S. W, Weaver, Proprietor.]
VOLUME 8.
THE STAR OF THE NORTH
IS PUBLISHED EVERT WEDNESDAY MORNINU BY
K. IV. IVRAVER,
OFFICE!— Up stairs, in the new brick build"
ing, on the south side of Main Street,
third square below Market.
TERMS: —Two Dollars per annum, if
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ceived for a less period than six months ; no
discontinuance permitted until all arrearages
are paid, unless at the option of the editor.
ADVERTISEMENTS not exceeding one square
Will be inserted three times fot One Dollar
and twenty-five cents for each additional in
sertion. A liberal discount will be made to
those Who advertise by the year.
ORIGINAL POETRY.
Jor the "Star of the North." .
ALL EARTHLY JOYS ARE FLEETING.
Where are the friends that once I knew
In youth's bright sunny hours?
They've passed away, as morning dew
Melts from the summer flowers.
Where are the gleams of hope that cheered
My lonely path awhile ?
They've vanished, like the meteor's ray,
Or Irieudship's fickle smile.
Where are the hours that once I spent
Without one troubled dream?
' Like friends and hopes,they've passed away
Adown life's rapid stream.
Oh, withered is llie wreath we wove
Of friendship's fragrant flowers ;
And dead the hopes that cheered our hearts
In childhood's sunny hours.
With some, life is one sunny day ;
Why are such joys not mine?
Cease wicked heart, thy murmuririgs, j
How dat'sl thou so repirte ? I
As gold is melted in the fire, \
To free it from the dross ;
So sorrows here to us are 6ent
To guide us O the Cross.
Lord, guide my erring feet aright,
And shield me wi'.h thy love :
So may I live, that 1 may share
A home with Thee, above.
LILLIAN.
Hemlock, Col. Co., Pa.
From Benton's Thirty Years View. ;
DEATH OF SILAS IVRIGIII'.
He died suddenly at the age of fifty-two, I
and without the suffering* and premonitions]
which usually accompany the morial transit '
from lime to eternity. A letter that he was-i
reading was seen to fall from Ins hand ; a
physician was called: in two hours he was
dead—apoplexy the cause.
Though dying at the age deemed young in
a statesman, he had attained all that long life
could give—high office, national fame, fixed 1
character and universal esteem. He had run
the career ot honors in the Slate of New
York—beeu representative and senator in
Congress—and had refused more offices, and
higher, than he ever accepted. He refused
cabinet appointments under his fa6t friend,
Mr. Van Buren, and under M. Polk, whom
he may be said lo have elected ; he refused
u seat on the bench of the Federal Supreme
Court; he rejected instantly the nomination
of 1844 for Vice-President of the United
States, when that nomination was the elec
tion. He refused lo be put in nomination for
the Presidency. He refused lo accept for
eign missions.
He spent that time in declining office which
others did in winning it; and of those he did
accept, it might be well sard they were 'thrust'
upon him. Office, not greatness, was thrust
upon him. He was born great, above office,
and unwillingly descended to it; and only
took it for its burdens, and lo satisfy an im
portunate public demand. Mind, manners,
morals, temper, habile, united in him to form
the character that was perfect, both in public
and private life, and to give the example ol
a patriot citizen—of a farmer statesman— of
which we have rea-J in Cinoinnatus and Ca
to, and seen in Mr. Macon and some others
of their stamp—created by nature —formed
in no school: and of which the instances are
so long between.
<His mind was clear and strong, his judg
ment solid, his elocution smooth and equa
ble, his speaking always addressed to the
undenlandiug, and always enchaining the
atteniion of those who had minds lo under
stand Grave reasoning was his foite. Ar
gumentation was always the. line of his
speech. He spoke to the* head, not to the
passions ; and would have been disconcerted
to eee anybody Jpugh or anything he
■aid. His thoughts evolved spontaneously,
in natural and proper order, clothed in lan
guage of force and clearness; alt so naturally
and easily conceived that an extemporaneous
speech, or the first draught of an intricate
report, had all the correctness of a finished
composition. His manuscript had no blots—
a proof that his mind bad none ; and he
wrote a neat nompaot hand, suitable to a
solid mind.
