Montgomery Weekly Confederation, May 12, 1860

We presume that our readers have long ago been made familiar with the proceedings of the regular National Democratic Convention, and also with those of the seceding organization. In consequence of the inability 0f the former to make a nomination without complete delegations from every State, and with a desire to give the unrepresented States time to send delegates to the Convention, Mr. RUSSELL, a very prominent Virginia politician, and delegate from that State, offered a resolution to the effect that the Convention should adjourn to reassemble in Baltimore on the 18th of June next. This move was hailed with intense delight by the whole Convention. All of the members saw plainly the impossibility of making a nomination until all of the unrepresented States were fully represented in the Convention, and therefore looked upon the resolution of Mr. RUSSELL as a matter of vast moment and importance. By an adjournment to Baltimore sufficient time could be afforded to the people of the Southern States for deliberation and reflection. They could perceive the propriety of being represented in the Baltimore Convention.

Our only hope for the preservation of this Government and the perpetuity of our interests is centered solely in the organization of the National Democracy. If Southern men prefer disunion and the establishment of a Southern Confederacy, then let them send their delegations to the city of Richmond, and carry out the wild and dangerous schemes which some of the seceders have inaugurated.

The issue of Union and Disunion is now upon us. By having ourselves represented in the city of Baltimore, we will be evincing a deep and serious concern in the welfare of our country, and the protection of our own Southern section; but by refusing to send a representation to that city we shall at once declare ourselves as willing and eager for a dissolution of this Union. To a man of candor and reflection it is evidently apparent that we are now in the midst of circumstances that are trying, serious and distressful. The latest intelligence from the city of New York furnishes us with an announcement of the decline of State stocks, and of the terrible and fearful apprehension that is consequent upon it.

It becomes necessary now for the Southern States to be represented in a National Convention if they are desirous of keeping the Union together and protecting their own property. It is not in the power of any man to predict who will be the nominee of the Baltimore Convention. In all human probability it may be a Southern man. But this is a matter of but little importance when the Union and the rights of our people are at stake. No man should be desirous of a dissolution of this Confederacy over an abstract principle, and, in all truth, we do not believe the honest masses of the country would ever submit to such a thing. The Cincinnati platform, which is indeed the sum and substance of the minority report, met, in 1856, the hearty response of every Democrat in the Union, and now it receives the curses of a few overardent seceders. The Northern Democrats asked for the adoption of the minority report, because upon it they had fought, in 1856, a good and victorious battle. They thought that in 186o with the same platform and a true man, either from the North or South, victory would again perch upon their pole.—We ask now the people of the South, are they willing to break up this government because the Cincinnati platform has been adopted by the National Convention? On this platform the Northern Democrats expect to fight for the rights of the South. We Democrats of the South have not [sic] angry conflicts to engage in—we have no bonfires to build, nor much stump speaking and the like to make. Democracy always rides triumphant over the Southern States. But in the North, where there is a mighty and serious conflict going on between the Democrats and the Black Republicans—the very worst enemies of our country—we think it would be wrong for the Southern people to spurn these men who are standing up for our institutions, and achieving victory after victory over the whole combined forces of the Black Republicans. Unfortunately some of our Southern citizens have become so intensely fire-eating as to disregard all this friendship that Northern Democrats exhibit, and even go so far as to stigmatize them as traitors and incendiaries. This should not be so. With these men our Southern Democrats should affiliate. We should send a delegation to Baltimore, and harmonise upon some good and loyal Democrat as our standard bearer, and go forth then to crush fanaticism North and South. We are no lover of the Union when we find that our rights are not secure within it; but, now, we find not a right impaired, or even a probability of it, and, therefore, we think it our duty to the South and our duty to the country to suggest the propriety of the Southern States being represented in the regular National Democratic Convention.

We hope now that the people of the South will consider well this subject before malting up an opinion. It is a matter of serious concern to every well-wisher of his country. All will admit that we are now placed in a condition the most unexpected and alarming, and by the exercise of a little coolness and self-possession we are obliged to learn how to accommodate ourselves to it.

The news that stocks had fallen in New York, and that Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and other border States, were being seriously affected by this, will aid in opening the eyes of some men who have not given this matter as much reflection as it deserves.