Staunton Spectator

To the People of Virginia:

This Convention, by original appointment, was to have assembled on the 14th day of December last, but it was deemed advisable, in consequence of subsequent events to postpone its meeting.--Those events were of a character so unexpected, and accompanied by developments so startling, as to make it, at one, the dictate of prudence and of patriotism to defer our action until further time should be given to discern the issue to which they conducted.

Pursuant to the postponement, we met together at the Capitol of the State, on the 22d of February, and as the day itself is hallowed in the annals of our history, we would, ourselves, catch from it an inspiration of the moderation, wisdom and virtue of the patriot to whom it gave birth.

At our appointment we were commissioned to deal with the party politics of the day, and on behalf of the Opposition of Virginia, to initiate measures looking to concerted action on the part of the Opposition of all the States in the approaching election of President.

The public considerations involved in the attempt well justified the action, although the condition of affairs had been less auspicious of success. The Democratic party, for a long succession of terms, with slight exception, had controlled the Federal Government and ruled the policy of the country. The expenses of the government from about $---- under the second Adams, and $---- under Mr. Fillmore, had increased to $---- under Mr. Pierce, and were rapidly swelling to more than $100,000,000 under Mr. Buchanan. The principle that "to the victors belong the spoils," borrowed from degenerate days, but at one time indignantly repudiated by all parties, had for a long period of time, under successive Democratic administrations, been avowed as their rule of action, and the public offices, created for the public benefit, had been unblushingly bestowed as rewards on partizans, and tools, and minions of executive pleasure. The public press was pensioned, and the freedom of elections constrained by executive patronage. In the shape of federal contracts, political favorites fraudulently obtained the rewards of party service, and of party apostasy, and in every ramification of executive action, extravagances, corruptions and frauds marked the rule of the men in authority, until the public mind, habituated to these abuses, had become, in a great degree, to experience the same demoralization. Under its influence, patriotism has given place to partyism, considerations of the public weal having been abandoned by those that belong to party success, and our Presidential elections have degenerated into mere contests for place.

Every recurrence of these is marked by some issue originating in the interests of a few, and continued for special effect. Whatsoever is calculated to excite the public mind, to inflame passion, to produce discord and engender sectional animosity is habitually seized upon by aspirants for place and industriously pressed forward by politicians and the presses in their interests.--No consideration of the public peace; no consideration of fraternal concord, of our Union, of its blessings; no consideration of the happiness and prosperity of the country; no consideration of the obligations, which as a nation, we owe to other nations, interposes restraint. In the lust for office, and in the greed for spoil all of these are trodden down, and the dearest interests of all are gambled with for the gain of a few. In the very nature of things it was not possible for the question of slavery to remain unappropriated, it was by far too inviting to the ends of party.

Existing in a part only of the states, the institution of slavery is necessarily sectional, and claiming to extend itself into the unoccupied territory of the public domain, it was of itself calculated to excite sectional jealousy. This was first seen when the thirteen colonies, pressed by the progress of the revolution, settled the articles of confederation. When independence was achieved it was more strongly manifested in the convention that framed the Constitution. It again exhibited its influence when Missouri applied for admission into the sisterhood of States. But greatly as the public mind was excited on these occasions, and important as were the measures volved [sic], parties forebore to form upon it, and the patriotism of the country rose to equality with the exigencies of the day.

After 1820, for a long series of years, the country reposed quietly in the settlements, and progressed, undisturbed by the baneful excitement. Certain societies of the Friends, contrived to forward to each Congress, memorials against slavery, but these disturbed no man's composure, and excited no complaint. A few fanatics in the Eastern States, combined into abolition Societies, sent also their petitions to Congress, but these were disposed of like those of the Quakers, and the currents of National and State politics, flowed smoothly on, without a ripple proceeding from that cause.

