The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-03-09
The Political Status OF Mr.. Smith, OF
North Carolina. vE

The Political Status OF Mr.. Smith, OF
North Carolina. v
During the contest for Speakership OF
the National House Of Representatives, it
was charged that the Democrats in voting
for Mr.. SMITH, of North Carolina, for
Speaker, cast their votes for Know Moth
ing. This was denied at the time but the
charge has since been reiterated by the black
Republican press, especially in the North
west. To set these calumnies at rest, Mr..
SMITH, on the 2lst ult., made a personal
explanation, in which he stated that he had
"never been a member of the American
organization, and did not concur in, or sym
pathize with any proscriptive features of
its party creed" He then continued as
follows;
am Wing. I stand where, for
more than twenty-five years, have stood,
without faltering. amid the mutations of party
names and party organizations; looking upon
the great interests Of the country as illuminated
in the light shed upon them by the master spir-
its of the generation of statesmen that is past,
and clinging, with flial devotion, to that noble
standard which so long waved over the gallant
patriotic Wings of the school of Henry Clayi
In that great party there was, there could be
no sectionalism. 1t had no double readings to
its political creed. 1t was emnently national
party, knowing no North, South, East or West
but Co eXtensive with the length and breadth
of the Confederacy. With the alleged disinte-
grafton of its organized existence. the princi
Piles committed to its keeping have not per-
ished. They still live, and are cherished in the
affections of the great mass of our people. The
American heart yet thrObs with deeper energy
of pulsation, when that name is pronounced
which so often led its embattled hosts to action.
The eminent nationality of purpose and prin
ciple which the favorite son of Kentucky
breathed into that party, giving to it its vital
energy, is still looked to to guide us safely
through surrounding perils.
have an abiding faith in the permanency OF
free nsttutions-in the continuance OF our ma.
tionalty. hope to see the ultimate triumph
of the conservative sentiment which found its
just expression in Henry Clay, and in his public
life.
Ihope to see that vast sectional organization
held together by the single cohesion of hostility
to the institutions of nearly one half of our con-
federated States, now breeding over the almost
entire North, and smothering the generous and
patriotic aspirations that struggle to break
from the pressure; an organization which, in
producing natural and necessary antagonism
in the South, has almost rent us in twain, and
arrayed section against section in fierce conflict,
threatening, in its further aggressive progress,
the overthrow of our political institutons-l
hope to see this organization, in all its pride OF
strength, crumbling and wasting before the
consuming fires of popular wrath as winter
SHOWS dissolve and disappear under the return
ing heat of spring. hope to witness The union
of true and just men everywhere In resolute
resistance to the sectional spirit which ami.
mates and directs its movements.