Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-04-21
MONDAY, APRIL 81, 1855.
Campaign speech of Oh. $. A. smith

seutatives, upon the State Of Political
Parties" We take it for granted that
'his effort Of the honorable gentleman was
q. made or the edifcation of member of
the House, but for circulation in Tennessee
as a campaign document. Viewed in this
light, we think Mr.. SMITH has put himself
to unnecessary trouble. He has used but
few arguments, or stated but few facts.
which have not already been laid before
-a. eoplc Of Tennessee by the Union and
.taaerioan. Indeed, did we not know that
our neighbor has not been away from home,
we should suspect that he had been to
Washington, and by one of those feats Of
dexterity for which he is 50 remarkable,
transformed himself into the image of the
Representative from the third congressional
district, and harangued the House, tickled
the while almost to DEATH" with the fan
Of the counterfeit. SAM has evidently
profted by his reading of the State organ,
and displayed perhaps some taste in the
selection of his arguments, but whilst his
taste is TO be commended, what must be
said of his claims to originality? They
have heretofore been readily admitted; but
has he not now sadly damaged them?
There are some points in this speech
which, if Mr. SMITH had read the Patriot as
closely as he read the Union and American,
he would not have made For instance,
he would not have reiterated the charge
that Gen. ZoIICoFFER had said the Feb
ruary platform had "a good deal of YER
biage about it," We had nailed that error.
Neither would he have denominated the
Gazette 'the organ of the party in my
(his) State, established as such by the
State Council" In response to a similar
statement 10y the Union and Ameyzcan, we
had on the 22d of February, said that if
the party had an accredited organ we were
not aware of it, and on the 25th of Feb
ruary called attention to the following
paragraph from the Gazette in reply:
We reittrate the sentiment OF the Patriot,
it 'he American party OF Tennessee have an
'otficIa or accredited organ, we are not
saare # ine tact"
Again: If the honorable gentleman had
not confined his reading to the Unjon and
american, he could have escaped the neces-
sity ofresorting to this diScreditable dodge
which We find on page 18th of his speech: |
The Council abolished the platform OF June, and |
established instead Of il another Platform in which
the word SidueTy is not mentioned. But twelve /
months sgo, the delegates from Tennessee and |
IRON Other Southern States iusis ed inserting in |
the platform that Congress should not legisAte so |
70 prohibit slavery in the Territories. On the |
22d OF February last those delegates marched up
snd abolished that platform, substituting for it /
nothing except simple declaration that all laws |
passed by Congress ought TO be- respected and car
RED "ut until spenled or declared null and void by .
'h' judiciary OF the country. short time ago .
hes" gent !emeI were not willing 20 nominate a
'abddate, act party in convention, without /
declaring openly that Congress had no power TO |
legslate on the subject OF slavery. They now
tsmel, submit TO be over ridden by their northern |
allies, TO have stricken from their platform all prin
ciplr in relation to this vitality important question,
and, in the common acceptation of the term, TO !
ignore III. question Of slavery.
Mr. II. Marshall ask the gentleman if he |
thinks that the seventh section OF the platform
adopted at Philadelphia by the last American Com
vsnton, ignores the question OF slsveryi
Mr.. Smith. take neither the seventh section /
nor any other section OF the platform. ! take the |
fact that the CouEc itself dad ignore the question
81 slavery, Hnd did not refer TO 1t in their platform
in any shape, form or manner. They aboli he'd the
platform Of June, 1855; aud the reason Why they
abolished IL, ~ shown in the debate, 20 get rid
Of he lanelT md tha
uf slavery
Mr.. SMITH knows that the American
platform does not ignore the slavery qucs-
tion-he knows that the 18th section COW
ers that question: hence his dodge when
Intercepted by Mr.. MARSHAL. If he
had read the articles OF the Banner in
;a'or Of ignoring the slavery question, as
4 party test he would have learned that
getting rid Of the 18th section was not the
way proposed TO effect that object That
journal took the ground that the 18Th seoti0n
It,eif igHored the sLarery question. How,
then, could the National Council ignore the
slavery question by not re-adopting the
18th section ?
Mr.. SMITH, in stating that the slavery |
question WIS ignored because the platform
hoes not refer in terms to it, is guilty of an
"a. apt to impose upon those not skilled in .
the use of phrases, who may read his |
speech. But moment after he made the |
statement, Mr.. MARSHALL put him the fol-
lowing interrogatory:
81 would ask the gentleman if he consid-
err That it is necessary to use the word
Slarsyy in order not to ignore itg
In reply, Mr.. SMITH said Il do not"
Ia this response, he admits that to take
sound position on the subject Of slavery
it is not necessary to mention the subject in
terms For illustration: He might say he
recognized the right Of the people of
territory to form aud regulate their domes.
tic Institutions subject only to the provis-
ions of the Federal Constitution. In this
sentence, the words slavery, slavery ques-
ton. or subject of slavery, are not used
Does it, therefore, ignore the question Of
slavery BY no means On the contrary
il asserts the true constitutional doctrine on
he subject Of slavery-the doctrine which +
Mr.. SMITH, and our neighbor of the Uniga
and imeric n, regard as the test Of demo
cratic solnlness everywhere" Well, this
doctrine B, precisely what the American