The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-10-10
sECTJONAIIsM VS.. NATIONAusM

SECTIONALISM VS.. NATIONALISM,
The Democracy aver that there are two
sectional candidates for the Presidency in the
present campaign. Every body knows that
Fremont is out and out Of the North, North
ern. The friends of Buchanan IN the South,
have from the beginning of the canvass insis-
ted that Buchanan was out and out of the
South, Southern. They have repudated the
idea of his being any other thing than the
candidate of the South. According 10 their
showing, he knows no North, 70 East, no
West. These regions of our land extend.
ing over considerable surface, geographical
ly considered, are beyond the ken Of his po.
litical regard. If we are to believe them, his
most ardent affections, which, for long years
at least, have had no natural channel in which
to run, have entirely been concentrated upon
the South and her institution of slavery, that
having no "lawfu heir" upon which to lavish
that fondness which is portion of his ma
ture, he has adopted the South us n substitute
upon which he is to bestow his doatng. We
are led to infer that if he loses the South,
like that English monarch 1--WE forget his
name) who lost his son at sea, he would
"never smile again." Unless, indeed, in n fg-
urative sense, over that favorite Monongahela,
which he is said nowadays to dispense with
open doors and a liberal hand.
The only question is, will the South be
adopted! The old sage of Wheatland comes
pleading through his friends with lugubrious
countenance and u mendcant voice, that he
loves the South, her institutions, her people,
her land, but above all, her niggers; that il
there is one object nearer to his heart than
another, II is the extension Of the South, and
the increase of slavery.
1t is true that in former days he may have
denounced all these things, and especially
slavery and its extension, and that, too, when
its sun o: life had long passed its meridian,
and all the Judgment he ever had was in its
maturity. Now, however, say his beggar
friends, the nomination for the Presidency
has removed all the scales from his eyes; he
sees that the bantling of anti.slavery, which
had been the child of his adoption, with that
ingratitude which has become proverb, has
slipped from under his protection, and gone
to be petted by Fremont. The South is the
only hope of his declining years, they whine;
If it will not come under his wing his grey
hairs will go down in sorrow 10 political
grave. He has been repudiated at the North
and the East and the West, and he will be
equally repudated by the South, unless the
experience the South has had OF the North
ern Democrats, goes for nothing in their
choice; unless they are willing again and
again to be dupes and victims Of the same
system Of deception and fraud-of falsehood
and Misrepresentation. In the South, since
they have been a party, every candidate they
ever had has been lauded to the skies for his
Southern sentiments and his Southern feel
ings. In the North, the same candidate, by
the same party, has always been upheld and
eulogised because of his Northern sentiments
and Northern feelings, until all honorable,
rejecting men have become disgusted with
the base repetition.
Where are honest men, who love the Union
and respect the Constitution, to look in this
day of sectionalism! They cannot look to
Fremont without sickening sense of disrup-
ton which may follow his election. They
cannot look TO Buchanan, because he Is the
great "Repudiated Of the people," and be.
cause, il the statements and pleading of his
friends Of the South be true, he is purely sec.
tional, and would, even ifthere was shadow
Of prospect for his election, be no represen-
talive Of the nation.
There is one man, true, tried and faithful,
WHO HAS sLOou NJ inc DeIin III times OF Storm
and danger, and who already has received the
plaudits Of the whole people Of tie land, for
the services he rendered, and the honorable
duties he ably discharged; man who is ma
tional and not sectonal-one who can look
throughout the broad limits of the Union,
and say that he knows and that he loves il all;
that If he is called to administer the govern
ment, he will administer ii for the whole, and
not for a part; who dare TO say in the North,
what is true in the South, and who would ra-
ther be right than be President. He begsn
vote BY subserviency to sectional prejudice;
he seeks to secure no support by appeals to
North or South. But standing forth rs the
candidate of the whole people, by the truth
and honor and courage he has ever shown,
no less than by his outspoken declarations,
that he will well and truly discharge the du-
ties of his office, be faithful to the Constitu-
ton and the Union. We need not name him.
His name is on the lips and in the heart of
every patriot and lover of his country, and
written on the history of that country in
characters of gold.-Richmond Wing.