Selections: Matters And Things In General

Deak Br. Cortiss: - Various engagements, and a journey inio New Englnnd, have prevented my Wïiting yon, for sonie titnc. Many topics of interest that dernand the atteniion of Liberly men, press on my mind. I can do litile rnoro tiian inake a running inventory of them, vvitli a few hints on each. ''A word to the Vfise is surlident." 1. Sham Democracy. - First and furemost, let me thank you for the Kótfe you appendecj to my article on "Independent ypting." Nolhing wns further from my int ention, than to convey the impression tliat tlie Whig party Vvaa the oiili corrupt party, or thut it wns, exclvsivdy, "Üie cause of all the corrtiption demngoguory, and inlimidation, in the country." Far o;lierwiso. I did, indeed, mean to bear distfncljy upon the Whig pariy, because recent events pitrtieulurly requiredit, and becauee reJigious meu and ministers have strangely imagined Ihat party to have peculiar claims on the ecore of "decency and inornlity." 1 liad intended in duo time, to give the olher great proslavery party its proper portion. How impudent are ts prelensions! So far from being "the democralic party,'1 it is not even "a democratie party ." The truths it profes6edly holds "in the abstrocr," only make lts condemnalion the greater. Ita subserviency to the slave power is far from being its only development of unit-democratic tendencies and propensities. VVhat party haa ever gone further thun tliat party has gone, iu Ihis State, to build up unrighteous monopolies to concéntrate political power in the hands of a corrupt "Regoncy," to ostracise and proscribe men for independent thinking and honest actingr? The treatrnent of Thomas Morris, in Ohio, and of J. P. Hale, in New Hampshire, are sufficirnt to s!iow that "the party" is the same elsewhere, as here. That real democrats should eustain such a party is nol less unaccountftble, than that the fi iends of "moral - ly and decency" ehould sustain the Whig jarty.2. ''New Doctrines'' have been broached, ately, ia the Liberty party - the doctrine, for inotaroc) -tKt Lntocrvy - puxty THUSt stand reidy io disband, whenevcr either of Uie olhcr iaities wili raise the Anüslavery flag - thos nerging oureelves in that party. Such a doctrine is evidentJy cuiculated, thougii not ntended, to keep profeseedly abplitionists in the ranks of those parties, to induce them to go back, out of ihe liberty party, into the old jarties, under the fallacious hope that an iniuence may be exerfed there, to bring them ight. Gerrit Sraith'a writing?, years ego, were among ihe means of coDvincing me that 10 help was to be expected from that quarter, and f am cértain that there is lees prospect of t now. I had hoped that recent developnents, (particularly i the only one of the tjreat parties that has ever been svsvected, byabolilionists, of a friendliness to human riglits,,) had been sufficient to convince the most bigoted, than such a party could never come to onr aid. Yet the bare siipposilion cf such a poseible cccurrenco, coming from bro. Smith, just at this time, could not fnil to have the effect that I now leam (by yom letter to me.) thac it hos slready had, in your región, in coüncxion with the despondency occasioned by the so called "ennexation of Texss," (whioh, afler all, 3 not quite nnexed, and perhaps never will bp, if we do our duty.j - Yihi say {iLhe weok have become doubüng - some have dec'ared we can do nothing - that we did wrong in organizinga. política! party" - and so tiiey "join in tiie whig vvailings and reprouches." At tbis I nrn nul disappointed. Nor am l jrreatly alarmed. We need, perhaps, auoüier Gideonizing process, bofore we can count on our men. The very best possible fffecis of bro, Smilh's tinfortunate letter to Gov. Sewanf, are precisely ihoss you have dcecribed. When those who are still haukéring' after the leoks and onions of class Icghkition (hall have found itieir proper affinilics by thus leaving our ranks, tken, and per liaps no ntil then, siiall we Inarn the duty nul advniunge of developing, in its fuli and j fair propnrlions, the 'whlo of l.'iat glorioüs: "one idea" that lies at iho basis of '!political