Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1855-05-15
From the Franklin Commonwealth.
The American Question
LETTER FROM REV. DIR BRECKENRIDGE.
DASVILLE, KY, April %, 1855.


Ny DEAR SIR; You are aware that have re-
ceiYed two communications, both of them signed
by II nun Der of the most respectable citizens Ut
your town, amongst whom recognize many old
personal friends, urging me to address the |, ople
AT the capital of the State upon thai great Amerl-
Gun question which so deeply engages the atten
ton Of the whole community. | may add, that
many similar invitations have been sent to me-
and still eontnnc to bo sent from various aud
widely separated portions of the Commonwealth
signed in the aggregate by very large number
of persons. And II is, no doubt, known to YOU
that, within this month, have been prevailed on,
under peculiar cn Gums iancesin both instauces,to
speak on this subject in Cynhlana and in LeHng-
ton. The object Of this communication is, IN the
first place, to say in this public manner, that it does
not appear to me To be my duty to accept these
invitations; and, III the second place to perform
the duty which they, aud many other consIdera-
TONS do seem to me to require, in the distinct
expression of my principles on the subject itself,
In doing this it may save the necessity of future
explanation to say, that | avail myself ct the
proof sheets of an article written by me for pc
rodical, published in another State, which has
not vet been issued; aud To add. that if suppo-
srd there was the smallest donht of the issue OF
this contest in Kentucky. or that my services
were comparable in value to the estimate put on
them by partial friends, | should pursue II very
different course from the one | have now adopted.
Politics have assumed II new and to the old
managers of parties and elections, n most uncx-
| pected phase, Many things have oonspred to
produce this result; and men will, no doubt, give
| this or that explanation of the movement we are
wtne ssing, according TO the point of view from
which they consider it. Many effects may be
| produced by the movement itstflf, and men will
appreciate those effects, and endeavor to promote
OF prevent them according to their views of gen
eral politics. of the interests of society, and of
the proper destiny of our great country.
The intense and pervading power of the move
| ment itself can no longer be matter of doubt
| And To the calm observer various elements are
manifest which render its future progress alto.
gether inevitable, Amongst these decisive ee-
ments may be stated the augmented force of the
movement itself, acquired by its own previous tri-
umphs and the greater homogeneousness Of the
spirit OF it, to the portions of that country re-
naming to be subdued, than to the portions al
ready conquered. 1t will encounter no difficulty
equal to the intense Democracy of New Hamp-
shire, Illinois, PennS ylvania, and Michigan; the
wide spread political immortality of New York,
the Democracy of Virginia, and the settled anti
slavery sentiment of Massachusetts; the heredi-
tary Whigism of Kentucky. Yet all of these
are mastered by the grander spirit of the new
movement. What barrier remains to arrest its
! Irresistible career
1t is infinitely absurd for the opponents of this
vast movement of the human mind. to attribute
it to unworthy or insignificant causes. 1t is ut
terly ridiculous for its friends to imagine that it
can exhaust itself upon subjects that are feeble
and indistinct. 1t may aim at what is wrong, or
what is una,tainable; but it cannot avoid aiming
at what is great and permanent any more than it
could have been produced by anything that was
feeble, indirect, or base. great people does
not receive such shocks from such causes nor
when received do they terminate without immense
results.
What we behold is a vast and apparently spon.
taneous uprising of the spirit of American ma
tonality. Beneath that we behold the restora.
ton OF that primeyal spirit of Protestant civil
zation, III which the country itself was originally
created. And still beneath that we behold the
renewal of that profound sense of the overwhelln-
ing necessity of our National Union--which was
the grandest outbirth of our National Revolution
These are the life and heart and soul of this ri
gantic movement. American Nationality, Pro
testant Civilization. National Union. The coun
try believes all three of these are in danger
Men may say the country is deuded. But that
does not alter the case long MS the country
thinks otherwise. The country is resolved that
all danger to all of them shall be thoroughly re-
moved. Men may the country is misled !;
but what of that, 30 long as the country is re-
solved to be National, Protestant and United
The country is thoroughly convinced that it
cannot trust the perpetuation of its nationality,
its Protestant civilization, and its Union as one
people any longer, to the keeping of existing par.
ties In their ordinary action; and so the country