Weekly Clarksville chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 185?-1857, 1857-02-06


The AMERIcAN STATE CcuNclL OF KY.-
The Council assembled yesterday morning at
10 o'clock. The committee on resolutions
reported the following address, which was
unanimously adopted:
ADDRESS OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF
KENTUCKY.
The delegates 10 the State Council are well
assured that the Americans Of Kentucky need
no words of eondUFence over the result Of the
recent election. They have been defeated,
but not discouraged; they have been overcome
by misrepresentation and fraud and cbicane.
~, but they are not disheartened. BY the ar
tfices ofpoticel demagogues TREY have been
out-numbered, but they are still unconqusred.
proudly conscious of the justice, the propriety,
and the patriotism of their principles, they
are ready agnin and again to prove their de-
votion to the cause of their country, confident
that that the hour Of their triumph must core,
and thai their principles must be approved by
a majority Of the American people, and that
their policy will be established as the only
safe and patriotic policy Of the American gov
eminent.
The recent defeat of the American party
was not a verdict against American principles,
They were not in issue Ia the contest. By
artful appeals to sectional prejudices, and
unningly-contrived Misrepresentation, the
slavery question alone was made the paramount
issue of the canvass, and the cardinal princi-
Piles Of the American perty were overwhelmed
" i,h the torrent Of maddened sectionslism
Neither the North nor the South has been the
gamer by the conflict, but the enemies of
Amerconism have triumphed, while the bonds
of our Union have been strained almost to
breaking, and the republican institutions of
our country have been greatly imperiled.-
The sections Of our Confederacy are as they
were before the bowling storm Of sectional
fanaticism was invoked. Freesoilism has re.
sumed ito sway over the disputed Territories,
and, while not the slightest shadow of increas.
ed power or influence has been added to the
South, slave property in the border States has
been rendered doubly insecure, and the poll
teal weakness of the Southern section has
been too plainly manifested.
The results Of the recent coniest must surely
teach the conservative men of the Union that
the continued agitation of the slavery question
as the paramount political issue can produce
no benefit to any State or to any section, but
that 1t will only serve to entail serious and in.
creasing evils upon the South and that it is
pregnant with great and imminent danger TO
the permaQence of the union of the Suites
This agitation, barren as it is of all good re-.
suits and fruitful only of evil, this agitation,
against which the voices of the wise and
patriotic founders Of our Government were
raised in solemn warning. is now the sole
reliance for success of the Democratic party.
For years it has hunted down its opponents at
the South with the cry of "aboliticn," "aboli-
tion," while it's own Northern adherents were
the loudest shriekers in the front rank of anti.
slavery fanaticism. In the recent canvass the
Democratic party adroi;ly constituted the
Slavery question the main issue to divide its
opponents and to distract the attention of the
people from the real principles of Americsnism,
and, while in the freesoil States it claimed to
be the purest and most jealous Freesoil party.
in the South it illuminated the Americans as
Aboliionists and pretended an ultra affection
for the institution OF slavery. Yet it Is a fact.
that, whilst this SANDER has been promulga
ted by the Democrats party in this
State, the great mass Of the shareholders in
Kentucky are comprised In the American
party.
We can see then in the continued agitation
of the slavery question only fruitful source
of evil The territorial policy of our govern.
ment in this regard is settled and cannot now
be disturbed without endangering the interests
and safety of the Union. The continuance of
this agitation cannot promote the interests of
the South but it will certainly depreciate the
value and security of slave properly, and in
the institution of sectional parties the South
will be too surely overcome by the existing
and constantly increasing preponderating poll.
teal power Of the North in the electoral col
leges and in the National Senate and House of
Representatives.
In view then Of the condition of our country,
and believing that, whenever the principles of
the American party are purely and fairly made
the issue ,'they will always be trinmpant, we
earnestly urge the Americans and conservative
men Of Kentucky and of the Union TO abandon
this dangerous agitation of the slavery ques-
ton, to leave the people of the Territories to
decide for themselves when they come 10 form
a State Constitution whether they shall be a
proslt sery or an antislaVery Safe, and to
make the cardinal principles of the American
party the paramount issue in all political con.
tests, and. re'ufirming our national platform,
to strive sedulously and necessarily for the