The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1856-09-23
CHARLOTTE, Sept. 10, 1856.

CHARLOTTE, Sept. 10, 1856.
| Wessrs J. White, and others:
! GENTLEMEN: | had prescribed to myself
a course of entire inaction In the present
| political canvass, from which l hoped that
no circumstances would make it my duty
to depart But, / have received various
letters from personal and political friends
besides yours, so urgent on the subject that
| have felt it my duty to reply to them
! The answer which / make to yourselves
will suffice for all others.
| The condition of our country at this time
| finds no parallel i'll its former history. By
the consent of all persons it is admitted that
no danger half so serious ever threatened
its internal peace or its political institu-
tons. For the first time mighty effort is
being made to combine the free States in
solid union against the slave States, and
! by force of numbers under the forms of
! the Constitution to deprive them of their
equal rights to the common property, to
abolish slavery at the capital, and in every
thing essential to their dignity and welfare
to PROSTATE them before their oppressors.
| In this effort the most powerful motives of
action are united in Jealous cooperation.
Eloquence and sagacity, false philanthropy,
, and mistaken piety, ambition, hypocrisy and
! fraud aided and stimulated by foreign and do
mestic capital, are actively engaged to ac-
complish our ruin. Eminent statesmen from
all the great political parties have forgotten
thciro rdinary diferencesin pursuing COM
mon enmity to the South. In the mean time,
elections have taken place in three of the
non-slaveholding States, two of them here
tofore distinguished not only by tolerance
but liberality towards the South. In all Of
them abolition sentiments have not only
triumphed but have swept away all show of
opposition. The danger, therefore, is i'm
minent, that Mr.. Fremont will carry every
free State, and will come to the Presidency
by the votes of the free States given expli
city in hostility to the institutions of the
South. If an enemy were invading our
country, and threatening desolation upon
our fields and homes, this sensible danger
would give harmony to our feelings, mode
ration and prudence to our counsels, and
unity to our efforts, until the foe was repell-
ed and the danger over. The state of things
is like this only in part. The invasion of a
foreign foe might bring with it severe dis
aster, but it would be temporary, and our
country and its institutions, we might hope,
would survive it. But, we may be on the
e
our existing gOvernment-break up the
Union of the States, and involve us in the
crime and wretchedness of civil war. In
this state of things l confess have no SYM
pathy with the party chickering's, the crimina-
ton and recrimination, and all the forms of
political warfare which distracts our South
ern society. The sole question with me
has been, how is the threatening evil to be
obyiated! In its consideration l have en-
deavored to regard the subject with as much
calmness as l was able, without reference
to my own prepossessions and party attach
ments. If had regarded these, | should
have supported Mr.. Fillmore as cordially
as the warmest friend who now advocates
his election. have no fault to find with
the party under whose auspices he has
been nominated. Fer his personal charac-
ter l entertain the highest respect-and
believe that he would give US a fair and i'm
partial administration. but the Union of the
South believe absolutely indispensable to
the defeat of Mr.. Fremont, and that union,
if affected at all, can only be made in the
person of Mr.. Buchanan. Taking things
as we find them, the prepossessions of
large majority of the southern people are
Democratic, and nineteen-twentieths of
those in the South who are opposed to Mr..
Buchanan, agree with the following resolu-
ton of the Democratic platform:
"ReSoired, That we recognize the right
of the people of all the Territories including
Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the
fairly expressed will of a majority of actual
residents, and whenever the number of their
inhabitants justifes it, to form constitu-
ton with or without slavery, and be admit
ted into the Union upon terms of perfect
equality with the other States.''
Whatever objections there may be to
other doctrines avowed in this platform, this
resolution enunciates principle which eve
ry Southern man feels to be just and con-
stitutional; aud the only one on the great
subject to which it refers, in which the I'm
ion is safe. This is, conceive, the great |
question-distinetly presented, in the pres
emit canvass; and in comparison with it every |
other sinks into insignifcance. Suppose |
it to be adobted as fixed principle in our !
we imagine any question
which would dissolve or endanger the Union! i
If it is overborne and defeated at this time,
is it probable that any other opportunity
Fan occur by which it can be incorporated