^•5 £&ru fAW/uU**jl IV RHODE ISLAND POLITICS E 664 .P6 D2 Copy 2 AND JOURNALISM. ^l LETTER FROM THOMAS DAVIS, TO HON. HENRY B. ANTHONY U. S. SENATOR. " No, they cannot touch me for Coining ; I am the King hin^elf." — Lear. PROVIDENCE: A. CRAWFORD GREENE, PRINTER, 43 CANAL STREET. 1 866. RHODE ISLAND POLITICS, AND JOURNALISM. -*-♦•«»■•-»- .A_ Li JEC TT i A FROM .h Lk TO HON. HENRY B. ANTHONY, IT. S. SENATOR. 11 No, they cannot touch me for Coining ; I am the King himself." — Lear. PROVIDENCE: A. CRAWFORD GREENE, PRINTER, 43 CANAL STREET. 1866. La? Hon. Henry B. Anthony, Sir : I offer no special apology for addressing you at this time. The relation existing between us gives me a right to choose my own time, or any time that may suit my purpose and not be offensive to good taste, or inconsistent with a proper regard for public opinion. To you, Senator Anthony, I owe nothing politically. I have received nought but wrong and injustice at your hands. I say on my part, unprovoked and unmerited ; unless it be a provo- cation to defend one's character as a public man, against im- putations which if verified, ought to consign me to more than political obscurity. I have rested for some years under accu- sations and imputations foul and false, cast upon me by you tluring the canvas of 1859. Guiltless I was of what you then charged me with : nay, to the extent of my ability I made an earnest effort to hold prominently before the public intellect and conscience the principles and issues of the National Re- publican Party and to preserve in the State, its organization intact. I was the candidate for Congress of the National Re- publican party, receiving the nomination only as I have re- ceived all the nominations that were ever tendered to me, without intrigue or solicitation. I was by every consideration of justice and honor and sound party policy entitled to your support and the hospitality of the Providence Journal, then supposed to be the organ of the Republican Party. And now, after a lapse of five years, you renew and reiter- ate those charges with a confidence which might lead those who do not know you to suppose that you believe what you assert in your Organ with so much flippancy and assurance. You concede to me the quality of frankness; and I am aware of exercising, on one occasion, a plainness of speech which was in some measure due to your personal presence. I refer to the remarks made by me, on the politics and Journal- ism of the State, and your connection with them, in the Con- venlion assembled in the State House, on the 22d of Septem- ber, 1SG4, for the purpose of nominating Presidential electors. On that occasion two sets of delegates presented themselves from the city of Providence, one of which had been called into existence solely for the purpose of electing to the Senate of the United States the editor of the Providence Journal. Whoever reads your comments on the remarks made by me at the Convention cannot fail to discover that all reserve was thrown aside. Your article is not criticism but vituperation ; a philipic which, for reckless assertion, has no parallel in the Journalism of this State in our day. I was not unprepared fur every kind of accusation that a detected and exposed offen- der could utter or invent. I was not unmindful " Thai hr who Btands upon a slippery place Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up." "i ou charge me in your Organ with nearly every species of political depravity. You do it as a matter of necessity to con- cealyour own baseness and treachery. lam the object of your peculiar and pointed malignity because I have dared to maintain, in defiance of your influence and authority, the in- tegrity of the party to which we both professed to belong, and which, with an utter disregard of all the rules that govern hon- orable partisans, you have set at naught whenever your per- sonal ambition or interest could thereby be served. Your whole political history is stained with intrigue and du- plicity. You have employed the most unscrupulous means and agents in your service, and by long training they have become experts in the degraded political school of which you now stand in this community, the acknowledged head and' leader ; and your last election, if in any proper sense it can be called an election, to the Senate of the United States, will be long re- membered as an embodiment of the worst elements that ever, in our State, entered into a political contest— a contest grow- ing out of your inordinate self-conceit that you were the only man par excellence in Rhode Island qualified to fill the place of CTnited States Senator. Sour wholesale accusation and denunciation of me, in your article of Sept. 23, 1864, commences as follows : thai M;\ I>'-. : s made an extraordinary exhibition of himself in the onvention would not be strictly true. Doubtless, it would have been Khibitiou in almost anybody else; but with due allowmco effect ul disappointed ambition and of recent defeat, upon a temper not 5 over sweet by nature, we cense to feel much surprise thai ho should bring liis potty personal griefs to the notice of the convention, and detain the assembled representatives of the party with a recital of the reason:; why the people of North Providence would not send him to the General Assembly." Your article is an attack on my private character, and rep- resents me as a man whose disappointed ambition, acting on a soured temper, had led to an exhibition discreditable to my standing and character, or would have been so to any other man. I can inform you once for all, that you and I see things with very different eyes. I have seldom performed a public duty that gave me greater, I may say profounder satisfaction. Somebody was bound to arraign the greatest political offender in the State, and that duty devolved on me. I met you face to face in the plenitude of your power ; and I can assure you I was glad beyond expression to have such an opportunity. — You should have kept your disorganizing delegation out of the Convention, and they, or rather their representative successors would have been spared the disgrace of expulsion from the State Convention in 1865. But I have made the above extract more particularly for the purpose of referring to that part of it in which you say I " de- tained the Convention with a recital of the reasons why the people of North Providence woul,d not send me to the General Assembly." I think you can hardly be conscious of the estimate placed on you since that election. It would he difficult, by any single act, to sink a public reputation from respectability to contempt, more certainly than was done by you, in your conduct towards your old and devoted friends — the Union electors of North Providence. On the occasion of their primary meeting for the choice of delegates to attend the State convention, they found themselves, in their own regularly called caucus, confronted by numbers sufficient to have outvoted them, introduced or carried there by your political partisans. All that were outside the Democrat- ic party would not have exceeded a dozen " conservative gen- tlemen. " The prominent and most efficient leaders in this raid on or- der and decency, were persons holding appointments under the Federal Government — positions conferred on them through your influence as a Senator in Congress. Finding themselves thus outnumbered, the union electors withdrew to another hall and there made a choice of delegates. As a consequence, two seta of delegates presented themselves at the State con- vention to represent the town of North Providence. After an earnest and searching discussion, your " conservative " dele- gates were rejected. But this defeat, as the sequel will show, did uot enl the game on your part. You had determined to be re-elected United States Senator cost what it might of hon- or or character. Vou treated with contempt the decisions of the State con- vention, denounced its action, and moved on to the execution of your plans. That this matter may be perfectly understood, py from your organ, the Providence Journal of March 30th, and of April 5th, 1864, the two tickets for Representatives to the General Assembly nominated by the respective par- ties. 1 will give your successful ticket the first place. "The Union National and I> mocratic Caucus, last evening, adopted the follow- Qominations for the General Assembly : — " nator, Lewis Fairbrother. " 1 3l Ri ntative, L. M. E. Stone, '• 2d •• A :rl W. Carpenter, Bern. - 3 1 " Berber! E. Dodge, Bern. - 4th " Jesse Metcalf, " "'ili " Ralph P. Devereaux, Bern. •• A Caucus of Union National - was held at the Town Hall at 2 o'clock, ■ rday al ... after a few hours notice by hand-bill." For Senator. William Grosvenor. •• I-' Representative, William M. Bailey, •• 2d '■ James Mavis. •• 3d - Eiram H.Thomas, " 4th " < rideon I.. Spencer, - 5th - Thomas I "avis. 1 . C llins having ida re-election." This last ticket, defeated by your treacherous conduct, re- ceived the vote of nearly every earnest Union National elec- tor in the (own of North Providence. It is safe to say, that not fifty men who had ever supported the Republican ticket cast their votes with the successful party. All the rest were Democrats or mercenaries, purchased by you and your reve- nue friends. The ticket nominated by the Union National party was the same as the year preceding, with the single exception that my own name was added to the list, to fill the vacancy made by the resignation of Mr. Collins, who