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DENIOCRA.TIC STATE CONVENTION
Address by the Committee Appointed
for the Purpose.
In absolute Governments oppression can
Only be rebuked by armed revolution ; but
in a country where opinion and action are
restrained by laws which derive all their vi
tality from the respect and obedience of the
people, our written Constitutions provide oth
er remedies for the treacheries and tyrannies
of temporary rulers. The right of meeting
in such assemblages as these is among the
most sacred, as it is assuredly the most effec
tive of our franchises. It is in these sanctu
aries of.freedoin that all great revolutions
begin ; here that public opinion is enuncia
ted and organized ; here that inalienable
rights are vindicated; here that intolerable
wrongs are avenged ; and here that, while
rebuking the excesses of our servants, we
avoid that resort to force, in the mainte
nance of truth and reason, which is the in
evitable fore-runner of a nation's downfall.--
Notbincr 'n is more characteristic of our coun
trymen than their indifference to the incon
siderable errors of our public men. Con
tent when Government is honestly adminis
tered, even if such administration is not al
ways original and. startling, they applaud
their faithful servants with generous impar
tiality, and gladly leave to the leaders the
machinery of organization while there is no
flagrant breach of propriety or of law.
Between the contests of faction and the
ambition of mere politicians, the great body
of American people are rarely disturbed.—
But when they see their original rights as
sailed, and the laws from which these rights
derive their authority, directly attacked, by
those who ought to be their guardians and
their champions, previous indifference is at
once exchanged fur constant distrust, suspi
cion and vigilance.
The events which have called together this
Convention arc unhappily too familiar to re
quire an elaborate recapitulation. They con
stitute a mournful page in the history of our
country. Beginning under an Administra
tion, elevated to power by the intelligent
suffrages of a confiding people, they have fi
nally culminated in a series of outrages upon
constitutional rights and individual indepen
dence, which has called forth not only the
resistence of the Democratic party, but has
awakened the solicitude of patriots in every
civilized Government on the globe. Longer
submission to these outrages would be not
only cowardice, but treason. We are im
pelled, by every consideration of self-respect,
of fealty to principle, of fidelity - to plighted
faith, and above all, of love to our country,
to assure such position as will rescue the
Democratic party from a willing complicity
with the guiltiest of mal-administrations.
When James Buchanan was nominated
for the office of President of the United
States, his nomination was regarded as the
most significant concession to a conservative
sentiment. After a long struggle, at the
close of which the theory of Congressional
intervention in the Territories of the United
States had been successfully exchanged for
the enduring principle of popular sovereign
ty. The Democratic party North and South
found itself compelled to make this latter
principle the leading, if not the only issue in
the Presidential campaign. The opposition,
but craftily arraying the prejudices of sec
tion against section, bad instilled into the
popular mind the suspicion that it never had
been the purpose of the Democratic party
honestly to carry out the covenant implied
and written by the repeat of the Missouri
compromise, and the subsequent enactment
of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. So successful
ly had this suspicion been inculcated, that
self-preservation required the most formal
and distinct declaration of the Democratic
party, in National Convention assembled, of
a resolute determination to adhere in good
faith to the principle itself, and to the law
upon which that principle was founded. And
in order " to make assurance doubly sure," a
candidate was selected who was believed to
be available only because of his supposed
and known identity with the feelings and ex
pectations of the people. The alternative of
non-intervention and popular sovereignty in
the Territoreis, in the person of James Bu
chanan, and a President committed to the
• adverse idea of intervention against the
South by Congressional legislation, Was clear
ly and unequivocally presented. The South
ern States, keenly alive to the necessities of
the exigency and to their own interests, saw
the alternative, and accepted it with all its
responsibilities. lir.Buchanan himself, gave
big own frank understanding of the issue,
in repeated voluntary declarations, of which
the following was the first after his nomina
tion:
"In accepting the nomination, I need
scarcely say that I accept, in the same spirit,
the resolutions constituting the platform of
principles erected by the Convention. To
this platform I intend to confine myself
throughout the canvass, believing that I have
io right as a candidate of the Democratic
party, by answering interrogatories, to pre
sent new and different issues before the peo
ple."
