Year: 1859

|


ional Intervention for the protection of slave


ry in the Territories, you declare that it is


not party leaders but party conventions that
make issues and lay down platforms What
pitiful hypocrisy You are afraid to say that
you endorse the views of your leaders in the
Senate, because you know that the sentiment
of this State is against them, and it is there
fore very convenient for you to fall back on
the proposition that conventions and not par.
ty leaders make platforms Why, in the
name of all decency, did you not have these
same notions when the President and his
Cabinet, and demoralized so-called Demo-
cratic Senate were laying down new plat
form for the party, in direct antagonism tc
all the preconceived views and sentiments o.


the Democracy Very scrupulous you are


about it nor. You think great deal of the


voice of the masses in convention assembled
you don't believe in the dictation of party


leaders. Oh mo-


Well, now, all we have to say in reply to


this sudden hypocritical return of yours to
the old time usages of the Democratic party


is that the principle you announce in this re-
gard is correct. The Democratic party is not


bound by what its leaders may do or say,


but by the platform enunciated by their
State and National Conventions. The Dem


ocratie Party the true Democracy, have al


ways denied the right of any other power


but that of Conventions, to say what was the
Democratic faith or what should be the Dem
ocratic policy, and that is the reason that
they refused to sustain the President in his
shameless and infamous departure from the
old time principles of the party. They did
not acknowledge his right to set up a new
standard Of belief for the Democracy, or to
alter in the least degree the tenets of the
party But, you Lecomptonites are not
Democrats-you have repudiated Democrat
ic principles-you abandoned the CINCINNATI
Platform, because the President and jeff Da.
Wis and few other Senators, told you to do
so-you acknowledged their right to set aside
the principles proclaimed by the National
Democratic Convention, and you followed
blindly where they led, trampling upon the
most sacred doctrines of the Democratic Par
ty at every step that you took. You have
shown that you do not believe in sticking to
the acts of party conventions, in the enunci-
alton of political creeds, but that you do ac-
knowledge the right of party leaders to die
tate to you what you shall believe and how
you shall act. Therefore, we are perfectly
justified in saying that you are bound by the
speeches of your Lecompton leaders in Con
gress, and that by them you are fully COM
mitted in favor of Congressional Slave Code
for the Territories. 1t is too much like the
Devil quoting Scripture for you to pretend
tfat you recognize no authority of political
nature outside of State or National Conven-
tions, in which the party and the whole par.
ty speak as with one voice. 1t is very con
venient dodge for you, but the people see
through it. You have not lived up to the
doctrine heretofore, neither will you hereaf.
ter. One Of the main distinguishing features
of Lecomptonism is that it acknowledges the
full and complete dictation of party leaders.
The President issues his mandate, and every
Lecomptonite shouts at the top of his breath,
Great is Diana of the Ephesians He
don't stop to inquire, i" Is this Democratic p
" Is this right2" but opens his mouth to the
utmost stretch of its capacity and splits the
ears of the bystanders with Great, GREAT
is Diana of the Ephesiansl The old Nebu


chadnezzar Of Lecomptonism erects his image
and commands the whole country to bow
down and worship it, Every Lecompton
knee in the Nation crooks at the word. and
every Lecompton fgure-head ducks lowly
downward. The very origin of Lecompton,
ism is obedience-blind, unquestioning ODE
dience to party leaders. No party Conven
ton certainly had ever put forth any such
policy as that of the President with regard
to the admission of Kansas-no party Con.
vention had ever construed as he did the doc
trine of Popular Sovereignty, and yet what
an army of Federal pap-eaters he rallied
around him Don't talk to us about your
reverence for party Conventions and your in.
dependence of any authority which does not
emanate from them. You Lecompton rene
gades are altogether too slavish a crew. and
your spaniel tails wag little too freely, to
allow OF your humbugging sensible men with
any such affected exaltation of sentiment


You will be whipped into the traces. and


you know it.


| On Friday. in Sacramento