had been chosen State Au- ditor ; and certainly, before you made your raid on the prima- ry meeting, there were men on the ticket who were your political friends, and who, if elected, would have supported you for the United States Senate in preference to any other candidate ; and there was not a man on the ticket who would not have abided by the decisions of the majority, in any party caucus of the members of the Assembly. But this was not enough. You wanted, Macbeth like, to " make assurance doubly sure," and, in violation of all the rules that have hith- erto bound and held honorable men together as members of a political society, you proceeded to execute your plans. There was another feature in the contest in North Provi- dence worthy of special notice. The most active and efficient 'supporters of your party were men holding office under the Federal Government, and commissioned by Abraham Lincoln ; .and, at your instigation and for your benefit, they directed all their energies to defeat the ticket on which were six earnest, loyal and regularly nominated friends and supporters of the administration of Abraham Lincoln, and to elect the ticket on which three of the nominees were earnest in their support of the Democratic party, and who did, when the time arrived, cast their votes for George B. MoClellan. You speak as if you fancied yourself wronged and injured, and that there was no just cause for opposing your carreer. I quote from your organ of Sept. 29th, 1864. " The unpleas- ant controversy in which we find ourselves engaged with men professing the same political opinions has been forced upon us unwillingly and after unexampled forbearance. " You entertain very strange notions of "forbearance.' Your hand was raised against every man, nnd you struck down their most sacred rights. When you came into North Provi- dence and packed the primary meeting of the Union National party, and elected to the General Assembly, Democrats, was this an instance of your " forbearance ? " When" you caused the same thing to be done in Newport, was that another instance of " forbearance V When you induced a portion of the City Committee of Providence to " bolt and secede," and issue that immortal manifesto, was that again an instance of your "unex- ampled forbearance ? " Your whole proceedings may seem to you perfectly right and justifiable. Your reasoning and your conduct imply that you have reached that mental condition which makes you sup- . \ 8 pose that every thing in the State connected with its politics is to bend to your official or private advantage. The officers who obtain their appointment IVom the General Government, in case of a senatorial election, are required to conform their conduct to your demands ; or if they witness the most gross and palpa- ble outrages on the rights of the electors, and take no part in resisting them, they may escape proscription and removal ; but active opposition to your demoralizing and disorganizing schemes is an offence not to be forgotten or overlooked. Few of your fellow citizens doubt that Mr. Chickering could have retained his place as Postmaster of Pawtucket, .if he had aided in the base work performed for your special benefit by other Government officials in North Providence. In other times, when the Democratic party was in the as- cendant, there was loud, long and strong railing at them by you in your Organ, for allowing the office-holders to be active in support of the measures or candidates of the party to which they belonged. Under the new dispensation established by your supremacy, the first requisite is personal homage and devotion to the Senatorial will. Your whole argument against me proceeds on the assump- tion that there was no such thing in Rhode Island as a Repub- lican party in 1859. If you can establish that position, I shall find no difficulty in showing you as the active, malignant and treacherous foe, whose envenomed stiletto gave it the fatal stab. Take which horn of the dilemma you please; if it was dead — you killed it ; if buried — you dug its grave and pre- sided at its obsequies. You were pronounced Republican and elected United States Senator by the Legislature of 1858 ; and yet in 1859 we have no Republican Parly ! not even to elect members to the Na- tional Congress ! In all the other Free States such a party existed, but in Rhode Island it had been extinguished by the fiat of the Providence Journal and its Republican Senatorial editor. Let us proceed to examine the record : It is undeniable that the Providence Journal was the or^an of the Republican Party, and that its editor accepted the principles and adopted the platform of the convention that met at Philadelphia, dune 17, 1856, and which nominated John C. Fremont and William L. Dayton for President and Vice- President of the United States, and invited the co-operation of their fellow citizens in the following language : — " This convention of delegates, in pursuance of a call addressed to the people of the United States without, regard to past political differences and divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; to the policy of the present administration; to the extension of slavery to free territory ; in favor of the admission of Kansas as a free State ; of restoring the action of the Federal Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson — " A Platform was framed in accordance with the above dec- laration of Principles. You, Senator Anthony, called yourself a Republican when Mr. Durfee was chosen in 1857 to the Congress of the United States, and Thomas G. Turner, known since as Gov. Turner, was the candidate of the Republicans, and received the sup- port of the Providence Journal, in opposition to Mr. Saunders, the candidate of the American Republicans ; the rest of the ticket for General officers being identical ; so that the election in April, 1857, closed without any pretense that the party had changed its name or adopted a new Platform. I will now proceed to show who the disorganizer of the Re- publican Party was, and the method by which it was accom- plished. I shall rely on evidence furnished by yourself to sus- tain me in making out the charges, and shall quote from the columns of the Providence Journal, your own exclusive organ. Whoever reads the Journal of June 20th, 1859, may learn how easy a matter it is in Rhode Island to disorganize, secede from, and break up a National Party. Thus it runs :-- — " So the State Convention was called, headed " Republican." Some of the Americans objected, that, as they furnisehd a full share of the voters, their dis- tinctive name ought to be preserved in the official call. The members of the General Assembly recommended that they should be gratified ; the State Com- mittee met and readily assented ; it could do no harm and might save some votes, and it was only retaining a name already adopted. It has been alleged that the Committee had no authority for this. True, but the Committee might well assume the authority under the general power of calling the Convention. Whether it might or might not, it is quite certain the people endorsed the course by their votes." Here it is fully admitted that the National Republican Par- ty was disorganized ; and such paltry reasons are given as only an apostate politician of unscrupulous character would venture to disclose. You assert that " the State Committee met and readily as- sented." The facts are these ; — nine of a Committee of fifteen, hastily called together, and five of these nine present, under the skilful management of the recently elected United States Senator, voted to assume the authority ; or, in other 10 words, five out of a Committee consisting of fifteen, confirmed the treachery which you had planned. On calling the whole Committee together, it was found that a majority was opposed to the assumption of such powers ; and the Republican State Committee called a convention, which assembled March 17, 1858, and passed the following resolutions and elected a State Committee whose names are worth holding in remembrance. Rewired That this Convention approve of the principles and policy embod- ied in the resolves of the Philadelphia Codvention of .June 17th, 1856, and re- affirmed in the declaration of the Republican Congressional Caucus ot Decem- ber 17th, 1857. , . , /, Resolved, That ^e invite the co-operation of all friends of freedom and the right of self-government, of whatever political party, in a united effort for the overthrow of an administration, and a parfy subjected to the rule, and pleged to the selfish policy of the slaveholdtng oligarchy. Resolved, That the State Committee be authorized to issue the next call tor ' a State Convention in conformity herewith. R. R. CARR, 1 R. R. HAZARD, Jr., I _. „ , J T. HOPKINS, ^Newport County. JE1HR0 PECKHAM, J THOMA8 DAVIS, ") STEPHEN BENEDICT, | EDWARD HARRIS, )■ Providence County. C. A. SLOCUM, I WILLIAM M. CHACE, J BYRON DIMAN, ) B . , . n . H. H. LUTHER; 5 Bruto1 C ° UnUj - ROWLAND G. HAZARD, ) HORACE BABCOCK, V Washington County. SYLVESTER ROBINSON, ) NICHOLAS BROWN, > ~ , n , C. D. KENTON, \ Kent County - ■ State Republican Committee. This State committee so chosen called the conventions, State and District, which assembled Feb. 10, 1859, and nominated candidates for State and National offices. The convention was an earnest and most substantial body, the members of which, the Journal informed its readers, " were elected or rather se- lected, were most respectable and influential, and their names gave a power to the movement that it did not deserve from the numbers whom they represented." It will be readily seen that the men composing the State Committee were also of such character that neither Mr. Davis nor Mr. Anthony could use them for unworthy ends. Yes, they were men whom you could not with all your perverse ingenuity hoodwink or mystify. 