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NEUTRVL I* POLITICS & IIELICIOY—DEVOTED TO ART; AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF SACKED RltJlSifct
B- F.^HITE, Super.iVTEivOENT. j
* RELIGION IS SWEET.-7’s, by W. R. Waldrap.
’Tis Religion that can give, Sweetest pleasures while We live. *Tis religion must suppljr. Solid we die.
SYNOPSIS OF Tft&SiE KCH ‘*ii
V iipN. H. VV- .Milliard
Delivered at Concert Hall, July 11, 1855.
Mr. Hilliard said, that some time had j
elapsed since he had taken part in any po |
litical discussion. Dot that he had ceased to
feel interested in the fortunes'of his friends, j
or the welfare of his country, but that he ,
had voluntarily retired from Congress with |
the view of pursuing his profession, and
this had occupied him. On two occasions
he had engaged in political debates—first in
1851, to vindicate the position of the Union
partyt and afterwards associated on the
electoral ticket with Judge Hopkins, he had
followed the standard of that war worn Vo
teran, Winfield Scott. In coming forward
this evening, he felt it due to candor to say,
that his political opinions had undergone no
change? so long as the whig ensign had
floated over the field, he had taken his place
under it? and if to-day the circumstances
existed to require it to be brought out, he
would he ready to surround himself with
the “old guard” and meet its assailants.
But the time had come when mete party
issues had died outi deeper questions were
moving the people ; it was no longer a dis-l
mission as to the manner of conducting the
government; but our country aud our al
tars demanded our services, and all who
ioVed republican liberty and the Protestant
Cause should abandon old party alliances
and come up to the support of this young,
patriotic and powerful organization calfed
■tbeAMERtcAN Party. Let us catch the
Spirit of ancient Republican Rome; quar
rels between patricians and the people, how
ever fiercely they raged, were hushed so
soon as a foreign standard appeared at**the
.ypMcjt of the.gitv : aftdeverv bosom
with ITttWrnrog desire To fl
Mr. H. proceeded To state four proposi
tions as the basis of his argument in support
of the platform eg the American party
i. Americans most rule America.
To thii doctrine he gave his unqualified
nssent. This government is based upon re*,
publican principles, and it ought to be ad
ministered by those thoroughly imbued with
a love of constitutional liberty aud compre
hending their spirit.
Our opinions are formed id our youth
they grow with our growth and strengthen
with our strength; aud surely meu born
Bud reared under the monarchical system of
the old woEd, cannot he so well qualified
to hold the great trusts of our government,
as those dirhose eyes first beheld the light
under our skies, and who have been trained
under our free institutions.
This was the sentiment of our revolution
ary ancestors, and they embodied it bribe
Cynstirution of “the Uuifed States. In look
ing into that instrument, one is struck with
the wisdom and the forte of the provisions
, against foreign influence. No one can be
elected a representative iu Congress unless
he has beeu a citizen of the United States
for seven years, which of course involves
the necessity of his having been in the coun
try twelve years.
He cannot be a Senator in the United
States Until he has been nine years a citi
zen, and fourteen years a resident. And
no matter what may be his ability, bis in
tegrity, his patriotism, his services, so jeal
ous were the wise and just men who framed
the constitution, of foreign influence, that
ihey provided that “no person except a na
tive born citizen, or a citizen of the United
States at the time of the adoption of the
constitution, shall be eligible to the office of
President and Vice President.”
Why not? What is the reason of this
important provision of the constitution ?
Plainly, because pur fathers saw that no
man ought to be entrusted with the first of
fices of the republic who was born under
the monarchical systems of Europe, or
who was not reared under our own free in
stitutions. We claim, then, that the plat
form of the American party rests upou the
great principles of ths American constitu
tion. Every objeciion levelled against our
principles proclaimed at Philadelphia, ap
plies with equal force to the principles em
bodied in the Constitution of the United
States. •-*>
h is further provided in the constitution
that no persoa holding any office of profit or
trust under the United States, shall accept
any present, office, or title of any kind from
any King, Prince, or foreign State. Shall
we then eutrust the government itself, or
any of its great departments,’ to men who
come to our shores with all the training,
prejudices, and ideas of foreign countries?
