New York Times
    

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The New York Times, May 15, 1860

The leading Democratic paper of the Southwest, the Louisville Democrat thus pronounces for Popular Sovereignty and against the Charleston Secessionists:

The action of the recent Convention is the theme of all discussions. Will it result in the dissolution of the Union? We see no cause to anticipate such a result. The party has at once and forever repudiated disunionism. It has refused to strike its colors either at the bid of venal politicians or honest but misguided disunionists. The Convention at Baltimore will be a strong conservative body. Its course will be dictated by wisdom and moderation. The yells of hired, slanderous and venal politicians who have created turmoil and confusion will sink before the strong voice of the multitude counseling wisdom. It was probably right that the Convention should give the seceding States an opportunity to be heard. They were misrepresented by some of their delegates who went to Charleston not to nominate, but to defeat a nomination. The will of the people, their love for the Union, and their nationalism were sacrificed to the lowest shemes, and a rebuke will be given. From every State we will receive delegates for measures, and not some as opposed to one man, and that man the one whose whole life has been one gallant and generous fight for the Democracy. Whoever counsels disunion counsels treason. Whoever glories in secession is an enemy to his country. He would rejoice at her downfall and fatten on her dead body as the sow which eats her farrow. The rebuke to such men must come from public opinion, and those whom they threaten. There are no disunionists in Kentucky, and we rejoice at it.

Of all the parties and factions that have struggled in Kentucky since she became a State, not one has ever dared to whisper such a desire. A speaker counseling disunion would be hissed, if not pelted, from the stand. We hold these secessionists at Charleston, from the Convention, as equally culpable, only a little less honest. The avowed disunionist has some reason for it. He believes the present form of Government injurious to the interests of his section, but these secessionists do not. They throw off the party because it does not assert that Congress should give protection to a specific property, when it cannot and will not; and yet when assembled in this fragmentary Convention, they themselves refuse to demand such laws. They do not declare that Congress must pass laws now to protect Slavery. No, this resolution was voted down. They say that in an emergency, at some future period, Congress must do so. If there ever is to be an emergency, it has arisen. Territories have not only indirectly but directly excluded slavery. No wonder some honest disunionists, slave protectionists, were kicked out of that foul body. It had not even the plea of honesty in opinions to excuse its folly. Its carcass was putrescent at birth, and foul with loathsome corruption. If the Kentucky delegation had been led into this disreputable business, all the water in the Ohio could not have washed them pure enough to make them welcome home. Kentucky holds no terms with these men. She is true to the Union, true to her political principles, and an uncompromising opponent of fraudulent trickery and political chicanery. If she takes a side, it will be open and above board and without reserve.

The Baltimore Convention will nominate DOUGLAS beyond a doubt. The opposition in the South, where it is honest, straightforward disunion, is scarcely a fragment. The political wire-workers, who seceded, are gone, and in their place we will have men fresh from the people. They may prefer another, but they will not sacrifice the party to favoritism. Our party will come forth from the fire purified and strengthened. Many office holders will be laid in limbo. The sweets of private life will be conceded to many political aspirants in the Southern seceding States, and our candidate will sweep the Union like fire in the prairie, and the nation will have a new lease of life.

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