Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1856-05-01

COruinB LO It's NliI. we lHstuuCe INC cape
riment before our eyes. Mr.. Pierce is al
candidate for reelection to the Presidency;
Mr. Douglas, Mr.. Cass, Mr.. Buchanan, are
Sspeful rivals; each have their partizans in
the different sections of the North; some
forty or fifty thousand office-holders anC de-
pendents on executive favor rely upon one
or the other of these to make them secure
IN their posts. II is known to all these peo-
pie that not one of The rivals can command
a majority oi the Northern vote against the
other; nor, indeed, against the opponent OF
any other party. Far either of them the
votes of the South decides the question OF
nomination.: and then the possbiltyof cleo
ton depends absolutely upon united South
ern support The Southern shareholders,
therefore, have the fate of all these seekers
of the Presidency, of the so-called Democra-
tic party, entirely in their hands.
And here we find in what consists that
which is now vaunted to be the Democratic
party par excellence. 1t is composed of the
office holders under the present Administra-
ton, headed by those chiefs who are looked
to continue them in office, through the unit
ed vote of the South, and the chance vote
of some Northern State obtained by plurali-
ty-the result of the division of their op-
ponents growing out of personal preferences
or party dissensions. The Democratic par
ty: which the Administration calls its own,
has no basis but the oigarchy OF the South
we might call it the BLACK oLIGARcHY,
returning to it the a2peliation which it is so
willing to give to others, because it most ap-
propriately belongs to itself. The leaders
of this party in the North have proved them
selves entirely worthy of its confidence by
abandoning every principle of Democracy,
once their buast. They have abandoned
the principles of the fathers of the Republic.
who considered it as the first attribute of
the new order of things established by the
Revolution, that it would arrest the spread
of slavery throughout the continent. 1t did
lead to its immediate extinction in many of
the States, and the first act under the Con-
stitution was TO exclude it from the who,e
territory of the Union. The Democratic
leaders of the new order, at the bidding OF
the Southern nuliifers, have broken all the
cempacts and compromises designed to estab-
lish Free Republics in the Territories from
which Slavery was excluded. In doing this
they have put under foot the representative
principle; defied the will of their immediate
constituents; on receiving instructions to
repeal their acts have refused to obey; and
in this have gwen the most striking example
of an utter abandonment of the cardinal
doctrine of democracy. The spread of lib
erty, not slavery, is its distinctive principle.
Il They have shown that the will of 347,-
600 slave owners in the South is more to
them than that of twenty millions of free
men in the North. The leaders of this
spurious Democracy are but the satraps OF
Southern masters.
), The fate which awaits a people afflicted
with a Democracy which grows up under
the government of slave owners, may be
seen in the testimony which we give in the
words Of the most distinguished men of thai
party, which W fnd collated in a pamphlet
by Mr.. Weston.
d Mr.. Sarver, of Missouri, in a paper or
"Domestic Manufactures in the South ant
West" published in lS47, says:
"Tne free population of the South may
: be divided into two classes-the Shareholder
and the non STAKEHOLDER. | am not aware
that the relative numbers of these two
5 classes have ever been ascertained in any o
; the States. but am satisfied that the non
shareholders far ou number the Shareholder:
t perhaps by three to one. In the more
: Southern portion of this region the non
t shareholders possess, generally, but yer,
t small means, and the land which they pos
sess is almost universally poor, and so sterile
: that stanty subsistence is all that can bt
derived from its cultivation; and the NOR,
: fertile soil being in possession Of the slave
holder, must ever remain out of the powe
of those who have none.
e ''This state of things is great draw back
and bears heavily upon and depresses th,
moral energies of the poorer classes.
The acquisition of a respectable
e position iL the scale o. wealth appears so di:
Z ficult, that they decline the hopeless pursui
and many OF them settle down into habit
o! idlenesS, and become the almost passiv,
e subjects of all its consequences. And
, lament to say that have observed of latt
years thst an evident deteri ,ration is takin,
place in ,this part of the population, th
l., younger portion of it being less educated
' les industrious, and in every point of view
less respectable than their ancestors"
In the January number, 1851, of De Bop'
t Rerier, in an article on "Manufactures i,
II South Carolina" we have an exhibition O
b the fears entertained of bringing togethe
: q masses of non-slayeholding Southern whit
$, population even for manufacturing purposes
$50 long as those poor but industriou
u people could see no mode Of living excep
!, by degrading operation of work with tn
negre upon the plantation, they were con
n tent to endure life in its most discouraoin
II forms, satisfied that they were aboue tn
|. !, slave, though faring often worse than he
e But the progress of the world is sonward
&c ard though in some sections it is slow. sti
is it is 'onWard,' and the great mass of ou
a a poor white population begin to understan
5 that they have rights, and that they, too, ar
10 entitled to scme of the sympathy which fall
e upon the suffering. They are fast learnn
th"S thSiS 10 dliilcSt lililnlIe WOriu OF IN
r. dustry opening before them, by which the
/. can elevate themselves and their familie
t; from wretchedness and ignorance to com
!, Petence and intelligence His this area
" HPhcauin9 Of our masses that ue haze to fea
r so far as our Institutions are concerned.;'
J. William Gregg, ESQ.,, in an address be
'' fore the South Carolina Institute in IT'S
II upon manufactures, remarks:
G. 'From the best estimates | have bee
g. able to make, I put down The white peopl
ID who ought to work, and who do not, or VIII
- = are so employed as to be entirely unpro
ductive to the State, at one hundred an
&c twenty-five thousand. By this
appears that bat one-fifth o. the present DOC
'gg Whites of our State would be necessary I
e. operate 100000 spindles. Th
d appropriation annually made by our Legisla
u ;ure for our school Fund, every one must b
- - aware so far as the country is concerned
, | has been little better than waste of mo,