Year: 1862


the Louisville Journal of the eth instant The
Journal is the well known organ of the Union
sentiment in Kentucky:


THE ALBANY UNION PARTY.


We have read the address and resolutions put
forth by the recent Legislative caucus at the cap
ital of New York, a very elaborate history of
that caucus by "a Republican Member of the
Assembly" concurring but less elaborate his
tory of the same caucus by a " Union Democratic
Member of the Assembly," and finally the re-
sponse of the Republican and Abolition press of
the Empire State. Having thus considered in an
authentic form the origin, motive, history and
result of the caucus, with the reception given TO
the result by the anti-slavery organs ofNew York,
and having, when the movement first
bruited, referred to it in our columns as like
ly 10 open the way for the desired embodiment of
the conservatives of the North, we now feel
bound to express, in very decided terms, the dis
appointment we feel at the issue. The hopes we
ventured to cherish in relation to this movement
were premature. The new party is clearly roth
ing more or less than the Republican party under
another name, and if consummated will render
the immediate consolidation of the Northern con-
servatives impossible 1t is essentially and prac
ticaly an anti-slavery party. In other words, the
movement is thoroughly sectional.


To prove this, it is necessary only to point out
the several anti slavery articles of the address,,
which besides the exclusion of slavery from the
Territories and the abolition OF slavery in the
District of Columbia, the freeing of the slaves
ofrebels, as the penalty of rebellion, the unre-
strcted liberty of teaching Abotionsm in the
slave States, by speech and by the press, the pro-
hbition of future slave States, and the admins
tering of the Constitution henceforward in a spir
it of settled hostility to slavery. These different
propositions plainly set forth in the address,
and are declared 10 be points in respect to which
all agree.


That we may not be thought to deal unfairly
with this movement, We quote from the address
as follows:


"The causes which brought on this. rebellion,
with all their attendant perils and evils, have yet
TO be eradicated and removed.


Whatever differences of opinion may have
hitherto prevailed, or may still prevail, on the
general subject of slavery, no one can doubt that
it is, if not the primary cause, the pretext and
powerful agent OF the present rebellion.





However men may have differed heretofore as
to the power of Congress over slavery, there is
now very little difference among those who
have &C ed together in support of the Govern
ment to the practical necessities of the future
We all agree that slavery must never again be
permitted to increase its power by invading free
territory, or bringing new slave States into the
Union therefrom; that it must cea to exist in
the District of Columbia, which is under the ex-
elusive jurisdiction of the General Government;
and that the Constitution must hereafter be ad
minstered in the spirit of freedom, and for the
advancement of those principles on which our
institutions rest, and not for the perpetuation of
slavery. We all agree that slavery, so far as it
may be of pecuniary, social or political value to
any individual in rebellion against the Govern
ment, should be made to bear the penalties which
every such individual incurs by the guilt of trea-
son or resistance to lawful authority And we
all agree in sustaining the wise and constitutional
policy of President Lincoln, by which, through
aid extended by the General Government to such
States as may initiate measures for the emancpa
ton of their slaves, may hope, at some future
and not distant day, to be delivered forever from
the curse of slavery.


"Unless the country can rely upon the estab-
lshment of these principles in the administration
of the Government, the defeat of the rebellion
will gives us neither indemnity for the past, nor
security for the future.


"When the war is closed, we demand free
dom of speech and of the press, in every
State and in every section of the common
Union. We demand that the citizens of each
State shall be entitled to all the privileges and
immunites of citizens in the several States. And





stand by the Constitution of the United States,
and to respect all its guarantees, we edemand such
a construction of those provisions shall conform
to its essential spirit; and not, by converting it
into an instrument for the aggrandizement and
perpetuation of human slavery, pervert it from
its original purpose to "form more perfect
Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquil
ty, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare and secure the blessings of lib
ortx m oil md


here is the proclamation of deadly hostility
to slavery, and of a complete programme of ac-
ton and of agitation for the avowed purpose of
carrying such hostility into practical effect under
the guise and shelter of the Constitution; and
this proclamation constitutes the basis of the new
party. We need not refer to the history of the
caucus, abounding in admissions that the whole
movement is thoroughly Republican, or to the
enthusiastic responses of the extremist Republi-
can journals, in order to put the movement in its
true light. Tberesult speaks decisiyey for ITSELF
The basis adopted tells the whole story. To call
such party conservative, or national, or Union,
is to trihe with the solemn issues of the hour. To
represent it as anything but the Republican party
in disguise is to attempt to cheat the public. The
whole thing is simply piece of cold-blooded
partisan chicanery.


While, however, we are bitterly disappointed
in this movement, it is in one aspect not without
encouragement to rejecting patriots. When
man drops his proper name and assumes an alias
the trick generally implies that his proper char
acter has in his own estimation become obnoxious
in degree fatal to his particular ends. When
party does so, the trick implies the same thing
not generally, but universally. The Albany
movement, therefore, is, whatever else it may be,
a confession on the part of the Republican lead
ers that the Republican party, as such, Is odious
to the majority of the Northern voters. The
movement is Acknowledgements that the Re-
publican party in its proper character is played
out, and can hope to succeed in the approaching
elections only by concealing its proper character
under an assumed name In other words, the
movement presupposes that majority of the
voters of the North are national, not sectional.
This surely is cheering assurance from the
highest authority. We. however, would very
willingly dispense with the assurance, seeing that
it has come in the shape of bold and dexterous
attempt to nulify the truth while acknowledg
ing it.


Will this attempt succeed? Shall the sectional
minority take by artifce what they acknowledge
they can not get straightforwardy? Will the
Sajority of the orthern voters, who are national
IN their views and sentiments, who comprehend
that Hands off " and "Mind your own business"
the two golden rules of our political sys-
tem-who, although disking slavery and reject
in9 il OH their own behalf. not willing. under
Whatever guise, to enter upon a systematic
fare, or any other sort of warfare, against the
opposite disposition and determination of the
Southern States. who hold that the commoR Gov
ernment should be administered in the spirit
neither of hostility nor of favor to Southern in
sttutions, but of honest impartality, and who
believe that the preservation of the rights of the
States in their whole constitutional integrity is
the only sure way of preserving the rights or
even the existence Of the General Government
will, we say, the men who agree in these grand
particulars, and who constitute the majority of
the Northern voters, suffer themselves to be
- ~f a.. fIarn fo