The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1855-11-01
KENTUCKY DEiiUCRATic STATE
CONVENTION.

KENTUCKY DEMUCKATIC STATE
| CONVENTION.
LETTER FROM GOVERNOR WISE.
tONLy,p, HRAR OSANcocK, Va,
September IT, 1856.
GxnTLEMEE:-Yours of the ilth inst, re.
ceived last evening, touches me 10 the quick.
Your call upon me is so earnest and unex-
pected, and my desire to meet i, "wi,h Z
bound 10 yon," is so strong tina, can hard.
ly obey the mandate OF dnty 10 remain with
sick family and nurse The afflicted. would
If prosirated, take up my own bed and walk
to Kentucky, If l could do augh, 10 save such
a people as hers from the dsIusion of the
day. Beautiful and blessed daughter Of the
Old Dominion, why is it that she stands a.
loof from the Mother State! Nicholas of old
once responded TO Jeferson-KeutucEy to
Virginia-as peak to peak of the Alps, they
reverberated the ,hunders of i79s-'99 a.
gainst Alien and Sedition Laws. She 10 the
"dark bloody ground" of The Jrontisrman and
I emigrants. The blood Of her sons has fat.
tened The field Of the Raisin and the shores
| "a toA HCo Udu0 auu buItiE y
rights" the American right Of naturalization,
against the odious dogma of despotism tina,
freedom shall depend upon bir,hrigh,: her
whole history aitests the galantry of her de-
vo.ion to the rights of the States, TO the
Union Of The States, and to the inalienable
rights Of man Why is it that now she
seems 10 side with an evil spirit Of fanata.
cisn, which is worse. than the spirit Of feder-
malls of old?
Tell me not that she has been Alternating
from the Democratic fold since the war of
1912. Tell me not that she has been led
away from the faith of Virginia by son of
ionover, that ho,-bsd of human eloquence
which had Demosthenes for each war of
the coaatry--a Henry for the Revolution,
and Henry Clay for the second struggle Of
Independence! invoke the shades OF both
against despo,sm and every other "ism"
W hich in an evil hour leads 10 it. The one
staked all upon the issue-'Liber,y or dea'h;'
the other bearded the British lion to his
teeth with the declaration Of war against the
tyrant's maxim: "Onee d citizen, alscays
cilizen," and in favor of the resolve that
The Star Spaneled Banner forever shall
Ger the land of The free and the home of the
brave!
Is it possible can ii be, that those who
fought IN that war, or any descendants of
those, will now be for returning 10 the mire
of the maxims of the old world; for resolv-
ing ;ha. if man happen to be born the serf
of despot, he shall abide bis lot for life
that he shall have no privilege TO seek a free
counlry-that he may not abjure allegiance
to crown, and may not swear tie allegiance
10 Libeny-that he may take the wings of
the morning and fly away from his birth
place, and put seas and continents between
him and the crown which claims him born
slave, yet he but drags lengtheniDg chain
The despot may search for him on the seas,
and may seize him where search finds him
Tell the Kentuckian to 60 10 the grave of
Henry Clay, and there inquire what Sailors
Rights" meant in the last war. That text
will teach him !: and there he may learn that
one of the first and richest fruits of true A
mercanism was, that " Congress shall have
power TO establish an uniform rule Of natural
ization." And all the graves ofall the past
of all American history, will teach him that
the main end of The mission of America up
on earth, has been 10 secure the only inal.
ieuable right of man which pertains to i'm
morality-lhe liberty of religious worship;
the freedam of conscience 10 pursue any
pathway to Heaven ! Tell me- not, then,
that the brilliant genius OF Henry Clay has
shed an ignis fatuus ligh! which is still burn
ing in the daughter land Of his mother
State, and of his adoption Latitudiharian,
or federal, or whatever he was In his las,
days, he was true TO Amerioa--he died in
the day that he was her champion for the
war of Free Trade and Sailors Rights"
and be lived and died breathing peaee-the
great Compromser and Paciica,or Shall
his grave, then, be stained by blood flowing
from beside the ballot-box on the banks of
the Ohio Never. Those who really. ven-
crate his fame--those who would cherish h
affection for his soidow and for his SON, rather
than for The "bloeks and stones" of Ashland
house, for bis name sake will defeud his
monument and his memory from such desc
Grafton! No, no! there are other causes
than any which mag be atfibute 10 the
mighty dead, for this sudden, and for a time
unseen alteration from all that is American
in our history. The ballot-bor ssas upon the
Ohio rver That river is border, and in
spite. Of all patriots like Clay, living OF dead,
that border has become bloody.
The causes of these are ist, the dark spir-
il of Aboli,onism. Anti-slavery is rife on
the borders Of both Kentucky and Virginia.
To the face of double tier of laws, both
State and Federal, guaranteeing property in
slaves, the value of QUE Of them floating up
on chip on the Ohio river is just as safe, as
tie property in one OF them is upon the mar
gin of the Virginia or Kentucky side. Tho
laws do not guard us, because there is not