The seceders or "bolters" made the following address, to which they appended their States and names. What they say of the _Louisiana_ delegates, we have explained in another portion of this work:
"The undersigned, delegates to the nominating Convention now in session at Philadelphia, find themselves compelled to dissent from the principles avowed by that body; and holding opinions, as they do, that the restoration of the Missouri Compromise, as demanded by a majority of the whole people, is a redress of an undeniable wrong, and the execution of it, in spirit at least, indispensable to the repose of the country, they have regarded the refusal of that Convention to recognize the well-defined opinion of the country, and of the Americans of the free States, upon this question, as a denial of their rights and a rebuke to their sentiments; and they hold that the admission into the National Council and nominating Convention, of delegates from Louisiana, representing a Roman Catholic Const.i.tuency, absolved every true American from all obligations to sustain the action of either of the said bodies.
"They have therefore withdrawn from the nominating Convention, refusing to partic.i.p.ate in the proposed nomination, and now address themselves to the Americans of the country, and especially of the States they represent, to justify and approve of their action; and to the end that a nomination conforming to the overruling sentiment of the country in the great issue may be regularly and auspiciously made, the undersigned propose to the Americans in all the States to a.s.semble in their several State organizations, and elect delegates to a Convention to meet in the city of New York, on Thursday, the 12th day of June next, for the purpose of nominating candidates for President and Vice President of the United States."
OHIO--Thos. H. Ford, J. H. Baker, B. S. Kyle, W. H. C.
Mitch.e.l.l, E. T. Sturtevant, O. T. Fishback, Jacob Ebbert, Wm.
B. Allison, H. C. Hodges, L. H. Olds, W. B. Chapman, Thos.
McYees, Charles Nichols.
NEW HAMPSHIRE--Anthony Colby.
CONNECTICUT--Lucius G. Peck, Jas. E. Dunham, Hezekiah Griswold, Austin Baldwin, Edmund Perkins, David Booth.
Ma.s.sACHUSETTS--Wild. S. Thurston, Z. R. Pangborn.
ILLINOIS--Henry S. Jennings.
PENNSYLVANIA--Wm. F. Johnston, S. C. Kase, R. M. Riddle, T. J.
Coffey, John Williamson, J. Harrison, S. Ewell.
RHODE ISLAND--E. J. Nightingale.
MICHIGAN--S. T. Lyon, W. Fuller, W. S. Wood, P. P. Meddler, J.
Hamilton.
WISCONSIN--D. A. Gillis, John Lockwood, Robt. Chandler, G.
Burd.i.c.k, C. W. Cook.
IOWA--L. H. Webster.
THE ELECTION OF BANKS--THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
One of the issues in the Presidential contest now going on, is the _slavery question_. A. O. P. X. Y. Z. Nicholson, of the Washington Union, who canva.s.sed this State in opposition to Scott, and shed his _crocodile_ tears before every crowd he addressed, because so good a man as Fillmore, who had stood firm for the _rights of the South_, had been set aside by an ungrateful Convention at Baltimore, to give place to Scott, the favorite of _Seward_--this miserable hypocrite, we say, now comes out and says, "Fillmore"s abolitionism will suit the North."
The Central Democratic Committee for East Tennessee, in a call for a District Convention at Clinton, in May last, through the _Knoxville Standard_, conclude said call in this language:
"The time has again arrived when the national Democracy must rally to their country"s call and preserve the Const.i.tution as it is in its purity, and perpetuate the union of the States from the rain which the _Black Republican Party of the North_, aided by THEIR KNOW-NOTHING ALLIES OF THE SOUTH, would bring upon them. By order of the
"CENTRAL COMMITTEE."
The _Sag-Nicht Convention_ held at Somerville, on Thursday the 8th of May, and which selected D. M. Currin as their Electoral candidate, adopted the following resolution:
"_Resolved_, That we have been appointed by the Democracy of this Electoral District to organize to fight, in the coming Presidential election, the BLACK REPUBLICANS AND KNOW-NOTHINGS.
_Resolved_, That we _can_ beat them, and we _will_ do it.
_Resolved_, That we will cordially receive the _co-operation of all Old-Line Whigs_ who will a.s.sist us in carrying out these resolutions."
