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cracy of numbers" they were so long wont to despise and abuse,— and even to crown the climax of the long array of names they have from time to time assumed with the singularly facetious title of "Democratic Whigs!" This is the unkindest cut of all. Thus to 'filch from us our good name' is indeed too bad,—though we are vastly mistaken if it will prove in the end to have greatly enriched' the unblushing wearers. It is utterly vain for that party to attempt to maintain such an assumption. Their more intelligent and liberal men, in private, freely ridicule it as a bold electioneering trick. Anti-democracy is the principle of their party organization now, as it has always been, from its first infusion under the auspices of the high Federalism of the olden time. By affecting the name of democracy they only impair their own unity and cohesion, such as it is, and weaken their own principle of life. The effect is only to introduce a fatal dissension, the proud and stouthearted old heads of their party having been already seen to be prompt in repudiating the offensive term, and all the abominable associations of Jeffersonianism which it implies; while at the same time it only attracts attention the more conspicuously to that which it is their first interest to keep in the shade, the real anti-democratic character of their entire political faith. The movement was pregnant with much significance, which was made in the late Whig Young Men's Convention at Utica, to arrest the abuse of the memory and principles of Jefferson which the excitements of the present contest had naturally drawn forth from the Federal press; and even to attempt to blazon that noble name on the banner of a cause, and a party, in all respects the most repugnant to the principles of which that name is the condensed expression. It was a strong symptom of a healthy spirit at work in the more generous youth of that party,--a spirit which cannot but result in bringing over a large proportion of them to the true Democratic cause. The indignant manner in which these indiscreet effervescences of latent democracy were frowned upon, by so many of the old recognized authorities and magnates of the Whig party, will go far, in spite of the prompt efforts made to gloss over the difficulty, to open the eyes of the former to the true character of the party by whose plausible professions they have heretofore suffered themselves to be deluded and placed in false position.

Some of our readers may possibly remember a remark made by us on the sweeping Whig victory of last fall, in the State of New York, that it would have a happy effect in democratizing (if the word may be permitted) a large portion of that party itself; and that on the defeat which certainly awaited them, as in 1824, after a short fruition of the sweets of the ascendency, they would go out of power better republicans than they came in. This spirit manifesting itself in various modes, and especially embodying itself in that

expression of sentiment by the Utica Convention referred, to, affords already a singular illustration of the truth of the remark.

We had intended to devote a considerable portion of the present Article to some reflections on the direction taken by the course of events at the late session of Congress; and the exact position in which they left the great Independence question-for such should be the proper designation of the Sub-Treasury policy. Its allotted space is, however, so far exhausted as to permit only a few brief remarks on that subject. The Administration was, it is true, defeated on that its leading measure. It failed to carry it through the House of Representatives. The mode and causes of that failure we cannot pause to dwell upon. Yet was it no victory to the other side,—or at best one of those Pyrrhic triumphs that are worse than defeat. On the whole, the Administration may be said, notwithstanding, to have borne off the honors of the campaign; and never was a party more dismally disconcerted than were the Opposition at the very close of the session, in the midst of their imagined triumph, and the clear majority which had voted down 'the Independent Treasury bill. The essential principle of that policy was not voted down, and could not be voted down. It was, on the contrary, asserted, by both Houses. The Democratic press, generally, does not appear to have fully appreciated the importance of that incidental vote in the House of Representatives, during that memorable struggle which was so admirably conducted by the friends of the Administration, on the night of the third of July, by which the great principle, that the public funds shall not be employed for banking purposes, was expressly asserted, by the vote of 101 to 101, decided by the casting vote of the Speaker,-a vote which, it is undeniable, would have been increased to a considerable majority in favor of the principle by the attendance of all the absentees. We refer to the vote on the amendment of Mr. Campbell, of South Carolina, to the amendment offered by Mr. Curtis, of New York, to Mr. Wright's second bill as sent down from the Senate. It is true that that invaluable declaration was not eventually incorporated with the bill as it passed. Having been attached by force of that unexpected Democratic vote to a Whig proposition, it made the latter so obnoxious to its own friends that they themselves abandoned it rather than swallow the bitter condition; and the whole thus fell through. But there stands, on the record, the principle asserted which can never be retracted-the position assumed which can never be receded from-the seed planted which cannot but germinate, and produce eventually the full and perfect fruit of the consummation of the Divorce policy. That vote will and must be fatal to the Opposition. It brought them distinctly up to the question which had never before been fully met; and as a party they voted that the banks SHALL have the use of the public revenue for banking pur

poses. That vote exploded all the mystifications with which the Administration had been opposed, and revealed the one original cardinal motive of hostility to the Divorce-the use of the public money as a basis for discounts. That vote-unsuccessful too, in fact-must and will prove a mill-stone round the neck of that most factious and iniquitous Opposition, and will open the eyes of thousands, before blinded to the true character of the issue involved between the two parties.

