The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1860-01-13
rfrs From the Baltimore American. 8
A Union Party Indispensable.

T. "a
Henry Clay with prophetic foresight
warned the country that the agitation of
the Fugitive Slave Law would sooner or
later resutin the formation Of a Union and
an Anti-Union party. The prediction is
verified by the events of the passing hour.
The inability of either of the dominant
parties to organize the House, the COM
mon sentiment of the mass meetings
which have been held in the cities and
towns of the North, the tone of every re-
spectacle paper in the land, all prove
that the time has come when party for
the Union and the Constitution must be
organized. That is the universal opinion.
No other thought seems to occupy the
minds of the people. On all sides and
by all classes, even by the most bigoted
cliques, there appears to be a unanimous
conviction that the countrymust be saved,
cost what it may to parties and party
leaders. The Constitution must be up
held in the spirit in which it was framed
even though Democracy Republicansm
and Americanism go to wreck.
Sectionalism has had its day, has gone
itsfull length, ,and displayed its hideous de-
signs, careless ofwho beheld or what would
be the consequences of the display. Proud
of its fancied strength, it scorned conceal
ment. Assured by its own insolence of a
triumph it was not destined to achieve, it
imposed the laws of an imaginary con-
quest upon subjects whose existence, in
that relation, was purely ideal. Mr.. Sew
ard, in the Rochester pronuncamento,
carried sectionalism to its point of culm-
nation. He spoke as one having author
ity, but he had not consulted the true
oracle. 1t was the inspiration of his own
subtlcty which gave him utterance, not
the profound spirit of a nation at peace
with itself, and anxious only to be left un-
disturbed in the tranquil pursuit of its
material progress and its domestic duty.
He waited long, but his hour was not
come. Nay, it could not come, had he
waited till the crack of doom. No man,
we are well persuaded, can ever excel
this great sectional leader in the arts by
which people are misled, nor can any
man mislead portion of the American
people so far as he has done. We are
wholly mistaken in the indications of
popular feeling if we err in saying that
sectionalism has received its death blow
Within the coming year it will be crushed.
1t is idle talk for the Democratic or
Republican parties to disclaim their sec
tional character. That the rank and file
of these parties are national, no one
doubts the country would be in a sad
plight indeed if they were not. But the
aims of their leaders, the basis of their
organizations, and the purposes, covert
or disguised, which they contemplate,
are anything else than national. Power
ful as they are, both of these parties are
impotent for good, since it is impossible
for either of them to originate a public
measure which will not carry with it the
taint of the source from which it origin
ated-the faint of scctionalism. Passing
over the endless feuds of the Democracy
and the impossible chasm which sepa-
rates them with respect to the question
of intervention, leaving out of view the
intense distrust of Republicanism which
recent occurrences have awakened in the
public mind, it cannot be questioned that
the eXigcncies of the times not less than
the popular expectations demand the
immediate formation of distinct, sepa.
rate party, tramme!led by no obligations
that patriotism does not sanction and
impelled to no action that does not look
to the safety and perpetuity of the Un.
ion.
This is the issue, the only issue, with
which any party can go before the coun
try in 1860 with the slightest hope of tol
Grafton, to say nothing Of success. The
platform of the new party is the simplest
the plainest conceivable--the Union un
der the Constitution and according to the
Constitution, interpreted in the spirit o
fraternity and civic duty. The mode o
administering the government, the pol
icy which this or that party has favored
in times past, the trivialities of patronage
at home or abroad--all these are as moth
ing when weighed in the balance agains
the imminent need of securing the found
ations of social order and domestic re
pose. Make fast the Union, and wha
else is demanded may bide its time.