New-York daily tribune., 1863-07-11
y. =. STILL WALKING AND TALK.
lN(j.

Wo announced, only the other day, to an
astoni.hcd world, that Mr. James Buchanan,
being yet in tho flesh, was hopping brl'kly
about in Pennsylvania. voluntarily performing
the duties of an amateur recruiting sergeant.
We have now 10 inform our startled readers,
that on the late Fourth of July, ex-President
Pierce suddenly made his appearance at Con
cord, ". H., and delivered an Grafton which
would have done credit 10 any living man,
and which coming FROM dead one was per-
fccty miraculous. There have not been such
portents as these since the sbeeied deceased
did squeak and gbber in the Roman streets
From what part Of toe universe Mr.. Pierce
came We do not pretend to decide, nor
whether they were internally hot or celestially
temperate; but We eau truly say that since
We heard from him jd.t before his death, he
most decidedly has not made the least ad.
vance in the Art of rruth.Telling. We should
do injustice to the brilliancy of bis earthly
career, if We said that ho had retrograded IN
this department Of human skill. IL Is. per-
hhp., enough to declare that the ghost reminds
now the sole representative under the neon.
There is nothing 10 our mind more painful
than nn Immoral Specter, Ghost Of Loose
Principles. We remember with horror de-
tip a table in our presence one evening, and
who also confded 70 tho medium irightiul
amount Of iorcaale profanity. IL turned out
that the gentleman in the flesh, had been
his sphere with our forgiveness. IL the spirit
Of Franklin Pierce says things which are not
to be reconclled with rigid yeraciiy, We must
remember that the unhappy man was once
Democratic President, which may account for
the peryersitics Of the Ghosts Grafton. What
soyer comment we may offer. will, wc trust,
be made in spirit Of amiablc pity.
Sir. Pierce, t. begin with hIs beginning. has
discovered that "the Declaration of lnde-
pendence laid the foundation OF our political
greatness in the two fundamental ideas of the
absolute Independence Of the American people,
and ii tho sovereignty Of their respective
States" This is undoubtedly true, 30 far as
it goer-it sounds like scrap hshed ont OF
Mr. Calhoun's remains-but, as it does not SO
far enough, it is also undoubtedly false. Be
side Z" the independence Of tho American peo-
ple," considered as nationality, Pierce's
Ghost should have remembered TINT the Decla-
ration Of Independence, as the very first con.
dtion of public liberty, asserts the sanctity of
a. taH
equal" Ghost Pierce says our fathers did not
theorizs. We say That they did. He says
that they were not rciormers. We say that
they were. Ho says that they were not fanat.
les. We say that they were called so in their
day. IIs says that in making tho Declaration
they were not thinking Of Slavery at all. We
sny that the Journal Of Congressional Debates
| and the original Draft Of the Declaration both
plumply contradict him. Whoever says that
Slavery was forgotten by the Congress, or that
it's existence was approved by the Congress, says
what is very far from being true. There was not
public deliJeration in l776. in which it was
not bitterly remembered. Every schoolboy
knows that it was one Of the original charges
,nado against George ILL.,, that he had forced
the Slave.Trade upon Virginia. Was that
clause stricken from tho first draft, without
debate aud without any consideration of the
subject Of Slaveryf A ghost may believe it
but we decline to do so! Well, If there wal
debate there was even then an early recogni
tion of tho impolicy and injustice Of Slavery
Sad it is to know that tho difficulty was dodge
that patiotio men were not wholly truo +