Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-07-08
THE SARATOGA CONVENTION.

THE SARATOGA CONVENTION.
The executive committee, of the city of New
York, appointed to oppose the Nebraska per-
6dy," have called State convention, without
distinction Of party, to meet at Saratoga, on
Wednesday, the 18th of August, to consider
what measures are necessary and proper for the
protection of the free States from southern ag-
gression and northern treachery; for the re-
covery of the rights Of the free States as an in
tegral part of the Union, and for the rescue of
the general government from the control Of
slave power"
Demagogues are the greatest curse that any
country can be afflicted with. They seem to
be the spontaneous growth Of free countries.
Office is within the reach of every man who can
make himself of consequence enough to at
tract public attention. Every miserable crea-
ture who takes it into his head to become po-
itician begins to look for Office, and, in order
to help himself along, he endeavors, by much
clamor and oft-repeated professions, to impress
the people with sense of his devotion to them.
He discovers treason where the people see the
purest honesty and the most unalloyed patriot
ism. He finds quagmires where the people see
nothing but firm footing. He goes about among
the people to stir and agitate them. A party
of them get together and they make the well
kin ring with their vociferous declarations.
They do and say everything in the peoples
name, and all the time they care nothing for
the people, and the people very little for them.
The Nebraska bill has been God send to
these noisy, oficious, inscriptions, and aspir
ing demagogues. In no State have they made
more noise than in New York. They have
been making continued efforts to create agita-
ton and excitement. But for them, we believe
that the honest yeomanry of the country would
be calm, contented, and satisfied.
Their last movement is that indicated above
The executive committee has called great
State convention, which is 10 be composed Of
men of every political hue and stripe 1t is to
be union of northern men. They propose to
organize-not on an American, not on a con.
stitutional, not on patriotic, but on section
al basis-the north against the south. This
convention is not to be held in any of the cities
or in any of the buildings in which the New
| York conventions have usually been held. No.
The committee, with cunning adroitness, have
determined to free this grand movement from
all the associations, all the oders, and all the
traditions that belong to and surround the
usual places of meeting. They would not select
a whig place, lest it should be thought whig
meeting-an abolition place, lest it should be
regarded as exclusively an abolition conven.
ton. They rejected the hard, the soft, and the
know.nothing places Of meeting for the same
reason. They appointed a new place, and that
place-Saratoga- They extend their invitations
to all the people of New York to meet at Sara.
toga, and devise measures for protecting the
free against the slave States.
Saratoga is a watering''place of much note.
1t is resorted to during the summer season by
large numbers of southern people, who have
always patronised it with prodigal libe-
rality. They 60 there for fresh air, health,
and social enjoyment. But Saratoga is no
longer to furnish pleasant retreat from the
din of the great world, and the asperities and
clamors Of politics. It's beautiful precincts
that have been sacred to fashion are 10 be de.
secrated In place Of the soft voices of fair
women, and strains Of pleasant music, the hoarse
voices of thousand ruthless and reckless aboli.
tionists are now to be heard. They are to be
heard uttering curses against the south, by
southern men, southern ladies, and southern
children, who with generous freedom from
sectional feeling have been wont to spend their
summers at Saratoga, rather than at watering
places nearer home
These men have selected for their conven.
ton the very place, of all others, at which most
offence will be given to southern people. Per
haps they want to drive their southern brethren
altogether from their cities and their watering
places. Perhaps they desire TO stop all inter
course, business and social between them
Perhaps they want to make New York an in
accessible State with a Chinese wall around it.
When the 18th day Of August comes, We
will see what the great convention will accom-
plish; the great convention that is to catcf
birds Of every feather, and politicians of ever!
stripe.