American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1856-09-13
X. the People Of the United
States!

for the appeal we make to your most
earnest attention. These times appear
to us startling and critical. There are
aspects in the pending contest for the
Presidency, which are very unusual 4
important. We cannot, therefore, for
bear freely to communicate some of
our apprehensions, before we separate
here, and to call upon you at once to
look full in the face any dangers which
may seem to impend over the greatest
popular government on earth. -"
Two of the political parties in the
country have pitched Presidential
battle upon sectional issues, and of SO
fearful character as to stir the deep
est passions Of the American people.
Though in seeming conflict, it cannot
be disguised, that those parties have in
such sort tcoIoperated as to press upon
the country one exciting issue after
another, until, by .dint of continued ex-
aspcration, they have nearly succeeded
in arraying, in hostile columns, one
half Of the States of the Union against
the other, They appear mutually to
have employed all the energies of par
ty power to engcnder sectional dis
trust, prejudice, and elimination, and
now, for the first time in the history
of the government, we find truly for
midable party, fully organized, and
using every effort in their power to
combine the non-slaycholding against
the slaycholding States of the Union,
in struggle for the Executive power
of the Confederacy. In that organi-
zation are included men who are sup
posed to bo conservative and national,
but who are believed to be led by ex
'citcmOnt or misconception, into move
lncnts which, in their cooler moments,
they cannot but recoil from, as they
would from pestilcnce and famine. :
It's management has been essentially
- controlled by leaders who, under all
circumstances, have steadily kept UP an
active, uncoasing, and implacable war
fare upon the institutions of the slave
holding States. Should such a party
unfortunately succeed, in the present
distracted state of the public mind, I'M
electing a sectional President, suppor
ted alone by the voters of tho non
slaveholding States, we have too much
reason to apprchcnd that there might
instantly sprnginto existence move
nent OF resistance, the consequences
OF which no human wisdom can foresee
and no lover of his country OF friend
OF popular government anywhere could
fail, in all coming time, sadly to de-
plorc. .laat aa#
We DO not believe they can succeed,
but VIC, may be really "treading upon
the brink of q volcano, that is liable,
qt any moment, to burst forth and O.
verwhelm the nation -. .
But the Republican party is not a.
lone responsible for those appalling is
sues, nor is it's success the only danger
TO the stability of the Govcrnment,in
Its present form. The Democratic par
ty has eagerly and rashly seized upon
these momentous issues, and welded
them as the thundor-bolts of party
warfare. They have striven to mad
den the South, and to concentrate Sou
thorn votes upon their candidates, as
the Abolitionists have strvcn to mad
dcnthc North and to concentrate Nor
thern votes upon their candidates. 80
When their extreme measures are re.
sisted they taunt national mon, in the
South, as "submissionists" or worse
than submissionists, as the Abolition
lsts taunt national lin the North
rs "dough-faces' or worse than dough-
faces.
They have apparently struggled to
bring about the formation of geograph-
cal parties, such. as the Father of his
Country SO emphatically warned US a
gainst, based upon questions immcdi-
ately tending to split the Union asun-
der; and they have seemingly done this
tor the petty purpose of securing a
temporary party triumph, The Union,
IN form at least, we think, would sur
yiyc the success of such party for the
present; but its triumph you'd proba-
bly, keep the furnaces of asctional pas
sion red hot, and ultimately, and it may
20 at no distant day, its rash errors
would engender storm of sectional
conflict beneath which the government
would sink into ruins, We think they
100, will fail. t
But we believe tho time has come
WHOM the common safety requires that
the raging sectional heats Of those par
ties should be cooled. The time has
come when national, conservative men,
respecting the Constitution, true to
their whole country, and "fndignantly
frowning upon the first dawning Of dis
union" should stand shoulder to shoul-
der, and unite in placing at the head of