The Republic

From the Richmond Republican.
Lamentations of the ex-Organ—The accomplished Thompson.

The Union evidently fears most deeply the loss of the fifteenth Congressional district, that good Democratic district, which was once regarded as a perfect Gibraltar. It holds forth upon the occasion in the following most lugubrious strain.

"THE FIFTEENTH DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA.
We cannot reflect with any patience upon the result of the election in this strong Democratic district. It ought to be good for us by 1,000 majority. When the House of Representatives hung upon a hair—when so much depended upon the issue—when the pride, the interests, the principles of Democracy were staked upon the contest, we did not suppose it possible for the Democrats to sleep upon their post, or the Whigs to conquer them by their arts. The election, however, has gone against us, and the inaction of some Democrats, and the jealousy and weakness of others, have betrayed the Republic like treason. We have gained on Newman's vote in the spring 192 in the county of Ohio, 45 in Marshall, and 73 in Tyler. On the other hand, as the Enquirer states, we have lost in Brooke and Hancock 13, in Wetzel 82, in Monongalia 102, in Marion 402. (while it gave Newman 358 majority, it now gives Haymond 62 majority') in Preston 285; (it gave Newman 252; it now gives Haymond 35') These two last counties have caused our inglorious defeat, and we leave it to the Democrats in those counties to chew the cud of disappointment over the bitter fruits of their apathy, and to resolve, by increased energy and devotion in the future, to wipe out the stain on the Democratic banner."

"Marion is Haymond's own county, and Preston is the home of the excellent Brown. How does he explain this disgraceful dereliction, when we know his heart is in the right place? We have some knowledge of this successful candidate. The Alexandria Gazette says 'he is shrewd and sensible. Let the alliteration be carried out, and we find him 'sensible, seductive, and sly;' stooping to unworthy arts to win a seat in Congress, for which his qualifications are incomparably inferior to those of the accomplished Thompson. The following extract of a letter traces the causes of our defeat; and we are prepared to believe its statement about Colonel Haymond, especially since we have seen the circular address of himself or his friends to 'the friends of northwestern Virginia.' In that artful document he is made to wear two faces under one hood. The people are told that he is 'politically and unflinchingly Whig, yet never lets his politics influence him out of the duty he owes to his constituents. The man who says, 'I am proud to be able to say that though I have often been a representative in the legislative halls of your State, I have never been elected to office by a clique or party, but always by the combined votes of Whigs and Democrats; the man who has done more for northwestern Virginia than any other man that ever entered her legislative halls, as a reference to the proceedings of the Legislature will fully prove.'

"(And here follows a pompous enumeration of the appropriations which he is said to have obtained for that section of country.) This handbill concludes with the following insidious appeal:

"We say, then, come out one and all—Whigs and Democrats—and support the man who has done so much for you, and who, if elected, will ever attend to your interests, be his personal sacrifices what they may.
Turn out! Turn out!! and support the people's candidate—Col. Thomas S. Haymond.'"

"We know not how every Democrat feels in that district who was weak enough to vote for Haymond, or who did not vote at all, either from indifference to the cause, or from disaffection to the nominee, or from the fear of the weather; but we know perfectly well how such a man ought to feel on such an occasion. He should repent in sackcloth and ashes, and vow upon the altar never to rest until the district is cleansed of the shame and disgrace of such a result. We speak to these Democrats as a Democrat. A freeman speaks the voice of a free press; and as a Virginian, we speak to Virginians. Rouse, rouse, and perform a lustration in your district!"

Now, we think this is asking too much of the already overburdened Democracy of northwestern Virginia. That much abused people have just "performed a lustration" in their district which ought to appease the hottest anger of the gods. They have offered the "accomplished Thompson" as a sacrifice for their former political sins, and their purification ought now to be considered complete. How can the Union scold them so? And is it not enough for its Democrats to be badly beaten, but it must ask them to make themselves ridiculous by stripping off their hunting shirts and going about in "sackcloth and ashes!"

We learn from the Union that "Marion is Haymond's own county, (a fact which we knew before.) and Preston is the home of the excellent Brown." This we did not know. We demand to be informed who is "the excellent Brown?" The Browns are a family almost as numerous as the Smiths, and we should like to know which of them is here invidiously styled "the excellent," and why the "excellent Brown," whose "heart is in the right place," should have connived at the ruin of the "accomplished Thompson?"

There is a profound mystery about this matter, which the "excellent Brown" owes it to all the friends of human virtue, as well as of pure Democracy, to unravel.

The most amusing part of the Union's jeremiad over the fate of the late Colonel Thompson, is where it pronounces Colonel Haymond "seductive and sly," and describes him as "wearing two faces under one hood." To all men who have ever seen this remarkably plain, straight-forward, open-countenanced, open-hearted, warm-handed, broad-shouldered veteran of the northwest, the idea of "seductive and sly" is rich in the extreme. It reminds us of the memorable burst of eloquence of Sergeant Buzfuz against Mr. Pickwick, in which that paragon of simplicity and benevolence was made to appear a monster of craft and villany, and the letters which, in the innocence of his heart, he wrote to his landlady, requesting "chops and tomato sauce" for his dinner, were described by the learned counsel of Mrs. Bardell as "covert, sly, underhanded communications—communications that must be viewed with a cautious and suspicious eye, and which were evidently intended at the time to delude any third parties into whose hands they might fall."

The Union possesses wonderful power in producing a metamorphosis of political characters. In the twinkling of an eye it transforms a worthy citizen into "the excellent Brown," a sprightly attorney into the "accomplished Thompson," and a peculiarly frank and honest old Marion farmer into a "sly and seductive" Lothario!

The game of the leaders of the Free-Soil party "founded upon principle," as they stated to the people at its commencement, has not resulted, so far as the people have expressed their opinions, in their favor. They have everywhere been defeated, even after coalescing with their Democratic allies. It was tried in Vermont, and failed. New York followed, with similar discomfiture. And the Massachusetts Free Democracy followed in their footsteps, and have been routed, "horse, foot and dragoons." The editor of the Worcester Spy philosophically endeavors to give a crumb of comfort to his deluded followers, by telling them that the political stamp of the Legislature is to be decided by the Representative elections yet to be made!

But the die is cast. Whig principles yet prevail in Massachusetts. They are triumphant without coalition, and have scattered to the winds the feeble elements of corrupt amalgamationists. The people have succeeded in thwarting the schemes of political gamblers, and the commonwealth remains in the hands of the true conservators of its established interests. The course of the parties opposed to the Whigs was too barefaced to be overlooked by the people, the sovereign people of the commonwealth. They could not brook the insult offered them, and rebuked the conspirators in a becoming manner. The people have willed it, and the Whigs rule.

Those of the leaders of the Free-Soil party who formerly voted with the Whigs, have been the most malignant opposers of Whig men and Whig candidates for office. Whig measures have been the constant themes of their vituperation. The regular Democracy have been soothed and comforted, while the Whigs have been confronted on every question of public policy, and their leaders have been branded as knaves and plotters of mischief! But honesty has put to blush the rhapsodies of faction, and the shining light of Whig principles has triumphed, and routed the combined forces of the opposition. Proud is this victory for Massachusetts—glorious is this result for the country. Such, we trust, will be the discomfiture of all combinations not predicated upon sound and tenable principles.—Boston Journal, 20th.