The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-08-14

ished system is rapidly fastening to a prenaa-
ture decay.
"Why, what scenes have transpired within
the past twelve months, and even since the
meeting of this Congress? We have seen a
great party built up in the North, overriding
everything, whose opinions were purely Sec
tonal, whose watchwords were sectional.
Strange as it may seem, and humiliating as it
IS, that party succeeded in getting power in
thus House; and you, sir, were chosen to pre-
side over the deliberations of this body, acith-
out hdcing received single pote, directly,
south Of Mason and Di1On's line
ask, sir, if these facts are not OMINOUS?"
What was the language addressed to the
Southern Representatives by the Republican
party, during the protracted and ever-memora-
BILE contest which terminated in the election of
Mr.. Banks? In brief and in substance, it was
as follows:
You Southern gentlemen insist that no
man can be national, who cannot get your
votes, and that the election of a Speaker with
out your votes will be an odious, sectional
triumph. The truth is precisely the reverse.
Nobody is national, who can receive your
votes, and whoever receives your votes is, by
that fact proved conclusively to be section
alist. YOU HAVE ESTABLISHED A SEC
TIONAL TEST. You put the thumb-screws
on every man who is proposed for the Speak
ership, and unless he will say that he is in
favor of, or will interpose no opposition to,
the extension of Slavery, you vote against
him. You stand together, solid, compact
body of shareholders, always unanimous where
the slave interest is touched. Nobody will
be elected BY your aid, except somebody in
the interest of Slavery extension. Your tri-
umph in electing such a man will be Sec
tional triumph, and doubly odious, because
your section is small minority. You insist
upon Speaker who is for extending Slavery.
We insist upon Speaker who is against ex-
tending Slavery. You are united to a man.
We are not so well united as you are, but we
are stronger, and, with Gods help, we will
beat you. Not one inch will we bulge for
auybodys threats. Freedom acas national, and
Slavery soas sectional, when the Union was
formed, and we mean they shall continue 80.
on are sectional faction, banded together
for sectional object. AS you will vote for
no man who can receive our suffrages, so we
can vote for no man who will receive your
SURFACES, as we know very well, and you
openly say so, that you will vote for no man
who Is not pledged, body and soul, to Slavery.
We utterly deny your claim to nationality
We are the only national party, because, in
the first place, we go for Freedom, which is
and ought to be national, and because, in the
second place, we represent the large majority
of the nation"
This was the language Of the Republican
party during the contest for the Speakership,
and every word of it is applicable to the pending
contest tor the Presidency. 1t is no objectio n
to Col. Fremont that he can carry no slave
State. We should support him as our Repre-
sentatives supported Mr.. Banks, for the very
reasons for which the slave States oppose him.
This charge of sectionalism is two-edged
sword. If the union of the North is mad and
dangerous, how will Mr.. Fillmore characterize
the union of the South? Does it commend Mr..
Buchanan to our favor, that the vote of every
single slave State is relied upon in his ia
vor?
On the 3lst of July, 1856, the Washington
Union, the central organ of the Buchanan
party, made the following announcement
With the l2O votes from the South, which
Mr.. Buchanan is sure of, and the q of Penn.
sylvania, it needs only two votes to elect him.
1t the South may combine to elect a candi-
date in favor of the extension of Slavery may
not the North unite in electing candidate in
opposition to it? Are the advantages of union
and concert to be the exclusive monopolies of
a bad cause? If the pending Presidential con.
test has assumed the aspect of sectional strug-
gle, upon whom rests the blame, and which side
of the contest ought we, men of the North, to
spouse? Shall we 60 with the South, which
has provoked the contest by setting up new
and odious tests, or shall we stand by our own
people, our own kith and kindred, and our own
institutions? With the blood yet fresh upon
the soil of Kansas, Of our brethren slain by the
minions of slaveholding tyrants, shall we ask
permission of Virginia and South Carolina to
elect the man of our own choice to the Pres.
idency? Is nobody to enter the White House,
unless endorsed by the South? Is the support
of the free States to be fatal disqualification
for office and honors? So it has been for long,
but so is it not now, and so win it never be
again. The charm of Southern invincibility
was broken forever, on the day and hour when
N. P. Banks assembled to the Speakers Chair
The volume of slaveholding domination was
then closed. A new era then dawned, which
will ripen into perfect day, when John c. Ere
mont, bearing the hopes of the nation, and
backed by exulting and resstless millions, shall
restore the lustre Of the Presidential office and,
casting the false gods of modern idolatry to the
moles and to the bats, shall bring back again
the true and ancient worship of Republican
Liberty.