In the progress of events, the abolitionists, increasing in numbers, associated themselves into party organization, and in the States, especially of Ohio, New York and Massachusetts, put forward candidates for political office. But, despised by both of the great parties into which the politics of the country had divided the people, they would assimilate with neither. In Massachusetts, for years, Marcus Morton, was their standing candidate for the office of Governor, and for a succession of Presidential terms, they voted in all the Sites, for Mr. Binny, as their candidate for the Presidency. Engrossed with the idea of general emancipation, they addressed themselves to measures, wholly without the jurisdiction of Federal authority, and they could find, therefore, no foundation on which to rear the super-structure of an enduring political organization, and unassisted by the extraneous influences, their idiosyncrasy was certain, in the end, to exhaust its energy. But, unfortunately, these influences were not withheld.

The old Federal party, under whose auspices the government was inaugurated, and conducted through three successive administrative terms, found itself opposed by the Republican party, by which it suffered overthrow in the election of Mr. Jefferson. Proceeding upon the leading idea of opposition to executive influence, the victorions [sic] party successfully addressed itself to to [sic] the susceptibility of the public mind on the subject of the one man power, and so consolidated its strength, that under the administration of Mr. Monroe, it found itself without a rival. Everywhere in the Federal and State governments, the policy of the country was shaped by its influence. Lofty in its aspirations, high-toned in its principles, in the conduct of our Federal affairs, it addressed itself to the great tenets with enlightened and patriotic devotion. In our foreign relations it commanded the respect of other Powers; in our domestic affairs, while regard was had to the constitution and the rights of the States, it recognized the duty of protecting and advancing the great industrial interests of the country, and under its fostering measures commerce, manufactures and agriculture, made rapid progress in prosperity. No power not granted to the federal authority was assumed, and no power granted to it, when necessary to the general welfare, was abrogated.--But, in the progress of time, divisions arose, and parties formed for the advancement of political favorites. One division addressed itself to popular appliances, and assumed the name of "democracy," a name which soon was found strongly to distinguish its prominent features. By artful appeals to popular prejudice, by loud professions of love for the people, this division succeeded to power, and inaugurated an era in which the executive department stretched its powers to unheard of extents. Then was begun that fatal resort of purchasing support with the emoluments of office, and the proclamation went forth that "to the victors belong the spoils."

The other division took the name of Whig; a name in British history significant of opposition to Kingly power, and in this country illustrated in our annals by patriotic devotion to the cause of liberty. True to the antecedents of the great Republican party, pursuing its high purposes, the Whigs cast themselves in opposition to Democratic excesses, and invoked the public judgement upon the disastrous tendencies of public affairs. Although the dominant party experienced some defections from its ranks, the iron rule of party held stern away; but in the hands of Mr. Van Buren the Sceptre was held by a feebler grasp. The misrule, the extravagances, the work, the corruptions of the administration, were more than the positions of the Democracy could withstand, and for a time the people were rallied to the rescue. In the North the great States of New York, Ohio and Massachusetts, and in the South the States of Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina were in the ranks of the Whigs, while in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Virginia, and some of the other States, the contest for the supremacy was sharp and doubtful.

The great questions of Executive power, Congressional responsibility, economy, reform of abuses, of protection to the great interests of the country, were pressed at every point, and the opposing hosts reeled and staggered under their irresistible force. Condemned upon these issues by the public judgments, in their extremity they let fly a Parthian arrow at the pursuing hosts, and the envenomed point rankled in the bosom of the country. For the first time in our history, the question of slavery was introduced for party effect, and that dangerous element intruded into the conflict of parties. The Democrats of the Southern States set themselves up as the Exclusive guardians of the institution of slavery, while those of the Northern States were strenuous in the interests of freedom, and the Whigs found themselves in the anomalous condition of being assailed in one quarter as unsound on the question of slavery, and denounced in the other as untrue to liberty. Yet, both in the North and in the South there were in the ranks of the Whigs men as eminent for ability, as illustrious for integrity and patriotism as ever adorned the division of a party, and as thoroughly identified with the interests of their sections, as any that lived in them. The susceptibility of the Southern mind to the interests of slavery, enabled the Democrats to waken the Whigs in the slaveholding Sates, and finally to withdraw them from their influence, while in the North they combined with the Abolitionists, and succeeded to power in the States of Ohio, New York and Massachusetts. During these operations the victors had no difficulty in uniting for the common purpose. On whatever battle fields they fought, they were wings of the same army, fighting for the same spoils, and when met together in general convention, resolutions of equivocal import, designed to admit of opposite construction, were put forth, as the platform of the party on which either wing could securely stand in the region where it was to give battle.

