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we have been blessed with harmony and peace. Nor will it be easy to persuade the country that resolutions are sectional which command the support of a majority of the States, and are approved by the bone and body of the old Democracy, and by a vast mass of conservative opinion everywhere, without regard to party.

It has been necessary more than once in our history, to pause and solemnly assert the true character of this Government. A memorable instance occurred in the struggle which ended in the civil revolution of 1800. The Republicans of that day, like the Democracy of this, were stigmatized as disunionists, but they nobly conducted the contest under the Constitution, and saved our potical system. By a little constitutional struggle it is intended to assert and establish the equality of the states, as the only basis of union and peace. When this object, so national, so constitutional, so just, shall be accomplished, the last cloud will disappear from the American sky, and with common hands and hearts the States and the people will unite to develop the resources of the whole country, to bind it together with the bonds of intercourse and brotherhood, and to impel it onward in its great career.

The Constitution and the Equality of the States! These are symbols of everlasting Union. Let these be the rallying cries of the people.

I trust that this canvass will be conducted without rancor, and that temperate arguments will take the place of hot words and passionate accusations.

Above all, I venture humbly to hope that Divine Providence, to whom we owe our origin, our growth, and all our prosperity, will continue to protect our beloved country against all danger, foreign and domestic.

I am, with great respect, your friend,

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. The Hon. C. CUSHING, President of the Democratic National Convention.

GEN. LANE'S ACCEPTANCE.

WASHINGTON, June 30, 1860. HON. CALEB CUSHING, PRESIDENT OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION:

SIR-I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the communication you make in behalf of the Democratic National Convention, in which you inform me that, on the 23d inst., I was unanimously nominated by that party for the office of Vice-President of the United States, with the request that I shall accept the nomination.

The platform adopted, and of which you inclose me a copy, meets with my hearty approval, as it embodies what I have been contending for as the only means of stopping sectional agitation, by securing to all equality and constitutional rights, the denial of which has led to the present unhappy condition of public affairs.

Compromises of constitutional principles are ever dangerous, and I am rejoiced that the true Democracy has seen fit to plant a firm foot on the rock of truth, and to give the people an opportunity to vindicate their love of justice and fraternal regard for each other's rights.

Non-intervention on the subject of Slavery, I may emphatically say, is that cardinal maxim of the Democracy -non-intervention by Congress and non-intervention by Territorial Legislatures, as is fully stated in the first resolution of the adopted platform.

and no more shall we be troubled with the agitation of this dangerous question, because it will be removed as well from the Territorial legislatures as from the halls of Congress-when we shall be free to turn our attention to more useful issues, promotive of our growth in national greatness.

Our Union must be preserved! But this can only be done by maintaining the Constitution inviolate in all its provisions and guaranties. The Judicial authority, as provided by the Constitution, must be maintained, and its decisions implicitly obeyed, as well in regard to the rights of property in the Territories as in all other matters.

Hoping for success, and trusting in the truth and justice of the principles of our party, and in that Divine Providence that has watched over us and made us one of the great nations of the earth, and that we may continue to merit Divine protection, I cheerfully accept the nomination so unanimously conferred on me, and cordially indorse the platform adopted by the Convention. I have the honor to be, sir, with much respect, Your friend and obedient servant,

MR. DOUGLAS ACCEPTS.

JOSEPH LANE.

WASHINGTON, Friday, June 29, 1860. GENTLEMEN: In accordance with the verbal assurance which I gave you when you placed in my hands the authentic evidence of my nomination for the Presidency by the National Convention of the Democratic party, I now send you my formal acceptance. Upon a careful examination of the platform and principles adopted at Charleston and reaffirmed at Baltimore, with an additional resolution which is in perfect harmony with the others, I find it to be a faithful embodiment of the time-honored principles of the Democratic party, as the same were proclaimed and understood by all parties in the Presidential contest of 1848, 1552, and 1856.

Upon looking into the proceedings of the Convention also, I find that the nomination was made with great unanimity, in the presence and with the concurrence of more than two-thirds of the whole number of delegates, and in accordance with the long-established usages of the party. My inflexible purpose not to be a candidate, nor accept the nomination under any contingency, except as the regular nominee of the National Democratic party and in that case only upon the condition that the usages, as well as the principles of the party, should be strictly adhered to, had been proclaimed for a long time and become well known to the country. These conditions having all been complied with by the free and voluntary action of the Democratic masses and their faithful representatives, without any agency, interference, or procurement, on my part, I feel bound in honor and duty to accept the nomination. In taking this step, I am not unmindful of the responsibilities it imposes, but with firm reliance upon Divine Providence I have the faith that the people will comprehend the true nature of the issues involved, and eventually maintain the right.

