Huntingdon globe. ([Huntingdon, Pa.]) 1843-1856, March 21, 1855, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    E
=EI
BY W. LEWIS.
• THE HUNTINGDON GLOBE,
Per annum; in advance, sl 50
41
" if not paid in advance, 2 00
No paper discontinued until all arrcarages
'are paid.
A failure to notify, a. discontinuance at the ex
!•Pira.tioti of the terdusubscribed for will be con
leiclered a new engagement. .
Terms of Advertising.
Six lines or less,
1 square, 16 lines, brevier, 50 75 100
2 41 t, ' 1 00 1 50 2 00
3 I.
tequrar,
2 .••
3
4 46
5
1.9 00 25 00 38 00
" 25 00 40 00 60 OD
Professional and Business Cards not exceed
ing d lines, one year, 84 00
10 ~
Agents for the Globe.
following gentlemen are authorized to
receive the names of all who may - desire to be
come subscribers to the GLOBE, and to receive
advance payments and receipt for the same.
HENRY ZIMMERMA-N, Esq., Coffee Run.
WM. CAMPBELL, M'Connellstown.
BENJ. F. PATTON, Esq., Warriorsina rlt,
JOUN OWENS, Esq., Birmingham.
R. F. lIASLE'rT, Spruce Creek.
H. B. MVTINGER, Water Street.
SILAS A. CRESSWELL, Manor Hill.
. DAVID BARBICK, West Ba rree.
Ozaortzt; Ennisville.
Grr..cmyr CITA:qEY, Esq., East Barren.
Dr. M. MILLER., Jackson tp.
SAMUEL M'VITTY, Shirloysburg.
S. B, Younrc, Three Springs.
M. F. CAMPBELL, Esq„ Mapleton.
J. R. IhmrrEit, Petersburg.
J.*S, HuNT, Shaile'aup.
D, H. CAMPBELL, Marklesburg.
H. C. WAmuntf, Alexandria.
J. S. GEnsErr, Cassville.
Petition for License
TO the Honorable the Judges'of the Court of
Common Pleas of Huntingdon county at April
Term 1855. Your petitioner George Randolph
having rented that well known tavern stand in
the village of Saulsburg, Barrce township, situ
ate on the great leading road from Lewistown
to Petersburg, now occupied by John G. Stew.
art. The petition of George Randolph respect
fully represents that he is well provided with
house room and conveniences for the lodging
and accommodation of strangers and trowllers,
he therefore prays your Honors to grant him
a license for keeping a public inn or tavern and
he will ever pray.
m h. 6'553
GEORGE RANDOLPH
We the undersigned subscribers, citizens of
Barree township, la which the above mentioned
in or tavern is prayed for to be licensed, do cer
tify that George Randolph, the above applicant,
is of good repute for honesty and temperance
and is well provided with house room and con
veniences for the lodging and accommodation
of strangers and travellers, and that said inn or
tavern is necessary to accommodate the public
and •entertain strangers and travellers.
Samuel Coen, Thomas Stewart, Jas. Car
mont, John Houck, John Harper, Reuben
Duff, John Corven, Joseph Forreste, .John G.
Stewart, Richard Brindle, James Fleming,
R. I. Massey, John Peightal, Peter Living
ston.
Petition for License
TO the Honorable the JudgeS of the Court of
Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the county of
Huntingdon: the petition of John Montgomery
respectfully shewcth that he has purchased the
well known stand known as the Jackstown Ho
tel, and is desirous of continuing to keep a pub
lic house therein, he therefore pray's your Ho
nors to grant him a license to keep a publici'
house at the place aforesaid for the ensuing- year
and he will ever pray, &c.
JOHN MONTGOMERY
We the subscibers, citizens of Brady town
ship in the county of Huntingdon, recommend
the above petitioner and do certify that the inn
or tavern above mentioned is necessary to ac
commodate the public and entertain strangers
and travellers, and the petitioner above named
is of good repute for honesty and temperance,
and is well provided with house room and con
veniences for the lodging and accommodation
of strangers and travellers. '
Andrew Wise, John Vandevander, Adam
Warfel, Philip Holler, Samuel Sharer, Fran
cis Holler, Daniel Gray, James Simpson, J.
