Collection: African American Newspapers
Publication: THE NATIONAL ERA
Date: November 17, 1859
L. P. NOBLE
Title: SHALL THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION NOMINATE HENRY A. WISE?
Location: Washington, D.C.
From the Richmond Enquirer of November 10.
SHALL THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION NOMINATE HENRY A. WISE?
"The New York
Herald
says:
"'The conservative men of all parties, North and South, speak highly of Govornor Wise, whose stock has gone up one hundred
per cent, since the Harper's Ferry affair.'
"The
Herald
is right. Wise's 'stock has gone up one hundred per cent. since the Harper's Ferry affair.' Yes, Harper's Ferry has conquered
Harper's
Magazine
. The
authority
of LAW and ORDER has supplanted the
negation
of
non-intervention
.
"What the nation wants at this time is laws enforced,
property protected
from John Browns, both in States and Territories. The
moral
of Harper's Ferry teaches that the
intervention
of authority, both State and Federal, is demanded as much in the States as in Territories. Intervention is not wanted to
introduce
, but to
protect
. Slavery. 'The average common sense of mankind, the Republican phrase for insurrection,' is but a tautological expression
for the negation of law
non-intervention
. Upon the Charleston Convention will devolve the duty of drawing the line of demarcation broad and distinct, in platform
and candidate, from Black Republicanism.
No compromise will be entertained
.
"The South knows its rights, and Harper's Ferry teaches she must maintain them.
Should the Union survive the approaching Congress
, the Charleston Convention will decide its fate. If the South is permitted by an existing Union to meet the Northern Democracy
in Charleston, the consultation will be calm and deliberate. The first men of the South will be there assembled. No scheming,
plotting politician, seeking an opportunity to barter rights for public plunder, will be able to gratify his treasonable propensities;
but, in firmness and with dignity, the doetrine of
intervention for protection
will be insisted upon by the South, and the representatives of the Northern Democracy will decide the issue. If
for
intervention, the nomination will be proceeded with; if
against
intervention, there will be a leave taking, a bidding adien, a
separation
, a
disunion
a
secession
, that will be not only prognostic, but potenta shadow of coming events cast warningly before, to inform and deter. The Democratic
candidates must be presented to the people of all the States upon the
ultimatum
of the Constitution as understood and decided by the Supreme Court. If there are not conservatives enough at the North to
elect conservative candidates, there will scarcely be found conservatives enough at the South to save the Union. As honest
journalists, in a position which enables us to know Southern opinion, and to see and understand all the movements upon the
chess-board of Southern politics, we calmly warn our Northern allies of the danger. Let it be remembered that our private
correspondence ramifies the Southern States, that the
Enquirer
is received at 5,932 post offices, is read by phlegmatic farmers, as well as fiery politicians; that our exchanges embrace
almost every paper in the South, and that, from the tone of the Southern press and the tenor of our letters from correspondents
and subscribers, we do not hesitate to say that-this 'winter' will be one of 'discontent,' and that 'glorious summer' will
not dispel the clouds that 'lower upon our house.'"
Among the grounds of the
Enquirer's
preference for Governor Wise for President are the following:
"We must cease to compromise with Abolitionism; it must not attempt to defeat. Southern representative men because they are
representative men, and as such distasteful to Northern fanaticism. The South must know at Charleston that devotion to her
rights and interests is no longer to be the reason for withholding honor from her sons.
"What Southern man ought to be the nominee, we will not undertake to say. Our preference for Governor Wise is based upon the
facts that he is a representative man of Southern Pro-Slavery sentiment; that his life has been devoted to Southern interests,
Southern-rights, and Southern honor," &c.
