State of Parties and the Country [pp. 1-53]

State of Parties and the Country.
may act in bad faith; that corruption steals in; that there
will be abuses? Shall she not rather so participate as to contribute to the aid of those who manfully oppose the abuses;
expose their corruption; denounce the grievance; and
strive to set right the action? Is there any reason for the old
grudge to continue? Shall we always keep aloof; alwayssuspect; and, before proof to conviction, pass judgment upon our
mere suspicions? Is there never to be an end of this jealousy; and shall we exhibit it invariably before the action of
the party, only to adopt that action, and make it our own,
when it is decided on independently of us? This seems to be
a cbhildish no less than a churlish mode of proceeding. The
people of South-Carolina are wholly Democratic. Time
has mollified the feelings with which we struggled twenty years ago with government and party. The great men,
Jackson and Calhoun, are in their graves; they have met in
other spheres; their minds, long before they died, had discarded all bitter memories of the past; and in their latter
days they wrought together, with the same policy in view;
and, at heart, we feel assured, with the same unselfish love
of country and the constitution. They have left to us no
inheritance of anger, no cruel distrust, no revenges. We
are free to the resumption of such policies as our interests
shall counsel; as the necessities of the country seem to require; and for the nursing of such sympathies as we hold
essential to a common cause, and the safety of our peculiar institutions. Is there anything to be gained by holding back, in a cold indifference, or still more cold dislike,
when our people everywhere seem to require the exhibition
of a more generous confidence in one another? We think
not. We are of opinion-having reference also to the recent decision of our people upon our Federal Relations4hat we should take our place in the ranks, with the rest,
and contribute whatsoever of wisdom and influence we may
possess, to the wholesome and proper performances of a
party with which we are identified in all essential particulars. But we digress.
We have expressed the opinion that the Whig party is no
longer an existing condition. As a party, it is defunct-dead
[July
38