EH 55 
 

 THE LAST APPEAL 
 
 TO 
 
 3PEsr^3srss3r3L."^..a. i^a".^x jil., 
 
 Fellow Citizens :— 
 
 You are eLsked to read this carefully and conscientiously ; for 
 it is the last word of warning or encouragement that can be 
 addressed to you before your votes determine who shall be Pre- 
 sident of the United States for the next four years. 
 
 Shall he be a neighbor and a friend — a Pennsylvania states- 
 man, born and bred amongst you, the course of whose whole life, 
 private and public, has*been with yoil, and witli whom i/ou know 
 the interests of the country dre Bafe^ or shall it be one who, 
 though a fortunate adventurer, a lucky finder of paths which 
 others as brave as he had trod before, is utterly without expe- 
 rience, and, more than that, who is the candidate of sectionalism 
 and fanaticism, and the worst sort of speculative experiment, the 
 candidate of Joshua R. Giddings, the Abolitionist, and George 
 Law, the New York operator. 
 
 This is the question which, in its most direct form and freed' 
 from all collateral isms — from all questions as to who shall be 
 members of Congress, or the Legislature, or hold any other local 
 trust, is now to be decided by you. Each individual man must 
 decide it for himself. 
 
 It seems to have become a question whether Pennsylvania, this 
 ancient, loyal, true-hearted commonwealth, shall have any rights 
 
of choice, or shall dare to exercise it in favor of her own aons 
 There has just been an election in our State, and it has shown 
 this, among other results, that our substantial, hardy, conserva- 
 tive population, the citizens of the middle and eastern and south- 
 ern counties of Pennsylvania, including its great metropolis, have 
 narrowly escaped the dominion of an abolition oligarchy, which, 
 bwn on the frontiers of States of adverse interest, and more ' 
 adverse sentiment, has little or nothing in common with us. 
 While Berks and Northampton, and Philadelphia and Schuylkill, 
 and Monroe and Columbia, and Luzerne and Cambria, and Greene 
 ^ad other central and remote counties, the great mineral and 
 agritnltural and commercial communities brought their heavy 
 majorities to the support of a Pennsylvania man, and were true 
 to Pennsylvania interests and feelings ; and the large minorities 
 in Lancaster and Chester and Dauphin and Huntingdon and else- 
 where, showed that the Pennsylvania heart beat loyally there, too, 
 & few border counties on New York, filled with fanatics, indi- 
 genous and imported readers of New York fanatic newspapers 
 and lovers of New York interests turned their back, as usual, on 
 Pennsylvania, and came near, by the concentration of their aboli- 
 tion force, snatching honor from a Pennsylvania statesman, and 
 carrying it to the New York market, to place it on the brow of 
 one who has nothing in common with us qf ours. This combina- 
 tion is the fruit of the policy suggested and thus far animated by 
 David Wilmot, of Bradford ccanty, th-^ confederate of Thaddeua 
 Stevens, and leader of abolitionism and sectionalism in our State, 
 who have boasted that Abolitionists could control Pennsylvania, 
 and with her control or defy the Union. 
 
 The integrity of our commercial and agricultural population, 
 the resolute love of Pennsylvania for the- Constitution and the 
 Union, have averted this misfortune, and for a time frustrated 
 this scheme of wrong ; and it may be well for Pennsylvania men, 
 and especially men of business, to pause and meditate on this, and 
 bring clearly to their minds the actual danger from which the 
 victory in October has rescued them. 
 
 Let every considerate man, be hia party politics what they 
 may; ask himself the question, what would have been the state of 
 public feeling, socially and economically, had the Fremont factioa 
 
s 
 
 gained an ascendency in the State and carried the October elec- 
 tion ? It may be answered in a few truthful, exact words- 
 There certainly would have been no repose or sense of 
 security such as now exists. The shout of triumph from a 
 distance would have been vociferous. -The opponent of the ex- 
 tension of slavery, he who would at the same time guard th* 
 rights of the South under the Constitution, would have found 
 his voice of moderate rejoicing drowned in the louder clamor of 
 wild fanaticism. The extreme North would have boasted in 
 insolence over the defeated and exasperated South ; and the South 
 thus defied and insulted, might have sullenly and sadly turned 
 away even from its brethren of the North. David Wilmot or 
 Thaddeus Stevens or Simon Cameron, (for the contest would have 
 been close among the veterans and the recruits of abolition,) 
 would have represented Pennsylvania in the Senate of the United 
 States, and a scene like that which, under the joint auspices of 
 Know-Nothingism and Fanaticism, disgraced Pennsylvania two 
 years ago, would have been re-enacted this winter at Harrisburg. 
 And then over the business interests of the State would have 
 rested uncertainty and distrust and fear for the future. Happily 
 ' the conjecture has become an idle one with us, at least, whether 
 the Union would have been enda,ngered by such a reverse. 
 Many think it would — while some, more confident, think it would 
 not. But no one will question that from this October to next 
 March, there would have been doubt and fear for the future — 
 doubt whether the designs of fanaticism were to be frustrated by 
 the personal dishonor of the candidate — or whether he remaining 
 true to his professions and his friends, the conflict of sectionalism 
 was to begin. It would have been the darkest five months this 
 country had ever seen, and no where would the cloud have been 
 thicker than here in Pennsylvania. We should have felt the 
 gloom socially, politically and economically. 
 
