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pounds of wool, as we now do. The Union is an excellent thing—quite too advantageous to be broken up in an ago so utilitarian as this; but it is possible to exaggerate even
its blessings.
Provocation.
An article in a Southern paper recommending the secession of the
Slave States from the
Union.
Reply.
Dr. Franklin used to tell an anecdote illustrative of his idea of the folly of duelling, substantially thus: A man said to another in some public place, “Sir, I wish you would move a little away from me, for a disagreeable odor proceeds from you.”
“Sir,” was the stern response, “that is an insult, and you must fight me!”
“Certainly,” was the quiet reply, “I will fight you if you wish it; but I don't see how that can mend the matter.
If you kill me, I also shall smell badly; and if I kill you, you will smell worse than you do now.”
We have not yet been able to understand what our Disunionists, North or South, really expect to
gain by dissolving the
Union. * * * Three valuable slaves escaped, do you say?
Will slaves be any less likely to run away when they know that, once across
Mason and
Dixon's line, they are safe from pursuit, and can never be reclaimed?
“Every slaveholder is in continual ap-apprehension,” say you?
In the name of wonder, how is Disunion to soothe their nervous excitement?
They “won't stand it,” eh?
Have they never heard of getting “out of the frying-pan into the fire” ? Do let us hear how Slavery is to be fortified and perpetuated by Disunion!
Provocation.
The excessive
confidence of Whigs in the election of
Henry Clay.
Reply.
There is an old legend that once on a time all the folks in the world entered into an agreement that at a specified moment they would give one unanimous shout, just to see what a noise they
could make, and what tremendous effects it would produce.
The moment came—everybody was expecting to see trees, if not houses, thrown down by the mighty concussion; when lo!
the only sound was made by a dumb old woman, whose tongue was loosed by the excitement of the occasion.
The rest had all stood with mouths and ears wide open to
hear the great noise, and so forgot to make any!
The moral we trust our Whig friends everywhere will take to heart.