11 Several of them had been delegates to the National convention which organized the Republican Party, and their determined purpose was to continue its existence unbroken until the objects of its organization were accomplished. Senator Anthony could not make that committee subservi- ent to his purposes, and so he brands them as disorganizes, and pronounces them and the party they represented, as im- practicable and unconcilialory There was a steadfast integri- ty which insisted on the ascendency of the National party in the State, and would accept nothing less, and asked nothing more. They understood perfectly well, that no mere caucus of the Rhode Island Legislature, no political pranks of the Sena- torial editor, could dissolve or transfer their allegiance from a great National organization, extending itself into every part of the Union where freedom of speech could be maintained, and destined in 1860 to crown its beneficent mission in the election of a Republican President. Their aims were far reaching and patriotic ; but he who should have stood as the head and front of the party and defended its organization from all assaults, became, for the time being, its most active, adroit, and unscrupulous enemy — a Republican Senator of the Unit- ed States, disorganizing the National Party, weakening the force and narrowing the scope of the vital principles on which it rested, assailing its truest friends, and embracing its unprin- cipled foes ! In the Providence Journal of Sept. 23d, 1859, you say of me : — > " In 1859, having left the Democratic party, he was a candidate for the Amer- ican Republican nomination, and was supported by his friends in a severe strug- gle in the Convention, running through eighteen ballots. On the eighteenth, Chris- topher Robinson received the nomination. What did Thomas Davis do ? With what frank submission did he yield to the decision of the Convention ? How did he illustrate his high ideas of Party allegiance ? He bolted, he seceded, he set up for himself, hoping, doubtless, to defeat the election on the first trial, and to receive the aid of his old friends, the Democrats, on the second. Every other candidate yielded ; he, alone, held his personal claims superior to the suc- cess of the party." I was not by any act of my own a member of the Amer- ican nor the American Republican Party ; and fcr you to charge me with "bolting or seceding" from a ptfrty, whose principles and organization you very well knew I had persist- ently and uniformily opposed, is, on your part, simply a piece of insolent mendacity. My relation to the Republican Party 12 of the Nation could not be severed or essentially changed by your shameless dereliction. If my conduct is to be tried by a standard established by you, then you are the supreme author- ity in the State, and make wrong and right by the decisions of your own will. This is the doctrine of pure despotism, and would leave vou free, and bind every other man to follow you in your tortuous and slippery track. I repudiate your doc- trines and the assumptions growing out of them. I was as old a member of the Republican Party as you were. A delegate to the National convention, I was present and aided in its or- ganization in June 185G. You separated from the Whig, and 1 came out from the Democratic Party ; and in view of the critical condition of the country we solemnly agreed, in the language of the Philadelphia platform, " thenceforth to disre- gard all past political dilferences and divisions, and invite the co-operation of the men of all parties however dillering from us in other respects, in support of the principles herein declar- ed." You had no more right, under this compact, to enter and reorganize the Whig party, than I had to re-enter the ranks of tic Democratic Party. This you did in spirit if not in name, and in open defiance of all the reason and intelligent con- science of the State. If I had attempted to serve my old democratic friends, by conferring on them places of power and emolument, meanly excluding every Republican of whig ante- cedents, you would not have failed to denounce my conduct, in your organ, as that of an unprincipled trickster ; and such indeed I should have been in the estimation of honorable men. Reverse this picture and see if you did not do precisely this thing by the men of democratic antecedents. You had the moans, growing out of your position as a Senator in Congress, and especially as editor of the only organ of the party in Prov- aoe, and it may be said in the State, whose politics you had controlled for more than a quarter of a century. The State Bmall and compactlypopulal<'d, the city of Providence contain- ing nearly one third of the whole population, and more than thai proportion of the wealth, you succeeded, as no other man could have done, in consummating this treachery, and thus making a record of your political dishonesty historically memo- rable : for, as surely as the events of the past ten years are ever reviewed by the historian, he will not fail to find the evi- dence completely furnished by your own pen, and recorded in i\ 13 the columns of your journal, that you, Senator Anthony, ex- ceptional to every other Republican Senator, in the year 1859, at a period of great public peril, when patriotic men were every where throughout this broad land, laboring to en- large, strengthen and unite all the opponents of Slavery on the Platform of Ihe Republican Party — had, in this State, en- tered into the closest alliance with a portion of the old Whig Party. Yes, that faction or fraction of the old "Whig Party, which, in 1856 cast sixteen hundred votes in the Slate against the Republicans, became, through your agency a controlling power in this little commonwealth ; and next to yourself, the leaders of this Fillmore Party became the most efficient political power in Rhode Island. Let me refer somewhat in detail to this part of the subject. I wish to show what a sacred regard you had for the compact entered into with the Republican Par- ty ! how honorably you carried out that part of the platform of the party, in which you engage to unite with all who will come, ' wilhou' regard I o past political differences or divisions.' I begin with the orator selected to present to the voters the antecedents of the Republican candidate for Congress. This orator was the eloquent and adroit, though not over scru- pulous gentleman who had been the leading campaign speak- er for the Fillmore party in 1856. I take from your Journal of March 28th, 1859, an extract from the proceedings of the American Republican ratification meeting, which was called to order by Win. R. Watson Esq. " The first speaker announced was the Hon. Charles C. Van Zandt, who on .being introduced was received with great en- thusiasm, and spoke of the Republican Party and its candidate for Congress in the following strain : — " " The strife was commenced by a few disaffected persons, who were dissatis- fied with the distribution of the State offices, who wished to be the party lead- ers, and who, when they found it impossible to do this, said ' We will have a party of our own ;' and they have a party. The slave system was next dis- cussed. The record of Mr. Davis was reviewed — how being of foreign birth, he had, during the greatest part of his life, been identified with the Democratic party ; — that party, said the speaker, which had always had a black stripe in its banner — how he voted for President Polk, for Gen. Cass, and for Franklin Pierce — how he had been one of the earliest supporters of the insurrectionary move- ment in 1842 — how he was a member of the General Assembly ; in consequence of which, Philip Allen, a Democrat, was sent to Congress — how he had in every possible way, aided the extension of slavery by laboring with the Democratic party — how he ran for Democratic moderator in North Providence a year since. The Free Trade proclivities of Mr. Davis were rebuked, as were also his princi- ples of anti-protection to domestic industry." 14 This meeting was exclusively Whig. Of its one hundred ^ ice Pr isidents there was Dot among them a solitary represen- tative of the Three Thousand electors who had come out from the Democratic Party in 1856. The Democratic element was entirely ignored. \r name, Republican Senator, flourishes in the list of \ ice Presidents. And what a spectacle you pre- at ! reversing the whole compact in its letter and spirit, and taking into clos ssl political communion those who were the in >sl active enemies of the Republican Party and its principles in tin- greal campaign of 1856, and who so continued, and de- feated the Republicans in (he State election in I860— and us- m g them to defame, assail and misrepresent the oldest and Diost faithful Republicans in the State, men* whose shoe latch- ets., p ilitically speaking, you were not worthy to unloose ! I will now show by further extracts from the Providence Journal, how the morale of the Party was broken down and the defeat of (he Republicans accomplished. In the Journal of February 28th, 1859, you thus introduce the American Republican Candidate for Congress : — " ' -I -• R la a Whig of the school of Henry Clay, and such a man does not have to abandon am n\~ his ,,1,1 principles or to adopt any new ones in ac- ce] American Republican nomination. Now he stands before vs the reg- ular nominee of the party opposed to the present policy of the National Admin- lBtration, to the extension of Slavery, and in favor of protection to American industry. 