Washington Sentinel

From the Richmond Whig of the 5th inst.

Proceedings Extraordinary,

At what purports to have been "a regular meeting of the combined councils of the National American party of the city of Richmond, held on the 1st of January, 1856, the following resolutions, which we find published in the National American, are said to have been adopted:

"Resolved, As the opinion of this council, that "the agitation of slavery should cease. The rights of the South are plain and palpable, well defined and understood, and we believe they should not longer be treated as open questions. We will maintain our guaranteed constitutional rights, and our right of property in slaves. We believe the continuous agitation of this subject is made by selfish politicians for personal and party promotion, and is hurtful to the South, the institution of slavery, and the permanency of the Union; and therefore we are opposed to the introduction into the National American platform of this or any other agitating question, calculated to distract the harmony of our party, or endanger the success of our principles.

"Resolved, As it is well known that our distinguished fellow-citizen, the Hon. John M. Botts, was among the first to advocate the policy avowed by the National American party, it is but an act of simple justice to declare our confidence in his principles and admiration of his talents; and, if he should be called to preside over the destinies of the nation, we are fully justified in declaring that he will bring to the task a devotion to the principles we cherish, an enlarged experience, a profound sagacity and commanding talents, which none in the nation can be found to excel or perhaps to equal; and that we heartily respond to the action of the Triangle Council and American Union Legion of New York, which have expressed their preference for Mr. Botts for the Presidency."

We have but one word to say in reference to this action of the combined Councils of the National American party of the city of Richmond. And that is, that it is a clear, unequivocal, and shameful misrepresentation of the opinions, sentiments, and principles of more than nineteen-twentieths of the thirty-five hundred American voters of this city. And what is more, it is a palpable misrepresentation of the voice of the entire American party of the State, as interpreted by the American press of the State, with a single exception, and, as expressed in the resolutions of the American members of the Legislature, which were published in this paper a week or two ago. In a word, the reported action of the combined councils of the National American party of the city of Richmond is a deliberate and unmitigated fraud upon the vast majority of the American voters of the city, and contrary to the well-ascertained and thoroughly-understood sentiments of the whole American party of the State.

From the judgment of the "combined councils," represented by fifty or sixty individuals, the sworn liegemen of John Minor Botts, we boldly take an appeal to the people.