The Crisis! (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 2, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 1, 1860 Page: 1 of 4
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THE €OXSTITlTIOX AND THE EQUALITY OF THE STATES! THESE ARE SYMBOLS OP EVERLASTING UNION. LET THESE BE THE
RALLYING CRIES OF THE PEOPLE.*?——Breckinridge's Letter of Acceptance.
Yol. 1.
GALVESTON, AUGUST 1, 1860.
No.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
BY
RICHARDSON & CO.,
GALVESTON NEWS OFFICE.
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SUBSCRIPTION PAYABLE IN ADVANtE-50 CENTS.
For President,
HON. JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE.
op kentucky.
For Vice President.,
HON. JOSEPH LANE,
op oregon.
ELECTORS FOR THE STATE AT LARGE.
Col. M. D. GRAHAM, Gen. T. N. WAUL.
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L-r • V ;•
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first district,
Col. A. T. RAINEY.
second district,
Col. JOHN A. WHARTON.
' $ : ' STATE ELECTION, AUGUST, i860.
r Attorney 0ener
IL J^LOURW
For Comptroller,
r ' íFor Attorney General,
> ^ G. M.' JFLOURNOY.
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For State Treasurer
GYRUS H. RANDOLPH.
" TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE CONSTITUTION."
Calhoun.
PLATFORM OF THE NATIONAL DEMOCRACY,
As reported at the' Charleston Convention by the majority
of the Committee on Platform, voted for there by the Fif-
teen Southern States and by California and Oregon, and
Adopted at Baltimore by the Contention that nominated
Breckinridge and Laneí
Resolved, That the platform adopted by the Democratic
Party at Cincinnati be affirmed, with the following explana-
tory Resolutions:
1st. That the government of a Territory organized by an
act of Congress, is provisional and temporary, and during its
existence, all citizens of the United States^ave an equal
right to settle with their property in the Territory without
their rights either of person or property being destroyed or
impaired by Congressional or Territorial legislation.
2d. That it is the duty of the Federal Government in all
its departments, to protect when necessary the rights of per-
son and property in the Territories, and wherever else its
constitutional authority extends.
3d. That when settlers in a Territory, having an adequate
population, form a constitution in pursuance of law, the
right of sovereignty commences, and, being consummated by
admission into the Union, they stand on an equal footing
with the people of other States ; and the State thus organized
ouwlit to be admitted into the Federal Union, whether its
constitution prohibits or recognizes the institution of slavery.
4th. That the Democratic party are in favor of the ac-
quisition of the Isknd of Cuba, on such terms as shall be
honorable to ourselTes and just to Spain, at the earliest prac-
tical mattent. *
5t.h. the enactments of State Legislatures to defeat
the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, are hostile
in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolution-
ary in their effect.
6th. That the Democracy of the United States recognize
it as the imperative duty of this Government to protect the
naturalized citizen in all his rights, whether at home or in
foreisn lands, to the same extent as its native born citizens.
© ' ( #
Whereas, one of the greatest necessities of the age, in a
political, commercial, postal and military point/of view, is a
speedy communication between the Pacific and Atlantic
coasts, Therefore be it
Resolved, That the Democratic party do hereby pledge
themselves to use every means in their power to secure the
passage of some bill to the extent of the Constitutional au-
thority of Congress, for the construction of a Pacific Rail-
road from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, at the
earliest practical moment.
The History of the Question.
We copy, the following from a fall report, in the
Charleston Courier, of the speech of the Hon. R.
Barnwell Rhett, at the recent State Democratic Con-
vention of South Carolina :
We are in no new controversy. For more than
thirty years the struggle between the North and the
South has been going on. That struggle, under vari-
our measures, has been for the power on the part of
the North, and for protection against, power on the
part of the South. It first arose on the Tariff. Thirty-
two years ago, whilst an unknown práctitioner in a
County Circuit, I wrote the Colleton Address, coun-
selling the State to protect her people against the sec-
tional aggression of the North by the Tariff. From
that day to this the contest has been raging, with but
short intervals. It now exists on our rights in our
Territories. Some say that it is an abstraction; al-
though the Territories of the United States now ex-
ceed in extent the area of the present .United States,
and if the interests of-the .South in flje Territories
were far less than they'are; it should n0, in the slight-
est degree, affect our course of resistance If the right
in our Territories affects the Constitution, and the
Constitution affects our liberties; tܿ importance of
the contest rises to the vast dominions, all these inter-
ests involve. If a eomp&it is broken in one parti-
cular it is broken in all. Its continuance ais a broken
compact, is a mere matterof expediency, not of obli-
gation. And so of the institution, ujf the United
States. It must be presold;' in its -integrity; or all
its guarantees fail. The' same powei
aside for one object, may thrust it ai
The Constitution;
its integrity, but
;hat thrust it
for another,
it? terms for
a power con-
t betweeja
stii
,ratli<
twe#n people
ta and institu-
Union; and,
ffer in power,
trols it. If they
those who had $0
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or administration ;/slave$Heetion
than another. Bif /is:£%'
having different ,rigfc antftgonsf inH)
tions, living in <y^erenf sections ó:
when i¿ is added, that these sections :
pursuit and prospects, it as clear that the weaker
section cannot surrender the Constitution without im-
minent danger of ruin. Tlbey must havc^ the Consti-
tution for their protection, or they must Submit to be
colonised. When, therefore, we contend for our con-
stitutional rights in our Territories, we are contending
for the Constitution. We must have it—in ,the rights
it guarantees to us in our Territories, or surrender it
all. > ' .
