American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1855-12-22
TuLTp GROVE, Nov. 22.I1S5E

-a1f TULIP GROVE, Nov. %, 1855.
GENTLEMEN: Itwould give me great
pleasure to attend the mass meeting of
the American party to be held at Lou
/. isville on the 9th instant, to which you
have been pleased to invite me, did not
my private engagements make it inn
possible for me to do so. / take deep
interest in the success of this party,
and trust that its banner will soon float
triumphantly over all the States of the
Union asit does now over Kentucky.
AS was foreseen, this party has had
tostuggle against a combination of all
the factions of the day, and the people
have scarcely yet had the means of
examining impartially its principles;
but time, the great destroyer of what
is vicious and corrupt, has already
done enough to satisfy the patriot and
statesman that the friends of the par
ty must succeed ifthey perseyore reso-
lutcly in the maintenance of the plat
form upon which they have been Or
ganized.
The millions in the national treasury,
diverted from their legitimate and con
stitutional purpose, in ORDER to traduce
those who will not bow the knee to Mr..
Pierce and his foreign allies, are not
sufficient, thank God, to stiflei the9free
spirit of the yeonianry Of our land or
mould the public opinion according to
the dictates of Executive power. T..'.
. . l.. : . q
Mr.. Pierce obtained the Presidency
protesting the Union doctrines of Gen.
jackson, but his leading acts proved
him to be the instrument of the Aboli-
ZIONIST and Nullifer.l These factions
arc the natural offspring of the doctrine
that State can, by the interposition of
its sole authority, rightfully enforce
withinits limits o construction Of the
constitution contrary to the decisions of
the Supreme Court and the will Of a
majority Of the States and the people Ii
doctrine denounced by the Fathers of
the Republic as treason, and contend
ed for only by such jugglers as those
who are now directing our national af-
fairs. 1t was the direct blow aimed at
the reasonable doctrine which first 1T
tracted me to the support of the Amer-
lean party, and / am. satisfied after the
Developments of the last six months
that upon this issue alone it is all-im-
portant to the best interests Of the
country that the party should be sus.
tained. This is in fact the great issue
of the day, and until tits disposed of il
is in vain that we may talk Of settling
the slavery questiea or any other which
can be regarded as vital to the preser.
vation of the Union.
Slavery is not the cause alone of the
present sectional agitation. A large
majority Of the people of the North are
sound upon this subject, and arc iun-
willing to disturb the Constitutional
guarantyrospecting it. They think a.
bout it as did Washington and the pa
triots who founded and reformed our
system. 1t is the minority with them,
as with us of the South, which, under
the garb of State rights, is cheating the
people into the belief that there is
something repellant between the true
lulcIcSlS Ol VIC OWO SCCIiOlS, unu JIlat
this something demands the men claim.
ing to be special advocates of the one
or the other section should be placed
at the head of our Federal and State
politics. This sophistry commenced
with the anti-war party of 1912. 1t
was revived in 1928 by Mr.. Calhoun,
under the pretence Of equalizing the
burdens of taxation, and has ever since
been the nucleus of a party bent upon
arraying one section Of the Union a.
gainst another, and which has laid hold
OF the question of slavery, not because
this peculiar institution Of the South
was in danger, but because it was bet
ter calculated than the war or the tariff
to mislcad the philanthropby of the
day, and misapply the principles OF
our complex form of government. No
one can read the book written by Mr..
Calhoun on the subject of the relation
between the Federal Government and
the State without being convinced that
his real object was the destruction Of