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Two Active, Sprightly, Intelligent Little Beings

[graphic]

ONE A YOUNG MAN ABOUT 20 YEARS OF AGE, 334 inches in height, weighing 20 pounds.

29 inches in height, weighing only 17 pounds.

THE OTHER A YOUNG LADY 11 OR 12 YEARS OF AGE,

CAN BE SEEN AT THE

CORNER OF BROADWAY & LEONARD STS.

FOR A MONTH OR TWO,

Where they have already been exhibited to Crowds of Visitors for Three or Four Months!

They were taken from the newly discovered and IDOLATROUS CITY OF IXIMAIA, IN CENTRAL AMERICA, where they have been kept with superstitious veneration, distinct and secluded, as a Caste of their Priesthood, and employed as mimes and bacchanals in their pagan ceremonies and worship.

NO ADEQUATE DESCRIPTION CAN BE GIVEN OF THEM!

For the reason that they are unlike any thing but themselves. They are absolutely a New and Unique Race of Mankind, a most Extraordinary and Inexplicable Phenomena, such as never have been seen by Civilized Nations.

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J

THE

AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. XC.

FOR JUNE, 1852.

THE CONVENTION-THE PARTY AND THE COMPROMISE.

In the April number of this journal | personal, seems necessary before we enter we presented what we sincerely believe to upon the question itself. Were it not be a faithful picture of the present Whig for personal motives, the self-aggrandizeAdministration. No one, we think, can ment of professed politicians, and the bitter read that record without admitting the con- remaining dregs of a sectional question afclusion to which it leads, viz., that Whig fording the material for their purpose, it is principles and Whig men are essential to obvious that there would be no difficulty in the country in all great emergencies, and the choice of a candidate by the Convention that this Administration, or its counterpart, to assemble at Baltimore, and but little unmust be perpetuated, would we avoid inter- certainty as to his election. These personal nal discords and disaster, or external strife motives are the bane of our politics. Why and dishonor. But inasmuch as the honor they should exist in a country where every and renown with which the party has been avenue to honorable success is so freely open covered by this Administration have not been as in this, is a matter which we confess we sufficient to produce a perfect unanimity of could never understand. The principle dissentiment as to who should be placed by cernible in most of the discussions we see the party before the country as its candidate is as the grain of wheat to the bushel of for the Presidency, we followed this by a chaff, so obvious is the ulterior purpose discussion of the claims and merits of the through the pretended matter in hand. three distinguished men who are presented This has become so common that to account for that honor. We have done this with all for the line of argument, or the sentiment candor, and endeavored to show the princi- uttered, is the first thought of the reader of ples upon which the choice should be made an editorial leader in a newspaper, or the by the National Convention which is to as- speech of a representative in Congress. semble for that purpose, and have so tried to Why should not men-even politicianscontribute to that harmony which is essen- enjoy that greatest luxury of conscious tial to success. It now remains for us to grap- intellectual existence, the having an honple with that question on which alone any est, disinterested opinion and purpose, difference of opinion exists, and which, we and fighting for that? There are, howthink, is the sole barrier to a triumph on ever, let us thank Heaven, many such, which depend the most vital interests of the although they have but the reward of country. their own consciences. In the first of the two articles referred to, we made a

A preliminary word or two, general and

VOL. IX. NO. VI. NEW SERIES.

31

defense of the present Administration from the broad platform of Whig principles, without a thought of gratifying any personal predilection, or of advancing any ends but those of the cause and the country. We see it charged in one journal that that article was written by some one who is dependent upon the President for his bread. To those who, like that editor, can form no conception of the possibility of a man being devoted to any thing but his own personal interests and aggrandizement, we will take this opportunity of saying-for what it may be worth to them-that the writer of that article has not the most remote connection with the Administration, save being a Whig and an American, and that his first choice for the Presidency even is not Mr. Fillmore. In addition to which we will go further, and defy the closest scrutiny to show that this journal has ever, from the first day of its existence to the present hour, asked or received any interest or patronage from any leader of the party, in or out of power, except their simple subscriptions and good words so far as they could conscientiously give them. This position we shall maintain to the end, come what may; and those who cannot believe in it, or appreciate it, had better keep their belief and their conjectures to themselves, lest they betray their own secrets more than they condemn others.

But to the question which we propose to discuss. What is the true line of policy to be observed by the Whig Convention for the nomination of the candidate for the Presidency on the question of the Compromise measures of 1850? In order to a clear presentation of the views which we conceive should decide this important question, it is necessary to review some points in the history of the agitation which those measures were intended to allay.

For many years previous to the annexation of Texas, the question of slavery had only been agitated as a moral subject. Fanatics had not been able to get it into the political arena, although they kept up a constant endeavor to do so by petitions to Congress upon the subject. They succeeded for a time in this by exasperating their opponents into a denial of the unlimited right of petition, and the passage of a rule that such petitions should not be received. The false position thus assumed by their opponents gave them a vantage-ground, from

which they were enabled to agitate the country and open the whole battery of controversy upon the political field. The receding by their opponents from this false position, and the rescinding of the rule, threw back the agitators into their abstractions, and compelled them to abandon the political field. There is a lesson in this which cannot be too frequently pondered by statesmen and people.

The proposition for the annexation of Texas, a measure instigated and upheld by the Democratic party, presented the very occasion required by the fanatics, by forcing the slavery question into the national politics. The Whig party, seeing this as the inevitable consequence, and looking too to the other results, which have since become matters of history, to grow out of this transaction, which must so intensify the political aspect which the question would assume, as to eminently endanger the very existence of the nation as such, opposed the measure with the whole force of its moral and political influence; feeling that, however desirable it was to extend the area of the country, the vast and fertile regions we already had were valueless without union, and that whatever acquisitions might be obtained at the price of sectional discords and internal strife were worse, far worse, than nothing.

The measure, however, was consummated. A delusive peace ensued. Then followed the fulfilment of the prophecies of those Whig statesmen who through obloquy and scorn had battled for the future prosperity, peace and union of the nation, warning against the glittering apple of discord thrown in the midst of a happy and prosperous people. An unnecessary and unjust war was precipitated; but the great party of sound conservatism, union and peace did not shrink from the new and distasteful duties devolved. They unshrinkingly and victoriously fought the battles required of them, to the end; and when the external difficulty was happily adjusted, and the real internal danger came upon us in all its magnitude, although the fulfilment of its own predictions, it did not leave those who were the cause to brave it as best they might, aggrandizing itself by the country's distress, but with that true patriotism which sacrifices all selfish considerations for its country, as in the field so in the coun

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