K. Hampson, James M'Donald, John M'-
Donald, James A. Simpson, Samuel G. Simp
son, Richard Meredith, Jesse Yocum.
Feb. 6, 1855.
Petition for License
TO the Hon. theJudg,es of the Court of Quar
ter Sessions of the Peace fbr,the county of Ilan.
tingdon: The petition of Ezekiel & Nathan
White, respectfully showeth : That your peti
tioners occupy a commodious house, situate in
the town of Coahnoat, in the township of Tod,
which is well calculated for a public house of
entertainment, and from its neighborhood and
situation is suitable as well as necessary for
the accommodation of the public, and the en
tertainment of strangers and travellers. That
they are well pro'tided with stapling for horses,
and all cmveniences necessary for the enter
tainment of strangers and travellers; they there
fore, respectfully pray the Court to grant them
a license to keep an inn or public house of en.
tertainment there : and your petitioners will
ever pray &c
Coalmont, February 28, A. D. 1855.
We, the undersigned, citizens of the town.
ship or Tod aforesaid, being personally acquain
ted with Ezekiel & Nathan White, the above
named petitioners, and also having a knowledge
of the house for which the license is prayed do
hereby certify that such house is necessary to
accommodate the .public, and entertain siren
qrers and travellers ; that they arc persons of
good repute for honesty and te!nperance, and
that they arc well provided with house room and
conveniences for the lodging and accommoda
tion of strangers and travellers. We therefore
beg leave to recommend them for a license,
agreeably with their petition.
Andrew Donelson, Samuel G. 'Miller, James-
S.' Reed., David Flucic, James P. Reed, Joseph'
Barnet, Jesse Cook, Thome s' Cook, George Her
ton; William Carr; John' W. W rife, Enoch Shore,
Levi Evans, Samuel B. Donelson.
)
T.:. . tic
I'm ti i iff,.e.
iL . C'
_, . ,
1 ins. 2 ins. 3 ins.
25 37} 50
50 2 25 3 00
3±n. 6m. ' 12 in.
" $3 00 85 00 $8 00
" 500 .800 12 00
" 7 50 10 00 15 00
" 9 00 14 00 23 00
EZEKIEL WHITE,
NATHAN %VERT&
From the W estern Democratic Review.
The Substance Without its Shadow
Man was endowed by his Creator with the
right to do as he pleases; being subject to re
straint only so far as his conduct interfeia
with the privileges of others. This is the
substance, without thegloss. In.the course of
ages, however, we have lost sight of this or
ganic truth ; and have, of necessity, become
entangled in a thousand webs of error, from
which it seems almost impossible for us to
he extricated. We speak .not as- the slave of.
any party, for we owe' allegiance ti' none';'
nor as the organ of some mere incident of
the sunshine of political majorities, for ma
joritieS are only less frequently than minor
ities groping in. error, not as the advocate
of mere expedienCy; for we have found ab
stractions, as a general thiirg, lesS dangerous
than temporizing policy not in fear of any
form ofconVentional - tyrant' y.for - 3.ve acknowl
edge no masters, political, civil, or ecedesias
tical ; but as one - conscious of the rights he'
inherited from the' Maker, and of his obliga
tions to his fellow men.
It is humiliating to confess our errors as a
people, but justice requires that they be sta- .
ted. It is due to 'ourselves, to the world; and
particularly to the generations that shall suc
ceed us, to acknowledge that we have bowed.
the knee to a thousand deities, become sup-'
pliants to our inferiors, and sacrificed the re-'
spect due to a great nation upon the alter of
sordid motives and personal aggrandizement.