That good men, capable men. patriotic men,
like Mitchell from Ireland, do come amongst
us, we do not doubt; but laws must be
geueral in tboir application, and in propos
ing to change our naturalization laws, we
must make them apply to all alike.
THE AJRGAN.
■I Ware ireitUyv mmndrsr™J i/*i> be
Supposed that wr wirh wv deprive any nat
uralized citizen of the United S<ates of
rigfus already acquired. Not so; we pro
, pose to legislate for the future. It is also
; provided in the constitution of this demo
cratic State of Alabama that no person hut
a native born citizen of the United States
shall be elected Governor.
Mr. H. said that he had read with amaze
ment, if not with indignation, letters and
speeches from distinguished .sources, which
represented-Alexander Hamilton and Rob-
Urt Morris as foreigners. He would pluck
ep those great names from the place where
they had been cast, and restore them to
that splendid galaxy of American heroes
Rod statesmen where they properly belong
ed. Alexander Hamilton a foreigner! Nev
er! Robert Morris a foreigner! Nevor!
Because Hamilton and Morris were born in
England, does is follow ihat they were for
eigners? At that time the dominion of
England Embraced this country. At that
time the American government did not ex
ist. How then could these men be foreign
er? A foreigner is one who is born out
side of the jurisdiction of the government:
.hut our government had not then been cre
ated. Hamilton, young, accomplished and
able, before the revolutionary struggle,
marie these colonies his home; he entered
with all his zeal into that struggle; rode by
the side of Washington in battle, and when
-the day was won, satin the very conven
tion which formed the constitution, and vo
ted for that provision which excludes a for
eigner from the Presidency.
So too Moiris,
upon w Washington
'* in the
;;
WT’i-
attempt
foreigners!
As to paupers and
criminals, it musTbelirrested. Europe was
precipitating them upon our shores by thou
sands. Bremen sent them out, it was un
derstood, at dollars per head. Sar
dinia empties berjails and poor houses up
on us.
As to the secresy of the order, it no long
er existed. The organization was formed
without calling in its enemies to council,
hut at Philadelphia, the very place where
the Declaration of Independence had been
made, the principles of the American party
were proclaimed in the streets and publish
ed from the house tops, to the dismay of the
Philistines.
It is well known that all political bodies
do exercise the privilege of excluding th?
public from thoii meetings, when they think
proper to do so.
For six years I was your representative
in Congress. I felt myself the peer of Sen
ators, and yet often when passing through
the rotunda to the other end of the capitol,
I sought to euter the Senate chamber. I was
informed the Senate was in executive see.,
sion with closed doors.
In caucuses of either party, at Washing
ton, for the choice of officers, the doors
W'ere carefully closed.
We can call up, 100, from history a me*
morablo instance of secrecy of movements.
lay in the Boston harbor, laden with
ten, upon which the tax must be paid before
it could be sold to the colonists; the Amer
icans of that day concerted in secret the
plan of destroying the hateful cargo ; and
disguised, they boarded the vessel aud
threw the chests of tea overboard.
2. Mr. H’s second position was, this is a
Protestant country aud must ever continue
to be such.
Civil liberty and the Protestant faith are
closely allied. The greatest event which
has ever occurred in the history of our race,
next to the coming of the Son of God into
the world to redeem it, was the Reforma
tion, which emancipated the mind of Eu<
tope from bondage to the Pope, and
taught all mankind that no Priest had the
right to stand between man and his maker
that salvation was not to be bought and
sold iu the markets, but was to be had by;
faith in him who died for ui and rose again,
and that every man had the right to read
the Bible for himself. We seek to vindi
cate the great principles of the American
Revolution, and of the Reformation; prin
ciples at times almost lost sight of, in the
struggle between parties, pandering to the
prejudices and passions of a foreign horde,
and forgetting too often the principles of
our republican government and our Protest
ant Christianity.