?He came into the Senate, in the beginning
of \General Jackson's administration, and re
mained daring that of Mr. Van Buren; and
took A ready and active part in all the great
debates'i of those eventful times. The ablest
speakers^of the opposition always had to an
swer bins; and when he answered them,
they showed by their anxious concern, that
the adversary was upon them whose force
they dreadfti most. Though taking his full
part upon till subjects, yet finance was his
particular department, always chairman of
that committee, when his party was in pow.
er, and by the lucidity of his statements ma
king plain the most intricate moneyed de
tails. He had a just conception of the dif
ference between the functions of the Finance
Committee of the Senate, and the Commit
tee of Ways and Means of the House—so
little understood iu these latter times; those
of the latter founded in the prerogative of
the House to originate all reveue bills; those
THE STAR OP THEJVORTH.
of the former to act upon the propositions
from the House, without originating meas
ures which might affect the revenue, so as
to coerce either its increase or prevent its re
duction. In 1844 he left the Senate, to stand
for the Governorship of New York ; and ne
ver did his self-sacrificing temper undergo a
stronger trial, or submit to a greater sacrifice.
He liked the Senate; he disliked the Gov-
to absolute repugnance. But
it was raid to him (and truly, as then believ
ed, and afterwards proved} that the Slate
would be lost to Mr. Polk, unless Mr. Wright
was associated with him in the canvass; and
to this argument he yielded. He stood the
canvass for tho Governorship—carried fi
end Mr. Polk with him; and saved the pres
idential election that year.
Judgment was the character of Mr. Wright's
mind; purity the quality of the heart.—
Though valuable in the field of debate, he
was still more valued at the council table,
where'sense and honesty are most demand:
ed. Gen. Jackson and Mr. Van Buren re
lied upon him as one of their safest counsel
lors. A candor which knew no guile—an
integrity which knew no deviation—which
worked right on, like a machine governed
by a law of which it was unconscious—were j
the inexorable conditions of his natuse, rul
ing bis conduct in every act, public and pri
vate. No foul legislation ever emanated
from him. The jobber, the speculator, the
dealer in false claims, the plunderer, whose
scheme required an act of Congross; all
these found in his vigilance and perspica
city a detective police, which discovered
their designs, and in his integrity a scorn of
corruption which kept them at a distance
from the purity of his atmosphere.
His temper was gentle—his manners sim
ple—his intercourse kindly—his habits labo
rious—and rich upon a freehold of thirty
acres, in much part cultivated by bis own
hand. In the interval of senatorial duties
this man, who refused cabinet appointments
and presidential honors and a Beat upon the
Supreme Bench—who measured strength
with Clay. Webster and Calhoun, and on
whose accents admiring Senates hung: this
man, his neat suit of broadcloth and fine lin
en exchanged for the laborer's dress, might
be seen in the harvest field or meadow, car
rying the foremost row, and doing the clean
' est work : and this not as recreation or pas
time, or encouragement to others, but as
work which was to count in the annual cul
tivation, and labor to be felt in the produc
tion of the needed crop. Hie principles were
. Democratic and innate, founded in a feeling, '
still more than a conviction, that the masses
were generally right in their sentiments, llio'
sometimes wrong in their ac tun, ami it...
there was less injury to the country from the
honest mistakes of the people, than ftom the
interested schemes of corrupt and intriguing
politicians. He was born in Massachusetts,
came to man's estate in New York, received
from that State the only honors he would ac
cept ; and in choosing his place of residence
in it gave proof of his modest, retiring, un
pretending nature. Instead of following his
profession in the commercial or political cap
ilal of his State, where there would be de
mand and reward for his talent, he constitut
ed himself a village lawyer, where there
was neither, and pertinaciously refused to
change his locality. In an outside county,
on the extreme border of the Slate, taking
its name of St. Lawrence, from the river
which washed its northern side, and dividing
the United States from British America—and
in one of the smallest towns in that county,
and in one of the least ambitious houses
of that modest town, lived and died this pa
triot statesman —a pond husband (he had no
children) —a good neighbor—a kind relative
—a fast friend—exact and punctual in every
duty, and the exemplification of every social
and moral virtue.
MEXICO.
The government and the clergy of Mexico
appear to be 8t dagger's point; but so far
Commonfort has proved equal to the emer
gency, and, by his energy, asserts the law
above all other powers in Ihe State. The
Bishop of Puebla, one of the principles in
the late insurrection, has been banished the
country. He attempted to rouse a feeling in
his favor, but the troops promptly escorted
him on shipboard. Several priests have been
arrested for preaching sedition, and one was
arrested in the street armed with a rifle.—
These priests were claimed by the Bishop ad
interim, Don Angel AlonzoW Pautiga, but the
governor of the city refused and insisted that
they should be tried by the civil suthorilies.
Instances of vigor in the government in Mex
ico are so rare that the energy of the present
rulers gives some hope of restoration ol order
in lhat disliacted quarter of the globe.