"The agitation on the question of domestic
:slavery has too long distracted and divided
the people of this Union, and alienated their
Affections from each other. This agitation
has assumed many forms since its commence
ment, but now seems to be directed chiefly to
the Territories ; and judging from its present
character, I think we may safely anticipate
that is rapidly approaching a 'finality.' The
;recent legislation of Congress respecting do
mestic slavery, derived as it has been front the
original and pure fountain of legitimate po
litical power, the will of the majority, promz
ses, ere long, to allay the dangerous excitement.
his legislation is founded upon principles as
ancient as free government itself, and in accor
d:lance with them has simply declared that the
people of a TE.R.RITOiIa i like those of
State, SHALL DECIDE FOR THEM
SELVES WHETHER SLAVER rsHALL
OR SHALL NOT EXIST WITHIN THEIR
LIMITS.
.....$1 50
75
1 insertion
2 do. 3 do.
.$ 37% $5O
. 75 100
. 150 20D
.225 300
1 50
WILLIAM LEWIS,
VOL. XIV.
"The Nebraska-Kansas act does no more
than give the force of law to the elementary
principle of self government, declaring it to
be 'the true intent and. meaning of this act,
not to legislate slavery into any Territory or
State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to
leave the people thereof perfectly free to form
and regulate their domestic institutions in
their own way, subject only to the Constitu
tion of the United States. This principle
will surely not be controverted by any individ
ual of any party professing devotion to popu
lar government. BESIDES, HOW VAIN
AND ILLUSORY WOULD ANY OTH
ER PRINCIPLE PR 0 EIN FRAC . ? lag
IN REGARD TO THE TERRITORIES!
This is apparent from the fact admitted by all,
that after a Territory shall have entered the
Union, and become a state, no constitutional
power would.then exist which could prevent
it from either abolishing or establishing sla
very, as the case may be, according to its
sovereign will and pleasure."
No doctrine ever more directly appealed to'
the popular heart. It was indeed the only
question at stake in 1856. The people made
everything subordinate to it. They saw in
it a deliverance from those unhappy excite
ments which had for years disturbed the de
liberations of Congress, unsettled the relations
of business, and alienated one portion of the
Union from the other. They saw in it the
only permanent finality of the dispute in re
gard to slavery in the Territories. They did
not ask that, in applying the principle, it
should be applied for the benefit of one
section alone. Profoundly , interested in the
progress of the Southern States—connected
by revolutionary associations and party at- 1
taehments to the men and the measures of
the South—the Democrats of the North rec
ognized in the logical and fair construction
of the platform laid down by the North and
South at Cincinnati, the true pathway to an
enduring brotherhood, and the true secret of
a perpetual bond of peace and prosperity be
tween all the members of our family of re
publics. They did not ask that Kansas
should be made a free State, save by due
course of law. Mr. Buchanan wisely appre
ciating this state of facts, and far from refu
sing to meet it, went beyond the expectations
of his friends, and during the campaign, pub
licly and privately committed himself to the
most decisive measures in support of the
great principle of popular sovereignty and
non-intervention. Ile saw that the South
had no choice but to accept him, and he ad
dressed himself with industrious pertinacity,
not only to the interests but to the prejudices
of the North, declaring by word and deed,
that if be could not convince the North of
his sincerity, the attempt to elect him, would
be a disastrous failure.
Under his lead, inspired by his example,
and controlled by his counsel, the campaign
of 1856, in the State of Pennsylvania, vas
made upon the distinct issue in the Kansas-
Nebraska, bill, as follows :
"That the Constitution and all laws of the
United States which are not locally inappli
cable, shall have the same force and effect in
the said Territory of Nebraska as elsewhere
within the United States, except the eighth
section of the act 'preparatory to the admis
sion of Missouri into the Union,' approved
March 6, 1829, which being INCONSISTENT
WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF NON-INTERVENTION BY
CONGRESS WITH SLAVERY in the States AND
TERRITORIES, as recognized by the legislation
of 1850 commonly called the compromise meas-
UrCS, IS HEREBY DECLARED INOPERATIVE and
VOID ; it being the true intent and meaning of
this act not to legislate slavery into any State
or TERRITORY, nor to exclude it there from, but
to leave the people TIIEREOF perfectly FREE
TO FORM AND REGULATE THEIR DOMESTIC INSTI
TUTIONS IN THEIR OWN WAY, SUBJECT ONLY TO
TIIE CONSTITUTION OF TUE UNITED STATES."
