Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-01-07
From tile Richmond Examiner.
ITVIE 1sFCHHEO7Fu 1-'u"tF71e7'
The True National Democracy of the SOuth.-
Their Duty to the Union, to the South, to
the True National Democracy of the North
and to the Democratic Party.

the True National Democracy of the North
and to the Democratic PARTY.
So long as the Union lasts, it is the duty of
all patriotic men to strengthen the bonds Which
bind it together, and to support the hands which
hold up its cause. SO long rs the Union is a u
MON at all, it is q union of North with South, of
East with West, of all the parts with the com.
mon whole.
It is the boast of the Democratic party that
theirs is the only national organization in the
Union, and that this organization not only cher
ishes creed which embraces the interests and
constitutional rights of all citizens, of whatever
part of the Union, condition, race and persua
sion, but that it is as broad in its basis and ac
tivities as the Union itself. In noble demonstra-
ton of this nationality was the fact which stood
out in the late Presidential canvass plain as the
MONDAY sun, that the tenor ofits addresses from
the rostrum, of its appeals and rallying cries
from the press, ofits principles rs promulgated
in national, State, county and local meetings,
through every organ and agent of utterance-
was one and the saline throughout the Republic
whether we looked to Maine or California, to
Ohio or Louisiana. Southern men travelling
North were surprised at the boldness and blunt
ness of Democratic champions in advancing prop
ositions and presenting arguments identical in
terms with those they were accustomed to ut
home, and even more defiant in tenor. And if
there " ere localities in which more extreme
anti-abolition views were promulgated by ma
tional Democrats more unqualiiedly and defiant
ly than elsewhere at the North or even at the
South-they were cities as hopeessly lost in po-
ltical reprobacy as Boston or Chicago.
Was this catholicity and identity of creed a.
dopted as mere expedient for the emergency 2
did this harmony and comprehensive breadth
of organization result by accident and contem-
plate that contest alone2 or was this nationality
of creed the spontaneous expression, and this
nationality of organization the natural conse-
quence of waru,, strong national sentiments ami
mating and controlling the hearts Of tho Demo
cratic masses all over the Union?
We think the Democracy in the struggle just
ended fought for more than q mere triumph for
the nonce, more than the mere victory and
spoi1s, more than the elevation of their then
standard-bearer and the defeat of the enemy
then confronting em;-but that, as their or
ganization was national, and their creed and
sentiments the same throughout all the confines
of the Republic, their action must have contem-
plated an object commensurately broad, grand
and permanent-no less than the permanent
preservation of their own organization az the
means of permanently preserving the Union it
self. In the South the National Democracy
contemplated something more national, conser-
yative and consistent with their own principles
and organization, than the mere temporary de-
feat of Northern sectionalism--as Il respite for
Southern sectionalism, in which the latter might
lay deep and broad its plans for an early separa
ton, and cultivate and strengthen its resources
for that coveted event.
If the Union is worth preserving; and If, rs
the recent canvass and election SO abundantly
demonstrated, the Democracy were the only or
ganization struggling for national principles, ac
tuated by national sentiments and potential for
the salvation of the Union; then it must needs
follow that the Democratic organization is worth
preserving; and that, as there is q sanctity at
taching to the Union and the Constitution, aud
moral sacrege involved in assaults upon either
SO there is a dignity and Importance belonging
to the Democratic organization, the palladium OF
both, which invest it with kindred immunity
and make it one of the highest duties of the
Democratic citizen TO respect its Integrity in his
individual conduct We lave ever scorned 10 be
the subservient fool of party or to subordinate
our individual independence to its service; but
party obligations have seemed to US to assume
new and higher authority in the late eventful
months, when Democracy was but another name
for nationality, and service in its cause the no.
blest employment of the citizen. Is the party
which has won so glorious q triumph for reli-
gous liberty and equal rights, and routed the for
mdable sectional array which menaced the T.
nion to fall now into disintegration, become the
prey of tactionists utraists and sectonalists and
be thrust aside as useless furniture9
If not, then two things follow of necessity viz ::
lst that all ultra Southern measures and dog
mas not embraced in the platform Of National
| Democracy, and inconsistent with the essential
conservatism of the Democratic party as ma
tional organization, must be frowned upon by
the party at the South; and, I'd, that in our ad-
vocacy of the conservative, national measures
and principles which do belong to the scheme Of
national Democracy, we must not forget in
choosing our modes and terms of doing SO that
our party pervades the whCle North and embra-
ces considerable fraction of the Northern peo-
pie, who may be overthrown by our own giddi-
ness and folly.
OF the class of measures essentially in conflict
with those embraced in the Democratic schedule,
the insane proposition to revive the African
slave trade which has been broached by ,notori-
ETY. seekers and madcap visionaries at the South
to put down the price of labor to nothing and
ill the South with gibberng idiots, voracious
consumers and brute imbeciles-and the other
proposition, long ago tried and found wanting in
practicabihty and wisdom, to abandon the poll
cy OF federal imposts on foreign trade, and to
resort to excise levies-hlling the land with
petty federal ofice-holders as numerous andpes-
tiferous as the frogs, or the locusts, or the lice
of Egypt-these propositions and such as these,
we hold it to be the duty of the National De
mocracy of the South not only to condemn, OPP
1 l,,f IN, frnot ut tt-op
the whole schedule of Democratic measures and
really if not Intentionally as inimica to the Ma
tional Democratic party as Know Nothngsln,o or
Abolitionism itself.
For one, we yield to no Southern man in de-
votion to the South as South; but we have acted
in good faith, with an approving conscience, and
with cordial, it might almost be called religious
zeal, with the National Democracy, in support
of their system of principles and measures. VIZ
cannot run with the hare and hold with tht
hounds. While national, we must oppose sec
: tionasln. We cannot honestly or consistent.
act with extreme sectionalists while claiming
fellowship with the national Democracy, ant
honestly advocating national measures. Th'
Demoeratic organization is national in its spirit
in its aims, in its soul and impulse-in the spiri
and in the sense that, what is national is for tn,
good of the whole and Of every part-national
as best for the enduring interests Of the South
national, as best for the real interests of thu
North. The monstrous measures which w
have named are not national, not proposed in {
national sprit,o for national purposes. not urged
with the hope or expectation Of meeting the ap
proval either of conservative Northern citizens
nr conservative Southern citizens, of Northern
National Democrats or even Southern National
Democrats. They are essentially sectional, in
tensely sectional, intoerably sectional, reckless
lv sectional. They are brought forward with
the knowledge that they cannot secure the ap-
nrnval of the National Democracy-wth the
knowledge that the true National Democracy Of
ibe South as well rs of the North must resist