Lynchburg Virginian

CALL FOR INFORMATION.

A writer in the last Richmond Enquirer, commences an address to Judge Philip Pendleton Barbour, with the following remarks, derogatory of certain other eminent gentlemen, who, not many moons ago, were in high estimation at the Enquirer office, but who seem to have recently lost caste with the great Jackson Republican party, of which Mr. Ritchie is the organ. Addressing himself to Judge Barbour, the writer (who, by certain earmarks, we take to be Mr. Ritchie himself, under the nom de guerre of "A Fellow Citizen") thus commences:

"I address myself to you without any unnecessary circumlocution or apology. Your countrymen want light. I feel that I want it. Where shall we seek it? What oracles shall we consult? Shall we repair to John Randolph, who has made it his pride to oppose every administration, who opposed the administration of Tho. Jefferson himself, who opposed the necessary war of Jas. Madison and would have marred all its glories, who has recently soiled his palm with more than $20,000 of the public treasure, for which he has rendered no adequate equivalent; and who

'Sells the mighty space of his large honors,

For so much trash, as may be grasped thus!'

Shall we take the opinions of that man as oracular who confesses himself to be subject to "hallucination, such as we have so lately seen in the case of the lamented Lowndes? Or shall we go to Mr. Littleton Waller Tazewell, who, with all his splendid abilities, has never been able to sink the Advocate in the Politician? He has never commanded the firm confidence of the Republican Party. Or shall we go to John Tyler?'

After lashing the former idols of Jacksonism thus severely, and, we think, in relation to one of them at least, with less severity than justice, the writer propounds the following queries to Judge Barbour, which we doubt whether the Judge will answer, seeing that it is the policy of aspiring politicians not unnecessarily to commit themselves, but which we should be gratified to see unequivocally responded to by that gentleman:

1st. Is there such a person as a citizen of the United States? and what is meant by the expression?

2d. What is sovereignty? Is it divisible or not? And if divisible, in what sense is it so? If the sovereignty be in the people of each State, can they or not transfer portions of that sovereignty, or attributes of it, pro tem, to the Federal Government, as they transfer it to their State Government? And what is the difference of the relation in which the people of each State stand in to the Federal and to the State Governments?

3rd. What is the difference, if any between allegiance and obedience? And if there be any, is allegiance or obedience due to the acts of the Federal Government, and due to those of the State Governments?

4th. Is there any sort of foundation for the South Carolina doctrine of Nullification? Was this one of the forms of interposition, contemplated by the resolutions and report of our Legislature in '98?

5th. What is really the difference between Constitutional and Revolutionary Secession? And in what cases, may one be used, and in what the other?

6th. Can force in any case be used against one of the States, acting in her highest sovereign capacity? And can her citizens, in obedience to her laws, be guilty of treason towards the United States?