Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-05-26

MONDAY, MAY 90, 1868.


form OF principles, the Democratlc press
of the South furiously attacked it, and char
acterised it as a treacherous attempt of
Southern men, to surrender their rights as
the price Of Northern votes. While con-
ceding the honesty and correct motives
of those of our friends who favored the
proposal, we expressed our opinion most
positively against it. We condemned it as
an impolitic party move, and as calculated
to impair our position before the country,
as party, with the constitution and equal
ity of rights to every section as its basis;
and resisted it as true, frank, Southern
men, indisposed to yield one jot or title to
the unjust demands of our Northern oppo-
nents. But democratic journals, as might
be expected, were as quick to impeach the
intentions of those who proposed ignoring
as method of banishing from the public
mind the discussion Of the question, as they
were violent and furious in denunciation of
the proposal itself They attained the
whole American party South with odium
on account of it, 1t was a reasonable
catch.vote-a base afiliation with the enc
mics of our institutions, to secure triumph
at the expense of Southern rights and in
terests. The language was barren of terms
to express the Juror of Indignation which
boiled in their bosoms. The triteness of
Judas, Burr, and Arnold as comparisons
grew tenfold more trite To have witnessed
their anxiety and alarm on the subject, one
would have thought them the exclusive
guardians and protectors of Southern rights,
watching over them with the sleepleSs So
licitude of the master of harem. 1t was
painful to witness the fearful state of mind
into which they were thrown at the bare
mention of ignoring, and terrible to hear
the thunders of their invective on the
doomed heads of the ignorers.
What must be thought of this party
which feigned such horror at ignoring,
when we assert that the Nashville Union
and american, one Of its prominent South
ern organs, and since the shoes it now wears
were new, one Of the fercest Opposers Of
ignoring, has actually excused and defend
ed in its own party that very policy! We
do assert it, and will prove it, BY ignor-
ing the slavery question as a party test,
our friends desired that their National
Convention should meet and set forth the
distinctive features of their political faith;
and as the question of slavery was an ex-
citing sectional one, upon which there were
irreconcilable differences Of opinion, both
as regarded its abstract right or wrong,
and the privileges Of shareholders in the
territories, it should 60 unmentioned. They
it, and the surest mode to get rid of it
was to suppress its agitation. They had
been earnest and consistent opponents of
agitation. They had expressed no sympa-
thy with the Southern Conventionists of
1850; they had never sorted with seces.
sionists, and the pestilent brood of Carroll
ma slavery agitators; but they had always
acted with the conservative and concilia-
tory party. They were not inconsistent in
proposing to pretermit the question, as far
as possible.
But the Union and american, whom we
accuse as an ignorer, had acquired notori-
ETY. as a salamander. In the fiery times of
1850, it had stepped upon the platform of
Rhett, Cheves, and Associate Justice
Campbell, and deied hell and its gates
and the thousands of fiends whose howlings
ascend with "the smoke Of their torment"
Its editor at that time, and now connected
with it, has left his name on the records of
the Southern Convention as its secretary
He is identified with it forever. The party
which it represents was the friend and
sympathser with extreme Southern men,
and lent its influence to their movements
Ignoring on its part would be rank incon-
sistency, and coupled with hypocrisy, as it
is, most reprehensible, not to say treason
able.
When we say that the Union and Ameri-
can has ignored the slavery question as
party test, we mean that it allows North
ern Democrats to hold opinions on that
question which, to use its own language,
is incompatible with the constitution" and
''odious to the South" and yet remain in
political fellowship with them, and will, on
this day week, 60 into convention with
hem; will labor throughout the contest
for a common end, and if successful, will
make common cause in division of the Off
:es. Is not this ignoring the question as
party test, in all its length and breadth!
Did any Southern American propose to go
further than this? They only proposed to
tolerate difference of opinion upon point
about which they deemed it impossible to
harmouize. Southern Democrats, however,
have loudly proclaimed that they had no
;round to give They scribed high mark,
md demanded that every head in their
-anks should touch it, aud yet behold the
gnoble backing down of the Union and
Amsriean. Here are the passages in which
performs the crawGsh movement:
Gen. Cas- and many Of the Democrats
North, are understood 10 entertain the opin-
on that the people II territory have power
legislAte upon this question 80 socn as they