Se willingly were Mr. Buchanan's opinions
accepted, and so obediently was his example
followed, that every document written or pub
lished within the confines of Pennsylvania,
on the issue involved, amplified his own ori
ginal and volunteered understanding of it
able and distinguished orators who tra
versed Pennsylvania during that struggle,
either adopted his theory or generally ab
stained from coming into collision with it.—
Nothing but this concurrence of sentiment
and of action rescued Pennsylvania from the
Republicans, broke the force of the constant
ly recurring excitements in Congress and
Kansas, and secured to us aid of thousands
of conservative voters. The President ad
hered to his declarations till after his elec
tion, and inaugurated his administration by
another pledge even more explicit and em
phatic.
At this moment James Buchanan occupied
a position which challenged the admiration
and gratitude of his countrymen. No voice
was raised in opposition to him. His Cabi
net, chosen by himself, and unanimously con
firmed by the Senate, was accepted by the
country-without a murmur. Men of all par
ties held out their hands to support and
strengthen him. The Democracy, entrench
ed in every State in the Union, looked forward
to a career of impregnable union and perpet
ual victory, and patriotic citizens regarded
that great party as the only permanent po
litical organization, The administration in
good earnest, proceeded to select two of the
ablest statesmen to proceed to Kansas to ar
range a difficulty fully ripe and ready for set
tlement. Clothing these distinguished agents
with full authority, and again repeating in
their instructions his former assurances, Mr.
Buchanan bad nothing to do but to trust to
time and to principle, and to turn his atten
tion to other important questions. So care
fully consistent was his course, up to a cer
tain period in the year 1857, that he wrote
the most pressing letters to Gov. Walker so
liciting and urging him to. stake everything
upon the great doctrine of popular sovereignty,
and to be well assured that the General ad
ministration would stand or fall by that doc
trine. Whoever shall write the history of
these events, will find it difficult to reconcile
such a. series of committals and pledges, such
a succession of solemn asseverations on the
one side, with the sudden, startling and ex
traordinary change which took place in the
minds of the President and his Cabinet be-
fore the assembling of the first session of the
Thirty-fifth Congress. The change itself was
a most disastrous calamity. It wasa wanton
sacrifice of honor and of good faith. It was
a bold confession of insincerity and deception.
It stamped the whole history of the great
campaign of 1856 with ignominy, and con
firmed the predictions of men who, during
that year, had everywhere proclaimed that
the professions of the Democracy were false
hoods, and that our thousand assurances that
fair play should be secured in Kansas, were
uttered only to be trampled under foot.
For a. while herculean efforts were made to
induce the administration to retrace its steps,
and to recant its shameless recreancy. But
it had gone too far to retreat. Good Demo
crats everywhere deplored the surrender, but
stood ready to support Mr. Buchanan and his
Cabinet upon other portions of their policy.
Feeling that the wound which had been in
flicted by those whom they had clothed with
power must be severe, these Democrats still
trusted that it would not be fatal, and that
time would heal the breach. Thus, while
unable to sanction the desertion of principle
themselves, they turned their attention to the
preservation of harmony in the Democratic
party, and, like true patriots, avoided indis
criminate warfare upon the General adminis
tration. How was this magnanimity received
by the guilty authors of this betrayal? With
haughty and insolent scorn!. Infatuated by
the possession of power, and blind to conse
quences, they insisted that their own turpitude
should be applauded, and erected their own
treachery into a substitute for the gospel of
our political salvation, demanding that all men
should be eseluded from the. Democratic par
ty who did not fall down and worship the
great crime of which they had been convic
ted. hundreds of the purest and ablest pa
triots in the ranks of the Democratic party
appealed for toleration, and-implored to be
permitted to remain true to their own pledges;
but their appeals were rejected with disdain.
