The Enquirer

THE WEBSTERIAN ATTACK.
As it has been quaintly called, so utterly failed of its object, and so completely recoiled on the assailants, that the respectable part of the opposition have had the decency to acknowledge their disappointment at the result, and their regret at so handsome an opportunity having been allowed to the Executive to vindicate its conduct in the eyes of the nation, at the expence of the veracity of their leaders. It was not to have been expected, however, that those who make a trade of slandering the nation and the government, those
--" Dangerous knaves, who pander to be fed,
"And sell themselves to infamy for bread,"
That this description of persons would tamely quit the ground they had occupied, without raising a smoke to cover their retreat.
Some of these hypocrites, unable to attack the Executive Report on its own merits, have attacked it on the demerits of the Report of the Committee of Foreign Relations; which, speaking of the conduct of the Executive, as developed by the documents laid before them, says, that "to be silent would be to condemn".-that is, for the committee to whom the message had been referred, to be silent; would be to condemn; and, therefore, the committee were not silent, but made a report, approving the conduct of the Executive in the most unequivocal terms, and recommending to the house to adopt a resolution to the same effect as their report, which resolution the House had no opportunity to act on before the session closed. Now, honest friend, dispassionate reader, what dost thou think the faction make out of this? _ Why, forsooth, that the committee meant silence on the part of the House would be condemnation of the executive! And this, mind you, in the face of the fact that it is contrary to the practice of the House on any occasion to pass such resolutions, although we recollect occasions (the arrangement with Erskine, for instance) on which the opposition themselves have warmly pressed their adoption. It must be obvious to every reflecting man, that the intention of the committee only regarded their own duty; which, as the subject had been specially referred to them, required that they should not be silent, lest by the same quibblers it should be said they were disposed to condemn.
In regard to the report of the Secretary of State, amid the multitude of words expended on it, we find little or no argument; none, perhaps, worthy of remark. There have been some distortions of its meaning, however, and misrepresentations of it, which we may find it convenient to notice at a moment of greater leisure. Nat. Int.