Washington telegraph., 1856-05-21
THE FEBRUARY PLATFORM.

Convention in February last. The seventh
and eighth sections of this platform, refer
90 particularly to. and embody so complete
y, issues, which the South is called upon to
meet, that they demand. the careful. can
did and unprejudiced examination of every
man, whether he be professed friend of
the South, clamorous for granting every
man, alien, OF native. co-equal part in the
framing of the organic laws of the territory
seeking admission into the Union, as SOW
ereign State, or whether he be member of
the American party proper, whose judgment
convinced of the unreasonableness of the
granting Of such rights in so general sense,
has enlisted in the conflict of opinion, which
will not end until the presumptuous assumo-
tion of the alien who seeks and demands
this privilege is rebuked, and the policy,
the mad. fratricidal. selfish policy of the ma
tive who would grant such right, is subvert-
ed and numbered among the things which
were. For the advocate of the pernicious
heresy Of squatter sovereignty as expound-
ed and set forth by that class of spoilsmen
who recognize the emigrant from the despo-
tisms of the old world, imbued as he is
with a morbid longing for the realization of
some wild dream Of shackless freedom, as
the peer Of the man who is born under the
kindly influence of free institutions, cannot
fail to see. if he calmly investigate and pro-
perly reason, the utter fallacy of his posi-
tion;-and he who contends for the sensible
doctrine that to the sons of the soil belong
of right, the framing of the laws to which
they are to look for the beneficial results
which are to accrue from proper Legislation,
must, if he looks carefully to the causes
which rendered the incorporation of this
principle into the platform of the American
party necessity, and goes further, and COM
pares the results which must accrue from
the observance or non-observance of these
provisions, be confirmed in his belief. The
doctrine of squatter sovereignty, as enunei-
ated by its recognized exponents and de-
tenders declares that the foreign pauper, the
exported criminal, the immigrant. whether
voluntary or involuntary from the shores of
Europe, is the compeer in political as well
as in social rights with the native born
citizen the moment he touches the shores
of America. 1t may not do so in direct
terms. but it does SO in its practical ap-
plication. 1t does not need contrast
between the workings of this doctrine and
the reverse, to render apparent the danger
with which the supremacy of sucL opinions
is fraugh: to the safety of the republican
form of government A mere glance at
the objects sought to be attained by the
apostles of this false and Infamous creed,
might well suffice to make all men pause
and shudder at the contemplation of the in
evitable consequences of the permanent
engrafting of such system upon the gene
raj code. Our space limits US to mere cur
sorry glances at prominent points in whatev-
er We may be called upon to discuss. The
seventh section of the platform of the Am
erican party, recognizes fully all pre-ob-
tanned rights of whatever nature pertaining
to whomsoeyer may be interested The
American party seek il no way to inter-
fere with any vested rights-but impressed
with deep sense of the abuses which have
grown up already-which threaten to In
crease-which loom up in the future, por-
tending entire destruction to the perpetuity
of the Union, and the utter overthrow of
every right which either section possesses,
this party aims at the interposition of the
hand of constitutional power to check these
abuses and mitigate the evils which are
threatened. These evils lucidly set forth
in an article which we find in late num-
Der of that noble champion of the American
party-the Louisville Journal. We shall
take early occasion to reproduce it at length.
At present We can only quote detached por-
tions- The Journal says of foreign immi-
gration-its effects upon the South
"The effect of foreign immigration upon
the peculiar institutions of the South is a
subject for the gravest consideration of the
people of the Southern States. To the vast
number of foreigners yearly and monthly
and weekly and daily swarming into our
maritime ports to seek homes in our midst
may be justly attributed the constantly In
ereasing strength of the freesoil party. which
is now preparing practically to exclude
slavery from every foot of federal territory
outside of the District of Columbia, to hem
in the States in which slavery exists by a
Gordon of new States from which slavery
will be forever excluded. and ceaselessly to
keep up the agitation of the slavery ques-
ton by political parties, to the imminent
danger of a dissolution of the Union and
the destruction of our Republican institu-
tons"
And this is NO fancy sketch. There are