A Lesson From An Enemy

SoiDcIims fcince, we happerced to be in company with a prominent Whig - a gentleman of acknowledged talents and a popular orator, who liaso'ten nd Ircssed Whig mass meetings in this Slate. - Among other ihïhgs. the couise nnd prospects of ihe Whig party carne up for discu-sion. Our Whig friend, representing a party long in the minoriiy, took occasion to spoak of the power of a niinority in a commuaity. Said hr, in súbita nee, ': 1 tel! our Whig friends that all is not lost because we cannot elect a Governor, nnd a majörity of both Houses in the State Legi.Lvure. The power of Whïg "principies is not therefo.o paralyzed, nor is i certain th.it Loeofuco radicalisrn will ride down every lliing thnt Whigs hold doar. Not at all. The triumph of a party is not ahvays to be meaured by the fullncss of its majorhics, or the proporiinn of offices il is able to fill wiih its politice! friends. A party mny have a'l these, nnd-yetfail lnmentably in carrying out apprViprinte party measures. I lay down tliis position as invariably correct - ihat A rOUTICAL PARTY TBÍUMPH8 JIJST IN PROPORTION AS ITS PR1NU1PLLÍS COXTROL THE ACTIO.V OF THE Go ERN.MENT. It muiters not who MU the offices, or who mákeor execre the laws, provided t!:ev be mnde and exeented on Whig principies. The influenceof the "Whig minoritv is fe't both in National nnd Stnte Legislat'ïon. IIow cautious woreihe L'corocos about alteringthe TariflTof 1S42 ! They had the power of repeal ye.nrsseveral before they exercised it ; and n !ien they laiJ hands on it, itisiend of yielding lo the clamors of the Frec Tiade Radicáis of théir party, they retained many of those features which rendercd the Iaw of '42 va'uablein the eyes of the Wtíig - Whv did they not rr-peal the Iaw altogelher and esldblili Free Trade ? Because Whig principies had t'iken such a sn-onghold on the public mind that the party in power feared their mighty influence. A portiun of the Loeofoco pnrly had bccome imbued with them. Here we see the principies of the minority restraining and modifying the action of tht majbrity, and in a measurc controlli.no the legislation of the nation. Take an es.arnple in our State nffairs. Several yenrs sinc?, the Locofocos came out fariously against all Banks. The pcople, they said, did not want any Banks: they werenothing but shaving shop?, by whieh a few were mado rieh, and the many made poorer ; écc. These views wcre urgcd in nearly or quite every L. cofoco pPer in lhe Stale' What was the consequence 1 Were all the Banks sweptaway by a general act of the Legislature? Nosucn thing. Every Bank in the Staie that could pretend to doiness decently was suffered to exist wit!) all its privileges nnd the conservative principie of lening all the Banks in the Sintenlone while they follnw tlie'f legitiinatc business, has nnw become the eslablished rule of legiblntion. Wliy wn thu? Because Whig Reprcsentatives and Whig pnpers tnokground for the preservation of the Banks; and henee, the whole Locofooo party, with full power in their hands, and every Locofoco paper out in füilcry for " No Bank," dare npt touch these "aristocratie sh.iving shops." They feared the power of ihe principie of the minority ; and these principies, aithouglj representad by n mrre hondful in the Legislahirc, control, ed Ihe legt slat ion of the State. The influence of this minority is ofien feit, notonly negitively% in preventing obnoxios political mensures, hal posilively, in the enactmentof laws such as tle Whigs would themselves probóse, had they the power. If a Locofoco brings f.rward and gfits cnacted, by ihe help of Whig votes, a law whicli prpmo'.es the public goo, il is just as well for the con:munity as though the Whigs were in the mnjoruy, and had originnted and pa-sed '■■ .the law. And thus the Whig party may be down to the lowest notch politienlly, and yet its principleb be enrricd om, to a greateror less extent, by its moál vio}en politica! enemies. Thu', though the poesiion of political offices may be de eirable for a vet it by no means "ótttfw ihat party is powerless becauset cannot elect all U candidates or cnrry fiy direct majorities nll the mensures il his in view. Heneo, Whigs havoevery Micoumgemont even when largely in the minoriiy, to strive without ceasing, in as much as they know íheir labor i nt in vain." Belong-'ngourelí to a party which was ilecideJly in the minority, we listemd to theio remárks witli considerable ntei et ; and while we wcre cogititing hów far 'ha principies laíd down were lri;e of the infl'icnce of the Liberty party, the cunversation t;jnk a slide inh Abolitionism, and our friend touk occasion tram the coursc of t!ie Libcriv pruiv, to confirm his doctrino of m:norit'e fle referrod to iho state of public f oling on jhe Slavcry question aN through the Nonh in 1332. Ministers, churche-", peopio, polit'cinns, lcg"slat jrs. jndges - in a word, evenj body was on thcsile oi the mister nnd agninst t!ie ].-;ve. S'avory wa? regarJcd as a sort oPsacrèJ institution whicli must nnt even be discusscd. All classes united in catcjiirig tho ílying fugiiive asa sort of moral dutw Threats, violence nnd m"bs against Abuliiionists became the order of the day. But they persevere( in talkingand priniing thoir sentiment and gained the car of the com munity, ad the}r applici themselvès to the sMong hold of power - the Legislatures - by using their votes only fur an tislavery n)en. The consequences were soen in th nntislavery law$ of the New England States : in Ihe altered tone o the judicial decisions in all the Free Staten : in i!ie aboüshment of the Na i nal Gag : in the Free DíscuWiqh o Slavery in Congrrss : ín the isiue made by the Northern Whigs in the last Pres idential election, in reference to Slavery in Texas ; and in the recent docided action of King, Wilmot, and other Dein o. -ants against any more slave territory He contr.is'ed the jresent i-tato of feel iug in t!us State in reference to freedom wlicrè, as in Marshall, wo had recent!} seen a whole communirv rising upasone man against Oic slave-cacher, from whal il was twelva ycarssïnce, wlicn the bare announcement that a fugitivo was in the Sl;ite was almost enough to mnke his recailure ccrlain. He spoko also of the onward progress of the anti-slavery cause, andexpresed his belief that henceIbrlli it would be a prominent topic of aguation and aclion withbuth the great p.irtie.And liow had this mighty revolution in public opinión been och e ved ? W "hy, by a very small body of men, scarcely o ihïrtieth part of the voters of the nation, 3.inded together under l!ie nr.me of the Liberfy party. In this state, tliey were so feeble that ofter trying six or seven years, thcy had not elected a singlo mem)er of ti;e Legisiatu.-e, and for his part is hoped they nevcr would, as he wished o s?e none elected but good Whigs. So far as nftaining the pnssession of politica! oiïices constiiuted success, hé did not brlieve they would bo snccessful : ycl the prealence of their principies through the communit}' was to be eeen more and more plainly. The secret of the power :f the Liberty party was that they repre scnied the idea of the evil of Slavery : ihcy krpt this idea constantly before the community : their presses and speeches teemed with it : they had collected a vast variety of facts respecting it ; and the bare nnmination of a Liberty candidate, even though he received but a dozen votes, was a perpetual admonition to the people of hls vicinity of ihe existence and supremacy of the Slave Power. Believirg in the old Roman maxim - Fas est ab hosle doceri - let your enemy leach you - we have writtëh out the remarks of this gentleman, as our fr:ends may be more dipossd to listen to the voluutary testirnony of a political opponent, than to yhat might beconsidered the par lial representaiions of friends.