The peace of the country and the perpetuity of the Union have been put in jeopardy by attempts to interfere with and control the domestic affairs of the people in the Territories, through the agency of the Federal Government. If the power and the duty of Federal interference In vain should we declare the former without insisting is to be conceded, two hostile sectional parties must be upon the latter; because, to permit Territorial legisla- the inevitable result-the one inflaming the passions and tures to prohibit or establish Slavery, or by unfriendly le-ambitions of the North, the other of the South, and each gislation to invalidate property, would be granting powers struggling to use the Federal power and authority for to the creature or agent, which, it is admitted, do not ap- the aggrandizement of its own section, at the expense pertain to the principal, or the power that creates; besides of the equal rights of the other, and in derogation of which, it would be fostering an element of agitation in the those fundamental principles of self-government which Territory that must necessarily extend to Congress and were firmly established in this country by the American the people of all the States. Revolution, as the basis of our entire republican system.

If the Constitution establishes the right of every citizen During the memorable period of our political history, to enter the common territory with whatever property he when the advocates of Federal intervention upon the sublegally possesses, it necessarily devolves on the Federal ject of Slavery in the Territories had well-nigh "precipiGovernment the duty to protect this right of the citizen tated the country into revolution," the Northern Intervenwhenever and wherever assailed or infringed. The De- tionists demanding the Wilmot Proviso for the prohibition mocratic party honestly meets this agitating question, of Slavery, and the Southern interventionists, then few in which is threatening to sever and destroy this brotherhood number, and without a single Representative in either of States. It does not propose to legislate for the exten- House of Congress, insisting upon Congressional legislasion of Slavery, nor for its restriction, but to give to each tion for the protection of Slavery in opposition to the State and to every citizen all that our forefathers proposed wishes of the people in either case, it will be remembered to give-namely, perfect equality of rights, and then to that it required all the wisdom, power and influence of a commit to the people, to climate, and to soil, the determi- Clay and a Webster and a Cass, supported by the consernation as to the kind of institution best fitted to their re-vative and patriotic men of the Whig and Democratic parquirements in their constitutional limits, and declaring as a fundamental maxim, that the people of a Territory can only establish or prohibit Slavery when they come to form a constitution, preparatory to their admission as a State into the Union.

ties of that day, to devise and carry out a line of policy which would restore peace to the country and stability to the Union. The essential living principle of that policy, as applied in the legislation of 1850, was, and now is, nonintervention by Congress with Slavery in the TerritoIf, happily, our principles shall prevail, an era of peace ries. The fair application of this just and equitable prinand harmony will be restored to our distracted country,ciple restored harmony and fraternity to a distracted coun

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try. If we now depart from that wise and just policy | the propriety of acting in so grave a matter with greater which produced these happy results, and permit the coun- deliberation, I concluded, as I informed you at the time try to be again distracted; if precipitated into revolution by a private note, to defer a forinal acceptance until after by a sectional contest between Pro-Slavery and Anti-Sla- my arrival at home. very interventionists, where shall we look for another Clay, another Webster, or another Cass to pilot the ship of State over the breakers into a haven of peace and safety? The Federal Union must be preserved. The Constitution must be maintained inviolate in all its parts. Every right guaranteed by the Constitution must be protected by law in all cases where legislation is necessary to its enjoyment. The judicial authority, as provided in the Constitution, must be sustained, and its decisions implicitly obeyed and faithfully executed. The laws must be administered and the constituted authorities upheld, and all unlawful resistance to these things must be put down with firmness, impartiality and fidelity, if we expect to enjoy and transmit unimpaired to our posterity, that blessed inheritance which we have received in trust from the patriots and sages of the Revolution.

With sincere thanks for the kind and agreeable manner in which you have made known to me the action of the Convention, I have the honor to be,

Your friend and fellow citizen,
S. A. DOUGLAS.
Hon. Wм. H. LUDLOW, of New-York; R. P. DICK, of
North Carolina; P. C. WICKLIFF, of Louisiana, and others
of Committee.