The National Bank party was powerless in the House, as in the Senate. They, with the still more insignificant State Bank party, could only, by their union on that common ground, clog the action of the third party more powerful than either singly, and thus relieve the latter from the responsibility of majority. Yet they could not prevent the adoption of a bill framed by Mr. Wright as his second best, and which-though still but a temporary measure of transition, and leaving too large a discretionary responsibility upon the Executive for the management of the public finances, till future legislation-went very far to loosen, if it did not quite dissolve, the connection between the Government and the banking system.

And what can the Opposition do at the next session-what position assume? It is impossible to prevent the gradual ripening of these great public questions. They cannot again rest on the policy of "prevention." The panic is over, and Othello's occupation gone. They must come down, fully and fairly, into the plain, and meet the simple issue, pro, or con—the INDEPENDENT TREASURY, or a NATIONAL BANK. What decent show of opposition to the former in discussion, face to face before the bar of the country, can then be made or what new argument, as yet undreamed of, in behalf of the latter, to supply the place of the exploded and exhausted old ones now no longer fit for service-time only can disclose; as we confess it to be beyond the scope of our imagination to conjecture. What may be the general issue of the elections of this fall, it is impossible for us, at the date of the present Article, to anticipate. We are by no means sanguine of all the successes confidently expected by many of our friends. But though they should still go decidedly against the Democratic party, our confidence in our cause and our position would not be shaken in the least degree. We can 'bide our time;' and even though the Administration should, possibly, be embarrassed during the latter half of the present term by an adverse majority in the House of Representatives, it can never arrest or materially impede the operation of those deeply seated and widely diffused causes, which cannot fail to secure to it an overwhelming support before the next Presidential struggle, when the last and decisive battle is to be fought upon its principles and policy.

RETURN OF THE PARENTS.

BY MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY.

Long had they sped

O'er distant hill and valley-noting much
God's goodness in the riches of the land,
The summer-fruitage, and the harvest-hoard,
The reaper wrestling with the bearded wheat,
And the proud torrent's glory, when it shakes
The everlasting rock,-nor yet forgets
To sprinkle greenness on the loneliest flower
That trembles at its base.-Much, too, they spake
Of pleasure, 'neath the hospitable roofs

Of severed kindred,—how the loving heart
From such communion learns to wipe away

The dust of household-care, which sometimes hangs
In clouds o'er the clear spirit.

But anon,

The eloquent lip grew silent,--for they drew Near that blest spot, which throws all other lights Into strong shadow,-Home.

At that full thought,

The bosom's pulse beat quicker,—and the wheels
Moved all too slow,-though scarce the eager steeds
Obeyed the rein.-And as the mother spake
Somewhat, in murmurs, of her youngest boy,
There came a flood of beauty o'er her brow,
For holy love hath beauty, which gray Time
Could never steal.

'Tis there, behind the trees,
That well known roof,-and from the open door,
What a glad rush! The son, who fain would take
His mother in his arms, as if her foot
Was all too good for earth,-and at his side
The beautiful daughter, with her raven hair
So smoothly folded o'er her classic brow,-
The infant crowing in its nurse's arms,—
The bold boy, in his gladness, springing up

VOL. III. NO. IX.-SEPTEMBER.

B

Even to his father's shoulder,-lisping tongues,
And little dancing feet, and outstretched hands
Grasping the parent's skirts,-it was a group
That artist's pencil never yet hath sketched
In all its plenitude!

And when I saw

The brightness of the tear of joy, I felt

How poor the pomp of princes,-and what dross
Was beaten gold, compared with that dear wealth,
Home, and its gratulation, and the ties

Which Heaven hath twisted round congenial hearts
To draw them to itself.

HARTFORD, Friday, July 27th.

CHIPPINGS WITH A CHISEL.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "TWICE TOLD TALES."

PASSING a summer, several years since, at Edgartown, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, I became acquainted with a certain carver of tomb-stones, who had travelled and voyaged thither from the interior of Massachusetts, in search of professional employment. The speculation had turned out so successful that my friend expected to transmute slate and marble into silver and gold to the amount of at least a thousand dollars, during the few months of his sojourn at Nantucket and the Vineyard. The secluded life, and the simple and primitive spirit which still characterizes the inhabitants of those islands, especially of Martha's Vineyard, insure their dead friends a longer and dearer remembrance than the daily novelty, and revolving bustle of the world, can elsewhere afford to beings of the past. Yet while every family is anxious to erect a memorial to its departed members, the untainted breath of ocean bestows such health and length of days upon the people of the isles as would cause a melancholy dearth of business to a resident artist in that line. His own monument, recording his decease by starvation, would probably be an early specimen of his skill. Grave-stones, therefore, have generally been an article of imported merchandise. In my walks through the burial-ground of Edgartown-where the dead have lain so long that the soil, once enriched by their decay, has returned to its original barrenness-in that ancient burial-ground

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