The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-09-12
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED
- = ii-a- ~ STATES.

STATES.
Feiloio-cifiEens. There are circumstances
which call for the appeal we make to your
most earnest attention. The times appear TO
rs startling and critical. There are aspects in
the pending contest for the Presidency, which
are very unusual and important. We cannot
Therefore, fbrbear freely TO communicate some
Of our apprellensions, before we separate here,
snd TO call upon you at once TO look full IN
the face any dangers which may seem to i'm
pend over the greatest popular government
on earth.
Two of the political parties in the country
have pitched Presidential battle upon sec.
tionai issues, and Of so fearful n character as
10 stir the deepest passions of the American
people. Though in seeming conflict, it can.
not be Disguised that those parties have in
such sort CO. operated as to press upon the
country one exciting issue after another, until,
by'dint OF continued evaporation, they have
nearly succeeded In arraylng, in hostile col.
umns, one-haf Of the States of the Union
against the other. They appear mutually to
have employed all the energies OF party pow.
<rto e0gender sectional dislrusi, prejudice,
and elimination, and now, for the first time in
Che history of the government, we find traly
formidable party, fully organized, and using
every effort in their power TO combine the
Ron-slaveholding against the slaveholding
States Of the Union, in struggle for the
Executive power of the Confederacy. la that
organization are included men who ARE sup
posed to be conservative and national, but
who are believed 10 be led, by excitement or
misc'nceplon, into movements which, in their
cooler moments, they cannot but recOi from,
us they would from pestilence and famine.
Its management has been essentially con-
-trolled by lenders, who, under all circum-
stances, have steadily kept up an active, an.
ceasng, and inplacable warfare upon the
Institutions Of the slavehoding States
Should such party unfortunately succeed, in
the present distracted state of the public
mind, in electing a sectional President, sup
ported alone by the voters of the non. slave
holding States, we have too much reason to
npprehend that there might instantly spring
into existence a movement of resistance, the
consequences of which no human wisdom can
foresee, and no lover of his country or friend
OF popular government anywhere could fail,
in all coming time, sadly to deplore.
&. We do not believe they can succeed, but
we may be really "treading upon the brink Of
avocano, tina: is liable, at any moment, to
burst forth and Overwhelm the nation"
But the Republican party is not alone re-
sponsit'e for those appalling issues nor is its
success the only danger to the stability of the
Government in its present form. The Demo.
cratic party has eagerly and rashly seized
upon these momentous issues, and welded
them rs The thunder. bolts of party warfare.
They have striven to madden the South, and
to cOncentr.te Southern votes upon their
candidates, as the AbDlitionists have siriven
10 madden the North and to concentrate
Northern votes upon their candidates.
When their extreme measures are resisted
they taunt national men in the South, as
''submissionists" or worse than s,ibmissionsts,
rs the Abolitonists taunt national men in the
North us dough. faces or worse than dough.
faces.
They have apparently struggled to bring
{. ,abOu: the formation of geographical parties,
such as the Fatberof his country so emphati.
cally warned usagainst, based upon questions
Immediately tending to split the Union asun.
der; and they have seemingly done this for
1.-the petty purpose of securing temporary
. party triumph. The Union, in form at least,
we think, would survive the success of such
Earty foi the present; but its triumph would
probably keep the furnaces of sectional pas.
. sion red hot and ultimately, and it may be at
no distant day, its rash errors would engender
a storm OF sectional conflict beneath which
the government would sink into ruins. We
think they, too, will fail. y9sf.-
." But we believe the time has come when
the common safety requires that the raging
sectional heats Of those parties should be
cooled. The time has come when national,
. conservative men respecting the Constitution,
true to their whole country and indignantly
frOwning upon the first dawning OF disunion,
should stand shoulder to shoulder, and unite
V In placing at the head OF the government a
Chief Magistrate in whose capacity, honesty
and patriotism all contide. The National
American party have now presented such a
man--one who has been tried and found
!, faithful to every trust--who, being suddenly
called upon to take the helm OF government
at time when the heavens were lurld win
the angry tempest OF 1S49-'6o, so successful
ly rode out that storm, 30 faithfully and gal.
llantly secured the safety Of the noble ship OF
State, MS to win from an ndmiring people the
most heartiul plaudiis swell done! thou
good and faithful servant" s.7,4a
Wcpoint to another fearful cancer on the
body politic-the Illuminating trouble now
,goirg on between the Democratic and Re-
publican parties for the foreign rote and to
the tremuous apprehensions expressed for
the fate of the one or the other of those par
ties, as the uncertain movements OF the Ger
mans or Irish oscillate between them. we