Year: 1861

conspicuous stations in the public ser.
vice, sull survives as an interested OBJ
server Of our contemporary politics. -
A lifelong Democrat, and always notec
for his zeal in maintaining what be deems
the constitutional rights of the Southern
States, he desires to explain through oul
columns the attitude of the Northern De
mocracy in our pending civil feuds


Nrw York Moy 20, 1861


~ lie Editors Of tie National Latel2i.
,gcncer:


The leading Sccessionists of the SoutE
Ioppcar to be disappointed and surprised
at finding the Democratic party of til,
North more ready. if possible, to shed
their blood for tt c Uni than their lat
political opponents This f ct ought tc
icreatc ne surprise They are all Union
men OH the basis OF the Constitution. 80
$" .cuL ds til. question was one of re-
dress within the Unlon their sympathics
were with the South They could not
for long time be convinced that the
leaders in the South had in view any
object beyond additional guarantees for
their peculiar institution, aud this they
we're ready to accord Under this delu-
sion many of their leading men came out
against Federal coercion, thereby en,-
boldeuing the .Secessionists and at the
same time unintentionally decciving them
as to their own ultimate course But
as soon as they became satisfied by the
declarations and acts of the Secession
leaders that their object was not redress
within the Union. but the destruction of
the Union itself their sympathy for the
wrongs of the South was converted into
Indignation at the arrogance of those
leaders. the more intense because their
disloyal designs had been masked under
false pretences. Hence it is that the
leading Democrats of the North were
among the foremost to take the field in
defence of the Union, and that probably
three -fourths Of the men who have vol
unteerod in New York and New Eng land
were of the Democratic party Nor will
they willingly lay down their arms un-
ill tho authority Of the Constitution and
laws is rc.estabIishnd from the British
Provinces in the North to the Republic
of Mexico in the South.


But the Democratic party of the North
are not Aboltionists. They take up
arms, not to exterminate slavery, but to
yndicate the Constitution in ali its parts
The South may find their type in Gen.
BUTLER and in his noble letter to the
Gov of Massachusetts. SO far from
employing the negroes to fight their mas
| ters. destroy their property, and murder
their families. they will send runaways
back to their masters, and exert all their
military power to prevent aud repress
slave instructions. And when the Con-
stitution and laws shall have been VIM
dicated and the white insurrection agains,
the Union suppressed, the Democrats
of the North will hereafter las heretofore
be the supporters and defenders of every
constitutional right of the Southern
States; but hereafter. as now, they will
recognise Lo party fealty which would
require them to become traitors.


Ought not every man at the South who
has any thing to lose consider well the
present state of things and contemplate
the possible future? Should the exist
ing war be protracted aDd become des.
perate, such men as Gen. Butler may
not he able to control the manuor in which
it shall be waged. The temporary sue.
cess of the Secessionists would probably
BE- the greatest calamity which could hap
pen 20 the Southern States. 1t woulC
further exasperate the Northern mint
and might reconcile it to measures which
the great mass of the people cannot now
contemplate without horror. The una
nimty and determination of the Nortl
to restore the Union at all hazards ar,
now sufficiently apparent, and it is super
lative madness in Southern men to def,
this power and shut their eyes to tn
consequences. AS we'll might they
standing on magazine of gunpowder
defy the lightning of heaven to do i,
work The only cnance for safety an,
preservation of their institutions is il
replacing them under the panoply of tL
Constitution. and that right speedily


NORTHERN DEMOCRACY.