Conservative men.
It is truly a blessing to live in an age of conservative men — of men we mean who modestly assume the exclusive virtue of conservatism, and take all that is worth having in the country into their conservative keeping. It is a pleasure to the eye to look upon these "solid men"--men of solid corporations, solid watch chains and solid canes, which they "whop down," as Sam Slick would say, in a manner that indicates "their intention to keep things in their places;" men who meet you with a knowing toss of the head, as much as to say, "that's me, that is, and who you are I don't know, and what's more, I don't want to know." It gives one an assurance of perfect public security to know that there are so many men in the country whose whole life is devoted to the preservation of society — who are always calling themselves by the pet names of "conservative," sometimes varying it by styling themselves "the good men of the nation," and occasionally, "Americans of the era of '76." What would become of the world without a profession which lives by Conservatism? They are the salt of the earth, the charcoal that keeps the State from decomposition, the chloride of lime that wards off cholera, plague, and yellow fever. The definition of conservative, as given in Worcester's popular Dictionary, (good Conservative authority,) is--"1st. That which preserves. 2d. One opposed to political changes in the State or Government — a story." To which the great lexicographer adds the following note from the historian, Macaulay: "We see that if M. Dumont had died in 1799, he would have died, to use the new can't word, a decided conservative"We fancy that if some of our enlightened fellow-citizens who are continually boasting that they are "Conservatives," were aware that they are calling themselves "Tories," they would drop that popular style of self-laudation in a hurry. We are well a ware that they intend no disrespect to themselves by insisting that they are the only "conservatives," i. e., "tories" in the country, but we respectfully suggest that they desist from calling themselves such hard names.
