Southern shield., 1851-07-26
To the Friends of the Constitution and
 Union in Arkansas.


 which will be in very few days. We will not again have an opportunity of addressing you through the columns of our paper in time to be read by all of you. We there fore ask you noso, are you ready!-and are you prepared for this important event!-I Have you made up your minds how 10 vote, and resolUed to go to the polls and cote?-| These are questions of weight, ofmagnitude! How do you answer them?
 We have said to you again and again that the issue which is presented to you now is Union or Disunon. That one of the candidates for Congress, R. w, Johnson, has presented this issue, because he has said that upon the happening of a certain event, namely, the admission of California as State into the Union, ,''THE UNION OUGHT AND WILL DISSOLVE" California has been ad
 nitted, and R. w. Johnson is before you as a candidate for Congress. What guaranty have you that if he is elected he will not use all his efforts to bring about fulfllment of his prophecy2 You have read his letter say ing he is not a disunonist? Vain denial !! Do you suppose that he would tell you now when he is a candidate before you that he is in favor of a measure so odiouS 10 you, as patriots, as diSunion is! Does he not say in his letter that he wants the South to be uni ted, to expect aggression from the North, and to maintain her rights in the Union, or out of d? Read that letter again carefully. It takes back nothing which appeared in his | Disunion Address, which he deliberately penned and franked to you when mem- Der of Congress. Its whole drift is for the establishment of "a Southern Confederacy." If it means anything at all it means that R. w. Johnson is in favor, not of one State seeding from the Union by itself, but of the whole of the Southern States doing this when they become united, and Congress does not think proper to comply with the demands which may be made upon it by one section of the Union against the other.
 What is this but the entertaining of dis union opinions, which if attempted to be carried out, as MT. Johnson wishes to be done, will end in hopeless Disunon!
 Are you prepared to have Arkansas point ed to all over the Union as endorsing these ] opinions! If you are, vote for R. w. John son. il you are not, ana ScoTn dlsunlonlSts and disunion, vote for his opponent. Rhett and Cheves, and Butler, of South Carolina, and Jake Thompson, of Mississippi, and thousands of other disunionists, whose hearts are set on a Southern Confederacy, are straining their eyes towards Arkansas to see | if she will render them ''aid and comfort | by the election of R. w. Johnson. Do not say hereafter, when this gorious Union is engulphed in ruin, darkness and woe, that you were not warned against these things we have warned you, and we warn you now. We tell you that the issue all over | the Union now is Union or Disunion;-it overrides all other questions; all parties are dividing upon it; we grieve to tell you that many of those who have heretofore called themselves Wings, are openly enlisting in | the ranks of the disunionists, while thous- ands of good and true Democrats are throw ing up their caps and shouting "Union and the Constitutional Look at Georgia, look at Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and the Caroinas. Here in Arkansas, dsunion Whigs are loud-mouthed for Johnsonl Some have actually taken the stump for him, but thank God, have been met with stern Jack son Democrats, who have denounced them before the people, and shouted in their ears, 1.-THE FEDERAL UNION, IT MUST AND SHALL BE PRESERVED The people are becoming aroused; thousands of Democrats in the State are denouncing Johnson because of his disunion sentiments. They hesitate to vete c. Preston because he is known as Whig. They are bound down by party trammels. They hearken not to the voice of George Washington, warning them against the bale ful effects of party spirit They are over a volcano, but are -lulled to sleep by the siren song of "Democracy." Shame!--you are men; you are freemen; rise and assert your rights as freemen. You have right to vote for whom you please, regardless of the dic- tation of party leaders. Of what benefit will party or party leaders be to you when this Government of yours, the poor mans friend and the orphans home, shall be des- troyed, where will be your democracy then! What will protect you or your children from the Tyrant's chains? Think of these things.