It was not the least remarkable feature of this strange anomaly that successes achieved at the North by abolition aid were heralded at the South as Democratic victories, until, at last the party became jubilant over the election of Marcus Morton to the chief executive office of the State of Massachusetts.

The new element thus introduced into the conflict of parties, tended necessarily to sectional antagonism, and it was easy to see that, however well it served the exigency of the moment, it was likely in the end, to bring discord into the party on whose behalf it was invoked. As a political issue, it tended to mischief, to excite passions, to inflame prejudices, to secionalize parties and imperil slavery. But no considerations of statesmanship, no enlightened forecast of party-welfare, no regard for the peace of the country and the safety of its institutions, no respect for the integrity of the Union, nothing availed to restrain the Democracy from the desperate resort. Introduced upon the political arena, it soon engrossed the public mind, and the success that attended it in the Southern States, invited to similar use of it in the Northern States. Now, all other issues are laid aside, and opposing parties rely for success in the different sections upon their ability to excite and exasperate the minds of the masses by the laudation and abuse of slavery.

The claim of legislative power to exclude slavery from the common territory was a fruitful source of agitation. In the ordinance of 1787, providing a government for the Northwestern territory, it was declared that involuntary servitude except for crime should be forever excluded therefrom. This ordinance was contemporaneous with the formation of the federal constitution. Being adopted by the Congress of the confederation, it was ratified by express provision of that instrument, and so the unfortunate policy was inaugurated at the birth of the Government. But for a long time nothing occurred to disturb the peaceful relations of the States.--Under Mr. Jefferson's administration, Louisiana was purchased from France and subsequently Florida was purchased from Spain, and in both territories slavery was recognized and established by law, and in the inhabited parts was actually existing at the time of the purchases. No effort was made by the federal authority to interfere with it, but when Missouri applied for admission it was proposed to impose upon her people the condition of excluding slavery from the new State. The struggle ended in a compromise by which the line of 36:30 was drawn through the remaining part of the Louisiana purchase, and the application of the prohibition of the ordinance of 1787 to the part north of that line. The country acquiesced in the settlement and the excitement subsided, but in the division of parties, the question of slavery was not permitted to enter.

The States of Arkansas and Florida, in the course of events, were duly admitted, without question as to their system of labor. But, in 1850, another condition prevailed; the fathers of the Republic had passed off from the scene of their usefulness; the great republican party had given place to the fierce Democracy, and the agitation of slavery was the pabulum of its existence. Under their conduct of the government, sectionalism had erected its horrible head, and parties already threatened to divide by Mason and Dixon's line. When, therefore, Congress came to make disposition of the territory ceded by Mexico, it furnished no just ground of surprise that this vicious element should distract the repose of the country. But fortunately there were distinguished patriots of both parties then in the conduct of affairs. These great minds addressed themselves to the work of pacification, and a series of enactments, know as the Compromise measures of 1850, were placed on the statute book. By these the law for the rendition of fugitives from service was made more stringent; California was admitted as a State with a Constitution prohibiting slavery; a government was provided for the territory of New Mexico, without any provision on that subject; the line of the Missouri Compromise was extended through the Northern part of Texas; and the trade in slaves was prohibited in the District of Columbia. The purpose of these acts was to dispose, at once, of all the subjects touching which the question of slavery was likely to be agitated, and thenceforward to exclude that topic, as matter of legitimate discussion, from the halls of Congress. In this spirit Mr. Fillmore accepted them, and, in his message, declared them to be a final adjustment in substance and in principle of the questions to which they related. The State of Virginia, by her legislature, expressed her acquiescence; the country was content, and peace and concord seemed about to be restored to a divided brotherhood.--The Democratic Convention that nominated Mr. Pierce, adopted a resolution declaring the finality of the settlement, and made it a plank in their platform; the Whig Convention that nominated Gen. Scott did the same. In his inaugural address, Mr. Pierce re-affirmed the settlement, and both in that and in his first message, expressly pledged himself to the country that, by nothing that he would do, or countenance in the doing of others, should the distracting question of African slavery, during his term of office, be obtruded upon the deliberations of Congress.

