Daily American organ., 1856-04-11

that have been thus awakened lnto ho-
He then proceeds to enumerate as follows the
cardinal purposes Of the party
"our objects are to purify our body-politic-to
place our country again upon the American plat
form-to give to it officers Of capacity. integrity,
eobriety and moral worth-men who will be faith.
ful TO the trusts confded to them-men strongly
imbued with love of country-men who will not
seek to be our leaders aud masters, but who feel
the responsibility they owe to the people-men
who feel that Americans must have national char
acter-men who viii cast off all foreign influence
that seeks TO control affairs, and whs will in no
wise tolerate the existence of ecclesiastical t
bunal Of political character, tendencies or ante
oedents."
Presently after-evidently referring to those
who (he feared) were already seeking to draw the
Order into the negro question-he makes the fol
lowing strong appeal;
Shall VIC remain united in this work. Will we
not cast from us all who may seek to divert us
from this great work, by introducing new issues"
One citation more shall make an end of the first
President his adhercnts, and the slavery question.
Directly to it, he by and by onpage 7, as follows:
"With regard to the great and absorbing ques-
ton, upon which the sentiment OF the Northern
and Southern portions of our Union are so directly
at variance, this Order such, has nothing to do,
and all attempts to draw il into the contest should
he promptly met at the threshold, calmly but firm
ly refusing its admission in our Councils as ques-
ton foreign to the objects OF our organization, rife
with all the elements of discord, and fraught with
imminent danger to the very existence OF our
brotherhood. On this opinion must be firm,
unwavering, and uncompronising Allow no one
To cast this firebrand in our midst, and treat all
who seek TO do it as hostile to our Order and its
principles-enemies in the guise of friends. In
taking this decided stand, claim that we do not
encroach upon or abridge the rights of the mem
aelr n,,lxy hat tbo ahl hat
bind us together teach and require. Each indi-
vidual member is left to the free enjoyment of his
own opinions and sentiments on all questions. He
is only barred from intruding them where they
would be productive of great evil to the American
party, and result in no good to the cause he aims
to advance This glorious Order must be left free,
untrammeled and unembarrassed-totall discon-
nected from all other issues, standing out boldly,
distinctly and proudly, on the lofty elevation of
the American platform"
That such were the real principles and purposes
of the Order, where is the man bold enough to
stand forward and deny2 And, the objects being
such, and such alone, where is he who can have
the front to say that it was them ever has been,
or now is likely to be possible for the Amer
lean Order not to destroy itself and defeat all its
own sworn ends, by setting at nought it's estab-
shed policy, thus justly enforced by that address,
and adopting that opposite course of conduct into
which its author soon fell to doing all he could
to trepan it2
A shameful contederacy of traitors within the
Order was formed, with its dishonest enemies with
out The first visible move in the plot was that
taken in May last, Cess than two months after the
date of the above address, to bring about ndi-
rectly a consent of the Order not to nominate its
own full separate ticket for the State elections Of
last fall and to lure them into platform on the
subject of slavery. The object of this trick was
to draw the Americans into first coalition with
80 sossxt alrn<E e. AL
suing canvass; and (secondy) into permanent
fusion of its members and merger of all its prin-
cipes and objects into those of mere Abolitionsm.
At Cleveland, on the 5th of June, the former OBJ
jects were accomplished, by the aid of some of
those powers of fraud which unscrupulous trick
sters can employ. That all this was done is made
perfectly clear by the printed addresses Of the
President Of the Executive Committee and the
State Council, which he published on the I'd and
9TH of June, recommending the bringing in of
such new issues.
Subsequent events that it is enough to mention
by their dates-the convention of the 18th of July;
that of November last that of January; certain
votes in the Philadelphia National Convention of
the 18th of February, and above all, famous tel
egraphic despatch, exhorting the Pittsburgh Con-
vention to :" raise high the Republican banner
leave no room for the slightest doubt of the syste
matte betrayal of everything like the faith, the
honor, and the duty which had been so solemnly
pIghted, in forms the most sacred, to the order.
In consequence of the dissatisfaction produced
by his practice against the obligations and the in
tegrty Of the Order, this President resigned, on
the 4th Of January last and in his place, with dis
tnct pledges of pursuing totally different course
was elected Thomas H. Ford. As il, however, by
some fatality, the highest honor which our Order
in Ohio can bestow was only to turn mems heads,
until a second severe lesson had been given them,
that americans not to be trifed ,oith and
can unmake those they naade--this new President,
even more quickly than the old, fell into the same
courses--went to setting up not the principles of
the Order, but the doctrines which might bring
him demagogue popularity; and, in a word, by
hsnself hinging off all legal subordination made it
DssaIy to deal yet more sharply with him and
3bettors than with his predecessor.
is necessary to say to those only who do not
E1pg to the Order, that, by its constitution to
every member is solemnly pledged, State
O0G&cs are not independent bodies, but derive
all their powers from the National Council, and
strictly subject to its decrees orders, &c. To
any man OF common sense, we hardly need to sug-
gest that State Councils can have authority over
national platforms, nor the Presidential nomna-
tons of the Order; for both are proper functions
of the same political discretion Both belong there
fore, to the national organization of the Order and
could not possibly belong anywhere else indeed,
by express provision Of the constitution, they are
confded to that body If therefore, any body of
the Order-for instance, the National Council-un-
dertook to do work not theirs, it would neces-
sary be void in ITSELF in which case it would bind
nobody. But if on the contrary, the National
fben all fss fssstd tdiape "a work which properly theirs
with it, is to withdraw from the Order; and. in.
deed, to take this latter course directly and sim
ply, was the only legal moral step for men whose
consciences could not assent to any serious pro-
ceeding or principle adopted by the Order. For
It constra,ns no one except so long as be remains
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