ID r GEN. WALKER'S star being now in the
ascendant, there will be a rush of "material
aid" to his assistance, in the persons of all the
"floating" gentry about the cities, whom rum
and idleness have ruined for any industrious
occupation. Such citizens should be allowed
lo extirpate themselves as fast as possible.—
Military discipline may do them some good,
though fever will carry off more than gun
powder. The resource of the country is great
and as soon as afiaira assume a settled com- I
plexion and peace is restored, there will be
a better kind of emigration from the United
States, which will colonize the country with
energetic and enterprising men, and assist to
permanently build up the Slate.
VESSELS IN PORT.— On the 17th nit. there
were in the port of New York 770 vessels,
in Boton 202, and in Baltimore 130; and on
the 10th nit. in Charleston 68, in Savannah
31, in Mobile 60, and in New Orleans 193.
BLOOMSBURG, COLUMBIA COUNTY, PA., WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1856.
A CAPITAL HIT.
We clip the following from the lowa State
Gazette:
The Black Hepubllcan Pegnnini,
08, THE MAN THAT PLAYED UPON THE HABP OF
A SINGLE STRING.
In these modern days, preachers and poli
ticians, of a certain stripe, have become as
thick together ae pickpockets—in fact a po
litical meeting, composed of the friends of
freedom, fusion and first-rate whiskey, is no
longer considered complete without a liberal
eprinkhng of the cloth, and it is seldom that
one ie allowed to proceed to business until
some sanctified brother shall wall his eyes
heavenword and put up a politico-religious
petition suited to the emergency of the case,
and as an offset to heathenism and hypocrisy
which may immediately follow. Preachers,
too, are sometimes found mingling pretty
freely in the discussions that take place at
these political assemblages and olherwise
manifesting a zeal to pot house matters
which goes to show that we live in the age
of progress, such as it is. At the recent Re
publican State Convention, the cloth (minus
the sack) were present in goodly force; and
: taking off their coals and rolling up their
' sleeves, it is said that they pitched in with a
looseness known only to the shoulder-strikers
and short boys of the Five Points, and by
their new-born zeal for free whiskey, in
abandoning the temperance plank, gained for
themselves high praise among the unannoint
ed outsiders. A sketch of the remarks made
by one of them had been forwarded to ue for
publication. It is as follows : *
My Breethering! We are.lold somewhere
—lt needn't be particular where—that the
psalmists of old could play upon a harp of a
thoiisand strings, ah—but, my breethering, in
these days of getting down stairs from grace
—a Samist aint expected to do more tban
spread hjmself on a single string, ah. There
fore, my breethring, ah, let usgive ourselves,
no uneasiness about the nine hundred and
ninety-nine strings that we can't handle, ah,
but let us unite in playing upon the harp of a
single string, spirits of white men made black, ah.
My Breethering! As we came stringing
along into this convention, like pack mules
crossing the Isthmus, I thought to myself that
each one of us might have astringV his own
to pull and that muy be many of us might
i have several strings to his bows, ah. I hope
| 1 hurt no man's feelings by Ihis discourse,
ah. My motto always is to tell the truth and
shame the devil, ah—an institution of sin and
wickedness who is always toaming about
like a toaring lion seeking where he can kill
somebody, ah. But, my breethiug, now that
politics and religion have got so mixed up
that vuu can't tell one from the other, 1 think
it would be good for us lb let go ail holtls,
except the main one, and go our Billy best
[ upon a harp of a single siring, spirits of white
men made black, ah.
My Breethering ! There are a great many
kind ot strings in this world, ah. First there I
is the latch suing bung nut. and the latch
string pulled iu. ah. Then there is the fid- {
die string—and a very wicked string it is, '
my breelhoring—and the bag siring, and the
pudding string, which some pious souls con- '
aider the proof of the pudding, ah ! And |
then there is string beans, and that audacious i
varmint, Stringfellow, ah—but, my bteether- i
ing, to return to my discourse, let me im- I
press upon you the popularity of playing up- j
on a harp of a single string, spirits of white
men made black, ah.
My Breethering! I suppose you have all
heard of a religious society called the Know
Nothings, ah. Well, my breethering, al
though I say it, who shouldn't, I've . i.lways
been one of 'em—but, my hearers, I r.ow
I feel to believe that that siring won't do to lie,
ah—for it is liable to break in two in the mid- |
die and let us fall several ways for Sunday,
ah. No, my breethering, though Sam, at the
outsat, gave promises of immortality and sul
vation, vet in these latter days this "sons of
the sires" he is seen to g'ray off far beyond
the travels of the prodigal son, and if we
don't look out the fatted calf will grow to be
a bullock before he comes back again, ah.