Democracy is founded in common sense; it
depends not upon Revelation for its institu
tion, nor upon human conduct for its sanc
tion ; it is not the creature of mere conven
tionalism, nor the slave of governmental de
crees ; it rises, in its primitive majesty, above
all party, above all social enactment, and
above all creed ; it is in politics, what alge
bra is in mathematics—the science in which
we are permitted to use the desired, result in
ascertaining unknown quantities; it is the
great beacon-light of ages, shining at once
back to the transgression of Adam, and for
ward to the resurrection of the just—inter
preting all mysteries, solving all problems,
correcting all errors, deducting all truths.—
Here we have infinite wisdom for an origin,
and universal good for a mission. Such is
the Archimedean law with which it is our
privilege to move the world ! and shall we
linger in the harbor of error, rather than
break away the thin veil which hides the
Mighty ocean of truth ! It is to the press of
Arberica, that the world's humanity is tur
ning; here is the only hope for the unconten
ted masses that have groaned, from the day
on which the gate of Paradise was closed on
our first father until this hour; under the
iron heel of oppression. It is ours to meet
or disappoint the expectations of those who
trely feel the wants of the thousand millions
that dwell upon the earth. Heretofore the
press of America has been almost a nega
tive power; it might well be calleda stilled
giant—possessing all the frame-work for
mighty effort, but palsied by a cowardly
fear of popular prejudice; we have written
and published, riot for the advancement of
principle,'but for the accommodation of ex
pediency 3 almost every line has weighed in
the scale of dollars and cents, arid if the bal
ance inclined but in the pitiful "estimation
of a hair," our pusillanimous course was de
termined. This, though severe, is not a
burlesque description, but, alas ! a faithful
copy of the record.
Our objects is not to disparage the Ameri
can press, we are proud of its power, proud
of its independence, and proud of the mag
nificent results of which it will be the
agent in coming times. We declaim
against the comparative insignificance, in
many instances, and the positively evil char
acter in others, of the fruits which have al
ready ripened. What has been accomplish
ed ? What great iiirprovements have been
effected by the labors of the last three-quar
ters of a century ! Is truth supported with
more freedom, than in Revolutionary times ?
As the shackles of foreign influence have
gradually been shaken off, have we not
hound ourselves in domestic chains stionger
than those of the old world T Has not social,
political or ecclesiastical tyranny, cloaked in
a thousand dangerous forms, tampered with
the virtue, insulted the intelligence, and par
alized, to no inconsiderable extent, the migh
ty arm of the American press? Is there
any unity in our action ? Are we laboring
for any common end '? Are we not divided t
upon all questions of principle and policy?
and does the vast engine, for the accomplish
ment even of the minutest object, work as a
"stupendous whole'?" In view of the start
ling condition of the press implied in these
interrogatories, we propose to examine some
of the evils under which we have labored,
and which it will be our duty to remedy.
First, then, we remark—this is a pecunia
ry age. We are all daily and hourly Wor
shippers of the almighty dollar. Law, med
icine, divinity, and all other professions, are
pursued in temples sacred only to Mammon.
We walk, stand, sit down, rise to our feet,
preach, practice, give nostrums, and perform
every business of life, directly, and almost
exclusively in view of our pecuniary salva
tion. No place is so sacred as to forbid the
intrusion of the .lust for gain. We sell our
deed for happiness on earth and our prospect
of bliss beyond the grave, just as many' times
each day as we can get a bidder. Our boas
ted disinterestedness is mere matter of theo
ry—a commodity which rises and falls in the
market like flour or pork, according to sup
ply and demand. This remark, like the pre
ceding, applies to all the avocations of life.
This wreched thirst for filthy lucre, seems
peculiarly to characterize and degrade our
time, has, as might reasonably be expected,
given birth to every species of counterfeiting
which the wickedness, folly and ingenuity
of man can invent and execute. We have
become a nation of legalized imposters.—
We make unto ourselves images of every
thing human arid divine. Our laws are so
constructed that whole armies of hungry cor
morants can feed at the public treasury, and
fatten upon the hard earnings of the poor.—
All the avenues of public life swarm with
this accursed brood,.who secure an immunity
from the penitentiary, and public odium by
-
•
s
'''";=;-- • " -
;
EILNTINGDON, MARCH 21. 1855.
gross falsehoods, first well told for mutual.
benefit, and afterwards embelished for pub
lie:use. Our law proceedings might well be
defined in a few words—the practice of ta
king money out of the pockets of the poor,
and placing it in the hands of the rich. So
ciety is in no clanger of setting down to any
thing like quiet and harmony, so long as the
laws permit the merest pettifogger to incite
more difficulty in one day than a court of
conciliation 'could - "amicably adjust" in ten
'years. Our physicians humbug us without
mercy. A newspaper is not considered fil
led, unless its columns are laden with extrav
agant laudations of some miserable nostrum,
concocted by an ignorant quack, at a dollar
a bottle. Even the covers of the great Eng
lish Reviews are frequently devoted to this
mercenary trafic.