MR. FITZPATRICK DECLINES.

WASHINGTON, June 25, 1860. GENTLEMEN: Your letter of to-day, informing me that I "have been unanimously nominated by the National Convention of the Democratic party, which met at Charleston on the 23d day of April last, and adjourned to meet at Baltimore on the 18th day of June, as their candidate for the office of Vice-President," was duly received.

Acknowledging with the liveliest sensibility this distinguished mark of your confidence and regard, it is with no ordinary feelings of regret that considerations, the recital of which I will not impose upon you, constrain me to decline the nomination so flatteringly tendered. My designation as a candidate for this high position would have been more gratifying to me if it had proceeded from the united Democracy-united both as to principles and men. The distracting differences at present existing in the ranks of the Democratic party were strikingly exemplified both at Charleston and at Baltimore, and, in my humble opinion, distinctly admonish me that I should in no way contribute to these unfortunate divisions.

The Black Republicans have harmoniously (at least in Convention) presented their candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. So have the Constitutional Union party (as it is termed). Each party is already engaged in the contest. In the presence of such organizations we still, unfortunately, exhibit a divided camp. What a melancholy spectacle! It is calculated to cause every Democratic citizen who cherishes the Constitution of his country to despond, if not to despair, of the durability of the Union. Desirous, as far as I am capable of exercising any influence, to remove every obstacle which may prevent a restoration of the peace, harmony, and perfect concord of that glorious old party to which I have been inflexibly devoted from early manhood-a party which, in my deliberate opinion, is the only real and reliable ligament which binds the South, the North, the East, and the West together upon constitutional principles-no alternative was left to me but that which I have herein most respectfully communicated to you.

For the agreeable manner in which you have conveyed to me the action of the Convention, accept my sincere thanks.

Very truly your friend and obedient servant,
TO WM. H. LUDLOW, of New-York, and others.

B. FITZPATRICK.

The Democratic National Committee subsequently nominated the Hon. Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, who accepted the position.

MR. BELL ACCEPTS.

NASHVILLE, May 21, 1860. DEAR SIR: Official information of my nomination to the Presidency by the National Union Convention, of which you were the presiding officer, was communicated to me by your letter of the 11th inst., at Philadelphia, on the eve of my departure with my family for my place of residence in Tennessee; and diffident as I was of my worthiness, I did not hesitate to signify my intention to accept the position assigned to me by that distinguished and patriotic body. But for convenience, and under a sense of

Now that I have had all the leisure I could desire for reflection upon the circumstances under which the nomination was made, the purity of the motives and the lofty spirit of patriotism by which the Convention was animated, as evinced in all its proceedings, I can appreciate more justly the honor done me by the nomination; and, though it might have been more fortunate for the country' had it fallen upon some one of the many distinguished statesmen whose names were brought to the notice of the Convention, rather than myself, I accept it, with all its possible responsibilities. Whatever may be the issue of the ensuing canvass, as for myself, I shall ever regard it as a proud distinction-one worth a lifelong effort to attainto be pronounced worthy to receive the highest office in the Government at such a time as the present, and by such a Convention as that which recently met in Baltimore-a Convention far less imposing by the number of its members, large as it was, than by their high character. In it were men venerable alike for their age and their public services, who could not have been called from their voluntary retirement from public life, but by the strongest sense of patriotic duty; others, though still in the prime of life, ranking with the first men of the country by honors and distinctions already acquired in high official positions, State and national, many of them statesmen worthy to fill the highest office in the government; a still greater number occupying the highest rank in their respective professional pursuits; others distinguished by their intelligence and well-earned influence in various walks of private life, and all animated and united by one spirit and one purpose-the result of a strong conviction that our political system, under the operation of a complication of disorders, is rapidly approaching a crisis when a speedy change must take place, indicating, as in diseases of the physical body, recovery or death.

The Convention, in discarding the use of platforms, exact no pledge from those whom they deem worthy of the highest trusts under the Government; wisely considering that the surest guaranty of a man's future usefulness and fidelity to the great interests of the country, in any official station to which he may be chosen, is to be found in his past history connected with the public service. The pledge implied in my acceptance of the nomination of the National Union Convention is, that should I be elected, I will not depart from the spirit and tenor of my past course; and the obligation to keep this pledge derives a double force from the consideration that none is required from me.

