Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1852-07-21
The Charge of AboIitionism.

the South in the present canvass is the
charge of abolitionism against Gen. Scott
The same cry that was raised against Har
rison in 1910, against Clay in 1914. against
Taylor IN 184S, and against Summers in
1851 will soon be heard from the lips of 10.
cofoco politicians in every nook and corn
er of this Commonwealth. II is vain to ex-
pect that our adversaries will ever be sat
isfed with the position Of the Wing party,
or of any candidate it may bring into the
field, in respect to this subject of slavery.
No individual standing in the way of their
own partisanpurposes need hope to receive
Justice or fair dealing al their hands, or to
escape the stereotyped calumny with
which, for the last Is years, they have
sought 10 blast the political character and
prospects of every prominent Whig States
man in the land. Now, that both of the
great political parties of the country have
taken the same high national position with
reference to the slavery adjustment OF the
last Congress now that the candidate Of
each party has declared his concurrence in
that adjustment, and stands bound by eve-
cry consideration of patriotism and party
fealty to maintain and enforce tive might
reasonably indulge the hope that all furth-
er agitation of the subject would be relin-
quished IN the South that all further at
tempts to make political capital by appeals
to popular prejudice on so delicate topic
would be abandoned, and that the work of
elimination and recrimlnation would cease.
The course of the Democratic leaders since
the nomination of Gen. Scott has very
clearly demonstrated, however,t that this de-
sirable consummation is not to be antici-
pated. The old war-cry Of abolitioaism has
already been raised against the Whig can
didate in tones louder and more savage
than ever, and we may fairly infer, as we
have Just lntimated, that it will constitute
the staple of locofoco argument in the pres
ent campaign. The old game, so success
fully played IN 1910, in "A, in '48 and 81
is again to be resorted to in the approach
ing struggle.
The people of Virginia are TO be called
on to put their trust in an obscure lndivid-
ual from the bleak hills of New Hampshire,
of whom they know nothing. and to repu-
diate as unworthy of confidence man
horn and raised in their midst, who never
by word or deed, gave encouragement to
the enemies of their domestic institutions,
and whose patriotic devotion to the honor
and interests of the whole country is attest
ed by laborious and brilliant public SER
vice of forty years. Winfield Scott now
stands as Harrison, Clay and Taylor once
stood, lion in the path by which the lead
ers of the Democratic party hope to march
to the accomplishment oftheir own schemes
of public plunder, and like every other
Wing statesman whose fate 1t has been to
occupy that position, he is to be stigmatis-
ed as disloyal to the land of his birth.
This being the policy of our opponents,it
becomes the people of Virginia seriously to
consider what weight should be attached
to the charge of abolition. when preferred
by this Democratic party against Whig
candidates. When did the Whig party ev-
er palm an abolltionist on the South =
When did any public man, for whose sound
ness on the slavery question the Wings of
the South stood pledged, ever falsify their
predictions by leaguing with the enemies
of Southern institutons9 Our adversaries
may be safely challenged 10 poin! out
single instance in which the Wings ever
asked the suffrages of the Southern people
for man who was unworthy of their con-
fdence. The charges of abolition which
the Locofoco party sought to fasten upon
Gen. Harrison, Gen. Taylor, and Mr.. Clay.
whilst living, were virtually recanted by
those who made them, when these ilustri-
Gus men no longer stood upon the public
stage to thwart their selfish purposes. The
same may he said in respect to their course
towards Mr.. Fillmore. That gentleman
was denounced in the last Presidential cam
vass, in the bltterest terms that the English
language could afford. He was stigmatised
as an abolitonist, an incendIary of the
most hateful type, ,and every expedient that
party malignity could devise was employed
to render him an object of adherence and
execration to the people of the South. But
now that he is no longer candidate for
the high office which Locofocoism so ard
emily covets, he is suddenly metamorphos-
ed into the "pure and conservative Fill
MORE" Let the people of Virginia. when
they hearthe demagogues of the Democratic
party assailing Gen. Scott as an abolitionist,
recall what the same patriotic gentlemen
said of Mr.. Fillmore few years ago, and
then estimate the value of their imputations
on the soundness of the present Whig can
didate. In 1849 1t suited their purposes to
represent Mr.. Fillmore as the embodiment
of aboItionism but now the whole burthen
of their song is, that this same gentleman
was sacrificed in the late Wing Convention
to appease the hatred of the abolitionists,
and that the cause of the South was tram
pied under foot in his person.
Another fact, that deserves to be borne
IN mind oy the South is, that these same
Democratic politicians who seek to brand
every Wing candidate as an abolitionist or
free-soiler, have on numerous occasions a.
bused the unsuspecting confidence of the
people by inducing them to vote for men
who, in the end, proved to be wholly un-
worthy of their support. We have already
said that the Whig party never perpetrated
any such fraud upon the South. Their re-
cord is in bright contrast with that of their
opponents in this respect. The latter sue
ceeded in palming an abolitionist on the
South, in 1886 and 1840, under the deceit
full disguise of Northern man with South
ern principles" They afterwards elected
MIR. Polk who. signed the Oregan bill with
the Wilmot Proviso attached, measure
which was denounced by the great Demo-
cratic champion of Southern rights, as the
first unqualified assertion of the power of
Congress over the subject of slavery in the
Territories. The Democratic leaders next
prevailed upon their followers to accept