Weekly American. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1858-1858, 1858-04-17
THE AMERICAN.
"THE UNION OF THE UNIONlSTS, FOR
THE SAKE OF THE UNIONip ,f5I
: ULTRAIsTs, NORTH AND SOUTH.
WASHINGTON, APRIL II. 1883.

ULTRAIsTs, NORTH AND SOUTH.
We are in receipt Of many letters from gen.
tlemen in both sections of the Union, and it
would be amusing, were it not painful, to see
how widely apart are men Of equal intelligence,
equal honesty, and equal sincerity, residing in
different sections. Some, for instance, con-
slider every man who opposes the Lecompton
Constitution as an A5olitionist, or at least as
"playing the game Of the Abolitionist" Even
Mr.. CRIrTEHDEN is denounced by one who says
he is an old Whig and can never be Demo-
GRAFT, as playing into the hands Of the Adolf
tionists," and who says, AS for your man
WINTER DAVIS, would not touch him with
forty foot pole"
We are satisfied that our correspondent is a
gentleman of intelligence and perfect sincerity;
and, having said this, we make no remark upon
his language.
From an opposite point of the compass, we
receive letters as diverse in feeling to this as
the points from whencs they come; and it is a
little curious that both object to the AMERICAN,
the one (by implication) because it plays into
the hands of the Abolitonists, the other because
it does not discuss the subject of Slavery and
oppose its extension, but holds it to be matter
which belongs exclusively to the States in which
it exists.
| Now, we ask, in sober earnestness, if there
is no middle ground between these Ultraists--
honest and sincere, we admit them to be, but
carried away by false representations and their
own ardent feelings-upon which great con-
sentative, Union-loving, and Union-preservipg
party can stand9 Are there not large num-
bers of men-cool, rejecting dispassionate,
Union-loying men--in every part of the United
States who will come together and occupy that
middle ground, and say to the fanatics on both
sides, "thusfar shalt thou 60 and nc farther--the
Union must and shall be preserved" Or is
this slavery question to become great mael-
strom, which, in its increasing sweep shall
cover the whole of the United States, and in
gulph our Union, our liberties, our nationality,
all that we have to be proud of in the past and
all the glorious hopes we have fondly INDUCED.
of the future?
There are two parties now in the country,
whose leaders seem determined that slavery,
and slavery alone, shall be the issue, and who
are ready to take the field against each other,
and hazard a battle which we fear would prove
fatal to the Union, terminate as it might
We belong to neither of these parties; they
are both sectional; we occupy middle ground
between them; but it may be that those who
occupy that ground are too few to keep the two
antagonistc powers asunder, and may be crush
ed between them as between the upper and
neither milestone. This is the ground occu-
pied by such statesmen in the Senate and
House, as we could name, were it not invidious
to do SO, as well as hundreds of distinguished
men who have not, perhaps been so long, or at
all, upon the stage of public action; we might
say thousands, instead Of hundreds, and, we
would fain hope hundreds Of thousands.
Is it not time for such men to band togethert
Will they wait until all the people are enlisted
in one or the other Of the extreme parties? If
they do, there will be DO use in acting at all.
They should come together, in National
Conpenti0n-not to nominate candidates-not
perhaps, to form party, but TO take counsel
together, and at least form an ASSOCIATION
whose members shall be pledged to each other
and to the nation, to use their utmost efforts,
individually and collectively, to assuage sec,
tional hosiiities and iritatons, prevent sectional
parties and sectional discussions in Congress.
and restore the old fraternal and national feel
ing thatcarried our country successfully through
the trying scenes Of the Revolution, of the Con.
federacy, and Of the formation and adoption
Of the Federal Constitution.
We throw out the hint: will our brethren
of the press speak out upon ito Cannot some
thing be dones .'
P.S. Since writing the foregoing, the pro-
ceedings Of mass-meeting Of the friends Of
Henry Clay at Philadelphia, have met our eye,
and among the resolutions adopted, we find
the following: . ur'
Resolced, That the friends and supporters
Of the rights Of the People be, and they hereby
are, invited to Join in great National Party
the object Of which shall be to watch over and
defend them-a party which shall embrace,
according to its name, the combined energies of
the country, without regard to minor subjects
OF difference, whether of local or personal
character, and with q firm determination 10
maintain, against all encroachments, the priv
ileges Of froemen.
ResoIVed, That official dctation and tyran-
ny have reached point which requires prompt,
disinterested and unequivocal resistance This
Executive oppression overshadows, and is SO
denounced upon the floor Of Congress, not only
the independence Of all subordinate officers,
but threatens the liberty OF thought speech
and acti n in the recesses Of professional and
private life"
AMERIo ANIsM IN CONNECTICUT.
The Hartford (Conn.) City election was car