We cannot translate the Bible into a hea
then tongue, for-the purpose of dissemina
ting a knowledge of Christ and him crucified,
without prefixing a few leaves in praise of
Prof. Humbug's "Vegetable Extract," and
appending to the last chapter of the Apoca
lypse.some monster fables in refference to
Dr. Townsend's "Sarsaparilla!" -Our mer
chants, mechanics, Sal., following the unhal
lowed example, construct their wares in such
a manner that they will require constant re
pairs, and frequent substitution. The books
now issued by our great publishing houses
will fade and be utterly worthless hundreds
of years before those issued in the reign of
Henry the VIII. will be illegible. Falsehood
reigns in every department and truth is at a
great discount, for the reason that it'is not
profitable.- Our painters paint for the hour,
and our writers do not write for after times.
A book or a picture that will sell, is the desid
eratum; time devoted to the elaboration of a
narrative, or a work of art, is regarded as
lost. The intellectual labors of our greatest
statesmen, poets and scholars, do not pay the
printer, whilea compilation of extravagant
stories like "Uncle Tom's Cabin," or "Ida
May," or even Barnum's miserable "Auto
biography," presenting the complete record
of a misspent life, are sold at fifty, seventy-,
five, or an hundred thousand dollars.
A taste for the plausible, the accurate, the
genuine, and the venerable, seems to have
been rooted out of the public mind of Amer
ica. If we may judge by the number of ex
clamation points which we find in the ga
zettes, there is an immense demand for mon
ster births! hangings! rapes! murders! Arc
tic disasters! steamboat explosions! and death
at Sebastopol !!! A periodical is considered
perfectly tame if it does not record an "arri
val," or some unexampled accident, in
which a large number of men, women and
children lose their Jives; and the editor who,
failing to find in his exchanges-the extraordi
nary items desired, exercises his inventive
faculties in manufacturing something for
the occasion, is regarded a public benefac
tor.
But the evils of which we have spoken
are not the only ones, nor even the chief, to
which we would advert. A species of po
litical religionism has taken possession of
the public mind, and threatens to overturn
all the ancient principles upon which socie
ty is based. Hypocrisy has won a hold up
on our affections, to which our fathers were
comparative strangers, and with which it is
to be hoped our children will be absolutely
unacquainted. "We are a religious people!"
Yes, who has not heard that we, as a people,
are religious? This is a conceded fact; it is
in the mouths of all; over the entire world,
the Americans are pointed to as overflowing
with religious sentiment; it is even heresy
to doubt it; it is the aim of a majority of our
journalists to show that we—the American
people—possess all the religion, and all the
-morality, not invested in gods and angels.
We cannot advertise a patent medicine, or
give circulation to a novel, without publish
ing a certificate that one has cured a cler
gyman, or that the other has been read by
the same, just as though religion had any
thing to do with the various elements of a
medical compound, or could in any degree en
hance the merits or excuse the follies of a
hundred or two pages treating of the adven
tures of love sick damsels ! That the prac
tice to - which we allude has become a per
fect bore, there can be so doubt. We talk
about independence of the ecclesiastical
pawed.; we discourse of the religious servi
tude under which the masses of Europe groan;
but are we, of republican America, not the
serfs of those who assume ,to be our moral
and sphitualguardians? True, we have not
an established church, but it is our "estab
lished" practice to bow like suppliant slaves
to those whom God created no better than
ourselves. We charge that the Catholics
were guilty of gross and enormous crimes;
but we ask in the name of all that is good
arid just, what would have been thought and
said, it three thousand priests—summoning
the shade of St... , Peter—by command of -Pius
IX., had met somewhere in the prairies of
the west, and drafted a memorial to Con
gress, and threatened to hurl the
thun
derbolts of the Almighty against every one
who should dare to vote to give the people
oF the territories the right to make their own
laws? Would not one mighty voice have
been heard, sounding from the New England
hills, and echoing from every part of the
Union calling upon the masses to take up
arms to punish the insolence of the vicares of
the "Woman of Babylon?" the language
would have been exhausted of its opprobrious'
epithets in expressing our appreciation of the
unparalleled insult to the intelligence and
progress of the age. Every newspaper in
the land would have teemed in worthy indig
nation, and octavo volumes would have
crowded Putnam and Harpers' establish
ments for five years, devoted to no other
subject, and urging, in all prabability, anoth
er crusade, similar to those of .the eleventh
and twelfth centuries,- directed, this time,
against the "seven-hilled city." The Tur
kish desecrations of the Holy Sepulchre at
Jeruselem would have sunk into insignifi
cance by the side of the terrible abomina
tion of the Vatican.