The mercenaries of the administration were
let loose upon them in every free State, as if
they themselves had offended against the
Democratic creed. They were denounced as
disappointeg men, charged with affiliating
with Black Republicans, and refused admis
sion into packed Conventions; and. every man
in office who would not combine in the cru
sade was at once removed.
The spectacle was then witnessed, for the
first time in this country, of a deliberate in
terference, on the part of the General Gov
ernment, with the rights of the States ; of a
deliberate war of a so-called Democratic
Administration u pon Democratic nominations;
and of a deliberate organization by men in
power to break down the principle that placed
them in power. Other infamies followed in
rapid succession. The South, tempted by the
unjust proffer of turning a free Territory into
a slave State, united forces with the Admin
istration against those who had always been
its friends. The ineffaceable proofs of the
frauds by which this result was brought to
be consummated were offered in vain to the
consideration of the Administration leaders.
Laughing the declarations of the people of
Kansas against the Lecompton Constitution
to scorn, they next invented the English bill,
and made it another test of political ortho
doxy. Conscious of the prejudices of the
Northern people against slavery, they attemp
ted to commit the Democratic organization to
the monstrous idea that while thirty or forty
thousand of a population were sufficient to
constitute Kansas a slave State, under the
Lecompton Constitution, ninety-three thous
and would be exacted if the voice of the peo
ple prevailed in favor of a free State. The
rules of the House of Representatives, the
plainest of parliamentary usages, were over
turned and defied, in order to complete the
triumph of wrong ; and an investigation, de
manded alike by public opinion and by a ma
jority of the popular branch, was defeated
by the unworthy trick of those who happen
ed, through the instrumentality of the Speak
er to obtain the mastery of the committee.
Resistance to those wrongs became a duty
as well as a necessity. We bad to choose be
tween absorption in the ranks of our politi
cal adversaries, or a bold organization against
the vices of treacherous public servants. We
feel that our whole action, though denounced
by the General Administration, has been vin
dicated by the course of events and the bal
lot-box. Every accusation brought against
the policy of converting Kansas, by unjust
means, into a slave State, has been estab
lished, every point in the indictment of the
General Administration has been made good.
Wo have failed in no one particle of our tes
timony. The frauds which disgraced the
rule of the minority in Kansas have not only
been proved, but confessed by the instruments
hired to fabricate them; and the justice of
our position has at last reached the Southern
heart. The voice of one of the ablest sons
of South Carolina has been raised in detesta
tion of the course of the minority in Kansas,
and of the crimes perpetrated by that minor
ity and denounced by the Northern people.
In the face of this record, has the Adminis
tration of 'Tames Buchanan been manly
enough to admit its errors, and to arrest its
proscription ? No ! with the accumulated
evidence of the injustice of its own course,
and of the singular integrity and truth of the
men who have antagonizen it, it refuses to
perform the high duty of yielding to the force
of facts. To punish those who have been
right from the beginning, and to reward those
whose only merit is in the fact that they have
approved of its inconsistencies and wrongs
is still the sublime mission to which it is ded
icated.
We meet here to-day, however, not alone
to protest against the past and. present course
of the federal Administration, but to vindi
cate the Democratic party of Pennsylvania,
as against the assumptions and usurpations
of a body, calling itself• a Democratic Con
vention, which convened here on the 16th of
March last. As if smitten by judicial blind
ness, an elaborate endorsement of practices
condemned by the whole nation was followed
by a deliberate insult to the Chief Magistrate
of Pennsylvania. Silent only in reference
to the treacheries and crimes of the Federal
Administration. the Convention announced
-PERSEVERE.--
HUNTINGDON, PA,, APRIL 27, 1859.
doctrines which, if not solemnly repudiated
by the Democratic party, would deservedly
sink it into infamous obscurity. Governor
Packer, chosen in October of 1857, (and cho
sen as the personal friend of the President
of the United States,) could never have been
elected but for his early acceptance and elo
quent championship of the grea:t principles
we are here to-day to rescue from reproach.
