Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1855-09-05
To the People of Pennsylvania.

refer to the following Address of the President
of the Order in the State, which is adopted by
the Committee in lieu of one contemplated by
it, and recommend to your consideration,
as clear, forcible and out-spoken expression
of the principles and aims of the Party:
ADDRESS.
Brethren The time for action is at hand.
and the state of affairs demands that L should
address you and urge you to active prepara-
tion for the coming election.
The result OF our last State election, and our
subsequent growth, give every reason for hope
of triumph. But the results ofthe session of
our last National Council are well calculated
to awaken anxiety. 1t remains to be seen how
far our reputation of the pro-slavery article
adopted by the National Council will enable
us to maintain our ground and position in the
State. The dissenting members, am inform
ed, are organizing State Council, and Will
probably attempt to contest our right to rep
resel; taton in the National Council. IN
of their success, it will depend solely on our
selves how we enter the arena for the Presi-
Dental canvass. The time may come, indeed
the time has come, for Pennsy ylYal!a 70 assert
her rights, and demand concessions rather
than make them. We can never submit to be
bought or caioled into false position or false
measures We must defend the principles We
have endorsed, and defend them to the last.
The American party was established for
certain clear and well defined purposes. 1t
had the pure and lofty aim to bring back the
government of the State and Of the country
to the purity OF former days; to recall, if pos
sible, the national spirit that animated the
fathers and founders Of the Republic in the
administration of public affairs. In order to
do this, it necessary that the foreign in
1uence which, more perhapSe than all other
! causes, had contributed to the corruption OF
our politics. should be put down: and that pol
CHI ha American
people must be governed on American princi-
pies. Before our glorious party stepped torth
| in its might and majesty, the interests, the
virtue and the integrity OF the American mas
| ses had everywhere been played with, abused,
| or set aside, by corrupt combinations between
ambitious demagogueS ond the one hand and
| a political church, backed by hosts OF ignorant
| foreigners on the other. The evil OF this state
of things had been seen and lamented for
| many wears; but the old parties, each OF which
| had disgraced itself by these corrupt bargains,
were powerless to correct them. BLtthe heart
| of the people was sound; and il answered TO
| the first trumpet call Of the American party
! from one end of the land to the other. That
| call was-EsLet us unite to put down corrup-
! ton in our politics and to secure America for
| Americans. Let manage our local and
| State politics as the interests of the LOCALITY
| and the State NAV require; but let us aim, IN
| our National movement, first of all, to put
! down, once and forever, the Papal and foreign
| power which has heretofore cursed and de-
| based the politics and admin stration of the
| countrv.'' To the call thus honestly made,
! the people honestly answered.: State after
! State wheeled into line, and there was every
reason to expect that the glorious example
| set By Pennsylvania would be followed by
most if not by all, the States of the Ameri-
! can Union.
| How has this fair prospect been blasted, or
at least clouded for timer The answer is
| easy In the call which first reused the people,
| it was understood that each State was TO con-
duct its local politics and to haveits own views
as a State, without interfering with those of
| other States. Pennsylvania. for instance,
was opposed to the extension Of slavery, was
opposed to the Nebraska bill, opposed TO
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The
American party recognized this feeling, which
springs from no temporary or fanatlcal I'M
pulse but is as old Pennsylvania herself,
where the spirit Of Penn, of Franklin, and of
Rush has ever animated the whole population.
And on this issue the American party went
into the last election-and triuulphed-
And on this issue it will triumph again here,
as it would have trumphed, in every orthern
State. In New York, an attemptwas made to
ignore the popular will on this great question,
and the result was, that the American banner
there trails in diShOnored dust. This lesson
should have been enough. But the National
Council at its June meeting, Shut its eyes to
the daylight. At that Council, by the votes
of States in which no American triumph had
ever been gained, and by vote, too, repre-
senting only small minority of the voters of
the United States the old trumpet call was
silenced and a new element was incorpora-
ted into our creed. Had that Council left the
question of slavery with the States, as it should
have done; had it thrown out the banner with
the simple and well-defined issues originally
proposed, there is every reason to believe that
our party would have triumphed in the fall
elections, from Maine TO California. But the
18th Article of the Platform adopted at Phlla-
delphia put an end to all such hopes 1t COM
mitted the American party OF the free States
to course of policy which would not have
left it a corporaPs guard in any of them. It's,
in fact, q virtual endorsement of the Nebras-
ka bill a pledge that our party will acquiesce
in that bill, and in the violation OF the Mis-
souri, Compromise. 1t stultifeS and degrades
us before the people; and, more than this, 1t
pledges us to do what We know to be wrong,
and to omit doing what we know to be right.
W ere we TO obey the command, we should fail
before the people, we should gain no more
electlons-nor should we deserve to gain them.
The Pierce administration has been con-
stantly adding fuel to the fame on this SUBJ
ject. 1t has seen Kansas outraged and over
run by armed ruffians, who took possession of /
the polls and returned sham Legislature
but the government had no word of condem- (
nation to utter. 1t has seen mobIaw trium- (
phant-ihe rifle and boYie-knlc substituted
for the dopular vote--but still il made no sign T
But when the Governor of Kansas, an honor /
cd citizen of Pennsylvania, appointed by /
Pierce himself, attempts to yindicate the (
right of the people to choose their own Legis
lature, and to curb, only in the least degree,
the mad passions Of the Missouri Colonists,
who were overrunning the territory and tramp
ling upon the rights of its actual setters-the
Pierce government wakes up suddenly to ac-
tivity, and-Governor Reeder is removed =