Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-12-04
o. Communicate.
TEcuMsEH, K. T., Nov. 20, 1865.

which resulted in the reelection of the Hon.
John w. Whitfield, has been a theme OF much
newspaper comment, as well as adding much
to the general interest manifested throughout
the country as regards Kansas affairs. 1t is
due to this worthy representative and true pa
triot, and TO his constituents, as well as the
great Democratic party, with which he has SO
long acted, that the political circumstance
under which he was elected should be properly
explained, so that his position as a partisan
may be plainly understood and properly appre.
ciated.
questions of a national character attract but
little attention and excite but little interest.
Questions of local policy, in which their more
immediate interest is involved, have engrossed
their attention, of which the most important
is that of exercising the constitutional right Of
ownership and use Of negro property, This
sacred right has been denied to our citizens
by the disciples of Abolitionism, who have
sought, through the instrumentality Of the
aid societies. Of Massachusetts, and other
Northern States, to take possession of this
beautiful Territory and appropriate it to their
entire use and benefit, and hold it not only by
their political, but by their physical strength,
to the entire exclusion of the STAKEHOLDER with
his constitutional property. This assertion
may seem somewhat incompatible with some
recent demonstrations of liberality which have
been made by the Abolitionists and their con-
federated allies in publishing a platform. of
principles which has been generally circulated
through the Abolition papers for the purpose
of deceiving the people of the country in re.
gard to the true principles Of those men who
are endeavoring TO make Kansas a free State
yet it is nevertheless true that many of those
who figured conspicuously in the deliberations
of the convention that adopted the platform Of
principles above referred to, were the boldest
in denying the right to hold slave property
here; and endeavored, in the incipiency of the
settlement of the Territory, to marshall their
forces to exclude the owners of this property
from settling upon the virgin soil of Kansas
but in this they were not successful. Such
gross attempts at the violation of constitutional
right aroused the feelings and excited the de-
termination OF every son of the South and
every conservative man from the North here
into action, to devise means of protection.
The question of protecting the constitutional
property brought into the Territory by emf
grants from the slaveholding States, absorbed
all others, and made subservient to its infu-
ence a union in sentiment and feeling of all
the constitutional and conservative men of the
two great parties which have heretofore welded
the destinies of this great Republic. This
union of parties was the result of necessity
it was the union of the friends Of the Consti-
| 80 80 I'D The ~ -2-,I
the fundamental doctrine of Republican gov
eminent, of which the controlling spirit of the
Kansas Nebraska bill is the true nodded. The
party thus formed bears the name of the Pro
slavery party, a name derived from an %institu-
ton which it seeks to protect; yet, whilst it
seeks to protect this important institution Of
the South, 1t seeks also to guard and protect,
with equal vigilance, the constitutional rights Of
every citizen of the Territory, whether he came
from the North or from the South.
1t has been the instrument by which law
and order have been established, and by which
the rights of the sovereign squatter have been
protected.
There was an effort made after the perma-
nent organization of this party, to get up an
organization of a party under the name Of the
National Democracy" this was an effort to
grasp at the shadow without the substance, to
odOHb AhO hoAhC Viz tnC pIIuGIplt. luOSt
who gave birth to this effort were better known
by their abolition proclivities than their devo-
ton to the creed and principles of the Demo
cratic party in short, it was a subterfuge re.
sorted to by the abolition and ~freesoil dema.
gogues, behind which to screen their abolition
sentiments, and through which they hoped to
effect a disorganization Of the Pro-slavery
party. With such men, the Democracy would
not rally. By thus refusing, they fully sus-
tanned a principle upon which The Democracy
of the country have always acted, and that is,
not to affiliate or have any political connection
with Freesoilers nor Abolitionists, but, on the
contrary, to exclude from their ranks all such
base Uermin.
In Kansas, in the unsettled connection Of a
mixed population, among whom excitement is
the predominant spirit, and that, too, upon
that all absorbing question-whether the Abo-
litionists shall rule or not? it would be i'm
possible to effect an organization Of the Demo
cratic party-that is, a party bearing that name.
II would have an effect to disorganize the
party which has been formed by a union of all
conservative men and those constitutional
rights which thus far nave been protected,
would again be paralyzed should the Demo
cratic party be in the minority.
Thus it is shown that there can, from neces-
sity, be but two parties here at this time-the
pro-slavery or constitutional party, and the
abolition party-the former seeking to estab-
lish government and order, and thereby pro-
tect the constitutional rights Of the citizens,
and the latter having the higher lac extreme
for its creed, rebellion to the Constitution its
motto, and rule or ruin our glorious Union its
only aim. But, to a patriot, il is a consolation
to know that this latter party in Kansas is in a
hopeless minority, and ere long will be crushed
under the weight Of its own vile and worthless
power.
The pro slavery, or what might with great
p~ropriety be called the constitutional party, on
the both Of August last, at the Shawnee Manual
Labor School, in convention assembled, In
which every settlement in the Territory was
represented, the object of which was to nomi.
nate a candidate for Delegate to Congress.
After permanently organizing, the result of its
deliberations was the unanimous nomination
Of the Hon.. John w. Whitfield. His political
faith was well known to this convention. He
was known to be a sound constitutional Demo.