Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-05-15

u
cipil car now threatens to burst forth upon
the country Before this crew can be dis
charged, and competent men can take their
places, the Union may DO a wreck WiHnot
Virginia come to the rescue!
The Union Degree.
We copy from the Lynchburg yirginian,
the obligation and address, forming the plat
form of the Sd or "Union degree" of the
American party" as declared by our enc
mics, the anti-slavery men Of the North. We
copy also the comments thereon, as found in
the Cleveland Ohio Leader, an anti-slavery
sheet of the deepest dye, showing that the an
ti-slayery men denounce this degree as "pro-
slavery in its character and tendency. The
Cleveland Leader says:
Euery rational man anderstands ,ohat the
originators of this degree were after otsn they in
vented IL. We all knoo that the grand object was
TO ignore aud crush out Northern opposition TO
slauery aggression nnder the old pretert Of saving
the Union"
We invite all, friends and foes of our party,
to read the obligation and the Presidents ad-
dress to the initiated members, and the com
ments Of the anti-slavery press upon the same,
and then answer us this one question: "a the
american party allied to a6olitionism
The charge whenever and wherever made, is
false and calumnious, and the proof of its
falsity, is now presented by our enemies, to
the world What must the people now think
Of the shameless assaults made upon our party,
by the Washington Union, the Richmond En-
quirer, and their aiders and abetters, who have
been stumping it throughout Virginia for the
last three months, misrepresenting and Willy
ing our partyS Will not the people rebuke
the slanderers at the pollss
Is there patriot in all the land, who will
not heartily subscribe to the obligations i'm
posed by this Union degree But we are in
formed that the Massachusetts, State council
refused to take this degree, and hence the reso-
lutions adopted by them to agitate slavery.
New Hampshire too, it is alleged, has refused
this degree. BE 10 so, If such ras theirpleas-
ure. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl-
vania, have adopted it, and with their co-ope-
ration the South and West can save the Union,
and aoill do IL, despite the efforts Of New Eng
land fanatics to destroy it. We do not regret
the exposure of the platform Of the Union de-
gree, and especially at this juncture, when the
administration has combined with the anti
slavery men to defeat the only true conserve
tive Union-loving party in the nation.
We are not authorized to say, and do not
feel at liberty to say, that the obligations and
address Of the " Union Degree, are those which
our enemies have now published, but we do
feel at liberty to. say, and therefore say, that
the principles therein developed, are our prin-
ciples, and our creed and we say further, that
we have taken no obligation and made no
promise, Inconsistent Nth this platform; and
we say again further, that no man who has
taken tho Third or Union Degree, can be, con-
sistently with his obligations, an enemy of the
Union, or an advocate of that agitation, which
would lead to the destruction of the Union.
Upon this ground, we have over and again re-
peated, that the " American party" is the true
Union party Of the country, and that the
charge Of Abolitionism made against us, is an
unqualified and unmitigated falsehood, and
this we now again repeat: that all charges Of
collision or sympathy with Abolitionism, or
with the agitation of slavery, made against the
American party" are utterly untrue and
wholly unfounded.
Our friends and the country may draw their
own differences from these declarations, on the
point whether the published obligations and
address, are genuine or not Our enemies say
they are genuine-we do not deny IL, and yet
we are not at liberty to admit it
Our readers will remember, that upon the
adjournment Of the National Council, at Gin
cinnati, last November the New York Tribune
and other snh-slavery presses, published in
their journals, the statement, that the National
Council had resolved to ignore the question Of
slavery,--we did not then deny it-but we
adopted the principle How far this fact may
sanction or confirm the truth of the present
publication, others may judge for themselves.
But upon this showing Of our adversaries,
and upon these evidencies on the question Of
the gcnuineness Of the published obliga-
tons and address, we may DO permitted to
reassure the South, and the whole country, that
the rights and interests of each and every
section of the Union, win be safe in the
keeping Of the American party" We
may noD also safely ask every intelligent
citizen Of the United States, to discard the
prejudices against our party, which falsehood
and Misrepresentation have created, and unite
with us in our patriotic struggle, to free the
country from the evils Of Foreignism, Roman
ism, and Demagoguim.
E We have received and publish to-day,
letter from Rockingham county, Virginia,
which will doubtless arrest the attention Of the
old line Democrats, who are now called upon
to vote for Mr.. Wise, the champion of the Wing
party in 1910. Whether Mr.. Wise, who has
"no recantations to make" and who in 1s41