You, sir, in your letter containing the official announcement of my nomination, have been pleased to ascribe to me the merit of moderation and justice in my past public career. You have likewise given me credit for a uniform support of all wise and beneficent measures of legislation, for a firm resistance to all measures calculated to engender sectional discord, and for a lifelong devotion to the Union, harmony, and prosperity of these States. Whether your personal partiality has led you to overstate my inerits as a public man or not in your enumeration of them, you have presented a summary-a basis of all sound American statesmanship. It may be objected that nothing is said in this summary, in express terms, of the obligations imposed by the Constitution; but the duty to respect and observe them is clearly implied, for without due observance in the conduct of the Government of the Constitution, its restrictions, and requirements, fairly interpreted in accordance with its spirit and objects, there can be no end to sectional discord-no security for the harmony of the Union.

I have not the vanity to assume that in my past connection with the public service I have exemplified the course of a sound American statesman; but if I have deserved the favorable view taken of it in your letter, I may hope, by a faithful adherence to the maxims by which I have heretofore been guided, not altogether to disappoint the confidence and expectations of those who have placed me in my present relation to the public; and if, under Providence, I should be called to preside over the affairs of this great country as the Executive Chief of the Government, the only further pledge I feel called upon to make is, that the utmost of my ability, and with whatever strength of will I can command, all the powers and influence belonging to my official station,shall be employed and directed for the promotion of all the great objects for which the Government was instituted, but more especially for the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union against all imposing influences and tendencies.

I cannot conclude this letter without expressing my high gratification at the nomination to the second office under the Government, of the eminently-gifted and dis

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MY DEAR SIR: I have duly received your letter of the 11th, in which you inform me officially, that the National Union Convention, recently in session at Baltimore, had done me the honor to nominate me as its candidate for the office of Vice-President of the United States.

I am deeply impressed with this manifestation of the favorable opinion of the Convention, comprising as it did among its members so many persons distinguished for public service, patriotism and intelligence; and fairly representing a considerable portion of the conservative feeling of the country. For the great cordiality with which, as you inform me, my name was proposed and received, my warmest thanks are due.

The grateful acceptance of such a nomination would, under ordinary circumstances, be a matter of course; but it has unavoidably been with me the subject of long and anxious hesitation. The grounds of this hesitation I owe it to the Convention which has honored me with this mark of its confidence, and to myself, to explain; loath as I am to dwell on matters of personal interest of no importance to the public.

It is generally known that I have, for some years past, retired from active participation in political life, not, as I hope I have shown, from indolence or want of sympathy with my fellow-citizens in the pursuit of the great objects of social life. The reasons of my retirement have been more than once publicly stated, and I beg to repeat them here from my speech at the Union meeting in Faneuil Hall last December:

"I did not suppose that anything could occur which would make me think it my duty to appear again on this platform, on any occasion of a political character; and had this meeting been of a party nature, or designed to promote any party purposes. I should not have been here. When compelled, by the prostration of my health, five years ago, to resign the distinguished place which I then filled in the public service, it was with no expectation, no wish, and no intention of ever again mingling in the scenes of public life. I have, accordingly, with the partial restoration of my health, abstained from all participation in political action of any kind; partly because I have found a more congenial, and, as I venture to think, a more useful occupation, in seeking to rally the affections of my countrymen, North and South, to that great name and precious memory which are left almost alone of all the numerous kindly associations which once bound the different sections of the country together, and also because, between the extremes of opinion that have long distracted and now threaten to convulse the country, I find no middle ground of practical usefulness, on which a friend of moderate counsels can stand."

It having been suggested to me, notwithstanding these avowals, that I might be thought of, at the Union Convention, as a candidate for the Presidency, I requested, by telegraphic message and by letter, that my name, if brought forward, might be withdrawn. It is true that in these communications I had only in view a nomination to the Presidency, none other having been suggested to me; but all the reasons above indicated, which led me in advance to decline such a nomination, apply with equal force to the Vice-Presidency. These reasons, of course, still exist in unimpaired force, and I cannot now take an active part in politics without abandoning a deliberately formed purpose, and even exposing myself to the suspicion of insincerity in its persistent avowal. Without dwelling upon these considerations, of which, however, I am sure the weight will be admitted, I beg leave to advert for a moment to my connection with the movement for the purchase of Mount Vernon, to which your letter alludes in such obliging terms. The favor which has attended my exertions in that cause (if I may without indelicacy say anything on that subject) has been mainly the result of my known and recognized disconnection from party politics. If it could have been even plausibly insinuated that I was, or intended to become, a candidate for high political honors, I should, in my various excursions in aid of that fund, have laid myself open to the imputation of speaking one word for Mount Vernon and two for myself. As it is, the people through out the Union have generously given me credit for hav

