The American patriot., 1855-03-21
To SllVeIl OlderS.

City, and is richly deserving OF carciul peru
sal bv all who feel an interest on the subjects
treated
While feelings of disgust are excited by the
extremes which the radical journals OF the
South. as well as of the North, allow themselves
to he carried. it is not for them that this article
is intended For, while l am STAKEHOLDER,
and the son of a Shareholder, southern man
of southern feelings, with no blood relation
north of Mason and Dixons line, it is, never
thccss true that | can still believe that the
great mass of our northern brethren are con-
servative in their feelings, and perfectly willing
to allow us to hold our o7cn, as well rs 10 SUBJ |
scribe to any doctrine on the subject Of slavery
we NAV think best for our interests and for our
welfare.
It is true and no man of common observa-
ton will call it in question for moment, that
the agitation of this subject, which has kept
the two grand divisions Of this Republic in a
continual fernent and state of apparent feud
for years, has been entirely the result of the
utraism of few fanatics at the North, and of
such southern journals as have insisted upon
identifying with these few the whole northern
confcderacy.
1t is true that the whole South, to man, is
united upon the subject of slavery. and while
some few are willing to admit it to be an "cvil
though necessary evil" the vast and over
whelming majority contend that it is a blessing
alike to the master and to the slave, blessing
intended especially for the South. Among this
majority am willing to stand.
1t is true that the North considered colec
lively, is opposed to the institution Of slavery.
The fen oppose it, because it is, in their esti-
nation, moral wrong, plague spot upon the
escutcheon of our liberties; the many oppose
it, because they consider it inexpedent But
~, loo
the ground of inexpediency, their opposition
originates in the fact that slave labor is unprof-
liable to them. The system of hired labor,
which is now of necessity their only system,
has been found more economical than slave
labor.
For this reason the whole North is anti
slGrcry, not as many understand the word
which is often confounied with abolitionism,
but when say anti.slarerY, l mean opposed
to that institution among themselves but not
among US Of the South, though they may doubt
its expediency. Twill even go further and say
that the majority of northern men arc perfectly
willing for the question of expctiiency, in ref.
erence to the establishment of slavery in those
portions of our Union where that question is
vet subject of debate, shall be decided by
the popular voice Of those portions, without
their having any voice in the matter
Now, submit it, if il be not unreasonable
to condemn the whole North because Of the
few. And that the majority is, as have rep
resented t,-is proven by the detection in the
Know Nothing ranks, and bv the instant repu
diation of the radical minority by the conscrv
ativc majority.
The subject of slavery is a question upon
which the two sections of our Union must agree
to disagree, each to allow the other to enter
tain whatever opinions the nature Of the case
may admit, but to let those opinions give rise
to no controversy where individual rights arc
concerned, and in every case to let the consti-
tuition be upheld, and the laws be enforced
It is for the accomplishment Of this deside-
ratum that the American party has sprung forth
into a full-grown maturity in a time so short,
that it seems almost miraculous. Before the
opponents of the movement were aware thai
the swaddling clothes of the infant had given
place to the leading strings of the child, it had
grown into manhood, and assumed the form Of
giant and was welding that power which
ever results from the union of freeren deter
mining to maintain their freedom at whatever
cost, and to put whatever is ininlical to that
freedom. Or hostile to its institutions.
Out Of the ashes of Whiggery and Democ-
racy, Phoenix like, our party has sprung into
existence. It is q party which has for its plat
form the Union the whole Union, and nothi e
but the Union, the Union Of States, ard The
Union Of An'erican-Jora .f1'eemen
TITS party which will advocate those prir-
ciples alone, around which can rally the whole
nation tone and inseparable )" party which
will eschew those questions which originate in
sectional jealousics, and will forever stand by
those which aim at the advancement Of the ma
ton at large; and party which knows no
North, no South, no East, no West, but which
looks upon the 1.rI.aiican people as band of
brothers, whose only weakness consists in tllo
) rank clements Of disunion which this much
canvasseQ subject Of slavery has scattered
through the length and breadth of the land,
the expiration of which is its first duty.
Then wherefore canvass the subject at Ill,
wherefore make it a question Of palty2 North
ern men will be anti-slavery, and southern men
will be pro-sayery, as long as slavery exists
and it is worse than folly for any party to at
tempt any change in this sentiment
The American party is conservative upon
this subject, and, because it is so. the radicals
of both sections of the Union complain that
, its tendencies are hostile to the institutions Of
each. Mr.. Henry Ward Beecher is down upon
it. because it upho,ds slavery Mr.. Henry A.
Wise, and the press which sustains him, de-
nounce it because it is an affiliation with abo-
litionism and fanaticism.
Now, appeal to all conservative men, North
ern or Southern, Wing, Democratic OF " Know
Nothings," if this very fact is not sufficient to
convince any sane man, that "Know-Nothing-
ism" occupies conservative ground? OF South
ern men and Shareholders, l ask if it does not
, repudiate forever the idea of any affiliation?
Let slavery alone. 1t is sufficient for disu-
nionsts and traitors to make it question of
party. When the mass of the American people
e both North and South, or majority of either
y section, advocates dissolution (from which