'J his is a very good Whig platform." The extract which follows is from the address of the Amer- ican Republican State Central Committee, April 1, 1859 only live days before the election. ' '• The excuse they (tin- Republicans) give for their attempt to divide the pres- t Cm B ?*S ' lmim8 1 tratl « teir movement is necessary to meet some an :»pated national organization, thai may or mav not be had i« th» pL!T ?• i Whal warrant havefhey KSJSjp^tte, to SS Democratic Party m 16(J0 will assume that particular nun,?" National Thus it will be seen that (he Republican Party is repudiated both as an existing fact or a future hope. I do not affirm Sen- ator that you wrote the address of the American Republican i arty. I think it is not m your style : perhaps you can say who iU author was, and what part he acted in the Campaign 01 1 out). L ° Now read the denunciations of the Republican Party by is own recently elected Senator. I quote from the Journal of April 1st, 1869. « The Strait Republicans mus take Z re- 15 sponsibility of the division in the ranks of the opposition. The American Republican was the existing organization, and it has been sanctioned by the popular vote." Here we have the old fable of the. wolf and lamb repeated. "It was the Strait Republicans that disturbed the harmony of our politics by breaking from the regular and prevailing organization I" How audaciously these charges are made against men who were simply maintaining their well considered and honest relations to the Republican Party of the Nation. I proceed to make another class of extracts which were ex- pressly designed to turn and fasten the odium of the " divis- ion" upon the Candidate of the Republican Party for Congress, or more distinctively, on myself, personally. In the Journal of April 2d, 1859, you have the following paragraph : " Mr. Bobinson was nominated by a Convention fairly elected, and with the view to the selection of the candidate that should best unite the party and ad- vance its principles. Mr. Davis is the candidate of a Convention, nominally Re- publican, but really a Davis Convention. To content the exclusive friends of Mr. Davis, the call should have been addressed to all opposed to the policy of the administration and the extension of Slavery, and in favor of the nomination of Thomas Davis." There was on the first trial no election in the Eastern dis- trict, and the Candidate of the Republicans published an ad- dress to the electors, giving reasons for continuing the contest. This elicited a fresh outbreak against the nominee of the Re- publican Party for again daring to defy the authority of the Editorial Senator. On June 12th, 1859, the day after the ad- dress was issued, your organ declared that " The persistence of Mr. Davis' friends in brinerine him forward asrain under existing circumstances is extraordinary. The strait Republicans had a nominal organization, but did not bring out separate candidates. Their committee ask- ed for a conference with the American Republican. The latter proposed to call a convention of all the opponents of the National Administration. The Strait Republicans declined this." In the Journal of June 14th, 1859, you say : — " Mr. Davis speaks of unprincipled and mendacious party leaders. We do not know whom he means ; but we know such language illy becomes the man who has been treated with so great courtesy by the party he has divided and distracted in his persistent determination to run against the wishes of the ma- jority. If Mr. Davis will not let his personal advancement stand in the way of the settlement of this unfortunate controversy let him withdraw Uis name." June 17th, you say of the Republican Convention-" It was 1C a very respectable Convention but it was undoubtedly hold in the interest of one man." You represent me as governed by no other or higher motives than my own personal advancement, and at a period when the Providence Journal had the power to make the people believe it. The false position of the Senator required the case to be " worked up," else it might be made apparent to the majority as it already was to the well informed minority of the electors, that Anthony and not Davis was the " bolter and seccder" who had complicated the politics of the State, and who called good evil and evil good, to show his great power by demon- strating that whichever way he cho-e to cast his Senatorial and editorial influence, there the majority could be counted upon. On the 21st of June, 1859, the day before the special elec- tion for member of Congress you issued the following remark- aide manifesto : " Tin; nomination of Mr. Robinson is perfectly fair and honorable, as he rep. : p .rty that has been from the first in favor of conciliation and union ; ■ stands on the only platform that is broad enough to hold all the opponents of the extension of Slavery." You affirm that the Convention which assembled at Phila- delphia in June 1S56 did not succeed in framing a platform broad enough to hold all who were opposed to the extension of Slavery. It required the transcendent genius of the editor of the Providence Journal — the newly elected Republican Sena- tor, to look over the whole field of politics and fully compre- hend the necessities of the times. There were some things to be done that never entered into their political philosophy ! al- though their object was to consolidate the Republican Party of the nation, to meet the great issue pending before the country. The object of the Rhode Island Senator was to perpetuate his own power and influence, andas a means necessary to this end, to keep about him all the old political Whig hacks in the State; to stir up by the use of his organ, the Providence Journal, ev- ery obsolete and latent prejudice — to ignore every generous and brave sentiment — to insist on keeping the issue of the tar- iff prominent — to protect from fanatical speeches the reputa- tions of Clay and Webster — to gloze over the Dred Scott de- cision, and to swear, Falstaff like, that the candidate of the Republican Party was a " bolter and seceder," because he persisted in maintaining that his political allegiance was due 17 to the National Organization and not to the " Head Centre" located on Washington Row, Providence, Rhode Island. Daring the canvass, Mr. Garrison was an object for yourfre- qnent and malevolent thrusts. On one occasion, I had refer- red to him at a meeting in Rail Road Hull in reply to your " Whig Candidate of the Henry Clay school," who took that opportunity to pronounce a eulogy on the great compromiser. J 11 an unpremeditated and spontaneous remark, I expressed the opinion that the fame of Mr Garrison would survive that of Clay or Webster.* In commenting on this you say, " seldom has a political weapon of so great strength been employed to so little damage to the man who put it into the hands of his opponents." In the first part of the above sentence there is a large amount of truth. The weapon VMS formidable ; and you did not fail to use it with all the force which it was capable of exerting. You took measure of the matter, and said just enough and at the right time to produce the most eifect. Short- ly before the special election in June, you speak thus of the great emancipator : " If Mr. Garrison is not one of the m > ;l 1 rag sroua m m in the land it is only h scause the extreme character of his view s and the violence of his mode of ex- pressing them, prevent him from having many followers." It would be difficult to condense more detraction into the same space than you have succeeded in doing in the above sentence. In your declaration, which I have already quoted, that I " was supported in a severe struggle in the American Repub- lican Convention, running through eighteen ballots," your evi- dent purpose is to identify me with that party where I was not, and could not be a candidate. When the Convention met, it was well settled that my running as the candidate of the Re- publicans, whose nomination I had already accepted, would iu no degree be changed by any nomination the American Repub- lican party might make. You had done your utmost to mix up and complicate the politics of the State ; but there were a few Republicans in the convention, never exceeding seven, who cast their ballots for me ; and on this fact you base your assertion that I was a condidate in the ordinary sense, before * Massachusetts has recently voted to place a stutue of Mr. Garrison in the National capital, side by side with those of Gov. Winthrop aud J"hn Adams, to represent the third historic period of that noble Commonwealth. What waa prophecy in '59 has become history in bb\ 3 18 that Convention. Now the truth is, the whole of that long was the res your arrogant attempt I i force on the American iblican Party Mr. Sheffield, your exclusive fa- vorite. For weeks if n it for months, before the meeting of any Convention, the whole district knew whom the editor of the • l una! and uewly elected Senator preferred for representative to Congress from the Eastern District — not because of his emi- nent qualifications — (let