Southern View Of The Chicago Platform

[From tho Richmond Examiuer, Sept. 5.) As there is a chance at leatt fot the Yankee election in November j that nation McClellan for President, and Pendleton for Vice President, it becouies well worih vvhile to examine carefully the document which they cali ' a " platform," basis of the intended ' poliey of the democratie party, iu case ' of their succeediog to the government, in as much as we are at war with that ', country, and the chief oontroversy be tween ita parties is upon the maintenanee of this pery war, and on the best way of prosecuting the eame, if it is to be prosecuted at all - jve have unhappily, a nearer interest in their aproaeh ing election than we should wish to feel in any of the concerns of that people forevermore. The " platlorm " is prepared with care, as these documenta usually are. It may turn out actually the programme or scheme of the administration oí the enemy's country for four years to come ; and we are rauch concerned in forming a clear idea oí what this document, verbiage apart, really means and what it does not mean. The first and leaJing idea that the party and its eandidates ' adhere with unswerving fidélity to the Union" which they pronounce to be " equally conducive to tho welfare of all the States, Northern and Southern," thus undertaking tojudge of what concerns the welfare, not oaly oí the States represented in that convention, but al-o of those wbicli are now the Confedérate States. Demo crats cannot beur - no more than nboli tionists - te look upon this as a foreign land. They cannot live without us. Without us, they say Ihey have no country at all. Here is a most siogu lar ardor of attachnient, which, though unreciprocated, cannot be cooled 1 The studied disdain and even repuguance of the beloved object does not abate this passion a whit ; and it glows as warmly in the democratie ae in the republiean breast. Hitherto under the Lincoln regime, our adorers have but paid court to us roughly ; they have wooed us as tbe tiger woo3 bis bride. But McClellan and Pendleton - as appears froni a subsequent part of the platform - promiue to be lovers of a ïnildur mood. They propose to take a hint fi-om the parable of the Traveler, the North Wind and the Sun. This cloak of Confedérate independence cannot be blown off by the rudo blaRt of the Bóreas ; on the contrary, the traveler only wraps it more closely around him But the Sun, alter March next, is to beam with so gracious a warmth that the traveler is expected to throw bis cloak off upon the roadsido, as a soldier upon a hot day, flings his overcoat. The platform declares that " immediate efforts should be mad for cessation of hostilities." This is a carefully calculated expression. Why " ei forts ?'' The demócrata as well as that nation can bring about a cessation ! of bostilities at any momeut, without any eiFort at all ; it is only ceasicg on tlieir part, hostilities upon us, and all ( bostilities cease on the instant. JJut the framers oí the plutiorm take care to intímate that this is not what they mean ' - the cessation oí hostilities which they seek is to be expressly with a view to ' the ultímate convention of all tho ! States, or other practicable raeans, to the ebd that at the earliest practicable moment peaue may be reetored on the basis of the iederal Union of tho States - meaning union of the Confedérate with Federal States. If a cessation of hostüities is to be proposed, even with this view, we cannot see tht any ef fort is required ; the Federal government could at any time, stop the war and invite a convention of whfit they cali all tho States ; but in short, the use of the word " effort " proves that the cessation of hostilities they contémplate is not only with this view, but upon this eondition - the condition that the Confedérate States agree to come inlo the convention, vnd be bound by tt, or in eome other peaceable way place themselves once more " on the basis of the Federal Union." Now, to bring about a cessation of hostilities upon these conditions may certainly require an effort, and the word ia not ! misplaced. This platform, then, does not pledge the new administraron, if it come3 into power, to stop the war, uoi so uiuoh as to suspend hostilities for a single moment ; but only to make efforts to induce the Qoufederate States to come uto conventioo for the restoration of the "Uniou" - 1 1 at is, to submit asa condition oí even an armistiee. One pargraph of thia document declares that the object of the democratie party is uot ouly to preservo the Union, but alas "the rights of the States ummpaired." Bul t is suffiuiently clear that among these righis oi the Staten they do not eount the right of ecession, inasmueh as they not evjn nce hint tbronghout their "platforni'" ihM thero can be any peace without Union, and espec'mlly as thev have uominated for President the rnun who cornmitted the very tirst and most conspicuous out rage on Statu righta and sovereignty by tlirovving iuto priaon the wliole Legislature of Maryland on the mere suspicion that it was abcut to take that State out oí the Tinion. But it is also evident that among the State rights they wish to pr-sserve is oot reckoned the rieht of secession, from this further circumstaoco, that in the resolution condomuiug Lincoln's "usurpation of dangerous powers not granted by the coaetitu'ion, and the subversión of the civ il by the military law in States not in insurrection," they imply that there are States in insurrection, nainely, these Confedérate States, and that in these there can be no objection to such assumption of extraordinary powers- that in these there is n'o constitution - and that in these the civil law oueht to be subvfirted by the military. Therefore, nothing can be plainer than that the Chicago demócrata, like the Balti more republicana, deny the right of sec.ession, hold thise Sta'.es to ba in insurreclion, (that is, rebellion) and declares that our citizena have no civil rights, and ought to fee ruled by military law. The difference between thom is not a diffurenco of principie, but of expediency only, like the difference betweeu the sun and wind - the storm haviug been tried and failed, it is the sud's turn - but one way or the other the cloak must come off. It is true that the "platforms" may - bo cousidered ra:her as temporary ustruments and agencies for eimply getting ioto power, than as precise and ; binding erigagements oí political action.It is also true that some at least of the supporters of these nominations are well known to be warm advocates of peace, Union or no Union : some of them even going the length of maintaining the right of a State to seeede. It may further be admitted that if al' the Yankee nation resembled McOlellan and Pen dletonSeymour and Vallandigham, and if such men had continned to hold the government of the old Union, there migUt never have been any secession at all. AH this may be so, but in the meantime it is important for us to rernember that iu their authofized declaration ol principies they do cali us in surgents(or rebels,) do deny us, wbile in insurrectiou, the rights of Stales and all other rights whatoever, and do not breathe the faintest hint of even an armislice, except upon the terras of our coming into a ponventiou witfa them on the bairis of the Union. The on!y practical moral we can draw from all this is, that th Confedérate States never 'has inore present need of an effective army and a diligent conscription, and vigilant leaders, and all men to the front, than they have at this hour.