Constitutional Whig

RICHMOND WHIG

FRIDAY MORNING, AUGUST 20, 1830.

MR. BARTON.

The Jackson Press has attempted to tarnish the fame of the gallant "Little Red," and blunt the sting of his inexorable satire, by a charge of habitual drunkenness. It is false, and they know it-but the grossness of the untruth requires a doubled hardihood of assertion to force it down. No man who has made mental efforts so frequent and vigorous as Mr. Barton, can be a sot-the thing is not possible. The charge is repelled in a strain of vehement invective against its author in the Missouri Republican of August 4.

"THE LAST TAG IS POISON." -The Beacon, thinking it was not to be answered before the election, has ventured to pour forth its slanders in more copious and various streams than we have ever witnessed in any single paper. Its range of defamation takes in every political subject, and comprehends all classes of public men who are displeasing to Col. Benton, from "Clay and Webster," down to "Edward Bates, John Bent, and others on the same ticket." Some of the falsehoods are open, gross and palpable; others are insinuated in the form of questions; and the whole paper is a farrago of unblushing slanders and obscene vulgarity.
Every body knows that Col. Benton is the real editor of the Beacon, and that he is now struggling for his very existence as a political man. Hence the garbled and false extracts from Barton's speeches- hence the raking up of every abusive paragraph against him, from the furthest corners of the Union, where the diligent Colonel had first caused them to be inserted--hence the vile and loathsome calumny, which Col. Benton has circulated by letter, by word of mouth, and now in his editorial capacity, that Barton polluted the Senate Chamber with constant drunkenness. The reading part of this community will know perfectly well how to appreciate Col. Benton's slanders, especially against Mr. Barton. The public journals prove that Mr. Barton was constantly at his post, and his speeches prove that he has earned a name which Col. Benton may envy and endeavor to blacken, but can never hope to equal. His bold expositions made corruption tremble; and this same Col. Benton, who is now so fierce in calumny, fled from the Senate Chamber, in dread of his withering denunciations. Does not the whole nation know that Mr. Barton, twice last winter, in open Senate, convicted Col. Benton of deliberate falsehood? In one instance, the proof was made by Mr. Tazewell of Virginia, and Mr. Johnson of Louisiana; and in the other, by General Smith of Maryland and Mr. Holmes of Maine.
We prophecy, that in less than three years Col. Benton will deny his present abuse of Clay, as, for the last three years, he has denied his former abuse of Jackson; and we shall not be surprised to hear him apologising for the federalism of Webster, and saying--if Webster is a federalist, so also was Berrien, Gen. Jackson's Attorney General, and so also was M'Lane, Gen. Jackson's minister to London. He had better make haste to secure his reward, for the day of his trouble is at hand. The real friends of Gen. Jackson will find that the Colonel has abused their confidence and betrayed their trust, and when he comes as a suppliant to Clay, he will be spurned.
Barton has been received with triumph in Missouri. A struggle between him and Benton, which can only terminate in the political death of one or the other, bids fair to result in the re-election of Barton the approaching winter, to the Senate of the United States. We again quote the Republican:
We are gratified to learn, by a letter from Boone county, that Mr. Barton is receiving from his fellow citizens in that quarter of the State, the most marked attentions. A public dinner was given to him on 24th ult. at Columbia, at which about five hundred voters of that county attended. He made a speech, in which he ably maintained the principles he has heretofore advocated in the Senate, and to which his fellow citizens are now yielding their most unqualified approbation. We understand that an epitome of this speech will be published, and we will place it before our readers as soon as possible.
Such marks of approbation as Mr. Barton is now receiving from the people, form the highest reward that can be bestowed upon a faithful public servant. They assure him, that his past conduct has been correct, and they give him confidence in his future course.
With singular propriety may Mr. Barton now exclaim, "truth is mighty and will prevail." One short year since, he was considered prostrated by the base slanders of his virulent enemies; now, he is hailed with plaudits by his fellow citizens, who say to him, "well done thou good and faithful servant," enter thou again into the Senate. The clouds that were thrown around him by the slanders of his enemies are dissipated, and he is disclosed to the full view of the people, standing on the pedestal of truth.