me not be understood as disparaging Mr. Sheffield's qualifications) no, such was not the reason of the selection, but personal devotion to your interest established him in your favor. e had exercised a controlling influence in the election of yourself as Senator of the United States. — But there was very little chance of his receiving a nomination from the Republican Parly. You also had good reasons for posing, judging by the past, that Mr. Davis stood well with t a Party of the State, as they had tendered to him the nomination for Congress in 1857, which, from con- siderations wholly of a private nature, wasat that time declined, ; there was no reason to suppose that it might not again oc- cur. This would throw Mr. Sheffield out and defeat your par- tial preference, so that your scheme to give him the nomina- tions made this division and disorganization a necessity; and you now audaciously charge me with the commission of an act done for a purpose, deliberately by yourself ; showing in its gin and progress, an utter contempt for the claims of any other candidate than your favorite, and ending for once, in ur discomfiture in the Convention. You announce on the 28th of February, 1859, that ming," and that :i wo have no hesitation • n Republican Organization as the authoriz. •• opposition." If at this time you had elected to support the Republican Party, we should have continued members of the same organi- zation, and I should have escaped all your false, bitter and un- mciitcd denunciations. - I'.jw are the steps from dereliction to persecution." the plainest principles of fidelity to the Rcoublican Par- luired you to give its candidate a cordial ami hearty sup- 1""' L l ll:ltl :i1 ^at time, as representatives of the Whio- element of the Republican Tarty, both Senators in Confess 19 (Mr. Simmons and yourself,) and the Western District was represented by Mr. Brayton, also from the same party, while the poor boon of one representative! was denied to the Demo- cratic element of the Party, after the brave fight and grand victory of 1856. I can only think of your conduct in this matter, as the very essence of political meancsss. If such a policy had prevailed throughout the country, the success of the Republican Party would have been impossible in 18G0. Contrast this with the policy of Mr. Lincoln in the construction of his cabinet. To avoid all cau^e of complaint, it was divided equally between the representatives of the two old parties. In his estimation it was no disqualification that a man had been a member of the Democratic Party. In your strictures upon an article which appeared in the New York Journal of Commerce, there is so much in confirma- tion of my charges against you, that 1 copy nearly the whole, notwithstanding its length. You say : — "The Journal of Commerce copies from this paper with some commendation an article in which we dispute the monstrous docirine that tie Supreme Court may not rightful! 1 ' interpret the constitution in respect to the power of Congress and defends the Republican Party proper from the responsibility of such radi- cal and destru, ti 3 heresy. The Journal of Commerce calls this " the ultra Re- publican doctrine >i tin- day." It is true that this doctrine was announced by the Convention i rich split off from the regular and prevailing organization in this Slate,- bui it is but justice to say, that it is not avowed or defended, 'but rather palliated on the ground that the resolution was accidentally, thoughtlessly passed, and that it is to be taken in connection with other resolutions that essen- tially modify it. Although we did not hesitate, in the beginning, to denounce this doctrine, and although we cannot find in the subsequent resolutions the qualifying clause; that we claimed for them, we have cheerfully given place to the explanations offered in excuse for the first one. "And now we ask the Journal of Commerce, which is so fond of dwelling upon the ultra radicalism of the Republican Party and upon the high conserva- tism of the Democratic, to note that while the oldest Republican paper in the State, u terlyand emphatically denies this doctrine, the organ of the Democratic Party, while also denying it in National affairs, holds it in State affairs ; claims that our Supreme Court, which derives its powers from the same words that are employed in the Federal Constitution to colder the same power on the Supreme Court of the United States, does not have the power to interpret the Constitu- tion in respect to the powers of the General Assembly, but that the General As- sembly has the right to revoke the decrees of the court, to set aside its decisions and practically to instruct it in the manner in which it shall decide the eases be- tween individuals. " Nor is this all ; in the Eastern Congressional District, the opposition have two candidates. One of them was an old .Whig, who remained with that party as long as it was a party, and then joined the Republicans. The other was a Democrat in his political organizition, yet an abolitionist in his sentiments, never concealed but openly declared on all proper occasions. Since his nomination ho has made the remarkable declaration, that William Lloyd Carrison will be re- membered and honored when Henry Clay and Daniel Webster are forgotten. 20 Of tiic two in in we rapport the former : the organ of the Democratic Party is not ahle I ympathy r, and no one who reads its col- .-. it would pr< i : of Mr. Davis over Mr. Robin- Bon. - There is another question that agit ites our community and that threatens the [uences to a great department of our government. •• We h ive an a Imirablo system of public instruction, admirable even among of N( • i gland. Thee the white and the colored child- ren are separate, and no doubt is i ed by thoBe who have the charge of itributo mosl to thoir support, that they ought to be lat the introduction of the negro children into the schools now . to the wiiir aid lead to evil ci [Ui aces to both. This is the judgment of .' the school committee, of the superintend- ent of the Bchools, an 1 of thi • rs in the schools of both kinds. An agita- . . ' I on with great effect and pertinaci+y to abolish the colored i white schools, all to mix This radii one has 1 sadily opposed in this paper, and has foun I lief support, not openly bu and covertly, yet none the : n ily, in t!i of thi D mocratic Party, which has not ceased to i the destructive m i mn e the men who are thus trying to ik down our system of public instruction." The above article is not the production of some obscure and mendicant "penny a liner," but proceeds from the brain of the editor of the " oldest Republican Journal in the State" — the oldest editor in the State — a graduate of Brown Universi- ty — an ex-Governor of Rhode Island — and, at the time it was written, a recently elected Senator of the United States. It appeared in the Providence Journal on the day preceding the election, April 4th, 1859, its special object being to defeat the Republican candidate for Congress from the Eastern Dis- trict. The Pro-Slavery Whig Journal of Commerce endorses the assault made by you on the Republican Platforms, National and State, and you write this labored and crafty article in commen- dation of your own treachery and in defence of the " Repub- lican Party proper" from the responsibility of such radical and tructive heresy. It was not your " Republican Party proper" that passed the following, dune 17th, 1 b5G : — '' '■ ' T " :lf the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories ol the I oited ,,„.,„. and tha{ & the exer- •■• -r it is both the right and imp rativi duty of Congress to pro- hibit in 1 o twin relics of 1 m— Polygamy and Slavery." v " ;l ignored the Philadelphia Platform during the canvass of 1859. So did the Fillmore Party in thi« State to which you allied yourself. They professed nothing better— they Had a right to do so ; you had not. The very day you decided to 21 assail the principles of the National Party, you should have resigned your place as a Republican Senator, and not disgraced your exalted position by using it for purposes so detrimental to Freedom and Humanity. The issue before the country was, whether the Supreme Court of the United States, by virtue of its decision in the Dred Scott case, carried Slavery into all our National Territo- ry ? The Republican Platform claimed that the Constitution conferred on Congress sovereign power over the territories, and you denounce in unmeasured terms the Republican Party of the State for maintaining the doctrine thus enunciated in the National Platform, and for resisting a construction of the con- stitution, which, if admitted, left us no remedy but the dread arbitration of the sword, to save ourselves from this yawning gulf of judicial power. The reason and instinct of every right minded and morally sane man revolted against such an interpretation of the Federal Constitution. You stigmatize it as " the monstrous doctrine that the Su- preine Court may not rightfully interpret the Constitution in respect to the power of Congress." You were at issue with every Republican Statesman in the country when you made this unqualified and sweeping declaration, and worse still, with the rights of human nature itself. The i'act was, you had no real comprehension of the perils before us, no appreciation of the principles or issues involved therein ; and every thing con- nected with the politics of the State, was to be played out on the old plan of