•'lie speak not against the sacred calling of
the ministry, but merely against the abuse
of that calling. We object to every species
of ecclesiastical tyranny, and we care not
whether it comes under Catholic or Protest
ant colors. We provided in our constitution
against an established religion ; our fathers
operated upon the principle that every man
has a right to worship God in his own way;
all we ask now is, that we adhere to what is
nom mated in the bond.
The great difficulty with us, perhaps has
been, we have not aimed at a sufficiently
high standard of civilization. We have inst
emerged from the heavy shadows and scien
tific gloom. of the middle ages. It is matter
for agreeable speculation, however, that we
are now making rapid advancement in ail
that characterizes a lofty civilization.
But, much as we are inclined to admit
that we are tending, all things considered.
to a higher, purer, and nobler civilization;
we are compelled, in justice to truth, to say
that the admission must be taken with many
grains of allowance. The fact is before us,
that there is also a tendency in our own day
to an intolerable interference, on every hand,
with the private rights of men. We have
accomplished little in ignoring the "eark
ness and superstition'' of past ages —of which
it is our patented privilege to complain—if
we have,eimply exchanged kings, and courts,
and the peraphraiialia of crowns in general
for . the substance.tof despotism under the
name of republicanism. Our legislators, in
many' States of the Union, seem bent upon
reanimating the ancient policy of regulating,
by authority, the individual and domestic
conduct of every member of the community.
This determination was strikingly evinced in
the'strenuous opposition—engendered by po
litical demagogues—to the repeal of the 6th
section of the Missouri act of 1820, but is
much more forcibly illustrated by the at
tempts, within the last six or eight years, to
legislate men into sobriety, to compel a puri
tanical observance of the Sabbath, and to
perfect every species of municipal despotism.
The excessive use of ardent spirits is an evil
of which all good men complain, and which
all patriots desire to remedy. But we should
not, in reforming an abuse, in traduce a new
element of despotism; we should not make
slaves of the masses in order to make them
sober; we should not open the flood-gates of
tyranny in order to close those of whiskey ;
we 'should not, in repressing an admitted
evil, fly to one more gyeantic in its dimen
sions, and against which the generations that
proceeded us, for thousands of years, fought
in vain. The liquor law of Main has done
some good, but it has done more mischief.—
It set an example of a departure in our State
legislation from the ancient landmarks of
Democratic government. That example has
already been followed by several members of
the confederacy, and there is reason to be
lieve it will be followed by many more.
Indiana has fallen into the train, and desi
rous of outstripping her neighbor of "down
east," she has passed a more rigid suniptuary
law than can be found upon the statues of
any State or nation within the last five hun
dred years. If the lax in question simply
prevented drunkenness, or if it kept men
from prostituting, by the constant use of
miserable liquors, all the faculties with
which they. are endowed by the Creator, we
should raise no objection; but unfortunately,
such is not the fact. That law departs, in
its operation, from the ordinary functions of
constituted authority; it "strikes home" at
the independence of the citizen; it institutes
an inquiry into the contents of the human
stomach, and makes each individual the sub
ject of irresponsible and unusual search; it
takes private property without affording re
muneration, and organizes a perpetual and
despotic guardianship over the individu
al man; it is, in one word, an unprecedented
and intolerable invasion of the inalienable
rights cif the citizen. Despotism has but one
essener! come how it will—whether with
the bold tread of the giant, or the stealthy
lurking of the tiger--it is the same.
