Year: 1860

hitherto respected Truths plain children car
appreciate them Let me state what they
are and then secession can he justified
To have political partywe political faith


doctrlne to which all Of the party must subscribe, ant
which alone is the test of the party This docrneor party
faith must be pronounced by supreme authority tr
bunal OF the party in order to bind all When pro
nonnced it does bind ALL and the will of the majority
that vital inherent law of all assemblies and
must be allowed to determine all questions such
majority rules otherwise The law of the majority is the
controlling and necessary principle of order If be de
MED, then anarchy and destruction. The school
boy knows these fundamental things. Now let us ap
ply them The Charleston Convention was duly called
elected, organized. Then it became the National Con
venton of the party Does any deny t. at2 No af
Ter deSertlon OF minority could destroy its char
acter diminish its authority what ground
they deserted majority of that Convention, as had
always been the practice decided to suDpGrt the old Mat
form of the party-the victorious Cincinnati Platform
1t was their right as clear asserted, do
this For doing it, the delegates of several States
ceded and the Convention having resolved thai the va
cances thus created ought TO be filed adjourned to Bal
tmore.


Reassembled here, opposing delegates the vacant
seats claimed them and the Committee referred their
claim, not to Committee, but to that same Com


ttee when had originally passed upon the credentials
OF an the delegates Ihat Committee, by decisive ma
iOrity, reported in favor certain delegates and the
by an equally decisive majority approved their
report Can any thing be clearer than their right to do
that, and yet, for doing it, the seceders, minority
adding to their train by persuasion emanating from
Washington, again left the Convention in body and
organized another Convention, declared adversary
platform and nominated opposing candidates Such are
the admitted facts Now, where is the justification
where Indignantly ask any Democrat who respects
principle or his party, find word of ustfcaon2 1t
rank mutiny and desertou of their political duty and
responsibility and nothing else and those who took part
in it, have no title to be called Democrats Their
duct do not question their motives is in the extreme
revolutionary and disorganizng.


If such action can be sustained such precedent estab
ished then the Democratic party is dead and for
ever II there other for their proceedings
they could only be objections the platform proba
BILE nominee, either and both of which equally
worthy in the eye of principle.


Let be at loss then announce his course OF
dutyto know which is the true PLATFORM and who the
true nominees OF his party


1t matters but little, gentlemen if we are beaten il
we preserve our integrity, if we stand by party
its cherished principles its faith, its discipline Let
at least be true and brave soldiers again
party is to be united, the seceders must and will,
come to usand come too, with penitence and their po-
tcal morality refreshed by the rbuation of defeat and
may we not hope by some of conscience for their
ingratitude.


But if be otherwise and the law of the MAORI
y Is to be yielded up in Conventions to the rule of
the minority then let inquire with the great
Webster, where shall We go?'


Aad row, my fellow citizens, | wish to add that are
worshippers at the shrine of Unon aye are all
Union shreker unlike the leader of the seceders we
deem love of our Union to be virtue and duty We
declare no neutrality of patrotsm but with the Father
of his Country unite in the sentiments that
Grated farewell address, and say:


1--WE should properly estimate the immense value of
our National Union to our collective and individual hap
pness; that we should cherish a cordial habituaI and
immoveable attachment to it, accustoming ourselves to
think and speak of it as the palladium our political
safety and prosperity watching preservation with
jealous anxiety; dscountenacng whatever NAV suggest
even suspicion that 1t can event be abandoned
and Indignantly frownng upon the first dawnng every
attempt ALLEVIATE any portion of country from the rest
so to enfeebe the sacred ties which link together
various parts"


lust at the close of the Mr. May the Eighth
Ward Douglas Club entered the Square from Fayete
street. headed by land of music bearing transpa-
rencies, on which were printed the following among
many other notices. No East, West North, nor
South, but the Unonr-"D Douglas Campaign Club of the
Eighth Ward"-"Two thousand for Douglas in the
Observation-Disclosures '-'The National Nominees,
Stephen A Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson As the
procession, numbering several hundred, entered the
Square, the immense hrong sent up cheer after cheer
and the band on the stand played a national air.


When quiet restored, Mr.. SPENCER of the Third
Ward came forward and read the following resolutions
which adopted


cessons which took place in the Democratic National
Convention at Charleston and Baltimore; and whereas
becomes the duty of every conservative Democrat and
patriotic American citizen in view of the present deplora
BILE condition of public affairs to support the oalv Ma
tioaal organization which has presented platform of
principles OF which their nominees are the representa-
tives; therefore,


Be it resored by the National Democracy Of Balimore
City IN Mass Meeting assembled, as f0llo1US piz


Isl: That the unity and success of the National De
mOcracy only be in the future
from anarchy and utter destruction by Gdhering faith


fully to the principles of National organization illus
trated by the past usages of the party dominating
candidates and declaring platform of principles


