The Cadiz Democratic Sentinel

Address of the Democratic State Central Committee to the People of Ohio.

Columbus, September 10, 1857.

The State Central Committee deem it their duty to return to a practice for some time fallen into disuse, and briefly address their fellow-citizens upon the issues involved in the present political canvass. Comprehending, as they think they do, the importance of the questions now to be resolved by the people, and fully impressed with the conviction, that the popular will is about to recall the Democratic party to administer the affairs of the State, the Committee believe that they ought not to neglect to confer with their fellow-citizens in this manner.

The perpetuity of the Union is now, as heretofore, an object upon which the Democracy is inflexibly resolved. The party in this State, one of the largest integers in the National Democracy, have always made it a cardinal principle of their faith. The preservation of the liberties of the people is the chief end of the Democracy, and the maintenance of the Union is indispensable to its attainment. The bulk of our opponents do not intend to destroy that inestimable legacy of our wise and patriotic forefathers; but, considering the blind fanaticism of many of their leaders, the reckless and unscrupulous ambition which animates another large portion of them, and the success which has hitherto attended their efforts in lighting up the baleful fires of sectional animosity and distrust, we are compelled to regret, that so many of our fellow-citizens should have suffered themselves to be drawn into this pernicious and dangerous organization. Support given to the party creates a seemingly well-founded suspicion in the minds of your brethren of the South that a large proportion of our people are prepared to renounce the compromises of the Constitution and to interfere with the domestic institutions of the several states. The inevitable result of the established success of the Republican party must be the destruction of all fraternal confidence among the people of the States, and the final disruption of the confederacy. The country so grand and majestic in the eyes of the world, not less from the simplicity and wisdom of its political system, than from the splendor of its achievements, the vast extent of its domains, and the marvellous rapidity of its moral and physical progress, is threatened with danger where alone it is not impregnable. Impervious to all attacks from without and able to contend with the world in arms in defence of our homes and liberties, internal dissension menaces the safety of the Republic. The fortress which cannot be carried by assault succumbs at last to the sap and mine; and this Empire of the West which defies with impunity the combined efforts of all the despots in the world to overcome or restrain it, may fall by the persevering wickedness of a few treacherous agitators. The Goths are not at the gates, but in the heart of the Capitol.

When the great body of the people North and South shall have become estranged, and hostile to each other, it will not require a question of real magnitude to hasten the development of the frightful consequences. In an exasperated state of the public mind, such as must follow the success of our opponents, some matter of trivial import, like the reported use on the cartridges of the Sepoys, may be sufficient to precipitate the destruction of the august fabric our fathers raised, and to sever the confederacy they constructed into numerous petty and hostile communities. When such a feeling prevails, the peace and well-being of the body politic are no longer within the control of the just and prudent, of any party; but at the mercy of the first knave or madman who may be found to rush upon destruction for the sake of anarchy. The fires of hate, so insidiously kindled by the enemies of the Union, burn low at first; but if not extinguished by your efforts in due season they will sometime burst forth in a general conflagration. The Committee earnestly call upon you to stop that in the green tree, which may not be stayed in the dry.

The Committee believe that upon the success of the Democratic party the preservation of our race pure and intact, in Ohio, mainly depends. They proclaim, once and for all, their unalterable conviction, in the gradation of races. The white race of people in the United States, like the ancient Romans and the English, the offspring of the most intellectual, energetic and warlike varieties of the Caucasian people, is believed to be the highest type of man yet developed on the globe. The crafty and savage tribes of this continent withered at its near approach by reason of some mysterious agency never explained, but never by any barbarians long withstood. It supplanted the French in all their vast possessions below the Great Lakes. It ejected the former occupants of the Northern and Western shores of the Gulf of Mexico. It appropriated the coast of the Pacific from the thirty-second to the forty-ninth degree of North latitude. It has reduced to its dominion all the intermediate territory between the first early settlements at Plymouth, and on the banks of James River, and the distant regions where the waters of the Oregon mingle with the sea; and beating back, all over the continent, the mongrel descendants of the degenerate Spaniard, the Indian and the negro, it marches on the broad path of Empire, reaching from shore to shore of both Oceans, with thundering tread. To keep this great superior race unmingled with the African, in Ohio, is an imperative duty you owe to mankind at large, as well as to yourselves and your immediate descendants.

Ohio is the centre of the confederacy and upon the borders of two slave States cannot trifle with this great question, as the States of the remote North and East may do. The negro element is and must be much larger in your State than in Maine or Massachusetts. Its increase from abroad should be discouraged rather than invited. The history of the South American Republics, of Mexico, and the Empire of Brazil, holds out an impressive warning of the abject degradation which never fails to overtake the white race tolerating amalgamation with the negro. Nor does the history of the world furnish a single instance in which the political equality of a large negro element was established with the whites, but there followed amalgamation on the heels of it with untold evils in its train. The barriers of organized public sentiment once broken down by the political enfranchisement of the negro, the gradual decay of individual pride and self-respect soon ensues; the public sentiment is more and more debauched as the relations of the races become more intimate: and the social intercourse between them, which was, at first, confined to the vicious and degraded, at last obtains throughout the community.

The repeatedly declared sentiment of the chiefs and leaders of the Republican party in this State, the avowed determination of its candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Supreme Judge, and the recorded and reiterated publications of its public journals, in favor of establishing the equality of the negro with yourselves, justify the Committee in cautioning you to interpose against their insidious designs, which, if accomplished, must surely result in "striking" Ohio from the great brotherhood of white communities. It is your duty to frustrate their monstrous purpose.