During that contest, Governor Packer was
sustained and assisted by the apparent sin
cerity and consistency of the General Ad
ministration and its agents on this question.
The wise, just and conciliatory course of
Governor Walker, backed, •as he was then
presumed to be, by the whole power of the
President and his Cabinet, so strengthened
our candidates with the people as to make
them almost irresistible in their canvass.
The opposition party, headed by Mr. Wilmot,
melted away before the arguments of Gover
nor Packer and the great moral spectacle of
an honest fulfilment of the pledges of 1856.
Unhappily, at a later period, our public ser
vants at Washington determined to abandon
their impregnable position and to throw them
selves into the arms of an adverse and fatal
heresy. Governor Packer, like other Amer
ican statesmen, profoundly and publicly com
mitted as he was, could not, afterwards, fol
low the disreputable example set for him at
the Federal capitol; and, therefore, with ev
ery purpose of maintaining friendly relations
with the General Administration, he found
himself impelled, in moderate and dignified
language, to re-assert his grateful attachment
to the principles he had advocated in his
campaign. There was no aggression in this;
there was no purpose to come into collision
with a vast official monopoly, extending its
Briarius arms into every State, and fighting
the people in their sanctuaries with their own
money. His tone was the tone of respectful
deference, and his whole bearing, from that
day down to the period when he reiterated
the sentiments uttered in his inaugural mes
sage, presented a marked contrast to the dog
matic despotism which arrogates to itself the
control of parties and the alteration of creeds.
But he had committed the inexpiable sin in
refusing to accept the test offered to his lips
by the President and his Cabinet, and the
order was given, at once, that for this offence
he was to be summarily and ignominiously
punished. His friends were traduced and
proscribed, and all communication severed
betweenhis Administration and that at Wash
ington. Pensioned presses and paid officials
united in the crusade ; and at last a packed
Convention formally repeated the orders of a
perjured Administration, by joining in the
most shameless attacks upon the private char
acter of our Chief Magistrate. We are not
here to apologise for or to defend Governor
Packer ; he must stand or fall by his works.
But, regarding him, as we do, as a faithful
and conscientious public servant, and as hav
ing well fulfilled the expectations of his con
stituents, we should be wanting in manhood
if we did not express our admiration of the
man and our confidence in the Chief Magis
trate.
There is, in truth, but one course for us to
pursue, and that is to reject all connection
with men capable of such subserviency and
tyranny. The great leader of the North-wes
tern Democracy, tied to the policy of the Ad
ministration, would have been lost in an
ocean of popular odium. Sectionalism would
rule, not in the North alone, but in the whole
Union, if we do not move against it. Let
us then, continue to preserve the principles
of our creed, and patiently wait for time and
the ballot box to vindicate us, There is no
permanent success for any party that does not
stand where we stand to-day. If, from a
handful of men, struggling against an Ad
ministration armed with almost imperial pow
er, we have grown into a compact and com
manding organization, unencumbered by,
and disdainful of, patronage, relying only on
the justice of our cause, so in the future
must we conquer by the logical righteousness
of our creed, and the manifest practicability
of our remedies.
From the days of the American Revolution,
and the Articles of Confederation, and the
constitutional convention, down to the pres
ent hour, the patriot has always regarded
with jealous eye the tendency of the Federal
power to absorb the rights and. interfere with
the sovereignty of the States. Mr. Jefferson
and Mr. Madison in 179349, both foreshad
owed the evils that must flow from any such
example, if not sternly checked upon the
threshold. These great men took up arms
against certain unconstitutional laws of Con
gress, and denounced them, after they had
been signed by the President, as seizing the
rights of the States and consolidating them
in the hands of the General Government.—
They all declared that this would be to sur
render the form of government we have cho
sen, and to live under one depriving its pow
ers from its own will and not from our au
thority. And Mr. Madison in the address
prepared by him against the same unconsti
tutional laws, declared as follows :
" Measures have already been adopted
which may lead to these consequences. They
consist :
"In fiscal systems and arrangements,
which keep a host of commercial and wealthy
individuals embodied and obedient to the
mandates of the Treasury.
