The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-10-14


with the most shocking blasphemy. They
were, by their own avowals, the most cruel
barbarians Of any age. Servile insurrec.
tion and general butchery Of the south
orn people was part Of their programme
from the beginning. The leaders to whom
they gave their highest admiration were the
men whose feet were the swiftest in running
to shed innocent blood. Seward won their
affections in his early manhood by propo-
sing measures from which civil war would
be sure to come, and in whish he promised
that negroes should be melted to " rise in
blackest insurrection" They applauded
John Brown to the echo for series Of the
basest murders on record. They did not
conceal their hostility to the federal and
state governments, nor deny their eumity
to all laws which protected the liberties Of
white men. The constitution stood in
their way, and they cursed it bitterly; the
Bible was quoted against them, and they
reviled God Almighty Himself. l know
that the mind Of man, like his body, is
fearfully and wonderfully made. | un-
derstand all the difficulty Of analyziug hu-
man passions, and | admit that we should
not judge harshly Of motives; but how
these heartless opprcssors Of their own race
could have any care for the freedom Of the
negro passes my comprehension. Unless
you can explain it otherwise, the judgment
of history must inevitably be against the
sincerity of their auti-slasery professions
In the present aspect of the case it seems
impossible to believe that love of the me-
gro was not assumed as mere excuse for
enslaving the white race, just as their au-
cestors put on the pretence of pioty to
crafty their appetite for the property and
blood Of better people than themselves
You must positively reconsider this sub
ject before you undertake again to present
the abolitionists to the world in the re-
spectacle character Of fanatics. / think
you will find that the crew of the May
flower brought over and planted no "germ
of an idea which has fourishcd with
more vigor than their canting hypocrisy.
Hero let me say again, that the vices
and wickcdness of the Plymouth colonists
are not to be visited on the heads of their
children, according to the flesh. Among
them, in every part Of the country, are
great statesmen, brave soldiers, true SER
wants Of the Church, and virtuous, pa
triotic democrats, who are no more respon-
sible for the crimes of their ancestors than
peaceable Scotchman is for the raids
and robberies which in past generations
were committed by his clan upon the En-
glish border. But you acknowledge that
you get your political ideas from them
you boast that your party has no doctrines
Of public law and no notions of public
duty which were not planted at Plymouth.
Therefore it is not only proper, but neces-
sary, to show what those doctrines and
ideas were. @t
pass now to later period You say
that there were two radically different the
ories about the nature Of our government;
"the North believing and holding that we
were nation; the South insisting that
we were only confederation of sovereign
states" 1t is not true that any such the
oretical conflict ever existed between the
sections. That the articles of confedera-
tion first and the constitution afterward,
united the states together for certain pur-
poses therein enumerated, and thus made
us nation among nations, was never de-
MED that | know Of by any party. But
this national character was given to the
general government by sovereign states
who confederated together for that pur-
pose. They bestowed certain powers on
the new political corporation then created
aud called it the United States of America,
and they expressly reserved to themselves
all the sovereign rights not granted in the
charter. Democratic statesmen had no
theory about it. They saw their duty
written down in the fundamental law, they
swore to perform it, and they kept their
oaths. They executed the powers of the
general government in their whole consti-
tutional vigors for that, as Mr.. Jefferson
said, was "the sheet anchor Of our peace
at home and our safety abroad" and they
carefully guarded the rights of the states
as the only security we could have for
just administration of our domestic affairs,
This was universally assented to as right
and true. No counter theory was set up.
Difference of construction there might be,
but all admitted that when the line of
power was accurately drawn between the
federal government and state sovereignty,
the rights on one side were as sacred as
those on the other. But within two or
three years last past the low demagogues
Of your party have got to putting in their
platforms the assertion that this is nation
and not a confederation. What do they
mean2 What do you mean when you en-
dorse and reproduce it2 Do you deny
that the states were sovereign before they
united? Do you affirm that their sover-
eighty was wholly merged in the federal
government when they assented to the
constitution Is the tenth amendment
mere delusion? Do you mean to assert
that the states have not now, and never
had, any rights at all except what are con-
ceded to them by the mercy of the "na-
tion 2" No doubt this new article was in.
serted in the creed Of the abolitionists be.
cause they supposed it would give sort of
plausibility to their violent Intervention
with the internal affairs of the states. But
it is so false, SO shallow and so destitute
Of all respectable authority that it imposes
upon nobody.
As a part Of this conflict of theories,
and resulting from it, you describe the
South as " insisting that each state had
right, at its own discretion, to break the
union, and constantly threatening seces-
sion where the full rights of slavery were
not acknowledged" In fact and in truth,
secession like slavery, was first planted in
New England. There it grew and -four
ished and spread its branches far over the
land, long before it was thought of in the
South, and long before "the full rights Of
slavery" were called in question by any
body. The anti-democrats Of that region,
in former as we'll as in later times, totally
misunderstood the purposes for which this
government was made.
They regarded 1t as mere commercial
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