Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1855-11-10
x,.rf,, T .tter from the Hon. Henry A. Wise
= ~ tie National Democratic Meeting in New


crxr,rupN.-T gratefully acknowledge yours OF
the 10TH postmarked the 18th, and regret that II Is
not in my power to accept your invitation 10 aeIen
and address q meeting OF the Natlonal Deino
cratic party of the City and County OF New 1o On
Mt the Metropolitan Theatre, on Monday, the Z2d
inst The situation of my family is such that cail
not leave home before some time after the 2zu ns.'
and could not from the date of receiving your let-
ter reach New York by that day in person. ouC l
give you a terVent, anu Woulu Sau'J '
edectual response
have carefully examined the platform wnicn you
inclosed of your late Convention held at w eltihg
Hall in the City of Syracuse august 70 an
hail the National Democracy of New York as bretn-
rem worthy to be accredited in faith and accepted IN
fellowship by every patriot in the land. 1ou are
national not in the of consolidation, but III the
constitutional sense; yon are NATIONAL as opposes
to exclusive and sectional and you are national, not
like the party of "ebony and topaz, not IKE the
"lipht.houses in the skies " of the younger Adams
in 1928 nor like the fusion OF confusion party IN
these days of later "isms;" not National Repuoh-
can but YOU are National Democratic" You as
sert your devotion to the Constitution; rendorse IN
theory and practice, the resolutions of the Demo,
cratic National Conventions of 1S4S and 1901, ana
YOU obey the lesson of the fathers by recurring to
fupalitv and economy, and to all the fundamental
nrincinies of free government" in the administration
of public affairs In all these heartily concur anu
unite still further with you upon the doctrine Vi
State Rights and strict construction OF the Constu-
ton as applied to ali questions, and particularly 10
domestic State questions and the principle of non
Intervention by Congress, so as mott deprive states
of their sovereign rights individuals of their private
rights and the people of the Territories of their just
and natural political powers
The Constitution, and not any temporary ana
temporzing compromise statute, is the true and only
standard of national right. The Constitution, III us
strict sense and not according the atitudinarian
construction of loose federal majority the Con-
stitution which leaves all powers not expressly
granted where it found them, the reserved rights OF
the sovereign States; the Constitution, which ere
ated certain federal relations and rights OF private
citizens, among the most important of which is per-
feet equality between citizens of the respective States
on the common grounds of federal jurisdiction; per-
feet comfy between the citizens of State and State,
and common property between them in the national
domain and dominion the Constitution is the law
of our Confederacy. 1t is respector of persons;
it holds all alike and equally under its protecting
guardianship wherever it applies. 1t prizes not into
your private possession, nor into mine 1t knows
not whether you own one species OF property or
another. 1t recognizes only citizens ofco-equal
State soveregnties, who confederated under its
shield and it provides protection for whatever right
belongs to either of us on ground which belongs to
both The mere municipal authority, the Congress
cannot deprive States and their citizens of this equal
ty, this comfy, and this common property of the
Confederacy.
If you may go to the common Territory with
what is righttuly yours in New York, may meet
YOU there with whatever is lawfully mine in Eir
ginia Congress may not say that shall not mi
crate with SLAVE property and hold 1t there for II
they may say that, they may, in like manner, say
that you shall not go there with horses and house
hold goods, and hold them; and if they may de-
clare against the right of either, they may invade
inalienable rights, and enact laws not within the
competency of legislation.
The sovereign act of defining what shall and what
shall not be tenable property by the citizen, be
determined only by the conventional power of the
people, forming organic lava Constitution chang
ing Territory into State Until the new State
comes into being, no power upon earth can lawfully
deprive you Of your horses and household goods, or
me of my slave in Kansas, unless the private prop
ery be taken for public with Just compensation.
And, gentlemen, you say truly, g that the peace
and quiet of the country demand that it should be
left to the people of the Territories to determine for
themselves" what their Constitution of Government
shall be- not only in respect to slavery, but every
other local question. The public peace is endan-
gered by this " disturbing subject" 1t is practi-
force Force has already been exerted on the bor-
der" and in the face of this danger there is an
ganizcd Fusion which must, if persisted in,
pei resort to arms in order to resist evil Spirits
combined to repeal the kansas-Nebraska bill, and
to re-establish the Missouri Prohibition"
Prior to 1S1912O the Constitution reigned SUI
preme this subject. 1t was then invaded by
repealabe, partial sectional statute called, the Mis-
souri, Compromise. 1t was the first separation Of
the States-it first sectioned the country like
vey of the public lands-it first said TO the people
the dividing language of Lot and Abraham-to some
" go North, to some Ego South 1T was the first
line which divided North from South more in feel
ing than in fact. Did it not make a geographical
line of latitude, the boundary of e-
gal limitations and determine that what consti-
tutional side of it. should be unconstitutional
on the other side of it? No. said its friends at the
time of its passage, it leaves slavery TO be governed
by the law of climate. 1t is climatory not terri
oria or sectional line. Itmeans to "follow nature"
to let Jack Frost be king of the subject as slavery
was profitable South, and frost pnched negroes
toes and fingers too sharp north Of $500 for it to be
profitable there the question should be raised
con-slavery south nor proslavery north of that line
of latitude. Well, admitting this to be a more con-
sisent and rational construction of the agreement
to disagree" did the fanatics of fusion" so abide
it? Never! In every phase of the Compromise,
first and last they have broken it's letter and spirit.
necessarily they have raised the question con-slave
~ South and North, East and w est everywhere
In the States and Territories and District in the In
lan country the trade in transtu between States
Districts and Territories, the acquisition of terri
DRY, on the organization and admission of States
INTO the Union, on questions of peace and war; ever,
everywhere, always, in season and out of season,
hey have raised the question against slavery until
they have, on various occasions, nearly raised the
very demon of civil war and disunion They have
harbored English emissaries raised foreign funds
welded associated influence and capital; wearied
Congress with petitions fatgued the public mind
With compromises; filled it with reving and abuse;
pensioned press, pulpit preacher teacher; run un-
Ter ground railroads. spirited away runaways; have
scattered broadcast tales of holy horrors; painted
On the stage scenes; written log cabin novels: lee
ured, ranted riOted until they have made us a d.
Vided people until they have cut the continent in
wo by a line Of border feuds until they have sep
arated our churches; set apart socially, at the
watering and other places and until they have