ing a single eye to that meritorious object. As far as the purchase of Mount Vernon is concerned, that object has been effected, under the judicious and efficient man| agement of the Regent and Vice-Regents of the Association, with the aid of their intelligent and active assistants throughout the Union. But a sum of money equal to that already raised is still wanting for the repair of the Mansion, the inclosure of the land purchased, the restoration of the house and grounds, as far as practicable, to their condition in 1800, and the establishment of a permanent fund for their conservation. I own that I am desirous still to enjoy the privilege of couperating in this noble work, which, however, it will be impossible for ine to do to any advantage, whatever may be the result of the present canvass, if I am drawn into the vortex of a strenuously contested election. There are many parts of the country which I have not yet visited. I had promised myself a rich harvest from the patriotic liberality of the States on the Gulf of Mexico, and of those on the Mississippi River (which I have not yet been able to visit, with the exception of Missouri, through often kindly invited), and I confess that it is very painful to me to withdraw from that broad field of congenial labor to tread the thorny and thankless paths of politics.

Apart from the pecuniary aspects of the case, which, however, are of considerable importance, I will candidly say that in holding up to the admiring veneration of the American people the peerless name of Washington, (almost the only bond of fraternal sentiment which the bitterness of our sectional controversies has left us), I feel as if I was doing more good, as far as I am able to do any good, and contributing more to revive the kindly feeling which once existed between North and South, and which is now, I grieve to say, nearly extinct, than I could possibly do by engaging in the wretched scramble for office-which is one great source of the dangers that threaten the country.

These considerations, and others of a still more personal nature, have necessarily occasioned me to reflect long and anxiously, before accepting the nomination with which the Union Convention has honored me. In yielding at length to the earnest solicitations which have been addressed to me, from the most respectable sources in almost every part of the Union, I make a painful sacrifice of inclination to what I am led to believe a public duty. It has been urged upon me, and I cannot deny that such is my own feelings, that we have fallen upon times that call upon all good citizens, at whatever cost of personal convenience, to contribute their share, however humble, to the public service.

I suppose it to be the almost universal impression-it is certainly mine-that the existing state of affairs is extremely critical. Our political controversies have substantially assumed an almost purely sectional characterthat of a fearful struggle between the North and the South. It would not be difficult to show at length the perilous nature and tendency of this struggle, but I can only say, on this occasion, that, in my opinion, it cannot be much longer kept up, without rending the Union. I do not mean that either of the great parties in the country desires or aims at a separation of the States as a final object, although there are extremists in considerable numbers who have that object in view. While a potent and a baleful influence is exercised by men of this class, in both sections of the Union, a portion of the conservative masses are insensibly and gradually goaded into concurrence with opinions and sentiments with which, in the outset, they had no sympathy. Meantime, almost wholly neglecting the main public interests, our political controversies turn more and more on questions, in reference to which, as abstract formulæ, the great sections of the country differ irreconcilably, though there is nothing practically important at stake which requires the discussion to be kept up. These controversies are carried on with steadily increasing bitterness and exasperation. The passions thus kindled have already led to acts of violence and bloodshed, approaching to civil war in the Territories, and attempted servile insurrection in the States. great religious and philanthropic associations of the country are sundered, and the kindly social relations of North and South seriously impaired. The national House of Representatives, hovering on the verge of anarchy, requires weeks to effect an organization, which ought to be the work of an hour, and it holds its sessions (many of its members, I am told, armed with concealed weapons), on the crust of a volcano. The candidates for the Presidency representing respectively the dominant sectional ideas, will, at the ensuing election, in all probability, be sup ported by a purely geographical vote. In other words, we are already brought to a pass, at which North and South cannot and will not cooperate in the periodical reorganization of the Government.

