The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-05-24

tAblished Such a trdn:fer Of the source and Of
the seat Of pol0er soiH in all likelihood neper DC
undone. No President will ever again be selected
from the South. The relation Of conquerors
and conquered will have been virtually es'ab-
lished. The arrogance on the one part hatred
on the other, will increase till the burthen be-
comes intolerable, and the bonds Of this Union
will be rent with violence the more destruc-
tive as it shall have been longer accommodating.
The immediate effect of Wing success at the
ensuing election will be virtual destruction of
tho old antagonist organization, from the ruins
of which nothing so good can be reconstructed.
There is much looseness of feeling, and some
times Of action, among certain portions of the
Democratic party, even now upon the consttu-
tional principles and the strict constructions
which interfere with local schemes and local
popularity. The STATES Rights element Of The
party is The sail which giues sauor and preserves
il from corruption. Decompose this union, and
the residuum will be converted into a spoils-
seeking party, whose principles will be consoli
dation and plumber. Their moral strength will
have disappeared. The old doctrines of strict
construction, federal limitation and States rights,
which they have been wont to reafiirm Mt Bal.
timore as the articles of the party creed, will
have lost form and vitality at the North and
! West; and the South, in hopeless minority,
will have to fight the battle on those points also
alone.
If the Democratic party in convention shall
SO act as to render the cooperation of the South
practicable and honorable, the election of their
candidate may be confidently predicted. With
the South united in his favor, he may defy the
Abolition influence. New Hampshire and Hi
nois have proved that they can be relied on for
his support. Iowa and California too are not
to be doubted. Maine and Indiana and proba
bly, Pennsylvania and Connecticut may be fairly
counted Defeat is hardly to be regarded as
possibility.
In the event Of the election of such cand
date, anti slavery will at least have gained no
substantial, far less an avowed, triumph Nor
can agitation have received any new impulse,
for there is no question Of the soundness, as to
the future, of any candidate who is likely TO Sc
cure the nomination, as far as the fugitive slave
law is concerned. Should the Democracy or its
President, after victory prove false to the South,
the State Rights party will be in still better,
position to break them down. 1t will have.
gained additional strength, numerical and moral,
by the new disappointment ofthe South.
If on the other hand the elements thus CON-
bined shall continue in successful harmony, the
influence of the State Rights party will be pc.
tent to recall and to restrain federal legislation
within its appropriate limits and to check the
progress of consolidation.
That in order to secure the utilization of the
friends of the rights of the States, the Demo
cratic party in convention must distinctly re.af-
firm its heretofore cardinal principles, is obvi-
ous But something more is essential. What
ever platform they may affirm or re-affirm, mere
empty words will not suffice They must pre-
sent candidate who is known as Democratic
Republican, not merely as indicated by Roman
or Italic type in published lists of Legislative
but by his history, his affinities,
his position and his acts While the Demo
cratic creed continues to repudiate partial and
beneficiary legislation outside of the Constitu
ton, they must not present as its exponent any
who is found the persevering advo.
cate of partial legislation and special bounties.
at the expense of a treasury filled by general
taxation. Nor while they proclaim the equa
rights of the various portions of our confeder
acy, must they offer to our support the apostle
Of the doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty-that !
miserable and Aimsy pretext fashioned to cloak
an outrage upon Southern rights, otherwise too |
indecent to have been contemplated by any but
the most shameless Let them leave in retire
ment those whose adverse fate has doomed
them to an unlucky absence, whenever called
upon for vote that might serve to save some
thing for the injured South, now pressed al
most to the wall. Let them offer us man,
orthodox, firm and consistent in his views, and
neither timid nor unlucky in their expression.
Such man could be supported by the State
Rights men with confidence, and such may be
iOuhu III iuNhs VI I16 Te-OrpanlZeQ party,
whose past history and present position offer
sufficient guaranty for the future-men not only
of sufficient ability but of sufficient availability
also. Let them adopt any other line of policy,
or seek to thrust different candidate upon the
South, and disaster, defeat and destruction
await them, their party and their nominee.
With reference to the collateral issues, that may
come before the convention or be forced upon
it, we have nothing to say, because circum-
stances must control the action of the State
Rights men in that respect, from whatever quarter
they may come. This is matter which must
be confided to their discretion and judgment.
They will have the guardianship of their princi.
pies and their consistency in their own charge,
and we cannot doubt that they will acquit
themselves faithfully of those grave obligations.
We ought say much more, but we think we
have already said sufficient to show plainly