Now, the charge is here made that the Know-Nothings of the South are the allies of the Black Republicans of the North. This is the impression intended to be made, first by these _concealed calumniators_ at Knoxville, and afterwards by the _open and avowed slanderers_ of the same party at Somerville! With such _wholesale lying_ as is displayed in both of these cases, we have but little patience: we only give their language, to show their recklessness in making such an issue. And although this Foreign party claim to be the guardians of Southern interests, we propose to show, before we conclude this chapter, that they are themselves the "allies of the Black Republicans of the North,"
and are giving them more "aid and comfort" than all the other parties in the country!
FRANCIS P. BLAIR, former editor of Gen. Jackson"s organ at Washington, was the President of the Black Republican Convention at Pittsburg, in February last! _John M. Niles_; Democratic Senator in Congress, was President of the Black Republican Convention held in Connecticut! In the Pittsburg Convention, over which Blair presided, PRESTON KING, ABIJAH MANN, DAVID WILMOT, and JACOB BRINKERHOFF, Old-Line Democrats, figured conspicuously.
For two long and cold winter months, the Democrats, both North and South, voted for _Richardson_, of Illinois, for Speaker, a violent _anti-slavery man_, whose speeches _against_ slavery, and in _favor_ of Abolitionism, were matters of record in the Congressional Globe, and were delivered on the floor of Congress so late as 1850! The _immortal_ 75 Democrats did not cease to vote for this man _Richardson_, until GEN.
ZOLLICOFFER, of Tennessee, read his speeches upon him, in the presence of his friends!
On the 2d of February, SAMUEL A. SMITH, of Tennessee, a Democratic Representative in Congress, _renewed_ his motion to adopt the PLURALITY RULE. His proposition, which it was evident would elect _Banks_, was carried by Black Republican votes, who went for it in a body. This would still not have elected _Banks_, but for the fact that the following _Democrats_ voted for the odious plurality rule: _Clingman_, _Herbert_, _Hickman_, _Jewett_, _Kelley_, _Barclay_, _Bayard_, _Wells_, _Williams_, and SAMUEL A. SMITH! Mr. Clarke was the only American who voted for the odious rule!
MR. CARLILE, a national American, of Virginia, before the vote was taken upon this plurality rule, offered the following subst.i.tute for it:
"_Resolved_, That the HON. WM. AIKEN, a Representative from the State of South Carolina, be, and he is hereby declared Speaker of the Thirty-Fourth Congress."
GOV. AIKEN is a sound Southern Democrat--never was any thing else--but COL. SMITH _objected_, and demanded the _previous question_, which cut off MR. CARLILE"S resolution, and which was to prevent its adoption! The candidate of the Democratic party, at that time, MR. ORR, immediately _withdrew in favor of_ GOV. AIKEN, upon the introduction of MR.
CARLILE"S resolution; and to _prevent Aiken"s election_, SAMUEL A. SMITH cut off said resolution by a call of the previous question!
Banks was elected by _one_ vote, and this could not be accomplished until SEVEN DEMOCRATS got _behind the bar_, and refused to vote at all!
These were HICKMAN, PARKER, and BARCLAY, of Pennsylvania; CRAIG, of North Carolina; TAYLOR, of Louisiana; RICHARDSON, of Illinois; and SEWARD, of Georgia! Any _two_ of these _Southern_ Democrats could have made AIKEN Speaker, but they did not want him--they knew Banks to be a _Democrat_, if he were a Black Republican--and to elect him, they believed would give them the strength of that odious party in the coming contest.
We have before us the _Washington Union_ of Sept. 27th, 1853, giving, editorially, a glowing account of the Ma.s.sachusetts Democratic State Convention, reporting the speech of Nathaniel P. Banks, of Waltham, concluding that report in these words:
"Mr. Banks emphatically and decidedly, on his own part, and on that of the _Democrats of Ma.s.sachusetts_, disclaimed the truth of the rumors in certain newspapers that an arrangement had been entered into with another political party in the Commonwealth concerning the distribution of State offices. It was his and this Convention"s and all true Democrats" desire, belief, and determination, that Henry W. Bishop should be elected governor of Ma.s.sachusetts, and that the other Democratic State officers should also be elected. He was not afraid of defeat, and less afraid of _Whig success_, which, to judge by its recent effects, was simply equivalent to a defeat.
[Applause.]"
It may be said, and doubtless will be, that _Banks_ has allied himself with the Republicans. But Banks says he has _always been a Democrat_, and that he was _nominated as a Democrat in his district_. And certain it is, that he was elected Speaker by DEMOCRATS, under the _compulsion_ of an odious plurality rule, and the _gag_ of the previous question!
