The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-06-21
Pennsylvania Democracy and the Admin
istration.

The DEMOCRATIC party Of Pennsylvania
lately held a State Convention fog the nomina-
ton of governor and other State officers, at
which resolutions were adopted expressive of
their views upon political affairs One Of these
resolutions approves the Compromise measures,
and to that extent endorses the action of the
Federal Administration. The first Of the Sc
ries lays down very briefly, and in rather an
ambiguous manner, the present doctrines of the
party in that State; the second is as follows:
..Rssoired, That had these vital principles of
Democracy been faithfully observed in the adj
mnistration of the National Government since
the advent Of the Wings to power on the 4th of
. March, 1919. should not now witness the spirit
OF discord and alienation, which at present pre-
walls between the North and the South, on the
question of domestic MISUNDERSTANDING, as it
does, eventually to dissolve the Union; should
we have occasion to dcplore the enormous appro-
priations of public money, approaching in time
of peace to the standard Of expenditure, and
endans ering an entail upon our posterity of the
fatal incubus Of permanent national debt"
Here, then, is the averment that the WING
Administration which came into power on the
9Th of March, l849, has caused all "the spirit
of discord and alienation which at present
prevails between the North and the South ON
the question of domestic slavery; threatening.
as it does, TO dissolve the Ulion" We had
supposed that the causes which have produced
this esprit of discord and alienation" had been
much longer in operations; that they existed
long anterior to the 9Th Of March, lS49. We
were impressed with the idea that we had
heard something Of the same spirit, as it raised
its head in Modification, during the lifetime of
General JACKSON; and were quite sure we had
heard it spoken Of and denounced by ga Will
NOT" some time before General TAYLOR as
sumed the reins of government. We had
even supposed that this spirit and the causes
which produced it had existed, not perhaps to
the same extent as of late, for some fifteen or
twenty years, and that with view to allay or
prevent it from operating adversely to his cleo
ton as PRESIDENT, Mr.. VAN buren, had, as
long ago as 1885 or '36, been represented to
the South to be "a Northern man with South
ern principles"
1t is unnecessary for us to say, in reply to
this groundless charge of the Pennsylvania
Convention, that the proposed application of
the Uilmof proriso' to California, New
Mexico, and Utah, and its application to Ore
gon, were the chief causes which gave rise TO
the Nashville Convention, and raised this "spi-
rt Of discord and alienation" to the pitch it had
attained previous to the incoming of General
TAYLoR's administration. They found this
spirit in existence when they came in; it was
then at work plotting mischief. What act Of
the Administration, we would ask, was it that
the South took exception to- What had the
Administration done, previous TO August, lS49,
when Mr.. CALHOUN wrote to Senator FooTE
approving of the plan of holding South
ern Convention 10 provoke Or give rise to
this spirit7 But why attempt to refute a
charge which every intelligent man in the
Union knows to be unfounded 2 Truly the
convention must have been put TO its wits end
TO assail the WING administration, when it
was compelled TO trump up so absurd and
groundless charge as this. Could they not
find something that would have borne upon It's
face greater plausibility and appearance of
something which everybody did not
know TO he untrue2
But the same resolution contains other
charges, or rather insinuatlons equally unjust
and untrue. The latter clause Of the resolu-
ton puts forth the idea that the present Adj
minstra,ion is responsible for "the enormous
appropriations of public money, approaching
in time of peace TO the war standard OF ex-
pendture." And who, let us ask, created
the necessity for these appropriations What
were they made forl 1t was the war made by
Mr. Polk upon Mexico which rendered these
Apr 2rations necessary. They were made
in part to pay the arearages of that war; in
part 10 pay the Mexican claims which our