Therefore, my breethering, let us take to our
human bosoms the sweet-scented form of
Sambo, that dark emblem of political equal-'
ly, ah—and let us play upon a harp of a sin
gle string, spirits of while men made black,ah.
My Breethering ! We shouldn't be asham
ed or afraid to own our color, ah. It is a very
-wicked thing indeed to turn up the human
snout at the work of nature, ah. Who cares
for color in a dog fight? A rose by another
name would smell as sweet, ah. What, thdl),
if we do fool the foreigners? What if we
do kiss the nigger babies, ah ? The Egyp
tian mummies, who have been mummied*
these thousand years, and none the worse or
the wiser now lor anything tnat they did
while in the flesh, ah. It will be the same
with us, my breethering, in the lapse of a
few centuries, ah. When Gabriel shall blow
his trumpet, ah—when the moon shall turn
to blood, ah—when the sky shall be roHed
back as a scroll, and all nalur shall be done
up in a rag, ah, then the kissing of a few in
nocent little niggers and the running away
of a few big buck ones, will oome back to
our memories as a sweet smelling savor,
and give us a lick forward towards Jordan, ah!
My Breethering! There is another string
which we have all been pulling at for lo!
these many years, ah, but which, in the lan
guage of one of our great guns, we must now
"let slide," ah—l mean my breethering, (hat
Eious piece of two-twist, called Temoerance.
iquor, my breelhenug has color as well as
twang, ah. We must be consistent, ah. We
can't run niggers through on the underground
railroad, unless we also say to liquor, "let it
run," ah. "Spirits ot white men made black
—spirits of liquor mailt tree"— them must be
our sentiments, ah. We can't oppose the
laws of government and aid the insurrections
in Kansas, unless wn set the example at
home of spitting upon our Maine liquor law,
ah. We most be consistent, ah. I confess
that I have been a great Temperance man,
anil that I have been pulling the temperance
string for lo 1 these many years, ah, going
around like a thief in the night and prying
into the affairs of my neighbors, and every
now and then jerking them up with a round
turn for violatiug the whiskey'laws, ah—but,
my breethering, I have found that this busi
ness don't pay, ah, and for the balance of
my daysj I'm going to play on a harp of a
single string, nigger ism triumphant forever, ah!
Truth and Right God audi oar Country.
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.
The following is the platform adopted by
the Cincinnati Convention last week, and
comprehends the resolutions of the Balti
more Convention in 1852, to which are
added such appropriate declarations of prin
ciples as the times and political condition
of the country show to be proper.
The following is the Baltimore platform of
1852:
| Besolved, That the American Democracy
place their trust in the intelligence, the patri
otism, and the discriminating justice of the
American people.
i Resolved, That we regard this as a distinc
tive feature of our creed which we are proud
to maintain be iota tba mrfk r eh a great moral
element in a form of government, springing
from and upheld by popular will; and we.
contrast it with the creed and practice of
Federalism, under whatever name or form,
which seeks to palsy the vole of the constit
uent, and which conceives no imposture too
monsltouß for the popular credulity.
Resolved, therefore, That entertaining these
views, the democratic parly of the Union,
through their delegates assembled in a Gen
eral Convention of the States, convening to
gether in a spirit of concord, of devotion lo
the doctrines and faith of a free representa
tive government, and appealing to their fel-
Jow citizens for the rectitude of their inten
tions, renew and reassert before the Ameri
can people, the declarations of principles
avowed by them, when, on lormer occasions
in general convention, they presented their
, candidates for (he popular suffrage.
1. That the feder&f-gwjrTTmenl is one of
liberal powers, derived solely from the Con
stitution, and the grants of power made there
in ought lo be strictly construed by all the
departments and agents of the government;
and thst it is inexpedient and dangerous to
exercise doubtful constitutional powers.
2. That the Constitution does not confst
upon the General Government the power to
commence and carry on a geneial system of
internal improvements.
3. That the Constitution dees not confer
authority upon the Federal Government, di
rectly or indirectly, to assume the debts of
the several Staloa, contracted for local inter
nal improvements, or other Slate purposes:
nor would such assumption be just or expe
dient.
4. That justice and sound policy forbid :he
Federal Government to foster one branch of
industry to the detriment of another or to
cherish the interests of one portion to the
injury of another portion of our commog
country; that every citizen and every section
-e 4i._ t, k.a a rieht 10 demand and
insist upon an equality of rights and privi
leges, and to complete an ample protection
of persons and properly from domestic vio
lence and foreigh aggression.
