Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-12-11
WHOLE NO. 341.
Letter OF A. J. DOneison, of Tennessee, 10
the American Mass Meeting at Louis-
TuLIP GRoyE, Nov. "a. 1883.

the American Mass Meeting at Louis
ville. s
ssa ais TuLrP GRovE, Nov. 22, 1855.
GENTLEMEN: 1t would give me great pleasure to
attend the mass meeting of the American party to
be held at Louisville on the 27th inst, to which
| you have been pleased to invite me, did not my
private engagements make it impossible for me
TO do So take deep interest in the success of
this party, and trust that Its banner will soon float
triumphantly over all the States of the Union as it
does now over Kentucky. ha aaa
As was foreseen, this party has had to struggle
against combination Of all the factions Of the day,
and the people have scarcely vet had the means of
examining impartally its principles !; but time, the
great destroyer Of what is vicious and corrupt has
already done enough to satisfy the patriot and
statesman that the friends Of the party must sue
coed if they persevere resolutely In the mainte-
nance Of the platform upon which they have been
organized. ll .e9 iEtass5
The millions in the national treasury, diverted
| from their legitimate and constitutional purpose,
in order to traduce those who will not bow the
knee to Mr. Pierce and his foreign allies, are not
sufficient thank God to stife the free spirit of the
! yeomanry of our land or mould the public opn-
ion according to the dictates Of Executive power
Mr.. Pierce obtained the Presidency protesting
the Union doctrines of General Jackson, but his
leading acts proved him to be the instrument Of
the Abolitionst and Nulli6er. These factions are
the natural offspring of the doctrine that State
can by the inteposition Of its cole authority right
fully enforce within it's limits construction Of the
constitution contrary to the decisions of the Su-
| preme Court and the will Of q majority OF the
States and the people--a doctrine denounced by
| the Fathers Of tho Republic as treason, and con
tended for only by such jugglers as those who are
now directing our national affairs. II was the di-
rect blow aimed at the reasonable doctrine which
4 first attracted me to the support of the American
party, and am satisfied after the developments Of
the last six months that upon this issue aloneit s
allimportant to the best interests Of the country
that the party should be sustained This is in fact
the great issue of the day, and until it ia disposed
OF 1T is in vain that We may talk Of settling the
slavery question or any other which can be re-
garded as vital to the preservation Of the Union.
Slavery is not the alone of the present sec
tional agitation. large majority of the people Of
the North are sound upou this subject and are
unwilling to disturb the Constitutional guaranty
respecting it, They think about il ns did Wash
ington and the patriots who founded and reformed
our system. It is the minority with them, as with
US of the South, which, under the garb of State
rights, is cheating the people into the belief that
there is something repeiiant between the true in.
terests of the two sections and that this something
demands the men claiming to be special advocates
of the one or the other section should be placed
at the head of our Federal and State politics This
| sophstry commenced with the anti-war party Of
i
under the pretence OF equalizing the burdens of
taxation, and has ever since been the nucleus of a
party bent upon arraying one section of the Union
| against another, and which has laid hold of tho
! question Of slavery, not because this peculiar in
stitntion OF the South was in danger, but because
| it was better calculated than the war or the tariff
to mislead the philanthrophy of the day. and mis-
apply the principles of our complex form Of gov
ernment. No one can read the book written by
Mr.. Calhoun on the subject the relation between
| the Federal Government and the State without
being convinced that his real object was the de-
struction of the Constitution; nor can we sove,in
any other manner the proceedings Of the Southern
/ Convention, assembled at Nashville, convention
| organized according 10 the suggestions Of Mr..
Calhoun, and which was so justly denounced by
Mr.. Clay as was its prototype at Hartford in 1912
for its bold and reckless atowal of treason to the
| Constitution and Union.
| In accordance with this sophstry you now see
the demagogue Of the South telling the people that
he is States rights man. that slavery is State
right, and that unless he Is clothed with political
| power the interests Of the South will be certainly
sacrificed and, on the other hand, you will ser
such men as Seward and Sumner adopting ostensi-
bly, the platform Of Jefferson and Madison and de-
carng that the trial by jury aud the writ of habeds
corpus are the safeguards OF liberty and that, un.
less you check the aggression Of the slavery men
OF the South all the reserved rights OF the States
1 "Ab. thp PcOPiG Whl bc bWept away. linus tueBe
two extremes act in concert as sunonists as long
as they can cheat their respective localities agree
| ing TO make common war on the men who would
put an end TO sectional strife by reviving the max
inns of our Revolutionary fathers.
If you tell these demagogues that there s no
party but that formed by themselves, proposing to
interfere with slavery-that there Is no party out.
| side OF their hctious influence which denies the
| great doctrine that all the powers not expressly
| surrendered 10 the Federal Government arc stir
| possessed by the States or the people, and that
among these reservations Is slavery as a local IN
stituton they forthwith raise The cry that you are
fcderast or consoidatioIst, and that you are not
friend of the Republican system. Nothing win
satisfy them but agitation-agitatio at the North
TO help Seward into tho neutrality-suspicious. at
| the South 70 help JEFF Davis or some other nui-
fier--wben there Is really not q particle of differ.
ence between the doctrines Of these iuggiers, since
each processes to be State-rights men, and each
claims for his State the right TO nullify the laws or
| the Union. Each, too, Is doing all that he can to
form geographical parties and to hmiliarize tho
| people with that word diypiion against which
Washington invoked the indignation and scorn OF
| his countrymen
This is-the humbuggery Of Pierce and bis Cabi-
net, and this IL the humbuggery which the Ameri.
can party proposes to destroy, and which il must
destroy If we expect to maintain the constitution
as we received il from our fathers
Here in Tennessee where the thunder or tha
old hero jackson has not yet died away, the dem
agogues who arc pulling the wires for their distant
allies have been forced to resort to tho most shame
ful duplicity and hypocrisy. They may be said TO
have formed two schools-the one teaching that
Democracy is the Jacobs ladder of the sacred
Scriptures, and that there s "a round upon it for
every one 70 stand upon, no matter to what ism Of
party ne may have belonged the other taking its
revelations from the Mount Pisgah saint who told
us the compromise Of 1850 was such an awful
thing that his heart would break rather than re-
j0ice at its passage These schoolmasters hotb