But we forbear, for the present, to dwell at
large upon this point; we leave the matter to
the people whose virtue has been questioned,
whose intelligence has been outraged, and
whose independence has bean subverted.—
"Tell it not in Gath" that we of the West
have so far degenerated from the proud and
radical republicanism of our patriot sires of
the Revolution as to require guardians to
watch over our interests, and scrutinize and
punish with tyrannical hand our minutest
errors. When Draco was Archon of Athens,
he made death the penalty for the violation
of the most insignificant laws. He said the
least offense deserved this punishment, and
he could find no greatet for giant crimes.—
The name of Draco has become a by-word,
and an epithet descriptive of monster cruelty.
The "blue-laws" of Connecticut embodied
every petty tyranny known to the cate
gory of despotism. But are we radically be
hind our brethren of an ancient and modern
times in our efforts to triumph over the liber
ties of the people! We are already laboring to
make it a crime to exercise out rights on the
day which we, without any very good reason,
denominate the Sabbath. The Sabbath was
a Jewish institution, peculiarly adapted, we ,
believe, to - the ancient dwellers at Jerusalem,
it had certain incidents which were partic
ularly Jewish, and which would be totally
inapplicable in our own day. As well
might we engraft upon the soil of America
all the rigid customs of Hebrew antiquity as
attempt to compel in our own clime a He
brew observance of the Sabbath. That at
least one day in seven should be devoted to
rest from the ordinary avocations of life, is a
philosophical truth, which stands out with
the mighty indorsement at once of Revela
tion and common sense; but who dreamed,
until within the last few centuries, that law
should be applied to compel men to abstain
from physical labor, and to wake out of I
sleep every seven days with faces long and
sad as the - first martyrs ! Are we mad, that
we suppose human intelligence will give
way to any such miserable freaks' of incapa
city, ignorance, arid bigotry ! It is time for
us to arouse from our sleep, and assert the
true dignity and nobility with which we
were endowed by the mighty ruler of the
universe! We are on the eve of another tree
mendous conflict; the clouds are lowering,
and the fearful mutterings of the approach
ing tempest can already be heard; it is for the
giant Democracy of the country to meet the
impending storm, let us man with noble
hearts and stalwart arms the proud old Dem
ocratic ship—the vessel of the Constitution
and the Union—freighted with the hopes of
the world—and issue such a broadside as
will consign the embattled hosts of bigotry
and wrong to a grave so deep that the resur
recting angel of justice will hardly be able to
lift them into the regions of light for pun
ishment! Cal! us a RA-republican—co.ll us
what you will, but do not charge us in God's
name with laboring night and day to rob the
masses of their inalienable rights. We love
liberty as well as we love the rising of the
morning sun, and we hate tyranny as we
hate the devil.
But it will be asked, why attach so ,much
solemnity to the crisis that looms up in the
political horizon of the future '?- Why these
dismal forebodings of approaching danger
and disaster to our cause, relying upon whose
goodness and purity We will surely battle
and conquer 'I Why, Democrats of the
Union, but that, in our humble opinion, dis
guise it as we rnay , the conflict between-right
and wrong, between honest, straightforward
,
and manly principles on the one hand, and
the grossest political profligacy that boldly
bids defiance to contempt and shame on the
other, has only commenced. Emboldened by
an unlooked-for triumph in the unfortunate,
and to every man who loves his country and
her free institutions, the lamentable result of
the recent elections, the banded cohorts of
bigotry and treason, of fanaticism and intol
erant persecution—the sworn and relentless
enemies of equal rights to all classes of our
fellow citizens, independently of creed and
clime; these ruthless destroyers of all those
sacred and invaluable privileges and franchi
ses guaranteed by that noble and immortal
structure of constitutional liberty, whose foun
dations were laid deep in revolutionary blood,
have united by a yet closer tie than that
which prompted them to combine. And the
corrupt and unprincipled ambition which
lusted after place and power, gratified in its
unhallowed outburst, and changing to a lona--
ing and ravenous desire to retain it, they will,
doubtless, in view of the great national con
teSt not far distant, whose. thunders warn us
in solemn tones, as with the voice of a proph
et of God to be up and doing, use every ef
fort to maintain their unholy organization,
and unhesitatingly and unscrupulously resort
to the same_appeals to the basest passions of
our human nature—to the, same mysterious
signs and nods—the same grips, and oaths,
and passwords—to the same vile and unman
ly frauds and misrepresentations—in a word,
to the same infamous means by which they
achieved success, to win additional triumphs
over the laws and constitution of their coun
try, and rivet down closer and deeper the
chains that have been forged in darki , ess for
the destruction of the people's liberties.
