Year: 1859

We have great confidence i'll the political
and personal integrity of Gov. Magoffin IF
he fails at all, in the wise and Just discharge
of his duties; it will not be, we are sure, from
any lack of honesty of motive but rather from
the heat and hastiBcss of his temper, combi-
ming with his relative inexperience in afflrs-
This. to be sure, is formidable source of dam
ger, in critical times but, when associated
with sterling uprightness of purpose, it be-
comes steadily less and less formidable. 1t
tends rapidly to correct itself. If states
mans heart is right-if he is genuine patriot
he will profit quickly by adverse experience,
and grow sober and discreet Oh his own blum
ders. There is, at least some hope of him.


We can but consider the vehement TRADE
on the slavery question with which Gov. Ma
Coffin concludes his Message as grave error
both in policy and in taste which he would do
well to improve in the manner We have hnted.
1t is certainly exposed to the weightiest objec-
tions. A highly exaggerated and exciting pic
ture of Northern sentiment drawn by pencil
dipped in the Harpers Ferry treason, it is cal
cuated not only to exasperate still further the
public mind of the South already frightfuly
infamed, but to drag Kentucky from her cen
trail position of unruffied yet wakeful repose in
the Union, down to the vulgar level of the
clustering disunon States of the South. 1t is
ur-Kentucky-like. 1t is irritating not concii-
atory in its tendency. It ignores the mission
and the traditions of the State. 1t places
the North in a false position before Kentucky
1t is sweeping though doubtless unconscious
perversion of our current political history on
the point involved. Northern patriots CLAN
cling at its fuming sentences will recognize nei-
ther the spirit of Kentucky nor their own.-
The representation is feverish, fdgety, fractions
and resentful in spirit, and fearfully overcharg-
ed in substance. 1t wants business, candor,
and dignity. 1t is fussy and extravagant 1t
has an offensive partizan air. 1t reads as if it
were diatribe from the Richmond Enquirer
touched up by Gov. Magofin in the high pres
sure mood in which he usually delivered his
twenty-mnute speeches during the late canvass.
Though unquestionably well-intcnded, it is es-
sentay q sensation thing. There is no whole
some force in it. 1t is test of sound and fury
with only scattered CLEANS of sobriety. 1t is
not fit expression of the tone and attitude OF
Kentucky in the present solemn juncture.--
We regret that Gov. Magof1in has put it forth.
Far better would it have been if he had adj
hered to what he says was his original inten-
tion and made no alusion to this subject.


There are those we know, who will see in
this portion Of the Governors Message simply
an attempt to convert the Harper's Ferry out
| break into an agency of party advancement,
or, rather, to employ it rs such, for the tragic
event was fashioned to that use us soon as it
happened but we cannot think so much evil
of His Excellency on the Threshold of his Of
flee. We do not believe it though, we own,
others stand convicted by common consent of
this scandalous and pitiful oflense on even less
grounds than this case affords Yet we do not
convict him. We see or think we see in his
ill-judged and ill-timed extravaganza nothing
more criminal than the impetuosity of q gen.
erous spirit uncurbed perhaps by fixed and
broad views of public duty and not yet enlar-
ged and tempered by the actual pressure OF
official responsibility. In word, we look up
on it merely as the freak of wild politician
Just turned loose into the Governorship OF a
sovereign State. Such things are to be ex-
pected, under such circumstances, and We fof


our part, accept them without either crimina-


ton or amazement.