Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1860-08-24
JL A r X SvILLE
Friday, August "a, 1860.
Democracy, not Pro-slavery.


ty," said Mr.. Breckenridge OF course 1t is not. 1t
was that party which prohibited slavery in Oregon,
by the application of the Wilmot Proviso, and which
gave up Kansas and Nebraska to the freesoilers by
the ingenious device of squatter sovereignty. 1t is
the same party that has taken the public domain be-
longing to the South parcelled II out and distribu-
ted it among the Northwestern free States as
stimulus to their rapid settlement by anti-slavery
voters thus fastening the overthrow of that equili-
brium of political power between the two great
sections, upon which their equality of rights SO es-
sentiay depends 1t is the same party that so Bit
ferly denounced the American organization for its
noble efforts to guard the ballot-box against the
tide of corrupt and anti-savery sentiment setting so
strongly into it; it is the same party that broke
down oil the restrictions of the naturalization laws
which peculiarly guard southern rights, and it is
the same party which has sought to extend the right
of suffrage to emigrants from every nation EARTH
and that has by this policy, subjected the conserv-
alive native element of the country to the
disorganizing rule of an ignorant and licencious
horde--a heterogeneous compound of every species
of radicasm that knavery, fanaticism, and igno-
rance can suggest. Mr.. Breckenridge is right
"the Democratic party is not a pro-savery party"
and not single blow has ever been struck at the
institution that was not dealt by the band of De-
mocracy, or by assassins armed and instigated by
its policy.
For years, the policy of the Democratic party has
been the most effective that could have been devised
for weakening the political power of the South and
endangering the security of its peculiar Institution
BY the ceascess agitation of the slavery question:
Democracy has fosered ant-slavery fanaticsm and
sectional hate; and while doing this, it seems to
have taken especial pains to break down every
safeguard afforded by that sentiment of public jus
tice which has given way under the assaults of a
corrupt party organization. By example and pre-
ccpt it has taught the masses to disregard the obi
cations imposed by the Constitution and the laws
BY the falsehoods and misrepresentation of Demo
cratic editors and speakers and the glarng corrup-
ton of oice-holders by their appeals to the
passions and most dangerous preudices of the pop
ulace and their reckless violation of the purity Of
the balot-box, the opponents of slavery have been
indefinitely multiplied and their opposition made
formidable by that lawless spirit which has sup
planted private and public virtue and substituted
wanton disregard OF individual ana political rights
Under government of majorties, the Constitution
may clearly define the rights of the citizen hui
those rights can be made secure only through NOR
al agencies; the laws for their protection may bC
wise, but they are inefficient unless administered by
stern integrity. These securities have been rcmov
ed by the policy of the Democratic party, which ha
corrupted the majority and DISTINGUISHED the minor
iy The constitutional rights of the South are tn,
same that they at the birth of the government
but the public virtue which should recognize ant
respect them has been crushed out, and the Consti
tuition and the laws offer but feeble resistance Il
the nroads of the mob-spirit of corrupt majority
This is the source of danger to the institution o
the South, and the Democratic party which is "no
n pro-slavery party is alone responsible for tn,
consequences that may follow its corrupt practice
and disorgaRizng teachings