New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-01-18
OUR NRw FRENCH MINISTER.


why the proceedings should have been secret) that
stormy discussion took place in the Executive
Session of the Senate, on the confirmation Of Mr..
Faulkner of Virginia as Minister to France, in the
place of Mr.. Mason, deceased. Mr.. Faulkner was
opposed, it appears, mainly if not wholly, on the
ground that he is not only member of the Dis
union party like all the Democrats Of the day, but
that he has lately, clearly and distinctly avowed
that traitorous, as well as insulting sentiment, that
he should consider the election of Republican
President sufficient cause for the breaking up of
the Government and that he was for making it the
occasion of doing so. iii be possible to bring any
man before the Senate of the United States for
frmationto high Office more obnoxious to criticism,
more untitled by extravagant partizanship, more
sure of the hostility and execratiOn of patriotic
citizens everywhere than such candidate, we are
unable to perceive who he can be. Yet this Mr.
Faulkner who thus avOws his readiness to Light
destructive connagration in his own country-avow-
ing bis readiness to break up our Federal Union,
and scatter its elements to the winds-who would
provoke the frenzy Of internecine var, aud play
traitor himself; this man is the first to ask for
paving mission abroad in which he can comfortably
ensconce himself while others are left behind at
home to play out the role he has so valianty indl-
Gated. We do not know which quality of this mans
composition claims pre9minence-his audacity or
those nameess characteristics of ignoble mold that
rise instnctivey to every ones apprehension on
rejecting on such conduct as this.
But if Mr. Faulkner himself is so amenable to
-ko< 10
say of the Administration which could appoint such
a man, what to the Democratic Senator's who con.
frmed the appointment! Does Mr.. Buchanan,
does the Administration mean to indOrse the sent-
ments of Mr.. Faulkner They cannot plead igno-
rance of them. Those sentiments have been freshly
uttered, and are as widely known as Mr. Faulkner
himself The Administration does intend to indorse
them. 1t does mean to approve the threat on the
lips of half the politicians 1--WE cannot dignity them
by the name of statesmen) of the Southern coun-
try, that the Union shall be dissolved in the event
of the election of Republican President. II does
mean to indorsc the outrageous dsunion sentiments
that have come yelling up from Southern Members
of Congress, ever since that body assembled. There
is no other conclusion to be drawn from Mr. Faux
ners nomination. There is no other meaning to
this offensive act The Administration is not only
taciy lending its aid and cOuntenance to traitorous
doctrines it is elevating to the very highest posts
in the Government, the most prominent of their
utterers.
If anything beyond the fact of the nomination
itself were wanting to confirm this idea, it is found
in the character of the discussion in the Senate
upon its confirmation. When it was opposed, on
the ground on which it ought to have been OPP
posed, the whole squadron of Southern Democrats
and their Northern doughface allies rushed eagerly,
almost franticaDy, to it's support defending, we
are told explicitly, those very positions OF Dir.
Faulkner himself which we have censured Thus
they made themselves active partisans OF the OBJ
noxous and traitorous sentiments in question, and
proved that they were not ignorant and unwilling
partners of the Administration in this offensive act,
but ready and cheerful cO0perators in its consum-
nation. They not only endured the monstrous
sentiments Mr. Faulkner had previously expressed,
they reiterated, approved, and embraced them.
We ask if it is any longer question where the
Administration and the Democratic party stand on
the Dsunon question! What more emphatic tes-
tmony can they offer to show their liberation, their
completely, their complete aud loving adhesion to
the abominable ideas and purposes referred to 7
They defend the doctrines themselves, and they
unanimously exalt the man who utters them.
The Democratic Senators having thus taken the
bull by the horns, and fully approved the most
offensive and tratOrOus views and expressions
uttered by the South on any occasion, we trust
We shall hear nothing further from them or their
conlederates in the House in regard to the Helper
book. These gentlemen have protested very ex-
cessye sensitiyeness over the fact that the Repub
can candidate for Speaker was one of number
of persons who recommended work simply ex-
posing the workings Of Slavery, and setting forth
the opinions of its author, himself Southern man.
For this act, which they have assumed to be ex-
tremely unpatriotic and unfrendly, they have
declared their total inability to tolerate him in the
Speakers chair; and the changes have been rung
on this theme ad nauseam, from the first of De-
ctmber till now. But, since they have shown that
they delight to swallow much more offensive dose
of ultra opinion on the opposite side of the ques-
ton, We take il for granted they will hereafter be
ient on Helper. To talk of him now, is merely 10
emphasize their own hypocrisy, ana snow the
glaring transparency Of their motives in assailing
he Republican candidate. 1t is not Helpers book,
or Helpers doctrines alone, that they hate, but
every form of Repubicanism, including that Of de-
votion to the Constitution and Union, which, in
this very act Of confirming Faulkner, they 80
fercely assail in most vital point.
But the Republicans can afford to be patient.