Weekly North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1858, 1855-08-15
THE UNION-READ AND REFLECT,

The UNlON-READ AND .REFLECIl
We invite the serious and thoughtful attention Of
readers of all parties to the following article
which we copy from the Augusta Constitutionalist
and Republic.
That there are men in the free States protesting
to be Democrats who arenevertheless hostile to the
Constitutional rights of the South, is not denied;
but on the other hand the history of parties and
of the country especially for the last twenty years.
will most trlumphantly sustain the assertion that
the Democrats of the free States, as party, ARE
true to those rights and that the Democratic party
of the United States, organized in its national
Conventions, and holding the reins of federal ad.
minstration is the only party which is national in
its principles and aims, and the only one which
the people of the South rely for the faithful
ecution of the fugtive-slave law and the gradual
extension of the institution of domestic slavery.
The Whig party Of. the United States, it is true,
embraced at one time many men in the free States
who were disposed to do justice to the South; but
these, together with many prominent Democrats,
have been driven from public place by the abolition
lists and Know Nothings. The Whig party. in its
last national Convention, succeeded in adopting
sound resolutions on the question of slavery; but
that party, are informed by its leading men in
this State is now more and has given place to the
Know Nothing organization. 1t was a corrupt par
ty, says Mr.. Rayner-t was hollow-hearted, Grip.
pied, and deserved to be abandoned and to die out,
says Mr.. Miller. Is this true? We shall not pause
to argue the question; but we may observe that if
this be true, those gentlemen certainly had small
agency in making it corrupt for they have bsen for
years among its active and prominent leaders in
this section. Probably these gentlemen judge 9TH
ers by themselves. But we do not admit that the
party which Henry Clay established, and whose OBJ
ects and destinies he fashioned and directed during
his life, was as corrupt as described by Messrs Ray
ner and Miller. On the contrary, regarded it,
and still regard it, association of men actuaed
in the main by patriotic feelings, and based well
known and well defined principles. These prnci-
Piles we believe erroneous, and we should apprehend
evil and danger to the country from their prevalence
and long continued control in public affairs; but the
great body of the who entertained those princi
Piles entertained them honestly, and were not the
corrupt, hollow hearted persons Mcssrs Rayner and
Miller would no,o have us believe they were. The
old Whig party, like its great antagonist the Demo-
cratic party concealed nothing from the public eye
its principles were emblazoned on all its flags, seen
every where, known of all men, but voted down by
the country. 1t did not require oaths from its men,
bers penalties to the free exercise of the
right of suffrage did it ever-whether under the
lead of Clay, or Webster, or Fillmore, or Scott
skulk in dark places. at midnight to concoct plans
of and of vengeance against any portion
of the people.
As long as the Whig party existed, the contests
for the Presidency were not sectional but national
and fits existence had been continued, the proba-
bility is that in 1856 the country would have been
saved from the bitterness and the danger of sec
tiona struggle, now SO close upon us, and appa-
rently inevitable. But Know Nothingism, which
had its origin in the free States, has done nothing
in that region for the people of the South. On the
contrary, it has elected Governors, Senator's and
some fifty or sixty members of the House of Repre-
sentatives, all Of aohom are abolitionists and be.
fore its deadly hatred of the institution of slavery
and of our rights under common Constitution, ev.
cry man has fallen in the free States whether Dem,
ocrat Whig, who had stakod himself for the
Union and for justice to his Southern brethren
This is its record thus far-what the future will dis
close it is not given to the most sagacous among
to foretell. But that the Union Of the States is an
greater peril than at any former period, all fee
and knou and our honest conviction is, that the
great ground of hope for its preservation and fol
protection at the time to vital interests and
rights as saveholding people, is to 6etound IN ht
national Democratic party An cold Line Geor
gia Whig has done justice to that party in the fol
lowing artice and we have full confidence that, in
the future in the past it will maintain its high po
sition of devotion to the Constitution, and will ad
here to those rules of constituting that instrument
under which alone we hope for safety to oul
peculiar institution, and for the prevalence of those
sentiments of justice and fair dealing upon which
the Union was founded. Let the cid Democratic
party be dissolved, as the Whig party has been
and darkness will overspread us ALL But we arc de
tanning our readers from the article referred to.
From the Augusta Consutionalst and Republc.l
For the Consideration of my old Whig Friends
Mr.. EDIroR-Dear S!r: In my former communi
cations to you, among various reasons stated fo
maintaining the Democratic party against the Know
Nothnss | have said that the Congressional record
last year showed that the South had no friends a
the North, except among the Democrats. l not onl,
propose to proUe it in this article but intend ais
to show that for the last ten years while the North
ern Wings have been almost unanimously agains
us-al,cGys a majority, and sometimes taoo-third
and three; e;tourths. of the Northern Democracy il
Congress, have coted soith us. .- -. ..'
But before proceeding farther, 1 will say thai
while the Northern Democracy were thus sustaining
us, it is true the Northern Whig party in exis
/. tcnce. But where the members of it now p
Having run themselves aground with the people
the South, upon the slavery question, unIer tn
name of Whig and especially having, last year, VIC
ted unanimously against as on the Kansas and Ne
braska question, since they have disbanded wher