Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-03-07
The Opposition North and South.

Mr. Seward, in his late speech in the Senate, goes
much further than the Southern Oppositionists do
in his audations of the Union. He holds up the
Democratic party as the dsunion party and very
clearly intimates that if the Southern people will
not submit to his rule he will compel them to do so
by the whole power of the people of the United
States" We all know what his idea of the Union
is. 1t is a Union Of aggression on one side and of
submission on the other. 1t is Union to be main
tanned until the rye and wheat fields of Massachu-
sets shall be cultivated by slave labor or the rice
and cotton fields of Mississippi shall be cultivated
exclusively by white labor. 1t is a Union under
the higher law" which would disregard all the
compromises of the Constitution on the subject of
the white That is Sewardism; and that is
the Sewardism to which the Opposition leaders in
this State have declared in advance they will sub
nit In one of their resolutions they say
That yield to portion of our feow-citi-
zens in our determination to maintain our common
rights in slave property, and this can be better et
,rtcted Uihih the Union than by its distractions"
That this proposition is true at this time no one
denies. No one proposes nOW to dissolve the Union
These Opposition leaders knew this when they ut
tered the above language and it was, therefore, in
tended for the future Their opinion therefore, is
that slavery will be safer in the Union, under Sc
ward than it will be out of the Union, under their
orn CONTROL Comment on this is unnecessary.
Mr. Seward also charges that the Democrats are
determined to dissolve the Union in the eveEt of
their defeat for the Presidency; in other ors that
they mean if they cannot hold the offices and enjoy
the honors, that other party shall. That is the
charge, and the charge is false No Democrat has
ever declared that devolution of federal pow
or from one party to another should work dissolu
ton of the Union; but every true Democrat does
maintain, and does declare that without the Consti-
tuition there can be no Union, and that the election
of such man as Seward to the Presidency would
either destroy the Union or destroy slavery. But
Mr.. Seward in making this charge against the Dem
ocratic party has gone no further than Southern
men have gone. 1t is the same charge made in this
State by the leaders of the Opposition party. 1t
is was made in their late Convention, and their pa
pers are full of it.
The national Democratic party is responsible for
all the agitation the subject of slavery" says Mr.
Seward; the national Democratic party is respon-
sibe for all the agitation the subject of slavery"
is the echo which is returned to Mr.. Seward from
the lips of Southern men! The national Demo-
cratic party is the disunion party" says Mr.. Sc
ward; the national Democratic party is the disu-
Mon party" is the response which is made to Sc
ward and Greedy by the Opposition leaders in this
State! Hear what Greedy says in the New York
TribHne of the 10Th December last:
1.-The only disunion party is the Democratic par
ty; and all the troubles which now surround the
slavery question have been brought on by this par
ty acting under the inspiration of disunonlsts and
demagUgues."
Mr. Greelys remedy is to "turn the disunionlsts
out of power" That is the remedy of the Southern
Opposition. But Mr.. Greedy goes one step further,
and says, commit the government to the hands of
the Constitutional Republican party" Here the
Southern Oppositionists and Mr.. Greedy differ, but
they differ only to this extent: Mr.. Greedy says the
only remedy is to place the black Republicans in
power; the Southern Oppositionists say the only
remedy is to place any other party than the Demo
cratic party in power.
So much for the Opposition North and South The
only reliable advocate, therefore, of Constitutional
Union, is the national Democratic party If that par
ty is dso ganized and defeated and Seward assumes
the rens of government then farewell to Constitu-
tional Union and farewell to slavery.