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![handle is hein.slavery/adsch0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
O-'Read and Circulate.] BUFFALo REPUBLic-EXTRA-July 1848
ADDRE
SS
OF THE
DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION,
HELD AT UTICA JUNE 22,
1848,
TO THE
People of the State of New York, and of the United States.
ALSO,
MR. VAN BUREN'S LETTER.
FELLOW CITIZENs-The unprecedented circum-
stances under which the convention that now asks
permission to address you was brought together, the
serious questions it has discussed, and the important
measures it has taken, impose upon its members,
with more than ordinary force, the duty of laying
before you a full and frank exposition of their senti-
ments, motives and designs. This we shall pro-
ceed to do in the language of sincerity and respect,
of candor and confidence, in which free Americans
should be addressed- in which free Americans
should speak.
DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF THE UNION AND OF NEW
YORK-PRESENT ATTITUDE OF THE LATTER.
For more than fifty years the friends of democratic
liberty in the United States, in the South and in
the North, have, more or less closely been banded
together in party associations. In the methods, and
under the influences resulting from these relations.
they have, from time to time, united in the support
of principles and of objects, of measures and of men,
essential, as they supposed, to the useful workings
of our federative system, and by the just support of
the State authorities. Through the combined
agencies of the Federal and State Governments, and
by the control they have exercised over both, the
democratic party of the Union have been enabled
largely to promote the welfare of the people and the
advancement of society, and with them the strength
and the renown of the American republic. All the
prominent measures of this century, by which our
independence and character as a nation have been
so strengthened and illustrated-our territorial limits
extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific-the in-
tegrity of the states and the liberties of the people so
effectually secured, and by which so much has been
done to make the government of the Union the
sheet anchor of our peace at home and our safety
abroad, and to base its legislation on principles of
equal and exact justice-of humanity and benevo-
lence-all, without exception, have been accom-
plished for ourselves and for the world, under the
favor of Providence, through the ascendency, or by
the influence, of this great patriotic party.
To this service of duty and of honor, the republi-
cans of New York, (without vanity in themselves,
or injustice towards others. we think it may be af-
firmed) have contributed their full share. Thomas
Jefferson, the first in the long line of democratic
presidents, could not have been elected without
their vote, James K. Polk, as yet the last in the
series, owes his elevation peculiarly to them. With-
out their zealous and efficient co-operation, the sav-
ing and time-honored principles proclaimed by the
former in his inaugural address, might never have
been established. Without the like instrumentali-
ty, the great national measures which have been
consumated during the administration of the latter,
could not have been achieved.
This association, so noble in its origin and ob-
jects, so illustrious by its triumphs, and so benefi-
cent in its results, has, within the last few weeks,
been rudely interrupted; and so interrupted, as to
place the democracy of New York, represented by
this convention, in the attitude of unavoidable an-
tagonism and resistance to what is claimed to be,
and what nominally is, the voice and the will of the
democratic party of the Union. In truth and in fact
our antagonism and resistance are not to our brethren
of the other states, generally, nor to the wishes and
judgment of the party as a whole; but only to a
small minority of the party belonging to the slave-
holding states, who have assumed the control of its
national organization, and to the insults and wrongs
which, by means of this control. they have inflicted
upon us.
With this national posture, there is also a breach
in the ranks of the democracy of our own state.-
What many of us have long apprehended as the re-
sult of the difficulties and dissensions of tie last few
years, has at length come to pass. They, who, as
citizens of New York, for so long a period, in har-
monious and successful concert, strove together in
the political arena, are now separated-totally and
finally separated-from each other.
The causes wnich have led to a state of things so
undesirable in itself, and so inauspicious in its augu-
ries, and the immediate means by which it has been
brought about, are so well known to the people of
New York, that our present appeal, if designed ex-
chisively for them, might well omit any exposition
of these topics. As it is, we shall content ourselves
with a brief reference to 'the more notorious at!.
material facts.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/adsch0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)