But the contest for our rights in new Territories not
only involves the Constitution of the United States,
but the great principle of self-government—of liberty.
No on© in the least degree acquainted witív the condi-
tion of things in the United States but knows that the
Northern people have no respect for the Constitution
of the United States. I speak not of the Fugitive
Slave Law, but of all laws they deem important to
their feelings and interests. A majority in Congress
from the North holds that the Constitution of the
United States consists in " the general welfare." Con-
gress is omnipotent; and' they, constituting the ma-
jority in Congress, are the rightful rulers of the United
States. The South must be ruled. Representation
affords us no protection, for the Representatives of the
Northern section of the Union are not responsible to
the South. They are responsible to the Northern peo-
ple, who demand that their views of their interests,
shall be carried out in the legislation of Congress.
That despotic rule of the British Parliament which
our ancestors resisted by a seven years' war, is consum-
mated over the South in the Congress of the Uiúted
States. Nor have we any hope in the future. 9fce
can only bring over the South increasing weakne^sand
inferiority.
The two great parties of the North show the condi-
tion of the South. They are the Black Republican
and the Democratic parties. Both of these parties
are agreed as to their internal policy over the South.
The Black Republican party seeks, by the direct action
of Congress, our exclusion for our Territory. The
Northern Democrats seek the same end by the Terri-
torial legislation. Both agree in the policy of inter-
nal improvements. Both agree, with a few local ex-
ceptions , to the policy of protective Tariffs, as show
by the late vote in Congress. Both agree" in giving
away the public domain to aid Northern appropriation,
by the Homestead Bill. In the late Charleston conven-
tion, there was not one single principle in which the
Northern Democracy agreed with the Southern. Not
one ! There are portions of the Democratic party of
the North who concede the rights of the South, and
would sustain the Constitution, but they are powerless
for any effective co-operation with the South. We are,
therefore, contending for our rights in our Territory,
involving the Constitution and our liberties, without
any party in the Northern States to support us.
This wretched consummation has been brought on by
the past policy of submission to aggression by the South.
If in 1832. or 1844, or 1852, the Southern States had
firmly vindicated their rights, and had placed as the
alternative of their vindication, a dissolution of our
union with the North, the people of the South, at this
moment, would have been in a quiet, peaceful and happy
union with the North—free ourselves, and a noble
monument of freedom to others. If it is now too late
to accomplish such a result by such a policy, it is be-'
cause we have become demoralized. We are not re-
spected; and that force which was suited only to the
subjection of the slaves in the Northern mind, seems
to be the appropriate instrument to perpetrate their
power. But it may not even now be too lato to afc
complish such a result. If the North were to allow
us to dissolve our union with them, I am satisfied that
it will not require more than two years experience to
re-construct a union with them upon just such terms as
we shall think proper to dictate, asking (as we have
never asked) no advantages over them for ourselves,
they would sign, seal /and kiss the Constitution we
should prescribe. The South, with her ten millions of
slaves, need ask neither concession nor alliance.from
any other people. We are sufficient of ourselves to
work our ovn great destiny. When the history of
the times in which we live shall bo written by some
future historian, it will be a matter for curious specu-
lation how so great a people submitted so long to bé
oppressed, insulted and ruled by the vulgar tyranny
S&s&ostV a — i— -stjvr--
m
¿
Senator Fitzpatrick.
^4
. The patriotic course of this gentleman in refusing
to accept the Douglas nomination for the Vice Prési- ^ ,y -v,
dency, entitled him to the thanks of every true South-
ern man, and of every one who attaches importance to an • , ,
honorable and wise consistency. He could not in.
honor support the candidate whose views on an imr
portant point he had persistently opposed in the U. S.
Senate ; lie could not, like Mr. Johnson t>f 'Georgia,
forget in a moment his previous years of devotion to
the South ; he could not, from an ultra Southern "fire
eater," become a semi-Black Republican, and that for
the sake of a glittering bribe.
How Mr. Johnson can reconcile his and Mr, Doug-
las's avowed opinions on political questions involving
the constitutional rights and freat interests of the
South, one of those feats of intellectual legerdemain
that, like Blondin's crossing Niagara Falls on a tight
rope, we plainly see, but we can hardly believe or un-
derstand. The risk in either case is great; neither
performer ^an safely look back ; but we should prefer
Bleridinisin to Jóhnsonism.
' Senator Fitzpatrick. in a letter of the 12th, to Hon.
J. L. 'M. Currey, of Ala., thus frankly states his view?
on the questions of the day :
I could not accept the nomination with Mr. Doug-
las, for the reasons set forth in my letter of doclension,
and for others, which I said in that letter, I would not
then expose. I differ entirely with him on the Terri-
torial question, as set forth in my letter to Mr. Hudg-
ins last fall, and as I indicated by my vote on the Sen-
ate resolutions, commonly called the " Davis resolu-
tions," which passed the Senate at the last session of
Congress.
Differing afe widely as we do upon the question of
Popular or Squatter Sovereignty and the protection of
¿lave property in the Territories, I could not have ac-
cepted the nomination with Mr. Douglas, on the plat-
form presented, without subjecting myself to the impu-
tation of having abandoned well-matured opinions for
hope of obtaining power and place.
According in sentiment with thé platform upon
which Breckinridge and Lane have been nominated, I
shall, as a matter of course, yield them my support.
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The Crisis! (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 2, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 1, 1860, newspaper, August 1, 1860; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth181138/m1/1/: accessed April 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.