The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1860-04-20
Importance of the Charleston Con-

and its action will have a very important
influence upon the other party conven.
tions which arc called at Chicago and
Baltimore. lA
Although IL is composed almost entirely
of partisan spoils-hanters, in whom, per-
sonaky, tie country has little confidence,
yet, as it is the only one of the Presi-
~lential conventions that will have full
delegations from every State in the Union,
and thus possesses truly national char
acter, the conservative feeling of the
whole country looks to it with the hope
that in the present emergency it will
day aside all ultra partisanship, and be
animated by broad national spirit in its
proceedings reaction has begun in
the Central and Northern commercial
States against the revolutionary and des-
siuctive mania which has taken hold of
the black republican party, and the con-
scrvative clement is begmning to move,
and to prepare itself for enlistment in
the fight of selfpreserRation against Sc
ware and his faratica. followers. The
elections in Connecticut and Rhode
Island demonstrate beyond question the
change that has already taken place in
the popular sentiment in practical New
England; and if the Charleston Conven-
ton pursues moderate course, and
dominates man whose antecedents will
command the confidence of the conser-
rativc element, it may reasonably be
expected that he will carry all of the
Central and number Of the Northern
commercial States.
But the men who 90 to Charleston
must remember that that body will oc
'cupy the position of the conservative con-
vention of the Union, more from accident
than from any act of the party which
has called them together. Imbecility,
leading to defeat. broke up the old wing
party, and the rapid growth of the Know
Nothing organization which succeeded it
showed how disguised the people were
with both the wing and democratic COM
binatons. The little-minaedness of the
Known othing leaders soon reduced that
organization to nonentity, and theblacl<
republican party acquired strength from
the folly and discussions of the demo
crazy more than from any soundness in
its own principles. The fraternal embrace
which its leaders have now given to the
petty band of fanatical abolitionists has
given the black republican party its
death wound, and at this naoment the
whole country is looking anxiously around
for the party and the statesmen whose
broad national views shall sink the parti-
san and the politician, and whose big
heart shall cherish the Union, the coun-
try, and the whole country, in its i'm
pulses and affections. The democratic
partisans who are about TO meet at Char
lesion in convention do not occupy that
position; but they are the first to meet,
and it rests with them to take it,
The country, however, is not blind to
the fact that they come together merely
through the power Of the old party drill
rather than from any unity of sentiment
or of impulse. Their party is as bare Of
national statesmen among its leaders as
is any of the others. There is not
among the thirty or forty aspirants for
the nomination at Charleston, asingle man
who, as Senator or representative in
Congress, dares to take, on any great ma
tional question, the position of n states
man, and speak and act in opposition to
any temporary alteration of the public
mind in his own State, trusting to the
power of reason and truth, and the ever
willing patriotic impulses of the people
to sustain him at home. Party leaders
have descended to the level of politicians,
and each one endeavors to preserve his
position by catering to the whims of To-
cal feeling in his own State, and to OBJ
tain the Presidency through bargaining
combinations and cheating transactions
with his fellows. The consequence is
that the democratic party which is to
meet in representation at Charleston is as
piebald as Josephs coat, while the fam
attic madness of the black republican
leaders has attained some degree of re-
spectaoility from the fact that it dwells
upon something more broad than the
whims of any particular State. Demo
cratic faction has killed everything in the
democratic party except the mechanical
movements of party drill. This is going
to bring together in National Conven'
ton, perhaps for the last time forever
more, the advocates Of squatter sovereign
ty and of strict construction, the ultrf
pro-slavery men of the South, and those
with free soil proclivities from the North
the tariff partisans and the free-tladers
the southwark extensionists, and those
who think the area of freedom is extend
ing itself as rapidly as is compatible will
safety, the Buchanan conservatives, the
Douglas temporisers, the Hunter cXclu
sives, the Guthrie time-servers, and ;
host of self-worshippers, who look upor
the government as something to be adj
ministered for their own personal anc
peculiar benefit. The whole country
waits to see if the men thus brought to
gether by party drill will recognize tn,
greatness of the emergency that is befor,
them, and, putting aside their petty 10
cal fancies, adopt platform broad as thu
Union, and place upon it man WIFI
will command the confidence of til,
conservative feeling now everywhere
aroused by the sense of danger. BY sucl
a course, and by none other, can TIN