5. That it is the duly of every branch of
the Government to enforce and practice the
most rigid economy irfconducting our public
affairs, and lhat no more revenue ought to
be raised than is required to defray the neces
sary expense of the Goverjjpient and for the
gradual but certain extinction of the public
debt.
6. That Congress has no power to charter
a National Bank; thst we believe such an
institution one of deadly Jipslility to the best
interests of our country, dangerous to our
republican institutions aixljjie liberties of
the people, and calculaleiTfo place the busi
ness of the country within the control of a
concentrated money power, nnd above the
laws and will of the people; and that the
results of Democratio legislation in this and
all other financial measures upon which is
sues have been made between the two polit
cal parties of the country, have demonstra
ted to practical men of all parties, their sound
ness, safety "nd utility, in all business pur
suits.
7. That the separation of the moneys of
the Government from all banking institutions
is indispensable for the safely of the funds
of the Government and the rights of '.be
people.
8. That the liberal principles advocated by
Jefferson in the Declaration of Independ
ence, ar.d sanctioned in the Constitution,
which makes ours the land of liberty, and
(he aqylum of_the oppressed,nf every nation,
have ever been cardinal principles in the
Democratio faith; and every attempt to
abridge the privilege of becoming citizens
and owners of soil among us, ought lo be re
sisted with the same spirit which swept (be
alien and sedition laws from onrstalule book.
9. That Congress has no power, under the
Constitution, to interfere with or control the
domestic institutions of (he several States,
and lhat all such Stales are the sole and prop
er judges of everything appertaining to their
own affairs not prohibited by the Constitu
tion; that all efforts of tha Abolitionists or
others made to induce Congress to interfere
with questions of slavery, or lake incipient
steis in relation thereto, are calculated to
lead to the most alarming and dangerous
consequences, that all such efforts have an
inevitable lendenoy to diminish the happi
ness of the people and endanger the stability
and permanency of the Union, and ought
not to be countenanced by any frier.d of our
political institutions.
Resolved, That lha foregoing proposition
covers and was intended to embrace, the
whole subject of slavery agiiation in Con
gress, and, therefore, the Democratic parly of
the Union, standing on this national platform,'
will abide by "and adhere to a faithful execu
tion of the acts known as the compromise
measures settled by the last Congress, the
act for reclaiming fugitives from service or
labor included ; which act being designed to
carry out an express provision of the consti
tution, cannot, with fidelity thereto, be re
pealed, or so changed as to destroy or impair
its efficiency.
Resolved, That the Democratic psity will
resist all attempts at renewing in Congress,
or out of it, the agitation of the slavery ques
tion, under whatever shape or color the at
tempt may be made.
Besolved, That the proceeds of the public
lands ought lo be sacredly applied to the na
tional objects specified in the constitution i
and that we are opposed to any law for the
distribution of. such proceeds among the
Slates as alike inexpedient in policy and re
pugnant lo the constitution.
Besolved, That we are decidedly opposed
iu taking from the President the qualified
Veto power, by which he is enabled, under
restrictions and responsibilities, amply suffi
cient to guard the public rmcieew, panti
the passage of a bill whose merits cannot se
cure the approval of two-thirds ol the Sen
ate Rnd House of Repiesentativss until the
judgment of the people can be obtained
thereon, and which has saved the American
people from the corrupt and lyiannical do
minion of the Bank of the United States,
and from a corrupting system of general In
ternal Improvements.
Resolved, That the Democratic parly will
faithfully abide by and uphold the principles
laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia res
olutions of 1792 and 1798 and in the report
of Mr. Madison lo the Virginia Legislature
in 1799—that it adopts these principles as
constituting one of the main foundations of
its political creed, and is resolved to carry
them out on their obvious meaning and im
port.
That in view of the condition of the pop
ular institutions in the Old World a high and
eacred duty is involved with increased re
sponstbility upon the Democracy of this coun
try , as the party of the people, to uphold and
maintain the rights of every Slate, and there
by the union of the Stales—and to sustain
and advance among them constitutional lib
erty, by lo resist all monopolies
and for the benefit of
the few, ai'jhe expense of the many, and by
a vigilant and qflhant adherence to those
principles and compromises of (he constitu
tion—which arc broad .though and strong
enough to embrace and' uphold the Union as
it is, and the Union as it should be—in the
full expansion of the energies and capacity
of this great and progressive people.
