The Bedford Gazette

DEMOCRATIC THUNDER!
THE CONVENTION SUSTAINED BY
THE DEMOCRATIC PRESS:

[From the Pennsylvanian of the 18th inst.]

A resolution was presented, endorsing the
State policy of Governor Packer, which gave
rise to considerable discussion. The few who
advocated it, disclaimed any approval of the
Governor's conduct in reviving the Lecompton
question in his last message, and in other re-
spects lending himself to the purpose of party
disorganization. The course of his Attorney
General, Knox, was expressly repudiated by
the delegate who offered the resolution. The
majority, however, could see neither policy nor
propriety in giving any such expression of
opinion as proposed by the resolution. The
Governor must be looked upon as having volun-
tarily arrayed himself, like McKean and
Shulze, against the party which elected him.
He retained in office men who were making open
war upon the Democratic party and its organiza-
tion. He had but recently turned out of office
a sound and true Democrat, to make room for
a man not a citizen of the State, who but last
fall, was openly in the field in support of Black
Republican candidates, and who publishes a
paper which makes weekly assaults upon the
President and the National Democracy of the
country.
And moreover, he has given his
sanction to acts clearly prejudicial to the in-
terests of the Commonwealth and her citizens.
Although there appears to have been thirty-
seven of the Convention who were willing, as
a matter of supposed policy, to vote for the
resolution of endorsement, it is well understood
that scarcely a man of them has any confidence
whatever in the Governor, either as an officer
or a Democrat. They, with all other party
men, look upon him as having placed himself,
with Knox, Hickman, Forney & Co., outside of
the Democratic organization, and as ready to
approve any kind of legislation that he may
believe calculated to advance the interests of
the speculating crowd with whom he is known
to be associated.

[From the Philadelphia Argus of the 19th inst.]

The humiliating position which Governor
Packer now occupies will be painful to every
Democrat throughout the Union. Elected by
an overwhelming majority to preside over the
soundest Democratic State in the Confederacy,
in eighteen months we find him utterly repu-
di ated by the men who elevated him, and his
political reputation forever covered with igno-
miny and shame. As a man he may not have
deserved that hard fate, but as the representa-
tive of a party he richly earned it. He sur-
rounded himself with advisers utterly lost to
political honor, and when called upon to dis-
card them he closed his ears to the appeals.--
The people bore with him until forbearance
ceased to be a virtue, and their verdict has gone
forth, "Ephraim is joined to his idols ; let him
alone."

[From the Harrisburg Patriot & Union.]

The Pennsylvania Democracy is like Mil-
Milton's young man waking from sleep and sha-
king his invincible locks. All corruption and
impediments have been sloughed off-all the
proud attitude of defender of popular rights and
the union of the States. Packer and his sat-
ellites are harmless before the unbroken col-
umn which we now present : for hundreds of
the honest yeomen will gather to our standard,
where one double-dealing knave deserts.-
Heretofore we have been stricken down by se-
cret foes ; hereafter we have them in front.--
In the past, we were forced to bear the load of
indignity which recreant Democrats heaped
upon our shoulders ; in the future, we shall
present a bold and honest front to the enemy of
American nationality. Therefore are we stron-
ger far, than we have been for years. Indeed
no party ever stood so proudly as the righter
of the wrong, and indicter of the guilty. This
undaunted and loyal popular position attracts
the sympathies of the masses-it confounds
truckling politicians, and terminates the miser-
able clap-trap about popular sovereignty and
Kansas. From the day of the last Convention
we date the regeneration of the Democratic
party, and an era of new triumphs for the
friends of the United States.

[From the York Gazette, March 22d.]

This Convention will teach a wholesome les-
son, in all time to come, to those in place and
power. Had Governor Packer properly re-
buked the unpardonable treason of his Attorney
General, when he preached disorganization to
the Democrats of Chester, he would not now be
left naked to his enemies. "There was the
weight that pulled him down."
It was a
blunder, worse than a crime," not to set openly
and fearlessly his mark of disapprobation upon
the unwarrantable course of the man he had
taken into his counsels. No one is too high to
escape the evil which results from a contact
with bad advisers. The stream will not remain
pure, if the waters flowing into it are poisoned.
The Convention over, it now becomes the duty
of every true Democrat to rally round his party
standard. A desperate attempt will be made
to defeat us at the next election. The recruit-
er will be sent forth by the Opposition to steal
from our ranks the weak and wavering. A
victory in October next, they proclaim, will be
a victory in 1860. They Must BE Foiled!-
We had Waterloo last year-let us show them
Buena Vista, when we meet them again in
battle.

[From the Hollidaysburg Standard, March 23.]

After endorsing the administration and pas-
sing the resolutions-found elsewhere in our
columns-a resolution was offered by Mr. Lam-
barton supporting the State policy of Gov.
Packer. In support of this, Mr. L., did not ask
that the Governor's appointments should be
sustained, or that the course of the Govern-
or's organ should be endorsed ; but merely ask-
ed a resolution approving his State policy. Al-
though this was asking very little, it was for-
cing just such an issue as the friends of the Gov-
Governor should have avoided. It would have
been better to have invoked the silence of the
Convention as to his acts, for to have passed the
resolution referred to, would have been sustain-
ing John C. Knox in his crusade against the
Democratic party during the last campaign,
when he was using every effort to disorganize
the party which had placed him in power; it
would have been sustaining the removal of Mr.
Barrett, a good Democrat, and the appoint-
ment of a person who was not a citizen of the
State, and who was last fall aiding the Black
Republicans, to the post of Superintendent of
Public Printing ; it would have been endorsing
the course of Gov. Packer as to national sub-
j ects, which, before his election, he disclaimed
having anything to do with, and which he re-
fused to discuss with Mr. Wilmot because they
were in no way connected with the Governor-
ship, but with which he occupied nearly half
of his message, after his election. These things
the Convention properly refused to support.
The issue was forced by the Governor's friends.
They asked an expression of opinion by the Con-
vention as to his State policy, and they got it.
If they don't like it, they have none to blame
but themselves.
At the same time it was expressly declared
that the issue of Lecompton had nothing to do-
with it-that was dead and laid so low that
none would exhume it-that was merely look-
ed upon as a measure, not a principle, upon
which Democrats honestly differed and which
had been passed upon and decided.

