his constituents He
would blot out. if he could the best act of his pub
lie life And wherefore? Can it be possible that
Mr.. Badger has been influenced in his course by the
fact that Mr.. Bell, who voted against the Kansas
Nebraska bill, is pow his candidate for the Pres
dency? Would we have had this solemn rccanta-
ton but for the circumstances by which Mr. Badger
is surrounded? Mr. Badger is very magnanimous
at times but his magnanimty is always on the side
of his party He will make almost any admission
or concession to advance his party interests and
this occasion he has gone so far as to humble him.
self as public man, and to regret his own deliber
ate and weconsidered action as Senator, in order
to add what strength he can by such course to his
candidate for the Presidency.
But if Mr.. Badger can sin yesterday and repent
today what assurance can his followers have that
he will not sin again tomorrow? Who can place
confidence in such politician? In 1860 he declar-
ed that the Union could not be preserved by force
but we expect to hear him announce, before the ex-
pration of the year 1860 that the force doctrine is
indispensable to the preservation Of the Union and
that Lincoln ought to be allowed to send troops
our soil to subjugate sovereign Southern States
Look out for regrets also on this subject Mr.. Bad
ger mends his ways and keeps up with Boyden and
others of that stamp by series of handsomely ex-
pressed regrets