Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-01-21
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
LOYAL OPPOSITION ILLUSTRATED.

we have made citations from the messages OF the
Governors of the States as they have SUCCESSFULLY
appeared at this season Of the year. on the occasion
of the assembling Of the State Legislatures, con-
Hning ourselves chiefly to selections from suoh
horizons Of their communications as had relation
TO /" national affairs" and which might therefore
be Justly held to possess more than local interest
and Importance, as rejecting the views OF men
clothed by their official position with important
powers at this epoch in our political history.
In accordance with this habit We to-day make
room for the reproduction of so much OF the mes
sage of Governor PARKER, of New Jersey, Grams
mtted to the Legislature Of that State on the 18th
Instant as treats these topics. Ii seems to US
that, besides the features common to all ofhcial
communications Of this kind there are peculiar
reasons why the views of Governor Parker at TINS
crisis in history should be entitled to respect
full hearing and candid consideration. The State
of which he ia the honored Executive was the only
one Of the MISUNDERSTANDING States in which the
present amiable incumbent OF the Presidenual
chair failed at the last election for President to
receive majority sufficiently large to procure
in his favor the suffrage of the entire electoral col
1epe of such States And at all the elections
which have been subsequently held in New Jersey,
the people of the State have, by majorities not
only decided, but unprecedented, declared them
selves opposed to those distinctive measures OF the
Administration which have become points of diff
ference among loyal citizens.
Without finding it necessary for the purposes OF
IL
this article to raise any question as to the tena-
bilty of the different grounds taken on these DIS
puted measures by the professed supporters Ct the
Administration on the one hand and by its avow-
ed opponents on the other, we wish simply to
sisnalize the attitude held by the Governor and
people of New Jersey as striking illustration of
the limits within which "loyal opposition" may
be conducted, not only without detriment to the
national cause, but really with advantage to the
moral force of the paramount issues which, in an
nour like this, compose the true tests o. "loyalty,
as they indicate the true bounds of demarcation
between the enemies and the supporters of the Go
yernment. If for instance, in spite of political
differences, we find the Governor of New Jersey
as prompt as the Governor of Massachusetts, IN re
spending to all the calls emansting from the pre-
sent Administration in the emergencies thrust
upon it by gigantic insurrection, we may be sure
that there is something in the cause of the Govern
ment which lies deeper in the hearts of the people
than those questions of administrative policy to
which partisans on the one side and on the other
are tempted by their antipahies or their prsd'lec
tions, to ascribe exaggerated Importance. With
out drawing any invdous comparisons it is safe to
say that the people of New Jersey, notwithstand-
ing the fact that they embrace less proportonsof
political supporters of the present Administration
than any other loyal State, have been behind no
State in the promptness with which they have con-
trbuted of their and means to the defence of the
Governn emf when imperilled by an armed sedtiop
New Jersey was the first to place her entire quota
of "three months" men in the field, fully armed
and equipped, after President Lincoln, on the 18th
of April 1861 had summoned the loyal States to the
succor and defence of the Union. The number of
regiments which she raised for the three years
service compared well with that Of any other State
coming in the category with respect to the pro-
portion fits arms-bearing population. She was the
first procure her full complement Of men under the
subsequent call for 800 900 additional troops Of the
"nine months men" she furnished her appropriate
contingent and at the last call of the Government she
raised BY volunteering more men than we're OBJ
tanned from the whole Of New England by the
draft Or, as Gov. Parker modestly states it,
there have been credited to the State on her as
signed quota about FIVE thousand men, being
nearly two-thirds Of the required number; while
the draft in other States yielded only about one
third the quota in men and money calculating three
hundred dollars as representing man"
We need not recall to the recollection Of our
readers that when the late invasion Of Pennsyl-
vania by the army of Gen. Lee spread so much
CONSERVATION throughout that State, the hastily
organized levieo of New jersey were the first to
reach the scene Of threatened attack The gal
lantry of her troops on many stricken field, from
the opening battle Of Williamsburg on the Virginia
Peninsula the last battles that have been fought
in the Southwest, has already received general
recognition.
We do not recspitulate these facts for the pur-
pose Of drawing any deductions from them that
minister to the pride of State or rouse the
legitimate sensbties of her equally loyal sisters
We use them for far other and higher purpose
We wish to set in a clear liobt tho as.ept;al ala