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design to trespass many moments on the Senate ; but al- Take all these resolutions together, and the deduction low me to read and offer a very few comments upon which we must necessarily draw from them is a denial to some portions of the Democratic platform. The first re- Congress of any power whatever to legislate upon the solution that treats upon the subject is in these words- subject of Slavery. The last resolution denies to the peoI read just so much of it as is applicable to my present ple of the Territories any power over that subject, save when they shall have a sufficient number to form a con"That Congress has no power under the Constitution to institution and become a State, and also denies that Conterfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several gress has any power over the subject; and so the resoluStates, and that all such States are the sole and proper judges tions hold that this power is at least in abeyance while of everything appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited the Territory is in a Territorial condition. That is the by the Constitution." only conclusion which you can draw from these resolutions. Alas! for short-lived Territorial Sovereignty! It came to its death in the house of its friends; it was buried by the same hands which had given it baptism!

I take it that this language, thus far, is language which meets a willing and ready response from every Senator here-certainly it does from me. But in the following

resolution I find these words:

"Resolved, That the foregoing proposition covers, and was intended to embrace, the whole subject of Slavery agitation in Congress."

But, sir, I did not rise for the purpose of discussing these resolutions, but only to read them, and state the action which I propose to take in view of them. I may -I probably shall-take some subsequent occasion, when The first resolution which I read was adopted years I shall endeavor to present to the Senate and the counago in Democratic Conventions. The second resolution try a fair account of what is the true issue presented to which I read was adopted in subsequent years, when a the people for their consideration and decision. different state of things had arisen, and it became neces- My object now is to show only that the Cincinnati Consary to apply an abstract proposition relating to the vention has indorsed and approved of the repeal of the States, to the Territories. Hence the adoption of the lan- Missouri Compromise, from which so many evils have guage contained in the second Resolution which I have already flowed-from which, I fear, more and worse read. evils must yet be anticipated. It would of course, be exNow, sir, I deny the position thus assumed by the Cin-pected that the Presidential nominee of that Convention cinnati Convention. In the language of the Senator from would accept, cordially and cheerfully, the platform preKentucky (Mr. Crittenden), so ably and so appropriately pared for him by his party friends. No person can obused on Tuesday last, I hold that the entire and unquali-ject to that. There is no equivocation on his part about fied sovereignty of the Territories is in Congress. That the matter. I beg leave to read a short extract from a is my judgment; but this resolution brings the Territories speech of that gentleman, made at his own home within precisely within the same limitations which are applied the last few days. In reply to the Keystone Club, which to the States in the resolution which I first read. The paid him a visit there, Mr. Buchanan said: two taken together deny to Congress any power of legislation in the Territories.

Follow on, and let us see what remains. Adopted as a part of the present platform, and as necessary to a new state of things, and to meet an emergency now existing, the Convention says:

"The American Democracy recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic law establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the Slavery question, upon which the great national idea of the people of this whole country can repose, in its determined conservatism of the Union-non-interference by Congress with Slavery in the States and Territories."

Then follows the last resolution:

"Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the fairly-expressed will of the majority of actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a constitution, with or without domestic Slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other States."

"Gentlemen, two weeks since I should have made you a longer speech; but now I have been placed on a platform of which I most heartily approve, and that can speak for me. Being the representative of the great Democratic party, and cording to the platform of the party, and insert no new plank, not simply James Buchanan, I must square my conduct acnor take one from it."

These events leave to me only one unpleasant duty, associations with no party that insists upon such docwhich is to declare here that I can maintain political trines; that I can support no man for President who avows and recognizes them; and that the little of that power with which God has endowed me shall be employed to battle manfully, firmly, and consistently for his defeat, demanded as it is by the highest interests of the country which owns all my allegiance.

The President.-The question is on the motion of the Senator from Maine to be excused from further service on the Committee on Commerce.

The motion was agreed to.

ACCEPTANCE OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES.

MESSRS. LINCOLN AND HAMLIN ACCEPT.

THE following is the correspondence between the officers of the Republican National Convention and the candidates thereof for President and Vice-President:

CHICAGO, May 18, 1860.

To the HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, of Illinois.

SIR The representatives of the Republican Party of the United States, assembled in Convention at Chicago, have this day, by a unanimous vote, selected you as the Republican candidate for the office of President of the United States to be supported at the next election; and the undersigned were appointed a Committee of the Convention to apprise you of this nomination, and respectfully to request that you will accept it. A declaration of the principles and sentiments adopted by the Convention accompanies this communication.

In the performance of this agreeable duty we take leave to add our confident assurance that the nomination of the Chicago Convention will be ratified by the suffrages of the people.

We have the honor to be, with great respect and regard, your friends and fellow-citizens.

GEORGE ASHMUN, of Massachusetts,
President of the Convention.

