1845.]

ings of the question, which Mr. Clay does indeed discuss in a masterly manner, while yet he makes them all inferior to that higher principle, which is identified with the national life, which must live as long as the national existence, and on which, as on a rock of eternal adamant, he takes his immoveable position. I wonder that even the reflecting abolitionist, strong as may be his dislike to Mr. Clay as a Southern man and a slaveholder, is not struck with admiration at this noble stand, and does not feel that the destinies of the nation may be safely left in the hands of that man, who is so strongly identified with the national integrity. The obvious determination of a portion of the politicians of this class, to do all in their power to elect Mr. Polk instead of Mr. Clay, and with the full knowledge that the annexation of Texas will be the almost certain result, presents one of the strangest phenomena of the present canvass.

Much as I respect the Whig party, as combining the great mass of the intelligence, patriotism, and national feeling of the country, I cannot but feel that on this and similar great questions Henry Clay is in advance of them. Look at the noble stand he has taken, and the glowing speeches he has repeatedly made in respect to those violations of law and order, which have so long been rife in the Loco-Foco party, and which in the late mob-meeting at Providence received the distinct approbation of all their principal leaders. How little have his earnest exhortations on this point been heeded by a great portion of the Whig press, who ought to have made these things the theme of their loudest and most constant alarm, instead of having been so exclusively occupied with the inferior, although important topics of tariff and distribution! How mortifying the result, if, notwithstanding all this, his party should fail him at the time when he ought to receive the reward of his long career of elevated statesmanship! Above all, how great the disgrace, not to the Whig party, but to the whole nation, that such an affair as this Texas issue, so got up and by such men-so evidently designed (some of our most strenuous opponents openly admitting the fact) to effect the lowest, basest, and most selfish endsshould carry into the presidential chair a man who, but for some circumstances arising out of this measure, would never have been named in connection with the

office! To have Henry Clay beaten by
James K. Polk, and on such an issue!
Would that every Whig would revolve
the mortifying consideration in his mind
till his whole soul was fired, and he had
resolved to give himself no rest, and his
neighbors no rest-to omit no exertion,
until the contest is closed and Henry
Clay placed in the presidential chair!
We have long wanted just such a man
there. The station is fast becoming de-
graded. The succession of James K.
Polk to John Tyler would fill up the
measure of our country's humiliation.
No doubt many of our opponents them-
selves, after the excitement of the elec-
tion had subsided, would feel most keenly
the humbling result, and most earnestly
wish, if it were possible, the disgraceful
deed undone. We want men of a far
different stamp from those who, on so
important a question as this, will answer
at once, "immediate annexation," with
all the greediness of a dog snapping at
the offered bone-without taking time to
assign even the most miserable reasons
for it, lest some other candidate might
put in for the job before him. The coun-
try has been cursed enough already with
such narrow, canine politicians.
Coleridge says, "We want public souls;
yes, we want public souls, we want
them." We want national souls. We
want a man who can look beyond a
presidential canvass, whose opinions and
whose measures are for the whole nation,
and look to its whole existence. Yes,
we had better have the faults and errors
of such a man, than the mean virtues, if
they possess any, of his adversaries.

As

Irrespective of measures, or even if he should have some measures of mere temporary policy which we might not approve, there is something so healing, so truly conservative, so inspiring to the feeling of national honor, in the elevation to office of such a candidate, as to outweigh all other consideration. Give us an honorable high-minded man, (and such is Henry Clay, with all his alleged faults, his very enemies being judges,) and we may trust him for his measures, because we know the soundness and elevation of his principles. The distinction conveyed by these two words is but little understood by the corrupt and superficial politician. Principles we would never sacrifice, but we hesitate not to say, that there are times when we would prefer men to measures-although a mistake in the latter might perhaps work temporary injury.

It is indeed but temporary, even should it occur, and may be borne; but whose arithmetic can calculate the evils, perhaps the never-to-be-remedied evils, of a corrupt principle, engrafted by corrupt men into our institutions-into the very elements of our national life?

ration for the character of James K. Polk. His brilliant career as a statesman, his close identification with all the great measures of his country's history, his elevated views on all other subjects, his strong national feeling, his noble frankness and magnanimity, his utter scorn at the very appearance of deception, as manifested in his letter to Mr. Kane of Pennsylvania, the celebrity of his ancestral name—all these considerations, doubtless, combine with these gentlemen to outweigh this small affair of Texas. Cannot some Whigs learn a lesson from this, and is there nothing in the character of Henry Clay which would justify them in reversing this picture in every single point, and drawing from it ten-fold stronger motives for his support; although in the earlier part of his life he may have fought a duel, or his notions on free trade may differ from their own?