 Economically in this. The struggling and peculiar interests of 
 this commonwealth, which, without demanding extreme or ofien- 
 sive protection, are now developing themselves — mineral, agri- 
 cultural and mechanical — would first have been struck by the 
 paralysis. They ask nothing now but to be let alone, The 
 policy of the Abolition party, as avowed by its leaders, was to ea- 
 
courage the free and unrestricted imputation of the very raw 
 materials which the hardy and patient industry of Pennsylvania, 
 is digging from her mountains or gleaning from her hills. Pictou 
 coal and Canadian grain, and English iron and Australian wool 
 were to be poured into the country for the benefit of Massa- 
 chussets and New York, for their canals and their factories — and 
 millions of dollars were to be voted out of the public treasury for 
 local enterprises in which Pennsylvania has no interest direct or 
 remote. It was Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, let it be 
 remembered, the present Abolition Speaker at Washington, the 
 leading lecturer for Fremont in this campaign, who voted always 
 for remission of duties on railroad iron against Pennsylvania, and 
 who, on the 24th of February, 1855, proposed in the House of 
 Representatives that wool should be "free of duty, without limit," 
 and on the steps of the New York Exchange, less than a month 
 ago, scorning anew the interests of Pennsylvania, re-asserted the 
 economical policy which thus would prostrate our interests. Thus 
 economically, would Pennsylvania have been perplexed and 
 paralyzed. 
 
 Politically, it would have been still worse. There would have 
 been danger of the restoration of the dark iniquities of 1854 — the 
 iniquities of secret and corrupt combinations, such as locally 
 governed Philadelphia for two years, and controlled the State 
 Legislature for one — when bribery and corruption was system- 
 atised, and votes were bid for and trafficked with for money. 
 That we have been saved from the danger, let the record show. 
 On the 5th of February, 1855, a Pennsylvania member of Con- 
 gress oifered this resolution : — 
 
 "Whereas, confessions have been made in this House, in Com- 
 mittee of the Whole, which, with other circumstances, lead to the 
 conviction that there exists in this country an extensive oath- 
 bound political association, which seems intended to interfere with 
 the purity of the election and the legislation of the country, such 
 an association has excited the fears, and induced the solemn 
 warning of Washington, in his Farewell Address ; therefore 
 
 ''IlesclVtd, That in the opinion of this House, the existence of 
 secret oath-bound political associations, having in view an inter- 
 ference with the sanctity of the ballot-box, and the direction of the 
 
course of national or municipal legislation, inconsistent A^-ith, and 
 dangerous to the institutions of republicanism, and directly 
 hostile to tlie genius of this Government. 
 
 '^Resolved, That every attempt to proscribe any class of citizens 
 on account of their religious opinions, or to favor or injure any 
 religious denomination by national legislation, is in direct opposi- 
 tion of the spirit of the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 ^^Besolved, Thatv.-hile a careful and strict administration of the 
 naturalization laws is a solemn duty, yet every interference with 
 the guarantied rights of naturalized citizens, is inconsistent with 
 the plighted faith of the nation, and must diminish its growth and 
 prosperity." * 
 
 And against this resolution, so conservative, so unquestionably 
 patriotic, voted all the leaders of that combined party of sec- 
 tionalism and intolerance, which has just been defeated in Penn- 
 sylvania; Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, and OrsemusB. 
 Matteson, of New York, and Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania. 
 Bad as was Know-Nothingism when it first started into existance, 
 it would have been a thousand-fold worse if restored under the 
 ^auspices of confederate abolition. 
 
