The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-03-23

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BY the bils-after loag and drsary seasons Of
debate, With clouds Of dust and sheety showers
of watert rhetoric, tthe conviction must by this
time hayb forced itself upon the general mind,
that natibns cannot live by prattle alone-ths
in NO chSrus Of Congregational. vocalisss4 ere Ne,
to 6nd safety-shat fact must be met by fact i
and falschoods conquered by verities-that the /
chief end of government 10 the sublime silence |
of resoldte endeavor, and that practice is above
all palsver. We have been much and niiser- |
ably betAlked nation. Sound at heart and judi. |
ciously conscientious, We have listened with |
erect ears, and sometimes with uncommonly long
ones; aud when some hosry headed old sinner |
has spouted TO Us Of mis- country and his God of |
his seif.dsvotion and patriotism, we have be. |
lieved him with . charming simplicity until he
ran away with the public dollars. This could
not always last. In fact Mr. Buchanan, among
other AID innumerable favors conferred BY him |
upon the country-for who has given US more
valuable lessons!-has inyolpntarily struck
death blow TO this system Of gable, or at least
has brought it into wholesome disrepute. 1t
vas time to stop mere talk, indeed, when such
man ptated Of bis virtues, Of his wisdom, Of
and Of lis honest heart The thing became too
ridiculous to be amusing 70 tell the truth, it
was almost tragic.
But Mr.. Buchanan has now made his last
speech, or certainly his last having relation to
great national affairs. As he approached Wheat
land, the Lancasterian populace waylsid him,
saluted him with gun and bell and noisy cheer,
and theh demanded = speech. 1t was cruel
ordeal, but Mr.. Buchanan met 1t bravely and
told hsi''neighbors and friends" how his heart
was Swelling" how he expected soon to die,
how when he was in Russia he adsetonately re-
nembeted Lancaster, how when he was young
man Lancaster took him up and petted him, how
he intended to live in the future in tho charac-
ter of a benefactor of the Htwidow and the ia
therless, and how he hoped the Union would
be perpetual Now, there Is no positive harm in
this sort of small speech-making, except in the
assumption upon the part of the speaker that
throughout his career, he has always been an
honest public servant, has done nothing TO be
ashamed of, and therefore is not ashamed
This is what Mr.. Buchanan would have US be-
lieve Of himself. He wants US to forget his his
tory, and to love him dearly, upon the strength
of an amable fiction. He went on to say that
an Administration incomparably the worst
which the country has ever had, was great and
glorious triumph; that if anything has gone
wrong he is not responsible for it; that his par
TALLY successful efforts to wreck and ruin US are
worthy Of our highest grutitude and that, hap
pen what may, he retires from Office after meet.
| ing all his responsibilities with all necessary
wisdom and courage .'19
1t is not Tor US to hardy words with dead
man. He has not made remarkably good shrift
in public--perhaps he will make better one in
private We refer to him because there are
sound philosophical reasons for believing that he
is the last perfect specimen which the country
will see, for some time at least, of his class
Such men can have no important part or lot in
the days which are already upon US. Too often
and too long, We know, .trimmers and time
servers able to distract the public attention,
to preach peace with some applause when there
is peace, to take it forgranted that everything
| is settled when every thing is IN chaos, and to
assume, without being generally gibed at that
this or the other bit of legislation-some con-
! temptible or cruel act Of Congress-will prove
potent to allay the busy devil of controversy
| But Just now we are at the end of our rhetorical
rope. One of the late Mr.. Choate's finest bits of
calico oratory was description Of the Union
Disunited 1t was a. fearful as fine words could
make it. He painted great, volcanic fssure,
black, precipitous, and jagged, in the description
Of which he exhausted dictionaries, and then
| imagined new. He fancicd that by these artistic
efforts he could make his hearers believe that the
only way to save the State would be-to elect
Mr. Buchanan ! His appeals, and those like his,
/ were not made in vain and Mr.. Buchanan was
| elected. AZ Choate is not here to witness the
| result of that sanative evont; but Mr.. Choate's
assure is here, and, after four years Of Mr.. Buch
| anan's reign, the volcano is uncommonly lively
We are charged sometimes with sneering at
Union Saviors who consiper themselves, and are
considered by others to be the salt of the EARTH
We Judge them by their works. They do not
save the Union. Their pills and potions are i'm
potent. When they have their own way, things
are always at the worst. When they do not
have their own way, they wall and scott and va
tcinate. They talk of their virtues and of our
yices-of what they would do if they we've in
and we were ont. They cry and scream and make
| such din that society is soon in that state of
distraction in which they flourish and are tri
umphant. The have no principles, but they have
| quantities Of pretty poetry. The Union is SEN
| timent to be saved by sentimental conceptions
| and sentimental emissions.
| Men of this class had their turn during the
administration of Mr.. Fillmore; they passed such
laws as they pleased; they ran race o. dishon-
| or neck and neck with the Democratic party,
who showed them aside, took their place at the
| wheel, and tried to carry on the Government
| The country has given to both these classes of
men a fair enough trial with results deplorable
and patent to ALL Their policy, so far MS they
have had policy, has lamentably failed That
is the unmistaksble verdict of an indignant and
| uprisen people. Do the Peoksnffs submit with
| Christian humility or Roman stoicism The
country knows how gracefully they do so-how
they judge our party in advance-how they
grudge us opportunities which they have had
and have scandalously wasted. The Republican
! Administration comes to no comfortable heritage
The work to be done has been forced upon it by
the imbecilities and the iniquties of its prede-
cessors; and as it enters upon its great duties,
the Pecksnlffs, the men of theory-and that, too,
a theory of positive ruin and of no possible safe
ty-have again drawn ont their handkerchiefs,
and are again growing sentimental. We must
! confess that if they right, our whole theory
| of politics Is failure. Pure Unionism, under
Mr.. Fillmore, essays the care of the country and
fails. Pure Democracy, uader Mr.. Buchanan,
attempts the same work, aud fails. The Repub-
| licans, under Mr.. Lincoln have undertaken the
same task, and we are told that they, teo must
fail Who, then, would have succeeded? We
should very much like to know.
The Empire City and Star Of the West