i abulition.1' No one will understand me as doubt ing1 bro. Smilh's 'purity of mlention'. I rive full credit for this, nd trust that hTa letter will vldiniilrl; do good in the way I have sugrgt'sied. Üiough not in the wny ke had supposed. We cannot consent to go with eilher of the old parlies, wliotcver Jlugs liioy may raise, becaufe we all know ihut their iiig-s, or &jgn boards, are not trust wortby indices of their real jtrincipleè and intenlions. To gu into either of those parties, as now ortranizod, wouid oe to sustain (and lliis, it scems, is admittëd,) the arisloiralic folny of thoíe parties, in olhér resprctSj-a course utterly at variance with our principies. To go with ellher of tho?e partios, vould be to put ourselvea under their corrupt leaders, who have so often disappoinled and beguiled us that we must "love to be chfated,'" (as Hudibas has it,) (o pot ourselves in their power agam. It is one tbing to negotiate with ihc corrupt leaders of ihose panies, and quite anolher thing1,. to invito, the honest "rank and Jiie' of thern to renounce tlieir guidánce and come o long with us. ít sanothcr "new" nnd very slrange d cirinc, lo be b'roaclied in the liberty party, that it was ñot organized to give the freo colorea peoplè the rig'lil of Hiffinge- that "this was not not ven Ihought of, wheu tbe liberty party was organized"! VVhat? Was not the liberty party "organized'' lo do what we had vainiy pclitionedlhe proslavery partie to do? And was not the extensión of the franchise to our cölorcd brcthren a proruinent topic ofpetilion? And ilid we not denounce the old pnrties as unfit to rule a Iree people, because they rrfused to grant ihose petitions? And wliü mure eloquent ly eevere on this topic than Gerrit Srniih? YV "queslioncd the candidatcs"'ofthe old parties on thnt mensure. - And has it come to paus, already, that the Liberty paity itaelf ia not lo bc qnestinned - 3 not to be pledged, on that topic? jjfit be so, (tbauk Heaven, it 13 not,) I will odmit that it is high time to talk of leaviny the liberty party - not to reium back frohi whence we carne ou', but lo organize a Human Rights party, vvhose objocts êhall be bettrr underfetood. At a time wlien thcre is need of elevatlng onr tiJandard, we must resolutely resiai aJl attempt8, froni what exeey quarter, to loioer il doiüii, to a more accommodating level. To do this, would be suicida!, of course. 3. Wixliam H. Skuakd and Hrmiy Clay. - Alongf with this hypothetical merging of the liberfy party in the VVhig party, on condition that it i-hall espouse the cause of the enslaved- -(and at a time while lts admirers are so ready 10 think that it has or eoon will espouse them,) along, too, witli tlii? readinese to swuHow down all tho present Whig measures, on ot her subject?, and along, even, with the intimation that the liberty parly is not pJedged to extend the franchise to the colored people, (the most important antislavcry meas ure of State legislaiion, porhaps that can be namecty - so that the Whig party is prettytinificantly told ibat in order loswallow up the liberty party wilh ila free Iradeand anti..bank members, b!iö wül neither be expected to give up her now prominent objects, nor pledge tself to extend the franchise to the free people of color - along uith all this, we have the most extravagant glorifieations of William H. Seivard - connected, loo, with an intimation that its favorite statesman, Ilenry Clay, may yet pos6bly come, into such a purty, in time to become President of the United States. - All Ibese tbiBgs certainly look enough alike. to be links of the same chain. It nceds no great skill to put them together even if they had not been put togelher, already, by the writers who have propour.ded them. A very tempting bait to the Whig party, and particularly to its Ioader3, we must confess, if the Liberty party could be understood as making bq prrtpwttl. Bi Trliat. WUUlfl XU& friCnflS Of liberty gain for their ehare? The triumph of a party not even pledged to the extensión of the franchise to the colored people of this State? can the colored people or their friends be persuaded into the alliance? I trust not.Our brother