Washington telegraph., 1856-09-24
To the People of the United States.

ccS which call Tor the appeal we make to
your most earnest attention. The times
appear to us startling and critical There
are aspects in the pending contest for the
Presidency, which are very unusual a,d
important We cannot, therefore, forbear
freely to communicate Some of our appre-
henSions,- before we separate here, and to
call upon you 1T nee to 10 k full in the
face any dangers which may seem to i'm
pend over the greatest popular government
on earth.
Two of the political parties in the coun-
try have pitched Presidential battle upon
sectional issues, and of 50 fearful "a char
acter as to stir the deepest passions of the
American people. Though III seeming
conflict, it cannot be disguised, that those
parties have in such sort co-operated as to
press upon the country one exciting issue
after another, until, by dint of continued
evaporation, they have nearly succeeded
in arraying, in hostile columns, one-halt
OF the States of the Union against the 9TH
er. They appear mutually to have employ
ed all the energies of party power to en-
gender sectional distrust, prejudice, and
elimination, and now, for the first time in
the history of the government, we find
truly formidable party, fully organized, and
using every effort in their power to COM
bine the ncn-slaveholding against tie slave
holding States of the Union, in struggle
for the Executive power of the Coniedera-
cy. In that organization are included men
who are supposed to be conservative and
national, but who are believed to be led.
By excitement or misconceptions, into move
ments which, in their cooler moments, they
cannot but recoil from, as they would from
pestilence and famine
Its management has been essentially con-
trolled by leaders who, under all circun-
stances, have steadily kept up an active,
unceasing, and implacable warfare upon the
institutions of the slave-holding States
Should such a party unfortunately succeed,
in the present distracted state of the public
mind, in electing a sectional President,
supported alone by the voters of the non
slave-holding States, we have too much
reason to aPprehend that there might in
stantly spring into existence movement
of resistance, the consequence of which no
human wisdom can foresee, and no lover
of his country or friend of popular govern
ment anywhere could fail, in all coming
time, sadly to depiore-
We do not believe they can succeed,
but we may be really threading upon the
brink of volcano, that is liable, at any
moment, te burst forth and ovcrwhelm the
nation"
But the Republican party is not alone
responsible for'those appalling issues, nor
is its success the only danger to the stabil-
ity Of the Government in its present form
The Democratic party has eagerly and
rashly seized upon these momentous issues.
and welded them as the thunder-bolts of
party warfare. They have striven to mad
den the South, and to concentrate South
ern votes upon their candidates, as the Alb
olltionists have striven to madden the
North and to concentrate Northern votes
upon their candidates
When their extreme measures are resis-
ted they taunt national men, in the South.
as ''submissionists, or worse than submis-
sionists, as the Abolitionists taunt national
men in the North as dough faces,'' or
worse than dough- faces
They have apparently struggled to bring
about the formation OF geographical parties,
such as the Father of Country SO emphati-
cally warned Us against, based upon ques-
tions Immediately II tending to split the I'm
ion asunder; and the have seemingly
dcne this for the petty purpose of securing
u temporary party triumph The Union,
IN form at least, We think, would survive
the success of such party for the present.
but its triumph would probably keep the
furnaces of sectional passion red hot, and
ultimately, and it may be at no distant day
its rash4errors would engender storm of
sectional conflict beneath which the gov
erGment would tumble into ruins. We
think, they, too, will fail.
But we believe the time has come when
the common safety requires that the rag
ing sectional heats of those parties should
be cooled. The time has come when ma
tional conservative men, respecting the
Constitution. true to their whole country.
and indignantly frowning upon the first
dawning of disunion," should stand shoul-
der to shoulder, and unite in placing at the
head of the government Chief Magistrate
in whose capacity, honesty and patriotism
all could confide. The National American
party have now presented such man-one
who has been tried and found faithful to
every trust-who, being suddenly called
upon to take the helm of government, at a
time when the heavens were lurid with the
angry tempest of 1S49-'50, so successfully
rode out that storm, so faithfully and gal
lantly secured the safety of the noble ship
of State, as to win from an admiring peo-
pie the most heartfelt plaudits, 'Well done.
thou good and faithful servant.
We point you to another fearful cancer
on the body polite humiliating strug-
gle now going on between the Democratic
and Republican parties for the foreign
rote. and to the tremulous apprehensions
expressed for the fate of the one or the 9th
er of those parties, as the uncertain move
ments of the Germans or Irish oscillate be-
tween them We warn you that the fate
of this great government may soon be e.
qually dependent upon the unstable move
IL