"In armies and navies, which will on the
one hand, enlist he tendency of man to pay
homage to his fellow:-creatures who can feed
or honor him ; and, on the other, employ the
principle of fear, by punishing imaginary
insurrections, under the pretext of preven
tive justice.
" In swarms of officers, civil and military,
who can inculcate political tenets tending to
consolidation and monarchy, both by indul
gence and. severities ; and can act as spies
over the free exercise of human reason,
" In restraining the freedom of the press,
and investing the Executive with legislative,
executive and judicial powers over a numer
ous body of men.
" And that we may shorten the catalogue,
in establishing by successive precedents, such
a mode of construing the Constitution as will
rapidly remove every restraint upon 'ederal
power,
T
" Let the history be consulted ; let the man
of experience reflect—nay, 2et the
,artificers
of monarchy be asked what further materi
als they can need for building their favorite
system ?"
More than sixty years have elapsed since
these admonitions were uttered. What is
the spectacle presented to-clay ? An attempt,
on the part of the General Government, ad
ministered by men calling themselves Demo
crats, to usurp the rights of the States, to
cripple the independence of the representa
tive, to poison and pervert the elective fran
chise, to connive at the grossest infractions
of law, to disregard those inappreciable les
sons of frugality and economy in the admin
istration of the Government, taught to us by
the fathers of the republic, and by means of
revenues swelled to an enormous amount,
and aided by mercenaries in office in every
State of the Union, to compel obedience to
its tyrannical behests, and to cover its crimes
with the name of the Democratic party.—
Jefferson and Madison, early in this century,
by their movement against a monarchical ex
ample, started and carried the great civil
revolution of 1800, by recalling the people
to a sense of the dangers which surrounded
them, and by laying the foundation of Dem
ocratic principles deep and strong in the pop
ular remembrance and regard. Inspired by
a motive no less elevated, we appeal to the
.North and to the South against the despot
ism which has enthroned itself at Wash
ington city, and which tramples under foot
our most sacred rights; which has degraded
the Northern States into mere subordinate
corporations, controlled by a violent central
consolidation; and which, after having con
tributed all in its power to paralyze the Dem
ocratic party in the North and North-west,
by means of its proscription. and its tests,
its desertion of established principles, and its
substitution of novel and tyrannical doctrines,
has thrown itself into the arms of those who
do not hesitate to declare on the floors of
Congress, that, unless slavery is protected in
the Territories, by all the powers of the gov
ernment, in defiance of the popular will,
they are ready to break up the Union.
The theory of Congressional intervention,
now adopted by the Administration leaders,
must of necessity be a. sectional theory. P,n
dorSed. by the Republican Convention of 1856,
it must be abandoned by the Republicans in
1860. Repudiated by the Southern dele
gates in Cincinnati, in 1856, it is vain for the
same men to attempt its endorsement in
1860. Whether asserted to protect slavery,
of to prohibit slavery, we are equally against
it. ilre propose to adjudicate and settle this
question forever by referring it to the people
of the Territories, subject only to the Consti
tution of the United States. It is in vain to
argue that this is not a practical remedy.—
The history of the struggle in Kansas shows
that it is practical ; and, whatever courts
may decide, nothing can prevent the tri
umph of the popular voice in the Territories,
as well in regard to slavery as in reference to
every other description of property. It is,
therefore, too late for Southern politicians to
abandon non-intervention; - Or for Northern
politicians to oppose it. The whole history
of our legislation is a vindication of this
principle, recognized by Presidents, by Sen
ates, by Representatives, by Federal and by
State Courts, by North and by South. The
cry from the South has always been, " Let
us alone." The principle of non-interven
tion has never been seriously denied until
the present moment. It is a fact to which
we triumphantly refer, that, with one or two
exceptions, nearly all the present Southern
leaders of the Democratic party have sub
scribed to this principle, preferring the ulti
matum of a submission to the popular will
in the Territories to that of Congress; and
one of the most distinguished members, Mr.
