The Opelousas patriot. [volume] (Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La.) 1855-1863, 1855-05-05
THE AMER1cANPARrE


THE AMERIcANgPARTK
The administration candidates, orators and!
presses, throughout the South afiectt to believe,
land on this ground mainly oppose the Ameri-
can party,) that its affiliations and tendencies
are anti-slavery. The burden Of their speeches
and editorials, against our party is, that it is
allied to anti-sla7ery purposes. Wepointst them
10 the fact, that all anti-slavery presses at the
North are opposed to our platform,-that the
Stewards, Greeleys, Summers, and Giddingses,
ct ID on,ns genus are violent anti-Ameri-
cans,-we quote from the central m~outh-piece
Of the anti-slayery party, 1.-THE National, Era,)
its abuse Of. our party, and its appeals to the
North, not to join it, because its alleged pro.
slavery tendencies,-we show from the admis.
,sions Of the National Era, that several thou
sand Of its subscribers have dropped that paper
and its doctrines, within o year past, and now
sustain the " American " cause,-ands still these
anti-Americans repeat the cry, that g the Know
Nothings are anti-slayery men y"
b. We have stated and we have proved, time
and again, that the ",American party does
not recognize the discussion Of slavery in its
councils, and that it does not seek to interfere
with this question, pro or con. We leave
slavery where we find it, and where the consti-
tuition placedsit. We are for permitting those,
whose interests are identified with this ~iustitu-
ton, to manage their own, affairs, in their own
mode, without our interference. This is the
true position of the American party. That
there are individuals as well inside the Ameri-
can organization, as inside the Wing and Dem
~ncratic parties, whose views are hostile to the
institution Of slavery, is undoubtedly true, and
is not denied. Nor can it be otherwise. A
pro-slavery party, or dnti-slayery party must
Of necessity be, sectional-for the South only
advocates slavery, and the North only opposes
the institution. 4.fu4, .Tl5155 ,4.t-
Those, therefore, who would seek to make
the American party, either q pro-slavery or an
1nti-s!avery party, desire to make it q sectional
party, in its views and objects, and those who
thus desire to creates sectional division, desire
to desolve our now glorious Union. If the
South will not recognize. an anti-slavery man
as qualified to assist in Kidding our country of
the evils Of foreignisnl, and demagoguism, it
follows, that she must stand alone in this
reformaticn,-and if the North will not re
cognize q pro-slavery man, as thus fit to aid
in this movement, then the North will stand
alone in the effort to remedy these evils. and in
either event, it becomes q sectional and not a
national movement.
The absurdity of such a position by either
geographical party, is too g!aring to. be over
looked, and the consequences too certain and
disastrous to the country to be contemplated
by any patriot.
It is in vain to disguise the fact, that the
North and South are directly antagonstic in
their views, on the abstract question of negro
slavery, and it is equally vain for either party,
to attempt by argument or by force, to change
the positions Of the other. All that can be
done is this, to unite both sections upon the basis
Of the constitution, and to let slavery stand,
where our fathers found it, and where the con
stitution, which their wisdom framed, has
placed it. Has the Wing party OR the Demo-
cratic party been able to effect this object? 1t
has not. Wing assemblages at the North have
resolved to wage q wal Of determination upon
slavery, and Democratic conventions have re-
solved to " eradicate its evils" There is no
more %soundness, nor sanity, in the one party,
than in the other, on the question Of the con
stitutional rights of the different sections Of the
confederacy. FL.
1t is our firm belief, that the American
party " will, when " full formed aud perfect"
be a national conservative party, on the slavery
question, while it will carry on with vigor,
that great American Reformation" which it
was more especially formed to accomplish. 10
say tile least, at cannot be less conservative, than
one of the old parties, and there is ground for
hope, that it will be Tar more conservative than
either Of them. There is therefore, every mo-
tive and inducement for o fair trial Of this
party, on the question thus presented. 1t can
not do worse than fatl, as both the old parties
have done, to keep down that sectional agita-
ton against which, our Washington so elo-
quently warned us, and it may do far more
than they have done, in furtherance Of those
views, which his farewell legacy to his country
men so earnestly advocates.
But our main purpose, when we commenced
this article, was to show the inconsistency Of
those who assume as the basis of their opposi-
ton to our party, that we have antislavery
tendencies. Washington Organ.