Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1855-07-20
Landmarks of Democracy.

a late number of the Washington Union
publishes the proceedings Of certain Demo-
ratio Conventions at the South, and among
them series of resolutions adopted at a
Democratic State Convention of Louisiana,
held at Baton Rouge on the 18th Of June
1t accompanies these resolutions with the
following editorial ommcnts -
- The resolutions adopted at these meet
ings show an unfatering adherence to the
recognized principles and landmarks OF the
democratic party, calm, cheerful and
abiding confidence in the future, and at the
same time the occasion is appropriately en-
braced to pay fitting tribute to the wisdom,
patriotism and fidelity Of President Picrce's
administration.
Here are two of the landmarks Of the Dem
ocratic party adopted at Dayton Rouge, as is
published and endorsed by the Union
" Resolred, That we approve and endorse
the action of our last Congress in the Nebras-
ka Kansas act, and the principles therein es-
tablishcd and in conformity with these
principles, the people of Kansas have the
right, when the number Of that population
.ustifes it, to form a republican state con-
stitution, with or without slavery as they
ion upon equal footing with the other
states and that her rejection by Congress
on account of slavery would be II just cause
for the disruption Of all the ties that bind the
state of Louisiana to the Union.
" Resolved, That we sympathize with the
friends Of the slavery cause in Kansas in their
manly efforts to maintain their rights, and
the rights and interests OF the Southern peo-
pie, and that we rejoice at their recent yieto-
ries over the paid adventures and Jesutical
hordes of Northern aboliuOnism that the
deep interest felt and taken by the people of
Missouri in the settlement Of Kansas and the
decision of the slavery question in it, is both
natural and proper, and that it is their
right and duty to extend their Southern breth-
rem in that territory every legitimate and
honorable sympathy and support"
Upon these proceedings the n. Y Evening
Post, democratic paper, remarks as fol-
lows
- | pom what strange times have we ial.
len, when declarations like these are set down
as recognitions of the ancient landmarks OF the
democratic party To tyrannize over peace
full and unframed men, to wrest the right
of suffrage from those who are Justly entitled
to it, to cog, to cheat, to make false returns
of elections, are these the recognized tokens
of democracy
It is clear that no honest man a the North
can act with those who thus shamelessly
adopt a fraud, and ayow settled dctermina-
ton to uphold it and profit by it, If We
were to support nominations made under the
ayowal of such principles,we should feel that
we entered into partnership with rogucs.
1t Is remarkable with what bolduess the
friends of the administration at the South APP
proach this Kansas question We gave, the
other day some extracts from their newspa-
pcrs, iustiiying the fraud, and declaring the
determination OF building upon that fraud a
plan for the admission of Kansas as a slave
state The resolutions passed at their State
Convention in Georgia make the same decla-
tions as those of Louisiana. These politi
clans stick at nothing-shrink not from the
assertion of the rights Of slavery, however
broad and when there is no pretence of right,
| they fall back, without hesitation, upon the
title of the strongest the doctrine that the ter
ritory belongs to those who are audacious
enough to possess is by violence. They are
frank, spoken-they keep back moth
ing they are determined to lose no advantage
of any sort by the failure to claim it early
and boldly.
While the friends of the administration at
the South make these declarations and ad-
vance those pretensions, without asking
whether Mr.. Pierce and his cabinet are
! pleased with them or not, the friends of the
administration at the North are seeking pre-
texts for either meeting the South half way,
or slurring the matter over by expressions
that mean nothing. The arrogance of their
southern brethren is met by timid trucking
or by passive silence. The Washington
Union gives them their cue ; it informs them
that their Southern associates have adopted
the true democratic doctrine and of course
there il no alternative for them but to ex-
press like views or to he silent.
If this folly l. Il listed in, the admins
tration will Sc H. supporters in the free
states diminishing Ia u more miserable aud
suualid remnant than ever the late elections
have shown them to be. -
n" That its ranks should be purified from