Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1860-07-23
To the Democracy of the United
states.
DEMOCRATIC national. EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE Rooms,

WASHINGTON, d. c., July ls, 1860 }

WASHINGTON, ID. u, july lS, lSbU J
FEILow-ClTlzENs: The undersigned have il
in charge, at the instance of the National
Committee of the Democratic party, to ad
dress you some words of explanation and
counsel. You are all advised by this time
that minority of the delegates seeded from
our regular National Convention at Baltimore
and have proposed John c. Breckenridge and
Joseph Lane as their candidates for the Pres
dency and Vice Presidency of the United
States 1t is an occurrence without example
in our history; and for the consequences which
may ensue---involvng, possibly, the existence
of that Union which our fathers besought us
constantly TO maintan-theFe is . grave re
sponsibility somewhere. If the responsibility
be upon those of us who have adhered to the
ancient organization of the Democratic party
whose banners now display the honored names
of Stephen A Douglas and Herschel Y. John
son, as the regular Democratic nominees we
we can but protest, in all sincerity,
cerity, that we sought no unjust advantage
of our seeding brethren, and have
erred, if at all, through mere misjudgment.
1t appears to us, however upon careful and
deliberate review of all that transpired at Bal
tmore, as well as at Charleston, that the sup
porters of Messrs. Breckenridge and Lane, in
violating the settled usages Of the Democratic
party, and in abandoning the regular Demo
cratic organ.zatit n aye taken the whole re-
sponsibility upon themselves.
Before proceeding to a narration ofthe dis
turbances in our National Convention at
Charleston, and afterward at Baltimore, we
deem it necessary to explain the past conduct
of the Democratic party with regard to the
difficult question Of slavery in the Territories OF
Al. Il.
tinctly, for the first time, when the House OF
Representatives, on motion of Mr.. Wilmot, Of
Pennsylvania, August II, 1916, added Pro
viso to the bill nppropriating money in aid OF
the negotiations for peace with Mexico, in the
following words
"PrOpided, That as an express and funda-
mental condition to the acquisition of any
territory from the Republic Of Mexico by the
United States, by virtue of any treaty which
may be negotiated between them, and TO the
use, by the Executive of the monies herein
appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude shall ever exist in any part of said
territory, except for crime, whereof the party
shall first be duly convicted"
The bill was lost, in the Senate, by reason
of controversy upon this particular clause;
and so the very introduction of the question
into Congress by Mr., Wilmot resulted in de-
feating bill of the utmost importance, en-
barrassing the Executive in the midst Of a
foreign war, and in prolonging that war twelve
or eighteen months, expending the treasure
of the nation, and sacrificing in subsequent
battle the lives of so many of our countrymen,
We need not pursue the alarming agitation
thus misehieVousy commenced; an agitation
which defeated General Cass, our nominee
for the Presidency in 1913, and nj last in
1850, brought our Union TO the verge of dis
solution. That catastrophe was avoided, how
ever, by the firmness and wisdom of the Demo
cratic party in Congress and throughout the
country, aided by the most eminent chief, aims
of the Wing party and the basis Of settle
ment then agreed upon, and afterward unani-
mously affirmed by the Wing as well as by
the National Convention at Baltimore, in
1852, was that Congress should not interpose
its authority, under any circumstances,
whether TO prohibit, or introduce, abolish or
maintain the institution of slavery within the
Territories A total exclusion of the subject
from Congress-, thenceforth and forever, was
the olive-branch held out and accepted, North
and South, by the two great political parties
into which the American people were then
divided We say fellow-ciizens, that the
North and the South alike acrcpted this set
tlement because not only did agitation and
discord cease, but as well the Abolition party
at the North as the Secession party at the
South became almost extinct
In January, 1854 at the frstsesson Of Cor :
gress under General Pierces Administration,
a necessity arose for the establishment of Ter
ritorial Governments la Nebraska and Kan
sas; but fearful obstacle seemed TO lie at tho
very threshold The act of Congress, approx
ed March 6, 1920, sometimes called the Mis-
souri, Compromise, prohibited slavery in all
the domain over which these two Territories
extended Obviously. such an enactment was
inconsistent with the principle edopiedin 1850,
and ought then to have been repealed by
name But il had not been repealed, and, al
though never operative in fact, had acquired
all the authority Of age; and Of the many emi-
nent statesmen who, waving their seruples in
regard TO its constitutionality had accepted il
as the discrimination of another controversy
which, In 1870, bade fair to rend the Union
AsundeF. The difficulty seemed, at first, in-
surmountable, inasmuch as repeal of the