WM. M. EVARTS, of New-York,

JOEL BURLINGAME, of Oregon,

EPHRAIM MARSH, of New-Jersey,
GIDEON WELLS, of Connecticut,
D. K. CARTER, of Ohio,

CARL SCHURZ, of Wisconsin,

JAMES F. SIMMONS, of Rhode Island,
JOHN W. NORTH, of Minnesota,

GEO. D. BLAKEY, of Kentucky,

PETER T. WASHBURN, of Vermont,

A. C. WILDER, of Kansas,

EDWARD H. ROLLINS, of New-Hampshire,
FRANCIS S. CORKRAN, of Maryland,
NORMAN B. JUDD, of Illinois,
N. B. SMITHERS, of Delaware,
WM. H. MCCRILLIS, of Maine,
ALFRED CALDWELL, of Virginia,
CALEB B. SMITH, of Indiana,
AUSTIN BLAIR, of Michigan,
WM. P. CLARKE, of Iowa,
B. GRATZ BROWN, of Missouri,
F. P. TRACY. of California,

E. D. WEBSTER, of Nebraska,

G. A. HALL, of District of Columbia,
JOHN A. ANDREW, of Massachusetts,
A. H. REEDER, of Pennsylvania.
SPRINGFILD, ILL., May 28, 1860.
HON. GEORGE ASHMUN, President of the Republican
National Convention.

SIR: I accept the nomination tendered me by the
Convention over which you presided, and of which I am

ACCEPTANCE OF LINCOLN, HAMLIN AND BRECKINRIDGE.

formally apprised in the letter of yourself and others, acting as a Committee of the Convention for that purpose.

The declaration of principles and sentiments, which accompanies your letter, meets my approval; and it shall be my care not to violate, or disregard it, in any part.

Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due regard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the Convention; to the rights of all the States, and Territories, and people of the nation; to the inviolability of the Constitution, and the perpetual union, harmony and prosperity of all, I am most happy to cooperate for the practical success of the principles declared by the Convention.

Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

A similar letter was sent to the nominee for the Vice-Presidency, to which the following is the reply.

WASHINGTON, May 80, 1860. GENTLEMEN: Your official communication of the 18th instant, informing me that the representatives of the Republican party of the United States, assembled at Chicago, on that day, had, by a unanimous vote, selected me as their candidate for the office of Vice-President of the United States, has been received, together with the resolutions adopted by the Convention as its declaration of principles.

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as just and necessary to the preservation of the National organization and the sacred right of representation, the action of the Convention over which you continued to preside; and thus approving it, and having resolved to sustain it, I feel that it does not become me to select the position I shall occupy, nor to shrink from the responsi bilities of the post to which I have been assigned. Accordingly, I accept the nomination from a sense of public duty, and, as I think, uninfluenced in any degree by the allurements of ambition.

I avail myself of this occasion to say that the confidence in my personal and public character implied by the action of the Convention, will always be gratefully remembered; and it is but just, also, to my own feelings, to express my gratification at the association of my name with that of my friend Gen. Lane, a patriot and a soldier, whose great services in the field and in council entitle him to the gratitude and confidence of his countrymen.

The resolutions adopted by the Convention have my cordial approval. They are just to all parts of the Union, to all our citizens, native and naturalized, and they form a noble policy for any administration.

The questions touching the rights of persons and property, which have of late been much discussed, find in these resolutions a constitutional solution. Our Union is a Confederacy of equal sovereign States, for the purposes enumerated in the Federal Constitution. Whatever the common Government holds in trust for all the States must be enjoyed equally by each. It controls the Territories in trust for all the States. Nothing less than sovereignty can destroy or impair the rights of persons or property. The Territorial Governments are subordinate and temporary, and not sovereign; hence they cannot destroy or impair the rights of persons or property. While they continue to be Territories they are under the control of Congress, but the Constitution nowhere confers on any

Those resolutions enunciate clearly and forcibly the principles which unite us, and the objects proposed to be accomplished. They address themselves to all, and there is neither necessity nor propriety in my entering upon a discussion of any of them. They have the approval of my judgment, and in any action of mine will be faith-branch of the Federal Government the power to discrimifully and cordially sustained.

I am profoundly grateful to those with whom it is my pride and pleasure politically to coöperate, for the nomination so unexpectedly conferred; and I desire to tender through you, to the members of the Convention, my sincere thanks for the confidence thus reposed in me. Should the nomination, which I now accept, be ratified by the people, and the duties devolve upon me of presiding over the Senate of the United States, it will be my earnest endeavor faithfully to discharge them with a just regard for the rights of all.

It is to be observed, in connection with the doings of the Republican Convention, that a paramount object with us is to preserve the normal condition of our Territotorial Domain as homes for Free men. The able advocate and defender of Republican principles, whom you have nominated for the highest place that can gratify the ambition of man, comes from a State which has been made what it is, by special action, in that respect, of the wise and good men who founded our institutions. The rights of free labor have there been vindicated and maintained. The thrift and enterprise which so distinguish Illinois, one of the most flourishing States of the glorious West, we would see secured to all the Territories of the Union; and restore peace and harmony to the whole country, by bringing back the Government to what it was under the wise and patriotic men who created it. If the Republicans shall succeed in that object, as they hope to, they will be held in grateful remembrance by the busy and teeming millions of future ages.

