Year: 1861

To the Eitor of TIE Detroit Free Pres:


The deplorable political consequences of the |
success of the Republican party are comiug upon
us in all their dread reality. South Carolna-one
of the old thirteen States-has, by the unanimous |
voice of her people, dissolved, as far as her own
will and act do, her connection with the
Unonl This result was fOretold, by most of
the old and distinguished Wing statesmen, at the |
organization of the Republican party, if it should
unhappily for the country, succeed in getting
control of the General Government. See what
some of these old Wing statesmen prophetically |
said of the Republican party at the beginning of
its disorganizing career. In 1856 ex President
FILLMORE, in an elaborate speech at Albany, |
said


We see political party presenting candidates
for the Presidency and Vice Presidency selected, |
for the first time from the free States alone, with
the avowed purpose of electing those candidates
by the sufirages of one part of the Union only,
to rule over the whole United States. Can it be
possible that those who engaged in such a
measure can have seriously reflected upon the
consequences which must inevitably follow in
case of success Can they have the madness or
folly to suppose that our Southern brethren would
submit to be governed by such Chief Mags
trate


Suppose that the South, having a majority of
the electoral votes, should declare that they would
only have shareholders for President and Vice
President, and should select such by their exclu-
siye suffrages to rule over us at the North. Do
YOU think we would submit to it? No, not for
moment.


And do YOU believe that your Southern brethren
are less sensitive on this subject than you are, or
less jealous of their right? If you do, let tell
you that you mistaken And, therefore, you
should see that if this sectional party succeeds, it
leads inevitably to the destruction of this beauti
full fabric, reared by forefathers, cemented by
their blood, and bequeathed to us precious in
heritance


i tell you my friends, that feel deeply, and,
therefore, speak earnestly, on this subject cries
of you're right, " for feel that YOU are in dan
ger. l determined to make clean breast of
it, 1 will wash my hands of the consequences,
whatever they may be; and l tell you that we are
treading on the brink of a volcano that is liable
at any moment to burst forth and overwhelm the
nation.


Such was the warning voice Of ex-President
FILLMORE, nearly five years ago, against the sue
cess of the Republican party.


The country will remember the eloquent and
ever-to-be-remembered words of that distinguished
Wing Senator, and statesman, RUFUS CHoATE, of
Massachusetts, when he sad in 1856, that he
would have no connection with the Republicans;
for, said he, III tciH join no party that does not
carry the flag and Keep step to the music Of the
Union"


In the same letter that contains these immortal
words, he said:


The basis of the Republican organization is
reciprocal sectional hate. This is the sentiment
at bottom-this and nothing else. To form and
heghten this; to fortify and justify it; to show
that it is moral and necessary, the whole vast en-
ginery of party tactics IS to be put IN request III
the ingenuity of hell were tasked for device to
alienate and rend asunder our immature and arti
fetal nationality, it could devise nothing so effect
ual. take my stand here


How prophetic were these words


About the same time Governor Hunt, of New
York, an ex-Whig Senator, wrote letter refu-
sing to join the Republicans, in which he said:


Believing that sectional combination of this
kind is fraught with danger and mischief, it does
not accord with my views of duty to enlist under
its banner If Northern ant-slavery party is
desirable, it must be desired that all the people OF
the free States should enter into it. The very
proposition implies that we are to be met by the
people of the Southern States in solid array. We





of such a conflict. Its effect must be to exasper
ate one part of the nation toward the other part,
and to weaken, if not to Danish, those sentiments
of friendship and brotherhood which gave birth
to the Constitution. In such warfare both sec
tons will be reused to fierce resentment by mu
tua insult and denunciation, until either side will
see in the other aliens and enemies instead of
friends and fellow citizens; and, in a word, we
shall cease TO be one people.


IL
Wing in New York, member of Congress from
the Albany district and Minister to Prussia under
Gen. HARRISON, also, in refusing to join the Re
p,Ilyiiv,.-. r.-.r, rLi li.- -.--.-;-;-e
the following pointed and most truthful denuncia
ton of it as a "disunion party" Hear him:


This Republican party is as certainly party of
disunion, if successful, though that purpose
written in letters of light on every fold of its
banner.


Every conceivable prejudice is appealed to;
every conceivable abuse, all conceivable terms of
reproach and obloquy, are heaped on the men
and the country of the South. If the Southern
States of this Union were alien to us as though
they had separate existence at the remotest ex-
tremity of the earth or the sea, and had been our
hereditary and implacable enemies from the be-
ginning of time, they could not be more an OBJ
ect of the fanatic rage, hate and defiance OF these
journals.


Can any rational man suppose that the Union
can stand the assaults of party like this, If once
it is allowed to gain head enough to bring on the
desperate fraternal war which it Is madly bentl
For me, do not.


If the new party of sectionasm shall rise, or is
likely to rise to the dignity ofrespectabe strength,
it becomes all men who think it the first and high
est duty of patriotism to defend their country
against all deadly assaults and all imminent dan
gers to unite on broad basis of national politics
against it,


1t is not to be denied or doubted that this new
party is having some success-enough, at least, to
demand the serious observation and attention of
the country and, so far as it has or can haye Vi
taty and success, / am bouud to say that think
it deserves nothing but execration as bold men
ace to the integrity of the Union, such as can not
be justified or excused, unless treason can be JUS
titled excused.


Such are some of the forewarnings of the old
Wing leaders and statesmen who followed the
lead of CLAY and WEBSTER, against the Republ
can party. The same warnings have been given
for a quarter of century by all Democratic
statesmen against Northern, sectional anti-slavery
parties. The inspiration that dictated these pro-
phetic declarations from the words of WASH
INGToS who, in his Farewell Address, warned the
American people against parties founded on geo
graphical determinations, and taught that true
patriotism and love of the Union should "indig
nanty frown upon the first dawnings of any at
tempt like that of the anti-slavery Republican
organzationl to alenate one portion of our coun-
try from therest.'' HAMTRAMCK.


sE The New York correspondent of the Utica
Morning Herald has paid visit to the Central
Park skating pond from his last letter clip the
following: