The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-07-24
THE DIsUNIONIsTs.

Until very recently, we we're accustomed to
believe that there were but two classes of Dis
unionists in the United States, viz: the South
ern propagandists of Slavery, and the Northern
Abolitionists, represented by Mr.. Garrison. But
it seems we were wholly mistaken and that the
most formidable enemies of the Union are the
UHion-savers themselves, with Mr.. Fillmore at
their head That highly respectable and con-
sentative gentleman announced to his followers
at Albany and at Newburg, New York, that if
a majority, a constitutional majority, of the
People, shall in their wisdom see fit to elect
Colonel Fremont President, the consequence
will and should be, q dissolution of the Union
Does not that sound like treason, and could
not Mr.. Fillmore be convicted under his own
cherished theory of constructive treason?
We think that Mr.. Fillmore and his friends,
for they generally, though not invariably, re-
echo the sentiment, should take the higher
ground, that, unless he is elected, the knell of
the Union must be sounded. The People
would then know what to depend upon. AS it
is, thersa are many good people, Republicans,
who believe that continuance of the Slave
Ohgarchy in power tends to dissolution of
the Union, and for that reason they are anx-
ious to overthrow it. They believe that few
more such acts of aggression upon the rights
of the North as the repeal of the Missouri Com
promise, the outrages in Kansas, melted and
encouraged by the Federal Government, and
the brutal outrage upon Senator in his seat,
for the exercise of free speech, will utterly alien.
ate the North and the South, and cause dis
solution of the Union. Wendell Phillips, the
Abolition Disunionist, takes this view of the
question, and he therefore frankly avows him.
self in favor of the election of Mr.. Buchanan.
We call upon Mr.. Fillmore, therefore, to dis
card his illtimed modesty, and come out bold
ly for himself, as the sine qua non. He thinks
that the Union ought and will be dissolved, if
Fremont is elected; while the avowed Disun-
ionists, such as the Charleston Mercury and
Wendell Phillips, with their friends, are going
for Buchanan, in order to precipta.e disunion.
If the sagacity of these men is worth anything,
Mr.. Fillmore should not confne his alternative
to the election of Colonel Fremont, but should
include in it that of Mr.. Buchanan. As
wise and trusty Union-saver, he should there
fore declare unquaGfedly, that unless the Peo-
pie elect him President, he will dissolve tho
Union.
The People, North and South, who are hon.
estly attached to the Union, should not neglect
to take notice that the Republicans are the
only party which has entered the contest for
the Presidency without making a downright
threat of dissolving the Union, unless it meets
with success. If the People wish to preserve
the Union, they should stick by the only party
which has never threatened to dissolve it.
The backbone of the Sham Democracy is Dis
union, held up continually in terrorem over
the North and now the mild and amiable Mr..
Fillmore, the Silver Gray Union-saver, is en-
deavoring to steal this Democratic thunder.
Is it no. palpable that each of these parties
thinks more of Office than of saving the Union
And is it not clear that "Rule or Ruin" is
their common maxim?