Weekly American. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1858-1858, 1858-04-17
Correspondence Of the Pennsylvania Inquirer. !
FROM WASHINGTON

/
TIE Cause and Erect The american Orga-
nization-The Erecutioe Committee -,Self
Sacrificing Spirits-A Consistent adH-
The Oa6inet-City Morals, dec.
| PROFESSIONALLY the recent defeat of the Lee
compton swindle in the House was greatly in
huenced by, ifnot solely attributable to, the &C
ton of the gallant little band of National Amer
leans, who held the balance ofpower. IfMessrs.
Morris, of your state; Davis, Harris and Ri
caud of Maryland; Gilmer of North Carolina;
and Marshall and Underwood of Kentucky, or
any four of them, had reversed their votes, the
Lecompton fraud would have been consum-
mated.
Every influence was brought to bear upon
them without success. They were too manly,
too honest, too fearless to be fought, coaxed or
intimidated While others, nominally of the
same political faith, felt bound to yield to the
wishes of thier immediate constituents, or su-
cumbed to the natural influence of sectional
sentiments, or prejudices, these stood firm, to
show the country that the old spirit is not yet
crushed out entirely. All honor to them, now
and forever!
In connection with this subject, and as an
exposition Of some of the motives by which
they were influenced, it may be well for me to
intimate that the American organization still
exists, and though its operations may not be as
tangible and universally recognized as in years
gone by, it still has form and substance, anda
oracle whose voice Is sometimes heard and
whose teachings obeyed. There is such al body
as the National Executive Committee composed
of men carefully selected, and whose patriot
ism and zeal, whose unwavering Americanism,
has been tested, as it were by fire.
This committee has not been idle in the re-
cent contest. Personally, its members have
labored, each in his own locality, creating and
directing public sentiment, while, through its
Chairman, open and urgent appeals have been
made to the Southern Americans in Congress
to sustain the doctrine Of popular sovereignty,
in the disposition of the Kansas question, on
the ground that the people Of that Territory
had not expressed their will concerning the
Constitution.
That official has urged them to preserve the
national integrity of the American party, and
entreated them not to yield to sectional con-
siderations. The result of all these powerful
but unobtrusiye measures is to be seen in the
action of the seven Representatives alluded to,
who have thus maintained one of the funda-
mental principles of the American party,
| and shown beyond dispute its true conserva-
| tism. There was no coalition between them
and either the Democrats or the Republicans
such coalition was unnecessary.
They merely carried out the same principles
! that were to be enunciated and maintained in
the last Congress by the leaders of the same
party, than little more in number than now
When, during the discussion ofthe Topeka con-
stituton, men sent here as Americans, aud one
at least from your own city, abandoned the ma
tionality of their professed faith, and went over
bodily into the gulfof sectionalism, such other
men as Jacob Broom, Scott HARRISON, Ed
ward Ball, and Thomas R. Whitney stood like
sturdy oaks, breasting the waves Of faction, and
the sacrifice Of those principles for which they
had already suffered SO much. And they were
sacrificed The tide was too strong for them
to stem, and the surge swept over them. Mr..
Broom, from first to last, the most consistent
man in the 34th Congress, as his record in the
Congressional Globe will abundantly show,
while lying on his sick bed, was coolIy over
slaughed, without even being comforted with
an repression ofregret, by the very party whose
principle he had so nobly sustained. The ex-
cuse was, Of course, expediency. What was
the result? I will not comment upon his
accidental successor, whose entire Congress
ional career has shown that he holds his con-
stituency in utter contempt and at cool, calcu-
lating and utter defiance. ..s ....aaar
Now markthe sequel. A majority Of the House
of Representatives of the Thirty-ffth Congress
have pursued precisely the same policy with
reference to the Lccompton Constitution, that
Mr.. Broom did concerning the Topeka Consti-
tuition. There is not hairs breadth difference.
Were he member Of this Congress he would
be found side by side with his opposers in tho
last one, and not because he had changed, but
because they had
He stands exactly where he did then, ex-
actly where he has always stood, and exactly
where every true National American must
stand. And more than this, he is that identi-
cal Chairman Of the National American Execu-
tive Committee, whose well directed and sue
cessful labors have alluded to above. have
referred TO these matters as an act Of justice
and leave yonr readers 10 discover the readily
suggested moral. .. .
From the Burlington, Iowa. Correspondent Of IN.