Smith, ït Beems, however, is not alone in is n ew measures. The Liberty Press, editorially, apd eomo of its correspondsnts, seem to chime in with him. A writr who sigrs "E. Doubleyou G." (which I read "E; W. G.") and in.whom I think I rccoguize au nld fnend of our cause, b:it a very en - thusiastic friend of Gov. S., sa)'s of him - "Henceforth he is ours.' "Henceforward, Mr. Séward is the champion of Lískiity." - Perhaps it may be so. I wait for the perform anee before I exuit. I.reruember when, yen ra ago, my friend E. W. G. was very eonfident his friend Seward would I e with us iu a few months! Through how many qnngtnires and swnmps would tl)c Liberty party have been led, could it have been mduced to foilow such jack o-Iuntern Jights as Wiliiam Seword, for the last five-or ix years? When shall we ceaee running after such men, ineteád of vvorkiug patiently at our task? 4. Nomínatío.ns.- The time is not di&tant when State Nominalions will haveto be mude. Suppose the imne of fVm. H. Seward should be brought fonvard as the Liberty candidate for Governor? Who knows but thot a prospect of a nomination of thal kin?, if cennected wilh the hope of being followed up by a nomination from the Whig party, and the virtual merging of llie liberty pvirty ofthis State into the Whig party, would not induce the great man (some of whose (rienda have been bahing hun in fli-t wrty, for years.j to come in, just iu the very nick of time to renp ihe reward of his prudence and state.en?anslnp, in not coming in too soon. E. W. G. has son-.c pregnant, liints, on thig point. "fJCI1 "13 evidently Mr. Seward's policy to draw amany otliers into Liberty pnrly, xehen he comes, us it is pos.tdble. Shal! we commend iiim for this? Certainly, if he contravenes rjo prir.ciple in so doiog. Be ye wise as berpents, und harmlcss us doves.;' What iliink you Liberty mon? Is thegnme worth the while? I would;rjrt' speak dispara gingly of Gov. Seward. Ilis talcvnts and acquirements mark hun as n very clever and somewliat availuble man. An ordinary nnliplnier Convontion ought tocommand a nnmlier of men capnblo of grappÜH ith and fioniifiof lm!f a d(.zci) oucli men, in íhiv aririiuient where the great j nuda mental prhuiphs of governmeni are concehred. As.to his claims on the liberly party, It wilt be time enough to look at them when he shall havp publicly confessed and forsnupn the sin of supporting a dúeliiat and a fllavelinidor, and shall liave seryed ;t few years oï srjf-denying labor, in onr "rank and file.'' Liberty mov if "wiáe as serpenls'' will not be caught wftli chaff - and f "harnless as doves'1 will not do evil that good may come. 5. Tuk Ethics of the LmKRTf Pautt will bccoirto an'Joarntsi object of attent ion, henceforward. Without a wei defined code of thtcs, wc. shall ewim down the ñame corrent with tho partiea before us. I am sorry thatso able.aud faitJifui a. lahorer as Joshua Lcavitt can be quotecí by K. W. G. as endorsng the claims of such men as Wm. H. Seward. Ilisj nrorification of John Quincy Adnms did us graat iniechief. President Green ond the Aibany Pairiothave taken a stand which 1 Liberty men safely may folio w. One column] from sucli writers is worth more to the Liberty iCattEC, at this crisis, th3n all tbe help Gov.Seword eau render or along with him until he repenls and does works meet for repentunce. 6. Thb Poucy oí" tuk LtBEitTr Party - iïd Poutical Èconömt - nuisi be moulded by its etihcs. Must be defined and bouïided by the defii.ii ion and :lie province of civil goveminent. Whalever the governnunt has to do - the Liberty party has to do, ür give place to a parly llmt will do it. 7. Rkligion and Pomtics. - The elhios of the Liberty jarty-vvill be the ethics of its members. Tuis will be determtned by the ieligion they cherislu Their religión cannot bo much betler than that of the ecclesiastiool bodies they support - and that teach them. If either their love of schismatic sects of an undefined relijjious union keepa them in fellowship with t-laveholders or their siipportnrs in Uir church, the same elhics will lead ihcin into political alliflncP8 of the same cbaracter, and the result, it needs no seer to predict.