political clap trap. Your bones were dry, and there was nothing in them to enable you to predict a coming storm, and you naturally returned to wallow in the mire of old party politics. From the opening to the close of the campaign, only such arguments were brought forward as corrupted the man who used them, every one of which was an appeal to some narrow prejudice, sordid consideration, or cowardly ap- prehension. Your article, to any one conversant with local matters and classes,- is worth studying ; and when seen in all its bearings on the pending canvass, it must be admitted to be the produc- tion of a master in political ingenuity. It covers a great deal of ground, and I fancy it was one of the best timed and ef- fective editorials of the campaign, appearing as it did the day before the election. It commences by dealing with great subjects and National 22 issues, and professes to vindicate the " Republican Party prop- er" " from the ultra doctrine of the day." But pro-Slavery is at besl vile and vulgar, and as a consequence the senatorial editor descends rapidly lo the lowest method of treatment, and directly proceeds to violate again the Republican Platform, by reviving and "remembering all past political differences and divisions" to the fullest extent ; assails the Republican candi- dal'' because he was once a " Democrat" and is now an ab- olitionist ; denounces the Democratic Party for its virtuous advocacy of equal school rights without distinction of color, and also announces that " this radical scheme has been steadi- ly opposed in this paper" and has found its chief support in the organ of the Democratic Party. How base for you to stir up that deep and dreadful preju- dice against the " negro children" as you call them in your pro-slavery classics, doiqg your utmost to keep alive that un- christian hatred, apparently for no higher purpose than the turning of votes against the candidate of the Republican Par- Again : how very ingeniously you sandwich Mr. Garrison, and Mr. Davis, the Republican candidate for Congress, be- tween " Hazard and Ives" and the " Negro children !" Who but youself could be your parallel in this skilful arrangement? lour intent was to- make me a party in the Hazard and Ives controversy, and thereby turn the timid, wealthy and conserv- ative foice of the district against me. The injustice of thus ►ciating me with a controversy in which I had taken no part, expressed no opinion, and really had not at the time formed any on the special merits of the case at issue, is ap- par< nt. At the same lime you were using Mr. Van Zandt, the legislative leader of the party in the house of Representatives, inst the Supreme Court of the State, giving him prominence, power ami opportunity to disseminate his opinions, having him carfvass tin; district, and assail me politically, in concert\vith the American Republican candidate, Mr. Robinson— par nobik f rat rum. In your Journal of September 23d, 18G4, you assert that " Mr. Davis was chosen to Congress from the Eastern District by the Democratic Party in an election by far the most cor- •: that tin; State had ever witnessed, never had money been soused before." I have four times run for Congress, twice as the candidate of the democratic party ; and in both of these 23 elections the amount expended by me was much less than when I ran as the candidate of the Republicans. It is well under- stood in Rhode Island that no one can be a candidate for an important office before the people, without a considerable sum is furnished to be applied to the payment of Registry Taxes, which has now become a very serious expense ; and, if I am correctly informed, Mr. Jenckes, in his last election, when there was no contest whatever, paid for necessary expenses, a sum, in amount, equal to all expended by me in both elections, when I ran as the candidate of the Democratic Party, in 1 8-53 and 1855. In the contest of 1855, I was defeated by Mr. Durfee, who rode in on the topmost wave of " Americanism;" and neither money, character, services nor talent could then have made the result other than it was. All the money used by the Republican's, beyond the neces- sary expenses, in the contest of 1859, is chargeable directly and solely to your treachery. If you had not " bolted " and taken the Party Organ with you, there would have been no serious opposition to the Republican candidate. You are the last live man that ought to bring before the public for review the recorded events of that contest. In politics, a blunder is said to be worse than a crime ; and you have committed one in calling from their repose the transactions of that campaign. No inconsiderable portion of the funds then expended were used to sustain a press ( the Providence Tribune ) for the pur- pose of counteracting in its columns, the effects of the contin- uous misrepresentations and plausible perversions of facts, which unceasingly flowed from the columns of your Organ. All these were so cunningly phrased as to be most effective in steadily un- dermining the morals of the State, and thus preparing the way for the stupendous political debauch of I860, for which you are in no small degree answerable. But it was not always that which appeared in your paper, addressed to the better class of readers, which did this work ; you had besides, your corps of subterranean friends, ready, adroit and unscrupulous ; and whoever became an object for the point of their wit and course jokes, might consider himself fortunate if he escaped open ridicule and personal insult. If the Democratic leaders of those days used money in elec- tions, they preserved (heir honorable relations ; o the party and its individual members ; the success of the candidate was by them held subordinate to the triumph of the party. There was 24 ler, however hot in the pursuit; of office, that did not • • muect his own success with the consolidation of the organiza- tion. Neither the best nor the worsl of them had attained to your liadain of party obligations or personal honor, so that the? di I or could proceed, as has been dma by you, to deliber- ly disorganize and distract the ranks of the party, by pack- priuiary*meetings with outside barbarians, by dividing city and town committees, b " sending to the State and other Con- ventions, double delegations, by assailing and slandering the State executive when of their own party, on the false assump- tion that he stood between them and their aspirations, and by removing faithful officers of the Federal Government because ;ed their destructive and ambitious schemes for per- sonal aggrandizement. John Adams remarks that "corrup- tion in elections is the great enemy of Freedom ;" and the of- fence of bribery is everywhere punishable by statutes rarely enf reed. My indvidual opinion is, that the bribery so exten- sively and effectively practised in your recent Senatorial elec- ti -a, bad is it was, was not, in its moral elFects, so baneful as neral method by which that election was accomplished. The whole scheme was planned and executed with an unscru- pulous adroitness and audacity that find no parallel in the poli- tics of this State. The actors and the events furnish no mean materials for an interesting and instructive drama. \ our record for a single year may be very edifying to polit- ical tricksters and turncoats. The- example of a person in a po- rn of eminence always affords shelter and justification above and beyon 1 that which an obscure and unofficial character could oiler ; and it is therefore all the more valuable and important to have it preserved and placed where it may be of public service. On the 28th of Feb , 1800, you announce in the Provi- dence Journal your purpose to " bolt " the Republican nomina- tion for Congress, and declare that "a position of neutrality is not becoming us, " and decide that the American Republican is the organization which you will support. On the 1st of April, 1859, (a proper day for such an address to appear in your organ,) the State Central Committee of your pet party speak officially of the Republican Organization as a thing 4 that may or may not be had in the Presidential election of ISOO, ' and it emphatically asks, " what warrant have they that the opposition to the .National Democratic party in I860 will assume that name ? " 25 On the 22nd of Juno, 1850, you had progressed downward f not onward. You audaciously declare that Mr. Robinson, ;he candidate of the party that issued the address, " stands on he only platform broad enough to hold all the opponents of slavery. " his was put forth the day before the special elec- tion for member of Congress. The defeat of the Republican sandidate was effected, and you are found, as the time for the issembling of Congress draws near, assuming another charac- er. You hive accomplished all you desired by the present iisorganization of the Republican Party ; and you therefore ndicate to your American Republican Committee, composed nostly of old Whigs, either agreeing with you in opinion, or laving no opinions of their own and were serviceable to you in :arrying out your scheme, that it is best to accede to the de- nand of the Republicans to adopt the Philadelphia Plat- brm. And lo ! It is done ; and the two committees come ogether and unite in the call which follows. "We take great pleasure in publishing the call of a State convention as agreed ipon by the American republican and the Republican Stat ■ (Jjmmittee. Tho laion thus happily enacted, will mnet with the