Toombs, of Georgia, stated in the great de
bate on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, in 1854,
that which, if uttered by a Northern man,
would have been regarded as a contemptu
ous defiance of the authority of the Supreme
Court. .
Popular Sovereignty and non-intervention
are thus not only sanctioned by their inhe
rent justice, by their coincidence with the
past professions, of the Democratic party, by
their entire harmony with the qoctrines of
the Cincinnati platform, but also by the dec
larations of nearly every leading advocate of
the Kansas-Nebraska bill; by the interpreta
tion placed upon it by its author, as well at
the time it was originally introduced as in
all subsequent discussions of its meaning ; by
James Buchanan, when he declared that the
"people of a Territory, like those of a State,
shall decide for themselves whether slavery
shall or shall not exist within their limits ;"
by John C. Breckenridge, when he announced
that the Democratic organization was pledged
to prevent the interposition of Congress on
the subject of slavery in the Territories, and.
that the people of each Territory should de
termine the question for themselves; by Gen.
Cass ; by Howell Cobb, when he declared at
West Chester, in 1850, that he " would not
plant slavery upon the soil of any portion of
God's earth against the will of the people;
the Government of the United States should
not force the institution of slavery upon peo
ple of the Territories or of the States, against
the will of the people," and when he announ
ced in the same speech that "practically a
majority of the people represented in the
Territorial Legislature" would decide the sla
very question. "Whether they decide it by
prohibiting it, according to the one doctrine,
or by refusing to pass laws to protect it, as
contended for by the other party, is immate
rial. The majority of the people, by the ac
tion of the Territorial Legislature, will decide
the question ; and all must abide the decision
when made ;"—by Hon. James L. Orr, speak
er of the late House of Representatives,
when he declared that "if the majority of the
people are opposed to the institution, and if
they do not desire it engrafted upon their
territory, all they have to do is simply to de
cline to pass laws in the Territorial Legisla
ture for its protection and then it is as well
excluded as if the power was invested in the
Territorial Legislature to prohibit it ;" by
Hon. A. H. Stephens when ho said "I am
willing that the Territorial Legislature may
Editor and Proprietor.
NO. 44.
act upon the subject -when and how they
think proper ;" by hundreds of other promi
nent members of the Democratic party, whose
declarations in support of the principles we
have met this day to reassert would fill vol
umes.
There is no well-settled Democratic prinet
ple which we are not willing to adopt and
eager to defend. We yield unfaltering obe
dience to the great principle of self-govern
ment which underlies our institutions, and
forms the corner-stone of Democracy. No
man who is faithless to this—no matter by
what name he may he called—can justly be
considered a Democrat ; and we will be as
unyielding and exacting in our endorsements
of this vital doctrine as its importance re
quires. We agree with Jefferson in appre
ciating the importance of an economical ad
ministration of the Government, and for that
reason do not hesitate to denounce the fear
ful extravagance which has been sanctioned
by unfaithful public servants. We also be
lieve with him that one of the surest prevent
ives against the establishment of despotism
is the preservation of strength of local Gov
ernments from the encroachments of Federal
power ; and, therefore, we protest against the
covert attack made upon the Governor of
Pennsylvania by the pensioned agents of the
National Administration, on account of his
manliness in rebuking its dependants, and
denounce the persistent efforts which have
been made to control the politics of the coun
try by the skillful use of the patronage and
money of the Federal Government.
