The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1866-03-15
THE DEDIOCRATIC ADVOCATE.
THURSDAY, MARCH Is, 1866.
SECTIONAL PARTIES.

geographical parties, but nave latelys~ peen
convinced of it by dearly bought experience.
We have had dangerous parties heretofore,
such as thelate Know Nothing party, foun-
ded on preiudices against Catholics and For
eigners; but this though it SOON corrupted
the ballot box, and converted the places of
elections into scenes of mob violence and
bloodshed, did not endangeF the unity of our
country, because the prescribed were scat
i'3 tered over the whole land. 1t remained for
the Republican party, which succeeded it, by
making anti-slayery the corner stone of its
Organization, to divide our country very
soon, both politically and socially into two
distinct belligerent communities, North and
South.
We are aware that it is fashionable, inview
81 of the enormity of the rebellion, to look no
further into the subject, and to vent all our
-. spleen on the TRAITORS of the South; but
as rejecting honest people we cannot shut
$50 orr eyes to the fact, that the terrible results
8g4 IS we havelately witnessed, musthave had some
5. 5 producing cause, other than an insane desire
q si of the Southern people for independence. =
sd Experience has proven that large masses of
s r1 people do not rush into war without some
excuse, some rational moving cause; SO,
when we look closer into the matter, wehnd
that previous to the war there were also
many disunionists at the North-men who
e had avowed their preference for dissolu-
ton of the Union rather than to remain any
~ longer in connection with the slave holding
South As long as these fanatics were dis
carded by the national parties in the North
they were not to be dreaded; but when, as
in 1856, the majority ofthe Northern voters
rushed into the ranks of the Black Republi
can party, and swept every free State but
four, for Fremont when, moreover, the very
highest leaders of that new party were heard
eys proclaiming an ssirrepressibe conflict, and
-s that the States should all be made free States,
ress or all slave States, it was not unreasonable
~ that the Southern people should take alarm;
s and that the formation of an overwhelming
. sectional party at the North, aimed at the
- extinction of the institution of slavery IN the
. b South, should provoke them into retaliatory
- measures.
&c 1t is true that the General Government,
controlled mostly blythe national Democratic
party, had not shown any disposition to
violate the Constitutional compromises on
the subject of slavery; but it was also true,
thatthe States North as they were gradually
coming under, the control of the Abolition
party, actually passed laws to nullify the eff
feet of those passedby Congress in obedience
to the requirements of the Constitutions
$40. for instance in regard to the Fugitive Slave
Law. The evidence was accumulating on all
hands that there was successful conspiracy
.-a maturing at the North, on the anti-slavery
~ plea, toover~helm the Northern Democracy,
sae and by the means of the united vote of all the
sis free States to obtain the President. the ma
jority of Congress, and the majority of the
7s5 Supreme Court, in fact supreme control over
the entire government and thus to place
the South completely at their mercy. No
feGsonble man can doubt at this day, that
ss% such was their scheme, and that it promised
=. success; and that it was powerful incentive
to the South to unite for the defence of their
own peculiar interests. 81
We know well enough that many think
the institution fsayery to which the South
3 was attached was accursed of Heaven, and
that the people of the North were but doing
s. E their conscientious duty when they banded
Il together for its overthrow; but this is mere
SIS &c shallow subterfuge. The institution of sla
g.fga; very was not fastened upon the country by
5u The South alone. The money given for
= the slaves brought over from Africa went
mostly into other pockets; the founders of
- cur country thought the subject worthy of
compromise and federation and if it was
accursed of Heaven, the Almighty had borne
with it for hundreds of years, and would have
eventually extinguished it in His own peace
full way, had not the folly of presumptuoas
men, who thought He was not working fast
enough, volunteered to hastenits overthrow.
The South had no reason to chafe over the
Proyidential way of abolishing slavery but
- they had every reason to complain when they
g saw their fellow citizens of the North, as
go fallible as themselves, assume to declare the
ia counsels of the Almighty; and, in defiance
~ of their duty, as equal citizens Of the same
d country, harness this dangerous moral ques
ito ton to the political car, and ride upon it into
power over the crushed bodies of its victims.
tse No greater political crime can be commit
= Aa ted in this country than for one section to
take advantage of their superior numbers and
H1 strength to force their policy on a weaker
section. 1t strikes at the very foundation on
which our Republican system of government
rests, the right of free and equal suffra
7, right of self-government; for, whilst
ding to act according to constitutional
1t distorts them into engines of oppr
49,, In a Republican country justice requil