Arkansas true Democrat., 1860-03-24
For the True Democrat


 Mir. EDIToR-in your issue of the 29th of Fob'y, appeared article the signature of Spects- tors " iH regard to tie conl ention of Hampstead county. and the differences between the two aspl- rants for Congress from Hen stead. Relieving, we do, that great niustiCe is done Col Can't and large ajority of the democrats of Hampstead county. in that article, ne cannot refrain from say ing word il reply.
 Being absent from the county st the time of the meeting ot the called ntion of the 2lst of Jany, not speLk ut that from personal lgc. bat have been crc,litably informed ny several who present. that there but one township throughout the entire county repre- seuted, that the delegate from shat toNnship. ac o~icdsed that there was hArdi, corporal's guard ai the township con, en.ion when he ~as appointed delegate to the county NeLtion. and who were the rest that made up that aug ust assembly Where ,.ere they from! What authority did those 70 ol 35 men most of whom were rom one towHshp p and one u which there had becu no convention held have to appoint delegates to ,lc district -euton, these tn represent the 1000 democratic voters of Hampstead count, and Vet such the convention oi which = SnectatoTs " 0tre spea king when they said that ''cyclN reasonable, consistent democrat and unprejudced indi> idual must be thoroughly convinced iy this time that it was an honest and tair expression of the voice of the de- InOcracy of Hemr s,tud Couliv.'
 And fellow democrats of Hcmpstead has it come to this--that 20 30 men ctn meet in convention without any authority from the ot the voters ln the county, and pass resolutions br which the whole county must le governed2 Was 1t such conv eitions this which "Spectators allude to when they say ' conventions are the life blood and protection ot the democratic party }' so though cursed le the day long that life blood will cease to flow, those principles will be oyerrun and trodden down, if the opposition does not triumph over Us, worse, a fur more dreadful calamity will bvertake us. Whenever the democratic party becomes blinded to its interest, as to let few Iemagogues ana office seekers speak for the masses Of the peop.e, and under the name and cloak of conventions, carry out their mercenary and selfish esigns-then 1t is that the democratic party, the Dnly party that can protect rights and insttu- i tons becomes poweriess to rerel the strong and numerous assaults from the North. The import ant offices ot our country will be filled by corruE and disorgunzlns men; the honest, highm'nded men Who have the interests of their country at heart, lean not, will stoop so low as 10 adopt such uri- IEprncipled means in order that they may be pro lImotcd. But although we find scfne of the democ- tracy of South Arkansas adopting this course, vet live hope that the masses of the party are not so blinded to be led on by these des enng few. to the utter overthrow of the party, and not only hope but sincerely believe that the people of South \ Arkansas are too intelligent to be duped in this way. While we believe that they as democrats are strongly ill favor of conv ventons when conducted so as to give fair reflex of the will of the people, we do not believe that they are willing to submit to and indorse the action of every retty assembly assuming the name of conv enton, when hali oi the democrats in the county knew nothing of such meeting, and nine tenths Of them have voice | i'll It.
 ' But democrats of Hcmpstead, you who had noth-
 ing to do with the convention of the 2lst Jany, be careful lnw you speak of that convention, for although you outnumber by ten to one those who 1 did have voice in it, vet if you do not tamely submit to the action of that so called convention you will be denounced as disorganizers, you will hear 1t declared ol you every hand that you have taken the first steps toward the ranks of the oppo sition.
 Again, Spectators in speaking of the dssat ! is.action manifested by the democrats of Hemp stead in regard to the convention of tue 2lst Janv says: (Which dissatisfaction was mainly and almost exclusively expressed by some newspaper scribber charged with being a member of the know nothing ordcr.' In regard to Scribbler '' ] Gas "Spectators " choose to term him we would ask, who preferred the charge against him, that he belonged to the know nothing ordefl Another newspaper scribbler," and that charge was openly denied by the accused, will be seen by reference to the last article in the South Arkansas Democrat | from that newspaper scrbbler," who seems to do much among the advocates of the conve vention of the 2lst And not only was the charge denied. but similar preferred against the accuser, and if he has dared to answer it, we have not yet seen IT. AS tO tle mass or tnc Couh'f We can say to their credit, that although We have heard d great many express themselves about the meeting of the 2lst, we have not heard one who was not engaged in it, speak in any very compli
 men:arv terms of it. but the contrary, It seems to be the almost universal opinion that 1t was | concoctcd and carried out by a few wire workers W ho had not the interests of the people in view. l Spectators seem desrou. to know why it was that there was no meeting held on the 18th Feb'v if the l people of Hempstead were not satisfied nith the 1 proceedings of the 2l.t January! We answer, for l the same reason that there no real cony ention held on the 2ist, and that was, that the tovnshps failed to meet and send up their delegates. AL though there were great many of Col. Gantt's friends out on the 18th, yet the townships were not regularly represented and as their voice might not be the voice of a majority of the democratic voters of the county they did not think it proper to (as much smaller assembly on former occa l sion had done) dictate to the entire democracy of l the county.
 Although we were not present on the 2lst Jan'y, yet we are pleased to say that we were present on the ieth r eb y, and we deem it due Col. Can't an te democrats of the second congressional district or Arkansas, to give some of the proceedings
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