Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-12-03
TuELATE CONTEST.


THE LATE CONTEST.
me following arrI,ir, tr.o Philadelphia
Sun, of the 9th November, We give to show
what others. who stand prominent in the A
mericaD party, thiuk of the position occupied
by the different sections of the Opposition in
the recent Presidential contest in Pennsylva-
MIA. 1t should be remembered that the Sun
is one of the oldest and most reliable Ameri-
can papers, not only in this State, but in the
Union, and has for the last twelve years been
battling foreignism and Catholicism in the |
most determined manner:
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.
The Democratic party never had to contend |
against greater odds, and never made a more
narrow escape from defeat than in the late cam
paign. Never were its leaders more startled
from their propriety than when they saw, grad
ually more and more clearly, as the returns of
the election came in, the magnitude of the
peril they had escaped. Never was Pennsyl-
vania more important to them, and never did
they congratulate themselves so much upon
their partisan skill, as they have over the tact
they displayed in dividing the opposition vote
in the keystone State aud in New Jersey, in
the late contest. They were aware they had
two parties to contend with, but they had no
idea that those parties, had they been united,
could have brought SO overwhelming numer-
ical force to overcome their trained bands, and
render futile all their best-conceived plans
They were aware that to carry candidate,
whose nomination was the dictate of policy and
not the spontaneous choice Of the hearts of the
people, but, on the contrary, was bitterly OPP
posed by the Dallas section of their own party
in this State, though hollow truce had been
temporarily patched up-would be difficult
task against well tried statesman, who had al
ready laurels in public estimation, and a
young giant of intellect, indomitable perseve-
rance and courage at the head Of a host whose
battle cries were the thrilling notes of freedom
and the rights of free labor. They felt all this
but they had no idea that the struggle would
be so fearful, their escape so narrow. And, in
fact, defeat would have been their lot-an o.
verwhelming defeat even to the exhaustion of
recuperative power, had the American leaders
of the Pennsylvania opposition, and that Of
New Jersey, been true to their trust; had they
fully understood their duties; correctly appre-
ciated the comparative strength of the two par
ties had they duly informed themselves of
the position occupied by the American party
in the South, or needed the proofs daily given
them of the determination of the people to de-
ciGe the contest at the ballot-box; had they
adopted the only course which will ever secure
them victory over the wiley and unscrupu-
lous spoilsmen with whom they have to deal.
Could they not see that there was no more than
the ghost of chance forF fillmore in theSouth,
as clearly as the South saw there was not ven
that chance for him in the North? Cbuid they
not read, and reading learn, from the course of
the Democratic press, if from other source,
that they were aiding and comforting the very
party they were called upon, by every obliga-
tion, to defeat, at all costs and hazardsa
Three parties were in the field. 1st. The
Democratic party, catering to the fears, preju-
dices and passions of the South by its endorse
ment of the policy OF the Pierce administra-
ton on the subject of Slavery in the Terrific
ries, to the lower passions of both North and
South by the countenance it extended to fiji
clustering schemes, which offered TO all the vag-
abonds of the country an idle life OF plumber
and dissipation in Cuba and Central America,
and evincing its sectional bias and control, and
its selfish aims and hopes, by the PRONUNCIATION
| of platform embodying all the political de-
baucheries of Calhounism, and in ali that sob
vious import against which Mr.. Madison pro-
tested, the doubtful orthodoxy of the Virginia
and Kentucky resolutions of 1892 and l'9o.-
I'd. The Republican platform was an echo OF
the views of ali true conservatives North ana
South, an embodiment OF the opinions OF JEFF
| ferson and of all the great nursing fathers of
our institutions, from Washington to Van Bu-
rem. and of Mr.. Fillmore himself-whose pur-
poses and aims were strictly legitimate, and