Mountain Democrat., 1857-10-03
The AlarmIsfs.

ally so timid that they magnify every
mob into an army of rebels, and every
speech Of . fanAtical orator they view as
the deliberate expression of the sentiment
of the people. They talk dOlOrOusly, and
are pregnant with forbodings of evil
They have no faith in the perpetuity Of
our Union, no reliance upon the stability
of our form of government and predict
disunion and the horrors of civil war
At timos, we are free to confess, that the
political horizon portendcd storms and
the wisest, the truest of our Statesmen
felt deeply anxious for the result Party
feeling has been SO intense at times, so
revolutionary have been the resolutions
of some Of the State Legislatures, 30 in
flammatOry the appeals Of certain recOg-
nised leaders Of the people, that tho
bravest and the best have been we'll nigh
appalled,. In Europe, where little is re-
ally known Of our institutions, where less
is known of the character Of the people
Ofthis Union and where the capacity of
any people for self government is denied,
every indication of discomfort, of want of
affection by the people for their govern
ment and country is hailed with Ill dis
guised satisfaction. They copy with
avidity the inccndiary "resolves" Of the
! abolition press, they publish in glaring
capitals the proceedings of the secession
lists. They go farther, they assert not
that rebellion and dissolution may come,
but that such state Of affairs has actually
come and now exists-that the laws of
the Federal Government have been boldly
nulli6cd by State laws and the execution
of the acts of Congress defied by the pco-
pie of those States and exultingly ask, if
those are not revolutionary acts? They
fail however to inform their readers Of the
peaceful termination Of the many severe
political conYulsions through which our
government has passed. They forget to
tell us, that oil Constitutional acts of Con-
gress have been enforced Notwithstanding
the threatened dissolution. Laws, en-
forced it is true, in some instances at
great cost and not without serious oppo-
sition, but enforced by the citizens Of the
States whose Legislatures had passed the
rebellious resolves--and their enforce
ment sustained and approved by the great
masses of people in all the States. And
more than all they are careful to omit all
mention of the disastrous defeats that
party in the Northern States has sustained,
which passed those traitorous resolves"
and that in the Southern States, outside
of South Carolina, no man who seeks po-
litical prcferment dare .ayow himself a
sccessionist. So long as political parties
continue to struggle for the government
of our Nation, VIC have no fears Of any
long continued resistance to the laws Of
the Union. While there exists in each
State powerful party in favor of MAIN
tanning the Union and of obedience to the
Constitutional enactments of the general
government, dissolution is impossible
And in every State there is such party,
and q party so strong that if in oil the
States, it is not always victorious, yet,
possessed of so much energy, having so
fully the confidence Of the masses, holding
on so firmly to principle, attached so de-
votcdly to country that rebellion or revo-
luton can and will be crushed out by it,
whenever and wherever their existence is
manifested. From the dc6ris of the old
Whig party, from the misguided Of the
Republican party, together with those re-
pentant ones who have strayed from the
National Democracy, our proud party is
receiving valuable accessions. Every
true man who unitcs himself with it, en-
rolls himself among tho life guard of the
Union and pledges his all to the prescrva-
ton intact of the Constitution given US
by our fathers. The astounding victories
Of the Know Nothings, much as we dis
approve of prOscriptive principles, dis
graceful and anti-American as we regard |
their organization with its dArk-lantern
mysteries to be, we attribute mainly TO
the intense lOvo and pride of country
animating the American people. In that
love, the people seam to have overlooked
for brief time the injurious tendencies
of that organization. And tho patriotic
of that party too, are swelling the ranks
Of the national Democracy. Let the
alarmists but reflect upon the past achieve
ments Of that party and from its past
services to the country, judge of its power
for usefulness in the future and their ap-
prchensions must be speedily diSsipated.
E We have SO often heard the
question asked whether an alien could be
citizen of one of the States Of the Union,
without first becoming citizen Of the
United States by being duly naturalizcd,
that We have consulted legal friend who
refers us to the following extract from
the opinion of the Supreme Court of the
United States in the Drod Scott case
1--WE must not cOnfound the rights Of
citizenship which State may confer