When Mr. Pierce entered upon the duties of his office, there had been no time since the first introduction of this mischievous element into party politics, at which the agitators, in both sections, were more powerless; their strength was paralized [sic], and parties were rallying to bring again to issue, the great questions from which they had so long been led astray. It was at this juncture, that the act of 1820, known as the Missouri Compromise, was repealed, and through the flood gates of Congress, the slavery discussion poured its torrents over the land. Of its disastrous effects, the whole country is witness. That it disrupted the Whig party; that it drove from the administration hosts of Democrats; that it gave rise to the modern republican organization; that it brought the two divisions of the country into angry opposition, upon a sectional issue; that it caused civil, and threatened servile war; that it relieved the agitators from their paralysis, and invigorated their strength; that it swelled the ranks of the disaffected, and imperiled the Union, are facts of present existing history, the evils and dangers of which, are yet to have their solution.

Had the repeal been demanded by some great public exigency in the affairs of the country, the evils encountered in its accomplishment, might be compensated by the object it was successful in obtaining. But no exigency pressed its demand; no State Legislature, and no member of any; no primary assembly of the people; and as far as is known, no individual of the masses, sent up either petition or request. The scheme was concocted in the closet of the politician, and to serve the ends of political adventurers, sprung suddenly from the Senate chamber on the public. Had it been designed as a practical benefit to the institution of slavery, to enable the master to settle the new territories with his slaves, justification or excuse might be found for the act in the spirit of justice on which it proceeded. But we were told by the projectors and advocates of the repeal that the slave owners could not take possession of the lands, because both nature and climate dedicated it to freedom.

But it is said that the act repealed was unconstitutional, and has been so declared to be by the Supreme Court. Then the repeal was unnecessary, as the act itself was a nullity. But the case in which the judgment was rendered was pending before the Court when the repealing act was introduced, and as the question of constitutionality was appropriately a judicial question, there was a fitness in leaving it to that arbitrament. It cannot be doubted that had the question been left to progress quietly through the judicial forum, the judgment would have been received as a final settlement, but dragged untimely into party politics, the vexation endures to work its mischief.

The introduction of African slavery into party politics is the prolific cause of all our troubles. It has proved to this country what the wrath of Achilles was to Greece, "the direful spring of woes unnumbered."

We trace this history for the double purpose of exposing the guilty authors and exhibiting the evil itself.

The public mind has become, in a measure, disordered, and we must have the courage to look the disease in the face and submit to the remedy necessary for a cure.

The remedy is to restore the question of slavery to the condition in which our fathers left it, to be discussed when occasions arise appropriate to the discussion, and to expel it forever from the creed of party. To deal with it properly, demands the best exertions of enlightened patriotism. Withdrawn by the very form of the constitution form the common power of all, it was expressly reserved to the States, separately, under the authority of whose law it is permitted to exist. Constituting a large and important interest in these States, it is entitled to the consideration of every State, and, within the just limits of constitutional power, to the protection of the common agent. Its religious, its social, its industrial tendencies belong not to others to determine, and are unfit and unprofitable for others to discuss. We are not now considering the formation of the confederacy; our Union is established, free States are associated with slave holding States, and what concerns us, is, how to discharge the duties that the compact of association imposes.

