The true Democrat., 1855-07-31
The Know Nothing Platform.

AA4V AAAOw &VOI OIA4A446 4 4oGAOAAA' Approving some of the positions of the know nothing platform, the Arkansaw Traveller agrees with us on one point. On the slavery question the know nothing platform will not satisfy the south. And this is the most impor- tant question now before the American public. The Nebraska Kansas law passed at the last Congress by the votes of southern democrats and whigs and northern democrats settles the slavery question satisfactorily to southern men. This law the know nothings epudiate-nullify, by declining to endorse the principle set forth in it, that Congress has pooer to legislate upon tue subject of fslavery in ae te,rltories' The know nothing platform "p' etermaits the expression of an opinion upon the power of Congress to es- tablish or prohibit slavery in any territory" It thus surrenders and abandons the principle the south maintained by the passage of the Me- braska law
 The Traveller says:
 "The American party platform on the sub- ject of slavery in the United States territories, as it now stands, should not be, and is not, sat- isfactory to the south. It is not full and point ed enough. Why use this spacious phrase "pretermit?" Why not say "that in any ter ritory Congress has 70 poa0er to establish topro hiEat slaveryp" Did the national convention wish to conciliate the northern abolitionists and free-solers by this spacious way of disposing of, to them, so great an eye-sore as the Nebras- ka-Kansas bill? And are the members of that party, in the south to give no "expresson of opinions as to the power of Congress to recog nlze the light of property in slaves in terlto- ry? Why make the territories an exception to the otherwise sound southern doctrine on the slavery question contained in the article under consideration? Is it secret understand ing-a kind of sub-stratum principle the free soilers of the north and west that there is to be no more slave States-no more slave ter rtory-if they (the free-soilers) will act with the party without insisting on the repeal of the fugitive slave law-the Nebraska Kansas bill- the restoration of the Missouri compromise line, the abollshment of slavery in the District of Columbia etc? We confess such suspicious entered our mind upon the first reading of the article; and if they should prove true the whole maneuvre is unworthy so enlightened body, and too contemptble to merit much serious notice."
 The Traveller then comes to the nationality of the know nothing party. It shows that at the north, all the free States except New York, have seeded from the Philadelphia platform, and, in the south, Louisiana has withdrawn Thus the know nothing party standing upon the Philadelphia platform is left composed only of the know nothings in few southern States -and there advocating an unsound doctrine upon the slavery question, which will soon destroy them at the south. Thus stands the know nothing order, all broken into fragments, and, as national party, utterly powerless. 1 On this point the Traveller concludes its re- marks by an allusion to the Gazette of this city which has deserted the democratic plat form and gone to that of the know nothings It says:
 "Under all these circumstances we cannot admit to the platform claim of nationality and short of this 1t fails to meet the wants of the people.
 Thus much for the theory of the Aemerican platform. As this article is already too long we will reserve some remarks upon the practi- cal working of the platform upon the interests ot the seuth until future time; just remark | lbtt we DCSo lOd'c " ulodSIec WlIu our tai ented neighbor of the Gazette and Democrat on the superiority of this platform over every other that has preceded it. We would ask the Gazette what right does it render more secure to the south, than Is maintained in the demo- cratic platform, and carried out, by acts of de- mocratic administrations, and democratic Con- gresses-such as the compromise measures the fugitive slave law, Nebraska Kansas territorial bill? etc. theory may be very plausible, but the practice under that theory is that which will determine its adaptation to the exigcncies of the people,"
 The platform of the democratic party is the Nebraska law In that law the democratic platform will be found reduced to practice. It denies the power of Congress to legislate upon the subject of slavery, and such is the true po- sition of all southerners.