The Native American

THE WHITAKER AFFAIR OF NEW ORLEANS,

We take this opportunity of laying before our readers one of those sad cases to which we have often alluded, wherein is fully displayed that foreign influence, which beginning at the Judiciary, will rush furiously on until it reaches all our sources of protection and freedom. The case of the Whitakers, at the time of its occurrence, it will be remembered, created great excitement among all classes: and we have received a powerful and eloquent defence of the murdered victim to foreign power, and take great pleasure in laying it before our friends. It speaks a voice of warning and of wo, and humanity and liberty, conscience and right shudder at the bare recollection of that "Irish howl" which shook the streets of New Orleans, and struck terror into the breast of her Chief Magistrate. The course pursued by Gov. White was one that only serves to strengthen us in the position we have assumed, that these foreigners do mould our public men like wax to their purposes. What a spectacle of shame is presented by Governor White's position! We turn aghast at the awful responsibility he has assumed: for when he condemned poor Whitaker to death, did he not seal the fate of that high-toned honor which should be the jewel of all public officers, as well as of private men? What was the preservation of his house to the death of that innocent self-defender—that immolated Whitaker? What all his wealth, when weighed in the ghastly scale of life and honor? Absolutely nothing! But Gov. White was a trembling victim with Whitaker, and the same cry that led the latter to death, crushed the courage of the former. Let the reader peruse the defence, and take a deep lesson from its awful disclosures. We think it barely necessary to add that we have no personal interest in this affair, not knowing a solitary member of the distressed family. The reason why we publish the defence at this late hour after the occurrence of the catastrophe, is that we are determined to see justice done to Americans born. We can see nothing but injustice on the part of the foreign mob against Whitaker, and when our paper was established we determined to use every effort to put our national character upon its just level, and in this instance we see a pointed appeal to our sense of right.