It will be said, and said truthfully too, that SIX AMERICANS FROM THE NORTH voted for MR. FULLER, of Pennsylvania. So they did; and in doing so, they voted for a sound national and conservative man. But did this justify _Southern_ Democrats in _dodging_ the question, and thereby electing a Black Republican Speaker? Gov. Aiken was the candidate of the _seven_ Democrats--he was not the candidate of the _six_ Americans!
Democracy, moreover, had refused to vote for an American under any circ.u.mstances, and had, on the first day of the meeting of Congress, pa.s.sed a resolution insulting the whole American party, in caucus! We would have seen them banished to the farthest verge of astronomical imagination, before we would have voted for any man that favored that insulting resolution!
In 1847, by a _unanimous vote_, both branches of the Legislature of New Hampshire adopted resolutions denunciatory of the inst.i.tution of slavery, and approving of the Wilmot Proviso. These resolutions were reported to the House, by the Representative from Hillsboro, the native town of _Gen. Pierce_, and were in the _handwriting_ of Pierce!
On the 2d of October, 1847, the Democratic Soft-Sh.e.l.ls, who are now the supporters of Pierce"s administration, and fill the offices he has to dispose of in New York, held a State Convention, and declared their "_uncompromising hostility to slavery_" in a string of resolutions they adopted and ordered to be published.
On the 16th of February, 1848, a Democratic State Convention for New York convened at Utica, to appoint Delegates to the National Convention to nominate candidates for President and Vice President, at which a string of anti-Southern resolutions were adopted, denouncing "_slavery_ or _involuntary servitude_," as repugnant to the genius of Republicanism.
On the 18th of July, 1848, the Democratic Soft-Sh.e.l.ls held a ma.s.s-meeting in the park of New York, and, by way of making perfect their organization against General Ca.s.s, declared, by resolutions, their "_uncompromising hostility to slavery or involuntary servitude!_"
On the 13th of September, 1848, a Democratic ma.s.s-meeting convened at Buffalo, in New York, and, in a general Abolition jubilee, adopted resolutions condemning and denouncing the inst.i.tution of slavery!
In 1852, while the contest was going on between Pierce and Scott, the _Washington Union_ said, editorially:
"THE FREE-SOIL DEMOCRATIC LEADERS OF THE NORTH, ARE A REGULAR PORTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY; AND GENERAL PIERCE, IF ELECTED, WILL MAKE NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN THEM AND THE REST OF THE DEMOCRACY IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF OFFICIAL PATRONAGE, AND IN THE SELECTION OF AGENTS FOR ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT!"
The Black Republicans recently held a meeting in New York, at which _Benjamin F. Butler_, of "pious memory," and Van Buren Swartwout notoriety, presided! On his right hand sat, as Vice President of the meeting, _Moses H. Grinnell_, one of the Democratic "pipe-layers" of 1840, whom this Van Buren Attorney-General Butler made efforts to send to the State prison! Another Vice President, gravely looking on, and arranged in dignified grandeur upon the stand, was John W. Edmonds, ex-"blanket contractor" in a large swindle, and a practical spiritual-rapper! A third and last Vice President was the notorious _Dr.
Townsend_, the sarsaparilla man, who has not yet wound up his controversy with a man of the same name, as to who is the greatest rascal in the way of manufacturing this medicine!
Among the other officers, secretaries, and prominent men in the meeting, was _C. A. Dana_, of the Tribune office, a _Fourierist_, who, at a public meeting on a former occasion, toasted "Horace Greeley, Charles Fourier, and Jesus Christ!" Prominent in the meeting was _C. A.
Stetson_, of the Astor House, an _Amalgamationist_. Henry J. Raymond, the Abolition editor of the Times, and _Rudolph Garrigue_, a noisy German Abolitionist, looked and acted as though they believed the salvation of the Union depended upon the success of the Republicans! A fellow who made frequent motions, an Irishman by the name of _McMorrow_, had served an apprenticeship of twelve months in the State prison, for breaking open a store after night! The princ.i.p.al speaker, who spoke for two hours on the subject of slavery, was the notorious _Bingham_, an itinerant Abolitionist from Ohio. It was a queer medley of men, parties, principles, and characters--two-thirds of all the active partisans in the meeting having held offices in the ranks of Democracy! And still, that party boasts of its Northern wing being sound upon the slavery question.