Summary

The Whig editor considered the break of the Democratic party along sectional lines a momentous event in which Whigs should not find comfort but instead concern for the "perpetuity of the Union." The Whig editor pointed out that agreement on the subject of slavery within either national party was impossible. The issue was irreconcilable, the Whig editors felt, and should be "let alone." The Whigs editors relied on the steady influence of reasonable and patriotic men with a national view.

EXCERPT:

"After a career of unparalleled success, the agitation of the slavery question, which, some how or other, has operated to [the Democrats'] advantage heretofore, has at last divided the party, with little prospect at present of a future re-union."

"If let alone, the question of slavery in the Territories will settle itself to the satisfaction of all reasonable and patriotic men in both sections of the Republic."

Full-text web version of newspaper

"Augusta's Whig Party emphasized that slavery was safer within the Union than without and that in the 1860 election slavery had become needlessly politicized. The Augusta Whigs moved to develop a new party around Constitutional Unionism."