general and cordial assent of hoso to whom the call was ai Iressed, an J we shall go into the next election ,nd prepare for the great contest, of 1850 with ab undivided front." " The electors of Rhode Island without regard to past political differences, vho are opposed to the present Federal Administration, and in favor of the piat- orm of principles adopted by the Philadelphia Convention, June 17th, L856," &c. Signed BYRON DIMON, Chairman Republican Committee, R. R. HAZARD Jr., Secretary SIMON H. GREENE, Chairman American Republican Committee GEORGE MANCHESTER, Secretary, ' " Previous to this union of the two parties, and as early as Feb. 8th, of the same year, a proposition to unite and adopt the Philadelphia platform was made by the Republican State Committee and rejected by the American Republican. Bat 50 soon as you gave the order for the two to coalesce, the thino- was done, add immediately comes the endorsement of the Senatorial editor in his role as organizer of tho Republican Party. We next fmd you coming out in a new character and on a new stage — defender of the Republican Party against the very class of persons whom you had lifted to political consequence 26 in the State — yes, doing precisely the work for which you had assailed others in a long roll of infamous political articles. Washington, Feb. 22d, 1860. Dear Sir. — " A rumor has reached us that some hesitation was felt by the delegation in Congress, in supporting the nominees of the Republican State Convention. Nothing could be more unfounded. It seems to us thai the Republican Party has presented no crisis in which the importance of a cordial support of its nominees was more plainly demanded by a regard for in integrity an 1 its highest interests. lion. SAM UKL <;. ARNOLD. JAMES F. STMMOXS, I!. 15. ANTHONY, W.m. D. BKAYTON, CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON." "We have now all come together again — Mr. Anthony, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Davis — hail fellows and good Republicans well met! But who of this party swil 'died off in February, 1859, and supported the candidate of a local party, a party which, in March doubted whether such an organization as the Republican would exist at all in 1800? Who, furthermore, declared on the 22d of June, 1859, that the National platform was not broad enough to hold all the opponents of slavery. And in November, 1859, that the same platform was all suffi- cient for the great contest of 1860. The " rumor" that some hesitation was felt about your sup- porting the Republican Party was quite current and perfectly natural ; and it has always been believed that you in your se- cret heart desired the defeat of the Republican party in the State election of 18G0 : at till events, you prepared the way and put into effective motion the machinery by which that defeat was accomplished. Nearly all the most active men of the Ameri- can Republican organization became partisans of Mr. Sprague,. and joined in the general and disgraceful scramble. Old party ties were swept away. The candidate had no avowed political opinions, and probably did not possess any ; and the disorgan- ization and moral confusion inaugurated by you had complete sway in the State election. The little Commonwealth was laid prostrate by the power of Mammon, " the least erected'of the spirits that fell from heaven;" and throughout the land re- sounded the shout of Conservatism and Democracy, that the Republican Party was defeated in Rhode Island. The defeat of the party and the means by which it was effected are thus 27 announced in your Organ of September 6, 1860, the day after the election : " The contest on Wednesday was one of the most spirited and excited that the- State ever saw. The aggregate vote exceeded (hat cast in the hst Presidential election by more thai I tirty-four hundred. We are glad to know that notwith- standing the intensity of the feeling manifested, the d ty passed off without any noteworthy trouble or disorder. We trust however that it' may long remain conspicuous'and unparalleled in the annals of our State in respect to its demor- alizing influence upon the public sentiment. Never was so much money spent at an election before, and never was it spent so boldly and openly for the pur- pose of purchasing votes." Here is another item in the long list of your gross perver- sions and misrepresentations. See Journal Sept. 29th, 1864. " Mr. Davis denies that he was an outside candidate in 1859, and affirms that he belonged to the Republican and not to the American bepublican party, and owed no allegiance to the latter which nominated Mr. Robinson. We are aware that Mr. Davis, apprehending that he would fail to obtain the regular nomination unless he strengthened himself by some extraneous influ- ence, got together a convention of his own. That convention, himself the chair- man of the committee that called it. " You cannot find a person of character who will endorse your statement, that I was a member of the American Republican Party. When you affirm that I " got together a convention of my own," you make me out a man of extraordinary power and influence in the state. You might as well have gone a step further and charged me with getting up the Philadelphia Convention. You would be quite as near the truth, for the one convention was the offspring cf the other. I had no organ of my own, no office, no ready pen to write paragraphs like the specimens I have given of yours, I had had no practice in the art of stabbing, slandering and misrepresenting those who were in my way politically. I had never reduced falsehood to a system, nor become so perfect in the art by a long practice of it on others, as, at last, to impose it on myself. I had neither the power nor the qualities to create a party, nor the desire to maintain or defend one, merely to subserve my own ends, regardless of political consequences to the State or country. I certainly was not the person who played that part in the canvass of 1850. The following resolutions were adopted by the Republican State Convention, February 16th, 1859. It is to this portion of the series of resolutions that you refer when you call on the Journal of Commerce to specially note, " that the oldest Re- publican paper in the State utterly and emphatically denies 28 their doctrine." They were drawn and presented to the con- tion, by the late William M. Chace, at that time the Rhode Island member of the National Republican Committee, com- posed of one from each state, Edwin D. Morgan being chair- man, and representing the Republicans in some twenty-five states of the Union. t it is not within the legitimate province of the Supreme ites to determine the powe* of Congress under the Fed- eral Co ■ in the recent Dred Scott decision, so called, the majority of tho .1 i ! i • i' »urt have gone beyond the record, and pronounced extrajudic- ial opinions c< n :erni 'ions of Slavery to the Constitution and the pow- »rcs3 over the Territories. '■'. ■ 1. i ir ling th sse opinions as mere obiter dicta, we re-affirm the doc- trin ■ i is, promulgated by the National Republican Convention ihia June 1856. t. That there are but two vital panics in the country— the Democratic l, with i ; i Cin iinn iti platform and Dred Scott decision ; aud :n Party, w i its Philadelphia platform and its Constitutional i •;. ;n illu>l • i: ■ i by i i ■ ordinance of 1787 — parties which exist, not as lent or temporary policy, but as the necessary representa- tives of antagonistic ideas. " The campaign was conducted on the part of the Republi- cans with great vigor and activity. Several persons of note from other States were invited, and engaged in the canvass. Joshua R. Giddings, Galusha A. Grow, Anson Burlingame, Don Piatt and others, all spoke ably and earnestly in favor of sustaining the National organization. But the Senatorial Edi- tor with his Organ and his subterraneans carried the day. lie represented or misrepresented the issues, so as to put down effectually the " bolters and seceders," and " the regular and prevailing organization " was triumphant in Washington Row. The contest did not fail to attract the notice of leading Re- publican papers in other States. The New York Evening Post, the Worcester Spy, and the National Era, all decidedly censured the policy of the disorganizers. The reply of the Senatorial Editor to the strictures of the National Era, edited by the late Doct. Bailey, one of the noblest and truest of men, is .so characteristic that I give it a place here. "TheNati i thinks that it understands Rhode Island politics better than uc do. Pei i ps it does; but it is our weakness to think that this 'is one thai we know more about than the accomplished Editor of that paper. Journal, April 5th, 1859. You were right, Senator. You had made the politics of the 29 State just what they were ; and when you attempt to palliate your apostacy as you frequently do, by saying that " the peo- ple endorse your course by their votes, " your position barred you from such a plea. You held a place in the State of such eminent power and authority, that as you decided so went the majority, carried by force of the influence wielded by you in your dual capacity of Journalist and Senator. When that Or- gan of yours disorganized, the little Commonwealth felt it to its very centre ; and, conscious of your power, you dared at a critical time to strike down the Republican organization ; and in justification you present the demoralized majority you had