Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1856-03-25
From the Washington Union

TO TIE AMERICAN PARTY SOUTH.
1t necessary for the rank and file of the Amer
lean party South TO consult together in regard to the
PLATFORM adopted by the national council at its
called session, and the candidates placed upon q by
the national convention.
The 18th article Of the platform of June, 1885, an
nounced these four propositions as the deliberate
sense of the American party:
lst. That the existing laws on the subject ofslavery
ought to be abded by and maintained, as Il final
settlement of the whole matter, III spirit and sub
stance and that there ought to he no further legis
lation by Congress on the subject.
2d. That, whether it possesses the pomrr or not,
Congress ought not to legislate the subject Of sa-
very in the Territories.
Sd. That it would be violation OF the compact
between the United States and MARYLAND, and con.
trary to good faith, to abolish slavery in the District
OF Columbia
18th. That when new ,Srate presents herself for
admission into the Union she has right to come in
if her constitution il republican and she hus the re-
quise population, whether that constitution recogni
ses or prohibits slavery.
II WAS very general feeling at the South that we
yielded something too much in ''preterrntting an
expression Of opinion az to the orer Of Congress to
pgislate in regard to slavery in the Terri!ories.-
In Of the southern States the State councils made
platforms stronger on this point than the national one.
None made them weaker.
But in framing that platform we were not making
one for the South alone, but that Northern con
servatvc men could safely stand and It was right
that we should not ask them 10 declare one opinion
as the power of Congress, while they entertained
another dametrically opposite; If they would agree
that Congress Ought NOT TO exercise the power even
if it has il.
The June platform does not declare that Congress
ouyh, to do Any affirmative act about slavery, bm
oniv Mot II owghtto do nothing.
No Southern American, once having planted hls
feet upon that PLATFORM step of from to anoh
without deserved risk of political ruin and annh.
atiun.
No Southern man ought to abandon, or can safely
abandon, any of the four propositions. Ii he does'
the South ought 20 and will abandon him.
The national council, meeting on the call Of States
which had repudiated the June platform, was Assem-
bled in February for the purpose OF repeating the 2th
article. The Northern men took control of 1t at the
beginning, upon the wrong basis ot representations
and kept thar control.
The 18th article, with all the rect Of the PLATFORM
was struck out, uad new one substituted.
That new platform declares that the people OF
territory have right frame their constitution
and laws when aid regulate their own social and
domestic affairs but the word s'nge'y is carefully
avoided and it comedies them not the right, but the
PRIVILEGE, of admission into the Union when they
have the requisite population.
II certainly gives up tie three FIRST propositions of
the 18th article and it rars the 18th that it amounts
to little nothing.
The lst proposition the chief one Of the 18th
article. The South imperativ.Y demands that the
agitation OF the subject Of slavery in Congress shall
cease aud especially that it shall longer legislate
on that subject in the Territories.
The South demands, and has right to demand, IN
evsry pla;ior1n democratic whig or Amhrican SpciGc
Language on the subject Of slavery 1t does not want
to be told that laws cotnt'onaNy enacted are to be
ubeyed until repealed decided null by judicial su.
horty. 1t does not want to be told that new State
shall have the prtutege Of admission. 1t is tired of
antiquities and sick OF gencrats; and, as the mat
ter now Glands, when recainIs his slave vt the
risk of his life, ard at ten times the expenac OF the
slave-when clergyu!en preach sedltion, and states
pass personal---very. acts-ambiguities and gene
,krb..u
South.
And such fraud is any platform that studously
omits the word sdvery and roundabout phrases,
TO aro'd expressing plain ideas.
Ii the platform is the same in substance "a the
old. why the changel III is not, the South has no
use for il.
The new platform leaves the northern men who
stand upon perfectly free 10 agitate against the f-
gitive slave law, for the abolition of slavery IN the
Djstric for suppressng the trade in slaves between
different States and for the restoration af the Missouri
Compromise aud it speciality denouuces the repeal oi
that compromise ny denouncing the President Tor
abettiug it.
1 do not envy the Southern man who undertakes
to defend tho new platform after standing on the
old one.
i was member Of the National Council both in
j une and in February In June desired at FIRST to
exclude the question Of slavery from the PLATFORM de-
and not unless c0uld denOuuce, in doing
so the men of the party in Massachusetts. and else
where in the North, who had declared anti-savery to
be part of the National American creed. as having
done wthou, authority, and perverted and pros
tituted the organization to improper purposes.
Met by uuan!TpSs receive on The part oi the
Northern members 10 have declaration that the
Missouri Compromise ought to be restored, aided IN
establishing the 10Th article Once upon it, and
aeening it eminenty right in principle it became i'm
posslble for to abandon it, or consent to its modi
nc"t,on When it wac struck out, withdrew from
we Council, and destroyed my credentials rs dele
SSea ~ ~, ,ne nominating Convention, in which re-
ipseu ip 10 take my seat.
,n Inc ,sn AMERICAN party South cannot stand on the
ICY Pa't,1'h IL must necessarily repudiate it. On
IL u "oula not carry single county anywhere.
S"lu n tnat the men nominated are platform
enough lhat H"sht be 3d. If We had no platform: if
tneY were o" hp platform; if we had never had
platform.
1t is said that the new platform ia subs,a,,;, ,ho
same as the old one. Then how cnme II :" ~ tne ns
fered By free soler from llinoa, who declared sf.
ter it was adopted, that he would vote for the nS.
sion Of no State permitting slavery If tIis sus sn;s.
II is not substantially tho same 1t was f,auoJ
in Washington, to get rid OF the 18th article II was
offered and Gaostsd for that purpose in Philadelphia
yteids up ali that we fought for and gained the June
before.
Aud now As to the candidates. That may not be
lot me say that was aI1ays WhiS
until Joined the American party. was support
er of Mr Fillmors's administration. was iudig-
rant when he was thrown aside for General Scott
What thought of him then think now.
But when we formed the American party, we a.
sured our Democratic friends who iniaed Us that it
was not meant to be the Whig party in Disguise
They joined rs in that belief On my motion my
State counc declared that the nomDee for President
ought 10 be Northern man whose antsoedsnts had
been Democratic. WAS playing fairly.
The old Wing organizations are reviving all over
the country. The old Wing committees aud clubs
sre alive and astir again. Our Deue:ratio brethren
will say that we have deceived them and that it is
he old Whig party in disguise. ! think that it was
10t fit aud proper to nomipate man who bad been