And whereas, since the loregoing declara
tion was unanimously adopter! by our prede
cessors in National Conventions, an adverse
political and religions test has been secretly
organized by a parly claiming lo be exclu
sively Americans, and it is proper that the
American Democracy should clearly define
its relations thereto ; therefore
Resolved, That the foundation of this Union
of States having been laid in its prosperity,
expansion and pre-eminent example in free
government, built upon entire freedom in
matters of religious concern, and no respect
of persons in regard to rank or place of birth,
no parly can justly be deemed national, con
stitutional or in accordance with American
principles, which bases its exclusive organi
zation upon religious opinions and accidental
birthplace.
That we reiterate with renewed energy of
purpose the well considered declarations of
former Conventions upon the Sectional issue
of domestic slavery, and concerning the re
served rights of the States ; and that we muy
more distinctly meet the issue on which a
sectional party, subsisting exclusively on sla
very agitation uow relies, to test the fidelity
of the people, North and South, to the Consti
tution and the Union—
Resolved, That claiming fellowship with
and desiring the co-operation of all who re
gard the preservation of the Union, under the
constitution, is the paramount issue, and re
pudiating all sectional parties and platforms
concerning domestic slavery, which seek to
embroil the States and incite to treason and
armed resistance to law in the Territories,
and whose avowed purposes, if consumma
ted, must end in civil war and disunion, the
American Democracy recognize and adopt
the principles contained in the organic laws
establishing the Territories of Kansas and
Nebraska, as embodying the only sound and
safe solution of the slavery question upon
which the great national ides of the people
of this whole country can repose in its deter
mined conservatism of the Union : non-inter
ference by Congress with slavery in States
and that this was the basis of the
compromise of 1850, confirmed by both the
Democratic and Whig parlies in National
Convention, ratified by the people in the elec
tion of 1852, and rightly applied to the or
ganization of Territories in 1854; that by the
uniform application of this Democratic prin
ciple to the organization of Territories and
the admission of new States; will, or without
domestic slavery, as they may nlect, the
equal rights of all the States will be preserv
ed intact, the original compacts of the con
stitution maintained inviolate, and the per
petuation and expansion of the Union ensur
ed to its utmost capacity of embracing, in
peace and harmony every future Amirican
State that may be constituted or annexed
with a republican form of government.
Resolved, That we recognize the right of
the people of all the Territories, including
Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the
fairly expressed will of the majority of actual
residents; and whenever the number of their
inhabitants justifies it, to form a constitution
with or without domestic slavery, sad-be ad
mitted into the Union upon terms of perfect
equality witb the other States.
[ Reidved, finfHy, That in view of the oon
' dition of the popular institutions of the Old
World, and the dangerous tendencies of sec
lional agitation, combined with the attempt
lo force civilized and religious disabilities
against the rights of acquiring and enjoying
citizenship in our own land, a high and sa
cred duly has devolved an increased respon
sibility upon the Democratic party of this
country, as the party of the Union, to uphold
and maintain the rights of every State, and
thereby the Union of the Slates, and sustain
the advance among us of Constitutional lib
erty by continuing to resist all monopolies,
and all exclusive legislation lor the bent-fit
of the few at the expense of the many and
by a vigilant and constant adherence to those
principles and compromises of the Constitu
tion, which arc broad enough and a'rong
enough to embrace and uphold the Union as
■I shall bei in the full expanse of the energies
and capacity of this great and progressive
V— pi— _J t
1. Resolved, That the questions connected
with the foreign policy of the country are in
ferior to no domestic question whatever. The
time has come for the people of the United
States to declare themselves in favor of free
seas and a progressive free trade throughout
the world, and by solemn manifestations lo
place their moral influence by the side of
their successful example.
2. Resolved, That our geographical and po
litical position with reference to other States
of the Continent, no less than the interests of
our commerce and the development of our
growing power, requires that we hold to the
sacred principles involved in the Monroe
doctrine. Their bearing and import, whtoh
admit of no misconstruction, should be ap
plied with unbending rigidity.
3. Resolved, That the great highway which
nature as well as the assent of the States most
immediately interested in its maintenance,
has marked fnr a free communication be
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans,
constitute one of the most important achieve
ments realized by the spirit ol modern times
and the unconquerable energy of our people
and that this result should be secured by
timely and efficient exertion, ttie control
which we have the right to claim over it.—
No power on earth should be suffered to im
pede or clog its progress by any interference
with the relations that may suit our policy to
establish with the governments of StatesjWith
in whoso dominions it lies. We can under
no circumstances surrender our preponder
ance in the adjustment of all questions arising
out of it.