Slavery is not now what it was at the commencement of our government. It has grown into proportions far exceeding the anticipations of our fathers. They looked forward to the day when it could be abolished with safety. But the times have changed since there were but a few hundred thousand slaves in the country, with comparatively small prices. The number has swelled to four millions, constituting the labor of one half the nation.

It has an importance reaching to national proportions. It produces commodities that constitute the necessaries, comforts and luxuries of all nations. It is the main support of Northern commerce and manufactures, and of Northern wealth and progress. Southern society rests upon its base, and upon its security the world depends for the products of its labor in those larger quantities that the progress of civilization and the arts demand.

But if slavery only concerned the South it would be entitled to be treated with liberal views and impartial and candid judgment; it is unfit for sectional and partisan intrigues and management. The prosperity and safety of the South concern the nation.

The States under whose laws the system of free labor obtains, are secure, like their Southern sisters, from all federal interference as it is reserved to them alone to consider the religion, the social and industrial questions that spring from it. Whatever great interests these systems give rise to are equally entitled to the consideration of the other States, and within the prescribed limits, to the protection of the federal agent.

If a diversity exists between the two systems of labor and different interests spring from them requiring special measures to accommodate the exigencies of each, it is the plain dictate of justice that the power of all shall be exerted in the behalf of each, it is only by measures and enactments founded in concession and compromise, that government can discharge its high duty.--We see nothing in our system incompatible with a cordial Union of the States, and the harmonious working of the federal government. It is replete with every element of national, social and individual prosperity and happiness, and if permitted, under Providence, to work out its destiny, it cannot fail to establish the United States in the foremost rank of the great nations of the earth.

Between the two extremes of North and South we would gladly find a path of safety. The Constitution and the laws made by its founders have, in ample measure, promoted the happiness, prosperity and security of the whole country.--The South has flourished and grown to wealth and strength under them; can it be that the time has arrived to abandon this Constitution and repeal these laws? To a great extent, we think, the solution of this question remains with the people of the North. For the South we claim as the condition of our Union the principle of legal equality, and the principle that political power is a trust power, to be exercised for the good of the governed. We claim security for slavery as a domestic institution; we claim the right to extend it into any Territory of the public domain, now in possession or hereafter to be acquired, where the soil and climate invite it; we desire no further importations from Africa to degrade and barbarize and render valueless the slaves that are here. With these recognitions we are content with the Constitution, we are content with the Union, and content to live with the people of the North as the citizens of one government, and to share with them a common prosperity.

But recent events have disclosed the existence, in the North, of opinions and passions dangerous to the peace of Southern society, and the South cannot shut its eyes to the fact; nor can it be insensible to the dangerous tendencies of the present Republican organization; an organization founded on the idea of an "irrepressible conflict" among brethren of the same country, teaching doctrines that had a disregard of the Constitution and laws, and incite to treasonable invasions of the States and sympathy for the traitors.

If the great body of the Northern people are loyal to the country and to the South as a part of it, let the conservative classes prove their title to the appellation, and by their acts show themselves to be lovers of order and peace, of industry and its rewards, and of the security of property and all vested rights.

The powers conferred upon the Federal Government are the common concessions of all the States, acting as Independent Sovereign, and are conceded for the common benefit. Delegated to special agents, they become sacred trusts, which are abused when perverted to uses inconsistent with the purposes of their concessions.

A reference to the true Constitutional relations of the States, most clearly demonstrates how widely we depart from the spirit of the Constitution when we lend ourselves to those unhappy sectional combinations that mar the beauty and deform the symmetry of the system.

To the angry passions kindled by the fierce contests between the Democrats and Republicans we attribute the bloody scenes in Kansas, and the wicked foray of John Brown, and to the same cause, in a great degree, we refer the persistent obstruction in some of the States to the rendition of fugitive slaves, and the impunity extended to the spoliators on the Southern slaveholders. With the removal of the causes exciting to them, we would fain hope that these just grounds of complaint will no long endure.--Certainly our sister States owe it to themselves to remove that reproach from their penal codes, wherein exemption from legal reprobation, encourages to wanton aggression upon the property of their neighbors.