We make no war on Catholics—far from
it; we welcome them to our shores; we in
vite them to our hospitalities ; we see their
cburcbee go up without molestation; we
attend tbeir service even when they cele
Hamilton v Ga; Weauesday, August 1, VHSS
pers ; but we deny tb right of Pope or
Priest to touch the conscience ; we distrust
a politico-religious organization with the
head of the church a temporal Prince hurl
ing thunders against heretics; denouncing
the open Bible, punishing men as in Tusca
ny for reading the word of God and teach
ing others to read it; wo dread the intoler*
ant spirit thus displayed—a spirit manifest
ed in our own country by the attempts
made in New York and elsewhere to shut
the Bible out of the public schools} and
failing in that, attempting to divide the
school fund that schools might be formed
from which our Bible is Iq he excluded—we
dread the ascendency of such an organiza
tion, and when Brownsnn. one of theirown
writers, says that this he a Catholic
country, that the convent hell shall be heard
from Maine to Georgia, and that “thecleau
sacrifice for the living and the dead,” shall
be offered over this who£e couutry—We re
ply, never —if we can hejp it 1
By the memory of the noble army of Mar
tyrs { by the recollection of the struggle of j
Luther who erected his broad platform in
the midst of Europe, and defied the power
alike of Emperor and Pope; by the suffer
ing of Protestants every the
supremacy of the our
liberty ;
to bring h c
i bo
because
taut republic. Our J|
native Ca
legiance to the Catholic
hold that say we
v..te Joffices of
this republic.
You must take the ■PPfsibility of such a
church connection as you choose to main
tain,
Not that we dread the temporal power of
the Pope, but we believe his church to be
hostile to our institutions.
Will he permit a Protestant house of wor
ship to be reared by the side of St. Peter’s,
or in front of the Vatican ? Will he permit
our Bible to be read openly within his do
minions? Is h,e friendly to republicanism?
In JB4B the republican spirit flamed up in
Rome; who was the first to take fright at
it ? The Pope, in the disguise of a courier,
hooted and spurred, fled from his dominions,
Meu were full of hope, descendants of the
ancient Romans theycou'd without a blush
walk under the rr.ondments of their former
glory, the fire* of liberty were rekindled up
on their old altars.
Then Austria, the basest of the King
doms ; Austria who pfit down Hungary
with the bayonet, Austria who whipped
women publicly through the streets, Austria
sent her soldiers, and France sent her s, and
the Pope was seated once more upon his
throne. Is it to be expected that any man
who acknowledges any allegiance to this
Prince, can expect to be elevated to office
by the American people?
No religious test is required—but our ap.
prehension is, that those who hold any alle
giance to the Pope, will sustain his policy
and that if his church should ever acquire
the ascendency in this country, the very
same intolerance which has been shown iu
other countries, where his rule is supreme,
i would he displayedjjfiye. reaswa.
| the Americans declare that they will not
I elevate to office those who acknowledge
| his allegiance ; but this does not bear upon
he native Catholic who disclaims this alle
giance.
The oath of some of the dignitaries of the
Roman Catholic Church, Bishops and
Arch-Bishops, it is said,—requires them to
j persecute heretics. “Heretics, schismatics
I and rebels to our said Lord, or his foresaid
| successors, 1 will, to my utmost power, per
i secuto and wage war with.” We must then
forever oppose the iocrease of this power
j within the limits of this Protestant Repub
: lie.
I We are asked if we would exclude any
1 sect by law ? We must reply that we seek
[only to influence public sentiment—keep
that sound and we want no other guaranty.
3. We will give our support to a party
aiming to be national, and yet giving its
support and protection to the rights of the
South. This the American party duos,
and, therefor#, we act with it. But a short
time since the “Union,” the organ of the
Pierce administration, advised Demo
cratic parly to ignore the question jof slave
ry. It says: /
“ If we were right iu assuming that the
North and the South can never harmonize
on tbo abstract subject of slavery, it follows
that there can be no such thing# as national
parties,.except upon the basis of an entire
ipTusion of ibe subject frotij iheirpolitifal
! twied#. - ‘No jpaiWstMttcsl -Proposition h
more trad tltau that the only basts of party
organization is en agreement among those
who enter into it upon the subjects which
they recognize as belonging to its creed.—
They may differ as widely as is possible as
to all subjects not embraced by their party
creed, but to be harmonious inside their or
ganization they must have common senti
ments, and stand together ou a Common
platform. These truths will command ready
assent, and they demonstrate the proposi*
tion that no party embracing members at
the North and tbo South can be national or
harmonious in its organization which does
uot exclude the question of slavery from its
creed. If Northern men insist upou en
grafting upou tbeir party creed the doctrine
that slavery is a moral or political evil,
they raise an insufferable barrier against a
harmonious association with Southern men.
