Virginia Argus

JOSIAH QUINCY.

The very extravagant assertion of this young man in Congress, in relation to a dissolution of the Union, is more to be ridiculed than reasoned down. He tells us that it is his deliberate opinion that an admission of Orleans as a state will be a virtual abrogation of the Union. The just reply to such a declaration would be, to say, if such be his deliberate opinion, his deliberate opinion is a very silly one: and that it is no more worthy of consideration than the silly opinion of any other young man. But, as he is an erring fellow-citizen, we will charitably discuss with brevity the constitutional point which his declaration involves. The constitution says, New States may be admitted into the Union. There is, we believe, no limitation of this principle of admission. There is no mention that it is to be confined to the actual territory of the States at the period when the constitution was adopted; and those who have stated the intention of the framers of the constitution in this respect have said that the provision was introduced, for the purpose of embracing Canada. There being, therefore, no prohibition to accepting Orleans as a state, and the same reason holding good with respect to Orleans as to Canada, to wit: the safety and integrity of the Union, where (we ask candid men,) is the objection to the admission of it into the Union? There is none; and we must believe that Mr. Quincy is playing at false opinion when he says there is.

Leaving this special point, we cannot sufficiently condemn the common argument, which we perceive frequently introduced on the floor of Congress, namely, that this or that measure will dissolve the Union. The embargo was to dissolve the Union: the non-intercourse was to dissolve the Union: taking our own property in West Florida is to dissolve the Union: the U. States Bank Charter is to dissolve the Union; and adding a state to the Union is to dissolve the Union; which last, may be called Josiah Quincy's Bull; for that which increases cannot certainly dissolve the Union. Now all this is the merest trash, (considered as argument) that men with heads on their shoulders can offer to fright the world out of its wits. We fancy these same prognosticators have very different thoughts at bottom than dissolving the Union. they want to alarm themselves into the government of that very Union which they threaten us with a dissolution of. At any rate, the sober, good sense of the old-fashioned people of the U. States is not to be annihilated by the intemperate prattle of boys and politicians of a day's growth. Mr. Quincy's expression, like all other bubbles, will be blown to and fro, and finally burst into nothing; for there are enough of frivolous people to wonder at it. But why should we wonder? Is it anything extraordinary that a young party man should say a silly thing? And with respect to its being Mr. Quincy's deliberate opinion, that only proves that he is capable of saying with deliberation what other weak men would hardly say if they were drunk.