Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1860-08-10

who are now advocating it with sleepless
lpertinacity.
The state of affairs which would have ex-
listed if all the representatives of the South
had participated in this secession, is terrible
to contemplate The broad line of demar
cation would then have been drawn, sepa-
rating the sentiments and affections of the
5 entire people of both sections, and fierce
and angry collision must have inevitably en-
sued. That gallant band of men, the sons.
many of them, of Virginia, Kentucky and
Missouri, in whose bosoms the fires of patri-
otsm burn as brightly on the frozen hills
and prairies of the Northwest as on the sun
ny slopes and smiling valleys of our own
glorious South, with hearts throbbing in
unison with our own for the perpetuity of
the Union under the Federal Constitution
and the continued sovereignty and indepen-
dence of the separate States, would have
been dispersed, never, perhaps, to meet with
us again in fraternal communion. Cypress
led, dispirited, insulted and scofed at by
those for whom they have resisted the swell
ling tide of Black Republican power, the
Northern Democrats, abandoned by their
Southern brethren, would eventually go
down beneath the force of maddened fanat-
icism, which, with Southern cooperation,
they might successfully resist, but alone are
powerless to withstand. Destroy the ma
tionaEty and prestige of the Democratic
party, and thUs orhsh out the capabilty of
our Northern friends, and you pronounce
the death knel of the American Union.
The present calamitous condition of af-
e. hon JiY-,1ol 10 bor AZ
South is already beginning to reel in the
terrible struggle of political glaaiatorial-
ship, may serve as foretaste of what we
might expect if the National Democratic
party was severed in two sectional parts
It is known that one only of the Virginia
delegation seeded at Charleston on the re-
lection of the intervention platform the
twenty nine, remaining in the Convention,
agreed to stand by the platform which was
adopted, and implicitly that intervention
was of no vital Importance to the South =
We propose to sustain our action in voting
Against the intervention platform not alone
by the weapons Of reason and justice, but
by admissions from the secessionists them
E selves. After desoanting at some length
upon the duty of Congress in reference to
property rights i'll q Territory, Mr. Russell,
the Chairman eff the Virginia delegation, in
an address to his constituents after the ad-
: iournment of the Charleston Convention to
meet at Baltimore, submitted the following,
which we extract:
'sI5ut something is due to the past; and if we
, consider our peculiar and complex system of gov
ernments and the variety of relations which NAV
be effected by the action of Congress upon such a
cuh oc g Vpr IN hn Toprit
nit the abstract right Of citizen to be protected
in the enjoyment of his property at future time
end upon contingent necessity, is not enough at
this day to demonstrate the wisdom of pledpinr
our party toa partcule Interference with the To-
& cal affairs of Territory, Nv Congress. Few South
= ern men, believe, contemplate the immediate in
terFentlon OF Congress in the manner proposed, or
even IN its future -ntervention except for the cor
rection ct palpabe abuses. Gases requiring such
action may never arise, or, It all events not whsn
: those who accept our platter will be in power
Ii one should happen, it may be with such circum-
stances that the whele South will pronounce inter-
ference to be useless that the North itself will
u call upon Congress to afford remedy for fla
e grant wrong. In ordinary cases, it would proba-
bly, be perncious, or, atleast, useless to enactsuch
regulations fer an unwilling population; and the
: people, II willing to enforce them, would supply
IL chem. We must all be reluctant needlessly to a.
bridge the free action CT the people or the govern
ment of any Territory; auo it is not expedient
, upon an offensive suspioon, 10 establish perpet-
nal menace OF interference. II may be dangerous
congress. At
all events, such claim to protection can never be
Of any avail unless be freely conceded as right
, BY great portion OF the Ncrth. Until then it
may be wise to reason but net to quarrel with onr
= Northern cit1zens On this subject if we are
4 unprepared to sever cur connection with them.
''By breaking up the Democratic party upon
such an issue, we would impair the security of
more essential rights connected with our peculiar
Institutions Virginia has been robbed of proper
y to the value of millions with the conniyance of
e neighboring States. Her citizens have been muir
dered and other States hare given refuge to the
, murderers She is still exposea to continued de-
probation, aggression and insult whenever her SIS
ter States OF the North controlled by the party
which there opposes democracy. The complete
and permanent dominion of that adversary would
practically annul almost every right of the South
D except the ultimate right if oppressed States -
Indeed, whether the Union is TO continue with all
the present causes of rrtation or is to be r;vor
: asunder by fatal dissensions about slavery,
Virginia is too vitality interested in these questions
to treat them as mere themes for polemica disqui-
siton or pretexts for aimless quarrels. r.
cit is Of great practical moment to her that the
Union shall! be maintained according to the Con
stitution, that the agitation Upon tie subject of
slavery shall cease, and that the party which alone
in all the North, is just to her, shall be preserved
IN its integrity and placed in power, not only in
the Federal Government, but in the States 1t is
less Important to her, or to any frontier State of
che South that party shall instantly inscrbe on
paper principle however sound, which NAV
never be practically available. Politicians IN 9TH
er localities sheltered by the border States can
more safely push speculative disputation to vio-
lent extreme"
.. The whole address is well worthy of pc
rusal The seceders having left the Con-
vention and organized in separate body,
the hallotting. was soon commenced. Our
! votes were given twenty-five consecutive
times for Mr.. Hunter, and it being apparent
to us that bis nomination was out of the
question, his strength having declined from
AZ to % votes-202 votes being necessary
for nomination, we deemed it wrong to
procrastinate the proceedings, and therefore
cast our vote For Mr.. Douglas, whom we be-
lieved to be the choice of large majority
Of the National Democracy.
Mr.. Douglas had at the time received
151 Of the votes remained in the Conven-
ton.
We voted for Mr.. Douglas, dissenting
from him upon the question of the powers Of
Territorial Governments, but regarding that
difference as referred to the arbitrament of
a tribunal which took the question out of
party conventions and sectional issues, and
as question also about which many of the
ablest statesmen in our party had agreed to
differ = See debates on Kansas bill,
speech of Senator Hunter and others."l
That we believe Stephen A. Douglas to
l {