In like manner, if Southern, men insist on
making it a party creed that slavery is mor
ally and politically right,, they thereby cut
off Northern men from political association
with them. The necessary result is. that,
without toleratiou of differences of opinion
as to the true question of slavery, parties
[are necessarily sectional and cannot possi
bly be national.”
Was so monstrous a proposition ever be*.
fore put forth by a great party, in this coun
try? It £oceeds upon the idea that the
rights of tne South must be absolutely sur
rendered for the good of the Democratic
parly} that tho Northern Democrats hold
opinions hostile to slavery, and Southern
Wemocrats favorable to it; therefore they
l&annot agree, and it is better to say noth
ing in convention upon that subject; but
hold the Party together even if the feeble
section of the Union should be trodden
doivn.
ft seems thnt the Democratic party of
Pennsylvania, meeting in convention the’
other day, followed this couosel. So, too.
we learn, was it in New Jersey and in
Maine. ,
What a contrast does the course of the
American Party, assembled at Philadelphia,
present! They adopted, on the slavery
i question, the soundest platform ever put
‘forth by any party in this country. This
courageous and high-souled body of men
undertook to do their duty to the whole
country; the North was there in its power,
but these men vindicated the rights of the
South; passed their pattiotic and sterling
resolutions in the very face of the Abolition
ists and Free Soilers.i and then the Aboli
tionists and Free Soilers walked out of
doors!
Which party is most worthy of our sup
port? A party flushed with power and
holding the offices of the country, yet igno
ring the questiou of slavery, that it may
hold on to the spoils ? or a young, gallant,
courageous parly, magnanimously meeting
every issue, throwing the ffigis of their
strength in defence of the South, and pro*
1 claiming their principles to the whole world!
The administration party, to-day, per
fectly realizes Mr. Calhoun’s graphic de
scription—they are bound by no principle,
“but held together by the cohesive power oi ’
public plunder.”
I Generous, gallant young Giant, the Amer
i ican Party stands, to-day, like Sampson in
his youth, his invincible locks streaming iu
the winds of heaven; his limbs unbound,
glowiug with ardor and hope; you cannot
bind him within walls; he will burst through
the gates of Gaza and bear them away
upon his broad shoulders!
You call upon us to quit this platform
because Northern Abolitionists abandon it.
To my mind that is a conclusive reason why
Southern men should stand upon it and de
fend it.
4. The American Party deserves our sup
port, because it seeks to maintain the Con
stitution and preserves the Federal Union.
We prize the action of the convention,
because it assert* it in unqualified terms,
a profound sentiment of love for the Union .
It ought tis be preserved—to utter the senti
ment of that distinguished matt—always an
American though erring as we think in some
important measures, with a heart always
true to his couatry, from the hour of boy
hood when a British officer ordered him to
black his boots, BDd be refosing, the ruffian
■mote the lad in the face, up to the latest
moment of his life when an humble and
trusting Christian be breathed out his life in
the Hermitage; we utter the language of
Gen. Jacksou, borrowed by him from Wash
ington : “The Federal Union must be pre
served.” The hostility displayed by some
presses and by some gentlemen towards the
Ahterican party may be accounted for from
the fact, that it aims to infuse new vigor
into the constitution, and to preserve the
Union. The Charleston Afersury—one of
£ VOE. .4—NO. S2.
the most brilliant papers in tho tvhfcle coiitt*
try. North or ftofltn—candidly states this
as an objection to the ne*r eirganizuion.
