75
PAPERS OF :MIRABEAU BUONAPARTE LAMAR
broad eye of day, with the legitimate weapons of argument & reason? The true patriot is the friend of no doctrine which he is ashamed of, & strives for no ends which he has to hide, Is he federal in his prin- ciples? He gives to those principles no sneaking support under the title of Republican. Is he a consolidationist in feeling? He takes no shelter under the deceptive style of Un.ion .Man; but with the bold in- dependence of an honest one, acting from a conviction of the truth of his doctrine, & the justice of his cause, he openly declares both to the world, & labors for their maintenance with a zeal uncorrupted by selfishness, & by means as honorable as his motives are virtuous, Such is the course of the State Rights man. He is explicit in his doctrines, open in his aims, & direct in his march to them; disguising no senti- ment, concealing no opinion, and shunning no responsibility. A friend to the reserved rights of the States, & the freedom of the people, he opposes every measure of federal usurpation; and a foe to consolida- tion, he struggles for the Sovereignty of his State; neither sacrificing principle to private malice, nor prostrating the dignity of his country to propitiate the favor of a tyrant. How opposite is the policy of those, whose cause is too feeble for reason to sustain, & too- dangerous for prudence to a,,ow ! They dare not unmask before the people; they dare not throw off their political disguise, & stand the scrutiny of the public eye, Their safety lies in concealment, equivocation & evasion. They :know too well, that to be comprehended and understood, is to be routed and defeated. Hence they are compelled to look one way, and row another-to land that democracy which they hate-to complain of oppression which they seek to perpetuate by force-- & huzza for that Union which they long to sacrifice upon the alter of consolidation. Such are among the miserable & despicable expedients of an insiduous faction, to gull the people out of their rigbts; & to sacrifice their in- dependence to the thirsti.ngs of unhallowed ambition & revenge, There is no vice more disgusting & yet more prevalent than that of political ,lying. It is the characteristic of the age. Public men prac- tice it apparently without the least scruples of conscience; and with the Corps Editorial, it has become a matter of course-a part, and indeed the most material of their duties. A politician's usefulness is measured by his faculties in this art. Whoever can fabricate false- hood with the most rapidity & affrontery, is the cleverest partizan and the most effective statesmen, Truth is looked upon as quite too feeble an instrument for the times-dissimilation, prevarication & downright lying, are the mighty Engines by which political effect is to be pro- duced, & party purposes accomplished. If, for instance, a party wishes to bolster up error, or sustain themselves in some misrepresentation, by the authority of names, they have nothing to do, but to cull the most conspicuous from the catalogue of great & good men, & swear that these men held the like opinions, & had made similar cleclnrations with themselves. The effect intended, will often be produced before the falsehood can be dete<'ted & exposed; & no infamy will accrue to the forgers of the lie. hecause of the m1iwrsality of the practice. But however common & fnshiouabl" the prnc:tice, we nrnst ~till protest against it, We humbly think thnt cuslum is no justific·ntion of tlis- honorablc c·onduct, arn1 when we see II party or :-:ct of men endcn\'oriu.~ to compas!-' their end~ b.v :;m•h foul antl cont"mpiihle urtifil'es we ar<'
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