Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-01-22
The Necessity for an American Party

Were we to choose name for political
party to which to attach ourselves, it should
| be that of American. We know of no designa-
| ton more appropriate. 1t suggests at once an
| idea of the character and designs of the party
to which we could give our most unwaveriDg
and conscientious support. In doing this, we
should not lose, but maintain our character
as an independent journalist. For tie word
! American includes the complex idea OF popular
rights and personal independence.
The notion of American principles and an
| American policy dates back to the Revolution
and even its germ is found in the struggles OF
our ancestors for civil liberty aud personal
/ rights long anterior to that great epoch. but
! it is to the Declaration OF Independence, TO
| the Articles of Confederation between the Old
| Thirteen Colonies, to the Constitution OF the
! United States, TO the administrations of the
/ earlier Presidents, George Washington, John
| Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and especially,
to the Farewell Address of the first and the
| first Inaugural of the last, that we must look
/ for the ascertainment, not of an ideal periec-
ton in political ethics, but of the true thor
ough American policy. Now il is to this pol
lev we desire to bring back or rather to bring
ND our Government, and there is, in the pres
ent crisis, strong and urgent necessity for
National party that shall labor for this great
end, and this alone.
The great majority of the American people
are in heart truly American, and lndssolnOly
welded To the policy upon which the Union
was inaugurated by the Declaration OF lnde-
pendence and afterwards consolidated by our
National Constitution. An American party
having this policy inscribed upon Its banner,
must necessarily, as soon as It's principles ana
objects are understood, embrace the great body
of The American peol lie. The forces OF sucn
party when once consolidated and brought
to bear in a political contest must be over
whelmiDg and secure certain triumph over all
opposition.
There are in our country two sectional par'
ties. one of which is now in power and the
other seeking to overthrow 1t and To hoid the
same position. The triumph of either is not
triumph of the whole Union, but of sec
tion. and the continued contest between the
two will. in the end, unless patriotism inter-
pose. rend our glorious confederation asunder.
That patriotism must be embodied in party
which shall ignore all mere geographical lines,
and shall recognise the broad principles OF con-
cession and conservatism upon which our
Government was originally founded, and by
which alone it can be maintained. II Will not
do TO wait until these sectional sulies shall
have involved the country ia civil war, rs
they have already been on tie very verge OF
doing. Patriotic men who love the principles
of Washington aud Jefferson, must unite now
before it is too late, and remain united III one
consolidated American party.
The Democratic party owed Its many sue
cesses mainly 10 the fact that 1t was consider
ed Union party. 1t could boast that 1t uni
ted the North aud the South. The people saw
or thought they saw, that this was So and
rallied TO the support of the Union for the sake
of the Union. But that party has now De-
come decidedly sectional, being driven INTO
that position, partly by the issues sprung upon
it by its Republican opponents, aud parity
from the corruption and want of cohesion a.
mung its own members. 1t is true this party
succeeded at the late Presidential election, but
the victory only showed its weakness. 1t was
but a spasmodic effort that Is the unIaiiing
precursor of utter prOstratlon.
Shall the other sectional party be permitted
10 triumph over this weak and disbanded one,
and thus keep the Free and Slave States ID
perpetual collision, until the contest ends In
civil war and the separation of these States
into two distinct nationalitie,? Because the
Presidential campaign is over, and a political
lull has supervened, Americans must not
ground their arms. Now IS the time to organ
ize in wards, school districts, townships, coun-
ties and States, and to take effective means tor
diffusing over the country the true principles
of the American party, and Tor uniting in o1e
great Union party all patriotic and devoted
followers of GEORGE WASHINGTON and THOMAS
JKFFERsoN.- Capital city Fact, Ohio.