Year: 1859

papers, and palmed off on the public under that
guise the Washington Constitution takes the lead in
aspiring to the most magnificent and incontestable
eenence in all these disreputable qualities. Its
daily issuance is continually repeated and outra-
geous offence against sense of public propriety,
which the most hardened and the most ignorant
should have the natural instinct to respect. But
more hardened than the most hardened, and more
ignorant than the most ignorant it persists in Haunting
its concoctions and illustrating its stupidity in daily
promulgations Of both. If James Buchanan's Ad.
mnistration were as immaculate in the same degree
as it is faulty as wise it is stupid and as popular
as it is odious, the suerance of such special advo.
cate as the Constitution would render it as gra
tuitously obnoxious and disreputabe as it now is
upon its own dement's. Day after day this Official
exponent as worthy its mission as its principal is
unworthy his position, continues to bore and nau.
seate its readers with the twaddle of its special plead
ing its papabe inaccuracies and its ignorant or viii.
ful msstatements the Administration bindly per-
mtting this unnecessary agency to add its weight of
oboquy to the sins proper Of rulers for the time.
The issue of the 25th of June contains pronuncia-
miento headed "The War Department." the text of
which is the admonition =" in time of peace prepare
for war;" that is absolutely the most puerile illd.
gested and generally contemplate waste of paper
which we have found for years. though ranging
through the whole rank and file of city and country
papers during that time. The accomplished writer
of the editorial in question makes sort of blank
verse of his stuff giving every period of his discourse
a paragraphc Importance, imparting to the whole
article the look of chapter of Tuppers Proverbia
Philosophy" His geography is as lamentably at
fault as his rhetoric, for he makes the Rio Grande
and the Sabine rivers terminate the coast bound
| IF tba itcJ
South! Here is beautiful figure comparing " those
numerous forts and castles to the towering live
oak tree -


proper sense, is visible to the eyes of all who see the
gradual building up of those numerous forts and cas-
ties which stud the entrances of rivers and har
bors from the Sabine to the Rio Grande.


| Like the towering liye-oak tree, their growth is
slow but steady and their foundations take deep root
in the soil they intended to protect and defend


Year after year has this plan been persistngly and
Systematically carried on with that perseverance SC
characteristic of the American people in steadily and
energeticay pushing to completion any great public
work in which they engage.


The best way to repe aggression is to be prepared
to meet it, and should the country become involved
in war; the ncacuable advantages of these fortresses
to its security and protection will be fully developed
and appreciated.


The gradual building up of those numerous for t.
and castles which stud the entrances of our rivers
aud harbors from the Sabine to the Rio Grande " ha
been so very gradual that the progress of the work
barely visible from year to year. and though so nu
merous, and so oak.tree like, not enough of then
stud " the river entrance to New Orleans the frs
exporting city in the Union to prevent one first elias
steamer ascending to it and laying it in ashes or un
der contribution in peril of that fate. In such case
we think the incalcuabe advantages of these tire
mendous forts and castles would be fully apprecia
ted" The steadily and energetically pushing t,
completion" ofgreat public works is good-almost a
good as any of the other good things of the article
and its correctness is fully attested by the energy will
which the work on the Custom House of New Or
leans, and many other public erections in the soutl
especially, has been pushed forward" We know
and everybody who knows anything about the mat
ter knows, that there is scarcely defensive work OF
the Southern coast no matter when begun, which j
completed, or is ready for efficient service, and tina
when small appropriation is made for them it ha
to be expended rather in repairing the injurie
wrought by time and neglect preyng upon their un
finished state than in continuing them to completion
upon the original plan.


For our own sake we wish that the Administration
would muzzle The Constitution" for the daily sigh
of it in the mails exasperates our irascibility an,
stimulates unhappy vituperative instincts, inducn,
the use of all manner of offensive adectives whicl
have an applicable pertinency to this libel on tn
American press, this ame inflated, parastical inter
prefer Of the Governmental policy and political trick
cry of the Administration which now controls th
great American Republic


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