Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-08-27
TERMS OF UNION DECLARED.


Virginia and Kentucky have lately conde
seconded, on several occasions, to announce the
terms on which the Republicans may be al
lowed to vote with them in 1860. The Rich
mond Wing has abounded in labors of this
kind, all the while saying that democracy
spawned such creatures as Hale, Wilmot
Chase, Banks, and Fremont" and that it has
nothing but scorn and wrath for the party to
which they belong. The most moderate and
decent reference to the matter we have seen
in any of the papers referred to, is the follow
ing from the Louisville journal -
"0ur Northern friends, if they wish to be
portion of a National party in 1860, ought to
understand one thing distinctly Unquestiona-
bly, there is many a statesman in the country,
whom conservative and patriotic and national
men North and South may support for the
next Presidency upon the simple platform,
firm and broad, of his own character and life,
and such platform, we have no doubt is the
best. Indeed we believe it to be the only
kind OF platform worthy of a nations consid-
Grafton. Let the conservative Opposition
throughout the country, if they choose, meet
In national convention and nominate and elect
tried and true-souled patriot upon that plat
form with no loose matter added to it. But
we say plainly to the men of the North, what
assuredly most of them must know already,
that if there is to be cooperation between
them and the Opposition in the South in 1860,
1t must be without the requirement of any
concessions from us in regard to any of the
agitated questions of slavery. OF course we
and the whole mass Of the Opposition party
of the South are as much opposed as they
can be to the reyiyal-ut the slave-trgde, but
they cannot expect us to unite with them
upoR-any ground of hostility to the extension
of slavery or to the maintenance of Southern
rights of property adjudicated hitherto or
to be adjudicated hereafter by the U. S. Judi
ciary."
This, we repeat, is the civilest style we have
encountered in any of these journals and yet,
the unmistakable plantation tone rings through
it. not indeed with boisterous noise, but none
the less offensive for this reason. "If they
wish to be portion of a national party in
1860, they ought to understand one thing dis
tinctly ?" 1t will be difficult to find anything
cooler than this while the summer lasts. 1t
would be loss of time and words to suggest
to the Louisville journal that no man in his
senses is likely to search for a national party
among those maddest of all mad slavery ex-
tremists, the Opposition" in Kentucky
That paper may as well postpone revival of
the subject until the Republicans give some
sign of desire to become portion" of their
party. AS matters stand at present, one may
as well talk of fraternal union between dark
ness and light. ~
To form such political union as that to
which the Louisville journal invites us, wo
Republicans must fling away our principles,
tear to pieces our platform, and become mere
soldiers of fortune. And what should we gain
by it? How many electoral votes for our can
didate would be secured in Kentucky and
Virginia Our Louisville contemporary may
not now be as good at figures as when he was
q school teacher in Connecticut; but he can
engage competent assistant. Let him pro-
coed at once to add, subtract, multiply, and
divide, let him stir the matter up in a whirl
of vulgar fractions, submit it to powerful
strain, of geometry backed by algebra, and
exercise it with fuxions; and then, hay
ing solved the problem in the most thor
ough manner, he may proclaim on the house.
top the precise number OF. electoral votes the
candidate of his national party" is sure of, in
either Virginia or Kentucky.
You leaders of the Opposition" in that part
of the country cannot carry state election
Your political impotence is equalled only by
the madness of your zeal for slavery extern
sion. Yet you lecture us on union in style
SO lordly, that, if we were strangers in the
United States, we might suppose it impossible
for President to be elected without your per
mission. But we all know very well just what
you can do, and what you signify in politics.
Join the fre-eating Democrats of Mississippi;
nominate Jefferson Davis for the Presidency !;
strike out boldly in that direction, and you will
at least have the honor of consistency. You
have nothing in common with the Republicans;
but there are in Kentucky thousands who do
agree with us, and who will vote with us next
year. You will never carry another State
election; but their influence will grow and
spread until it becomes paramount in Ken
lucky, and opens her way to a higher style of
prosperity. And in all the Southern States,
those who agree with the Republicans are not
to be found among the foremost opposition pol
iticians (although some of these undoubtedly
prefer our principles) but among those who
are quietly adopting the belief that the rights
of free labor are as important as the claims OF
slavery, and waiting until the time is ripe for
reorganization of parties in the South. They
believe the South should have a free labor
party, white mans party" and such party
they have in preparation.
IL is plain that even the Louisville journal
does not understand the Republican party
does not believe it really means the opposition
to slavery propagandism which it processes
does not imagine that it can finally refuse to
unite with any body on any terms in order
merely to beat the Democrats and get the
offices. Time will correct this mistake, and
make it plain to all concerned, that the party
whose sole business seemed to be to pass reso-
buttons against slavery in order to disregard or
falsify them, no longer exists. 1t has gone the
way of all the earth, and will never come
back. When the Louisville journal and its
southern friends can be made to comprehend
this fact they may be able to read the present
and calculate the future more wisely. They
may also be brought to understand that the
Republicans will never unite with them on
terms which would require us not only to
abandon our own principles, but also to en-
courage slavery extension, endorse the bred
ocou decision, and make no opposition to a
Congressional slave code for the territories.