Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-04-01
needful that l should. 1t Ia fresh in my


Dtgan with are-aftirmation of the resolutions
| OF former Democratic Conventions; opposed
| TO tariff; opposed to internal improvements
I by the general government; opposed to The
distribution Of the proceeds or the sales of
the public lands; opposed to everything. in
snort, except-zwhat do you think,-ecoaomy
Ca 9's public expenditures. Yes. MIR. President,
tnat was the one single affirmative principle
they avowed. They were opposed TO every
thing, and in favor Of nothing but economy.
Ihere the older and the wiser heads Of the
| party proposed to stop. But progressive
America, manifest destiny and overwheim-
ing necessity men demanded something more.
TO conciliate them it was necessary that
there should be an addenda. Accordingly
We had resolution in relation to Kansas and
Squatter Sovereignty. so remarkably clear
and explicit that its trainers have never been
able to interpret il to the present day. Then
there was plank labelled Are Seas" an
other declaring the Gulf of Mexico an Amer
1 lean Lake. Another in reference to our For
| eign policy, which was equivalent TO gene
| raj declaration of war against all mankind;
| and tackled on to the tail OF all these, u
| resolution in favor of a Railroad to the Pa
| cific. but 80 tackled on as to enable Tennes-
see Senator, not long since, to deny. with
| some show Of reason, that it constituted any
part Of the platform.
! Without deciding how far the resolutions of
that Convention were just, or necessary or
| proper, undertake to maintain chat whether
they were good, bad or indifferent, the Demo
! cratic party have proved false TO every one.
| Let me he distinctly understood. / do not
| charge the Democracy with general infidelty
| to their pIedges-I do not assert that they
| have broken this, or that particular promise,
| but | assert that they have been false TO all
that there is not one solitary principle, new
| or old, enumerated in that platform which has
| been truly and faithfully adhered to.
In other and better times if it could be es-
| tablisbed that party had violated single
material pledge, its prestige was gone-its
defeat inevitable. Now the question is not
| what pledge the Democratic party has brok-
en- but what one it has redeemed. 1t is i'm
possible that free people can permit them
selves thus to be trihed with. Do you ask
where the proof of what | assert is to be
found? L answer, In every Democratic journ-
al in the land. Give me the Cincinnati plat
form, and the files of the Nashville Union,
and ask for no other document to establish
the fact that the pathway OF the Democracy
Is strewn with broken promises, and not
single truth can be gathered along the dreary
way.
They told you that they were opposed to
protective Tariff-they went further, and told
you that it was the duty of the Government
gradually to abolish all duties and establish
direct taxation instead. Yet at the very
next election Gov. Packer was nominated,
and elected Governor of Pennsy lvania be-
cause of his high Tariff principles. and his
open reputation Of that plank in the Cincin-
natl platform In his last annual message
Mr., Buchanan abjured the principle of free
trade, and those who have endorsed his adj
ministration must share his guilt, and are
equally responsible for his shameful violation
OF plighted faith.
| have here resolution adopted by the
Democratic party of Tennessee, at their re-
cent Convention in this city. 1t is in the fol-
rowing words:
ResoLued, That we have an abiding conf
dence in the ability and and patriotism of the
President of the United States, and that we
approve generally of the ideas contained in
his messages and the acts of his administIa-
ton. We therefore renew our pledges to his
support and our faith in his adherence to the
principles of the party.
If this resolution could be submitted to a
court of Justice, the decision would be that
Notwithstanding the general terms employed,
it is a broad and full endorsement of the Adj
ministratiOn of James Buchanan. They make
no exception, and the legal presumption is
that they were aware of none. Any other
construction would make it no endorsement
at all, because one man would say he intend
ed To except the tariff another that he intend |
ed to except internal improvements, and still |
another, the Pacific Railroad, and 30 on until |
every part had disappeared. In law, and in
equity, it would be held an unqualified en-
dorsement, and so l shall treat it. If the |
question had been submitted to Mr.. Nichol- |
son, while he was Chancellor, | am very sure |
he is too good lawyer to have hesitated as
to his decision. We have then the Tennessee |
Democracy endorsing the tariff policy of |
James Buchanan, IN opposition to that of the |
Cincinnati Convention. Nor are they sngu- |
lar in that regard. Mr. Bigler, of Pennsylva-
MIA, and MIR. Thompson, of New Jersey, with |
all the lesser Orbs revolving round them, have
boldly advocated higher duties than were
ever contended for by any Wing of Tennes-
see, while they have remained in full fellow
ship, and acted no undistinguished part i'm the |
Democratic caucus's and conclaves, for which
the last Congress was so remarkable. Can |
YOU ask for more overwhelming proof that so |
far as free trade is concerned, the people |
have been deluded and deceived. Instead of
lower duties, they have persistently urged |
the adoption of higher, and in order TO create
a necessity for them, they have systematically |
suuandered the public money until they have |
reduced the Government to bankruptcy, and |
thereby furnished the Washington Union the |
acknowledged organ of the party, an occasion
for a lengthy editorial to prove that The
Tariff is the Union"
The resolution against Internal Improve
ments has had an equally brief existence, or
rather it never had an existence at all. 1t |
was dead before its birth, and came still born
into the world. Congress was in session
when il was adopted. and before their adj
journment they passed some eight or nine
1.-THE number is immateriaD Internal Improve
ment bills, and then went home to prove to
their constituents that the Cincinnati plat
form. which they bad just violated so glar-
iuglv, was the embodiment of wisdom and
Not one Democrat from the North
West voted against these bills. There were
very few "nays' from the Southwest. The
Northern and middle States furnish
ed fair proportion of democratic yeas"
and few stragglers were picked from the
South by an appropriation for Cape Fear
river, whose national importance may be
when | tell you that il affords
about as much water as Duck river at Co
lumbia.
Two planks are thus disposed Of | take
them as they occur To me, without reference |
to the order in which they are yet down in
The platform. The next to which l shall
direct attention is the resolution against the
distribution of the proceeds of the sales of
The public lands. It is true that no bill in
hose words has been passed, but there is such
, thing as whipping the devil around the
stump. There are more ways than one of
arriving at given end and a principle may
De murdered under different name. . If the
Constitution forbds Congress TO distribute
he money arising from the sales of land, I'M
Iuestionaby it follows that ii forbids them
% distribute the laud ITSELF
IL there is any difference it is in favor of
he money grants since in that case the gov
at least receives back the expenses of
urvey and sale, while in the land grants the
osts already incurred are wholly lost. Look
ng at the question in this light what respect
ave the ID, mocracy paid TO this plank OF their
atform!
pass over the numerous grants of swamp
lnds-of lands for Internal Improvements
{ lands for schools. railroads and other pur-
oses partly because many OF these were