We desire to rouse you to activity by re
ferring you to our late crushing and unexpect
ed defeat at the ballot box, and to the unfor
seen causes by which it was effected. Hence
it is we present those causes, in general
terms it is true, but yet without attempting
to disguise their dire Lifluence for evil to our
country, or idly endeavoring to conceal from
the light of your common sense the disas
trous consequences of which they are the
fruitful source, and that are plain and self-ev
ident to all who will not rashly close their
eyes to the truth, and refuse to take counsel
for the furure. Hence it is that we now ad
dress you
‘ in behalf of the good cause that is
alike dear to our hearts, because it is the
cause of our country and our country's lib
erty.
Therefore it is, fellow Democrats, that we
appeal to you by the sacred memories of Jef
ferson and Jackson, to stand up in your
might, so that when the auspicious, hour shall
come, you may be able to rebuke the traitors
who would trample down your rights, and
strike a blow for the eternal principles of
truth and justice, that will annihilate the tyr
ranny
of fanaticism and intolerance, and aid !
in restoring - to our common country the peace
and harmony among its - people, that were
once its chief blessing and' its greatest glory.
And hence it is, in fine, that we would rec
ommend the establishment of Democratic as
sociations in,every State, county and towship
of the Union, whose objects should be to
counteract the efforts of the midnight ene
mies of Democracy, and place the govern
ment of the country once more in the hands
of those who quailed not before the crushing
storm, but stood unflinching and unmoved
beneath an avalanche of treachery and polit
ical corruption=in the hands of that noble
band of freeman, who, unbought and'untram
meled, are, as they have ever been, the faith
ful guardians of the public weal.
It may, however, be objected by some to
the formation of such associations as we rec
ommended, that they will have the bad effect,
(for such indeed it would be, and much to be
regretted) of alienating from our ranks the
many truly national and patriotic members
of the old Whig party, who, though once our
political opponents, faithfully and manfully
stood up side by side with us during the re
cent struggle, and magnanimously forgetting
the bitterness and acrimony, but not the im
mortal memories of the past, nobly loaned
their good right arm to our cause—believing,
wisely and well, that it was not only our
cause, but theirs also—the cause of the Con
stitution and the Union, whose preservation
in all their proud integrity is dear to every
true American heart. But let us consider
whether there be any force or reason in this
objection.
First, then, in establishing Democratic As
sociations, we engraft no new principles up
on the Democratic creed. The aid of the
former will be to secure the triumph and fu
ture ascendancy of the latter ; and the latter,
as we have intimated, will, without the inter
polation of crude or novel dogmas, consist,
in every sense of the word—at least so far
as all purely politiral questions are concern
ed—of the same platform of political princi
ples, for the success of which the national
and tolerant Whigs of the country joined us
in our late conflict with the devouring mon
ster of fanaticism and faction.
-
But to the Whigs themselves, we would
say, whither will you go in the, present crisis?
Whither will you fly for safety Flow es
cape the yawning gulf that opens to receive
you ? Or how save yourselves from being
swallowed up in the dark vortex of Know
.Nothingism, abolitior;ism, and every other
foul and unseemly ism in which the evil
times that hale come upon us are prolific,
unless you enrol yourselves openly, and with
out delay, as soldiers in the mighty army of
Democratic freemen, who, in years gone by,
it is true, were your honest political foes, but
who are now your best and truest friends.—
Your own time-honoured party, of which
you once boasted yourselves the tried and
faithful sons, is disbanded and shattered into
fragin,3os. . Its great founder, who, whilom,
wag your glory and your pride, is no longer
among you. The lion-heart of the great
Kentuckian—that heart
"Which never bc:;t but for the country—"
has ceased its mighty throbs. That clarion
voice whose trumpet tones, but a little while
back, resounded through the hills and valleys
of the West is forever hushed. The dark,
eagle eye that shed its lustrous fires over our
country, for nearly fifty years, is closed in
the gloomy silence of the tomb. Like a war
rior, after the toils and trials of the fight, he
wrapped his cloak around him, and laid - hie
weary limbs to rest at Ashland.
