Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1859-04-14
What Party Ksuld MisIead the People


The Patriot instead Of meeting the issues invOlv-
ed in this canvass in fair, candid and manly way,
has been engaged for some time in the childish &C.
cupatiOu Of asking questions 1t prOpOunds
series Of interrOgatories Us, based upon gratu-
itOus assumptions OF having reference to imprOba-
bic or impossible contingencies. We have not felt
disposed to allow ourselft be drawn off from the ex
posure CT the false and pernioious doctrines Of the
mongrel KnOW-NOthing -Blsek-R Republican Oppose
ton, to the discussion of trivial and irrelevant is
sues However, agreeable it might be to us to ac-
eommodate our neighbor, we could not consent to
undertake the task of instruoting his understand
ing subjects in which the public feel no inter
est or which have been fully discussed liz our coils
umns- We have proposed, however, and still pro-
pose that if the Patriot win answer fully and fair
ly certain other interTogatOries which we propoud-
ed several days ago, We will endeavOr to satisfy
our neighbours curiosity, it only to stop his
Whispering. See how touchingly he complains:
We have no answer at ALL and in its stead an
other bubble and evasion, and only alternative
is to cOnstrue its refusal TO answer as an sck-
nowledgment that the party goes before the peo-
pie with an intention TO mislead them in regard to
some of hequestions asked aud to the Others that
II is guilty of the charges implied.
Tho solicitude that the PARROT manifssts lest we
should mlsead the people, is really astonishing, es
peoially itself its party and its platform are TO-
tally silent on the only points Of the slightest i'm
pOrtanoe embraced in the Patrols questions, while
the Democratic platform the same subjects is full
clear and explicit. For instance the Democratic
platform endorses :ns bred Scott decision and de-
GLARS that slavery ard the rights Of Shareholders in
the territories protected by the constitution Of
the country and BY appeal to the judicial trib-
unsls- We have asked the Patriot once and again
whether it approves or dsseafs from that doctrine
and our contemporary has never responded. The
Opposition platform has no allusiOn TO the great
constitutional doctrine asserted in the bred Scott
decision protecting the citizens of every State in
the possession and enjoyment of their property in
the territories. Instead thereof they assert doc
trine which was interpreted to mean Squatter Sow
ereignty, by the Opposition in1856.
Are not the Patriot and its party attempting to
''nislead The people of the South. Aye worse, are
they not covertly pandering to the abolition preju>
dces Of. their northern allies, and endeavoriDg to
blind their followers to the designs of the Black
Republicans and lead them into an alliance at once
disgraeeful and destructive?
The Patriot asks us what the slavery Resolution
in our platform meanss We certainly can use no
language more explicit or Ineligible than that en-
ployed in the resolution ITSELF 1t means as it
that Southern men have right to 60 into the ter-
rtOries with their property and hold it there under
the protection of the constitution and the laws
We ask again do the Patriot and lis party dissent
from that doctrine? We had taken the same position
long before the convention assembled. It's the
doctrine of the Democratic party, and there is no
other party in the country which has dared to assert
it, There is no other party which has declared that
it will support the South in the maintenance Of that
doctrine. The miserable little faction represented
by JOHN BELL, aud to be delivered by him into
the hands of the Black Republicans, has never ut
tered syllable in yindication Of the rights of the
South as set forth in the bred Scott decision
The Patriot wishes te produce the impression that
we attempting to evade discussion of the doc
trine asserted by Judge Douglas that slavery could
be excluded from the territories by 'unfriendy legis
lstiOn.'" Our contemporary must remember that we
sssailed that heresy in the beginning and declared
it alike false, unjust and dangerous. We have not
concealed our opinions any subject whatever; we
have not hesitated TO maintain the rights of the
South in the fullest and amplest manner Bet while
the Democratic party has been struggling for our
rights and interests, the "Lesder and Representa>
tive man" Of the Opposition has basely betrayed
them, and the Patriot spplauds him as a sound re-
liable man.