The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1862-03-07
Primary Meeting.
The Present Dividing Line Between
Political Parties,


full plant SO successfully transferred from Exeter
Hall to the congenial soil of New England, be-
gan to bear its first fruits in the unhappy con-
troversy which resulted in the establishment of
the Missouri Compromise, the people have been
taught by their wisest and best statesmen to fear
and abhor the abolition of negro slavery in the
Southern States Not only did the prominent
leaders of the Democratic party, (Which has al
ways been radical even to the very limits of the
Constitution,) array themselves in opposition to
the encroachments upon local and State rights
threatened by the Aboltionists, but the leading
minds of the Whig party (Which was not so rad
ical as to the freedom of the masses and the dis
tribution of the powers Of the G Government) were
also found in determined hostility to the purpo-
ses proclaimed by the disciples of W1IBERFoRcE.
But owing to the defilement of the pulpit, and
the degradation of the rostrum by the senseless
zealots who waged this new crusade of Abolition,
the little knot Of New England agitators soon
increased its numbers till they were counted by
thousands and hundreds of thousands. Final
aly, after WEBSTER and CLAY had left the scene,
and the Whig leaders could no longer discern the
star of the Constitution by which their prede-
ccssors had steered the ship, the grand old organ
ization which had been the pride and the hope
ofthe conservatives went down, "a hopeless wreck,
driven to pieces by the storm of the anti-slavery
agitation, The pirate wreckers then gathered
around the dismantled hulk, picked up what
floating timber they could find mo matter if it
was even an old whiskey cask thrown overheard
from the good ship DEMocRAcY-an lashing the
incongruous remnants together, they ventured out
to sea under flag pledged to the determination
of "those twin relics of barbarisn1, Polygamy
and Slavery" Meanwhile the Democracy stood
firm for the Constitution and the rights guaran-
teed to the people of all the states under that
sacred instrument. For years they battled sue
cessfully with their new and impetuous adversa-
ry, but, at last, through the instrumentality of
a political Grecian Horse covered over with
Tariff schedules and pictures of homes for the
homeless, and drafts of lands for the landess,
the long siege of the Constitution was success
full, the walls of the Union were broken down.
and civil war reared its horrid front from one
end of the country to the other. The sudden
ness with which the strife began, and the ilnmi-
ncnce of the danger in which the Federal Gov
ernment was placed, constrained some of our
statesmen from attempting, at the outset, to di-
vert the conduct of the war from the direction
in which its authors in the North desired it to
rage. But the masses of the Democracy, fixing
their gaze steadfastly upon the Constitution, re-
solved to steer to the last by that polar star of
our national armament, and determined that
neither threat nor entreaty, danger, nor the hope
Of reward should induce them to disregard that
safe and certain light in the hour of storm and
peril. Soon, after short season of persecution
and oppression, people Of other parties came to
their side, the General-in-chief was found to be
of their opinion, and the President himself di-
vested his mind of its former political bias, re-
moved his Abolition Secretary and appointed a
Democrat in his stead. And, now the dividing
line between political parties, is broadly and
boldly defined The Democrats and conserya-
'tives are In favor Of an early termination of the
war and the restoration of the Union with all
the rights Of all the states under the Constitu-
ton guaranteed and protected as if no rebellion
had ever taken place. On the other hand, the
Radical Republicans or Abolitionists insist that
slavery is the cause Of the war; and, therefore,
slavery must be uprooted. 1t the old question
which we have discussed in successive Presiden-
tial campaigns, divested only, on the part of the
Abolitionists, of the tinsei and gauzework which
formerly disguised its hideousness, Mokhanna-
like, from the view. 1t lis now nothing but nude,
cruds Abolition, in all its native deformty. On