I'd. That by the past usages of the National Demo
cratic party majority of the delegates to its National
Conventions have been regarded the exclusive and
propriate tribunal to establish and proclaim the platform
OF policy and principles to be upheld and maintained by
the faithful and united Democracy of the Union in each





the recent secession at Charleston by small minority
the delegates for other than the adoption the
principle of nonintervention by decisive majority
sectional unprecedented and destructive to the integrity
the National Democracy, and we believe that future
National Democratic organic alton be preserved if such
secession 1oO adequate cause to unrebuked by
the verdict of the delivered through the ballot
boXsuch precedent strikes down forever the principles
of mutual obligation and mutual compromise by which
all National Democrats have heretofore voluntarily
agreed to submit their differences political questions
to the final jurisdiction of one National Council in which
Der and ht,u
bound as an h0nord6e man in the very fact of parcipa
ting in its deliberations.


the protection OF slavery in the Territories, which
the pretex ofhe first secession at Charleston and which
is now Incorporated into the platform of the Baltimore
eceders an idle and mischievous abstraction for the
following reasons:


First Because the visionary Southern man cannot
believe that Congress will contingency afford such
legislative protection, while the introduction of any
measure ofegslave protection, under the auspices of
party which had heretofore, in National platforms
pledged itself against all attempts renewing the SlGrer
agitation of Congress- whatever form color
imght be attempted )" would more ferceg and fatally
than reopen this dangerous agitation of the subject
of slavery in Congress.


secondy-Because the sectionalists of the North and
South both agree in maintaining the power ana duty of
Congress to intervene in regard Territorial slavery
and these sectional parties merely differ to the objects
to which the exercise of the power should be directed
while the non intervention principles of the National
Democracy equally deny to the pro Sldrery agtatos of
the South to the Aboonists of the North all right
to reopen this lholy and dangerous taon in the halls
of Congress, by making it banned and terdicted sub
ject of legislation, because of its sectional baneu
Thirdly Congressional for the protection
of slavery vii! necer be required ept in territories
where majority of the people hostile slavery and
it plain that among such people of Congress,
protecting and guarding slavery, could be eTecUted
through the medium Of fanotcaI j1.ries and it would
therefore if passed through of sectional agitation
and strife, prove to be but "a dead letter. the statute
book.


to carry his slaves into hostile territory, if he
backed by all the National Legislation he would desire
and if he assured that this protective legislation
could be enforced by the territorial uries he would still
decline the risk Of having his slaves stolen from him by
the abolition majority Of the territorial population
upon the guarantee of legal indemnity in the Courts.


Fifthly Because whether the power protect terrific
rial slavery is vested Congress believe its
exercise to be dte useless and DScerOUS since all
perence has attested the fact that the continuance
slavery any soil among any people, is regulated by
climate and nature, and not by the ordinances contr
vances of man.


That ''Popadar Sovereignty" "SQuatter- Sover
eighty is called in deriston does and cannot
mean nything than the reference of the whole
slavery question to the people of the Territories Subject
to the limitations of the Federal Constuon,l by the
adoption of the policy the principle of Congressional
non Intervention and we regard the of the Terri
toria Legislature the subject of slavery be as
purely an abstraction the other question of Congress
sona power the subject has been shown to be
because the protection of slavery in the Territories
by suitable legal provisions and penal safeguards would
rs efectuay drive slavery out of any hostile Territory
if the Local Legislature had exercised constitutional
power in banishing excluding it.


5h That compliance with the demands of the Charles
ton seceders in respect to the platform, would in
opinion have resulted in practical benefit to the South
States, whilst it would have fatally weakened


party in the free States, where already weakest
and the danger from the Black Republican enemy wa
the imminent and knowing all men know that the
Southern States alone could elect President
still approve the policy of building up
the weakest and vulnerable parts
the Democratic citadel. Wherefore maintain as oui
true Democratic policy, that every Southern Union Demo
crat shall stand by and strengthen the Northern and
Western Democracy in order that they may with and
for OF the South, that sectional enemy
whom the National Democracy of the States now
gallany and nobly contendng, under the Leadership
of that great statesman and conservative National Demo
crat, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois.


9th That the secessionists Baltimore from the Ma
tonal Convention had not the pretext of the pnci
pie which their predecessors had Charleston but they
have here seeded the absurd ground that the MAORI
ty of the Convention had right to fill the vacancies
occasoned by the Charleston seceders with true and
delegates from the National Democracy Of the Southern
States rather than with men who came to Baltimore
their t0Gy hostile and sectional Convention Rich
mond, order that they might tarry here long enough
to make more mischief and carry off more seceders


9Th. That Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, in de


beate opinion is the regular nominee of the Democratic
party of the Union, he having, according to the exact
requirements of the rule worded and in force
in all the preceding National Conventions, received
more than twothrds OF all the votes given the Con


on and confidently assert that ohirds OF all the
delegates elected to the Convention present. and
asserting to his nomination at the passage of the resou
ton finally declaring him the nominee, and to which there
no dissenting voice But independently of these
facts consider that true Democrat would secede


from National Convention and attempt by factious and
hostile proceedings to destroy the party which,
a minority, he could not intimidate or control


Sh. That Herschel V. johnson, of Georgia, is well
known to the Democracy of this city, where his eloquent
voice has been heard in past contests cheering
Democratic columns to national victories and hail his
nomination for the Vice Presidency affording to al
who know his great ability, national character and
Southern States Rights principles, guarantee tha
he is embarked in true to the dearest interests