The

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Can such a state of things long continue, especially blood of an unarmed, defenceless man, and he a Senator with the ever-present risk of new causes of exasperation? of Massachusetts: if by laying down my life this hour, I I own it seems to me impossible, unless some healing could undo what has been done the last two years (begincourse is adopted, that the catastrophe, which the mass of ning with the disastrous repeal of the Missouri Comprogood citizens deprecate, should be much longer delayed. mise) to embitter the different parts of the country against A spirit of patriotic moderation must be called into action each other, and weaken the ties which unite them, I would throughout the Union, or it will assuredly be broken up. willingly, cheerfully, make the sacrifice. Unless the warfare of inflammatory speeches and incendiary publications is abandoned, and good citizens, as in 1776 and 1787, North and South, will agree to deal with the same elements of discord (for they existed then as now), as our Fathers dealt with them, we shall but for a very few years longer be even nominally brethren of one family. The suggestion that the Union can be maintained by the numerical predominance and military prowess of one section, exerted to coerce the other into submission, is, in my judgment, as self-contradictory as it is dangerous. It comes loaded with the death smell from fields wet with brothers' blood. If the vital principle of all republican government" is the consent of the governed," much more does a union of coequal sovereign States require, as its basis, the harmony of its members and their voluntary coöperation in its organic functions.

In a letter, written subsequently, in explanation of these remarks, Mr. Everett saidI have condemned from the outset, and still most decidedly condemn the policy of the late Administration towards Kansas. I opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill in the Territorial Committee, of which I was a member. I voted against the amendment to the bill by which the Missouri Compromise was repealed. I opposed the bill to the best of my ability, in a speech delivered in the Senate on the 8th of February, 1854, of which I send you a copy; and I should have voted against it on its passage (as I stated in my place at the next meeting of the Senate) had not severe illness compelled me, at 3 o'clock in the morning, to leave the Senate chamber before the vote was taken. I informed my Southern political friends, when Believing, for these reasons, that healing counsels must the bill was brought in, that it ought to be entitled a bill be listened to, if we are much longer to remain one people, to" annihilate all conservative feeling in the non-slaveI regard the late National Union Convention as a move-holding States." With these views of the subject, though, ment in the right direction. I could wish that it had been as I trust, for reasons higher than any effect on party earlier assembled; with less exclusive reference to official politics, Ifully concurred in the main line of argument nominations, and with a more comprehensive representa- in Mr. Sumner's speech. Abstaining, however, habitution, if possible, of the conflicting opinions of the country. ally myself from all personalities in debate, and believing On general principles and in ordinary times, I admit that that they always irritate and never persuade nor convince third parties are objectionable, but in the existing state I could not of course bestow my " unqualified approbation" of affairs, if there is to be any escape from the present ill- on the manner in which he treated the subject. omened conflict, it would seem that a commencement: must be made with such a meeting as that of the 9th and 10th, at Baltimore. It was a fair representation of the conservative opinion of the country; and the calmness, gravity and good feeling with which its proceedings were conducted, cannot be too highly praised.

In adopting as its platform the Constitution without

GEORGIA ON EVERETT.

On the accession of Gen. Harrison to the Presidency, in 1840, he nominated the Hon. Edward Everett as minister to England, and note or comment, the Convention, as it seems to me, pur- this nomination was resisted with great pertisued a wise and patriotic course. No other course was nacity by the entire force of the Democratic thought of in the earlier days of the Republic. Elec-party in the Senate, on the ground of Mr. tioneering platforms are almost without exception equivocal and delusive. It is objected that men differ as to the meaning of the fundamental law; but they differ not less as to any gloss or commentary. The Constitution, in its fair and natural interpretation, is the only basis on which good citizens in every part of the country can now unite; and any attempt to go further will usually have no other effect than to cause those who agree on great practical principles to differ on metaphysical subtleties, or to bring together, by artfully constructed phrases and from selfish

motives, those who have nothing else in common.

The candidate for the Presidency, presented by the Union Convention, is every way worthy of confidence and support. I speak from personal knowledge and long association with him in the public service. His distinguished talent, large experience in public affairs, proved integrity and sterling patriotism furnish the amplest pledge for an honest and efficient administration of the government at home and abroad. A citizen of the South, and loyal to her constitutional rights, his impartial and conciliatory course as a public man affords a ground on which he can be supported in either section of the country, without dereliction of principle, and by men of all parties, without a painful sacrifice of former preferences.