I am, very truly yours, H. HAMLIN. The Hon. GEORGE ASHMUN, President of the Convention, and others of the Convention.

MR. BRECKINRIDGE ACCEPTS.

WASHINGTON CITY, July 6, 1860. DEAR SIR: I have your letter of the 23d ultimo, by which I am officially informed of my nomination for the office of President of the United States by the Democratic National Convention lately assembled at Baltimore.

The circumstances of this nomination will justify me in referring to its personal aspect.

I have not sought nor desired to be placed before the country for the office of President. When my name was presented to the Convention at Charleston, it was withdrawn by a friend in obedience to my expressed wishes. My views had not changed when the Convention reassembled at Baltimore, and when I heard of the differences which occurred there, my indisposition to be connected prominently with the canvass was confirmed and expressed to many friends.

Without discussing the occurrences which preceded the nominations, and which are or soon will be well understood by the country, I have only to say that I approved,

nate against the rights of the States or the property of their citizens in the Territories. It follows that the citizens of all the States may enter the Territories of the Union with their property, of whatever kind, and enjoy it during the territorial condition without let or hindrance, either by Congress or by the subordinate Territorial Governments.

These principles flow directly from the absence of sovereignty in the Territorial Governments, and from the equality of the States. Indeed, they are essential to that equality, which is, and ever has been, the vital principle of our Constitutional Union. They have been settled legislatively settled judiciously, and are sustained by right reason. They rest on the rock of the Constitutionthey will preserve the Union.

It is idle to attempt to smother these great issues, or to misrepresent them by the use of partisan phrases, which are misleading and delusive. The people will look beneath such expressions as "Intervention," "Congressional Slave Code," and the like, and will penetrate to the real questions involved. The friends of Constitutional equality do not and never did demand a "Congressional Slave Code," nor any other code in regard to property in the Territories. They hold the doctrine of non-intervention by Congress, or by a Territorial Legislature, either to establish or prohibit Slavery; but they assert (fortifi ed by the highest judicial tribunal in the Union) the plain duty of the Federal Government, in all its departments, to secure, when necessary, to the citizens of all the States, the enjoyment of their property in the common Territories, as everywhere else within its jurisdiction. The only logical answer to this would seem to be to claim sovereign power for the Territories, or to deny that the Constitution recognizes property in the services of negro slaves, or to deny that such property can exist.

Inexorable logic, which works its steady way through clouds and passion, compels the country to meet the issue. There is no evasive middle ground. Already the signs multiply of a fanatical and growing party, which denies that under the Constitution, or by any other law, slave property can exist; and ultimately the struggle must come between this party and the National Democracy, sustained by all the other conservative elements in the Union.

The

I think it will be impossible for a candid mind to discover hostility to the Union or a taint of sectionalism in the resolutions adopted by the Convention. Constitution and the Union repose on the equality of the States, which lies like a broad foundation underneath our whole political structure. As I construe them, the resolutions simply assert this equality. They demand nothing for any State or section that is not cheerfully conceded to all the rest. It is well to remem ber that the chief disorders which have afflicted our country have grown out of the violation of State equality, and that as long as this great principle has been respected

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 conduct ed the contest under the Constitution, and saved our political 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.

In vain should we declare the former without insisting upon the latter; because, to permit Territorial legislatures to prohibit or establish Slavery, or by unfriendly legislation to invalidate property, would be granting powers to the creature or agent, which, it is admitted, do not appertain to the principal, or the power that creates; besides which, it would be fostering an element of agitation in the Territory that must necessarily extend to Congress and the people of all the States.

and no more shall we be troubled with the agitation o 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 in dorse the platform adopted by the Convention. I have the honor to be, sir, with much respect, Your friend and obedient servant, JOSEPH LANE.

MR. DOUGLAS ACCEPTS.

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, 1852, 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 is to be conceded, two hostile sectional parties must be the inevitable result-the one inflaming the passions and ambitions of the North, the other of the South, and each struggling to use the Federal power and authority for the aggrandizement of its own section, at the expense of the equal rights of the other, and in derogation of those fundamental principles of self-government which were firmly established in this country by the American 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 ties of that day, to devise and carry out a line of policy a fundamental maxim, that the people of a Territory can which would restore peace to the country and stability to only establish or prohibit Slavery when they come to form the Union. The essential living principle of that policy, as a constitution, preparatory to their admission as a State applied in the legislation of 1850, was, and now is, noninto the Union. intervention 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

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 formal 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 despord, 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.

B. FITZPATRICK.

Very truly your friend and obedient servant, To Wx. H. LUDLOW, of New-York, and others. 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 possiWhatever may be the issue of the ble responsibilities. 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 merits 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 espe cially 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; Joath 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."

't 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 management 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 coöperating in this noble work, which, however, it will be in possible for me 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 coöperate in the periodical reorganization of the Government.

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