Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-10-29

during the present week.
To the Patrons Of the American Organ.
The undersigned accepted the editorial de-
partment Of this journal upon the solicitation
Of those who agreed with him that the sole
chance to nationalIze the American party was
to maintain the fundamental principles laid
down by the National American Convention
at Philadelphia, and especially the XIIth sec
ton Of that platform, which prescribed the
support Of the existing legislation upon the
subject Of slavery as an end Of agitation and
legislation upon that subject.
Arecont change in tho proprietorship Of the
Amsrican Organ, renders 1t necessary that he
should rcsignits editorial chair, and he avails
himself Of the occasion and tho medium, to
make to those for whom he has acted report
of his agency.
The formation Of the American Order in the
South was occasioned by wish to rescue the
Government from the hands Of those who did
not hesitate to agitatc the most vital interests,
t. promote their own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. Among
the various interests thus employed were the
institution Of Slavery, Foreign Immigration,
Ecclesiastical ambition, and the love Of office.
Under this system, National and State honors
constituted the military chest Of the political
freebooters who sought to purchase or retain
power. Presidential Conventions was the
brokers' board which settled the market rate,
or registered the transfer in the open traffic Of
Office. The National Cabinet sat as commit
tee to confiscate or compound the offices Of the
yanquished.
The existing political parties had failed to re-
sst the growing corruption" The Whigparty
at the North had been perverted fromits higher
destinies by the seductive attraction Of n sec
tonal issue. The Democratic party, after hav-
ing successfully concealed the same sentiment
under the broad mantle Of popular name,
was overthrown by the discussions OF its mem
bers. Both these parties powerless for re-
form r..s,sad Of crushing at once the dan
gerous spirit or ;nter~entinn they temporized
and tempered with it. 1t is now insolent, ag-
grcssiye, and more powerful than either Of
them.
The Americans Of the South regarded the
new organization AZ the sole hope for relieving
the Republic from the dangers which threat
ened it. They hoped in its spirit of univeral
fraternity [; they heard, in its professions of
national pride, an influence of compromise and
reform which could no longer be looked for
elsewhere They do not hesitate, therefore, to
say that they entered the Order with the hope
that it might effect these great objects Of
IFpiop md af,Ir al ~ fb,fa Il.
settlement upon just, honorable, and psrma-
nent basis might be then secured, was, with
them, an object naturally paramount to all
others.
They advocated further limitation Of the
franchises granted to aliens; not from fear Of
local injury, but because Of the danger to the
common government, and the infection which
an indiscriminate importation must always
spread through the social system.
They have no intention to pcrsecute, or topper
init the persecution of citizens for the exercise
of religious faith; but they win resist the
attempt of any sect or persuasion to impress
its opinions upon the political action Of the
government. They win oppose those who
would set up any law higher than the State or
Federal Constitutions, whether those who adj
yocatc that higher law be f" Personal Liberty"
or "Revenue Law Nullifers," with mon
archy madmen appealing from the Supreme
Court to Deuteronomy, or the liege subjects Of
the Pope, who would annul law OF Congress
with a rcscript from the Vatican. This oppo-
sition extends to all who win not abide by,
maintain, and execute the laws, 50 long as the
form Of government which enacts them shall
exist
They have adopted the forms and engage
ments Of the American Order. as an inmate
rial conformity with its organization, but they
acknowledge no obligation more binding than
pledge Of personal honor, and they have never
hesitated 10 avow publicly and to defend their
principles and motives wherever they have
been impugned
) They value the Union Of the States as
sacred memcnto and legacy, and as the best
form Of human government and they win
maintain It under any sacrifice which those
who bcqueaihsd it would have sanctioned.
But IL It be seized by numerical force, and per
vertcd to the destruction Of those rights il was
intended to protect, they can acknowledge no
sanctity in the past 10 warrant tho oppression
of the present.
Whilst, therefore, they hoped from the
American Order certain invaluable measures
Of reform, the paramount political good"
expected from its action was the reformation
Of the government, and the settlement Of the
slavery question, not by tho unmeaning gene
ralities Of the old parties, but by written and
specific guarantees. This was given them in tho
twelfth section Of the Philadelphia platform
So far, then, as the undersigned could have
had any agency in promoting the latter object,