4. Resolved, That in our view of so com
manding an interest to the people of the Uni
ted S>ates, that they cannot but sympathize
with the efforts which are being made by
the people of Central America to regenerate
lhat portion of the Continent which covets
the passage across the Oceanic Isthmus.
Resolved, That the Democratic parlv will
expect from the next administration every
proper effort made to ensure our ascendency
in the Gulf of Mexico, so as to maintain the
permanent protection of the great outlets
through which is emptied into its waters the
products raised on the soil and the cojn
moilities created by the industry of the peo
ple of our western valleys and the Union at
large.
From the Middle States Med. Reformer.
MEDICAL JI/KISPKIJUENCE.
A REVIEW.
BY R. W. WEAVER, E6U.
The wonderful and mysterious manifesta
tions of the human mind are not only the
most important but also the most entertain
ing divisions of study and practice, both to
the medical and legal profession. Hitman
ken cannot sometimes discern line
that divides eccentricity from insanity; for
while no two minds in all respects*agree,
whose shall be the standard f True, some
facts are so fixed by the common consent
of ages that we say only a fool will deny
them; but so too was once the old, but now
obsolete, system of astronomy; so that the
rack and dungeon were the lot of any Gali
leo who dared to say the world revolved.
In our day the Mormons shock the refine
ment of our modern civilization, but then
quote David, Solomon and the patriarchs
lor good exemplars, and deny that tneir
creed is eitlieV a delusion or fanaticism.—
The Wakeinanites say they are the true Lat
ter Day Saints, and these a jury decides to
be crazy, because they kill such persons as
will not let them have their way. But is
this willfulness of the Connecticut Sly a new
or a strange phenomenon! lie put out of
the world such as stood in his way, and
what sou of Cain has not done or tried to
do the same in some delicate or indirect
way? Was there not a fearful method in
his madness ? The mind ran in the same
channel of selfishness, malice, avarice and
revenge which has been worn deep by the
frailty of human nature through centuries
of vice, violence and crime. Neither the
motives nor their manner of development
seem new or inexplicable. Alas that trail
flesh and blood must be the judge in these
cases, and that there is no standard which
fallible human nature can define! Juries
are often perplexed, and physicians stag
gered to understand some character on trial,
or to define the temperaments, passions
and emotions that run into each other, like
colors on canvass, until it is impossible to
tell where one ends and the other begins.
We have been led to these thoughts by a
new work on Medical Jurisprudence lately
prepared by Francis Wharton. Esq.. and
Moreton Stille, M. D., of the Philadelphia
Association for Medical Instruction. It con
tains many new subjects of study in this
department; and it must be remembered
that each country and each age has its pe
culiar considerations in the study of the
human mind. The constitution of modern
society and the higher civilization of this
age affect the production of nervous dis
eases, and even the duration of life. As
the world becomes more crowded man lives
through a thousand more emotions, anxie
ties, incidents and adventures than in the
antedeluvian time. In the busy tumult of
this practical age, and its whirl of excite
ment, he is tossed about each day by a
thousand hopes and fears—joys and sorrows.
ctwo Dollars per Annum*
NUMBER 21.
Ami henco it is that you see in cities the
attenuated and emaciated forms of young
men prematurely old—the mark of that Se
vere mental wear and tear of nerve which
the stoutest physical constitution cannot en
dure without suffering and decay. But es
pecially are wo to look for the existence of
nervous diseases where society is constitu
ted as in America. Here the spirit of our
institutions urges to constant progression .
and change. Here is no fixedness of social
position ; for the rich man of to-day becomes
the poor man of to-morrow, and the wheel
barrow man comes back from California to
be one of the princes of the land. There
is a continual strife or rivalry for advance- *
merit, because here the highest prize is ac- •
cessible to all. These things beget a rest
lessness and nervousness totally unknown
under the old patriarchal governments, and
so we find that now, under the absolute
monarchies of Russia and China insanity
and nervous diseases are very rare.
Our fast American civilization of steam,'
telegraphs and chloroform has its accidents,
r —,. r , n i OU vvnnar.in nn
former lime or other land) and in judging ot
these there are no precedents in the old black
letter volumes to guide us. Thus the Beale
case, which we find referred to at length in
this volume, requires us 10 siudy how far a
mind laboring under a delusion may even af
terwards believe that delusion to have been
a reality. Who can tell how firm, fixed and
indellible a hallucination may be ? De
Boiamont, in his "Rational History of Hal
lucinations" gives us many instances where
delusions and hallucinations became fixed
in the moid, when they were the result of
accident or disease. How far this may be
the case in such artificial nppliances as
chloroform, opium, alcohol, &c. has not yet
been so fully determined ; but science has
already proved that there is much likeness
between the results from natural and artifi
cial means in these cases. Indeed the whole
difficulty seems to be in finding any divid
ing line to define na'ural and artificial cases.
