The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1861-04-06
The " State Rights" Party,

The State Rights Party.
The Baltimore American thus "shows up
the hollowness Of the pretenson of the mcn
who are now assuming TO he the especa
guardians of Southern Rights. We have
such guardians" par excellence among u.s.
They arc continually talking of the "pusillan
imous position" which the border Slave States
occupy in not, as they say, asserting ,heir
rights ard demanding redress or separation
Every man who thinks that such demands
should be made in Constitutional manner
and without being coupled with threats
is, in the opinion of such men, either ar
abolilonist, or, what with them is sy-
nonymcus, cowardly sutmissionist- -
And yet these men claim to BE- Union men,
more so sound as they! All others claiming
Union sentiments, and desiring to CO operat,
together for the preservation Of the Uni or
are actuated, these men say. by s,lfish party
motives, looking to the organization Of party
whose only object is to secure the loaves and
fishes of the State. So these "gua rdians'
TAX now; hereafter they will be better un.
derstood. But to the article the American
But the most amazing exhibition of the
Democracy is their assumption of the cxclu.
Sive guardianship oil Southern institutions
10 see them stand aghaSt and horror. struck
at the friaid apathy of Southern Wings, who
and mirlh-provoking than Placide or J,fier
| Tn bnl fh.i VII
10 see them mount their high slavery horse,
and flourish their death dealing swords, who
would believe, who could believe, that from
the days Of Andrew Jackson to those of thcil
last President they never supported a PIes
dent Of the United States who had not ex
pressed anti slavery sentiments as earnest ant
heartfelt as any ever uttered by the Black
Republican President, Abraham Lincoln anC
that the only Southern President they ever
elected signed the Nilmot Proviso, which
Proviso is the worst practical feature of thu
Chicago platform, and the greatest poltica
crime which the Black Republican prcsiden
has threatened to commit!
All this, incl edible though it appear. is Il
teIally true, as the following brief reminisen
ces unanswerably demonstrate: On the 80 Il
day Of January, 1920, Martin Van Buren, vot
ed in the State Senate of New York for pre-
amble and resolution which passed iha
body unanimously dcclaring slavery an cvi
much to be deplorcd, that every constitutions
barrier should be in,erposcd to prevent it
further extension, and that the Constil utiol
Of the Uuitcd States clearly gives Congress
the right to require Of rev States. not com
pretended within the original boundaries o
the United States, the prohibition OF slavery
as condition to their admission into tn
Union, and therefore instruttng the United
States Senator's and Representatives Of New
York to "opposc the admission as State i,
the Union of any Territory not comprised
aforesaid. making the prohibition of SLAYER,
therein an Indispensable condition." Til
object Of this was to prevent Missouri frou
being admitted tothe Union unless she chang
ed her Constitution, and became free State
In ISL Mr.. Van Buren, voted TO give Ere
blacks in New York the right Of suffrage
In 1872 he voted in favor of restricting tn
introduction Of slaves into Florida. In 1881
he went bowshot beyond the blacklist o
Black Republicans, beyond even Abraham
i Lincoln, and declared that Congress had pow
er to abolish slavery in the District of Cou,n
bia I! And this man the Southern Democrat,
elected President. and supported him fer re
election. after he had sanctioned as Presiden
the admission Of negro testimony in the cas-
Of Lieutenant Hove. Their next candidat
from the free States was Gen. Cass, who ha,
previously declared. in his letter in 1913
against the Quintuple Treaty: 1--WE are n,
STAKEHOLDER. We never have been. We dc
preca,e its principle, and pray for its aboli
ton everywhere" The same gentleman, il
1S47, propounded, in his Nicholson letter
the doctrine of squatter sovereignty. whicl
Mr.. Calhoun declared to be worse than tn
Wilmot Proviso. Such was the man whom
the exclusive Democratic guardians Of tn
Southern Rights supported against Zachar,
Taylor of Louisiana. Their next candidate
waS General Pierce, who, in 1888 said in
speech in Congress, that he considered "sla
very social and political evil and most sin
ce,ely wished 1t had no existence on the fac,
Of The earth" In 1850. in speech at Man
chester, N. H., he said: The man WHIT
would dissolve the Union did not hate Or de
plore slavery more than he did" On the 2,
Of January, 1852, whilst speaking at Boston
N. H., he SAID: II have the most revolving
feeling at the giving up Of u slave"
1.-The fugitive slave law is opposed to human
ity. 1t is opposed to moral right" Never
thelcss this man was swallowed without .
single wry face by the Southern States Rights
Democracy. And finally there was the lat,
lamentcd james Buchanan. who. in 1919
voted instructions to Pennsylvania members
OF Congress to prevent the existence of slaverl
in any new Territories and new States which
may be created by Congress. and who, in
speech in Congress, in 1925, said: IL believ
slavery to be great political and grea
moral evil. thank God my lot has beer
cast in State where it does not exist
And in 1874, in his speech in the Unitet
States Senate on the annexation of Texas
Mr.. Buchanan said he felt strong rppug
nance by any act Of his to extend the limit
Of the Onion over new saveholding territory.