We agree with Jackson, that "the Federal
Union must and shall bei preserved," and
therefore we seek to advance principles which
should command the confidence and deserve
the support of the people of all sections of
the Union, and shun with abhorrence the ul
traisms of sectionalists of the South and of
the North. Warned by the experience of the
past two years of the imminent danger which
threatens the vital 'principles of the Demo
cratic party if it is to be entirely surrendered
to the control of Southern sectionalists and
corrupt Administrationists, we protest against
their action in decided terms, and will sternly
resist alike the demand, made in defiance of
the pledged faith of the Democratic party,
for the interference of the Federal Govern
ment to protect or force slavery into Territo
ries against the will of their inhabitants, and
the clamors for the exclusion of slavery with
in them by Congressional action, and for an
enforced similarity in the institutions of all
the States through the exercise of Federal
influences. While we have no antipathy
against the people of the South, and arc ready
to do our utmost to preserve and strengthen
every Constitutional guarantee they possess,
we are equally determined to defend to the
uttermost the rights of the people of the
North, and the rights of the settlers of the
Territories to form and regulate their domes
tic institutions in their own way. The past
history of the Democratic party has been
such as to inspire us with a hope that, if its
movements are characterized by . proper wis
dom and forbearance, it may again command
itself to the confidence of the nation. But
this can never be done, if it is to be commit
ted to Southern ultraists ; if it is to be a mere
sectional organization for the advancement
and protection of the interests of slavery in
defiance of the vital principles of free Gov
ernment, and if the Democracy of the North
are to be forced into a position revolting to
the judgment and patriotism of the people of
the free States.
Every observer of the events of the last
two momentous years cannot fail to perceive
that the disunion sentiment has been greatly
strengthened in the Southern States by the
policy of the Federal Administration. En
couraged by this policy, the extreme men of
the South have not only abandoned the ac
cepted creed of the Democratic party, bat
make the acceptance of their new sectional
platform the condition of their co-operation
with the party, and even of their continu
ance in the Union. The very last movement
in the South indicates the formation of a
Southern party in contra-distinction to the
Republican organization of the North ; and
tho Charleston Mercury, the organ of the
extremists, announces that "the Democratic
party exists only in the South," and "that it
is a Southern party and nothing eliie."
If these preparations indicate anything,
they assuredly mean that the day is rapidly
approaching so much dreaded by the Father
of his Country, and that henceforth this hap
py confederacy will be divided into geograph
ical parties, each intent upon its own inter
ests, and each the infuriated foe of the other.
There can be no union of these States upon
a sectional platform. We must stand togeth
er on constitutional principles, or surrender
the Republic to incurable divisions.
We aro here, also, as law-obeying Denio
crate. We desire to bo understood as up
holding the principles of the Federal Consti
tution, and the statute laws enacted .under
them, and of resisting those who are viola
ting them. We are hero to call upon every
citizen to assist us in maintaining the Consti
tution and the laws as they are, and to declare
that there is no higher law, North or South,
- which can justify any man in doing violence
to either. We arraign tho Federal Admin
istration as the worst enemy the Federal
Constitution has ever had, as having attemp
ted to weaken that instrument in the affec
tions of the people by allowing the laws
enacted to carry out its provisions, to be
wrested from their true meaning, or to be
ruthlessly violated. We arraign that Admin
istration for establishing a precedent by
which the money of the people is to be used
to corrupt the elections in utter disregard of
law. We arraign it for its unconstutional
war upon State rights and State equality ;
for its assaults upon the independence of the
representatives of the people in Congress
assembled; for its despotic proscription of
men for opinion's sake ; for the absence of
frugality and integrity in its departments ;
for its guilty proffers of bribes to a portion of
its own people, as well as to those of a dis
tant foreign government ; and, finally, for
bringing the name of our Republic into dis
grace and shame before the nations of the
earth. And all these, not merely without
law, but against law ; not merely with no
warrant from the Constitution, but in delib
erate violation of its letter and spirit. Our
duty in such an emergency rises above a
mere party duty. It is a far more sacred
impulse and conviction that compels us to
come forward to protest against vice and
aggression which must overthrow the liber
ties of the people, and add another failure to
the long procession of extinct republics, un
less averted at once and forever. We aro
unwilling that the enemies of this Union,
either in this or in other lands, should hold
the American people responsible for these
excesses ; or that the enemies of the Demo
cratic party should make that party respon.
siblo for the manifold transgressions of those
who have betrayed its principles.
In the name of both, we protest against
any such accusation. We may be stigmati
zed as rebels by purchased politicia,us and
Vella' newspapers ; but if we c4n rescue the