Fellow-citizens,--Another year has gone round, and you are once more
called to bear testimony at the polls to those truths which you deem
vital in the government of the country. By votes you are to declare
not merely predilections for men, but devotion to principles. Men are
erring and mortal; principles are steadfast and immortal.
If the occasion is calculated less than a Presidential contest to
arouse ardors of opposition, it is also less calculated to stimulate
animosities. With less passion, the people are more under the
influence of reason. Truth may be heard over the prejudices of party.
Candor, kindly feeling, and conscientious thought may take the place
of embittered, unreasoning antagonism, or of timid, unprincipled
compliance. If the controversy is without heat, there may be no viper
to come forth and fasten upon the hand.
Though of less apparent consequence in immediate results, the election
now approaching is nevertheless of great importance. We do not choose a
President of the United States, or Members of Congress, but a Governor,
Lieutenant-Governor, and other State officers. Still, the same question
which entered into the election of National officers arises now. The
Great Issue which has already convulsed the whole country presents
itself anew in a local sphere. Omnipresent wherever any political
election occurs, it will never cease to challenge attention, until at
least two things are accomplished: _first_, the divorce of the National
Government from all support or sanction of Slavery,--and, _secondly_,
the conversion of this Government, within its constitutional limits, to
the cause of Freedom, so that it shall become Freedom's open, active,
and perpetual ally.
Impressed by the magnitude of these interests, devoted to the triumph
of the righteous cause, solicitous for the national welfare, animated
by the example of the fathers, and desirous of breathing their spirit
into our Government, the Free Democracy of Massachusetts, in Convention
assembled at Worcester, now address their fellow-citizens throughout
the Commonwealth. Imperfectly, according to the necessity of the
occasion, earnestly, according to the fulness of their convictions,
hopefully, according to the confidence of their aspirations, they
proceed to unfold the reasons of their appeal. They now ask your
attention. They trust to secure your votes.
* * * * *
_Our Party a permanent National Party._--We make our appeal as a
_National_ party, established to promote principles of paramount
importance to the country. In assuming our place as a distinct party,
we simply give form and direction, in harmony with the usage and the
genius of popular governments, to a movement which stirs the whole
country, and does not find an adequate and constant organ in either
of the other existing parties. In France, under the royalty of Louis
Philippe, the faithful friends of the yet unborn Republic formed a
band together, and by publications, speeches, and votes sought to
influence the public mind. Few at first in numbers, they became strong
by united political action. In England, the most brilliant popular
triumph in her history, the repeal of the monopoly of the Corn Laws,
was finally carried by means of a newly formed, but wide-spread,
political organization, which combined men of all the old parties,
Whigs, Tories, and Radicals, and recognized opposition to the Corn Laws
as a special test. In the spirit of these examples, the friends of
Freedom have come together, in well-compacted ranks, to uphold their
cherished principles, and by combined efforts, according to the course
of parties, to urge them upon the Government, and upon the country.
All the old organizations contribute to our number, and good citizens
come to us who have not heretofore mingled in the contests of party.
Here are men from the ancient Democracy, believing that any democracy
must be a name only, no better than sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal, which does not recognize on every occasion the supremacy of
Human Rights, and is not ready to do and to suffer in their behalf.
Here also are men who have come out of the Whig party, weary of its
many professions and its little performance, and especially revolting
at its recent sinister course with regard to Freedom, believing that
in any devotion to Human Rights they cannot err. Here also, in solid
legion, is the well-tried band of the Liberty Party, to whom belongs
the praise of first placing Freedom under the guardianship of a special
political organization, whose exclusive test was opposition to Slavery.
Associating and harmonizing from opposite quarters to promote a common
cause, we learn to forget former differences, and to appreciate the
motives of each other,--also how trivial are the matters on which we
disagree, compared with the Great Issue on which we all agree. Old
prejudices vanish. Even the rancors of political antagonism are changed
and dissolved, as in a potent alembic, while the natural irresistible
affinities of Freedom prevail. In our union we cease to wear the badge
of either of the old organizations. We have become a party distinct,
independent, permanent, under the name of the Free Democracy, thus
in our very designation expressing devotion to Human Rights, and
especially to Human Freedom.
Professing honestly the same sentiments, wherever we exist, in all
parts of the country, East and West, North and South, we are truly
a NATIONAL party. We are not compelled to assume one face
at the South and another at the North,--to blow hot in one place,
and blow cold in another,--to speak loudly of Freedom in one region,
and vindicate Slavery in another--in short, to present a combination
where the two extreme wings profess opinions, on the Great Issue
before the country, diametrically opposed to each other. We are the
same everywhere. And the reason is, because our party, unlike the
other parties, is bound together in support of fixed and well-defined
principles. It is not a combination fired by partisan zeal, and kept
together, as with mechanical force, by considerations of political
expediency only,--but a sincere, conscientious, inflexible union for
the sake of Freedom.
* * * * *
_Old Issues obsolete._--Taking position as an independent party, we
are cheered not only by the grandeur of our cause, but by favorable
omens in the existing condition of parties. Devotion to Freedom impels
us; Providence itself seems to open the path for our triumphant
efforts. Old questions which have divided the minds of men have lost
their importance. One by one they have disappeared from the political
field, leaving it free to a question more transcendent far. The Bank,
the Sub-Treasury, the Public Lands, are all obsolete issues. Even the
Tariff is not a question where opposite political parties take opposite
sides. The opinions of Mr. Clay and Mr. Polk, as expressed in 1844,
when they were rival candidates for the Presidency, are so nearly
identical, that it is difficult to distinguish between them.