The Committee point with pride to the firm and statesmanlike attitude of the President and the Administration in reference to the affairs in Kansas. The determination of Mr. Buchanan to use all his constitutional power to secure to the people of the Territory the free exercise of their suffrages upon the adoption of the State Constitution, meets the unqualified approval of the whole National Democracy, North and South. In the North it could demand no more: in the South it could claim no less. The position taken by Virginia at this juncture, is sufficient to arouse the exultation of her sons, wherever they may be found within the limits of the Union, and should be enough to excite the emulation of Ohio to take a stand of equal patriotism. In the eloquent language of one of her Democratic organs, "Virginia will pray that the Union, as its affairs are now administered, may, in duration, exceed that of the Egyptian Pyramids, which, after the lapse of forty centuries, still stand erect and unshaken above the floods of the Nile." The obstacles interposed to prevent a peaceable settlement of the affairs of the Territory, by the people at the ballot-box, in order to create capital for the tottering Republican factions in Ohio and New York, cannot be too severely reprehended.

The almost daily failure of banks to meet their engagements, furnishes a conclusive argument in favor of the Democratic measure of an Independent Treasury. Had such an act been in existence heretofore, the enormous defalcations in that department could never have occurred. "Locking the door after the steed is stolen" is all that is urged against the measure. If Ohio were never expected to have money any more, there would be some force in the saying, as it is, it only serves to exhibit the childish fallacies resorted to by the adversaries of the Independent Treasury, for want of sound argument with which to resist it. The Democratic party stands before you, the advocate of a measure sure to prevent losses by malfeasance or default of bank depositories, hereafter. If not able to obtain complete indemnity for the past it is resolved to exact adequate security for the future. The Republican party, instigated and governed by bankers and money changers, insists upon the continuance of the system under which all losses have occurred. That guilty party, even in the hour of its detection, and while endeavoring to obtain a remission of the punishment due to its crimes, impenitently refuses to say "lead us not into temptation!" If, as the Republicans say, there was no lack of vigilance in guarding the Treasury, it effectually disposes of their case against the measure we advocate. No vigilance of the kind they exercised will suffice. It is like that of their Governor, who, according to his own account, locked up the empty vault, after Gibson's resignation, and sat up all night at the keyhole. Their vigilance prevented nothing and detected nothing: and their own averment of it cuts them up root and branch, upon the chief State issue of their own choosing in this campaign.

The frequently occurring losses inflicted upon the most industrious and provident of the people, by the failure of the manufacturies of paper money, call for the initiation of a policy, which will, in time, furnish an abundance of the precious metals as a circulating medium. The Democratic party looks forward to, and is determined to bring about, the time, when the wages of labor shall be paid in gold and silver, and the farmer may ride home, after having sold his wheat and corn, with a bag of specie on the pommel of his saddle. The Republicans advocate an increased emission of small bank notes, and a corresponding decrease in the circulating medium of intrinsic value.

The extraordinary inefficiency of the Republican State officers, their want of diligence in the performance of their duties, and their shameless profligacy in the administration of your affairs, have already attracted your attention. The insane and audacious suggestion of Gov. Chase, to devote an enormous sum of your money to the stirring up and carrying on of civil war in one of the territories of the United States, and to raise and equip a military force, for the express purpose of hostilities against the United States troops, must be unsparingly denounced. It will not be forgotten at the polls. His gross negligence of the duties imposed upon him, in regard to a thorough scrutiny of the Treasury has been one of the causes of immense loss to the State. His recent unparalleled attempt to interfere with and arrest the due course of justice, will receive the unqualified condemnation of every wise and impartial man. The setting up by him, of his unsupported declarations in opposition to the findings of the Grand Jury, and the sworn statements of the Attorney General while the criminal cases and the civil cause are yet pending against Gibson, is an act of treachery to the State, whose Governor he is, and a guarantee of impunity to a wrong-doer, with whom he has had intimate personal and business relations.

The portioning out of the public moneys, by Gibson, between his colleagues in office, to set up broker's shops, and certain faithless and insolvent banks, in which some of them were interested, reveals the coveted object of the mercenary Republican leaders, and their utter disregard of decency in grasping at it. Nearly forty thousand dollars of your money was advanced by Republican Treasurer to the Attorney General, to set him up in business as a discounter of kiting bills; and large deposits were made in banks, in which the Treasurer and one of the Supreme Judges are believed to have been largely interested.

The vast inferiority of the Republican Legislature to any other that ever assembled in Ohio, became manifest before it finally adjourned. That it would be unable to perfect and pass a single measure of general utility, might have been predicted from the nature of its composition. It was a conglomeration of the most discordant elements, thrown together by the waves of a furious but evanescent agitation, and unable to agree upon any subject but one with which it had no power to interfere. Had it been elected to govern Kansas, the majority might, perhaps, have acted with vigor and unanimity; had it been empowered to nullify the laws of the United States, it would have effectually overthrown one of the last acts originated by the lamented Clay; but, as its legitimate province was to devise measures for the benefit of Ohio, it speedily divided into rancorous factions, whose virulent animosity continues, and refuses to be allayed, even in the desperate exigency in which their Governor finds himself.

In conclusion, the Committee, after instituting the fullest inquiry, and using all the means at its command to obtain reliable information, gives you the strongest assurances, that a decisive and complete victory awaits the Democracy. To insure a consummation so devoutly to be wished, every Democrat of Ohio, and every man who loves her and the Union better than a fanatical and mercenary cabal, should use his active exertions. Devote yourself, for a few days, to the best interests of your State; deliver her out of the unholy hands into which she has fallen, whose rule, of only two years duration, has made her bankrupt in money, in character and in influence; and when, by your patriotic efforts, you have reinstated her in the proud position among her sister Commonwealths, to which she is of right entitled, you will, each and every one, in his own proper person, reap an abundant harvest from the seed you have sown.

F. LINCK, Chairman.

CHAS. J. FOSTER, Sec. Dem. S. C.