[From the Western Press, Mercer county.]

An attempt was made to have the conven-
tion endorse Gov. Packer's administration, but
after an animated discussion, in which the dis-
organizing course of Gov. Packer and his ap-
pointees was exhibited naked, the resolution
was killed by the decisive vote of 84 to 37.—
We approve this action of the convention most
heartily, and regret that the voice of the party
in the State could not have been expressed
sooner. Some have urged conciliation on this
point, and conciliation is proper enough policy
in its place, but this was no place for it. As in
1854 and '55, so now, the health, the life even
of the party demanded the prompt exhibition
of the strongest medicines. We believe the
treatment will have the desired effect.

[From the Chambersburg Valley Spirit.]

The resolutions adopted by the Convention
meet a hearty concurrence. They will be re-
sponded to by the entire Democracy of the State
and by many patriotic citizens who have not
been in the habit of acting with the Democrat-
ic party, and we doubt not that they will form
the groundwork of the resolutions of the
Charleston Convention. It is upon the con-
servative ground always occupied by the De-
mocracy of Pennsylvania, that the Democracy
of the Union can always gather with safe-
ty.

[From the Juniata Register.]

We were present during the entire delibera-
tions of the Convention, and can safely say that
Gov. Packer's administration had but very few
friends in that Convention, and that the Gov-
ernor has lost the confidence and friendship of
the Democratic party. The causes which pro-
duced this result when attributed to his Le-
compton views, is an unmitigated falsehood.-
Read the proceedings of the Convention and
you cannot find one word which would war-
rant such a conclusion. Consult the majority
of his appointments, some of his official acts, the
company that he is found in, the character of
the men who delight to do him honor, and you
have the cause.

[From the Star of the North, Columbia County.]

There was scarcely a district which did not
at once declare for the party and the National
Administration, and the proceedings of the Con-
vention demonstrate with what singular una-
nimity Democratic sentiment was expressed
from all sections of the State. There was no
attempt on the part of the National Democracy
to ostracise men who had differed with their po-
litical brothers within the lines of party fealty
and party action. They did not withhold the
hand of fellowship from such as had contended
with honest zeal before nominations, but fought
the common enemy after. The party did not
do this in the State Convention. But they did
what was right and proper, what the Democra-
cy demanded should be done. They repudia-
ted those men who acted with the common
enemy, who spoke at Black Republican meet-
ings, and who used official position for corrupt
and selfish purposes. The Democratic Con-
vention did these things, and in so doing repre-
sented most faithfully the wish and demand of
the party in Democratic Pennsylvania.

[From the Easton Argus.]

The Convention could take no other course
than the one it did take; although its action
may not suit a few croakers and disorganizers,
who are determined to be displeased with
everything, it will meet the approbation of the
great mass of the party. The Democratic par-
ty should always dare to Do Right. Although
defeat may stare it in the face, it can well af-
ford to be defeated, if victory can be purchased
only by the sacrifice of principle or the con-
ciliation of those who have proven traitors in
the camp, or what is worse, unfaithful and dis-
honest public servants.
The delegation from this District voted no
on the resolution to approve "the State policy
of Governor Packer." They did right. In
doing so, they represented the opinion of the
entire party in this region of the State. It is
an undeniable fact, that Governor Packer no
longer enjoys the confidence of the Democrats
of the 10th Legion, who supported him so
warmly in 1857. It is not his course on the
Kansas question either, that has brought about
this change, although there was nothing in
that to commend, but his open and shameless
infidelity to his public pledges on matters of
greater interest to the tax-payers of Pennsyl-
vania than a thousand miserable Kansas fights.

[From the Washington Examiner.]

To the exclusion of a variety of other matter,
we this week give the entire proceedings of
the Democratic State Convention which assem-
bled at Harrisburg, on the 16th inst. We ask
every Democrat to read these proceedings care-
fully, and then preserve them for future refer-
ence. In 1858, when our State Convention
fully endorsed the administration of Mr. Bu-
chanan, it was alleged that that Convention
did not fairly represent the Democracy of this
State. Now, in 1859, a full Convention does
the same thing, with greater emphasis, if possi-
ble; thus proving that an overwhelming majori-
ty of the Democrats of Pennsylvania are on the
side of the National Administration on all ques-
tions of public policy. Is it not high time that
mere fragments of the Democratic party, in a
few counties of the State, should yield their op-
position, and join heart and hand with the
great mass of their brethren in sustaining James
Buchanan and the Cincinnati platform ? Fur-
ther resistance must surely be regarded as in-
subordination to the discipline and organization
of the party. The condemnation of Governor
Packer may serve as a pointed and significant
rebuke to all Democrats who are inclined to
give "aid and comfort to the enemy."