Richmond Enquirer

(From the Albany Argus.)

STAND TO YOUR ARMS!

The smoke of the great political contest through which we have just passed has scarcely cleared away: but enough is revealed to show that the Democracy have been defeated, and that in this State and the Union, Federalism reigns victorious. As yet, however, the public mind has not sufficiently recovered its equanimity to examine, in a spirit of candor, the causes which have operated to produce this result—to the serious consideration of which we shall in due time invite attention.

In the mean time, whilst the notes of Federal triumph are swelling upon the gale, what is the duty of the Democracy under the circumstances in which they are placed? Undoubtedly to bow submissively to the operation of the laws, and to acquiesce in the expressed voice of the majority by placing the Government in the hands of those whom the popular fiat has designated as the repositors of the high trust. But does it follow that because a majority of the electors have declared against the candidates of the Democratic party, that therefore the principles of Federalism and its ramifications are correct? Can success sanctify error, or transform wrong into right—injustice into equity—falsehood into truth—special privileges into equality—or Aristocracy into Democracy? Far, very far, from it.

The victory which our opponents have gained has been won by means which will not bear investigation, and which must eventually recoil with overwhelming force upon the party resorting to them. With that party the struggle has been one of life and death; with the Democracy far otherwise. True, the latter have been overborne in the contest, but their principles are still unscathed, and as important to the well being of the country now, as at any former period.

The Federalists may congratulate themselves upon their elevation to power, but it will prove a short-lived enjoyment. They will find this but a preliminary contest, and that to defend the citadel they have taken, will require as much of vigilance and tact and talent as they can conveniently muster. The Democratic phalanx, though cast down, is not overcome—though outnumbered, is not dismayed—though overborne, is not conquered.

The game of hide and seek, by which the principles of the piebald party, now in the ascendant, has been kept from view, thus deluding many honest citizens, must now have an end. They have affected to repudiate the measures of the present Administration—they will now be compelled to acquiesce in them, or present those of a different character. Hitherto, their course has been only that of denunciation towards the Democratic policy—they will now have an opportunity of marking out a line, if they can, which shall not only prove satisfactory to the motley interests of which their own party is composed, but to the country at large. The single principle of oppugnation to a Democratic Administration, which has banded together in this contest Abolitionist and slaveholder, latitudinarian and strict constructionist, the advocate of a high tariff and the enemy of all protection, the friend of a National Bank and the opponent of such an institution, is now withdrawn. Profession can no longer stand in the room of performance, or denunciation be made a substitute for action. Under these circumstances, it requires no gift of second sight to perceive that a party composed of such heterogeneous materials, cannot reduce its discordant principles to practice, with any prospect of remaining long in the ascendant.

We call, therefore, upon our Republican brethren for the dissemination of sound political sentiments—and by all constitutional means to resist every aggression upon those Democratic principles for which we have hitherto contended, and which have been so well carried out under the auspices of the late and present National Executive. The doctrines advocated by the Democratic party are those which lie at the base of our free institutions, and though they may be temporarily beclouded, their ultimate triumph is certain.—None are more thoroughly convinced than the Federal leaders themselves, of the sandy foundation upon which their superstructure is reared. Hence there is nothing they so much dread as the potency of well directed truth. Their constant efforts, therefore, will be given to draw away Republicans from the advocacy of those principles which form the dividing line between Democracy and Federalism. Anxious themselves to repose upon the laurels they have acquired in this contest, they will strive to lull their opponents into a passive acquiescence in their measures, by informing them of the impractability of keeping up a continued contest—of the necessity of abstaining for a season from the turmoil of politics—of the unpopularity of Democratic measures, as indicated in the result of this campaign—and of the fruitlessness of further effort in the cause of equal rights and constitutional reform.

Nor will these sinister counsels proceed alone from the lips of the open and undisguised advocates of the Federal policy. The panders to those corporations, whose interests may be supposed to have been presently or prospectively affected by the measures proposed during the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren: the timid and time-serving politicians who have their own personal aggrandizement, rather than the predominance of true Democratic principles, at heart—will join in the cessation of hostilities, and for the ushering in of a millennium in which we shall all be Federalists and Democrats together—when the "credit system shall again shine forth in all the beauty of prismatic radiance, THE "Bow OF PROMISE" to the borrowing world—and when he who shall be able to gather to himself the largest share of the labors of others without any corresponding exertion of his own, shall be hailed as among the purest of patriots and the wisest of men. It is against the recurrence of such a state of things, and of the machinations of those whose interest it is to produce it, that we would particularly warn our Democratic friends.

The present is emphatically an auspicious time to raise the fallen standard of Jeffersonian Democracy. Our principles will be none the worse for being tempered in the fire of adversity, but the day of their triumph cannot be long delayed. Let us look at New Hampshire and take courage. Amid every blast of the Federal tempest she has stood firm. The blandishments which have drawn other States into a sacrifice of their principles, until at last they have been swallowed in the Federal vortex, she has steadily resisted, and she now holds, as she has ever done, a proud pre-eminence amongst her Democratic sisters.—Our own Herkimer, is another case in point. She too has steadfastly contended for the pure faith, and she has been rewarded by a peace within her borders and a fame abroad, of which she has just reason to be proud. Nor does the Democratic fire burn less purely and brightly amidst the mechanics and workingmen of our great commercial metropolis. Instead of the objurgation too frequently and thoughtlessly heaped upon them, they deserve the thanks of every well-wisher to the Democratic cause for the fervor with which the great body of them have maintained the principles of equal rights and contended against special and unequal Legislation.

If the Democracy of the State and Union will but emulate the examples to which we have adverted, brief will be the period before Federalism will topple from its present elevation, and sink to a depth more profound than that which followed its overthrow under the immediate auspices of the great Apostle of American Democracy.