Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1856-01-25
Political Party Conventions:

that we have uniformly maintained, that the
reserved rights of the States, amongst which
is the right Of regulating and controlling their
own domestic institutions,) are now protected
| by the Federal Constitution, and that it would
be to the last degree hazardous, to permit po-
litical conventions of partisans, representing
all sections of the country, or, in other words,
National Convention, to take charge OF, and
decide upon those rights. Those who main
tain that National Conventions should ayow
their opinions upon questions belonging exclu-
sively to any one section of the country, and
that those matters embraced in the term, " the
reserved rights of the States, should be incor-
porated into the platforms Of political parties,
are, as II seems to us, "blind guides, whom the
people cannot safely follow.
1t seems to us perfectly obvious, that Ma
tional parties should not embrace in their plat
forms, any questions, over which the parties,
if successful in the election of their candidates
for the Presidency and for Congress, could ex-
ercise no control. Those rights reserved to the
States, are wholly withdrawn from the control
of Congress, and therefore cannot properly
form subjects for political contest by National
political parties. The question of tariffs, the
public lands, and all other matters properly
cognizable by the Federal Government, always
have formed, and always may rightfully form,
points of controversy between National par
ties, and legitimate planks in the platforms of
National parties. We use tho term National
here as embracing every part of the Union
and that party is in this sense national, whose
existence is not local or sectional
Yet a party formed upon issues which Con-
gress cannot adjudicate, cannot be a National
party in its objects, however extensive in its
organization, and hence pro-slavery or an
Gnti-slavery party must be sectional in its pur-
poses We cannot see how the holders of
slaves can safely assent to the proposition, that
their rights and interests may be submitted to
the consideration and decision of political con-
ventions, formed in part of delegates from non
slayeholding States-for the history of the
country during the last few years, abounds in
proofs, that the -slaveholding States soould
if they had power over the subject, blot out
slavery from the whole expanse of the Federal
| Union
Not having power on this subject few men
in the country propose to go any further than
to prohibit its existence those portions of the
country over which Congress exercises the
sole right of legislation. The Federal Consti-
tuition gives the General Government no power
to disturb this question in the States, and it is
well for the South that it is so, when the in
creasng power of the free States, arising from
toreign immigration, is considered in connex-
ion with the universal hostility of foreigners to
this institution. Pretermitting any express
sion of opinion upon the power of Congress to
establish or prohibit slavery, in any Territory"
Tin the language of the 18th section) we invite
Southern men, seriously to consider the proba-
BILE effect of limiting political Conventions Of
parties to take jurisdiction of the whole ques-
ton of slavery in the States and Territories!
Under the Federal Constitution, the reserved
rights fthe States are solemnly guaranteed to
them. Fortunately that constitution cannot
be easily changed, and whilst it exists the re-
served rights of the States are safe. But trans
fer them an practice to the tender mercies of
political parties, and how long will those rights
remainp We might cite numerous instances
Of tergiversations of political conventions of
parties, from year to year, for the information
and warning Of the South, on the question of
slavery. We refer to one now, as a sample of
the rest, to wit the Democratic State Conven-
ton of Ohio. On the 9Th of January, 1855
that convention resolved as follows
Resolved, That the people of Ohio, NOW, AS
THEY HAVE ALWAYS DONE, look upon slavery as an
evil, and unfavorable to the development of the
spirit and practical benefit of free institutions and
| that entertaining these sentiments, they will AT
ALL TIMES feel it to be their duty TO USE ALL pow
| Err CLEARLY GIVEN BIT THE TERMS OF THE NATIONAL
COMPACT, to prevent its increase, to mitigate, and
FINALLY TO ERADICATE ITS EVILS"
The terms used in the above resolution re-
quire no explanation. They claim the power
under our national compact to prevent the in
crease of slavery; to mitigate and finally to
eradicate its evils But look at the changed
condition of Ohio resolves in one short year,
produced By the desire Of the Pierce Democracy
to carry the merit Presidential electionl On
the 9Th January, 1856, the Democratic State
Convention of Ohio spake thus:
"Resolved, That slavery is domestic institution,
and being the creature Of positive law cannot exist
without it, and that Congress has neither the pow
er to legislate slavery into the Territories or
States, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave
the people thereof perfectly free to form and reg
ulate their own domestic institutions in their own
way, subject only to the Constitution Of the United
States"
Would any man suppose, if he did not
know, that these tho resolutions could have
emanated from the assembled wisdom Of the
Ohio Democracy-the first in 1856, and the
last in 1862 Yet so it u.s.