Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1856-03-22

braSka bill. Second, that we had made
an asylum to which the oppressed Of ev-
cry land might come as a refuge; that
here they might worship as equals at the
altar of our liberty; that here they
might lift up their hearts to their God
according to the dictates of their con-
sciences, and there should be none to
modest them. Third, that there should
be no aristocracy of birth. have re-
gardcd, and do regard, these as the pc
culiar pride and boast Of my country
| regard them as the three grand and
massive pillars upon which the whole
magnificent structure Of our government
rests. will not, by any action of mine,
deiace or mar these pillars.
have been often asked if am not in
in favor of recognizing the whig party?
| answer that, in the present condition
of parties and the country, in my judg-
ment, such an effort can do no good,
and might do great harm.
say to you that we have no sound
material North out of which to recon
struct that party. Look back at the
past. Every Wing representative from
the North in 1S49 voted for the Wilmot
proviso But three of them out of
seventy-three voted for the fugitive-slave
law-that law which does but common
justice to the South, and which is COM
manded by the constitution itself! Not
one Wing north Of Mason and Dixon's
line voted for the Kansas-Nebraska bill
of 1854 On all these measures, u ma
jority Of the northern Democrats voted
with the South Have we, then, not
reached that point in the North, presup-
posed by Mr.. Clay when he said; ''If
the Wing party ever becomes merged
into contemplate Abolition party,
will abandon it in disgust?" and should
not we, his old followers, take his i'm
piled counsel and his proposed example,
when he says: Il will act with that
party, whatever its name may be, that
stands by the constitution and the Union?"
To endeavor now to reorganizc the Wing
party would be but to divide and distract
the sound national men of the South.
Where have we an ally in the North
outside of the Democratic organization
These allies have been true to us in the
past. With patriotic devotion to the
union of the States, and patriotic re-
gard to the constitutional rights of the
South, they have barred their bosoms to
the ragings Of the storm-they have
stood unmoved while malignity and ia
naticism have poured their fiery torrents
upon them. | take them my heart as
political brothers, and wear and cherish
them there.
How stands the Democratic party p
have given you the resolution Of the
present members of Congress.
Listen to Ohio! Stepped, as she has
been, in frec-soilism, in State convention
assembled, with the boldness of right,
with the candor of manhood, they de-
clare, on the Sth day of January last, as
follows:
81. Resolocd, That slavery (being
the creature of positive law, cannot exist
without IT'D is a domestic institution, and
that Congress has neither the power to
legislatc it into any Territory or State
nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave
the people thereof perfectly free to form
and regulate their domestic institutions
in their own way, subject only to the
Constitution of the United States.
80 Rcsolred, That the right of the
people Of each particular State aud Ter
ritory to establish their own constitution
or form of government, to choose and
regulate their own domestic institutions
of every kind, and to legislate for them
selves, is a fundamental principle of all
free government and that it is the self
same right to secure which our ancestors
waged the war of the revolution-a right
lying at the very foundation of all our
free institutions, recognized in the De-
elaration of Independence, and estab-
lished by the Constitution of the United
States; and we hereby endorse and re-
affirm this no'e disputed principle"
Contrast this with the resolves Of the
Know-nothing convention at Cincinnati.
Listen to Indiana, as she, too, speaks
in her democratic State convention. She
says;
Resolred, That we approve the
principles of the compromise measures of
1850, and their application, as imbodied
in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and will
faithfully maintain them"
Hear the Democracy of New York, as
they, too, in convention declare
Resolred, That the determination of
Congress, avowed in the Kansas-Nebras-
ka bill, to reject from the national coun-
ellis the subject of slavery, in the Terri
tories, and to leave the people thereof
free to regulate their domestic institu-
tons in their own way, subject only to
the Constitution of the United States, is
one that sccords with the sentiments of
the Democracy of the State, and with
the traditional course of legislation by
Congress, which, under democratic au-
spices, has gradually, in successive ter
ritorial bills, extended the domain of
popular rights and limited the range of
congressional action; and that we believe
this disposition of the question will re-
suit most auspiciously to the peace of the
Union and the cause of good govern
ment."
All, everywhere, from Maine to Texas,
speak the same language, declare the
same principles, and rally under the
same Tag Is not this party national
Contrast these resolves with the fact that
the Know-ncthing party, but two years
Old, has managed, even in that short
time, to be in favor of secrecy against
secrecy; in favor of test oaths against