Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1856-03-27
MINORITY REPORT.

! The undersigned, members Of the Com
mittee on the State of the Order appointed
by the President of-the State Council, beg
leave to submit the following minority re-
port. ..-.
/ We recognize the National Council as the
paramount authority of the American Order,
and deem a refusal to support candidates
/ nominated by Convention assembled in
accordance with its rules virtual abandon
ment of our organization.
| The solemn obligations which the ma
jority of our Order took upon themselves,
at the height of the anti-s.avery excitement,
resulting from the passage of the Nebraska
Bill, to maintain, as pre- eminent in impor-
tance, the principles of the American Or
der, have not, in our opinion, lost any of
their force by the present juncture OF affairs
The question of slavery extension, is each
day losing the character Of an impending
danger, from the fact that the operation OF
the laws Of population and OF nature, rem.
der it impossible that any of the territory
of the United States viii! be subjected to
the evils of that institution. We therefore
can never consent to become absorbed by
a party which processes to have only that
one object, and which repudiates in one
locality, and ignores in another, the princi.
Piles of the American party.
We continue to maintain the opinion that
the restoration Of the Missouri Compromise
would be a proper vndication of nat tional
faith, and not inconsistent with tie rights
of either section, North or South; and if,
tho. issue is now mpractcabe, it has been
made so by the treacherous desertion of the
pretended devotees of freedom.
We cannot sanction the course of tha
portion of our delegates who seeded from
the American National Convention. nor can
we become parties to the constructing of
merely sectional organization, and there
fore recommend 70 the members of the
American Order, that they preserve it in
its full integrity and its entire nationality,
and support the nomination of Millard Fill |
more for President anG Andrew Jackson
Donelsop sor Vice President of the United
Stetes. Il. p. NORTON,
DAN MCFARLAND.
These reports were ordered to be printed,
evening. We cen have no know ledge of
the debate or course of proceeding, as the
body sat with closed doors. That the de-
bate was pointed we have a right 20 infer
from the nature OF the subject and from the
fact that the final vote was not taken until
after ten O'Clock. We learn on the street
the majority report was adopted by vote
Of l34 to 46 Wereupon the minority t.
the number OF some forty of the forty-six,
bolted the Convention and proceeded forth.
with to the City-Hall, where they were
joined by few outsiders and south siders,
determined to "save the Unon" once more!
How it was done, we have not haG the
curiosity to enquire.
The Friends OF Freedom, after the re-
tirement os the pro-Slavery squad, had a
good the generally, AMI after adopting the
resolutions which follow, ano listening to
several patriotic speeches--among which
we have heard that of Mr. Gibson highly
spoken of-thsy adjourned:
After the seceders had retired the Hon.
Mr.. GRIswoLD offered the follow ing resolu.
ion: I
Resolved, That in refusing to adop, the
platform and support the nominate mad.
n Philadelphia, we do not propose the
abandonment of our Organization or it's pris-
.iples, bu, that we withhold our approbs.
ion and our support from both, because
We believe that in the present crisis in the .
Ifairs Of the Nation, and in the presen, ,
,rest. and, as we hope final struggle be. /,
ween freedom. and slavery, between con.
,itutionai liberty, and civil aud ecclesias,i.
al despodsm, We would be false to the a
rinciples we profess aud to the claims of =.
humanity upon us, y, either BY supporting
sndidstss vhsss principles hasssa to be Y