The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-08-01


b IA full recognition and maintenance o
r those rights as paramount to the safety oil th'
e Federal Administration or the success OF ma
e tional parties.
n 8. The elevation to the public councils o
i the abIest and purest Southern men.
5 ART. 6.-This League will nominate nc
J candidate for any Office, State or Federal; but
its members are pledged to use all honorable
means to secure the nomination, by the re-
spective parties to which they belong, o.
sound, able and pure men Of the Southern
: Rights school.
In advocating the League, thus expressed
my views in lengthy speech, which was re-
ported and published at the time.
"And yet, as l have said elsewhere and
firmly believe, the South cannot get rid OF
these parties-or if she utterly destroys them.
their destruction would lead to an immediate
dissolution Of the Union.
The great object to be attained is to elevate
and to purify these great parties-and cause
them, if possible, to abandon the law of com
promise, and to adopt the law of the Consti-
tuition in dealing with the Southern cues
tons.
70 effect this the South needs to cultivate
a more enlarged and generous faith in the
patriotism of all her people, without distinc-
ton of party. She needs the power of public
opinion lin other words, she needs some Or
gained, systematic method of gathering and
bringing to bear upon great public questions
the opinions of her people. In this particular
she has always been singularly deficient, and
hence her public men have been left too much
to 70 low their own devices, and to be infiu-
enced by antagonistic influences. Generally
speaking, it is only at elections that the peo-
pies voice is heard-and then unfortunately
the spirit of party is strongly in the ascend
ant, and party candidate is held to be the
best man, "at all hazards" We want some
means of arousing and concentrating public
opinion on the great Southern issue, at any
hour IN which it may be needed.
The party press does not express the pub
Lie sentiment OF the people, as general thing.
Ii 1t IS the press of party in power, it is apt
to be controlled by mere partizans, and to ap-
prove or disapprove of measures according as
they bear upon the ascendancy OF their party.
Ii it IS the press of the party out of power,
public measures are apt to be scanned with
view TO attack more than with view to Sc
cure the ascendancy of the right
We want as much of unity among our peo-
| pie as tits possible to Obtain. The bitterness
4
counteract it here i'll the South.
There is platform upon which we, as in
diyiduals, can unite in sentiment 1t is the
| platform of the Constitution. National par
ties may be considered as inseparable from
the ballot-box. He did not propose so Quix
otto thing as an attempt to uproot them
But he desired the formations of associations
| all over the Soath-composed of men Of all
parties, still retaining in good faith their old
party relationship meeting together upon
the platform of the Constitution, for the pur-
pose of bringing to bear great moral influ-
enee upon all parties.
The Constitution Of the League then shows
that its "avowed obi .ct" was not to
break up the Union, but "to use all proper
means to maintain our rights within the |
Union" The extract from my speech shows |
that advocated it, not as means ofdestroy- |
ing the Democratic party. but as purifier of, |
and an aid to the true men of that grand old |
Democracy, to rescue it from the fatal en- |
braces and counselS of such mere partizans |
as VIM. II. Carroll and FL. NJ Watterson,
men whose ntellects never rose to a compre-
hension of the principles of the party, nor
above that of its mere organization for distrib-
utlng offices; and hope that may be al
lowed to congratulate myself and my old |
friends OF the League, and may also congrat-
ulate the whole South, that brief as was its
career, and small as were its enrolled num-
oers the CHIEF, mighty, living principles of
the League have leaFened all parties South,
and there is to-day union of Southern
States in favor of that principle, to-wit: No
more compromises of the Constitutional
rights of the South.
The seventh allegation is that l wrote the
Slaughter letter. did write it. It was pri-
yate-not designed for publication, and there
fore its expressions were loose, and not as
Well weighed as I would have desired. Still,
there is not an idea in it that do not now
entertain.
But the letter does not urge disunion-
does not advocate disruption, either of the |
Democracy or Of the Union. Mr.. Slaughter
had written to me, urging me to.abandon the
Democracy as the great obstacle to Southern
union. replied, refusing to go into his /
scheme. He called the Democratic party an |
Augean stable, and said his scheme would /
clean it out. denied that his scheme could |
succeed. He predicted good from its over
throw. The letter refuses assent to his pre-
diction. To wean him from his chiInerical |
and short-sighted policy, l suggested to him |
to aid in extending the League; not to de- |
stroy the party, which in the same letter had I
refused to give countenance to, but to elevate
and purify the true men of the country. And |
for what purpose? The Douglas papers and
orators, following the idea given by Mr..
Douglas himself answer and say that pro-
claimed my purpose in that lett to be ito /
precipitate the cotton States into revolu-
ton" / say that this is 3 gross peryersion
of the letter and spirit of that document
The letter itself says that the purpose was
"a prompt resistance to the neat aqqression;"
that sat proper nsonseaf this resistance can
be made.
This, and this alone, is the offence in that [
letter. When it was written had in nv
head no scheme of disunion. | have had
more since-I have none now. Then, as now,
was for using all proper means for main-
tanning our rights within the Union-then, as
now, to elevate, purify and bring the Demo-
cratic party up to strict maintenance Of the
full measure of our Constitutional rights, and J
to ignore all further compromises To this 1
end have honestly latored up to this hour.
The whole tone and tenor of that letter is to
prepare for enforcing the platform of the
Union State Convention of Georgia, con the
next aggression - at ga proper moment.',-
When that hour arrives shall be found pre-
pared. That | did not have in view the de-
struction of the party or of the Union at
Charleston, is made evident by the fact that
when its disruption was complete, on the ad-
journment at Charleston, by the secession of |
eight Democratic and cotton States, so far
from misunderstanding all efforts to heal the |
breach-so far from endeavoring to widen it,
and thus make it perpetual-so far from ex- |
ufting over it, and looking upon it, as charged,
and falsely charged, in the eighth and last al
legation, "as the period which was looked |
forward to (by me) when the Democratic |
party and the Union were to be overwhelmed
in one common ruin1--the country well |
knows that as soon as wellgrounded hope
of harmony being restored was held out
seized upon that hope, and used all my inf1u-
ence with reluctant friends to obtain re-
union Of the Democracy at Baltimore.
That reunion was not effected at Baiti-
more. was not owing to any act or expression
| of mine, or Of any of the seeding cotton
States. Thus when the bogus delegates pre-
sented themselves from Alabama and Louisi-
ana, they were reported in favor of by a
Douglas committee, and voted in by the
Douglas faction in the Convention. The only
| instance in which bogus Douglas delegation
was rejected, was in the case OF the Georgia
I delegation. The reason of that is plain
That delegation had not followed the instruc-
tons received at Charleston. They went into
fair contest in Georgia within the Democ-
racy, and being overwhelmingly defeated they
seeded FROM the regular Convention. This
wa the objection to them. The Douglas
men at Baltimore could not and would not
endorse secedersi Had the Georgia Douglas
ties followed instructions and held bogus
Convention, they would have been admitted
at Baltimore, even if they could have polled
but one hundred votes in Georgia.
Douglas and his friends were determined to
nominate him at all hazards; and they sue
eeeded in doing SO by shutting out sixteen
representatives of the genuine Democracy,
and admitting sixteen spurious and bogus del
egates. But this violation Of all Democratic
usage and principle was not enough, and fur
Their gross and glaring breach of rules and
usage was necessary.
The rule of that Conventions ruled by
H. pras;1ant ond confirmed hv the hodv-