Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1856-10-01
politltal.
ADDRESS
TO THE
PEOPLE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

| r fELLOW CITlZENS - Ne CehtTdi \'oiHiuit-
tee appointed by the Democratic State Con-
vention, have thought proper to address you
on the questions which you must decide at the
next election In doing so, we shall be can
did, frank, and fair. Apart from the princi-
pie which should bind all men to the truth in
political discussions. and in every thing else,
we are well aware that any attempt to mis-
lead you would iDjure our cause. 1t is yet
nearly three months before the election, and
there is no reason to believe that the public
mind will not use the intermediate time in cal
mly considering the great issue before it. We
are perfectly willing that whatever we may
say, which is not justified by fact and reason,
shall be set down as so much against US, against
our party, and against our candidates
The time has passed for the discussion of
Bank and Tariff questions, We hear no pro-
posals to enact a Bankrupt law, no word of OPP
position to the Independent Treasury. All
these questions settled agreeably to the
Democratic opinions upon them. The rise,
the prosperity, and the fall Of the great Wing
party, are themes for the historian, and full Of
instructive lessons; but we will not dwell up
on them now.
1t is the present duty of the Democratic
party to stand over the Constitution, and
- shield it and save it, or perish there, too"
1t is our task in this campaign to beat its en-
emies separate or combined, just rs they choose
to meet US, to conquer them with an overthrow
which will be a warning to them many year.
AND it must be done, or else tAis Union is not
safe for day
We know very we'll how easy it is to sneer
| at any suggestion of danger to the Union =
But ,se know also that the federal relations of
this Government are so delicately constructed
that they may be ruptured at any time by
serious error of the people in choosing a Ch;of
Magistrate The States of the Union are not
held together by physical force like the depen-
| denotes of Kingdom, nor even by political
power, like different parts of the same State.
They are independent sovereignties, united by
the gentler law of mutual attraction This
law, operating on their own free will made
| the Union; and when it ceases to operate the
! Union will be unmade. Let a President of
the United States be elected exclusively by the
votes of one section and on a principle of a
vowed hostility to the men, the measures, the
| domestic Institutions, the feelings and the in
terests, real or supposed, of the other section,
and what must Be the consequence We do
not say that it would certainly or necessarily
dissolve the Union. Perhaps the good genius
of the Republic. which has brought US through
so many perils, might save us again. But
that man must be intellectually blind who does
not see that it would put us in fearful danger
For this reason the election OF a sectional can
didate must be regarded in itself great and
public misfortune The party that avows op-
position and hatred towards certain Ella as of
the States as its motive and rule of action, is
entitled to no aid Or comfort from ary man
who loves his country, or desires to be faith
full to its government
The greatest. the wisest and the best men
the country ever produced, have warned us
that the Union could not last under the con-
troll of a geographical party Need we refer
you to Washington S Farewell Address? Need
we remind you of the admonition which JEFF
ferson and jackson have given? If the SOL
epn voices which come from the tomb at
Mount Vernon, from the sepulchre at Month
cello, anG from the grave at the Hermitage.
have ceased to be regarded, then we are lost
indeed
The most iliustrious statesmen of later times
felt the same fears for the Union, and assign
ed, for those fears, the same reasons CLAY
and Webster, and their great compatriots
overlooked all other considerations in the ef-
forts they made to avoid this one portentious
calamity. Even Mr.. Fillmore, the Know
Nothing (but Abolition) candidate, has not
hesltated to say that the Union cannot stand
in case an Abolition President, like Fremont.
be chosen and he lets it be very plainly un
derstood, that, in such a case, me would think
dissolution of 1t perfectly justifable. When
you consider these things in connection with
the fact that the Observation-Disclosures most of
whom arc acting with the so-called Republi-
can party, openly profess their desire to break
up the Union and to trample on the Constitu
ton, how can you doubt that Fremont's cleo
ton. or even the casting of a considerable vote
for him would prove to be fatal mistake =?
Yet we are no alarmists We trust conf
IDENTIFY IN the perpetuity of our present Gov
ernment. But that confidence is based in the
conviction that the people will take the advice
OF Washington, and frown Indignantly on the
first dawnings.
The safety of this Union must depend on
the triumph of better principles than those of
Glddlngs and Sumner and Garrison, and Hale |
and Seward; and upon the election of bet
ter President than John c. Fremont
These men attempt to justify the miserable |
crusade which they are preaching against
portion of their fellow citizens, by ASSERTING
that the South have encroached Oh the rights |
of the North They have pertinaeiously de- |
clared that In all controversies on the subject /
of Slavery we of the North have been over
come by the superior energy and boldness of I
those who favor that institution. g The /
''the Lash of the Slave drivers"
the aggressions Of the Slave power,-these |
are the phrases with which they describe the /
influence of the South in our National Coun-
ellis. Northern men who do not Join them in
their clamorous abuse Of the South, are char
ged with cowardice and are habitually called
on,vl,f