The Feliciana Democrat. (Clinton, La.) 1855-186?, 1856-04-05
Tbe felitiana 1en,otrat.
ADDRESS FOM HON. ALBERT PIKE

al Council at its called session. and the cond.
dates placed on it by the national convention.
The 18th article of the platform OF June.
1853, announced these four propositions as the
deliberate sense Of the American party:
LIST. That the existing laws Oh the subject
OF slavery ought to be abided by and maintain
ed, rs final settlement of the whole matter
in spirit and substance; and that there oupht
to be no further legislation by Congress Oh
the subject
"a. That, whether it possesses tln po,cer or
not, Congress ought not to lcgisatc on the
subject Of slavery in the Territories
I'd. That it would be violation of the com
pact between the United States and MARYLAND,
and contrary to good faith, to abolish slavery
in the District of Columbia.
4th That when new State presents herself
for admission into the Union, she has a right
to come in if her constitution is republican. g.
she has the requisite population, whether tlnt
constitution recognizes or prohibits slavery
1t was very general feeling at the South
that we yielded something too much in 'pre.
permitting an expression of opinion as to the
power OF Congress to lcgslatc in regard to
slavery IN the Territories. In most of the
Southern States the State Councils made plat
forms stronger on this point than the national
one. None made them weaker.
But IN framing that platform We were not
making one Tor the south alone, but one that
northern conservative men could safely stand
on; and 1t was right that we should not ask
them 70 declare one opinion as to the power of
Congress, while they entertained another dia.
metrlcaly opposite; if they would agree that
Congress ought not to exercise the power
even if it has it.
The June platform does not declare that
Congress ought to do any affirmative act abonf
slavery but only that it odght to do nothing
No southern American, once having planted
his feet on that platform, can step off from it
to another without deserved risk of political
ruin and humiliation.
No southern man ought to abandon or can
safely abandon, any one of the four proposi
tons. If he does, the south ought TO, and
will abandon him.
The National Council, meeting on the call
Of States which had rcpudiated the June plat
form, was assembled in February for the bur.
pose of repeating the 18th article The north
crn men took control of it at the beginning
upon the wrong basis Of representation, and
kept that control
The 18th article, with all the rest of Tie
stituted
That new platform declares that the people
of q Territory have the right to frame their
own constitution and laws [when?l and rern.
late their own social and domestic affairs: but
the word slavery is carefully avoided: and it
comedies thcm not the right, but the privilege
of admission into the Union when they have
the requisite population
II u1v ,riy tbo a. e.,
sitons Of the 18th article, and it waters the
4th, so that it amounts to little or nothing.
The first proposition was the chief one of
tho ] 9th article. The south mpcratiycly de-
mands that the agitation of the subject oil
slavery in Congress shall cease, and especially
that it shall no longer lcgislate on that sub
jcct in the Territories.
The south demands, and has rieM to de-
mand, in every platform, Democratic, Wing,
or American, specific language on the subject
OF slavery. 1t does not want to be told that
laws constitutionally enacted are to be obeycd
until repealed or decided null by judicial au-
thority. 1t does not want to be told that
new State shall have the pririlege of admission
1t is tired Of antiquities, and sick of gencra-
ties; and rs the matter now stands, when
man reclaims his slave at the risk of his life
ana ~ ten tiines the expense oil the slave =
when cergymen preach sedtion, and States
pass personal---very. acts--ambiguti and
gcncralitics are mere transparent cheat and
fraud on the south.
And such fraud is any platform that stu
diously omits the word slarery, and uses round
about phrases, crcnlnlocutions, to avoid en-
pressing plain ideas.
If the nep platform is the same in suba"nc.
as the old, why the change? If it is not, the
south has no use for it.
The new platform leaves the Northern men
who stand upon it perfectly free to agitate
against the fugitve-slavc law, for the abolition
OF slavery in the District for suppressing the
trade in slaves between different States, and
for the restoration of the Missouri Compro-
mise; and it speciaHy dcnounces the repeal of
that compromise by dcnouncng the President
for abetting it,
90 not envy the southern man who I'M
dertakes to defend the new platform after once
standing on the old one.
| was member of the National Council
both in June and in February In June II
desired at first to exclude the question of
slavery from the platform, denouncing, and