American society is by no means what it
shonld be ; where the greatest evil lies we
leave to others to determine but 'Certainly the
rise of such a faction as Know-Nothingism
—if there were nothing further to prove our
position—furnishes abundant evidence that
there is fearful weakness somewhere. We
are only permitted to conjecture that there
is too much bigotry, too much ignorance, and
too much genuine aristocracy cloaked under
the lionoyed name of Democracy; there is
too great a distance between the rich, and the
poor. The physicians that have attended to
the body politic have certainly made, in too
many instances, bad work with their subject.
After all our legislation, the poor are starving
in the midst of plenty ;• surrounded by tow
ering edifices of learning, the great body of
our youth grope in blissful ii - rtiorance, not on
ly of the higher branches of knowledge, but
even of the elementary principles of litera
ture ; exposed on every hand,- to every spe
cies of vice, the young men of America must
be prodigies of virtue, not to yield in innu
merable instances to the grossest dissipation
and crime. The youth, quittinc , his father's
home—without a knowledge of the world's'
history—without that strong nerve to resist
vice, ‘,Phich can only be the fruit of intelli
gence—is precipitated, he knows not how,
into the gambling saloon ;• the house of infa
my, or the den of some Know-Nothing
lodge, where he learns all the ways of sor
row, and whence he sets out upon a life jour
ney, chequered, at every step, by misery and
vice !
; The press of America has done but little
toward remedying these evils, for the reason,
las we have before intimated, that there has
been little or no unity of action. Can there
I not be some understanding in regard to most
of these questions ? While differing upon
I matters purely political, can we not act as a
unit in solving some great problem for the
I improvement of the many ? Is there not
some common ground, high above the miser
able considerations of party and sect, from
which we can look down, with pitying eye,
upon a world of sin and death ? Have we
not all affection sto be moved by propositions
to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and re
form the viciom 1 We have wandered wide
the mark, in I,,,rsuit of magnificent baubles,
professedly designed for the relief of human
suffering we have passed by—we will not say
without observation—mountains of misery,
which should make a contrite nation shed
tears of blood over its own neglect.
We are no advocate of stupendous systems
of reform, nor would we have the general
Government take the matter in hand. We
shall be satisfied on this score, so long,-as gi
gantic propositions for public plunder, such
as the French Spoliation bill, shall fall under
veto of Democratic Presidents. The general
eoveroment can never make the people vir
tuous, or enlightened, or patriotic ; this labor
must be left to the States, and to individual
associations. A House of Refuge in every
State of the Union—an asylum where unpro
tected and unguarded youth could find a re
treat from vice and crime—where the star
ving myriads of our cities could be fed and
clothed—where ignorance could be supplant
ed by intelligence—where the principles of
virtue could take the deepest possible hold in
frail, imperfect human nature—where the
wrecks of men and women, fashioned in the
image of God, could take shelter, and fled an
everlasting harbor from the relentless storms
of dissipations; such an establishment, guar
ded and watched over by the intelligence and
virtue of a State, would do more to elevate
the standard of morality, and to enhance the
greatness and glory of the nation, than all
the Sabbath and Temperance laws, all the
propositions to unite Church and State, all the
compromises of the Constitution, all the Pa
cific Railroads, and all the protective tariffs
that have by times agitated and disturbed
this country in seventy years.
In looking over the whole ground, we see .
but one hope for the people of America, and
for the generations of men. That hope is
,
eloninied in our confidence in the time-hon
oured Democracy of the Union 1 If we de
sert the party of Jefferson, the party of the
Revolution, the party that,•with all its faults,
has nobly borne aloft. the flag of universal
liberty, we go back to political chaos. We
may hesitate as to some of our propositions,-
but around us—on every side—yawns an un
fathomable abyss, in whose dark tumultuous
waves —far, far below . the reach of earthly
resurrection—repose the awful and majestic
remains of republics like our own, once
prom! of their independence and glory, once
renowned for all the arts of war and peace,
once the theme of the adulation of poets,
statesman, and scholars, whose names are
embalmed in history, once, like ourselves,
looking down the stream of time to an cter- -
nity of duration, and - an infinity of per
fection, but now, alas ! foundered, lost, shat-
tered into a thousand fragments ; and
"Like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leaving not a wreck behind !!'
VOL. 10, NO. 40.