The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1856-03-25
KNOW NOTHING TESTIMONY


was one of IL u4o-t prominent members
lie was conspicuous politician of the late
Wig PARTY. aIrl more recently has acquir-
ed fame as an active member of the Know
Nothing party. OF course, testimony
from such source canu"t be set down
a. Democratic falschood. We invite the
attention of the Know Nothing party TO hiE
statements, found below. His communica-
zion appears in the Washington Union
from which we take the concluding part
Mr.. Pike says:
1.-The national council. meeting on the call
of States which lad rcpudiatcd the June
platform, was assembled in February for
the purpose Of repeating the 18th article,
The Northern men took control of it at the
beginning, upon the wrong basis of repre-
sentution, and kept that control.
The 18TH article, with all the rest of the
platform, waS struck out, and a new one
substituted.
Thatnew platform declares that the people
of a territory have right to frame their
own constitution and laws when ! and
regulate their Own social and domestic af
fairs; but the word SiGrery is carefully
avoided; and it comedies them, not the right,
but the PRIVILEGE, of admission into the
Union when they have the requisite popu-
latiOn.
Itcertainly gives up the three first PROPOSE
fions of the 18th article, and it ,rdters the
18th so that it amounts to little or nothing.
The LIST proposition was the chief one of
the 18th article. The South imperativcly
demands that the agitation of the subject of
slavery in Congress shall cease, ana es-
pecially that it shall no longer legislate on
that subject in the Territories.
The South demands, and has a right to
demand, in every platform, democratic,
wing or American, specific language on the
subject of slavery. 1t does not want to be
told that laws cORstitati0HaiLy enacted are
TO be obeyed until repealed or decided null
by judicial authority. 1t does not want to
be told that new State shall have the
priUiLege of admission. 1t is tired of am
biguities, and sick of geueralitics; and, as
the matter now stands, when man rcclaims
his slave at the risk of his life, and at ten
times the expense of the slave-when clergy
men preach seditiOn, and States pass per-
sonal-libcrty acts-ambiguities and gene
ralities are mere transparent cheat aud
fraud on the South.
And such fraud is any platform that
stndiously onits the word siarery, and uses
roundabout phrases, eircumlOcutiOns, to
nroid expressing plain ideas.
If the ne,o platform is the same ia sub
stance as the old, why the change! If it is
not, the South has no use for it.
The new platform leaves the northern men
who stand upon it perfectly free to agitate
against the fugitive slave law. for the aboli
ton of slavery in the District, for suppress
ing the trade in slaves between different
States, and for the restoration of the Missouri
Compromise; and it specially denounces the
repeal of that compromise by denouncing
the President for abetting it.
l do not envy the Southern man who un-
dertakes TO defend the new platform after
once standing on the old one.
was member of the National Council
both in June and in February. In June 1
desired at first to exclude the question of
slavery from the platform, denouncing, and
not unless l could denoumce, in doing so,
the men of the party i'll Massachusetts,, and
elsewhere In the North, who had declared
anti-slavery to be part of the National
L
authority, and so perverted and prostituted
the organization to improper purposes.
Met by unanimous resolve ON the part
of the Northern members to have q declara-
tion that the Missouri Compromise ought to
be restored, aided in establishing the 10Th
article. Once upon it, and deeming it
eminently right in principle, it became I'M
possible for me to abandon it, or consent to
its modification. When it was struck out,
] Withdrew from the Council, and DESTROYED
nay credentials as delegate to the nomin-
ating Convention, in which refused to take
my seat
The American party South cannot stand
on the new platform. 1t must necessarily
Su IL, II would not carry q
single county anywhere.
1t is said that the men nominated are plat
form enough. That might be so, if we had
no platform; if they were on no platform;
if we had never had a platform.
1t is said that the new platform is sub
StGRh0ity the same as the old one. Then
how came it to be offered by free soiler
from Illinois, who declared after it was
adopted, that he would vote for the admis-
sion of no State permitting slavery If this
suits him, it cannot srit me.
1t is not substantially the same. II was
framed in Washington, to get rid of the 10Th
article 1t was offered and adopted for that
purpose in Philadelphia; and we may as
well look it frankly in the face. 1t yieIds
up all that We fought for and gained the
June before.
And now as te the candidates. That
may not be misunderstood, let me saw that