Deeply regretting that the Convention has not put it in my power to pay an equally cordial and emphatic tribute to some worthy candidate for the Vice-Presidency, but feeling it a duty to give the desired proof of sympathy with their patriotic efforts to restore the happy days of brotherly concord between the different sections of our beloved country. I remain, dear sir, sincerely yours, EDWARD EVERETT.

MR. EVERETT ON SUMNER.

Soon after the brutal assault on Charles Sumner, in 1856, Mr. Everett, in some remarks delivered at Taunton, Mass., referred to the subject as follows:

Everett's Anti-Slavery sentiments, already quoted. The Whigs having a majority in the Senate, the nomination, after a severe struggle, was confirmed. Among those voting for the Confirmation was the Hon. James McPherson Berrien, of Georgia; but his vote on this occa sion was so distasteful to the people of Georgia that the legislature of that State adopted the following resolve:

Edward Everett, now minister to England, of the power Resolved, That the opinions publicly proclaimed by and obligation of Congress to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia, to interdict the slave-trade between the States, and to refuse the admission into the Union of any character, subversive of the rights of the South, and if Territory tolerating Slavery, are unconstitutional in their carried out, will destroy this Union; and that the Hon. John McPherson Berrien, in sustaining for an important appointment, an individual holding such obnoxious sentiments, has omitted a proper occasion to give an efficient check to such sentiments, and in so doing has not truly represented the opinions or wishes of the people of Georgia, of either political party.

The vote of the legislature on the adoption of this resolve was: In the Senate, Ayes 40; Nays 0. In the House, Ayes 101; Nays 40.

JUDGE DOUGLAS ON THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.

In a speech delivered at Springfield, Ill., in 1849, Senator Douglas, in speaking of the Missouri Compromise, said:

It has received the sanction of all parties in every section of the Union. It had its origin in the hearts of all patriotic men who desired to preserve and perpetuate the blessings of our glorious Union-an origin akin to that of the Constitution of the United States, conceiv in the same spirit of fraternal affection, and calculated to at some distant day to sever the sacred bond of Union. All the evidences of public opinion seem to indicate that this Compromise has become canonized in the hearts of the American people as a sacred thing, which no ruthless hand would be reckless enough to disturb.

The civil war, with its horrid train of pillage, fire, and slaughter, carried on, without the slightest provocation, against the infant settlements of our brethren on the fron-remove forever the only danger which seemed to threaten tier of the Union; the worse than civil war which has for months raged unrebuked at the Capital of the Union, and has at length, by an act of lawless violence, of which I know no parallel in the history of Constitutional Government, stained the floor of the Senate chamber with the

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Total.

67379 39080 3325 32543 41609 8030 35125 89880 12096 34378 45719 4836 46612 46201

Fremont over Buchanan, 28,299; Pierce over Scott, 9,066; Cass over Taylor, 4,755; Polk over Clay, 11,341; Harrison over Van Buren, 411. Mr. James G. Birney received 194 votes in this State, in 1840.

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Fremont over Buchanan, 5,556; Pierce over Scott, 18,850; Cass over Taylor, 12,982; Polk over Clay, 9,294 ; Van Buren over Harrison, 6,598. Mr. Birney received 126 votes in 1840.

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COUNTIES.

Rep. Dem. Am. Whig. Dem. F. Soil. Whig. Dem. Free D. Whig. Dem. Abo. Whig. Dem.
Frem't Buc'an Fill're. Scott. Pierce. Hale. Taylor. Cass. Van B. Clay. Polk. Birney. Ha'son Van B.

[blocks in formation]

6680 1675 7626 8785

603 337 218 628 367 2 590 181 18 589 109 1260 566 15 839 748 83 690 818 52 786 881 1258 750 659 1249 1005 48 1207 232 113 1229 478 6903 4432 331 8888 5529 431 8542 2515 398 8751 8192 1443 595 452 1022 1086 80 750 450 149 967 712 11467

476 136 669 872

914 417

2482 1711

787 665

644

6779 3646 730 7322 4867 107 5278 8801

Fremont over Buchanan, 4,787; Pierce over Scott, 1,109; Taylor over Cass, 3,183; Clay over Polk, 2,455; Harrison over Van Buren, 1,977. Mr. Birney received 42 votes in 1840.

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