There are some few men, Whigs in every other respect, who hesitate on the ground of the tariff. We would not here meddle with their free trade notions, but we would solemnly ask them if they can suffer this single matter to outweigh all other considerations connected with this most important canvass? We would appeal to a gentleman of this city who stands high in the literary world, who has heretofore been a most efficient member of the Whig party, and who is now said to be in the predicament above described. We are perfectly sure that that gentleman must look with abhorrence upon Dorrism. We are certain that all his We repeat it then, we want noble men, religious and political views must be with noble principles, and we may trust shocked with that Rhode Island dema- them for their measures. The very elecgoguism, with which all the leaders of tion of such men as Clay and Frelingthe Loco-foco party openly avow them- huysen, after the long reign of corruption selves to be infected. We would not so and intrigue, is worth more to the coununderrate his intelligence as to suppose try than the mere success of any meashim not to be fully aware of the tremen- ure of mere internal, temporary legisladous consequences of that doctrine to all tion. In electing them we secure the our institutions, and how vastly, if carried continuance of the present most benefiout, they must exceed all the temporary cial tariff, a settlement much to be deevils which he may see in a tariff. We sired of the perplexing question of the cannot imagine that he does not look national currency, the distribution of the with utter loathing upon the corrupt man- proceeds of the public lands, and the ner in which this wretched Texas issue adoption of other measures most neceshas been forced into the canvass, and we sary to the national welfare. We also cannot therefore deem it possible, that prevent the infamous annexation of Texas, such a man, and others who think with against which our candidate's word is him, can make this one principle of free pledged, on the highest of all groundstrade the sole turning point of their con- a pledge which no man doubts he will duct in the present election. Methinks most honorably maintain. But the sublithat such Whigs might learn a lesson of mest result of the victory will be, that we consistency from some of the worst ex- rebuke that foul spirit of anarchy and disamples of Loco-focoism. We would point organization, which has found so much them to the course of that section of the countenance with the other party. We Polk party represented by the Evening cut off the heads of all that young brood Post. How bravely do they adhere to of radical Hydras, which, though as yet their man, notwithstanding they admit that of comparatively feeble growth, are conhe received his nomination on the strength stantly sprouting up from the venomous of one of the most "contemptible meas- Typhon of Loco-focoism and infidelity. ures and corrupt intrigues "that ever We purge that political charnel-house at disgraced the nation-that he was select- Washington, which has so long tainted ed on no other ground, and that the our moral atmosphere; threatening, unmeasure itself is "fraught with the most less speedily removed, to breed an incualarming evils to the country." Yet rable pestilence in the body politic; and must we suppose (for we would not last, though not least, we do, by the highcharge such honorable men with a cor- est national act, incorporate among the rupt inconsistency) that they are led to permanent interpretations of the Constisupport all this by their unaffected admi- tution Mr. Clay's noble protest against the

admission of a foreign territory, in opposition to the dissent of even a small minority of the members of the confederacy. By making it now the successful watchword of the whig party, we render it for all time to come the glorious motto of constitutional conservatism. We wrest from the demagogue the hope of ever again playing the same game with Canada, or Cuba, or any other contiguous

territory, from the accession of which a corrupt political party may seek to derive political strength, irrespective of all other considerations. Finally, we disappoint the hopes of English tories, and all European aristocrats, derived from what they have the sagacity to perceive must be the inevitable consequence of Locofocoism, in overthrowing everywhere all respect for free institutions.

VOL. I.-NO. I.

WHO SHALL LEAD THE NATION?

SOME POLITICAL LINES NOT REQUIRED TO BE SUNG.

In the land of the West, where the sun hath rest
And the evening-star hangs bright,
There's a chieftain stands-in his fearless hands
Upholding a banner of light.

We are strong when we gaze on his earnest face,
We thrill when his voice sounds high;

At the beating we start of his dauntless heart,
And burn at his eloquent eye!

Oh! ever be blest the Man of the West,
While the evening-star hangs bright!
We'll go with him on till the battle be won
For our country, the truth, and right!

So bravely he stood, while the ceaseless flood
Bore off his earlier years-

With a voice and hand for his native land,
And a soul unknown to fears;

And his well-won praise, in the former days,
Was a part of the nation's fame--

For the title he bore on many a shore

Shone high with Liberty's name!

Then dark grew the hours! Base, treacherous powers
Long ruled by corruption and guile;

We triumphed-our trust was trampled in dust,

A traitor had made us his spoil!

Our credit was fled, our industry dead,

The wide wings of commerce were furled,
And the deeds we had done, the renown we had won,
Were a taunt and a jeer to the world!

And the profits of vice were bought at a price,
And infamy carelessly borne,

And error was rife in the highways of life,

And the by-paths were planted with thorn;

And comfort had gone from the cold hearth-stone,
And sorrow came in like the sea-

For confidence then from the hearts of men,
Seemed sadly forever to flee.

11

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVELS.

We left Glasgow, in a steamer, at four o'clock of a pleasant day, and sailed rap-borers, returning from the harvest in idly down the Clyde. The spires and smoke of the city were soon left behind us, but the spirit of the great emporium of commerce and manufactures was all the way visible in great pillars of smoke rising above it; and hundreds of black steamers, and sloops with sails nearly as black, were plying up and down the river; and the banks everywhere gave forth the full hum of busy life.