 But socially, what an escape has Pennsylvania and the Na- 
 tion had I There is no measuring the actual consequence of our 
 defection from the cause of the Constitution and the Union. — 
 The first would have been — for the winds of fanaticism once 
 affain let loose, would have blown into a flame the almost extinct 
 spark of civil discord — the renewal of strife and bloodshed in 
 Kansas. That afiiicted territory is at peace, and has been so for 
 weeks, if not months ; and no candid man, no lover of his country 
 doubts or wishes to deny it. The instant an honest Pennsyl- 
 vania man was sent there, one whose first thoughts were to restore 
 order and do his duty — one who was actuated by the moderate 
 and unsectional feeling of a Pennsylvanian — that instant vio- 
 lence on all sides was rebuked — adventurers of all parties who 
 came for mischief were repelled — the administration of the law 
 restored and the way prepared for that fair popular decision as to 
 organic institutions which the people have a right to form. The 
 
 * Mr. Witte's Resolution. Congressional Globe, 2d Ses. ,33rd Congress, p 571. 
 
only chance which Kansas has of coming into this confederacy 
 free from the institution of domestic slavery, is when good order 
 shall be confirmed and peaceful citizens from the North and fx'ora 
 the South, from a distance and from near at hand, who come to 
 settle in good faith, with the rights of property of all kind which 
 the Constitution secures, shall have the chance of saying for 
 themselves what their wishes are. This may be yet — and if it is 
 or if it is not by the honest and unawed expression of the citi- 
 zens, the whole country will acquiesce. But this acquiesencc can 
 alone be had in that period of national repose which a constitu- 
 tional President like James Buchanan has promised and <;an 
 secure. A Pennsylvania man in Kansas has already done much 
 for law and order and domestic peace. A Pennsylvania President, 
 sustained by Constitutional men in Congress, may do the rest. — 
 Freedom can never come, except through peace. 
 
 And what would have been the doom of Kansas (this is a ques- 
 tion worth considering,) had the news reached there that a dynasty 
 of sectional abolitionism was to be inaugurated at Washington, and 
 that mainly through the agency of Pennsylvania ? The struggle of 
 fierce and violent men would, before this, have been renewed. Tho 
 law would have been silent in the din of ready arms. The new 
 crusades would have beirun alreadv. New missionaries of blood 
 would have crossed all its borders on new errands of violence. 
 The fanatic press would have made new issues of propagandism. 
 Much would have had to be done on one side or the other before 
 next March ; and while we in Pennnsylvania might have had five 
 months of anxious perplexity, they in Kansas would haTe had five 
 months of blood. 
 
 From all this — a reality and not a speculation — the vote of Penn- 
 sylvania on the fourteenth of October has thus far saved us. It was 
 a victory gained over a coalition, the most compact ever made out of 
 repulsive materials. The words of warning which Mr. Fillmore, 
 more than once lias uttered, fell unheeded on his friends here. They 
 coalesced to their own ruin with their worst enemies. Know- 
 Nothings who proscribed a man for his religion's sake or for his 
 accidental birth-place, were to be seen hand in hand with mer- 
 cenary itinerant agents hired to appeal to foreign sympathies and 
 antipathies. It was complete and perfect, and never was sundered 
 
till it fell. It has fallen. It is broken in pieces, and from its 
 fragments are disengaged many particles, tliat will by the attrac- 
 tion of honest and patriotic sympathies, connect themselves with 
 the great cause of conservative Democracy. Many a man, who 
 under delusion, voted the Fusion ticket in October, sees now the 
 mischievous error which ruled him — and will sustain the great 
 cause of the Constitution and the Union. The fanaticism of Re- 
 ligious Intolerance and Abolition now stand apart, till some new 
 expediency draws them together. 
 
 Whether this will be so before the Presidential election in No- 
 vember, only a fortnight distant, may be pronounced a matter of 
 entire uncertainty and indifiference. The duty of every Constitu- 
 tional man, and especially of every Pennsylvanian, is clear in any 
 event, and these last words of counsel are now sent to you and your 
 friends and neighbours, to bring that duty clearly to your minds. 
 If in October, with odds against you, and all the embarrassments 
 arising out of local and personal preferences, you zealously 
 labored for the cause we have at heart, sacrificed your time, con- 
 tributed your effort, do not forget that a greater duty yet remains 
 to be performed — to vote, and get your friends to vote, on the 
 direct question of the Presidency, and in so doing to swell the 
 majority of those who yet think the Constitution and the Union 
 worth preserving. 
 
 Men of Pennsylvania — Democrats — Whigs — Conservatives of 
 ail parties, this last appeal is made to you ! 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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