“But again :’The position affairs, just
before the advenAf the Know-nothing par
ly, was eminently favorable to th# Union ot
tho Sontb. The old parties were disfttem-
The whin iu the South had been
driven out from the party rank# by theWy
non -of .abolition, the democrats or the
South were experiencing a like fate. A
storm of unequaled fury was descending
upon ns.* Throughout the Bhgtk the ne
cessity of Uuiou was becoftiiiijPtojiin imperi
re-estabiisbiiSig their party through itsor-T
conization, and revived their fast dying invh
tor national idols.”
Now, these presses, and these geuUemeh
are patriotic, but they have despaired of the
republic. We have non we adopt the glo
rious Roman sentiment— “never despair of
ibe r publicWo shall stand by the Uutott
while there is any hope of maintaining our
rights under it. To-day, we are one great
republic—divide and We shall fall; we shall
be without an army for our protection, or ft
navy for our defence. If ever it Wits im
portant to preserve the Union, it is import
tant now. Europe is heaving under tom
vulsions—powerful armies are in the field
still greater dynasties thun those now in ex
istence will spring out of these convulsions,
and republicanism will be threatened. No*
where in all the world but here, it there a
republic worth the name. In 4be clefts of
the Alps, Swiizerlaftß preserves her liberty;
but this government is the only powerful
free State on the globe, !do Uot belieVe ‘
that our republican system would long sur -
vive a breaking up of this Union. As to ■
slavery, it is as I have more than once said: :
safer In the Un ion than it would he out of it.
Os course, in desiring to maintain thft
Union, I wish to preserve a constitutional 1
Union.
The noble task which thejAmeHcatt pir*
ty has undertaken, is to protect the rights
of the South—to maintain the constitution :
and to preserve the Union.
1 propose to aid that party, to th foil ex
tent of my ability, in aacomplisbingttbe glo
rious objects. Let us appeal once more to
the masse* of the North to be faithful to thft
constitution ; and if we fail to awaken their
patriotism, wokncW bon re dim ierdefeucß
of our institutions.
, 1 call upou you,gentlemen of both partitst
to quit your ancient standaids and come Up
to the aid of this great and patriotic party,
Its glorious ensign is the harbinger of a bet
ter day. Other parties are like formations
in the clouds, which rise, perform their
functions, aud disappear; hnt this organi
zation is the emerging of a continent from
the wild waters or the oceab. It Will standi
We are striving t revive the great prin
ciples of the REVOLUTION and the RE
FORMATION, A party which proposes
such aims as these, must uot be denounced
as unworthy of support. We honor whigi
who support it ;.but much more do we bon
orsderaocrats who come up to its support*
for they abandon a party* in the full plentl
tude of its powers, and prove that they loVft
tbeir country more than their party, .
I turn, gentlemen, that We shall be able
to save the Country, Let us save the UotoU
from the hands which threaten to destroy
it; and uphold its nohle and stately col
umns through till the cycles of the coming
future.
Napoleon and Hia General.—Tha
Washington Union writes as follows; It
appears from private letters for whose
authenticity, however, we desire not to
be,.held responsible—that the Emperor
of France, instead of going in person to
take the command ia the Crimea, is ain
bitious of carrying on the war in his Cab*-
inet, and has roused the ire of the ’smok
er.’ Pelissier, by a succession of dis
patches for his special direction, insomuch
that the General has no time to attend'-
to anything but the telegraph. There is;
we think, great reason to <|oubt the sncv
cessful military operation under the super
intendence of a commander-in-chief two
or three thousand miles distant, not--
withstanding the facility of transmitting’
orders by telegraph; and we do not
wonder General Pelessier—-who is said
to be very quick on the trigger—is in
dignant at this species of dry-nursing;
The Emperor had better leave him to*
smoke the Russians oat of Sebastopol!
Great Fires in New Hampshire.—
We learn !,by a dispatch that the loss by
the conflagration of the great Cotton Milt
in Manchester, New Hampshire on th*
16 inst. amounts to $250/000. Five
hundred persons were thrown out of anw
ployment; The mill was insured for only
SIOO,OOO. 3
The second fire which broke out tb*
same day, destroyed 82 building, store*
and dwelling houses, involving a total
loss of SIOO,OOO. Two acres of ground
was burned over. ‘
._■!> . IIJH l/JI p#l “I
v>orn crops is made in this country.