Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-12-25
ADDRESS ISSUED By THE DALLAS
COMMITTEE TO THE DEMOCRACY
OF THE UNION. M
To the Democratic Electors Of the United
*4 States.


election. Sharing, as we all do, in the solicit
tudes of the occasion, we cannot be insenslbe
to the importance OF timely measures to secure
unanimity of purpose and concert OF action, In
a matter fraught with good or evil to our com
mon country. Our views may differ-but we
have a common end. Let us by a candid in.
terchange Of sentiment reconcile conflicting
purposes, so far as they exist, and concentrate
our entire strength in such an effort as the
crisis demands.
The undersigned are Committee, appointed
by Democratic citizens Of Philadelphia, to adj
dress you in their behalf, upon this important
subject. No considerate person will regard
the action as precipitate. The choice Of a
Chief Magstrate-at all times an occasion of
deep-felt interest-in the present posture of the
nation is vital concern. The Wing party,
hitherto our only formidable opponent is dis
solved. A new party, with new principles and
new aims, has taken its place. Divisions in
our ranks in some of the States, and diversions
from them in others, have impaired our strength
our defeat will be the Inauguration of prin-
ciples at variance alike with the Constitution,
and the policy under which the nation has
hitherto prospered. In this condition, and with
these prospects, it is the dictate of patriotism
to consider carefully and employ promptly all
means suited to recruit our strength and con-
solidate it upon the platform of the Constitu-
tion--the only basis upon which the patriotism
of'the country can be united.
The approaching Presidential contest will be
eminently struggle for the principles of the
Constitution. The disturbing questions are
too fresh upon the public mind to require speci
fcation. They trench on the Constitution and
its ompromses-rather, should we say, upon
the Constitution; for the compromises of the
Constitution, so called, are an integral part of
that instrument and enter into the national
compact as terms of confederacy. The Consti-
tuition is the Union! Without it, the States are
what the Revolution made Acknowledgements
sovereignties. To alter, expunge or pervert
any of its fundamental principles to the pre-
JUDGE of the rights of individual States, is to
violate faith, impair the compact consented to,
and SO far dissolve the obligation upon which
the confederacy reposes.
The Democratic party is, as it ever has been,
the party Of the Constitution. The patriotic
sense of the country has sustained and defni-
lively settled, in points once strongly contested,
the construction that party has put upon this
instrument, and the administrative measures
they have adopted to secure the benefits of it
equally to all parts Of the country. No essen
tial modification of its provisions enlarging the
power of the general government can ever be
adopted; nor, if it could be, is it easy to con-
ceive that, under any other arrangement or
distribution of powers, the growth and pros
perity of the country would be promoted.
Our first duty, then, as citizens and patriots,
is to rally under the banner of the Constitution,
and invite the cooperation of all who ap-
preciate the benefits that instrument was
designed to perpetuate. For this purpose, we
need fit representative of our principles, under
whose leadership impending dangers may be
Stunned and serenity restored. e
Among the prominent statesmen of the
country, there are doubtless many possessing
the qualities requisite for successful statesman.
ship, whose fidelity to the Constitution is well
known. A selection from these would seem
easy, but experience has shown that our en-
inent men are not all equally available, either
before the Conventions Of the people, or in a
popular canvass. Residing in different parts of
the country, local preferences, arising from
sectional interests naturally exist and these, if
uncontrolled by higher considerations, it is to
be feared may Illustrate the common good.
A divided or diminished vote will probably
devove the election Of a President upon the
House of Representatives in Congress. 1t may
result in the election of an opponent, and the
consequent evils of sectional or irresoute
administration. Let our preferences, then, be
expressed with submission to the will Of the
greater number, without factious pertinacity or
the disparagement of any, whose pretensions
are thought worthy of serious consideration by
any section the party. Let our representatives
in Convention truly represent the whole party,
not fragmentary parts of il, and firmly resolve
to sacrifice all differences Of minox moment
upon the altar Of patriotism.
To secure the united action Of the whole
party, it is indispensable that our candidate
should be well known by his public acts to the
whole country. The time has gone by, if ever
it existed, when the complicated and rapidly
augmenting interests Of our wide spread con.
federacy can safely be entrusted TO unskilful or
untried hands. There is nothing in our ex.
perience Of the past which will Justify depar-
ture, in the present juncture, from the rules Of
common prudence. The unexampled growth and
prosperity of the nation has already excited the
Jealousy Of foreign nations, and given rise TO q
policy designed to check our progress. To
counteract it, we need frmness, caution and
wise craftsmanship. These, however, though
indispensable, are not enough. Our national
strength lies in our Union. United as one
people, under sklfnl guidance, the combined
power Of Western Europe cannot permanently
interrupt or even materially retard our progress
Hence our domestic relations are OF the first
importance. 0ut Of these, as experience shows,
spring continually questions the greatest deli
cacy, requiring the same qualitiesn larger meas.
ure, as well as comprehensive and correct views
Of the Constitution. We repeat then, our can.
didate must be national man Of large expert.
ence in public affairs, free from sectional
obliquities, and known to be such TO the whole
country by his public acts.
In George Mifflin Dallas, Of Pennsylvania,
the country has statesman eminently gifted
as we conceive, with the qualities required at
the present crisis
In presenting him 10 the Democracy Of the
Union, we are not conscious Of the influence
Of local prepossession. Certainly il is not our
purpose uuduly to magnify his merits least Of
all TO disparage the pretensons of any Of bis
distinguished contemporaries. Although born
and reared in our midst, the voice Of the coun-
try has already enrolled his name with those
Of her most favored sons His public acts
enter into the history Of the nation, the bene-
fits Of which are now widely felt. To expatiate
upon the political principles Of citizen so
well known, or upon his qualifications for The