The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-24
PHILADELPHIA NATIONAL CONVENTION.
Circular of the National Committee,
appointed at Pittsburgh, Feb. %, 1856.


We solicit your attention TO the call which
has preceded this paper. 1t is not only TO rec
ommend TO the people the immediate selection
Of delegates from the several States, equal in
number TO three times the representation in
Congress TO which each State is entitled, TO
meet on the 18th of June, at Philadelphia, to
present such individuals as they may think
best suited to uphold the cause to which they
are devoted as candidates for the Presidency
and Wee Presidency, but also to invite the
members OF all parties, who feel ii to be the
dominant issue which should control the cleo
ton, to meet at the same time and place, TO
confer with the Convention as to the hest course
TO crown their common wishes with success
One of the parties which will be represented
at Philadelphia has taken the name Of Repub-
lican. because it was given TO that founded by
Mr.. Jefferson, 10 embrace all who love the Re
public. There is no Democrat who does not
love the Republic. There is no Wing who
does not love the Republic. There is no Amer
lean who does not love the Republic. And we
fondly hope there is no naturalIZed citizen who
does not love the Republic.
Butt is not so important that the great move
ment, which we desire to see successfully inau-
gurated, shall be designated by any particular
name, as that it shall be strong, unned, and
effective. Why may not all those classes, who
are hostile to the introduction OF Slavery into
free territory, unite at this crisis of impending
danger, to vote for common ticket, which will
be nominated to assert the grand principle OF
REFRESHING the extension Of slaveholding mo
nopoly, and to vindicate the rights of the people
in all sections Of the Union who labor with
their own hands "a ticket which will not agi-
tate with view to detract from the rights of
the States TO dispose of the subject within their
limits, according to their sovereign will vet
It's influence to destroy the freedom of white
laborers is fit subject of investigation, with a
view to repreSs the aggressive power in every
constitutional way.
The rights of the laboring class involved in
this question have been BETRAYED by the Rep
resentatives from the North and South in the in
terest of the shareholders, who have voted to
surrender the lands to slave labor which were
set apart TO make freeholders, and enrich the
working men Of both sections, who own no
slaves, who should emgrate to them, cultivate
and improve them with their own toll. Here
are two great principles blended in this cause
the one, impelling the Vindicaton of the rights
of free labor; the other, the chastisement Of
those misguided Representatives who have
violated the faith pledged between the two sec
tons of the Union TO each other in their COM
pact, and their own faith as Representatives in
disappearing the will of their constituents
in the repeating acts, and disobeying their in
instructions in reference TO them.
Can there be any difficulty in uniting the
men OF all parties, who concur in the great de-
sign of delivering the masses from the oppres-
sions of the shareholders in the new Territories,
and the fair, free, healthy regions of the Far
West from the blot Of Slavery, and the sterili-
A. IL D
There are aT 900 slave-owner in the United
States; they hold nearly four millions of slaves.
There are six millions of free white population
in the Southern States who own no slaves, and
there are twenty millions of free white popu-
ladon in the North, ALLOWING for the increase
since the last census.) Are the interests of these
twenty-six millions of people 10 tho vast regions
of the West to be blasted, to administer TO the
pride, TO the ambition, to the false views Of in
terest, in which the 347 900 slave-owners would
indulge themselves In their arrogance, they
stigmatize as Black Republicans those who
would make constellation OF free, bright Re
publics, constituted of the white race alone
by slave of any colors their his
tory and their laws unblemished by that word
Are they called black, because they would re-
deem their white brethren of the South, by re-
serving to them refuge from the thraldom i'm
posed on them by Negro Slavery there, and
which makes the master the oppressor of all
beneath him, of whatever complexion Are
they called black, because they would resist
the slave-owner with the sword, in his attempts
10 expel from their homes the sons of the Free
States, who have already cast their lots in the
new lands TO which their fathers taught them
to look forward as their inheritance, under a
of more than thirty years stand
ing2
This derogaiory epithet is inappropriately
applied to those who labor to build up Free
States composed of white men, to transfer the
odlum OF the black Institution from those who
cling to il as part of their Republican system.
II is not proposed to touch the subject of Slave
ry in the States where it exists, but to shut the