But, however earnestly we hope for these results, however strongly we think the general welfare demands them, however confidently we believe them to be within the reach of the people, we are forced to confess that we anticipate none of them from the success of either of the parties now struggling for power; with the Republicans, we would not feel that the Union will be safe, and with the Democracy, the baneful sectional strife would rage with fresh vigor.--The only safety is to be found in the success of a party inaugurated upon the basis of the Union, the Constitution, pledged to suppress the agitation of slavery, to expel it from Federal legislation, and to discard it absolutely as a political issue; pledge to respect the Constitution and to observe the rights of the States; pledged to administer the powers of government as sacred trusts, and guard them from abuse; pledged, within the just limits of the granted powers, to encourage and protect the great interests of the country without respect to the latitude in which they spring; pledged to restrain the encroachments of the executive power; pledged to economy and reform of abuses; pledged to purge the departments of those corruptions that deform and disgrace them; pledged to redeem the country from that base and corrupt practice that deals with the emoluments of office as the spoils of victory; and, in a word, pledged to administer the government in the spirit of the Constitution, and with a view to the preservation of the Union.

The movement of patriotic and conservative men against the Black Republican and Democratic parties, both of which are alike sectional and tending to disunion, is gathering strength in all quarters, and is destined, we trust to become a power that will be felt in the land. We laid before our readers last week a tolerably full report of the proceedings of the Virginia Convention, held in Richmond on the 22nd ult., and publish on the first page of to-day's paper the able and patriotic address to the people, adopted by the Convention. This admirable paper is from the pen of Robert E. Scott, of Fauquier, one of the ablest of our public men, and sets forth the views and the principles of the Whigs of the State in clear and unmistakable terms.--The Convention adopted the suggestions of the National Whig and American Executive Committee, only so far as to send delegates to the proposed National Convention; setting forth, however, fully and distinctly their own principles and opinions to be read and known of all men with whom they might choose to co-operate, or who might desire to co-operate with them. One objection to the plan of the National Committees was the proposition to express a preference for two candidates for the Presidency, which suggestion it was considered inexpedient to adopt, as likely to lead to feuds and disaffection among the friends of particular gentlemen. It was, therefore, wisely concluded to leave the selection of candidates to the sound discretion of the National Convention, with the confident belief that the choice of that body will be such as to command the support, not only of the people represented in the Virginia Convention, but of the united opposition throughout the Union.

Of our own Convention, we say with pride and pleasure, that it was a glorious re-union of men of the right stamp--men of patriotism and ability--who felt the importance and the magnitude of the work they had assembled to perform, and who addressed themselves to it with calm deliberation and the strictest decorum.--The work was well done--"decently and in order"--in such a manner as to command universal admiration and respect. The twelve hundred delegates in the body took counsel together in a fraternal spirit, for the good of the whole country.

Conventions have also been held in New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, all breathing the same spirit of patriotism and devoted to the Union and the constitution. New Jersey, like Virginia, expressed no preference, of [illegible] to fight the battle under the lead of any sound national man. North Carolina prefers Graham first, and Washington Hunt, of New York, next. Tennessee goes for her own cherished son, John Bell; and Kentucky for the venerable statesman, John J. Crittenden. The resolutions adopted by the Conventions in all these States do not differ substantially in the principles which they enunciate; and all are distinct and emphatic in the expression of their attachment to the Union of the States and a just interpretation and strict fidelity to all the guarantees of the Constitution as the bond of a yet more perfect Union. With such objects, and under the lead of such men as the crisis has brought to the van, we may hope that the movement will meet with such favor in all quarters as will soon embody the conservative elements of the whole country into a solid and irresistible column of opposition to Republicanism and Democracy. So may it be!