seduced and misled by your shameful treachery, — thus using the powers conferred on you for the preservation of the party, to effect its destruction. The extracts which follow will show to what pitiful shifts and expedients the Senator was driven in order to sustain him- self against the well directed arguments put forth by the Re- publicans in favor of the National Party. The specimens I give are a fair sample of a long series which might be much extended. The first extract is from the Journal of February 27th, 1859 :— ." It is objected that the name American Republican is local and that the Par; ty in Rhode Island should correspond with the National organization, otherwise the delegates to the next National Convention might not be admitted. The name is not peculiar to this State. It is the name in Massachusetts, and our friends are pretty good Republicans there. In Pennsylvania the opposition is called the Union Party. In New Jersey the opposition is called the Peoples' Party." The next is from the Journal of March 18th, 1859 : — "There seems to be no just cause of complaint, and we coxild see no sound ness in the argument that it was necessary to nationalize the party so as to make it conform with the general organization throughout the country and to secure a representation for the State in the next Presidential Convention. We have never doubted that the delegates would be welcomed into the National Convention whether they called themselves American Republicans, as in Massachusetts, tho Peoples' Party, as in New Jersey, or the Union Party, as in Pennsylvania." Again, on April 1st, 1859, we have from your pen another repetition of the statement that our noble sister Massachusetts, has no Republican Party : — " The name of the party in Rhode Island in the same that it is in Massachu- setts. Does any body believe that the delegates from Massachusetts will be re- fused admission to the next National Convention because the party in that State is called American Republican ?" Once more. In your Organ, June 9th, 1859, you make the extraordinary assertion : — n (I dispute has I n about a name and it is of no sort of public sig- l to surrender the name under which the party • I pronounce the above assertion unqualifiedly false. The anion of the opposition to the Federal administration in 1856, was effected by adopting the Republican name and Platform. ioke in nearly every town in the SNite, and in some of them sral times, heard all the campaign speakers during the whole period of that earnest struggle, and not a man of them from first to last called the Party by any other name than Republi- can. Ah, Senator ! had the Republican Party been victorious in 1S5G, the Providence Journal would have defended it valiant- ly, demanding all the spoils as exclusively its own. Your vis- inn would not then have descried an American Republican Party, superseding, by its comprehensive Platform, the one adopted by the Philadelphia Convention of 1850. The cohe- sive power of public plunder would have held you ar.d your Organ fast in the Party traces. " Thou little valiant, great in villainy! Thou ever strong upon the stronger side ! Thou fortune's champion, that dost never fight But when her humorous ladyship is by To teach thee safi. ty." Every one who reads these extracts and considers the source from which they emanated, will not wonder that the Republi- can Party in Rhode Island was beaten in 1860 in the State election, and in 18G1 in both State and Congressional elec- tions, one Democrat and one Conservative being sent to Con- Mi'. Robinson, the American Republican candidate in I 359, was defeated by Mr. Sheffield, the special friend of the Senatorial disorganizes 5Tou are now and have been since 1859 a member of the I nited States Senate, associated, and doubtless on friendly terms with Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson. During my shortcareer in Congress, I made their acquaintance. I enter- tain a very high respect, and no small "degree of admiration for both gentlemen. I wish to ask them, through you, if, at time to which your above quoted paragraphs refer, there was not in Massachusetts, a powerful and well organized Na- tional Republican Party. But that is not all, I wish you to inquire further, if at that time they used their talents and of- 31 ficial influence in the State of Massachusetts, to keep alive a local organization, with Gov. Gardner and men of like charac- ter and opinions for leaders, calling itself American Republi- can. Perhaps these distinguished Senators might resent your query as an insult to their sense of honor. My own opinion is, that either of them would have parted with his own right hand rather than have used it for such a purpose. You make large claims to reputation as an Editor ; but that reputation will perish before your body is consigned to its last rest, if you continue to make no better use of your talents than to place on record statements so utterly false and untenable. For your conduct in 1859 you deserved political outlawry ; but the sovereign power cannot be called to an account ! — " the King can do no wrong ! ' and so you escaped your just deserts. Having now finished this outline of a portion of your politi- cal history, I present the sketch for your contemplation. I have endeavored to represent you as you really have appeared to me, appealing mainly to your own political record to verily the correctness of the portrait I have drawn of you. Slowly but surely, even handed justice is ever vindicating its supremacy in human affairs ; and all offenders against its inflexible rule must, in due time, be brought to judgment. Strive as you may, you cannot escape the merited condemna- tion by charging on others the offences of which you yourself have been prominently guilty. Very respectfully your fellow citizen, THOMAS DAVIS. North Providence, March 26th, 1S6G. Erratum. — On pa^e 14, the sentence — " This is a very good Whig Platform" -is not part of the quotation) but a comment. A P F E N I) I X For the purpose of Bhowjng who it is that has " a temper not oversweet by nature," I place in juxta-posilion, extracts from the remarks made by me in the Electoral Convention, and the opening comments thereon of the Senatorial Editor, in his organ of Sept. 23, 1804. I will leave every intelligent and candid reader to draw his own infer , simply remarking, that the charges made by me were Bolid, true and substantial, and they deserved to be answered in Borne other manner than to turn " and berate me like an angry scold." "It seems, however, to suit his . and he is the judge of his own conduct." spoke fol- I do d I sympathize to !li.- stent with the last r. I . i i'_ r h ; or wrong, which tiled property . do! to be turned . the gentlt for barm "i bo made thi 1 ad I feel it now, that the ques- i with. Jefferson Davis w i;li the men wl I in mizedj I ime reason, when they Baw power "Ut of their ■ ■ iin< d t" rule nr ruin, as the I think to nun : but I • irdinary oce. that they obtained a ma- ■ then fellow • n aa that nKii It wi i by .n ■ ; Weary of Bingle atl icl . he pa cd to a whole ODd Ward in this city in a ce was thai it was rich ; bi t on r< ; ,,,,„ |, ( . adn in. d thai wealth was nol in the i twa c< ai i i ted with i i aa in telie i i ce, ai devi □ 11 a, wit! ' ral- ii\ thatcharacb £ e tedthal bfd a legal be both rich and cultivated, although he stn - iy intimated that, in such ,', ce hi aid be cari full rded agi hould be held as of evil example, and unworthy id the ci I ! ' l- low citizens.- But the Secoi d Ward was not enough for the Davis, and he pom ced upon the whole city, tl i electa s ol whh I fter twice i his frii nd and the I '"''- minated their outrage bj j to the conV( | thai were unaccepta- ble to the caucus in North Pi •— Next his wrathful appetite, grow i " hat it fed on, would take nothing less th&nthe whole State. He seemed like the Roman tyrant, who wished that all the people had but a eck, that he might strike it off at one blow- He then denounced the great body of his fellow citizens, as the very weak instruments of a few very bad men, mere 'white trash'— we quote the exact words which Mr. Davis thinks proper to apply to the pcopl* of Bhode Island— and said that he wished the State was annexed to Mi chusetts. It was Miss Squeers, the an i and accomplished daughter of the immortal proprietor of D^jheboy's Hall, who in a mo- ment of uncomffon vexation, exclaimed. ' Mamma, I hate everybody.' Mr. Davis has been reading Dickens. His speech is not original. It is a borrowed idea, elaborated. We could not think of making so important a territorial change, even to accommodate the amiable gentleman from North Provi- dence; but sharing in what we know must be the general disposition to oblige him, in this respect, we will suggest a mode in which, possibly, he may effect his purpose, without so grea*t inconvenience to other people. If he should feel disposed to annex himself to Massachusetts, he may feel sure that he will find no barrier at the frontier to arrest his exodus, and he may rest in his new home, secure that no expedition from this side of the line will ever be sent over to kidnap the vagrant treasure, and bring it back to a roil that we know is not worthy of him ; for he belongs to that class of our citizens happily described by Benjamin Hazard, as ' men who came among us uninvited, and upon whose departure there is no restr: to* 1S,L^ i 0J3 «w»i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 787 563 9