Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-03-26
NASHVILLE:
WEDNESDAY, MARCH &c, 1855.
ucr. Fillmore, and Maj. OoneIson.

we're things about Mr.. FILLMORE and his ad-
ministration. This is not to be wondered
at nor does it involve Mr.. DoNELsoN in the
slightest inconsistency. He honestly belle
we'd, at that time, that the Democratic par
ty could be relied on TO rescue the Consti-
tuition from the danger threatening it in
consequence of the intrigues of the Adolf
tionists and Nullfiers; and it is admitted
by his worst enemies, that no newspaper
writer ever presented more powerful argu-
ments to political party. But time soon
proved to Mr.. Donelson that he was mis-
taken. 1t is true that bis labors gave
strength, for time, to such men as Dick
inson, Cobb and Foote; but the combined
action of the higher-law men, North and
South, soon rallied and brought into the
Presidency a man who scattered the Union
Democracy to the four winds. The same
combination also broke down Messrs. Fill
more and Webster, giving the same power
to Mr.. SewaLd at the North, which it had
done to Messrs. Davis, Cheves and Others
at the South.
What ought Mr.. DoneIson to have done
under these circumstances? What did pat
riotism demand of him? Why, exactly
what he did do-that is to acknowledge the
truth, and declare Mr. Pierce traitor, as
he certainly was, to his promise to stand by
the old doctrines Of Jackson on the subject
of notification and secession, and to unite
with Mr. Fillmore, and other Union-loving
men, in vigorous effort to extinguish the
fire-brand lighted by such dangerous men
as Seward, Rhett and CheveS.
Those who will examine the editorial
course Of Mr.. Donelson, will see at once
that what he said of Mr.. Fillmore, as the
President Of party holding communion
with such men as Seward, was in no degree
Inconsistent with the platform of the Ameri-
can Party, but is, on the contrary, a fore
shadowing of the necessity for the forma-
ton of such party.
Mr.. Fillmore was exactly in the same
situation that Mr. DOnelSOn was. Each
hoped to attain the same result-the cessa-
ton of slavery agitation, through the ex-
iSting organizations Of their respective par
ties Each had to abandon the hope, and,
without line Of correspondence on the
subject, each came together on platform
founded on the necessity for taking power
out of the hands Of those ultraistS who had
nsed it to form geographical parties, and
array one section of the Union against
the other.
This fact will strike every one who may
have the opportunity to read the articles of
the Washington Union, when under the con-
troll of Mr. DonelsOn, and from which
Messrs Nicholson and Forney are garbling
extracts. In the very article to which they
refer, for the purpose of disparaging Mr..
Fillmore, is the following paragraph in vim
dication of the Union Democracy:
"If there be sectional dangers-if there be
a political, anti slavery power commanding
enough 20 be feared, it will never send them
any other mediator than its doctrines, rs re
! ceived from Washington, Jefferson, and Jack
son. Within their genial and cheering nfu
ence, all the States, and all the people Of the
States, are considered as equals, each and all
entitled to the same rights and privileges, and
none to be prescribed for being what they were
| when they achieved their independence and
formed their united government. According
10 these doctrines the freeman of the South is
not the less a man because he has slave prop
erty, nor is the freeman of the North more
than man because he prefers different des
criptiOu Of property. According 10 these doc
trines, the Incorporation of territory into our
Union, ii constitutional when it is without
slavery, does not become unconstitutional with
slavery. The fraternity, the unity, the glory,
and the power of our system, do not depend
on such a fact. These blessings depend, if those
doctrines are true, on the faithful observance
of the articles of compact, and in limiting the
Federal Government to the simple objects
which led to its erectiOn-nOt in employing
its agency to set a mark of dishonOr upon one
portion of the people, because they have slaves
and of honor upon another, because, IN the dis
pensttion of Providence, they are without
them"
This was Mr.. Donelson's position as a
Union Democrat. This is now his position
as member of the American Party. When
he was indicating this position, the editor
Of the UnioH and american was denouncing
the Compromise as a base surrender Of
Southern rights, and Mr. Seward was de-
nouncing it as a violation of the higher law
Of the North.
Mr.. Donelson was right then, he is right
now-and will be found to be right when
the people come to the polls. He and Fill
more come together actuated by the same
motives of patriotism. They stand united
on the old platform of Washington aud Jef
ferSon Their opponents, JEFF Davis, Seward
and Chase, stand on the old platform of the
Hartford Convention, claiming the right of
the State to nullify and secede at pleasure.
With the one platform, our Union, in the
language of Jackson, will be preserved f;
with the other platform, we shall have a
Northern aud Southern Confederacy, civil
war aud blood-Shed. With the one plat
form, we shall revive tie old doctrines and
maxims of Washington; with the other, We
shall realize the folly Of Mr.. Calhouu's at
tempt to have one President for the North
and one for the South, each armed with a
veto power on the acts of Congress
W. 80 ,,ct l;s,,l,,s,1 thor M Nichol