The case of the Count and Countess
Bocarme who were tried in the Belgian
Court, for poisoning a brother of the Count
ess with nicotine is also given at full lenglh
in this work, and is entirely sui generis
to both professions. The parties were as
eminent in society as Prof. Webstor in this
country; and their case like his illustrates
that in the peculiar vice or unfortunate hab
its of the criminal or his associations or cir
cle we can alone find a clue to explain,
detect and prove the crime. In the Chap
man case, which is also in this book, the
character of the adventurous impostor was
very faintly covered, and that ot the vain,
giddy woman still mofe exposed. From
such seed crime would be very sure to grow.
It is by the study of character and of the
peculiar mental development of ihe parties
in these cases that we can best conceive
the proof of crime.
And let 110 one after reading these cases
attempt to excuse crime by talking about
the "victim of circumstances." In all these
cases the mind sought pvil rather than good,
and in no one was the victim driven, except
by the passion to which a full surrender and
sale of soul had been voluntarily made.—
Bocarme and Webster had all that man
need covet for the few years of earth. Airs.
Chapman lived in an earthly paradise, and
invited the spirit of evil to stay. If half the
power were used to resist evil fend shake
off the demon that lures, which'tfl the dark
calender of crime we see temptmg seduc
tion, the world would be much better.—
Human nature, in framing a specious
cuse for its frailties, lays entirely too much
of its sufferings and misfortunes upon a
gracious Providence; and forgets too much
the prayer "lead us not into temptation."
This book is useful in the fact that it has
not been wfltten to sustain any system, plat
form or ism, but leaves the mind free to gen
eralize from the facts given. The difficulty
in generalizing by induction will always be
that 110 two cases are far parallel; and that
the thousand incidental circumstances vari
ously modifying each one, never twice com
bine in the same connection and proportion.
The physician finds every day in practice
some illustraiion of this to perplex lnm; and
the best key for him is a knowledge of the
mysterious connection between mind and
matter. Fortunately mind retains the mas
tery over the sensorious part of our nature,
and a proper knowledge of this influence
can often be turned to good account in the
cure of diseases. The delicate fastidious
ness of a patient often interferes with the
operations of a nauseous medicine, and
then again intense anxiety for the operation
of a remedy prevents its action. All nerv
ous power seems in such cases drawn into
the brain or mind, so that no vigor is left to.
carry on the work of nature in the body.—
Often when the body is enervaied by dis
ease and the blood flows sluggish and dull,
a new hope in the mind will rouse a new
fountain in the heart, and inspire a deeper
and quicker throb to the current of life,
until tne pale cheek bloom again with the
glow of health.
l'ythagoras directs certain mental disor
ders to be treated by music: and Martinius
Capella affirms that fevers were so removed.
A strong sudden emotion of the mind often
works such a revolution in the system as to
cure disease. Thus Holler quotes a case of
gout which was cured by a (it of anger.
ilut more frequently these sudden emo
tions work such a violent change in the
physical system, and exert such a powerful
influence on the body that life itself ceases.
John Hunter, the great surgeon, died sud
denly in a fit of ragp. The Emperor Nerva
died of a violent excess of anger against a
Senator who had "offended him. Commo
dore Morgan died at Washington from the
excitement induced by a violent debate in
Congress upon the subject of his conduct
as the Commander of the Mediterranean
squadron. Sophocles is stated to have died
of joy on being crowned for a successful
tragedy. Pliny records the death of a Ro
man lady from excessive delight at receiv
ing her son safe from the battle of Cannae.—
Pope Leo X. fell into a fever, from which
he never recovered, upon hearing the joy
ful intelligence of the taking of Milan. The
Doorkeeper of Congress fell dead of joy at
hearing that Cornwallis had surrendered.
So far as human ingenuity-has succeeded
by the inductive process in drawing from
mechanical and physical indices the truth
which underlies them, no case equals the
fictitious one for which we aro indebted to
Edgar A. Poe—"The murder in the Rue
Morgue." The authors of this work have
dono justice to genius, and present it as an
instructive study and a model of close rea
soning. The mind of the unfortunate Poe
itself presents a RUbject lor the deep study
of the mental philosopher. All minds are
after all vory much alike, and it is only the
active ones that show a true development of
what the sluggish ones by a stimulant might
become.