clan-ship. This abridges the free expansion of thought, compresses conscience into party platforms, and transfers the judgment and actions of men to party-chieftains, who, often selfish and ambitious, are liable to make, and do often make, a shipwreck of freedom and morality to purposes of personal aggrandizement.

If "Parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the Government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty," yet there is great danger in a Republican Government, that parties will lose sight of great moral and political principles, and absorb their independence and manhood, not in devotion to the interests of their country, but in men and parties. The evils of this are great. It tends to corruption in public men, and to the subversion of the pillars of national strength and prosperity, by disintegrating political science from moral truth. The philosophy of politics ought ever to have an indissoluble connection with moral principles. The true end of all wise legislation, and of true political science, is, not to enunciate new moral truth, but to give sound political principles, and true morality, a vital power through the fabric of society and civil government.

Politics is a noble science, combining the great political truths of civil government with the truest moral principles. Webster, the lexicographer, defines politics, or the science of government, "That part of ethics which consists in the regulation and government of the Nation or State, for the preservation of its safety, peace, and prosperity; comprehending the defense of its existence and rights against foreign control or conquest, the augmentation of its strength and resources, and the protection of its citizens in their rights, with the preservation and improvement of their morals."

This view of the science of politics, elevates it into a system of morality, and imparts to it the dignity of truth, and the sanctity and importance of Christianity. It involves the whole interests of the nation, and is interwoven with all that constitutes a true State. Moral truths, therefore, and the life-giving and life-preserving elements and inspirations of religion must mingle with politics, and create and govern every system of political policy. This union is ordained of Heaven, and carries the moral sap of Christianity through all the tree of liberty, watering its roots, giving life and growth to its trunk, strength to its branches, beauty to its foliage, richness to its fruits, and perpetual preservation to its existence. To divorce politics from morals and religion, is to girdle the tree of liberty, planted by the fathers of the nation, and let it die in convulsive spasms, or by a lingering disease.

Washington gave in his Farewell Address to the nation, a solemn utterance to these cardinal truths, in saying: "It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give mankind the magnanimous, and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantage which might be lost by a steady adherence to it. Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtues? The experiment, at least is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! it is rendered impossible by its vices."

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supporters. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness-these firmest props of the duty of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connection with private and public, felicity. And let us, with caution, indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles."

These fundamental principles, need a re-confirmation and a fresh application to the regime of parties among the American people. The doctrine is now proclaimed, in party Conventions, that religion and morality must be disconnected with politics; for when united it is said "It withdraws attention from the great political principles upon which the Government is founded, and is dangerous to the perpetuity of our Republican form of Government."

Mr. Morris firmly believed, that all lasting National prosperity, had its existence and growth, in the principles of Christianity. Two years before his death, he declared "That one of the worst signs of the times was, the fact, that politicians and men high in public favor, were in the habit of sneer. ing at the morality of the Bible. If the morality of the Bible, said he, is rejected in politics, and in the affairs of Government, it would have but little influence in private life, and the consequences would be disastrous to the character and happiness of the people and the country."

In view of the unsoundness of the two great parties of the United States, Democratic and Whig, and to restore the action of the Government, in regard to slavery, to the policy of the Patriots of the Revolution, and to bring politics under the benign influences of Christian morality, the friends of freedom resolved to form a new party, and make their principles known and felt, through the ballot box.

The ballot box, in the United States, is the prerogative of freedom, the palladium of American liberty, and the effectual Panacea for the political and social evils, that may afflict the country. It rules men in and out of office, and directs the whole policy of the Government. It places the power of the Government into the hands of the people, and through their sovereignty, the vital organic principles

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of the Government, are made efficient and powerful. Its legitimate domain, covers all that enters into the honor, the prosperity and well-being of the nation; not only the principles of politics, but the religion and morals of the people of a Republican Government, are closely identified with the right of suffrage. If "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn, then the people, who, by their votes, place them in authority, must be affected in all their interests, by the Ballot Box. As all political policies and all civil Legislation are directed by the people, in the exercise of the elective franchise; and as all National prosperity, must be connected with, and supported by religion and morality, the power and influence of the Ballot Box, is under a Democracy, omnipotent.

It must be applied to the correction and eradication of all the political, social, and moral evils, that are chronic in the Body Politic. It would fall immeasurably below the dignity and sublime functions of the Ballot Box, to confine it to the petty business, of putting men into and out of office, and making it the mere engine to drive on the well-constructed machinery of mere Party, independent of moral principles. "Government is ordained of God," and "Rulers are the Ministers of God to be for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well." And since "there is no power (civil government) but of God;" and since civil Rulers, "are God's Ministers" attending continually to be "Ministers of good," the great purpose and use of the Ballot Box, ought to be to place in power, those, and those only, who will give practical efficiency to the principles of a Christian morality, and so promote all that is good, and extirpate all that is evil, in society, or in civil Government.

Senator Morris saw its relations and power to the destruction of American Slavery, and pronounced upon the ballot box a noble eulogy. He said that "The moral power of the ballot box is sufficient to correct all abuses.” "Moral power must work by means; and the elective franchise is the great, if not the only means to make it effectual." "Political action is necessary to produce moral reformation in a nation; and that action with us, can only be effectually exercised through the ballot box." "If the ballot box, then, is honestly and independently used, it alone will soon produce the extinguishment of slavery in our country. Resist slavery by the ballot box."

"It executes a freeman's will,

As lightning does the will of God."

The necessity of a new, and third party, to resist through the ballot box, the aggressions of the slave power, had its origin in the practice of the two great political parties in discountenancing all agitation of the slavery question. Their platforms, in both National and State Conventions, contained explicit resolutions against all agitation of the subject. The resolutions they adopted are presented in chronological order.

The Democratic Convention that nominated Lewis Cass, of Michigan, for President, in 1848, put the following resolution in their platform :

"1. That Congress has no power, under the Constitution, to interfere with, or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges of every thing appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences; and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people, and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions."